_He rejoices in the possession of his mistress, having triumphed over
every obstacle._
|Come, triumphant laurels, around my temples; I am victorious: lo! in my
bosom Corinna is; she, whom her husband, whom a keeper, whom a door _so_
strong, (so many foes!) were watching, that she might by no stratagem
be taken. This victory is deserving of an especial triumph: in which the
prize, such as it is, is _gained_ without bloodshed. Not lowly walls,
not towns surrounded with diminutive trenches, but a _fair_ damsel has
been taken by my contrivance.
When Pergamus fell, conquered in a war of twice five years: [415] out of
so many, how great was the share of renown for the son of Atreus? But
my glory is undivided, and shared in by no soldier: and no other has
the credit of the exploit. Myself the general, myself the troops, I have
attained this end of my desires: I, myself, have been the cavalry, I
the infantry, I, the standard-bearer _too_. Fortune, too, has mingled
no hazard with my feats. Come hither, _then_, thou Triumph, gained by
exertions _entirely_ my own.
And the cause [416] of my warfare is no new one; had not the daughter
of Tyndarus been carried off, there would have been peace between Europe
and Asia. A female disgracefully set the wild Lapithæ and the two-formed
race in arms, when the wine circulated. A female again, [417] good
Latinus, forced the Trojans to engage in ruthless warfare, in thy
realms. 'Twas the females, [421] when even now the City was but new,
that sent against the Romans their fathers-in-law, and gave them cruel
arms. I have beheld the bulls fighting for a snow-white mate: the
heifer, herself the spectator, afforded fresh courage. Me, too, with
many others, but still without bloodshed, has Cupid ordered to bear the
standard in his service.