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Quote of the day: That he would bring the war to conclusio
Notes
Display Latin text
The Aeneid by Virgil
translated by Theodore C. Williams
Book II Chapter 15: Aeneas gathers a group of Trojans
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When these I [Note 1] saw close-gathered for the fight,
I thus addressed them: Warriors, vainly brave,
if ye indeed desire to follow one
who dares the uttermost brave men may do,
our evil plight ye see: the gods are fled
from every altar and protecting fire,
which were the kingdom's stay. Ye offer aid
unto your country's ashes. Let us fight
unto the death! To arms, my men, to arms!
The single hope and stay of desperate men
is their despair. Thus did I rouse their souls.
Then like the ravening wolves, some night of cloud,
when cruel hunger in an empty maw
drives them forth furious, and their whelps behind
wait famine-throated; so through foemen's steel
we flew to surest death, and kept our way
straight through the midmost town night
brooded above us in vast vault of shade.
But who the bloodshed of that night can tell?
What tongue its deaths shall number, or what eyes
find meed of tears to equal all its woe?
The ancient City fell, whose throne had stood
age after age. Along her streets were strewn
the unresisting dead; at household shrines
and by the temples of the gods they lay.
Yet not alone was Teucrian blood required:
oft out of vanquished hearts fresh valor flamed,
and the Greek victor fell. Anguish and woe
were everywhere; pale terrors ranged abroad,
and multitudinous death met every eye.

Note 1: I = Aeneas

Event: The fall of Troy

347-369
quos ubi confertos ardere in proelia uidi,
incipio super his: 'iuuenes, fortissima frustra
pectora, si uobis audentem extrema cupido
certa sequi, quae sit rebus fortuna uidetis:
excessere omnes adytis arisque relictis
di quibus imperium hoc steterat; succurritis urbi
incensae. moriamur et in media arma ruamus.
una salus uictis nullam sperare salutem.'
sic animis iuuenum furor additus. inde, lupi ceu
raptores atra in nebula, quos improba uentris
exegit caecos rabies catulique relicti
faucibus exspectant siccis, per tela, per hostis
uadimus haud dubiam in mortem mediaeque tenemus
urbis iter; nox atra caua circumuolat umbra.
quis cladem illius noctis, quis funera fando
explicet aut possit lacrimis aequare labores?
urbs antiqua ruit multos dominata per annos;
plurima perque uias sternuntur inertia passim
corpora perque domos et religiosa deorum
limina. nec soli poenas dant sanguine Teucri;
quondam etiam uictis redit in praecordia uirtus
uictoresque cadunt Danai. crudelis ubique
luctus, ubique pauor et plurima mortis imago.