Full of ecstatic wonder at the sight,
    I view’d Bellona’s minions, famed in fight;
    A brotherhood, to whom the circling sun
    No rivals yet beheld, since time begun.—­
    But ah! the Muse despairs to mount their fame
    Above the plaudits of historic Fame. 
    But now a foreign band the strain recalls—­
    Stern Hannibal, that shook the Roman walls;
    Achilles, famed in Homer’s lasting lay,
    The Trojan pair that kept their foes at bay;
    Susa’s proud rulers, a distinguish’d pair,
    And he that pour’d the living storm of war
    On the fallen thrones of Asia, till the main,
    With awful voice, repell’d the conquering train. 
    Another chief appear’d, alike in name,
    But short was his career of martial fame;
    For generous valour oft to fortune yields,
    Too oft the arbitress of fighting fields. 
    The three illustrious Thebans join’d the train,
    Whose noble names adorn a former strain;
    Great Ajax with Tydides next appear’d,
    And he that o’er the sea’s broad bosom steer’d
    In search of shores unknown with daring prow,
    And ancient Nestor, with his looks of snow,
    Who thrice beheld the race of man decline,
    And hail’d as oft a new heroic line: 
    Then Agamemnon, with the Spartan’s shade,
    One by his spouse forsaken, one betray’d: 
    And now another Spartan met my view,
    Who, cheerly, call’d his self-devoted crew
    To banquet with the ghostly train below,
    And with unfading laurels deck’d the brow;
    Though from a bounded stage a softer strain
    Was his, who next appear’d to cross the plain: 
    Famed Alcibiades, whose siren spell
    Could raise the tide of passion, or repel
    With more than magic sounds, when Athens stood
    By his superior eloquence subdued. 
    The Marathonian chief, with conquest crown’d,
    With Cimon came, for filial love renown’d;
    Who chose the dungeon’s gloom and galling chain
    His captive father’s liberty to gain;
    Themistocles and Theseus met my eye;
    And he that with the first of Rome could vie
    In self-denial; yet their native soil,
    Insensate to their long illustrious toil,
    To each denied the honours of a tomb,
    But deathless fame reversed the rigid doom,
    And show’d their worth in more conspicuous light
    Through the surrounding shades of envious night. 
    Great Phocion next, who mourn’d an equal fate,
    Expell’d and exiled from his parent state;
    A foul reward! by party rage decreed,
    For acts that well might claim a nobler meed: 
    There Pyrrhus, with Numidia’s king behind,
    Ever in faithful league with Rome combined,
    The bulwark of his state.  Another nigh,
    Of Syracuse, I saw, a firm ally
    To Italy, like him.  But deadly hate,
    Repulsive frowns, and love