Marius

by Marcus Tullius Cicero

Fragment quoted in On divination 1.47, translated by C. D. Yonge (1853)

Jove's eagle, wounded by a serpent's bite,
In his strong talons caught the writhing snake,
And with his goring beak tortured his foe
And slaked his vengeance in his blood. At last
He let the venemous reptile from on high
Fall in the whelming flood, then wing'd his flight
To the far east. Marius beheld, and mark'd
The augury divine, and inly smiled
To view the presage of his coming fame;
Meanwhile the thunder sounded on the left,
And thus confirm'd the omen.