# The Aeneid, Book 10: The Council of the Gods, and the Deaths of Pallas and Lausus

Aeneis · Publius Vergilius Maro · The War in Latium

Aeneas returns with allies. Turnus kills Pallas and takes his belt. Aeneas kills Lausus and his father Mezentius.

Source: https://1732studios.com/books/aeneid/10. Data: https://1732studios.com/books/aeneid/10.json. Audio: https://audio.1732studios.com/aeneid/<line id>.m4a.

**1** Panditur interea domus omnipotentis Olympi,  
Meanwhile the house of all-powerful Olympus is opened wide,

**2** conciliumque vocat divom pater atque hominum rex  
and the father of gods and king of men calls a council

**3** sideream in sedem, terras unde arduus omnis  
into his starry seat, from which, high up, he looks out over all the lands

**4** castraque Dardanidum adspectat populosque Latinos.  
and the camp of the sons of Dardanus and the peoples of Latium.

**5** Considunt tectis bipatentibus, incipit ipse:  
They take their seats in the hall of the double doors; he himself begins:
> The hall of the double doors: Bipatens means 'lying open on both sides', describing a hall with doors or openings at either end. The compound word appears to be Vergil's own coinage, tectis bipatentibus, 'in the hall open both ways'.

**6** “Caelicolae magni, quianam sententia vobis  
“Great dwellers in heaven, why has your judgment
> An archaic word for why: Quianam is an old equivalent of quare, 'why', drawn from the earlier poet Ennius. Jupiter opens the divine council with this antique word rather than the ordinary one.

**7** versa retro tantumque animis certatis iniquis?  
turned back on itself, and why do you strive so, with grudging hearts?

**8** Abnueram bello Italiam concurrere Teucris.  
I had forbidden Italy to clash in war with the Teucrians.

**9** Quae contra vetitum discordia? Quis metus aut hos  
What is this discord against my ban? What fear has talked

**10** aut hos arma sequi ferrumque lacessere suasit?  
the one side or the other into taking up arms and provoking the sword?

**11** Adveniet iustum pugnae, ne arcessite, tempus,  
The right time for fighting will come, do not send for it,

**12** cum fera Karthago Romanis arcibus olim  
when one day fierce Carthage will let loose against the citadels of Rome

**13** exitium magnum atque Alpes immittet apertas:  
a great ruin, and the Alps thrown open:

**14** tum certare odiis, tum res rapuisse licebit.  
then it will be lawful to strive in hatred, then to plunder.

**15** Nunc sinite et placitum laeti componite foedus.”  
Now let it be, and settle gladly the treaty that pleases me.”

**16** Iuppiter haec paucis; at non Venus aurea contra  
Jupiter said so much, briefly; but golden Venus, answering him,

**17** pauca refert:  
is not brief:
> Not brief, meaning very long: At non pauca refert, 'she replies not in few words', uses litotes, denying the opposite to state it more strongly. Jupiter's own words before this are brief; Venus answers with a speech of forty-five lines.

**18** “O pater, O hominum rerumque aeterna potestas!  
“O father, O everlasting power over men and things!

**19** Namque aliud quid sit, quod iam implorare queamus?  
For what else is there that we could beg of now?

**20** Cernis ut insultent Rutuli Turnusque feratur  
You see how the Rutulians exult, how Turnus is carried

**21** per medios insignis equis tumidusque secundo  
through the middle of them, splendid on his horses, and how he charges

**22** Marte ruat? Non clausa tegunt iam moenia Teucros:  
swollen with a Mars that favors him? Closed walls no longer cover the Teucrians:

**23** quin intra portas atque ipsis proelia miscent  
no, they join battle inside the gates and on the very

**24** aggeribus moerorum et inundant sanguine fossas.  
earthworks of the ramparts, and the trenches run over with blood.

**25** Aeneas ignarus abest. Numquamne levari  
Aeneas is away and knows nothing. Will you never allow

**26** obsidione sines? Muris iterum imminet hostis  
the siege to be lifted? An enemy hangs over the walls

**27** nascentis Troiae nec non exercitus alter;  
of a Troy being born again, and a second army with him;

**28** atque iterum in Teucros Aetolis surgit ab Arpis  
and against the Teucrians, out of Aetolian Arpi, the son of Tydeus

**29** Tydides. Equidem credo, mea volnera restant  
rises a second time. To be sure, I believe my own wounds are still to come,

**30** et tua progenies mortalia demoror arma.  
and I, your child, am kept waiting on mortal weapons.

**31** Si sine pace tua atque invito numine Troes  
If without your peace and against your will the Trojans

**32** Italiam petiere, luant peccata neque illos  
made for Italy, let them pay for their offenses, and do not

**33** iuveris auxilio; sin tot responsa secuti,  
stand by them with help; but if they followed so many answers

**34** quae superi manesque dabant: cur nunc tua quisquam  
that the gods above and the dead were giving them, why can anyone now

**35** vertere iussa potest aut cur nova condere fata?  
overturn your orders, or lay down new fates?

**36** Quid repetem exustas Erycino in litore classes,  
Why go back over the fleet burned on the shore of Eryx,

**37** quid tempestatum regem ventosque furentis  
why the king of storms and the raging winds

**38** Aeolia excitos aut actam nubibus Irim?  
roused out of Aeolia, or Iris driven down through the clouds?

**39** Nunc etiam manis, haec intemptata manebat  
Now she stirs the dead as well (this lot of the world

**40** sors rerum, movet et superis immissa repente  
stood untried) and Allecto, flung suddenly up among those above,

**41** Allecto, medias Italum bacchata per urbes.  
has run raving through the middle of Italy's cities.

**42** Nil super imperio moveor: speravimus ista,  
About empire I am not moved at all: that we hoped for

**43** dum fortuna fuit; vincant quos vincere mavis.  
while fortune held; let those win whom you would rather have win.

**44** Si nulla est regio, Teucris quam det tua coniunx  
If there is no country your hard wife will grant

**45** dura, per eversae, genitor, fumantia Troiae  
the Teucrians, by the smoking ruin, father, of overturned

**46** exscidia obtestor, liceat dimittere ab armis  
Troy I beg you: let it be allowed to send Ascanius away

**47** incolumem Ascanium, liceat superesse nepotem.  
safe out of the fighting, let a grandson be left alive.

**48** Aeneas sane ignotis iactetur in undis  
Let Aeneas by all means be tossed on waters he does not know

**49** et, quamcumque viam dederit Fortuna, sequatur:  
and follow whatever road Fortune gives him:

**50** hunc tegere et dirae valeam subducere pugnae.  
let me be strong enough to cover this one and draw him out of the terrible battle.

**51** Est Amathus, est celsa mihi Paphus atque Cythera  
I have Amathus, I have high Paphos and Cythera

**52** Idaliaeque domus: positis inglorius armis  
and the house of Idalium: let him lay down his arms and live out

**53** exigat hic aevum. Magna dicione iubeto  
his age here, without glory. Give the order that Carthage

**54** Karthago premat Ausoniam: nihil urbibus inde  
crush Ausonia under a great dominion: nothing from that side

**55** obstabit Tyriis. Quid pestem evadere belli  
will stand in the Tyrian cities' way. What good was it to escape

**56** iuvit et Argolicos medium fugisse per ignes  
the plague of war and to have fled through the middle of Argive fires,

**57** totque maris vastaeque exhausta pericula terrae,  
and to have drained so many dangers of the sea and of the waste land,

**58** dum Latium Teucri recidivaque Pergama quaerunt?  
while the Teucrians look for Latium and a Pergamum built up again?

**59** Non satius cineres patriae insedisse supremos  
Would it not have been better to settle on their country's last ashes,

**60** atque solum, quo Troia fuit? Xanthum et Simoenta  
on the ground where Troy was? Give Xanthus and Simois

**61** redde, oro, miseris iterumque revolvere casus  
back, I beg, to these wretched men, and grant that the Teucrians

**62** da, pater, Iliacos Teucris.”  
live through the fall of Ilium once more, father.”

**62b** Tum regia Iuno  
Then queenly Juno,

**63** acta furore gravi: “Quid me alta silentia cogis  
driven by a heavy fury: “Why do you force me to break
> A grief drawn over: Obductus describes what a scar or a cloud does, drawn across something that remains underneath. Juno uses obductum dolorem, 'a grief drawn over', to claim she has kept silent, though the poem's opening called her anger memor, 'unforgetting'.

**64** rumpere et obductum verbis volgare dolorem?  
a deep silence and put out in words a grief drawn over and hidden?

**65** Aenean hominum quisquam divomque subegit  
Did any man or any god push Aeneas

**66** bella sequi aut hostem regi se inferre Latino?  
into going after war, or forcing himself as an enemy on king Latinus?

**67** Italiam petiit fatis auctoribus, esto,  
He made for Italy with the fates behind him, granted,

**68** Cassandrae inpulsus furiis: num linquere castra  
driven by Cassandra's ravings: did we urge him to leave his camp

**69** hortati sumus aut vitam committere ventis?  
or to commit his life to the winds?

**70** Num puero summam belli, num credere muros  
To trust the sum of the war to a boy, to trust the walls

**71** Tyrrhenamque fidem, aut gentis agitare quietas?  
and Tyrrhenian good faith, or to work up peoples that were quiet?

**72** Quis deus in fraudem, quae dura potentia nostra  
What god drove him into the trap, what harsh power of mine

**73** egit? Ubi hic Iuno demissave nubibus Iris?  
did it? Where is Juno in this, or Iris sent down out of the clouds?

**74** Indignum est Italos Troiam circumdare flammis  
It is an outrage that Italians should ring a Troy being born

**75** nascentem et patria Turnum consistere terra,  
with flames, and that Turnus should stand fast on his native ground,

**76** cui Pilumnus avus, cui diva Venilia mater:  
he whose grandfather is Pilumnus, whose mother the goddess Venilia:

**77** quid face Troianos atra vim ferre Latinis,  
and what of Trojans carrying violence to the Latins with a black torch,

**78** arva aliena iugo premere atque avertere praedas?  
pressing other men's fields under the yoke and driving off plunder?

**79** Quid soceros legere et gremiis abducere pactas,  
What of picking out their fathers-in-law and taking betrothed girls from the lap,

**80** pacem orare manu, praefigere puppibus arma?  
asking for peace with the hand and fastening weapons on the sterns?

**81** Tu potes Aenean manibus subducere Graium  
You have the power to steal Aeneas out of Greek hands

**82** proque viro nebulam et ventos obtendere inanis,  
and to spread mist and hollow winds in the man's place,

**83** tu potes in totidem classem convertere nymphas:  
you have the power to turn a fleet into that many nymphs:

**84** nos aliquid Rutulos contra iuvisse nefandum est?  
is it unspeakable that we should have helped the Rutulians at all?

**85** Aeneas ignarus abest: ignarus et absit.  
‘Aeneas is away and knows nothing’: let him stay away and know nothing.
> Quoted back word for word: Juno repeats Venus' own words from line 25, ignarus abest, 'he is away, knowing nothing', then changes only the mood: et absit, a subjunctive, 'let him stay away'. Repeating an opponent's words with one change was a standard rhetorical move.

**86** Est Paphus Idaliumque tibi, sunt alta Cythera:  
You have Paphos and Idalium, you have high Cythera:

**87** quid gravidam bellis urbem et corda aspera temptas?  
why try a city big with wars, and hearts that are hard?

**88** Nosne tibi fluxas Phrygiae res vertere fundo  
Is it we who are trying to turn the crumbling Phrygian state

**89** conamur, nos, an miseros qui Troas Achivis  
up from the bottom, we? or the one who threw the wretched Trojans

**90** obiecit? Quae causa fuit, consurgere in arma  
under the Achaeans? What was the cause that Europe and Asia rose

**91** Europamque Asiamque et foedera solvere furto?  
into arms, and that the treaties were undone by a theft?

**92** Me duce Dardanius Spartam expugnavit adulter,  
Was it under my leadership that the Dardan adulterer stormed Sparta,

**93** aut ego tela dedi fovive cupidine bella?  
or did I supply the weapons, or feed a war with lust?

**94** Tum decuit metuisse tuis: nunc sera querelis  
That was the time to have feared for your people: now you rise too late

**95** haud iustis adsurgis et inrita iurgia iactas.”  
with complaints that are not just, and throw about quarrels that come to nothing.”

**96** Talibus orabat Iuno, cunctique fremebant  
With such words Juno was pleading, and all the dwellers in heaven

**97** caelicolae adsensu vario, ceu flamina prima  
were murmuring with divided assent, as the first gusts
> A simile using ceu: Ceu, 'as, just as', introduces this simile. The gods' mixed murmuring, adsensu vario, is compared to flamina prima, 'the first gusts', caught rustling in a wood before a storm, the kind of sign sailors read as warning.

**98** cum deprensa fremunt silvis et caeca volutant  
murmur when they are caught in the woods and roll their blind

**99** murmura, venturos nautis prodentia ventos.  
rumblings, betraying to sailors the winds that are coming.

**100** Tum pater omnipotens, rerum cui prima potestas,  
Then the all-powerful father, in whom the first power over things is held,

**101** infit; eo dicente deum domus alta silescit  
begins; as he speaks the high house of the gods falls silent

**102** et tremefacta solo tellus, silet arduus aether,  
and the earth is shaken to its floor, the steep upper air is still,

**103** tum Zephyri posuere, premit placida aequora pontus:  
then the west winds lay themselves down, the sea presses its waters flat:

**104** “Accipite ergo animis atque haec mea figite dicta.  
“Take these words of mine into your minds, then, and fix them there.

**105** Quandoquidem Ausonios coniungi foedere Teucris  
Since it has not been allowed that Ausonians be joined by treaty

**106** haud licitum, nec vestra capit discordia finem:  
to the Teucrians, and your quarrel takes no end:

**107** quae cuique est fortuna hodie, quam quisque secat spem,  
whatever fortune each man has today, whatever hope each cuts his way toward,
> Cutting a hope: Secare means 'to cut a path' or 'to cleave through water'. Quam quisque secat spem, 'whatever hope each man cuts', describes hope as a course taken, the way a ship's keel cuts through the sea.

**108** Tros Rutulusne fuat nullo discrimine habebo.  
Trojan or Rutulian, I shall keep no difference between them.
> An archaic legal subjunctive: Fuat is an archaic present subjunctive of sum, 'to be', a form kept alive in Roman law and ritual formulas. Jupiter uses it here, tros rutulusne fuat, 'whether he be Trojan or Rutulian', giving his ruling in that same formal, legal wording.

**109** Seu fatis Italum castra obsidione tenentur  
Whether it is by the fates of the Italians that the camp is under siege,

**110** sive errore malo Troiae monitisque sinistris.  
or by Troy's bad blunder and by warnings taken the wrong way.

**111** Nec Rutulos solvo: sua cuique exorsa laborem  
Nor do I let the Rutulians off: what each has begun will bring him
> What each begins will bring him: Exorsa names what has been started, from the verb for laying the first threads on a loom. Sua cuique exorsa laborem fortunamque ferent, 'what each has begun will bring him labor and fortune', likens a course of action to a weaving that determines its own outcome.

**112** fortunamque ferent. Rex Iuppiter omnibus idem.  
his labor and his fortune. King Jupiter is the same to all.

**113** Fata viam invenient.” Stygii per flumina fratris,  
The fates will find their way.” By the rivers of his Stygian brother,

**114** per pice torrentis atraque voragine ripas  
by the banks that boil with pitch and by the black chasm,

**115** adnuit et totum nutu tremefecit Olympum.  
he nodded, and with the nod made the whole of Olympus tremble.

**116** Hic finis fandi. Solio tum Iuppiter aureo  
This was the end of speaking. Then Jupiter rises from his golden

**117** surgit, caelicolae medium quem ad limina ducunt.  
throne, and the dwellers in heaven lead him, in their midst, to the doorway.

**118** Interea Rutuli portis circum omnibus instant  
Meanwhile the Rutulians press at every gate around,

**119** sternere caede viros et moenia cingere flammis.  
to lay men low in slaughter and to ring the walls with fire.

**120** At legio Aeneadum vallis obsessa tenetur,  
But the levy of Aeneas' people is held penned inside its stockade,

**121** nec spes ulla fugae. Miseri stant turribus altis  
and there is no hope of getting out. Wretched, they stand on the high towers

**122** nequiquam et rara muros cinxere corona  
for nothing, and have ringed the walls with a thin crown of men:
> A thin crown of men: Corona is the technical term for the ring of defenders stationed along a wall. Rara, 'thinly spaced', describes that ring here: cinxere corona, 'they have ringed it with a crown of men', but not enough men to close the gaps.

**123** Asius Imbrasides Hicetaoniusque Thymoetes  
Asius son of Imbrasus, and Thymoetes son of Hicetaon,

**124** Assaracique duo et senior cum Castore Thymbris,  
and the two Assaraci, and old Thymbris with Castor,

**125** prima acies; hos germani Sarpedonis ambo  
the front rank; and with them go both the brothers of Sarpedon,

**126** et Clarus et Thaemon Lycia comitantur ab alta.  
Clarus and Thaemon, out of high Lycia.

**127** Fert ingens toto conixus corpore saxum,  
Straining with his whole body, Acmon of Lyrnesus carries a huge

**128** haud partem exiguam montis, Lyrnesius Acmon,  
stone, no small piece of a mountain,

**129** nec Clytio genitore minor nec fratre Menestheo.  
no less a man than his father Clytius, nor than his brother Menestheus.

**130** Hi iaculis, illi certant defendere saxis  
These fight to hold the wall with javelins, those with rocks,

**131** molirique ignem nervoque aptare sagittas.  
and to get fire going, and to fit arrows to the string.

**132** Ipse inter medios, Veneris iustissima cura,  
And there in the middle of them, Venus' most rightful care,

**133** Dardanius caput ecce puer detectus honestum,  
look, the Dardan boy, his handsome head bare,

**134** qualis gemma micat, fulvum quae dividit aurum,  
shining as a gem shines that parts the tawny gold,

**135** aut collo decus aut capiti; vel quale per artem  
an ornament for the neck or the head; or as ivory shines

**136** inclusum buxo aut Oricia terebintho  
set by art into boxwood or Orician terebinth;

**137** lucet ebur; fusos cervix cui lactea crinis  
his milk-white neck takes the hair let loose over it

**138** accipit et molli subnectens circulus auro.  
and a circlet binds it under with soft gold.

**139** Te quoque magnanimae viderunt, Ismare, gentes  
You too, Ismarus, the great-hearted nations saw,
> Turning to address the dead: Te quoque, Ismare, 'you too, Ismarus', breaks from the third-person list of names into direct address, the figure called apostrophe. Vergil uses this same turn later in the book for Cydon, Lausus and Pallas.

**140** volnera dirigere et calamos armare veneno,  
aiming wounds and arming your reeds with poison,

**141** Maeonia generose domo, ubi pinguia culta  
nobly born of a Maeonian house, where men work

**142** exercentque viri Pactolusque inrigat auro.  
rich tilled land and Pactolus waters it with gold.

**143** Adfuit et Mnestheus, quem pulsi pristina Turni  
Mnestheus was there too, whom the glory of yesterday lifts high,

**144** aggere moerorum sublimem gloria tollit,  
for having driven Turnus off the rampart of the walls,

**145** et Capys: hinc nomen Campanae ducitur urbi.  
and Capys: from him the Campanian city takes its name.

**146** Illi inter sese duri certamina belli  
They had joined with one another in the trials of hard war:

**147** contulerant: media Aeneas freta nocte secabat.  
Aeneas was cutting the strait at the middle of the night.

**148** Namque ut ab Euandro castris ingressus Etruscis  
For when he left Evander, entered the Etruscan camp,

**149** regem adit et regi memorat nomenque genusque,  
came to the king, and told the king his name and his line,

**150** quidve petat quidve ipse ferat, Mezentius arma  
what he asks and what he brings himself; what arms Mezentius

**151** quae sibi conciliet, violentaque pectora Turni  
is drawing to his own side, and the violence in Turnus' heart,

**152** edocet, humanis quae sit fiducia rebus  
all this he sets out; and he warns him how much trust

**153** admonet immiscetque preces: haud fit mora, Tarchon  
human affairs will bear, and mixes prayers in: there is no delay. Tarchon

**154** iungit opes foedusque ferit; tum libera fati  
joins forces and strikes the treaty; then, released from its fate,

**155** classem conscendit iussis gens Lydia divom,  
the Lydian people boards the fleet by the gods' command,

**156** externo commissa duci. Aeneia puppis  
put into a foreign leader's hand. The ship of Aeneas

**157** prima tenet, rostro Phrygios subiuncta leones,  
holds the front, Phrygian lions yoked under her beak,

**158** imminet Ida super, profugis gratissima Teucris.  
Ida standing over them, dearest of all sights to exiled Teucrians.

**159** Hic magnus sedet Aeneas secumque volutat  
There great Aeneas sits and turns over within himself

**160** eventus belli varios, Pallasque sinistro  
the war's changing outcomes; and Pallas, fixed close

**161** adfixus lateri iam quaerit sidera, opacae  
at his left side, asks him now about the stars, the road

**162** noctis iter, iam quae passus terraque marique.  
of the dark night, now what he has suffered by land and sea.

**163** Pandite nunc Helicona, deae, cantusque movete,  
Open Helicon now, goddesses, and set the singing going:

**164** quae manus interea Tuscis comitetur ab oris  
what force came meanwhile out of Tuscan shores to go with Aeneas,

**165** Aenean armetque rates pelagoque vehatur.  
and armed its ships, and rode the sea.

**166** Massicus aerata princeps secat aequora tigri:  
Massicus first cuts the water in the bronze-plated Tiger:

**167** sub quo mille manus iuvenum, qui moenia Clusi  
under him a thousand young men's hands, who left the walls of Clusium

**168** quique urbem liquere Cosas, quis tela sagittae  
and left the town of Cosae, their weapons the arrow,

**169** gorytique leves umeris et letifer arcus.  
light quivers at the shoulder, and the death-carrying bow.

**170** Una torvus Abas: huic totum insignibus armis  
Grim Abas is with him: his whole column shone with fine arms,

**171** agmen et aurato fulgebat Apolline puppis.  
and his stern with a gilded Apollo.

**172** Sescentos illi dederat Populonia mater  
Populonia, his mother city, had given him six hundred

**173** expertos belli iuvenes, ast Ilva trecentos  
young men tried in war, and Ilva three hundred,

**174** insula inexhaustis Chalybum generosa metallis.  
an island generous with the Chalybes' inexhaustible metals.

**175** Tertius ille hominum divomque interpres Asilas,  
Third comes Asilas, that interpreter between men and gods,

**176** cui pecudum fibrae, caeli cui sidera parent  
to whom the entrails of cattle answer, and the stars of the sky,

**177** et linguae volucrum et praesagi fulminis ignes,  
and the tongues of birds, and the foretelling fires of the lightning;

**178** mille rapit densos acie atque horrentibus hastis.  
he sweeps along a thousand men packed in line and bristling with spears.

**179** Hos parere iubent Alpheae ab origine Pisae,  
Pisa orders these to obey him, Alphean in its origin,

**180** urbs Etrusca solo. Sequitur pulcherrimus Astur,  
Etruscan in its soil. Astur follows, the most beautiful of them,

**181** Astur equo fidens et versicoloribus armis.  
Astur, who trusts his horse and his arms of shifting color.

**182** Tercentum adiciunt (mens omnibus una sequendi)  
Three hundred more join in (one mind in all of them, to follow)

**183** qui Caerete domo, qui sunt Minionis in arvis,  
men whose home is Caere, men in the fields of the Minio,

**184** et Pyrgi veteres intempestaeque Graviscae.  
and old Pyrgi, and Graviscae of the unwholesome air.
> A word for unhealthy air: Intempestus describes weather or air that does not keep its proper season, here marking Graviscae as an unhealthy place. Roman readers would have known the coastal town for its bad, likely malarial, air.

**185** Non ego te, Ligurum ductor fortissime bello,  
I would not pass you by, bravest in war of the Ligurian leaders,

**186** transierim, Cinyre, et paucis comitate Cupavo,  
Cinyras, nor you, Cupavo, attended by a few,

**187** cuius olorinae surgunt de vertice pennae,  
from whose helmet the feathers of a swan rise up,

**188** crimen, Amor, vestrum formaeque insigne paternae.  
the reproach is yours, Love, and the badge of a father's shape.

**189** Namque ferunt luctu Cycnum Phaethontis amati,  
For they say that Cycnus, in grief for Phaethon whom he loved,

**190** populeas inter frondes umbramque sororum  
while he sang among poplar leaves and the shade of the sisters

**191** dum canit et maestum Musa solatur amorem,  
and eased a sorrowing love with the Muse,

**192** canentem molli pluma duxisse senectam,  
drew on a white old age of soft feathers,

**193** linquentem terras et sidera voce sequentem.  
leaving the earth and following the stars with his voice.

**194** Filius, aequalis comitatus classe catervas,  
His son, escorted in the fleet by companies of his own age,

**195** ingentem remis Centaurum promovet: ille  
drives the huge Centaur on with oars: and the Centaur

**196** instat aquae saxumque undis immane minatur  
leans over the water high above and threatens the waves with a monstrous

**197** arduus et longa sulcat maria alta carina.  
rock, and furrows the deep sea with her long keel.

**198** Ille etiam patriis agmen ciet Ocnus ab oris,  
Ocnus too calls a column out from his native shores,

**199** fatidicae Mantus et Tusci filius amnis,  
son of the prophetess Manto and of the Tuscan river,

**200** qui muros matrisque dedit tibi, Mantua, nomen,  
who gave you your walls, Mantua, and his mother's name,

**201** Mantua, dives avis; sed non genus omnibus unum:  
Mantua, rich in forefathers; but the stock is not one for all of them:

**202** gens illi triplex, populi sub gente quaterni,  
three races are there, four peoples under each race,

**203** ipsa caput populis, Tusco de sanguine vires.  
and she herself the head of the peoples, her strength out of Tuscan blood.

**204** Hinc quoque quingentos in se Mezentius armat,  
From here as well five hundred are armed by Mezentius against himself,

**205** quos patre Benaco velatus harundine glauca  
whom Mincius, veiled in gray-green reed, born of father Benacus,

**206** Mincius infesta ducebat in aequora pinu.  
was leading down to the sea in a hostile pine hull.

**207** It gravis Aulestes centenaque arbore fluctum  
Heavy Aulestes goes, and rising to the stroke beats the water

**208** verberat adsurgens, spumant vada marmore verso.  
with a hundred trees; the shallows foam with the marble turned over.
> The marble turned over: Marmor means 'marble', and Latin poets use the word for the sea's surface, its flat sheen and the veining oars stir up. Marmore verso, 'the marble turned over', describes the water churned white by the oars. English has no equivalent noun, so we keep the word 'marble'.

**209** Hunc vehit immanis Triton et caerula concha  
A monstrous Triton carries him, frightening the blue

**210** exterrens freta, cui laterum tenus hispida nanti  
straits with his conch; as he swims his shaggy front

**211** frons hominem praefert, in pristim desinit alvus:  
shows a man as far down as the flanks, and his belly ends in a sea-beast:

**212** spumea semifero sub pectore murmurat unda.  
under the half-wild breast the foaming wave mutters.

**213** Tot lecti proceres ter denis navibus ibant  
So many chosen chiefs were going in thrice ten ships
> Thrice ten instead of thirty: Ter denis, 'by thrice ten', gives thirty as three groups of ten rather than as a single round number. Latin verse often multiplies this way instead of naming a number directly, the same habit that gives Juno her 'twice seven' nymphs in Book 1.

**214** subsidio Troiae et campos salis aera secabant.  
to Troy's relief, and their bronze was cutting the fields of salt.

**215** Iamque dies caelo concesserat almaque curru  
And now the day had given way in the sky, and kindly Phoebe

**216** noctivago Phoebe medium pulsabat Olympum:  
was beating at mid-Olympus with her night-wandering car:
> The night-wandering car: Phoebe names the moon, and her curru, 'chariot', reaching medium Olympum, 'the middle of the sky', marks the hour as midnight. Noctivagus, 'night-wandering', appears to be Vergil's own coined compound.

**217** Aeneas (neque enim membris dat cura quietem)  
Aeneas (for care gives his limbs no rest)

**218** ipse sedens clavumque regit velisque ministrat.  
sits and works the tiller himself, and tends the sails.

**219** Atque illi medio in spatio chorus ecce suarum  
And look: halfway across, a dancing troop of his own

**220** occurrit comitum: nymphae, quas alma Cybebe  
companions meets him: the nymphs whom kindly Cybebe

**221** numen habere maris nymphasque e navibus esse  
had ordered to hold the godhead of the sea and to be nymphs

**222** iusserat, innabant pariter fluctusque secabant,  
instead of ships; they swam abreast and cut the waves,

**223** quot prius aeratae steterant ad litora prorae.  
as many as the bronze prows that had stood at the shore before.

**224** Agnoscunt longe regem lustrantque choreis,  
They know their king from far off and ring him with their dances,

**225** quarum quae fandi doctissima Cymodocea  
and the readiest of them in speech, Cymodocea,

**226** pone sequens dextra puppim tenet ipsaque dorso  
following astern, holds the stern in her right hand and lifts

**227** eminet ac laeva tacitis subremigat undis,  
her own back clear, rowing under with her left through the silent water,

**228** tum sic ignarum adloquitur: “Vigilasne, deum gens,  
and speaks to him, who knows nothing: “Are you awake, seed of gods,

**229** Aenea? Vigila et velis immitte rudentis.  
Aeneas? Wake, and let the ropes out to the sails.

**230** Nos sumus, Idaeae sacro de vertice pinus,  
It is we, the pines from Ida's holy summit,

**231** nunc pelagi nymphae, classis tua. Perfidus ut nos  
now nymphs of the sea, your fleet. When the treacherous Rutulian

**232** praecipitis ferro Rutulus flammaque premebat,  
was driving us headlong with sword and with flame,

**233** rupimus invitae tua vincula teque per aequor  
we broke your cables against our will, and over the water

**234** quaerimus. Hanc Genetrix faciem miserata refecit  
we are looking for you. The Mother pitied us and remade us in this shape
> A title standing for a name: Genetrix, 'the Mother', stands alone as a title for Cybele without naming her. Latin can use a cult title this way as a proper noun on its own, where English usually needs an article or a name.

**235** et dedit esse deas aevumque agitare sub undis.  
and granted us to be goddesses and to pass our age under the waves.

**236** At puer Ascanius muro fossisque tenetur  
But the boy Ascanius is shut in by wall and by ditch,

**237** tela inter media atque horrentis Marte Latinos.  
among the weapons and the Latins bristling with war.

**238** Iam loca iussa tenent forti permixtus Etrusco  
Already the Arcadian horse, mixed in with the brave Etruscan,

**239** Arcas eques: medias illis opponere turmas,  
holds the ground appointed; to throw his squadrons across their way,

**240** ne castris iungant, certast sententia Turno.  
so they do not reach the camp, is Turnus' settled purpose.

**241** Surge age et Aurora socios veniente vocari  
Up now, and when Dawn comes be the first to order

**242** primus in arma iube et clipeum cape, quem dedit ipse  
your allies called to arms, and take up the shield the Lord of Fire

**243** invictum Ignipotens atque oras ambiit auro.  
himself gave you, unconquerable, and ran a rim of gold around.

**244** Crastina lux, mea si non inrita dicta putaris,  
Tomorrow's light, if you do not judge my words empty,

**245** ingentis Rutulae spectabit caedis acervos.”  
will look on huge heaps of Rutulian slaughter.”

**246** Dixerat, et dextra discedens impulit altam  
She had spoken; and as she went her right hand pushed the tall

**247** haud ignara modi puppim: fugit illa per undas  
stern, she knew the way of it: the ship runs off over the water

**248** ocior et iaculo et ventos aequante sagitta.  
faster than a javelin, faster than an arrow that keeps pace with the winds.

**249** Inde aliae celerant cursus. Stupet inscius ipse  
Then the others quicken their course. He himself understands nothing

**250** Tros Anchisiades; animos tamen omine tollit.  
and stares, the Trojan son of Anchises; still, the sign lifts his heart.
> Named by nation and father: Tros Anchisiades, 'the Trojan, son of Anchises', names Aeneas by nation and father rather than by his own name. The same patronymic returns at line 822, later in the book.

**251** Tum breviter super adspectans convexa precatur:  
Then, looking up at the vault above, he prays briefly:

**252** “Alma parens Idaea deum, cui Dindyma cordi  
“Kindly Idaean mother of the gods, whose heart is in Dindymus

**253** turrigeraeque urbis biiugique ad frena leones,  
and in towered cities and in lions paired to the rein,

**254** tu mihi nunc pugnae princeps, tu rite propinques  
be you my leader in this fight now, bring the omen near

**255** augurium Phrygibusque adsis pede, diva, secundo.”  
in due form, and stand by the Phrygians, goddess, with a favoring step.”

**256** Tantum effatus. Et interea revoluta rubebat  
So much he said. And meanwhile the day came round and was reddening

**257** matura iam luce dies noctemque fugarat:  
with full light already, and had put the night to flight:

**258** principio sociis edicit, signa sequantur  
first he gives his companions the order to follow the standards

**259** atque animos aptent armis pugnaeque parent se.  
and fit their spirits to their arms and make themselves ready for battle.

**260** Iamque in conspectu Teucros habet et sua castra,  
And now he has the Teucrians and his own camp in sight,

**261** stans celsa in puppi; clipeum cum deinde sinistra  
standing high on the stern; then with his left he lifted

**262** extulit ardentem. Clamorem ad sidera tollunt  
the burning shield. The sons of Dardanus raise a shout

**263** Dardanidae e muris, spes addita suscitat iras,  
to the stars from the walls; hope, added to them, stirs up their anger,

**264** tela manu iaciunt: quales sub nubibus atris  
they throw their weapons by hand: as under black clouds

**265** Strymoniae dant signa grues atque aethera tranant  
the cranes of Strymon give their signal and swim across the upper air

**266** cum sonitu fugiuntque notos clamore secundo.  
with a noise, and run from the south winds with a clamor behind them.

**267** At Rutulo regi ducibusque ea mira videri  
But to the Rutulian king and the Ausonian captains this looked

**268** Ausoniis, donec versas ad litora puppes  
like a marvel, until they look back and see the sterns turned

**269** respiciunt totumque adlabi classibus aequor.  
toward the shore, and the whole sea gliding in under ships.

**270** Ardet apex capiti cristisque a vertice flamma  
The peak on his head burns, and flame pours from the crest
> A present tense inside a past narrative: Ardet, 'it burns', is a historic present used in the middle of a past-tense narrative, switching tense at the moment the enemy first sees Aeneas' helmet. Latin uses this shift to put the description in the present moment rather than the completed past.

**271** funditur et vastos umbo vomit aureus ignes:  
on his crown, and the golden boss vomits enormous fires:

**272** non secus ac liquida siquando nocte cometae  
no otherwise than when on a clear night comets

**273** sanguinei lugubre rubent aut Sirius ardor,  
glow blood-red and mournful, or the burning of Sirius,

**274** ille sitim morbosque ferens mortalibus aegris,  
the star that brings thirst and sickness to sick mortals,

**275** nascitur et laevo contristat lumine caelum.  
rises and saddens the sky with an ill-omened light.

**276** Haud tamen audaci Turno fiducia cessit  
Yet bold Turnus' confidence did not give way to it:

**277** litora praecipere et venientis pellere terra.  
he would take the beaches first and drive the incomers off the land.

**278** ultro animos tollit dictis atque increpat ultro  
Unasked he lifts their spirits with words, unasked he rebukes them:

**279** “Quod votis optastis, adest, perfringere dextra;  
“What you asked for in your prayers is here, to break through with the hand;

**280** in manibus Mars ipse viris. Nunc coniugis esto  
Mars himself is in your hands, men. Now let each one keep

**281** quisque suae tectique memor, nunc magna referto  
his wife and his house in mind, now bring back the great

**282** facta, patrum laudes. Ultro occurramus ad undam,  
deeds, the praises of our fathers. Let us go down to the water and meet them,

**283** dum trepidi egressisque labant vestigia prima.  
while they are unsteady and their first steps stagger as they land.

**284** Audentis Fortuna iuvat,”  
Fortune helps the daring,”

**285** haec ait et secum versat, quos ducere contra  
he says, and turns over within himself whom to lead against them,

**286** vel quibus obsessos possit concredere muros.  
and to whom he can trust the besieged walls.

**287** Interea Aeneas socios de puppibus altis  
Meanwhile Aeneas is putting his companions ashore from the high

**288** pontibus exponit. Multi servare recursus  
sterns by gangways. Many watch for the backward run

**289** languentis pelagi et brevibus se credere saltu,  
of the slackening sea and trust themselves to the shallows in a jump,

**290** per remos alii. Speculatus litora Tarchon,  
others go down the oars. Tarchon, having read the shore

**291** qua vada non sperat nec fracta remurmurat unda,  
where he looks for no shoal and no broken wave mutters back,

**292** sed mare inoffensum crescenti adlabitur aestu,  
but the sea slides in unchecked on a rising tide,

**293** advertit subito proram sociosque precatur:  
swings his prow around suddenly and calls on his companions:

**294** “Nunc, o lecta manus, validis incumbite remis;  
“Now, chosen crew, lean into the strong oars;

**295** tollite, ferte rates; inimicam findite rostris  
lift the ships, carry them; split this hostile land

**296** hanc terram, sulcumque sibi premat ipsa carina.  
with the beaks, and let the keel itself press out its own furrow.

**297** Frangere nec tali puppim statione recuso  
I do not refuse to break the ship up in a berth like this,

**298** arrepta tellure semel.” Quae talia postquam  
once the ground is seized.” And after Tarchon had spoken

**299** effatus Tarchon, socii consurgere tonsis  
such words, his companions rose to the oar-blades

**300** spumantisque rates arvis inferre Latinis,  
and drove the foaming ships up onto the Latin fields,

**301** donec rostra tenent siccum et sedere carinae  
until the beaks hold dry land and every keel had settled

**302** omnes innocuae, sed non puppis tua, Tarchon.  
unhurt, but not your ship, Tarchon.
> Turning to speak to Tarchon: The description of the landing runs in the third person, then shifts without warning to address Tarchon directly, sed non puppis tua, 'but not your ship'. This turn from third to second person is the figure called apostrophe.

**303** Namque inflicta vadis dorso dum pendet iniquo,  
For, thrown up on a shoal, while she hangs on an unfair ridge,

**304** anceps sustentata diu fluctusque fatigat,  
balanced, held up a long time, and wears the waves out,

**305** solvitur atque viros mediis exponit in undis  
she breaks apart and puts her men out in the middle of the water,

**306** fragmina remorum quos et fluitantia transtra  
where the wreckage of oars and the floating benches

**307** impediunt, retrahitque pedem simul unda relabens.  
tangle them, and at the same time the wave sliding back drags their feet.

**308** Nec Turnum segnis retinet mora, sed rapit acer  
No slow delay holds Turnus either: fiercely he sweeps

**309** totam aciem in Teucros et contra in litore sistit.  
his whole line against the Teucrians and sets it facing them on the shore.

**310** Signa canunt. Primus turmas invasit agrestis  
The trumpets sound. Aeneas fell first on the country squadrons,
> An omen for the battle: Roman armies read the first kill of an engagement as an omen for how the rest of the battle would go. Primus, 'first', marks Aeneas' opening kill here in exactly that sense, a sign as well as an event.

**311** Aeneas, omen pugnae, stravitque Latinos  
an omen for the battle, and laid the Latins low,

**312** occiso Therone, virum qui maximus ultro  
killing Theron, hugest of men, who went at Aeneas

**313** Aenean petit: huic gladio perque aerea suta,  
unasked: through the bronze stitching, through the tunic

**314** per tunicam squalentem auro latus haurit apertum.  
rough with gold, his sword drank out the man's opened side.
> A verb for draining a cup: Haurio normally means 'to draw water' or 'to drain a cup'. Latus haurit apertum, 'his sword drank out the opened side', applies that verb to a sword entering a body, and we translate it literally rather than softening it to 'pierced'.

**315** Inde Lichan ferit, exsectum iam matre perempta  
Then he strikes Lichas, cut out of his mother when she was already dead

**316** et tibi, Phoebe, sacrum: casus evadere ferri  
and made holy to you, Phoebus: what good did it do him, an infant,

**317** quo licuit parvo? Nec longe Cissea durum  
to be let escape the chance of the blade? Not far off

**318** immanemque Gyan, sternentis agmina clava,  
he threw down to Death hard Cisseus and huge Gyas,

**319** deiecit Leto: nihil illos Herculis arma  
who were flattening whole columns with the club: nothing helped them,

**320** nec validae iuvere manus genitorque Melampus,  
not the weapons of Hercules, not their strong hands, nor their father Melampus,

**321** Alcidae comes usque gravis dum terra labores  
Alcides' companion as long as the earth kept supplying him

**322** praebuit. Ecce Pharo, voces dum iactat inertis,  
heavy labors. Look, while Pharus flings out useless words,

**323** intorquens iaculum clamanti sistit in ore.  
he whirls a javelin and stops it in the shouting mouth.

**324** Tu quoque, flaventem prima lanugine malas  
You too, while you were following Clytius, his cheeks yellowing
> The unreal past: Vergil addresses Cydon directly and says he would have died here, iaceres, 'you would be lying', a contrary-to-fact statement. He then names the brothers who arrived and stopped Aeneas before it happened.

**325** dum sequeris Clytium infelix, nova gaudia, Cydon,  
with their first down, your new delight, unlucky Cydon,

**326** Dardania stratus dextra, securus amorum,  
would be lying laid low by the Dardan hand, past caring

**327** qui iuvenum tibi semper erant, miserande iaceres,  
for the loves of boys that were always yours, a man to be pitied,

**328** ni fratrum stipata cohors foret obvia, Phorci  
had not a packed troop of brothers come in the way, the offspring

**329** progenies, septem numero, septenaque tela  
of Phorcus, seven of them; and seven weapons

**330** coniciunt; partim galea clipeoque resultant  
they throw; some bounce back from the helmet and the shield

**331** inrita, deflexit partim stringentia corpus  
with nothing done, some that were grazing his body were turned aside

**332** alma Venus. Fidum Aeneas adfatur Achaten:  
by kindly Venus. Aeneas speaks to faithful Achates:

**333** “Suggere tela mihi: non ullum dextera frustra  
“Hand me weapons: my right hand will throw none of them for nothing

**334** torserit in Rutulos, steterunt quae in corpore Graium  
against Rutulians, of those that stood in Greek bodies

**335** Iliacis campis.” Tum magnam corripit hastam  
on the plains of Ilium.” Then he catches up a great spear

**336** et iacit: illa volans clipei transverberat aera  
and throws it: it flies and drives through the bronze of Maeon's

**337** Maeonis et thoraca simul cum pectore rumpit.  
shield, and breaks his breastplate and his chest together.

**338** Huic frater subit Alcanor fratremque ruentem  
His brother Alcanor comes up and holds his brother as he falls,

**339** sustentat dextra: traiecto missa lacerto  
with his right hand: the spear, sent through the arm it pierced,

**340** protinus hasta fugit servatque cruenta tenorem,  
goes straight on and keeps its bloody course,

**341** dexteraque ex umero nervis moribunda pependit.  
and the right hand hung dying from the shoulder by its sinews.

**342** Tum Numitor iaculo fratris de corpore rapto  
Then Numitor, snatching the javelin out of his brother's body,

**343** Aenean petiit; sed non et figere contra  
went for Aeneas; but he was not allowed to strike him

**344** est licitum, magnique femur perstrinxit Achatae.  
in return, and only grazed great Achates' thigh.

**345** Hic Curibus fidens primaevo corpore Clausus  
Here comes Clausus, trusting in Cures and in a body in its first youth,

**346** advenit et rigida Dryopem ferit eminus hasta  
and strikes Dryops from a distance with a stiff spear

**347** sub mentum graviter pressa pariterque loquentis  
pressed hard in under the chin, and takes away both the voice

**348** vocem animamque rapit traiecto gutture; at ille  
and the life of a man in mid-speech, the throat run through; and he

**349** fronte ferit terram et crassum vomit ore cruorem.  
strikes the ground with his forehead and vomits thick gore from his mouth.

**350** Tres quoque Threicios Boreae de gente suprema  
Three Thracians too, of the highest line of Boreas,

**351** et tris, quos Idas pater et patria Ismara mittit,  
and three whom their father Idas and their homeland Ismara send,

**352** per varios sternit casus. Accurrit Halaesus  
he lays low by one chance and another. Halaesus runs up

**353** Auruncaeque manus, subit et Neptunia proles,  
with his Auruncan bands, and Neptune's own offspring comes on,

**354** insignis Messapus equis. Expellere tendunt  
Messapus, splendid with horses. They strain to push each other back,

**355** nunc hi, nunc illi; certatur limine in ipso  
now these, now those; the fight is on the very threshold

**356** Ausoniae. Magno discordes aethere venti  
of Ausonia. As in the great upper air quarreling winds
> A simile of winds in deadlock: This simile compares the stalled battle to discordes venti, 'quarreling winds', braced against each other in the sky along with clouds and sea, with neither side able to move the other. The image is one of forces locked, not of victory.

**357** proelia ceu tollunt animis et viribus aequis;  
raise their battles with spirits equal and strength equal;

**358** non ipsi inter se, non nubila, non mare cedit;  
neither they to one another, nor the clouds, nor the sea gives way;

**359** anceps pugna diu, stant obnixa omnia contra:  
the fight hangs long undecided, everything stands braced against everything:

**360** haud aliter Troianae acies aciesque Latinae  
not otherwise the Trojan lines and the Latin lines

**361** concurrunt; haeret pede pes densusque viro vir.  
run together; foot sticks to foot, and man is packed against man.
> Foot to foot, man to man: Pede pes and viro vir repeat the same noun twice, once in each case needed, packed together with no word between them. The tight word order itself mimics men pressed shoulder to shoulder in the line.

**362** At parte ex alia, qua saxa rotantia late  
But in another quarter, where a torrent had driven rolling stones

**363** impulerat torrens arbustaque diruta ripis,  
far and wide and bushes torn down from its banks,

**364** Arcadas insuetos acies inferre pedestris  
when Pallas saw the Arcadians, unaccustomed to bringing a line on foot,

**365** ut vidit Pallas Latio dare terga sequaci  
turning their backs to the Latins at their heels

**366** (aspera quis natura loci dimittere quando  
(the roughness of the ground had persuaded them, for once,

**367** suasit equos), unum quod rebus restat egenis,  
to let their horses go), he does the one thing left in a beggared case

**368** nunc prece, nunc dictis virtutem accendit amaris:  
and kindles their courage, now with prayer, now with bitter words:

**369** “Quo fugitis, socii? Per vos et fortia facta,  
“Where are you running, companions? By yourselves and your brave deeds,

**370** per ducis Evandri nomen devictaque bella  
by the name of Evander your leader and the wars he won through,

**371** Spemque meam, patriae quae nunc subit aemula laudi,  
and by my own hope, which now comes up to rival my father's fame,
> A disputed word: Some manuscripts read opemque meam, 'my help', instead of spemque meam, 'my hope'; the first is hard to construe with a hope rising to rival a father's fame. We follow the majority reading, spemque meam, printed here.

**372** fidite ne pedibus. Ferro rumpenda per hostis  
do not trust your feet. A road has to be broken through the enemy

**373** est via. Qua globus ille virum densissimus urget,  
by iron. Where that knot of men presses thickest,

**374** hac vos et Pallanta ducem patria alta reposcit.  
there your high homeland calls back you and Pallas your leader.
> The homeland calls you back: Reposco means 'to demand back' something that is owed, like a debt or a hostage. Patria alta reposcit, 'the high homeland demands you back', casts the men's service as a debt now being called in.

**375** Numina nulla premunt, mortali urgemur ab hoste  
No divine powers are pressing us; we are mortals hard pressed

**376** mortales, totidem nobis animaeque manusque.  
by a mortal enemy; we have as many lives and hands as they have.

**377** Ecce, maris magna claudit nos obice pontus,  
Look, the sea shuts us in with the great barrier of its water,

**378** deest iam terra fugae: pelagus Troiamne petemus?”  
there is no land left to run over: shall we make for the deep, or for Troy?”
> The sea, or Troy: Pelagus Troiamne petemus, 'shall we make for the sea, or for Troy', uses the enclitic -ne to turn the choice into a direct question. Deest terra fugae, 'there is no land left to flee over', explains why: behind is open water, ahead is the Trojan camp.

**379** Haec ait et medius densos prorumpit in hostis.  
So he speaks, and bursts into the middle of the packed enemy.

**380** Obvius huic primum, fatis adductus iniquis,  
The first to come against him, brought on by unfair fates,

**381** fit Lagus. Hunc, magno vellit dum pondere saxum,  
is Lagus. While he is prying up a stone of great weight,

**382** intorto figit telo, discrimina costis  
Pallas pins him with a spinning spear where the spine gave the ribs

**383** per medium qua spina dabat, hastamque receptat  
their parting down the middle, and works the shaft back out

**384** ossibus haerentem. Quem non super occupat Hisbo,  
where it stuck in the bone. Hisbo does not catch him from above,

**385** ille quidem hoc sperans: nam Pallas ante ruentem,  
though that was just what he was hoping for: as Hisbo came on raging

**386** dum furit, incautum crudeli morte sodalis  
and off his guard at his comrade's cruel death, Pallas takes him first

**387** excipit atque ensem tumido in pulmone recondit.  
and buries his sword in the swollen lung.

**388** Hinc Sthenium petit et Rhoeti de gente vetusta  
Next he goes for Sthenius, and for Anchemolus of the ancient line

**389** Anchemolum, thalamos ausum incestare novercae.  
of Rhoetus, who had dared to foul his stepmother's bedchamber.

**390** Vos etiam, gemini, Rutulis cecidistis in agris,  
You twins too fell in the Rutulian fields,

**391** Daucia, Laride Thymberque, simillima proles,  
Larides and Thymber, sons of Daucus, offspring so much alike

**392** indiscreta suis gratusque parentibus error;  
your own people could not tell you apart, a confusion your parents liked;

**393** at nunc dura dedit vobis discrimina Pallas:  
but now Pallas has given you a hard way of being told apart:

**394** nam tibi, Thymbre, caput Evandrius abstulit ensis;  
for Evander's sword took your head off, Thymber;

**395** te decisa suum, Laride, dextera quaerit  
and your cut-off right hand, Larides, goes looking for its owner,

**396** semianimesque micant digiti ferrumque retractant.  
and the half-alive fingers twitch and take up the sword again.
> The hand that goes on fighting: Semianimes digiti, 'half-alive fingers', describes a severed hand still moving on its own, micant, 'twitching', and retractant, 'reaching again for the sword'. Vergil's battle scenes are often this exact about anatomy, in the manner of Homer.

**397** Arcadas accensos monitu et praeclara tuentis  
The Arcadians, fired by his warning and watching the man's brilliant

**398** facta viri mixtus dolor et pudor armat in hostis.  
deeds, are armed against the enemy by grief mixed with shame.

**399** Tum Pallas biiugis fugientem Rhoetea praeter  
Then Pallas runs Rhoeteus through as he drove past him, fleeing

**400** traicit. Hoc spatium tantumque morae fuit Ilo;  
in his pair. This much space, and this much delay, was granted to Ilus;

**401** Ilo namque procul validam direxerat hastam,  
for it was at Ilus, far off, that he had aimed the strong spear,

**402** quam medius Rhoeteus intercipit, optime Teuthra,  
which Rhoeteus took in the middle, running from you, best Teuthras,

**403** te fugiens fratremque Tyren, curruque volutus  
and from your brother Tyres; and tumbled out of the chariot

**404** caedit semianimis Rutulorum calcibus arva.  
he beats the fields of the Rutulians with his heels, half alive.

**405** Ac velut optato ventis aestate coortis  
And as when in summer the winds a shepherd wanted have got up
> Fire's battle line, a metaphor: Acies usually means a battle line of soldiers; Volcania acies applies the word to a spreading fire instead. The simile follows a shepherd's controlled burn, begun in a wind he wanted, until it becomes one long line of flame crossing the fields.

**406** dispersa immittit silvis incendia pastor,  
and he lets scattered fires go into the woods,

**407** correptis subito mediis extenditur una  
and the space between catches all at once, and one bristling

**408** horrida per latos acies Volcania campos;  
line of Vulcan's army spreads out across the wide fields,

**409** ille sedens victor flammas despectat ovantis:  
and he sits and looks down as a victor on the flames in their triumph:

**410** non aliter socium virtus coit omnis in unum  
not otherwise does all your companions' courage come together into one

**411** teque iuvat, Palla. Sed bellis acer Halaesus  
and help you, Pallas. But Halaesus, keen in war,
> The poet speaks to Pallas: Palla is the vocative form of Pallas, used here as Vergil turns from third-person narration to address him directly, teque iuvat, 'and it helps you'. Vergil addresses Pallas by name this way five times in the book.

**412** tendit in adversos seque in sua conligit arma.  
makes head against them and gathers himself in behind his own armor.

**413** Hic mactat Ladona Pheretaque Demodocumque,  
Here he butchers Ladon and Pheres and Demodocus,

**414** Strymonio dextram fulgenti deripit ense  
and with a flashing sword strikes off the right hand of Strymonius

**415** elatam in iugulum, saxo ferit ora Thoantis  
as it was raised at his throat; he hits Thoas in the face with a stone

**416** ossaque dispersit cerebro permixta cruento.  
and scattered the bones mixed together with bloody brain.

**417** Fata canens silvis genitor celarat Halaesum:  
His father, who could sing the fates, had hidden Halaesus away in the woods:

**418** ut senior leto canentia lumina solvit,  
when the old man loosed his whitening eyes in death,

**419** iniecere manum Parcae telisque sacrarunt  
the Fates laid a hand on him and made him holy to the weapons

**420** Evandri. Quem sic Pallas petit ante precatus:  
of Evander. Pallas goes for him, praying first in this way:

**421** “Da nunc, Thybri pater, ferro, quod missile libro,  
“Grant now, father Tiber, to the iron I balance for the throw,

**422** fortunam atque viam duri per pectus Halaesi.  
luck and a road through hard Halaesus' chest.

**423** Haec arma exuviasque viri tua quercus habebit.”  
Your oak shall have this armor and the man's stripped gear.”

**424** Audiit illa deus: dum texit Imaona Halaesus,  
The god heard him: while Halaesus was covering Imaon,

**425** Arcadio infelix telo dat pectus inermum.  
the unlucky man gave his unarmored chest to an Arcadian spear.

**426** At non caede viri tanta perterrita Lausus,  
But Lausus, a great part of the war, does not let his columns

**427** pars ingens belli, sinit agmina: primus Abantem  
be panicked by so large a killing: first he does away with Abas,

**428** oppositum interimit, pugnae nodumque moramque.  
who stood in his path, the knot and the check of the fighting.

**429** Sternitur Arcadiae proles, sternuntur Etrusci  
The children of Arcadia are laid low, the Etruscans are laid low,

**430** et vos, O Grais imperdita corpora, Teucri.  
and you as well, Teucrians, bodies the Greeks could not destroy.
> Bodies the Greeks could not destroy: Imperditus, 'undestroyed', appears to be a word Vergil coined for this line. O Grais imperdita corpora, 'bodies the Greeks could not destroy', addresses the Trojans who survived ten years at Troy only to die here in Italy.

**431** Agmina concurrunt ducibusque et viribus aequis.  
The columns run together, with leaders equal and strength equal.

**432** Extremi addensent acies nec turba moveri  
The rear ranks thicken the lines, and the press will not let

**433** tela manusque sinit. Hinc Pallas instat et urget,  
weapons or hands be moved. Here Pallas presses and drives,

**434** hinc contra Lausus, nec multum discrepat aetas:  
there against him Lausus, and there is little between them in age:

**435** egregii forma, sed quis Fortuna negarat  
both outstanding in form, but Fortune had refused them both

**436** in patriam reditus. Ipsos concurrere passus  
a way back into their own country. Still, the ruler of great Olympus

**437** haud tamen inter se magni regnator Olympi:  
did not allow the two of them to meet each other:

**438** mox illos sua fata manent maiore sub hoste.  
their own fates are waiting for them soon, under a greater enemy.
> Under a greater enemy: Maiore sub hoste, 'under a greater enemy', means each is fated to die at bigger hands than the other's: Pallas will fall to Turnus, about seventy lines on, and Lausus to Aeneas, about three hundred fifty lines on.

**439** Interea soror alma monet succedere Lauso  
Meanwhile his kindly sister warns Turnus to take Lausus' place,

**440** Turnum, qui volucri curru medium secat agmen.  
and he cuts through the middle of the column in his flying car.

**441** Ut vidit socios: “Tempus desistere pugnae;  
When he saw his companions: “Time to leave off fighting;

**442** solus ego in Pallanta feror, soli mihi Pallas  
I go against Pallas alone, Pallas is owed to me

**443** debetur; cuperem ipse parens spectator adesset.”  
alone; I could wish his father himself were standing here to watch.”
> A wish for an audience: Cuperem is an imperfect subjunctive expressing an unfulfilled wish, 'I could wish'. Turnus uses it here to say he wishes Pallas' father were present, ipse parens spectator adesset, 'the father himself were here to watch'.

**444** Haec ait, et socii cesserunt aequore iusso.  
He speaks, and his companions withdrew from the field as ordered.

**445** At Rutulum abscessu iuvenis tum iussa superba  
Then, at the Rutulians' going back, the young man, wondering

**446** miratus stupet in Turno corpusque per ingens  
at the arrogant order, stares at Turnus, and rolls his eyes

**447** lumina volvit obitque truci procul omnia visu  
over that huge body, and takes it all in from far off with a grim look,

**448** talibus et dictis it contra dicta tyranni:  
and goes against the tyrant's words with words like these:

**449** “Aut spoliis ego iam raptis laudabor opimis  
“Either I shall have praise now for high spoils torn away,

**450** aut leto insigni: sorti pater aequus utrique est.  
or for a death worth notice: my father is level with either lot.

**451** Tolle minas.” Fatus medium procedit in aequor.  
Take your threats off.” He said it, and walks out into the open field.

**452** Frigidus Arcadibus coit in praecordia sanguis.  
The blood in the Arcadians' hearts gathers cold.

**453** Desiluit Turnus biiugis, pedes apparat ire  
Turnus jumped down from his pair, and makes ready to come at him

**454** comminus; utque leo, specula cum vidit ab alta  
on foot, hand to hand; and as a lion, when from a high lookout he has seen

**455** stare procul campis meditantem in proelia taurum,  
a bull standing far off on the plain, working himself up for a fight,

**456** advolat: haud alia est Turni venientis imago.  
flies at him: the picture of Turnus coming on is no different.

**457** Hunc ubi contiguum missae fore credidit hastae,  
When Pallas thought the man was within reach of a thrown spear,

**458** ire prior Pallas, siqua fors adiuvet ausum  
he went first, in case luck might help a daring made

**459** viribus imparibus, magnumque ita ad aethera fatur:  
with unequal strength, and so he speaks to the great sky:

**460** “Per patris hospitium et mensas, quas advena adisti,  
“By my father's welcome and the table you came to as a stranger,

**461** te precor, Alcide, coeptis ingentibus adsis.  
I beg you, Alcides: stand by this huge thing I am beginning.

**462** Cernat semineci sibi me rapere arma cruenta  
Let Turnus see me strip the bloody armor off him half dead,

**463** victoremque ferant morientia lumina Turni.”  
and let his dying eyes carry away the man who beat him.”

**464** Audiit Alcides iuvenem magnumque sub imo  
Alcides heard the young man, and pressed a great groan down

**465** corde premit gemitum lacrimasque effundit inanis.  
under the bottom of his heart, and pours out useless tears.

**466** Tum Genitor natum dictis adfatur amicis:  
Then the Father speaks to his son with kind words:

**467** “Stat sua cuique dies, breve et inreparabile tempus  
“Each man's day stands fixed, and the time of life is short

**468** omnibus est vitae: sed famam extendere factis,  
and not to be had again, for everyone: but to stretch fame out by deeds,

**469** hoc virtutis opus. Troiae sub moenibus altis  
that is the work of courage. Under the high walls of Troy

**470** tot nati cecidere deum; quin occidit una  
so many sons of gods fell; and Sarpedon went down

**471** Sarpedon, mea progenies. Etiam sua Turnum  
among them, my own child. His own fates are calling

**472** fata vocant, metasque dati pervenit ad aevi.”  
Turnus too, and he has come to the turning post of the years he was given.”

**473** Sic ait atque oculos Rutulorum reicit arvis.  
So he says, and turns his eyes back from the fields of the Rutulians.

**474** At Pallas magnis emittit viribus hastam  
But Pallas lets the spear go with all his strength

**475** vaginaque cava fulgentem deripit ensem.  
and drags the flashing sword out of its hollow scabbard.

**476** Illa volans umeri surgunt qua tegmina summa  
Flying, it lands where the topmost armor rises over the shoulder,

**477** incidit atque viam clipei molita per oras  
and, forcing a way for itself through the rim of the shield,

**478** tandem etiam magno strinxit de corpore Turni.  
it grazed at last even the great body of Turnus.

**479** Hic Turnus ferro praefixum robur acuto  
At this Turnus balances a long while an oak shaft tipped

**480** in Pallanta diu librans iacit atque ita fatur:  
with sharp iron, and throws it at Pallas, and speaks so:

**481** “Adspice, num mage sit nostrum penetrabile telum.”  
“Look and see whether our weapon is not the better at going through.”
> Better at going through: Penetrabilis usually means 'able to be penetrated', but here it is active: 'able to penetrate'. Nostrum penetrabile telum, 'our weapon that goes through', claims Turnus' spear pierces better than the one that only grazed him.

**482** Dixerat; at clipeum, tot ferri terga, tot aeris,  
He had spoken; and the shield, so many hides of iron, so many of bronze,

**483** quem pellis totiens obeat circumdata tauri,  
which so many wrappings of bull's leather go round and cover,

**484** vibranti cuspis medium transverberat ictu  
the point drives clean through the middle of it with a quivering stroke

**485** loricaeque moras et pectus perforat ingens.  
and bores through the corselet's obstructions and the great chest.

**486** Ille rapit calidum frustra de volnere telum:  
He tears the hot weapon out of the wound, and it is no use:

**487** una eademque via sanguis animusque sequuntur.  
by one and the same road the blood and the life come after it.
> One and the same road: Una eademque via, 'by one and the same path', describes the wound left by the spear as literally one road. Sanguis animusque sequuntur, 'blood and life follow' out along it once Pallas draws the weapon free.

**488** Corruit in volnus, sonitum super arma dedere  
He falls forward onto the wound; the armor rang above him,

**489** et terram hostilem moriens petit ore cruento.  
and dying he makes for the enemy ground with his bloodied mouth.

**490** Quem Turnus super adsistens,  
Turnus, standing over him,
> An unfinished line: This half-line is one of the roughly fifty-eight left unfinished in the poem, broken off after Turnus super adsistens, 'Turnus standing over him'. No further clause completes the hexameter.

**491** “Arcades, haec,” inquit, “memores mea dicta referte  
“Arcadians,” he says, “remember and take these words of mine back

**492** Euandro; qualem meruit, Pallanta remitto.  
to Evander: I send him Pallas as he had earned.

**493** Quisquis honos tumuli, quidquid solamen humandi est,  
Whatever honor there is in a mound, whatever comfort in burial,

**494** largior. Haud illi stabunt Aeneia parvo  
I give freely. Aeneas' hospitality will not have cost him

**495** hospitia.” Et laevo pressit pede talia fatus  
little.” And saying so he pressed with his left foot

**496** exanimem, rapiens immania pondera baltei  
on the dead man, and tore away the huge weight of the sword-belt

**497** impressumque nefas, una sub nocte iugali  
and the outrage stamped on it: a company of young men foully

**498** caesa manus iuvenum foede thalamique cruenti,  
butchered on one wedding night, and the bloodied bridal chambers,

**499** quae Clonus Eurytides multo caelaverat auro;  
which Clonus, son of Eurytus, had chased in a great deal of gold;

**500** quo nunc Turnus ovat spolio gaudetque potitus.  
and in that spoil Turnus now exults, and is glad to have won it.

**501** Nescia mens hominum fati sortisque futurae  
Mind of man, knowing nothing of fate and of the lot to come,
> The poet interrupts: Nescia mens hominum, 'mind of man, ignorant of fate', is a vocative: Vergil addresses the human mind directly, stepping outside the narrative. He then tells the reader what Turnus will later feel about this day, information Turnus himself does not yet have.

**502** et servare modum, rebus sublata secundis!  
nor how to keep a measure when things go well and it is lifted up!

**503** Turno tempus erit, magno cum optaverit emptum  
The time will come for Turnus when he will wish he had bought

**504** intactum Pallanta et cum spolia ista diemque  
Pallas untouched at a great price, and when he will hate

**505** oderit. At socii multo gemitu lacrimisque  
this spoil and this day. But his companions, crowded round him,

**506** impositum scuto referunt Pallanta frequentes.  
with much groaning and many tears carry Pallas back, laid on a shield.

**507** O dolor atque decus magnum rediture parenti  
O grief, O great glory going home to a father!
> Grief and glory in one address: O dolor atque decus magnum, 'o grief and great glory', is an apostrophe addressed to Pallas, naming him with two nouns side by side and choosing neither. Rediture parenti, 'about to return to his father', sends both words home to Evander.

**508** haec te prima dies bello dedit, haec eadem aufert,  
This first day gave you to the war, this same day takes you away,
> His first day, and his last: Haec prima dies dedit, 'this first day gave', and haec eadem aufert, 'this same day takes away', are matching halves of one line. Pallas has been a soldier for exactly one day when he dies.

**509** cum tamen ingentis Rutulorum linquis acervos.  
and even so you leave huge heaps of Rutulians behind you.

**510** Nec iam fama mali tanti, sed certior auctor  
And now it is not rumor of so large a disaster but a surer witness

**511** advolat Aeneae, tenui discrimine leti  
that flies to Aeneas: his own men are a thin margin from death,

**512** esse suos, versis tempus succurrere Teucris.  
it is time to help the Teucrians, who have been turned.

**513** Proxima quaeque metit gladio latumque per agmen  
He mows down whatever is nearest with the sword, and burning drives

**514** ardens limitem agit ferro, te, Turne, superbum  
a broad lane with the iron through the column, looking for you, Turnus,

**515** caede nova quaerens. Pallas, Euander, in ipsis  
proud with your new killing. Pallas, Evander, are all of it

**516** omnia sunt oculis, mensae, quas advena primas  
before his very eyes: the table he came first to as a stranger

**517** tunc adiit, dextraeque datae. Sulmone creatos  
in those days, and the right hands given. Four young men

**518** quattuor hic iuvenes, totidem, quos educat Ufens,  
born of Sulmo, and as many that Ufens is bringing up,

**519** viventis rapit, inferias quos immolet umbris  
he takes alive, to sacrifice them as offerings to the shades

**520** captivoque rogi perfundat sanguine flammas.  
and to drench the flames of the pyre with a captive's blood.

**521** Inde Mago procul infensam contenderat hastam.  
Then he had aimed the hostile spear at Magus from a distance.

**522** Ille astu subit ac tremibunda supervolat hasta,  
The man ducks under it cleverly, and the spear flies quivering over,

**523** et genua amplectens effatur talia supplex:  
and he takes hold of Aeneas' knees and speaks like this, a suppliant:

**524** “Per patrios manis et spes surgentis Iuli  
“By your father's shade and by the hopes of Iulus growing up,

**525** te precor, hanc animam serves natoque patrique.  
I beg you: keep this life for a son and for a father.

**526** Est domus alta, iacent penitus defossa talenta  
I have a tall house; deep in it lie buried talents

**527** caelati argenti, sunt auri pondera facti  
of chased silver, and there are weights of gold that are mine,

**528** infectique mihi. Non hic victoria Teucrum  
worked and unworked. The victory of the Teucrians does not turn

**529** vertitur aut anima una dabit discrimina tanta.”  
on this, nor will one life make so great a difference.”

**530** Dixerat. Aeneas contra cui talia reddit:  
He had spoken. Aeneas gives him back this in answer:

**531** “Argenti atque auri memoras quae multa talenta,  
“The many talents of silver and gold that you tell over,

**532** natis parce tuis. Belli commercia Turnus  
keep them for your sons. Turnus put an end to that trade
> The trade of war: Commercium is commercial language, the term for the ordinary exchange of ransom for captives. Belli commercia, 'the commerce of war', names that practice, which Aeneas says Turnus ended when he killed Pallas.

**533** sustulit ista prior iam tum Pallante perempto.  
in war before you, back at the moment when Pallas was killed.

**534** Hoc patris Anchisae manes, hoc sentit Iulus.”  
This is what my father Anchises' shade thinks, and Iulus.”

**535** Sic fatus galeam laeva tenet atque reflexa  
So saying he takes hold of the helmet with his left hand and, bending back

**536** cervice orantis capulo tenus applicat ensem.  
the neck of the man still praying, drives the sword in up to the hilt.

**537** Nec procul Haemonides, Phoebi Triviaeque sacerdos,  
Not far off was Haemonides, priest of Phoebus and of Trivia,

**538** infula cui sacra redimibat tempora vitta,  
whose temples the holy headband bound with its fillet,

**539** totus conlucens veste atque insignibus armis.  
shining all over in his robe and his marked-out arms.

**540** Quem congressus agit campo lapsumque superstans  
Aeneas closes with him and drives him over the field, and standing

**541** immolat ingentique umbra tegit; arma Serestus  
above him where he fell, sacrifices him and covers him with a huge shadow; Serestus

**542** lecta refert umeris, tibi, rex Gradive, tropaeum.  
gathers the arms and carries them off on his shoulders, a trophy for you, king Gradivus.

**543** Instaurant acies Volcani stirpe creatus  
Caeculus, born of Vulcan's stock, and Umbro coming down

**544** Caeculus et veniens Marsorum montibus Umbro:  
out of the mountains of the Marsi, set the lines up again:

**545** Dardanides contra furit. Anxuris ense sinistram  
the son of Dardanus rages at them. With his sword he had cut away

**546** et totum clipei ferro deiecerat orbem;  
Anxur's left hand, and with it the shield's entire round;

**547** dixerat ille aliquid magnum vimque adfore verbo  
the man had said something large and believed the word

**548** crediderat caeloque animum fortasse ferebat  
would carry force with it, and perhaps was lifting his mind to heaven

**549** canitiemque sibi et longos promiserat annos:  
and had promised himself white hair and a long stretch of years:
> He had promised himself old age: Promiserat is pluperfect, 'had promised', for something already settled before the narrative reaches this point. Canitiem sibi et longos annos, 'gray hair and long years for himself', names what Anxur had counted on for his own future.

**550** Tarquitus exultans contra fulgentibus armis,  
Tarquitus, exulting against him in flashing armor,

**551** silvicolae Fauno Dryope quem nympha crearat,  
whom the nymph Dryope had borne to Faunus of the woods,

**552** obvius ardenti sese obtulit. Ille reducta  
threw himself in the burning man's way. Aeneas drew the spear

**553** loricam clipeique ingens onus impedit hasta;  
back and pinned the corselet and the huge burden of the shield together;

**554** tum caput orantis nequiquam et multa parantis  
then, while the man begged for nothing and was getting ready to say

**555** dicere deturbat terrae truncumque tepentem  
a great deal, he knocks the head to the ground, and rolling the trunk

**556** provolvens super haec inimico pectore fatur:  
over while it was still warm, says this out of an enemy heart:

**557** “Istic nunc, metuende, iace. Non te optima mater  
“Lie there now, you who were to be feared. No excellent mother

**558** condet humi patrioque onerabit membra sepulchro:  
will lay you in the ground or load your limbs into a father's tomb:

**559** alitibus linquere feris aut gurgite mersum  
you will be left for the birds of prey, or the water will carry you

**560** unda feret piscesque impasti volnera lambent.”  
sunk in its flood, and hungry fish will lick your wounds.”

**561** Protinus Antaeum et Lucam, prima agmina Turni,  
At once he runs down Antaeus and Lucas, the front of Turnus' columns,

**562** persequitur fortemque Numam fulvumque Camertem,  
and brave Numa and tawny Camers,

**563** magnanimo Volcente satum, ditissimus agri  
son of great-hearted Volcens, who was the richest in land

**564** qui fuit Ausonidum et tacitis regnavit Amyclis.  
of all the sons of Ausonia, and ruled in silent Amyclae.

**565** Aegaeon qualis, centum cui bracchia dicunt  
As Aegaeon, who they say had a hundred arms

**566** centenasque manus, quinquaginta oribus ignem  
and a hundred hands, and burned with fire out of fifty

**567** pectoribusque arsisse, Iovis cum fulmina contra  
mouths and breasts, when against Jove's thunderbolts

**568** tot paribus streperet clipeis, tot stringeret enses:  
he clashed as many matched shields and drew as many swords:

**569** sic toto Aeneas desaevit in aequore victor,  
so Aeneas rages himself out over the whole field as a victor,

**570** ut semel intepuit mucro. Quin ecce Niphaei  
once his sword-point had warmed. And look, he goes for Niphaeus'

**571** quadriiugis in equos adversaque pectora tendit.  
four-horse team, straight at the horses and their fronting chests.

**572** Atque illi longe gradientem et dira frementem  
And when they saw him striding at them from far off and roaring

**573** ut videre, metu versi retroque ruentes  
terribly, they turned in fear, and running backwards

**574** effunduntque ducem rapiuntque ad litora currus.  
they spill their leader out and drag the chariot to the shore.

**575** Interea biiugis infert se Lucagus albis  
Meanwhile Lucagus carries himself in behind a pair of white horses

**576** in medios fraterque Liger; sed frater habenis  
into the middle of them, and his brother Liger with him; but the brother

**577** flectit equos, strictum rotat acer Lucagus ensem.  
turns the horses with the reins, and fierce Lucagus swings a drawn sword.

**578** Haud tulit Aeneas tanto fervore furentis:  
Aeneas did not put up with them raging at such a heat:

**579** inruit adversaque ingens apparuit hasta.  
he charged in and loomed up huge, his spear against them.

**580** Cui Liger:  
Liger to him:

**581** “Non Diomedis equos nec currum cernis Achillis  
“These are not Diomedes' horses you see, nor Achilles' car,

**582** aut Phrygiae campos: nunc belli finis et aevi  
nor the plains of Phrygia: here in this country the end of the war

**583** his dabitur terris.” Vesano talia late  
and of your life will be given you.” Such words fly out wide

**584** dicta volant Ligeri. Sed non et Troïus heros  
from Liger raving. But the Trojan hero does not

**585** dicta parat contra: iaculum nam torquet in hostem.  
get words ready in answer: he hurls a javelin at his enemy.

**586** Lucagus ut pronus pendens in verbera telo  
As Lucagus, leaning forward over the lash, was urging

**587** admonuit biiugos, proiecto dum pede laevo  
the pair on with the butt of his spear, and had thrust his left foot out

**588** aptet se pugnae, subit oras hasta per imas  
to set himself for the fight, the spear went in under the lowest rim

**589** fulgentis clipei, tum laevum perforat inguen:  
of the shining shield, and then bored through his left groin:

**590** excussus curru moribundus volvitur arvis.  
shaken out of the chariot, he rolls dying on the fields.

**591** Quem pius Aeneas dictis adfatur amaris:  
Dutiful Aeneas speaks to him with bitter words:

**592** “Lucage, nulla tuos currus fuga segnis equorum  
“Lucagus, it was no slow flight of horses that betrayed your car,

**593** prodidit aut vanae vertere ex hostibus umbrae:  
and no empty shadows turned them away from the enemy:

**594** ipse rotis saliens iuga deseris.” Haec ita fatus  
you leave the yoke yourself, jumping off the wheels.” Saying this
> A taunt about falling off: Iuga deseris, 'you abandon the yoke', tells the dying charioteer that nothing frightened his team: he fell off it himself. Aeneas says this as a jeer over a dying man, in the manner of a Homeric taunt.

**595** arripuit biiugos; frater tendebat inertis  
he caught the pair by the head; the brother, fallen from the same

**596** infelix palmas, curru delapsus eodem:  
chariot, was stretching out helpless hands, poor wretch:

**597** “Per te, per qui te talem genuere parentes,  
“By yourself, by the parents who made you the man you are,

**598** vir Troiane, sine hanc animam et miserere precantis.”  
Trojan, let this life be, and pity me while I beg.”

**599** Pluribus oranti Aeneas: “Haud talia dudum  
To him praying at more length Aeneas: “These are not the words

**600** dicta dabas. Morere et fratrem ne desere frater.”  
you were giving a moment ago. Die, and let brother not desert brother.”
> The same word twice, two cases: Fratrem, accusative, and frater, nominative, are the same word in two cases, framing the verb desere between them. Ne desere frater, 'brother, do not desert', addresses one dying man about the brother beside him.

**601** Tum latebras animae pectus mucrone recludit.  
Then with his point he opens the chest, the hiding place of the life.
> The hiding place of the life: Latebras animae, 'the hiding place of the breath-soul', names the chest as where the anima is kept. Pectus mucrone recludit, 'he opens the chest with his sword-point', describes the killing as reaching that hidden place.

**602** Talia per campos edebat funera ductor  
Such funerals the Dardan leader was dealing out over the fields,

**603** Dardanius, torrentis aquae vel turbinis atri  
raging after the manner of a torrent of water or a black

**604** more furens. Tandem erumpunt et castra relinquunt  
whirlwind. At last they break out and leave the camp,

**605** Ascanius puer et nequiquam obsessa iuventus.  
the boy Ascanius and the young men who had been besieged for nothing.

**606** Iunonem interea compellat Iuppiter ultro:  
Meanwhile Jupiter, unprompted, speaks to Juno:

**607** “O germana mihi atque eadem gratissima coniunx,  
“O my sister, and my most beloved wife as well,

**608** ut rebare, Venus, nec te sententia fallit,  
it is Venus, as you were thinking, and your judgment does not deceive you,

**609** Troianas sustentat opes, non vivida bello  
who holds the Trojan cause up; not a hand quick in war

**610** dextra viris animusque ferox patiensque pericli.”  
in these men, nor a fierce spirit that can carry danger.”

**611** Cui Iuno summissa “Quid, o pulcherrime coniunx,  
And Juno, subdued: “Why, most beautiful husband,
> Juno, subdued: Summissa describes a lowered voice or a bent, submissive posture. Iuno summissa, 'Juno, subdued', marks a shift in how she speaks to Jupiter here, asking rather than demanding.

**612** sollicitas aegram et tua tristia dicta timentem?  
do you trouble a sick woman who is afraid of your bitter words?

**613** Si mihi, quae quondam fuerat quamque esse decebat,  
If I had in your love the power that once was mine,

**614** vis in amore foret, non hoc mihi namque negares,  
and that it would be fitting for me to have, you would not deny me this,

**615** omnipotens, quin et pugnae subducere Turnum  
all-powerful as you are: that I might draw Turnus out of the fighting

**616** et Dauno possem incolumem servare parenti.  
and keep him safe for his father Daunus.

**617** Nunc pereat Teucrisque pio det sanguine poenas.  
As it is, let him die, and pay the Teucrians the price in dutiful blood.
> Dutiful blood: Pius, elsewhere the poem's standing epithet for Aeneas, describes Turnus' blood here instead: pio sanguine, 'with dutiful blood'. Juno applies to her own favorite the word usually reserved for his enemy.

**618** Ille tamen nostra deducit origine nomen  
And yet he draws his name down out of our own stock,

**619** Pilumnusque illi quartus pater et tua larga  
and Pilumnus is his fourth father, and he has often loaded

**620** saepe manu multisque oneravit limina donis.”  
your threshold with an open hand and with many gifts.”

**621** Cui rex aetherii breviter sic fatur Olympi:  
The king of ethereal Olympus speaks to her briefly, so:

**622** “Si mora praesentis leti tempusque caduco  
“If what is being asked is a delay of the death at hand, a stretch of time

**623** oratur iuveni meque hoc ita ponere sentis,  
for a young man due to fall, and you understand that I lay it down so,

**624** tolle fuga Turnum atque instantibus eripe fatis  
carry Turnus off in flight and pull him out of the fates pressing on him:

**625** hactenus indulsisse vacat. Sin altior istis  
there is room to indulge you that far. But if some deeper pardon

**626** sub precibus venia ulla latet totumque moveri  
lies hidden under these prayers of yours, and you think the whole war

**627** mutarive putas bellum, spes pascis inanis.”  
can be moved or changed, you are feeding empty hopes.”

**628** Et Iuno adlacrimans: “Quid si, quae voce gravaris,  
And Juno, weeping: “What if what you grudge me with your voice

**629** mente dares atque haec Turno rata vita maneret?  
you were to give with your mind, and this life stood confirmed for Turnus?

**630** Nunc manet insontem gravis exitus, aut ego veri  
As it is a heavy end waits for a man who has done nothing, or I am carried
> A legal word for not guilty: Insons is a legal term meaning 'not guilty, blameless'. Juno calls Turnus insontem, arguing that whatever happens to him, he has committed no crime that would justify it.

**631** vana feror. Quod ut O potius formidine falsa  
wide of the truth. How I would rather be tricked by a false

**632** ludar et in melius tua, qui potes, orsa reflectas!”  
fear, and that you, who are able, bent what you have begun toward better!”

**633** Haec ubi dicta dedit, caelo se protinus alto  
When she had said this she threw herself down at once out of high

**634** misit, agens hiemem nimbo succincta per auras,  
heaven, girt in a rain cloud and driving a storm through the air,

**635** Iliacamque aciem et Laurentia castra petivit.  
and made for the Ilian line and the Laurentine camp.

**636** Tum dea nube cava tenuem sine viribus umbram  
Then out of hollow cloud the goddess shapes a thin, strengthless shade

**637** in faciem Aeneae, visu mirabile monstrum,  
into the likeness of Aeneas, a marvel to see, a prodigy,

**638** Dardaniis ornat telis clipeumque iubasque  
and fits it out with Dardan weapons, and copies the shield

**639** divini adsimulat capitis, dat inania verba,  
and the plumes of that godlike head; gives it empty words,

**640** dat sine mente sonum gressusque effingit euntis,  
gives it sound without mind, and molds the walk of a man going,

**641** morte obita qualis fama est volitare figuras  
such as they say the shapes are that flit about when death has been met,

**642** aut quae sopitos deludunt somnia sensus.  
or such as the dreams that cheat the senses in sleep.

**643** At primas laeta ante acies exsultat imago  
And the image dances out in front of the first ranks, pleased with itself,

**644** inritatque virum telis et voce lacessit.  
and provokes the man with weapons and challenges him with a voice.

**645** Instat cui Turnus stridentemque eminus hastam  
Turnus comes at it and throws a whistling spear from a distance:

**646** conicit: illa dato vertit vestigia tergo.  
the image turns its back on him and takes its steps away.

**647** Tum vero Aenean aversum ut cedere Turnus  
Then, when Turnus really believed that Aeneas had turned

**648** credidit atque animo spem turbidus hausit inanem,  
and was giving ground, and in his confusion drank an empty hope into his mind,

**649** “Quo fugis, Aenea? Thalamos ne desere pactos;  
“Where are you running, Aeneas? Do not walk out on the marriage you bargained for;
> A taunt about a broken engagement: Ne desere pactos thalamos, 'do not abandon the marriage you agreed to', is an imperative addressed to a phantom image of Aeneas. Turnus taunts it over Lavinia, the betrothal at the center of the war.

**650** hac dabitur dextra tellus quaesita per undas.”  
this right hand will give you the land you looked for over the water.”

**651** Talia vociferans sequitur strictumque coruscat  
Bawling this he follows, and flashes the drawn

**652** mucronem nec ferre videt sua gaudia ventos.  
blade, and does not see that the winds are carrying his joy off.

**653** Forte ratis celsi coniuncta crepidine saxi  
As it happened a ship stood moored to the ledge of a high rock

**654** expositis stabat scalis et ponte parato,  
with its ladders put out and its gangway ready,

**655** qua rex Clusinis advectus Osinius oris.  
the ship king Osinius had come in from the shores of Clusium.

**656** Huc sese trepida Aeneae fugientis imago  
Into it the trembling image of Aeneas in flight

**657** conicit in latebras; nec Turnus segnior instat  
throws itself, to hide; and Turnus presses on no more slowly,

**658** exsuperatque moras et pontis transilit altos.  
gets over everything in his way and leaps the high gangway.

**659** Vix proram attigerat: rumpit Saturnia funem  
He had barely touched the prow: Saturn's daughter breaks the cable

**660** avolsamque rapit revoluta per aequora navem.  
and sweeps the ship, torn loose, away over the running water.

**661** Illum autem Aeneas absentem in praelia poscit;  
And Aeneas is calling the absent man out to fight;

**662** obvia multa virum demittit corpora morti:  
he sends down to death the many bodies of men who meet him:

**663** tum levis haud ultra latebras iam quaerit imago,  
then the light image looks for a hiding place no longer,

**664** sed sublime volans nubi se immiscuit atrae.  
but flying up high mixed itself into a black cloud.

**665** Cum Turnum medio interea fert aequore turbo.  
And meanwhile the squall carries Turnus out over the middle of the sea.

**666** Respicit ignarus rerum ingratusque salutis  
He looks back, knowing nothing of what has happened, thankless for being saved,

**667** et duplicis cum voce manus ad sidera tendit:  
and lifts both hands to the stars along with his voice:

**668** “Omnipotens genitor, tanton me crimine dignum  
“All-powerful father, did you hold me worthy of so great
> What was my crime: Tanton crimine dignum, 'worthy of so great a crime', assumes that being carried off the battlefield is itself a punishment. Turnus asks his father Jupiter what wrong he committed to deserve it.

**669** duxisti et talis voluisti expendere poenas?  
a charge, and want me to pay a penalty like this?

**670** Quo feror? Unde abii? Quae me fuga quemve reducit?  
Where am I being carried? Where did I leave? What flight is this, and what man does it bring back?

**671** Laurentisne iterum muros aut castra videbo?  
Shall I see the Laurentine walls again, or the camp?

**672** Quid manus illa virum, qui me meaque arma secuti?  
What of that band of men who followed me and my arms?

**673** Quosne (nefas) omnis infanda in morte reliqui  
All of whom (the horror of it) I have left in an unspeakable death,
> A word for what breaks divine law: Nefas names an act forbidden by divine law, something that should not even be spoken of. Turnus uses it of himself in parenthesis, for having left his men to die, the same word Vergil used at line 497 for the crime shown on Pallas' belt.

**674** et nunc palantis video gemitumque cadentum  
and now I see them straying, and I am hearing the groan

**675** accipio! Quid ago? Aut quae iam satis ima dehiscat  
of men falling! What am I doing? Or what earth could gape now

**676** terra mihi? Vos O potius miserescite venti:  
deep enough for me? You winds, rather, have pity:

**677** in rupes, in saxa, volens vos Turnus adoro  
onto the cliffs, onto the rocks, willingly I, Turnus, beg you,

**678** ferte ratem saevisque vadis immittite Syrtis,  
carry the ship and drive it into the cruel shoals of the Syrtes,

**679** quo neque me Rutuli nec conscia fama sequatur.”  
where neither the Rutulians nor a report that knows me can follow.”

**680** Haec memorans animo nunc huc, nunc fluctuat illuc,  
Turning this over he wavers in his mind, now this way, now that:

**681** an sese mucrone ob tantum dedecus amens  
whether, out of his senses at so great a disgrace, to put himself
> Two ways out, in one sentence: An ... induat sets up an indirect question with two alternatives joined by an: whether to fall on his own sword or swim back into the enemy's weapons. Both options in this sentence end the same way, in death.

**682** induat et crudum per costas exigat ensem,  
on the point and drive the raw sword through his ribs,

**683** fluctibus an iaciat mediis et litora nando  
or to throw himself into the middle of the waves and make for the curving

**684** curva petat Teucrumque iterum se reddat in arma.  
shore by swimming, and give himself back into Teucrian weapons.

**685** Ter conatus utramque viam, ter maxima Iuno  
Three times he tried each way; three times greatest Juno

**686** continuit iuvenemque animi miserata repressit.  
held him, and pitying him in her heart pushed the young man back.

**687** Labitur alta secans fluctuque aestuque secundo  
The ship glides, cutting the deep, with wave and tide behind her,

**688** et patris antiquam Dauni defertur ad urbem.  
and is carried down to the ancient city of his father Daunus.

**689** At Iovis interea monitis Mezentius ardens  
But meanwhile Mezentius, burning, at Jove's prompting

**690** succedit pugnae Teucrosque invadit ovantis.  
takes over the fight and falls on the Teucrians in their triumph.

**691** Concurrunt Tyrrhenae acies atque omnibus uni,  
The Tyrrhenian lines run together, and on one man, on one man only,

**692** uni odiisque viro telisque frequentibus instant.  
they all press with their hatreds and their crowding weapons.

**693** Ille velut rupes, vastum quae prodit in aequor,  
He, like a crag that runs out into the waste of the sea,
> The rock in the sea: Velut rupes, 'like a cliff', introduces a simile comparing Mezentius to a headland taking the weather while an army attacks him. It is the first thing Vergil says about him in this book, describing endurance rather than force.

**694** obvia ventorum furiis expostaque ponto,  
left to the fury of the winds and open to the deep,

**695** vim cunctam atque minas perfert caelique marisque,  
carries all the violence and the threats of sky and of sea,

**696** ipsa immota manens, prolem Dolichaonis Hebrum  
and itself stays unmoved: he lays Hebrus, Dolichaon's son,

**697** sternit humi, cum quo Latagum Palmumque fugacem,  
on the ground, and with him Latagus, and Palmus who was running away,

**698** sed Latagum saxo atque ingenti fragmine montis  
but Latagus he catches full in the front of the face with a rock,

**699** occupat os faciemque adversam, poplite Palmum  
a huge broken piece of a mountain; Palmus he leaves to roll

**700** succiso volvi segnem sinit, armaque Lauso  
slow, cut behind the knee, and gives the armor to Lausus

**701** donat habere umeris et vertice figere cristas.  
to have on his shoulders and to fix the crest on his head.

**702** Nec non Euanthen Phrygium Paridisque Mimanta  
And Euanthes the Phrygian too, and Mimas, Paris' age-mate

**703** aequalem comitemque, una quem nocte Theano  
and companion, whom Theano bore on one night

**704** in lucem genitori Amyco dedit et face praegnans  
into the light for his father Amycus, the same night when

**705** Cisseis regina Parin creat: urbe paterna  
queen Cisseis, pregnant with a torch, gave birth to Paris: Paris

**706** occubat, ignarum Laurens habet ora Mimanta.  
lies dead in his father's city; the Laurentine shore holds Mimas, a stranger.

**707** Ac velut ille canum morsu de montibus altis  
And as a boar driven down out of the high mountains by the bite
> The boar in the nets: This simile compares Mezentius to a boar that has lived safely for years before being cornered by hunters who will not approach it closely. It gives the animal a history, the mountain, marsh and reed bed that sheltered it, before describing the hunt itself.

**708** actus aper, multos Vesulus quem pinifer annos  
of the dogs, whom pine-bearing Vesulus has sheltered many years

**709** defendit multosve palus Laurentia, silva  
or the Laurentine marsh many years, feeding in a wood

**710** pastus harundinea, postquam inter retia ventum est,  
of reeds, once he has come in among the nets,

**711** substitit infremuitque ferox et inhorruit armos,  
halts, and snarls savagely, and bristles up at the shoulders,

**712** nec cuiquam irasci propiusque accedere virtus,  
and no one has courage enough to be angry with him or come nearer,

**713** sed iaculis tutisque procul clamoribus instant;  
but they press him with javelins and with safe shouting from far off;

**717** ille autem impavidus partis cunctatur in omnis,  
and he, unafraid, takes his time turning every way,

**718** dentibus infrendens, et tergo decutit hastas.  
grinding his teeth, and shakes the spears off his back:

**714** haud aliter, iustae quibus est Mezentius irae,  
no otherwise, among those who have a just anger against Mezentius,
> Four lines out of order: This edition prints lines 717 and 718 before 714 through 716, following an editor's judgment that the manuscript order was disturbed here. We keep the line numbers as the edition gives them, which is why the numbering appears to jump.

**715** non ulli est animus stricto concurrere ferro;  
not one has the heart to close with him and a drawn blade;

**716** missilibus longe et vasto clamore lacessunt:  
they provoke him from a distance with missiles and with huge shouting:

**719** Venerat antiquis Corythi de finibus Acron,  
Acron had come from the ancient borders of Corythus,

**720** Graius homo, infectos linquens profugus hymenaeos.  
a Greek, leaving his marriage unmade, an exile.

**721** Hunc ubi miscentem longe media agmina vidit,  
When Mezentius saw him far off, stirring the middle of the ranks,

**722** purpureum pennis et pactae coniugis ostro:  
purple with plumes and with the crimson of his promised wife:

**723** impastus stabula alta leo ceu saepe peragrans,  
as an unfed lion, ranging often through the deep sheepfolds,
> The unfed lion: Impastus leo, 'an unfed lion', introduces a second simile immediately after the boar comparison. It shifts the image from an animal resisting attack to one already feeding on its prey.

**724** suadet enim vesana fames, si forte fugacem  
since a mad hunger drives him, if by chance he has caught sight

**725** conspexit capream aut surgentem in cornua cervum,  
of a she-goat running or a stag rising into his antlers,

**726** gaudet, hians immane, comasque arrexit et haeret  
is glad, and gapes hugely, and has raised his mane, and clings

**727** visceribus super accumbens, lavit inproba taeter  
to the entrails, lying over them, while the foul gore washes his shameless

**728** ora cruor,  
mouth,
> The simile breaks off: This line breaks off after ora cruor, 'blood, its mouth', one of the poem's unfinished half-lines. No further clause completes the sentence, and we leave it stopped as Vergil did.

**729** sic ruit in densos alacer Mezentius hostis.  
so Mezentius runs eagerly into the packed enemy.

**730** Sternitur infelix Acron et calcibus atram  
Unlucky Acron is laid low, and drums the black ground

**731** tundit humum expirans infractaque tela cruentat.  
with his heels as he dies, and bloodies the broken weapons.

**732** Atque idem fugientem haud est dignatus Oroden  
And that same man did not think it worth his while to lay Orodes low

**733** sternere nec iacta caecum dare cuspide volnus:  
as he ran, or to give a blind wound with a thrown point:

**734** obvius adversoque occurrit seque viro vir  
he came round in front of him and met him face to face

**735** contulit, haud furto melior, sed fortibus armis.  
and matched himself man to man, better by brave arms and not by stealth.

**736** Tum super abiectum posito pede nixus et hasta:  
Then, leaning on foot and on spear over the man thrown down:

**737** “Pars belli haud temnenda, viri, iacet altus Orodes.”  
“Here lies tall Orodes, men, no small part of the war.”
> A part of the war: Haud temnenda, 'not to be despised', is litotes, understating to make a stronger claim. Pars belli, 'a part of the war', names the dead man as a fraction of enemy strength removed, rather than praising him personally.

**738** Conclamant socii laetum paeana secuti.  
His companions shout together, taking up a glad paean.

**739** Ille autem exspirans: “Non me, quicumque es, inulto,  
But he, breathing his last: “Whoever you are, you will not have me

**740** victor, nec longum laetabere: te quoque fata  
unavenged, my conqueror, nor be glad long: the same fates

**741** prospectant paria atque eadem mox arva tenebis.”  
are watching for you too, and you will soon hold this same ground.”

**742** Ad quae subridens mixta Mezentius ira:  
Mezentius, half smiling, with anger mixed into it:

**743** “Nunc morere. Ast de me divom pater atque hominum rex  
“Now die. As for me, the father of gods and king of men

**744** viderit.” Hoc dicens eduxit corpore telum:  
will see to that.” Saying it he drew the weapon out of the body:

**745** olli dura quies oculos et ferreus urget  
a hard rest and an iron sleep press down on the man's eyes,
> An iron sleep: Dura quies and ferreus somnus, 'hard rest' and 'iron sleep', are two Homeric metaphors for death joined in one line. The adjectives dura and ferreus, not the nouns, carry the description of what death is like.

**746** somnus, in aeternam clauduntur lumina noctem.  
and they are shut into an everlasting night.

**747** Caedicus Alcathoum obtruncat, Sacrator Hydaspen  
Caedicus cuts down Alcathous, Sacrator Hydaspes,

**748** Partheniumque Rapo et praedurum viribus Orsen,  
Rapo cuts down Parthenius and Orses, hard as iron in his strength,

**749** Messapus Croniumque Lycaoniumque Erichaeten,  
Messapus Cronius and Erichaetes son of Lycaon,

**750** illum infrenis equi lapsu tellure iacentem,  
the one lying on the ground from the slip of an unbridled horse,

**751** hunc peditem. Pedes et Lycius processerat Agis,  
the other on foot. Lycian Agis had come forward on foot too,

**752** quem tamen haud expers Valerus virtutis avitae  
and yet Valerus, not without his grandfathers' courage,

**753** deicit; at Thronium Salius Saliumque Nealces  
throws him down; and Salius kills Thronius, and Nealces kills Salius
> A killing chain: Salius and Saliumque are the same name in two grammatical roles, killer in one clause and victim in the next. Six names appear this way across three lines, each man's name ending one clause and beginning another.

**754** insidiis, iaculo et longe fallente sagitta.  
from ambush, with a javelin and an arrow that cheats from far off.

**755** Iam gravis aequabat luctus et mutua Mavors  
Now heavy Mars was leveling the grief and the deaths

**756** funera: caedebant pariter pariterque ruebant  
on both sides: they were killing alike and falling alike,

**757** victores victique, neque his fuga nota neque illis.  
conquerors and conquered, and neither side knew how to run.

**758** Di Iovis in tectis iram miserantur inanem  
The gods in Jove's halls pity the useless anger

**759** amborum et tantos mortalibus esse labores:  
of the two of them, and that mortals should have such labors:

**760** hinc Venus, hinc contra spectat Saturnia Iuno,  
Venus watches from this side, Saturn's daughter Juno from that,

**761** pallida Tisiphone media inter milia saevit.  
and pale Tisiphone rages among the thousands in the middle.

**762** At vero ingentem quatiens Mezentius hastam  
But Mezentius, shaking a huge spear,

**763** turbidus ingreditur campo. Quam magnus Orion,  
walks out onto the plain like a storm. As great as Orion

**764** cum pedes incedit medii per maxima Nerei  
when he goes on foot and cuts his way through the greatest

**765** stagna viam scindens, umero supereminet undas  
pools of mid-Nereus, and stands above the waves by a shoulder,

**766** aut summis referens annosam montibus ornum  
or when he carries an aged ash down from the mountain tops

**767** ingrediturque solo et caput inter nubila condit:  
and walks on the ground, and hides his head among the clouds:

**768** talis se vastis infert Mezentius armis.  
so Mezentius brings himself on, huge in his armor.

**769** Huic contra Aeneas, speculatus in agmine longo,  
Against him Aeneas, having marked him out in the long column,

**770** obvius ire parat. Manet imperterritus ille,  
makes ready to go and meet him. The other waits, not to be frightened,

**771** hostem magnanimum opperiens, et mole sua stat;  
waiting for a great-hearted enemy, and stands by his own mass;

**772** atque oculis spatium emensus, quantum satis hastae:  
and having measured the distance by eye, as much as a spear wants:

**773** “Dextra mihi deus et telum, quod missile libro,  
“My right hand is my god, and the weapon I balance for the throw,

**774** nunc adsint! Voveo praedonis corpore raptis  
be with me now! I vow that you yourself, Lausus, shall be dressed

**775** indutum spoliis ipsum te, Lause, tropaeum  
in the spoils torn off the robber's body, you, my trophy

**776** Aeneae.” Dixit stridentemque eminus hastam  
made out of Aeneas.” He said it, and hurled the whistling spear

**777** iecit; at illa volans clipeo est excussa proculque  
from a distance; but flying it was struck off the shield, and far away

**778** egregium Antoren latus inter et ilia figit,  
pinned excellent Antores between the flank and the groin,

**779** Herculis Antoren comitem, qui missus ab Argis  
Antores, Hercules' companion, who had been sent from Argos

**780** haeserat Euandro atque Itala consederat urbe.  
and stayed with Evander, and settled in an Italian city.

**781** Sternitur infelix alieno volnere caelumque  
The unlucky man is laid low by a wound meant for another, and looks

**782** aspicit et dulcis moriens reminiscitur Argos  
at the sky, and dying he remembers sweet Argos.
> Remembering sweet Argos: Reminiscitur, 'he remembers', sits at the center of a golden line, with dulcis, 'sweet', and Argos, the city name, framing it at the ends. Antores, killed by a spear meant for someone else, is remembering the city he left years earlier as he dies.

**783** tum pius Aeneas hastam iacit: illa per orbem  
Then dutiful Aeneas throws his spear: through the circle

**784** aere cavum triplici, per linea terga tribusque  
hollowed with triple bronze it went, through the linen layers

**785** transit intextum tauris opus imaque sedit  
and the work woven of three bulls' hides, and it settled low

**786** inguine, sed viris haud pertulit. Ocius ensem  
in the groin, but did not carry its force through. Quickly Aeneas,

**787** Aeneas, viso Tyrrheni sanguine laetus,  
glad at the sight of Tyrrhenian blood,

**788** eripit a femine et trepidanti fervidus instat.  
snatches the sword from his thigh and presses hot on the shaken man.

**789** Ingemuit cari graviter genitoris amore,  
Lausus groaned heavily, out of love for the father he held dear,

**790** ut vidit, Lausus, lacrimaeque per ora volutae.  
when he saw it, and the tears rolled down his face.

**791** Hic mortis durae casum tuaque optima facta,  
Here I will not pass over your hard death and your finest deeds
> The poet makes a promise: Non ... silebo, 'I will not stay silent', is Vergil speaking in his own voice, addressing Lausus directly in the second person. He adds a condition, si qua fidem tanto est operi latura vetustas, 'if later ages will believe so great a deed', hedging his own promise.

**792** siqua fidem tanto est operi latura vetustas,  
(if any age to come will give credit to so great a work)

**793** non equidem nec te, iuvenis memorande, silebo.  
nor pass over you yourself, young man to be remembered.

**794** Ille pedem referens et inutilis inque ligatus  
The other was giving ground, useless, and caught in his own gear,

**795** cedebat clipeoque inimicum hastile trahebat:  
and dragging the enemy shaft along in his shield:

**796** prorupit iuvenis seseque immiscuit armis  
the young man burst forward and mixed himself into the fighting,

**797** iamque adsurgentis dextra plagamque ferentis  
and just as Aeneas was rising with his right hand and bringing

**798** Aeneae subiit mucronem ipsumque morando  
the stroke down, he came in under the point and, by holding him,

**799** sustinuit. Socii magno clamore sequuntur,  
checked him. His companions follow with a great shout,

**800** dum genitor nati parma protectus abiret,  
so that the father might get away covered by his son's shield,

**801** telaque coniciunt proturbantque eminus hostem  
and they throw their weapons and drive the enemy back from a distance

**802** missilibus. Furit Aeneas tectusque tenet se.  
with missiles. Aeneas rages, and keeps himself covered.

**803** Ac velut effusa siquando grandine nimbi  
And as when in a burst of hail the rain clouds come down headlong

**804** praecipitant, omnis campis diffugit arator  
and every ploughman scatters off the fields,

**805** omnis et agricola et tuta latet arce viator,  
and every farmer, and the traveler hides in a safe stronghold,

**806** aut amnis ripis aut alti fornice saxi,  
either on a river's banks or under the arch of a high rock,

**807** dum pluit in terris, ut possint sole reducto  
while it rains on the land, so that when the sun is brought back

**808** exercere diem: sic obrutus undique telis  
they can work the day: so Aeneas, buried under weapons

**809** Aeneas nubem belli, dum detonet omnis,  
from every side, holds out under the war's cloud until it has thundered

**810** sustinet et Lausum increpitat Lausoque minatur:  
itself out, and shouts at Lausus and threatens Lausus:

**811** “Quo moriture ruis maioraque viribus audes?  
“Where are you rushing, you who must die, and daring beyond your strength?
> A future participle as address: Moriture is a future participle used as a vocative, addressing someone as 'you who are about to die'. Latin says this in one word; English needs a full clause, 'you who must die', to say the same thing.

**812** Fallit te incautum pietas tua.” Nec minus ille  
Your own duty is tricking you, and you are off your guard.” No less for that

**813** exsultat demens; saevae iamque altius irae  
the boy exults, out of his mind; and now a savage anger rises

**814** Dardanio surgunt ductori, extremaque Lauso  
higher in the Dardan leader, and the Fates gather in

**815** Parcae fila legunt: validum namque exigit ensem  
the last of Lausus' thread: for Aeneas drives the strong sword

**816** per medium Aeneas iuvenem totumque recondit.  
through the middle of the young man and buries the whole of it.

**817** Transiit et parmam mucro, levia arma minacis,  
The point went through the small shield too, light armor for so much threatening,

**818** et tunicam, molli mater quam neverat auro,  
and through the tunic his mother had woven for him out of soft gold,

**819** implevitque sinum sanguis; tum vita per auras  
and the blood filled its folds; then his life went off through the air,

**820** concessit maesta ad manis corpusque reliquit.  
sorrowing, to the shades, and left the body behind.

**821** At vero ut voltum vidit morientis et ora,  
But when the son of Anchises saw the face and the look

**822** ora modis Anchisiades pallentia miris,  
of the dying boy, the face gone pale in a way past all wonder,
> Pale in a way past wonder: Pallentia miris modis literally means 'growing pale in wondrous ways', a phrase Latin poetry uses elsewhere for ghosts and for the dead appearing in dreams. Here it describes a face still living, in front of Aeneas.

**823** ingemuit miserans graviter dextramque tetendit,  
he groaned heavily in pity and reached out his right hand,

**824** et mentem patriae subiit pietatis imago.  
and the image of his own duty to a father came up into his mind.

**825** “Quid tibi nunc, miserande puer, pro laudibus istis,  
“What now, boy to be pitied, for praises like these,

**826** quid pius Aeneas tanta dabit indole dignum?  
what will dutiful Aeneas give worthy of so great a nature?

**827** Arma, quibus laetatus, habe tua, teque parentum  
Keep the arms you took joy in, they are yours; and you I send back

**828** manibus et cineri, siqua est ea cura, remitto.  
to your fathers' shades and ashes, if that is any comfort to you.

**829** Hoc tamen infelix miseram solabere mortem:  
You will have this one thing, unlucky boy, to console a wretched death:

**830** Aeneae magni dextra cadis.” Increpat ultro  
you fall by great Aeneas' right hand.” And unasked he shouts at
> Falling to a famous hand: Aeneae magni dextra cadis, 'you fall by great Aeneas' hand', invokes the heroic convention that it is an honor to die by a famous opponent. Aeneas offers this line to the dying man as a form of consolation.

**831** cunctantis socios et terra sublevat ipsum,  
the boy's companions, who were hanging back, and lifts him himself from the ground,

**832** sanguine turpantem comptos de more capillos.  
fouling with blood the hair combed in the customary way.
> Hair combed as it should be: Comptos de more capillos, 'hair arranged in the customary way', describes Lausus' hair as it was dressed before battle. Sanguine turpantem, 'fouling it with blood', describes what is happening to it now.

**833** Interea genitor Tiberini ad fluminis undam  
Meanwhile his father, at the water of the river Tiber,

**834** volnera siccabat lymphis corpusque levabat  
was drying his wound with the stream and easing his body,

**835** arboris adclinis trunco. Procul aerea ramis  
leaning against a tree trunk. His bronze helmet hangs at a distance

**836** dependet galea et prato gravia arma quiescunt.  
from the branches, and the heavy armor rests on the grass.

**837** Stant lecti circum iuvenes: ipse aeger anhelans  
Chosen young men stand around him; he himself, sick and gasping,

**838** colla fovet, fusus propexam in pectore barbam;  
eases his neck, his combed beard spread out on his chest;

**839** multa super Lauso rogitat multumque remittit  
he asks and asks about Lausus, and sends many men back

**840** qui revocent maestique ferant mandata parentis.  
to call him in and carry a grieving father's orders.

**841** At Lausum socii exanimem super arma ferebant  
But his companions were carrying Lausus back dead on his armor,

**842** flentes, ingentem atque ingenti volnere victum.  
weeping, a great man beaten by a great wound.

**843** Agnovit longe gemitum praesaga mali mens:  
A mind that had guessed the evil knew the groaning from far off:
> A mind that had guessed: Praesagus describes a foreboding that arrives before the news itself does. Praesaga mali mens, 'a mind that foreknew the evil', has Mezentius recognize the sound of mourning from far off, before he is told what happened.

**844** canitiem multo deformat pulvere et ambas  
he fouls his white hair with a great deal of dust, and stretches both

**845** ad caelum tendit palmas et corpore inhaeret.  
palms up to heaven, and hangs on the body.

**846** “Tantane me tenuit vivendi, nate, voluptas,  
“Did so great a pleasure in living hold me, my son,

**847** ut pro me hostili paterer succedere dextrae,  
that I let the one I fathered go under an enemy's hand

**848** quem genui? Tuane haec genitor per volnera servor,  
in my place? Am I your father, saved by these wounds of yours,

**849** morte tua vivens? Heu, nunc misero mihi demum  
living by your death? Ah, now at last there is ruin

**850** exitium infelix, nunc alte volnus adactum!  
for me, and I am wretched; now the wound is driven deep!

**851** Idem ego, nate, tuum maculavi crimine nomen,  
It was I, my son, and no one else, who stained your name with a charge,

**852** pulsus ob invidiam solio sceptrisque paternis.  
driven out for hatred from my throne and my father's scepter.

**853** Debueram patriae poenas odiisque meorum:  
I owed my country a penalty, and my own people's hatred:

**854** omnis per mortis animam sontem ipse dedissem!  
I should have handed my guilty life over to every kind of death!

**855** Nunc vivo neque adhuc homines lucemque relinquo.  
And now I am alive, and I have still not left men and the light.

**856** Sed linquam.” Simul hoc dicens attollit in aegrum  
But I will leave.” Saying so he lifts himself up

**857** se femur et, quamvis dolor alto volnere tardet,  
on the sick thigh, and though the pain of a deep wound slows him

**858** haud deiectus equum duci iubet. Hoc decus illi,  
he is not cast down, and orders his horse brought. That was his glory,

**859** hoc solamen erat; bellis hoc victor abibat  
that was his comfort; on that he had come away a winner

**860** omnibus. Adloquitur maerentem et talibus infit:  
from every war. He speaks to the grieving animal and begins so:

**861** “Rhaebe, diu, res siqua diu mortalibus ulla est,  
“Rhaebus, we have lived a long time, if anything at all

**862** viximus. Aut hodie victor spolia illa cruenti  
is long for mortals. Either today you will carry off, as victor,

**863** et caput Aeneae referes Lausique dolorum  
that bloodied armor and the head of Aeneas, and you will be

**864** ultor eris mecum aut, aperit si nulla viam vis,  
the avenger with me of what Lausus suffered; or, if no force opens a road,

**865** occumbes pariter; neque enim, fortissime, credo,  
you will go down beside me; for I do not believe, bravest of horses,

**866** iussa aliena pati et dominos dignabere Teucros.”  
that you would stoop to take another's orders and Teucrian masters.”
> Dignari, to think worthy: Dignor means 'to think something worthy of oneself'. Dominos dignabere Teucros, 'you would not think Teucrian masters worthy of you', addresses Mezentius' horse, denying that it would ever accept new owners.

**867** Dixit et exceptus tergo consueta locavit  
He spoke, and was taken up on the back, and settled his limbs

**868** membra manusque ambas iaculis oneravit acutis,  
where they were used to be, and loaded both hands with sharp javelins,

**869** aere caput fulgens cristaque hirsutus equina.  
his head flashing with bronze and shaggy with a horsehair crest.

**870** Sic cursum in medios rapidus dedit: aestuat ingens  
So he drove his course, quick, into the middle of them: a huge shame

**871** uno in corde pudor mixtoque insania luctu,  
boils up in one heart, and madness mixed with grief,

**872** et furiis agitatus amor et conscia virtus.  
and a love driven by the Furies, and a courage that knows itself.
> A courage that knows itself: Conscius means 'knowing along with', the root of both 'conscience' and 'accomplice'. Conscia virtus, 'a courage aware of itself', is one of four qualities, alongside shame, grief and a love driven by Furies, that Vergil lists together without ranking them.

**873** Atque hic Aenean magna ter voce vocavit.  
And here he called Aeneas three times, with a great voice.

**874** Aeneas agnovit enim laetusque precatur:  
Aeneas knew him, and prays, glad:

**875** “Sic pater ille deum faciat, sic altus Apollo,  
“So may the father of the gods bring it about, so may high Apollo:

**876** incipias conferre manum.”  
that you begin to close hands.”
> An unfinished line: This line breaks off after incipias conferre manum, 'that you begin to join battle', one of the poem's half-finished verses. The subjunctive incipias continues Aeneas' prayer, left incomplete as Vergil wrote it.

**877** Tantum effatus et infesta subit obvius hasta.  
So much he said, and comes to meet him with a hostile spear.

**878** Ille autem: “Quid me erepto, saevissime, nato  
But the other: “Why do you frighten me, cruelest of men, now my son

**879** terres? Haec via sola fuit, qua perdere posses.  
is torn away? That was the one road by which you could destroy me.

**880** Nec mortem horremus nec divom parcimus ulli.  
We do not shudder at death, and we spare none of the gods.

**881** Desine: nam venio moriturus et haec tibi porto  
Have done: for I come to die, and I bring you these

**882** dona prius.” Dixit telumque intorsit in hostem;  
gifts first.” He spoke, and whirled a weapon at his enemy;

**883** inde aliud super atque aliud figitque volatque  
then another on top of it, and another, and he plants them and flies

**884** ingenti gyro, sed sustinet aureus umbo.  
in a huge circle, but the golden boss holds them all.

**885** Ter circum adstantem laevos equitavit in orbes  
Three times he rode leftward, in circles, around the man standing there,

**886** tela manu iaciens, ter secum Troïus heros  
throwing weapons by hand; and the Trojan hero three times

**887** immanem aerato circumfert tegmine silvam.  
carries round with him a monstrous forest on his bronze covering.

**888** Inde ubi tot traxisse moras, tot spicula taedet  
Then, when he is sick of dragging out so many delays and pulling

**889** vellere et urgetur pugna congressus iniqua,  
so many points loose, and is pressed by a fight matched unfairly,

**890** multa movens animo iam tandem erumpit et inter  
turning much over in his mind he breaks out at last, and hurls

**891** bellatoris equi cava tempora conicit hastam.  
the spear between the hollow temples of the warhorse.

**892** Tollit se arrectum quadrupes et calcibus auras  
The four-footed beast rears straight up and beats the air

**893** verberat effusumque equitem super ipse secutus  
with its hooves, and coming down on the rider it has thrown

**894** implicat eiectoque incumbit cernuus armo.  
it tangles him, and falls headlong on him with its shoulder out.

**895** Clamore incendunt caelum Troesque Latinique.  
Trojans and Latins together set the sky on fire with shouting.

**896** Advolat Aeneas vaginaque eripit ensem  
Aeneas flies up and tears the sword out of its scabbard

**897** et super haec: “Ubi nunc Mezentius acer et illa  
and stands over him: “Where is fierce Mezentius now, and that

**898** effera vis animi?” Contra Tyrrhenus, ut auras  
wild violence of spirit?” Against him the Tyrrhenian, once he had drawn

**899** suspiciens hausit caelum mentemque recepit:  
the air in, looking up, and taken back the sky and his own mind:

**900** “Hostis amare, quid increpitas mortemque minaris?  
“Bitter enemy, why jeer at me and threaten me with death?

**901** Nullum in caede nefas, nec sic ad proelia veni,  
There is no wrong in killing me, and I did not come to this fighting so,
> No wrong in the killing: Nullum nefas, 'no wrongdoing', reuses the word for an act forbidden by divine law, here denying that any applies. Mezentius tells Aeneas that killing him breaks no divine law, since he came to this fight expecting to die.

**902** nec tecum meus haec pepigit mihi foedera Lausus.  
nor did my Lausus bargain out these terms with you for me.

**903** Unum hoc per siqua est victis venia hostibus oro:  
One thing I ask, by whatever pardon there may be for a beaten enemy:

**904** corpus humo patiare tegi. Scio acerba meorum  
allow my body to be covered with earth. I know the bitter hatreds

**905** circumstare odia: hunc, oro, defende furorem  
of my own people stand around me: hold that madness off, I beg you,

**906** et me consortem nati concede sepulchro.”  
and grant me a grave to share with my son.”

**907** Haec loquitur iuguloque haud inscius accipit ensem  
This he says, and takes the sword in his throat, knowing what he does,
> A double negative for awareness: Haud inscius, 'not unknowing', is a double negative meaning simply 'aware'. It describes Mezentius accepting the sword in his throat with full knowledge of what is happening to him.

**908** undantique animam diffundit in arva cruore.  
and pours his life out over the fields in a wave of blood.

---

Source text: public domain (Vergil, Aeneid, ed. J. B. Greenough, Boston: Ginn and Company, 1900), as encoded in the Perseus Digital Library canonical-latinLit TEI, CC BY-SA 4.0. English translation and notes: © 2026 1732 Studios, LLC, line for line. Narration: read by Malone (LibriVox, 2012), public domain.