Minor Latin poets; with introductions and English translations

TIBERIANUSa world—this home of men and gods—hicent, starredwith the majestic bloom of youth. Touching thisworld (vouchsafe thy ftivour, I pray), grant to awilling mind the knowledge of the principles on whichit was created, the manner of its origin and making.Grant, O Sire, that I may have power to learn causesmajestic, by what alliance of things thou '^ didst ofold upraise the world's masses of matter, and of whatlight texture, intimate yet dissimilar, thou didst ofold in thy might weave the soul, and what thatvigorous element is which in quick-moving bodiesconstitutes life.Fragments1. Tiberianus also introduces a letter brought bythe wind from the antipodes, with the words " Thoseabove greet those beneath."2. Hence Tiberianus says : " Pegasus neighingflies across the upper air."3. For Tiberianus too says in the Prometheus thatthe gods have assigned to a man his individual traits.4. (We used " golden " of brilliant eloquence),recalling the utterance of Plato on whose inheritanceDiogenes the Cynic encroached and found therenothing more than a golden tongue, as Tiberianusrecords in his book on Socrates." Or " law of nature."567