Aeneid VII.511-600

The war starts frothing. Latinus resigns.

Then the cruel goddess, seeing the moment to do harm,

found the stable’s steep roof and sounded the herdsmen’s

call, sending a voice from Tartarus through the twisted horn,

so that each grove shivered and the deep woods echoed;

Diana’s distant lake at Nemi heard it, white Nar’s river

with its sulphurous waters heard, and the fountains of Velinus,

while anxious mothers clasped their children to their breasts.

Then the rough countrymen snatching up their weapons gathered

more quickly, and from every side, to the noise with which

that dread trumpet sounded the call, nor were the Trojan

youth slow to open their camp and send out help to Ascanius.

The lines were deployed. They no longer competed

with solid staffs and fire-hardened stakes, in a rustic quarrel,

but fought it out with double-edged blades, and a dark crop

of naked swords bristled far and wide: bronze shone

struck by the sun, and hurled its light up to the clouds:

as when a wave begins to whiten at the wind’s first breath,

and the sea swells little by little and raises higher waves,

then surges to heaven out of its profoundest depths.

Here young Almo, in the front ranks, the eldest

of Tyrrhus’s sons, was downed by a hissing arrow;

the wound opened beneath his throat, choking the passage

of liquid speech, and failing breath with blood.

The bodies of many men were round him, old Galaesus

among them, killed in the midst of offering peace, who was

one of the most just of men and the wealthiest in Ausonian land:

five flocks bleated for him, five herds returned

from his fields, and a hundred ploughs furrowed the soil.

While they fought over the plain in an equally-matched contest,

the goddess,¹ having by her actions succeeded in what she’d promised,

having steeped the battle in blood and brought death in the first skirmish,

left Hesperia, and wheeling through the air of heaven

spoke to Juno in victory in a proud voice:

“Behold, for you, discord is completed with sad war;

tell them now to unite as friends or join in alliance.

Since I’ve sprinkled the Trojans with Ausonian blood,

I’ll even add this to it, if I’m assured that it’s your wish:

I’ll bring neighbouring cities into the war with rumour,

inflaming their minds with love of war’s madness, so that they come

with aid from every side; I’ll sow the fields with weapons.”

Then Juno answered: “That’s more than enough terror and treachery:

the reasons for war are there: armed, they fight hand to hand,

and the weapons that chance first offered are stained with fresh blood.

Such be the marriage, such be the wedding-rites that this

illustrious son of Venus, and King Latinus himself, celebrate.²

The Father, the ruler of high Olympus, does not wish you

to wander too freely in the ethereal heavens.

Leave this place. Whatever chance for trouble remains

I will handle.” So spoke Saturn’s daughter;

now the Fury raised her wings, hissing with serpents,

and sought her home in Cocytus, leaving the heights above.

There’s a place in Italy at the foot of high mountains,

famous and mentioned by tradition in many lands,

the valley of Amsanctus; woods thick with leaves hem it in

darkly on both sides, and in the centre a roaring torrent

makes the rocks echo and coils in whirlpools.

There a fearful cavern, a breathing-hole for cruel Dis,

is shown, and a vast abyss, out of which Acheron bursts,

holds open its baleful jaws, into which the Fury,

that hated goddess, plunged, freeing earth and sky.

Meanwhile Saturn’s royal daughter was no less active,

setting a final touch to the war. The whole band of herdsmen

rushed into the city from the battle, bringing back the dead,

the boy Almo and Galaesus with a mangled face,

and invoking the gods, and entreating Latinus.

Turnus was there and, at the heart of the outcry,

he redoubled their terror of fire and slaughter:

“Trojans are called upon to reign, Phrygian stock

mixes with ours, I am thrust from the door.”

Then those whose women, inspired by Bacchus, pranced about

in the pathless woods in the god’s dance (for Amata’s name is not trivial),

drawing together from every side, gathered to make their appeal to Mars.

Immediately, with perverse wills, all clamoured for war’s

atrocities, despite the omens, despite the god’s decrees.

They vied together in surrounding King Latinus’s palace;

like an immoveable rock in the ocean, he stood firm,

like a rock in the ocean when a huge breaker falls,

holding solid amongst a multitude of howling waves,

while round about the cliffs and foaming reefs roar in vain,

and seaweed, hurled against its sides, is washed back again.

As no power was really granted him to conquer

their blind will, and events moved to cruel Juno’s orders,

with many appeals to the gods and the helpless winds

the old man cried: “Alas, we are broken by fate, and swept away

by the storm! Oh, wretched people, you’ll pay the price yourselves

for this, with sacrilegious blood. You, Turnus, your crime and its

punishment await you, and too late you’ll entreat the gods with prayers.

My share is rest, yet at the entrance to the harbour

I’m robbed of all contentment in dying.’ Speaking no more

he shut himself in the palace and let fall the reins of power.

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At saeva e speculis tempus dea nacta nocendi

ardua tecta petit stabuli et de culmine summo

pastorale canit signum cornuque recurvo

Tartaream intendit vocem, qua protinus omne

contremuit nemus et silvae insonuere profundae;               515

audiit et Triviae longe lacus, audiit amnis

sulpurea Nar albus aqua fontesque Velini,

et trepidae matres pressere ad pectora natos.

tum vero ad vocem celeres, qua bucina signum

dira dedit, raptis concurrunt undique telis               520

indomiti agricolae, nec non et Troia pubes

Ascanio auxilium castris effundit apertis.

derexere acies. non iam certamine agresti

stipitibus duris agitur sudibusve praeustis,

sed ferro ancipiti decernunt atraque late               525

horrescit strictis seges ensibus, aeraque fulgent

sole lacessita et lucem sub nubila iactant:

fluctus uti primo coepit cum albescere vento,

paulatim sese tollit mare et altius undas

erigit, inde imo consurgit ad aethera fundo.               530

hic iuvenis primam ante aciem stridente sagitta,

natorum Tyrrhi fuerat qui maximus, Almo,

sternitur; haesit enim sub gutture vulnus et udae

vocis iter tenuemque inclusit sanguine vitam.

corpora multa virum circa seniorque Galaesus,               535

dum paci medium se offert, iustissimus unus

qui fuit Ausoniisque olim ditissimus arvis:

quinque greges illi balantum, quina redibant

armenta, et terram centum vertebat aratris.

Atque ea per campos aequo dum Marte geruntur,               540

promissi dea facta potens, ubi sanguine bellum

imbuit et primae commisit funera pugnae,

deserit Hesperiam et caeli conversa per auras

Iunonem victrix adfatur voce superba:

'en, perfecta tibi bello discordia tristi;               545

dic in amicitiam coeant et foedera iungant.

quandoquidem Ausonio respersi sanguine Teucros,

hoc etiam his addam, tua si mihi certa voluntas:

finitimas in bella feram rumoribus urbes,

accendamque animos insani Martis amore               550

undique ut auxilio veniant; spargam arma per agros.'

tum contra Iuno: 'terrorum et fraudis abunde est:

stant belli causae, pugnatur comminus armis,

quae fors prima dedit sanguis novus imbuit arma.

talia coniugia et talis celebrent hymenaeos               555

egregium Veneris genus et rex ipse Latinus.

te super aetherias errare licentius auras

haud pater ille velit, summi regnator Olympi.

cede locis. ego, si qua super fortuna laborum est,

ipsa regam.' talis dederat Saturnia voces;               560

illa autem attollit stridentis anguibus alas

Cocytique petit sedem supera ardua linquens.

est locus Italiae medio sub montibus altis,

nobilis et fama multis memoratus in oris,

Amsancti valles; densis hunc frondibus atrum               565

urget utrimque latus nemoris, medioque fragosus

dat sonitum saxis et torto vertice torrens.

hic specus horrendum et saevi spiracula Ditis

monstrantur, ruptoque ingens Acheronte vorago

pestiferas aperit fauces, quis condita Erinys,               570

invisum numen, terras caelumque levabat.

Nec minus interea extremam Saturnia bello

imponit regina manum. ruit omnis in urbem

pastorum ex acie numerus, caesosque reportant

Almonem puerum foedatique ora Galaesi,               575

implorantque deos obtestanturque Latinum.

Turnus adest medioque in crimine caedis et igni

terrorem ingeminat: Teucros in regna vocari,

stirpem admisceri Phrygiam, se limine pelli.

tum quorum attonitae Baccho nemora avia matres               580

insultant thiasis (neque enim leve nomen Amatae)

undique collecti coeunt Martemque fatigant.

ilicet infandum cuncti contra omina bellum,

contra fata deum perverso numine poscunt.

certatim regis circumstant tecta Latini;               585

ille velut pelago rupes immota resistit,

ut pelagi rupes magno veniente fragore,

quae sese multis circum latrantibus undis

mole tenet; scopuli nequiquam et spumea circum

saxa fremunt laterique inlisa refunditur alga.               590

verum ubi nulla datur caecum exsuperare potestas

consilium, et saevae nutu Iunonis eunt res,

multa deos aurasque pater testatus inanis

'frangimur heu fatis' inquit 'ferimurque procella!

ipsi has sacrilego pendetis sanguine poenas,               595

o miseri. te, Turne, nefas, te triste manebit

supplicium, votisque deos venerabere seris.

nam mihi parta quies, omnisque in limine portus

funere felici spolior.' nec plura locutus

saepsit se tectis rerumque reliquit habenas.               600

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Find the glossary for Aeneid Daily here; subscribe to receive daily posts.

1. Allecto

2. Juno was, of course, the goddess of marriage; turning the betrothal of Aeneas and Lavinia to an incitement to battle is a perfectly Junoesque perversion of marriage rites.