The just Faliscans he to battle brings, And those who live where Lake Ciminia springs;And where Feronia's grove and temple stands, Who till Fescennian or Flavinian lands.
All these in order march, and marching sing The warlike actions of their sea-born king;Like a long team of snowy swans on high, Which clap their wings, and cleave the liquid sky, When, homeward from their wat'ry pastures borne, They sing, and Asia's lakes their notes return.
Not one who heard their music from afar, Would think these troops an army train'd to war, But flocks of fowl, that, when the tempests roar, With their hoarse gabbling seek the silent shore.
Then Clausus came, who led a num'rous band Of troops embodied from the Sabine land, And, in himself alone, an army brought.
'T was he, the noble Claudian race begot, The Claudian race, ordain'd, in times to come, To share the greatness of imperial Rome.
He led the Cures forth, of old renown, Mutuscans from their olive-bearing town, And all th' Eretian pow'rs; besides a band That follow'd from Velinum's dewy land, And Amiternian troops, of mighty fame, And mountaineers, that from Severus came, And from the craggy cliffs of Tetrica, And those where yellow Tiber takes his way, And where Himella's wanton waters play.
Casperia sends her arms, with those that lie By Fabaris, and fruitful Foruli:
The warlike aids of Horta next appear, And the cold Nursians come to close the rear, Mix'd with the natives born of Latine blood, Whom Allia washes with her fatal flood.
Not thicker billows beat the Libyan main, When pale Orion sets in wintry rain;Nor thicker harvests on rich Hermus rise, Or Lycian fields, when Phoebus burns the skies, Than stand these troops: their bucklers ring around;Their trampling turns the turf, and shakes the solid ground.
High in his chariot then Halesus came, A foe by birth to Troy's unhappy name:
From Agamemnon born- to Turnus' aid A thousand men the youthful hero led, Who till the Massic soil, for wine renown'd, And fierce Auruncans from their hilly ground, And those who live by Sidicinian shores, And where with shoaly fords Vulturnus roars, Cales' and Osca's old inhabitants, And rough Saticulans, inur'd to wants:
Light demi-lances from afar they throw, Fasten'd with leathern thongs, to gall the foe.
Short crooked swords in closer fight they wear;And on their warding arm light bucklers bear.
Nor Oebalus, shalt thou be left unsung, From nymph Semethis and old Telon sprung, Who then in Teleboan Capri reign'd;But that short isle th' ambitious youth disdain'd, And o'er Campania stretch'd his ample sway, Where swelling Sarnus seeks the Tyrrhene sea;O'er Batulum, and where Abella sees, From her high tow'rs, the harvest of her trees.
And these (as was the Teuton use of old)
Wield brazen swords, and brazen bucklers hold;Sling weighty stones, when from afar they fight;Their casques are cork, a covering thick and light.
Next these in rank, the warlike Ufens went, And led the mountain troops that Nursia sent.
The rude Equicolae his rule obey'd;
Hunting their sport, and plund'ring was their trade.
In arms they plow'd, to battle still prepar'd:
Their soil was barren, and their hearts were hard.
Umbro the priest the proud Marrubians led, By King Archippus sent to Turnus' aid, And peaceful olives crown'd his hoary head.
