A source-book of ancient history - The Search For Mecca

—
474 The Founding of the Principate
His heirs.
Tacitus,
Annals, i. 3.
cellus, his sister's son, while a mere stripUng, and he gave
two consecutive consulships to Marcus Agrippa, of humble
birth but a good soldier, and one who had shared his victory.
Marcellus soon afterward died. [In his memory
Vergil inserted in the Jineid some beautiful lines, representing
JEnesiS conversing with Anchises about the spirit
of Marcellus in the realm of Hades.]
Marcellus.
(The "hero"
here mentioned
is the
famous Marcellus
of the
Second
Punic War;
Rome, 112;
A ncient
World, 326.)
Vergil,
jEneid, vi.
860-86.
(What
lamentations
of mourners
shall the
Campus
Martius
the burial
place—send
forth to
Rome, the
mighty city
of Mars!)
^neas . . . noticed
Walking a youth, superb in his figure and glittering armor;
But his brow was uncheered, and his eyes were dejected in aspect.
"Who, my father, is he who attends on the hero in going?
Is he his son, or some one of his noble line of descendants?
What an array of attendants about him! what majesty in him!
But dark night flits round his head with sorrowful shadows."
Then did his father Anchises proceed, while the tears were up-welling:
"O my begotten, inquire not the exquisite grief of thy kindred:
Him shall the fates just show to the world, and no longer permit him
Here to remain; too mighty to you had the Roman succession
Seemed, ye Supernals, if gifts so peculiar had lasted forever.
What lamentations of heroes shall yon plain post to the mighty
City of Mavors! Or, Tiber, what pageants of mourning shalt thou,
too.
Witness ere long, as thou close by the new made sepulchre glidest!
No such a youth from the Ilian nation shall ever his Latin
Ancestors lift to so heightened a hope, nor shall ever hereafter
Romulus' land boast over another so cherished a darling!
Ah! for thy piety! Ah! for the pristine faith, and the right hand
Dauntless in war! with impunity none could have dared to attack him,
Meeting him when he was armed or with infantry charging on foemen,
Or when digging his spurs in the flanks of his leathery warhorse.
Ah! lamentable boy! if ever thou burstest thy hard fate.
Thou shalt become a MARCELLUS! bring liHes in plentiful handfuls;
I will the flowers purpureal strew, and the soul of mine offspring
Load with the presents at least, and will render if only an empty
Service"