“You ought to live at home in Rome, Flaccus, where....”
“Yes, what are you doing now in Rome?”
“Caesar is Caesar; he conquers the world, and unites all the highest functions, even the priestly, in his own person. I have nothing against it, but they say he is aiming at his own deification.”
“Why not? All gods have first been heroes, and many gods have not been so great as Caesar. Romulus was certainly no giant, though he had the luck to come first, as someone must. Now he is a god, has a temple, and they sacrifice to him.”
“It is probably a lie, like everything else.”
“Probably.”
“Yes, I have heard another legend of the founding of Rome by Aeneas’ son Ascanius, who fled from Troy; and I intend to take it as the starting-point of my great poem....”
“You mean the Aeneid, of which I have heard mention.”
“Yes, the Aeneid.”
“Is it difficult to write poetry?”