Aeneid

Virgil

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

  1. But now the brazen trumpet's fearsome song
  2. blares loud, and startled shouts of soldiery
  3. spread through the roaring sky. The Volscian band
  4. press to the siege, and, locking shield with shield,
  5. fill the great trenches, tear the palisades,
  6. or seek approach by ladders up the walls,
  7. where'er the line of the defenders thins, and light
  8. through their black circle shines. The Trojans pour
  9. promiscuous missiles down, and push out hard
  10. with heavy poles—so well have they been schooled
  11. to fight against long sieges. They fling down
  12. a crushing weight of rocks, in hope to break
  13. th' assailing line, where roofed in serried shields
  14. the foe each charge repels. But not for long
  15. the siegers stand; along their dense array
  16. the crafty Teucrians down the rampart roll
  17. a boulder like a hill-top, laying low
  18. the Rutule troop and crashing through their shields.
  19. Nor may the bold Rutulian longer hope
  20. to keep in cover, but essays to storm
  21. only with far-flung shafts the bastion strong.
  22. Here grim Mezentius, terrible to see,
  23. waved an Etrurian pine, and made his war
  24. with smoking firebrands; there, in equal rage,
  25. Messapus, the steed-tamer, Neptune's son,
  26. ripped down the palisade, and at the breach
  27. strung a steep path of ladders up the wall.