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Teucrians push forward and roll down an enormous
weight, which made wide havoc among the Rutulians, and
burst the joints of their harness. And now the bold
Rutulians care no longer to wage war in the dark, but aim
at driving them from the ramparts with a storm of missiles. 5
In another quarter, terrible to look upon, Mezentius waves
an Etruscan pine and hurls fire and smoke, while Messapus,
tamer of the steed, of the race of Neptune, plucks
down the palisade, and calls for ladders to the
battlement. 10

Vouchsafe, Calliope and thy heavenly sisterhood, to aid
me while I sing, what slaughter, what deaths were dealt
that day in that place by Turnus' sword, what foes each
warrior sent down to the grave, and help me to unfold the
length and breadth of the mighty war. 15

A tower there was, vast to look on from below, with
lofty bridges, placed on a vantage-ground, which all the
Italians, with utmost force and utmost strain of might,
were essaying to storm, while the Trojans, on their side,
were defending it with stones, and hurling showers of 20
darts through its narrow eyelets. Turnus the first flung
a blazing torch and fastened fire on its side; fanned by
the wind, the flame seized the planks and lodged in the
consuming doors. The inmates are all in confusion, and
in vain seek to escape the mischief. While they huddle 25
together and retire upon the part which the plague has
spared, in an instant the tower falls heavily down, and the
firmament thunders with the crash. Half dead they come
to the ground, the huge fabric following on their backs,
pierced by their own weapons, their breasts impaled by the 30
cruel wood. Barely two escaped, Helenor and Lycus—Helenor
in prime of youth, whom Licymnia the slave had
borne secretly to the Mæonian king, and had sent to Troy
in forbidden arms, with the light accoutrement of a
naked sword, and a shield uncharged by an escutcheon. 35
Soon as he saw himself with Turnus' thousands round him,
the armies of Latium standing on this side and on that,
like a beast that, hemmed in by the hunters' close-set ring,