Tertia Romulei sumant exordia fasces terque tuas ducat bellatrix pompa curules; festior annus eat cinctusque imitata Gabinos dives Hydaspeis augescat purpura gemmis; succedant armis trabeae, tentoria lictor 5 ambiat et Latiae redeant ad signa secures. tuque o qui patrium curis aequalibus orbem Eoo cum fratre regis, procede secundis alitibus Phoebique novos ordire meatus, spes votumque poli, quem primo a limine vitae 10 nutrix aula fovet, strictis quem fulgida telis inter laurigeros aluerunt castra triumphos. ardua privatos nescit Fortuna penates et regnum cum luce dedit. cognata potestas excepit Tyrio venerabile pignus in ostro 15 lustravitque tuos aquilis victricibus ortus miles et in mediis cunabula praebuit hastis. te nascente ferox toto Germania Rheno
Let the consular fasces of Romulus open a third year, and for the third time let the warlike procession accompany thy curule litter. More festal in array be the coming year, and let purple, folded in Gabine[138] guise, be proudly enriched with gems of Hydaspes; let the cloak of peace succeed the arms of war; let the lictor guard the consul’s tent and the Latin axes return to the standards.[139] And do thou, Honorius, who with thy brother, lord of the East, governest with equal care a world that was once thy sire’s, go thy way with favourable omens and order the sun’s new course, thyself heaven’s hope and desire, palace-nurtured even from life’s threshold, to whom the camp, gleaming with drawn swords, gave schooling among the laurels of victory. Thy towering fortune has never known the condition of a private citizen; when thou wast born thou wast born a king. Power which was thine by birth received thee, a precious pledge, amid the purple; soldiers bearing victorious standards inaugurated thy birth and set thy cradle in the midst of arms. When thou wast born fierce Germany trembled along
[138] The _cinctus Gabinus_ was one of the insignia of the consulship. It consisted in girding the toga tight round the body by means of one of its _laciniae_ (= loose ends). Servius (on Virg. _Aen._ vii. 612) has a story that Gabii was invaded during the performance of a sacrifice and that the participants repulsed the enemy in their _cinctus_.