The battle for Priam’s palace

“Limen erat caecaeque fores et pervius usus
tectorum inter se Priami, postesque relicti
a tergo, infelix qua se, dum regna manebant,
saepius Andromache ferre incomitata solebat
ad soceros, et avo puerum Astyanacta trahebat.
evado ad summi fastigia culminis, unde
tela manu miseri iactabant inrita Teucri.
turrim in praecipiti stantem summisque sub astra
eductam tectis, unde omnis Troia videri
et Danaum solitae naves et Achaia castra,
adgressi ferro circum, qua summa labantis
iuncturas tabulata dabant, convellimus altis
sedibus, impulimusque; ea lapsa repente ruinam
cum sonitu trahit et Danaum super agmina late
incidit: ast alii subeunt, nec saxa, nec ullum
telorum interea cessat genus.
vestibulum ante ipsum primoque in limine Pyrrhus
exsultat, telis et luce coruscus aëna;
qualis ubi in lucem coluber mala gramina pastus
frigida sub terra tumidum quem bruma tegebat,
nunc, positis novus exuviis nitidusque iuventa,
lubrica convolvit sublato pectore terga
arduus ad solem, et linguis micat ore trisulcis.
una ingens Periphas et equorum agitator Achillis,
armiger Automedon, una omnis Scyria pubes
succedunt tecto, et flammas ad culmina iactant.
ipse inter primos correpta dura bipenni
limina perrumpit, postisque a cardine vellit
aeratos; iamque excisa trabe firma cavavit
robora, et ingentem lato dedit ore fenestram.
adparet domus intus, et atria longa patescunt;
adparent Priami et veterum penetralia regum,
armatosque vident stantis in limine primo.
at domus interior gemitu miseroque tumultu
miscetur, penitusque cavae plangoribus aedes
femineis ululant; ferit aurea sidera clamor.
tum pavidae tectis matres ingentibus errant;
amplexaeque tenent postis atque oscula figunt.
instat vi patria Pyrrhus; nec claustra, neque ipsi
custodes sufferre valent; labat ariete crebro
ianua, et emoti procumbunt cardine postes.
fit via vi; rumpunt aditus, primosque trucidant
immissi Danai, et late loca milite complent.
non sic, aggeribus ruptis cum spumeus amnis
exiit, oppositasque evicit gurgite moles,
fertur in arva furens cumulo, camposque per omnis
cum stabulis armenta trahit. vidi ipse furentem
caede Neoptolemum geminosque in limine Atridas;
vidi Hecubam centumque nurus, Priamumque per aras
sanguine foedantem, quos ipse sacraverat, ignis.
quinquaginta illi thalami, spes tanta nepotum,
barbarico postes auro spoliisque superbi,
procubuere; tenent Danai, qua deficit ignis.”

There was a gate, a secret way at the back, giving access through the rooms of Priam’s palace, by which poor Andromache, while the kingdom stood, used often to go alone to her parents-in-law, taking little Astyanax to his grandfather. I climb to the top of the highest roof, where beleaguered Trojans were vainly casting down missiles. A turret stood right on the edge, towering to the stars, whence all of Troy, the Greek ships and their camp used to be visible: this we went round with our blades where the top storeys offered weak joints, hacked away from its ancient footings, and hurled down. Falling suddenly, it brought destruction with a crash, striking a broad swathe of the Greek force. But others took their place, while the rain of stones and missiles of all kinds continued. On the very threshold of the forecourt Pyrrhus springs up, flashing in arms and the sheen of bronze, like a snake, which frost and cold had kept underground, gorged with poison herbs on which it had fed; and now, its old skin shed, comes fresh and shining with youth into the light, rears up its breast,wreathes its slippery back straight up towards the sun and flickers its mouth with treble tongue. With that, mighty Periphas, and Automedon, Achilles’ charioteer and arms-bearer, and with them the whole of the force from Scyros, reach the house and hurl fire onto the top. Pyrrhus, in front, seizes an axe, breaks through the stout doors and hews the bronze-clad posts from their hinges; now, having hacked away the lintel, he caved in the timbers, creating a great window on the interior by that broad breach. Through it appears the inner palace, and the long halls are revealed; the private apartments of Priam and the kings of old appear, and they see armed men standing at the threshold. The house within is in chaos and pitiful uproar: all the lofty halls ring with women’s shrieks and the din strikes up to the golden stars. Terrified women wander the great building, and hug and kiss the posts of the doors. With his father, Achilles’, prowess, Pyrrhus presses on: neither barriers nor their defenders can withstand him. The door falls under a hail of blows from the ram and the posts, freed from their hinges, crash down. A way yields to violence; the Greeks burst in, cut down the first defenders, and fill the wide space with soldiery. It is worse than when a foaming river has overflowed its bursting banks, overwhelmed with its torrent whatever mass stands in its way, is borne onto the land with all that it has heaped up, and carries the herds, byres and all, away over the fields. I myself saw Pyrrhus, mad with blood, and the two Atreides at the threshold; I saw Hecuba and her hundred daughters, and Priam, profaning upon the altars with his blood the sacred fires that he himself had consecrated. Those fifty nuptial bedchambers, with the great hope that they gave of descendants, and their doors, splendid with trophies and exotic guilding, had fallen: whatever fire had not reached, the Greeks now hold.