The just Faliscans he to battle brings, And those who live where Lake Ciminia springs;And where Feronia's grove and temple stands, Who till Fescennian or Flavinian lands.
All these in order march, and marching sing The warlike actions of their sea-born king;Like a long team of snowy swans on high, Which clap their wings, and cleave the liquid sky, When, homeward from their wat'ry pastures borne, They sing, and Asia's lakes their notes return.
Not one who heard their music from afar, Would think these troops an army train'd to war, But flocks of fowl, that, when the tempests roar, With their hoarse gabbling seek the silent shore.
Then Clausus came, who led a num'rous band Of troops embodied from the Sabine land, And, in himself alone, an army brought.
'T was he, the noble Claudian race begot, The Claudian race, ordain'd, in times to come, To share the greatness of imperial Rome.
He led the Cures forth, of old renown, Mutuscans from their olive-bearing town, And all th' Eretian pow'rs; besides a band That follow'd from Velinum's dewy land, And Amiternian troops, of mighty fame, And mountaineers, that from Severus came, And from the craggy cliffs of Tetrica, And those where yellow Tiber takes his way, And where Himella's wanton waters play.
Casperia sends her arms, with those that lie By Fabaris, and fruitful Foruli:
The warlike aids of Horta next appear, And the cold Nursians come to close the rear, Mix'd with the natives born of Latine blood, Whom Allia washes with her fatal flood.
Not thicker billows beat the Libyan main, When pale Orion sets in wintry rain;Nor thicker harvests on rich Hermus rise, Or Lycian fields, when Phoebus burns the skies, Than stand these troops: their bucklers ring around;Their trampling turns the turf, and shakes the solid ground.