# Paradise Canto  6

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> 
> Canto VI
> 
> Argument
> 
>      The spirit, who had offered to satisfy the inquiries of Dante, declares
> himself to be the Emperor Justinian; and after speaking of his own actions,
> recounts the victories, before him, obtained under the Roman Eagle. He then
> informs our Poet that the soul of Romeo the pilgrim is in the same star.
> 
> "After that Constantine the eagle turn'd[1]
> Against the motions of the Heaven, that roll'd
> Consenting with its course, when he of yore,
> Lavinia's spouse, was leader of the flight;
> A hundred years twice told and more,[2] his seat
> At Europe's extreme point,[3] the bird of Jove
> Held, near the mountains, whence he issued first;
> There under shadow of his sacred plumes
> Swaying the world, till through successive hands
> To mine he came devolved. Caesar I was
> And am Justinian; destined by the will
> Of that prime love, whose influence I feel,
> 
> [1: Constantine, in transferring the seat of empire from Rome to
> Byzantium, carried the eagle, the imperial ensign, from the west to the east.
> Aeneas, on the contrary, had, with better augury, moved along with the sun's
> course, when he passed from Troy to Italy.]
> 
> [2: "A hundred years twice told and more." The Emperor Constantine
> entered Byzantium in 324; and Justinian began his reign in 527.]
> 
> [3: "At Europe's extreme point." Constantine being situated at the
> extreme of Europe, and on the borders of Asia, near those mountains in the
> neighborhood of Troy, from whence the first founders of Rome had emigrated.]
> 
> From vain excess to clear the incumber'd laws.[4]
> Or e'er that work engaged me, I did hold
> In Christ one nature only;[5] with such faith
> Contented. But the blessed Agapete,[6]
> Who was chief shepherd, he with warning voice
> To the true faith recall'd me. I believed
> His words: and what he taught, now plainly see,
> As thou in every contradiction seest
> The true and false opposed. Soon as my feet
> Were to the Church reclaim'd, to my great task,
> By inspiration of God's grace impell'd,
> I gave me wholly; and consign'd mine arms
> To Belisarius, with whom Heaven's right hand
> Was link'd in such conjointment, 'twas a sign
> That I should rest. To thy first question thus
> I shape mine answer, which were ended here,
> But that its tendency doth prompt perforce
> To some addition; that thou well mayst mark,
> What reason on each side they have to plead,
> By whom that holiest banner is withstood,
> Both who pretend its power[7] and who oppose.[8]
> 
> [4: The code of laws was abridged and reformed by Justinian.]
> 
> [5: Justinian is said to have been a follower of heretical opinions
> held by Eutyches, "who taught that in Christ there was but one nature, viz.,
> that of the incarnate Word." Maclaine's Mosheim.]
> 
> [6: "Agapete." "Agapetus, Bishop of Rome, whose Scheda Regia,
> addressed to the Emperor Justinian, procured him a place among the wisest and
> most judicious writers of this country." Ibid.]
> 
> [7: The Ghibellines.]
> 
> [8: The Guelfs.]
> 
> "Beginning from that hour, when Pallas died
> To give it rule, behold the valorous deeds
> Have made it worthy reverence. Not unknown
> To thee, how for three hundred years and more
> It dwelt in Alba, up to those fell lists
> Where, for its sake, were met the rival three;[9]
> Nor aught unknown to thee, which it achieved
> Down[10] from the Sabines' wrong to Lucrece' woe,
> With its seven kings conquering the nations round;
> Nor all it wrought, by Roman worthies borne
> 'Gainst Brennus and the Epirot prince,[11] and hosts
> Of single chiefs, or states in league combined
> 
> [9: The Horatii and Curiatii.]
> 
> [10: "From the rape of the Sabine women to the violation of
> Lucretia."]
> 
> [11: King Pyrrhus.]
> 
> Of social warfare: hence, Torquatus stern,
> And Quintius[12] named of his neglected locks,
> The Decii, and the Fabii hence acquired
> Their fame, which I with duteous zeal embalm.
> By it the pride of Arab hordes[13] was quell'd,
> When they, led on by Hannibal, o'erpass'd
> The Alpine rocks, whence glide thy currents, Po!
> Beneath its guidance, in their prime of days
> Scipio and Pompey triumph'd; and that hill[14]
> Under whose summit[15] thou didst see the light,
> Rued its stern bearing. After, near the hour,[16]
> When Heaven was minded that o'er all the world
> His own deep calm should brood, to Caesar's hand
> Did Rome consign it; and what then it wrought[17]
> From Var unto the Rhine, saw Isere's flood,
> Saw Loire and Seine, and every vale, that fills
> The torrent Rhone. What after that it wrought,
> When from Ravenna it came forth, and leap'd
> The Rubicon, was of so bold a flight,
> That tongue nor pen may follow it. Toward Spain
> It wheel'd its bands, then toward Dyrrachium smote,
> And on Pharsalia, with so fierce a plunge,
> E'en the warm Nile was conscious to the pang;
> Its native shores Antandros, and the streams
> Of Simois revisited, and there
> Where Hector lies; then ill for Ptolemy
> His pennons shook again; lightening thence fell
> On Juba, and the next, upon your west,
> At sound of the Pompeian trump, return'd.
> 
> [12: Quintius Cincinnatus.]
> 
> [13: The Arabians seem to be put for the barbarians in general.]
> 
> [14: "That hill." The city of Fiesole, which was sacked by the Romans
> after the defeat of Catiline.]
> 
> [15: "Under whose summit." "At the foot of which is situated
> Florence, thy birth - place."]
> 
> [16: "Near the hour." Of our Saviour's birth.]
> 
> [17: "What then it wrought." In the following fifteen lines the Poet
> has comprised the exploits of Julius Caesar, for which, and for the allusions
> in the greater part of this speech of Justinian's, I must refer my reader to
> the history of Rome.]
> 
> "What following, and in its next bearer's gripe,[18]
> It wrought, is now by Cassius and Brutus
> Bark'd of in Hell; and by Perugia's sons,
> And Modena's, was mourn'd. Hence weepeth still
> 
> [18: With Augustus Caesar.]
> 
> Sad Cleopatra, who pursued by it,
> Took from the adder black and sudden death.
> With him it ran e'en to the Red Sea coast;
> With him composed the world to such a peace,
> That of his temple Janus barr'd the door.
> 
> "But all the mighty standard yet had wrought,
> And was appointed to perform thereafter,
> Throughout the mortal kingdom which it sway'd,
> Falls in appearance dwindled and obscured,
> If one with steady eye and perfect thought
> On the third Caesar[19] look; for to his hands,
> The living Justice, in whose breath I move,
> Committed glory, e'en into his hands,
> To execute the vengeance of its wrath.
> 
> [19: "The third Caesar." The eagle in the hand of Tiberius, the third
> of the Caesars, outdid all its achievements, both past and future, by becoming
> the instrument of that mighty and mysterious act of satisfaction made to the
> divine justice in the crucifixion of our Lord.]
> 
> "Hear now, and wonder at, what next I tell.
> After with Titus it was sent to wreak
> Vengeance for vengeance of the ancient sin.
> And, when the Lombard tooth, with fang impure,
> Did gore the bosom of the holy Church,
> Under its wings, victorious Charlemain[20]
> Sped to her rescue. Judge then for thyself
> Of those, whom I erewhile accused to thee,
> What they are, and how grievous their offending,
> Who are the cause of all your ills. The one[21]
> Against the universal ensign rears
> The yellow lilies;[22] and with partial aim,
> That, to himself, the other[23] arrogates:
> So that 'tis hard to see who most offends.
> Be yours, ye Ghibellines, to veil your hearts
> Beneath another standard: ill is this
> Follow'd of him, who severs it and justice:
> And let not with his Guelfs the new - crown'd Charles
> 
> [20: "Charlemain." Dante could not be ignorant that the reign of
> Justinian was long prior to that of Charlemagne; but the spirit of the former
> emperor is represented, both in this instance and in what follows, as
> conscious of the events that had taken place after his own time.]
> 
> [21: "The one." The Guelf party.]
> 
> [22: The French ensign.]
> 
> [23: The Ghibelline party.]
> 
> Assail it;[24] but those talons hold in dread,
> Which from a lion of more lofty port
> Have rent the casing. Many a time ere now
> The sons have for the sire's transgression wail'd:
> Nor let him trust the fond belief, that Heaven
> Will truck its armour for his lilied shield.
> 
> [24: "Charles." The commentators explain this to mean Charles II,
> King of Naples and Sicily. Is it not more likely to allude to Charles of
> Valois, son of Philip III of France, who was sent for, about this time, into
> Italy by Pope Boniface, with the promise of being made Emperor? See G.
> Villani, lib. viii. cap. xlii.]
> 
> "This little star is furnish'd with good spirits,
> Whose mortal lives were busied to that end,
> That honour and renown might wait on them:
> And, when desires[25] thus err in their intention,
> True love must needs ascend with slacker beam.
> But it is part of our delight, to measure
> Our wages with the merit; and admire
> The close proportion. Hence doth heavenly justice
> Temper so evenly affection in us,
> It ne'er can warp to any wrongfulness.
> Of diverse voices is sweet music made:
> So in our life the different degrees
> Render sweet harmony among these wheels.
> 
> [25: When honour and fame are the chief motives to action, the love
> for Heaven must become less fervent.]
> 
> "Within the pearl, that now encloseth us,
> Shines Romeo's light,[26] whose goodly deed and fair
> Met ill acceptance. But the Provencals,
> That were his foes, have little cause for mirth.
> Ill shapes that man his course, who makes his wrong
> Of other's worth. Four daughters[27] were there born
> To Raymond Berenger; and every one
> Became a queen: and this for him did Romeo,
> Though of mean state and from a foreign land.
> 
> [26: After he had long been faithful steward to Raymond Berenger,
> Count of Provence, and last of the house of Barcelona, who died 1245, when an
> account was required from him of the revenues which his master had lavishly
> disbursed, he demanded the little mule, the staff, and the scrip, with which
> he had first entered into the Count's service, a stranger pilgrim from the
> shrine of St. James, in Galicia, and parted as he came.]
> 
> [27: Of the four daughters of Raymond, Margaret, the eldest, was
> married to Louis IX of France; Eleanor to Henry III of England; Sancha to
> Richard, Henry's brother, and King of the Romans; and the youngest, Beatrix,
> to Charles I, King of Naples and Sicily, and brother to Louis.]
> 
> Yet envious tongues incited him to ask
> A reckoning of that just one, who return'd
> Twelve fold to him for ten. Aged and poor
> He parted thence: and if the world did know
> The heart he had, begging his life by morsels,
> 'Twould deem the praise, it yields him, scantly dealt."
>
> — *Paradise Canto  6*