This story is related by Hesychius (de Viris Illustribus), Procopius (Anecdot. c. 13.), and Suidas (tom. iii. p. 501.). Such flattery is incredible!
—Nihil est quod credere de se,
Non possit, cum laudatur Diis aequa potestas.
Fontenelle (tom. i. p. 32-39) has ridiculed the impudence of the modest Virgil. But the same Fontenelle places his king above the divine Augustus; and the sage Boileau has not blushed to say, "Le destin à ses yeux n'oseroit balancer". Yet neither Augustus nor Louis XIV. were fools.