- sub iuga iam Seres, iam barbarus isset Araxes
- et gens siqua iacet nascenti conscia Nilo.
- tum, si tantus amor belli tibi, Roma, nefandi,
- totum sub Latias leges cum miseris orbem,
- in te verte manus: nondum tibi defuit hostis.
Already China would have gone under the yoke, already barbarian Armenia
and the race, if any is known, that is knowledgeable of the Nile’s source.
At that time, if you have so great a love, Rome, for unspeakable war,
when you will have sent the whole world under Latin laws,
turn your hands against yourself: not yet have you lacked an enemy.
Notes: Though I am taking them as standing for ‘nations’ or ‘people-groups’ in general, I am not at all confident in my translations of Seres as ‘China’ (does it mean East Asia more generally?) or Araxes (does it mean ‘Persia’ here?), but I have not consulted a major commentary or done any investigation into the use of these two words in this passage of Lucan.
In any case, Lucan here continues with the idea that it would have been better to go to war with other peoples. When the most extreme and outlying groups have been brought under the Roman yoke (i.e., when the whole world has been conquered and there are no more enemies), then Rome could think about suicide. This is not quite an adynaton, but Lucan is certainly unhappy about the citizens’ imperial myopia, and reminds them that there has never been a point thus far at which Rome lacked an enemy. Their civil infighting, therefore, is indefensible.
The ‘hand’ returns again, this time as manus (23), and the image of self-destruction is similar to what we saw in ll.2-3 above.