Page:The Aeneid of Virgil JOHN CONINGTON 1917 V2.pdf/146

 Salius is heard, deafening with his clamour the whole company in the ring and the seniors in the first rank, and insisting that the prize, which he had lost by a trick, be restored him. Euryalus is supported by the popular voice, by the tears he sheds so gracefully, and the greater loveliness      5 of worth when seen in a beauteous form. Diores backs his claim with loud appealing shouts; he had just won the prize, and his attainment of the third place was all for nothing if the first reward were to be given to Salius. To whom father Æneas:—"Your rewards, boys, remain                   10 fixed as they ever were; no one disturbs the palm once arranged: suffer me to show pity to a friend's undeserved misfortune." So saying, he gives Salius the enormous hide of a Gætulian lion, loaded with shaggy hair and talons of gold. On which Nisus:—"If the vanquished are                     15 rewarded so largely—if you can feel for tumblers—what prize will be great enough for Nisus' claims? My prowess had earned me the first chaplet, had not unkind Fortune played me foul, as she played Salius;" and with these words he displayed his features and his limbs, all             20 dishonoured by slime and ordure. The gracious prince smiled at him, and bade them bring out a shield of Didymaon's workmanship, once wrested by the Danaans from Neptune's hallowed gate, and with this signal present he endows the illustrious youth. 25

Next, when the race was finished, and the prizes duly given:—"Now, whoever has courage, and a vigorous collected mind in his breast, let him come forward, bind on the gloves, and lift his arms." Thus speaks Æneas, and sets forth two prizes for the contest: for the conqueror,            30 a bullock with gilded horns and fillet festoons; a sword and a splendid helmet, as a consolation to the vanquished. In a moment, with all the thews of a giant, rises Dares, uprearing himself amid a loud hum of applause—the sole champion who used to enter the lists with Paris:                35 once, at the tomb where mighty Hector lies buried, he encountered the great conqueror Butes, who carried his enormous bulk to the field with all the pride of Amycus'[o]