De Auri Sacra Fame (Epigr. XXXIV)
The Corruption of Sacred Wealth
The author rebukes the greed that seeks to diminish sacred things and calls for the destruction of sacrilegious works.
You shut down satire with greed, our Aeacus, and insist that the wealth of sacred things must be cut back. I’ll forgive you for the rest and leave it for the fish-wrappers; but that sacrilegious poem, I believe, should be burned.
Read the original Latin
Claudis avaritia satyram, statuisque sacrorum Esse recidendas, Aeace noster, opes. Caetera condonabo tibi, scombrisque remittam: Sacrilegum carmen, censeo, flamma voret.
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