Defluxit numerus Saturnius, et grave virus
Munditiæ pepulere: sed in longum tamen ævum
Manserunt, hodieque manent vestigia ruris.
Ep. II., ii. 156.
Some passages of Livy bear evident marks of having been originally portions of Saturnian ballads, although the historian has mutilated the metre by the process of translating them into more modern Latin. The prophetic warning of C. Marcius[[80]] has been thus restored by Hermann with but slight alteration of the words of Livy:
Amnén, Trojúgena, Cánnam fuge, ne te alienigenæ
Cogánt in cámpo Díomedéi manús consérere;
Sed nec credes tu mihi, donec complessis sangui
Campum, miliaque multa occisa tua tetulerit
Is amnis in portum magnum ex terra frugifera.