Classic Poem

All great things crush themselves; such end the gods
Allot the height of honour; men so strong
By land and sea no foreign force could ruin.
O Rome, thyself art cause of all these evils,
Thyself thus shivered out to three men's shares:
Dire league of partners in a kingdom last not.
O faintly-join'd friends, with ambition blind,
Why join you force to share the world betwixt you?
While th'earth the sea, and air the earth sustains,
While Titan strives against the world's swift course,
Or Cynthia, night's queen, waits upon the day,
Shall never faith be found in fellow kings.
Dominion cannot suffer partnership.
This need no foreign proof nor far-fet story:
Rome's infant walls were steeped in brother's blood;
Nor then was land or sea, to breed such hate;
A town with one poor church set them at odds.
Caesar's and Pompey's jarring love soon ended,
'Twas peace against their wills; betwixt them both
Stepped Crassus in; even as the slender Isthmus,
Betwixt the Aegaean and the Ionian sea,
Keeps each from other, but being worn away,
They both burst out, and each encounter other:
So whenas Crassus' wretched death, who stayed them,
Had filled Assyrian Carra's walls with blood,
His loss made way for Roman outrages.
Parthians, y'afflict us more than ye suppose;
Being conquered, we are plagued with civil war.
Swords share our empire: Fortune, that made Rome
Govern the earth, the sea, the world itself,
Would not admit two lords; for Julia,
Snatched hence by cruel Fates, with ominous howls,
Bare down to hell her son, the pledge of peace,
And all bands of that death-presaging alliance.
Julia, had heaven given thee longer life,
Thou hadst restrained thy headstrong husband's rage,
Yea, and thy father too, and, swords thrown down,
Made all shake hands, as once the Sabines did;
Thy death broke amity, and trained to war
These captains emulous of each other's glory.
Thou feared'st, great Pompey, that late deeds would dim
Old triumphs, and that Caesar's conquering France
Would dash the wreath thou wear'st for pirates' wrack.
Thee war's use stirred, and thoughts that always scorned
A second place; Pompey could bide no equal,
Nor Caesar no superior: which of both
Had justest cause, unlawful 'tis to judge.
Each side had great partakers; Caesar's cause
The gods abetted, Cato liked the other.
Both differed much: Pompey was struck in years,
And by long rest forgot to manage arms,
And being popular sought by liberal gifts
To gain the light unstable commons' love,
And joyed to hear his theatre's applause:
He lived secure, boasting his former deeds,
And thought his name sufficient to uphold him;
Like to a tall oak in a fruitful field,
Bearing old spoils and conquerors' monuments,
Who though his root be weak, and his own weight
Keep him within the ground, his arms all bare,
His body, not his boughs, send forth a shade;
Though every blast it nod, and seem to fall,
When all the woods about stand bolt upright,
Yet he alone is held in reverence.
Caesar's renown for war was less, he restless,
Shaming to strive but where he did subdue;
When ire or hope provoked, heady, and bold;
At all times charging home, and making havoc;
Urging his fortune, trusting in the gods,
Destroying what withstood his proud desires,
And glad when blood and ruin made him way:
So thunder, which the wind tears from the clouds,
With crack of riven air and hideous sound
Filling the world, leaps out and throws forth fire,
Affrights poor fearful men, and blasts their eyes
With overthwarting flames, and raging shoots
Alongst the air, and, nought resisting it,
Falls, and returns, and shivers where it lights.
Such humours stirred them up: but this war's seed
Was even the same that wrecks all great dominions.
When Fortune made us lords of all, wealth flowed,
And then we grew licentious and rude;
The soldiers' prey and rapine brought in riot;
Men took delight in jewels, houses, plate,
And scorned old sparing diet, and ware robes
Too light for women; Poverty (who hatched
Rome's greatest wits) was loathed, and all the world
Ransacked for gold, which breeds the world decay;
And then large limits had their butting lands;
The ground which Curius and Camillus tilled
Was stretched unto the fields of hinds unknown.
Again, this people could not brook calm peace;
Them freedom without war might not suffice;
Quarrels were rife, greedy desire, still poor,
Did vile deeds; then 'twas worth the price of blood,
And deemed renown, to spoil their native town;
Force mastered right, the strongest governed all.
Hence came it that th'edicts were over-ruled,
That laws were broke, tribunes with consuls strove,
Sale made of offices, and people's voices
Bought by themselves and sold, and every year
Frauds and corruption in the Field of Mars;
Hence interest and devouring usury sprang,
Faith's breach, and hence came war, to most men welcome.