P. Vergilius Maro, Aeneid
Theodore C. Williams, Ed.

Aeneas thus: then with uplifted eyes
Latinus swore, his right hand raised to heaven:
“I too, Aeneas, take the sacred vow.
By earth and sea and stars in heaven I swear,
by fair Latona's radiant children twain,
and two-browed Janus; by the shadowy powers
of Hades and th' inexorable shrines
of the Infernal King; and may Jove hear,
who by his lightnings hallows what is sworn!
I touch these altars, and my lips invoke
the sacred altar-fires that 'twixt us burn:
we men of Italy will make this peace
inviolate, and its bond forever keep,
let come what will; there is no power can change
my purpose, not if ocean's waves o'erwhelm
the world in billowy deluge and obscure
the bounds of heaven and hell. We shall remain
immutable as my smooth sceptre is“
(By chance a sceptre in his hand he bore),
“which wears no more light leaf or branching shade;
for long since in the grove 't was plucked away
from parent stem, and yielded to sharp steel
its leaves and limbs; erewhile 't was but a tree,
till the wise craftsman with fair sheath of bronze
encircled it and laid it in the hands
of Latium's royal sires.” With words like these
they swore the bond, in the beholding eyes
of gathered princes. Then they slit the throats
of hallowed victims o'er the altar's blaze,
drew forth the quivering vitals, and with flesh
on loaded chargers heaped the sacrifice.