Aeneid VII.601-705

It's time for a catalogue of ships. Hooray.

There was a custom in Hesperian Latium, which

the Alban cities always held sacred, as great Rome

does now, when they first rouse Mars to battle,

whether they prepare to take sad war in their hands

to the Getae¹, the Hyrcanians², or the Arabs, or to head East

pursuing the Dawn to reclaim their standards from Parthia:³

there are twin gates of War (so they are named),

sanctified by religion and by dread of fierce Mars:

a hundred bars of bronze and iron’s eternal strength

lock them, and Janus the guardian never leaves the threshold.⁴

When the final decision of the city fathers is for battle,

the Consul himself, dressed in the Quirine toga, folded

in the Gabine manner, unbars these groaning doors himself

and himself invokes the battle: then the rest of the men

do so too, and bronze horns breathe their hoarse assent.

Latinus was also commanded to declare war in this way

on Aeneas’s people and unbolt the sad gates,

but the old man held back his hand and shrank

from the vile duty, hiding himself in dark shadows.

Then the Queen of the gods, gliding from the sky,

set the reluctant doors in motion with her own hand:

Saturn’s daughter forced open the iron gates of War

on their hinges. Italy, once peaceful and immoveable, was alight.

Some prepared to cross the plains on foot, others stirred

the deep dust on noble horses; all demanded weapons.

Others polished smooth shields and bright javelins

with thick grease, and sharpened axes on grindstones:

they delighted in carrying standards and hearing the trumpet call.

So five great cities set up anvils and forged

new weapons: powerful Atina, proud Tibur,

Ardea, Crustumeri, and towered Antemnae.

They beat out helmets to protect their heads and wove

wickerwork frames for shields; others hammered

breastplates of bronze and shiny greaves of malleable silver;

to this they yielded pride in the share’s blade and the sickle, all their

passion for the plough; they recast their father’s swords in the furnace.

And now the trumpets began to sound, the word that signalled war

went round; this man in alarm snatched his helmet from his home,

another harnessed quivering horses to the yoke, took up his shield

and triple-linked coat of mail, and fastened on his faithful sword.

Now, Muses, open wide Helicon, and begin a song

of kings who were roused to war, what ranks of followers

each one had filling the plain, with what men even then

Italy’s rich earth flowered, with what armies she shone;

since, goddesses, you remember and have the power to tell:

while a faint breath of their fame has barely reached us.⁵

First fierce Mezentius enters the war, that scorner of gods

from the Tuscan shore, and rouses his troops to arms.

His son Lausus is beside him, than whom no other is

more handsome in form except Laurentine Turnus;

Lausus, the tamer of horses who subdues wild beasts,

leads a thousand men from Agylla’s⁶ town, who follow him

in vain, deserving to be happier than under his father’s

rule, a father who might perhaps not be a Mezentius.

Aventinus follows them, the handsome son of handsome Hercules,

displaying his palm-crowned chariot and victorious horses

over the turf, and carries his father’s emblem on his shield,

a hundred snakes and the Hydra wreathed with serpents;

the priestess Rhea brought him to the shores of light,

in a secret birth in the woods on the Aventine Hill,⁷

a woman mated to a god when Tyrinthian Hercules,⁸

the conqueror who slew Geryon,⁹ came to the Laurentine fields

and bathed his Spanish cattle in the Tuscan stream.

His men carry javelins and grim pikes in their hands to war,

and fight with polished swords and Sabellian¹⁰ spears.

He himself, on foot, a huge lion skin swinging,

with terrifying unkempt mane and with its white teeth

crowning his head, enters the royal palace, just like that,

a savage with Hercules’s clothing fastened round his shoulders.

Then twin-brothers, Catillus and brave Coras,

Argive youths, leaving the walls of Tibur

and a people named after their brother Tiburtus,

borne into the forefront of the army among the dense spears:

like cloud-born Centaurs descending from a high peak

in the mountains, leaving Homole and snow-covered Othrys¹¹

in their swift course: the vast woods give way as they go

and, with a loud crash, the thickets yield to them.

Nor is Caeculus,¹² the founder of Praeneste’s city, missing,

who, as every age has believed, was born a king, to Vulcan,

among the wild cattle, and discovered on the hearth.

He’s followed by a rustic army drawn from far and wide:

men who live in steep Praeneste, and the fields of Juno

of Gabii, and beside cool Anio¹³, and among the Hernican¹⁴ rocks

dew-wet from the streams; those you nurture, rich Anagnia,

and you, father Amasenus.¹⁵ They don’t all have weapons

or shields or rumbling chariots; most fling pellets of blue lead,

some carry twin darts in their hand and have reddish

caps of wolf-skin for headgear; the left foot is bare

as they walk, a boot of raw hide protects the other.

And Messapus, Neptune’s son, tamer of horses,

whom no one’s permitted to fell with fire or steel,

now suddenly calls to arms his settled tribes and troops

unused to war, and grasps the sword again.

These hold Fescennium’s lines and Aequi Falisci’s,

those Soracte’s heights and Flavinium’s fields,

and Ciminius’s lake and hill, and Capena’s groves.¹⁶

They march to a steady beat and sing of their king:

as the river Cayster and the Asian meadows,¹⁷ struck from afar,

echo sometimes, when the snowy swans among the flowing clouds

return from pasture and make melodious music from their long throats.

No one would think that bronze-clad ranks were joined

in such a crowd, but an airy cloud of strident birds

driving shore-wards from the deep gulf.

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Mos erat Hesperio in Latio, quem protinus urbes

Albanae coluere sacrum, nunc maxima rerum

Roma colit, cum prima movent in proelia Martem,

sive Getis inferre manu lacrimabile bellum

Hyrcanisve Arabisve parant, seu tendere ad Indos               605

Auroramque sequi Parthosque reposcere signa:

sunt geminae Belli portae (sic nomine dicunt)

religione sacrae et saevi formidine Martis;

centum aerei claudunt vectes aeternaque ferri

robora, nec custos absistit limine Ianus.               610

has, ubi certa sedet patribus sententia pugnae,

ipse Quirinali trabea cinctuque Gabino

insignis reserat stridentia limina consul,

ipse vocat pugnas; sequitur tum cetera pubes,

aereaque adsensu conspirant cornua rauco.               615

hoc et tum Aeneadis indicere bella Latinus

more iubebatur tristisque recludere portas.

abstinuit tactu pater aversusque refugit

foeda ministeria, et caecis se condidit umbris.

tum regina deum caelo delapsa morantis               620

impulit ipsa manu portas, et cardine verso

Belli ferratos rumpit Saturnia postis.

ardet inexcita Ausonia atque immobilis ante;

pars pedes ire parat campis, pars arduus altis

pulverulentus equis furit; omnes arma requirunt.               625

pars levis clipeos et spicula lucida tergent

arvina pingui subiguntque in cote securis;

signaque ferre iuvat sonitusque audire tubarum.

quinque adeo magnae positis incudibus urbes

tela novant, Atina potens Tiburque superbum,               630

Ardea Crustumerique et turrigerae Antemnae.

tegmina tuta cavant capitum flectuntque salignas

umbonum cratis; alii thoracas aenos

aut levis ocreas lento ducunt argento;

vomeris huc et falcis honos, huc omnis aratri               635

cessit amor; recoquunt patrios fornacibus ensis.

classica iamque sonant, it bello tessera signum;

hic galeam tectis trepidus rapit, ille trementis

ad iuga cogit equos, clipeumque auroque trilicem

loricam induitur fidoque accingitur ense.               640

Pandite nunc Helicona, deae, cantusque movete,

qui bello exciti reges, quae quemque secutae

complerint campos acies, quibus Itala iam tum

floruerit terra alma viris, quibus arserit armis;

et meministis enim, divae, et memorare potestis;               645

ad nos vix tenuis famae perlabitur aura.

Primus init bellum Tyrrhenis asper ab oris

contemptor divum Mezentius agminaque armat.

filius huic iuxta Lausus, quo pulchrior alter

non fuit excepto Laurentis corpore Turni;               650

Lausus, equum domitor debellatorque ferarum,

ducit Agyllina nequiquam ex urbe secutos

mille viros, dignus patriis qui laetior esset

imperiis et cui pater haud Mezentius esset.

Post hos insignem palma per gramina currum               655

victoresque ostentat equos satus Hercule pulchro

pulcher Aventinus, clipeoque insigne paternum

centum anguis cinctamque gerit serpentibus Hydram;

collis Aventini silva quem Rhea sacerdos

furtivum partu sub luminis edidit oras,               660

mixta deo mulier, postquam Laurentia victor

Geryone exstincto Tirynthius attigit arva,

Tyrrhenoque boves in flumine lavit Hiberas.

pila manu saevosque gerunt in bella dolones,

et tereti pugnant mucrone veruque Sabello.               665

ipse pedes, tegimen torquens immane leonis,

terribili impexum saeta cum dentibus albis

indutus capiti, sic regia tecta subibat,

horridus Herculeoque umeros innexus amictu.

Tum gemini fratres Tiburtia moenia linquunt,               670

fratris Tiburti dictam cognomine gentem,

Catillusque acerque Coras, Argiva iuventus,

et primam ante aciem densa inter tela feruntur:

ceu duo nubigenae cum vertice montis ab alto

descendunt Centauri Homolen Othrymque nivalem               675

linquentes cursu rapido; dat euntibus ingens

silva locum et magno cedunt virgulta fragore.

Nec Praenestinae fundator defuit urbis,

Volcano genitum pecora inter agrestia regem

inventumque focis omnis quem credidit aetas,               680

Caeculus. hunc legio late comitatur agrestis:

quique altum Praeneste viri quique arva Gabinae

Iunonis gelidumque Anienem et roscida rivis

Hernica saxa colunt, quos dives Anagnia pascis,

quos Amasene pater. non illis omnibus arma               685

nec clipei currusve sonant; pars maxima glandes

liventis plumbi spargit, pars spicula gestat

bina manu, fulvosque lupi de pelle galeros

tegmen habent capiti; vestigia nuda sinistri

instituere pedis, crudus tegit altera pero.               690

At Messapus, equum domitor, Neptunia proles,

quem neque fas igni cuiquam nec sternere ferro,

iam pridem resides populos desuetaque bello

agmina in arma vocat subito ferrumque retractat.

hi Fescenninas acies Aequosque Faliscos,               695

hi Soractis habent arces Flaviniaque arva

et Cimini cum monte lacum lucosque Capenos.

ibant aequati numero regemque canebant:

ceu quondam nivei liquida inter nubila cycni

cum sese e pastu referunt et longa canoros               700

dant per colla modos, sonat amnis et Asia longe

pulsa palus.

nec quisquam aeratas acies examine tanto

misceri putet, aeriam sed gurgite ab alto

urgeri volucrum raucarum ad litora nubem.               705

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

1. a people from Thrace

2. a people from near the Caspian sea

3. The Parthians, a people of Central Asia, had by Vergil’s time a history of conflict with Rome; the specific reference to standards might have been reminiscent of the disastrous Battle of Carrhae, which saw the death of Caesar and Pompey’s college Crassus and the capture of the Roman standards.

4. cf. footnote 8 here; the gates of the Temple of Janus were indeed used to signify the start and end of war.

5. These lines, and the remainder of this book, are a direct reference to Iliad 2’s catalogue of ships, an extensive list of the warriors from each town and region of Greece. In a poem like the Iliad, made for performance out loud, this might have been a moment to stir up Greek pride (shoutout when you hear your hometown!); Vergil, as usual, makes this even more explicit with references to historical and contemporary Rome.

6. an Etrurian city

7. one of the seven hills of Rome

8. an epithet referring to Tiryns, the city of Hercules’ birth

9. referring to Hercules’ tenth labor, in which he killed the three-bodied Geryon

10. Sabine

11. Thessalian mountain homes of the Centaurs

12. Not only the founder of Praeneste, but of the Caecilian family, and thus another connecting factor to Vergil’s contemporary Rome.

13. a tributary of the Tiber

14. another tribe in Latium; Anagnia was their major city

15. a river southeast of Rome

16. All locations or people in Etruria: Fescennium/Fescennia, Flavinium and Capena were cities; the Aequi Falisci a people; Soracte a mountain; and Ciminius a family or their eponymous hills.

17. The River Cayster in Turkey would have been part of what the Romans called Asia Minor.