Tu quoque, qui solus lecto
sermone, Terenti,
Conversum expressumque Latina
voce Menandrum
In medio populi sedatis vocibus
offers,
Quidquid come loquens, ac
omnia dulcia dicens.
“You, only, Terence, translated into Latin,
and clothed in choice language the plays of Menander,
and brought them before the public, who, in crowded
audiences, hung upon hushed applause—
Grace marked each line, and
every period charmed.”
Tu quoque tu in summis, O
dimidiate Menander,
Poneris, et merito, puri sermonis
amator,
Lenibus atque utinam scriptis
adjuncta foret vis
Comica, ut aequato virtus
polleret honore
Cum Graecis, neque in hoc
despectus parte jaceres!
Unum hoc maceror, et doleo
tibi deesse, Terenti.
“You, too, who divide your honours with Menander,
will take your place among poets of the highest order,
and justly too, such is the purity of your style.
Would only that to your graceful diction was added
more comic force, that your works might equal in merit
the Greek masterpieces, and your inferiority in this
particular should not expose you to censure.
This is my only regret; in this, Terence, I grieve
to say you are wanting.”
D. Junius Juvenalis, who was either the son [944]
of a wealthy freedman, or brought up by him, it is
not known which, declaimed till the middle of life
[945], more from the bent of his inclination, than
from any desire to prepare himself either for the
schools or the forum. But having composed a
short satire [946], which was clever enough, on Paris
[947], the actor of pantomimes, (537) and also on
the poet of Claudius Nero, who was puffed up by having
held some inferior military rank for six months only;
he afterwards devoted himself with much zeal to that
style of writing. For a while indeed, he had
not the courage to read them even to a small circle
of auditors, but it was not long before he recited
his satires to crowded audiences, and with entire
success; and this he did twice or thrice, inserting
new lines among those which he had originally composed.
Quod non dant proceres, dabit
histrio, tu Camerinos,
Et Bareas, tu nobilium magna
atria curas.
Praefectos Pelopea facit,
Philomela tribunos.
Behold an actor’s patronage
affords
A surer means of rising than
a lord’s!
And wilt thou still the Camerino’s
[948] court,
Or to the halls of Bareas
resort,
When tribunes Pelopea can
create
And Philomela praefects, who
shall rule the state? [949]
