Aeneid Book 4, lines 393 - 411

The Trojans prepare to set sail from Carthage

by Virgil

Aeneas and his men obey the will of the Gods by preparing to leave Carthage: abandoned, Dido watches from the citadel. The contrast between the sadness of the opening and conclusion and the liveliness of the preparations in between is very effective. The description of the ants is a good example of Virgil’s flair for describing the animal world: they may be small, but the way in which he uses the metre strikingly conveys their seriousness and bustle.

See the illustrated blog post here.

To follow the story of Aeneas in sequence, use this link to the full Pantheon Poets selection of extracts from the Aeneid. See the next episode here.

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At pius Aeneas, quamquam lenire dolentem
solando cupit et dictis avertere curas,
multa gemens magnoque animum labefactus amore
iussa tamen divum exsequitur classemque revisit.
tum vero Teucri incumbunt et litore celsas
deducunt toto navis. natat uncta carina,
frondentisque ferunt remos et robora silvis
infabricata fugae studio.
migrantis cernas totaque ex urbe ruentis:
ac velut ingentem formicae farris acervum
cum populant hiemis memores tectoque reponunt,
it nigrum campis agmen praedamque per herbas
convectant calle angusto; pars grandia trudunt
obnixae frumenta umeris, pars agmina cogunt
castigantque moras, opere omnis semita fervet.
quis tibi tum, Dido, cernenti talia sensus,
quosve dabas gemitus, cum litora fervere late
prospiceres arce ex summa, totumque videres
misceri ante oculos tantis clamoribus aequor!

Though pious Aeneas would like to console her in her
grief and allay her cares with words, he follows the orders
of the Gods and returns to the fleet, lamenting, his mind distraught with his great love. Then the Trojans truly set to, and haul the high ships down across the entire shore. Painted with pitch, the keel
is afloat, in their haste to get away, the men bring oars with leaf still on them and unworked timbers from the woods. You could see them on the move, pouring out of the city on all sides, like ants, when, thinking of winter, they plunder a huge pile of grain and bring it to their nest, the black column marches through the grass of the fields, carrying their booty on the narrow path; some, shoulders set to big grains, push them on, some drive the column and chide delays, and the whole path seethes with effort. What did you feel then, Dido, seeing such sights, what cries of distress did you give as you looked out from your high citadel over the ferment wide across the shore, and saw the whole of the sea churned by such a stir!

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More Poems by Virgil

  1. The death of Priam
  2. Juno is reconciled
  3. Anchises’s ghost invites Aeneas to visit the underworld
  4. Sea-nymphs
  5. Aeneas prepares to tell Dido his story
  6. More from Virgil’s farming Utopia
  7. Jupiter’s prophecy
  8. The portals of sleep
  9. How Aeneas will know the site of his city
  10. Turnus is lured away from battle
  11. Aeneas and Dido meet
  12. The journey to Hades begins
  13. Dido and Aeneas: royal hunt and royal affair
  14. Mourning for Pallas
  15. Fire strikes Aeneas’s fleet
  16. The natural history of bees
  17. The infant Camilla
  18. The Fury Allecto blows the alarm
  19. Storm at sea!
  20. Aeneas is wounded
  21. The death of Euryalus and Nisus
  22. Help for Father Aeneas from Father Tiber
  23. Laocoon warns against the Trojan horse
  24. Cassandra is taken
  25. The death of Dido.
  26. Virgil predicts a forthcoming birth and a new golden age
  27. Virgil’s perils on the sea
  28. Into battle
  29. Aeneas’s oath
  30. New allies for Aeneas
  31. Palinurus the helmsman is lost
  32. King Latinus grants the Trojans’ request
  33. Laocoon and the snakes
  34. King Mezentius meets his match
  35. Turnus the wolf
  36. Aeneas’s vision of Augustus
  37. Catastrophe for Rome?
  38. Souls awaiting punishment in Tartarus, and the crimes that brought them there.
  39. Turnus at bay
  40. What is this wooden horse?
  41. The death of Pallas
  42. Aeneas tours the site of Rome
  43. Rites for the allies’ dead
  44. Rumour
  45. Virgil’s poetic temple to Caesar
  46. The farmer’s happy lot
  47. Hector visits Aeneas in a dream
  48. Aeneas learns the way to the underworld
  49. Aeneas saves his son and father, but at a cost
  50. The Harpy’s prophecy
  51. Aeneas arrives in Italy
  52. Aeneas finds Dido among the shades
  53. Love is the same for all
  54. Dido falls in love
  55. Omens for Princess Lavinia
  56. Dido’s story
  57. Dido and Aeneas: Hell hath no fury …
  58. The Trojan Horse enters the city
  59. The Aeneid begins
  60. Aeneas prepares for a hopeless fight
  61. Vulcan’s forge
  62. Aristaeus’s bees
  63. Juno’s anger
  64. Charon, the ferryman
  65. The Trojan horse opens
  66. Signs of bad weather
  67. Aeneas sees Marcellus, Augustus’s tragic heir
  68. In King Latinus’s hall
  69. Juno throws open the gates of war
  70. A Fury rouses Turnus to war
  71. Aeneas’s ships are transformed
  72. Aeneas reaches the Elysian Fields
  73. Aeneas rescues his Father Anchises
  74. Mercury’s journey to Carthage
  75. Aeneas joins the fray
  76. Virgil begins the Georgics
  77. The farmer’s starry calendar
  78. Aeneas comes to the Hell of Tartarus
  79. The Trojans reach Carthage
  80. The Syrian hostess
  81. Dido’s release
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