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delivered the message which AEneas had intrusted to them. They declared
that they had not landed on Latinus's shore with any hostile intent.
They had been driven away, they said, from their own homes, by a
series of dire calamities, which had ended, at last, in the total
destruction of their native city. Since then they had been driven to
and fro at the mercy of the winds and waves, exposed to every
conceivable degree of hardship and danger. Their landing finally in
the dominions of Latinus in Italy, was not, they confessed, wholly
undesigned, for Latium had been divinely indicated to them, on their
way, as the place destined by the decrees of heaven for their final
home. Following these indications, they had sought the shores of Italy
and the mouths of the Tiber, and having succeeded in reaching them,
had landed; and now AEneas, their commander, desired of the king that
he would allow them to settle in his land in peace, and that he would
set apart a portion of his territory for them, and give them leave to
build a city.

The effect produced upon the mind of Latinus by the appearance of
these embassadors, and by the communication which they made to him,
proved to be highly favorable. He received the presents, too, which
they had brought him, in a very gracious manner, and appeared to be
much pleased with them. He had heard, as would seem, rumors of the
destruction of Troy, and of the departure of AEneas's squadron; for a
long time had been consumed by the wanderings of the expedition along
the Mediterranean shores, so that some years had now elapsed since the
destruction of Troy and the first sailing of the fleet. In a word,
Latinus soon determined to accede to the proposals of his visitors,
and he concluded with AEneas a treaty of alliance and friendship. He
designated a spot where the new city might be built, and all things
were thus amicably settled.

There was one circumstance which exerted a powerful influence in
promoting the establishment of friendly relations between Latinus and
the Trojans, and that was, that Latinus was engaged, at the time of
AEneas's arrival, in a war with the Rutulians, a nation that inhabited
a country lying south of Latium and on the coast. Latinus thought that
by making the Trojans his friends, he should be able to enlist them as
his auxiliaries in this war. AEneas made no objection to this, and it
was accordingly agreed that the Trojans, in return for being received
as friends, an