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summation destined from the most ancient time, and declared in the councils of the gods, no less than as the coveted repose after generations of civil conflict. Starting with the Greek tradition, which it follows in the earlier books, it seeks, further, to gather up and cement into one whole the old myths and legends of Italy; and these make a sort of background, on which the outline of later history is briefly sketched. Thus it creates a brilliant artificial substitute for that nobler poetic growth, which had never been able to strike root in the dry and hard soil of the Roman mind, or to thrive amidst the incessant conflicts that divided the states of Italy.

The line of earlier tradition which Virgil adopts and continues in his story is the following:

The siege of Troy was the most famous of the adventures which belong to the heroic age of Greece, that is, before the time of authentic history. By the Greeks themselves it was regarded as one act in a divine drama, in which the will of the gods was carried out through the long struggles between Europe and Asia. Divine agencies had planned and conducted it from the beginning. The royal family of Troy had in early time been favorites of the gods. Its princes were endowed with superhuman beauty. Deities were their frequent visitants and familiar guests. The walls of Troy were built by Poseidon (Neptune) and Apollo, and were impregnable, except under conditions strictly prescribed by the edict of the gods. Prince Ganymede had been borne by an eagle to Olympus, to serve as cupbearer at the celestial banquets. Tithonus, brother of Priam, was the cherished husband of Eos (Aurora). Priam and Anchises had both, in their youth, been renowned for beauty : Anchises, most blest of men, had been beloved by Aphrodite (Venus), who bore to him Æneas, the hero of the present tale.

But the royal house had fallen into the oriental vices of luxury and treachery. Laomedon, father of Priam, had incensed the hero Hercules by withholding the sacred horses, the promised reward for the rescue of his daughter, and was slain by the hand of Telamon. The royal palace had become a seraglio, where Priam's fifty sons, by his numerous wives, made one great pampered household. Hector, the eldest, was noble, patriotic, and brave. But Paris was vain and false. His mother Hecuba had dreamed that she bore a firebrand; and at birth he was exposed to perish in the

forests of Mount Ida. Being preserved, and living as a shepherd on the mountain, he was visited by the three great goddesses Hera (Juno), Pallas, and Aphrodite to award the prize of beauty among them, the golden apple of discord. His reward for bestowing the prize on the last should be the most beautiful of living women for his bride. This was Helen, wife of Menelaus, king of Sparta, daughter of Zeus (Jupiter) and Leda; and a wrong to her was to be revenged by all the heroes and chiefs of Greece, who had been her suitors. Paris visited Sparta, "with flower-embroidered raiment and bright in gold," and carried her away to Troy. Hence the famous ten years' siege, and the destruction of the sacred city. About the tale of Troy had gathered a vast body of legendary adventure, contained in the " 'Cyclic Poets," the festal Odes, the Attic Tragedies, and above all in the great Homeric poems, the ILIAD and ODYSSEY. The Iliad is but an episode of the war. It tells the disasters which befell the Grecian army from the wrath of Achilles, its most famous champion, against Agamemnon, brother of Menelaus, and leader of the host. Achilles' absence brings the other heroes to the front, the aged Nestor, wisest of men; Idomeneus of Crete; the wily Odysseus (Ulysses), king of Ithaca; Ajax Oileus; the mightier Ajax, son of Telamon; his brother Teucer; and Diomed (Tydides), youngest and bravest of them all; with the sons of Atreus, Menelaus and Agamemnon, "lord of men." The poem ends with the death and burial of Hector, the noblest champion of Troy, who is slain by Achilles in revenge for the death of his friend Patroclus. The return of Ulysses to Ithaca, after his long wanderings, is the subject of the Odyssey; which contains also the story of the capture of Troy by the stratagem of the wooden horse, and the fate of several others of the Grecian chiefs.

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Among the various and conflicting traditions, there was a story that Æneas, after escaping from the sack of Troy, had taken refuge in Italy. How old this tradition was, and whence it was derived, is uncertain. It is not found in Homer or the Cyclic poets, or in any Greek form. The story, including the episode of Dido, is treated by Nævius (B.C. 235), who could hardly have invented it. It is alluded to by Ennius (born B.C. 240), and had been adopted as a favorite theory before the time of Augustus. Virgil supplements it with details drawn from local tradition, and with many of his own

manufacture; and has thus produced a work which in general fame ranks as second only to the great Homeric poems. In some ways it appeals even more strongly to the mind and feeling of the reader. The story of Dido is not only a pathetic and romantic tale in itself, but it connects the tradition with Carthage, the great rival of Republican Rome, suggesting the most impressive historic associations; while the account of the sack of Troy, in the Second Book, may be said to be the most celebrated single piece of poetic narrative that exists, and to have filled a larger place than any other in the imagination of the modern world.

BOOK I.-THE LANDING IN AFRICA.

THE wrath of Juno, jealous for the glory of Carthage, compels the long wanderings of Æneas, and detains the Trojan exiles from destined Italy (vv. 1-33). She beholds them glad on their voyage, and solicits Æolus, god of winds, to overwhelm them with a tempest: the storm bursts forth (34-91). The Trojan fleet is scattered and in peril: but Neptune lifts his head and stills the waves (92-156). Æneas, with seven ships, reaches the coast of Africa, where he finds food and rest (157-222). Jupiter comforts Venus by promise of the coming glories of Rome, and sends Mercury to move the Tyrian colonists to hospitality (223-304). Æneas, with Achates, is met by Venus in the guise of a huntress, who tells him of Dido's flight from Tyre and her founding of a city on the African shore, and then directs him to the rising towers of Carthage, first making them invisible by a miraculous mist (305-417). He admires the new city; sees in the temple of Juno the pictured story of the Trojan war; and at length (still unseen) beholds queen Dido, attended by some of his own companions whom he thought lost, who come as envoys from the scattered ships (418–519). The appeal of the shipwrecked men moves the compassion of Dido: upon which the mist dissolves, and Æneas appears before the queen (520-593). He declares himself, recounts his losses, and greets his restored companions: Dido receives him to royal hospitality in her halls (594-642). Achates is despatched to the fleet for the young Ascanius; but, by a stratagem of Venus, the god Cupid is brought instead, disguised in the likeness of the boy prince: at the banquet he inspires in the queen a fatal passion for Æneas (643–722). The night passes in feasting and song, when Dido requests of Æneas the connected story of his wanderings (723-756).

ARMA virumque căno, Trojae qui primus ab õrīs

Itǎliam, fato profugus, Laviniaque vēnīt

litŏră multum ille et terris jāctatus ĕtāltō vī sŭpēṛūm, sāēvāeměmŏrēm Jūnōnis ob|īrăm ; multă quoque et bello passus, dūm conděrět urbem, 5 înferretque deos Latio,genus undě Lătînům, Albanique pătres atque altae moenia Rōmãe.

Musa, mihi causas memora, quo numine laeso, quidve dolens, regina deum tot volvere casus insignem pietate virum, tot adire labores impulerit! tantaene animis caelestibus irae?

URBS antiqua fuit, Tyrii tenuere coloni, Karthago, Italiam contra Tiberinaque longe ostia, dives opum studiisque asperrima belli; quam Juno fertur terris magis omnibus unam. posthabita coluisse Samo; hic illius arma, hic currus fuit; hoc regnum dea gentibus esse, si qua fata sinant, jam tum tenditque fovetque. progeniem sed enim Trojano a sanguine duci audierat, Tyrias olim quae verteret arces; hinc populum late regem belloque superbum venturum excidio Libyae: sic volvere Parcas. id metuens, veterisque memor Saturnia belli, prima quod ad Trojam pro caris gesserat Argisnecdum etiam causae irarum saevique dolores exciderant animo: manet alta mente repostum judicium Paridis spretaeque injuria formae, et genus invisum, et rapti Ganymedis honores. his accensa super, jactatos aequore toto Troas, reliquias Danaum atque immitis Achilli, arcebat longe Latio, multosque per annos errabant, acti fatis, maria omnia circum. tantae molis erat Romanam condere gentem!

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Vix e conspectu Siculae telluris in altum

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vela dabant laeti, et spumas salis aere ruebant,
cum Juno, aeternum servans sub pectore volnus,
haec secum: Mene incepto desistere victam,
nec posse Italia Teucrorum avertere regem?
quippe vetor fatis. Pallasne exurere classem
Argivom atque ipsos potuit submergere ponto,
unius ob noxam et furias Ajacis Oïlei?
ipsa, Jovis rapidum jaculata e nubibus ignem,
disjecitque rates evertitque aequora ventis,
illum exspirantem transfixo pectore flammas
turbine corripuit scopuloque infixit acuto.
ast ego, quae divom incedo regina, Jovisque
et soror et conjunx, una cum gente tot annos
bella gero! et quisquam numen Junonis adoret
praeterea, aut supplex aris imponet honorem?’

Talia flammato secum dea corde volutans nimborum in patriam, loca feta furentibus austris, Aeoliam venit.

Hic vasto rex Aeolus antro

luctantes ventos tempestatesque sonoras imperio premit ac vinclis et carcere frenat. illi indignantes magno cum murmure montis

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circum claustra fremunt; celsa sedet Aeolus arce sceptra tenens, mollitque animos et temperat iras: ni faciat, maria ac terras caelumque profundum quippe ferant rapidi secum verrantque per auras. sed pater omnipotens speluncis abdidit atris, hoc metuens, molemque et montis insuper altos imposuit, regemque dedit, qui foedere certo et premere et laxas sciret dare jussus habenas. ad quem tum Juno supplex his vocibus usa est: 'Aeole, namque tibi divom pater atque hominum rex 41 Oili. R. 45 conripuit. H. 49 inponat. H.

53 luctantis. H.

58 coelum. H.

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