Georgics
aut ubi navigiis violentior incidit Eurus, nosse quot Ionii veniant ad litora fluctus. Nec vero terrae ferre omnes omnia possunt. 110fluminibus salices crassisque paludibus alni nascuntur, steriles saxosis montibus orni; litora myrtetis laetissima; denique apertos Bacchus amat colles, Aquilonem et frigora taxi. aspice et extremis domitum cultoribus orbem 115Eoasque domos Arabum pictosque Gelonos: divisae arboribus patriae. sola India nigrum fert hebenum, solis est turea virga Sabaeis. m quid tibi odorato referam sudantia ligno balsamaque et bacas semper frondentis acanthi? 120quid nemora Aethiopum molli canentia lana, velleraque ut foliis depectant tenuia Seres? aut quos Oceano propior gerit India lucos, extremi sinus orbis, ubi aëra vincere summum arboris haud ullae iactu potuere sagittae? 125et gens illa quidem sumptis non tarda pharetris. Media fert tristis sucos tardumque saporem felicis mali, quo non praesentius ullum, pocula si quando saevae infecere novercae miscueruntque herbas et non innoxia verba, 130auxilium venit ac membris agit atra venena. ipsa ingens arbos faciemque simillima lauro (et, si non alium late iactaret odorem, laurus erat); folia haud ullis labentia ventis; flos ad prima tenax; animas et olentia Medi 135ora fovent illo et senibus medicantur anhelis.
Book II
ships, would want to know how many billows of the Ionian sea roll shoreward.
Nor yet can all soils bear all fruits. In rivers grow willows, in rank fens alders, on rocky hills the barren ash. The shores rejoice most in myrtle groves. Lastly, Bacchus loves open hills, and the yew tree the cold of the North Wind. See, too, earth’s farthest bounds, conquered by tillage—the Arabs’ eastern homes, and the painted Gelonians: trees have their allotted climes. India alone bears black ebony; to the Sabaeans alone belongs the frankincense bough. Why should I tell you of the balsams that drip from the fragrant wood, or of the pods of the ever blooming acanthus? 6 Why tell of the Ethiopian groves, all white with downy wool, 7 or how the Seres comb from leaves their fine fleeces? 8 Or, nearer the Ocean, of the jungles which India rears, that nook at the world’s end where no arrows can surmount the air at the treetop? And yet not slow is that race in handling the quiver. Media bears the tart juices and lingering flavour of the health-giving citron tree, which, if cruel stepdames have ever drugged the cups mixing herbs and baleful spells, comes as help most potent, and from the limbs drives the deadly venom. The tree itself is large, and in looks very like a bay; and a bay it were, did it not fling abroad another scent. In no winds fall its leaves; its blossom clings most firmly; with it the Mede treats his mouth’s noisome breath, and cures the asthma of the old.