nutabat digna rediens ad moenia pompa. 435 dextera quin etiam ludo concessa vagatur aera petens poenasque animi persolvit avari terribili lucro vivosque imitata retentus cogitur adductis digitos inflectere nervis. Desinat elatis quisquam confidere rebus 440 instabilesque deos ac lubrica numina discat. illa manus, quae sceptra sibi gestanda parabat, cuius se totiens summisit ad oscula supplex nobilitas, inhumata diu miseroque revulsa corpore feralem quaestum post fata reposcit. 445 adspiciat quisquis nimium sublata secundis colla gerit: triviis calcandus spargitur ecce, qui sibi pyramidas, qui non cedentia templis ornatura suos extruxit culmina manes, et qui Sidonio velari credidit ostro, 450 nudus pascit aves. iacet en, qui possidet orbem, exiguae telluris inops et pulvere raro per partes tegitur nusquam totiensque sepultus. Senserunt convexa necem tellusque nefandum amolitur onus iam respirantibus astris. 455 infernos gravat umbra lacus. pater Aeacus horret intrantemque etiam latratu Cerberus urget. tune animae, quas ille fero sub iure peremit, circumstant nigrique trahunt ad iudicis urnam infesto fremitu: veluti pastoris in ora 460 commotae glomerantur apes, qui dulcia raptu mella vehit, pennasque cient et spicula tendunt et tenuis saxi per propugnacula cinctae * * * * * Page 91 was carried back in merited splendour to the city. Nay his hand too, made over to their mockery, goes a-begging for alms, and with its awful gains pays the penalty for his greedy soul, while forced, in mimicry of its living clutch, to draw up the fingers by their sinews. Put not now your trust in prosperity; learn that the gods are inconstant and heaven untrustworthy. That hand which sought to wield a sceptre, which a humbled nobility stooped so often to kiss, now torn from its wretched trunk and left long unburied begs after death a baneful alms. Let him gaze on this whoso carries his head high in pride of prosperity, see trodden under foot at the cross-roads him who built pyramids for himself and a tomb, large as a temple, to the glory of his own ghost. He who trusted to be clothed in Tyrian purple is now a naked corpse and food for birds. See, he who owns the world lies denied six foot of earth, half covered with a sprinkling of dust, given no grave yet given so many.