صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

thus above him cries: "Where now is bold Mezentius, and that wild fierceness of soul?" To him the Tuscan, as with eyes upturned to the air he drank in the heaven and regained his sense: "Bitter foe, why thy taunts and threats of death? No sin is there in slaying me; not on such terms came I to battle, nor is such the pact my Lausus pledged between me and thee. This alone I ask, by whatsoever grace a vanquished foe may claim: suffer my body to be laid in earth. I know that my people's fierce hatred besets me. Guard me, I pray, from their fury, and grant me fellowship with my son within the tomb." So speaks he, and, unfaltering, welcomes the sword to his throat, and pours forth his life over his armour in streams of blood.

LIBER XI

MPR

5

OCEANUM interea surgens Aurora reliquit : Aeneas, quamquam et sociis dare tempus humandis praecipitant curae turbataque funere mens est, vota deum primo victor solvebat Eoo. ingentem quercum decisis undique ramis constituit tumulo fulgentiaque induit arma, Mezenti ducis exuvias, tibi, magne, tropaeum, bellipotens; aptat rorantis sanguine cristas telaque trunca viri, et bis sex thoraca petitum perfossumque locis, clipeumque ex aere sinistrae 10 subligat atque ensem collo suspendit eburnum. tum socios (namque omnis eum stipata tegebat turba ducum) sic incipiens hortatur ovantis :

"Maxima res effecta, viri; timor omnis abesto, quod superest; haec sunt spolia et de rege superbo 15 primitiae manibusque meis Mezentius hic est. nunc iter ad regem nobis murosque Latinos. arma parate animis et spe praesumite bellum, ne qua mora ignaros, ubi primum vellere signa adnuerint superi pubemque educere castris,

20

18 Servius notes that animis may be taken with either the words preceding or those following. M punctuates after animis.

1 Aeneas has two duties to perform, to bury the dead and to pay his vow. The latter he attends to first, according to

BOOK XI

MEANWHILE dawn rose and left the ocean. Aeneas, though his sorrows urge to give time for his comrades' burial, and death has bewildered his soul, yet as the Day-star rose, began to pay the gods his vows of victory.1 A mighty oak, its branches lopped all about, he plants on a mound, and arrays in the gleaming arms stripped from Mezentius the chief, a trophy to thee, thou Lord of War.2 Thereto he fastens the crests dripping with blood, the soldier's broken darts, and the breastplate smitten and pierced twice six times; to the left hand he binds the brazen shield, and from the neck hangs the ivory sword. Then his triumphant comrades-for the whole band of chieftains thronged close about him-he thus begins to exhort:

14 "Mighty deeds have we wrought, my men; for what remains, away with all fear! These are the spoils and firstfruits of a haughty king; and here is Mezentius, as fashioned by my hands. Now lies our march to Latium's king and walls. Prepare your with weapons courage and with your hopes anticipate the war; so that, soon as the gods above grant us to pluck hence our standards, and from the camp to lead

Roman ritual; his inclination would have led him to bury his comrades first.

2 In the trophy here described, the tree-trunk doubtless represents the body of the vanquished foe.

impediat segnisve metu sententia tardet.
interea socios inhumataque corpora terrae
mandemus, qui solus honos Acheronte sub imo est.
ite," ait, "egregias animas, quae sanguine nobis
hanc patriam peperere suo, decorate supremis
muneribus maestamque Euandri primus ad urbem
mittatur Pallas, quem non virtutis egentem
abstulit atra dies et funere mersit acerbo."

Sic ait inlacrimans recipitque ad limina gressum,
corpus ubi exanimi positum Pallantis Acoetes
servabat senior, qui Parrhasio Euandro
armiger ante fuit, sed non-felicibus aeque
tum comes auspiciis caro datus ibat alumno.

25

30

circum omnis famulumque manus Troianaque turba et maestum Iliades crinem de more solutae.

35

ut vero Aeneas foribus sese intulit altis, ingentem gemitum tunsis ad sidera tollunt pectoribus maestoque immugit regia luctu. ipse caput nivei fultum Pallantis et ora ut vidit levique patens in pectore volnus cuspidis Ausoniae, lacrimis ita fatur obortis: "tene," inquit," miserande puer, cum laeta veniret, invidit Fortuna mihi, ne regna videres

nostra neque ad sedes victor veherere paternas? non haec Euandro de te promissa parenti discedens dederam, cum me complexus euntem mitteret in magnum imperium metuensque moneret acris esse viros, cum dura proelia gente.

et nunc ille quidem spe multum captus inani fors et vota facit cumulatque altaria donis;

21 -ve MR: -que MaPy.
24 qui Macrobius.

23 est omitted in PR.

28

= VI. 429

40

45

50

forth the host, no delay may impede us unawares or faltering purpose retard us through fear. Meanwhile let us commit to earth the unburied bodies of our comrades-sole honour theirs in nether Acheron. Go," he said, "grace with the last rites those noble souls, who with their blood have won for us this our country; and first let Pallas be sent to Evander's mourning city, he whom, lacking naught of valour, the black day swept off and plunged in bitter death."

But

29 So he speaks weeping, and retraces his steps to the threshold, where Pallas' lifeless body was laid, watched by old Acoetes, who erstwhile was armourbearer to Parrhasian Evander, but now with less happy auspices went as appointed guardian to his loved foster-child. Around stood all the attendant train and Trojan throng, with the Ilian women, their hair unloosed for mourning in wonted wise. when Aeneas entered the lofty portal, they smote their breasts and raised a mighty wail to the stars, and the royal dwelling rang with their sorrowful lamentation. He, when he saw the pillowed head and face of Pallas, snowy-white, and, on his smooth breast, the gaping wound from Ausonian spear, thus speaks, amid upwelling tears: "Was it thou, unhappy boy, that Fortune grudged me in her happy hour, that thou mightest not look upon my realm, nor ride triumphant to thy father's home?

Not

such the parting promise touching thee I gave thy sire Evander, when he embraced me as I went, and sent me forth to win great empire, yet warned me in fear that valiant were the men and hardy the race we confronted. And now he, much beguiled by idle hope, perchance is offering vows and heaping the

« السابقةمتابعة »