Your learned pages, which I received while staving at Capua, brought me sheer delight. For there was in them a certain gaiety overlaid with honey from Tully's hive, and some eulogy on my discourse Mattering rather than deserved. And so I am at a loss to decide which to admire the more—the graces of your diction or of your disposition. Indeed you so far surpass all others in eloquence that I fear to write in reply; you so generously approve my essays that I am glad not to keep silence. If I say more in your praise. I shall seem to be “scratching your back” and to be copying more than complimenting your address to me. Moreover, since you do nothing consciously for the sake of display, I must beware of praising your natural good qualities as though they were studied. This one thing, however, I must tell you as an absolute fact—that there is no man alive whom I love more than you, so deeply pledged in honest affection have you always held me. But in this I think you are excessively modest, that you complain of me for playing traitor to your book. For it is easier to hold hot coals in one's mouth than to keep the secret of a brilliant work. Once you have let a poem out of your hands, you have renounced all your rights: a speech delivered is common property. Or do you fear the venom of some jealous reader, and that your book may smart from the snap of his rude fangs? You are the one man who up to now has owed nothing to partiality, lost nothing through jealousy. Involuntarily everyone, perverse or honest, finds you admirable. Therefore banish henceforth your groundless fears, and let your pen run on so that you may often be betrayed. At any rate assign some didactic or hortatory poem to my name also. Run the risk of my keeping silence; and though I desire to give you proof of it, yet I dare not guarantee it. Well I know how I itch to give voice to your work when you are so popular. For somehow he secures a partnership in the glory who first pronounces another's neat phrases. That is why in comedy authors have won but slight renown, while Roscius, Ambivius,1 and the other players have had no lack of fame. So spend your leisure in such occupation and relieve my famine with fresh books. But if in your Hight from vainglory you dread a chattering informer, do you also guarantee me your silence, that I may safely pretend that what you have written is mine! Farewell.
MERUM mihi gaudium eruditionis tuae scripta tribuerunt, quae Capuae Iocatus accepi, erat quippe in his oblita Tulliano melle festivitas et sermonis mei non tam vera, quam blanda laudatio, quid igitur magis mirer, sententiae incertus addubito, ornamenta oris an pectoris tui. quippe ita facundia antistas ceteris, ut sit formido rescribere: ita benigne nostra conprobas, ut libeat non tacere, si plura de te praedicem, videbor mutuum scabere et magis imitator tui esse adloquii quam probator, simul quod ipse nihil ostentandi gratia facis, verendum est genuina in te bona tamquam adfectata laudare, unum hoc tamen a nobis indubitata veritate cognosce, neminem esse mortalium quem prae te diligam; sic vadatum me honorabili amore tenuisti. Set in eo mihi verecundus nimio plus videre, quod libelli tui arguis proditorem, nam facilius est ardentes favillas ore comprimere quam luculenti operis servare secretum. eum semel a te profectum carmen est, ius omne posuisti: oratio publicata res libera est. an vereris aemuli venena lectoris. Ne libellus tuus admorsu duri dentis uratur? tibi uni ad hoc locorum nihil gratia praestitit aut dempsit invidia, ingratis scaevo cuique proboque laudabilis es. proinde cassas dehinc seelude formidines et indulge stilo, ut saepe prodaris. certe aliquod didascalicum seu protrepticum nostro quoque nomini carmen adiudica. fac periculum silentii mei, quod etsi tibi exhibere opto, tamen spondere non audeo, novi ego. quae sit prurigo emuttiendi operis, quod probaris, nam quodam pacto societatem laudis adfectat, qui aliena bene dicta primus enuntiat. Ea propter in comoediis summatim quidem gloriam scriptores tulerunt, Roscio tamen atque Ambivio ceterisque actoribus fama non defuit. Ergo tali negotio expcnde otium tuum et novis voluminibus ieiunia nostra sustenta, quod si iactantiae fugax garrulum iudicem pertimescis, praesta etiam tu silentium mihi, ut tuto simulem nostra esse, quae scripseris, vale.
Now I understand how honey-sweet is the power of speech, how enchanting and persuasive a thing is eloquence! You have made me believe that my letter delivered to you at Capua was not a barbarous compilation; but this only for so long as I am actually reading your letter, which is so spread, as it were, with the syrop of your nectar as to over-persuade me while I hang agape over its allurements. For as soon as I lay down your page and question myself, back comes the taste of my own wormwood, and I realize that the cup is smeared round with your honey.1 If indeed—as I often do— I return to your letter, I am enticed again: and then again that most soothing, that most fragrant perfume of your words dies away when I have done reading, and denies that sweetness carries weight as evidence. Like the flaunting glitter of tinsel or a tinted cloud, it delights me only for so long as 1 see it—like that little creature the chameleon, which takes its colour from whatever is beneath it. Your letter makes me feel one thing, my own conscience another. And do you venture to count me worthy of praise belonging to the most eloquent? Do you, I say, speak so of me—you who soar above all writers in faultlessness? What author is there so brilliant, but he appears unpolished by comparison with you? Who like you can approach the charm of Aesop, the logical deductions of Isocrates, the arguments of Demosthenes, the richness of Tully, or the felicity of our own Maro? Who can aspire to such success in any one of these, as you fully attain in them all? For what else are you but the concentrated essence of every great mind in the realm of the liberal arts? My lord, my son Symmachus, 1 do not fear that you may think I speak thus of you more smoothly than truly. Indeed, yon have proved how truthful I am both in thought and word while the two of us. so ill-matched in years, lived at court, where you. a recruit, earned a veteran's pay, while I, already a veteran, went through my recruit's training. At court I was truthful with you: much less when I am away from it should you think I tell stories. At court, I repeat, which bares the face and veils the heart 1—there you felt that I was a father and a friend and, if anything can be dearer than either, then something dearer still. But let us leave this matter, lest such a reminder seem too like the fear felt by Sosias. 2 Now for that matter which I almost passed over. What mock humility of yours is this, that you add a request for me to send you some didactic work or hortatory discourse? Shall 1 teach you when I myself need teaching 3 were I of an age to learn? Shall I counsel you, whose mind is so alert and vigorous? As well exhort the Muses to sing and advise the waves to flow, the breezes to blow freely, tire to give heat, and where anything occurs naturally, whether we will or no, to urge it forward with superfluous zeal! Enough this one mistake that a work of mine has, to my regret, become public property: though by good fortune it has fallen into the hands of friends. For had it been otherwise, not even you would convince me that I can give satisfaction. Let that be my answer to your letter: with the other matters which you desire to know, I will make short work: even so this letter is already long. However, I depute Julian, an intimate of your household, to answer any questions you care to ask concerning me: at the same time I urge that, when you learn his reason for coming, you aid him in a purpose which to some extent you have already favoured. Farewell.
MODO intellego, quam mellea res sit oratio; quam delinifica et quam suada facundia. persuasisti mihi, quod epistulae meae aput Capuam tibi redditae concinnatio inhumana non esset; set hoc non diutius, quam dum epistulam tuam legi, quae me blanditiis inhiantem tuis velut suco nectaris delibuta perducit. ubi enim chartulam pono et me ipsum interrogo, tum absinthium meum resipit et circumlita melle tuo pocula deprehendo. si vero, id quod saepe facio, ad epistulam tuam redii, rursus inlicior: et rursum ille suavissimus, ille floridus tui sermonis adflatus deposita lectione vanescit et testimonii pondus prohibet inesse dulcedini. hoc me velut aerius bratteae fucus aut picta nebula non longius, quam dum videtur, oblectat chamaeleontis bestiolae vice, quae de subiectis sumit colorem, aliud sentio ex epistula tua, aliud ex conscientia mea. et tu me audes facundissimorum hominum laude dignari: tu, inquam, mihi ista, qui te ultra emendationem omnium protulisti? quisquamne ita nitet, ut conparatus tibi non sordeat? quis ita Aesopi venustatem, quis sophisticas Isocratis conclusiones, quis ad cnthymemata Demosthenis aut opulentiam Tullianam aut proprietatem nostri Maronis accedat? quis ita adfectet singula, ut tu imples omnia? quid enim aliud es, quam ex omni bonarum artium ingenio collecta perfectio? Haec, domine mi fili Symmache, non vereor, ne in te blandius dicta videantur esse quam verius, et expertus es (idem meam mentis atque dictorum, dum in comitatu (legimus ambo aevo dispari, ubi tu veteris militiae praemia tiro meruisti, ego tiroeinium iam veteranus exercui. in comitatu tibi verus fui, nedum me peregre existimes conposita fabulari. In comitatu, inquam, qui frontes hominum aperit, mentes tegit, ibi me et parentem et amicum et, si quid utroque carius est, cariorem fuisse sensisti, set abeamus ab his: ne ista haec conmemoratio ad illam Sosiae formidinem videatur accedere. Illud, quod paene praeterii, qua adfectatione addidisti, ut ad te didascalieum aliquod opuseulum aut sermonem protreptieum mitterem? ego te docebo doeendus adhuc, si essem id aetatis, ut discerem? aut ego te vegetum atque alacrem commonebo? eadem opera et Musas hortabor, ut canant, et maria, ut effluant, et auras, ut vigeant, et ignes, ut caleant. admonebo: et, si quid invitis quoque nobis natura fit, superfluus instigator agitabo. sat est unius erroris quod aliquid meorum me paenitente vulgatum est, quod bona fortuna in manus amicorum incidit, nam si contra id evenisset, nec tu mihi persuaderes placere me posse. Haec ad litteras tuas responsa sint: cetera, quae noscere aves, conpendi faciam; sic quoque iam longa est epistula. Iulianum tamen familiarem domus vestrae, si quid de nobis percontandum arbitraris, adlego; simul admoneo, ut, eum causam adventus eius agnoveris. iuves studium, quod ex parte fovisti. vale.
Although praise bestowed upon their children is generally accepted as gospel by parents, yet it is somehow discounted when it is considered to have an eye to the favour of the great. I am at a stand, therefore, and ask what words 1 shall choose especially at this time in speaking of that worshipful man, Thalassius, your son-in-law. If 1 touch sparingly upon the graces of his character, I shall be thought to show signs of jealousy: if 1 duly enlarge upon them, I shall be next door to a flatterer. I will therefore copy Sallust 1 in his rigid mode of giving evidence. You have as son-in-law a man worthy of you, and, through you, of a consular family—one whom Fortune in her bestowal of distinctions has found too great to need her benefits, whom a faultless nature and stainless character have already furnished with higher gifts. Farewell.
ETSI plerumque vera est aput parentes praedicatio filiorum, nescio quo tamen pacto detrimentum meriti sui patiatur, dum personarum spectare gratiam iudicatur, quaero igitur incertus animi, quae mihi nunc potissimum super viro honorabili Thalassio genero tuo verba sumenda sint. si parce decora morum eius adtingam. liventi similis existimabor: si iuste persequar, ero proximus blandienti. Imitabor igitur Sallustiani testimonii castigationem. Habes virum dignum te et per te familia consulari, quem fortuna honoris parti maiorem beneficiis suis repperit, emendatio animi et sanctitas potioribus iam paravit. vale.
AT last, having struggled free from delay's seductive toils. I have left Bordeaux's soft enticements and on a neighbouring farm dwell nigh the town of Saintes: if this pleases you. friend Paulus, give me proof of it. Let horn-hoofed mules whirl hither a harnessed four-wheeled car,1 or, if you please, jump in a three-horse gig, 2 or mount a cob, or else a back-broken hack, if only you come quickly; for approaching Easter's rites summon me back, nor am I free to linger idly here. Bring over on your jaunt thrice a thousand lyrics or the feigned eases 3 which your pupils weave. With me you will rind none, for I have left yonder the old remnants of my trifles together with my wit.
tandem eluctati retinacula blanda morarumBurdigalac molles liquimus inlecebras.Santonicamque urbem vicino accessimus agro:quod tibi si gratum est, optime Paule, proba,cornipedes rapiant inposta petorrita mulae;vel cisio triiugi. si placet, insilias,vel celerem manuum vel raptum terga veraedumconscendas, propere dum modo iam venias;instantis revocant quia nos sollemnia Paschaelibera nec nobis 1 est mora desidiae.perfer in excursu vel leriuga milia epodonvel falsas lites, quas schola vestra serit,nobiscum invenies nullas, quia liquimus isticnugarum veteres cum sale relliquias. 2
OF oysters famed through the lavish feasts of high-born prodigals, whether dredged from the depths of various seas or left bare by ebbing shallows, or sheltered beneath rugged caves and in jagged clefts amid the rocks, those which green moss, which stained seaweed hides, whose welded shells are firm-shut as the stones, which when removed 4 from their home and planted in rich ooze are fattened by the inward moisture of the packed slime;—of these you bid me tell all the kinds, Paulus, my old comrade, made used to my trifling by sportive verse. I will approach the task, albeit the theme stir not an old man's zest nor be thought fit for the notice of a frugal man. For I have no Salian fare,1 no repasts of savour such as had the banquets of Penelope's wastrel suitors or of the sleek and scented youth about Alcinoüs.2 Yet will I tell o'er the tale, following report and testimony according to the tastes of men ever diverse in judgment. Howbeit, for me the choicest above all are those bred by the Ocean of the Meduli, 3 which, named after Bordeaux, high esteem hath raised even to Caesar's board, no less renowned than are our famous wines. These amongst all have won the pride of place, the rest lagging far behind: these be of substance both full fat and snowy white, and with their sweet juice most delicately mingle some flavour of the sea touched with a fine taste of salt. Next, though next at distance of long interval, are the oysters of Marseilles, which Narbo feeds near Venus' haven;4 and those which, untended, the Hellespontine wave shelters at Abydos; or those which cling afloat to the piles of Baiae; those washed by the San tonic surge; those known to the Genoni; or those harboured by Ebora's 5 stream where it joins the sea, so that they lie covered with a deep bed of weed: rough of shell are these, and sweet, and rich of meat. There are, too, such as praise the oysters of the Armoric deep, and those which shoremen gather on Pictonic coasts, and which the tide sometimes leaves bare for the wondering Caledonian.6 Add those which. reared below Byzantium's shores and the vexed beaches of Propontis, late-born renown now honours with distinction after the name of Promotus the general.1 These I tell thee, no bard, no historian, nor yet a world-wandering gourmand, but things I have heard from many, as wont is, whenever a challenge from a table on the right provokes gentle Lyacus with friendly converse. These are known to me not from common company nor from taverns, nor from the guilds of Plautine parasites, but because I myself have often celebrated festal days, sometimes with gatherings of my friends,2 or going in turn to banquets as a bidden guest, when perchanee a friend observed a birthday or a marriage feast, or a carouse 3 sanctioned by our fathers' custom: there I have heard many a worthy man praise these, and I remember them.
OSTHEA nobilium cenis sumptuque nepotumcognita diversoque maris deprensa profundo,aut refugis nudata vadis aut scrupea subterantra et muriceis scopulorum mersa lacunis,quae viridis muscus, quae decolor alga recondit.quae testis concreta suis ceu saxa cohaerent,quae mutata loco, pingui mox consita limo,nutrit secretus conclusae uliginis umor,enumcrare iubes, vetus o mihi Paule sodalis,adsuefacte meis ioculari carmine nngis.adgrediar; quamvis curam non ista senilemsollicitent frugique viro dignanda putentur.nam mihi non Saliare epulum, non aura dapalis,qualem Penelopae nebulonum mensa procorumAlcinoique habuit nitidae eutis uncta iuventus.1enumerabo tamen famam testesque secutuspro studiis hominum semper diversa probantum.Set mihi prae cunetis lectissima, quae Medulorumeducat Oceanus, quae Burdiga lensia nomenusque ad Caesareas tulit admiratio mensas,non laudata minus, nostri quam gloria vini.haec inter cunctas palmam meruere priorem,omnibus ex longo cedentibus: ista et opimivisceris et nivei dulcique tenerrima sucomiscent aequoreum tenui sale tincta saporem.proxima sint quamvis, sunt longe proxima multoex intervallo, quae Massiliensia, portumquae Narbo ad Veneris nutrit; cultuque carentiaHellespontiaci quae protegit aequor Abydi:vel quae Baianis pendent fluitantia palis;.Santonico quae tecta salo; quae nota Genonis:aut Eborac mixtus pelago quae protegit amnis,ut multo iaceant algarum obducta recessu:aspera quae testis et dulcia, farris opimi.Sunt et Aremorici qui laudent ostrea ponti,et quae Pictonici legit accola litoris, et piaemira Caledoniis nonnunquam detegit aestus.accedunt, quae fama recens Byzantia subterlitora et insana generata Propontidis actapromoti celebrata ducis de nomine laudat.Haec tibi non vates, non historicus neque totoorbe vagus conviva loquor, set tradita multis,ut solitum, quotiens dextrae invitatio mensaesollicitat lencm comi sermone Lyaeum.haec non per vulgum mihi cognita perque popinasaut parasitorum collegia Plautinorum,set festos quia saepe dies partim ipse meorumexcolui inque vicem conviva vocatus adivi.natalis si forte fuit sollemnis amicoconiugiove dapes aut sacra repotia patrum.audivi meminique bonos laudare frequentes.
IF any trust is ever to be placed in the feigned words of poets, and if they scrawl not ever fiction, Paulus—once the most famous child of the Castalian Camenae, now their father or grandfather or yet more ancient than a great-grandfather, as was of old the kinglet of Tartessus 4—remember to keep your promises inviolate. Phoebus bids us speak truth: although he suffers the Pierian sisters to swerve from the line, he himself never twists a furrow. You also must not regret your plighted bond; come quickly now by river or by road, either where Garonne, swelled with the flood-tide of the billowy deep, challenges the main, or where the beaten gravel of the relaid road leads to the garrison of Blaye. For in the first days after holy Easter J long to visit my estate. For I am weary at the sight of throngs of people, the vulgar brawls at the cross-roads, the narrow lanes a-swarm, and the broadways belying their name 1 for the rabble herded there. Confused Echo resounds with a babel of cries: “Hold! ‘—"Strike!’—" Lead!” —" Give! “—" Look out!” Here is a mucky sow in flight, there a mad dog in fell career,2 there oxen too weak for the waggon. No use to steal into the inner chamber and the recesses of your home: the cries penetrate through the house.3 These, and what else can shock the orderly, force me to leave the walled city and seek again the sweet peace of the retired country and the delights of trifling seriously: and there you may arrange your own hours and have the. right to do nothing or else what you will. If you haste after these joys, come quickly with all the wares of your Camenae:4 daetyls, elegiaes, choriam bies, lyries, comedy and tragedy—pack them all in your carriage, for the devout poet's baggage is all paper. With me you will find a quid pro quo if you please to trade on Greek,1 not Punic, terms.
Si qua fides falsis umquam est adhibenda poetisnec plasma semper adimunt,Paule, Camenarum celeberrime Castaliarumalumne quondam, nunc pater,aut avus, aut proavis antiquior, ut fuit olimTartesiorum regulus:intemerata tibi maneant promissa, memento.Phoebus iubet verum loqui:etsi Pierias patitur Ii rare sorores.numquam ipse torquet αὔλακα.te quoque ne pigeat consponsi foederis: et iamcitus veni remo aut rota,aequoris undosi qua multiplicata recursuGarumna pontum provocat,aut iteratarum qua glarca trita viarumfert militarem ad Blaviam.nos etenim primis sanctum post Pascha diebusavemus agrum visere.Nam populi coetus et compita sordida rixisfastidientes cernimusangustas fervere vias et congrege volgonomen plateas perdere,turbida congestis referitur vocibus echo:“Tene, feri, duc, da, cave!”sus lutulenta fugit, rabidus canis impete saevoet impares plaustro boves,nec prodest penetrale domus et operta subire:per tecta clamores meant,haec et quae possunt placidos offendere mores,cogunt relinqui moenia,dulcia secreti repetantur ut otia ruris,nugis amoena seriis;tempora disponas ubi tu tua iusque tuum sit,ut nil agas vel quod voles,ad quae si properas, tota cum merce tuarumveni Camenarum citus:dactylicos. elegos, choriambum carmen, epodos,socci et coturni musicamcarpentis impone tuis: nam tota supellexvatum piorum chartea est.nobiscum invenies κατ' ἐναντία, si libet utinon Poena 1 sed Graeca fide.
AS for my verses, which a salutary and self-conscious sense of shame had sent into hiding, while you thought you were enticing them forth by sending forward your own poetry and prose, you have driven them back. For when one who is himself eloquent and a poet tries to lure an author to venture on publication, he frightens the other out of the purpose which he advocates. A listener ought to conceal his own skill if he wishes to induce a nervous orator to speak, and a practised veteran should not brandish in the face of mere recruits weapons he has wielded through a full term of service. Venus understood this in the matter of the prize for beauty so long withheld for lack of a decisive verdict. For it was modestly arrayed, when in the presence of her father, that she had contended, and her similar adornment did not discourage her rivals; but when the suit of the goddesses was brought down for a shepherd's decision, she appeared as when she had risen from the sea or had met with Mars, both overwhelming the judge and crushing her competitors' rivalry. And so, had not your Crazy Man, slight in theme though not in finish,2 checked my poor little works which you were eager to have brought out to light, I should long-since, like a too venturesome shoot, have put forth an impudent bud in the still wintry air, only to run the risk of heavy censure for my ill-advised haste. In short, to bring into play, as you bade me, the " swipe " 1—which, I fancy, is correctly termed by scholars a “swing-beam” —I did not dare after lately reading your verses; but I send you those pieces which have already been hurriedly recited to you. For indeed this you demand and 1 prefer; so that you, through your own fault, may stumble twice over the same stone, while I, whate'er befall, may blush but once. See, my dear Paid us, what a sorry poet you have provoked!—in wording harsh, in utterance halting, wandering from his points, in versifying without elegance, in satire without natural grace or spice of art, watery in wit, sluggish in spleen, no true performer in mime,2 no actor in comedy. And were not yon yourself to read these pieces I send, you would laugh at my delivery also. As it is, theirs is a more kindly destiny, because though begotten by me they will be adopted by you. So soon as I shall get wine carried to Saintes by two-horse cart, do you also get your cup of ostrich-shell which your steward says was left on your farm far away in your native Bigorre, 3
VERSUS meos utili et conscio sibi pudore celatos carmine tuo et sermone praemissis dum putas eliei, repressisti. nam qui ipse facundus et musicus editionis alienae prolectat audaciam, consilio, quo suadet, exterret, tegat oportet auditor doctrinam suam, qui volet ad dicendum sollicitare trepidantem, nec emerita adversum tirunculos arma concutiat veterana calliditas. sensit hoc Venus de pulchritudiuis palma diu ambiguo ampliata iudicio. pudenter enim ut apud patrem velata certaverat nec deterrebat aemulas ornatus aequalis; at postquam in pastoris examen deducta est lis dearum, qualis emerserat mari aut eum Marte convenerat, et consternavit arbitrum et contendentium certamen oppressit, ergo nisi Delirus tuus in re tenui non tenuiter laboratus opuscula mea, quae promi studucras, retardasset, iam dudum ego ut palmes audacior in hibernas adhue auras improbum germen egissem, periculum iudicii gravis inconsulta festinatione subiturus. denique pisonem, quem tollenonem existimo proprie a philologis appellatum, adhibere, ut iubebas, recenti versuum tuorum lectione non ausus, ea quae tibi iam cursim fuerant recitata, transmisi. etenim hoc poposcisti atque id ego malui, tu ut tua culpa ad eundem lapidem bis offenderes, ego autem, quaecumque fortuna esset, semel erubescerem. Vide, mi Paule, quam ineptum lacessieris in verbis rudem, in eloquendo hiulcum, a propositis discrepantem, in versibus concinnationis expertem, in ea villando nec natura venustum nec arte conditum, diluti salis, fellis ignavi, nec de mimo planipedem nec de comoediis histrionem, ac nisi haec a nobis missa ipse lecturus esses, etiam de pronuntiatione rideres. nunc commodiore fato sunt, quod, licet apud nos genuina, aput te erunt adoptiva.Vinum eum biiugo parabo plaustroprimo tempore Santonos vehendum,ovum tu quoque - passeris marini,quod nunc promus ait procul relictumin fundo patriae Bigerritanae.
To Axius, worthy - participant in Hellenic poesy and Roman song, I, Ausonius, send playful greeting in a medley of the two tongues. Muses, what do we? Wherefore with empty hopes do I sport idly, heedless of growing older day by day? O'er the Santonic plains, where frost accords chill welcome, I wander shivering with cold, a frigid hard indeed, a servant unemployed of the soft-tressed Pierides. Cold feet and chattering of teeth are each man's lot, because no hearth gives warmth in this snowy country, and men redouble all the cold with meditating their frigid verse. Yet even so, at the beginning of the new month and on the first of January let me send to Paulus the first-fruits of my song. Ye songful children of Mnemosyne with tresses coiffed, nine wordy maids with locks begarlanded. come now with chant ridiculous and macaronic 3 lay, wear winged triumph on your brows—for 'tis on you T call, a clumsy bottle-bard—compose for Paulus some mixed barbarian strain! For I may not, albeit tarrying in these parts, leave worthy Axius lacking my poesy. He shareth all with me, and knoweth all sorts of tricks for wrestling with my serious and my jesting verse. And now retired in the lonely-country of Crebennus he hath his heart-vexing dwelling in a grapeless land, remote alike from his dear friends and from all dinner-tables. There, sick at heart, he chides the heart-soothing Muses for his loneliness. Enough experience have 1 had of toil ere now, friend Paulus, both as a pleader in the courts and in the thankless professorial chair at Schools of Rhetoric, and got therefrom no profit. But now has all that youthful energy oozed from these limbs, trembling old age is nigh, and my strong-box grown light furnishes means for outlay less readily. For the helpless draws no salary from the Exchequer,1 and the bed-ridden dotard earns no golden fees. Yet if only thou wilt be of unruffled mind and rather see good in everything, thy toil and poverty will find oblivion. But this is the very best of all, from all the Muses everywhere—not without bowl and wine, comrade of the true Muses—to seek soothing consolation for a troubled heart. Here shalt thou find the fruit of Demeter. rich in crops, here fat swine, here capacious goblets if thou wouldst mix the nectar of good wine. So shall we twain cheer the blank hours of our life, so long as means and age allow and the Three Sisters spin their purple thread.2
Ἑλλαδικῆσ μέτοχον μούσησ Latiacque camenaeἌξιον Αὐσόνιοσ sermone adludo bilingni.Musae. quid facimus? τί κεναῖσιν ἐφ' ἑλπίσινIndimus ἀφρυδίῃδιν ἐν ἤματιΣαντονικοῖσ κάμποισιν, ὅποι κρύοσ ἄξενόν.erramus gelido τρομεροὶ καὶ frigdopetae.Πιερίδων τενεροπλοκάμων θεράποντεσ inertes.πάντα δ' ἔχει παγετόσ τε pedum καὶ κρουσμὸσ ὀδόντων,θαλπωρὴ quia nulla φοκοῦ χιονώδει χώρῃet duplicant frigus ψυχρὰ carmina μητιόωντεσ.ἀρχόμενοσ δ' ἄρα μηνὶ νέῳ Ιανοῦ τε calend αισprimitias Panlo nostrae πέμψωμενΜνημοσύνησ κρηδεμνοκόμου πολν cantica τέκνα,ἐννέα Verbosae κριννοστέφανοί τε puellae,ἔνθ' ἄγε μοι πολυ risa ἔπη, σκουρώδεα μολπήν.frontibus ὑμετέραισ πτέρινον praeferte triumphumὑμᾶσ γὰρ καλέω σκαιὸσ ΔιονυσοπουητήσΠαύλῳ ἐφαρμόσσαιτε μεμιγμενοβάρβαρονοὐ γάρ μοι θέμισ ἐστὶν in hac regione μένοντιἌξιον abnostris ἐπιδεύεα εἶνε καμήναις:κεῖνοσ ἐμοὶ πάντων μέτοχοσ. qui seria nostra.qui ioca παντοδαπῇ novit tractare παλαίστρῃ.καὶ νῦν sepositus μοναχῷ ἐνὶ rnre Κρεβέννουἀσταφύλῳ ἐνὶ χώρῳ habet θυμαλγέα λέσχηνοὔτε φίλοισ ἑτάροισ nec mensae accommodus ulli.otia θελξινόοισ aeger σνμμέμφεται Μούσαισ.Iam satis, ο φίλε Παῦλε, πόνουἔν τε for ῳ caus αισ τε καὶ ingrat αισι καθέδραισ.ῤητορικοῖσ λουδοῖσι, καὶ ἔπλετο οὐδὲνἄλλ' ἤδη κεῖνοσ μὲν ἅπασ iuvenalios ἱδρὼσἐκκέχυται μελέων, τρομερὴ δὲ πάρεστι senectusκαὶ minus in sumptum δαπάνασ lenis arca ministrat.Οὐ γὰρ ἔχει ἀπάλαμνοσ ἀνὴρ lucr ον,κλεινικὸσ οὔτε γέρων χρυσέην ἐργάζετ'.Aequanimus quod si fueris et πάντα vel αἰνεῖνmalueris, λήθη πόνου ἔσσεται ἠδὲ.Κεῖνο δὲ παγκάλλιστον, ut omnibus undique Musisσὺν φιάλῃque οἴνῳque ἐτεῶν συνοπάονι,θυμοῦ άλῃχεμένου solacia blanda requiras.hic crit et fructus Δημητέρος ἀγλαοκάρπου,ἔνθα σύεσ θαλεροί, πολυχανδέα pocula ἔνθα,κιρνᾶν εἴ κε θέλοισ νέκταρ οὐίνοιο.Ambo igitur nostrae παραθέλξομεν otia vitae.Dum res et aetas et sororumνήματα πορφύρεα πολέκηται.
AUSONIUS, consul of the Romans, to Paulus, poet and declaimer: 3 haste to see thy friends.
Ῥωμαίων ὕπατοσ ἀρεταλόγῳ ἠδὲ,Αὐσόνιοσ Παύλῳ: σπεῦδε φίλους ἰδέειν.
FOR thee I left the flood of the Garonne, for thee I dwell amid the plains of Saintes; our meeting, therefore, be thy aim! If thou art eager as I, full soon wilt thou enjoy the sight of me. But make such haste as thy strength and years permit; so that Ι see thee safe, I see thee soon enough. If after that unlucky drive thy powers are restored, and if thy limbs have now regained their wonted pliancy, if to the Muses' joy thou dost again frequent well-watered Pimpla,1 a bard once more and no scorching Automedon,2 banish the clouds of eld which haunt a drowsy greybeard, briskly devour the intervening road. But be heedful, mounting some chaise or slow post-horse: let no dog-cart 3 tempt thee, no high-mettled steed. I counsel thee avoid four-wheeled cars 4 with their notorious geldings, drive no swift mules thyself to play Metiscus.5 So be the Muses gracious to thee, thy conception ready, thy memory sound, and free thy flow of melting honey: so may Crebennus, so long for sale without a purchaser, be thine for a reward. But that thou mayest come more quickly, travelling the lighter, leave histories, mimes, and lyrics all at home. Muses make heavy baggage: those books stored with so many centuries, which scarce endure their own ages, are crushed by ours. With me thou wilt find a motley throng of epics, grammarians' subtilties and niceties of speech, the heroic dactyl and the lyrist's choriambus, Thaleia's comedy beside Terpsichore's tragic train, Sotades' 6 wanton verse, the Ionic of both kinds.7 the ordered sweetness of Pindaric rhythms, the shambling scazon 1 and the unlimping trimeter, eight books of Thucydides, nine of Herodotus, a goodly show of orators, and the philosophers in glorious tribes—all that thou wouldst, and still more shouldst thou wish. This word of greeting I send thee from my hooks. Farewell; if thou wouldst have me fare well, fare hither now.
Aequoream liqui te propter, amice, Garumnam.te propter campos incolo Santonicos;congressus igitur nostros pete. si tibi cura.quae mihi, conspectu iam potiere meo.sed tantum adpropera, quantum pote corpore et aevo;ut salvum videam, sat cito te video.si post infaustas vigor integratus habenaset rediit membris iam sua mobilitas,si riguam laetis recolis Pipleida Musis.iam vates et non flagrifer Automedon.pelle soporiferi senium nubemque veterniatque alacri mediam carpe vigore viam.sed cisium aut pigrum cautus conscende veraedum:non tibi sit raedae, non amor acris equi.cantheris moneo male nota petorrita vites.ne celeres mulas ipse Metiscus agas.sic tibi sint Musae faciles, meditatio promptaet memor, et liquidi mel fluat eloquii:sic, qui venalis tam longa aetate Crebennusnon habet emptorem, sit tibi pro pretioAttamen ut citius venias leviusque vehare.historiam, mimos, carmina linque domi.grande onus in musis: tot saecula condita chartis.quae sua vix tolerant tempora, nostra gravant.nobiscum invenies ἐπέων πολυμορφέα,γραμματικῶν τε πλοκὰσ καὶ,δάκτυλον ἡρῷον καὶ ἀοιδοπόλων,σὺν Θαλίησ κώμῳ σύρματα.σωταδικόν τε κίναιδον, ἰωνικὸν.Ῥυθμῶν Πινδαρικῶν ἔννομον.εὶλιπόδην σκάζοντα καὶ οὐ σκάζοντα.Ὀκτὼ Θουκυδίδου, ἐννέα.Ῥητορικῶν θάημα, σοφῶν ἐρικυδέα,πάντα μάλ' ὅσσ' ἐθέλεις, καὶ πλέον, εἴ κε.Hoc tibi de nostris ἀσπαστικὸν offero libris.vale; valere si voles me, iam veni.
O THOU, who with copious eloquence enrichest our ancient stores of wit, Tetradius, and takest heed that thy tart compositions be not gloomy and bereft of sweetness; who, blending gall and honey in thy verse, sufferest not thy Muses to grow dull, and flavourest alike what is insipid to the taste and what bitter to the palate; thou who outstrip'st the unpolished Muses of Suessa,3 yielding in age to them but not in style; why dost thou shun me, neighbour to the walls of Saintes, as of old the Roman youth tied from the Lucanian oxen 4 who renewed the battle with exceeding fury? Not like a tiger, not with lion's spring, but in fond love I seek thee out. J yearn to see my pupil's countenance and to enjoy the longed-for fruits of his mind. Reluctant hitherto I have gulped down the necessity which parted us in bygone days when Iculisma 5 kept thee hidden, once fettered with the heavy chains of teaching, and I would grudge that in so remote and lonely a spot the Muses' handiwork was concealed. But now —seeing thou flourishest amid throngs of famous men and not far hence, where the wind waits to thee my renown and talk of me rings in thine ears— why, puffing out thy chest with proud disdain, dost thou scorn me, a poet-consul, and to one who loves thee, admires thee, longs to enjoy thy verse, forgetfully show neglect and proud contempt? Thou shouldst be punished after thine own example, did not the loyalty of my heart, unmoved by time, love even the reluctant. Farewell. If thou wilt my welfare, whirl here forthwith with writing-case and all thy Muses.
O qui vetustos uberi facundiasales opimas, Tetradi,cavesque, ne sit tristis et dulci carensamara concinnatio;qui felle carmen atque melle temperanstorpere musas non sinispariterque fucas, quaeque gustu ignava sunt,et quae sapore tristia;rudes camenas qui Suessae praevenitaevoque cedis, non stilo:cur me propinquum Santonorum moenibusdeclinas, ut Lucas bovesolim resumpto praeferoces proeliofugit iuventus Romula?non ut tigris te, non leonis impetu,amore sed caro expeto.videre alumni gestio vultus meiet indole optata frui.invitus olim devoravi absentiaenecessitatem pristinae,quondam docendi munere adstrictum graviIculisma cum te absconderet,et invidebam devio ac solo locoopus camenarum tegi.at nunc — frequentes atque claros nec proculcum floreas inter virostibique nostras ventus auras deferatauresque sermo verberet — curme supino pectoris fastu tumensspernis poetam consulem,tuique amantem teque mirantem ac tuadesiderantem earminaoblitus alto neglegis fastidio?plectendus exemplo tuo,ni stabilis aevo pectoris nostri fidesquamquam recusantes amet.Vale. valere si voles me, pervolacum scrinio et musis tuis.
AFTER the delay caused by the copyists, I know that the pleasure caused by my promise has been outworn by hope deferred, most noble Probus; yet I count it good fortune that I have not broken my word. The Fables of Titianus 2 and the Chronicles of Nepos 3—as though they were further fables; for they, too, are like fairy tales—I now send your excellency, glad, nay exultant, that there will be something which my devotion and pains can contribute towards your children's education. To the little book of Fables, however, I have, in the zeal of my respect for you, taken the extreme liberty of prefixing a few verses—few at least as I judge, who am a man of words; though you, when you have read them, will think them all too many. I solemnly assure your good-natured self, who can vouch for my honour, that I gave vent to them on a sudden impulse. For who would need to ponder long over these? This, indeed, the verses themselves will confirm. It may be that, if I live long enough, I will fashion out some work on your career, rude craftsman though I am: even should you not be satisfied with the reading of it, you will take the writing in good part. And since 1 have copied Chocrilus in his madness, yon must pardon me with the generosity of Alexander.1 These verses then (to use Plautus' word 2) will serve meanwhile as “Foreword” to the Fables, wordy and treacherous though they are. Though put together to convey my dutiful compliments to you, they have rushed off with one accord to offend your ears. Farewell, and give me your good regard. Go forth, little book, to Sirmium, and to thy lord and mine bid hearty health and greeting. Thou knowest not, little book, who is that our lord? Or though thou knowest, dost thou love to hear what delights thee? I might tell thee outright, but for more pleasure I will talk in mazes and with speech drawn out get full enjoyment. Him 1 mean who, full eloquent, outstrips Atreus' younger son 3 in pleading with few but melodious words; who combines Ulysses' hail and Nestor's honeyed flow with Tully's utterance; who is the all-highest save the three Lords of Lords,1 and supreme in the Praetorium. Him I mean, the Senate's chief, prefect likewise and consul (for as consul he has endless fame as colleague of an Emperor-consul), prop of the Roman curule chair—first, though his authority is second in degree; for first of all citizens shall he be as consul, but second to the Prince. He, the survivor of the Golden Race, begetter of a golden progeny, refutes the sage of Ascra,2 showing this is no Iron Age, since, conquering Time's ravages, he renews the line of the Annii and has equal right to deck with fillets the Anician family-tree.3 Of Probus speak I: thou knowest him full well —whom none ever named in speech without first praising him.4 Go forth, my little book, there to enjoy boundless good fortune. And ask withal, if he will suffer thee to address him in humble tones: “Prithee, true son of Romulus, declare the reason of thy name. Was it thy conduct earned thee this name, or to this name hath thy rule of conduct conformed? Or of his fore-knowledge did the supreme Disposer of the world bid thee be called by a name expressive of the nature with which he created thee?” The name was given in his praise and for a token of his life. Ah, happy little book, that such a man will unroll thee on his knee and not complain that thou takest up the hours of his welcome leisure; that he will vouchsafe thee the tones of his honeyed voice or his soft whispers; that for thee the dear dark pupils of his eyes will deign to find leisure; that with mind and ear in unison he will read thee through, some pages skipped. Whate'er thy fortune, go forth, little book, and enjoy thy boundless happiness. Say that I fare well and live, say that I live as I devoutly asked, praying with hallowed words that, as the last consulship made him colleague of the son, so again Augustus the sire 1 will renown him with partnership in his own honours. This also gently add: “Lo, from the very borders of the Rhine Ausonius, Italian of name,2 tutor of thy belov'd Augustus, sends thee these Fables, by Aesop writ in trimeters, but rendered in simple style and adapted into prose by Titianus, artist in words; that hereby he who is his father's and grandfather's pride, sprung from the mingled strains of the Probi and Anicii—as of old in Alba town the last scion of Aeneas' stock united the lines of Silvius 1 and Iulus—so he who is thy offspring, flower of the flowerlets of Rome, amid nurse's tales and drowsy strains of lullaby, may become versed in fables, growing used to play and learn at the same time.” Thereto add this prayer which I, though sinful, have addressed to the all-loving God: “Even as Augustus the sire hath made Probus colleague to his son, so may Gratian link this new Probus with his offspring which shall be.” Fulfilled hereafter shall be the words 1 speak: the worth of Probus' deeds demands it so. But now, that Julius 2 may speak, though all unwilling make an end of words, swift - footed dimeter, and having said “hail,” say now “farewell!”
oblata per antiquarios mora scio promissi mei gratiam expectatione consumptam, Probe, vir optime; in secundis tamen habeo non fefellisse, apologos Titiani et Nepotis chronica quasi alios apologos (nam et ipsa instar sunt fabularum) ad nobilitatem tuam misi. gaudens atque etiam glorians fore aliquid, quod ad institutionem tuorum sedulitatis meae studio conteratur. Libello tamen apologorum antetuli paucos epodos. studio in te observantiae meae impudentissimo. paucos quidem, ut ego loquax iudico; verum tu, cum legens, etiam nimium multos putabis, adiuro benevolentiam tuam, verecundiae meae testem, eos mihi subita persuasione duxisse, nam quis hos diu cogitaret? quod sane ipsi per se probabunt, fors fuat, ut si milli vita suppetet, aliquid rerum tuarum quamvis incultus expoliam: quod tu etsi lectum non probes, scriptum boni consules, eumque ego imitatus sim vesaniam Choerili, tu ignoscas magnanimitate Alexandri. Hi igitur, ut Plautus ait, interim erunt antelogium fabularum, garruli et deceptores. qui compositi ad honorificentiae obsequium, ad aurium convicium concurrerunt, vale et me dilige.Perge, o libelle, Sirmiumet dic ero meo ac tuohave atque salve plurimum.quis iste sit nobis erus,nescis, libelle? an, cum scias.libenter audis, quod iuvat?possem absolute dicere,sed dulcius circumloquardiuque fando perfruar.hunc dico, qui lingua potensminorem Atridam praeteritorando pauca et musica:qui grandines Ulixeiet mel fluentem Nestoraconcinnat ore Tulli;qui solus exceptis tribuseris erorum primus estpraetorioque maximus.dico hune senati praesulem,praefectum eundem et consulem(nam consul aeternum cluetcollega Augusti consulis),columen eurulis Romulaeprimum in secundis fascibus;nam primus e cunctis eritconsul, secundus principi.Generi hic superstes aureosatorque prolis aureaeconvincit Ascraeum senem,non esse saeelum ferreum,qui vincit aevi iniuriamstirpis novator Aoniaeparibusque comit infulisAniciorum stemmata.Probum loquor: scis optime,quem nemo fando dixerit,qui non prius laudaverit.perge, o libelle, et uterefelicitate intermina.Quin et require, si sinettenore fari obnoxio:“Age vera proles Romuli,effare causam nominis,utrumne mores hoc tuinomen dedere, an nomen hocsecuta morum regula?an ille venturi sciensmundi supremus arbiter,qualem creavit moribus,iussit vocari nomine?”Nomen datum praeconiisvitaeque testimonio,libelle felix, quem sinuvir tantus evolvet suonec occupari temporagrato queretur otio,quem melleae vocis modisleni aut susurro impertiet,cui nigellac luminumvacare dignabunt corae,quem mente et aure consciis,quibusdam omissis, perleget:Quaecumque fortuna est tibi.perge, o libelle, et uterefelicitate intermina.dic me valere et vivere,dic vivere ex voto pio,sanctis precantem vocibus,ut, quem curulis proximacollegio nati dedit,hunc rursus Augustus priorsuis perennet fascibus,subnecte et illud leniter:“Apologos en misit tibiab usque Rheni limiteAusonius, nomen Italum,praeceptor Augusti tui,Aesopiam trimetriam,quam vertit exili stilopedestre concinnans opusfandi Titianus artifex;ut hinc avi ac patris decus,mixto resurgens sanguine,probiano itemque Anicio,ut quondam in Albae moenibussupremus Aenea satusSilvios lulis miscuit,sic iste, qui natus tui,Hos flosculorum Romuli,nutricis inter lemmatalallique somniferos modossuescat peritus fabulissimul et iocari et discere.”His adde votum, quod pioconcepimus rei deo:“Ut genitor Augustus deditcollegio nati Probum,sic Gratianus hunc novumstirpi futurae copulet.”rata sunt futura, quae loquor:sic merita factorum iubent.Set iam ut loquatur Iulius,fandi modum invita accipe,volucripes dimetria,haveque dicto dic vale.
FULLEST enjoyment of a sweet distinction for thee were this—to have an auspicious gift from Imperial hands: next—though far inferior in degree—that thy quaestor-friend took tireless pains to gain thy New Strenae were New Year's presents given for the sake of good omen, and such were regularly distributed by the Emperors: see Suetonius, Aug. 57, Tib. 34. Year's bounty. Therefore of royal coinage, of Philippes d'or 1 waylaid by me receive as many as two Geryons; as three pair of horses, or as the Muses less one-third their band, or as those stars of the Zodiac that are above the earth; as many as the heroes to whom were committed the destinies of Rome and Alba,2 or as the hours wherein thou dost teach 3 or wherein thou dost rest at home; as many as the jarring gates which open on one half of the circus, excepting that which looks along the axis of the course; A as many as the feet whereon bees and Homer's verses move, or as the hours of the tide's flow and ebb; as many as the dramatic plots put on the stage by him who rests in the midst of Arcadia's bosom,5 or as the angles which the geometric figure of the honey-cell forms by the meeting of its extreme and intervening sides;6 as many as that which is approved the one and only perfect number;7 as that which consists equally of odd and even numbers, which alone unites in itself twice three and thrice two—the only number which, if doubled, contains as many units as the numbers 8 above it and below when added contain, and as the joint total of the Hyades and Pleiades. 9 So many sovereigns take as thy New Year's gift, Ursulus, famed as colleague of Harmonius— Harmonius, whom Claranus,1 whom Scaurus and Asper,2 whom Varro would rank as his equal, or Crates3 in earlier days, or he who gathered the mangled limbs of sacred Homer;4 or who placed symbols to mark out spurious verses:5 Harmonius, glory alike of the Attic and the Latin Muse, who alone dost mingle wine of Chios and Aminaea. 6
PRIMUS iucundi foret 1 hic tibi fructus honorisAugustae faustum munus habere manus:proximus ex longo gradus est quaestoris amicicuram pro strenis excubuisse tuis.ergo interceptos regale nomisma Philipposaccipe tot numero, quot duo Geryones;quot terni biiuges demptoque triente Camenaequotque super terram sidera zodiaci;quot commissa viris Romana Albanaque fataquotque doces horis quotque domi resides;ostia quot pro parte aperit stridentia circusexcepto, medium quod patet ad stadium;quot pedibus gradiuntur apes et versus Homeriquotque horis pelagus profluit aut refluit;protulit in scaenam quot dramata fabellarum,Arcadiae medio qui iacet in gremio,vel quot iuncturas geometrica forma favorumconserit extremis omnibus et mediis;quot telios primus numerus solusque probatur;quot par atque impar partibus aequiperat,bis ternos et ter binos qui conserit unus,qui solus totidem congeminatus habet,quot faciunt iuneti subterque supraque locati;qui numerant Hyadas Pleiadasque simul.⟨Tot numero auratos pro strenis accipe nummos 1⟩Ursule collega nobilis Harmonio,Harmonio, quem Claranus, quem Scaurus et Asper,quem sibi conferret Varro priorque Cratesquique sacri lacerum collegit corpus Homeriquique notas spuriis versibus adposuit:Cecropiae commune decus Latiaeque camenae,solus qui Chium miscet et Ammineum.
AUSONIUS, whose rod now overawes a sceptre, sends greeting to rustic Theon at Médoc. What dost thou, dwelling on earth's farthest verge, poetic tiller of the sands, who must plough the shore next Ocean's border and the setting sun, whom a poor hovel, thatched with reeds, confines, and a peasant's hut smothers with sooty smoke that brings tears to the eyes? What can the Muses be doing, and songster Apollo—Muses not sprung from Helicon nor from the Horse's Spring,7 but those which, springing from Clementinus' eloquent breast, inspire empty-headed bards with borrowed thoughts? And rightly so: for who would rather have verses called his when he can safely rend thee with his laughter?8 These verses also, lest they may force my blushes, do thou recite: and truly they will easily seem thy very words. Yet what life dost thou pursue on the coasts of Médoc? Art busy trafficking, snapping up for a dipped coinage goods presently to be sold in dear salerooms at outrageous prices—as balls of sickly tallow, greasy lumps of wax, Narycian 1 pitch, torn paper, and rank-smoking torches, your country lights? Or art thou busy about greater matters, chasing the thieves who roam through all thy neighbourhood, until they fear the worst and invite thee to share their spoils? Dost thou through tenderness and hatred of bloodshed compound felonies for cash, call them mistakes, levy fines for cattle rieved, and leave the part of judge to share the crime? Or with thy brother amid impenetrable thickets dost thou surround the wandering harts with mesh and feathers 2 in wide circle? Or dost thou urge on with shouts the foaming boar's career and lay wait for the monster? Yet I warn thee ever to avoid wielding thy spear at close quarters with a bolt-like foe. Take warning from thy brother, who pulls back his clothes displaying ugly scars near his privy parts, and bares his breech to show how awkwardly 'twas pierced. Then to display his wounds he Hits away to be admired by Gedippa, and his friend Ur-sinus, and Jovinus' young hopeful, and Taurinus who ranks him with ancient heroes such as was the Calydonian conqueror 3 of the boar in Olenus, or the Attic stripling 4 victorious o'er the Erymanthian5 monster. But do thou give up the chase and shun the well-known tragedies of the woods, lest thou be as the son of Cinyras and become a second Adonis for Venus to mourn. Like him, assuredly, fair-haired and snowy-white of arms, thou dost let stream ruddy locks over a gleaming neck; like him soft of breast, like him slender as a reed with shapely body, dost thou pass lower into smoothly curving hips and shining ankles, beauteous from top to toe 1—even such as of old the ravisher in flowery Aetna, who from amid maiden throngs carried off Deo's daughter —Orcus, arisen from his Stygian furnaces! Or, because thou avoidest the chase by reason of such great dangers, does zeal for fishing draw thee? For all the gear at Dunmitonus is wont to display such treasures as the knotty wraps of Nereus' creatures, casting-nets, drag-nets, lines with rustic names, wears, and stitched hooks for earthworms.2 On this outfit dost thou proudly rely? The whole house is rich to overflowing with the spoils of the seashore. From the waves are brought home sturgeon,3 the deadly sting-ray, soft tender plaice, bitter tunnies,4 spindle-fish 5 ill-guarded by their spines, and grayling which will not keep above twice three hours. Or dost thou delight to outrage with thy versos the songful daughters of Mnemosyne, be they sisters three or eight?0 And since we are come to this, it thou wouldst learn what is midway between learned verse and verse ridiculous, take this trumped-up rubbish, this trifling mystery, though with the sheet unrolled thou wilt not be able to comprehend it unless thou dost purge thy wits ten times over with vinegar seasoned with squills,1 or at Anticyra drink in the sagacity of the Samian nabob.2 Or let thy interpreter come to thy aid, he who read my riddles and revealed to thee the secret of “Cadmus' little darky-girls, Melo's white page, the marks of the swart cuttlefish, and the knots of C nidos.” 3 Let him now come to thy help, and certainly once appointed literary dictator, he will worry out forthwith what I write playfully. I am making up verses, Master Poet, well known to thee, and which thou knowest are called hendecasyllables, though thou knowest not that they move to three measures. Those were composed by Phalaecus 4 of old, in which a penthemimeris is followed by a half-foot after two iambi. Others are so formed from a mutilated hexameter that the penthemimeris is placed first, and then, what left after the bucolic caesura. There are also those which the girl Sappho brought forth, where first reigns a second hippius, leaving an antibacchius to cap a choriambus. But thou wilt no longer be able to learn, Theon, and 'tis not lawful for me, a royal schoolmaster, to teach prosody to common clay. But forthwith produce what I demand. I ask for naught but what thy notebooks hold and unsoiled sheets contain. If thou, Sir Poet, wilt pay me this trifle, all Vacuna 1 do I cede to thee outright, and no more hereafter shalt thou dread the universal cry: “This is that feigned poet, Theon, the bad Laverna2 of good poetry.”
AUSONIUS, cuius ferulam nunc sceptra verentur,paganum Medulis iubeo salvere Theonem.Quid geris extremis positus telluris in oris,cultor harenarum vates, cui litus arandumoceani finem iuxta solemque cadentem,vilis harundineis cohibet quem pergula tectiset tinguit piceo lacrimosa colonica fumo?quid rerum Musaeque gerunt et cantor Apollo — Musaenon Helicone satae nec fonte caballi,set quae facundo de pectore Clementiniinspirant vacuos aliena mente poetas?iure quidem: nam quis malit sua carmina dici,qui te securo possit proscindcre risu?haec quoque ne nostrum possint urgere pudorem,tu recita, et vere poterunt tua dicta videri.Quam tamen exerces Medulorum in litore vitam?mereatusne agitas leviore nomismate captans,insanis quod mox pretiis gravis auctio vendat — albentissevi globulos et pinguia ceraepondera Naryciamque picem scissamque papyrumfumantesque olidum, paganica lumina, taedas?An maiora gerens tota regione vagantespersequeris fures, qui te postrema timentesin partem praedamque vocent? tu mitis et osorsanguinis humani condonas crimina nummiserroremque vocas pretiumque inponis abactisbubus et in partem scelerum de iudice transis?An cum fratre vagos dumeta per avia cervoscircumdas maculis et multa indagine pinnae?aut spumantis apri cursum clamoribus urgessubsidisque fero? moneo tamen, usque recusesstringere fulminco venabula comminus hosti,exemplum de fratre time, qui veste reductaostentat foedas prope turpia membra lacunasperfossasque uates vicino podice nudat.inde ostentator volitat, mirentur ut ipsumGedippa Ursinusque suus prolesque lovinitaurinusque ipsum priscis heroibus aequalis,qualis in Olcnio victor Calydonius aproaut Erymantheo1 pubes fuit Attica monstro.Set tu parce feris venatibus et fuge notacrimina silvarum, ne sis Cinyreia prolesaccedasque iterum Veneri plorandus Adonis,sic certe crinem flavus niveusque lacertoscaesariem rutilam per candida colla refundis,pectore sic tenero, plana sic iunceus alvo,per teretes feminum gyros surasque nitentesdescendis, talos a vertice pulcher ad imos — qualisfloricoma quondam populator in Aetnavirgineas inter choreas Deoida raptamsustulit emersus Stygiis fornacibus Orcus.An, quia venatus ob tanta pericula vitas,piscandi trahens studio? nam tota supellexDumnitoni tales solita est ostendere gazas,nodosas vestes animantum Nerinorumet iacula et fundas et, nomina vilica. Linacolaque et insutos terrenis vermibus hamos.his opibus confise tumes? domus omnis abundalitoreis dives spoliis, referuntur ab undacorroco, letalis trygon mollesque platessae,urentes thynni et male teeti spina elacati 1nec duraturi post bina trihoria corvi.An te carminibus iuvat incestare canorasMnemosyncs natas, aut tris aut octo sorores?et quoniam huc ventum, si vis agnoscere, quid sitinter doctrinam deridendasque camenas,accipe congestas, mysteria frivola, nugas,quas tamen explicitis nequeas deprendere chartis,scillite decies nisi cor purgeris acetoAnticyraeve bibas 1 Samii Lucumonis acumen.aut adsit interpres tuus,aenigmatum qui cognitorfuit meorum, cum tibiCadmi nigellas filias,Melonis albam paginamnotasque furvae sepiaeGnidiosque nodos prodidit.nunc adsit et certe, modopraesul creatus litteris,enucleabit protinusquod lusitantes scribimus.Notos fingo tibi, poeta, versus,quos scis hendecasyllabos vocari,set nescis modulis tribus moveri,istos conposuit Phalaecus olim.qui penthemimeren habent prioremet post semipedem duos iambos.sunt quos hexametri creant revulsi,ut penthemimeres prior locetur,tum quod bucolice tome relinquit.sunt et quos generat puella Sappho:quos primus regit hippius secundus,ut eludat choriambon antibacchus.set iam non poteris, Theon, doceri,nec fas est mihi regio magistroplebeiam numeros docere pulpam.Verum protinus ede, quod requiro,nil quaero, nisi quod libris teneturet quod non opicae tegunt papyri,quas si solvens, o poeta, nugas,totam trado tibi simul Vacunam,nec iam post metues ubique dictum:“Hic est ille Theon poeta falsus,bonorum mala carminum Laverna.”