Page:Aeneid (Conington 1866).djvu/306

282 And high-born dames parade the streets

In pensile cars with cushioned seats.

Far off he sets the gates of Dis,

And Tartarus' terrible abyss,

And dooms to guilt assigned:

There Catiline on frowning steep

Hangs poised above the infernal deep

With Fury-forms behind:

And righteous souls apart he draws,

With Cato there to give them laws.

'Twixt these in wavy outline rolled

The swelling ocean, all of gold,

Though hoary showed the spray:

Gay dolphins, sheathed in silver scales,

Lash up the water with their tails,

And 'mid the surges play.

There in the midmost meet the sight

The embattled fleets, the Actian fight:

Leucate flames with warlike show,

And golden-red the billows glow.

Here Cæsar, leading from their home

The fathers, people, gods of Rome,

Stands on the lofty stern:

The constellation of his sire

Beams o'er his head, and tongues of fire

About his temples burn.

With favouring gods and winds to speed

Agrippa forms his line:

The golden beaks, war's proudest meed,

High on his forehead shine.

There, with barbaric troops increased,

Antonius, from the vanquished East

And distant Red-sea side,

To battle drags the Bactrian bands

And Egypt; and behind him stands

(Foul shame!) the Egyptian bride.