pg 236BOOK TEN

• Link 1Meanwhile Olympus, seat of all power in the universe, opens
• Editor’s Note2Wide for a meeting* the Father of Gods and Ruler of Mortals
• 3Calls to his residence high in the stars. He can monitor from there
• 4All earth, including the Dardan camp and the people of Latium.
• 5Gods take seats in a hall facing sunrise and sunset. He speaks first:
• 6'Why have you now reversed your judgement, lords of the heavens?
• 7Why have your passions become so unfair, and your quarrels so violent?
• 8I'd disapproved of a war that set Italy fighting the Teucrians:
• Editor’s Note9Why this internal discord contesting what I had forbidden?*
• 10What fear prompted this clique or that to provoke an armed conflict?
• Link 11There'll come a time when it's just that you fight. Don't rush to confront it.
• Link 12Then fierce Carthage will open the Alps, unleashing a massive
• Editor’s Note13Tide of destruction* on Rome and its citadels. You'll have your licence
• Link 14Then to compete in your hate, to despoil both cities and substance.
• 15Now let it ride, be content to sustain this ratified treaty.'
• 16Jupiter's statement was brief; golden Venus did not respond briefly:
• 17'Father, whose power over men and events is complete and eternal—
• 1819What other force can exist that we could now make our appeal to?—
• 20Surely you see the Rutulians' arrogance: Turnus careering
• 21High on his horses, straight through the ranks, bellied out in his onrush
• Link 22By the success Mars blows his way. No longer are Teucrians
• 23Shielded by well-sealed walls. Instead, they are fighting the battle
• 24Inside the gates, on the ramparts. They're filling the ditches with bloodshed.
• 25Not knowing this, Aeneas is gone. Will you never give Trojans
• 26Respite from siege and blockade? Once more there's an enemy threatening
• 27Reborn Troy's new walls. And there's now an additional army:
• Editor’s Note Link 28Tydeus' son, Diomedes,* sets out from Aetolian Arpi,
• 29Rushes the Teucrians again. More wounds, I suppose, yet await me—
• 30I, your own child, now delay, by my absence, those spear-thrusts from mortals.
• pg 23731If these Trojans, of course, all sailed for Italy, lacking
• 32Your divine will and consent, let them pay for their sins. Don't assist them.
• 33If, though, they followed responses to prayers which voices from heaven,
• 34Voices from ghost worlds, too, kept giving them, why is it someone
• 35Can now reverse your commands and set destiny on a new basis?
• Editor’s Note36Need I remind you of fleets burned up near Sicilian Eryx?*
• 37Or of the ruler of storms, and his winds from Aeolia, bellowed
• 38Into a seething rage, or of Iris dispatched through the cloudbanks?
• 39She's now arousing death's still world, the sole province of nature
• 40Still untried. So Allecto's suddenly launched on the upper
• 41World for a Bacchic romp through the heart of Italy's cities.
• 42Visions of empire arouse me no more; I cherished them only
• 43While there was still such a thing as albeit changeable Fortune.
• 44Now let whoever you choose to win, win. If there's no land your hard-nosed
• 45Wife will allot to the Teucrians, Father, I beg by the smouldering
• Editor’s Note46Ashes and ruins of Troy, grant licence to rescue Ascanius*
• 47Safe and sound from the conflict, grant me my grandson's survival.
• Link 48As for Aeneas: well, let him indeed be tossed amid unknown
• 49Waters and follow such random course as Fortune devises.
• 50Give me the right to remove this boy from the horrors of warfare.
• 51Amathus, Paphos up high, Cythera, Idalia's temples:
• 52These are my lands. Let him set aside weapons and live out his life there,
• 53No need for glory! Give orders that Carthage have absolute, crushing
• Editor’s Note54Power on Ausonia's soil. Nothing they've got there* will give any
• 55Tyrian city a problem.
• 'So, what did they gain by surviving
• 56War's scourge, and by escaping the heart of the fires set by Argives,
• 57And by enduring the countless perils of sea and of vast lands—
• 58All in a Teucrian quest for a new-born Troy and for Latium?
• 59Surely the sensible thing would have been to resettle their homeland's
• 60Ashes, the soil where Troy once stood. I beg of you, father,
• 61Give the poor Teucrians their Xanthus and Simoïs back! Let them relive
• 62Ilium's sorrows and fall.'
• Then, profoundly enraged, royal Juno
• Link 63Lashed back: 'Why do you force me to break my self-imposed silence,
• pg 23864Make me degrade hidden pain into words for public consumption?
• 65Did any man, any god, compel Aeneas to choose war
• Editor’s Note66Or to approach King Latinus* as would some hostile invader?
• 67Granted, he headed for Italy under Fate's authorization,
• 68Prompted by raving Cassandra's words. But did we suggest leaving
• 69Camp and then casting his life to the winds? Did we suggest trusting
• 70Total command of the war, and defence of his walls, to a young boy,
• 71Or drive Etruscans to treason, or madden a peace-loving people?
• 72Which god herded him into this trap? Where's my pitiless power-play
• 73Here? Where is Juno in this, or Iris "dispatched through the cloud banks"?
• Link 74What a disgrace that Italians should throw up a circle of fire
• Link 75Round new Troy as it's born, and that Turnus, Pilumnus's grandson,
• Link 76Child of the goddess Venilia, should take a firm stand on his native
• 77Soil! Yet it's right when the Trojans, with torches of fire, attack Latins,
• 78Crush under their yoke fields they don't own, take the produce as plunder,
• 79Pick out their in-laws and pluck pledged brides from their family's bosoms!
• 80They, while their hands offer peace, clear decks and equip them for battle.
• Link 81You are empowered to snatch your Aeneas away from attacking
• 82Greeks and replace him with phantoms of cloud, mere air without substance;
• Editor’s Note83And you're empowered to transfigure his fleet into so many sea-nymphs.*
• 84We, when we counter with aid for Rutulians, are guilty of high crimes.
• 85"Not knowing this, Aeneas is gone." Let him not know and stay gone!
• 86Paphos is yours, so's Idalium, so are the heights of Cythera.
• Link 87Why challenge tough hearts, then? and a city pregnant with warriors?
• 88Think! Is it we who are set on capsizing this impotent Phrygian
• 89State in flux?
• 'Who tossed poor Troy to the Greeks in the first place?
• 90What caused all this war, what made all Europe and Asia
• Link 91Rise up in arms, cast treaties adrift through treacherous thievery?
• Editor’s Note92When the adulterous Dardan prince* took Sparta, was Juno
• 93Leading the way? Did I arm him, did I use Cupid as war's nurse?
• 94Fairer for you if you'd feared what I'd do to your boys then. It's too late
• pg 23995Now to jump up with your unjust complaints, lodging laughable protests.'
• 96  Such was the case Juno argued. The sky-dwellers, all in an uproar,
• 97Favoured one side or the other. Like first growled gusts of a tempest
• 98Trapped in a forest, they rumble. The gale's not seen, but the rolling
• 99Roar alerts sailors to storm winds wending their way towards water.
• 100Then the omnipotent Father, who wields prime power over nature,
• 101Starts to respond. As he speaks, the high palace of gods becomes silent.
• 102Earth shudders deep through its soil. Silence falls on the summit of heaven,
• Link 103Zephyrs subside, Ocean flattens its waves into lake-still calmness.
• Editor’s Note104'Carry on into your minds* my words, then. Grasp them securely.
• 105Since, evidently, Ausonians will not be allowed to join Teucrians,
• 106Linked by a treaty—your own civil wars defy any conclusion—
• 107I'll be impartial. Whatever today's ambitions or fortune
• 108Bring each individual man, Rutulian or Trojan,
• 109Whether the camp is besieged because Italy's fate so demanded
• Editor’s Note110Or because Troy's bad errors and ruinous prophecies* caused it.
• Link 111Nor do I hold the Rutulians exempt. Individual effort
• 112Makes or breaks fortune today. King Jupiter's wholly impartial;
• Editor’s Note Link 113Fates will discover a way.'* Then he swore a great oath by his brother's
• 114Molten, pitch-scorched banks of the Styx, by its dark-eddied torrents,
• Link 115Marking his oath with a nod that rocked all Olympus with tremors.
• Editor’s Note Link 116Thus ended talk about fate.* Rising up from his throne bright and golden,
• 117Jupiter, flanked by an escort of sky-dwellers, moved to the doorway.
• 118  Meanwhile, besieging Rutulians pressed their attacks upon all gates,
• 119Bent on butchering men and on ringing the ramparts with blazing
• 120Fires. But inside the stockade, penned in, Aeneas's legion
• 121Lacks any hope of escape. Troops stand upon high towers, glumly
• 122Hopeless—the circling walls manned here and there by a soldier.
• Editor’s Note123Asius, Imbrasus's son, Hicetaon's child, named Thymoetes,
• 124Two named Assaracus, Thymbris, an old man, along with him Castor:
• 125These are the front lines. And fighting alongside are two of Sarpedon's
• 126Brothers from mountainous Lycia: Clarus and Thaemon.* Then hoisting,
• 127Sinews strained to the full, a gigantic rock, not a trifling
• Editor’s Note128Chunk of a mountain, is Clytius' son, Lyrnesian Acmon,
• pg 240129Proving no lesser a man than his father or brother, Menestheus.*
• 130Javelins, boulders, barrels of fire, arrows notched to the bowstring:
• 131These are the varied defensive munitions the soldiers compete with.
• Editor’s Note Link 132Look, and you'll see in their midst the Dardan boy,* very justly
• 133Venus's prime concern. With his helmet discarded, his handsome
• 134Head shimmers as does a gem set in tawny gold for a necklace
• Link 135Or for a crown, or as ivory gleams when inlaid by an artist
• Link 136Into a setting of boxwood or terebinth wood from Dalmatia.
• 137Streaming hair on his milk-white neck has been gathered and ribboned
• 138Into a circlet of soft, supple gold. And, Ismarus, your people,
• 139Proud as they are, saw you there too, aiming shots that would draw blood,
• 140Arming your arrows with poison, you noble child of Maeonian
• Editor’s Note Link 141Lydia. There men plough rich croplands; the Pactolus* waters
• Editor’s Note142Fields of its farmlands with gold. At his side, Mnestheus* took his station,
• 143Hero whose glory soared only yesterday, when he averted
• 144Turnus' assault on the walls, driving Turnus himself from the ramparts;
• Editor’s Note145And Capys*—Capua's named after him, the Campanian city.
• 146Hard men fought one another all day in the contest of battle.
• Link 147  Now in the darkness of midnight, Aeneas is cleaving the water.
• 148Leaving Evander, he'd entered next the Etruscan encampment,
• 149Meeting their king. There he'd briefed that king on his name and his background,
• 150Said what he wants and can offer, explained what forces Mezentius
• 151Gathers about him, informed him of Turnus's passionate anger,
• 152Offered advice about how much trust may be put in things human,
• Editor’s Note153Mingled a few humble pleas. Not a moment slipped by before Tarchon*
• 154Joined forces, hammered out terms of a treaty. The Lydian people,
• Link 155Free now of fate's constraints, have entrusted themselves to a foreign
• 156Leader and board their fleet, in accord with divine will. Aeneas
• 157Heads the command in his vessel with figures of Phrygian lions
• 158Bearing the prow's beak; looming above them is Ida. How grateful
• Editor’s Note Link 159Exiled Teucrians had been for her shelter and wood!* Great Aeneas
• Link 160Sits here, re-scrolling the varied events of the war. At his left side
• 161Pallas sticks close, asking now about stars guiding night navigation,
• 162Now about all he has suffered and seen upon land, upon high seas.

• 163Goddesses, open up Helicon now, set your music in motion!
• 164Tell of the forces that sailed with Aeneas from Tuscany's coastline.
• pg 241165Who was it armed and equipped these ships, who sailed on the salt sea?
• Editor’s Note166  Massicus* leads, as he cuts through the waves on the bronze-sided Tigress.
• 167Under his banner a thousand youths left Clusium's ramparts,
• 168Left their home city of Cosa: their weapons are arrows and deadly
• Editor’s Note169Bows, quivers light on their shoulders. Fierce Abas is sailing alongside,
• 170His unit all fitted out with elaborate armour, his vessel
• 171Glistening in light with its figurehead wrought as a gilded Apollo.
• 172His Populonian motherland gave him a squad of six hundred
• 173Seasoned warriors. And Elba, whose inexhaustible mineworks
• 174Make it an island of iron and forges, has added three hundred.
• Link 175Third comes Asilas, interpretive link between men and immortal
• 176Gods, who elicits responses from cattle's innards and heavens'
• 177Stars, from the tongues of the birds, from fire-flashing, ominous lightning.
• 178He rushes his dense, spear-spiked force of a thousand to battle.
• 179Pisa, a city in origins Greek, in location Etruscan,
• 180Gave him command of its troops. After him, follows Astyr,* supremely
• Link 181Handsome—Astyr, proud of his horse and his colourful weapons.
• 182Three hundred men, all united by one single purpose in coming,
• 183Make up his squad: men of Caere and men from the Minio's ploughlands,
• 184Others from Pyrgi, an ancient town, and unhealthy Graviscae.
• Editor’s Note185  Cinyrus,* you I would never omit: of Liguria's captains,
• 186You are the bravest; nor you, though your squadron is tiny, Cupavo.
• 187Swan plumes rise from your helmet's crest, signifying your father's
• Link 188Feathery form. Love, you bear the blame for the change that transformed him!
• 189Cygnus, wan with grief, people say, for his darling Phaëthon,
• 190Lets the Muse solace his sad love lost, and he sings amid leafy
• 191Shadows of poplars, his sisters once. Then, while he is singing,
• 192Sinks wan-white as an old man's hair under plumage of soft down.
• 193Rising from earth, he chases the stars, voice soaring to heaven.
• 194Now with a group of his age-mates aboard, this swan's son, Cupavo,
• Link 195Powers the oars of the giant Centaur, whose figurehead monster
• 196Menaces waters ahead, poised high with a great rock to threaten
• 197Surging waves at the prow, as his long keel furrows the salt deep.
• pg 242Editor’s Note Link 198  There you see Ocnus* as well, son of Manto, the seer, and of Tuscan
• Link 199Tiber, the river. He's levied a force from the banks of his homeland.
• 200Mantua: Ocnus endowed you with walls, named you after his mother;
• 201Mantua, heir to an ancestry rich, but not all of one bloodline.
• 202Three distinct peoples are there, each people with four distinct cities.
• 203Mantua heads up their league. Her strength is her blood that's Etruscan.
• 204Hate of Mezentius arms five hundred from here to oppose him.
• 205Mantua's river-god, crowned with his father Benacus's grey reeds,
• 206Sails as their flagship, the Mincius, hate hewn into his pine planks.
• Editor’s Note207Then comes Aulestes. His heavy-built Triton,* powered by a hundred
• 208Tree-length wave-lashing oars churns marbled surface to salt spume.
• 209Triton's immense, figured, bristling prow and the conch that he carries
• 210Frighten the dark deep. Down to the flanks, as he swims, he has human
• 211Form and appearance, but then, from the belly on, he's a monstrous
• 212Sea-beast. Under his hybrid breast brine foams with a dull roar.
• Editor’s Note213Such were the captains elect who sailed to help Troy in their thirty
• 214Vessels,* and cut with their plate-bronze prows through the flatness of salt sea.

• 215Day had withdrawn from the heavens, and now, in her wandering night drive,
• Link 216Blessèd Phoebe was pounding her course through the heart of Olympus.
• 217Guiding his vessel himself and trimming its canvas, Aeneas
• 218Sat at the steering. Anxiety gave no rest to his body.
• 219  Look, as he's halfway back, he's met by a group of his comrades
• 220Dancing about on the waves: they are nymphs that the blessèd Cybele
• 221Ordered transfigured from vessels to nymphs, to be gods in the salt sea.
• 222Swimming alongside, they cut through the waves; their number exactly
• 223Matches the number of bronze-figured prows once beached on the seashore.
• 224Knowing their ruler at first far glance, they dance in his honour.
• Link 225Cymodocea, most doctored of these in the fine art of speaking,
• 226Follows his wake, grips the stern with her right hand, and arches her back up
• Link 227Out of the sea, while her left hand noiselessly paddles the water.
• 228All unaware though he is, she speaks to him: 'Child of divine blood,
• pg 243Editor’s Note229Are you awake?
• 'Come, Aeneas, wake up!*
• 'Loose the ropes, give us full sail!
• Link 230We are what once was your fleet, we're the pines cut from sacrosanct Ida's
• 231Summit, and now we are nymphs of the sea. When perfidious Turnus
• 232Drove us in panic before him, pursued us with sword and with fire,
• Link 233We, though not lively about it, did sever your tie-ropes. And since then
• 234We've searched seas to find you. The Great Mother took pity and changed us
• 235Into this shape, made us gods who live on while submerged in the water.
• 236Your boy, Iulus, however, is penned in by walls and by ditches,
• Link 237Trapped in a crossfire by Latins alive with the fury of battle.
• Editor’s Note238True, the Arcadian cavalry,* joined by some valiant Etruscans,
• 239Holds the positions assigned. But Turnus, fully determined
• Link 240Not to permit them to link up camps, sent troops to confront them.
• 241'Up on your feet!
• 'Strike first!
• 'Call allies to battle as day dawns!
• 242Seize your invincible shield, with its wrought gold rim, which the Fire God
• 243Gave you himself. For tomorrow's first light, if you don't think my forecast
• 244Laughable, surely will see massive heaps of Rutulian corpses.'
• Link 245Though she had no more to say, this nymph did have more to contribute.
• 246Not unaware of the needed technique, she, using her right hand,
• 247Pushed the high stern. And the ship shot forward over the waters,
• 248Faster than even a javelin flies, or an arrow swift as the breezes.
• 249Prompted by this, other ships quicken pace. Yet Trojan Anchises'
• 250Son stays still as a log. Though prodigiously cheered by the omen,
• 251He doesn't grasp what it means. And he prays, glancing up at the sky's vault:
• Link 252'Goddess of Ida, Mother of Gods, and Dindyma's great friend,
• 253Lover of great-towered cities and chariots powered by lions,
• 254You be my battle commander, and you, make this prophecy duly
• 255Prosper. Divine goddess, stand by your Phrygians, a stalwart defender.'
• pg 244256That's what he said. In the meantime, the day, with its ripening sunlight,
• 257Rushed to complete its full circle; the night was now totally routed.
• 258  As a beginning, he orders his allies to follow his signals,
• 259Fire up their spirits for war, ready gear (and themselves) for a battle.
• Link 260Since he's already in sight of the Teucrians and his encampment,
• 261He, standing high on the aft-deck, hoists, in his left hand, his blazing
• 262Shield from the sky. In response, from the ramparts, the Dardans
• 263Raise up a cheer to the stars, much as cranes coming home to the Strymon,
• 264Hidden by dark storm clouds as they wing their way across heaven,
• 265Signal with clangorous cries their flight from the south winds of summer.
• 266Hands are now volleying spears; hopes raised high kindle their anger.
• 267  But the Rutulian king and the other Ausonian leaders
• Link 268Find this reaction bizarre—until, looking behind them, they notice
• 269Ships backing onto the beach, the whole sea rolling in with a navy.
• 270There is Aeneas, helmet ablaze, crest vomiting fire,
• 271Golden shield-boss erupting with searing flames of destruction.
• 272So comets boding disaster will flare blood-red in the clear night
• Link 273Skies, on occasion, so Sirius' new-born star, as he rises
• 274Blazes his heat, his diseases, and drought upon sickly and death-doomed
• 275Humans. His evil brightness of eye gleams grimly in heaven.
• 276  Turnus, as daring as ever, is sure he can still take the seashore
• 277First, and can stop them himself—even drive them away as they're landing.
• Editor’s Note278Seizing the chance to raise spirits with words, he now issues this challenge:*
• 279'Here's what you've prayed for: a chance for your own hands to shatter their forces.
• 280Mars is the power in a hero's hands. Each man must remember
• 281Wife, home, deeds that our fathers have done, and recall all their glorious
• 282Honours. So let's not wait. Let's confront them down at the water
• 283While they are still disembarking and scared, while their footing betrays them.
• Link 284Fortune favours the bold.'
• pg 245285He, as he speaks, is debating which men he should lead on this mission,
• 286Which he could trust to sustain his siege of the enemy's fortress.

• 287Meanwhile, Aeneas is landing the allied troops along gangplanks
• 288Lowered from high aft-decks. Many simply wait for the breakers'
• 289Crash, when the sea's spent strength sucks back, then leap in the water;
• 290Some just slide down oars. But Tarchon, surveying the coastline,
• Editor’s Note291Notes where the shallows are breathlessly calm,* where there's no roar of breaking
• Link 292Waves, where the sea-swell sweeps smooth surf to the shore unobstructed.
• 293Suddenly, shifting his course for this point, he appeals to his comrades:
• 294'Men, you're the pick of the best. Now pull full stroke on your stout oars,
• 295Make your ships leap, drive them on, cleave enemy earth with your armoured
• 296Prows. Let your keels plough furrows and plant themselves there on the beaches.
• 297Make it to land, that's all. If our ships break up as we beach them,
• 298I'll pay the price.' Once Tarchon has issued these orders, his crewmen
• 299Stand to the oars, press down with their whole body-weight, drive the vessels
• 300Onto the Latin shores in a flurry of foam until armoured
• 301Prows surge clear of the sea, bite deep in the dry sand, and each one
• Editor’s Note302Settles with undamaged keel. Well, with one exception.* For, Tarchon,
• Link 303Your vessel ploughed on into the shoals, ran aground on a slanting
• 304Reef where, for some time, it pitched, uneasily balanced, resisting
• 305Wave upon wave. Then its back broke. Men spilled out among rollers,
• 306Trapped amid broken oars, amid floating benches and planking,
• 307Swept from their feet by the suctioning force of the backflowing breakers.
• 308  Turnus reacts decisively, instantly: rushing all units
• 309Straight into action against these Teucrians down on the seashore.
• Editor’s Note Link 310Trumpets sound. First blood in resisting this army of peasants,*
• 311Goes—what an omen of war!—to Aeneas, who, starting with giant
• 312Theron (himself intent upon killing Aeneas), now slaughters
• 313Latins. Theron's blood he drained from the flank, as his sword-stroke
• pg 246314Cut through his corslet of bronze and his tunic stiffened with gold thread;
• 315Next he struck Lichas, devoted, from childhood, to Phoebus the Healer
• 316Since he'd been cut from his dead mother's womb and survived iron's early
• 317Thrusts; then Aeneas brought death upon those who stood nearby: a tough man,
• 318Cisseus, and Gyas, a giant, who were, at that moment, destroying
• 319Rank upon rank with their clubs. Little help were their own Herculean
• 320Weapons or well-muscled arms, or the fact that their father, Melampus,
• 321Had, for as long as the earth made Hercules suffer through monstrous
• 322Labours, stood at his side.
• Look! He now aims a javelin at Pharus,
• 323Hitting him full in the mouth as he volleys a barrage of insults.
• Link 324Cydon, you too could have died while chasing Clytius, your latest
• 325Passion unfulfilled, cheeks showing the first trace of blond fuzz.
• Link 326You'd have been hacked by Aeneas's sword, and released from your constant
• Link 327Preoccupation with youthful amours. You'd be just a pathetic
• 328Corpse if your brothers had not intervened, a platoon of them, Phorcus'
• Link 329Sons—there were seven in all—discharging a volley of seven
• 330Javelins. Some ricocheted off Aeneas's shield and his helmet,
• 331Harmlessly, some even grazed him, but slightly, deflected by kindly
• 332Venus. Aeneas now spoke to his faithful companion, Achates:
• 333'Keep me supplied with those spears that once, on the Ilian flatlands,
• 334Lodged in the bodies of Greeks. Not one will be any less lethal
• 335Now, when its target's Rutulian.' He picked up, and fired off, a massive
• 336Shaft. And it flew through the breezes and whipped through the bronze-plate that covered
• 337Maeon's shield, then shattered his chest as it shattered his corslet.
• 338Rushing to help him, his brother Alcanor supports his collapsing
• 339Brother, disarming his own hand; the hurled spear speeds on its bloody
• 340Unstopped course, rips on through Alcanor's arm. So his sword-hand
• Link 341Hangs from his shoulder, lifeless, and limply attached by its tendons.
• pg 247342Tearing the spear from his brother's corpse, with Aeneas the target,
• Editor’s Note343Numitor* aims. But he isn't allowed to strike home in his vengeance.
• 344All he achieves is a scratch on the thigh of the mighty Achates.
• Editor’s Note345  Clausus* from Cures has his turn now, his confidence based on
• 346Youthful physique. His stiff spear-shot strikes Dryops at long range
• 347Under the chin. Its powerful force cuts clean through his windpipe,
• 348Just as he's speaking, and robs him of life as it robs him of language.
• 349All he can strike is the earth, with his head; and his mouth vomits thick blood.
• 350Clausus goes on to destroy six Thracians by various tactics.
• 351Three were of Boreas' noblest bloodline; three more their father,
• 352Idas, had sent from their fatherland, Ismarus. Then, with Auruncan
• 353Units, Halaesus arrived, followed soon by the Tamer of Horses,
• 354Neptune's offspring, Messapus. And group after group joins the struggle,
• 355Trying to drive the invaders away. Ausonia's gateway,
• 356Italy's shore, is the site of the struggle. Like weather-fronts fiercely
• 357Warring in vast shared skies, with their wind gusts equal in power,
• 358Neither they and their clouds, nor their strong seas, yield in the contest,
• 359Stalled in prolonged deadlock, all nature frozen in conflict,
• 360Just so the Trojan front and the Latin front, as they battled,
• 361Fought, foot jammed against foot, dense packed, man pitted against man.

• 362Elsewhere, though, in a dry river-bed where a torrent had scattered
• 363Huge rocks end over end, ripping trees from the banks, Pallas noticed
• 364How his Arcadian horsemen were running away under Latin
• 365Pressure. The rough terrain had suggested dismounting. They'd done so.
• 366Infantry warfare, however, had not been part of their training.
• 367Such was the crisis that Pallas had only one option: to kindle
• 368Manly pride with a mixture of bitter words and entreaties.
• Link 369'Comrades, you're running away. Where to? I beg you, by your own
• 370Selves, by your valiant deeds, by the name of your leader, Evander,
• 371By all the wars you've won, by my hopes of attaining a glory
• pg 248372Matching my father's, it's not your feet you must trust, but your weapons.
• 373That's how to break through the enemy ranks. Where the fighting is thickest,
• 374That's where the fatherland now summons you, summons Pallas, your leader.
• 375No supernatural forces are crushing us. Our foes are human:
• 376Men, who like us, can be killed. They have no extra hands, extra lifelines.
• 377Look now, the sea locks us in with a wall of salt water. There's no land
• Editor’s Note378Left we can run to. So shall we then head for the high seas and Old Troy?'*
• 379This said, he charged straight into the fray where the foemen were thickest.
• Editor’s Note380  Lagus,* led by an unjust fate, was the first to encounter
• 381Pallas, who speared him while he was attempting to rip up a huge rock.
• 382Right through his midriff the javelin spun, where his spine separated
• 383Ribs of his ribcage. And Pallas recovered his shaft from the body,
• Editor’s Note384Lodged though it was in the bone, before Hispo,* enraged by the cruel
• Link 385Death of his friend, could move in, as he hoped, and so gain the advantage.
• Link 386Rage made Hispo rash. Pallas caught him instead as he charged in,
• 387Buried his sword in the angrily panting lungs of his foeman.
• 388Sthenius fell to him next, then Anchemolus, scion of Rhoetus'
• 389Ancient house. He had raped his stepmother once in her bedroom.
• Link 390  Daucus' sons, identical twins, Larides and Thymber—
• 391Even their parents—and this confusion delighted them—could not
• 392Tell them apart—you too died then in Rutulia's ploughlands.
• 393Pallas supplies a grim way of distinguishing one from the other:
• 394Thymber, he cuts off your head with Evander's sword, and Larides,
• Link 395Your right hand, lopped off, now misses its master; its fingers
• 396Still have a shadow of life: they twitch and they claw at the sword-hilt.
• 397  Pain intermingled with shame sent Arcadians back to the battle,
• 398Courage rekindled by Pallas's words, and by seeing his valour.
• Editor’s Note399Pallas, in fact, speared Rhoeteus* then as he passed in his chariot,
• 400Fleeing the fight. And that's how a reprieve was then granted to Ilus.
• pg 249401Ilus, you see, was the target of Pallas's powerful spear-shot.
• 402Rhoeteus got in the way while fleeing from you, noble Teuthras,
• 403Both you and Tyres, your brother. He tumbled head first from his chariot
• 404Barely alive, and his heels gouged stripes in Rutulian ploughland.
• 405  Fires that a shepherd has set at strategic points round a forest
• 406(When, as he's hoped, summer winds have arisen) will suck flames
• 407High in an updraft into the centre, creating a single
• 408Frontage of Vulcan's jagged blaze stretched wide on the broad plains,
• 409Meanwhile, gazing down at the fires, rambunctious in triumph,
• 410There sits the conquering shepherd. Just so, Pallas, all of the courage
• 411Your men showed coalesced. It delighted (and helped) you.
• Halaesus
• 412Moved to oppose them—a tough man who used all his armour's protection
• 413Cannily. He killed Ladon and Pheres, Demodocus also,
• 414Cut off Strymonius' hand with a lightning sword-stroke when this man
• 415Threatened his throat, smashed Thoas' face with a boulder and showered
• 416Fragments of skull far and wide, pulped crimson with brain-spattered blood clots.
• Editor’s Note417  Fate, through Halaesus' father,* had sung of his doom. So the father
• 418Hid him away in the woods. But the fates, when death sank the old man's
• 419Eyes into blindness, got hold of him, marked him down for Evander's
• 420Spear. And now Pallas had found him. Before he attacked, Pallas prayed thus:
• Link 421'Grant, Father Tiber, good luck to this iron-tipped spear that I balance,
• 422Poised for the cast. May it pierce through the chest of that tough man, Halaesus.
• 423You'll have a trophy: his spoils and his armour will honour your oak tree.'
• 424And Tiber listened; Halaesus exposed his own chest to Evander's
• 425Spear as the youth tried, unfulfilled, to cover Imaon.

• Editor’s Note Link 426Lausus,* a major force in the war, did not allow carnage
• 427Pallas inflicted to panic his troops. He started by killing
• 428Abas, a knot to frustrate any blade, who rose up to oppose him.
• 429Next, he laid waste the Arcadian troops, laid waste the Etruscans,
• pg 250430And you Teucrians too—whose bodies the Greeks had not shattered.
• 431Column met column, matched both in physical strength and in leaders.
• 432Those in the rear crowd those in the front; sheer masses of soldiers
• Link 433Stop any movement of weapons or arms. On this side there's Pallas
• 434Straining and pressing, and Lausus on that, both youths of outstanding
• 435Beauty, both roughly the same age. But neither, says Fortune, will ever
• 436Make his way home from the war. Yet the ruler of mighty Olympus
• 437Tolerates no thought of letting them meet one another in combat.
• 438Fate awaits each, very soon, at the hands of a mightier foeman.
• Editor’s Note439Meanwhile, his sister divine* is admonishing Turnus to rescue
• 440Lausus. He cuts through the ranks in between in his swift-moving chariot,
• 441Then, upon seeing his comrades, he cries: 'It is time to stop fighting;
• 442Pallas is mine, only mine. Only I have the right to this duel.
• Link 443Oh, how I'd love this show if his father could be here in person!'
• 444This said, his comrades withdrew from the area, as he'd instructed.
• 445Pallas, amazed at these boastful commands, was, as the Rutulians
• 446Pulled back, shocked stock-still by his first sight of Turnus. His eyes moved,
• 447Scanning the giant body, assessing its strengths at a distance,
• 448Glaring defiance. He fired back words in response to the tyrant's
• Editor’s Note Link 449Own volleyed words: 'Either way, I'll have glory: the Spoils of Distinction*
• 450Or a heroic death. My father accepts either outcome.
• 451Cut out the threats.' So saying, he entered the clearing established.
• 452Blood rushed cold to Arcadian hearts, gelled thick in their terror.
• 453Turnus leaped from his chariot, setting the style for a close-range
• 454Duel on foot. And the image evoked is that of a lion,
• 455Watching, from high in the hills, as a bull in the grasslands below him
• 456Thinks about fighting, but makes no move. So he races towards him.
• 457Pallas, as soon as he thinks his opponent has come within spear-shot,
• 458Aims the first blow in the hopes that, although he is no match in sheer strength,
• 459Chance may reward him for boldness. He cries these words to the heavens:
• pg 251460'Hercules, stand with me now in this challenge supreme, I beseech you,
• 461Just as my father was there when you came needing food, needing shelter.
• 462Grant that my dying foeman may see me stripping his bloodstained
• 463Armour. Let Turnus's very last sight be me in my triumph.'
• Link 464Hercules heard what the young man said, though he choked back a heavy
• 465Groan deep down in his heart. He was weeping tears of frustration.
• Link 466Jupiter spoke to him, father to son, with a friend's understanding:
• 467'Each man has his day marked. Life's short years can't be recovered.
• 468That's why a man's real task is to reach beyond life in achievement,
• Link 469Pass beyond fate, beyond rumour to fame. Troy's towering ramparts
• Editor’s Note470Saw many sons of the gods fall beneath them. One was Sarpedon,*
• 471Child of my loins. And his fate, even now, is summoning Turnus.
• Link 472He too has entered the final stretch of the course he's allotted.'
• 473This said, he tears his eyes far away from Rutulian ploughlands.
• Link 474  Meanwhile Pallas, his spear discharged full force, is already
• 475Gripping his sword, flashing menace, withdrawn from its hollow, enclosing
• 476Sheath. And the spear, as it flies, penetrates his opponent's
• 477Shield at the rim, pierces armoured plates protecting his shoulders,
• 478Finally grazes the flesh of the mighty Turnus's body.
• Link 479Turnus, unhurriedly testing his razor-sharp javelin's balance,
• 480Launches its iron-clad tip against Pallas, and cries out a message:
• Editor’s Note Link 481'Look, and see whether the weapon I wield cannot penetrate deeper.'*
• 482While he was speaking, his whiplashing javelin's point had already
• 483Drilled through the generous plating of bronze and of iron, through oxhide,
• 484Layer upon layer, that covered the shield, struck straight through the centre,
• 485Pierced the resistant breastplate and dug through the muscular ribcage.
• 486Pallas gained nothing by pulling the burning shaft from his wounded
• 487Body. His blood and his life followed fast through the channel created.
• Link 488Doubling over his wound, he collapsed, as his arms clanged around him,
• Link 489Biting the enemy dust with jaws gushing blood in his death-throes.
• Link 490Turnus was now standing over him:
• pg 252491'Listen, Arcadians! Echo', he said, 'my words to Evander.
• 492Say he deserves to receive Pallas home in the state that I send him.
• 493Still, I'll bestow such honour as comes with a tomb, and what solace
• 494Burial brings. But the cost of his entertaining Aeneas
• Link 495Won't come cheaply for him.' As he spoke, he was stamping his left foot
• 496Firm on the corpse as he stripped off its sword-belt, a work of quite monstrous
• 497Weight, stamped heavy with crime. For engraved in gold there by Clonus,
• 498Eurytus' son, was a wedding of blood, where, in one night, so many
• Editor’s Note499Bridegrooms* were foully murdered by brides in an orgy of slaughter.
• Link 500It's now Turnus's spoils. He's happy to have it, triumphant.

• Link 501Witness the human mind, knowing nothing of fate or the future,
• 502Nothing about moderation when puffed with success and good fortune!
• 503Turnus will find there's a time when he'll wish he could purchase an unscathed
• 504Pallas, a time when he'll hate these spoils and the day that he won them.

• 505Comrades are crowding around Pallas now as he's laid on his curving
• 506Shield, as they carry him back to their ranks amid weeping and deep groans.
• Link 507Oh, what a sorrow and glory you'll be when you come home to father!
• 508This same day introduced you to war, then withdrew you for ever.
• 509Nonetheless, you leave mounds of Rutulian corpses behind you.
• Link 510News of this deadly blow now flies to Aeneas from solid
• 511Sources, not rumour. It's clear that the tiniest tip of the balance
• 512Dooms his men, that they're running: it's time that he rescue the Teucrians.
• Link 513Cutting a swath, edge to distant edge of the battlefield, scythes
• 514Anything anywhere close, in a rage, as he seeks you out, Turnus,
• 515Proud of your latest slaughter. It's all there: Pallas, Evander
• 516Clear in his mind's eye; the first bread they broke when he came as a stranger;
• 517Handshakes of treaty and friendship.
•    So four youths, seedlings of Sulmo,
• 518And the four Ufens raised, he harvests to be living tribute
• pg 253 Link 519Sprinkled with grain for the ghosts of the dead; with the flood of their gushing
• Editor’s Note520Prisoners' blood he would dampen the flames* upon Pallas's pyre.
• 521  This done, he fired off a spear, long range. And its target was Magus
• Link 522Who, thinking quickly, ducked. And the quivering spear flew above him.
• 523Clasping Aeneas's knees as a suppliant, Magus sought mercy:
• 524'Please, by your father's ghost, by your dreams for your growing Iulus,
• 525Save this life, I beg, for another son and his father.
• 526I've an impressive house; in its vaults there are masses of well-wrought
• 527Silver, gold by the pound, some in crafted form, some in ingots.
• 528I'm not the pivotal point of a Teucrian victory. One life
• 529Won't make much of a difference, this way or that, in the battle.'
• 530That's what he said. And Aeneas' reply ran somewhat as follows:
• 531'Spare these multiple masses of silver and gold that you've mentioned,
• Link 532Save them for your own sons. This commercial aspect of warfare
• 533Turnus was first to suspend just now by his killing of Pallas.
• 534That's what Anchises' ghost has declared—and so has Iulus.'
• 535This said, his left hand grasps Magus' helmet, and, though he's still begging,
• Link 536Bends back his neck. Then he plunges the blade-hilt deep in his suppliant.
• 537  Haemon's son, priest of Phoebus and Hecate, gleaming in long white
• 538Robes and insignia, was not far away, his temples for all time
• 539Bound with a chaplet that symbolized life consecrated. Aeneas
• Link 540Clashed with him, chased him all over the field till he slipped, then astride him,
• 541Casting a huge shadow, slaughtered him. Stripping his armour, Serestus
• Editor’s Note542Shouldered it up as a trophy for you, Mars, Lord of the Soldier.*
• Link 543  Caeculus, Vulcan's descendant, and Umbro who hails from the Marsian
• 544Hills, put some new life in their front. But Dardanus' offspring
• 545Rages against it. His sword has just pruned off, along with its rounded
• Editor’s Note546Shield, the entire left forearm of Anxur.* This man had been spouting
• 547Big talk, believing that words beget force, and perhaps his ambition
• Link 548Buoyed him to heaven with hope. He had promised himself a long lifespan,
• pg 254549Stretched over many more years, that he'd live long enough to have white hair.
• 550  Tarquitus next set himself in the path of Aeneas's fury.
• Link 551Born to a nymph, Dryope, and fathered by Faunus, the woodlands'
• Link 552God, he was prancing, proud in his blazing armour. Aeneas,
• 553Hefting a spear, pinned the massive weight of his shield to his breastplate.
• 554As the man begged in vain and prepared to keep pleading, Aeneas
• 555Slashed off his head. When it fell to the ground, he rolled over the headless,
• 556Still warm trunk with his feet and said this, with a heart full of hatred:
• 557'Figure of terror, now lie where you are. Your wonderful mother
• Editor’s Note558Won't ever bury your limbs* in the family tomb. You'll be either
• 559Left here as food for the carrion birds or flung to the surging
• 560Seas where your wounds will be nibbled by starving fish as your corpse drifts.'
• Editor’s Note561  Off he goes, hot in pursuit of Turnus's best men: Antaeus,
• 562Lucas, and Numa* the Brave, and Camers the Tawny—the richest
• Editor’s Note563Lord of estates in Ausonia, king of Amyclae's Laconic
• 564Peoples,* sparse with their words; he was son of Volcens the Great Heart.
• Link 565Once there was blood on his sword, like the monstrous Aegaeon, Aeneas
• 566Savaged the whole field of battle. Aegaeon, they say, had a hundred
• 567Arms and a hundred hands, all either clashing their matching
• 568Shields or unsheathing swords. He had fifty chests from which fifty
• 569Mouths flared fire that day when he fought against Jupiter's lightning.
• 570Look at him now, in a head-on charge at the oncoming four-horse
• Editor’s Note571Rig of Niphaeus!* And: it's not he but the horses that veer off,
• 572Shying in fright, tearing off from the sight of him, toppling their master
• 573Out, dragging chariot straight for the sea as Aeneas approaches,
• 574Long in his galloping stride, most fierce in his snorting and roaring.
• 575  Lucagus, meanwhile, and Liger, his brother, have charged to the forefront,
• 576Driving a chariot drawn by a pair of white horses. His brother
• 577Handles the reins as Lucagus whirls drawn sword all around him
• 578Fiercely. Aeneas, unable to stand their madness and fury,
• pg 255579Runs up, appears right in front of them, huge with his menacing spear poised.
• 580Liger addresses him:
• Editor’s Note581'No, it is not Diomedes' steeds* that you see, or Achilles'
• 582Chariot. These aren't Phrygian plains, they're the land where your battles
• 583End now, along with your life.' Such words fly in public from Liger,
• 584Mad beyond help. Yet it's not a reply in words that the Trojan
• 585Hero plans; his response is a javelin torqued at his foeman.
• 586Lucagus, stretching forward, as if he were handling a horsewhip,
• 587Goading the pair with the flat of his sword, is advancing his left foot,
• 588Poised for the fight, when that javelin rises, clear through his shining
• 589Shield's lower rim, then drills through his groin. He is hurled by its impact
• 590Out of the chariot, down to the ploughlands, tumbling and dying.
• 591Righteous Aeneas's words to his foe are ironic and bitter:
• Link 592'Lucagus, well, we can't blame panicked horses for failing your chariot,
• Link 593Shadowy phantoms did not divert your team from the foeman;
• 594You left the rig, jumped clear of the wheels.' He grasps both the horses'
• 595Bridles while speaking. The brother slips down from the chariot, extending
• 596Unarmed hands in an unfulfilled last hope to win pity.
• 597'Think, I beg, of yourself, of the parents who bore you and formed you.
• 598Please, man of Troy, let this life go on. I beg you for mercy.'
• 599'That's not the way you were talking just now,' says Aeneas, who cuts off
• 600Further appeals. 'Die now. Don't abandon your brother, good brother.'
• 601Then he reveals life's lair in the chest with a skilful incision.
• Link 602  Such were the deaths that the Dardan commander dispensed on the flatlands,
• Link 603Out of control, like a torrent in flood, like a raging tornado
• 604Black in the sky.
• Now Ascanius, the boy, with the other young warriors,
• 605Finally bursts from the camp. For the futile siege has been ended.

• 606Jupiter, meanwhile, took action, addressing these comments to Juno:
• 607'Sister and darling wife that you are to me, all in one person,
• pg 256608Oh, how right you have been. Venus, just as you thought, is supporting
• 609Trojan successes. It's not their own skill, their own brilliance in battle,
• 610Not their own fierceness and courage, or stubborn endurance of peril.'
• 611Juno's response was subdued: 'Why disturb me, dear wonderful husband,
• 612Now when I'm heartsick and living in fear of your grim resolutions?
• 613If there were still any force, as there once was and, properly, should be
• 614Now, in your love for me, you, with control of the universe, surely
• 615Wouldn't persist in denying me power to steal Turnus from battle,
• 616And, in this way, keep him safe and unharmed for his father, for Daunus.
• 617Well, let him die, let his righteous blood pay its price to the Teucrians,
• 618This, nonetheless, is a man who derives his name from Pilumnus,
• Link 619Our stock, four generations ago, a man who has often
• 620Loaded your temple steps with his many, and lavish, donations.'
• 621  Briefly the king of Olympus, high in the heavens, responded:
• 622'If what is asked is delay of his death, some time for a young man
• 623Destined to die; if you've grasped that it is my resolve that he must die,
• Link 624Get Turnus out, let him run, grab him now! Fate is already pouncing.
• 625There's slack enough to indulge you in this. If your prayers have as subtext
• 626Any more radical pardon than this, if you're thinking the whole war's
• Link 627Course can be shifted or changed, then the hopes that you feed on are empty.'
• Editor’s Note628  Juno laments: 'Putting fate into words may mean shifting and deadening
• 629Meanings the mind would convey. The thought: "life still remains for this Turnus"
• 630Yields, if I'm not wrong, the words: "still remains": no more than the ghastly
• 631Death of an innocent. Please, prove me wrong, overpowered by delusive
• 632Fears. So rephrase what you've started to say for the better. For you can.'*

• Link 633This said, she instantly hurled herself from the apex of heaven,
• 634Mantled in dark cloud, storming the air with an onrush of winter,
• 635Straight to the Ilian front and the fort in the Laurentines' country.
• pg 257636Out of her cloud's hollow veil, Juno tailored a wispy and strengthless
• Editor’s Note637Shadow resembling Aeneas* (the likeness was really astounding),
• 638Armed it with Dardan equipment and copied the godlike Aeneas'
• 639Shield and his plumes. She endowed it with power of speech, but not reason:
• 640Sound unsupported by mind. Her art caught his movements exactly.
• Link 641  When people die, rumour has it, their shapes simply flutter at random;
• 642And, when we sleep, dreams mock and delude our unconscious perceptions.
• 643So this mirage now behaves. It happily leaps to the front lines,
• 644Brandishes arms to provoke, yells words that will irritate Turnus.
• 645Turnus attacks it and, though at a distance, discharges a screaming
• 646Spear. The mirage simply spins in its tracks, shows its back, begins running.
• Link 647Turnus, believing Aeneas has baulked and is fleeing from combat,
• 648Gulps a great draught of illusory hope in emotional tumult:
• Link 649'Where are you running, Aeneas? You're promised a bride. Don't desert her!
• 650My hand will pledge you that portion of earth you sailed oceans in quest of!'
• 651Such are the boasts he lets fly as he hunts the mirage with his flashing
• Link 652Sword. He can't see that his joy's just a creature that flies on a wind gust.
• 653Moored to a high cliff-ledge, as it chanced, lay a vessel at anchor,
• 654Rope ladders draped from its sides, lowered gangplank ready for boarding.
• 655This was the ship King Osinius sailed in from Clusium's coastlands;
• 656Now it's the hideout the trembling mirage of the fleeing Aeneas
• 657Hurls itself into. Yet Turnus lets nothing obstruct him, but bounding
• 658Hot on its heels, leaps straight up the steep-sloped rise of the gangplank.
• 659Just as he's mounted the deck, Saturn's daughter ruptures the hawsers,
• 660Turns back the tide, tears the ship clear of land, spins it over the waters.
• 661  So: while Aeneas is challenging Turnus, now absent, to battle,
• 662Slashing the numerous others he meets into so many corpses;
• 663So: while the fleeting mirage, giving up on its search for a hideout,
• pg 258Editor’s Note664Soars to the skies, then mingles itself with the mantling dark cloud;*
• 665Turnus is far out to sea, set adrift, spun around by a whirlwind.
• 666He, unaware of what's happening, displeased too by his rescue,
• 667Looks back and raises his hands and his voice to the heavens, protesting:
• Link 668'Father Almighty, did you think me so bad as to merit
• 669This much criminal shame? Did you want me punished in this way?
• 670Where am I brought? Where and why did I leave? How can I ever get back?
• 671Will I be able to look at our camp and the Laurentine ramparts
• Link 672Ever again? My troops, all following me and my banner,
• 673Men (god forbid!) I have left amid indescribable slaughter,
• 674Straggling, yes, I can see them now, I can pick out their dying
• 675Groans. And now I'm doing—what? Could the earth yawn open a chasm
• 676Deep enough now for my needs? More effective to beg you for pity,
• 677Winds. I, Turnus, implore you, it's my wish: bellow this vessel
• 678Onto a reef or a cliff, sink it deep into merciless quicksands,
• 679Well beyond reach of Rutulians and of omniscient Rumour.'
• Link 680Now, as his thoughts found words, his mood wavered this way and that way.
• 681Should he, since overwhelming shame was crippling reason,
• 682Cover up guilt with a sword, run his pitiless blade through his own ribs?
• 683Or throw himself in the pitching waves and swim for the curving
• 684Shore, thus restoring himself once more to the fight with the Teucrians?
• Link 685Two choices: each one he tried three times; each time mighty Juno
• 686Stopped the young man and suppressed the attempt. For she pitied him deeply.
• 687Drifting, but favoured by currents and waves, he made way and was carried
• 688Landward to Ardea, ancient city of Daunus, his father.

• 689Meanwhile, acting on Jupiter's orders, Mezentius, blazing,
• 690Takes up the fight and attacks the now over-confident Teucrians.
• 691Instantly, this one man is the target of every Etruscan
• 692Blade, each volley of spears: the one focus for all of their hatred.
• 693He's like a crag that protrudes in the vast expanses of ocean,
• 694Set in the path of the furious gales and exposed to the breakers,
• pg 259695Bearing the brunt of the threatening onslaught of sky and of sea-swell.
• 696Standing unshaken and firm, he grinds Dolichaon's son, Hebrus,
• 697Into the ground, kills Latagus next, then swift-running Palmus.
• Link 698Latagus' face and advancing form he destroys with a massive
• 699Mountain chunk, pure rock. As for Palmus, he severs his tendons,
• Link 700Leaving him powerless and squirming. He gives the man's armour to Lausus:
• 701Plumes for his helmet's crest and a breastplate to strap to his shoulders.
• 702  Then, he slew Phrygian Evanthes, and Mimas, Paris' companion,
• 703Even the same age. For Amycus fathered a son that Theano
• Link 704Brought into life's light the same night Hecuba, pregnant with fire,
• 705Bore Paris. Yet Paris died in his father's city, his homeland.
• 706Mimas lies on the Laurentine coast in a land he does not know.
• Link 707  Still Mezentius fights, like a boar that the snapping of hounds' teeth
• 708Flushes from hilltops where he has been sheltered for years by the pine-dense
• 709Summits of Vesulus, fed by the forested Laurentine lakelands'
• Link 710Acres of marsh reeds. He now stands firm as the nets drop about him,
• 711Snarls, snorts, tenses his shoulders, and arches his back into bristling
• 712Fury. And nobody's quite man enough to go wild and get closer.
• 713Safer to press him with shouts, and to shoot off spears from a distance.
• Editor’s Note717He's not afraid. He takes time, circles this way and that, and he lunges,
• Link 718Gnashing his teeth at them all; and he shrugs off spears from his tough hide.*
• 714So, though they had just reason to hate Mezentius wildly,
• 715All of them lacked raw nerve to unsheathe steel blades and attack him.
• 716Spears, arrows, thunderous shouts were their weapons, all volleyed at long range.
• Editor’s Note719  Then he saw Acron,* who'd come down from Corythus' ancient dominions,
• 720Greek-born (but he'd left his wedding for exile, his wife still a virgin),
• 721Saw him far off in the fierce throes of combat, his plume and his mantle
• 722(Gift of his pledged bride) purpled with dye pounded out from the sea-snail.
• pg 260723Often, when starving, a lion who roams all over the high lands
• 724(Hunger's a desperate persuader) will thrill if he glimpses a scampering
• Link 725She-goat or maybe a stag, growing proudly into its antlers;
• 726Maw gapes wide, mane bristles erect, ineluctable jaws bite.
• 727Now he is sprawling on guts ripped out, face bloodied and streaming
• 728Horror and gore.
• 729That's how Mezentius leaps at the thick of the foe, how he pounces.
• 730Acron goes down, unfulfilled; and his heels, in his death-throes,
• 731Pound earth. His blood dyes the now broken spear that has killed him.
• Editor’s Note732  Next was Orodes.* Disdaining the thought of destroying another
• Link 733Foe on the run and inflicting anonymous wounds with a spear-cast,
• 734Face to opposing face, Mezentius met him in combat,
• 735Man against man. Skill at arms won the day, not tactical cunning.
• 736Foot upon fallen foeman's chest, arms tugging the spearshaft,
• 737'Men,' he cried, 'Here lies Orodes, no trivial factor in this war!'
• 738Joining the shout, allies cheered and re-echoed this paean of triumph.
• 739Dying, Orodes responded: 'Whoever you are that has killed me,
• 740Joy won't be yours very long. An identical fate watches over
• 741You too. You'll soon gain just the same kind of plot in these ploughlands.'
• 742Smiling at this, and yet also enraged, Mezentius answered:
• 743'Die now. In my case, the Father of Gods and the Ruler of Mortals
• 744Handles the details, I think.' Then he tugged the spear out of the body.
• Link 745Rigid rest and an ironclad sleep slammed eyes into blindness:
• 746Light and perception were damned to a night of darkness eternal.
• 747  Caedicus butchered Alcathoüs; and Sacrator, Hydaspes;
• 748Rapo, Parthenius, also the tough and resilient Orses;
• 749Clonius fell to Messapus—Lycaon's son too, Ericetes.
• 750Clonius' horse had no bridle; he'd fallen and sprawled on the hard earth.
• 751But Ericetes was fighting on foot. When another foot-soldier,
• 752Lycian Agis, advanced, Valerus, whose family were fighters,
• 753Killed him. Then Salius killed Thronius. Salius fell to the hidden
• 754Marksman, Nealces, so lethal with arrows and spears at a distance.

• Link 755Mars, even-handed and deadly, was dealing out grief and destruction
• Link 756On both sides, both equally slaughtering, equally slaughtered,
• 757Victors and victims—no running from battle by one or the other.
• pg 261758Gods within Jupiter's halls pitied each for this furious, wasted
• 759Anger, regretted that creatures who die have to suffer such hardships.
• 760Venus is watching from here; watching there is Saturnian Juno;
• Link 761Pallid Tisiphone's rage rules thousands caught in the middle.
• 762Waving his monstrous spear, Mezentius, whirling destruction,
• Link 763Strides forth over the battlefield, massive as mighty Orion
• 764Ripping a path midway through the depths of Nereus' ocean,
• 765Marching along on foot, head and shoulders clear of the water,
• 766Or, when he carries an ancient ash from the heights of a mountain,
• 767Treading the ground, but plunging his head deep into the cloud-caps.
• 768No less vastly armed than these is Mezentius in action.
• 769  Noticing him in the long line of fighters, Aeneas advances,
• 770Ready to fight. And, standing his ground unafraid, his opponent
• 771Waits for his great-hearted foeman's attack, his immensity stock-still,
• 772Eyes now gauging the distance between them, the range for a spear-cast.
• Link 773'Right hand, you are my god, and you, javelin that I'm poising,
• Link 774Ready to throw, give your best! I vow to you, Lausus, that you'll be
• Editor’s Note775Dressed like a trophy* with spoils stripped away from Aeneas, this pirate's,
• 776Corpse.' This said, he dispatches his spear. Screaming off at its distant
• Link 777Target, it does hit the shield. But, deflected, it picks out, at random,
• 778Faraway Antores, lodges between the man's flank and his thigh bone.
• 779Antores, one of the best, friend of Hercules, sent out by Argos,
• 780Joined with Evander, and settled within an Italian city.
• 781Laid low, unfulfilled, by a wound that was meant for another,
• Link 782Dying, he stares at the sky, and remembers his dearly loved Argos.
• 783  Righteous Aeneas now hurls his spear. And it tears through the triple
• 784Bronze sheets, then through the linen lining, then through the threefold
• Link 785Stitched oxhides of the hollow shield and it strikes in the lower
• 786Part of the groin, but without full force. So, swiftly, Aeneas
• 787Tugs out the sword at his thigh, delighted to see the Etruscan's
• 788 Link 789Blood, and now hot for the kill, moves in on his quivering foeman.
• 790Lausus, on seeing this sight, groans deeply for love of his cherished
• Link 791Father. The tears in waves stream all down his face in his sorrow.

• Link 792Here I will not pass over in silence the cause of your harsh death,
• 793Or your noble deeds, young man—if tales of the long-gone
• 794Past win belief in such glory. You're worthy of being remembered.
• pg 262795  Weighed down, dragging his enemy's spear in his shield now, Mezentius
• 796Gave ground, defenceless, and tried to pull back. Rushing forward, the young man
• 797Hurled himself into the fight in between them the instant Aeneas
• 798Reared up, arm raised, poised for the kill. He himself intercepted,
• Link 799Parried the stroke and himself took the blow. With a loud shout, his comrades
• 800Followed him. Safe beneath his son's shield now, the father retreated;
• 801They, with a long-range volley of arrows and spears, kept the foeman
• 802Busy. Aeneas was forced to control his own rage and seek cover.
• 803There are those times when the hail pelts down out of menacing storm clouds,
• 804Times when all ploughmen, all tillers of land, will scatter from open
• 805Fields, and when travellers huddle away in a spot that's protected,
• Link 806Under the sheltering banks of a stream, or in high, hollow cliff-caves,
• 807While rain pours to the ground and until, with the sun's reappearance,
• Link 808Day and its work can resume.
• Pinned down by a deluge of weapons
• 809Hurled all around him, Aeneas endures this cloudburst of warfare,
• 810Waits for the thunder to end, cursing Lausus, threatening Lausus:
• Link 811'Why all this hurry to die—as you will? You're not up to this challenge,
• Link 812Your sense of righteous devotion has lured you to rashness!' The other
• Link 813Still prances madly. Ferocious wrath flares yet more intensely
• Link 814Now in the Dardan chief. As the Fates pluck the last threads of Lausus'
• Link 815Lifespan, Aeneas thrusts, full force, with his powerful sword's blade
• 816Clear through the young man's belly and buries it hilt-deep inside him.
• 817Through the light shield, no match for his challenge, the point, penetrating,
• 818Pierces the tunic of soft supple gold that his mother had woven.
• Link 819Blood gushes over his lap as he sinks; life flees from his body,
• 820Sad on the breath of the winds to its place among lingering shadows.
• Link 821  Yet, when he sees the expression that spreads on the face of the dying
• 822Youth, on that face growing stunningly pallid, the son of Anchises
• 823Pities him, utters a groan from his heart, reaches out with his right hand.
• pg 263824Here, mirrored sharp in his thoughts, is his own righteous love for his father.
• 825'Poor young lad! What act of respect can Aeneas the Righteous
• 826Now do for you to acknowledge and praise such supreme dedication?
• 827Keep your armour, your pride and your joy. And, in case you were worried,
• 828Yes, I will send you back to the ashes and ghosts of your parents.
• 829Though you went unfulfilled to your pitiful death, you'll have solace
• 830Knowing you fell by the hand of Aeneas the Great.' Mocking Lausus'
• Link 831Comrades, who hold back, he picks up the youth whose blood was befouling
• 832Hair once neatly styled, lifts him up from the ground on his shoulders.

• Link 833Meanwhile his father is stanching and cleansing his wounds at the flowing
• 834Waters of Tiber. He's taken the weight off his feet, with his body
• Editor’s Note835Propped for support by the trunk of a tree.* High above, in its branching
• Link 836Arms, hangs his helmet of bronze; on the meadow, all peaceful, his heavy
• 837Armour lies. Select youths stand round. He, nauseous and gasping,
• 838Favours his neck; and his flowing beard spills over his broad chest.
• 839Constantly asking how Lausus fares, he constantly sends out
• 840Men to recall him and carry commands from his grief-stricken father.
• 841Weeping companions, however, are already carrying Lausus
• 842Dead, on his armour, a huge man felled by a huge wound inflicted.
• Link 843He, in his mind, fears the worst. He knows, from afar, why they're groaning.
• 844He now filthies his white hair with dust by the fistful; he stretches
• 845Hands to the heavens. Embracing the corpse, he cries out in sorrow:
• 846'Son, was the pleasure of staying alive so great that it kept me
• 847Back, and that I allowed you, my own child, to replace me in battle,
• 848Facing our enemy's sword? Am I saved, I your father, by your wounds?
• 849Living because you died? My exile is now void of any
• 850Sense of fulfilment in misery. This is the wound driven deeply!
• 851Son, I'm the very same man whose criminal actions have ruined
• pg 264 Link 852Your good name: I was loathed, overthrown, I was stripped of my fathers'
• 853Sceptre. I should myself have exacted the judgement my soul's guilt
• 854Owed my land and my people's hate: some death in a thousand
• 855Forms. And I've not yet left these regions of humans and daylight.
• 856I'm still alive. But I'll leave.' He raises himself on his injured
• Link 857Thigh as he speaks. Though the depth of his wound does limit his movement,
• 858Undeterred, he calls for his stallion, his symbol of glory—
• Link 859And his companion in grief, upon whom he had ridden victorious
• 860Out of all battles. He speaks these words to his sorrowful partner:
• 861'Rhaebus, we've lived long years, if anything's long for us death-doomed
• 862Creatures. Today you will either bring back, in your triumph, Aeneas'
• 863Bloodstained spoils and his head and, together with me, avenge Lausus'
• 864Suffering and pain, or you'll die with me here if our foray just cannot
• 865Force a path open. I do not believe you, bravest of stallions,
• 866Will tolerate someone else's control and a Teucrian master.'
• 867This said, he mounts up and settles himself in his usual manner,
• 868Loads up both of his hands with sharp-tipped javelins. Bright bronze
• 869Gleams on his head, and his horsehair plumes stream wildly about him.
• Link 870Straight to the centre of battle he charges, and here in this single
• 871Heart whirls a maelstrom of shame and of grief intermingled with madness,
• Link 872Love lashed to mindless rage, yet courage, controlled and self-conscious.
• 873Three times now he calls a loud call on the name of Aeneas
• 874And, recognizing the voice, Aeneas prays in contentment:
• Link 875'Father of gods, make it so! Make it so, majestic Apollo!
• 876Make your start to the duel!'
• 877That's all he says. Then he comes to confront him, spear at the ready.
• 878'Savage!' the other replies. 'How can you scare me now you've taken
• 879My son's life? There was no other way that you could have destroyed me.
• 880We neither tremble at death nor respect any god whatsoever.
• 881Stop all the talk. I have come here to die, and I'm bringing you presents
• 882First. Here they are!' And his javelin spins full force at his foeman.
• 883Then comes another, another again, and they strike as he circles
• 884Widely and swiftly around; but the shield's gold boss takes the impact.
• 885Three times he loops to the left round his standing foe at a gallop,
• pg 265886Showering spears from his hand. Three times, also turning, the Trojan
• Link 887Hero hefts up a forest of shafts stuck fast in his bronze shield.
• 888Then, when he tires of extended delays and of pulling out countless
• 889Javelins, feeling the pressure of fighting on terms so unequal,
• 890After much thinking, he breaks from defence and he hurls his own weapon,
• 891Piercing his foe's warhorse clean through at the curve of its temples.
• 892Instantly rearing up, lashing air with his forelegs, the stallion
• 893Bucks off his rider, and then crashes down on top of him, tangling
• 894Harness and man as he plunges and falls, dislocating his shoulder.
• 895Trojans and Latins alike set the heavens ablaze with their shouting.
• 896Yanking his sword from its sheath, Aeneas flies at him in triumph:
• 897'Where is the fierce Mezentius now?' he enquires. 'Where's the famous
• Link 898Violent power of his soul?' In response, looking up, the Etruscan
• 899Gulps air into his lungs, regaining his senses and day's light:
• 900'Why, bitter foe, do you gloat, making death no more than a menace?
• 901Butchering me's not a sin. I didn't fight hoping for quarter!
• 902Lausus, my son, settled no such terms with you for our duel.
• 903One thing I beg—if there's this much forgiveness for enemies conquered:
• 904Grant that my body be buried. I know that my countrymen's bitter
• 905Hatred has me at its mercy. I beg you to ward off their fury.
• 906My son shared my life, my death. Let us share the same tombstone.'
• Link 907With no illusions, he offers his throat to the sword as he's speaking.
• Editor’s Note908Then, in a torrent of blood, he pours out his life* on his armour.