GAIUS CORNELIUS GALLUS(c.70-26 BCE)

You should not have been so eager

to wash away the shame of ambition

with death's bitter remedy,

as one pentameter and nine lines 'of inferior quality'

now stand as your legacy;

after all, time more merciless than Octavian

has wrought its punishment,

and left these as your poetic monument. 

You should have put words down

and sought Octavian's forgiveness

through flattery and praise,

and your too audacious ambition

would have been forgiven, if not forgotten,

and, perhaps, your poetry would

have stood time like a lesser Sphinx,

and would be remembered,

not your death in disgrace.

14.10.2015-21.05.2021