A Jester’s Fortune

Book III

Fuga sub terras, fuga nulla per aurus.

Nec lacrime (neferte preces) superive vocati

pectora nostra movent; aliis rex Iuppiter oris.

Faxo Bebrycium nequeat transcendere puppis

Ulla freturn et ponto volitet Symplegas inani.

No escape is there beneath the earth, none through the air

My heart is proof against tears (no groveling prayers!)

and appeals to heaven;

'tis elsewhere Jupiter counts for king.

I shall see that no vessel sails Bebrycian waters

and that the Clashers dance to and fro on an empty sea.

Argonautica, Book IV, 217-221

Gaius Valerius Flaccus