No More Learning

These things he admires on the shield of Vulcan, his mother's gift, and
rejoicing in the portraiture of unknown history, lifts on his shoulder
the destined glories of his children.




BOOK NINTH

THE SIEGE OF THE TROJAN CAMP


And while thus things pass far in the distance, Juno daughter of Saturn
sent Iris down the sky to gallant Turnus, then haply seated in his
forefather Pilumnus' holy forest dell. To him the child of Thaumas spoke
thus with roseate lips:

'Turnus, what no god had dared promise to thy prayer, behold, is brought
unasked by the circling day. Aeneas hath quitted town and comrades and
fleet to seek Evander's throne and Palatine dwelling-place. Nor is it
enough; he hath pierced to Corythus' utmost cities, and is mustering in
arms a troop of Lydian rustics. Why hesitate? now, now is the time to
call for chariot and horses. Break through all hindrance and seize the
bewildered camp. '

She spoke, and rose into the sky on poised wings, and flashed under the
clouds in a long flying bow. He knew her, and lifting either hand to
heaven, with this cry pursued her flight: 'Iris, grace of the sky, who
hath driven thee down the clouds to me and borne thee to earth? Whence
is this sudden sheen of weather? I see the sky parting asunder, and the
wandering stars in the firmament. I follow the high omen, whoso thou art
that callest me to arms. ' And with these words he drew nigh the wave,
and [23-58]caught up water from its brimming eddy, making many prayers
to the gods and burdening the air with vows.

And now all the army was advancing on the open plain, rich in horses,
rich in raiment of broidered gold.
Messapus rules the foremost ranks,
the sons of Tyrrheus the rear. Turnus commands the centre: even as
Ganges rising high in silence when his seven streams are still, or the
rich flood of Nile when he ebbs from the plains, and is now sunk into
his channel. On this the Teucrians descry a sudden cloud of dark dust
gathering, and the blackness rising on the plain. Caicus raises a cry
from the mound in front: 'What mass of misty gloom, O citizens, is
rolling hitherward? to arms in haste! serve out weapons, climb the
walls. The enemy approaches, ho! ' With mighty clamour the Teucrians pour
in through all the gates and fill the works. For so at his departure
Aeneas the great captain had enjoined; were aught to chance meanwhile,
they should not venture to range their line or trust the plain, but keep
their camp and the safety of the entrenched walls. So, though shame and
wrath beckon them on to battle, they yet bar the gates and do his
bidding, and await the foe armed and in shelter of the towers. Turnus,
who had flown forward in advance of his tardy column, comes up suddenly
to the town with a train of twenty chosen cavalry, borne on a Thracian
horse dappled with white, and covered by a golden helmet with scarlet
plume. 'Who will be with me, my men, to be first on the foe? See! ' he
cries; and sends a javelin spinning into the air to open battle, and
advances towering on the plain. His comrades take up the cry, and follow
with dreadful din, wondering at the Teucrians' coward hearts, that they
issue not on even field nor face them in arms, but keep in shelter of
the camp. Hither and thither he rides furiously, tracing the walls, and
seeking entrance where way is none.