Kitap 10
1.91
I have restricted my list of poets to these names, because Germanicus Augustus Domitian. has been distracted from the study of poetry on which he had embarked by his care for the governance of the world, and the gods have thought it scarce worthy of his powers that he should be the greatest of poets. But what can be more sublime, more learned, more perfect in every detail than those works to which he devoted himself in the seclusion to which he retired after conferring the supreme power upon his father and his brother? Who could sing of war better than he who wages it with such skill? To whom would the goddesses that preside over literature sooner lend an ear? To whom would Minerva, his familiar deity, He claimed to be the son of Minerva. It is doubtful if he ever wrote any poetry. Cp. Tac Hist. iv. 86, Suet. Dom. 2 and 20. more readily reveal her secrets?
1.92
Future ages shall tell of these things more fully; to-day his glory as a poet is dimmed by the splendour of his other virtues. But you will forgive us, Caesar, who worship at the shrine of literature, if we refuse to pass by your achievements in silence and insist on testifying at least that, as Virgil sings, The ivy creeps amid your victor bays Ecl. viii. 13.
