Virgil, Aeneid 6.98-101

talibus ex adyto dictis Cumaea Sibylla
horrendas canit ambages antroque remugit,
obscuris vera involvens: ea frena furenti
concutit et stimulos sub pectore vertit Apollo.

With such words from her sanctuary the Sibyl of Cumae sings her terrifying ambiguities and re-echoes from her cave, wrapping up the truth in obscurity. Apollo agitates her reins as she rages, and turns his spurs beneath her chest.

Virgil, Aeneid 3.570-577

portus ab accessu ventorum immotus et ingens
ipse: sed horrificis iuxta tonat Aetna ruinis,
interdumque atram prorumpit ad aethera nubem
turbine fumantem piceo et candente favilla,
attollitque globos flammarum et sidera lambit;
interdum scopulos avulsaque viscera montis
erigit eructans, liquefactaque saxa sub auras
cum gemitu glomerat fundoque exaestuat imo.

There is a harbour, huge itself and unmoved by the winds’ approach. But next to it Etna thunders with terrifying collapses. At one moment it spews out to the sky a dark cloud smoky with pitch-black tornado and glowing ash; it throws up balls of flame and licks the stars. At the next moment it vomits up high the rocks and the guts of the mountain, and with a groan it presses together molten rock in the air; it boils from its deepest foundation.

Macrobius, Saturnalia 1.20.4-5

nam Apollodorus in libris quibus titulus est περὶ θεῶν scribit quod Aesculapius divinationibus et auguriis praesit. nec mirum: siquidem medicinae atque divinationum consociatae sunt disciplinae. nam medicus vel commoda vel incommoda in corpore futura praenoscit, sicut ait Hippocrates oportere medicum dicere de aegroto τά τε παρεόντα καὶ τὰ προγεγονότα καὶ τὰ μέλλοντα ἔσεσθαι, id est ‘quae sint, quae fuerint, quae mox ventura sequentur’, quod congruit divinationibus quae sciunt τά τ᾽ ἔοντα τά τ᾽ ἐσσόμενα πρό τ᾽ ἐόντα.

Apollodorus writes (in his books whose title is On the Gods) that Aesculapius is in charge of divinations and auguries. And this is not surprising, since the disciplines of medicine and divination are connected; for a doctor knows in advance both the good and bad things which will occur in the body, just as Hippocrates says that a doctor ought to speak, concerning a sick person, of ‘the present things and the things which existed before and the things which shall be’ – that is, ‘What is, what has been, and what soon will come and follow’ – which is in agreement with prophecies, which know ‘What is, what will be, and what was before’.

The two verse quotations are from Virgil (Georgics 4.393 with a slightly different reading) and Homer (Iliad 1.70).

Virgil, Aeneid 6.847-853

Famous lines: Anchises explains the future of Rome to Aeneas.

excudent alii spirantia mollius aera
(credo equidem), vivos ducent de marmore vultus,
orabunt causas melius, caelique meatus
describent radio et surgentia sidera dicent:
tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento
(hae tibi erunt artes), pacique imponere morem,
parcere subiectis et debellare superbos.

Others (I believe it, to be sure) will hammer out bronze which breathes more gently; they will bring living faces out of marble; they will plead cases better and delineate with measuring-rods the movements of the sky and tell of the rising constellations. You, Roman – remember you’ll rule the nations with your power (these will be your skills); and lay law on peace, spare the conquered and subdue the proud.

Virgil, Aeneid 1.67

‘When the Eton masters first started a boat on the river, one of the boys remarked:

gens inimica mihi Tyrrhenum navigat aequor.’

A race of men hostile to me is sailing the Tyrrhenian sea.

– according to Hugh Platt, Byways in the Classics (Oxford 1905), p.46. The line is from Juno’s speech to Aeolus.

Virgil, Aeneid 5.560-562

The Troy Game.

tres equitum numero turmae ternique vagantur
ductores; pueri bis seni quemque secuti
agmine partito fulgent paribusque magistris.

Three in number are the troops of horse, and three leaders range in front. Twice-six boys follow each leader; divided into ranks, each with a commander, they gleam.

Virgil, Georgics 1.100-102

umida solstitia atque hiemes orate serenas,
agricolae: hiberno laetissima pulvere farra,
laetus ager.

Pray for wet summers and fair winters, farmers! The grain is most abundant, the field fertile, with the dust of winter.

Virgil, Aeneid 7.312

While we’re on the subject of dreams, here’s a line quoted by Freud in The Interpretation of Dreams. Juno has been frustrated in her efforts to end the building work on Rome, and utters this grimly chilling line, which Freud applies to suppressed thoughts that find ‘methods and means of forcing [their] way into consciousness’.

flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo.

If I cannot bring round the gods above, I will move the Underworld.

Virgil, Aeneid 4.174-5

fama, malum quo non aliud velocius ullum,
mobilitate viget, viresque acquirit eundo.

No evil thing is more swift than Rumour: it flourishes through its mobility, and amasses strength as it advances. 

Virgil, Georgics 2.458

Following on from yesterday’s less than fortunate farmer, here is Virgil’s hyperbolic assessment of the unrecognised benefits of living in the country.

o fortunatos nimium, sua si bona norint, agricolas!

Oh, how excessively happy farmers would be, if only they were aware of their good fortune!

This line is mentioned in a letter which I serendipitously discovered in the Gentleman’s Journal and Historical Chronicle, on Dr Johnson’s objections to ‘the particle O used at the beginning of a sentence’. A quick Google also leads us to this page which records the inscription of this line on a rustic gate-post!