fter shall the Aeneadae return in arms to renew warfare, or attack
this realm with the sword. But if Victory grant battle to us and ours
(as I think the rather, and so the rather may the gods seal their will),
I will not bid Italy obey my Teucrians, nor do I claim the realm for
mine; let both nations, unconquered, join treaty for ever under equal
law. Gods [192-225]and worship shall be of my giving: my father Latinus
shall bear the sword, and have a father's prescribed command. For me my
Teucrians shall establish a city, and Lavinia give the town her name.'
Thus Aeneas first: thereon Latinus thus follows:
'By these same I swear, O Aeneas, by Earth, Sea, Sky, and the twin brood
of Latona and Janus the double-facing, and the might of nether gods and
grim Pluto's shrine; this let our Father hear, who seals treaties with
his thunderbolt. I touch the altars, I take to witness the fires and the
gods between us; no time shall break this peace and truce in Italy,
howsoever fortune fall; nor shall any force turn my will aside, not if
it dissolve land into water in turmoil of deluge, or melt heaven in
hell: so surely as this sceptre' (for haply he bore a sceptre in his
hand) 'shall never burgeon into thin leafage and shady shoot, since once
in the forest cut down right to the stem it lost its mother, and the
steel lopped away its tressed arms: a tree of old: now the craftsman's
hand hath bound it in adornment of brass and given it to our Latin
fathers' bearing.'
With such words they sealed mutual treaty midway in sight of the
princes. Then they duly slay the consecrated beasts over the flames, and
tear out their live entrails, and pile the altars with laden chargers.
But long ere this the Rutulians deemed the battle unequal, and their
hearts are stirred in changeful motion; and now the more, as they
discern nigher that in ill-matched strength . . . . heightened by
Turnus, as advancing with noiseless pace he humbly worships at the altar
with downcast eye, by his wasted cheeks and the pallor on his youthful
frame. Soon as Juturna his sister saw this talk spread, and the people's
mind waver in uncertainty, into the mid ranks, in feigned form of
Camertus--his family was high in long ancestry, and his father's name
[226-260]for valour renowned, and himself most valiant in arms--into
the mid ranks she glides, not ignorant of her task, and scatters diverse
rumours, saying thus: 'Shame, O Rutulians! shall we set one life in the
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