Greek Anthology Book 7

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§ 7.498 ANTIPATER OF SIDON Damis of Nysa once navigating a small vessel from the Ionian Sea to the Peloponnesus, brought safe and sound to land the ship with all on board, which the waves and winds had swept out of its course; but just as they were casting anchor on the rocks the old man died from the chilling snow-storm, having fallen asleep. Mark, stranger, how having found a sweet haven for others, he himself entered the haven of Lethe.
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§ 7.499 THEAETETUS Ye sailors on the sea, Aristo of Cyrene prays you all by Zeus the Protector of strangers to tell his father Meno that he lost his life in the Aegean main, and lies by the rocks of Icaria.
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§ 7.500 ASCLEPIADES Wayfarer who passest by my empty tomb, when thou comest to Chios tell my father Melesagoras that the evil south-easter destroyed me, my ship, and my merchandise, and naught but the name of Euippus is left.
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§ 7.501 PERSES The wintry blasts of the east wind cast thee out naked, Phillis, on the surf-beaten shore beside a spur of Lesbos rich in wine, and thou liest on the sea-bathed foot of the lofty cliff.
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§ 7.502 NICAENETUS I am the tomb, traveller, of Bito, and if leaving Torone thou comest to Amphipolis, tell Nicagoras that the Strymonian wind at the setting of the Kids was the death of his only son.
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§ 7.503 LEONIDAS OF TARENTUM A. “O stone standing a burden on the ancient beach, tell me whom thou holdest, whose son and whence?” B. “Phinto the son of Bathycles of Hermione, who perished in the heavy sea, encountering the blast of Arcturus.”
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§ 7.504 LEONIDAS OF TARENTUM Parmis, Callignotus’ son, the shore-fisher, a first class hand at catching wrasse and scaros and the perch, greedy seizer of the bait, and all fish that live in crevices and on rocky bottoms, met his death by biting a rock-dwelling iulis from his first catch of the day, a fish he lifted from the sea for his destruction; for slipping from his fingers, it went wriggling down his narrow gullet. So breathed he his last, rolling over in agony, near his lines, rod, and hooks, fulfilling the doom the destinies spun for him, and Gripo the fisherman built him this tomb.
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§ 7.505 SAPPHO His father, Meniscus, placed on Pelagon’s tomb a weel and oar, a memorial of the indigent life he led.
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§ 7.506 LEONIDAS OF TARENTUM I am buried both on land and in the sea; this is the exceptional fate of Tharsys, son of Charmides. For diving to loosen the anchor, which had become fixed, I descended into the Ionian sea; the anchor I saved, but as I was returning from the depths and already reaching out my hands to the sailors, I was eaten; so terrible and great a monster of the deep came and gulped me down as far as the navel. The half of me, a cold burden, the sailors drew from the sea, but the shark bit off the other half. On this beach, good Sir, they buried the vile remains of Tharsys, and I never came home to my country.
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§ 7.507a SIMONIDES Thou seest not the grave of Croesus, but a poor labourer’s tomb is this, yet sufficient for me.
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§ 7.507b SIMONIDES I, Gorgippus, without having looked on the bridal bed, descended to the chamber that none may escape of fair-haired Persephone.
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§ 7.508 SIMONIDES His city Gela buried here Pausanias, son of Anchites, a physician of the race of Asclepius, bearing a name expressive of his calling, who turned aside from the chambers of Persephone many men wasted by chilling disease.
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§ 7.509 SIMONIDES I am the monument of Theognis of Sinope, erected over him by Glaucus for the sake of their long companionship.
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§ 7.510 SIMONIDES The earth of a strange land lies on thy body, Cleisthenes, but the doom of death overtook thee wandering on the Euxine sea. Thou wast cheated of sweet, honied home-coming, nor ever didst thou return to sea-girt Chios.
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§ 7.511 SIMONIDES When I look on the tomb of Megacles dead, I pity thee, poor Callias, for what thou hast suffered. Stiller of pain.
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§ 7.512 SIMONIDES Through the valour of these men the smoke of spacious Tegea in flames never went up to heaven. They resolved to leave to their children their city prospering in freedom and to die themselves in the forefront of the fight.
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§ 7.513 SIMONIDES Protomachus said, when his father was holding him in his arms as he breathed forth his lovely youth, “Timenorides, never shalt thou cease to regret thy dear son's valour and virtue.”
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§ 7.514 SIMONIDES Shame of retreat led Cleodemus, too, to mournful death when on the banks of ever-flowing Theaerus he engaged the Thracian troop, and his warrior son made the name of his father, Diphilus, famous.
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§ 7.515 SIMONIDES Alas, cruel sickness, why dost thou grudge the souls of men their sojourn with lovely youth? Timarchus, too, in his youth thou hast robbed of his sweet life ere he looked on a wedded wife.
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§ 7.516 SIMONIDES Zeus, Protector of strangers, let them who slew me meet with the same fate, but may they who laid me in earth live and prosper.
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§ 7.517 CALLIMACHUS It was morning when we buried Melanippus, and at sunset the maiden Basilo died by her own hand; for after laying her brother on the pyre she could not abide to live. The house of their father Aristippus witnessed a double woe, and all Cyrene stood with downcast eyes, seeing the home bereft of its lovely children.
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§ 7.518 CALLIMACHUS A nymph from the mountains carried off Astacides the Cretan goat -herd, and now Astacides is holy. No more, ye shepherds, beneath the oaks of Dicte shall we sing of Daphnis, but ever of Astacides.
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§ 7.519 CALLIMACHUS Who knows well to-morrow’s fate, when thee, Charmis, who wast yesterday in our eyes, we bewailed and buried next day. Thy father Diophon never looked upon any more grievous thing.
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§ 7.520 CALLIMACHUS If thou wouldst seek Timarchus in Hades to enquire anything about the soul, or about how it shall be with thee hereafter, ask for Pausanias’ son of the tribe Ptolemais, and it is in the abode of the pious that thou shalt find him.
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§ 7.521 CALLIMACHUS If thou comest to Cyzicus, it will be little trouble to find Hippacus and Didyme; for the family is by no means obscure. Then give them this message, grievous indeed, but fail not to give it, that I hold their Critias.
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§ 7.522 CALLIMACHUS Timonoe! But who art thou? By heaven I would not have recognised thee, had not thy father’s name Timotheus and thy city’s Methymna stood on the grave-stone. I know of a truth that thy widowed husband Euthymenes is in sore distress.
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§ 7.523 CALLIMACHUS Ye who pass by the monument of Cimon of Elis, know that it is Hippaeus’ son whom ye pass by.
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§ 7.524 CALLIMACHUS A. “DOTH Charidas rest beneath thee?” B. “If it is the son of Arimmas of Cyrene that you mean, he does.” A. “What is it like below, Charidas?” C. “Very dark.” A. “And what about return?” C. “All lies.” A. “And Pluto?” C. “A myth.” A. “I am done for.” C. “This is the truth that I tell you, but if you want to hear something agreeable, a large ox in Hades costs a shilling.” (?)
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§ 7.525 CALLIMACHUS Know thou who passest my monument that I am the son and father of Callimachus of Cyrene. Thou wilt have heard of both; the one once held the office of general in his city and the other sang songs which overcame envy. No marvel, for those on whom the Muses did not look askance in boyhood they do not cast off when they are grey.
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§ 7.526 NICANDER OF COLOPHON O FATHER Zeus, didst thou ever see a braver than Othryadas, who would not return alone from Thyrea to Sparta his country, but transfixed himself with his sword after having inscribed the trophy signifying the subjection of the Argives.
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§ 7.527 THEODORIDAS Theodotus, cause of many tears to thy kinsmen, who lamented thee dead, lighting the mournful pyre, ill-fated, dead all too early, instead of joy in thy marriage and thy youth, to thy sweet mother is left but groaning and grief.
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§ 7.528 THEODORIDAS The daughters of Thessaly sheared their yellow locks at the spacious tomb of Phaenarete, distraught with grief for the luckless bride dead in her first childbed, and her dear Larissa and her parents were stricken with sorrow.
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§ 7.529 THEODORIDAS Daring leads a man to Hades and to heaven; daring laid Dorotheus, Sosander’s son, on the pyre; for winning freedom for Phthia he was smitten midway between Sekoi and Chimera.
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§ 7.530 ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA On Niobe and her children Thou ferry-man of the dead, receive me, who could not hold my tongue, alone with my children; a boat-load from the house of Tantalus is sufficient for thee. One womb shall fill thy boat; look on my boys and girls, the spoils of Phoebus and Artemis.
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§ 7.531 By the same The very mother who bore thee, Demetrius, gave thee death when forgetful of thy duty thou didst fly, driving the sword into thy flanks. Holding the steel that reeked with her son’s blood, gnashing her teeth, foaming at the mouth, and looking askance like a Spartan woman as she was, she exclaimed “Leave the Eurotas; go to Tartarus. Since thou couldst fly like a coward, thou art neither mine nor Sparta's.”
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§ 7.532 ISIDORUS OF AEGAE I am Eteocles whom the hopes of the sea drew from husbandry and made a merchant in place of what I was by nature. I was travelling on the surface of the Tyrrhenian Sea, but with my ship I sunk headlong into its depths in a sudden fierce squall. It is not then the same wind that blows on the threshing-floor and fills the sails.
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§ 7.533 DIONYSIUS OF ANDROS It is no great marvel that I slipped when soaked by Zeus and Bacchus. It was two to one, and gods against a mortal.
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§ 7.534 AUTOMEDON OF AETOLIA Man, spare thy life, and go not to sea in ill season. Even as it is, man’s life is not long. Unhappy Cleonicus, thou wast hastening to reach bright Thasos, trading from Coele Syria — trading, O Cleonicus; but on thy voyage at the very setting of the Pleiads, with the Pleiads thou didst set.
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§ 7.635 MELEAGER No longer do I, goat -footed Pan, desire to dwell among the goats or on the hill-tops. What pleasure, what delight have I in mountains? Daphnis is dead, Daphnis who begot a fire in my heart. Here in the city will I dwell; let some one else set forth to hunt the wild beasts; Pan no longer loves his old life.
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§ 7.536 ALCAEUS Not even now the old man is dead, do clusters of the cultivated vine grow on his tomb, but brambles and the astringent wild pear that contracts the traveller's lips and his throat parched with thirst. But he who passes by the tomb of Hipponax should pray his corpse to rest in sleep.
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§ 7.537 PHANIAS No monument for his father, but in mournful memory of his lamented son did Lysis build this empty mound of earth, burying but his name, since the remains of unhappy Mantitheus never came into his parents' hands.
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§ 7.538 ANYTE This man when alive was Manes, but now he is dead he is as great as great Darius.
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§ 7.539 PERSES Heedless, Theotimus, of the coming evil setting of rainy Arcturus didst thou set out on thy perilous voyage, which carried thee and thy companions, racing over the Aegean in the many-oared galley, to Hades. Alas for Aristodice and Eupolis, thy parents, who mourn thee, embracing thy empty tomb.
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§ 7.540 DAMAGETES By Zeus, the Protector of strangers, we adjure thee, Sir, tell our father Charinus, in Aeolian Thebe, that Menis and Polynicus are no more; and say this, that though we perished at the hands of the Thracians, we do not lament our treacherous murder, but his old age left in bereavement ill to bear.
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§ 7.541 DAMAGETES Standing in the forefront of the battle, Chaeronidas, so spokest thou, “ Zeus, grant me death or victory,” on that night when by Achaean Taphros, the foe made thee meet him in stubborn battle strife: verily doth Elis sing of thee above all men for thy valour, who didst then shed thy warm blood on the foreign earth.
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§ 7.542 FLACCUS The tender boy, slipping, broke the ice of the Hebrus frozen by the winter cold, and as he was carried away by the current, a sharp fragment of the Bistonian river breaking away cut through his neck. Part of him was carried away by the flood, but his mother laid in the tomb all that was left to her above the ice, his head alone. And, wailing, she cried, “My child, my child, part of thee hath the pyre buried and part the cruel water.”
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§ 7.543 ANONYMOUS One should pray to be spared sea-voyages altogether, Theogenes, since thou, too, didst make thy grave in the Libyan Sea, when that tired close-packed flock of countless cranes descended like a cloud on thy loaded ship.
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§ 7.544 ANONYMOUS Tell, stranger, if ever thou dost come to Phthia, the land of vines, and to the ancient city of Thaumacia that, mounting once through the lonely woodland of Malea, thou didst see this tomb of Derxias the son of Lampo, whom once, as he hastened on his way to glorious Sparta, the bandits slew by treachery and not in open fight.
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§ 7.545 HEGESIPPUS They say that Hermes leads the just from the pyre to Rhadamanthus by the right-hand path, the path by which Aristonous, the not unwept son of Chaerestratus, descended to the house of Hades, the gatherer of peoples.
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§ 7.546 ANONYMOUS Aristo had his sling, a weapon procuring him a scanty living, with which he was wont to shoot the winged geese, stealing softly upon them so as to elude them as they fed with sidelong-glancing eyes. Now he is in Hades and the sling noiseless and idle with no hand to whirl it, and the game fly over his tomb.
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§ 7.547 LEONIDAS OF ALEXANDRIA (ISOPSEPHA) Bianor engraved the stone, not for his mother or father, as had been their meet fate, but for his unmarried daughter, and he groaned as he led the bride of twelve years not to Hymenaeus but to Hades.
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§ 7.548 LEONIDAS OF ALEXANDRIA “Who is the Argive Daemon on the tomb? Is he a brother of Dicaeoteles?” { Echo ) “A brother of Dicaeoteles.” “Did Echo speak the last words, or is it true that this is the man?” { Echo ) “This is the man.”
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§ 7.549 LEONIDAS OF ALEXANDRIA Niobe, a rock in Sipylus, still sobs and wails, mourning for the death of twice seven children, and never during the ages shall she cease from her plaint. Why did she speak the boastful words that robbed her of her life and her children
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§ 7.550 LEONIDAS OF ALEXANDRIA Antheus, who escaped the threats of sea-green Trito, escaped not the terrible Phthian wolf. For by the stream of Peneus he perished. Unfortunate! to whom the Nymphs were more treacherous than the Nereids.
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§ 7.551 AGATHIAS SCHOLASTICUS Letoeus and Paulus, being two brothers, were united in life, and united in the predestined hour of their death, they lie by the Bosporus clothed in one shroud of dust. For they could not live apart from each other, but ran together to Persephone. Hail, sweet pair, ever of one mind; on your tomb should stand an altar of Concord.
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§ 7.552 AGATHIAS SCHOLASTICUS A. “STRANGER, why mournest thou?” B. “For thy fate.” A. “Dost know who I am?” B. “No, but still I see thy end was wretched, and who art thou?” A. “Periclea.” B. “Whose wife?” A. “The wife of a noble man, an orator from Asia, by name Memnonius.” B. “And how is it that thou liest by the Bosporus?” A. “Ask Fate who gave me a tomb in a strange land far from my own country.” B. “Didst thou leave a son?” A. “One of three years old, who wanders up and down the house seeking the milk of my breasts.” B. “May he live and prosper.” A. “Yea, yea, my friend, pray for him, that he may grow up and shed sweet tears for me.”
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§ 7.553 DAMASCIUS THE PHILOSOPHER Zosime who was never a slave but in body, has now gained freedom for her body too.
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§ 7.554 PHILIPPUS OF THESSALONICA The mason Architeles with mourning hands constructed a tomb for Agathanor his son. Alas! alas! this stone no chisel cut, but drenched by many tears it crumbled. Thou, tablet, rest lightly on the dead, that he may say “Of a truth it was my father’s hand which placed this stone on me.”
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§ 7.555 JOANNES THE POET Looking at my husband, as my life was ebbing away, I praised the infernal gods, and those of wedlock, the former because I left my husband alive, the latter that he was so good a husband. But may their father live to bring up our children.
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§ 7.555 By the same This, Nosto, was the reward thy virtue gained, that thy husband shed tears for thee at thy death.
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§ 7.556 THEODORUS PROCONSUL On a mime Hades is grim, but he laughed at thy death, Tityrus, and made thee the mime of the dead.
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§ 7.557 CYRUS THE POET Maia had passed her thirtieth year and was approaching her thirty-third, when Hades cast at her his cruel dart and carried off the woman who was like a rosebud, a very counterpart of Penelope in her work.
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§ 7.558 ANONYMOUS Hades spoiled the ripe fruit of my youth and the stone hid me in this ancestral tomb. My name was Rufinus, the son of Aetherius and I was born of a noble mother, but in vain was I born; for after reaching the perfection of education and youth, I carried, alas! my learning to Hades and my youth to Erebus. Lament long, O traveller, when thou readest these lines, for without doubt thou art either the father or the son of living men.
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§ 7.559 THEOSEBEIA Three sorrows Medicine met with. First she shore her hair for Hippocrates, and next for Galen, and now she lies on the tearful tomb of Ablabius, ashamed, now he is gone, to shew herself among men.
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§ 7.560 PAULUS SILENTIARIUS Though the earth cover thee in a strange land, Leontius, though thou didst die far from thy afflicted parents, yet many funeral tears were shed for thee by mortals consumed by insufferable sorrow. For thou wert greatly beloved by all and it was just as if thou wert the common child, the common companion of every one. Ah! direful and merciless was Fate that spared not even thy youth.
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§ 7.561 JULIANUS, PREFECT OF EGYPT Nature after long labour gave birth to a man whose virtue was worthy of former years, Craterus (strong) in name and in wisdom, whose death moved to tears even his grievous opponents. If he died young, blame the supreme decree of Fate who willed that the world should be despoiled of its ornament.
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§ 7.562 By the same O ELOQUENCE of Craterus, what profits it thee if thou wast a cause of speech or of silence to thy adversaries? When thou didst live, all cried out in applause; but after thy death the mouths of all are sealed; for none any more would lend an ear to speeches. The art of speaking perished with Craterus.
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§ 7.563 PAULUS SILENTIARIUS Thou art bound in brazen silence, Chryseomallus, and no longer dost thou figure to us the men of old time in dumb show. Now, most gifted man, is thy silence, in which we once took delight, grievous to us
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§ 7.564 ANONYMOUS Here on a time the earth opened to receive Laodice, not duly laid to rest, but flying from the violence of the enemy. Unreckonable Time having effaced the monument, Maximus the Proconsul of Asia brought it again to light, and having noticed the girl’s bronze statue lying elsewhere unhonoured, he set it up on this circular barrow.
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§ 7.665 JULIANUS, PREFECT OF EGYPT The painter limned Theodote just as she was Would his art had failed him and he had given forgetfulness to us who mourn her.
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§ 7.566 MACEDONIUS CONSUL Earth and Ilithyia, one of you brought me to birth, the other covers me. Farewell! I have run the race of each. I depart, not knowing whither I go, for neither do I know who I was or whose or from whence when I came to you.
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§ 7.567 AGATHIAS SCHOLASTICUS This is the monument of Candaules, and Justice seeing my fate said that my wife committed no crime; for she wished not to be seen by two men, but wished either her first husband or him who knew her charms to possess her. It was fated for Candaules to come to an evil end; otherwise he would never have ventured to show his own wife to strange eyes.
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§ 7.568 AGATHIAS SCHOLASTICUS Fate carried me off but fourteen years old, the only child that Thalia bore to Didymus. Ah, ye Destinies, why were ye so hard-hearted, never bringing me to the bridal chamber or the sweet task of conceiving children? My parents were on the point of leading me to Hymen, but I went to loathed Acheron. But, ye gods, still, 1 pray, the plaints of my father and mother who wither away because of my death.
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§ 7.669 AGATHIAS SCHOLASTICUS Yea, I pray thee, traveller, tell my dear husband, when thou seest my country Thessaly, “Thy wife is dead and rests in her tomb, alas, near the shore of the Bosporus. But build me at home a cenotaph near thee, so that thou mayest be reminded of her who was once thy spouse.”
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§ 7.570 ANONYMOUS Our princes, owing to his virtues, promoted Dulcitius to great wealth and proconsular rank; and now that Nature has released him from earth, the immortal gods possess himself, but this enclosure his body.
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§ 7.571 LEONTIUS SCHOLASTICUS When Orpheus departed, perchance some Muse survived, but at thy death, Plato, the lyre ceased to sound. For in thy mind and in thy fingers there yet survived some little fragment at least of ancient music.
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§ 7.572 AGATHIAS SCHOLASTICUS A certain man secretly took his pleasure in unholy intercourse, stealing the embraces of another man's wife; but of a sudden the roof fell in and buried the sinners still coupled. One trap holds both, and together they lie in an embrace that never ceases.
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§ 7.573 LEONTIUS SCHOLASTICUS This is the tomb of Cheiredius whom the Attic land nourished, an orator the image of the ancient ten, ever easily convincing the judge, but when himself a judge never swerving a hair’s breadth from the straight path.
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§ 7.574 AGATHIAS SCHOLASTICUS Agathonicus had diligently studied jurisprudence, but Fate has not learnt to fear the laws, and laying hands on him tore him from his learning in it, before he was of lawful age to practise. His fellow-students bitterly lamented over his tomb, mourning for the ornament of their company, and his mother tearing her hair in her mourning beat herself, remembering, alas, the labour of her womb. Yet blest was he in fading young and escaping early the iniquity of life.
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§ 7.575 LEONTIUS SCHOLASTICUS The tomb is Rhode’s. She was a Tyrian woman, and quitting her country came to this city for the sake of her children. She adorned the bed of Gemellus of eternal memory, who formerly was a professor of law in this city. She died in old age, but should have lived for thousands of years: we never feel we have enough of the good.
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§ 7.576 JULIANUS, PREFECT OF EGYPT A. “ARE you dead, Pyrrho?” B. “I doubt it.” A. “Even after your final dissolution, do you say you doubt?” B. “I doubt.” A, “The tomb has put an end to doubt”
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§ 7.577 By the same May he who buried me at the cross-roads come to an ill end and get no burial at all; since all the travellers tread on Timon and in death, the portion of all, I alone have no portion of repose.
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§ 7.578 AGATHIAS SCHOLASTICUS In this tomb rests strong Panopeus the lion -hunter, the piercer of shaggy-breasted panthers; for a terrible scorpion issuing from a hole in the earth smote his heel as he walked on the hills and slew him. On the ground, alas, lie his poor javelin and spear, to be the playthings of impudent deer.
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§ 7.579 LEONTIAS SCHOLASTICUS Thou seest the ever-smiling face of Peter the orator, excellent in debate, excellent in friendship. In the theatre whilst looking at the performance he fell from the roof with others and was the only one who died, after surviving a short time, sufficient for his needs. I call this no violent death, but a natural one.
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§ 7.580 JULIANUS, PREFECT OF EGYPT Never shalt thou hide me even in the very bottom of the earth in a manner that shall hide the all-seeing eye of Justice.
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§ 7.581 By the same Thou givest me a tomb in return for murdering me, but may heaven grant thee in return the same kindness.
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§ 7.582 By the same Hail! thou ship-wrecked man, and when thou landest in Hades, blame not the waves of the sea, but the winds. It was they who overcame thee, but the kindly water of the sea cast thee out on the land by the tombs of thy fathers.
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§ 7.583 AGATHIAS SCHOLASTICUS O WOULD that marriage and bridal beds had never been, for then there would have been no occasion for child-bed. But now the poor woman sat in labour and in the unhappy recess of her womb lay the dead child. Three days passed and ever the babe remained with unfulfilled hope of its being born. The womb, O babe, instead of the dust rests lightly on thee, for it enwraps thee and thou hast no need of earth.
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§ 7.584 JULIANUS, PREFECT OF EGYPT Dost thou travel on the sea, thou who didst take up my ship-wrecked body and bury it in a tomb? Travel, but avoid Cape Malea, and mayst thou ever, my friend, find fair weather. But if Fortune be adverse, mayst thou meet with the same kindness.
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§ 7.585 By the same Myodon, the span of his life finished, went to Hades in his own boat, not requiring the ferry-boat of the dead. For she who was in life his support and the witness of his toil, often loaded with his prey from the sea, was his fellow-traveller in death too, when he came to his end in company with the burning boat; so faithful to her master was she, increasing his substance and travelling with him to life and to death.
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§ 7.586 By the same It was not the sea which was thy end, and the gales, but insatiable love of that commerce which turned thee mad. Give me a little living from the land; let others pursue profit from the sea gained by fighting the storms.
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§ 7.587 By the same On Pamphilus the Philosopher The earth bore thee, the sea destroyed thee, and Pluto's seat received thee, and thence thou didst ascend to heaven. Thou didst not perish in the deep, Pamphilus, as one shipwrecked, but in order to add an ornament to the domains of all the immortals.
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§ 7.588 PAULUS SILENTIARIUS Damocharis passed into the final silence of Fate; alas! the Muses’ lovely lyre is silent; the holy foundation of Grammar has perished. Sea-girt Cos, thou art again in mourning as for Hippocrates.
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§ 7.589 AGATHIAS SCHOLASTICUS Bear not the message, traveller, to Antioch, lest again the streamlets of Castalia lament, because of a sudden at the age of seventeen Eustorgius left the Muse and his unfulfilled hope of learning in Roman Law, and to empty dust was changed the bloom of his youth. He lies in the tomb and instead of him we see his name and the colours of the brush.
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§ 7.590 JULIANUS, PREFECT OF EGYPT A. “FAMOUS was Ioannes.” B. “Mortal, say.” A. “The son-in-law of an empress.” B. “Yes, but mortal.” A. “The flower of the family of Anastasius.” B. “And mortal too was he.” A. “Righteous in his life. B. ”That is no longer mortal. Virtue is stronger than death."
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§ 7.591 By the same I am the tomb of Hypatius and I do not say that I contain in this little space the remains of the great Roman general. For the earth, ashamed of burying so great a man in so small a tomb, preferred to give him to the sea to keep.
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§ 7.592 By the same The emperor himself was wrath with the roaring sea for covering the body of Hypatius; for now he was dead he wished the last honours to be paid to him, and the sea hid him from the favour of his magnanimity. Hence, a great proof of the mildness of his heart, he honoured the distinguished dead with this cenotaph.
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§ 7.593 AGATHIAS SCHOLASTICUS On Eugenia his Sister The earth covers Eugenia who once bloomed in beauty and poesy, who was learned in the revered science of the law. On her tomb the Muse, Themis, and Aphrodite all shore their hair.
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§ 7.594 JULIANUS, PREFECT OF EGYPT Thy truest monument, Theodorus, is not on thy tomb, but in the many thousand pages of thy books, in which, snatching them from oblivion, thou didst recall to life the labours of thoughtful poets.
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§ 7.595 By the same Theodorus died, and now the crowd of ancient poets is really dead and gone; for all breathed as long AS he breathed, and the light of all is quenched with his; all are hidden in one tomb.

Via ToposText (topostext.org), a project of the Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation created by Brady Kiesling. Translated by William Roger Paton (1857-1921). Composed ca. 900 CE. Licence: public domain. Source.