Aeneid IX.503-620
The war heats up. Turnus's brother-in-law challenges Ascanius.
But the war-trumpet, with its bronze singing, rang out
its terrible sound, a clamour followed that the sky re-echoed.
The Volscians, raising their shields in line, ran forward,
ready to fill in the ditches and tear down the ramparts;
some tried for an entrance and to scale the wall with ladders,
where the ranks were thin and a less dense cordon of men
allowed the light through. The Trojans, accustomed to defending
their walls by endless warfare, hurled missiles at them
of every sort, and fended them off with sturdy poles.
They rolled down stones too, deadly weights,
in the hope of breaking through the well-protected ranks
which, under their solid shields, however, rejoiced
in enduring every danger. But soon even they were inadequate,
since the Trojans rolled a vast rock to where a large formation
threatened, and hurled it down, felling the Rutulians
far and wide and breaking their armoured shell.
The brave Rutulians no longer cared to fight blindly,
but tried to clear the ramparts with missiles.
Elsewhere, Mezentius, deadly to behold, brandished
Tuscan pine and hurled smoking firebrands;
while Messapus, tamer of horses, scion of Neptune,
tore at the rampart and called for scaling ladders.
I pray to you, O Calliope,1 Muses, inspire my singing
of the slaughter, the deaths Turnus dealt with his sword
that day, and who each warrior was that he sent down to Orcus,
and open the lips of mighty war with me,
since, goddesses, you remember, and have the power to tell.
There was a turret, tall to look at, with high access-ways
and a good position, that all the Italians tried with utmost power
to storm and to dislodge with the utmost power of their efforts:
the Trojans in turn defended themselves with stones
and hurled showers of missiles through the open loopholes.
Turnus was first to throw a blazing torch and root the flames
in its flank that, fanned by a strong wind, seized
the planking and clung to the entrances they devoured.
The anxious men inside were afraid and tried in vain
to escape disaster. While they clung together and retreated
to the side free from damage, the turret suddenly
collapsed, and the whole sky echoed to the crash.
Half-dead they fell to earth, the huge mass following,
pierced by their own weapons, and their chests impaled
on the harsh wood. Only Helenor and Lycus managed
to escape: Helenor being in the prime of youth, one
whom a slave, Licymnia, had secretly borne to the Maeonian king
and sent to Troy with weapons he’d been forbidden,
lightly armed with naked blade and anonymous white shield.
When he found himself in the midst of Turnus’s thousands,
Latin ranks standing to right and left of him,
as a wild creature hedged in by a close circle of hunters
rages against theirs weapons, and hurls itself, consciously,
to death, and is carried by its leap on to the hunting spears—
so the youth rushed to his death among the enemy
and headed for where the weapons appeared thickest.
But Lycus, quicker of foot, darting among the enemy
and their arms, reached the wall and tried to grasp
the high parapet with his hands, to reach his comrades’ grasp.
Turnus following him closely on foot, with his spear,
taunted in triumph: “Madman, did you hope to escape
my reach?” He seized him there and then as he hung,
and pulled him down with a large piece of the wall:
like an eagle, carrier of Jove’s lightning bolt, soaring high,
lifting a hare or the snow-white body of a swan in its talons,
or a wolf, Mars’s creature, snatching a lamb from the fold,
that its mother searches for endlessly bleating. A shout rose
on all sides: the Rutulians drove forwards, some filling
the ditches with mounds of earth, others throwing burning brands
onto the roofs. Ilioneus felled Lucetius with a rock, a vast fragment
of the hillside, as he neared the gate carrying fire, Liger
killed Emathion, Asilas killed Corynaeus, the first skilled
with the javelin, the other with deceptive long-range arrows,
Caenus felled Ortygius, Turnus victorious Caeneus, and Itys
and Clonius, Dioxippus and Promolus, and Sagaris, and Idas
as he stood on the highest tower, and Capys killed Privernus.
Themillas had grazed him slightly first with his spear, foolishly
he threw his shield down and placed his hand on the wound;
so the arrow winged silently, fixed itself deep in his left side
and, burying itself within, tore the breathing passages
with a lethal wound. Arcens’ son stood there too in glorious
armour, his cloak embroidered with scenes, bright with Spanish blue,
a youth of noble features whom his father Arcens had sent,
reared in Mars’s grove by Symaethus’s streams,2
where the rich and gracious altars of Palicus stand:
Mezentius, dropping his spears, whirled a whistling sling
on its tight thong three times round his head and split
his adversary’s forehead open in the middle with
the now-molten lead, stretching him full length in the deep sand.
Then they say Ascanius first aimed his swift arrows
in war, used till now to terrify wild creatures in flight,
and with his hand he felled brave Numanus,
who was surnamed Remulus and had
lately won Turnus’s sister as his wife.
Numanus marched ahead of the front rank,
shouting words that were fitting and unfitting
to repeat, his heart swollen with new-won royalty
and boasting loudly of his greatness:
“Twice-conquered Trojans, aren’t you ashamed to be besieged
and shut behind ramparts again, fending off death with walls?
Behold, these are the men who’d demand our brides through war!
What god, what madness has driven you to Italy?
Here are no Atrides, no Ulysses, maker of fictions:
a race from hardy stock, we first bring our newborn sons
to the river and toughen them with the water’s fierce chill;
as children they keep watch in the chase and weary the forest,
their play is to wheel their horses and shoot arrows from the bow.
But patient at work, and used to little, our young men
tame the earth with the hoe or shake cities in battle.
All our life we’re abraded by iron, we goad our bullocks’
flanks with a reversed spear, and slow age
doesn’t weaken our strength of spirit or alter our vigour:
we set a helmet on our white hairs and delight
in collecting fresh spoils and living on plunder.
You wear embroidered saffron and gleaming purple,
idleness pleases you, you delight in the enjoyment of dance,
and your tunics have sleeves, and your hats have ribbons.
O truly you Phrygian women, as you’re not Phrygian men,
run over the heights of Dindymus,3 where a double-reed
makes music for accustomed ears. The timbrels call to you,
and the Berecynthian boxwood flute of the Mother of Ida:
leave weapons to men and abandon the sword.”
At tuba terribilem sonitum procul aere canoro
increpuit, sequitur clamor caelumque remugit.
accelerant acta pariter testudine Volsci 505
et fossas implere parant ac vellere vallum;
quaerunt pars aditum et scalis ascendere muros,
qua rara est acies interlucetque corona
non tam spissa viris. telorum effundere contra
omne genus Teucri ac duris detrudere contis, 510
adsueti longo muros defendere bello.
saxa quoque infesto volvebant pondere, si qua
possent tectam aciem perrumpere, cum tamen omnis
ferre iuvet subter densa testudine casus.
nec iam sufficiunt. nam qua globus imminet ingens, 515
immanem Teucri molem volvuntque ruuntque,
quae stravit Rutulos late armorumque resolvit
tegmina. nec curant caeco contendere Marte
amplius audaces Rutuli, sed pellere vallo
missilibus certant. 520
parte alia horrendus visu quassabat Etruscam
pinum et fumiferos infert Mezentius ignis;
at Messapus equum domitor, Neptunia proles,
rescindit vallum et scalas in moenia poscit.
Vos, o Calliope, precor, aspirate canenti 525
quas ibi tum ferro strages, quae funera Turnus
ediderit, quem quisque virum demiserit Orco,
et mecum ingentis oras evolvite belli.
Turris erat vasto suspectu et pontibus altis, 530
opportuna loco, summis quam viribus omnes
expugnare Itali summaque evertere opum vi
certabant, Troes contra defendere saxis
perque cavas densi tela intorquere fenestras.
princeps4 ardentem coniecit lampada Turnus 535
et flammam adfixit lateri, quae plurima vento
corripuit tabulas et postibus haesit adesis.
turbati trepidare intus frustraque malorum
velle fugam. dum se glomerant retroque residunt
in partem quae peste caret, tum pondere turris 540
procubuit subito et caelum tonat omne fragore.
semineces ad terram immani mole secuta
confixique suis telis et pectora duro
transfossi ligno veniunt. vix unus Helenor
et Lycus elapsi; quorum primaevus Helenor, 545
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 astare Latinas, 550
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. 555
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 565
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
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
Privernum Capys. hunc primo levis hasta Themillae
strinxerat, ille manum proiecto tegmine demens
ad vulnus tulit; ergo alis adlapsa sagitta
et laevo infixa est alte lateri, abditaque intus
spiramenta animae letali vulnere rupit. 580
stabat in egregiis Arcentis filius armis
pictus acu chlamydem et ferrugine clarus Hibera,
insignis facie, genitor quem miserat Arcens
eductum Martis luco Symaethia circum
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:
'non pudet obsidione iterum valloque teneri,
bis capti Phryges, et morti praetendere muros?
en qui nostra sibi bello conubia poscunt! 600
quis deus Italiam, quae vos dementia adegit?
non hic Atridae nec fandi fictor Vlixes:
durum a stirpe genus natos ad flumina primum
deferimus saevoque gelu duramus et undis;
venatu invigilant pueri silvasque fatigant, 605
flectere ludus equos et spicula tendere cornu.
at patiens operum parvoque adsueta iuventus
aut rastris terram domat aut quatit oppida bello.
omne aevum ferro teritur, versaque iuvencum
terga fatigamus hasta, nec tarda senectus 610
debilitat viris animi mutatque vigorem:
canitiem galea premimus, semperque recentis
comportare iuvat praedas et vivere rapto.
vobis picta croco et fulgenti murice vestis,
desidiae cordi, iuvat indulgere choreis, 615
et tunicae manicas et habent redimicula mitrae.
o vere Phrygiae, neque enim Phryges, ite per alta
Dindyma, ubi adsuetis biforem dat tibia cantum.
tympana vos buxusque vocat Berecyntia Matris
Idaeae; sinite arma viris et cedite ferro.' 620
Find the glossary for Aeneid Daily here; subscribe to receive daily posts.
Muse of epic poetry
A Sicilian river-god; the Sicilian god Palicus was also worshipped in the area.
a mountain near Mount Ida, sacred to Cybele