Silius Italicus: PUNICA

Caeruleis prouecta uadis iam Dardana puppis
tristia magnanimi portabat iussa senatus
primoresque patrum. Fabius, Tirynthia proles,
ter centum memorabat auos, quos turbine Martis
abstulit una dies, cum Fors non aequa labori 5
patricio Cremerae maculauit sanguine ripas.
huic comes aequato sociauit munere curas
Publicola, ingentis Volesi Spartana propago.

Borne forward over the cerulean shallows now the Dardanian ship
was carrying the grim commands of the high-souled Senate
and the foremost of the Fathers. Fabius, Tirynthian offspring,
recalled thrice a hundred grandsires, whom in the whirlwind of Mars
one day swept away, when Fortune, not equal to patrician toil, 5
stained the banks of the Cremera with patrician blood.
to him as companion Publicola united his cares with an equal duty,
Publicola, Spartan progeny of mighty Volesus.

is cultam referens insigni nomine plebem
Ausonios atauo ducebat consule fastus.            10
     Hos ut depositis portum contingere uelis
allatum Hannibali consultaque ferre senatus
iam medio seram bello poscentia pacem
ductorisque simul conceptas foedere poenas,
ocius armatas passim per litora turmas            15

he, bearing a name distinguished for cultivating the plebs,
was tracing the Ausonian consular fasti from an ancestor, a consul.            10
     As these men, with sails lowered, touched the port,
to bring to Hannibal the message and to carry the counsels of the senate,
now, in the midst of war, demanding belated peace,
and at the same time punishments conceived for the leader by a treaty,
more swiftly armed troops were [arrayed] everywhere along the shores.            15

ostentare iubet minitantia signa recensque
perfusos clipeos et tela rubentia caede.
haud dictis nunc esse locum; strepere omnia clamat
Tyrrhenae clangore tubae gemituque cadentum.
dum detur, relegant pontum neu se addere clausis 20
festinent: notum quid caede calentibus armis,
quantum irae liceat, motusue quid audeat ensis.

he orders the menacing standards to be displayed, and the shields lately drenched, and the spears reddening with slaughter.
he shouts that now there is no place for words; that all things are clattering with the clangor of the Tyrrhenian trumpet and the groan of the falling.
while it is granted, let them re-cross the sea, and let them not hasten to add themselves to the shut-in 20
it is known what arms hot with slaughter mean, how much is permitted to wrath, and what a stirred sword dares.

sic ducis adfatu per inhospita litora pulsi
conuerso Tyrios petierunt remige patres.
Hic alto Poenus fundentem uela carinam 25
incessens dextra 'Nostrum, pro Iuppiter!' inquit
'nostrum ferre caput parat illa per aequora puppis.
heu caecae mentes tumefactaque corda secundis!

thus, by the leader’s address, driven along inhospitable shores,
with the oarsman turned about the fathers made for the Tyrians.
Here, on the deep, a Poenus, as the keel was spreading her sails, 25
urging on with his right hand, said: ‘O by Jupiter, ours—ours!
that stern prepares to carry our head across the waters.
alas, blind minds and hearts swollen by favorable fortunes!’

armatum Hannibalem poenae petit impia tellus!
ne deposce, adero; dabitur tibi copia nostri 30

the impious land seeks armed Hannibal for punishment!
do not demand it; I will be present; there shall be opportunity of me for you 30

ante expectatum, portisque focisque timebis
quae nunc externos defendis, Roma, penatis.
Tarpeios iterum scopulos praeruptaque saxa
scandatis licet et celsam migretis in arcem:
nullo iam capti uitam pensabitis auro.' 35
Incensi dictis animi, et furor additus armis.
conditur extemplo telorum nubibus aether,
et densa resonant saxorum grandine turres.

before expected, and at your gates and hearths you will fear,
you who now defend foreign penates, Rome.
Tarpeian crags again and the precipitous rocks
though you may scale and migrate into the lofty citadel:
captured, you will no longer weigh out your life with any gold.' 35
Hearts were inflamed by the words, and fury was added to their arms.
at once the aether is shrouded with clouds of missiles,
and the towers resound with a dense hail of stones.

ardor agit, prouecta queat dum cernere muros,
inque oculis profugae Martem exercere carinae. 40
ipse autem incensas promissa piacula turmas
flagitat insignis nudato uulnere ductor
ac repetens questus furibundo personat ore:
'Poscimur, o socii, Fabiusque e puppe catenas
ostentat, dominique uocat nos ira senatus. 45

ardor drives on, until, borne forward, they might discern the walls,
and to exercise Mars before the eyes of the fugitive keel. 40
but he himself—the leader distinguished, with his wound laid bare—demands
from the inflamed troops the promised expiations,
and, renewing his complaints, he resounds with a frenzied mouth:
“We are summoned, O comrades, and Fabius from the stern displays chains,
and the wrath of the lord Senate calls us.” 45

si taedet coepti culpandaue mouimus arma,
Ausoniam ponto propere reuocate carinam:
nil moror: en, uincta lacerandum tradite dextra.
nam cur, Eoi deductus origine Beli,
tot Libyae populis, tot circumfusus Hiberis,            50
seruitium perferre negem? Rhoeteius immo
aeternum imperitet populis saeclisque propaget
regna ferox; nos iussa uirum nutusque tremamus.'
effundunt gemitus atque omina tristia uertunt
in stirpem Aeneadum ac stimulant clamoribus iras.            55
     Discinctos inter Libyas populosque bilinguis
Marmaricis audax in bella Oenotria signis
uenerat Asbyte, proles Garamantis Hiarbae.

if you are weary of the enterprise, or if we have set in motion arms to be blamed,
recall the keel to Ausonia quickly over the sea:
I do not delay: lo, deliver me, bound, to a right hand to be torn.
for why, sprung from the Eastern origin of Belus,
surrounded by so many peoples of Libya, by so many Iberians around,            50
should I refuse to endure servitude? Nay rather, let the Rhoeteian
command forever the peoples and through the ages propagate
his realms, fierce; let us tremble at the orders and nods of the man.'
they pour out groans and turn the gloomy omens
upon the stock of the Aeneads, and with shouts they stimulate his angers.            55
     Among loose-girdled Libyans and the bilingual peoples,
bold, to wars beneath Oenotrian standards in Marmaric regions,
had come Asbyte, offspring of Garamantian Iarbas.

Hammone hic genitus, Phorcynidos antra Medusae
Cinyphiumque Macen et iniquo e sole calentis 60

Hammon-born here, the caverns of the Phorcynian Medusa,
and the Cinyphian Maca and, hot from the unkind sun, 60

Battiadas late imperio sceptrisque regebat.
cui patrius Nasamon aeternumque arida Barce,
cui nemora Autololum atque infidae litora Syrtis
parebant nullaque leuis Gaetulus habena.
atque is fundarat thalamos Tritonide nympha, 65
unde genus proauumque Iouem regina ferebat
et sua fatidico repetebat nomina luco.

A Battiad ruled far and wide in empire and with scepters.
to whom the ancestral Nasamon and ever‑arid Barce,
to whom the groves of the Autololes and the treacherous shores of the Syrtis
were obedient, and the nimble Gaetulian with no rein.
and he had founded the marriage‑bed with a Tritonid nymph, 65
whence the queen claimed descent and great‑grandfather Jove,
and was deriving anew her own names from the fatidic grove.

haec ignara uiri uacuoque adsueta cubili
uenatu et siluis primos defenderat annos;
non calathis mollita manus operataue fuso 70
Dictynnam et saltus et anhelum impellere planta
cornipedem ac strauisse feras immitis amabat.
quales Threiciae Rhodopen Pangaeaque lustrant
saxosis nemora alta iugis cursuque fatigant
Hebrum innupta manus: spreti Ciconesque Getaeque 75

she, ignorant of man and accustomed to an empty couch,
by hunting and the woods had defended her first years;
her hand not softened by calathi baskets nor operated at the spindle 70
she loved Dictynna and the forest-glades and to impel with her sole
the hoofed steed, and, pitiless, to have laid low wild beasts.
such as the Thracian unmarried band range Rhodope and Pangaea,
the high groves on rocky ridges, and by running they weary
the Hebrus—an unmarried band; the Ciconians and the Getae scorned. 75

et Rhesi domus et lunatis Bistones armis.
Ergo habitu insignis patrio, religata fluentem
Hesperidum nodo crinem dextrumque feroci
nuda latus Marti ac fulgentem tegmine laeuam
Thermodontiaca munita in proelia pelta, 80
fumantem rapidis quatiebat cursibus axem.
pars comitum biiugo curru, pars cetera dorso
fertur equi; nec non Veneris iam foedera passae
reginam cingunt, sed uirgine densior ala est.

and the house of Rhesus and the Bistones with crescent-shaped arms.
Therefore, conspicuous in her ancestral attire, her flowing hair bound with a Hesperidian knot, and her right flank bared to fierce Mars and her left, gleaming with its covering, made secure for battles by a Thermodontian pelta, 80
she made the axle smoke with her rapid courses. Part of her companions is borne in a two-yoked chariot, the rest on the back of a horse; nor do those who have already undergone the covenants of Venus fail to encircle the queen, but the wing is denser with maidens.

ipsa autem gregibus per longa mapalia lectos            85
ante aciem ostentabat equos, tumulumque propincum
dum sequitur gyris, campo uibrata per auras
spicula contorquens summa ponebat in arce.
     Hanc hasta totiens intrantem moenia Mopsus
non tulit et celsis senior Gortynia muris            90

she herself, moreover, was displaying before the battle-line the horses chosen from the herds through the long mapalia            85
and, while she follows a nearby mound with gyres,
whirling darts, brandished through the air across the field, she was placing them on the citadel’s summit.
     This woman, so often penetrating the walls with a spear, Mopsus
did not tolerate, and the elder Gortynian from the lofty walls            90

tela sonante fugat neruo liquidasque per auras
derigit aligero letalia uulnera ferro.
Cres erat, aerisonis Curetum aduectus ab antris,
Dictaeos agitare puer leuioribus armis
pennata saltus adsuetus harundine Mopsus. 95
ille uagam caelo demisit saepe uolucrem,
ille procul campo linquentem retia ceruum
uulnere sistebat, rueretque inopina sub ictu
ante fera incauto quam sibila poneret arcus.
nec se tum pharetra iactauit iustius ulla 100
Eois quamquam certet Gortyna sagittis.

he with the string sounding lets fly missiles, and through the limpid airs
he directs deadly wounds with winged iron. He was a Cretan, carried from the bronze-sounding
caverns of the Curetes, Mopsus, as a boy accustomed to range the Dictean
glades with lighter arms, with a feathered reed. He often sent down from the sky the wandering 95
bird,
he would halt with a wound the stag that, far off, was leaving the nets on the plain,
and the beast would topple unexpectedly beneath the blow
before the unsuspecting one—before the bow had laid down its hissings. Nor then did any quiver
boast itself more justly, although Gortyna vies with Eastern arrows. 100

uerum ut opum leuior uenatu extendere uitam
abnuit, atque artae res exegere per aequor,
coniuge cum Meroe natisque inglorius hospes
intrarat miseram fato ducente Saguntum. 105

but when, being lighter in means, he refused to extend his life by hunting,
and straitened circumstances drove him across the sea,
with his wife Meroe and children, an inglorious guest,
he had entered miserable Saguntum, fate leading. 105

coryti fratrum ex umeris calamique paterni
pendebant uolucerque chalybs, Minoia tela.
hic medius iuuenum Massylae gentis in agmen
crebra Cydoneo fundebat spicula cornu.
iam Garamum audacemque Thyrum pariterque ruentis 110
Gisgonem leuemque Bagam indignumque sagittae,
impubem malas, tam certae occurrere Lixum
fuderat et plena tractabat bella pharetra.

from his shoulders hung the quivers of his brothers and his father's reed-shafts,
and winged steel, Minoan missiles.
here, in the midst of the band of youths of the Massylian nation,
he was pouring frequent little darts from a Cydonian bow.
already Garamus and bold Thyrus and Gisgo rushing likewise 110
and nimble Baga, and Lixus—unworthy of an arrow,
with beardless cheeks, to confront one so sure—he had routed,
and with a full quiver he was conducting war.

tum uultum intendens telumque in uirginis ora
desertum non grata Iouem per uota uocabat. 115
namque ut fatiferos conuerti prospicit arcus,
opposito procul insidiis Nasamonias Harpe
corpore praeripuit letum calamumque uolantem,
dum clamat, patulo excipiens tramisit hiatu,
et primae ferrum a tergo uidere sorores. 120

then, fixing his visage and the weapon upon the maiden’s features
he was calling upon Jupiter—who had deserted him—by vows not welcome. 115
for as he perceives the death-bearing bows turned,
Nasamonian Harpe, with her body set in the way against the ambush from afar,
snatched away doom and the flying reed-shaft,
while she shouted, receiving it, she passed it through with a gaping mouth,
and the sisters saw the steel from the back of the foremost. 120

at comitis frendens casu labentia uirgo
membra leuat paruaque oculos iam luce natantis
inrorat lacrimis totisque adnisa doloris
uiribus intorquet letalem in moenia cornum.
illa uolans umerum rapido transuerberat ictu 125
conantis Dorylae, iunctis iam cornibus arcus
et ducti spatium nerui complente sagitta,
excutere in uentos resoluto pollice ferrum.
tum subitum in uulnus praeceps deuoluitur altis
aggeribus muri, iuxtaque cadentia membra 130
effusi uersa calami fluxere pharetra.

but, gnashing at her comrade’s fall, the virgin
lifts her slipping limbs and bedews with tears the eyes now swimming with scant light
and, straining with all the powers of grief,
she whirls a lethal horn-bow against the walls.
it, flying, transfixes the shoulder with a rapid stroke 125
of Dorylas as he was trying, the bow’s horns already joined
and the shaft filling the space of the drawn string,
to shake the iron into the winds with thumb released.
then headlong he rolls down upon the sudden wound from the high
ramparts of the wall, and beside the falling limbs 130
the quiver, spilled and overturned, let its shafts stream.

exclamat paribus frater uicinus in armis
Icarus ulciscique parat lacrimabile fatum.
atque illum raptim promentem in proelia telum
Hannibal excussi praeuertit turbine saxi. 135

The brother nearby in equal arms, Icarus, exclaims
and prepares to avenge the lamentable fate.
and as he swiftly brings forth his weapon for battle,
Hannibal anticipates him with the turbine of a hurled stone. 135

labuntur gelido torpentia frigore membra,
deficiensque manus pharetrae sua tela remisit.
     At pater in gemino natorum funere Mopsus
correptos arcus ter maesta mouit ab ira,
ter cecidit dextra, et notas dolor abstulit artis.            140
paenitet heu sero dulcis liquisse penatis,
adreptoque auide, quo concidis, Icare, saxo,
postquam aeuum senior percussaque pectora frustra
sentit et, ut tantos compescat morte dolores,
nil opis in dextra, uastae se culmine turris            145
praecipitem iacit et delapsus pondere prono
membra super nati moribundos explicat artus.
     Dum cadit externo Gortynius aduena bello,
iam noua molitus stimulato milite Theron,
Alcidae templi custos araeque sacerdos,            150

the limbs, numbed with icy chill, give way,
and his failing hand sent back his own missiles to the quiver.
     But the father Mopsus, at the double funeral of his sons,
thrice in mournful wrath he moved the seized bows,
thrice the right hand fell, and grief stole his well-known craft.            140
alas, too late it repents to have left the sweet Penates,
and, having eagerly snatched the rock on which you fall, Icarus,
after the elder in age and his smitten breast he feels in vain,
and, that he might restrain such great pains by death,
with no aid in his right hand, from the summit of a vast tower            145
he hurls himself headlong, and, slipping down with weight prone,
he spreads his dying limbs over the body of his son.
     While the Gortynian stranger falls in a foreign war,
already Theron, having contrived new things, with the soldiery stirred,
the guardian of Alcides’ temple and priest of the altar,            150

non expectatum Tyriis effuderat agmen
et fera miscebat reserata proelia porta.
atque illi non hasta manu, non uertice cassis,
sed fisus latis umeris et mole iuuentae
agmina uastabat claua, nihil indigus ensis. 155
exuuiae capiti impositae tegimenque leonis
terribilem attollunt excelso uertice rictum.
centum angues idem Lernaeaque monstra gerebat
in clipeo et sectis geminam serpentibus hydram.

he had poured forth upon the Tyrians a column not expected
and with the gate unbarred he was mixing savage battles.
and for him, not a spear in hand, not a helmet on his crown,
but trusting in broad shoulders and the mass of youth
he was laying waste the ranks with a club, in no need of a sword. 155
spoils placed upon his head and the lion’s covering
lift up the terrible gape of jaws at his lofty crown.
the same man was bearing a hundred snakes and the Lernaean monsters
on his shield, and the Hydra, twin when its serpents are cut.

ille Iubam T<h>apsumque patrem clarumque Micipsam 160
nomine aui Maurumque Sacen, a moenibus actos
palantisque fuga, praeceps ad litora cursu
egerat, atque una spumabant aequora dextra.
nec contentus Idi leto letoque Cothonis
Marmaridae nec caede Rothi nec caede Iugurthae, 165

he had driven Juba and Thapsus the father and Micipsa, famous by the name of his grandsire, 160
and Saces the Moor, forced from the walls and, straggling in flight,
headlong to the shores at a run, and the seas together foamed at his right hand.
nor content with the death of Idius and the death of Cothon
the Marmarid, nor with the slaughter of Rothus nor the slaughter of Jugurtha, 165

Asbytes currum et radiantis tegmina laeuae
poscebat uotis gemmataque lumina peltae
atque in belligera uersabat uirgine mentem.
quem ruere ut telo uidit regina cruento,
obliquos detorquet equos laeuumque per orbem 170
fallaci gyro campum secat ac uelut ales
auerso rapitur sinuata per aequora curru.
dumque ea se ex oculis aufert, atque ocior Euro
incita pulueream campo trahit ungula nubem,
aduersum late stridens rota proterit agmen, 175
ingerit et crebras uirgo trepidantibus hastas.

Asbytes with vows was demanding a chariot and the radiant coverings of his left hand,
and the gemmed eyes of the pelta, and was turning his mind upon the war-bearing maiden.
When the queen saw him rushing with a bloody weapon,
she twists her horses askance and through a leftward circuit 170
she cleaves the field in a deceitful gyre, and like a bird
she is swept with her chariot turned aside, winding over the level plains.
And while she carries herself out of his sight, and, swifter than Eurus,
the goaded hoof drags a dusty cloud across the plain,
the wheel, shrilling far and wide, crushes the opposing column, 175
and the maiden pours in thick spears upon the panic-stricken.

hic cecidere Lycus Thamyrisque et nobile nomen
Eurydamas, clari deductum stirpe parentis,
qui thalamos ausus quondam sperare superbos
(heu demens!) Ithacique torum; sed enim arte pudica 180

here fell Lycus and Thamyris, and the noble name
Eurydamas, derived from the stock of a famous parent,
who once dared to hope for proud marriage-chambers
(alas, madman!) and the couch of the Ithacan; but indeed by chaste art 180

fallacis totiens reuoluto stamine telae
deceptus, mersum pelago iactarat Vlixen.
ast Ithacus uero ficta pro morte loquacem
adfecit leto, taedaeque ad funera uersae.
gens extrema uiri campis deletur Hiberis 185
Eurydamas Nomados dextra: superinstrepit ater
et seruat cursum perfractis ossibus axis.

deceived by the thread of the deceitful web so often rolled back,
he had bragged that Ulysses was sunk in the sea.
but the Ithacan indeed visited death upon the loquacious one for the feigned death,
and the marriage-torches were turned to funerals.
the man’s farthest clan is blotted out on the Hiberian fields— 185
Eurydamas by a Nomad’s right hand: the black
axle roars on above and keeps its course with bones shattered.

     Iamque aderat remeans uirgo, inter proelia postquam
distringi Therona uidet, saeuamque bipennem
perlibrans mediae fronti, spolium inde superbum            190
Herculeasque tibi exuuias, Dictynna, uouebat.
nec segnis Theron tantae spe laudis in ipsos
aduersus consurgit equos uillosaque fului
ingerit obiectans trepidantibus ora leonis.
attoniti terrore nouo rictuque minaci            195

     And now the returning maiden was at hand, after, amid the battles,
she sees Theron being hard-pressed, and, poising the savage two-edged axe
for the middle of his brow, the proud spoil from there she was vowing,            190
and the Herculean trophies, to you, Dictynna.
nor is Theron sluggish: with hope of so great praise against the horses themselves
he rises, and, presenting them, he thrusts at the trembling ones the shaggy jaws of the tawny
lion. Thunderstruck by the new terror and the menacing gape            195

quadrupedes iactant resupino pondere currum.
tum saltu Asbyten conantem linquere pugnas
occupat incussa gemina inter tempora claua,
feruentisque rotas turbataque frena pauore
disiecto spargit conlisa per ossa cerebro, 200
ac rapta properans caedem ostentare bipenni
amputat e curru reuolutae uirginis ora.
necdum irae positae.

the quadrupeds toss the chariot with its weight thrown supine.
then, with a leap, he overtakes Asbyte as she tries to leave the fights,
struck between the temples by a twin club;
and he sprinkles the seething wheels and the reins, disordered by fear,
with brains, smashed through the bones and scattered, 200
and, snatching up his two-edged axe, hurrying to display the slaughter,
he cuts off the head of the maiden rolled from the chariot.
nor yet were his angers laid aside.

celsa nam figitur hasta
spectandum caput: id gestent ante agmina Poenum
imperat, et propere currus ad moenia uertant.            205
     Haec caecus fati diuumque abeunte fauore
uicino Theron edebat proelia leto.
namque aderat toto ore ferens iramque minasque
Hannibal et caesam Asbyten fixique tropaeum
infandum capitis furiata mente dolebat.            210

for a lofty spear is fixed up, the head for spectacle: he commands that they bear it before the battle-lines of the Carthaginian, and that they quickly turn the chariots toward the walls.            205
     These things Theron, blind to fate and with the favor of the gods ebbing away, was enacting in battles with death at hand.
for Hannibal was at hand, bearing in his whole face anger and menaces, and he, with maddened mind, was grieving over Asbyte slain and over the unspeakable trophy of the head affixed.            210

ac simul aerati radiauit luminis umbo,
et concussa procul membris uelocibus arma
letiferum intonuere, fugam perculsa repente
ad muros trepido conuertunt agmina cursu:
sicut agit leuibus per sera crepuscula pennis 215
e pastu uolucres ad nota cubilia uesper;
aut, ubi Cecropius formidine nubis aquosae
sparsa super flores examina tollit Hymettos,
ad dulcis ceras et odori corticis antra
mellis apes grauidae properant densoque uolatu 220
raucum conexae glomerant ad limina murmur.
praecipitat metus attonitos, caecique feruntur.
heu blandum caeli lumen!

and at once the boss radiated with bronze light,
and the arms, shaken on his swift limbs, thundered a lethal sound;
the ranks, suddenly smitten, turn their flight to the walls with a trembling course:
just as evening drives the birds with light pinions through late twilights 215
from feeding to their familiar roosts;
or, when Cecropian Hymettus, at the fear of a watery cloud,
lifts the swarms scattered over the flowers,
to the sweet wax and the caverns of the fragrant rind of honey
the honey-laden bees hasten, and with dense flight, conjoined, they mass a raucous murmur at the thresholds. 220
fear hurls them headlong, thunderstruck, and they are borne blind.
alas, the coaxing light of heaven!

tantone cauetur
mors reditura metu nascentique addita fata?
consilium damnant portisque atque aggere tuto 225

by such great fear is death, about to return, warded off, and the fates added to the newborn?
they condemn the counsel, and to the safe gates and rampart 225

erupisse gemunt: retinet uix agmina Theron
interdumque manu, interdum clamore minisque:
'State, uiri; meus ille hostis; mihi gloria magnae,
state, uenit pugnae. muro tectisque Sagunti
hac abigam Poenos dextra; spectacula tantum            230
ferte, uiri; uel, si cunctos metus acer in urbem
(heu deforme!) rapit, soli mihi claudite portas.'
     At Poenus rapido praeceps ad moenia cursu,
dum pauitant trepidi rerum fessique salutis,
tendebat. stat primam urbem murosque patentis            235
postposita caede et dilata inuadere pugna.

they groan that they have burst out: Theron scarcely holds the ranks,
now with hand, now with shout and threats:
“Stand, men; that is my foe; to me is the glory of great combat;
stand, he comes to the fight. From the wall and roofs of Saguntum
with this right hand I will drive off the Poeni; only bear the spectacle, men; 230
or, if keen fear (alas, shameful!) is snatching all into the city,
shut the gates to me alone.”
But the Carthaginian, headlong with rapid course to the walls,
while they quail, trembling, drained of resources and of safety,
was pressing on. It stands his resolve to assault the foremost city and the standing-open walls,235
with slaughter postponed and combat deferred.

id postquam Herculeae custos uidet impiger arae,
emicat et uelox formidine praeuenit hostem.
gliscit Elissaeo uiolentior ira tyranno:
'Tu solue interea nobis, bone ianitor urbis, 240

After the tireless guardian of the Herculean altar sees that,
he darts forth and, swift, forestalls the enemy in his alarm.
a more violent wrath swells in the Elissan tyrant:
'You meanwhile unbar for us, good janitor of the city, 240

supplicium, ut pandas' inquit 'tua moenia leto.'
nec plura effari sinit ira, rotatque coruscum
mucronem; sed contortum prior impete uasto
Daunius huic robur iuuenis iacit. arma fragore
icta graui raucum gemuere, alteque resultant 245
aere inlisa cauo nodosae pondera clauae.
at uiduus teli et frustrato proditus ictu,
pernici uelox cursu rapit incita membra
et celeri fugiens perlustrat moenia planta.

'the penalty: that you open your walls to death,' he says.
nor does anger allow him to utter more, and he whirls the flashing point;
but first, with vast impetus, the Daunian youth hurls at him the twisted oaken mass.
his arms, struck with a heavy crash, groaned raucously, and high they rebound 245
the weights of the knotted club, dashed on the hollow bronze.
but, weapon-bereft and exposed by the frustrated stroke,
he, swift in nimble course, drives his goaded limbs,
and, fleeing, traverses the walls with speedy foot.

instat atrox terga increpitans fugientia uictor. 250
conclamant matres, celsoque e culmine muri
lamentis uox mixta sonat: nunc nomine noto
appellant, seras fesso nunc pandere portas
posse uolunt; quatit hortantum praecordia terror
ne simul accipiant ingentem moenibus hostem. 255

the grim victor presses on, chiding the fleeing backs. 250
the mothers cry out together, and from the lofty summit of the wall
a voice mingled with laments sounds: now by a known name
they call him, now they wish to be able to throw open the bolts of the gates
for the weary man; terror shakes the hearts of those exhorting,
lest they at once admit within the walls the huge enemy. 255

incutit umbonem fesso adsultatque ruenti
Poenus et ostentans spectantem e moenibus urbem
'I, miseram Asbyten leto solare propinquo'++
haec dicens, iugulo optantis dimittere uitam
infestum condit mucronem ac regia laetus            260
quadrupedes spolia abreptos a moenibus ipsis,
quis aditum portae trepidantum saepserat agmen,
uictor agit curruque uolat per ouantia castra.
     At Nomadum furibunda cohors miserabile humandi
deproperat munus tumulique adiungit honorem            265
et rapto cineres ter circum corpore lustrat.
hinc letale uiri robur tegimenque tremendum
in flammas iaciunt, ambustoque ore genisque
deforme alitibus liquere cadauer Hiberis.
     Poenorum interea quis rerum summa potestas,            270

he rams the boss against the weary man and leaps upon the one rushing down,
the Punic warrior, and, pointing to the city watching from the walls,
“Go, console wretched Asbyte with the death that is at hand”++
saying these things, he buries the hostile blade in the throat of him who longs to let life go,
and, glad, the royal quadrupeds—spoils snatched from the very walls,260
with which the column of the panic‑stricken had barricaded the gate’s approach—
he drives as victor and flies by chariot through the exultant camps.
But the frenzied cohort of the Nomads hastens the pitiable office of burial
and adds the honor of a tomb, and thrice lustrates the ashes around the snatched body;265
then the man’s lethal vigor and his dreadful covering they cast into the flames,
and, with mouth and cheeks scorched, they left the misshapen corpse to Iberian birds.
Meanwhile, among the Carthaginians, in whose hands is the highest command of affairs,270

consultant bello super, et quae dicta ferantur
Ausoniae populis, oratorumque minaci
aduentu trepidant. mouet hinc foedusque fidesque
et testes superi iurataque pacta parentum,
hinc popularis amor coeptantis magna iuuentae, 275
et sperare iuuat belli meliora. sed, olim
ductorem infestans odiis gentilibus, Hannon
sic adeo increpitat studia incautumque fauorem:
'Cuncta quidem, patres, (neque enim cohibere minantum
irae se ualuere) premunt formidine uocem: 280
haud tamen abstiterim.

they consult further about war, and what declarations should be carried to the peoples of Ausonia, and they tremble at the menacing arrival of the envoys.
on this side the treaty and good faith move them, and the supernal witnesses and the sworn pacts of their ancestors,
on that side the popular love for the youth who has undertaken great things, and it delights them to hope for better things of war. 275
but Hanno, long since assailing the leader with tribal hatreds, thus indeed reproves the zeal and heedless favor:
“Indeed, fathers, all things (for the angers of the threatening have not been strong enough to restrain themselves) press my voice with dread: nevertheless I will not desist.” 280
haud tamen abstiterim.

mortem licet arma propinquent,
testabor superos, et caelo nota relinquam
quae postrema salus rerum patriaeque reposcit.
nec nunc obsessa demum et fumante Sagunto
haec serus uates Hannon canit. anxia rupi 285

though arms bring death near,
i will call the gods above to witness, and i will leave in heaven a mark
of what the last safeguard of our affairs and fatherland demands.
nor only now, with saguntum at length besieged and smoking,
does hannon, a belated seer, sing these things. anxious, i broke 285

pectora ne castris innutriretur et armis
exitiale caput; monui et, dum uita, monebo,
ingenitum noscens uirus flatusque paternos,
ut, qui stelligero speculatur sidera caelo,
uenturam pelagi rabiem Caurique futura            290
praedicit miseris haud uanus flamina nautis.
consedit solio rerumque inuasit habenas:
ergo armis foedus fasque omne abrumpitur armis,
oppida quassantur, longeque in moenia nostra
Aeneadum arrectae mentes, disiectaque pax est.            295
exagitant manes iuuenem furiaeque paternae
ac funesta sacra et conuersi foedere rupto
in caput infidum superi Massylaque uates.
an nunc ille noui caecus caligine regni
externas arces quatit aut Tirynthia tecta?            300

lest there be nurtured in the camp and in arms a ruinous head; I warned, and, while life lasts, I will warn,
knowing the inborn virus and the paternal breaths,
as one who watches the stars in the star-bearing heaven
predicts to wretched sailors, not vainly, the coming rage of the sea and the future blasts of the Caurus.            290
he sat on the throne and seized the reins of affairs:
therefore by arms the treaty and all right are snapped by arms,
towns are shaken, and far and wide toward our walls
the minds of the Aeneads are pricked up, and peace is scattered asunder.            295
the shades and the paternal Furies harry the youth,
and the death-bringing rites, and—turned, by the broken treaty, against his treacherous head—
the gods and the Massylian seer. Or now is he, blind with the murk of a new kingship,
shaking foreign citadels or the Tirynthian roofs?            300

sic propria luat hoc poena nec misceat urbis
fata suis: nunc hoc, hoc inquam, tempore muros
oppugnat, Carthago, tuos teque obsidet armis.
lauimus Hennaeas animoso sanguine uallis
et uix conducto produximus arma Lacone. 305
nos ratibus laceris Scyllaea repleuimus antra
classibus et refluo spectauimus aequore raptis
contorta e fundo reuomentem transtra Charybdin.
respice, pro demens, pro pectus inane deorum,
Aegatis Libyaeque procul fluitantia membra! 310
quo ruis et patriae exitio tibi nomina quaeris?

thus let him pay with this proper penalty and not mingle the city’s fates with his own: now at this, this, I say, time he attacks your walls, Carthage, and besieges you with arms. we have washed the Hennaean valleys with valiant blood and with a scarcely hired Laconian we have led forth our arms. 305
we with tattered rafts have filled Scyllaean caverns with fleets, and we beheld, our squadrons snatched by the refluent sea, Charybdis belching back from the bottom the cross‑benches twisted awry. look back, ah madman, ah breast empty of the gods, at the limbs floating far off by the Aegates and Libya! 310
where are you rushing, and with your country’s destruction are you seeking a name for yourself?

scilicet immensae, uisis iuuenalibus armis,
subsident Alpes, subsidet mole niuali
Alpibus aequatum attollens caput Apenninus.
sed campos fac, uane, dari. num gentibus istis 315

To be sure, the immense Alps, at the sight of youthful arms, will sink down;
the Alps will subside, and the Apennine, raising a head equal to the Alps with a snowy mass, will subside.
and yet, suppose, vain man, that plains are granted. surely not for those peoples 315

mortales animi, aut ferro flammaue fatiscunt?
haud tibi Neritia cernes cum prole laborem.
pubescit castris miles, galeaque teruntur
nondum signatae flaua lanugine malae,
nec requies aeui nota, exanguesque merendo 320
stant prima inter signa senes letumque lacessunt.

are their spirits mortal, or do they give way to steel or to flame?
by no means will you see Neritia with her brood labor for you.
the soldier comes of age in the camps, and by the helmet are rubbed
cheeks not yet marked with golden down,
nor is rest known to their age, and, bloodless from service, 320
the old men stand among the foremost standards and challenge death.

ipse ego Romanas perfosso corpore turmas
tela intorquentis correpta e uulnere uidi,
uidi animos mortesque uirum decorisque furorem.
si bello absistis nec te uictoribus offers,            325
quantum heu, Carthago, donat tibi sanguinis Hannon!'
     Gestar ad haec (namque impatiens asperque coquebat
iamdudum immites iras mediamque loquentis
bis conatus erat turbando abrumpere uocem)
'Concilione' inquit 'Libyae Tyrioque senatu,            330

I myself saw the Roman troops, from a pierced body
hurling missiles, weapons snatched out of the wound, I saw,
I saw the spirits and deaths of men and the frenzy for honor.
if you stand aloof from war and do not offer yourself to the victors,            325
how much, alas, O Carthage, of blood Hannon is gifting to you!'
     Gestar at this (for, impatient and rough, he had been long cooking
savage wraths, and had twice tried to break off the voice
of the speaker in mid-utterance by throwing it into confusion)
'In the assembly,' he says, 'of Libya and the Tyrian senate,            330

pro superi, Ausonius miles sedet, armaque tantum
haud dum sumpta uiro? nam cetera non latet hostis.
nunc geminas Alpes Apenninumque minatur,
nunc freta Sicaniae et Scyllaei litoris undas,
nec procul est quin iam manes umbrasque pauescat 335
Dardanias: tanta accumulat praeconia leto
uulneribusque uirum ac tollit sub sidera gentem.

O gods above, does the Ausonian soldier sit, and are the arms as yet not taken up by the man? for as to the rest the enemy lies not hidden.
now he threatens the twin Alps and the Apennine,
now the straits of Sicily and the waves of the Scyllaean shore,
nor is it far but that even now he would make the Dardanian Manes and shades to quail 335
so great proclamations he accumulates upon death and the wounds of men, and he lifts his race to the stars.

mortalem, mihi crede, licet formidine turpi
frigida corda tremant, mortalem sumimus hostem.
uidi ego, cum, geminas artis post terga catenis 340
euinctus palmas, uulgo traheretur ouante
carceris in tenebras spes et fiducia gentis
Regulus Hectoreae; uidi, cum robore pendens
Hesperiam cruce sublimis spectaret ab alta.
nec uero terrent puerilia protinus ora 345

mortal, believe me, though with base fear the cold hearts tremble, we take on a mortal enemy.
I myself saw, when, with twin palms bound behind his back with chains, 340
he, Regulus, the hope and confidence of the Hectorian race, was dragged by an exulting crowd into the darkness of a prison;
I saw, when, hanging from the timber, aloft on a high cross, he gazed upon Hesperia.
nor indeed do boyish faces straightway terrify 345

sub galea et pressae properata casside malae.
indole non adeo segni sumus: aspice, turmae
quot Libycae certant annos anteire labore
et nudis bellantur equis; ipse, aspice, ductor,
cum primam tenero uocem proferret ab ore, 350
iam bella et lituos ac flammis urere gentem
iurabat Phrygiam atque animo patria arma mouebat.
proinde polo crescant Alpes, astrisque coruscos
Apenninus agat scopulos: per saxa niuesque
(dicam etenim, ut stimulent atram uel inania mentem), 355
per caelum est qui pandat iter: pudet Hercule tritas
desperare uias laudemque timere secundam.

beneath the helmet and cheeks hastened by the pressed-down casque.
we are not of a disposition so slow: look, how many Libyan
squadrons strive to outstrip their years by toil,
and they wage war on bareback horses; the leader himself, look,
when he first uttered a voice from his tender mouth, 350
already he was swearing wars and war-trumpets and to burn with flames
the Phrygian nation, and in spirit he was moving his country’s arms.
therefore let the Alps grow to the pole, and let the Apennine drive its gleaming
crags to the stars: through rocks and snows
(for I will say it, so that even empty things may spur a dark mind), 355
there is one to lay open a path through the sky: by Hercules, it is a shame
to despair of trodden ways and to fear a second praise.

sed Libyae clades et primi incendia belli
aggerat atque iterum pro libertate labores
Hannon ferre uetat. ponat formidinis aestus 360

but the calamities of Libya and the conflagrations of the first war
he heaps up, and again for liberty the labors
Hannon vetoes to bear. Let him set aside the heats of dread 360

parietibusque domus imbellis femina seruet
singultantem animam; nos, nos contra ibimus hostem,
quis procul a Tyria dominos depellere Byrsa,
uel Ioue non aequo, fixum est. sin fata repugnant,
et iam damnata cessit Carthagine Mauors, 365
occumbam potius nec te, patria inclita, dedam
aeternum famulam liberque Acheronta uidebo.
nam quae, pro superi, Fabius iubet!

and let the unwarlike woman keep within the walls of the house her sobbing life;
we, we will go against the enemy,
for whom it is fixed to drive the masters far from Tyrian Byrsa,
even with Jove not favorable. But if the fates oppose,
and Mars has already withdrawn from doomed Carthage, 365
I will rather fall, nor will I, renowned fatherland, hand you over
as a perpetual handmaid, and as a free man I shall behold Acheron.
for what things, by the gods above, Fabius orders!

"ocius arma
exuite et capta descendite ab arce Sagunti.
tum delecta manus scutorum incendat aceruos, 370
uranturque rates, ac toto absistite ponto."
di, procul o, merita est numquam si talia plecti
Carthago, prohibete nefas nostrique solutas
ductoris seruate manus!' ut deinde resedit,
factaque censendi patrum de more potestas, 375

"swiftly, cast off your arms
and come down from the captured citadel of Saguntum.
then let a chosen band ignite heaps of shields, 370
let the ships be burned, and desist from the whole sea."
gods, O keep [it] far away, if Carthage has never deserved to be punished with such things,
forbid the nefas and preserve the hands of our leader unbound!' when thereafter he sat down,
and, according to custom, the power of the Fathers to give their opinions was granted, 375

hic Hannon reddi propere certamine rapta
instat et auctorem uiolati foederis addit.
tum uero attoniti, ceu templo inrumperet hostis,
exiluere patres, Latioque id uerteret omen
orauere deum. at postquam discordia sensit 380
pectora et infidas ad Martem uergere mentes,
non ultra patiens Fabius rexisse dolorem
concilium propere exposcit, patribusque uocatis,
bellum se gestare sinu pacemque profatus,
quid sedeat, legere ambiguis neu fallere dictis 385
imperat ac, saeuo neutrum renuente senatu,
ceu clausas acies gremioque effunderet arma,
'Accipite infaustum Libyae euentuque priori
par' inquit 'bellum', et laxos effundit amictus.

here Hanno presses that what was snatched in the combat be promptly returned,
and he adds the author of the violated treaty. Then indeed, thunder‑struck, as if an enemy were breaking into the temple,
the fathers leapt up, and they prayed a god to turn that omen to the Latin land.
But after he perceived hearts at odds and minds inclining faithlessly to Mars, 380
Fabius, no longer patient to have kept his grief reined in,
urgently calls for a council, and with the fathers summoned,
declaring that he carries war and peace in his bosom,
he commands them to choose what is settled, and not to beguile with ambiguous words; 385
and, with the stern senate refusing neither,
as if he were pouring forth shut-up battle-lines and arms from his lap,
“Receive a war ill‑omened for Libya and equal to the previous outcome,” he says, and he lets fall his loose mantles.

tum patrias repetit pugnandi nuntius arces. 390

then the envoy for combat returns to the ancestral citadels. 390

     Atque ea dum profugae regnis agitantur Elissae,
~accitis uelox populis, quis aegra lababat
ambiguo sub Marte fides, praedaque grauatus
ad muros Poenus reuocauerat arma Sagunti.
     Ecce autem clipeum saeuo fulgore micantem            395
Oceani gentes ductori dona ferebant,
Callaicae telluris opus, galeamque coruscis
subnixam cristis, uibrant quae uertice coni
albentis niueae tremulo nutamine pennae,
ensem, unam ac multis fatalem milibus hastam;            400
praeterea textam nodis auroque trilicem
loricam, nulli tegimen penetrabile telo.
haec, aere et duri chalybis perfecta metallo
atque opibus perfusa Tagi, per singula laetis
lustrat ouans oculis et gaudet origine regni.            405

     And while these things are being driven on in the realms of the fugitive Elissa,
~swift, with the peoples summoned—among whom their ailing good faith was wavering under ambiguous Mars—and burdened with booty
the Phoenician had recalled his arms to the walls of Saguntum.
     Lo then, the nations of the Ocean were bearing to the leader as gifts a shield flashing with savage brilliance,            395
a work of the Callaic land; and a helmet supported by coruscant crests,
which the snowy-white feathers make to quiver at the cone’s summit with a tremulous nodding;
a sword, and a spear fatal to one and to many thousands besides;            400
furthermore a corselet woven in knots and triple-twined with gold,
a covering penetrable by no weapon.
These, perfected with bronze and the metal of hard chalybs and steeped in the riches of the Tagus,
he surveys piece by piece with rejoicing eyes and exults in the origin of his realm.            405

Condebat primae Dido Carthaginis arces,
instabatque operi subducta classe iuuentus.
molibus hi claudunt portus, his tecta domosque
partiris, iustae Bitia uenerande senectae.
ostentant caput effossa tellure repertum 410
bellatoris equi atque omen clamore salutant.

Dido was founding the citadels of earliest Carthage,
and the youth, with the fleet hauled up, pressed on with the work.
these close the harbors with moles, to these you apportion roofs and homes,
O Bitias, venerable of righteous old age.
they display the head of a war-horse found with the earth dug up, 410
and they hail the omen with a shout.

has inter species orbatum classe suisque
Aenean pulsum pelago dextraque precantem
cernere erat: fronte hunc auide regina serena
infelix ac iam uultu spectabat amico. 415
hinc et speluncam furtiuaque foedera amantum
Callaicae fecere manus: it clamor ad auras
latratusque canum, subitoque exterrita nimbo
occultant alae uenantum corpora siluis.
nec procul Aeneadum uacuo iam litore classis 420

among these scenes it was possible to behold Aeneas, bereft of his fleet and his own,
driven by the sea and beseeching with his right hand; the queen with serene brow—
the unhappy one—was already gazing at him eagerly with a friendly countenance. 415
then too the cave and the furtive covenants of the lovers
the Callaican hands fashioned: the clamor goes to the airs
and the barking of dogs, and the wings (squadrons) of hunters, suddenly terrified by a storm-cloud,
hide their bodies in the woods.
nor far away the fleet of the Aeneadae, now on an empty shore, 420

aequora nequiquam reuocante petebat Elissa.
ipsa pyram super ingentem stans saucia Dido
mandabat Tyriis ultricia bella futuris,
ardentemque rogum media spectabat ab unda
Dardanus et magnis pandebat carbasa fatis. 425
parte alia supplex infernis Hannibal aris
arcanum Stygia libat cum uate cruorem
et primo bella Aeneadum iurabat ab aeuo.
at senior Siculis exultat Hamilcar in aruis:
spirantem credas certamina anhela mouere, 430
ardor inest oculis, toruumque minatur imago.

Elissa was seeking the seas, calling back in vain.
she herself, standing upon the huge pyre, wounded Dido
was enjoining to the Tyrians avenging wars for the future,
and the Dardanian from mid-wave was gazing at the blazing pyre
and by great fates was spreading his sails. 425
in another part Hannibal, a suppliant at the infernal altars,
with a Stygian seer pours out arcane blood
and was swearing wars against the Aeneadae from his first age.
but the elder Hamilcar exults in the Sicilian fields:
you would think him, breathing, to set panting combats in motion, 430
ardor is in his eyes, and the image threatens grimly.

Necnon et laeuum clipei latus aspera signis
implebat Spartana cohors; hanc ducit ouantem
Ledaeis ueniens uictor Xanthippus Amyclis.
iuxta triste decus pendet sub imagine poenae 435

And likewise the left side of the shield the Spartan cohort, rough with emblems, was filling
this one the victor Xanthippus leads in ovation
coming from Ledaean Amyclae.
Nearby a sad honor hangs beneath the image of punishment 435

Regulus et fidei dat magna exempla Sagunto.
laetior at circa facies: agitata ferarum
agmina uenatu et caelata mapalia fulgent,
nec procul usta cutem nigri soror horrida Mauri
adsuetas mulcet patrio sermone leaenas.            440
it liber campi pastor, cui fine sine ullo
inuetitum saltus penetrat pecus: omnia Poenum
armenti uigilem patrio de more secuntur,
gaesaque latratorque Cydon tectumque focique
in silicis uenis et fistula nota iuuencis.            445
eminet excelso consurgens colle Saguntos,
quam circa immensi populi condensaque cingunt
agmina certantum pulsantque trementibus hastis.
extrema clipei stagnabat Hiberus in ora,
curuatis claudens ingentem flexibus orbem.            450

Regulus also gives great examples of fidelity at Saguntum.
but the aspect around is more joyful: the ranks of wild beasts, stirred by the hunt, and the engraved mapalia huts gleam,
and not far off a rough sister of a black Moor, with skin sun-scorched, soothes the lionesses accustomed to men with her native speech.            440
the shepherd goes free over the plain, for whom, without any boundary, the flock penetrates the un-forbidden wilds: all things follow the Carthaginian, the watchful one of the herd, by ancestral custom—
his javelins and the barking Cydonian hound, and a shelter and a hearth in the veins of flint, and a pipe known to the young bullocks.            445
Saguntum stands out, rising on a lofty hill,
around which immense peoples and crowded ranks of contenders encircle and beat with trembling spears.
on the extreme edge of the shield the Hiberus lay stagnant,
closing the vast circle with its curved windings.            450

Hannibal abrupto transgressus foedere ripas
Poenorum populos Romana in bella uocabat.
tali sublimis dono, noua tegmina latis
aptat concutiens umeris celsusque profatur:
'Heu quantum Ausonio sudabitis, arma, cruore!            455
quas, belli ui<n>dex, poenas mihi, Curia, pendes!'
     Iamque senescebat uallatus moenibus hostis,
carpebatque dies urbem, dum signa manusque
expectant fessi socias. tandem aequore uano
auertunt oculos frustrataque litora ponunt            460
et propius suprema uident.

Hannibal, with the treaty broken, having crossed the banks,
was calling the Punic peoples into Roman wars.
exalted by such a gift, he fits new coverings to his broad
shoulders, shaking them, and loftily proclaims:
'Alas, how much, arms, you will sweat with Ausonian blood!            455
what penalties, avenger of war, do you pay to me, Curia!'
     And now the enemy, walled in by ramparts, was growing old,
and the day was consuming the city, while the weary await
allied standards and hands. At last they turn their eyes away
from the empty sea and lay aside the shores that have disappointed,            460
and they see their last things more closely.

sedet acta medullis
iamdudum atque inopes penitus coquit intima pestis.
est furtim lento misere durantia tabo
uiscera et exurit siccatas sanguine uenas
per longum celata fames. iam lumina retro 465

it sits, sunk in the marrow long already, and the inmost pestilence thoroughly cooks the helpless.
their viscera, by stealth, with slow corruption, wretchedly endure, and a hunger hidden for long burns up veins dried of blood;
now the eyes backward 465

exesis fugere genis, iam lurida sola
tecta cute et uenis male iuncta trementibus ossa
extant consumptis uisu deformia membris.
umentis rores noctis terramque madentem
solamen fecere mali, cassoque labore 470
e sicco frustra presserunt robore sucos.
nil temerare piget: rabidi ieiunia uentris
insolitis adigunt uesci, resolutaque, nudos
linquentes clipeos, armorum tegmina mandunt.

the eyes have fled from the eaten‑away cheeks, now pallid bones alone,
roofed with skin, and ill joined to trembling veins,
stand out, hideous to the sight, the limbs consumed.
the dews of the moist night and the dripping earth
they made the solace of their ill, and with empty labor 470
from dry timber they pressed out juices in vain.
they shrink from defiling nothing: the fastings of a rabid belly
drive them to feed on unheard‑of things, and, loosened, leaving
their shields naked, they gnaw the coverings of the arms.

Desuper haec caelo spectans Tirynthius alto 475
inlacrimat fractae nequiquam casibus urbis.
namque metus magnique tenent praecepta parentis
ne saeuae tendat contra decreta nouercae.
sic igitur coepta occultans ad limina sanctae
contendit Fidei secretaque pectora temptat. 480

From above, beholding these things from the high heaven, the Tirynthian weeps 475
in vain over the misfortunes of the shattered city.
For both fears and the great precepts of his parent restrain him,
lest he incline against the decrees of his savage stepmother.
Thus therefore, concealing his undertakings, to the thresholds of holy
Faith he hastens, and he tests hidden hearts. 480

arcanis dea laeta polo tum forte remoto
caelicolum magnas uoluebat conscia curas.
quam tali adloquitur Nemeae pacator honore:
'Ante Iouem generata, decus diuumque hominumque,
qua sine non tellus pacem, non aequora norunt, 485
iustitiae consors tacitumque in pectore numen,
exitiumne tuae dirum spectare Sagunti
et tot pendentem pro te, dea, cernere poenas
urbem lenta potes? moritur tibi uulgus, et unam
te matres uincente fame, te maesta uirorum 490
ora uocant, primaque sonant te uoce minores.

the goddess, glad in her arcana, then by chance far removed in the sky,
conscious, she was revolving the great cares of the celestials.
whom the pacifier of Nemea addresses with such honor:
'Born before Jove, the glory of gods and of men,
without whom neither earth nor the waters know peace, 485
partner of Justice and the silent numen in the breast,
can you behold the dire destruction of your Saguntum
and see the city paying so many penalties for you, goddess,
and yet linger? The common crowd dies for you, and you alone
mothers, with hunger victorious, you the sorrowful faces of men 490
call upon; and the lesser ones are first to sound you with their voice.

fer caelo auxilium et fessis da surgere rebus.'
Haec satus Alcmena; contra cui talia uirgo:
'Cerno equidem, nec pro nihilo est mihi foedera rumpi,
statque dies ausis olim tam tristibus ultor. 495

bring from heaven help and grant to weary fortunes to rise.'
Thus spoke the Alcmena-born; to whom in reply the maiden such things:
'I do indeed discern, nor do I count the rending of treaties as nothing,
and the day stands, an avenger one day for deeds so grim. 495

sed me pollutas properantem linquere terras
sedibus his tectisque Iouis succedere adegit
fecundum in fraudes hominum genus: impia liqui
et, quantum terrent, tantum metuentia regna
ac furias auri nec uilia praemia fraudum            500
et super haec ritu horrificos ac more ferarum
uiuentis rapto populos luxuque solutum
omne decus multaque oppressum nocte pudorem.
uis colitur, iurisque locum sibi uindicat ensis,
et probris cessit uirtus. en, aspice gentes:            505
nemo insons: pacem seruant commercia culpae.
sed si cura, tua fundata ut moenia dextra
dignum te seruent memorando fine uigorem,
dedita nec fessi tramittant corpora Poeno:
quod solum nunc fata sinunt seriesque futuri,            510

but the race of men, fecund in frauds, compelled me, as I was hastening to leave the polluted lands,
to come under these seats and the roofs of Jove: I left the impious,
and realms fearing as much as they terrify,
and the furies of gold and the not paltry prizes of deceits,            500
and, beyond these, peoples horrific in rite and living in the manner of beasts
by rapine, and by luxury all honor loosened,
and modesty pressed down by much night.
Force is worshiped, and the sword claims for itself the place of Right,
and Virtue has yielded to disgraces. Lo, look upon the peoples:            505
no one is innocent: the traffickings of guilt keep the peace.
But if there is care that the walls founded by your right hand
may preserve a vigor worthy of you with a memorable end,
and that the weary may not hand over their surrendered bodies to the Punic foe:
what alone now the fates and the sequence of the future allow,            510

extendam leti decus atque in saecula mittam
ipsaque laudatas ad manes prosequar umbras.'
Inde seuera leui decurrens aethere uirgo
luctantem fatis petit inflammata Saguntum.
inuadit mentes et pectora nota pererrat 515
immittitque animis numen. tum fusa medullis
implicat atque sui flagrantem inspirat amorem.

I will extend the glory of death and send it into the ages,
and I myself will escort the lauded shades to the Manes.'
Then the Maiden, severe, running down through the light aether,
inflamed, seeks Saguntum wrestling with the fates.
she invades minds and roams through familiar breasts 515
and she instills a numen into their spirits. Then, poured into the marrows,
she entwines and inspires a blazing love of herself.

arma uolunt temptantque aegros ad proelia nisus.
insperatus adest uigor, interiusque recursat
dulcis honor diuae et sacrum pro uirgine letum. 520
it tacitus fessis per ouantia pectora sensus
uel leto grauiora pati saeuasque ferarum
attemptare dapes et mensis addere crimen.
sed prohibet culpa pollutam extendere lucem
casta Fides paribusque famem compescere membris. 525

they yearn for arms and attempt their ailing strivings at battles.
an unhoped-for vigor is at hand, and inwardly there keeps recurring
the sweet honor of the goddess and a sacred death in the maiden’s stead. 520
a silent feeling goes through the weary yet exulting hearts—
either to endure things graver than death and to attempt the savage
banquets of beasts and to add crime to the tables.
but chaste Faith forbids them to prolong a light polluted by guilt
and to check hunger with the limbs of their peers. 525

     Quam simul inuisae gentis conspexit in arce,
forte ferens sese Libycis Saturnia castris,
uirgineum increpitat miscentem bella furorem
atque ira turbata gradum ciet ocius atram
Tisiphonen imos agitantem uerbere manes,             530
et palmas tendens 'Hos' inquit 'noctis alumna,
hos muros impelle manu populumque ferocem
dextris sterne suis: Iuno iubet. ipsa propinqua
effectus studiumque tuum de nube uidebo.
illa deos summumque Iouem turbantia tela,            535
quis Acheronta moues, flammam immanesque chelydros
stridoremque tuum, quo territa comprimit ora
Cerberus, ac mixto quae spumant felle uenena
et quicquid scelerum, poenarum quicquid et irae
pectore fecundo coquitur tibi, congere praeceps            540

     When she caught sight of her on the citadel of the hated nation,
Saturnia, chancing to bear herself to the Libyan camp,
rebukes the maidenly frenzy that is mixing wars,
and, disturbed with wrath, she summons more quickly black
Tisiphone, who with her scourge stirs the deepest shades,             530
and stretching out her palms, she says: “These, nursling of night,
these walls drive against with your hand, and the fierce people
lay low by their own right hands: Juno orders it. I myself, close by,
will from a cloud behold your outcomes and your zeal.
Those weapons that trouble the gods and highest Jove,             535
by which you set Acheron in motion, the flame and the monstrous chelydri,
and your hissing, at which, terrified, Cerberus closes his mouths,
and the poisons that foam with mingled gall,
and whatever of crimes, whatever of punishments and of wrath
is cooked in your fertile breast—heap it up headlong.”             540

in Rutulos totamque Erebo demitte Saguntum.
hac mercede Fides constet delapsa per auras.'
     Sic uoce instimulans dextra dea concita saeuam
Eumenida incussit muris, tremuitque repente
mons circum, et grauior sonuit per litora fluctus.            545
sibilat insurgens capiti et turgentia circa
multus colla micat squalenti tergore serpens.
Mors graditur uasto caua pandens guttura rictu
casuroque inhiat populo: tunc Luctus et atri
pectora circumstant Planctus Maerorque Dolorque,            550
atque omnes adsunt Poenae, formaque trifauci
personat insomnis lacrimosae Ianitor aulae.

upon the Rutulians, and send all Saguntum down to Erebus.
at this price let it be established that Faith has slipped down through the airs.'
     Thus goading with her voice, the goddess, incited, with her right hand hurled the savage
Eumenis against the walls, and suddenly the mountain around trembled,
and a heavier surge sounded along the shores.            545
many a serpent hisses, rearing at her head, and many glitter around
the swelling necks with scaly back.
Death advances, opening her hollow throat with a vast gape
and gapes for the people about to fall: then Grief and black
Lamentation surround the hearts, and Mourning and Sorrow and Pain,            550
and all the Punishments are present, and the sleepless Janitor,
in his three-jawed form, makes the tearful hall resound.

protinus adsimulat faciem mutabile monstrum
Tiburnae gressumque simul sonitumque loquentis.
haec bello uacuos et saeui turbine Martis 555

straightway the mutable monster simulates the face of Tiburna,
and at the same time the gait and the sound of her speaking.
she addresses those unoccupied by war and by the whirlwind of savage Mars 555

lugebat thalamos, Murro spoliata marito,
clara genus Daunique trahens a sanguine nomen.
cui uultus induta pares disiectaque crinem
Eumenis in medios inrumpit turbida coetus
et maestas lacerata genas 'Quis terminus?' inquit 560
'sat Fidei proauisque datum. uidi ipsa cruentum,
ipsa meum uidi lacerato uulnere nostras
terrentem Murrum noctes et dira sonantem:
"Eripe te, coniunx, miserandae casibus urbis
et fuge, si terras adimit uictoria Poeni, 565
ad manes, Tiburna, meos; cecidere penates,
occidimus Rutuli, tenet omnia Punicus ensis."
mens horret, nec adhuc oculis absistit imago.

she was mourning her marriage-chambers, despoiled of her husband Murro,
renowned in lineage and drawing her name from the blood of Daunus.
to her, having put on matching features and with hair scattered,
the Eumenis, turbid, bursts into the midst of the throng,
and, her sad cheeks torn, says, 'What limit?' 560
'enough has been given to Faith and to our forefathers. I myself saw the bloody one,
I myself saw my Murro, with a lacerated wound, terrifying our
nights and sounding dreadful words:
"Snatch yourself away, spouse, from the city’s pitiable disasters,
and flee; if the victory of the Phoenician takes away the lands, 565
to my shades, Tiburna; the household gods have fallen,
we Rutulians have perished; the Punic sword holds all things."
my mind shudders, nor does the image yet withdraw from my eyes.

nullane iam posthac tua tecta, Sagunte, uidebo?
felix, Murre, necis patriaque superstite felix. 570

Shall I no longer hereafter see your roofs, Saguntum?
happy, Murrus, happy in death, and happy with the fatherland surviving. 570

at nos, Sidoniis famulatum matribus actas,
post belli casus uastique pericula ponti
Carthago aspiciet uictrix, tandemque suprema
nocte obita Libyae gremio captiua iacebo.
sed uos, o iuuenes, uetuit quos conscia uirtus 575
posse capi, quis telum ingens contra aspera mors est,
uestris seruitio manibus subducite matres.
ardua uirtutem profert uia: pergite primi
nec facilem populis nec notam inuadere laudem.'
His ubi turbatas hortatibus impulit aures, 580
inde petit tumulum, summo quem uertice montis
Amphitryoniades spectandum ex aequore nautis
struxerat et grato cineres decorarat honore.

but we, driven to servitude for Sidonian matrons,
after the fortunes of war and the perils of the vast sea,
Carthage victorious will behold, and at last, when my final
night is undergone, I shall lie captive in Libya’s bosom.
but you, O young men, whom conscious Virtue has forbidden 575
to be taken, for whom death is a mighty weapon against hardships,
by your hands withdraw your mothers from servitude.
a steep way brings forth Virtue: proceed as the first
to seize upon a glory neither easy for peoples nor familiar.'
When by these exhortations she had struck their troubled ears, 580
then she seeks the mound, which on the topmost summit of the mountain
the Amphitryoniad had built to be seen from the sea by sailors,
and had adorned the ashes with grateful honor.

excitus sede, horrendum, prorumpit ab ima
caeruleus maculis auro squalentibus anguis. 585

aroused from its seat, horrendous, it bursts forth from the lowest depths
a cerulean serpent, with spots encrusted with gold. 585

ignea sanguinea radiabant lumina flamma,
oraque uibranti stridebant sibila lingua.
isque inter trepidos coetus mediamque per urbem
uoluitur et muris propere delabitur altis
ac similis profugo uicina ad litora tendit 590
spumantisque freti praeceps immergitur undis.
Tum uero excussae mentes, ceu prodita tecta
expulsi fugiant manes, umbraeque recusent
captiuo iacuisse solo.

fiery, sanguine eyes were radiating with flame,
and the mouths were hissing with a vibrating tongue.
and he, amid the trembling bands and through the middle of the city,
is rolled along and quickly slips down from the high walls,
and, like a fugitive, he makes for the nearby shores, 590
and headlong is plunged into the waves of the foaming strait.
Then indeed their wits are shaken out, as if, their homes betrayed,
the banished spirits were fleeing, and the shades refused
to have lain on captive soil.

sperare salute<m>
pertaesum, damnantque cibos: agit abdita Erinys. 595
haud grauior duris diuum inclementia rebus
quam leti perferre moras: abrumpere uitam
ocius attoniti quaerunt lucemque grauantur.
certatim structus subrectae molis ad astra
in media stetit urbe rogus: portantque trahuntque 600

they are sick of hoping for salvation
and they condemn foods: a hidden Erinys drives them. 595
not heavier is the inclemency of the gods in harsh affairs
than to endure delays of death: thunderstruck they seek
to break off life more swiftly, and they are weighed down by the light.
with rivalry the pyre, constructed, of a mass reared to the stars,
stood in the middle of the city: and they carry and they drag 600

longae pacis opes quaesitaque praemia dextris,
Callaico uestes distinctas matribus auro
armaque Dulichia proauis portata Zacyntho
et prisca aduectos Rutulorum ex urbe penates.
huc, quicquid superest captis, clipeosque simulque            605
infaustos iaciunt enses et condita bello
effodiunt penitus terra gaudentque superbi
uictoris praedam flammis donare supremis.
     Quae postquam congesta uidet feralis Erinys,
lampada flammiferis tinctam Phlegethontis in undis            610
quassat et inferna superos caligine condit.

the wealth of long peace and the rewards sought by right hands,
garments for the matrons, variegated with Gallaecian gold,
and Dulichian arms borne by forefathers from Zacynthus,
and the ancient Penates brought in from the city of the Rutulians.
hither, whatever remains from the captured, both the shields and at the same time            605
the ill-omened swords they cast, and the things stored away in war
they dig out from deep earth, and they rejoice, proud,
to gift the victor’s plunder to the supreme flames.
     After the funereal Erinys sees that these have been heaped together,
she brandishes a torch dipped in the flame-bearing waves of Phlegethon            610
and with infernal gloom she buries the gods above.

inde opus aggressi toto quod nobile mundo
aeternum inuictis infelix gloria seruat.
princeps Tisiphone lentum indignata pauentum
pressit ouans capulum cunctantemque impulit ensem 615

thence they undertook the work which ill‑fated glory preserves as noble in the whole world forever.
as leader Tisiphone, indignant at the slowness of the trembling,
pressed, exultant, upon the hilt and drove the hesitating sword 615

et dirum insonuit Stygio bis terque flagello.
inuitas maculant cognato sanguine dextras
miranturque nefas auersa mente peractum
et facto sceleri inlacrimant. hic turbidus ira
et rabie cladum perpessaeque ultima uitae 620
obliquos uersat materna per ubera uisus.

and she made the dire Stygian scourge resound twice and thrice.
they stain unwilling right hands with kindred blood,
and they marvel at the nefarious deed accomplished with mind averted,
and they weep over the crime once done. Here, turbid with wrath
and with the madness of disasters and the last things of a life endured, 620
he turns his sidelong glances across maternal breasts.

hic raptam librans dilectae in colla securim
coniugis increpitat sese mediumque furorem
proiecta damnat stupefactus membra bipenni.
nec tamen euasisse datur; nam uerbera Erinys 625
incutit atque atros insibilat ore tumores.
sic thalami fugit omnis amor, dulcesque marito
effluxere tori, et subiere obliuia taedae.

here, balancing the snatched axe over the beloved wife's neck,
he rebukes himself and, stupefied, condemns the very midst of his madness,
with the double-axe cast aside. nor yet is it given to have escaped; for the Erinys 625
strikes with lashes and hisses black tumors into his mouth.
thus every love of the bedchamber flees, and the sweet couches
have flowed away for the husband, and forgetfulness of the torch has stolen in.

ille iacit totis conisus uiribus aegrum
in flammas corpus, densum qua turbine nigro 630

he hurls, straining with all his strength, the ailing body
into the flames, where in a dense black whirlwind 630

exundat fumans piceus caligine uertex.
     At medios inter coetus pietate sinistra,
infelix Tymbrene, furis, Poenoque parentis
dum properas auferre necem, reddentia formam
ora tuam laceras temerasque simillima membra.            635
uos etiam primo gemini cecidistis in aeuo,
Eurymedon fratrem et fratrem mentite Lycorma,
cuncta pares; dulcisque labor sua nomina natis
reddere et in uultu genetrici stare suorum.
iam fixus iugulo culpa te soluerat ensis,            640
Eurymedon, inter miserae lamenta senectae,
dumque malis turbata parens deceptaque uisis
'Quo ruis?

a pitchy vortex overflows, smoking, with caliginous gloom.
     But in the midst among the companies, with sinister pietas,
unhappy Tymbrenus, you rage, and while you hasten to avert the death
of your Punic parent, you lacerate faces returning your form
and rashly the limbs most similar to you.            635
you too, twins, fell in your first age,
Eurymedon, and you, Lycormas, who feigned a brother and a brother,
equal in all things; and a sweet labor to return their own names to their offspring
and for a mother’s own to stand in their face.
now the sword, fixed in your throat by a fault, had released you,            640
Eurymedon, amid the lamentations of wretched old age,
and while your parent, disturbed by misfortunes and deceived by the sights,
'Where do you rush?

huc ferrum' clamat 'conuerte, Lycorma,'
ecce simul iugulum perfoderat ense Lycormas.
sed magno 'Quinam, Eurymedon, furor iste?' sonabat 645

'Turn the steel here,' he cries, 'Lycormas,'
behold, at once Lycormas had pierced his throat with the sword.
but a great 'What madness is this, Eurymedon?' was resounding 645

cum planctu geminaeque notis decepta figurae
funera mutato reuocabat nomine mater,
donec transacto tremebunda per ubera ferro
tunc etiam ambiguos cecidit super inscia natos.
Quis diros urbis casus laudandaque monstra 650
et Fidei poenas ac tristia fata piorum
imperet euoluens lacrimis? uix Punica fletu
cessassent castra ac miserescere nescius hostis.

with wailing and deceived by the tokens of a twin shape
the mother was recalling the funerals with the name altered,
until, trembling, with the steel driven through her breasts,
then too, unknowing, she fell upon her ambiguous sons.
Who would undertake, unrolling with tears, the dire disasters of the city and the admirable prodigies 650
and the penalties of Faith and the sad fates of the pious?
hardly would the Punic camp and the enemy unacquainted with pity have refrained from tears.

urbs, habitata diu Fidei caeloque parentem
murorum repetens, ruit inter perfida gentis 655
Sidoniae tela atque immania facta suorum,
iniustis neglecta deis: furit ensis et ignis,
quique caret flamma, scelerum est locus. erigit atro
nigrantem fumo rogus alta ad sidera nubem.
ardet in excelso proceri uertice montis 660

the city, long inhabited by Faith and seeking in heaven the parent
of her walls, rushes to ruin amid the perfidious of the nation 655
Sidonian weapons and the monstrous deeds of her own,
neglected by unjust gods: sword and fire rage,
and whatever lacks flame is a place of crimes. the pyre lifts a
cloud blackening with smoke to the high stars.
it burns on the lofty summit of a tall mountain 660

arx intacta prius bellis (hinc Punica castra
litoraque et totam soliti spectare Saguntum),
ardent tecta deum. resplendet imagine flammae
aequor, et in tremulo uibrant incendia ponto.
     Ecce inter medios caedum Tiburna furores            665
fulgenti dextram mucrone armata mariti
et laeua infelix ardentem lampada quassans
squalentemque erecta comam ac liuentia planctu
pectora nudatis ostendens saeua lacertis
ad tumulum Murri super ipsa cadauera fertur:            670
qualis, ubi inferni dirum tonat aula parentis,
iraque turbatos exercet regia manes,
Alecto solium ante dei sedemque tremendam
Tartareo est operata Ioui poenasque ministrat.
arma uiri multo nuper defensa cruore            675

the citadel previously untouched by wars (from here they were wont to gaze upon the Punic camp and the shores and all Saguntum), now the roofs of the gods burn. the sea gleams with the image of the flame, and on the trembling deep the fires quiver.
Behold, amid the very slaughters Tiburna, her right hand armed with her husband’s gleaming point,665
and with her unlucky left brandishing a burning torch, and, her hair bristling in squalor and her breasts livid from beating, showing them with fierce, bared upper arms, is borne to the tomb of Murrus over the very corpses:
such as, when the hall of the infernal parent thunders dreadfully, and the royal palace exercises wrath upon the disturbed shades, Alecto before the throne and the dreadful seat of the god has wrought for Tartarean Jove and dispenses punishments.
the arms of the man lately defended with much blood 675

imponit tumulo inlacrimans, manesque precata
acciperent sese, flagrantem lampada subdit.
tunc rapiens letum 'Tibi ego haec' ait 'optime coniunx,
ad manes, en, ipsa fero.' sic ense recepto
arma super ruit et flammas inuadit hiatu.            680
     Semiambusta iacet nullo discrimine passim
infelix obitus, permixto funere, turba:
ceu, stimulante fame cum uictor ouilia tandem
faucibus inuasit siccis leo, mandit hianti
ore fremens imbelle pecus, patuloque redundat            685
gutture ructatus large cruor: incubat atris
semesae stragis cumulis, aut murmure anhelo
infrendens laceros inter spatiatur aceruos:
late fusa iacent pecudes custosque Molossus
pastorumque cohors stabulique gregisque magister,            690

she places them upon the tomb, weeping, and having prayed the Manes that they might receive herself, she puts the blazing lamp beneath.
then, seizing death, she says, 'To you, best husband, lo, I myself bear these things to the shades.' thus, with the sword received [into her],
she rushes upon the arms and assails the flames with a gaping wound.            680
     Half-burned, there lies, scattered everywhere without any distinction,
an unhappy throng of deaths, with the funeral commingled:
as when, hunger goading, a lion at last, victorious, has invaded the sheepfolds
with dry jaws, roaring he chews with yawning mouth the unwarlike flock, and blood
belched forth overflows copiously from his wide throat: he broods upon the dark            685
heaps of half-eaten slaughter, or, gnashing with panting murmur,
he ranges among the torn heaps: far and wide lie strewn the flocks,
and the Molossian watchdog and the cohort of shepherds, and the master
of the stall and of the flock,            690

totaque uastatis disiecta mapalia tectis.
inrumpunt uacuam Poeni tot cladibus arcem.
tum demum ad manis perfecto munere Erinys
Iunoni laudata redit magnamque superba
exultat rapiens secum sub Tartara turbam. 695
At uos, sidereae, quas nulla aequauerit aetas,
ite, decus terrarum, animae, uenerabile uulgus,
Elysium et castas sedes decorate piorum.

and all the huts, with their roofs laid waste, lie scattered.
the Punic men break into the citadel emptied by so many disasters.
then at last, with the rite to the Shades completed, the Erinys,
praised by Juno, returns, and, proud, exults,
snatching with her a great throng down beneath Tartarus. 695
But you, starry souls, whom no age will have equaled,
go, glory of the lands, souls, venerable multitude,
adorn Elysium and the chaste seats of the pious.

cui uero non aequa dedit uictoria nomen
(audite, o gentes, neu rumpite foedera pacis 700
nec regnis postferte fidem!) uagus exul in orbe
errabit toto patriis proiectus ab oris,
tergaque uertentem trepidans Carthago uidebit.
saepe Saguntinis somnos exterritus umbris
optabit cecidisse manu, ferroque negato 705

but indeed to the one to whom an unequal victory gave a name
(hear, O nations, and do not break the treaties of peace 700
nor put faith after kingdoms!) a wandering exile on the orb
he will wander over the whole, cast out from his fatherland shores,
and a trembling Carthage will see him turning his back.
often, with his sleep terrified by the Saguntine shades,
he will wish to have fallen by the hand, and, with iron denied, 705

inuictus quondam Stygias bellator ad undas
deformata feret liuenti membra ueneno.

once invincible, to the Stygian waves the warrior will bear
limbs deformed by livid poison.