Iulus

“ And sov'reign laws impose, and cities build,
Till, after ev'ry foe subdued, the sun
Thrice thro' the signs his annual race shall run:
This is his time prefix'd. Ascanius then,
Now call'd Iulus, shall begin his reign.
He thirty rolling years the crown shall wear,
Then from Lavinium shall the seat transfer,
And, with hard labor, Alba Longa build.
The throne with his succession shall be fill'd
Three hundred circuits more: then shall be seen
Ilia the fair, a priestess and a queen,
Who, full of Mars, in time, with kindly throes,
Shall at a birth two goodly boys disclose. ”

“ And as the Iliad of Homer, beyond the mere vocation of the poet to arouse and charm a warlike audience by the recital of deeds of arms, had its own purpose also—the glorification of the Greek nation—so the Roman poet may be said to have written a counter-Iliad, to extol the later fortunes of the royal house of Troy in the descendants, as he is pleased to imagine them, of Iulus. ”

“ In happier Fields a rising Town I see,⁠
Greater, than what e'er was, or is, or e'er shall be:
And Heav'n yet owes the World a Race deriv'd from Thee.
Sages, and Chiefs, of other Lineage born,
The City shall extend, extended shall adorn:
But from Iulus he must draw his Breath,
By whom thy Rome shall rule the conquer'd Earth:
Whom Heav'n will lend Mankind on Earth to reign,
And late require the precious Pledge again. ”

“ Will the prince promise her solace and protection, should harm befall Euryalus on the way? The answer of Iulus is given in tears; he has no mother left, and the mother of Euryalus shall be to him as his own. He girds the youth with the sword from his own side, and the friends set out upon their perilous errand, escorted to the gates by the Trojan captains with prayers and blessings.
The enterprise might have succeeded, had not the two friends been tempted, by the helpless state in which they found the Rutulian camp, to slaughter their sleeping enemies as they passed. ”

“ His locks dishevelled about his neck receive his tears, and his mouth resounds with sobs that convulse his body. 'Twas thus, beauteous Iulus, they say that thou didst go forth from thy abode, at the funeral of his brother Æneas. Not less was Venus afflicted when Tibullus died, than when the cruel boar 612 tore the groin of the youth.
And yet we Poets are called 'hallowed,' and the care of the Deities; there are some, too, who believe that we possess inspiration. ”

“ Æneas shall reach Latium safely, and reign there three years. His son Iulus—or Ascanius, as he is otherwise called—shall succeed him, and transfer the seat of power from Lavinium to his own new-founded city, Alba Longa. Three hundred years his race shall rule there, till in due course the twin-brothers Romulus and Remus shall be born to the war-god Mars, and the elder brother shall lay the foundations of Rome. To the glories of this new capital the Father of the gods will assign neither limit nor end. The wrongs of Troy shall be redressed. ”

“ The consent of Iulus and his elder counsellors is readily obtained. Let them but bring back Æneas to the rescue, and no rewards and honours shall be too great for the pair. Turnus’s horse and armour, Latinus’s royal demesne, captives of price, shall be the guerdon of Nisus: for Euryalus,—the prince will adopt him henceforth as his personal esquire and companion in arms. One only request the youth has to make. He has an aged mother in the camp—the only one of the elder matrons who refused to be left in safety with Acestes in Sicily, and whom no dangers{155} could separate from her son. ”

“ At this moment Nisus and Euryalus eagerly crave
instant admission—the affair is great, say they, and well 35
worth the pause it claims. Iulus was the first to welcome
and reassure them, and bid Nisus speak. Then began the
son of Hyrtacus: “Listen, ye sons of Troy, with kindly [205]
heed, nor let these our proffers be judged by our years.
The Rutulians, unnerved by sleep and wine, are hushed
in silence: we have ourselves observed a place for a
stealthy move, open through the passage of the gate which
abuts on the sea. ”

“ By day it would wander in the woods, and at nightfall come back to the house. This stag, then, the dogs of Iülus having scented pursued, and indeed Alecto brought it to pass that this mischief shall befall; and Iülus also, following hard upon his dogs, shot an arrow at it, nor missed (for the Fury would have it so) , but pierced it through. Then the wounded beast fled back to the house which it knew, being covered with blood, and filled it with a lamentable voice, as one that crieth for help. ”

“ And Nisus said that he had somewhat to say, and that the matter pressed. Then Iülus bade him speak; and he made answer: “The enemy lie sleeping and drunken about the walls, and the fires are extinguished. If fortune favour us we will win a [Pg 196] way to Æneas, to the city of Evander, and slay many, and take much spoil likewise. The way indeed we know, having learnt it while we hunted in these parts.” Then the old man Aletes said: “Surely, Troy hath not altogether perished, having yet such hearts as yours.” ”

“ None knew, or cared to know, from whose hand the arrow came: for no man, says the poet, was ever heard to boast of such a coward's shot.
Then, while Æneas is led to the camp, faint and bleeding, by his son Iulus and his faithful Achates,—while the aged leech, Iapis, vainly tries all his skill upon the wound—for the barb will not quit the flesh,—Turnus spreads slaughter among the Trojan ranks. But only for a while. Venus drops a healing balsam into the water with which her son's wound is being bathed; at once the arrow-head drops out, and the hero stands up sound and whole. ”

“ They then mounted their horses and rode from the Forum, and were seen no more. Men sought them far and wide, but no one set eyes on them again.
Then Aulus told the Romans how he had prayed to Castor and Pollux, the divine twins, and said that it could be none but they who had broken so fiercely into the enemy's camp, and had borne the news of victory with more than mortal speed to Rome. So he built the temple he had vowed to the hero gods, and gave there rich offerings as the rewards he had promised to the two who should first enter the camp of the foe. ”

“ Aulus is the man; he hath some private grudge at him! and beside those," he added, again addressing the freedman, "go thyself and bring Aulus Fulvius hither, the son of the Senator—him thou wilt find with Cethegus, the others at the house of Decius Brutus, near the forum. ”

“ Ulysses dragged from his own side the spear that had wounded him, and called thrice with a great voice to the other Greeks, and Menelaus and Aias rushed to rescue him, for many Trojans were round him, like jackals round a wounded stag that a man has struck with an arrow. But Aias ran and covered the wounded Ulysses with his huge shield till he could climb into the chariot of Menelaus, who drove him back to the ships. ”

“ In any event Publius Vitellius of Nuceria, whether of ancient stock or of parents and forefathers in whom he could take no pride, unquestionably a Roman knight and a steward of Augustus' property, left four sons of high rank with the same name and differing only in their forenames: Aulus, Quintus, Publius and Lucius. Aulus, who was given to luxury and especially notorious for the magnificence of his feasts, died a consul, appointed to the office with Domitius, father of the emperor Nero. ”

“ But Phoebus Apollo came to sacred Ilium; for the wall of the well-built city was a care to him, lest the Greeks, contrary to fate, should overthrow it that day. The other ever-existing gods, however, repaired to Olympus, some indeed indignant, but others greatly boasting. And they sat down beside their father, the collector of dark clouds: but Achilles slew at once the Trojans themselves, and their solid-hoofed steeds. And as when a smoke, ascending from a burning city, reaches the wide heaven, but the wrath of the gods has excited it; it creates toil to all, and sends griefs upon many ”

“ Verily, I ween, thou hopest in thy heart, glorious Achilles, on this day to sack the city of the lordly Trojans. Thou fool! in sooth many be the woes that shall yet be wrought because of her. Within her are we, many men and valiant, that in front of our dear parents and wives and sons guard Ilios; nay, it is thou that shalt here meet thy doom, for all thou art so dread and so bold a man of war. ”

“ Then the Greeks sent one who should inquire of Apollo; and Apollo answered them thus: ‘Men of Greece, even as ye appeased the winds with blood when ye came to Troy, so must ye appease them with blood now that ye would go from thence.’ Then did men tremble to think on whom the doom should fall, and Ulysses, with much clamour, drew forth Calchas the soothsayer into the midst, and bade him say who it was that the Gods would have as a sacrifice. ”

“ But Phœbus now from Ilion’s towering height Shines forth reveal’d, and animates the fight. “Trojans, be bold, and force with force oppose; Your foaming steeds urge headlong on the foes! Nor are their bodies rocks, nor ribb’d with steel; Your weapons enter, and your strokes they feel. Have ye forgot what seem’d your dread before? The great, the fierce Achilles fights no more.”
Apollo thus from Ilion’s lofty towers, Array’d in terrors, roused the Trojan powers: While war’s fierce goddess fires the Grecian foe, And shouts and thunders in the fields below. ”

“ There Aulus the Dictator And there Valerius fought. Aulus with his good broadsword A bloody passage cleared To where, amidst the thickest foes, He saw the long white beard. Flat lighted that good broadsword Upon proud Tarquin's head. He dropped the lance: he dropped the reins: He fell as fall the dead. Down Aulus springs to slay him, With eyes like coals of fire; But faster Titus hath sprung down, And hath bestrode his sire. Latian captains, Roman knights, Fast down to earth they spring, And hand to hand they fight on foot Around the ancient king. ”

“ Up, go, swift Iris; leave thou the abode of Olympus and bear tidings within Ilios unto great-hearted Priam that he go to the ships of the Achaeans to ransom his dear son, and that he bear gifts unto Achilles which shall make glad his heart; alone let him go, neither let any man beside of the Trojans go with him. A herald may attend him, an elder man, to guide the mules and the light-running waggon, and to carry back to the city the dead, even him that Achilles slew. Let not death be in his thoughts. ”

“ If your champion slay me, let him strip me of my armour and take it to your ships, but let him send my body home that the Trojans and their wives may give me my dues of fire when I am dead. In like manner, if Apollo vouchsafe me glory and I slay your champion, I will strip him of his armour and take it to the city of Ilius, where I will hang it in the temple of Apollo, but I will give up his body, that the Achaeans may bury him at their ships, and the build him a mound by the wide waters of the Hellespont. ”

“ A thick cloud descended from heaven and enveloped the chariot, and when it disappeared, Iolaus, in the full plenitude of manly vigour, stood revealed before the astonished gaze of the combatants. He then led on his valiant band of warriors, and soon the enemy was in headlong flight; and Eurystheus, who was taken prisoner, was put to death by the command of king Demophoon. ”

“ Would it not be more easy to believe that at the time of the siege of Troy this city was no longer on the summit of the mountain, nor so near its ancient acropolis as it was at first; and that the inhabitants moved under the reign of Ilus, as Plato says, and as Homer leads us to conclude, to the entrance of the plain and to the lower rising grounds of Ida? The level ground on the top mountain which rises above Bounar-bachi, and on which it has been attempted to trace the contour of the walls of ancient Ilium and of its citadel, is more than 3200 toises in circumference. ”

“ Then Ilioneus made answer, saying, “Great King, we have not gone astray in our journey, nor have storms driven us out of the way. Of set purpose are we come to this land. For we were driven away by ill-fortune from our country, of which things we doubt not, O King, that thou knowest the certainty. For who is there under [Pg 156] the whole heaven who knoweth not what a storm of destruction came forth from the land of Greece and overthrew the great city of Troy, Europe and Asia setting themselves in arms against each other? And now are we come to ask for a parcel of land whereon we may dwell ”

“ Surely Achilles is mild of temper, or this, son of Atreus, had been thy last wrong-doing!"
Thereupon Ulysses rose up beside him, and spake in wrath: "Peace, babbler; take not the name of kings upon thy lips, nor taunt thy betters. Hearken now to me: if I hear thee speak idle words again as thou hast done this day, I will surely strip from off thee cloak and tunic, and drive thee to the ships with shameful blows." So speaking, he smote him with the sceptre on back and shoulders; and a bloody weal rose up beneath the blow. ”

“ He will not rail against the kings again."
Then Ulysses stood up to speak, holding the sceptre in his hand; and Athene stood by his side, in the likeness of a herald, bidding the people keep silence, that all, nearest and farthest alike, might hear his words.
"Now, O King," he said, "the Greeks are shaming thee, abiding no more by their promise which they made thee coming from Argos; that they would not return till they had taken the city of Troy. Truly there is toil enough here to make us sick of heart and wishful to return. ”