GetPassage urn:cts:latinLit:phi0893.phi001.perseus-eng2:4.9.21-4.9.40 urn:cts:latinLit:phi0893.phi001.perseus-eng2:4.9.21-4.9.40

Or Sthenelus, earn'd the Muses' crown:Not Hector first for child and wife,Or brave Deiphobus, laid downThe burden of a manly life.Before Atrides men were brave:But ah! oblivion, dark and long,Has lock'd them in a tearless grave,For lack of consecrating song.'Twixt worth and baseness, lapp'd in death,What difference? You shall ne'er be dumb,While strains of mine have voice and breath:The dull neglect of days to comeThose hard-won honours shall not blight:No, Lollius, no: a soul is yours,Clear-sighted, keen, alike uprightWhen fortune smiles, and when she lowers:To greed and rapine still severe,Spurning the gain men find so sweet:A consul, not of one brief year,But oft as on the judgment-seat