Ovid, from the Amores, Book 1, Elegy XV, His Immortality

Gnawing Envy, why reproach me with an indolent life: and call the work of my genius idle song? Is it that I don't follow the custom of the country, seek the dusty reward of army life while I'm young? That I don't study wordy laws, or prostitute my voice in the forum?

The work you seek is mortal. I seek eternal fame, to be sung throughout the whole world forever. Homer will live, while Ida and Tenedos stand, while Simois still runs swiftly to the sea: Hesiod, as well, while the vintage ripens, while the crops fall to the curving blade.

Callimachus will always be sung throughout the world: not because of his imagination, but his art. The tragedies of Sophocles will never be lost: nor Aratus as long as there's a sun and moon: While devious slaves, stern fathers, cruel pimps, and enticing whores live, so will Menander: Artless Ennius, and brave-voiced Accius have names that no time will erase.

What age will not know Varro's tale of the first ship, and Jason leading the quest for the Golden Fleece? Then, the works of sublime Lucretius will endure, while there's a day left till the world's ruin. Virgil's pastorals, and the Aeneid will be read, while Rome triumphs over the world: While Cupid's weapons are still the torch and arrows, they'll speak your measures, elegant Tibullus: Gallus will be renowned in the west, Gallus in the east, and Lycoris will be famous with her Gallus.

So, while granite, while the unyielding ploughshare perish with the years, poetry will not die. Leaders and countries yield to the triumphs of song, and the lavish waters of gold-bearing Tagus yield! Let the masses gaze at trash: let golden-haired Apollo offer me a brimming cup of Castalian waters, and I'll wear a wreathe of myrtle, that hates the cold,and be read by many an anxious lover! Envy feeds on the living: it's quiet after death, while everyone who's dead gets their due honours. So even when I'm given to the final flames, I'll live, and the better part of me will survive

For over 2,000 years I have been a blood drinker. During that time, as even in my mortal life, I have spent my life on a quest for knowledge and truth. To be a creature of intellect and reason, and to educate myself to the furthest extent of my capability has always been my goal. I have been known to most of my kind as the wise teacher. As the guardian of the Mother and Father for nearly two millenniums, I held sole responsibility for the continued immortality of all of our kind.

To further understand the world of men and embrace it has been my greatest desire. I am one who will go to great lengths to blend in with mortals and become one with them. To live without that which I love most, is unbearably lonely for me. Anger has always been my greatest enemy. I have made my greatest errors when I allowed it to overtake me. Some might think me too controlling, but I expect no less of myself, than I do of others.

I was born during the time of Caesar Augustus, during the height of the Roman Empire. I have witnessed many civilizations rise and fall since. I believed for a long while in the divinity of man, but in recent years his inability to learn from past mistakes, and his penchant for violence, has shaken my faith in this somewhat. I still find logic and science preferable to the worship of deities, but I strive to keep myself open to all possibilities in life.

I never asked for this life, I was kidnapped and made immortal by a band of Druids as a sacrifice to an ancient immortal they believed was a God, against my will. However, I will not say that I would wish for my mortality to be restored to me now. To bear witness to the passages of time and observe mans progress through the centuries, is something I could not give up now willingly.

I have known great love in my life, but it has been my misfortune to repeatedly be separated against my will for very long stretches of time from my immortal family of Pandora, Amadeo, and Bianca. I acknowledge that some of these separations were due to my own anger and pride, but it is my hope they now have begun to realize that there also were responsibilities I bore then that I had to consider first, for the sake of immortals everywhere.

The great sacrifice I had to make, which caused such pain to myself as well as my family, was the need to protect Those Who Must be Kept, the parents of our kind, who are now no longer with us. For nearly all of my immortal existence, they had to be tended to solely by myself, for if either one came to harm, all immortals everywhere would perish as well. They lived, yet were as statues, and I kept lonely vigil through the centuries, in attendance upon them.

I am free now of this burden for the first time in my existence. Rather than mourn what is past, I find myself more eager than ever before to absorb all the knowledge in the world around me to the fullest extend that I can, as well as to attempt to heal the wounds of my family.

I am also an artist, a painter most often. I explore the nuances of the mortal world via my artistry, and thereby attempt to comprehend ever more fully the extent of my love for all things mortal. The great philosophers have been my spiritual guides through time. I owe them an enormous debt, for continually giving me the stimulation which I find necessary to compel me to stay engaged in this world, and accept the passing of the ages with as much grace as I can.

~Marius deRomanus