Minor Latin poets; with introductions and English translations

TIBKRIANUSLet us then see for what uses gold doth serve. Itis the buying-priee of erime, it is the sale-jirice ofkind modesty, uf fatherland and parent, of laws andpietv and faith : all guilt is hidden by gold, by goldall righteousness betrayed. With it must Pactolusstill flow on. and likewise the dark Hermus-stream ?"O gold, thou murderous thing, thou frenzied madnessand passionate greed, let muddy shallows and astream's dark silt conceal thee evermore : let earthbelow whelm and bury thee, let Tartarean Phlegethonand the Stygian pools covet thy birth for themselves !Perish thy yellow gleam among the sombre sandsNever hereafter let the o-olden dreg's return to eleanhandedmen of the world aboveIllA bird with drenching rain o'erweighted.Hindered by wet, her flight abated.And sudden, mid her efforts foiled.Was caught as 'neath her load she toiled.When her old strength of wing grew nought,What once brouoht life now ruin broughtSo pinions used for soaring highStraight dashed her on the ground to die.What boots it round the heavens to fly ?Who stood exalted, lowest lie !Learn this, who aim beyond the scaleAnd haughtily ride the favouring gale." The golden sands of the Lydian river Hermus and itstributarj', the Pactolus, were renowned in antiquity.563