When Turnus had assembled all his pow'rs, His standard planted on Laurentum's tow'rs;When now the sprightly trumpet, from afar, Had giv'n the signal of approaching war, Had rous'd the neighing steeds to scour the fields, While the fierce riders clatter'd on their shields;Trembling with rage, the Latian youth prepare To join th' allies, and headlong rush to war.
Fierce Ufens, and Messapus, led the crowd, With bold Mezentius, who blasphem'd aloud.
These thro' the country took their wasteful course, The fields to forage, and to gather force.
Then Venulus to Diomede they send, To beg his aid Ausonia to defend, Declare the common danger, and inform The Grecian leader of the growing storm:
Aeneas, landed on the Latian coast, With banish'd gods, and with a baffled host, Yet now aspir'd to conquest of the state, And claim'd a title from the gods and fate;What num'rous nations in his quarrel came, And how they spread his formidable name.
What he design'd, what mischief might arise, If fortune favor'd his first enterprise, Was left for him to weigh, whose equal fears, And common interest, was involv'd in theirs.
While Turnus and th' allies thus urge the war, The Trojan, floating in a flood of care, Beholds the tempest which his foes prepare.
This way and that he turns his anxious mind;Thinks, and rejects the counsels he design'd;Explores himself in vain, in ev'ry part, And gives no rest to his distracted heart.
So, when the sun by day, or moon by night, Strike on the polish'd brass their trembling light, The glitt'ring species here and there divide, And cast their dubious beams from side to side;Now on the walls, now on the pavement play, And to the ceiling flash the glaring day.
'T was night; and weary nature lull'd asleep The birds of air, and fishes of the deep, And beasts, and mortal men.The Trojan chief Was laid on Tiber's banks, oppress'd with grief, And found in silent slumber late relief.
Then, thro' the shadows of the poplar wood, Arose the father of the Roman flood;An azure robe was o'er his body spread, A wreath of shady reeds adorn'd his head:
Thus, manifest to sight, the god appear'd, And with these pleasing words his sorrow cheer'd:
"Undoubted offspring of ethereal race, O long expected in this promis'd place!
Who thro' the foes hast borne thy banish'd gods, Restor'd them to their hearths, and old abodes;This is thy happy home, the clime where fate Ordains thee to restore the Trojan state.
Fear not! The war shall end in lasting peace, And all the rage of haughty Juno cease.
And that this nightly vision may not seem Th' effect of fancy, or an idle dream, A sow beneath an oak shall lie along, All white herself, and white her thirty young.
When thirty rolling years have run their race, Thy son Ascanius, on this empty space, Shall build a royal town, of lasting fame, Which from this omen shall receive the name.
Time shall approve the truth.For what remains, And how with sure success to crown thy pains, With patience next attend.A banish'd band, Driv'n with Evander from th' Arcadian land, Have planted here, and plac'd on high their walls;Their town the founder Pallanteum calls, Deriv'd from Pallas, his great-grandsire's name:
But the fierce Latians old possession claim, With war infesting the new colony.
These make thy friends, and on their aid rely.
To thy free passage I submit my streams.
Wake, son of Venus, from thy pleasing dreams;And, when the setting stars are lost in day, To Juno's pow'r thy just devotion pay;With sacrifice the wrathful queen appease:
Her pride at length shall fall, her fury cease.
When thou return'st victorious from the war, Perform thy vows to me with grateful care.
The god am I, whose yellow water flows Around these fields, and fattens as it goes:
Tiber my name; among the rolling floods Renown'd on earth, esteem'd among the gods.
This is my certain seat.In times to come, My waves shall wash the walls of mighty Rome."He said, and plung'd below.While yet he spoke, His dream Aeneas and his sleep forsook.
He rose, and looking up, beheld the skies With purple blushing, and the day arise.
Then water in his hollow palm he took From Tiber's flood, and thus the pow'rs bespoke:
"Laurentian nymphs, by whom the streams are fed, And Father Tiber, in thy sacred bed Receive Aeneas, and from danger keep.
Whatever fount, whatever holy deep, Conceals thy wat'ry stores; where'er they rise, And, bubbling from below, salute the skies;Thou, king of horned floods, whose plenteous urn Suffices fatness to the fruitful corn, For this thy kind compassion of our woes, Shalt share my morning song and ev'ning vows.
But, O be present to thy people's aid, And firm the gracious promise thou hast made!"Thus having said, two galleys from his stores, With care he chooses, mans, and fits with oars.
Now on the shore the fatal swine is found.
Wondrous to tell!- She lay along the ground:
Her well-fed offspring at her udders hung;She white herself, and white her thirty young.
Aeneas takes the mother and her brood, And all on Juno's altar are bestow'd.
The foll'wing night, and the succeeding day, Propitious Tiber smooth'd his wat'ry way:
He roll'd his river back, and pois'd he stood, A gentle swelling, and a peaceful flood.
The Trojans mount their ships; they put from shore, Borne on the waves, and scarcely dip an oar.
Shouts from the land give omen to their course, And the pitch'd vessels glide with easy force.
The woods and waters wonder at the gleam Of shields, and painted ships that stem the stream.
One summer's night and one whole day they pass Betwixt the greenwood shades, and cut the liquid glass.
The fiery sun had finish'd half his race, Look'd back, and doubted in the middle space, When they from far beheld the rising tow'rs, The tops of sheds, and shepherds' lowly bow'rs, Thin as they stood, which, then of homely clay, Now rise in marble, from the Roman sway.
These cots (Evander's kingdom, mean and poor)The Trojan saw, and turn'd his ships to shore.
