“Multās per gentēs et multa per aequora vectus, adveniō hās miserās, frāter, ad īnferiās, ut tē postrēmō dōnārem mūnere mortis et mūtam nēquīquam alloquerer cinerem. Quandoquidem fortūna mihī tētē abstulit ipsum, heu, miser idignē frāter adēmpte mihi, nunc tamen intereā haec, prīscō quae mōre parentum trādita sunt trīstī mūnere ad īnferiās, accipe, frāternō multum mānantia flētū, atque in perpetuum, frāter, avē atque valē.”
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“Carried through many nations and over many seas, I arrive, brother, at these miserable funeral rites in order that I might give you the last offering of death and speak in vain to your silent ashes. Since fortune took your very self from me, oh miserable brother, unfairly taken away from me; now, nevertheless, for the moment receive these things––which by the ancient custom of our parents have been handed down as a mournful offering for your burial––greatly soaked with a brother’s tears, and for forever: hello, my brother, and goodbye.”
Gaius Valerius Catullus, Carm. 101. for his brother who died in Bithynia, written in the 1st century BCE.