“For the end of war is in hands, but of words in council; wherefore, let us not multiply words, but fight!” The dog who barks loudest is least inclined to bite, or, as the German proverb has it: “Die grossen marterhausen sind nicht die besten kriegsleut.” I may add here Suidas’s excellent derivation of Arês Ἄρης, the Greek name of Mars—from α, non, and ῥέειν, dicere, because in war not words but blows are needed.
XXV. “—Save when the cannon flashed
To send grim death rimbombing from its womb.”
The word rimbombar, signifying “to resound terrifically,” especially as applied to thunder and discharges of artillery, is a very forcible specimen of onomatopœia, and is common to the Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese; I have therefore ventured to adopt it into the English language. Tasso uses the word with fine effect in one of his most celebrated passages:—
Treman le spaziose atre caverne,
E l’aer cieco a quel romor rimbomba.
Ger. Lib. iv. 3.
XXVII. “Threw clustering sparkles swift as Brontes poured
’Gainst Steropes whilst Ætna’s forges roared.”
Antra Ætnæa tonant, validique incudibus ictus....
Ferrum exercebant vasto Cyclopes in antro,
Brontesque, Steropesque, et nudus membra Pyracmon.