On Anger Chapter 21

Hic iratus fuit genti et ignotae et immeritae, sensurae tamen ; Cyrus flumini. Nam cum Babylona oppugnaturus festinaret ad bellum, cuius maxima momenta in occasionibus sunt, Gynden late fusum amnem vado transire temptavit, quod vix tutum est, etiam cum sensit aestatem et ad minimum deductus est. Ibi unus ex iis equis, qui trahere regium currum albi solebant, abreptus vehementer commovit regem ; iuravit itaque se amnem illum regis comitatus auferentem eo redacturum, ut transiri calcarique etiam a feminis posset. Hoc deinde omnem transtulit belli apparatum et tam diu adsedit operi, donec centum et octoginta cuniculis divisum alveum in trecentos et sexaginta rivos dispergeret, siccum relinqueret in diversum fluentibus aquis. Periit itaque et tempus, magna in magnis rebus iactura, et militum ardor, quem inutilis labor fregit, et occasio adgrediendi imparatos, dum ille bellum indictum hosti cum flumine gerit. Hic furor - quid enim aliud voces ? - Romanos quoque contigit. C. enim Caesar villam in Herculanensi pulcherrimam, quia mater sua aliquando in illa custodita erat, diruit fecitque eius per hoc notabilem fortunam ; stantem enim praenavigabamus, nunc causa dirutae quaeritur.

This man was angry with an unknown and inoffensive nation, which nevertheless was able to feel his wrath; but Cyrus was angry with a river. When hurrying to besiege Babylon, since in making war it is above all things important to seize one’s opportunity, he tried to ford the wide-spread river Gyndes, which it is hardly safe to attempt even when the river has been dried up by the summer heat and is at its lowest. Here one of the white horses which drew the royal chariot was washed away, and his loss moved the king to such violent rage, that he swore to reduce the river which had carried off his royal retinue to so low an ebb that even women should walk across it and trample upon it. He thereupon devoted all the resources of his army to this object, and remained working until by cutting one hundred and eighty channels across the bed of the river he divided it into three hundred and sixty brooks, and left the bed dry, the waters flowing through other channels. Thus he lost time, which is very important in great operations, and lost, also, the soldiers’ courage, which was broken by useless labour, and the opportunity of falling upon his enemy unprepared, while he was waging against the river the war which he had declared against his foes. This frenzy, for what else can you call it, has befallen Romans also, for G. Caesar destroyed a most beautiful villa at Herculaneum because his mother was once imprisoned in it, and has thus made the place notorious by its misfortune; for while it stood, we used to sail past it without noticing it, but now people inquire why it is in ruins.

Cambyse déploya sa colère contre une nation inconnue de lui, innocente, qui toutefois pouvait sentir ses coups ; Cyrus s’emporta contre un fleuve. Comme il courait assiéger , car, à la guerre, l’important est de saisir promptement l’occasion, il tenta de passer à gué le Gynde, alors fortement débordé : entreprise à peine sûre après que l’été s’est fait sentir, et l’a fait tomber au niveau le plus bas. Un des chevaux blancs qui d’ordinaire menaient le char royal fut entraîné par le courant, ce qui courrouça fortement Cyrus. Il jura que ce fleuve, assez hardi pour emporter les coursiers du grand roi, serait réduit au point que des femmes même pourraient le traverser et s’y promener à pied. Il employa là tous ses préparatifs de guerre, et persista dans son œuvre jusqu’à ce que, partagé en cent quatre-vingts canaux, divisés eux-mêmes en trois cent soixante ruisseaux, le fleuve, à force de saignées, laissât son lit entièrement à sec. Ainsi perdit-il et le temps, perte énorme dans les grandes entreprises, et l’ardeur du soldat brisée dans un travail stérile, et l’occasion de prendre au dépourvu l’ennemi, après lui avoir déclaré une guerre qu’il faisait à un fleuve.