66 ite, quibus grata est picta lupa barbara mitra.
rusticus ille tuus sumit trechedipna, Quirine,
et ceromatico fert niceteria collo.
hic alta Sicyone, ast hic Amydone relicta,
hic Andro, ille Samo, hic Trallibus aut Alabandis,
Hie to the Circus! there in crowds they stand,
Tires on their head, and timbrels in their hand.
Thy rustick, Quirinus, the trechedipna wears,
And on his breast, smear’d with ceroma, bears
A paltry prize, well-pleased; while every land,
Sicyon, and Amydos, and Alaband,
Tralles, and Samos, and a thousand more,
Thrive on his indolence, and daily pour
Their starving myriads forth: hither they come,
And batten on the genial soil of Rome;
Minions, then lords, of every princely dome!
A flattering, cringing, treacherous, artful race,
Of torrent tongue, and never-blushing face;
A Protean tribe, one knows not what to call,
Which shifts to every form, and shines in all:
Grammarian, painter, augur, rhetorician,
Rope-dancer, conjuror, fidler, and physician,
All trades his own, your hungry Greekling counts;
And bid him mount the sky,—the sky he mounts!
You smile—was’t a barbarian, then that flew?
No, ’twas a Greek; ’twas an ATHENIAN, too!
—Bear with their state who will: for I disdain,
To feed their upstart pride, or swell their train:
Slaves, that in Syrian lighters stow’d, so late,
With figs and prunes, (an inauspicious freight,)
Already see their faith preferr’d to mine,
And sit above me! And before me sign! —
That on the Aventine I first drew air,
And, from the womb, was nursed on Sabine fare,
Avails me not!
71 Esquilias dictumque petunt a uimine collem,
uiscera magnarum domuum dominique futuri.
ingenium uelox, audacia perdita, sermo
promptus et Isaeo torrentior. ede quid illum
esse putes. quemuis hominem secum attulit ad nos:
76 grammaticus, rhetor, geometres, pictor, aliptes,
augur, schoenobates, medicus, magus, omnia nouit
Graeculus esuriens: in caelum iusseris ibit.
in summa non Maurus erat neque Sarmata nec Thrax
qui sumpsit pinnas, mediis sed natus Athenis.
81 horum ego non fugiam conchylia? me prior ille
signabit fultusque toro meliore recumbet,
aduectus Romam quo pruna et cottana uento?
usque adeo nihil est quod nostra infantia caelum
hausit Auentini baca nutrita Sabina?
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