Ruines of Rome: VIII

Through armes and vassals Rome the world subdu’d,
That one would weene that one sole cities strength
Both land and sea in roundnes had survew’d,
To be the measure of her bredth and length:
This peoples vertue yet so fruitfull was
Of vertuous nephewes, that posteritie,
Striving in power their grandfathers to passe,
The lowest earth ioin’d to the heaven hie;
To th’end that, having all parts in their power,
Nought from the Romane Empire might be quight;
And that though Time doth commonwealths devowre,
Yet no time should so low embase their hight,
That her head, earth’d in her foundations deep,
Should not her name and endles honour keep.