After these things Aeneas was awareOf solemn groves in one deep, distant vale,Where trees were whispering, and forever flowedThe river Lethe, through its land of calm.Nations unnumbered roved and haunted there:As when, upon a windless summer morn,The bees afield among the rainbow flowersAlight and sip, or round the lilies purePour forth in busy swarm, while far diffusedTheir murmured songs from all the meadows rise.Aeneas in amaze the wonder views,And fearfully inquires of whence and why;What yonder rivers be; what people press,Line after line, on those dim shores along.Said Sire Anchises: “Yonder thronging soulsTo reincarnate shape predestined move.Here, at the river Lethe's wave, they quaffCare-quelling floods, and long oblivion.Of these I shall discourse, and to thy soulMake visible the number and arrayOf my posterity; so shall thy heartIn Italy, thy new-found home, rejoice.”“0 father,” said Aeneas, “must I deemThat from this region souls exalted riseTo upper air, and shall once more returnTo cumbering flesh? 0, wherefore do they feel,Unhappy ones, such fatal lust to live?”“I speak, my son, nor make thee longer doubt,”Anchises said, and thus the truth set forth,In ordered words from point to point unfolding:

“Know first that heaven and earth and ocean's plain,The moon's bright orb, and stars of Titan birthAre nourished by one Life; one primal Mind,Immingled with the vast and general frame,Fills every part and stirs the mighty whole.Thence man and beast, thence creatures of the air,And all the swarming monsters that be foundBeneath the level of the marbled sea;A fiery virtue, a celestial power,Their native seeds retain; but bodies vile,With limbs of clay and members born to die,Encumber and o'ercloud; whence also springTerrors and passions, suffering and joy;For from deep darkness and captivityAll gaze but blindly on the radiant world.Nor when to life's last beam they bid farewellMay sufferers cease from pain, nor quite be freedFrom all their fleshly plagues; but by fixed law,The strange, inveterate taint works deeply in.For this, the chastisement of evils pastIs suffered here, and full requital paid.Some hang on high, outstretched to viewless winds;For some their sin's contagion must be purgedIn vast ablution of deep-rolling seas,Or burned away in fire. Each man receivesHis ghostly portion in the world of dark;But thence to realms Elysian we go free,Where for a few these seats of bliss abide,Till time's long lapse a perfect orb fulfils,And takes all taint away, restoring soThe pure, ethereal soul's first virgin fire.At last, when the millennial aeon strikes,God calls them forth to yon Lethaean stream,In numerous host, that thence, oblivious all,They may behold once more the vaulted sky,And willingly to shapes of flesh return.”

So spoke Anchises; then led forth his son,The Sibyl with him, to the assembled shades(A voiceful throng), and on a lofty moundHis station took, whence plainly could be seenThe long procession, and each face descried.

“Hark now! for of the glories I will tellThat wait our Dardan blood; of our sons' sonsBegot upon the old Italian breed,Who shall be mighty spirits, and prolongOur names, their heritage. I will unfoldThe story, and reveal the destined years.Yon princeling, thou beholdest leaning thereUpon a royal lance, shall next emergeInto the realms of day. He is the firstOf half-Italian strain, the last-born heirTo thine old age by fair Lavinia given,Called Silvius, a royal Alban name(Of sylvan birth and sylvan nurture he),A king himself and sire of kings to come,By whom our race in Alba Longa reign.Next Procas stands, our Trojan people's boast;Capys and Numitor, and, named like thee,Aeneas Sylvius, like thee renownedFor faithful honor and for deeds of war,When he ascends at last his Alban throne.Behold what warrior youth they be! How strongTheir goodly limbs! Above their shaded browsThe civic oak they wear! For thee they buildNomentum, and the walls of Gabii,Fidena too, and on the mountains pileCollatia's citadels, Pometii,Bola and Cora, Castrum-Inui—Such be the names the nameless lands shall bear.See, in that line of sires the son of Mars,Great Romulus, of Ilian mother born,From far-descended line of Trojan kings!See from his helm the double crest uprear,While his celestial father in his mienShows forth his birth divine! Of him, my son,Great Rome shall rise, and, favored of his star,Have power world-wide, and men of godlike mind.She clasps her seven hills in single wall,Proud mother of the brave! So Cybele,The Berecynthian goddess, castle-crowned,On through the Phrygian kingdoms speeds her car,Exulting in her hundred sons divine,All numbered with the gods, all throned on high.“Let now thy visionary glance look longOn this thy race, these Romans that be thine.Here Caesar, of Iulus' glorious seed,Behold ascending to the world of light!Behold, at last, that man, for this is he,So oft unto thy listening ears foretold,Augustus Caesar, kindred unto Jove.He brings a golden age; he shall restoreOld Saturn's sceptre to our Latin land,And o'er remotest Garamant and IndHis sway extend; the fair dominionoutruns th' horizon planets, yea, beyondThe sun's bright path, where Atlas' shoulder bearsYon dome of heaven set thick with burning stars.Against his coming the far Caspian shoresBreak forth in oracles; the Maeotian landTrembles, and all the seven-fold mouths of Nile.

Not o'er domain so wide Alcides passed,Although the brazen-footed doe he slewAnd stilled the groves of Erymanth, and badeThe beast of Lerna at his arrows quail.Nor half so far triumphant Baechus drove,With vine-entwisted reins, his frolic teamOf tigers from the tall-topped Indian hill.“Still do we doubt if heroes' deeds can fillA realm so wide? Shall craven fear constrainThee or thy people from Ausonia's shore?Look, who is he I may discern from farBy olive-branch and holy emblems known?His flowing locks and hoary beard, behold!Fit for a Roman king! By hallowed lawsHe shall found Rome anew—from mean estateIn lowly Cures led to mightier sway.But after him arises one whose reignShall wake the land from slumber: Tullus thenShall stir slack chiefs to battle, rallyingHis hosts which had forgot what triumphs be.Him boastful Ancus follows hard upon,o'erflushed with his light people's windy praise.Wilt thou see Tarquins now? And haughty handOf vengeful Brutus seize the signs of power?He first the consul's name shall take; he firstTh' inexorable fasces sternly bear.When his own sons in rash rebellion join,The father and the judge shall sentence giveIn beauteous freedom's cause—unhappy he!Howe'er the age to come the story tell,'t will bless such love of honor and of Rome.See Decius, sire and son, the Drusi, see!Behold Torquatus with his axe! Look whereCamillus brings the Gallic standards home!“But who are these in glorious armor cladAnd equal power? In this dark world of cloudTheir souls in concord move;—but woe is me!What duel 'twixt them breaks, when by and byThe light of life is theirs, and forth they callTheir long-embattled lines to carnage dire!Allied by nuptial truce, the sire descendsFrom Alpine rampart and that castled cliff,Monoecus by the sea; the son arraysHis hostile legions in the lands of morn.Forbear, my children! School not your great soulsIn such vast wars, nor turn your giant strengthAgainst the bowels of your native land!But be thou first, 0 first in mercy! thouWho art of birth Olympian! Fling awayThy glorious sword, mine offspring and mine heir!“Yonder is one whose chariot shall ascendThe laurelled Capitolian steep; he ridesIn glory o'er Achaea's hosts laid low,And Corinth overthrown. There, too, is heWho shall uproot proud Argos and the towersOf Agamemnon; vanquishing the heirEven of Aeacus, the warrior seedOf Peleus' son; such vengeance shall be wroughtFor Troy's slain sires, and violated shrines!“Or who could fail great Cato's name to tell?Or, Cossus, thine? or in oblivion leaveThe sons of Gracchus? or the Scipios,Twin thunderbolts of war, and Libya's bane?Or, more than kingly in his mean abode,Fabricius? or Serranus at the plough?Ye Fabii, how far would ye prolongMy weary praise? But see! 'T is Maximus,Who by wise waiting saves his native land.“Let others melt and mould the breathing bronzeTo forms more fair,—aye! out of marble bringFeatures that live; let them plead causes well;Or trace with pointed wand the cycled heaven,And hail the constellations as they rise;But thou, 0 Roman, learn with sovereign swayTo rule the nations. Thy great art shall beTo keep the world in lasting peace, to sparehumbled foe, and crush to earth the proud.”