If it were right for the immortal ones
To mourn for mortals,
Then for the poet Naevius would mourn
The Goddesses of Song.
And so when unto Death's own treasure-house
He was delivered,
Romans no longer did remember how
To speak the Latin tongue.

Geoffrey Johnson, in L. R. Lind, ed. Latin Poetry in Verse Translation (1957), p. 5 | If it were right that goddesses for men should weep, Then would our native Muses weep for Naevius dead, For now their poet's locked in soundless Lethe's keep, Rome has forgotten Latin's grave majestic tread. | John C. Rolfe, The Attic Nights of Aullus Gellius, vol. 1, L195 (1927), p. 109 | If that immortals might for mortals weep, Then would divine Camenae weep for Naevius. For after he to Orcus as treasure was consigned, The Romans straight forgot to speak the Latin tongue.