Page:Aeneid (Conington 1866).djvu/161

Acestes' name and rumour wide
Have summoned all the country-side:
They crowd the coast through breadth and length,
To see the feats of Trojan strength,
And some their own to try.
There in the midst the gifts are seen,
Rich tripods, meet for sacrifice,
And garlands of luxuriant green,
And sprays of palm, the conqueror's prize,
With arms, and purple robes of state,
And gold and silver, talent-weight:
And from a mound the trump proclaims
The festal onset of the games.

First for the naval prize compete
Four ships, the flower of all the fleet:
With stroke of oarsmen swift and strong
Brave Mnestheus speeds his Shark along,
Mnestheus, one day Ausonia's grace,
The founder of the Memmian race.
Chimæra moves in Gyas' charge,
Huge bulk, a city scarce so large,
With Dardan rowers in triple bank,
The tiers ascending rank o'er rank:
Sergestus, whence the Sergian name,
Commands the Centaur's mighty frame:
While Scylla is Cloanthus' care:
Cluentius his Italian heir.
Far in the sea a rock there lies,
And fronts the spray-beat coast:
High o'er its top the billows rise
And whelm it deep, what time the skies
In wintry storms are lost:
When wind and wave are laid to sleep,
It stands above the moveless deep,