Epigram IV. — To Eunomus a Physician

Eunomus had once pronounced that Gaius would die of his sickness. He slipped away, Fate — not the doctor — aiding. A little afterwards the doctor saw, or thought he saw, the man, pale, and in death's very likeness. "Who art thou?" he asked. "Gaius," he answered. "Art thou alive?" He answered, "No." "And what now dost thou here?" "I come," said he, "at the behest of Dis, because I still retained knowledge of the world and men, to summon to him doctors." Eunomus grew stiff with fright. Then Gaius: "Fear nothing, Eunomus: I said, as all men say, that no man who is wise calls you a doctor."