wife of the man whom I mentioned; lived with him sixteen years; and had reached the age of thirty; she was the mother of two children, and died of a decline. These are the heads of your subject. May the gods by whom you are possessed inspire you in the several parts of your work; and may the sisterhood of the muses add this song for Clearista which I enjoin upon you to the crown of song which adorns your sacred and poetic head.
EPISTLE 79
To the Same
Great and lasting is my gratitude to you for the poem on Clearista. You have spent yourself freely on the task to which I invited you, and have been extremely successful in the disposition of the parts. The general effect too has won remarkable applause, not only from me—I feel equal admiration for all the works of Stesichorus—but also from the many Agrigentines who were present at the reading of it; and it will be commended not only by those who have already heard it nor even by those only who now
