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Notes Display Latin text | translated by Theodore C. Williams Book IX Chapter 21: Insults by Numanus | Next chapter Return to index Previous chapter |
T was then Ascanius first shot forth in war the arrow swift from which all creatures wild were wont to fly in fear: and he struck down with artful aim Numanus, sturdy foe, called Remulus, who lately was espoused to Turnus' younger sister. He had stalked before the van, and made vociferous noise of truths and falsehoods foul and base, his heart puffed up with new-found greatness. Up and down he strode, and swelled his folly with loud words: No shame have ye this second time to stay cooped close within a rampart's craven siege, O Phrygians twice-vanquished? Is a wall your sole defence from death? Are such the men who ask our maids in marriage? Say what god, what doting madness, rather, drove ye here to Italy? This way ye will not find the sons of Atreus nor the trickster tongue of voluble Ulysses. Sturdy stock are we; our softest new-born babes we dip in chilling rivers, till they bear right well the current's bitter cold. Our slender lads hunt night and day and rove the woods at large, or for their merriment break stubborn steeds, or bend the horn-tipped bow. Our manly prime in willing labor lives, and is inured to poverty and scantness; we subdue our lands with rake and mattock, or in war bid strong-walled cities tremble. Our whole life is spent in use of iron; and we goad the flanks of bullocks with a javelin's end. Nor doth old age, arriving late, impair our brawny vigor, nor corrupt the soul to frail decay. But over silvered brows we bind the helmet. Our unfailing joy is rapine, and to pile the plunder high. But ye! your gowns are saffron needlework or Tyrian purple; ye love shameful ease, or dancing revelry. Your tunics flow long-sleeved, and ye have soft caps ribbon-bound. Aye, Phrygian girls are ye, not Phrygian men! Hence to your hill of Dindymus! Go hear the twy-mouthed piping ye have loved so long. The timbrel, hark! the Berecynthian flute calls you away, and Ida's goddess [Note 1] calls. Leave arms to men, true men! and quit the sword! Note 1: goddess = Cybele |
590-620 Tum primum bello celerem intendisse sagittam dicitur ante feras solitus terrere fugacis Ascanius, fortemque manu fudisse Numanum, cui Remulo cognomen erat, Turnique minorem germanam nuper thalamo sociatus habebat. is primam ante aciem digna atque indigna relatu uociferans tumidusque nouo praecordia regno ibat et ingentem sese clamore ferebat: 'non pudet obsidione iterum ualloque teneri, bis capti Phryges, et morti praetendere muros? en qui nostra sibi bello conubia poscunt! quis deus Italiam, quae uos dementia adegit? non hic Atridae nec fandi fictor Vlixes: durum a stirpe genus natos ad flumina primum deferimus saeuoque gelu duramus et undis; uenatu inuigilant pueri siluasque fatigant, flectere ludus equos et spicula tendere cornu. at patiens operum paruoque adsueta iuuentus aut rastris terram domat aut quatit oppida bello. omne aeuum ferro teritur, uersaque iuuencum terga fatigamus hasta, nec tarda senectus debilitat uiris animi mutatque uigorem: canitiem galea premimus, semperque recentis comportare iuuat praedas et uiuere rapto. uobis picta croco et fulgenti murice uestis, desidiae cordi, iuuat indulgere choreis, et tunicae manicas et habent redimicula mitrae. o uere Phrygiae, neque enim Phryges, ite per alta Dindyma, ubi adsuetis biforem dat tibia cantum. tympana uos buxusque uocat Berecyntia Matris Idaeae; sinite arma uiris et cedite ferro.' |