Book IX, Epigram 3 (Ker)

Were you, Caesar, to reclaim, and did you wish to be creditor for all you have already given to the high gods and to heaven, then, though a great auction were held on skyey Olympus and gods were forced to sell whatever they possess, Atlas will go bankrupt, and there will not be a full twelfth wherewith the Sire of the gods himself may settle with you. For what can he pay you in return for Capitoline temples, what for the glory of the Tarpeian oak crown .'' What can the Thunderer's dame pay for her two temples? Pallas I pass by: she is your partner. Why should I speak of Alcides and Phoebus, and the loving Spartan twins? Why of the Flavian fane, a new gift to the Latin heaven? You must wait and endure, Augustus; for to pay you Jove's money-chest has not the wherewithal.