Such, for instance, is the lament of Ercole
Strozzi on Cesare Borgia. We there listen to the complaint of Roma, who
had set all her hopes on the Spanish Popes, Calixtus III and Alexander
VI, and who saw her promised deliverer in Cesare. His history is
related down to the catastrophe of 1503. The poet then asks the Muse
what were the counsels of the gods at that moment, and Erato tells how,
upon Olympus, Pallas took the part of the Spaniards, Venus of the
Italians, how both then embrace the knees of Jupiter, how thereupon he
kisses them, soothes them, and explains to them that he can do nothing
against the fate woven by the Parc, but that the divine promises will
be fulfilled by the child of the House of Este-Borgia.60 After relating
the fabulous origin of both families, he declares that he can confer
immortality on Cesare as little as he could once, in spite of all
entreaties, on Memnon or Achilles; and concludes with the consoling
assurance that Cesare, before his own death, will destroy many people
in war. Mars then hastens to Naples to stir up war and confusion, while
Pallas goes to Nepi, and there appears to the dying Cesare under the
form of Alexander VI. After giving him the good advice to submit to his
fate and be satisfied with the glory of his name, the papal goddess
vanishes 'like a bird.
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