hristianity continued to inflict wounds more and more deadly on
expiring Paganism. Are the gods of Olympus agitated with apprehension
at the birth of this new enemy? They are introduced as rejoicing at his
appearance, and promising long years of glory. The whole prophetic
choir of Paganism, all the oracles throughout the world, are summoned
to predict the felicity of his reign. His birth is compared to that
of Apollo, but the narrow limits of an island must not confine the new
deity--

... Non littora nostro
Sufficerent angusta Deo.

Augury and divination, the shrines of Ammon, and of Delphi, the Persian
Magi, and the Etruscan seers, the Chaldean astrologers, the Sibyl
herself, are described as still discharging their prophetic functions,
and celebrating the natal day of this Christian prince. They are noble
lines, as well as curious illustrations of the times:

... Quae tunc documenta futuri?
Quae voces avium? quanti per inane volatus?
Quis vatum discursus erat? Tibi corniger Ammon,
Et dudum taciti rupere silentia Delphi.
Te Persae cecinere Magi, te sensit Etruscus
Augur, et inspectis Babylonius horruit astris;
Chaldaei stupuere senes, Cumanaque rursus
Itonuit rupes, rabidae delubra Sibyllae.
--Claud. iv. Cons. Hon. 141.

From the Quarterly Review of Beugnot. Hist. de la Paganisme en Occident,
Q. R. v. lvii. p. 61.--M.]

[Footnote 118: National vanity has made him a Florentine, or a Spaniard.
But the first Epistle of Claudian proves him a native of Alexandria,
(Fabricius, Bibliot. Latin. tom. iii. p. 191-202, edit. Ernest.)]

[Footnote 119: His first Latin verses were composed during the
consulship of Probinus, A.D. 395.

Romanos bibimus primum, te consule, fontes, Et Latiae cessit Graia
Thalia togae.

Besides some Greek epigrams, which are still extant, the Latin poet had
composed, in Greek, the Antiquities of Tarsus, Anazarbus, Berytus, Nice,
&c. It is more easy to supply the loss of good poetry, than of authentic
history.]

[Footnote 120: Strada (Prolusion v. vi.) allows him to contend with
the five heroic poets, Lucretius, Virgil, Ovid, Lucan, and Statius. His
patron is the accomplished courtier Balthazar Castiglione. His admirers
are numerous and passionate. Yet the rigid critics reproach the exotic
weeds, or flowers, which spring too luxuriantly in his Latian soil]

Chapter XXXI: Invasion Of Italy, Occupation Of Territories By
Barbarian