Book 9
th' Italic shaft of cornel lightly flew
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along the yielding air, and through his throat
pierced deep into the breast; a gaping wound
gushed blood; the hot shaft to his bosom clung.
Then Erymas and Merops his strong hand
laid low: Aphidnus next, then came the turn
of Bitias, fiery-hearted, furious-eyed:
but not by javelin,—such cannot fall
by flying javelin,—the ponderous beam
of a phalaric spear, with mighty roar,
like thunderbolt upon him fell; such shock
neither the bull's-hides of his double shield
nor twofold corselet's golden scales could stay
but all his towering frame in ruin fell.
Earth groaned, and o'er him rang his ample shield.
so crashes down from Baiae's storied shore
a rock-built mole, whose mighty masonry,
piled up with care, men cast into the sea;
it trails its wreckage far, and fathoms down
lies broken in the shallows, while the waves
whirl every way, and showers of black sand
are scattered on the air: with thunder-sound
steep Prochyta is shaken, and that bed
of cruel stone, Inarime, which lies
heaped o'er Typhoeus by revenge of Jove.
Now to the Latins Mars, the lord of war,
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gave might and valor, and to their wild hearts
his spur applied, but on the Teucrians breathed
dark fear and flight. From every quarter came
auxiliar hosts, where'er the conflict called,
and in each bosom pulsed the god of war.
When Pandarus now saw his brother's corse
low Iying, and which way the chance and tide
of battle ran, he violently moved
the swinging hinges of the gate, and strained
with both his shoulders broad. He shut outside
not few of his own people, left exposed
in fiercest fight but others with himself
he barred inside and saved them as they fled;
nor noted, madman, how the Rutule King
