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IV.6. Pugna Murium et Mustelarum
Parallels: For parallel versions, see Perry 165.
Cum uicti mures mustelarum exercitu
(historia, quot sunt, in tabernis pingitur)
fugerent et artos circum trepidarent cauos,
aegre recepti, tamen euaserunt necem:
duces eorum, qui capitibus cornua
suis ligarant ut conspicuum in proelio
haberent signum quod sequerentur milites,
haesere in portis suntque capti ab hostibus;
quos immolatos uictor auidis dentibus
capacis alui mersit tartareo specu.
Quemcumque populum tristis euentus premit,
periclitatur magnitudo principium,
minuta plebes facili praesidio latet.
Here is the poem in a more prose-like word order for easy reading:
Not yet available.
Here is the poem with meter marks:
Not yet available.
Translation:
The Battle of the Mice and Weasels (trans. C. Smart)
The routed Mice upon a day
Fled from the Weasels in array;
But in the hurry of the flight,
What with their weakness and their fright
Each scarce could get into his cave :
Howe'er, at last their lives they save.
But their commanders (who had tied
Horns to their heads in martial pride,
Which as a signal they design'd
For non-commission'd mice to mind)
Stick in the entrance as they go,
And there are taken by the foe,
Who, greedy of the victim, gluts
With mouse-flesh his ungodly guts.
Each great and national distress
Must chiefly mighty men oppress;
While folks subordinate and poor
Are by their littleness secure.
Illustration:
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