Aeneid VII.107-211
A prophecy comes true. The Trojans get a royal greeting.
Aeneas, handsome Iulus, and the foremost leaders
settled their limbs under the branches of a tall tree
and spread a meal: they set wheat cakes for a base
under the food (as Jupiter himself inspired them)
and added wild fruits to these tables of Ceres.
When the poor fare drove them to set their teeth
into the thin discs, the rest being eaten, and to break
the fateful circles of bread boldly with hands and jaws,
not sparing the quartered cakes, Iulus, jokingly,
said no more than: “Ha! Are we eating the tables too?”
That voice on first being heard brought them to the end
of their labours, and his father, as the words fell
from the speaker’s lips, caught them up
and stopped him, awestruck at the divine will.
Immediately he said: “Hail, land destined to me
by fate, and hail to you, O faithful gods of Troy:
here is our home, here is our country. For my father
Anchises (now I remember1) left this secret of fate with me:
‘Son, when you’re carried to an unknown shore, food is lacking,
and you’re forced to eat the tables, then look for a home
in your weariness: and remember first thing to set your hand
on a site there and build your houses behind a rampart.’
This was the hunger he prophesied, the last thing remaining,
to set a limit to our ruin. Come, then,
and with the sun’s dawn light let’s cheerfully discover
what place this is, what men live here, where this people’s city is,
and let’s explore from the harbour in all directions.
Now pour libations to Jove and call with prayer
on my father Anchises, then set out the wine once more.”
So saying he wreathed his forehead with a leafy spray
and prayed to the spirit of the place, and to Earth the oldest
of goddesses, and to the Nymphs and the yet unknown rivers;
then he invoked Night and Night’s rising constellations,
and Idaean Jove, and the Phrygian Mother, in order,
and his two parents, one in heaven, one in Erebus.
At this the all-powerful Father thundered three times
from the clear sky and revealed a cloud in the ether,
bright with rays of golden light, shaking it with his own hand.
Then the word ran suddenly through the Trojan lines
that the day had come to found their destined city.
They rivalled each other in celebration of the feast and, delighted
by the fine omen, set out the bowls and crowned the wine-cups.
Next day when sunrise lit the earth with her first flames,
they variously discovered the city, shores, and limits
of this nation: here was the pool of Numicius’s2 fountain,
this was the River Tiber, here the brave Latins lived.
Then Anchises’s son ordered a hundred envoys, chosen
from every rank, all veiled in Pallas’s olive leaves,3
to go to the king’s noble fortress, carrying gifts
for a hero and requesting peace towards the Trojans.
Without delay, they hastened as ordered, travelling
at a swift pace. He himself marked out walls with a shallow ditch,
toiled at the site, and surrounded the first settlement on those shores
with a rampart and battlement, in the style of a fortified camp.
And now his men had pursued their journey, and they saw
Latinus’s turrets and high roofs, and arrived beneath the walls.
Boys and men in the flower of youth were practising
horsemanship outside the city, breaking in their mounts
in clouds of dust, or bending taut bows, or hurling firm spears
with their arms, challenging each other to race or box:
when a messenger, racing ahead on his horse, reported
to the ears of the aged king that powerful warriors in unknown
dress had arrived. The king ordered them to be summoned
to the palace and took his seat, in the centre, on his ancestral throne.
Huge and magnificent, raised on a hundred columns,
his roof was the city’s summit, the palace of Laurentian Picus,
sanctified by its grove and the worship of generations.
It was auspicious for a king to receive the sceptre here and first lift
the fasces, the rods of office: this shrine was their curia,
their senate house, the place of their sacred feasts; here the elders,
after lambs were sacrificed, sat down at an endless line of tables.4
There standing in ranks at the entrance were the statues of ancestors
of old, in ancient cedar-wood, Italus and father Sabinus,5 the vine-grower,
depicted guarding a curved pruning-hook, and aged Saturn,
and the image of Janus bi-face,6 and other kings from the beginning,
and heroes wounded in battle fighting for their country.
Many weapons too hung on the sacred doorposts,
captive chariots, curved axes, helmet crests, the massive bars
of city gates, spears, shields and the ends of prows torn from ships.
There Picus, the Horse-Tamer, sat, holding the lituus, the augur’s
Quirinal staff, and clothed in the trabea, the purple-striped toga,
and carrying the ancile, the sacred shield, in his left hand,
he whom his lover, Circe, captivated by desire, struck
with her golden rod, changed him with magic drugs
to a woodpecker, and speckled his wings with colour.
Such was the temple of the gods in which Latinus, seated
on the ancestral throne, called the Trojans to him in the palace,
and as they entered, spoke first, with a calm expression:
“Sons of Dardanus (for your city and people are not unknown
to us, and we heard of your journey towards us on the seas),
what do you wish? What reason, what need has brought
your ships to Ausonian shores over so many azure waves?
Whether you have entered the river mouth and lie in harbour
after straying from your course, or driven here by storms,
such things as sailors endure on the deep ocean,
don’t shun our hospitality, and don’t neglect the fact
that the Latins are Saturn’s people, just, not through constraint or law,
but of our own free will, holding to the ways of the ancient god.
And I remember in truth (though the tale is obscured by time)
that the Auruncan7 elders told how Dardanus, sprung
from these shores, penetrated the cities of Phrygian Ida,
and Thracian Samos, that is now called Samothrace.
Setting out from here, from his Etruscan home, Corythus,
now the golden palace of the starlit sky grants him a throne,
and he increases the number of divine altars.”
Aeneas primique duces et pulcher Iulus
corpora sub ramis deponunt arboris altae,
instituuntque dapes et adorea liba per herbam
subiciunt epulis (sic Iuppiter ipse monebat) 110
et Cereale solum pomis agrestibus augent.
consumptis hic forte aliis, ut vertere morsus
exiguam in Cererem penuria adegit edendi,
et violare manu malisque audacibus orbem
fatalis crusti patulis nec parcere quadris: 115
'heus, etiam mensas consumimus?' inquit Iulus,
nec plura, adludens. ea vox audita laborum
prima tulit finem, primamque loquentis ab ore
eripuit pater ac stupefactus numine pressit.
continuo 'salve fatis mihi debita tellus 120
vosque' ait 'o fidi Troiae salvete penates:
hic domus, haec patria est. genitor mihi talia namque
(nunc repeto) Anchises fatorum arcana reliquit:
"cum te, nate, fames ignota ad litora vectum
accisis coget dapibus consumere mensas, 125
tum sperare domos defessus, ibique memento
prima locare manu molirique aggere tecta."
haec erat illa fames, haec nos suprema manebat
exitiis positura modum.
quare agite et primo laeti cum lumine solis 130
quae loca, quive habeant homines, ubi moenia gentis,
vestigemus et a portu diversa petamus.
nunc pateras libate Iovi precibusque vocate
Anchisen genitorem, et vina reponite mensis.'
Sic deinde effatus frondenti tempora ramo 135
implicat et geniumque loci primamque deorum
Tellurem Nymphasque et adhuc ignota precatur
flumina, tum Noctem Noctisque orientia signa
Idaeumque Iovem Phrygiamque ex ordine matrem
invocat, et duplicis caeloque Ereboque parentis. 140
hic pater omnipotens ter caelo clarus ab alto
intonuit, radiisque ardentem lucis et auro
ipse manu quatiens ostendit ab aethere nubem.
diditur hic subito Troiana per agmina rumor
advenisse diem quo debita moenia condant. 145
certatim instaurant epulas atque omine magno
crateras laeti statuunt et vina coronant.
Postera cum prima lustrabat lampade terras
orta dies, urbem et finis et litora gentis
diversi explorant: haec fontis stagna Numici, 150
hunc Thybrim fluvium, hic fortis habitare Latinos.
tum satus Anchisa delectos ordine ab omni
centum oratores augusta ad moenia regis
ire iubet, ramis velatos Palladis omnis,
donaque ferre viro pacemque exposcere Teucris. 155
haud mora, festinant iussi rapidisque feruntur
passibus. ipse humili designat moenia fossa
moliturque locum, primasque in litore sedes
castrorum in morem pinnis atque aggere cingit.
iamque iter emensi turris ac tecta Latinorum 160
ardua cernebant iuvenes muroque subibant.
ante urbem pueri et primaevo flore iuventus
exercentur equis domitantque in pulvere currus,
aut acris tendunt arcus aut lenta lacertis
spicula contorquent, cursuque ictuque lacessunt: 165
cum praevectus equo longaevi regis ad auris
nuntius ingentis ignota in veste reportat
advenisse viros. ille intra tecta vocari
imperat et solio medius consedit avito.
Tectum augustum, ingens, centum sublime columnis 170
urbe fuit summa, Laurentis regia Pici,
horrendum silvis et religione parentum.
hic sceptra accipere et primos attollere fascis
regibus omen erat; hoc illis curia templum,
hae sacris sedes epulis; hic ariete caeso 175
perpetuis soliti patres considere mensis.
quin etiam veterum effigies ex ordine avorum
antiqua e cedro, Italusque paterque Sabinus
vitisator curvam servans sub imagine falcem,
Saturnusque senex Ianique bifrontis imago 180
vestibulo astabant, aliique ab origine reges,
Martiaque ob patriam pugnando vulnera passi.
multaque praeterea sacris in postibus arma,
captiui pendent currus curvaeque secures
et cristae capitum et portarum ingentia claustra 185
spiculaque clipeique ereptaque rostra carinis.
ipse Quirinali lituo parvaque sedebat
succinctus trabea laevaque ancile gerebat
Picus, equum domitor, quem capta cupidine coniunx
aurea percussum virga versumque venenis 190
fecit avem Circe sparsitque coloribus alas.
Tali intus templo divum patriaque Latinus
sede sedens Teucros ad sese in tecta vocavit,
atque haec ingressis placido prior edidit ore:
'dicite, Dardanidae (neque enim nescimus et urbem 195
et genus, auditique advertitis aequore cursum),
quid petitis? quae causa rates aut cuius egentis
litus ad Ausonium tot per vada caerula vexit?
sive errore viae seu tempestatibus acti,
qualia multa mari nautae patiuntur in alto, 200
fluminis intrastis ripas portuque sedetis,
ne fugite hospitium, neve ignorate Latinos
Saturni gentem haud vinclo nec legibus aequam,
sponte sua veterisque dei se more tenentem.
atque equidem memini (fama est obscurior annis) 205
Auruncos ita ferre senes, his ortus ut agris
Dardanus Idaeas Phrygiae penetrarit ad urbes
Threiciamque Samum, quae nunc Samothracia fertur.
hinc illum Corythi Tyrrhena ab sede profectum
aurea nunc solio stellantis regia caeli 210
accipit et numerum divorum altaribus auget.'
Find the glossary for Aeneid Daily here; subscribe to receive daily posts.
He doesn’t. The savvy reader might remember that it was the Harpy Celaeno, not Anchises, who gave this prophecy. Did Aeneas mess up? Did Vergil? We’ll never know.
a river in Latium
“Pallas” here refers to Minerva (often called Pallas Athena in Greek), who according to legend invented the olive.
legendary ancestors of the Italian and Sabine peoples
the two-faced god of beginnings and doorways, from whom we get “January”
the original inhabitants of Italy