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256 Her whole white length on earth stretched out,

Her young, as white, her teats about,

Sign that when thirty years come round

White Alba shall Ascanius found.

Not vain my song: now, how to speed

In prosperous sort your pressing need,

'Tis mine to tell and yours to heed.

Arcadians here, from Pallas born,

To king Evander's service sworn,

On mountain heights have built and walled

A city, Pallanteum called.

With Latium constant war they wage:

Make them your friends, their aid engage.

Myself will be your journey's guide

And teach your oars to climb the tide.

Up, goddess-born, this instant rise,

And ere the starlight leaves the skies

Make vows to Juno: overbear

Her angry soul with gift and prayer.

When conquest crowns you in the fight,

I too will claim a patron's right.

'Tis I whose brimming flood you see

Careering through the fruitful lea,

Cerulean Tiber, first in love

And dearest to the gods above.

Lo here, arising from my bed,

My stately home, the nations' head.'

He said, and sought the river's pit,

While night and sleep Æneas quit.

Up starts the chief, and turns his eyes

In reverence to the orient skies,

In hollowed palm the water takes,

And thus his supplication makes:

'Laurentian Nymphs, from whose pure blood

The rivers have their birth,