Heaven grant thou mayest be our perpetual consul and outnumber Marius[168] and old Augustus. Happy universe that shall see the first down creep over thy cheeks, and the wedding-night that shall lead forth for thee the festal torches. Who shall be consecrated to such a couch; who, glorious in purple, shall pass, a queen, to the embraces of such a husband? What bride shall come to be the daughter of so many gods, dowered with every land and the whole sea? How gloriously shall the nuptial song be borne at once to farthest East and West! O may it be mine to sing thy marriage-hymn, mine presently to hail thee father! The time will come when, thou victorious beyond the mouths of the Rhine, and thy brother Arcadius laden with the spoil of captured Babylon, ye shall endow the year with yet more glorious majesty; when the long-haired Suebian shall bear the arms of Rome and the distant Bactrian tremble beneath the rule of thyself and thy brother. [168] Marius was consul seven, Augustus thirteen, times. * * * * * Page 336 PANEGYRICUS DICTUS MANLIO THEODORO CONSULI PRAEFATIO (XVI.) Audebisne, precor, tantae subiecta catervae, inter tot proceres, nostra Thalia, loqui? nec te fama vetat, vero quam celsius auctam vel servasse labor vel minuisse pudor? an tibi continuis crevit fiducia castris 5 totaque iam vatis pectora miles habet? culmina Romani maiestatemque senatus et, quibus exultat Gallia, cerne viros. omnibus audimur terris mundique per aures ibimus. ah nimius consulis urget amor! 10 Iuppiter, ut perhibent, spatium cum discere vellet naturae regni nescius ipse sui, armigeros utrimque duos aequalibus alis misit ab Eois Occiduisque plagis. Parnasus geminos fertur iunxisse volatus; 15 contulit alternas Pythius axis aves. Princeps non aquilis terras cognoscere curat; certius in vobis aestimat imperium. hoc ego concilio collectum metior orbem; hoc video coetu quidquid ubique micat. 20 * * * * * Page 337 PANEGYRIC ON THE CONSULSHIP OF FL. MANLIUS THEODORUS[169] (A.D. 399) PREFACE (XVI.)