How fixed abides thy reverence for the Senate! Old customs are preserved, law has recovered its ancient sanctity in the amendment of former statutes and by the addition of new ones. Such an one as thee Pandion’s city[163] found in Solon; even so did warrior Lacedaemon disdain walls, for unyielding Lycurgus gave it defence. What case so petty, what judicial error so slight that it escapes thy notice? Who with truer justice put an end to dishonest suits and brought forth lurking truth from her hiding-place? What mercy, yet what firmness; thine is the quiet strength of a great soul, too firm to be stirred by fear, too stable to be swayed by the attraction of novelty. How stored with learning thy ready wit, how controlled thy speech; ambassadors are awe-stricken at thine answers, and thy grave manners make them forget thy years.
How thy father’s nobility shines in thy face! How awful is thy winning brow, how charming the majesty of a blushing emperor! Boy though thou art, thou canst wear thy sire’s helmet and brandish thy grandsire’s spear. These exercises of thy youth foreshadow vast strength in manhood and convince Rome that the ruler of her prayers is come. How fair art thou in shield and golden armour girt, with waving plumes and taller by the altitude of a helmet! So looked the youthful Mars when after the toil and sweat of his first battle he bathed him in Thracian Rhodope’s mountain stream. With what vigour thou hurlest the javelin, and, when thou stretchest the Cretan bow, what success attends thy shaft! Sure is the wound it seeks; it knows not how to fail the appointed stroke. Thou knowest in what fashion the Cretan,
Armenius, refugo quae sit fiducia Partho: sic Amphioniae pulcher sudore palaestrae Alcides pharetras Dircaeaque tela solebat praetemptare feris olim domitura Gigantes et pacem latura polo, semperque cruentus 535 ibat et Alcmenae praedam referebat ovanti; caeruleus tali prostratus Apolline Python implicuit fractis moritura volumina silvis. Cum vectaris equo simulacraque Martia ludis, quis mollis sinuare fugas, quis tendere contum 540 acrior aut subitos melior flexisse recursus? non te Massagetae, non gens exercita campo Thessala, non ipsi poterunt aequare bimembres; vix comites alae, vix te suspensa sequuntur agmina ferventesque tument post terga dracones. 545 utque tuis primum sonipes calcaribus arsit, ignescunt patulae nares, non sentit harenas ungula discussaeque iubae sparguntur in armos; turbantur phalerae, spumosis morsibus aurum fumat, anhelantes exundant sanguine gemmae. 550 ipse labor pulvisque decet confusaque motu caesaries; vestis radiato murice solem combibit, ingesto crispatur purpura vento. si dominus legeretur equis, tua posceret ultro verbera Nereidum stabulis nutritus Arion 555 serviretque tuis contempto Castore frenis