Page:The Aeneid of Virgil JOHN CONINGTON 1917 V2.pdf/211

 Messapus, tamer of the steed, The Ocean-monarch's mighty seed, Whom none might harm, so willed his sire, With force of iron or of fire, Awakes his people's slumbering zeal     5 Long time unused to war's appeal, And from the scabbard bares the steel. With him Fescennia's armed train, The dwellers in Falerii's plain, Who hold Soracte's lofty hill     10 Or fair Flavinia's cornland till, Capena's woods their dwelling make Or Ciminus, its mount and lake. With measured pace they march along, And make their monarch's deeds their song;     15 Like snow-white swans in liquid air, When homeward from their food they fare, And far and wide melodious notes Come rippling from their slender throats, While the broad stream and Asia's fen     20 Reverberate to the sound again. Sure none had thought that countless crowd A mail-clad company; It rather seemed a dusky cloud Of migrant fowl, that, hoarse and loud,     25 Press landward from the sea.

Lo! Clausus there, the Sabines' boast, Leads a great host, himself a host; Whence spreads the Claudian race, since Rome With Sabine burghers shared her home. 30 With him the Amiternians came And Cures' sons of ancient name, The squadron that Eretum guards And green Mutusca's olive-yards. Those whom Nomentum's city yields,     35 Who till Velinus' Rosean fields, Who Tetrica's rude summit climb Or on Severus sits sublime, Or dwell where runs Hemella by Casperia's walls and Foruli,     40 Who Tiber haunt and Fabaris' banks,