“Quantum te principe possim, non longinqua docent, domito quod Saxone Tethys mitior aut fracto secura Britannia Picto; ante pedes humili Franco tristique Suebo perfruor et nostrum video, Germanice, Rhenum. 395 sed quid agam? discors Oriens felicibus actis invidet atque alio Phoebi de cardine surgunt crimina, ne toto conspiret corpore regnum. Gildonis taceo magna cum laude receptam perfidiam et fretos Eoo robore Mauros. 400 quae suscepta fames, quantum discriminis urbi, ni tua vel soceri numquam non provida virtus australem Arctois pensasset frugibus annum! invectae Rhodani Tiberina per ostia classes Cinyphiisque ferax Araris successit aristis. 405 Teutonicus vomer Pyrenaeique iuvenci sudavere mihi; segetes mirantur Hiberas horrea; nec Libyae senserunt damna rebellis iam transalpina contenti messe Quirites. ille quidem solvit meritas (scit Tabraca) poenas, 410 ut pereat quicumque tuis conflixerit armis. “Ecce repens isdem clades a partibus exit terrorisque minus, sed plus habitura pudoris Eutropius consul, pridem tolerare fatemur hoc genus, Arsacio postquam se regia fastu 415 sustulit et nostros corrupit Parthia mores, praefecti sed adhuc gemmis vestique dabantur custodes sacroque adhibere silentia somno; * * * * * Page 169 “Examples near at hand testify to the extent of my power now thou art emperor. The Saxon is conquered and the seas safe; the Picts have been defeated and Britain is secure. I love to see at my feet the humbled Franks and broken Suebi, and I behold the Rhine mine own, Germanicus.[97] Yet what am I to do? The discordant East envies our prosperity, and beneath that other sky, lo! wickedness flourishes to prevent our empire’s breathing in harmony with one body. I make no mention of Gildo’s treason, detected so gloriously in spite of the power of the East on which the rebel Moor relied. For what extremes of famine did we not then look? How dire a danger overhung our city, had not thy valour or the ever-provident diligence of thy father-in-law supplied corn from the north in place of that from the south! Up Tiber’s estuary there sailed ships from the Rhine, and the Saône’s fertile banks made good the lost harvests of Africa. For me the Germans ploughed and the Spaniards’ oxen sweated; my granaries marvel at Iberian corn, nor did my citizens, now satisfied with harvests from beyond the Alps, feel the defection of revolted Africa. Gildo, however, paid the penalty for his treason as Tabraca can witness. So perish all who take up arms against thee!