Page:The Aeneid of Virgil JOHN CONINGTON 1917 V2.pdf/49

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the windings of the Illyrian coast, and the realms of the Liburnians, up at the gulf's head, and to pass the springs of Timavus, whence through nine mouths,'mid the rocks' responsive roar, the sea comes bursting up, and deluges the fields with its thundering billows. Yet in that spot 5 he built the city of Patavium for his Trojans to dwell in, and gave them a place and a name among the nations, and set up a rest for the arms[o] of Troy: now he reposes, lapped in the calm of peace. Meantime we, of thine own blood, to whom thy nod secures the pinnacle of heaven, our ships, 10 most monstrous, lost, as thou seest, all to sate the malice of one cruel heart, are given up to ruin, and severed far from the Italian shores. Is this the reward of piety[o]? Is this to restore a king to his throne?"

Smiling on her, the planter of gods and men, with that 15 face which calms the fitful moods of the sky, touched with a kiss his daughter's lips, then addressed her thus: "Give thy fears a respite, lady of Cythera[o]: thy people's destiny abides still unchanged for thee; thine eyes shall see the city of thy heart, the promised walls of Lavinium[o]; 20 thine arms shall bear aloft to the stars of heaven thy hero Æneas; nor has my purpose wrought a change in me. Thy hero—for I will speak out, in pity for the care that rankles yet, and awaken the secrets of Fate's book from the distant pages where they slumber—thy hero shall 25 wage a mighty war in Italy, crush its haughty tribes, and set up for his warriors a polity and a city, till the third summer shall have seen him king over Latium, and three winters in camp shall have passed over the Rutulians'[o] defeat. But the boy Ascanius,[o] who has now the new 30 name of Iulus—Ilus he was, while the royalty of Ilion's state stood firm—shall let thirty of the sun's great courses fulfil their monthly rounds while he is sovereign, then transfer the empire from Lavinium's seat, and build Alba the Long, with power and might. Here for full three 35 hundred years the crown shall be worn by Hector's[o] line, till a royal priestess, teeming by the war-god, Ilia, shall be the mother of twin sons. Then shall there be one,