delight to brave all chances. Yet now they fail; for where a massed throng threatens, the Teucrians roll up and hurl down a mighty mass, that laid low the Rutulians far and wide and broke their coverlet of armour. Nor do the bold Rutulians care longer to contend in blind warfare, but strive with darts to clear the ramparts. Elsewhere, grim to behold, Mezentius was brandishing his Etruscan pine and hurls smoking brands; while Messapus, the seed of Neptune, tamer of horses, tears down the rampart and calls for ladders to mount the battlements.1 525 Do thou, O Calliope, thou and thy sisters, I pray, inspire me while I sing, what slaughter, what deaths, Turnus dealt on that day, and whom each warrior sent down to doom; and unroll with me the mighty scroll of war. 530 A tower loomed high above, with lofty gangways, posted on vantage-ground, which all the Italians strove with utmost strength to storm, and with utmost force of skill to overthrow the Trojans in turn made defence with stones, and hurled showers of darts through the open loopholes. First Turnus flung a blazing torch and made fast its fire in the side; this, fanned by the wind, seized the planks and lodged in the gateways it consumed. Within, troubled and terrified, men vainly seek escape from disaster. While they huddle close and fall back to the side free from ruin, lo! under the sudden weight the tower fell, and all the sky thunders with the crash. Half dead they come to the ground, the monstrous mass behind them, pierced by their own shafts, and their breasts impaled by the cruel splinters. Scarcely do Helenor and Lycus alone escapeHelenor in prime of youth, whom a Licymnian slave 1 cf. Aen. VII. 691. 2 See note on 170 above. 550 555 Maeonio regi quem serva Licymnia furtim sustulerat vetitisque ad Troiam miserat armis, ense levis nudo parmaque inglorius alba. isque ubi se Turni media inter milia vidit, hinc acies atque hinc acies adstare Latinas, ut fera, quae densa venantum saepta corona contra tela furit seseque haud nescia morti inicit et saltu supra venabula fertur, haud aliter iuvenis medios moriturus in hostis inruit et qua tela videt densissima tendit. at pedibus longe melior Lycus inter et hostis inter et arma fuga muros tenet altaque certat prendere tecta manu sociumque attingere dextras. quem Turnus pariter cursu teloque secutus increpat his victor: "nostrasne evadere, demens, 560 sperasti te posse manus?" simul arripit ipsum pendentem et magna muri cum parte revellit; qualis ubi aut leporem aut candenti corpore cycnum sustulit alta petens pedibus Iovis armiger uncis, quaesitum aut matri multis balatibus agnum Martius a stabulis rapuit lupus. undique clamor tollitur: invadunt et fossas aggere complent ; ardentis taedas alii ad fastigia iactant. Ilioneus saxo atque ingenti fragmine montis 565 Lucetium portae subeuntem ignisque ferentem, 570 Emathiona Liger, Corynaeum sternit Asilas, hic iaculo bonus, hic longe fallente sagitta, Ortygium Caeneus, victorem Caenea Turnus, Turnus Ityn Cloniumque, Dioxippum Promolumque et Sagarim et summis stantem pro turribus Idan, 575 1 He was too young to win distinction, and therefore had no device on his shield. had borne secretly to the Maeonian king, and had sent to Troy in forbidden arms, lightly accoutred with naked sword and white shield, as yet unfamed.1 Soon as he saw himself in the midst of Turnus' thousands, the Latin lines standing on this side, and standing on that, like a wild beast that, hedged about by the hunters' serried ring, rages against their shafts, flings itself on the death foreseen, and with a bound springs upon the spears-even so the youth rushes to death amidst the foe, and where he sees the weapons thickest, makes his way. But Lycus, far swifter of foot, amid foes, amid arms, gains the walls and strives to clutch the coping, and reach the hands of his comrades. Him Turnus following alike with foot and spear, taunts thus in triumph : "Fool, didst thou hope to escape our hands?" Therewith he seizes him as he hangs, and tears him down with a mighty mass of wall: even as when the bearer of Jove's bolt, as he soars aloft, has swept away in his crooked talons some hare or snowybodied swan; or as when the wolf of Mars 2 has snatched from the fold a lamb that its mother seeks with much bleating. On all sides a shout goes up; on they press, and with heaps of earth fill up the trenches; some toss blazing brands on to the roofs. Ilioneus lays Lucetius low with a rock, huge fragment of a mountain, as, carrying fire, he nears the gate. Liger slays Emathion, Asilas Corynaeus; the one skilled with the javelin, the other with the arrow stealing from afar. Caeneus fells Ortygius; Turnus victorious Caeneus; Turnus Itys and Clonius, Dioxippus and Promolus, and Sagaris, and Idas, as he stood on the topmost towers; Capys slays Privernus. 2 Because Romulus and Remus, the offspring of Mars, were suckled by a she-wolf. Privernum Capys. hunc primo levis hasta Themillae strinxerat: ille manum proiecto tegmine demens ad volnus tulit; ergo alis adlapsa sagitta et laevo infixa est lateri manus abditaque intus pictus acu chlamydem et ferrugine clarus Hibera, 580 flumina, pinguis ubi et placabilis ara Palici : 585 stridentem fundam positis Mezentius hastis ipse ter adducta circum caput egit habena et media adversi liquefacto tempora plumbo diffidit ac multa porrectum extendit harena. Tum primum bello celerem intendisse sagittam 590 dicitur, ante feras solitus terrere fugacis, Ascanius, fortemque manu fudisse Numanum, cui Remulo cognomen erat, Turnique minorem germanam nuper thalamo sociatus habebat. is primam ante aciem digna atque indigna relatu 595 vociferans tumidusque novo praecordia regno ibat et ingentem sese clamore ferebat : 66 non pudet obsidione iterum valloque teneri, bis capti Phryges, et morti praetendere muros? 600 durum a stirpe genus natos ad flumina primum deferimus saevoque gelu duramus et undis; venatu invigilant pueri silvasque fatigant, flectere ludus equos et spicula tendere cornu; 579 adfixa Py, Servius. 605 584 matris y, Macrobius: Martis MPRb: matis c. 586 hastis] armis Ry2. 599 morte M1: Marti some inferior MSS., accepted by Henry. protendere M1. 604 saevo] duro Py. Him Themillas' spear had first grazed lightly; he, madly casting down his shield, carried his hand to the wound. So the arrow winged its way, and pinning the hand to his left side, buried itself deep within, and tore with fatal wound the breathing-ways of life. The son of Arces stood in glorious arms, his scarf embroidered with needlework, and bright with Iberian blue-of noble form, whom his father Arces had sent, a youth reared in his mother's grove about the streams of Symaethus, where stands Palicus' altar, gift-laden and gracious. But, dropping his spears, Mezentius with tight-drawn thong thrice whirled about his head the whizzing sling, with molten bullet cleft in twain the temples of his opposing foe, and stretched him at full length in the deep sand. 590 Then first, 'tis said, Ascanius aimed his swift shaft in war, till now wont to affright the fleeing quarry, and with his hand laid low brave Numanus, Remulus by surname, who but lately had won as bride Turnus' younger sister. He stalked before the foremost line, shouting words meet and unmeet to utter, his heart puffed up with new-won royalty, and strode forward in huge bulk, crying : 598 "Are ye not shamed, twice captured Phrygians, again to be cooped within beleaguered ramparts, and with walls to ward off death? Lo! these are they who by the sword claim our brides for theirs! What god, what madness, has driven you to Italy? Here are no sons of Atreus, no fable-forging Ulysses! A race of hardy stock, we first bring our new-born sons to the river, and harden them with the water's cruel cold; as boys they keep vigil for the chase, and tire the forests; their sport is to rein the steed and level Ste |