Aeneid 7.691–704

691But Messapus, tamer of horses, offspring of Neptune, whom no one may lay low with fire or steel, suddenly calls to arms peoples long inactive and columns unused to war, and handles the sword again. 695These hold the Fescennine ranks and the Aequi Falisci. 696These hold the heights of Soracte, and the Flavinian fields, and the lake and mountain of Ciminus, and the groves of Capena. 698They marched in even ranks and sang of their king, as at times snow-white swans among the clear clouds, when they return from feeding and give out tuneful notes through their long necks; the river sounds, and the Asian marsh, struck far off. 703Nor would anyone think that bronze-armed ranks were being massed from so great a host, but that from the deep sea an airy