Aeneid

Virgil

Vergil. The Aeneid of Virgil. Williams, Theodore, C, translator. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1910.

  1. Meanwhile, with two white coursers to their car,
  2. the brothers Lucagus and Liger drove
  3. into the heart of battle: Liger kept
  4. with skilful hand the manage of the steeds;
  5. bold Lucagus swung wide his naked sword.
  6. Aeneas, by their wrathful brows defied,
  7. brooked not the sight, but to the onset flew,
  8. huge-looming, with adverse and threatening spear.
  9. Cried Liger, “Not Achilles' chariot, ours!
  10. Nor team of Diomed on Phrygia's plain!
  11. The last of life and strife shall be thy meed
  12. upon this very ground.” Such raving word
  13. flowed loud from Liger's lip: not with a word
  14. the Trojan hero answered him, but flung
  15. his whirling spear; and even as Lucagus
  16. leaned o'er the horses, goading them with steel,
  17. and, left foot forward, gathered all his strength
  18. to strike—the spear crashed through the under rim
  19. of his resplendent shield and entered deep
  20. in the left groin; then from the chariot fallen,
  21. the youth rolled dying on the field, while thus
  22. pious Aeneas paid him taunting words:
  23. “O Lucagus, thy chariot did not yield
  24. because of horses slow to fly, or scared
  25. by shadows of a foe. It was thyself
  26. leaped o'er the wheel and fled.” So saying, he grasped
  27. the horses by the rein. The brother then,
  28. spilled also from the car, reached wildly forth
  29. his helpless hands: “O, by thy sacred head,
  30. and by the parents who such greatness gave,
  31. good Trojan, let me live! Some pity show
  32. to prostrate me!” But ere he longer sued,
  33. Aeneas cried, “Not so thy language ran
  34. a moment gone! Die thou! Nor let this day
  35. brother from brother part!” Then where the life
  36. hides in the bosom, he thrust deep his sword.
  37. Thus o'er the field of war the Dardan King
  38. moved on, death-dealing: like a breaking flood
  39. or cloudy whirlwind seemed his wrath. Straightway
  40. the boy Ascanius from the ramparts came,
  41. his warriors with him; for the siege had failed.