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Remember Alexander
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Namque Romanis cum nationibus populis regibus cin
ctis una et ea vetus causa bellandi est: cupido profunda imperi et divitarium
After: "Letter of Mithridates to Phraates, King of Parthia"
Historiae VI by Sallust
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I am a man more poisoned against than poisoning.
That’s my version anyhow, and I’m sticking to it.
Don’t blame me for having survived a few meals
Which others, less fortunate, could not.
All that doesn’t help me now with Pompey at my throat.
Pompey, plunderer and bully, who has enough wit
Only to command a Materialschlacht,
But that is child’s play with Rome’s support.
Rome! Scourge of cities, tribes, peoples, nations, all mankind,
Were not the Pillars of Hercules, the western shores
Sufficient for your ravenous appetite
That your eagle eyes scan my realm?
O Phraates, King of Parthia still unvanquished,
Had you but lent your ear to me when together we
Might have rid the East of this ill-begotten son
Of Mars. Small the credit, so great the loss!
For Rome, unchallenged, bestrides the Great Sea. Eastwards
He surveys my mountains and your rivers, groves and plains,
No doubt beyond. Remember Alexander,
Who sacked glorious Persepolis.
You vainly sue for peace, like credulous Philipp once
When fondly strung along with Rome’s promises of “pax”.
And what of Carthage? Where now her wealth of gold
And purple? Barren her poisoned lands!
Mind you, I’m not well-placed on a high moral pedestal
When it comes to poisoning, but limits I respect.
A few enemies now and then, I admit,
Died at my table. The ham was off!
But the earth is sacrosanct. I never salted fields,
For Rome’s venom is stronger than aught I ever brewed.
Where shall this end? Shall Rome vanquish all nations?
Shall all cower to his bloody sword?
But Rome! With surfeiting the eaten, not the eater,
Prevails. The whole world is, even for iron digestions,
Strong meat. It is the sun, not Romulus, whom
East and West obey. Helios rules.
With Rome to east and Rome to west, then two Romes are there,
And I do fear for man and earth. The approach of death
Lends men insight. I fought, I won, I lost in war.
My spirit is still king. Sirs, your health.
The last round! Like Carthage we lose to Rome the third round.
Once more is the Gordian knot in twain. Quirites,
The gods look down. Remember Alexander,
Who died of fever in Babylon!
***
What's a Year in Time's Vast Flow?
***
When a sailor man bade his sweetheart good bye
he said she should tarry a year
until he sailed back with silver and gold
and a ring to dry her last tear.
"To me you are more than silver and gold,"
said the maid in sorrow and pain.
"The ocean is cruel and the wind will change,
and we'll meet no never again."
The sailor laughed at his love's deepest fear,
"What's a year in Time's vast flow?
Wait for the day my good ship returns,
then the truth of this promise you'll know."
The maid remained faithful and constant in love
in this world where few things are clear,
till she met a young man with no silver and gold.
What he did have was abundant, and near.
*******
From earlier months:
Roxana's Curse
Hey you guys, why leave your town
To find a bride and settle down?
Take a tip and don’t philander
Somewhere remote like Alexander.
He married a princess called Roxana,
It seems, to make her hill tribes calmer.
To equalize the world by sex
Was a worthy aim subject to checks.
Pneumonia, poison or whatever
The emperor from his wife did sever.
So poor Roxana was alone
Cut off from people, friends and home.
She made her way to Macedonia
There to die not of pneumonia.
She, much sinned against, did sin.
She did in some foes and got done in.
Want to learn more? Surf to ‘Cassander’
And read some books on Alexander.
Before they placed her in a hearse
She pronounced an awesome curse.
‘To conquer my land shall many strive
who ne’er shall leave that land alive’.
I fear this curse still ails her land,
which nought can lift save God's own hand.
Name this land if that you can.
Take this hint. It ends with –stan.
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