The Confidence-Man - pg. 88

"From evil comes good. Distrust is a stage to confidence. How has it proved in our interview? But your voice is husky; I have let you talk too much. You hold your cure; I leave you. But stay -- when I hear that is yours, I will not, like some I know, vainly make boasts; but, giving glory where all glory is due, say, with devout herb-doctor, Iapis in Virgil, when, in the unseen but efficacious presence of Venus, he with simples healed the wound of Aeneas: --

'This is no mortal work, no cure of mine,
Nor art's effect, but done by power divine.'"

The Enigma Of Arrival - pg. 92

I didn't think of this as an historical story, but more as a free
ride of the imagination. There was to be no research. I would take pointers from
Virgil perhaps for the sea and travel and the seasons, from the Gospels and the
Acts of the Apostles for the feel of the municipal or provincial organization of
the Roman Empire; I would get moods and the idea of ancient religion from
Apuleius; Horace and Martial and Petronius would give me hints for social
settings.

The Aeneid - Closing

He sank his blade in fury in Turnus' chest.

Then all the body slackened in death's chill,

And with a groan for that indignity

His spirit fled into the gloom below.

The Aeneid - pg. 398

"Sister of Jupiter

Indeed you are, and Saturn's other child,

To feel such anger, stormy in your breast.

But come, no need; put down this fit of rage.

I grant your wish. I yield, I am won over

Willingly. Ausonian folk will keep

Their fathers' language and their way of life,

And, that being so, their name. The Teucrians

Will mingly and be submerged, incorporated.

Rituals and observances of theirs

I'll add, but make them Latin, one in speech.

The race to come, mixed with Ausonian blood,

Will outdo men and gods in its devotion,

You shall see -- and no nation on earth

Will honor and worship you so faithfully."

The Aeneid - pg. 380

"Here's good land, Trojan,

The western land you thought to take in war.

Lie there and measure it. See what is gained

By daring to face up to me in arms.

See how far you go in founding cities."

The Aeneid - pg. 360

Now at length

From where he lurked, seeing the time had come,

Arruns went into action, let his javelin

Come alive, and prayed aloud to heaven:

"Supreme god, holy Socrate's guardian,

Above all others we are blest in thee,

For whom the pine-chips' glowing pile is fed.

Assured by our devotion, in thy cult

We step through beds of embers without harm.

Mighty Apollo, grant that we wipe out

With arms this ignominy. I want no spoils,

No trophy of a beaten girl. My actions

Elsewhere will bring me honor. May this dire

Scourge of battle perish, when hit by me.

Then to the cities of my ancestors

With no rpetence of glory I'll return."

The Aeneid - pg. 352

'Daughter of Latona,

Diana, kindly virgin of the groves,

I, her father, swear this child shall be

Thy servant -- the first weapon she embraces

Thine, as by thy mercy through the air

She escapes the enemy. I beg thee, goddess,

Take her as thine own, this girl committed

Now to the veering wind.'

Then he drew back

His arm and let the spun shaft fly. The waters

Dinned below, and over the rushing stream

Small and forlorn Camilla soared across

The Aeneid - pg. 355

Savage girl, whom did your lance unhorse,

What victims, first and last,

How many thrown down on the battlefield,

Torn bodies dying? Eunaeus, Clytius' son,

Came first: he faced her with unarmored breast,

And with her shaft of pine she ran him through.

He tumbled, coughing streams of blood, took bites

The Aeneid - pg. 335

"What unmerited misfortune, Latins,

Could have embroiled you in so sad a war

That now you turn your backs on us, your friends?

Do you ask for peace from me for those whose lives

Were taken by the cast of Mars? Believe me,

I should have wished to grant it to the living.

Never should I have come here had not Fate

Alloted me this land for settlement,

Nor do I war upon your people. No,

Your king dropped our alliance, lent himself

Instead to Turnus' fighting. In all fairness,

Turnus should have faced death on this field.

If he would end the war by force, and drive

The Trojans out, he should have fought me, fought

My weapons; then the one for whom great Mars --

Or his own sword -- prevailed would have lived on.

[Go now, light fires beneath your wretched dead."

The Aeneid - pg. 316

At this point Jupiter slyly said to Juno:

"Sister and his wife, too, most delightful wife,

As you were thinking -- not amiss, that thought --

It must be Venus who sustains the Trojans,

Not their good right arms in war, their keen

Combativeness and fortitude in danger."

In low tones Juno answered:

"Darling husband,

Why provoked me, heartsick as I am,

And fearing as I do your grim decrees?

If my love mattered to you as it did

And should, you would not, O Omnipotent,

Deny me this: the power to spirit Turnus

Out of the battle and to keep him safe

For his father, Daunus. Well then, let him perish,

Give Trojans quittance with his gentle blood!

And yet he took his name from our own stock,

The Aeneid - pg. 311

Looming above him,

Turnus called:

"Arcadians, note well

And take back to Evander what I say:

In that state which his father merited

I send back Pallas. And I grant in full

What honor tombs confer, what consolation

Comes of burial. No small price he'll pay

For welcoming Aeneas."

The Aeneid - pg. 310

Hercules heard him. Deep in his heart he quelled

A mighty groan, and let the vain tears flow.

At this the Olympian father addressed his son

In kindness:

"Every man's last day is fixed.

Lifetimes are brief, and not to be regained,

For all mankind. But by their deeds to make

Their fame last: that is labor for the brave.

Below the walls of Troy so many sons

Of gods went down, among them, yes, my child,

Sarpedon. Turnus, too, is called by fate.

He stands at the given limit of his years."

The Aeneid - pg. 303

Not for that did Turnus

Fail in audacity, in his confident hope

To occupy the shore first and drive back

The invaders from the beach.

"Here is the chance

You've prayed for: now to hack them up with swords!

The battle is in your hands, men. Let each soldier

Think of his wife, his home; let each recall

Heroic actions, great feats of our fathers.

Down to the surf we go, while they're in trouble,

Disembarking, losing their footing. Fortune

Favors men who dare!"

The Aeneid - pg. 283

Only this

Ascanius called out. The Trojans cheered,

Echoing him in joy, lifting up their hearts.

At that moment in the quarter of high air

Apollo with flowing hair, from a throne of cloud,

Looked down upon Ausonian troops and town.

He spoke to the victor, Iulus:

"Blessed be

Your new-found manhood, child. By striving so

Men reach the stars, dear son of gods

And sire of gods to come. All fated wars

Will quiet down, and justly, in the end

Under descendants of Assaracus,

For Troy no longer bounds you."

The Aeneid - pg. 275

But while he clamored,

Volcens' blade, thrust hard, passed through the ribs

And breached the snow-white chest. Euryalus

In death went reeling down,

And blood streamed on his handsome length, his neck

Collapsing let his head fall on his shoulder --

As a bright flower cut by a passing plow

Will droop and wither slowly, or a poppy

Bow its head upon its tired stalk

When overborne by a passing rain.

The Aeneid - pg. 240

Then King Evander, founder unaware

Of Rome's great citadel, said:

"These woodland places

Once were homes of local fauns and nymphs

Together with a race of men that came

From tree trunks, from hard oak: they had no way

Of settled life, no arts of life, no skill

At yoking oxen, gathering provisions,

Practising husbandry, but got their food

From oaken boughs and wild game hunted down.

In that first time, out of Olympian heaven,

Saturn came here in flight from Jove in arms,

An exile from a kingdom lost; he brought

These unschooled men together from the hills

Where they were scattered, gave them laws, and chose

The name of Latium, from his latency

Or safe conealment in this countryside.

In his reign were the golden centuries

Men tell of still, so peacefully he ruled,

Till gradually a meaner, tarnished age

Came on with fever of war and lust of gain.

Then came Ausonians and Sicanians,

And Saturn's land now often changed her name,

And there were kings, one savage and gigantic,

Thybris, from whom we afterborn Italians

Named the river Tiber. The old name,

Albula, was lost. As for myself,

In exile from my country, I set out

For the sea's end, but Fortun that prevails

In everything, Fate not to be thrown off,

Arrested me in this land -- solemn warnings

Came from my mother, from the nymph Carmentis,

Backed by the god Apollo, to urge me here."

The Aeneid - pg. 207

"Here is a service all your own

That you can do for me, Daughter of Night,

Here is way to help me, to make sure

My status and renown will not give way

Or be impaired, and that Aeneas' people

Cannot by marriage win Latinus over,

Laying siege to Italy. You can arm

The Aeneid - pg. 171

"Cocytus is the deep pool that you see,

The swamp of Styx beyond, the infernal power

By which the gods take oath and fear to break it.

All in the nearby crowd you notice here

Are pauper souls, the souls of the unburied.

Charon's the boatman. Those the water bears

Are souls of buried men. He may not take them

Shore to dread shore on the hoarse currents there

Until their bones rest in the grave, or till

They flutter and roam this side a hundred years;

They mar have passage then, and may return

To cross the deeps they long for."

The Aeneid - pg. 142

Glorying in his courage and his prize,

Spoke out:

"Son of the goddess, Teucrians all,

Now see what power was in me in my prime,

And see the death from which you rescued Dares."

He set himself to face the bull that stood there,

Prize of the battle, then drew back his right

And from his full height lashed his hard glove out

Between the horns. The impact smashed the skull

And fragmented the brains. Down went the ox

Aquiver to sprawl dying on the ground.

The man stood over it and in deep tones

Proclaimed:

"Here is a better life in place of Dares,

Eryx; here I lay down my gauntlets and my art."

The Aeneid - pg. 125

Cutting through waves blown dark by a chill wind

Aeneas held his ships firmly on course

For a midsea crossing. But he kept his eyes

Upon the city far astern, now bright

With poor Elissa's pyre. What caused that blaze

Remained unknown to watchers out at sea,

But what they knew of a great love profaned

In anguish, and a desperate woman's nerve,

Led every Trojan heart into foreboding.