Nor lacked there to the embattled power The founder of Præneste’s tower, Brave Cæculus, by all renowned As Vulcan’s son, ’mid embers found 25 And monarch of the rustics crowned. Beneath him march his rural train, Whom high Præneste’s walls contain, Who dwell in Gabian Juno’s plain, Whose haunt is Anio’s chilly flood 30 And Hernic rocks, by streams bedewed, Who till Anagnia’s bosom green Or drink of father Amasene. Not all are furnished for the war With ample shield or sounding car. 35 Some sling lead bullets o’er the field, Some javelins twain in combat wield. A cap of fur protects their head By spoil of tawny wolf supplied; Their left foot bare, on earth they tread, 40 The right is cased in raw bull-hide. Messapus, tamer of the steed, The Ocean-monarch’s mighty seed, Whom none might harm, so willed his sire, With force of iron or of fire, Awakes his people’s slumbering zeal 5 Long time unused to war’s appeal, And from the scabbard bares the steel. With him Fescennia’s armed train, The dwellers in Falerii’s plain, Who hold Soracte’s lofty hill 10 Or fair Flavinia’s cornland till, Capena’s woods their dwelling make Or Ciminus, its mount and lake. With measured pace they march along, And make their monarch’s deeds their song; 15 Like snow-white swans in liquid air, When homeward from their food they fare, And far and wide melodious notes Come rippling from their slender throats, While the broad stream and Asia’s fen 20 Reverberate to the sound again. Sure none had thought that countless crowd A mail-clad company; It rather seemed a dusky cloud Of migrant fowl, that, hoarse and loud, 25 Press landward from the sea.