te praeside noscat unde paludosi fecunda licentia Nili, cur vada desidant et ripa coerceat undas Cecropio stagnata luto, cur invida Memphis, curve Therapnaei lasciviat ora Canopi, cur servet Pharias Lethaeus ianitor aras, vilia cur magnos aequent animalia divos, quae sibi praesternat vivax altaria phoenix, quos dignetur agros aut quo se gurgite Nili mergat adoratus trepidis pastoribus Apis.
Under your protection let him learn whence comes the fertile license of marshy Nile, why the shallows sink and a bank flooded with Cecropian clay curbs the waters, why Memphis is jealous, or why wantons the shore of Therapnaean Canopus, why Lethes janitor guards Pharian altars, why common beasts equal great gods, what altar the long-lived Phoenix strews for herself, what fields Apis thinks worthy of him or in what flood of Nile he bathes, worshipped by trembling hinds.
final_alignments\Statius_Silvae_Book3.json