“What heart had I left me, during all this, or what ought I to have had, except to hate life and wish to be with my dead subjects?  On all sides lay my people strewn like over-ripened apples beneath the tree, or acorns under the storm-shaken oak.  You see yonder a temple on the height.  It is sacred to Jupiter.  O how many offered prayers there, husbands for wives, fathers for sons, and died in the very act of supplication!  How often, while the priest made ready for sacrifice, the victim fell, struck down by disease without waiting for the blow!  At length all reverence for sacred things was lost.  Bodies were thrown out unburied, wood was wanting for funeral piles, men fought with one another for the possession of them.  Finally there were none left to mourn; sons and husbands, old men and youths, perished alike unlamented.

“Standing before the altar I raised my eyes to heaven.  ’O Jupiter,’ I said, ’if thou art indeed my father, and art not ashamed of thy offspring, give me back my people, or take me also away!’ At these words a clap of thunder was heard.  ’I accept the omen,’ I cried; ’O may it be a sign of a favorable disposition towards me!’ By chance there grew by the place where I stood an oak with wide-spreading branches, sacred to Jupiter.  I observed a troop of ants busy with their labor, carrying minute grains in their mouths and following one another in a line up the trunk of the tree.  Observing their numbers with admiration, I said, ’Give me, O father, citizens as numerous as these, and replenish my empty city.’  The tree shook and gave a rustling sound with its branches, though no wind agitated them.  I trembled in every limb, yet I kissed the earth and the tree.  I would not confess to myself that I hoped, yet I did hope.  Night came on and sleep took possession of my frame oppressed with cares.  The tree stood before me in my dreams, with its numerous branches all covered with living, moving creatures.  It seemed to shake its limbs and throw down over the ground a multitude of those industrious grain-gathering animals, which appeared to gain in size, and grow larger and larger, and by and by to stand erect, lay aside their superfluous legs and their black color, and finally to assume the human form.  Then I awoke, and my first impulse was to chide the gods who had robbed me of a sweet vision and given me no reality in its place.  Being still in the temple, my attention was caught by the sound of many voices without; a sound of late unusual to my ears.  While I began to think I was yet dreaming, Telamon, my son, throwing open the temple gates, exclaimed:  ’Father, approach, and behold things surpassing even your hopes!’ I went forth; I saw a multitude of men, such as I had seen in my dream, and they were passing in procession in the same manner.  While I gazed with wonder and delight they approached and kneeling hailed me as their king.  I paid my vows to Jove, and proceeded to allot the vacant city to the new-born race, and