Note 984 — Chapter VII · CALPURNIUS SICULUS AND MINOR POETRY OF THE NERONIAN AGE
Reading edition
616-617:
“Defectum raptis illum sua carmina tardant: Hic uelox minimo properat sub pondere pauper.”
I should like to give the poet the credit of sarcastically regarding poems as heavy enough to be a hindrance; but the carmina are possibly charms or spells to which recourse might be had in terror.