Of the ten tragedies which are attributed to Seneca, (the only Roman tragedies extant,) nine are on Greek subjects.
Ariosto says of one of his heroes, that, in the heat of combat, not perceiving that he was a dead man, he continued to fight valiantly, dead as he was.
Il pover' huomo che non s'en era accorto,
Andava combattendo, e era morto.
The author of ‘La Maniere de bien Penser’ speaks of a French divine who, to prove that young persons sometimes die before old ones, cited the text, ‘Prœcucurrit citius Petro Johannes et venit primus ad monumentum.’
There is no passage among all the writings of antiquity more sublime than these lines of Silius Italicus. The words are addressed to a young man of Capua, who proposed to assassinate Hannibal at a banquet.
Fallis te mensas inter quod credis inermem,
Tot bellis quæsita viro, tot cœdibus armat
Majestas eterna ducem: si admoveris ora
Cannas et Trebium ante oculos, Trasymenaque busta,
Et Pauli stare ingentum miraberis umbram.