BOOK I Ams( I sjikg' and the man who first from the coasts of Troy, exiled by fate, came to Italy and Lavinian shores ; much buffeted on sea and land by violence from above, through cruel Juno's unforgiving wrath, and much enduring in war also, till he should build a city and bring his gods to Latium ; whence came the Latin race, the lords of Alba,2 and the walls of lofty Rome.3 8 Tell me, O Muse, the cause ; wherein thwarted in will or wherefore angered, did the Queen of heaven drive a man, of goodness so wondrous, to traverse so many perils, to face so many toils. Can resentment so fierce dwell in heavenly breasts ?. [/ am he who once tuned my song on a slender reed, then, leaving the woodland, constrained the neighbouring fields to serve the husbandmen, however grasping — a work welcome to farmers : but now of Mars' bristling l] 1 These opening lines were probably written by Virgil in an experimental stage of composition, but rejected by his literary executors. In antiquity the words Arma virumque (M Arms and the man") were regularly regarded as the opening words of the epic. See Introduction, p. ix. 1 Many of the great senatorial families of Rome, including the Julii, claimed descent from the families of Alba Longa. ' Reference is thus made to three stages of growth — Layinium founded by Aeneas, Alba Longa by Ascanius, Rome by Romulus and Remus. I q 241 Digitized by

AENEID BOOK I 12 There was an ancient city, the home of Tynan settlers, Carthage, over against Italy and the Tiber's mouths afar, rich in wealth and stern in wars pur- suits. This, ' tis said, Juno loved above all other lands, holding Samos itself less dear. Here was her armour, here her chariot; that here should be the capital of the nations, should the fates perchance allow it, was even then the goddess' aim and cherished hope. Yet in truth she had heard that a race was springing from Trojan blood, to overthrow some day the Tyrian towers ; that from it a people, kings of broad realms and proud in war, should come forth for Libya's downfall : such was the course ordained of fate. The daughter of Saturn, fearful of this and mindful of the* old war which erstwhile she had fought at Troy for her beloved Argos — not yet, too, had the cause of her wrath and her bitter sorrows faded from her mind : deep in her heart lie stored the judgment "of Paris and her slighted beauty's wrong, her hatred of the race 1 and the honours paid to ravished Ganymede — inflamed hereby yet more, she tossed on the wide main the Trojan remnant, left by the Greeks and pitijess Achilles, and kept them far from Latium; and many a year they wandered, driven by the fates o'er all the seas. So vast was I the effort to found the race of Rome. 34 Hardly out of sight of Sicilian land were they spreading their sails seaward, and merrily ploughing the foaming brine with brazen prow, when Juno, nursing an undying wound deep in her heart, thus to herself spake : 37 €c What ! I resign my purpose, baffled, and fail to turn from Italy the Teucrian king ! The fates, doubt- 1 Hated, because sprung from Dardanus, son of Jupiter and Electra, Juno's rival. 24$ ' 5 Digitized by Google