“And now it was your purpose to weep Vesuvius' flames in pious melody and spend your tears on the losses of your native place, what time the Father took the mountain from earth and lifted it to the stars only to plunge it down upon the hapless cities far and wide.”

—  Statius , Silvae

iii, line 205
Silvae, Book V

Original

Jamque et flere pio Vesuvina incendia cantu mens erat et gemitum patriis impendere damnis, cum pater exemptum terris ad sidera montem sustulit et late miseras deiecit in urbes.

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Statius 93
Roman poet of the 1st century AD (Silver Age of Latin liter… 45–96

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