Book VIII, Epigram 36 (Ker)

Laugh, Caesar, at the regal wonders of the Pyramids: now barbaric Memphis speaks not of her Eastern work. How small a part of the Palatine hall I would Egypt's toil achieve! Nothing so grand the eye of day sees in all the world. You would believe the seven hills uprose all together; Ossa with Thessalian Pelion atop was not so high;2 Heaven it so pierces that, hidden amid the lustrous stars, its peak echoes sunlit to the thunder in the cloud below, and is sated with Phoebus' mystic power ere Circe views her sire's springing face. And yet, Augustus, this palace that with its pinnacle touches the stars, though level with Heaven, is less than its lord.