Friday, October 25, 2024
The Very Ruins Have Been Destroyed
Lucan, Pharsalia 9.964-969 (tr. J.D. Duff):
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He walked round the burnt city of Troy, now only a famous name, and searched for the mighty remains of the wall that Apollo raised. Now barren woods and rotting tree-trunks grow over the palace of Assaracus, and their worn-out roots clutch the temples of the gods, and Pergama is covered over with thorn-brakes: the very ruins have been destroyed.
circumit exustae nomen memorabile Troiae
magnaque Phoebei quaerit vestigia muri. 965
iam silvae steriles et putres robore trunci
Assaraci pressere domos et templa deorum
iam lassa radice tenent, ac tota teguntur
Pergama dumetis: etiam periere ruinae.