Having first concluded that our poet did for the best in taking the
first character of his hero from that essential virtue on which the
rest depend, he proceeds to tell us that in the ten years' war of
Troy he was considered as the second champion of his country,
allowing Hector the first place; and this even by the confession of
Homer, who took all occasions of setting up his own countrymen the
Grecians, and of undervaluing the Trojan chiefs. But Virgil (whom
Segrais forgot to cite) makes Diomede give him a higher character
for strength and courage. His testimony is this, in the eleventh
book:-
"Stetimus tela aspera contra,
Contulimusque manus: experto credite, quantus
In clypeum adsurgat, quo turbine torqueat hastam.
Si duo praeterea tales Inachias venisset ad urbes
Dardanus, et versis lugeret Graecia fatis.
Quicquid apud durae cessatum est maenia Trojae,
Hectoris AEneaeque manu victoria Grajum
Haesit, et in decumum vestigia retulit annum.
Ambo animis, ambo insignes praestantibus armis:
Hic pietate prior.
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