optatas audire tubas campique cruenta 75 tempestate frui truncisque inmergere plantas? ut leo, quem fulvae matris spelunca tegebat uberibus solitum pasci, cum crescere sensit ungue pedes et terga iubis et dentibus ora, iam negat imbelles epulas et rupe relicta 80 Gaetulo comes ire patri stabulisque minari aestuat et celsi tabo sordere iuvenci. ille vetat rerumque tibi commendat habenas et sacro meritos ornat diademate crines. tantaque se rudibus pietas ostendit in annis, 85 sic aetas animo cessit, quererentur ut omnes imperium tibi sero datum. Victoria velox auspiciis effecta tuis. Pugnastis uterque: tu fatis genitorque manu. te propter et Alpes invadi faciles cauto nec profuit hosti 90 munitis haesisse locis: spes inrita valli concidit et scopulis patuerunt claustra revulsis. te propter gelidis Aquilo de monte procellis obruit adversas acies revolutaque tela vertit in auctores et turbine reppulit hastas 95 o nimium dilecte deo, cui fundit ab antris Aeolus armatas hiemes, cui militat aether et coniurati veniunt ad classica venti. Alpinae rubuere nives, et Frigidus amnis * * * * * Page 277 thine eager spirit have given to hear the beloved clarion’s note and to revel in the bloody storm of battle, trampling upon the slaughtered bodies of thy foes! Like a young lion in a cave, accustomed to look for nourishment to the teats of its tawny mother, who, so soon as he finds talons beginning to grow from out his paws and a mane sprout from his neck and teeth arm his jaws, will have none of this inglorious food but burns to leave his cavern home and accompany his Gaetulian sire, to bring death upon the herds and steep him in the gore of some tall steer. But Theodosius said thee nay, and put the reins of government into thy hands, crowning thy head with the sacred diadem it wore so meetly. And so did thy virtue show in earliest years, so did thy soul out-range thy youth that all complained that to thee empire was granted late.