I.
Apology for Domitian
He was not bad, as emperors go, not really – Not like Tiberius cruel, or poor Nero silly.
The trouble was only that omens said he would die,
So what could he, mortal, do? Not worse, however, than you might, or I.
Suppose from long back you had known the very hour –
«Fear the fifth hour» – and yet for all your powe
Couldn’t strike it out from the day, or the day from the year,
