selected from the Pharsalia
Lucan's Pharsalia is not an ethnographic authority. It is a Roman civil-war epic that uses northern and eastern geography to measure Rome's self-destruction against the wider world.
The selected passages below gather the poem's Scythian cold, Seres, Araxes, Sarmatian dress, Massagetae, Dacians, Getae, Dahae, Mithridatic and Pontic geography, Colchis, Armenia, Maeotis, Tanais, Arimaspians, Geloni, Parthians, Hyrcania, Bactrus, the Phasis, and the northern edge of Roman imagination.
The English is a Good Works Translation from the Latin passages printed below.
Translation
Book 1 -- Scythian Cold, Seres, and Araxes
How much land and sea could have been won with the blood that civil hands poured out: from where Titan comes, and where night hides the stars; where midday burns hot with flaming hours; and where rigid winter, not knowing how to be released in spring, binds the frozen sea with Scythian cold. Already the Seres would have gone under the yoke, already the barbarian Araxes, and any people that lies aware of the Nile at its birth.
Book 1 -- Carrhae and the Parthian Wound
So, when Crassus, who stood between the savage arms of the leaders, stained Assyrian Carrhae with Latin blood in his pitiable death, Parthian losses released Roman madness. More was done in that battle for you than you think, Arsacids: you gave civil war to the defeated. The kingdom is divided by the sword, and the fortune of a powerful people, which possesses sea, land, and the whole world, did not have room for two men.
Book 1 -- Scythia as the Edge of the Soldier's Oath
Lead us, then, through the peoples of Scythia, through the inhospitable shores of Syrtis, through the hot sands of thirsting Libya. This hand, to leave the conquered world behind its back, has calmed the swollen waters of Ocean with the oar.
Book 1 -- Sarmatian Dress and the Scythian Diana
The Vangiones imitate you, Sarmatian, with loose trousers; the fierce Batavians are stirred by curved bronze trumpets. Where the Cinga wanders in its stream, where the Rhone snatches it in swift waters; where long-haired peoples set before all the rest of Comata let their hair fall freely; and where grim Teutates is placated with dreadful blood, Esus with savage altars, and Taranis at an altar no gentler than that of Scythian Diana.
Book 2 -- Rome Begs for Foreign War Instead of Civil War
We do not ask for peace, gods: give the nations anger. Now stir up savage cities. Let the world conspire into arms. Let Median columns run down from Achaemenian Susa. Let the Scythian Hister not bind the Massagete. Let the Albis pour blond Suebi from the farthest North, and the untamed head of the Rhine. Give us back as enemies to all peoples; turn civil war away. From this side let the Dacian press, from that the Getan. Let another meet the Iberians; let this man turn his standards toward eastern quivers. Let no Roman hand be empty for you.
Book 2 -- Rome Falling While Dahae and Getae Move
Shall I alone practice leisure while unknown western kings under another star follow Roman wars, divided from us by straits? Keep this madness far from me, gods, that Rome should fall secure while her ruin moves the Dahae and the Getae.
Book 2 -- The Hister and Scythian Waters
Here the Nile would not be smaller than the Hister, except that the Hister, while it passes through the world, receives streams that are about to fall into any sea and goes out not alone into Scythian waters.
Book 2 -- Crassus from the Scythian Shores
You come to the Cinnas and Mariuses. Truly, just as Lepidus lay open to Catulus and Carbo, who endured our axes, is covered in a Sicilian tomb, and Sertorius, an exile, stirred the fierce Iberians, so, Caesar, though there is any trust, I begrudge joining you to these. I begrudge that Rome set our hands against you in your frenzy. Would that Crassus, safe after the Parthian battles and victorious, had returned from Scythian shores, so that you might fall for a like cause, as Spartacus did, to an enemy.
Book 2 -- Pompey's Eastern Claims
Through the divisions of the Scythian Pontus, I drove the unconquered king, fugitive and delaying Roman fates, more fortunate than Sulla, toward death. No part of the world is empty for me; all is held. The sunset fears my laws, and Baetis, western after all rivers, who strikes fugitive Tethys, knows me as master. The Arab has been subdued by me; the Heniochi, fierce in war, know me, and the Colchians, known from the stolen fleece. The Cappadocians fear my standards, and Judaea, surrendered to the rites of an uncertain god, and soft Sophene. I subdued the Armenians, the fierce Cilicians, and Taurus. What war, except civil war, have I left to my father-in-law?
Book 2 -- Armenia, Pontus, Riphaean Hands, and Maeotis
Restore the Cilicians to the sea; shake the Pharian kings from there, and my Tigranes. I warn you: do not leave the arms of Pharnaces, nor the peoples wandering through both Armenias, nor the savage nations along the shores of Pontus, nor the Riphaean hands, nor those whom sluggish Maeotis holds with thick water, patient of the Scythian wagon. Why do I delay with more? Through all my East, son, you will carry wars, and throughout the whole world you will shake cities already thoroughly subdued.
Book 3 -- Sarmatian, Pannonian, Dacian, and Getic Fear
Better that eastern fury did not now rest upon the Latin shores, nor the swift Sarmatian joined to the Pannonian and the Getan mixed with the Dacians. Fortune spared you, Rome, because your leader was so fearful, because the war was civil.
Book 3 -- The Strymon and Sarmatian Waters
The Thracian Strymon is deserted, accustomed to commit Bistonian birds to the warm Nile; so is barbarian Cone, where it loses Sarmatian waters, and Peuce, scattered in the deep, washes one head of the many-mouthed Hister.
Book 3 -- Parthians, Scythians, Bactrus, Hyrcania, Tanais, Arimaspians, Massagetae, and Geloni
Ferocious Cappadocians came, a hard people not cultivating Amanus; and the Armenian holding Niphates, which rolls stones. The Choatrae left woods touching the sky. Arabs, you came into a world unknown to you, marveling that the shadows of groves did not go to the left.
Between Caesar's battle lines and the opposing standards, the fighting Parthians held doubtful favor, content to have made two sides. Wandering peoples of Scythia dyed their arrows, those whom icy Bactrus encloses, and Hyrcania with vast forests. From there came Lacedaemonians, a rough people when the bridle is moved; the Heniochi, and the Sarmatian neighbor of the savage Moschi, where the Phasis cuts the richest fields of the Colchians; where the Halys, fatal to Croesus, runs; where Tanais, fallen from the Riphaean height, has placed the names of different worlds upon its banks, the same boundary of Asia and Europe, dividing the borders of the middle earth, now enlarging this world, now that, wherever it bends; and where Pontus, a torrent sea, has poured out the waters of Maeotis and the glory is taken away from the pillars of Hercules, while they deny that Gades alone admits Ocean.
From there came the Essedonian peoples, and the Arimaspian binding his hair with gold. From there came the strong Arius, and the Massagete, loosening the long fasts of Sarmatian war on whatever horse he flees, and the swift Geloni.
Colophon
This Good Works Translation was made from selected Latin passages of Lucan, Pharsalia or De bello civili. The selection is poetic and thematic rather than a complete translation of the epic.
The English translation is independently derived from the Latin. No modern English translation was used as the base text.
Compiled for the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.
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Source Text: Latin
gentibus inuisis Latium praebere cruorem
cumque superba foret Babylon spolianda tropaeis
Ausoniis umbraque erraret Crassus inulta
bella geri placuit nullos habitura triumphos?
heu, quantum terrae potuit pelagique parari
hoc quem ciuiles hauserunt sanguine dextrae,
unde uenit Titan et nox ubi sidera condit
quaque dies medius flagrantibus aestuat horis
et qua bruma rigens ac nescia uere remitti
astringit Scythico glacialem frigore pontum!
sub iuga iam Seres, iam barbarus isset Araxes
et gens siqua iacet nascenti conscia Nilo.
tum, si tantus amor belli tibi, Roma, nefandi,
[...]
qui secat et geminum gracilis mare separat Isthmos
nec patitur conferre fretum, si terra recedat,
Ionium Aegaeo frangat mare, sic, ubi saeua
arma ducum dirimens miserando funere Crassus
Assyrias Latio maculauit sanguine Carrhas,
Parthica Romanos soluerunt damna furores.
plus illa uobis acie, quam creditis, actum est,
Arsacidae: bellum uictis ciuile dedistis.
diuiditur ferro regnum, populique potentis,
[...]
et dum pila ualent fortes torquere lacerti,
degenerem patiere togam regnumque senatus?
usque adeo miserum est ciuili uincere bello?
duc age per Scythiae populos, per inhospita Syrtis
litora, per calidas Libyae sitientis harenas:
[...]
Aruernique, ausi Latio se fingere fratres
sanguine ab Iliaco populi, nimiumque rebellis
Neruius et caesi pollutus foedere Cottae,
et qui te laxis imitantur, Sarmata, bracis
Vangiones, Batauique truces, quos aere recuruo
stridentes acuere tubae; qua Cinga pererrat
gurgite, qua Rhodanus raptum uelocibus undis
in mare fert Ararim, qua montibus ardua summis
gens habitat cana pendentes rupe Cebennas.
tu quoque laetatus conuerti proelia, Treuir,
et nunc tonse Ligur, quondam per colla decore
crinibus effusis toti praelate Comatae,
et quibus inmitis placatur sanguine diro
Teutates horrensque feris altaribus Esus
et Taranis Scythicae non mitior ara Dianae.
uos quoque, qui fortes animas belloque peremptas
[...]
non pacem petimus, superi: date gentibus iras,
nunc urbes excite feras; coniuret in arma
mundus, Achaemeniis decurrant Medica Susis
agmina, Massageten Scythicus non adliget Hister,
fundat ab extremo flauos Aquilone Suebos
Albis et indomitum Rheni caput; omnibus hostes
reddite nos populis: ciuile auertite bellum.
hinc Dacus, premat inde Getes; occurrat Hiberis
alter, ad Eoas hic uertat signa pharetras;
[...]
Hesperium ignotae Romanaque bella sequentur
diductique fretis alio sub sidere reges,
otia solus agam? procul hunc arcete furorem,
o superi, motura Dahas ut clade Getasque
securo me Roma cadat. ceu morte parentem
[...]
Aegypti Libycas Nilus stagnaret harenas;
non minor hic Histro, nisi quod, dum permeat orbem,
Hister casuros in quaelibet aequora fontes
accipit et Scythicas exit non solus in undas.
[...]
ad Cinnas Mariosque uenis. sternere profecto
ut Catulo iacuit Lepidus, nostrasque securis
passus Sicanio tegitur qui Carbo sepulchro,
quique feros mouit Sertorius exul Hiberos.
quamquam, siqua fides, his te quoque iungere, Caesar,
inuideo nostrasque manus quod Roma furenti
opposuit. Parthorum utinam post proelia sospes
et Scythicis Crassus uictor remeasset ab oris,
ut simili causa caderes, quoi Spartacus, hosti.
[...]
idem per Scythici profugum diuortia ponti
indomitum regem Romanaque fata morantem
ad mortem Sulla felicior ire coegi.
pars mundi mihi nulla uacat, sed tota tenetur
terra meis, quocumque iacet sub sole, tropaeis:
hinc me uictorem gelidas ad Phasidos undas
Arctos habet, calida medius mihi cognitus axis
Aegypto atque umbras nusquam flectente Syene,
occasus mea iura timent Tethynque fugacem
qui ferit Hesperius post omnia flumina Baetis,
me domitus cognouit Arabs, me Marte feroces
Heniochi notique erepto uellere Colchi,
Cappadoces mea signa timent et dedita sacris
incerti Iudaea dei mollisque Sophene,
Armenios Cilicasque feros Taurumque subegi:
quod socero bellum praeter ciuile reliqui?'
[...]
redde mari Cilicas; Pharios hinc concute reges
Tigranemque meum; nec Pharnacis arma relinquas
admoneo nec tu populos utraque uagantis
Armenia Pontique feras per litora gentis
Riphaeasque manus et quas tenet aequore denso
pigra palus Scythici patiens Maeotia plaustri
et—quid plura moror? totos mea, nate, per ortus
[...]
di melius, quod non Latias Eous in oras
nunc furor incubuit nec iuncto Sarmata uelox
Pannonio Dacisque Getes admixtus: habenti
[...]
Thracius et populum Pholoe mentita biformem.
deseritur Strymon tepido committere Nilo
Bistonias consuetus aues et barbara Cone,
Sarmaticas ubi perdit aquas sparsamque profundo
multifidi Peucen unum caput adluit Histri,
[...]
iniecisse manum fatis uitaque repletos
quod superest donasse deis! uenere feroces
Cappadoces, duri populus non cultor Amani,
Armeniusque tenens uoluentem saxa Niphaten.
aethera tangentis siluas liquere Choatrae.
ignotum uobis, Arabes, uenistis in orbem
umbras mirati nemorum non ire sinistras.
tum furor extremos mouit Romanus Orestas
Carmanosque duces, quorum iam flexus in Austrum
aether non totam mergi tamen aspicit Arcton
lucet et exigua uelox ibi nocte Bootes,
Aethiopumque solum, quod non premeretur ab ulla
signiferi regione poli, nisi poplite lapso
ultima curuati procederet ungula Tauri,
quaque caput rapido tollit cum Tigride magnus
Euphrates, quos non diuersis fontibus edit
Persis, et incertum, tellus si misceat amnes,
quod potius sit nomen aquis. sed sparsus in agros
fertilis Euphrates Phariae uice fungitur undae;
at Tigrim subito tellus absorbet hiatu
occultosque tegit cursus rursusque renatum
fonte nouo flumen pelagi non abnegat undis.
inter Caesareas acies diuersaque signa
pugnaces dubium Parthi tenuere fauorem
contenti fecisse duos. tinxere sagittas
errantes Scythiae populi, quos gurgite Bactros
includit gelido uastisque Hyrcania siluis;
hinc Lacedaemonii, moto gens aspera freno,
Heniochi saeuisque adfinis Sarmata Moschis;
Colchorum qua rura secat ditissima Phasis,
qua Croeso fatalis Halys, qua uertice lapsus
Riphaeo Tanais diuersi nomina mundi
inposuit ripis Asiaeque et terminus idem
Europae, mediae dirimens confinia terrae,
nunc hunc nunc illum, qua flectitur, ampliat orbem;
quaque, fretum torrens, Maeotidos egerit undas
Pontus, et Herculeis aufertur gloria metis,
Oceanumque negant solas admittere Gadis;
hinc Essedoniae gentes auroque ligatas
substringens Arimaspe comas; hinc fortis Arius
longaque Sarmatici soluens ieiunia belli
Massagetes, quo fugit, equo uolucresque Geloni.
Source Colophon
The Latin source body was extracted from the local Lucan source text and copied for this translation pass at Tulku/Tools/scythian/sources/expansion_bench_2026-05-11/lucan_pharsalia_scythian_poetic_geography_latin_source_manual79.txt.
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