Professors XX. — Staphylius, the Rhetorician, a Native of Ausci

So far I have kept to the rule of commemorating my fellow-countrymen, whether they taught in our city or abroad. Yet it is no sin to couple with my countrymen a single stranger such as you, Staphylius, a son of Novem Populi. You were to me a father and an uncle, both in one, like a second Ausonius, like a second Arborius. As a grammarian you rivalled Scaurus and Probus; as a rhetorician, most ready; in history you knew all Livy and Herodotus. You knew every branch of learning and all the lore which Varro stored in his innumerable tomes. Your heart was golden, your tongue persuasive and your speech unflurried; no hesitating was there and yet no hurrying. In old age you were comely and distinguished in appearance; anger and grief were strangers to you, and your peaceful life had a befitting close.