his fellow-citizens to put a coward’s trust in walls, he set Lacedemon to face wars more securely in her nakedness; but all the teaching of Pythagoras and his years of silence never crushed the infamous licentiousness of Sparta’s colony Tarentum.
“Besides, beneath such an emperor, who could refuse office? Was ever merit more richly rewarded? Who is so insensate as not to wish to meet Stilicho in council? Has ever any age produced his equal in prudence or in bravery? Now would Brutus love to live under a king; to such a court Fabricius would yield, the Catos themselves long to give service. Seest thou not how my sister Mercy blunts the cruel sword of war; how Piety rises to embrace the two noble brothers; how Treason laments her broken weapons and the snakes, writhing in death upon the Furies’ wounded heads, lick their chains with enfeebled venom? Peace and loyalty are triumphant. All the host of heaven leaves the stars and wanders from peaceful city to peaceful city. Return thou with us, Theodorus.”
Then Theodorus made answer: “From my long accustomed fields, goddess, thou urgest me to return, summoning to thy standard one grown rusty in the distant countryside. What else has been my care all these years but to break up the stubborn fallow-land into furrows, to know the nature of the soil, the rocky land suitable to the growth of trees, the country where the olive will flourish, the fields that will yield rich harvests of grain or the hills which my vineyards may clothe? I have served my time; am I to hearken once more to the dreadful trumpet? Is the old helmsman again to brave the seas whose lore he has forgotten?
collectamque diu et certis utcumque locatam sedibus in dubium patiar deponere famam? nec me, quid valeat natura fortior usus, 185 praeterit aut quantum neglectae defluat arti. desidis aurigae non audit verbera currus, nec manus agnoscit quem non exercuit arcum. esse sed iniustum fateor quodcumque negatur iustitiae. tu prima hominem silvestribus antris 190 elicis et foedo deterges saecula victu. te propter colimus leges animosque ferarum exuimus. nitidis quisquis te sensibus hausit, inruet intrepidus flammis, hiberna secabit aequora, confertos hostes superabit inermis. 195 ille vel Aethiopum pluviis solabitur aestus; illum trans Scythiam vernus comitabitur aër.” Sic fatus tradente dea suscepit habenas quattuor ingenti iuris temone refusas. prima Padum Thybrimque ligat crebrisque micantem urbibus Italiam; Numidas[177] Poenosque secunda 201 temperat; Illyrico se tertia porrigit orbi; ultima Sardiniam, Cyrnum trifidamque retentat Sicaniam et quidquid Tyrrhena tunditur unda vel gemit Ionia. nec te tot lumina rerum 205 aut tantum turbavit onus; sed ut altus Olympi vertex, qui spatio ventos hiemesque relinquit, perpetuum nulla temeratus nube serenum celsior exurgit pluviis auditque ruentes