Meanwhile the sky begins to be mixed with a great roar,

a rainstorm follows with hail h/b mixed,

and everywhere Tyrian comrades and Trojan youth

and the Dardanian grandson of Venus sought various shelters

through the fields with fear; rivers rush down from the mountains.

Dido and the Trojan leader arrive at the same cave.

First both the Earth and matron of honor Juno

give the signal; lightnings flashed and heaven (was) witness

to the marriage, and nymphs shouted on the highest peak.

First that day was the first source of ruin and of misfortunes;

for Dido neither is moved by appearance or reputation

nor now designs a secret love:

she calls (it) marriage, cloaks (her) guilt with this name.

At once Rumor goes through the great cities of Libya,

Rumor, than which not any other evil (is) more swift:

she thrives with speed and gains energies by moving,

at first small with fear, soon she raises herself into the air(s)

and proceeds on the ground and hides (her) head among the clouds.

Mother Earth, h/b provoked by the anger of (towards) the gods,

as they say, bore that last (one), sister to Coeus and Enceladus,

quick with feet and nimble wings,

a terrible monster, huge, to whom there are as many

feathers on (her) body,

so many watchful eyes beneath (them), marvelous to say,

so many tongues, the same number mouths roar, she raises so many ears.

By night she flies in the middle of heaven and earth through the shade,

hissing, nor droops eyes with sweet sleep;

by day she sits, a guardian, either on the top of the highest roof

or on lofty towers, and she terrifies great cities,

as tenacious a messenger of falsehood and wrong as of truth.

Then this was filling the peoples with manifold gossip,

rejoicing, and was singing fact and fiction equally:

that Aeneas has come, sprung from Trojan blood,

to which man beautiful Dido deigns to join herself;

that now they cherish among themselves through the winter with luxury, as long as it is,

forgetful of the kingdoms and (h/b) seized by shameful desire.

The filthy goddess spreads these (words) everywhere into the mouths of men.

Immediately she turns (her) course to king Iarbas

and inflames (his) mind with words and increases (his) angers.

He, (h/b) begotten from Hammon by a Garamantian nymph h/b raped,

placed a hundred huge temples of Jupiter in wide kingdoms,

a hundred altars, and had consecrated a watchful fire,

eternal sentinels of the gods, and soil rich with the blood of animals

and thresholds blooming with varied garlands.

And he, mad of mind and (h/b) inflamed by bitter rumor

is said, before the altars, in the midst among the divinities of the gods,

to have beseeched Jupiter much with upturned hands, (as) a suppliant:

“Almighty Jupiter, to whom now the Moorish race, having feasted

on h/b embroidered couches, pours a Bacchic offering,

do you behold these? Or, father, when you hurl thunderbolts,

do we dread you in vain, and blind lightnings in the clouds

frighten (our) souls and mix empty rumbles?

The woman who, wandering in our borders,

built a small city at a price, to whom we gave a shore to plow

and to whom (we gave) the laws of the place, has rejected our nuptials

and has received Aeneas, as a master, into her kingdoms.

And now that Paris, with an effeminate retinue,

h/b tied with a Maeonian cap under (his) chin and reeking hair,

possesses the plunder: indeed we bring gifts

to your temples and cherish an empty reputation.