trees and stubborn oak; who had neither laws nor policy; knew neither to yoke the labouring steer, nor to gather wealth, nor to use their acquisitions with moderation; but the products of the branches, and savage hunting, supplied them with food. From the ethereal sky first Saturn came, flying from the hostilities of Jove, and an exile dispossessed of his realms. He formed into society a race undisciplined and dispersed among the high mountains, and introduced laws ; and chose to have the country named Latium, because in these regions he had lurked secure. Under his reign was the golden age which they so much celebrate: in such undisturbed tranquillity he ruled his subjects; till by degrees an age more depraved, and of a different complexion, and the fury of war, and love of gain, succeeded. Then came in the Ausonian bands, and the Sicilian nations; and the Saturnian land often changed its name. Then came a succession of kings, and among the rest fierce Tybris of gigantic make, from whom we Italians in after-times named the river Tyber: thus ancient Albula lost its true, its proper name. Me, from my country driven, and tracing the utmost perils of the sea, almighty fortune and uncontrollable destiny fixed in these regions; and the awful predictions of my mother the nymph Carmentis, and the god Apollo by his authority urged me hither. Scarcely had he spoken, when setting forward he shews him next both the altar, and the gate called by a Roman name Carmentalis, which they record to be the ancient monument in honour of the prophetic nymph Carmentis, who first foretold the future grandeur of the Ænean race, and the renown of Pallanteum. Next he points out the spacious grove which Romulus reduced into a sanctuary, and under a cold bleak rock the Lupercal, so called from the Arcadian manner of worshipping Lycæan Pan. He likewise shews the grove of Argiletum, sacred to Argus; and calls the place to witness his innocence, and relates the death of Argus his guest. He leads him next to the Tarpeian rock and the capitol, now of gold, but in those days rough and horrid with wild bushes. Even then Jam tum religio pavidos terrebat agrestes 350 Dira loci; jam tum sylvam saxumque tremebant. 355 Pauperis Evandri; passimque armenta videbant 360 Ut ventum ad sedes, Hæc, inquit, limina victor Alcides subiit; hæc illum regia cepit: Aude, hospes, contemnere opes, et te quoque dignum. Finge deo, rebusque veni non asper egenis. 365 Dixit, et angusti subter fastigia tecti Ingentem Ænean duxit, stratisque locavit, Nox ruit, et fuscis tellurem amplectitur alis. At Venus haud animo nequicquam exterrita mater, 370 Vulcanum alloquitur, thalamoque hæc conjugis aureo 375 380 Nunc, Jovis imperiis, Rutulorum constitit oris: Ergo eadem supplex venio, et sanctum mihi numen Arma rogo, genetrix nato. Te filia Nerei, 361. Curinis. A magnificent street in Rome was called Carinae. the religious horrors of the place awed the minds of the timorous swains; even then they revered the wood and rock. This grove, says he, this wood-topped hill, a god inhabits but what god is uncertain: here the Arcadians believe they have seen Jove himself, when often with his right hand he shook the blackening tremendous ægis, and roused the clouds of thunder. Farther, says he, yon two cities you see with their walls demolished, the remains and monuments of ancient heroes: this city father Janus, that Saturnus built; the one Janiculum, the other Saturnia was named. In such mutual talk they came up to the palace of poor Evander; and in that place where now the Roman forum and magnificent streets arise, they beheld around herds of cattle lowing. Soon as they reached his seat, These gates, he says, the victorious Alcides entered; him this palace received: have then, my noble guest, the greatness of mind to undervalue magnificence, and do you too form yourself into a temper becoming a god, and come not disgusted with these our mean accommodations. He said, and under the roof of his narrow mansion conducted the magnanimous Æneas, and set him down to rest on a bed of leaves, and the fur of a Libyan bear. Night comes on apace, and with her dusky wings mantles the earth. Meanwhile Venus, the parent-goddess, not without cause alarmed in mind, and disturbed both by the threats and fierce uproar of the Laurentines, addresses Vulcan, and in her husband's golden bedchamber thus begins, and by her accents breathes into him love divine: While the Grecian kings by war brought fated Troy to desolation, and its towers doomed to fall by hostile flames, not any succour to the wretches, nor arms of thy art and power, I craved; nor, my dearest spouse, was I willing to employ you or your labours in vain; though I both owed much to the sons of Priam, and often mourned the severe sufferings of Eneas. Now, by Jove's command, he hath settled on the coasts of the Rutulians; therefore I the self-same fond wife appear as a suppliant, and implore arms from thy divinity to me adorable, a mother for a son. Thee Te potuit lacrymis Tithonia flectere conjux. 385 390 Tum pater æterno fatur devinctus amore: 395 Nec pater omnipotens Trojam, nec fata vetabant Stare, decemque alios Priamum superesse per annos. 400 Quantum ignes animæque valent; absiste precando Conjugis, et possit parvos educere natos: Haud secus Ignipotens, nec tempore segnior illo, 415 395. Causas petis ex alto. Instead of coming directly to the point, you have recourse to long far-fetched preambles. 402. Liquido electro. Electrum is a composition of gold and silver. Pliny makes the proportions to be four-fifths of silver for one of gold. 403. Absiste, etc. Forbear to shew such distrust of the native influence of your charms over me, by using so much argument and entreaty. the daughter of Nereus, thee the wife of Tithonus, by tears could persuade. See what nations combine, what towns, having shut up their gates, whet their swords against me, and for the extirpation of my people! The goddess said, and, throwing her snowy arms around him, in soft embrace caresses him hesitating: suddenly he caught the wonted flame; and the accustomed warmth pierced his marrow, and ran thrilling through his shaken bones just as when at times, with forked thunder burst, a chinky stream of fire in flashy lightning shoots athwart the skies. This his spouse, well pleased with her wiles, and conscious of her charms, perceived. Then father Vulcan, fast bound in the eternal chains of love, thus speaks: Why hast thou recourse to such far-fetched reasons? whither, goddess, hath thy confidence in me fled? hadst thou been under the like concern before, then too it had been a righteous and practicable thing in me at thy desire to arm the Trojans. Nor did Almighty father Jove, or the Fates, forbid that Troy should stand, or Priam survive for ten years more. And now if war you meditate, and this be your resolution; whatever zeal to serve you in my art I can promise; whatever can be done by steel or liquid metals, as far as the power of fire and breathing engines reach, you may depend on me; wherefore forbear by solicitation to bring your power and influence in question. Having spoken these words, he gave her the wished embrace; and, on the bosom of his spouse dissolved away, courted soft repose to every limb. Then, soon as the first interval of rest, now that the mid-career of night had rolled away, had driven sleep from his yes; what time the housewife, whose chief concern it is to earn her living by the distaff and poor handy-work, awakes the heaped-up embers and the dormant fires, adding night to her labour, and by the lighted tapers employs her maids in their long tedious tasks, that chaste she may preserve her husband's bed, and bring up her little babes: not otherwise, nor at that time less industrious, the mighty god of fire rises from the soft couch to his mechanic labours. |