“Nam trophæum ferre me a forti pulchrum est viro;
Si autem et vincar, vinci a tali, nullum est probrum.”
A line in the same play—
“Virtuti sis par—dispar fortunis patris,”
has suggested to Virgil the affecting address—
“Disce, puer, virtutem ex me, verumque laborem;
Fortunam ex aliis: ——”
This play, which turns on the contest of Ajax and Ulysses for the arms of Achilles, has also supplied a great deal to Ovid. The tragic poet makes Ajax say—
“Quid est cur componere ausis mihi te, aut me tibi.”
In like manner, Ajax, in his speech in Ovid—