interea tibi prima domus atque unica proles heu gremio in patriae Stygias raptatur ad aras! i nunc, Ausonios ferro populare penates et vetitas molire vias; i, pacta resigna, per cunctos iurata deos! sic praemia reddit Carthago et tales iam nunc tibi solvit honores! quae porro haec pietas, delubra aspergere tabo? heu primae scelerum causae mortalibus aegris, naturam nescire deum! iusta ite precari ture pio caedumque feros avertite ritus.
Meanwhile your first-born and only son is seized, alas, in the heart of his native country, for a hellish sacrifice. What boots it to ravage the homes of Italy with the sword, to march by ways forbidden to man,c and to break the treaty which every god was called to witness? Such is the reward you get from Carthage, and such the honours she pays you now! Again, what sort of religion is this, that sprinkles the temples with blood? Alas! their ignorance of the divine nature is the chief cause that leads wretched mortals into crime. Go ye to the temples and pray for things lawful, and offer incense, but eschew bloody and cruel rites.
final_alignments\Silius_Italicus_Punica_Book4.json