Cœlestûm vis magna jubet. Rex ipse Latinus, Sed te victa situ, verique effeta senectus, At juveni oranti subitus tremor occupat artus; 435 440 445 450 Respice ad hæc adsum dirarum ab sede sororum 455 Sic effata, facem juveni conjecit, et atro Lumine fumantes fixit sub pectore tædas. Olli somnum ingens rupit pavor, ossaque et artus Perfudit toto proruptus corpore sudor. Arma amens fremit; arma toro tectisque requirit: 460 Sævit amor ferri, et scelerata insania belli, : Ira super magno veluti cum flamma sonore Exsultantque æstu latices; furit intus aquæ vis, 465 440. Victa situ. Situs signifies properly, the mustiness growing npon old walls and damp places; here put for the deformity or rust of old age. Effeta is said of a woman who is superannuated and past childbearing. Let king Latinus himself, unless he consents to grant the promised match, and stand to his word, know, and at length experience Turnus in arms. Upon this the youth, deriding the prophetess, thus in his turn replies: The intelligence has not escaped my ears, as you imagine, that a fleet is arrived in the Tyber's channel. Forge not to me such grounds of fear and jealousy; for of us imperial Juno is not unmindful. But old age, O dame, oppressed with dotage, and barren of truth, in vain harasses thee with cares; and with false alarms deludes thee a prophetess, whose business lies not among the arms of kings. Your province is to guard the statues and temples of the gods: let men have the management of peace and war, by whom war ought to be managed. By these words Alecto kindled into rage. As for the youth, while yet the words were in his mouth, a sudden trembling seized his limbs; his eyes stiffened: with so many snakes the Fury hisses, and a shape so horrid discloses itself to his view: then, as he hesitates, and purposes more to say, rolling her fiery eye-balls, she repelled his words, and reared the double snakes in her hair, clanked her whip, and thus farther spoke in outrageous accent: Lo, here am I oppressed with dotage, whom old age, barren of truth, deludes with false alarms amidst the arms of kings. Turn thy eyes to these signs: I came from the abode of the dire sisters; wars and death in my hand I bear. Thus having spoken, she flung a firebrand at the youth, and deep in his breast fixed the torch smoking with grim horrid light. Excessive terror broke his rest, and sweat bursting from every pore completely drenched his bones and limbs. Frantic for arms he raves, for arms he searches the bed and every corner of the palace: a passion for the sword, a cursed madness after war, and indignation besides, warmly rage in his breast: as when with loud crackling noise a fire of sticks is applied to the sides of a bubbling caldron, and by the heat in frisky bells the liquors dance; within, the violence of the water rages, and high the smoky fluid in foam Nec jam se capit unda: volat vapor ater ad auras. 470 Dum Turnus Rutulos animis audacibus implet, 475 Alecto in Teucros Stygiis se concitat alis; Arte novâ speculata locum, quo litore pulcher 480 Ut cervum ardentes agerent; quæ prima malorum 485 Mollibus intexens ornabat cornua sertis, Pectebatque ferum, puroque in fonte lavabat. Ille, manum patiens, mensæque assuetus herili, Nec dextræ erranti Deus abfuit; actaque multo 490 495 467. Polluta pace. A league of peace was sacred, being ratified by solemn rites of religion; the violation of it was therefore pollution and profaneness. overflows; nor can the wave now contain itself: in pitchy steam it flies all abroad. Therefore, now that the peace is profanely violated, he enjoins the chief of the youth to repair to king Latinus, and orders arms to be prepared to defend Italy, to expel the enemy from their territories; adding, that he is a sufficient match for Trojans and Latins both. When he had thus spoken, and in vows had addressed the gods, the Rutulians with emulous ardour animate one another to the war. One is incited by his distinguished gracefulness of form and youth; another by his regal ancestors, a third by his right-hand for glorious deeds renowned. While Turnus inspires the Rutulians with courageous souls, Alecto on Stygian wings against the Trojans speeds her flight; having with new fraudful design espied the place, where on the shore fair Iülus was by secret snares and open chase pursuing beasts of prey. Here the imp of hell throws on his hounds a sudden madness, and affects their nostrils with the well-known scent, with keen ardour to pursue a stag; which was the first source of the ensuing calamities, and to war inflamed the peasants' rustic minds. The stag was of exquisite beauty, and large branching horns; which, snatched from its mother's dugs, the sons of Tyrrhus nursed up, and Tyrrhus, the father, to whom the royal herds are in subjection, and the charge of the fields all around intrusted. The animal trained to discipline, their sister Sylvia with her utmost care was wont to deck, interweaving his horns with soft garlands; she combed and washed him in the limpid stream. He, patient of the touch, and accustomed to his master's board, ranged in the woods by day; and again at night, however late, to his home, his familiar retreat, of himself repaired. Him at a distance in his roving hour the mad hounds of the young huntsman fülus roused, when by chance he had been gliding down the river with the stream, and on the verdant bank was now allaying his heat. Ascanius himself too, fired with the love of distinguished praise, from his bended bow shot arrows at him; nor was the god unaiding to his Perque uterum sonitu, perque ilia venit arundo. 500 505 510 515 520 525 530 |