How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Book.Line). We used Robert Fitzgerald's translation.
Quote #10
(Pallas):
"Friends, where are you bound? I beg you now
By all the brave things you have done,
The wars fought through, your leader, great Evander,
With my own hopes of emulating him,
Put no faith in retreat. The way ahead
Has to be cleared by cold steel through the enemy.
There where the mass of them is heaviest
Your proud land calls you forward, and calls me,
Pallas, your captain. No unearthly powers
Stand in our way; we are hemmed in by soldiers
Mortal as we are mortal. Just as many
Lives, as many hands, belong to us.
Look, how the deep sea's barrier behind us
Cuts us off: no land there for retreat.
Is it the camp we head for, or the water?" (10.508-522)
Here Pallas reminds his men that sometimes, you've just got to have courage. Of course, these lines come in the middle of a battle, when you're kind of locked in to certain decisions. Do you think the Aeneid treats war itself as inevitable, or just certain actions within war – such as how Pallas instructs his men to save themselves by fighting?