sed Venus augusto de sanguine femina vili privatoque viro vetitum per dedecus haesit; et, si Rhea sacram lascivi Martis amore lusa pudicitiam fluviali amisit in ulva, crediderim generosae aliquem stirpis, sed eundem moribus infamem, conpressa virgine per vim se dixisse deum, ne stuprum numinis ullus obicere auderet turpi miseraeque puellae.
But the truth is that Venus was a woman of noble blood who cleaved to a low, common man in a forbidden deed of shame; and if Rhea became the plaything of wanton Mars love and lost her sacred modesty amid the sedge on a river-bank, I should think it was some man of high birth but disreputable character that forced the maid and said he was a god, so that none might dare to reproach the poor, defiled girl with the lewd act of a divinity.
final_alignments\Prudentius_Reply_to_Symmachus_Book1.json