Text from
end of the Aeneid, read in the audio file Book
XII
Incidit ictus
ingens ad terram duplicato poplite Turnus.
Consurgunt gemitu Rutuli, totusque remugit
mons circum, et vocem late nemora alta remittunt
Ille humilis supplexque oculos, dextramque precantem
protendens, `Equidem merui nec deprecor,' inquit:
`utere sorte tua. Miseri te siqua parentis
tangere cura potest, oro (fuit et tibi talis
Anchises genitor), Dauni miserere senectae
et me seu corpus spoliatum lumine mavis
redde meis. Vicisti, et victum tendere palmas
Ausonii videre; tua est Lavinia coniunx:
ulterius ne tende odiis.'
Stetit acer in armis
Aeneas, volvens oculos, dextramque repressit;
et iam iamque magis cunctantem flectere sermo
coeperat, infelix umero cum apparuit alto
balteus et notis fulserunt cingula bullis
Pallantis pueri, victum quem volnere Turnus
straverat atque umeris inimicum insigne gerebat.
Ille, oculis postquam saevi monimenta doloris
exuviasque hausit, furiis accensus et ira
terribilis, `Tune hinc spoliis indute meorum
eripiare mihi? Pallas te hoc volnere, Pallas
immolat et poenam scelerato ex sanguine sumit,'
hoc dicens ferrum adverso sub pectore condit
fervidus. Ast illi solvuntur frigore membra
vitaque cum gemitu fugit indignata sub umbras.
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...struck,
hugh Turnus fell to the ground with bent knee.
Groaning, the stunned Rutulians
rise to their feet, and the whoe hill resounds,
The wooded heights give echo. A suppliant, beaten,
Humbled at last, his hands reach out, his voice
Is low in pleading: - "I have deserved it, surely,
And I do not beg off. Use the advantage.
But if a parent's grief has any power
To touch the spirit, I pray you, pity Daunus,
(I would Anchises), send him back my body.
You have won; I am beacten, and these hands go out
In supplication: everyone has seen it.
No more. I have lost Lavinia. Let hatred
Proceed no fuirther."
Fierce in his arms, with darting glance, Aeneas
Paused for a moment, and he might have weakened,
For the words had move him, when, high on the shoulder, He saw the
belt of Pallas, slain by Turnus.
Saw Pallas on the ground, and Turnus wearing
That belt with the bright studs, of evil omen
Not only to Pallas now, a sad reminder,
A deadly provocation. Terrible
In wrath, Aeneas cries: - "Clad in this treasure,
This trophy of a comrade, can you cherish
Hope that my hands would let you go? Now Pallas,
Pallas exacts his vengeance, and the blow
is Pallas, making sacrifice!" He struck
Before he finished speaking: the blade went deep
And Turnus' limbs were cold in death; the spirit
Went with a moan indignant to the shadows.
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