Skip to content

Driven away by barbarian thrumming the Muse has spurned the six-footed exercise ever since she beheld these patrons seven feet high.

— Sidonius Apollinaris

Ex hoc barbaricis abacta plectris
spernit senipedem stilum Thalia,
ex quo septipedes videt patronos.

Original text (Latin)

Another quote →

More quotes by Sidonius Apollinaris

Death may overwhelm them, but not fear; unconquerable they stand their ground, and their courage well-nigh outlives their lives.

These are the men whom even they fear who are themselves feared.

How dismal the necessity of birth! how miserable the necessity of living! how hard the necessity of death!

Why – even supposing I had the skill – do you bid me compose a song dedicated to Venus the lover of Fescennine mirth, placed as I am among long-haired hordes, having to endure German speech, praising oft with wry face the song of the gluttonous Burgundian who spreads rancid butter on his hair?

All Sidonius Apollinaris quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Sidonius Apollinaris (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.