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HE brought our Saviour to the western side | |
| Of that high mountain, whence he might behold | |
| Another plain, long, but in breadth not wide, | |
| Washed by the southern sea; and, on the north, | |
| To equal length backed with a ridge of hills, | 5 |
| That screened the fruits of the earth, and seats of men, | |
| From cold Septentrion blasts; thence in the midst | |
| Divided by a river, of whose banks | |
| On each side an imperial city stood, | |
| With towers and temples proudly elevate | 10 |
| On seven small hills, with palaces adorned, | |
| Porches, and theatres, baths, aqueducts, | |
| Statues, and trophies, and triumphal arcs, | |
| Gardens, and groves, presented to his eyes, | |
| Above the height of mountains interposed: | 15 |
| (By what strange parallax, or optic skill | |
| Of vision, multiplied through air, or glass | |
| Of telescope, were curious to inquire,) | |
| And now the Tempter thus his silence broke:— | |
| “The city, which thou seest, no other deem | 20 |
| Than great and glorious Rome, queen of the earth, | |
| So far renowned, and with the spoils enriched | |
| Of nations: there the Capitol thou seest, | |
| Above the rest lifting his stately head | |
| On the Tarpeian rock, her citadel | 25 |
| Impregnable; and there Mount Palatine, | |
| The imperial palace, compass huge, and high | |
| The structure, skill of noblest architects, | |
| With gilded battlements conspicuous far, | |
| Turrets, and terraces, and glittering spires: | 30 |
| Many a fair edifice besides, more like | |
| Houses of gods, (so well I have disposed | |
| My aery microscope,) thou mayst behold, | |
| Outside and inside both, pillars and roofs, | |
| Carved work, the hand of famed artificers, | 35 |
| In cedar, marble, ivory, or gold. | |
| Thence to the gates cast round thine eye, and see | |
| What conflux issuing forth, or entering in; | |
| Prætors, proconsuls to their provinces | |
| Hasting, or on return, in robes of state, | 40 |
| Lictors and rods, the ensigns of their power, | |
| Legions and cohorts, turms of horse and wings: | |
| Or embassies from regions far remote, | |
| In various habits, on the Appian road, | |
| Or on the Emilian: some from farthest south, | 45 |
| Syene, and where the shadow both way falls, | |
| Meroe, Nilotick isle; and, more to west, | |
| The realm of Bocchus to the Black-moor sea; | |
| From the Asian kings, and Parthian among these; | |
| From India and the golden Chersonese, | 50 |
| And utmost Indian isle Taprobane, | |
| Dusk faces with white silken turbans wreathed; | |
| From Gallia, Gades, and the British west; | |
| Germans, and Scythians, and Sarmatians, north | |
| Beyond Danubius to the Taurick pool. | 55 |
| All nations now to Rome obedience pay; | |
| To Rome’s great emperor, whose wide domain, | |
| In ample territory, wealth, and power, | |
| Civility of manners, arts, and arms, | |
| And long renown, thou justly mayst prefer | 60 |
| Before the Parthian.” | |
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