The oracle of Faunus thus announces to Latinus the great future which awaited the race destined to arise from the union of the Trojans and Italians:—

Externi venient generi, qui sanguine nostrum

Nomen in astra ferant, quorumque ab stirpe nepotes

Omnia sub pedibus, qua Sol utrumque recurrens

Aspicit Oceanum, vertique regique videbunt[501].

In the ninth book Virgil for once breaks through the impersonal reserve of the epic singer to claim for Nisus and Euryalus an eternity of fame,—

Dum domus Aeneae Capitoli immobile saxum

Accolet imperiumque pater Romanus habebit[502].

In several of these passages it is not merely the pride of conquest and dominion which is expressed, but the higher and humaner belief that the ultimate mission of Rome is to give law and peace to the world. Thus the initiation of Iulus into war is accompanied by the declaration put into the mouth of Apollo—

iure omnia bella