are we unequal in numbers or
bravery?
Virgil - Aeneid
Then Aeneas the good, with sword
drawn, thus makes invocation:
'Be the Sun now witness, and this Earth to my call, for whose sake I
have borne to suffer so sore travail, and the Lord omnipotent, and thou
his wife, at last, divine daughter of Saturn, at last I pray more
favourable; and thou, mighty Mavors, who wieldest all warfare in
lordship beneath thy sway; and on the Springs and Rivers I call, and the
Dread of high heaven, and the divinities of the blue seas: if haply
victory fall to Turnus the Ausonian, the vanquished make covenant to
withdraw to Evander's city; Iulus shall quit the soil; nor ever
hereafter shall the Aeneadae return in arms to renew warfare, or attack
this realm with the sword. But if Victory grant battle to us and ours
(as I think the rather, and so the rather may the gods seal their will),
I will not bid Italy obey my Teucrians, nor do I claim the realm for
mine; let both nations, unconquered, join treaty for ever under equal
law. Gods [192-225]and worship shall be of my giving: my father Latinus
shall bear the sword, and have a father's prescribed command. For me my
Teucrians shall establish a city, and Lavinia give the town her name. '
Thus Aeneas first: thereon Latinus thus follows:
'By these same I swear, O Aeneas, by Earth, Sea, Sky, and the twin brood
of Latona and Janus the double-facing, and the might of nether gods and
grim Pluto's shrine; this let our Father hear, who seals treaties with
his thunderbolt. I touch the altars, I take to witness the fires and the
gods between us; no time shall break this peace and truce in Italy,
howsoever fortune fall; nor shall any force turn my will aside, not if
it dissolve land into water in turmoil of deluge, or melt heaven in
hell: so surely as this sceptre' (for haply he bore a sceptre in his
hand) 'shall never burgeon into thin leafage and shady shoot, since once
in the forest cut down right to the stem it lost its mother, and the
steel lopped away its tressed arms: a tree of old: now the craftsman's
hand hath bound it in adornment of brass and given it to our Latin
fathers' bearing. '
With such words they sealed mutual treaty midway in sight of the
princes. Then they duly slay the consecrated beasts over the flames, and
tear out their live entrails, and pile the altars with laden chargers.
But long ere this the Rutulians deemed the battle unequal, and their
hearts are stirred in changeful motion; and now the more, as they
discern nigher that in ill-matched strength . . . . heightened by
Turnus, as advancing with noiseless pace he humbly worships at the altar
with downcast eye, by his wasted cheeks and the pallor on his youthful
frame. Soon as Juturna his sister saw this talk spread, and the people's
mind waver in uncertainty, into the mid ranks, in feigned form of
Camertus--his family was high in long ancestry, and his father's name
[226-260]for valour renowned, and himself most valiant in arms--into
the mid ranks she glides, not ignorant of her task, and scatters diverse
rumours, saying thus: 'Shame, O Rutulians! shall we set one life in the
breach for so many such as these?
are we unequal in numbers or bravery?
See, Troy and Arcadia is all they bring, and those fate-bound bands that
Etruria hurls on Turnus. Scarce is there an enemy to meet every other
man of ours. He indeed will ascend to the gods for whose altars he
devotes himself, and move living in the lips of men: we, our country
lost, shall bow to the haughty rigour of our lords, if we now sit
slackly on the field. '
By such words the soldiers' counsel was kindled yet higher and higher,
and a murmur crept through their columns; the very Laurentines, the very
Latins are changed; and they who but now hoped for rest from battle and
rescue of fortune now desire arms and pray the treaty were undone, and
pity Turnus' cruel lot. To this Juturna adds a yet stronger impulse, and
high in heaven shews a sign more potent than any to confuse Italian
souls with delusive augury. For on the crimsoned sky Jove's tawny bird
flew chasing, in a screaming crowd, fowl of the shore that winged their
column; then suddenly stooping to the water, pounces on a noble swan
with merciless crooked talons. The startled Italians watch, while all
the birds together clamorously wheel round from flight, wonderful to
see, and dim the sky with their pinions, and in thickening cloud urge
their foe through air, till, conquered by their attack and his heavy
prey, he yielded and dropped it from his talons into the river, and
winged his way deep into the clouds. Then indeed the Rutulians
clamorously greet the omen, and their hands flash out. And Tolumnius the
augur cries before them all: 'This it was, this, that my vows often have
sought; I welcome and know a deity; [261-294]follow me, follow, snatch
up the sword, O hapless people whom the greedy alien frightens with his
arms like silly birds, and with strong hand ravages your shores. He too
will take to flight, and spread his sails afar over ocean. Do you with
one heart close up your squadrons, and defend in battle your lost king. '
He spoke, and darting forward, hurled a weapon full on the enemy; the
whistling cornel-shaft sings, and unerringly cleaves the air. At once
and with it a vast shout goes up, and all their rows are amazed, and
their hearts hotly stirred. The spear flies on; where haply stood
opposite in ninefold brotherhood all the beautiful sons of one faithful
Tyrrhene wife, borne of her to Gylippus the Arcadian, one of them,
midway where the sewn belt rubs on the flank and the clasp bites the
fastenings of the side, one of them, excellent in beauty and glittering
in arms, it pierces clean through the ribs and stretches on the yellow
sand. But of his banded brethren, their courage fired by grief, some
grasp and draw their swords, some snatch weapons to throw, and rush
blindly forward.
drawn, thus makes invocation:
'Be the Sun now witness, and this Earth to my call, for whose sake I
have borne to suffer so sore travail, and the Lord omnipotent, and thou
his wife, at last, divine daughter of Saturn, at last I pray more
favourable; and thou, mighty Mavors, who wieldest all warfare in
lordship beneath thy sway; and on the Springs and Rivers I call, and the
Dread of high heaven, and the divinities of the blue seas: if haply
victory fall to Turnus the Ausonian, the vanquished make covenant to
withdraw to Evander's city; Iulus shall quit the soil; nor ever
hereafter shall the Aeneadae return in arms to renew warfare, or attack
this realm with the sword. But if Victory grant battle to us and ours
(as I think the rather, and so the rather may the gods seal their will),
I will not bid Italy obey my Teucrians, nor do I claim the realm for
mine; let both nations, unconquered, join treaty for ever under equal
law. Gods [192-225]and worship shall be of my giving: my father Latinus
shall bear the sword, and have a father's prescribed command. For me my
Teucrians shall establish a city, and Lavinia give the town her name. '
Thus Aeneas first: thereon Latinus thus follows:
'By these same I swear, O Aeneas, by Earth, Sea, Sky, and the twin brood
of Latona and Janus the double-facing, and the might of nether gods and
grim Pluto's shrine; this let our Father hear, who seals treaties with
his thunderbolt. I touch the altars, I take to witness the fires and the
gods between us; no time shall break this peace and truce in Italy,
howsoever fortune fall; nor shall any force turn my will aside, not if
it dissolve land into water in turmoil of deluge, or melt heaven in
hell: so surely as this sceptre' (for haply he bore a sceptre in his
hand) 'shall never burgeon into thin leafage and shady shoot, since once
in the forest cut down right to the stem it lost its mother, and the
steel lopped away its tressed arms: a tree of old: now the craftsman's
hand hath bound it in adornment of brass and given it to our Latin
fathers' bearing. '
With such words they sealed mutual treaty midway in sight of the
princes. Then they duly slay the consecrated beasts over the flames, and
tear out their live entrails, and pile the altars with laden chargers.
But long ere this the Rutulians deemed the battle unequal, and their
hearts are stirred in changeful motion; and now the more, as they
discern nigher that in ill-matched strength . . . . heightened by
Turnus, as advancing with noiseless pace he humbly worships at the altar
with downcast eye, by his wasted cheeks and the pallor on his youthful
frame. Soon as Juturna his sister saw this talk spread, and the people's
mind waver in uncertainty, into the mid ranks, in feigned form of
Camertus--his family was high in long ancestry, and his father's name
[226-260]for valour renowned, and himself most valiant in arms--into
the mid ranks she glides, not ignorant of her task, and scatters diverse
rumours, saying thus: 'Shame, O Rutulians! shall we set one life in the
breach for so many such as these?
are we unequal in numbers or bravery?
See, Troy and Arcadia is all they bring, and those fate-bound bands that
Etruria hurls on Turnus. Scarce is there an enemy to meet every other
man of ours. He indeed will ascend to the gods for whose altars he
devotes himself, and move living in the lips of men: we, our country
lost, shall bow to the haughty rigour of our lords, if we now sit
slackly on the field. '
By such words the soldiers' counsel was kindled yet higher and higher,
and a murmur crept through their columns; the very Laurentines, the very
Latins are changed; and they who but now hoped for rest from battle and
rescue of fortune now desire arms and pray the treaty were undone, and
pity Turnus' cruel lot. To this Juturna adds a yet stronger impulse, and
high in heaven shews a sign more potent than any to confuse Italian
souls with delusive augury. For on the crimsoned sky Jove's tawny bird
flew chasing, in a screaming crowd, fowl of the shore that winged their
column; then suddenly stooping to the water, pounces on a noble swan
with merciless crooked talons. The startled Italians watch, while all
the birds together clamorously wheel round from flight, wonderful to
see, and dim the sky with their pinions, and in thickening cloud urge
their foe through air, till, conquered by their attack and his heavy
prey, he yielded and dropped it from his talons into the river, and
winged his way deep into the clouds. Then indeed the Rutulians
clamorously greet the omen, and their hands flash out. And Tolumnius the
augur cries before them all: 'This it was, this, that my vows often have
sought; I welcome and know a deity; [261-294]follow me, follow, snatch
up the sword, O hapless people whom the greedy alien frightens with his
arms like silly birds, and with strong hand ravages your shores. He too
will take to flight, and spread his sails afar over ocean. Do you with
one heart close up your squadrons, and defend in battle your lost king. '
He spoke, and darting forward, hurled a weapon full on the enemy; the
whistling cornel-shaft sings, and unerringly cleaves the air. At once
and with it a vast shout goes up, and all their rows are amazed, and
their hearts hotly stirred. The spear flies on; where haply stood
opposite in ninefold brotherhood all the beautiful sons of one faithful
Tyrrhene wife, borne of her to Gylippus the Arcadian, one of them,
midway where the sewn belt rubs on the flank and the clasp bites the
fastenings of the side, one of them, excellent in beauty and glittering
in arms, it pierces clean through the ribs and stretches on the yellow
sand. But of his banded brethren, their courage fired by grief, some
grasp and draw their swords, some snatch weapons to throw, and rush
blindly forward.
