Aeneid

Virgil

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

A sacred custom the Hesperian land
of Latium knew, by all the Alban hills
honored unbroken, which wide-ruling Rome
keeps to this day, when to new stroke she stirs
the might of Mars; if on the Danube's wave
resolved to fling the mournful doom of war,
or on the Caspian folk or Arabs wild;
or chase the morning far as India's verge,
ind from the Parthian despot wrest away
our banners Iost. Twin Gates of War there be,
of fearful name, to Mars' fierce godhead vowed:
a hundred brass bars shut them, and the strength
of uncorrupting steel; in sleepless watch
Janus the threshold keeps. 'T is here, what time
the senate's voice is war, the consul grave
in Gabine cincture and Quirinal shift
himself the griding hinges backward moves,
and bids the Romans arm; obedient then
the legionary host makes Ioud acclaim,
and hoarse consent the brazen trumpets blow.
Thus King Latinus on the sons of Troy
was urged to open war, and backward roll
those gates of sorrow: but the aged king
recoiled, refused the loathsome task, and fled
to solitary shades. Then from the skies
the Queen of gods stooped down, and her sole hand
the lingering portal moved; Saturnia
swung on their hinges the barred gates of war.
ausonia from its old tranquillity
bursts forth in flame. Foot-soldiers through the field
run to and fro; and mounted on tall steeds
the cavaliers in clouds of dust whirl by.
All arm in haste. Some oil the glittering shield
or javelin bright, or on the whetstone wear
good axes to an edge, while joyful bands
uplift the standards or the trumpets blow.
Five mighty cities to their anvils bring
new-tempered arms: Atina—martial name —
proud Tibur, Ardea, Crustumium,
and river-walled Antemnae, crowned with towers
strong hollow helmets on their brows they draw
and weave them willow-shields; or melt and mould
corselets of brass or shining silver greaves;
none now for pruning-hook or sacred plough
have love or care: but old, ancestral swords
for hardier tempering to the smith they bring.
Now peals the clarion; through the legions pass
the watchwords: the impatient yeoman takes
his helmet from the idle roof-tree hung;
while to his chariot the master yokes
the mettled war-horse, dons a shining shield
and golden mail, and buckles his good sword.

Virgins of Helicon, renew my song!
Instruct me what proud kings to battle flown
with following legions throng the serried plain.
Tell me what heroes and illustrious arms
Italia's bosom in her dawning day
benignant bore: for your celestial minds,
have memory of the past, but faint and low
steals glory's whisper on a mortal ear.

Foremost in fight, from shores Etrurian came
Mezentius, scornful rebel against Heaven,
his people all in arms; and at his side
Lausus his heir (no fairer youth than he,
save Turnus of Laurentum), Lausus, skilled
o break proud horses and wild beasts to quell;
who from Agylla's citadel in vain
led forth his thousand warriors: worthy he
to serve a nobler sire, and happier far
he had ne'er been born Mezentius' son.

Next after these, conspicuous o'er the plain,
with palm-crowned chariot and victorious steeds,
rode forth well-moulded Aventinus, sprung
from shapely Hercules; upon the shield
his blazon was a hundred snakes, and showed
his father's hydra-cincture serpentine;
him deep in Aventine's most secret grove
the priestess Rhea bore—a mortal maid
clasped in a god's embrace the wondrous day
when, flushed with conquest of huge Geryon,
the lord of Tiryns to Laurentum drove,
and washed in Tiber's wave th' Iberian kine.
His followers brandished pointed pikes and staves,
or smooth Sabellian bodkin tipped with steel;
but he, afoot, swung round him as he strode
a monstrous lion-skin, its bristling mane
and white teeth crowning his ferocious brow:
for garbed as Hercules he sought his King.

Then came twin brethren, leaving Tibur's keep
(named from Tiburtus, brother of them twain)
Catillus and impetuous Coras, youth
of Argive seed, who foremost in the van
pressed ever where the foemen densest throng:
as when two centaurs, children of the cloud,
from mountain-tops descend in swift career,
the snows of Homole and Othrys leaving,
while crashing thickets in their pathway fall.

Nor was Praeneste's founder absent there,
by Vulcan sired, among the herds and hinds,
and on a hearth-stone found (so runs the tale
each pious age repeats) King Caeculus
with rustic legions gathered from afar:
from steep Praeneste and the Gabian vale
to Juno dear, from Anio's cold stream,
from upland Hernic rocks and foaming rills,
from rich Anagnia's pastures, and the plain
whence Amasenus pours his worshipped wave.
Not all of armor boast, and seldom sound
the chariot and shield; but out of slings
they hurl blue balls of lead, or in one hand
a brace of javelins bear; pulled o'er their brows
are hoods of tawny wolf-skin; as they march
the left foot leaves a barefoot track behind,
a rawhide sandal on the right they wear.

Messapus came, steed-tamer, Neptune's son,
by sword and fire invincible: this day,
though mild his people and unschooled in war,
he calls them to embattled lines, and draws
no lingering sword. Fescennia musters there,
Aequi Falisci, and what clans possess
Soracte's heights, Flavinia's fruitful farms,
Ciminian lake and mountain, and the groves
about Capena. Rank on rank they move,
loud singing of their chieftain's praise: as when
a flock of snowy swans through clouded air
return from feeding, and make tuneful cry
from their long throats, while Asia's rivers hear,
and lone Cayster's startled moorland rings:
for hardly could the listening ear discern
the war-cry of a mail-clad host; the sound
was like shrill-calling birds, when home from sea
their soaring flock moves shoreward like a cloud.

Then, one of far-descended Sabine name,
Clausus advanced, the captain of a host,
and in himself an equal host he seemed;
from his proud loins the high-born Claudian stem
through Latium multiplies, since Roman power
with Sabine first was wed. A cohort came
from Amiternum and the olden wall
of Cures, called Quirites even then;
Eretum answered and Mutusca's hill
with olives clad, Velinus' flowery field,
nomentum's fortress, the grim precipice
of Tetrica, Severus' upland fair,
Casperia, Foruli, Himella's waves,
Tiber and Fabaris, and wintry streams
of Nursia; to the same proud muster sped
Tuscan with Latin tribes, and loyal towns
beside whose walls ill-omened Allia flows.
As numerous they moved as rolling waves
that stir smooth Libyan seas, when in cold floods
sinks grim Orion's star; or like the throng
of clustering wheat-tops in the summer sun,
near Hermus or on Lycia's yellowing plain:
shields clashed; their strong tramp smote the trembling ground.

Now Agamemnon's kinsman, cruel foe
to the mere name of Troy, Halaesus, yokes
the horses of his car and summons forth
a thousand savage clans at Turnus' call :
rude men whose mattocks to the Massic hills
bring Bacchus' bounty, or by graybeard sires
sent from Auruncan upland and the mead
of Sidicinum; out of Cales came
its simple folk; and dwellers by the stream
of many-shoaled Volturnus, close-allied
with bold Saticulan or Oscan swains.
Their arms are tapered javelins, which they wear
bound by a coiling thong; a shield conceals
the left side, and they fight with crooked swords.