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Quote of the day: That he wondered how any general, before
Notes
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The Aeneid by Virgil
translated by Theodore C. Williams
Book XI Chapter 5: Drances wants peace
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Then Drances, full of years,
and ever armed with spite and slanderous word
against young Turnus, made this answering plea:
O prince of mighty name, whose feats of arms
are even mightier! Trojan hero, how
shall my poor praise exalt thee to the skies?
Is it thy rectitude or strenuous war
most bids me wonder? We will bear thy word
right gladly to the city of our sires;
and there, if Fortune favor it, contrive
a compact with the Latin king [Note 1]. Henceforth
let Turnus find his own allies! Ourselves
will much rejoice to see thy destined walls,
and our own shoulders will be proud to bear
the stone for building Troy. Such speech he made,
and all the common voice consented loud.
So twelve days' truce they swore, and safe from harm
Latins and Teucrians unmolested roved
together o'er the wooded hills. Now rang
loud steel on ash-tree bole; enormous pines,
once thrusting starward, to the earth they threw;
and with industrious wedge asunder clove
stout oak and odorous cedar, piling high
harvest of ash-trees on the creaking wain.

Note 1: king = Latinus

Event: The Funeral Truce of Aeneas and Turnus

122-138
Tum senior semperque odiis et crimine Drances
infensus iuueni Turno sic ore uicissim
orsa refert: 'o fama ingens, ingentior armis,
uir Troiane, quibus caelo te laudibus aequem?
iustitiaene prius mirer belline laborum?
nos uero haec patriam grati referemus ad urbem
et te, si qua uiam dederit Fortuna, Latino
iungemus regi. quaerat sibi foedera Turnus. quin et fatalis murorum attollere moles
saxaque subuectare umeris Troiana iuuabit.'
dixerat haec unoque omnes eadem ore fremebant.
bis senos pepigere dies, et pace sequestra
per siluas Teucri mixtique impune Latini
errauere iugis. ferro sonat alta bipenni
fraxinus, euertunt actas ad sidera pinus,
robora nec cuneis et olentem scindere cedrum
nec plaustris cessant uectare gementibus ornos.