Aen. 5.575Excipiunt plausū pavidōs, gaudentque tuentēs
Dardanidae, veterumque adgnōscunt ōra parentum.The Dardanians receive the nervous boys with applause, and rejoice at the sight, and recognise the faces of their ancestors. Aen. 5.577Postquam omnem laetī cōnsessum oculōsque suōrum
lūstrāvēre in equīs, signum clamōre parātīs
Epytidēs longē dedit īnsonuitque flagellō.After they had ridden happily round the whole gathering before the eyes of their families, Epytides from far off gave the signal with a shout to them as they stood ready and cracked his whip. Aen. 5.580Ollī discurrēre parēs, atque agmina ternī
dīductīs solvēre chorīs, rūrsusque vocātī
convertēre viās īnfestaque tēla tulēre.They galloped apart in equal numbers, and in threes broke up their columns, dividing the bands, and, called back again, wheeled round and bore their weapons levelled. Aen. 5.583Inde aliōs ineunt cursūs aliōsque recursūs
adversī spatiīs, alternōsque orbibus orbēs
585impediunt, pugnaeque cient simulācra sub armīs;Then they enter other runs and other counter-runs, facing each other across the space, and interweave circles with alternate circles, and in arms call up mock images of battle; Aen. 5.586et nunc terga fugā nūdant, nunc spīcula vertunt
īnfēnsī, factā pariter nunc pāce feruntur.and now they bare their backs in flight, now turn their spears in hostility, now, peace made, ride along side by side.
Aen. 5.588Ut quondam Crētā fertur Labyrinthus in altā
parietibus textum caecīs iter, ancipitemque
590mīlle viīs habuisse dolum, quā signa sequendī
falleret indēprēnsus et inremeābilis error;As once in lofty Crete, they say, the Labyrinth held a path woven between blind walls and a baffling deceit of a thousand ways, where the wandering, undetectable and irretraceable, would defeat the clues for following; Aen. 5.592haud aliō Teucrum nātī vestīgia cursū
impediunt texuntque fugās et proelia lūdō,
delphīnum similēs, quī per maria ūmida nandō
595Carpathium Libycumque secant,
Hunc mōrem cursūs atque haec certāmina prīmus
Ascanius, Longam mūrīs cum cingeret Albam,
rettulit, et prīscōs docuit celebrāre Latīnōs,
quō puer ipse modō, sēcum quō Trōïa pūbēs;in no other course do the sons of the Trojans entangle their tracks and weave flights and battles in play, like dolphins which, swimming through the wet seas, cut the Carpathian and Libyan waters. This custom of riding and these contests Ascanius first revived, when he was ringing Alba Longa with walls, and taught the early Latins to celebrate them, in the way he himself as a boy, in the way the Trojan youth with him had done; Aen. 5.600Albānī docuēre suōs;the Albans taught their own sons; Aen. 5.600hinc maxima porrō
accēpit Rōma, et patrium servāvit honōrem;from them in turn mighty Rome received it and preserved the ancestral rite; Aen. 5.602Troiaque nunc puerī, Trōiānum dīcitur agmen.and now the boys are called Troy, the troop Trojan.
Aen. 5.603Hāc celebrāta tenus sānctō certāmina patrī.So far were the games celebrated in honour of the holy father.