§2.155Adde tot egregias urbes operumque laborem, §2.156tot congesta manu praeruptis oppida saxis §2.157fluminaque antiquos subter labentia muros.
Add so many noble cities and the labor of works, so many towns piled by hand on steep rocks, and rivers gliding beneath ancient walls.
§2.158An mare, quod supra, memorem, quodque adluit infra §2.159anne lacus tantos? Te, Lari maxume, teque, §2.160fluctibus et fremitu adsurgens Benace marino
Or should I mention the sea, that which washes it above, and that which washes it below, or lakes so great? You, greatest Larius, and you, Benacus, rising with the waves and roar of the sea?
§2.161an memorem portus Lucrinoque addita claustra §2.162atque indignatum magnis stridoribus aequor §2.163Iulia qua ponto longe sonat unda refuso §2.164Tyrrhenusque fretis inmittitur aestus Avernis?
Or should I mention the ports and the barriers added to Lucrinus, and the sea chafing with mighty rumbles where the Julian wave sounds far as the sea is poured back, and the Tyrrhenian tide is let into the Avernian channels?
This same land has shown streams of silver and mines of copper in its veins, and has flowed most rich in gold.
§2.167Haec genus acre virum, Marsos pubemque Sabellam §2.168adsuetumque malo Ligurem Volscosque verutos §2.169extulit, haec Decios, Marios, magnosque Camillos, §2.170Scipiadas duros bello et te, maxume Caesar, §2.171qui nunc extremis Asiae iam victor in oris §2.172inbellem avertis Romanis arcibus Indum.
This land has brought forth a fierce race of men, the Marsi and the Sabellian youth, and the Ligurian accustomed to hardship, and the spear-bearing Volsci; this land has reared the Decii, the Marii, and the great Camilli, the Scipios hardy in war, and you, greatest Caesar, who now, already victorious in the furthest borders of Asia, are turning away the warless Indian from the Roman citadels.
§2.173Salve, magna parens frugum, Saturnia tellus, §2.174magna virum; tibi res antiquae laudis et artem §2.175ingredior, sanctos ausus recludere fontis, §2.176Ascraeumque cano Romana per oppida carmen.
Hail, great mother of crops, land of Saturn, great mother of men; for you I enter upon themes of ancient praise and art, daring to unseal the sacred fountains, and I sing the Ascraean song through Roman towns.
§2.177Nunc locus arvorum ingeniis: quae robora cuique, §2.178quis color et quae sit rebus natura ferendis.
Now is the place for the characters of soils: what strength is to each, what color, and what is its nature for bearing things.
§2.179Difficiles primum terrae collesque maligni, §2.180tenuis ubi argilla et dumosis calculus arvis, §2.181Palladia gaudent silva vivacis olivae.
First, stubborn soils and unkindly hills, where there is thin clay and gravel in the thorny fields, rejoice in the Palladian grove of the long-lived olive.
The proof is the wild olive springing up abundantly in the same tract, and the fields strewn with wild berries.
§2.184At quae pinguis humus dulcique uligine laeta, §2.185quique frequens herbis et fertilis ubere campus— §2.186qualem saepe cava montis convalle solemus §2.187despicere; huc summis liquuntur rupibus amnes §2.188felicemque trahunt limum—quique editus austro §2.189et filicem curvis invisam pascit aratris: §2.190hic tibi praevalidas olim multoque fluentis §2.191sufficiet Baccho vitis, hic fertilis uvae, §2.192hic laticis, qualem pateris libamus et auro, §2.193inflavit cum pinguis ebur Tyrrhenus ad aras, §2.194lancibus et pandis fumantia reddimus exta.
But the soil which is rich and glad with sweet moisture, and the plain which is crowded with grass and fertile in productiveness— such as we are often wont to look down upon in the hollow valley of a mountain; hither streams glide down from the topmost rocks, and bring down fruitful silt—and the plain which rises to the south, and feeds the fern detested by curved ploughs: this will supply you one day with most vigorous vines, flowing with much wine, this will be fertile in grapes, this in such juice as we pour in libation from bowls of gold, when the fat Tuscan has blown his ivory pipe at the altars, and we offer steaming entrails in curved platters.
§2.195Sin armenta magis studium vitulosque tueri §2.196aut ovium fetum aut urentis culta capellas, §2.197saltus et saturi petito longinqua Tarenti §2.198et qualem infelix amisit Mantua campum, §2.199pascentem niveos herboso flumine cycnos; §2.200non liquidi gregibus fontes, non gramina deerunt; §2.201et, quantum longis carpent armenta diebus, §2.202exigua tantum gelidus ros nocte reponet.
But if your desire is rather to keep herds and calves, or the offspring of sheep, or she-goats that wither the crops, seek the glades and distant fields of rich Tarentum, and such a plain as unhappy Mantua lost, feeding snowy swans on its grassy river; neither clear springs nor grass will fail the herds; and as much as the herds crop in the long days, the cold dew will restore in the short night.
§2.203Nigra fere et presso pinguis sub vomere terra §2.204et cui putre solum,—namque hoc imitamur arando— §2.205optima frumentis; non ullo ex aequore cernes §2.206plura domum tardis decedere plaustra iuvencis; §2.207aut unde iratus silvam devexit arator §2.208et nemora evertit multos ignava per annos §2.209antiquasque domos avium cum stirpibus imis §2.210eruit; illae altum nidis petiere relictis, §2.211at rudis enituit inpulso vomere campus.
Soil that is mostly black, and rich under the pressed ploughshare, and that which has a crumbling soil (for this we imitate by ploughing)— is best for grain; from no other plain will you see more wagons returning home drawn by slow oxen; or that land from which the angry husbandman has cleared the wood and overturned groves that lay idle for many years, and torn up the ancient homes of birds from their deepest roots; they have sought the high air, leaving their nests, but the wild plain has shone bright under the driven ploughshare.
§2.212Nam ieiuna quidem clivosi glarea ruris §2.213vix humilis apibus casias roremque ministrat; §2.214et tophus scaber et nigris exesa chelydris §2.215creta negant alios aeque serpentibus agros §2.216dulcem ferre cibum et curvas praebere latebras.
For the hungry gravel of a hilly countryside scarcely supplies humble spurge-laurel and rosemary for the bees; and rough tufa and chalk eaten out by black water-snakes deny that any other lands equally bear sweet food and afford winding retreats for serpents.
§2.217Quae tenuem exhalat nebulam fumosque volucris §2.218et bibit humorem et, cum volt, ex se ipsa remittit §2.219quaeque suo semper viridi se gramine vestit §2.220nec scabie et salsa laedit robigine ferrum: §2.221illa tibi laetis intexet vitibus ulmos, §2.222illa ferax oleo est, illam experiere colendo §2.223et facilem pecori et patientem vomeris unci.
The land which breathes out thin mist and fleeting smoke, and drinks in moisture and, when it wishes, releases it from itself, and which always clothes itself with its own green grass, and does not harm the iron with scale and salty rust: that will weave your elms with joyful vines, that is fertile in oil, that you will find by cultivating to be both gentle to the cattle and patient of the curved ploughshare.
Such is the land rich Capua ploughs, and the coast near to the Vesuvian ridge, and the Clanius not fair to empty Acerrae.
§2.226Nunc, quo quamque modo possis cognoscere, dicam.
Now, in what manner you may know each, I will tell.
§2.227Rara sit an supra morem si densa requires— §2.228altera frumentis quoniam favet, altera Baccho, §2.229densa magis Cereri, rarissima quaeque Lyaeo— §2.230ante locum capies oculis alteque iubebis §2.231in solido puteum demitti omnemque repones §2.232rursus humum et pedibus summas aequabis harenas.
If you ask whether it is thin or unusually dense— since the one favors grain, the other Bacchus, the dense more to Ceres, the thinnest to Lyaeus— first you shall choose a spot with your eyes, and order a pit to be sunk deep in the solid ground, and you shall put back all the earth again and even the surface of the sand with your feet.