Transcriber's note:

 Numbers in brackets [ ] refer to line numbers in Virgil's Aeneid. These numbers appeared at the top of each page of text and have been retained for reference. 

 Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. A complete list follows the text. 

THE AENEID OF VIRGIL

Translated into English

by

J. W. MACKAIL, M. A. Fellow Of Balliol College, Oxford

LondonMacMillan and Co. 1885

Printed by R. & R. CLARK, Edinburgh. 

PREFACE

There is something grotesque in the idea of a prose translation of apoet, though the practice is become so common that it has ceased toprovoke a smile or demand an apology. The language of poetry is languagein fusion; that of prose is language fixed and crystallised; and anattempt to copy the one material in the other must always count onfailure to convey what is, after all, one of the most essential thingsin poetry, --its poetical quality. And this is so with Virgil more, perhaps, than with any other poet; for more, perhaps, than any otherpoet Virgil depends on his poetical quality from first to last. Such atranslation can only have the value of a copy of some great paintingexecuted in mosaic, if indeed a copy in Berlin wool is not a closeranalogy; and even at the best all it can have to say for itself will bein Virgil's own words, _Experiar sensus; nihil hic nisi carmina desunt. _

In this translation I have in the main followed the text of Coningtonand Nettleship. The more important deviations from this text arementioned in the notes; but I have not thought it necessary to give acomplete list of various readings, or to mention any change except whereit might lead to misapprehension. Their notes have also been used by methroughout. 

Beyond this I have made constant use of the mass of ancient commentarygoing under the name of Servius; the most valuable, perhaps, of all, asit is in many ways the nearest to the poet himself. The explanationgiven in it has sometimes been followed against those of the moderneditors. To other commentaries only occasional reference has been made. The sense that Virgil is his own best interpreter becomes stronger asone studies him more. 

My thanks are due to Mr. EVELYN ABBOTT, Fellow and Tutor of Balliol, andto the Rev. H. C. BEECHING, for much valuable suggestion and criticism. 

THE AENEID

BOOK FIRST

THE COMING OF AENEAS TO CARTHAGE

I sing of arms and the man who of old from the coasts of Troy came, anexile of fate, to Italy and the shore of Lavinium; hard driven on landand on the deep by the violence of heaven, for cruel Juno's unforgetfulanger, and hard bestead in war also, ere he might found a city and carryhis gods into Latium; from whom is the Latin race, the lords of Alba, and the stately city Rome. 

Muse, tell me why, for what attaint of her deity, or in what vexation, did the Queen of heaven drive one so excellent in goodness to circlethrough so many afflictions, to face so many toils? Is anger so fiercein celestial spirits?

 * * * * *

There was a city of ancient days that Tyrian settlers dwelt in, Carthage, over against Italy and the Tiber mouths afar; rich of store, and mighty in war's fierce pursuits; wherein, they say, alone beyond allother lands had Juno her seat, and held Samos itself less dear. Here washer armour, here her chariot; even now, if fate permit, the goddessstrives to nurture it for queen of the nations. Nevertheless she hadheard a race was issuing of the blood of [20-53]Troy, which sometimeshould overthrow her Tyrian citadel; from it should come a people, lordof lands and tyrannous in war, the destroyer of Libya: so rolled thedestinies. Fearful of that, the daughter of Saturn, the old war in herremembrance that she fought at Troy for her beloved Argos long ago, --norhad the springs of her anger nor the bitterness of her vexation yet goneout of mind: deep stored in her soul lies the judgment of Paris, theinsult of her slighted beauty, the hated race and the dignities ofravished Ganymede; fired with this also, she tossed all over ocean theTrojan remnant left of the Greek host and merciless Achilles, and heldthem afar from Latium; and many a year were they wandering driven offate around all the seas. Such work was it to found the Roman people. 

Hardly out of sight of the land of Sicily did they set their sails tosea, and merrily upturned the salt foam with brazen prow, when Juno, theundying wound still deep in her heart, thus broke out alone:

'Am I then to abandon my baffled purpose, powerless to keep the Teucrianking from Italy? and because fate forbids me? Could Pallas lay theArgive fleet in ashes, and sink the Argives in the sea, for one man'sguilt, mad Oïlean Ajax? Her hand darted Jove's flying fire from theclouds, scattered their ships, upturned the seas in tempest; him, hispierced breast yet breathing forth the flame, she caught in a whirlwindand impaled on a spike of rock. But I, who move queen among immortals, Isister and wife of Jove, wage warfare all these years with a singlepeople; and is there any who still adores Juno's divinity, or will kneelto lay sacrifice on her altars?'

Such thoughts inly revolving in her kindled bosom, the goddess reachesAeolia, the home of storm-clouds, the land laden with furious southerngales. Here in a desolate cavern Aeolus keeps under royal dominion andyokes in [54-85]dungeon fetters the struggling winds and loud storms. They with mighty moan rage indignant round their mountain barriers. Inhis lofty citadel Aeolus sits sceptred, assuages their temper andsoothes their rage; else would they carry with them seas and lands, andthe depth of heaven, and sweep them through space in their flyingcourse. But, fearful of this, the lord omnipotent hath hidden them incaverned gloom, and laid a mountain mass high over them, and appointedthem a ruler, who should know by certain law to strain and slacken thereins at command. To him now Juno spoke thus in suppliant accents:

'Aeolus--for to thee hath the father of gods and king of men given thewind that lulls and that lifts the waves--a people mine enemy sails theTyrrhene sea, carrying into Italy the conquered gods of their Ilianhome. Rouse thy winds to fury, and overwhelm their sinking vessels, ordrive them asunder and strew ocean with their bodies. Mine are twiceseven nymphs of passing loveliness; her who of them all is mostexcellent in beauty, Deïopea, I will unite to thee in wedlock to bethine for ever; that for this thy service she may fulfil all her yearsat thy side, and make thee father of a beautiful race. '

Aeolus thus returned: 'Thine, O queen, the task to search whereto thouhast desire; for me it is right to do thy bidding. From thee have I thispoor kingdom, from thee my sceptre and Jove's grace; thou dost grant meto take my seat at the feasts of the gods, and makest me sovereign overclouds and storms. '

Even with these words, turning his spear, he struck the side of thehollow hill, and the winds, as in banded array, pour where passage isgiven them, and cover earth with eddying blasts. East wind and west windtogether, and the gusty south-wester, falling prone on the sea, stir itup [86-120]from its lowest chambers, and roll vast billows to theshore. Behind rises shouting of men and whistling of cordage. In amoment clouds blot sky and daylight from the Teucrians' eyes; blacknight broods over the deep. Pole thunders to pole, and the air quiverswith incessant flashes; all menaces them with instant death. StraightwayAeneas' frame grows unnerved and chill, and stretching either hand toheaven, he cries thus aloud: 'Ah, thrice and four times happy they whofound their doom under high Troy town before their fathers' faces! Ah, son of Tydeus, bravest of the Grecian race, that I could not have fallenon the Ilian plains, and gasped out this my life beneath thine hand!where under the spear of Aeacides lies fierce Hector, lies mightySarpedon; where Simoïs so often bore beneath his whirling wave shieldsand helmets and brave bodies of men. '

As the cry leaves his lips, a gust of the shrill north strikes full onthe sail and raises the waves up to heaven. The oars are snapped; theprow swings away and gives her side to the waves; down in a heap comes abroken mountain of water. These hang on the wave's ridge; to these theyawning billow shows ground amid the surge, where the sea churns withsand. Three ships the south wind catches and hurls on hidden rocks, rocks amid the waves which Italians call the Altars, a vast reef bankingthe sea. Three the east forces from the deep into shallows andquicksands, piteous to see, dashes on shoals and girdles with asandbank. One, wherein loyal Orontes and his Lycians rode, before theirlord's eyes a vast sea descending strikes astern. The helmsman is dashedaway and rolled forward headlong; her as she lies the billow sendsspinning thrice round with it, and engulfs in the swift whirl. Scatteredswimmers appear in the vast eddy, armour of men, timbers and Trojantreasure amid the water. Ere now the stout ship of Ilioneus, ere now ofbrave Achates, and she wherein [121-152]Abas rode, and she wherein agedAletes, have yielded to the storm; through the shaken fastenings oftheir sides they all draw in the deadly water, and their opening seamsgive way. 

Meanwhile Neptune discerned with astonishment the loud roaring of thevexed sea, the tempest let loose from prison, and the still waterboiling up from its depths, and lifting his head calm above the waves, looked forth across the deep. He sees all ocean strewn with Aeneas'fleet, the Trojans overwhelmed by the waves and the ruining heaven. Juno's guile and wrath lay clear to her brother's eye; east wind andwest he calls before him, and thereon speaks thus:

'Stand you then so sure in your confidence of birth? Careless, O winds, of my deity, dare you confound sky and earth, and raise so huge a coil?you whom I--But better to still the aroused waves; for a second sin youshall pay me another penalty. Speed your flight, and say this to yourking: not to him but to me was allotted the stern trident of oceanempire. His fastness is on the monstrous rocks where thou and thine, east wind, dwell: there let Aeolus glory in his palace and reign overthe barred prison of his winds. '

Thus he speaks, and ere the words are done he soothes the swollen seas, chases away the gathered clouds, and restores the sunlight. Cymothoë andTriton together push the ships strongly off the sharp reef; himself heeases them with his trident, channels the vast quicksands, and assuagesthe sea, gliding on light wheels along the water. Even as when oft in athrong of people strife hath risen, and the base multitude rage in theirminds, and now brands and stones are flying; madness lends arms; then ifperchance they catch sight of one reverend for goodness and service, they are silent and stand by with attentive ear; he with[153-190]speech sways their temper and soothes their breasts; even sohath fallen all the thunder of ocean, when riding forward beneath acloudless sky the lord of the sea wheels his coursers and lets hisgliding chariot fly with loosened rein. 

The outworn Aeneadae hasten to run for the nearest shore, and turn tothe coast of Libya. There lies a spot deep withdrawn; an island forms aharbour with outstretched sides, whereon all the waves break from theopen sea and part into the hollows of the bay. On this side and thatenormous cliffs rise threatening heaven, and twin crags beneath whosecrest the sheltered water lies wide and calm; above hangs a backgroundof flickering forest, and the dark shade of rustling groves. Beneath theseaward brow is a rock-hung cavern, within it fresh springs and seats inthe living stone, a haunt of nymphs; where tired ships need no fettersto hold nor anchor to fasten them with crooked bite. Here with sevensail gathered of all his company Aeneas enters; and disembarking on theland of their desire the Trojans gain the chosen beach, and set theirfeet dripping with brine upon the shore. At once Achates struck a sparkfrom the flint and caught the fire on leaves, and laying dry fuel roundkindled it into flame. Then, weary of fortune, they fetch out cornspoiled by the sea and weapons of corn-dressing, and begin to parch overthe fire and bruise in stones the grain they had rescued. 

Meanwhile Aeneas scales the crag, and seeks the whole view wide overocean, if he may see aught of Antheus storm-tossed with his Phrygiangalleys, aught of Capys or of Caïcus' armour high astern. Ship in sightis none; three stags he espies straying on the shore; behind whole herdsfollow, and graze in long train across the valley. Stopping short, hesnatched up a bow and swift arrows, the arms trusty Achates wascarrying; and first the leaders, their stately heads high with branchingantlers, then the common [191-222]herd fall to his hand, as he drivesthem with his shafts in a broken crowd through the leafy woods. Norstays he till seven great victims are stretched on the sod, fulfillingthe number of his ships. Thence he seeks the harbour and parts themamong all his company. The casks of wine that good Acestes had filled onthe Trinacrian beach, the hero's gift at their departure, he thereaftershares, and calms with speech their sorrowing hearts:

'O comrades, for not now nor aforetime are we ignorant of ill, O triedby heavier fortunes, unto this last likewise will God appoint an end. The fury of Scylla and the roaring recesses of her crags you have beenanigh; the rocks of the Cyclops you have trodden. Recall your courage, put dull fear away. This too sometime we shall haply remember withdelight. Through chequered fortunes, through many perilous ways, westeer for Latium, where destiny points us a quiet home. There the realmof Troy may rise again unforbidden. Keep heart, and endure tillprosperous fortune come. '

Such words he utters, and sick with deep distress he feigns hope on hisface, and keeps his anguish hidden deep in his breast. The others set tothe spoil they are to feast upon, tear chine from ribs and lay bare theflesh; some cut it into pieces and pierce it still quivering with spits;others plant cauldrons on the beach and feed them with flame. Then theyrepair their strength with food, and lying along the grass take theirfill of old wine and fat venison. After hunger is driven from thebanquet, and the board cleared, they talk with lingering regret of theirlost companions, swaying between hope and fear, whether they may believethem yet alive, or now in their last agony and deaf to mortal call. Mostdoes good Aeneas inly wail the loss now of valiant Orontes, now ofAmycus, the cruel doom of Lycus, of brave Gyas, and brave Cloanthus. [223-254]And now they ceased; when from the height of air Jupiterlooked down on the sail-winged sea and outspread lands, the shores andbroad countries, and looking stood on the cope of heaven, and cast downhis eyes on the realm of Libya. To him thus troubled at heart Venus, herbright eyes brimming with tears, sorrowfully speaks:

'O thou who dost sway mortal and immortal things with eternal commandand the terror of thy thunderbolt, how can my Aeneas have transgressedso grievously against thee? how his Trojans? on whom, after so manydeaths outgone, all the world is barred for Italy's sake. From themsometime in the rolling years the Romans were to arise indeed; from themwere to be rulers who, renewing the blood of Teucer, should hold sea andland in universal lordship. This thou didst promise: why, O father, isthy decree reversed? This was my solace for the wretched ruin of sunkenTroy, doom balanced against doom. Now so many woes are spent, and thesame fortune still pursues them; Lord and King, what limit dost thou setto their agony? Antenor could elude the encircling Achaeans, couldthread in safety the Illyrian bays and inmost realms of the Liburnians, could climb Timavus' source, whence through nine mouths pours thebursting tide amid dreary moans of the mountain, and covers the fieldswith hoarse waters. Yet here did he set Patavium town, a dwelling-placefor his Teucrians, gave his name to a nation and hung up the armour ofTroy; now settled in peace, he rests and is in quiet. We, thy children, we whom thou beckonest to the heights of heaven, our fleet miserablycast away for a single enemy's anger, are betrayed and severed far fromthe Italian coasts. Is this the reward of goodness? Is it thus thou dostrestore our throne?'

Smiling on her with that look which clears sky and [255-289]storms, theparent of men and gods lightly kissed his daughter's lips; then answeredthus:

'Spare thy fear, Cytherean; thy people's destiny abides unshaken. Thineeyes shall see the city Lavinium, their promised home; thou shalt exaltto the starry heaven thy noble Aeneas; nor is my decree reversed. Hethou lovest (for I will speak, since this care keeps torturing thee, andwill unroll further the secret records of fate) shall wage a great warin Italy, and crush warrior nations; he shall appoint his people a lawand a city; till the third summer see him reigning in Latium, and threewinters' camps pass over the conquered Rutulians. But the boy Ascanius, whose surname is now Iülus--Ilus he was while the Ilian state stoodsovereign--thirty great circles of rolling months shall he fulfil ingovernment; he shall carry the kingdom from its fastness in Lavinium, and make a strong fortress of Alba the Long. Here the full space ofthrice an hundred years shall the kingdom endure under the race ofHector's kin, till the royal priestess Ilia from Mars' embrace shallgive birth to a twin progeny. Thence shall Romulus, gay in the tawnyhide of the she-wolf that nursed him, take up their line, and name themRomans after his own name. I appoint to these neither period norboundary of empire: I have given them dominion without end. Nay, harshJuno, who in her fear now troubles earth and sea and sky, shall changeto better counsels, and with me shall cherish the lords of the world, the gowned race of Rome. Thus is it willed. A day will come in the lapseof cycles, when the house of Assaracus shall lay Phthia and famedMycenae in bondage, and reign over conquered Argos. From the fair lineof Troy a Caesar shall arise, who shall limit his empire with ocean, hisglory with the firmament, Julius, inheritor of great Iülus' name. Himone day, thy care done, thou shalt welcome to heaven loaded[290-321]with Eastern spoils; to him too shall vows be addressed. Thenshall war cease, and the iron ages soften. Hoar Faith and Vesta, Quirinus and Remus brothers again, shall deliver statutes. The dreadfulsteel-riveted gates of war shall be shut fast; on murderous weapons theinhuman Fury, his hands bound behind him with an hundred fetters ofbrass, shall sit within, shrieking with terrible blood-stained lips. '

So speaking, he sends Maia's son down from above, that the land andtowers of Carthage, the new town, may receive the Trojans with openwelcome; lest Dido, ignorant of doom, might debar them her land. Flyingthrough the depth of air on winged oarage, the fleet messenger alightson the Libyan coasts. At once he does his bidding; at once, for a godwilled it, the Phoenicians allay their haughty temper; the queen aboveall takes to herself grace and compassion towards the Teucrians. 

But good Aeneas, nightlong revolving many and many a thing, issuesforth, so soon as bountiful light is given, to explore the strangecountry; to what coasts the wind has borne him, who are their habitants, men or wild beasts, for all he sees is wilderness; this he resolves tosearch, and bring back the certainty to his comrades. The fleet he hidesclose in embosoming groves beneath a caverned rock, amid shiveringshadow of the woodland; himself, Achates alone following, he stridesforward, clenching in his hand two broad-headed spears. And amid theforest his mother crossed his way, wearing the face and raiment of amaiden, the arms of a maiden of Sparta, or like Harpalyce of Thrace whenshe tires her coursers and outstrips the winged speed of Hebrus in herflight. For huntress fashion had she slung the ready bow from hershoulder, and left her blown tresses free, bared her knee, and knottedtogether her garments' flowing folds. 'Ha! my men, ' she begins, 'shew meif [322-355]haply you have seen a sister of mine straying here girtwith quiver and a lynx's dappled fell, or pressing with shouts on thetrack of a foaming boar. '

Thus Venus, and Venus' son answering thus began:

'Sound nor sight have I had of sister of thine, O maiden unnamed; forthy face is not mortal, nor thy voice of human tone; O goddessassuredly! sister of Phoebus perchance, or one of the nymphs' blood?Be thou gracious, whoso thou art, and lighten this toil of ours; deignto instruct us beneath what skies, on what coast of the world, we arethrown. Driven hither by wind and desolate waves, we wander in a strangeland among unknown men. Many a sacrifice shall fall by our hand beforethine altars. '

Then Venus: 'Nay, to no such offerings do I aspire. Tyrian maidens arewont ever to wear the quiver, to tie the purple buskin high above theirankle. Punic is the realm thou seest, Tyrian the people, and the city ofAgenor's kin; but their borders are Libyan, a race unassailable in war. Dido sways the sceptre, who flying her brother set sail from the Tyriantown. Long is the tale of crime, long and intricate; but I will brieflyfollow its argument. Her husband was Sychaeus, wealthiest in lands ofthe Phoenicians, and loved of her with ill-fated passion; to whom withvirgin rites her father had given her maidenhood in wedlock. But thekingdom of Tyre was in her brother Pygmalion's hands, a monster of guiltunparalleled. Between these madness came; the unnatural brother, blindwith lust of gold, and reckless of his sister's love, lays Sychaeus lowbefore the altars with stealthy unsuspected weapon; and for long he hidthe deed, and by many a crafty pretence cheated her love-sickness withhollow hope. But in slumber came the very ghost of her unburied husband;lifting up a face pale in wonderful wise, he exposed the mercilessaltars and [356-387]his breast stabbed through with steel, and unwoveall the blind web of household guilt. Then he counsels hasty flight outof the country, and to aid her passage discloses treasures long hiddenunderground, an untold mass of silver and gold. Stirred thereby, Didogathered a company for flight. All assemble in whom hatred of the tyrantwas relentless or fear keen; they seize on ships that chanced to lieready, and load them with the gold. Pygmalion's hoarded wealth is borneoverseas; a woman leads the work. They came at last to the land wherethou wilt descry a city now great, New Carthage, and her rising citadel, and bought ground, called thence Byrsa, as much as a bull's hide wouldencircle. But who, I pray, are you, or from what coasts come, or whitherhold you your way?'

At her question he, sighing and drawing speech deep from his breast, thus replied:

'Ah goddess, should I go on retracing from the fountain head, were timefree to hear the history of our woes, sooner would the evening star layday asleep in the closed gates of heaven. Us, as from ancient Troy (ifthe name of Troy hath haply passed through your ears) we sailed overalien seas, the tempest at his own wild will hath driven on the Libyancoast. I am Aeneas the good, who carry in my fleet the household gods Irescued from the enemy; my fame is known high in heaven. I seek Italy mycountry, my kin of Jove's supreme blood. With twenty sail did I climbthe Phrygian sea; oracular tokens led me on; my goddess mother pointedthe way; scarce seven survive the shattering of wave and wind. Myselfunknown, destitute, driven from Europe and Asia, I wander over theLibyan wilderness. '

But staying longer complaint, Venus thus broke in on his half-toldsorrows:

'Whoso thou art, not hated I think of the immortals [388-420]dost thoudraw the breath of life, who hast reached the Tyrian city. Only go on, and betake thee hence to the courts of the queen. For I declare to theethy comrades are restored, thy fleet driven back into safety by theshifted northern gales, except my parents were pretenders, andunavailing the augury they taught me. Behold these twelve swans injoyous line, whom, stooping from the tract of heaven, the bird of Jovefluttered over the open sky; now in long train they seem either to takethe ground or already to look down on the ground they took. As theyagain disport with clapping wings, and utter their notes as they circlethe sky in company, even so do these ships and crews of thine either liefast in harbour or glide under full sail into the harbour mouth. Only goon, and turn thy steps where the pathway leads thee. '

Speaking she turned away, and her neck shone roseate, her immortaltresses breathed the fragrance of deity; her raiment fell flowing downto her feet, and the godhead was manifest in her tread. He knew her forhis mother, and with this cry pursued her flight: 'Thou also merciless!Why mockest thou thy son so often in feigned likeness? Why is itforbidden to clasp hand in hand, to hear and utter true speech?' Thusreproaching her he bends his steps towards the city. But Venus girt themin their going with dull mist, and shed round them a deep divineclothing of cloud, that none might see them, none touch them, or workdelay, or ask wherefore they came. Herself she speeds through the sky toPaphos, and joyfully revisits her habitation, where the temple and itshundred altars steam with Sabaean incense, and are fresh with fragranceof chaplets in her worship. 

They meantime have hasted along where the pathway points, and now wereclimbing the hill which hangs enormous over the city, and looks down onits facing towers. [421-456]Aeneas marvels at the mass of building, pastoral huts once of old, marvels at the gateways and clatter of thepavements. The Tyrians are hot at work to trace the walls, to rear thecitadel, and roll up great stones by hand, or to choose a spot for theirdwelling and enclose it with a furrow. They ordain justice andmagistrates, and the august senate. Here some are digging harbours, hereothers lay the deep foundations of their theatre, and hew out of thecliff vast columns, the lofty ornaments of the stage to be: even as beeswhen summer is fresh over the flowery country ply their task beneath thesun, when they lead forth their nation's grown brood, or when they pressthe liquid honey and strain their cells with nectarous sweets, orrelieve the loaded incomers, or in banded array drive the idle herd ofdrones far from their folds; they swarm over their work, and the odoroushoney smells sweet of thyme. 'Happy they whose city already rises!'cries Aeneas, looking on the town roofs below. Girt in the cloud hepasses amid them, wonderful to tell, and mingling with the throng isdescried of none. 

In the heart of the town was a grove deep with luxuriant shade, whereinfirst the Phoenicians, buffeted by wave and whirlwind, dug up the tokenQueen Juno had appointed, the head of a war horse: thereby was theirrace to be through all ages illustrious in war and opulent in living. Here to Juno was Sidonian Dido founding a vast temple, rich withofferings and the sanctity of her godhead: brazen steps rose on thethreshold, brass clamped the pilasters, doors of brass swung on gratinghinges. First in this grove did a strange chance meet his steps andallay his fears; first here did Aeneas dare to hope for safety and havefairer trust in his shattered fortunes. For while he closely scans thetemple that towers above him, while, awaiting the queen, he admires thefortunate city, the emulous hands and elaborate work of her craftsmen, he sees ranged in order the [457-491]battles of Ilium, that war whosefame was already rumoured through all the world, the sons of Atreus andPriam, and Achilles whom both found pitiless. He stopped and criedweeping, 'What land is left, Achates, what tract on earth that is notfull of our agony? Behold Priam! Here too is the meed of honour, heremortal estate touches the soul to tears. Dismiss thy fears; the fame ofthis will somehow bring thee salvation. '

So speaks he, and fills his soul with the painted show, sighing oftenthe while, and his face wet with a full river of tears. For he saw, howwarring round the Trojan citadel here the Greeks fled, the men of Troyhard on their rear; here the Phrygians, plumed Achilles in his chariotpressing their flight. Not far away he knows the snowy canvas of Rhesus'tents, which, betrayed in their first sleep, the blood-stained son ofTydeus laid desolate in heaped slaughter, and turns the ruddy steedsaway to the camp ere ever they tasted Trojan fodder or drunk of Xanthus. Elsewhere Troïlus, his armour flung away in flight--luckless boy, nomatch for Achilles to meet!--is borne along by his horses, and thrownback entangled with his empty chariot, still clutching the reins; hisneck and hair are dragged over the ground, and his reversed spear scoresthe dust. Meanwhile the Ilian women went with disordered tresses tounfriendly Pallas' temple, and bore the votive garment, sadly beatingbreast with palm: the goddess turning away held her eyes fast on theground. Thrice had Achilles whirled Hector round the walls of Troy, andwas selling the lifeless body for gold; then at last he heaves a loudand heart-deep groan, as the spoils, as the chariot, as the dear bodymet his gaze, and Priam outstretching unarmed hands. Himself too he knewjoining battle with the foremost Achaeans, knew the Eastern ranks andswart Memnon's armour. Penthesilea leads her crescent-shielded Amazoniancolumns in furious heat with [492-524]thousands around her; clasping agolden belt under her naked breast, the warrior maiden clashes boldlywith men. 

While these marvels meet Dardanian Aeneas' eyes, while he dizzily hangsrapt in one long gaze, Dido the queen entered the precinct, beautifulexceedingly, a youthful train thronging round her. Even as on Eurotas'banks or along the Cynthian ridges Diana wheels the dance, while behindher a thousand mountain nymphs crowd to left and right; she carriesquiver on shoulder, and as she moves outshines them all in deity;Latona's heart is thrilled with silent joy; such was Dido, so shejoyously advanced amid the throng, urging on the business of her risingempire. Then in the gates of the goddess, beneath the central vault ofthe temple roof, she took her seat girt with arms and high enthroned. And now she gave justice and laws to her people, and adjusted orallotted their taskwork in due portion; when suddenly Aeneas seesadvancing with a great crowd about them Antheus and Sergestus and braveCloanthus, and other of his Trojans, whom the black squall had sunderedat sea and borne far away on the coast. Dizzy with the shock of joy andfear he and Achates together were on fire with eagerness to clasp theirhands; but in confused uncertainty they keep hidden, and clothed in thesheltering cloud wait to espy what fortune befalls them, where they areleaving their fleet ashore, why they now come; for they advanced, chosenmen from all the ships, praying for grace, and held on with loud criestowards the temple. 

After they entered in, and free speech was granted, aged Ilioneus withplacid mien thus began:

'Queen, to whom Jupiter hath given to found this new city, and lay theyoke of justice upon haughty tribes, we beseech thee, we wretchedTrojans storm-driven over all [525-559]the seas, stay the dreadfulflames from our ships; spare a guiltless race, and bend a graciousregard on our fortunes. We are not come to deal slaughter through Libyanhomes, or to drive plundered spoils to the coast. Such violence sits notin our mind, nor is a conquered people so insolent. There is a placeGreeks name Hesperia, an ancient land, mighty in arms and foison of theclod; Oenotrian men dwelt therein; now rumour is that a younger racefrom their captain's name have called it Italy. Thither lay our course. . . When Orion rising on us through the cloudrack with sudden surfbore us on blind shoals, and scattered us afar with his boisterous galesand whelming brine over waves and trackless reefs. To these your coastswe a scanty remnant floated up. What race of men, what land howbarbarous soever, allows such a custom for its own? We are debarred theshelter of the beach; they rise in war, and forbid us to set foot on thebrink of their land. If you slight human kinship and mortal arms, yetlook for gods unforgetful of innocence and guilt. Aeneas was our king, foremost of men in righteousness, incomparable in goodness as in warlikearms; whom if fate still preserves, if he draws the breath of heaven andlies not yet low in dispiteous gloom, fear we have none; nor mayest thourepent of challenging the contest of service. In Sicilian territory toois tilth and town, and famed Acestes himself of Trojan blood. Grant usto draw ashore our storm-shattered fleet, to shape forest trees intobeams and strip them for oars; so, if to Italy we may steer with ourking and comrades found, Italy and Latium shall we gladly seek; but ifsalvation is clean gone, if the Libyan gulf holds thee, dear lord of thyTrojans, and Iülus our hope survives no more, seek we then at least thestraits of Sicily, the open homes whence we sailed hither, and Acestesfor our king. ' Thus Ilioneus, and all the Dardanian company[560-593]murmured assent. . . . Then Dido, with downcast face, brieflyspeaks:

'Cheer your anxious hearts, O Teucrians; put by your care. Hard fortunein a strange realm forces me to this task, to keep watch and ward on mywide frontiers. Who can be ignorant of the race of Aeneas' people, whoof Troy town and her men and deeds, or of the great war's consumingfire? Not so dull are the hearts of our Punic wearing, not so far doththe sun yoke his steeds from our Tyrian town. Whether your choice bebroad Hesperia, the fields of Saturn's dominion, or Eryx for yourcountry and Acestes for your king, my escort shall speed you in safety, my arsenals supply your need. Or will you even find rest here with meand share my kingdom? The city I establish is yours; draw your shipsashore; Trojan and Tyrian shall be held by me in even balance. And wouldthat he your king, that Aeneas were here, storm-driven to this samehaven! But I will send messengers along the coast, and bid them traceLibya to its limits, if haply he strays shipwrecked in forest or town. '

Stirred by these words brave Achates and lord Aeneas both ere now burnedto break through the cloud. Achates first accosts Aeneas: 'Goddess-born, what purpose now rises in thy spirit? Thou seest all is safe, our fleetand comrades are restored. One only is wanting, whom our eyes sawwhelmed amid the waves; all else is answerable to thy mother's words. '

Scarce had he spoken when the encircling cloud suddenly parts and meltsinto clear air. Aeneas stood discovered in sheen of brilliant light, like a god in face and shoulders; for his mother's self had shed on herson the grace of clustered locks, the radiant light of youth, and thelustre of joyous eyes; as when ivory takes beauty under the artist'shand, or when silver or Parian stone is inlaid in gold. [594-625]Thenbreaking in on all with unexpected speech he thus addresses the queen:

'I whom you seek am here before you, Aeneas of Troy, snatched from theLibyan waves. O thou who alone hast pitied Troy's untold agonies, thouwho with us the remnant of the Grecian foe, worn out ere now by everysuffering land and sea can bring, with us in our utter want dost sharethy city and home! to render meet recompense is not possible for us, ODido, nor for all who scattered over the wide world are left of ourDardanian race. The gods grant thee worthy reward, if their deity turnany regard on goodness, if aught avails justice and conscious purity ofsoul. What happy ages bore thee? what mighty parents gave thy virtuebirth? While rivers run into the sea, while the mountain shadows moveacross their slopes, while the stars have pasturage in heaven, evershall thine honour, thy name and praises endure in the unknown landsthat summon me. ' With these words he advances his right hand to dearIlioneus, his left to Serestus; then to the rest, brave Gyas and braveCloanthus. 

Dido the Sidonian stood astonished, first at the sight of him, then athis strange fortunes; and these words left her lips:

'What fate follows thee, goddess-born, through perilous ways? whatviolence lands thee on this monstrous coast? Art thou that Aeneas whomVenus the bountiful bore to Dardanian Anchises by the wave of PhrygianSimoïs? And well I remember how Teucer came to Sidon, when exiled fromhis native land he sought Belus' aid to gain new realms; Belus my fathereven then ravaged rich Cyprus and held it under his conquering sway. From that time forth have I known the fall of the Trojan city, known thyname and the Pelasgian princes. Their very foe would extol the Teucrianswith highest praises, and boasted himself a branch [626-661]of theancient Teucrian stem. Come therefore, O men, and enter our house. Metoo hath a like fortune driven through many a woe, and willed at last tofind my rest in this land. Not ignorant of ill do I learn to succour theafflicted. '

With such speech she leads Aeneas into the royal house, and orderssacrifice in the gods' temples. Therewith she sends his company onthe shore twenty bulls, an hundred great bristly-backed swine, anhundred fat lambs and their mothers with them, gifts of the day'sgladness. . . . But the palace within is decked with splendour of royalstate, and a banquet made ready amid the halls. The coverings arecuriously wrought in splendid purple; on the tables is massy silver anddeeds of ancestral valour graven in gold, all the long course of historydrawn through many a heroic name from the nation's primal antiquity. 

Aeneas--for a father's affection denied his spirit rest--sends Achatesspeeding to his ships, to carry this news to Ascanius, and lead him tothe town: in Ascanius is fixed all the parent's loving care. Presentslikewise he bids him bring saved from the wreck of Ilium, a mantle stiffwith gold embroidery, and a veil with woven border of yellowacanthus-flower, that once decked Helen of Argos, the marvel of hermother Leda's giving; Helen had borne them from Mycenae, when she soughtTroy towers and a lawless bridal; the sceptre too that Ilione, Priam'seldest daughter, once had worn, a beaded necklace, and a double circletof jewelled gold. Achates, hasting on his message, bent his way towardsthe ships. 

But in the Cytherean's breast new arts, new schemes revolve; if Cupid, changed in form and feature, may come in sweet Ascanius' room, and hisgifts kindle the queen to madness and set her inmost sense aflame. Verily she fears the uncertain house, the double-tongued race of Tyre;[662-698]cruel Juno frets her, and at nightfall her care floods back. Therefore to winged Love she speaks these words:

'Son, who art alone my strength and sovereignty, son, who scornest themighty father's Typhoïan shafts, to thee I fly for succour, and suehumbly to thy deity. How Aeneas thy brother is driven about all thesea-coasts by bitter Juno's malignity, this thou knowest, and hast oftengrieved in our grief. Now Dido the Phoenician holds him stayed with softwords, and I tremble to think how the welcome of Juno's house may issue;she will not be idle in this supreme turn of fortune. Wherefore Icounsel to prevent her wiles and circle the queen with flame, that, unalterable by any deity, she may be held fast to me by passionate lovefor Aeneas. Take now my thought how to do this. The boy prince, mychiefest care, makes ready at his dear father's summons to go to theSidonian city, carrying gifts that survive the sea and the flames ofTroy. Him will I hide deep asleep in my holy habitation, high onCythera's hills or in Idalium, that he may not know nor cross our wiles. Do thou but for one night feign his form, and, boy as thou art, put onthe familiar face of a boy; so when in festal cheer, amid royal daintiesand Bacchic juice, Dido shall take thee to her lap, shall fold thee inher clasp and kiss thee close and sweet, thou mayest imbreathe a hiddenfire and unsuspected poison. '

Love obeys his dear mother's words, lays by his wings, and walksrejoicingly with Iülus' tread. But Venus pours gentle dew of slumber onAscanius' limbs, and lifts him lulled in her lap to the tall Idaliangroves of her deity, where soft amaracus folds him round with theshadowed sweetness of its odorous blossoms. And now, obedient to herwords, Cupid went merrily in Achates' guiding, with the royal gifts forthe Tyrians. Already at his coming the queen hath sate her down in themidmost on her golden [699-733]throne under the splendid tapestries;now lord Aeneas, now too the men of Troy gather, and all recline on thestrewn purple. Servants pour water on their hands, serve corn frombaskets, and bring napkins with close-cut pile. Fifty handmaids arewithin, whose task is in their course to keep unfailing store and kindlethe household fire. An hundred others, and as many pages all of likeage, load the board with food and array the wine cups. Therewithal theTyrians are gathered full in the wide feasting chamber, and take theirappointed places on the broidered cushions. They marvel at Aeneas'gifts, marvel at Iülus, at the god's face aflame and forged speech, atthe mantle and veil wrought with yellow acanthus-flower. Above all thehapless Phoenician, victim to coming doom, cannot satiate her soul, but, stirred alike by the boy and the gifts, she gazes and takes fire. He, when hanging clasped on Aeneas' neck he had satisfied all the deludedparent's love, makes his way to the queen; the queen clings to him withher eyes and all her soul, and ever and anon fondles him in her lap, ah, poor Dido! witless how mighty a deity sinks into her breast; but he, mindful of his mother the Acidalian, begins touch by touch to effaceSychaeus, and sows the surprise of a living love in thelong-since-unstirred spirit and disaccustomed heart. Soon as the noiseof banquet ceased and the board was cleared, they set down great bowlsand enwreathe the wine. The house is filled with hum of voices eddyingthrough the spacious chambers; lit lamps hang down by golden chainwork, and flaming tapers expel the night. Now the queen called for a heavy cupof jewelled gold, and filled it with pure wine; therewith was the use ofBelus and all of Belus' race: then the hall was silenced. 'Jupiter, ' shecries, 'for thou art reputed lawgiver of hospitality, grant that this bea joyful day to the Tyrians and the voyagers from Troy, a day to live inour children's memory. [734-756]Bacchus, the giver of gladness, be withus, and Juno the bountiful; and you, O Tyrians, be favourable to ourassembly. ' She spoke, and poured liquid libation on the board, whichdone, she first herself touched it lightly with her lips, then handed itto Bitias and bade him speed; he valiantly drained the foaming cup, andflooded him with the brimming gold. The other princes followed. Long-haired Iopas on his gilded lyre fills the chamber with songsancient Atlas taught; he sings of the wandering moon and the sun'stravails; whence is the human race and the brute, whence water and fire;of Arcturus, the rainy Hyades, and the twin Oxen; why wintry suns makesuch haste to dip in ocean, or what delay makes the nights draglingeringly. Tyrians and Trojans after them redouble applause. Therewithal Dido wore the night in changing talk, alas! and drank longdraughts of love, asking many a thing of Priam, many a thing of Hector;now in what armour the son of the Morning came; now of what fashion wereDiomede's horses; now of mighty Achilles. 'Nay, come, ' she cries, 'tellto us, O guest, from their first beginning the treachery of theGrecians, thy people's woes, and thine own wanderings; for this is nowthe seventh summer that bears thee a wanderer over all the earth andsea. '

BOOK SECOND

THE STORY OF THE SACK OF TROY

All were hushed, and sate with steadfast countenance; thereon, high fromhis cushioned seat, lord Aeneas thus began:

'Dreadful, O Queen, is the woe thou bidst me recall, how the Grecianspitiably overthrew the wealth and lordship of Troy; and I myself sawthese things in all their horror, and I bore great part in them. WhatMyrmidon or Dolopian, or soldier of stern Ulysses, could in such a talerestrain his tears! and now night falls dewy from the steep of heaven, and the setting stars counsel to slumber. Yet if thy desire be such toknow our calamities, and briefly to hear Troy's last agony, though myspirit shudders at the remembrance and recoils in pain, I will essay. 

'Broken in war and beaten back by fate, and so many years now slid away, the Grecian captains build by Pallas' divine craft a horse ofmountainous build, ribbed with sawn fir; they feign it vowed for theirreturn, and this rumour goes about. Within the blind sides theystealthily imprison chosen men picked out one by one, and fill the vastcavern of its womb full with armed soldiery. 

'There lies in sight an island well known in fame, Tenedos, rich ofstore while the realm of Priam endured, [23-55]now but a bay androadstead treacherous to ships. Hither they launch forth, and hide onthe solitary shore: we fancied they were gone, and had run down the windfor Mycenae. So all the Teucrian land put her long grief away. The gatesare flung open; men go rejoicingly to see the Doric camp, the desertedstations and abandoned shore. Here the Dolopian troops were tented, herecruel Achilles; here their squadrons lay; here the lines were wont tomeet in battle. Some gaze astonished at the deadly gift of Minerva theVirgin, and wonder at the horse's bulk; and Thymoetes begins to advisethat it be drawn within our walls and set in the citadel, whether inguile, or that the doom of Troy was even now setting thus. But Capys andthey whose mind was of better counsel, bid us either hurl sheer into thesea the guileful and sinister gift of Greece, or heap flames beneath toconsume it, or pierce and explore the hollow hiding-place of its womb. The wavering crowd is torn apart in high dispute. 

'At that, foremost of all and with a great throng about him, Laocoönruns hotly down from the high citadel, and cries from far: "Ah, wretchedcitizens, what height of madness is this? Believe you the foe is gone?or think you any Grecian gift is free of treachery? is it thus we knowUlysses? Either Achaeans are hid in this cage of wood, or the engine isfashioned against our walls to overlook the houses and descend upon thecity; some delusion lurks there: trust not the horse, O Trojans. Be itwhat it may, I fear the Grecians even when they offer gifts. " Thusspeaking, he hurled his mighty spear with great strength at thecreature's side and the curved framework of the belly: the spear stoodquivering, and the jarred cavern of the womb sounded hollow and uttereda groan. And had divine ordinance, had a soul not infatuate been withus, he had moved us to lay violent steel on the Argolic hiding place;[56-90]and Troy would now stand, and you, tall towers of Priam, yetabide. 

'Lo, Dardanian shepherds meanwhile dragged clamorously before the King aman with hands tied behind his back, who to compass this very thing, tolay Troy open to the Achaeans, had gone to meet their ignorant approach, confident in spirit and doubly prepared to spin his snares or to meetassured death. From all sides, in eagerness to see, the people of Troyrun streaming in, and vie in jeers at their prisoner. Know now thetreachery of the Grecians, and from a single crime learn all. . . . Foras he stood amid our gaze confounded, disarmed, and cast his eyes aroundthe Phrygian columns, "Alas!" he cried, "what land now, what seas mayreceive me? or what is the last doom that yet awaits my misery? who haveneither any place among the Grecians, and likewise the Dardaniansclamour in wrath for the forfeit of my blood. " At that lament our spiritwas changed, and all assault stayed: we encourage him to speak, and tellof what blood he is sprung, or what assurance he brings his captors. 

'"In all things assuredly, " says he, "O King, befall what may, I willconfess to thee the truth; nor will I deny myself of Argolic birth--thisfirst--nor, if Fortune hath made Sinon unhappy, shall her malice mouldhim to a cheat and a liar. Hath a tale of the name of Palamedes, son ofBelus, haply reached thine ears, and of his glorious rumour and renown;whom under false evidence the Pelasgians, because he forbade the war, sent innocent to death by wicked witness; now they bewail him when hehath left the light;--in his company, being near of blood, my father, poor as he was, sent me hither to arms from mine earliest years. Whilehe stood unshaken in royalty and potent in the councils of the kings, wetoo wore a name and honour. When by subtle Ulysses' malice (no unknowntale do I tell) [91-124]he left the upper regions, my shattered lifecrept on in darkness and grief, inly indignant at the fate of myinnocent friend. Nor in my madness was I silent: and, should any chanceoffer, did I ever return a conqueror to my native Argos, I vowed myselfhis avenger, and with my words I stirred his bitter hatred. From thiscame the first taint of ill; from this did Ulysses ever threaten me withfresh charges, from this flung dark sayings among the crowd and soughtconfederate arms. Nay, nor did he rest, till by Calchas' service--butyet why do I vainly unroll the unavailing tale, or why hold you indelay, if all Achaeans are ranked together in your mind, and it isenough that I bear the name? Take the vengeance deferred; this theIthacan would desire, and the sons of Atreus buy at a great ransom. "

'Then indeed we press on to ask and inquire the cause, witless ofwickedness so great and Pelasgian craft. Tremblingly the false-heartedone pursues his speech:

'"Often would the Grecians have taken to flight, leaving Troy behind, and disbanded in weariness of the long war: and would God they had! asoften the fierce sea-tempest barred their way, and the gale frightenedthem from going. Most of all when this horse already stood framed withbeams of maple, storm clouds roared over all the sky. In perplexity wesend Eurypylus to inquire of Phoebus' oracle; and he brings back fromthe sanctuary these words of terror: _With blood of a slain maiden, OGrecians, you appeased the winds when first you came to the Iliancoasts; with blood must you seek your return, and an Argive life be theaccepted sacrifice. _ When that utterance reached the ears of the crowd, their hearts stood still, and a cold shudder ran through their inmostsense: for whom is doom purposed? who is claimed of Apollo? At this theIthacan with loud clamour drags Calchas the soothsayer forth amidstthem, and demands of him what is this the gods signify. And now many anone [125-158]foretold me the villain's craft and cruelty, and silentlysaw what was to come. Twice five days he is speechless in his tent, andwill not have any one denounced by his lips, or given up to death. Scarcely at last, at the loud urgence of the Ithacan, he breaks intospeech as was planned, and appoints me for the altar. All consented; andeach one's particular fear was turned, ah me! to my single destruction. And now the dreadful day was at hand; the rites were being ordered forme, the salted corn, and the chaplets to wreathe my temples. I brokeaway, I confess it, from death; I burst my bonds, and lurked all nightdarkling in the sedge of the marshy pool, till they might set theirsails, if haply they should set them. Nor have I any hope more of seeingmy old home nor my sweet children and the father whom I desire. Of themwill they even haply claim vengeance for my flight, and wash away thiscrime in their wretched death. By the heavenly powers I beseech thee, the deities to whom truth is known, by all the faith yet unsullied thatis anywhere left among mortals; pity woes so great; pity an undeservingsufferer. "

'At these his tears we grant him life, and accord our pity. Priamhimself at once commands his shackles and strait bonds to be undone, andthus speaks with kindly words: "Whoso thou art, now and henceforthdismiss and forget the Greeks: thou shalt be ours. And unfold the truthto this my question: wherefore have they reared this vast size of horse?who is their counsellor? or what their aim? what propitiation, or whatengine of war is this?" He ended; the other, stored with the treacherouscraft of Pelasgia, lifts to heaven his freed hands. "You, everlastingfires, " he cries, "and your inviolable sanctity be my witness; you, Oaltars and accursed swords I fled, and chaplets of the gods I wore asvictim! unblamed may I break the oath of Greek allegiance, unblamed hatethem and bring all to light that they [159-191]conceal; nor am I boundby any laws of country. Do thou only keep by thy promise, O Troy, andpreserve faith with thy preserver, as my news shall be true, as myrecompense great. 

'"All the hope of Greece, and the confidence in which the war began, ever centred in Pallas' aid. But since the wicked son of Tydeus, andUlysses, forger of crime, made bold to tear the fated Palladium from hersanctuary, and cut down the sentries on the towered height; since theygrasped the holy image, and dared with bloody hands to touch the maidenchaplets of the goddess; since then the hope of Greece ebbed and slidaway backwards, their strength was broken, and the mind of the goddessestranged. Whereof the Tritonian gave token by no uncertain signs. Scarcely was the image set in the camp; flame shot sparkling from itslifted eyes, and salt sweat started over its body; thrice, wonderful totell, it leapt from the ground with shield and spear quivering. Immediately Calchas prophesies that the seas must be explored in flight, nor may Troy towers be overthrown by Argive weapons, except they repeattheir auspices at Argos, and bring back that divine presence they haveborne away with them in the curved ships overseas. And now they have rundown the wind for their native Mycenae, to gather arms and gods toattend them; they will remeasure ocean and be on you unawares. SoCalchas expounds the omens. This image at his warning they reared inrecompense for the Palladium and the injured deity, to expiate thehorror of sacrilege. Yet Calchas bade them raise it to this vast sizewith oaken crossbeams, and build it up to heaven, that it may not findentry at the gates nor be drawn within the city, nor protect your peoplebeneath the consecration of old. For if hand of yours should violateMinerva's offering, then utter destruction (the gods turn rather onhimself his augury!) should be upon Priam's empire and [192-226]thePhrygian people. But if under your hands it climbed into your city, Asiashould advance in mighty war to the walls of Pelops, and a like fateawaited our children's children. "

'So by Sinon's wiles and craft and perjury the thing gained belief; andwe were ensnared by treachery and forced tears, we whom neither the sonof Tydeus nor Achilles of Larissa, whom not ten years nor a thousandships brought down. 

'Here another sight, greater, alas! and far more terrible meets us, andalarms our thoughtless senses. Laocoön, allotted priest of Neptune, wasslaying a great bull at the accustomed altars. And lo! from Tenedos, over the placid depths (I shudder as I recall) two snakes in enormouscoils press down the sea and advance together to the shore; theirbreasts rise through the surge, and their blood-red crests overtop thewaves; the rest trails through the main behind and wreathes back involuminous curves; the brine gurgles and foams. And now they gained thefields, while their bloodshot eyes blazed with fire, and their tongueslapped and flickered in their hissing mouths. We scatter, pallid at thesight. They in unfaltering train make towards Laocoön. And first theserpents twine in their double embrace his two little children, and bitedeep in their wretched limbs; then him likewise, as he comes up to helpwith arms in his hand, they seize and fasten in their enormous coils;and now twice clasping his waist, twice encircling his neck with theirscaly bodies, they tower head and neck above him. He at once strains hishands to tear their knots apart, his fillets spattered with foul blackvenom; at once raises to heaven awful cries; as when, bellowing, a bullshakes the wavering axe from his neck and runs wounded from the altar. But the two snakes glide away to the high sanctuary and seek the fierceTritonian's citadel, [227-261]and take shelter under the goddess' feetbeneath the circle of her shield. Then indeed a strange terror thrillsin all our amazed breasts; and Laocoön, men say, hath fulfilled hiscrime's desert, in piercing the consecrated wood and hurling his guiltyspear into its body. All cry out that the image must be drawn to itshome and supplication made to her deity. . . . We sunder the walls, andlay open the inner city. All set to the work; they fix rolling wheelsunder its feet, and tie hempen bands on its neck. The fated engineclimbs our walls, big with arms. Around it boys and unwedded girls chanthymns and joyfully lay their hand on the rope. It moves up, and glidesmenacing into the middle of the town. O native land! O Ilium, house ofgods, and Dardanian city renowned in war! four times in the very gatewaydid it come to a stand, and four times armour rang in its womb. Yet weurge it on, mindless and infatuate, and plant the ill-ominous thing inour hallowed citadel. Even then Cassandra opens her lips to the comingdoom, lips at a god's bidding never believed by the Trojans. We, thewretched people, to whom that day was our last, hang the shrines of thegods with festal boughs throughout the city. Meanwhile the heavens wheelon, and night rises from the sea, wrapping in her vast shadow earth andsky and the wiles of the Myrmidons; about the town the Teucrians arestretched in silence; slumber laps their tired limbs. 

'And now the Argive squadron was sailing in order from Tenedos, and inthe favouring stillness of the quiet moon sought the shores it knew;when the royal galley ran out a flame, and, protected by the gods'malign decrees, Sinon stealthily lets loose the imprisoned Grecians fromtheir barriers of pine; the horse opens and restores them to the air;and joyfully issuing from the hollow wood, Thessander and Sthenelus thecaptains, and terrible Ulysses, [262-295]slide down the dangling rope, with Acamas and Thoas and Neoptolemus son of Peleus, and Machaon firstof all, and Menelaus, and Epeüs himself the artificer of the treachery. They sweep down the city buried in drunken sleep; the watchmen are cutdown, and at the open gates they welcome all their comrades, and unitetheir confederate bands. 

'It was the time when by the gift of God rest comes stealing first andsweetest on unhappy men. In slumber, lo! before mine eyes Hector seemedto stand by, deep in grief and shedding abundant tears; torn by thechariot, as once of old, and black with gory dust, his swoln feetpierced with the thongs. Ah me! in what guise was he! how changed fromthe Hector who returns from putting on Achilles' spoils, or launchingthe fires of Phrygia on the Grecian ships! with ragged beard and tressesclotted with blood, and all the many wounds upon him that he receivedaround his ancestral walls. Myself too weeping I seemed to accost himere he spoke, and utter forth mournful accents: "O light of Dardania, Osurest hope of the Trojans, what long delay is this hath held thee? fromwhat borders comest thou, Hector our desire? with what weary eyes we seethee, after many deaths of thy kin, after divers woes of people andcity! What indignity hath marred thy serene visage? or why discern Ithese wounds?" He replies naught, nor regards my idle questioning; butheavily drawing a heart-deep groan, "Ah, fly, goddess-born, " he says, "and rescue thyself from these flames. The foe holds our walls; from herhigh ridges Troy is toppling down. Thy country and Priam ask no more. IfTroy towers might be defended by strength of hand, this hand too hadbeen their defence. Troy commends to thee her holy things and householdgods; take them to accompany thy fate; seek for them a city, which, after all the seas have known thy wanderings, thou shalt at lastestablish in [296-327]might. " So speaks he, and carries forth in hishands from their inner shrine the chaplets and strength of Vesta, andthe everlasting fire. 

'Meanwhile the city is stirred with mingled agony; and more and more, though my father Anchises' house lay deep withdrawn and screened bytrees, the noises grow clearer and the clash of armour swells. I shakemyself from sleep and mount over the sloping roof, and stand there withears attent: even as when flame catches a corn-field while south windsare furious, or the racing torrent of a mountain stream sweeps thefields, sweeps the smiling crops and labours of the oxen, and hurls theforest with it headlong; the shepherd in witless amaze hears the roarfrom the cliff-top. Then indeed proof is clear, and the treachery of theGrecians opens out. Already the house of Deïphobus hath crashed down inwide ruin amid the overpowering flames; already our neighbour Ucalegonis ablaze: the broad Sigean bay is lit with the fire. Cries of men andblare of trumpets rise up. Madly I seize my arms, nor is there so muchpurpose in arms; but my spirit is on fire to gather a band for fightingand charge for the citadel with my comrades. Fury and wrath drive meheadlong, and I think how noble is death in arms. 

'And lo! Panthus, eluding the Achaean weapons, Panthus son of Othrys, priest of Phoebus in the citadel, comes hurrying with the sacred vesselsand conquered gods and his little grandchild in his hand, and runsdistractedly towards my gates. "How stands the state, O Panthus? whatstronghold are we to occupy?" Scarcely had I said so, when groaning hethus returns: "The crowning day is come, the irreversible time of theDardanian land. No more are we a Trojan people; Ilium and the greatglory of the Teucrians is no more. Angry Jupiter hath cast all into thescale of Argos. The Grecians are lords of the burning [328-362]town. The horse, standing high amid the city, pours forth armed men, and Sinonscatters fire, insolent in victory. Some are at the wide-flung gates, all the thousands that ever came from populous Mycenae. Others havebeset the narrow streets with lowered weapons; edge and glittering pointof steel stand drawn, ready for the slaughter; scarcely at the entry dothe guards of the gates essay battle, and hold out in the blind fight. "

'Heaven's will thus declared by the son of Othrys drives me amid flamesand arms, where the baleful Fury calls, and tumult of shouting rises up. Rhipeus and Epytus, most mighty in arms, join company with me; Hypanisand Dymas meet us in the moonlight and attach themselves to our side, and young Coroebus son of Mygdon. In those days it was he had come toTroy, fired with mad passion for Cassandra, and bore a son's aid toPriam and the Phrygians: hapless, that he listened not to his ravingbride's counsels. . . . Seeing them close-ranked and daring for battle, I therewith began thus: "Men, hearts of supreme and useless bravery, ifyour desire be fixed to follow one who dares the utmost; you see what isthe fortune of our state: all the gods by whom this empire was upheldhave gone forth, abandoning shrine and altar; your aid comes to aburning city. Let us die, and rush on their encircling weapons. Theconquered have one safety, to hope for none. "

'So their spirit is heightened to fury. Then, like wolves ravening in ablack fog, whom mad malice of hunger hath driven blindly forth, andtheir cubs left behind await with throats unslaked; through the weaponsof the enemy we march to certain death, and hold our way straight intothe town. Night's sheltering shadow flutters dark around us. Who mayunfold in speech that night's horror and death-agony, or measure itswoes in weeping? The [363-397]ancient city falls with her long years ofsovereignty; corpses lie stretched stiff all about the streets andhouses and awful courts of the gods. Nor do Teucrians alone pay forfeitof their blood; once and again valour returns even in conquered hearts, and the victorious Grecians fall. Everywhere is cruel agony, everywhereterror, and the sight of death at every turn. 

'First, with a great troop of Grecians attending him, Androgeus meetsus, taking us in ignorance for an allied band, and opens on us withfriendly words: "Hasten, my men; why idly linger so late? others plunderand harry the burning citadel; are you but now on your march from thetall ships?" He spoke, and immediately (for no answer of any assurancewas offered) knew he was fallen among the foe. In amazement, he checkedfoot and voice; even as one who struggling through rough briers hathtrodden a snake on the ground unwarned, and suddenly shrinks flutteringback as it rises in anger and puffs its green throat out; even thusAndrogeus drew away, startled at the sight. We rush in and encircle themwith serried arms, and cut them down dispersedly in their ignorance ofthe ground and seizure of panic. Fortune speeds our first labour. Andhere Coroebus, flushed with success and spirit, cries: "O comrades, follow me where fortune points before us the path of safety, and shewsher favour. Let us exchange shields, and accoutre ourselves in Greciansuits; whether craft or courage, who will ask of an enemy? the foe shallarm our hands. " Thus speaking, he next dons the plumed helmet andbeautifully blazoned shield of Androgeus, and fits the Argive sword tohis side. So does Rhipeus, so Dymas in like wise, and all our men indelight arm themselves one by one in the fresh spoils. We advance, mingling with the Grecians, under a protection not our own, and joinmany a battle [398-432]with those we meet amid the blind night; many aGreek we send down to hell. Some scatter to the ships and run for thesafety of the shore; some in craven fear again climb the huge horse, andhide in the belly they knew. Alas that none may trust at all toestranged gods!

'Lo! Cassandra, maiden daughter of Priam, was being dragged withdisordered tresses from the temple and sanctuary of Minerva, strainingto heaven her blazing eyes in vain; her eyes, for fetters locked herdelicate hands. At this sight Coroebus burst forth infuriate, and flunghimself on death amid their columns. We all follow him up, and chargewith massed arms. Here first from the high temple roof we areoverwhelmed with our own people's weapons, and a most pitiful slaughterbegins through the fashion of our armour and the mistaken Greek crests;then the Grecians, with angry cries at the maiden's rescue, gather fromevery side and fall on us; Ajax in all his valour, and the two sons ofAtreus, and the whole Dolopian army: as oft when bursting in whirlwindWest and South clash with adverse blasts, and the East wind exultant onthe coursers of the Dawn; the forests cry, and fierce in foam Nereuswith his trident stirs the seas from their lowest depth. Those tooappear, whom our stratagem routed through the darkness of dim night anddrove all about the town; at once they know the shields and lyingweapons, and mark the alien tone on our lips. We go down, overwhelmed bynumbers. First Coroebus is stretched by Peneleus' hand at the altar ofthe goddess armipotent; and Rhipeus falls, the one man who was mostrighteous and steadfast in justice among the Teucrians: the gods' waysare not as ours: Hypanis and Dymas perish, pierced by friendly hands;nor did all thy goodness, O Panthus, nor Apollo's fillet protect thyfall. O ashes of Ilium and death flames of my people! you I call towitness that in your ruin I [433-465]shunned no Grecian weapon orencounter, and my hand earned my fall, had destiny been thus. We tearourselves away, I and Iphitus and Pelias, Iphitus now stricken in age, Pelias halting too under the wound of Ulysses, called forward by theclamour to Priam's house. 

'Here indeed the battle is fiercest, as if all the rest of the fightingwere nowhere, and no slaughter but here throughout the city, so do wedescry the war in full fury, the Grecians rushing on the building, andtheir shielded column driving up against the beleaguered threshold. Ladders cling to the walls; and hard by the doors and planted on therungs they hold up their shields in the left hand to ward off ourweapons, and with their right clutch the battlements. The Dardanianstear down turrets and the covering of the house roof against them; withthese for weapons, since they see the end is come, they prepare todefend themselves even in death's extremity: and hurl down gilded beams, the stately decorations of their fathers of old. Others with drawnswords have beset the doorway below and keep it in crowded column. Werenew our courage, to aid the royal dwelling, to support them with oursuccour, and swell the force of the conquered. 

'There was a blind doorway giving passage through the range of Priam'shalls by a solitary postern, whereby, while our realm endured, haplessAndromache would often and often glide unattended to her father-in-law'shouse, and carry the boy Astyanax to his grandsire. I issue out on thesloping height of the ridge, whence wretched Teucrian hands were hurlingtheir ineffectual weapons. A tower stood on the sheer brink, its roofascending high into heaven, whence was wont to be seen all Troy and theGrecian ships and Achaean camp: attacking it with iron round about, where the joints of the lofty flooring yielded, we wrench it from itsdeep foundations and shake it free; it gives way, and [466-498]suddenlyfalls thundering in ruin, crashing wide over the Grecian ranks. Butothers swarm up; nor meanwhile do stones nor any sort of missileslacken. . . . Right before the vestibule and in the front doorwayPyrrhus moves rejoicingly in the sparkle of arms and gleaming brass:like as when a snake fed on poisonous herbs, whom chill winter kept hidand swollen underground, now fresh from his weeds outworn and shining inyouth, wreathes his slippery body into the daylight, his upreared breastmeets the sun, and his triple-cloven tongue flickers in his mouth. Withhim huge Periphas, and Automedon the armour-bearer, driver of Achilles'horses, with him all his Scyrian men climb the roof and hurl flames onthe housetop. Himself among the foremost he grasps a poleaxe, burststhrough the hard doorway, and wrenches the brazen-plated doors from thehinge; and now he hath cut out a plank from the solid oak and pierced avast gaping hole. The house within is open to sight, and the long hallslie plain; open to sight are the secret chambers of Priam and the kingsof old, and they see armed men standing in front of the doorway. 

'But the inner house is stirred with shrieks and misery and confusion, and the court echoes deep with women's wailing; the golden stars aresmitten with the din. Affrighted mothers stray about the vast house, andcling fast to the doors and print them with kisses. With his father'smight Pyrrhus presses on; nor guards nor barriers can hold out. The gatetotters under the hard driven ram, and the doors fall flat, rent fromthe hinge. Force makes way; the Greeks burst through the entrance andpour in, slaughtering the foremost, and filling the space with a widestream of soldiers. Not so furiously when a foaming river bursts hisbanks and overflows, beating down the opposing dykes with whirlingwater, is he borne mounded over the fields, and sweeps herds and[499-529]pens all about the plains. Myself I saw in the gatewayNeoptolemus mad in slaughter, and the two sons of Atreus, saw Hecuba andthe hundred daughters of her house, and Priam polluting with his bloodthe altar fires of his own consecration. The fifty bridal chambers--sogreat was the hope of his children's children--their doors magnificentwith spoils of barbaric gold, have sunk in ruin; where the fire failsthe Greeks are in possession. 

'Perchance too thou mayest inquire what was Priam's fate. When he sawthe ruin of his captured city, the gates of his house burst open, andthe enemy amid his innermost chambers, the old man idly fastens roundhis aged trembling shoulders his long disused armour, girds on theunavailing sword, and advances on his death among the thronging foe. 

'Within the palace and under the bare cope of sky was a massive altar, and hard on the altar an ancient bay tree leaned clasping the householdgods in its shadow. Here Hecuba and her daughters crowded vainly aboutthe altar-stones, like doves driven headlong by a black tempest, andcrouched clasping the gods' images. And when she saw Priam her lord withthe armour of youth on him, "What spirit of madness, my poor husband, "she cries, "hath stirred thee to gird on these weapons? or whither dostthou run? Not such the succour nor these the defenders the timerequires: no, were mine own Hector now beside us. Retire, I beseechthee, hither; this altar will protect us all, or thou wilt share ourdeath. " With these words on her lips she drew the aged man to her, andset him on the holy seat. 

'And lo, escaped from slaughtering Pyrrhus through the weapons of theenemy, Polites, one of Priam's children, flies wounded down the longcolonnades and circles the empty halls. Pyrrhus pursues him fiercelywith aimed [530-563]wound, just catching at him, and follows hard onhim with his spear. As at last he issued before his parents' eyes andfaces, he fell, and shed his life in a pool of blood. At this Priam, although even now fast in the toils of death, yet withheld not norspared a wrathful cry: "Ah, for thy crime, for this thy hardihood, maythe gods, if there is goodness in heaven to care for aught such, paythee in full thy worthy meed, and return thee the reward that is due!who hast made me look face to face on my child's murder, and polluted afather's countenance with death. Ah, not such to a foe was the Achilleswhose parentage thou beliest; but he revered a suppliant's right andtrust, restored to the tomb Hector's pallid corpse, and sent me back tomy realm. " Thus the old man spoke, and launched his weak and unwoundingspear, which, recoiling straight from the jarring brass, hung idly fromhis shield above the boss. Thereat Pyrrhus: "Thou then shalt tell this, and go with the message to my sire the son of Peleus: remember to tellhim of my baleful deeds, and the degeneracy of Neoptolemus. Now die. " Sosaying, he drew him quivering to the very altar, slipping in the pool ofhis child's blood, and wound his left hand in his hair, while in hisright the sword flashed out and plunged to the hilt in his side. Thiswas the end of Priam's fortunes; thus did allotted fate find him, withburning Troy and her sunken towers before his eyes, once magnificentlord over so many peoples and lands of Asia. The great corpse lies alongthe shore, a head severed from the shoulders and a body without a name. 

'But then an awful terror began to encircle me; I stood in amaze; thererose before me the likeness of my loved father, as I saw the king, oldas he, sobbing out his life under the ghastly wound; there rose Creüsaforlorn, my plundered house, and little Iülus' peril. I look back[564-596]and survey what force is around me. All, outwearied, havegiven up and leapt headlong to the ground, or flung themselveswretchedly into the fire:

['Yes, and now I only was left; when I espy the daughter of Tyndarusclose in the courts of Vesta, crouching silently in the fane's recesses;the bright glow of the fires lights my wandering, as my eyes stray allabout. Fearing the Teucrians' anger for the overthrown towers of Troy, and the Grecians' vengeance and the wrath of the husband she hadabandoned, she, the common Fury of Troy and her native country, hadhidden herself and cowered unseen by the altars. My spirit kindles tofire, and rises in wrath to avenge my dying land and take repayment forher crimes. Shall she verily see Sparta and her native Mycenaeunscathed, and depart a queen and triumphant? Shall she see her spousaland her home, her parents and children, attended by a crowd of Trojanwomen and Phrygians to serve her? and Priam have fallen under the sword?Troy blazed in fire? the shore of Dardania so often soaked with blood?Not so. For though there is no name or fame in a woman's punishment, norhonour in the victory, yet shall I have praise in quenching a guiltylife and exacting a just recompense; and it will be good to fill my soulwith the flame of vengeance, and satisfy the ashes of my people. Thusbroke I forth, and advanced infuriate;]

'----When my mother came visibly before me, clear to sight as never tillthen, and shone forth in pure radiance through the night, gracious, evident in godhead, in shape and stature such as she is wont to appearto the heavenly people; she caught me by the hand and stayed me, andpursued thus with roseate lips:

'"Son, what overmastering pain thus wakes thy wrath? Why ravest thou? orwhither is thy care for us fled? Wilt thou not first look to it, wherethou hast left Anchises, [597-630]thine aged worn father; or if Creüsathy wife and the child Ascanius survive? round about whom all the Greekbattalions range; and without my preventing care, the flames ere thishad made them their portion, and the hostile sword drunk their blood. Not the hated face of the Laconian woman, Tyndarus' daughter; not Parisis to blame; the gods, the gods in anger overturn this magnificence, andmake Troy topple down. Look, for all the cloud that now veils thy gazeand dulls mortal vision with damp encircling mist, I will rend frombefore thee. Fear thou no commands of thy mother, nor refuse to obey hercounsels. Here, where thou seest sundered piles of masonry and rocksviolently torn from rocks, and smoke eddying mixed with dust, Neptunewith his great trident shakes wall and foundation out of their places, and upturns all the city from her base. Here Juno in all her terrorholds the Scaean gates at the entry, and, girt with steel, calls herallied army furiously from their ships. . . . Even now on the citadel'sheight, look back! Tritonian Pallas is planted in glittering halo andGorgonian terror. Their lord himself pours courage and prosperousstrength on the Grecians, himself stirs the gods against the arms ofDardania. Haste away, O son, and put an end to the struggle. I willnever desert thee; I will set thee safe in the courts of thy father'shouse. "

'She ended, and plunged in the dense blackness of the night. Awful facesshine forth, and, set against Troy, divine majesties . . . 

'Then indeed I saw all Ilium sinking in flame, and Neptunian Troyuprooted from her base: even as an ancient ash on the mountain heights, hacked all about with steel and fast-falling axes, when husbandmenemulously strain to cut it down: it hangs threateningly, with shaken topand quivering tresses asway; till gradually, overmastered with[631-662]wounds, it utters one last groan, and rending itself away, falls in ruin along the ridge. I descend, and under a god's guidanceclear my way between foe and flame; weapons give ground before me, andflames retire. 

'And now, when I have reached the courts of my ancestral dwelling, ourhome of old, my father, whom it was my first desire to carry high intothe hills, and whom first I sought, declines, now Troy is rooted out, toprolong his life through the pains of exile. 

'"Ah, you, " he cries, "whose blood is at the prime, whose strengthstands firm in native vigour, do you take your flight. . . . Had thelords of heaven willed to prolong life for me, they should havepreserved this my home. Enough and more is the one desolation we haveseen, survivors of a captured city. Thus, oh thus salute me and depart, as a body laid out for burial. Mine own hand shall find me death: thefoe will be merciful and seek my spoils: light is the loss of a tomb. This long time hated of heaven, I uselessly delay the years, since thefather of gods and king of men blasted me with wind of thunder andscathe of flame. "

'Thus held he on in utterance, and remained obstinate. We press him, dissolved in tears, my wife Creüsa, Ascanius, all our household, thatour father involve us not all in his ruin, and add his weight to thesinking scale of doom. He refuses, and keeps seated steadfast in hispurpose. Again I rush to battle, and choose death in my misery. For whathad counsel or chance yet to give? Thoughtest thou my feet, O father, could retire and abandon thee? and fell so unnatural words from aparent's lips? "If heaven wills that naught be left of our mighty city, if this be thy planted purpose, thy pleasure to cast in thyself andthine to the doom of Troy; for this death indeed the gate is wide, andeven now Pyrrhus will be here newly bathed in Priam's [663-695]blood, Pyrrhus who slaughters the son before the father's face, the father uponhis altars. For this was it, bountiful mother, thou dost rescue me amidfire and sword, to see the foe in my inmost chambers, and Ascanius andmy father, Creüsa by their side, hewn down in one another's blood? Myarms, men, bring my arms! the last day calls on the conquered. Return meto the Greeks; let me revisit and renew the fight. Never to-day shall weall perish unavenged. "

'Thereat I again gird on my sword, and fitting my left arm into theclasps of the shield, strode forth of the palace. And lo! my wife clunground my feet on the threshold, and held little Iülus up to his father'ssight. "If thou goest to die, let us too hurry with thee to the end. Butif thou knowest any hope to place in arms, be this household thy firstdefence. To what is little Iülus and thy father, to what am I left whoonce was called thy wife?"

'So she shrieked, and filled all the house with her weeping; when a signarises sudden and marvellous to tell. For, between the hands and beforethe faces of his sorrowing parents, lo! above Iülus' head there seemedto stream a light luminous cone, and a flame whose touch hurt not toflicker in his soft hair and play round his brows. We in a flutter ofaffright shook out the blazing hair and quenched the holy fires withspring water. But lord Anchises joyfully upraised his eyes; andstretching his hands to heaven: "Jupiter omnipotent, " he cries, "if thoudost relent at any prayers, look on us this once alone; and if ourgoodness deserve it, give thine aid hereafter, O lord, and confirm thisthine omen. "

'Scarcely had the aged man spoken thus, when with sudden crash itthundered on the left, and a star gliding through the dusk shot fromheaven drawing a bright trail of light. We watch it slide over thepalace roof, leaving [696-730]the mark of its pathway, and bury itsbrilliance in the wood of Ida; the long drawn track shines, and theregion all about fumes with sulphur. Then conquered indeed my fatherrises to address the gods and worship the holy star. "Now, now delay isdone with: I follow, and where you lead, I come. Gods of my fathers, save my house, save my grandchild. Yours is this omen, and in your deityTroy stands. I yield, O my son, and refuse not to go in thy company. "

'He ended; and now more loudly the fire roars along the city, and theburning tides roll nearer. "Up then, beloved father, and lean on myneck; these shoulders of mine will sustain thee, nor will so dear aburden weigh me down. Howsoever fortune fall, one and undivided shall beour peril, one the escape of us twain. Little Iülus shall go along withme, and my wife follow our steps afar. You of my household, give heed towhat I say. As you leave the city there is a mound and ancient temple ofCeres lonely on it, and hard by an aged cypress, guarded many years inancestral awe: to this resting-place let us gather from diversequarters. Thou, O father, take the sacred things and the household godsof our ancestors in thine hand. For me, just parted from the desperatebattle, with slaughter fresh upon me, to handle them were guilt, until Iwash away in a living stream the soilure. . . . " So spoke I, and spreadover my neck and broad shoulders a tawny lion-skin for covering, andstoop to my burden. Little Iülus, with his hand fast in mine, keepsuneven pace after his father. Behind my wife follows. We pass on in theshadows. And I, lately moved by no weapons launched against me, nor bythe thronging bands of my Grecian foes, am now terrified at everybreath, startled by every noise, thrilling with fear alike for mycompanion and my burden. 

'And now I was nearing the gates, and thought I had [731-764]outspedall the way; when suddenly the crowded trampling of feet came to ourears, and my father, looking forth into the darkness, cries: "My son, myson, fly; they draw near. I espy the gleaming shields and the flicker ofbrass. " At this, in my flurry and confusion, some hostile god bereft meof my senses. For while I plunge down byways, and swerve from where thefamiliar streets ran, Creüsa, alas! whether, torn by fate from herunhappy husband, she stood still, or did she mistake the way, or sinkdown outwearied? I know not; and never again was she given back to oureyes; nor did I turn to look for my lost one, or cast back a thought, ere we were come to ancient Ceres' mound and hallowed seat; here atlast, when all gathered, one was missing, vanished from her child's andher husband's company. What man or god did I spare in franticreproaches? or what crueller sight met me in our city's overthrow? Icharge my comrades with Ascanius and lord Anchises, and the gods ofTeucria, hiding them in the winding vale. Myself I regain the city, girding on my shining armour; fixed to renew every danger, to retrace myway throughout Troy, and fling myself again on its perils. First of allI regain the walls and the dim gateway whence my steps had issued; Iscan and follow back my footprints with searching gaze in the night. Everywhere my spirit shudders, dismayed at the very silence. Thence Ipass on home, if haply her feet (if haply!) had led her thither. TheGrecians had poured in, and filled the palace. The devouring fire goesrolling before the wind high as the roof; the flames tower over it, andthe heat surges up into the air. I move on, and revisit the citadel andPriam's dwelling; where now in the spacious porticoes of Juno'ssanctuary, Phoenix and accursed Ulysses, chosen sentries, were guardingthe spoil. Hither from all quarters is flung in masses the treasure ofTroy torn from burning shrines, [765-798]tables of the gods, bowls ofsolid gold, and raiment of the captives. Boys and cowering mothers inlong file stand round. . . . Yes, and I dared to cry abroad through thedarkness; I filled the streets with calling, and again and yet againwith vain reiterance cried piteously on Creüsa. As I stormed and soughther endlessly among the houses of the town, there rose before mine eyesa melancholy phantom, the ghost of very Creüsa, in likeness larger thanher wont. I was motionless; my hair stood up, and the accents falteredon my tongue. Then she thus addressed me, and with this speech allayedmy distresses: "What help is there in this mad passion of grief, sweetmy husband? not without divine influence does this come to pass: nor mayit be, nor does the high lord of Olympus allow, that thou shouldestcarry Creüsa hence in thy company. Long shall be thine exile, and wearyspaces of sea must thou furrow through; and thou shalt come to the landHesperia, where Lydian Tiber flows with soft current through rich andpopulous fields. There prosperity awaits thee, and a kingdom, and aking's daughter for thy wife. Dispel these tears for thy beloved Creüsa. Never will I look on the proud homes of the Myrmidons or Dolopians, orgo to be the slave of Greek matrons, I a daughter of Dardania, adaughter-in-law of Venus the goddess. . . . But the mighty mother of thegods keeps me in these her borders. And now farewell, and still love thychild and mine. " This speech uttered, while I wept and would have saidmany a thing, she left me and retreated into thin air. Thrice there wasI fain to lay mine arms round her neck; thrice the vision I vainlyclasped fled out of my hands, even as the light breezes, or most like tofluttering sleep. So at last, when night is spent, I revisit mycomrades. 

'And here I find a marvellous great company, newly flocked in, mothersand men, a people gathered for exile, [799-804]a pitiable crowd. Fromall quarters they are assembled, ready in heart and fortune, towhatsoever land I will conduct them overseas. And now the morning starrose over the high ridges of Ida, and led on the day; and the Greciansheld the gateways in leaguer, nor was any hope of help given. Iwithdrew, and raising my father up, I sought the mountain. '

BOOK THIRD

THE STORY OF THE SEVEN YEARS' WANDERING

'After heaven's lords pleased to overthrow the state of Asia and Priam'sguiltless people, and proud Ilium fell, and Neptunian Troy smokes allalong the ground, we are driven by divine omens to seek distant placesof exile in waste lands. Right under Antandros and the mountains ofPhrygian Ida we build a fleet, uncertain whither the fates carry us orwhere a resting-place is given, and gather the people together. Scarcelyhad the first summer set in, when lord Anchises bids us spread our sailsto fortune, and weeping I leave the shores and havens of my country, andthe plains where once was Troy. I sail to sea an exile, with my comradesand son and the gods of household and state. 

'A land of vast plains lies apart, the home of Mavors, in Thraciantillage, and sometime under warrior Lycurgus' reign; friendly of old toTroy, and their gods in alliance while our fortune lasted. Hither Ipass, and on the winding shore I lay under thwarting fates the firstfoundations of a city, and from my own name fashion its name, Aeneadae. 

'I was paying sacrifice to my mother, daughter of Dione, and to all thegods, so to favour the work begun, and slew a shining bull on the shoreto the high lord of [22-54]the heavenly people. Haply there lay a moundhard at hand, crowned with cornel thickets and bristling dense withshafts of myrtle. I drew near; and essaying to tear up the green woodfrom the soil, that I might cover the altar with leafy boughs, I see aportent ominous and wonderful to tell. For from the first tree whoseroots are rent away and broken from the ground, drops of black bloodtrickle, and gore stains the earth. An icy shudder shakes my limbs, andmy blood curdles chill with terror. Yet from another I go on again totear away a tough shoot, fully to fathom its secret; yet from anotherblack blood follows out of the bark. With many searchings of heart Iprayed the woodland nymphs, and lord Gradivus, who rules in the Geticfields, to make the sight propitious as was meet and lighten the omen. But when I assail a third spearshaft with a stronger effort, pullingwith knees pressed against the sand; shall I speak or be silent? frombeneath the mound is heard a pitiable moan, and a voice is uttered to myears: "Woe's me, why rendest thou me, Aeneas? spare me at last in thetomb, spare pollution to thine innocent hands. Troy bore me; not aliento thee am I, nor this blood that oozes from the stem. Ah, fly the cruelland, fly the greedy shore! For I am Polydorus; here the iron harvest ofweapons hath covered my pierced body, and shot up in sharp javelins. "Then indeed, borne down with dubious terror, I was motionless, my hairstood up, and the accents faltered on my tongue. 

'This Polydorus once with great weight of gold had hapless Priam sent insecret to the nurture of the Thracian king, when now he was losing trustin the arms of Dardania, and saw his city leaguered round about. Theking, when the Teucrian power was broken and fortune withdrew, followingAgamemnon's estate and triumphant arms, [55-87]severs every bond ofduty; murders Polydorus, and lays strong hands on the gold. O accursedhunger of gold, to what dost thou not compel human hearts! When theterror left my senses, I lay the divine tokens before the chosen princesof the people, with my father at their head, and demand their judgment. All are of one mind, to leave the guilty land, and abandoning a pollutedhome, to let the gales waft our fleets. So we bury Polydorus anew, andthe earth is heaped high over his mound; altars are reared to his ghost, sad with dusky chaplets and black cypress; and around are the Ilianwomen with hair unbound in their fashion. We offer bubbling bowls ofwarm milk and cups of consecrated blood, and lay the spirit to rest inher tomb, and with loud voice utter the last call. 

'Thereupon, so soon as ocean may be trusted, and the winds leave theseas in quiet, and the soft whispering south wind calls seaward, mycomrades launch their ships and crowd the shores. We put out fromharbour, and lands and towns sink away. There lies in mid sea a holyland, most dear to the mother of the Nereids and Neptune of Aegae, whichstrayed about coast and strand till the Archer god in his affectionchained it fast from high Myconos and Gyaros, and made it lie immoveableand slight the winds. Hither I steer; and it welcomes my weary crew tothe quiet shelter of a safe haven. We disembark and worship Apollo'stown. Anius the king, king at once of the people and priest of Phoebus, his brows garlanded with fillets and consecrated laurel, comes to meetus; he knows Anchises, his friend of old; we clasp hands in welcome, andenter his palace. I worshipped the god's temple, an ancient pile ofstone. "Lord of Thymbra, give us an enduring dwelling-place; grant ahouse and family to thy weary servants, and a city to abide: keep Troy'ssecond fortress, the remnant left of the Grecians and mercilessAchilles. Whom follow [88-121]we? or whither dost thou bid us go, wherefix our seat? Grant an omen, O lord, and inspire our minds. "

'Scarcely had I spoken thus; suddenly all seemed to shake, all thecourts and laurels of the god, the whole hill to be stirred round about, and the cauldron to moan in the opening sanctuary. We sink low on theground, and a voice is borne to our ears: "Stubborn race of Dardanus, the same land that bore you by parentage of old shall receive you againon her bountiful breast. Seek out your ancient mother; hence shall thehouse of Aeneas sway all regions, his children's children and they whoshall be born of them. " Thus Phoebus; and mingled outcries of greatgladness uprose; all ask, what is that city? whither calls Phoebus ourwandering, and bids us return? Then my father, unrolling the records ofmen of old, "Hear, O princes, " says he, "and learn your hopes. In midocean lies Crete, the island of high Jove, wherein is mount Ida, thecradle of our race. An hundred great towns are inhabited in that opulentrealm; from it our forefather Teucer of old, if I recall the talearight, sailed to the Rhoetean coasts and chose a place for his kingdom. Not yet was Ilium nor the towers of Pergama reared; they dwelt in thevalley bottoms. Hence came our Lady, haunter of Cybele, the Corybanticcymbals and the grove of Ida; hence the rites of inviolate secrecy, andthe lions yoked under the chariot of their mistress. Up then, and let usfollow where divine commandments lead; let us appease the winds, andseek the realm of Gnosus. Nor is it a far journey away. Only be Jupiterfavourable, the third day shall bring our fleet to anchor on the Cretancoast. " So spoke he, and slew fit sacrifice on the altars, a bull toNeptune, a bull to thee, fair Apollo, a black sheep to Tempest, a whiteto the prosperous West winds. 

'Rumour flies that Idomeneus the captain is driven [122-154]forth ofhis father's realm, and the shores of Crete are abandoned, that thehouses are void of foes and the dwellings lie empty to our hand. Weleave the harbour of Ortygia, and fly along the main, by the revel-trodridges of Naxos, by green Donusa, Olearos and snow-white Paros, and thesea-strewn Cyclades, threading the racing channels among the crowdedlands. The seamen's clamour rises in emulous dissonance; each cheers hiscomrade: _Seek we Crete and our forefathers. _ A wind rising asternfollows us forth on our way, and we glide at last to the ancientCuretean coast. So I set eagerly to work on the walls of my chosen town, and call it Pergamea, and exhort my people, joyful at the name, tocherish their homes and rear the castle buildings. And even now theships were drawn up on the dry beach; the people were busy in marriagesand among their new fields; I was giving statutes and homesteads; whensuddenly from a tainted space of sky came, noisome on men's bodies andpitiable on trees and crops, pestilence and a year of death. They lefttheir sweet lives or dragged themselves on in misery; Sirius scorchedthe fields into barrenness; the herbage grew dry, and the sickly harvestdenied sustenance. My father counsels to remeasure the sea and go againto Phoebus in his Ortygian oracle, to pray for grace and ask what issuehe ordains to our exhausted state; whence he bids us search for aid toour woes, whither bend our course. 

'Night fell, and sleep held all things living on the earth. The sacredimages of the gods and the household deities of Phrygia, that I hadborne with me from Troy out of the midst of the burning city, seemed tostand before mine eyes as I lay sleepless, clear in the broad lightwhere the full moon poured through the latticed windows; then thusaddressed me, and with this speech allayed my distresses: "What Apollohath to tell thee when thou dost [155-188]reach Ortygia, he uttershere, and sends us unsought to thy threshold. We who followed thee andthine arms when Dardania went down in fire; we who under thee havetraversed on shipboard the swelling sea; we in like wise will exalt toheaven thy children to be, and give empire to their city. Do thouprepare a mighty town for a mighty people, nor draw back from the longwearisome chase. Thou must change thy dwelling. Not to these shores didthe god at Delos counsel thee, or Apollo bid thee find rest in Crete. There is a region Greeks name Hesperia, an ancient land, mighty in armsand foison of the clod; Oenotrian men dwell therein; now rumour is thata younger race have called it Italy after their captain's name. This isour true dwelling place; hence is Dardanus sprung, and lord Iasius, thefirst source of our race. Up, arise, and tell with good cheer to thineaged parent this plain tale, to seek Corythus and the lands of Ausonia. Jupiter denies thee the Dictaean fields. "

'Astonished at this vision and divine utterance (nor was that slumber;but openly I seemed to know their countenances, their veiled hair andgracious faces, and therewith a cold sweat broke out all over me) Ispring from my bed and raise my voice and upturned hands skyward and paypure offering on the hearth. The sacrifice done, I joyfully tellAnchises, and relate all in order. He recognises the double descent andtwofold parentage, and the later wanderings that had deceived him amongancient lands. Then he speaks: "O son, hard wrought by the destinies ofIlium, Cassandra only foretold me this fortune. Now I recall how sheprophesied this was fated to our race, and often cried of Hesperia, often of an Italian realm. But who was to believe that Teucrians shouldcome to Hesperian shores? or whom might Cassandra then move by prophecy?Yield we to Phoebus, and follow the better [189-222]way he counsels. "So says he, and we all rejoicingly obey his speech. This dwellinglikewise we abandon; and leaving some few behind, spread our sails andrun over the waste sea in our hollow wood. 

'After our ships held the high seas, nor any land yet appears, the skyall round us and all round us the deep, a dusky shower drew up overheadcarrying night and tempest, and the wave shuddered and gloomed. Straightway the winds upturn the main, and great seas rise; we aretossed asunder over the dreary gulf. Stormclouds enwrap the day, andrainy gloom blots out the sky; out of the clouds bursts fire fast uponfire. Driven from our course, we go wandering on the blind waves. Palinurus himself professes he cannot tell day from night on the sky, nor remember the way amid the waters. Three dubious days of blinddarkness we wander on the deep, as many nights without a star. Not tillthe fourth day was land at last seen to rise, discovering distant hillsand sending up wreaths of smoke. The sails drop; we swing back to theoars; without delay the sailors strongly toss up the foam, and sweepthrough the green water. The shores of the Strophades first receive methus won from the waves, Strophades the Greek name they bear, islandslying in the great Ionian sea, which boding Celaeno and the otherHarpies inhabit since Phineus' house was shut on them, and they fled interror from the board of old. Than these no deadlier portent nor anyfiercer plague of divine wrath hath issued from the Stygian waters;winged things with maidens' countenance, bellies dropping filth, andclawed hands and faces ever wan with hunger. . . . 

'When borne hitherward we enter the haven, lo! we see goodly herds ofoxen scattered on the plains, and goats flocking untended over thegrass. We attack them with the sword, and call the gods and Jove himselfto share our [223-258]spoil. Then we build seats on the winding shoreand banquet on the dainty food. But suddenly the Harpies are upon us, swooping awfully from the mountains, and shaking their wings with loudclangour, plunder the feast, and defile everything with unclean touch, spreading a foul smell, and uttering dreadful cries. Again, in a deeprecess under a caverned rock, shut in with waving shadows of woodland, we array the board and renew the altar fires; again, from their blindambush in diverse quarters of the sky, the noisy crowd flutter withclawed feet around their prey, defiling the feast with their lips. ThenI bid my comrades take up arms, and proclaim war on the accursed race. Even as I bade they do, range their swords in cover among the grass, andhide their shields out of sight. So when they swooped clamorously downalong the winding shore, Misenus from his watch-tower on high signals onthe hollow brass; my comrades rush in and essay the strange battle, toset the stain of steel on the winged horrors of the sea. But they takeno violence on their plumage, nor wounds on their bodies; and soaringinto the firmament with rapid flight, leave their foul traces on thespoil they had half consumed. Celaeno alone, prophetess of ill, alightson a towering cliff, and thus breaks forth in deep accents:

'"War is it for your slaughtered oxen and steers cut down, O children ofLaomedon, war is it you would declare, and drive the guiltless Harpiesfrom their ancestral kingdom? Take then to heart and fix fast thesewords of mine; which the Lord omnipotent foretold to Phoebus, PhoebusApollo to me, I eldest born of the Furies reveal to you. Italy is yourgoal; wooing the winds you shall go to Italy, and enter her harboursunhindered. Yet shall you not wall round your ordained city, ere thismurderous outrage on us compel you, in portentous hunger, to eat yourtables with gnawing teeth. "

'She spoke, and winged her way back to the shelter of [259-293]thewood. But my comrades' blood froze chill with sudden affright; theirspirits fell; and no longer with arms, nay with vows and prayers theybid me entreat favour, whether these be goddesses, or winged thingsill-ominous and foul. And lord Anchises from the beach calls withoutspread hands on the mighty gods, ordering fit sacrifices: "Gods, avert their menaces! Gods, turn this woe away, and graciously save therighteous!" Then he bids pluck the cable from the shore and shake loosethe sheets. Southern winds stretch the sails; we scud over thefoam-flecked waters, whither wind and pilot called our course. Nowwooded Zacynthos appears amid the waves, and Dulichium and Same andNeritos' sheer rocks. We fly past the cliffs of Ithaca, Laërtes' realm, and curse the land, fostress of cruel Ulysses. Soon too Mount Leucata'scloudy peaks are sighted, and Apollo dreaded of sailors. Hither we steerwearily, and stand in to the little town. The anchor is cast from theprow; the sterns are grounded on the beach. 

'So at last having attained to land beyond our hopes, we purifyourselves in Jove's worship, and kindle altars of offering, and make theActian shore gay with the games of Ilium. My comrades strip, and, slippery with oil, exercise their ancestral contests; glad to have gotpast so many Argive towns, and held on their flight through theencircling foe. Meanwhile the sun rounds the great circle of the year, and icy winter ruffles the waters with Northern gales. I fix against thedoorway a hollow shield of brass, that tall Abas had borne, and mark thestory with a verse: _These arms Aeneas from the conquering Greeks. _ ThenI bid leave the harbour and sit down at the thwarts; emulously mycomrades strike the water, and sweep through the seas. Soon we see thecloud-capped Phaeacian towers sink away, skirt the shores of Epirus, andenter the Chaonian haven and approach high Buthrotum town. 

[294-328]'Here the rumour of a story beyond belief comes on our ears;Helenus son of Priam is reigning over Greek towns, master of the brideand sceptre of Pyrrhus the Aeacid; and Andromache hath again fallen to ahusband of her people. I stood amazed; and my heart kindled withmarvellous desire to accost him and learn of so strange a fortune. Iadvance from the harbour, leaving the fleet ashore; just when haplyAndromache, in a grove before the town, by the waters of a feignedSimoïs, was pouring libation to the dust, and calling Hector's ghost toa tomb with his name, on an empty turfed green with two altars that shehad consecrated, a wellspring of tears. When she caught sight of mecoming, and saw distractedly the encircling arms of Troy, terror-stricken at the vision marvellously shewn, her gaze fixed, andthe heat left her frame. She swoons away, and hardly at last speaksafter long interval: "Comest thou then a real face, a real messenger tome, goddess-born? livest thou? or if sweet light is fled, ah, where isHector?" She spoke, and bursting into tears filled all the place withher crying. Just a few words I force up, and deeply moved gasp out inbroken accents: "I live indeed, I live on through all extremities; doubtnot, for real are the forms thou seest . . . Alas! after such anhusband, what fate receives thy fall? or what worthier fortune revisitsthee? Dost thou, Hector's Andromache, keep bonds of marriage withPyrrhus?" She cast down her countenance, and spoke with lowered voice:

'"O single in happy eminence that maiden daughter of Priam, sentenced todie under high Troy town at an enemy's grave, who never bore the shameof the lot, nor came a captive to her victorious master's bed! We, sailing over alien seas from our burning land, have endured thehaughty youthful pride of Achilles' seed, and borne children inslavery: he thereafter, wooing Leda's Hermione and a Lacedaemonian[329-363]marriage, passed me over to Helenus' keeping, a bondwoman to abondman. But him Orestes, aflame with passionate desire for his stolenbride, and driven by the furies of crime, catches unguarded and murdersat his ancestral altars. At Neoptolemus' death a share of his realm fellto Helenus' hands, who named the plains Chaonian, and called all theland Chaonia after Chaon of Troy, and built withal a Pergama and thisIlian citadel on the hills. But to thee how did winds, how fates givepassage? or whose divinity landed thee all unwitting on our coasts? whatof the boy Ascanius? lives he yet, and draws breath, thy darling, whomTroy's . . . Yet hath the child affection for his lost mother? is heroused to the valour of old and the spirit of manhood by his fatherAeneas, by his uncle Hector?"

'Such words she poured forth weeping, and prolonged the vain wail; whenthe hero Helenus son of Priam approaches from the town with a greatcompany, knows us for his kin, and leads us joyfully to his gates, shedding a many tears at every word. I advance and recognise a littleTroy, and a copy of the great Pergama, and a dry brook with the name ofXanthus, and clasp a Scaean gateway. Therewithal my Teucrians makeholiday in the friendly town. The king entertained them in his spaciouscolonnades; in the central hall they poured goblets of wine in libation, and held the cups while the feast was served on gold. 

'And now a day and another day hath sped; the breezes woo our sails, andthe canvas blows out to the swelling south. With these words I accostthe prophet, and thus make request:

'"Son of Troy, interpreter of the gods, whose sense is open to Phoebus'influences, his tripods and laurels, to stars and tongues of birds andauguries of prosperous flight, tell me now, --for the voice of revelationwas all favourable to my course, and all divine influence counselled meto [364-396]seek Italy and explore remote lands; only Celaeno the Harpyprophesies of strange portents, a horror to tell, and cries out of wrathand bale and foul hunger, --what perils are the first to shun? or in whatguidance may I overcome these sore labours?"

'Hereat Helenus, first suing for divine favour with fit sacrifice ofsteers, and unbinding from his head the chaplets of consecration, leadsme in his hand to thy courts, O Phoebus, thrilled with the fulness ofthe deity, and then utters these prophetic words from his augural lips:

'"Goddess-born: since there is clear assurance that under high omensthou dost voyage through the deep; so the king of the gods allotsdestiny and unfolds change; this is the circle of ordinance; a fewthings out of many I will unfold to thee in speech, that so thou mayestmore safely traverse the seas of thy sojourn, and find rest in theAusonian haven; for Helenus is forbidden by the destinies to know, andby Juno daughter of Saturn to utter more: first of all, the Italy thoudeemest now nigh, and close at hand, unwitting! the harbours thouwouldst enter, far are they sundered by a long and trackless trackthrough length of lands. First must the Trinacrian wave clog thine oar, and thy ships traverse the salt Ausonian plain, by the infernal poolsand Aeaean Circe's isle, ere thou mayest build thy city in safety on apeaceful land. I will tell thee the token, and do thou keep it close inthine heart. When in thy perplexity, beside the wave of a sequesteredriver, a great sow shall be discovered lying under the oaks on thebrink, with her newborn litter of thirty, couched white on the ground, her white brood about her teats; that shall be the place of the city, that the appointed rest from thy toils. Neither shrink thou at the gnawntables that await thee; the fates will find a way, and Apollo aid thycall. These lands moreover, on this nearest border of the Italian shore[397-432]that our own sea's tide washes, flee thou: evil Greeks dwellin all their towns. Here the Locrians of Narycos have set their city, and here Lyctian Idomeneus beset the Sallentine plains with soldiery;here is the town of the Meliboean captain, Philoctetes' little Peteliafenced by her wall. Nay, when thy fleets have crossed overseas and lieat anchor, when now thou rearest altars and payest vows on the beach, veil thine hair with a purple garment for covering, that no hostile faceat thy divine worship may meet thee amid the holy fires and make voidthe omens. This fashion of sacrifice keep thou, thyself and thycomrades, and let thy children abide in this pure observance. But whenat thy departure the wind hath borne thee to the Sicilian coast, and thebarred straits of Pelorus open out, steer for the left-hand country andthe long circuit of the seas on the left hand; shun the shore and wateron thy right. These lands, they say, of old broke asunder, torn andupheaved by vast force, when either country was one and undivided; theocean burst in between, cutting off with its waves the Hesperian fromthe Sicilian coast, and with narrow tide washes tilth and town along theseverance of shore. On the right Scylla keeps guard, on the leftunassuaged Charybdis, who thrice swallows the vast flood sheer down herswirling gulf, and ever again hurls it upward, lashing the sky withwater. But Scylla lies prisoned in her cavern's blind recesses, thrusting forth her mouth and drawing ships upon the rocks. In front herface is human, and her breast fair as a maiden's to the waist down;behind she is a sea-dragon of monstrous frame, with dolphins' tailsjoined on her wolf-girt belly. Better to track the goal of TrinacrianPachynus, lingering and wheeling round through long spaces, than oncecatch sight of misshapen Scylla deep in her dreary cavern, and of therocks that ring to her sea-coloured hounds. Moreover, if[433-466]Helenus hath aught of foresight or his prophecy of assurance, if Apollo fills his spirit with the truth, this one thing, goddess-born, one thing for all will I foretell thee, and again and again repeat mycounsel: to great Juno's deity be thy first prayer and worship; to Junoutter thy willing vows, and overcome thy mighty mistress with gifts andsupplications; so at last thou shalt leave Trinacria behind, and be spedin triumph to the Italian borders. When borne hither thou drawest nighthe Cymaean city, the haunted lakes and rustling woods of Avernus, thoushalt behold the raving prophetess who deep in the rock chants of fate, and marks down her words on leaves. What verses she writes down on them, the maiden sorts into order and shuts behind her in the cave; they stayin their places unstirred and quit not their rank. But when at the turnof the hinge the light wind from the doorway stirs them, and disarrangesthe delicate foliage, never after does she trouble to capture them asthey flutter about the hollow rock, nor restore their places or join theverses; men depart without counsel, and hate the Sibyl's dwelling. Herelet no waste in delay be of such account to thee (though thy companychide, and the passage call thy sails strongly to the deep, and thoumayest fill out their folds to thy desire) that thou do not approach theprophetess, and plead with prayers that she herself utter her oraclesand deign to loose the accents from her lips. The nations of Italy andthe wars to come, and the fashion whereby every toil may be avoided orendured, she shall unfold to thee, and grant her worshipper prosperouspassage. Thus far is our voice allowed to counsel thee: go thy way, andexalt Troy to heaven by thy deeds. "

'This the seer uttered with friendly lips; then orders gifts to becarried to my ships, of heavy gold and sawn ivory, and loads the hullswith massy silver and cauldrons [467-502]of Dodona, a mail coattriple-woven with hooks of gold, and a helmet splendid with spike andtressed plumes, the armour of Neoptolemus. My father too hath his gifts. Horses besides he brings, and grooms . . . Fills up the tale of ouroarsmen, and equips my crews with arms. 

'Meanwhile Anchises bade the fleet set their sails, that the fair windmight meet no delay. Him Phoebus' interpreter accosts with highcourtesy: "Anchises, honoured with the splendour of Venus' espousal, thegods' charge, twice rescued from the fallen towers of Troy, lo! the landof Ausonia is before thee: sail thou and seize it. And yet needs mustthou float past it on the sea; far away lies the quarter of Ausonia thatis revealed of Apollo. Go, " he continues, "happy in thy son's affection:why do I run on further, and delay the rising winds in talk?" Andromachetoo, sad at this last parting, brings figured raiment with woof of gold, and a Phrygian scarf for Ascanius, and wearies not in courtesy, loadinghim with gifts from the loom. "Take these too, " so says she, "my child, to be memorials to thee of my hands, and testify long hence the love ofAndromache wife of Hector. Take these last gifts of thy kinsfolk, O solesurviving likeness to me of my own Astyanax! Such was he, in eyes andhands and features; and now his equal age were growing into manhood likethine. "

'To them as I departed I spoke with starting tears: "Live happily, asthey do whose fortunes are perfected! We are summoned ever from fate tofate. For you there is rest in store, and no ocean floor to furrow, noever-retreating Ausonian fields to pursue. You see a pictured Xanthus, and a Troy your own hands have built; with better omens, I pray, and tobe less open to the Greeks. If ever I enter Tiber and Tiber's borderingfields, and see a city granted to my nation, then of these kindred towns[503-537]and allied peoples in Epirus and Hesperia, which have the sameDardanus for founder, and whose story is one, of both will our heartsmake a single Troy. Let that charge await our posterity. "

'We put out to sea, keeping the Ceraunian mountains close at hand, whence is the shortest passage and seaway to Italy. The sun setsmeanwhile, and the dusky hills grow dim. We choose a place, and flingourselves on the lap of earth at the water's edge, and, allotting theoars, spread ourselves on the dry beach for refreshment: the dew ofslumber falls on our weary limbs. Not yet had Night driven of the Hoursclimbed her mid arch; Palinurus rises lightly from his couch, exploresall the winds, and listens to catch a breeze; he marks theconstellations gliding together through the silent sky, Arcturus, therainy Hyades and the twin Oxen, and scans Orion in his armour of gold. When he sees the clear sky quite unbroken, he gives from the stern hisshrill signal; we disencamp and explore the way, and spread the wings ofour sails. And now reddening Dawn had chased away the stars, when wedescry afar dim hills and the low line of Italy. Achates first raisesthe cry of _Italy_; and with joyous shouts my comrades salute Italy. Then lord Anchises enwreathed a great bowl and filled it up with wine;and called on the gods, standing high astern . . . "Gods sovereign oversea and land and weather! bring wind to ease our way, and breathefavourably. " The breezes freshen at his prayer, and now the harbouropens out nearer at hand, and a temple appears on the Fort of Minerva. My comrades furl the sails and swing the prows to shore. The harbour isscooped into an arch by the Eastern flood; reefs run out and foam withthe salt spray; itself it lies concealed; turreted walls of rock letdown their arms on either hand, and the temple retreats from the beach. Here, an inaugural sight, four horses of snowy [538-570]whiteness aregrazing abroad on the grassy plain. And lord Anchises: "War dost thoucarry, land of our sojourn; horses are armed in war, and menace of waris in this herd. But yet these same beasts are wont in time to enterharness, and carry yoke and bit in concord; there is hope of peace too, "says he. Then we pray to the holy deity, Pallas of the clangorous arms, the first to welcome our cheers. And before the altars we veil our headsin Phrygian garments, and duly, after the counsel Helenus had urgeddeepest on us, pay the bidden burnt-sacrifice to Juno of Argos. 

'Without delay, once our vows are fully paid, we round to the arms ofour sailyards and leave the dwellings and menacing fields of the Grecianpeople. Next is descried the bay of Tarentum, town, if rumour is true, of Hercules. Over against it the goddess of Lacinium rears her head, with the towers of Caulon, and Scylaceum wrecker of ships. ThenTrinacrian Aetna is descried in the distance rising from the waves, andwe hear from afar a great roaring of the sea on beaten rocks, and brokennoises by the shore: the channels boil up, and the surge churns withsand. And lord Anchises: "Of a surety this is that Charybdis; of thesecliffs, these awful rocks did Helenus prophesy. Out, O comrades, andrise together to the oars. " Even as bidden they do; and first Palinurusswung the gurgling prow leftward through the water; to the left all oursquadron bent with oar and wind. We are lifted skyward on the crescentwave, and again sunk deep into the nether world as the water is suckedaway. Thrice amid their rocky caverns the cliffs uttered a cry; thricewe see the foam flung out, and the stars through a dripping veil. Meanwhile the wind falls with sundown; and weary and ignorant of the waywe glide on to the Cyclopes' coast. 

'There lies a harbour large and unstirred by the winds'[571-604]entrance; but nigh it Aetna thunders awfully in wrack, andever and again hurls a black cloud into the sky, smoking with boilingpitch and embers white hot, and heaves balls of flame flickering up tothe stars: ever and again vomits out on high crags from the tornentrails of the mountain, tosses up masses of molten rock with a groan, and boils forth from the bottom. Rumour is that this mass weighs downthe body of Enceladus, half-consumed by the thunderbolt, and mightyAetna laid over him suspires the flame that bursts from her furnaces;and so often as he changes his weary side, all Trinacria shudders andmoans, veiling the sky in smoke. That night we spend in cover of theforest among portentous horrors, and see not from what source the noisecomes. For neither did the stars show their fires, nor was the vault ofconstellated sky clear; but vapours blotted heaven, and the moon washeld in a storm-cloud through dead of night. 

'And now the morrow was rising in the early east, and the dewy darknessrolled away from the sky by Dawn, when sudden out of the forest advancesa human shape strange and unknown, worn with uttermost hunger andpitiably attired, and stretches entreating hands towards the shore. Welook back. Filthy and wretched, with shaggy beard and a coat pinnedtogether with thorns, he was yet a Greek, and had been sent of old toTroy in his father's arms. And he, when he saw afar the Dardanian habitsand armour of Troy, hung back a little in terror at the sight, andstayed his steps; then ran headlong to the shore with weeping andprayers: "By the heavens I beseech you, by the heavenly powers and thisluminous sky that gives us breath, take me up, O Trojans, carry me awayto any land soever, and it will be enough. I know I am one out of theGrecian fleets, I confess I warred against the household gods of Ilium;for that, if our wrong and guilt is so great, throw [605-639]mepiecemeal on the flood or plunge me in the waste sea. If I do perish, gladly will I perish at human hands. " He ended; and clung clasping ourknees and grovelling at them. We encourage him to tell who he is and ofwhat blood born, and reveal how Fortune pursues him since then. LordAnchises after little delay gives him his hand, and strengthens hiscourage by visible pledge. At last, laying aside his terror, he speaksthus:

'"I am from an Ithacan home, Achemenides by name, set out for Troy inluckless Ulysses' company; poor was my father Adamastus, and would Godfortune had stayed thus! Here my comrades abandoned me in the Cyclops'vast cave, mindless of me while they hurry away from the barbarousgates. It is a house of gore and blood-stained feasts, dim and hugewithin. Himself he is great of stature and knocks at the lofty sky(gods, take away a curse like this from earth!) to none gracious inaspect or courteous of speech. He feeds on the flesh and dark blood ofwretched men. I myself saw, when he caught the bodies of two of us withhis great hand, and lying back in the middle of the cave crushed them onthe rock, and the courts splashed and swam with gore; I saw when hechamped the flesh adrip with dark clots of blood, and the warm limbsquivered under his teeth. Yet not unavenged. Ulysses brooked not this, nor even in such straits did the Ithacan forget himself. For so soon ashe, gorged with his feast and buried in wine, lay with bent necksprawling huge over the cave, in his sleep vomiting gore and gobbetsmixed with wine and blood, we, praying to the great gods and with partsallotted, pour at once all round him, and pierce with a sharp weapon thehuge eye that lay sunk single under his savage brow, in fashion of anArgolic shield or the lamp of the moon; and at last we exultingly avengethe ghosts of our comrades. But fly, O wretched men, fly [640-674]andpluck the cable from the beach. . . . For even in the shape and statureof Polyphemus, when he shuts his fleeced flocks and drains their uddersin the cave's covert, an hundred other horrible Cyclopes dwell all aboutthis shore and stray on the mountain heights. Thrice now does the hornedmoon fill out her light, while I linger in life among desolate lairs andhaunts of wild beasts in the woodland, and from a rock survey the giantCyclopes and shudder at their cries and echoing feet. The boughs yield amiserable sustenance, berries and stony sloes, and plants torn up by theroot feed me. Sweeping all the view, I at last espied this fleetstanding in to shore. On it, whatsoever it were, I cast myself; it isenough to have escaped the accursed tribe. Do you rather, by any deathyou will, destroy this life of mine. "

'Scarcely had he spoken thus, when on the mountain top we seeshepherding his flocks a vast moving mass, Polyphemus himself seekingthe shores he knew, a horror ominous, shapeless, huge, bereft of sight. A pine lopped by his hand guides and steadies his footsteps. His fleecedsheep attend him, this his single delight and solace in ill. . . . Afterhe hath touched the deep flood and come to the sea, he washes in it theblood that oozes from his eye-socket, grinding his teeth with groans;and now he strides through the sea up to his middle, nor yet does thewave wet his towering sides. We hurry far away in precipitate flight, with the suppliant who had so well merited rescue; and silently cut thecable, and bending forward sweep the sea with emulous oars. He heard, and turned his steps towards the echoing sound. But when he may in nowise lay hands on us, nor can fathom the Ionian waves in pursuit, heraises a vast cry, at which the sea and all his waves shuddered, and thedeep land of Italy was startled, and Aetna's vaulted caverns moaned. Butthe tribe of the [675-709]Cyclopes, roused from the high wooded hills, run to the harbour and fill the shore. We descry the Aetnean brotherhoodstanding impotent with scowling eye, their stately heads up to heaven, adreadful consistory; even as on a mountain summit stand oaks high in airor coned cypresses, a high forest of Jove or covert of Diana. Sharp fearurges us to shake out the sheets in reckless haste, and spread our sailsto the favouring wind. Yet Helenus' commands counsel that our coursekeep not the way between Scylla and Charybdis, the very edge of death oneither hand. We are resolved to turn our canvas back. And lo! from thenarrow fastness of Pelorus the North wind comes down and reaches us. Isail past Pantagias' mouth with its living stone, the Megarian bay, andlow-lying Thapsus. Such names did Achemenides, of luckless Ulysses'company, point out as he retraced his wanderings along the returningshores. 

'Stretched in front of a bay of Sicily lies an islet over againstwavebeat Plemyrium; they of old called it Ortygia. Hither Alpheus theriver of Elis, so rumour runs, hath cloven a secret passage beneath thesea, and now through thy well-head, Arethusa, mingles with the Sicilianwaves. We adore as bidden the great deities of the ground; and thence Icross the fertile soil of Helorus in the marsh. Next we graze the highreefs and jutting rocks of Pachynus; and far off appears Camarina, forbidden for ever by oracles to move, and the Geloan plains, and vastGela named after its river. Then Acragas on the steep, once the breederof noble horses, displays its massive walls in the distance; and withgranted breeze I leave thee behind, palm-girt Selinus, and thread thedifficult shoals and blind reefs of Lilybaeum. Thereon Drepanum receivesme in its haven and joyless border. Here, so many tempestuous seasoutgone, alas! my father, the solace of every care and chance, Anchisesis [710-718]lost to me. Here thou, dear lord, abandonest me inweariness, alas! rescued in vain from peril and doom. Not Helenus theprophet, though he counselled of many a terror, not boding Celaenoforetold me of this grief. This was the last agony, this the goal of thelong ways; thence it was I had departed when God landed me on yourcoasts. '

Thus lord Aeneas with all attent retold alone the divine doom and thehistory of his goings. At last he was hushed, and here in silence madean end. 

BOOK FOURTH

THE LOVE OF DIDO, AND HER END

But the Queen, long ere now pierced with sore distress, feeds the woundwith her life-blood, and catches the fire unseen. Again and again hisown valiance and his line's renown flood back upon her spirit; look andaccent cling fast in her bosom, and the pain allows not rest or calm toher limbs. The morrow's dawn bore the torch of Phoebus across the earth, and had rolled away the dewy darkness from the sky, when, scarceherself, she thus opens her confidence to her sister:

'Anna, my sister, such dreams of terror thrill me through! What guestunknown is this who hath entered our dwelling? How high his mien! howbrave in heart as in arms! I believe it well, with no vain assurance, his blood is divine. Fear proves the vulgar spirit. Alas, by whatdestinies is he driven! what wars outgone he chronicled! Were my mindnot planted, fixed and immoveable, to ally myself to none in wedlocksince my love of old was false to me in the treachery of death; were Inot sick to the heart of bridal torch and chamber, to this temptationalone I might haply yield. Anna, I will confess it; since Sychaeus minehusband met his piteous doom, and our household was shattered by abrother's murder, he only hath [22-55]touched mine heart and stirredthe balance of my soul. I know the prints of the ancient flame. Butrather, I pray, may earth first yawn deep for me, or the Lord omnipotenthurl me with his thunderbolt into gloom, the pallid gloom and profoundnight of Erebus, ere I soil thee, mine honour, or unloose thy laws. Hetook my love away who made me one with him long ago; he shall keep itwith him, and guard it in the tomb. ' She spoke, and welling tears filledthe bosom of her gown. 

Anna replies: 'O dearer than the daylight to thy sister, wilt thouwaste, sad and alone, all thy length of youth, and know not thesweetness of motherhood, nor love's bounty? Deemest thou the ashes carefor that, or the ghost within the tomb? Be it so: in days gone by nowooers bent thy sorrow, not in Libya, not ere then in Tyre; Iarbas wasslighted, and other princes nurtured by the triumphal land of Africa;wilt thou contend so with a love to thy liking? nor does it cross thymind whose are these fields about thy dwelling? On this side are theGaetulian towns, a race unconquerable in war; the reinless Numidianriders and the grim Syrtis hem thee in; on this lies a thirsty tract ofdesert, swept by the raiders of Barca. Why speak of the war gatheringfrom Tyre, and thy brother's menaces? . . . With gods' auspices to mythinking, and with Juno's favour, hath the Ilian fleet held on hitherbefore the gale. What a city wilt thou discern here, O sister! what arealm will rise on such a union! the arms of Troy ranged with ours, whatglory will exalt the Punic state! Do thou only, asking divine favourwith peace-offerings, be bounteous in welcome and draw out reasons fordelay, while the storm rages at sea and Orion is wet, and his ships areshattered and the sky unvoyageable. ' With these words she made the fireof love flame up in her spirit, put hope in her wavering soul, and lethonour slip away. 

[56-90]First they visit the shrines, and desire grace from altar toaltar; they sacrifice sheep fitly chosen to Ceres the Lawgiver, toPhoebus and lord Lyaeus, to Juno before all, guardian of the marriagebond. Dido herself, excellent in beauty, holds the cup in her hand, andpours libation between the horns of a milk-white cow, or moves in stateto the rich altars before the gods' presences, day by day renewing hergifts, and gazing athirst into the breasts of cattle laid open to takecounsel from the throbbing entrails. Ah, witless souls of soothsayers!how may vows or shrines help her madness? all the while the subtle flameconsumes her inly, and deep in her breast the wound is silent and alive. Stung to misery, Dido wanders in frenzy all down the city, even as anarrow-stricken deer, whom, far and heedless amid the Cretan woodland, ashepherd archer hath pierced and left the flying steel in her unaware;she ranges in flight the Dictaean forest lawns; fast in her side clingsthe deadly reed. Now she leads Aeneas with her through the town, anddisplays her Sidonian treasure and ordered city; she essays to speak, and breaks off half-way in utterance. Now, as day wanes, she seeks therepeated banquet, and again madly pleads to hear the agonies of Ilium, and again hangs on the teller's lips. Thereafter, when all are gonetheir ways, and the dim moon in turn quenches her light, and the settingstars counsel to sleep, alone in the empty house she mourns, and flingsherself on the couch he left: distant she hears and sees him in thedistance; or enthralled by the look he has of his father, she holdsAscanius on her lap, if so she may steal the love she may not utter. Nomore do the unfinished towers rise, no more do the people exercise inarms, nor work for safety in war on harbour or bastion; the works hangbroken off, vast looming walls and engines towering into the sky. 

So soon as she perceives her thus fast in the toils, and [91-124]madlycareless of her name, Jove's beloved wife, daughter of Saturn, accostsVenus thus:

'Noble indeed is the fame and splendid the spoils you win, thou and thatboy of thine, and mighty the renown of deity, if two gods havevanquished one woman by treachery. Nor am I so blind to thy terror ofour town, thine old suspicion of the high house of Carthage. But whatshall be the end? or why all this contest now? Nay, rather let us workan enduring peace and a bridal compact. Thou hast what all thy souldesired; Dido is on fire with love, and hath caught the madness throughand through. Then rule we this people jointly in equal lordship; allowher to be a Phrygian husband's slave, and to lay her Tyrians for dowryin thine hand. '

To her--for she knew the dissembled purpose of her words, to turn theTeucrian kingdom away to the coasts of Libya--Venus thus began inanswer: 'Who so mad as to reject these terms, or choose rather to trythe fortune of war with thee? if only when done, as thou sayest, fortunefollow. But I move in uncertainty of Jove's ordinance, whether he willthat Tyrians and wanderers from Troy be one city, or approve themingling of peoples and the treaty of union. Thou art his wife, and thyprayers may essay his soul. Go on; I will follow. '

Then Queen Juno thus rejoined: 'That task shall be mine. Now, by whatmeans the present need may be fulfilled, attend and I will explain inbrief. Aeneas and Dido (alas and woe for her!) are to go huntingtogether in the woodland when to-morrow's rising sun goes forth and hisrays unveil the world. On them, while the beaters run up and down, andthe lawns are girt with toils, will I pour down a blackening rain-cloudmingled with hail, and startle all the sky in thunder. Their companywill scatter for shelter in the dim darkness; Dido and the Trojancaptain [125-159]shall take refuge in the same cavern. I will be there, and if thy goodwill is assured me, I will unite them in wedlock, andmake her wholly his; here shall Hymen be present. ' The Cytherean gaveready assent to her request, and laughed at the wily invention. 

Meanwhile Dawn rises forth of ocean. A chosen company issue from thegates while the morning star is high; they pour forth with meshed nets, toils, broad-headed hunting spears, Massylian horsemen and sinewysleuth-hounds. At her doorway the chief of Carthage await their queen, who yet lingers in her chamber, and her horse stands splendid in goldand purple with clattering feet and jaws champing on the foamy bit. Atlast she comes forth amid a great thronging train, girt in a Sidonianmantle, broidered with needlework; her quiver is of gold, her tressesknotted into gold, a golden buckle clasps up her crimson gown. Therewithal the Phrygian train advances with joyous Iülus. Himself firstand foremost of all, Aeneas joins her company and unites his party tohers: even as Apollo, when he leaves wintry Lycia and the streams ofXanthus to visit his mother's Delos, and renews the dance, while Cretansand Dryopes and painted Agathyrsians mingle clamorous about his altars:himself he treads the Cynthian ridges, and plaits his flowing hair withsoft heavy sprays and entwines it with gold; the arrows rattle on hisshoulder: as lightly as he went Aeneas; such glow and beauty is on hisprincely face. When they are come to the mountain heights and pathlesscoverts, lo, wild goats driven from the cliff-tops run down the ridge;in another quarter stags speed over the open plain and gather theirflying column in a cloud of dust as they leave the hills. But the boyAscanius is in the valleys, exultant on his fiery horse, and gallopspast one and another, praying that among the unwarlike herds a foamingboar may issue or a tawny lion descend the hill. 

[160-194]Meanwhile the sky begins to thicken and roar aloud. Arain-cloud comes down mingled with hail; the Tyrian train and the men ofTroy, and the Dardanian boy of Venus' son scatter in fear, and seekshelter far over the fields. Streams pour from the hills. Dido and theTrojan captain take refuge in the same cavern. Primeval Earth and Junothe bridesmaid give the sign; fires flash out high in air, witnessingthe union, and Nymphs cry aloud on the mountain-top. That day opened thegate of death and the springs of ill. For now Dido recks not of eye ortongue, nor sets her heart on love in secret: she calls it marriage, andwith this name veils her fall. 

Straightway Rumour runs through the great cities of Libya, --Rumour, thanwhom none other is more swift to mischief; she thrives on restlessnessand gains strength by going: at first small and timorous; soon she liftsherself on high and paces the ground with head hidden among the clouds. Her, one saith, Mother Earth, when stung by wrath against the gods, borelast sister to Coeus and Enceladus, fleet-footed and swift of wing, ominous, awful, vast; for every feather on her body is a waking eyebeneath, wonderful to tell, and a tongue, and as many loud lips andstraining ears. By night she flits between sky and land, shrillingthrough the dusk, and droops not her lids in sweet slumber; in daylightshe sits on guard upon tall towers or the ridge of the house-roof, andmakes great cities afraid; obstinate in perverseness and forgery no lessthan messenger of truth. She then exultingly filled the countries withmanifold talk, and blazoned alike what was done and undone: one Aeneasis come, born of Trojan blood; on him beautiful Dido thinks no shame tofling herself; now they hold their winter, long-drawn through mutualcaresses, regardless of their realms and enthralled by passionatedishonour. This the pestilent goddess [195-227]spreads abroad in themouths of men, and bends her course right on to King Iarbas, and withher words fires his spirit and swells his wrath. 

He, the seed of Ammon by a ravished Garamantian Nymph, had built to Jovein his wide realms an hundred great temples, an hundred altars, andconsecrated the wakeful fire that keeps watch by night before the godsperpetually, where the soil is fat with blood of beasts and the courtsblossom with pied garlands. And he, distracted and on fire at the bittertidings, before his altars, amid the divine presences, often, it issaid, bowed in prayer to Jove with uplifted hands:

'Jupiter omnipotent, to whom from the broidered cushions of theirbanqueting halls the Maurusian people now pour Lenaean offering, lookestthou on this? or do we shudder vainly when our father hurls thethunderbolt, and do blind fires in the clouds and idle rumblings appalour soul? The woman who, wandering in our coasts, planted a small townon purchased ground, to whom we gave fields by the shore and laws ofsettlement, she hath spurned our alliance and taken Aeneas for lord ofher realm. And now that Paris, with his effeminate crew, his chin andoozy hair swathed in the turban of Maeonia, takes and keeps her; sinceto thy temples we bear oblation, and hallow an empty name. '

In such words he pleaded, clasping the altars; the Lord omnipotentheard, and cast his eye on the royal city and the lovers forgetful oftheir fairer fame. Then he addresses this charge to Mercury:

'Up and away, O son! call the breezes and slide down them on thy wings:accost the Dardanian captain who now loiters in Tyrian Carthage andcasts not a look on destined cities; carry down my words through thefleet air. Not such an one did his mother most beautiful vouch him to[228-264]us, nor for this twice rescue him from Grecian arms; but hewas to rule an Italy teeming with empire and loud with war, to transmitthe line of Teucer's royal blood, and lay all the world beneath his law. If such glories kindle him in nowise, and he take no trouble for his ownhonour, does a father grudge his Ascanius the towers of Rome? with whatdevice or in what hope loiters he among a hostile race, and casts not aglance on his Ausonian children and the fields of Lavinium? Let him setsail: this is the sum: thereof be thou our messenger. '

He ended: his son made ready to obey his high command. And first helaces to his feet the shoes of gold that bear him high winging over seasor land as fleet as the gale; then takes the rod wherewith he calls wansouls forth of Orcus, or sends them again to the sad depth of hell, gives sleep and takes it away and unseals dead eyes; in whose strengthhe courses the winds and swims across the tossing clouds. And now inflight he descries the peak and steep sides of toiling Atlas, whosecrest sustains the sky; Atlas, whose pine-clad head is girt alway withblack clouds and beaten by wind and rain; snow is shed over hisshoulders for covering; rivers tumble over his aged chin; and his roughbeard is stiff with ice. Here the Cyllenian, poised evenly on his wings, made a first stay; hence he shot himself sheer to the water. Like a birdthat flies low, skirting the sea about the craggy shores of its fishery, even thus the brood of Cyllene left his mother's father, and flew, cutting the winds between sky and land, along the sandy Libyan shore. Sosoon as his winged feet reached the settlement, he espies Aeneasfounding towers and ordering new dwellings; his sword twinkled withyellow jasper, and a cloak hung from his shoulders ablaze with Tyriansea-purple, a gift that Dido had made costly and shot the warp with thingold. Straightway [265-299]he breaks in: 'Layest thou now thefoundations of tall Carthage, and buildest up a fair city in dalliance?ah, forgetful of thine own kingdom and state! From bright Olympus Idescend to thee at express command of heaven's sovereign, whose deitysways sky and earth; expressly he bids me carry this charge through thefleet air: with what device or in what hope dost thou loiter idly onLibyan lands? if such glories kindle thee in nowise, yet cast an eye ongrowing Ascanius, on Iülus thine hope and heir, to whom the kingdom ofItaly and the Roman land are due. ' As these words left his lips theCyllenian, yet speaking, quitted mortal sight and vanished into thin airaway out of his eyes. 

But Aeneas in truth gazed in dumb amazement, his hair thrilled up, andthe accents faltered on his tongue. He burns to flee away and leave thepleasant land, aghast at the high warning and divine ordinance. Alas, what shall he do? how venture to smooth the tale to the frenzied queen?what prologue shall he find? and this way and that he rapidly throws hismind, and turns it on all hands in swift change of thought. In hisperplexity this seemed the better counsel; he calls Mnestheus andSergestus, and brave Serestus, and bids them silently equip the fleet, gather their crews on shore, and order their armament, keeping the causeof the commotion hid; himself meanwhile, since Dido the gracious knowsnot nor looks for severance to so strong a love, will essay to approachher when she may be told most gently, and the way for it be fair. All atonce gladly do as bidden, and obey his command. 

But the Queen--who may delude a lover?--foreknew his devices, and atonce caught the presaging stir. Safety's self was fear; to her likewisehad evil Rumour borne the maddening news that they equip the fleet andprepare [300-334]for passage. Helpless at heart, she reels aflame withrage throughout the city, even as the startled Thyiad in her frenziedtriennial orgies, when the holy vessels move forth and the cry ofBacchus re-echoes, and Cithaeron calls her with nightlong din. Thus atlast she opens out upon Aeneas:

'And thou didst hope, traitor, to mask the crime, and slip away insilence from my land? Our love holds thee not, nor the hand thou oncegavest, nor the bitter death that is left for Dido's portion? Nay, underthe wintry star thou labourest on thy fleet, and hastenest to launchinto the deep amid northern gales; ah, cruel! Why, were thy quest not ofalien fields and unknown dwellings, did thine ancient Troy remain, should Troy be sought in voyages over tossing seas? Fliest thou from me?me who by these tears and thine own hand beseech thee, since naughtelse, alas! have I kept mine own--by our union and the marriage ritespreparing; if I have done thee any grace, or aught of mine hath oncebeen sweet in thy sight, --pity our sinking house, and if there yet beroom for prayers, put off this purpose of thine. For thy sake Libyantribes and Nomad kings are hostile; my Tyrians are estranged; for thysake, thine, is mine honour perished, and the former fame, my one titleto the skies. How leavest thou me to die, O my guest? since to this thename of husband is dwindled down. For what do I wait? till Pygmalionoverthrow his sister's city, or Gaetulian Iarbas lead me to captivity?At least if before thy flight a child of thine had been clasped in myarms, --if a tiny Aeneas were playing in my hall, whose face might yetimage thine, --I would not think myself ensnared and deserted utterly. '

She ended; he by counsel of Jove held his gaze unstirred, and kept hisdistress hard down in his heart. At last he briefly answers:

'Never, O Queen, will I deny that thy goodness hath [335-368]gone highas thy words can swell the reckoning; nor will my memory of Elissa beungracious while I remember myself, and breath sways this body. Littlewill I say in this. I never hoped to slip away in stealthy flight; fancynot that; nor did I ever hold out the marriage torch or enter thus intoalliance. Did fate allow me to guide my life by mine own government, andcalm my sorrows as I would, my first duty were to the Trojan city andthe dear remnant of my kindred; the high house of Priam should abide, and my hand had set up Troy towers anew for a conquered people. But nowfor broad Italy hath Apollo of Grynos bidden me steer, for Italy theoracles of Lycia. Here is my desire; this is my native country. If thyPhoenician eyes are stayed on Carthage towers and thy Libyan city, whatwrong is it, I pray, that we Trojans find our rest on Ausonian land? Wetoo may seek a foreign realm unforbidden. In my sleep, often as the dankshades of night veil the earth, often as the stars lift their fires, thetroubled phantom of my father Anchises comes in warning and dread; myboy Ascanius, how I wrong one so dear in cheating him of an Hesperiankingdom and destined fields. Now even the gods' interpreter, sentstraight from Jove--I call both to witness--hath borne down his commandsthrough the fleet air. Myself in broad daylight I saw the deity passingwithin the walls, and these ears drank his utterance. Cease to madden meand thyself alike with plaints. Not of my will do I follow Italy. . . . '

Long ere he ended she gazes on him askance, turning her eyes from sideto side and perusing him with silent glances; then thus wrathfullyspeaks:

'No goddess was thy mother, nor Dardanus founder of thy line, traitor!but rough Caucasus bore thee on his iron crags, and Hyrcanian tigressesgave thee suck. For why do I conceal it? For what further outrage do Iwait? [369-400]Hath our weeping cost him a sigh, or a lowered glance?Hath he broken into tears, or had pity on his lover? Where, where shallI begin? Now neither doth Queen Juno nor our Saturnian lord regard uswith righteous eyes. Nowhere is trust safe. Cast ashore and destitute Iwelcomed him, and madly gave him place and portion in my kingdom; Ifound him his lost fleet and drew his crews from death. Alas, the fireof madness speeds me on. Now prophetic Apollo, now oracles of Lycia, nowthe very gods' interpreter sent straight from Jove through the aircarries these rude commands! Truly that is work for the gods, that acare to vex their peace! I detain thee not, nor gainsay thy words: go, follow thine Italy down the wind; seek thy realm overseas. Yet midway myhope is, if righteous gods can do aught at all, thou wilt drain the cupof vengeance on the rocks, and re-echo calls on Dido's name. In murkyfires I will follow far away, and when chill death hath severed bodyfrom soul, my ghost will haunt thee in every region. Wretch, thou shaltrepay! I will hear; and the rumour of it shall reach me deep in theunder world. '

Even on these words she breaks off her speech unfinished, and, sick atheart, escapes out of the air and sweeps round and away out of sight, leaving him in fear and much hesitance, and with much on his mind tosay. Her women catch her in their arms, and carry her swooning to hermarble chamber and lay her on her bed. 

But good Aeneas, though he would fain soothe and comfort her grief, andtalk away her distress, with many a sigh, and melted in soul by hisgreat love, yet fulfils the divine commands and returns to his fleet. Then indeed the Teucrians set to work, and haul down their tall shipsall along the shore. The hulls are oiled and afloat; they carry from thewoodland green boughs for oars and massy logs unhewn, in hot haste togo. . . . One might descry them shifting [401-433]their quarters andpouring out of all the town: even as ants, mindful of winter, plunder agreat heap of wheat and store it in their house; a black column advanceson the plain as they carry home their spoil on a narrow track throughthe grass. Some shove and strain with their shoulders at big grains, some marshal the ranks and chastise delay; all the path is aswarm withwork. What then were thy thoughts, O Dido, as thou sawest it? What sighsdidst thou utter, viewing from the fortress roof the broad beach aswarm, and seeing before thine eyes the whole sea stirred with their noisy din?Injurious Love, to what dost thou not compel mortal hearts! Again, shemust needs break into tears, again essay entreaty, and bow her spiritdown to love, not to leave aught untried and go to death in vain. 

'Anna, thou seest the bustle that fills the shore. They have gatheredround from every quarter; already their canvas woos the breezes, and themerry sailors have garlanded the sterns. This great pain, my sister, Ishall have strength to bear, as I have had strength to foresee. Yet thisone thing, Anna, for love and pity's sake--for of thee alone was thetraitor fain, to thee even his secret thoughts were confided, alone thouknewest his moods and tender fits--go, my sister, and humbly accost thehaughty stranger: I did not take the Grecian oath in Aulis to root outthe race of Troy; I sent no fleet against her fortresses; neither have Idisentombed his father Anchises' ashes and ghost, that he should refusemy words entrance to his stubborn ears. Whither does he run? let himgrant this grace--alas, the last!--to his lover, and await fair windsand an easy passage. No more do I pray for the old delusive marriage, nor that he give up fair Latium and abandon a kingdom. A breathing-spaceI ask, to give my madness rest and room, till my very [434-469]fortuneteach my grief submission. This last favour I implore: sister, bepitiful; grant this to me, and I will restore it in full measure when Idie. '

So she pleaded, and so her sister carries and recarries the piteous taleof weeping. But by no weeping is he stirred, inflexible to all the wordshe hears. Fate withstands, and lays divine bars on unmoved mortal ears. Even as when the eddying blasts of northern Alpine winds are emulous touproot the secular strength of a mighty oak, it wails on, and the trunkquivers and the high foliage strews the ground; the tree clings fast onthe rocks, and high as her top soars into heaven, so deep strike herroots to hell; even thus is the hero buffeted with changeful perpetualaccents, and distress thrills his mighty breast, while his purpose staysunstirred, and tears fall in vain. 

Then indeed, hapless and dismayed by doom, Dido prays for death, and isweary of gazing on the arch of heaven. The more to make her fulfil herpurpose and quit the light, she saw, when she laid her gifts on thealtars alight with incense, awful to tell, the holy streams blacken, andthe wine turn as it poured into ghastly blood. Of this sight she spoketo none--no, not to her sister. Likewise there was within the house amarble temple of her ancient lord, kept of her in marvellous honour, andfastened with snowy fleeces and festal boughs. Forth of it she seemed tohear her husband's voice crying and calling when night was dim uponearth, and alone on the house-tops the screech-owl often made moan withfuneral note and long-drawn sobbing cry. Therewithal many a warning ofwizards of old terrifies her with appalling presage. In her sleep fierceAeneas drives her wildly, and ever she seems being left by herselfalone, ever going uncompanioned on a weary way, and seeking her Tyriansin a solitary land: even as frantic Pentheus sees the [470-503]arrayedFuries and a double sun, and Thebes shows herself twofold to his eyes:or Agamemnonian Orestes, renowned in tragedy, when his mother pursueshim armed with torches and dark serpents, and the Fatal Sisters crouchavenging in the doorway. 

So when, overcome by her pangs, she caught the madness and resolved todie, she works out secretly the time and fashion, and accosts hersorrowing sister with mien hiding her design and hope calm on her brow. 

'I have found a way, mine own--wish me joy, sisterlike--to restore himto me or release me of my love for him. Hard by the ocean limit and theset of sun is the extreme Aethiopian land, where ancient Atlas turns onhis shoulders the starred burning axletree of heaven. Out of it hathbeen shown to me a priestess of Massylian race, warder of the temple ofthe Hesperides, even she who gave the dragon his food, and kept the holyboughs on the tree, sprinkling clammy honey and slumberous poppy-seed. She professes with her spells to relax the purposes of whom she will, but on others to bring passion and pain; to stay the river-waters andturn the stars backward: she calls up ghosts by night; thou shalt seeearth moaning under foot and mountain-ashes descending from the hills. Itake heaven, sweet, to witness, and thee, mine own darling sister, I donot willingly arm myself with the arts of magic. Do thou secretly raisea pyre in the inner court, and let them lay on it the arms that theaccursed one left hanging in our chamber, and all the dress he wore, andthe bridal bed where I fell. It is good to wipe out all the wretch'straces, and the priestess orders thus. ' So speaks she, and is silent, while pallor overruns her face. Yet Anna deems not her sister veilsdeath behind these strange rites, and grasps not her wild purpose, norfears aught deeper than at Sychaeus' death. So she makes ready asbidden. . . . 

[504-538]But the Queen, the pyre being built up of piled faggots andsawn ilex in the inmost of her dwelling, hangs the room with chapletsand garlands it with funeral boughs: on the pillow she lays the dress hewore, the sword he left, and an image of him, knowing what was to come. Altars are reared around, and the priestess, with hair undone, thricepeals from her lips the hundred gods of Erebus and Chaos, and thetriform Hecate, the triple-faced maidenhood of Diana. Likewise she hadsprinkled pretended waters of Avernus' spring, and rank herbs are soughtmown by moonlight with brazen sickles, dark with milky venom, and soughtis the talisman torn from a horse's forehead at birth ere the dam couldsnatch it. . . . Herself, the holy cake in her pure hands, hard by thealtars, with one foot unshod and garments flowing loose, she invokes thegods ere she die, and the stars that know of doom; then prays towhatsoever deity looks in righteousness and remembrance on lovers illallied. 

Night fell; weary creatures took quiet slumber all over earth, andwoodland and wild waters had sunk to rest; now the stars wheel midway ontheir gliding path, now all the country is silent, and beasts and gaybirds that haunt liquid levels of lake or thorny rustic thicket laycouched asleep under the still night. But not so the distressedPhoenician, nor does she ever sink asleep or take the night upon eyes orbreast; her pain redoubles, and her love swells to renewed madness, asshe tosses on the strong tide of wrath. Even so she begins, and thusrevolves with her heart alone:

'See, what do I? Shall I again make trial of mine old wooers that willscorn me? and stoop to sue for a Numidian marriage among those whomalready over and over I have disdained for husbands? Then shall I followthe Ilian fleets and the uttermost bidding of the Teucrians? because itis good to think they were once raised up by my [539-570]succour, orthe grace of mine old kindness is fresh in their remembrance? And howshould they let me, if I would? or take the odious woman on theirhaughty ships? art thou ignorant, ah me, even in ruin, and knowest notyet the forsworn race of Laomedon? And then? shall I accompany thetriumphant sailors, a lonely fugitive? or plunge forth girt with all myTyrian train? so hardly severed from Sidon city, shall I again drivethem seaward, and bid them spread their sails to the tempest? Nay diethou, as thou deservest, and let the steel end thy pain. With thee itbegan; overborne by my tears, thou, O my sister, dost load me with thismadness and agony, and layest me open to the enemy. I could not spend awild life without stain, far from a bridal chamber, and free from touchof distress like this! O faith ill kept, that was plighted to Sychaeus'ashes!' Thus her heart broke in long lamentation. 

Now Aeneas was fixed to go, and now, with all set duly in order, wastaking hasty sleep on his high stern. To him as he slept the godappeared once again in the same fashion of countenance, and thus seemedto renew his warning, in all points like to Mercury, voice and hue andgolden hair and limbs gracious in youth. 'Goddess-born, canst thou sleepon in such danger? and seest not the coming perils that hem thee in, madman! nor hearest the breezes blowing fair? She, fixed on death, isrevolving craft and crime grimly in her bosom, and swells the changingsurge of wrath. Fliest thou not hence headlong, while headlong flight isyet possible? Even now wilt thou see ocean weltering with brokentimbers, see the fierce glare of torches and the beach in a riot offlame, if dawn break on thee yet dallying in this land. Up ho! linger nomore! Woman is ever a fickle and changing thing. ' So spoke he, andmelted in the black night. 

[571-603]Then indeed Aeneas, startled by the sudden phantom, leaps outof slumber and bestirs his crew. 'Haste and awake, O men, and sit downto the thwarts; shake out sail speedily. A god sent from high heaven, lo! again spurs us to speed our flight and cut the twisted cables. Wefollow thee, holy one of heaven, whoso thou art, and again joyfully obeythy command. O be favourable; give gracious aid and bring fair sky andweather. ' He spoke, and snatching his sword like lightning from thesheath, strikes at the hawser with the drawn steel. The same zealcatches all at once; rushing and tearing they quit the shore; the sea ishidden under their fleets; strongly they toss up the foam and sweep theblue water. 

And now Dawn broke, and, leaving the saffron bed of Tithonus, shed herradiance anew over the world; when the Queen saw from her watch-towerthe first light whitening, and the fleet standing out under squaredsail, and discerned shore and haven empty of all their oarsmen. Thriceand four times she struck her hand on her lovely breast and rent heryellow hair: 'God!' she cries, 'shall he go? shall an alien make mock ofour realm? Will they not issue in armed pursuit from all the city, andsome launch ships from the dockyards? Go; bring fire in haste, serveweapons, swing out the oars! What do I talk? or where am I? what madchange is on my purpose? Alas, Dido! now thou dost feel thy wickedness;that had graced thee once, when thou gavest away thy crown. Behold thefaith and hand of him! who, they say, carries his household's ancestralgods about with him! who stooped his shoulders to a father outworn withage! Could I not have riven his body in sunder and strewn it on thewaves? and slain with the sword his comrades and his dear Ascanius, andserved him for the banquet at his father's table? But the chance ofbattle had been dubious. If it had! whom did I fear [604-635]with mydeath upon me? I should have borne firebrands into his camp and filledhis decks with flame, blotted out father and son and race together, andflung myself atop of all. Sun, whose fires lighten all the works of theworld, and thou, Juno, mediatress and witness of these my distresses, and Hecate, cried on by night in crossways of cities, and you, fatalavenging sisters and gods of dying Elissa, hear me now; bend your justdeity to my woes, and listen to our prayers. If it must needs be thatthe accursed one touch his haven and float up to land, if thus Jove'sdecrees demand, and this is the appointed term, --yet, distressed in warby an armed and gallant nation, driven homeless from his borders, rentfrom Iülus' embrace, let him sue for succour and see death on deathuntimely on his people; nor when he hath yielded him to the terms of aharsh peace, may he have joy of his kingdom or the pleasant light; butlet him fall before his day and without burial on a waste of sand. ThisI pray; this and my blood with it I pour for the last utterance. Andyou, O Tyrians, hunt his seed with your hatred for all ages to come;send this guerdon to our ashes. Let no kindness nor truce be between thenations. Arise out of our dust, O unnamed avenger, to pursue theDardanian settlement with firebrand and steel. Now, then, whensoeverstrength shall be given, I invoke the enmity of shore to shore, wave towater, sword to sword; let their battles go down to their children'schildren. '

So speaks she as she kept turning her mind round about, seeking howsoonest to break away from the hateful light. Thereon she speaks brieflyto Barce, nurse of Sychaeus; for a heap of dusky ashes held her own, inher country of long ago:

'Sweet nurse, bring Anna my sister hither to me. Bid her haste andsprinkle river water over her body, and bring [636-667]with her thebeasts ordained for expiation: so let her come: and thou likewise veilthy brows with a pure chaplet. I would fulfil the rites of Stygian Jovethat I have fitly ordered and begun, so to set the limit to mydistresses and give over to the flames the funeral pyre of theDardanian. '

So speaks she; the old woman went eagerly with quickened pace. But Dido, fluttered and fierce in her awful purpose, with bloodshot restless gaze, and spots on her quivering cheeks burning through the pallor of imminentdeath, bursts into the inner courts of the house, and mounts in madnessthe high funeral pyre, and unsheathes the sword of Dardania, a giftasked for no use like this. Then after her eyes fell on the Ilianraiment and the bed she knew, dallying a little with her purpose throughher tears, she sank on the pillow and spoke the last words of all:

'Dress he wore, sweet while doom and deity allowed! receive my spiritnow, and release me from my distresses. I have lived and fulfilledFortune's allotted course; and now shall I go a queenly phantom underthe earth. I have built a renowned city; I have seen my ramparts rise;by my brother's punishment I have avenged my husband of his enemy;happy, ah me! and over happy, had but the keels of Dardania nevertouched our shores!' She spoke; and burying her face in the pillow, 'Death it will be, ' she cries, 'and unavenged; but death be it. Thus, thus is it good to pass into the dark. Let the pitiless Dardanian's gazedrink in this fire out at sea, and my death be the omen he carries onhis way. '

She ceased; and even as she spoke her people see her sunk on the steel, and blood reeking on the sword and spattered on her hands. A cry risesin the high halls; Rumour riots down the quaking city. The houseresounds with lamentation and sobbing and bitter crying of women;[668-700]heaven echoes their loud wails; even as though all Carthage orancient Tyre went down as the foe poured in, and the flames rolledfurious over the roofs of house and temple. Swooning at the sound, hersister runs in a flutter of dismay, with torn face and smitten bosom, and darts through them all, and calls the dying woman by her name. 'Wasit this, mine own? Was my summons a snare? Was it this thy pyre, ah me, this thine altar fires meant? How shall I begin my desolate moan? Didstthou disdain a sister's company in death? Thou shouldst have called meto share thy doom; in the self-same hour, the self-same pang of steelhad been our portion. Did these very hands build it, did my voice callon our father's gods, that with thee lying thus I should be away as onewithout pity? Thou hast destroyed thyself and me together, O my sister, and the Sidonian lords and people, and this thy city. Give her woundswater: I will bathe them and catch on my lips the last breath that haplyyet lingers. ' So speaking she had climbed the high steps, and, wailing, clasped and caressed her half-lifeless sister in her bosom, and stanchedthe dark streams of blood with her gown. She, essaying to lift her heavyeyes, swoons back; the deep-driven wound gurgles in her breast. Thriceshe rose, and strained to lift herself on her elbow; thrice she rolledback on the pillow, and with wandering eyes sought the light of highheaven, and moaned as she found it. 

Then Juno omnipotent, pitying her long pain and difficult decease, sentIris down from heaven to unloose the struggling life from the body whereit clung. For since neither by fate did she perish, nor as one who hadearned her death, but woefully before her day, and fired by suddenmadness, not yet had Proserpine taken her lock from the golden head, norsentenced her to the Stygian under world. So Iris on dewy saffronpinions flits down through the sky [701-705]athwart the sun in a trailof a thousand changing dyes, and stopping over her head: 'This hair, sacred to Dis, I take as bidden, and release thee from that body ofthine. ' So speaks she, and cuts it with her hand. And therewith all thewarmth ebbed forth from her, and the life passed away upon the winds. 

BOOK FIFTH

THE GAMES OF THE FLEET

Meanwhile Aeneas and his fleet in unwavering track now held mid passage, and cleft the waves that blackened under the North, looking back on thecity that even now gleams with hapless Elissa's funeral flame. Why thebroad blaze is lit lies unknown; but the bitter pain of a great lovetrampled, and the knowledge of what woman can do in madness, draw theTeucrians' hearts to gloomy guesses. 

When their ships held the deep, nor any land farther appears, the seasall round, and all round the sky, a dusky shower drew up overhead, carrying night and storm, and the wave shuddered and gloomed. Palinurus, master of the fleet, cries from the high stern: 'Alas, why have theseheavy storm-clouds girt the sky? lord Neptune, what wilt thou?' Then hebids clear the rigging and bend strongly to the oars, and brings thesails across the wind, saying thus:

'Noble Aeneas, not did Jupiter give word and warrant would I hope toreach Italy under such a sky. The shifting winds roar athwart ourcourse, and blow stronger out of the black west, and the air thickensinto mist: nor are we fit to force our way on and across. Fortune is thestronger; let us follow her, and turn our course whither she calls. [23-55]Not far away, I think, are the faithful shores of thy brotherEryx, and the Sicilian haven, if only my memory retraces rightly thestars I watched before. '

Then good Aeneas: 'Even I ere now discern the winds will have it so, andthou urgest against them in vain. Turn thou the course of our sailing. Could any land be welcomer to me, or where I would sooner choose to putin my weary ships, than this that hath Dardanian Acestes to greet me, and laps in its embrace lord Anchises' dust?' This said, they steer forharbour, while the following west wind stretches their sails; the fleetruns fast down the flood, and at last they land joyfully on the familiarbeach. But Acestes high on a hill-top, amazed at the friendly squadronapproaching from afar, hastens towards them, weaponed and clad in theshaggy skin of a Libyan she-bear. Him a Trojan mother conceived and boreto Crimisus river; not forgetful of his parentage, he wishes them joy oftheir return, and gladly entertains them on his rustic treasure andcomforts their weariness with his friendly store. So soon as themorrow's clear daylight had chased the stars out of the east, Aeneascalls his comrades along the beach together, and from a mounded hillockspeaks:

'Great people of Dardanus, born of the high blood of gods, the yearlycircle of the months is measured out to fulfilment since we laid thedust in earth, all that was left of my divine father, and sadlyconsecrated our altars. And now the day is at hand (this, O gods, wasyour will), which I will ever keep in grief, ever in honour. Did I spendit an exile on Gaetulian quicksands, did it surprise me on the Argolicsea or in Mycenae town, yet would I fulfil the yearly vows and annualordinance of festival, and pile the altars with their due gifts. Now weare led hither, to the very dust and ashes of our father, not as I deemwithout [56-90]divine purpose and influence, and borne home into thefriendly haven. Up then and let us all gather joyfully to the sacrifice:pray we for winds, and may he deign that I pay these rites to him yearby year in an established city and consecrated temple. Two head of oxenAcestes, the seed of Troy, gives to each of your ships by tale: inviteto the feast your own ancestral gods of the household, and those whomour host Acestes worships. Further, so the ninth Dawn uplift thegracious day upon men, and her shafts unveil the world, I will ordaincontests for my Trojans; first for swift ships; then whoso excels in thefoot-race, and whoso, confident in strength and skill, comes to shootlight arrows, or adventures to join battle with gloves of raw hide; letall be here, and let merit look for the prize and palm. Now all behushed, and twine your temples with boughs. '

So speaks he, and shrouds his brows with his mother's myrtle. So Helymusdoes, so Aletes ripe of years, so the boy Ascanius, and the rest of thepeople follow. He advances from the assembly to the tomb among a throngof many thousands that crowd about him; here he pours on the ground infit libation two goblets of pure wine, two of new milk, two ofconsecrated blood, and flings bright blossoms, saying thus: 'Hail, holyfather, once again; hail, ashes of him I saved in vain, and soul andshade of my sire! Thou wert not to share the search for Italian bordersand destined fields, nor the dim Ausonian Tiber. ' Thus had he spoken;when from beneath the sanctuary a snake slid out in seven vast coils andsevenfold slippery spires, quietly circling the grave and gliding fromaltar to altar, his green chequered body and the spotted lustre of hisscales ablaze with gold, as the bow in the cloud darts a thousandchanging dyes athwart the sun: Aeneas stood amazed at the sight. At lasthe wound [91-126]his long train among the vessels and polished cups, and tasted the feast, and again leaving the altars where he had fed, crept harmlessly back beneath the tomb. Doubtful if he shall think itthe Genius of the ground or his father's ministrant, he slays, as isfit, two sheep of two years old, as many swine and dark-backed steers, pouring the while cups of wine, and calling on the soul of greatAnchises and the ghost rearisen from Acheron. Therewithal his comrades, as each hath store, bring gifts to heap joyfully on the altars, and slaysteers in sacrifice: others set cauldrons arow, and, lying along thegrass, heap live embers under spits and roast the flesh. 

The desired day came, and now the ninth Dawn rode up clear and brightbehind Phaëthon's coursers; and the name and renown of illustriousAcestes had stirred up all the bordering people; their holiday throngfilled the shore, to see Aeneas' men, and some ready to join in contest. First of all the prizes are laid out to view in the middle of theracecourse; tripods of sacrifice, green garlands and palms, the rewardof the conquerors, armour and garments dipped in purple, talents ofsilver and gold: and from a hillock in the midst the trumpet sounds thegames begun. First is the contest of rowing, and four ships matched inweight enter, the choice of all the fleet. Mnestheus' keen oarsmen drivethe swift Dragon, Mnestheus the Italian to be, from whose name is theMemmian family; Gyas the huge bulk of the huge Chimaera, a floatingtown, whom her triple-tiered Dardanian crew urge on with oars rising inthreefold rank; Sergestus, from whom the Sergian house holds her name, sails in the tall Centaur; and in the sea-coloured Scylla Cloanthus, whence is thy family, Cluentius of Rome. 

Apart in the sea and over against the foaming beach, lies a rock thatthe swoln waves beat and drown what time the [127-159]north-westerngales of winter blot out the stars; in calm it rises silent out of theplacid water, flat-topped, and a haunt where cormorants love best totake the sun. Here lord Aeneas set up a goal of leafy ilex, a mark forthe sailors to know whence to return, where to wheel their long courseround. Then they choose stations by lot, and on the sterns theircaptains glitter afar, beautiful in gold and purple; the rest of thecrews are crowned with poplar sprays, and their naked shoulders glistenwet with oil. They sit down at the thwarts, and their arms are tense onthe oars; at full strain they wait the signal, while throbbing fear andheightened ambition drain their riotous blood. Then, when the cleartrumpet-note rang, all in a moment leap forward from their line; theshouts of the sailors strike up to heaven, and the channels are sweptinto foam by the arms as they swing backward. They cleave their furrowstogether, and all the sea is torn asunder by oars and triple-pointedprows. Not with speed so headlong do racing pairs whirl the chariotsover the plain, as they rush streaming from the barriers; not so dotheir charioteers shake the wavy reins loose over their team, and hangforward on the whip. All the woodland rings with clapping and shouts ofmen that cheer their favourites, and the sheltered beach eddies backtheir cries; the noise buffets and re-echoes from the hills. Gyas shootsout in front of the noisy crowd, and glides foremost along the water;whom Cloanthus follows next, rowing better, but held back by hisdragging weight of pine. After them, at equal distance, the Dragon andthe Centaur strive to win the foremost room; and now the Dragon has it, now the vast Centaur outstrips and passes her; now they dart on bothtogether, their stems in a line, and their keels driving long furrowsthrough the salt water-ways. And now they drew nigh the rock, and werehard [160-193]on the goal; when Gyas as he led, winner over half theflood, cries aloud to Menoetes, the ship's steersman: 'Whither away sofar to the right? This way direct her path; kiss the shore, and let theoarblade graze the leftward reefs. Others may keep to deep water. ' Hespoke; but Menoetes, fearing blind rocks, turns the bow away towards theopen sea. 'Whither wanderest thou away? to the rocks, Menoetes!' againshouts Gyas to bring him back; and lo! glancing round he sees Cloanthuspassing up behind and keeping nearer. Between Gyas' ship and the echoingcrags he scrapes through inside on his left, flashes past his leader, and leaving the goal behind is in safe water. Then indeed grief burnedfierce through his strong frame, and tears sprung out on his cheeks;heedless of his own dignity and his crew's safety, he flings the toocautious Menoetes sheer into the sea from the high stern, himselfsucceeds as guide and master of the helm, and cheers on his men, andturns his tiller in to shore. But Menoetes, when at last he rosestruggling from the bottom, heavy with advancing years and wet in hisdripping clothes, makes for the top of the crag, and sits down on a dryrock. The Teucrians laughed out as he fell and as he swam, and laugh tosee him spitting the salt water from his chest. At this a joyful hopekindled in the two behind, Sergestus and Mnestheus, of catching up Gyas'wavering course. Sergestus slips forward as he nears the rock, yet notall in front, nor leading with his length of keel; part is in front, part pressed by the Dragon's jealous prow. But striding amidshipsbetween his comrades, Mnestheus cheers them on: 'Now, now swing back, oarsmen who were Hector's comrades, whom I chose to follow me in Troy'sextremity; now put forth the might and courage you showed in Gaetulianquicksands, amid Ionian seas and Malea's chasing waves. Not the first[194-227]place do I now seek for Mnestheus, nor strive for victory;though ah!--yet let them win, O Neptune, to whom thou givest it. But theshame of coming in last! Win but this, fellow-citizens, and avert thatdisaster!' His men bend forward, straining every muscle; the brassworkof the ship quivers to their mighty strokes, and the ground runs fromunder her; limbs and parched lips shake with their rapid panting, andsweat flows in streams all over them. Mere chance brought the crew theglory they desired. For while Sergestus drives his prow furiously intowards the rocks and comes up with too scanty room, alas! he caught ona rock that ran out; the reef ground, the oars struck and shivered onthe jagged teeth, and the bows crashed and hung. The sailors leap up andhold her with loud cries, and get out iron-shod poles and sharp-pointedboathooks, and pick up their broken oars out of the eddies. ButMnestheus, rejoicing and flushed by his triumph, with oars fast-dippingand winds at his call, issues into the shelving water and runs down theopen sea. As a pigeon whose house and sweet nestlings are in the rock'srecesses, if suddenly startled from her cavern, wings her flight overthe fields and rushes frightened from her house with loud clappingpinions; then gliding noiselessly through the air, slides on her liquidway and moves not her rapid wings; so Mnestheus, so the Dragon under himswiftly cleaves the last space of sea, so her own speed carries herflying on. And first Sergestus is left behind, struggling on the steeprock and shoal water, and shouting in vain for help and learning to racewith broken oars. Next he catches up Gyas and the vast bulk of theChimaera; she gives way, without her steersman. And now on the very goalCloanthus alone is left; him he pursues and presses hard, straining allhis strength. Then indeed the shouts redouble, as all together eagerlycheer on the pursuer, and [228-264]the sky echoes their din. Thesescorn to lose the honour that is their own, the glory in their grasp, and would sell life for renown; to these success lends life; power comeswith belief in it. And haply they had carried the prize with prowsabreast, had not Cloanthus, stretching both his open hands over the sea, poured forth prayers and called the gods to hear his vows: 'Gods who aresovereign on the sea, over whose waters I run, to your altars on thisbeach will I bring a snow-white bull, my vow's glad penalty, and willcast his entrails into the salt flood and pour liquid wine. ' He spoke, and far beneath the flood maiden Panopea heard him, with all Phorcus'choir of Nereids, and lord Portunus with his own mighty hand pushed himon his way. The ship flies to land swifter than the wind or an arrow'sflight, and shoots into the deep harbour. Then the seed of Anchises, summoning all in order, declares Cloanthus conqueror by herald's outcry, and dresses his brows in green bay, and gives gifts to each crew, threebullocks of their choice, and wine, and a large talent of silver to takeaway. For their captains he adds special honours; to the winner a scarfwrought with gold, encircled by a double border of deep Meliboeanpurple; woven in it is the kingly boy on leafy Ida, chasing swift stagswith javelin and racing feet, keen and as one panting; him Jove'sswooping armour-bearer hath caught up from Ida in his talons; his agedguardians stretch their hands vainly upwards, and the barking of houndsrings fierce into the air. But to him who, next in merit, held thesecond place, he gives to wear a corslet triple-woven with hooks ofpolished gold, stripped by his own conquering hand from Demoleos undertall Troy by the swift Simoïs, an ornament and safeguard among arms. Scarce could the straining shoulders of his servants Phegeus and Sagariscarry its heavy folds; yet with it on, Demoleos at [265-302]full speedwould chase the scattered Trojans. The third prize he makes twincauldrons of brass, and bowls wrought in silver and rough with tracery. And now all moved away in the pride and wealth of their prizes, theirbrows bound with scarlet ribbons; when, hardly torn loose by all his artfrom the cruel rock, his oars lost, rowing feebly with a single tier, Sergestus brought in his ship jeered at and unhonoured. Even as often aserpent caught on a highway, if a brazen wheel hath gone aslant over himor a wayfarer left him half dead and mangled with the blow of a heavystone, wreathes himself slowly in vain effort to escape, in partundaunted, his eyes ablaze and his hissing throat lifted high; in partthe disabling wound keeps him coiling in knots and twisting back on hisown body; so the ship kept rowing slowly on, yet hoists sail and underfull sail glides into the harbour mouth. Glad that the ship is saved andthe crew brought back, Aeneas presents Sergestus with his promisedreward. A slave woman is given him not unskilled in Minerva's labours, Pholoë the Cretan, with twin boys at her breast. 

This contest sped, good Aeneas moved to a grassy plain girt all aboutwith winding wooded hills, and amid the valley an amphitheatre, whither, with a concourse of many thousands, the hero advanced and took his seaton a mound. Here he allures with rewards and offer of prizes those whowill try their hap in the fleet foot-race. Trojans and Sicilians gathermingling from all sides, Nisus and Euryalus foremost . . . Euryalus inthe flower of youth and famed for beauty, Nisus for pure love of theboy. Next follows renowned Diores, of Priam's royal line; after himSalius and Patron together, the one Acarnanian, the other Tegean byfamily and of Arcadian blood; next two men of Sicily, Helymus andPanopes, foresters and attendants on old Acestes; many besides whosefame is hid in [303-338]obscurity. Then among them all Aeneas spokethus: 'Hearken to this, and attend in good cheer. None out of thisnumber will I let go without a gift. To each will I give two glitteringGnosian spearheads of polished steel, and an axe chased with silver tobear away; one and all shall be honoured thus. The three foremost shallreceive prizes, and have pale olive bound about their head. The firstshall have a caparisoned horse as conqueror; the second an Amazonianquiver filled with arrows of Thrace, girt about by a broad belt of gold, and on the link of the clasp a polished gem; let the third depart withthis Argolic helmet for recompense. ' This said, they take their place, and the signal once heard, dart over the course and leave the line, pouring forth like a storm-cloud while they mark the goal. Nisus getsaway first, and shoots out far in front of the throng, fleeter than thewinds or the winged thunderbolt. Next to him, but next by a long gap, Salius follows; then, left a space behind him, Euryalus third . . . AndHelymus comes after Euryalus; and close behind him, lo! Diores goesflying, just grazing foot with foot, hard on his shoulder; and if alonger space were left, he would creep out past him and win the tie. Andnow almost in the last space, they began to come up breathless to thegoal, when unfortunate Nisus trips on the slippery blood of the slainsteers, where haply it had spilled over the ground and wetted the greengrass. Here, just in the flush of victory, he lost his feet; they slidaway on the ground they pressed, and he fell forward right among theordure and blood of the sacrifice. Yet forgot he not his darlingEuryalus; for rising, he flung himself over the slippery ground in frontof Salius, and he rolled over and lay all along on the hard sand. Euryalus shoots by, wins and holds the first place his friend gave, andflies on amid prosperous clapping and cheers. Behind Helymus comes[339-373]up, and Diores, now third for the palm. At this Salius fillswith loud clamour the whole concourse of the vast theatre, and the lordswho looked on in front, demanding restoration of his defrauded prize. Euryalus is strong in favour, and beauty in tears, and the merit thatgains grace from so fair a form. Diores supports him, who succeeded tothe palm, so he loudly cries, and bore off the last prize in vain, ifthe highest honours be restored to Salius. Then lord Aeneas speaks: 'Foryou, O boys, your rewards remain assured, and none alters the prizes'order: let me be allowed to pity a friend's innocent mischance. ' Sospeaking, he gives to Salius a vast Gaetulian lion-skin, with shaggymasses of hair and claws of gold. 'If this, ' cries Nisus, 'is the rewardof defeat, and thy pity is stirred for the fallen, what fit recompensewilt thou give to Nisus? to my excellence the first crown was due, hadnot I, like Salius, met Fortune's hostility. ' And with the words hedisplayed his face and limbs foul with the wet dung. His lord laughedkindly on him, and bade a shield be brought forth, the workmanship ofDidymaon, torn by him from the hallowed gates of Neptune's Greciantemple; with this special prize he rewards his excellence. 

Thereafter, when the races are finished and the gifts fulfilled: 'Now, 'he cries, 'come, whoso hath in him valour and ready heart, and lift uphis arms with gauntleted hands. ' So speaks he, and sets forth a doubleprize of battle; for the conqueror a bullock gilt and garlanded; a swordand beautiful helmet to console the conquered. Straightway without pauseDares issues to view in his vast strength, rising amid loud murmurs ofthe people; he who alone was wont to meet Paris in combat; he who, atthe mound where princely Hector lies, struck down as he came the vastbulk upborne by conquering Butes, of Amycus' Bebrycian line, andstretched him in [374-410]death on the yellow sand. Such was Dares; atonce he raises his head high for battle, displays his broad shoulders, and stretches and swings his arms right and left, lashing the air withblows. For him another is required; but none out of all the train durstapproach or put the gloves on his hands. So he takes his stand exultantbefore Aeneas' feet, deeming he excelled all in victories; and thereonwithout more delay grasps the bull's horn with his left hand, and speaksthus: 'Goddess-born, if no man dare trust himself to battle, to whatconclusion shall I stand? how long is it seemly to keep me? bid me carryoff thy gifts. ' Therewith all the Dardanians murmured assent, and badeyield him the promised prize. At this aged Acestes spoke sharply toEntellus, as he sate next him on the green cushion of grass: 'Entellus, bravest of heroes once of old in vain, wilt thou thus idly let a gift sogreat be borne away uncontested? Where now prithee is divine Eryx, thymaster of fruitless fame? where thy renown over all Sicily, and thosespoils hanging in thine house?' Thereat he: 'Desire of glory is notgone, nor ambition checked by fear; but torpid age dulls my chillyblood, and my strength of limb is numb and outworn. If I had what oncewas mine, if I had now that prime of years, yonder braggart's boast andconfidence, it had taken no prize of goodly bullock to allure me; norheed I these gifts. ' So he spoke, and on that flung down a pair ofgloves of giant weight, with whose hard hide bound about his wristsvaliant Eryx was wont to come to battle. They stood amazed; so stiff andgrim lay the vast sevenfold oxhide sewed in with lead and iron. Daresmost of all shrinks far back in horror, and the noble son of Anchisesturns round this way and that their vast weight and voluminous folds. Then the old man spoke thus in deep accents: 'How, had they seen thegloves [411-444]that were Hercules' own armour, and the fatal fight onthis very beach? These arms thy brother Eryx once wore; thou seest themyet stained with blood and spattered brains. In them he stood to facegreat Alcides; to them was I used while fuller blood supplied mestrength, and envious old age had not yet strewn her snows on eithertemple. But if Dares of Troy will have none of these our arms, and goodAeneas is resolved on it, and my patron Acestes approves, let us makethe battle even. See, I give up the gauntlets of Eryx; dismiss thyfears; and do thou put off thy Trojan gloves. ' So spoke he, and throwingback the fold of his raiment from his shoulders, he bares the massivejoints and limbs, the great bones and muscles, and stands up huge in themiddle of the ground. Then Anchises' lordly seed brought out equalgloves and bound the hands of both in matched arms. Straightway eachtook his stand on tiptoe, and undauntedly raised his arms high in air. They lift their heads right back and away out of reach of blows, andmake hand play through hand, inviting attack; the one nimbler of footand confident in his youth, the other mighty in mass of limb, but hisknees totter tremulous and slow, and sick panting shakes his vast frame. Many a mutual blow they deliver in vain, many an one they redouble onchest and side, sounding hollow and loud: hands play fast about ear andtemple, and jawbones clash under the hard strokes. Old Entellus standsimmoveable and astrain, only parrying hits with body and watchful eye. The other, as one who casts mounts against some high city or blockades ahill-fort in arms, tries this and that entrance, and ranges cunninglyover all the ground, and presses many an attack in vain. Entellus roseand struck clean out with his right downwards; his quick opponent sawthe descending blow before it came, [445-481]and slid his body rapidlyout of its way. Entellus hurled his strength into the air, and all hisheavy mass, overreaching, fell heavily to the earth; as sometime onErymanthus or mighty Ida a hollow pine falls torn out by the roots. Teucrians and men of Sicily rise eagerly; a cry goes up, and Acesteshimself runs forward, and pityingly lifts his friend and birthmate fromthe ground. But the hero, not dulled nor dismayed by his mishap, returnsthe keener to battle, and grows violent in wrath, while shame andresolved valour kindle his strength. All afire, he hunts Dares headlongover the lists, and redoubles his blows now with right hand, now withleft; no breath nor pause; heavy as hailstones rattle on the roof from astorm-cloud, so thickly shower the blows from both his hands as hebuffets Dares to and fro. Then lord Aeneas allowed not wrath to swellhigher or Entellus to rage out his bitterness, but stopped the fight andrescued the exhausted Dares, saying thus in soothing words: 'Unhappy!what height of madness hath seized thy mind? Knowest thou not thestrength is another's and the gods are changed? Yield thou to Heaven. 'And with the words he proclaimed the battle over. But him his faithfulmates lead to the ships dragging his knees feebly, swaying his head fromside to side, and spitting from his mouth clotted blood mingled withteeth. At summons they bear away the helmet and shield, and leave palmand bull to Entellus. At this the conqueror, swelling in pride over thebull, cries: 'Goddess-born, and you, O Trojans! learn thus what mystrength of body was in its prime, and from what a death Dares is savedby your recall. ' He spoke, and stood right opposite in face of thebullock as it stood by, the prize of battle; then drew back his hand, and swinging the hard gauntlet sheer down between the horns, smashed thebones in upon the shattered brain. The ox rolls over, and quivering and[482-516]lifeless lies along the ground. Above it he utters these deepaccents: 'This life, Eryx, I give to thee, a better payment than Dares'death; here I lay down my gloves and unconquered skill. '

Forthwith Aeneas invites all that will to the contest of the swiftarrow, and proclaims the prizes. With his strong hand he uprears themast of Serestus' ship, and on a cord crossing it hangs from themasthead a fluttering pigeon as mark for their steel. They gather, and ahelmet of brass takes the lots as they throw them in. First in rank, andbefore them all, amid prosperous cheers, comes out Hippocoön son ofHyrtacus; and Mnestheus follows on him, but now conqueror in the shiprace, Mnestheus with his chaplet of green olive. Third is Eurytion, thybrother, O Pandarus, great in renown, thou who of old, when prompted toshatter the truce, didst hurl the first shaft amid the Achaeans. Last ofall, and at the bottom of the helmet, sank Acestes, he too venturing toset hand to the task of youth. Then each and all they strongly bendtheir bows into a curve and pull shafts from their quivers. And firstthe arrow of the son of Hyrtacus, flying through heaven from thesounding string, whistles through the fleet breezes, and reaches andsticks fast full in the mast's wood: the mast quivered, and the birdfluttered her feathers in affright, and the whole ground rang with loudclapping. Next valiant Mnestheus took his stand with bow bent, aiminghigh with levelled eye and arrow; yet could not, unfortunate! hit thebird herself with his steel, but cut the knotted hempen bands that tiedher foot as she hung from the masthead; she winged her flight into thedark windy clouds. Then Eurytion, who ere now held the arrow ready onhis bended bow, swiftly called in prayer to his brother, marked thepigeon as she now went down the empty sky exultant on clapping wings;and as she passed under a dark cloud, [517-553]struck her: she fellbreathless, and, leaving her life in the aery firmament, slid downcarrying the arrow that pierced her. Acestes alone was over, and theprize lost; yet he sped his arrow up into the air, to display his lordlyskill and resounding bow. At this a sudden sign meets their eyes, mightyin augural presage, as the high event taught thereafter, and in latedays boding seers prophesied of the omen. For the flying reed blazed outamid the swimming clouds, traced its path in flame, and burned away onthe light winds; even as often stars shooting from their sphere draw atrain athwart the sky. Trinacrians and Trojans hung in astonishment, praying to the heavenly powers; neither did great Aeneas reject theomen, but embraces glad Acestes and loads him with lavish gifts, speaking thus: 'Take, my lord: for the high King of heaven by thesesigns hath willed thee to draw the lot of peculiar honour. This giftshalt thou have as from aged Anchises' own hand, a bowl embossed withfigures, that once Cisseus of Thrace gave my father Anchises to bear, inhigh token and guerdon of affection. ' So speaking, he twines green bayabout his brows, and proclaims Acestes conqueror first before them all. Nor did gentle Eurytion, though he alone struck the bird down from thelofty sky, grudge him to be preferred in honour. Next comes for hisprize he who cut the cord; he last, who pierced the mast with his wingedreed. 

But lord Aeneas, ere yet the contest is sped, calls to him Epytides, guardian and attendant of ungrown Iülus, and thus speaks into hisfaithful ear: 'Up and away, and tell Ascanius, if he now holds his bandof boys ready, and their horses arrayed for the charge, to defile hissquadrons to his grandsire's honour in bravery of arms. ' So says he, andhimself bids all the crowding throng withdraw from the long racecourseand leave the lists free. The boys move in before their parents' faces, glittering in rank on their [554-590]bitted horses; as they go all thepeople of Troy and Trinacria murmur and admire. On the hair of them allrests a garland fitly trimmed; each carries two cornel spear-shaftstipped with steel; some have polished quivers on their shoulders; abovetheir breast and round their neck goes a flexible circlet of twistedgold. Three in number are the troops of riders, and three captainsgallop up and down; following each in equal command rides a glitteringdivision of twelve boys. One youthful line goes rejoicingly behindlittle Priam, renewer of his grandsire's name, thy renowned seed, OPolites, and destined to people Italy; he rides a Thracian horse dappledwith spots of white, showing white on his pacing pasterns and white onhis high forehead. Second is Atys, from whom the Latin Atii draw theirline, little Atys, boy beloved of the boy Iülus. Last and excellent inbeauty before them all, Iülus rode in on a Sidonian horse that Dido thebright had given him for token and pledge of love. The rest of them aremounted on old Acestes' Sicilian horses. . . . The Dardanians greettheir shy entrance with applause, and rejoice at the view, and recognisethe features of their parents of old. When they have ridden merrilyround all the concourse of their gazing friends, Epytides shouts fromafar the signal they await, and sounds his whip. They gallop apart inequal numbers, and open their files three and three in deploying bands, and again at the call wheel about and bear down with levelled arms. Nextthey start on other charges and other retreats in corresponsive spaces, and interlink circle with circle, and wage the armed phantom of battle. And now they bare their backs in flight, now turn their lances to thecharge, now plight peace and ride on side by side. As once of old, theysay, the labyrinth in high Crete had a tangled path between blind walls, and a thousand ways of doubling treachery, where tokens to follow failedin the [591-625]maze unmastered and irrecoverable: even in such a trackdo the children of Troy entangle their footsteps and weave the game offlight and battle; like dolphins who, swimming through the wet seas, cutCarpathian or Libyan. . . . 

This fashion of riding, these games Ascanius first revived, when he girtAlba the Long about with walls, and taught their celebration to the OldLatins in the way of his own boyhood, with the youth of Troy about him. The Albans taught it their children; on from them mighty Rome receivedit and kept the ancestral observance; and now it is called Troy, and theboys the Trojan troop. 

Thus far sped the sacred contests to their holy lord. Just at thisFortune broke faith and grew estranged. While they pay the due rites tothe tomb with diverse games, Juno, daughter of Saturn, sends Iris downthe sky to the Ilian fleet, and breathes a gale to speed her on, revolving many a thought, and not yet satiate of the ancient pain. She, speeding her way along the thousand-coloured bow, runs swiftly, seen ofnone, down her maiden path. She discerns the vast concourse, andtraverses the shore, and sees the haven abandoned and the fleet leftalone. But far withdrawn by the solitary verge of the sea the Trojanwomen wept their lost Anchises, and as they wept gazed all together onthe fathomless flood. 'Alas! after all those weary waterways, that sowide a sea is yet to come!' such is the single cry of all. They pray fora city, sick of the burden of their sea-sorrow. So she darts among them, not witless to harm, and lays by face and raiment of a goddess: shebecomes Beroë, the aged wife of Tmarian Doryclus, who had once had birthand name and children, and in this guise goes among the Dardanianmatrons. 'Ah, wretched we, ' she cries, 'whom hostile Achaean hands didnot drag to death beneath our native city! ah hapless race, for whatdestruction does Fortune hold thee back? The [626-660]seventh summernow declines since Troy's overthrow, while we pass measuring out by somany stars the harbourless rocks over every water and land, pursuing allthe while over the vast sea an Italy that flies us, and tossing on thewaves. Here are our brother Eryx' borders, and Acestes' welcome: whodenies us to cast up walls and give our citizens a city? O country, Ohousehold gods vainly rescued from the foe! shall there never be aTrojan town to tell of? shall I nowhere see a Xanthus and a Simoïs, therivers of Hector? Nay, up and join me in burning with fire theseill-ominous ships. For in sleep the phantom of Cassandra the soothsayerseemed to give me blazing brands: _Here seek your Troy_, she said; _hereis your home_. Now is the time to do it; nor do these high portentsallow delay. Behold four altars to Neptune; the god himself lends thefirebrand and the nerve. ' Speaking thus, at once she strongly seizes thefiery weapon, and with straining hand whirls it far upreared, andflings: the souls of the Ilian women are startled and their wits amazed. At this one of their multitude, and she the eldest, Pyrgo, nurse in thepalace to all Priam's many children: 'This is not Beroë, I tell you, Omothers; this is not the wife of Doryclus of Rhoeteum. Mark thelineaments of divine grace and the gleaming eyes, what a breath is hers, what a countenance, and the sound of her voice and the steps of hergoing. I, I time agone left Beroë apart, sick and fretting that shealone must have no part in this our service, nor pay Anchises his duesacrifice. ' So spoke she. . . . But the matrons at first, dubious andwavering, gazed on the ships with malignant eyes, between the wretchedlonging for the land they trod and the fated realm that summoned them:when the goddess rose through the sky on poised wings, and in her flightdrew a vast bow beneath the clouds. Then indeed, amazed at the tokensand driven by madness, they raise a cry and snatch fire from the[661-694]hearths within; others plunder the altars, and cast onbrushwood boughs and brands. The Fire-god rages with loose rein overthwarts and oars and hulls of painted fir. Eumelus carries the news ofthe burning ships to the grave of Anchises and the ranges of thetheatre; and looking back, their own eyes see the floating cloud of darkashes. And in a moment Ascanius, as he rode gaily before his cavalry, spurred his horse to the disordered camp; nor can his breathlessguardians hold him back. 'What strange madness is this?' he cries;'whither now hasten you, whither, alas and woe! O citizens? not on thefoe nor on some hostile Argive camp; it is your own hopes you burn. Behold me, your Ascanius!' and he flung before his feet the emptyhelmet, put on when he roused the mimicry of war. Aeneas and the Trojantrain together hurry to the spot. But the women scatter apart in fearall over the beach, and stealthily seek the woods and the hollow rocksthey find: they loathe their deed and the daylight, and with changedeyes know their people, and Juno is startled out of their breast. Butnot thereby do the flames of the burning lay down their unconqueredstrength; under the wet oak the seams are alive, spouting slow coils ofsmoke; the creeping heat devours the hulls, and the destroyer takes deephold of all: nor does the heroes' strength avail nor the floods theypour in. Then good Aeneas rent away the raiment from his shoulders andcalled the gods to aid, stretching forth his hands: 'Jupiter omnipotent, if thou hatest not Troy yet wholly to her last man, if thine ancientpity looks at all on human woes, now, O Lord, grant our fleet to escapethe flame, and rescue from doom the slender Teucrian estate. Or do thouplunge to death this remnant, if I deserve it, with levelledthunderbolt, and here with thine own hand smite us down. ' Scarce had heuttered this, when a black tempest rages in streaming showers; earthtrembles [695-726]to the thunder on plain and steep; the water-floodrushes in torrents from the whole heaven amid black darkness andvolleying blasts of the South. The ships are filled from overhead, thehalf-burnt timbers are soaking; till all the heat is quenched, and allthe hulls, but four that are lost, are rescued from destruction. 

But lord Aeneas, dismayed by the bitter mischance, revolved at heartthis way and that his shifting weight of care, whether, forgetting fate, he should rest in Sicilian fields, or reach forth to the borders ofItaly. Then old Nautes, whom Tritonian Pallas taught like none other, and made famous in eminence of art--she granted him to reply what thegods' heavy anger menaced or what the order of fate claimed--he then inaccents of comfort thus speaks to Aeneas:

'Goddess-born, follow we fate's ebb and flow, whatsoever it shall be;fortune must be borne to be overcome. Acestes is of thine own divineDardanian race; take him, for he is willing, to join thee in commoncounsel; deliver to him those who are over, now these ships are lost, and those who are quite weary of thy fortunes and the great quest. Choose out the old men stricken in years, and the matrons sick of thesea, and all that is weak and fearful of peril in thy company. Let thisland give a city to the weary; they shall be allowed to call their townAcesta by name. '

Then, indeed, kindled by these words of his aged friend, his spirit isdistracted among all his cares. And now black Night rose chariot-borne, and held the sky; when the likeness of his father Anchises seemed todescend from heaven and suddenly utter thus:

'O son, more dear to me than life once of old while life was yet mine; Oson, hard wrought by the destinies of Ilium! I come hither by Jove'scommand, who drove the [727-760]fire from thy fleets, and at last hadpity out of high heaven. Obey thou the fair counsel aged Nautes nowgives. Carry through to Italy thy chosen men and bravest souls; inLatium must thou war down a people hard and rough in living. Yet erethen draw thou nigh the nether chambers of Dis, and in the deep tract ofhell come, O son, to meet me. For I am not held in cruel Tartarus amongwailing ghosts, but inhabit Elysium and the sweet societies of the good. Hither with much blood of dark cattle shall the holy Sibyl lead thee. Then shalt thou learn of all thy line, and what city is given thee. Andnow farewell; dank Night wheels her mid-career, and even now I feel thestern breath of the panting horses of the East. ' He ended, and retreatedlike a vapour into thin air. 'Ah, whither hurriest thou?' cries Aeneas;'whither so fast away? From whom fliest thou? or who withholds thee fromour embrace?' So speaking, he kindles the sleeping embers of the fire, and with holy meal and laden censer does sacrifice to the tutelar ofPergama and hoar Vesta's secret shrine. 

Straightway he summons his crews and Acestes first of all, and instructsthem of Jove's command and his beloved father's precepts, and what isnow his fixed mind and purpose. They linger not in counsel, nor doesAcestes decline his bidden duty: they enrol the matrons in their town, and plant a people there, souls that will have none of glory. The restrepair the thwarts and replace the ships' timbers that the flames hadgnawed upon, and fit up oars and rigging, little in number, but aliveand valiant for war. Meanwhile Aeneas traces the town with the ploughand allots the homesteads; this he bids be Ilium, and these lands Troy. Trojan Acestes, rejoicing in his kingdom, appoints a court and gathershis senators to give them statutes. Next, where the crest of Eryx isneighbour to the stars, a dwelling is founded to Venus the Idalian;[761-793]and a priest and breadth of holy wood is attached to Anchises'grave. 

And now for nine days all the people hath feasted, and offering beenpaid at the altars; quiet breezes have smoothed the ocean floor, and thegathering south wind blows, calling them again to sea. A mighty weepingarises along the winding shore; a night and a day they linger in mutualembraces. The very mothers now, the very men to whom once the sight ofthe sea seemed cruel and the name intolerable, would go on and endurethe journey's travail to the end. These Aeneas comforts with kindlywords, and commends with tears to his kinsman Acestes' care. Then hebids slay three steers to Eryx and a she-lamb to the Tempests, and loosethe hawser as is due. Himself, his head bound with stripped leaves ofolive, he stands apart on the prow holding the cup, and casts theentrails into the salt flood and pours liquid wine. A wind rising asternfollows them forth on their way. Emulously the crews strike the water, and sweep through the seas. 

But Venus meanwhile, wrought upon with distress, accosts Neptune, andthus pours forth her heart's complaint: 'Juno's bitter wrath and heartinsatiable compel me, O Neptune, to sink to the uttermost of entreaty:neither length of days nor any goodness softens her, nor doth Jove'scommand and fate itself break her to desistence. It is not enough thather accursed hatred hath devoured the Phrygian city from among thepeople, and exhausted on it the stores of vengeance; still she pursuesthis remnant, the bones and ashes of murdered Troy. I pray she know whyher passion is so fierce. Thyself art my witness what a sudden stir sheraised of late on the Libyan waters, flinging all the seas to heaven invain reliance on Aeolus' blasts; this she dared in thy realm. . . . Lo too, driving the Trojan matrons into guilt, she hath foully[794-826]burned their ships, and forced them, their fleet lost, toleave the crews to an unknown land. Let the remnant, I beseech thee, give their sails to thy safe keeping across the seas; let them reachLaurentine Tiber; if I ask what is permitted, if fate grants them a citythere. '

Then the son of Saturn, compeller of the ocean deep, uttered thus: 'Itis wholly right, O Cytherean, that thy trust should be in my realm, whence thou drawest birth; and I have deserved it: often have I allayedthe rage and full fury of sky and sea. Nor less on land, I call Xanthusand Simoïs to witness, hath been my care of thine Aeneas. When Achillespursued the Trojan armies and hurled them breathless on their walls, andsent many thousands to death, --when the choked rivers groaned andXanthus could not find passage or roll out to sea, --then I snatchedAeneas away in sheltering mist as he met the brave son of Peleusoutmatched in strength and gods, eager as I was to overthrow the wallsof perjured Troy that mine own hands had built. Now too my mind reststhe same; dismiss thy fear. In safety, as thou desirest, shall he reachthe haven of Avernus. One will there be alone whom on the flood thoushalt lose and require; one life shall be given for many. . . . '

With these words the goddess' bosom is soothed to joy. Then their lordyokes his wild horses with gold and fastens the foaming bits, andletting all the reins run slack in his hand, flies lightly in hissea-coloured chariot over the ocean surface. The waves sink to rest, andthe swoln water-ways smooth out under the thundering axle; thestorm-clouds scatter from the vast sky. Diverse shapes attend him, monstrous whales, and Glaucus' aged choir, and Palaemon, son of Ino, theswift Tritons, and Phorcus with all his army. Thetis and Melite keep theleft, and maiden Panopea, Nesaea and Spio, Thalia and Cymodoce. 

[827-860]At this lord Aeneas' soul is thrilled with soft counterchangeof delight. He bids all the masts be upreared with speed, and the sailsstretched on the yards. Together all set their sheets, and all at onceslacken their canvas to left and again to right; together they brace andunbrace the yard-arms aloft; prosperous gales waft the fleet along. First, in front of all, Palinurus steered the close column; the restunder orders ply their course by his. And now dewy Night had justreached heaven's mid-cone; the sailors, stretched on their hard benchesunder the oars, relaxed their limbs in quiet rest: when Sleep, slidinglightly down from the starry sky, parted the shadowy air and cleft thedark, seeking thee, O Palinurus, carrying dreams of bale to thee whodreamt not of harm, and lit on the high stern, a god in Phorbas'likeness, dropping this speech from his lips: 'Palinurus son of Iasus, the very seas bear our fleet along; the breezes breathe steadily; for anhour rest is given. Lay down thine head, and steal thy worn eyes fromtheir toil. I myself for a little will take thy duty in thy stead. ' Towhom Palinurus, scarcely lifting his eyes, returns: 'Wouldst thou haveme ignorant what the calm face of the brine means, and the waves atrest? Shall I have faith in this perilous thing? How shall I trustAeneas to deceitful breezes, and the placid treachery of sky that hathso often deceived me?' Such words he uttered, and, clinging fast to thetiller, slackened hold no whit, and looked up steadily on the stars. Lo!the god shakes over either temple a bough dripping with Lethean dew andmade slumberous with the might of Styx, and makes his swimming eyesrelax their struggles. Scarcely had sleep begun to slacken his limbsunaware, when bending down, he flung him sheer into the clear water, tearing rudder and half the stern away with him, and many a time cryingvainly on his comrades: himself [861-871]he rose on flying wings intothe thin air. None the less does the fleet run safe on its sea path, andglides on unalarmed in lord Neptune's assurance. Yes, and now they weresailing in to the cliffs of the Sirens, dangerous once of old and whitewith the bones of many a man; and the hoarse rocks echoed afar in theceaseless surf; when her lord felt the ship rocking astray for loss ofher helmsman, and himself steered her on over the darkling water, sighing often the while, and heavy at heart for his friend's mischance. 'Ah too trustful in sky's and sea's serenity, thou shalt lie, OPalinurus, naked on an alien sand!'

BOOK SIXTH

THE VISION OF THE UNDER WORLD

So speaks he weeping, and gives his fleet the rein, and at last glidesin to Euboïc Cumae's coast. They turn the prows seaward; the shipsgrounded fast on their anchors' teeth, and the curving ships line thebeach. The warrior band leaps forth eagerly on the Hesperian shore; someseek the seeds of flame hidden in veins of flint, some scour the woods, the thick coverts of wild beasts, and find and shew the streams. Butgood Aeneas seeks the fortress where Apollo sits high enthroned, and thelone mystery of the awful Sibyl's cavern depth, over whose mind and soulthe prophetic Delian breathes high inspiration and reveals futurity. 

Now they draw nigh the groves of Trivia and the roof of gold. Daedalus, as the story runs, when in flight from Minos' realm he dared to spreadhis fleet wings to the sky, glided on his unwonted way towards the icynorthern star, and at length lit gently on the Chalcidian fastness. Here, on the first land he retrod, he dedicated his winged oarage tothee, O Phoebus, in the vast temple he built. On the doors is Androgeus'death; thereby the children of Cecrops, bidden, ah me! to pay for yearlyransom seven souls of their sons; the urn stands there, and the lots aredrawn. Right [23-55]opposite the land of Gnosus rises from the sea; onit is the cruel love of the bull, the disguised stealth of Pasiphaë, andthe mingled breed and double issue of the Minotaur, record of a shamefulpassion; on it the famous dwelling's laborious inextricable maze; butDaedalus, pitying the great love of the princess, himself unlocked thetangled treachery of the palace, guiding with the clue her lover's blindfootsteps. Thou too hadst no slight part in the work he wrought, OIcarus, did grief allow. Twice had he essayed to portray thy fate ingold; twice the father's hands dropped down. Nay, their eyes would scanall the story in order, were not Achates already returned from hiserrand, and with him the priestess of Phoebus and Trivia, Deïphobedaughter of Glaucus, who thus accosts the king: 'Other than this are thesights the time demands: now were it well to sacrifice seven unbrokenbullocks of the herd, as many fitly chosen sheep of two years old. ' Thusspeaks she to Aeneas; nor do they delay to do her sacred bidding; andthe priestess calls the Teucrians into the lofty shrine. 

A vast cavern is scooped in the side of the Euboïc cliff, whither leadan hundred wide passages by an hundred gates, whence peal forth asmanifold the responses of the Sibyl. They had reached the threshold, when the maiden cries: _It is time to enquire thy fate: the god, lo! thegod!_ And even as she spoke thus in the gateway, suddenly countenancenor colour nor ranged tresses stayed the same; her wild heart heavesmadly in her panting bosom; and she expands to sight, and her voice ismore than mortal, now the god breathes on her in nearer deity. 'Lingerest thou to vow and pray, ' she cries, 'Aeneas of Troy? lingerestthou? for not till then will the vast portals of the spellbound houseswing open. ' So spoke she, and sank to silence. A cold shiver ranthrough the Teucrians' iron frames, and the king pours heart-deepsupplication:

[56-89]'Phoebus, who hast ever pitied the sore travail of Troy, whodidst guide the Dardanian shaft from Paris' hand full on the son ofAeacus, in thy leading have I pierced all these seas that skirt mightylands, the Massylian nations far withdrawn, and the fields the Syrtesfringe; thus far let the fortune of Troy follow us. You too may nowunforbidden spare the nation of Pergama, gods and goddesses towhomsoever Ilium and the great glory of Dardania did wrong. And thou, Oprophetess most holy, foreknower of the future, grant (for no unearnedrealm does my destiny claim) a resting-place in Latium to the Teucrians, to their wandering gods and the storm-tossed deities of Troy. Then willI ordain to Phoebus and Trivia a temple of solid marble, and festal daysin Phoebus' name. Thee likewise a mighty sanctuary awaits in our realm. For here will I place thine oracles and the secrets of destiny utteredto my people, and consecrate chosen men, O gracious one. Only commit notthou thy verses to leaves, lest they fly disordered, the sport ofrushing winds; thyself utter them, I beseech thee. ' His lips made an endof utterance. 

But the prophetess, not yet tame to Phoebus' hand, rages fiercely in thecavern, so she may shake the mighty godhead from her breast; so much themore does he tire her maddened mouth and subdue her wild breast andshape her to his pressure. And now the hundred mighty portals of thehouse open of their own accord, and bring through the air the answer ofthe soothsayer:

'O past at length with the great perils of the sea! though heavier yetby land await thee, the Dardanians shall come to the realm of Lavinium;relieve thy heart of this care; but not so shall they have joy of theircoming. Wars, grim wars I discern, and Tiber afoam with streams ofblood. A Simoïs shall not fail thee, a Xanthus, a Dorian camp; anotherAchilles is already found for Latium, he too [90-123]goddess-born; norshall Juno's presence ever leave the Teucrians; while thou in thy need, to what nations or what towns of Italy shalt thou not sue! Again is analien bride the source of all that Teucrian woe, again a foreignmarriage-chamber. . . . Yield not thou to distresses, but all the boldergo forth to meet them, as thy fortune shall allow thee way. The path ofrescue, little as thou deemest it, shall first open from a Greciantown. '

In such words the Sibyl of Cumae chants from the shrine her perplexingterrors, echoing through the cavern truth wrapped in obscurity: so doesApollo clash the reins and ply the goad in her maddened breast. So soonas the spasm ceased and the raving lips sank to silence, Aeneas the herobegins: 'No shape of toil, O maiden, rises strange or sudden on mysight; all this ere now have I guessed and inly rehearsed in spirit. Onething I pray; since here is the gate named of the infernal king, and thedarkling marsh of Acheron's overflow, be it given me to go to my belovedfather, to see him face to face; teach thou the way, and open theconsecrated portals. Him on these shoulders I rescued from encirclingflames and a thousand pursuing weapons, and brought him safe from amidthe enemy; he accompanied my way over all the seas, and bore with me allthe threats of ocean and sky, in weakness, beyond his age's strength anddue. Nay, he it was who besought and enjoined me to seek thy grace anddraw nigh thy courts. Have pity, I beseech thee, on son and father, Ogracious one! for thou art all-powerful, nor in vain hath Hecate giventhee rule in the groves of Avernus. If Orpheus could call up his wife'sghost in the strength of his Thracian lyre and the music of thestrings, --if Pollux redeemed his brother by exchange of death, andpasses and repasses so often, --why make mention of great Theseus, why ofAlcides? I too am of Jove's sovereign race. '

[124-157]In such words he pleaded and clasped the altars; when thesoothsayer thus began to speak:

'O sprung of gods' blood, child of Anchises of Troy, easy is the descentinto hell; all night and day the gate of dark Dis stands open; but torecall thy steps and issue to upper air, this is the task and burden. Some few of gods' lineage have availed, such as Jupiter's graciousfavour or virtue's ardour hath upborne to heaven. Midway all is muffledin forest, and the black coils of Cocytus circle it round. Yet if thysoul is so passionate and so desirous twice to float across the Stygianlake, twice to see dark Tartarus, and thy pleasure is to plunge into themad task, learn what must first be accomplished. Hidden in a shady treeis a bough with leafage and pliant shoot all of gold, consecrate tonether Juno, wrapped in the depth of woodland and shut in by dim duskyvales. But to him only who first hath plucked the golden-tressedfruitage from the tree is it given to enter the hidden places of theearth. This hath beautiful Proserpine ordained to be borne to her forher proper gift. The first torn away, a second fills the place in gold, and the spray burgeons with even such ore again. So let thine eyes traceit home, and thine hand pluck it duly when found; for lightly andunreluctant will it follow if thine is fate's summons; else will nostrength of thine avail to conquer it nor hard steel to cut it away. Yetagain, a friend of thine lies a lifeless corpse, alas! thou knowest itnot, and defiles all the fleet with death, while thou seekest ourcounsel and lingerest in our courts. First lay him in his resting-placeand hide him in the tomb; lead thither black cattle; be this first thineexpiation; so at last shalt thou behold the Stygian groves and the realmuntrodden of the living. ' She spoke, and her lips shut to silence. 

Aeneas goes forth, and leaves the cavern with fixed eyes and sadcountenance, his soul revolving inly the unseen [158-194]issues. By hisside goes faithful Achates, and plants his footsteps in equalperplexity. Long they ran on in mutual change of talk; of what lifelesscomrade spoke the soothsayer, of what body for burial? And even as theycame, they see on the dry beach Misenus cut off by untimely death, Misenus the Aeolid, excelled of none other in stirring men with brazenbreath and kindling battle with his trumpet-note. He had been attendanton mighty Hector; in Hector's train he waged battle, renowned alike forbugle and spear: after victorious Achilles robbed him of life thevaliant hero had joined Dardanian Aeneas' company, and followed nomeaner leader. But now, while he makes his hollow shell echo over theseas, ah fool! and calls the gods to rival his blast, jealous Triton, ifbelief is due, had caught him among the rocks and sunk him in thefoaming waves. So all surrounded him with loud murmur and cries, goodAeneas the foremost. Then weeping they quickly hasten on the Sibyl'sorders, and work hard to pile trees for the altar of burial, and heap itup into the sky. They move into the ancient forest, the deep coverts ofgame; pitch-pines fall flat, ilex rings to the stroke of axes, and ashenbeams and oak are split in clefts with wedges; they roll in hugemountain-ashes from the hills. Aeneas likewise is first in the work, andcheers on his crew and arms himself with their weapons. And alone withhis sad heart he ponders it all, gazing on the endless forest, andutters this prayer: 'If but now that bough of gold would shew itself tous on the tree in this depth of woodland! since all the soothsayer'stale of thee, Misenus, was, alas! too truly spoken. ' Scarcely had hesaid thus, when twin doves haply came flying down the sky, and lit onthe green sod right under his eyes. Then the kingly hero knows them forhis mother's birds, and joyfully prays: 'Ah, be my guides, if way therebe, and direct your aëry passage into the groves [195-230]where therich bough overshadows the fertile ground! and thou, O goddess mother, fail not our wavering fortune. ' So spoke he and stayed his steps, marking what they signify, whither they urge their way. Feeding andflying they advance at such distance as following eyes could keep themin view; then, when they came to Avernus' pestilent gorge, they towerswiftly, and sliding down through the liquid air, choose their seat andlight side by side on a tree, through whose boughs shone out thecontrasting flicker of gold. As in chill mid-winter the woodland is wontto blossom with the strange leafage of the mistletoe, sown on an alientree and wreathing the smooth stems with burgeoning saffron; so on theshadowy ilex seemed that leafy gold, so the foil tinkled in the lightbreeze. Immediately Aeneas seizes it and eagerly breaks off itsresistance, and carries it beneath the Sibyl's roof. 

And therewithal the Teucrians on the beach wept Misenus, and bore thelast rites to the thankless ashes. First they build up a vast pyre ofresinous billets and sawn oak, whose sides they entwine with dark leavesand plant funereal cypresses in front, and adorn it above with hisshining armour. Some prepare warm water in cauldrons bubbling over theflames, and wash and anoint the chill body, and make their moan; then, their weeping done, lay his limbs on the pillow, and spread over itcrimson raiment, the accustomed pall. Some uplift the heavy bier, amelancholy service, and with averted faces in their ancestral fashionhold and thrust in the torch. Gifts of frankincense, food, and bowls ofolive oil, are poured and piled upon the fire. After the embers sank inand the flame died away, they soaked with wine the remnant of thirstyashes, and Corynaeus gathered the bones and shut them in an urn ofbrass; and he too thrice encircled his comrades with fresh water, andcleansed them with light spray sprinkled from a [231-267]bough offruitful olive, and spoke the last words of all. But good Aeneas heaps amighty mounded tomb over him, with his own armour and his oar andtrumpet, beneath a skyey mountain that now is called Misenus after him, and keeps his name immortal from age to age. 

This done, he hastens to fulfil the Sibyl's ordinance. A deep caveyawned dreary and vast, shingle-strewn, sheltered by the black lake andthe gloom of the forests; over it no flying things could wing their wayunharmed, such a vapour streamed from the dark gorge and rose into theoverarching sky. Here the priestess first arrays four black-bodiedbullocks and pours wine upon their forehead; and plucking the topmosthairs from between the horns, lays them on the sacred fire forfirst-offering, calling aloud on Hecate, mistress of heaven and hell. Others lay knives beneath, and catch the warm blood in cups. Aeneashimself smites with the sword a black-fleeced she-lamb to the mother ofthe Eumenides and her mighty sister, and a barren heifer, Proserpine, tothee. Then he uprears darkling altars to the Stygian king, and layswhole carcases of bulls upon the flames, pouring fat oil over theblazing entrails. And lo! about the first rays of sunrise the groundmoaned underfoot, and the woodland ridges began to stir, and dogs seemedto howl through the dusk as the goddess came. 'Apart, ah keep apart, Oye unsanctified!' cries the soothsayer; 'retire from all the grove; andthou, stride on and unsheath thy steel; now is need of courage, OAeneas, now of strong resolve. ' So much she spoke, and plunged madlyinto the cavern's opening; he with unflinching steps keeps pace with hisadvancing guide. 

Gods who are sovereign over souls! silent ghosts, and Chaos andPhlegethon, the wide dumb realm of night! as I have heard, so let metell, and according to your will unfold things sunken deep under earthin gloom. 

[268-303]They went darkling through the dusk beneath the solitarynight, through the empty dwellings and bodiless realm of Dis; even asone walks in the forest beneath the jealous light of a doubtful moon, when Jupiter shrouds the sky in shadow and black night blots out theworld. Right in front of the doorway and in the entry of the jaws ofhell Grief and avenging Cares have made their bed; there dwell wanSicknesses and gloomy Eld, and Fear, and ill-counselling Hunger, andloathly Want, shapes terrible to see; and Death and Travail, and therebySleep, Death's kinsman, and the Soul's guilty Joys, and death-dealingWar full in the gateway, and the Furies in their iron cells, and madDiscord with bloodstained fillets enwreathing her serpent locks. 

Midway an elm, shadowy and high, spreads her boughs and secular arms, where, one saith, idle Dreams dwell clustering, and cling under everyleaf. And monstrous creatures besides, many and diverse, keep covert atthe gates, Centaurs and twy-shaped Scyllas, and the hundredfoldBriareus, and the beast of Lerna hissing horribly, and the Chimaeraarmed with flame, Gorgons and Harpies, and the body of the triformshade. Here Aeneas snatches at his sword in a sudden flutter of terror, and turns the naked edge on them as they come; and did not his wisefellow-passenger remind him that these lives flit thin and unessentialin the hollow mask of body, he would rush on and vainly lash throughphantoms with his steel. 

Hence a road leads to Tartarus and Acheron's wave. Here the dreary poolswirls thick in muddy eddies and disgorges into Cocytus with its load ofsand. Charon, the dread ferryman, guards these flowing streams, raggedand awful, his chin covered with untrimmed masses of hoary hair, and hisglassy eyes aflame; his soiled raiment hangs knotted from his shoulders. Himself he plies the pole and trims the sails of his vessel, thesteel-blue galley with freight [304-336]of dead; stricken now in years, but a god's old age is lusty and green. Hither all crowded, and rushedstreaming to the bank, matrons and men and high-hearted heroes dead anddone with life, boys and unwedded girls, and children laid young on thebier before their parents' eyes, multitudinous as leaves fall droppingin the forests at autumn's earliest frost, or birds swarm landward fromthe deep gulf, when the chill of the year routs them overseas and drivesthem to sunny lands. They stood pleading for the first passage across, and stretched forth passionate hands to the farther shore. But the grimsailor admits now one and now another, while some he pushes back farapart on the strand. Moved with marvel at the confused throng: 'Say, Omaiden, ' cries Aeneas, 'what means this flocking to the river? of whatare the souls so fain? or what difference makes these retire from thebanks, those go with sweeping oars over the leaden waterways?'

To him the long-lived priestess thus briefly returned: 'Seed ofAnchises, most sure progeny of gods, thou seest the deep pools ofCocytus and the Stygian marsh, by whose divinity the gods fear to swearfalsely. All this crowd thou discernest is helpless and unsepultured;Charon is the ferryman; they who ride on the wave found a tomb. Nor isit given to cross the awful banks and hoarse streams ere the dust hathfound a resting-place. An hundred years they wander here flitting aboutthe shore; then at last they gain entrance, and revisit the pools sosorely desired. '

Anchises' son stood still, and ponderingly stayed his footsteps, pityingat heart their cruel lot. There he discerns, mournful and unhonoureddead, Leucaspis and Orontes, captains of the Lycian squadron, whom, asthey sailed together from Troy over gusty seas, the south windoverwhelmed and wrapped the waters round ship and men. 

[337-369]Lo, there went by Palinurus the steersman, who of late, whilehe watched the stars on their Libyan passage, had slipped from the sternand fallen amid the waves. To him, when he first knew the melancholyform in that depth of shade, he thus opens speech: 'What god, OPalinurus, reft thee from us and sank thee amid the seas? forth andtell. For in this single answer Apollo deceived me, never found falsebefore, when he prophesied thee safety on ocean and arrival on theAusonian coasts. See, is this his promise-keeping?'

And he: 'Neither did Phoebus on his oracular seat delude thee, O prince, Anchises' son, nor did any god drown me in the sea. For while I clung tomy appointed charge and governed our course, I pulled the tiller with mein my fall, and the shock as I slipped wrenched it away. By the roughseas I swear, fear for myself never wrung me so sore as for thy ship, lest, the rudder lost and the pilot struck away, those gathering wavesmight master it. Three wintry nights in the water the blustering southdrove me over the endless sea; scarcely on the fourth dawn I descriedItaly as I rose on the climbing wave. Little by little I swam shoreward;already I clung safe; but while, encumbered with my dripping raiment, Icaught with crooked fingers at the jagged needles of mountain rock, thebarbarous people attacked me in arms and ignorantly deemed me a prize. Now the wave holds me, and the winds toss me on the shore. By heaven'spleasant light and breezes I beseech thee, by thy father, by Iülus thyrising hope, rescue me from these distresses, O unconquered one! Eitherdo thou, for thou canst, cast earth over me and again seek the haven ofVelia; or do thou, if in any wise that may be, if in any wise thegoddess who bore thee shews a way, --for not without divine will do Ideem thou wilt float across these vast rivers and the Stygianpool, --lend me a pitying [370-403]hand, and bear me over the waves inthy company, that at least in death I may find a quiet resting-place. '

Thus he ended, and the soothsayer thus began: 'Whence, O Palinurus, thisfierce longing of thine? Shalt thou without burial behold the Stygianwaters and the awful river of the Furies? Cease to hope prayers may bendthe decrees of heaven. But take my words to thy memory, for comfort inthy woeful case: far and wide shall the bordering cities be driven bycelestial portents to appease thy dust; they shall rear a tomb, and paythe tomb a yearly offering, and for evermore shall the place keepPalinurus' name. ' The words soothed away his distress, and for a whiledrove grief away from his sorrowing heart; he is glad in the land of hisname. 

So they complete their journey's beginning, and draw nigh the river. Just then the waterman descried them from the Stygian wave advancingthrough the silent woodland and turning their feet towards the bank, andopens on them in these words of challenge: 'Whoso thou art who marchestin arms towards our river, forth and say, there as thou art, why thoucomest, and stay thine advance. This is the land of Shadows, of Sleep, and slumberous Night; no living body may the Stygian hull convey. Nortruly had I joy of taking Alcides on the lake for passenger, nor Theseusand Pirithoüs, born of gods though they were and unconquered in might. He laid fettering hand on the warder of Tartarus, and dragged himcowering from the throne of my lord the King; they essayed to ravish ourmistress from the bridal chamber of Dis. ' Thereto the Amphrysiansoothsayer made brief reply: 'No such plot is here; be not moved; nor doour weapons offer violence; the huge gatekeeper may bark on for ever inhis cavern and affright the bloodless ghosts; Proserpine may keep herhonour within her uncle's gates. Aeneas of Troy, renowned [404-437]ingoodness as in arms, goes down to meet his father in the deep shades ofErebus. If the sight of such affection stirs thee in nowise, yet thisbough' (she discovers the bough hidden in her raiment) 'thou must know. 'Then his heaving breast allays its anger, and he says no more; butmarvelling at the awful gift, the fated rod so long unseen, he steers inhis dusky vessel and draws to shore. Next he routs out the souls thatsate on the long benches, and clears the thwarts, while he takes mightyAeneas on board. The galley groaned under the weight in all her seams, and the marsh-water leaked fast in. At length prophetess and prince arelanded unscathed on the ugly ooze and livid sedge. 

This realm rings with the triple-throated baying of vast Cerberus, couched huge in the cavern opposite; to whom the prophetess, seeing theserpents already bristling up on his neck, throws a cake made slumberouswith honey and drugged grain. He, with threefold jaws gaping in ravenoushunger, catches it when thrown, and sinks to earth with monstrous bodyoutstretched, and sprawling huge over all his den. The warderoverwhelmed, Aeneas makes entrance, and quickly issues from the bank ofthe irremeable wave. 

Immediately wailing voices are loud in their ears, the souls of babiescrying on the doorway sill, whom, torn from the breast and portionlessin life's sweetness, a dark day cut off and drowned in bitter death. Hard by them are those condemned to death on false accusation. Neitherindeed are these dwellings assigned without lot and judgment; Minospresides and shakes the urn; he summons a council of the silent people, and inquires of their lives and charges. Next in order have thesemourners their place whose own innocent hands dealt them death, whoflung away their souls in hatred of the day. How fain were they now inupper air to endure their poverty and [438-472]sore travail! It may notbe; the unlovely pool locks them in her gloomy wave, and Styx pours herninefold barrier between. And not far from here are shewn stretching onevery side the Wailing Fields; so they call them by name. Here they whompitiless love hath wasted in cruel decay hide among untrodden ways, shrouded in embosoming myrtle thickets; not death itself ends theirdistresses. In this region he discerns Phaedra and Procris and woefulEriphyle, shewing on her the wounds of her merciless son, and Evadne andPasiphaë; Laodamia goes in their company, and she who was once Caeneusand a man, now woman, and again returned by fate into her shape of old. Among whom Dido the Phoenician, fresh from her death-wound, wandered inthe vast forest; by her the Trojan hero stood, and knew the dim formthrough the darkness, even as the moon at the month's beginning to himwho sees or thinks he sees her rising through the vapours; he let tearsfall, and spoke to her lovingly and sweet:

'Alas, Dido! so the news was true that reached me; thou didst perish, and the sword sealed thy doom! Ah me, was I cause of thy death? By thestars I swear, by the heavenly powers and all that is sacred beneath theearth, unwillingly, O queen, I left thy shore. But the gods, at whoseorders now I pass through this shadowy place, this land of moulderingovergrowth and deep night, the gods' commands drove me forth; nor couldI deem my departure would bring thee pain so great as this. Stay thyfootstep, and withdraw not from our gaze. From whom fliest thou? thelast speech of thee fate ordains me is this. '

In such words and with starting tears Aeneas soothed the burning andfierce-eyed soul. She turned away with looks fixed fast on the ground, stirred no more in countenance by the speech he essays than if she stoodin iron flint or Marpesian stone. At length she started, and fledwrathfully [473-508]into the shadowy woodland, where Sychaeus, herancient husband, responds to her distresses and equals her affection. Yet Aeneas, dismayed by her cruel doom, follows her far on her way withpitying tears. 

Thence he pursues his appointed path. And now they trod those utmostfields where the renowned in war have their haunt apart. Here Tydeusmeets him; here Parthenopaeus, glorious in arms, and the pallid phantomof Adrastus; here the Dardanians long wept on earth and fallen in thewar; sighing he discerns all their long array, Glaucus and Medon andThersilochus, the three children of Antenor, and Polyphoetes, Ceres'priest, and Idaeus yet charioted, yet grasping his arms. The soulsthrong round him to right and left; nor is one look enough; lingeringdelighted, they pace by his side and enquire wherefore he is come. Butthe princes of the Grecians and Agamemnon's armies, when they see himglittering in arms through the gloom, hurry terror-stricken away; someturn backward, as when of old they fled to the ships; some raise theirvoice faintly, and gasp out a broken ineffectual cry. 

And here he saw Deïphobus son of Priam, with face cruelly torn, face andboth hands, and ears lopped from his mangled temples, and nostrilsmaimed by a shameful wound. Barely he knew the cowering form that hidits dreadful punishment; then he springs to accost it in familiarspeech:

'Deïphobus mighty in arms, seed of Teucer's royal blood, whosewantonness of vengeance was so cruel? who was allowed to use thee thus?Rumour reached me that on that last night, outwearied with endlessslaughter, thou hadst sunk on the heap of mingled carnage. Then mine ownhand reared an empty tomb on the Rhoetean shore, mine own voice thricecalled aloud upon thy ghost. Thy name and armour keep the spot; thee, Omy friend, I could not see nor lay in the native earth I left. '

[509-541]Whereto the son of Priam: 'In nothing, O my friend, wert thouwanting; thou hast paid the full to Deïphobus and the dead man's shade. But me my fate and the Laconian woman's murderous guilt thus draggeddown to doom; these are the records of her leaving. For how we spentthat last night in delusive gladness thou knowest, and must needsremember too well. When the fated horse leapt down on the steep towersof Troy, bearing armed infantry for the burden of its womb, she, infeigned procession, led round our Phrygian women with Bacchic cries;herself she upreared a mighty flame amid them, and called the Greciansout of the fortress height. Then was I fast in mine ill-fated bridalchamber, deep asleep and outworn with my charge, and lay overwhelmed inslumber sweet and profound and most like to easeful death. Meanwhilethat crown of wives removes all the arms from my dwelling, and slips outthe faithful sword from beneath my head: she calls Menelaus into thehouse and flings wide the gateway: be sure she hoped her lover wouldmagnify the gift, and so she might quench the fame of her ill deeds ofold. Why do I linger? They burst into the chamber, they and the Aeolid, counsellor of crime, in their company. Gods, recompense the Greeks eventhus, if with righteous lips I call for vengeance! But come, tell inturn what hap hath brought thee hither yet alive. Comest thou driven onocean wanderings, or by promptings from heaven? or what fortune keepsthee from rest, that thou shouldst draw nigh these sad sunlessdwellings, this disordered land?'

In this change of talk Dawn had already crossed heaven's mid axle on herrose-charioted way; and haply had they thus drawn out all the allottedtime; but the Sibyl made brief warning speech to her companion: 'Nightfalls, Aeneas; we waste the hours in weeping. Here is the place wherethe road disparts; by this that runs to the right [542-574]under greatDis' city is our path to Elysium; but the leftward wreaks vengeance onthe wicked and sends them to unrelenting hell. ' But Deïphobus: 'Be notangered, mighty priestess; I will depart, I will refill my place andreturn into darkness. Go, glory of our people, go, enjoy a fairer fatethan mine. ' Thus much he spoke, and on the word turned away hisfootsteps. 

Aeneas looks swiftly back, and sees beneath the cliff on the left hand awide city, girt with a triple wall and encircled by a racing river ofboiling flame, Tartarean Phlegethon, that echoes over its rolling rocks. In front is the gate, huge and pillared with solid adamant, that nowarring force of men nor the very habitants of heaven may avail tooverthrow; it stands up a tower of iron, and Tisiphone sitting girt inbloodstained pall keeps sleepless watch at the entry by night and day. Hence moans are heard and fierce lashes resound, with the clank of ironand dragging chains. Aeneas stopped and hung dismayed at the tumult. 'What shapes of crime are here? declare, O maiden; or what thepunishment that pursues them, and all this upsurging wail?' Then thesoothsayer thus began to speak: 'Illustrious chief of Troy, no pure footmay tread these guilty courts; but to me Hecate herself, when she gaveme rule over the groves of Avernus, taught how the gods punish, andguided me through all her realm. Gnosian Rhadamanthus here holdsunrelaxing sway, chastises secret crime revealed, and exacts confession, wheresoever in the upper world one vainly exultant in stolen guilt hathtill the dusk of death kept clear from the evil he wrought. Straightwayavenging Tisiphone, girt with her scourge, tramples down the shiveringsinners, menaces them with the grim snakes in her left hand, and summonsforth her sisters in merciless train. Then at last the sacred gates areflung open and grate on the jarring hinge. Markest thou what sentry isseated in [575-609]the doorway? what shape guards the threshold? Moregrim within sits the monstrous Hydra with her fifty black yawningthroats: and Tartarus' self gapes sheer and strikes into the gloomthrough twice the space that one looks upward to Olympus and the skyeyheaven. Here Earth's ancient children, the Titans' brood, hurled down bythe thunderbolt, lie wallowing in the abyss. Here likewise I saw thetwin Aloïds, enormous of frame, who essayed with violent hands to pluckdown high heaven and thrust Jove from his upper realm. Likewise I sawSalmoneus in the cruel payment he gives for mocking Jove's flame andOlympus' thunders. Borne by four horses and brandishing a torch, he rodein triumph midway through the populous city of Grecian Elis, and claimedfor himself the worship of deity; madman! who would mimic thestorm-cloud and the inimitable bolt with brass that rang under histrampling horse-hoofs. But the Lord omnipotent hurled his shaft throughthickening clouds (no firebrand his nor smoky glare of torches) anddashed him headlong in the fury of the whirlwind. Therewithal Tityosmight be seen, fosterling of Earth the mother of all, whose bodystretches over nine full acres, and a monstrous vulture with crookedbeak eats away the imperishable liver and the entrails that breed insuffering, and plunges deep into the breast that gives it food anddwelling; nor is any rest given to the fibres that ever grow anew. Whytell of the Lapithae, of Ixion and Pirithoüs? over whom a stone hangsjust slipping and just as though it fell; or the high banqueting couchesgleam golden-pillared, and the feast is spread in royal luxury beforetheir faces; couched hard by, the eldest of the Furies wards the tablesfrom their touch and rises with torch upreared and thunderous lips. Hereare they who hated their brethren while life endured, or struck a parentor entangled a client in wrong, or who brooded [610-643]alone overfound treasure and shared it not with their fellows, this the greatestmultitude of all; and they who were slain for adultery, and who followedunrighteous arms, and feared not to betray their masters' plighted hand. Imprisoned they await their doom. Seek not to be told that doom, thatfashion of fortune wherein they are sunk. Some roll a vast stone, orhang outstretched on the spokes of wheels; hapless Theseus sits andshall sit for ever, and Phlegyas in his misery gives counsel to all andwitnesses aloud through the gloom, _Learn by this warning to do justlyand not to slight the gods. _ This man sold his country for gold, andlaid her under a tyrant's sway; he set up and pulled down laws at aprice; this other forced his daughter's bridal chamber and a forbiddenmarriage; all dared some monstrous wickedness, and had success in whatthey dared. Not had I an hundred tongues, an hundred mouths, and a voiceof iron, could I sum up all the shapes of crime or name over all theirpunishments. '

Thus spoke Phoebus' long-lived priestess; then 'But come now, ' shecries; 'haste on the way and perfect the service begun; let us gofaster; I descry the ramparts cast in Cyclopean furnaces, and in frontthe arched gateway where they bid us lay the gifts foreordained. ' Sheended, and advancing side by side along the shadowy ways, they pass overand draw nigh the gates. Aeneas makes entrance, and sprinkling his bodywith fresh water, plants the bough full in the gateway. 

Now at length, this fully done, and the service of the goddessperfected, they came to the happy place, the green pleasances andblissful seats of the Fortunate Woodlands. Here an ampler air clothesthe meadows in lustrous sheen, and they know their own sun and astarlight of their own. Some exercise their limbs in tournament on thegreensward, contend in games, and wrestle on the yellow sand. Some[644-676]dance with beating footfall and lips that sing; with them isthe Thracian priest in sweeping robe, and makes music to their measureswith the notes' sevenfold interval, the notes struck now with hisfingers, now with his ivory rod. Here is Teucer's ancient brood, ageneration excellent in beauty, high-hearted heroes born in happieryears, Ilus and Assaracus, and Dardanus, founder of Troy. Afar hemarvels at the armour and chariots empty of their lords: their spearsstand fixed in the ground, and their unyoked horses pasture at largeover the plain: their life's delight in chariot and armour, their carein pasturing their sleek horses, follows them in like wise low underearth. Others, lo! he beholds feasting on the sward to right and left, and singing in chorus the glad Paean-cry, within a scented laurel-grovewhence Eridanus river surges upward full-volumed through the wood. Hereis the band of them who bore wounds in fighting for their country, andthey who were pure in priesthood while life endured, and the good poetswhose speech abased not Apollo; and they who made life beautiful by thearts of their invention, and who won by service a memory among men, thebrows of all girt with the snow-white fillet. To their encircling throngthe Sibyl spoke thus, and to Musaeus before them all; for he is midmostof all the multitude, and stands out head and shoulders among theirupward gaze:

'Tell, O blissful souls, and thou, poet most gracious, what region, whatplace hath Anchises for his own? For his sake are we come, and havesailed across the wide rivers of Erebus. '

And to her the hero thus made brief reply: 'None hath a fixed dwelling;we live in the shady woodlands; soft-swelling banks and meadows freshwith streams are our habitation. But you, if this be your heart'sdesire, scale this ridge, and I will even now set you on an easy[677-708]pathway. ' He spoke, and paced on before them, and from aboveshews the shining plains; thereafter they leave the mountain heights. 

But lord Anchises, deep in the green valley, was musing in earnestsurvey over the imprisoned souls destined to the daylight above, andhaply reviewing his beloved children and all the tale of his people, them and their fates and fortunes, their works and ways. And he, when hesaw Aeneas advancing to meet him over the greensward, stretched forthboth hands eagerly, while tears rolled over his cheeks, and his lipsparted in a cry: 'Art thou come at last, and hath thy love, O child ofmy desire, conquered the difficult road? Is it granted, O my son, togaze on thy face and hear and answer in familiar tones? Thus indeed Iforecast in spirit, counting the days between; nor hath my care misledme. What lands, what space of seas hast thou traversed to reach me, through what surge of perils, O my son! How I dreaded the realm of Libyamight work thee harm!'

And he: 'Thy melancholy phantom, thine, O my father, came before meoften and often, and drove me to steer to these portals. My fleet isanchored on the Tyrrhenian brine. Give thine hand to clasp, O my father, give it, and withdraw not from our embrace. '

So spoke he, his face wet with abundant weeping. Thrice there did heessay to fling his arms about his neck; thrice the phantom vainlygrasped fled out of his hands even as light wind, and most like tofluttering sleep. 

Meanwhile Aeneas sees deep withdrawn in the covert of the vale awoodland and rustling forest thickets, and the river of Lethe thatfloats past their peaceful dwellings. Around it flitted nations andpeoples innumerable; even as in the meadows when in clear summer weatherbees settle on the variegated flowers and stream round the snow-white[709-742]lilies, all the plain is murmurous with their humming. Aeneasstarts at the sudden view, and asks the reason he knows not; what arethose spreading streams, or who are they whose vast train fills thebanks? Then lord Anchises: 'Souls, for whom second bodies are destinedand due, drink at the wave of the Lethean stream the heedless water oflong forgetfulness. These of a truth have I long desired to tell andshew thee face to face, and number all the generation of thy children, that so thou mayest the more rejoice with me in finding Italy. '--'Ofather, must we think that any souls travel hence into upper air, andreturn again to bodily fetters? why this their strange sad longing forthe light?' 'I will tell, ' rejoins Anchises, 'nor will I hold thee insuspense, my son. ' And he unfolds all things in order one by one. 

'First of all, heaven and earth and the liquid fields, the shining orbof the moon and the Titanian star, doth a spirit sustain inly, and asoul shed abroad in them sways all their members and mingles in themighty frame. Thence is the generation of man and beast, the life ofwinged things, and the monstrous forms that ocean breeds under hisglittering floor. Those seeds have fiery force and divine birth, so faras they are not clogged by taint of the body and dulled by earthy framesand limbs ready to die. Hence is it they fear and desire, sorrow andrejoice; nor can they pierce the air while barred in the blind darknessof their prison-house. Nay, and when the last ray of life is gone, notyet, alas! does all their woe, nor do all the plagues of the body whollyleave them free; and needs must be that many a long ingrained evilshould take root marvellously deep. Therefore they are schooled inpunishment, and pay all the forfeit of a lifelong ill; some are hungstretched to the viewless winds; some have the taint of guilt washed outbeneath the dreary deep, or burned away in fire. We [743-777]suffer, each a several ghost; thereafter we are sent to the broad spaces ofElysium, some few of us to possess the happy fields; till length of dayscompleting time's circle takes out the ingrained soilure and leavesuntainted the ethereal sense and pure spiritual flame. All these beforethee, when the wheel of a thousand years hath come fully round, a Godsummons in vast train to the river of Lethe, that so they may regain inforgetfulness the slopes of upper earth, and begin to desire to returnagain into the body. '

Anchises ceased, and leads his son and the Sibyl likewise amid theassembled murmurous throng, and mounts a hillock whence he might scanall the long ranks and learn their countenances as they came. 

'Now come, the glory hereafter to follow our Dardanian progeny, theposterity to abide in our Italian people, illustrious souls andinheritors of our name to be, these will I rehearse, and instruct theeof thy destinies. He yonder, seest thou? the warrior leaning on hispointless spear, holds the nearest place allotted in our groves, andshall rise first into the air of heaven from the mingling blood ofItaly, Silvius of Alban name, the child of thine age, whom late in thylength of days thy wife Lavinia shall nurture in the woodland, king andfather of kings; from him in Alba the Long shall our house havedominion. He next him is Procas, glory of the Trojan race; and Capys andNumitor; and he who shall renew thy name, Silvius Aeneas, eminent alikein goodness or in arms, if ever he shall receive his kingdom in Alba. Men of men! see what strength they display, and wear the civic oakshading their brows. They shall establish Nomentum and Gabii and Fidenacity, they the Collatine hill-fortress, Pometii and the Fort of Inuus, Bola and Cora: these shall be names that are now nameless lands. Nay, Romulus likewise, seed of Mavors, shall join [778-810]his grandsire'scompany, from his mother Ilia's nurture and Assaracus' blood. Seest thouhow the twin plumes straighten on his crest, and his father's ownemblazonment already marks him for upper air? Behold, O son! by hisaugury shall Rome the renowned fill earth with her empire and heavenwith her pride, and gird about seven fortresses with her single wall, prosperous mother of men; even as our lady of Berecyntus rides in herchariot turret-crowned through the Phrygian cities, glad in the gods shehath borne, clasping an hundred of her children's children, allhabitants of heaven, all dwellers on the upper heights. Hither now bendthy twin-eyed gaze; behold this people, the Romans that are thine. Hereis Caesar and all Iülus' posterity that shall arise under the mightycope of heaven. Here is he, he of whose promise once and again thouhearest, Caesar Augustus, a god's son, who shall again establish theages of gold in Latium over the fields that once were Saturn's realm, and carry his empire afar to Garamant and Indian, to the land that liesbeyond our stars, beyond the sun's yearlong ways, where Atlas thesky-bearer wheels on his shoulder the glittering star-spangled pole. Before his coming even now the kingdoms of the Caspian shudder atoracular answers, and the Maeotic land and the mouths of sevenfold Nileflutter in alarm. Nor indeed did Alcides traverse such spaces of earth, though he pierced the brazen-footed deer, or though he stilled theErymanthian woodlands and made Lerna tremble at his bow: nor he whosways his team with reins of vine, Liber the conqueror, when he driveshis tigers from Nysa's lofty crest. And do we yet hesitate to givevalour scope in deeds, or shrink in fear from setting foot on Ausonianland? Ah, and who is he apart, marked out with sprays of olive, offeringsacrifice? I know the locks and hoary chin of the king of Rome who shallestablish the infant city in his [811-843]laws, sent from little Cures'sterile land to the majesty of empire. To him Tullus shall next succeed, who shall break the peace of his country and stir to arms men rustedfrom war and armies now disused to triumphs; and hard on himover-vaunting Ancus follows, even now too elate in popular breath. Wiltthou see also the Tarquin kings, and the haughty soul of Brutus theAvenger, and the fasces regained? He shall first receive a consul'spower and the merciless axes, and when his children would stir freshwar, the father, for fair freedom's sake, shall summon them to doom. Unhappy! yet howsoever posterity shall take the deed, love of countryand limitless passion for honour shall prevail. Nay, behold apart theDecii and the Drusi, Torquatus with his cruel axe, and Camillusreturning with the standards. Yonder souls likewise, whom thoudiscernest gleaming in equal arms, at one now, while shut in Night, ahme! what mutual war, what battle-lines and bloodshed shall they arouse, so they attain the light of the living! father-in-law descending fromthe Alpine barriers and the fortress of the Dweller Alone, son-in-lawfacing him with the embattled East. Nay, O my children, harden not yourhearts to such warfare, neither turn upon her own heart the masteringmight of your country; and thou, be thou first to forgive, who drawestthy descent from heaven; cast down the weapons from thy hand, O blood ofmine. . . . He shall drive his conquering chariot to the Capitolineheight triumphant over Corinth, glorious in Achaean slaughter. He shalluproot Argos and Agamemnonian Mycenae, and the Aeacid's own heir, theseed of Achilles mighty in arms, avenging his ancestors in Troy andMinerva's polluted temple. Who might leave thee, lordly Cato, or thee, Cossus, to silence? who the Gracchan family, or these two sons of theScipios, a double thunderbolt of war, Libya's bale? and Fabricius potentin poverty, or [844-875]thee, Serranus, sowing in the furrow? Whitherwhirl you me all breathless, O Fabii? thou art he, the most mighty, theone man whose lingering retrieves our State. Others shall beat out thebreathing bronze to softer lines, I believe it well; shall draw livinglineaments from the marble; the cause shall be more eloquent on theirlips; their pencil shall portray the pathways of heaven, and tell thestars in their arising: be thy charge, O Roman, to rule the nations inthine empire; this shall be thine art, to lay down the law of peace, tobe merciful to the conquered and beat the haughty down. '

Thus lord Anchises, and as they marvel, he so pursues: 'Look howMarcellus the conqueror marches glorious in the splendid spoils, towering high above them all! He shall stay the Roman State, reelingbeneath the invading shock, shall ride down Carthaginian and insurgentGaul, and a third time hang up the captured armour before lordQuirinus. '

And at this Aeneas, for he saw going by his side one excellent in beautyand glittering in arms, but his brow had little cheer, and his eyeslooked down:

'Who, O my father, is he who thus attends him on his way? son, or otherof his children's princely race? How his comrades murmur around him! howgoodly of presence he is! but dark Night flutters round his head withmelancholy shade. '

Then lord Anchises with welling tears began: 'O my son, ask not of thegreat sorrow of thy people. Him shall fate but shew to earth, and suffernot to stay further. Too mighty, lords of heaven, did you deem the broodof Rome, had this your gift been abiding. What moaning of men shallarise from the Field of Mavors by the imperial city! what a funeraltrain shalt thou see, O Tiber, as thou flowest by the new-made grave!Neither shall the boyhood of any [876-901]of Ilian race raise his Latinforefathers' hope so high; nor shall the land of Romulus ever boast ofany fosterling like this. Alas his goodness, alas his antique honour, and right hand invincible in war! none had faced him unscathed in armedshock, whether he met the foe on foot, or ran his spurs into the flanksof his foaming horse. Ah me, the pity of thee, O boy! if in any wisethou breakest the grim bar of fate, thou shalt be Marcellus. Give melilies in full hands; let me strew bright blossoms, and these gifts atleast let me lavish on my descendant's soul, and do the unavailingservice. '

Thus they wander up and down over the whole region of broad vaporousplains, and scan all the scene. And when Anchises had led his son overit, each point by each, and kindled his spirit with passion for theglories on their way, he tells him thereafter of the war he next mustwage, and instructs him of the Laurentine peoples and the city ofLatinus, and in what wise each task may be turned aside or borne. 

There are twin portals of Sleep, whereof the one is fabled of horn, andby it real shadows are given easy outlet; the other shining white ofpolished ivory, but false visions issue upward from the ghostly world. With these words then Anchises follows forth his son and the Sibyltogether there, and dismisses them by the ivory gate. He pursues his wayto the ships and revisits his comrades; then bears on to Caieta's havenstraight along the shore. The anchor is cast from the prow; the sternsare grounded on the beach. 

BOOK SEVENTH

THE LANDING IN LATIUM, AND THE ROLL OF THE ARMIES OF ITALY

Thou also, Caieta, nurse of Aeneas, gavest our shores an everlastingrenown in death; and still thine honour haunts thy resting-place, and aname in broad Hesperia, if that be glory, marks thy dust. But when thelast rites are duly paid, and the mound smoothed over the grave, goodAeneas, now the high seas are hushed, bears on under sail and leaves hishaven. Breezes blow into the night, and the white moonshine speeds themon; the sea glitters in her quivering radiance. Soon they skirt theshores of Circe's land, where the rich daughter of the Sun makes heruntrodden groves echo with ceaseless song; and her stately house glowsnightlong with burning odorous cedarwood, as she runs over her delicateweb with the ringing comb. Hence are heard afar angry cries of lionschafing at their fetters and roaring in the deep night; bears andbristly swine rage in their pens, and vast shapes of wolves howl; whomwith her potent herbs the deadly divine Circe had disfashioned, face andbody, into wild beasts from the likeness of men. But lest the goodTrojans might suffer so dread a change, might enter her haven or drawnigh the ominous shores, Neptune filled [23-55]their sails withfavourable winds, and gave them escape, and bore them past the seethingshallows. 

And now the sea reddened with shafts of light, and high in heaven theyellow dawn shone rose-charioted; when the winds fell, and every breathsank suddenly, and the oar-blades toil through the heavy ocean-floor. And on this Aeneas descries from sea a mighty forest. Midway in it thepleasant Tiber stream breaks to sea in swirling eddies, laden withyellow sand. Around and above fowl many in sort, that haunt his banksand river-channel, solaced heaven with song and flew about the forest. He orders his crew to bend their course and turn their prows to land, and glides joyfully into the shady river. 

 * * * * *

Forth now, Erato! and I will unfold who were the kings, what the tidesof circumstance, how it was with ancient Latium when first that foreignarmy drew their fleet ashore on Ausonia's coast; I will recall thepreluding of battle. Thou, divine one, inspire thou thy poet. I willtell of grim wars, tell of embattled lines, of kings whom honour droveon death, of the Tyrrhenian forces, and all Hesperia enrolled in arms. Agreater history opens before me, a greater work I essay. 

Latinus the King, now growing old, ruled in a long peace over quiettilth and town. He, men say, was sprung of Faunus and the nymph Maricaof Laurentum. Faunus' father was Picus; and he boasts himself, Saturn, thy son; thou art the first source of their blood. Son of his, by divineordinance, and male descent was none, cut off in the early spring ofyouth. One alone kept the household and its august home, a daughter nowripe for a husband and of full years for marriage. Many wooed her fromwide Latium and all Ausonia. Fairest and foremost of all [56-93]isTurnus, of long and lordly ancestry; but boding signs from heaven, manyand terrible, bar the way. Within the palace, in the lofty inner courts, was a laurel of sacred foliage, guarded in awe through many years, whichlord Latinus, it was said, himself found and dedicated to Phoebus whenfirst he would build his citadel; and from it gave his settlers theirname, Laurentines. High atop of it, wonderful to tell, bees borne withloud humming across the liquid air girt it thickly about, and withinterlinked feet hung in a sudden swarm from the leafy bough. Straightway the prophet cries: 'I see a foreigner draw nigh, an armyfrom the same quarter seek the same quarter, and reign high in ourfortress. ' Furthermore, while maiden Lavinia stands beside her fatherfeeding the altars with holy fuel, she was seen, oh, horror! to catchfire in her long tresses, and burn with flickering flame in all herarray, her queenly hair lit up, lit up her jewelled circlet; till, enwreathed in smoke and lurid light, she scattered fire over all thepalace. That sight was rumoured wonderful and terrible. Herself, theyprophesied, she should be glorious in fame and fortune; but a great warwas foreshadowed for her people. But the King, troubled by the omen, visits the oracle of his father Faunus the soothsayer, and the grovesdeep under Albunea, where, queen of the woods, she echoes from her holywell, and breathes forth a dim and deadly vapour. Hence do the tribes ofItaly and all the Oenotrian land seek answers in perplexity; hither thepriest bears his gifts, and when he hath lain down and sought slumberunder the silent night on the spread fleeces of slaughtered sheep, seesmany flitting phantoms of wonderful wise, hears manifold voices, andattains converse of the gods, and hath speech with Acheron and the deeptract of hell. Here then, likewise seeking an answer, lord Latinus paidfit sacrifice of an hundred woolly ewes, and [94-127]lay couched on thestrewn fleeces they had worn. Out of the lofty grove a sudden voice wasuttered: 'Seek not, O my child, to unite thy daughter in Latinespousals, nor trust her to the bridal chambers ready to thine hand;foreigners shall come to be thy sons, whose blood shall raise our nameto heaven, and the children of whose race shall see, where the circlingsun looks on either ocean, all the rolling world swayed beneath theirfeet. ' This his father Faunus' answer and counsel given in the silentnight Latinus restrains not in his lips; but wide-flitting Rumour hadalready borne it round among the Ausonian cities, when the children ofLaomedon moored their fleet to the grassy slope of the river bank. 

Aeneas, with the foremost of his captains and fair Iülus, lay them downunder the boughs of a high tree and array the feast. They spread wheatencakes along the sward under their meats--so Jove on high prompted--andcrown the platter of corn with wilding fruits. Here haply when the restwas spent, and scantness of food set them to eat their thin bread, andwith hand and venturous teeth do violence to the round cakes fraughtwith fate and spare not the flattened squares: _Ha! Are we eating ourtables too?_ cries Iülus jesting, and stops. At once that accent heardset their toils a limit; and at once as he spoke his father caught itfrom his lips and hushed him, in amazement at the omen. Straightway'Hail, O land!' he cries, 'my destined inheritance! and hail, Ohousehold gods, faithful to your Troy! here is home; this is our nativecountry. For my father Anchises, now I remember it, bequeathed me thissecret of fate: "When hunger shall drive thee, O son, to consume thytables where the feast fails, on the unknown shores whither thou shaltsail; then, though outwearied, hope for home, and there at last letthine hand remember to set thy house's foundations and bulwarks. " Thiswas [128-162]the hunger, this the last that awaited us, to set thepromised end to our desolations . . . Up then, and, glad with the firstsunbeam, let us explore and search all abroad from our harbour, what isthe country, who its habitants, where is the town of the nation. Nowpour your cups to Jove, and call in prayer on Anchises our father, setting the wine again upon the board. ' So speaks he, and binding hisbrows with a leafy bough, he makes supplication to the Genius of theground, and Earth first of deities, and the Nymphs, and the Rivers yetunknown; then calls on Night and Night's rising signs, and next on Joveof Ida, and our lady of Phrygia, and on his twain parents, in heaven andin the under world. At this the Lord omnipotent thrice thundered sharpfrom high heaven, and with his own hand shook out for a sign in the skya cloud ablaze with luminous shafts of gold. A sudden rumour spreadsamong the Trojan array, that the day is come to found their destinedcity. Emulously they renew the feast, and, glad at the high omen, arraythe flagons and engarland the wine. 

Soon as the morrow bathed the lands in its dawning light, they part tosearch out the town, and the borders and shores of the nation: these arethe pools and spring of Numicus; this is the Tiber river; here dwell thebrave Latins. Then the seed of Anchises commands an hundred envoyschosen of every degree to go to the stately royal city, all with thewreathed boughs of Pallas, to bear him gifts and desire grace for theTeucrians. Without delay they hasten on their message, and advance withswift step. Himself he traces the city walls with a shallow trench, andbuilds on it; and in fashion of a camp girdles this first settlement onthe shore with mound and battlements. And now his men had traversedtheir way; they espied the towers and steep roofs of the Latins, anddrew near the wall. Before the city boys and men in their early[163-196]bloom exercise on horseback, and break in their teams on thedusty ground, or draw ringing bows, or hurl tough javelins from theshoulder, and contend in running and boxing: when a messenger ridingforward brings news to the ears of the aged King that mighty men arecome thither in unknown raiment. He gives orders to call them within hishouse, and takes his seat in the midst on his ancestral throne. Hishouse, stately and vast, crowned the city, upreared on an hundredcolumns, once the palace of Laurentian Picus, amid awful groves ofancestral sanctity. Here their kings receive the inaugural sceptre, andhave the fasces first raised before them; this temple was theirsenate-house; this their sacred banqueting-hall; here, after sacrificeof rams, the elders were wont to sit down at long tables. Further, therestood arow in the entry images of the forefathers of old in ancientcedar, Italus, and lord Sabinus, planter of the vine, still holding inshow the curved pruning-hook, and gray Saturn, and the likeness of Janusthe double-facing, and the rest of their primal kings, and they who hadborne wounds of war in fighting for their country. Armour besides hangsthickly on the sacred doors, captured chariots and curved axes, helmet-crests and massy gateway-bars, lances and shields, and beaks tornfrom warships. He too sat there, with the divining-rod of Quirinus, girtin the short augural gown, and carrying on his left arm the sacredshield, Picus the tamer of horses; he whom Circe, desperate with amorousdesire, smote with her golden rod and turned by her poisons into a birdwith patches of colour on his wings. Of such wise was the temple of thegods wherein Latinus, sitting on his father's seat, summoned theTeucrians to his house and presence; and when they entered in, he thusopened with placid mien:

'Tell, O Dardanians, for we are not ignorant of your city and race, norunheard of do you bend your course [197-228]overseas, what seek you?what the cause or whereof the need that hath borne you over all theseblue waterways to the Ausonian shore? Whether wandering in your course, or tempest-driven (such perils manifold on the high seas do sailorssuffer), you have entered the river banks and lie in harbour; shun notour welcome, and be not ignorant that the Latins are Saturn's people, whom no laws fetter to justice, upright of their own free will and thecustom of the god of old. And now I remember, though the story is dimmedwith years, thus Auruncan elders told, how Dardanus, born in this ourcountry, made his way to the towns of Phrygian Ida and to the ThracianSamos that is now called Samothrace. Here was the home he left, Tyrrhenian Corythus; now the palace of heaven, glittering with goldenstars, enthrones and adds him to the ranged altars of the gods. '

He ended; and Ilioneus pursued his speech with these words:

'King, Faunus' illustrious progeny, neither hath black tempest driven uswith stress of waves to shelter in your lands, nor hath star or shoremisled us on the way we went. Of set purpose and willing mind do we drawnigh this thy city, outcasts from a realm once the greatest that the sunlooked on as he came from Olympus' utmost border. From Jove hath ourrace beginning; in Jove the men of Dardania rejoice as ancestor; ourKing himself of Jove's supreme race, Aeneas of Troy, hath sent us to thycourts. How terrible the tempest that burst from fierce Mycenae over theplains of Ida, driven by what fate Europe and Asia met in the shock oftwo worlds, even he hath heard who is sundered in the utmost land wherethe ocean surge recoils, and he whom stretching midmost of the fourzones the zone of the intolerable sun holds in severance. Borne by thatflood over many desolate seas, we crave a scant dwelling [229-261]forour country's gods, an unmolested landing-place, and the air and waterthat are free to all. We shall not disgrace the kingdom; nor will therumour of your renown be lightly gone or the grace of all you have donefade away; nor will Ausonia be sorry to have taken Troy to her breast. By the fortunes of Aeneas I swear, by that right hand mighty, whethertried in friendship or in warlike arms, many and many a people andnation--scorn us not because we advance with hands proffering chapletsand words of supplication--hath sought us for itself and desired ouralliance; but yours is the land that heaven's high ordinance drove usforth to find. Hence sprung Dardanus: hither Apollo recalls us, andpushes us on with imperious orders to Tyrrhenian Tiber and the holypools of Numicus' spring. Further, he presents to thee these smallguerdons of our past estate, relics saved from burning Troy. From thisgold did lord Anchises pour libation at the altars; this was Priam'sarray when he delivered statutes to the nations assembled in order; thesceptre, the sacred mitre, the raiment wrought by the women ofIlium. . . . '

At these words of Ilioneus Latinus holds his countenance in a steadygaze, and stays motionless on the floor, casting his intent eyes around. Nor does the embroidered purple so move the King, nor the sceptre ofPriam, as his daughter's marriage and the bridal chamber absorb him, andthe oracle of ancient Faunus stirs deep in his heart. This is he, thewanderer from a foreign home, foreshewn of fate for his son, and calledto a realm of equal dominion, whose race should be excellent in valourand their might overbear all the world. At last he speaks with goodcheer:

'The gods prosper our undertaking and their own augury! What thoudesirest, Trojan, shall be given; nor do I spurn your gifts. WhileLatinus reigns you shall not [262-294]lack foison of rich land norTroy's own riches. Only let Aeneas himself come hither, if desire of usbe so strong, if he be in haste to join our friendship and be called ourally. Let him not shrink in terror from a friendly face. A term of thepeace for me shall be to touch your monarch's hand. Do you now convey inanswer my message to your King. I have a daughter whom the oracles of myfather's shrine and many a celestial token alike forbid me to unite toone of our own nation; sons shall come, they prophesy, from foreigncoasts, such is the destiny of Latium, whose blood shall exalt our nameto heaven. He it is on whom fate calls; this I think, this I choose, ifthere be any truth in my soul's foreshadowing. '

Thus he speaks, and chooses horses for all the company. Three hundredstood sleek in their high stalls; for all the Teucrians in order hestraightway commands them to be led forth, fleet-footed, covered withembroidered purple: golden chains hang drooping over their chests, golden their housings, and they champ on bits of ruddy gold: for theabsent Aeneas a chariot and pair of chariot horses of celestial breed, with nostrils breathing flame; of the race of those which subtle Circebred by sleight on her father, the bastard issue of a stolen union. Withthese gifts and words the Aeneadae ride back from Latinus carryingpeace. 

And lo! the fierce wife of Jove was returning from Inachian Argos, andheld her way along the air, when out of the distant sky, far as fromSicilian Pachynus, she espied the rejoicing of Aeneas and the Dardanianfleet. She sees them already house-building, already trusting in theland, their ships left empty. She stops, shot with sharp pain; thenshaking her head, she pours forth these words:

'Ah, hated brood, and doom of the Phrygians that thwarts our doom! Couldthey perish on the Sigean [295-326]plains? Could they be ensnared whentaken? Did the fires of Troy consume her people? Through the midst ofarmies and through the midst of flames they have found their way. But, Ithink, my deity lies at last outwearied, or my hatred sleeps and issatisfied? Nay, it is I who have been fierce to follow them over thewaves when hurled from their country, and on all the seas have crossedtheir flight. Against the Teucrians the forces of sky and sea are spent. What hath availed me Syrtes or Scylla, what desolate Charybdis? theyfind shelter in their desired Tiber-bed, careless of ocean and of me. Mars availed to destroy the giant race of the Lapithae; the very fatherof the gods gave over ancient Calydon to Diana's wrath: for forfeit ofwhat crime in the Lapithae, what in Calydon? But I, Jove's imperialconsort, who have borne, ah me! to leave naught undared, who haveshifted to every device, I am vanquished by Aeneas. If my deity is notgreat enough, I will not assuredly falter to seek succour where it maybe; if the powers of heaven are inflexible, I will stir up Acheron. Itmay not be to debar him of a Latin realm; well; and Lavinia is destinedhis bride unalterably. But it may be yet to defer, to make all thisaction linger; but it may be yet to waste away the nation of eitherking; at such forfeit of their people may son-in-law and father-in-lawenter into union. Blood of Troy and Rutulia shall be thy dower, Omaiden, and Bellona is the bridesmaid who awaits thee. Nor did Cisseus'daughter alone conceive a firebrand and travail of bridal flames. Nay, even such a birth hath Venus of her own, a second Paris, anotherbalefire for Troy towers reborn. '

These words uttered, she descends to earth in all her terrors, and callsdolorous Allecto from the home of the Fatal Sisters in nether gloom, whose delight is in woeful wars, in wrath and treachery and evil feuds:hateful to [327-360]lord Pluto himself, hateful and horrible to herhell-born sisters; into so many faces does she turn, so savage the guiseof each, so thick and black bristles she with vipers. And her Juno spurson with words, saying thus:

'Grant me, virgin born of Night, this thy proper task and service, thatthe rumour of our renown may not crumble away, nor the Aeneadae havepower to win Latinus by marriage or beset the borders of Italy. Thoucanst set brothers once united in armed conflict, and overturn familieswith hatreds; thou canst launch into houses thy whips and deadly brands;thine are a thousand names, a thousand devices of injury. Stir up thyteeming breast, sunder the peace they have joined, and sow seeds ofquarrel; let all at once desire and demand and seize on arms. '

Thereon Allecto, steeped in Gorgonian venom, first seeks Latium and thehigh house of the Laurentine monarch, and silently sits down beforeAmata's doors, whom a woman's distress and anger heated to frenzy overthe Teucrians' coming and the marriage of Turnus. At her the goddessflings a snake out of her dusky tresses, and slips it into her bosom toher very inmost heart, that she may embroil all her house under itsmaddening magic. Sliding between her raiment and smooth breasts, itcoils without touch, and instils its viperous breath unseen; the greatserpent turns into the twisted gold about her neck, turns into the longribbon of her chaplet, inweaves her hair, and winds slippery over herbody. And while the gliding infection of the clammy poison begins topenetrate her sense and run in fire through her frame, nor as yet hathall her breast caught fire, softly she spoke and in mothers' wontedwise, with many a tear over her daughter and the Phrygian bridal:

'Is it to exiles, to Teucrians, that Lavinia is proffered in marriage, Ofather? and hast thou no compassion on [361-392]thy daughter and onthyself? no compassion on her mother, whom with the first northern windthe treacherous rover will abandon, steering to sea with his maidenprize? Is it not thus the Phrygian herdsman wound his way to Lacedaemon, and carried Leda's Helen to the Trojan towns? Where is thy plightedfaith? Where thine ancient care for thy people, and the hand Turnus thykinsman hath so often clasped? If one of alien race from the Latins issought for our son, if this stands fixed, and thy father Faunus'commands are heavy upon thee, all the land whose freedom severs it fromour sway is to my mind alien, and of this is the divine word. AndTurnus, if one retrace the earliest source of his line, is born ofInachus and Acrisius, and of the midmost of Mycenae. '

When in this vain essay of words she sees Latinus fixed against her, andthe serpent's maddening poison is sunk deep in her vitals and runsthrough and through her, then indeed, stung by infinite horrors, haplessand frenzied, she rages wildly through the endless city. As whilome atop flying under the twisted whipcord, which boys busy at their playdrive circling wide round an empty hall, runs before the lash and spinsin wide gyrations; the witless ungrown band hang wondering over it andadmire the whirling boxwood; the strokes lend it life: with pace noslacker is she borne midway through towns and valiant nations. Nay, sheflies into the woodland under feigned Bacchic influence, assumes agreater guilt, arouses a greater frenzy, and hides her daughter in themountain coverts to rob the Teucrians of their bridal and stay themarriage torches. 'Hail, Bacchus!' she shrieks and clamours; 'thou onlyart worthy of the maiden; for to thee she takes up the lissom wands, thee she circles in the dance, to thee she trains and consecrates hertresses. ' Rumour flies abroad; and the matrons, their breasts kindled bythe furies, run all at once [393-426]with a single ardour to seek outstrange dwellings. They have left their homes empty, they throw neck andhair free to the winds; while others fill the air with ringing cries, girt about with fawnskins, and carrying spears of vine. Amid them theinfuriate queen holds her blazing pine-torch on high, and chants thewedding of Turnus and her daughter; and rolling her bloodshot gaze, cries sudden and harsh: 'Hear, O mothers of Latium, wheresoever you be;if unhappy Amata hath yet any favour in your affection, if care for amother's right pierces you, untie the chaplets from your hair, begin theorgies with me. ' Thus, amid woods and wild beasts' solitary places, doesAllecto goad the queen with the encircling Bacchic madness. 

When their frenzy seemed heightened and her first task complete, thepurpose and all the house of Latinus turned upside down, the dolorousgoddess flies on thence, soaring on dusky wing, to the walls of thegallant Rutulian, the city which Danaë, they say, borne down on theboisterous south wind, built and planted with Acrision's people. Theplace was called Ardea once of old; and still Ardea remains a mightyname; but its fortune is no more. Here in his high house Turnus now tookrest in the black midnight. Allecto puts off her grim feature and thebody of a Fury; she transforms her face to an aged woman's, and furrowsher brow with ugly wrinkles; she puts on white tresses chaplet-bound, and entwines them with an olive spray; she becomes aged Calybe, priestess of Juno's temple, and presents herself before his eyes, uttering thus:

'Turnus, wilt thou brook all these toils poured out in vain, and theconveyance of thy crown to Dardanian settlers? The King denies thee thybride and the dower thy blood had earned; and a foreigner is sought forheir to the kingdom. Forth now, dupe, and face thankless perils; forth, cut down the Tyrrhenian lines; give the [427-458]Latins peace in thyprotection. This Saturn's omnipotent daughter in very presence commandedme to pronounce to thee, as thou wert lying in the still night. Wherefore arise, and make ready with good cheer to arm thy people andmarch through thy gates to battle; consume those Phrygian captains thatlie with their painted hulls in the beautiful river. All the force ofheaven orders thee on. Let King Latinus himself know of it, unless heconsents to give thee thy bridal, and abide by his words, when he shallat last make proof of Turnus' arms. '

But he, deriding her inspiration, with the words of his mouth thusanswers her again:

'The fleets ride on the Tiber wave; that news hath not, as thou deemest, escaped mine ears. Frame not such terrors before me. Neither is QueenJuno forgetful of us. . . . But thee, O mother, overworn old age, exhausted and untrue, frets with vain distress, and amid embattled kingsmocks thy presage with false dismay. Thy charge it is to keep the divineimage and temple; war and peace shall be in the hands of men andwarriors. '

At such words Allecto's wrath blazed out. But amid his utterance a quickshudder overruns his limbs; his eyes are fixed in horror; so thicklyhiss the snakes of the Fury, so vast her form expands. Then rolling herfiery eyes, she thrust him back as he would stammer out more, raised twoserpents in her hair, and, sounding her whip, resumed with furious tone:

'Behold me the overworn! me whom old age, exhausted and untrue, mockswith false dismay amid embattled kings! Look on this! I am come from thehome of the Dread Sisters: war and death are in my hand. . . . '

So speaking, she hurled her torch at him, and pierced his breast withthe lurid smoking brand. He breaks from sleep in overpowering fear, hislimbs and body bathed in [459-494]sweat that breaks out all over him;he shrieks madly for arms, searches for arms on his bed and in hispalace. The passion of the sword rages high, the accursed fury of war, and wrath over all: even as when flaming sticks are heaped roaring loudunder the sides of a seething cauldron, and the boiling water leaps up;the river of water within smokes furiously and swells high inoverflowing foam, and now the wave contains itself no longer; the darksteam flies aloft. So, for the stain of the broken peace, he orders hischief warriors to march on King Latinus, and bids prepare for battle, todefend Italy and drive the foe from their borders; himself will sufficefor Trojans and Latins together. When he uttered these words and calledthe gods to hear his vows, the Rutulians stir one another up to arms. One is moved by the splendour of his youthful beauty, one by his royalancestry, another by the noble deeds of his hand. 

While Turnus fills the Rutulian minds with valour, Allecto on Stygianwing hastens towards the Trojans. With fresh wiles she marked the spotwhere beautiful Iülus was trapping and coursing game on the bank; herethe infernal maiden suddenly crosses his hounds with the maddening touchof a familiar scent, and drives them hotly on the stag-hunt. This wasthe source and spring of ill, and kindled the country-folk to war. Thestag, beautiful and high-antlered, was stolen from his mother's udderand bred by Tyrrheus' boys and their father Tyrrheus, master of theroyal herds, and ranger of the plain. Their sister Silvia tamed him toher rule, and lavished her care on his adornment, twining his antlerswith delicate garlands, and combed his wild coat and washed him in theclear spring. Tame to her hand, and familiar to his master's table, hewould wander the woods, and, however late the night, return home to thedoor he knew. Far astray, he floated idly down the stream, and allayedhis heat on the green bank, when Iülus' [495-528]mad hounds started himin their hunting; and Ascanius himself, kindled with desire of the chiefhonour, aimed a shaft from his bended bow. A present deity suffered nothis hand to stray, and the loud whistling reed came driven through hisbelly and flanks. But the wounded beast fled within the familiar roofand crept moaning to the courtyard, dabbled with blood, and filling allthe house with moans as of one beseeching. Sister Silvia, smiting herarms with open hands, begins to call for aid, and gathers the hardyrustics with her cries. They, for a fell destroyer is hidden in thesilent woodland, are there before her expectation, one armed with astake hardened in the fire, one with a heavy knotted trunk; what eachone searches and finds, wrath turns into a weapon. Tyrrheus cheers onhis array, panting hard, with his axe caught up in his hand, as he washaply splitting an oaken log in four clefts with cross-driven wedges. 

But the grim goddess, seizing from her watch-tower the moment ofmischief, seeks the steep farm-roof and sounds the pastoral war-notefrom the ridge, straining the infernal cry on her twisted horn; itspread shuddering over all the woodland, and echoed through the deepforests: the lake of Trivia heard it afar; Nar river heard it with whitesulphurous water, and the springs of Velinus; and fluttered mothersclasped their children to their breast. Then, hurrying to the voice ofthe terrible trumpet-note, on all sides the wild rustics snatch theirarms and stream in: therewithal the men of Troy pour out from theircamp's open gates to succour Ascanius. The lines are ranged; not now inrustic strife do they fight with hard trunks or burned stakes; thetwo-edged steel sways the fight, the broad cornfields bristle dark withdrawn swords, and brass flashes smitten by the sunlight, and casts agleam high into the cloudy air: as when the wind begins to blow and theflood [529-560]to whiten, gradually the sea lifts his waves higher andyet higher, then rises from the bottom right into the air. Here in thefront rank young Almo, once Tyrrheus' eldest son, is struck down by awhistling arrow; for the wound, staying in his throat, cut off in bloodthe moist voice's passage and the thin life. Around many a one liesdead, aged Galaesus among them, slain as he throws himself between themfor a peacemaker, once incomparable in justice and wealth of Ausonianfields; for him five flocks bleated, a five-fold herd returned frompasture, and an hundred ploughs upturned the soil. 

But while thus in even battle they fight on the broad plain, thegoddess, her promise fulfilled, when she hath dyed the war in blood, andmingled death in the first encounter, quits Hesperia, and, glancingthrough the sky, addresses Juno in exultant tone:

'Lo, discord is ripened at thy desire into baleful war: tell them now tomix in amity and join alliance. Insomuch as I have imbued the Trojans inAusonian blood, this likewise will I add, if I have assurance of thywill. With my rumours I will sweep the bordering towns into war, andkindle their spirit with furious desire for battle, that from allquarters help may come; I will sow the land with arms. '

Then Juno answering: 'Terror and harm is wrought abundantly. The springsof war are aflow: they fight with arms in their grasp, the arms thatchance first supplied, that fresh blood stains. Let this be the union, this the bridal that Venus' illustrious progeny and Latinus the Kingshall celebrate. Our Lord who reigns on Olympus' summit would not havethee stray too freely in heaven's upper air. Withdraw thy presence. Whatsoever future remains in the struggle, that I myself will sway. '

Such accents uttered the daughter of Saturn; and the [561-594]otherraises her rustling snaky wings and darts away from the high upper airto Cocytus her home. There is a place midmost of Italy, deep in thehills, notable and famed of rumour in many a country, the Vale ofAmsanctus; on either hand a wooded ridge, dark with thick foliage, hemsit in, and midway a torrent in swirling eddies shivers and echoes overthe rocks. Here is shewn a ghastly pool, a breathing-hole of the grimlord of hell, and a vast chasm breaking into Acheron yawns withpestilential throat. In it the Fury sank, and relieved earth and heavenof her hateful influence. 

But therewithal the queenly daughter of Saturn puts the last touch towar. The shepherds pour in full tale from the battlefield into the town, bearing back their slain, the boy Almo and Galaesus' disfigured face, and cry on the gods and call on Latinus. Turnus is there, and amid theheat and outcry at the slaughter redoubles his terrors, crying thatTeucrians are bidden to the kingdom, that a Phrygian race is minglingits taint with theirs, and he is thrust out of their gates. They too, the matrons of whose kin, struck by Bacchus, trample in choirs down thepathless woods--nor is Amata's name a little thing--they too gathertogether from all sides and weary themselves with the battle-cry. Omensand oracles of gods go down before them, and all under malign influenceclamour for awful war. Emulously they surround Latinus' royal house. Hewithstands, even as a rock in ocean unremoved, as a rock in ocean whenthe great crash comes down, firm in its own mass among many wavesslapping all about: in vain the crags and boulders hiss round it infoam, and the seaweed on its side is flung up and sucked away. But whenhe may in nowise overbear their blind counsel, and all goes at fierceJuno's beck, with many an appeal to gods and void sky, 'Alas!' he cries, 'we are broken of fate and driven helpless in the [595-626]storm. Withyour very blood will you pay the price of this, O wretched men! Thee, OTurnus, thy crime, thee thine awful punishment shall await; too latewilt thou address to heaven thy prayers and supplication. For my restwas won, and my haven full at hand; I am robbed but of a happy death. 'And without further speech he shut himself in the palace, and droppedthe reins of state. 

There was a use in Hesperian Latium, which the Alban towns kept in holyobservance, now Rome keeps, the mistress of the world, when they stirthe War-God to enter battle; whether their hands prepare to carry warand weeping among Getae or Hyrcanians or Arabs, or to reach to India andpursue the Dawn, and reclaim their standards from the Parthian. Thereare twain gates of War, so runs their name, consecrate in grim Mars'sanctity and terror. An hundred bolts of brass and masses of everlastingiron shut them fast, and Janus the guardian never sets foot from theirthreshold. There, when the sentence of the Fathers stands fixed forbattle, the Consul, arrayed in the robe of Quirinus and the Gabinecincture, with his own hand unbars the grating doors, with his own lipscalls battles forth; then all the rest follow on, and the brazentrumpets blare harsh with consenting breath. With this use then likewisethey bade Latinus proclaim war on the Aeneadae, and unclose the balefulgates. He withheld his hand, and shrank away averse from the abhorredservice, and hid himself blindly in the dark. Then the Saturnian queenof heaven glided from the sky, with her own hand thrust open thelingering gates, and swung sharply back on their hinges the iron-bounddoors of war. Ausonia is ablaze, till then unstirred and immoveable. Some make ready to march afoot over the plains; some, mounted on tallhorses, ride amain in clouds of dust. All seek out arms; and now theyrub their shields smooth and make their spearheads glitter with[627-659]fat lard, and grind their axes on the whetstone: rejoicinglythey advance under their standards and hear the trumpet note. Five greatcities set up the anvil and sharpen the sword, strong Atina and proudTibur, Ardea and Crustumeri, and turreted Antemnae. They hollow outhead-gear to guard them, and plait wickerwork round shield-bosses;others forge breastplates of brass or smooth greaves of flexible silver. To this is come the honour of share and pruning-hook, to this all thelove of the plough: they re-temper their fathers' swords in the furnace. And now the trumpets blare; the watchword for war passes along. Onesnatches a helmet hurriedly from his house, another backs his neighinghorses into the yoke; and arrays himself in shield and mail-coattriple-linked with gold, and girds on his trusty sword. 

Open now the gates of Helicon, goddesses, and stir the song of the kingsthat rose for war, the array that followed each and filled the plains, the men that even then blossomed, the arms that blazed in Italy thebountiful land: for you remember, divine ones, and you can recall; to usbut a breath of rumour, scant and slight, is wafted down. 

First from the Tyrrhene coast savage Mezentius, scorner of the gods, opens the war and arrays his columns. By him is Lausus, his son, unexcelled in bodily beauty by any save Laurentine Turnus, Lausus tamerof horses and destroyer of wild beasts; he leads a thousand men whofollowed him in vain from Agylla town; worthy to be happier in ancestralrule, and to have other than Mezentius for father. 

After them beautiful Aventinus, born of beautiful Hercules, displays onthe sward his palm-crowned chariot and victorious horses, and carries onhis shield his father's device, the hundred snakes of the Hydra'sserpent-wreath. Him, in the wood of the hill Aventine, Rhea thepriestess [660-693]bore by stealth into the borders of light, a womanmingled with a god, after the Tirynthian Conqueror had slain Geryon andset foot on the fields of Laurentum, and bathed his Iberian oxen in theTuscan river. These carry for war javelins and grim stabbing weapons, and fight with the round shaft and sharp point of the Sabellian pike. Himself he went on foot swathed in a vast lion skin, shaggy withbristling terrors, whose white teeth encircled his head; in such wilddress, the garb of Hercules clasped over his shoulders, he entered theroyal house. 

Next twin brothers leave Tibur town, and the people called by theirbrother Tiburtus' name, Catillus and valiant Coras, the Argives, andadvance in the forefront of battle among the throng of spears: as whentwo cloud-born Centaurs descend from a lofty mountain peak, leavingHomole or snowy Othrys in rapid race; the mighty forest yields beforethem as they go, and the crashing thickets give them way. 

Nor was the founder of Praeneste city absent, the king who, as every agehath believed, was born of Vulcan among the pasturing herds, and foundbeside the hearth, Caeculus. On him a rustic battalion attends in looseorder, they who dwell in steep Praeneste and the fields of Juno ofGabii, on the cool Anio and the Hernican rocks dewy with streams; theywhom rich Anagnia, and whom thou, lord Amasenus, pasturest. Not all ofthem have armour, nor shields and clattering chariots. The most partshower bullets of dull lead; some wield in their hand two darts, andhave for head-covering caps of tawny wolfskin; their left foot is barewherewith to plant their steps; the other is covered with a boot of rawhide. 

But Messapus, tamer of horses, the seed of Neptune, whom none might everstrike down with steel or fire, calls quickly to arms his long unstirredpeoples and bands [694-727]disused to war, and again handles the sword. These are of the Fescennine ranks and of Aequi Falisci, these ofSoracte's fortresses and the fields of Flavina, and Ciminus' lake andhill, and the groves of Capena. They marched in even time, singing theirKing; as whilome snowy swans among the thin clouds, when they returnfrom pasturage, and utter resonant notes through their long necks; faroff echoes the river and the smitten Asian fen. . . . Nor would onethink these vast streaming masses were ranks clad in brass; rather that, high in air, a cloud of hoarse birds from the deep gulf was pressing tothe shore. 

Lo, Clausus of the ancient Sabine blood, leading a great host, a greathost himself; from whom now the Claudian tribe and family is spreadabroad since Rome was shared with the Sabines. Alongside is the broadbattalion of Amiternum, and the Old Latins, and all the force of Eretumand the Mutuscan oliveyards; they who dwell in Nomentum town, and theRosean country by Velinus, who keep the crags of rough Tetrica and MountSeverus, Casperia and Foruli, and the river of Himella; they who drinkof Tiber and Fabaris, they whom cold Nursia hath sent, and the squadronsof Horta and the tribes of Latinium; and they whom Allia, theill-ominous name, severs with its current; as many as the waves thatroll on the Libyan sea-floor when fierce Orion sets in the wintry surge;as thick as the ears that ripen in the morning sunlight on the plain ofthe Hermus or the yellowing Lycian tilth. Their shields clatter, andearth is amazed under the trampling of their feet. 

Here Agamemnonian Halaesus, foe of the Trojan name, yokes his chariothorses, and draws a thousand warlike peoples to Turnus; those who turnwith spades the Massic soil that is glad with wine; whom the elders ofAurunca sent from their high hills, and the Sidicine low country[728-761]hard by; and those who leave Cales, and the dweller by theshallows of Volturnus river, and side by side the rough Saticulan andthe Oscan bands. Polished maces are their weapons, and these it is theirwont to fit with a tough thong; a target covers their left side, and forclose fighting they have crooked swords. 

Nor shalt thou, Oebalus, depart untold of in our verses, who wast borne, men say, by the nymph Sebethis to Telon, when he grew old in rule overCapreae the Teleboïc realm: but not so content with his ancestralfields, his son even then held down in wide sway the Sarrastian peoplesand the meadows watered by Sarnus, and the dwellers in Rufrae andBatulum, and the fields of Celemnae, and they on whom from her appleorchards Abella city looks down. Their wont was to hurl lances inTeutonic fashion; their head covering was stripped bark of the corktree, their shield-plates glittering brass, glittering brass theirsword. 

Thee too, Ufens, mountainous Nersae sent forth to battle, of noble fameand prosperous arms, whose race on the stiff Aequiculan clods is roughbeyond all other, and bred to continual hunting in the woodland; theytill the soil in arms, and it is ever their delight to drive in freshspoils and live on plunder. 

Furthermore there came, sent by King Archippus, the priest of theMarruvian people, dressed with prosperous olive leaves over his helmet, Umbro excellent in valour, who was wont with charm and touch to sprinkleslumberous dew on the viper's brood and water-snakes of noisome breath. Yet he availed not to heal the stroke of the Dardanian spear-point, norwas the wound of him helped by his sleepy charms and herbs culled on theMassic hills. Thee the woodland of Angitia, thee Fucinus' glassy wave, thee the clear pools wept. . . . 

Likewise the seed of Hippolytus marched to war, Virbius [762-796]mostexcellent in beauty, sent by his mother Aricia. The groves of Egerianursed him round the spongy shore where Diana's altar stands rich andgracious. For they say in story that Hippolytus, after he fell by hisstepmother's treachery, torn asunder by his frightened horses to fulfila father's revenge, came again to the daylight and heaven's upper air, recalled by Diana's love and the drugs of the Healer. Then the Lordomnipotent, indignant that any mortal should rise from the nether shadesto the light of life, launched his thunder and hurled down to theStygian water the Phoebus-born, the discoverer of such craft and cure. But Trivia the bountiful hides Hippolytus in a secret habitation, andsends him away to the nymph Egeria and the woodland's keeping, where, solitary in Italian forests, he should spend an inglorious life, andhave Virbius for his altered name. Whence also hoofed horses are keptaway from Trivia's temple and consecrated groves, because, affrighted atthe portents of the sea, they overset the chariot and flung him out uponthe shore. Notwithstanding did his son train his ruddy steeds on thelevel plain, and sped charioted to war. 

Himself too among the foremost, splendid in beauty of body, Turnus movesarmed and towers a whole head over all. His lofty helmet, triple-tressedwith horse-hair, holds high a Chimaera breathing from her throat Aetneanfires, raging the more and exasperate with baleful flames, as the battleand bloodshed grow fiercer. But on his polished shield was emblazoned ingold Io with uplifted horns, already a heifer and overgrown with hair, alofty design, and Argus the maiden's warder, and lord Inachus pouringhis stream from his embossed urn. Behind comes a cloud of infantry, andshielded columns thicken over all the plains; the Argive men andAuruncan forces, the Rutulians and old Sicanians, the Sacranian ranksand Labicians with [797-817]painted shields; they who till thy dells, OTiber, and Numicus' sacred shore, and whose ploughshare goes up and downon the Rutulian hills and the Circaean headland, over whose fieldsJupiter of Anxur watches, and Feronia glad in her greenwood: and wherethe marsh of Satura lies black, and cold Ufens winds his way along thevalley-bottoms and sinks into the sea. 

Therewithal came Camilla the Volscian, leading a train of cavalry, squadrons splendid with brass: a warrior maiden who had never used herwoman's hands to Minerva's distaff or wool-baskets, but hardened toendure the battle shock and outstrip the winds with racing feet. Shemight have flown across the topmost blades of unmown corn and left thetender ears unhurt as she ran; or sped her way over mid sea upborne bythe swelling flood, nor dipt her swift feet in the water. All the peoplepour from house and field, and mothers crowd to wonder and gaze at heras she goes, in rapturous astonishment at the royal lustre of purplethat drapes her smooth shoulders, at the clasp of gold that intertwinesher tresses, at the Lycian quiver she carries, and the pastoral myrtleshaft topped with steel. 

BOOK EIGHTH

THE EMBASSAGE TO EVANDER

When Turnus ran up the flag of war on the towers of Laurentum, and thetrumpets blared with harsh music, when he spurred his fiery steeds andclashed his armour, straightway men's hearts are in tumult; all Latiumat once flutters in banded uprisal, and her warriors rage furiously. Their chiefs, Messapus, and Ufens, and Mezentius, scorner of the gods, begin to enrol forces on all sides, and dispeople the wide fields ofhusbandmen. Venulus too is sent to the town of mighty Diomede to seeksuccour, to instruct him that Teucrians set foot in Latium; that Aeneasin his fleet invades them with the vanquished gods of his home, andproclaims himself the King summoned of fate; that many tribes join theDardanian, and his name swells high in Latium. What he will rear onthese foundations, what issue of battle he desires, if Fortune attendhim, lies clearer to his own sight than to King Turnus or King Latinus. 

Thus was it in Latium. And the hero of Laomedon's blood, seeing it all, tosses on a heavy surge of care, and throws his mind rapidly this wayand that, and turns it on all hands in swift change of thought: even aswhen the quivering light of water brimming in brass, struck back[23-56]from the sunlight or the moon's glittering reflection, flickersabroad over all the room, and now mounts aloft and strikes the highpanelled roof. Night fell, and over all lands weary creatures were fastin deep slumber, the race of fowl and of cattle; when lord Aeneas, sickat heart of the dismal warfare, stretched him on the river bank underthe cope of the cold sky, and let sleep, though late, overspread hislimbs. To him the very god of the ground, the pleasant Tiber stream, seemed to raise his aged form among the poplar boughs; thin lawn veiledhim with its gray covering, and shadowy reeds hid his hair. Thereon headdressed him thus, and with these words allayed his distresses:

'O born of the family of the gods, thou who bearest back our Trojan cityfrom hostile hands, and keepest Troy towers in eternal life; O longlooked for on Laurentine ground and Latin fields! here is thine assuredhome, thine home's assured gods. Draw not thou back, nor be alarmed bymenace of war. All the anger and wrath of the gods is passed away . . . And even now for thine assurance, that thou think not this the idlefashioning of sleep, a great sow shall be found lying under the oaks onthe shore, with her new-born litter of thirty head: white she couches onthe ground, and the brood about her teats is white. By this token inthirty revolving years shall Ascanius found a city, Alba of bright name. My prophecy is sure. Now hearken, and I will briefly instruct thee howthou mayest unravel and overcome thy present task. An Arcadian peoplesprung of Pallas, following in their king Evander's company beneath hisbanners, have chosen a place in these coasts, and set a city on thehills, called Pallanteum after Pallas their forefather. These wageperpetual war with the Latin race; these do thou take to thy camp'salliance, and join with them in league. Myself I [57-89]will lead theeby my banks and straight along my stream, that thou mayest oar thy wayupward against the river. Up and arise, goddess-born, and even with thesetting stars address thy prayers to Juno as is meet, and vanquish herwrath and menaces with humble vows. To me thou shalt pay a conqueror'ssacrifice. I am he whom thou seest washing the banks with full flood andsevering the rich tilth, glassy Tiber, best beloved by heaven of rivers. Here is my stately home; my fountain-head is among high cities. '

Thus spoke the River, and sank in the depth of the pool: night and sleepleft Aeneas. He arises, and, looking towards the radiant sky of thesunrising, holds up water from the river in fitly-hollowed palms, andpours to heaven these accents:

'Nymphs, Laurentine Nymphs, from whom is the generation of rivers, andthou, O father Tiber, with thine holy flood, receive Aeneas and deign tosave him out of danger. What pool soever holds thy source, who pitiestour discomforts, from whatsoever soil thou dost spring excellent inbeauty, ever shall my worship, ever my gifts frequent thee, the hornèdriver lord of Hesperian waters. Ah, be thou only by me, and graciouslyconfirm thy will. ' So speaks he, and chooses two galleys from his fleet, and mans them with rowers, and withal equips a crew with arms. 

And lo! suddenly, ominous and wonderful to tell, the milk-white sow, ofone colour with her white brood, is espied through the forest couched onthe green brink; whom to thee, yes to thee, queenly Juno, good Aeneasoffers in sacrifice, and sets with her offspring before thine altar. Allthat night long Tiber assuaged his swelling stream, and silently stayedhis refluent wave, smoothing the surface of his waters to the fashion ofstill pool and quiet mere, to spare [90-121]labour to the oar. So theyset out and speed on their way with prosperous cries; the painted firslides along the waterway; the waves and unwonted woods marvel at theirfar-gleaming shields, and the gay hulls afloat on the river. Theyoutwear a night and a day in rowing, ascend the long reaches, and passunder the chequered shadows of the trees, and cut through the greenwoodland in the calm water. The fiery sun had climbed midway in thecircle of the sky when they see afar fortress walls and scattered houseroofs, where now the might of Rome hath risen high as heaven; thenEvander held a slender state. Quickly they turn their prows to land anddraw near the town. 

It chanced on that day the Arcadian king paid his accustomed sacrificeto the great son of Amphitryon and all the gods in a grove before thecity. With him his son Pallas, with him all the chief of his people andhis poor senate were offering incense, and the blood steamed warm attheir altars. When they saw the high ships, saw them glide up betweenthe shady woodlands and rest on their silent oars, the sudden sightappals them, and all at once they rise and stop the banquet. Pallascourageously forbids them to break off the rites; snatching up a spear, he flies forward, and from a hillock cries afar: 'O men, what cause hathdriven you to explore these unknown ways? or whither do you steer? Whatis your kin, whence your habitation? Is it peace or arms you carryhither?' Then from the lofty stern lord Aeneas thus speaks, stretchingforth in his hand an olive bough of peace-bearing:

'Thou seest men born of Troy and arms hostile to the Latins, who havedriven us to flight in insolent warfare. We seek Evander; carry thismessage, and tell him that chosen men of the Dardanian captains are comepleading for an armed alliance. '

Pallas stood amazed at the august name. 'Descend, ' [122-154]he cries, 'whoso thou art, and speak with my father face to face, and enter ourhome and hospitality. ' And giving him the grasp of welcome, he caughtand clung to his hand. Advancing, they enter the grove and leave theriver. Then Aeneas in courteous words addresses the King:

'Best of the Grecian race, thou whom fortune hath willed that Isupplicate, holding before me boughs dressed in fillets, no fear stayedme because thou wert a Grecian chief and an Arcadian, or allied bydescent to the twin sons of Atreus. Nay, mine own prowess and thesanctity of divine oracles, our ancestral kinship, and the fame of theethat is spread abroad over the earth, have allied me to thee and led mewillingly on the path of fate. Dardanus, who sailed to the Teucrianland, the first father and founder of the Ilian city, was born, asGreeks relate, of Electra the Atlantid; Electra's sire is ancient Atlas, whose shoulder sustains the heavenly spheres. Your father is Mercury, whom white Maia conceived and bore on the cold summit of Cyllene; butMaia, if we give any credence to report, is daughter of Atlas, that sameAtlas who bears up the starry heavens; so both our families branch froma single blood. In this confidence I sent no embassy, I framed no craftyovertures; myself I have presented mine own person, and come a suppliantto thy courts. The same Daunian race pursues us and thee in mercilesswarfare; we once expelled, they trust nothing will withhold them fromlaying all Hesperia wholly beneath their yoke, and holding the seas thatwash it above and below. Accept and return our friendship. We can givebrave hearts in war, high souls and men approved in deeds. '

Aeneas ended. The other ere now scanned in a long gaze the face and eyesand all the form of the speaker; then thus briefly returns:

'How gladly, bravest of the Teucrians, do I hail and [155-188]own thee!how I recall thy father's words and the very tone and glance of greatAnchises! For I remember how Priam son of Laomedon, when he soughtSalamis on his way to the realm of his sister Hesione, went on to visitthe cold borders of Arcadia. Then early youth clad my cheeks with bloom. I admired the Teucrian captains, admired their lord, the son ofLaomedon; but Anchises moved high above them all. My heart burned withyouthful passion to accost him and clasp hand in hand; I made my way tohim, and led him eagerly to Pheneus' high town. Departing he gave me anadorned quiver and Lycian arrows, a scarf inwoven with gold, and a pairof golden bits that now my Pallas possesses. Therefore my hand isalready joined in the alliance you seek, and soon as to-morrow's dawnrises again over earth, I will send you away rejoicing in mine aid, andsupply you from my store. Meanwhile, since you are come hither infriendship, solemnise with us these yearly rites which we may not defer, and even now learn to be familiar at your comrades' board. '

This said, he commands the feast and the wine-cups to be replaced whencethey were taken, and with his own hand ranges them on the grassy seat, and welcomes Aeneas to the place of honour, with a lion's shaggy fellfor cushion and a hospitable chair of maple. Then chosen men with thepriest of the altar in emulous haste bring roasted flesh of bulls, andpile baskets with the gift of ground corn, and serve the wine. Aeneasand the men of Troy with him feed on the long chines of oxen and theentrails of the sacrifice. 

After hunger is driven away and the desire of food stayed, King Evanderspeaks: 'No idle superstition that knows not the gods of old hathordered these our solemn rites, this customary feast, this altar ofaugust sanctity; saved from bitter perils, O Trojan guest, do weworship, and [189-225]most due are the rites we inaugurate. Look nowfirst on this overhanging cliff of stone, where shattered masses liestrewn, and the mountain dwelling stands desolate, and rocks are rentaway in vast ruin. Here was a cavern, awful and deep-withdrawn, impenetrable to the sunbeams, where the monstrous half-human shape ofCacus had his hold: the ground was ever wet with fresh slaughter, andpallid faces of men, ghastly with gore, hung nailed on the haughtydoors. This monster was the son of Vulcan, and spouted his black firesfrom his mouth as he moved in giant bulk. To us also in our desire timebore a god's aid and arrival. For princely Alcides the avenger cameglorious in the spoils of triple Geryon slain; this way the Conquerordrove the huge bulls, and his oxen filled the river valley. But savageCacus, infatuate to leave nothing undared or unhandled in craft orcrime, drives four bulls of choice shape away from their pasturage, andas many heifers of excellent beauty. And these, that there should be nostraightforward footprints, he dragged by the tail into his cavern, thetrack of their compelled path reversed, and hid them behind the screenof rock. No marks were there to lead a seeker to the cavern. Meanwhilethe son of Amphitryon, his herds filled with food, was now breaking uphis pasturage and making ready to go. The oxen low as they depart; allthe woodland is filled with their complaint as they clamorously quit thehills. One heifer returned the cry, and, lowing from the depth of thedreary cave, baffled the hope of Cacus from her imprisonment. At thisthe grief and choler of Alcides blazed forth dark and infuriate. Seizingin his hand his club of heavy knotted oak, he seeks with swift pace theaery mountain steep. Then, as never before, did we see Cacus afraid andhis countenance troubled; he goes flying swifter than the wind and seekshis cavern; fear wings his feet. As he shut himself in, and, burstingthe [226-260]chains, dropped the vast rock slung in iron by hisfather's craft, and blocked the doorway with its pressure, lo! theTirynthian came in furious wrath, and, scanning all the entry, turnedhis face this way and that and ground his teeth. Thrice, hot with rage, he circles all Mount Aventine; thrice he assails the rocky portals invain; thrice he sinks down outwearied in the valley. There stood a sharprock of flint with sides cut sheer away, rising over the cavern's ridgea vast height to see, fit haunt for foul birds to build on. This--for, sloping from the ridge, it leaned on the left towards the river--heloosened, urging it from the right till he tore it loose from its deepfoundations; then suddenly shook it free; with the shock the vast skythunders, the banks leap apart, and the amazed river recoils. But theden, Cacus' huge palace, lay open and revealed, and the depths of gloomycavern were made manifest; even as though some force tearing earth apartshould unlock the infernal house, and disclose the pallid realmsabhorred of heaven, and deep down the monstrous gulf be descried wherethe ghosts flutter in the streaming daylight. On him then, surprised inunexpected light, shut in the rock's recesses and howling in strangefashion, Alcides from above hurls missiles and calls all his arms toaid, and presses hard on him with boughs and enormous millstones. Andhe, for none other escape from peril is left, vomits from his throatvast jets of smoke, wonderful to tell, and enwreathes his dwelling inblind gloom, blotting view from the eyes, while in the cave's depthnight thickens with smoke-bursts in a darkness shot with fire. Alcidesbroke forth in anger, and with a bound hurled himself sheer amid theflames, where the smoke rolls billowing and voluminous, and the cloudsurges black through the enormous den. Here, as Cacus in the darknessspouts forth his idle fires, he grasps and twines tight round him, tillhis eyes start out and his throat [261-295]is drained of blood underthe strangling pressure. Straightway the doors are torn open and thedark house laid plain; the stolen oxen and forsworn plunder are shewnforth to heaven, and the misshapen carcase dragged forward by the feet. Men cannot satisfy their soul with gazing on the terrible eyes, themonstrous face and shaggy bristling chest, and the throat with itsquenched fires. Thenceforth this sacrifice is solemnised, and a youngerrace have gladly kept the day; Potitius the inaugurator, and thePinarian family, guardians of the rites of Hercules, have set in thegrove this altar, which shall ever be called of us Most Mighty, andshall be our mightiest evermore. Wherefore arise, O men, and enwreatheyour hair with leafy sprays, and stretch forth the cups in your hands;call on our common god and pour the glad wine. ' He ended; when thetwy-coloured poplar of Hercules hid his shaded hair with pendulousplaited leaf, and the sacred goblet filled his hand. Speedily all pourglad libation on the board, and supplicate the gods. 

Meanwhile the evening star draws nigher down the slope of heaven, andnow the priests went forth, Potitius at their head, girt with skinsafter their fashion, and bore torches aflame. They renew the banquet, and bring the grateful gift of a second repast, and heap the altars withloaded platters. Then the Salii stand round the lit altar-fires to sing, their brows bound with poplar boughs, one chorus of young men, one ofelders, and extol in song the praises and deeds of Hercules; how firsthe strangled in his gripe the twin terrors, the snakes of hisstepmother; how he likewise shattered in war famous cities, Troy andOechalia; how under Eurystheus the King he bore the toil of a thousandlabours by Juno's malign decrees. Thine hand, unconquered, slays thecloud-born double-bodied race, Hylaeus and Pholus, the Cretan monster, and the huge lion in the hollow Nemean rock. Before thee the Stygianpools [296-329]shook for fear, before thee the warder of hell, couchedon half-gnawn bones in his blood-stained cavern; to thee not any formwas terrible, not Typhoeus' self towering in arms; thou wast not bereftof counsel when the snake of Lerna encompassed thee with throngingheads. Hail, true seed of Jove, deified glory! graciously visit us andthese thy rites with favourable feet. Such are their songs of praise;they crown all with the cavern of Cacus and its fire-breathing lord. Allthe woodland echoes with their clamour, and the hills resound. 

Thence all at once, the sacred rites accomplished, retrace their way tothe city. The age-worn King walked holding Aeneas and his son by hisside for companions on his way, and lightened the road with changingtalk. Aeneas admires and turns his eyes lightly round about, pleasedwith the country; and gladly on spot after spot inquires and hears ofthe memorials of earlier men. Then King Evander, founder of the fortressof Rome:

'In these woodlands dwelt Fauns and Nymphs sprung of the soil, and atribe of men born of stocks and hard oak; who had neither law nor graceof life, nor did they know to yoke bulls or lay up stores or save theirgains, but were nurtured by the forest boughs and the hard living of thehuntsman. Long ago Saturn came from heaven on high in flight beforeJove's arms, an exile from his lost realm. He gathered together theunruly race scattered on the mountain heights, and gave them statutes, and chose Latium to be their name, since in these borders he had found asafe hiding-place. Beneath his reign were the ages named of gold; thus, in peace and quietness, did he rule the nations; till gradually therecrept in a sunken and stained time, the rage of war, and the lust ofpossession. Then came the Ausonian clan and the tribes of Sicania, andmany a time the land of Saturn put away her name. Then were kings, [330-364]and fierce Thybris with his giant bulk, from whose name we ofItaly afterwards called the Tiber river, when it lost the true name ofold, Albula. Me, cast out from my country and following the utmostlimits of the sea, Fortune the omnipotent and irreversible doom settledin this region; and my mother the Nymph Carmentis' awful warnings andApollo's divine counsel drove me hither. '

Scarce was this said; next advancing he points out the altar and theCarmental Gate, which the Romans call anciently by that name in honourof the Nymph Carmentis, seer and soothsayer, who sang of old the cominggreatness of the Aeneadae and the glory of Pallanteum. Next he pointsout the wide grove where valiant Romulus set his sanctuary, and theLupercal in the cool hollow of the rock, dedicate to Lycean Pan afterthe manner of Parrhasia. Therewithal he shows the holy wood ofArgiletum, and calls the spot to witness as he tells the slaying of hisguest Argus. Hence he leads him to the Tarpeian house, and the Capitolgolden now, of old rough with forest thickets. Even then men trembledbefore the wood and rock. 'This grove, ' he cries, 'this hill with itsleafy crown, is a god's dwelling, though whose we know not; theArcadians believe Jove himself hath been visible, when often he shookthe darkening aegis in his hand and gathered the storm-clouds. Thouseest these two towns likewise with walls overthrown, relics andmemorials of men of old. This fortress lord Janus built, this Saturn;the name of this was once Janiculum, of that Saturnia. '

With such mutual words they drew nigh the house of poor Evander, and sawscattered herds lowing on the Roman Forum and down the gay Carinae. Whenthey reached his dwelling, 'This threshold, ' he cries, 'Alcides theConqueror stooped to cross; in this palace he rested. Dare thou, myguest, to despise riches; mould thyself to [365-396]like dignity ofgodhead, and come not exacting to our poverty. ' He spoke, and led tallAeneas under the low roof of his narrow dwelling, and laid him on acouch of stuffed leaves and the skin of a Libyan she-bear. Night fallsand clasps the earth in her dusky wings. 

But Venus, stirred in spirit by no vain mother's alarms, and moved bythe threats and stern uprisal of the Laurentines, addresses herself toVulcan, and in her golden bridal chamber begins thus, breathing divinepassion in her speech:

'While Argolic kings wasted in war the doomed towers of Troy, thefortress fated to fall in hostile fires, no succour did I require forher wretched people, no weapons of thine art and aid: nor would I task, dear my lord, thee or thy toils for naught, though I owed many and manya debt to the children of Priam, and had often wept the sore labour ofAeneas. Now by Jove's commands he hath set foot in the Rutulian borders;I now therefore come with entreaty, and ask armour of the god I worship. For the son she bore, the tears of Nereus' daughter, of Tithonus'consort, could melt thine heart. Look what nations are gathering, whatcities bar their gates and sharpen the sword against me for thedesolation of my children. '

The goddess ended, and, as he hesitates, clasps him round in the softembrace of her snowy arms. He suddenly caught the wonted flame, and theheat known of old pierced him to the heart and overran his meltingframe: even as when, bursting from the thunder peal, a sparkling cleftof fire shoots through the storm-clouds with dazzling light. His consortknew, rejoiced in her wiles, and felt her beauty. Then her lord speaks, enchained by Love the immortal:

'Why these far-fetched pleas? Whither, O goddess, is thy trust in megone? Had like distress been thine, [397-431]even then we mightunblamed have armed thy Trojans, nor did doom nor the Lord omnipotentforbid Troy to stand, and Priam to survive yet ten other years. And now, if thou purposest war, and this is thy counsel, whatever charge I canundertake in my craft, in aught that may be made of iron or moltenelectrum, whatever fire and air can do, cease thou to entreat asdoubtful of thy strength. ' These words spoken, he clasped his wife inthe desired embrace, and, sinking in her lap, wooed quiet slumber tooverspread his limbs. 

Thereon, so soon as sleep, now in mid-career of waning night, had givenrest and gone; soon as a woman, whose task is to sustain life with herdistaff and the slender labours of the loom, kindles the ashes of herslumbering fire, her toil encroaching on the night, and sets a long taskof fire-lit spinning to her maidens, that so she may keep her husband'sbed unsullied and nourish her little children, --even so the Lord ofFire, nor slacker in his hours than she, rises from his soft couch tothe work of his smithy. An island rises by the side of Sicily andAeolian Lipare, steep with smoking cliffs, whereunder the vaulted andthunderous Aetnean caverns are hollowed out for Cyclopean forges, thestrong strokes on the anvils echo in groans, ore of steel hisses in thevaults, and the fire pants in the furnaces: the house of Vulcan, andVulcania the land's name. Hither now the Lord of Fire descends fromheaven's height. In the vast cavern the Cyclopes were forging iron, Brontes and Steropes and Pyracmon with bared limbs. Shaped in theirhands was a thunderbolt, in part already polished, such as the Father ofHeaven hurls down on earth in multitudes, part yet unfinished. Threecoils of frozen rain, three of watery mist they had enwrought in it, three of ruddy fire and winged south wind; now they were mingling intheir work the awful splendours, the sound and terror, and the[432-469]angry pursuing flames. Elsewhere they hurried on a chariot forMars with flying wheels, wherewith he stirs up men and cities; andburnished the golden serpent-scales of the awful aegis, the armour ofwrathful Pallas, and the entwined snakes on the breast of the goddess, the Gorgon head with severed neck and rolling eyes. 'Away with all!' hecries: 'stop your tasks unfinished, Cyclopes of Aetna, and attend tothis; a warrior's armour must be made. Now must strength, now quicknessof hand be tried, now all our art lend her guidance. Fling off delay. 'He spoke no more; but they all bent rapidly to the work, allotting theirlabours equally. Brass and ore of gold flow in streams, and woundingsteel is molten in the vast furnace. They shape a mighty shield, toreceive singly all the weapons of the Latins, and weld it sevenfold, circle on circle. Some fill and empty the windy bellows of their blast, some dip the hissing brass in the trough. They raise their arms mightilyin responsive time, and turn the mass of metal about in the grasp oftheir tongs. 

While the lord of Lemnos is busied thus in the borders of Aeolia, Evander is roused from his low dwelling by the gracious daylight and thematin songs of birds from the eaves. The old man arises, and draws onhis body raiment, and ties the Tyrrhene shoe latchets about his feet;then buckles to his side and shoulder his Tegeaean sword, and swatheshimself in a panther skin that droops upon his left. Therewithal twowatch-dogs go before him from the high threshold, and accompany theirmaster's steps. The hero sought his guest Aeneas in the privacy of hisdwelling, mindful of their talk and his promised bounty. Nor did Aeneasfail to be astir with the dawn. With the one went his son Pallas, with the other Achates. They meet and clasp hands, and, sitting downwithin the house, at length enjoy unchecked converse. The King beginsthus: . . . 

[470-505]'Princely chief of the Teucrians, in whose lifetime I willnever allow the state or realm of Troy vanquished, our strength is scantto succour in war for so great a name. On this side the Tuscan rivershuts us in; on that the Rutulian drives us hard, and thunders in armsabout our walls. But I purpose to unite to thee mighty peoples and thecamp of a wealthy realm; an unforeseen chance offers this for thysalvation. Fate summons thy approach. Not far from here stands fastAgylla city, an ancient pile of stone, where of old the Lydian race, eminent in war, settled on the Etruscan ridges. For many years itflourished, till King Mezentius ruled it with insolent sway and armedterror. Why should I relate the horrible murders, the savage deeds ofthe monarch? May the gods keep them in store for himself and his line!Nay, he would even link dead bodies to living, fitting hand to hand andface to face (the torture!), and in the oozy foulness and corruption ofthe dreadful embrace so slay them by a lingering death. But at last hiscitizens, outwearied by his mad excesses, surround him and his house inarms, cut down his comrades, and hurl fire on his roof. Amid themassacre he escaped to the refuge of Rutulian land and the armed defenceof Turnus' friendship. So all Etruria hath risen in righteous fury, andin immediate battle claim their king for punishment. Over thesethousands will I make thee chief, O Aeneas; for their noisy ships crowdall the shore, and they bid the standards advance, while the ageddiviner stays them with prophecies: "O chosen men of Maeonia, flower andstrength of them, of old time, whom righteous anger urges on the enemy, and Mezentius inflames with deserved wrath, to no Italian is itpermitted to hold this great nation in control: choose foreigners tolead you. " At that, terrified by the divine warning, the Etruscan lineshave encamped on the plain; Tarchon himself hath sent ambassadors to mewith the crown [506-539]and sceptre of the kingdom, and offers theroyal attire will I but enter their camp and take the Tyrrhene realm. But old age, frozen to dulness, and exhausted with length of life, denies me the load of empire, and my prowess is past its day. I wouldurge it on my son, did not the mixture of blood by his Sabellian mothermake this half his native land. Thou, to whose years and race alike thefates extend their favour, on whom fortune calls, enter thou in, aleader supreme in bravery over Teucrians and Italians. Mine own Pallaslikewise, our hope and comfort, I will send with thee; let him grow usedto endure warfare and the stern work of battle under thy teaching, toregard thine actions, and from his earliest years look up to thee. Tohim will I give two hundred Arcadian cavalry, the choice of our warlikestrength, and Pallas as many more to thee in his own name. '

Scarce had he ended; Aeneas, son of Anchises, and trusty Achates gazedwith steadfast face, and, sad at heart, were revolving inly many alabour, had not the Cytherean sent a sign from the clear sky. Forsuddenly a flash and peal comes quivering from heaven, and all seemed ina moment to totter, and the Tyrrhene trumpet-blast to roar along thesky. They look up; again and yet again the heavy crash re-echoes. Theysee in the serene space of sky armour gleam red through a cloud in theclear air, and ring clashing out. The others stood in amaze; but theTrojan hero knew the sound for the promise of his goddess mother; thenhe speaks: 'Ask not, O friend, ask not in any wise what fortune thispresage announces; it is I who am summoned of heaven. This sign thegoddess who bore me foretold she would send if war assailed, and wouldbring through the air to my succour armour from Vulcan's hands. . . . Ah, what slaughter awaits the wretched Laurentines! what a price, OTurnus, wilt thou pay me! how many shields and helmets and brave bodiesof men shalt thou, [540-573]Lord Tiber, roll under thy waves! Let themcall for armed array and break the league!'

These words uttered, he rises from the high seat, and first wakes withfresh fire the slumbering altars of Hercules, and gladly draws nigh histutelar god of yesternight and the small deities of the household. AlikeEvander, and alike the men of Troy, offer up, as is right, choice sheepof two years old. Thereafter he goes to the ships and revisits his crew, of whose company he chooses the foremost in valour to attend him to war;the rest glide down the water and float idly with the descending stream, to come with news to Ascanius of his father's state. They give horses tothe Teucrians who seek the fields of Tyrrhenia; a chosen one is broughtfor Aeneas, housed in a tawny lion skin that glitters with claws ofgold. Rumour flies suddenly, spreading over the little town, that theyride in haste to the courts of the Tyrrhene king. Mothers redouble theirprayers in terror, as fear treads closer on peril and the likeness ofthe War God looms larger in sight. Then Evander, clasping the hand ofhis departing son, clings to him weeping inconsolably, and speaks thus:

'Oh, if Jupiter would restore me the years that are past, as I was when, close under Praeneste, I cut down their foremost ranks and burned thepiled shields of the conquered! Then this right hand sent King Erulusdown to hell, though to him at his birth his mother Feronia (awful totell) had given three lives and triple arms to wield; thrice must he belaid low in death; yet then this hand took all his lives and as oftenstripped him of his arms. Never should I now, O son, be severed from thydear embrace; never had the insolent sword of Mezentius on my bordersdealt so many cruel deaths, widowed the city of so many citizens. Butyou, O heavenly powers, and thou, Jupiter, Lord and Governor of Heaven, have compassion, I pray, on [574-609]the Arcadian king, and hear afather's prayers. If your deity and decrees keep my Pallas safe for me, if I live that I may see him and meet him yet, I pray for life; any toilsoever I have patience to endure. But if, O Fortune, thou threatenestsome dread calamity, now, ah now, may I break off a cruel life, whileanxiety still wavers and expectation is in doubt, while thou, dear boy, my one last delight, art yet clasped in my embrace; let no bitterermessage wound mine ear. ' These words the father poured forth at thefinal parting; his servants bore him swooning within. 

And now the cavalry had issued from the open gates, Aeneas and trustyAchates among the foremost, then other of the Trojan princes, Pallasconspicuous amid the column in scarf and inlaid armour; like the MorningStar, when, newly washed in the ocean wave, he shews his holy face inheaven, and melts the darkness away. Fearful mothers stand on the wallsand follow with their eyes the cloud of dust and the squadrons gleamingin brass. They, where the goal of their way lies nearest, bear throughthe brushwood in armed array. Forming in column, they advance noisily, and the horse hoof shakes the crumbling plain with four-footedtrampling. There is a high grove by the cold river of Caere, widelyrevered in ancestral awe; sheltering hills shut it in all about andgirdle the woodland with their dark firs. Rumour is that the oldPelasgians, who once long ago held the Latin borders, consecrated thegrove and its festal day to Silvanus, god of the tilth and flock. Notfar from it Tarchon and his Tyrrhenians were encamped in a protectedplace; and now from the hill-top the tents of all their army might beseen outspread on the fields. Lord Aeneas and his chosen warriors drawhither and refresh their weary horses and limbs. 

But Venus the white goddess drew nigh, bearing her gifts through theclouds of heaven; and when she saw her [610-646]son withdrawn far apartin the valley's recess by the cold river, cast herself in his way, andaddressed him thus: 'Behold perfected the presents of my husband'spromised craftsmanship: so shalt thou not shun, O my child, soon tochallenge the haughty Laurentines or fiery Turnus to battle. ' TheCytherean spoke, and sought her son's embrace, and laid the armourglittering under an oak over against him. He, rejoicing in themagnificence of the goddess' gift, cannot have his fill of turning hiseyes over it piece by piece, and admires and handles between his armsthe helmet, dread with plumes and spouting flame, as when a blue cloudtakes fire in the sunbeams and gleams afar; then the smooth greaves ofelectrum and refined gold, the spear, and the shield's ineffable design. There the Lord of Fire had fashioned the story of Italy and the triumphsof the Romans, not witless of prophecy or ignorant of the age to be;there all the race of Ascanius' future seed, and their wars fought oneby one. Likewise had he fashioned the she-wolf couched after the birthin the green cave of Mars; round her teats the twin boys hung playing, and fearlessly mouthed their foster-mother; she, with round neck bentback, stroked them by turns and shaped their bodies with her tongue. Thereto not far from this he had set Rome and the lawless rape of theSabines in the concourse of the theatre when the great Circensian gameswere celebrated, and a fresh war suddenly arising between the people ofRomulus and aged Tatius and austere Cures. Next these same kings laiddown their mutual strife and stood armed before Jove's altar with cup inhand, and joined treaty over a slain sow. Not far from there four-horsechariots driven apart had torn Mettus asunder (but thou, O Alban, shouldst have kept by thy words!), and Tullus tore the flesh of the liarthrough the forest, his splashed blood dripping from the briars. Therewithal Porsena commanded [647-681]to admit the exiled Tarquin, andheld the city in the grasp of a strong blockade; the Aeneadae rushed onthe sword for liberty. Him thou couldst espy like one who chafes andlike one who threatens, because Cocles dared to tear down the bridge, and Cloelia broke her bonds and swam the river. Highest of all Manlius, warder of the Tarpeian fortress, stood with the temple behind him andheld the high Capitoline; and the thatch of Romulus' palace stood roughand fresh. And here the silver goose, fluttering in the gildedcolonnades, cried that the Gauls were there on the threshold. The Gaulswere there among the brushwood, hard on the fortress, secure in thedarkness and the dower of shadowy night. Their clustering locks are ofgold, and of gold their attire; their striped cloaks glitter, and theirmilk-white necks are entwined with gold. Two Alpine pikes sparkle in thehand of each, and long shields guard their bodies. Here he had embossedthe dancing Salii and the naked Luperci, the crests wreathed in wool, and the sacred shields that fell from heaven; in cushioned cars thevirtuous matrons led on their rites through the city. Far hence he addsthe habitations of hell also, the high gates of Dis and the dooms ofguilt; and thee, O Catiline, clinging on the beetling rock, andshuddering at the faces of the Furies; and far apart the good, and Catodelivering them statutes. Amidst it all flows wide the likeness of theswelling sea, wrought in gold, though the foam surged gray upon bluewater; and round about dolphins, in shining silver, swept the seas withtheir tails in circle as they cleft the tide. In the centre were visiblethe brazen war-fleets of Actium; thou mightest see all Leucate swarm inembattled array, and the waves gleam with gold. Here Caesar Augustus, leading Italy to battle with Fathers and People, with gods of householdand of state, stands on the lofty stern; prosperous flames jet round hisbrow, and his [682-715]ancestral star dawns overhead. ElsewhereAgrippa, with favouring winds and gods, proudly leads on his column; onhis brows glitters the prow-girt naval crown, the haughty emblazonmentof the war. Here Antonius with barbarian aid and motley arms, from theconquered nations of the Dawn and the shore of the southern sea, carrieswith him Egypt and the Eastern forces of utmost Bactra, and the shamefulEgyptian woman goes as his consort. All at once rush on, and the wholeocean is torn into foam by straining oars and triple-pointed prows. Theysteer to sea; one might think that the Cyclades were uptorn and floatedon the main, or that lofty mountains clashed with mountains, so mightilydo their crews urge on the turreted ships. Flaming tow and the wingedsteel of darts shower thickly from their hands; the fields of oceanredden with fresh slaughter. Midmost the Queen calls on her squadronwith the timbrel of her country, nor yet casts back a glance on the twinsnakes behind her. Howling Anubis, and gods monstrous and multitudinous, level their arms against Neptune and Venus and against Minerva; Marsrages amid the havoc, graven in iron, and the Fatal Sisters hang aloft, and Discord strides rejoicing with garment rent, and Bellona attends herwith blood-stained scourge. Looking thereon, Actian Apollo above drewhis bow; with the terror of it all Egypt and India, every Arab andSabaean, turned back in flight. The Queen herself seemed to call thewinds and spread her sails, and even now let her sheets run slack. Herthe Lord of Fire had fashioned amid the carnage, wan with the shadow ofdeath, borne along by the waves and the north-west wind; and overagainst her the vast bulk of mourning Nile, opening out his folds andcalling with all his raiment the conquered people into his blue lap andthe coverture of his streams. But Caesar rode into the city of Rome intriple triumph, and dedicated his vowed [716-731]offering to the godsto stand for ever, three hundred stately shrines all about the city. Thestreets were loud with gladness and games and shouting. In all thetemples was a band of matrons, in all were altars, and before the altarsslain steers strewed the ground. Himself he sits on the snowy thresholdof Phoebus the bright, reviews the gifts of the nations and ranges themon the haughty doors. The conquered tribes move in long line, diverse asin tongue, so in fashion of dress and armour. Here Mulciber had designedthe Nomad race and the ungirt Africans, here the Leleges and Carians andarcher Gelonians. Euphrates went by now with smoother waves, and theMorini utmost of men, and the hornèd Rhine, the untamed Dahae, andAraxes chafing under his bridge. 

These things he admires on the shield of Vulcan, his mother's gift, andrejoicing in the portraiture of unknown history, lifts on his shoulderthe destined glories of his children. 

BOOK NINTH

THE SIEGE OF THE TROJAN CAMP

And while thus things pass far in the distance, Juno daughter of Saturnsent Iris down the sky to gallant Turnus, then haply seated in hisforefather Pilumnus' holy forest dell. To him the child of Thaumas spokethus with roseate lips:

'Turnus, what no god had dared promise to thy prayer, behold, is broughtunasked by the circling day. Aeneas hath quitted town and comrades andfleet to seek Evander's throne and Palatine dwelling-place. Nor is itenough; he hath pierced to Corythus' utmost cities, and is mustering inarms a troop of Lydian rustics. Why hesitate? now, now is the time tocall for chariot and horses. Break through all hindrance and seize thebewildered camp. '

She spoke, and rose into the sky on poised wings, and flashed under theclouds in a long flying bow. He knew her, and lifting either hand toheaven, with this cry pursued her flight: 'Iris, grace of the sky, whohath driven thee down the clouds to me and borne thee to earth? Whenceis this sudden sheen of weather? I see the sky parting asunder, and thewandering stars in the firmament. I follow the high omen, whoso thou artthat callest me to arms. ' And with these words he drew nigh the wave, and [23-58]caught up water from its brimming eddy, making many prayersto the gods and burdening the air with vows. 

And now all the army was advancing on the open plain, rich in horses, rich in raiment of broidered gold. Messapus rules the foremost ranks, the sons of Tyrrheus the rear. Turnus commands the centre: even asGanges rising high in silence when his seven streams are still, or therich flood of Nile when he ebbs from the plains, and is now sunk intohis channel. On this the Teucrians descry a sudden cloud of dark dustgathering, and the blackness rising on the plain. Caïcus raises a cryfrom the mound in front: 'What mass of misty gloom, O citizens, isrolling hitherward? to arms in haste! serve out weapons, climb thewalls. The enemy approaches, ho!' With mighty clamour the Teucrians pourin through all the gates and fill the works. For so at his departureAeneas the great captain had enjoined; were aught to chance meanwhile, they should not venture to range their line or trust the plain, but keeptheir camp and the safety of the entrenched walls. So, though shame andwrath beckon them on to battle, they yet bar the gates and do hisbidding, and await the foe armed and in shelter of the towers. Turnus, who had flown forward in advance of his tardy column, comes up suddenlyto the town with a train of twenty chosen cavalry, borne on a Thracianhorse dappled with white, and covered by a golden helmet with scarletplume. 'Who will be with me, my men, to be first on the foe? See!' hecries; and sends a javelin spinning into the air to open battle, andadvances towering on the plain. His comrades take up the cry, and followwith dreadful din, wondering at the Teucrians' coward hearts, that theyissue not on even field nor face them in arms, but keep in shelter ofthe camp. Hither and thither he rides furiously, tracing the walls, andseeking entrance where way is none. And as a wolf prowling [59-92]aboutsome crowded sheepfold, when, beaten sore of winds and rains, he howlsat the pens by midnight; safe beneath their mothers the lambs keepbleating on; he, savage and insatiate, rages in anger against the flockhe cannot reach, tired by the long-gathering madness for food, and thethroat unslaked with blood: even so the Rutulian, as he gazes on thewalled camp, kindles in anger, and indignation is hot in his iron frame. By what means may he essay entrance? by what passage hurl the imprisonedTrojans from the rampart and fling them on the plain? Close under theflanking camp lay the fleet, fenced about with mounds and the waters ofthe river; it he attacks, and calls for fire to his exultant comrades, and eagerly catches a blazing pine-torch in his hand. Then indeed theypress on, quickened by Turnus' presence, and all the band arm them withblack faggots. The hearth-fires are plundered; the smoky brand trails aresinous glare, and the Fire-god sends clouds of glowing ashes upward. 

What god, O Muses, guarded the Trojans from the rage of the fire? whorepelled the fierce flame from their ships? Tell it; ancient is theassurance thereof, but the fame everlasting. What time Aeneas began toshape his fleet on Phrygian Ida, and prepared to seek the high seas, theBerecyntian, they say, the very Mother of gods, spoke to high Jove inthese words: 'Grant, O son, to my prayer, what her dearness claims whobore thee and laid Olympus under thy feet. My pine forest beloved of methese many years, my grove was on the mountain's crown, whither men boremy holy things, dim with dusky pine and pillared maples. These, when herequired a fleet, I gave gladly to the Dardanian; now fear wrings mewith sharp distress. Relieve my terrors, and grant a mother's prayerssuch power that they may yield to no stress of voyaging or of stormygust: be birth on our hills their avail. '

[93-126]Thus her son in answer, who wheels the starry worlds: 'Omother, whither callest thou fate? or what dost thou seek for these ofthine? May hulls have the right of immortality that were fashioned bymortal hand? and may Aeneas traverse perils secure in insecurity? Towhat god is power so great given? Nay, but when, their duty done, theyshall lie at last in their Ausonian haven, from all that have outgonethe waves and borne their Dardanian captain to the fields of Laurentum, will I take their mortal body, and bid them be goddesses of the mightydeep, even as Doto the Nereïd and Galatea, when they cut the sea thatfalls away from their breasts in foam. ' He ended; and by his brother'sStygian streams, by the banks of the pitchy black-boiling chasm henodded confirmation, and shook all Olympus with his nod. 

So the promised day was come, and the destinies had fulfilled their duetime, when Turnus' injury stirred the Mother to ward the brands from herholy ships. First then a strange light flashed on all eyes, and a greatglory from the Dawn seemed to dart over the sky, with the choirs of Ida;then an awful voice fell through air, filling the Trojan and Rutulianranks: 'Disquiet not yourselves, O Teucrians, to guard ships of mine, neither arm your hands: sooner shall Turnus burn the seas than theseholy pines. You, go free; go, goddesses of the sea; the Mother bids it. 'And immediately each ship breaks the bond that held it, as with dippingprows they plunge like dolphins deep into the water: from it again (Owonderful and strange!) they rise with maidens' faces in like number, and bear out to sea. 

The Rutulians stood dumb: Messapus himself is terror-stricken among hisdisordered cavalry; even the stream of Tiber pauses with hoarse murmur, and recoils from sea. But bold Turnus fails not a whit in confidence;nay, he [127-158]raises their courage with words, nay, he chides them:'On the Trojans are these portents aimed; Jupiter himself hath bereftthem of their wonted succour; nor do they abide Rutulian sword and fire. So are the seas pathless for the Teucrians, nor is there any hope inflight; they have lost half their world. And we hold the land: in alltheir thousands the nations of Italy are under arms. In no wise am Idismayed by those divine oracles of doom the Phrygians insolentlyadvance. Fate and Venus are satisfied, in that the Trojans have touchedour fruitful Ausonian fields. I too have my fate in reply to theirs, toput utterly to the sword the guilty nation who have robbed me of mybride; not the sons of Atreus alone are touched by that pain, nor mayMycenae only rise in arms. But to have perished once is enough! To havesinned once should have been enough, in all but utter hatred of thewhole of womankind. Trust in the sundering rampart, and the hindrance oftheir trenches, so little between them and death, gives these theircourage: yet have they not seen Troy town, the work of Neptune's hand, sink into fire? But you, my chosen, who of you makes ready to breachtheir palisade at the sword's point, and join my attack on theirfluttered camp? I have no need of Vulcanian arms, of a thousand ships, to meet the Teucrians. All Etruria may join on with them in alliance:nor let them fear the darkness, and the cowardly theft of theirPalladium, and the guards cut down on the fortress height. Nor will wehide ourselves unseen in a horse's belly; in daylight and unconcealedare we resolved to girdle their walls with flame. Not with Grecians willI make them think they have to do, nor a Pelasgic force kept off tillthe tenth year by Hector. Now, since the better part of day is spent, for what remains refresh your bodies, glad that we have done so well, and expect the order of battle. '

[159-192]Meanwhile charge is given to Messapus to blockade the gateswith pickets of sentries, and encircle the works with watchfires. Twiceseven are chosen to guard the walls with Rutulian soldiery; but eachleads an hundred men, crimson-plumed and sparkling in gold. They spreadthemselves about and keep alternate watch, and, lying along the grass, drink deep and set brazen bowls atilt. The fires glow, and the sentinelsspend the night awake in games. . . . 

Down on this the Trojans look forth from the rampart, as they hold theheight in arms; withal in fearful haste they try the gates and laygangways from bastion to bastion, and bring up missiles. Mnestheus andvaliant Serestus speed the work, whom lord Aeneas appointed, shouldmisfortune call, to be rulers of the people and governors of the state. All their battalions, sharing the lot of peril, keep watch along thewalls, and take alternate charge of all that requires defence. 

On guard at the gate was Nisus son of Hyrtacus, most valiant in arms, whom Ida the huntress had sent in Aeneas' company with fleet javelin andlight arrows; and by his side Euryalus, fairest of all the Aeneadae andthe wearers of Trojan arms, showing on his unshaven boy's face the firstbloom of youth. These two were one in affection, and charged in battletogether; now likewise their common guard kept the gate. Nisus cries:'Lend the gods this fervour to the soul, Euryalus? or does fatal passionbecome a proper god to each? Long ere now my soul is restless to beginsome great deed of arms, and quiet peace delights it not. Thou seest howconfident in fortune the Rutulians stand. Their lights glimmer farapart; buried in drunken sleep they have sunk to rest; silence stretchesall about. Learn then what doubt, what purpose, now rises in my spirit. People and senate, they all cry that Aeneas [193-226]be summoned, andmen be sent to carry him tidings. If they promise what I ask in thyname--for to me the glory of the deed is enough--methinks I can findbeneath yonder hillock a path to the walls of Pallanteum town. '

Euryalus stood fixed, struck through with high ambition, and therewithspeaks thus to his fervid friend: 'Dost thou shun me then, Nisus, toshare thy company in highest deeds? shall I send thee alone into sogreat perils? Not thus did my warrior father Opheltes rear and nurtureme amid the Argive terror and the agony of Troy, nor thus have I bornemyself by thy side while following noble Aeneas to his utmost fate. Hereis a spirit, yes here, that scorns the light of day, that deems lightlybought at a life's price that honour to which thou dost aspire. '

To this Nisus: 'Assuredly I had no such fear of thee; no, nor could I;so may great Jupiter, or whoso looks on earth with equal eyes, restoreme to thee triumphant. But if haply--as thou seest often and often in soforlorn a hope--if haply chance or deity sweep me to adverse doom, Iwould have thee survive; thine age is worthier to live. Be there one tocommit me duly to earth, rescued or ransomed from the battlefield: or, if fortune deny that, to pay me far away the rites of funeral and thegrace of a tomb. Neither would I bring such pain on thy poor mother, shewho singly of many matrons hath dared to follow her boy to the end, andslights great Acestes' city. '

And he: 'In vain dost thou string idle reasons; nor does my purposeyield or change its place so soon. Let us make haste. ' He speaks, androuses the watch; they come up, and relieve the guard; quitting theirpost, he and Nisus stride on to seek the prince. 

The rest of living things over all lands were soothing their cares insleep, and their hearts forgot their pain; the foremost Trojan captains, a chosen band, held council [227-261]of state upon the kingdom; whatshould they do, or who would now be their messenger to Aeneas? Theystand, leaning on their long spears and grasping their shields, in midlevel of the camp. Then Nisus and Euryalus together pray with quickurgency to be given audience; their matter is weighty and will be worththe delay. Iülus at once heard their hurried plea, and bade Nisus speak. Thereon the son of Hyrtacus: 'Hear, O people of Aeneas, with favourablemind, nor regard our years in what we offer. Sunk in sleep and wine, theRutulians are silent; we have stealthily spied the open ground that liesin the path through the gate next the sea. The line of fires is broken, and their smoke rises darkly upwards. If you allow us to use the chancetowards seeking Aeneas in Pallanteum town, you will soon descry us hereat hand with the spoils of the great slaughter we have dealt. Nor shallwe miss the way we go; up the dim valleys we have seen the skirts of thetown, and learned all the river in continual hunting. '

Thereon aged Aletes, sage in counsel: 'Gods of our fathers, under whosedeity Troy ever stands, not wholly yet do you purpose to blot out theTrojan race, when you have brought us young honour and hearts so sure asthis. ' So speaking, he caught both by shoulder and hand, with tearsshowering down over face and feature. 'What guerdon shall I deem may begiven you, O men, what recompense for these noble deeds? First andfairest shall be your reward from the gods and your own conduct; andAeneas the good shall speedily repay the rest, and Ascanius' fresh youthnever forget so great a service. '--'Nay, ' breaks in Ascanius, 'I whosesole safety is in my father's return, I adjure thee and him, O Nisus, byour great household gods, by the tutelar spirit of Assaracus and hoarVesta's sanctuary--on your knees I lay all my fortune and trust--recallmy father; [262-296]give him back to sight; all sorrow disappears inhis recovery. I will give a pair of cups my father took in vanquishedArisba, wrought in silver and rough with tracery, twin tripods, and twolarge talents of gold, and an ancient bowl of Sidonian Dido's giving. Ifit be indeed our lot to possess Italy and grasp a conquering sceptre, and to assign the spoil; thou sawest the horse and armour of Turnus ashe went all in gold; that same horse, the shield and the ruddy plume, will I reserve from partition, thy reward, O Nisus, even from now. Myfather will give besides twelve mothers of the choicest beauty, and mencaptives, all in their due array; above these, the space of meadow-landthat is now King Latinus' own domain. Thee, O noble boy, whom mine agefollows at a nearer interval, even now I welcome to all my heart, andembrace as my companion in every fortune. No glory shall be sought formy state without thee; whether peace or war be in conduct, my chiefesttrust for deed and word shall be in thee. '

Answering whom Euryalus speaks thus: 'Let but the day never come toprove me degenerate from this daring valour; fortune may fall prosperousor adverse. But above all thy gifts, one thing I ask of thee. My poormother of Priam's ancient race, whom neither the Ilian land nor KingAcestes' city kept from following me forth, her I now leave in ignoranceof this danger, such as it is, and without a farewell, because--nightand thine hand be witness!--I cannot bear a parent's tears. But thou, Ipray, support her want and relieve her loneliness. Let me take with methis hope in thee, I shall go more daringly to every fortune. ' Deeplystirred at heart, the Dardanians shed tears, fair Iülus before them all, as the likeness of his own father's love wrung his soul. Then he speaksthus: . . . 'Assure thyself all that is due to thy mighty enterprise;[297-330]for she shall be a mother to me, and only in name fail to beCreüsa; nor slight is the honour reserved for the mother of such a son. What chance soever follow this deed, I swear by this head whereby myfather was wont to swear, what I promise to thee on thy prosperousreturn shall abide the same for thy mother and kindred. ' So speaks heweeping, and ungirds from his shoulder the sword inlaid with gold, fashioned with marvellous skill by Lycaon of Gnosus and fitly set in asheath of ivory. Mnestheus gives Nisus the shaggy spoils of a lion'shide; faithful Aletes exchanges his helmet. They advance onward in arms, and as they go all the company of captains, young and old, speed them tothe gates with vows. Likewise fair Iülus, with a man's thought and aspirit beyond his years, gave many messages to be carried to his father. But the breezes shred all asunder and give them unaccomplished to theclouds. 

They issue and cross the trenches, and through the shadow of night seekthe fatal camp, themselves first to be the death of many a man. Allabout they see bodies strewn along the grass in drunken sleep, chariotsatilt on the shore, the men lying among their traces and wheels, withtheir armour by them, and their wine. The son of Hyrtacus began thus:'Euryalus, now for daring hands; all invites them; here lies our way;see thou that none raise a hand from behind against us, and keepfar-sighted watch. Here will I deal desolation, and make a broad pathfor thee to follow. ' So speaks he and checks his voice; therewith hedrives his sword at lordly Rhamnes, who haply on carpets heaped high wasdrawing the full breath of sleep; a king himself, and King Turnus'best-beloved augur, but not all his augury could avert his doom. Threeof his household beside him, lying carelessly among their arms, and thearmour-bearer and charioteer of Remus go [331-364]down before him, caught at the horses' feet. Their drooping necks he severs with thesword, then beheads their lord likewise and leaves the trunk spoutingblood; the dark warm gore soaks ground and cushions. Therewithal Lamyrusand Lamus, and beautiful young Serranus, who that night had played longand late, and lay with the conquering god heavy on every limb; happy, had he played out the night, and carried his game to day! Even thus anunfed lion riots through full sheepfolds, for the madness of hungerurges him, and champs and rends the fleecy flock that are dumb withfear, and roars with blood-stained mouth. Nor less is the slaughter ofEuryalus; he too rages all aflame; an unnamed multitude go down beforehis path, and Fadus and Herbesus and Rhoetus and Abaris, unaware;Rhoetus awake and seeing all, but he hid in fear behind a great bowl;right in whose breast, as he rose close by, he plunged the sword all itslength, and drew it back heavy with death. He vomits forth the crimsonlife-blood, and throws up wine mixed with blood in the death agony. Theother presses hotly on his stealthy errand, and now bent his way towardsMessapus' comrades, where he saw the last flicker of the fires go down, and the horses tethered in order cropping the grass; when Nisus brieflyspeaks thus, for he saw him carried away by excess of murderous desire;'Let us stop; for unfriendly daylight draws nigh. Vengeance is sated tothe full; a path is cut through the enemy. ' Much they leave behind, men's armour wrought in solid silver, and bowls therewith, and beautifulcarpets. Euryalus tears away the decorations of Rhamnes and hissword-belt embossed with gold, a gift which Caedicus, wealthiest of menof old, sends to Remulus of Tibur when plighting friendship far away; heon his death-bed gives them to his grandson for his own; after his deaththe Rutulians captured them as spoil of war; these he fits on theshoulders valiant [365-396]in vain, then puts on Messapus' light helmetwith its graceful plumes. They issue from the camp and make for safety. 

Meanwhile an advanced guard of cavalry were on their way from the Latincity, while the rest of their marshalled battalions linger on theplains, and bore a reply to King Turnus; three hundred men all undershield, in Volscens' leading. And now they approached the camp and drewnear the wall, when they descry the two turning away by the pathway tothe left; and in the glimmering darkness of night the forgotten helmetbetrayed Euryalus, glittering as it met the light. It seemed no thing ofchance. Volscens cries aloud from his column: 'Stand, men! why on themarch, or how are you in arms? or whither hold you your way?' They offernothing in reply, but quicken their flight into the forest, and throwthemselves on the night. On this side and that the horsemen bar thefamiliar crossways, and encircle every outlet with sentinels. The forestspread wide in tangled thickets and dark ilex; thick growth of briarschoked it all about, and the muffled pathway glimmered in a brokentrack. Hampered by the shadowy boughs and his cumbrous spoil, Euryalusin his fright misses the line of way. Nisus gets clear; and nowunthinkingly he had passed the enemy, and the place afterwards calledAlbani from Alba's name; then the deep coverts were of King Latinus'domain; when he stopped, and looked back in vain for his lost friend. 'Euryalus, unhappy! on what ground have I left thee? or where shall Ifollow, again unwinding all the entanglement of the treacherous woodlandway?' Therewith he marks and retraces his footsteps, and wanders downthe silent thickets. He hears the horses, hears the clatter andsignal-notes of the pursuers. Nor had he long to wait, when shouts reachhis ears, and he sees Euryalus, whom even now, in the perplexity ofground and [397-431]darkness, the whole squadron have borne down in asudden rush, and seize in spite of all his vain struggles. What shall hedo? with what force, what arms dare his rescue? or shall he rush on hisdoom amid their swords, and find in their wounds a speedy and gloriousdeath? Quickly he draws back his arm with poised spear, and looking upto the moon on high, utters this prayer: 'Do thou give present aid toour enterprise, O Latonian goddess, glory of the stars and guardian ofthe woodlands: by all the gifts my father Hyrtacus ever bore for my saketo thine altars, by all mine own hand hath added from my hunting, orhung in thy dome, or fixed on thy holy roof, grant me to confound thesemasses, and guide my javelin through the air. ' He ended, and with allthe force of his body hurls the steel. The flying spear whistles throughthe darkness of the night, and comes full on the shield of Sulmo, andthere snaps, and the broken shaft passes on through his heart. Spoutinga warm tide from his breast he rolls over chill in death, and his sidesthrob with long-drawn gasps. Hither and thither they gaze round. Lo, heall the fiercer was poising another weapon high by his ear; while theyhesitate, the spear went whizzing through both Tagus' temples, andpierced and stuck fast in the warm brain. Volscens is mad with rage, andnowhere espies the sender of the weapon, nor where to direct his fury. 'Yet meanwhile thy warm blood shalt pay me vengeance for both, ' hecries; and unsheathing his sword, he made at Euryalus. Then indeedfrantic with terror Nisus shrieks out; no longer could he shroud himselfin darkness or endure such agony. 'On me, on me, I am here, I did it, onme turn your steel, O Rutulians! Mine is all the guilt; he dared not, no, nor could not; to this heaven I appeal and the stars that know; heonly loved his hapless friend too well. ' Such words he was uttering; butthe sword driven hard home is gone [432-464]clean through his ribs andpierces the white breast. Euryalus rolls over in death, and the bloodruns over his lovely limbs, and his neck sinks and settles on hisshoulder; even as when a lustrous flower cut away by the plough droopsin death, or weary-necked poppies bow down their head if overweightedwith a random shower. But Nisus rushes amidst them, and alone among themall makes at Volscens, keeps to Volscens alone: round him the foecluster, and on this side and that hurl him back: none the less hepresses on, and whirls his sword like lightning, till he plunges it fullin the face of the shrieking Rutulian, and slays his enemy as he dies. Then, stabbed through and through, he flung himself above his lifelessfriend, and there at last found the quiet sleep of death. 

Happy pair! if my verse is aught of avail, no length of days shall everblot you from the memory of time, while the house of Aeneas shall dwellby the Capitoline's stedfast stone, and the lord of Rome holdsovereignty. 

The victorious Rutulians, with their spoils and the plunder regained, bore dead Volscens weeping to the camp. Nor in the camp was the wailingless, when Rhamnes was found a bloodless corpse, and Serranus and Numaand all their princes destroyed in a single slaughter. Crowds throngtowards the corpses and the men wounded to death, the ground fresh withwarm slaughter and the swoln runlets of frothing blood. They mutuallyrecognise the spoils, Messapus' shining helmet and the decorations thatcost such sweat to win back. 

And now Dawn, leaving the saffron bed of Tithonus, scattered over earthher fresh shafts of early light; now the sunlight streams in, nowdaylight unveils the world. Turnus, himself fully armed, awakes his mento arms, and each leader marshals to battle his brazen lines and whetstheir ardour with varying rumours. Nay, pitiable sight! they[465-499]fix on spear-points and uprear and follow with loud shouts theheads of Euryalus and Nisus. . . . The Aeneadae stubbornly face them, lining the left hand wall (for their right is girdled by the river), hold the deep trenches and stand gloomily on the high towers, stirredwithal by the faces they know, alas, too well, in their dark drippinggore. Meanwhile Rumour on fluttering wings rushes with the news throughthe alarmed town and glides to the ears of Euryalus' mother. Butinstantly the warmth leaves her woeful body, the shuttle starts from herhand and the threads unroll. She darts forth in agony, and with woman'swailing and torn hair runs distractedly towards the walls and theforemost columns, recking naught of men, naught of peril or weapons;thereon she fills the air with her complaint: 'Is it thus I behold thee, O Euryalus? Couldst thou, the latest solace of mine age, leave me aloneso cruelly? nor when sent into such danger was one last word of theeallowed thine unhappy mother? Alas, thou liest in a strange land, givenfor a prey to the dogs and fowls of Latium! nor was I, thy mother, therefor chief mourner, to lay thee out or close thine eyes or wash thywounds, and cover thee with the garment I hastened on for thee wholenights and days, an anxious old woman taking comfort from the loom. Whither shall I follow? or what land now holds thy mangled corpse, thybody torn limb from limb? Is this all of what thou wert that returns tome, O my son? is it this I have followed by land and sea? Strike methrough of your pity, on me cast all your weapons, Rutulians; make methe first sacrifice of your steel. Or do thou, mighty lord of heaven, bemerciful, and with thine own weapon hurl this hateful life to the netherdeep, since in no wise else may I break away from life's cruelty. ' Atthis weeping cry their courage falters, and a sigh of sorrow passes allalong; their strength is benumbed and broken for battle. Her, while[500-535]her grief kindled, at Ilioneus' and weeping Iülus' biddingIdaeus and Actor catch up and carry home in their arms. 

But the terrible trumpet-note afar rang on the shrill brass; a shoutfollows, and is echoed from the sky. The Volscians hasten up in evenline under their advancing roof of shields, and set to fill up thetrenches and tear down the palisades. Some seek entrance by scaling thewalls with ladders, where the defenders' battle-line is thin, and lightshows through gaps in the ring of men. The Teucrians in return showerweapons of every sort, and push them down with stiff poles, practised bylong warfare in their ramparts' defence: and fiercely hurl heavy stones, so be they may break the shielded line; while they, crowded under theirshell, lightly bear all the downpour. But now they fail; for where thevast mass presses close, the Teucrians roll a huge block tumbling downthat makes a wide gap in the Rutulians and crashes through theirarmour-plating. Nor do the bold Rutulians care longer to continue theblind fight, but strive to clear the rampart with missiles. . . . Elsewhere in dreadful guise Mezentius brandishes his Etruscan pine andhurls smoking brands; but Messapus, tamer of horses, seed of Neptune, tears away the palisading and calls for ladders to the ramparts. 

Thy sisterhood, O Calliope, I pray inspire me while I sing thedestruction spread then and there by Turnus' sword, the deaths dealtfrom his hand, and whom each warrior sent down to the under world; andunroll with me the broad borders of war. 

A tower loomed vast with lofty gangways at a point of vantage; this allthe Italians strove with main strength to storm, and set all their mightand device to overthrow it; the Trojans in return defended it withstones and hurled showers of darts through the loopholes. Turnus, leading the attack, threw a blazing torch that caught flaming on the[536-570]side wall; swoln by the wind, the flame seized the plankingand clung devouring to the standards. Those within, in hurry andconfusion, desire retreat from their distress; in vain; while theycluster together and fall back to the side free from the destroyer, thetower sinks prone under the sudden weight with a crash that thundersthrough all the sky. Pierced by their own weapons, and impaled on hardsplinters of wood, they come half slain to the ground with the vast massbehind them. Scarcely do Helenor alone and Lycus struggle out; Helenorin his early prime, whom a slave woman of Licymnos bore in secret to theMaeonian king, and sent to Troy in forbidden weapons, lightly armed withsheathless sword and white unemblazoned shield. And he, when he sawhimself among Turnus' encircling thousands, ranks on this side and rankson this of Latins, as a wild beast which, girt with a crowded ring ofhunters, dashes at their weapons, hurls herself unblinded on death, andcomes with a bound upon the spears; even so he rushes to his death amidthe enemy, and presses on where he sees their weapons thickest. ButLycus, far fleeter of foot, holds by the walls in flight midway amongfoes and arms, and strives to catch the coping in his grasp and reachthe hands of his comrades. And Turnus pursuing and aiming as he ran, thus upbraids him in triumph: 'Didst thou hope, madman, thou mightestescape our hands?' and catches him as he clings, and tears him and agreat piece of the wall away: as when, with a hare or snowy-bodied swanin his crooked talons, Jove's armour-bearer soars aloft, or the wolf ofMars snatches from the folds some lamb sought of his mother withincessant bleating. On all sides a shout goes up. They advance and fillthe trenches with heaps of earth; some toss glowing brands on the roofs. Ilioneus strikes down Lucetius with a great fragment of mountain rockas, carrying fire, he draws [571-606]nigh the gate. Liger slaysEmathion, Asylas Corinaeus, the one skilled with the javelin, the otherwith the stealthy arrow from afar. Caeneus slays Ortygius; Turnusvictorious Caeneus; Turnus Itys and Clonius, Dioxippus, and Promolus, and Sagaris, and Idas where he stood in front of the turret top; CapysPrivernus: him Themillas' spear had first grazed lightly; the madmanthrew down his shield to carry his hand to the wound; so the arrowwinged her way, and pinning his hand to his left side, broke into thelungs with deadly wound. The son of Arcens stood splendid in arms, andscarf embroidered with needlework and bright with Iberian blue, thebeautiful boy sent by his father Arcens from nurture in the grove of ourLady about the streams of Symaethus, where Palicus' altar is rich andgracious. Laying down his spear, Mezentius whirled thrice round his headthe tightened cord of his whistling sling, pierced him full between thetemples with the molten bullet, and stretched him all his length uponthe sand. 

Then, it is said, Ascanius first aimed his flying shaft in war, wontbefore to frighten beasts of the chase, and struck down a braveNumanian, Remulus by name, but lately allied in bridal to Turnus'younger sister. He advancing before his ranks clamoured things fit andunfit to tell, and strode along lofty and voluble, his heart lifted upwith his fresh royalty. 

'Take you not shame to be again held leaguered in your ramparts, OPhrygians twice taken, and to make walls your fence from death? Beholdthem who demand in war our wives for theirs! What god, what madness, hath driven you to Italy? Here are no sons of Atreus nor glozingUlysses. A race of hardy breed, we carry our newborn children to thestreams and harden them in the bitter icy water; as boys they spendwakeful nights over the chase, and tire out the woodland; but inmanhood, [607-639]unwearied by toil and trained to poverty, they subduethe soil with their mattocks, or shake towns in war. Every age wearsiron, and we goad the flanks of our oxen with reversed spear; nor doescreeping old age weaken our strength of spirit or abate our force. Whitehairs bear the weight of the helmet; and it is ever our delight to drivein fresh spoil and live on our plunder. Yours is embroidered raiment ofsaffron and shining sea-purple. Indolence is your pleasure, your delightthe luxurious dance; you wear sleeved tunics and ribboned turbans. Oright Phrygian women, not even Phrygian men! traverse the heights ofDindymus, where the double-mouthed flute breathes familiar music. Thedrums call you, and the Berecyntian boxwood of the mother of Ida; leavearms to men, and lay down the sword. '

As he flung forth such words of ill-ominous strain, Ascanius brooked itnot, and aimed an arrow on him from the stretched horse sinew; and as hedrew his arms asunder, first stayed to supplicate Jove in lowly vows:'Jupiter omnipotent, deign to favour this daring deed. My hands shallbear yearly gifts to thee in thy temple, and bring to stand before thinealtars a steer with gilded forehead, snow-white, carrying his head highas his mother's, already pushing with his horn and making the sand flyup under his feet. ' The Father heard and from a clear space of skythundered on the left; at once the fated bow rings, the grim-whistlingarrow flies from the tense string, and goes through the head of Remulus, the steel piercing through from temple to temple. 'Go, mock valour withinsolence of speech! Phrygians twice taken return this answer toRutulians. ' Thus and no further Ascanius; the Teucrians respond incheers, and shout for joy in rising height of courage. Then haply in thetract of heaven tressed Apollo sate looking down from his cloud on the[640-673]Ausonian ranks and town, and thus addresses triumphant Iülus:'Good speed to thy young valour, O boy! this is the way to heaven, childof gods and parent of gods to be! Rightly shall all wars fated to comesink to peace beneath the line of Assaracus; nor art thou bounded in aTroy. ' So speaking, he darts from heaven's height, and cleaving thebreezy air, seeks Ascanius. Then he changes the fashion of hiscountenance, and becomes aged Butes, armour-bearer of old to DardanianAnchises, and the faithful porter of his threshold; thereafter his lordgave him for Ascanius' attendant. In all points like the old man Apollocame, voice and colour, white hair, and grimly clashing arms, and speaksthese words to eager Iülus:

'Be it enough, son of Aeneas, that the Numanian hath fallen unavengedbeneath thine arrows; this first honour great Apollo allows thee, norenvies the arms that match his own. Further, O boy, let war alone. ' ThusApollo began, and yet speaking retreated from mortal view, vanishinginto thin air away out of their eyes. The Dardanian princes knew the godand the arms of deity, and heard the clash of his quiver as he went. Sothey restrain Ascanius' keenness for battle by the words of Phoebus'will; themselves they again close in conflict, and cast their lives intothe perilous breach. Shouts run all along the battlemented walls;ringing bows are drawn and javelin thongs twisted: all the ground isstrewn with missiles. Shields and hollow helmets ring to blows; thebattle swells fierce; heavy as the shower lashes the ground that sets inwhen the Kids are rainy in the West; thick as hail pours down fromstorm-clouds on the shallows, when the rough lord of the winds congealshis watery deluge and breaks up the hollow vapours in the sky. 

Pandarus and Bitias, sprung of Alcanor of Ida, whom woodland Iaera borein the grove of Jupiter, grown now [674-709]tall as their ancestralpines and hills, fling open the gates barred by their captain's order, and confident in arms, wilfully invite the enemy within the walls. Themselves within they stand to right and left in front of the towers, sheathed in iron, the plumes flickering over their stately heads: evenas high in air around the gliding streams, whether on Padus' banks or bypleasant Athesis, twin oaks rise lifting their unshorn heads into thesky with high tops asway. The Rutulians pour in when they see theentrance open. Straightway Quercens and Aquicolus beautiful in arms, anddesperate Tmarus, and Haemon, seed of Mars, either gave back in routwith all their columns, or in the very gateway laid down their life. Then the spirits of the combatants swell in rising wrath, and now theTrojans gather swarming to the spot, and dare to close hand to hand andto sally farther out. 

News is brought to Turnus the captain, as he rages afar among the routedfoe, that the enemy surges forth into fresh slaughter and flings widehis gates. He breaks off unfinished, and, fired with immense anger, rushes towards the haughty brethren at the Dardanian gate. And onAntiphates first, for first he came, the bastard son of mighty Sarpedonby a Theban mother, he hurls his javelin and strikes him down; theItalian cornel flies through the yielding air, and, piercing the gullet, runs deep into his breast; a frothing tide pours from the dark yawningwound, and the steel grows warm where it pierces the lung. Then Meropesand Erymas, then Aphidnus goes down before his hand; then Bitias, fiery-eyed and exultant, not with a javelin; for not to a javelin had hegiven his life; but the loud-whistling pike came hurled with athunderbolt's force; neither twofold bull's hide kept it back, nor thetrusty corslet's double scales of gold: his vast limbs sink in a heap;earth utters a groan, and the great shield clashes [710-745]over him:even as once and again on the Euboïc shore of Baiae falls a mass ofstone, built up of great blocks and so cast into the sea; thus does ittumble prone, crashes into the shoal water and sinks deep to rest; theseas are stirred, and the dark sand eddies up; therewith the depth ofProchyta quivers at the sound, and the couchant rocks of Inarime, piledabove Typhoeus by Jove's commands. 

On this Mars armipotent raised the spirit and strength of the Latins, and goaded their hearts to rage, and sent Flight and dark Fear among theTeucrians. From all quarters they gather, since battle is freelyoffered; and the warrior god inspires. . . . Pandarus, at his brother'sfall, sees how fortune stands, what hap rules the day; and swinging thegate round on its hinge with all his force, pushes it to with his broadshoulders, leaving many of his own people shut outside the walls in thedesperate conflict, but shutting others in with him as they pour back inretreat. Madman! who saw not the Rutulian prince burst in amid theircolumns, and fairly shut him into the town, like a monstrous tiger amongthe silly flocks. At once strange light flashed from his eyes, and hisarmour rang terribly; the blood-red plumes flicker on his head, andlightnings shoot sparkling from his shield. In sudden dismay theAeneadae know the hated form and giant limbs. Then tall Pandarus leapsforward, in burning rage at his brother's death: 'This is not the palaceof Amata's dower, ' he cries, 'nor does Ardea enclose Turnus in hernative walls. Thou seest a hostile camp; escape hence is hopeless. ' Tohim Turnus, smiling and cool: 'Begin with all thy valiance, and closehand to hand; here too shalt thou tell that a Priam found his Achilles. 'He ended; the other, putting out all his strength, hurls his roughspear, knotty and unpeeled. The breezes caught it; Juno, daughter ofSaturn, [746-780]made the wound glance off as it came, and the spearsticks fast in the gate. 'But this weapon that my strong hand whirls, this thou shalt not escape; for not such is he who sends weapon andwound. ' So speaks he, and rises high on his uplifted sword; the steelsevers the forehead midway right between the temples, and divides thebeardless cheeks with ghastly wound. He crashes down; earth shakes underthe vast weight; dying limbs and brain-spattered armour tumble in a heapto the ground, and the head, evenly severed, dangles this way and thatfrom either shoulder. The Trojans scatter and turn in hasty terror; andhad the conqueror forthwith taken thought to burst the bars and let inhis comrades at the gate, that had been the last day of the war and ofthe nation. But rage and mad thirst of slaughter drive him like fire onthe foe. . . . First he catches up Phalaris; then Gyges, and hamstringshim; he plucks away their spears, and hurls them on the backs of theflying crowd; Juno lends strength and courage. Halys he sends to jointhem, and Phegeus, pierced right through the shield; then, as theyignorantly raised their war-cry on the walls, Alcander and Halius, Noëmon and Prytanis. Lynceus advanced to meet him, calling up hiscomrades; from the rampart the glittering sword sweeps to the left andcatches him; struck off by the one downright blow, head and helmet layfar away. Next Amycus fell, the deadly huntsman, incomparable in skillof hand to anoint his arrows and arm their steel with venom; and Clytiusthe Aeolid, and Cretheus beloved of the Muses, Cretheus of the Muses'company, whose delight was ever in songs and harps and stringing ofverses; ever he sang of steeds and armed men and battles. 

At last, hearing of the slaughter of their men, the Teucrian captains, Mnestheus and gallant Serestus, come up, and see their comrades indisordered flight and the foe [781-814]let in. And Mnestheus: 'Whithernext, whither press you in flight? what other walls, what farther cityhave you yet? Shall one man, and he girt in on all sides, fellow-citizens, by your entrenchments, thus unchecked deal devastationthroughout our city, and send all our best warriors to the under world?Have you no pity, no shame, cowards, for your unhappy country, for yourancient gods, for great Aeneas?'

Kindled by such words, they take heart and rally in dense array. Littleby little Turnus drew away from the fight towards the river, and theside encircled by the stream: the more bravely the Teucrians press onhim with loud shouts and thickening masses, even as a band that fall ona wrathful lion with levelled weapons, but he, frightened back, retiressurly and grim-glaring; and neither does wrath nor courage let him turnhis back, nor can he make head, for all that he desires it, against thesurrounding arms and men. Even thus Turnus draws lingeringly backward, with unhastened steps, and soul boiling in anger. Nay, twice even thendid he charge amid the enemy, twice drove them in flying rout along thewalls. But all the force of the camp gathers hastily up; nor does Juno, daughter of Saturn, dare to supply him strength to countervail; forJupiter sent Iris down through the aery sky, bearing stern orders to hissister that Turnus shall withdraw from the high Trojan town. Thereforeneither with shield nor hand can he keep his ground, so overpoweringlyfrom all sides comes upon him the storm of weapons. About the hollows ofhis temples the helmet rings with incessant clash, and the solid brassis riven beneath the stones; the horsehair crest is rent away; theshield-boss avails not under the blows; Mnestheus thunders on with hisTrojans, and pours in a storm of spears. All over him the sweat tricklesand pours in swart stream, and no breathing space is given; sick gaspsshake [815-818]his exhausted limbs. Then at last, with a headlongbound, he leapt fully armed into the river; the river's yellow eddiesopened for him as he came, and the buoyant water brought him up, and, washing away the slaughter, returned him triumphant to his comrades. 

BOOK TENTH

THE BATTLE ON THE BEACH

Meanwhile the heavenly house omnipotent unfolds her doors, and thefather of gods and king of men calls a council in the starry dwelling;whence he looks sheer down on the whole earth, the Dardanian camp, andthe peoples of Latium. They sit down within from doorway to doorway:their lord begins:

'Lords of heaven, wherefore is your decree turned back, and your mindsthus jealously at strife? I forbade Italy to join battle with theTeucrians; why this quarrel in face of my injunction? What terror hathbidden one or another run after arms and tempt the sword? The due timeof battle will arrive, call it not forth, when furious Carthage shallone day sunder the Alps to hurl ruin full on the towers of Rome. Thenhatred may grapple with hatred, then hostilities be opened; now let thembe, and cheerfully join in the treaty we ordain. '

Thus Jupiter in brief; but not briefly golden Venus returns inanswer: . . . 

'O Lord, O everlasting Governor of men and things--for what else may weyet supplicate?--beholdest thou how the Rutulians brave it, and Turnus, borne charioted through the ranks, proudly sweeps down the tide ofbattle? Bar [22-58]and bulwark no longer shelter the Trojans; nay, within the gates and even on the mounded walls they clash in battle andmake the trenches swim with blood. Aeneas is away and ignorant. Wiltthou never then let our leaguer be raised? Again a foe overhangs thewalls of infant Troy; and another army, and a second son of Tydeus risesfrom Aetolian Arpi against the Trojans. Truly I think my wounds are yetto come, and I thy child am keeping some mortal weapons idle. If theTrojans steered for Italy without thy leave and defiant of thy deity, let them expiate their sin; aid not such with thy succour. But if somany oracles guided them, given by god and ghost, why may aught nowreverse thine ordinance or write destiny anew? Why should I recall thefleets burned on the coast of Eryx? why the king of storms, and theraging winds roused from Aeolia, or Iris driven down the clouds? Nowhell too is stirred (this share of the world was yet untried) andAllecto suddenly let loose above to riot through the Italian towns. Inno wise am I moved for empire; that was our hope while Fortune stood;let those conquer whom thou wilt. If thy cruel wife leave no region freeto Teucrians, by the smoking ruins of desolated Troy, O father, Ibeseech thee, grant Ascanius unhurt retreat from arms, grant me mychild's life. Aeneas may well be tossed over unknown seas and followwhat path soever fortune open to him; him let me avail to shelter andwithdraw from the turmoil of battle. Amathus is mine, high Paphos andCythera, and my house of Idalia; here, far from arms, let him spend aninglorious life. Bid Carthage in high lordship rule Ausonia; there willbe nothing there to check the Tyrian cities. What help was it for theTrojans to escape war's doom and thread their flight through Argivefires, to have exhausted all those perils of sea and desolate lands, while they seek Latium and the towers of a Troy rebuilt? Were it notbetter to have [59-91]clung to the last ashes of their country, and theground where once was Troy? Give back, I pray, Xanthus and Simoïs to awretched people, and let the Teucrians again, O Lord, circle through thefates of Ilium. '

Then Queen Juno, swift and passionate:

'Why forcest thou me to break long silence and proclaim my hidden pain?Hath any man or god constrained Aeneas to court war or make armed attackon King Latinus? In oracular guidance he steered for Italy: be it so: hewhom raving Cassandra sent on his way! Did we urge him to quit the campor entrust his life to the winds? to give the issue of war and thecharge of his ramparts to a child? to stir the loyalty of Tyrrhenia orthrow peaceful nations into tumult? What god, what potent cruelty ofours, hath driven him on his hurt? Where is Juno in this, or Iris speddown the clouds? It shocks thee that Italians should enring an infantTroy with flame, and Turnus set foot on his own ancestral soil--he, grandchild of Pilumnus, son of Venilia the goddess: how, that the darkbrands of Troy assail the Latins? that Trojans subjugate and plunderfields not their own? how, that they choose their brides and tearplighted bosom from bosom? that their gestures plead for peace, andtheir ships are lined with arms? Thou canst steal thine Aeneas fromGrecian hands, and spread before them a human semblance of mist andempty air; thou canst turn his fleet into nymphs of like number: is itdreadful if we retaliate with any aid to the Rutulians? Aeneas is awayand ignorant; away and ignorant let him be. Paphos is thine and Idalium, thine high Cythera; why meddlest thou with fierce spirits and a city bigwith war? Is it we who would overthrow the tottering state of Phrygia?we? or he who brought the Achaeans down on the hapless Trojans? who madeEurope and Asia bristle up in arms, and whose theft shattered thealliance? Was it in my guidance the [92-125]adulterous Dardanian brokeinto Sparta? or did I send the shafts of passion that kindled war? Thenterror for thy children had graced thee; too late now dost thou risewith unjust complaints, and reproaches leave thy lips in vain. '

Thus Juno pleaded; and all the heavenly people murmured in diverseconsent; even as rising gusts murmur when caught in the forests, andeddy in blind moanings, betraying to sailors the gale's approach. Thenthe Lord omnipotent and primal power of the world begins; as he speaksthe high house of the gods and trembling floor of earth sink to silence;silent is the deep sky, and the breezes are stilled; ocean hushes hiswaters into calm. 

'Take then to heart and lay deep these words of mine. Since it may notbe that Ausonians and Teucrians join alliance, and your quarrel finds noterm, to-day, what fortune each wins, what hope each follows, be heTrojan or Rutulian, I will hold in even poise; whether it be Italy'sfate or Trojan blundering and ill advice that holds the camp in leaguer. Nor do I acquit the Rutulians. Each as he hath begun shall work out hisdestiny. Jupiter is one and king over all; the fates will find theirway. ' By his brother's infernal streams, by the banks of the pitchyblack-boiling chasm he signed assent, and made all Olympus quiver at hisnod. Here speaking ended: thereon Jupiter rises from his golden throne, and the heavenly people surround and escort him to the doorway. 

Meanwhile the Rutulians press round all the gates, dealing grimslaughter and girdling the walls with flame. But the army of theAeneadae are held leaguered within their trenches, with no hope ofretreat. They stand helpless and disconsolate on their high towers, andtheir thin ring girdles the walls, --Asius, son of Imbrasus, andThymoetes, son of Hicetaon, and the two Assaraci, and Castor, and oldThymbris together in the front rank: by them Clarus and[126-160]Themon, both full brothers to Sarpedon, out of high Lycia. Acmon of Lyrnesus, great as his father Clytius, or his brotherMnestheus, carries a stone, straining all his vast frame to the hugemountain fragment. Emulously they keep their guard, these with javelins, those with stones, and wield fire and fit arrows on the string. Amidthem he, Venus' fittest care, lo! the Dardanian boy, his graceful headuncovered, shines even as a gem set in red gold on ornament of throat orhead, or even as gleaming ivory cunningly inlaid in boxwood or Oricianterebinth; his tresses lie spread over his milk-white neck, bound by aflexible circlet of gold. Thee, too, Ismarus, proud nations saw aimingwounds and arming thy shafts with poison, --thee, of house illustrious inMaeonia, where the rich tilth is wrought by men's hands, and Pactoluswaters it with gold. There too was Mnestheus, exalted in fame as he whoerewhile had driven Turnus from the ramparts; and Capys, from whom isdrawn the name of the Campanian city. 

They had closed in grim war's mutual conflict; Aeneas, while night wasyet deep, clove the seas. For when, leaving Evander for the Etruscancamp, he hath audience of the king, and tells the king of his name andrace, and what he asks or offers, instructs him of the arms Mezentius iswinning to his side, and of Turnus' overbearing spirit, reminds him whatis all the certainty of human things, and mingles all with entreaties;delaying not, Tarchon joins forces and strikes alliance. Then, freedfrom the oracle, the Lydian people man their fleet, laid by divineordinance in the foreign captain's hand. Aeneas' galley keeps in front, with the lions of Phrygia fastened on her prow, above them overhangingIda, sight most welcome to the Trojan exiles. Here great Aeneas sitsrevolving the changing issues of war; and Pallas, clinging on his leftside, asks now [161-195]of the stars and their pathway through the darknight, now of his fortunes by land and sea. 

Open now the gates of Helicon, goddesses, and stir the song of the bandthat come the while with Aeneas from the Tuscan borders, and sail inarmed ships overseas. 

First in the brazen-plated Tiger Massicus cuts the flood; beneath himare ranked a thousand men who have left Clusium town and the city ofCosae; their weapons are arrows, and light quivers on the shoulder, andtheir deadly bow. With him goes grim Abas, all his train in shiningarmour, and a gilded Apollo glittering astern. To him Populonia hadgiven six hundred of her children, tried in war, but Ilva three hundred, the island rich in unexhausted mines of steel. Third Asilas, interpreterbetween men and gods, master of the entrails of beasts and the stars inheaven, of speech of birds and ominous lightning flashes, draws athousand men after him in serried lines bristling with spears, bidden tohis command from Pisa city, of Alphaean birth on Etruscan soil. Astyrfollows, excellent in beauty, Astyr, confident in his horse and glancingarms. Three hundred more--all have one heart to follow--come from thehouseholders of Caere and the fields of Minio, and ancient Pyrgi, andfever-stricken Graviscae. 

Let me not pass thee by, O Cinyras, bravest in war of Ligurian captains, and thee, Cupavo, with thy scant company, from whose crest rise the swanplumes, fault, O Love, of thee and thine, and blazonment of his father'sform. For they tell that Cycnus, in grief for his beloved Phaëthon, while he sings and soothes his woeful love with music amid the shadysisterhood of poplar boughs, drew over him the soft plumage of white oldage, and left earth and passed crying through the sky. His son, followedon shipboard with a band of like age, sweeps the huge Centaur forwardwith his oars; he leans over the water, and [196-227]threatens thewaves with a vast rock he holds on high, and furrows the deep seas withhis length of keel. 

He too calls a train from his native coasts, Ocnus, son of propheticManto and the river of Tuscany, who gave thee, O Mantua, ramparts andhis mother's name; Mantua, rich in ancestry, yet not all of one blood, athreefold race, and under each race four cantons; herself she is thecantons' head, and her strength is of Tuscan blood. From her likewisehath Mezentius five hundred in arms against him, whom Mincius, child ofBenacus, draped in gray reeds, led to battle in his advancing pine. Aulestes moves on heavily, smiting the waves with the swinging forest ofan hundred oars; the channels foam as they sweep the sea-floor. He sailsin the vast Triton, who amazes the blue waterways with his shell, andswims on with shaggy front, in human show from the flank upward; hisbelly ends in a dragon; beneath the monster's breast the wave gurglesinto foam. So many were the chosen princes who went in thirty ships toaid Troy, and cut the salt plains with brazen prow. 

And now day had faded from the sky, and gracious Phoebe trod mid-heavenin the chariot of her nightly wandering: Aeneas, for his charge allowsnot rest to his limbs, himself sits guiding the tiller and managing thesails. And lo, in middle course a band of his own fellow-voyagers meetshim, the nymphs whom bountiful Cybele had bidden be gods of the sea, andturn to nymphs from ships; they swam on in even order, and cleft theflood, as many as erewhile, brazen-plated prows, had anchored on thebeach. From far they know their king, and wheel their bands about him, and Cymodocea, their readiest in speech, comes up behind, catching thestern with her right hand: her back rises out, and her left hand oarsher passage through the silent water. Then she thus [228-261]accostsher amazed lord: 'Wakest thou, seed of gods, Aeneas? wake, and loosenthe sheets of thy sails. We are thy fleet, Idaean pines from the holyhill, now nymphs of the sea. When the treacherous Rutulian urged usheadlong with sword and fire, unwillingly we broke thy bonds, and wesearch for thee over ocean. This new guise our Lady made for us in pity, and granted us to be goddesses and spend our life under the waves. Butthy boy Ascanius is held within wall and trench among the Latin weaponsand the rough edge of war. Already the Arcadian cavalry and the braveEtruscan together hold the appointed ground. Turnus' plan is fixed tobar their way with his squadrons, that they may not reach the camp. Upand arise, and ere the coming of the Dawn bid thy crews be called toarms; and take thou the shield which the Lord of Fire forged for victoryand rimmed about with gold. To-morrow's daylight, if thou deem not mywords vain, shall see Rutulians heaped high in slaughter. ' She ended, and, as she went, pushed the tall ship on with her hand wisely and well;the ship shoots through the water fleeter than javelin or windswiftarrow. Thereat the rest quicken their speed. The son of Anchises of Troyis himself deep in bewilderment; yet the omen cheers his courage. Thenlooking on the heavenly vault, he briefly prays: 'O gracious upon Ida, mother of gods, whose delight is in Dindymus and turreted cities andlions coupled to thy rein, do thou lead me in battle, do thou meetlyprosper thine augury, and draw nigh thy Phrygians, goddess, withfavourable feet. ' Thus much he spoke; and meanwhile the broad light ofreturning day now began to pour in, and chased away the night. First hecommands his comrades to follow his signals, brace their courage to armsand prepare for battle. And now his Trojans and his camp are in hissight as he stands high astern, when next he lifts the [262-296]blazingshield on his left arm. The Dardanians on the walls raise a shout to thesky. Hope comes to kindle wrath; they hurl their missiles strongly; evenas under black clouds cranes from the Strymon utter their signal notesand sail clamouring across the sky, and noisily stream down the gale. But this seemed marvellous to the Rutulian king and the captains ofAusonia, till looking back they see the ships steering for the beach, and all the sea as a single fleet sailing in. His helmet-spike blazes, flame pours from the cresting plumes, and the golden shield-boss spoutsfloods of fire; even as when in transparent night comets glow blood-redand drear, or the splendour of Sirius, that brings drought andsicknesses on wretched men, rises and saddens the sky with malignantbeams. 

Yet gallant Turnus in unfailing confidence will prevent them on theshore and repel their approach to land. 'What your prayers have soughtis given, the sweep of the sword-arm. The god of battles is in the handsof men. Now remember each his wife and home: now recall the high deedsof our fathers' honour. Let us challenge meeting at the water's edge, while they waver and their feet yet slip as they disembark. Fortune aidsdaring. . . . ' So speaks he, and counsels inly whom he shall lead tomeet them, whom leave in charge of the leaguered walls. 

Meanwhile Aeneas lands his allies by gangways from the high ships. Manywatch the retreat and slack of the sea, and leap boldly into the shoalwater; others slide down the oars. Tarchon, marking the shore where theshallows do not seethe and plash with broken water, but the sea glidesup and spreads its tide unbroken, suddenly turns his bows to land andimplores his comrades: 'Now, O chosen crew, bend strongly to your oars;lift your ships, make them go; let the prows cleave this hostile landand the keel plough [297-330]herself a furrow. I will let my vesselbreak up on such harbourage if once she takes the land. ' When Tarchonhad spoken in such wise, his comrades rise on their oar-blades and carrytheir ships in foam towards the Latin fields, till the prows are fast ondry land and all the keels are aground unhurt. But not thy galley, Tarchon; for she dashes on a shoal, and swings long swaying on the cruelbank, pitching and slapping the flood, then breaks up, and lands hercrew among the waves. Broken oars and floating thwarts entangle them, and the ebbing wave sucks their feet away. 

Nor does Turnus keep idly dallying, but swiftly hurries his whole arrayagainst the Trojans and ranges it to face the beach. The trumpets blow. At once Aeneas charges and confounds the rustic squadrons of the Latins, and slays Theron for omen of battle. The giant advances to challengeAeneas; but through sewed plates of brass and tunic rough with gold thesword plunges in his open side. Next he strikes Lichas, cut from hismother already dead, and consecrated, Phoebus, to thee, since hisinfancy was granted escape from the perilous steel. Near thereby hestruck dead brawny Cisseus and vast Gyas, whose clubs were mowing downwhole files: naught availed them the arms of Hercules and their strengthof hand, nor Melampus their father, ever of Alcides' company while earthyielded him sore travail. Lo! while Pharus utters weak vaunts the hurledjavelin strikes on his shouting mouth. Thou too, while thou followestthy new delight, Clytius, whose cheeks are golden with youthfuldown--thou, luckless Cydon, struck down by the Dardanian hand, wertlying past thought, ah pitiable! of the young loves that were everthine, did not the close array of thy brethren interpose, the childrenof Phorcus, seven in number, and send a sevenfold shower of darts. Someglance ineffectual from helmet and shield; [331-365]some Venus thebountiful turned aside as they grazed his body. Aeneas calls to trustyAchates: 'Give me store of weapons; none that hath been planted inGrecian body on the plains of Ilium shall my hand hurl at Rutulian invain. ' Then he catches and throws his great spear; the spear fliesgrinding through the brass of Maeon's shield, and breaks through corsletand through breast. His brother Alcanor runs up and sustains with hisright arm his sinking brother; through his arm the spear passes speedingstraight on its message, and holds its bloody way, and the hand danglesby the sinews lifeless from the shoulder. Then Numitor, seizing his deadbrother's javelin, aims at Aeneas, but might not fairly pierce him, andgrazed tall Achates on the thigh. Here Clausus of Cures comes confidentin his pride of strength, and with a long reach strikes Dryops under thechin, and, urging the stiff spear-shaft home, stops the accents of hisspeech and his life together, piercing the throat; but he strikes theearth with his forehead, and vomits clots of blood. Three Thracianslikewise of Boreas' sovereign race, and three sent by their father Idasfrom their native Ismarus, fall in divers wise before him. Halesus andhis Auruncan troops hasten thither; Messapus too, seed of Neptune, comesup charioted. This side and that strive to hurl back the enemy, andfight hard on the very edge of Ausonia. As when in the depth of airadverse winds rise in battle with equal spirit and strength; not they, not clouds nor sea, yield one to another; long the battle is doubtful;all stands locked in counterpoise: even thus clash the ranks of Troy andranks of Latium, foot fast on foot, and man crowded up on man. 

But in another quarter, where a torrent had driven a wide path ofrolling stones and bushes torn away from the banks, Pallas saw hisArcadians, unaccustomed to move as infantry, giving back before theLatin pursuit, when the [366-400]roughness of the ground bade themdismount. This only was left in his strait, to kindle them to valour, now by entreaties, now by taunts: 'Whither flee you, comrades? by yourdeeds of bravery, by your leader Evander's name, by your triumphantcampaigns, and my hope that now rises to rival my father's honour, trustnot to flight. Our swords must hew a way through the enemy. Where yondermass of men presses thickest, there your proud country calls you withPallas at your head. No gods are they who bear us down; mortals, we feelthe pressure of a mortal foe; we have as many lives and hands as he. Lo, the deep shuts us in with vast sea barrier; even now land fails ourflight; shall we make ocean or Troy our goal?'

So speaks he, and bursts amid the serried foe. First Lagus meets him, drawn thither by malign destiny; him, as he tugs at a ponderous stone, hurling his spear where the spine ran dissevering the ribs, he piercesand wrenches out the spear where it stuck fast in the bone. Nor doesHisbo catch him stooping, for all that he hoped it; for Pallas, as herushes unguarded on, furious at his comrade's cruel death, receives himon his sword and buries it in his distended lungs. Next he attacksSthenius, and Anchemolus of Rhoetus' ancient family, who dared toviolate the bridal chamber of his stepmother. You, too, the twinsLarides and Thymber, fell on the Rutulian fields, children of Daucus, indistinguishable for likeness and a sweet perplexity to your parents. But now Pallas made cruel difference between you; for thy head, Thymber, is swept off by Evander's sword; thy right hand, Larides, severed, seeksits master, and the dying fingers jerk and clutch at the sword. Fired byhis encouragement, and beholding his noble deeds, the Arcadians advancein wrath and shame to meet the enemy in arms. Then Pallas piercesRhoeteus as he flies past in his chariot. This space, this[401-435]much of respite was given to Ilus; for at Ilus he had aimedthe strong spear from afar, and Rhoeteus intercepts its passage, inflight from thee, noble Teuthras and Tyres thy brother; he rolls fromthe chariot in death, and his heels strike the Rutulian fields. And asthe shepherd, when summer winds have risen to his desire, kindles thewoods dispersedly; on a sudden the mid spaces catch, and a singleflickering line of fire spreads wide over the plain; he sits lookingdown on his conquest and the revel of the flames; even so, Pallas, dothy brave comrades gather close to sustain thee. But warrior Halesusadvances full on them, gathering himself behind his armour; he slaysLadon, Pheres, Demodocus; his gleaming sword shears off Strymonius' handas it rises to his throat; he strikes Thoas on the face with a stone, and drives the bones asunder in a shattered mass of blood and brains. Halesus had his father the soothsayer kept hidden in the woodland: whenthe old man's glazing eyes sank to death, the Fates laid hand on him anddevoted him to the arms of Evander. Pallas aims at him, first prayingthus: 'Grant now, lord Tiber, to the steel I poise and hurl, aprosperous way through brawny Halesus' breast; thine oak shall bearthese arms and the dress he wore. ' The god heard it; while Halesuscovers Imaon, he leaves, alas! his breast unarmed to the Arcadian'sweapon. Yet at his grievous death Lausus, himself a great arm of thewar, lets not his columns be dismayed; at once he meets and cuts downAbas, the check and stay of their battle. The men of Arcadia go downbefore him; down go the Etruscans, and you, O Teucrians, invincible byGreece. The armies close, matched in strength and in captains; the rearranks crowd in; weapons and hands are locked in the press. Here Pallasstrains and pushes on, here Lausus opposite, nearly matched in age, excellent in beauty; but fortune [436-467]had denied both return totheir own land. Yet that they should meet face to face the sovereign ofhigh Olympus allowed not; an early fate awaits them beneath a mightierfoe. 

Meanwhile Turnus' gracious sister bids him take Lausus' room, and hisfleet chariot parts the ranks. When he saw his comrades, 'It is time, 'he cried, 'to stay from battle. I alone must assail Pallas; to me andnone other Pallas is due; I would his father himself were here to see. 'So speaks he, and his Rutulians draw back from a level space at hisbidding. But then as they withdrew, he, wondering at the haughtycommand, stands in amaze at Turnus, his eyes scanning the vast frame, and his fierce glance perusing him from afar. And with these words hereturns the words of the monarch: 'For me, my praise shall even now bein the lordly spoils I win, or in illustrious death: my father will bearcalmly either lot: away with menaces. ' He speaks, and advances into thelevel ring. The Arcadians' blood gathers chill about their hearts. Turnus leaps from his chariot and prepares to close with him. And as alion sees from some lofty outlook a bull stand far off on the plainrevolving battle, and flies at him, even such to see is Turnus' coming. When Pallas deemed him within reach of a spear-throw, he advances, if sochance may assist the daring of his overmatched strength, and thus criesinto the depth of sky: 'By my father's hospitality and the board wheretothou camest a wanderer, on thee I call, Alcides; be favourable to myhigh emprise; let Turnus even in death discern me stripping hisblood-stained armour, and his swooning eyes endure the sight of hisconqueror. ' Alcides heard him, and deep in his heart he stifled a heavysigh, and let idle tears fall. Then with kindly words the father accostshis son: 'Each hath his own appointed day; short and irrecoverable[468-502]is the span of life for all: but to spread renown by deeds isthe task of valour. Under high Troy town many and many a god's son fell;nay, mine own child Sarpedon likewise perished. Turnus too his own fatesummons, and his allotted period hath reached the goal. ' So speaks he, and turns his eyes away from the Rutulian fields. But Pallas hurls hisspear with all his strength, and pulls his sword flashing out of thehollow scabbard. The flying spear lights where the armour rises highabove the shoulder, and, forcing a way through the shield's rim, ceasednot till it drew blood from mighty Turnus. At this Turnus long poisesthe spear-shaft with its sharp steel head, and hurls it on Pallas withthese words: _See thou if our weapon have not a keener point. _ He ended;but for all the shield's plating of iron and brass, for all thebull-hide that covers it round about, the quivering spear-head smashesit fair through and through, passes the guard of the corslet, andpierces the breast with a gaping hole. He tears the warm weapon from thewound; in vain; together and at once life-blood and sense follow it. Hefalls heavily on the ground, his armour clashes over him, and hisbloodstained face sinks in death on the hostile soil. And Turnusstanding over him . . . : 'Arcadians, ' he cries, 'remember these mywords, and bear them to Evander. I send him back his Pallas as was due. All the meed of the tomb, all the solace of sepulture, I give freely. Dearly must he pay his welcome to Aeneas. ' And with these words, planting his left foot on the dead, he tore away the broad heavysword-belt engraven with a tale of crime, the array of grooms foullyslain together on their bridal night, and the nuptial chambers dabbledwith blood, which Clonus, son of Eurytus, had wrought richly in gold. Now Turnus exults in spoiling him of it, and rejoices at his prize. Ahspirit of man, ignorant of fate and the allotted future, or to keepbounds when elate with prosperity!--the day will [503-535]come whenTurnus shall desire to have bought Pallas' safety at a great ransom, andcurse the spoils of this fatal day. But with many moans and tearsPallas' comrades lay him on his shield and bear him away amid theirranks. O grief and glory and grace of the father to whom thou shaltreturn! This one day sent thee first to war, this one day takes theeaway, while yet thou leavest heaped high thy Rutulian dead. 

And now no rumour of the dreadful loss, but a surer messenger flies toAeneas, telling him his troops are on the thin edge of doom; it is timeto succour the routed Teucrians. He mows down all that meets him, andhews a broad path through their columns with furious sword, as he seeksthee, O Turnus, in thy fresh pride of slaughter. Pallas, Evander, allflash before his eyes; the board whereto but then he had first come awanderer, and the clasped hands. Here four of Sulmo's children, as manymore of Ufens' nurture, are taken by him alive to slaughter in sacrificeto the shade below, and slake the flames of the pyre with captive blood. Next he levelled his spear full on Magus from far. He stoops cunningly;the spear flies quivering over him; and, clasping his knees, he speaksthus beseechingly: 'By thy father's ghost, by Iülus thy growing hope, Ientreat thee, save this life for a child and a parent. My house isstately; deep in it lies buried wealth of engraven silver; I have massesof wrought and unwrought gold. The victory of Troy does not turn onthis, nor will a single life make so great a difference. ' He ended; tohim Aeneas thus returns answer: 'All the wealth of silver and gold thoutellest of, spare thou for thy children. Turnus hath broken off this thytrafficking in war, even then when Pallas fell. Thus judges the ghost ofmy father Anchises, thus Iülus. ' So speaking, he grasps his helmet withhis left hand, and, bending back his neck, drives his [536-572]sword upto the hilt in the suppliant. Hard by is Haemonides, priest of Phoebusand Trivia, his temples wound with the holy ribboned chaplet, allglittering in white-robed array. Him he meets and chases down the plain, and, standing over his fallen foe, slaughters him and wraps him in greatdarkness; Serestus gathers the armour and carries it away on hisshoulders, a trophy, King Gradivus, to thee. Caeculus, born of Vulcan'srace, and Umbro, who comes from the Marsian hills, fill up the line. TheDardanian rushes full on them. His sword had hewn off Anxur's left arm, with all the circle of the shield--he had uttered brave words and deemedhis prowess would second his vaunts, and perchance with spirit lifted uphad promised himself hoar age and length of years--when Tarquitus in thepride of his glittering arms met his fiery course, whom the nymph Dryopehad borne to Faunus, haunter of the woodland. Drawing back his spear, hepins the ponderous shield to the corslet; then, as he vainly pleaded andwould say many a thing, strikes his head to the ground, and, rollingaway the warm body, cries thus over his enemy: 'Lie there now, terribleone! no mother's love shall lay thee in the sod, or place thy limbsbeneath thine heavy ancestral tomb. To birds of prey shalt thou be left, or borne down sunk in the eddying water, where hungry fish shall suckthy wounds. ' Next he sweeps on Antaeus and Lucas, the first of Turnus'train, and brave Numa and tawny-haired Camers, born of noble Volscens, who was wealthiest in land of the Ausonians, and reigned in silentAmyclae. Even as Aegaeon, who, men say, had an hundred arms, an hundredhands, fifty mouths and breasts ablaze with fire, and arrayed againstJove's thunders as many clashing shields and drawn swords: so Aeneas, when once his sword's point grew warm, rages victorious over all thefield. Nay, lo! he darts full in face on Niphaeus' four-horse chariot;before his long strides [573-608]and dreadful cry they turned in terrorand dashed back, throwing out their driver and tearing the chariot downthe beach. Meanwhile the brothers Lucagus and Liger drive up with theirpair of white horses. Lucagus valiantly waves his drawn sword, while hisbrother wheels his horses with the rein. Aeneas, wrathful at their madonslaught, rushes on them, towering high with levelled spear. To himLiger . . . 'Not Diomede's horses dost thou discern, nor Achilles'chariot, nor the plains of Phrygia: now on this soil of ours the war andthy life shall end together. ' Thus fly mad Liger's random words. But notin words does the Trojan hero frame his reply: for he hurls his javelinat the foe. As Lucagus spurred on his horses, bending forward over thewhip, with left foot advanced ready for battle, the spear passes throughthe lower rim of his shining shield and pierces his left groin, knockshim out of the chariot, and stretches him in death on the fields. To himgood Aeneas speaks in bitter words: 'Lucagus, no slackness in thycoursers' flight hath betrayed thee, or vain shadow of the foe turnedthem back; thyself thou leapest off the harnessed wheels. ' In such wisehe spoke, and caught the horses. His brother, slipping down from thechariot, pitiably outstretched helpless hands: 'Ah, by the parents whogave thee birth, great Trojan, spare this life and pity my prayer. ' Morehe was pleading; but Aeneas: 'Not such were the words thou wertuttering. Die, and be brother undivided from brother. ' With that hissword's point pierces the breast where the life lies hid. Thus theDardanian captain dealt death over the plain, like some raging torrentstream or black whirlwind. At last the boy Ascanius and his troops burstthrough the ineffectual leaguer and issue from the camp. 

Meanwhile Jupiter breaks silence to accost Juno: 'O sister and wife bestbeloved, it is Venus, as thou deemedst, [609-639]nor is thy judgmentastray, who sustains the forces of Troy; not their own valour of hand inwar, and untamable spirit and endurance in peril. ' To whom Junobeseechingly:

'Why, fair my lord, vexest thou one sick at heart and trembling at thybitter words? If that force were in my love that once was, and that waswell, never had thine omnipotence denied me leave to withdraw Turnusfrom battle and preserve him for his father Daunus in safety. Now lethim perish, and pay forfeit to the Trojans of his innocent blood. Yet hetraces his birth from our name, and Pilumnus was his father in thefourth generation, and oft and again his bountiful hand hath heaped thycourts with gifts. '

To her the king of high heaven thus briefly spoke: 'If thy prayer forhim is delay of present death and respite from his fall, and thou dostunderstand that I ordain it thus, remove thy Turnus in flight, andsnatch him from the fate that is upon him. For so much indulgence thereis room. But if any ampler grace mask itself in these thy prayers, andthou dreamest of change in the whole movement of the war, idle is thehope thou nursest. '

And Juno, weeping: 'Ah yet, if thy mind were gracious where thy lips arestern, and this gift of life might remain confirmed to Turnus! Now hisportion is bitter and guiltless death, or I wander idly from the truth. Yet, oh that I rather deluded myself with false alarms, and thou whocanst wouldst bend thy course to better counsels. '

These words uttered, she darted through the air straight from highheaven, cloud-girt in driving tempest, and sought the Ilian ranks andcamp of Laurentum. Then the goddess, strange and ominous to see, fashions into the likeness of Aeneas a thin and pithless shade of hollowmist, decks it with Dardanian weapons, and gives it the mimicry ofshield and divine helmet plume, gives unsubstantial [640-673]words andsenseless utterance, and the mould and motion of his tread: like shapesrumoured to flit when death is past, or dreams that delude theslumbering senses. But in front of the battle-ranks the phantom dancesrejoicingly, and with arms and mocking accents provokes the foe. Turnushastens up and sends his spear whistling from far on it; it gives backand turns its footsteps. Then indeed Turnus, when he believed Aeneasturned and fled from him, and his spirit madly drank in the illusivehope: 'Whither fliest thou, Aeneas? forsake not thy plighted bridalchamber. This hand shall give thee the land thou hast sought overseas. 'So clamouring he pursues, and brandishes his drawn sword, and sees notthat his rejoicing is drifting with the winds. The ship lay haply mooredto a high ledge of rock, with ladders run out and gangway ready, whereinking Osinius sailed from the coasts of Clusium. Here the flutteringphantom of flying Aeneas darts and hides itself. Nor is Turnus slack tofollow; he overleaps the barriers and springs across the high gangways. Scarcely had he lighted on the prow; the daughter of Saturn snaps thehawser, and the ship, parted from her cable, runs out on the ebbingtide. And him Aeneas seeks for battle and finds not, and sends many aman that meets him to death. Then the light phantom seeks not yet anyfurther hiding-place, but, flitting aloft, melts in a dark cloud; and ablast comes down meanwhile and sweeps Turnus through the seas. He looksback, witless of his case and thankless for his salvation, and, wailing, stretches both hands to heaven: 'Father omnipotent, was I so guilty inthine eyes, and is this the punishment thou hast ordained? Whither am Iborne? whence came I? what flight is this, or in what guise do I return?Shall I look again on the camp or walls of Laurentum? What of that arrayof men who followed me to arms? whom--oh horrible!--I have abandoned allamid [674-707]a dreadful death; and now I see the stragglers and catchthe groans of those who fall. What do I? or how may earth ever yawn forme deep enough? Do you rather, O winds, be pitiful, carry my bark onrock or reef; it is I, Turnus, who desire and implore you; or drive meon the cruel shoals of the Syrtis, where no Rutulian may follow norrumour know my name. ' Thus speaking, he wavers in mind this way andthat: maddened by the shame, shall he plunge on his sword's harsh pointand drive it through his side, or fling himself among the waves, andseek by swimming to gain the winding shore, again to return on theTrojan arms? Thrice he essayed either way; thrice queenly Juno checkedand restrained him in pity of heart. Cleaving the deep, he floats withthe tide down the flood, and is borne on to his father Daunus' ancientcity. 

But meanwhile at Jove's prompting fiery Mezentius takes his place in thebattle and assails the triumphant Teucrians. The Tyrrhene ranks gatherround him, and all at once in unison shower their darts down on thehated foe. As a cliff that juts into the waste of waves, meeting theraging winds and breasting the deep, endures all the threatening forceof sky and sea, itself fixed immovable, so he dashes to earth Hebrus sonof Dolichaon, and with him Latagus, and Palmus as he fled; catchingLatagus full front in the face with a vast fragment of mountain rock, while Palmus he hamstrings, and leaves him rolling helpless; his armourhe gives Lausus to wear on his shoulders, and the plumes to fix on hiscrest. With them fall Evanthes the Phrygian, and Mimas, fellow andbirthmate of Paris; for on one night Theano bore him to his fatherAmycus, and the queen, Cisseus' daughter, was delivered of Paris thefirebrand; he sleeps in his fathers' city; Mimas lies a stranger on theLaurentian coast. And as the boar driven by snapping hounds from themountain heights, [708-744]many a year hidden by Vesulus in his pines, many an one fed in the Laurentian marsh among the reedy forest, oncecome among the nets, halts and snorts savagely, with shoulders bristlingup, and none of them dare be wrathful or draw closer, but they showerfrom a safe distance their darts and cries; even thus none of thosewhose anger is righteous against Mezentius have courage to meet him withdrawn weapon: far off they provoke him with missiles and huge clamour, and he turns slow and fearless round about, grinding his teeth as heshakes the spears off his shield. From the bounds of ancient CorythusAcron the Greek had come, leaving for exile a bride half won. Seeing himafar dealing confusion amid the ranks, in crimson plumes and hisplighted wife's purple, --as an unpastured lion often ranging the deepcoverts, for madness of hunger urges him, if he haply catches sight of atimorous roe or high-antlered stag, he gapes hugely for joy, and, withmane on end, clings crouching over its flesh, his cruel mouth bathed inreeking gore. . . . So Mezentius darts lightly among the thick of theenemy. Hapless Acron goes down, and, spurning the dark ground, gasps outhis life, and covers the broken javelin with his blood. But the victordeigned not to bring down Orodes with the blind wound of his flyinglance as he fled; full face to face he meets him, and engages man withman, conqueror not by stealth but armed valour. Then, as with plantedfoot, he thrust him off the spear: 'O men, ' he cries, 'Orodes lies low, no slight arm of the war. ' His comrades shout after him the glad battlechant. And the dying man: 'Not unavenged nor long, whoso thou art, shaltthou be glad in victory: thee too an equal fate marks down, and in thesefields thou shalt soon lie. ' And smiling on him half wrathfully, Mezentius: 'Now die thou. But of me let the father of gods and king ofmen take counsel. ' So saying, he drew the weapon out of his body. [745-780]Grim rest and iron slumber seal his eyes; his lids close oneverlasting night. Caedicus slays Alcathoüs, Sacrator Hydaspes, RapoParthenius and the grim strength of Orses, Messapus Clonius andErichaetes son of Lycaon, the one when his reinless horse stumbling hadflung him to the ground, the other as they met on foot. And Agis theLycian advanced only to be struck from horseback by Valerus, brave ashis ancestry; and Thronius by Salius, and Salius by Nealces withtreacherous arrow-shot that stole from far. 

Now the heavy hand of war dealt equal woe and counterchange of death; ineven balance conquerors and conquered slew and fell; nor one nor otherknows of retreat. The gods in Jove's house pity the vain rage of eitherand all the agonising of mortals. From one side Venus, from one oppositeJuno, daughter of Saturn, looks on; pale Tisiphone rages among the manythousand men. But now, brandishing his huge spear, Mezentius stridesglooming over the plain, vast as Orion when, with planted foot, hecleaves his way through the vast pools of mid-ocean and his shoulderovertops the waves, or carrying an ancient mountain-ash from thehilltops, paces the ground and hides his head among the clouds: so movesMezentius, huge in arms. Aeneas, espying him in the deep columns, makeson to meet him. He remains, unterrified, awaiting his noble foe, steadyin his own bulk, and measures with his eye the fair range for a spear. 'This right hand's divinity, and the weapon I poise and hurl, now befavourable! thee, Lausus, I vow for the live trophy of Aeneas, dressedin the spoils stripped from the pirate's body. ' He ends, and throws thespear whistling from far; it flies on, glancing from the shield, andpierces illustrious Antores hard by him sidelong in the flank; Antores, companion of Hercules, who, sent thither from Argos, had stayed byEvander, and [781-814]settled in an Italian town. Hapless he goes downwith a wound not his own, and in death gazes on the sky, and Argos issweet in his remembrance. Then good Aeneas throws his spear; through thesheltering circle of threefold brass, through the canvas lining andfabric of triple-sewn bull-hide it went, and sank deep in his groin; yetcarried not its strength home. Quickly Aeneas, joyful at the sight ofthe Tyrrhenian's blood, snatches his sword from his thigh and presseshotly on his struggling enemy. Lausus saw, and groaned deeply for loveof his dear father, and tears rolled over his face. Here will I not keepsilence of thy hard death-doom and thine excellent deeds (if in any wisethings wrought in the old time may win belief), nor of thyself, O fitlyremembered! He, helpless and trammelled, withdrew backward, the deadlyspear-shaft trailing from his shield. The youth broke forward andplunged into the fight; and even as Aeneas' hand rose to bring down theblow, he caught up his point and held him in delay. His comrades followup with loud cries, so the father may withdraw in shelter of his son'sshield, while they shower their darts and bear back the enemy withmissiles from a distance. Aeneas wrathfully keeps covered. And as whenstorm-clouds pour down in streaming hail, all the ploughmen andcountry-folk scatter off the fields, and the wayfarer cowers safe in hisfortress, a stream's bank or deep arch of rock, while the rain falls, that they may do their day's labour when sunlight reappears; thus underthe circling storm of weapons Aeneas sustains the cloud of war till itthunders itself all away, and calls on Lausus, on Lausus, with chidingand menace: 'Whither runnest thou on thy death, with daring beyond thystrength? thine affection betrays thee into rashness. ' But none the lesshe leaps madly on; and now wrath rises higher and fiercer in theDardanian captain, and the Fates pass Lausus' last [815-849]threadsthrough their hand; for Aeneas drives the sword strongly right throughhim up all its length: the point pierced the light shield that armed hisassailant, and the tunic sewn by his mother with flexible gold: bloodfilled his breast, and the life left the body and passed mourningthrough the air to the under world. But when Anchises' son saw the lookon the dying face, the face pale in wonderful wise, he sighed deeply inpity, and reached forth his hand, as the likeness of his own filialaffection flashed across his soul. 'What now shall good Aeneas givethee, what, O poor boy, for this thy praise, for guerdon of a nature sonoble? Keep for thine own the armour thou didst delight in; and Irestore thee, if that matters aught at all, to the ghosts and ashes ofthy parents. Yet thou shalt have this sad comfort in thy piteous death, thou fallest by great Aeneas' hand. ' Then, chiding his hesitatingcomrades, he lifts him from the ground, dabbling the comely-rangedtresses with blood. 

Meanwhile his father, by the wave of the Tiber river, stanched his woundwith water, and rested his body against a tree-trunk. Hard by his brazenhelmet hangs from the boughs, and the heavy armour lies quietly on themeadow. Chosen men stand round; he, sick and panting, leans his neck andlets his beard spread down over his chest. Many a time he asks forLausus, and sends many an one to call him back and carry a parent's sadcommands. But Lausus his weeping comrades were bearing lifeless on hisarmour, mighty and mightily wounded to death. Afar the soul prophetic ofill knew their lamentation: he soils his gray hairs plenteously withdust, and stretches both hands on high, and clings on the dead. 'Waslife's hold on me so sweet, O my son, that I let him I bore receive thehostile stroke in my room? Am I, thy father, saved by these wounds ofthine, and living by thy death? Alas and woe! [850-885]now at lastexile is bitter! now the wound is driven deep! And I, even I, O my son, stained thy name with crime, driven in hatred from the throne andsceptre of my fathers. I owed vengeance to my country and my people'sresentment; might mine own guilty life but have paid it by every form ofdeath! Now I live, and leave not yet man and day; but I will. ' As hespeaks thus he raises himself painfully on his thigh, and though theviolence of the deep wound cripples him, yet unbroken he bids his horsebe brought, his beauty, his comfort, that ever had carried himvictorious out of war, and says these words to the grieving beast:'Rhoebus, we have lived long, if aught at all lasts long with mortals. This day wilt thou either bring back in triumph the gory head and spoilsof Aeneas, and we will avenge Lausus' agonies; or if no force opens away, thou wilt die with me: for I deem not, bravest, thou wilt deign tobear an alien rule and a Teucrian lord. ' He spoke, and took his welcomeseat on the back he knew, loading both hands with keen javelins, hishead sheathed in glittering brass and shaggy horse-hair plumes. Thus hegalloped in. Through his heart sweep together the vast tides of shameand mingling madness and grief. And with that he thrice loudly callsAeneas. Aeneas knew the call, and makes glad invocation: 'So the fatherof gods speed me, so Apollo on high: do thou essay to close hand tohand. . . . ' Thus much he utters, and moves up to meet him with levelledspear. And he: 'Why seek to frighten me, fierce man, now my son is gone?this was thy one road to my ruin. We shrink not from death, nor relentbefore any of thy gods. Cease; for I come to my death, first carryingthese gifts for thee. ' He spoke, and hurled a weapon at his enemy; thenplants another and yet another as he darts round in a wide circle; butthey are stayed on the boss of gold. Thrice he rode wheeling close roundhim by the [886-908]left, and sent his weapons strongly in; thrice theTrojan hero turns round, taking the grim forest on his brazen guard. Then, weary of lingering in delay on delay, and plucking out spear-headafter spear-head, and hard pressed in the uneven match of battle, withmuch counselling of spirit now at last he bursts forth, and sends hisspear at the war-horse between the hollows of the temples. The creatureraises itself erect, beating the air with its feet, throws its rider, and coming down after him in an entangled mass, slips its shoulder as ittumbles forward. The cries of Trojans and Latins kindle the sky. Aeneasrushes up, drawing his sword from the scabbard, and thus above him:'Where now is gallant Mezentius and all his fierce spirit?' Thereto theTyrrhenian, as he came to himself and gazing up drank the air of heaven:'Bitter foe, why these taunts and menaces of death? Naught forbids myslaughter; neither on such terms came I to battle, nor did my Laususmake treaty for this between me and thee. This one thing I beseech thee, by whatsoever grace a vanquished enemy may claim: allow my bodysepulture. I know I am girt by the bitter hatred of my people. Stay, Iimplore, their fury, and grant me and my son union in the tomb. ' Sospeaks he, and takes the sword in his throat unfalteringly, and thelifeblood spreads in a wave over his armour. 

BOOK ELEVENTH

THE COUNCIL OF THE LATINS, AND THE LIFE AND DEATH OF CAMILLA

Meanwhile Dawn arose forth of Ocean. Aeneas, though the charge pressesto give a space for burial of his comrades, and his mind is in thetumult of death, began to pay the gods his vows of victory with thebreaking of the East. He plants on a mound a mighty oak with boughslopped away on every hand, and arrays it in the gleaming arms strippedfrom Mezentius the captain, a trophy to thee, mighty Lord of War; hefixes on it the plumes dripping with blood, the broken spears, and thecorslet struck and pierced in twelve places; he ties the shield of brasson his left hand, and hangs from his neck the ivory sword. Then amonghis joyous comrades (for all the throng of his captains girt him closeabout) he begins in these words of cheer:

'The greatest deed is done, O men; be all fear gone for what remains. These are the spoils of a haughty king, the first-fruits won from him;my hands have set Mezentius here. Now our way lies to the walls of theLatin king. Prepare your arms in courage, and let your hopes anticipatethe war; let no ignorant delay hinder or tardy thoughts of fear keep usback, so soon as heaven grant us to pluck up the standards and lead ourarmy from the camp. [22-58]Meanwhile let us commit to earth theunburied bodies of our comrades, since deep in Acheron this honour isleft alone. Go, ' says he, 'grace with the last gifts those noble soulswhose blood won us this land for ours; and first let Pallas be sent toEvander's mourning city, he whose valour failed not when the day ofdarkness took him, and the bitter wave of death. '

So speaks he weeping, and retraces his steps to the door, where agedAcoetes watched Pallas' lifeless body laid out for burial; oncearmour-bearer to Evander in Parrhasia, but now gone forth with darkeromens, appointed attendant to his darling foster-child. Around is thewhole train of servants, with a crowd of Trojans, and the Ilian womenwith hair unbound in mourning after their fashion. When Aeneas enteredat the high doorway they beat their breasts and raise a loud wail aloft, and the palace moans to their grievous lamentation. Himself, when he sawthe pillowed head and fair face of Pallas, and on his smooth breast thegaping wound of the Ausonian spear-head, speaks thus with welling tears:

'Did Fortune in her joyous coming, ' he cries, 'O luckless boy, grudgethee the sight of our realm, and a triumphal entry to thy father'sdwelling? Not this promise of thee had I given to Evander thy sire at mydeparture, when he embraced me as I went and bade me speed to a wideempire, and yet warned me in fear that the men were valiant, the peopleobstinate in battle. And now he, fast ensnared by empty hope, perchanceoffers vows and heaps gifts on his altars; we, a mourning train, go inhollow honour by his corpse, who now owes no more to aught in heaven. Unhappy! thou wilt see thy son cruelly slain; is this our triumphalreturn awaited? is this my strong assurance? Ah me, what a shield islost, mine Iülus, to Ausonia and to thee!'

[59-96]This lament done, he bids raise the piteous body, and sends athousand men chosen from all his army for the last honour of escort, tomingle in the father's tears; a small comfort in a great sorrow, yet theunhappy parent's due. Others quickly plait a soft wicker bier of arbutusrods and oak shoots, and shadow the heaped pillows with a leafycovering. Here they lay him, high on their rustic strewing; even as sometender violet or drooping hyacinth-blossom plucked by a maiden's finger, whose sheen and whose grace is not yet departed, but no more does Earththe mother feed it or lend it strength. Then Aeneas bore forth twopurple garments stiff with gold, that Sidonian Dido's own hands, happyover their work, had once wrought for him, and shot the warp withdelicate gold. One of these he sadly folds round him, a last honour, andveils in its covering the tresses destined to the fire; and heaps upbesides many a Laurentine battle-prize, and bids his spoils pass forthin long train; with them the horses and arms whereof he had stripped theenemy, and those, with hands tied behind their back, whom he would sendas nether offering to his ghost, and sprinkle the blood of their slayingon the flame. Also he bids his captains carry stems dressed in thearmour of the foe, and fix on them the hostile names. Unhappy Acoetes isled along, outworn with age, he smites his breast and rends his face, and flings himself forward all along the ground. Likewise they leadforth the chariot bathed in Rutulian blood; behind goes weeping Aethonthe war-horse, his trappings laid away, and big drops wet his face. Others bear his spear and helmet, for all else is Turnus' prize. Thenfollow in mourning array the Teucrians and all the Tyrrhenians, and theArcadians with arms reversed. When the whole long escorting file hadtaken its way, Aeneas stopped, and sighing deep, pursued thus: 'Onceagain war's dreadful destiny calls us hence to other tears:[97-129]hail thou for evermore, O princely Pallas, and for evermorefarewell. ' And without more words he bent his way to the high walls andadvanced towards his camp. 

And now envoys were there from the Latin city with wreathed boughs ofolive, praying him of his grace to restore the dead that lay strewn bythe sword over the plain, and let them go to their earthy grave: no warlasts with men conquered and bereft of breath; let this indulgence begiven to men once called friends and fathers of their brides. To themAeneas grants leave in kind and courteous wise, spurning not theirprayer, and goes on in these words: 'What spite of fortune, O Latins, hath entangled you in the toils of war, and made you fly our friendship?Plead you for peace to the lifeless bodies that the battle-lot hathslain? I would fain grant it even to the living. Neither have I come butbecause destiny had given me this place to dwell in; nor wage I war withyour people; your king it is who hath broken our covenant and preferredto trust himself to Turnus' arms. Fitter it were Turnus had faced deathto-day. If he will fight out the war and expel the Teucrians, it hadbeen well to meet me here in arms; so had he lived to whom life weregranted of heaven or his own right hand. Now go, and kindle the firebeneath your hapless countrymen. ' Aeneas ended: they stood dumb insilence, with faces bent steadfastly in mutual gaze. Then aged Drances, ever young Turnus' assailant in hatred and accusation, with the words ofhis mouth thus answers him again:

'O Trojan, great in renown, yet greater in arms, with what praises may Iextol thy divine goodness? Shall thy righteousness first wake my wonder, or thy toils in war? We indeed will gratefully carry these words to ourfathers' city, and, if fortune grant a way, will make thee at one withKing Latinus. Let Turnus seek his own alliances. Nay, [130-163]it willbe our delight to rear the massy walls of destiny and stoop ourshoulders under the stones of Troy. '

He ended thus, and all with one voice murmured assent. Twelve days'truce is struck, and in mediation of the peace Teucrians and Latinsstray mingling unharmed on the forest heights. The tall ash echoes tothe axe's strokes; they overturn pines that soar into the sky, andbusily cleave oaken logs and scented cedar with wedges, and dragmountain-ashes on their groaning waggons. 

And now flying Rumour, harbinger of the heavy woe, fills Evander andEvander's house and city with the same voice that but now told of Pallasvictorious over Latium. The Arcadians stream to the gates, snatchingfuneral torches after their ancient use; the road gleams with the longline of flame, and parts the fields with a broad pathway of light; thearriving crowd of Phrygians meets them and mingles in mourning array. When the matrons saw all the train approach their dwellings they kindlethe town with loud wailing. But no force may withhold Evander; he comesamid them; the bier is set down; he flings himself on Pallas, and claspshim with tears and sighs, and scarcely at last does grief leave hisvoice's utterance free. 'Other than this, O Pallas! was thy promise tothy father, that thou wouldst not plunge recklessly into the fury ofbattle. I knew well how strong was the fresh pride of arms and thesweetness of honour in a first battle. Ah, unhappy first-fruits of hisyouth and bitter prelude of the war upon our borders! ah, vows andprayers of mine that no god heard! and thou, pure crown of wifehood, happy that thou art dead and not spared for this sorrow! But I haveoutgone my destiny in living, to stay here the survivor of my child. Would I had followed the allied arms of Troy, to be overwhelmed byRutulian weapons! Would my life had been given, and I and not my Pallaswere borne home in this [164-198]procession! I would not blame you, OTeucrians, nor our treaty and the friendly hands we clasped: our old agehad that appointed debt to pay. Yet if untimely death awaited my son, itwill be good to think he fell leading the Teucrians into Latium, andslew his Volscian thousands before he fell. Nay, no other funeral thanthis would I deem thy due, my Pallas, than good Aeneas does, than themighty Phrygians, than the Tyrrhene captains and all the army ofTyrrhenia. Great are the trophies they bring on whom thine hand dealsdeath; thou also, Turnus, wert standing now a great trunk dressed inarms, had his age and his strength of years equalled thine. But why, unhappy, do I delay the Trojan arms? Go, and forget not to carry thismessage to your king: Thine hand it is that keeps me lingering in a lifethat is hateful since Pallas fell, and Turnus is the debt thou seest sonand father claim: for thy virtue and thy fortune this scope alone isleft. I ask not joy in life; I may not; but to carry this to my son deepin the under world. '

Meanwhile Dawn had raised her gracious light on weary men, bringing backtask and toil: now lord Aeneas, how Tarchon, have built the pyres on thewinding shore. Hither in ancestral fashion hath each borne the bodies ofhis kin; the dark fire is lit beneath, and the vapour hides high heavenin gloom. Thrice, girt in glittering arms, they have marched about theblazing piles, thrice compassed on horseback the sad fire of death, anduttered their wail. Tears fall fast upon earth and armour; cries of menand blare of trumpets roll skyward. Then some fling on the fire Latinspoils stripped from the slain, helmets and shapely swords, bridles andglowing chariot wheels; others familiar gifts, the very shields andluckless weapons of the dead. Around are slain in sacrifice oxen many innumber, and bristly swine and cattle gathered out of all the country[199-234]are slaughtered over the flames. Then, crowding the shore, they gaze on their burning comrades, and guard the embers of the pyres, and cannot tear themselves away till dewy Night wheels on thestar-spangled glittering sky. 

Therewithal the unhappy Latins far apart build countless pyres and burymany bodies of men in the ground; and many more they lift and bear awayto the neighbouring country, or send them back to the city; the rest, avast heap of undistinguishable slaughter, they burn uncounted andunhonoured; on all sides the broad fields gleam with crowded rivalry offires. The third Dawn had rolled away the chill shadow from the sky;mournfully they piled high the ashes and mingled bones from the embers, and heaped a load of warm earth above them. Now in the dwellings of richLatinus' city the noise is loudest and most the long wail. Here mothersand their sons' unhappy brides, here beloved sisters sad-hearted andorphaned boys curse the disastrous war and Turnus' bridal, and bid himhis own self arm and decide the issue with the sword, since he claimsfor himself the first rank and the lordship of Italy. Drances fiercelyembitters their cry, and vouches that Turnus alone is called, alone isclaimed for battle. Yet therewith many a diverse-worded counsel is forTurnus, and the great name of the queen overshadows him, and he riseshigh in renown of trophies fitly won. 

Among their stir, and while confusion is fiercest, lo! to crown all, theenvoys from great Diomede's city bring their gloomy message: nothing iscome of all the toil and labour spent; gifts and gold and strongentreaties have been of no avail; Latium must seek other arms, or suefor peace to the Trojan king. For heavy grief King Latinus himselfswoons away. The wrath of heaven and the fresh graves before his eyeswarn him that Aeneas is borne on by fate's evident will. So he sendsimperial summons to [235-269]his high council, the foremost of hispeople, and gathers them within his lofty courts. They assemble, andstream up the crowded streets to the royal dwelling. Latinus, eldest inyears and first in royalty, sits amid them with cheerless brow, and bidsthe envoys sent back from the Aetolian city tell the news they bring, and demands a full and ordered reply. Then tongues are hushed; andVenulus, obeying his word, thus begins to speak:

'We have seen, O citizens, Diomede in his Argive camp, and outsped ourway and passed all its dangers, and touched the hand whereunder the landof Ilium fell. He was founding a town, named Argyripa after hisancestral people, on the conquered fields of Iapygian Garganus. After weentered in, and licence of open speech was given, we lay forth ourgifts, we instruct him of our name and country, who are its invaders, and why we are drawn to Arpi. He heard us, and replied thus with faceunstirred:

'"O fortunate races, realm of Saturn, Ausonians of old, how doth fortunevex your quiet and woo you to tempt wars you know not? We that havedrawn sword on the fields of Ilium--I forbear to tell the drains of warbeneath her high walls, the men sunken in yonder Simoïs--have all overthe world paid to the full our punishment and the reward of guilt, acrew Priam's self might pity; as Minerva's baleful star knows, and theEuboïc reefs and Caphereus' revenge. From that warfaring driven to alienshores, Menelaus son of Atreus is in exile far as Proteus' Pillars, Ulysses hath seen the Cyclopes of Aetna. Shall I make mention of therealm of Neoptolemus, and Idomeneus' household gods overthrown? or ofthe Locrians who dwell on the Libyan beach? Even the lord of Mycenae, the mighty Achaeans' general, sank on his own threshold edge under hisaccursed wife's hand, where the adulterer crouched over conquered Asia. Aye, or that the gods grudged it me to return to [270-301]my ancestralaltars, to see the bride of my desire, and lovely Calydon! Now likewisesights of appalling presage pursue me; my comrades, lost to me, havesoared winging into the sky, and flit birds about the rivers--ah me, dread punishment of my people!--and fill the cliffs with theirmelancholy cries. This it was I had to look for even from the time whenI madly assailed celestial limbs with steel, and sullied the hand ofVenus with a wound. Do not, ah, do not urge me to such battles. Neitherhave I any war with Troy since her towers are overthrown, nor do Iremember with delight the woes of old. Turn to Aeneas with the gifts youbear to me from your ancestral borders. We have stood to face his grimweapons, and met him hand to hand; believe one who hath proved it, howmightily he rises over his shield, in what a whirlwind he hurls hisspear. Had the land of Ida borne two more like him, Dardanus had marchedto attack the towns of Inachus, and Greece were mourning fate's reverse. In all our delay before that obstinate Trojan city, it was Hector andAeneas whose hand stayed the Grecian victory and bore back its advanceto the tenth year. Both were splendid in courage, both eminent in arms;Aeneas was first in duty. Let your hands join in treaty as they may; butbeware that your weapons close not with his. "

'Thou hast heard, most gracious king, at once what is the king's answer, and what his counsel for our great struggle. '

Scarcely thus the envoys, when a diverse murmur ran through the troubledlips of the Ausonians; even as, when rocks delay some running river, itplashes in the barred pool, and the banks murmur nigh to the babblingwave. So soon as their minds were quieted, and their hurrying lipshushed, the king, first calling on the gods, begins from his loftythrone:

[302-336]'Ere now could I wish, O Latins, we had determined our courseof state, and it had been better thus; not to meet in council at such atime as now, with the enemy seated before our walls. We wage anill-timed war, fellow-citizens, with a divine race, invincible, unbrokenin battle, who brook not even when conquered to drop the sword. If youhad hope in appeal to Aetolian arms, abandon it; though each man's hopeis his own, you discern how narrow a path it is. Beyond that you seewith your eyes and handle with your hands the total ruin of ourfortunes. I blame no one; what valour's utmost could do is done; we havefought with our whole kingdom's strength. Now I will unfold what Idoubtfully advise and purpose, and with your attention instruct you ofit in brief. There is an ancient land of mine bordering the Tuscanriver, stretching far westward beyond the Sicanian borders. Auruncansand Rutulians sow on it, work the stiff hills with the ploughshare, andpasture them where they are roughest. Let all this tract, with apine-clad belt of mountain height, pass to the Teucrians in friendship;let us name fair terms of treaty, and invite them as allies to ourrealm; let them settle, if they desire it so, and found a city. But ifthey have a mind to try other coasts and another people, and can abideto leave our soil, let us build twice ten ships of Italian oak, or asmany more as they can man; timber lies at the water's edge for all; letthem assign the number and fashion of the vessels, and we will supplybrass, labour, dockyards. Further, it is our will that an hundredambassadors of the highest rank in Latium shall go to bear our words andratify the treaty, holding forth in their hands the boughs of peace, andcarrying for gifts weight of gold and ivory, and the chair and stripedrobe, our royal array. Give counsel openly, and succour our exhaustedstate. '

Then Drances again, he whose jealous ill-will was [337-370]wrought toanger and stung with bitterness by Turnus' fame, lavish of wealth andquick of tongue though his hand was cold in war, held no emptycounsellor and potent in faction--his mother's rank ennobled a lineagewhose paternal source was obscure--rises, and with these words heaps andheightens their passion:

'Dark to no man and needing no voice of ours, O gracious king, is thatwhereon thou takest counsel. All confess they know how our nation'sfortune sways; but their words are choked. Let him grant freedom ofspeech and abate his breath, he by whose disastrous government andperverse way (I will speak out, though he menace me with arms and death)we see so many stars of battle gone down and all our city sunk inmourning; while he, confident in flight, assails the Trojan camp andmakes heaven quail before his arms. Add yet one to those gifts of thine, to all the riches thou bidst us send or promise to the Dardanians, mostgracious of kings, but one; let no man's passion overbear thee fromgiving thine own daughter to an illustrious son and a worthy marriage, and binding this peace by perpetual treaty. Yet if we are thusterror-stricken heart and soul, let us implore him in person, in personplead him of his grace to give way, to restore king and country theirproper right. Why again and again hurlest thou these unhappy citizens onperil so evident, O source and spring of Latium's woes? In war is nosafety; peace we all implore of thee, O Turnus, and the one pledge thatmakes peace inviolable. I the first, I whom thou picturest thine enemy, as I care not if I am, see, I bow at thy feet. Pity thine allies;relent, and retire before thy conqueror. Enough have we seen of rout anddeath, and desolation over our broad lands. Or if glory stir thee, ifsuch strength kindle in thy breast, and if a palace so delight thee forthy dower, be bold, and advance stout-hearted upon the foe. We verily, that Turnus [371-406]may have his royal bride, must lie scattered onthe plains, worthless lives, a crowd unburied and unwept. Do thou also, if thou hast aught of might, if the War-god be in thee as in thyfathers, look him in the face who challenges. . . . '

At these words Turnus' passion blazed out. He utters a groan, and breaksforth thus in deep accents:

'Copious indeed, Drances, and fluent is ever thy speech at the momentwar calls for action; and when the fathers are summoned thou art therethe first. But we need no words to fill our senate-house, safely as thouwingest them while the mounded walls keep off the enemy, and thetrenches swim not yet with blood. Thunder on in rhetoric, thy wontedway: accuse thou me of fear, Drances, since thine hand hath heaped somany Teucrians in slaughter, and thy glorious trophies dot the fields. Trial is open of what live valour can do; nor indeed is our foe far toseek; on all sides they surround our walls. Are we going to meet them?Why linger? Will thy bravery ever be in that windy tongue and thosetimorous feet of thine? . . . _My conqueror?_ Shall any justly flout meas conquered, who sees Tiber swoln fuller with Ilian blood, and all thehouse and people of Evander laid low, and the Arcadians stripped oftheir armour? Not such did Bitias and huge Pandarus prove me, and thethousand men whom on one day my conquering hand sent down to hell, shutas I was in their walls and closed in the enemy's ramparts. _In war isno safety. _ Fool! be thy boding on the Dardanian's head and thine ownfortunes. Go on; cease not to throw all into confusion with thy terrors, to exalt the strength of a twice vanquished race, and abase the arms ofLatinus before it. Now the princes of the Myrmidons tremble beforePhrygian arms, now Tydeus' son and Achilles of Larissa, and Aufidusriver recoils from the Adriatic wave. Or when the scheming villain[407-443]pretends to shrink at my abuse, and sharpens calumny byterror! never shall this hand--keep quiet!--rob thee of such a soul;with thee let it abide, and dwell in that breast of thine. Now I returnto thee, my lord, and thy weighty resolves. If thou dost repose nofurther hope in our arms, if all hath indeed left us, and one repulsebeen our utter ruin, and our fortune is beyond recovery, let us pleadfor peace and stretch forth unarmed hands. Yet ah! had we aught of ourwonted manhood, his toil beyond all other is blessed and his spiriteminent, who rather than see it thus, hath fallen prone in death andonce bitten the ground. But if we have yet resources and an army stillunbroken, and cities and peoples of Italy remain for our aid; but ifeven the Trojans have won their glory at great cost of blood (they toohave their deaths, and the storm fell equally on all), why do weshamefully faint even on the threshold? Why does a shudder seize ourlimbs before the trumpet sound? Often do the Days and the varying changeof toiling Time restore prosperity; often Fortune in broken visits makesman her sport and again establishes him. The Aetolian of Arpi will nothelp us; but Messapus will, and Tolumnius the fortunate, and thecaptains sent by many a nation; nor will fame be scant to follow theflower of Latium and the Laurentine land. Camilla the Volscian too iswith us, leading her train of cavalry, squadrons splendid in brass. Butif I only am claimed by the Teucrians for combat, if that is yourpleasure, and I am the barrier to the public good, Victory does not sohate and shun my hands that I should renounce any enterprise for sogreat a hope. I shall meet him in courage, did he outmatch greatAchilles and wear arms like his forged by Vulcan's hands. To you and tomy father Latinus I Turnus, unexcelled in bravery by any of old, consecrate my life. _Aeneas calls on him alone_: let him, I implore: letnot Drances rather appease with his [444-480]life this wrath of heaven, if such it be, or win the renown of valour. '

Thus they one with another strove together in uncertainty; Aeneas movedfrom his camp to battle. Lo, a messenger rushes spreading confusionthrough the royal house, and fills the town with great alarms: theTeucrians, ranged in battle-line with the Tyrrhene forces, are marchingdown by the Tiber river and filling the plain. Immediately spirits arestirred and hearts shaken and wrath roused in fierce excitement amongthe crowd. Hurrying hands grasp at arms; for arms their young menclamour; the fathers shed tears and mutter gloomily. With that a greatnoise rises aloft in diverse contention, even as when flocks of birdshaply settle on a lofty grove, or swans utter their hoarse cry among thevocal pools on the fish-filled river of Padusa. 'Yes, citizens!' criesTurnus, seizing his time: 'gather in council and sit praising peace, while they rush on dominion in arms!' Without more words he sprung upand issued swiftly from the high halls. 'Thou, Volusus, ' he cries, 'bidthe Volscian battalions arm, and lead out the Rutulians. Messapus, andCoras with thy brother, spread your armed cavalry widely over the plain. Let a division entrench the city gates and man the towers: the rest ofour array attack with me where I command. ' The whole town goes rushingto the walls; lord Latinus himself, dismayed by the woeful emergency, quits the council and puts off his high designs, and chides himselfsorely for not having given Aeneas unasked welcome, and made him son andbulwark of the city. Some entrench the gates, or bring up supply ofstones and poles. The hoarse clarion utters the ensanguined note of war. A motley ring of boys and matrons girdle the walls. Therewithal thequeen with a crowd of mothers ascends bearing gifts to Pallas' toweredtemple, and by her side goes maiden Lavinia, source of all that woe, [481-514]her beautiful eyes cast down. The mothers enter in, and whilethe temple steams with their incense, pour from the high doorway theirmournful cry: 'Maiden armipotent, Tritonian, sovereign of war, breakwith thine hand the spear of the Phrygian plunderer, hurl him prone toearth and dash him down beneath our lofty gates. ' Turnus arrays himselfin hot haste for battle, and even now hath done on his sparklingbreastplate with its flickering scales of brass, and clasped his goldengreaves, his brows yet bare and his sword buckled to his side; he runsdown from the fortress height glittering in gold, and exultantlyanticipates the foe. Thus when a horse snaps his tether, and, free atlast, rushes from the stalls and gains the open plain, he either dartstowards the pastures of the herded mares, or bathing, as is his wont, inthe familiar river waters, dashes out and neighs with neck stretchedhigh, glorying, and his mane tosses over collar and shoulder. Camillawith her Volscian array meets him face to face in the gateway; theprincess leaps from her horse, and all her squadron at her example slidefrom horseback to the ground. Then she speaks thus:

'Turnus, if bravery hath any just self-confidence, I dare and promise toengage Aeneas' cavalry, and advance to meet the Tyrrhene horse. Permitmy hand to try war's first perils: do thou on foot keep by the walls andguard the city. '

To this Turnus, with eyes fixed on the terrible maiden: 'O maiden flowerof Italy, how may I essay to express, how to prove my gratitude? Butnow, since that spirit of thine excels all praise, share thou the toilwith me. Aeneas, as the report of the scouts I sent assures, hath senton his light-armed horse to annoy us and scour the plains; himself hemarches on the city across the lonely ridge of the mountain steep. I amarranging a stratagem of [515-550]war in his pathway on the woodedslope, to block a gorge on the highroad with armed troops. Do thoureceive and join battle with the Tyrrhene cavalry; with thee shall begallant Messapus, the Latin squadrons, and Tiburtus' division: do thoulikewise assume a captain's charge. '

So speaks he, and with like words heartens Messapus and the alliedcaptains to battle, and advances towards the enemy. There is a sweepingcurve of glen, made for ambushes and devices of arms. Dark thick foliagehems it in on either hand, and into it a bare footpath leads by a narrowgorge and difficult entrance. Right above it on the watch-towers of thehill-top lies an unexpected level, hidden away in shelter, whether onewould charge from right and left or stand on the ridge and roll downheavy stones. Hither he passes by a line of way he knew, and, seizinghis ground, occupies the treacherous woods. 

Meanwhile in the heavenly dwellings Latona's daughter addressed fleetOpis, one of her maiden fellowship and sacred band, and sadly utteredthese accents: 'Camilla moves to fierce war, O maiden, and vainly girdson our arms, dear as she is beyond others to me. For her love of Dianais not newly born, nor her spirit stirred by sudden affection. Drivenfrom his kingdom through jealousy of his haughty power, Metabus leftancient Privernum town, and bore his infant with him in his flightthrough war and battle, the companion of his exile, and called her byher mother Casmilla's name, with a little change, Camilla. Carrying herbefore him on his breast, he sought a long ridge of lonely woodland; onall sides angry weapons pressed on him, and Volscian soldiery spreadhurrying round about. Lo, in mid flight swoln Amasenus ran foaming withbanks abrim, so heavily had the clouds burst in rain. He would swim it;but love of the infant holds him back in alarm for so dear a burden. Inly revolving [551-586]all, he settled reluctantly on a suddenresolve: the great spear that the warrior haply carried in his stouthand, of hard-knotted and seasoned oak, to it he ties his daughterswathed in cork-tree bark of the woodland, and binds her balanced roundthe middle of the spear; poising it in his great right hand he thuscries aloft: "Gracious one, haunter of the woodland, maiden daughter ofLatona, a father devotes this babe to thy service; thine is this weaponshe holds, thine infant suppliant, flying through the air from herenemies. Accept her, I implore, O goddess, for thine own, whom now Ientrust to the chance of air. " He spoke, and drawing back his arm, dartsthe spinning spear-shaft: the waters roar: over the racing river poorCamilla shoots on the whistling weapon. But Metabus, as a strong bandnow presses nigher, plunges into the river, and triumphantly pulls spearand girl, his gift to Trivia, from the grassy turf. No cities everreceived him within house or rampart, nor had his savagery submitted toit; he led his life on the lonely pastoral hills. Here he nursed hisdaughter in the underwood among tangled coverts, on the milk of a wildbrood-mare's teats, squeezing the udder into her tender lips. And sosoon as the baby stood and went straight on her feet, he armed her handswith a sharp javelin, and hung quiver and bow from her little shoulders. Instead of gold to clasp her tresses, instead of the long skirted gown, a tiger's spoils hang down her back. Even then her tender hand hurledchildish darts, and whirled about her head the twisted thong of hersling, and struck down the crane from Strymon or the milk-white swan. Many a mother among Tyrrhenian towns destined her for their sons invain; content with Diana alone, she keeps unsoiled for ever the love ofher darts and maidenhood. Would she had not plunged thus into warfareand provoked the Trojans by attack! so were she now dear to me and oneof my [587-620]company. But since bitter doom is upon her, up, glidefrom heaven, O Nymph, and seek the Latin borders, where under evil omenthey join in baleful battle. Take these, and draw from the quiver anavenging shaft; by it shall he pay me forfeit of his blood, whoso, Trojan or Italian alike, shall sully her sacred body with a wound. Thereafter will I in a sheltering cloud bear body and armour of thehapless girl unspoiled to the tomb, and lay them in her native land. 'She spoke; but the other sped lightly down the aery sky, girt about withdark whirlwind on her echoing way. 

But meanwhile the Trojan force nears the walls, with the Etruscancaptains and their whole cavalry arrayed in ordered squadrons. Theirhorses' trampling hoofs thunder on all the field, as, swerving this wayand that, they chafe at the reins' pressure; the iron field bristleswide with spears, and the plain is aflame with uplifted arms. LikewiseMessapus and the Latin horse, and Coras and his brother, and maidenCamilla's squadron, come forth against them on the plain, and draw backtheir hands and level the flickering points of their long lances, in afire of neighing horses and advancing men. And now each had drawn withinjavelin-cast of each, and drew up; with a sudden shout they dart forth, and urge on their furious horses; from all sides at once weapons showerthick like snow, and veil the sky with their shadow. In a momentTyrrhenus and fiery Aconteus charge violently with crossing spears, andare the first to fall; they go down with a heavy crash, and their beastsbreak and shatter chest upon chest. Aconteus, hurled off like athunderbolt or some mass slung from an engine, is dashed away, andscatters his life in air. Immediately the lines waver, and the Latinswheeling about throw their shields behind them and turn their horsestowards the town. The Trojans pursue; Asilas heads and leads on[621-653]their squadrons. And now they drew nigh the gates, and againthe Latins raise a shout and wheel their supple necks about; thepursuers fly, and gallop right back with loosened rein: as when the sea, running up in ebb and flow, now rushes shoreward and strikes over thecliffs in a wave of foam, drenching the edge of the sand in its curvingsweep; now runs swirling back, and the surge sucks the rolling stonesaway. Twice the Tuscans turn and drive the Rutulians towards the town;twice they are repelled, and look back behind them from cover of theirshields. But when now meeting in a third encounter, the lines are lockedtogether all their length, and man singles out his man; then indeed, amid groans of the dying, deep in blood roll armour and bodies, andhorses half slain mixed up with slaughtered men. The battle swellsfierce. Orsilochus hurled his spear at the horse of Remulus, whomhimself he shrank to meet, and left the steel in it under the ear; atthe stroke the charger rears madly, and, mastered by the wound, liftshis chest and flings up his legs: the rider is thrown and rolls over onthe ground. Catillus strikes down Iollas, and Herminius mighty incourage, mighty in limbs and arms, bareheaded, tawny-haired, bare-shouldered; undismayed by wounds, he leaves his vast body openagainst arms. Through his broad shoulders the quivering spear runspiercing him through, and doubles him up with pain. Everywhere the darkblood flows; they deal death with the sword in battle, and seek a nobledeath by wounds. 

But amid the slaughter Camilla rages, a quivered Amazon, with one sidestripped for battle, and now sends tough javelins showering from herhand, now snatches the strong battle-axe in her unwearying grasp; thegolden bow, the armour of Diana, clashes on her shoulders; and even whenforced backward in retreat, she turns in flight and [654-691]aims dartsfrom her bow. But around her are her chosen comrades, maiden Larina, Tulla, Tarpeia brandishing an axe inlaid with bronze, girls of Italy, whom Camilla the bright chose for her own escort, good at service inpeace and war: even as Thracian Amazons when the streams of Thermodonclash beneath them as they go to war in painted arms, whether aroundHippolyte, or while martial Penthesilea returns in her chariot, and thecrescent-shielded columns of women dance with loud confused cry. Whomfirst, whom last, fierce maiden, does thy dart strike down? FirstEuneus, son of Clytius; for as he meets her the long fir shaft crashesthrough his open breast. He falls spouting streams of blood, and bitesthe gory ground, and dying writhes himself upon his wound. Then Lirisand Pagasus above him; who fall headlong and together, the one thrown ashe reins up his horse stabbed under him, the other while he runs forwardand stretches his unarmed hand to stay his fall. To these she joinsAmastrus, son of Hippotas, and follows from far with her spear Tereusand Harpalycus and Demophoön and Chromis: and as many darts as themaiden sends whirling from her hand, so many Phrygians fall. Ornytus thehunter rides near in strange arms on his Iapygian horse, his broadwarrior's shoulders swathed in the hide stripped from a bullock, hishead covered by a wolf's wide-grinning mouth and white-tusked jaws; arustic pike arms his hand; himself he moves amid the squadrons a fullhead over all. Catching him up (for that was easy amid the rout), sheruns him through, and thus cries above her enemy: 'Thou wert huntingwild beasts in the forest, thoughtest thou, Tyrrhenian? the day is comefor a woman's arms to refute thy words. Yet no light fame shalt thoucarry to thy fathers' ghosts, to have fallen under the weapon ofCamilla. ' Next Orsilochus and Butes, the two mightiest of mould amongthe Teucrians; Butes she pierces in the [692-725]back with herspear-point between corslet and helmet, where the neck shews as he sits, and the shield hangs from his left shoulder; Orsilochus she flies, anddarting in a wide circle, slips into the inner ring and pursues herpursuer; then rising her full height, she drives the strong axe deepthrough armour and bone, as he pleads and makes much entreaty; warmbrain from the wound splashes his face. One met her thus and hungstartled by the sudden sight, the warrior son of Aunus haunter of theApennine, not the meanest in Liguria while fate allowed him to deceive. And he, when he discerns that no fleetness of foot may now save him frombattle or turn the princess from pursuit, essays to wind a subtle deviceof treachery, and thus begins: 'How hast thou glory, if a woman trust inher horse's strength? Debar retreat; trust thyself to level ground atclose quarters with me, and prepare to fight on foot. Soon wilt thouknow how windy boasting brings one to harm. ' He spoke; but she, furiousand stung with fiery indignation, hands her horse to an attendant, andtakes her stand in equal arms on foot and undismayed, with naked swordand shield unemblazoned. But he, thinking his craft had won the day, himself flies off on the instant, and turning his rein, darts off inflight, pricking his beast to speed with iron-armed heel. 'FalseLigurian, in vain elated in thy pride! for naught hast thou attemptedthy slippery native arts, nor will thy craft bring thee home unhurt totreacherous Aunus. ' So speaks the maiden, and with running feet swift asfire crosses his horse, and catching the bridle, meets him in front andtakes her vengeance in her enemy's blood: as lightly as the falcon, birdof bale, swoops down from aloft on a pigeon high in a cloud, and pounceson and holds her, and disembowels her with taloned feet, while blood andtorn feathers flutter down the sky. 

But the creator of men and gods sits high on Olympus' [726-759]summitwatching this, not with eyes unseeing: he kindles Tyrrhenian Tarchon tothe fierce battle, and sharply goads him on to wrath. So Tarchon gallopsamid the slaughter where his squadrons retreat, and urges his troops inchanging tones, calling man on man by name, and rallies the fliers tofight. 'What terror, what utter cowardice hath fallen on your spirits, Onever to be stung to shame, O slack alway? a woman drives you indisorder and routs our ranks! Why wear we steel? for what are these idleweapons in our hands? Yet not slack in Venus' service and wars by night, or, when the curving flute proclaims Bacchus' revels, to look forward tothe feast and the cups on the loaded board (this your passion, this yourdesire!) till the soothsayer pronounce the offering favourable, and thefatted victim invite you to the deep groves. ' So speaking, he spurs hishorse into the midmost, ready himself to die, and bears violently downfull on Venulus; and tearing him from horseback, grasps his enemy andcarries him away with him on the saddle-bow by main force. A cry risesup, and all the Latins turn their eyes. Tarchon flies like fire over theplain, carrying the armed man, and breaks off the steel head from hisown spear and searches the uncovered places, trying where he may dealthe mortal blow; the other struggling against him keeps his hand off histhroat, and strongly parries his attack. And, as when a golden eaglesnatches and soars with a serpent in his clutch, and his feet are fastin it, and his talons cling; but the wounded snake writhes in coilingspires, and its scales rise and roughen, and its mouth hisses as ittowers upward; the bird none the less attacks his struggling prize withcrooked beak, while his vans beat the air: even so Tarchon carriesTiburtus out of the ranks, triumphant in his prize. Following theircaptain's example and issue the men of Maeonia charge in. Then Arruns, due to his [760-796]doom, circles in advance of fleet Camilla withartful javelin, and tries how fortune may be easiest. Where the maidendarts furious amid the ranks, there Arruns slips up and silently tracksher footsteps; where she returns victorious and retires from amid theenemy, there he stealthily bends his rapid reins. Here he approaches, and here again he approaches, and strays all round and about, anduntiringly shakes his certain spear. Haply Chloreus, sacred to Cybeleand once her priest, glittered afar, splendid in Phrygian armour; a skinfeathered with brazen scales and clasped with gold clothed the horsethat foamed under his spur; himself he shone in foreign blue andscarlet, with fleet Gortynian shafts and a Lycian horn; a golden bow wason his shoulder, and the soothsayer's helmet was of gold; red goldknotted up his yellow scarf with its rustling lawny folds; his tunicsand barbarian trousers were wrought in needlework. Him, whether that shemight nail armour of Troy on her temples, or herself move in captivegold, the maiden pursued in blind chase alone of all the battleconflict, and down the whole line, reckless and fired by a woman'spassion for spoils and plunder: when at last out of his ambush Arrunschooses his time and darts his javelin, praying thus aloud to heaven:'Apollo, most high of gods, holy Soracte's warder, to whom we beyond alldo worship, for whom the blaze of the pinewood heap is fed, where we thyworshippers in pious faith print our steps amid the deep embers of thefire, grant, O Lord omnipotent, that our arms wipe off this disgrace. Iseek not the dress the maiden wore, nor trophy or any spoil of victory;other deeds shall bring me praise; let but this dread scourge fallstricken beneath my wound, I will return inglorious to my native towns. 'Phoebus heard, and inly granted half his vow to prosper, half he shredinto the flying breezes. To surprise and strike down Camilla in suddendeath, this he [797-831]yielded to his prayer; that his high home mightsee his return he gave not, and a gust swept off his accents on thegale. So, when the spear sped from his hand hurtled through the air, allthe Volscians marked it well and turned their eyes on the queen; and shealone knew not wind or sound of the weapon on its aery path, till thespear passed home and sank where her breast met it, and, driven deep, drank her maiden blood. Her companions run hastily up and catch theirsinking mistress. Arruns takes to flight more alarmed than all, inmingled fear and exultation, and no longer dares to trust his spear orface the maiden's weapons. And as the wolf, some shepherd or greatbullock slain, plunges at once among the trackless mountain heights erehostile darts are in pursuit, and knows how reckless he hath been, anddrooping his tail lays it quivering under his belly, and seeks thewoods; even so does Arruns withdraw from sight in dismay, and, satisfiedto escape, mingles in the throng of arms. The dying woman pulls at theweapon with her hand; but the iron head is fixed deep in the wound upbetween the rib-bones. She swoons away with loss of blood; chilling indeath her eyes swoon away; the once lustrous colour leaves her face. Then gasping, she thus accosts Acca, one of her birthmates, who alonebefore all was true to Camilla, with whom her cares were divided; andeven so she speaks: 'Thus far, Acca my sister, have I availed; now thebitter wound overmasters me, and all about me darkens in haze. Hasteaway, and carry to Turnus my last message; to take my place in battle, and repel the Trojans from the town. And now goodbye. ' Even with thewords she dropped the reins and slid to ground unconscious. Then theunnerving chill overspread her, her neck slackened, her head sankoverpowered by death, and her arms fell, and with a moan the life fledindignant into the dark. Then indeed an [832-867]infinite cry rises andsmites the golden stars; the battle grows bloodier now Camilla is down;at once in serried rants all the Teucrian forces pour in, with theTyrrhene captains and Evander's Arcadian squadrons. 

But Opis, Trivia's sentinel, long ere now sits high on the hill-tops, gazing on the battle undismayed. And when afar amid the din of angry menshe espied Camilla done woefully to death, she sighed and uttered fortha deep cry: 'Ah too, too cruel, O maiden, the forfeit thou hast paid fordaring armed attack on the Teucrians! and nothing hath availed thee thylonely following of Diana in the woodlands, nor wearing our quiver onthy shoulder. Yet thy Queen hath not left thee unhonoured now thy latterend is come; nor will this thy death be unnamed among the nations, norshalt thou bear the fame of one unavenged; for whosoever hath sulliedthy body with a wound shall pay death for due. ' Under the mountainheight was a great earthen mound, tomb of Dercennus, a Laurentine kingof old, shrouded in shadowy ilex. Hither the goddess most beautifulfirst swoops down, and marks Arruns from the mounded height. As she sawhim glittering in arms and idly exultant: 'Why, ' she cries, 'wanderestthou away? hitherward direct thy steps; come hither to thy doom, toreceive thy fit reward for Camilla. Shalt thou die, and by Diana'sweapons?' The Thracian spoke, and slid out a fleet arrow from her gildedquiver, and stretched it level on the bow, and drew it far, till thecurving tips met one another, and now her hands touched in counterpoise, the left the steel edge, the string in the right her breast. At once andin a moment Arruns heard the whistle of the dart and the resounding air, as the steel sank in his body. His comrades leave him forgotten on theunknown dust of the plain, moaning his last and gasping his life away;Opis wings her flight to the skyey heaven. 

[868-901]At once the light squadron of Camilla retreat now they havelost their mistress; the Rutulians retreat in confusion, brave Atinasretreats. Scattered captains and thinned companies make for safety, andturn their horses backward to the town. Nor does any avail to make standagainst the swarming death-dealing Teucrians, or bear their shock inarms; but their unstrung bows droop on their shoulders, and thefour-footed galloping horse-hoof shakes the crumbling plain. The eddyingdust rolls up thick and black towards the walls, and on the watch-towersmothers beat their breasts and the cries of women rise up to heaven. Onsuch as first in the rout broke in at the open gates the minglinghostile throng follows hard; nor do they escape death, alas! but in thevery gateway, within their native city and amid their sheltering homes, they are pierced through and gasp out their life. Some shut the gates, and dare not open to their pleading comrades nor receive them in thetown; and a most pitiful slaughter begins between armed men who guardthe entry and others who rush upon their arms. Barred out before theirweeping parents' eyes and faces, some, swept on by the rout, rollheadlong into the trenches; some, blindly rushing with loosened rein, batter at the gates and stiffly-bolted doorway. The very mothers fromthe walls in eager heat (true love of country points the way, when theysee Camilla) dart weapons with shaking hand, and eagerly make hardstocks of wood and fire-hardened poles serve for steel, and burn to dieamong the foremost for their city's sake. 

Meanwhile among the forests the terrible news pours in on Turnus, andAcca brings him news of the mighty invasion; the Volscian lines aredestroyed; Camilla is fallen; the enemy thicken and press on, and haveswept all before them down the tide of battle. Raging he leaves thehills he had beset--Jove's stern will ordains it [902-915]so--and quitsthe rough woodland. Scarcely had he marched out of sight and gained theplain when lord Aeneas enters the open defiles, surmounts the ridge, andissues from the dim forest. So both advance swiftly to the town with alltheir columns, no long march apart, and at once Aeneas descried afar theplains all smoking with dust, and saw the Laurentine columns, and Turnusknew Aeneas terrible in arms, and heard the advancing feet and theneighing of the horses. And straightway would they join battle and essaythe conflict, but that ruddy Phoebus even now dips his weary coursers inthe Iberian flood, and night draws on over the fading day. They encampbefore the city, and draw their trenches round the walls. 

BOOK TWELFTH

THE SLAYING OF TURNUS

When Turnus sees the Latins broken and fainting in the thwart issue ofwar, his promise claimed for fulfilment, and men's eyes pointed on him, his own spirit rises in unappeasable flame. As the lion in Phoenicianfields, his breast heavily wounded by the huntsmen, at last starts intoarms, and shakes out the shaggy masses from his exultant neck, andundismayed snaps the brigand's planted weapon, roaring withblood-stained mouth; even so Turnus kindles and swells in passion. Thenhe thus addresses the king, and so furiously begins:

'Turnus stops not the way; there is no excuse for the coward Aeneadae totake back their words or renounce their compact. I join battle; bringthe holy things, my lord, and swear the treaty. Either this hand shallhurl to hell the Dardanian who skulks from Asia, and the Latins sit andsee my single sword wipe out the nation's reproach; or let him rule hisconquest, and Lavinia pass to his espousal. '

To him Latinus calmly replied: 'O excellent young man! the more thy hotvalour abounds, the more intently must I counsel, and weigh fearfullywhat may befall. Thou hast thy father Daunus' realm, hast many townstaken by [23-55]thine hand, nor is Latinus lacking in gold andgoodwill. There are other maidens unwedded in Latium and Laurentinefields, and of no mean birth. Let me unfold this hard saying in allsincerity: and do thou drink it into thy soul. I might not ally mydaughter to any of her old wooers; such was the universal oracle of godsand men. Overborne by love for thee, overborne by kinship of blood andmy weeping wife's complaint, I broke all fetters, I severed the maidenfrom her promised husband, I took up unrighteous arms. Since then, Turnus, thou seest what calamities, what wars pursue me, what woesthyself before all dost suffer. Twice vanquished in pitched battle, wescarce guard in our city walls the hopes of Italy: the streams of Tiberyet run warm with our blood, and our bones whiten the boundless plain. Why fall I away again and again? what madness bends my purpose? if I amready to take them into alliance after Turnus' destruction, why do I notrather bar the strife while he lives? What will thy Rutulian kinsmen, will all Italy say, if thy death--Fortune make void the word!--comes bymy betrayal, while thou suest for our daughter in marriage? Cast aglance on war's changing fortune; pity thine aged father, who now faraway sits sad in his native Ardea. '

In nowise do the words bend Turnus' passion: he rages the more fiercely, and sickens of the cure. So soon as he found speech he thus madeutterance:

'The care thou hast for me, most gracious lord, for me lay down, Iimplore thee, and let me purchase honour with death. Our hand too rainsweapons, our steel is strong; and our wounds too draw blood. The goddesshis mother will be far from him to cover his flight, woman-like, in acloud and an empty phantom's hiding. '

But the queen, dismayed by the new terms of battle, wept, and clung toher fiery son as one ready to die: [56-89]'Turnus, by these tears, byAmata's regard, if that touches thee at all--thou art now the one hope, the repose of mine unhappy age; in thine hand is Latinus' honour andempire, on thee is the weight of all our sinking house--one thing Ibeseech thee; forbear to join battle with the Teucrians. What fatesoever awaits thee in the strife thou seekest, it awaits me, Turnus, too: with thee will I leave the hateful light, nor shall my captive eyessee Aeneas my daughter's lord. ' Lavinia tearfully heard her mother'swords with cheeks all aflame, as deep blushes set her face on fire andran hotly over it. Even as Indian ivory, if one stain it with sanguinedye, or where white lilies are red with many a rose amid: such colourcame on the maiden's face. Love throws him into tumult, and stays hiscountenance on the girl: he burns fiercer for arms, and briefly answersAmata:

'Do not, I pray thee, do not weep for me, neither pursue me thusominously as I go to the stern shock of war. Turnus is not free to dallywith death. Thou, Idmon, bear my message to the Phrygian monarch in thisharsh wording: So soon as to-morrow's Dawn rises in the sky blushing onher crimson wheels, let him not loose Teucrian or Rutulian: let Teucrianand Rutulian arms have rest, and our blood decide the war; on that fieldlet Lavinia be sought in marriage. '

These words uttered, withdrawing swiftly homeward, he orders out hishorses, and rejoicingly beholds them snorting before his face: thosethat Orithyia's self gave to grace Pilumnus, such as would excel thesnows in whiteness and the gales in speed. The eager charioteers standround and pat their chests with clapping hollowed hands, and comb theirtressed manes. Himself next he girds on his shoulders the corslet stiffwith gold and pale mountain-bronze, and buckles on the sword and shieldand scarlet-plumed [90-124]helmet-spikes: that sword the divine Lord ofFire had himself forged for his father Daunus and dipped glowing in theStygian wave. Next, where it stood amid his dwelling leaning on a massypillar, he strongly seizes his stout spear, the spoil of Actor theAuruncan, and brandishes it quivering, and cries aloud: 'Now, O spearthat never hast failed at my call, now the time is come; thee princelyActor once, thee Turnus now wields in his grasp. Grant this strong handto strike down the effeminate Phrygian, to rend and shatter the corslet, and defile in dust the locks curled with hot iron and wet with myrrh. 'Thus madly he runs on: sparkles leap out from all his blazing face, andhis keen eyes flash fire: even as the bull when before his first fighthe bellows awfully, and drives against a tree's trunk to make trial ofhis angry horns, and buffets the air with blows or scatters the sand inprelude of battle. 

And therewithal Aeneas, terrible in his mother's armour, kindles forwarfare and awakes into wrath, rejoicing that offer of treaty stays thewar. Comforting his comrades and sorrowing Iülus' fear, he instructsthem of destiny, and bids bear answer of assurance to King Latinus, andname the laws of peace. 

Scarcely did the morrow shed on the mountain-tops the beams of risenday, as the horses of the sun begin to rise from the deep flood andbreathe light from their lifted nostrils; Rutulian and Teucrian menmeasured out and made ready a field of battle under the great city'sramparts, and midway in it hearth-fires and grassy altars to the gods ofboth peoples; while others bore spring water and fire, draped inpriestly dress and their brows bound with grass of the field. TheAusonian army issue forth, and crowd through the gates in streamingserried columns. On this side all the Trojan and Tyrrhenian host pour indiverse armament, girt with iron even as though the harsh battle-strife[125-158]called them forth. Therewith amid their thousands the captainsdart up and down, splendid in gold and purple, Mnestheus, seed ofAssaracus, and brave Asilas, and Messapus, tamer of horses, brood ofNeptune: then each on signal given retired to his own ground; they planttheir spears in the earth and lean their shields against them. Mothersin eager abandonment, and the unarmed crowd and feeble elders besettowers and house-roofs, or stand at the lofty gates. 

But Juno, on the summit that is now called the Alban--then the mountainhad neither name nor fame or honour--looked forth from the hill andsurveyed the plain and double lines of Laurentine and Trojan, andLatinus' town. Straightway spoke she thus to Turnus' sister, goddess togoddess, lady of pools and noisy rivers: such worship did Jupiter thehigh king of air consecrate to her for her stolen virginity:

'Nymph, grace of rivers, best beloved of our soul, thou knowest how outof all the Latin women that ever rose to high-hearted Jove's thanklessbed, thee only have I preferred and gladly given part and place inheaven. Learn thy woe, that thou blame not me for it, Juturna. Wherefortune seemed to allow and the Destinies granted Latinus' estate toprosper, I shielded Turnus and thy city. Now I see him joining battlewith unequal fates, and the day of doom and deadly force draws nigh. Mine eyes cannot look on this battle and treaty: thou, if thou darestaught of more present help for the brother of thy blood, go on; itbefits thee. Haply relief shall follow misery. '

Scarcely thus: when Juturna's eyes overbrimmed with tears, and thriceand again she smote her hand on her gracious breast. 'This is not timefor tears, ' cries Juno, daughter of Saturn: 'hasten and snatch thybrother, if it may be, from his death; or do thou waken war, and make[159-191]the treaty abortive. I encourage thee to dare. ' With suchurgence she left her, doubting and dismayed, and grievously wounded insoul. 

Meanwhile the kings go forth; Latinus in mighty pomp rides in hisfour-horse chariot; twelve gilded rays go glittering round his brows, symbol of the Sun his ancestor; Turnus moves behind a white pair, clenching in his hand two broad-headed spears. On this side lord Aeneas, fount of the Roman race, ablaze in starlike shield and celestial arms, and close by Ascanius, second hope of mighty Rome, issue from the camp;and the priest, in spotless raiment, hath brought the young of a bristlysow and an unshorn sheep of two years old, and set his beasts by theblazing altars. They, turning their eyes towards the sunrising, scattersalted corn from their hands and clip the beasts with steel over thetemples, and pour cups on the altars. Then Aeneas the good, with sworddrawn, thus makes invocation:

'Be the Sun now witness, and this Earth to my call, for whose sake Ihave borne to suffer so sore travail, and the Lord omnipotent, and thouhis wife, at last, divine daughter of Saturn, at last I pray morefavourable; and thou, mighty Mavors, who wieldest all warfare inlordship beneath thy sway; and on the Springs and Rivers I call, and theDread of high heaven, and the divinities of the blue seas: if haplyvictory fall to Turnus the Ausonian, the vanquished make covenant towithdraw to Evander's city; Iülus shall quit the soil; nor everhereafter shall the Aeneadae return in arms to renew warfare, or attackthis realm with the sword. But if Victory grant battle to us and ours(as I think the rather, and so the rather may the gods seal their will), I will not bid Italy obey my Teucrians, nor do I claim the realm formine; let both nations, unconquered, join treaty for ever under equallaw. Gods [192-225]and worship shall be of my giving: my father Latinusshall bear the sword, and have a father's prescribed command. For me myTeucrians shall establish a city, and Lavinia give the town her name. '

Thus Aeneas first: thereon Latinus thus follows:

'By these same I swear, O Aeneas, by Earth, Sea, Sky, and the twin broodof Latona and Janus the double-facing, and the might of nether gods andgrim Pluto's shrine; this let our Father hear, who seals treaties withhis thunderbolt. I touch the altars, I take to witness the fires and thegods between us; no time shall break this peace and truce in Italy, howsoever fortune fall; nor shall any force turn my will aside, not ifit dissolve land into water in turmoil of deluge, or melt heaven inhell: so surely as this sceptre' (for haply he bore a sceptre in hishand) 'shall never burgeon into thin leafage and shady shoot, since oncein the forest cut down right to the stem it lost its mother, and thesteel lopped away its tressed arms: a tree of old: now the craftsman'shand hath bound it in adornment of brass and given it to our Latinfathers' bearing. '

With such words they sealed mutual treaty midway in sight of theprinces. Then they duly slay the consecrated beasts over the flames, andtear out their live entrails, and pile the altars with laden chargers. 

But long ere this the Rutulians deemed the battle unequal, and theirhearts are stirred in changeful motion; and now the more, as theydiscern nigher that in ill-matched strength . . . . Heightened byTurnus, as advancing with noiseless pace he humbly worships at the altarwith downcast eye, by his wasted cheeks and the pallor on his youthfulframe. Soon as Juturna his sister saw this talk spread, and the people'smind waver in uncertainty, into the mid ranks, in feigned form ofCamertus--his family was high in long ancestry, and his father's name[226-260]for valour renowned, and himself most valiant in arms--intothe mid ranks she glides, not ignorant of her task, and scatters diverserumours, saying thus: 'Shame, O Rutulians! shall we set one life in thebreach for so many such as these? are we unequal in numbers or bravery?See, Troy and Arcadia is all they bring, and those fate-bound bands thatEtruria hurls on Turnus. Scarce is there an enemy to meet every otherman of ours. He indeed will ascend to the gods for whose altars hedevotes himself, and move living in the lips of men: we, our countrylost, shall bow to the haughty rigour of our lords, if we now sitslackly on the field. '

By such words the soldiers' counsel was kindled yet higher and higher, and a murmur crept through their columns; the very Laurentines, the veryLatins are changed; and they who but now hoped for rest from battle andrescue of fortune now desire arms and pray the treaty were undone, andpity Turnus' cruel lot. To this Juturna adds a yet stronger impulse, andhigh in heaven shews a sign more potent than any to confuse Italiansouls with delusive augury. For on the crimsoned sky Jove's tawny birdflew chasing, in a screaming crowd, fowl of the shore that winged theircolumn; then suddenly stooping to the water, pounces on a noble swanwith merciless crooked talons. The startled Italians watch, while allthe birds together clamorously wheel round from flight, wonderful tosee, and dim the sky with their pinions, and in thickening cloud urgetheir foe through air, till, conquered by their attack and his heavyprey, he yielded and dropped it from his talons into the river, andwinged his way deep into the clouds. Then indeed the Rutuliansclamorously greet the omen, and their hands flash out. And Tolumnius theaugur cries before them all: 'This it was, this, that my vows often havesought; I welcome and know a deity; [261-294]follow me, follow, snatchup the sword, O hapless people whom the greedy alien frightens with hisarms like silly birds, and with strong hand ravages your shores. He toowill take to flight, and spread his sails afar over ocean. Do you withone heart close up your squadrons, and defend in battle your lost king. 'He spoke, and darting forward, hurled a weapon full on the enemy; thewhistling cornel-shaft sings, and unerringly cleaves the air. At onceand with it a vast shout goes up, and all their rows are amazed, andtheir hearts hotly stirred. The spear flies on; where haply stoodopposite in ninefold brotherhood all the beautiful sons of one faithfulTyrrhene wife, borne of her to Gylippus the Arcadian, one of them, midway where the sewn belt rubs on the flank and the clasp bites thefastenings of the side, one of them, excellent in beauty and glitteringin arms, it pierces clean through the ribs and stretches on the yellowsand. But of his banded brethren, their courage fired by grief, somegrasp and draw their swords, some snatch weapons to throw, and rushblindly forward. The Laurentine columns rush forth against them; againfrom the other side Trojans and Agyllines and Arcadians in paintedarmour flood thickly in: so hath one passion seized all to make decisionby the sword. They pull the altars to pieces; through all the air goes athick storm of weapons, and faster falls the iron rain. Bowls andhearth-fires are carried off; Latinus himself retreats, bearing theoutraged gods of the broken treaty. The others harness their chariots, or vault upon their horses and come up with swords drawn. Messapus, eager to shatter the treaty, rides menacingly down on Aulestes theTyrrhenian, a king in a king's array. Retreating hastily, and tripped onthe altars that meet him behind, the hapless man goes down on his headand shoulders. But Messapus flies up with wrathful spear, and strikeshim, as he pleads sore, a deep downward [295-330]blow from horsebackwith his beam-like spear, saying thus: _That for him: the high gods takethis better victim. _ The Italians crowd in and strip his warm limbs. Corynaeus seizes a charred brand from the altar, and meeting Ebysus ashe advances to strike, darts the flame in his face; his heavy beardflamed up, and gave out a scorched smell. Following up his enemy'sconfusion, the other seizes him with his left hand by the hair, andbears him to earth with a thrust of his planted knee, and there drivesthe unyielding sword into his side. Podalirius pursues and overhangswith naked sword the shepherd Alsus as he rushes amid the foremost lineof weapons; Alsus swings back his axe, and severs brow and chin full infront, wetting his armour all over with spattered blood. Grim rest andiron slumber seal his eyes; his lids close on everlasting night. 

But good Aeneas, his head bared, kept stretching his unarmed hand andcalling loudly to his men: 'Whither run you? What is this strife that sospreads and swells? Ah, restrain your wrath! truce is already stricken, and all its laws ordained; mine alone is the right of battle. Leave mealone, and my hand shall confirm the treaty; these rites already makeTurnus mine. ' Amid these accents, amid words like these, lo! a whistlingarrow winged its way to him, sped from what hand or driven by what god, none knows, or what chance or deity brought such honour to theRutulians; the renown of the high deed was buried, nor did any boast tohave dealt Aeneas' wound. Turnus, when he saw Aeneas retreating from theranks and his captains in dismay, burns hot with sudden hope. At once hecalls for his horses and armour, and with a bound leaps proudly into hischariot and handles the reins. He darts on, dealing many a brave man'sbody to death; many an one he rolls half-slain, or crushes whole filesunder his chariot, or seizes and showers spears on the fugitives. As[331-364]when by the streams of icy Hebrus Mavors kindles to bloodshedand clashes on his shield, and stirs war and speeds his furiouscoursers; they outwing south winds and west on the open plain; utmostThrace groans under their hoof-beats; and around in the god's train rushthe faces of dark Terror, and Wraths and Ambushes; even so amid thebattle Turnus briskly lashes on his reeking horses, trampling on thefoes that lie piteously slain; the galloping hoof scatters bloody dew, and spurns mingled gore and sand. And now hath he dealt Sthenelus todeath, and Thamyrus and Pholus, him and him at close quarters, the otherfrom afar; from afar both the sons of Imbrasus, Glaucus and Lades, whomImbrasus himself had nurtured in Lycia and equipped in equal arms, whether to meet hand to hand or to outstrip the winds on horseback. Elsewhere Eumedes advances amid the fray, ancient Dolon's brood, illustrious in war, renewing his grandfather's name, his father'scourage and strength of hand, who of old dared to claim Pelides' chariotas his price if he went to spy out the Grecian camp; to him the son ofTydeus told out another price for his venture, and he dreams no more ofAchilles' horses. Him Turnus descried far on the open plain, and firstfollowing him with light javelin through long space of air, stops hisdouble-harnessed horses and leaps from the chariot, and descends on hisfallen half-lifeless foe, and, planting his foot on his neck, wrests theblade out of his hand and dyes its glitter deep in his throat, addingthese words withal: 'Behold, thou liest, Trojan, meting out thoseHesperian fields thou didst seek in war. Such guerdon is theirs who dareto tempt my sword; thus do they found their city. ' Then with aspear-cast he sends Asbutes to follow him, and Chloreus and Sybaris, Dares and Thersilochus, and Thymoetes fallen flung over his horse'sneck. And as when [365-398]the Edonian North wind's wrath roars on thedeep Aegean, and the wave follows it shoreward; where the blast comesdown, the clouds race over the sky; so, wheresoever Turnus cleaves hisway, columns retreat and lines turn and run; his own speed bears him on, and his flying plume tosses as his chariot meets the breeze. Phegeusbrooked not his proud approach; he faced the chariot, and caught andtwisted away in his right hand the mouths of his horses, spurred intospeed and foaming on the bit. Dragged along and hanging by the yoke heis left uncovered; the broad lance-head reaches him, pins and piercesthe double-woven breastplate, and lightly wounds the surface of hisbody. Yet turning, he advanced on the enemy behind his shield, andsought succour in the naked point; when the wheel running forward on itsswift axle struck him headlong and flung him to ground, and Turnus'sword following it smote off his head between the helmet-rim and theupper border of the breastplate, and left the body on the sand. 

And while Turnus thus victoriously deals death over the plains, Mnestheus meantime and faithful Achates, and Ascanius by their side, setdown Aeneas in the camp, dabbled with blood and leaning every other stepon his long spear. He storms, and tries hard to pull out the dart wherethe reed had broken, and calls for the nearest way of remedy, to cutopen the wound with broad blade, and tear apart the weapon'slurking-place, and so send him back to battle. And now Iapix son ofIasus came, beloved beyond others of Phoebus, to whom once of old, smitten with sharp desire, Apollo gladly offered his own arts and gifts, augury and the lyre and swift arrows: he, to lengthen out the destiny ofa parent given over to die, chose rather to know the potency of herbsand the practice of healing, and deal in a silent art unrenowned. Aeneasstood chafing bitterly, propped on his vast spear, mourning[399-435]Iülus and a great crowd of men around, unstirred by theirtears. The aged man, with garment drawn back and girt about him inPaeonian fashion, makes many a hurried effort with healing hand and thepotent herbs of Phoebus, all in vain; in vain his hand solicits thearrow-head, and his pincers' grasp pulls at the steel. Fortune leads himforward in nowise; Apollo aids not with counsel; and more and more thefierce clash swells over the plains, and the havoc draws nigher on. Already they see the sky a mass of dust, the cavalry approaching, andshafts falling thickly amid the camp; the dismal cry uprises of warriorsfighting and falling under the War-god's heavy hand. At this, stirreddeep by her son's cruel pain, Venus his mother plucked from Cretan Ida astalk of dittamy with downy leaves and bright-tressed flowers, the plantnot unknown to wild goats when winged arrows are fast in their body. This Venus bore down, her shape girt in a dim halo; this she steeps withsecret healing in the river-water poured out and sparkling abrim, andsprinkles life-giving juice of ambrosia and scented balm. With thatwater aged Iapix washed the wound, unwitting; and suddenly, lo! all thepain left his body, all the blood in the deep wound was stanched. Andnow following his hand the arrow fell out with no force, and strengthreturned afresh as of old. 'Hasten! arms for him quickly! why standyou?' cries Iapix aloud, and begins to kindle their courage against theenemy; 'this comes not by human resource or schooling of art, nor doesmy hand save thee, Aeneas: a higher god is at work, and sends thee backto higher deeds. ' He, eager for battle, had already clasped on thegreaves of gold right and left, and scorning delay, brandishes hisspear. When the shield is adjusted by his side and the corslet on hisback, he clasps Ascanius in his armed embrace, and lightly kissing himthrough the helmet, cries: 'Learn of me, O boy, valour [436-470]andtoil indeed, fortune of others. Now mine hand shall give thee defence inwar, and lead thee to great reward: do thou, when hereafter thine ageripens to fulness, keep this in remembrance, and as thou recallest thepattern of thy kindred, let thy spirit rise to thy father Aeneas, thineuncle Hector. '

These words uttered, he issued towering from the gates, brandishing hismighty spear: with him in serried column rush Antheus and Mnestheus, andall the throng streams forth of the camp. The field drifts with blindingdust, and the startled earth trembles under the tramp of feet. From hisearthworks opposite Turnus saw and the Ausonians saw them come, and anicy shudder ran deep through their frame; first and before all theLatins Juturna heard and knew the sound, and in terror fled away. Heflies on, and hurries his dark column over the open plain. As when infierce weather a storm-cloud moves over mid sea to land, with presagingheart, ah me, the hapless husbandmen shudder from afar; it will dealhavoc to their trees and destruction to their crops, and make a broadpath of ruin; the winds fly before it, and bear its roar to the beach;so the Rhoetean captain drives his army full on the foe; one and allthey close up in wedges, and mass their serried ranks. Thymbraeus smitesmassive Osiris with the sword, Mnestheus slays Arcetius, Achates Epulo, Gyas Ufens: Tolumnius the augur himself goes down, he who had hurled thefirst weapon against the foe. Their cry rises to heaven, and in turn therouted Rutulians give backward in flight over the dusty fields. Himselfhe deigns not to cut down the fugitives, nor pursue such as meet himfair on foot or approach in arms: Turnus alone he tracks and searches inthe thick haze, alone calls him to conflict. Then panic-stricken thewarrior maiden flings Turnus' charioteer out over his reins, and leavinghim far where he slips from the [471-504]chariot-pole, herself succeedsand turns the wavy reins, tones and limbs and armour all of Metiscus'wearing. As when a black swallow flits through some rich lord's spacioushouse, and circles in flight the lofty halls, gathering her tiny foodfor sustenance to her twittering nestlings, and now swoops down thespacious colonnades, now round the wet ponds; in like wise dartJuturna's horses amid the enemy, and her fleet chariot passes flyingover all the field. And now here and now here she displays hertriumphant brother, nor yet allows him to close, but flies far and away. None the less does Aeneas thread the circling maze to meet him, andtracks his man, and with loud cry cries on him through the scatteredranks. Often as he cast eyes on his enemy and essayed to outrun thespeed of the flying-footed horses, so often Juturna wheeled her teamaway. Alas, what can he do? Vainly he tosses on the ebb and flow, and inhis spirit diverse cares make conflicting call; when Messapus, who haplybore in his left hand two tough spear-shafts topped with steel, runslightly up and aims and hurls one of them upon him with unerring stroke. Aeneas stood still, and gathered himself behind his armour, sinking onbended knee; yet the rushing spear bore off his helmet-spike, and dashedthe helmet-plume from the crest. Then indeed his wrath swells; andforced to it by their treachery, while chariot and horses disappear, hecalls Jove oft and again to witness, and the altars of the violatedtreaty, and now at last plunges amid their lines. Sweeping terrible downthe tide of battle he wakens fierce indiscriminate carnage, and flingsloose all the reins of wrath. 

What god may now unfold for me in verse so many woes, so many diverseslaughters and death of captains whom now Turnus, now again the Trojanhero, drives over all the field? Was it well, O God, that nationsdestined to everlasting peace should clash in so vast a shock? Aeneas[505-540]meets Sucro the Rutulian; the combat stayed the first rush ofthe Teucrians, but delayed them not long; he catches him on the side, and, when fate comes quickest, drives the harsh sword clean through theribs where they fence the breast. Turnus brings down Amycus fromhorseback with his brother Diores, and meets them on foot; him hestrikes with his long spear as he comes, him with his sword-point, andhangs both severed heads on his chariot and carries them off drippingwith blood. The one sends to death Talos and Tanaïs and brave Cethegus, three at one meeting, and gloomy Onites, of Echionian name, and Peridiathe mother that bore him; the other those brethren sent from Lycia andApollo's fields, and Menoetes the Arcadian, him who loathed warfare invain; who once had his art and humble home about the river-fisheries ofLerna, and knew not the courts of the great, but his father was tenantof the land he tilled. And as fires kindled dispersedly in a dry forestand rustling laurel-thickets, or foaming rivers where they leap swiftand loud from high hills, and speed to sea each in his own path ofhavoc; as fiercely the two, Aeneas and Turnus, dash amid the battle;now, now wrath surges within them, and unconquerable hearts are torn;now in all their might they rush upon wounds. The one dashes Murranusdown and stretches him on the soil with a vast whirling mass of rock, ashe cries the names of his fathers and forefathers of old, a whole linedrawn through Latin kings; under traces and yoke the wheels spurned him, and the fast-beating hoofs of his rushing horses trample down theirforgotten lord. The other meets Hyllus rushing on in gigantic pride, andhurls his weapon at his gold-bound temples; the spear pierced throughthe helmet and stood fast in the brain. Neither did thy right hand savethee from Turnus, O Cretheus, bravest of the Greeks; nor did his godsshield Cupencus when Aeneas came; he gave his [541-575]breast full tothe steel, nor, alas! was the brazen shield's delay aught of avail. Theelikewise, Aeolus, the Laurentine plains saw sink backward and cover awide space of earth; thou fallest, whom Argive battalions could not laylow, nor Achilles the destroyer of Priam's realm. Here was thy goal ofdeath; thine high house was under Ida, at Lyrnesus thine high house, onLaurentine soil thy tomb. The whole battle-lines gather up, all Latiumand all Dardania, Mnestheus and valiant Serestus, with Messapus, tamerof horses, and brave Asilas, the Tuscan battalion and Evander's Arcadiansquadrons; man by man they struggle with all their might; no rest norpause in the vast strain of conflict. 

At this Aeneas' mother most beautiful inspired him to advance on thewalls, directing his columns on the town and dismaying the Latins withsudden and swift disaster. As in search for Turnus he bent his glancethis way and that round the separate ranks, he descries the city freefrom all this warfare, unpunished and unstirred. Straightway he kindlesat the view of a greater battle; he summons Mnestheus and Sergestus andbrave Serestus his captains, and mounts a hillock; there the rest of theTeucrian army gathers thickly, still grasping shield and spear. Standingon the high mound amid them, he speaks: 'Be there no delay to my words;Jupiter is with us; neither let any be slower to move that the design issudden. This city to-day, the source of war, the royal seat of Latinus, unless they yield them to receive our yoke and obey their conquerors, will I raze to ground, and lay her smoking roofs level with the dust. Must I wait forsooth till Turnus please to stoop to combat, and chooseagain to face his conqueror? This, O citizens, is the fountain-head andcrown of the accursed war. Bring brands speedily, and reclaim the treatyin fire. ' He ended; all with spirit alike emulous form a wedge andadvance in serried masses to the walls. Ladders are run [576-611]up, and fire leaps sudden to sight. Some rush to the separate gates, and cutdown the guards of the entry, others hurl their steel and darken the skywith weapons. Aeneas himself among the foremost, upstretching his handto the city walls, loudly reproaches Latinus, and takes the gods towitness that he is again forced into battle, that twice now do theItalians choose warfare and break a second treaty. Discord rises amongthe alarmed citizens: some bid unbar the town and fling wide their gatesto the Dardanians, and pull the king himself towards the ramparts;others bring arms and hasten to defend the walls: as when a shepherdtracks bees to their retreat in a recessed rock, and fills it withstinging smoke, they within run uneasily up and down their waxenfortress, and hum louder in rising wrath; the smell rolls in darknessalong their dwelling, and a blind murmur echoes within the rock as thesmoke issues to the empty air. 

This fortune likewise befell the despairing Latins, this woe shook thewhole city to her base. The queen espies from her roof the enemy'sapproach, the walls scaled and firebrands flying on the houses; andnowhere Rutulian ranks, none of Turnus' columns to meet them; alas! shedeems him destroyed in the shock of battle, and, distracted by suddenanguish, shrieks that she is the source of guilt, the spring of ill, andwith many a mad utterance of frenzied grief rends her purple attire withdying hand, and ties from a lofty beam the ghastly noose of death. Andwhen the unhappy Latin women knew this calamity, first her daughterLavinia tears her flower-like tresses and roseate cheeks, and all thetrain around her madden in her suit; the wide palace echoes to theirwailing, and from it the sorrowful rumour spreads abroad throughout thetown. All hearts sink; Latinus goes with torn raiment, in dismay at hiswife's doom and his city's downfall, defiling his hoary hair withsoilure of sprinkled dust. 

[614-648]Meanwhile on the skirts of the field Turnus chases scatteredstragglers, ever slacker to battle, ever less and less exultant in hiscoursers' victorious speed. The confused cry came to him borne in blindterror down the breeze, and his startled ears caught the echoing tumultand disastrous murmur of the town. 'Ah me! what agony shakes the city?or what is this cry that fleets so loud from the distant town?' Sospeaks he, and distractedly checks the reins. And to him his sister, aschanged into his charioteer Metiscus' likeness she swayed horses andchariot-reins, thus rejoined: 'This way, Turnus, let us pursue the broodof Troy, where victory opens her nearest way; there are others whosehands can protect their dwellings. Aeneas falls fiercer on the Italians, and closes in conflict; let our hand too deal pitiless death on hisTeucrians. Neither in tale of dead nor in glory of battle shalt thouretire outdone. ' Thereat Turnus: . . . 

'Ah my sister, long ere now I knew thee, when first thine arts shatteredthe treaty, and thou didst mingle in the strife; and now thy godheadconceals itself in vain. But who hath bidden thee descend from heaven tobear this sore travail? was it that thou mightest see thy haplessbrother cruelly slain? for what do I, or what fortune yet gives promiseof safety? Before my very eyes, calling aloud on me, I saw Murranus, than whom none other is left me more dear, sink huge to earth, bornedown by as huge a wound. Hapless Ufens is fallen, not to see our shame;corpse and armour are in Teucrian hands. The destruction of theirhouseholds, this was the one thing yet lacking; shall I suffer it? Shallmy hand not refute Drances' jeers? shall I turn my back, and this landsee Turnus a fugitive? Is Death all so bitter? Do you, O Shades, begracious to me, since the powers of heaven are estranged; to you shall Igo down, a pure spirit and [649-681]ignorant of your blame, never onceunworthy of my mighty fathers of old. '

Scarce had he spoken thus; lo! Saces, borne flying on his foaming horsethrough the thickest of the foe, an arrow-wound right in his face, darts, beseeching Turnus by his name. 'Turnus, in thee is our lastsafety; pity thy people. Aeneas thunders in arms, and threatens tooverthrow and hurl to destruction the high Italian fortress; and alreadyfirebrands are flying on our roofs. On thee, on thee the Latins turntheir gazing eyes; King Latinus himself mutters in doubt, whom he is tocall his sons, to whom he shall incline in union. Moreover the queen, thy surest stay, hath fallen by her own hand and in dismay fled thelight. Alone in front of the gates Messapus and valiant Atinas sustainthe battle-line. Round about them to right and left the armies standlocked and the iron field shivers with naked points; thou wheelest thychariot on the sward alone. ' At the distracting picture of his fortuneTurnus froze in horror and stood in dumb gaze; together in his heartsweep the vast mingling tides of shame and maddened grief, and lovestung to frenzy and resolved valour. So soon as the darkness cleared andlight returned to his soul, he fiercely turned his blazing eyeballstowards the ramparts, and gazed back from his wheels on the great city. And lo! a spire of flame wreathing through the floors wavered up skywardand held a turret fast, a turret that he himself had reared of mortisedplanks and set on rollers and laid with high gangways. 'Now, O mysister, now fate prevails: cease to hinder; let us follow where deityand stern fortune call. I am resolved to face Aeneas, resolved to bearwhat bitterness there is in death; nor shalt thou longer see me shamed, sister of mine. Let me be mad, I pray thee, with this madness before theend. ' He spoke, and leapt swiftly from his chariot to the field, anddarting through weapons [682-718]and through enemies, leaves hissorrowing sister, and bursts in rapid course amid their columns. And aswhen a rock rushes headlong from some mountain peak, torn away by theblast, or if the rushing rain washes it away, or the stealing yearsloosen its ancient hold; the reckless mountain mass goes sheer andimpetuous, and leaps along the ground, hurling with it forests and herdsand men; thus through the scattering columns Turnus rushes to the citywalls, where the earth is wettest with bloodshed and the air sings withspears; and beckons with his hand, and thus begins aloud: 'Forbear now, O Rutulians, and you, Latins, stay your weapons. Whatsoever fortune isleft is mine: I singly must expiate the treaty for you all, and makedecision with the sword. ' All drew aside and left him room. 

But lord Aeneas, hearing Turnus' name, abandons the walls, abandons thefortress height, and in exultant joy flings aside all hindrance, breaksoff all work, and clashes his armour terribly, vast as Athos, or asEryx, or as the lord of Apennine when he roars with his tossing ilexwoods and rears his snowy crest rejoicing into air. Now indeed Rutuliansand Trojans and all Italy turned in emulous gaze, and they who held thehigh city, and they whose ram was battering the foundations of the wall, and unarmed their shoulders. Latinus himself stands in amaze at themighty men, born in distant quarters of the world, met and makingdecision with the sword. And they, in the empty level field that clearedfor them, darted swiftly forward, and hurling their spears from far, close in battle shock with clangour of brazen shields. Earth utters amoan; the sword-strokes fall thick and fast, chance and valour joiningin one. And as in broad Sila or high on Taburnus, when two bulls rush todeadly battle forehead to forehead, the herdsmen retire in terror, allthe herd stands dumb in dismay, and the heifers murmur in doubt whichshall be [719-752]lord in the woodland, which all the cattle mustfollow; they violently deal many a mutual wound, and gore with theirstubborn horns, bathing their necks and shoulders in abundant blood; allthe woodland moans back their bellowing: even thus Aeneas of Troy andthe Daunian hero rush together shield to shield; the mighty crash fillsthe sky. Jupiter himself holds up the two scales in even balance, andlays in them the different fates of both, trying which shall pay forfeitof the strife, whose weight shall sink in death. Turnus darts out, thinking it secure, and rises with his whole reach of body on hisuplifted sword; then strikes; Trojans and Latins cry out in excitement, and both armies strain their gaze. But the treacherous sword shivers, and in mid stroke deserts its eager lord. If flight aid him not now! Heflies swifter than the wind, when once he descries a strange hilt in hisweaponless hand. Rumour is that in his headlong hurry, when mountingbehind his yoked horses to begin the battle, he left his father's swordbehind and caught up his charioteer Metiscus' weapon; and that servedhim long, while Teucrian stragglers turned their backs; when it met thedivine Vulcanian armour, the mortal blade like brittle ice snapped inthe stroke; the shards lie glittering upon the yellow sand. So indistracted flight Turnus darts afar over the plain, and now this way andnow that crosses in wavering circles; for on all hands the Teucrianslocked him in crowded ring, and the dreary marsh on this side, on thisthe steep city ramparts hem him in. 

Therewith Aeneas pursues, though ever and anon his knees, disabled bythe arrow, hinder and stay his speed; and foot hard on foot presseshotly on his hurrying enemy: as when a hunter courses with a fleetbarking hound some stag caught in a river-loop or girt by thecrimson-feathered toils, and he, in terror of the snares and the highriver-bank, [753-786]darts back and forward in a thousand ways; but thekeen Umbrian clings agape, and just catches at him, and as though hecaught him snaps his jaws while the baffled teeth close on vacancy. Thenindeed a cry goes up, and banks and pools answer round about, and allthe sky echoes the din. He, even as he flies, chides all his Rutulians, calling each by name, and shrieks for the sword he knew. But Aeneasdenounces death and instant doom if one of them draw nigh, and doublestheir terror with threats of their city's destruction, and thoughwounded presses on. Five circles they cover at full speed, and unwind asmany this way and that; for not light nor slight is the prize they seek, but Turnus' very lifeblood is at issue. Here there haply had stood abitter-leaved wild olive, sacred to Faunus, a tree worshipped bymariners of old; on it, when rescued from the waves, they were wont tofix their gifts to the god of Laurentum and hang their votive raiment;but the Teucrians, unregarding, had cleared away the sacred stem, thatthey might meet on unimpeded lists. Here stood Aeneas' spear; hitherborne by its own speed it was held fast stuck in the tough root. TheDardanian stooped over it, and would wrench away the steel, to followwith the weapon him whom he could not catch in running. Then indeedTurnus cries in frantic terror: 'Faunus, have pity, I beseech thee! andthou, most gracious Earth, keep thy hold on the steel, as I ever havekept your worship, and the Aeneadae again have polluted it in war. ' Hespoke, and called the god to aid in vows that fell not fruitless. Forall Aeneas' strength, his long struggling and delay over the tough stemavailed not to unclose the hard grip of the wood. While he strains andpulls hard, the Daunian goddess, changing once more into the charioteerMetiscus' likeness, runs forward and passes her brother his sword. ButVenus, indignant that the [787-818]Nymph might be so bold, drew nighand wrenched away the spear where it stuck deep in the root. Erect infresh courage and arms, he with his faithful sword, he towering fierceover his spear, they face one another panting in the battle shock. 

Meanwhile the King of Heaven's omnipotence accosts Juno as she gazes onthe battle from a sunlit cloud. 'What yet shall be the end, O wife? whatremains at the last? Heaven claims Aeneas as his country's god, thouthyself knowest and avowest to know, and fate lifts him to the stars. With what device or in what hope hangest thou chill in cloudland? Was itwell that a deity should be sullied by a mortal's wound? or that thelost sword--for what without thee could Juturna avail?--should berestored to Turnus and swell the force of the vanquished? Forbear now, Ipray, and bend to our entreaties; let not the pain thus devour thee insilence, and distress so often flood back on me from thy sweet lips. Theend is come. Thou hast had power to hunt the Trojans over land or wave, to kindle accursed war, to put the house in mourning, and plunge thebridal in grief: further attempt I forbid thee. ' Thus Jupiter began:thus the goddess, daughter of Saturn, returned with looks cast down:

'Even because this thy will, great Jupiter, is known to me for thine, have I left, though loth, Turnus alone on earth; nor else wouldst thousee me now, alone on this skyey seat, enduring good and bad; but girt inflame I were standing by their very lines, and dragging the Teucriansinto the deadly battle. I counselled Juturna, I confess it, to succourher hapless brother, and for his life's sake favoured a greater daring;yet not the arrow-shot, not the bending of the bow, I swear by themerciless well-head of the Stygian spring, the single ordained dread ofthe gods in heaven. And now I retire, and leave the battle in loathing. [819-854]This thing I beseech thee, that is bound by no fatal law, forLatium and for the majesty of thy kindred. When now they shall plightpeace with prosperous marriages (be it so!), when now they shall join inlaws and treaties, bid thou not the native Latins change their name ofold, nor become Trojans and take the Teucrian name, or change theirlanguage, or alter their attire: let Latium be, let Alban kings endurethrough ages, let Italian valour be potent in the race of Rome. Troy isfallen; let her and her name lie where they fell. '

To her smilingly the designer of men and things:

'Jove's own sister thou art, and second seed of Saturn, such surge ofwrath tosses within thy breast! But come, allay this madness so vainlystirred. I give thee thy will, and yield thee ungrudged victory. Ausoniashall keep her native speech and usage, and as her name is, it shall be. The Trojans shall sink mingling into their blood; I will add theirsacred law and ritual, and make all Latins and of a single speech. Henceshall spring a race of tempered Ausonian blood, whom thou shalt seeoutdo men and gods in duty; nor shall any nation so observe thyworship. ' To this Juno assented, and in gladness withdrew her purpose;meanwhile she quits her cloud, and retires out of the sky. 

This done, the Father revolves inly another counsel, and prepares toseparate Juturna from her brother's arms. Twin monsters there are, called the Dirae by their name, whom with infernal Megaera the dead ofnight bore at one single birth, and wreathed them in like serpent coils, and clothed them in windy wings. They appear at Jove's throne and in thecourts of the grim king, and quicken the terrors of wretched menwhensoever the lord of heaven deals sicknesses and dreadful death, orsends terror of war upon guilty cities. One of these Jupiter sentswiftly down from heaven's height, and bade her meet Juturna for a[855-888]sign. She wings her way, and darts in a whirlwind to earth. Even as an arrow through a cloud, darting from the string when Parthianhath poisoned it with bitter gall, Parthian or Cydonian, and sped theimmedicable shaft, leaps through the swift shadow whistling and unknown;so sprung and swept to earth the daughter of Night. When she espies theIlian ranks and Turnus' columns, suddenly shrinking to the shape of asmall bird that often sits late by night on tombs or ruinous roofs, andvexes the darkness with her cry, in such change of likeness the monstershrilly passes and repasses before Turnus' face, and her wings beatrestlessly on his shield. A strange numbing terror unnerves his limbs, his hair thrills up, and the accents falter on his tongue. But when hishapless sister knew afar the whistling wings of the Fury, Juturnaunbinds and tears her tresses, with rent face and smitten bosom. 'How, OTurnus, can thine own sister help thee now? or what more is there if Ibreak not under this? What art of mine can lengthen out thy day? can Icontend with this ominous thing? Now, now I quit the field. Dismay notmy terrors, disastrous birds; I know these beating wings, and the soundof death, nor do I miss high-hearted Jove's haughty ordinance. Is thishis repayment for my maidenhood? what good is his gift of life for ever?why have I forfeited a mortal's lot? Now assuredly could I make all thispain cease, and go with my unhappy brother side by side into the dark. Alas mine immortality! will aught of mine be sweet to me without thee, my brother? Ah, how may Earth yawn deep enough for me, and plunge mygodhead in the under world!'

So spoke she, and wrapping her head in her gray vesture, the goddessmoaning sore sank in the river depth. 

But Aeneas presses on, brandishing his vast tree-like spear, andfiercely speaks thus: 'What more delay is there [889-924]now? or why, Turnus, dost thou yet shrink away? Not in speed of foot, in grim arms, hand to hand, must be the conflict. Transform thyself as thou wilt, andcollect what strength of courage or skill is thine; pray that thoumayest wing thy flight to the stars on high, or that sheltering earthmay shut thee in. ' The other, shaking his head: 'Thy fierce words dismayme not, insolent! the gods dismay me, and Jupiter's enmity. ' And no moresaid, his eyes light on a vast stone, a stone ancient and vast thathaply lay upon the plain, set for a landmark to divide contested fields:scarcely might twelve chosen men lift it on their shoulders, of suchframe as now earth brings to birth: then the hero caught it up withtrembling hand and whirled it at the foe, rising higher and quickeninghis speed. But he knows not his own self running nor going nor liftinghis hands or moving the mighty stone; his knees totter, his bloodfreezes cold; the very stone he hurls, spinning through the empty void, neither wholly reached its distance nor carried its blow home. And as insleep, when nightly rest weighs down our languorous eyes, we seem vainlyto will to run eagerly on, and sink faint amidst our struggles; thetongue is powerless, the familiar strength fails the body, nor willwords or utterance follow: so the disastrous goddess brings to naughtall Turnus' valour as he presses on. His heart wavers in shiftingemotion; he gazes on his Rutulians and on the city, and falters interror, and shudders at the imminent spear; neither sees he whither hemay escape nor how rush violently on the enemy, and nowhere his chariotor his sister at the reins. As he wavers Aeneas poises the deadlyweapon, and, marking his chance, hurls it in from afar with all hisstrength of body. Never with such a roar are stones hurled from someengine on ramparts, nor does the thunder burst in so loud a peal. Carrying grim death with it, the spear flies in fashion of some darkwhirlwind, and [925-952]opens the rim of the corslet and the utmostcircles of the sevenfold shield. Right through the thigh it passeshurtling on; under the blow Turnus falls huge to earth with his legdoubled under him. The Rutulians start up with a groan, and all the hillechoes round about, and the width of high woodland returns their cry. Lifting up beseechingly his humbled eyes and suppliant hand: 'I havedeserved it, ' he says, 'nor do I ask for mercy; use thy fortune. If anunhappy parent's distress may at all touch thee, this I pray; even sucha father was Anchises to thee; pity Daunus' old age, and restore to mykindred which thou wilt, me or my body bereft of day. Thou artconqueror, and Ausonia hath seen me stretch conquered hands. Lavinia isthine in marriage; press not thy hatred farther. '

Aeneas stood wrathful in arms, with rolling eyes, and lowered his hand;and now and now yet more the speech began to bend him to waver: whenhigh on his shoulder appeared the sword-belt with the shining bossesthat he knew, the luckless belt of the boy Pallas, whom Turnus hadstruck down with mastering wound, and wore on his shoulders the fatalornament. The other, as his eyes drank in the plundered record of hisfierce grief, kindles to fury, and cries terrible in anger: 'Mayestthou, thou clad in the spoils of my dearest, escape mine hands? Pallasit is, Pallas who now strikes the sacrifice, and exacts vengeance in thyguilty blood. ' So saying, he fiercely plunges the steel full in hisbreast. But his limbs grow slack and chill, and the life with a moanflies indignantly into the dark. 

THE END. 

NOTES

BOOK FIRST

l. 123--_Accipiunt inimicum imbrem. _ Inimica non tantum hostilia sedperniciosa. --Serv. On ix. 315. The word often has this latter sense inVirgil. 

l. 396--_Aut capere aut captas iam despectare videntur. _ Henry seemsunquestionably right in explaining _captas despectare_ of the swansrising and hovering over the place where they had settled, this actionbeing more fully expressed in the next two lines. The parallelismbetween ll. 396 and 400 exists, but it is inverted, _capere_corresponding to _subit_, _captas despectare_ to _tenet_. 

l. 427--_lata theatris_ with the balance of MS. Authority. 

l. 550--_Arvaque_ after Med. And Pal. ; _armaque_ Con. 

l. 636--_Munera laetitiamque die_ ('ut multi legunt, ' says Serv. ), though it has little MS. Authority, has been adopted because it isstrongly probable on internal grounds, as giving a basis for the othertwo readings, _dei_ and _dii_. 

l. 722--_The long-since-unstirred spirit. _

 And weep afresh love's long-since-cancell'd woe. SHAKESPEARE, Sonnet XXX. 

l. 726--_dependent lychni laquearibus aureis. _ Serv. On viii. 25, _summique ferit laquearia tecti_, says 'multi lacuaria legunt. Nam lacusdicuntur: unde est . . . Lacunar. Non enim a laqueis dicitur. ' As Prof. Nettleship has pointed out, this seems to indicate that there are twowords, _laquear_ from _laqueus_, meaning chain or network, and _lacuar_or _lacunar_ from _lacus_, meaning sunk work. 

BOOK SECOND

l. 30--_Classibus hic locus. _ Ad equites referre debemus. --Serv. Cf. Also vii. 716. 

l. 76--Omitted with the best MSS. 

l. 234--_moenia pandimus urbis. _ Moenia cetera urbis tecta vel aedesaccipiendum. --Serv. This is the sense which the word generally has inVirgil: it is often used in contrast with _muri_, or as a synonym of_urbs_; and in most cases _city_ is its nearest English equivalent. 

l. 381--_caerula colla tumentem. _ Caerulum est viride cum nigro. --Serv. On vii. 198. Cf. Iii. 208, where it is used of the colour of the seaafter a storm. 

l. 616--_nimbo effulgens. _ est fulgidum lumen quo deorum capitacinguntur. Sic etiam pingi solet. --Serv. Cf. Xii. 416. 

BOOK THIRD

l. 127--_freta concita terris_ with all the best MSS. ; _consita_ Con. 

l. 152--_qua se Plena per insertas fundebat Luna fenestras. _ The usualexplanation, which makes _insertas_ an epithet transferred by a sort ofhypallage from _Luna_ to _fenestras_, is extremely violent, and makesthe word little more than a repetition of _se fundebat_. Serviusmentions two other interpretations; _non seratas, quasi inseratas_, and_clatratas_; the last has been adopted in the translation. 

In the passage of Lucretius (ii. 114) which Virgil has imitated here, Contemplator enim cum solis lumina . . . Inserti fundunt radii per opaca domorum, it is possible that _clatris_ may be the lost word. 

l. 684--

 _Contra iussa monent Heleni, Scyllam atque Charybdim Inter, utramque viam leti discrimine parvo Ni teneant cursus. _

In this difficult passage it is probably best to take _cursus_ as thesubject to teneant (_cursus teneant_, id est agantur. --Serv. Cf. Also l. 454 above, _quamvis vi cursus in altum Vela vocet_), _viam_ being eitherthe direct object of _teneant_, or in loose apposition to _Scyllam atqueCharybdim_. 

l. 708--_tempestatibus actis_ with Rom. And Pal. ; _actus_ Con. AfterMed. 

BOOK FOURTH

 Totus hic liber . . . In consiliis et subtilitatibus est. Nam paene comicus stilus est. Nec mirum, ubi de amore tractatur. --Serv. 

l. 273--Omitted with the best MSS. 

l. 528--Omitted with the best MSS. 

BOOK FIFTH

l. 595--_iuduntque per undas_, omitted with the preponderance of MS. Authority. 

BOOK SIXTH

l. 242--Omitted with the balance of MS. Authority. 

l. 806--_virtutem extendere factis_ with Med. ; _virtute extendere vires_Con. 

BOOK EIGHTH

l. 46--Omitted with the majority of the best MSS. 

l. 383--_Arma rogo. Genetrix nato te filia Nerei_. 

 _Arma rogo. _ hic distinguendum, ut cui petat non dicat, sed relinquat intellegi . . . _Genetrix nato te filia Nerei. _ hoc est, soles hoc praestare matribus. --Serv. 

BOOK NINTH

l. 29--Omitted with all the best MSS. 

l. 122--Omitted with all the best MSS. 

l. 281--

 _Me nulla dies tam fortibus ausis Dissimilem arguerit tantum, Fortuna secunda Aut adversa cadat. _

With some hesitation I have adopted this reading as the one open toleast objection, though the balance of authority is decidedly in favourof _haud adversa_. For the position of _tantum_ cf. Ecl. X. 46, according to the 'subtilior explicatio' now generally adopted. 

l. 412--

 _Et venit adversi in tergum Sulmonis ibique Frangitur, et fisso transit praecordia ligno. _

The phrase _in tergum_ occurs twice elsewhere: ix. 764--meaning 'on theback'; and xi. 653--meaning 'backward'; and in x. 718 the uncertaintyabout the order of the lines makes it possible that _tergo decutithastas_ was meant to refer to the boar, not to Mezentius. But thepassages quoted by the editors there shew that the word might be used inthe sense of 'shield'; and this being so we are scarcely justified inreading _aversi_ against all the good MSS. 

l. 529--Omitted with most MSS. 

BOOK TENTH

l. 278--Omitted with the best MSS. 

l. 754--_Insidiis, iaculo et longe fallente sagitta. _ The MS. Authorityis decidedly in favour of this, the more difficult reading; and thehendiadys is not more violent than those in Georg. Ii. 192, Aen. Iii. 223. 

BOOK TWELFTH

l. 218--_Tum magis, ut propius cernunt non viribus aequis. _

With Ribbeck I believe that there is a gap in the sense here, and havemarked one in the translation. 

l. 520--_Limina_ with Med. _Munera_ Con. 

ll. 612, 613--Omitted with the best MSS. 

l. 751--_Venator cursu canis et latratibus instat. _ I take _cursu canis_as equivalent to _currente cane_, as in i. 324, _spumantis apri cursumclamore prementem_. 

_Printed by_ R. & R. CLARK, _Edinburgh_. 

 * * * * *

TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES

The following words appear with and without a hyphen. Spelling has beenleft as in the original. 

 blood-stained bloodstained hill-tops hilltops horse-hair horsehair life-blood lifeblood new-born newborn spear-shaft spearshaft water-ways waterways

The following words are spelled in multiple ways. Spelling has been leftas in the original. 

 aery aëry horned hornèd Nereids Nereïd Pergama Pergamea

The following corrections have made to the text:

 page 173--'[quotation mark missing in original]Nymphs, Laurentine Nymphs

 page 202--in name fail to be Creüsa[original has Crëusa]

 page 207--Rumour on fluttering[original has flutttering] wings

 page 285--the Rhoetean[original has Rhoeteian] captain drives his army

The first occurrence of Phoebus was rendered with an oe ligature in theoriginal. 

Ellipses match the original.