# The Aeneid, Book 8: Evander, the Site of Rome, and the Shield

Aeneis · Publius Vergilius Maro · The War in Latium

Aeneas sails to Evander on the site of Rome. Venus brings him arms from Vulcan, and a shield with Rome's future on it.

Source: https://1732studios.com/books/aeneid/8. Data: https://1732studios.com/books/aeneid/8.json. Audio: https://audio.1732studios.com/aeneid/<line id>.m4a.

**1** Ut belli signum Laurenti Turnus ab arce  
When Turnus raised the war-signal from the Laurentian citadel

**2** extulit et rauco strepuerunt cornua cantu,  
and the horns brayed with their hoarse song,

**3** utque acris concussit equos utque impulit arma,  
and when he lashed his keen horses and struck his weapons together,

**4** extemplo turbati animi, simul omne tumultu  
at once minds were shaken; all Latium at one moment

**5** coniurat trepido Latium saevitque iuventus  
swears itself together in trembling uproar, and the young men rage
> A verb for swearing together: coniurat comes from coniuro, 'to swear together', the verb used both for a conspiracy and for the emergency levy in which a region's men swore one oath at once. Latium is its subject, so the whole land swears itself into war in a single motion.

**6** effera. Ductores primi Messapus et Ufens  
savagely. The chief captains, Messapus and Ufens

**7** contemptorque deum Mezentius undique cogunt  
and Mezentius, despiser of the gods, gather forces

**8** auxilia et latos vastant cultoribus agros.  
from every side and strip the wide fields of their farmers.

**9** mittitur et magni Venulus Diomedis ad urbem,  
Venulus too is sent to the city of great Diomedes,

**10** qui petat auxilium et Latio consistere Teucros,  
to ask for help and to make plain that the Teucrians are settling in Latium,

**11** advectum Aenean classi victosque penatis  
that Aeneas has been carried in with a fleet and is bringing his beaten household gods

**12** inferre et fatis regem se dicere posci  
ashore and calling himself a king whom the fates demand,

**13** edoceat multasque viro se adiungere gentis  
that many nations are attaching themselves to the Dardanian

**14** Dardanio et late Latio increbrescere nomen.  
man, and that his name is growing loud far and wide through Latium.
> The most dynastic name: Dardanio, 'Dardanian', is one of four names Vergil uses for the Trojans, alongside Troes, Teucri, and Aeneadae. It is the oldest and most dynastic of the four, chosen here because the report is of a claim to ancient right, which is what alarms the Latins.

**15** Quid struat his coeptis, quem, si Fortuna sequatur,  
What he is building with these beginnings, what outcome of the fight

**16** eventum pugnae cupiat, manifestius ipsi  
he wants if Fortune follows him, is plainer to that man himself

**17** quam Turno regi aut regi apparere Latino.  
than it can appear to king Turnus or to king Latinus.
> A bare comparative: manifestius is a comparative, 'clearer', paired with ipsi, 'to himself', naming Diomedes as the one to whom Aeneas's plan is plainest. Vergil states the comparison with no verb of thinking attached, so the reader has to supply that the enemy understands the enemy best.

**18** Talia per Latium. Quae Laomedontius heros  
So it went through Latium. Seeing all of it, the hero sprung from Laomedon

**19** cuncta videns magno curarum fluctuat aestu,  
tosses on a great swell of cares,

**20** atque animum nunc huc celerem, nunc dividit illuc.  
And he divides his quick mind now this way, now that,

**21** In partisque rapit varias perque omnia versat:  
snatches it into different parts, and turns it through everything:

**22** sicut aquae tremulum labris ubi lumen aenis  
as when in bronze basins the trembling light of water,

**23** sole repercussum aut radiantis imagine lunae  
struck back from the sun or from the image of the shining moon,

**24** omnia pervolitat late loca iamque sub auras  
flits far over every place, and now lifts itself into the air

**25** erigitur summique ferit lacuaria tecti.  
and strikes the panelled ceiling of the high roof.

**26** Nox erat, et terras animalia fessa per omnis  
It was night, and over all the lands deep sleep held

**27** alituum pecudumque genus sopor altus habebat:  
the tired creatures, the winged kind and the herds:

**28** cum pater in ripa gelidique sub aetheris axe  
when the father, on the bank, under the axle of the cold sky,

**29** Aeneas, tristi turbatus pectora bello,  
Aeneas, troubled through the breast by the grim war,
> Accusative of respect: pectora is a plural accusative attached to the passive participle turbatus, 'troubled', rather than a direct object of any verb. This is the accusative of respect, a construction borrowed from Greek, naming the part of the body that suffers without needing a preposition.

**30** procubuit seramque dedit per membra quietem.  
lay down and gave his limbs their late rest.

**31** Huic deus ipse loci fluvio Tiberinus amoeno  
To him the god of the place himself, Tiberinus of the pleasant stream,

**32** populeas inter senior se attollere frondes  
seemed to lift himself, an old man, among the poplar leaves;

**33** visus; eum tenuis glauco velabat amictu  
a thin linen veiled him in a grey-green wrap,

**34** carbasus, et crinis umbrosa tegebat harundo,  
and shadowing reed covered his hair,

**35** tum sic adfari et curas his demere dictis:  
and then he spoke, and took his cares away with these words:

**36** “O sate gente deum, Troianam ex hostibus urbem  
“O sown of the race of the gods, you who bring the Trojan city
> Addressed as something sown: sate is the vocative of satus, 'sown' or 'begotten', so O sate gente deum means 'O you sown from the race of gods'. Latin can address a man by a participle where English needs a relative clause; the image is agricultural.

**37** qui revehis nobis aeternaque Pergama servas,  
back to us out of the enemy's hands and keep Pergamum everlasting,

**38** exspectate solo Laurenti arvisque Latinis,  
awaited by Laurentian ground and by the fields of Latium,

**39** hic tibi certa domus, certi, ne absiste, penates;  
here is your sure home, here your sure household gods, do not draw back;

**40** neu belli terrere minis: tumor omnis et irae  
and do not be frightened by the threats of war: all the swelling and the wrath

**41** concessere deum.  
of the gods have given way.
> Left short at his death: The hexameter breaks off here, one of about fifty-five such half-lines in the poem. Vergil died before revising the Aeneid, and we leave the line where he left it rather than supplying words to round it out.

**42** Iamque tibi, ne vana putes haec fingere somnum,  
And now, so that you may not think sleep has made this up out of nothing,

**43** litoreis ingens inventa sub ilicibus sus,  
a huge sow shall be found lying under the holm-oaks of the shore,

**44** triginta capitum fetus enixa, iacebit,  
having brought forth a litter of thirty head,

**45** alba, solo recubans, albi circum ubera nati.  
white, stretched on the ground, her white young about her teats.

**46** Hic locus urbis erit, requies ea certa laborum  
This will be the place of the city, this the sure rest from your labors:

**47** ex quo ter denis urbem redeuntibus annis  
and from it, when thirty years have come round,

**48** Ascanius clari condet cognominis Albam.  
Ascanius will found Alba, a town of shining name.
> A genitive doing adjective work: clari cognominis is a genitive of quality, doing the work of an adjective attached to a noun: 'of bright name'. It describes Albam, 'Alba', so the city is given a future reputation before it has even been founded.

**49** Haud incerta cano. Nunc qua ratione quod instat  
I sing nothing uncertain. Now by what plan you may win your way

**50** expedias victor, paucis (adverte) docebo.  
clear of what presses on you (attend), I will teach in a few words.

**51** Arcades his oris, genus a Pallante profectum,  
Arcadians on these shores, a race set out from Pallas,

**52** qui regem Euandrum comites, qui signa secuti,  
who as companions followed king Evander, who followed his standards,

**53** delegere locum et posuere in montibus urbem  
have chosen a place and set a city in the hills,

**54** Pallantis proavi de nomine Pallanteum.  
Pallanteum, from the name of Pallas their forefather.

**55** Hi bellum adsidue ducunt cum gente Latina;  
These wage steady war with the Latin race;

**56** hos castris adhibe socios et foedera iunge.  
take them into your camp as allies and join treaties with them.

**57** Ipse ego te ripis et recto flumine ducam,  
I myself will lead you along my banks and straight up the water,

**58** adversum remis superes subvectus ut amnem.  
so that borne on oars you may beat the river that runs against you.

**59** Surge age, nate dea, primisque cadentibus astris  
Rise up, goddess-born, and as the first stars are setting

**60** Iunoni fer rite preces iramque minasque  
carry prayers to Juno in due form, and put down her wrath and her threats

**61** supplicibus supera votis. Mihi victor honorem  
with suppliant vows. To me, when you have won, you will pay

**62** persolves. Ego sum pleno quem flumine cernis  
the honor owed. I am he whom you see brimming the banks

**63** stringentem ripas et pinguia culta secantem,  
with a full flood and cutting through the fat ploughland,

**64** caeruleus Thybris, caelo gratissimus amnis.  
sky-blue Tiber, the river most pleasing to heaven.

**65** Hic mihi magna domus, celsis caput urbibus, exit.”  
Here is my great house; my head rises out among lofty cities.”
> A line read two ways: caput can mean 'a river's source' or 'a head', and exit can mean 'rises up' or 'issues forth'. Commentators divide over whether the Tiber's source lies among high cities or his head rises above them; we take the second reading, noting the first exists.

**66** Dixit, deinde lacu fluvius se condidit alto,  
He spoke; then the river hid himself in a deep pool,

**67** ima petens; nox Aenean somnusque reliquit.  
making for the bottom; night and sleep left Aeneas.

**68** Surgit et aetherii spectans orientia solis  
He rises, and looking at the rising lights of the sun

**69** lumina rite cavis undam de flumine palmis  
in heaven, in due form he lifts water from the river

**70** sustinet ac talis effundit ad aethera voces:  
in his hollow palms and pours out such words to the air:

**71** “Nymphae, Laurentes nymphae, genus amnibus unde est,  
“Nymphs, Laurentian nymphs, from whom rivers have their being,

**72** tuque, o Thybri tuo genitor cum flumine sancto,  
and you, father Tiber, with your holy stream,

**73** accipite Aenean et tandem arcete periclis.  
receive Aeneas and keep him from dangers at last.

**74** Quo te cumque lacus miserantem incommoda nostra  
In whatever pool, at whatever spring, holds you who pity

**75** fonte tenet, quocumque solo pulcherrimus exis,  
our troubles, from whatever soil you come out most beautiful,

**76** semper honore meo, semper celebrabere donis  
always with honor of mine, always with gifts you will be kept in feast,

**77** corniger hesperidum fluvius regnator aquarum.  
horned river, ruler of the waters of the west.

**78** Adsis o tantum et propius tua numina firmes.”  
Only be near me, and set your will closer to mine.”

**79** sic memorat geminasque legit de classe biremis  
So he speaks, and picks two biremes out of the fleet

**80** remigioque aptat, socios simul instruit armis.  
and fits them with oars, and arms his companions as well.

**81** Ecce autem subitum atque oculis mirabile monstrum;  
But look, a sudden thing, a marvel to the eyes:

**82** candida per silvam cum fetu concolor albo  
white through the wood, and her litter of the same white color,

**83** procubuit viridique in litore conspicitur sus.  
a sow lies down, and is seen on the green shore.

**84** Quam pius Aeneas tibi enim, tibi, maxuma Iuno,  
And dutiful Aeneas, to you, yes, to you, greatest Juno,

**85** mactat sacra ferens et cum grege sistit ad aram.  
sacrifices her, bringing the rites, and sets her with her brood at the altar.

**86** Thybris ea fluvium, quam longa est, nocte tumentem  
The Tiber calmed his swelling stream that whole night long,

**87** leniit, et tacita refluens ita substitit unda,  
and flowing backward stood still in a silent wave,

**88** mitis ut in morem stagni placidaeque paludis  
gentle, so that after the manner of a pond and a quiet marsh

**89** sterneret aequor aquis, remo ut luctamen abesset.  
he spread his surface smooth for the water, and the oar had no fight.

**90** Ergo iter inceptum celerant rumore secundo;  
So they hurry the journey they had begun, with a following cheer;

**91** labitur uncta vadis abies; mirantur et undae,  
the oiled fir glides through the shallows; the waves marvel,

**92** miratur nemus insuetum fulgentia longe  
and the wood marvels, unused to the shields of men flashing far

**93** scuta virum fluvio pictasque innare carinas.  
on the river, and to the painted keels swimming there.

**94** Olli remigio noctemque diemque fatigant  
They wear out night and day alike with rowing
> An archaic plural form: Olli here is an archaic nominative plural of ille, 'they', a form kept alive in verse long after prose dropped it. Vergil uses the same old spelling elsewhere for the dative singular, 'to him', scattering these antique forms through the poem for their weight.

**95** et longos superant flexus variisque teguntur  
and get past the long bends, and are covered by trees

**96** arboribus viridisque secant placido aequore silvas.  
of every kind, and cut through green woods on quiet water.

**97** Sol medium caeli conscenderat igneus orbem,  
The fiery sun had climbed the middle circle of the sky

**98** cum muros arcemque procul ac rara domorum  
when they see walls and a citadel far off, and the scattered

**99** tecta vident, quae nunc Romana potentia caelo  
roofs of houses, which Roman power has now raised level with the sky,

**100** aequavit, tum res inopes Euandrus habebat:  
but which then Evander held as a poor thing:

**101** ocius advertunt proras urbique propinquant.  
quickly they turn their prows and draw near the city.

**102** Forte die sollemnem illo rex Arcas honorem  
It happened that on that day the Arcadian king was paying the yearly honor

**103** Amphitryoniadae magno divisque ferebat  
to the great son of Amphitryon and to the gods,

**104** ante urbem in luco. Pallas huic filius una,  
before the city, in a grove. Pallas his son was there with him,

**105** una omnes iuvenum primi pauperque senatus  
with him all the foremost of the young men and the poor senate,
> A senate that is poor: pauper means 'poor', modifying senatus, 'senate': Evander's council is a body of poor village elders. The phrase would sound like a joke in Vergil's Rome, where the Senate was the wealthiest body on earth, but the line does not treat it as one.

**106** tura dabant, tepidusque cruor fumabat ad aras.  
offering incense, and warm blood was steaming at the altars.

**107** Ut celsas videre rates atque inter opacum  
When they saw the tall ships, and saw them gliding in

**108** adlabi nemus et tacitis incumbere remis,  
through the shaded wood and leaning on silent oars,

**109** terrentur visu subito cunctique relictis  
they are frightened by the sudden sight, and all of them rise

**110** consurgunt mensis. Audax quos rumpere Pallas  
and leave the tables. Bold Pallas forbids them to break off

**111** sacra vetat raptoque volat telo obvius ipse  
the rites, snatches a spear and flies out to meet them himself,

**112** et procul e tumulo: “Iuvenes, quae causa subegit  
and from a mound, at a distance: “Young men, what has driven you

**113** ignotas temptare vias, quo tenditis?” inquit.  
to try roads you do not know? Where are you making for?” he says.

**114** “Qui genus? Unde domo? Pacemne huc fertis an arma?”  
“What is your family? Where is your home? Do you bring peace here, or arms?”

**115** Tum pater Aeneas puppi sic fatur ab alta  
Then father Aeneas speaks so from the high stern

**116** paciferaeque manu ramum praetendit olivae:  
and holds out in his hand a branch of peace-bearing olive:

**117** “Troiugenas ac tela vides inimica Latinis,  
“You see men born of Troy, and weapons hostile to the Latins,
> A coined, formal name: Troiugenas, 'Troy-born', is a compound Vergil coins for this occasion, heavier and more formal than the plainer Troes or Teucri. Aeneas is naming his own people to a stranger, and reaches for the grandest form of the name he has available.

**118** quos illi bello profugos egere superbo.  
who drove us out in an arrogant war and made us exiles.

**119** Euandrum petimus. Ferte haec et dicite lectos  
We are looking for Evander. Carry that word, and say that chosen

**120** Dardaniae venisse duces socia arma rogantis.”  
captains of Dardania have come asking for allied arms.”

**121** Obstipuit tanto percussus nomine Pallas:  
Pallas stood amazed, struck by so great a name:

**122** “Egredere o quicumque es” ait “coramque parentem  
“Come out, whoever you are,” he says, “and speak to my father

**123** adloquere ac nostris succede penatibus hospes.”  
face to face, and come in as a guest under our household gods.”

**124** excepitque manu dextramque amplexus inhaesit.  
And he took him by the hand, and held the right hand he had clasped.

**125** Progressi subeunt luco fluviumque relinquunt.  
They go forward, enter the grove, and leave the river behind.

**126** Tum regem Aeneas dictis adfatur amicis:  
Then Aeneas addresses the king with friendly words:

**127** “Optume Graiugenum, cui me Fortuna precari  
“Best of the Greek-born, to whom Fortune has willed that I pray
> An old genitive plural: Graiugenum is an old genitive plural, shortened from the fuller Graiugenarum, 'of the Greek-born'. Aeneas calls Evander the best of the Greeks while asking him for weapons against Italians, so the compliment is doing real diplomatic work here.

**128** et vitta comptos voluit praetendere ramos,  
and hold out boughs dressed with wool,

**129** non equidem extimui, Danaum quod ductor et Arcas  
I felt no fear at all that you were a Danaan captain and an Arcadian

**130** quodque a stirpe fores geminis coniunctus Atridis;  
and joined by descent to the two sons of Atreus;

**131** sed mea me virtus et sancta oracula divom  
but my own worth, and the holy oracles of the gods,

**132** cognatique patres, tua terris didita fama,  
and fathers we share, and your fame spread over the earth,

**133** coniunxere tibi et fatis egere volentem.  
have joined me to you and driven me here by the fates, willing.

**134** Dardanus, Iliacae primus pater urbis et auctor,  
Dardanus, the first father of the city of Ilium and its founder,

**135** Electra, ut Grai perhibent, Atlantide cretus,  
born, as the Greeks tell it, of Electra the daughter of Atlas,

**136** advehitur Teucros; Electram maxumus Atlas  
came over to the Teucrians; Electra was brought forth by greatest Atlas,

**137** edidit, aetherios umero qui sustinet orbes  
who holds the spheres of heaven on his shoulder.

**138** vobis Mercurius pater est, quem candida Maia  
Your father is Mercury, whom white Maia conceived

**139** Cyllenae gelido conceptum vertice fudit;  
and bore on the cold peak of Cyllene;

**140** at Maiam, auditis si quicquam credimus, Atlas,  
but Maia, if we believe anything we have heard, was got by Atlas,

**141** idem Atlas generat, caeli qui sidera tollit.  
the same Atlas who lifts the stars of the sky.

**142** Sic genus amborum scindit se sanguine ab uno.  
So the line of us both splits away from one blood.

**143** His fretus non legatos neque prima per artem  
Trusting in that, I sent no envoys, and made no first

**144** temptamenta tui pepigi: me, me ipse meumque  
cautious soundings of you by craft: myself, my own self, my own
> The pronoun repeated three times: me, me ipse, meumque repeats the first-person pronoun three times across a line and a half, set against the envoys and cautious soundings he says he did not send. The repetition makes the argument itself: a man who comes in person is harder to refuse.

**145** obieci caput et supplex ad limina veni.  
head I have put forward, and I have come to your door as a suppliant.

**146** Gens eadem, quae te, crudeli Daunia bello  
The same people that hunts you, the Daunian, hunts us

**147** insequitur; nos si pellant, nihil afore credunt,  
with a cruel war; if they drive us out, they believe nothing will stand

**148** quin omnem Hesperiam penitus sua sub iuga mittant  
in the way of their putting the whole of Hesperia under their yoke

**149** et mare quod supra teneant quodque adluit infra.  
and holding the sea above and the sea that washes below.

**150** Accipe daque fidem: sunt nobis fortia bello  
Take faith and give it: we have hearts brave in war,

**151** pectora, sunt animi et rebus spectata iuventus.”  
we have spirit, and young men proved in the doing.”

**152** Dixerat Aeneas. Ille os oculosque loquentis  
Aeneas had spoken. The other had long been going over

**153** iamdudum et totum lustrabat lumine corpus.  
the face and eyes of the speaker with his gaze, and his whole body.

**154** Tum sic pauca refert: “Ut te, fortissime Teucrum,  
Then he answers briefly: “How gladly, bravest of the Teucrians,

**155** accipio agnoscoque libens! Ut verba parentis  
I take you in and know you again! How I remember the words

**156** et vocem Anchisae magni voltumque recordor!  
and the voice and the face of your father, great Anchises!

**157** Nam memini Hesionae visentem regna sororis  
For I remember Priam, son of Laomedon, going to see the kingdom

**158** Laomedontiaden Priamum, Salamina petentem,  
of his sister Hesione, making for Salamis,

**159** protinus Arcadiae gelidos invisere finis.  
and going straight on to visit the cold borders of Arcadia.

**160** Tum mihi prima genas vestibat flore iuventas,  
Then my first youth was clothing my cheeks with down,

**161** mirabarque duces Teucros, mirabar et ipsum  
and I wondered at the Teucrian captains, and wondered at

**162** Laomedontiaden, sed cunctis altior ibat  
Laomedon's son himself; but taller than all of them walked

**163** Anchises: mihi mens iuvenali ardebat amore  
Anchises: my heart burned with a young man's love

**164** compellare virum et dextrae coniungere dextram.  
to speak to the man and to join my right hand to his.

**165** Accessi et cupidus Phenei sub moenia duxi.  
I went up to him, and eagerly led him under the walls of Pheneus.

**166** Ille mihi insignem pharetram Lyciasque sagittas  
Leaving, he gave me a fine quiver and Lycian arrows,

**167** discedens chlamydemque auro dedit intertextam  
and a cloak with gold woven through it,

**168** frenaque bina meus quae nunc habet aurea Pallas.  
and a pair of golden bits, which my own Pallas has now.

**169** Ergo et quam petitis iuncta est mihi foedere dextra,  
So the right hand you ask for is joined to yours already in treaty,

**170** et lux cum primum terris se crastina reddet,  
and as soon as tomorrow's light gives itself back to the earth

**171** auxilio laetos dimittam opibusque iuvabo.  
I will send you off glad with help, and support you with means.

**172** Interea sacra haec, quando huc venistis amici,  
Meanwhile, since you have come here as friends, keep these rites

**173** annua, quae differre nefas, celebrate faventes  
with us, and with good will (they come once a year, and to put them off

**174** nobiscum et iam nunc sociorum adsuescite mensis.”  
is a sin) and from now on grow used to the tables of allies.”

**175** Haec ubi dicta, dapes iubet et sublata reponi  
When this was said, he orders the food and the cups that had been taken

**176** pocula gramineoque viros locat ipse sedili  
to be set back, and he himself seats the men on a grass bench,

**177** praecipuumque toro et villosi pelle leonis  
and takes Aeneas above the rest onto a couch and the hide

**178** accipit Aenean solioque invitat acerno.  
of a shaggy lion, and invites him to a maple chair.

**179** Tum lecti iuvenes certatim araeque sacerdos  
Then chosen young men and the priest of the altar vie in bringing

**180** viscera tosta ferunt taurorum onerantque canistris  
the roasted flesh of bulls, and load the baskets

**181** dona laboratae Cereris Bacchumque ministrant.  
with the gifts of Ceres worked by hand, and serve out Bacchus.

**182** Vescitur Aeneas simul et Troiana iuventus  
Aeneas feeds, and the Trojan young men with him,

**183** perpetui tergo bovis et lustralibus extis.  
on the long chine of an ox and the entrails of the offering.

**184** Postquam exempta fames et amor compressus edendi,  
After hunger was taken away and the desire of eating put down,

**185** rex Euandrus ait: “Non haec sollemnia nobis,  
king Evander says: “It is not these solemn rites of ours,

**186** has ex more dapes, hanc tanti numinis aram  
these feasts in the old way, this altar of so great a power,

**187** vana superstitio veterumque ignara deorum  
that an empty superstition ignorant of the ancient gods

**188** inposuit: saevis, hospes Troiane, periclis  
has laid upon us: saved, Trojan guest, out of savage dangers,

**189** servati facimus meritosque novamus honores.  
we do this, and renew honors that were earned.

**190** Iam primum saxis suspensam hanc aspice rupem,  
Now first, look at this crag hanging on its rocks,

**191** disiectae procul ut moles desertaque montis  
how the masses lie flung far apart, and the mountain's house

**192** stat domus et scopuli ingentem traxere ruinam.  
stands deserted, and the cliffs have dragged down a huge ruin.

**193** Hic spelunca fuit, vasto summota recessu,  
Here there was a cave, drawn back in a vast recess,

**194** semihominis Caci facies quam dira tenebat  
which the dreadful face of half-human Cacus held,
> A name that sounds like evil: Caci is the genitive of Cacus, a name close to the Greek kakos, 'evil', which Vergil's readers would have heard in it. He is described here as semihominis, 'half-human', a monster placed in a cave on a hill Roman readers could actually visit.

**195** solis inaccessam radiis; semperque recenti  
never reached by the sun's rays; and the ground was always warm

**196** caede tepebat humus, foribusque adfixa superbis  
with fresh slaughter, and nailed to the arrogant doorposts

**197** ora virum tristi pendebant pallida tabo.  
the faces of men hung pale with grim decay.

**198** Huic monstro Volcanus erat pater: illius atros  
This monster had Vulcan for a father: it was his black fires

**199** ore vomens ignis magna se mole ferebat.  
the thing spewed from its mouth as it heaved its great bulk along.

**200** Attulit et nobis aliquando optantibus aetas  
Time at last brought us too, who had wanted it,

**201** auxilium adventumque dei. Nam maximus ultor,  
help, and a god's coming. For the greatest of avengers,

**202** tergemini nece Geryonae spoliisque superbus  
proud with the killing of threefold Geryon and with the spoils,

**203** Alcides aderat taurosque hac victor agebat  
Alcides was here, and drove his huge bulls this way in triumph,

**204** ingentis, vallemque boves amnemque tenebant.  
and the cattle filled the valley and the river.

**205** At furiis Caci mens effera, nequid inausum  
But Cacus, his mind wild with furies, so that nothing

**206** aut intractatum scelerisve dolive fuisset,  
of crime or trickery should be left undared or untried,

**207** quattuor a stabulis praestanti corpore tauros  
turned four bulls of outstanding body away from the stalls

**208** avertit, totidem forma superante iuvencas;  
and as many heifers of surpassing shape;

**209** atque hos, nequa forent pedibus vestigia rectis,  
and these, so that there should be no tracks pointing forward,

**210** cauda in speluncam tractos versisque viarum  
he dragged by the tail into his cave, and with the signs

**211** indiciis raptos saxo occultabat opaco:  
of the road turned about he hid what he had seized in dark rock:

**212** quaerenti nulla ad speluncam signa ferebant.  
no marks led a searcher toward the cave.

**213** Interea, cum iam stabulis saturata moveret  
Meanwhile, when the son of Amphitryon was already moving

**214** Amphitryoniades armenta abitumque pararet,  
the well-fed herds from the stalls and making ready to go,

**215** discessu mugire boves atque omne querelis  
the cattle began to low at leaving, and the whole wood

**216** impleri nemus et colles clamore relinqui.  
to be filled with complaint, and the hills to be left with an outcry.

**217** reddidit una boum vocem vastoque sub antro  
One of the cows gave a call back, and under the vast cave

**218** mugiit et Caci spem custodita fefellit.  
lowed, and though shut in and watched, cheated Cacus of his hope.

**219** Hic vero Alcidae furiis exarserat atro  
At that the grief of Alcides blazed up with fury
> Anger placed in an organ: fel means 'gall' or 'bile', and atro felle, 'with black bile', locates Hercules's anger physically in an organ rather than as an abstract feeling. It is more bodily than the general word ira, 'anger', which this same episode uses of him eleven lines later.

**220** felle dolor: rapit arma manu nodisque gravatum  
and black bile: he snatches his weapons in his hand, and the club

**221** robur et aerii cursu petit ardua montis.  
heavy with knots, and makes at a run for the steeps of the high mountain.

**222** Tum primum nostri Cacum videre timentem  
Then for the first time our people saw Cacus afraid,

**223** turbatumque oculis: fugit ilicet ocior Euro  
and troubled in the eyes: at once he flees, faster than the East Wind,

**224** speluncamque petit, pedibus timor addidit alas.  
and makes for his cave; fear put wings on his feet.

**225** Ut sese inclusit ruptisque immane catenis  
When he had shut himself in, and had broken the chains and dropped

**226** deiecit saxum, ferro quod et arte paterna  
the huge rock that hung there by iron and his father's craft,

**227** pendebat, fultosque emuniit obice postis,  
and had blocked and propped the doorposts with the bar,

**228** ecce furens animis aderat Tirynthius omnemque  
look, the Tirynthian was there, raging in spirit, and searching

**229** accessum lustrans huc ora ferebat et illuc,  
every way in, turning his face this way and that,

**230** dentibus infrendens. Ter totum fervidus ira  
grinding his teeth. Three times, boiling with anger, he goes round
> Three times, marking failure: ter, 'three times', repeats across a line and a half, marking a fixed count of failed attempts before the thing finally gives. Vergil uses the same triple structure elsewhere in the poem, and each time it comes right before a breakthrough.

**231** lustrat Aventini montem, ter saxea temptat  
the whole Aventine hill; three times he tries the stone

**232** limina nequiquam, ter fessus valle resedit.  
threshold in vain; three times he sat down worn out in the valley.

**233** Stabat acuta silex, praecisis undique saxis  
A sharp flint stood there, cut sheer on every side,

**234** speluncae dorso insurgens, altissima visu,  
rising on the cave's back, very high to look at,

**235** dirarum nidis domus opportuna volucrum.  
a house well suited to the nests of ill-boding birds.

**236** Hanc, ut prona iugo laevum incumbebat in amnem,  
This, as it leaned forward from the ridge toward the river on the left,

**237** dexter in adversum nitens concussit et imis  
he shook, straining against it from the right, and tore it

**238** avolsam solvit radicibus; inde repente  
loose from its lowest roots; then all at once

**239** inpulit, inpulsu quo maximus intonat aether  
he shoved, and at the shove the great upper air thunders,

**240** dissultant ripae refluitque exterritus amnis.  
the banks leap apart, and the terrified river flows backward.

**241** At specus et Caci detecta apparuit ingens  
But the den was uncovered, and Cacus' huge palace

**242** regia, et umbrosae penitus patuere cavernae:  
stood open to view, and the shadowy caverns lay bare to the floor:

**243** non secus ac siqua penitus vi terra dehiscens  
not otherwise than if the earth, gaping deep under some force,

**244** infernas reseret sedes et regna recludat  
should unbar the seats below and lay open the pale

**245** pallida, dis invisa, superque immane barathrum  
kingdoms the gods hate, and the vast pit be seen

**246** cernatur, trepident inmisso lumine manes.  
from above, and the ghosts tremble at the light let in.

**247** Ergo insperata deprensum luce repente  
So, caught all at once in the light he had not looked for

**248** inclusumque cavo saxo atque insueta rudentem  
and shut in the hollow rock, and roaring as he never had,

**249** desuper Alcides telis premit omniaque arma  
Alcides presses him from above with missiles and calls up

**250** advocat et ramis vastisque molaribus instat.  
every weapon, and comes at him with branches and huge millstones.

**251** Ille autem, neque enim fuga iam super ulla pericli,  
But the other, for no escape from the danger was left him now,

**252** faucibus ingentem fumum (mirabile dictu)  
spews out from his throat a huge smoke, a wonder to tell,
> A fixed formula returns: dictu is the same ablative supine seen earlier, used after mirabile, 'astonishing', to mean 'astonishing to tell'. Vergil drops the fixed phrase in as an aside exactly where the story crosses out of the plausible and needs one.

**253** evomit involvitque domum caligine caeca,  
and wraps the house in a blind murk,

**254** prospectum eripiens oculis, glomeratque sub antro  
snatching the view from the eyes, and balls up under the cave

**255** fumiferam noctem commixtis igne tenebris.  
a smoke-bearing night, darkness mixed with fire.

**256** Non tulit Alcides animis seque ipse per ignem  
Alcides could not bear it, and threw himself in a headlong

**257** praecipiti iecit saltu, qua plurimus undam  
leap through the fire, where the smoke drives its wave

**258** fumus agit nebulaque ingens specus aestuat atra.  
thickest and the huge cave boils with black cloud.

**259** Hic Cacum in tenebris incendia vana vomentem  
Here he catches Cacus in the dark, still spewing his useless fires,

**260** corripit in nodum complexus et angit inhaerens  
grips him in a knot, clings to him and throttles him,

**261** elisos oculos et siccum sanguine guttur.  
the eyes squeezed out, the throat drained dry of blood.

**262** Panditur extemplo foribus domus atra revolsis,  
At once the black house is thrown open, the doors torn away,

**263** abstractaeque boves abiurataeque rapinae  
and the stolen cattle and the plunder he had sworn he never took
> Legal language for a theft: abiuratae is the participle of abiuro, a legal verb meaning 'to deny on oath that you hold another's property'. It modifies rapinae, 'plunder', treating the theft as a case now proved, courtroom language set down inside a myth about a cave.

**264** caelo ostenduntur, pedibusque informe cadaver  
are shown to the sky, and the shapeless corpse is hauled out

**265** protrahitur. Nequeunt expleri corda tuendo  
by the feet. Their hearts cannot get their fill of looking

**266** terribilis oculos, voltum villosaque saetis  
at the terrible eyes, the face, the chest of the half-beast

**267** pectora semiferi atque extinctos faucibus ignis.  
shaggy with bristles, and the fires put out in the throat.

**268** Ex illo celebratus honos, laetique minores  
From that day the honor has been kept, and glad descendants

**269** servavere diem, primusque Potitius auctor  
have held the day, Potitius first, who began it,

**270** et domus Herculei custos Pinaria sacri.  
and the Pinarian house, keeper of the rite of Hercules.

**271** Hanc aram luco statuit, quae maxuma semper  
He set this altar in the grove, which will always be called

**272** dicetur nobis et erit quae maxuma semper.  
greatest by us, and will always be the greatest.

**273** Quare agite, o iuvenes, tantarum in munere laudum  
So come, young men, in the service of praises so great,

**274** cingite fronde comas et pocula porgite dextris  
bind your hair with leaves and hold the cups out in your right hands

**275** communemque vocate deum et date vina volentes.”  
and call on the god we share, and pour the wine with a will.”

**276** Dixerat, Herculea bicolor cum populus umbra  
He had spoken, when the two-colored poplar veiled his hair

**277** velavitque comas foliisque innexa pependit  
with the shade of Hercules and hung there, woven of leaves,

**278** et sacer implevit dextram scyphus. Ocius omnes  
and the sacred cup filled his right hand. Quickly all of them

**279** in mensam laeti libant divosque precantur.  
pour a glad libation on the table and pray to the gods.

**280** Devexo interea propior fit Vesper Olympo,  
Meanwhile the Evening Star comes nearer as Olympus tilts down,

**281** iamque sacerdotes primusque Potitius ibant,  
and now the priests were walking, Potitius at their head,

**282** pellibus in morem cincti, flammasque ferebant.  
girt in skins after the custom, and carrying flames.

**283** Instaurant epulas et mensae grata secundae  
They set the feast up again and bring the welcome gifts

**284** dona ferunt cumulantque oneratis lancibus aras.  
of the second course, and heap the altars with loaded dishes.

**285** tum Salii ad cantus incensa altaria circum  
Then the Salii come to sing around the kindled altars,

**286** populeis adsunt evincti tempora ramis,  
their temples bound with poplar branches,

**287** hic iuvenum chorus, ille senum; qui carmine laudes  
here a chorus of young men, there of old; and in song they carry

**288** Herculeas et facta ferunt: ut prima novercae  
the praises and deeds of Hercules: how he first crushed

**289** monstra manu geminosque premens eliserit angues,  
his stepmother's monsters and squeezed the twin snakes dead in his hands,

**290** ut bello egregias idem disiecerit urbes,  
how the same man threw down cities famous in war,

**291** Troiamque Oechaliamque, ut duros mille labores  
Troy and Oechalia, how he bore through a thousand hard labors

**292** rege sub Eurystheo fatis Iunonis iniquae  
under king Eurystheus, by the fates of unjust Juno.

**293** pertulerit. “Tu nubigenas, invicte, bimembris  
“You, unconquered, kill with your hand the cloud-born,

**294** Hylaeeumque Pholumque, manu, tu Cresia mactas  
the two-formed, Hylaeus and Pholus; you kill the Cretan

**295** prodigia et vastum Nemeae sub rupe leonem.  
prodigy, and the huge lion under the cliff of Nemea.

**296** Te Stygii tremuere lacus, te ianitor Orci  
The pools of Styx trembled at you, and the doorkeeper of Orcus,

**297** ossa super recubans antro semesa cruento;  
lying on half-eaten bones in his bloody cave;

**298** nec te ullae facies, non terruit ipse Typhoeus,  
no shape frightened you, not Typhoeus himself,

**299** arduus arma tenens; non te rationis egentem  
towering with his weapons; nor did it find you without a plan,

**300** Lernaeus turba capitum circumstetit anguis.  
the snake of Lerna, when it ringed you with its crowd of heads.

**301** Salve, vera Iovis proles, decus addite divis,  
Hail, true offspring of Jove, glory added to the gods,

**302** et nos et tua dexter adi pede sacra secundo.”  
come to us and to your rites, favorable, with a lucky step.”

**303** Talia carminibus celebrant; super omnia Caci  
Such things they celebrate in song; above all they add

**304** speluncam adiciunt spirantemque ignibus ipsum.  
Cacus' cave, and the creature himself breathing fires.

**305** Consonat omne nemus strepitu collesque resultant.  
The whole grove rings with the din, and the hills throw it back.

**306** Exim se cuncti divinis rebus ad urbem  
Then, the sacred business finished, they all take themselves

**307** perfectis referunt. Ibat rex obsitus aevo  
back to the city. The king walked, thick with years,

**308** et comitem Aenean iuxta natumque tenebat  
and kept Aeneas beside him as companion, and his son,

**309** ingrediens varioque viam sermone levabat.  
as he went, and lightened the road with talk of this and that.

**310** miratur facilisque oculos fert omnia circum  
Aeneas marvels, and turns easy eyes on everything around him,

**311** Aeneas capiturque locis et singula laetus  
and is taken by the place, and gladly asks after each thing

**312** exquiritque auditque virum monimenta priorum.  
and hears the records of the men who came before.

**313** Tum rex Euandrus, Romanae conditor arcis:  
Then king Evander, founder of the Roman citadel:

**314** “Haec nemora indigenae fauni nymphaeque tenebant  
“These woods were held by native fauns and nymphs,

**315** gensque virum truncis et duro robore nata,  
and by a race of men born from tree trunks and hard oak,

**316** quis neque mos neque cultus erat, nec iungere tauros  
who had neither custom nor tillage, and did not know how to yoke oxen

**317** aut componere opes norant aut parcere parto,  
or to lay up goods or to spare what they had got,

**318** sed rami atque asper victu venatus alebat.  
but branches fed them, and hunting, with its rough living.

**319** Primus ab aetherio venit Saturnus Olympo,  
Saturn came first, down from heavenly Olympus,

**320** arma Iovis fugiens et regnis exsul ademptis.  
fleeing the arms of Jove, an exile with his kingdom taken.

**321** Is genus indocile ac dispersum montibus altis  
He gathered that unteachable race, scattered on the high mountains,

**322** composuit legesque dedit Latiumque vocari  
and gave them laws, and chose that the land be called

**323** maluit, his quoniam latuisset tutis in oris.  
Latium, since he had lain hidden safe on these shores.
> A name explained by a word: latuisset, 'he had lain hidden', shares its root with the place-name Latium, an ancient derivation from Saturn hiding, latuit, on these shores. Ancient scholars explained place-names this way as routine fact, and Vergil builds this passage out of such word origins.

**324** Aurea quae perhibent illo sub rege fuere  
The ages men call golden were under that king.

**325** saecula. Sic placida populos in pace regebat,  
So he ruled the peoples in quiet peace, until little by little

**326** deterior donec paulatim ac decolor aetas  
a worse age came on, and one gone off in its color,
> An age described as tarnished: decolor is the word for metal that has lost its proper color or shine. Since the mythical ages are named for metals, gold first and worse ones after, calling this age decolor says it did not merely decline, it tarnished.

**327** et belli rabies et amor successit habendi.  
and the madness of war, and the love of having.

**328** Tum manus Ausonia et gentes venere Sicanae,  
Then an Ausonian band came, and Sicanian peoples,

**329** saepius et nomen posuit Saturnia tellus;  
and more than once the land of Saturn laid its name aside;

**330** tum reges asperque immani corpore Thybris,  
then kings, and Thybris, harsh, with his monstrous body,

**331** a quo post Itali fluvium cognomine Thybrim  
from whom we Italians afterward called the river

**332** diximus, amisit verum vetus Albula nomen;  
Tiber; the old stream lost its true name, Albula.

**333** me pulsum patria pelagique extrema sequentem  
Me, driven from my country and following the sea to its ends,

**334** Fortuna omnipotens et ineluctabile fatum  
all-powerful Fortune and fate that cannot be wrestled with

**335** his posuere locis matrisque egere tremenda  
set down in these places, and the fearful warnings of my mother,

**336** Carmentis nymphae monita et deus auctor Apollo.  
the nymph Carmentis, drove me here, and Apollo, the god behind it.

**337** Vix ea dicta: dehinc progressus monstrat et aram  
Scarcely was this said: then, going on, he shows both the altar

**338** et Carmentalem Romani nomine portam  
and the gate the Romans call by the name Carmental,

**339** quam memorant, nymphae priscum Carmentis honorem,  
an old honor paid to the nymph Carmentis,

**340** vatis fatidicae, cecinit quae prima futuros  
the seeress who spoke the future, who first sang that the sons

**341** Aeneadas magnos et nobile Pallanteum.  
of Aeneas would be great, and Pallanteum famous.

**342** Hinc lucum ingentem quem Romulus acer Asylum  
From here he shows the huge grove which keen Romulus

**343** rettulit et gelida monstrat sub rupe Lupercal,  
restored as the Asylum, and under a cold cliff the Lupercal,

**344** Parrhasio dictum Panos de more Lycaei.  
named for Lycaean Pan in the Parrhasian custom.

**345** Nec non et sacri monstrat nemus Argileti  
He shows the wood of the holy Argiletum as well,

**346** testaturque locum et letum docet hospitis Argi.  
and calls the place to witness, and tells of the death of Argus his guest.
> One street, two derivations: letum means 'death', and hospitis Argi, 'of his guest Argus', names the killing said to give the Argiletum its name. The street more likely comes from argilla, 'clay', but Evander offers the darker story and says no more, which is how a host handles it.

**347** Hinc ad Tarpeiam sedem et Capitolia ducit,  
From here he leads him to the Tarpeian seat and the Capitol,

**348** aurea nunc, olim silvestribus horrida dumis.  
golden now, once rough with woodland thorn.

**349** Iam tum religio pavidos terrebat agrestis  
Even then the dread holiness of the place frightened the country

**350** dira loci, iam tum silvam saxumque tremebant.  
people; even then they trembled at the wood and the rock.

**351** Hoc nemus, hunc,” inquit, “frondoso vertice collem  
“This grove,” he says, “this hill with its leafy crown,

**352** (quis deus incertum est) habitat deus: Arcades ipsum  
a god lives in (which god is not certain). The Arcadians believe

**353** credunt se vidisse Iovem, cum saepe nigrantem  
they have seen Jove himself, when again and again he shook

**354** aegida concuteret dextra nimbosque cieret.  
the blackening aegis in his right hand and called up the storm.

**355** Haec duo praeterea disiectis oppida muris,  
Besides these you see two towns with their walls thrown down,

**356** reliquias veterumque vides monimenta virorum.  
what is left of them, and memorials of the men of old.

**357** Hanc Ianus pater, hanc Saturnus condidit arcem:  
Father Janus built this stronghold, Saturn built that:

**358** Ianiculum huic, illi fuerat Saturnia nomen.”  
the name of the one had been Janiculum, of the other Saturnia.”

**359** Talibus inter se dictis ad tecta subibant  
With such talk between them they came up under the roof

**360** pauperis Euandri passimque armenta videbant  
of poor Evander, and saw cattle here and there,

**361** Romanoque foro et lautis mugire Carinis.  
lowing in the Roman Forum and in the elegant Carinae.

**362** Ut ventum ad sedes: “Haec,” inquit, “limina victor  
When they had reached the house: “These doors,” he says, “Alcides

**363** Alcides subiit, haec illum regia cepit.  
stooped under in his victory; this palace took him in.

**364** Aude, hospes, contemnere opes et te quoque dignum  
Dare, my guest, to think little of wealth, and shape yourself

**365** finge deo rebusque veni non asper egenis.”  
worthy of the god too, and come without scorn to a house that has nothing.”

**366** dixit et angusti subter fastigia tecti  
He spoke, and led the great Aeneas in under the gable

**367** ingentem Aenean duxit stratisque locavit  
of the narrow house, and settled him on a bed

**368** effultum foliis et pelle Libystidis ursae.  
propped up with leaves and the hide of a Libyan bear.

**369** Nox ruit et fuscis tellurem amplectitur alis.  
Night rushes down and folds the earth in her dark wings.

**370** At Venus haud animo nequiquam exterrita mater  
But Venus, a mother, and not frightened in her heart for nothing,

**371** Laurentumque minis et duro mota tumultu  
moved by the threats of the Laurentians and the hard uproar,

**372** Volcanum adloquitur thalamoque haec coniugis aureo  
speaks to Vulcan, and in the golden bedchamber of her husband

**373** incipit et dictis divinum adspirat amorem:  
she begins, and breathes divine love into her words:

**374** “Dum bello Argolici vastabant Pergama reges  
“While the Argive kings were laying Pergamum waste in war,

**375** debita casurasque inimicis ignibus arces,  
citadels owed to them and doomed to fall to hostile fires,

**376** non ullum auxilium miseris, non arma rogavi  
I asked no help for the wretched, no weapons

**377** artis opisque tuae nec te, carissime coniunx,  
of your skill and power, nor did I wish, dearest husband,

**378** incassumve tuos volui exercere labores,  
to set you and your labors working for nothing,

**379** quamvis et Priami deberem plurima natis  
though I owed a great deal to the sons of Priam

**380** et durum Aeneae flevissem saepe laborem.  
and had often wept over the hard toil of Aeneas.

**381** Nunc Iovis imperiis Rutulorum constitit oris:  
Now by the orders of Jove he has set foot on Rutulian shores:

**382** ergo eadem supplex venio et sanctum mihi numen  
so I come as the same suppliant, and ask arms of a power

**383** arma rogo genetrix nato. Te filia Nerei,  
holy to me, a mother, for her son. The daughter of Nereus

**384** te potuit lacrimis Tithonia flectere coniunx.  
could bend you with tears, and the wife of Tithonus could.

**385** Aspice qui coeant populi, quae moenia clausis  
Look what peoples are gathering, what cities behind shut gates

**386** ferrum acuant portis in me exscidiumque meorum.”  
are sharpening iron against me and the wiping out of my own.”

**387** Dixerat et niveis hinc atque hinc diva lacertis  
She had spoken, and the goddess, as he held back, folds him in

**388** cunctantem amplexu molli fovet. Ille repente  
a soft embrace, snow-white arms on this side and on that. He at once

**389** accepit solitam flammam, notusque medullas  
took the accustomed flame, and the known heat went into

**390** intravit calor et labefacta per ossa cucurrit:  
his marrow and ran through his bones and undid them:

**391** non secus atque olim tonitru cum rupta corusco  
not otherwise than when, split by a flash of thunder,

**392** ignea rima micans percurrit lumine nimbos.  
a crack of fire runs glittering with light through the clouds.

**393** Sensit laeta dolis et formae conscia coniunx.  
His wife felt it, glad in her tricks, and sure of her own beauty.

**394** Tum pater aeterno fatur devinctus amore:  
Then the father speaks, bound fast by a love that does not end:

**395** “Quid causas petis ex alto? Fiducia cessit  
“Why look for your reasons so far down? Where has your

**396** quo tibi, diva, mei? Similis si cura fuisset,  
trust in me gone, goddess? If the same care had been in you then,

**397** tum quoque fas nobis Teucros armare fuisset:  
then too it would have been right for us to arm the Teucrians;

**398** nec pater omnipotens Troiam nec fata vetabant  
neither the all-powerful father nor the fates forbade Troy

**399** stare decemque alios Priamum superesse per annos.  
to stand and Priam to live on another ten years.

**400** Et nunc, si bellare paras atque haec tibi mens est,  
And now, if you are getting ready for war and this is your mind,

**401** quidquid in arte mea possum promittere curae,  
whatever care I can promise out of my craft,

**402** quod fieri ferro liquidove potest electro,  
whatever can be made of iron or of running electrum,
> A pale gold-silver alloy: electro is the ablative of electrum, a pale natural alloy of gold and silver, much prized in antiquity. Vulcan lists it here alongside ferro, 'iron', as a plain material of his craft, before he has agreed to make anything at all.

**403** quantum ignes animaeque valent, absiste precando  
whatever fire and breath are worth, give over praying,

**404** viribus indubitare tuis.” Ea verba locutus  
give over doubting your own strength.” Having spoken these words

**405** optatos dedit amplexus placidumque petivit  
he gave her the embraces she wanted, and, poured out on his wife's

**406** coniugis infusus gremio per membra soporem.  
breast, looked for a quiet sleep through all his limbs.

**407** Inde ubi prima quies medio iam noctis abactae  
Then, when first rest had driven sleep away, at the mid

**408** curriculo expulerat somnum, cum femina primum,  
turn of the night now half run out, the hour when a woman

**409** cui tolerare colo vitam tenuique Minerva  
on whom it is laid to hold out her life at the distaff and the thin

**410** impositum, cinerem et sopitos suscitat ignes,  
work of Minerva stirs the ash and the banked fires,

**411** noctem addens operi, famulasque ad lumina longo  
adding the night to her labor, and keeps her servants at a long

**412** exercet penso, castum ut servare cubile  
task by lamplight, so that she can keep her husband's bed

**413** coniugis et possit parvos educere natos:  
unstained and bring up her small sons:

**414** haud secus Ignipotens nec tempore segnior illo  
just so, and no slower at that hour, the Lord of Fire
> A title, not a name: Ignipotens literally means 'the one who has power over fire', a title for Vulcan rather than his proper name. Vergil rotates several such titles for the smith-god, Mulciber, Lemnius, and Volcanus, naming him differently for each of his powers.

**415** mollibus e stratis opera ad fabrilia surgit.  
rises from his soft bedding to the work of the forge.

**416** Insula Sicanium iuxta latus Aeoliamque  
An island rises beside the Sicanian coast and Aeolian

**417** erigitur Liparen, fumantibus ardua saxis,  
Lipare, steep with its smoking rocks,

**418** quam subter specus et Cyclopum exesa caminis  
beneath which a cave, and Aetnaean caverns of the Cyclopes

**419** antra Aetnaea tonant validique incudibus ictus  
eaten hollow by their furnaces, thunder; and strong blows

**420** auditi referunt gemitus striduntque cavernis  
heard on the anvils give back their groaning, and in the caves

**421** stricturae Chalybum et fornacibus ignis anhelat,  
the bars of the Chalybes hiss, and fire pants in the fire-pits,

**422** Volcani domus et Volcania nomine tellus.  
the house of Vulcan, and the land named Vulcania after him.

**423** Hoc tunc ignipotens caelo descendit ab alto.  
To this the Lord of Fire came down then from high heaven.

**424** Ferrum exercebant vasto Cyclopes in antro,  
The Cyclopes were working iron in the vast cave,

**425** Brontesque Steropesque et nudus membra Pyragmon.  
Brontes and Steropes and Pyracmon, his limbs bare.
> Names that mean what they make: The three Cyclopes are named for what they make: Brontes from brontē, 'thunder', and Steropes from steropē, 'flash'. Hesiod gives those two names; Pyracmon, 'fire-anvil', looks to be Vergil's own coinage, added to complete the set.

**426** His informatum manibus iam parte polita  
Under their hands was a thunderbolt, shaped, and part of it

**427** fulmen erat, toto genitor quae plurima caelo  
already polished, the kind the father throws down in numbers

**428** deicit in terras, pars inperfecta manebat.  
from the whole sky onto the lands; part stayed unfinished.

**429** Tris imbris torti radios, tris nubis aquosae  
Three spokes of twisted hail they had put in, three of watery

**430** addiderant, rutili tris ignis et alitis austri:  
cloud, three of red fire and of the winged south wind:

**431** fulgores nunc horrificos sonitumque metumque  
now they were mixing into the work the flashes that terrify, the noise,

**432** miscebant operi flammisque sequacibus iras.  
the fear, and wrath, with flames that come after.

**433** Parte alia Marti currumque rotasque volucris  
In another quarter they were pressing on with a chariot for Mars and flying

**434** instabant, quibus ille viros, quibus excitat urbes;  
wheels, with which he stirs up men, with which he stirs up cities;

**435** aegidaque horriferam, turbatae Palladis arma,  
and the dread aegis, the armor of Pallas in her anger,

**436** certatim squamis serpentum auroque polibant  
they were vying to polish with serpent scales and gold,

**437** conexosque anguis ipsamque in pectore divae  
and the linked snakes, and on the goddess's breast the Gorgon

**438** Gorgona, desecto vertentem lumina collo.  
herself, turning her eyes with her neck cut through.

**439** “Tollite cuncta,” inquit, “coeptosque auferte labores,  
“Take it all up,” he says, “and carry off the labors you have begun,

**440** Aetnaei Cyclopes, et huc advertite mentem:  
Cyclopes of Aetna, and turn your minds this way:

**441** arma acri facienda viro. Nunc viribus usus,  
arms are to be made for a fierce man. Now there is need of strength,
> A commission, no name given: facienda is a gerundive of obligation, 'must be made', with viro, 'for the man', naming the one it is made for without naming him. Vulcan's order stays this impersonal throughout: not once does he say Aeneas's name while commissioning the arms.

**442** nunc manibus rapidis, omni nunc arte magistra.  
now of quick hands, now of the whole mastery of your craft.

**443** Praecipitate moras.” Nec plura effatus; at illi  
Throw off delay.” He said no more; and they

**444** ocius incubuere omnes pariterque laborem  
all bent to it at once and shared out the labor

**445** sortiti. Fluit aes rivis aurique metallum,  
by lot alike. Bronze runs in streams, and the ore of gold,

**446** volnificusque chalybs vasta fornace liquescit.  
and wound-dealing steel melts in the huge furnace.

**447** Ingentem clipeum informant, unum omnia contra  
They shape a huge shield, one against all the weapons

**448** tela Latinorum, septenosque orbibus orbes  
of the Latins, and they lock circle into circle, seven

**449** impediunt. Alii ventosis follibus auras  
deep. Some, with windy bellows, take the air in

**450** accipiunt redduntque, alii stridentia tingunt  
and give it back; others dip the hissing bronze

**451** aera lacu. Gemit impositis incudibus antrum.  
in the trough. The cave groans under the anvils set on it.

**452** Illi inter sese multa vi bracchia tollunt  
Among themselves they lift their arms with great force, in time,
> The vocabulary of dance: in numerum literally means 'in rhythm' or 'in time', the phrase used of dancers keeping a beat together. Vergil applies it here to the Cyclopes hammering in unison, describing the loudest workshop imaginable with the vocabulary of a chorus.

**453** in numerum versantque tenaci forcipe massam.  
and turn the mass with gripping tongs.

**454** Haec pater Aeoliis properat dum Lemnius oris,  
While the Lemnian father hurries this on the Aeolian shores,

**455** Euandrum ex humili tecto lux suscitat alma  
the kindly light rouses Evander from his low roof,

**456** et matutini volucrum sub culmine cantus.  
and the morning songs of birds under the gable.

**457** Consurgit senior tunicaque inducitur artus  
The old man rises and draws a tunic over his limbs

**458** et Tyrrhena pedum circumdat vincula plantis;  
and puts Tyrrhenian bindings round the soles of his feet;

**459** tum lateri atque umeris Tegeaeum subligat ensem,  
then he straps the Tegean sword to his side and shoulder,

**460** demissa ab laeva pantherae terga retorquens.  
throwing back the panther skin that hangs from his left.

**461** Nec non et gemini custodes limine ab alto  
And two guardian dogs go out ahead from the high threshold

**462** praecedunt gressumque canes comitantur erilem.  
and keep pace with their master's step.

**463** Hospitis Aeneae sedem et secreta petebat  
The hero was making for the quarters and the privacy of his guest

**464** sermonum memor et promissi muneris heros.  
Aeneas, remembering their talk and the gift he had promised.

**465** Nec minus Aeneas se matutinus agebat.  
No less was Aeneas up and moving in the morning.

**466** Filius huic Pallas, illi comes ibat Achates.  
Pallas his son walked with the one, Achates as companion with the other.

**467** Congressi iungunt dextras mediisque residunt  
They meet and join right hands, and sit down in the middle

**468** aedibus et licito tandem sermone fruuntur.  
of the house, and enjoy at last the talk they are free to have.

**469** Rex prior haec:  
The king spoke first:
> Broken off before a speech: The hexameter stops after three words, one of roughly fifty-five unfinished lines in the poem. It falls at a hinge, exactly where a speech is about to begin, and we leave the fragment where Vergil left it.

**470** “Maxume Teucrorum ductor, quo sospite numquam  
“Greatest leader of the Teucrians, while you are safe I will never

**471** res equidem Troiae victas aut regna fatebor,  
admit that the fortunes of Troy or her kingdom are beaten,

**472** nobis ad belli auxilium pro nomine tanto  
but for help in a war our strength is thin, set against

**473** exiguae vires: hinc Tusco claudimur amni,  
so great a name: on this side we are shut in by the Tuscan river,

**474** hinc Rutulus premit et murum circumsonat armis.  
on that the Rutulian presses and rings our wall with weapons.

**475** Sed tibi ego ingentis populos opulentaque regnis  
But I am preparing to join to you huge peoples and camps

**476** iungere castra paro, quam fors inopina salutem  
rich in kingdoms, a rescue that unlooked-for chance holds out:

**477** ostentat: fatis huc te poscentibus adfers.  
you bring yourself here with the fates calling for you.

**478** Haud procul hinc saxo incolitur fundata vetusto  
Not far from here, founded on ancient rock, the seat of the city

**479** urbis Agyllinae sedes, ubi Lydia quondam  
of Agylla is lived in, where once a Lydian

**480** gens, bello praeclara, iugis insedit Etruscis.  
people, famous in war, settled on the Etruscan ridges.

**481** Hanc multos florentem annos rex deinde superbo  
Flourishing for many years, it was afterward held by king

**482** imperio et saevis tenuit Mezentius armis.  
Mezentius, with arrogant rule and savage weapons.

**483** Quid memorem infandas caedes, quid facta tyranni  
Why should I tell over the unspeakable killings, the wild deeds

**484** effera? Di capiti ipsius generique reservent!  
of the tyrant? May the gods keep them for his own head and his line!

**485** Mortua quin etiam iungebat corpora vivis  
He even bound dead bodies to living ones,

**486** componens manibusque manus atque oribus ora,  
fitting hand to hand and mouth to mouth,

**487** tormenti genus, et sanie taboque fluentis  
a kind of torture, and so, in that wretched embrace,

**488** complexu in misero longa sic morte necabat.  
running with matter and rot, he killed them by a long death.

**489** at fessi tandem cives infanda furentem  
But the citizens, worn out at last, armed themselves and stood

**490** armati circumsistunt ipsumque domumque,  
around the man and his house while he raged past all speech,

**491** obtruncant socios, ignem ad fastigia iactant.  
cut down his followers, and threw fire at the roof.

**492** Ille inter caedem Rutulorum elapsus in agros  
He slipped out through the slaughter into the fields of the Rutulians

**493** confugere et Turni defendier hospitis armis.  
to take refuge there, and be shielded by the arms of Turnus his host.
> An old passive infinitive: defendier is an archaic present passive infinitive, equal to defendi, 'to be defended', keeping the older -ier ending for its antique sound. It stands with confugere, another bare infinitive, in a run of historic infinitives reporting rapid action with no tense of their own.

**494** Ergo omnis furiis surrexit Etruria iustis:  
So all Etruria has risen in a fury that is just:

**495** regem ad supplicium praesenti Marte reposcunt.  
they demand the king back for punishment, with war standing ready.

**496** his ego te, Aenea, ductorem milibus addam.  
To these thousands, Aeneas, I will add you as leader.

**497** Toto namque fremunt condensae litore puppes  
For the ships roar, packed close along the whole shore,

**498** Signaque ferre iubent; retinet longaevus haruspex  
and order the standards forward; an aged reader of entrails holds them,

**499** fata canens, “O Maeoniae delecta iuventus,  
singing the fates: “O chosen young men of Maeonia,

**500** flos veterum virtusque virum, quos iustus in hostem  
flower and courage of the men of old, whom a just grief

**501** fert dolor et merita accendit Mezentius ira,  
carries against the enemy, and Mezentius fires with anger he has earned,

**502** nulli fas Italo tantam subiungere gentem:  
it is lawful for no Italian to put so great a nation under him:

**503** externos optate duces; tum Etrusca resedit”  
choose foreign leaders.” Then the Etruscan battle line settled

**504** hoc acies campo, monitis exterrita divom.  
on this plain, in terror at the warnings of the gods.

**505** Ipse oratores ad me regnique coronam  
Tarchon himself has sent spokesmen to me, and the crown

**506** cum sceptro misit mandatque insignia Tarchon,  
of the kingdom with the scepter, and hands over the emblems,

**507** succedam castris Tyrrhenaque regna capessam.  
that I should come into the camp and take the Tyrrhenian realm.

**508** Sed mihi tarda gelu saeclisque effeta senectus  
But old age, slow with cold and worn out by its long years,

**509** invidet imperium seraeque ad fortia vires.  
grudges me the command, and my strength has come too late for bravery.

**510** natum exhortarer, ni mixtus matre Sabella  
I would urge my son to it, if he did not, with a Sabellian mother

**511** hinc partem patriae traheret. Tu, cuius et annis  
mixed in him, draw half his country from this side. You, whom fate

**512** et generi fatum indulgent, quem numina poscunt,  
indulges in your years and in your birth, whom the powers demand,

**513** ingredere, o Teucrum atque Italum fortissime ductor.  
go in, bravest leader of Teucrians and of Italians.

**514** hunc tibi praeterea, spes et solacia nostri,  
Besides, I will attach to you this boy, our hope and our comfort,

**515** Pallanta adiungam; sub te tolerare magistro  
Pallas; let him grow used, with you for his master, to bearing

**516** militiam et grave Martis opus, tua cernere facta  
soldiering and the heavy work of Mars, to watching what you do,

**517** adsuescat primis et te miretur ab annis.  
and to looking up to you from his earliest years.

**518** Arcadas huic equites bis centum, robora pubis  
I will give him two hundred Arcadian horsemen, the chosen strength

**519** lecta dabo totidemque suo tibi nomine Pallas.”  
of our young men, and Pallas as many more in his own name.”

**520** Vix ea fatus erat, defixique ora tenebant  
He had scarcely spoken, and they were holding their faces

**521** Aeneas Anchisiades et fidus Achates  
fixed on the ground, Aeneas son of Anchises and faithful Achates,

**522** multaque dura suo tristi cum corde putabant,  
and turning many hard things over in their grieving hearts,

**523** ni signum caelo Cytherea dedisset aperto.  
had the Cytherean not given a sign in the open sky.

**524** Namque inproviso vibratus ab aethere fulgor  
For without warning a flash came quivering out of the upper air

**525** cum sonitu venit, et ruere omnia visa repente  
with a noise, and everything seemed suddenly to be falling in,

**526** Tyrrhenusque tubae mugire per aethera clangor.  
and the Tyrrhenian blare of a trumpet to bellow through the sky.
> An instrument's national origin: Tyrrhenus means 'Etruscan', modifying clangor, 'blare', since Romans credited the Etruscans with inventing the war trumpet, tuba. The sky sounds a specifically Etruscan alarm here, over an army Aeneas is about to be given command of.

**527** Suspiciunt, iterum atque iterum fragor increpat ingens:  
They look up; again and again the huge crash rattles out:

**528** arma inter nubem caeli regione serena  
they see arms in a cloud, in a clear quarter of the heavens,

**529** per sudum rutilare vident et pulsa tonare.  
glowing red through the bright air, and thundering when struck.

**530** Obstipuere animis alii, sed Troius heros  
The rest stood amazed in their hearts, but the Trojan hero

**531** agnovit sonitum et divae promissa parentis.  
knew the sound, and his goddess mother's promises.

**532** Tum memorat: “Ne vero, hospes, ne quaere profecto,  
Then he says: “Do not ask, my host, do not ask at all

**533** quem casum portenta ferant: ego poscor Olympo.  
what these portents carry with them: I am the one Olympus is calling for.
> A passive verb, bare ablative: poscor is passive, 'I am demanded', with Olympo as a bare ablative naming the source of the demand rather than a phrase built with 'by'. Aeneas answers a question about the omens by stating plainly, for once, that the summons is his own.

**534** Hoc signum cecinit missuram diva creatrix,  
My divine mother foretold she would send this sign,

**535** si bellum ingrueret, Volcaniaque arma per auras  
if war came on, and would carry arms made by Vulcan through the air

**536** laturam auxilio.  
to my help.
> Cut off mid-explanation: The line breaks off mid-explanation, and the next line begins a new sentence entirely rather than finishing this one. We leave the fragment short, matching the incomplete verse Vergil left in the manuscript.

**537** Heu quantae miseris caedes Laurentibus instant;  
Ah, what slaughter stands over the wretched Laurentians!

**538** quas poenas mihi, Turne, dabis; quam multa sub undas  
What penalties you will pay me, Turnus! How many, under your waves,

**539** scuta virum galeasque et fortia corpora volves,  
shields of men, and helmets, and strong bodies you will roll,

**540** Thybri pater! Poscant acies et foedera rumpant.”  
father Tiber! Let them call up their lines and break their treaties.”

**541** Haec ubi dicta dedit, solio se tollit ab alto  
When he had given these words, he lifts himself from the high seat

**542** et primum Herculeis sopitas ignibus aras  
and first wakes the altars banked with the fires of Hercules,

**543** excitat hesternumque larem parvosque penatis  
and comes gladly to yesterday's household spirit and the small

**544** laetus adit: mactant lectas de more bidentis  
household gods: they kill chosen yearling sheep by the custom,
> A sheep named for its age: bidentis is the accusative plural of bidens, the standard sacrificial sheep, named for the two teeth that marked its age. It is technical language out of Roman religious law, the word used wherever a rite is performed by the correct rule.

**545** Euandrus pariter, pariter Troiana iuventus.  
Evander alike, and alike the Trojan young men.

**546** Post hinc ad navis graditur sociosque revisit.  
After that he goes down to the ships and sees his companions again.

**547** Quorum de numero qui sese in bella sequantur  
Out of their number he chooses the men outstanding in courage

**548** praestantis virtute legit; pars cetera prona  
to follow him into the war; the rest are carried down

**549** fertur aqua segnisque secundo defluit amni,  
the sloping water and drift slack with the current going with them,

**550** nuntia ventura Ascanio rerumque patrisque.  
to come as news to Ascanius of his father and of how things stand.

**551** Dantur equi Teucris Tyrrhena petentibus arva;  
Horses are given to the Teucrians as they make for the Tyrrhenian fields;

**552** ducunt exsortem Aeneae, quem fulva leonis  
they lead out a horse set apart for Aeneas, covered all over

**553** pellis obit totum, praefulgens unguibus aureis.  
with a tawny lion skin that blazes with its gilded claws.

**554** Fama volat parvam subito volgata per urbem,  
Rumor flies, spread all at once through the small city,

**555** ocius ire equites Tyrrheni ad litora regis.  
that horsemen are going in haste to the shores of the Tyrrhenian king.

**556** vota metu duplicant matres, propiusque periclo  
Mothers double their vows in fear, and dread comes closer

**557** it timor, et maior Martis iam apparet imago.  
to the danger, and the face of war looms larger now.
> A picture, not the thing: imago means 'likeness' or 'apparition', the picture of a thing rather than the thing itself. War is still nowhere near this town, so what has grown larger, maior, is the image of it in the minds of those on the walls.

**558** tum pater Evandrus dextram complexus euntis  
Then father Evander, clasping the right hand of the one who is going,

**559** haeret inexpletus lacrimans, ac talia fatur:  
clings to it and weeps and cannot be filled, and speaks so:

**560** “O mihi praeteritos referat si Iuppiter annos,  
“O if Jupiter would give me back the years that are gone,

**561** (qualis eram, cum primam aciem Praeneste sub ipsa  
as I was when, under Praeneste itself, I laid their front line

**562** stravi scutorumque incendi victor acervos  
low and burned heaps of shields in my victory

**563** et regem hac Erulum dextra sub Tartara misi,  
and sent king Erulus down to Tartarus with this right hand,

**564** nascenti cui tris animas Feronia mater  
and to him at his birth his mother Feronia had given

**565** (horrendum dictu) dederat; terna arma movenda,  
three lives, a horror to tell, three sets of arms to be wielded;

**566** ter Leto sternendus erat; cui tunc tamen omnis  
three times he had to be laid low in death; and yet this hand

**567** abstulit haec animas dextra et totidem exuit armis:  
took all his lives that day and stripped him of as many arms:

**568** non ego nunc dulci amplexu divellerer usquam,  
then I would not now be torn from your sweet embrace,
> The main clause arrives late: This is the main clause of a wish opened nine lines earlier, 'if Jupiter would give me back my years'. Everything between is a parenthesis about his youth, and divellerer, 'I would be torn', arrives only once he gets through it.

**569** nate, tuo, neque finitimo Mezentius umquam  
my son, nor would Mezentius, on our very border, ever have

**570** huic capiti insultans tot ferro saeva dedisset  
insulted this head, and dealt so many savage deaths

**571** funera, tam multis viduasset civibus urbem.  
with the sword, and widowed the city of so many citizens.

**572** At vos, o superi, et divom tu maxume rector  
But you, gods above, and you, greatest ruler of the gods,

**573** Iuppiter, Arcadii, quaeso, miserescite regis  
Jupiter, have pity, I beg, on an Arcadian king,

**574** et patrias audite preces. Si numina vestra  
and hear a father's prayers. If your powers, if the fates

**575** incolumem Pallanta mihi, si fata reservant,  
are keeping my Pallas safe for me, if I shall live

**576** si visurus eum vivo et venturus in unum:  
to see him and to come together with him again,

**577** vitam oro, patior quemvis durare laborem.  
I pray for life: I can bear to hold out under any labor.

**578** Sin aliquem infandum casum, Fortuna, minaris:  
But if you threaten some unspeakable chance, Fortune,

**579** nunc O nunc liceat crudelem abrumpere vitam,  
then now, O now, let me break off this cruel life,
> One word repeated for weight: nunc, 'now', is repeated with the interjection O set between the two instances, throwing the whole weight of the line onto that word. liceat is subjunctive, 'let it be allowed', making the line a wish to die in this exact moment.

**580** dum curae ambiguae, dum spes incerta futuri,  
while my cares are still in doubt, while hope of the future is unsure,

**581** dum te, care puer, mea sera et sola voluptas,  
while I hold you, dear boy, my late and only delight,

**582** complexu teneo, gravior neu nuntius auris  
in my arms, and before a heavier message wounds

**583** volneret.” Haec genitor digressu dicta supremo  
my ears.” The father was pouring out these words at the last

**584** fundebat: famuli conlapsum in tecta ferebant.  
parting: his servants carried him, fallen, into the house.

**585** Iamque adeo exierat portis equitatus apertis,  
And by now the cavalry had gone out through the opened gates,

**586** Aeneas inter primos et fidus Achates,  
Aeneas among the first, and faithful Achates,

**587** inde alii Troiae proceres, ipse agmine Pallas  
then the other chiefs of Troy; Pallas himself in the middle

**588** in medio chlamyde et pictis conspectus in armis:  
of the column, marked out by his cloak and his painted armor:

**589** qualis ubi Oceani perfusus Lucifer unda,  
as when the Morning Star, washed in the water of Ocean,

**590** quem Venus ante alios astrorum diligit ignis,  
the one Venus loves before all the other fires of heaven,

**591** extulit os sacrum caelo tenebrasque resolvit.  
has lifted his sacred face into the sky and undone the dark.

**592** Stant pavidae in muris matres oculisque sequuntur  
The mothers stand frightened on the walls and follow with their eyes

**593** pulveream nubem et fulgentis aere catervas.  
the cloud of dust and the companies flashing with bronze.

**594** Olli per dumos, qua proxuma meta viarum,  
In arms they press through the thickets, where the road runs shortest;

**595** armati tendunt; it clamor, et agmine facto  
a shout goes up, and with the column formed

**596** quadrupedante putrem sonitu quatit ungula campum.  
the hoof shakes the crumbling plain with a four-footed sound.
> A line built on hoofbeats: quadrupedante describes sonitu, 'sound', as 'four-footed', and the line's four dactyls and heavy consonants imitate the beat of hooves. Vergil takes the device, and nearly the wording, from Ennius, the founder of Latin epic.

**597** Est ingens gelidum lucus prope Caeritis amnem,  
There is a huge grove near the cold river of Caere,

**598** religione patrum late sacer; undique colles  
held sacred far around by the fathers' religion; on every side

**599** inclusere cavi et nigra nemus abiete cingunt.  
hollow hills have shut it in and ring the wood with black fir.

**600** Silvano fama est veteres sacrasse Pelasgos,  
The story is that the old Pelasgians made it holy to Silvanus,

**601** arvorum pecorisque deo, lucumque diemque,  
god of the ploughlands and the flock, the grove and a day of his own,

**602** qui primi finis aliquando habuere Latinos:  
they who long ago were the first to hold the borders of Latium:

**603** haud procul hinc Tarcho et Tyrrheni tuta tenebant  
not far from here Tarchon and the Tyrrhenians held a camp

**604** castra locis, celsoque omnis de colle videri  
on safe ground, and the whole force could already be seen

**605** iam poterat legio et latis tendebat in arvis.  
from a high hill, and was spread out across the wide fields.

**606** Huc pater Aeneas et bello lecta iuventus  
Here father Aeneas and the young men chosen for the war

**607** succedunt fessique et equos et corpora curant.  
come up, and, worn out, see to their horses and their bodies.

**608** At Venus aetherios inter dea candida nimbos  
But Venus, the bright goddess, was there among the clouds of heaven

**609** dona ferens aderat; natumque in valle reducta  
carrying her gifts; and when she saw her son far off

**610** ut procul egelido secretum flumine vidit,  
in a withdrawn valley, alone beside the cold stream,

**611** talibus adfata est dictis seque obtulit ultro:  
she spoke to him in such words and came forward unasked:

**612** “En perfecta mei promissa coniugis arte  
“Here are the gifts I promised, finished by my husband's craft,

**613** munera, ne mox aut Laurentis, nate, superbos  
so that you need not hesitate, my son, to call the proud Laurentians

**614** aut acrem dubites in proelia poscere Turnum.”  
or fierce Turnus out to battle.”

**615** Dixit et amplexus nati Cytherea petivit,  
The Cytherean spoke, and looked for her son's embrace,

**616** arma sub adversa posuit radiantia quercu.  
and set the shining arms down under an oak across from him.

**617** Ille, deae donis et tanto laetus honore,  
He, glad in the goddess's gifts and in so great an honor,

**618** expleri nequit atque oculos per singula volvit  
cannot get his fill, and rolls his eyes over one thing after another,

**619** miraturque interque manus et bracchia versat  
and marvels, and turns them over between his hands and arms:

**620** terribilem cristis galeam flammasque vomentem  
the helmet, terrible with its crests and spewing flames,

**621** fatiferumque ensem, loricam ex aere rigentem  
and the fate-bearing sword, and the corselet stiff with bronze,

**622** sanguineam ingentem, qualis cum caerula nubes  
blood-colored and huge, as when a dark-blue cloud

**623** solis inardescit radiis longeque refulget;  
catches fire from the sun's rays and shines back far off;

**624** tum levis ocreas electro auroque recocto  
then the light greaves of electrum and of gold worked over again,

**625** hastamque et clipei non enarrabile textum.  
and the spear, and the weave of the shield, which cannot be told.
> A weave, and a poem: textum means 'a weave' or 'a woven thing', the same word Latin uses for the fabric of a poem. Vergil calls the shield's surface non enarrabile, 'unable to be told', immediately before spending over a hundred lines describing it in full.

**626** Illic res Italas Romanorumque triumphos  
There the doings of Italy and the triumphs of the Romans,

**627** haud vatum ignarus venturique inscius aevi  
for he was not ignorant of the seers, nor blind to the age to come,

**628** fecerat ignipotens, illic genus omne futurae  
the Lord of Fire had made; there the whole race of the stock
> A finished shield, a finished tense: fecerat is pluperfect, 'had made', not the simple past Homer uses to narrate Hephaestus working stage by stage. Vergil's shield is already complete, so the pluperfect runs throughout, had made, had added, had hammered, describing something we look at rather than something being made.

**629** stirpis ab Ascanio. pugnataque in ordine bella.  
to come from Ascanius, and the wars fought in their order.

**630** Fecerat et viridi fetam Mavortis in antro  
He had made, too, a she-wolf newly delivered, lying down

**631** procubuisse lupam, geminos huic ubera circum  
in the green cave of Mars, and about her teats twin boys

**632** ludere pendentis pueros et lambere matrem  
hanging at play, and licking their mother

**633** impavidos, illam tereti cervice reflexa  
unafraid; and her, bending back her rounded neck,

**634** mulcere alternos et corpora fingere lingua.  
stroking them by turns and shaping their bodies with her tongue.

**635** Nec procul hinc Romam et raptas sine more Sabinas  
Not far from this he had added Rome, and the Sabine women

**636** consessu caveae magnis circensibus actis  
seized against all custom out of the seated tiers of the arena

**637** addiderat subitoque novum consurgere bellum  
while the great games were run, and a new war rising all at once

**638** Romulidis Tatioque seni Curibusque severis.  
for the sons of Romulus, and for old Tatius and grim Cures.

**639** Post idem inter se posito certamine reges  
Afterward the same kings, the quarrel laid down between them,

**640** armati Iovis ante aram paterasque tenentes  
stood armed before the altar of Jove, holding the bowls,

**641** stabant et caesa iungebant foedera porca.  
and were joining a treaty over a slaughtered sow.

**642** Haud procul inde citae Mettum in diversa quadrigae  
Not far from there swift four-horse teams had torn Mettus

**643** distulerant, at tu dictis, Albane, maneres,  
into opposite pieces, but you should have kept to your word, Alban,

**644** raptabatque viri mendacis viscera Tullus  
and Tullus was dragging the lying man's flesh

**645** per silvam, et sparsi rorabant sanguine vepres.  
through a wood, and the scattered briars dripped with blood.

**646** Nec non Tarquinium eiectum Porsenna iubebat  
Porsenna too was ordering them to take back the banished Tarquin

**647** accipere ingentique urbem obsidione premebat:  
and was crushing the city with a huge siege:

**648** Aeneadae in ferrum pro libertate ruebant.  
the sons of Aeneas were running on the sword for liberty.

**649** Illum indignanti similem similemque minanti  
You would see him there like a man outraged and like a man threatening,

**650** aspiceres, pontem auderet quia vellere Cocles  
because Cocles dared to tear the bridge away

**651** et fluvium vinclis innaret Cloelia ruptis.  
and Cloelia broke her chains and swam the river.

**652** In summo custos Tarpeiae Manlius arcis  
At the top, Manlius, guard of the Tarpeian citadel,

**653** stabat pro templo et Capitolia celsa tenebat,  
stood before the temple and held the high Capitol,

**654** Romuleoque recens horrebat regia culmo.  
and the palace bristled new with the thatch of Romulus.

**655** Atque hic auratis volitans argenteus anser  
And here a silver goose, flying through gilded colonnades,

**656** porticibus Gallos in limine adesse canebat.  
was crying that the Gauls were at the door.

**657** Galli per dumos aderant arcemque tenebant,  
The Gauls were there among the thickets and had hold of the citadel,

**658** defensi tenebris et dono noctis opacae:  
kept safe by the dark and by the gift of the shadowy night:

**659** aurea caesaries ollis atque aurea vestis,  
their hair is gold and their clothing is gold,
> One word doing double duty: aurea, 'golden', is repeated for both caesaries, 'hair', and vestis, 'clothing', naming both the Gauls' famous ornaments and the metal Vulcan used to make the image. Homer does the same double duty in Iliad 18, where Ares and Athena are golden figures dressed in gold.

**660** virgatis lucent sagulis, tum lactea colla  
they glitter in striped cloaks, and their milk-white necks

**661** auro innectuntur, duo quisque Alpina coruscant  
are bound about with gold; each shakes two Alpine

**662** gaesa manu, scutis protecti corpora longis.  
javelins in his hand, their bodies covered by long shields.

**663** Hic exsultantis Salios nudosque Lupercos  
Here he had hammered out the leaping Salii and the naked Luperci

**664** lanigerosque apices et lapsa ancilia caelo  
and the wool-bound caps and the shields that fell from heaven;

**665** extuderat, castae ducebant sacra per urbem  
chaste mothers were leading the rites through the city

**666** pilentis matres in mollibus. Hinc procul addit  
in soft carriages. Far off from these he adds

**667** Tartareas etiam sedes, alta ostia Ditis,  
the seats of Tartarus as well, the high doorway of Dis,

**668** et scelerum poenas et te, Catilina, minaci  
and the punishments of crime, and you, Catiline, hanging

**669** pendentem scopulo Furiarumque ora trementem,  
from a threatening crag and shaking at the faces of the Furies,

**670** secretosque pios, his dantem iura Catonem.  
and the good set apart, and Cato giving them law.

**671** Haec inter tumidi late maris ibat imago  
Among all this the likeness of the swollen sea ran wide,

**672** aurea, sed fluctu spumabant caerula cano;  
golden, but the blue was foaming with white surge;

**673** et circum argento clari delphines in orbem  
and round about, dolphins bright in silver, in a circle,

**674** aequora verrebant caudis aestumque secabant.  
were sweeping the water with their tails and cutting the swell.

**675** In medio classis aeratas, Actia bella,  
In the middle it was possible to see bronze-plated fleets, the war

**676** cernere erat, totumque instructo Marte videres  
at Actium, and you would see the whole of Leucate boiling

**677** fervere Leucaten auroque effulgere fluctus.  
with battle drawn up, and the waves blazing with gold.

**678** Hinc Augustus agens Italos in proelia Caesar  
On this side Augustus Caesar, leading the Italians into the fight

**679** cum patribus populoque, penatibus et magnis dis,  
with the fathers and the people, the household gods and the great gods,

**680** stans celsa in puppi; geminas cui tempora flammas  
standing on the high stern; his glad temples pour out

**681** laeta vomunt patriumque aperitur vertice sidus.  
twin flames, and his father's star opens above his head.

**682** Parte alia ventis et dis Agrippa secundis  
In another quarter Agrippa, with the winds and the gods behind him,

**683** arduus agmen agens; cui, belli insigne superbum,  
leading his column high; on his temples shines the beaked

**684** tempora navali fulgent rostrata corona.  
naval crown, the proud emblem of war.

**685** Hinc ope barbarica variisque Antonius armis,  
On that side Antony, with barbarian wealth and weapons of every kind,

**686** victor ab Aurorae populis et litore rubro,  
a victor from the peoples of the Dawn and from the red shore,

**687** Aegyptum viresque Orientis et ultima secum  
brings Egypt with him, and the strength of the East, and farthest

**688** Bactra vehit, sequiturque (nefas) Aegyptia coniunx.  
Bactra; and there follows him (the abomination) an Egyptian wife.

**689** Una omnes ruere, ac totum spumare reductis  
All rushed on together, and the whole sea foamed, torn up

**690** convolsum remis rostrisque tridentibus aequor.  
by the drawn oars and by the three-pronged beaks.

**691** alta petunt: pelago credas innare revolsas  
They make for open water: you would think the Cyclades, wrenched loose,

**692** Cycladas aut montis concurrere montibus altos,  
were swimming on the sea, or high mountains running at mountains,

**693** tanta mole viri turritis puppibus instant.  
such is the mass with which the men drive on in their towered sterns.

**694** stuppea flamma manu telisque volatile ferrum  
Burning tow is flung by hand, and flying iron from the weapons;

**695** spargitur, arva nova Neptunia caede rubescunt.  
the fields of Neptune redden with slaughter that is new to them.

**696** Regina in mediis patrio vocat agmina sistro  
In the middle of it the queen calls her columns on with her country's rattle,

**697** necdum etiam geminos a tergo respicit anguis.  
and does not yet look back at the two snakes behind her.

**698** omnigenumque deum monstra et latrator Anubis  
Monstrous gods of every kind, and barking Anubis,

**699** contra Neptunum et Venerem contraque Minervam  
hold their weapons against Neptune and Venus and against

**700** tela tenent. Saevit medio in certamine Mavors  
Minerva. Mars rages in the middle of the fight,

**701** caelatus ferro tristesque ex aethere Dirae,  
chased in iron, and out of the sky the grim Dirae,

**702** et scissa gaudens vadit Discordia palla,  
and Discord goes rejoicing, her gown torn open,

**703** quam cum sanguineo sequitur Bellona flagello.  
and Bellona follows her with a bloodied whip.

**704** Actius haec cernens arcum tendebat Apollo  
Apollo of Actium, seeing this, was drawing his bow

**705** desuper: omnis eo terrore Aegyptus et Indi,  
from above: at that terror all Egypt and the Indians,

**706** omnis Arabs, omnes vertebant terga Sabaei.  
every Arab, all the Sabaeans were turning their backs.

**707** Ipsa videbatur ventis regina vocatis  
The queen herself was seen calling the winds up and giving

**708** vela dare et laxos iam iamque inmittere funis.  
sail, and at that very moment letting the slackened ropes run.

**709** Illam inter caedes pallentem morte futura  
The Lord of Fire had made her pale amid the slaughter with the death

**710** fecerat Ignipotens undis et Iapyge ferri,  
to come, carried off by the waves and by the Iapyx wind;

**711** contra autem magno maerentem corpore Nilum  
and opposite, the Nile, mourning in his great body,

**712** pandentemque sinus et tota veste vocantem  
opening his folds and with all his robe calling the beaten

**713** caeruleum in gremium latebrosaque flumina victos.  
into his blue lap and his streams that hide.

**714** At Caesar, triplici invectus Romana triumpho  
But Caesar, riding into the walls of Rome in a threefold triumph,

**715** moenia, dis Italis votum inmortale sacrabat,  
was consecrating an undying vow to the gods of Italy,

**716** maxuma tercentum totam delubra per urbem.  
three hundred great shrines throughout the whole city.

**717** Laetitia ludisque viae plausuque fremebant;  
The streets roared with gladness and games and applause;

**718** omnibus in templis matrum chorus, omnibus arae;  
in every temple a chorus of mothers, in every one altars;

**719** ante aras terram caesi stravere iuvenci.  
before the altars slaughtered bullocks strewed the ground.

**720** Ipse, sedens niveo candentis limine Phoebi,  
He himself, seated on the snow-white threshold of shining Phoebus,

**721** dona recognoscit populorum aptatque superbis  
looks over the gifts of the nations and fits them to the proud

**722** postibus; incedunt victae longo ordine gentes,  
doorposts; the conquered peoples file past in a long line,

**723** quam variae linguis, habitu tam vestis et armis.  
as different in their tongues as in the cut of their dress and arms.

**724** Hic Nomadum genus et discinctos Mulciber Afros,  
Here Mulciber had shaped the race of Nomads and the ungirt

**725** hic Lelegas Carasque sagittiferosque Gelonos  
Africans, here the Leleges and Carians and arrow-bearing Geloni;

**726** finxerat; Euphrates ibat iam mollior undis,  
Euphrates went now gentler in his waters,

**727** extremique hominum Morini, Rhenusque bicornis,  
and the Morini, the last of men, and the two-horned Rhine,

**728** indomitique Dahae, et pontem indignatus Araxes.  
and the untamed Dahae, and Araxes, who resented his bridge.

**729** Talia per clipeum Volcani, dona parentis,  
Such things over the shield of Vulcan, his mother's gift,

**730** miratur rerumque ignarus imagine gaudet,  
he marvels at, and knowing nothing of the events he takes joy in the picture,

**731** attollens umero famamque et fata nepotum.  
lifting onto his shoulder the fame and the fates of his descendants.
> The object he actually lifts: The direct object of attollens, 'lifting', is famam et fata nepotum, 'the fame and fates of his descendants', not the shield itself. The line pairs fama and fata, both the object of the same participle, and closes the book on nepotum, 'of his descendants'.

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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.