Minor Latin poets; with introductions and English translations

RUTILIUS NAMATIANUS'rhrice five days we watched the trust to he pUicedin the sea, until a new moon's more favourable breezeshould present itself. Then on the eve of goingI send back to his studies and the city Palladius,the hope and honour of my race." That eloquentyouth had been sent of late from the lands of theGauls to learn the laws of the Roman courts.Myson in affection and kinsman by blood, he holds thefondest ties of my regard. Even now his fatherExuperantius trains the Armoric sea-board to lovethe recovery of peace ; he re-establishes the laws,brings freedom back and suffers not the inhabitantsto be their servants' slaves.^In the half-dawn we weigh anchor, at the hour ofday when colour is first restored and lets the fieldsgrow visible. In little boats we make way along thenearest shores, so that a beach might always lieopen as refuge for them. Let cargo-ships 'neathcanvas plough through the summer waves : saferis autumn if we have quickness to escape. TheAlsian land is skirted, and Pyrgi fades into thedistance '^—to-day large country-houses, in earlierdays small towns. Now the sailor points out thebounds of Caere : the ancient Agylla has lost itsname through time.'' Next we coast by Castrum,shattered both by wave and time : an age-worngateway marks the half-ruined place. O'er itfrom Gaul to study la\r in Rome. His father, Exuperantius,had restored order to the Armorican regions in Gaul, whichhad followed the example of revolt from the empire set byBritain in a.d. 407.*•The reference is most probably to a servile insurrectionwhich Exuperantius checked.' Alsium, now Palo, was an ancient Etrurian town. Pyrgi,now Santa Severa, was a seaport for Caere.•*Caere, now Cervetri, had Agylla as its Greek name.783