gods recompense them on his own head, and on his race. He even bound to the living the bodies of the dead, joining together hands to hands, and face to face, a horrid kind of torture: and the victims of his cruelty, pining away with gore and putrefaction in this loathed embrace, he thus with lingering death destroyed. But at length his subjects, weary of his cruelties, in arms around beset both the tyrant himself raging past utterance, and all his house: they assassinate his adherents, hurl flames against his roof. He, amidst the massacre making his escape, flies for shelter to the territories of the Rutulians, and finds protection from the arms of Turnus, his hospitable friend. Therefore all Etruria, with just fury incensed, rose in arms; and the people by present war redemand their king for punishment. Over these thousands, Æneas, I will assign you leader. For all along the shore the vessels ranged in thick array storm for war; and urge the banners to be displayed. Them an aged soothsayer restrains, this oracle in prophetic strains delivering: Ye chosen youths of Lydia, the flower and excellence of ancient heroes, whom just indignation urges against the foe, and Mezentius fires with due resentment; no native of Italy is destined to subdue that powerful nation: make choice of foreign leaders. Then, overawed by the declaration of the gods, the Tuscan army, respiting their fury, encamped on this plain. Tarchon himself hath sent ambassadors with the royal crown and sceptre, and to me commends these ensigns; imploring me to repair to the camp. and assume the Tuscan administration. But life, with frozen blood benumbed, and worn out with years, and my capacity for heroic deeds superannuated, deny me the enjoyment of empire. My son I would urge to accept it, were it not that, being mixed with the blood of a Sabine mother, this country in part claims his birth. Do you, most gallant leader of the Trojans and Italians, to whose years and lineage also fate is indulgent, you whom the oracles invite, enter into possession. Him too, my only hope and solace, Pallas to thee I will join: under thee his master let him Militiam, et grave Martis opus, tua cernere facta Tyrrhenusque tubæ mugire per æthera clangor. 520 525 Suspiciunt iterum atque iterum fragor intonat ingens; Per sudum rutilare vident, et pulsa tonare. Si bellum ingrueret, Vulcaniaque arma per auras Heu, quantæ miseris cædes Laurentibus instant! 530 535 Quas poenas mihi, Turne, dabis! quam multa sub undas Etprimùm Herculeis sopitas ignibus aras 540 Excitat, hesternumque Larem parvosque Penates 545 543. Parvosque Penates. The parvi Penates or Lares were the tutelar deities of families; the magni Penates, of cities and provinces. practise to endure warfare, and the laborious service of Mars, be spectator of thy actions, and from his earliest years make thee the object of his admiration. To him I will give two hundred Arcadian horsemen, the chosen strength of the youth; and as many more will Pallas give thee in his own name. Thus he had scarcely spoken, when Æneas, the noble offspring of Anchises, and trusty Achates, held their eyes fixed on the ground, and with heavy hearts began to revolve many hard perplexing thoughts, had not Cytherea displayed a sign in the open air: for unexpectedly a flash of lightning, darted from the sky, came with thunder's roar; and suddenly all things seemed to threaten ruin, and the clangor of the Tuscan trumpet rattling through the skies. Upwards they gaze: again and again in dreadful peals it thunders; in a serene quarter of the heavens, among the clouds they observe arms blaze athwart the clear expanse, and clashed resound in thunder. The rest were lost in amazement: but the Trojan hero knew the heavenly sound, and promised signs of his goddess-mother. Then to Evander he addresses his speech: By no means, my hospitable friend, by no means be anxious to explore what emergency these prodigies portend: I am called by heaven to take up arms. My divine parent foretold that she was to send this signal, if war should assail me, and that she would bring Vulcanian arms through the aërial regions to my aid. Ah, what havoc awaits the unhappy Laurentines! what ample satisfaction shall you Turnus, give me! what numerous shields, and helmets, and bodies of gallant heroes, shalt thou, father Tyber, roll down thy streams! Let them challenge our armies, and violate their leagues. Having said these words, he raises himself from his lofty throne and first of all he wakes the dormant fires from Hercules' altars, and visits with joy the Lar whom yesterday he had first worshipped, and the little household-gods with accustomed rites he offers a sacrifice of chosen ewes; and in like manner Evander, in like manner the Trojan youth. After this he repairs to the Post hinc ad naves graditur, sociosque revisit; Quorum de numero, qui sese in bella sequantur, Præstantes virtute legit: pars cætera pronâ Fertur aquâ, segnisque secundo defluit amni, Nuncia ventura Ascanio rerumque patrisque. Dantur equi Teucris Tyrrhena petentibus arva: Ducunt exsortem Æneæ, quem fulva leonis Pellis obit totum, præfulgens unguibus aureis. Fama volat parvam subitò vulgata per urbem, Ociùs ire equites Tyrrheni ad litora regis. Vota metu duplicant matres; propiùsque periclo It timor, et major Martis apparet imago. Tum pater Evandrus dextram complexus euntis Hæret, inexpletum lacrymans, ac talia fatur: O mihi præteritos referat si Jupiter annos ! Qualis eram, cum primam aciem Præneste sub ipsâ Stravi, scutorumque incendi victor acervos, Et regem hâc Herilum dextrâ sub Tartara misi ; Nascenti cui tres animas Feronia mater, Horrendum dictu, dederat, terna arma movenda; Ter letho sternendus erat; cui tum tamen omnes Abstulit hæc animas dextra, et totidem exuit armis ! Non ego nunc dulci amplexu divellerer usquam, Nate, tuo; neque finitimus Mezentius unquam, Huic capiti insultans, tot ferro sæva dedisset Funera, tam multis viduâsset civibus urbem. At vos, O Superi, et Divûm tu maxime rector Jupiter, Arcadii quæso miserescite regis, Et patrias audite preces: si numina vestra Incolumem Pallanta mihi, si fata reservant, Si visurus eum vivo, et venturus in unum, Vitam oro; patiar quemvis durare laborem. Sin aliquem infandum casum, Fortuna, minaris, 550 555 560 565 570 575 557. It timor. The sense is obvious if we supply major from the latter part of the sentence. 562. Scutorumque incendi. It was a custom among the ancient Romans, to gather up the armour that lay scattered on the field of battle, and burn it as an offering to their deities. ships, and revisits his friends; from whose number he chooses out such as excelled in valour to accompany him to the war the rest by the descending stream are borne along, and with no effort glide down with the current of the river, to bring Ascanius tidings of his father, and of the affairs in hand. The Trojans, repairing to the Tuscan territories, are supplied with steeds: for ueas they lead forth one distinguished from the rest, which a lion's tawny hide, shining before with gilded claws, completely covers. Suddenly through the narrow city blazed the rumour flies, that a band of horse were swiftly marching to the court of the Tuscan king. Through fear the matrons redouble their vows; and the nearer they are to the danger, the more the terror grows, and the image of Mars appears more formidable and enlarged. Then the venerable father Evander, grasping the hand of his son as he was going away, clings to him, weeping beyond measure, and utters these expressions: O that Jupiter would recall my past years! or that I were now what I was when, under the very walls of Præneste, I mowed down the foremost ranks, and victorious set heaps of shields on fire, and with this right hand sent king Herilus down to Tartarus; to whom at his birth, dreadful to relate, his mother Feronia had given three lives, and triple arms to wield; thrice by death was he to be overthrown; whom this right-hand however then of all these lives bereft, and stripped of as many suits of armour! nothing now, my son, should part me from your loved embrace; nor had ever our neighbour Mezentius, insulting over this person of mine, by the sword effected so many cruel deaths, drained the city of so many inhabitants. But, O ye powers, and thou Jupiter, great ruler of the gods, compassionate, I pray, a distressed Arcadian king, and hear a father's prayer: if your providence divine, if the fates reserve Pallas for me in safety, if I live destined to see him again, and to have a happy meeting with him, I pray for life; and I will submit to endure any hardship whatever. But if, O Fortune, thou threatenest him with |