The Aeneid of Virgil | Page 8

reign,
Wherein hath my AEneas
so transgressed,
Wherein his Trojans, thus to mourn their slain,

Barred from the world, lest Italy they gain?
Surely from them the
rolling years should see
New sons of ancient Teucer rise again,
The
Romans, rulers of the land and sea.
So swar'st thou; Father, say, why
changed is thy decree?
XXXII. "That word consoled me, weighing fate with fate,
For Troy's sad fall. Now Fortune, as before,
Pursues the woe-worn
victims of her hate.
O when, great Monarch, shall their toil be o'er?

Safe could Antenor pass th' Illyrian shore
Through Danaan hosts, and
realms Liburnian gain,
And climb Timavus and her springs explore,

Where through nine mouths, with roaring surge, the main Bursts
from the sounding rocks and deluges the plain.
XXXIII. "Yet there he built Patavium, yea, and named
The nation, and the Trojan arms laid down,
And now rests happy in
the town he framed.
But we, thy progeny, to whom alone
Thy nod
hath promised a celestial throne,
Our vessels lost, from Italy are
barred,
O shame! and ruined for the wrath of one.
Thus, thus dost
thou thy plighted word regard,
Our sceptred realms restore, our piety
reward?"

XXXIV. Then Jove, soft-smiling with the look that clears
The storms, and gently kissing her, replies;
"Firm are thy fates, sweet
daughter; spare thy fears.
Thou yet shalt see Lavinium's walls arise,

And bear thy brave AEneas to the skies.
My purpose shifts not.
Now, to ease thy woes,
Since sorrow for his sake hath dimmed thine
eyes,
More will I tell, and hidden fates disclose.
He in Italia long
shall battle with his foes,
XXXV. "And crush fierce tribes, and milder ways ordain,
And cities build and wield the Latin sway,
Till the third summer shall
have seen him reign,
And three long winter-seasons passed away

Since fierce Rutulia did his arms obey.
Then, too, the boy Ascanius,
named of late
Iulus--Ilus was he in the day
When firm by royalty
stood Ilium's state--
Shall rule till thirty years complete the destined
date.
XXXVI. "He from Lavinium shall remove his seat,
And gird Long Alba for defence; and there
'Neath Hector's kin three
hundred years complete
The kingdom shall endure, till Ilia fair,

Queen-priestess, twins by Mars' embrace shall bear.
Then Romulus
the nation's charge shall claim,
Wolf-nursed and proud her tawny
hide to wear,
And build a city of Mavortian fame,
And make the
Roman race remembered by his name.
XXXVII. "To these no period nor appointed date,
Nor bounds to their dominion I assign;
An endless empire shall the
race await.
Nay, Juno, too, who now, in mood malign,
Earth, sea
and sky is harrying, shall incline
To better counsels, and unite with
me
To cherish and uphold the imperial line,
The Romans, rulers of
the land and sea,
Lords of the flowing gown. So standeth my decree.
XXXVIII. "In rolling ages there shall come the day

When heirs of old Assaracus shall tame
Phthia and proud Mycene to
obey,
And terms of peace to conquered Greeks proclaim.
Caesar, a
Trojan,--Julius his name,
Drawn from the great Iulus--shall arise,

And compass earth with conquest, heaven with fame,
Him, crowned
with vows and many an Eastern prize,
Thou, freed at length from care,
shalt welcome to the skies.
XXXIX. "Then wars shall cease and savage times grow mild,
And Remus and Quirinus, brethren twain,
With hoary Faith and
Vesta undefiled,
Shall give the law. With iron bolt and chain

Firm-closed the gates of Janus shall remain.
Within, the Fiend of
Discord, high reclined
On horrid arms, unheeded in the fane,
Bound
with a hundred brazen knots behind,
And grim with gory jaws, his
grisly teeth shall grind."
XL. So saying, the son of Maia down he sent,
To open Carthage and the Libyan state,
Lest Dido, weetless of the
Fates' intent,
Should drive the Trojan wanderers from her gate.

With feathered oars he cleaves the skies, and straight
On Libya's
shores alighting, speeds his hest.
The Tyrians, yielding to the god,
abate
Their fierceness. Dido, more than all the rest,
Warms to her
Phrygian friends, and wears a kindly breast.
XLI. But good AEneas, pondering through the night
Distracting thoughts and many an anxious care,
Resolved, when
daybreak brought the gladsome light,
To search the coast, and back
sure tidings bear,
What land was this, what habitants were there,
If
man or beast, for, far as the eye could rove,
A wilderness the region
seemed, and bare.
His ships he hides within a sheltering cove,

Screened by the caverned rock, and shadowed by the grove,
XLII. Then wielding in his hand two broad-tipt spears,

Alone with brave Achates forth he strayed,
When lo, before him in
the wood appears
His mother, in a virgin's arms arrayed,
In form
and habit of a Spartan maid,
Or like Harpalyce, the pride of Thrace,

Who tires swift steeds, and scours the woodland glade,
And
outstrips rapid Hebrus in the race.
So fair the goddess seemed,
apparelled for the chase.
XLIII. Bare were her knees, and from her shoulders hung
The wonted bow, kept handy for the prey
Her flowing raiment in a
knot she strung,
And loosed her tresses with the winds to play.
"Ho,
Sirs!" she hails them, "saw ye here astray
Ought of my sisters, girt in
huntress wise
With quiver