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LIBER I

ARMA virumque cano, Troiae qui primus ab oris MRV Italiam fato profugus Laviniaque venit

litora multum ille et terris iactatus et alto

vi superum, saevae memorem Iunonis ob iram, multa quoque et bello passus, dum conderet urbem 5 inferretque deos Latio; genus unde Latinum Albanique patres atque altae moenia Romae. Musa, mihi causas memora, quo numine laeso quidve dolens regina deum tot volvere casus insignem pietate virum, tot adire labores impulerit. tantaene animis caelestibus irae ?

[Ille ego, qui quondam gracili modulatus avena
carmen, et egressus silvis vicina coegi
ut quamvis avido parerent arva colono,
gratum opus agricolis; at nunc horrentia Martis

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1a-1a only in a, on margin; recognized by Donatus (Suetonius) and Servius as written by Virgil, but withdrawn by Varius.

2 Laviniaque MV, known to Servius: que omitted M2: Lavinaque Ry: Servius approves of Lavina.

7 alta R.

BOOK I

ARMS I sing and the man who first from the coasts of Troy, exiled by fate, came to Italy and Lavinian shores; much buffeted on sea and land by violence from above, through cruel Juno's unforgiving wrath, and much enduring in war also, till he should build a city and bring his gods to Latium; whence came the Latin race, the lords of Alba,2 and the walls of lofty Rome.3

8 Tell me, O Muse, the cause; wherein thwarted in will or wherefore angered, did the Queen of heaven drive a man, of goodness so wondrous, to traverse so many perils, to face so many toils. Can resentment

so fierce dwell in heavenly breasts ?

[I am he who once tuned my song on a slender reed, then, leaving the woodland, constrained the neighbouring fields to serve the husbandmen, however grasping—a work welcome to farmers: but now of Mars' bristling 1]

1 These opening lines were probably written by Virgil in an experimental stage of composition, but rejected by his literary executors. In antiquity the words Arma virumque (" Arms and the man") were regularly regarded as the opening words of the epic. See Introduction, p. ix.

2

Many of the great senatorial families of Rome, including the Julii, claimed descent from the families of Alba Longa.

Reference is thus made to three stages of growth— Lavinium founded by Aeneas, Alba Longa by Ascanius, Rome by Romulus and Remus.

Urbs antiqua fuit (Tyrii tenuere coloni)
Karthago, Italiam contra Tiberinaque longe
ostia, dives opum studiisque asperrima belli;
quam Iuno fertur terris magis omnibus unam
posthabita coluisse Samo; hic illius arma,
hic currus fuit, hoc regnum dea gentibus esse,
si qua fata sinant, iam tum tenditque fovetque.
progeniem sed enim Troiano a sanguine duci
audierat, Tyrias olim quae verteret arces;
hinc populum late regem belloque superbum
venturum excidio Libyae: sic volvere Parcas.
id metuens veterisque memor Saturnia belli,
prima quod ad Troiam pro caris gesserat Argis
(necdum etiam causae irarum saevique dolores
exciderant animo; manet alta mente repostum
iudicium Paridis spretaeque iniuria formae,
et genus invisum et rapti Ganymedis honores)—
his accensa super, iactatos aequore toto
Troas, reliquias Danaum atque immitis Achilli,
arcebat longe Latio; multosque per annos
errabant, acti fatis, maria omnia circum.
tantae molis erat Romanam condere gentem.
Vix e conspectu Siculae telluris in altum

vela dabant laeti et spumas salis aere ruebant,
cum Iuno, aeternum servans sub pectore volnus,
haec secum: 66
mene incepto desistere victam

nec posse Italia Teucrorum avertere regem!

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18 sinunt M1.

30 Achillis R.

12 There was an ancient city, the home of Tyrian settlers, Carthage, over against Italy and the Tiber's mouths afar, rich in wealth and stern in war's pursuits. This, 'tis said, Juno loved above all other lands, holding Samos itself less dear. Here was her armour, here her chariot; that here should be the capital of the nations, should the fates perchance allow it, was even then the goddess' aim and cherished hope. Yet in truth she had heard that a race was springing from Trojan blood, to overthrow some day the Tyrian towers; that from it a people, kings of broad realms and proud in war, should come forth for Libya's downfall: such was the course ordained of fate. The daughter of Saturn, fearful of this and mindful of the old war which erstwhile she had fought at Troy for her beloved Argos-not yet, too, had the cause of her wrath and her bitter sorrows faded from her mind: deep in her heart lie stored the judgment of Paris and her slighted beauty's wrong, her hatred of the race 1 and the honours paid to ravished Ganymede-inflamed hereby yet more, she tossed on the wide main the Trojan remnant, left by the Greeks and pitiless Achilles, and kept them far from Latium; and many a year they wandered, driven by the fates o'er all the seas. So vast was

the effort to found the race of Rome.

34 Hardly out of sight of Sicilian land were they spreading their sails seaward, and merrily ploughing the foaming brine with brazen prow, when Juno, nursing an undying wound deep in her heart, thus to herself spake :

37"What! I resign my purpose, baffled, and fail to turn from Italy the Teucrian king! The fates, doubt1 Hated, because sprung from Dardanus, son of Jupiter and Electra, Juno's rival.

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quippe vetor fatis. Pallasne exurere classem Argivum atque ipsos potuit submergere ponto unius ob noxam et furias Aiacis Oilei? ipsa Iovis rapidum iaculata e nubibus ignem disiecitque rates evertitque aequora ventis ; illum exspirantem transfixo pectore flammas turbine corripuit scopuloque infixit acuto; ast ego, quae divum incedo regina, Iovisque et soror et coniunx, una cum gente tot annos bella gero. et quisquam numen Iunonis adorat praeterea aut supplex aris imponet honorem ?' Talia flammato secum dea corde volutans nimborum in patriam, loca feta furentibus Austris, Aeoliam venit. hic vasto rex Aeolus antro luctantis ventos tempestatesque sonoras imperio premit ac vinclis et carcere frenat. illi indignantes magno cum murmure montis circum claustra fremunt; celsa sedet Aeolus arce sceptra tenens, mollitque animos et temperat iras ; ni faciat, maria ac terras caelumque profundum quippe ferant rapidi secum verrantque per auras. sed pater omnipotens speluncis abdidit atris, hoc metuens, molemque et montis insuper altos imposuit regemque dedit, qui foedere certo et premere et laxas sciret dare iussus habenas. ad quem tum Iuno supplex his vocibus usa est: "Aeole, namque tibi divum pater atque hominum rex et mulcere dedit fluctus et tollere vento,

gens inimica mihi Tyrrhenum navigat aequor, Ilium in Italiam portans victosque Penatis :

41 Oili M.

44 pectore] tempore Probus.

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