Now that thou art of an age for marriage the hopes of the young courtiers run high, but the prince hesitates to select the happy man who is to share thy couch and regal state. The pages of the poets tell how ancient kings bade suitors contend on the hard terms of purchasing the bride at hazard of their lives, and rejoiced that death should be the wooer of their daughters. Pelops escaped the weapons of Pisa’s king, thanks to the chariot Neptune gave him, for it was Myrtilus who tricked King Oenomaus by withdrawing the lynch-pin from the chariot-wheel. Panting Hippomenes got the better of Atalanta, daughter of Schoeneus, who followed close on his traces, a sword in her hand, by means of the golden apples. The inhabitants of Calydon watched from their high battlements the struggle of Hercules with the river-god when, Deianira being the prize of victory, the panting hero shouted in triumph and Achelous paled and shrank away, shorn of his horn, the wound whereof the astonished river nymphs sought to heal. * * * * * Page 252 te non Hesperidum pomis, non amne subacto, non socerum fallente rota, sed iudice dignus Augusto variis Stilicho spectatus in armis accipit et regni dotes virtute paravit. 180 saepe duces meritis bello tribuere coronas: hunc cingit muralis honos; hunc civica quercus nexuit; hunc domitis ambit rostrata carinis. solus, militiae mira mercede, iugalem promeruit Stilicho socero referente coronam. 185 Agnovit patrui similem Thermantia curam; nupsit et illa duci; sed longe fata sororis inferiora tuis. alio tibi numine taedas accendit Romana Salus magnisque coronis coniugium fit causa tuum. dilectus equorum, 190 quos Phrygiae matres Argaeaque gramina pastae semine Cappadocum sacris praesaepibus edunt, primus honor, gemino mox inde e germine[104] duxit agmina commissosque labor sic gessit honores, ut semper merito princeps cum magna dedisset, 195 deberet maiora tamen. si bellica nubes ingrueret, quamvis annis et iure minori cedere grandaevos equitum peditumque magistros adspiceres totumque palam permittere Martem, nec gradus aetatisque pudor senioribus obstat, 200 ne iuveni parere velint. ceu flamine molli [104] _germine_ is the reading adopted by the Aldine ed. The MSS. vary. Birt conjectures _ex ordine_. * * * * * Page 253