The Roman Poets of the Augustan Age: Virgil Part 49

610 'But why, in my misfortune, am I detaining the Trojans from deeds of arms-go, and mindful bear these commands to your king.' i. 561, etc.

611 'Banish fear from your hearts, ye Trojans, lay aside your cares, our hard lot and my new rule force me to take such anxious measures, and to guard my realm on all its wide frontiers. Who cannot have heard of them who follow Aeneas and of the city Troy, its men and manful prowess, or the fires that raged in that mighty war? Not so dull are the hearts of us the people of Phoenicia, nor is it so far away from our Tyrian city that the Sun yokes his horses.'

612 'His woolly sheep follow him; this is his sole joy and solace of his suffering.' iii. 6601.

613 'We see standing by him, all of no avail, the stern-eyed brothers dwelling on Etna, bearing their heads high in air, a grim a.s.sembly.'

iii. 6779.

614 'But not even thus though hard-bestead did he forget the raft, but springing after it laid hold of it among the waves, and sat down in the middle, thus escaping the issue of death.'

615 'We leave the harbours of Ortygia and scud over the open sea, and skirt the coasts of Naxos, on whose ridges the companies of Bacchus revel, and green Donysa, Olearos, and snow-white Paros, and the Cyclades spread over the sea, and the narrow waters studded with frequent isles. The mariner's cheer arises with varying rivalry.'

iii. 1248.

616 'On the fourth day for the first time the land at length appeared to rise up, to open up the view of its distant mountains, and to send its rolling smoke on high.' iii. 2056.

617 'And now the stars had disappeared, and in the first blush of dawn we see far off the dim outline of the hills and the low land of Italy.' iii. 5213.

618 'The longed-for breezes blow stronger, and the harbour now nearer opens up, and the temple of Minerva comes into sight on the cliff.'

iii. 5301.

619 'Soon we leave out of sight the airy heights of the Phaeacians, and skirt the sh.o.r.es of Epirus and draw near the Chaonian harbour, and approach the lofty city of Buthrotum.' iii. 2913.

620 'Camarina comes into sight far away, and the plains of the Gela, and vast Gela called from the name of the river-after that high Acragas shows its mighty walls afar-in old days the breeder of high-mettled steeds.' iii. 7014.

621 'To these he adds Amaster son of Hippotas, and follows plying them with his hurled spear Tereus and Harpalycus and Demophoon and Chromis.' Aen. xi. 6735.

622 'To whom Zeus gave from youth even to old age the grievous task of war, till we each should die.' Il. xiv. 857. The fascination which the poem has even for modern readers is due, in no slight degree, to the spell which some aspects of war exercise over the imagination in all times.

623 'They ply their spears with redoubled force, both the Trojans and Mnestheus himself with the flash of lightning.'

624 'There is here, here a spirit that recks not of life.'

625 Cf. viii. 510:-

ni, mixtus matre Sabella, Hinc partem patriae traheret.

626 'Us the fates summon hence to other scenes of woe, to the same grim wars.' xi. 967. Cf. the epithet 'lacrimabile,' which he applies to war.

627 'Press not further in thy hate.'

628 'The short-lived and ill-starred loves of the Roman people.'

629 'If in any way thou canst break the cruel bonds of fate, thou too shalt be a Marcellus.'

630 'And the sword-point pierced through the s.h.i.+eld, slight defence in his menacing onset, and the tunic which his mother had interlaced with threads of gold.' x. 8178.

631 'But then, when he beheld the look and face of the dying youth, he, the son of Anchises, that face so wondrous pale, he uttered a deep groan in his pity, and held out his hand, and the thought of all his love for his father came over his mind.' x. 8214.

632 'Ye too fell in the Rutulian fields, Larides and Thymber, twin sons of Daucis, most like to one another, indistinguishable to your own family, and a most pleasing cause of confusion to your parents.' x.

3902.

633 'Immediately the whiz of the arrow and the sound of the air were heard by Arruns at the same moment as the iron fixed in his body.

Expiring and uttering his last groan, forgotten by his comrades, he is left on the unheeded dust of the plain; while Opis flies aloft to high Olympus.' xi. 8637.

634 'Between it Tiberinus with his fair stream, in rapid eddies and yellow with much sand bursts forth into the sea.'

635 'There was a custom in Hesperian Latium which from that time onward the Alban cities observed, and now Rome, mistress of the world, observes.... With his own hand, arrayed in the robe of state of Quirinus, his toga girt with the Gabian girding, the Consul unbars the creaking gates: with his own voice he calls for battle; the rest of the warlike youth echo him, and the brazen horns combine with their hoa.r.s.e accompaniment.' vii. 60115.

636 'Rhaebus, we have lived long, if aught is long to mortals,' etc.

Aen. x. 861, etc.

637 Trist. ii. 5334.

638 'Whate'er it be, every fortune must be conquered by endurance.'

639 'Then he cheers his comrades and soothes the fears of sad Iulus, telling them of their destinies.'

640 'And now higher rises the fierce rage of the Trojan leader.'

641 'A great deed has been done, my warriors,-let all fear be banished.'

This contrast was suggested by Mr. Nettles.h.i.+p's interpretation of the character of Turnus ('Suggestions,' etc., pp. 15 _et seq._). As will appear later, I am inclined to think that he insists too exclusively on the 'violentia,' which is undoubtedly a strong element in the character of the Italian hero. The antagonism of Turnus to Aeneas, as of the Italians to the Trojans, he justly regards as an instance of the strife of pa.s.sion with law. If the Greek drama suggested the ethical aspect of this strife, a comparison with Horace, Ode iii. 4, of which Ode the leading idea is the superiority of the 'vis temperata' over the 'vis consili expers,' as ill.u.s.trated in the wars of the Olympian G.o.ds with the t.i.tans, and in the triumph of Augustus over the elements of disorder opposing him, suggests that the political inspiration of the idea came from 'the stately mansion on the Esquiline'-

'Molem propinquam nubibus arduis.'

642 'Nor shall it irk me to remember Elissa, while I can remember my own self, while breath animates my frame.'

643 'But my longing for thee, the thought of all thy cares, n.o.ble Odysseus, and of all thy gentleness bereft me of sweet life.'

644 La Cite Antique.

645 'And now that I am a man, and know it from the lips of others, and feel my spirit wax strong within me.'

646 'And his spirit was wroth that the stranger tarried long at the door.'

647 'Where the white lilies blush with the mingling of many roses.'

648 'For my rest is a.s.sured, my haven is close at hand-it is of happy funeral rites that I am bereft.'

649 'Now be each mindful of wife and home: recall now the mighty deeds, your fathers' renown.'

650 'I give back Pallas even as was due to him; whatever respect there is to a tomb, whatever comfort in burial, I freely bestow.' Cp. the contrast:-

? ?a ?a? ??t??a d??? ?e???a ?det? ???a.

651 'The Aetolian and Arpi will not aid us, but Messapus will and fortunate Tolumnius.'

652 'For you and my father-in-law Latinus, I, Turnus, second to none of the men of old in valour, have devoted this my life: "me only Aeneas challenges"-ay, let him challenge me; nor let Drances rather, if this is the anger of Heaven, pay the penalty by his death, or if it is a call to valour and glory, let the valour and glory be his.'

Aen. xi. 440, etc.