Now had Aeneas, as ordain’d by fate,
Survived the period of Saturnia’s hate,
And, by a sure irrevocable doom,
Fix’d the immortal majesty of Rome,
Fit for the station of his kindred stars,
His mother goddess thus her suit prefers:
“Almighty arbiter, whose powerful nod
Shakes distant earth, and bows our own abode;
To thy great progeny indulgent be,
And rank the goddess-born a deity.
Already has he view’d, with mortal eyes,
Thy brother’s kingdoms of the nether skies.”
Forthwith a conclave of the godhead meets,
Where Juno in the shining senate sits.
Remorse for past revenge the goddess feels;
Then thundering Jove the almighty mandate seals;
Allots the prince of his celestial line
An apotheosis, and rites divine.
The crystal mansions echo with applause,
And, with her Graces, love’s bright queen withdraws,
Shoots in a blaze of light along the skies,
And, born by turtles, to Laurentum flies:
Alights, where through the reeds Numicius strays,
And to the seas his watery tribute pays.
The god she supplicates to wash away
The parts more gross and subject to decay,
And cleanse the goddess-born from radical allay.
The horned flood with glad attention stands,
Then bids his streams obey their sire’s commands.
His better parts by lustral waves refined,
More pure, and nearer to ethereal mind,
With gums of fragrant scent the goddess strews,
And on his features breathes ambrosial dews.
Thus deified, new honours Rome decrees,
Shrines, festivals; and styles him Indiges.
Ascanius now the Latian sceptre sways;
The Alban nation, Sylvius, next obeys.
Then young Latinus; next an Alba came,
The grace and guardian of the Alban name.
Then Epitus; then gentle Capys reign’d;
Then Capetis the regal power sustain’d.
Next he who perish’d on the Tuscan flood,
And honour’d with his name the river god.
Now haughty Remulus began his reign,
Who fell by thunder he aspired to feign.
Meek Acrota succeeded to the crown;
From peace endeavouring, more than arms, renown,
To Aventinus well resign’d his throne.
The mount, on which he ruled, preserves his name,
And Procas wore the regal diadem.