‘In case too close attention to a childless man
Betrays you, try one whose rearing a sickly boy
He's adopted, in noble style: creep softly towards
Your goal of being named second heir, and if fate
Sends the lad to Orcus you can usurp his place:
It's very unusual for such a gamble to fail.
If someone hands you his will to read, decline,
And remember to push the thing far from you,
But snatch a sidelong glance at the second line
Of page one: run your eye over it quickly to see
If you're one of many. Often a clerk cooked up
From a minor official fools your gaping raven,
Nasica the fortune-hunter's duped by a Coran*s.'
Are you mad? Or teasing, versed in obscure utterance?
‘O Laertes' son, what I speak will prove true or not,
Great Apollo gave me that gift of prophecy indeed.'
Fine, but say what your nonsense means, if you would.
‘When a young hero, terror of Parthia, born of
Aeneas' noble line, is mighty on land and sea,
Manly Coran*s shall wed the stately daughter
Of Nasica, he who dreads paying debts in full.
The son-in-law will hand his will to his father-in-law
To read: After many a refusal Nasica
Will take it at last and scan it silently, finding
That nothing's left to him and his, except lament.'