31. After a modest appeal to the examples of his brethren,
Virgil and Horace, Sidonius honestly confesses the debt, and
promises payment:-
Sic mihi diverso nuper sub Marte cadenti
Jussisti placido victor ut essem animo.
Serviat ergo tibi servati lingua poetae,
Atque meae vitae laus tua sit pretium.
Sidon. Apoll. Carm. iv. p. 308.
See Dubos, Hist. Critique, tom. i. p. 448, etc.