Parentalia I. — Julius Ausonius, my Father

First among these I name Ausonius my father; and even if his son should hesitate to place him first, yet natural order will have it so. He was God's special care, seeing that he enjoyed the glory of a calm old age, and lived through twice eleven Olympiads. All that he wished for, he saw fulfilled: likewise whate'er he desired befell him as he wished. It was not that Fate was more kind to him than is her wont, but that this worthy man was so reasonable in all his hopes. His own age matched him with the Seven Sages whose teaching he so closely practised in his life as to live by the rule of wisdom rather than profess it, albeit he was not unskilled nor lacking in the gift of eloquence. To him was given the power to prolong men's lives by means of medicine, and make the Fates wait their full time. Wherefore, though his life's task is ended, so great a reverence for him lingers yet that our own age has given him this epitaph: "Even as Ausonius had none for him to follow, so he has none who now can match his skill."