Minor Latin poets; with introductions and English translations

secret."RUTILIUS NAMATIANUSAs he strove to live longer than the Romanrace,^ his cruel frenzy turned the ^vorld upside down,and, while fearing that wherein he had made himselfformidable,'^ he let loose the arms of the barbariansto the death of Latium : he plunged an armed foein the naked vitals of the land, his craft being freerfrom risk than that of openly inflicted disaster.'^Even Rome lay exposed to his skin-clad menials ^captive ere she could be captured. Nor was itonly through Gothic arms that the traitor made hisattack : ere this he burned the ftiteful bookswhich brought the Sibyl's aid./ We hate Althaeafor the death which came of the brand she gaveto the flames ;^ birds, so the fancy runs, weep forNisus' lock.'' But it was Stilicho's will to hurl toruin the eternal empire's fate-fraught pledgesand distaffs still charged with destinies. Let everytorment of Nero in Tartarus now halt ; let an evenmore miserable ghost consume the Stygian torches.*Stilicho's victim was immortal, Nero's was mortal;the one destroyed the world's mother, the other his^ Rutilius is the sole authority for the allegation thatStilicho burned the Sibylline books which the Romans consultedin times of crisis. Their destruction thus precededthe fall of Rome by only a few years." Althaea caused the death of her son Meleager by burningthe magical firebrand on which his life depended : cf. note onPentadius I. {Dc Fortuna) 21-22, supra p. 545.* Sc^dla caused the death of her father Xisus by deprivinghim of the purple lock on which his life depended : see theCiris in the Appendix Vergiliana : cf. crinem Nisi, Nemes.Cyn. 44.* i.e. Stilicho should suffer under the torches of the Furieseven more horrible punishment than that inflicted upon thematricide Nero in Tartarus.827