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

BOOK X

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