and a Trojan lord!" He spoke, and, mounting the beast, settled his limbs as was his wont, and charged either hand with sharp javelins, his head glittering with brass and bristling with horse-hair plume. Thus he swiftly dashed into the midst. In that single heart surges a vast tide of shame and madness mingled with grief.

66

873 And now thrice in loud tones he called Aeneas. Yea, and Aeneas knew the call, and offers joyful prayer: So may the great father of the gods grant it, so Apollo on high! Mayest thou begin the combat!" So much said, he moves on to meet him with levelled spear. But he: "Why seek to affright me, fierce foe, now my son is taken? This was the one way whereby thou couldst destroy me. We shrink

not from death, nor heed we any of the gods. Cease; for I come to die, first bringing thee these gifts." He spoke, and hurled a javelin at his foe; then plants another and yet another, wheeling in wide circle; but the boss of gold withstands all. Thrice round his watchful foe he rode, turning to the left and launching darts from his hand; thrice the Trojan hero bears round with him the vast forest of spears upon his brazen shield. Then, weary of prolonging so many delays, of plucking out so many darts, and hard pressed in the unequal fray, at last with much pondering in heart, he springs forth and hurls his lance full between the war-horse's hollow temples. The steed rears up, lashes the air with its feet, then throws the rider and itself coming down above, entangles him; then falls over him in headlong plunge, and with shoulder out of joint. With their cries Trojans and Latins set heaven aflame. Up flies Aeneas, plucks his sword from the scabbard, and

et super haec: "ubi nunc Mezentius acer et illa effera vis animi?" contra Tyrrhenus, ut auras suspiciens hausit caelum mentemque recepit: "hostis amare, quid increpitas mortemque minaris? nullum in caede nefas, nec sic ad proelia veni, nec tecum meus haec pepigit mihi foedera Lausus. unum hoc per si qua est victis venia hostibus oro: corpus humo patiare tegi. scio acerba meorum circumstare odia: hunc, oro, defende furorem et me consortem nati concede sepulchro." haec loquitur iuguloque haud inscius accipit ensem undantique animam diffundit in arma cruore.

898 ut] et M2P2R11.

908 anima P1. defundit Ry1. cruorem MP1.

901

905

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

1

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. 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 weapons with 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.