certius in vobis aestimat imperium.
hoc ego concilio collectum metior orbem;
hoc video coetu quidquid ubique micat. 20
PANEGYRIC ON THE CONSULSHIP OF FL. MANLIUS THEODORUS[169] (A.D. 399)
PREFACE
(XVI.)
Wilt dare to sing, my Muse, when so great, so august an assembly shall be thy critic? Does not thine own renown forbid thee? ’Tis greater now than thou deservest; how hard then to enhance, how disgraceful to diminish it! Or has thine assurance grown through ever dwelling in the camp, and does the soldier now wholly possess the poet’s breast? Behold the flower of the Roman senate, the majesty, the pride, the heroes of Gaul. The whole earth is my audience, my song shall sound in the ears of all the world. Alack! Love for our consul constrains too strongly. Jove, ’tis said, when he would fain learn its extent (for he knew not the bounds of his own empire) sent forth two eagles of equal flight from the East and from the West. On Parnassus, as they tell, their twin flights met; the Delphic heaven brought together the one bird and the other. Our Emperor needs no eagles to teach him the magnitude of his domains; yourselves are preceptors more convincing. ’Tis this assembly that gives to me the measure of the universe; here I see gathered all the brilliance of the world.
[169] See Introduction, p. xv. Judging from this poem Manlius started by being an advocatus in the praetorian prefect’s court, was then praeses of some district in Africa, then governor (consularis) of Macedonia, next recalled to Rome as Gratian’s magister epistularum, then comes sacrarum largitionum (= ecclesiastical treasurer) and after that praetorian prefect of Gaul (ll. 50-53).