“I find myself turning over and over in my mind again
How I might send you some of Callimachus’ poems
To soften you towards me, so you might not try
To pour out your missiles on my head too.
But now I see that I have taken up this task in vain,
Gellius, and that my prayers are worth nothing.
I will make your weapons miss me in flight
But you’ll be struck fast and then pay my price.”
Saepe tibi studioso animo venante requirens
carmina uti possem mittere Battiadae,
qui te lenirem nobis, neu conarere
tela infesta mittere in usque caput,
hunc video mihi nunc frustra sumptum esse laborem,
Gelli, nec nostras hic valuisse preces.
contra nos tela ista tua evitabimus amitha
at fixus nostris tu dabis supplicium.
