'O Thunderer, surveying great Rome's walls from the Tarpeian Rock --

'O Phrygian house gods of Iulus, clan and mysteries of Quirinus who was carried off to heaven --

'O Jupiter of Latium, seated in lofty Alba and hearths of Vesta --

'O Rome, equal to the highest deity, favor my plans.

Not with impious weapons do I pursue you. Here am I, Caesar, conqueror of land and sea, your own soldier, everywhere, now, too, if I am permitted. The man who makes me your enemy -- it is he who be the guilty one.'

Then he broke the barriers of war and through the swollen river swiftly took his standards. And Caesar crossed the flood and reached the opposite bank. From Hesperia's forbidden fields he took his stand and said:

'Here I abandon peace and desecrated law.

Fortune, it is you I follow.

Farewell to treaties.

From now on war is our judge.'"

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