Martial, : the twelve books of Epigrams,.

MARTIAL'S EPIGRAMS

IV
TO PRISCUS TERENTIUS
A SIMPLE knight, but one of kingly line,
To Horace, Varius, and the mighty seer,
Was help and stay of old: and you are mine,
As in the years long hence the world shall hear,
For fame shall tell it and my ageing page;
Through you my inspiration came to me.
And power-if power I have-and in my age
Such days of leisure as befit the free.
V
TO THE EM1PEROR NERVA, WIlITH A.
SELECTION OF POE.IS
MY book was longer than was fit,
This new edition shortens it,
And many verses I omit,
So this is my petitionLet idle folk the larger choose,
And he who toils for us peruse
The shorter-he may not refuse
Some day the full edition.
VI
TO NER I.4
Now Nerva kindliest of lords, doth reign,
To range on Helicon no more we dread,
Fair faith and Clemency return again
And tempered Might-but trembling Fear hath fled;
O loyal Rome, thy Tribes and peoples pray
That Nerva and his like may reign alway '
Hail to that noble soul, as Numa's pure,
Like Cato's-could a cheerful Cato be;
Hail to that generous hand that aids the poor,
Nay, heaven itself is not more kind than he:
In evil days no evil stained his mind,
Ruled by a cruel prince he dared be kind.
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