Moral Letters to Lucilius Section 17

Secundum ex his, quae sunt, ponit Plato quod eminet et exsuperat omnia. Hoc ait per excellentiam esse. Poeta communiter dicitur, omnibus enim versus facientibus hoc nomen est, sed iam apud Graecos in unius notam cessit; Homerum intellegas, cum audieris poetam. Quid ergo hoc est? Deus scilicet, maior ac potentior cunctis.

Au second rang des êtres, Platon met ce qui les domine et surpasse tous. C’est, dit-il, l’être par excellence, comme dit communément le poète : tous les faiseurs de vers sont ainsi nommés ; mais chez les Grecs ce titre n’appartient plus qu’à un seul homme. C’est d’Homère qu’on sait qu’il s’agit,
quand on entend dire le poëte. Mais quel est l’être par excellence ? Dieu : car il est plus grand et plus puissant que tous les autres.

The second class of “things which exist,” according to Plato, is that which is prominent and stands out above everything else; this, he says, exists in a pre-eminent degree. The word “poet” is used indiscriminately, for this term is applied to all writers of verse; but among the Greeks it has come to be the distinguishing mark of a single individual. You know that Homer is meant when you hear men say “the poet.” What, then, is this pre-eminent Being? God, surely, one who is greater and more powerful than anyone else.