Aeneid XI.498-596
Camilla and Turnus make plans. We get a Camilla loredrop!
Camilla sped to meet him, accompanied by her Volscian
troops, and alighted from her horse close by the gates,
all her company leaving their mounts at her example
and slipping to earth; then she spoke as follows:
“Turnus, if the brave may rightly have faith in themselves,
I dare to, and promise to, encounter Aeneas’s cavalry,
and ride to meet the Etruscan horsemen alone.
Let me attempt the first dangers of the battle with my hand
while you stay by the walls and protect the ramparts.”
Turnus replied, his gaze fixed on this amazing girl:
“O virgin glory of Italy, how should I attempt
to thank you or repay you? But as your spirit
soars beyond us all, share the task with me.
Aeneas, so rumour says and scouts sent out confirm,
has deployed his light cavalry to search the plains
thoroughly; he himself, climbing the ridge, marches
through the desolate heights towards the town.
I am preparing an ambush on a deep track in the woods,
so as to block both entrances to the gorge with armed men.
You must wait for the Etruscan cavalry charge;
brave Messapus will be with you, and the Latin troops,
and Tiburtus’s band, and you must take command as leader.”
So he spoke, and exhorted Messapus and all the allied generals
to battle with similar words, then moved against the enemy.
There’s a valley with a winding bend, suitable for the tricks
and stratagems of warfare, crowded on both sides
by a dark wall of dense leaves, to which a narrow track
leads: it has a confined floor and a difficult entrance.
Above it, among the look-outs of the high mountain tops,
lies a hidden level and a secure shelter,
whether one wishes to attack to right or left
or make a stand on the ridge and roll huge boulders down.
Here the warrior hurried by a well known network of paths
and, taking position, he occupied the treacherous woods.
Meanwhile, in heaven’s halls, Diana, Latona’s daughter,
spoke to swift Opis, one of her sacred band of virgin
followers, and gave voice to these sorrowful words:
“O girl, Camilla is going to the cruel war and takes up
my weapons in vain. She’s dearer to me than all others,
and this is no new love that comes to Diana
or moves my spirit with sudden sweetness.
When Metabus was driven from his throne by hatred
of his tyrannical power and was leaving Privernum,
his ancient city, fleeing amidst the conflict of war,
he took his child to share his exile and, slightly altering
her mother’s name Casmilla, called her Camilla.
Carrying her in front of him at his breast, he sought a long ridge
of lonely forests: fierce weapons threatened him on every side,
and the Volscians hovered round him with their troops.
While they were still in mid-flight, see, the Amasenus1 overflowed,
foaming to the top of its banks, so great a downpour burst
from the clouds. He, preparing to swim across, was held back
by love of his child and fear for his dear burden. Quickly,
debating all options with himself, he settled reluctantly
on this idea: the warrior fastened his daughter to the giant spear,
solid with knots and of seasoned oak, he chanced to be carrying
in his strong hand, wrapping her in the bark of a cork-tree
from the woods and tying her wisely to the middle of the shaft:
then balancing it in his mighty hand, he cried out to the heavens:
‘Kind virgin daughter of Latona, dweller in the woods, I her father
dedicate this child to your service; fleeing the enemy through the air,
yours is the first weapon she clasps as a suppliant. Goddess, I beg you
to accept as your own this that I now commit to the uncertain breeze.’
He spoke and, drawing back his arm, hurled the spinning shaft:
the waters roared, and the wretched Camilla flew
over the rushing river on the hissing steel. And Metabus,
with a great crowd of his enemies pressing him closely,
gave himself to the flood, and victoriously snatched his gift
to Diana from the grassy turf, the spear and the little maid.
No city would accept him within their houses or their walls
(nor would he in his savagery have given himself up to them),
he passed his life among shepherds on the lonely mountains.
Here among the thickets of savage lairs, he nourished
his child at the udders of a mare from the herd and milk
from wild creatures, squeezing the teats into her delicate mouth.
As soon as the infant had taken her first steps,
he placed a sharp lance in her hands and hung
bow and quiver from the little one’s shoulder.
A tiger’s pelt hung over head and down her back
instead of a gold clasp for her hair, and a long trailing robe.
Even then she was hurling childish spears with tender hand,
whirling a smooth-thonged sling round her head,
bringing down Strymonian cranes and snowy swans.
Many a mother in Etruscan fortresses wished for her
as a daughter-in-law in vain; she, pure, content with Diana
alone, cherished her love of her weapons and maidenhood.
I wish she had not been swept up into such warfare,
trying to challenge the Trojans: she would be
my darling and one of my company still.
Come now, nymph, since bitter fate drives her on,
slip from the sky and seek out the Latin borders,
where with evil omen they join in sad battle.
Take these weapons and draw an avenging arrow from the quiver:
and if anyone violates her sacred flesh by wounding her,
Trojan or Italian, pay me with their equal punishment in blood.
Then I’ll carry the body and untouched weapons of the poor girl
in a cavernous cloud to a sepulchre and bury her in her own land.”
She spoke, and Opis slid down with a sound through
heaven’s light air, her body veiled in a dark whirlwind.
Obvia cui Volscorum acie comitante Camilla
occurrit portisque ab equo regina sub ipsis
desiluit, quam tota cohors imitata relictis 500
ad terram defluxit equis; tum talia fatur:
'Turne, sui merito si qua est fiducia forti,
audeo et Aeneadum promitto occurrere turmae
solaque Tyrrhenos equites ire obvia contra.
me sine prima manu temptare pericula belli, 505
tu pedes ad muros subsiste et moenia serva.'
Turnus ad haec oculos horrenda in virgine fixus:
'o decus Italiae virgo, quas dicere grates
quasve referre parem? sed nunc, est omnia quando
iste animus supra, mecum partire laborem. 510
Aeneas, ut fama fidem missique reportant
exploratores, equitum levia improbus arma
praemisit, quaterent campos; ipse ardua montis
per deserta iugo superans adventat ad urbem.
furta paro belli conuexo in tramite silvae, 515
ut bivias armato obsidam milite fauces.
tu Tyrrhenum equitem conlatis excipe signis;
tecum acer Messapus erit turmaeque Latinae
Tiburtique manus, ducis et tu concipe curam.'
sic ait, et paribus Messapum in proelia dictis 520
hortatur sociosque duces et pergit in hostem.
Est curvo anfractu valles, accommoda fraudi
armorumque dolis, quam densis frondibus atrum
urget utrimque latus, tenuis quo semita ducit
angustaeque ferunt fauces aditusque maligni. 525
hanc super in speculis summoque in vertice montis
planities ignota iacet tutique receptus,
seu dextra laevaque velis occurrere pugnae
sive instare iugis et grandia volvere saxa.
huc iuvenis nota fertur regione viarum 530
arripuitque locum et silvis insedit iniquis.
Velocem interea superis in sedibus Opim,
unam ex virginibus sociis sacraque caterva,
compellabat et has tristis Latonia voces
ore dabat: 'graditur bellum ad crudele Camilla, 535
o virgo, et nostris nequiquam cingitur armis,
cara mihi ante alias. neque enim novus iste Dianae
venit amor subitaque animum dulcedine movit.
pulsus ob invidiam regno virisque superbas
Priverno antiqua Metabus cum excederet urbe, 540
infantem fugiens media inter proelia belli
sustulit exsilio comitem, matrisque vocavit
nomine Casmillae mutata parte Camillam.
ipse sinu prae se portans iuga longa petebat
solorum nemorum: tela undique saeva premebant 545
et circumfuso volitabant milite Volsci.
ecce fugae medio summis Amasenus abundans
spumabat ripis, tantus se nubibus imber
ruperat. ille innare parans infantis amore
tardatur caroque oneri timet. omnia secum 550
versanti subito vix haec sententia sedit:
telum immane manu valida quod forte gerebat
bellator, solidum nodis et robore cocto,
huic natam libro et silvestri subere clausam
implicat atque habilem mediae circumligat hastae; 555
quam dextra ingenti librans ita ad aethera fatur:
"alma, tibi hanc, nemorum cultrix, Latonia virgo,
ipse pater famulam voveo; tua prima per auras
tela tenens supplex hostem fugit. accipe, testor,
diva tuam, quae nunc dubiis committitur auris." 560
dixit, et adducto contortum hastile lacerto
immittit: sonuere undae, rapidum super amnem
infelix fugit in iaculo stridente Camilla.
at Metabus magna propius iam urgente caterva
dat sese fluvio, atque hastam cum virgine victor 565
gramineo, donum Triviae, de caespite vellit.
non illum tectis ullae, non moenibus urbes
accepere (neque ipse manus feritate dedisset),
pastorum et solis exegit montibus aevum.
hic natam in dumis interque horrentia lustra 570
armentalis equae mammis et lacte ferino
nutribat teneris immulgens ubera labris.
utque pedum primis infans vestigia plantis
institerat, iaculo palmas armavit acuto
spiculaque ex umero parvae suspendit et arcum. 575
pro crinali auro, pro longae tegmine pallae
tigridis exuviae per dorsum a vertice pendent.
tela manu iam tum tenera puerilia torsit
et fundam tereti circum caput egit habena
Strymoniamque gruem aut album deiecit olorem. 580
multae illam frustra Tyrrhena per oppida matres
optavere nurum; sola contenta Diana
aeternum telorum et virginitatis amorem
intemerata colit. vellem haud correpta fuisset
militia tali conata lacessere Teucros: 585
cara mihi comitumque foret nunc una mearum.
verum age, quandoquidem fatis urgetur acerbis,
labere, nympha, polo finisque invise Latinos,
tristis ubi infausto committitur omine pugna.
haec cape et ultricem pharetra deprome sagittam: 590
hac, quicumque sacrum violarit vulnere corpus,
Tros Italusque, mihi pariter det sanguine poenas.
post ego nube cava miserandae corpus et arma
inspoliata feram tumulo patriaeque reponam.'
dixit, at illa levis caeli delapsa per auras 595
insonuit nigro circumdata turbine corpus.
Find the glossary for Aeneid Daily here; subscribe to receive daily posts.
a river south of Rome