The Sower of the Gods and men a little smiled on her With such a countenance as calms the storms and upper air; He kissed his daughter on the lips, and spake such words to tell: "O Cytherean, spare thy dread! unmoved the Fates shall dwell Of thee and thine, and thou shalt see the promised city yet, E'en that Lavinium's walls, and high amidst the stars shalt set Great-souled Æneas: nor in me doth aught of counsel shift 260 But since care gnaws upon thine heart, the hidden things I lift Of Fate, and roll on time for thee, and tell of latter days. Great war he wars in Italy, and folk full wild of ways He weareth down, and lays on men both laws and wallèd steads, Till the third summer seeth him King o'er the Latin heads, And the third winter's wearing brings the fierce Rutulians low. Thereon the lad Ascanius, Iulus by-named now, (And Ilus was he once of old, when Ilium's city was,) Fulfilleth thirty orbs of rule with rolling months that pass, And from the town Lavinium shifts the dwelling of his race, 270 And maketh Alba-town the Long a mighty fencèd place. Here when for thrice an hundred years untouched the land hath been Beneath the rule of Hector's folk, lo Ilia, priestess-queen, Goes heavy with the love of Mars, and bringeth twins to birth. 'Neath yellow hide of foster-wolf thence, mighty in his mirth, Comes Romulus to bear the folk, and Mavors' walls to frame, And by the word himself was called the Roman folk to name. On them I lay no bonds of time, no bonds of earthly part; I give them empire without end: yea, Juno, hard of heart, Who wearieth now with fear of her the heavens and earth and sea, 280 Shall gather better counsel yet, and cherish them with me; The Roman folk, the togaed men, lords of all worldly ways. Such is the doom. As weareth time there come those other days, Wherein Assaracus shall bind Mycenæ of renown, And Phthia, and shall lord it o'er the Argives beaten down. Then shall a Trojan Cæsar come from out a lovely name, The ocean-stream shall bound his rule, the stars of heaven his fame, Julius his name from him of old, the great Iulus sent: Him too in house of heaven one day 'neath spoils of Eastlands bent Thou, happy, shalt receive; he too shall have the prayers of men. 290 The wars of old all laid aside, the hard world bettereth then, And Vesta and the hoary Faith, Quirinus and his twin Now judge the world; the dreadful doors of War now shut within Their iron bolts and strait embrace the godless Rage of folk, Who, pitiless, on weapons set, and bound in brazen yoke Of hundred knots aback of him foams fell from bloody mouth."