Aeneid X.96-214
Jupiter announces his verdict. The Trojan's allies assemble.
So Juno argued, and all the divinities of heaven murmured
their diverse opinions, as when rising gales murmur in the woods
and roll out their secret humming, warning sailors of coming storms.
Then the all-powerful father, who has prime authority over things,
began (the noble hall of the gods fell silent as he spoke,
earth trembled underground, high heaven fell silent,
the Zephyrs too were stilled, the sea calmed its placid waters):
“Take my words to heart and fix them there.
Since Italians and Trojans are not allowed to join
in alliance, and your disagreement has no end,
I will draw no distinction between them, Trojan or Rutulian,
whatever luck each has today, whatever hopes they pursue,
whether the camp’s under siege because of Italy’s fortunes
or Troy’s evil wanderings and unhappy prophecies.
Nor will I absolve the Rutulians. What each has instigated
shall bring its own suffering and success. Jupiter is king of all
equally. The fates will determine the way.” He nodded,
swearing it by the waters of his Stygian brother,
by the banks that seethe with pitch and the black chasm,
and made all Olympus tremble at his nod.1
So the speaking ended. Jupiter rose from his golden throne,
and the divinities led him to the threshold among them.
Meanwhile the Rutulians gathered round every gate,
to slaughter the men and circle the walls with flames
while Aeneas’s army was held inside their stockade,
imprisoned, with no hope of escape. Wretchedly they stood
there on the high turrets and circling the walls, a sparse ring.
Asius son of Imbrasus, Thymoetes son of Hicetaon,
the two Assaraci, and Castor with old Thymbris were the front rank;
Sarpedon’s two brothers, Clarus and Thaemon, from noble Lycia,
were at their side. Acmon of Lyrnesus, no less huge than his father
Clytius or his brother Mnestheus, lifted a giant rock,
no small fragment of a hillside, straining his whole body.
Some tried to defend with javelins, some with stones,
hurling fire and fitting arrows to the bow.
See the Trojan boy2 himself in their midst,
Venus’s special care, his handsome head uncovered,
sparkling like a jewel set in yellow gold
adorning neck or forehead, gleaming like ivory,
inlaid skilfully in boxwood or Orician3 terebinth:
his milk-white neck, and the circle of soft gold
clasping it, received his flowing hair.
Your great-hearted people saw you too, Ismarus,
dipping reed-shafts in venom and aiming them
to wound, from a noble Lydian house, there where men
till rich fields, that the Pactolus4 waters with gold. There was
Mnestheus as well, whom yesterday’s glory of beating
Turnus back from the wall’s embankment exalted highly,
and Capys: from him the name of the Campanian city comes.
Men were fighting each other in the conflict of bitter war:
while Aeneas, by night, was cutting through the waves.
When, on leaving Evander and entering the Tuscan camp,
he had met the king, announced his name and race,
the help he sought and that he himself offered,
what forces Mezentius was gathering to him
and the violence in Turnus’s heart, and then had warned
how little faith can be placed in human powers
and had added his entreaties, Tarchon joined forces with him
without delay and agreed a treaty; then, fulfilling their fate,
the Lydian people took to their ships by divine command,
trusting to a foreign leader. Aeneas’s vessel took the van,
adorned with Phrygian lions below her beak, Mount Ida
towering above them, a delight to the exiled Trojans.
There great Aeneas sat and pondered the varying issues
of the war, and Pallas, sticking close to his left side, asked him
now about the stars, their path through the dark night,
and now about his adventures on land and sea.
Now, goddesses, throw Helicon wide open: begin your song
of the company that followed Aeneas from Tuscan shores,
arming the ships and riding over the seas.
Massicus cut the waters at their head in the bronze-armoured Tiger,
a band of a thousand warriors under him, leaving the walls
of Clusium and the city of Cosae, whose weapons are arrows,
held in light quivers over their shoulders, and deadly bows.
Grim Abas was with him: whose ranks were all splendidly
armoured, his ship aglow with a gilded figure of Apollo.
Populonia, the mother-city, had given him six hundred
of her offspring, all expert in war, and the island of Ilva, rich
with the Chalybes’ inexhaustible mines, three hundred.
Asilas was third, that interpreter of gods and men
to whom the entrails of beasts were an open book, the stars
in the sky, the tongues of birds, the prophetic bolts of lightning.
He hurried his thousand men to war, dense ranks bristling with spears.
Pisa ordered them to obey, city of Alphean foundation,
set on Etruscan soil. Then the most handsome Astur
followed, Astur relying on horse and iridescent armour.
Three hundred more (minded to follow as one) were added
by those with their home in Caere, the fields
by the Minio, ancient Pyrgi, unhealthy Graviscae.5
I would not forget you, Cunerus, in war the bravest
Ligurian leader, or you with your small company, Cupavo,
on whose crest the swan plumes rose, a sign of your father’s
transformation (Cupid, your and your mother’s crime).
For they say that Cycnus wept for his beloved Phaethon,
singing amongst the poplar leaves, those shades of Phaethon’s
sisters, consoling his sorrowful passion with the Muse,
and drew white age over himself in soft plumage,
relinquishing earth and seeking the stars with song.6
His son, Cupavo, drove on the mighty Centaur, following
the fleet with troops of his own age: the figurehead towered
over the water, threatening from above to hurl a huge rock
into the waves, the long keel ploughing through the deep ocean.
Ocnus also called up troops from his native shores,
he, the son of Manto the prophetess and the Tuscan river,
who gave you your walls, Mantua,7 and his mother’s name,
Mantua rich in ancestors, but not all of one race:
there were three races there, under each race four tribes,
herself the head of the tribes, her strength from Tuscan blood.
From there too Mezentius drove five hundred to arm against him,
lead in pine warships through the sea by a figure, the River Mincius,
the child of Lake Benacus, crowned with grey-green reeds.
Aulestes ploughed on weightily, lashing the waves as he surged
to the stroke of a hundred oars; the waters foamed as the surface churned.
He sailed the huge Triton, whose conch shell alarmed the blue waves,
its carved prow displayed a man’s form down to the waist
as it sailed on, its belly ending in a sea-creature’s, while
under the half-man’s chest the waves murmured with foam.
Such was the count of princes chosen to sail in the thirty ships
to the aid of Troy and plough the salt plains with their bronze rams.
Talibus orabat Iuno, cunctique fremebant
caelicolae adsensu vario, ceu flamina prima
cum deprensa fremunt silvis et caeca volutant
murmura venturos nautis prodentia ventos.
tum pater omnipotens, rerum cui prima potestas, 100
infit (eo dicente deum domus alta silescit
et tremefacta solo tellus, silet arduus aether,
tum Zephyri posuere, premit placida aequora pontus):
'accipite ergo animis atque haec mea figite dicta.
quandoquidem Ausonios coniungi foedere Teucris 105
haud licitum, nec vestra capit discordia finem,
quae cuique est fortuna hodie, quam quisque secat spem,
Tros Rutulusne fuat, nullo discrimine habebo,
seu fatis Italum castra obsidione tenentur
sive errore malo Troiae monitisque sinistris. 110
nec Rutulos solvo. sua cuique exorsa laborem
fortunamque ferent. rex Iuppiter omnibus idem.
fata viam invenient.' Stygii per flumina fratris,
per pice torrentis atraque voragine ripas
adnuit et totum nutu tremefecit Olympum. 115
hic finis fandi. solio tum Iuppiter aureo
surgit, caelicolae medium quem ad limina ducunt.
Interea Rutuli portis circum omnibus instant
sternere caede viros et moenia cingere flammis.
at legio Aeneadum vallis obsessa tenetur 120
nec spes ulla fugae. miseri stant turribus altis
nequiquam et rara muros cinxere corona
Asius Imbrasides Hicetaoniusque Thymoetes
Assaracique duo et senior cum Castore Thymbris,
prima acies; hos germani Sarpedonis ambo 125
et Clarus et Thaemon Lycia comitantur ab alta.
fert ingens toto conixus corpore saxum,
haud partem exiguam montis, Lyrnesius Acmon,
nec Clytio genitore minor nec fratre Menestheo.
hi iaculis, illi certant defendere saxis 130
molirique ignem nervoque aptare sagittas.
ipse inter medios, Veneris iustissima cura,
Dardanius caput, ecce, puer detectus honestum,
qualis gemma micat fulvum quae dividit aurum,
aut collo decus aut capiti, vel quale per artem 135
inclusum buxo aut Oricia terebintho
lucet ebur; fusos cervix cui lactea crinis
accipit et molli subnectens circulus auro.
te quoque magnanimae viderunt, Ismare, gentes
vulnera derigere et calamos armare veneno, 140
Maeonia generose domo, ubi pinguia culta
exercentque viri Pactolusque inrigat auro.
adfuit et Mnestheus, quem pulsi pristina Turni
aggere murorum sublimem gloria tollit,
et Capys: hinc nomen Campanae ducitur urbi. 145
Illi inter sese duri certamina belli
contulerant: media Aeneas freta nocte secabat.
namque ut ab Evandro castris ingressus Etruscis
regem adit et regi memorat nomenque genusque
quidve petat quidve ipse ferat, Mezentius arma 150
quae sibi conciliet, violentaque pectora Turni
edocet, humanis quae sit fiducia rebus
admonet immiscetque preces, haud fit mora, Tarchon
iungit opes foedusque ferit; tum libera fati
classem conscendit iussis gens Lydia divum 155
externo commissa duci. Aeneia puppis
prima tenet rostro Phrygios subiuncta leones,
imminet Ida super, profugis gratissima Teucris.
hic magnus sedet Aeneas secumque volutat
eventus belli varios, Pallasque sinistro 160
adfixus lateri iam quaerit sidera, opacae
noctis iter, iam quae passus terraque marique.
Pandite nunc Helicona, deae, cantusque movete,
quae manus interea Tuscis comitetur ab oris
Aenean armetque rates pelagoque vehatur. 165
Massicus aerata princeps secat aequora Tigri,
sub quo mille manus iuvenum, qui moenia Clusi
quique urbem liquere Cosas, quis tela sagittae
gorytique leves umeris et letifer arcus.
una toruus Abas: huic totum insignibus armis 170
agmen et aurato fulgebat Apolline puppis.
sescentos illi dederat Populonia mater
expertos belli iuvenes, ast Ilva trecentos
insula inexhaustis Chalybum generosa metallis.
tertius ille hominum divumque interpres Asilas, 175
cui pecudum fibrae, caeli cui sidera parent
et linguae volucrum et praesagi fulminis ignes,
mille rapit densos acie atque horrentibus hastis.
hos parere iubent Alpheae ab origine Pisae,
urbs Etrusca solo. sequitur pulcherrimus Astyr, 180
Astyr equo fidens et versicoloribus armis.
ter centum adiciunt (mens omnibus una sequendi)
qui Caerete domo, qui sunt Minionis in arvis,
et Pyrgi veteres intempestaeque Graviscae.
Non ego te, Ligurum ductor fortissime bello, 185
transierim, Cunare, et paucis comitate Cupavo,
cuius olorinae surgunt de vertice pennae
(crimen, Amor, vestrum) formaeque insigne paternae.
namque ferunt luctu Cycnum Phaethontis amati,
populeas inter frondes umbramque sororum 190
dum canit et maestum Musa solatur amorem,
canentem molli pluma duxisse senectam
linquentem terras et sidera voce sequentem.
filius aequalis comitatus classe catervas
ingentem remis Centaurum promovet: ille 195
instat aquae saxumque undis immane minatur
arduus, et longa sulcat maria alta carina.
Ille etiam patriis agmen ciet Ocnus ab oris,
fatidicae Mantus et Tusci filius amnis,
qui muros matrisque dedit tibi, Mantua, nomen, 200
Mantua dives avis, sed non genus omnibus unum:
gens illi triplex, populi sub gente quaterni,
ipsa caput populis, Tusco de sanguine vires.
hinc quoque quingentos in se Mezentius armat,
quos patre Benaco velatus harundine glauca 205
Mincius infesta ducebat in aequora pinu.
it gravis Aulestes centenaque arbore fluctum
verberat adsurgens, spumant vada marmore verso.
hunc vehit immanis Triton et caerula concha
exterrens freta, cui laterum tenus hispida nanti 210
frons hominem praefert, in pristim desinit alvus,
spumea semifero sub pectore murmurat unda.
Tot lecti proceres ter denis navibus ibant
subsidio Troiae et campos salis aere secabant.
Find the glossary for Aeneid Daily here; subscribe to receive daily posts.
This segment is a reference to Iliad 8, in which Zeus (Jupiter) orders the other gods to stop interfering in the Trojan war and let the mortal Greeks and Trojans battle it out, an order he holds firm until Iliad 20. The other gods, of course, completely ignore him, and the outcome of the war is set in stone already.
Ascanius
Oricium was a town in northern Greece.
a river of Lydia
rivers and ports near Caere, an Etrurian city
Cycnus was a king of Liguria and beloved of Phaethon, son of the son god (either Apollo or Helios). Phaethon famously asked his father to allow him to guide the chariot of the sun for a day; he quickly lost control of the sun god’s divine horses and drew the chariot too close to the earth, nearly burning it before Jupiter struck him from the sky with a lightning bolt, which saved the earth but did very much kill him. Phaethon’s weeping sisters were changed to poplar trees, mourning Cycnus to a swan.
An Italian city, and the much-loved birthplace of no one in specific.