Aeneid XII.113-215
Juno rouses Juturna. The armies prepare for the final fight.
The next dawn had scarcely begun to sprinkle the mountain
summits with its rays, at that time when the horses of the sun
first rise from the deep ocean and breathe light from lifted nostrils:
the Rutulians and Trojans had measured out the field
of combat under the massive walls of the city
and were preparing hearths and turf altars for their mutual gods.
Others wearing priest’s aprons, their foreheads wreathed
with vervain, brought spring water and fiery embers.
The Ausonian army marched out, and their ranks, armed
with spears, poured through the crowded gates. All the host
of Trojans and Tuscans streamed out on the other side, arrayed
in their various armour, equipped with steel, as if the bitter conflict
of war called out to them. And the captains too, among their many
thousands, darted about, brilliant in gold and purple,
Mnestheus of Assaracus’s line, brave Asilas,
and Messapus, tamer of horses, son of Neptune.
As soon as each had retired to their own ground, at the given signal,
they planted their spears in the earth and leant their shields on them.
Then women and weak old men and the unarmed crowd
poured out eagerly, and gathered on towers
and rooftops, or stood on the summit of the gates.
But Juno gazed at the plain, looking from the top of a hill
(called Alban now, then without name, honour, or glory)
at the twin ranks of Laurentum and Troy, and Latinus’s city.
Immediately, goddess to goddess, she spoke to Turnus’s sister,
who ruled over lakes and echoing rivers (Jupiter, the king
of high heaven, gave her that honour for stealing her virginity):
“Nymph, glory of rivers, dearest of all to my heart,
you know how I’ve preferred you alone of all the Latin girls
who’ve mounted unwelcome to the couch of great-hearted Jove,
and I have freely granted you a place in a part of the sky:
lest you blame me, Juturna, learn of impending grief.
Whenever Fortune allowed and the Fates permitted
the Latin state to prosper, I protected Turnus and your city;
now I see a warrior meeting with an unequal destiny,
and a day of Fate and inimical force draws near.
I cannot look at this combat they agreed to with my eyes.
If you dare do anything more for your brother in person,
go on; it’s fitting. Perhaps better things will follow for the wretched.”
She had scarcely spoken when Juturna’s eyes flowed with tears,
and her hand struck her lovely breast three or four times.
“This is not the moment for tears,” said Saturnian Juno:
“Run, and, if there’s a way, snatch your brother from death;
or stir conflict and shatter the treaty they’ve made.
I teach you daring.” Having urged her thus, she left her
uncertain and troubled, sadly hurt at heart.
Meanwhile the kings drove out: Latinus in a four-horsed chariot
of massive size (twelve golden rays circling his shining brow,
emblems of his ancestor, the Sun), Turnus behind a snow-white
team, brandishing two spears with broad steel blades in his hand.
On the other side, Aeneas, the leader, ancestor of the Roman race,
came from the camp ablaze with starry shield and heavenly
armour, Ascanius with him, Rome’s second great hope,
while a priest in pure robes brought the offspring
of a bristly boar, and also an unshorn two-year sheep,
and tethered the animals next to the blazing altars.
The heroes turned their gaze towards the rising sun, sprinkled
salt meal with their hands, marked the victims’ foreheads
with a knife, and poured libations from cups onto the altars.
Then pious Aeneas, with sword drawn, prayed like this:
“Sun, be my witness, and this country that I call on,
for which I have been able to endure such labours,
and the all-powerful Father, and you, Juno, his wife,
(now goddess, now, be kinder, I pray) and you, glorious Mars,
you, father, who control all warfare with your will;
I call on founts and rivers, on all the holiness
of high heaven and the powers in the blue ocean:
if by chance Victory falls to Turnus of Italy,
it is agreed the defeated will withdraw to Evander’s city,
Iulus will leave the land, and the people of Aeneas will never
bring renewed war in battle or attack this realm with the sword.
But if victory agrees that our contest is mine (as I think
more likely, and may the gods by their will prove it so),
I will not command the Italians to submit to Trojans nor do I
seek a kingdom for myself: let both nations, undefeated,
put in place an eternal treaty. I will permit your gods
and their rites; Latinus my father-in-law will keep his weapons,
my father-in-law will keep his accustomed power; the Trojans
will build walls for me, and Lavinia will give her name to a city.”
So Aeneas was first to speak, then Latinus followed him thus,
raising his eyes to heaven and stretching his right hand to the sky:
“I also swear, Aeneas, by the same earth, sea, and sky,
by Latona’s twin offspring and by two-faced Janus,
by the power of the gods below and the shrines of cruel Dis;
may the Father, who ratifies treaties with his lightning, hear me.
I touch the altar, I call as witness the gods and the flames
between us: no day shall break this peace or truce on Italy’s side,
however things may fall out; nor will any power
deflect my will, not if it plunges the earth, drowned
in flood, into the waves, and dissolves heaven in hell,
just as this sceptre” (since he chanced to hold the sceptre in his hand)
“hewn once and for all from the lowest stem in the woods,
having lost its parent trunk, and shedding its leaves and twigs
to the knife, will never, now the craftsman’s hand has sheathed it
in fine bronze and given it to the elders of Latium
to carry, extend shoots or shade from light foliage.”
They sealed the treaty between them with these words
in full view of the leaders. Then with due rite they slaughtered
the sacrificial beasts over the flames, tore out the entrails
while they were alive, and piled the alters with heaped dishes.
Postera vix summos spargebat lumine montis
orta dies, cum primum alto se gurgite tollunt
Solis equi lucemque elatis naribus efflant: 115
campum ad certamen magnae sub moenibus urbis
dimensi Rutulique viri Teucrique parabant
in medioque focos et dis communibus aras
gramineas. alii fontemque ignemque ferebant
velati limo et verbena tempora vincti. 120
procedit legio Ausonidum, pilataque plenis
agmina se fundunt portis. hinc Troius omnis
Tyrrhenusque ruit variis exercitus armis,
haud secus instructi ferro quam si aspera Martis
pugna vocet. nec non mediis in milibus ipsi 125
ductores auro volitant ostroque superbi,
et genus Assaraci Mnestheus et fortis Asilas
et Messapus equum domitor, Neptunia proles;
utque dato signo spatia in sua quisque recessit,
defigunt tellure hastas et scuta reclinant. 130
tum studio effusae matres et vulgus inermum
invalidique senes turris ac tecta domorum
obsedere, alii portis sublimibus astant.
At Iuno ex summo (qui nunc Albanus habetur;
tum neque nomen erat neque honos aut gloria monti) 135
prospiciens tumulo campum aspectabat et ambas
Laurentum Troumque acies urbemque Latini.
extemplo Turni sic est adfata sororem
diva deam, stagnis quae fluminibusque sonoris
praesidet (hunc illi rex aetheris altus honorem 140
Iuppiter erepta pro virginitate sacravit):
'nympha, decus fluviorum, animo gratissima nostro,
scis ut te cunctis unam, quaecumque Latinae
magnanimi Iovis ingratum ascendere cubile,
praetulerim caelique libens in parte locarim: 145
disce tuum, ne me incuses, Iuturna, dolorem.
qua visa est Fortuna pati Parcaeque sinebant
cedere res Latio, Turnum et tua moenia texi;
nunc iuvenem imparibus video concurrere fatis,
Parcarumque dies et vis inimica propinquat. 150
non pugnam aspicere hanc oculis, non foedera possum.
tu pro germano si quid praesentius audes,
perge; decet. forsan miseros meliora sequentur.'
vix ea, cum lacrimas oculis Iuturna profundit
terque quaterque manu pectus percussit honestum. 155
'non lacrimis hoc tempus' ait Saturnia Iuno:
'accelera et fratrem, si quis modus, eripe morti;
aut tu bella cie conceptumque excute foedus.
auctor ego audendi.' sic exhortata reliquit
incertam et tristi turbatam vulnere mentis. 160
Interea reges ingenti mole Latinus
quadriiugo vehitur curru (cui tempora circum
aurati bis sex radii fulgentia cingunt,
Solis avi specimen), bigis it Turnus in albis,
bina manu lato crispans hastilia ferro. 165
hinc pater Aeneas, Romanae stirpis origo,
sidereo flagrans clipeo et caelestibus armis
et iuxta Ascanius, magnae spes altera Romae,
procedunt castris, puraque in veste sacerdos
saetigeri fetum suis intonsamque bidentem 170
attulit admovitque pecus flagrantibus aris.
illi ad surgentem conversi lumina solem
dant fruges manibus salsas et tempora ferro
summa notant pecudum, paterisque altaria libant.
Tum pius Aeneas stricto sic ense precatur: 175
'esto nunc Sol testis et haec mihi terra vocanti,
quam propter tantos potui perferre labores,
et pater omnipotens et tu Saturnia coniunx
(iam melior, iam, diva, precor), tuque inclute Mavors,
cuncta tuo qui bella, pater, sub numine torques; 180
fontisque fluviosque voco, quaeque aetheris alti
religio et quae caeruleo sunt numina ponto:
cesserit Ausonio si fors victoria Turno,
convenit Evandri victos discedere ad urbem,
cedet Iulus agris, nec post arma ulla rebelles 185
Aeneadae referent ferrove haec regna lacessent.
sin nostrum adnuerit nobis victoria Martem
(ut potius reor et potius di numine firment),
non ego nec Teucris Italos parere iubebo
nec mihi regna peto: paribus se legibus ambae 190
invictae gentes aeterna in foedera mittant.
sacra deosque dabo; socer arma Latinus habeto,
imperium sollemne socer; mihi moenia Teucri
constituent urbique dabit Lavinia nomen.'
Sic prior Aeneas, sequitur sic deinde Latinus 195
suspiciens caelum, tenditque ad sidera dextram:
'haec eadem, Aenea, terram, mare, sidera, iuro
Latonaeque genus duplex Ianumque bifrontem,
vimque deum infernam et duri sacraria Ditis;
audiat haec genitor qui foedera fulmine sancit. 200
tango aras, medios ignis et numina testor:
nulla dies pacem hanc Italis nec foedera rumpet,
quo res cumque cadent; nec me vis ulla volentem
avertet, non, si tellurem effundat in undas
diluvio miscens caelumque in Tartara solvat, 205
ut sceptrum hoc' (dextra sceptrum nam forte gerebat)
'numquam fronde levi fundet virgulta nec umbras,
cum semel in silvis imo de stirpe recisum
matre caret posuitque comas et bracchia ferro,
olim arbos, nunc artificis manus aere decoro 210
inclusit patribusque dedit gestare Latinis.'
talibus inter se firmabant foedera dictis
conspectu in medio procerum. tum rite sacratas
in flammam iugulant pecudes et viscera vivis
eripiunt, cumulantque oneratis lancibus aras. 215
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