“Yet had the guilt of all been one and this pollution stained _our_ axes, all the more shouldst thou have taken the high office thou dost shun lest that ancient dignity--ever the goal of all dignities--should be destroyed. No consul, save Stilicho alone, can repair that ruin. With what foreknowledge had thy soul delayed the hour: once it would have added lustre unto thee, now thou dost add lustre unto it. Do thou as consul wipe out the insult offered to all consuls that have been and yet shall be. Give thy name to the year that posterity [7] Claudian is referring to the consulship of Eutropius. * * * * * Page 26 posteritas nec iam doleat defensa vetustas. sic trabeis ultor Stilicho Brutusque repertor. libertas populi primo tunc consule Bruto reddita per fasces; hic fascibus expulit ipsis servitium. instituit sublimem Brutus honorem; 325 adseruit Stilicho. plus est servasse repertum, quam quaesisse novum. quid tardius ore rubenti adnuis et solitus frontem circumfluit ignis? tandem vince tuum, vincis qui cuncta, pudorem. “Hos etiam, quamvis corrumpi munere nullo 330 te certum est, mirare libens ac suscipe cinctus, quos tibi divino mecum Tritonia duxit pectine: tincta simul repetito murice fila contulimus pensis et eodem nevimus auro, aurea quo Lachesis sub te mihi saecula texit. 335 hic ego promissam subolem sperataque mundo pignora praelusi. veram mox ipse probabis me vatem nostraeque fidem venientia telae fata dabunt.” Dixit gremioque rigentia profert dona, graves auro trabeas. insigne Minervam 340 spirat opus, rutilis hic pingitur aula columnis et sacri Mariae partus; Lucina dolores solatur; residet fulgente puerpera lecto; sollicitae iuxta pallescunt gaudia matris. susceptum puerum redimitae tempora Nymphae 345 auri fonte lavant: teneros de stamine risus vagitusque audire putes. iam creverat infans * * * * * Page 27 may dwell thereafter securely, and that antiquity, thus vindicated, may cease from her complaints. Brutus was the founder of the office, let Stilicho be its avenger. Brutus, the first consul, won liberty for the Roman people by means of the consular fasces: Stilicho banished the taint of slavery from those fasces. Brutus instituted this supreme dignity; Stilicho saved it; and it is greater to preserve what already is than to create that which is not. Why do thy blushes grant so tardy an acceptance of our prayers? Why does the accustomed flush o’erspread thy brow? World-conqueror, conquer now thine own diffidence.