503But the trumpet blared a terrible sound from afar with its ringing bronze; 504a shout follows and the sky bellows back. 505The Volsci hurry forward, their tortoise of shields advancing in line, and prepare to fill the ditches and tear down the rampart. 507Some seek a way in and to scale the walls with ladders, where the line is thin and the ring of men shows gaps, not so densely packed. 509Against them the Teucrians pour every kind of weapon and push them down with stout poles, used to defending walls in a long war. 512They were rolling stones too, of deadly weight, in case they could break through the covered line: yet beneath the dense tortoise they gladly bear every blow; 515but now they do not hold out.
515For where the great mass threatens, the Teucrians roll and tumble a huge block, which laid the Rutulians low far and wide and broke apart their covering of armour. 518Nor do the bold Rutulians care any longer to fight in blind warfare, but strive to drive them from the rampart with missiles. 521In another quarter, dreadful to see, Mezentius was brandishing an Etruscan pine and brings smoking fires; 523but Messapus, tamer of horses, offspring of Neptune, tears down the rampart and calls for ladders to the walls.