our posterity would have to meet the fate he threatened.’
“Such was the stratagem—the cursed art of perjured
Sinon—that gained credence for the tale; and such the 10
victory won over us by wiles and constrained tears—over
us, whom not Tydeus’ son, nor Achilles of Larissa,
nor ten years of war subdued, nor a fleet of a thousand
sail.
“And now another object, greater and far more terrible, 15
is forced on my poor countrymen, to the confusion of their
unprophetic souls. Laocoon, drawn by lot as Neptune’s