Virgil

“ Priam. When he saw his city fallen and captured, the 25
doors of his palace burst open, the foe in the heart of his
home’s sanctuary, poor old man! helplessly and hopelessly
he puts about his shoulders, trembling with age,
his armour, long disused, and girds on his unavailing sword,
and is going to his doom among the thick of the foe. In 30
the midst of the palace, under the naked height of the sky,
stood a great altar, and by it a bay tree of age untold,
leaning over the altar and enfolding the household gods
in its shade. ”

“ Dido shall pass underground. I have built a splendid
city. I have seen my walls completed. In vengeance for
a husband, I have punished a brother that hated me—blest,
ah! blest beyond human bliss, if only Dardan ships
had never touched coast of ours!” She spoke—and kissing 5
the couch: “Is it to be death without revenge? But
be it death,” she cries—“this, this is the road by which
I love to pass to the shades. Let the heartless Dardanian’s
eyes drink in this flame from the deep, and let him
carry with him the presage of my death.” ”

“ I drew the unhallowed 5
sword. From that fatal day you see what troubles,
what wars are let loose upon me; you know the weight of
the sufferings which you are the first to feel. Twice vanquished
in a mighty conflict, we scarce protect by our bulwarks
the hopes of Italy: Tiber’s waters are yet steaming 10
with our blood, and the spacious plains are whitened by
our bones. Whither am I drifting again and again?
what madness turns my brain? If on the death of Turnus
I am ready to welcome these new allies, why should I not
end the strife while he lives and is safe? ”

“ Full in that shrinking face Æneas shakes his fatal
weapon, taking aim with his eye, and with an effort of
his whole frame hurls it forth. Never stone flung from 20
engine of siege roars so loud, never peal so rending follows
the thunderbolt. On flies the spear like dark whirlwind
with fell destruction on its wing, pierces the edge of the
corslet, and the outermost circle of the seven-fold shield,
and with a rush cleaves through the thigh. Down with 25
his knee doubled under him comes Turnus to earth, all
his length prostrated by the blow. ”

“ She spoke, and even while she was yet speaking, her
attendants see her fallen on the sword, the blade spouting
blood, and her hands dabbled in it. Their shrieks rise to
the lofty roof; Fame runs wild through the convulsed city.
With wailing and groaning, and screams of women, the 15
palace rings; the sky resounds with mighty cries and beating
of breasts—even as if the foe were to burst the gates
and topple down Carthage or ancient Tyre, and the infuriate
flame were leaping from roof to roof among the
dwellings of men and gods. 20
Her sister heard it. ”

“ Where
is this to end, fair spouse? what last stroke have you in
store? you know yourself, by your own confession, that
Æneas has his place assured in heaven among Italia’s
native gods, that destiny is making him a ladder to the 35
stars. What plan you now? what hope keeps you seated
on those chilly clouds? was it right that mortal wound
should harm a god, or that Turnus—for what power [299]
could Juturna have apart from you?—should receive
back his lost sword and the vanquished should feel new
forces? ”

“ Rutulians, Trojans, and
Italians, those alike who were manning the towers and 15
those whose battering-rams were assailing the foundations.
All unbrace their armour. Latinus himself stands amazed
to see two men so mighty, born in climes so distant each
from each, thus met together to try the steel’s issue. At
once, when a space is cleared on the plain, first hurling 20
their spears, they advance with swift onset, and dash into
the combat with shield and ringing harness. Earth groans
beneath them; their swords hail blow on blow: chance
and valour mingle pell-mell. ”

“ Not all are furnished for the war
With ample shield or sounding car. 35
Some sling lead bullets o’er the field,
Some javelins twain in combat wield.
A cap of fur protects their head
By spoil of tawny wolf supplied;
Their left foot bare, on earth they tread, 40
The right is cased in raw bull-hide. [171]
Messapus, tamer of the steed,
The Ocean-monarch’s mighty seed,
Whom none might harm, so willed his sire,
With force of iron or of fire,
Awakes his people’s slumbering zeal 5
Long time unused to war’s appeal,
And from the scabbard bares the steel. ”

“ Laurentum. Then, as goddesses may, she fashions a
thin, strengthless shadow of hollow cloud in the likeness
of Æneas, a marvel to the eyes, accoutres it with Dardan
weapons, and counterfeits the shield and the crest of the
god-like head, gives it empty words and tones without 10
soul, and renders to the life the step and the gait: even
as the shapes that are said to flit when death is past, or
the dreams that mock the sense of slumber. ”

“ O offspring of
heaven’s stock, who are bringing back to us safe from
the foe the city of Troy, and preserving Pergamus in enduring
life, yourself looked for long on the Laurentian 10
soil and in the fields of Latium, here is your abiding place
of rest, here, distrust it not, permanence for your home-gods:
let not war’s threatenings make you afraid, the
swellings of the anger of heaven have all given way. ”

“ What? beaten? I? who, foulest of slanderers, will justly
brand me as beaten, that shall look on Tiber still swelling
with Ilion’s best blood, on Evander’s whole house prostrate 5
root and branch, and his Arcadians stripped naked of their
armour? It was no beaten arm that Bitias and giant
Pandarus found in me, or the thousand that I sent to
death in a single day with my conquering hand, shut up
within their walls, pent in by the rampart of the foe. No 10
hope from war? Croak your bodings, madman, in the
ears of the Dardan and of your own fortunes. ”

“ Eurytion breathed a vow to his brother, fixing his eye on
her in the moment of her triumph high up in the open sky,
and as she claps her wings, pierces the dark cloudy covert,
and strikes the dove. Down she drops unnerved, leaving
her life among the stars of ether, and as she tumbles to 10
earth, brings back the arrow in her breast. Acestes remained
alone, a champion with no prize to gain; yet he
shot his weapon into the air aloft, displaying at once his
veteran skill and the force of his twanging bow. And now
their eyes are met by a sudden portent, drawing a mighty 15
augury in its train. ”

“ Soon as Turnus sees Æneas retiring from the battle,
and the Trojan leaders in confusion, he glows with swift
access of hope, calls for horses and armour, bounds like a
conqueror into the chariot, and takes the reins in hand.
Many a heroic frame he slaughters as he whirls along, many 10
he tumbles and leaves to live or die, crushes whole ranks
by the onset of his car, or plucks forth spears and hurls
them at the fliers. ”

“ Alas! it is not for man to throw himself on the gods
against their will!
“Lo! there was a princess of Priam’s house being
dragged by her dishevelled hair from the temple, from
the very shrine of Minerva, Cassandra, straining her flashing 20
eyes to heaven in vain—her eyes—for those delicate
hands were confined by manacles. The sight was too
much for the infuriate mind of Coroebus: rushing to his
doom, he flung himself into the middle of the hostile force.
One and all, we follow, close our ranks, and fall on. ”

“ Thus Jupiter in brief; but not brief was the answer 20
of golden Venus: “O Father! O eternal sovereignty of
man and nature! for what else can there be which is left
us to implore? Seest thou how the Rutulians insult? how
Turnus is whirled through the battle by his haughty
coursers, borne on the floodtide of war? No longer are 25
the Teucrians safe even in the shelter of their walls; within
the gates, amidst the very mounds of the ramparts combat
is waged, and the trenches overflow with carnage. Æneas
is away in his ignorance. ”

“ INTRODUCTION The Æneid
When Rome, torn and bleeding from a century of civil wars, turned to that wise judge of men, the second Cæsar, and acquiesced as, through carefully selected ministers, he gathered the reins of power into velvet-clad fingers of steel, she did wisely. Better one-man power than anarchy! It became the part of true patriotism for the citizen and of statesmanship for the politician to bring to the aid of the First Man of the state all the motives that could harmonize the chaotic elements, and start Republican Rome on the path of a new unity—the unity of the Empire. ”

“ Clonus Eurytides had
chased it on the broad field of gold: and now Turnus
triumphs in the prize, and exults in his winning. Blind 5
are the eyes of man’s soul to destiny and doom to be, nor
knows it to respect the limit, when upborne by prosperous
fortune! Turnus shall see the day when he will fain
have paid a high price for Pallas unharmed, when he will
hate the spoils and the hour he won them! But Pallas’ 10
followers, with many a groan and tear, are bearing off
their chief on his shield in long procession. ”

“ Then Turnus, long poising his beam
with its point of sharp steel, hurls it at Pallas, with these
words: “See whether our weapon be not the keener.”
So he: while cleaving those many plates of iron and
brass, spite of the bull-hides wound oft and oft about, 25
the point strikes through the shield’s midst with quivering
impact, and pierces the corselet’s barrier and the
mighty breast beyond. In vain the youth tears the
reeking dart from the wound: as it parts, blood and life
follow on its track. ”

“ At once there is
a rush to the ramparts from every part of the city: king
Latinus leaves the council and the high debate unfinished, 15
and wildered with the unhappy time, adjourns to another
day, ofttimes blaming himself that he welcomed not with
open arms Æneas the Dardan, and bestowed on the city
a husband for the daughter of Latium. Others dig
trenches before the gates or shoulder stones and stakes. 20
The hoarse trumpet gives its deathful warning for battle.
The walls are hemmed by a motley ring of matrons and
boys: the call of the last struggle rings in each one’s ear. ”

“ Helmets are hollowed to guard the head;
willows are twisted into wicker frames for shields; others
are beating out brass into breastplates, or stretching ductile 35
silver into polished greaves. All the pride of sickle
and share, all the passion for the plough are swallowed
up in this; they bring out their father’s swords, and smelt [169]
them anew in the furnace. Here, in wild haste, is one
snatching his helm from the chamber-wall; there is another
bringing his snorting steeds to the yoke, clothing
himself with shield and corslet of three-plied gold, and
girding to his side his trusty sword. ”

“ Taburnus’ summit two bulls, lowering their brows for 25
combat, engage fiercely: the herdsmen retreat in dread:
the cattle all stand dumb with terror, the heifers wait in
suspense who is to be the monarch of the woodland,
whom the herds are to follow henceforth: they each in
turn give furious blows, push and lodge their horns, and 30
bathe neck and shoulders with streams of blood: the
sound makes the forest bellow again: with no less fury
Æneas the Trojan, and the Daunian chief clash shield on
shield: the enormous din fills the firmament. ”

“ No sluggish delay holds Turnus from his work: with
fiery speed he sweeps his whole army against the Teucrians,
and plants them in the foe’s face on the shore. The 20
clarions sound: first dashed Æneas on the rustic ranks, a
presage of the fight’s fortune, and disarrayed the Latians,
slaying Theron, who in his giant strength is assailing
Æneas: piercing through quilted brass and tunic stiff
with gold the sword devours his unguarded side. ”

“ Teucer, a goodly family, heroes of lofty soul, born in 35
earth’s better days, Ilus and Assaracus, and Dardanus,
founder of Troy. From afar he gazes wonderingly on
their warrior arms and their ghostly chariots. Their spears [142]
stand rooted in the ground, and their unyoked steeds
graze dispersedly over the meadow. All the delight they
took when alive in chariots and armour, all their pride in
grooming and feeding their horses, goes with them underground,
and animates them there. ”

“ Others rein the chariot or vault on horseback, with swords
ready drawn.
Messapus, all on fire to annul the treaty, spurs his horse
full on the Tuscan Aulestes, a king and wearing kingly
cognizance: he draws quickly back, and gets entangled 10
in piteous sort with the altars that meet him behind,
falling on them head and shoulders. Up flashes Messapus
spear in hand, and towering on horseback brings down on
him the massy beam in the midst of his prayers, and delivers
himself thus: “He is sped: here is a better victim for the 15
mighty gods.” ”

“ But others fill their place; while stones and every 15
kind of missile keep raining unabated.
“There in the entry, at the very gate, is Pyrrhus [135] in his
glory, gleaming with spear and sword, and with all the
brilliance of steel. Even as against the daylight a serpent
gorged with baleful herbage, whom winter’s cold of late 20
was keeping swollen underground, now, his skin shed, in
new life and in the beauty of youth, rears his breast erect,
and wreathes his shining scales, towering to the sun, and
flashes in his mouth his three-forked tongue. ”

“ She seized me by the hand and stayed me,
seconding her action with these words from her roseate
lips; ‘My son, what mighty agony is it that stirs up
this untamed passion? What means your frenzy? or 15
whither has fled your care for me? Will you not first see
where you have left your father Anchises, spent with age
as he is? whether your wife, Creusa, be yet alive, and
your child, Ascanius? All about them the Grecian armies
are ranging to and fro, and were not my care exerted to 20
rescue them, ere this they had been snatched by the flame,
devoured by the foeman’s sword. ”

“ See now—goading the matrons of
Troy to crime, she has basely burnt their ships, and driven 15
them in the ruins of their fleet to leave their mates to a
home on an unknown shore. These poor relics, then, let
them, I beg, spread the sail in safety along thy waters; let
them touch the mouth of Laurentian Tiber, if my prayer
is lawful, if that city is granted them of Fate.” 20
Then thus spake Saturn’s son, lord of the ocean deep:
“All right hast thou, queen of Cythera, to place thy trust
in these realms of mine, whence thou drawest thy birth. ”

“ Juno returns: “There is panic and treachery
enough; the seeds of war are sown deep; men are fighting
hand to hand; the weapons which chance first supplied
are being seasoned with new-spilt blood. Such be the 20
alliance, such the nuptial rites solemnized by Venus’
virtuous son and good king Latinus. For thee to walk the
upper air with larger freedom would displease the great
Father, the monarch of high Olympus. Give place; should
any chance emerge in the struggle, myself will deal with it.” ”