Page:Aeneid (Conington 1866).djvu/404

380 Where Tiber irrigates the plain,

A tract there lies, my own domain,

Stretching beyond the bounds possessed

By old Sicanians, far a-west;

The Rutules and Auruncans till

Its mingled range of dale and hill,

Scar the rude mountain with their ploughs,

And bid their herds the thickets browse.

That tract, that slope of mountain pine,

To Troy I purpose to resign:

Let peace an equal rule ordain

And make them partners in our reign;

There let the wanderers sit them down,

If such their wish, and build their town:

But should they other lands desire

And from our soil may yet retire,

Twice ten good vessels let us build

Or more, if more may well be filled;

Good store e'en now of seasoned wood

Is hewn and lying by the flood;

Fix they the rate and number; we

Give fittings, brass, and labour free.

Let too ambassadors be sent

Whose pleading may the peace cement,

A hundred men, of noblest race,

Boughs in their hands, to sue for grace,

With gifts of ivory and of gold,

A talent each by measure told,

And these the emblems of our reign,

The throne, the robe of purple grain.

Give counsel for the general need,

And stanch the wounds that newly bleed.'

Then Drances, he whom Turnus' fame

Still kindled into jealous flame,