Lucan 3.165-8; Gallus Fr. 2 Courtney; Aen. 1.286-90

[falmouth]

"tunc Orientis opes captorumque ultima regum                  165
quae Pompeianis praelata est gaza triumphis
egeritur; tristi spoliantur templa rapina,
pauperiorque fuit tum primum Caesare Roma."

The context is Julius Caesar's entering into Rome and plundering the
temple of Saturn, with the Eastern riches stored there being given the
last and most prominent place of a list of what is taken from the
treasury.

This, surely, is a pointed reversal of Gallus Fr. 2.4-5 Courtney

postque tuum reditum multorum templa deorum
                    fixa legam spolieis deivitiora
tueis.                           5

The "templa" (cf. Lucan 3.167) will be enriched "deivitiora" (contrast
Lucan 3.168, "pauperiorque", the comparative being about as rare in
poetry as is 'deivitiora') by Caesar's "spolieis" (contrast Lucan
3.167 "spoliavit" - "*de*-spoil"). The contrast confirms the most
likely interpretation of Gallus Fr. 2.4-5 - namely that it is a
praedictio triumphi in relation to the Eastern expedition (i.e. not
any other campaign) which Julius (i.e. not Augustus) Caesar was
preparing shortly before his murder. On the one hand Lucan's Caesar
in the civil war enters Rome and strips the temples of Eastern spoils
and the fruits of past triumphs, on the other hand Gallus' Caesar will
re-enter Rome and enrich the temples with the fruit of his future
triumph in the East.

(One notable corollorary of this, if right, is that the reversal is so
pointed that Lucan surely had a text of the Gallus poem still
available.)

Aen. 1.286-290:

Nascetur pulchra Troianus origine Caesar,
imperium oceano, famam qui terminet astris,—
Iulius, a magno demissum nomen Iulo.
Hunc tu olim caelo, spoliis Orientis onustum,
accipies secura; vocabitur hic quoque votis.               290

Which Caesar is the well-known question? With "spoliis Orientis" (289)
cf. Lucan "Orientis opes" (3.165). Likely, it seems to me, is that
Gallus had predicted Julius Caesar's return laden with Eastern wealth
in (lost) words which Vergil echoes in order to suggest that Augustus
will do what Julius Caesar should/would have but did not manage to.

(cf. also for "onustum": Prop. 2.14.23-30 - Propertius' success with
Cynthia is greater glory than a *Parthian* triumph "spolia... figam...
[in Venus' temple] ... onusta"; and Prop. 3.4.13 "spoliis oneratos
Caesaris axes" (*Parthian* triumph); Ov AA.1.215 "onerati" (*Parthian*
triumph); and for "opes" in Lucan - "Eoas Latio dux meus addat opes."
Ov. AA. 1.202 (*Parthian* triumph).