Ausonius Author:Decimus Magnus Ausonius Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: BOOK III PERSONAL POEMS I.—On His Little Patrimony When the author had left the court after many years' enjoyment of the highest distinctions, havi... more »ng even become consul, he returned to his native place and settled down in the little property which his father had left him. Thereupon he wrote the following playful verses in the manner of Lucilius : Hail, little patrimony, the realm of my forebears, which my great-grandfather, which my grandfather, which my father tended so carefully, which the last- named left to me when he died all too soon, albeit in a ripe old age. Ah me ! I had not wished to be able to possess you so early. "Pis indeed the natural order when the son succeeds the father ; but where there is affection, it is a more pleasing course for both to reign together. Now all the toil and trouble falls on me : of old the pleasure only was my share, the rest was all my father's. It is a tiny patrimony, I allow; but never yet did property seem small to those whose souls are balanced, nay more, whose souls are one. Upon the soul—it is my balanced judgment—wealth depends, and not a man's soul upon his wealth. A Croesus desires everything, a Diogenes, nothing; an Aristippus1 strews VOL. I. D spargit Aristippus mediis in Syrtibus aurum, aurea non satis est Lydia tota Midae. cui mi I Ins finis cupiendi, est nullus habendi: 15 ille opibus modus est, quern statuas aniino. Verum ager iste meus quantus sit, nosce, etiam ut me noveris et noris te quoque, si potis es. quamquam difficile est se noscere ; yvtaOi a-tavrov quam propere legimus, tarn cito neclegimus. 20 agri bis centum colo iugera, vinea centum iugeribus colitur prataque dimidio, silva supra duplum, quam prata et vinea et arvum ; cultor agri nobis nee superest nee abest. fons propter ...« less