Book 7
bound by a coiling thong; a shield conceals
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the left side, and they fight with crooked swords.
Nor shalt thou, Oebalus, depart unsung,
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whom minstrels say the nymph Sebethis bore
to Telon, who in Capri was a king
when old and gray; but that disdaining son
quitted so small a seat, and conquering sway
among Sarrastian folk and those wide plains
watered by Sarnus' wave, became a king
over Celenna, Rufrae, Batulum,
and where among her apple-orchards rise
Abella's walls. All these, as Teutons use,
hurl a light javelin; for helm they wear
stripped cork-tree bark; the crescent of their shields
is gleaming bronze, and gleaming bronze the sword.
Next Ufens, mountain-bred, from Nersae came
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to join the war; of goodly fame was he
for prosperous arms: his Aequian people show
no gentle mien, but scour the woods for prey,
or, ever-armed, across the stubborn glebe
compel the plough; though their chief pride and joy
are rapine, violence, and plundered store.
Next after these, his brows and helmet bound
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with noble olive, from Marruvium came
a priest, brave Umbro, ordered to the field
by King Archippus: o'er the viper's brood,
and venomed river-serpents he had power
to scatter slumber with wide-waving hands
and wizard-songs. His potent arts could soothe
their coiling rage and heal the mortal sting:
but 'gainst a Trojan sword no drug had he,
nor could his drowsy spells his flesh repair,
nor gathered simples from the Marsic hills.
Thee soon in wailing woods Anguitia mourned,
thee, Fucinus, the lake of crystal wave,
thee, many a mountain-tarn!
Next, Virbius in martial beauty rode,
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son of Hippolytus, whose mother, proud
Aricia, sent him in his flower of fame
out of Egeria's hills and cloudy groves
