Minor Latin poets; with introductions and English translations

RUTILIUS NAMATIANUSthe sail-yards up. Tlie o:entle breath of the windcarries tlie stern-flttinc^s on without vibrationsoftly flap the sails on rigging free from any strain.There rises in the midst of the sea the wave-girtGorgon " with Pisa and Corsica on either side. Ishun the cliffs, which are memorials of recentdisaster ; here a fellow-countryman met his doom ina living death. For lately one of our youths of highdescent, with wealth to match, and marriageallianceequal to his birth, was impelled by madnessto forsake mankind and the world, and made hisway, a superstitious exile, to a dishonourable hidingplace.Fancying, poor wretch, that the divine canbe nurtured in unwashen tilth, he was himself to hisown body a crueller tyrant than the offended deities.Surely, I ask, this sect is not less poAverful than thedrugs of Circe ? ^ In her days men's bodies weretransformed, now 'tis their minds.From there we make for Triturrita : ^ that is thename of a residence, a peninsula lying in the washof bafiled waves. For it juts out into the sea onstones which man's hand has put together, and hewho built the house had first to make sure buildingground. I was astonished at the haven close by,which by report is thronged wath Pisa's merchandiseand sea-borne wealth. The place has a marvellousappearance. Its shores are buffeted by the opensea and lie exposed to all the winds : here there arenot sheltering piers to protect any inner harbourbasincapable of defying the threats of Aeolus.'^*The Villa Triturrita i.s conjccturally placed with theneighbouring Portus Pisanus (f. ,").'J1, \l. 12) between Leghornand the mouth of the Arno, but the coast has been greatlyaltered owing to alluvial deposits."^CJ. Virg. Aen. I. 50-91, the Cavern of the Winds.Sli