at tuus hic urbis genius, dicas volo, quando coepit adhuc parvae primum se infundere Romae? fluxit ab uberibus nemorosa in valle lupinis infantesque aluit, dum nascitur ipse, gemellos? an cum vulturibus volitans ignota per auras umbra repentinam traxit de nube figuram? culminibus summis sedet, an penetralia servat? instituit mores et iura forensia condit, an castrorum etiam fossis intervenit, acres cogit ad arma viros, lituis ciet, urget in hostem? quae quis non videat sapientum digna cachinno? fingamus tamen esse aliquam, quae talia curet, umbram sive animam, per quam respublica fatum hauserit et calidis animetur tota medullis.
But this genius of the city, of which you speak, tell me, pray, when did it first begin to enter the little Rome? Did it flow from the wolfs udders in the wooded valley and nourish the twin children in its own birth? Or did it fly through the air with the vultures, as a spirit unperceived, and suddenly take shape from a cloud? Does it sit on the housetops, or keep to an inner chamber? Does it appoint laws and establish justice in the courts, or does it present itself in the ditches of the camp also, gathering bold warriors to arms, rousing them with the trumpet, pressing them against the foe? Anyone would see that all this deserves the laughter of the wise. Yet let us imagine that there is some ghost or spirit which attends to such things and through which the commonwealth has derived its destiny and the life that warms all its being:
final_alignments\Prudentius_Reply_to_Symmachus_Book2.json