Minor Latin poets; with introductions and English translations

RUTILIUS NAMATIANUS" Come, then, let an impious raec fall in sacrificeat last: let the Goths in panic abase their forswornnecks. Let lands reduced to peace pay richtribute and barbarian booty fill thy majestic lap.Evermore let the Rhineland plough for thee, forthee the Nile o'erflow ; and let a teeming world givenurture to its nurse. Yea, let Africa proffer to theeher fertile harvests, rich in her own sun, but richerfor thy showers. ° Meanwhile may granaries tooarise to house the furrow-crops of Latium, and withthe nectar of the West may sleek wine-presses flow.Let Tiber's self, garlanded with triumphal reed,apply his waters to serve the needs of Romulus'race, and 'twixt his peaceful banks bear for theedown-stream the wealthy cargoes of the fieldsand up-stream those of the sea.^" Outstretch, I pray, the level main lulled to rest'neath Castor and his twin brother ^ ; be our Ladyof Cythera the guide to smooth jay watery path,if I found favour when I administered Quirinus' laws,^if to the venerable senators I showed respect andfrom them asked advice; for that ne'er a crimeunsheathed my magisterial sword must be thepeople's, not the prefect's, boast. '^ Whether 'tisgranted to lay my life to rest in ancestral soil orwhether thou shalt one day be restored to my eyes,blest shall my life be, lucky beyond all aspiration,if thou deign always to remember me."Castor et gemelle Castoris. There was a temple of Castor andPollux at Ostia, and one of Venus on the island at the Tibermouth;hence the allusion to Cytherea.''Rutilius had been praefeclus urbis in a.d. 414; cf. I. 423-428; 467-468.' The absence of capital punishment during Rutilius'prefecture was a credit to the Roman people.777