"O socii-neque enim ignari sumus ante malorum-

O passi graviora, dabit deus his quoque finem.

Vos et Scyllaeam rabiem penitusque sonantis

accestis scopulos, vos et Cyclopea saxa

experti: revocate animos, maestumque timorem

mittite: forsan et haec olim meminisse iuvabit.

Per varios casus, per tot discrimina rerum

tendimus in Latium; sedes ubi fata quietas

ostendunt; illic fas regna resurgere Troiae.

Durate, et vosmet rebus servate secundis."

Theodore C. Williams, 1910.

"Companions mine, we have not failed to feel

calamity till now. O, ye have borne

far heavier sorrow: Jove will make an end

also of this. Ye sailed a course hard by

infuriate Scylla's howling cliffs and caves.

Ye knew the Cyclops' crags. Lift up your hearts!

No more complaint and fear! It well may be

some happier hour will find this memory fair.

Through chance and change and hazard without end,

our goal is Latium; where our destinies

beckon to blest abodes, and have ordained

that Troy shall rise new-born! Have patience all!

And bide expectantly that golden day."

John Dryden ...

"Endure, and conquer! Jove will soon dispose

To future good our past and present woes.

With me, the rocks of Scylla you have tried;

th' inhuman Cyclops and his den defied.

What greater ills hereafter can you bear?

Resume your courage and dismiss your care,

An hour will come, with pleasure to relate

Your sorrows past, as benefits of Fate.

Thro' various hazards and events, we move

To Latium and the realms foredoom'd by Jove.

Call'd to the seat (the promise of the skies)

Where Trojan kingdoms once again may rise,

Endure the hardships of your present state;

Live, and reserve yourselves for better fate."

Exim se cuncti divinis rebus ad urbem

perfectis referunt. Ibat rex obsitus aevo

et comitem Aenean iuxta natumque tenebat

ingrediens varioque viam sermone levabat.

miratur facilisque oculos fert omnia circum

Aeneas capiturque locis et singula laetus

exquiritque auditque virum monimenta priorum.

Tum rex Euandrus, Romanae conditor arcis:

"Haec nemora indigenae fauni nymphaeque tenebant

gensque virum truncis et duro robore nata,

quis neque mos neque cultus erat, nec iungere tauros

aut componere opes norant aut parcere parto,

sed rami atque asper victu venatus alebat.

Primus ab aetherio venit Saturnus Olympo,

arma Iovis fugiens et regnis exsul ademptis.

Is genus indocile ac dispersum montibus altis

composuit legesque dedit Latiumque vocari

maluit, his quoniam latuisset tutis in oris.

Aurea quae perhibent illo sub rege fuere

saecula. Sic placida populos in pace regebat,

deterior donec paulatim ac decolor aetas

et belli rabies et amor successit habendi.

Tum manus Ausonia et gentes venere Sicanae,

saepius et nomen posuit Saturnia tellus;

tum reges asperque immani corpore Thybris,

a quo post Itali fluvium cognomine Thybrim

diximus, amisit verum vetus Albula nomen;

me pulsum patria pelagique extrema sequentem

Fortuna omnipotens et ineluctabile fatum

his posuere locis matrisque egere tremenda

Carmentis nymphae monita et deus auctor Apollo.

Theodore C. Williams, 1910

Such worship o'er, all take the homeward way

back to the town. The hospitable King,

though bowed with weight of years, kept at his side

Aeneas and his son, and as they fared,

with various discourse beguiled the way.

Aeneas scanned with quick-admiring eyes

the region wide, and lingered with delight

now here, now there, inquiring eagerly

of each proud monument of heroes gone.

Then King Evander, he who builded first

On Palatine, spoke thus: "These groves erewhile

their native nymphs and fauns enjoyed, with men

from trees engendered and stout heart of oak.

Nor laws nor arts they knew; nor how to tame

burls to the yoke, nor fill great barns with store

and hoard the gathered grain; but rudely fared

on wild fruits and such food as hunters find.

Then Saturn from Olympian realms came down,

in flight from Jove's dread arms, his sceptre lost,

and he an exiled King. That savage race

he gathered from the mountain slopes; and gave

wise laws and statutes; so that latent land

was Latium, 'hid land', where he hid so long.

The golden centuries by legends told

were under that good King, whose equal sway

untroubled peace to all his peoples gave.

But after slow decline arrived an age

degenerate and of a darker hue,

prone to insensate war and greed of gain.

Then came Sicanian and Ausonian tribes,

and oft the land of Saturn lost its name.

New chieftains rose, and Thybris, giant King

and violent, from whom th' Italians named

the flooding Tiber, which was called no more

the Albula, its true and ancient style.

Myself, in exile from my fatherland

sailing uncharted seas, was guided here

by all-disposing Chance and iron laws

of Destiny. With prophecy severe

Carmentis, my nymph-mother, thrust me on,

warned by Apollo's word."

John Dryden

The rites perform'd, the cheerful train retire.

Betwixt young Pallas and his aged sire,

The Trojan pass'd, the city to survey,

And pleasing talk beguil'd the tedious way.

The stranger cast around his curious eyes,

New objects viewing still, with new surprise;

With greedy joy enquires of various things,

And acts and monuments of ancient kings.

Then thus the founder of the Roman tow'rs:

"These woods were first the seat of sylvan pow'rs,

Of Nymphs and Fauns, and salvage men, who took

Their birth from trunks of trees and stubborn oak.

Nor laws they knew, nor manners, nor the care

Of lab'ring oxen, or the shining share,

Nor arts of gain, nor what they gain'd to spare.

Their exercise the chase; the running flood

Supplied their thirst, the trees supplied their food.

Then Saturn came, who fled the pow'r of Jove,

Robb'd of his realms, and banish'd from above.

The men, dispers'd on hills, to towns he brought,

And laws ordain'd, and civil customs taught,

And Latium call'd the land where safe he lay

From his unduteous son, and his usurping sway.

With his mild empire, peace and plenty came;

And hence the golden times deriv'd their name.

A more degenerate and discolor'd age

Succeeded this, with avarice and rage.

Th' Ausonians then, and bold Sicanians came;

And Saturn's empire often chang'd the name.

Then kings, gigantic Tybris, and the rest,

With arbitrary sway the land oppress'd:

For Tiber's flood was Albula before,

Till, from the tyrant's fate, his name it bore.

I last arriv'd, driv'n from my native home

By fortune's pow'r, and fate's resistless doom.

Long toss'd on seas, I sought this happy land,

Warn'd by my mother nymph, and call'd by Heav'n's command."

[685] Ac veluti montis saxum de vertice praeceps

cum ruit avulsum vento, seu turbidus imber

proluit aut annis solvit sublapsa vetustas;

fertur in abruptum magno mons improbus actu

exsultatque solo, silvas armenta virosque

involvens secum: disiecta per agmina Turnus

[690] sic urbis ruit ad muros, ubi plurima fuso

sanguine terra madet striduntque hastilibus aurae,

significatque manu et magno simul incipit ore:

And as when a rock falls headlong from a mountain peak,

Torn off by the wind, or by a swirling rainstorm,

Or when old age undermines it and the years dissolve it,

The mountain plunges with a mighty force into the abyss,

And leaps exulting on the plain, carrying with it woods,

Herds, and men together; scattered through the ranks,

Turnus rushes thus toward the city walls, where the ground

Is soaked with abundant blood poured out, and the air resounds

With clashing spears; he signals with his hand and at the same time

Begins to speak with a loud voice:

Avebury by William Stukeley. 1724. This Longstone cove [Map], vulgarly called long stones, is properly a cove, as the old Britons called 'em, composed of three stones, like that most magnificent one we described, in the center of the northern temple at Abury; behind the inn. They are set upon the ark of a circle, regarding each other with an obtuse angle. This is set on the north side of the avenue; one of the stones of that side makes the back of the cove. This is the only particularity in which this avenue differs from the former. I take it to be chiefly a judicious affectation of variety, and served as a sacellum or proseucha to the neighbourhood on ordinary days of devotion, viz. the sabbath-days. For if the Druids came hither in Abraham's time, and were disciples of his, as it appears to me; we cannot doubt of their observance of the sabbath. It stands on the midway of the length of the avenue, being the fiftieth stone. This opens to the south-east, as that of the northern temple to the north-east. 'Tis placed upon an eminence, the highest ground which the avenue passes over: these are called Longstone-fields from it. You have a good prospect hence, seeing Abury toward which the ground descends to the brook: Overton-hill, Silbury, Bekamton; and a fine country all around. Many stones by the way are just buried under the surface of the earth. Many lie in the balks and meres, and many fragments are removed, to make boundaries for the fields; but more whole ones have been burnt to build withal, within every body's memory. One stone still remains standing, near Longstone cove.

Longstone cove, because standing in the open fields, between the Caln road and that to the Bath, is more talked of by the people of this country, than the larger, and more numerous in Abury town. Dr. Musgrave mentions it in his Belgium Britannicum, page 44. and in his map thereof.

Mr. Aubury in his manuscript observations published with Mr. Camden's Britannia, speaks of them by the name of the Devil's coits. Three huge stones then standing. It was really a grand and noble work. The stone left standing is 16 feet high, as many broad, 3½ thick. The back stone is fallen flat on the ground, of like dimension.

annis solvit sublapsa vetustas [in years he paid off the old age which had fallen away]:

Fertur in abruptum magnus mons [He is carried on a steep mountain] Virg. Æn. 12.