above; at whose terror all Egypt and Ind, all Arabia, all the sons of Saba° were turning the back in flight. The queen herself was shown spreading her sails to friendly breezes, and just loosing the sheets. On her face the Lord of the Fire had written the paleness of foreshadowed 5 death, as she drove on among corpses before the tide and the zephyr; over against her was Nile, his vast body writhing in woe, throwing open his bosom, and with his whole flowing raiment inviting the vanquished to his green lap and his sheltering flood. But Cæsar, entering the walls 10 of Rome in threefold triumph, was consecrating to the gods of Italy a votive tribute of deathless gratitude, three hundred mighty fanes the whole city through. The ways were ringing with gladness and with games and with plausive peal; in every temple thronged a matron company, 15 in every temple an altar blazed; in front of the altars slaughtered bullocks strewed the floor. The hero himself, throned on dazzling Phoebus' snow-white threshold, is telling over the offerings of all the nations and hanging them up on the proud temple gates; there in long proces- 20 sion move the conquered peoples, diverse in tongue, diverse no less in garb and in armour. Here had Mulciber portrayed the Nomad race and the zoneless sons of Afric: here, too, Leleges and Carians and quivered Gelonians: Euphrates was flowing with waves subdued already; and 25 the Morini, furthest of mankind, and Rhine with his crescent horn, and tameless Dahæ, and Araxes chafing to be bridged. Such sights Æneas scans with wonder on Vulcan's shield, his mother's gift, and joys in the portraiture of things he knows not, as he heaves on his shoulder the 30 fame and the fate of grandsons yet to be.

BOOK IX

WHILE these things are in progress far away, Juno, Saturn's daughter, has sent down Iris from above on an errand to Turnus the bold. It chanced that then Turnus was sitting in the grove of his sire Pilumnus, deep in the 5 hallowed dell. Him then the child of Thaumas bespoke thus from her rosy lips: "Turnus, what no god would have dared to promise to your prayers, lo! the mere lapse of time has brought to you unasked. Æneas, leaving behind town, comrades, and fleet, is gone to seek the realm of the 10 Palatine, the settlement of Evander. Nor is that all: he has won his way to Corythus' farthest towns, and is arming the Lydian bands, the crowds of country folk. Why hesitate? now, now is the moment to call for horse and car; fling delay to the winds, and come down on the bewil15 dered camp." So saying, she raised herself aloft on the poise of her wings, and drew as she fled along the clouds her mighty bow. The warrior knew his visitant, lifted his two hands to heaven, and pursued her flight with words like these: "Iris, fair glory of the sky, who has sent thee 20 down from heaven to earth on an errand to me? I see the firmament parting asunder, and the stars reeling about the poles. Yes! I follow thy mighty presage, whoe'er thou art thus calling me to arms. With these words he went to the river-side, and took up water from the brim25 ming flood, calling oft on the gods and burdening heaven with a multitude of vows.

And now his whole army was in motion along the open plain, richly dowered with horses, richly dowered with gold and broidered raiment. Messapus marshals the van, 30 Tyrrheus' warrior-sons the rear: Turnus himself, the general, is in the centre - like Ganges with his seven calm

streams proudly rising through the silence, or Nile when he withdraws from the plain his fertilizing waters and has at last subsided into his bed. Suddenly the Teucrians look forth on a cloud massed with murky dust, and see darkness gathering over the plain. First cries Caicus from 5 the rampart's front: "What mass have we here, my countrymen, rolling towards us, black as night? Quick with the steel, bring weapons, man the walls, the enemy is upon us, ho!" With loud shouts the Teucrians pour themselves through all the gates and through the bulwarks. 10 For such had been the charge of Æneas, that best of soldiers, when going on his way; should aught fall out meantime, let them not venture to draw out their lines or try the fortune of the field: enough for them to guard camp and wall safe behind their earthworks. So now, though 15 shame and anger prompt to an engagement, they shield themselves nevertheless with closed gates in pursuance of his bidding, and armed, within the covert of their towers, await the foe. Turnus, just as he had galloped on in advance of his tardy column, appears unforeseen before the 20 gate with a chosen following of twenty horse: with a Thracian steed to carry him, spotted with white, and a golden helm with scarlet crest to guard his head. "Now, gallants, which of you will venture with me first against the foe? Look there!" he cries, and with a whirl sends 25 his javelin into the air, the overture of battle, and proudly prances over the plain. His friends second him with a shout and follow with dreadful cries; they wonder at the Teucrians' sluggish hearts-men-at-arms, not to trust themselves to a fair field or fight face to face, but keep 30 nursing their camp. Enraged, he rides round and round the walls, and looks out for an opening where way is none. Even as a wolf, lying in wait to surprise a crowded fold, whines about the enclosure, exposed to wind and rain, at mid of night; the lambs, nestling safe under their mothers, 35 keep bleating loudly; he, maddened and reckless, gnashes his teeth at the prey beyond his reach, tormented by the long-gathered rage of hunger and his dry bloodless jaws:

just so the Rutulian scans wall and camp with kindling wrath; grief fires the marrow of his iron bones - how to essay an entrance? what way to dash the prisoned Trojans from the rampart and fling them forth on level 5 ground? Close to the camp's side was lying the fleet, shored round by earthworks and by the river; this he assails, calling for fire to his exulting mates, and filling his hand with a blazing pine, himself all aglow. Driven on by Turnus' presence, they double their efforts: each soldier Io of the band equips himself with his murky torch. See, they have stripped the hearths: the smoking brand sends up a pitchy glare, and the Fire-god wafts clouds of soot and flame heaven-high.

What god, ye Muses, shielded the Teucrians from a fire 15 so terrible? who warded off from the ships so vast a conflagration? Tell me; the faith in the tale is old, but its fame is evergreen.

In early days, when Æneas in Phrygian Ida was first fashioning his fleet and making ready for the high seas, 20 the great mother of the gods, they say, the Berecyntian queen, thus addressed almighty Jove: "Grant, my son, to thy mother's prayer the boon she asks thee on thy conquest of Olympus. A pine-forest is mine, endeared by the love of many years, a sacred grove on the mountain's 25 height, whither worshippers brought their offerings, bedarkened with black pitch-trees and trunks of maple: these I was fain to give to the youth of Dardany when he needed a fleet; now my anxious heart is wrung by disturbing fears. Release me from my dread, and let a 30 mother's prayer avail thus much: let them be overcome by no strain of voyage, no violence of wind; give them good of their birth on my sacred hill." To her replied her son, who wields the starry sphere: "O mother, whither wouldst thou wrest the course of fate? what askest thou 35 for these thy favourites? should vessels framed by mortal hand have charter of immortality? should Æneas, himself assured, meet perils all unsure? What god had ever privilege so great? Nay, rather, when their service is

over and they gain one day the haven of Ausonia, from all such as escape the waves and convoy the Dardan chief safe to Laurentian soil, I will take away their perishable shape, and summon them to the state of goddesses of the mighty ocean, in form like Nereus' children, Doto and 5 Galatea, when they breast the foaming deep.' He said; and by the river of his Stygian brother, by the banks that seethe with pitch and are washed by the murky torrent, he nodded confirmation, and with his nod made all Olympus tremble.

ΙΟ

So now the promised day was come, and the Destinies had fulfilled the time appointed, when Turnus' lawless violence gave warning to the mighty mother to ward off the firebrand from her consecrated ships. Now in a moment a strange light flashed on the eyes of all, and a great 15 cloud was seen from the quarter of the dawn-goddess running athwart the sky, with the choirs of Ida in its train; then came darting through the air a voice of terror, thrilling the ranks of Trojan and Rutulian from end to end: "Busy not yourselves, ye Teucrians, to defend my 20 ships, nor take weapons into your hands: Turnus shall have leave to burn up the ocean sooner than to consume my sacred pines. Go free, my favourites: go and be goddesses of the sea: it is the mother's voice that bids you." And at once each ship snaps her cable from the 25 bank, and like a dolphin dips her beak and makes for the bottom. Then all emerge in maiden forms, a marvel to behold, and breast the main, as many as stood a moment ago with their brazen prows to the shore.

Amazement seized the Rutulians; terror came on Mes- 30 sapus himself, confusion on his steeds; even Tiber, the river, pauses, murmuring hoarsely, and retraces his seaward course. But bold Turnus' confidence felt no check; no, his words are ready to encourage and upbraid: “It is at the Trojans that these portents point: Jove himself 35 has robbed them of their wonted resource; they wait not for Rutulian fire and sword to do the work. Yes, the sea is impassable to the Teucrians; hope of flight have they