Quintus Horatius Flaccus, Epodes 16.1–14

Horace warns that Rome, having survived every foreign threat — the Marsians, Porsena, Spartacus, the Allobroges, the Germans, and Hannibal — is now being undone by civil war. He predicts that a cursed generation will accomplish what no enemy could, leaving the city in ruins.

 

Tier 1

Altera aetas iam frangitur bellis civilibus, et Roma ipsa suis viribus ruit.

Roma quam neque Marsi, vicini Romae, potuerunt perdere aut Etruscus exercitus minacis Porsenae potuit perdere, nec aequa virtus Capuae potuit perdere, nec Spartacus acer potuit perdere,

infidelisque Allobrox novis rebus, nec fera Germania Romam vicit caerulea pube, Hannibalque invidus parentibus nostris:

nos, inpia aetas devoti sanguinis, perdemus rursusque terra feris animalibus occupabitur:

Heu barbarus victor in cineres Romae ambulabit et eques verberabit urbem sonante ungula,

Insolensque, horribile visu, sternet ossa Quirini quae sunt sine ventis et sole.

Written by Robert Amstutz

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