Marcus Annaeus Lucanus: Greatness

“It was the chain of jealous fate, and the speedy fall which no eminence can escape; it was the grievous collapse of excessive weight, and Rome unable to support her own greatness.”
Invida fatorum series summisque negatum<br/>stare diu nimioque graves sub pondere lapsus<br/>nec se Roma ferens.

“Great things come crashing down upon themselves – such is the limit of growth ordained by heaven for success.”
In se magna ruunt: laetis hunc numina rebus<br/>crescendi posuere modum.

“And now cruel famine came – famine that is ever first in the train of great disasters.”
Jamque comes semper magnorum prima malorum<br/>saeva fames aderat.

“Boldness is a mask for fear, however great.”
Audendo magnus tegitur timor.

“If great renown is won by true merit, and if virtue is considered in itself and apart from success, then all that we praise in any of our ancestors was Fortune's gift.”
Si veris magna paratur fama bonis et si successu nuda remoto inspicitur virtus, quidquid laudamus in ullo maiorum, fortuna fuit.