# The Aeneid, Book 4: Dido: The Wound, the Cave, and the Pyre

Aeneis · Publius Vergilius Maro · The Wanderings

Dido and Aeneas become lovers. Mercury orders him on to Italy. Dido curses him and kills herself on a pyre.

Source: https://1732studios.com/books/aeneid/4. Data: https://1732studios.com/books/aeneid/4.json. Audio: https://audio.1732studios.com/aeneid/<line id>.m4a.

**1** At regina gravi iamdudum saucia cura  
But the queen, wounded long since by a heavy care,
> A wound word from the battlefield: saucia, 'wounded', is the term for a soldier hit by a weapon. Book 4 opens with Dido already saucia, before any scene is set, and the wound named here as a figure becomes literal by line 689.

**2** volnus alit venis, et caeco carpitur igni.  
feeds the wound in her veins and is eaten by a fire unseen.
> Caecus means blind and unseen: caecus can mean either 'blind' or 'hidden from sight'. igni caeco, 'by a blind fire', works both ways: the fire has no eyes, and no one can see it either. Vergil uses the same word of lightning at line 209.

**3** Multa viri virtus animo, multusque recursat  
The man's great courage runs back through her mind, and back

**4** gentis honos: haerent infixi pectore voltus  
the glory of his line; his face and his words stay

**5** verbaque, nec placidam membris dat cura quietem.  
driven into her breast, and care gives her limbs no quiet rest.

**6** Postera Phoebea lustrabat lampade terras,  
The day after was sweeping the lands with Phoebus' lamp,

**7** umentemque Aurora polo dimoverat umbram,  
and Dawn had pushed the damp shadow from the sky,

**8** cum sic unanimam adloquitur male sana sororem:  
when, sick in her mind, she speaks so to the sister who is one soul with her:

**9** “Anna soror, quae me suspensam insomnia terrent!  
“Anna, my sister, what dreams frighten me, and leave me hanging!
> A neuter plural, not sleeplessness: insomnia here is the neuter plural of insomnium, 'a dream', not the feminine noun insomnia meaning 'sleeplessness'. Dido says dreams, insomnia, are frightening her, not the lack of sleep.

**10** Quis novus hic nostris successit sedibus hospes,  
What is he, this new guest who has come into our house,

**11** quem sese ore ferens, quam forti pectore et armis!  
what a bearing he carries in his face, how strong in heart and in arms!

**12** Credo equidem, nec vana fides, genus esse deorum.  
I do believe it, and the belief is not empty, that he is of the stock of gods.

**13** Degeneres animos timor arguit: heu, quibus ille  
Fear proves a low-born spirit. Ah, by what fates

**14** iactatus fatis! Quae bella exhausta canebat!  
he has been tossed! What wars he sang of, fought out to the end!

**15** Si mihi non animo fixum immotumque sederet,  
If it were not fixed in my mind and settled there, immovable,

**16** ne cui me vinclo vellem sociare iugali,  
never to wish to join myself to any man in the marriage bond,

**17** postquam primus amor deceptam morte fefellit;  
after my first love cheated me and failed me by his death;

**18** si non pertaesum thalami taedaeque fuisset,  
if I had not come to loathe the bridal chamber and the torch,

**19** huic uni forsan potui succumbere culpae.  
to this one fault, perhaps, I could have given way.
> Culpa is a legal fault: culpa is the term for a fault one is answerable for, close to blame in a legal or moral sense. Dido names her own case as a culpa, and the narrator repeats the word at line 172 once she has stopped using it herself.

**20** Anna, fatebor enim, miseri post fata Sychaei  
Anna, for I will confess it, since the death of poor Sychaeus,

**21** coniugis et sparsos fraterna caede Penatis,  
my husband, and the household gods spattered by a brother's murder,

**22** solus hic inflexit sensus, animumque labantem  
he alone has bent my feeling, and has struck my heart

**23** impulit: adgnosco veteris vestigia flammae.  
where it gives way: I recognize the traces of the old flame.

**24** Sed mihi vel tellus optem prius ima dehiscat,  
But I would pray that the deep earth gape open for me first,

**25** vel Pater omnipotens adigat me fulmine ad umbras,  
or that the all-powerful Father drive me with his bolt to the shades,

**26** pallentis umbras Erebi noctemque profundam,  
the pale shades of Erebus and the bottomless night,

**27** ante, Pudor, quam te violo, aut tua iura resolvo.  
before I break you, Shame, or undo your laws.
> Antequam split by a vocative: The conjunction antequam, 'before', is broken into ante and quam with the vocative Pudor set between the two halves. Pudor names the sense of honor that keeps a person inside their own rules, not shame in the sense of disgrace.

**28** Ille meos, primus qui me sibi iunxit, amores  
He who first joined me to himself has taken my love

**29** abstulit; ille habeat secum servetque sepulchro.”  
away with him; let him keep it by him, and hold it in the grave.”

**30** Sic effata sinum lacrimis implevit obortis.  
So she spoke, and filled her breast with the tears that rose.

**31** Anna refert: “O luce magis dilecta sorori,  
Anna answers: “O loved by your sister more than the light,

**32** solane perpetua maerens carpere iuventa,  
will you wear away alone, grieving, all your youth long,

**33** nec dulcis natos, Veneris nec praemia noris?  
and never know sweet children, nor the prizes of Venus?

**34** Id cinerem aut Manis credis curare sepultos?  
Do you think ash cares for that, or the buried shades?

**35** Esto: aegram nulli quondam flexere mariti,  
Granted: in your grief no husband bent you once,

**36** non Libyae, non ante Tyro; despectus Iarbas  
not in Libya, not before in Tyre; Iarbas was looked past,

**37** ductoresque alii, quos Africa terra triumphis  
and the other chiefs whom the African land, rich in triumphs,

**38** dives alit: placitone etiam pugnabis amori?  
rears up: will you fight even a love that pleases you?

**39** Nec venit in mentem, quorum consederis arvis?  
Does it not come into your mind whose fields you have settled in?

**40** Hinc Gaetulae urbes, genus insuperabile bello,  
On this side Gaetulian cities, a race not to be beaten in war,

**41** et Numidae infreni cingunt et inhospita Syrtis;  
and unbridled Numidians hem you round, and the Syrtis that gives no welcome;

**42** hinc deserta siti regio, lateque furentes  
on that side a country emptied by thirst, and the Barcaeans

**43** Barcaei. Quid bella Tyro surgentia dicam,  
raging far and wide. Why should I speak of the wars rising out of Tyre,

**44** germanique minas?  
and our brother's threats?
> Another line left incomplete: The hexameter stops less than a third of the way through. Vergil died before finishing his revision of the poem, and about fifty-five lines stand unfinished like this one; we leave the gap rather than fill it.

**45** Dis equidem auspicibus reor et Iunone secunda  
It was the gods' own omens, I think, and Juno's favor,

**46** hunc cursum Iliacas vento tenuisse carinas.  
that held the Ilian keels to this course with the wind.

**47** Quam tu urbem, soror, hanc cernes, quae surgere regna  
What a city you will see here, sister, what a kingdom

**48** coniugio tali! Teucrum comitantibus armis  
rise out of such a marriage! With Teucrian arms beside us,

**49** Punica se quantis attollet gloria rebus!  
to what heights will Punic glory lift itself!

**50** Tu modo posce deos veniam, sacrisque litatis  
Only ask the gods for pardon, and when the offerings have taken,

**51** indulge hospitio, causasque innecte morandi,  
give yourself to your guest, and weave reasons for delay,

**52** dum pelago desaevit hiemps et aquosus Orion,  
while winter rages itself out at sea, and rainy Orion,

**53** quassataeque rates, dum non tractabile caelum.”  
and the ships are battered, and the sky will not be handled.”

**54** His dictis incensum animum inflammavit amore,  
With these words she set a kindled heart ablaze with love,

**55** spemque dedit dubiae menti, solvitque pudorem.  
gave hope to a doubting mind, and loosed her shame.

**56** Principio delubra adeunt, pacemque per aras  
First they go to the shrines and seek peace along the altars

**57** exquirunt; mactant lectas de more bidentis  
one after another; they slaughter picked sheep by the rite
> Bidens names sheep by their teeth: bidens describes a sheep old enough to have grown the pair of long teeth that custom required for sacrifice. Latin names the victim, bidentis, by the feature a priest would check before the rite.

**58** legiferae Cereri Phoeboque patrique Lyaeo,  
to law-giving Ceres, to Phoebus, to father Lyaeus,

**59** Iunoni ante omnis, cui vincla iugalia curae.  
and to Juno before all, who has the marriage bonds in her keeping.

**60** Ipsa, tenens dextra pateram, pulcherrima Dido  
Dido herself, loveliest of women, holding the bowl in her right hand,

**61** candentis vaccae media inter cornua fundit,  
pours it out between the horns of a white heifer,

**62** aut ante ora deum pinguis spatiatur ad aras,  
or paces before the faces of the gods at the rich altars,

**63** instauratque diem donis, pecudumque reclusis  
and renews the day with gifts, and gazing into the opened

**64** pectoribus inhians spirantia consulit exta.  
chests of the beasts consults the entrails while they breathe.

**65** Heu vatum ignarae mentes! quid vota furentem,  
Ah, the ignorant minds of seers! What good are vows, what good

**66** quid delubra iuvant? Est mollis flamma medullas  
are shrines to a woman on fire? The flame eats her soft marrow
> Est here means eats, not is: est is the third-person singular of edo, 'to eat', spelled identically to est from sum, 'to be'. Here it is edo: the flame eats her marrow, medullas, rather than merely existing.

**67** interea, et tacitum vivit sub pectore volnus.  
all the while, and the silent wound lives under her breast.

**68** Uritur infelix Dido, totaque vagatur  
Unhappy Dido burns, and wanders the whole city

**69** urbe furens, qualis coniecta cerva sagitta,  
in her madness, like a doe struck by an arrow,

**70** quam procul incautam nemora inter Cresia fixit  
whom a shepherd hunting with his weapons has pinned from far off,

**71** pastor agens telis, liquitque volatile ferrum  
off her guard among the woods of Crete, and left the flying iron

**72** nescius; illa fuga silvas saltusque peragrat  
in her, not knowing it; she in flight ranges the woods and the glades

**73** Dictaeos; haeret lateri letalis arundo.  
of Dicte; the deadly shaft sticks in her side.

**74** Nunc media Aenean secum per moenia ducit,  
Now she leads Aeneas with her through the middle of the walls,

**75** Sidoniasque ostentat opes urbemque paratam;  
and shows her Sidonian wealth and the city standing ready;

**76** incipit effari, mediaque in voce resistit;  
she begins to speak, and stops in the middle of the word;

**77** nunc eadem labente die convivia quaerit,  
now, as the day slips down, she looks for the same feast again,

**78** Iliacosque iterum demens audire labores  
and out of her mind demands to hear the sufferings of Ilium

**79** exposcit, pendetque iterum narrantis ab ore.  
once more, and hangs again upon his mouth as he tells them.

**80** Post, ubi digressi, lumenque obscura vicissim  
Afterward, when they have parted, and the dimming moon in turn

**81** luna premit suadentque cadentia sidera somnos,  
puts down her light, and the setting stars urge sleep,

**82** sola domo maeret vacua, stratisque relictis  
she grieves alone in the empty house, and lies down

**83** incubat, illum absens absentem auditque videtque;  
on the couch he left; absent, she hears and sees him absent;
> The same participle in two cases: absens, nominative, describes Dido; absentem, accusative, describes Aeneas. Vergil sets the two case forms of the same participle side by side in illum absens absentem, joining her absence and his in one phrase.

**84** aut gremio Ascanium, genitoris imagine capta,  
or, caught by the father's likeness, she keeps Ascanius

**85** detinet, infandum si fallere possit amorem.  
in her lap, to see whether she can cheat a love past speaking.

**86** Non coeptae adsurgunt turres, non arma iuventus  
The towers begun do not go up; the young men do not drill

**87** exercet, portusve aut propugnacula bello  
at arms, nor make the harbors or the ramparts safe

**88** tuta parant; pendent opera interrupta, minaeque  
for war; the works hang broken off, and the huge

**89** murorum ingentes aequataque machina caelo.  
menace of the walls, and the crane raised level with the sky.

**90** Quam simul ac tali persensit peste teneri  
As soon as Jove's dear wife saw clearly that she was held
> Pestis names plague, not love: pestis means plague or ruin, the kind of thing that destroys a city. Juno, watching Dido, calls what has happened to her a pestis, tali peste teneri, and does not call it love.

**91** cara Iovis coniunx, nec famam obstare furori,  
by such a plague, and that no good name stood against the madness,

**92** talibus adgreditur Venerem Saturnia dictis:  
Saturn's daughter came at Venus with words like these:

**93** “Egregiam vero laudem et spolia ampla refertis  
“Splendid praise indeed you carry off, and generous spoils,

**94** tuque puerque tuus, magnum et memorabile numen,  
you and that boy of yours, a great power, and one to remember,

**95** una dolo divom si femina victa duorum est!  
if one woman is beaten by the trickery of two gods!

**96** Nec me adeo fallit veritam te moenia nostra  
Nor does it escape me at all that you have feared our walls

**97** suspectas habuisse domos Karthaginis altae.  
and held the houses of high Carthage under suspicion.

**98** Sed quis erit modus, aut quo nunc certamine tanto?  
But where will it end, or where does so great a contest go now?

**99** Quin potius pacem aeternam pactosque hymenaeos  
Why not rather work an everlasting peace and a wedding

**100** exercemus? Habes, tota quod mente petisti:  
sealed by treaty? You have what you sought with your whole mind:

**101** ardet amans Dido, traxitque per ossa furorem.  
Dido burns in love, and has drawn the madness through her bones.

**102** Communem hunc ergo populum paribusque regamus  
So let us rule this people in common, and under omens

**103** auspiciis; liceat Phrygio servire marito,  
held equally; let her be allowed to serve a Phrygian husband,

**104** dotalisque tuae Tyrios permittere dextrae.”  
and to hand her Tyrians to your right hand for a dowry.”

**105** Olli—sensit enim simulata mente locutam,  
To her (for Venus felt she had spoken with a feigned mind,
> An old dative form of ille: Olli is an archaic dative of ille, 'that one' or 'to him', a form that survived in verse after prose had dropped it. Vergil uses these older forms at formal exchanges between gods, where the antique word marks the scene as ceremonial.

**106** quo regnum Italiae Libycas averteret oras—  
to turn the kingdom of Italy aside to Libyan shores)

**107** sic contra est ingressa Venus: “Quis talia demens  
Venus began in answer: “Who would be mad enough to refuse

**108** abnuat, aut tecum malit contendere bello,  
such terms, or would rather fight it out with you in war,

**109** si modo, quod memoras, factum fortuna sequatur.  
if only fortune follows the thing you speak of, once it is done?

**110** Sed fatis incerta feror, si Iuppiter unam  
But the fates leave me unsure: whether Jupiter wants one

**111** esse velit Tyriis urbem Troiaque profectis,  
city for the Tyrians and for those who set out from Troy,

**112** miscerive probet populos, aut foedera iungi.  
or approves the mixing of the peoples, or a treaty joined.

**113** Tu coniunx tibi fas animum temptare precando.”  
You are his wife; it is right for you to try his mind by asking.”

**114** “Perge; sequar”. Tum sic excepit regia Iuno:  
“Go on; I will follow.” Then royal Juno took it up:

**115** “Mecum erit iste labor: nunc qua ratione, quod instat  
“That task will be mine. Now by what plan the thing at hand

**116** confieri possit, paucis, adverte, docebo.  
can be brought about, attend, and I will teach it in few words.

**117** Venatum Aeneas unaque miserrima Dido  
Aeneas, and with him poor Dido, are making ready to go

**118** in nemus ire parant, ubi primos crastinus ortus  
hunting into the wood, when tomorrow's Titan has brought up

**119** extulerit Titan, radiisque retexerit orbem.  
his first rising and unwoven the world with his rays.

**120** His ego nigrantem commixta grandine nimbum,  
On them a black cloud, mixed with hail,

**121** dum trepidant alae, saltusque indagine cingunt,  
while the beaters scramble and ring the glades with nets,

**122** desuper infundam, et tonitru caelum omne ciebo.  
I will pour down from above, and set the whole sky moving with thunder.

**123** Diffugient comites et nocte tegentur opaca:  
Their companions will scatter and be covered in a dark night:

**124** speluncam Dido dux et Troianus eandem  
Dido and the Trojan leader will come down into the same

**125** devenient; adero, et, tua si mihi certa voluntas,  
cave; I will be there, and, if your will toward me is sure,

**126** conubio iungam stabili propriamque dicabo,  
I will join them in a lasting marriage and name her his own.

**127** hic hymenaeus erit.”—Non adversata petenti  
This will be their wedding.” Not opposing what she asked,

**128** adnuit, atque dolis risit Cytherea repertis.  
Cytherea nodded, and laughed once she had found the trickery out.
> An ablative absolute left ambiguous: dolis repertis, an ablative absolute, can mean either 'the tricks now devised' or 'the tricks now found out', and Latin does not choose between them. Cytherea, a name for Venus from the island Cythera, laughs either way.

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

**130** It portis iubare exorto delecta iuventus;  
With the first ray up, picked young men go out from the gates;

**131** retia rara, plagae, lato venabula ferro,  
wide-meshed nets, snares, hunting spears with broad iron,

**132** Massylique ruunt equites et odora canum vis.  
and Massylian riders pour out, and the keen-nosed strength of the hounds.
> The pack named by its power: vis canum, 'the force of the dogs', names the pack by its quality rather than the animals themselves, a phrasing carried over from Greek verse. odora, 'keen-scented', supplies the sense that stands in for the noses.

**133** Reginam thalamo cunctantem ad limina primi  
At the threshold the first men of Carthage wait for the queen,

**134** Poenorum exspectant, ostroque insignis et auro  
who is slow to leave her chamber; her horse stands marked out

**135** stat sonipes, ac frena ferox spumantia mandit.  
with purple and gold, and champs fierce at the foaming bit.
> A compound word for horse: sonipes, 'sound-foot', is a compound of sonus, 'sound', and pes, 'foot', coined for verse to mean 'horse'. Vergil has an ordinary word for horse, equus, and uses this one instead here.

**136** Tandem progreditur, magna stipante caterva,  
At last she comes out, a great crowd pressing round her,

**137** Sidoniam picto chlamydem circumdata limbo.  
wrapped in a Sidonian cloak with an embroidered hem.

**138** Cui pharetra ex auro, crines nodantur in aurum,  
Her quiver is of gold, her hair is knotted up into gold,

**139** aurea purpuream subnectit fibula vestem.  
a golden brooch gathers her purple dress beneath.

**140** Nec non et Phrygii comites et laetus Iulus  
The Phrygian companions too, and Iulus in his gladness,

**141** incedunt. Ipse ante alios pulcherrimus omnis  
come on. Aeneas himself, the handsomest of them all,

**142** infert se socium Aeneas atque agmina iungit.  
brings himself in as their fellow and joins the two columns.

**143** Qualis ubi hibernam Lyciam Xanthique fluenta  
As when Apollo leaves wintering Lycia and the streams

**144** deserit ac Delum maternam invisit Apollo,  
of Xanthus, and goes to see his mother's Delos,

**145** instauratque choros, mixtique altaria circum  
and sets the dances up again, and around the altars, mingled,

**146** Cretesque Dryopesque fremunt pictique Agathyrsi;  
Cretans and Dryopians and painted Agathyrsi are roaring;

**147** ipse iugis Cynthi graditur, mollique fluentem  
he himself walks the ridges of Cynthus, and binding his flowing

**148** fronde premit crinem fingens atque implicat auro;  
hair with soft leaves, shapes it and wraps it in gold;

**149** tela sonant umeris: haud illo segnior ibat  
the arrows ring on his shoulders: no slower than he went

**150** Aeneas; tantum egregio decus enitet ore.  
Aeneas; such grace shines out from that splendid face.

**151** Postquam altos ventum in montis atque invia lustra,  
When they had come into the high mountains and the trackless lairs,

**152** ecce ferae, saxi deiectae vertice, caprae  
look, wild goats, driven off the peak of a rock,

**153** decurrere iugis; alia de parte patentis  
ran down from the ridges; from another side stags cross

**154** transmittunt cursu campos atque agmina cervi  
the open plains at a run, and mass their columns

**155** pulverulenta fuga glomerant montisque relinquunt.  
in a dusty flight, and leave the mountains behind.

**156** At puer Ascanius mediis in vallibus acri  
But the boy Ascanius, down in the middle of the valleys, delights

**157** gaudet equo, iamque hos cursu, iam praeterit illos,  
in his hot horse, and outruns now these, now those,

**158** spumantemque dari pecora inter inertia votis  
and prays that among the spiritless herds a foaming boar

**159** optat aprum, aut fulvum descendere monte leonem.  
may be granted him, or a tawny lion come down from the hill.

**160** Interea magno misceri murmure caelum  
Meanwhile the sky begins to be stirred up with a great

**161** incipit; insequitur commixta grandine nimbus;  
rumbling; a rain cloud follows, shot through with hail;

**162** et Tyrii comites passim et Troiana iuventus  
and the Tyrian companions scattered, and the Trojan young men,

**163** Dardaniusque nepos Veneris diversa per agros  
and Venus' Dardanian grandson, in fear made for shelter

**164** tecta metu petiere; ruunt de montibus amnes.  
in different places over the fields; rivers rush down the hills.

**165** Speluncam Dido dux et Troianus eandem  
Dido and the Trojan leader come down into

**166** deveniunt: prima et Tellus et pronuba Iuno  
the same cave: Earth first, and Juno who leads the bride,

**167** dant signum; fulsere ignes et conscius aether  
give the sign; fires flashed, and the upper air was witness

**168** conubiis, summoque ulularunt vertice nymphae.  
to the marriage, and on the high peak the nymphs howled.
> A shortened perfect tense form: ulularunt is a syncopated perfect, shortened from ulularaverunt by dropping a syllable. The verb itself names the ritual wailing used at funerals, which is what the nymphs on the ridge are doing here.

**169** Ille dies primus leti primusque malorum  
That day was the first cause of death, and the first

**170** causa fuit; neque enim specie famave movetur,  
cause of all the evils; for she is not moved by how it looks or by talk,

**171** nec iam furtivum Dido meditatur amorem:  
nor does Dido plan a stolen love any longer:

**172** coniugium vocat; hoc praetexit nomine culpam.  
she calls it marriage; with this name she screens her fault.
> Praetexere means to hem a border: praetexere is literally to sew a border or fringe onto a garment. Dido praetexit, 'trims', her fault with the name coniugium, 'marriage', rather than denying it outright. The same verb, praetexit, returns at line 500.

**173** Extemplo Libyae magnas it Fama per urbes—  
At once Rumor goes through the great cities of Libya,

**174** Fama, malum qua non aliud velocius ullum;  
Rumor, than whom no other evil thing is quicker;
> A comparison built for speed: qua ... velocius ullum uses an ablative of comparison with a near-superlative sense: of all evils, none is faster. Vergil defines Fama, 'Rumor', by that speed before describing what she looks like.

**175** mobilitate viget, viresque adquirit eundo,  
she thrives on movement and gathers strength by going,

**176** parva metu primo, mox sese attollit in auras,  
small at first out of fear, then she lifts herself into the air

**177** ingrediturque solo, et caput inter nubila condit.  
and walks on the ground, and hides her head among the clouds.

**178** Illam Terra parens, ira inritata deorum,  
Mother Earth, provoked to anger at the gods,

**179** extremam (ut perhibent) Coeo Enceladoque sororem  
bore her last, they say, a sister to Coeus and Enceladus,

**180** progenuit, pedibus celerem et pernicibus alis,  
swift of foot and quick of wing,

**181** monstrum horrendum, ingens, cui, quot sunt corpore plumae  
a monster, huge, and horrible: for every feather on her body

**182** tot vigiles oculi subter, mirabile dictu,  
there is an eye awake beneath it, strange to say,
> A supine ending in -u: dictu is a supine, a verbal noun in the ablative meaning 'to say' or 'in the telling'. It occurs mostly in set phrases like mirabile dictu, 'strange to tell', and Vergil uses the same form again at line 454.

**183** tot linguae, totidem ora sonant, tot subrigit aures.  
as many tongues, as many mouths sounding, as many ears pricked up.

**184** Nocte volat caeli medio terraeque per umbram,  
By night she flies through the dark between sky and earth,

**185** stridens, nec dulci declinat lumina somno;  
shrieking, and never lowers her eyes into sweet sleep;

**186** luce sedet custos aut summi culmine tecti,  
by day she sits on watch on the ridge of a roof

**187** turribus aut altis, et magnas territat urbes;  
or on high towers, and puts great cities in fear;

**188** tam ficti pravique tenax, quam nuntia veri.  
as tight a grip on the false and the crooked as she is a reporter of truth.
> Tenax governs a genitive: tenax, 'holding fast', takes the genitive ficti pravique, 'of the false and the crooked'. The clause balances that grip evenly against nuntia veri, 'a messenger of the true', in the same line.

**189** Haec tum multiplici populos sermone replebat  
She then was filling the peoples with talk of every kind,

**190** gaudens, et pariter facta atque infecta canebat:  
in her joy, and singing what was done and what was not, alike:
> A verb paired with its negative: facta, 'things done', and infecta, 'things not done', are the same participle, one with the negative prefix in-. Rumor, Fama, sings both without distinguishing them, though the report she carries about Dido and Aeneas turns out to be true.

**191** venisse Aenean, Troiano sanguine cretum,  
that Aeneas had come, grown from Trojan blood,

**192** cui se pulchra viro dignetur iungere Dido;  
and that beautiful Dido thought him a man worth joining herself to;

**193** nunc hiemem inter se luxu, quam longa, fovere  
that now they were keeping each other warm the whole long winter in luxury,

**194** regnorum immemores turpique cupidine captos.  
forgetful of their kingdoms and caught by a shameful appetite.

**195** Haec passim dea foeda virum diffundit in ora.  
The foul goddess spread this everywhere into the mouths of men.

**196** Protinus ad regem cursus detorquet Iarban,  
Straight off she bends her course to king Iarbas,

**197** incenditque animum dictis atque aggerat iras.  
sets his mind alight with words, and heaps his anger up.

**198** Hic Hammone satus, rapta Garamantide Nympha,  
He was Hammon's son by a Garamantian nymph he had carried off,

**199** templa Iovi centum latis immania regnis,  
and had set a hundred huge temples to Jove in his wide realms,

**200** centum aras posuit, vigilemque sacraverat ignem,  
a hundred altars, and had consecrated a fire that never sleeps,

**201** excubias divom aeternas, pecudumque cruore  
an everlasting watch kept for the gods; the ground was fat

**202** pingue solum et variis florentia limina sertis.  
with the blood of beasts, the thresholds flowering with garlands of every kind.

**203** Isque amens animi et rumore accensus amaro  
And he, out of his mind and set alight by the bitter report,

**204** dicitur ante aras media inter numina divom  
is said to have prayed much to Jove before the altars,

**205** multa Iovem manibus supplex orasse supinis:  
in among the presences of the gods, a suppliant with palms turned up:

**206** “Iuppiter omnipotens, cui nunc Maurusia pictis  
“Jupiter all-powerful, to whom the Moorish race, feasting now

**207** gens epulata toris Lenaeum libat honorem,  
on embroidered couches, pours the Lenaean offering,

**208** aspicis haec, an te, genitor, cum fulmina torques,  
do you see this? Or when you hurl the lightning, father,

**209** nequiquam horremus, caecique in nubibus ignes  
do we shudder for nothing, and do unseeing fires in the clouds

**210** terrificant animos et inania murmura miscent?  
terrify our hearts and stir up an empty rumbling?

**211** Femina, quae nostris errans in finibus urbem  
A woman, who came wandering into our borders and set up

**212** exiguam pretio posuit, cui litus arandum  
a paltry town for a price, to whom we gave a shore to plow

**213** cuique loci leges dedimus, conubia nostra  
and the terms of the place, she has thrown our marriage back

**214** reppulit, ac dominum Aenean in regna recepit.  
and taken Aeneas into her kingdom as its master.

**215** Et nunc ille Paris cum semiviro comitatu,  
And now that Paris, with his half-man following,

**216** Maeonia mentum mitra crinemque madentem  
his chin and his dripping hair tied under a Maeonian

**217** subnexus, rapto potitur: nos munera templis  
bonnet, is in possession of what he stole; while we bring offerings
> Potior takes an ablative object: potior, 'to gain possession of', governs the ablative, here rapto, the neuter participle raptum, 'the stolen thing', used as a noun. Iarbas names the theft, potitur, without naming Dido.

**218** quippe tuis ferimus, famamque fovemus inanem.”  
to your temples, no doubt, and nurse an empty name.”

**219** Talibus orantem dictis arasque tenentem  
As he prayed in such words and held the altars,

**220** audiit omnipotens, oculosque ad moenia torsit  
the all-powerful heard, and turned his eyes to the royal

**221** regia et oblitos famae melioris amantes.  
walls, and to the lovers, forgetful of their better name.

**222** Tum sic Mercurium adloquitur ac talia mandat:  
Then he speaks to Mercury so, and lays this charge on him:

**223** “Vade age, nate, voca Zephyros et labere pennis,  
“Go now, son, call the west winds and glide down on your wings,

**224** Dardaniumque ducem, Tyria Karthagine qui nunc  
and the Dardanian leader, who at this moment is waiting

**225** exspectat, fatisque datas non respicit urbes,  
in Tyrian Carthage and gives no thought to the cities the fates have granted,

**226** adloquere, et celeris defer mea dicta per auras.  
speak to him, and bring my words down through the racing air.

**227** Non illum nobis genetrix pulcherrima talem  
This is not the man his most beautiful mother promised

**228** promisit, Graiumque ideo bis vindicat armis;  
to us, nor what she twice saved him from Greek weapons for;

**229** sed fore, qui gravidam imperiis belloque frementem  
but one who would govern an Italy heavy with empire

**230** Italiam regeret, genus alto a sanguine Teucri  
and roaring with war, would carry forward a line

**231** proderet, ac totum sub leges mitteret orbem.  
out of the high blood of Teucer, and put the whole world under law.

**232** Si nulla accendit tantarum gloria rerum,  
If the glory of such things kindles nothing in him,

**233** nec super ipse sua molitur laude laborem,  
and he will not take the labor on for his own praise,

**234** Ascanione pater Romanas invidet arces?  
does the father grudge Ascanius the citadels of Rome?

**235** Quid struit, aut qua spe inimica in gente moratur,  
What is he building, or on what hope does he wait among a hostile people,

**236** nec prolem Ausoniam et Lavinia respicit arva?  
with no look for his Ausonian offspring and the Lavinian fields?

**237** Naviget: haec summa est; hic nostri nuntius esto.”  
Let him sail. That is the whole of it. Be that our message.”
> A jussive subjunctive stands alone: Naviget, 'let him sail', is a jussive subjunctive: a command given in the third person. Jupiter's whole decision is this one verb, with short sentences on either side of it.

**238** Dixerat. Ille patris magni parere parabat  
He had spoken. Mercury made ready to obey his great father's

**239** imperio; et primum pedibus talaria nectit  
command; and first he binds the golden sandals to his feet,

**240** aurea, quae sublimem alis sive aequora supra  
which carry him high on their wings, whether over the seas

**241** seu terram rapido pariter cum flamine portant;  
or over the land, level with the racing gale;

**242** tum virgam capit: hac animas ille evocat Orco  
then he takes his wand: with it he calls pale souls up

**243** pallentis, alias sub Tartara tristia mittit,  
out of Orcus, sends others down under grim Tartarus,

**244** dat somnos adimitque, et lumina morte resignat.  
gives sleep and takes it away, and unseals eyes in death.
> Resignare means to unseal: resignare is to break a seal, to open something that was closed. lumina ... resignat, 'unseals the eyes', describes death as an opening of the eyes rather than a closing of them.

**245** Illa fretus agit ventos, et turbida tranat  
Trusting to it he drives the winds and swims across

**246** nubila; iamque volans apicem et latera ardua cernit  
the churning clouds; and now in flight he makes out the peak

**247** Atlantis duri, caelum qui vertice fulcit,  
and steep sides of hard Atlas, who props the sky on his head,

**248** Atlantis, cinctum adsidue cui nubibus atris  
Atlas, whose pine-bearing head, forever ringed

**249** piniferum caput et vento pulsatur et imbri;  
about with black clouds, is beaten by wind and by rain;

**250** nix umeros infusa tegit; tum flumina mento  
snow lies poured over his shoulders; then rivers come headlong

**251** praecipitant senis, et glacie riget horrida barba.  
down the old man's chin, and his rough beard is stiff with ice.

**252** Hic primum paribus nitens Cyllenius alis  
Here the Cyllenian first came to a stop, balanced

**253** constitit; hinc toto praeceps se corpore ad undas  
on level wings; from here he threw himself headlong, his whole body

**254** misit, avi similis, quae circum litora, circum  
toward the waves, like a bird that flies low around the shores,

**255** piscosos scopulos humilis volat aequora iuxta.  
around the fish-thick rocks, close along the water.

**256** Haud aliter terras inter caelumque volabat,  
No differently the Cyllenian offspring was flying

**257** litus harenosum Libyae ventosque secabat  
between earth and sky, cutting the winds and the sandy shore

**258** materno veniens ab avo Cyllenia proles.  
of Libya, on his way from his mother's father.

**259** Ut primum alatis tetigit magalia plantis,  
As soon as he touched the huts with his winged feet,
> A Punic word kept as is: magalia is a Punic word for the round African huts, taken into Latin without translation. Vergil keeps the foreign word for the dwellings Mercury finds under construction at Carthage.

**260** Aenean fundantem arces ac tecta novantem  
he catches sight of Aeneas laying out citadels and

**261** conspicit; atque illi stellatus iaspide fulva  
building new houses; and his sword was starred

**262** ensis erat, Tyrioque ardebat murice laena  
with tawny jasper, and a cloak burned with Tyrian purple,

**263** demissa ex umeris, dives quae munera Dido  
hanging from his shoulders, gifts that wealthy Dido

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

**265** Continuo invadit: “Tu nunc Karthaginis altae  
He goes at him at once: “So now you lay the foundations

**266** fundamenta locas, pulchramque uxorius urbem  
of high Carthage, and, a wife's man, build up a beautiful
> An insult, not a compliment: uxorius, 'devoted to a wife', describes a man run by his household, and Roman usage takes it as an insult rather than praise. Mercury applies it to Aeneas, who is not even married to Dido.

**267** exstruis, heu regni rerumque oblite tuarum?  
city, ah, forgetful of your own kingdom and your own affairs?

**268** Ipse deum tibi me claro demittit Olympo  
The ruler of the gods himself sends me down to you

**269** regnator, caelum ac terras qui numine torquet;  
from bright Olympus, who turns sky and earth with his will;

**270** ipse haec ferre iubet celeris mandata per auras:  
he himself orders me to carry this charge through the quick air:

**271** quid struis, aut qua spe Libycis teris otia terris?  
what are you building, or on what hope do you wear out your leisure in Libyan lands?

**272** Si te nulla movet tantarum gloria rerum,  
If the glory of such things moves you not at all,

**273** nec super ipse tua moliris laude laborem,  
and you will not take the labor on for your own praise,

**274** Ascanium surgentem et spes heredis Iuli  
look to Ascanius growing up, to the hopes of Iulus

**275** respice, cui regnum Italiae Romanaque tellus  
your heir, to whom the kingdom of Italy and the Roman land

**276** debentur.” Tali Cyllenius ore locutus  
are owed.” When the Cyllenian had spoken so,

**277** mortalis visus medio sermone reliquit,  
he left mortal sight in the middle of the speech,

**278** et procul in tenuem ex oculis evanuit auram.  
and far off vanished out of their eyes into thin air.

**279** At vero Aeneas aspectu obmutuit amens,  
But Aeneas, out of his wits at the sight, was struck dumb;
> A word for being unhinged: amens breaks down as a-mens, 'without a mind'. Vergil used the same word earlier of Iarbas, driven mad by rumor, and gives it to Aeneas exactly this once, at the moment the god departs.

**280** arrectaeque horrore comae, et vox faucibus haesit.  
his hair stood up in terror, and his voice stuck in his throat.

**281** Ardet abire fuga dulcisque relinquere terras,  
He burns to be gone in flight and leave the sweet land,

**282** attonitus tanto monitu imperioque deorum.  
thunderstruck by so great a warning and command of the gods.

**283** Heu quid agat? Quo nunc reginam ambire furentem  
Ah, what is he to do? With what words dare he now go round

**284** audeat adfatu? Quae prima exordia sumat?  
the queen in her madness? What opening is he to take first?

**285** Atque animum nunc huc celerem, nunc dividit illuc,  
And he divides his quick mind now this way, now that,

**286** in partisque rapit varias perque omnia versat.  
snatches it into different parts, and turns it through everything.

**287** Haec alternanti potior sententia visa est:  
As he shifted back and forth, this seemed the stronger course:

**288** Mnesthea Sergestumque vocat fortemque Serestum,  
he calls Mnestheus and Sergestus and brave Serestus,

**289** classem aptent taciti sociosque ad litora cogant,  
let them fit the fleet out quietly and gather the crews to the shore,

**290** arma parent, et quae rebus sit causa novandis  
make the gear ready, and hide the reason for the change

**291** dissimulent; sese interea, quando optuma Dido  
in their affairs; he himself, meanwhile, since the best of women, Dido,
> Aeneas's plan reported indirectly: From this point the plan runs in indirect speech: subjunctive clauses for the commands he gives and an accusative-infinitive construction, sese temptaturum, 'that he himself would try', for what he intends. The narrator reports the instructions; Aeneas is not given direct words in the scene.

**292** nesciat et tantos rumpi non speret amores,  
knows nothing and does not expect so great a love to break,

**293** temptaturum aditus, et quae mollissima fandi  
will try for a way in, and for the gentlest hours
> A superlative inside its own phrase: mollissima, a superlative of mollis, 'gentle', is placed inside the noun phrase it modifies, with fandi, a gerund meaning 'of speaking', in the genitive: 'which are the gentlest times for speaking'. The ships are already being made ready while he looks for one.

**294** tempora, quis rebus dexter modus. Ocius omnes  
for speaking, the right handling of the matter. Quickly they all

**295** imperio laeti parent ac iussa facessunt.  
obey the order, glad of it, and carry the commands out.

**296** At regina dolos—quis fallere possit amantem?  
But the queen sensed the trick beforehand (who could deceive
> The narrator asks a question: quis fallere possit amantem, 'who could deceive one in love', is a question the narrator asks directly, breaking into his own sentence. It is the only direct judgment the narrator offers anywhere in this scene.

**297** praesensit, motusque excepit prima futuros,  
a lover?) and was the first to catch the movements to come,

**298** omnia tuta timens. Eadem impia Fama furenti  
afraid of everything, even the safe. The same unholy Rumor
> Neuter adjective functions as noun: tuta, 'safe things', is a neuter plural adjective used here as a noun, the object of timens, 'fearing'. The phrase omnia tuta timens, 'fearing all safe things', places tuta between omnia and timens.

**299** detulit armari classem cursumque parari.  
brought her, in her madness, word that the fleet was arming and a course being set.

**300** Saevit inops animi, totamque incensa per urbem  
She rages, helpless in her mind, and burning goes wild

**301** bacchatur, qualis commotis excita sacris  
through the whole city, like a Thyiad started up

**302** Thyias, ubi audito stimulant trieterica Baccho  
when the holy things are shaken, when the cry of Bacchus is heard

**303** orgia, nocturnusque vocat clamore Cithaeron.  
and goads the third-year rites, and Cithaeron calls her by night.

**304** Tandem his Aenean compellat vocibus ultro:  
At last, unasked, she goes at Aeneas in these words:

**305** “Dissimulare etiam sperasti, perfide, tantum  
“Did you even hope, faithless one, that you could hide
> Faithless comes from breaking a pledge: perfidus breaks down as per fidem, 'straight through the pledge', naming one who goes back on a promise. Dido calls Aeneas perfide, 'faithless', three times across this book.

**306** posse nefas, tacitusque mea decedere terra?  
so great a wrong, and go from my land without a word?

**307** Nec te noster amor, nec te data dextera quondam,  
Does our love not hold you, nor the right hand you once gave,

**308** nec moritura tenet crudeli funere Dido?  
nor Dido, who will die, and die a cruel death?

**309** Quin etiam hiberno moliris sidere classem,  
You even labor at the fleet under a winter star,

**310** et mediis properas aquilonibus ire per altum,  
and hurry to go over the deep in the middle of the north winds,

**311** crudelis? Quid, si non arva aliena domosque  
hard man? What, if you were not making for foreign fields

**312** ignotas peteres, sed Troia antiqua maneret,  
and houses you do not know, but ancient Troy were standing still,

**313** Troia per undosum peteretur classibus aequor  
would Troy be sought by your ships over a sea that rolls like this?

**314** Mene fugis? Per ego has lacrimas dextramque tuam te  
Is it me you run from? By these tears, by your own right hand,
> An oath formula split apart: The oath formula per te, 'by you', is broken apart, with ego, 'I', and has lacrimas, 'these tears', inserted between the preposition and its object. The two halves stand at opposite ends of the line.

**315** (quando aliud mihi iam miserae nihil ipsa reliqui)  
(since I have left myself, poor as I am, nothing else now)

**316** per conubia nostra, per inceptos hymenaeos,  
by our marriage, by the wedding we began,

**317** si bene quid de te merui, fuit aut tibi quicquam  
if I have deserved anything of you, if anything of mine

**318** dulce meum, miserere domus labentis, et istam—  
was ever sweet to you: pity a house going down, and that

**319** oro, si quis adhuc precibus locus—exue mentem.  
purpose of yours, I beg you, if there is any room left for prayer: put it off.

**320** Te propter Libycae gentes Nomadumque tyranni  
Because of you the Libyan peoples and the Nomad chiefs

**321** odere, infensi Tyrii; te propter eundem  
hate me, my Tyrians turn against me; because of you, again,

**322** exstinctus pudor, et, qua sola sidera adibam,  
my shame is put out, and the name I had before, by which alone

**323** fama prior. Cui me moribundam deseris, hospes?  
I was reaching the stars. To whom do you leave me dying, guest?
> One word for guest and host: hospes names either side of the bond of hospitality, guest or host, and carries no other claim. Dido calls Aeneas hospes because it is the only title she can still use once husband is no longer available to her.

**324** Hoc solum nomen quoniam de coniuge restat.  
since of a husband that one name is what remains.

**325** Quid moror? An mea Pygmalion dum moenia frater  
Why do I wait? Until my brother Pygmalion pulls my walls

**326** destruat, aut captam ducat Gaetulus Iarbas?  
down, or Gaetulian Iarbas leads me off a prisoner?

**327** Saltem si qua mihi de te suscepta fuisset  
If at least some child of yours had been taken up for me

**328** ante fugam suboles, si quis mihi parvulus aula  
before your flight, if some small Aeneas were playing

**329** luderet Aeneas, qui te tamen ore referret,  
for me in the hall, whose face would still bring you back,

**330** non equidem omnino capta ac deserta viderer.”  
I would not seem so utterly taken and left.”

**331** Dixerat. Ille Iovis monitis immota tenebat  
She had spoken. He kept his eyes unmoved, by Jove's

**332** lumina, et obnixus curam sub corde premebat.  
warning, and set himself against it, and pressed the care down under his heart.

**333** Tandem pauca refert: “Ego te, quae plurima fando  
At last he answers, briefly: “I will never deny, queen,
> The reply labeled short in advance: pauca, 'a few things', tells the reader the answer will be brief before Aeneas speaks a word. Dido has just spoken twenty-six lines; his reply, labeled pauca, still runs to twenty-nine.

**334** enumerare vales, numquam, regina, negabo  
that you have earned all that you are able to set out

**335** promeritam; nec me meminisse pigebit Elissae,  
in speech; nor will it shame me to remember Elissa

**336** dum memor ipse mei, dum spiritus hos regit artus.  
while I remember myself, while breath governs these limbs.

**337** Pro re pauca loquar. Neque ego hanc abscondere furto  
I will speak briefly to the case. I did not hope to hide
> A courtroom phrase for his answer: pro re, 'to the matter' or 'on the merits', is a phrase from legal argument. Aeneas answers a speech about their marriage by announcing he will address the facts, pauca loquar, and denies a charge in the lines that follow.

**338** speravi—ne finge—fugam, nec coniugis umquam  
this leaving by stealth (do not invent that), nor did I ever

**339** praetendi taedas, aut haec in foedera veni.  
hold out a husband's torches, or come into any such compact.

**340** Me si fata meis paterentur ducere vitam  
If the fates let me lead my life under my own

**341** auspiciis et sponte mea componere curas,  
auspices, and settle my cares as I chose,

**342** urbem Troianam primum dulcisque meorum  
I would tend the city of Troy first, and the sweet remains

**343** reliquias colerem, Priami tecta alta manerent,  
of my people; Priam's high house would still be standing,

**344** et recidiva manu posuissem Pergama victis.  
and I would have raised a Pergamum again by hand for the beaten.

**345** Sed nunc Italiam magnam Gryneus Apollo,  
But as it is, Grynean Apollo has ordered me to take great Italy,

**346** Italiam Lyciae iussere capessere sortes:  
Italy; and so have the Lycian lots:

**347** hic amor, haec patria est. Si te Karthaginis arces,  
that is my love, that is my country. If the citadels of Carthage

**348** Phoenissam, Libycaeque aspectus detinet urbis,  
hold you, a Phoenician, and the sight of a Libyan city,

**349** quae tandem, Ausonia Teucros considere terra,  
what, then, is the grudge, if Teucrians settle down
> The word for looking against: invidia, built from invidere, 'to look against', names the ill will one person feels at another's advantage. Aeneas asks what invidia there could be in Trojans settling down in Italy, in Ausonia.

**350** invidia est? Et nos fas extera quaerere regna.  
in Ausonian land? We too may rightly look for a kingdom abroad.

**351** Me patris Anchisae, quotiens umentibus umbris  
As often as night covers the earth with wet shadows,

**352** nox operit terras, quotiens astra ignea surgunt,  
as often as the burning stars rise, the troubled ghost

**353** admonet in somnis et turbida terret imago;  
of my father Anchises warns me in sleep, and frightens me;

**354** me puer Ascanius capitisque iniuria cari,  
and the boy Ascanius, and the wrong done to a dear head,

**355** quem regno Hesperiae fraudo et fatalibus arvis.  
whom I cheat of a kingdom in Hesperia and the fields the fates give.

**356** Nunc etiam interpres divom, Iove missus ab ipso—  
Now, too, the gods' own messenger, sent by Jupiter himself,

**357** testor utrumque caput—celeris mandata per auras  
(I swear it on both our heads) has brought his orders down

**358** detulit; ipse deum manifesto in lumine vidi  
through the quick air; I saw the god myself, in plain light,

**359** intrantem muros, vocemque his auribus hausi.  
coming inside the walls, and drank his voice with these ears.

**360** Desine meque tuis incendere teque querelis:  
Stop setting me on fire, and yourself, with your complaints.

**361** Italiam non sponte sequor.”  
Not of my own will do I make for Italy.”
> Another unfinished line closes speech: The verse stops mid-line, one of roughly fifty-five Vergil left incomplete. It is also the end of Aeneas's only speech to Dido in the poem, and its last clause denies that he wants what he is doing.

**362** Talia dicentem iamdudum aversa tuetur,  
All the while he speaks she watches him, turned away,

**363** huc illuc volvens oculos, totumque pererrat  
rolling her eyes this way and that, and goes over the whole of him

**364** luminibus tacitis, et sic accensa profatur:  
with silent looks, and then, alight, speaks out:

**365** “Nec tibi diva parens, generis nec Dardanus auctor,  
“You had no goddess for a mother, no Dardanus at the head of your line,

**366** perfide; sed duris genuit te cautibus horrens  
faithless one; bristling Caucasus fathered you on hard flint,

**367** Caucasus, Hyrcanaeque admorunt ubera tigres.  
and Hyrcanian tigers held their udders to you.
> A syncopated perfect verb: admorunt is shortened from admoverunt, the perfect of admovere, 'to bring to'. Hyrcania, south of the Caspian Sea, was proverbial in Latin verse as the home of tigers, chosen for its distance rather than its animals.

**368** Nam quid dissimulo, aut quae me ad maiora reservo?  
For why keep up the pretense? For what greater thing am I saving myself?

**369** Num fletu ingemuit nostro? Num lumina flexit?  
Did he groan at my weeping? Did he turn his eyes?

**370** Num lacrimas victus dedit, aut miseratus amantem est?  
Did he give way and shed tears, or pity the woman who loves him?

**371** Quae quibus anteferam? Iam iam nec maxuma Iuno,  
What shall I put before what? By now neither greatest Juno

**372** nec Saturnius haec oculis pater aspicit aequis.  
nor Saturn's son the father looks on this with fair eyes.

**373** Nusquam tuta fides. Eiectum litore, egentem  
Good faith is safe nowhere. I took him in, thrown up
> Fides names trust, not feeling: fides is the word for a kept promise and for the trust that makes promises worth anything; it shares its root with perfidus, the word Dido keeps aiming at Aeneas. Nusquam tuta fides means 'good faith is safe nowhere'.

**374** excepi, et regni demens in parte locavi;  
on my shore and in want, and madly gave him a share of my kingdom;

**375** amissam classem, socios a morte reduxi.  
I brought his lost fleet back, brought his crews back from death.

**376** Heu furiis incensa feror! Nunc augur Apollo,  
Ah, I am carried away, burning with the Furies! Now the seer Apollo,

**377** nunc Lyciae sortes, nunc et Iove missus ab ipso  
now the Lycian lots, now the gods' own messenger, sent

**378** interpres divom fert horrida iussa per auras.  
by Jupiter himself, brings dreadful orders through the air.

**379** Scilicet is Superis labor est, ea cura quietos  
That, no doubt, is work for the gods above; that is the care that troubles
> Scilicet marks bitter agreement: scilicet, from scire licet, 'one may know', signals sarcasm here rather than plain information. Dido repeats Aeneas's own excuse, that the gods require this, back at him in his own words.

**380** sollicitat. Neque te teneo, neque dicta refello.  
their quiet. I neither hold you nor argue against your words.

**381** I, sequere Italiam ventis, pete regna per undas.  
Go, follow Italy on the winds, look for kingdoms across the waves.

**382** Spero equidem mediis, si quid pia numina possunt,  
I do hope, if the just powers can do anything, that you will drink

**383** supplicia hausurum scopulis, et nomine Dido  
your punishment on the rocks in mid-sea, and call on Dido's

**384** saepe vocaturum. Sequar atris ignibus absens,  
name over and over. Absent, I will follow you with black fires,

**385** et, cum frigida mors anima seduxerit artus,  
and when cold death has parted the limbs from the breath,

**386** omnibus umbra locis adero. Dabis, improbe, poenas.  
I will be there in every place, a shade. You will pay for it, wretch.
> Poenas dare names a debt paid: poenas dare, 'to give penalties', is the ordinary Latin phrase for paying a legal penalty. Dido frames what follows as a debt owed, and at line 625 that debt will be handed to someone else to collect.

**387** Audiam et haec Manis veniet mihi fama sub imos.”  
I will hear; and this word will come to me among the lowest dead.”

**388** His medium dictis sermonem abrumpit, et auras  
With these words she breaks the talk off in the middle, and sick

**389** aegra fugit, seque ex oculis avertit et aufert,  
flees the daylight, and turns from his eyes and takes herself away,

**390** linquens multa metu cunctantem et multa parantem  
leaving him hanging back in fear, with much to say and getting

**391** dicere. Suscipiunt famulae, conlapsaque membra  
much of it ready. Her women take her up, and carry the fallen

**392** marmoreo referunt thalamo stratisque reponunt.  
body back to the marble chamber, and lay it on the couch.

**393** At pius Aeneas, quamquam lenire dolentem  
But dutiful Aeneas, though he longs to soothe her grief

**394** solando cupit et dictis avertere curas,  
with comfort and to turn her cares aside with words,

**395** multa gemens magnoque animum labefactus amore,  
groaning much, his mind shaken by a great love,

**396** iussa tamen divom exsequitur, classemque revisit.  
carries out the gods' orders even so, and goes back to the fleet.

**397** Tum vero Teucri incumbunt, et litore celsas  
Then indeed the Teucrians set to, and haul the high ships

**398** deducunt toto naves: natat uncta carina;  
down all along the shore: the tarred keel swims;

**399** frondentisque ferunt remos et robora silvis  
they bring oars still in leaf, and timber out of the woods

**400** infabricata, fugae studio.  
unshaped, in their passion to be gone.
> A line breaking off mid-scene: The hexameter ends short, one of about fifty-five unfinished verses left at Vergil's death. It falls where the fleet, unshaped, infabricata, is being thrown together in haste, fugae studio, 'in eagerness to flee'.

**401** Migrantis cernas, totaque ex urbe ruentis.  
You could see them moving out, pouring from the whole city.

**402** Ac velut ingentem formicae farris acervum  
As when ants, remembering the winter, are plundering

**403** cum populant, hiemis memores, tectoque reponunt;  
a huge heap of grain and storing it under their roof;

**404** it nigrum campis agmen, praedamque per herbas  
a black column goes over the fields, and they haul the loot

**405** convectant calle angusto; pars grandia trudunt  
through the grass along a narrow track; some shove the big

**406** obnixae frumenta umeris; pars agmina cogunt  
kernels with their shoulders, straining; some close the ranks up

**407** castigantque moras; opere omnis semita fervet.  
and punish delay; the whole path boils with the work.

**408** Quis tibi tum, Dido, cernenti talia sensus?  
What did you feel then, Dido, watching such things?
> The narrator addresses Dido directly: For four lines the narration turns from third person to speak straight to Dido, asking quis tibi sensus, 'what feeling was yours'. Vergil does this only a few times in the poem, always for someone about to be destroyed, and leaves the question unanswered.

**409** quosve dabas gemitus, cum litora fervere late  
What groans did you give, when from the top of the citadel

**410** prospiceres arce ex summa, totumque videres  
you looked out on the shore boiling far and wide, and saw

**411** misceri ante oculos tantis clamoribus aequor?  
the whole sea churned before your eyes with such shouting?

**412** Improbe Amor, quid non mortalia pectora cogis?  
Wicked Love, what do you not drive mortal hearts to?
> Improbus means past all limit: improbus does not mean wicked in a moral sense so much as beyond bounds, not to be checked. Vergil elsewhere applies it to a plow, a wolf, and hunger; here it describes Amor, and Dido used the same word of Aeneas at line 386.

**413** Ire iterum in lacrimas, iterum temptare precando  
She is forced to go into tears again, to try him again

**414** cogitur, et supplex animos submittere amori,  
by asking, and as a suppliant to put her pride under love,

**415** ne quid inexpertum frustra moritura relinquat.  
so as to leave nothing untried, and die for nothing.
> Future participle names what comes: moritura is the future participle of morior, 'to die', feminine nominative singular: 'about to die'. Vergil attaches it to Dido five times in this book, the first time in her own mouth at line 308.

**416** “Anna, vides toto properari litore; circum  
“Anna, you see the haste along the whole shore; they have gathered

**417** undique convenere; vocat iam carbasus auras,  
from every side; the canvas is calling the winds already,

**418** puppibus et laeti nautae imposuere coronas.  
and the glad sailors have set garlands on the sterns.

**419** Hunc ego si potui tantum sperare dolorem,  
If I have been able to look for a grief as great as this,

**420** et perferre, soror, potero. Miserae hoc tamen unum  
I will be able to bear it too, sister. Still, do this one thing

**421** exsequere, Anna, mihi. Solam nam perfidus ille  
for me in my misery, Anna. That faithless man used to court

**422** te colere, arcanos etiam tibi credere sensus;  
you alone, and trust his secret feelings even to you;

**423** sola viri mollis aditus et tempora noras.  
you alone knew the man's soft approaches and his hours.

**424** I, soror, atque hostem supplex adfare superbum:  
Go, sister, and as a suppliant speak to my proud enemy:

**425** non ego cum Danais Troianam exscindere gentem  
I did not swear at Aulis with the Danaans to root out

**426** Aulide iuravi, classemve ad Pergama misi,  
the Trojan people, nor send a fleet to Pergamum;

**427** nec patris Anchisae cineres Manisve revelli,  
I did not tear up the ashes or the shade of his father Anchises.

**428** cur mea dicta neget duras demittere in auris.  
Why does he refuse to let my words down into his hard ears?

**429** Quo ruit? Extremum hoc miserae det munus amanti:  
Where is he rushing? Let him give one last gift to the woman who loves him:

**430** exspectet facilemque fugam ventosque ferentis.  
let him wait for an easy crossing and winds that carry.

**431** Non iam coniugium antiquum, quod prodidit, oro,  
I do not ask now for the old marriage, which he betrayed,

**432** nec pulchro ut Latio careat regnumque relinquat:  
nor that he go without his fine Latium and give a kingdom up:

**433** tempus inane peto, requiem spatiumque furori,  
I ask for empty time, a rest and a space for my madness,

**434** dum mea me victam doceat fortuna dolere.  
until my own luck teaches me, beaten, how to grieve.

**435** Extremam hanc oro veniam—miserere sororis—  
This last favor I ask (pity your sister)

**436** quam mihi cum dederit, cumulatam morte remittam.”  
and when he has given it, I will pay it back heaped up, in my death.”
> Cumulatam names a debt overpaid: cumulatam, from cumulare, is a merchant's term for filling a measure past the brim. remittam, 'I will pay back', promises repayment cumulatam morte, 'heaped up, in death', to whoever collects the debt.

**437** Talibus orabat, talisque miserrima fletus  
So she prayed, and such weeping her wretched sister

**438** fertque refertque soror: sed nullis ille movetur  
carries and carries again: but he is moved by no

**439** fletibus, aut voces ullas tractabilis audit;  
weeping, and hears no words that could handle him;

**440** fata obstant, placidasque viri deus obstruit auris.  
the fates stand in the way, a god stops the man's ears against peace.
> A god blocks the ears: placidas, 'calm', describes auris, 'ears', which obstruit, 'blocks up', treats as walled shut rather than merely deaf. The sentence credits a god with stopping Aeneas's hearing rather than saying he refuses to listen.

**441** Ac, velut annoso validam cum robore quercum  
And as when north winds off the Alps, blowing now from here,

**442** Alpini Boreae nunc hinc nunc flatibus illinc  
now from there, contend among themselves to tear up

**443** eruere inter se certant; it stridor, et altae  
an oak strong in its aged timber; there is a groaning, and the leaves

**444** consternunt terram concusso stipite frondes;  
lie thick on the ground from the shaken trunk;

**445** ipsa haeret scopulis, et, quantum vertice ad auras  
the tree clings to the rock, and reaches as far down

**446** aetherias, tantum radice in Tartara tendit:  
toward Tartarus with its root as its crown reaches to the upper air:

**447** haud secus adsiduis hinc atque hinc vocibus heros  
just so the hero is beaten by voices, from this side

**448** tunditur, et magno persentit pectore curas;  
and from that, without stopping, and feels the cares through his great heart;

**449** mens immota manet; lacrimae volvuntur inanes.  
his mind stays unmoved; the tears roll, and are for nothing.
> Whose tears is left unstated: lacrimae, 'tears', has no possessor named. The sentence follows a simile about Aeneas, so most readers take the tears as his, but the grammar allows Dido's equally well, and inanes, 'empty' or 'useless', fits either reading.

**450** Tum vero infelix fatis exterrita Dido  
Then indeed unlucky Dido, terrified by the fates,

**451** mortem orat; taedet caeli convexa tueri.  
prays for death; she is sick of looking at the vault of the sky.
> A verb with no subject: taedet, 'it wearies' or 'it disgusts', is an impersonal verb with no subject at all; the person affected stands in the accusative. Latin states the feeling without making it something the person does, so English must supply a she who is sick of it.

**452** Quo magis inceptum peragat lucemque relinquat,  
So that she might carry it through the sooner and leave the light,

**453** vidit, turicremis cum dona imponeret aris,  
she saw, as she was laying gifts on the incense-burning altars,

**454** horrendum dictu, latices nigrescere sacros,  
horrible to say, the holy water blackening

**455** fusaque in obscenum se vertere vina cruorem.  
and the poured wine turning into filthy blood.

**456** Hoc visum nulli, non ipsi effata sorori.  
She told this sight to no one, not to her own sister.

**457** Praeterea fuit in tectis de marmore templum  
There was besides, in the house, a shrine of marble

**458** coniugis antiqui, miro quod honore colebat,  
to her old husband, which she kept with wonderful honor,

**459** velleribus niveis et festa fronde revinctum:  
bound about with snowy fleeces and festal leaves:

**460** hinc exaudiri voces et verba vocantis  
from here she seemed to hear voices, and the words of her husband

**461** visa viri, nox cum terras obscura teneret;  
calling her, when the dark night held the earth;

**462** solaque culminibus ferali carmine bubo  
and alone on the rooftop an owl would often complain

**463** saepe queri et longas in fletum ducere voces;  
in a funeral song, and draw its long cries out into weeping;

**464** multaque praeterea vatum praedicta priorum  
and many warnings of the old seers besides

**465** terribili monitu horrificant. Agit ipse furentem  
make her flesh crawl with terrible admonition. Aeneas himself, savage,

**466** in somnis ferus Aeneas; semperque relinqui  
drives her in her dreams as she rages; and always she seems to be left

**467** sola sibi, semper longam incomitata videtur  
to herself, alone, always going a long road with no one,

**468** ire viam, et Tyrios deserta quaerere terra.  
and looking for her Tyrians in a deserted land.

**469** Eumenidum veluti demens videt agmina Pentheus,  
As Pentheus in his madness sees ranks of Eumenides,

**470** et solem geminum et duplicis se ostendere Thebas;  
and a double sun, and two Thebes showing themselves;

**471** aut Agamemnonius scaenis agitatus Orestes  
or as Orestes, Agamemnon's son, hounded across the stage,
> A simile names the stage: scaenis, 'on the stage', names the venue directly: Orestes as an Athenian audience would have watched him performed, not as myth alone reports him. The simile compares Dido to an actor playing a hunted man.

**472** armatam facibus matrem et serpentibus atris  
flees from a mother armed with torches and black snakes,

**473** cum fugit, ultricesque sedent in limine Dirae.  
and the avenging Dirae sit in the doorway.

**474** Ergo ubi concepit furias evicta dolore  
So, when she had taken the madness in, beaten down by grief,

**475** decrevitque mori, tempus secum ipsa modumque  
and had decided to die, she works out with herself the time

**476** exigit, et, maestam dictis adgressa sororem,  
and the manner, and, coming at her grieving sister with words,

**477** consilium voltu tegit, ac spem fronte serenat:  
hides the plan in her face and clears hope onto her brow:

**478** “Inveni, germana, viam—gratare sorori—  
“I have found a way, sister (wish your sister joy)

**479** quae mihi reddat eum, vel eo me solvat amantem.  
to bring him back to me, or free me from loving him.

**480** Oceani finem iuxta solemque cadentem  
Next to the Ocean's edge and the setting sun

**481** ultimus Aethiopum locus est, ubi maxumus Atlas  
is the last place of the Ethiopians, where huge Atlas

**482** axem humero torquet stellis ardentibus aptum:  
turns on his shoulder the axle fitted with burning stars:

**483** hinc mihi Massylae gentis monstrata sacerdos,  
from there a priestess of the Massylian people has been shown me,

**484** Hesperidum templi custos, epulasque draconi  
keeper of the temple of the Hesperides, who used to give the dragon

**485** quae dabat, et sacros servabat in arbore ramos,  
his meals and guard the holy branches on the tree,

**486** spargens umida mella soporiferumque papaver.  
scattering wet honey and sleep-bringing poppy.

**487** Haec se carminibus promittit solvere mentes  
She promises to free with her chants what minds she chooses,

**488** quas velit, ast aliis duras immittere curas,  
and to send hard cares into others,

**489** sistere aquam fluviis, et vertere sidera retro;  
to stop the water in rivers and turn the stars backward;

**490** nocturnosque movet Manis: mugire videbis  
and she stirs the shades by night: you will see the ground

**491** sub pedibus terram, et descendere montibus ornos.  
bellow underfoot, and ash trees come down from the mountains.

**492** Testor, cara, deos et te, germana, tuumque  
I call the gods to witness, dear one, and you, sister, and your

**493** dulce caput, magicas invitam accingier artes.  
sweet head, that I gird myself to magic arts against my will.
> An archaic passive infinitive: accingier is an old passive infinitive ending in -ier, in place of the classical accingi, already outdated by Vergil's time. He uses the older form at the moment Dido swears she takes up magic against her own will.

**494** Tu secreta pyram tecto interiore sub auras  
You, in secret, set up a pyre in the inner court, open

**495** erige, et arma viri, thalamo quae fixa reliquit  
to the sky, and lay on it the man's arms, which the undutiful one
> Negating Aeneas's own epithet: impius is the negative of pius, the epithet the poem gives Aeneas everywhere else. Dido places it at the head of the line to call him undutiful, using the poem's own vocabulary against him.

**496** impius, exuviasque omnis, lectumque iugalem,  
left hanging in my chamber, and all his relics, and the marriage bed
> Exuviae are things stripped off: exuviae names things taken off a body: a shed skin, armor stripped from the dead, clothing left behind. Dido applies it to Aeneas's belongings, and addresses them by the same word again at line 651.

**497** quo perii, superimponas: abolere nefandi  
where I was undone: it is a joy to blot out every trace

**498** cuncta viri monumenta iuvat, monstratque sacerdos.”  
of that abominable man, and the priestess directs it.”

**499** Haec effata silet; pallor simul occupat ora.  
She said this and fell silent; pallor takes her face at once.

**500** Non tamen Anna novis praetexere funera sacris  
Still Anna does not believe her sister is screening her own funeral

**501** germanam credit, nec tantos mente furores  
with strange rites, nor does she take in so great a madness,

**502** concipit, aut graviora timet, quam morte Sychaei:  
nor fear anything worse than at Sychaeus' death:

**503** ergo iussa parat.  
and so she makes ready what was asked.

**504** At regina, pyra penetrali in sede sub auras  
But the queen, when the pyre had been raised toward the sky

**505** erecta ingenti taedis atque ilice secta,  
in the inmost place, huge with pine torches and cut oak,

**506** intenditque locum sertis, et fronde coronat  
hangs the place with garlands and crowns it with funeral

**507** funerea; super exuvias ensemque relictum  
leaves; on top she sets the relics, the sword he left,

**508** effigiemque toro locat, haud ignara futuri.  
and an image, on the bed, knowing well what was coming.
> A negative stating a strong fact: haud ignara, 'not ignorant', is litotes, a negative phrase used to state something plainly rather than emphatically. haud ignara futuri, 'not ignorant of what was to come', tells the reader Dido already knew what she was planning, unlike Anna.

**509** Stant arae circum, et crines effusa sacerdos  
Altars stand round, and the priestess, her hair let loose,

**510** ter centum tonat ore deos, Erebumque Chaosque,  
thunders three hundred gods with her mouth, Erebus and Chaos,

**511** tergeminamque Hecaten, tria virginis ora Dianae.  
and threefold Hecate, the three faces of the maiden Diana.

**512** Sparserat et latices simulatos fontis Averni,  
She had sprinkled water pretended to be from Avernus' spring,

**513** falcibus et messae ad lunam quaeruntur aënis  
and they look for herbs still in their first down, reaped by moonlight

**514** pubentes herbae nigri cum lacte veneni;  
with bronze sickles, with their black milk of poison;

**515** quaeritur et nascentis equi de fronte revolsus  
and they look for the love-charm torn from the forehead of a new-foaled colt

**516** et matri praereptus amor.  
and snatched away before the mother.
> An unfinished line about a charm: The verse breaks off short, one of Vergil's incomplete lines. The object sought is the hippomanes, a growth on a newborn foal's forehead believed to make a powerful love charm if taken before the mare could bite it off; Vergil names it simply amor, 'love'.

**517** Ipsa mola manibusque piis altaria iuxta,  
She herself, beside the altars with the meal and with dutiful hands,

**518** unum exuta pedem vinclis, in veste recincta,  
one foot bare of its binding, her dress ungirt,

**519** testatur moritura deos et conscia fati  
calls the gods to witness her death, and the stars that know

**520** sidera; tum, si quod non aequo foedere amantes  
her fate; then she prays to whatever power there is,

**521** curae numen habet iustumque memorque, precatur.  
just and unforgetting, that has lovers bound unequally in its care.

**522** Nox erat, et placidum carpebant fessa soporem  
It was night, and tired bodies over the earth were taking

**523** corpora per terras, silvaeque et saeva quierant  
a quiet sleep; the woods and the wild waters

**524** aequora: cum medio volvuntur sidera lapsu,  
had gone still: it was the hour when the stars roll at mid-course,

**525** cum tacet omnis ager, pecudes pictaeque volucres,  
when every field is silent, cattle and painted birds,

**526** quaeque lacus late liquidos, quaeque aspera dumis  
and all that hold the wide clear lakes, and all that hold

**527** rura tenent, somno positae sub nocte silenti  
the country rough with thorn, laid down in sleep under the silent night,

**528** lenibant curas, et corda oblita laborum.  
were easing their cares, and their hearts had forgotten their toil.

**529** At non infelix animi Phoenissa, nec umquam  
But not the Phoenician woman, sick at heart; never
> Dido named by her people: Phoenissa, 'the Phoenician woman', replaces Dido's name here. Vergil does this at the worst moments in the book, naming her by her nation rather than by her own name.

**530** Solvitur in somnos, oculisve aut pectore noctem  
is she loosed into sleep, nor does she take the night

**531** accipit: ingeminant curae, rursusque resurgens  
into her eyes or her breast: her cares redouble, and love

**532** saevit amor, magnoque irarum fluctuat aestu.  
rises again and rages, and she heaves on a great swell of anger.
> A sea metaphor for her anger: aestus, 'the surge of the tide', and fluctuat, 'heaves' or 'is tossed', are both words for what a ship does at sea. Vergil applies them to Dido's anger at the hour Aeneas sleeps aboard ship, and the line returns with barely a change at 564.

**533** Sic adeo insistit, secumque ita corde volutat:  
So she holds to it, and turns it over so in her heart:

**534** “En, quid ago? Rursusne procos inrisa priores  
“Look, what am I doing? Am I to try my old suitors again,

**535** experiar, Nomadumque petam conubia supplex,  
a laughingstock, and beg a Nomad marriage as a suppliant,

**536** quos ego sim totiens iam dedignata maritos?  
men I have already refused as husbands so many times?

**537** Iliacas igitur classes atque ultima Teucrum  
Am I then to follow the Ilian fleets and the last

**538** iussa sequar? Quiane auxilio iuvat ante levatos,  
orders of the Teucrians? Because it is pleasant to have been helped

**539** et bene apud memores veteris stat gratia facti?  
before, and thanks for an old deed stands well with people who remember?

**540** Quis me autem, fac velle, sinet, ratibusve superbis  
And who, grant that I wished it, would let me, or take me,

**541** invisam accipiet? Nescis heu, perdita, necdum  
hated, aboard those proud ships? Do you not know, lost woman,

**542** Laomedonteae sentis periuria gentis?  
do you not yet feel, the perjuries of Laomedon's race?

**543** Quid tum, sola fuga nautas comitabor ovantes,  
What then? Shall I go alone in flight, with sailors cheering,

**544** an Tyriis omnique manu stipata meorum  
or bear down on them with my Tyrians and the whole force

**545** inferar, et, quos Sidonia vix urbe revelli,  
of my people packed about me, and drive back to sea

**546** rursus agam pelago, et ventis dare vela iubebo?  
the men I barely tore out of Sidon, and order sail given to the wind?

**547** Quin morere, ut merita es, ferroque averte dolorem.  
No: die, as you have earned, and turn the grief aside with iron.
> Quin with a command means agree: quin with an imperative has the force of 'why not', that is, an instruction to act: quin morere, 'die, then'. Dido gives herself this order directly, in the second person, ferro, 'with iron'.

**548** Tu lacrimis evicta meis, tu prima furentem  
You, beaten down by my tears, you first loaded these evils

**549** his, germana, malis oneras atque obicis hosti.  
onto me in my madness, sister, and threw me to the enemy.

**550** Non licuit thalami expertem sine crimine vitam  
I was not allowed to live a life clear of blame, untried in marriage,

**551** degere, more ferae, tales nec tangere curas!  
in the manner of a wild thing, and never touch such cares!
> An animal's life named blameless: more ferae, 'in the manner of a wild animal', modifies degere, 'to live'. It describes a life without marriage, without blame, culpa, and without tales curas, 'such cares' as Dido now carries.

**552** Non servata fides cineri promissa Sychaeo!”  
The faith promised to Sychaeus' ash was not kept!”

**553** Tantos illa suo rumpebat pectore questus.  
Such were the cries she was breaking out of her breast.

**554** Aeneas celsa in puppi, iam certus eundi,  
Aeneas, high on the stern, sure now of going,

**555** carpebat somnos, rebus iam rite paratis.  
was taking his sleep, everything now duly made ready.

**556** Huic se forma dei voltu redeuntis eodem  
The shape of the god came to him in his sleep, returning

**557** obtulit in somnis, rursusque ita visa monere est—  
with the same face, and seemed to warn him again:

**558** omnia Mercurio similis, vocemque coloremque  
like Mercury in everything, in the voice and the coloring

**559** et crinis flavos et membra decora iuventa:  
and the yellow hair and the limbs made handsome by youth:

**560** “Nate dea, potes hoc sub casu ducere somnos,  
“Son of a goddess, can you draw out sleep in a crisis like this,

**561** nec, quae te circum stent deinde pericula, cernis,  
and not see what dangers stand around you after this,

**562** demens, nec Zephyros audis spirare secundos?  
madman, nor hear the west winds blowing fair?

**563** Illa dolos dirumque nefas in pectore versat,  
She turns tricks and a dreadful crime over in her breast,

**564** certa mori, varioque irarum fluctuat aestu.  
sure of dying, and heaves on a shifting swell of anger.

**565** Non fugis hinc praeceps, dum praecipitare potestas?  
Will you not run headlong from here, while there is power to run?
> The same root used twice: praeceps, 'headlong', and praecipitare, 'to rush headlong', share the same root and stand together in this line. The question asks whether Aeneas can still act praeceps, headlong, while there is still power, potestas, to do it.

**566** Iam mare turbari trabibus, saevasque videbis  
Soon you will see the sea churned with timber, savage torches

**567** conlucere faces, iam fervere litora flammis,  
blazing, soon the shore boiling with flames,

**568** si te his attigerit terris Aurora morantem.  
if Dawn touches you still lingering in this land.

**569** Heia age, rumpe moras. Varium et mutabile semper  
Up, come, break off delay. Always a shifting, changeable thing:
> Neuter adjectives precede the noun: varium and mutabile are neuter adjectives, agreeing with an implied neuter noun rather than femina, 'woman', which is held back to the next line. The grammar calls her a changeable thing before it names her a woman.

**570** femina.” Sic fatus, nocti se immiscuit atrae.  
a woman.” So he spoke, and mixed himself into the black night.

**571** Tum vero Aeneas, subitis exterritus umbris,  
Then indeed Aeneas, terrified by the sudden shadows,

**572** corripit e somno corpus, sociosque fatigat:  
snatches his body out of sleep and harries his crews:

**573** “Praecipites vigilate, viri, et considite transtris;  
“Awake, men, and be quick, and take your places on the benches;

**574** solvite vela citi. Deus aethere missus ab alto  
loose the sails, fast. A god sent down from high heaven

**575** festinare fugam tortosque incidere funes  
is goading us again, look, to hurry our flight

**576** ecce iterum stimulat. Sequimur te, sancte deorum,  
and cut the twisted cables. We follow you, holy one among the gods,

**577** quisquis es, imperioque iterum paremus ovantes.  
whoever you are, and obey the order again, and gladly.

**578** Adsis o placidusque iuves, et sidera caelo  
Be with us, be kind and help us, and bring us favoring

**579** dextra feras.” Dixit, vaginaque eripit ensem  
stars in the sky.” He spoke, and tore his sword from the sheath,

**580** fulmineum, strictoque ferit retinacula ferro.  
a bolt of it, and struck the mooring ropes with the drawn iron.
> The sword called lightning-like: fulmineum, 'like a thunderbolt', describes the sword as it is drawn. The same word describes Jupiter's own weapon elsewhere, and here it cuts the mooring ropes one line after a god has told Aeneas to go.

**581** Idem omnes simul ardor habet, rapiuntque ruuntque;  
The same heat holds them all at once; they snatch and rush;

**582** litora deseruere; latet sub classibus aequor;  
they have left the shore; the sea is hidden under the ships;

**583** adnixi torquent spumas et caerula verrunt.  
strain and churn the foam and sweep the blue.

**584** Et iam prima novo spargebat lumine terras  
And already the first light was being scattered new over the lands

**585** Tithoni croceum linquens Aurora cubile.  
by Dawn, leaving Tithonus' saffron bed.

**586** Regina e speculis ut primum albescere lucem  
As soon as the queen from her watchtower saw the light

**587** vidit, et aequatis classem procedere velis,  
whitening, and the fleet going out with its sails squared,

**588** litoraque et vacuos sensit sine remige portus,  
and felt the shore and the harbors empty of an oarsman,

**589** terque quaterque manu pectus percussa decorum,  
three times and four times she struck her lovely breast with her hand

**590** flaventesque abscissa comas, “Pro Iuppiter, ibit  
and tore her yellow hair. “By Jupiter, will he go,

**591** hic” ait “et nostris inluserit advena regnis?  
this man,” she says, “and will an incomer have made a mock of my realm?

**592** Non arma expedient, totaque ex urbe sequentur,  
Will they not get their weapons out and give chase from the whole city,

**593** deripientque rates alii navalibus? Ite,  
and some tear the ships out of the docks? Go,

**594** ferte citi flammas, date vela, impellite remos!—  
bring fire, quickly, spread sail, drive the oars!

**595** Quid loquor, aut ubi sum? Quae mentem insania mutat?  
What am I saying? Where am I? What madness turns my mind?

**596** Infelix Dido, nunc te facta impia tangunt.  
Unlucky Dido, now his unholy acts touch you.

**597** Tum decuit, cum sceptra dabas.—En dextra fidesque,  
That was the time, when you gave him the scepter. There is the hand and the faith

**598** quem secum patrios aiunt portare Penates,  
of the man they say carries his fathers' household gods with him,

**599** quem subiisse umeris confectum aetate parentem!  
who took a father worn out with age onto his shoulders!

**600** Non potui abreptum divellere corpus, et undis  
Could I not have seized his body and torn it apart and scattered it

**601** spargere? Non socios, non ipsum absumere ferro  
on the waves? Not have finished his crews with iron, and Ascanius

**602** Ascanium, patriisque epulandum ponere mensis?—  
himself, and set him on his father's table to be eaten?

**603** Verum anceps pugnae fuerat fortuna:—fuisset.  
But the luck of that fight would have been doubtful. Let it have been.
> One verb withdraws an argument: fuisset, a pluperfect subjunctive, answers Dido's own objection that a fight might have gone badly: 'let it have been so'. The whole rebuttal to herself is this single verb.

**604** Quem metui moritura? Faces in castra tulissem,  
Whom was I to fear, being about to die? I should have carried torches into the camp,

**605** implessemque foros flammis, natumque patremque  
filled the gangways with flame, put out the son and the father

**606** cum genere extinxem, memet super ipsa dedissem.  
and the whole line together, and thrown myself down on top of them.
> A cut-down pluperfect subjunctive: extinxem is shortened from extinxissem, a syncopated pluperfect subjunctive. This stretch of Dido's speech, around lines 600 to 606, uses several such shortened verb forms in a row: implessem, extinxem, dedissem.

**607** Sol, qui terrarum flammis opera omnia lustras,  
Sun, who go over all the works of earth with your flames,

**608** tuque harum interpres curarum et conscia Iuno,  
and you, Juno, go-between of these cares of mine and knowing them,

**609** nocturnisque Hecate triviis ululata per urbes,  
and Hecate, howled for at night at the crossroads through the cities,

**610** et Dirae ultrices, et di morientis Elissae,  
and you avenging Dirae, and gods of Elissa in her dying:

**611** accipite haec, meritumque malis advertite numen,  
take this in, turn a power on these wrongs as they deserve,

**612** et nostras audite preces. Si tangere portus  
and hear my prayers. If it is necessary that that unspeakable

**613** infandum caput ac terris adnare necesse est,  
head reach harbor and swim in to land,

**614** et sic fata Iovis poscunt, hic terminus haeret:  
and Jove's fates demand it so, and this boundary stands fast:
> Iovis is Jupiter, not love: Iovis is the genitive of Iuppiter, 'Jupiter'. fata Iovis, 'the fates of Jove', names the god's decree, not any feeling; Latin Iovis and English 'love' are unrelated words that only look alike.

**615** at bello audacis populi vexatus et armis,  
then let him be harried by the war and the arms of a bold people,

**616** finibus extorris, complexu avulsus Iuli,  
driven out of his own borders, torn from Iulus' arms,

**617** auxilium imploret, videatque indigna suorum  
let him beg for help and see the undeserved deaths

**618** funera; nec, cum se sub leges pacis iniquae  
of his own people; and when he has handed himself over

**619** tradiderit, regno aut optata luce fruatur,  
to the terms of an unjust peace, let him not enjoy his kingdom or the light he wanted,

**620** sed cadat ante diem, mediaque inhumatus harena.  
but let him fall before his day, and lie unburied in the middle of the sand.

**621** Haec precor, hanc vocem extremam cum sanguine fundo.  
This I pray; this last word I pour out with my blood.

**622** Tum vos, o Tyrii, stirpem et genus omne futurum  
Then you, Tyrians, hound his stock and all the race to come

**623** exercete odiis, cinerique haec mittite nostro  
with your hatred, and send these gifts down to my ash:

**624** munera. Nullus amor populis, nec foedera sunto.  
let there be no love between the peoples, and no treaties.

**625** Exoriare aliquis nostris ex ossibus ultor,  
Rise up out of my bones, some avenger,
> A command aimed at no one: Exoriare is a second-person imperative, aimed at the indefinite pronoun aliquis, 'someone': 'arise, some avenger'. Roman readers would have supplied the name Hannibal without being told.

**626** qui face Dardanios ferroque sequare colonos,  
to hunt the Dardanian settlers with fire and with iron,

**627** nunc, olim, quocumque dabunt se tempore vires.  
now, hereafter, at whatever time the strength offers itself.

**628** Litora litoribus contraria, fluctibus undas  
Shore against shore, I call it down, wave against water,

**629** imprecor, arma armis; pugnent ipsique nepotesque.”  
arms against arms: let them fight, and their children's children.”

**630** Haec ait, et partis animum versabat in omnis,  
She said this, and kept turning her mind every way,

**631** invisam quaerens quam primum abrumpere lucem.  
looking to break off the hated light as soon as she could.

**632** Tum breviter Barcen nutricem adfata Sychaei;  
Then she spoke briefly to Barce, the nurse of Sychaeus;

**633** namque suam patria antiqua cinis ater habebat:  
for the black ash of her old country held her own:

**634** “Annam cara mihi nutrix huc siste sororem;  
“Dear nurse, bring my sister Anna to me here;

**635** dic corpus properet fluviali spargere lympha,  
tell her to hurry and sprinkle her body with river water,

**636** et pecudes secum et monstrata piacula ducat:  
and bring the beasts with her, and the offerings I was shown:

**637** sic veniat; tuque ipsa pia tege tempora vitta.  
let her come so; and cover your own brow with the holy band.

**638** Sacra Iovi Stygio, quae rite incepta paravi,  
The rites to Stygian Jove, which I began and made ready in order,

**639** perficere est animus, finemque imponere curis,  
I mean to finish, and to put an end to my cares,

**640** Dardaniique rogum capitis permittere flammae.”  
and let the flame take the pyre of that Dardanian head.”

**641** Sic ait: illa gradum studio celerabat anili.  
So she says: the old woman hurried her step with an old woman's eagerness.

**642** At trepida, et coeptis immanibus effera Dido,  
But Dido, shaking, savage with the monstrous thing she had begun,

**643** sanguineam volvens aciem, maculisque trementis  
rolling a bloodshot glance, her trembling cheeks

**644** interfusa genas, et pallida morte futura,  
stained with blotches, and pale with the death to come,

**645** interiora domus inrumpit limina, et altos  
bursts through the inner doorways of the house, and climbs

**646** conscendit furibunda rogos, ensemque recludit  
the high pyre in her fury, and unsheathes the Dardanian

**647** Dardanium, non hos quaesitum munus in usus.  
sword, a gift not sought out for uses of this kind.
> A relative clause stated plainly: quaesitum, a past participle, describes munus, 'the gift', as sought for other purposes, non hos usus, 'not these uses'. The sword was a guest-gift, and the clause states the fact without further comment.

**648** Hic, postquam Iliacas vestes notumque cubile  
Here, after she had looked on the Ilian clothes and the bed

**649** conspexit, paulum lacrimis et mente morata,  
she knew, and had waited a little for tears and for thought,

**650** incubuitque toro, dixitque novissima verba:  
she lay down on the couch and spoke her last words:

**651** “Dulces exuviae, dum fata deusque sinebant,  
“Sweet relics, while the fates and a god allowed it,
> She addresses his belongings, not him: exuviae, 'things stripped off', names Aeneas's clothes and sword, which Dido calls dulces, 'sweet'. She speaks to these objects at the start of her death speech; Aeneas himself is not addressed anywhere in it.

**652** accipite hanc animam, meque his exsolvite curis.  
take this breath, and free me from these cares.

**653** Vixi, et, quem dederat cursum fortuna, peregi,  
I have lived, and I have finished the course fortune gave me,
> Two perfect verbs sum a life: Vixi, 'I have lived', and peregi, 'I have completed', are both perfect tense verbs, each stating a finished action. The clauses that follow list what cursum, 'course', fortune gave her, and what she made of it.

**654** et nunc magna mei sub terras ibit imago.  
and now a great likeness of me will go under the earth.

**655** Urbem praeclaram statui; mea moenia vidi;  
I founded a famous city; I saw my own walls;

**656** ulta virum, poenas inimico a fratre recepi;  
I avenged my husband and took the price from a hostile brother;

**657** felix, heu nimium felix, si litora tantum  
happy, ah, too happy, if only the Dardanian keels

**658** numquam Dardaniae tetigissent nostra carinae!”  
had never touched my shores!”

**659** Dixit, et, os impressa toro, “Moriemur inultae,”  
She spoke, and pressing her face into the couch, “We shall die unavenged,”
> A future verb, then a subjunctive: Moriemur, 'we shall die', is a plain future stating the fact; moriamur, 'let us die', is a subjunctive giving consent to it. The first verb reports what will happen, and the second agrees to it.

**660** “sed moriamur” ait. “Sic, sic iuvat ire sub umbras:  
she says, “but let us die. So, so it pleases me to go under the shades.

**661** Hauriat hunc oculis ignem crudelis ab alto  
Let the cruel Dardanian drink this fire with his eyes

**662** Dardanus, et nostrae secum ferat omina mortis.”  
from the deep, and carry the omens of my death away with him.”

**663** Dixerat; atque illam media inter talia ferro  
She had spoken; and in the middle of such words her women

**664** conlapsam aspiciunt comites, ensemque cruore  
see her fallen on the iron, and the sword foaming

**665** spumantem, sparsasque manus. It clamor ad alta  
with blood, and her hands spattered. A cry goes up to the high

**666** atria; concussam bacchatur Fama per urbem.  
halls; Rumor runs raving through the shaken city.

**667** Lamentis gemituque et femineo ululatu  
The houses roar with mourning and groaning and the wailing

**668** tecta fremunt; resonat magnis plangoribus aether,  
of women; the upper air rings with great beatings of breasts,

**669** non aliter, quam si immissis ruat hostibus omnis  
no otherwise than if all Carthage or ancient Tyre

**670** Karthago aut antiqua Tyros, flammaeque furentes  
were falling with the enemy let in, and raging flames

**671** culmina perque hominum volvantur perque deorum.  
were rolling over the roofs of men and of gods.

**672** Audiit exanimis, trepidoque exterrita cursu  
Her sister heard it, half dead, and terrified, at a shaking run,

**673** unguibus ora soror foedans et pectora pugnis  
the sister, fouling her face with her nails and her breast with her fists,

**674** per medios ruit, ac morientem nomine clamat:  
rushes through the middle of them and calls the dying woman by name:

**675** “Hoc illud, germana, fuit? Me fraude petebas?  
“Was this it, sister? Were you working on me by a trick?

**676** Hoc rogus iste mihi, hoc ignes araeque parabant?  
Was this what that pyre was preparing for me, this the fires and the altars?

**677** Quid primum deserta querar? Comitemne sororem  
What shall I mourn first, left alone? Did you scorn your sister

**678** sprevisti moriens? Eadem me ad fata vocasses:  
as a companion in death? You should have called me to the same fate:

**679** idem ambas ferro dolor, atque eadem hora tulisset.  
one pain of the iron, one hour, would have carried us both.

**680** His etiam struxi manibus, patriosque vocavi  
Did I build this with my own hands and call on our fathers'

**681** voce deos, sic te ut posita crudelis abessem?  
gods aloud, to be away, cruel, with you laid out so?

**682** Exstinxti te meque, soror, populumque patresque  
You have put out yourself and me, sister, and your people and the Sidonian
> A perfect tense cut in half: Exstinxti is a syncopated perfect, shortened from exstinxisti, 'you have destroyed', cutting four syllables to two. Anna's speech compresses several verbs this way in the lines that surround this one.

**683** Sidonios urbemque tuam. Date volnera lymphis  
fathers and your own city. Give me water: let me wash

**684** abluam, et, extremus si quis super halitus errat,  
the wound, and if any last breath is still wandering above it,

**685** ore legam.” Sic fata, gradus evaserat altos,  
let me gather it with my mouth.” So she spoke, and had climbed the high steps,

**686** semianimemque sinu germanam amplexa fovebat  
and took her half-living sister in her arms and warmed her

**687** cum gemitu, atque atros siccabat veste cruores.  
against her breast, groaning, and dried the black blood with her dress.

**688** Illa, graves oculos conata attollere, rursus  
Dido tried to lift her heavy eyes, and failed

**689** deficit; infixum stridit sub pectore vulnus.  
again; the wound driven under her breast hissed.

**690** Ter sese attollens cubitoque adnixa levavit;  
Three times she raised herself, propped on her elbow;

**691** ter revoluta toro est, oculisque errantibus alto  
three times she rolled back on the bed, and with wandering eyes

**692** quaesivit caelo lucem, ingemuitque reperta.  
looked for light in the deep sky, and groaned when she found it.

**693** Tum Iuno omnipotens, longum miserata dolorem  
Then Juno all-powerful, pitying the long pain

**694** difficilisque obitus, Irim demisit Olympo,  
and the hard dying, sent Iris down from Olympus

**695** quae luctantem animam nexosque resolveret artus.  
to loose the struggling breath and the knotted limbs.

**696** Nam quia nec fato, merita nec morte peribat,  
For since she was dying neither by fate nor by a death she had earned,

**697** sed misera ante diem, subitoque accensa furore,  
but wretchedly, before her day, and fired by a sudden madness,

**698** nondum illi flavum Proserpina vertice crinem  
Proserpina had not yet taken the yellow hair from her head

**699** abstulerat, Stygioque caput damnaverat Orco.  
and given the life over to Stygian Orcus.

**700** Ergo Iris croceis per caelum roscida pennis,  
So Iris, dewy, on saffron wings across the sky,

**701** mille trahens varios adverso sole colores,  
trailing a thousand shifting colors against the sun,

**702** devolat, et supra caput adstitit: “Hunc ego Diti  
flew down and stood over her head: “This, as I am ordered,

**703** sacrum iussa fero, teque isto corpore solvo.”  
I carry as holy to Dis, and I free you from that body.”

**704** Sic ait, et dextra crinem secat: omnis et una  
So she says, and cuts the lock with her right hand: and all at once

**705** dilapsus calor, atque in ventos vita recessit.  
the warmth slipped away, and the life went off into the winds.

---

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.