" ... Valet ima summis
Mutare, et insignia attenuat deus
Obscura promens: hinc apicem rapax
Fortuna cum stridore acuto
Sustulit; hic posuisse gaudet."
Or, as it is translated by Dr. Francis:—
"The hand of Jove can crush the proud
Down to the meanness of the crowd:
And raise the lowest in his stead:
But rapid Fortune pulls him down,
And snatches his imperial crown,
To place, not fix it, on another's head."
[24] Near the modern city of Sienna.
[25] See Plutarch's Life of Æmilius, c. 37. The name of the young prince was Alexander.
[26] Called also Hostilius; cf. Vell. Paterc. ii. 1.
[27] Cf. Liv. ix. c. x.; Cicero de Officiis, iii. 30.
[28] Cf. Val. Max. vi. 3.
[29] Cf. Horace, Od. iv. ult.; Florus, ii. 1. The story of the cruelties inflicted on Regulus is now, however, generally disbelieved.
[30] The fate of Pompey served also as an instance to Juvenal in his satire on the vanity of human wishes.