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Notes Display Latin text | translated by Theodore C. Williams Book VIII Chapter 23: Depart of the army of Evander | Next chapter Return to index Previous chapter |
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Noised swiftly through the little town it flies that to the precinct of the Tuscan king armed horsemen speed. Pale mothers in great fear unceasing pray; for panic closely runs in danger's steps; the war-god [Note 1] drawing nigh looms larger; and good sire Evander now clings to the hand of his departing son and, weeping without stay, makes sad farewell: O, that great Jove would give me once again my vanished years! O, if such man I were, as when beneath Praeneste's wall I slew the front ranks of her sons, and burned for spoil their gathered shields on my triumph day; or when this right hand hurled king Erulus to shades below, though -- terrible to tell -- Feronia bore him with three lives, that thrice he might arise from deadly strife o'erthrown, and thrice be slain -- yet all these lives took I, and of his arms despoiled him o'er and o'er: not now, sweet son (if such lost might were mine), should I from thy beloved embrace be torn; nor could Mezentius with insulting sword do murder in my sight and make my land depopulate and forlorn. O gods in Heaven, and chiefly thou whom all the gods obey, have pity, Jove, upon Arcadia's king, and hear a father's prayer: if your intent be for my Pallas a defence secure, if it be writ that long as I shall live, my eyes may see him, and my arms enfold, I pray for life, and all its ills I bear. But if some curse, too dark to tell, impend from thee, O Fortune blind! I pray thee break my thread of miserable life to-day; to-day, while fear still doubts and hope still smiles on the unknown to-morrow, as I hold thee to my bosom, dearest child, who art my last and only joy; to-day, before th' intolerable tidings smite my ears. Such grief the royal father's heart outpoured at this last parting; the strong arms of slaves lifted him, fallen in swoon, and bore him home. Note 1: war-god = Mars Events: Aeneas visits Evander, Evander and Erulus |
554-584 Fama uolat paruam subito uulgata per urbem ocius ire equites Tyrrheni ad limina regis. uota metu duplicant matres, propiusque periclo it timor et maior Martis iam apparet imago. tum pater Euandrus dextram complexus euntis haeret inexpletus lacrimans ac talia fatur: 'o mihi praeteritos referat si Iuppiter annos, qualis eram cum primam aciem Praeneste sub ipsa straui scutorumque incendi uictor aceruos et regem hac Erulum dextra sub Tartara misi, nascenti cui tris animas Feronia mater (horrendum dictu) dederat, terna arma mouenda— ter leto sternendus erat; cui tunc tamen omnis abstulit haec animas dextra et totidem exuit armis: non ego nunc dulci amplexu diuellerer usquam, nate, tuo, neque finitimo Mezentius umquam huic capiti insultans tot ferro saeua dedisset funera, tam multis uiduasset ciuibus urbem. at uos, o superi, et diuum tu maxime rector Iuppiter, Arcadii, quaeso, miserescite regis et patrias audite preces. si numina uestra incolumem Pallanta mihi, si fata reseruant, si uisurus eum uiuo et uenturus in unum, uitam oro, patior quemuis durare laborem. sin aliquem infandum casum, Fortuna, minaris, nunc, nunc o liceat crudelem abrumpere uitam, dum curae ambiguae, dum spes incerta futuri, dum te, care puer, mea sola et sera uoluptas, complexu teneo, grauior neu nuntius auris uulneret.' haec genitor digressu dicta supremo fundebat; famuli conlapsum in tecta ferebant. |