(Translated by Richmond Lattimore)

Why are we all assembled and waiting in the market place?

It is the barbarians; they will be here today.

Why is there nothing being done in the senate house?

Why are the senators in session but are not passing laws?

Because the barbarians are coming today.

Why should the senators make laws any more?

The barbarians will make the laws when they get here.

Why has our emperor got up so early

and sits there at the biggest gate of the city

high on his throne, in state, and with his crown on?

Because the barbarians are coming today

and the emperor is waiting to receive them

and their general. And he has even made ready

a parchment to present them, and thereon

he has written many names and many titles.

Why have our two consuls and our praetors

Come out today in their red embroidered togas?

Why have they put on their bracelets with all those amethysts

and rings shining with the glitter of emeralds?

Why will they carry their precious staves today

which are decorated with figures of gold and silver?

Because the barbarians are coming today

And things like that impress the barbarians.

Why do our good orators not put in any appearance

and make public speeches, and do what they generally do?

Because the barbarians are coming today

and they get bored with eloquent public speeches.

Why is everybody beginning to be so uneasy?

Why so disordered? (See how grave all the faces have

become!) Why do the streets and the squares empty so quickly,

and they are all anxiously going home to their houses?

Because it is night, and the barbarians have not got here,

and some people have come in from the frontier

and say that there aren’t any more barbarians.

What are we going to do now without the barbarians?

In a way, those people were a solution.