863 Pales has been spoken about by us; I, the same narrator, will announce the Vinalia; and yet one day is in the middle between the two.
865 Celebrate, common girls, the divinity of sex! Bring to bear, Venus, an abundance of open wealth from their incomes! Ask, with devoted frankincense, for beauty and the favor of the public! Ask for charms, and worthy words for wit, whenever you devote pleasing mint, with her own myrtle, to the mistress, and chains made of rushes, hidden in arranged roses! Now it is proper for the temples adjacent to the Colline gate to be crowded, they retain the name of a Sicilian hill, and as Claudius Metullus captured Arethusian Syracuse, with weapons, and he seized you, too, Eryx, with war. Venus, having been transposed, is in the oracle of the long-lived Sibyl, and she preferred to be in the city of her offspring, of her fate.
877 Why, then, might they call the Vinalia a festival of Venus, you all inquire, and why might that very day be Jupiter’s?
879 Turnus or Aeneas might be the son-in-law of Latin Amata; there was a war: Turnus begs for Etruscan help. Ferocious Mezentius was famous and with his armor assumed, he was powerful either on horseback or more powerful on foot; Turnus of the Rutulians makes a bid to take him as an ally with his own military divisions. Thus the Etruscan leader, face-to-face with these bids, says: “For me, my valor does not remain at a low price: I give evidence of wounds and weapons which I have showered with my blood many times. You, who seek assistance, divide the spoils with me, it is no grand prize—the next vintage of new wine from your vats. There is no delay of employment: it is yours to give, ours to conquer; how Aeneas might desire that that very thing might have been denied to me!”
891 The Rutulians had agreed; Mezentius has donned his amor, Aeneas has donned his and he appeals to Jupiter: “The enemy’s vow is that the vintage goes to the Etruscan King: Jupiter, you will accept new wines from a Latin vine!”
895 The better vows are powerful: mighty Mezentius falls, and then he strikes the earth with his indignant chest.
897 Autumn had come, stained from trampling the grapes: the wine, owed to deserving Jupiter, is repaid. The day, having been designated here, is the Vinalia: Jupiter claims that day, and he rejoices to be a part of his own festivals.