There was a youth named Acron, who had come From a Greek town, leaving his bride a virgin At home in Corythus. Mezentius saw him Bright in the ranks, flashing, maroon and crimson, The colors of his bride. Mezentius saw him The way a hungry lion sees a deer And the jaws open and the mane is lifted And after one great leap the claws are fastened Deep in the flank, and the mouth is red with slaughter. So charged Mezentius into the midst, and Acron Went down, heels drumming on the ground, and blood Staining the broken spear. Orodes fled, Or tried to, but no spear for him; Mezentius Closed in, and struck with the sword, leaned on his spear, With one foot on the body, and cried aloud:-- “Here lies Orodes, men, a mighty captain, No little bit of the war!” His comrades joined him, Shouting applause; with his last breath Orodes Managed an answer:--“Not for long, O foeman, Shall I be unavenged: exult a little. Your doom keeps watch; you will hold these fields, as I do, Before too long.” Mezentius, smiling at him, Said only, “Die; and let the sire of the gods, The king of men, look after me.” The steel Came from the body; iron sleep and heavy Repose weighed down his eyes; they closed forever In night’s eternal dark. Caedicus slaughters Alcathous, Sacrator kills Hydaspes, Rapo cuts two men down, Parthenius, Orses, A tough, strong fighter; Messapus slays Clonius, Lying, defenceless, on the ground, a rider Thrown when the bridle of the horse was broken, And Messapus slays another, Erichaetes, Who tried to fight on foot; and Lycian Agis Attempts to fight on foot, and meets Valerus, And finds him a stout foeman, like his fathers, And falls; and Thronius falls; his victor, Salius, Is victim of Nealces, a good fighter With javelin and far-deceiving arrow. The scales were balanced: Trojans and Rutulians, Arcadians, Etruscans, died and slaughtered. Mars was a heavy-handed god, impartial In dealing death and wounds. Victors and vanquished Stood firm, in death or triumph, and the gods Pitied both sides and all that useless anger, That suffering which mortals take in battle. Venus is watching, and Saturnian Juno, And pale Tisiphone through the hosts goes raging.