tempus erat quo prima quies mortalibus aegris
incipit et dono divum gratissima serpit.
in somnis, ecce, ante oculos maestissimus Hector 270
visus adesse mihi largosque effundere fletus,
raptatus bigis, ut quondam, aterque cruento
pulvere perque pedes traiectus lora tumentes.
ei mihi, qualis erat, quantum mutatus ab illo
Hectore qui redit exuvias indutus Achilli 275
vel Danaum Phrygios iaculatus puppibus ignes!
squalentem barbam et concretos sanguine crines
vulneraque illa gerens, quae circum plurima muros
accepit patrios. ultro flens ipse videbar
compellare virum et maestas expromere voces: 280
‘o lux Dardaniae, spes o fidissima Teucrum,
quae tantae tenuere morae? quibus Hector ab oris
expectate venis? ut te post multa tuorum
funera, post varios hominumque urbisque labores
defessi aspicimus! quae causa indigna serenos 285
foedavit vultus? aut cur haec vulnera cerno?’
ille nihil, nec me quaerentem vana moratur,
sed graviter gemitus imo de pectore ducens,
‘heu fuge, nate dea, teque his’ ait ‘eripe flammis.
hostis habet muros; ruit alto a culmine Troia. 290
sat patriae Priamoque datum: si Pergama dextra
defendi possent, etiam hac defensa fuissent.
sacra suosque tibi commendat Troia penates;
hos cape fatorum comites, his moenia quaere
magna pererrato statues quae denique ponto.’ 295
sic ait et manibus vittas Vestamque potentem
aeternumque adytis effert penetralibus ignem.

It was the time when the first rest begins for mortals and slowly spreads most pleasingly by the gift of the gods. Look, in my dream, before my eyes, Hector appeared to be there beside me, most sorrowful and pouring out plentiful tears, as he was when he had been dragged by the chariot, both black with blood-stained dust and pierced by the reins through his swollen feet. Ah me! What a sight he was! How much he had changed from that Hector who returned wearing the spoils of Achilles, or hurling Trojan fire onto Greek ships! Sporting a filthy beard and hair stiff with blood and those countless wounds which he received around his ancestral walls. I myself, weeping spontaneously, seemed to address the man and produce sad words: ‘O light of the Trojans, truest hope of the sons of Teucer, what great delay has held you back? Long-awaited Hector, from what shores have you come? How we, exhausted, see you after the many deaths of your men, after the various toils of the people and the city! What unworthy reason has disfigured your calm features? Why do I see these wounds?’ He (replied) nothing, nor did he pay attention to me asking futile questions, but drawing groans heavily from the bottom of his heart, he said, ‘Alas, flee, son of a goddess, and tear yourself away from these flames. The enemy holds the walls; Troy is falling from its highest height. Enough has been give to the country and to Priam (by you): if Troy could be defended by a right hand, it would have been defended by this one too. Troy entrusts its sacred objects and its gods to you; take these as companions of your destiny, with these seek the mighty walls which you will establish once the sea has been thoroughly traversed.’ So he spoke, and he brought forth with his hands the sacred ribbons and the mighty Vesta and her eternal flame from the innermost chamber.

diverso interea miscentur moenia luctu,
et magis atque magis, quamquam secreta parentis
Anchisae domus arboribusque obtecta recessit, 300
clarescunt sonitus armorumque ingruit horror.
excutior somno et summi fastigia tecti
ascensu supero atque arrectis auribus asto:
in segetem veluti cum flamma furentibus Austris
incidit, aut rapidus montano flumine torrens 305
sternit agros, sternit sata laeta boumque labores
praecipitesque trahit silvas; stupet inscius alto
accipiens sonitum saxi de vertice pastor.
tum vero manifesta fides, Danaumque patescunt
insidiae. iam Deiphobi dedit ampla ruinam 310
Volcano superante domus, iam proximus ardet
Ucalegon; Sigea igni freta lata relucent.
exoritur clamorque virum clangorque tubarum.
arma amens capio; nec sat rationis in armis,
sed glomerare manum bello et concurrere in arcem 315
cum sociis ardent animi; furor iraque mentem
praecipitat, pulchrumque mori succurrit in armis.

Meanwhile the city was thrown into confusion everywhere by grief and, although the house of my father Anchises was remote and set back covered by trees, more and more the sounds became clear and the clashing of weapons drew near. I shook myself from sleep and by climbing I reached the gables of the rooftop and I stood there with ears pricked: Just as, when a flame from the raging south winds falls on the corn, or a fierce torrent of a mountain river flattens the fields, flattens the blessed crops and the efforts of the oxen and drags the woods headlong; the unsuspecting shepherd is dumbstruck, listening to the noise from the top of a high rock. Then indeed their trustworthiness was made clear, the treachery of the Greeks lay open. Now the spacious house of Deiphobus became a ruin, as Vulcan overwhelmed it, now the neighbouring (house of) Ucalegon burned; the wide straits of Sigeum blazed with fire. There arose both the shouting of men and the sound of trumpets. I grabbed my armour mindlessly; nor was there sufficient reason for weapons, but my instincts burned to gather a band of men for war and to charge together with my companions into the citadel; madness and anger spurred my mind, and to die in arms seemed a beautiful thing.

primus se Danaum magna comitante caterva 370
Androgeos offert nobis, socia agmina credens
inscius, atque ultro verbis compellat amicis:
‘festinate, viri! nam quae tam sera moratur
segnities? alii rapiunt incensa feruntque
Pergama: vos celsis nunc primum a navibus itis?’ 375
dixit, et extemplo (neque enim responsa dabantur
fida satis) sensit medios delapsus in hostes.
obstipuit retroque pedem cum voce repressit.
improvisum aspris veluti qui sentibus anguem
pressit humi nitens trepidusque repente refugit 380
attollentem iras et caerula colla tumentem,
haud secus Androgeos visu tremefactus abibat.
inruimus densis et circumfundimur armis,
ignarosque loci passim et formidine captos
sternimus; adspirat primo fortuna labori. 385
atque hic successu exsultans animisque Coroebus
‘o socii, qua prima’ inquit ‘fortuna salutis
monstrat iter, quaque ostendit se dextra, sequamur:
mutemus clipeos Danaumque insignia nobis
aptemus. dolus an virtus, quis in hoste requirat? 390
arma dabunt ipsi, sic fatus deinde comantem
Androgei galeam clipeique insigne decorum
induitur laterique Argivum accommodat ensem.
hoc Rhipheus, hoc ipse Dymas omnisque iuventus
laeta facit: spoliis se quisque recentibus armat. 395
vadimus immixti Danais haud numine nostro
multaque per caecam congressi proelia noctem
conserimus, multos Danaum demittimus Orco.
diffugiunt alii ad naves et litora cursu
fida petunt; pars ingentem formidine turpi 400
scandunt rursus equum et nota conduntur in alvo.

Androgeos was the first of the Greeks to meet us, with a great crowd accompanying him, ignorantly believing our troops were his allies, and spontaneously addressed us with friendly words: ‘Hurry, men! For what sluggishness so slow delays you? Others are seizing and plundering the burning citadel: are you on your way from the high ships now for the first time?’ He spoke, and immediately (for no responses sufficiently credible were given) realised that he had fallen into the middle of the enemy. He was gobsmacked and checked his step along with his voice. Just as one who, treading hard on the ground, has stepped on a snake unseen in the rough brambles and suddenly retreats in panic as it rises up in anger and swells its dark blue neck, not otherwise did Androgeos begin to move away at the sight. We rushed onward and poured round with a mass of weapons, and flattened them on all sides, being unfamiliar with the place and gripped by fear; fortune breathed on our first effort. And at this point Coroebus, rejoicing in the success and in spirit, said, ‘Comrades, where fortune first shows the path of safety, where she shows herself to be favourable, let us follow: let us change shields and let us fit the emblems of the Greeks on ourselves. Who would ask if this was deception or virtue in dealing with an enemy? Having spoken thus, next he put on the crested helmet of Androgeos and the graceful design of the shield and fitted a Greek sword to his side. Rhipheus did this, Dymas himself did this, and all the joyful youth: each man armed himself with the fresh spoils. We advanced, mingled with Greeks under a divine protection which was not our own, and we engaged in many battles as we confronted (the enemy) through the dark night, and many of the Greeks we sent down to the underworld. Some fled to their ships and sought the reliable shores by running; some climbed the huge horse again in shameful fear and hid in the familiar womb.

heu nihil invitis fas quemquam fidere divis!
ecce trahebatur passis Priameia virgo
crinibus a templo Cassandra adytisque Minervae
ad caelum tendens ardentia lumina frustra, 405
lumina, nam teneras arcebant vincula palmas.
non tulit hanc speciem furiata mente Coroebus
et sese medium iniecit periturus in agmen;
consequimur cuncti et densis incurrimus armis.
hic primum ex alto delubri culmine telis 410
nostrorum obruimur oriturque miserrima caedes
armorum facie et Graiarum errore iubarum.
tum Danai gemitu atque ereptae virginis ira
undique collecti invadunt, acerrimus Aiax
et gemini Atridae Dolopumque exercitus omnis: 415
adversi rupto ceu quondam turbine venti
confligunt, Zephyrusque Notusque et laetus Eois
Eurus equis; stridunt silvae saevitque tridenti
spumeus atque imo Nereus ciet aequora fundo.
illi etiam, si quos obscura nocte per umbram 420
fudimus insidiis totaque agitavimus urbe,
apparent; primi clipeos mentitaque tela
agnoscunt atque ora sono discordia signant.
ilicet obruimur numero, primusque Coroebus
Penelei dextra divae armipotentis ad aram 425
procumbit; cadit et Rhipheus, iustissimus unus
qui fuit in Teucris et servantissimus aequi
(dis aliter visum); pereunt Hypanisque Dymasque
confixi a sociis; nec te tua plurima, Panthu,
labentem pietas nec Apollinis infula texit. 430
Iliaci cineres et flamma extrema meorum,
testor, in occasu vestro nec tela nec ullas
vitavisse vices Danaum et – si fata fuissent
ut caderem – meruisse manu. divellimur inde,
Iphitas et Pelias mecum (quorum Iphitas aevo 435
iam gravior, Pelias et vulnere tardus Ulixi),
protinus ad sedes Priami clamore vocati.

Alas, it is not at all right that anyone should trust in reluctant gods! Look, the maiden daughter of Priam with dishevelled hair, Cassandra, was being dragged from the temple and shrines of Minerva stretching her burning eyes to heaven in vain, her eyes because chains were preventing her tender palms. Coroebus could not bear this sight, his mind enraged, and threw himself into the middle of their battle-line to die; we all followed closely and ran onwards with a mass of weapons. Ath this point, first from the high summit of the shrine we were overwhelmed by the missiles of our own men and a most wretched slaughter arose due to the appearance of our weapons and the confusion of the Greek crests. Then the Greeks, with a groan and with anger at the rescued girl, gathered on all sides and attacked: fiercest Ajax and the two sons of Atreus and the whole army of the Dolopians. just as when, after a storm has broken, opposing winds clash – the west wind, the south wind and the east wind rejoicing in the horses of Dawn; the woods roar and foamy Nereus rages with his trident and stirs the seas from the lowest depth. Those too, if we had routed any in the dark night through the shade due to our treachery and driven them over the whole city, appeared; they first recognised the shields and the lying weapons and noticed our speech as differing in tone. Immediately we were overwhelmed, and Coroebus fell first by the right hand of Peneleus at the altar of the powerfully armed goddess; Rhipheus fell too, who was the most righteous one among the Trojans and the most observant of fairness (it appeared otherwise to the gods); both Hypanis and Dymas died having been pierced through by their comrades; nor did your very great piety, Panthus, nor the sacred headband of Apollo protect you as you fell. O ashes of Troy and last flame of my people, I call you to witness, (that) in your downfall I avoided neither the weapons nor any retaliations of the Greeks, and – if it had been my fate to fall – I earned it by my hand. Then we were separated, Iphitas and Pelias were with me (of whom Iphitas was now quite burdened by age, and Pelias slowed by a wound from Ulixes): we were called by shouting straight to the palace of Priam.

hic vero ingentem pugnam, ceu cetera nusquam
bella forent, nulli tota morerentur in urbe,
sic Martem indomitum Danaosque ad tecta ruentes 440
cernimus obsessumque acta testudine limen.
haerent parietibus scalae postesque sub ipsos
nituntur gradibus clipeosque ad tela sinistris
protecti obiciunt, prensant fastigia dextris.
Dardanidae contra turres ac tota domorum 445
culmina convellunt; his se, quando ultima cernunt,
extrema iam in morte parant defendere telis,
auratasque trabes, veterum decora alta parentum,
devolvunt; alii strictis mucronibus imas
obsedere fores, has servant agmine denso. 450
instaurati animi regis succurrere tectis
auxilioque levare viros vimque addere victis.

Here indeed (we saw) a huge battle, as if the other conflicts were nowhere, and none were dying in the whole city, so we saw Mars unrestrained and the Greeks rushing to the roofs and the threshold besieged by a driving tortoise formation. Ladders clung to the walls and under the very doorposts they struggled on the rungs and, for protection against the missiles, they thrust out shields in their left hands, and grasped the edges of the roofs with their right hands. The Trojans, on the other hand, tore down the turrets and whole roofs of the houses; with these as missiles, since they saw the end was near, they prepared to defend themselves now in the last moments of death, and they rolled down golden beams, the high ornaments of their ancient fathers; others blockaded the doors below with drawn swords: they protected them in close formation. My courage was renewed to bring help to the king’s palace and to relieve our men with support and to increase force in the vanquished.

limen erat caecaeque fores et pervius usus
tectorum inter se Priami postesque relicti,
a tergo infelix qua se, dum regna manebant, 455
saepius Andromache ferre incomitata solebat
ad soceros et avo puerum Astyanacta trahebat.
evado ad summi fastigia culminis, unde
tela manu miseri iactabant inrita Teucri.
turrim in praecipiti stantem summisque sub astra 460
eductam tectis, unde omnis Troia videri
et Danaum solitae naves et Achaica castra,
adgressi ferro circum, qua summa labantes
iuncturas tabulata dabant, convellimus altis
sedibus impulimusque; ea lapsa repente ruinam 465
cum sonitu trahit et Danaum super agmine late
incidit. ast alii subeunt, nec saxa nec ullum
telorum interea cessat genus.

There was an entrance and a concealed doorway, used as a throughway for Priam’s palace buildings between them and a door which remained, at the back, by which unhappy Andromache, while the kingdom still stood, quite often used to take herself unaccompanied to her parents-in-law and would lead the boy Astyanax to his grandfather. I escaped to the gables of the rooftop, from where the wretched Trojans were hurling futile weapons with great effort. We attacked a tower standing at the edge and built up to the stars on top of the roof, from where all of Troy and the Greek ships and the Greek camp used to be seen, with iron (tools) around where the top floors were offering loosened joints, and we tore it from its high base and pushed it down; having collapsed suddenly it brought destruction with a crash, and fell far and wide on top of the Greek army. But others came up, meanwhile neither rocks nor any kind of weapons ceased.

vestibulum ante ipsum primoque in limine Pyrrhus
exsultat telis et luce coruscus aëna: 470
qualis ubi in lucem coluber mala gramina pastus,
frigida sub terra tumidum quem bruma tegebat,
nunc, positis novus exuviis nitidusque iuventa,
lubrica convolvit sublato pectore terga
arduus ad solem, et linguis micat ore trisulcis. 475
una ingens Periphas et equorum agitator Achillis,
armiger Automedon, una omnis Scyria pubes
succedunt tecto et flammas ad culmina iactant.
ipse inter primos correpta dura bipenni
limina perrumpit postesque a cardine vellit 480
aeratos; iamque excisa trabe firma cavavit
robora et ingentem lato dedit ore fenestram.
apparet domus intus et atria longa patescunt;
apparent Priami et veterum penetralia regum,
armatosque videt stantes in limine primo. 485
at domus interior gemitu miseroque tumultu
miscetur; penitusque cavae plangoribus aedes
femineis ululant; ferit aurea sidera clamor.
tum pavidae tectis matres ingentibus errant
amplexaeque tenent postes atque oscula figunt. 490
instat vi patria Pyrrhus; nec claustra nec ipsi
custodes sufferre valent; labat ariete crebro
ianua, et emoti procumbunt cardine postes.
fit via vi; rumpunt aditus primosque trucidant
immissi Danai et late loca milite complent. 495
non sic, aggeribus ruptis cum spumeus amnis
exiit oppositasque evicit gurgite moles,
fertur in arva furens cumulo camposque per omnes
cum stabulis armenta trahit. vidi ipse furentem
caede Neoptolemum geminosque in limine Atridas, 500
vidi Hecubam centumque nurus Priamumque per aras
sanguine foedantem quos ipse sacraverat ignes.
quinquaginta illi thalami, spes tanta nepotum,
barbarico postes auro spoliisque superbi
procubuere; tenent Danai qua deficit ignis. 505

In front of the entrance hall itself and on the outer threshold, Pyrrhus leaped, gleaming with weapons and a bronze radiance; just as when a snake, fed on poisonous herbs, (and) which the cold winter was hiding swollen under the ground, now, having shed its skin, fresh and glistening with youthfulness, rolls its slimy back into the light with its breast raised high to the sun, and flickers from its mouth with its triple-forked tongue. Together huge Periphas and the driver of the horses of Achilles, his armour-bearer Automedon, together all the youth of Scyros came up to the building and hurled flames to the roofs. He himself among the first, having grabbed a double-headed axe, (tried to) burst through the sturdy thresholds and (was trying to) wrench the bronze doorposts from their socket; and now, having cut out a panel, he hollowed the sturdy oak and created a huge window with a wide mouth. The house within appeared and the long halls lay open; the innermost chambers of Priam and of the ancient kings appeared, and he saw armed men standing on the outer threshold. But the house within was embroiled with groaning and wretched turmoil, and the hollow halls howled deep inside with the wails of women; the noise struck the golden stars. Then fearful mothers wandered through the huge apartments, and held onto the door posts, embracing (them) and planted kisses (on them). Pyrrhus pressed on with his father’s violence; neither the bolts nor the guards themselves were able to withstand (him). The door gave way from the repeated ramming and the door posts fell forwards, removed from their socket. A path was made with violence: the Greeks burst through the entrances and, having entered, butchered the first men and filled the places far and wide with soldiers. Not so (violently), when a foaming river bursting its banks has flowed out and overpowered the opposing dams with its flood, is it carried onto the plains raging in a heap and drags the cattle through all the fields with their stables. I myself saw Neoptolemus raging with slaughter and the two sons of Atreus on the threshold, I saw Hecuba and her hundred daughters-in-law and Priam defiling with blood along the altars the fires which he himself had consecrated. Those fifty bridal chambers, such great hope of descendants, the door posts of foreign gold and proud in spoils; the Greeks held (the place) where the fire was going out.

forsitan et Priami fuerint quae fata requiras.
urbis uti captae casum convulsaque vidit
limina tectorum et medium in penetralibus hostem,
arma diu senior desueta trementibus aevo
circumdat nequiquam umeris et inutile ferrum 510
cingitur, ac densos fertur moriturus in hostes.
aedibus in mediis nudoque sub aetheris axe
ingens ara fuit iuxtaque veterrima laurus
incumbens arae atque umbra complexa penates.
hic Hecuba et natae nequiquam altaria circum, 515
praecipites atra ceu tempestate columbae,
condensae et divum amplexae simulacra sedebant.
ipsum autem sumptis Priamum iuvenalibus armis
ut vidit, quae mens tam dira, miserrime coniunx,
impulit his cingi telis? aut quo ruis?’ inquit. 520
‘non tali auxilio nec defensoribus istis
tempus eget; non, si ipse meus nunc adforet Hector.
huc tandem concede; haec ara tuebitur omnes,
aut moriere simul.” sic ore effata recepit
ad sese et sacra longaevum in sede locavit. 525

Perhaps you may also ask what was the fate of Priam. When he saw the fall of his captured city and the smashed-in doors of the buildings and the enemy in the middle of the inner chambers, the old man in vain put on his long-neglected armour on his shoulders, which were trembling with old age, and wore the useless sword, and carried himself into the thick of the enemy, doomed to die. In the middle of the palace and under the exposed wheel of heaven there was a huge altar and a very old laurel tree alongside it, resting on the altar and embracing the household gods with its shade. Here Hecuba and her daughters were crowded round the altar in vain, like doves driven headlong in a black storm, and they sat embracing the statues of the gods. Moreover, when she saw Priam himself, having taken up the arms of his youth, she said ‘What intention so dreadful, most wretched husband, drives (you) to gird yourself with these weapons? Where are you rushing to? The situation is not in need of such assistance, nor of these defenders; not if my Hector himself were now present, come here now; this altar will protect everyone, or you will die with us.’ Having spoken thus, she received the aged man to her and placed him on the sacred seat.

ecce autem elapsus Pyrrhi de caede Polites,
unus natorum Priami, per tela, per hostes
porticibus longis fugit et vacua atria lustrat
saucius. illum ardens infesto vulnere Pyrrhus
insequitur, iam iamque manu tenet et premit hasta. 530
ut tandem ante oculos evasit et ora parentum,
concidit ac multo vitam cum sanguine fudit.
hic Priamus, quamquam in media iam morte tenetur,
non tamen abstinuit nec voci iraeque pepercit:
‘at tibi pro scelere, exclamat, ‘pro talibus ausis 535
di, si qua est caelo pietas quae talia curet,
persolvant grates dignas et praemia reddant debita,
qui nati coram me cernere letum
fecisti et patrios foedasti funere vultus.
at non ille, satum quo te mentiris, Achilles 540
talis in hoste fuit Priamo; sed iura fidemque
supplicis erubuit corpusque exsangue sepulcro
reddidit Hectoreum meque in mea regna remisit?
sic fatus senior telumque imbelle sine ictu
coniecit, rauco quod protinus aere repulsum, 545
et summo clipei nequiquam umbone pependit.
cui Pyrrhus: ‘referes ergo haec et nuntius ibis
Pelidae genitori. illi mea tristia facta
degeneremque Neoptolemum narrare memento.
nunc morere.’ hoc dicens altaria ad ipsa trementem 550
traxit et in multo lapsantem sanguine nati,
implicuitque comam laeva, dextraque coruscum
extulit ac lateri capulo tenus abdidit ensem.
haec finis Priami fatorum, hic exitus illum
sorte tulit Troiam incensam et prolapsa videntem 555
Pergama, tot quondam populis terrisque superbum
regnatorem Asiae. iacet ingens litore truncus,
avulsumque umeris caput et sine nomine corpus.

But look! Having slipped away from the butchery of Pyrrhus, Polites, one of the sons of Priam, fled through the missiles, through the enemy, down the long colonnades and wanders around the deserted rooms wounded. Pyrrhus eagerly pursues him with threatening wound. Again and again he nearly seizes him with his hand and he presses with his spear, when at last he emerged before the eyes and the faces of his parents, he fell and poured out his life with much blood. Here Priam, although he was now being held in the middle of death, nevertheless he did not hold back nor spare his voice and anger: He shouted: ‘For wickedness, for such brazen acts, if their is any holiness in heaven which takes interest in such matters, may the gods pay worthy thanks and give due rewards, you who have made me watch the death of my son in person and befouled a father’s features with death. But he, from whom you falsely state that you were born, Achilles was not such a man in the case of his enemy Priam; but he respected the laws and trust of a suppliant and returned Hector’s bloodless body to the tomb and sent me back into my kingdom.’ So spoke the elderly man and he hurled the unwarlike weapon without a blow, which was repulsed straightaway by the echoing bronze, and it hung idly from the top of the boss of the shield. Pyrrhus (replied) to him: ‘So you will take this back and you will go as a messenger to my father, the son of Peleus. Remember to tell him of my sorry deeds and the worthless Neoptolemus. Now die.’ As he said this he dragged him to the altar itself, trembling and sliding in lots of his son’s blood, and he entwined his hair with his left hand, and with his right hand raised his glimmering sword and drove it into his side as far as the hilt. This was the end of Priam’s destiny, this destruction brought him by chance a burning Troy and seeing Pergamum collapsed, once the proud ruler of since so many peoples and lands in Asia. His huge trunk lay on the shore, and his head ripped from his shoulders and a body without a name.