Elegantiarum Linguae Latinae Libri Sex

Oval library stamp of the Biblioteca Nazionale Vittorio Emanuele III

When I often consider with myself the deeds of our ancestors, and of other kings or peoples, it seems to me that our own men surpassed all others not only in the expansion of their dominion, but also of their language. For while it is established that the Persians, the Medes, the Assyrians, the Greeks, and very many others held sway far and wide—and that some, though their empire was somewhat smaller than that of the Romans, held it for a much longer time—yet none expanded their language as our people did. They (to say nothing of that coast of Italy which was once called Magna Graecia, or Sicily, which was also Greek, or all of Italy) made the Roman language (which is also called Latin from Latium, where Rome is) famous and, as it were, a queen throughout almost the entire West, through the North, and through no small part of Africa in a short space of time. And (insofar as it concerns the provinces themselves) they provided it to mortals as a sort of excellent crop for sowing, a work, indeed, far more noble and far more beautiful than the propagation of the empire itself. For those who increase an empire are indeed accustomed to being honored with great distinction and are named emperors; but those who have conferred some benefits upon mankind are celebrated with praise that is not human, but rather divine, because they provide not only for the greatness and glory of their own city, but also for the public utility and welfare of mankind. And so, our ancestors surpassed other men in matters of war and in many other merits, yet through the expansion of their own language, they were superior even to themselves—as if, having left their empire on earth, they had attained fellowship with the gods in heaven. Indeed, if Ceres is thought to be a goddess because she discovered grain, Liber because of wine, Minerva because of oil, and many others have been placed among the gods on account of some such beneficence, will it be any less to have distributed the Latin language to the nations, an excellent and truly divine crop, belonging not to the body, but...