Aeneid, lines 16--43

Virgil's Aeneid (David Ferry's translation)

There was an ancient city known as Carthage
(Settled by men from Tyre), across the sea
And opposite to Italy and the mouth
Of the Tiber river; very rich, and fierce,
Experienced in warfare. Juno, they say,
Loved Carthage more than any other place
In the whole wide world, more even than Samos.
Here's where she kept her chariot and her armor.
It was her fierce desire, if fate permitted,
That Carthage should be chief city of the world.
But she had heard that there would come a people,
Engendered of Trojan blood, who would someday
Throw down the Tyrian citadel, a people
Proud in warfare, rulers of many realms,
Destined to bring down Libya. Thus it was
That the Parcae's turning wheel foretold the story.

Fearful of this and remembering the old
War she had waged at Troy for her dear Greeks,
And remembering too her sorrow and her rage
Because of Paris's insult to her beauty,
Remembering her hatred of his people,
And the honors paid to ravished Ganymede---
For all these causes her purpose was to keep
The Trojan remnant who'd survived the Greeks
And pitiless Achilles far from Latium,
On turbulent waters wandering, year after year,
Driven by fates across the many seas.

So formidable the task of founding Rome.

(Goto 1--15)