Chapter CXV: Of the Same

Mentula! masterest thou some thirty acres of grass-land
Full told, forty of field soil; others are sized as the sea.
Why may he not surpass in his riches any a Croesus
Who in his one domain owns such abundance of good,
Grass-lands, arable fields, vast woods and forest and marish 5
Yonder to Boreal-bounds trenching on Ocean tide?
Great are indeed all these, but thou by far be the greatest,
Never a man, but a great Mentula of menacing might.

Mentula has something like thirty acres of meadow land, forty under cultivation: the rest are as the sea. Why might he not o'erpass Croesus in wealth, he who in one demesne possesses so much? Meadow, arable land, immense woods, and demesnes, and morasses, e'en to the uttermost north and to the ocean's tide! All things great are here, yet is the owner most great beyond all; not a man, but in truth a Mentule mighty, menacing!

CXVI.

Saepe tibi studioso animo venante requirens
Carmina uti possem mittere Battiadae,
Qui te lenirem nobis, neu conarere
Telis infestis icere mi usque caput,
Hunc video mihi nunc frustra sumptus esse laborem, 5
Gelli, nec nostras his valuisse preces.
Contra nos tela ista tua evitamus amictu:
At fixus nostris tu dabi' supplicium.