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.

To listen, press play:

To scroll the original and English translation of the poem at the same time - tap inside one box to select it and then scroll.

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!

`

More Poems by Virgil

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