Note 120 Strada (Prolusion v. vi.) allows him to contend with the five heroic poets, Lucretius, Virgil, Ovid, Lucan, and Statius. His patron is the accomplished courtier Balthazar Castiglione. His admirers are numerous and passionate. Yet the rigid critics reproach the exotic weeds or flowers which spring too luxuriantly in his Latian soil.

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The History Of The Decline and Fall Of The Roman Empire— Chapter 30