Page:The Aeneid of Virgil JOHN CONINGTON 1917 V2.pdf/262



Meantime the palace of strong Olympus is thrown open, and the sire of gods and monarch of men summons a council to the starry chamber, whence, throned on high, he looks down on the length and breadth of earth, the camp of the Dardans and the people of Latium. They                   5 take their seats in the double-gated mansion; he himself opens the court: "Mighty denizens of heaven, wherefore is your judgment turned backward, and whence such discord in your unkindly souls? I had forbidden that Italy should meet the Teucrians in the shock of war. What                  10 strife is this in defiance of my law? What terror has prompted these or those to draw the sword and provoke the fight? There shall come a rightful time for combat—no need for you to hasten it—when fierce Carthage one day shall launch on the hills of Rome mighty ruin and the             15 opening of Alpine barriers. Then will your rancours be free to contend, your hands to plunder and ravage; for the present let be, and cheerfully ratify the peace that I have willed."

Thus Jupiter in brief; but not brief was the answer                  20 of golden Venus: "O Father! O eternal sovereignty of man and nature! for what else can there be which is left us to implore? Seest thou how the Rutulians insult? how Turnus is whirled through the battle by his haughty coursers, borne on the floodtide of war? No longer are               25 the Teucrians safe even in the shelter of their walls; within the gates, amidst the very mounds of the ramparts combat is waged, and the trenches overflow with carnage. Æneas is away in his ignorance. Wilt thou never let us have respite from siege? Once more the enemy is stooping over              30