This seems to be somebody's diseased, poetic conception of Aeneid I.12-22; certainly line numbers and the name of the translator (surprise, surprise, after some digging...Dryden) would have helped.
An on-the-spot, roughly literal translation might give: "There was an ancient city which the Tyrian colonists held, Carthage, opposite Italy and far from the Tiber's ports, wealthy in works and in military pursuits most harsh, which alone Juno is said to to have held in esteem more than any land, even Samo. Here were her arms, here her chariot; the goddess strove and encouraged this to be the kingdom for her peoples, if the fates allowed. But she had heard that a nation, born from Trojan blood would some day overturn the Tyrian citadels; a people far and wide and king, proud in war would come from the ruin of Libya; so the fates decreed." You can find the Latin text and a better English translation (and the worse one by Dryden) at http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/perscoll?collection=Greco-Roman. Of course, this still doesn't explain where Dryden got his "people of the sky". If you haven't yet figured it out, Dryden wasn't particularly literal; the point was to write a poetic, artistic text which would freshly interpret and complement, not replace, the Latin. My best guess would be that "people of the sky" is meant to be an artistic rendering of the fates or gods dwelling in the heavens, thus emphasizing a divine origin for the prophecy. Just a guess, though. -CWHess P.S. I might also suggest that you find a more modern, updated translation of the Aeneid. On Saturday 01 September 2001 14:38, you wrote: > Against the Tiber's mouth, but far away, > An ancient town was seated on the sea; > A Tyrian colony; the people made > Stout for the war, and studious of their trade: > Carthage the name; belov'd by Juno more > Than her own Argos, or the Samian shore. > Here stood her chariot; here, if Heav'n were kind, > The seat of awful empire she design'd. > Yet she had heard an ancient rumor fly, > (Long cited by the people of the sky,) > That times to come should see the Trojan race > Her Carthage ruin, and her tow'rs deface; ----------------------------------------------------------------------- To leave the Mantovano mailing list at any time, do NOT hit reply. Instead, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message "unsubscribe mantovano" in the body (omitting the quotation marks). You can also unsubscribe at http://virgil.org/mantovano/mantovano.htm#unsub
