tango aras, medios ignis et numina testor: nulla dies pacem hanc Italis nec foedera rumpet, quo res cumque cadent; nec me vis ulla volentem avertet, non, si tellurem effundat in undas diluvio miscens caelumque in Tartara solvat, ut sceptrum hoc (dextra sceptrum nam forte gerebat) numquam fronde levi fundet virgulta nec umbras, cum semel in silvis imo de stirpe recisum matre caret posuitque comas et bracchia ferro, olim arbos, nunc artificis manus aere decoro inclusit patribusque dedit gestare Latinis.
I touch the altars, I adjure these fires and gods that stand between us: no time shall break this peace and truce for Italy, however things befall; nor shall any force turn aside my will, not though, commingling all in deluge, it plunge land into water, and dissolve Heaven into Hell: just as this sceptre     (for by chance in his hand he held his sceptre) shall never sprout with light foliage into branch or shade, now that, once hewn in the forest from the lowest stem, it is bereft of its mother, and beneath the steel has shed its leaves and twigs; once a tree, now the craftsmans hand has cased it in fine bronze and given it to the elders of Latium to bear.