Minor Latin poets; with introductions and English translations

, ThouIspan'^TheCALPLRNIUS SICULUSO ye gods, I pray you, recall only after a longof life this youth, whom ye, I knt)w it well,have sent us from heaven itself: or rather untwinehis allotted skein of mortality and grant himcelestial threads of the metal of eternity. Lethim be a god and yet loath to exchange his palacefor the sky."too,^ Caesar, whether thou art Jupiterhimself on earth in altered guise, or one other of thepowers above concealed under an assumed mortalsemblance (for thou art very God)—rule, I praythee, this world, rule its peoples for ever I Letlove of heaven count as nought with thee : abandonnot, O Sire, the peace thou hast begun I.. I used to think they were but rustic lays which thesylvan deities bestowed on you—lays fit for cloddishears ; but what you have even now sung on w'ellmatchedpipes has so clear, so sweet a fall that Iwould not liefer sip the nectarous honey whichPelignian swarms are wont to sip.^Oh ! the songs of mine which run in humble versewould then, my Meliboeus, resound, if ever onthese hills I were called the owner of a homestead,if ever I had the fortune to see pastures of my own.Too often does malicious poverty pluck my ear andsay, " The sheepfold is your task." But you,Meliboeus, if in spite of all you think that any of mypoems are not to be disdained, then take them tothe Emperor-God. For you have the right to visit" i.e. let him remain a divine emperor in his residence onthe Palatine Hill.''quoque is justified, as the last stanza is addressed to allthe gods and this one to Caesar, i.e. Xero.allusion is to Ovid, who was born at Sulmo in thedistrict of the Peligni.VOL. I.S