Jam flammae tulerint, inimicus et hauserit ensis.
Non tibi Tyndaridis facies invisa Lacaenae,
Culpatusve Paris; divûm inclementia, divûm,
Has evertit opes, sternitque a culmine Trojam.
Aspice namque omnem, quae nunc obducta tuenti
Mortales hebetat visus tibi, et humida circum
Caligat, nubem eripiam: tu ne qua parentis
Jussa time, neu praeceptis parere recusa.

:

600

605

Hic, ubi disjectas moles avulsaque saxis

Saxa vides, mixtoque undantem pulvere fumum,

Neptunus muros, magnoque emota tridenti

610

Fundamenta quatit, totamque a sedibus urbem
Eruit. Hic Juno Scaeas saevissima portas

Prima tenet, sociumque furens a navibus agmen,
Ferro accincta, vocat.

Jam summas arces Tritonia, respice, Pallas
Insedit, nimbo effulgens et Gorgone saeva.
Ipse Pater Danaïs animos viresque secundas
Sufficit; ipse deos in Dardana suscitat arma.
Eripe, nate, fugam, finemque impone labori.

615

Nusquam abero, et tutum patrio te limine sistam." 620
Dixerat; et spissis noctis se condidit umbris.
Apparent dirae facies, inimicaque Trojae
Numina magna deûm.

'Tum vero omne mihi visum considere in ignes

Ilium, et ex imo verti Neptunia Troja :

Ac veluti, summis antiquam in montibus ornum
Quum, ferro accisam crebrisque bipennibus, instant
Eruere agricolae certatim; illa usque minatur,

625

alone prevents the present completion of their destruction.' In English, we use past tenses in hypotheses Were it not that my care op poses, by this time the flame would have.'-601. Lacaenae. See verse 577. -605. Humida, from its position, is not a mere epithet, but indicates the cause of the darkness.-606. Tu, emphatic. Parentis, feminine. -612. The Scaean gate of Troy was the one next the sea.-615. Tritonia. See verse 171.-616. Gorgone. Medusa's head, which turned into stone every one who looked on it, was placed on the breastplate or shield of Pallas.-617. Pater, Jupiter.-621. Dixerat has the force of, she finished speaking.'-622. Apparent. This vision is masterly both in conception and execution.-623. Numina deûm, the gods exerting their power.

624. Mihi, a me.-625. Neptunia, Neptune (and Apollo) had built Troy.-626. Veluti, Troja ruit veluti, &c.-627. Accisam, not cut through, but partially. Crebris, expressing blow close following blow.

Et tremefacta comam concusso vertice nutat;
Vulneribus donec paulatim evicta supremum
Congemuit, traxitque jugis avulsa ruinam.
Descendo, ac, ducente deo, flammam inter et hostes
Expedior; dant tela locum, flammaeque recedunt.

630

635

Atque, ubi jam patriae perventum ad limina sedis,
Antiquasque domos, genitor, quem tollere in altos
Optabam primum montes, primumque petebam,
Abnegat excisa vitam producere Troja,
Exsiliumque pati.-" Vos O! quibus integer aevi
Sanguis," ait, "solidaeque suo stant robore vires,
Vos agitate fugam.

Me si coelicolae voluissent ducere vitam,
Has mihi servassent sedes. Satis una, superque,
Vidimus excidia, et captae superavimus urbi.
Sic, O sic positum affati discedite corpus.

640

Ipse manu mortem inveniam; miserebitur hostis, 645
Exuviasque petet. Facilis jactura sepulcri.

Jam pridem invisus divis, et inutilis, annos

650

Demoror, ex quo me divûm pater, atque hominum rex,
Fulminis afflavit ventis, et contigit igni.”
Talia perstabat memorans, fixusque manebat.
Nos contra, effusi lacrimis, conjuxque Creusa,
Ascaniusque, omnisque domus, ne vertere secum
Cuncta pater, fatoque urguenti incumbere vellet.

630. Supremum, used adverbially. -632. Descendo ex arce.
generically a deity, without reference to sex, as in A. 7, 498.

·

Deo,

638. Aevi for aevo, a Greek construction. See Zumpt, § 437.639. Suo, in opposition to the external aid by which the old man was to be sustained.-640. Agitate, prepare,'' deliberate;' supply animo. -642. Una; an instance of the plural of unus. Anchises refers to the previous capture of Troy by Hercules.-643. Superavimus, having the force and the construction of superfuimus urbi.-644. Sic, without further entreaty, they were to leave him as he was, and consider him already dead. For the use of perfect participles, see A. 1, 680. The resolution of this sentence would be, ponite et affamini, dein discedite. Affati, in allusion to the last farewell. See A. 1, 219.-645. Alternative. Either I shall slay myself; or, the enemy, partly through pity, partly for the sake of spoil, will slay me.'-646. In his insane grief, he regards as slight the loss even of a tomb- -a fate above all others dreaded by the ancients.-648. Demoror annos, 'I am retarding the years.'

649. He had been struck by a flash of lightning for revealing that Venus was the mother of Aeneas.-651. Nos contra, sc. instabimus.— 652. Vertere = evertere, perdere.-653. Urguenti incumbere, to push

་

660

Abnegat; inceptoque, et sedibus haeret in îsdem.
Rursus in arma feror, mortemque miserrimus opto: 655
Nam quod consilium, aut quae jam fortuna dabatur ?
"Mene efferre pedem, genitor, te posse relicto
Sperasti? tantumque nefas patrio excidit ore?
Si nihil ex tanta Superis placet urbe relinqui,
Et sedet hoc animo, perituraeque addere Trojae
Teque tuosque juvat; patet isti janua leto;
Jamque aderit multo Priami de sanguine Pyrrhus,
Gnatum ante ora patris, patrem qui obtruncat ad aras.
Hoc erat, alma parens, quod me per tela, per ignes
Eripis, ut mediis hostem in penetralibus, utque
Ascanium, patremque meum, juxtaque Creüsam,
Alterum in alterius mactatos sanguine cernam?
Arma, viri, ferte arma: vocat lux ultima victos.
Reddite me Danaïs ; sinite instaurata revisam
Proelia. Nunquam omnes hodie moriemur inulti." 670
'Hinc ferro accingor rursus, clipeoque sinistram
Insertabam aptans, meque extra tecta ferebam.
Ecce autem, complexa pedes, in limine conjux
Haerebat, parvumque patri tendebat Iulum :-

665

675

Si periturus abis, et nos rape in omnia tecum ;
Sin aliquam expertus sumptis spem ponis in armis,
Hanc primum tutare domum. Cui parvus Iulus,
Cui pater, et conjux quondam tua dicta relinquor ?”
'Talia vociferans gemitu tectum omne replebat;
Quum subitum dictuque oritur mirabile monstrum: 680
Namque manus inter, moestorumque ora parentum,
Ecce! levis summo de vertice visus Iuli

what is advancing with sufficient rapidity.' Incumbere. To (lean on so as to) bring on our heads.-657. The address of Aeneas to his, father.-658. Sperasti. See Ecl. 8, 26.-659. Si sedet. With the indicative marking a fact, since.-661. Isti, the demonstrative pronoun of the second person.-663. See verse 550.-669. Instaurata, instaurem et. See verse 644.-670. Nunquam hodie, a curious use of a general and a specific term of time together. See Ecl. 3, 49.

671. The tenses here deserve attention. Accingor, the historic present; Aeneas girds on his sword. That finished, all the other actions are incompleted: he was in the act of fitting on his shield, and rushing out, and his wife was in the act of clinging to him, and holding out Iulus, and filling the house with her wailings, when oritur, verse 680, another historic present.

681. Our expressions are: in the hands, and before the eyes.682. Ecce, &c. This prodigy (monstrum) seems to be taken from the

Fundere lumen apex, tactuque innoxia molles
Lambere flamma comas, et circum tempora pasci.
Nos pavidi trepidare metu, crinemque flagrantem
Excutere, et sanctos restinguere fontibus ignes.
At pater Anchises oculos ad sidera laetus
Extulit, et coelo palmas cum voce tetendit :-
"Jupiter omnipotens, precibus si flecteris ullis,
Aspice nos; hoc tantum: et, si pietate meremur,
Da deinde auxilium, pater, atque haec omina firma.”
'Vix ea fatus erat senior, subitoque fragore
Intonuit laevum, et, de coelo lapsa, per umbras,
Stella, facem ducens, multa cum luce cucurrit.
Illam, summa super labentem culmina tecti,
Cernimus Idaea claram se condere silva,
Signantemque vias: tum longo limite sulcus
Dat lucem, et late circum loca sulfure fumant.
Hic vero victus genitor se tollit ad auras,

Affaturque deos, et sanctum sidus adorat:

685

690

695

700

“Jam jam nulla mora est; sequor, et, qua ducitis, adsum.
Di patrii, servate domum, servate nepotem:

Vestrum hoc augurium, vestroque in numine Troja est.
Cedo equidem, nec, nate, tibi comes ire recuso."

'Dixerat ille; et jam per moenia clarior ignis
Auditur, propiusque aestus incendia volvunt.
"Ergo age, care pater, cervici imponere nostrae :
Ipse subibo humeris, nec me labor iste gravabit.

705

well-known legend of Servius Tullius (Liv. 1, 39). See a similar prodigy, A. 7, 73, &c. Visus, was seen.-684. Lambere; hence our expression, a lambent flame. Pasci. See verse 471.-685. Trepidare. See verse 98. Crinemque flagrantem, crinium flagrationem.-688. See a similar expression, verse 378.-690. Hoc tantum. This-a look of kind regard (aspice)-is all we now ask ;' 691. deinde, then we shall ask more, even assistance.'

693. Intonuit; impersonal. Laevum. This was a good omen.694. A star, with a train of light (facem ducens), heralded the way from the house of Anchises to Mount Ida, in the immediate neighbourhood of Troy.-697. Sulcus, the furrow-like wake in the heavens, resembling a ship's wake in the waters.-702. Nepotem, whom the omen seemed principally to regard.-704. Comes here retains its notion of inferiority. Aeneas was to be the dux, Anchises the comes.

705. Dixerat. See verse 621. Clarior ignis auditur = clarior strepitus ignis.-706. Auditur. The crackling of the flames; hence clarior refers to the ears, not the eyes.-707. Ergo; the conclusion of Aeneas from all that preceded. Imponere. Te impone.-708. Humeris; the ablative.

K

710

Quo res cumque cadent, unum et commune periclum,
Una salus ambobus erit. Mihi parvus Iulus
Sit comes, et longe servet vestigia conjux,
Vos, famuli, quae dicam, animis advertite vestris.
Est urbe egressis tumulus, templumque vetustum
Desertae Cereris, juxtaque antiqua cupressus,
Religione patrum multos servata per annos:
Hanc ex diverso sedem veniemus in unam.

Tu, genitor, cape sacra manu, patriosque Penates:
Me bello e tanto digressum, et caede recenti,
Attrectare nefas, donec me flumine vivo
Abluero."

715

720

725

Haec fatus, latos humeros, subjectaque colla,
Veste super fulvique insternor pelle leonis,
Succedoque oneri: dextrae se parvus Iulus
Implicuit, sequiturque patrem non passibus aequis :
Pone subit conjux. Ferimur per opaca locorum ;
Et me, quem dudum non ulla injecta movebant
Tela, neque adverso glomerati ex agmine Graii,
Nunc omnes terrent aurae, sonus excitat omnis,
Suspensum, et pariter comitique onerique timentem.
'Jamque propinquabam portis, omnemque videbar
Evasisse viam, subito quum creber ad aures
731
Visus adesse pedum sonitus; genitorque per umbram

711. Longe e longinquo; by going together, they might have excited the attention of the enemy.-713. Urbe egressis. To those having left; that is, after you have left the city.'-714. Desertae Cereris. Desertum templum Cereris. This was probably occasioned by the length of the siege, or it may simply mean 'lonely.'-717. Sacra, &c. He had received them from Hector, and perhaps from Panthus, verse 320.-719. Nefas, &c. See verse 167.-722. Insternor, I wrap myself, but not all, only humeros.' See Zumpt, § 458.-723. Oneri, Anchises. -724. Implicuit sequitur. The accurate conception of these tenses gives the language of Virgil all the distinctness of a picture. The moment is seized when Iulus has entwined, and is following.-725. Ferimur. The reader must have noticed how fond Virgil is of this verb, indicative of impetuous motion. See verses 337, 672. Opaca locorum indicates an intentional mention only of such places as were obscure; not obscure spots merely, but spots chosen purposely because they were obscure.-727. Adverso hostili.-729. Comiti. Was this Ascanius or Creüsa?

730. Videbar. The whole journey was not over, but, in his anxiety and his joy at having got through the city in safety, it seemed to be.-731. Evasisse viam = evadendo (pericula) peregisse. Creber, an expressive word. See verse 627.