Aeneid

Virgil

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

  1. Camilla's light-armed troop, its virgin chief
  2. now fallen, were the first to fly; in flight
  3. the panic-stricken Rutule host is seen
  4. and Acer bold; his captains in dismay
  5. with shattered legions from the peril fly,
  6. and goad their horses to the city wall.
  7. Not one sustains the Trojan charge, or stands
  8. in arms against the swift approach of death.
  9. Their bows unstrung from drooping shoulder fall,
  10. and clatter of hoof-beats shakes the crumbling ground.
  11. On to the city in a blinding cloud
  12. the dust uprolls. From watch-towers Iooking forth,
  13. the women smite their breasts and raise to heaven
  14. shrill shouts of fear. Those fliers who first passed
  15. the open gates were followed by the foe,
  16. routed and overwhelmed. They could not fly
  17. a miserable death, but were struck down
  18. in their own ancient city, or expired
  19. before the peaceful shrines of hearth and home.
  20. Then some one barred the gates. They dared not now
  21. give their own people entrance, and were deaf
  22. to all entreaty. Woeful deaths ensued,
  23. both of the armed defenders of the gate,
  24. and of the foe in arms. The desperate band,
  25. barred from the city in the face and eyes
  26. of their own weeping parents, either dropped
  27. with headlong and inevitable plunge
  28. into the moat below; or, frantic, blind,
  29. battered with beams against the stubborn door
  30. and columns strong. Above in conflict wild
  31. even the women (who for faithful love
  32. of home and country schooled them to be brave
  33. Camilla's way) rained weapons from the walls,
  34. and used oak-staves and truncheons shaped in flame,
  35. as if, well-armed in steel, each bosom bold
  36. would fain in such defence be first to die.