to water the homeland of so illustrious a race; Ocean laved their cradle, for it befitted the future lords of earth and sea to have their origin in the great father[146] of all things. Hence came Theodosius, grandfather of Honorius, for whom, exultant after his northern victories, Africa twined fresh laurels won from the Massylae. ’Twas he who pitched his camp amid the snows of Caledonia,[147] who never doffed his helmet for all the heat of a Libyan summer, who struck terror into the Moors, brought into subjection the coasts of Britain and with equal success laid waste the north and the south. What avail against him the eternal snows, the frozen air, the uncharted sea? The Orcades ran red with Saxon slaughter; Thule was warm with the blood of Picts; ice-bound Hibernia wept for the heaps of slain Scots. Could heat stay the advance of a courageous general? No; he overran the deserts of Ethiopia, invested Atlas with troops strange to him, drank of lake Triton where was born the virgin goddess Minerva, beheld the Gorgon’s empoisoned lair, and laughed to see the common verdure of those gardens of the Hesperides which story had clothed with gold. Juba’s fortress was burned down, the frenzied valour of the Moor yielded to the sword and the palace of ancient Bocchus was razed to the ground.
But thy father’s fame far surpassed that of thy grandsire: he subdued Ocean to his governance and set the sky for border to his kingdom, ruling from Gades to the Tigris, and all that lies ’twixt Tanais and Nile; yet all these lands won by countless triumphs of his own, he gained them not by gift
[146] Claudian is thinking of such passages in Homer as _e.g._ _Il._ xiv. 245-246:
ῤέεθρα Ὠκεανοῦ, ὅς περ γένεσις πάντεσσι τέτυκται,
or perhaps Vergil’s _Oceanumque patrem rerum_ (Virg. _Georg._ iv. 382).
non generis dono, non ambitione potitus. digna legi virtus. ultro se purpura supplex obtulit et solus meruit regnare rogatus. nam cum barbaries penitus commota gementem inrueret Rhodopen et mixto turbine gentes 50 jam deserta suas in nos transfunderet Arctos, Danuvii totae vomerent cum proelia ripae, cum Geticis ingens premeretur Mysia plaustris flavaque Bistonios operirent agmina campos, omnibus adflictis et vel labentibus ictu 55 vel prope casuris: unus tot funera contra restitit extinxitque faces agrisque colonos reddidit et leti rapuit de faucibus urbes. nulla relicta foret Romani nominis umbra, ni pater ille tuus iamiam ruitura subisset 60 pondera turbatamque ratem certaque levasset naufragium commune manu: velut ordine rupto cum procul insanae traherent Phaëthonta quadrigae saeviretque dies terramque et stagna propinqui haurirent radii, solito cum murmure torvis 65 sol occurrit equis; qui postquam rursus eriles agnovere sonos, rediit meliore magistro machina concentusque poli, currusque recepit imperium flammaeque modum. Sic traditus ille servatusque Oriens. at non pars altera rerum 70 tradita: bis possessa manu, bis parta periclis. per varium gemini scelus erupere tyranni tractibus occiduis: hunc saeva Britannia fudit;