line of the future from Ascanius onward, and their foughten
fields in long succession. There, too, he had portrayed
the mother-wolf stretched in Mars’ green cavern; around
her teats were the twin boys in play climbing and clinging, 30
and licking their dam without dread; while she, her lithe
neck bent back, was caressing them by turns and with her
tongue shaping their young limbs. Near this he had inserted
Rome and the lawless rape of the Sabine maidens
amid the crowded circus, while the great games were in 35
course, and the sudden rise of a new war between the sons