Two bulls begin to encounter furiously and inflict
Many gashes, until their bodies are dark with blood;
Their horns confront, lock with a crash and take the strain.
The forests and far-reaching skies roar back at them.
Tlli alternantes multa vi proelia miscent
vulneribus crebris, lavit ater corpora sanguis,
versaque in obnixos urEentur cornua vasto
cum gemitu, reboant silvaeque et longus Olympus.
Virgil, Georgics, Book III, lines 220-223, trans. C. Day Lewis. The Eclogues and Georgics of Virgil, Doubleday, New York, 1964.
PLACE: Italy
TIME: During Virgil's time (ca. 70 B.C.)
CIRCUMSTANCE: A fight of two bulls
The eyes are inflamed, the breath comes deep and dragging, broken
By heavy groans, the long flanks heave with profound sobs,
Out of the nostrils oozes
Black blood, the tongue is rough and swells in the throat and blocks it.
Sin in processu coepit crudescere morbus,
tum vero ardentes oculi atque attractus ab alto
spiritus, interdum gemitu gravis, imaque longo
ilia singultu tendunt, it naribus ater
sanguis, et obsessas fauces premit aspera lingua.
Virgil, Georgics, Book III, lines 504-5OS, trans. C. Day Lewis, The Eclogues and Georgics of Virgil, Doubleday, New York, 1964.
PLACE: Italy
TIME: During Virgil's lifetime (ca. 70 B.C.)
CIRCUMSTANCE: Virgil describes the death of a horse during a plague.
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