Sallust,
The War Against Jugurtha 85.21-23 (Marius speaking; tr. William W. Batstone):
Furthermore, when they speak before
you or in the Senate, most of their speech is taken up with praising
their ancestors: they think that by recalling those brave deeds they
themselves become more glorious. But the converse is true. For the
more glorious the life of their ancestors is, the more shameful their
own cowardice becomes. Certainly this is the truth of the matter:
the glory of their ancestors is like a light which does not allow their
virtues or faults to be hidden.
atque etiam, quom apud vos
aut in senatu verba faciunt, pleraque oratione maiores suos extollunt: eorum
fortia facta memorando clariores sese putant. quod contra est; nam quanto vita
illorum praeclarior, tanto horum socordia flagitiosior. et profecto ita se res
habet: maiorum gloria posteris quasi lumen est, neque bona neque mala eorum in
occulto patitur.
Ovid,
Metamorphoses 13.140-141 (tr. Frank Justus Miller, rev. G.P. Goold):
For as to race and ancestry and the deeds that others than ourselves have done, I call those in no true sense our own.
nam genus et proavos et quae non fecimus ipsi,
vix ea nostra voco.