Lucan (c. 39-65)
“Of civil wars and worse waged on Emathian fields,
of crime made law we sing, how a powerful people
turned on its own heart its conquering hand,
of ranks of relatives, and a broken pact of rule
that dragged a shaken world with all its strength
into contention to win a common guilt,
of standards opposite hostile standards,
partisan eagles and spears shaking at spears.”
- From Lucan’s Civil War (Book 1, approximately between lines 1-10), translated by Matthew Fox (Penguin Classics, 2012).
