What race is this? What land’s so barbaric that it 540 sanctions this behavior? We’re kept away from shore by threats of war. We can’t set foot on land. If you scorn humans and their weapons, at least assume the gods know justice and injustice!
This speech by Ilioneus is pure fire. An epic plea for asylum and justice.
“Barbaric” is a nice allusion to Rome’s barbaric tribes.
Dryden has:
"What men, what monsters, what inhuman race,
What laws, what barb’rous customs of the place,
Shut up a desert shore to drowning men,
And drive us to the cruel seas again?
If our hard fortune no compassion draws,
Nor hospitable rights, nor human laws,
The gods are just, and will revenge our cause."
