But brave Messapus, Neptune's warlike son,
Broke down the palisades, the trenches won,
And loud for ladders calls, to scale the town.
Calliope, begin! ye sacred Nine,
Inspire your poet in his high design,
To sing what slaughter manly Turnus made,
What souls he sent below the Stygian shade,
What fame the soldiers with their captain share,
And the vast circuit of the fatal war:
For you, in singing martial facts, excel;
You best remember, and alone can tell.
There stood a tower amazing to the sight,
Built
up
of beams, and of stupendous height:
Art, and the nature of the place, conspir'd,
To furnish all the strength that war requir'd.
To level this the bold Italians join;
The wary Trojans obviate their design;
With weighty stones o'erwhelm their troops
below,
[throw.
Shoot through the loopholes, and sharp jav'lins
Turnus the chief toss'd from his thund'ring hand,
Against the wooden walls, a flaming brand:
It stuck, the fiery plague the winds were high,
The planks were season'd and the timber dry.
Contagion caught the posts; it spread along,
Scorch'd, and to distance drove, the scatter'd
throng.
The Trojans fled; the fire pursued amain,
Still gath'ring fast upon the trembling train;
Till, crowding to the corners of the wall,
Down the defence and the defenders fall.
The mighty flaw makes heav'n itself resound:
The dead and dying Trojans strew the ground.
The tow'r, that follow'd on the fallen crew,
Whelm'd o'er their heads, and buried whom it
slew.
But Lycus, swifter of his feet by far,
Runs, doubles, winds, and turns, amidst the war:
Springs to the walls, and leaves his foes behind,
And snatches at the beam he first can find;
Looks up, and leaps aloft at all the stretch,
In hopes the helping hand of some kind friend to
reach.
But Turnus follow'd hard his hunted prey,
(His spear had almost reach'd him in the way,
Short of his reins, and scarce a span behind.)
"Fool!" said the chief," though fleeter than the
wind,
[sue?"
Couldst thou presume to 'scape, when I pur-
He said, and downward by the feet he drew
The trembling dastard: at the tug he falls:
Vast ruins come along, rent from the smoking
walls.
Thus on some silver swan, or tim'rous hare,
Jove's bird comes sousing down from upper air;
Her crooked talons truss the fearful prey:
Then out of sight she soars, and wings her way.
So seizes the grim wolf the tender lamb,
In vain lamented by the bleating dam.
Then rushing onward with a barbarous cry,
The troops of Turnus to the combat fly.
The ditch with fagots fill'd, the daring foe
Toss'd firebrands to the steepy turrets throw.
Ilioneus, as bold Lucetius came
To force the gate, and feed the kindling flame,
Roll'd down the fragment of a rock so right,
It crush'd him double underneath the weight.
Two more young Liger and Asylus slew:
To bend the bow young Liger better knew;
Asylus best the pointed jav'lin threw.
Brave Cæneus laid Ortygus on the plain;
The victor Cæneus was by Turnus slain.
Some stuck upon the darts themselves had sent, By the same hand, Clonius and Itys fall,
All the same equal ruin underwent.
Young Lycus and Helenor only 'scape; Sav'd-how, they know not-from the steepy leap.
Helenor, elder of the two; by birth,
On one side royal, one a son of earth;
Whom to the Lydian king Lycimnia bare,
And sent her boasted bastard to the war:
(A privilege which none but freemen share.)
Slight were his arms, a sword and silver shield
No marks of honour charg'd its empty field.
Light as he fell, so light the youth arose,
And, rising, found himself amidst his foes;
Ner flight was left, nor hopes to force his way.
Imbolden'd by despair, he stood at bay ;
And like a stag, whom all the troop surrounds
Of eager huntsinen and invading hounds-
Resolv'd on death, he dissipates his fears,
And bounds aloft against the pointed spears:
So dares the youth, secure of death; and throws
His dying body on his thickest foes.
Sagar, and Idas standing on the wall.
From Capys' arms, his fate Privernus found:
Hurt by Themilla first-but slight the wound,—
His shield thrown by, to mitigate the smart,
He clapp'd his hand upon the wounded part:
The second shaft came swift and unespied,
And pierc'd his hand and nail'd it to his side,
Transfix'd his bleeding lungs, and beating heart;
The soul came issuing out, and hiss'd against
the dart.
The sun of Arcens shone amid the rest,
In glitt'ring armour and a purple vest,
(Fair was his face, his eyes inspiring love,)
Bred by his father in the Martian grove,
Where the fat altars of Pelicus flame,
And sent in arms to purchase early fame.
Him when he spied, from far, the Tuscan king
Laid by the lance, and took to him the sling,
Thrice whirl'd the thong around his head, and
The heated lead half melted as it flew :
It pierc'd his hollow temples and his brain; The youth came tumbling down, and spurn'd the plain.
Then young Ascanius, who, before this day, Was wont in woods to shoot the savage prey, First bent in martial strife the twanging bow, And exercis'd against a human foeWith this bereft Numanus of his life, Who Turnus' younger sister took to wife. Proud of his realm, and of his royal bride, Vaunting before his troops, and lengthen'd with a stride,
In these insulting terms the Trojans he defied: "Twice conquer'd cowards! now your shame is shown
Coop'd up a second time within your town!
Who dare not issue forth in open field,
But hold your walls before you for a shield.
Thus treat you war? thus our alliance force?
What gods, what madness hither steer'd your
course?
You shall not find the sons of Atreus here,
Nor need the frauds of sly Ulysses fear.
Strong from the cradle, of a sturdy brood,
We bear our new-born infants to the flood;
There bath'd amid the stream, our boys we
hold,
With winter harden'd, and inur'd to cold.
They wake before the day to range the wood,
Kill ere they eat, nor taste unconquer'd food.
No sports, but what belong to war they know-
To break the stubborn colt, to bend the bow.
Our youth, of labour patient, earn their bread;
Hardly they work, with frugal diet fed.
From ploughs and harrows sent to seek re-
They fight in fields, and storm the shaken town.
No part of life from toils of war is free,
No change in age or diff'rence in degree.
We plough and till in arms : our oxen feel,
Instead of goads, the spur and pointed steel:
The inverted lance makes furrows in the plain.
E'en time, that changes all, yet changes us in
The body, not the mind-nor can control Th' immortal vigour, or abate the soul.
Sing, dance, and howl, by turns, in Ida's shade: Resign the war to men, who know the martial trade."
This foul reproach Ascanius could not bear With patience, or a vow'd revenge forbear. At the full stretch of both his hands, he drew And almost join'd the horns of the tough yew. But first before the throne of Jove he stood, And thus with lifted hands invok'd the god: "My first attempt, great Jupiter, succeed! An annual offering in thy grove shall bleed, A snow-white steer, before thy altar led, Who, like his mother, bears aloft his head, Butts with his threat'ning brows, and bellowing stands,
And dares the fight, and spurns the yellow sands."
Jove bow'd the heav'ns, and lent a gracious
And thunder'd on the left, amidst the clear.
Sounded at once the bow; and swiftly flies
The feather'd death, and hisses through the
The steel through both his temples forc'd the way:
Extended on the ground, Numanus lay. "Go now, vain boaster! and true valour scorn! The Phrygians, twice subdu'd, yet make this third return."
Ascanius said no more. The Trojans shake The heav'ns with shouting, and new vigour take,
Apollo then bestrode a golden cloud, To view the feats of arms, and fighting crowd; And thus the beardless victor he bespoke aloud: "Advance, illustrious youth! increase in fame, And wide from east to west, extend thy nameOffspring of gods thyself; and Rome shall owe To thee a race of demigods below. This is the way to heav'n: the pow'rs divine From this beginning date the Julian line. To thee, to them, and their victorious heirs, The conquer'd war is due; and the vast world is theirs.
Troy is too narrow for thy name." He said, And plunging downward shot his radiant head;
Our helms defend the young, disguise the Dispell'd the breathing air, that broke his flight:
Shorn of his beams, a man to mortal sight.
Old Butes' form he took, Anchises' squire,
Now left to rule Ascanius, by his sire;
His wrinkled visage, and his hoary hairs,
His mien, his habit, and his arms he wears,
And thus salutes the boy, too forward for his
"Suffice it thee, thy father's worthy son, The warlike prize thou hast already won. The god of archers gives thy youth a part Of his own praise, nor envies equal art.
Now tempt the war no more." He said, and flew
Obscure in air, and vanish'd from their view. The Trojans, by his arms, their patron know, And hear the twanging of his heavenly bow. Then duteous force they use, and Phoebus'
To keep from fight the youth too fond of fame.
Undaunted, they themselves no dangers shun:
From wall to wall, the shouts and clamours run:
They bend their bows; they whirl their slings
around:
Heaps of spent arrows fall, and strew the
ground;
[sound.
And helms, and shields, and rattling arms re-
The combat thickens, like the storm that flies
From westward, when the show'ry Kids arise;
Or patt'ring hail comes pouring on the main,
When Jupiter descends in harden'd rain,
Or bellowing clouds burst with a stormy sound,
And with an armed winter strew the ground.
Pand'rus and Bitias, thunder-bolts of war,
Whom Hiera to bold Alcanor bore,
On Ida's top-two youths of height and size
Like firs that on their mother-mountain rise-
Presuming on their force, the gates unbar,
And of their own accord invite the war,
With fates averse, against their king's com-
mand,
Arm❜d, on the right and on the left, they stand,
And flank the passage: shining steel they wear,
And waving crests above their heads appear.
Thus two tall oaks, that Padus' banks adorn,
Lift up to heav'n their leafy heads unshorn,
And, ever press'd with nature's heavy load,
Dance to the whistling winds, and at each other
In flows a tide of Latians, when they see
The gates set open, and the passage free:
Bold Quercens, with rash Tmarus rushing on,
Equicolus, who in bright armour shone,
And Hæmon first: but soon repuls'd they fly,
Or in the well-defended pass they die.
Sarpedon's son) he slow: the deadly dart Found passage through his breast, and pierc'd his heart.
Fix'd in the wound th' Italian cornel stood,
Warm'd in his lungs, and in his vital blood.
Aphidnus next, and Erymanthus dies,
And Meropes, and the gigantic size
Of Bitias, threat'ning with his ardent eyes;
Not by the feeble dart he fell oppress'd,
(A dart were lost within his roomy breast,)
But from a knotted lance, large, heavy, strong,
Which roar'd like thunder as it whirl'd along:
Not two bull-hides th' impetuous force withhold,
Nor coat of double mail, with scales of gold.
Down sunk the monster bulk, and press'd the
ground,
(His arms and clatt'ring shield on the vast body sound.)
Not with less ruin than the Baian mole,
Rais'd on the seas, the surges to control-
At once comes tumbling down the rocky wall,
Prone to the deep; the stones disjointed fall
Of the vast pile; the scatter'd ocean flies;
Black sands, discolour'd froth, and mingled mud,
arise,
The frighted billows roll, and seek the shores:
Then trembles Prochyta, then Ischia roars :
Typhous, thrown beneath by Jove's command,
Astonish'd at the flaw that shakes the land,
Soon shifts his weary side, and, scarce awake,
With wonder feels the weight press lighter on
his back.
The warrior god the Latian troops inspir'd, And strung their sincws, and their courage fir'd, But chills the Trojan hearts with cold affright: Then black despair precipitates their flight.
When Pandarus beheld his brother kill'd, The town with fear and wild confusion fill'd, He turns the hinges of the heavy gate With both his hands, and adds his shoulders te
Some happier friends within the walls enclos'd
The rest shut out, to certain death expos'd;
These with success are fir'd, and those with Fool as he was, and frantic in his care,
T'admit young Turnus, and include the war
He thrust amid the crowd, securely bold,
Like a fierce tiger pent amid the fold.
Too late his blazing buckler they descry,
And sparkling fires that shot from either eye,
His mighty members, and his ample breast,
His rattling armour, and his crimson crest.
Far from that hated face the Trojans fly,
All but the fool who sought his destiny. [vow'd
Mad Pandarus steps forth, with vengeance
For Bitias' death, and threatens thus aloud:
"These are not Ardea's walls, nor this the
Amata proffers with Lavinia's crown:
'Tis hostile earth you tread. Of hope bereft,
No means of safe return by flight are left."
To whom, with count'nance calm, and soul se-
date,
Thus Turnus: "Then begin; and try thy fate:
My message to the ghost of Priam bear;
Tell him a new Achilles sent thee there."
A lance of tough ground ash the Trojan threw, Rough in the rind, and knotted as it grew: With his full force he whirl'd it first around, But the soft yielding air receiv'd the wound: Imperial Juno turn'd the course before,
And fix'd the wand'ring weapon in the door.
"But hope not thou," said Turnus," when I
strike,
To shun thy fate: our force is not alike,
Nor thy steel temper'd by the Lemnian god."
Then rising, on his utmost stretch he stood,
And aim'd from high: the full descending blow
Cleaves the broad front, and beardless cheeks in
two.
Down sinks the giant with a thund'ring sound:
His pond'rous limbs oppress the trembling
ground;
[wound.
Blood, brains, and foam, gush from the gaping Scalp, face, and shoulders, the keen steel divides;
And the shar'd visage hangs on equal sides.
The Trojans fly from their approaching fate :
And, had the victor then secur'd the gate,
And to his troops without unclos'd the bars,
One lucky day had ended all his wars.
But boiling youth, and blind desire of blood,
Push on his fury, to pursue the crowd.
Hamstring'd behind, unhappy Gyges died:
Then Phalaris is added to his side.
The pointed jav'lins from the dead he drew,
And their friends' arms against their fellows
threw.
Strong Halys stands in vain; weak Phegeus flies:
Saturnia, still at hand, new force and fire supplies.
Then Halius, Prytanis, Aicander fall-
Engag'd against the foes who scal'd the wall:
But whom they fear'd without, they found with-
in.
At last, though late, by Lynceus he was seen.
He calls new succours, and assaults the prince:
But weak his force, and vain is their defence.
Turn'd to the right, his sword the hero drew,
And at one blow the bold aggressor slew.
He joints the neck: and with a stroke so strong,
The helm flies off, and bears the head along.
Next him, the huntsman, Amycus, he kill'd,
In darts envenom'd, and in poison skill'd,
Then Clytius fell beneath his fatal spear,
And Creteus, whom the Muses held so dear :
He fought with courage, and he sung the fight:
Arms were his bus'ness, verses his delight.
The Trojan chiefs behold, with rage and
grief,
Their slaughter'd friends, and hasten their relief.
Bold Mnestheus rallies first the broken train, Whom brave Serestus and his troops sustain. To save the living and revenge the dead, Against one warrior's arm all Troy they led. "O, void of sense and courage!" Mnestheus cried,
"Where can you hope your coward heads to hide?
[run? Ah! where beyond these rampires can you One man, and in your camp enclos'd, you shun! Shall then a single sword such slaughter boast, And pass unpunish'd from a num'rous host? Forsaking honour, and renouncing fame, Your gods, your country, and your king, you shame!"
This just reproach their virtue does excite : They stand, they join, they thicken to the fight. Now Turnus doubts, and yet disdains to
But with slow paces measures back the field,
And inches to the walls, where Tyber's tide,
Washing the camp, defends the weaker side..
The more he loses, they advance the more,
And tread in every step he trod before.
They shout; they bear him back; and whom
by might
They cannot conquer, they oppress with weight.
As, compass'd with a wood of spears around,
The lordly lion still maintains his ground;
Grins horrible, retires, and turns again;
Threats his distended paws, and shakes his
He loses while in vain he presses on,
Nor will his courage let him dare to run:
So Turnus fares, and, unresolv'd of flight,
Moves tardy back, and just recedes from fight.
Yet twice enrag'd, the combat he renews,
Twice breaks, and twice his broken foes pur-
But now they swarm, and with fresh troops supplied,
Come rolling on, and rush from every side: Nor Juno, who sustain'd his arms before, Dares with new strength suffice th' exhausted
For Jove, with sour commands. sent Iris down, To force th' invader from the frighted town.
With labour spent, no longer can he wield The heavy falchion, or sustain the shield, C'erwhelm'd with darts, which from afar they fling
The weapons round his hollow temples ring;
His golden helm gives way, with stony blows
Batter'd and flat, and beaten to his brows.
His crest is rash'd away; his ample shield
Is falsified, and round with jav'lins fill'd.
The foe now faint, the Trojans overwhelm;
And Mnestheus lays hard load upon his helm.
Sick sweat succeeds, he drops at ev'ry pore;
With driving dust his cheeks are pasted o'er;
Shorter and shorter ev'ry gasp he takes;
And vain efforts and hurtless blows he makes.
Arm'd as he was, at length he leap'd from high,
Plung'd in the flood, and made the waters fly.
The yellow god the welcome burden bore,
And wip'd the sweat, and wash'd away the
gore;
Then gently wafts him to the farther coast,
And sends him safe to cheer his anxious host.
Jupiter, calling a council of the gods,forbids them to engage in either party. At Eneas' return there is a bloody battle; Turnus killing Pallas; Eneas, Lausus and Mezentius. Mezentius is described as an atheist; Lausus as a pious and virtuous youth. The different actions and death of these two are the subject of a noble episode.
"O pow'r immense! eternal energy!
(For to what else protection can we fly?)
See'st thou the proud Rutulians, how they dare
In fields, unpunish'd, and insult my care?
How lofty Turnus vaunts amidst his train,
In shining arms triumphant on the plain?
E'en in their lines and trenches they contend;
And scarce their walls the Trojan troops de-
fend:
The town is fill'd with slaughter, and o'erfloats,
With a red deluge, their increasing moats.
Eneas, ignorant, and far from thence,
Has left a camp expos'd, without defence.
This endless outrage shall they still sustain?
Shall Troy renew'd, be forc'd and fir'd again?
A second siege my banish'd issue fears;
And a new Diomede in arms appears.
One more audacious mortal will be found;
And I, thy daughter, wait another wound.
Yet, if, with fates averse, without thy leave,
The Latian lands my progeny receive,
Bear they the pains of violated law,
And thy protection from their aid withdraw.
But, if the gods their sure success foretell-
If those of heaven consent with those of hell,
To promise Italy; who dare debate
The pow'r of Jove, or fix another fate?
What should I tell of tempests on the main,
Of Eolus usurping Neptune's reign?
THE gates of heav'n unfold: Jove summons all Of Iris sent, with Bacchanalian heat,
The gods to council in the common hall.
Sublimely seated, he surveys from far
The fields, the camp, the fortune of the war,
And all th' inferior world. From first to last,
The sov'reign senate in degrees are plac'd.
Then thus the almighty sire began: "Ye gods,
Natives or denizens of blest abodes!
From whence these murmurs, and this change
of mind,
This backward fate from what was first de-
sign'd?
'Why this protracted war, when my commands
Pronounc'd a peace, and gave the Latian lands?
What fear or hope on either part divides
Our heav'ns, and arms our powers on diff'rent
sides?
A lawful time of war at length will come,
(Nor need your haste anticipate the doom,)
When Carthage shall contend the world with
Rome,
Shall force the rigid rocks and Alpine chains,
And, like a flood, come pouring on the plains.
Then is your time for faction and debate,
For partial favour, and permitted hate.
Let now your immature dissension cease:
Sit quiet, and compose your souls to peace."
Thus Jupiter in few unfolds the charge:
But lovely Venus thus replies at large:
T' inspire the matrons, and destroy the fleet?
Now Juno to the Stygian sky descends,
Solicits hell for aid and arms the fiends.
That new example wanted yet above-
An act that well became the wife of Jove!
Alecto, rais'd by her, with
rage inflames
The peaceful bosoms of the Latian dames.
Imperial sway no more exalts my mind;
(Such hopes I had indeed, while heav'n was
kind;)
Now let my happier foes possess my place,
Whom Jove prefers before the Trojan race;
And conquer they whom you with conquest
grace.
Since you can spare, from all your wide com-
mand,
No spot of earth, no hospitable land,
Which may my wand'ring fugitives receive,
(Since haughty Juno will not give you leave ;)
Then, father, (if I still may use that name,)
By ruin'd Troy, yet smoking from the flame,
I beg you, let Ascanius, by my care,
Be freed from danger and dismiss'd the war:
Inglorious let him live, without a crown:
The father may be cast on coasts unknown,
Struggling with fate; but let me save the son.
Mine is Cythera, mine the Cyprian tow'rs:
In those recesses, and those sacred bow'rs,
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