Aeneid

Virgil

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

  1. Now forth beneath the wide-swung city-gates
  2. the mounted squadron poured; Aeneas rode,
  3. companioned of Achates, in the van;
  4. then other lords of Troy. There Pallas shone
  5. conspicuous in the midmost line, with cloak
  6. and blazoned arms, as when the Morning-star
  7. (To Venus dearest of all orbs that burn),
  8. out of his lucent bath in ocean wave
  9. lifts to the skies his countenance divine,
  10. and melts the shadows of the night away.
  11. Upon the ramparts trembling matrons stand
  12. and follow with dimmed eyes the dusty cloud
  13. whence gleam the brazen arms. The warriors ride
  14. straight on through brake and fell, the nearest way;
  15. loud ring the war-cries, and in martial line
  16. the pounding hoof-beats shake the crumbling ground.
  17. By Caere's cold flood lies an ample grove
  18. revered from age to age. The hollowing hills
  19. enclasp it in wide circles of dark fir,
  20. and the Pelasgians, so the legends tell,
  21. primaeval settlers of the Latin plains,
  22. called it the haunt of Silvan, kindly god
  23. of flocks and fields, and honoring the grove
  24. gave it a festal day. Hard by this spot
  25. had Tarchon with the Tuscans fortified
  26. his bivouac, and from the heights afar
  27. his legions could be seen in wide array
  28. outstretching through the plain. To meet them there
  29. Aeneas and his veteran chivalry
  30. made sure advance, and found repose at eve
  31. for warrior travel-worn and fainting steed.