Wartime, next, in the other city, displayed in preparedness:
Two columns of well-armed troops surrounded the walls of a city for sieging.
But they disagreed on the plan of action; some wished to conquer completely,
while others wished to negotiate peace and set terms for half the town's treasure.

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The townsmen were hungry, but bowing to neither, they quickly armed for a raid.
Women and children kept watch from the walls, with men too old or disabled.

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The men filed out through a secret gate led by Ares and Athena.
So splendidly armed were these glorious two, ornate in immortal gold,
that men were small in comparison and humbly marched behind them.

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When the warriors came to their ambush point, a stream where flocks were watered,
they hid together among bronze hills and stationed two lookouts at hand.
There the two hid, awaiting the sight of the sheep and the curving-horned cattle.

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Then the flocks and herds both came in view, followed by two men piping.
In peace they trailed behind their beasts, with no hint of the imminent danger.

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In a sudden rush the signal blared and the raiding troop surprised them.
Quickly they killed both herdsmen at once, and captured the frightened beasts.
Then guiding the straying silver-grey sheep, others quickly regrouped the flocks.

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The troops at the city walls heard the sounds of lowing and stampeding cattle,
so climbing behind their brisk-trotting steeds, they raced their chariots onward.

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Upon the riverbanks fighting began as foes threw spears at each other.
Then Strife and Tumult entered the skirmish, together with terrible Fate,
who kept barely living a man with wounds, and preserved another unwounded;
and yet another she grasped by the foot and dragged him to death in the clamor.
Fate wore a cloak fully covered in blood, and appeared a gruesome figure,
and the warriors fought as in real war and pulled their dead away.

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