Aeneid VI.752-853
Anchises tells Aeneas about the future heroes of Rome, an endeavor requiring 28 footnotes.
Anchises had spoken, and he drew the Sibyl and his son, both
together, into the middle of the gathering and the murmuring crowd,
and chose a hill from which he could see all the long ranks
opposite and watch their faces as they came by him.
“Come, I will now explain what glory will pursue the children
of Dardanus, what descendants await you of the Italian race,
illustrious spirits to march onwards in our name, and I will teach
you your destiny. See that boy who leans on a headless spear,
he is fated to hold a place nearest the light, first to rise
to the upper air, sharing Italian blood, Silvius of Alban name,
your last-born son, who your wife Lavinia, late in your old age,
will give birth to in the wood1, a king and the father of kings,
through whom our race will rule in Alba Longa.
Next to him is Procas, glory of the Trojan people,
and Capys and Numitor and he who’ll revive your name,
Silvius Aeneas, outstanding like you in virtue and arms,
if he might at last achieve the Alban throne.
What men! See what authority they display,
their foreheads shaded by the civic oak-leaf crown!
They will build Nomentum, Gabii, and Fidenae’s city:
Collatia’s fortress in the hills, Pometii
and the Fort of Inuus, and Bola, and Cora.2
Those will be names that are now nameless land.
“Yes, and a child of Mars will join his grandfather to accompany him,
Romulus, whom his mother Ilia will bear, of Assaracus’s line.
See how Mars’s twin plumes stand on his3 crest, and his father
marks him out for the world above with his own emblems?
Behold, my son, under his command glorious Rome
will match earth’s power and heaven’s will, and encircle
seven hills with a single wall, happy in her race of men:
as Cybele, the Berecynthian Great Mother4, crowned
with turrets, rides through the Phrygian cities, delighting
in her divine children, clasping a hundred descendants,
all gods, all dwelling in the heights above.
Now direct your eyes here, gaze at this people,
your own Romans. Here is Caesar, and all the offspring
of Iulus destined to live under the pole of heaven.
This is the man, this is him, whom you so often hear
promised you, Augustus Caesar, son of the Deified5,
who will make a Golden Age again in the fields
where Saturn once reigned, and extend the empire beyond
the Libyans and the Indians to a land that lies outside the zodiac’s belt,
beyond the sun’s ecliptic and the year’s, where sky-carrying Atlas
turns the sphere, inset with gleaming stars, on his shoulders.
Even now the Caspian realms and Maeotian earth6
tremble at divine prophecies of his coming, and
the restless mouths of the seven-branched Nile are troubled.
Truly, Hercules never crossed so much of the earth,
though he shot the bronze-footed Arcadian deer, brought peace
to the woods of Erymanthus, made Lerna tremble at his bow:7
nor did Bacchus, who steers his chariot in triumph with reins
made of vines, guiding his tigers down from Nysa’s8 high peak.
Do we really hesitate still to extend our power by our actions,
and does fear prevent us settling the Italian lands?
“Who is he, though, over there, distinguished by his olive branches,
carrying offerings? I know the hair and the white-bearded chin
of a king of Rome, Numa9, called to supreme authority
from little Cures’s poverty-stricken earth10, who will secure
our first city under the rule of law. Then Tullus
will succeed him, who will shatter the country’s peace
and call to arms sedentary men, ranks now unused to triumphs.11
The over-boastful Ancus follows him closely,
delighting too much even now in the people’s opinion.12
Will you look too at Tarquin’s dynasty, and the proud spirit
of Brutus the avenger, the rods of office reclaimed?
He’ll be the first to win a consul’s powers and the savage axes,
and when the sons foment a new civil war, the father
will call them to account for lovely freedom’s sake:
ah, to be pitied, whatever posterity says of his actions:
his love of country will prevail, and great appetite for glory.13
Ah, see over there the Decii and Drusi14, and Torquatus
brutal with the axe15, and Camillus rescuing the standards.16
But those others you can discern shining in matching armour,
souls in harmony now while they are cloaked in darkness,
ah, if they reach the light of the living, what civil war,
what battle and slaughter, they’ll cause,
the father-in-law down from the Alpine ramparts, from the fortress
of Monoecus17: the son-in-law opposing with Eastern forces.18
My sons, don’t inure your spirits to such wars,
never turn the powerful forces of your country on itself;
you be the first to halt, you, who derive your race from heaven:
hurl the sword from your hand, who are of my blood!19—
There’s Mummius: triumphing over Corinth, he’ll drive his chariot,
victorious, to the high Capitol, famed for the Greeks he’s killed,20
and Aemilius Paulus, who, avenging his Trojan ancestors and Minerva’s
desecrated shrine, will destroy Agamemnon’s Mycenae and Argos
and Perseus the Aeacid himself, descendant of war-mighty Achilles.21
Who would pass over you in silence, great Cato22, or you, Cossus,23
or the Gracchus’s race24, or the two Scipios, war’s lightning bolts,
the scourges of Libya,25 or you, Fabricius, powerful in poverty,26
or you, Regulus Serranus, sowing your furrow with seed?27
Fabii, where do you hurry my weary steps? You, Fabius
Maximus, the Delayer, are he who alone renewed our State.28
Others (I can well believe) will hammer out bronze that breathes
with more delicacy than us, draw out living features
from the marble, plead their causes better, trace with instruments
the movement of the skies and tell the rising of the constellations:
remember, Roman, it is for you to rule the nations with your power
(that will be your skill), to crown peace with law,
to spare the conquered, and subdue the proud.”
Dixerat Anchises natumque unaque Sibyllam
conventus trahit in medios turbamque sonantem,
et tumulum capit unde omnis longo ordine posset
adversos legere et venientum discere vultus. 755
'Nunc age, Dardaniam prolem quae deinde sequatur
gloria, qui maneant Itala de gente nepotes,
inlustris animas nostrumque in nomen ituras,
expediam dictis, et te tua fata docebo.
ille, vides, pura iuvenis qui nititur hasta, 760
proxima sorte tenet lucis loca, primus ad auras
aetherias Italo commixtus sanguine surget,
Silvius, Albanum nomen, tua postuma proles,
quem tibi longaevo serum Lavinia coniunx
educet silvis regem regumque parentem, 765
unde genus Longa nostrum dominabitur Alba.
proximus ille Procas, Troianae gloria gentis,
et Capys et Numitor et qui te nomine reddet
Silvius Aeneas, pariter pietate vel armis
egregius, si umquam regnandam acceperit Albam. 770
qui iuvenes! quantas ostentant, aspice, viris
atque umbrata gerunt civili tempora quercu!
hi tibi Nomentum et Gabios urbemque Fidenam,
hi Collatinas imponent montibus arces,
Pometios Castrumque Inui Bolamque Coramque; 775
haec tum nomina erunt, nunc sunt sine nomine terrae.
quin et avo comitem sese Mauvortius addet
Romulus, Assaraci quem sanguinis Ilia mater
educet. viden, ut geminae stant vertice cristae
et pater ipse suo superum iam signat honore? 780
en huius, nate, auspiciis illa incluta Roma
imperium terris, animos aequabit Olympo,
septemque una sibi muro circumdabit arces,
felix prole virum: qualis Berecyntia mater
invehitur curru Phrygias turrita per urbes 785
laeta deum partu, centum complexa nepotes,
omnis caelicolas, omnis supera alta tenentis.
huc geminas nunc flecte acies, hanc aspice gentem
Romanosque tuos. hic Caesar et omnis Iuli
progenies magnum caeli ventura sub axem. 790
hic vir, hic est, tibi quem promitti saepius audis,
Augustus Caesar, divi genus, aurea condet
saecula qui rursus Latio regnata per arva
Saturno quondam, super et Garamantas et Indos
proferet imperium; iacet extra sidera tellus, 795
extra anni solisque vias, ubi caelifer Atlas
axem umero torquet stellis ardentibus aptum.
huius in adventum iam nunc et Caspia regna
responsis horrent divum et Maeotia tellus,
et septemgemini turbant trepida ostia Nili. 800
nec vero Alcides tantum telluris obivit,
fixerit aeripedem cervam licet, aut Erymanthi
pacarit nemora et Lernam tremefecerit arcu;
nec qui pampineis victor iuga flectit habenis
Liber, agens celso Nysae de vertice tigris. 805
et dubitamus adhuc virtutem extendere factis,
aut metus Ausonia prohibet consistere terra?
quis procul ille autem ramis insignis olivae
sacra ferens? nosco crinis incanaque menta
regis Romani primam qui legibus urbem 810
fundabit, Curibus parvis et paupere terra
missus in imperium magnum. cui deinde subibit
otia qui rumpet patriae residesque movebit
Tullus in arma viros et iam desueta triumphis
agmina. quem iuxta sequitur iactantior Ancus 815
nunc quoque iam nimium gaudens popularibus auris.
vis et Tarquinios reges animamque superbam
ultoris Bruti, fascisque videre receptos?
consulis imperium hic primus saevasque securis
accipiet, natosque pater nova bella moventis 820
ad poenam pulchra pro libertate vocabit,
infelix, utcumque ferent ea facta minores:
vincet amor patriae laudumque immensa cupido.
quin Decios Drusosque procul saevumque securi
aspice Torquatum et referentem signa Camillum. 825
illae autem paribus quas fulgere cernis in armis,
concordes animae nunc et dum nocte prementur,
heu quantum inter se bellum, si lumina vitae
attigerint, quantas acies stragemque ciebunt,
aggeribus socer Alpinis atque arce Monoeci 830
descendens, gener adversis instructus Eois!
ne, pueri, ne tanta animis adsuescite bella
neu patriae validas in viscera vertite viris;
tuque prior, tu parce, genus qui ducis Olympo,
proice tela manu, sanguis meus!— 835
ille triumphata Capitolia ad alta Corintho
victor aget currum caesis insignis Achivis.
eruet ille Argos Agamemnoniasque Mycenas
ipsumque Aeaciden, genus armipotentis Achilli,
ultus avos Troiae templa et temerata Minervae. 840
quis te, magne Cato, tacitum aut te, Cosse, relinquat?
quis Gracchi genus aut geminos, duo fulmina belli,
Scipiadas, cladem Libyae, parvoque potentem
Fabricium vel te sulco, Serrane, serentem?
quo fessum rapitis, Fabii? tu Maximus ille es, 845
unus qui nobis cunctando restituis rem.
excudent alii spirantia mollius aera
(credo equidem), vivos ducent de marmore vultus,
orabunt causas melius, caelique meatus
describent radio et surgentia sidera dicent: 850
tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento
(hae tibi erunt artes), pacique imponere morem,
parcere subiectis et debellare superbos.'
Find the glossary for Aeneid Daily here; subscribe to receive daily posts.
Silvius will thus be named after the circumstances of his birth—the Latin word for “wood/forest” being “silva.”
All ancient towns/cities near and around Rome. Fort Inuus was hard to find, apparently.
Romulus’s
Mother Goddess of Phyrgia; the epithet Berecynthia came from either Mount Berecynthus or a settlement of the same name.
Julius Caesar was deified soon after his death.
the regions around the Caspian and Black seas, respectively
All labors of Hercules: the hunting of the Ceryneian hind and the Erymanthian boar, as well as the killing of the Lernian hydra.
The mountain in India where Bacchus was raised. During his lifetime, Marc Antony (Augustus’s main rival) was associated with both Hercules (supposedly his ancestor) and Bacchus (the god he chose to emulate). What were you doing there, Publius.
Numa Pompilius, (mythological?) second king of Rome, famous for his religious piety and dedication to the law. (All of this information ought to come with a grain of salt; Roman history from the monarchical era is more legend than fact.)
Cures was the capitol city of the Sabines, a tribe under joint rule with Rome when Numa was king.
Tullus Hostilius, (mythological?) third king of Rome, famous for his return to the warlike style of ruling from which Numa had departed
Ancus Marcius, (mythological?) fourth king of Rome, who attempted to find a middle ground between Numa’s and Tullus’s styles of ruling
“Tarquin” refers to both the fifth and seventh kings of Rome (it’s not uninteresting that the sixth king, left out, is the one who mythologically originated as a slave). The seventh king of Rome, Tarquinius Superbus, was overthrown by Brutus and Collatinus after the king’s son, Sextus Tarquinius, raped Collatinus’s wife Lucretia, who then committed suicide after exposing the crime. This marked the end of the Roman monarchy, as well as the reason why Rome was so virulently against kings.
Brutus and Collatinus then became the first consuls of the Roman Republic, a job that was made harder because lots of people were really determined to conspire to overthrow them. Some of those conspirators were Brutus’s own sons, whom Brutus then had executed for the good of the Republic; opinion was split on whether this was admirable or horrible. Notably, the more famous Roman Brutus was descended from this first Brutus; whether Vergil is commenting on him, too, is anyone’s guess.
both important historical Roman families
Titus Manlius Torquatus, a famous consul and general known for battle prowess and moral rigor.
Marcus Furius Camillus, who took Rome back after the Gauls conquered it in 390 BC. Allegedly.
Monaco
The father- and son-in-law conspicuously not named here are Julius Caesar and Pompey the Great, connected by the marriage of Caesar’s daughter Julia to Pompey; their alliance quickly fell apart after the death of Julia and of their third, Crassus, and eventually devolved into civil war that lead to Pompey’s death.
Julius Caesar claimed descendence from Venus through Aeneas’s line.
Lucius Mummius Achaicus, the Roman general who captured Corinth in 146 BC.
General Aemilius Paulus defeated King Perseus of Macedon (who was said to be descended from Aeacus, like Achilles) in 168 BC.
Aulus Cornelius Cossus, one of three Romans to ever win the spolia optima for killing an enemy commander in single combat.
Likely referring specifically to Gaius and Tiberius Gracchus, who were killed for advocating social reform to benefit the rural poor.
Scipio Africanus, who defeated the Carthaginian Hannibal in the Second Punic War, and Scipio Africanus the Younger, who destroyed Carthage in the Third.
Gaius Fabricius Luscinus, a Roman general famous for austerity and integrity.
Gaius Atilius Regulus Serranus, a Roman consul who apparently also did some farming. Probably in a rugged independent-humble-Roman-man way.
Quintus Fabius Maximus Cunctator, the Roman general who saved the city from Hannibal by waging a war of attrition and delay.