And sent to roam the air, with dappled plumage gay.

XXVI. Such is the temple, in whose sacred dome
Latinus waits the Teucrians on his throne,
And kindly thus accosts them as they come:
'Speak, Dardans,--for the Dardan name ye own;
Nor strange your race and city, nor unknown
Sail ye the plains of Ocean--tell me now,
What seek ye? By the tempest tost, or blown
At random, needful of what help and how
Came ye to Latin shores the dark-blue deep to plough?

XXVII. "But, whether wandering from your course, or cast
By storms--such ills as oft-times on the main
O'ertake poor mariners--your ships at last
Our stream have entered, and the port attain.
Shun not a welcome, nor our cheer disdain.
For dear to Saturn, whom our sires adored,
Was Latium. Manners, not the laws, constrain
To justice. Freely, of our own accord,
We mind the golden age, and virtues of our lord.

XXVIII. "Now, I remember, old Auruncans told
(Age dims, but memory can the tale retrace)
How, born in Latium, Dardanus of old
Went forth to northern Samos, styled of Thrace,
And reached the towns at Phrygian Ida's base.
From Tuscan Corythus in days gone by
He went, and now among the stars hath place,
Throned in the golden palace of the sky.