pg 266BOOK ELEVEN

• Link 1Dawn, as time passed, duly rose and left Ocean. Aeneas,
• Editor’s Note2Up before her with the Morning Star,* thanks gods for his conquest.
• 3Even though anguish impels him to take time needed to bury
• 4Comrades lost, though his mind is in turmoil because of the slaughter,
• Editor’s Note Link 5He has set high on a mound an immense oak* whose limbs he has pruned back
• 6All the way round and arrayed with the gleaming arms and equipment
• 7Stripped from the ruler Mezentius. He's turning it into a trophy
• 8Honouring you, War's Lord, great Mars, and attaches the fighter's
• Editor’s Note9Blood-drenched plumes, snapped spears, and the corslet, scored by a dozen
• 10Holes* gouged through. To what serves as the left hand, he fastens the brass-bound
• 11Shield, from its 'neck', he's suspending the sword in its ivory scabbard.
• 12  Seizing his chance—for his captains are all pressing in on him, wildly
• 13Cheering—he rallies his troops as they give him a rousing ovation:
• 14'Men, this achievement is huge. All fear must be banished from now on.
• Editor’s Note Link 15These spoils,* my first fruits of the war, have been reaped from a proud king!
• Link 16Here is the artwork my hands have created! Behold him, Mezentius!
• 17Now we must march upon one more king and the walls of the Latins.
• 18Ready your weapons! Put war in your souls! Make war what you hope for!
• 19Let's not be caught unawares by delays, and impeded the instant
• 20Heaven nods signs to up standards and march the lads out of encampment.
• 21No dissent must arise out of fear-fraught inertia and slow us.
• Editor’s Note22  'Let us commit to the earth,* as we wait, these friends, these unburied
• Link 23Bodies. In Acheron's depths, that's the only meaningful tribute.
• 24Go!' he said. 'Honour these spirits, the pick of the flock, who with their blood
• 25Mothered this new home to life for us all. Give them offerings and final
• pg 26726Rites. Now our first step should be to have Pallas returned to Evander's
• Editor’s Note Link 27Grief-stricken city. This day, marked black,* has removed him and plunged him
• 28Deep in the sourness of death. Yet it found him not lacking in courage.'
• 29  Tears fill his eyes as he speaks. He retraces his steps to the dead youth's
• 30Quarters. An old man was guarding the laid-out corpse of the lifeless
• 31Pallas. Acoetes had earlier served as Arcadian Evander's
• 32Arms-bearer, then was assigned as companion to his beloved Pallas:
• 33This move he made under auspices boding less happy fulfilment.
• 34Gathered around him were all Pallas' slaves, a good number of Trojan
• 35Men, and, with hair flowing free in the fashion of grief, Trojan women.
• Editor’s Note36Once, though, Aeneas presented himself, after passing the high doors,*
• 37Beating of breasts started, moaning notes shrilled up to the starry
• 38Skies and the royal marquee re-intoned lamentations of sorrow.
• 39Now's when his eyes get their first glimpse of Pallas: the snow-cold whiteness,
• 40Pillowed head, then the face, the slight chest with the wound an Italian
• 41Spear left gaping wide. Tears gush from his eyes as he's speaking:
• 42'Poor lad! Was it upon you that Fortune, who came to us smiling,
• 43Cast evil eye to spite me, so that your eyes would never see our realm,
• 44And so you'd never ride home to your father's kingdom in triumph?
• 45This isn't what my departing words to your father Evander
• 46Promised for you, when he hugged me as I went away, as he sent me
• 47Off to pursue great power. He feared for us. These were, he cautioned,
• 48Fierce opponents; we'd battle a tough and resilient people.
• 49He, I suspect, is a prisoner, even now, of delusive
• 50Hope. Chances are that he's still making vows, piling gifts upon altars
• 51While we are gathered in grief to pay hollow respects to a lifeless
• 52Youth who has no further debt he must pay any god in the heavens.
• Link 53'You'll see how cruelly your son died, how you lost what fulfilled you.
• 54Such is our great triumphal return that you've waited and watched for!
• Link 55Here's how much my word is worth! Still, you won't see him come back defeated,
• Link 56Scarred by disgraceful wounds. No, Evander, you won't be a father
• pg 268Editor’s Note57Wishing death as a curse on a son who's survived.* What a mighty
• 58Guardian, Ausonia, you've lost! What a great loss for you too, Iulus.'
• 59  Ending his tearful lament, he commands them to lift up this piteous
• 60Corpse and dispatches the pick of his whole force, as escort and final
• Editor’s Note61Honour guard—men who would join with his father in weeping. A thousand
• 62Troops* were but minimal solace indeed for a grief so immensely
• 63Huge, and yet surely the due that was owed to his father, in pity.
• 64Others, no less fired up, plait switches of oak and arbutus
• 65Withes into wickerwork, weaving a casket and cushioning bier,
• 66Raising a couch wattled over with taut-stretched, shadowing branches.
• Link 67Here, on a farmhand's bedding, they set out their noble young hero
• Editor’s Note Link 68Languid as drooping hyacinth falls,* or limp as a violet
• 69Clipped in its flower by a virgin's thumb, but whose shimmering lustre
• 70Lingers, whose perfect form hasn't shrivelled, as yet, though its earthen
• Link 71Mother no longer sustains life's vital strength with her nurture.
• Link 72Then, bearing matching mantles stiffened with gold and with purple
• 73Dye, comes Aeneas. Sidonian Dido herself, with her once live
• 74Hands had produced them for him, as a pair: her labour of rapture,
• Editor’s Note75Threaded with highlights of fine-spun gold worked into the cross-weave.*
• 76One of the capes, in his grief, he drapes over the youth, a last tribute
• Editor’s Note77Bridling the hair, now damned to the flames, in a veil of enshroudment.*
• 78Many more prizes won in the Laurentine battle he also
• 79Stacks up, and orders the plunder conveyed in a lengthy procession,
• 80Adding some horses, and weapons he's stripped from the enemy's bodies.
• Editor’s Note81Then, hands chained behind backs, come the men he is sending for human
• 82Sacrifice,* planning to sprinkle the flames with the blood of their slaughter,
• Link 83Honouring Pallas's ghost. He bids captains convey, with their persons,
• 84Stumps clad in enemy arms, names nailed upon placards as insults.
• 85Wretched Acoetes, enfeebled and robbed of fulfilment in old age,
• pg 26986Bruises his chest with his fists, and his nails rip his cheeks as they march him,
• Editor’s Note87Pitching down, hurled prone* to the ground the full length of his body.
• 88Then they add chariots, drenched in Rutulian blood, to the march-past.
• Editor’s Note89Aethon, his war-horse, trots past riderless,* stripped of its trappings,
• 90Weeping and dampening its cheeks with a flow of magnificent teardrops.
• 91Some bear his spear and his helmet—just these, for his conqueror, Turnus,
• Editor’s Note92Now has the rest. Then the Teucrians follow, and then the Etruscans,
• 93Full force.* Arcadians, weapons reversed, pass in funeral formation.
• 94After the whole of the escort has passed in review and is moving
• 95Onwards, Aeneas remains where he stands and observes, with a deep groan:
• Link 96'Fate, with identical horrors of war, calls us, from our tears here,
• Editor’s Note97Elsewhere to others. Goodbye for eternity,* wonderful Pallas,
• Link 98Through all eternity, here's my farewell!' That was all. He now headed
• 99Back to the high walls, directing his stride straight into the fortress.

• 100Diplomats sent from the Latins' city were now in attendance,
• 101Olive-boughs wreathing their brows. They were asking a special concession:
• 102Would he turn over the war-dead strewn all over the landscape,
• 103Would he allow them to pass beneath earthen mounds to entombment?
• 104Since no dispute involves those now vanquished and lost to the sunlight,
• Link 105Could he take pity on those once called his in-laws and good hosts?
• 106Being a good man, Aeneas concedes their request—their petition
• 107Can't very well be denied—and appends these additional comments:
• Link 108'What shabby decoy of fortune has snarled you in such a colossal
• 109War, men of Latium, that you flee from us who approached you in friendship?
• 110Peace for the dead, for the losers in Mars' game of chance, that's the only
• 111Favour you beg? I'd be willing to grant the same terms to the living!
• 112I wouldn't be here, if fate hadn't granted me this place to settle.
• Editor’s Note113I'm not at war with your people. Your king walked out* on the welcome
• pg 270114We offered, choosing to hazard his fortunes on Turnus's weapons.
• 115Turnus, not they, should have faced this death. That would have been fairer.
• 116If he's prepared to end war with his hand, and get rid of the Teucrians,
• 117These are the weapons, and I am the man honour called him to challenge.
• 118Life would have been the survivor's reward from a god or his own strength.
• 119Go now, and kindle the flames beneath your poor citizens' bodies!'
• Editor’s Note120That's what Aeneas said. They were stunned into absolute silence,*
• 121Kept on exchanging glances without any change of expression.
• Editor’s Note122Drances,* an older man, quick to show hatred and hurl accusations,
• 123Ever a personal foe of the youthful Turnus, exploited
• 124This opportunity: 'Hero from Troy, rumour said you were mighty,
• 125Arms prove you mightier! How can I praise you as high as the heavens?
• 126Should I be awed by your justice first, or your prowess in warfare?
• 127We will, with gratitude, bring this report back home to our city
• Link 128And reunite you, if Fortune discloses a path, with Latinus.
• 129He is our ruler. What Turnus contracts is his personal business.
• 130Raising the predetermined might of your walls, even hauling
• 131Stones for your Troy on our shoulders will be, not a task, but a pleasure.'
• 132Total assent to his words rang clear, as if one voice had shouted.
• Link 133Terms for a twelve-day truce were agreed. So with peace as their bondsman,
• 134Teucrians mingled with Latins and wandered at will, and securely,
• 135Over the hilltops. The tall ashes ring with the iron of axes,
• 136Conifers high as the stars topple downwards. They split with their wedges
• 137Fragrant cedar and oak after oak, while, in endless procession,
• 138Wagons groan on their way, transporting their burdens of rowan.

• 141Rumour, just recently telling of Pallas' triumphs in Latium,
• Link 139Now outflew the official reports of this grievous misfortune,
• 140Giving Evander himself and Evander's whole city the details.
• 142Following ancient practice, Arcadians rushed to the gateways,
• 143Funeral firebrands clutched in their hands. And the flames trace a blazing
• pg 271144Pathway of light far over the fields as they march out in order.
• Editor’s Note145Coming the opposite way is the Phrygian multitude,* joining
• 146Ranks with the column of mourners. Then mothers, once they have seen them
• 147Nearing the walls, set the whole city blazing with shrill lamentation.
• Link 148No force at all has the power to prevent Evander emerging
• 149Publicly. And when the catafalque carrying Pallas is set down,
• 150He falls upon it and clings to him tightly, weeping and moaning.
• Link 151Once pain's choking has eased, voice finds just enough force to break forth:
• Editor’s Note152'Oh Pallas! This isn't what you had promised your parent!* How extra
• 153Cautious you'd willingly be when entrusting yourself to the cruel
• 154War-god! I knew how seductive one's newly found glory in combat
• 155Could prove to be: that peculiar sweetness of first battle-honours.
• 156These are the piteous marks of your passage to manhood, your basic
• 157Training in local warfare! And here lie my vows and my prayers
• 158Which not one god heard! You died fulfilled, at the right time,
• 159Dearly belovèd wife. You were not kept alive for this anguish!
• Link 160I, by surviving you, have achieved no more than surpassing
• 161My due of life. I'm a father who's outlived his own son. If only
• 162I'd joined my allies from Troy and been raked by Rutulian volleys!
• 163I would have given my life. They'd be bringing home me, and not Pallas.
• 164Teucrians, I don't take issue with you, with our treaties or pledges
• 165Sealed with a welcoming handshake. For this was the price that my old age
• 166Owed as a payment. Indeed, if a premature death was awaiting
• 167This my son, I'll be glad, at some point, that he fell after felling
• 168Thousands of Volsci while leading you Teucrians forward to Latium.
• 169I, in fact, cannot imagine for you any nobler funeral,
• Editor’s Note170Pallas, than this one provided by righteous Aeneas, the mighty
• 171Phrygians,* Etruscan lords, and the whole armed force of Etruscans.
• 172They're bringing those that your right hand killed, remounted as large-scale
• Editor’s Note173Trophies. And you'd stand among them now, a huge tree-trunk in armour,*
• 174Turnus, if you'd been his age, and you'd both, for your years, had the same strength!
• 175Why, though, do my ruined dreams of fulfilment keep Teucrians from battle?
• pg 272Editor’s Note176Go!* And report these directives to your king: be sure you remember!
• Link 177"I delay death, in a life I hate seeing now Pallas is taken,
• Editor’s Note Link 178Just to put your hand on trial.* You're aware that it owes son and father
• 179Turnus as recompense due. And for proving its worth and good fortune
• 180There's only one venue open. I am not suing you to bring my life
• 181Pleasure, that wouldn't be right, but to please my son in the dead world." '

• Link 182Dawn, meanwhile, who had brought forth her blessing of daylight for piteous
• Link 183Death-doomed humans, commenced bringing back both their labour and troubles.
• Link 184Father Aeneas now built, as did Tarchon, his funeral pyres
• 185Down on the curving beach, where each unit, with its traditional
• 186Rites, transported its dead. As the smoke-black brands kindle blazes,
• 187Hot, fiery billows of darkness entomb far reaches of heaven.
• 188Three times, arrayed in their bright-flashing armour, they run round the burning
• 189Pyres; three times they ritually circle the funeral's mourning
• 190Flames upon horseback, and howling mouths halloo loud lamentation.
• 191Earth is bedewed with the same damp tears that bedew all their armour.
• Link 192Shouting of men assaults sky in a roar with the shrilling of trumpets.
• 193One group is now tossing onto the flames spoils ripped from the slaughtered
• 194Latins: their helmets, their splendid swords, horse-bridles and trappings,
• 195Red-hot wheels; others offer their own dead's all too familiar
• 196Armour: the shields and the spears that fell short of achieving fulfilment.
• 197Bodies of oxen killed all round honour Death in abundance;
• 198Coarse-haired boars, flocks stolen from every pasture, have throats slit
• Link 199Over the flames. Men cover the sea-front and watch as their comrades
• 200Blaze, and maintain their watch as the members subside into darkening
• 201Embers. Nothing can tear them away until Night's chilly dampness
• 202Takes her turn with the blaze of her stars' lights studding the dark skies.
• pg 273203  Elsewhere, and no less intently and piteously, Latins constructed
• 204Countless pyres of their own, though they do commit some of the many
• 205Human bodies to graves dug into the ground, carry others
• 206Home, if their lands are adjacent, or send them back to their cities.
• 207All of the rest, a gigantic heap of unsortable slaughter,
• 208Not honoured, not even counted, they burn. Then everywhere vast fields
• 209Rival each other with close-set clusters of blossoming fires.
• 210  Daylight had pushed the cold shadows aside for a third time; the mourners
• 211Started to break down high-heaped ash and unsortably tangled
• 212Bones from the pyres and compress them beneath a warm earthen embankment.
• 213Now's when the real crest, the mightiest wave, of prolonged lamentation
• 214Crashed in the homes, in the city of mightily wealthy Latinus.
• 215Mothers and piteously sad widowed brides, loving-hearted and grieving
• 216Sisters, and children, now fatherless orphans, here, there, began screaming
• 217Curses on monstrous war and on Turnus' plans for a wedding.
• Link 218He's the one, he is the one, they demand, whose sword must determine
• 219This fight, since he claims Italy's throne for himself, and top honours.
• 220Drances adds weight to these cries in a vicious and sworn deposition:
• 221One man alone must be called on, yes, ordered to fight, and that's Turnus.
• 222Many a statement, variously phrased, at the same time supported
• Editor’s Note223Turnus against him. The queen's great name cast an ominous shadow.*
• 224Rumour, enhanced by the trophies he'd earned, further strengthened his backing.
• 225  Now, amid all the unrest, as the core of the tumult is blazing,
• 226Back come dejected delegates sent to the big city, bringing
• 227Further fuel for the fire: Diomedes' response. Their enormous
• 228Efforts and costly disbursements had all come to nothing. Their offerings,
• 229Gold and the power of their prayers, had been worthless. He'd said that the Latins
• pg 274230Had to look elsewhere for arms, or beg peace from the king of the Trojans.
• Editor’s Note231  King Latinus himself gives up* at this national disaster.
• 232Angered gods, fresh tombs they can see, show the verdict of iron
• 233Will and resolve; and they warn that what destiny brings is Aeneas.
• 234He, therefore, summons the council-at-large and his own chief advisers,
• 235Since he's empowered to issue a call, to convene behind closed doors
• 236Inside the palace. They fill up the streets in their rush to assemble.
• 237Both his supreme seniority and the prime power of his sceptre
• 238Grant to the visibly joyless Latinus the seat at the centre.
• 239Here he commands that the mission rebuffed by Aetolia's city
• 240Make its report, and requests that responses received should be detailed
• 241Fully and point by point. Other tongues are then ordered to silence.
• Link 242Venulus does as he's told and begins his narration in this wise:
• 243'Citizens, yes, we have seen Diomedes and Argive encampments,
• 244We've run our journey's course, we've passed all its perils triumphant,
• 245We've all shaken the hand that brought Ilium's land to its downfall.
• 246He, fresh from conquering Garganus' farms in Iapygia, was founding,
• Editor’s Note247Right there, a city called Argyripa,* after his homeland.
• Link 248  'Once we had entered, and leave had been granted to speak in his presence,
• 249We made our offerings, explained who we were and our homeland's location,
• 250Who had attacked us, and what motivation had lured us to Arpi.
• 251He heard us out; then he made this reply in a voice free of passion.
• 252"Fortune's children, peoples who live under lordship of Saturn,
• 253Ancient Ausonian folk! What changes in fortune are ruffling
• 254Your serene life, prompting you to provoke what you don't understand: war?
• Link 255All of us whose swords' blades bloodied Ilian fields in our violence,
• 256Have (not to count bitter times we endured as we fought beneath Troy's high
• 257Walls, and not counting those swamped by the Simoïs) suffered reprisals,
• 258Penalties words can't describe, world-wide, for our criminal actions.
• Editor’s Note259Priam himself might pity our troops. The grim star of Minerva's
• pg 275260Storm, ships wrecked off Euboea, the false shore-lights Caphareus
• 261Flared out of vengeance. From warfare to far scattered coasts we were driven,
• 262Atreus' son, Menelaus, as far as the pillars of Proteus,*
• 263Exiled. Ulysses has gazed upon Cyclopes' homelands on Etna.
• Link 264Or Neoptolemus' realm: shall I talk of this? Idomeneus'
• 265Overthrow, maybe? Or Locrians living on Libya's coastline?
• 266Even the Mycenaean commander of all the great Argives
• 267Died, as he entered his home, at the hand of a wife I'll leave nameless.
• Editor’s Note268Watching, embedded, for Asia's defeat, his cuckolder* waited.
• 269Gods, one might add, have begrudged me the sight of the marriage I longed for
• Editor’s Note270On my return to my homeland's shrines and to Calydon's beauty.*
• Editor’s Note271Right now portents that frighten the eye still pursue me. My comrades,
• Link 272Lost to me, soared to the sky* upon wings or are river-birds drifting
• 273Aimlessly. Oh, what a ghastly affliction has punished my people!
• 274Now they are filling the rocks by the coasts with their sorrowful screeching.
• 275This was the penalty I should have seen was impending, the moment
• 276I went mad and assaulted divine bodies too with my iron
• 277Blade, and did actual violence to Venus by wounding her right hand.
• Link 278Don't ask me, don't urge me again into this kind of battle!
• Link 279Pergamum has been destroyed. There's no war between me and the Teucrians
• 280Now. And they give me no joy, I don't even remember, these grudges of old days.
• 281Those presents you offer me from your homeland's shores you should rather
• 282Give to Aeneas. For we have confronted his savaging weapons,
• Link 283We've fought him, hand to hand. So believe me. I know how immensely
• 284He looms over his shield, how he torques his spear like a whirlwind.
• 285If Ida's land had produced two more such men in addition,
• 286Fates would have been reversed. A Dardanian would have assaulted
• 287Inachus' cities and Greece would itself be the country in mourning.
• 288Credit for any delay, before tough Troy's walls, that impeded
• 289Greeks and their conquest, repulsing their progress for nine years,
• Editor’s Note290Must be assigned to the hand of Hector, the hand of Aeneas.*
• pg 276291Both men were noted for courage, and both for remarkable prowess.
• 292Righteousness was more Aeneas' domain. Let your hands join in treaties,
• 293Given a chance. But beware, if your arms join battle with their arms!"
• 294So, most excellent king, you have heard not just the responses
• 295This king gave to our prayers, but the judgement he passed on the great war.'
• 296  Hardly had delegates ceased, when the varied hum of conflicting
• 297Views rumbled out of Ausonian mouths, the way rocks blocking river
• 298Rapids raise thunder of swirling waters trapped, the way nearby
• 299Banksides rumble the crackling surge of the onrushing torrent.
• 300Once spirits calmed, once the nervous chatter had dwindled to silence,
• 301High on his throne, the king prayed to the gods, then began his own comments:
• Editor’s Note Link 302'Better to have one's policies set in a crisis, Latini,*
• 303Prior to action. This isn't the moment for planning. I'd rather
• 304Not make our council convene when the foe has our city encircled.
• 305Citizens, we are engaged in a war we can't win with a people
• 306Born of the gods, men no battles can tire, men who can't be defeated
• 307Since a defeat simply strips off their power to resist further fighting.
• Editor’s Note308Dreams,* if you really had any dreams, of Aetolian assistance,
• Link 309Give them up now. Yes, we each had our dreams. But you see how they've shrivelled.
• 310Life has been crushed out of everything round us in general ruin.
• 311All of you see it all with your eyes. You can touch it and feel it.
• 312No, I am not blaming anyone. Men have done everything manhood
• 313Could have done. This fight was fought by the realm, as a body, united.
• 314So, let me frame, for the record, my hesitant mind's resolution
• 315Which I'll explain very briefly. Now give me your fullest attention.
• Editor’s Note316I own* an ancient estate very close to Etruria's river
• 317Stretching far to the west, on into Sicanian holdings:
• 318Hard, hilly land that Auruncans, along with Rutulian farmers,
• 319Seed, and with great effort, plough, though the roughest of tracts are for pasture.
• 320All this region, including the high mountain forests of pine-wood,
• 321We, I propose, as a good-will gesture, cede to the Teucrians,
• 322Set balanced terms for a treaty, invite them to enter as allies
• Link 323Into our realm. If they're so much enamoured of us, let them settle,
• 324Build cities. But, if their impetus carries them on to seize someone
• pg 277325Else's domains, other peoples, if leaving our soil is their problem,
• Link 326Let's use the strength of Italian oak to construct twenty vessels,
• 327More if they've forces to fill them. We have all the lumber that's needed
• 328Close to the sea. So let them decide numbers and classes of keels laid.
• 329We'd be supplying the brasses, the labour, the tackle and dockyards.
• Editor’s Note330Therefore, I move that we send out a hundred blue-blooded Latins*
• 331Gifted in language, to state our decision and settle a treaty.
• 332Have them bear olive-boughs, symbols of peace, in their hands on the journey,
• 333And bring as gifts large loads both of ivory and of gold bullion,
• 334Also the kingdom's throne and my own ceremonial toga.
• Link 335Now give us your ideas. Our state is exhausted. Revive it!'
• Link 336Drances arose. He was hostile as ever. For Turnus's glory
• 337Raked him with jealousy's bitterness, evilled his never directly
• 338Confrontational glance. He was free with his wealth, had a gifted
• Link 339Tongue, and a hand ice-slow in a war. Though, in planning, considered
• 340Not without value, his strength was subversion. His aristocratic
• 341Mother conferred proud blood; he was vague when discussing his father.
• 342Now he adds weight to the forces of anger, expands their dimensions.
• 343'No one is blind to this crisis you seek our advice on. It doesn't
• 344Need my voice to explain it, my lord. They admit that they all grasp
• 345History's plan for our people, but limit their comments to mumbling.
• 346Let this man allow freedom of speech, and suppress his own windy
• Link 347Bluster. I'll speak, though he threatens to bring me death with a sword-thrust.
• 348Thanks to his ill-starred guidance and pestilent conduct, we're seeing
• 349So many leading lights snuffed out, and the whole of our city
• Editor’s Note350Settle like ashes, beleaguered by grief,* while he puts the Trojan
• 351Camp to the test with a boldness that comes when retreat is an option,
• Editor’s Note352Scaring the air with his spears.
• 'So add one more gift* to the bounty
• 353You order sent, or assigned, to the Dardans, just one further present,
• 354Finest of kings, and let no man's violence deter you: your daughter.
• 355Grant her—as father, you should—to a son-in-law not of the common
• 356Flock, to a groom who has class. Seal peace in a treaty for ever.
• pg 278357But, if our minds and our hearts are so mightily cramped by our terror,
• Editor’s Note358Let us appeal to the man himself,* beg him for permission,
• 359Ask him to yield and sign over his rights to our king and our country.
• 360Why do you, time and again, cast your poor fellow citizens into
• Link 361Obvious dangers? You don't just start problems. You are the problem!
• 362There's no salvation in war. It's peace we all ask of you, Turnus,
• Link 363Peace guaranteed by the only pledge that defies violation.
• 364I who, you claim, am your foe (it's a lie but contesting it wastes time),
• 365Look! I'm the first to come begging your mercy. Take pity on your own
• 366People. Disarm your aggression. Begone! You are beaten. We're routed,
• 367We've seen enough death, we've turned huge fields into desolate wastelands.
• 368If, though, it's rumour that stirs you, if, deep in your breast, you're conceiving
• Link 369Oaken strength, if your heart's set on having a palace as dowry,
• 370Dare to display that spirited heart in confronting your foeman.
• 371We common souls, as it is, must be carpets of unburied, unwept
• 372Nobodies strewn on the plains to ensure that a wife with a palace
• 373Benefits Turnus. So, if there's one speck of might in your own will,
• 374One drop of martial blood in your veins, even you must confront him:
• Editor’s Note375He's challenged you!'*
• 376Turnus's violence flared at the tone of this speech, and emerging
• 377First as a groan, it exploded in words full of heartfelt emotion:
• 378'Drances, you're always so free with your wealth of rhetorical figures
• 379Just when our wars demand action. If meetings of elders are summoned,
• 380You arrive first. But you shouldn't be filling the senate with verbal
• 381Blasts that escape you when you're not at risk, when the walls with their ramparts
• Link 382Keep the foe out and the ditches have not become moats from the bloodshed.
• Link 383Go on, maintain your tradition of eloquent thundering, Drances,
• 384Charge me with cowardice, you, since your hand has stacked so many slaughtered
• 385Trojans in heaps and built notable trophies all over the farmlands.
• 386Now you've a chance for assessing the potent man in your manhood's
• 387Vital force. You see, we don't need to go far to find foemen.
• 388They're here, standing around these walls, we're completely encircled.
• pg 279389We're off to face them. You're not. Why so? Will the war-god within you
• 390Always reside in your windy tongue and your feet when you're speeding
• 391Out of a battle?
• 392Me "beaten"? No one will justly claim I am beaten, you filthy
• 393Wretch, when he sees Tiber swelling to flood stage with Ilian
• 394Blood, and the whole of Evander's house uprooted and sprawling
• 395Dead like his offshoot—and all the Arcadians stripped of their armour.
• 396That's not how Bitias and massive Pandarus found me in battle,
• 397Or how the thousand I vanquished and sent down to Tartarus that day
• 398Found me when trapped within enemy walls, fenced in by their rampart.
• 399"There's no salvation in war"? Sing that as your dirge to the Dardan's
• 400Head, or your own future prospects, you madman. Persist in creating
• 401Total chaos with tactics of fear, in extolling the strength of a nation
• 402Conquered twice, while, in contrast, demeaning Latinus's forces.
• 403  'Myrmidon leaders (in his script) are starting to tremble at Phrygian
• 404Forces! Both Tydeus' son and Larissan Achilles are panicked!
• 405Aufidus' torrents retreat from the waves of the rough Adriatic!
• 406His feigned fear at confronting my menacing insults is only
• 407Criminal artistry sculpting a scowl on his figure of terror.
• 408  'Don't worry, you'll never lose your kind of a soul to my good hand.
• 409Keep it yourself, lodged with you inside your contemptible bosom!
• 410  'Now, father, I am returning to you and your major proposals.
• 411If you put no further hope at all in our military prowess,
• 412If we are so far gone that a single reversal in battle
• 413Means we are dead at the roots and that Fortune has nowhere to come back,
• 414Let's sue for peace, let's extend them our hands which are obviously useless.
• 415Yet how I wish we could muster a trace of traditional manhood!
• 416Blessed in his labours beyond other men, as I see it, transcending
• 417Ordinary souls is the man who meets death to avoid seeing conduct
• Link 418Just like this, who bites dirt with his teeth only once and for ever.
• 419But, if we have the resources and youths still able of body,
• pg 280420If there are cities to help us in Italy, peoples surviving,
• 421And if the glory the Trojans won cost a great deal of bloodshed—
• 422They had their own losses too, for the storm struck all sides with equal
• 423Power—then why do we yield in disgrace on the very first threshold?
• 424Why do our limbs start shaking before any bugle has sounded?
• 425Much does improve in a day. Man's labours vary as seasons
• 426Change. And since Fortune must visit so many in turn, she will sometimes
• 427Make us look stupid and then set us back in a solid position.
• 428We'll get no help from Aetolian Arpi and her Diomedes.
• 429But there's Messapus, Tolumnius too—he fulfils his objective—
• 430Plus captains so many peoples have sent. There'll be no meagre glory
• 431Following Latium's recruits and those from the Laurentine farmlands.
• 432Then, from the excellent Volscian people, there's also Camilla,
• Editor’s Note433Leading a cavalry column.* Her squads bloom bright in their bronze-plate.
• 434  'Still, if the Teucrians demand that I come out alone for a duel,
• 435And we accept, and if I'm such an obstacle blocking the common
• Editor’s Note436Good, I won't then proceed* to think Victory hates and avoids me
• 437So much that I would refuse any act that might bring my dream closer.
• 438I'll face him bravely, though he may be playing the great role, Achilles,
• 439Armed with equipment that's equally fine, handcrafted by Vulcan.
• Editor’s Note Link 440I, Turnus, vow* both to you and my father by marriage, Latinus,
• 441My life's blood. I stand second to none, in my manhood, to bygone
• Editor’s Note442Heroes.
• 'Aeneas "calls me out alone?"* I pray that he will call!
• 443Drances must not be the one to atone with his death, if the angry
• 444Gods have their way, or win honour, if manhood and fame prove decisive.'

• Link 445While they continued contentious internal debates on disputed
• 446Issues, Aeneas was moving his camp and his battle formations.
• 447Look! For the news is now spreading all over the palace and causing
• 448Mighty commotion, it's flooding the city with terror in huge waves:
• 449Teucrian troops, battle-ready, along with the Tuscan contingent,
• 450Are, report says, moving down from the Tiber all over the flatlands.
• pg 281451Instantly spirits are roused and the hearts of the ordinary people
• 452Bludgeoned. Their wrath is aroused by no trivially light provocation.
• 453Trembling with rage, they want weapons, yes, 'Weapons!' the young men are shouting.
• 454Fathers are saddened. They're weeping and grumbling. Disputes, disagreements
• 455Everywhere blend into one huge roar that soars to the heavens,
• 456Much as when great flocks of birds just happen to settle on highland
• 457Forests, or when, on Padusa's fish-filled waters, the raucous
• 458Swans trumpet calls all across those ever-talkative marshes.
• 459  'Well now,' Turnus observes, seizing opportunity's offer,
• 460'Summon your council, citizens, praise peace, stay where you're seated.
• 461They're overrunning your realm with their forces.' He said nothing further,
• 462Rushed from the meeting, departed the tall palace building in seconds.
• 463'You!' he commands. 'Volusus! Tell Volscian units to arm up!
• 464Lead the Rutulians yourself. Get the cavalry ready, Messapus,
• 465Fan them out over the plains. Coras, help him, along with your brother.
• Link 466This group must strengthen the city's gates and take charge of the towers.
• 467All other units must join me and march out wherever I order.'
• 469  Father Latinus himself now abandons his meeting and big plans,
• 470Deeply upset by the grim situation, and seeks an adjournment,
• 471Constantly blaming himself for not acting alone and inviting
• 472Dardan Aeneas as son-in-law and as his heir to the city.
• Editor’s Note468  Everyone's swarming up to the walls from all over the city.*
• 473Some dig out trenches in front of the gates, bring up boulders and sharpened
• 474Posts. As the trumpet's raucous blast gives the signal for warfare's
• Link 475Bloodshed, housewives and children encircle the wall like a floral
• 476Wreath. All hands are required for the ultimate task of survival.
• Editor’s Note Link 477Further, the queen is conveyed to the heights of the citadel, Pallas'
• 478Temple, escorted by mothers massed in a huge group, and bringing
• 479Gifts for the goddess.* And there at her side is the virgin Lavinia,
• 480Cause of this great disaster, her eyes so becomingly downcast.
• pg 282481In go the mothers and fill up the temple with smoke from their incense,
• 482Pouring their voices of sadness forth from within the high sanctum.
• 483'Mistress of weaponry, spirit of warfare, Virgin of Triton,
• Link 484Break this Phrygian pirate's sword with your own hand and sprawl him
• 485Face down onto the soil. Lay him low at the base of our tall gates.'

• 486Turnus is now busy arming himself and impatient for battle.
• 487He has already put on his fire-red corslet. Its bronze scales
• 488Bristle around him. He's strapped gold greaves to his calves, though his temples
• 489Still lack a helmet. He's buckled his sword to his side and is blazing
• 490Gold as he speeds from the citadel heights. For his spirits are prancing;
• 491There in his mind's eye, his hopes, he has already conjured his foeman.
• Link 492He's like a stallion, breaking his tethers, escaping his stable,
• 493Finally free. The whole prairie becomes his domain without fences.
• 494Now he can choose between heading for clusters of mares in the pastures
• 495And flashing down to the river he knows for a plunge in familiar
• 496Waters. He stretches his neck up high and he whinnies with wanton
• Link 497Pleasure. His mane streams free on his neck, streams over his shoulders.
• 498  But, heading Turnus off, Camilla charged up with her Volscian
• 499Troopers. The queen then leaped from her horse right in front of the main gate,
• 500All her battalion followed her lead and dismounted with easy
• 501Grace, slipping down in one smooth wave from their horses. She spoke thus:
• 502'Turnus, a certain self-confidence is, perhaps, earned by one's valour.
• 503I make so bold as to promise I'll charge at Aeneas's mounted
• 504Forces, head off and engage his Etruscan cavalry units
• 505All by myself. Permit me to confront the first dangers of battle,
• 506You be the infantryman, stand at the walls, mount guard on the city.'
• Link 507Turnus, his eyes fixed fast on this virgin, a figure of terror,
• 508Answered: 'What adequate thanks can I offer you, Italy's virgin
• 509Glory? How can I repay you? But now, since your wonderful spirit
• 510Soars above everything, share the great labour with me, as a partner.
• pg 283511Rumour, and scouts we've deployed, are reporting that ruthless Aeneas
• 512Has, and I trust what they say, just dispatched an advance force of light-armed
• Editor’s Note513Cavalry. Purpose? To kick up a noise* on the plains while he marches
• 514Over the ridge, through unguarded mountainous heights, on the city.
• Link 515I plan a bit of war's banditry there. The trail drops through a wooded
• 516Gorge. I'll be able to seal both exits with infantry units.
• 517Muster your squads, intercept these Etruscan cavalry forces.
• 518With you the fierce Messapus will ride, Latin companies also,
• 519Tibur's squads too. You will gain a conception of leadership's challenge.'
• 520This said, he fires up Messapus and allied leaders for battle,
• 521Using almost identical words. Then he moves on his foeman.

• 522There is a valley with tortuous twists, ideal for deceptive
• Editor’s Note523Military ruses. Its flanks press in on the defile, encroaching
• 524On both sides, shedding dense, leaf-canopied darkness,* begrudging
• 525Access to those who would pass the constrictive jaws of its entrance.
• Link 526High on the crest of the mountain above it—a good place for look-outs—
• 527Lurks a plateau, not known to outsiders, affording good cover
• 528Whether you'd want to engage your foes on the right flank, the left flank,
• 529Or just stand on the ridge-top and overwhelm them with boulders.
• 530That's where the young man goes; he, knowing the course of the pathways,
• 531Takes the terrain and the unfair advantage of woods to set ambush.
• Editor’s Note Link 532  Settled, meanwhile, far above, Latona's daughter* was speaking
• 533Grimly to one of her sacred group of virgin attendants,
• 534Opis, swift on her feet. And Diana was uttering these words:
• 535'Off, my dear virgin, to cruel war goes Camilla, who's bearing
• 536Weapons about her, which, though they are ours, won't save her. No other
• Editor’s Note537Woman is dearer to me; her love for Diana* is no new
• 538Force that's come over her soul in a sudden upsurge of sweetness.
• Editor’s Note539  'Thrown out because he was proud* in his power—and his rule was detested—
• 540Metabus, as he was leaving his ancient city, Privernum,
• pg 284 Link 541Took, as he fled from the midst of the war and its battles, his infant
• 542Daughter to be his companion in exile. He named her Camilla,
• Link 543After her mother Casmilla, with just a slight shift in the spelling.
• Link 544Carrying her for himself in a fold of his robe, he was heading
• 545Up the long ridges of lonely woods. Deadly weapons were raining
• 546All round, swift-darting Volscian troops were now tightening their circle.
• 547Then, blocking off his escape, was the Amasenus in full flood,
• 548Foaming and topping its banks after drenching, torrential cloudbursts.
• 549He was preparing to swim, but held back, through love of the infant,
• 550Fearful for his dear burden. And then, as he stirred every option
• 551Round in his thoughts, this one swirled up, then, unsteadily, settled.
• Link 552He was a man at war and, by chance, his masterful right hand
• 553Wielded a javelin, massively oaken, knotted and smoke-cured.
• Editor’s Note554To it he bound his offspring, enclosed in a pastoral, cork-bark*
• 555Cover, then strapped her in place at the shaft's exact centre of balance.
• 556Gauging the arc of her flight in his great hand, he cried to the heavens:
• 557"O blessed virgin, Latona's daughter, O Guardian of Woodlands,
• Link 558I, who am this child's father, now dedicate her to your service.
• 559Yours are her first weapons grasped as she flies from the foe. She's your suppliant!
• 560Goddess, accept her, I beg, as she's cast to the treacherous breezes!"
• 561This said, he draws back his arm, puts torque on his javelin, hurls it
• 562Off on its way. Waters bellow. Camilla flees over the river's
• Editor’s Note563Rage on a screeching spear: an ill omen for future fulfilment.*
• 564Metabus, though, as the troop of his trackers starts pressing more closely,
• 565Leaps in the torrent, defeats it, then plucks out his shaft, with the virgin
• 566Vowed to the Goddess at Crossroads attached, from the turf of the meadow.
• 567  'No city took him within its defences, much less into households.
• 568Nor would this wild human creature have made any gesture to ask them.
• 569He led a shepherd's life in the lonely world of the mountains,
• pg 285 Link 570Raising his daughter here, in the bush, amid overgrown ranges,
• 571Suckling her at the dugs of a mare from a wild herd on untamed
• Link 572Beast's milk, inserting the teat at her tender lips, squeezing gently.
• Link 573Once this infant could stand on her feet, take her first steps, her father
• 574Armed her hands with a sharpened javelin, then from the tiny
• Link 575Young child's shoulders, suspended a bow and a quiver of arrows.
• 576No gold brooch for her hair, no long cape draping her body:
• 577All down her back, from the top of her head, hung the skin of a tigress.
• Editor’s Note578Her tender hands whirled spears, like a boy, not the sley of a girl's loom.*
• 579Circling her head was a smooth strap hurling bullets of slingshot,
• 580Shooting a white swan down or perhaps some crane from the Strymon.
• 581Mothers in every Etruscan town so hopelessly wanted
• 582Her as a bride for their sons. But, contented with only Diana,
• Link 583She remained virgin and fostered eternal love for her weapons
• 584And for her chastity. Oh, how I wish she had not been seduced by
• 585This kind of military action, attempting to harass the Teucrians.
• 586She would be dear to me now and be one of my corps of companions.
• Link 587'Go then, my nymph, since her bitter fate now closes in quickly,
• 588Slip from the dome of the skies and visit the land of the Latins,
• Link 589Where there's a grim fight in progress. The omens portend a disaster.
• 590Take these weapons and draw from the quiver an arrow of vengeance
• 591Which will exact for me, from whatever Italian or Trojan
• 592Violates her sacred body with wounds, like payment in bloodshed.
• 593Afterwards, I'll bear the piteous maiden's corpse and her armour
• 594Undespoiled in a hollow cloud to her homeland for burial.'
• 595Now she had spoken. The nymph spiralled down through the sky's subtle breezes
• 596Thunderously, swathing her body in black like a swirling tornado.

• 597Meanwhile the Trojan force nears the walls in conjunction with captains
• Editor’s Note598Leading Etruscan recruits* now trained and turned into equestrian
• 599Units of uniform size. So the open plains are a whinnying
• 600Tumult of stallions prancing and rearing, of heads tugging taut reins
• pg 286 Link 601This way and that. Now the farms have become vast croplands of iron,
• 602Bristling spear-shafts; plains are a blaze of armaments brandished.
• 603Out to oppose them Messapus rides, and the swift-moving Latins.
• 604Coras, too, with his brother, the squad, too, of virgin Camilla;
• 605All are in view on the plain's far side. Right arms are now either
• 606Angled back as they couch the extended reach of their lances
• 607Or making javelins quiver. Advancing men and the horses'
• 608Whinnying heighten the heat. Then they halt. Each side has moved into
• Link 609Javelin range. Of a sudden, a shout. Out they burst in a fury,
• 610Yelling their horses to fury, discharging their spears the way blizzards
• 611Swirl snow round, weaving sky into one dense shrouding of darkness.
• Editor’s Note612  Levelling lances, Tyrrhenus, and, keen as his spearhead, Aconteus*
• 613Instantly target each other and meet in the battle's first combat,
• 614Crashing together with thunderous noise and complete devastation:
• 615Four-footed horses smash shattered chest against chest at a gallop.
• 616Pitched from his horse and hurled like a lightning bolt or a huge ball
• 617Powered by torqued ropes, Aconteus spatters his life on the breezes.
• 618Instantly orderly lines become chaos. The Latins, now routed,
• 619Wheel about, shipping their shields to their backs, gallop straight for the city.
• 620Trojans pursue; and Asilas takes charge at the head of their squadrons.
• Link 621Once near the gates, though, the Latins again raise a rallying war-cry,
• 622Veer away, rein about supple-necked horses to face them. Pursuers
• 623Now are pursued, swept far to the rear, reins free, through their own ranks.
• Link 624Think of the sea with its alternate swirls of advance and withdrawal:
• 625Charging the land, surging over the rocks with the froth of its seething
• 626Swell, arched high into breakers that wash through the last spit of dry sand,
• 627Then rattle rapidly back, spinning stones in a suctioning backwash,
• 628Leaving the coastal sands as a slithering shallow of liquid.
• 629  Twice Tuscans routed Rutulians, sdriving them back to their ramparts;
• 630Twice, hurled back by spears, they glanced round and covered their own backs.
• pg 287631After they'd charged one another a third time, however, their forces
• 632Totally tangled and intertwined. Each man picked a man out.
• 633That's when the dying screamed, when the weapons and bodies went rolling
• 634Deep in the pooling blood, and when, mingled with carnage of humans,
• 635Half-dead horses writhed; for the fight grew ever more brutal.
• Editor’s Note636Since Orsilochus* feared to face Remulus' prowess in person,
• 637He flung a spear at his horse, striking under the ear where the iron
• 638Tip stuck. Crazed by the wound and the pain beyond bearing, the charger
• 639Reared up, chest raised high, thrashing legs, and then bucking its rider,
• 640Spinning him over the ground. And Catillus brought down Iollas,
• 641Huge in his courage, along with Herminius, huge in his body
• 642And in the strength of his arms. He wore nothing to cover his golden
• 643Unscissored hair, nothing over his shoulders. For wounds didn't scare him.
• 644So much man so exposed to a foeman's arms! Driven through him,
• 645Right between his broad arms, there's a quivering spear. And the raw pain
• 646Doubles him up. Dark blood gushes everywhere, death clad in iron,
• Editor’s Note Link 647Beautiful death* men yearn to attain through wounds in a battle!

• 648Yet, where the slaughter is thickest, the Amazon prances, exposing
• 649One of her flanks for the fight and equipped with a quiver: Camilla.
• 650Sometimes her hand scatters volley on volley of light, pliant javelins,
• Link 651Sometimes she grabs for a strong double axe, for her hand never tires.
• Link 652Arms from Diana, her golden bow, ring out on her shoulders.
• 653If she's repelled and retreats, she draws out her bow, faces backwards,
• Link 654Firing her flying shafts from behind her. Her favoured companions
• 655Gather about her: the virgins Larina and Tulla, and also,
• 656Wielding an axe made of bronze, Tarpeia. Each girl is Italian,
• 657Chosen by godlike Camilla herself to enhance her own image,
• 658First-rate servants in peacetime and war. They're so like the Thracian
• Link 659Amazons splashing their way across Thermodon's streams in their gaudy
• 660Armour, off to the wars, like Hippolyta's troops. Or perhaps we'd imagine
• pg 288661Penthesilea the daughter of Mars like this while returning
• 662Home in her chariot, her armies of women tumultuously howling
• 663Mighty halloos as they prance with the crescent-moon shields that they brandish.
• 664  Who was the first man you killed with your weapons, you fierce young woman?
• 665Who was the last? Bodies spilled to the ground and left dying: how many?
• 666Clytius' son, Euneus, was first. And she hurled a long pine-shaft
• 667Clear through the chest he exposed when he turned round to face her. Collapsing,
• 668Vomiting rivers of blood, he kept biting the ground he'd made gory,
• Link 669Writhing in spasms of death round the very wound that destroyed him.
• 670Then add Liris and Pagasus. Liris, bucked when his stallion
• Editor’s Note671Stumbled,* was gathering his reins. And while he was slipping, the other
• 672Came running up, hands stretched to assist, and thus holding no weapons.
• Link 673Both she sent crashing down to their deaths. Then she adds on Amaster,
• 674Hippotas' son, then pursues and shoots, long-range, with her javelins
• Editor’s Note675Tereus,* also Harpalycus, also Demophoön, Chromis:
• 676Each shaft torqued and dispatched by this woman's hand brought a Phrygian
• 677Man to his death.
• Far off, wearing unfamiliar equipment,
• 678Mounted upon a horse from Apulia, a hunter is riding.
• 679Ornytus cloaked the whole breadth of his ample shoulders with rawhide
• Editor’s Note680Stripped from a bullock (he liked a good fight).* For his head, the enormous
• 681Gaping mouth and the jaws of a white-toothed wolf give protection.
• 682Arming his hands is a peasant's staff with a hooked point. In his troop
• Link 683He is the central figure and stands a whole head above others.
• 684She intercepts him—it's not very hard, for his column's retreating—
• 685Runs him through and then adds these words from a heart full of hatred:
• Editor’s Note Link 686'Did you think you were out hunting game in the woods, you Etruscan?*
• pg 289687Your day of doom has arrived. It refutes, with the weapons of women,
• 688Everything you men say. But still, you will carry no trifling
• 689Name to your fathers' ghosts: you died by the spear of Camilla.'
• 690  Next fell Orsilochus, Butes as well, the two largest of Teucrian
• 691Fighters. But Butes did have his back turned when she drove her javelin
• 692In at that slim gleam of neck between corslet and helmet, his shield was
• Link 693Merely dangling down from his left arm. He was, in fact, seated.
• 694She, in Orsilochus' case, ran away. Though he chased her in great big
• Link 695Circles, she fooled him by making a tighter loop on the inside.
• 696Now the pursued was pursuer. He pleaded and begged as she rose up
• 697Higher and hacked through the arms of the man, through his bones, with her mighty
• 698Axe-blade, again and again. Gashes flooded his whole face with hot brains.
• 699  Terror immobilized Aunus' son when he saw her and met her
• 700Quite unexpectedly. This man, an Apenniniculan warrior,
• 701Lied with Liguria's best while fate let him practise deception.
• Link 702Once he perceived he could not make an exit in any direction
• 703Quickly enough to get out of a fight or avert the queen's onslaught,
• Link 704He made a shrewd approach with a well-planned ruse, and began thus:
• 705'What so distinguishes you from the herd if you, being female,
• 706Need a stud racehorse for courage? Away with escape! Trust resources
• 707You have, and fight me on level turf, on foot, and at close-range.
• Link 708Hitch yourself up! You will soon know who flatulent glory has hoodwinked.'
• 709She was enraged at his words and inflamed by the sharp pain they brought her.
• 710Handing her horse to a comrade, she faced him on foot with equipment
• 711Much like his: bare steel, plain shield, though this didn't scare her.
• 712Thinking his ruse had her beaten, the youth didn't falter. He simply
• 713Lifted the reins, wheeled about, and took off at a runaway gallop,
• 714Spurring his horse to full four-legged speed with a raking of iron.
• Link 715'You're the one fooled, you Ligurian! Runaway pride gets you nowhere!
• 716Your slick attempts at your folk's traditional arts have been wasted!
• 717Trickery won't bring you home safely to Aunus the Cheater!'
• pg 290718These are the young girl's words. Like fire with the feet of a sprinter,
• 719She outraces his horse, grabs the reins, turns to face him, attacks him,
• 720Then penalizes her foeman in blood, casually, like a sacred
• 721Predator soaring on wings from a cliff-top, extending his pinions,
• Editor’s Note722Stalking a pretty dove,* over her limits, unbridled, in veiling
• 723Cloud; and he catches her, grasps her, and guts her with curving
• 724Talons. Her blood sputters; plumes wrenched out flutter down from the heavens.

• Link 725This was not something the Sower of Life for the gods and for humans
• Editor’s Note726Failed to observe from his post on the pinnacled heights* of Olympus.
• 727He, life's begetter, aroused the Etruscan Tarchon for battle's
• 728Savagery, pricked up his wrath with no trivially soft provocation.
• 729Tarchon, then, rode round amidst slaughter and columns withdrawing,
• 730Spurring his fleeing wings with his varied words, into action,
• 731Calling each trooper by name and reviving the battered for battle:
• Link 732'What fear has touched you, Etruscans, what monstrous failure of courage,
• 733You, so determined you'll never feel pain and who'll always be useless?
• 734Some woman drives you around in a daze, beats back your advances!
• 735What are swords for? Why do your right hands wield weapons that don't work?
• 736You are not lacking in fire for night's bellicose tussles and Venus,
• 737Or when the sound of the curving pipes declares dances for Bacchus!
• 738Keep a sharp eye out for fêtes, and for tables loaded with goblets!
• Link 739That's what you love, that's your cause, when the seer declares omens propitious,
• Editor’s Note740When the host's* challenge to you in the woods is well-marbled and juicy.'
• Link 741This said, and ready to die, he's now spurring his horse into combat,
• 742Targeting Venulus, rushing at him like a whirlwind. He grabs him
• 743Up off his horse, pulls him over his lap, and with notable violence
• 744Holds his foe tight with his right hand and carries him off at a gallop.
• 745Shouts ring out to the heavens above them, and all of the Latins
• 746Turn their eyes his way. For Tarchon is fire racing over the flatlands,
• Editor’s Note747Arms and their man* in his grasp. Then he snaps off Venulus' iron
• pg 291748Spearhead and probes for a gap in his armour, a spot where the death-wound
• 749Can be delivered. But Venulus fights back against him. He pushes
• 750Tarchon's hand from his throat, escapes force with the strength of his own force.
• Link 751Think of an eagle, high in her flight, all tawny, and holding
• 752Intertwined with her feet and clenched in her talons a captured
• Link 753Serpent. He's wounded but writhing his rippling coils, and he spirals
• 754Upwards, scales prickled out and erect, stretching higher and higher,
• 755Spitting out hisses. But she doesn't stop her attacks on her struggling
• 756Prey with her curving beak as her wings thrash flight through the heavens.
• 757That is how Tarchon carries away from the forces of Tibur, in triumph,
• Editor’s Note758His own burden of prey.* Emulating their captain's achievements,
• 759Lydia's sons, the Etruscans, attack.
•   Fate's dues are awaiting
• Editor’s Note Link 760Arruns, who, javelin poised, is stalking* the speedy Camilla
• 761Craftily. That's where he has the edge. He's in quest of the easiest
• 762Chance; so wherever the raging girl plunges into the columns,
• 763Arruns moves stealthily in. And he follows her tracks, never speaking.
• 764Where she returns from a victory won, disengaging from battle,
• 765There the young man goes too, like a thief, with a flick of his quick reins.
• 766This approach, that approach, each angle offered, and circling, circling
• 767Everywhere, constantly, ruthlessly flexing his unerring javelin.
• Editor’s Note Link 768  Chloreus,* devoted to Cybele's mountain (at one time her priest too),
• Link 769Was, it chanced, spurring his horse to a froth. He stood out at a distance,
• 770Gleaming in Phrygian armour. And so did his horse, with its bronze mail
• Link 771Threaded with gold on a backing of leather and looking like plumage.
• 772He was resplendent himself in Iberian rust-red and purple,
• Link 773Fired arrows made in Crete from a horn bow crafted in Lycia.
• Link 774Gold-plate covered that bow on his shoulders. The seer wore a golden
• Link 775Helmet as well, and he'd gathered the crackling folds of his cotton
• Link 776Cloak, crocus-yellow in hue, with the tawny gold of a fastener.
• pg 292777Ornate needlework patterned his tunic and wild Anatolian leggings.
• 778He was the one that the virgin Camilla, in all the fight's struggles,
• 779Had to pursue. Did she want to display, at the gates of a temple,
• Editor’s Note780Some Trojan armour? Or wear it herself, perhaps, when she went hunting?
• Link 781She pursued blindly, recklessly all through the columns,
• Link 782Hot, but with feminine tastes,* in her passion for booty and plunder.
• 783  Arruns had finally captured his moment. Lurking in ambush,
• 784He, at last, brought his javelin to life and he uttered this prayer:
• Editor’s Note Link 785'Greatest of gods and guardian of holy Soracte, Apollo,*
• Link 786We are your chief devotees and heap up, for rites in your honour,
• 787Bonfires of pine-wood. We walk, for we trust in our righteous devotion,
• 788Straight through the blaze, press the soles of our feet on the deep-layered embers.
• Link 789Father Almighty, permit this disgrace to be purged by my weapons.
• Editor’s Note790I wouldn't strip off her gear, make a trophy out of a beaten
• 791Virgin.* I don't want spoils. For my further achievements will bring me
• 792Praise. So as long as this pestilent demon may fall when she's beaten,
• Link 793Wounded by me, I'll go back without fame to my ancestors' city.'
• 794  Phoebus heard all of the prayer and his will allowed one part accomplished.
• 795As for the other, he tossed it away on the fluttering breezes.
• Editor’s Note796That he lay low with a sudden death the distracted Camilla:
• 797Yes, prayer granted. That hills of his homeland should see him returning:
• 798Not granted. Storms swirled these words away to the whims of the south winds.*
• 799Now, as the javelin hurled by his hand screeched noise through the breezes,
• 800Volscians all shifted passions to thoughts of the queen and they focused
• 801Their keen eyes upon her. She herself noticed neither the moving
• 802Air nor the sound, had no sense of the weapon's descent from the heavens,
• Link 803Nothing, until that javelin passed through the nipple she kept bare,
• 804Stuck where aimed; there it drank deep draughts of her virginal lifeblood.
• 805Frantically, comrades converge at a run and support their collapsing
• 806Mistress. But running away is the most frightened person around them:
• pg 293807Arruns. Elation has mingled with fear and he now doesn't even
• 808Dare put his trust in a spear or face up to a virgin in combat.
• 809He's like the one who conceals himself instantly up in the mountain
• 810Heights, to which no path leads, before hostile weapons pursue him:
• 811He is the wolf who has just killed the herdsman or champion bullock,
• Link 812Fully aware of the rash deed done, tail limp now and quivering,
• Editor’s Note813Tucked away under its womb-like paunch,* heading into the forests.
• 814That is how Arruns, in panic, took off to where eyes couldn't see him.
• 815Happy just to escape, he hides himself deep in the fighting.
• 816  She, though, is dying. She tugs at the weapon. The spear's tip of iron
• 817Close to her ribs, in between her bones, won't budge. The wound's too deep.
• 818She's slipping now, as her life's blood seeps; and her eyes are now slipping
• 819Coldly to deadness, the colour once bright in her face has all faded.
• Link 820Breathing her last breath, she speaks a few phrases to one of her girlfriends,
• 821Acca, the one she most trusted, the only person Camilla
• 822Shared her concerns with at all. She addressed her much in this manner:
• Editor’s Note Link 823'Up to this point, I had strength. Now, Acca my sister,* this vicious
• Link 824Wound makes me weak. The world round me grows blacker with shadows.
• 825Hurry away and convey my final instructions to Turnus.
• 826He must take my place in battle and keep Trojans out of the city.
• Link 827Now, farewell.' As she spoke she was loosening her grip on her horse's
• 828Reins and was slipping down to the ground, unwittingly this time.
• 829Cold now, and slowly detaching self from her whole body, bowing
• Link 830Slumped neck and head to her captor, Death, she surrendered her weapons.
• Editor’s Note831Life flutters off on a groan, under protest, down among shadows.*
• 832  That's when an indescribable roar surged up and assaulted
• 833Golden stars. Now Camilla had fallen, the fighting grew meaner.
• 834Massed for attack they charge all at once: the whole Teucrian task force,
• 835Tuscan commanders too, and Evander's Arcadian squadrons.

• 836Opis, the Crossroad Goddess's guard, up high atop mountains,
• pg 294837Had, for a long time now, been sitting and watching the battle
• 838Unperturbed. When she saw from afar, in the midst of the raging
• Link 839Warriors' uproar, the grisly death that had punished Camilla,
• 840She gave a groan and she uttered these words full of heartfelt emotion:
• 841'You've paid a price too high, too cruel a penalty, poor girl,
• Link 842Just for attempting to harass the Teucrians during a conflict.
• 843It hasn't helped you that you lived a solitary life for Diana
• 844Out in the wilds, that you've worn our arrows strapped to your shoulders.
• Link 845Still, though, your queen hasn't left you with no honours now in this final
• 846Hour of your death. For your fate won't be nameless, forgotten by nations.
• 847Nor will you suffer from rumours that claim nobody avenged you.
• Editor’s Note848He who has given you wounds did violence to your sacred body.*
• 849He'll meet the death he deserves.'
• There was once a huge burial-chamber,
• 850Built at the foot of a mountain, and mounded with earth, for the long-dead
• 851King of the Laurentine people, Dercennus. A shrouding of dark-leaved
• 852Holm-oak covered the mound. In a speedy movement this loveliest
• 853Goddess landed here first. From the top of the rise Opis watches
• Link 854Arruns. She sees him gleaming in arms, swollen vanity rising.
• Link 855'Why are you turning away to go off?' she enquired. 'Come towards me!
• Link 856Come to your death over here, so you'll get the reward for Camilla
• 857You so deserve! And will you perish, too, on the shafts of Diana?'
• Link 858This said, the hostile Thracian nymph drew a swift, feathered arrow
• Editor’s Note859Out from her gilded quiver. She first stretched the horn bow* to straightness,
• 860Then drew it far, far back till the two curved heads came together,
• 861Coupled. Then she could touch, hands levelled, her left to the iron
• 862Tip of her shaft while touching her right to her bowstring and nipple.
• 863Suddenly Arruns heard both the screech of the shaft and the whirring
• 864Air at precisely the instant the iron stuck fast in his body.
• Link 865Comrades who'd been at his side left him gasping his life out and groaning
• 866Final groans in anonymous flatland dust, then forgot him.
• 867  Opis soars on her wings to the brightness of heaven's Olympus.
• pg 295868  First to break ranks is Camilla's light cavalry, after their leader's
• 869Death. In the rout, the Rutulians break, and Atinas is running,
• 870Officers split from their troops, and platoons left without their commanders
• Link 871Seek safe ground, wheel horses about, race back to the city.
• 872No one has strength to contain, in a fight, this murderous Teucrian
• 873Onslaught and no one can stand his ground in its path. So they slacken
• 874Bowstrings, reshoulder their bows upon shoulders slumping and sagging.
• Link 875Cloven-hoofed quadruped clatter kicks clumps, quivers plains at a gallop.
• 876Whirling dust swirls up to the walls with the blackness of smoking
• 877Fires, mothers drum out grief on their breasts and they howl from the watchtowers
• 878Wails only women can wail, high as stars in the heavens above them.
• 879  Gates have been opened. The first wave of fugitives bursts within, sprinting,
• 880Pressed by a raging mob of the foe, mixed in with their own lines.
• 881Failing to flee a pathetic death on their very own thresholds:
• 882On their homeland's walls or in safe rooms within their own houses.
• 883Skewered by spear-thrusts, they gasp out their souls. Some rash individuals
• 884Slam the gates shut. They don't dare keep escape within city defences
• 885Open to comrades who plead for admittance. A hideous slaughter
• 886Follows. The swords that the fugitives rush on are swords of defenders
• 887Blocking their access. While parents watch, eyes streaming with tears,
• 888Some of the men shut out, as the wild stampede presses onwards,
• 889Spin into trench-pits; some, while careering blindly with free-rein,
• Link 890Smash, like battering-rams, into gates, into reinforced gateposts.
• 891Down from the walls, from the heights of the fray (and in rivalry), mothers
• 892Hurl spears shakily handled. They have seen Camilla, and real
• 893Patriotism inspires them. They hastily improvise oak-hard
• 894Fencing and fire-toughened poles into copies of iron-tipped weapons,
• 895Ardent with passion to be the first women to die for their city.

• 896Meanwhile the savaging news reaches Turnus, up in the forest,
• Editor’s Note897Flooding his youthful soul. Acca tells of the ruinous rampage:*
• pg 296898Volscian forces entirely destroyed and Camilla now fallen;
• 899Enemy forces advancing aggressively; Mars going their way;
• 900Foe now in total control; panic already spread to the city.
• 901He's in a fury now—that's what Jupiter's brute will requires—
• Editor’s Note902So he abandons his hilltop ambush* and leaves the rough forest.
• 903Scarcely had he disappeared beyond view and set foot on the flatlands,
• Link 904When, marching into the now clear pass, up over the ridge-top,
• 905Father Aeneas emerged on the plain from the forested darkness.
• 906Both armies now, full force, make a rapid advance on the city.
• 907Distance between them is measured in strides—indeed, not very long ones.
• 908Just as Aeneas observed dust rising like smoke from the meadows,
• 909And got a long-range view of the Laurentine columns, so Turnus
• 910Recognized, at the same moment, the savage Aeneas's armour,
• Editor’s Note911Heard too the thumping of feet on the march and the snorting of horses.
• 912Trojans* would right then have launched an attack and engaged in a battle
• 913If Phoebus hadn't been reddening darkly, and bathing exhausted
• 914Stallions in Spanish tides, bringing night back as daylight was ebbing.
• 915So, they establish a camp and build ramparts in front of the city.