Carmina per thalamum quamvis festina negare nec volui genero nec potui socero. hic socius, dux ille mihi nostrique per aulam ordinis hic consors emicat, ille prior. hunc mihi coniungit studiis communibus aetas; 5 hunc mihi praeponit vel senium vel honos. carmen amor generi, soceri reverentia poscit officio vatis, militis obsequio. Forte Venus blando quaesitum frigore somnum vitibus intexti gremio successerat antri densaque sidereos per gramina fuderat artus adclinis florum cumulo; crispatur opaca pampinus et musto sudantem ventilat uvam. 5 ora decet neglecta sopor; fastidit amictum aestus et exuto translucent pectore frondes. Idaliae iuxta famulae triplexque vicissim nexa sub ingenti requiescit Gratia quercu. pennati passim pueri quo quemque vocavit 10 umbra iacent; fluitant arcus ramisque propinquis pendentes placido suspirant igne pharetrae. * * * * * Page 205 XXV (XXX, XXXI) _Epithalamium of Palladius and Celerina._[80] PREFACE Asked to improvise a song in honour of a marriage I find myself unwilling to refuse the bridegroom and unable to say no to his father-in-law. The former was my comrade-in-arms, the latter my general; at court the first is of equal rank with me, the second my superior. Similarity of age and pursuits made me a friend of Palladius; age and dignity set Celerinus far above me. The love I bear the one demands my good offices as a poet, the awe in which I hold the other a soldier’s obedience: I must sing. It chanced that Venus had one day retired into the bosom of a cave overgrown with vine to woo sleep mid its alluring cool, and had laid her goddess limbs on the thick grass, her head upon a heap of flowers. The vine branches stir gently in the breeze and sway the full-veined grapes. Slumber befits the disorder of her brow, the midday heat will none of coverings, and the leaves show through them the gleam of her bare breast. Round her lie the nymphs of Ida and hard by beneath a lofty oak-tree the three Graces sleep with interlaced arms. Here and there, where’er the shade invites them, repose winged Cupids. Their bows are unstrung and their quivers hang from the branches of neighbouring trees, instinct with latent fire. Some [80] This poem and the marriage it celebrates probably belong to the year 399. We know little of P. save that he was the friend and colleague (_tribunus et notarius, cf._ Introduction, p. xii) of Claudian. His father (l. 61) was probably prefect of Egypt in 382 (_Cod. Theod._ viii. 5. 37). Celerina’s grandfather held the same post (l. 73); her father (ll. 82 _et sqq._)--the _socer_ of line 2 of the preface--was _primicerius notariorum_ (so Godefroy on _Cod. Theod._ vi. 2). * * * * *