Aeneid, Book 7: Latium & Fury

1Tu quoque litoribus nostris, Aeneia nutrix,

aeternam moriens famam, Caieta, dedisti;

et nunc servat honos sedem tuus ossaque nomen

Hesperia in magna, siqua est ea gloria, signat.

5At pius exsequiis Aeneas rite solutis,

aggere composito tumuli, postquam alta quierunt

aequora, tendit iter velis portumque relinquit.

Adspirant aurae in noctem nec candida cursus

Luna negat, splendet tremulo sub lumine pontus.

10Proxima Circaeae raduntur litora terrae,

dives inaccessos ubi Solis filia lucos

adsiduo resonat cantu tectisque superbis

urit odoratam nocturna in lumina cedrum,

arguto tenuis percurrens pectine telas.

15Hinc exaudiri gemitus iraeque leonum

vincla recusantum et sera sub nocte rudentum,

saetigerique sues atque in praesaepibus ursi

saevire ac formae magnorum ululare luporum,

quos hominum ex facie dea saeva potentibus herbis

20induerat Circe in voltus ac terga ferarum.

Quae ne monstra pii paterentur talia Troes

delati in portus neu litora dira subirent,

Neptunus ventis implevit vela secundis

atque fugam dedit et praeter vada fervida vexit.

1You too, Caieta, nurse of Aeneas, in dying

gave eternal fame to our shores;

and now your honor guards your resting place, and your name

marks your bones in great Hesperia, if that is any glory.

5But dutiful Aeneas, once the funeral rites were duly paid,

and the mound of the tomb was built, once the deep

waters were still, set course by sail and left the harbor.

Breezes breathe on into the night, and the bright Moon

does not deny their course; the sea gleams under trembling light.

10They skim the nearest shores of Circe's land,

where the rich daughter of the Sun makes her trackless groves

resound with ceaseless song, and in her proud halls

burns fragrant cedar for light by night,

running fine webs through with her ringing comb.

15From there could be heard the groans and rage of lions

straining against their chains and roaring late in the night,

and bristle-backed swine, and bears in their stalls

raging, and shapes of huge wolves howling,

whom Circe, the savage goddess, with potent herbs,

20had clothed, from human form, in the faces and hides of beasts.

Lest the dutiful Trojans, borne into that harbor,

suffer such monsters or approach those dreadful shores,

Neptune filled their sails with favoring winds

and sped their flight and carried them past the seething shallows.

25Iamque rubescebat radiis mare et aethere ab alto

Aurora in roseis fulgebat lutea bigis:

cum venti posuere omnisque repente resedit

flatus et in lento luctantur marmore tonsae.

Atque hic Aeneas ingentem ex aequore lucum

30prospicit. Hunc inter fluvio Tiberinus amoeno

verticibus rapidis et multa flavus arena

in mare prorumpit. Variae circumque supraque

adsuetae ripis volucres et fluminis alveo

aethera mulcebant cantu lucoque volabant.

35flectere iter sociis terraeque advertere proras

imperat et laetus fluvio succedit opaco.

Nunc age, qui reges, Erato, quae tempora rerum,

quis Latio antiquo fuerit status, advena classem

cum primum Ausoniis exercitus appulit oris,

40expediam et primae revocabo exordia pugnae.

tu vatem, tu, diva, mone. Dicam horrida bella,

dicam acies actosque animis in funera reges

Tyrrhenamque manum totamque sub arma coactam

Hesperiam. Maior rerum mihi nascitur ordo,

25And now the sea reddened beneath the rays, while high in heaven

Dawn shone golden in her rosy chariot,

when the winds fell and every breath suddenly died,

and the oars struggled against the sluggish marble.

And here, from the sea, Aeneas sees a vast grove.

30Through it Tiberinus, with his lovely stream,

yellow with swift eddies and with much sand,

bursts out into the sea. Around and above,

birds of many kinds, accustomed to the banks and river-bed,

soothed the air with song and flew through the grove.

35He orders his comrades to bend their course and turn their prows

toward land, and gladly moves into the shadowed river.

Now come, Erato: what kings, what course of events,

what order held in ancient Latium, when first

a foreign army landed its fleet on Ausonian coasts,

40these I will unfold, and summon back the origins of the first battle.

Prompt your poet, goddess. I will tell of dreadful wars,

of battle lines and kings whom courage drove to death,

the Tyrrhenian force, and all Hesperia mustered

under arms. A greater sequence now rises before me;

45maius opus moveo.Rex arva Latinus et urbes

iam senior longa placidas in pace regebat.

Hunc Fauno et nympha genitum Laurente Marica

accipimus, Fauno Picus pater isque parentem

te, Saturne, refert, tu sanguinis ultimus auctor.

50filius huic fato divom prolesque virilis

nulla fuit primaque oriens erepta iuventa est.

Sola domum et tantas servabat filia sedes,

iam matura viro, iam plenis nubilis annis.

Multi illam magno e Latio totaque petebant

55Ausonia. Petit ante alios pulcherrimus omnis

Turnus, avis atavisque potens, quem regia coniunx

adiungi generum miro properabat amore;

sed variis portenta deum terroribus obstant.

Laurus erat tecti medio in penetralibus altis,

60sacra comam multosque metu servata per annos,

quam pater inventam, primas cum conderet arces,

ipse ferebatur Phoebo sacrasse Latinus

Laurentisque ab ea nomen posuisse colonis.

Huius apes summum densae (mirabile dictu),

65stridore ingenti liquidum trans aethera vectae,

obsedere apicem, ex pedibus per mutua nexis

examen subitum ramo frondente pependit.

Continuo vates: Externum cernimus, inquit,

adventare virum et partis petere agmen easdem

70partibus ex isdem et summa dominarier arce.

Praeterea, castis adolet dum altaria taedis

et iuxta genitorem adstat Lavinia virgo,

visa (nefas) longis comprendere crinibus ignem,

atque omnem ornatum flamma crepitante cremari

75regalisque accensa comas, accensa coronam

insignem gemmis, tum fumida lumine fulvo

involvi ac totis Volcanum spargere tectis.

Id vero horrendum ac visu mirabile ferri:

namque fore inlustrem fama fatisque canebant

80ipsam, sed populo magnum portendere bellum.

At rex sollicitus monstris oracula Fauni,

fatidici genitoris, adit lucosque sub alta

consulit Albunea, nemorum quae maxima sacro

fonte sonat saevamque exhalat opaca mephitim.

85Hinc Italae gentes omnisque Oenotria tellus

in dubiis responsa petunt; huc dona sacerdos

cum tulit et caesarum ovium sub nocte silenti

pellibus incubuit stratis somnosque petivit,

multa modis simulacra videt volitantia miris

90et varias audit voces fruiturque deorum

conloquio atque imis Acheronta adfatur Avernis.

Hic et tum pater ipse petens responsa Latinus

centum lanigeras mactabat rite bidentis

atque harum effultus tergo stratisque iacebat

95velleribus: subita ex alto vox reddita luco est:

Ne pete conubiis natam sociare Latinis,

O mea progenies, thalamis neu crede paratis:

externi venient generi, qui sanguine nostrum

nomen in astra ferant quorumque a stirpe nepotes

100omnia sub pedibus, qua Sol utrumque recurrens

aspicit Oceanum, vertique regique videbunt.

Haec responsa patris Fauni monitusque silenti

nocte datos non ipse suo premit ore Latinus,

sed circum late volitans iam Fama per urbes

105Ausonias tulerat, cum Laomedontia pubes

gramineo ripae religavit ab aggere classem.

45I set a greater work in motion. King Latinus ruled fields and cities,

already an old man, in long and tranquil peace.

We are told he was born of Faunus and the Laurentine nymph Marica;

Picus was father to Faunus, and he names you,

Saturn, as his parent: you are the farthest source of the bloodline.

50By the gods' fate he had no son, no male child;

one, just entering early youth, had been snatched away.

One daughter alone kept the house and such great halls,

now ripe for a husband, now of full marriageable years.

Many sought her from great Latium and all

55Ausonia. Before all others Turnus sought her, most handsome

of them all, powerful in grandsires and ancestors, whom the queen

was hastening, with wondrous love, to join as son-in-law;

but portents of the gods, with varied terrors, blocked the way.

There was a laurel at the palace's heart, within its high

60inner court, its foliage sacred, guarded for years in awe,

which father Latinus himself was said to have found

and consecrated to Phoebus when he founded his first citadels,

and from it to have given the Laurentine settlers their name.

At its very crown, dense bees (wonderful to tell),

65borne through the clear air with a mighty humming,

settled on the summit; then, with feet linked each to each,

a sudden swarm hung from the leafy branch.

At once the seer said: "We see an outsider

approaching, and a column seeking this same quarter

70from the same direction, destined to rule from the citadel's height."

Besides, while virgin Lavinia fed the altars

with pure brands and stood beside her father,

she was seen (a horror) to catch fire in her long hair,

and all her adornment to burn with crackling flame,

75her royal hair set alight, her crown set alight,

brilliant with jewels; then, smoking in tawny light,

to be enveloped and scatter Vulcan through the whole house.

This was reported as dreadful and marvelous to see:

for they foretold that she herself would be made illustrious by fame and destiny,

80but would portend great war for her people.

But the king, anxious at the portents, goes to Faunus' oracles,

his fate-speaking father's, and consults the groves beneath high

Albunea, which, greatest among groves, resounds with a sacred

spring and in its shadow breathes out a savage vapor.

85From here Italian peoples and all Oenotrian land

seek answers in uncertainty; here, when the priest has brought gifts

and under silent night has lain on the spread skins

of slaughtered sheep and sought sleep,

he sees many phantoms fluttering in wondrous ways

90and hears many voices, shares the gods'

conversation, and addresses Acheron in deepest Avernus.

Here too, then, father Latinus himself, seeking answers,

duly slaughtered a hundred wool-bearing two-year-old ewes

and lay propped upon their backs and

95spread fleeces: a sudden voice answered from the deep grove:

"Do not seek to join your daughter in Latin marriages,

O my offspring, nor trust the bridal chambers already prepared:

foreign sons-in-law will come, who by their blood

will lift our name to the stars; from their stock descendants

100will see all things beneath their feet, wherever the returning Sun

looks on either Ocean, turned and ruled."

These answers of father Faunus and warnings given

in the silent night Latinus himself did not keep sealed in his mouth,

for Rumor, already flying far and wide through Ausonian

105cities, had carried them, when the youth of Laomedon's line

made fast its fleet to the grassy rise of the bank.

107Aeneas primique duces et pulcher Iulus

corpora sub ramis deponunt arboris altae

instituuntque dapes et adorea liba per herbam

110subiciunt epulis (sic Iuppiter ipse monebat)

et Cereale solum pomis agrestibus augent.

Consumptis hic forte aliis ut vertere morsus

exiguam in Cererem penuria adegit edendi

et violare manu malisque audacibus orbem

115fatalis crusti patulis nec parcere quadris:

Heus ! etiam mensas consumimus, inquit Iulus,

nec plura adludens. Ea vox audita laborum

prima tulit finem, primamque loquentis ab ore

eripuit pater ac stupefactus numine pressit.

120Continuo: Salve fatis mihi debita tellus

vosque, ait, O fidi Troiae salvete penates:

hic domus, haec patria est. Genitor mihi talia namque

(nunc repeto) Anchises fatorum arcana reliquit:

cum te, nate, fames ignota ad litora vectum

125accisis coget dapibus consumere mensas,

tum sperare domos defessus ibique memento

prima locare manu molirique aggere tecta.

Haec erat illa fames; haec nos suprema manebat,

exiliis positura modum.

130Quare agite et primo laeti cum lumine solis

quae loca, quive habeant homines, ubi moenia gentis,

vestigemus et a portu diversa petamus.

Nunc pateras libate Iovi precibusque vocate

Anchisen genitorem, et vina reponite mensis.

135Sic deinde effatus frondenti tempora ramo

implicat et geniumque loci primamque deorum

Tellurem nymphasque et adhuc ignota precatur

flumina, tum Noctem Noctisque orientia signa

Idaeumque Iovem Phrygiamque ex ordine matrem

140invocat et duplicis caeloque ereboque parentis.

Hic pater omnipotens ter caelo clarus ab alto

intonuit radiisque ardentem lucis et auro

ipse manu quatiens ostendit ab aethere nubem.

Diditur hic subito Troiana per agmina rumor

145advenisse diem, quo debita moenia condant.

Certatim instaurant epulas atque omine magno

crateras laeti statuunt et vina coronant.

107Aeneas, the foremost captains, and handsome Iulus

lay their bodies down beneath the branches of a tall tree;

they spread a feast; across the grass they set wheaten cakes

110beneath the food, as Jupiter himself inspired them,

and pile wild fruits upon Ceres' floor.

Here, when all else by chance was consumed, hunger's pressure

drove them to turn their teeth upon the thin bread,

to break with hands and daring jaws the circle

115of fated crust, not sparing its broad quarters:

"Look! We are eating even our tables!" Iulus cried,

in jest, and nothing more. But once heard, those words

were the first to end their labors; his father caught them first

from the speaker's mouth and, stunned by divine power, checked it.

120At once he said: "Hail, land owed to me by the fates,

and hail to you, faithful Penates of Troy:

here is our home, this our fatherland. For my father

Anchises left me such secrets of the fates (now I recall):

when, my son, hunger, after you are borne to unknown shores,

125shall force you, with food cut short, to consume your tables,

then, weary, hope for homes, and there remember

to set your first dwellings by hand and raise them with a rampart.

This was that hunger; this was the last ordeal awaiting us,

to set a limit to our exiles.

130Come then, and gladly with the sun's first light

let us trace these places, learn what people hold them, where their walls stand,

and seek different paths from the harbor.

Now pour libations from bowls to Jupiter, and in prayer call

father Anchises, and set wine again upon the tables."

135Having spoken so, he then wreathes his temples

with a leafy branch, and prays to the Genius of the place and Earth,

first among the gods, to the nymphs and rivers still unknown,

then invokes Night and Night's rising signs,

Idaean Jove and the Phrygian Mother in due order,

140and both parents, one in heaven and one in Erebus.

Here the almighty Father thundered three times, loud from high heaven,

and, shaking with his own hand a cloud burning

with rays of light and gold, showed it from the sky.

At once a sudden rumor spreads through the Trojan ranks

145that the day had come for them to found their owed walls.

Vying with one another, they renew the feast, and glad at the great omen,

they set out mixing bowls and crown the wine.

148Postera cum prima lustrabat lampade terras

orta dies, urbem et finis et litora gentis

150diversi explorant: haec fontis stagna Numici,

hunc Thybrim fluvium, hic fortis habitare Latinos.

Tum satus Anchisa delectos ordine ab omni

centum oratores augusta ad moenia regis

ire iubet, ramis velatos Palladis omnis,

155donaque ferre viro pacemque exposcere Teucris.

Haud mora, festinant iussi rapidisque feruntur

passibus. Ipse humili designat moenia fossa

moliturque locum primasque in litore sedes

castrorum in morem pinnis atque aggere cingit.

160Iamque iter emensi turris ac tecta Latinorum

ardua cernebant iuvenes muroque subibant.

Ante urbem pueri et primaevo flore iuventus

exercentur equis domitantque in pulvere currus

aut acris tendunt arcus aut lenta lacertis

165spicula contorquent cursuque ictuque lacessunt:

cum praevectus equo longaevi regis ad auris

nuntius ingentis ignota in veste reportat

advenisse viros. Ille intra tecta vocari

imperat et solio medius consedit avito.

170Tectum augustum ingens. centum sublime columnis,

urbe fuit summa, Laurentis regia Pici,

horrendum silvis et religione parentum.

Hic sceptra accipere et primos attollere fasces

regibus omen erat, hoc illis curia templum,

175hae sacris sedes epulis, hic ariete caeso

perpetuis soliti patres considere mensis.

Quin etiam veterum effigies ex ordine avorum

antiqua e cedro, Italusque paterque Sabinus

vitisator, curvam servans sub imagine falcem,

180Saturnusque senex Ianique bifrontis imago

vestibulo astabant, aliique ab origine reges

Martiaque ob patriam pugnando volnera passi.

Multaque praeterea sacris in postibus arma,

captivi pendent currus curvaeque secures

185et cristae capitum et portarum ingentia claustra

spiculaque clipeique ereptaque rostra carinis.

Ipse Quirinali lituo parvaque sedebat

succinctus trabea laevaque ancile gerebat

Picus, equum domitor; quem capta cupidine coniunx

190aurea percussum virga versumque venenis

fecit avem Circe sparsitque coloribus alas.

148When next day's dawn surveyed the lands

with its first light, they spread out to explore the city, the borders,

150and the people's shores: here were the pools of Numicus' spring,

this the river Thybris; here the strong Latins lived.

Then the son of Anchises orders chosen men from every rank,

a hundred envoys, to go to the king's august walls,

all wreathed with branches of Pallas,

155to carry gifts to the king and request peace for the Teucrians.

No delay: once ordered, they hurry and press on

with rapid steps. Aeneas himself marks out walls with a shallow trench,

works the site, and on the shore his first settlement

he encloses with palisade and rampart, after the fashion of a camp.

160And now, completing the journey, the young men saw

the towers and high roofs of the Latins and approached the wall.

Before the city, boys and youth in their first flower

trained on horses and mastered chariots in the dust,

or bent keen bows, or with their arms

165whirled pliant javelins, and challenged one another in racing and boxing,

when a messenger rode ahead and brought word

to the aged king that towering men in unfamiliar dress

had arrived. The king ordered them called inside

the palace, and took his seat in the middle on his ancestral throne.

170A huge, august palace, lofty on a hundred columns,

stood on the city's summit, the royal house of Laurentian Picus,

awe-inspiring with its woods and ancestral sanctity.

Here it was auspicious for kings to receive their scepters

and first raise the fasces; this was their senate house, their temple,

175these the seats for sacred banquets; here, when a ram had been slain,

the fathers were accustomed to sit at tables laid in a long row.

Moreover, likenesses of the ancient forefathers in order,

made from old cedar, Italus and father Sabinus,

the vine-planter, with a curved pruning hook beneath his likeness,

180aged Saturn, and the image of two-faced Janus,

stood in the vestibule, and other kings from the beginning,

men who had endured wounds of Mars while fighting for their country.

Many weapons besides hung on the sacred doorposts,

captured chariots and curved axes,

185helmet crests and huge bars of gates,

spears and shields and ship-beaks torn from hulls.

Picus himself sat there with the Quirinal augur's staff,

girt in the short trabea, the sacred shield in his left hand,

Picus, tamer of horses; his wife Circe, seized by desire,

190struck him with her golden wand and, changing him with magic drugs,

made him a bird and sprinkled his wings with colors.

192Tali intus templo divom patriaque Latinus

sede sedens Teucros ad sese in tecta vocavit,

atque haec ingressis placido prior edidit ore:

195Dicite, Dardanidae (neque enim nescimus et urbem

et genus, auditique advertitis aequore cursum),

quid petitis ? Quae causa rates aut cuius egentis

litus ad Ausonium tot per vada caerula vexit?

Sive errore viae seu tempestatibus acti,

200qualia multa mari nautae patiuntur in alto,

fluminis intrastis ripas portuque sedetis,

ne fugite hospitium neve ignorate Latinos

Saturni gentem, haud vinclo nec legibus aequam,

sponte sua veterisque dei se more tenentem.

205Atque equidem memini (fama est obscurior annis)

Auruncos ita ferre senes, his ortus ut agris

Dardanus Idaeas Phrygiae penetravit ad urbes

Threiciamque Samum, quae nunc Samothracia fertur.

Hinc illum, Corythi Tyrrhena ab sede profectum,

210aurea nunc solio stellantis regia caeli

accipit et numerum divorum altaribus auget.

Dixerat, et dicta Ilioneus sic voce secutus:

Rex, genus egregium Fauni, nec fluctibus actos,

atra subegit hiemps vestris succedere terris

215nec sidus regione viae litusve fefellit:

consilio hanc omnes animisque volentibus urbem,

adferimur, pulsi regnis, quae maxima quondam

extremo veniens Sol aspiciebat Olympo.

Ab Iove principium generis, Iove Dardana pubes

220gaudet avo, rex ipse Iovis de gente suprema,

Troius Aeneas, tua nos ad limina misit.

Quanta per Idaeos saevis effusa Mycenis

tempestas ierit campos, quibus actus uterque

Europae atque Asiae fatis concurrerit orbis,

225audiit et siquem tellus extrema refuso

summovet oceano et siquem extenta plagarum

quattuor in medio dirimit plaga solis iniqui.

Diluvio ex illo tot vasta per aequora vecti

dis sedem exiguam patriis litusque rogamus

230innocuum et cunctis undamque auramque patentem.

Non erimus regno indecores, nec vestra feretur

fama levis tantique abolescet gratia facti,

nec Troiam Ausonios gremio excepisse pigebit.

Fata per Aeneae iuro dextramque potentem

235sive fide seu quis bello est expertus et armis:

multi nos populi, multae (ne temne, quod ultro

praeferimus manibus vittas ac verba precantia)

et petiere sibi et voluere adiungere gentes;

sed nos fata deum vestras exquirere terras

240imperiis egere suis. Hinc Dardanus ortus;

huc repetit iussisque ingentibus urguet Apollo

Tyrrhenum ad Thybrim et fontis vada sacra Numici.

Dat tibi praeterea fortunae parva prioris

munera, reliquias Troia ex ardente receptas.

245Hoc pater Anchises auro libabat ad aras;

hoc Priami gestamen erat, cum iura vocatis

more daret populis, sceptrumque sacerque tiaras

Iliadumque labor vestes.

192Inside such a temple of the gods, Latinus, on his ancestral

throne, sat and called the Teucrians to himself within the palace,

and first spoke these words to them as they entered, with peaceful voice:

195"Tell me, Dardanians (for we are not ignorant of your city

and race; we have heard of you as you steer your course across the sea),

what do you seek? What cause, what need has carried your ships

to the Ausonian shore over so many blue shallows?

Whether driven by error in your way or by storms,

200such things as sailors suffer often on the deep sea,

you have entered this river and now sit settled in its harbor;

do not shun our hospitality or overlook the Latins,

Saturn's race, upright not from restraint or laws,

but of its own free will, preserving the old god's custom.

205And indeed I remember, though the report is dimmer with years,

that old Auruncans used to tell how Dardanus, born in these fields,

made his way to the Idaean cities of Phrygia

and Thracian Samos, now called Samothrace.

From here, after he set out from Corythus' Tyrrhenian seat,

210the golden palace of starry heaven now receives him on a throne

and increases the number of the gods with altars."

He had spoken, and Ilioneus followed his words with these:

"King, noble offspring of Faunus, no tossing waves drove us,

no black storm forced us to draw near your lands,

215nor did star or shore deceive us in the region of our route:

by deliberate counsel and with willing hearts, all of us

are borne to this city, expelled from realms once greatest,

which the Sun, coming from furthest Olympus, looked upon.

From Jove is the beginning of our race; the Dardan youth

220rejoices in Jove as grandsire; our king himself, from Jove's highest line,

Trojan Aeneas sent us to your threshold.

How great a storm, poured out by savage Mycenae,

swept over Idaean fields, by what fate both worlds,

of Europe and Asia were driven together and clashed,

225has been heard even by one whom farthest land, with Ocean flowing

around it, keeps remote, and one cut off by the broad belt

of the pitiless sun stretched through the midst of the other four regions.

Carried since that deluge over so many vast seas,

we ask a little home for our ancestral gods, and a shore

230that harms no one, with water and air open to all.

We shall be no disgrace to your kingdom, nor will your fame be held

cheap, nor will gratitude for so great a deed fade away,

nor will Ausonia regret having received Troy into her embrace.

By Aeneas' fates I swear, and by his powerful right hand,

235whether anyone has tested it in trust or in war and arms:

many nations, many peoples (do not scorn us because by choice

we carry fillets in our hands and pleading words)

have sought us for themselves and wished to ally themselves with us;

but the gods' fates compelled us to seek out your lands

240under their commands. From here Dardanus arose;

hither Apollo calls us back and with mighty commands urges us

to Tyrrhenian Thybris and the sacred shallows of Numicus' spring.

Besides, Aeneas gives you these little gifts of former fortune,

relics rescued from burning Troy.

245From this golden vessel father Anchises would pour libations at the altars;

this was Priam's regalia, when according to custom he gave laws

to assembled peoples: the scepter and sacred headband,

and robes, the handiwork of Trojan women."

249Talibus Ilionei dictis defixa Latinus

250obtutu tenet ora soloque immobilis haeret

intentos volvens oculos. Nec purpura regem

picta movet nec sceptra movent Priameia tantum,

quantum in conubio natae thalamoque moratur,

et veteris Fauni voluit sub pectore sortem,

255hunc illum fatis externa ab sede profectum

portendi generum paribusque in regna vocari

auspiciis, huic progeniem virtute futuram

egregiam et totum quae viribus occupet orbem.

tandem laetus ait: Di nostra incepta secundent

260auguriumque suum; dabitur, Troiane, quod optas,

munera nec sperno. Non vobis rege Latino

divitis uber agri Troiaeve opulentia deerit.

Ipse modo Aeneas, nostri si tanta cupido est,

si iungi hospitio properat sociusque vocari,

265adveniat voltus neve exhorrescat amicos:

illi pacis erit dextram tetigisse tyranni.

vos contra regi mea nunc mandata referte.

Est mihi nata, viro gentis quam iungere nostrae

non patrio ex adyto sortes, non plurima caelo

270monstra sinunt: generos externis adfore ab oris,

hoc Latio restare canunt, qui sanguine nostrum

nomen in astra ferant. Hunc illum poscere fata

et reor et, siquid veri mens augurat, opto.

haec effatus equos numero pater eligit omni

275(stabant ter centum nitidi in praesaepibus altis):

omnibus extemplo Teucris iubet ordine duci

instratos ostro alipedes pictisque tapetis;

aurea pectoribus demissa monilia pendent,

tecti auro fulvum mandunt sub dentibus aurum;

280absenti Aeneae currum geminosque iugalis

semine ab aetherio, spirantis naribus ignem,

illorum de gente, patri quos daedala Circe

supposita de matre nothos furata creavit.

Talibus Aeneadae donis dictisque Latini

285sublimes in equis redeunt pacemque reportant.

249At these words of Ilioneus, Latinus, fixed

250in his gaze, keeps his face toward the ground and hangs motionless there,

rolling his intent eyes. Neither embroidered purple moves the king

nor do Priam's scepters move him so much

as he dwells on his daughter's marriage and bridal chamber,

and turns old Faunus' oracle over beneath his breast:

255that this was the very man, come by fate from a foreign seat,

foretold as son-in-law and called to share the kingdom under equal

auspices; that his offspring would be outstanding

in valor and would possess the whole world by its strength.

At last, glad, he said: "May the gods favor our undertaking

260and their own augury; Trojan, what you seek will be granted,

nor do I scorn the gifts. While Latinus is king,

you will lack neither rich land's plenty nor Troy's wealth.

Only let Aeneas himself, if he has such desire to join us,

if he hastens to be joined in hospitality and called ally,

265come, and let him not shrink from friendly faces:

for him, to have touched the ruler's right hand will be peace.

You, in return, now carry my commands back to your king.

I have a daughter, whom neither the lots from my father's shrine

nor the many portents from heaven allow me

270to join to a man of our people: sons-in-law will come from foreign shores,

they sing that this remains for Latium, men who by their blood

will carry our name to the stars. I both think this is the man

whom the fates demand and, if my mind divines any truth, I desire."

Having said this, the father chose horses from the whole herd

275(three hundred sleek ones stood in the high stalls):

for all the Teucrians he at once ordered, in order,

wing-footed horses to be led out, caparisoned in purple and embroidered covers;

golden collars hang down over their chests,

covered with gold, they champ tawny gold beneath their teeth;

280for absent Aeneas, a chariot and twin yoked horses

from heavenly seed, breathing fire from their nostrils,

of that stock which cunning Circe secretly bred for her father,

bastard foals born from a mare she substituted.

With such gifts and words of Latinus, the sons of Aeneas

285ride back, high on their horses, and carry back peace.

286Ecce autem Inachiis sese referebat ab Argis

saeva Iovis coniunx aurasque invecta tenebat,

et laetum Aenean classemque ex aethere longe

Dardaniam Siculo prospexit ab usque Pachyno.

290moliri iam tecta videt, iam fidere terrae,

deseruisse rates: stetit acri fixa dolore.

Tum quassans caput haec effundit pectore dicta:

Heu stirpem invisam et fatis contraria nostris

fata Phrygum ! Num Sigeis occumbere campis,

295num capti potuere capi, num incensa cremavit

Troia viros ? Medias acies mediosque per ignis

invenere viam. At, credo, mea numina tandem

fessa iacent odiis aut exsaturata quievi.

Quin etiam patria excussos infesta per undas

300ausa sequi et profugis toto me opponere ponto !

Absumptae in Teucros vires caelique marisque.

Quid Syrtes aut Scylla mihi, quid vasta Charybdis

profuit? Optato conduntur Thybridis alveo,

securi pelagi atque mei. Mars perdere gentem

305immanem Lapithum valuit, concessit in iras

ipse deum antiquam genitor Calydona Dianae,

quod scelus aut Lapithis tantum aut Calydona merentem?

Ast ego magna Iovis coniunx, nil linquere inausum

quae potui infelix, quae memet in omnia verti,

310vincor ab Aenea. Quod si mea numina non sunt

magna satis, dubitem haud equidem implorare quod usquam est:

flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo.

Non dabitur regnis, esto, prohibere Latinis,

atque immota manet fatis Lavinia coniunx:

315at trahere atque moras tantis licet addere rebus,

at licet amborum populos exscindere regum.

Hac gener atque socer coeant mercede suorum:

sanguine Troiano et Rutulo dotabere, virgo,

et Bellona manet te pronuba. Nec face tantum

320Cisseis praegnans ignis enixa iugalis

quin idem Veneri partus suus et Paris alter

funestaeque iterum recidiva in Pergama taedae.

286But see: savage Juno was making her way back from Inachian Argos,

Jove's wife, borne onward through the air,

when from high heaven she saw happy Aeneas

and the Dardanian fleet far off, all the way from Sicilian Pachynus.

290She sees them already raising houses, already trusting the land,

and already abandoning their ships; she stopped, fixed in sharp grief.

Then, shaking her head, she poured these words from her heart:

"Ah, hated race! Phrygian fates defy

our own! Could they not fall on the Sigean fields,

295could they, once captured, not remain captive? Did burning Troy not burn

her men? Through the midst of battle-lines and through the midst of fires

they found a way. But, I suppose, my divine powers at last

lie worn out by hatred, or, fully glutted, I have gone to rest.

No: even after they were driven from their fatherland, hostile,

300I dared to follow them over the waves and set myself against the exiles on the whole sea!

All the strength of heaven and sea has been spent against the Teucrians.

What did the Syrtes or Scylla do for me, what did vast Charybdis

profit me? They are sheltered in Thybris' longed-for channel,

safe from the sea and from me. Mars had power to destroy

305the monstrous race of the Lapiths; the father of the gods himself gave over

ancient Calydon to Diana's wrath,

though what crime had either the Lapiths or Calydon done to deserve so much?

But I, great wife of Jove, who could leave nothing unattempted,

unhappy I, who turned myself to every course,

310am conquered by Aeneas. But if my divine powers are not

great enough, I for my part would not hesitate to beg any power, wherever it is:

if I cannot bend the gods above, I shall move Acheron.

Granted, I cannot bar him from the Latin realms,

and Lavinia remains his bride, fixed by the fates:

315yet I may spin things out and add delays to such great affairs;

yes, I may cut down the peoples of both kings.

At this price, paid by their own people, let son-in-law and father-in-law unite:

with Trojan and Rutulian blood you shall be dowered, maiden,

and Bellona waits as your bridal matron. Cisseis was not the only one,

320pregnant with a firebrand, to give birth to wedding fires:

Venus too has borne the same kind of child, another Paris,

and deadly wedding torches rise again for Pergamum reborn."

323Haec ubi dicta dedit, terras Horrenda petivit:

luctificam Allecto dirarum ab sede dearum

325infernisque ciet tenebris, cui tristia bella

iraeque insidiaeque et crimina noxia cordi.

Odit et ipse pater Pluton, odere sorores

Tartareae monstrum: tot sese vertit in ora,

tam saevae facies, tot pullulat atra colubris.

330Quam Iuno his acuit verbis ac talia fatur:

Hunc mihi da proprium, virgo sata Nocte, laborem,

hanc operam, ne noster honos infractave cedat

fama loco, neu conubiis ambire Latinum

Aeneadae possint Italosve obsidere finis.

335Tu potes unanimos armare in proelia fratres

atque odiis versare domos, tu verbera tectis

funereasque inferre faces, tibi nomina mille,

mille nocendi artes. Fecundum concute pectus,

disice compositam pacem, sere crimina belli:

340arma velit poscatque simul rapiatque inventus.

Exin Gorgoneis Allecto infecta venenis

principio Latium et Laurentis tecta tyranni

celsa petit tacitumque obsedit limen Amatae,

quam super adventu Teucrum Turnique hymenaeis

345femineae ardentem curaeque iraeque coquebant.

Huic dea caeruleis unum de crinibus anguem

conicit inque sinum praecordia ad intuma subdit,

quo furibunda domum monstro permisceat omnem.

Ille inter vestes et levia pectora lapsus

350volvitur attactu nullo fallitque furentem,

vipeream inspirans animam: fit tortile collo

aurum ingens coluber, fit longae taenia vittae

innectitque comas, et membris lubricus errat.

Ac dum prima lues udo sublapsa veneno

355pertemptat sensus atque ossibus implicat ignem

necdum animus toto percepit pectore flammam,

mollius et solito matrum de more locuta est,

multa super nata lacrimans Phrygiisque hymenaeis:

Exsulibusne datur ducenda Lavinia Teucris,

360O genitor, nec te miseret gnataeque tuique ?

Nec matris miseret, quam primo aquilone relinquet

perfidus alta petens abducta virgine praedo?

An non sic Phrygius penetrat Lacedaemona pastor

Ledaeamque Helenam Troianas vexit ad urbes ?

365Quid tua sancta fides, quid cura antiqua tuorum

et consanguineo totiens data dextera Turno?

Si gener externa petitur de gente Latinis

idque sedet Faunique premunt te iussa parentis,

omnem equidem sceptris terram quae libera nostris

370dissidet, externam reor et sic dicere divos.

Et Turno, si prima domus repetatur origo,

Inachus Acrisiusque patres mediaeque Mycenae.

323When dreadful Juno had given these words, she sought the earth:

she summons grief-making Allecto from the seat of the dire goddesses

325and rouses her from infernal darkness, for whom mournful wars,

anger, plots, and deadly crimes are dear to the heart.

Even father Pluto himself hates the monster; her Tartarean sisters hate her:

into so many faces she turns herself, so savage

are her forms; black, she teems with so many snakes.

330Juno whetted her with these words and spoke so:

"Take up this special task for me, maiden born of Night,

this service, so that our honor and our damaged reputation do not

give ground, and the Aeneadae cannot win Latinus by marriage

or occupy the Italian borders.

335You can arm brothers of one mind for battle

and convulse households with hatred; you can bring lashes into homes

and funeral torches; yours are a thousand names,

a thousand arts of harm. Shake your teeming breast,

break apart the settled peace, sow the crimes of war:

340let the youth want arms, demand them, and seize them all at once."

Then Allecto, steeped in Gorgonian poisons,

first seeks Latium and the lofty roofs

of the Laurentine ruler, and settles at Amata's silent threshold,

for over the Teucrians' arrival and Turnus' wedding

345a woman's anxieties and anger were burning and boiling her.

At her the goddess flings one snake from her dark-blue hair

and slips it into her breast, beneath the innermost heart,

so that, maddened by the monster, she may throw the whole house into confusion.

It, slipping between her clothing and her smooth breast,

350coils with no touch felt and escapes her notice as she rages,

breathing a viper's spirit: the huge serpent becomes twisted

gold at her throat, becomes the band of her long fillet,

laces her hair, and glides slippery over her limbs.

And while the first plague, slipped in with wet venom,

355probes her senses and fastens fire into her bones,

and her mind has not yet taken the flame through her whole breast,

she spoke more gently, as mothers commonly do,

weeping much over her daughter and Phrygian bridal rites:

"Is Lavinia given to Trojan exiles to lead away as wife,

360O father, and do you not pity your daughter and yourself?

Nor pity her mother, whom at the first north wind

that faithless raider will abandon, bearing the stolen maiden to sea?

Was it not so that the Phrygian shepherd entered Lacedaemon

and carried Leda's Helen to Trojan cities?

365What of your sacred pledge, what of your old care for your people,

and your right hand so often pledged to Turnus, your kinsman?

If a son-in-law from a foreign people is sought for the Latins,

and that stands fixed, and the commands of father Faunus press you,

then every land, I say, that lies free from our scepters

370and stands apart from them, I count as foreign, and so the gods declare.

And for Turnus, if the first origin of his house is traced back,

Inachus and Acrisius are his fathers, and Mycenae in midland Greece."

373His ubi nequiquam dictis experta Latinum

contra stare videt penitusque in viscera lapsum

375serpentis furiale malum totamque pererrat,

tum vero infelix, ingentibus excita monstris,

immensam sine more furit lymphata per urbem.

Ceu quondam torto volitans sub verbere turbo,

quem pueri magno in gyro vacua atria circum

380intenti ludo exercent; ille actus habena

curvatis fertur spatiis; stupet inscia supra

inpubesque manus, mirata volubile buxum;

dant animos plagae: non cursu segnior illo

per medias urbes agitur populosque feroces.

385Quin etiam in silvas, simulato numine Bacchi,

maius adorta nefas maioremque orsa furorem

evolat et natam frondosis montibus abdit,

quo thalamum eripiat Teucris taedasque moretur,

Euhoe Bacche, fremens, solum te virgine dignum

390vociferans, etenim mollis tibi sumere thyrsos,

te lustrare choro, sacrum tibi pascere crinem.

Fama volat, furiisque accensas pectore matres

idem omnis simul ardor agit nova quaerere tecta:

deseruere domos, ventis dant colla comasque,

395ast aliae tremulis ululatibus aethera complent,

pampineasque gerunt incinctae pellibus hastas;

ipsa inter medias flagrantem fervida pinum

sustinet ac natae Turnique canit hymenaeos,

sanguineam torquens aciem, torvumque repente

400clamat: Io matres, audite, ubi quaeque, Latinae:

Siqua piis animis manet infelicis Amatae

gratia, si iuris materni cura remordet,

solvite crinalis vittas, capite orgia mecum.

Talem inter silvas, inter deserta ferarum,

405reginam Allecto stimulis agit undique Bacchi.

373When she finds her words have failed to move Latinus

and sees him standing firm against her, while deep in her vitals

375the serpent's frenzy-bringing evil has sunk and courses through her whole frame,

then indeed the unhappy queen, roused by monstrous frenzy,

raves ungoverned and frenzied through the vast city.

As once a top flies beneath a twisted lash,

which boys, intent on play, drive in a great circle

380around empty courts; it, driven by the thong,

is carried along in curving courses; above it the unknowing

beardless band stands amazed, marveling at the spinning boxwood;

the blows give it spirit: no slower than that course

she is driven through the midst of cities and fierce peoples.

385She even flies into the woods, pretending Bacchus possesses her;

she attempts a greater crime and begins a greater madness,

flies out and hides Lavinia, her daughter, in the leafy mountains,

to snatch the marriage bed from the Teucrians and delay the wedding torches,

raving and crying, "Euhoe, Bacchus! You alone are worthy of the maiden;

390for you she takes up the pliant thyrsi,

for you she circles in the dance, for you she grows out her sacred hair."

Rumor flies, and the mothers, their hearts inflamed by frenzy,

are all at once driven by the same heat to seek new homes:

they have left their homes, giving necks and hair to the winds,

395while others fill the sky with trembling ululations

and, girt with skins, carry vine-wreathed spears;

she herself, fever-hot in their midst, holds aloft a blazing pine torch

and sings the wedding song of her daughter Lavinia and Turnus,

twisting her blood-red gaze, and suddenly, grimly,

400cries out: "Io! Latin mothers, listen, wherever each of you may be:

If any regard for unhappy Amata remains

in dutiful hearts, if concern for a mother's right bites deep,

loosen the headbands from your hair; take up the Bacchic rites with me."

So, among the woods, among the wild beasts' lonely haunts,

405Allecto drives the queen on every side with Bacchic goads.

406Postquam visa satis primos acuisse furores

consiliumque omnemque domum vertisse Latini,

protinus hinc fuscis tristis dea tollitur alis

audacis Rutuli ad muros, quam dicitur urbem

410Acrisioneis Danae fundasse colonis,

praecipiti delata noto. Locus Ardea quondam

dictus avis, et nunc magnum manet Ardea nomen,

sed fortuna fuit; tectis hic Turnus in altis

iam mediam nigra carpebat nocte quietem.

415Allecto torvam faciem et furialia membra

exuit, in vultus sese transformat anilis;

et frontem obscenam rugis arat, induit albos

cum vitta crinis, tum ramum innectit olivae;

fit Calybe Iunonis anus templique sacerdos

420et iuveni ante oculos his se cum vocibus offert:

Turne, tot incassum fusos patiere labores

et tua Dardaniis transcribi sceptra colonis?

Rex tibi coniugium et quaesitas sanguine dotes

abnegat, externusque in regnum quaeritur heres.

425I nunc, ingratis offer te, inrise, periclis;

Tyrrhenas, i, sterne acies; tege pace Latinos.

Haec adeo tibi me, placida cum nocte iaceres,

ipsa palam fari omnipotens Saturnia iussit.

Quare age et armari pubem portisque moveri

430laetus in arma para, et Phrygios qui flumine pulchro

consedere duces pictasque exure carinas.

Caelestum vis magna iubet. Rex ipse Latinus,

ni dare coniugium et dicto parere fatetur,

sentiat et tandem Turnum experiatur in armis.

435Hic iuvenis vatem inridens sic orsa vicissim

ore refert: Classis invectas Thybridis undam

non, ut rere, meas effugit nuntius auris.

Ne tantos mihi finge metus; nec regia Iuno

inmemor est nostri.

440Sed te victa situ verique effeta senectus,

o mater, curis nequiquam exercet et arma

regum inter falsa vatem formidine ludit.

Cura tibi divom effigies et templa tueri:

bella viri pacemque gerent, quis bella gerenda.

445Talibus Allecto dictis exarsit in iras,

at iuveni oranti subitus tremor occupat artus,

deriguere oculi: tot Erinys sibilat hydris

tantaque se facies aperit; tum flammea torquens

lumina cunctantem et quaerentem dicere plura

450reppulit et geminos erexit crinibus anguis

verberaque insonuit rabidoque haec addidit ore:

En ego victa situ, quam veri effeta senectus

arma inter regum falsa formidine ludit.

Respice ad haec: adsum dirarum ab sede sororum,

455bella manu letumque gero.

Sic effata facem iuveni coniecit et atro

lumine fumantis fixit sub pectore taedas.

Olli somnum ingens rumpit pavor, ossaque et artus

perfundit toto proruptus corpore sudor;

460arma amens fremit, arma toro tectisque requirit;

saevit amor ferri et scelerata insania belli,

ira super: magno veluti cum flamma sonore

virgea suggeritur costis undantis aëni

exsultantque aestu latices, furit intus aquaï

465fumidus atque alte spumis exuberat amnis,

nec iam se capit unda, volat vapor ater ad auras.

Ergo iter ad regem polluta pace Latinum

indicit primis iuvenum et iubet arma parari,

tutari Italiam, detrudere finibus hostem:

470se satis ambobus Teucrisque venire Latinisque.

Haec ubi dicta dedit divosque in vota vocavit,

certatim sese Rutuli exhortantur in arma:

hunc decus egregium formae movet atque iuventae,

hunc atavi reges, hunc claris dextera factis.

406Once she judged she had whetted those first fits of frenzy enough

and turned Latinus' purpose and his whole house upside down,

the grim goddess at once rose from there on dusky wings

toward the bold Rutulian's walls, the city which, they say,

410Danae founded with Acrisian settlers when a rushing south wind

bore her there. The place was once called Ardea

by our forefathers; Ardea even now retains a great name,

but her fortune is past. Here under his lofty roof Turnus,

deep in black night, was already taking his rest.

415Allecto stripped away her grim face and her Fury's limbs,

transforming herself into an old woman's features;

she furrowed her loathsome brow with wrinkles and put on white

hair bound with a fillet, then wove in an olive sprig.

She became Calybe, the aged priestess of Juno's temple,

420then stood before the young man's eyes and spoke:

"Turnus, will you let so many labors be spent for nothing

and your own scepter signed over to Dardan settlers?

The king refuses you the marriage and the dowry earned with blood;

he is seeking a foreign heir to his throne.

425Go then, object of mockery, offer yourself to thankless dangers;

go, lay low the Etruscan ranks and shield the Latins with peace.

This very message, while you lay in the night's peace,

Saturn's almighty daughter herself commanded me to speak plainly to you.

So come: arm your young men; gladly marshal them

430out through the gates to war; burn the Phrygian chiefs settled by the fair river

and burn their painted ships.

The great might of heaven commands it. As for King Latinus,

unless he pledges to grant the marriage and obey my word,

let him feel it and learn at last what Turnus is in arms."

435The young man laughed at the prophetess and answered her in turn:

"News that ships have entered the waters of the Tiber

has not escaped my ears, as you suppose.

Do not conjure such terrors for me; queenly Juno

has not forgotten me.

440But old age, worn down by decay and barren of truth,

mother, torments you to no purpose with cares and, amid

the wars of kings, makes sport of a prophetess with false alarm.

Your charge is to guard the images and temples of the gods;

war and peace are men's concern, men whose duty is to wage war."

445At these words Allecto flared into rage;

while the young man was still speaking, a sudden tremor seized his limbs

and his eyes froze: the Fury hissed through so many serpents

and unveiled a form so vast. Then, rolling her eyes of flame,

she drove him back as he hesitated, searching for more words;

450from her hair she reared twin snakes,

made her scourges crack, then spoke with a rabid snarl:

"Here I am, the one whom decay has conquered, whom old age,

barren of truth deceives with false alarms amid kingly wars.

Look at me now: I come from the dwelling of the dread sisters;

455my hand bears wars and death."

With that she hurled a torch at the young man and planted

its smoking brand deep beneath his breast in murky flame.

A vast terror shattered his sleep; from his whole body sweat

burst out and drenched him, bone and limb.

460Frenzied, he cries for arms, seeks arms beside his bed and through the palace;

a savage lust for steel and the accursed madness of war run wild in him,

and above all, anger: as when brushwood fire, with a mighty roar,

is fed beneath the ribs of a heaving bronze cauldron;

the liquid leaps in the heat; inside, the water's smoky current

465rages and boils high in foam,

until the flood can no longer hold itself and black steam flies aloft.

So, with peace profaned, he commands the foremost young men to march

against King Latinus and has them make ready their arms:

they must defend Italy and drive the enemy beyond its borders;

470he will come himself, match enough for Teucrians and Latins both.

Once he had spoken so and invoked the gods over his vows,

the Rutulians vied in urging one another to arms:

one was stirred by Turnus' surpassing beauty and youth,

another by his royal forebears, another by his right hand, renowned in action.

475Dum Turnus Rutulos animis audacibus implet,

Allecto in Teucros Stygiis se concitat alis,

arte nova speculata locum, quo litore pulcher

insidiis cursuque feras agitabat Iulus.

Hic subitam canibus rabiem Cocytia virgo

480obicit et noto naris contingit odore,

ut cervum ardentes agerent; quae prima laborum

causa fuit belloque animos accendit agrestis.

Cervus erat forma praestanti et cornibus ingens,

Tyrrhidae pueri quem matris ab ubere raptum

485nutribant Tyrrhusque pater, cui regia parent

armenta et late custodia credita campi.

Adsuetum imperiis soror omni Silvia cura

mollibus intexens ornabat cornua sertis

pectebatque ferum puroque in fonte lavabat.

490Ille, manum patiens mensaeque adsuetus erili,

errabat silvis rursusque ad limina nota

ipse domum sera quamvis se nocte ferebat.

Hunc procul errantem rabidae venantis Iuli

commovere canes, fluvio cum forte secundo

495deflueret ripaque aestus viridante levaret.

Ipse etiam, eximiae laudis succensus amore,

Ascanius curvo direxit spicula cornu;

nec dextrae erranti deus afuit, actaque multo

perque uterum sonitu perque ilia venit harundo.

500Saucius at quadrupes nota intra tecta refugit

successitque gemens stabulis questuque cruentus

atque imploranti similis tectum omne replebat.

Silvia prima soror, palmis percussa lacertos,

auxilium vocat et duros conclamat agrestis.

505Olli, pestis enim tacitis latet aspera silvis,

inprovisi adsunt, hic torre armatus obusto,

stipitis hic gravidi nodis: quod cuique repertum

rimanti, telum ira facit. Vocat agmina Tyrrhus,

quadrifidam quercum cuneis ut forte coactis

510scindebat, rapta spirans immane securi.

475While Turnus fills the Rutulians' hearts with daring,

Allecto speeds against the Trojans on Stygian wings.

With a new device she marks the place along the shore

where handsome Iulus was hunting game by ambush and chase.

There the maiden of Cocytus flings sudden madness upon the hounds

480and touches their nostrils with a scent they know,

so that, blazing with frenzy, they pursue the stag. This was the first cause

of their woes, and it fired the country folk's hearts for war.

There was a stag of exceptional beauty, with massive antlers.

Tyrrhus' young sons had reared him, snatched from his mother's udder,

485and father Tyrrhus too, whom the royal herds obeyed

and who was entrusted far and wide with guarding the fields.

Silvia, sister to the boys, tended the docile stag with every care;

she adorned him, weaving soft garlands around his antlers,

combed the wild beast, and bathed him in a clear spring.

490Tame to the touch and used to his master's table,

he would roam the woods, then return to the familiar threshold,

coming home of his own accord, however late the night.

Iulus' maddened hunting hounds roused him as he wandered far afield,

when he chanced to be drifting downstream

495and easing the heat along the green bank.

Ascanius too, fired by desire for high renown,

aimed an arrow from his curved bow;

nor did a god fail to aid his uncertain hand. Driven on,

the arrow sped with a mighty whir through belly and flank.

500But wounded, the creature fled back inside the familiar house

and entered the stalls, groaning and bloodstained;

like one pleading for help, he filled the whole house with lament.

Silvia, the sister, was first; beating her arms with her palms,

she calls for help and summons the hardy men of the fields.

505All at once they are there, for a savage scourge lurks in the silent woods:

one is armed with a brand hardened in fire,

another with a bough heavy with knots; whatever each man finds

in his search, anger makes a weapon. Tyrrhus calls his bands together.

Tyrrhus chanced then to be splitting an oak four ways, wedges driven home;

510he snatches up his axe, panting wildly.

511At saeva e speculis tempus dea nacta nocendi

ardua tecta petit stabuli et de culmine summo

pastorale canit signum cornuque recurvo

Tartaream intendit vocem, qua protinus omne

515contremuit nemus et silvae insonuere profundae;

audiit et Triviae longe lacus, audiit amnis

sulfurea Nar albus aqua fontesque Velini,

et trepidae matres pressere ad pectora natos.

Tum vero ad vocem celeres, qua bucina signum

520dira dedit, raptis concurrunt undique telis

indomiti agricolae; nec non et Troïa pubes

Ascanio auxilium castris effundit apertis.

Direxere acies. Non iam certamine agresti,

stipitibus duris agitur sudibusve praeustis,

525sed ferro ancipiti decernunt atraque late

horrescit strictis seges ensibus aeraque fulgent

sole lacessita et lucem sub nubila iactant:

fluctus uti primo coepit cum albescere vento,

paulatim sese tollit mare et altius undas

530erigit, inde imo consurgit ad aethera fundo.

Hic iuvenis primam ante aciem stridente sagitta,

natorum Tyrrhi fuerat qui maximus, Almo,

sternitur; haesit enim sub gutture volnus et udae

vocis iter tenuemque inclusit sanguine vitam.

535Corpora multa virum circa seniorque Galaesus,

dum paci medium se offert, iustissimus unus

qui fuit Ausoniisque olim ditissimus arvis:

quinque greges illi balantum, quina redibant

armenta, et terram centum vertebat aratris.

540Atque ea per campos aequo dum Marte geruntur,

promissi dea facta potens, ubi sanguine bellum

imbuit et primae commisit funera pugnae,

deserit Hesperiam et caeli convexa per auras

Iunonem victrix adfatur voce superba:

545En, perfecta tibi bello discordia tristi:

dic in amicitiam coeant et foedera iungant.

Quando quidem Ausonio respersi sanguine Teucros,

hoc etiam his addam, tua si mihi certa voluntas:

finitimas in bella feram rumoribus urbes

550accendamque animos insani Martis amore,

undique ut auxilio veniunt; spargam arma per agros.

Tum contra Iuno; Terrorum et fraudis abunde est;

stant belli causae, pugnatur comminus armis,

quae fors prima dedit sanguis novus imbuit arma.

555Talia coniugia et talis celebrent hymenaeos

egregium Veneris genus et rex ipse Latinus.

Te super aetherias errare licentius auras

haud pater ille velit, summi regnator Olympi:

cede locis; ego, siqua super fortuna laborum est,

560ipsa regam. Talis dederat Saturnia voces.

Illa autem attollit stridentis anguibus alas

Cocytique petit sedem, supera ardua linquens.

Est locus Italiae medio sub montibus altis,

nobilis et fama multis memoratus in oris,

565Amsancti valles: densis hunc frondibus atrum

urguet utrimque latus nemoris, medioque fragosus

dat sonitum saxis et torto vertice torrens.

Hic specus horrendum et saevi spiracula Ditis

monstrantur, ruptoque ingens Acheronte vorago

570pestiferas aperit fauces, quis condita Erinys,

invisum numen, terras caelumque levabat.

511But from her lookout the savage goddess found her moment to strike.

She climbed the stable's high roof, and from its topmost ridge

she sounded the shepherds' alarm. Through the curving horn

she strained a cry from Tartarus; onward at once

515every grove shuddered and the deep forests rang.

Far off, Trivia's lake heard it; the river heard it too,

the Nar, white with sulfurous water, and Velinus' springs;

and terrified mothers clutched their children to their breasts.

Then truly, at the voice by which the dreadful horn

520gave its signal, the indomitable farmers rushed from every side,

weapons snatched up; and the young Trojans too

poured through the open camp gates to help Ascanius.

Both sides arrayed their lines. No longer was this a rustic contest

waged with heavy clubs or stakes hardened in fire;

525now they fought it out with double-edged steel. Far and wide

a dark crop bristled with drawn swords; bronze flashed,

struck by the sun, and cast its light up beneath the clouds.

Just so, when a swell begins to whiten under the first breath of wind,

little by little the sea heaves up and raises its waves

530higher, then surges from its lowest depths to heaven.

There in the foremost line, struck by a whistling arrow,

Almo, the eldest of Tyrrhus' sons, fell.

The wound lodged beneath his throat and sealed with blood

the moist passage of his voice and his frail life.

535Around him many men's bodies fell, and old Galaesus too,

as he stepped between the ranks to make peace, the one most just

among Ausonians, and once the richest in their fields.

Five flocks of bleating sheep were his; five herds of cattle

came home from pasture, and a hundred plows turned his soil.

540While the fighting still ran even across the fields,

the goddess, having fulfilled her promise, after steeping the war

in blood and dealing death in its first clash,

left Hesperia and passed through the air to heaven's vault.

Victorious, she addressed Juno in a voice of pride:

545"Look: for you discord is complete in grim war.

Tell them now to join in friendship and bind themselves by treaties.

Now that I have spattered the Trojans with Ausonian blood,

I will add this too, if this is your settled will:

with rumors I will drive the neighboring cities into war

550and fire their hearts with mad passion for Mars,

so that they come from every side in aid; I will scatter arms across the fields."

Juno answered: "There is terror and treachery enough.

The causes of war stand firm; armed men fight at close quarters,

and fresh blood has stained the first weapons chance supplied.

555Let Venus' illustrious race and King Latinus himself

celebrate such a marriage, such a wedding.

As for you, the Father who rules high Olympus would hardly wish

you to wander too freely through the upper air.

Leave this realm. Whatever further chance of toil remains,

560I will direct it myself." So spoke Saturn's daughter.

Allecto raised her wings, hissing with snakes,

and made for Cocytus' realm, leaving the heights above.

In central Italy, under high mountains, lies a place

renowned, its fame repeated through many lands:

565the valleys of Amsanctus. Woodland dark with dense foliage

hems the place in on either side; through the middle a crashing

torrent roars among rocks, its current twisting in a whirl.

Here a dreadful cavern and the vents of savage Dis

are shown, and a vast chasm where Acheron bursts through

570opens pestilential jaws. Into them the Fury sank,

a hated power, relieving earth and heaven.

572Nec minus interea extremam Saturnia bello

imponit regina manum. Ruit omnis in urbem

pastorum ex acie numerus caesosque reportant

575Almonem puerum foedatique ora Galaesi

implorantque deos obtestanturque Latinum.

Turnus adest medioque in crimine caedis et igni

terrorem ingeminat: Teucros in regna vocari,

stirpem admisceri Phrygiam, se limine pelli.

580Tum quorum attonitae Baccho nemora avia matres

insultant thiasis (neque enim leve nomen Amatae),

undique collecti coeunt Martemque fatigant.

Ilicet infandum cuncti contra omina bellum,

contra fata deum perverso numine poscunt,

585certatim regis circumstant tecta Latini.

Ille velut pelagi rupes immota resistit,

ut pelagi rupes magno veniente fragore,

quae sese multis circum latrantibus undis

mole tenet; scopuli nequiquam et spumea circum

590saxa fremunt laterique inlisa refunditur alga.

Verum ubi nulla datur caecum exsuperare potestas

consilium et saevae nutu Iunonis eunt res,

multa deos aurasque pater testatus inanis:

Frangimur heu fatis, inquit, ferimurque procella!

595Ipsi has sacrilego pendetis sanguine poenas,

O miseri. Te, Turne, nefas, te triste manebit

supplicium, votisque deos venerabere seris.

Nam mihi parta quies, omnisque in limine portus;

funere felici spolior. Nec plura locutus

600saepsit se tectis rerumque reliquit habenas.

Mos erat Hesperio in Latio, quem protinus urbes

Albanae coluere sacrum nunc maxima rerum

Roma colit, cum prima movent in proelia Martem,

sive Getis inferre manu lacrimabile bellum

605Hyrcanisve Arabisve parant seu tendere ad Indos

Auroramque sequi Parthosque reposcere signa.

Sunt geminae belli portae (sic nomine dicunt)

religione sacrae et saevi formidine Martis;

centum aerei claudunt vectes aeternaque ferri

610robora, nec custos absistit limine Ianus:

has, ubi certa sedet patribus sententia pugnae,

ipse Quirinali trabea cinctuque Gabino

insignis reserat stridentia limina consul,

ipse vocat pugnas; sequitur tum cetera pubes,

615aereaque adsensu conspirant cornua rauco.

Hoc et tum Aeneadis indicere bella Latinus

more iubebatur tristisque recludere portas.

Abstinuit tactu pater aversusque refugit

foeda ministeria et caecis se condidit umbris.

620Tum regina deum caelo delapsa morantis

impulit ipsa manu portas, et cardine verso

belli ferratos rumpit Saturnia postes.

Ardet inexcita Ausonia atque immobilis ante;

Pars pedes ire parat campis, pars arduus altis

625pulverulentus equis furit; omnes arma requirunt.

Pars levis clipeos et spicula lucida tergent

arvina pingui subiguntque in cote secures;

signaque ferre iuvat sonitusque audire tubarum.

Quinque adeo magnae positis incudibus urbes

630tela novant, Atina potens Tiburque superbum,

Ardea Crustumerique et turrigerae Antemnae.

Tegmina tuta cavant capitum flectuntque salignas

umbonum cratis; alii thoracas aenos

aut levis ocreas lento ducunt argento;

635vomeris huc et falcis honos, huc omnis aratri

cessit amor; recoquunt patrios fornacibus enses.

Classica iamque sonant; it bello tessera signum.

Hic galeam tectis trepidus rapit, ille frementis

ad iuga cogit equos clipeumque auroque trilicem

640loricam induitur fidoque accingitur ense.

572Meanwhile the queen, Saturn's daughter, no less lays

the finishing hand to war. From the battlefield the whole band

of shepherds rushes into the city, carrying back the slain:

575young Almo and Galaesus, his face disfigured.

They call on the gods and solemnly appeal to Latinus.

Turnus is there; amid charges of bloodshed, in the blaze

of sedition, he doubles their terror: the Trojans are being called into the kingdom,

Phrygian stock is being mixed with theirs, and he is being driven from the threshold.

580Then the men whose mothers, frenzied by Bacchus, leap

through pathless woods in ritual bands, for Amata's name was no slight influence,

gather from every side and join the clamor for war.

At once they all demand unspeakable war, against the omens,

against the gods' decrees, under a perverse divine will;

585they vie with one another to crowd King Latinus' palace.

He stands firm and unmoved like a rock in the sea,

a rock in the sea when the great crash bears down:

it holds its ground by sheer mass as waves bark all around;

reefs and foaming rocks roar about it in vain,

590and seaweed dashed against its flank is flung back.

But when he has no power to overcome their blind

resolve, and events move at savage Juno's nod,

the father called gods and empty air again and again to witness:

"Alas, the fates crush us, and the storm sweeps us away!

595You yourselves will pay the penalty with sacrilegious blood,

poor fools. Turnus, a monstrous crime awaits you, and a bitter

punishment; you will turn to the gods with vows too late.

My rest was won; my whole haven stood at the threshold.

Now I am robbed of a fortunate death." Without another word,

600he shut himself in his palace and relinquished the reins of rule.

There was a custom in Hesperian Latium, kept sacred thereafter

by the Alban cities, and now kept by Rome, greatest power on earth,

whenever they first rouse Mars to battle:

whether they prepare to carry mournful war by force against the Getae,

605the Hyrcanians or Arabs, or to press on toward the Indians,

pursue the Dawn, and reclaim the standards from the Parthians.

There are twin Gates of War, so they are called,

sacred in religious awe and in the dread of savage Mars.

A hundred bars of bronze close them, with the enduring

610strength of iron; Janus the guardian never leaves the threshold.

When the Fathers have fixed their decision for battle,

the consul himself, distinguished by the Quirinal robe

and Gabine cincture, unbars the shrieking gates.

He himself issues the call to battle; then the rest of the young men follow,

615and bronze horns join in hoarse assent.

By this same custom Latinus was now commanded to declare war

on Aeneas' people and open the grim gates.

The father withheld his hand; he turned away and fled

that foul office, hiding himself in lightless shadow.

620Then the queen of gods swept down from heaven and with her own hand

drove the reluctant gates; their hinges turned,

and Saturn's daughter burst open War's iron-bound doors.

Ausonia, till now unroused and still, takes fire.

Some prepare to march across the fields on foot; others, high

625on tall horses, rage through clouds of dust. All call for arms.

Some polish smooth shields and shining javelins

with thick grease, and hone their axes on the whetstone;

they delight to carry standards and hear the trumpets sound.

Five great cities, their anvils set out,

630forge weapons anew: mighty Atina and proud Tibur,

Ardea, Crustumeri, and tower-crowned Antemnae.

They hollow out helmets to guard the head and bend willow

frames for shields; others fashion breastplates of bronze

or smooth greaves from pliant silver.

635The honor of plowshare and sickle, all love of the plow,

give way to this; they reforge ancestral swords in furnaces.

Now the war trumpets sound; the watchword goes out, the signal for battle.

One man snatches his helmet from the house in haste; another drives

snorting horses to the yoke, and dons his shield and a corselet

640triple-woven with gold, then girds on his trusty sword.

641Pandite nunc Helicona, deae, cantusque movete,

qui bello exciti reges, quae quemque secutae

complerint campos acies, quibus Itala iam tum

floruerit terra alma viris, quibus arserit armis.

645Et meministis enim, divae, et memorare potestis:

ad nos vix tenuis famae perlabitur aura.

Primus init bellum Tyrrhenis asper ab oris

contemptor divom Mezentius agminaque armat.

Filius huic iuxta Lausus, quo pulchrior alter

650non fuit excepto Laurentis corpore Turni,

Lausus, equum domitor debellatorque ferarum,

ducit Agyllina nequiquam ex urbe secutos

mille viros, dignus, patriis qui laetior esset

imperiis et cui pater haud Mezentius esset.

655Post hos insignem palma per gramina currum

victoresque ostentat equos satus Hercule pulchro

pulcher Aventinus, clipeoque insigne paternum

centum angues cinctamque gerit serpentibus hydram;

collis Aventini silva quem Rhea sacerdos

660furtivum partu sub luminis edidit oras,

mixta deo mulier, postquam Laurentia victor

Geryone extincto Tirynthius attigit arva

Tyrrhenoque boves in flumine lavit Hiberas.

Pila manu saevosque gerunt in bella dolones

665et tereti pugnant mucrone veruque Sabello.

Ipse pedes, tegumen torquens immane leonis,

terribili impexum saeta cum dentibus albis

indutus capiti, sic regia tecta subibat,

horridus, Herculeoque umeros innexus amictu.

670Tum gemini fratres Tiburtia moenia linquunt,

fratris Tiburti dictam cognomine gentem,

Catillusque acerque Coras, Argiva iuventus,

et primam ante aciem densa inter tela feruntur:

ceu duo nubigenae cum vertice montis ab alto

675descendunt centauri, Homolen Othrymque nivalem

linquentes cursu rapido; dat euntibus ingens

silva locum et magno cedunt virgulta fragore.

Nec Praenestinae fundator defuit urbis,

Volcano genitum pecora inter agrestia regem

680inventumque focis omnis quem credidit aetas

Caeculus. Hunc late legio comitatur agrestis:

quique altum Praeneste viri quique arva Gabinae

Iunonis gelidumque Anienem et roscida rivis

Hernica saxa colunt, quos dives Anagnia pascit,

685quos, Amasene pater. Non illis omnibus arma,

nec clipei currusve sonant: pars maxima glandes

liventis plumbi spargit, pars spicula gestat

bina manu, fulvosque lupi de pelle galeros

tegmen habent capiti, vestigia nuda sinistri

690instituere pedis, crudus tegit altera pero.

At Messapus, equum domitor, Neptunia proles,

quem neque fas igni cuiquam nec sternere ferro,

iam pridem resides populos desuetaque bello

agmina in arma vocat subito ferrumque retractat.

695Hi Fescenninas acies Aequosque Faliscos.

Hi Soractis habent arces Flaviniaque arva

et Cimini cum monte lacum lucosque Capenos.

Ibant aequati numero regemque canebant,

ceu quondam nivei liquida inter nubila cycni,

700cum sese e pastu referunt et longa canoros

dant per colla modos, sonat amnis et Asia longe

pulsa palus.

Nec quisquam aeratas acies ex agmine tanto

misceri putet, aeriam sed gurgite ab alto

705urgueri volucrum raucarum ad litora nubem.

641Open Helicon now, goddesses, and set the song in motion,

which kings were roused to war, what ranks followed each

and filled the fields; with what warriors, even then, Italy's

bountiful land flourished, with what arms she blazed.

645For you remember, goddesses, and can recount it all;

scarcely a faint breath of fame comes down to us.

First to enter the war, fierce from the Tyrrhenian shores,

is Mezentius, scorner of the gods; he arms his ranks.

Beside him stands his son Lausus, whom only

650Laurentian Turnus surpassed in beauty of form;

Lausus, tamer of horses and conqueror of wild beasts,

leads from Agylla a thousand men who followed him in vain,

a son deserving greater happiness under his father's command

and deserving a father who was not Mezentius.

655Next across the grass comes Aventinus, displaying a palm-marked chariot

and victorious horses, handsome son of handsome Hercules;

on his shield he bears his father's emblem,

a hundred snakes and the Hydra girt with serpents.

The priestess Rhea bore him secretly in the woods

660of the Aventine hill and brought him into the light,

a woman mated with a god, after the victorious Tirynthian,

once Geryon was slain, had reached the Laurentine fields

and bathed his Iberian cattle in the Tyrrhenian river.

His men carry heavy javelins in hand and savage iron-pointed pikes to war,

665and fight with tapering blades and Sabellian spit-spears.

He himself goes on foot, wrapping a huge lion's hide around him,

shaggy with fearsome bristles and white teeth,

and wearing it over his head; so he would enter the royal halls,

bristling, the Herculean mantle knotted over his shoulders.

670Then the twin brothers leave Tibur's walls

and the people named after their brother Tiburtus:

Catillus and fierce Coras, Argive youths,

rush before the foremost line through a storm of missiles:

like two cloud-born Centaurs descending from a mountain's high

675summit, leaving Homole and snowy Othrys

at headlong speed; the vast forest opens a path before them,

and the thickets give way with a mighty crash.

Nor was Praeneste's founder absent,

Caeculus, whom every age believed to be Vulcan's son,

680a king among country flocks, found beside the hearth.

A rustic legion follows him from far and wide:

men who dwell in high Praeneste and in the fields

of Gabinian Juno, beside cold Anio and among

Hernican rocks watered by streams; those rich Anagnia feeds,

685and those you feed, father Amasenus. Not all of them bear arms;

no shields or chariots ring: most of them shower

bullets of livid lead; some carry javelins,

two in hand; tawny caps of wolfskin

cover their heads. Each plants the naked track of his left

690foot, while a rawhide boot covers the other.

But Messapus, tamer of horses, Neptune's son,

whom no man may fell, whether by fire or steel,

suddenly calls to arms peoples long inactive

and ranks unused to war, and takes up steel again.

695These were the Fescennine ranks and the Aequi Falisci.

They hold Soracte's heights and the Flavinian fields,

Lake Ciminus with its mountain, and the groves of Capena.

In measured ranks they marched and sang of their king,

like snow-white swans at times among the clouds of a clear sky,

700when they return from feeding and through their long necks

pour tuneful measures; the river rings, and far away the Asian

marsh, struck by their song, rings back.

No one would take that vast column for bronze-clad ranks

massing together, but for an airy cloud of hoarse birds

705driven from the deep toward the shores.

706Ecce Sabinorum prisco de sanguine magnum

agmen agens Clausus magnique ipse agminis instar,

Claudia nunc a quo diffunditur et tribus et gens

per Latium, postquam in partem data Roma Sabinis.

710Una ingens Amiterna cohors priscique Quirites,

Ereti manus omnis oliviferaeque Mutuscae;

qui Nomentum urbem, qui Rosea rura Velini,

qui Tetricae horrentis rupes montemque Severum

Casperiamque colunt Forulosque et flumen Himellae,

715qui Tiberim Fabarimque bibunt, quos frigida misit

Nursia, et Hortinae classes populique Latini,

quosque secans infaustum interluit Allia nomen:

quam multi Libyco volvuntur marmore fluctus

saevus ubi Orion hibernis conditur undis;

720vel cum sole novo densae torrentur aristae

aut Hermi campo aut Lyciae flaventibus arvis.

Scuta sonant pulsuque pedum conterrita tellus.

Hinc Agamemnonius, Troiani nominis hostis,

curru iungit Halaesus equos Turnoque ferocis

725mille rapit populos, vertunt felicia Baccho

Massica qui rastris et quos de collibus altis

Aurunci misere patres, Sidicinaque iuxta

aequora quique Cales linquunt, amnisque vadosi

accola Volturni, pariterque Saticulus asper

730Oscorumque manus. Teretes sunt aclydes illis

tela, sed haec lento mos est aptare flagello;

laevas caetra tegit, falcati comminus enses.

Nec tu carminibus nostris indictus abibis,

Oebale, quem generasse Telon Sebethide nympha

735fertur, Teleboum Capreas cum regna teneret,

iam senior; patriis sed non et filius arvis

contentus late iam tum dicione premebat

Sarrastis populos et quae rigat aequora Sarnus

quique Rufras Batulumque tenent atque arva Celemnae

740et quos maliferae despectant moenia Abellae,

Teutonico ritu soliti torquere cateias,

tegmina quis capitum raptus de subere cortex,

aerataeque micant peltae, micat aereus ensis.

Et te montosae misere in proelia Nersae,

745Ufens, insignem fama et felicibus armis;

horrida praecipue cui gens adsuetaque multo

venatu nemorum, duris Aequicula glaebis.

Armati terram exercent, semperque recentis

convectare iuvat praedas et vivere rapto.

750Quin et Marruvia venit de gente sacerdos,

fronde super galeam et felici comptus oliva.

Archippi regis missu, fortissimus Umbro,

vipereo generi et graviter spirantibus hydris

spargere qui somnos cantuque manuque solebat

755mulcebatque iras et morsus arte levabat.

Sed non Dardaniae medicari cuspidis ictum

evaluit, neque eum iuvere in volnera cantus

somniferi et Marsis quaesitae montibus herbae.

Te nemus Angitiae, vitrea te Fucinus unda,

760te liquidi flevere lacus.

Ibat et Hippolyti proles pulcherrima bello,

Virbius, insignem quem mater Aricia misit,

eductum Egeriae lucis umentia circum

litora, pinguis ubi et placabilis ara Dianae.

765Namque ferunt fama Hippolytum, postquam arte novercae

occiderit patriasque explerit sanguine poenas

turbatis distractus equis, ad sidera rursus

aetheria et superas caeli venisse sub auras,

Paeoniis revocatum herbis et amore Dianae.

770Tum pater omnipotens, aliquem indignatus ab umbris

mortalem infernis ad lumina surgere vitae,

ipse repertorem medicinae talis et artis

fulmine Phoebigenam Stygias detrusit ad undas.

At Trivia Hippolytum secretis alma recondit

775sedibus et nymphae Egeriae nemorique relegat,

solus ubi in silvis Italis ignobilis aevom

exigeret versoque ubi nomine Virbius esset.

Unde etiam templo Triviae lucisque sacratis

cornipedes arcentur equi, quod litore currum

780et iuvenem monstris pavidi effudere marinis.

Filius ardentis haud setius aequore campi

exercebat equos curruque in bella ruebat.

706Look: Clausus, sprung from the ancient blood of the Sabines,

leads a vast column, himself the equal of a vast column;

from him the Claudian tribe and clan now spread

through Latium, since Rome was granted in part to the Sabines.

710With him came the immense Amiternan cohort and the ancient Quirites,

all the force of Eretum and olive-bearing Mutusca;

those who dwell in Nomentum, in the Rosean fields of Velinus,

on Tetrica's bristling cliffs and Mount Severus,

in Casperia and Foruli and beside Himella's stream;

715those who drink the Tiber and Fabaris; those sent by cold

Nursia; Horta's companies and the peoples of Latium;

and those through whose lands Allia, that ill-fated name, divides as it flows:

they were as many as waves rolling over Libyan waters

when storm-bringing Orion sets beneath winter seas,

720or dense ears of grain scorched by the young sun

on Hermus' plain or across Lycia's yellowing fields.

Shields clash; the earth quakes under the pounding of their feet.

Next Halaesus, the Agamemnonian, enemy of the Trojan name,

yokes his horses to the chariot and hurries to Turnus

725a thousand fierce peoples: men who turn with mattocks

the Massic hills, rich in Bacchus; men whom from high hills

the Auruncan fathers sent, and those from neighboring Sidicinian

plains; those who leave Cales and dwell beside shallow

Volturnus, together with the fierce Saticulan

730and the Oscan band. Their missiles are smooth-shafted aclydes,

which they customarily fit with a pliant thong;

a caetra shields their left sides; for close combat, hooked swords.

Nor will you pass unheralded in our songs,

Oebalus, whom Telon by a Sebethian nymph

735is said to have fathered, when he held the Teleboan realm

at Capreae, already old. But his son, not content

with his father's lands, even then held beneath his far-flung sway

the Sarrastian peoples and the plains watered by Sarnus,

those who hold Rufrae and Batulum and Celemna's fields,

740and those the walls of apple-bearing Abella overlook,

men accustomed to hurl cateiae in the Teutonic manner.

Their headgear is bark stripped from the cork oak;

bronze-faced pelta shields flash, and bronze swords flash.

Mountainous Nersae sent you too to battle,

745Ufens, high in renown and fortunate in arms.

Your people, the Aequiculi, were harsh above all, hardened

by long hunts in the woods and by unyielding soil.

Armed, they work the earth, and always delight

in carrying home fresh plunder and living on what they seize.

750Then too a priest came from the Marruvian people,

decked above his helmet with foliage of fruitful olive,

sent by King Archippus: Umbro, bravest of all,

who over the viper brood and deadly-breathing water snakes

used to spread sleep by incantation and touch;

755he soothed their rage and by his art cured their bites.

Yet he could not heal the blow of a Dardanian spear point,

nor against his wounds did sleep-bringing charms avail him,

nor herbs gathered in the Marsian mountains.

Angitia's grove wept for you; Fucinus' glassy water

760wept for you, and the clear lakes wept for you.

Virbius too went to war, Hippolytus' most beautiful offspring,

illustrious when mother Aricia sent him forth,

reared around the dewy shores of Egeria's groves,

where Diana's altar stands rich and propitious.

765For tradition tells that Hippolytus, after he fell through his stepmother's craft

and sated his father's vengeance with blood, torn apart

by his maddened horses, returned once more

to the stars of heaven and the upper air,

recalled by healing herbs and Diana's love.

770Then Jupiter, the almighty Father, outraged that any mortal

should rise from the shades below to the light of life,

himself hurled the inventor of such medicine and art,

Phoebus' son, with a thunderbolt down to the Stygian waters.

But gracious Trivia hides Hippolytus in a secret dwelling

775and consigns him to the nymph Egeria and the grove,

so that alone and unknown in Italy's woods he might live out

his years and, under a changed name, be Virbius.

Thus horn-hoofed horses too are barred from Trivia's temple

and sacred groves, because on the shore, panicked

780by monsters of the sea, they threw chariot and young man down.

Yet Hippolytus' son, none the less, trained his fiery horses

over the level field and rushed in his chariot to war.

783Ipse inter primos praestanti corpore Turnus

vertitur arma tenens et toto vertice supra est.

785Cui triplici crinita iuba galea alta Chimaeram

sustinet, Aetnaeos efflantem faucibus ignis:

tam magis illa fremens et tristibus effera flammis,

quam magis effuso crudescunt sanguine pugnae.

At levem clipeum sublatis cornibus Io

790auro insignibat, iam saetis obsita, iam bos

(argumentum ingens), et custos virginis Argus

caelataque amnem fundens pater Inachus urna.

Insequitur nimbus peditum clipeataque totis

agmina densentur campis, Argivaque pubes

795Auruncaeque manus, Rutuli veteresque Sicani

et Sacranae acies et picti scuta Labici;

qui saltus, Tiberine, tuos sacrumque Numici

litus arant Rutulosque exercent vomere colles

Circaeumque iugum, quis Iuppiter Anxurus arvis

800praesidet et viridi gaudens Feronia luco;

qua Saturae iacet atra palus gelidusque per imas

quaerit iter vallis atque in mare conditur Ufens.

Hos super advenit Volsca de gente Camilla

agmen agens equitum et florentis aere catervas,

805bellatrix, non illa colo calathisve Minervae

femineas adsueta manus, sed proelia virgo

dura pati cursuque pedum praevertere ventos.

Illa vel intactae segetis per summa volaret

gramina nec teneras cursu laesisset aristas,

810vel mare per medium fluctu suspensa tumenti

ferret iter celeris nec tingueret aequore plantas.

Illam omnis tectis agrisque effusa iuventus

turbaque miratur matrum et prospectat euntem,

attonitis inhians animis, ut regius ostro

815velet honos levis umeros, ut fibula crinem

auro internectat, Lyciam ut gerat ipsa pharetram

et pastoralem praefixa cuspide myrtum.

783Turnus himself moves among the foremost, commanding in stature,

weapons in hand, and towers a full head above them.

785His tall helmet, its triple crest flowing, bears the Chimaera,

breathing Aetnaean fires from her jaws:

she roars all the louder, her baleful flames more savage,

the more the fighting grows savage with blood spilled.

Yet on his smooth shield Io, her horns uplifted,

790was emblazoned in gold, already covered in bristles, already a cow

(a mighty device), with Argus, the maiden's guard,

and father Inachus engraved, pouring a river from his urn.

A storm-cloud of infantry follows; shield-bearing columns

mass across every field: Argive youth,

795Auruncan bands, Rutulians, and ancient Sicanians,

Sacranian ranks, and Labici with painted shields;

all those who till your glades, Tiberinus, and the sacred shore

of Numicus, and work with the plow the Rutulian hills

and the Circaean ridge; over their fields Jupiter Anxur

800presides, and Feronia delights in her green grove,

where Satura's black marsh lies and the cold Ufens

seeks a course through low valleys and vanishes into the sea.

Last came Camilla, born of the Volscian people,

leading a column of horsemen and squadrons bright with bronze,

805a warrior. She had never accustomed her woman's hands

to the distaff or Minerva's workbaskets; the maiden learned

instead to endure hard battles and outrun the winds on foot.

She could fly over an untouched field, skimming its highest blades,

and never bruise the tender ears of grain in her course;

810or race through mid-sea, poised above a swelling wave,

and never wet her swift soles in the water.

All the young men, streaming from houses and fields,

and the crowd of mothers marvel at her and watch her pass,

open-mouthed and spellbound at how the splendor of royal purple

815clothes her smooth shoulders, how a golden clasp binds

her hair, how she herself bears a Lycian quiver

and a shepherd's myrtle shaft tipped with a spearpoint.