Meanwhile Eneas repairs to Evander and forms an Alliance:
Venus, assisted by Vulcan, presents him invincible armor.
WHEN, from Laurentum's citadel, Turnus has signal of warfare;
Hoisted, and cornets with hoarse-voiced blare have sounded the tocsin;
When he has fretted his mettlesome chargers and rattled his armor,
Straightway their souls are perturbed, and at once, with a trepidant tumult,
Leagues all Latium firmly together, and wildly the youthful
Warriors bluster. The principal leaders, Messapus, and Ufens,
Yea, and Mezentius spurner of gods, their forces on all sides
Marshal, and strip of their tillers the extended Latian grainfields.
Venulus also it sent to the mighty Diomede's city,
Aid to entreat, and to tell of the Teucrans in Latium settling;
Tell that Æneas has come with his fleet, and is bringing his conquered
Homegods, how he is destined by fates, as he claims, to be sovereign;
How, too, the numerous nations are banding themselves with the Dardan
Chieftain, and how through Latium wide is increasing his prestige.
What he designs by these projects, and what, too, if fortune befriends him,
He would expect as result of the fight, is to Diomede clearer
Known than apparent to Turnus the monarch, or monarch Latinus.
Such are the issues in Latium; which the Laömedon hero,
All now seeing, heaves with a mighty tide of emotions:
But he dispatches his hurrying soul now hither, now thither
Speeds it in divers directions and whirls it incessant on all things:
Just as a tremulous gleam from the sun, or the radiant moon-beam's
Image at times, from the brim of a caldron of water reflected,
Widely through all of the interval flits, and anon on the breezes
Upward is vaulted, and flashingly strikes on the uppermost ceiling.
Night was abroad, and o'er all lands slumber profound was p Wearied animal natures—the races of birds and of cattleWhen on the bank of the river, and under the vault of the cold sky Father Æneas, disturbed in his breast by the ominous warfare, Laid him adown, and allowed a belated repose in his members. Lo! Tiberinus himself, the god of the place, from the charming Stream, as an old man seemed to arise in the midst of the poplar Thicket: a delicate linen was screening his form with a sea-green Veil, and a shadowy cane-brake shrouding his locks as a garland. Then he thus seemed to accost him, and soothe his distress in the "O thou born of the peerage of gods, who the city of Troja Bringest us back from the foemen, and Pergamus keepest forever, Long by the glebe of Laurentum, and Latian meadows expected, Here is thy permanent home-nor forego it-thy permanent home Be not alarmed by the menace of war: all swelling and anger Now of the gods have surceased:—
Soon shall be-lest thou imagine a dream is depicting these fancie
Under the marginal hollies discovered reposing a huge sow,
Having but recently brought forth thirty head at a litter,
White on the ground reclining, and round her udder her white pigs
That is the site of thy city, the permanent rest of thy labors;
There, when thrice ten years shall have passed, shall Ascanius pea
Found him a city renowed by the notable title of Alba.
Chant I no doubtful events: now listen and I will instruct thee
Briefly how to accomplish successfully what is before thee.
On these shores the Arcadians, sprung as an issue from Pallas
Those who are monarch Evander's attendants—who followed his st
Site have selected of old, and a city laid out in the mountains,
Named from the name of their forefather Pallas of old Pallanteüm
These with the Latin nation are waging perpetual warfare;
These in alliance admit to thy camps and unite them in treaties:
I will myself by my banks and the course of my channel conduct t
So as to stem by thine oars upwafted the opposite current.
Rise now, O goddess-born, and as soon as the stars are declining,
Solemnly offer to Juno thy prayers, and her anger and threatenings
Conquer by suppliant vows. To me thou as victor shalt honor
Render; for I am the stream that thou seest in plenteous current
Sweeping its banks and dividing luxuriant acres of tillage,
Dark-blue Thybris, to heaven a most delectable river:
Here there a grand home, the head of imperial cities, awaits thee.".
So spake the deified stream, and then buried himself in the deep lake,
Seeking the bottom. Night with its slumber has quitted Æneas:
Rises he viewing the Orient's gleams of ætherial sun-light
Dawning, and due in his hollowed palms he the wave of the current
Lifts, and unfeignedly pours forth to æther expressions of this sort:
"Nymphs, ye Laurentian nymphs, from whom is the rise of the rivers,
Thou, too, O father Thybris, do thou on thy consecrate current,
Welcome Æneas, and rid him at last of his hazardous perils,
So in what fountain soever thy lake, in condoling our trials,
Holds thee, and out of what soil soever thou gracefully gushest,
E'er by my homage, and e'er by my offerings thou shalt be honored,
Horn-crowned River, the monarch supreme of Hesperia's waters;
Only be present and nearer confirm thy divinity to me."
So he recounts, and selects from his squadron a couple of galleys,
Rigs them with oars, and his comrades at once he accoutres with armor.
But of a sudden, behold! to their eyes a remarkable portent !
Bright through the forest, in color the same as her litter of white pigs
Couched, lay a sow, and there she is seen on the emerald grass-bank;
Pious Æneas to thee, yes to thee, great Juno devotes her
Bringing oblations and stations her there with her group at the altar.
All that night, as long as it lasted, the Thybris its swelling
Current abated, and refluent steady, with ripple so silent
Stood, that it smooth in the style of a pool, or a quieted mill-pond,
Spread for its waters a level, that effort in rowing be needless.
Hence on the journey attempted they speed with a favoring murmur:
Glides on over the shallows the unctuous pine, and the ripples
Wonder, and wonders the thicket unwonted afar at the flashing
Shields of the men and the gorgeous keels, as they float on the river.
Meanwhile weary they out a night and a day in their rowing;
Pass they the channel's circuitous bends, and are screened by the divers
Trees, and asunder the green woods cleave on the tranquilized waters.
Fiery the sun had upclimbed the meridian orbit of heaven,
When they behold in the distance the walls, and the castle, and scattered
Roofs of the houses, which Roman authority now has exalted
Even to heaven, then poor the estate that Evander was owning:
Shoreward they quickly are turning their prows and are nearing the city.
On that day, as it chanced, the Arcadian king was performing
Annual rites to the gods, to Amphitryon's mighty descendent,
Out in a grove in front of the town: his son Pallas was with him,
With him were all the chiefs of his troops, and his indigent Senate,
Offering incense, and warm was still reeking the gore at the altars.
Soon as they sighted the tall-rigged barks through the midst of the shaded
Grove upgliding, and mariners noiselessly bending in rowing,
They at the sudden appearance are startled, and leaving their tables
All in a body upstart, when Pallas undaunted forbids them
Marring the service, and hies, with, his upsnatched weapon, to meet them,
And from a mound at a distance: "Soldiers, what cause has constrained you
Journeys unknown to attempt, and whither," says he, "are you going?
What is your nation, your home? Is it peace or arms that you bring us?"
Then from his lofty stern thus discourses the father Æneas,
While in his hand he exhibits a branch of the peaceable olive:
"Natives of Troja thou seest, and weapons at war with the Latins,
Those whom by insolent war they have banished as wandering outcasts,
Seek we Evander, report him this message and tell him that chosen
Dardan commanders have come entreating alliance in warfare."
Pallas, at mention of name so distinguished, was awed and astounded.
"Land, whosoever thou art," he exclaims," and in personal presence
Speak to my parent, and come ye, though strangers, as guests of our home-gods."
Welcomes he him with his hand, and grasping he clings to his right hand:
Onward proceeding they enter the grove and abandon the river.
Then in these friendly expressions Æneas addresses the monarch:
"Noblest of Grecian descendents, whom Fortune hath willed that I humbly
Sue, and before whom wave the branches bedecked with a fillet,
I have not shrunk because thou Arcadian and leader of Danai
Wert, and because from thy stock with the twin-born Atrides connected;
But it is mine own worth, and the deities' oracles holy,
Yes, and our kindred fathers, and thine own fame through the wide world
Spread, that have joined me to thee, and made me by destiny willing.
Dardanus, father and founder primeval of Ilium's city,
Sprung, as the Grecians relate, from Electra the daughter of Atlas,
Over is borne to the Teucrans: Atlas engendered Electra-
Atlas the mighty who props the æthereal orbs on his shoulder.
Your forefather is Mercury, whom the immaculate Maia
Brought into being, conceived on the glacial top of Cyllené;
But, if in aught we accredit traditions, Atlas engendered
Maia, the self-same Atlas, who poises the planets of heaven:
Thus the descent of us both divergently branches from one blood.
Trusting to these I have not by ambassadors sued, nor by prior
Tentative agencies plied thee; but I, even I have presented
Mine own head, and have hither as suppliant come to thy thresholds.
That same Daunian nation, which thee by a merciless warfare
Persecutes; if they expel us, imagine that nothing prevents them
Bringing the whole of Hesperia under their sovereign dominion;
Yea, and their holding the sea which washes above and below them.
Take and reciprocate faith: with us there are bosoms in battle
Brave, there are spirits and warriors proven by noble achievements."
Spake had Æneas: Evander the mouth and the eyes of the speaker
Mutely was scanning awhile, and with keen glance all of his body;
Then he thus briefly responds: "I how willing, O bravest of Teucrans,
Welcome and recognize thee; I recall, how distinctly, the very
Words and the voice and the looks of thy parent, the mighty Anchises;
For I remember that Priam, Laömedon's son, in his seeking
Salamis once on a trip to his sister Hesioné's kingdoms,
Afterwards visited also, Arcadia's glacial confines.
Freshly was youth then vesting my cheeks with its early florescence;
I was admiring the Teucran commanders, admiring the noble
Son of Laomedon; but more stately than all was Anchises
Marching. In juvenile ardor my mind was aglow to accost the
Hero, and hand to unite with hand in expression of friendship:
Him I approached and delighted led up to the Pheneän ramparts.
He in departing an elegant quiver and Lycian arrows
Gave me, and, mantle inwoven with gold, and a couple of bridles
Mounted with gold, which Pallas my son has now as an heir-loom.
Therefore, and, what you request, is my right hand joined in alliance;
Yea, and as soon as to earth is returning the light of the morrow,
I will dismiss you with aid and supply you with ample resources.
Meanwhile, since ye have come as our friends up hither, these yearly
Services, which it were wrong to defer, come celebrate gladsome
With us, and get you accustomed at once to the board of your allies."
When these words have been spoken, he orders replaced the uplifted
Viands and cups, and the men he arranges himself on a grass-seat;
While he withal to a sofa and skin of the shaggiest lion
Welcomes Æneas, and e'en to his throne of maple invites him.
Then in their rivalry choice young men and the priest of the altar
Bring in the roasted flesh of the bullocks, and heap on the baskets
Bounties of laborate Ceres, and serve out potions to Bacchus.
Banquets Eneas, and with him his Trojan warrior-stalwarts
There on a barbacued chine of beef and the ritual harslets.
After their hunger was cloyed, and their appetite sated in eating,
Monarch Evander remarks: "On us these solemnities yearly-
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