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Virgil, 'The Aeneid: I, 1-7'

The Aeneid: I, 1-7

War tales and heroes frame my song.
A man -- refugee from Troy --
pushed by fate from Ilium to Italy.
O, but the troubles all he bore, tossed
across seas, and in foreign lands blown
like a leaf on the breath of the gods.
(Cruel Juno's wrath, smoking slow,
here the chief cause.)
And the troubles he bore,
the tests, the tricks, the battles,
that he might raise up a city,
that the gods might live in Italy;
the Latin clan, the seeds of our race,
the mighty walls of Rome.

by Virgil
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Virgil, 'Other people will cast their breathing figures...'

From The Aenid

Other peoples will cast their breathing figures more tenderly in bronze,
Truly, I believe, and draw out of marble more lifelike expressions,
Plead causes better, trace the paths of heaven with wands,
And tell the rising constellations.
But you will rule nations by your strength,
Remember, Roman, these will be your arts:
To pacify, to impose the rule of law,
To spare the defeated, to conquer the proud.

By Virgil, Aeneid

Excudent alii spirantia mollius aera
(credo equidem), vivos ducent de marmore vultus,
orabunt causus melius, caelique meatus
describent radio et surgentia sidera dicent.
Tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento
(hae tibi erunt artes): Pacique imponere morem,
parcere subiectis et debellare superbos.