by Virgil
Your blood must pay, the forfeit for your wrong.
Thee, Turnus, thee the avenging fiends await,
Thou, too, the gods shalt weary, but too late.
My rest is won, and in the port I ride;
Happy in all, had not an envious fate
Denied a happy ending.” Thus he cried, 712
And to his chamber fled, and flung the crown aside.
LXXXI . A custom in Hesperian Latium reigned,
Which Alban cities kept with sacred care,
And Rome, the world’s great mistress, hath retained.
Thus still they wake the War-god, whensoe’er
For Arabs or Hyrcanians they prepare,
Or Getic tribes the tearful woes of war,
Or push to Ind their distant arms, or dare
To track the footsteps of the Morning star, 721
And claim their standards back from Parthia’s hosts afar.
LXXXII . Twain are the Gates of War, to dreadful Mars
With awe kept sacred and religious pride.
A hundred brazen bolts and iron bars
Shut fast the doors, and Janus stands beside.
Here, when the senators on war decide,
The Consul, decked in his Quirinal pall
And Gabine cincture, flings the portals wide,
And cries to arms; the warriors, one and all, 730
With blare of brazen horns make answer to the call.
LXXXIII . ’Twas thus that now Latinus they require
To dare Æneas’ followers to the fray,
And ope the portals. But the good old Sire
Shrank from the touch, and, shuddering with dismay,
Shunned the foul office, and abjured the day.
Then, downward darting from the skies afar,
Heaven’s empress with her right hand wrenched away
The lingering bars. The grating hinges jar, 739
As back Saturnia thrusts the iron gates of War.
LXXXIV . Then woke Ausonia from her sleep. Forth swarm
Footmen and horsemen, and in wild career
Whirl up the dust. “Arm,” cry the warriors, “arm!”
With unctuous lard their polished shields they smear,
And whet the axe, and scour the rusty spear.
Their banners wave, their trumpets sound the fight.
Five towns their anvils for the war uprear,
Crustumium, Tibur, glorying in her might, 748
Ardea, Atina strong, Antemnæ’s tower-girt height.
LXXXV . Lithe twigs of osier in their shields they weave,
And shape the casque, and in the mould prepare
The brazen breastplate and the silver greave.
Scorned lie the spade, the sickle and the share,
Their fathers’ falchions to the forge they bear.
Now peals the clarion; through the host hath spread
The watch-word. Helmets from the walls they tear,
And yoke the steeds. In triple gold arrayed, 757
Each grasps the burnished shield, and girds the trusty blade.
LXXXVI . Now open Helicon; awake the strain,
Ye Muses. Aid me, that the tale be told,
What kings were roused, what armies filled the plain,
What battles blazed, what men of valiant mould
Graced fair Italia in those days of old.
Aid ye, for ye are goddesses, and clear
Can ye remember, and the tale unfold.
But faint and feeble is the voice we hear, 766
A slender breath of Fame, that falters on the ear.
LXXXVII . First came with armed men from Etruria’s coast
Mezentius, scorner of the Gods. Next came
His son, young Lausus, comeliest of the host,
Save Turnus — Lausus, who the steed could tame,
And quell wild beasts and track the woodland game.
A hundred warriors from Agylla’s town
He leads — ah vainly! though he died with fame.
Proud had he been and worthy to have known 775
A nobler sire’s commands, a nobler sire to own.
LXXXVIII . With conquering steeds triumphant o’er the mead,
His chariot, crowned with palm-leaves, proudly wheeled
The comely Aventinus, glorious seed
Of glorious Hercules; the blazoned shield
His father’s Hydra and her snakes revealed.
Him, when of old, the monstrous Geryon slain,
The lord of Tiryns, victor of the field,
Reached in his wanderings the Laurentian plain, 784
And bathed in Tiber’s stream the captured herds of Spain,
LXXXIX . The priestess Rhea, in the secret shade
Of wooded Aventine, brought forth to light,
A god commingling with a mortal maid.
With pikes and poles his followers join the fight,
Their swords are sharp, their Sabine spears are bright.
Himself afoot, a lion’s bristling hide
With sharp teeth set in rows of glittering white,
Swings o’er his forehead, as with eager stride, 793
Clad in his father’s cloak, he seeks the monarch’s side.
XC . Twin brothers came from Tibur — such the name
Tiburtus gave it — one Catillus hight,
And one fierce Coras, each of Argive fame,
Each in the van, where deadliest raves the fight.
As when two cloud-born Centaurs in their might
From some tall mountain with swift strides descend,
Steep Homole, or Othrys’ snow-capt height;
The thickets yield, trees crash, and branches bend, 802
As with resistless force the trampled woods they rend.
XCI . Nor lacked Præneste’s founder, Vulcan’s child,
Found on the hearthstone — if the tale be true, —
Brave Cæculus, the Shepherds’ monarch styled.
Forth from Præneste swarmed the rustic crew,
From Juno’s Gabium to the fight they flew,
From ice-cold Anio, swoln with wintry rain,
From Hernic rocks, which mountain streams bedew,
From fat Anagnia’s pastures, from the plain 811
Where Amasenus rolls majestic to the main.
XCII . With diverse arms they hasten to the war;
Not all can boast the clashing of the shield,
Not all the thunder of the rattling car.
These sling their leaden bullets o’er the field,
Those in each hand the deadly javelin wield.
With caps of fur their rugged brows are dight,
The tawny covering from the dark wolf peeled;
Bare is the left foot, as they march to fight, 820
And, rough with raw bull’s-hide, a sandal guards the right.
XCIII . Next came Messapus, tamer of the steed,
Great Neptune’s son. Fire nor the steel’s sharp stroke
Could lay him lifeless, so the Fates decreed.
Grasping his sword, a laggard race he woke,
Disused to war, and tardy to provoke.
Behind him throng Fescennia’s ranks to fight,
Men from Flavinia, and Faliscum’s folk,
And those whom fair Capena’s groves delight, 829
Ciminius’ mount and lake, and steep Soracte’s height.
XCIV . With measured tramp, their monarch’s praise they sing,
Like snowy swans, the liquid clouds among,
Which homeward from their feeding ply the wing,
When o’er Caÿster’s marish, loud and long,
The echoes float of their melodious song.
None, sure, such countless multitudes would deem
The mail-clad warriors of an armèd throng:
Nay, rather, like a dusky cloud they seem 838
Of sea-fowl, landward driven with many a hoarse-voiced scream.
XCV . Lo, Clausus next; a mighty host he led,
Himself a host. From Sabine sires he came,
And Latium thence the Claudian house o’erspread,
When Romans first with Sabines dared to claim
Coequal lordship and a share of fame.
With Amiternus came Eretum’s band;
From fair Velinus’ dewy fields they came,
From olive-crowned Mutusca, from the land 847
Where proud Nomentum’s towers the fruitful plains command.
XCVI . From the rough crags of Tetrica came down
Her hosts; they came from tall Severus’ flank,
From Foruli and fam’d Casperia’s town,
Wash’d by Himella’s waves, and those who drank
Of Fabaris, or dwelt on Tiber’s bank.
Those, too, whom Nursia sendeth from the snows,
And Horta’s sons, in many an ordered rank,
And tribes of Latin origin, and those 856
Between whose parted fields th’ ill-omened Allia flows.
XCVII . As roll the billows on the Libyan deep,
When fierce Orion in the wintry main
Sinks, dark with tempests, and the waves upleap;
As, parched with suns of summer, stands the grain
On Hermus’ fields, or Lycia’s golden plain;
So countless swarm the multitudes around
Bold Clausus, and the wide air rings again
With echoes, as their clashing shields resound, 865
And with the tramp of feet they shake the trembling ground.
XCVIII . There Agamemnon’s kinsman yokes his steeds,
Halæsus. Trojans were his foes, his friend
Was Turnus. Lo, a thousand tribes he leads;
Those who on Massic hills the vineyards tend,
Those whom Auruncans from their mountains send.
From Sidicinum and her neighbouring plain,
From Cales, from Volturnus’ shoals they wend.
From steep Saticulum the sturdy swain, 874
Fierce for the fray, comes down and joins the Oscan train.
XCIX . Light barbs they fling, from pliant thongs of hide,
A leathern target o’er the left is strung,
And short, curved daggers the close fight decide.
Nor, OEbalus, those gallant hosts among,
Shalt thou go nameless, and thy praise unsung,
Thou, from old Telon, as the tale hath feigned,
And beauteous Sebethis, the wood-nymph, sprung,
O’er Teleboan Caprea when he reigned; 883
But Caprea’s narrow realm proud OEbalus disdained.
C . Far stretched his rule; Sarrastians owned his sway,
And they, whose lands the Sarnian waters drain,
And they, who till Celenna’s fields, and they
Whom Batulum and Rufræ’s walls contain,
And where through apple-orchards o’er the plain
Shines fair Abella. Deftly can they wield
Their native arms; the Teuton’s lance they strain;
Bark helmets guard them, from the cork-tree peeled, 892
And brazen are their swords, and brazen every shield.
CI . From Nersa’s hills, by prosperous arms renowned,
Comes Ufens, with his Æquians, in array.
Rude huntsmen these; in arms the stubborn ground
They till, themselves as stubborn. Day by day
They snatch fresh plunder, and they live by prey.
There, too, brave Umbro, of Marruvian fame,
Sent by his king Archippus, joins the fray.
Around his helmet, for in arms he came, 901
The auspicious olive’s leaves the sacred priest proclaim.
CII . The rank-breath’d Hydra and the viper’s rage
With hand and voice he lulled asleep; his art
Their bite could heal, their fury could assuage.
Alas! no medicine can heal the smart
Wrought by the griding of the Dardan dart.
Nor Massic herbs, nor slumberous charms avail
To cure the wound, that rankles in his heart.
Ah, hapless! thee Anguitia’s bowering vale, 910
Thee Fucinus’ clear waves and liquid lakes bewail!
CIII . Next came to war Hippolytus’ fair child,
The comely Virbius, whom Aricia bore
Amid Egeria’s grove, where rich and mild
Stands Dian’s altar on the meadowy shore.
For when (Fame tells) Hippolytus of yore
Was slain, the victim of a stepdame’s spite,
And, torn by frightened horses, quenched with gore
His father’s wrath, famed Pæon’s herbs of might 919
And Dian’s fostering love restored him to the light.
CIV . Wroth then was Jove, that one of mortal clay
Should rise by mortal healing from the grave,
And change the nether darkness for the day,
And him, whose leechcraft thus availed to save,
Hurled with his lightning to the Stygian wave.
But kind Diana, in her pitying love,
Concealed her darling in a secret cave,
And fair Egeria nursed him in her grove, 928
Far from the view of men, and wrath of mighty Jove.
CV . There, changed in name to Virbius, but to fame
Unknown, through life in Latin woods he strayed.
Thenceforth, in memory of the deed of shame,
No horn-hoof’d steeds are suffered to invade
Chaste Trivia’s temple or her sacred glade,
Since, scared by Ocean’s monsters, from his car
They dashed him by the deep. Yet, undismayed,
His son, young Virbius, o’er the plains afar 937
The fleet-horsed chariot drives, and hastens to the war.
CVI . High in the forefront towered with stately frame
Turnus himself. His three-plumed helmet bore
A dragon fierce, that breathed Ætnean flame.
The bloodier waxed the battle, so the more
Its fierceness blazed, the louder was its roar.
Behold, the heifer on his shield, the sign
Of Io’s fate; there Argus ever o’er
The virgin watches, and the stream doth shine, 946
Poured from the pictured urn of Inachus divine.
CVII . Next come the shielded footmen in a cloud,
Auruncan bands, Sicanians famed of yore,
Argives, Rutulians, and Sacranians proud.
Their painted shields the brave Labicians bore;
From Tibur’s glades, from blest Numicia’s shore,
From Circe’s mount, from where great Jove presides
O’er Anxur, from Feronia’s grove they pour,
From Satura’s dark pool, where Ufens glides 955
Cold through the deepening vales, and mingles with the tides.
CVIII . Last came Camilla, with the Volscian bands,
Fierce horsemen, each in glittering arms bedight,
A warrior-virgin; ne’er her tender hands
Had plied the distaff; war was her delight,
Her joy to race the whirlwind and to fight.
Swift as the breeze, she skimmed the golden grain,
Nor bent the tapering wheatstalks in her flight,
So swift, the billows of the heaving main 964
Touched not her flying fleet, she scoured the watery plain.
CIX . Forth from each field and homestead, hurrying, throng,
With wonder, men and matrons, young and old,
And greet the maiden as she moves along.
Entranced with greedy rapture, they behold
Her royal scarf, in many a purple fold,
Float o’er her shining shoulders, and her hair
Bound in a coronal of clasping gold,
Her Lycian quiver, and her pastoral spear 973
Of myrtle, tipt with steel, and her, the maid, how fair!
BOOK EIGHT
ARGUMENT
Mustering of Italians, and embassage to Diomedes (1-18). Tiber in a dream heartens Æneas and directs him to Evander for succour. Æneas sacrifices the white sow and her litter to Juno, and reaches Evander’s city Pallanteum — the site of Rome (19-117). Æneas and Evander meet and feast together. The story of Cacus and the praises of Hercules are told and sung. Evander shows his city to Æneas (118-432). Venus asks and obtains from Vulcan divine armour for her son (433-531). At daybreak Evander promises Æneas further succour. Their colloquy is interrupted by a sign from heaven (532-630). Despatches are sent to Ascanius and prayers for aid to the Tuscans. Æneas, his men and Evander’s son Pallas are sent forth by Evander with prayers for their success (631-720). Venus brings to Æneas the armour wrought by Vulcan (721-738). Virgil describes the shield, on which are depicted, not only the trials and triumphs of Rome’s early kings and champions, but the final conflict also at Actium between East and West and the world-wide empire of Augustus (739-846).
I . When Turnus from Laurentum’s tower afar
Signalled the strife, and bade the war-horns bray,
And stirred the mettled steeds, and woke the war,
Hearts leaped at once; all Latium swore that day
The oath of battle, burning for the fray.
Messapus, Ufens, and Mezentius vain,
Who scorned the Gods, ride foremost. Far away
They scour the fields; the shepherd and the swain 1
Rush to the war, and bare of ploughmen lies the plain.
II . To Diomed posts Venulus, to crave
His aid, and tell how Teucrians hold the land;
Æneas with his gods hath crossed the wave,
And claims the throne his vaunted Fates demand.
How many a tribe hath joined the Dardan’s band,
How spreads his fame through Latium. What the foe
May purpose next, what conquest he hath planned,
Should friendly fortune speed the coming blow, 10
Better than Latium’s king Ætolia’s lord must know.
III . So Latium fares. Æneas, tost with tides
Of thought, for well he marked the growing fight,
This way and that his eager mind divides,
Reflects, revolves and ponders on his plight.
