Carmina

Mentula has something like thirty acres of meadow land, forty under cultivation: the rest are as the sea. Why can he not surpass Croesus in wealth, he who in one estate possesses so much? Meadow, arable land, immense woods, and open fields and marshes, even to the uttermost north and to the Ocean sea! All things great are here, yet is the owner most great beyond all; not a man, but in truth a mentule mighty, menacing!

Often seeking, my mind hunting how I could send to studious you the poems of Battiades, whereby I might soften you towards us, and you might not try to send hostile weapons at my head all the time—I see now that this effort was undertaken by me in vain, Gellius, and that our prayers to this end were of no avail. Your weapons against us we will ward off with our cloak; but, transfixed with ours, you will pay the punishment.