-quocum bene saepe libenter
Mensam sermonesque suos rerumque suarum
Congeriem partit, magnam cum lassus diei
Partem fuisset de summis rebus regundis
Consilio indu foro lato sanctoque senatu: 
Cui res audacter magnas parvasque iocumque
Eloqueretur, cuncta simul malaque et bona dictu
Evomeret, si qui vellet, tutoque locaret. 
Quocum multa volup ac gaudia clamque palamque,
Ingenium cui nulla malum sententia suadet
Ut faceret facinus lenis aut malus, doctus fidelis
Suavis homo facundus suo contentus beatus
Scitus secunda loquens in tempore commodus verbum
Paucum, multa tenens antiqua sepulta, vetustas
Quem fecit mores veteresque novosque tenentem,
Multorum veterum leges divumque hominumque,
Prudenter qui dicta loquive tacereve possit.-

In the line before the last we should probably read -multarum leges divumque hominumque.-

44.  Euripides (Iph. in Aul. 956) defines the soothsayer as a man,

—­Os olig’ alethe, polla de pseuon legei
Tuchon, otan de me, tuche oioichetai—­

This is turned by the Latin translator into the following diatribe against the casters of horoscopes:—­

-Astrologorum signa in caelo quaesit, observat,
Iovis
Cum capra aut nepa aut exoritur lumen aliquod beluae. 
Quod est ante pedes, nemo spectat:  caeli scrutantur plagas.-

45.  III.  XII.  Irreligious Spirit

46.  In the -Telephus- we find him saying—­

-Palam mutire plebeio piaculum est.-

47.  III.  XIII.  Luxury

48.  The following verses, excellent in matter and form, belong to the adaptation of the -Phoenix- of Euripides:—­

-Sed virum virtute vera vivere animatum addecet,
Fortiterque innoxium vocare adversum adversarios. 
Ea libertas est, qui pectus purum et firmum gestitat: 
Aliae res obnoxiosae nocte in obscura latent.-

In the -Scipio-, which was probably incorporated in the collection of miscellaneous poems, the graphic lines occurred:—­

—­ —­ -mundus caeli vastus constitit silentio,
Et Neptunus saevus undis asperis pausam dedit. 
Sol equis iter repressit ungulis volantibus;
Constitere amnes perennes, arbores vento vacant.-

This last passage affords us a glimpse of the way in which the poet worked up his original poems.  It is simply an expansion of the words which occur in the tragedy -Hectoris Lustra- (the original of which was probably by Sophocles) as spoken by a spectator of the combat between Hephaestus and the Scamander:—­

-Constitit credo Scamander, arbores vento vacant,-

and the incident is derived from the Iliad (xxi. 381).

49.  Thus in the Phoenix we find the line:—­

—­ —­ -stultust, qui cupita cupiens cupienter cupit,-

and this is not the most absurd specimen of such recurring assonances.  He also indulged in acrostic verses (Cic. de Div. ii. 54, iii).