A History of Roman Classical Literature.

by R. W. Browne

Quæ bona, quæ mala item quid inutile turpe inhonestum.

Virtus, quærendæ finem rei scire modumque;

Virtus, divitiis pretium persolvere posse.

Virtus, id dare quod reipsa debetur honori,

Hostem esse atque inimicum hominum morumque malorum;

Contra, defensorem hominum morumque bonorum;

Magnificare hos, his bene velle, his vivere amicum;

Commoda præterea patriai prima putare,

Deinde parentum, tertia jam postremaque nostra.

Had they been extant, we should have found useful information and instruction in his faithful pictures of Roman life and manners in their state of moral transition—amusement in such pieces as his journal of a progress from Rome to Capua, from which Horace borrowed the idea of his journey to Brundisium, whilst in his love poems, addressed to his mistress, Collyra, we should have traced the tender sympathies of human nature, which the sternness of stoicism was unable to overcome.