Book XII

portents sent from Jupiter, And their own valor, labored to break through The massive rampart of the Greeks: they tore The galleries from the towers, and levelled down The breastworks, heaved with levers from their place The jutting buttresses which Argive hands Had firmly planted to support the towers, And brought them to the ground; and thus they hoped To force a passage to the Grecian camp. Not yet did they of Greece give way: they fenced The rampart with their ox-hide shields, and smote The enemy from behind them as he came Under the wall. The chieftains Ajax flew From tower to tower, and cheered the Achaians on, And roused their valor⁠—some with gentle words, And some with harsh rebuke⁠—whome’er they saw Skulk from the toils and dangers of the fight. “O friends!” they said, “ye great in war, and ye Of less renown, and ye of little note!⁠— For all are not alike in war⁠—the time Demands the aid of all, as well ye know: And now let no man turn him toward the fleet Before the threats of Hector, but press on, And each exhort his fellow: so may Jove, Who flings the lightning from Olympus, grant That, driving back their onset, we may chase The enemy to the very walls of Troy.”