Aeneid XII.529-611

Aeneas fails to close the portal. The canary in the coal mine of Latium snuffs out.

As he boasted of his fathers, and the antiquity of his ancestors’

names, and all his race traced back through Latin kings,

Aeneas sent Murranus headlong with a stone, a great whirling rock,

and hurled him to the ground; beneath the reins and yoke,

the wheels churned him round, and the horses’ hooves,

forgetful of their master, trampled him under with many a blow.

Turnus met Hyllus as he charged, roaring with boundless pride,

and hurled a spear at his gilded forehead: piercing

the helmet, the weapon lodged in his brain. Cretheus,

bravest of Greeks, your right hand did not save you

from Turnus, nor did the gods hide Cupencus when Aeneas

came: he set his chest against the weapon’s track,

and the bronze shield’s resistance profited the wretch nothing.

The Laurentine field saw you fall also, Aeolus,

on your back, sprawled wide on the ground.

You fell, whom the Greek battalions could not lay low, nor Achilles

who overturned Priam’s kingdom; here was the boundary

of death for you; your noble house was below Mount Ida,

that noble house at Lyrnesus,¹ your grave in Laurentine soil.

All the lines turned towards battle, the whole of the Latins,

the whole of the Trojans, Mnestheus and fierce Serestus,

Messapus, tamer of horses, and brave Asilas,

the Tuscan phalanx, Evander’s Arcadian squadron,

each for himself, men straining with all their strength;

no respite and no rest, exerting themselves in one vast conflict.

Now his² loveliest of mothers set in his mind the idea

of moving against the walls and turning his army on the city,

swiftly, to confound the Latins with sudden ruin.

While he tracked Turnus here and there through the ranks

and swept his glance this way and that, he could see

the city, free of fierce warfare and peacefully unharmed.

Suddenly an image of a more ambitious act of war inflamed him:

he called the generals Mnestheus, Sergestus and brave Serestus,

and positioned himself on a hillock, where the rest of the Trojan army

gathered round in a mass without dropping their shields or spears.

Standing amongst them on the high mound, he cried:

“Let nothing impede my orders, Jupiter is with us, and let

no one be slower to advance because this attempt is so sudden.

Today I will overthrow that city, a cause of war, Latinus’s

capital itself, and lay its smoking roofs level with the ground

unless they agree to accept our rule and submit in defeat.

Do you think I can wait until Turnus can face battle with me

and chooses to meet with me again, though defeated before?

O citizens, this man is the fountainhead and source of this wicked war.

Quickly, bring burning brands, and re-establish the treaty with fire.”

He spoke, and all his troops adopted wedge-formation, hearts

equal in emulation, and advanced in a dense mass towards the walls;

in a flash, scaling ladders and sudden flames appeared.

Some ran to the gates and cut down the leading defenders,

others hurled steel and darkened the sky with missiles.

Aeneas himself, among the leaders, raised his hand at the foot

of the wall, accused Latinus in a loud voice, and called the gods

to witness that he was being forced into battle again,

that the Italians were doubly enemies, another treaty was broken.

Dissension rose among the fearful citizens: some commanded

the city be opened and the gates be thrown wide

to the Trojans, and they dragged the king himself to the ramparts;

others brought weapons and hurried to defend the walls,

as when a shepherd who’s tracked a swarm to its lair

concealed in the rock fills it with acrid smoke;

the bees inside, anxious for safety, rush round

their wax fortress and sharpen their anger in loud buzzing;

the reeking darkness rolls through their hive, the rocks

echo within to a blind humming, and fumes reach the clear air.

Now further misfortune befell the weary Latins

and shook the whole city to its foundations with grief.

When Queen Amata from the palace saw the enemy

approaching, the walls assaulted, flames mounting to the roofs,

but no opposing Rutulian lines, nor Turnus’s army,

the unhappy queen thought Turnus had been killed

in combat and, her mind distraught, in sudden anguish,

she cried out that she was the cause, the guilty one, the source

of evil, and, uttering many wild words in the frenzy

of grief, wanting to die, she tore her purple robes

and fastened a hideous noose of death to a high beam.

As soon as the wretched Latin women knew of the disaster,

first her daughter Lavinia fell into a frenzy, tearing at her golden

tresses and rosy cheeks with her hands, then all the crowd

around her: the wide halls echoed to their lamentations.

From there the unhappy rumour spread throughout the city:

spirits sank; Latinus went about with rent clothing,

stunned by his wife’s fate and his city’s ruin,

fouling his white hair with clouds of vile dust,

reproaching himself again and again for not having freely

received Trojan Aeneas and adopted him as his son-in-law.³

---

Murranum hic, atavos et avorum antiqua sonantem

nomina per regesque actum genus omne Latinos,               530

praecipitem scopulo atque ingentis turbine saxi

excutit effunditque solo; hunc lora et iuga subter

provolvere rotae, crebro super ungula pulsu

incita nec domini memorum proculcat equorum.

ille ruenti Hyllo animisque immane frementi               535

occurrit telumque aurata ad tempora torquet:

olli per galeam fixo stetit hasta cerebro.

dextera nec tua te, Graium fortissime Cretheu,

eripuit Turno, nec di texere Cupencum

Aenea veniente sui: dedit obvia ferro               540

pectora, nec misero clipei mora profuit aerei.

te quoque Laurentes viderunt, Aeole, campi

oppetere et late terram consternere tergo.

occidis, Argivae quem non potuere phalanges

sternere nec Priami regnorum eversor Achilles;               545

hic tibi mortis erant metae, domus alta sub Ida,

Lyrnesi domus alta, solo Laurente sepulcrum.

totae adeo conversae acies omnesque Latini,

omnes Dardanidae, Mnestheus acerque Serestus

et Messapus equum domitor et fortis Asilas               550

Tuscorumque phalanx Evandrique Arcades alae,

pro se quisque viri summa nituntur opum vi;

nec mora nec requies, vasto certamine tendunt.

Hic mentem Aeneae genetrix pulcherrima misit

iret ut ad muros urbique adverteret agmen               555

ocius et subita turbaret clade Latinos.

ille ut vestigans diversa per agmina Turnum

huc atque huc acies circumtulit, aspicit urbem

immunem tanti belli atque impune quietam.

continuo pugnae accendit maioris imago:               560

Mnesthea Sergestumque vocat fortemque Serestum

ductores, tumulumque capit quo cetera Teucrum

concurrit legio, nec scuta aut spicula densi

deponunt. celso medius stans aggere fatur:

'ne qua meis esto dictis mora, Iuppiter hac stat,               565

neu quis ob inceptum subitum mihi segnior ito.

urbem hodie, causam belli, regna ipsa Latini,

ni frenum accipere et victi parere fatentur,

eruam et aequa solo fumantia culmina ponam.

scilicet exspectem libeat dum proelia Turno               570

nostra pati rursusque velit concurrere victus?

hoc caput, o cives, haec belli summa nefandi.

ferte faces propere foedusque reposcite flammis.'

dixerat, atque animis pariter certantibus omnes

dant cuneum densaque ad muros mole feruntur;               575

scalae improviso subitusque apparuit ignis.

discurrunt alii ad portas primosque trucidant,

ferrum alii torquent et obumbrant aethera telis.

ipse inter primos dextram sub moenia tendit

Aeneas, magnaque incusat voce Latinum               580

testaturque deos iterum se ad proelia cogi,

bis iam Italos hostis, haec altera foedera rumpi.

exoritur trepidos inter discordia civis:

urbem alii reserare iubent et pandere portas

Dardanidis ipsumque trahunt in moenia regem;               585

arma ferunt alii et pergunt defendere muros,

inclusas ut cum latebroso in pumice pastor

vestigavit apes fumoque implevit amaro;

illae intus trepidae rerum per cerea castra

discurrunt magnisque acuunt stridoribus iras;               590

volvitur ater odor tectis, tum murmure caeco

intus saxa sonant, vacuas it fumus ad auras.

Accidit haec fessis etiam fortuna Latinis,

quae totam luctu concussit funditus urbem.

regina ut tectis venientem prospicit hostem,               595

incessi muros, ignis ad tecta volare,

nusquam acies contra Rutulas, nulla agmina Turni,

infelix pugnae iuvenem in certamine credit

exstinctum et subito mentem turbata dolore

se causam clamat crimenque caputque malorum,               600

multaque per maestum demens effata furorem

purpureos moritura manu discindit amictus

et nodum informis leti trabe nectit ab alta.

quam cladem miserae postquam accepere Latinae,

filia prima manu flavos Lavinia crinis               605

et roseas laniata genas, tum cetera circum

turba furit, resonant late plangoribus aedes.

hinc totam infelix vulgatur fama per urbem:

demittunt mentes, it scissa veste Latinus

coniugis attonitus fatis urbisque ruina,               610

canitiem immundo perfusam pulvere turpans.

---

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

1. a city in Dardania, the region around Troy

2. Aeneas’s

3. These last two lines do not appear in the Latin text I’m using—faulty text, or non-Vergilian interpolation? Likely the latter, but I don’t know enough to make the call.