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When pale Orion sets in wint'ry rain,

Nor thicker harvests on rich Hermus rise,

995

Or Lycian fields, when Phoebus burns the skies, Than stand these troops: their bucklers ring around;

Their trampling turns the turf, and shakes the solid ground.

1000

High in his chariot then Halesus came, A foe by birth to Troy's unhappy name : · From Agamemnon born-to Turnus' aid, A thousand men the youthful hero led, Who till the Massic soil, for wine renown'd, And fierce Auruncans from their hilly ground, 1005 And those who live by Sidicinian shores,

And where with shoaly fords Vulturnus roars,

Cales' and Osca's old inhabitants,

And rough Saticulans, inur'd to wants.
Light demi-lances from afar they throw,
Fasten'd with leathern thongs, to gall the foe.
Short crooked swords in closer fight they wear,
And on their warding arm light bucklers bear.

1010

Nor, Ebalus, shalt thou be left unsung,
From nymph Sebethis and old Telon sprung, 1015
Who then in Teleboan Capri reign'd;

But that short isle th' ambitious youth disdain'd,
And o'er Campania stretch'd his ample sway,
Where swelling Sarnus seeks the Tyrrhene sea-

O'er Batulum, and where Abella sees,

From her high tow'rs, the harvest of her trees.
And these (as was the Teuton use of old)

1020

Wield brazen swords, and brazen bucklers hold; Sling weighty stones when from afar they fight; 1024 Their casques are cork, a cov'ring thick and light.

Next these in rank, the warlike Ufens went, And led the mountain troops that Nursia sent. The rude Aquiculæ his rule obey'd;,

Hunting their sport, and plund'ring was their trade. In arms they plough'd, to battle still prepar'd: 1030 Their soil was barren, and their hearts were hard.

1035

Umbro the priest the proud Marrubians led,
By king Archippus sent to Turnus' aid;
And peaceful olives crown'd his hoary head.
His wand and holy words, the viper's rage,
And venom'd wounds of serpents, could assuage.
He, when he pleas'd with pow'rful juice to steep
Their temples, shut their eyes in pleasing sleep.
But vain were Marsian herbs, and magic art,
To cure the wound giv'n by the Dardan dart. 1040
Yet his untimely fate th' Angitian woods

In sighs remurmur'd to the Fucine floods.
The son of fam'd Hippolytus was there,
Fam'd as his sire, and, as his mother, fair;
Whom in Egerian groves Aricia bore,

1045

And nurs'd his youth along the marshy shore,
Where great Diana's peaceful altars flame,

In fruitful fields; and Virbius was his name.
Hippolytus, as old records have said,

Was by his stepdame sought to share her bed: 1050
But, when no female arts his mind could move,
She turn'd to furious hate her impious love.
Torn by wild horses on the sandy shore,
Another's crimes th' unhappy hunter bore;
Glutting his father's eyes with guiltless gore.
But chaste Diana, who his death deplor'd,
With Esculapian herbs his life restor❜d:
When Jove, who saw from high, with just disdain,
The dead inspir'd with vital breath again,

1055

Struck to the centre, with his flaming dart,

1060

Th' unhappy founder of the godlike art.

But Trivia kept in secret shades alone,
Her care, Hippolytus, to fate unknown;
And call'd him Virbius in th' Egerian grove,

1064

Where then he liv'd obscure, but safe from Jove.
For this, from Trivia's temple and her wood, ww
Are coursers driv'n, who shed their master's blood,
Affrighted by the monsters of the flood.

His son, the second Virbius, yet retain'd

His father's art; and warrior steeds he rein'd. 1070 Amid the troops, and like the leading god,

High o'er the rest in arms, the graceful Turnus rode: A triple pile of plumes his crest adorn'd,

On which with belching flames Chimæra burn'd: The more the kindled combat rises high'r,

The more with fury burns the blazing fire.

Fair lö grac'd his shield; but Iö now

With horns exalted stands, and seems to low-
A noble charge! Her keeper by her side,

1075

To watch her walks, his hundred eyes apply'd; 1080
And on the brims her sire, the wat'ry god,
Roll'd from his silver urn his crystal flood.

1085

A cloud of foot succeeds, and fills the fields
With swords, and pointed spears, and clatt'ring shields;
Of Argive, and of old Sicanian bands,
And those who plough the rich Rutulian lands;
Auruncan youth, and those Sacrana yields,
And the proud Labicans, with painted shields,
And those who near Numician streams reside,
And those whom Tyber's holy forests hide;
Or Circe's hills from the main land divide ;
Where Ufens glides along the lowly lands,
Or the black water of Pomptina stands.

1090

Last from the Volscians fair Camilla came, And led her warlike troops, a warrior dame: 1095 Unbred to spinning, in the loom unskill'd,

She chose the nobler Pallas of the field.

Mix'd with the first, the fierce virago fought,
Sustain❜d the toils of arms, the danger sought,
Outstripp'd the winds in speed upon the plain, 1100
Flew o'er the field, nor hurt the bearded grain:
She swept the seas, and, as she skimm'd along,
Her flying feet unbath'd on billows hung.

Men, boys, and women, stupid with surprise,
Where'er she passes, fix their wond'ring eyes: 1105
Longing they look, and, gaping at the sight,
Devour her o'er and o'er with vast delight; -
Her purple habit sits with such a grace

On her smooth shoulders, and so suits her face;

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Her head with ringlets of her hair is crown'd; 1110
And in a golden caul the curls are bound.

She shakes her myrtle jav'lin; and, behind,
Her Lycian quiver dances in the wind.

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