# The Aeneid, Book 11: The Truce, the Council, and Camilla

Aeneis · Publius Vergilius Maro · The War in Latium

A truce for the dead. The council of the Latins argues for peace. Camilla leads the cavalry and is killed.

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**1** Oceanum interea surgens Aurora reliquit:  
Meanwhile Dawn rose up and left the Ocean.

**2** Aeneas, quamquam et sociis dare tempus humandis  
Aeneas, though his cares press him to give the time to burying

**3** praecipitant curae turbataque funere mens est,  
his companions, and his mind is thrown about by the death,

**4** vota deum primo victor solvebat Eoo.  
was paying the gods their vows, a victor, at the first star of morning.
> Paying off a vow: vota are vows promised to a god in return for a favor, and solvere means to pay off a debt. Aeneas solvebat, was paying off, the vows he made before the battle, now that he has won as victor.

**5** Ingentem quercum decisis undique ramis  
A huge oak, with its branches lopped away on every side,

**6** constituit tumulo fulgentiaque induit arma,  
he set up on a mound and dressed in shining armor,

**7** Mezenti ducis exuvias, tibi, magne, tropaeum,  
the spoils of the captain Mezentius, a trophy to you, great one,

**8** bellipotens: aptat rorantis sanguine cristas  
lord of war: he fits on the crests still wet with blood,

**9** telaque trunca viri et bis sex thoraca petitum  
and the man's broken spears, and the breastplate struck and driven through
> Twice six for twelve: bis sex means twice six, and Latin verse often states a number this way rather than naming it outright. Here it counts the twelve wounds struck through the breastplate, the tally of what it took to kill Mezentius.

**10** perfossumque locis clipeumque ex aere sinistrae  
in twice six places; and the bronze shield to the left side

**11** subligat atque ensem collo suspendit eburnum.  
he straps, and hangs the ivory sword at the neck.

**12** Tum socios, namque omnis eum stipata tegebat  
Then his companions, for the whole crowd of his captains stood packed

**13** turba ducum, sic incipiens hortatur ovantis:  
close around him, he begins, and heartens them in their triumph:

**14** “Maxima res effecta, viri; timor omnis abesto,  
“The greatest thing is done, men. Let all fear be gone

**15** quod superest: haec sunt spolia et de rege superbo  
for what is left. Here are the spoils, and out of a proud king

**16** primitiae, manibusque meis Mezentius hic est.  
the first fruits; and Mezentius here is the work of my hands.

**17** Nunc iter ad regem nobis murosque Latinos.  
Now our road is to the king and to the Latin walls.

**18** Arma parate animis et spe praesumite bellum,  
Have your weapons ready in your minds, and take the war beforehand in hope,

**19** nequa mora ignaros, ubi primum vellere signa  
so that no delay may catch us unready when once the gods above

**20** adnuerint superi pubemque educere castris,  
have given the nod to tear up the standards and lead the men out of camp,

**21** impediat segnisve metu sententia tardet.  
nor a sluggish resolve, made in fear, hold us back.

**22** Interea socios inhumataque corpora terrae  
Meanwhile let us give our companions and their unburied bodies

**23** mandemus, qui solus honos Acheronte sub imo est.  
to the earth, the one honor there is, deep under Acheron.

**24** Ite,” ait, “egregias animas, quae sanguine nobis  
Go,” he says, “those excellent souls, who with their own blood

**25** hanc patriam peperere suo, decorate supremis  
brought this country to birth for us, honor them with the last

**26** muneribus, maestamque Evandri primus ad urbem  
and first let Pallas be sent to Evander's grieving

**27** mittatur Pallas, quem non virtutis egentem  
city, Pallas, whom, lacking nothing of courage,

**28** abstulit atra dies et funere mersit acerbo.”  
a black day carried off and drowned in a bitter burial.”
> A formula for an early death: acerbus is the word for what an unripe fruit tastes like, and funus acerbum, 'a bitter death', is a standard phrase from real Roman epitaphs for someone who died too young. The line names Pallas' death by this formal, funerary phrase.

**29** Sic ait inlacrimans recipitque ad limina gressum,  
So he speaks, weeping, and takes his step back to the doorway,

**30** corpus ubi exanimi positum Pallantis Acoetes  
where the body of lifeless Pallas lay, and Acoetes,

**31** servabat senior, qui Parrhasio Evandro  
an old man, was keeping watch, who to Parrhasian Evander

**32** armiger ante fuit, sed non felicibus aeque  
had once been armor-bearer, though under luck not so kind

**33** tum comes auspiciis caro datus ibat alumno.  
he went now, given as companion to the boy he had reared.

**34** Circum omnis famulumque manus Troianaque turba  
All about were the whole household of servants and the Trojan crowd

**35** et maestum Iliades crinem de more solutae.  
and the women of Ilium, their hair let down in the customary way for grief.

**36** Ut vero Aeneas foribus sese intulit altis,  
But when Aeneas brought himself in through the high doors,

**37** ingentem gemitum tunsis ad sidera tollunt  
they raise a huge groan to the stars, beating

**38** pectoribus, maestoque immugit regia luctu.  
their breasts, and the palace bellows back with the sound of mourning.

**39** Ipse caput nivei fultum Pallantis et ora  
He himself, when he saw the pillowed head of snow-white Pallas

**40** ut vidit levique patens in pectore vulnus  
and his face, and the wound standing open in the smooth chest,

**41** cuspidis Ausoniae, lacrimis ita fatur obortis.  
made by an Ausonian spear, speaks so, as the tears rise:

**42** “Tene,” inquit, “miserande puer, cum laeta veniret,  
“You, poor boy,” he says, “when Fortune came at last kindly,

**43** invidit Fortuna mihi, ne regna videres  
did she grudge me you, so that you should never see

**44** nostra neque ad sedes victor veherere paternas?  
our kingdom, nor ride home a victor to your father's house?

**45** Non haec Evandro de te promissa parenti  
This was not the promise about you I gave your father Evander

**46** discedens dederam, cum me complexus euntem  
when I went away, when he held me as I left

**47** mitteret in magnum imperium metuensque moneret  
and sent me off into a great command, and warned me, afraid,

**48** acris esse viros, cum dura proelia gente.  
that the men were fierce, that the fighting was hard with such a people.
> An infinitive left understood: The clause cum dura proelia gente has no verb: esse, 'to be', from the first half of the line, is understood again, 'the battles were hard with that people'. Latin regularly leaves out esse where the sense already supplies it.

**49** Et nunc ille quidem spe multum captus inani  
And now he, taken far in by an empty hope,

**50** fors et vota facit cumulatque altaria donis:  
is perhaps making vows and piling his altars with gifts,

**51** nos iuvenem exanimum et nil iam caelestibus ullis  
while we in our grief escort a lifeless boy who owes

**52** debentem vano maesti comitamur honore.  
nothing now to any of the gods, with an honor worth nothing.

**53** Infelix, nati funus crudele videbis!  
Unlucky man, you will see your son's cruel burial!
> A run of exclamations: Aeneas piles up three short exclamations here with no main verb linking them: the burial, the homecoming, the pledge, each just named. Latin can string nouns together this way as pure exclamation, without a full sentence to hold them.

**54** Hi nostri reditus expectatique triumphi!  
This is our coming home, this the triumph you waited for!

**55** Haec mea magna fides! At non, Evandre, pudendis  
This my great pledge! And yet you will not see him, Evander, driven back

**56** vulneribus pulsum adspicies nec sospite dirum  
by wounds to be ashamed of, nor pray, a father with his son

**57** optabis nato funus pater. Ei mihi, quantum  
still safe, for a death of your own. Ah me, what a
> The ablative absolute condition: sospite nato, 'with the son safe', is an ablative absolute, two words in the ablative case that state a condition on their own, outside the main clause. It means 'his son being unharmed', a state set against the death spoken of in this line.

**58** praesidium Ausonia et quantum tu perdis, Iule!”  
bulwark Ausonia loses, and what you lose, Iulus!”

**59** Haec ubi deflevit, tolli miserabile corpus  
When he had wept this out, he orders the piteous body

**60** imperat et toto lectos ex agmine mittit  
lifted, and sends a thousand men, picked from the whole

**61** mille viros, qui supremum comitentur honorem  
column, to go with him at that last honor

**62** intersintque patris lacrimis, solacia luctus  
and to be present at the father's tears, a consolation

**63** exigua ingentis, misero sed debita patri.  
small against so huge a grief, but owed to a wretched father.

**64** Haud segnes alii crates et molle feretrum  
Others, in no way slow, weave a wicker frame and a soft bier

**65** arbuteis texunt virgis et vimine querno  
out of arbutus rods and osiers of oak,

**66** exstructosque toros obtentu frondis inumbrant.  
and shade the piled couch under a screen of leaves.

**67** Hic iuvenem agresti sublimem stramine ponunt,  
Here they lay the young man high on his country bedding,

**68** qualem virgineo demessum pollice florem  
like a flower cut down by a girl's thumb,

**69** seu mollis violae seu languentis hyacinthi,  
a soft violet or a hyacinth going limp,

**70** cui neque fulgor adhuc necdum sua forma recessit:  
whose brightness has not yet gone from it, nor its own shape:

**71** non iam mater alit tellus viresque ministrat.  
but mother earth no longer feeds it or supplies its strength.

**72** Tum geminas vestes auroque ostroque rigentis  
Then Aeneas brought out two robes, stiff with gold

**73** extulit Aeneas, quas illi laeta laborum  
and with purple, which for him, glad in the labor,

**74** ipsa suis quondam manibus Sidonia Dido  
Sidonian Dido once with her own hands

**75** fecerat et tenui telas discreverat auro.  
had made, and had parted the web with a thread of fine gold.

**76** Harum unam iuveni supremum maestus honorem  
One of these, as the last honor, in his sorrow he

**77** induit arsurasque comas obnubit amictu,  
puts on the boy, and veils with a cloak the hair that will burn;

**78** multaque praeterea Laurentis praemia pugnae  
and he heaps up besides many prizes of the Laurentian fighting

**79** aggerat et longo praedam iubet ordine duci.  
and orders the plunder led out in a long line.

**80** Addit equos et tela, quibus spoliaverat hostem.  
He adds horses, and the weapons he had stripped from the enemy.

**81** Vinxerat et post terga manus, quos mitteret umbris  
He had bound the hands behind the backs of men he meant to send

**82** inferias, caeso sparsuros sanguine flammas,  
to the shades as offerings, to sprinkle the flames with their blood;

**83** indutosque iubet truncos hostilibus armis  
and he orders the captains themselves to carry tree-trunks dressed

**84** ipsos ferre duces inimicaque nomina figi.  
in the enemy's armor, with the hated names nailed on.

**85** Ducitur infelix aevo confectus Acoetes:  
Acoetes is led along, worn out and unlucky with age,

**86** pectora nunc foedans pugnis, nunc unguibus ora  
now mauling his chest with his fists, now his face with his nails,

**87** sternitur et toto proiectus corpore terrae.  
and he goes down, his whole body flung out on the earth.

**88** Ducunt et Rutulo perfusos sanguine currus.  
They lead out the chariots too, soaked with Rutulian blood.

**89** Post bellator equus positis insignibus Aethon  
Behind comes the war-horse Aethon, his trappings laid aside,

**90** it lacrimans guttisque umectat grandibus ora.  
and goes weeping, wetting his face with great drops.

**91** Hastam alii galeamque ferunt, nam cetera Turnus  
Others carry the spear and the helmet, for Turnus the victor

**92** victor habet. Tum maesta phalanx Teucrique sequuntur  
has the rest. Then the grieving column, and the Teucrians follow,

**93** Tyrrhenique omnes et versis Arcades armis.  
and all the Etruscans, and the Arcadians with their arms reversed.

**94** Postquam omnis longe comitum praecesserat ordo,  
When the whole line of the escort had gone far ahead,

**95** substitit Aeneas gemituque haec addidit alto:  
Aeneas stopped, and with a deep groan added this:

**96** “Nos alias hinc ad lacrimas eadem horrida belli  
“From here the same grim fates of war call us on

**97** fata vocant: salve aeternum mihi, maxime Palla,  
to other tears. Hail for ever from me, greatest Pallas,

**98** aeternumque vale.” Nec plura effatus ad altos  
and for ever farewell.” Saying no more, he was making

**99** tendebat muros gressumque in castra ferebat.  
for the high walls, and carrying his step back into camp.

**100** Iamque oratores aderant ex urbe Latina,  
And now spokesmen were there from the Latin city,

**101** velati ramis oleae veniamque rogantes:  
veiled with olive boughs, and asking a favor:

**102** corpora, per campos ferro quae fusa iacebant,  
that he give back the bodies which lay scattered by the sword across the fields

**103** redderet ac tumulo sineret succedere terrae;  
and let them go under a mound of earth;

**104** nullum cum victis certamen et aethere cassis;  
there was no quarrel with the beaten, with men stripped of the air they breathed;

**105** parceret hospitibus quondam socerisque vocatis.  
let him spare men once called his hosts and his wife's fathers.

**106** Quos bonus Aeneas haud aspernanda precantis  
Good Aeneas, they were begging nothing that could be brushed away,
> The plain word for decent: bonus is the ordinary Latin word for a good or decent person, not the epithet pius that usually names Aeneas elsewhere in the poem. Here it marks him at the moment he is being asked for something a decent man simply grants.

**107** prosequitur venia et verbis haec insuper addit:  
follows their prayer with the grant, and adds these words besides:

**108** “Quaenam vos tanto fortuna indigna, Latini,  
“What fortune, Latins, so undeserved, has tangled you

**109** implicuit bello, qui nos fugiatis amicos?  
in a war of this size, that you run from us, who are your friends?

**110** Pacem me exanimis et Martis sorte peremptis  
Do you beg peace from me for the lifeless, for men finished by the lot

**111** oratis? Equidem et vivis concedere vellem.  
of war? I would be glad to grant it to the living as well.

**112** Nec veni, nisi fata locum sedemque dedissent,  
I would not have come, had the fates not given me a place and a seat here,

**113** nec bellum cum gente gero: rex nostra reliquit  
and I do not make war on a people: your king abandoned

**114** hospitia et Turni potius se credidit armis.  
our guest-friendship and trusted himself instead to Turnus' arms.

**115** Aequius huic Turnum fuerat se opponere morti.  
It would have been fairer for Turnus to face this death himself.

**116** Si bellum finire manu, si pellere Teucros  
If he is getting ready to end the war by hand, to drive out

**117** apparat, his mecum decuit concurrere telis:  
the Teucrians, it was for him to come at me with these weapons:

**118** vixet, cui vitam deus aut sua dextra dedisset.  
the one would have lived to whom a god, or his own right hand, gave life.
> A shortened pluperfect subjunctive: vixet is a syncopated, shortened, form of vixisset, the pluperfect subjunctive of vivere, 'to live': 'he would have lived'. The subjunctive marks an unreal condition, a duel that never took place, stating what would have happened rather than what did.

**119** Nunc ite et miseris supponite civibus ignem.”  
Now go, and put fire under your unlucky countrymen.”

**120** Dixerat Aeneas. Illi obstipuere silentes  
Aeneas had spoken. They stood struck dumb and silent,

**121** conversique oculos inter se atque ora tenebant.  
and held their eyes and their faces turned on one another.

**122** Tum senior semperque odiis et crimine Drances  
Then Drances, an old man, always set against young Turnus

**123** infensus iuveni Turno sic ore vicissim  
with hatred and with accusations, in his turn opens

**124** orsa refert: “O fama ingens, ingentior armis  
his reply: “Huge in your fame, and huger in arms,
> The same adjective raised a degree: ingens, 'huge', is followed by ingentior, 'huger', the comparative of the same word repeated right after it. Drances builds his compliment to Aeneas by repeating the adjective and stepping it up a degree within the same line.

**125** vir Troiane, quibus caelo te laudibus aequem?  
Trojan, with what praises shall I raise you level with the sky?

**126** Iustitiaene prius mirer belline laborum?  
Shall I wonder first at your justice, or at your labors in war?
> A question in two halves: Latin marks a two part question by attaching -ne to the first word of each half, where English needs 'whether ... or'. Here it splits the question between iustitia, 'justice', and bellum, 'war', without spelling out the full 'whether ... or'.

**127** Nos vero haec patriam grati referemus ad urbem  
We for our part will carry this back to our own city in gratitude,

**128** et te, siqua viam dederit fortuna, Latino  
and if fortune gives us any road at all we will join you

**129** iungemus regi: quaerat sibi foedera Turnus.  
to king Latinus. Let Turnus look for treaties of his own.

**130** Quin et fatalis murorum attollere moles  
More: it will be a pleasure to raise the fated mass of your walls

**131** saxaque subvectare umeris Troiana iuvabit.”  
and to carry Trojan stone on our shoulders.”

**132** Dixerat haec, unoque omnes eadem ore fremebant.  
He had said this, and every man of them roared the same with one voice.

**133** Bis senos pepigere dies et pace sequestra  
They agreed on twice six days, and with peace standing between them
> Twelve days, counted by twos: bis senos means twice six, the same pattern of counting by doubling as bis sex for the twelve wounds earlier in the book. Here it sets the length of the truce at exactly twelve days.

**134** per silvas Teucri mixtique inpune Latini  
the Teucrians and the Latins mixed among them wandered unharmed

**135** erravere iugis. Ferro sonat alta bipenni  
over the ridges. The tall ash rings under the two-headed

**136** fraxinus, evertunt actas ad sidera pinus,  
axe; they throw down pines driven up into the stars;

**137** robora nec cuneis et olentem scindere cedrum  
they do not stop splitting oak and sweet-smelling cedar with wedges,

**138** nec plaustris cessant vectare gementibus ornos.  
or hauling mountain ash on carts that groan under it.

**139** Et iam Fama volans, tanti praenuntia luctus,  
And already Rumor, flying, forerunner of so great a grief,

**140** Evandrum Evandrique domos et moenia replet,  
fills Evander, and Evander's house, and his walls,

**141** quae modo victorem Latio Pallanta ferebat.  
she who a moment ago was carrying Pallas victorious in Latium.

**142** Arcades ad portas ruere et de more vetusto  
The Arcadians rushed to the gates and, by the ancient custom,

**143** funereas rapuere faces; lucet via longo  
caught up funeral torches; the road shines with a long

**144** ordine flammarum et late discriminat agros.  
line of flame and cuts a wide division across the fields.

**145** Contra turba Phrygum veniens plangentia iungit  
Coming to meet them, the Phrygian crowd joins its own

**146** agmina. Quae postquam matres succedere tectis  
wailing column to theirs. When the mothers saw them

**147** viderunt, maestam incendunt clamoribus urbem.  
coming in under the roofs, they set the sad city alight with their cries.

**148** At non Evandrum potis est vis ulla tenere,  
But no force at all is able to hold Evander back;

**149** sed venit in medios. Feretro Pallanta reposto  
he comes into the middle of them. The bier set down, he threw

**150** procubuit super atque haeret lacrimansque gemensque,  
himself across Pallas and clings there, weeping and groaning,

**151** et via vix tandem vocis laxata dolore est.  
and scarcely at last was a way for his voice opened through the grief.

**152** “Non haec, O Palla, dederas promissa parenti,  
“This was not the promise, Pallas, you gave your father,

**153** cautius ut saevo velles te credere Marti;  
that you would take more care how you trusted yourself to savage Mars.

**154** haud ignarus eram, quantum nova gloria in armis  
I was not ignorant of how much new glory in arms can do,

**155** et praedulce decus primo certamine posset.  
and honor too sweet in a first battle.

**156** Primitiae iuvenis miserae bellique propinqui  
Wretched first fruits of a boy, and of a war on our doorstep

**157** dura rudimenta et nulli exaudita deorum  
the hard first lessons, and vows and prayers of mine, heard

**158** vota precesque meae! Tuque, O sanctissima coniunx,  
by none of the gods! And you, most holy wife,

**159** felix morte tua neque in hunc servata dolorem!  
lucky in your death, and not kept back for this grief!

**160** Contra ego vivendo vici mea fata, superstes  
I, on my side, by living have conquered my own fate, left standing

**161** restarem ut genitor. Troum socia arma secutum  
as a father who outlives. If only, following the Trojans' allied arms,

**162** obruerent Rutuli telis! Animam ipse dedissem  
the Rutulians had overwhelmed me with spears! I myself should have given my life,

**163** atque haec pompa domum me, non Pallanta, referret,  
and this procession would be bringing me home, and not Pallas.

**164** nec vos arguerim, Teucri, nec foedera nec quas  
Nor would I accuse you, Teucrians, nor our treaty, nor the hands
> A cautious perfect subjunctive: arguerim is a potential subjunctive, used to soften a claim: not 'I do not accuse' but 'I would not go so far as to accuse'. The mood makes Evander's statement tentative rather than flat, a hedge built into the verb form itself.

**165** iunximus hospitio dextras: sors ista senectae  
we joined in guest-friendship: that lot was owed

**166** debita erat nostrae. Quod si immatura manebat  
to my old age. But if an untimely death was waiting

**167** mors natum, caesis Volscorum milibus ante  
for my son, it will be a comfort that thousands of Volscians were cut down

**168** ducentem in Latium Teucros cecidisse iuvabit.  
first, and that he fell leading the Teucrians into Latium.

**169** Quin ego non alio digner te funere, Palla,  
Indeed I would think you worthy of no other funeral, Pallas,

**170** quam pius Aeneas et quam magni Phryges et quam  
than dutiful Aeneas thinks, and the great Phrygians, and the

**171** Tyrrhenique duces, Tyrrhenum exercitus omnis.  
Etruscan captains, and the whole Etruscan army.

**172** Magna tropaea ferunt, quos dat tua dextera Leto:  
They carry great trophies: the men your right hand gives to Death.
> Death as a destination: Letum means death, and here it stands in the dative, Leto, governed by dat, 'gives': 'your own right hand gives men to Death'. The word treats death as a person or place that receives the dead, not merely an event.

**173** tu quoque nunc stares immanis truncus in armis,  
You too would be standing now, a huge trunk in armor,

**174** esset par aetas et idem si robur ab annis,  
if your age had been equal and the same strength had come with your years,

**175** Turne. Sed infelix Teucros quid demoror armis?  
Turnus. But why in my misery do I hold the Teucrians from their arms?

**176** Vadite et haec memores regi mandata referte:  
Go, and remember to carry these instructions back to your king:

**177** quod vitam moror invisam Pallante perempto,  
that I drag on a life I hate now that Pallas is destroyed,

**178** dextera causa tua est, Turnum natoque patrique  
your right hand is the reason, which, as you see, owes Turnus

**179** quam debere vides. Meritis vacat hic tibi solus  
to a son and to a father. This is the one opening left

**180** fortunaeque locus. Non vitae gaudia quaero,  
for your worth and your luck. I do not look for joy in living,

**181** nec fas, sed nato Manis perferre sub imos.”  
it is not permitted, but to carry it down to my son among the shades.”

**182** Aurora interea miseris mortalibus almam  
Meanwhile Dawn had raised her kindly light

**183** extulerat lucem, referens opera atque labores:  
for wretched mortals, bringing back the work and the labor.

**184** iam pater Aeneas, iam curvo in litore Tarchon  
Now father Aeneas, now Tarchon on the curving shore,

**185** constituere pyras. Huc corpora quisque suorum  
built the pyres. Here each man brought the bodies of his own

**186** more tulere patrum, subiectisque ignibus atris  
in the way of their fathers, and with black fires set beneath,

**187** conditur in tenebras altum caligine caelum.  
the high sky is shut away into darkness under the smoke.

**188** Ter circum accensos cincti fulgentibus armis  
Three times, belted in shining armor, they ran round

**189** decurrere rogos, ter maestum funeris ignem  
the kindled pyres; three times on horseback they circled

**190** lustravere in equis ululatusque ore dedere;  
the mournful fire of the funeral, and gave out the wailing cry.

**191** spargitur et tellus lacrimis, sparguntur et arma:  
The earth is sprinkled with tears, and the armor is sprinkled too;

**192** it caelo clamorque virum clangorque tubarum.  
up to the sky goes the shout of men and the blare of trumpets.

**193** Hic alii spolia occisis derepta Latinis  
Here some fling into the fire the spoils torn from the killed

**194** coniciunt igni, galeas ensesque decoros  
Latins, helmets and handsome swords

**195** frenaque ferventisque rotas; pars munera nota,  
and bridles and burning-hot wheels; some the gifts they knew,

**196** ipsorum clipeos et non felicia tela.  
the men's own shields, and the weapons that had no luck in them.

**197** Multa boum circa mactantur corpora Morti,  
Many bodies of oxen are killed round about to Death,

**198** saetigerosque sues raptasque ex omnibus agris  
and bristled swine, and cattle rounded up out of all the fields

**199** in flammam iugulant pecudes. Tum litore toto  
have their throats cut into the flame. Then along the whole shore

**200** ardentis spectant socios semustaque servant  
they watch their comrades burning, and guard the half-burnt

**201** busta neque avelli possunt, nox umida donec  
graves, and cannot be pulled away, until damp night

**202** invertit caelum stellis ardentibus aptum.  
turns the sky over, set thick with its burning stars.
> Fitted with the stars: aptus here keeps its oldest sense, 'fastened on', so the sky is stellis ardentibus aptum, 'fitted with the burning stars', fixed into place. Vergil borrows the phrase from Ennius, Rome's earliest epic poet, which is why it sounds archaic in the line.

**203** Nec minus et miseri diversa in parte Latini  
No less did the wretched Latins in their own quarter

**204** innumeras struxere pyras, et corpora partim  
build countless pyres, and some of the many bodies

**205** multa virum terrae infodiunt avectaque partim  
of their men they dig into the earth, and some they carry away

**206** finitimos tollunt in agros urbique remittunt,  
and lift into the neighboring fields and send back to the city;

**207** cetera confusaeque ingentem caedis acervum  
the rest, a huge heap of slaughter all confused together,

**208** nec numero nec honore cremant: tunc undique vasti  
they burn without count and without honor. Then on every side

**209** certatim crebris conlucent ignibus agri.  
the wide fields shine, packed with fires, each trying to outdo the last.

**210** Tertia lux gelidam caelo dimoverat umbram:  
The third daylight had pushed the cold shadow off the sky:

**211** maerentes altum cinerem et confusa ruebant  
grieving, they raked the deep ash and the mingled bones

**212** ossa focis tepidoque onerabant aggere terrae.  
out of the hearths, and loaded them under a warm mound of earth.

**213** Iam vero in tectis, praedivitis urbe Latini,  
But now in the houses, in the city of very rich Latinus,

**214** praecipuus fragor et longi pars maxima luctus.  
was the loudest din and the greatest part of a long grief.

**215** Hic matres miseraeque nurus, hic cara sororum  
Here mothers and wretched young wives, here the loving hearts

**216** pectora maerentum puerique parentibus orbi  
of grieving sisters, and boys robbed of their parents,

**217** dirum exsecrantur bellum Turnique hymenaeos:  
curse the terrible war and Turnus' wedding;
> A Greek word for weddings: hymenaeus is a Greek loanword for the song sung as a bride is led to her husband's house. Turnus has not yet married Lavinia, so the word names a wedding that has not happened, the stated reason for the war.

**218** ipsum armis ipsumque iubent decernere ferro,  
they demand that he settle it himself, in arms, himself with the sword,

**219** qui regnum Italiae et primos sibi poscat honores.  
the man who claims the kingdom of Italy and the first honors for himself.

**220** ingravat haec saevus Drances solumque vocari  
Fierce Drances makes it heavier, and swears that Turnus alone

**221** testatur, solum posci in certamina Turnum.  
is being called for, Turnus alone demanded for the fight.

**222** Multa simul contra variis sententia dictis  
At the same time much is said the other way, in many verdicts,

**223** pro Turno, et magnum reginae nomen obumbrat,  
for Turnus, and the queen's great name throws its shade over him,

**224** multa virum meritis sustentat fama tropaeis.  
and his fame holds him up, earned by the trophies he has taken.

**225** Hos inter motus, medio in flagrante tumultu,  
In the middle of these stirrings, with the uproar blazing at its height,

**226** ecce super maesti magna Diomedis ab urbe  
look, on top of it, the envoys come back in grief

**227** legati responsa ferunt: nihil omnibus actum  
from great Diomedes' city with his answer: that nothing had been done

**228** tantorum impensis operum, nil dona neque aurum  
for all the outlay of so much work; that gifts and gold

**229** nec magnas valuisse preces, alia arma Latinis  
and great prayers had counted for nothing; the Latins must find

**230** quaerenda aut pacem Troiano ab rege petendum.  
other arms, or ask peace of the Trojan king.

**231** Deficit ingenti luctu rex ipse Latinus.  
King Latinus himself gives way under the huge grief.

**232** Fatalem Aenean manifesto numine ferri  
That Aeneas is carried on by fate, with a god's will plain in it,

**233** admonet ira deum tumulique ante ora recentes.  
the anger of the gods warns him, and the fresh graves before his eyes.

**234** Ergo concilium magnum primosque suorum  
So he calls a great council, and the first men of his people,

**235** imperio accitos alta intra limina cogit.  
summoned by his command, he gathers within his high doors.

**236** olli convenere fluuntque ad regia plenis  
They came together, and flow to the royal house through streets
> An old form of that man: olli is an archaic dative and nominative of ille, 'that man', already out of ordinary use by Vergil's own time. He keeps a handful of these old forms for formal moments, and here it opens a scene of the Latin assembly meeting.

**237** tecta viis. Sedet in mediis et maximus aevo  
packed full. In the middle sits Latinus, greatest in years

**238** et primus sceptris haud laeta fronte Latinus.  
and first in the scepter, and with no gladness on his face.

**239** Atque hic legatos Aetola ex urbe remissos,  
And here he orders the envoys sent home from the Aetolian city

**240** quae referant, fari iubet et responsa reposcit  
to report what they bring, and demands the answers back,

**241** ordine cuncta suo. Tum facta silentia linguis,  
all of them, each in its own order. Then tongues fell silent,

**242** et Venulus dicto parens ita farier infit:  
and Venulus, obeying the word, begins to speak so:
> An archaic passive infinitive: farier is an old passive infinitive form of fari, 'to speak', ending in -ier instead of the usual -i, already antique in Vergil's own day. It introduces Venulus giving a formal report to the council.

**243** “Vidimus, o cives, Diomedem Argivaque castra  
“We have seen, citizens, Diomedes and the Argive camp,

**244** atque iter emensi casus superavimus omnis  
and having measured out the road we came through every mischance,

**245** contigimusque manum, qua concidit Ilia tellus.  
and we touched the hand by which the land of Ilium went down.

**246** Ille urbem Argyripam patriae cognomine gentis  
He, in victory, was founding a city, Argyripa, called

**247** victor Gargani condebat Iapygis agris.  
after the nation of his fathers, in the fields of Iapygian Garganus.

**248** Postquam introgressi et coram data copia fandi,  
After we had gone in, and leave to speak face to face was given,

**249** munera praeferimus, nomen patriamque docemus,  
we hold out our gifts, we tell him our name and our country,

**250** qui bellum intulerint, quae causa attraxerit Arpos.  
who had brought war on us, what cause had drawn us to Arpi.

**251** Auditis ille haec placido sic reddidit ore:  
He heard it out, and answered so with a quiet face:

**252** “O fortunatae gentes, Saturnia regna,  
“O fortunate peoples, kingdoms of Saturn,

**253** antiqui Ausonii, quae vos fortuna quietos  
old Ausonians, what fortune shakes you out of your quiet

**254** sollicitat suadetque ignota lacessere bella?  
and urges you to provoke wars you know nothing about?

**255** Quicumque Iliacos ferro violavimus agros,  
All of us who did violence to the fields of Ilium with the sword,

**256** mitto ea, quae muris bellando exhausta sub altis,  
I say nothing of what was drained out of us fighting under those high walls,

**257** quos Simois premat ille viros, infanda per orbem  
of the men that Simois holds down there: the unspeakable

**258** supplicia et scelerum poenas expendimus omnes,  
punishments all over the world, the price of our crimes, we have all paid,

**259** vel Priamo miseranda manus: scit triste Minervae  
a company Priam himself might pity. Minerva's grim star

**260** sidus et Euboicae cautes ultorque Caphareus.  
knows it, and the Euboean rocks, and Caphereus the avenger.

**261** Militia ex illa diversum ad litus abacti  
Driven from that campaign to shores far apart,

**262** Atrides Protei Menelaus adusque columnas  
Menelaus, son of Atreus, is in exile as far off as the columns

**263** exsulat, Aetnaeos vidit Cyclopas Ulixes.  
of Proteus; Ulysses has seen the Cyclopes of Etna.

**264** Regna Neoptolemi referam versosque penates  
Shall I tell of Neoptolemus' kingdom, and the household gods of Idomeneus

**265** Idomenei? Libycone habitantis litore Locros?  
overturned? Of the Locrians living on a Libyan shore?

**266** Ipse Mycenaeus magnorum ductor Achivom  
The Mycenaean himself, commander of the great Achaeans,

**267** coniugis infandae prima inter limina dextra  
went down on his own threshold under the right hand

**268** oppetiit: devictam Asiam subsedit adulter.  
of a monstrous wife: an adulterer had lain in wait for the conqueror of Asia.

**269** Invidisse deos, patriis ut redditus aris  
Did the gods begrudge me my return to my fathers' altars,

**270** coniugium optatum et pulchram Calydona viderem?  
to see the wife I longed for and beautiful Calydon?

**271** Nunc etiam horribili visu portenta sequuntur,  
Now, too, portents horrible to look at pursue me,

**272** et socii amissi petierunt aethera pennis  
and my lost companions have gone up into the air on wings

**273** fluminibusque vagantur aves, heu dira meorum  
and wander the rivers as birds, ah, the terrible punishment

**274** supplicia, et scopulos lacrimosis vocibus implent.  
of my own men, and fill the cliffs with their weeping voices.

**275** Haec adeo ex illo mihi iam speranda fuerunt  
All this I should have been looking for from that very

**276** tempore, cum ferro caelestia corpora demens  
hour when I went at the bodies of gods with iron, out of my mind,

**277** adpetii et Veneris violavi volnere dextram.  
and did violence to Venus' hand with a wound.

**278** Ne vero, ne me ad talis impellite pugnas:  
No, do not, do not push me into fights of that kind.

**279** nec mihi cum Teucris ullum post eruta bellum  
I have no war with the Teucrians now that Pergamum

**280** Pergama, nec veterum memini laetorve malorum.  
has been torn down, and I take no pleasure remembering the old evils.

**281** Munera, quae patriis ad me portatis ab oris,  
The gifts you carry to me from your fathers' shores,

**282** vertite ad Aenean. Stetimus tela aspera contra  
turn them toward Aeneas. I have stood against his hard spears

**283** contulimusque manus: experto credite, quantus  
and closed hand to hand with him: take it from one who knows, how huge

**284** in clipeum adsurgat, quo turbine torqueat hastam.  
he rises behind the shield, with what a whirl he throws the spear.

**285** Si duo praeterea talis Idaea tulisset  
If the land of Ida had brought forth two more men like him,

**286** terra viros, ultro Inachias venisset ad urbes  
Dardanus would have marched of his own accord on the cities

**287** Dardanus, et versis lugeret Graecia fatis.  
of Inachus, and Greece would be mourning a fate turned around.

**288** Quidquid apud durae cessatum est moenia Troiae,  
Whatever standstill there was at the walls of hard Troy,

**289** Hectoris Aeneaeque manu victoria Graium  
it was by the hand of Hector and Aeneas that the Greeks' victory

**290** haesit et in decimum vestigia rettulit annum.  
stuck fast and dragged its footsteps back into the tenth year.
> Victory given feet to retreat: vestigia rettulit, 'carried its footprints back', personifies victoria, 'victory': it holds, then retraces nine years of steps into a tenth. Latin can give an abstract noun a body's motion, verb and all, without any comparison word.

**291** Ambo animis, ambo insignes praestantibus armis  
Both were marked men in spirit, both in outstanding arms;

**292** hic pietate prior. Coeant in foedera dextrae,  
this one was first in duty. Let right hands meet in a treaty

**293** qua datur; ast armis concurrant arma cavete.”  
wherever they can; but take care that arms do not run against arms.

**294** Et responsa simul quae sint, rex optime, regis  
And you have heard, best of kings, both what the king's

**295** audisti et quae sit magno sententia bello.”  
answers are, and what he thinks of this great war.”

**296** Vix ea legati, variusque per ora cucurrit  
The envoys had hardly finished, and a mixed muttering ran
> A dropped verb of speaking: Vix ea legati, literally 'scarcely these things the envoys', has no verb at all. Latin can drop a verb of speaking right after a speech has just ended, since the sense of 'said' or 'finished' is already understood.

**297** Ausonidum turbata fremor: ceu saxa morantur  
in confusion through the mouths of the Ausonians: as boulders hold back

**298** cum rapidos amnis, fit clauso gurgite murmur  
a river running fast, and in the blocked channel a murmuring starts

**299** vicinaeque fremunt ripae crepitantibus undis.  
and the near banks roar with the water clattering against them.

**300** Ut primum placati animi et trepida ora quierunt,  
As soon as their minds were quieted and the trembling mouths grew still,

**301** praefatus divos solio rex infit ab alto:  
the king, calling first on the gods, begins from his high throne:

**302** “Ante equidem summa de re statuisse, Latini,  
“I could have wished, Latins, that we had settled this greatest question

**303** et vellem et fuerat melius, non tempore tali  
earlier, and it would have been better, not to be calling

**304** cogere concilium, cum muros adsidet hostis.  
a council at a time like this, with the enemy sitting against our walls.

**305** Bellum importunum, cives, cum gente deorum  
We are waging an unseasonable war, citizens, on a race of gods,

**306** invictisque viris gerimus, quos nulla fatigant  
on men not to be conquered, whom no battle wears out,

**307** proelia: nec victi possunt absistere ferro.  
and who, beaten, cannot leave off the sword.

**308** Spem siquam adscitis Aetolum habuistis in armis,  
If you had any hope in the Aetolian arms you called in,

**309** ponite. Spes sibi quisque, sed haec quam angusta videtis;  
put it down. Each man is his own hope, and you see how narrow that is.
> A slogan with no verb: Spes sibi quisque, 'hope for himself, each man', has three words and no verb, compressed to the shape of a proverb. Latinus quotes it as a soldier's saying, to a council that has just run out of allies.

**310** cetera qua rerum iaceant perculsa ruina,  
In what ruin the rest of our affairs lie beaten down

**311** ante oculos interque manus sunt omnia vestras.  
is all of it before your eyes and between your hands.

**312** Nec quemquam incuso: potuit quae plurima virtus  
And I accuse nobody: what courage could be at its greatest

**313** esse, fuit; toto certatum est corpore regni.  
has been; we have fought with the whole body of the kingdom.
> The state described as a body: certatum est is an impersonal passive, 'it has been fought', and toto corpore regni, 'with the whole body of the kingdom', gives the state a physical body thrown entirely into the war. Roman political language often speaks of the res publica this way.

**314** Nunc adeo quae sit dubiae sententia menti  
Now then, what the opinion of my doubting mind is

**315** expediam et paucis, animos adhibete, docebo.  
I will set out, and in few words, give me your attention, explain.

**316** Est antiquus ager Tusco mihi proximus amni,  
There is an old tract of land of mine nearest the Tuscan river,

**317** longus in occasum, finis super usque Sicanos;  
running long toward the sunset, out past the Sicanian border;

**318** Aurunci Rutulique serunt et vomere duros  
Auruncans and Rutulians sow it, and work the hard hills

**319** exercent colles atque horum asperrima pascunt.  
with the ploughshare, and pasture the roughest of it.

**320** Haec omnis regio et celsi plaga pinea montis  
Let this whole region, and the pine belt of the high mountain,

**321** cedat amicitiae Teucrorum, et foederis aequas  
pass into friendship with the Teucrians, and let us name

**322** dicamus leges sociosque in regna vocemus.  
fair terms of treaty and call them into the kingdom as allies.

**323** Considant, si tantus amor, et moenia condant.  
Let them settle, if the longing is so great, and found their walls.

**324** Sin alios finis aliamque capessere gentem  
But if their mind is set on taking other borders and another

**325** est animus possuntque solo decedere nostro:  
nation, and they are able to leave our soil,

**326** bis denas Italo texamus robore navis  
let us weave them twice ten ships out of Italian oak,
> Twenty, counted as two tens: bis denas means twice ten, another of the book's numbers stated by doubling rather than named outright, matching bis sex for twelve wounds and bis senos for twelve days. Here it sets the size of the ship offer at twenty.

**327** seu pluris complere valent, iacet omnis ad undam  
or more, if they can fill more: all the timber lies

**328** materies, ipsi numerumque modumque carinis  
down at the water; let them lay down the number and the build

**329** praecipiant, nos aera manus navalia demus.  
of the keels, and we will give the bronze, the hands, the dockyards.

**330** Praeterea qui dicta ferant et foedera firment  
Besides, to carry our terms and make the treaty firm,

**331** centum oratores prima de gente Latinos  
let a hundred spokesmen, Latins of the first families,

**332** ire placet pacisque manu praetendere ramos,  
go, this is my will, and hold out the branches of peace in their hands,

**333** munera portantis aurique eborisque talenta  
carrying gifts, talents of gold and of ivory,

**334** et sellam regni trabeamque insignia nostri.  
and the chair of state and the striped robe, the emblems of our reign.

**335** Consulite in medium et rebus succurrite fessis.”  
Take counsel for the common good, and rescue our worn-out fortunes.”

**336** Tum Drances idem infensus, quem gloria Turni  
Then Drances, hostile as before, whom the glory of Turnus

**337** obliqua invidia stimulisque agitabat amaris,  
kept goading with sidelong envy and with bitter spurs,

**338** largus opum et lingua melior, sed frigida bello  
lavish with money and better with his tongue, but a hand cold

**339** dextera, consiliis habitus non futilis auctor,  
in war, reckoned no worthless voice in council,

**340** seditione potens (genus huic materna superbum  
and powerful in faction (his mother's rank gave him

**341** nobilitas dabat, incertum de patre ferebat),  
a proud descent; from his father he carried nothing certain),

**342** surgit et his onerat dictis atque aggerat iras:  
he stands, and loads them with these words, and heaps up their anger:

**343** “Rem nulli obscuram nostrae nec vocis egentem  
“It is a matter dark to nobody, and in no need of my voice,

**344** consulis, O bone rex: cuncti se scire fatentur,  
that you put to us, good king. All admit they know

**345** quid fortuna ferat populi, sed dicere mussant.  
what fortune is bringing the people, but they mutter instead of speaking.

**346** Det libertatem fandi flatusque remittat  
Let him give us leave to speak, and let his blustering drop,

**347** cuius ob auspicium infaustum moresque sinistros  
the man for whose ill-starred auspices and crooked ways

**348** (dicam equidem, licet arma mihi mortemque minetur)  
(I will say it, though he threatens me with arms and death)

**349** lumina tot cecidisse ducum totamque videmus  
we see so many lights of our leaders fallen, and the whole

**350** consedisse urbem luctu, dum Troia temptat  
city settled into mourning, while he goes at the Trojan

**351** castra fugae fidens et caelum territat armis.  
camp, trusting to his running, and terrifies heaven with weapons.
> Trust swapped from arms to flight: The set phrase is fidens armis, 'trusting in his weapons'. Drances replaces armis with fugae, 'to flight', so the line accuses Turnus of trusting his ability to run rather than his weapons.

**352** Unum etiam donis istis, quae plurima mitti  
One thing more to those gifts of yours, so very many, that you order

**353** Dardanidis dicique iubes, unum, optime regum,  
sent and promised to the sons of Dardanus: one thing, best of kings,

**354** adicias nec te ullius violentia vincat,  
add, and let no man's violence beat you out of it:

**355** quin natam egregio genero dignisque hymenaeis  
give your daughter, father, to an outstanding son-in-law

**356** des, pater, et pacem hanc aeterno foedere iungas.  
in a worthy marriage, and bind this peace with a treaty for ever.

**357** Quod si tantus habet mentes et pectora terror,  
But if such terror as this holds our minds and hearts,

**358** ipsum obtestemur veniamque oremus ab ipso:  
then let us appeal to the man himself and beg the favor from him:

**359** cedat, ius proprium regi patriaeque remittat.  
let him give way, hand back to king and country what is theirs.

**360** Quid miseros totiens in aperta pericula cives  
Why do you throw your wretched countrymen so often into open danger,

**361** proicis, O Latio caput horum et causa malorum?  
you who are Latium's fountainhead and cause of these evils?

**362** Nulla salus bello: pacem te poscimus omnes,  
There is no safety in war. We all demand peace of you,

**363** Turne, simul pacis solum inviolabile pignus.  
Turnus, and with it the one pledge of peace nobody may touch.

**364** Primus ego, invisum quem tu tibi fingis, et esse  
I first, whom you make out to be your enemy, and I am in no

**365** nil moror, en supplex venio. Miserere tuorum,  
hurry to deny it, look, I come as a suppliant. Pity your own people;

**366** pone animos et pulsus abi. Sat funera fusi  
put down your pride, and go, beaten. Routed, we have seen

**367** vidimus ingentis et desolavimus agros.  
enough of huge funerals, and we have emptied the fields.

**368** Aut si fama movet, si tantum pectore robur  
Or, if fame moves you, if you take up so much hardness

**369** concipis et si adeo dotalis regia cordi est,  
into your breast, and if a palace for a dowry is so near your heart,

**370** aude atque adversum fidens fer pectus in hostem.  
then dare it, and carry a confident chest against the enemy.

**371** Scilicet ut Turno contingat regia coniunx,  
Of course, so that a royal wife may fall to Turnus,

**372** nos animae viles, inhumata infletaque turba,  
we, cheap lives, an unburied and unwept crowd,

**373** sternamur campis. Etiam tu, siqua tibi vis,  
are to be laid out on the fields. You too, if you have any force in you,

**374** si patrii quid Martis habes, illum aspice contra,  
if you have anything of your fathers' war-god, look straight at the man

**375** qui vocat.”  
who calls you.”
> A line left unfinished: The Latin verse stops here, mid line, after qui vocat, 'who calls'. Vergil died before revising the poem and left roughly fifty eight such unfinished lines; editors keep them as they stand rather than completing them.

**376** Talibus exarsit dictis violentia Turni;  
At words like these the violence of Turnus blazed up;
> A word kept for one man: violentia, force that does not stop where it should, is used of only one person in the whole poem: Turnus. It names something stronger than anger, and it is not clearly praise or clearly blame.

**377** dat gemitum rumpitque has imo pectore voces  
he groans, and breaks out these words from the bottom of his chest:

**378** “Larga quidem, Drance, semper tibi copia fandi  
“You always have, Drances, a large supply of talk

**379** tum, cum bella manus poscunt, patribusque vocatis  
just when the wars are calling for hands, and when the fathers are summoned

**380** primus ades. Sed non replenda est curia verbis,  
you are there first. But the senate house is not to be filled with words

**381** quae tuto tibi magna volant, dum distinet hostem  
which fly out big and safe for you, while the rampart of the wall

**382** agger murorum nec inundant sanguine fossae.  
keeps the enemy at a distance and the ditches do not run with blood.

**383** Proinde tona eloquio, solitum tibi, meque timoris  
So thunder away in your eloquence, it is your habit, and charge me

**384** argue tu, Drance, quando tot stragis acervos  
with cowardice, Drances, seeing that so many heaps of Teucrian

**385** Teucrorum tua dextra dedit passimque tropaeis  
slaughter are your right hand's work, and you have marked the fields

**386** insignis agros. Possit quid vivida virtus,  
everywhere with trophies. What living courage can do,

**387** experiare licet; nec longe scilicet hostes  
you are free to find out; and there is no need to look far

**388** quaerendi nobis: circumstant undique muros.  
for the enemy: they stand all round the walls.

**389** Imus in adversos: quid cessas? An tibi Mavors  
We are going out against them. Why do you hold back? Or will your war-god

**390** ventosa in lingua pedibusque fugacibus istis  
live for ever in that windy tongue and in those feet of yours
> An insult handed back: Turnus repeats Drances' own charge, that he trusts to flight, and attaches ventosa lingua, 'windy tongue', and pedibus fugacibus, 'fleeing feet', to Drances instead. Mavors is the old name for Mars, so the line asks whether Drances' share of war skill is only talk.

**391** semper erit?  
for ever?

**392** Pulsus ego? Aut quisquam merito, foedissime, pulsum  
Beaten, I? Will anyone, you filthiest of men, call me beaten

**393** arguet, Iliaco tumidum qui crescere Thybrim  
with any justice, who will see the Tiber swelling and rising with Ilian

**394** sanguine et Evandri totam cum stirpe videbit  
blood, and the whole house of Evander brought down

**395** procubuisse domum atque exutos Arcadas armis?  
root and stock, and the Arcadians stripped of their arms?

**396** Haud ita me experti Bitias et Pandarus ingens  
Not so did Bitias find me, and huge Pandarus,

**397** et quos mille die victor sub Tartara misi,  
and the thousand I sent down under Tartarus in one day, a victor,

**398** inclusus muris hostilique aggere saeptus.  
shut inside their walls and fenced in by the enemy's earthwork.

**399** “Nulla salus bello.” Capiti cane talia, demens,  
‘There is no safety in war.' Sing that, madman, over the head
> A quoted line thrown back: Turnus repeats Drances' own sentence, nulla salus bello, 'there is no safety in war', word for word, then tells him to cane talia, 'sing such things', over an enemy's head. canere over someone's head names a curse or death song, not ordinary speech.

**400** Dardanio rebusque tuis. Proinde omnia magno  
of the Dardanian, and over your own affairs. Go on, then, never stop

**401** ne cessa turbare metu atque extollere vires  
throwing everything into confusion with your great fear, exalting the strength

**402** gentis bis victae, contra premere arma Latini.  
of a nation twice beaten, running down the arms of Latinus.

**403** Nunc et Myrmidonum proceres Phrygia arma tremescunt,  
Now even the chiefs of the Myrmidons tremble at Phrygian weapons,

**404** nunc et Tydides et Larissaeus Achilles,  
now even the son of Tydeus, and Achilles of Larissa,

**405** amnis et Hadriacas retro fugit Aufidus undas.  
and the river Aufidus runs backwards from the Adriatic waves.
> A river running backward as proof: This names an adynaton, a stated impossibility used to argue that something else is equally impossible, here a river flowing back toward its source instead of to the sea. The Aufidus is a real river in Apulia, the region Drances wanted for an ally.

**406** Vel cum se pavidum contra mea iurgia fingit  
Or when that piece of craftsman's villainy pretends to be terrified

**407** artificis scelus et formidine crimen acerbat.  
of my scolding, and makes the charge bitterer with his own fear.

**408** Numquam animam talem dextra hac, absiste moveri,  
You will never lose a soul like yours by this right hand of mine,

**409** amittes: habitet tecum et sit pectore in isto.  
leave off shaking. Let it stay with you; let it live in that chest.

**410** Nunc ad te et tua magna, pater, consulta revertor.  
Now, father, I come back to you and your great deliberations.

**411** Si nullam nostris ultra spem ponis in armis,  
If you place no further hope in our arms,

**412** si tam deserti sumus et semel agmine verso  
if we are so abandoned, and once our line was turned

**413** funditus occidimus neque habet Fortuna regressum?  
we fell utterly, and Fortune has no way back?

**414** oremus pacem et dextras tendamus inertis.  
then let us pray for peace and stretch out helpless hands.

**415** Quamquam O, si solitae quicquam virtutis adesset!  
And yet, oh, if anything of our old courage were here!
> A sentence broken off: Quamquam O, 'and yet, oh', stops after two words and a break. The figure is called aposiopesis, cutting a sentence short because it will not be finished. Vergil gives the same figure to Neptune in Book One; here it is Turnus who speaks it.

**416** Ille mihi ante alios fortunatusque laborum  
That man, beyond all others, I count blessed in his labors

**417** egregiusque animi, qui, nequid tale videret,  
and outstanding in spirit, who, rather than see anything of this kind,

**418** procubuit moriens et humum semel ore momordit.  
went down dying and bit the ground once with his mouth.

**419** Sin et opes nobis et adhuc intacta iuventus  
But if we still have means, and a young manhood so far untouched,

**420** auxilioque urbes Italae populique supersunt,  
and Italian towns and peoples left to help us,

**421** sin et Troianis cum multo gloria venit  
and if glory came to the Trojans too at the cost of much

**422** sanguine, sunt illis sua funera parque per omnis  
blood, they have their own dead, and one storm passed

**423** tempestas: cur indecores in limine primo  
over all alike: why do we give out at the first threshold,

**424** deficimus? Cur ante tubam tremor occupat artus?  
and shamefully? Why does trembling take our limbs before the trumpet?

**425** Multa dies variisque labor mutabilis aevi  
Many things the day, and the shifting labor of changeable time,

**426** rettulit in melius, multos alterna revisens  
have brought back for the better; Fortune, coming round to men by turns,

**427** lusit et in solido rursus Fortuna locavit.  
has mocked many and then set them on firm footing again.

**428** Non erit auxilio nobis Aetolus et Arpi:  
The Aetolian and Arpi will not be our help:

**429** at Messapus erit felixque Tolumnius et quos  
but Messapus will, and lucky Tolumnius, and the captains

**430** tot populi misere duces, nec parva sequetur  
so many peoples have sent; nor will a small glory follow

**431** gloria delectos Latio et Laurentibus agris.  
the picked men of Latium and of the Laurentian fields.

**432** Est et Volscorum egregia de gente Camilla,  
And there is Camilla, of the excellent Volscian nation,

**433** agmen agens equitum et florentis aere catervas.  
leading a column of horse, squadrons flowering in bronze.

**434** Quod si me solum Teucri in certamina poscunt  
But if it is me alone the Teucrians call into the contest,

**435** idque placet tantumque bonis communibus obsto,  
and that is your pleasure, and I stand so far in the way of the common good,

**436** non adeo has exosa manus Victoria fugit,  
Victory has not hated these hands and fled them so thoroughly

**437** ut tanta quicquam pro spe temptare recusem.  
that I should refuse to attempt anything for a hope so great.

**438** Ibo animis contra, vel magnum praestet Achillem  
I will go to meet him with a will, though he outdo the great Achilles

**439** factaque Vulcani manibus paria induat arma  
and put on armor to match it, made by Vulcan's hands,

**440** ille licet. Vobis animam hanc soceroque Latino  
let him. To you, and to my father-in-law Latinus, I,

**441** Turnus ego, haud ulli veterum virtute secundus,  
Turnus, second in courage to none of the men of old,

**442** devovi. “Solum Aeneas vocat”: et vocet oro,  
have vowed this life. ‘Aeneas calls for me alone': then let him call, I ask it,

**443** nec Drances potius, sive est haec ira deorum,  
and not Drances in my place: if this is the anger of the gods,

**444** morte luat, sive est virtus et gloria, tollat.”  
let me pay it with death; if it is courage and glory, let me take it.”
> An unnamed subject: luat and tollat are both third person, and the Latin never states their subject, so the sentence could mean Turnus offering his own death, or a remark aimed at Drances. The more common reading takes it as Turnus speaking of himself, since the vow two lines earlier is his own; the other reading remains possible.

**445** Illi haec inter se dubiis de rebus agebant  
They were arguing all this out among themselves, contending

**446** certantes; castra Aeneas aciemque movebat:  
over doubtful matters; Aeneas was moving his camp and his line.

**447** nuntius ingenti per regia tecta tumultu  
Look, a messenger comes tearing through the royal house

**448** ecce ruit magnisque urbem terroribus implet,  
in a huge uproar, and fills the city with great terrors:

**449** instructos acie Tiberino a flumine Teucros  
that the Teucrians, drawn up in line of battle from the river of Tiber,

**450** Tyrrhenamque manum totis descendere campis.  
and the Etruscan force, are coming down across the whole plain.

**451** Extemplo turbati animi concussaque vulgi  
At once minds are thrown about, the crowd's hearts are struck,

**452** pectora et adrectae stimulis haud mollibus irae.  
and their anger is raised on goads that are not soft ones.

**453** Arma manu trepidi poscunt, fremit arma iuventus,  
Trembling, they call for weapons to their hands; the young men roar for weapons;

**454** flent maesti mussantque patres. Hic undique clamor  
the fathers weep in their grief and mutter. On every side a great

**455** dissensu vario magnus se tollit in auras  
shout lifts itself into the air out of the disagreement,

**456** haud secus atque alto in luco cum forte catervae  
no otherwise than when in some high grove flocks of birds

**457** consedere avium piscosove amne Padusae  
have chanced to settle, or where Padusa runs full of fish

**458** dant sonitum rauci per stagna loquacia cycni.  
and hoarse swans give out their noise through the babbling shallows.

**459** “Immo,” ait, “O cives” adrepto tempore, “Turnus,”  
“No,” says Turnus, catching his moment, “citizens,

**460** “cogite concilium et pacem laudate sedentes:  
call your council, sit down and praise peace:

**461** illi armis in regna ruunt.” Nec plura locutus  
they are running into the kingdom under arms.” Saying no more
> An answer instead of an argument: illi armis in regna ruunt, 'they are rushing into the kingdom under arms', is five words with no argument attached to them. Turnus answers the council's debate by reporting what is happening outside it, rather than responding to any point made.

**462** corripuit sese et tectis citus extulit altis.  
he snatched himself up and carried himself out fast from the high house.

**463** “Tu, Voluse, armari Volscorum edice maniplos,  
“You, Volusus, order the companies of the Volscians to arm,

**464** duc,” ait, “et Rutulos. Equitem Messapus in armis  
and lead the Rutulians,” he says. “Messapus, and Coras

**465** et cum fratre Coras latis diffundite campis.  
with his brother, spread the horse in arms across the wide fields.

**466** Pars aditus urbis firmet turrisque capessat,  
Let one part make the city's approaches firm and take the towers;

**467** cetera, qua iusso, mecum manus inferat arma.”  
the rest of the force is to carry its arms with me, where I order.”

**468** Ilicet in muros tota discurritur urbe.  
At once they are running to the walls, every way through the city.

**469** Consilium ipse pater et magna incepta Latinus  
Father Latinus himself abandons the council and its great

**470** deserit ac tristi turbatus tempore differt  
beginnings, and, shaken by the grim hour, puts them off,

**471** multaque se incusat, qui non adceperit ultro  
and blames himself hard, that he had not of his own accord taken in

**472** Dardanium Aenean generumque adsciverit urbi.  
Dardanian Aeneas and made him a son-in-law to the city.

**473** Praefodiunt alii portas aut saxa sudesque  
Some dig trenches in front of the gates, or haul up stones

**474** subvectant. Bello dat signum rauca cruentum  
and stakes. The hoarse trumpet gives the bloody signal

**475** bucina. Tum muros varia cinxere corona  
for war. Then a mixed ring of mothers and boys

**476** matronae puerique: vocat labor ultimus omnis.  
circled the walls: the last labor is calling everyone.

**477** Nec non ad templum summasque ad Palladis arces  
And up to the temple, to Pallas' citadel at the summit,

**478** subvehitur magna matrum regina caterva  
the queen rides with a great crowd of mothers,

**479** dona ferens, iuxtaque comes Lavinia virgo,  
carrying gifts, and beside her, as companion, the girl Lavinia,

**480** causa mali tanti, oculos deiecta decoros.  
cause of so great an evil, her lovely eyes cast down.

**481** Succedunt matres et templum ture vaporant  
The mothers go in and make the temple steam with incense

**482** et maestas alto fundunt de limine voces:  
and pour out mourning voices from the high threshold:

**483** “Armipotens, praeses belli, Tritonia virgo,  
“Mighty in arms, keeper of war, Tritonian maiden,

**484** frange manu telum Phrygii praedonis et ipsum  
break with your hand the spear of the Phrygian robber, and throw

**485** pronum sterne solo portisque effunde sub altis.”  
the man himself face down on the ground, and spill him under our high gates.”

**486** Cingitur ipse furens certatim in proelia Turnus.  
Turnus himself arms in a fury, racing to be in the fighting.

**487** Iamque adeo rutilum thoraca indutus aenis  
And already, wearing the red-gold corselet, he bristled

**488** horrebat squamis surasque incluserat auro,  
with bronze scales, and had shut his calves inside gold,

**489** tempora nudus adhuc, laterique adcinxerat ensem  
his temples still bare, and had buckled the sword to his side,

**490** fulgebatque alta decurrens aureus arce,  
and shone out golden, running down from the high citadel,

**491** exsultatque animis et spe iam praecipit hostem:  
and exults in spirit, and in hope has the enemy already:

**492** qualis ubi abruptis fugit praesaepia vinclis  
as when a horse, its tether snapped, breaks out of the stall

**493** tandem liber equus campoque potitus aperto  
and free at last, in possession of the open field,

**494** aut ille in pastus armentaque tendit equarum  
either heads for the pastures and the herds of mares

**495** aut adsuetus aquae perfundi flumine noto  
or, being used to soaking in the river he knows,

**496** emicat adrectisque fremit cervicibus alte  
bursts forward and neighs high, with his neck up,

**497** luxurians, luduntque iubae per colla, per armos.  
running riot, and the mane plays over his neck and shoulders.

**498** Obvia cui Volscorum acie comitante Camilla  
Camilla came to meet him, with a column of Volscians attending,

**499** occurrit portisque ab equo regina sub ipsis  
and the queen leapt down from her horse right at the gates;

**500** desiluit, quam tota cohors imitata relictis  
the whole troop copied her and flowed down to the ground,

**501** ad terram defluxit equis; tum talia fatur:  
leaving their horses. Then she speaks so:

**502** “Turne, sui merito siqua est fiducia forti,  
“Turnus, if a brave one has any right to trust herself,
> A masculine word applied to herself: fortis, 'brave', is the ordinary word for a brave soldier. Camilla applies it to herself, in the dative forti, with nothing in the Latin marking it as unusual for a woman: the standard term, used without adjustment.

**503** audeo et Aeneadum promitto occurrere turmae  
I dare, and I promise, to meet the squadron of Aeneas' men,

**504** solaque Tyrrhenos equites ire obvia contra.  
and to go alone against the Etruscan cavalry.

**505** Me sine prima manu temptare pericula belli  
Let me try the first dangers of the war with my own hand;

**506** tu pedes ad muros subsiste et moenia serva.”  
you stay on foot at the walls and keep the fortifications.”

**507** Turnus ad haec, oculos horrenda in virgine fixus:  
Turnus to this, his eyes fixed on the dreadful girl:
> A word for what raises hair: horrendus describes what is said of prodigies and of the Sibyl, something that makes the hair stand up. Here it is paired directly with virgo, 'girl', horrenda in virgine, setting the two words side by side without reconciling them.

**508** “O decus Italiae virgo, quas dicere grates  
“O maiden, glory of Italy, what thanks can I set myself

**509** quasve referre parem? Sed nunc, est omnia quando  
to speak, or to give back? But now, since that spirit of yours

**510** iste animus supra, mecum partire laborem.  
is above all things, take a share of the work with me.

**511** Aeneas, ut fama fidem missique reportant  
Aeneas, as rumor gives me to trust, and as the scouts
> Rumor bringing back trust: fama fidem reportant means literally 'rumor brings back trust', fides here being the credit a report deserves before someone acts on it. Aeneas is weighing what rumor and his scouts tell him, not something he has seen for himself.

**512** exploratores, equitum levia improbus arma  
sent out report, the reckless man has sent his light-armed

**513** praemisit, quaterent campos; ipse ardua montis  
horse ahead to sweep the plains; he himself is coming to the city

**514** per deserta iugo superans adventat ad urbem.  
over the ridge, getting across the steep waste of the mountain.

**515** Furta paro belli convexo in tramite silvae,  
I am preparing a theft of war on a curving track in the wood,
> The standing term for ambush: furtum means theft, and furta belli, 'thefts of war', is the standard Latin phrase for an ambush, war taken by stealth rather than fought openly. Turnus is planning exactly this kind of attack.

**516** ut bivias armato obsidam milite fauces.  
to block the two-mouthed gorge with armed men.

**517** Tu Tyrrhenum equitem conlatis excipe signis;  
You take on the Etruscan horse with your standards joined;

**518** tecum acer Messapus erit turmaeque Latinae  
keen Messapus will be with you, and the Latin squadrons

**519** Tiburtique manus, ducis et tu concipe curam.”  
and Tiburtus' force; and you take up a commander's charge as well.”

**520** Sic ait, et paribus Messapum in proelia dictis  
So he speaks, and with the same words heartens Messapus

**521** hortatur sociosque duces et pergit in hostem.  
into the fight, and the allied captains, and goes on against the enemy.

**522** Est curvo anfractu valles, adcommoda fraudi  
There is a valley in a curving bend, made for a trap

**523** armorumque dolis, quam densis frondibus atrum  
and the tricks of arms, which a slope on either side

**524** urget utrimque latus, tenuis quo semita ducit  
hems in, black with crowding leaves; a thin path leads in there

**525** angustaeque ferunt fauces aditusque maligni.  
and a narrow gorge and grudging entrances bring you.

**526** Hanc super in speculis summoque in vertice montis  
Above it, among the lookouts on the very peak of the mountain,

**527** planities ignota iacet tutique receptus,  
lies a flat nobody knows, and safe cover,

**528** seu dextra laevaque velis occurrere pugnae,  
whether you wish to come at the fight from the right or the left,

**529** sive instare iugis et grandia volvere saxa.  
or to stand on the ridges and roll great stones down.

**530** Huc iuvenis nota fertur regione viarum  
Here the young man makes his way by a line of roads he knows,

**531** arripuitque locum et silvis insedit iniquis.  
and seized the ground, and settled down into the unfair woods.

**532** Velocem interea superis in sedibus Opim,  
Meanwhile, in the seats above, swift Opis,

**533** unam ex virginibus sociis sacraque caterva,  
one of the maiden companions of her sacred band,

**534** compellabat et has tristis Latonia voces  
Latona's daughter was calling on, and gave these words

**535** ore dabat: “Graditur bellum ad crudele Camilla,  
in grief out of her mouth: “Camilla is walking into a cruel war,

**536** O virgo, et nostris nequiquam cingitur armis,  
my girl, and belts on our weapons for nothing,

**537** cara mihi ante alias.” Neque enim novus iste Dianae  
dearer to me than the rest.” For this love of Diana's is no

**538** venit amor subitaque animum dulcedine movit.  
new thing, and did not move her heart with a sudden sweetness.

**539** Pulsus ob invidiam regno viresque superbas  
When Metabus, driven out of his kingdom for the hatred of it

**540** Priverno antiqua Metabus cum excederet urbe,  
and his overbearing power, was leaving the ancient city of Privernum,

**541** infantem fugiens media inter proelia belli  
fleeing through the middle of the fighting, he took his baby up

**542** sustulit exsilio comitem matrisque vocavit  
as the companion of his exile, and called her by her mother's

**543** nomine Casmillae mutata parte Camillam.  
name of Casmilla, with part of it changed, Camilla.
> One syllable removed from a name: Camilla's name is her mother's name, Casmilla, with a syllable cut out of it. A camillus was a freeborn boy who assisted at Roman sacrifice, so the shortened name still carries that word for ritual service inside it.

**544** Ipse sinu prae se portans iuga longa petebat  
Carrying her in front of him at his breast, he made for the long ridges

**545** solorum nemorum: tela undique saeva premebant  
of empty woods: savage weapons pressed on him from every side

**546** et circumfuso volitabant milite Volsci.  
and the Volscians came flying round with their soldiers poured out everywhere.

**547** Ecce fugae medio summis Amasenus abundans  
Look, in the middle of the flight Amasenus was foaming

**548** spumabat ripis: tantus se nubibus imber  
over the top of its banks: so great a rainstorm had burst

**549** ruperat. Ille, innare parans, infantis amore  
out of the clouds. He, getting ready to swim, is slowed

**550** tardatur caroque oneri timet. Omnia secum  
by love of the child, and fears for the burden he loves. Turning everything

**551** versanti subito vix haec sententia sedit.  
over with himself, he settled all at once, and barely, on this plan.

**552** Telum immane manu valida quod forte gerebat  
A huge weapon the fighting man happened to be carrying

**553** bellator, solidum nodis et robore cocto,  
in his strong hand, solid with knots and fire-hardened oak,

**554** huic natam, libro et silvestri subere clausam,  
to this he binds his daughter, shut in bark and woodland cork,

**555** implicat atque habilem mediae circumligat hastae;  
and lashes her neatly around the middle of the shaft;

**556** quam dextra ingenti librans ita ad aethera fatur:  
and balancing it in his huge right hand he speaks so to the sky:

**557** “Alma, tibi hanc, nemorum cultrix, Latonia virgo,  
“Kindly maiden of Latona, dweller in the woods,

**558** ipse pater famulam voveo; tua prima per auras  
I, her own father, vow this girl to you as your servant. Holding

**559** tela tenens supplex hostem fugit. Accipe, testor,  
your weapons first of all, through the air, a suppliant, she flees the enemy.

**560** diva tuam, quae nunc dubiis committitur auris.”  
Take her as yours, goddess, I call you to witness, given now to doubtful winds.”

**561** Dixit et adducto contortum hastile lacerto  
He spoke, and with his arm drawn back he lets fly

**562** immittit: sonuere undae, rapidum super amnem  
the whirling shaft. The waters sounded; over the racing river

**563** infelix fugit in iaculo stridente Camilla.  
unlucky Camilla flees on the shrieking javelin.
> The poem's word for the doomed: infelix, 'unlucky', is the adjective the poem repeats for figures marked to die, applied over and over to Dido. Here it is attached to Camilla the first time she crosses a river as an infant, long before her death.

**564** At Metabus, magna propius iam urgente caterva,  
But Metabus, with the great company pressing closer now,

**565** dat sese fluvio atque hastam cum virgine victor  
gives himself to the river, and in victory pulls the spear with the girl on it,

**566** gramineo donum Triviae de caespite vellit.  
Trivia's gift, out of the grassy turf.

**567** Non illum tectis ullae, non moenibus urbes  
No cities took him in under their roofs or their walls,

**568** accepere neque ipse manus feritate dedisset:  
nor in his wildness would he have given them his hands:

**569** pastorum et solis exegit montibus aevom.  
he spent his life among shepherds on the lonely mountains.

**570** Hic natam in dumis interque horrentia lustra  
Here in the thickets, among the bristling lairs, he fed his daughter

**571** armentalis equae mammis et lacte ferino  
at the teats of a herd-mare, on the milk of a wild animal,

**572** nutribat, teneris immulgens ubera labris.  
squeezing the udder into her soft lips.

**573** Utque pedum primis infans vestigia plantis  
And as soon as the baby had set the first prints

**574** institerat, iaculo palmas armavit acuto  
of her feet on the ground, he armed her palms with a sharp javelin

**575** spiculaque ex umero parvae suspendit et arcum.  
and hung a quiver and a bow from the little one's shoulder.

**576** Pro crinali auro, pro longae tegmine pallae  
In place of gold in her hair, in place of a long robe's covering,

**577** tigridis exuviae per dorsum a vertice pendent.  
a tiger's skin hangs down her back from the crown of her head.

**578** Tela manu iam tum tenera puerilia torsit  
Even then she threw a child's weapons with her soft hand

**579** et fundam tereti circum caput egit habena  
and swung a sling on a smooth thong round her head

**580** Strymoniamque gruem aut album deiecit olorem.  
and brought down a Strymonian crane or a white swan.

**581** Multae illam frustra Tyrrhena per oppida matres  
Many mothers all through the Etruscan towns wanted her in vain

**582** optavere nurum: sola contenta Diana  
for a daughter-in-law: content with Diana alone,

**583** aeternum telorum et virginitatis amorem  
she cherishes an everlasting love of weapons and of virginity,

**584** intemerata colit. “Vellem haud correpta fuisset  
unbroken. “I could wish she had not been swept up
> A wish already too late: vellem, 'I could wish', is an imperfect subjunctive used by itself for a wish that cannot now be granted. Diana speaks it about Camilla's fate before the event happens in the story, the grammar of regret stated in advance.

**585** militia tali, conata lacessere Teucros:  
in soldiering like this, in trying to provoke the Teucrians:

**586** cara mihi comitumque foret nunc una mearum.  
she would be dear to me and one of my companions now.

**587** Verum age, quandoquidem fatis urgetur acerbis,  
But come, since a bitter fate presses on her,

**588** labere, nympha, polo finisque invise Latinos,  
glide down from the sky, nymph, and visit the Latin borders,
> A deponent verb's imperative: labere is the imperative of labi, a deponent verb, passive in form but active in meaning: 'glide down'. polo, 'from the sky', is an ablative of separation used without a preposition, a form Latin verse prefers to the fuller phrasing.

**589** tristis ubi infausto committitur omine pugna.  
where a grim battle is being joined under a bad omen.

**590** Haec cape et ultricem pharetra deprome sagittam:  
Take these, and draw an avenging arrow from the quiver:

**591** hac quicumque sacrum violarit volnere corpus,  
with this, whoever does violence to that sacred body with a wound,

**592** Tros Italusque, mihi pariter det sanguine poenas.  
Trojan or Italian, shall pay me the price in blood alike.

**593** Post ego nube cava miserandae corpus et arma  
Afterwards I in a hollow cloud will carry the poor girl's body

**594** inspoliata feram tumulo patriaeque reponam.”  
and her armor, unplundered, to a tomb, and lay her back in her own country.”

**595** Dixit; at illa levis caeli delapsa per auras  
She spoke; and the other, gliding light down through the airs of heaven,

**596** insonuit, nigro circumdata turbine corpus.  
made a noise as she came, her body wrapped in a black whirlwind.

**597** At manus interea muris Troiana propinquat  
But meanwhile the Trojan force draws close to the walls,

**598** Etruscique duces equitumque exercitus omnis,  
and the Etruscan captains, and the whole army of horse,

**599** compositi numero in turmas. Fremit aequore toto  
set out by number into squadrons. Over the whole level the hoof

**600** insultans sonipes et pressis pugnat habenis  
clatters and prances and fights the tightened rein,
> A compound word for horse: sonipes, literally 'sound foot', is a compound noun Latin verse uses simply to mean 'horse'. It appears here in a line built from sound and motion, the horse named for the noise its feet make.

**601** huc conversus et huc; tum late ferreus hastis  
turned this way and that; then far and wide the field bristles

**602** horret ager campique armis sublimibus ardent.  
iron with spears, and the plains blaze with lifted arms.

**603** Nec non Messapus contra celeresque Latini  
And facing them Messapus, and the swift Latins,

**604** et cum fratre Coras et virginis ala Camillae  
and Coras with his brother, and the wing of the maiden Camilla,

**605** adversi campo apparent hastasque reductis  
show themselves on the field, and hold their spears out

**606** protendunt longe dextris et spicula vibrant,  
far, with right arms drawn back, and shake their javelins;

**607** adventusque virum fremitusque ardescit equorum.  
and the coming on of the men and the neighing of the horses grow hot.

**608** Iamque intra iactum teli progressus uterque  
And now each side, gone forward within a spear's throw,

**609** substiterat: subito erumpunt clamore furentisque  
had halted: suddenly they break out in a shout and urge on

**610** exhortantur equos; fundunt simul undique tela  
their raging horses; from every side at once they pour weapons,

**611** crebra nivis ritu caelumque obtexitur umbra.  
thick as falling snow, and the sky is woven over with shadow.

**612** Continuo adversis Tyrrhenus et acer Aconteus  
Straight away Tyrrhenus and keen Aconteus, opposite each other,

**613** conixi incurrunt hastis primique ruina  
strain and charge with their spears, and are first to make the sound

**614** dant sonitum ingenti perfractaque quadrupedantum  
of a wreck, and they break the four-footed beasts' chests

**615** pectora pectoribus rumpunt: excussus Aconteus  
against chests, shattering them. Aconteus, thrown clear

**616** fulminis in morem aut tormento ponderis acti  
like a lightning bolt or a weight driven from a siege engine,

**617** praecipitat longe et vitam dispergit in auras.  
pitches far off and scatters his life into the air.

**618** Extemplo turbatae acies, versique Latini  
At once the lines are broken up, and the Latins, turned about,

**619** reiciunt parmas et equos ad moenia vertunt.  
sling their shields behind them and turn their horses toward the walls.

**620** Troes agunt, princeps turmas inducit Asilas.  
The Trojans drive them; Asilas leads the squadrons in at the head.

**621** Iamque propinquabant portis, rursusque Latini  
And now they were coming near the gates, and again the Latins

**622** clamorem tollunt et mollia colla reflectunt:  
raise a shout and bend back the soft necks of their horses;

**623** hi fugiunt penitusque datis referuntur habenis.  
the others run, and are carried far off with the reins given them.

**624** Qualis ubi alterno procurrens gurgite pontus  
As when the sea, running forward on an alternating swell,

**625** nunc ruit ad terram scopulosque superiacit unda  
now rushes at the land and throws its wave over the rock,

**626** spumeus extremamque sinu perfundit arenam,  
foaming, and floods the farthest sand in its curve,

**627** nunc rapidus retro atque aestu revoluta resorbens  
and now runs back fast, sucking up the stones the tide has rolled,

**628** saxa fugit litusque vado labente relinquit:  
and flees, and leaves the beach as the shallow water slides away:

**629** bis Tusci Rutulos egere ad moenia versos,  
twice the Etruscans drove the Rutulians, turned, to the walls,

**630** bis reiecti armis respectant terga tegentes.  
twice, thrown back, they look behind them, covering their backs with the shield.
> A repeated opening word: Two consecutive lines both begin with bis, 'twice', one for each side's advance and retreat. Latin can mark a repeated pattern by repeating the word that opens the line rather than stating that a pattern exists.

**631** Tertia sed postquam congressi in proelia totas  
But when they had met a third time in battle and tangled

**632** implicuere inter se acies legitque virum vir:  
the whole of their lines together, and man picked out man:
> Verb placed before its subject: legit, the verb, comes first, then virum, 'man', in the accusative, then vir, 'man', in the nominative: verb object subject order instead of the usual subject verb object. The word order sets the two men against each other before naming who does the choosing.

**633** tum vero et gemitus morientum et sanguine in alto  
then indeed both the groans of the dying, and, deep in blood,

**634** armaque corporaque et permixti caede virorum  
arms and bodies, and horses half alive rolling over,

**635** semianimes volvuntur equi, pugna aspera surgit.  
mixed into the butchery of men, a bitter fight comes up.

**636** Orsilochus Remuli, quando ipsum horrebat adire,  
Orsilochus, since he shrank from going at Remulus himself,

**637** hastam intorsit equo ferrumque sub aure reliquit.  
twisted a spear at his horse and left the iron under its ear.

**638** Quo sonipes ictu furit arduus altaque iactat  
At the blow the horse rears and rages, and, past bearing

**639** vulneris impatiens arrecto pectore crura:  
the wound, throws its legs high with its chest up:

**640** volvitur ille excussus humi. Catillus Iollan  
the man rolls off, thrown to the ground. Catillus brings down

**641** ingentemque animis, ingentem corpore et armis  
Iollas, and Herminius, huge in spirit, huge in body

**642** deicit Herminium, nudo cui vertice fulva  
and in armor, his yellow hair on a bare head,

**643** caesaries nudique umeri, nec vulnera terrent:  
his shoulders bare, and wounds do not frighten him:

**644** tantus in arma patet. Latos huic hasta per armos  
he leaves so much open to weapons. Driven through his broad

**645** acta tremit duplicatque virum transfixa dolore.  
shoulders the spear shivers there and doubles the man over with pain.

**646** Funditur ater ubique cruor; dant funera ferro  
Black gore is poured out everywhere; they deal out deaths with the sword

**647** certantes pulchramque petunt per vulnera mortem.  
as they contend, and look for a beautiful death through wounds.

**648** At medias inter caedes exsultat Amazon,  
But in the middle of the slaughter the Amazon exults,

**649** unum exserta latus pugnae, pharetrata Camilla,  
one side bared for the fight, Camilla with her quiver,

**650** et nunc lenta manu spargens hastilia denset,  
and now scattering tough javelins from her hand she makes them thick,

**651** nunc validam dextra rapit indefessa bipennem;  
now snatches up a strong two-headed axe in her right hand, never tiring;

**652** aureus ex umero sonat arcus et arma Dianae.  
a golden bow rings at her shoulder, and Diana's weapons.

**653** Illa etiam in tergum, siquando pulsa recessit,  
Even backwards, if she has been pushed and has given ground,

**654** spicula converso fugientia dirigit arcu.  
she turns the bow and aims fleeing arrows behind her.

**655** At circum lectae comites, Larinaque virgo  
And round her, chosen companions, the girl Larina

**656** Tullaque et aeratam quatiens Tarpeia securem,  
and Tulla, and Tarpeia shaking a bronze axe,

**657** Italides, quas ipsa decus sibi dia Camilla  
daughters of Italy, whom bright Camilla chose herself

**658** delegit pacisque bonas bellique ministras:  
for her own glory, good servants in peace and in war:

**659** quales Threiciae cum flumina Thermodontis  
as when the Thracian Amazons beat the streams

**660** pulsant et pictis bellantur Amazones armis  
of Thermodon and make war in painted armor,

**661** seu circum Hippolyten, seu cum se Martia curru  
whether round Hippolyta, or when warlike Penthesilea

**662** Penthesilea refert, magnoque ululante tumultu  
comes back in her chariot, and with a great howling uproar

**663** feminea exsultant lunatis agmina peltis.  
the women's ranks exult behind their crescent shields.

**664** Quem telo primum, quem postremum, aspera virgo,  
Whom do you bring down first with the spear, hard girl,
> The narrator asking her directly: Vergil breaks off the narration to ask Camilla directly, in the second person, whom she killed telo, 'with the spear', primum, 'first', and postremum, 'last'. He uses this direct address only a few times in the whole poem, always just before a death.

**665** deicis? Aut quot humi morientia corpora fundis?  
whom last? How many dying bodies do you pour on the ground?

**666** Eunaeum Clitio primum patre, cuius apertum  
Eunaeus first, whose father was Clytius: as he faced her

**667** adversi longa transverberat abiete pectus:  
she drove the long fir clean through his open chest.

**668** sanguinis ille vomens rivos cadit atque cruentam  
Vomiting rivers of blood, he falls and chews the bloodied

**669** mandit humum moriensque suo se in volnere versat.  
ground, and dying twists himself round on his own wound.

**670** Tum Lirim Pagasumque super; quorum alter habenas  
Then Liris and Pagasus on top of him: one of them, thrown

**671** suffosso revolutus equo dum colligit, alter  
as his horse was stabbed under him, is gathering the reins,

**672** dum subit ac dextram labenti tendit inermem,  
the other coming up to hold an unarmed hand out to him as he slips;

**673** praecipites pariterque ruunt. His addit Amastrum  
headlong they go down together. To these she adds Amastrus,

**674** Hippotaden, sequiturque incumbens eminus hasta  
son of Hippotas, and leaning in with the spear from a distance she runs on after

**675** Tereaque Harpalycumque et Demophoonta Chrominque;  
Tereus and Harpalycus and Demophoon and Chromis;

**676** quotque emissa manu contorsit spicula virgo,  
and as many darts as the girl whirled loose from her hand,

**677** tot Phrygii cecidere viri. Procul Ornytus armis  
so many Phrygian men went down. Far off Ornytus the hunter

**678** ignotis et equo venator Iapyge fertur,  
rides in strange armor on an Iapygian horse,

**679** cui pellis latos umeros erepta iuvenco  
and a hide stripped off a bullock covers his broad

**680** pugnatori operit, caput ingens oris hiatus  
fighting shoulders; a wolf's huge gaping mouth

**681** et malae texere lupi cum dentibus albis,  
and its jaws, with the white teeth in them, cover his head;

**682** agrestisque manus armat sparus; ipse catervis  
a country boar-spear arms his hand; he moves about

**683** vertitur in mediis et toto vertice supra est.  
in the middle of the columns and stands a whole head above them.

**684** Hunc illa exceptum, neque enim labor agmine verso,  
She caught him up, no work at all, with the line turned,

**685** traicit et super haec inimico pectore fatur:  
and runs him through, and says this over him out of a hating heart:

**686** “Silvis te, Tyrrhene, feras agitare putasti?  
“Did you think, Etruscan, you were driving game in the woods?

**687** Advenit qui vestra dies muliebribus armis  
The day has come that answers back your people's talk

**688** verba redarguerit. Nomen tamen haud leve patrum  
with a woman's weapons. And yet you will carry no small name

**689** manibus hoc referes, telo cecidisse Camillae.”  
down to your fathers' shades: to have fallen by Camilla's spear.”

**690** Protinus Orsilochum et Buten, duo maxima Teucrum  
Next Orsilochus and Butes, the two biggest bodies

**691** corpora, sed Buten aversum cuspide fixit  
among the Teucrians, but Butes she pinned with the spear-point from behind,

**692** loricam galeamque inter, qua colla sedentis  
between the corselet and the helmet, where a rider's neck

**693** lucent et laevo dependet parma lacerto,  
shows bare and the shield hangs from the left arm.

**694** Orsilochum fugiens magnumque agitata per orbem  
From Orsilochus she runs, and, hunted through a wide circle,

**695** eludit gyro interior sequiturque sequentem,  
dodges inside the ring and follows the man following her;
> The same verb used twice: sequitur, 'she follows', and sequentem, 'the one following', repeat one verb, sequi, in two different forms within the same clause. The repetition places Camilla behind her own pursuer, the chase turned inside out within the single sentence.

**696** tum validam perque arma viro perque ossa securim  
then through the man's armor and through his bones the strong axe,

**697** altior exsurgens oranti et multa precanti  
as she rises higher over him while he begs and prays hard,

**698** congeminat: vulnus calido rigat ora cerebro.  
she doubles: the wound drenches his face with hot brain.

**699** Incidit huic subitoque aspectu territus haesit  
On her came, and stopped short, terrified at the sudden sight of her,

**700** Appenninicolae bellator filius Auni,  
the warrior son of Aunus, who lived in the Apennines,

**701** haud Ligurum extremus, dum fallere fata sinebant.  
not the least of the Ligurians, while the fates still let him cheat.

**702** Isque ubi se nullo iam cursu evadere pugnae  
And when he sees he can no longer get clear of the fight by running,

**703** posse neque instantem reginam avertere cernit,  
nor turn the queen aside as she presses on him,

**704** consilio versare dolos ingressus et astu  
he sets about working his tricks over in his mind, and with cunning

**705** incipit haec: “Quid tam egregium, si femina forti  
begins so: “What is so remarkable, if a woman

**706** fidis equo? Dimitte fugam et te comminus aequo  
trusts a strong horse? Give up flight, and entrust yourself

**707** mecum crede solo pugnaeque adcinge pedestri:  
to the level ground hand to hand with me, and belt on a battle afoot:

**708** iam nosces, ventosa ferat cui gloria fraudem.”  
you will soon know which of us the windy glory is cheating.”
> An insult reused: ventosa, 'windy', is the same word Turnus used against Drances two hundred lines earlier, ventosa lingua, 'windy tongue'. Here a Ligurian applies ventosa gloria, 'windy glory', to Camilla just before running from her himself.

**709** Dixit, at illa furens acrique adcensa dolore  
He spoke; but she, raging and lit up with a sharp resentment,

**710** tradit equum comiti paribusque resistit in armis,  
hands the horse to a companion and stands to him in equal arms,

**711** ense pedes nudo puraque interrita parma.  
on foot, with a bare sword and a plain shield, unafraid.

**712** At iuvenis, vicisse dolo ratus, avolat ipse,  
But the young man, sure he had won by the trick, flies off himself

**713** haud mora, conversisque fugax aufertur habenis  
with no delay, turns the reins and is carried away in flight

**714** quadrupedemque citum ferrata calce fatigat.  
and works the quick four-footed beast with an iron heel.

**715** “Vane Ligus frustraque animis elate superbis,  
“Empty Ligurian, lifted up for nothing on your proud spirit,

**716** nequiquam patrias temptasti lubricus artis,  
you have tried your fathers' slippery arts for nothing,

**717** nec fraus te incolumem fallaci perferet Auno,”  
and the fraud will not carry you home whole to a lying Aunus,”

**718** haec fatur virgo et pernicibus ignea plantis  
so the girl speaks; and, on fire, with her swift soles

**719** transit equum cursu frenisque adversa prehensis  
she passes the horse at a run, and, facing him, catches the bridle

**720** congreditur poenasque inimico ex sanguine sumit:  
and closes, and takes her price out of the blood she hates:

**721** quam facile accipiter saxo sacer ales ab alto  
as easily as a hawk, that holy bird, from a high rock

**722** consequitur pennis sublimem in nube columbam  
runs a dove down on his wings, high up in a cloud,

**723** comprensamque tenet pedibusque eviscerat uncis;  
and holds her caught, and guts her with his hooked feet;

**724** tum cruor et vulsae labuntur ab aethere plumae.  
then blood and torn feathers come drifting down out of the sky.

**725** At non haec nullis hominum sator atque deorum  
But the sower of men and of gods does not sit high on the top
> A farmer's word for a god: sator means sower, the one who plants seed, an ordinary farming word. Applied to Jupiter, hominum sator atque deorum makes him the planter of both men and gods; Vergil takes the phrase from Ennius, the earlier Roman epic poet.

**726** observans oculis summo sedet altus Olympo:  
of Olympus watching this with no eyes for it:

**727** Tyrrhenum genitor Tarchonem in proelia saeva  
the father stirs up Etruscan Tarchon into the savage

**728** suscitat et stimulis haud mollibus incitat iras.  
fighting, and goads his anger with spurs that are not soft.

**729** Ergo inter caedes cedentiaque agmina Tarchon  
So Tarchon is carried on his horse among the slaughter

**730** fertur equo variisque instigat vocibus alas,  
and the columns giving way, and spurs his wings on with every kind of shout,

**731** nomine quemque vocans, reficitque in proelia pulsos.  
calling each man by name, and makes the beaten fit to fight again.

**732** “Quis metus, O numquam dolituri, O semper inertes  
“What fear is this? You who will never feel anything, always idle

**733** Tyrrheni, quae tanta animis ignavia venit?  
Etruscans, what cowardice, and so much of it, has come into your hearts?

**734** Femina palantis agit atque haec agmina vertit!  
A woman is driving you scattered, and turning these columns!

**735** Quo ferrum quidve haec gerimus tela inrita dextris?  
To what end the iron? Why do we carry these useless weapons in our hands?

**736** At non in Venerem segnes nocturnaque bella  
But you are not slow at Venus and the wars fought at night,

**737** aut ubi curva choros indixit tibia Bacchi,  
or when the curved pipe calls out the dances of Bacchus:

**738** exspectate dapes et plenae pocula mensae,  
wait for the feast and the cups on a loaded table,

**739** hic amor, hoc studium, dum sacra secundus haruspex  
there is your love, there your enthusiasm, until a favorable diviner

**740** nuntiet ac lucos vocet hostia pinguis in altos!”  
announces the rites and a fat victim calls you into the high groves!”

**741** Haec effatus equum in medios, moriturus et ipse,  
Having said it, he drives his horse into the middle, ready himself

**742** concitat et Venulo adversum se turbidus infert  
to die, and in his fury hurls himself straight at Venulus,

**743** dereptumque ab equo dextra complectitur hostem  
and tears the man from his horse, and grips his enemy with his right hand,

**744** et gremium ante suum multa vi concitus aufert.  
and carries him off in front of his own chest, driven on by main force.

**745** Tollitur in caelum clamor, cunctique Latini  
A shout goes up to the sky, and all the Latins

**746** convertere oculos. Volat igneus aequore Tarchon  
turned their eyes. Tarchon flies burning over the level,

**747** arma virumque ferens; tum summa ipsius ab hasta  
carrying arms and a man; then from the man's own spear-tip

**748** defringit ferrum et partis rimatur apertas,  
he breaks the iron off, and hunts for the parts left open,

**749** qua vulnus letale ferat; contra ille repugnans  
where he can put in a killing wound; the other, fighting back,

**750** sustinet a iugulo dextram et vim viribus exit.  
holds the hand off his throat and meets force with force.

**751** Utque volans alte raptum cum fulva draconem  
And as when a tawny eagle, flying high, carries a snake

**752** fert aquila implicuitque pedes atque unguibus haesit,  
it has snatched, and has wound its feet round it and fixed its claws,

**753** saucius at serpens sinuosa volumina versat  
but the wounded serpent twists its winding coils

**754** adrectisque horret squamis et sibilat ore,  
and bristles with its scales up and hisses with its mouth,

**755** arduus insurgens; illa haud minus urget obunco  
rearing steep; the bird presses no less with its hooked

**756** luctantem rostro, simul aethera verberat alis:  
beak on the struggler, and beats the air with its wings at once:

**757** haud aliter praedam Tiburtum ex agmine Tarchon  
just so Tarchon carries his prey off out of the Tiburtine column,

**758** portat ovans. Ducis exemplum eventumque secuti  
exulting. Following their leader's example and his outcome,

**759** Maeonidae incurrunt. Tum fatis debitus Arruns  
the Maeonians charge in. Then Arruns, owed to the fates,
> A man already marked as owed: debitus, 'owed', treats fatis, 'to the fates', as a creditor, and Arruns as a debt already entered against them. The phrase names him as certain to die before he has done anything else in the story.

**760** velocem iaculo et multa prior arte Camillam  
goes round swift Camilla with his javelin, ahead of her in craft,

**761** circuit et quae sit fortuna facillima, temptat.  
and tries which chance may come easiest.

**762** Qua se cumque furens medio tulit agmine virgo,  
Wherever the girl carried herself raging through the middle of the column,

**763** hac Arruns subit et tacitus vestigia lustrat;  
there Arruns comes up behind and reads her tracks in silence;

**764** qua victrix redit illa pedemque ex hoste reportat,  
wherever she comes back a victor and brings her foot back from the enemy,

**765** hac iuvenis furtim celeris detorquet habenas.  
there the young man secretly bends his quick reins aside.

**766** Hos aditus iamque hos aditus omnemque pererrat  
This approach and now this one, and the whole ring of them

**767** undique circuitum et certam quatit improbus hastam.  
he wanders over on every side, and shakes his sure spear, shameless.
> A word with several meanings: improbus ranges from 'wicked' to 'relentless' to 'insatiable', and Vergil applies it elsewhere to labor, to hunger, and to a wolf, as well as to Aeneas. Attached to Arruns here it says he will not stop, without fixing whether that is a fault.

**768** Forte sacer Cybelo Chloreus olimque sacerdos  
It happened that Chloreus, sacred to Cybelus and once a priest,

**769** insignis longe Phrygiis fulgebat in armis  
was blazing conspicuous, far off, in Phrygian armor

**770** spumantemque agitabat equum, quem pellis aënis  
and driving a foaming horse, which a hide covered,

**771** in plumam squamis auro conserta tegebat.  
plated feather-wise with bronze scales and sewn with gold.

**772** Ipse, peregrina ferrugine clarus et ostro,  
He himself, bright in a foreign dark red and in purple,

**773** spicula torquebat Lycio Gortynia cornu;  
was shooting Gortynian arrows from a Lycian bow;

**774** aureus ex umeris erat arcus et aurea vati  
a golden bow was at his shoulders, and golden the seer's

**775** cassida; tum croceam chlamydemque sinusque crepantis  
helmet; his saffron cloak too, and its rustling folds

**776** carbaseos fulvo in nodum collegerat auro  
of linen, he had gathered into a knot with tawny gold,

**777** pictus acu tunicas et barbara tegmina crurum.  
his tunics worked with the needle, and the outlandish coverings of his legs.

**778** Hunc virgo, sive ut templis praefigeret arma  
Him the girl, whether to nail Trojan arms

**779** Troïa, captivo sive ut se ferret in auro  
up on the temples, or to carry captured gold on herself,

**780** venatrix, unum ex omni certamine pugnae  
a huntress, alone out of the whole contest of the battle

**781** caeca sequebatur totumque incauta per agmen  
was following blindly, and, careless, through the whole column

**782** femineo praedae et spoliorum ardebat amore,  
burned with a woman's love of plunder and of spoils,

**783** telum ex insidiis cum tandem tempore capto  
when at last Arruns, out of ambush, taking his moment,

**784** concitat et superos Arruns sic voce precatur:  
sets the weapon going, and prays so aloud to the gods above:

**785** “Summe deum, sancti custos Soractis Apollo,  
“Highest of gods, Apollo, keeper of holy Soracte,

**786** quem primi colimus, cui pineus ardor acervo  
whom we worship first, for whom a fire of pine is fed

**787** pascitur et medium freti pietate per ignem  
on the heaped wood, and we, your worshippers, trusting in our duty,

**788** cultores multa premimus vestigia pruna,  
plant our many footprints through the middle of the fire on hot coals:

**789** da, pater, hoc nostris aboleri dedecus armis,  
grant, father, that this disgrace be wiped out by our arms,

**790** omnipotens. Non exuvias pulsaeve tropaeum  
all-powerful one. I do not ask for spoils, nor a trophy

**791** virginis aut spolia ulla peto (mihi cetera laudem  
of a beaten girl, nor any plunder at all (my other

**792** facta ferent): haec dira meo dum vulnere pestis  
deeds will bring me praise. Let this dreadful plague only

**793** pulsa cadat, patrias remeabo inglorius urbes.”  
fall, beaten down by my wound, and I will go home to my fathers' towns without glory.”

**794** Audiit et voti Phoebus succedere partem  
Phoebus heard, and in his mind granted that one part of the vow

**795** mente dedit, partem volucris dispersit in auras:  
should succeed; the other part he scattered into the flying winds:

**796** sterneret ut subita turbatam morte Camillam,  
that he should lay Camilla low, thrown down by a sudden death,

**797** adnuit oranti; reducem ut patria alta videret,  
he nodded to the man praying; that his high homeland should see him back,

**798** non dedit, inque Notos vocem vertere procellae.  
he did not grant, and squalls turned that voice into the south wind.

**799** Ergo ut missa manu sonitum dedit hasta per auras,  
So when the spear, let go from his hand, gave its sound through the air,

**800** convertere animos acris oculosque tulere  
the Volscians all turned their keen minds and brought their eyes

**801** cuncti ad reginam Volsci. Nihil ipsa nec aurae  
round to the queen. She herself had no thought of anything, not the air,

**802** nec sonitus memor aut venientis ab aethere teli,  
not the sound, nor the weapon coming down out of the sky,

**803** hasta sub exsertam donec perlata papillam  
until the spear, carried home under her bared breast,
> The uncovered side, struck: exsertam papillam, 'the bared breast', names the one part of Camilla's dress left uncovered, marked earlier in the book as an Amazon's mark. Here the spear goes in exactly there, sub exsertam papillam, 'under the bared breast'.

**804** haesit virgineumque alte bibit acta cruorem.  
stuck fast, and driven deep drank a girl's blood.

**805** Concurrunt trepidae comites dominamque ruentem  
Her companions run up trembling and catch their mistress

**806** suscipiunt. Fugit ante omnis exterritus Arruns,  
as she falls. Before them all Arruns flees, terrified,

**807** laetitia mixtoque metu, nec iam amplius hastae  
in a gladness with fear mixed into it, and no longer dares to trust

**808** credere nec telis occurrere virginis audet.  
his spear, or to come near the girl's weapons.

**809** Ac velut ille, prius quam tela inimica sequantur,  
And as a wolf, before hostile weapons can come after him,

**810** continuo in montis sese avius abdidit altos  
gets himself hidden at once off the road, high in the mountains,

**811** occiso pastore lupus magnove iuvenco,  
when he has killed a shepherd or a big bullock,

**812** conscius audacis facti, caudamque remulcens  
knowing what a bold thing he has done, and dropping his tail

**813** subiecit pavitantem utero silvasque petivit:  
he pushed it, quivering, under his belly and made for the woods:

**814** haud secus ex oculis se turbidus abstulit Arruns  
just so Arruns took himself out of sight in his panic,

**815** contentusque fuga mediis se immiscuit armis.  
and, satisfied with running, mixed himself into the middle of the fighting.

**816** Illa manu moriens telum trahit, ossa sed inter  
She, dying, pulls at the weapon with her hand, but between the bones,

**817** ferreus ad costas alto stat vulnere mucro:  
at the ribs, the iron point stands in the deep wound:

**818** labitur exsanguis, labuntur frigida leto  
she sinks bloodless, her eyes sink cold

**819** lumina, purpureus quondam color ora reliquit.  
in death, and the color that was once bright has left her face.
> The color that meant alive: purpureus in Latin verse names the flush of blood in a living face, not a dye color, and it is used elsewhere of light and of youth. quondam, 'once', marks that this color has just left her face.

**820** Tum sic exspirans Accam ex aequalibus unam  
Then, breathing her last, she speaks to Acca, one of her own age,

**821** adloquitur fidam ante alias, quae sola Camillae,  
faithful beyond the others, the only one of all Camilla's

**822** quicum partiri curas; atque haec ita fatur:  
people she had to share her cares with; and she says this:

**823** “Hactenus, Acca soror, potui: nunc vulnus acerbum  
“So far, Acca my sister, I have been able. Now the bitter wound
> A verb standing with no object: Hactenus ... potui, 'up to this point, I have been able', gives potui, 'I could', no object at all. The sentence stops exactly where Camilla's strength does, a plain way to say a person has reached the end of what they can do.

**824** conficit, et tenebris nigrescunt omnia circum.  
is finishing me, and everything round me is going black with darkness.

**825** Effuge et haec Turno mandata novissima perfer:  
Get away, and carry these last instructions to Turnus:

**826** succedat pugnae Troianosque arceat urbe.  
let him take my place in the fighting and keep the Trojans off the city.

**827** Iamque vale.” Simul his dictis linquebat habenas,  
And now, farewell.” With those words at the same time she was letting the reins go,

**828** ad terram non sponte fluens. Tum frigida toto  
flowing to the ground against her will. Then, cold, little by little

**829** paulatim exsolvit se corpore lentaque colla  
she got herself free of the whole body, and laid down the slack neck

**830** et captum leto posuit caput, arma relinquunt,  
and the head that death had taken; her weapons leave her,

**831** vitaque cum gemitu fugit indignata sub umbras.  
and with a groan the life fled, resentful, under the shades.

**832** Tum vero immensus surgens ferit aurea clamor  
Then indeed a measureless shout rose and struck the golden

**833** sidera: deiecta crudescit pugna Camilla,  
stars: with Camilla down, the fighting turns raw,
> An ablative absolute again: deiecta Camilla, 'Camilla having been thrown down', is an ablative absolute, two words in the ablative standing outside the main clause. It states the cause of the battle's reversal without needing a full clause to say so.

**834** incurrunt densi simul omnis copia Teucrum  
and they charge in packed close, the whole force of the Teucrians at once

**835** Tyrrhenique duces Evandrique Arcades alae.  
and the Etruscan captains and Evander's Arcadian wings.

**836** At Triviae custos iamdudum in montibus Opis  
But Opis, Trivia's guard, has been sitting a long while high

**837** alta sedet summis spectatque interrita pugnas.  
on the mountain tops, and watches the fighting without fear.

**838** Utque procul medio iuvenum in clamore furentum  
And when, far off in the middle of the shouting of the raging young men,

**839** prospexit tristi multatam morte Camillam,  
she made out Camilla punished with a grim death,

**840** ingemuitque deditque has imo pectore voces:  
she groaned, and gave out these words from the bottom of her chest:

**841** “Heu nimium, virgo, nimium crudele luisti  
“Too much, girl, far too cruel a penalty you have paid
> Punishment named in legal terms: luere supplicium is legal language, meaning to discharge a punishment that has been assessed against someone. Opis uses it to describe Camilla's death, calling it a supplicium, 'penalty', that she has paid, crudele, 'cruelly'.

**842** supplicium, Teucros conata lacessere bello!  
for having tried to provoke the Teucrians to war!

**843** Nec tibi desertae in dumis coluisse Dianam  
It did you no good, alone in the thickets, to have worshipped Diana,

**844** profuit aut nostras umero gessisse sagittas.  
or to have carried our arrows on your shoulder.

**845** Non tamen indecorem tua te regina reliquit  
And yet your queen has not left you without honor

**846** extrema iam in morte, neque hoc sine nomine letum  
now at the last, in death, nor will this killing go

**847** per gentis erit aut famam patieris inultae.  
nameless among the peoples, nor will you bear the report of a girl unavenged.

**848** Nam quicumque tuum violavit vulnere corpus,  
For whoever did violence to your body with a wound

**849** morte luet merita.” Fuit ingens monte sub alto  
will pay it with the death he has earned.” Under the high mountain there was

**850** regis Dercenni terreno ex aggere bustum  
a huge barrow of king Dercennus, an earthen mound,

**851** antiqui Laurentis opacaque ilice tectum:  
an old Laurentian's, roofed over with shadowy holm-oak.

**852** hic dea se primum rapido pulcherrima nisu  
Here the goddess, most beautiful, first checks herself in a swift

**853** sistit et Arruntem tumulo speculatur ab alto.  
spring, and watches for Arruns from the high grave.

**854** Ut vidit laetantem animis ac vana tumentem,  
When she saw him glad in his heart and swelling with nothing,

**855** “Cur,” inquit, “diversus abis? Huc dirige gressum,  
“Why,” she says, “are you turning away? Bring your step here,

**856** huc periture veni, capias ut digna Camillae  
come here to die, and take the payment worthy

**857** praemia. Tune etiam telis moriere Dianae?”  
of Camilla. You, even you, to die by Diana's weapons?”

**858** dixit, et aurata volucrem Threissa sagittam  
She spoke, and the Thracian woman drew a flying arrow

**859** deprompsit pharetra cornuque infensa tetendit  
out of the gilded quiver, and in anger bent the bow

**860** et duxit longe, donec curvata coirent  
and drew it out long, until the curved tips came together

**861** inter se capita et manibus iam tangeret aequis,  
with each other, and now her hands were level, touching,

**862** laeva aciem ferri, dextra nervoque papillam.  
the left the iron of the point, the right the breast with the bowstring.

**863** Extemplo teli stridorem aurasque sonantis  
At once Arruns heard the shriek of the shaft and the air

**864** audiit una Arruns, haesitque in corpore ferrum.  
sounding, both together, and the iron stuck in his body.

**865** Illum exspirantem socii atque extrema gementem  
His comrades leave him breathing his last and groaning his last,

**866** obliti ignoto camporum in pulvere linquunt,  
forgotten, in the dust of nameless open country;

**867** Opis ad aetherium pennis aufertur Olympum.  
Opis is carried on her wings to Olympus in the sky.

**868** Prima fugit domina amissa levis ala Camillae;  
First to run, its mistress lost, is Camilla's light wing;
> Ablative absolute stating a cause: domina amissa, 'the mistress having been lost', is an ablative absolute, giving the cause of the rout before the sentence reaches its main verb. Latin often states a reason this way first, then follows with the result.

**869** turbati fugiunt Rutuli, fugit acer Atinas  
the Rutulians run in confusion, keen Atinas runs,

**870** disiectique duces desolatique manipli  
and scattered captains and abandoned companies

**871** tuta petunt et equis aversi ad moenia tendunt.  
make for safety and turn their horses and head for the walls.

**872** Nec quisquam instantis Teucros letumque ferentis  
And nobody has the strength to hold off the Teucrians pressing on,

**873** sustentare valet telis aut sistere contra,  
carrying death, or to stand against them with a weapon,

**874** sed laxos referunt umeris languentibus arcus,  
but they carry their bows slack on drooping shoulders,

**875** quadrupedumque putrem cursu quatit ungula campum.  
and the four-footed hoof at the gallop shakes the crumbling plain.

**876** Volvitur ad muros caligine turbidus atra  
Dust rolls toward the walls, thick with a black murk,

**877** pulvis, et e speculis percussae pectora matres  
and from the lookouts the mothers, beating their breasts,

**878** femineum clamorem ad caeli sidera tollunt.  
raise a women's cry to the stars of the sky.

**879** Qui cursu portas primi inrupere patentis,  
Those who broke first, at a run, through the open gates,

**880** hos inimica super mixto premit agmine turba;  
on them a hostile crowd presses, mixed into their own column,

**881** nec miseram effugiunt mortem, sed limine in ipso,  
and they do not escape a wretched death, but on the very threshold,

**882** moenibus in patriis atque inter tuta domorum  
inside their fathers' walls, among the safety of their own houses,

**883** confixi exspirant animas. Pars claudere portas:  
run through, they breathe their lives out. Some shut the gates:

**884** nec sociis aperire viam nec moenibus audent  
they do not dare open a way for their own or take them

**885** accipere orantis, oriturque miserrima caedes  
inside the walls though they beg, and a most wretched slaughter starts

**886** defendentum armis aditus inque arma ruentum.  
of men defending the entrance with arms and men running onto the arms.
> One weapon shared by both halves: defendentum, 'of the men defending', and ruentum, 'of the men rushing', are participles placed at opposite ends of the line, with arma, 'arms', standing between them and serving both. The single line names the men holding the gate and the men attacking it together.

**887** Exclusi ante oculos lacrumantumque ora parentum  
Shut out before the eyes and the faces of their weeping parents,

**888** pars in praecipitis fossas urgente ruina  
some are rolled into the sheer ditches with the crush behind them,

**889** volvitur, immissis pars caeca et concita frenis  
and some, blind and driven, with the reins let loose,

**890** arietat in portas et duros obice postis.  
batter at the gates and the doorposts hard with the bar.

**891** Ipsae de muris summo certamine matres,  
The mothers themselves, from the walls, at the height of the struggle,

**892** monstrat amor verus patriae, ut videre Camillam,  
true love of country shows them how, when they had seen Camilla,

**893** tela manu trepidae iaciunt ac robore duro  
throw weapons with shaking hands, and with hard oak

**894** stipitibus ferrum sudibusque imitantur obustis  
and stakes charred at the point they copy iron in their haste,

**895** praecipites primaeque mori pro moenibus ardent.  
headlong, and burn to be the first to die for the walls.

**896** Interea Turnum in silvis saevissimus implet  
Meanwhile, in the woods, the most savage of messages fills

**897** nuntius, et iuveni ingentem fert Acca tumultum:  
Turnus, and Acca brings the young man word of a huge uproar:

**898** deletas Volscorum acies, cecidisse Camillam,  
that the Volscian lines are wiped out, that Camilla has fallen,

**899** ingruere infensos hostis et Marte secundo  
that the enemy are coming on in fury, and with Mars on their side

**900** omnia corripuisse, metum iam ad moenia ferri.  
have swept everything up, that the panic is already at the walls.

**901** Ille furens, et saeva Iovis sic numina pellunt,  
He, in a fury, and this is how the savage will of Jove drives men,

**902** deserit obsessos collis, nemora aspera linquit.  
abandons the hills he was holding and leaves the rough woods.

**903** Vix e conspectu exierat campumque tenebat,  
He had scarcely gone out of sight and taken the open ground

**904** cum pater Aeneas saltus ingressus apertos  
when father Aeneas, entering the passes now standing open,

**905** exsuperatque iugum silvaque evadit opaca.  
crosses the ridge and comes out of the shadowy wood.

**906** Sic ambo ad muros rapidi totoque feruntur  
So both are carried fast toward the walls, with their whole

**907** agmine nec longis inter se passibus absunt;  
column, and they are not many paces apart from each other;

**908** ac simul Aeneas fumantis pulvere campos  
and at the same moment Aeneas looked far out over the fields

**909** prospexit longe Laurentiaque agmina vidit,  
smoking with dust, and saw the Laurentian columns,

**910** et saevum Aenean adgnovit Turnus in armis  
and Turnus knew savage Aeneas in his armor,

**911** adventumque pedum flatusque audivit equorum.  
and heard the coming of the feet and the snorting of the horses.

**912** Continuoque ineant pugnas et proelia temptent,  
And at once they would join the fight and try the battle,

**913** ni roseus fessos iam gurgite Phoebus Hibero  
if rosy Phoebus were not already dipping his tired horses

**914** tinguat equos noctemque die labente reducat:  
in the Spanish water, and bringing night back as the day slips away:

**915** considunt castris ante urbem et moenia vallant.  
they camp before the city, and fence their lines with a stockade.

---

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.