An omen confirms his word and before the eyes of all, the tawny bird, armour-bearer of Jove, swoops down from the open sky and seizes a snake in his curved talons; and while the eagle tears his struggling prey with his hooked beak, his claws are embedded in its head. The severed body falls to earth. Straightway the soldiers come hurrying up, crossing rocks and streams in their eagerness at the call of this portent. Neither mountains nor woods delay them. Even as the cranes leave their summer home of Thrace clamorously to join issue in doubtful war with the Pygmies, when they desert the Strymon for warm-watered Nile, the letter[81] traced by the speeding line stands out against the clouds and the heaven is stamped with the figure of their flight. When they reached the coast still fiercer blazed [80] The other two being Maximus and Eugenius. [81] _i.e._ the Greek Λ. * * * * * Page 134 impetus; adripiunt naves ipsique rudentes 480 expediunt et vela legunt et cornua summis adsociant malis; quatitur Tyrrhena tumultu ora nec Alpheae capiunt navalia Pisae: sic Agamemnoniam vindex cum Graecia classem solveret, innumeris fervebat vocibus Aulis. 485 non illos strepitus impendentisque procellae signa nec adventus dubii deterruit Austri. “vellite” proclamant “socii, iam vellite funem. per vada Gildonem quamvis adversa petamus. ad bellum nos trudat hiems per devia ponti. 490 quassatis cupio tellurem figere rostris. heu nimium segnes, cauta qui mente notatis, si revolant mergi, graditur si litore cornix. ora licet maculis adsperserit occiduus sol lunaque conceptis livescat turgida Cauris 495 et contusa vagos iaculentur sidera crines; imbribus umescant Haedi nimbosaque Taurum ducat Hyas totusque fretis descendat Orion: certa fides caeli, sed maior Honorius auctor; illius auspiciis inmensa per aequora miles, 500 non Plaustris Arctove regor. contemne Booten, navita, turbinibus mediis permitte carinas. si mihi tempestas Libyam ventique negabunt, Augusti Fortuna dabit.” Iam classis in altum provehitur; dextra Ligures, Etruria laeva 505 linquitur et caecis vitatur Corsica saxis. humanae specie plantae se magna figurat insula (Sardiniam veteres dixere coloni), dives ager frugum, Poenos Italosve petenti * * * * * Page 135