Minor Latin poets; with introductions and English translations

GRAITIUSbe entreated who can guarantee the work of healing.Nor is aid far distant, though the lips of a deepwound have parted and the fibres are dripping withdark blood: thereupon seize from the very enemythat has dealt the wound some of his fetid urine,sprinkling it with the hand over the mouth of thetorn wound, till the acid juice compresses the veins :for the avenues of death lie open. Then my advicewill be to go round the lips till they are clean andsew them fast Mith a slender thread. But if deadlydanger battens in a narrow wound, contrariwise,widen the outlet and expose the treacheroas causesof corruption : the remedy is easy in a newly-foundmischief; but the beasts which are infected theysoothe ^\'ith strokes of the hands (that is enough),or seal the sore around with an ointment of blackpitch : if, however, there is merely a trivial hurt in aslight wound, the dog has the natural remedy ofefficacious saliva. ^^ It is a serious plague, too deepfor the treatments mentioned, when hidden causeshave sped the malady through all the bodies of thepack and the damage is only discovered in its finalconsummation. Then has pestilence been let loose,and by contagion deaths have come upon the packat large, and the great host alike perishes beneathan infection that falls on all : neither is there indulgencegranted for any strength or service, nor isthere hope of escape in answer to prayer. Butwhether it be that Proserpina has brought deathforth from Stygian darkness, satisfying her wrathfor some offence entrusted to the Furies to avenge,whether the infection is from on high and etherbreathes with contagious vapours, or whether earth" i.e. he licks the wound.187