‹‹‹ Vitr. 9.0.15 | Table of Contents | Vitr. 9.0.17 ›››
16Since honours are not awarded for propriety of conduct, nor for the excellent precepts delivered by authors, their minds soaring higher, are raised to heaven in the estimation of posterity, they derive immortality from their works, and even leave their portraits to succeeding ages. For, those who are fond of literature, cannot help figuring to themselves the likeness of the poet Ennius, as they do that of any of the gods. So also those who are pleased with the verses of Accius, think they have himself, not less than the force of his expressions, always before them.
16But although honours are not bestowed upon authors for excellence of character and teaching, yet as their minds, naturally looking up to the higher regions of the air, are raised to the sky on the steps of history, it must needs be, that not merely their doctrines, but even their appearance, should be known to posterity through time eternal. Hence, men whose souls are aroused by the delights of literature cannot but carry enshrined in their hearts the likeness of the poet Ennius, as they do those of the gods. Those who are devotedly attached to the poems of Accius seem to have before them not merely his vigorous language but even his very figure.