Ennodius: IN NOMINE PATRIS ET FILII ET SPIRITUS SANCTI INCIPIT PANEGYRICUS DICTUS CLEMENTISSIMO REGI THEODERICO AB ENNODIO DEI FAMULO.
Ennodius•IN NOMINE PATRIS ET FILII ET SPIRITUS SANCTI INCIPIT PANEGYRICUS DICTUS CLEMENTISSIMO REGI THEODERICO AB ENNODIO DEI FAMULO.
Abbo Floriacensis1 work
Abelard3 works
Addison9 works
Adso Dervensis1 work
Aelredus Rievallensis1 work
Alanus de Insulis2 works
Albert of Aix1 work
HISTORIA HIEROSOLYMITANAE EXPEDITIONIS12 sections
Albertano of Brescia5 works
DE AMORE ET DILECTIONE DEI4 sections
SERMONES4 sections
Alcuin9 works
Alfonsi1 work
Ambrose4 works
Ambrosius4 works
Ammianus1 work
Ampelius1 work
Andrea da Bergamo1 work
Andreas Capellanus1 work
DE AMORE LIBRI TRES3 sections
Annales Regni Francorum1 work
Annales Vedastini1 work
Annales Xantenses1 work
Anonymus Neveleti1 work
Anonymus Valesianus2 works
Apicius1 work
DE RE COQUINARIA5 sections
Appendix Vergiliana1 work
Apuleius2 works
METAMORPHOSES12 sections
DE DOGMATE PLATONIS6 sections
Aquinas6 works
Archipoeta1 work
Arnobius1 work
ADVERSVS NATIONES LIBRI VII7 sections
Arnulf of Lisieux1 work
Asconius1 work
Asserius1 work
Augustine5 works
CONFESSIONES13 sections
DE CIVITATE DEI23 sections
DE TRINITATE15 sections
CONTRA SECUNDAM IULIANI RESPONSIONEM2 sections
Augustus1 work
RES GESTAE DIVI AVGVSTI2 sections
Aurelius Victor1 work
LIBER ET INCERTORVM LIBRI3 sections
Ausonius2 works
Avianus1 work
Avienus2 works
Bacon3 works
HISTORIA REGNI HENRICI SEPTIMI REGIS ANGLIAE11 sections
Balde2 works
Baldo1 work
Bebel1 work
Bede2 works
HISTORIAM ECCLESIASTICAM GENTIS ANGLORUM7 sections
Benedict1 work
Berengar1 work
Bernard of Clairvaux1 work
Bernard of Cluny1 work
DE CONTEMPTU MUNDI LIBRI DUO2 sections
Biblia Sacra3 works
VETUS TESTAMENTUM49 sections
NOVUM TESTAMENTUM27 sections
Bigges1 work
Boethius de Dacia2 works
Bonaventure1 work
Breve Chronicon Northmannicum1 work
Buchanan1 work
Bultelius2 works
Caecilius Balbus1 work
Caesar3 works
COMMENTARIORUM LIBRI VII DE BELLO GALLICO CUM A. HIRTI SUPPLEMENTO8 sections
COMMENTARIORUM LIBRI III DE BELLO CIVILI3 sections
LIBRI INCERTORUM AUCTORUM3 sections
Calpurnius Flaccus1 work
Calpurnius Siculus1 work
Campion8 works
Carmen Arvale1 work
Carmen de Martyrio1 work
Carmen in Victoriam1 work
Carmen Saliare1 work
Carmina Burana1 work
Cassiodorus5 works
Catullus1 work
Censorinus1 work
Christian Creeds1 work
Cicero3 works
ORATORIA33 sections
PHILOSOPHIA21 sections
EPISTULAE4 sections
Cinna Helvius1 work
Claudian4 works
Claudii Oratio1 work
Claudius Caesar1 work
Columbus1 work
Columella2 works
Commodianus3 works
Conradus Celtis2 works
Constitutum Constantini1 work
Contemporary9 works
Cotta1 work
Dante4 works
Dares the Phrygian1 work
de Ave Phoenice1 work
De Expugnatione Terrae Sanctae per Saladinum1 work
Declaratio Arbroathis1 work
Decretum Gelasianum1 work
Descartes1 work
Dies Irae1 work
Disticha Catonis1 work
Egeria1 work
ITINERARIUM PEREGRINATIO2 sections
Einhard1 work
Ennius1 work
Epistolae Austrasicae1 work
Epistulae de Priapismo1 work
Erasmus7 works
Erchempert1 work
Eucherius1 work
Eugippius1 work
Eutropius1 work
BREVIARIVM HISTORIAE ROMANAE10 sections
Exurperantius1 work
Fabricius Montanus1 work
Falcandus1 work
Falcone di Benevento1 work
Ficino1 work
Fletcher1 work
Florus1 work
EPITOME DE T. LIVIO BELLORUM OMNIUM ANNORUM DCC LIBRI DUO2 sections
Foedus Aeternum1 work
Forsett2 works
Fredegarius1 work
Frodebertus & Importunus1 work
Frontinus3 works
STRATEGEMATA4 sections
DE AQUAEDUCTU URBIS ROMAE2 sections
OPUSCULA RERUM RUSTICARUM4 sections
Fulgentius3 works
MITOLOGIARUM LIBRI TRES3 sections
Gaius4 works
Galileo1 work
Garcilaso de la Vega1 work
Gaudeamus Igitur1 work
Gellius1 work
Germanicus1 work
Gesta Francorum10 works
Gesta Romanorum1 work
Gioacchino da Fiore1 work
Godfrey of Winchester2 works
Grattius1 work
Gregorii Mirabilia Urbis Romae1 work
Gregorius Magnus1 work
Gregory IX5 works
Gregory of Tours1 work
LIBRI HISTORIARUM10 sections
Gregory the Great1 work
Gregory VII1 work
Gwinne8 works
Henry of Settimello1 work
Henry VII1 work
Historia Apolloni1 work
Historia Augusta30 works
Historia Brittonum1 work
Holberg1 work
Horace3 works
SERMONES2 sections
CARMINA4 sections
EPISTULAE5 sections
Hugo of St. Victor2 works
Hydatius2 works
Hyginus3 works
Hymni1 work
Hymni et cantica1 work
Iacobus de Voragine1 work
LEGENDA AUREA24 sections
Ilias Latina1 work
Iordanes2 works
Isidore of Seville3 works
ETYMOLOGIARVM SIVE ORIGINVM LIBRI XX20 sections
SENTENTIAE LIBRI III3 sections
Iulius Obsequens1 work
Iulius Paris1 work
Ius Romanum4 works
Janus Secundus2 works
Johann H. Withof1 work
Johann P. L. Withof1 work
Johannes de Alta Silva1 work
Johannes de Plano Carpini1 work
John of Garland1 work
Jordanes2 works
Julius Obsequens1 work
Junillus1 work
Justin1 work
HISTORIARVM PHILIPPICARVM T. POMPEII TROGI LIBRI XLIV IN EPITOMEN REDACTI46 sections
Justinian3 works
INSTITVTIONES5 sections
CODEX12 sections
DIGESTA50 sections
Juvenal1 work
Kepler1 work
Landor4 works
Laurentius Corvinus2 works
Legenda Regis Stephani1 work
Leo of Naples1 work
HISTORIA DE PRELIIS ALEXANDRI MAGNI3 sections
Leo the Great1 work
SERMONES DE QUADRAGESIMA2 sections
Liber Kalilae et Dimnae1 work
Liber Pontificalis1 work
Livius Andronicus1 work
Livy1 work
AB VRBE CONDITA LIBRI37 sections
Lotichius1 work
Lucan1 work
DE BELLO CIVILI SIVE PHARSALIA10 sections
Lucretius1 work
DE RERVM NATVRA LIBRI SEX6 sections
Lupus Protospatarius Barensis1 work
Macarius of Alexandria1 work
Macarius the Great1 work
Magna Carta1 work
Maidstone1 work
Malaterra1 work
DE REBUS GESTIS ROGERII CALABRIAE ET SICILIAE COMITIS ET ROBERTI GUISCARDI DUCIS FRATRIS EIUS4 sections
Manilius1 work
ASTRONOMICON5 sections
Marbodus Redonensis1 work
Marcellinus Comes2 works
Martial1 work
Martin of Braga13 works
Marullo1 work
Marx1 work
Maximianus1 work
May1 work
SUPPLEMENTUM PHARSALIAE8 sections
Melanchthon4 works
Milton1 work
Minucius Felix1 work
Mirabilia Urbis Romae1 work
Mirandola1 work
CARMINA9 sections
Miscellanea Carminum42 works
Montanus1 work
Naevius1 work
Navagero1 work
Nemesianus1 work
ECLOGAE4 sections
Nepos3 works
LIBER DE EXCELLENTIBUS DVCIBUS EXTERARVM GENTIVM24 sections
Newton1 work
PHILOSOPHIÆ NATURALIS PRINCIPIA MATHEMATICA4 sections
Nithardus1 work
HISTORIARUM LIBRI QUATTUOR4 sections
Notitia Dignitatum2 works
Novatian1 work
Origo gentis Langobardorum1 work
Orosius1 work
HISTORIARUM ADVERSUM PAGANOS LIBRI VII7 sections
Otto of Freising1 work
GESTA FRIDERICI IMPERATORIS5 sections
Ovid7 works
METAMORPHOSES15 sections
AMORES3 sections
HEROIDES21 sections
ARS AMATORIA3 sections
TRISTIA5 sections
EX PONTO4 sections
Owen1 work
Papal Bulls4 works
Pascoli5 works
Passerat1 work
Passio Perpetuae1 work
Patricius1 work
Tome I: Panaugia2 sections
Paulinus Nolensis1 work
Paulus Diaconus4 works
Persius1 work
Pervigilium Veneris1 work
Petronius2 works
Petrus Blesensis1 work
Petrus de Ebulo1 work
Phaedrus2 works
FABVLARVM AESOPIARVM LIBRI QVINQVE5 sections
Phineas Fletcher1 work
Planctus destructionis1 work
Plautus21 works
Pliny the Younger2 works
EPISTVLARVM LIBRI DECEM10 sections
Poggio Bracciolini1 work
Pomponius Mela1 work
DE CHOROGRAPHIA3 sections
Pontano1 work
Poree1 work
Porphyrius1 work
Precatio Terrae1 work
Priapea1 work
Professio Contra Priscillianum1 work
Propertius1 work
ELEGIAE4 sections
Prosperus3 works
Prudentius2 works
Pseudoplatonica12 works
Publilius Syrus1 work
Quintilian2 works
INSTITUTIONES12 sections
Raoul of Caen1 work
Regula ad Monachos1 work
Reposianus1 work
Ricardi de Bury1 work
Richerus1 work
HISTORIARUM LIBRI QUATUOR4 sections
Rimbaud1 work
Ritchie's Fabulae Faciles1 work
Roman Epitaphs1 work
Roman Inscriptions1 work
Ruaeus1 work
Ruaeus' Aeneid1 work
Rutilius Lupus1 work
Rutilius Namatianus1 work
Sabinus1 work
EPISTULAE TRES AD OVIDIANAS EPISTULAS RESPONSORIAE3 sections
Sallust10 works
Sannazaro2 works
Scaliger1 work
Sedulius2 works
CARMEN PASCHALE5 sections
Seneca9 works
EPISTULAE MORALES AD LUCILIUM16 sections
QUAESTIONES NATURALES7 sections
DE CONSOLATIONE3 sections
DE IRA3 sections
DE BENEFICIIS3 sections
DIALOGI7 sections
FABULAE8 sections
Septem Sapientum1 work
Sidonius Apollinaris2 works
Sigebert of Gembloux3 works
Silius Italicus1 work
Solinus2 works
DE MIRABILIBUS MUNDI Mommsen 1st edition (1864)4 sections
DE MIRABILIBUS MUNDI C.L.F. Panckoucke edition (Paris 1847)4 sections
Spinoza1 work
Statius3 works
THEBAID12 sections
ACHILLEID2 sections
Stephanus de Varda1 work
Suetonius2 works
Sulpicia1 work
Sulpicius Severus2 works
CHRONICORUM LIBRI DUO2 sections
Syrus1 work
Tacitus5 works
Terence6 works
Tertullian32 works
Testamentum Porcelli1 work
Theodolus1 work
Theodosius16 works
Theophanes1 work
Thomas à Kempis1 work
DE IMITATIONE CHRISTI4 sections
Thomas of Edessa1 work
Tibullus1 work
TIBVLLI ALIORVMQUE CARMINVM LIBRI TRES3 sections
Tünger1 work
Valerius Flaccus1 work
Valerius Maximus1 work
FACTORVM ET DICTORVM MEMORABILIVM LIBRI NOVEM9 sections
Vallauri1 work
Varro2 works
RERVM RVSTICARVM DE AGRI CVLTURA3 sections
DE LINGVA LATINA7 sections
Vegetius1 work
EPITOMA REI MILITARIS LIBRI IIII4 sections
Velleius Paterculus1 work
HISTORIAE ROMANAE2 sections
Venantius Fortunatus1 work
Vico1 work
Vida1 work
Vincent of Lérins1 work
Virgil3 works
AENEID12 sections
ECLOGUES10 sections
GEORGICON4 sections
Vita Agnetis1 work
Vita Caroli IV1 work
Vita Sancti Columbae2 works
Vitruvius1 work
DE ARCHITECTVRA10 sections
Waardenburg1 work
Waltarius3 works
Walter Mapps2 works
Walter of Châtillon1 work
William of Apulia1 work
William of Conches2 works
William of Tyre1 work
HISTORIA RERUM IN PARTIBUS TRANSMARINIS GESTARUM24 sections
Xylander1 work
Zonaras1 work
I. Illi, princeps venerabilis, in laudibus tuis perscribat professio, illum a praeconiis propositi repellat consideratio, quem a defensione tua aliquod subtraxit officium. refundat tibi generalitas rebus obligata sermonem, dum inaequalis vicissitudo conpensat laudibus, quod adepta est de sudore. armis tuis libertas obnoxia, quod solum potest, hilaritatem didicit adnuntiare praeconiis.
1. Let that one, venerable prince, the profession set forth in your praises; let consideration repel him from the proclamations of the proposed purpose, him whom some duty has withdrawn from your defense. Let the generality, bound by affairs, repay you with speech, while unequal vicissitude offsets with praises what it has gained by sweat. Freedom, subject to your arms — which alone can do so — has learned to announce cheerfulness to the heralds.
It is yours, illustrious one, to give a price to devotion, which you understand the powers of your subjects cannot transcend. It will belong to the sacred dispensation to appraise concerning the servants what you demand, in whom you recognize all the military force that prevails for you. May your majesty deign a literary oblation to the altars with your own hand; and so that the brightness of works may not grow old, exercises in languages must be summoned.
Let what you have done, lest antiquity claim it for itself, be bound by the chain of transmitters; for you will grant the repose of the disciplines, through which eternity will befall you. The heavenly dispenser of the secret asks nothing further of human minds than that they understand from what author that which they know comes. Among those nearest to God, to have acknowledged what he has bestowed is to have rendered a beneficium.
what descends from on high may rightly be appraised only by the wage of hymns. the fabricator of the world, to the better gifts modulated thence, in the sacrarium of the world’s breast the chief laudation ought to flow forth; nor does the commemoration of thy numen demand only the polish of the tongue, but must be attested to a good conscience. in divine obsequies, with the mouth at rest, a serene mind carries out the sacrifice; age, fortified by clarity in the aetherial cult, even mute renders its observance.
II. Salve nunc, regum maxime, in cuius domino saporem suum ingenuitatis vigor agnovit. salve, status reipublicae: nam nefas est, speciatim a te simul conlata narrare et unius bona temporis verborum divisione discernere. si bella regis mei numerem, tot invenio quot triumphos.
II. Hail now, greatest of kings, in whose lord the vigour of ingenuousness has recognised its savour. Hail, status of the republic: for it is wrong, especially, to recount together things bestowed by you and to distinguish the goods of a single time by a division of words. If I number the wars of my king, I find as many as there are triumphs.
To your muster no enemy met, save one who was added to the praises; he fought with trophies who resisted your will. For always either the conquered man bestowed glory on your piety, or he who presumed furnished weapons to virtue. He who beheld you in the line of battle was overcome: he who beheld you in peace feared nothing.
nor did the venerable promise falter amid prosperities, nor did vigor in battles suffer delay. your path, walled about by many an obstacle, saw daily victories and brought no harms to the departure: thus cut off by the enemy's ranks, so as to deny access; thus revealed by your impulse, as if the enemies' providence did no hurt. if these things are to be ascribed to your felicity, the prince's dowry is full: more august by every honor, if by toil.
First, undertaking all contests against nature with your right hand, lest any hope of resistance be left to your enemies, you subjected to yourself, in the place of prince, the various laws of the heavens, the bulwarks of the lands, the proud courses of rivers. I would lie if ever heat or cold presented an impediment to your dispositions, if the swelling of the surge, if the necessity of drinking constrained you, if the ridges of the Alps, their convex elevation of the sky joined to your courses, brought slowness. Those whom it found with the fortifications of their places overthrown did not know how to resist: for interrupted defenses make secure those whom they protect, and with minds loosened in leisure live those who have possessed safer positions.
Against you neither the country habitation brought forth equals, nor did the pathless places that enfolded any—unless they stood as suppliants—withdraw them from depredation. Placed in your possession, he displayed riches without fear; nor did he aid a rebel if he was revealed as poor. No one was delivered from your indignation except by humility, when he who had begged had been advanced into the number of allies.
The cold of Scythia is not unknown to you, nor do you ignore Meroen or Auhelem, the Crab washed by the waves, as another possessor of the orb; you learned all things by subduing them which for us scarcely opened even to hearing. These indeed are greater than any man, but he who is prepared for the gubernacula of the world must be established to all the cardines. -- Too swiftly I seized the season of mature praise, and as if even the river of a torrent should flag at its beginnings for lack of genius, so through a hunger for narration I invaded the fruits of full age.
He seeks orders of laurels, who is surpassed both by their swiftness and by their number. More quickly at your hand, most unconquered one, the insignia which we have set forth have been fulfilled than they can be spoken. Who will endure dulness in the telling of his deeds, which he did not endure in the doing?
III. Educavit te in gremio civilitatis Graecia praesaga venturi: quem ita ingressum vitae limen erudivit, ut dum adhuc de puero haberet hilaritatem, mox eam sequeretur securitas de tutore. adhuc in cano flore degebas adulescentiae nec virtutum messem lacteus ante experimentum culmus attulerat, adhuc blan da erat imago pubescentis nec tingens faciem lanugo vestibat: quando aevi purpura et flosculus supervenientis inperii promittebat sollicitis de gratiae conmutatione terrorem, cum ad probationem roboris et clementiae tuae ruptis vinculis furor emicuit et evisceratas diuturna quiete mentes occasionis pabulo subiugavit.
3. Greece, prescient of what was to come, reared you in the bosom of civility: which so instructed your entrance upon the threshold of life that, while it still possessed the cheerfulness of boyhood, soon a security from a guardian would follow it. You yet dwelt in the hoary bloom of youth, nor had the milky stalk before trial brought a harvest of virtues; still the bland image of the adolescent remained, and the down that tints the face did not clothe it: when the purple of age and the little blossom of the coming empire promised to the anxious a terror at the change of favor, — for, to test your strength and clemency, with bonds broken madness sprang forth and, minds laid bare, subdued them by long quiet to be fodder for opportunity.
Immediately the principal reverence for the city was driven out and a tyrant, admitted by no blood, entered into an empty possession. He, having obtained the aula, settled himself; after he had overcome his enemies by fear, there remained nothing further for him to bear: when the light of nature, without the suffrage of years, instilled courage into your spirits, lest either a better cause should be subjugated to you when set before it, or you should not render in due time the beneficium of necessity that you had received in peace. At the very gates of your congression the invader yielded, when, as a fugitive through you, the sceptra were restored to one doubting of his safety.
let us turn over histories, let the annals be questioned: among them stood the cast-off of exile — whom, by his own blood, the king, born, had bought — the principate? the camply glory is scattered by the sharing of the squadrons, and that which has come by the conlation of many cannot be referred to one. the singular fruit of good is the bridle of ambition, especially at that time when you can retain what has been acquired without damage to reputation.
IV. Iam tunc in ius tuum se palatia ipsa contulerunt; nemo credidit non te posse ad quem voluisses transferre quod reddideras. sed parcus in exigendis praemiis, quasi sufficerent ad vicissitudinem operum tuorum, fasces accepisti, non quo tibi accederet genius de curuli, sed ut de te pretium palmata mereretur. quis hanc civilitatem credat inter familiares tibi vivere plena executione virtutes?
4. Even then the palaces themselves had presented themselves to your jurisdiction; no one believed that you could not transfer to whomever you wished that which you had restored. But sparing in exacting rewards, as if they would suffice for the vicissitude of your works, you accepted the fasces—not that a curule genius would thereby attach to you, but so that a palm-bearing prize might be deservedly won on your account. Who would believe that this civility, virtues in full execution, lives among your familiars?
that year had a consul who guarded the republic not so much by solicitude as by reputation; in him, when the rods were set, the arms which had been taken from the enemies trembled. when such a man befell by the lot of the lector, what brightness, tried from the very infancy of the world, did he show of kings? I do not wish dominion to wander by chance: those who were found were proven in your stemma.
They procured ploughs for Serranus from the Scipiones; he, while entrusting the great seeds to the furrows, saw a harvest of honours spring up for him. But I less esteem prosperous fortunes that take their beginning from desperation. It scarcely befell that a few should degenerate nobly, since you owe to your family that the deeds of your lineage be kept nobly.
V. Sed qui faciam, cui fecunda actuum tuorum seges occurrit, ubi universa eligentem superant? nescio quas aristas horreis inferam, quas relinquam. stat ante oculos meos Vulgarum ductor libertatem dextera tua adserente prostratus, nec extinctus, ne perfiret monumentis, nec intactus, ne viveret adrogantiae, in gente indomita domesticus adstipulator superfuturus roboris tui.
V. But what shall I do, to whom the fruitful segetes of your acts comes, where the whole surpasses the chooser? I do not know which aristas to bring into the horrea, which to leave behind. Before my eyes stands the leader of the Vulgarum, prostrate with your dextera asserting liberty, neither extinguished, lest he perish among monuments, nor intact, lest he live in arrogance, in an indomitable people a domestic adstipulator to testify to your robor.
who, if he had received a wound sufficient for death, you would have vanquished the person; that which, brought into the light, humbled its origin. This is the nation of which, before you, it had everything it wished, in which it obtained titles that purchased dignity with the blood of adversaries, among whom the plain is the exposer of births — for he whose spears reddened more in struggle was reckoned without question the loftier —, which before your contest it had not happened to recognize a resister, which in long ages completed wars by a single sortie. These were not checked by piled mountains, nor by the barrier of rivers, nor by want denied and the law of necessity driving them into the straits of need, while they believe it enough for delicacies to drink the milk of horse-stock.
who can endure an adversary who runs and feeds by the pernicious, immense benefit? what then that they also point out to those animals, with eager study of hunger, patience, by which they have learned to avoid famine? how is it that the rider of the fasting corniped draws foods from its entrails which, with diligence instructing, she foresaw she would not be able to store?
Before these things the world was believed to be accessible to them: now they reckon that part of the orb closed off to themselves which you keep. -- I swiftly pass over many matters, lest through the fault of a lazier style you arrive too late, lest the Roman torch of the curia, long driven into shadow, shine forth more slowly.
VI. Inter vitae tirocinia et triumphorum maturitatem pectori sacro affectum nostri caelestis favor infudit. iam diuturnae quietis dispendio per gubernantium vilitatem potens terra consenuerat, iam attulerat publicis opibus pax intemerata defectum, cum apud nos cottidianae depraedationis auctus successibus intestinus populator egeret, qui suorum prodigus incrementa aerarii non tam poscebat surgere vectigalibus quam rapinis. saeviente ambitu pauper dominus odia effusione contraxerat, sed nec defrudatis viribus quod minuebat opulentiae iungebatur affectui.
6. Between the apprenticeship of life and the maturity of triumphs, the heavenly favor poured a sacred affection into our breast. Now the land, made sturdy by the thrift of those steering it through the losses of long peace, had grown old; now unblemished peace had brought public resources to make good the deficit, when among us a daily increase of depredation produced an internal plunderer, who, prodigal toward his own, sought the increments of the treasury not so much by demanding taxes as by rapines. With the scramble raging the poor master contracted hatreds by his outpourings, but even with his powers exhausted what diminished the wealth was not joined to affection.
Then the narrowness of the court drove private affairs into close quarters, nor had the extinguished tinder of the tyrant allowed the servants’ sparks to flash anywhere. The leaders of the army feared, foreign honor reminding them to remember their origin; for he, chilled with dread, commanded the legions to march at his nod and to return. For obedience that fawns upon the undeserving is suspect, and whenever conscience meets the leaders of a degenerate stock, they fear that which is feared.
A cause of discord was born among you from prosperity, while Roman prosperity invited treacherous minds to the slaughter of your kinsmen. It was begotten from weak grounds for contest, and so that confidence might not even come to those doomed by the enterprise. A portion of the fugitives stirred up battles.
Then, roused by you, one nation, spread far and wide among the peoples with countless forces, is drawn together. With you migrating to Ausonia, in the world no one, save a parent, undertook the journey. Carts were taken in place of roofs, and all things that would serve necessity flowed into unstable houses.
then the implements of Ceres and the grain‑loosening stones were dragged by oxen. mothers, laden with infants, labored among your families, forgetting their sex and the care of preparing victuals by weight. then on the field winter, veiled in the continuous whiteness of rime, entwined head‑hair and beard with streaks of frost as if taking possession.
VII. Inter haec, quae tibi cum glacie aut ardore cesserunt, unam certaminis tui lineam summotenus libet adtingere. Vlca fluvius est tutela Gepidarum, quae vice aggerum munit audaces et in iugorum more latus provinciae quibusdam muris amplectitur nullo ariete frustrandis.
7. Among these things, which yielded to you with ice or with heat, it pleases me to touch, up to the utmost, one line of your contest. Vlca is a river, the guardianship (tutela) of the Gepidae, who, in place of embankments (aggeres), fortify the bold and, like the ridges (iugorum) of hills, embrace the breadth of the province with certain walls, with no battering‑ram (ariete) able to frustrate them.
to this pass your path’s rigor brought you, where, instead of legates and in a petition for grace, a people long unconquered hastened with a spirit to make opposition, when the necessity of famine almost besieged your cohorts before the enemies. Tell me, I beg you, most merciful lord, what besides you remained as a residue of hope in the people to be procured by sands or by arranging with the stars? With the Gepids pressing, and the river and pestilence blocking the route — which, fleeing, had turned aside — you sped across against swords stripped of their scabbards.
No footmarks of any unknowing one, sunk and stuck in mire, remained; no prodigal of life encounters danger unaware. The authority of the human mind is overcome by foreknowledge of peril; the conscience of the brave falters whenever terrors are thrust before the eyes. A certain choice about deaths stood before the indomitable youth, when no security concerning safety seemed to appear.
why did you exalt Cato, ancient monument, who led an army through the Libyan Syrtes, while making human slaughter the ridicule of serpents, or when, reared without the price of virtue, he tasted the venomous cold of the heaven’s vapors? It befell no chelydros to behold death beforehand, while by a prodigious blast and the fabric of the body, as souls are wont, it flew forth into the airs. The praise of a brave man is not destroyed when he knows not whence his downfall comes.
they gave way to the most crowded throngs of your enemies which the farther bank had received. They were pressed by missiles which neither chasm nor breach held back; the gaunt frames of their breasts, driven on, the spear pierced through by stronger arms, when amid terrestrial wrecks and waves of gore the most unconquered leader appeared, fortifying those standing by with such speech: 'whoever desires a way in the hostile line, follow me; let no other look back who asks for an example of fighting! Virtue does not require multitude; wars go forward to the few, the fruits of wars to very many.'
Let the army be judged by me, and in the things which I shall have done let the nation triumph. Raise the standards, by which it may be provided that I do not lie hidden; let them know whom they seek or whose throats they will satisfy! Let those who meet my attack be made noble by destruction.' With these words he demanded a cup for the auspice, and, the reins loosened for battle, he rushed forth.
as a rushing torrent you ruined the sown fields, as a lion you laid waste the herds; nor did any one meeting (you) stand firm nor could anyone escape the pursuing one. I was borne through everything, my weapons already failing and yet my wrath increasing. Immediately the condition of the Gepids was reversed: the faltering were seen, by changed fortune, as victors.
for you, venerable one, who unescorted had seized a taste of struggle, were advancing, palisaded by thousands. the opposing multitude was cut down, until the near night snatched away a few, while convoys, laden with the supplies of cities, were brought to the roaming granaries — which not only would satisfy necessity but would ease, amid the secondary delights, the satiety of delicacies. thus adversity served as a soldier for your prosperities, and hostile forays fought against the hunger of your men.
The hostile engagement overcame starvation; nor would you have returned to health if the contests had been absent. Let these things, arranged in order, suffice concerning the innumerable acts. I pass over the Sarmatians, their station on the move, and I am silent about the people counted among the conflicts and about the trophies.
VIII. Tibi cum rectore meo, Odovacar, occurro, qui universas contra eum nationes quasi orbis concussor exciveras. tot reges tecum ad bella convenerant, quot sustinere generalitas milites vix valeret.
8. I meet you with my leader, Odovacar, you who had roused all the nations against him as if a world‑shaker. So many kings had gathered with you for wars as the general body of soldiers could scarcely sustain.
It was perceived that the minds of the assembled multitude were various and no hope of victory came from their number. Still the right hands of your men were staggering from the preceding pestilence and the inbecility of their limbs prevented the completion of their vowed assaults; yet it suffices that one wills, according to his viribus, and rash counsel, in the place of roboris, brought ultionem upon the enemies. Neither the camp, fortified for a long time, nor the depths of the river held you: your enemies were granted to build a vallum, not to hold it.
suddenly the seas obscured the courses of the fleeing, through which you had appointed those departing to overcome the domestic tempest: meanwhile your battle-lines consummate battles by sight, not by toil. there happiness unlocked doors for you there, manifestly revealing that those who had given way in the first place would not endure the second struggles. but again a wandering mind, in deception of itself, set about conflict, while at Verona your fight was being outfitted with noble apparatus, hands loose in expenditures.
nothing stronger to your adversaries before the line, but when the war-trumpets sounded, nothing frailer. Greatest was virtue in the promise of the struggle and, if the tongue could suffice for the right hands, the utmost abundance of words. The site of the places was chosen, not so useful for a meeting as for panic, providing that the first flight and the desertion of the fugitives should not be ascribed to chance.
and yet the bright fortune of the res publica urged you on, lest you desist from your undertaking. Having measured the stages of your journey you beheld the fires of the enemy gleaming like stars, so that, if fear had ever been familiar to you, you would have learned to hang back at the precipice. The condition of your mind never, swollen by the tide of prosperous affairs, grew elate, nor did it find repose in doubts.
The day for contest pressed on, about to bring darkness to many. As soon as Aurora, in her saffron two-horse chariot, marked her risen light, when from the ocean’s waters the sun’s flame arose, already the hoarse trumpet was sounding, already your army, forgetful of you, sought you. While you enclosed your breast with steel bulwarks, while you were being armed with greaves, while a sword was being fitted to your side as avenger, your holy mother and venerable sister, who had come to you for the sake of affection, while feminine anxiety hung between hope and fear, while, astonished at the outcome, their faces fed upon your countenance like on a star, with such words you reassured them: 'You know, mother, made known to all nations by the honor of your offspring, that at the time of my birth you bore a man fruitful in valour.
This is the day on which the field will announce the sex of your son; spears must be employed, so that the decorum of your ancestors may not perish through me. We strive after our parents’ titles in vain, unless we are aided by our own merits. Before my eyes stands my father, of whom fortune never made a mockery in contest, who himself produced a right hand for himself by success demanding valour.
they gaze upon the lying splendor, which they did not happen to see fighting. With these words the war-horse received you from behind, restless at the longings for the lituus. But while you yielded to the addresses, your hostile legions were pressed by urgency. You gave confidence to the idle while you delayed, and this, I think, by the providence of the celestial ones, lest to the multitude there be owed what you had won.
who knows not to be obedient to truth, let him see that the waves of the Atesis, in your stead, have appeared rich with corpses; and while you swelled the whirlpools with blood, elsewhere the rush of the streams was arrested. and so that swords might not be insufficient, for you even the lympha fought. hail, most splendid of rivers, who, in the greater part, didst wash away the sordes of Italy, receiving the torch of the world without loss of purity.
IX. Illic vellem ut aetatis inmemor, Roma, conmeares. si venires labsantibus tremebunda vestigiis, aevum gaudia conmutarent. quid semper delubris inmersa concluderis?
9. There I would wish that, forgetful of age, you would come together, Rome. If you came, trembling with tottering steps, joys would change the years. Why will you always be shut up, plunged in shrines?
X. Ecce iterum ad deditionem sibi cognitam hostium leto debita pars cucurrit, et cum excessissent occumbentes numerum, ad servitium tamen armis instruca radiantibus agmina convenerunt. flexus est animus tuus pronus semper ad veniam: credidisti, quo fidem adsuescerent magisterio necessitatis, quam numquam exhibuerant studio conciliante principibus. servavit te, regum praecipue, quod abiecisti sacramenti confidentia cautionem.
10. Behold again a portion of the enemies, owing to death, ran off toward the surrender known to them, and when they had perished, the number diminished, yet bands equipped for service with gleaming arms assembled. Your spirit was pliant, ever inclined to pardon: you believed that thereby they would accustom their faith to the teaching of necessity, which they had never displayed by zeal in conciliating princes. What saved you, especially with regard to kings, was that you cast off the assurance of the oath’s confidence.
We hung anxious, lest those whom you had received from your enemies should perish undeservedly. Thanks to you, God, arbiter of the world, who have driven consciences possessed by ancient error toward avenging swords. I should be ashamed to recount my original levity, were I not to see it yielding to your praises.
you summoned Providence as companion of your acts, and lest the lust of the roaming go unpunished, shaking the banners of vengeance you made the people, already approved, a participant in your secret counsels. It befell that no one recognized an adversary, because a mightier part of the world was aligned with you. A votive slaughter was dispatched through the most far‑flung regions.
Who has wrought these things apart from the supreme (divine) will, so that, in a single stroke of time, the ruin of the Roman name—gathered by a long-standing iniquity of ages—should be poured forth? To which way I should turn myself here I do not know. Shall I give thanks, I who have undertaken the office of a praiser, or shall I take up the seized course of your praeconia?
The matter was consumed in a prosperous and fatal war: the presumption of Odovacris was cut down, after it came to pass that he was not aided by deception. Why should I recount the routed ranks of the Heruli? who were therefore brought against you, that here even in their own seats they might recognize whom they should fear.
An alien fury set in motion the causes of your long repose. I pass over where a lasting peace was imposed on you, Burgundio, when you so submitted to treaties that what is assigned to you is reckoned a holiday of constancy, not of fear. Who, too, would suffer the knowledge to perish — that we saw the concurrence against the good of your felicity, the missiles of the perfidious and the hostile ranks — that, while you were occupied in other pious engagements, you were struck down?
How often has he conquered you who had taken vows of fighting against you? Let Fridericus speak, who, after he violated faith, accompanied your enemies to their ruin, brandishing arms against those with whom he had been joined in error, when among the wicked a discord arose about that which they understood they all wished as one. May divinity be present and prolong its benefits into eternity, by whose disposing the votive disputes among the guilty came to pass.
XI. Trahit me ad aliam partem venerabilium pars magna meritorum. video insperatum decorem urbium cineribus evenisse et sub civilitatis plenitudine palatina ubique tecta rutilare. video ante perfecta aedificia, quam me contigisset disposita.
11. A great part of venerable merits draws me to another part. I see the unexpected decorum/splendor of the cities come about in ashes, and beneath the fullness of civility the palace roofs gleam everywhere. I see buildings completed before I had reached them, arranged and set out.
That very mother of cities, Rome, is renewed into youth by lopping off the withered limbs of age. Grant pardon, sacred rudiments of the Lupercal genius: it is more to repel decline than to have bestowed the beginnings. To this is added that you have veiled the crown of the curia with a countless flower.
The republic's riches have increased with the gains of private men: nowhere in your court is there ambitus, and the diffusion of wealth is everywhere. No unfit man departs, and no one laments the hardships of proscription. Your legations possess immortal vigour: you arrange the order of mandates before you behold the legates; nor are contradictions found in your replies, nor do objections meet with an easy resolution.
a principal opinion keeps watch instead of arms: the great solicitude of the king guards our leisures, yet you do not desist from propagating your cares, drawing them out into the long‑distance. nor is the strong security of a man lacking in you nor the caution of one who fears. O twin plenitude of virtues in one prince, who renounces God the Author, because he has not among men any one from whom he may be seen to have taken what he displays!
XII. Sed ecce rursus post quietem solidam ad acies verba revocamus: iterum ad se tuba vocat eloquium. Sermiensium civitas olim limes Italiae fuit, in qua seniores domini excubabant, ne coacervata illinc finitimarum vulnera gentium in Romanum corpus excurrerent.
12. But behold, again after a deep rest we summon words back to the battle‑lines: again the trumpet summons speech to itself. The city of speakers was once the frontier of Italy, in which elder lords stood on guard, lest the accumulated wounds of neighboring peoples from there break forth upon the Roman body.
These things afterward, through the neglect of the regents, he granted into the rights of the Gepids, whence daily insultation and the unbridled frequency of legations were sent. Deceitful blandishments, cunningly devised, were inflaming the prince’s mind, and about other Gepids — whose leader is Gunderith — there was the untimely familiarity of Traseric. You believed yourself destroyed by your wrong, because for a long time it was permitted that the possession of Italy be retained while you ruled; nor did the consolation that you had not lost it suffice, since the grief was immense that the retainer had not restored it within the beginnings of your domination.
you judge the empire diminished because it does not increase. yet after Traseric’s plots were plainly disclosed, you appointed the most noble of the Goths, Pitzia Herduic, and a youth as yet untried in battles, so that if, with the proffered agreements, he should acquiesce, he might, once the places were seized, possess them at a single will. but the practice of your inconstant felicity proved obedient: the army fled of its own accord to alien quarters and, without being driven, deserted what it owed.
immediately Pitzia, who had taken favorable outcomes concerning you and weighed the import of counsels, believed the land not to have been acquired but refused, and not pillaged as plunder for profit but preserved by dispensations as his own. With those there moderating the ordination, through the officiousness of the allied Mundonus Greece declared discord, leading forth his own Vulgares in guardianship, with whom among the Marios conflicts he threatens to use castles by turns. Then Mundo, trusting that it would suffice for a garrison if your cohorts endured anything, by swift messengers committed faith in the report of his danger to one who had previously seen defenders enter fights for their own causes rather than learned to undertake them.
But when Pitzia, watching from a distance the indomitable youth of the Vulgars, armed the burning onsets of the young men with the more potent fires of words: 'Remember, comrades, under whose command you have come to these places. Let no one, being absent, believe that the eyes of our king are away, for whose fame it must be fought. If a shower of spears from the sky should cover [us], he who has cast his weapon more strongly will not lie hidden.'
let them understand that from him has flowed what we carry, nor let it be permitted to them that that which our ruler transmitted to the origin should belong to one person alone.' with his litui he altered these sayings: immediately, as is customary, a black cloud, with roofs crackling, began to roar in a circuit of storms, and thus the people of Mars mingled themselves headlong. The uncertain conflict wavered long on the spear, while an equal asperity of fighting rose up on each side. Two nations ran together, to whom flight had never come as a succor amid the swords.
they marvelled mutually to find likenesses of themselves and in the human race either to see Goths resisting or the Vulgares. meanwhile, while the fortune of the contest was doubtful and winged deaths claimed the ether for themselves, the memory of our prince prevailed while they acted, so that the field might declare the merits of each before him. the nation, punished the more grievously because it had escaped, was put to flight.
they, never doubtful about triumphs, those whom the universitas looked up to, depart with the standards of war lost and, struck, go away unharmed, and thrice and four times crying blessed are those whom it had happened to meet death. Why should I recount the slaughter of the soldiers and the most shameful flight of the leader Sabinianus, since it is beyond reason to reweave what befell the defenseless when their patrons were exterminated? Then, lest Pitzia seem to be praised by the ages as one who served not so much glory as cupidity, he left the field’s toil to wild beasts or birds, having ordered that nothing be taken from the rich corpses for the hungry soldier.
XIII. Quid castigatas Vandalorum ventis parentibus eloquar depraedationes, quibus pro annua pensione satis est amicitia tua? evagari ultra possibilitatem nesciunt duce sapientia: adfines esse meruerunt, quia oboedire non abnuunt.
13. What shall I tell the parents of the depredations chastened by the Vandals’ winds, for which your friendship is sufficient as an annual pension? They do not know how to wander beyond possibility with Wisdom for leader: they have earned to be neighbors, because they do not refuse to obey.
XIV. Haec de gestorum tuorum cumulis maior voto quam eloquentia strictim digesta replicavi, melioribus intacta derelinquens. videro quis me vincat facundia, nemo circa te transcendere valebit affectu.
XIV. These things concerning the cumuli of your deeds I have rehearsed, strictly arranged, more by wish than by eloquence, leaving them untouched for better men. I shall see who may conquer me by facundity; no one will be able to surpass you in affection.
you possess this mildness, God inspiring, so that you judge yourself able more by diligence than by fear. excellence and good things are implanted in the monuments of your glory, so that kings may fear you, servants may love you. for whatsoever things you command to be given to you by the powers of those subjected, you believe can be denied.
XV. Quid quod! a te Alamanniae generalitas intra Italiae terminos sine detrimento Romanae possessionis inclusa est, cui eveneit habere regem, postquam meruit perdidisse. facta est Latiaris custos imperii semper nostrorum populatione grassata, cui feliciter cessit fugisse patriam suam: nam sic adepta est soli nostri opulentiam.
15. What then! By you the generalship of Alamannia was contained within the bounds of Italy without detriment to Roman possession, to whom it befell to have a king, after he had deserved to lose him. Latiaris was made guardian of the empire, ever given to the plundering of our people, to whom it happily turned out that he had fled his fatherland: for thus she obtained the opulence of our soil.
you have acquired that which the earth has learned to yield to the ligones (spades), although it befell us to be ignorant of the losses. under you we saw the best events generated out of adversity, and the occasion of danger become the mother of good fortune. the land‑dweller, freed from ulvae (marsh‑weeds), rejoices, the land itself which hitherto, by domiciles splitting open, had been emerging from the solidity of ooze by a favour.
XVI. Par fuit etiam, ut eloquentiam laudis praemiis incitares; ne adoreas tuas silentio perderemus. nullarum artium cessat inudstria: sollers ubicumque latet inquiritur.
16. It was likewise fitting that you spur eloquence with rewards of praise; lest by silence we lose your praises. Diligence ceases in none of the arts: a skillful man, wherever he lies hidden, is sought out.
The magistracy, even if he has dwelt far away, is demanded by him who deserves it. Never is he whom innocence has revealed hidden, while you, subtle arbiter, are not appeased by voice but by deeds. The well‑deeds of our parents who died with you are preserved: to whose meekness your fidelity has become known, by the right of inheritance you will soon restore to the scion what you owed to the ancestor.
we have the fruit of our elders’ obsequies, and yet we do not fear punishments for excesses. Moderate indignation toward a man is ended when, because of requital, your piety seeks a successor. -- Many things still remain that I would say, but among the many heralds of your deeds it is fitting that something unblemished be reserved.
With the actor mute the tribunals mourned, nor was any palm granted to the speaker. In the case of affairs the event wavered, when genius was not given to letters. One grief everywhere had oppressed talents, because the leisures of the eloquent were wearing away their faculties: a devouring negligence possessed the pomp of the elders, and the tyro was not kindled to pursue emulation.
XVII. Eat nunc et coturnatis relationibus Alexandrum iactet antiquitas, cui famae opulentiam peperit dos loquentium, ut per adiutricem facundiam videatur crescere rebus mendica laudatio. regis nostri merita solacium non postulant adserentis: minora sunt eius veris actibus,quamvis aucta sint veterum gesta mendaciis.
17. Let antiquity now vaunt Alexander with buskin-clad narratives, to whom the speakers’ dowry begot an opulence of fame, so that by auxiliary eloquence mendic praise seems to grow in affairs. The merits of our king do not demand the comfort of one asserting them: such assertions are smaller than his true acts, although the deeds of the ancients have been increased by mendacities.
You poets have at once feigned great things, but it is fitting that you confess the present lord carried the more important deeds. Pelleus, leader of his heralds, wished the whole of Choerilus to be established by a benefit, lest the multitude detect the vow to deceive and become a witness of shamelessness, he who was admitted in the attestation of the victory. I detract nothing from the elders, whom antiquity had held foremost, except that the elevation of the Roman name had bestowed that upon you.
He, ignorant of true religion, was seized by Error’s mother, Ignorance: you, worshiper of the supreme God, were established by vital instruction from the very threshold of light. You never ascribe to your labors what a fortunate outcome has offered: you know that the care of perfection is in God’s keeping. You act so that you may deserve to obtain prosperous things, but once possessed you ascribe the whole to the author.
It is singular to fulfil the most holy by acts and yet not possess venerable names. Let my king be Alamnnicus by right; let him be called alien. So that the divus may live from the fruit of conscience and not demand the naked, pompous vocabula of vaunting, in whose mores the blandishments of the maiorum fight for verity.
XVIII. Vellem, fateor, ad orationis terminum victus gestorum tuorum enormitate descendere et novellas adoreas hebetatus priscorum luce transire. quemadmodum, si aetherii axis in numerum redigere ornamenta voluissem et trionum fulgore conprehenso caeli decorem inpotenti lingua describerem, cederet divino splendori mortalis obscuritas, iubaris lampadi non sufficeret humilium scintilla sermonum: haec me condicio resignat inparem, quae testata est obsequentem.
18. I would wish, I confess, to descend to the close of my speech, overcome by the enormity of your deeds, and, dulled by novelties, to pass beyond the light of the ancients. Just as, if I had wished to reduce the ornaments of the etherial axis to number and, having seized the splendour of the constellations, to describe the heaven’s adornment with an impotent tongue, mortal darkness would yield to the divine splendour, and a humble spark of words would not suffice for the beams of the lamp: this condition absolves me as unequal, which has proved me compliant.
XIX. Nam illud quo ore celebrandum est, quod Getici instrumenta roboris, dum provides ne interpellentur otia nostra, custodis et pubem indomitam sub oculis tuis inter bona tranquillitatis facis bella proludere? adhuc manent in soliditate virium victricia agmina et alia iam creverunt.
19. For how is that to be celebrated with what mouth, that you, while providing that our leisures be not interrupted, make the Getic instruments of strength — the guards and the untamed youth — under your eyes, amid the goods of tranquillity, to rehears(e) wars as a prelude? Still victorious hosts remain in the solidity of our forces, and others have already grown up.
arms are hardened by missiles and fill the action of the strong while they play; there is enacted in place of a spectacle that which in a following time will suffice for virtue. while boyish fools twist pliant spear‑shafts; while bows, the daily necessity of leaders, are aimed farther, the city's entire pomerium is trodden down in the simulacrum of an assembly.
A semblance of contests is staged, lest true ones arise with peril. And who would believe that one breast could suffice, that clad for battle he might conquer the untamed in engagements and at the same time act with counsel, so that it might not come to pass for the mere cause of fighting? We learn that Rutilius and Manlius, the providence of the people presiding as magistrates, assigned the gladiatorial conflict, so that the plebs, long possessed by peace among the theatre galleries, might recognize what was being done on the battle‑line.
but then, with holiday hands idle, the deaths of allies were thrust upon the view in vain. Never are things good that are instituted by cruelty: that minds might be armed against enemies, they first see the destructions of their own. Meanwhile that assembly, which the outcome taught, produced increases not so much to strength as to fear: amid favorable circumstances the unmilitary spirit learned what to dread.
see the diversities of inventions, standing apart on a well-worn way: in some the very effusion of blood turned minds away from combat, in others the vigor of youth was enkindled by the image of a feigned contest — those whom premature age had taught that the many deaths of their adversaries laid aside meant they possessed as many spicula (spears), so that they would not negligently pour away the disbursements of faretrae on foreign sorties nor hurl manifest deaths into the air, but would exact as many souls as weapons they had thrown.
XX. Sed inter proeliares forte successus, quibus omnes instruis et concilias omina secunda vincendi, civilitatis dulcedini nil reservas? quis credat heroas tuos peregrinam non respuere, dum sunt tranquilla, formidinem! nam indomita inter acies ingenia lex coercet: summittunt praeceptis colla post laureas et calcatis hostium cuneis, quibus arma cesserint, decreta dominantur.
20. But among the martial successes, by which you outfit and assemble all favorable omens of victory, do you reserve nothing for the sweetness of civilization? Who would believe that your heroes would not spurn foreign fear while things are tranquil! For untamed spirits within the ranks are restrained by law: after laurels and with the enemy wedges trodden down—to which arms have yielded—they bow their necks to commands, and decrees hold sway.
XXI. Sed nec formae tuae decus inter postrema numerandum est, quando regii vultus purpura ostrum dignitatis inradiat. exhibete, Seres, indumenta, pretioso murice quae fucatis, et non uno aeno bibentia nobilitatem tegmina prorogate.
21. But the grace of your appearance is not to be ranked among the last, when the royal purple, the crimson of dignity, irradiates the face. Display, Seres, the garments which you dye with precious murex, and spread forth noble robes that drink their nobility from more than one brazen vat.
Let a wreath be woven of variegated gems, and let the stone which a more violent viper guards be brought. Whatever ornaments have been transmitted with the world yielding, when adorned by the venerable genius of the body will shine the more. There is a stature that will unmake a ruler by its length; the snow of the cheeks is in accord with the blush; the eyes spring forth with uninterrupted serenity; worthy hands that mete out death to rebels and bestow the vows of honors upon the subdued.
Let those who labor in dress to obtain foreign beauty strive. The ruler of Italy gathers into friendship two very diverse men, so that one may go forth, lightning-like, without comparison, the other fair in joy without a cloud. With a consecrated mouth to the envoys of the nations the bland effigy promises peace, or, terrible in arms, proclaims wars.