Martial, Book of Spectacles 24

This is another epigram commemorating the opening of the Flavian Amphitheater. Reread the introduction to Martial in Francese to review the context. 

Whatever Rhodope* is said to have watched on Orpheus’ stage,
     Your amphitheater, Caesar, displayed to you.
Cliffs crept close and up ran a forest–incredible!–
     A forest like the grove of the Hesperides might have been.
Every species of wild beast was there mingled with livestock
    And above the poet many birds petched,
But the poet was laid low, torn apart by an unpleasing bear:
   This alone happened au contraire.**

* a mountain in Thrace.

**[i.e. contrary to the expected story; the last words of the Latin poem are in Greek, and literally mean “contrary to the story”]

If you are unfamiliar with the basic myth of Orpheus, you can read a short summary, here. Note that between his attempt to rescue his wife from the Underworld and his death at the hands of the Maenads, Orpheus sat in the shadow of Rhodope and sung a lament for his lost beloved. The song was so beautiful that nature itself approached to listen, as the mosaic below illustrates. 

Here, for the Latinate among you, is the original poem.

Quidquid in Orpheo Rhodope spectasse theatro
     dicitur, exhibuit, Caesar, harena tibi.
Repserunt scopuli mirandaque silua cucurrit,
     quale fuisse nemus creditur Hesperidum.
Adfuit inmixtum pecori genus omne ferarum               5
     et supra uatem multa pependit auis,
ipse sed ingrato iacuit laceratus ab urso.
     Haec tantum res est facta [par’ ‘istorian].