The First Book of the Æneis (lines 19-43) - Vergil

Against the Tiber’s mouth, but far away,

An ancient town was seated on the sea;

A Tyrian colony; the people made

Stout for the war, and studious of their trade:

Carthage the name; belov’d by Juno more

Than her own Argos, or the Samian shore.

Here stood her chariot; here, if Heav’n were kind,

The seat of awful empire she design’d.

Yet she had heard an ancient rumor fly,

(Long cited by the people of the sky,)

That times to come should see the Trojan race

Her Carthage ruin, and her tow’rs deface;

Nor thus confin’d, the yoke of sov’reign sway

Should on the necks of all the nations lay.

She ponder’d this, and fear’d it was in fate;

Nor could forget the war she wag’d of late

For conqu’ring Greece against the Trojan state.

Besides, long causes working in her mind,

And secret seeds of envy, lay behind;

Deep graven in her heart the doom remain’d

Of partial Paris, and her form disdain’d;

The grace bestow’d on ravish’d Ganymed,

Electra’s glories, and her injur’d bed.

Each was a cause alone; and all combin’d

To kindle vengeance in her haughty mind.

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Vergil [also known as Virgil, full name: Publius Vergilius Maro] (70 BC – 19 BC) Italy (Ancient Rome)

Translated by John Dryden

Source: Vergil. Æneid, translated by John Dryden. Vol. XIII. The Harvard Classics. P.F. Collier & Son, 1909–14

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