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Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [c5r p41]

Ex arduis perpetuum
nomen.

Lasting renown won through tribulation

XXIII.

Crediderat platani ramis sua pignora passer,
Et bene, ni saevo visa dracone forent.
Glutiit hic pullos omnes, miseramque parentem
Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [c5v p42]Saxeus, & tali dignus obire nece.
Haec, nisi mentitur Calchas, monumenta laboris
Sunt longi, cuius fama perennis eat.[1]

A sparrow had entrusted her young to the branches of a plane-tree, and all would have been well, if they had not been observed by a merciless snake. This creature devoured all the chicks and the hapless parent too, a stony-hearted beast, turned to stone as it deserved. Unless Calchas speaks falsely, these are the tokens of long toil, the fame of which will go on through all the years.

COMMENTARIA.

Calchas Graecus augur valde celebris (qui
cum divinandi certamine à Mopso victus,
prae moestitia periit, ut festivè Leonicus de
varia historia lib. 3. cap. 63.[2]) Is unà cum Graecis
ducibus ad expeditionem Troiae profectus est.
Accidit autem ut fortè dum omnes rei divi-
nae auspicatissimo rerum gerendarum initio in-
tenti essent. Draco quidam ingens prodigiosè
apparuisset, qui arborem platanum ascen-
dens, ibique nido novem pullis reperto, omnes
subitò, denique etiam matrem crudeliter de-
voravit. Consultus igitus Calchas quid hoc
sibi vellet vaticinatus fuit, Graecos urbem il-
lam Troianam, per novem continuos annos
obsessuros non sine maximis laboribus, de-
cimo verò anno victores existuros, totamque
Troiam incendio penitus devastaturos, (quod
& factum fuit) ut habetur apud Homerum.
Et eius vitae interpretatione. Signifi-
catur ex difficilibus diuturnisque
laboribus tandem maximam
laudem, memoriamque
perpetuam pro-
silire.

Notes:

1.  See Homer, Iliad 2.299ff. for this portent which occurred at Aulis, where the Greek fleet was waiting to sail for Troy. Calchas the seer interpreted the eating of the eight chicks and their mother, followed by the death of the snake, as foretelling the nine-year battle for Troy, followed by success.

2.  Nicolaus Leonicus Thomaeus (Niccolo Leonico Tomeo), c. 1456-1531, professor of Greek and Latin at Padua, philosopher and humanist.


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