Teucrians; nay, within the gates and even on their rampart heights they join battle, and flood the trenches with gore. Aeneas, unwitting, is far away. Wilt thou never suffer the leaguer to be raised? Once more a foe threatens the walls of infant Troy, yea, a second host; and once more against the Trojans rises from his Aetolian Arpi a son of Tydeus. Truly, methinks, my wounds are yet to come, and I, thy offspring, delay a mortal spear.1 If without thy leave and despite thy deity, the Trojans have sought Italy, let them expiate their sin, nor aid thou them with succour. But if they have but followed all the oracles, given by gods above and gods below, why is any one now able to overthrow thy bidding or why to build the fates anew? Why should I recall the fleet burned on the strand of Eryx?2 Why the king of storms, and his raging gales roused from Aeolia, or Iris wafted from the clouds? Now she even stirs the shades—this quarter of the world was yet untried-and Allecto, launched of a sudden on the upper world, raves through the midst of Italian towns. I reck naught of empire; that was my hope, while Fortune stood; let them win whom thou wouldst have win. If there is no country for thy relentless consort to bestow upon the Teucrians, by the smoking ruins of desolate Troy, I beseech thee, O Father, let me dismiss Ascanius from arms unscathed-let my grandson still live! Aeneas, indeed, may well be tossed on unknown waters, and follow Fortune, what path soever she point out: this child let me avail to shield and withdraw from the dreadful fray. Amathus is mine, mine high Paphus and Cythera, and Idalia's 1 Diomede, son of Tydeus, wounded Venus when she rescued Aeneas. See Homer, Iliad, v. 336. 2 cf. Aen. v. 604 sq. 3 cf. Aen. I. 50 sq. MPRV 55 65 Idaliaeque domus: positis inglorius armis exigat hic aevum. magna dicione iubeto Karthago premat Ausoniam : nihil urbibus inde obstabit Tyriis. quid pestem evadere belli iuvit et Argolicos medium fugisse per ignis, totque maris vastaeque exhausta pericula terrae, dum Latium Teucri recidivaque Pergama quaerunt? non satius, cineres patriae insedisse supremos atque solum, quo Troia fuit? Xanthum et Simoenta 60 redde, oro, miseris iterumque revolvere casus da, pater, Iliacos Teucris.' tum regia Iuno acta furore gravi: "quid me alta silentia cogis rumpere et obductum verbis volgare dolorem? Aenean hominum quisquam divumque subegit bella sequi aut hostem regi se inferre Latino? Italiam petiit fatis auctoribus: esto; Cassandrae impulsus furiis: num linquere castra hortati sumus aut vitam committere ventis? num puero summam belli, num credere muros, Tyrrhenamque fidem aut gentis agitare quietas ? quis deus in fraudem, quae dura potentia nostra egit? ubi hic Iuno demissave nubibus Iris? indignum est Italos Troiam circumdare flammis nascentem et patria Turnum consistere terra, cui Pilumnus avus, cui diva Venilia mater: quid face Troianos atra vim ferre Latinis, arva aliena iugo premere atque avertere praedas? quid soceros legere et gremiis abducere pactas, MPR pacem orare manu, praefigere puppibus arma? 53 exiget V. 59 patriae cineres P 70 75 80 shrine: here, laying arms aside, let him live out his inglorious days! Bid Carthage in mighty sway crush Ausonia; from her shall come no hindrance to Tyrian towns. What has it availed to escape the plague of war, to have fled through the midst of Argive fires, to have exhausted all the perils of sea and desolate lands, while his Teucrians seek Latium and a newborn Troy? Were it not better to have settled on the last ashes of their country, and the soil where once was Troy? Restore, I pray, Xanthus and Simois to a hapless people, and let the Teucrians retrace once more the woes of Ilium!" 62 Then royal Juno, spurred by fierce frenzy: "Why forcest thou me to break my deep silence and publish to the world Did any hidden sorrow? my man or god constrain Aeneas to seek war and advance as a foe upon King Latinus? 'He sought Italy at the call of Fate.' So be it-driven on by Cassandra's raving! Did I urge him to quit the camp, or entrust his life to the winds? To commit the issue of war, the charge of battlements, to a child? To tamper with Tyrrhene faith or stir up peaceful folk? What god, what pitiless power of mine drove him to his harm? Where in this is Juno, or Iris sent down from the clouds? Ay, 'tis shameful that Italians should gird thy infant Troy with flames, and that Turnus set foot on his native soil-Turnus, whose grandsire is Pilumnus, whose mother divine Venilia! But what that the Trojans with smoking brands assail the Latins, that they set their yoke upon the fields of others, and drive off the spoil? What that they choose whose daughters they shall wed, and drag from her lover's breast the plighted bride?1 That they proffer peace with the hand but array their 1 The reference is to Aeneas, suing for the hand of Lavinia. tu potes Aenean manibus subducere Graium proque viro nebulam et ventos obtendere inanis, et potes in totidem classem convertere nymphas : nos aliquid Rutulos contra iuvisse nefandum est ? Aeneas ignarus abest: ignarus et absit. est Paphus Idaliumque tibi, sunt alta Cythera : quid gravidam bellis urbem et corda aspera temptas? nosne tibi fluxas Phrygiae res vertere fundo conamur? nos? an miseros qui Troas Achivis obiecit? quae causa fuit, consurgere in arma Europamque Asiamque et foedera solvere furto? me duce Dardanius Spartam expugnavit adulter aut ego tela dedi fovive cupidine bella? tum decuit metuisse tuis: nunc sera querellis haud iustis adsurgis et inrita iurgia iactas." 85 90 95 Talibus orabat Iuno, cunctique fremebant caelicolae adsensu vario, ceu flamina prima cum deprensa fremunt silvis et caeca volutant murmura, venturos nautis prodentia ventos. tum pater omnipotens, rerum cui prima potestas, 100 infit (eo dicente deum domus alta silescit et tremefacta solo tellus, silet arduus aether, tum Zephyri posuere, premit placida aequora pontus): "accipite ergo animis atque haec mea figite dicta. quandoquidem Ausonios coniungi foedere Teucris 105 haud licitum nec vestra capit discordia finem: quae cuique est fortuna hodie, quam quisque secat spem, 83 classes M. 100 prima] summa M2Py2. 105 Ausoniis P21. Teucros Py1. 106 licitum est R, Servius. ships with armour? Thou hast power to steal Aeneas from Grecian hands, and in place of a man to offer them mist and void air, and thou hast power to turn their fleet into as many nymphs:1 but that we in turn have given some aid to the Rutuli, is that monstrous? 'Aeneas unwitting is far away'; unwitting and far away let him be! Paphus is thine, Idalium, and high Cythera': why meddle with savage hearts, and a city teeming with war? Is it I that essay to overthrow from the foundation Phrygia's tottering state? Is it I? Or is it he who flung the hapless Trojans in the Achaeans' path? What cause was there that Europe and Asia should uprise in arms and break bonds of peace by treachery? Was it I that led the Dardan adulterer to ravage Sparta? Was it I that gave him weapons or fostered war with lust? Then shouldst thou have feared for thine own; now too late thou risest with unjust complaints, and bandiest bickering words in vain.' 96 Thus pleaded Juno, and all the celestial company murmured assent in diverse wise: even as when rising blasts, caught in the forest, murmur, and roll their dull moanings, betraying to sailors the oncoming of the gale. Then the Father Almighty, prime potentate of the world, begins: as he speaks, the high house of the gods grows silent and earth trembles from her base; silent is high heaven; then the Zephyrs are hushed; Ocean stills his waters into rest. 104 Take therefore to heart and fix there these words of mine. Since it may not be that Ausonians and Teucrians join alliance, and your disunion admits no end, whate'er the fortune of each to-day, whate'er the hope each pursues, be he Trojan or be he 1 cf. Aen. IX. 80 sq. VOL. II. N |