Aeneid IX.107-206

Turnus gives a rousing speech. The resident Trojan boyfriends talk strategy.

So the day he had promised came and the Fates fulfilled

their appointed hour, when Turnus’s injury to the sacred fleet

prompted the Mother to defend them from the flames.

At first a strange light flared to the watchers, and a huge cloud

was seen to travel across the sky from the east

with bands of her Idaean attendants; then a terrible voice

rang through the air, echoing among the Trojan and Rutulian lines:

“Trojans, don’t rush to defend the ships or take up arms;

Turnus can burn the ocean sooner than my sacred pines. Go free,

you Goddesses of the sea; your mother commands it.” And at once

each ship tore her cable loose from the bank: they dipped their noses

like dolphins and sought the watery deep. Then (strange wonder)

as many virgin shapes re-surfaced and swam about the sea.

The Rutulians were amazed in mind, Messapus himself

was awe-struck, his horses panicked, and even the noisy flow

of the river halted as Tiber retreated from the deep.

But brave Turnus’s confidence never wavered;

and he raised their spirits as well and chided them:

“These marvels are aimed at the Trojans, Jupiter himself

has deprived them of their usual allies: those didn’t wait

for Rutulian missiles and fires. So the seas are impassable

for the Trojans, and they have no hope of flight: other regions

are lost to them, and this land is in our hands, so many

thousands of Italy’s peoples are in arms. I’m not afraid

of all the fateful omens from the gods these Phrygians

openly boast of; enough has been granted to Venus and the Fates,

since the Trojans have reached Ausonia’s fertile fields.

I have my own counter destiny, to root out the guilty race

that has snatched my bride with the sword. That’s a sorrow

that doesn’t touch Atrides alone,¹ nor is Mycenae alone allowed

to take up arms. ‘But to die once is enough.’? To have sinned

before should be enough for these men, to whom confidence

in a dividing wall and slight obstacles to death, defensive moats,

grant courage to utterly detest well-nigh the whole tribe

of women. Did they not witness the work of Neptune’s

hands, the battlements of Troy, sink in flames? But you,

O chosen ones, which of you is ready to uproot the ramparts

with your steel and invade their terrified camp with me?

I don’t need Vulcan’s arms or a thousand ships

against Trojans. Let all Etruria join them now in alliance.

They need not fear darkness, or cowardly theft

of their Palladium, killing guards on the citadel’s heights,

we won’t hide in the dark belly of a horse:

I intend to circle their walls in broad daylight with fire.

I’ll make them concede it’s not Greeks, Pelasgic youth,

they’re dealing with, whom Hector held till the tenth year.

Now, since the best part of the day’s gone, men,

refresh yourselves with what’s left, pleased with work

well done, and look forward to starting the battle.”

Meanwhile the order was given to Messapus to picket

the gates alertly with sentries and ring the ramparts with flames.

Fourteen Rutulians were chosen to guard the walls

with their men, each with a hundred soldiers

under them, purple-plumed and glittering with gold.

They ran about, took turns on watch, or lifted

the bronze bowls and enjoyed their wine,

stretched out on the grass. The fires shone

while the guards spent the watchful night in games.

The armed Trojans held the heights, looking down

on this from above, and also with anxious fears

checked the gates, built bulwarks and bridges,

and disposed their weapons. Mnestheus and brave Serestus,

whom Aeneas their leader appointed to command the army

and state if adversity ever required it, urged them on.

Sharing the risk, the whole company kept watch and served

in turn, at whatever point was to be guarded by each.

Nisus, bravest of warriors, son of Hyrtacus, was a guard

at the gates, he whom Ida the huntress had sent

to accompany Aeneas, agile with javelin and light darts,

and Euryalus was with him, than whom none was

more beautiful among the Aenedae or wearing Trojan armour,

a boy whose unshaven face showed the first bloom of youth.

One love was theirs, and they charged side by side into battle;

now they were also guarding the gate at the same sentry-post.

Nisus said: “Euryalus, do the gods set this fire in our hearts,

or does each man’s fatal desire become godlike to him?

My mind has long urged me to rush to battle or high

adventure, and is not content with peace and quiet.

You see what confidence the Rutulians have in events:

their lights shine far apart, and they lie drowned in sleep

and wine, everywhere is quiet. Listen to what I’m now

thinking and what purpose comes to mind. The army

and the council all demand Aeneas be recalled,

and men be sent to report the facts to him.

If they were to grant what I suggest to you (the glory

of doing it is enough for me) I think I could find a way,

beyond that hill, to the walls and ramparts of Pallanteum.”

Euryalus was dazzled, struck by a great desire for glory,

and replied to his ardent friend at once, like this:

“Nisus, do you shun my joining in this great deed,

then? Shall I send you into such danger alone?

That’s not how my father Opheltes, seasoned in war,

educated me, raising me among Greek terrors

and Troy’s ordeals, nor have I conducted myself so

with you, following noble Aeneas and the ends of fate.

This is my spirit, one scornful of the day, that thinks

the honour you aim at well bought with life itself.”²

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Ergo aderat promissa dies et tempora Parcae

debita complerant, cum Turni iniuria Matrem

admonuit ratibus sacris depellere taedas.

hic primum nova lux oculis offulsit et ingens               110

visus ab Aurora caelum transcurrere nimbus

Idaeique chori; tum vox horrenda per auras

excidit et Troum Rutulorumque agmina complet:

'ne trepidate meas, Teucri, defendere navis

neve armate manus; maria ante exurere Turno               115

quam sacras dabitur pinus. vos ite solutae,

ite deae pelagi; genetrix iubet.' et sua quaeque

continuo puppes abrumpunt vincula ripis

delphinumque modo demersis aequora rostris

ima petunt. hinc virgineae (mirabile monstrum)               120

reddunt se totidem facies pontoque feruntur.               122

Obstipuere animis Rutuli, conterritus ipse

turbatis Messapus equis, cunctatur et amnis

rauca sonans revocatque pedem Tiberinus ab alto.               125

at non audaci Turno fiducia cessit;

ultro animos tollit dictis atque increpat ultro:

'Troianos haec monstra petunt, his Iuppiter ipse

auxilium solitum eripuit: non tela neque ignis

exspectant Rutulos. ergo maria invia Teucris,               130

nec spes ulla fugae: rerum pars altera adempta est,

terra autem in nostris manibus, tot milia gentes

arma ferunt Italae. nil me fatalia terrent,

si qua Phryges prae se iactant, responsa deorum;

sat fatis Venerique datum, tetigere quod arva               135

fertilis Ausoniae Troes. sunt et mea contra

fata mihi, ferro sceleratam exscindere gentem

coniuge praerepta; nec solos tangit Atridas

iste dolor, solisque licet capere arma Mycenis.

"sed periisse semel satis est": peccare fuisset               140

ante satis, penitus modo non genus omne perosos

femineum. quibus haec medii fiducia valli

fossarumque morae, leti discrimina parva,

dant animos; at non viderunt moenia Troiae

Neptuni fabricata manu considere in ignis?               145

sed vos, o lecti, ferro qui scindere vallum

apparat et mecum invadit trepidantia castra?

non armis mihi Volcani, non mille carinis

est opus in Teucros. addant se protinus omnes

Etrusci socios. tenebras et inertia furta               150

Palladii caesis late custodibus arcis

ne timeant, nec equi caeca condemur in aluo:

luce palam certum est igni circumdare muros.

haud sibi cum Danais rem faxo et pube Pelasga

esse ferant, decimum quos distulit Hector in annum.               155

nunc adeo, melior quoniam pars acta diei,

quod superest, laeti bene gestis corpora rebus

procurate, viri, et pugnam sperate parari.'

interea vigilum excubiis obsidere portas

cura datur Messapo et moenia cingere flammis.               160

bis septem Rutuli muros qui milite servent

delecti, ast illos centeni quemque sequuntur

purpurei cristis iuvenes auroque corusci.

discurrunt variantque vices, fusique per herbam

indulgent vino et vertunt crateras aenos.               165

conlucent ignes, noctem custodia ducit

insomnem ludo.

Haec super e vallo prospectant Troes et armis

alta tenent, nec non trepidi formidine portas

explorant pontisque et propugnacula iungunt,               170

tela gerunt. instat Mnestheus acerque Serestus,

quos pater Aeneas, si quando adversa vocarent,

rectores iuvenum et rerum dedit esse magistros.

omnis per muros legio sortita periclum

excubat exercetque vices, quod cuique tuendum est.               175

Nisus erat portae custos, acerrimus armis,

Hyrtacides, comitem Aeneae quem miserat Ida

venatrix iaculo celerem levibusque sagittis,

et iuxta comes Euryalus, quo pulchrior alter

non fuit Aeneadum Troiana neque induit arma,               180

ora puer prima signans intonsa iuventa.

his amor unus erat pariterque in bella ruebant;

tum quoque communi portam statione tenebant.

Nisus ait: 'dine hunc ardorem mentibus addunt,

Euryale, an sua cuique deus fit dira cupido?               185

aut pugnam aut aliquid iamdudum invadere magnum

mens agitat mihi, nec placida contenta quiete est.

cernis quae Rutulos habeat fiducia rerum:

lumina rara micant, somno vinoque soluti

procubuere, silent late loca. percipe porro               190

quid dubitem et quae nunc animo sententia surgat.

Aenean acciri omnes, populusque patresque,

exposcunt, mittique viros qui certa reportent.

si tibi quae posco promittunt (nam mihi facti

fama sat est), tumulo videor reperire sub illo               195

posse viam ad muros et moenia Pallantea.'

obstipuit magno laudum percussus amore

Euryalus, simul his ardentem adfatur amicum:

'mene igitur socium summis adiungere rebus,

Nise, fugis? solum te in tanta pericula mittam?               200

non ita me genitor, bellis adsuetus Opheltes,

Argolicum terrorem inter Troiaeque labores

sublatum erudiit, nec tecum talia gessi

magnanimum Aenean et fata extrema secutus:

est hic, est animus lucis contemptor et istum               205

qui vita bene credat emi, quo tendis, honorem.'

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1. ie, the Trojans are now two for two on the wifestealing, after Helen.

2. This plan, and the segments that follow, are a loose reference to Iliad 10, in which Odysseus and Diomedes sneak out at night to warcrime some sleeping Trojan allies.