C.D. Warner, et al., comp. The Library of the World’s Best Literature.
An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
Claudius Rutilius Numatianus: Prologue to the ‘Itinerarium’
By Roman Poets of the Later Empire
R
Missed the unspeakable boon granted the children of Rome?
Know there is time no more to the dwellers in Rome the beloved,
Early and late no more, under her infinite charm!
Happy beyond compute the sons of mortals appointed
Unto that marvelous prize, birth on the consecrate soil!
Who to the rich estate of the heirs of Roman patricians
Add thy illustrious fame—City without a peer!
Happiest these, but following close in the order of blessing,
They who have come from afar, seeking a Latian home.
Wide to their pilgrim feet the Senate opens its portal,—
“Come all ye who are fit! Come and be aliens no more!”
So they sit with the mighty and share in the honors of Empire.
Share in their worship too, kneeling where all do adore,
Thrill with the State’s great life, as aye the State and its æther,
Unto the uttermost Pole, thrills with the being of Jove.