The Marriage of Philology and Mercury

...that no other protection remained for him, and that he would have done better to restrain the impulse of his mind during the empire's prosperity, so that he might have learned to endure grief in times of adverse fortune. Long afterward, Hiero of Syracuse Hiero II, a Greek tyrant of Syracuse known for his long and stable reign—who was celebrated not without merit by the praises of the most excellent poet—saw what the knowledge of letters and of learned men could achieve amidst the shining titles of a kingdom. Having obtained a vacation from the "political helm" original: "clavo Politico"; a metaphor for the steering of the state due to a truly fortunate illness, he was in the meantime imbued by Simonides Simonides of Ceos, a famous Greek lyric poet with the knowledge of humane letters. He returned to his command as if by a right of recovery original: "post-liminio"; a legal term for the restoration of rights upon returning from exile or captivity, no less healthy in mind than he was in body. What of Romulus, who laid the first foundations of Rome and deserved to be the first Head of that city which was destined to be the Head of the World? Was he not, along with his brother Remus, [sent] to Gabii An ancient city in Latium used as a place of education for the Roman founders for the sake of let—