Bkiv:Ix Lollius

Don’t think that the words I speak to accompany the lyre ( I, born near thunderous Aufidus, plying those skills not generally known before) are destined to utterly die: Though Maeonian Homer holds the first place, Pindar’s Muse is not hidden, Simonides’ of Ceos, nor threatening Alcaeus’, nor that of the stately Stesichorus: time hasn’t erased what Anacreon once played: and the love of the Lesbian girl still breathes, all the passion that Sappho committed to that Aeolian lyre. Laconian Helen wasn’t the only one inflamed by marvelling at an adulterer’s elegant hair, or gold-spangled clothes, his regal manners, and his companions, Teucer wasn’t the first to fire an arrow from a Cydonian bow, more than once great Troy was troubled: Idomeneus the mighty, and Sthenelus weren’t alone in fighting wars sung by the Muses: Hector the fierce and brave Deiophobus weren’t the first to suffer the weight of heavy blows for the sake of their chaste wives, and children. Many brave men lived before Agamemnon: but all are imprisoned in unending night, all of them are unwept and unknown, because of the lack of a sacred bard. Courage that’s concealed in the tomb, is little different to cowardice. Lollius I won’t be silent about you in my verse, (you’re celebrated) nor allow envious oblivion to prey with impunity on your many exploits. You’ve a mind that’s versed in affairs, that’s just, in dubious times, or in the most favourable ones, punishing avaricious deceit, restrained with money that draws everything to itself, not a Consul of a single year, but a judge often, one honest and true, preferring honour to expediency, with a noble look rejecting the criminal’s bribe, a conqueror carrying arms through the hostile ranks of the enemy. It’s not right to call a man blessed because he owns much: he more truly deserves a name for being happy, who knows how to make a wiser use of the gifts from the gods, and how to endure the harshest poverty, who’s a greater fear of dishonour than death: he’s not afraid to die for the friends that he loves, or to die for his country.