Thenketh hou noble, as seith Valerius,
Was thilke Tullius Hostillius,
That out of poverte roos to heigh noblesse.
Reedeth Senek, and redeth eek Boece;
Ther shul ye seen expres that it no drede is
That he is gentil that dooth gentil dedis.
– Geoffrey Chaucer
The Canterbury Tales, The Wife of Bath’s Tale. Even the poor person with no wealth can rise to high nobility, says the old woman to her husband. And to bolster her argument the hag invokes the history and writings of the great Romans of the past. She tells him to read Seneca and Boethius and consider how noble, according to Valerius Maximus, was Tullius Hostillius, rising from poverty to great nobility.