The Aeneid - Virgil (13 ebook reader .TXT) š
- Author: Virgil
Book online Ā«The Aeneid - Virgil (13 ebook reader .TXT) šĀ». Author Virgil
Unmovād with presents, and as deaf to prayār.
Some new alliance must elsewhere be sought,
Or peace with Troy on hard conditions bought.
Latinus, sunk in sorrow, finds too late,
A foreign son is pointed out by fate;
And, till Aeneas shall Lavinia wed,
The wrath of Heavān is hovāring oāer his head.
The gods, he saw, espousād the juster side,
When late their titles in the field were tried:
Witness the fresh laments, and funāral tears undried.
Thus, full of anxious thought, he summons all
The Latian senate to the council hall.
The princes come, commanded by their head,
And crowd the paths that to the palace lead.
Supreme in powār, and reverencād for his years,
He takes the throne, and in the midst appears.
Majestically sad, he sits in state,
And bids his envoys their success relate.
When Venulus began, the murmuring sound
Was hushād, and sacred silence reignād around.
āWe have,ā said he, āperformād your high command,
And passād with peril a long tract of land:
We reachād the place desirād; with wonder fillād,
The Grecian tents and rising towārs beheld.
Great Diomede has compassād round with walls
The city, which Argyripa he calls,
From his own Argos namād. We touchād, with joy,
The royal hand that razād unhappy Troy.
When introducād, our presents first we bring,
Then crave an instant audience from the king.
His leave obtainād, our native soil we name,
And tell thā important cause for which we came.
Attentively he heard us, while we spoke;
Then, with soft accents, and a pleasing look,
Made this return: āAusonian race, of old
Renownād for peace, and for an age of gold,
What madness has your alterād minds possessād,
To change for war hereditary rest,
Solicit arms unknown, and tempt the sword,
A needless ill your ancestors abhorrād?
Weā āfor myself I speak, and all the name
Of Grecians, who to Troyās destruction came,
Omitting those who were in battle slain,
Or borne by rolling SimoĆÆs to the mainā ā
Not one but sufferād, and too dearly bought
The prize of honour which in arms he sought;
Some doomād to death, and some in exile drivān.
Outcasts, abandonād by the care of Heavān;
So worn, so wretched, so despisād a crew,
As evān old Priam might with pity view.
Witness the vessels by Minerva tossād
In storms; the vengeful Capharean coast;
Thā Euboean rocks! the prince, whose brother led
Our armies to revenge his injurād bed,
In Egypt lost! Ulysses with his men
Have seen Charybdis and the Cyclopsā den.
Why should I name Idomeneus, in vain
Restorād to scepters, and expellād again?
Or young Achilles, by his rival slain?
Evān he, the King of Men, the foremost name
Of all the Greeks, and most renownād by fame,
The proud revenger of anotherās wife,
Yet by his own adultāress lost his life;
Fell at his threshold; and the spoils of Troy
The foul polluters of his bed enjoy.
The gods have envied me the sweets of life,
My much lovād country, and my more lovād wife:
Banishād from both, I mourn; while in the sky,
Transformād to birds, my lost companions fly:
Hovāring about the coasts, they make their moan,
And cuff the cliffs with pinions not their own.
What squalid spectres, in the dead of night,
Break my short sleep, and skim before my sight!
I might have promisād to myself those harms,
Mad as I was, when I, with mortal arms,
Presumād against immortal powārs to move,
And violate with wounds the Queen of Love.
Such arms this hand shall never more employ;
No hate remains with me to ruinād Troy.
I war not with its dust; nor am I glad
To think of past events, or good or bad.
Your presents I return: whateāer you bring
To buy my friendship, send the Trojan king.
We met in fight; I know him, to my cost:
With what a whirling force his lance he tossād!
Heavāns! what a spring was in his arm, to throw!
How high he held his shield, and rose at evāry blow!
Had Troy producād two more his match in might,
They would have changād the fortune of the fight:
Thā invasion of the Greeks had been returnād,
Our empire wasted, and our cities burnād.
The long defence the Trojan people made,
The war protracted, and the siege delayād,
Were due to Hectorās and this heroās hand:
Both brave alike, and equal in command;
Aeneas, not inferior in the field,
In pious reverence to the gods excellād.
Make peace, ye Latians, and avoid with care
Thā impending dangers of a fatal war.ā
He said no more; but, with this cold excuse,
Refusād thā alliance, and advisād a truce.ā
Thus Venulus concluded his report.
A jarring murmur fillād the factious court:
As, when a torrent rolls with rapid force,
And dashes oāer the stones that stop the course,
The flood, constrainād within a scanty space,
Roars horrible along thā uneasy race;
White foam in gathāring eddies floats around;
The rocky shores rebellow to the sound.
The murmur ceasād: then from his lofty throne
The king invokād the gods, and thus begun:
āI wish, ye Latins, what we now debate
Had been resolvād before it was too late.
Much better had it been for you and me,
Unforcād by this our last necessity,
To have been earlier wise, than now to call
A council, when the foe surrounds the wall.
O citizens, we wage unequal war,
With men not only Heavānās peculiar care,
But Heavānās own race; unconquerād in the field,
Or, conquerād, yet unknowing how to yield.
What hopes you had in Diomedes, lay down:
Our hopes must centre on ourselves alone.
Yet those how feeble, and, indeed, how vain,
You see too well; nor need my words explain.
Vanquishād without resource; laid flat by fate;
Factions within, a foe without the gate!
Not but I grant that all performād their parts
With manly force, and with undaunted hearts:
With our united strength the war we wagād;
With equal numbers, equal arms, engagād.
You see thā event.ā āNow hear what I propose,
To save our friends, and satisfy our foes.
A tract of land the Latins have possessād
Along the Tiber, stretching to the west,
Which now Rutulians and Auruncans till,
And their mixād cattle graze the fruitful hill.
Those mountains fillād with firs, that lower land,
If you consent, the Trojan shall command,
Callād into part of what is ours; and there,
On terms agreed, the common country share.
There let them build and settle, if they please;
Unless they choose once more to cross the seas,
In search of seats remote from Italy,
And from unwelcome inmates set us free.
Then twice ten galleys let us build with speed,
Or twice as many more, if more they need.
Materials are at hand; a well-grown wood
Runs equal with
Comments (0)