§4.16.1Invide, quid laceras Nasonis carmina rapti?
Envious one, why do you tear to pieces the poems of the snatched Naso?
§4.16.2non solet ingeniis summa nocere dies, §4.16.3famaque post cineres maior venit, et mihi nomen §4.16.4tum quoque, cum vivis adnumerarer, erat; §4.16.5cumque foret Marsus magnique Rabirius oris §4.16.6Iliacusque Macer sidereusque Pedo; §4.16.7et, qui Iunonem laesisset in Hercule, Carus, §4.16.8Iunonis si iam non gener ille foret, §4.16.9quique dedit Latio carmen regale Severus, §4.16.10et cum subtili Priscus uterque Numa, §4.16.11quique vel imparibus numeris. Montane, vel aequis §4.16.12sufficis, et gemino carmine nomen habes, §4.16.13et qui Penelopae rescribere iussit Ulixen §4.16.14errantem saevo per duo lustra mari, §4.16.15quique suam Troesmin imperfectumque dierum §4.16.16deseruit celeri morte Sabinus opus, §4.16.17ingeniique sui dictus cognomine Largus, §4.16.18Gallica qui Phrygium duxit in arva senem; §4.16.19quique canit domito Camerinus ab Hectore Troiam; §4.16.20quique sua nomen Phyllide Tuscus habet; §4.16.21velivolique maris vates, cui credere posses §4.16.22carmina caeruleos composuisse deos §4.16.23quique acies Libycas Romanaque proelia dixit; §4.16.24et Marius scripti dexter in omne genus; §4.16.25Trinacriusque suae Perseidos auctor, et auctor §4.16.26Tantalidae reducis Tyndaridosque Lupus; §4.16.27et qui Maeoniam Phaeacida vertit, et une §4.16.28Pindaricae fidicen tu quoque, Rufe, lyrae; §4.16.29Musaque Turrani tragicis innixa cothurnis; §4.16.30et tua cum socco Musa, Melisse, levi; §4.16.31cum Varius Graccusque darent fera dicta tyrannis, §4.16.32Callimachi Proculus molle teneret iter, §4.16.33Tityron antiquas Passerque rediret ad herbas §4.16.34aptaque venanti Grattius arma daret, §4.16.35Naïdas a Satyris caneret Fontanus amatas, §4.16.36clauderet imparibus verba Capella modis; §4.16.37cumque forent alii, quorum mihi cuncta referre §4.16.38nomina longa mora est, carmina vulgus habet; §4.16.39essent et iuvenes, quorum quod inedita cura est, §4.16.40adpellandorum nil mihi iuris adest §4.16.41(te tamen in turba non ausim. Cotta, silere, §4.16.42Pieridum lumen praesidiumque fori, §4.16.43maternos Cottas cui Messallasque paternos, §4.16.44Maxime, nobilitas ingeminata dedit) §4.16.45dicere si fas est, claro mea nomine Musa §4.16.46atque inter tantos quae legeretur erat.
The final day is not accustomed to harm genius, and fame comes greater after one's ashes, and I had a name then also, when I was numbered among the living; and when there was Marsus, and Rabirius of the mighty mouth, and Iliac Macer, and starry Pedo; and Carus, who would have offended Juno in Hercules, if that hero were not by now the son-in-law of Juno, and Severus, who gave a royal song to Latium, and with subtle Priscus, both Numas, and you, Montanus, who are sufficient either for unequal or equal meters, and hold a name by a double poem, and he who ordered Ulysses, wandering through two lustra over the savage sea, to write back to Penelope, and Sabinus, who left his own Troesmis and the unfinished work of days by a swift death, and Largus, named after the cognomen of his own genius, who led the Phrygian old man into the Gallic fields; and Camerinus, who sings of Troy after Hector was subdued; and Tuscus, who has a name from his own Phyllis; and the poet of the sail-flying sea, whom you could believe that the blue gods had composed his poems; and he who told of Libyan battle-lines and Roman battles; and Marius, skillful in every kind of writing; and Trinacrius, author of his own Perseis, and Lupus, author of the returning descendant of Tantalus and the daughter of Tyndareus; and he who translated the Maeonian Phaeacis, and you too, Rufus, the unique player of the Pindaric lyre; and the Muse of Turranius, leaning on tragic cothurni; and your Muse with the light soccus, Melissus; when Varius and Graccus gave fierce words to tyrants, Proculus held the soft path of Callimachus, and Tityrus returned to the ancient grasses in Passer's work, and Grattius gave suitable weapons to the hunter, Fontanus sang of the Naiads loved by Satyrs, Capella closed his words in unequal measures; and when there were others, to recount all of whose names is a long delay for me, but the crowd has their poems; there were also young men, of whom, because their care is unpublished, I have no right to call their names (yet I would not dare to keep silent about you in the crowd, Cotta, light of the Muses and protection of the forum, to whom double nobility gave maternal Cottas and paternal Messallas, Maximus) if it is right to say, my Muse was of a famous name, and one that was read among such great men.
Therefore, cease to tear to pieces the one removed from his fatherland, Envy, nor scatter my ashes, bloody one.
We have lost everything: only life is left, so that it may provide the feeling and material of evil.
§4.16.51quid iuvat extinctos ferrum demittere in artus?
What does it help to drive iron into extinct limbs?
§4.16.52non habet in nobis iam nova plaga locum.
A new wound has no place in us now.