Words that were once common are now forgotten and old-fashioned. The same thing happens to famous names. Camillus, Cæso, Volesius, Leonnatus — then Scipio, Cato, Augustus, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius. Soon all these names will be out of date. They will seem like myths from another world. And these were the great ones who amazed their times. As for everyone else, they die and their fame dies with them right away. So what lasts forever? Nothing. It's all meaningless.
Those words which once were common and ordinary, are now become obscure and obsolete; and so the names of men once commonly known and famous, are now become in a manner obscure and obsolete names. Camillus, Cæso, Volesius, Leonnatus; not long after, Scipio, Cato, then Augustus, then Adrianus, then Antoninus Pius: all these in a short time will be out of date, and, as things of another world as it were, become fabulous. And this I say of them, who once shined as the wonders of their ages, for as for the rest, no sooner are they expired, than with them all their fame and memory. And what is it then that shall always be remembered? all is vanity.