Book XI, Epigram 90 (Ker)

No poems win your favour that speed on a gentle path, only those that fall over rough places and high cliffs, and this appears to you finer even than Homer's song: "Pillar of Lucilius' house, here lieth Metrophanes." And in amazed wonder you read of the "frugiferous terrene," and whatever phrase Accius and Pacuvius spew. Do you want vie, Chrestillus, to copy the old poets, your poets? May I die, but you appreciate the flavour of virility!