Grant the rich heritage
Of morals, modesty, and truth.
On Rome herself bestow a teaming race
Wealth, Empire, Faith, and all befi tting Grace.
Vouchsafe to Venus’ and Anchises’ heir,
Who off ers at your shrine
Due sacrifi ce of milk-white kine,
Justly to rule, to pity and to dare,
To crush insulting hosts, the prostrate foeman
spare
Th e haughty Mede has learned to fear
Th e Alban axe, the Latian spear,
And Scythians, suppliant now, await
Th e conqueror’s doom, their coming fate.
Honor and Peace, and Pristine Shame,
And Virtue’s oft dishonored name,
Have dared, long exiled, to return,
And with them Plenty lifts her golden horn.Augur Apollo! Bearer of the bow!
Warrior and prophet! Loved one of the Nine!
Healer in sickness! Comforter in woe!
If still the templed crags of Palatine
And Latium’s fruitful plains to you are dear,
Perpetuate for cycles yet to come,
Mightier in each advancing year,
Th e ever growing might and majesty of Rome.
You, too, Diana, from your Aventine,
And Algidus’ deep woods, look down and hear
Th e voice of those who guard the books Divine,
And to your youthful choir incline a loving ear.
Return we home! We know that Jove
And all the Gods our song approve
To Phoebus and Diana given;
Th e virgin hymn is heard in Heaven.From: William Stearns Davis, ed., Readings
in Ancient History: Illustrative Extracts
from the Sources, Vol. 2, Rome and the West
(Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1912–1913).(cont inues)BOOK 6
[Anchises, in the realms of the dead, is reciting to his
son, Aeneas, the future glories of the Roman race.]
Lo! Caesar and all the Julian
Line, predestined to rise to the infi nite spaces of heaven.
Th is, yea, this is the man, so often foretold you in
promise,
Caesar Augustus, descended from God, who again shall
a golden
Age in Latium found, in fi elds once governed by Saturn
Further than India’s hordes, or the Garymantian peoples
He shall extend his reign; there’s a land beyond all of
our planets
Yond the far track of the year and the sun, where
sky-bearing Atlas
Turns on his shoulders the fi rmament studded with
bright constellations;
Yea, even now, at his coming, foreshadowed by omens
from heaven,
Shudder the Caspian realms, and the barbarous
Scythian kingdoms,
While the disquieted harbors of Nile are aff righted![Anchises now points out the long line of worthies and
conquerors who are to precede Augustus, and adds these
lines.]
Others better may fashion the breathing bronze with
more delicate fi ngers;
Doubtless they also will summon more lifelike features
from marble:
Th ey shall more cunningly plead at the bar; and the
mazes of heaven
Draw to the scale and determine the march of the swift
constellations.
Yours be the care, O Rome, to subdue the whole world
for your empire!
Th ese be the arts for you—the order of peace to establish,
Th em that are vanquished to spare, and them that are
haughty to humble!From: William Stearns Davis, ed.,
Readings in Ancient History: Illustrative
Extracts from the Sources, Vol. 2, Rome
and the West (Boston: Allyn and Bacon,
1912–1913), pp. 174–179.Virgil: Excerpt from the Aeneid (30–19 b.c.e.)
Rome674 literature: primary source documents