deus bone, quid illic inesse fellis leporis piperataeque facundiae minime tacitus inspexi! nisi quod ferventis fulmen ingenii et eloquii salsa libertas plus personis forte quam causis impediebantur; ut mihi non figuratius Constantini domum vitamque videatur vel pupugisse versu gemello consul Ablabius vel momordisse disticho tali clam Palatinis foribus appenso:  Saturni aurea saecla quis requirat? sunt haec gemmea, sed Neroniana.
Gracious heaven! What a combination of gall and grace and pungent well-spiced eloquence I found there to call forth my loud admiration! It is true, perhaps, that the lightning of your glowing genius and the witty frankness of your utterance tended to take less liberty with persons than with abuses: indeed it seems to me that no greater power of satiric suggestion was shown by the consul Ablabius when in a couple of verses he stabbed at the life and family of Constantine and put his tooth into them with this distich posted up secretly on the door of the palace!  Who would now want the golden age of Saturn? Ours is a diamond age'of Neros pattern.
final_alignments\Sidonius_Letters_Book5.json