Minor Latin poets; with introductions and English translations

PANEGYRIC ON PISOUncertain are my feelings where first should startthe order of the poem which I have undertaken, orwhat titles of honour I should chant. On the onehand, Piso, comes the summons of your noble rankwith the exalted names of ancient Calpus,'' resplendentamong the clans of Rome : on the other, Iam thrilled by your own merit, your life in everyphase inspiring admiration—such a life as wouldhave been equal to nobility, if nobility had perchancenot been yours at birth. For what shall hallsstrengthened by images and triumphs ancestral.^ whatshall archives filled \\ith many a consulate, profit theman of unstable life ? In him whose only merit isbirth, the whole honour of a family is lost. But you,gifted with a mind to match your high descent inwhich you set a part but not the whole of your renown,you will yourself be a fit theme for song. \Miat needto record how the Calpurnian house derives itsfrom Calpus and won its first famous surname of Pisofor pounding (pi{?i)seret) the moist barley with hardskinnedhand ? I could not, if I would, rehearsethe whole in brief; the circling mass of heavenlyflame will in a twelvemonth recall '^ its yearly con-name" Through the Calpi the gens Calpurnia claimed descentfrom Xuma PompiHus. The Pisones of Hor. A. P. 292 aretermed '"PompiUus sanguis."*>fuUa suggests the columns to which triumphal ornamentswere attached.^ The sun.