In mocking answer to the prophetessthe warrior thus replied: “That stranger fleetin Tiber moored, not, as thy folly prates,of me unnoted lies. Vex me no morewith thy fantastic terror. Juno's poweris watchful of my cause. 'T is mere old age,gone to decay and dotage, fills thy breastwith vain foreboding, and, while kings contend,scares and deceives thy visionary eye.Guard thou in yonder temple's holy shadethe images divine! Of peace and warlet men and warriors the burden bear!”

So kindled he Alecto's wrath to flame;and even as he spoke a shudder thrilledthe warrior's body, and his eyeballs stoodstonily staring at the hydra hairwhich hissed and writhed above the grisly headof the large-looming fiend. With eyes of firehorribly rolling, she repelled him far,while he but faltered speechless. She upraisedtwo coiling snakes out of her tresses, crackedthe lashes of her scourge, and wrathfully,with raving lips replied: “Look well on me,gone to decay and dotage of old age!And mocked with foolish fear while kings contend!Wilt hearken now! Behold me, hither flownfrom where my sister-furies dwell! My handsbring bloody death and war.” She spoke, and hurledher firebrand at the hero, thrusting deepbeneath his heart her darkly smouldering flame.Then horror broke his sleep, and fearful sweatdripped from his every limb. He shrieked aloudfor arms; and seized the ready arms that layaround his couch and hall. Then o'er his soulthe lust of battle and wild curse of warbroke forth in angry power, as when the flamesof faggots round the bubbling cauldron sing,and up the waters leap; the close-kept floodbrims over, streaming, foaming, breaking bound,and flings thick clouds in air. He, summoninghis chieftains, bade them on Latinus move,break peace, take arms, and, over Italy their shields extending, to thrust forth her foe:himself for Teucrian with Latin joinedwas more than match. He called upon the godsin witness of his vows: while, nothing loth,Rutulia's warriors rushed into array;some by his youth and noble beauty moved,some by his kingly sires and fame in arms.

While Turnus stirred Rutulia's valiant souls,Alecto on her Stygian pinions spedto where the Teucrians lay. She scanned the groundwith eager guile, where by the river's margefair-browed Iulus with his nets and snaresrode fiercely to the chase. Then o'er his houndsthat hell-born virgin breathed a sudden rage,and filled each cunning nostril with the scentof stags, till forth in wild pursuit they flew.Here all the woe began, and here awokein rustic souls the swift-enkindling war.For a fair stag, tall-antlered, stolen awayeven from its mother's milk, had long been keptby Tyrrhus and his sons—the shepherd heof all the royal flocks, and foresterof a wide region round. With fondest caretheir sister Silvia entwined its hornswith soft, fresh garlands, tamed it to run close,and combed the creature, or would bring to batheat a clear, crystal spring. It knew the handsof all its gentle masters, and would feedfrom their own dish; or wandering through the wood,come back unguided to their friendly door,though deep the evening shade. Iulus' dogsnow roused this wanderer in their ravening chase,as, drifted down-stream far from home it lay,on a green bank a-cooling. From bent bowAscanius, eager for a hunter's praise,let go his shaft; nor did Alecto failhis aim to guide: but, whistling through the air,the light-winged reed pierced deep in flank and side.Swift to its cover fled the wounded thing,and crept loud-moaning to its wonted stall,where, like a blood-stained suppliant, it seemedto fill that shepherd's house with plaintive prayer.Then Silvia the sister, smiting ofton breast and arm, made cry for help, and calledthe sturdy rustics forth in gathering throng.These now (for in the silent forest couchedthe cruel Fury) swift to battle flew.One brandished a charred stake, another swunga knotted cudgel, as rude anger shapesits weapon of whate'er the searching eyefirst haps to fall on. Tyrrhus roused his clans,just when by chance he split with blows of wedgean oak in four; and, panting giant breath,shouldered his woodman's axe. Alecto then,prompt to the stroke of mischief, soared aloftfrom where she spying sate, to the steep roofof a tall byre, and from its peak of strawblew a wild signal on a shepherd's horn,outflinging her infernal note so farthat all the forest shuddered, and the grovethrobbed to its deepest glen. Cold Trivia's lakefrom end to end gave ear, and every waveof the white stream of Nar, the lonely poolsof still Velinus heard: while at the soundpale mothers to their breasts their children drew.Swift to the signal of the dreadful horn, snatching their weapons rude, the freeborn swainsassembled for the fray; the Trojan bandspoured from their bivouac with instant aid for young Ascanius. In array of warboth stand confronting. Not mere rustic brawlwith charred oak-staff and cudgel is the fight,but with the two-edged steel; the naked swordswave like dark-bladed harvest-field, while farthe brazen arms flash in the smiting sun,and skyward fling their beam: so some wide sea,at first but whitened in the rising wind,swells its slow-rolling mass and ever higherits billows rears, until the utmost deeplifts in one surge to heaven. The first to fallwas Almo, eldest-born of Tyrrhus' sons,whom, striding in the van, a loud-winged shaftlaid low in death; deep in his throat it clung,and silenced with his blood the dying cryof his frail life. Around him fell the formsof many a brave and strong; among them diedgray-haired Galaesus pleading for a truce:righteous he was, and of Ausonian fieldsa prosperous master; five full flocks had heof bleating sheep, and from his pastures camefive herds of cattle home; his busy churlsturned with a hundred ploughs his fruitful glebe.

While o'er the battle-field thus doubtful swungthe scales of war, the Fury (to her tasknow equal proven) having dyed the daya deep-ensanguined hue, and opened fightwith death and slaughter, made no tarryingwithin Hesperia, but skyward soared,and, Ioud in triumph, insolently thusto Juno called: “See, at thy will, their strifefull-blown to war and woe! Could even thyselfcommand them now to truce and amity?But I, that with Ausonia's blood befoultheir Trojan hands, yet more can do, if thoushift not thy purpose. For with dire alarmsI will awake the bordering states to warenkindling in their souls the frenzied lustthe war-god breathes; till from th' horizon roundthe reinforcement pours—I scattering seedsof carnage through the land.” In answer spokejuno: “Enough of artifice and fear!Thy provocation works. Now have they joinedin close and deadly combat, and warm bloodthose sudden-leaping swords incarnadines,which chance put in their hands. Such nuptial joys,such feast of wedlock, let the famous sonof Venus with the King Latinus share!But yon Olympian Sire and King no morepermits thee freely in our skies to roam.Go, quit the field! Myself will take controlof hazards and of labors yet to be.”Thus Saturn's daughter spoke. Alecto then,unfolding far her hissing, viperous wings,turned toward her Stygian home, and took farewellof upper air. Deep in Italia liesa region mountain-girded, widely famed,and known in olden songs from land to land:the valley of Amsanctus; deep, dark shadesenclose it between forest-walls, wherebythrough thunderous stony channel serpentinesa roaring fall. Here in a monstrous caveare breathing-holes of hell, a vast abysswhere Acheron opes wide its noisome jaws:in this Alecto plunged, concealing soher execrable godhead, while the airof earth and heaven felt the curse removed.

Forthwith the sovereign hands of Juno hasteto consummate the war. The shepherds bearback from the field of battle to the townthe bodies of the slain: young Almo's corseand gray Galaesus' bleeding head. They calljust gods in heaven to Iook upon their wrong,and bid Latinus see it. Turnus comes,and, while the angry mob surveys the slain,adds fury to the hour. “Shall the landhave Trojan lords? Shall Phrygian marriagesdebase our ancient, royal blood—and Ibe spurned upon the threshold?” Then drew nearthe men whose frenzied women-folk had heldbacchantic orgies in the pathless grove,awed by Amata's name: these, gathering,sued loud for war. Yea, all defied the signsand venerable omens; all withstooddivine decrees, and clamored for revenge,prompted by evil powers. They besiegedthe house of King Latinus, shouting-loudwith emulous rage. But like a sea-girt rockunmoved he stood; like sea-girt rock when surgeof waters o'er it sweeps, or howling wavessurround; it keeps a ponderous front of power,though foaming cliffs around it vainly roar;from its firm base the broken sea-weeds fall.But when authority no whit could changetheir counsels blind, and each event fulfilleddread Juno's will, then with complaining prayerthe aged sire cried loud upon his godsand on th' unheeding air: “Alas,” said he,“My doom is shipwreck, and the tempest bearsmy bark away! O wretches, your own bloodshall pay the forfeit for your impious crime.O Turnus! O abominable deed!Avenging woes pursue thee; to deaf godsthy late and unavailing prayer shall rise.Now was my time to rest. But as I comeclose to my journey's end, thou spoilest meof comfort in my death.” With this the Kingfled to his house and ceased his realm to guide.

A sacred custom the Hesperian landof Latium knew, by all the Alban hillshonored unbroken, which wide-ruling Rome keeps to this day, when to new stroke she stirsthe might of Mars; if on the Danube's waveresolved to fling the mournful doom of war,or on the Caspian folk or Arabs wild;or chase the morning far as India's verge,ind from the Parthian despot wrest awayour banners Iost. Twin Gates of War there be,of fearful name, to Mars' fierce godhead vowed:a hundred brass bars shut them, and the strengthof uncorrupting steel; in sleepless watchJanus the threshold keeps. 'T is here, what timethe senate's voice is war, the consul gravein Gabine cincture and Quirinal shifthimself the griding hinges backward moves,and bids the Romans arm; obedient thenthe legionary host makes Ioud acclaim,and hoarse consent the brazen trumpets blow.Thus King Latinus on the sons of Troy was urged to open war, and backward rollthose gates of sorrow: but the aged kingrecoiled, refused the loathsome task, and fledto solitary shades. Then from the skiesthe Queen of gods stooped down, and her sole handthe lingering portal moved; Saturnia swung on their hinges the barred gates of war.ausonia from its old tranquillitybursts forth in flame. Foot-soldiers through the fieldrun to and fro; and mounted on tall steedsthe cavaliers in clouds of dust whirl by.All arm in haste. Some oil the glittering shieldor javelin bright, or on the whetstone weargood axes to an edge, while joyful bandsuplift the standards or the trumpets blow.Five mighty cities to their anvils bringnew-tempered arms: Atina—martial name —proud Tibur, Ardea, Crustumium,and river-walled Antemnae, crowned with towersstrong hollow helmets on their brows they drawand weave them willow-shields; or melt and mouldcorselets of brass or shining silver greaves;none now for pruning-hook or sacred ploughhave love or care: but old, ancestral swordsfor hardier tempering to the smith they bring.Now peals the clarion; through the legions passthe watchwords: the impatient yeoman takeshis helmet from the idle roof-tree hung;while to his chariot the master yokesthe mettled war-horse, dons a shining shieldand golden mail, and buckles his good sword.

Virgins of Helicon, renew my song!Instruct me what proud kings to battle flownwith following legions throng the serried plain.Tell me what heroes and illustrious armsItalia's bosom in her dawning daybenignant bore: for your celestial minds,have memory of the past, but faint and lowsteals glory's whisper on a mortal ear.

Foremost in fight, from shores Etrurian cameMezentius, scornful rebel against Heaven,his people all in arms; and at his sideLausus his heir (no fairer youth than he,save Turnus of Laurentum), Lausus, skilledo break proud horses and wild beasts to quell;who from Agylla's citadel in vainled forth his thousand warriors: worthy heto serve a nobler sire, and happier farhe had ne'er been born Mezentius' son.

Next after these, conspicuous o'er the plain,with palm-crowned chariot and victorious steeds,rode forth well-moulded Aventinus, sprungfrom shapely Hercules; upon the shieldhis blazon was a hundred snakes, and showedhis father's hydra-cincture serpentine;him deep in Aventine's most secret grovethe priestess Rhea bore—a mortal maidclasped in a god's embrace the wondrous daywhen, flushed with conquest of huge Geryon,the lord of Tiryns to Laurentum drove,and washed in Tiber's wave th' Iberian kine.His followers brandished pointed pikes and staves,or smooth Sabellian bodkin tipped with steel;but he, afoot, swung round him as he strodea monstrous lion-skin, its bristling maneand white teeth crowning his ferocious brow:for garbed as Hercules he sought his King.

Then came twin brethren, leaving Tibur's keep(named from Tiburtus, brother of them twain)Catillus and impetuous Coras, youthof Argive seed, who foremost in the vanpressed ever where the foemen densest throng:as when two centaurs, children of the cloud,from mountain-tops descend in swift career,the snows of Homole and Othrys leaving,while crashing thickets in their pathway fall.

Nor was Praeneste's founder absent there,by Vulcan sired, among the herds and hinds,and on a hearth-stone found (so runs the taleeach pious age repeats) King Caeculuswith rustic legions gathered from afar:from steep Praeneste and the Gabian valeto Juno dear, from Anio's cold stream,from upland Hernic rocks and foaming rills,from rich Anagnia's pastures, and the plainwhence Amasenus pours his worshipped wave.Not all of armor boast, and seldom soundthe chariot and shield; but out of slingsthey hurl blue balls of lead, or in one handa brace of javelins bear; pulled o'er their browsare hoods of tawny wolf-skin; as they marchthe left foot leaves a barefoot track behind,a rawhide sandal on the right they wear.