On them fell strife and heavy war, 86
What time Achilles from his car,
Leaping with hasty step on earth,
By wrathful spear's ensanguined head
The monarch number'd with the dead, 90
Who to bright morning owed his birth.
Poets of other ages here
Have urged their chariots' swift career:
And I in this pursuit am join'd—
The waves that near the rudder flow, 95
While the ship cleaves the depths below,
First occupy the steersman's mind. 97
But I on willing shoulders bear
A double load of anxious care,
And come a herald to proclaim 100
The glories of the sacred game,
Whose five-and-twenty garlands grace
Alcimidas' illustrious race.
Thee, boy, and Timidas, who strove
By the Saturnian monarch's grove, 105
The guerdon of Olympia's fray
Thy lot forbade to bear away.
E'en like the dolphin race that sweep
On rapid fin the watery deep,
Melesias would I name, whose force 110
And hands direct the chariot's course. 111
