Æneas Rutulum Sucronem (ea prima ruentes 505 Turnus equo dejectum Amycum, fratremque Diorem 510 515 520 Dant sonitum spumosi amnes, et in æquora currunt, Quisque suum populatus iter: non segniùs ambo 525 Murranum hic, atavos et avorum antiqua sonantem 530 535 505. Ea prima, etc. This opposition, from so brave a man as Sucro, checked the Trojans, who were before rushing on the foe without control: or, according to others, this assault of Aeneas on Sucro first made the flying Trojans rally. 508. Crates pectoris. The ribs, which extend across the breast in form of hurdles. 527. Rumpuntur. Pant and heave as if they would burst their sides. Others explain it in Dryden's sense: And hearts are pierc'd, unknowing how to yield. in the side smote Sucro the Rutulian (this combat first checked the Trojans in their career), and, where lies the way to speediest death, through the ribs and wattled fences of his breast drives home the cruel blade. Turnus on foot encountering Amycus from his horse overthrown, and his brother Diores, smites the one with his long spear as he comes up, the other with his sword; and, having cut off the heads of both, suspends them on his chariot, and bears them along bedewed with blood. The other hero dispatches Talos, Tanais, and stout Cethegus, all three at one assault, and dejected Onytes, of Theban extraction, the son of Peridia. Turnus again overthrows the brothers sent from Lycia and Apollo's lands, and Mencetes, an Arcadian youth, in vain to war averse; whose art and poor abode had been about the streams of fishy Lerna; a stranger to the levees of the great, while in farmed land his father sowed. And as two fires rage, let loose from different quarters, upon a withered copse, and crackling laurel groves; or as with impetuous fall from the steep mountains two foaming rivers roar along, and roll to the sea, each laying his passage waste: with no less impetuosity Eneas and Turnus both rush through the embattled plain: now, now their rage boils up within their invincible breasts are ready to burst with fury: now with full career they drive into the midst of wounds and slaughter. The one (Eneas), with a rock and the whirling force of a huge stone, overthrows headlong, and at his length stretches on the ground Murranus, vaunting loud his ancestry, and the ancient names of his forefathers, and his whole line through the Latin kings derived; him beneath the harness and yoke the wheels dragged along, and with rap on rap the rapid hoofs of his steeds, now regardless of their master trample upon him. The other (Turnus) encounters Ilus rushing on, and storming hideous with ire, and against his gilded temples hurls a javelin: through this helmet transfixing his brain, the spear stood quivering. Nor could 536. Aurata. Decked with a gilded helmet. Dextera nec tua te, Graiûm fortissime, Creteu, 540 545 550 555 Huc atque huc acies circumtulit, aspicit urbem Immunem tanti belli, atque impune quietam. Continuo pugnæ accendit majoris imago: 560 Mnesthea, Sergestumque vocat, fortemque Serestum, Ductores, tumulumque capit, quò cætera Teucrûm 565 546. Mortis metae. As Homer, reλos lavarolo, i. e. death which, is the goal or boundary of human life. 563. Nec scuta deponunt. According to the custom of the Roman soldiers, who were wont to be drawn up in arms before their general when he harangued. thy right-hand, O Creteus, bravest of Greeks, save thee from Turnus; nor did his own gods protect Cupencus from the assault of Æneas. The sword of the assailant found easy access to his heart: nor did the resistance of the brazen shield aught avail its hapless owner. Lauren tum's fields, O Eolus, saw thee too fall, and stretched on thy back widely cover the earth. Here thou, whom neither the Grecian squadrons could overthrow, nor Achilles, the destroyer of Priam's empire, meetest thy doom. Here were the boundaries of thy life: under mount Ida thy stately palace, in Lyrnessus thy stately palace stood; but these you now resign for a grave in Laurentine ground. Thus now both hosts are on each other turned, both Latins and Trojans all: Mnestheus, and stern Serestus, and Messapus, a horseman renowned, and gallant Asylas, the Tuscan phalanx, and Arcadian Evander's cavalry, the warriors each to his power their utmost efforts exert. No stop, no stay; with vast emula tion they strain their utmost. Here his lovely parent, Venus, inspired Eneas with the resolution to march to the walls, and forthwith advance his army against the city, and with an unexpected blow confound the Latins. While through the various ranks in quest of Turnus he rolled his eyes hither aud thither around, he sees the city exempt from the disastrous war, and in safety undisturbed. Instantly the image of a more decisive battle inflames his soul: he calls the chiefs, Mnestheus, Sergestus, and brave Serestus, and takes a rising ground, where the rest of the Trojan army assemble in thick array, nor lay their targets or darts aside. He in the centre, posted on the eminence, thus addresses them: Let no obstruction be given to my proposal; for Jove himself stands by us, and he directs our counsels: nor, because the design is sudden, let me find any the more backward in its execution. The city, the cause of the war, and the empire itself of Latinus, unless the people consent to receive our yoke, and vanquished to submit, this day will I overturn, and lay their smoking towers level with the ground. Am I forsooth Scilicet expectem, libeat dum prœlia Turno Accidit hæc fessis etiam fortuna Latinis, Nusquam acies contrà Rutulas, nulla agmina Turni; Infelix, pugnæ juvenem in certamine credit Exstinctum, et, subito mentem turbata dolore, 570 575 580 585 590 595 Se causam clamat, crimenque, caputque malorum; 600 Multaque per moestum demens effata furorem, 575. Dant cumeum. They form themselves into the military wedge, which draws to a point in the front, and still widens more and more towards the rear. 582. Altera foedera. The first was when Latinus promised Ilioneus to take Aeneas for his ally and son-in-law, Aen. vii. 259. The second was that which ratified the single combat between Aeneas and Turnus, verse 195. |