Minor Latin poets; with introductions and English translations

AETNAvacuum contaitis nothinti; to stop the winds or spurthem in their delay, they Hag; all the great abyssdeploys them drifting to and fro, and on the verythreshold they lose their speed. It must needs bein narrow gullies that the winds work their havoc.Hot glows the work ": now the South Wind pressesor is pressed on by the thick swoop of the East Windand the North : now, again, both these winds by acurrent from the South. Hence the wind's furyhence it can shatter the foundations of the groundwith cruel cleavage.For that reason do cities totterin panic, and, if such belief be not impious, there isno truer presage that the universe will return to itsprimeval appearance.^As this from the beginning has been the characterand nature of the earth, everywhere Aetna runschannels into its interior, while the surface-soil remainsinert : Aetna is the plain and truest proof ofits own nature. There, with my guidance, you willnot have to search for hidden causes : they will ofthemselves leap into your vision and force acknowledgement; for that mountain has countless marvelsapparent to every eye. On this side are vast openingswhich terrify and plunge in an abyss, on anotherside the mountain rearranges its limbs projectedtoo far. Elsewhere thick crags bar the path, andenormous is the confusion. They make a chequeredweaving of their work and hem it round—somerocks quite subdued by fire, others compelled to" The phrase ferret opus occurs twice in Virgil : Georg. IV.169 ; Aen. I. 436. Cf. other Virgilian echoes such as manifestafides. 111, Aen. II. 309: III. 375; volvuntnr ab imo, 200 andvolvunlur in imo, Aen. VI. 5S1." i.e. chaos: antiqui sc. mundi.375