The Galatians' defeat at Delphi and the massacre of Niobe's sons on the doors of the temple of Apollo Palatinus

Thou asketh why I am late in coming to thee. To-day was the golden colonnade of Phoebus opened by mighty Caesar ; so vast it was to view, laid out with Punic columns, between which stood the many daughters of the old man Danaus. Fairer did his statue seem to me than Phoebus' self, as he sang with silent lyre and parted lips of stone. And round about the altar stood Myron's kine, four counterfeit oxen, statues that seemed to live. Next in the midst of all, the temple rose built of shining marble and dearer to Phoebus than his Ortygian home. And on the topmost roof were two chariots of the Sun, and the doors were of Libyan ivory wrought in wondrous wise. One told the fearful tale of the Gauls hurled down from off Parnassus' peak, and one the mourning of the daughter of Tantalus. And last between his mother and his sister stood the Pythian god himself, clad in long raiment, his voice uplifted in song.

Propertius, Elegies, II, 31. English translation after H. E. Butler, M.A. London : William Heinemann New York : G. P. Putnam's sons

Courtesy of the Loeb Classical Library