Gellius: NOCTES ATTICAE

1 Quod de Olympiade, Philippi regis uxore, Alexandri matre, in historia Graeca scriptum est, id de P. quoque Scipionis matre, qui prior Africanus appellatus est, memoriae datum est.

1 What has been written in Greek history about Olympias, the wife of King Philip, the mother of Alexander, that has likewise been consigned to memory about the mother of P. Scipio, who was called the earlier Africanus.

2 Nam et C. Oppius et Iulius Hyginus aliique, qui de vita et rebus Africani scripserunt, matrem eius diu sterilem existimatam tradunt, P. quoque Scipionem, cum quo nupta erat, liberos desperavisse.

2 For both C. Oppius and Julius Hyginus and others, who wrote about the life and deeds of Africanus, report that his mother was long considered barren, and that P. Scipio also, to whom she was married, despaired of children.

3 Postea in cubiculo atque in lecto mulieris, cum absente marito cubans sola condormisset, visum repente esse iuxta eam cubare ingentem anguem eumque his, qui viderant, territis et clamantibus elapsum inveniri non quisse. Id ipsum P. Scipionem ad haruspices retulisse; eos sacrificio facto respondisse fore, ut liberi gignerentur, neque multis diebus, postquam ille anguis in lecto visus est, mulierem coepisse concepti fetus signa atque sensum pati;

3 Afterwards, in the woman’s bedchamber and on her bed, when, with her husband absent, lying alone she had fallen asleep, it was suddenly seen that a huge serpent was lying next to her, and that one, with those who had seen terrified and crying out, having slipped away, could not be found. This very thing P. Scipio reported to the haruspices; they, a sacrifice having been performed, responded that children would be begotten, and not many days after that serpent was seen in the bed, the woman began to undergo the signs and the sensation of a conceived fetus;

4 exinde mense decimo peperisse natumque esse hunc P. Africanum, qui Hannibalem et Carthaginienses in Africa bello Poenico secundo vicit.

4 thereafter, in the tenth month, she gave birth, and this P. Africanus was born, who conquered Hannibal and the Carthaginians in Africa in the Second Punic War.

5 Sed et eum inpendio magis ex rebus gestis quam ex illo ostento virum esse virtutis divinae creditum est.

5 But also he was believed, far more from his exploits than from that portent, to be a man of divine virtue.

6 Id etiam dicere haut piget, quod idem illi, quos supra nominavi, litteris mandaverint Scipionem hunc Africanum solitavisse noctis extremo, priusquam dilucularet, in Capitolium ventitare ac iubere aperiri cellam Iovis atque ibi solum diu demorari quasi consultantem de republica cum Iove, aeditumosque eius templi saepe esse demiratos, quod solum id temporis in Capitolium ingredientem canes semper in alios saevientes neque latrarent eum neque incurrerent.

6 It also does not irk me to say that those same men, whom I named above, recorded in letters that this Scipio Africanus was wont at the extreme of the night, before it grew light, to come repeatedly to the Capitol and to order the cella of Jove to be opened, and there alone to tarry long, as if consulting about the Republic with Jove, and that the wardens of that temple were often greatly amazed, because at that time alone, when he was entering the Capitol, the dogs, always raging at others, neither barked at him nor rushed at him.

7 Has volgi de Scipione opiniones confirmare atque approbare videbantur dicta factaque eius pleraque admiranda.

7 These opinions of the crowd about Scipio seemed to be confirmed and approved by his sayings and deeds, most of them admirable.

8 Ex quibus est unum huiuscemodi. Assidebat obpugnabatque oppidum in Hispania situ, moenibus, defensoribus validum et munitum, re etiam cibaria copiosum, nullaque eius potiundi spes erat, et quodam die ius in castris sedens dicebat, atque ex eo loco id oppidum procul visebatur.

8 Among which there is one of this kind. He was sitting before and besieging a town in Spain, strong and fortified by its situation, walls, and defenders, and also copious in provisions, and there was no hope of obtaining possession of it, and on a certain day he was giving judgment in the camp as he sat, and from that place that town was seen at a distance.

9 Tum e militibus, qui in iure apud eum stabant, interrogavit quispiam ex more, in quem diem locumque vadimonium promitti iuberet, et Scipio manum ad ipsam oppidi, quod obsidebatur, arcem protendens:

9 Then one of the soldiers, who were standing in court before him, asked, according to custom, for what day and place he would order the vadimony to be promised, and Scipio, stretching his hand toward the very citadel of the town which was being besieged:

10 "perendie" inquit "sese sistant illo in loco".

10 "the day after tomorrow," he says, "let them present themselves in that place".

11 Atque ita factum: die tertio, in quem vadari iusserat, oppidum captum est, eodemque die in arce eius oppidi ius dixit.

11 And so it was done: on the third day, for which he had ordered them to be bound by recognizance, the town was captured, and on that same day he pronounced the law in the citadel of that town.

II. De Caeselli Vindicis pudendo errore, quem offendimus in libris eius, quos inscriptis lectionum antiquarum.

2. On the shameful error of Caesellius Vindex, which we encountered in his books, which are entitled Ancient Readings.

1 Turpe erratum offendimus in illis celebratissimis commentariis lectionum antiquarum Caeselli Vindicis, hominis hercle pleraque haut indiligentis.

1 We encountered a shameful error in those most celebrated commentaries of ancient readings of Caesellius Vindex, a man, by Hercules, in most things by no means undiligent.

2 Quod erratum multos fugit, quamquam multa in Caesellio reprehendendo etiam per calumnias rimarentur.

2 Which error escaped many, although, in reprehending Caesellius, they ferreted out many things even by calumnies.

3 Scripsit autem Caesellius Q. Ennium in XIII. annali "cor" dixisse genere masculino.

3 However, Caesellius wrote that Q. Ennius, in the 13th annal, said "cor" in the masculine gender.

4 Verba Caeselli subiecta sunt: "Masculino genere, ut multa alia, enuntiavit Ennius. Nam in XIII. annali "quem cor" dixit."

4 The words of Caesellius are subjoined: "In the masculine gender, as many other things, Ennius enunciated. For in the 13th annal he said "quem cor"."

5 Ascripsit deinde versus Ennii duo:
Hannibal audaci cum pectore de me hortatur,
ne bellum faciam, quem credidit esse meum cor?

5 He then added two verses of Ennius:
Hannibal, with audacious breast, exhorts about me,
that I should not make war; whom did he believe to be my heart?

6 Antiochus est, qui hoc dixit, Asiae rex. Is admiratur et permovetur, quod Hannibal Carthaginiensis bellum se facere populo Romano volentem dehortetur.

6 It is Antiochus who said this, the king of Asia. He marvels and is much moved, that Hannibal the Carthaginian should dissuade him, though he is willing to wage war upon the Roman people.

7 Hos autem versus Caesellius sic accipit, tamquam si Antiochus sic dicat: "Hannibal me, ne bellum geram, dehortatur; quod cum facit, ecquale putat cor habere me et quam stultum esse me credit, cum id mihi persuadere vult?"

7 These verses, however, Caesellius takes thus, as if Antiochus were saying thus: "Hannibal dissuades me from waging war; when he does this, does he think me to have a heart equal to his, and how foolish does he believe me to be, when he wishes to persuade me of this?"

8 Hoc Caesellius quidem, sed aliud longe Ennius.

8 This, indeed, is Caesellius; but Ennius [takes it] far otherwise.

9 Nam tres versus sunt, non duo, ad hanc Ennii sententiam pertinentes, ex quibus tertium versum Caesellius non respexit:
Hannibal audaci cum pectore de me hortatur,
ne bellum faciam, quem credidit esse meum cor
suasorem summum et studiosum robore belli.

9 For there are three verses, not two, pertaining to this opinion of Ennius, of which Caesellius did not consider the third verse:
Hannibal, with an audacious breast, urges me, in regard to me,
that I should not make war, he who believed my heart to be
the chief persuader and zealous for the strength of war.

10 Horum versuum sensus atque ordo sic, opinor, est: Hannibal ille audentissimus atque fortissimus, quem ego credidi - hoc est enim "cor meum credidit", proinde atque diceret "quem ego stultus homo credidi" - summum fore suasorem ad bellandum, is me dehortatur dissuadetque, ne bellum faciam.

10 The sense and order of these verses is thus, I suppose: that Hannibal, that most audacious and most brave, whom I believed — for that is “my heart believed,” just as if he were saying “whom I, a foolish man, believed” — would be the supreme persuader for waging war, he dehorts and dissuades me, that I not make war.

11 Caesellius autem forte rhathymoteron iunctura ista verborum captus "quem cor" dictum putavit et "quem" accentu acuto legit, quasi ad cor referretur, non ad Hannibalem.

11 Caesellius, however, perhaps rather rhathymoteron, caught by that juncture of words, supposed that "quem cor" was the expression and read "quem" with an acute accent, as if it were referred to the heart, not to Hannibal.

12 Sed non fugit me, si aliquis sit tam inconditus, sic posse defendi "cor" Caeselli masculinum, ut videatur tertius versus separatim atque divise legendus, proinde, quasi praecisis interruptisque verbis exclamet Antiochus: "suasorem summum!" Sed non dignum est eis, qui hoc dixerint, responderi.

12 But it does not escape me that, if someone be so unpolished, the “cor” of Caesellius can thus be defended as masculine, so that the third verse seem to be read separately and in pieces, accordingly, as if, with words cut off and interrupted, Antiochus were exclaiming: “the supreme persuader!” But it is not worth replying to those who would have said this.

III. Quid Tiro Tullius, Ciceronis libertus, reprehenderit in M. Catonis oratione, quam pro Rhodiensibus in senatu dixit; et quid ad ea, quae reprehenderat, responderimus.
I. Civitas Rhodiensis et insulae opportunitate et operum nobilitatibus et navigandi sollertia navalibusque victoriis celebrata est.

3. What Tiro Tullius, Cicero’s freedman, criticized in the speech of M. Cato, which he delivered in the senate on behalf of the Rhodians; and what we have answered to those points which he had criticized.
1. The Rhodian commonwealth has been celebrated for the advantageous position of its island, for the renowns of its works, for skill in navigation, and for naval victories.

2 Ea civitas, cum amica atque socia populi Romani foret, Persa tamen, Philippi filio, Macedonum rege, cum quo bellum populo Romano fuit, amico usa est, conixique sunt Rhodienses legationibus Romam saepe missis id bellum inter eos componere.

2 That commonwealth, although it was a friend and ally of the Roman people, nevertheless used Perseus, son of Philip, king of the Macedonians—with whom the Roman people was at war—as a friend; and the Rhodians strove, with legations often sent to Rome, to compose that war between them.

3 Sed ubi ista pacificatio perpetrari nequivit, verba a plerisque Rhodiensibus in contionibus eorum ad populum facta sunt, ut, si pax non fieret, Rhodienses regem adversus populum Romanum adiutarent.

3 But when that pacification could not be brought to completion, words were spoken by most of the Rhodians in their assemblies to the people, that, if peace were not made, the Rhodians would assist the king against the Roman People.

4 Sed nullum super ea re publicum decretum factum est.

4 But no public decree was made concerning that matter.

5 At ubi Perses victus captusque est, Rhodienses pertimuere ob ea, quae conpluriens in coetibus populi acta dictaque erant, legatosque Romam miserunt, qui temeritatem quorundam popularium suorum deprecarentur et fidem consiliumque publicum expurgarent.

5 But when Perseus was defeated and captured, the Rhodians grew very afraid on account of those things which had repeatedly been done and said in the people’s assemblies, and they sent envoys to Rome to deprecate the rashness of certain of their fellow-citizens and to clear their public good faith and policy.

6 Legati postquam Romam venerunt et in senatum intromissi sunt verbisque suppliciter pro causa sua factis e curia excesserunt, sententiae rogari coeptae;

6 After the envoys came to Rome and were admitted into the senate and, after words were spoken in suppliant fashion for their own cause, they departed from the curia, opinions began to be asked;

7 cumque partim senatorum de Rhodiensibus quererentur maleque animatos eos fuisse dicerent bellumque illis faciendum censerent, tum M. Cato exsurgit et optimos fidissimosque socios, quorum opibus diripiendis possidendisque non pauci ex summatibus viris intenti infensique erant, defensum conservatumque pergit orationemque inclutam dicit, quae et seorsum fertur inscriptaque est pro Rhodiensibus et in quintae originis libro scripta est.

7 and when part of the senators were complaining about the Rhodians and were saying that they had been ill-disposed, and were of the opinion that war should be made upon them, then M. Cato rises and proceeds to defend and preserve the best and most faithful allies, whose resources not a few among the highest-ranking men were intent on plundering and possessing and were hostile, and he delivers a renowned oration, which both circulates separately and is entitled on behalf of the Rhodians, and is written in the fifth book of the Origines.

8 Tiro autem Tullius, M. Ciceronis libertus, sane quidem fuit ingenio homo eleganti et haudquaquam rerum litterarumque veterum indoctus, eoque ab ineunte aetate liberaliter instituto adminiculatore et quasi administro in studiis litterarum Cicero usus est.

8 Tiro Tullius, however, the freedman of M. Cicero, was indeed a man of elegant talent and by no means unlearned in affairs and in ancient letters; and for that reason, having been liberally educated from his earliest age, Cicero made use of him as a supporter and, as it were, an assistant in the studies of letters.

9 Sed profecto plus ausus est, quam ut tolerari ignoscique possit.

9 But assuredly he dared more than can be tolerated and forgiven.

10 Namque epistulam conscripsit ad Q. Axium, familiarem patroni sui, confidenter nimis et calide, in qua sibimet visus est orationem istam pro Rhodiensibus acri subtilique iudicio percensuisse.

10 For he composed a letter to Q. Axius, an intimate of his patron, too confidently and hotly, in which he seemed to himself to have reviewed that oration on behalf of the Rhodians with acute and subtle judgment.

11 Ex ea epistula lubitum forte nobis est reprehensiones eius quasdam attingere: maiore scilicet venia reprehensuri Tironem, cum ille reprehenderit Catonem.

11 From that epistle it pleased us by chance to touch upon certain of his reprehensions: with greater indulgence, to be sure, we being about to reprehend Tiro, since he had reprehended Cato.

12 Culpavit autem primum hoc, quod Cato "inerudite et anagogos", ut ipse ait, principio nimis insolenti nimisque acri et obiurgatorio usus sit, cum vereri sese ostendit, ne patres gaudio atque laetitia rerum prospere gestarum de statu mentis suae deturbati non satis consiperent neque ad recte intellegendum consulendumque essent idonei.

12 He blamed, however, first this: that Cato, "inerudite and anagogos," as he himself says, at the beginning employed a manner too insolent and too sharp and objurgatory, when he showed that he was afraid lest the Fathers, thrown from the state of their mind by the joy and gladness of affairs prosperously done, might not perceive sufficiently nor be fit for rightly understanding and taking counsel.

13 "In principiis autem" inquit "patroni, qui pro reis dicunt, conciliare sibi et complacare iudices debent sensusque eorum exspectatione causae suspensos rigentesque honorificis verecundisque sententiis commulcere, non iniuris atque imperiosis minationibus confutare."

13 "But at the outset," he says, "advocates, who speak on behalf of defendants, ought to conciliate to themselves and placate the judges, and to soothe their feelings, suspended and rigid with the expectation of the case, with honorific and modest sentences, not to confute them with injurious and imperious threats."

14 Ipsum deinde principium apposuit, cuius verba haec sunt: "Scio solere plerisque hominibus rebus secundis atque prolixis atque prosperis animum excellere atque superbiam atque ferociam augescere atque crescere. Quo mihi nunc magnae curae est, quod haec res tam secunde processit, ne quid in consulendo advorsi eveniat, quod nostras secundas res confutet, neve haec laetitia nimis luxuriose eveniat. Advorsae res edomant et docent, quid opus siet facto, secundae res laetitia transvorsum trudere solent a recte consulendo atque intellegendo.

14 Then he appended the very beginning itself, whose words are these: "I know it is wont for very many men, when affairs are favorable and prolonged and prosperous, for the spirit to be exalted and for pride and ferocity to increase and grow. Wherefore it is now a matter of great concern to me, because this matter has turned out so favorably, lest anything adverse occur in deliberating that might confute our favorable fortunes, and lest this joy turn out too luxuriously. Adverse affairs tame and teach what there is need to do; favorable affairs, by joy, are wont to shove crosswise from right deliberating and understanding.

Quo maiore opere dico suadeoque, uti haec res aliquot dies proferatur, dum ex tanto gaudio in potestatem nostram redeamus."

"Wherefore all the more I say and advise, that this matter be deferred for several days, until from so great joy we return into our own power."

15 "Quae deinde Cato iuxta dicit, ea" inquit "confessionem faciunt, non defensionem, neque propulsationem translationemve criminis habent, sed cum pluribus aliis communicationem, quod scilicet nihil ad purgandum est. Atque etiam" inquit "insuper profitetur Rhodienses, qui accusabantur, quod adversus populum Romanum regi magis cupierint faverintque, id eos cupisse atque favisse utilitatis suae gratia, ne Romani Perse quoque rege victo ad superbiam ferociamque et inmodicum modum insolescerent."

15 "The things which Cato then says next, these," he says, "constitute a confession, not a defense; nor do they have a repulse or a translation of the charge, but a communication with many others, since, to wit, there is nothing for purgation. And also," he says, "in addition he professes that the Rhodians, who were being accused because, against the Roman People, they had rather wished to favor and had favored the king, that they wished and favored this for the sake of their own utility, lest the Romans, with King Perseus also conquered, should grow insolent into pride and ferocity and an immoderate measure."

16 Eaque ipsa verba ponit, ita ut infra scriptum: "Atque ego quidem arbitror Rhodienses noluisse nos ita depugnare, uti depugnatum est, neque regem Persen vinci. Sed non Rhodienses modo id noluere, sed multos populos atque multas nationes idem noluisse arbitror atque haut scio an partim eorum fuerint, qui non nostrae contumeliae causa id noluerint evenire; sed enim id metuere, si nemo esset homo, quem vereremur, quidquid luberet, faceremus, ne sub solo imperio nostro in servitute nostra essent. Libertatis suae causa in ea sententia fuisse arbitror.

16 And he sets forth those very words, just as written below: "And I indeed think that the Rhodians did not wish us to fight in the way it was fought, nor that King Perseus be conquered. But not the Rhodians only did not wish this, rather I think that many peoples and many nations did not wish the same; and I do not know but that some of them were among those who did not wish this to come to pass not for the sake of our contumely; but in fact they feared that, if there were no man whom we should fear, we would do whatever it pleased us to do, lest under our sole empire they should be in our servitude. For the sake of their liberty I think they were of that opinion.

Atque Rhodienses tamen Persen publice numquam adiuvere. Cogitate, quanto nos inter nos privatim cautius facimus. Nam unusquisque nostrum, si quis advorsus rem suam quid fieri arbitrantur, summa vi contra nititur, ne advorsus eam fiat; quod illi tamen perpessi."

And yet the Rhodians never publicly aided Perseus. Consider how much more cautiously we, among ourselves, act in private. For each one of us, if he thinks that anything is being done adverse to his own interest, strives with the utmost force against it, lest anything be done adverse to it; which they nevertheless endured."

17 Sed quod ad principium reprehensum attinet, scire oportuit Tironem defensos esse Rhodienses a Catone, sed ut a senatore et consulari et censorio viro, quidquid optimum esse publicum existimabat, suadente, non ut a patrono causam pro reis dicente.

17 But as regards the censured beginning, Tiro ought to have known that the Rhodians were defended by Cato, but as by a senator and a consular and a censorial man, urging whatever he judged to be best for the public, not as by a patron pleading a cause on behalf of the accused.

18 Alia namque principia conducunt reos apud iudices defendenti et clementiam misericordiamque undique indaganti, alia, cum senatus de republica consulitur, viro auctoritate praestanti, sententiis quorundam iniquissimis permoto et pro utilitatibus publicis ac pro salute sociorum graviter ac libere indignanti simul ac dolenti.
XIX. Quippe recte et utiliter in disciplinis rhetorum praecipitur iudices de capite alieno deque causa ad sese non pertinenti cognituros, ex qua praeter officium iudicandi nihil ad eos vel periculi vel emolumenti redundaturum est, conciliandos esse ac propitiandos placabiliter et leniter existimationi salutique eius, qui apud eos accusatus est.

18 For one kinds of openings are expedient for a man defending the accused before judges and everywhere tracking down clemency and mercy, and other kinds, when the senate is consulted about the commonwealth, for a man excelling in authority, moved by the most unjust opinions of certain persons and gravely and freely expressing indignation as well as grief on behalf of the public interests and the safety of the allies.
19. Indeed, rightly and usefully in the disciplines of the rhetors it is prescribed that judges—who are going to take cognizance about another’s life and about a case not pertaining to themselves, from which, beyond the office of judging, nothing either of danger or of emolument will redound to them—must be conciliated and made propitious in a placable and gentle manner to the reputation and safety of him who has been accused before them.

XX. At cum dignitas et fides et utilitas omnium communis agitur ob eamque rem aut suadendum quid ut fiat, aut fieri iam coepto differendum est, tum? qui se in eiusmodi principiis occupat, ut benivolos benignosque sibi auditores paret, otiosam operam in non necessariis verbis sumit.
XXI.

20. But when dignity and faith and the common utility of all is at stake, and for that reason either something must be urged so that it be done, or what has already been begun to be done must be deferred, then? whoever occupies himself in openings of such a kind, to prepare benevolent and benign auditors for himself, spends idle effort on unnecessary words.
21.

Iamdudum enim negotia, pericula ipsa reipublicae communia consiliis eos capiendis conciliant, et ipsi potius sibi exposcunt consultoris benivolentiam.
XXII. Sed quod ait confessum Catonem noluisse Rhodiensis ita depugnari, ut depugnatum est, neque regem Persem a populo Romano vinci, atque id eum dixisse non Rhodienses modo, sed multas quoque alias nationes noluisse, sed id nihil ad purgandum extenuandumve crimen valere, iam hoc primum Tiro inprobe mentitur.

For a long time now the affairs, the very dangers of the commonwealth, shared in common, conciliate them toward taking counsels, and they themselves rather demand for themselves the benevolence of a counselor.
22. But as to what he says that Cato confessed: that he did not wish the Rhodians to be fought in the way they were fought, nor King Perseus to be conquered by the Roman people, and that he said that not the Rhodians only, but many other nations too did not wish this, but that this avails nothing for purging or extenuating the crime—already in this first point Tiro is wickedly lying.

XXIII. Verba ponit Catonis et aliis tamen eum verbis calumniatur.
XXIV.

23. He sets down the words of Cato and yet slanders him with other words.
24.

Non enim Cato confitetur noluisse Rhodienses victoriam esse populi Romani, sed sese arbitrari dixit id eos noluisse, quod erat procul dubio opinionis suae professio, non Rhodiensium culpae confessio.
XXV. In qua re, ut meum quidem iudicium est, non culpa tantum vacat, sed dignus quoque laude admirationeque est, cum et ingenue ac religiose dicere visus est contra Rhodienses, quod sentiebat, et parta sibi veritatis fide ipsum illud tamen, quod contrarium putabatur, flexit et transtulit, ut eos idcirco vel maxime aequum esset acceptiores carioresque fieri populo Romano, quod cum et utile is esset et vellent regi esse factum, nihil tamen adiuvandi eius gratia fecerint.

For Cato does not confess that the Rhodians did not wish the victory to be the Roman people’s, but said that he himself thought that they did not wish that— which was without a doubt a profession of his own opinion, not a confession of the Rhodians’ culpa.
25. In which matter, at least in my judgment, he is not only free from fault, but also worthy of praise and admiration, since he seemed both ingenuously and religiously to say, against the Rhodians, what he felt, and, having acquired for himself a credit of verity, nevertheless bent and transferred that very point which was thought to be the contrary, so that for that very reason it was most equitable that they become more acceptable and dearer to the Roman people— because although both it was useful and they wished the deed to be for the king, nevertheless they did nothing for the sake of aiding him.

XXVI. Postea verba haec ex eadem oratione ponit: "Ea nunc derepente tanta beneficia ultro citroque, tantam amicitiam relinquemus? quod illos dicimus voluisse facere, id nos priores facere occupabimus?"
XXVII.

26. Afterwards he sets down these words from the same oration: "Shall we now, all of a sudden, abandon such great benefactions to and fro, such great friendship? That which we say they wished to do, shall we preempt by doing it first ourselves?"
27.

"Hoc" inquit "enthymema nequam et vitiosum est. Responderi enim potuit: "occupabimus certe; nam si non occupaverimus, opprimemur, incidendumque erit in insidias, a quibus ante non caverimus."
XXVIII. Recteque" inquit "hoc vitio dat Lucilius poetae Euripidae, quod, cum Polyphontes rex propterea se interfecisse fratrem diceret, quod ipse ante de nece eius consilium cepisset, Meropa, fratris uxor, hisce adeo eum verbis eluserit:
ei gar s'emellen, hos sy phes, kteinein posis,
chren kai se mellein, hos chronos parelythen.

"This," he says, "enthymeme is good‑for‑nothing and faulty. For it could have been answered: 'we will certainly anticipate; for if we do not anticipate, we shall be overwhelmed, and we shall have to fall into ambushes, against which we did not take precautions beforehand.'"
28. And rightly," he says, "Lucilius lays this fault to the poet Euripides, because, when King Polyphontes said that for this reason he had killed his brother, that he himself had previously conceived a plan about his death, Merope, the brother’s wife, mocked him to such a degree with these very words:
for if your husband, as you say, was about to kill,
it was necessary that you too be about to, as the time went by.

XXIX. At hoc enim" inquit "plane stultitiae plenum est eo consilio atque ea fini facere velle aliquid, uti numquam id facias, quod velis."
XXX. Sed videlicet Tiro animum non advertit non esse in omnibus rebus cavendis eandem causam, neque humanae vitae negotia et actiones et officia vel occupandi vel differendi vel etiam ulciscendi vel cavendi similia esse pugnae gladiatoriae.

29. But this," he says, "is plainly full of folly: to wish to do something with that counsel and that end, so that you may never do that which you wish."
30. But evidently Tiro did not advert that there is not in all things to be guarded against the same cause, nor that the affairs of human life and the actions and the duties, whether of occupying or of deferring or even of avenging or of guarding against, are similar to a gladiatorial fight.

XXXI. Nam gladiatori composito ad pugnandum pugnae haec proposita sors est aut occidere, si occupaverit, aut occumbere, si cessaverit.
XXXII.

31. For a gladiator composed for fighting, the proposed lot of the fight is this: either to kill, if he has seized the initiative, or to succumb, if he has delayed.
32.

Hominum autem vita non tam iniquis neque tam indomitis necessitatibus circumscripta est, ut idcirco prior iniuriam facere debeas, quam, nisi feceris, pati possis.
XXXIII. Quod tantum aberat a populi Romani mansuetudine, ut saepe iam in sese factas iniurias ulcisci neglexerit.

Moreover, the life of men is not circumscribed by such iniquitous nor such indomitable necessities, that on that account you ought to do an injury first, rather than, if you should not do it, you might be able to suffer it.
33. But that was so far from the mansuetude of the Roman people that they have often already neglected to avenge injuries done against themselves.

XXXIV. Post deinde usum esse Catonem dicit in eadem oratione argumentis parum honestis et nimis audacibus ac non viri eius, qui alioqui fuit, sed vafris ac fallaciosis et quasi Graecorum sophistarum sollertiis.
XXXV.

34. Then afterward he says that Cato, in the same oration, used arguments scarcely honest and too audacious, and not of the man that he was otherwise, but wily and fallacious, and, as it were, the clever subtleties of Greek sophists.
35.

"Nam cum obiceretur" inquit "Rhodiensibus, quod bellum populo Romano facere voluissent, negavit poena esse dignos, quia id non fecissent, etsi maxime voluissent", induxisseque eum dicit, quam dialectici epagogen appellant, rem admodum insidiosam et sophisticam neque ad veritates magis quam ad captiones repertam, cum conatus sit exemplis decipientibus conligere confirmareque neminem, qui male facere voluit, plecti aequum esse, nisi quod factum voluit, etiam fecerit.
XXXVI. Verba autem ex ea oratione M. Catonis haec sunt: "Qui acerrime adversus eos dicit, ita dicit "hostes voluisse fieri". Ecquis est tandem, qui vestrorum, quod ad sese attineat, aequum censeat poenas dare ob eam rem, quod arguatur male facere voluisse?

"For when it was being objected," he says, "to the Rhodians, that they had wished to make war on the Roman People, he denied that they were worthy of punishment, because they had not done it, even if they had most strongly wished it," and he says that he introduced what the dialecticians call epagoge (induction), a very insidious and sophistic thing, discovered not so much for truths as for captious snares, since he tried by deceptive examples to gather and confirm that it is just that no one who has wished to do ill be punished, unless the thing which he wished done he has also done.
36. The words, however, from that oration of M. Cato are these: "He who speaks most sharply against them speaks thus: 'that they wished to become enemies.' Is there finally anyone among you who, as it pertains to himself, deems it fair to pay penalties for this reason, that he is accused of having wished to do ill?"

Nemo, opinor; nam ego, quod ad me attinet, nolim."
XXXVII. Deinde paulo infra dicit: "Quid nunc? ecqua tandem lex est tam acerba, quae dicat "si quis illud facere voluerit, mille minus dimidium familiae multa esto; si quis plus quingenta iugera habere voluerit, tanta poena esto; si quis maiorem pecuum numerum habere voluerit, tantum damnas esto?" Atque nos omnia plura habere volumus, et id nobis impune est."
XXXVIII.

No one, I suppose; for I, as far as concerns me, would not wish it."
37. Then a little below he says: "What now? Is there at length any law so harsh which says 'if anyone shall have wished to do that, let the fine be a thousand minus half of the household; if anyone shall have wished to have more than 500 iugera, let there be so great a penalty; if anyone shall have wished to have a larger number of cattle, let him be adjudged for so much?' And yet we wish to have more of all things, and that is with impunity for us."
38.

Postea ita dicit. "Sed si honorem non aequum est haberi ob eam rem, quod bene facere voluisse quis dicit neque fecit tamen, Rhodiensibus oberit, quod non male fecerunt, sed quia voluisse dicuntur facere?"
XXXIX. His argumentis Tiro Tullius M. Catonem contendere et conficere dicit Rhodiensibus quoque impune esse debere, quod hostes quidem esse populi Romani voluissent, ut qui maxime non fuissent.

Afterwards he says thus. "But if it is not equitable that honor be had on account of this matter, that someone says he wished to do good and yet nevertheless did not do it, will it harm the Rhodians, not because they did ill, but because they are said to have wished to do it?"
39. By these arguments Tiro Tullius says that Marcus Cato contends and establishes that for the Rhodians too there ought to be impunity: because, although they wished to be enemies of the Roman people, they had by no means been so.

XL. Dissimulari autem non posse ait, quin paria et consimilia non sint plus quingenta iugera habere velle, quod plebiscito Stolonis prohibitum fuit, et bellum iniustum atque impium populo Romano facere velle, neque item infitiari posse, quin alia causa in praemio sit, alia in poenis.
XLI. "Nam beneficia" inquit "promissa opperiri oportet neque ante remunerari, quam facta sint, iniurias autem imminentis praecavisse iustum est, quam exspectavisse.

40. He says, moreover, that it cannot be dissimulated that it is not equal and similar to wish to have more than five hundred iugera—which was forbidden by the plebiscite of Stolo—and to wish to make an unjust and impious war upon the Roman people; nor likewise can it be denied that one rationale obtains in the matter of reward, another in that of punishments.
41. “For ‘benefits,’” he says, “one ought to await when they are promised and not remunerate before they have been done; but as for injuries, it is just to have forestalled those imminent, rather than to have waited for them.”

XLII. Summa enim professio stultitiae" inquit "est non ire obviam sceleribus cogitatis, sed manere opperirique, ut, cum admissa et perpetrata fuerint, tum denique, ubi, quae facta sunt, infecta fieri non possunt, poeniantur."
XLIII. Haec Tiro in Catonem non nimis frigide neque sane inaniter;
XLIV.

42. “For the highest profession of stupidity,” he says, “is not to go to meet—i.e., to confront—preconceived crimes, but to remain and wait, so that, when they shall have been admitted and perpetrated, then at last, when the things which have been done cannot be made undone, they are punished.”
43. These things Tiro says against Cato not too frigidly nor, to be sure, inanely;
44.

sed enim Cato non nudam nec solitariam nec inprotectam hanc epagogen facit, sed multis eam modis praefulcit multisque aliis argumentis convelat et, quia non Rhodiensibus magis quam reipublicae consultabat, nihil sibi dictu factuque in ea re turpe duxit, quin omni sententiarum via servatum ire socios niteretur.
XLV. Ac primum ea non incallide conquisivit, quae non iure naturae aut iure gentium fieri prohibentur, sed iure legum rei alicuius medendae aut temporis causa iussarum; sicut est de numero pecoris et de modo agri praefinito.

but indeed Cato does not make this epagoge (induction) bare nor solitary nor unprotected, but he props it up in many ways and wraps it with many other arguments; and, because he was taking counsel not for the Rhodians more than for the Republic, he deemed nothing shameful for himself to say or do in that matter, but strove by every avenue of opinions to go to the rescue of the allies.
45. And first he not unskillfully gathered those points which are not forbidden by the law of nature or the law of nations, but by the statutory law ordered for the mending of some matter or for the sake of the time; as is the case concerning the number of livestock and the predefined limit of land.

XLVI. In quibus rebus, quod prohibitum est, fieri quidem per leges non licet; velle id tamen facere, si liceat, inhonestum non est.
XLVII.

46. In which matters, what is prohibited indeed is not permitted to be done by the laws; yet to wish to do that, if it were permitted, is not dishonorable.
47.

Atque eas res contulit sensim miscuitque cum eo, quod neque facere neque velle per sese honestum est; tum deinde, ne disparilitas conlationis evidens fieret, pluribus id propugnaculis defensat neque tenues istas et enucleatas voluntatum in rebus inlicitis reprehensiones, qualia in philosophorum otio disputantur, magni facit, sed id solum ex summa ope nititur, ut causa Rhodiensium, quorum amicitiam retineri ex republica fuit, aut aequa iudicaretur aut quidem certe ignoscenda. Atque interim neque fecisse Rhodienses bellum neque facere voluisse dicit, interim autem facta sola censenda dicit atque in iudicium vocanda, sed voluntates nudas inanesque neque legibus neque poenis fieri obnoxias; interdum tamen, quasi deliquisse eos concedat, ignosci postulat et ignoscentias utiles esse rebus humanis docet ac, nisi ignoscant, metus in republica rerum novarum movet; sed enim contra, si ignoscatur, conservatum iri ostendit populi Romani magnitudinem.
XLVIII.

And he brought those matters together and by degrees commixed them with that which neither to do nor to will is honorable in itself; then, lest the disparity of the collation become evident, he defends it with several bulwarks, nor does he set much store by those slender and enucleated censures of wills in illicit matters, such as are debated in the leisure of philosophers, but he strives only with utmost effort that the cause of the Rhodians—whose friendship it was for the commonwealth to retain—be either judged equitable or at any rate surely pardonable. And at one time he says that the Rhodians neither made war nor wished to make it, at another time that deeds alone are to be assessed and called into judgment, but bare and empty intentions are made liable neither to laws nor to penalties; sometimes, however, as though he conceded that they had defaulted, he demands that pardon be granted, and he teaches that pardons are useful to human affairs and, unless men forgive, he stirs in the republic a fear of revolutions; but on the contrary, if pardon be granted, he shows that the greatness of the Roman people will be preserved.
48.

Superbiae quoque crimen, quod tunc praeter cetera in senatu Rhodiensibus obiectum erat, mirifica et prope divina responsionis figura elusit et eluit.
XLIX. Verba adeo ipsa ponemus Catonis, quoniam Tiro ea praetermisit:
L. "Rhodiensis superbos esse aiunt id obiectantes, quod mihi et liberis meis minime dici velim.

He also parried and washed away the charge of superbia, which then, besides the rest, had been objected against the Rhodians in the senate, by a wondrous and almost divine figure of reply.
49. We will therefore put down Cato’s very words themselves, since Tiro passed them over:
50. "They say the Rhodians are proud, objecting that which I would least of all wish to be said to me and to my children."

Sint sane superbi. Quid id ad nos attinet? Idne irascimini, si quis superbior est quam nos?"
LI. Nihil prorsus hac compellatione dici potest neque gravius neque munitius adversus homines superbissimos facta, qui superbiam in sese amarent, in aliis reprehenderent.

Let them indeed be proud. What is that to us? Is it this that you grow angry at, if someone is prouder than we are?"
51. Nothing at all can be said either more weighty or more well-fortified against men most arrogant than this form of address, once delivered, men who loved pride in themselves, but reproached it in others.

LII. Praeterea animadvertere est in tota ista Catonis oratione omnia disciplinarum rhetoricarum arma atque subsidia mota esse; sed non proinde ut in decursibus ludicris aut simulacris proeliorum voluptariis fieri videmus. Non enim, inquam, distincte nimis atque compte atque modulate res acta est, sed quasi in ancipiti certamine, cum sparsa acies est, multis locis Marte vario pugnatur, sic in ista tum causa Cato, cum superbia illa Rhodiensium famosissima multorum odio atque invidia flagraret, omnibus promisce tuendi atque propugnandi modis usus est et nunc ut optime meritos commendat, nunc tamquam si innocentes purgat, nunc, ne bona divitiaeque eorum expetantur, obiurgat, nunc, quasi sit erratum, deprecatur, nunc ut necessarios reipublicae ostentat, nunc clementiae, nunc mansuetudinis maiorum, nunc utilitatis publicae commonefacit.

52. Moreover, it is to be observed that in that whole speech of Cato all the arms and subsidies of the rhetorical disciplines were set in motion; but not in the way that we see happen in playful run-throughs or in pleasure-giving simulacra of battles. For, I say, the matter was not conducted too distinctly and neatly and with measured modulation, but as in a two-edged contest, when the battle-line is scattered and fighting is carried on in many places with the fortune of Mars varying, so in that case at that time Cato, when that most infamous pride of the Rhodians was blazing with the hatred and envy of many, used indiscriminately all modes of guarding and championing, and now he commends them as having most well deserved, now he purges them as though innocent, now he rebukes, lest their goods and riches be coveted, now he begs off as if there has been an error, now he displays them as necessary to the commonwealth, now he reminds of clemency, now of the mildness of the ancestors, now of public utility.

LIII. Eaque omnia distinctius numerosiusque fortassean dici potuerint, fortius atque vividius potuisse dici non videntur.
LIV.

53. And all these things perhaps could have been said more distinctly and more rhythmically, but they do not seem to have been able to be said more forcefully and more vividly.
54.

Inique igitur Tiro Tullius, quod ex omnibus facultatibus tam opulentae orationis aptis inter sese et cohaerentibus parvum quippiam nudumque sumpsit, quod obtrectaret, tamquam non dignum M. Catone fuerit, quod delictorum non perpetratorum voluntates non censuerit poeniendas.
LV. Commodius autem rectiusque de his meis verbis, quibus Tullio Tironi respondimus, existimabit iudiciumque faciet, qui et orationem ipsam totam Catonis acceperit in manus et epistulam Tironis ad Axium scriptam requirere et legere curaverit. Ita enim nos sincerius exploratiusque vel corrigere poterit vel probare.

Unjustly, therefore, did Tiro Tullius, because out of all the faculties of so opulent an oration, apt among themselves and coherent, he took some small and bare point to carp at, as though it had not been worthy of M. Cato that he did not judge the intentions of crimes not perpetrated to be punishable.
55. But more conveniently and more rightly concerning these my words, with which we responded to Tullius Tiro, he will evaluate and make a judgment who both shall have taken into his hands Cato’s very speech in its entirety and shall have cared to seek out and read the letter of Tiro written to Axius. For thus he will be able more sincerely and more searchingly either to correct us or to approve us.

IV. Cuiusmodi servos et quam ob causam Caelius Sabinus, iuris civilis auctor, pilleatos venundari solitos scripserit; et quae mancipia sub corona more maiorum venierint; atque id ipsum "sub corona" quid sit.

4. What sort of slaves, and for what cause, Caelius Sabinus, an author of civil law, wrote were accustomed to be sold wearing the pileus; and which chattel-slaves were sold sub corona according to the custom of the ancestors; and what that very "sub corona" is.

1 Pilleatos servos venum solitos ire, quorum nomine venditor nihil praestaret, Caelius Sabinus iurisperitus scriptum reliquit.

1 Caelius Sabinus, a jurist, has left it written that pilleated (cap-wearing) slaves were accustomed to go for sale, for whom, under that designation, the seller provided nothing by way of warranty.

2 Cuius rei causam esse ait, quod eiusmodi condicionis mancipia insignia esse in vendundo deberent, ut emptores errare et capi non possent, neque lex vendundi opperienda esset, sed oculis iam praeciperent, quodnam esset mancipiorum genus;

2 He says the reason for this thing is that slaves of such a condition ought to be marked out in vending, so that purchasers could not err and be taken in, and the law of vending need not be waited for, but they might already pre-apprehend with their eyes what genus of the slaves it was;

3 "sicuti" inquit "antiquitus mancipia iure belli capta coronis induta veniebant et idcirco dicebantur "sub corona" venire. Namque ut ea corona signum erat captivorum venalium, ita pilleus impositus demonstrabat eiusmodi servos venundari, quorum nomine emptori venditor nihil praestaret."

3 "just as," he says, "in antiquity slaves captured by right of war, arrayed with crowns, used to be sold, and for that reason were said to come "under the crown". For just as that crown was a sign of captives for sale, so the pileus set upon them indicated that slaves of that sort were being sold, on whose account the seller would warrant nothing to the buyer."

4 Est autem alia rationis opinio, cur dici solitum sit captivos "sub corona" venundari, quod milites custodiae causa captivorum venalium greges circumstarent eaque circumstatio militum "corona" appellata sit.

4 There is, however, another rationale for why it was wont to be said that captives were sold "under the crown": because soldiers, for the purpose of custody, would stand around the bands of captives for sale, and this encirclement of soldiers was called a "crown."

5 Sed id magis verum esse, quod supra dixi, M. Cato in libro, quem composuit de re militari, docet. Verba sunt haec Catonis: "Vt populus sua opera potius ob rem bene gestam coronatus supplicatum eat, quam re male gesta coronatus veneat."

5 But that this is more true, as I said above, M. Cato teaches in the book which he composed on military affairs. The words of Cato are these: "That the people should go crowned to offer supplication by their own work on account of an affair well managed, rather than, the affair ill managed, come for sale crowned."

V. Historia de Polo histrione memoratu digna.

5. A story about Polus the actor, worthy of remembrance.

1 Histrio in terra Graecia fuit fama celebri, qui gestus et vocis claritudine et venustate ceteris antistabat:

1 There was an actor in the land of Greece, of celebrated fame, who in gesture and in the clarity and charm of his voice stood above the rest:

2 nomen fuisse aiunt Polum, tragoedias poetarum nobilium scite atque asseverate actitavit.

2 they say the name was Polus; he used to perform the tragedies of noble poets skillfully and with assurance.

3 Is Polus unice amatum filium morte amisit.

3 This Polus lost to death a son uniquely beloved.

4 Eum luctum quoniam satis visus est eluxisse, rediit ad quaestum artis.

4 Since he seemed to have sufficiently mourned that grief, he returned to the business of his art.

5 In eo tempore Athenis Electram Sophoclis acturus gestare urnam quasi cum Oresti ossibus debebat.

5 At that time in Athens, about to act Sophocles’ Electra, he had to carry an urn as if with the bones of Orestes.

6 Ita compositum fabulae argumentum est, ut veluti fratris reliquias ferens Electra comploret commisereaturque interitum eius existimatum.

6 Thus the argument of the fable is composed, so that, as if bearing the relics of her brother, Electra bewails and commiserates his supposed death.

7 Igitur Polus lugubri habitu Electrae indutus ossa atque urnam e sepulcro tulit filii et quasi Oresti amplexus opplevit omnia non simulacris neque imitamentis, sed luctu atque lamentis veris et spirantibus.

7 Therefore Polus, clad in the lugubrious habit of Electra, brought forth from the sepulcher the bones and the urn of his son, and, as if embracing Orestes, filled everything not with simulacra nor imitations, but with grief and laments true and breathing.

8 Itaque cum agi fabula videretur, dolor actus est.

8 And so, while a play seemed to be acted, grief was acted.

VI. Quid de quorundam sensuum naturali defectione Aristoteles scripserit.

6. What Aristotle wrote about the natural defect of certain senses.

1 Ex quinque his sensibus, quos animantibus natura tribuit, visu, auditu, gustu, tactu, odoratu, quas Graeci aistheseis appellant, quaedam animalium alia alio carent et aut caeca natura gignuntur aut inodora inauritave.

1 Of these five senses, which nature has bestowed upon living beings—sight, hearing, taste, touch, smell—which the Greeks call aistheseis, certain animals lack one or another, and are born by nature either blind or inodorous or earless.

2 Nullum autem ullum gigni animal Aristoteles dicit, quod aut gustus sensu careat aut tactus.

2 Aristotle says that no animal at all is born that lacks the sense of taste or of touch.

3 Verba ex libro eius, quem peri mnemes composuit, haec sunt: Ten de haphen kai ten geusin panta echei, plen ei ti ton zoon ateles.

3 The words from his book, which he composed On Memory, are these: But the touch and the taste all have, unless any of the animals is imperfect.

VII. An "affatim", quasi "admodum", prima acuta pronuntiandum sit; et quaedam itidem non incuriose tractata super aliarum vocum accentibus.

7. Whether "affatim," as if "admodum," ought to be pronounced with the first syllable acute; and likewise certain matters, not carelessly handled, concerning the accents of other words.

1 Annianus poeta praeter ingenii amoenitates litterarum quoque veterum et rationum in litteris oppido quam peritus fuit et sermocinabatur mira quadam et scita suavitate.

1 Annianus the poet, besides the amenities of his genius, was also exceedingly expert in the letters of the ancients and in the rationales of letters, and he used to discourse with a certain marvelous and learned suavity.

2 Is "affatim" ut "admodum" prima acuta, non media, pronuntiabat atque ita veteres locutos censebat.

2 He pronounced "affatim," like "admodum," with the first syllable acute, not the middle, and thus he judged that the ancients had spoken.

3 Itaque se audiente Probum grammaticum hos versus in Plauti Cistellaria legisse dicit:
potine tu homo facinus facere strenuum? - aliorum affatim est,
qui faciant; sane ego me nolo fortem perhiberi virum,

3 And so he says that, in his hearing, Probus the grammarian read these verses in Plautus’s Cistellaria:
are you, man, able to do a strenuous deed? - there are plenty of others,
to do it; indeed I do not want myself to be held a brave man,

4 causamque esse huic accentui dicebat, quod "affatim" non essent duae partes orationis, sed utraque pars in unam vocem coaluisset, sicuti in eo quoque, quod "exadversum" dicimus, secundam syllabam debere acui existimabat, quoniam una, non duae essent partes orationis; atque ita oportere apud Terentium legi dicebat in his versibus:
in quo haec discebat ludo, exadversum loco
tonstrina erat quaedam.

4 and he said the cause for this accent was that “affatim” was not two parts of an expression, but that each part had coalesced into one word; likewise, in that too which we say “exadversum,” he judged the second syllable ought to be accented, since there was one, not two, parts of an expression; and thus he said it ought to be read in Terence in these verses:
in the school in which he was learning these things, opposite the place
there was a certain barbershop.

5 Addebat etiam, quod "ad" praeverbium tum ferme acueretur, cum significaret epitasin, quam "intentionem" nos dicimus, sicut "adfabre" et "admodum" et "adprobe" dicuntur.

5 He added also that the preverb "ad" was then generally accented when it signified epitasis, which we call "intention," just as "adfabre" and "admodum" and "adprobe" are said.

6 Cetera quidem satis commode Annianus. Sed si hanc particulam semper, cum intentionem significaret, acui putavit, non id perpetuum videtur;

6 As to the rest, indeed, Annianus quite suitably. But if he thought that this particle should always, when it signified intention, be accented, that does not seem constant;

7 nam et "adpotus" cum dicimus et "adprimus" et "adprime", intentio in his omnibus demonstratur, neque tamen "ad" particula satis commode accentu acuto pronuntiatur.

7 for both when we say "adpotus" and "adprimus" and "adprime", intention is shown in all these, nor yet is the particle "ad" pronounced quite properly with an acute accent.

8 "Adprobus" tamen, quod significat "valde probus", non infitias eo, quin prima syllaba acui debeat.

8 "Adprobus," however, which signifies "very upright," I do not deny, that the first syllable ought to be acute.

9 Caecilius in comoedia, quae inscribitur Triumphus, vocabulo isto utitur: Hierocles hospes est mi adulescens adprobus.

9 Caecilius, in the comedy which is entitled Triumph, uses that word: Hierocles is my guest-friend, a very upright adolescent.

10 Num igitur in istis vocibus, quas non acui diximus, ea causa est, quod syllaba insequitur natura longior, quae non ferme patitur acui priorem in vocabulis syllabarum plurium quam duarum?

10 So then, in those words which we said are not to be acuted, is the reason this: that a syllable follows, longer by nature, which for the most part does not permit the prior to be acuted in words of more than two syllables?

11 "Adprimum" autem longe primum L. Livius in Odyssia dicit in hoc versu:
ibidemque vir summus adprimus Patroclus.

11 "Adprimus," moreover, L. Livius says far earliest in the Odyssia in this verse:
and there too the highest man, the very foremost, Patroclus.

12 Idem Livius in Odyssia "praemodum" dicit, quasi admodum: "parcentes" inquit "praemodum", quod significat "supra modum", dictumque est quasi "praeter modum"; in quo scilicet prima syllaba acui debebit.

12 The same Livius in the Odyssey says "praemodum," as if "admodum": "sparing," he says, "praemodum," which signifies "beyond measure," and it is spoken as if "praeter modum"; in which, of course, the first syllable ought to receive the acute.

VIII. Res ultra fidem tradita super amatore delphino et puero amato.

8. A matter beyond belief transmitted about a dolphin in love and a beloved boy.

1 Delphinos venerios esse et amasios non modo historiae veteres, sed recentes quoque memoriae declarant.

1 Not only ancient histories, but the memories of recent times also declare that dolphins are venereal and lovers.

2 Nam et sub Caesaris Augusti imperio in Puteolano mari, ut Apion scriptum reliquit, et aliquot saeculis ante apud Naupactum, ut Theophrastus tradidit, amores flagrantissimi delphinorum cogniti compertique sunt.

2 For both under the imperium of Caesar Augustus in the Puteolan sea, as Apion left it written, and several centuries earlier at Naupactus, as Theophrastus handed it down, the most ardent loves of dolphins were known and ascertained.

3 Neque hi amaverunt, quod sunt ipsi, genus, sed pueros forma liberali in naviculis forte aut in vadis litorum conspectos miris et humanis modis arserunt.

3 Nor did these love their own kind, which they themselves are, but, upon catching sight of boys of noble form by chance in little boats or in the shallows of the shores, they burned with love in marvelous and human ways.

4 Verba subscripsi Apionos, eruditi viri, ex Aegyptiacorum libro quinto, quibus delphini amantis et pueri non abhorrentis consuetudines, lusus, gestationes, aurigationes refert eaque omnia sese ipsum multosque alios vidisse dicit:

4 I have subjoined the words of Apion, a learned man, from the fifth book of the Aegyptiaca, in which he relates the customs, sports, rides, charioteerings of the loving dolphin and the boy not averse, and he says that he himself and many others saw all these things:

5 Autos d'au eidon peri Dikaiarchias paidos A - Hyakinthos ekaleito - pothois eptoemenon delphina. Prossainei ten phonen autou ten psychen pteroumenos entos tas te akanthas hypostellon, me ti tou pothoumenou chrotos amyxei pheidomenos, hippedon te peribebekota mechri diakosion anege stadion. Execheito he Rhome kai pasa Italia tes Aphrodites xynorontes heniochoumenon ichthyn.

5 I myself also saw, about Dicaearchia’s boy A - he was called Hyacinthus - a dolphin distraught with longings. He would fawn to his voice, his soul winged within, and draw back his spines, sparing lest he scratch any of the beloved one’s skin, and he would carry him, mounted as on horseback, for as much as 200 stades. Rome and all Italy were abuzz, perceiving a fish charioteered by Aphrodite.

6 Ad hoc adicit rem non minus mirandam. "Postea" inquit "idem ille puer delphineromenos morbo adfectus obit suum diem.

6 To this he adds a thing no less marvelous. "Afterwards," he says, "that same boy, who used to be ridden by the dolphin, afflicted by disease, met his day.

7 At ille amans, ubi saepe ad litus solitum adnavit et puer, qui in primo vado adventum eius opperiri consueverat, nusquam fuit, desiderio tabuit exanimatusque est et in litore iacens inventus ab his, qui rem cognoverant, in sui pueri sepulcro humatus est."

7 But that lover, when often he had sailed up to the accustomed shore and the boy, who in the foremost shoal had been accustomed to await his advent, was nowhere, pining with desire he wasted away and became lifeless; and, lying on the shore, he was found by those who had learned the matter, and was interred in his boy’s sepulcher."

IX. "Peposci" et "memordi", "pepugi" et "spepondi" et "cecurri" plerosque veterum dixisse, non, uti postea receptum est dicere, per "o" aut per "u" litteram in prima syllaba positam, atque id eos Graecae rationis exemplo dixisse; praeterea notatum, quod viri non indocti neque ignobiles a verbo "descendo" non "descendi", sed "descendidi" dixerunt.

9. "Peposci" and "memordi", "pepugi" and "spepondi" and "cecurri", many of the ancients are said to have used, not, as afterward it was received to say, with the letter "o" or with "u" placed in the first syllable; and that they said this by the example of Greek usage. Moreover, it has been noted that men not unlearned nor ignoble, from the verb "descendo", said not "descendi", but "descendidi".

1 "Poposci", "momordi", "pupugi", "cucurri" probabiliter dici videtur, atque ita nunc omnes ferme doctiores hisce verbis utuntur.

1 "Poposci", "momordi", "pupugi", "cucurri" seem to be said plausibly, and thus now nearly all the more learned use these very words.

2 Sed Q. Ennius in saturis "memorderit" dixit per "e" litteram, non "momorderit": "meum" inquit "non est, ac si me canis memorderit."

2 But Q. Ennius in the Satires said "memorderit" with the letter "e", not "momorderit": "it is not mine," he says, "as if a dog had bitten me."

3 Item Laberius in Gallis:
de integro patrimonio meo centum milia
nummum memordi.

3 Likewise Laberius in the Galli:
from my entire patrimony a hundred thousand
of coin I have bitten.

4 Item idem Laberius in Coloratore:
itaque leni pruna percoctus simul sub dentes mulieris
veni, bis, ter memordit.

4 Likewise the same Laberius in The Colorer:
and so, thoroughly cooked by a gentle ember, at once I came under a woman's teeth,
she bit twice, thrice.

5 Item P. Nigidius de animalibus libro II.: "Vt serpens si memordit, gallina diligitur et opponitur."

5 Likewise P. Nigidius in On Animals, book 2.: "That if a serpent has bitten, a hen is selected and set against it."

6 Item Plautus in Aulularia:
ut admemordit hominem.

6 Likewise Plautus in Aulularia:
how it bit the man.

7 Sed idem Plautus in Trigeminis neque "praememordisse" neque "praemomordisse" dicit, sed "praemorsisse":
"nisi fugissem" inquit "medium, credo, praemorsisset."

7 But that same Plautus in Trigemini says neither "praememordisse" nor "praemomordisse", but "praemorsisse":
"unless I had fled," he says, "the middle, I believe, he would have bitten first."

8 Item Atta in Conciliatrice: ursum se memordisse autumat.

8 Likewise Atta in Conciliatrice: he asserts that he has bitten back the bear.

9 "Peposci" quoque, non "poposci", Valerius Antias libro annalium XLV. scriptum reliquit: "Denique Licinius tribunus plebi perduellionis ei diem dixit et comitiis diem a M. Marcio praetore peposcit."

9 "Peposci" also, not "poposci", Valerius Antias has left written in book 45 of the Annals: "Finally Licinius, tribune of the plebs, appointed a day for him on a charge of treason, and at the comitia requested a day from M. Marcius the praetor."

10 "Pepugero" aeque Atta in Aedilicia dicit:
sed si pepugero, metuet.

10 "Pepugero" likewise Atta in the Aedilicia says:
but if I shall have pierced, he will fear.

11 Aelium quoque Tuberonem libro ad C. Oppium scripto "occecurrit" dixisse Probus adnotavit et haec eius verba apposuit: "Si generalis species occecurrerit."

11 Probus also annotated that Aelius Tubero, in a book written to C. Oppius, had said "occecurrit," and he appended these words of his: "Si generalis species occecurrerit."

12 Idem Probus Valerium Antiatem libro historiarum XXII. "speponderant" scripsisse annotavit verbaque eius haec posuit: "Tiberius Gracchus, qui quaestor C. Mancino in Hispania fuerat, et ceteri, qui pacem speponderant."

12 The same Probus annotated that Valerius Antias, in the 22. book of histories, had written "speponderant" and he set down these words of his: "Tiberius Gracchus, who had been quaestor to C. Mancinus in Spain, and the others, who had speponderant peace."

13 Ratio autem istarum dictionum haec esse videri potest: quoniam Graeci in quadam specie praeteriti temporis, quod parakeimenon appellant, secundam verbi litteram in "e" plerumque vertunt, ut grapho gegrapha, poio pepoika, lalo lelaleka, krato kekrateka, lovo lelouka,

13 The rationale of these dictiones may seem to be this: since the Greeks, in a certain species of the past tense, which they call the parakeimenon, for the most part turn the second letter of the verb into "e", as grapho gegrapha, poio pepoika, lalo lelaleka, krato kekrateka, lovo lelouka,

14 sic igitur mordeo "memordi", posco "peposci", tendo "tetendi", tango "tetigi", pungo "pepugi", curro "cecurri", tollo "tetuli", spondeo "spepondi" facit.

14 thus, therefore, it makes mordeo "memordi", posco "peposci", tendo "tetendi", tango "tetigi", pungo "pepugi", curro "cecurri", tollo "tetuli", spondeo "spepondi".

15 Sic M. Tullius et C. Caesar "mordeo, memordi", "pungo, pepugi", "spondeo, spepondi" dixerunt. Praeterea inveni a verbo "scindo" simili ratione non "sciderat", sed "sciciderat" dictum esse.

15 Thus M. Tullius and C. Caesar said “mordeo, memordi,” “pungo, pepugi,” “spondeo, spepondi.” Moreover, I have found from the verb “scindo,” by a similar rationale, that it was said not “sciderat,” but “sciciderat.”

16 L. Accius in Sotadicorum libro I. "sciciderat" dicit. Verba haec sunt: non ergo aquila ita, uti praedicant, sciciderat pectus?

16 L. Accius in book 1 of the Sotadics says "sciciderat." The words are these: had not then the eagle, as they predicate, thus cleft its breast?

17 Ennius quoque in Melanippa:
cum saxum sciciderit.
...
Valerius Antias in libro historiarum LXXV. verba haec scripsit: "Deinde funere locato ad forum descendidit." Laberius quoque in Catulario ita scripsit:
ego mirabar, quomodo mammae mihi
...

17 Ennius also in the Melanippe:
when the rock has split.
...
Valerius Antias in the book of histories 75 wrote these words: "Then, the funeral having been arranged, he descended to the forum." Laberius also in the Catularius wrote thus:
I was wondering how my breasts
...

X. Vt "ususcapio" copulate recto vocabuli casu dicitur, ita "pignoriscapio" coniuncte eadem vocabuli forma dictum esse.

10. As "usucapion" is said coupled, with the word in the straight (rectus) case, so "pignoriscapion" is said conjoined in the same form of the word.

1 Vt haec "ususcapio" dicitur copulato vocabulo "a" littera in eo tractim pronuntiata, ita "pignoriscapio" iuncte et producte dicebatur.

1 As this "ususcapio" is said with the word coupled, the letter "a" in it pronounced in a drawn-out way, so "pignoriscapio" used to be said conjoined and lengthened.

2 Verba Varronis sunt ex primo epistolicarum quaestionum: "Pignoriscapio ob aes militare, quod aes a tribuno aerario miles accipere debebat, vocabulum seorsum fit."

2 The words of Varro are from the first of the Epistolical Questions: "Pignoriscapio on account of the military pay, which money the soldier was supposed to receive from the tribune of the treasury, becomes a separate vocable."

3 Per quod satis dilucet hanc "capionem" posse dici quasi hanc "captionem" et in usu et in pignore.

3 Through which it is quite clear that this "capio" can be called, as it were, this "caption," both in use and in pledge.

XI. Neque "levitatem" neque "nequitiam" ea significatione esse, qua in vulgi sermonibus dicuntur.

11. Neither "levity" nor "nequity" have that signification in which they are said in vulgar speech.

1 "Levitatem" plerumque nunc pro inconstantia et mutabilitate dici audio et "nequitiam" pro sollertia astutiaque.

1 I for the most part now hear "Levitatem" said for inconstancy and mutability, and "nequitiam" for adroitness and astuteness.

2 Sed veterum hominum qui proprie atque integre locuti sunt, "leves" dixerunt, quos volgo nunc viles et nullo honore dignos dicimus, et "levitatem" appellaverunt proinde quasi vilitatem et "nequam" ... hominem nihili rei neque frugis bonae, quod genus Graeci fere asoton vel akolastos dicunt.

2 But men of old, who spoke properly and integrally, called “light” those whom we now commonly call vile and worthy of no honor, and they designated “levity” as if “vileness,” and “nequam” ... a man of nothing and not of good worth, the sort whom the Greeks for the most part call asoton or akolastos.

3 Qui exempla horum verborum requirit, ne in libris nimium remotis quaerat, inveniet ea in M. Tullii secunda Antonianarum.

3 He who seeks examples of these words, let him not look in books too remote, he will find them in M. Tullius’s second Against Antony.

4 Nam cum genus quoddam sordidissimum vitae atque victus M. Antoni demonstraturus esset, quod in caupona delitisceret, quod ad vesperum perpotaret, quod ore involuto iter faceret, ne cognosceretur, haec aliaque eiusdemmodi cum in eum dicturus esset: "videte" inquit "hominis levitatem", tamquam prorsus ista dedecora hoc convicio in homine notarentur.

4 For when he was about to demonstrate a certain most sordid kind of life and living of M. Antonius, that he would lurk in a tavern, that he would drink deep until evening, that he would make a journey with his face wrapped up, lest he be recognized, when he was about to say these and other things of the same sort against him: "see" he said "the man’s levity", as though outright these disgraces were noted in a man by this term of abuse.

5 Ac postea, cum in eundem Antonium probra quaedam alia ludibriosa et turpia ingessisset, ad extremum hoc addidit: "O hominem nequam! nihil enim magis proprie possum dicere."

5 And afterward, when upon that same Antony he had heaped certain other reproaches, ludicrous and turpid, at the end he added this: "O worthless man! for I can say nothing more properly."

6 Sed ex eo loco M. Tullii verba compluscula libuit ponere: "At videte levitatem hominis! Cum hora diei decima fere ad Saxa rubra venisset, delituit in quadam cauponula atque ibi se occultans perpotavit ad vesperum; inde cisio celeriter ad urbem advectus domum venit ore involuto. Ianitor rogat: "Quis tu?" "A Marco tabellarius." Confestim ad eam, cuius causa venerat, deducitur eique epistulam tradit.

6 But from that passage I was pleased to set down a few words of M. Tullius: "But look at the man's levity! When at about the tenth hour of the day he had come to Saxa Rubra, he hid in a certain little tavern and there, hiding himself, drank deep until evening; then, carried quickly to the city by a light carriage, he came home with his face wrapped up. The Janitor asks: "Who are you?" "A courier from Marcus." Immediately he is led to the woman for whose sake he had come, and he hands her a letter.

Quam illa cum legeret flens - erat enim scripta amatorie; caput autem litterarum hoc erat: sibi cum illa mima posthac nihil futurum, omnem se amorem abiecisse illim atque in hanc transfudisse -, cum mulier fleret uberius, homo misericors ferre non potuit: caput aperuit, in conum invasit. O hominem nequam! - nihil enim magis proprie possum dicere: ergo ut te catamitum nec opinato cum ostendisses, praeter spem mulier aspiceret, idcirco urbem terrore nocturno, Italiam multorum dierum metu perturbasti?"

While she was reading it, weeping - for it had been written amorously; and the heading of the letter was this: that he would hereafter have nothing with that mime, that he had cast off all his love from there and poured it into this one -, when the woman wept more abundantly, the compassionate man could not bear it: he uncovered his head, he rushed into the room. O nefarious man! - for nothing more properly can I say: was it, then, in order that, when you had unexpectedly shown yourself as a catamite, the woman might behold you beyond hope, that you disturbed the city with nocturnal terror and Italy with fear for many days?

7 Consimiliter Q. quoque Claudius in primo annalium "nequitiam" appellavit luxum vitae prodigum effusumque in hisce verbis: "Persuadent i cuidam adulescenti Lucano, qui adprime summo genere gnatus erat, sed luxuria et nequitia pecuniam magnam consumpserat."

7 Similarly, Q. Claudius also, in the first of the Annals, called "nequitia" the luxury of life, prodigal and lavish, in these words: "They persuade a certain Lucanian youth, who was especially born of the highest rank, but by luxury and nequitia he had consumed a great amount of money."

8M. Varro in libris de lingua Latina: "Vt ex "non" et "volo"" inquit ""nolo", sic ex "ne" et "quicquam" media syllaba extrita compositum est "nequam"."

8M. Varro in the books On the Latin Language: "Just as from "non" and "volo"," he says, ""nolo", so from "ne" and "quicquam," with the middle syllable rubbed out, is composed "nequam".

9 P. Africanus pro se contra Tiberium Asellum de multa ad populum: "Omnia mala, probra, flagitia, quae homines faciunt, in duabus rebus sunt, malitia atque nequitia. Vtrum defendis, malitiam an nequitiam an utrumque simul? Si nequitiam defendere vis, licet; si tu in uno scorto maiorem pecuniam absumpsisti, quam quanti omne instrumentum fundi Sabini in censum dedicavisti, si hoc ita est: qui spondet mille nummum?

9 P. Africanus on his own behalf against Tiberius Asellus concerning a fine before the people: "All evils, reproaches, flagitious deeds, which men do, are in two things, malice and nequity. Which do you defend, malice or nequity or both at once? If you wish to defend nequity, you may; if you have consumed on one harlot a greater sum of money than the value at which you dedicated to the census all the instrument of your Sabine farm, if this is so: who stands surety for a thousand coins?

si tu plus tertia parte pecuniae paternae perdidisti atque absumpsisti in flagitiis, si hoc ita est: qui spondet mille nummum? Non vis nequitiam. Age malitiam saltem defende.

if you have lost and squandered more than a third part of your paternal money in flagitious acts, if this is so: who will stand surety for a thousand coins? You do not want nequity. Come, defend malice at least.

Si tu verbis conceptis coniuravisti sciens sciente animo tuo, si hoc ita est: qui spondet mille nummum?"

"If you have sworn, in set words, knowingly, with your mind aware, if this is so: who stands surety for a thousand coins?"

XII. De tunicis chirodytis; quod earum usum P. Africanus Sulpicio Galo obiecit.

12. On chirodyte tunics; that P. Africanus reproached Sulpicius Gallus for their use.

1 Tunicis uti virum prolixis ultra brachia et usque in primores manus ac prope in digitos Romae atque in omni Latio indecorum fuit.

1 For a man to wear tunics long beyond the arms and all the way to the foremost parts of the hands, and nearly to the fingers, was indecorous at Rome and in all Latium.

2 Eas tunicas Graeco vocabulo nostri "chirodytas" appellaverunt feminisque solis vestem longe lateque diffusam decere existimaverunt ad ulnas cruraque adversus oculos protegenda.

2 Those tunics our people appellated by a Greek vocable "chirodytas", and they esteemed that a garment spread long and broad was seemly for women alone, for the forearms to the elbows and the legs to be protected against eyes.

3 Viri autem Romani primo quidem sine tunicis toga sola amicti fuerunt; postea substrictas et breves tunicas citra humerum desinentis habebant, quod genus Graeci dicunt exomidas.

3 But Roman men at first indeed were without tunics, clothed with the toga alone; afterward they had constricted and brief tunics ending short of the shoulder, which kind the Greeks call exomides.

4 Hac antiquitate indutus P. Africanus, Pauli filius, vir omnibus bonis artibus atque omni virtute praeditus, P. Sulpicio Galo, homini delicato, inter pleraque alia, quae obiectabat, id quoque probro dedit, quod tunicis uteretur manus totas operientibus.

4 Clad in this antiquity, P. Africanus, son of Paulus, a man endowed with all good arts and with every virtue, to P. Sulpicius Galo, a delicate man, among very many other things which he objected, gave this also as a reproach: that he made use of tunics covering the hands entire.

5 Verba sunt haec Scipionis: "Nam qui cotidie unguentatus adversum speculum ornetur, cuius supercilia radantur, qui barba vulsa feminibusque subvulsis ambulet, qui in conviviis adulescentulus cum amatore cum chirodyta tunica interior accubuerit, qui non modo vinosus, sed virosus quoque sit, eumne quisquam dubitet, quin idem fecerit, quod cinaedi facere solent?"

5 These are Scipio’s words: "For the man who daily, anointed with unguent, adorns himself before a mirror; whose eyebrows are shaved; who walks with his beard plucked and his thighs depilated; who, as an adolescent, at banquets has reclined with a lover, wearing an inner chirodyte tunic; who is not only wine-besotted but man-besotted as well—would anyone doubt that he has done the very thing which cinaedi are accustomed to do?"

6 Vergilius quoque tunicas huiuscemodi quasi femineas probrosas criminatur: "et tunicae" inquit "manicas et habent redimicula mitrae."

6 Vergil also indicts tunics of this sort as, as if, feminine and opprobrious: "and the tunics," he says, "have sleeves, and the mitres have fillets."

7 Q. quoque Ennius Carthaginiensium "tunicatam iuventutem" non videtur sine probro dixisse.

7 Q. Ennius also does not seem to have said "the tunic-clad youth of the Carthaginians" without reproach.

XIII. Quem "classicum" dicat M. Cato, quem "infra classem".

13. Whom M. Cato calls "classicum," whom "infra classem".

1 "Classici" dicebantur non omnes, qui in quinque classibus erant, sed primae tantum classis homines qui centum et viginti quinque milia aeris ampliusve censi erant.

1 "Classici" did not designate all who were in the five classes, but only the men of the first class who were assessed at 125,000 asses or more.

2 "Infra classem" autem appellabantur secundae classis ceterarumque omnium classium, qui minore summa aeris, quod supra dixi, censebantur.

2 "Below the class," however, were called those of the second class and of all the other classes, who were assessed at a smaller sum of bronze, as I said above.

3 Hoc eo strictim notavi, quoniam in M. Catonis oratione, qua Voconiam legem suasit, quaeri solet, quid sit "classicus", quid "infra classem".

3 I have noted this briefly for this reason, since in the speech of M. Cato, by which he urged the Voconian law, it is wont to be asked what “classicus” is, what “below the class.”

XIV. De tribus dicendi generibus; ac de tribus philosophis, qui ab Atheniensibus ad senatum Romam legati sunt.

14. On the three genera of speaking; and on the three philosophers, who were sent as legates by the Athenians to the senate at Rome.

1 Et in carmine et in soluta oratione genera dicendi probabilia sunt tria, quae Graeci charakteras vocant nominaque eis fecerunt hadron, ischnon, meson.

1 Both in verse and in prose oration the plausible kinds of speaking are three, which the Greeks call “characters,” and they made for them the names hadron, ischnon, meson.

2 Nos quoque, quem primum posuimus, "uberem" vocamus, secundum "gracilem", tertium "mediocrem".

2 We too call the first "copious", the second "gracile", the third "mediocre".

3 Vberi dignitas atque amplitudo est, gracili venustas et subtilitas, medius in confinio est utriusque modi particeps.

3 The rich has dignity and amplitude, the slender has venusty and subtlety, the middle is on the confine, a participant in both modes.

4 His singulis orationis virtutibus vitia agnata sunt pari numero, quae earum modum et habitum simulacris falsis ementiuntur.

4 To each of these individual virtues of speech there are agnate vices in equal number, which with false simulacra counterfeit their measure and mien.

5 Sic plerumque sufflati atque tumidi fallunt pro uberibus, squalentes et ieiunidici pro gracilibus, incerti et ambigui pro mediocribus.

5 Thus for the most part the inflated and tumid pass for the abundant, the squalid and jejune-speakers for the slender, the uncertain and ambiguous for the moderate.

6 Vera autem et propria huiuscemodi formarum exempla in Latina lingua M. Varro esse dicit ubertatis Pacuvium, gracilitatis Lucilium, mediocritatis Terentium.

6 But the true and proper exemplars of forms of this kind in the Latin language, M. Varro says to be: of uperty Pacuvius, of gracility Lucilius, of mediocrity Terence.

7 Sed ea ipsa genera dicendi iam antiquitus tradita ab Homero sunt tria in tribus: magnificum in Vlixe et ubertum, subtile in Menelao et cohibitum, mixtum moderatumque in Nestore.

7 But those very kinds of speaking, already of old handed down by Homer, are three in three: the magnificent and copious (of uberty) in Ulysses, the subtle and restrained in Menelaus, the mixed and moderate in Nestor.

8 Animadversa eadem tripertita varietas est in tribus philosophis, quos Athenienses Romam ad senatum populi R. legaverant inpetratum, uti multam remitteret, quam fecerat is propter Oropi vastationem. Ea multa fuerat talentum fere quingentum.

8 The same tripartite variety was observed in the three philosophers, whom the Athenians had delegated to Rome to the senate of the Roman people to obtain that he remit the mulct which he had imposed on account of the devastation of Oropus. That mulct had been about five hundred talents.

9 Erant isti philosophi Carneades ex Academia, Diogenes Stoicus, Critolaus Peripateticus. Et in senatum quidem introducti interprete usi sunt C. Acilio senatore; sed ante ipsi seorsum quisque ostentandi gratia magno conventu hominum dissertaverunt.

9 These philosophers were Carneades from the Academy, Diogenes the Stoic, Critolaus the Peripatetic. And when they were introduced into the senate they made use of an interpreter, C. Acilius, a senator; but before that they themselves, each separately, for the sake of ostentation, discoursed before a great assembly of men.

10 Tum admirationi fuisse aiunt Rutilius et Polybius philosophorum trium sui cuiusque generis facundiam. "Violenta" inquiunt "et rapida Carneades dicebat, scita et teretia Critolaus, modesta Diogenes et sobria."

10 Then Rutilius and Polybius say that the eloquence of the three philosophers, each of his own kind, was a cause for admiration. "Violent and rapid," they say, "Carneades spoke; polished and well-turned, Critolaus; modest and sober, Diogenes."

11 Vnumquodque autem genus, ut diximus, cum caste pudiceque ornatur, fit illustrius, cum fucatur atque praelinitur, fit praestigiosum.

11 Each and every kind, however, as we have said, when it is adorned chastely and modestly, becomes more illustrious; when it is painted and over-smeared, it becomes a conjurer’s trick.

XV. Quam severe moribus maiorum in fures vindicatum sit; et quid scripserit Mucius Scaevola super eo, quod servandum datum commodatumve esset.

15. How severely, under the mores of the ancestors, vengeance was taken upon thieves; and what Mucius Scaevola wrote concerning that which had been given to be kept in safekeeping or loaned for use.

1 Labeo in libro de duodecim tabulis secundo acria et severa iudicia de furtis habita esse apud veteres scripsit idque Brutum solitum dicere et furti damnatum esse, qui iumentum aliorsum duxerat, quam quo utendum acceperat, item qui longius produxerat, quam in quem locum petierat.
II. Itaque Q. Scaevola in librorum, quos de iure civili composuit, XVI. verba haec posuit: "Quod cui servandum datum est, si id usus est, sive, quod utendum accepit, ad aliam rem, atque accepit, usus est, furti se obligavit."

1 Labeo, in the second book on the Twelve Tables, wrote that sharp and severe judgments about thefts were held among the ancients; and that Brutus was accustomed to say this too: that he was condemned of theft who had led a beast of burden elsewhere than to where he had received it for use, and likewise he who had taken it farther than to the place he had requested.
2. And so Q. Scaevola, in the 16th of the books which he composed on civil law, set down these words: "What has been given to someone to be kept safe, if he used it; or what he received to be used, if he used it for another purpose than that for which he accepted it, he has made himself liable for theft."

XVI. Locus exscriptus ex satura M. Varronis, quae peri edesmaton, inscripta est, de peregrinis ciborum generibus; et appositi versus Euripidi, quibus delicatorum hominum luxuriantem gulam confutavit.

16. A passage transcribed from the satire of M. Varro, which is entitled Peri Edesmaton, about foreign kinds of foods; and verses of Euripides appended, with which he confuted the luxuriating gullet of delicate men.

1M. Varro in satura, quam peri edesmaton inscripsit, lepide admodum et scite factis versibus cenarum ciborum exquisitas delicias comprehendit.

1M. Varro, in the satire which he inscribed peri edesmaton, very wittily and cleverly, with well-crafted verses, captured the exquisite delicacies of dinner foods.

2 Nam pleraque id genus, quae helluones isti terra et mari conquirunt, exposuit inclusitque in numeros senarios.

2 For most things of that kind which those gluttons hunt down by land and by sea, he set them forth and enclosed them in senarian numbers.

3 Et ipsos quidem versus, cui otium erit, in libro, quo dixi, positos legat;

3 And indeed let him who will have leisure read the verses themselves, set down in the book which I mentioned;

4 genera autem nominaque edulium et domicilia ciborum omnibus aliis praestantia, quae profunda ingluvies vestigavit, quae Varro obprobrans exsecutus est, haec sunt ferme, quantum nobis memoriae est:

4 the kinds and the names of edibles and the domiciles of foods, before all others excelling, which deep gluttony has tracked down, which Varro, reproaching, has set forth, these are, roughly, so far as memory serves us:

5 pavus e Samo, Phrygia attagena, grues Melicae, haedus ex Ambracia, pelamys Chalcedonia, muraena Tartesia, aselli Pessinuntii, ostrea Tarenti, petunculus ..., helops Rhodius, scari Cilices, nuces Thasiae, palma Aegyptia, glans Hiberica.

5 a peacock from Samos, a Phrygian attagen, Melian cranes, a kid from Ambracia, a Chalcedonian pelamys, a Tartessian moray, aselli of Pessinus, oysters of Tarentum, petunculus ..., a Rhodian helops, Cilician scari, Thasian nuts, an Egyptian date, an Iberian acorn.

6 Hanc autem peragrantis gulae et in sucos inquirentis industriam atque has undiquevorsum indagines cuppediarum maiore detestatione dignas censebimus, si versus Euripidi recordemur, quibus saepissime Chrysippus philosophus tamquam edendi ... repertas esse non per usum vitae necessarium, sed per luxum animi parata atque facilia fastidientis per inprobam satietatis lasciviam.
VII. Versus Euripidi adscribendos putavi:
epei ti dei brotoisi plen dyein monon
Demetros aktes pomatos th'hydrechoou,
haper paresti kai pephych'hemas trephein?

6 But we shall deem this industry of a roving gullet and of inquiring into sauces, and these huntings of delicacies every which way, worthy of greater detestation, if we recall the verses of Euripides, by which most often the philosopher Chrysippus maintained that the inventions of eating ... were discovered not for a use necessary to life, but prepared and easy for the luxury of a mind becoming fastidious through the wantonness of wicked satiety.
7. I thought verses of Euripides should be appended:
since what need have mortals beyond two things only—
Demeter’s produce and the draught of the water‑pourer—
which are at hand and by nature suffice to nourish us?

hon ouk aparkei plesmone, tryphei de toi
allon edeston mechanas therometha.

for whom satiety does not suffice; out of luxury, you know
we hunt contrivances of other edibles.

XVII. Sermo habitus cum grammatico insolentiarum et inperitiarum pleno de significatione vocabuli, quod est "obnoxius"; deque eius vocis origine.

17. A discourse held with a grammarian full of insolences and inexpertnesses about the signification of the vocable which is "obnoxius"; and about the origin of that word.

1 Percontabar Romae quempiam grammaticum primae in docendo celebritatis non hercle experiundi vel temptandi gratia, sed discendi magis studio et cupidine, quid significaret "obnoxius" quaeque eius vocabuli origo ac ratio esset.

1 I was inquiring at Rome of a certain grammarian of first celebrity in teaching, not, by Hercules, for the sake of making trial or testing, but rather from zeal and desire of learning, what "obnoxius" signified and what the origin and rationale of that vocable was.

2 Atque ille aspicit me inludens levitatem quaestionis pravitatemque: "Obscuram" inquit "sane rem quaeris multaque prorsus vigilia indagandam.

2 And he looks at me, mocking the levity and pravity of the question: "An obscure matter indeed you ask, and one altogether to be tracked down by many a vigil."

3 Quis adeo tam linguae Latinae ignarus est, quin sciat eum dici "obnoxium", cui quid ab eo, cui esse "obnoxius" dicitur, incommodari et noceri potest et qui habeat aliquem noxae, id est culpae suae, conscium? Quin potius" inquit "haec mittis nugalia et affers ea, quae digna quaeri tractarique sint?"

3 Who is so ignorant of the Latin tongue as not to know that he is called "obnoxious" who can be incommoded and harmed by the one to whom he is said to be "obnoxious," and who has someone conscious of his noxa, that is, of his own fault? "Why not rather," he says, "do you dismiss these trifles and bring forward those things which are worthy to be asked and handled?"

4 Tum vero ego permotus agendum iam oblique ut cum homine stulto existimavi et "cetera," inquam "vir doctissime, remotiora gravioraque si discere et scire debuero, quando mihi usus venerit, tum quaeram ex te atque discam; sed enim quia dixi saepe "obnoxius" et, quid dicerem, nescivi, didici ex te et scire nunc coepi, quod non ego omnium solus, ut tibi sum visus, ignoravi, sed, ut res est, Plautus quoque, homo linguae atque elegantiae in verbis Latinae princeps, quid esset "obnoxius", nescivit; versus enim est in Sticho illius ita scriptus: nunc ego hercle perii plane, non obnoxie, quod minime congruit cum ista, quam me docuisti, significatione; composuit enim Plautus tamquam duo inter se contraria "plane" et "obnoxie", quod a tua significatione longe abest."

4 Then indeed, being stirred, I judged that I must now proceed obliquely, as with a foolish man, and "as for the rest," I say, "most learned man, if I shall have had to learn and know the more remote and weightier matters, when the need comes to me, then I will inquire from you and learn; but indeed because I have often said 'obnoxius' and did not know what I was saying, I learned from you and now have begun to know, that not I alone of all men, as I seemed to you, was ignorant, but, as the matter stands, Plautus also, a man the prince of the Latin tongue and of elegance in words, did not know what 'obnoxius' was; for a verse in his Stichus is written thus: now, by Hercules, I have perished plainly, not obnoxiously, which least agrees with that meaning which you have taught me; for Plautus composed 'plainly' and 'obnoxiously' as if two things contrary to each other, which is far from your signification."

5 Atque ille grammaticus satis ridicule, quasi "obnoxius" et "obnoxie" non declinatione sola, sed re atque sententia differrent: "ego" inquit "dixi, quid esset "obnoxius", non quid "obnoxie"."

5 And that grammarian quite comically, as if "obnoxius" and "obnoxie" differed not by declension alone, but in reality and in sense: "I," he says, "said what 'obnoxius' was, not what 'obnoxie' was."

6 Ac tunc ego admirans insolentis hominis inscitiam: "mittamus," inquam "sicuti vis, quod Plautus "obnoxie" dixit,

6 And then I, admiring at the ignorance of the insolent man: "let us dismiss," I say, "just as you wish, the fact that Plautus said "obnoxie","

7 si id nimis esse remotum putas, atque illud quoque praetermittamus, quod Sallustius in Catilina scribit:

7 if you think that to be too remote, and let us also pass over that as well, which Sallustius writes in the Catiline:

8 "Minari etiam ferro, ni sibi obnoxia foret", et quod videtur novius pervulgatiusque esse, id me doce. Versus enim Vergilii sunt notissimi:
nam neque tunc astris acies obtunsa videri
nec fratris radiis obnoxia surgere luna,
quod tu ais "culpae suae conscium".

8 "To threaten even with iron, unless she were obnoxious to him," and teach me what seems more novel and more widespread. For Vergil’s verses are very well-known:
for neither then did the sharpness of the stars seem blunted
nor did the moon rise obnoxious to her brother’s rays,
which you say is "conscious of her own fault".

9 Alio quoque loco Vergilius verbo isto utitur a tua sententia diverse in his versibus:
iuvat arva videre
non rastris hominum, non ulli obnoxia curae;
cura enim prodesse arvis solet, non nocere, quod tu de "obnoxio" dixisti.

9 Also in another place Vergil uses that word diversely from your opinion in these verses:
it pleases to see the fields
not with the rakes of men, not subject to any care;
for care is wont to profit fields, not to harm, which you said about "obnoxio".

10 Iam vero illud etiam Q. Enni quo pacto congruere tecum potest, quod scribit in Phoenice in hisce versibus:
sed virum vera virtute vivere animatum addecet
fortiterque innoxium vocare adversum adversarios
ea libertas est, qui pectus purum et firmum gestitat,
aliae res obnoxiosae nocte in obscura latent?"

10 But now, how can that also of Q. Ennius agree with you, which he writes in the Phoenix in these verses:
but it befits a man, animated to live by true virtue,
and bravely to proclaim himself innoxious against adversaries;
this is liberty, for one who bears a pure and firm breast;
other obnoxious things lie hidden in dark night?"

11 At ille oscitans et alucinanti similis: "nunc" inquit "mihi operae non est. Cum otium erit, revises ad me atque disces, quid in verbo isto et Vergilius et Sallustius et Plautus et Ennius senserint."

11 But he, yawning and similar to one hallucinating: "now" he says "for me there is no leisure. When there will be leisure, you will revisit me and you will learn what in that word both Vergil and Sallust and Plautus and Ennius have meant."

12 At nebulo quidem ille, ubi hoc dixit, digressus est; si quis autem volet non originem solam verbi istius, sed significationem quoque eius varietatemque recensere, ut hoc etiam Plautinum spectet, adscripsi versus ex Asinaria: maximas opimitates gaudio effertissimas suis eris ille una mecum pariet, gnatoque et patri, adeo ut aetatem ambo ambobus nobis sint obnoxii nostro devincti beneficio.

12 But that ne’er-do-well indeed, when he had said this, departed; if, however, anyone will wish to review not only the origin of that word, but also its meaning and its variety, so that he may also consider this Plautine example, I have appended verses from the Asinaria: he, together with me, will bring forth for his own masters the greatest opulent bounties, most over-brimming with joy, for the son and for the father, to such an extent that for a lifetime both shall be indebted to both of us, bound by our benefaction.

13 Qua vero ille grammaticus finitione usus est, ea videtur in verbo tam multiplici unam tantummodo usurpationem eius notasse, quae quidem congruit cum significatu, quo Caecilius usus est in Chrysio in his versibus: quamquam ego mercede huc conductus tua advenio, ne tibi me esse ob eam rem obnoxium reare; audibis male, si maledicis mihi.

13 But the definition which that grammarian used seems, in so multiple a verb, to have noted only a single usurpation of it, which indeed agrees with the signification which Caecilius used in Chrysis in these verses: although I come here hired for a wage by you, do not suppose me to be on that account obligated to you; you will hear ill, if you speak ill of me.

XVIII. De observata custoditaque apud Romanos iurisiurandi sanctimonia; atque inibi de decem captivis, quos Romam Hannibal deiurio ab his accepto legavit.

18. On the sanctity of oath-taking observed and kept among the Romans; and therein about ten captives, whom Hannibal, after an oath had been received from them, sent to Rome as envoys.

1 Iusiurandum apud Romanos inviolate sancteque habitum servatumque est. Id et moribus legibusque multis ostenditur, et hoc, quod dicemus, ei rei non tenue argumentum esse potest.

1 The oath among the Romans was held inviolate and sacredly kept. This is shown both by many customs and laws, and this, which we shall say, can be no slight argument for that matter.

2 Post proelium Cannense Hannibal, Carthaginiensium imperator, ex captivis nostris electos decem Romam misit mandavitque eis pactusque est, ut, si populo Romano videretur, permutatio fieret captivorum et pro his, quos alteri plures acciperent, darent argenti pondo libram et selibram.

2 After the battle of Cannae Hannibal, commander of the Carthaginians, sent to Rome ten chosen from our captives and both instructed them and stipulated, that, if it should seem good to the Roman people, an exchange of captives be made, and, for those in excess which either party might receive more of, they should give silver by weight, a pound and a half‑pound.

3 Hoc, priusquam proficiscerentur, iusiurandum eos adegit redituros esse in castra Poenica, si Romani captivos non permutarent.

3 This, before they set out, he compelled them by oath to return to the Punic camp, if the Romans did not exchange the captives.

4 Veniunt Romam decem captivi.

4 Ten captives come to Rome.

5 Mandatum Poeni imperatoris in senatu exponunt.

5 They set forth the mandate of the Carthaginian commander in the senate.

6 Permutatio senatui non placita.

6 The exchange was not pleasing to the senate.

7 Parentes cognati adfinesque captivorum amplexi eos postliminio in patriam redisse dicebant statumque eorum integrum incolumemque esse ac, ne ad hostes redire vellent, orabant.

7 The parents, kinsmen, and in-laws of the captives, having embraced them, said that by postliminy they had returned into the fatherland and that their status was intact and unharmed, and they were begging them not to return to the enemies.

8 Tum octo ex his postliminium iustum non esse sibi responderunt, quoniam deiurio vincti forent, statimque, uti iurati erant, ad Hannibalem profecti sunt.

8 Then eight of these replied that a rightful postliminy was not theirs, since they were bound by the oath, and immediately, as they had sworn, they set out to Hannibal.

9 Duo reliqui Romae manserunt solutosque esse se ac liberatos religione dicebant, quoniam, cum egressi castra hostium fuissent, commenticio consilio regressi eodem, tamquam si ob aliquam fortuitam causam, issent atque ita iureiurando satisfacto rursum iniurati abissent.

9 Two of the rest remained at Rome, and said that they were released and freed from the religious obligation, since, when they had gone out from the enemy’s camp, by a contrived plan having returned to the same place, as if on account of some fortuitous cause, they had gone, and thus, the oath having been satisfied, they had again gone away unsworn.

10 Haec eorum fraudulenta calliditas tam esse turpis existimata est, ut contempti vulgo discerptique sint censoresque eos postea omnium notarum et damnis et ignominiis adfecerint, quoniam, quod facturos deieraverant, non fecissent.

10 This fraudulent callidity of theirs was esteemed so base that they were despised by the crowd and torn to pieces, and the censors afterward afflicted them with every mark, with losses, and with ignominies, since what they had sworn they would do, they had not done.

11 Cornelius autem Nepos in libro exemplorum quinto id quoque litteris mandavit multis in senatu placuisse, ut hi, qui redire nollent, datis custodibus ad Hannibalem deducerentur, sed eam sententiam numero plurium, quibus id non videretur, superatam; eos tamen, qui ad Hannibalem non redissent, usque adeo intestabiles invisosque fuisse, ut taedium vitae ceperint necemque sibi consciverint.

11 However Cornelius Nepos, in the fifth book of Examples, also consigned to letters that many in the senate had approved that those who were unwilling to return, with guards assigned, be led to Hannibal; but that opinion was overcome by the number of the majority, to whom that did not seem good; nevertheless those who had not returned to Hannibal were so intestable and odious that they conceived a weariness of life and took death upon themselves.

XIX. Historia ex annalibus sumpta de Tiberio Graccho, Gracchorum patre, tribuno plebis; atque inibi tribunicia decreta cum ipsis verbis relata.

19. A history taken from the annals about Tiberius Gracchus, the father of the Gracchi, tribune of the plebs; and therein the tribunician decrees reported with the very words themselves.

1 Pulcrum atque liberale atque magnanimum factum Tiberii Sempronii Gracchi in exemplis repositum est.

1 A fair and liberal and magnanimous deed of Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus has been laid up among the examples.

2 Id exemplum huiuscemodi est: L. Scipioni Asiatico, P. Scipionis Africani superioris fratri, C. Minucius Augurinus tribunus plebi multam irrogavit eumque ob eam causam praedes poscebat.

2 The example is of this sort: to L. Scipio Asiaticus, the brother of P. Scipio Africanus the elder, C. Minucius Augurinus, tribune of the plebs, imposed a fine and on that account was demanding sureties.

3 Scipio Africanus fratris nomine ad collegium tribunorum provocabat petebatque, ut virum consularem triumphalemque a collegae vi defenderent.

3 Scipio Africanus, in his brother’s name, was appealing to the college of the tribunes and was seeking that they defend a consular and triumphal man from their colleague’s violence.

4 Octo tribuni cognita causa decreverunt.

4 Eight tribunes, the case having been heard, decreed.

5 Eius decreti verba, quae posui, ex annalium monumentis exscripta sunt: "Quod P. Scipio Africanus postulavit pro L. Scipione Asiatico fratre, cum contra leges contraque morem maiorum tribunus pl. hominibus accitis per vim inauspicato sententiam de eo tulerit multamque nullo exemplo irrogaverit praedesque eum ob eam rem dare cogat aut, si non det, in vincula duci iubeat, ut eum a collegae vi prohibeamus; et quod contra collega postulavit, ne sibi intercedamus, quominus suapte potestate uti liceat, de ea re nostrum sententia omnium ea est: si L. Cornelius Scipio Asiaticus collegae arbitratu praedes dabit, collegae, ne eum in vincula ducat, intercedemus; si eius arbitratu praedes non dabit, quominus collega sua potestate utatur, non intercedemus."

5 The words of that decree, which I have set down, have been copied out from the monuments of the annals: "Because P. Scipio Africanus has demanded on behalf of L. Scipio Asiaticus his brother, since, against the laws and against the custom of the ancestors, a tribune of the plebs, men having been summoned by force, without auspices has put a motion to the vote concerning him and has imposed a fine with no precedent, and compels him on that account to give sureties, or, if he does not give them, orders him to be led into chains, that we should prohibit him from the force of his colleague; and because, on the contrary, his colleague has demanded that we not intercede against him, so that it may be permitted for him to use his own power, concerning that matter our unanimous judgment is this: if L. Cornelius Scipio Asiaticus shall give sureties at his colleague’s arbitrament, with the colleague, that he not lead him into chains, we will intercede; if at his arbitrament he shall not give sureties, that we not intercede to hinder his colleague from using his own power."

6 Post hoc decretum cum Augurinus tribunus L. Scipionem praedes non dantem prendi et in carcerem duci iussisset, tunc Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus tr. pl., pater Tiberi atque C. Gracchorum, cum P. Scipioni Africano inimicus gravis ob plerasque in republica dissensiones esset, iuravit palam in amicitiam inque gratiam se cum P. Africano non redisse, atque ita decretum ex tabula recitavit.

6 After this decree, when the tribune Augurinus had ordered L. Scipio, not giving sureties, to be seized and led into prison, then Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, tr. pl., father of Tiberius and of C. Gracchus, since he was a grave enemy to P. Scipio Africanus on account of the many dissensions in the republic, swore openly that he had not returned into friendship and favor with P. Africanus, and so he recited the decree from the tablet.

7 Eius decreti verba haec sunt: "Cum L. Cornelius Scipio Asiaticus triumphans hostium duces in carcerem coniectarit, alienum videtur esse dignitate reipublicae in eum locum imperatorem populi Romani duci, in quem locum ab eo coniecti sunt duces hostium; itaque L. Cornelium Scipionem Asiaticum a collegae vi prohibeo."

7 The words of that decree are these: "Since L. Cornelius Scipio Asiaticus, triumphing, has cast the enemy leaders into prison, it seems alien to the dignity of the commonwealth that the commander of the Roman people be led into that place into which the enemy leaders have been cast by him; and so I prohibit L. Cornelius Scipio Asiaticus from his colleague’s force."

8 Valerius autem Antias contra hanc decretorum memoriam contraque auctoritates veterum annalium post Africani mortem intercessionem istam pro Scipione Asiatico factam esse a Tiberio Graccho dixit neque multam irrogatam Scipioni, sed damnatum eum peculatus ob Antiochinam pecuniam, quia praedes non daret, in carcerem duci coeptum atque ita intercedente Graccho exemptum.

8 Valerius Antias, however, contrary to this record of the decrees and contrary to the authorities of the ancient annals, said that after Africanus’s death that intercession on behalf of Scipio Asiaticus was made by Tiberius Gracchus, and that not a fine was imposed upon Scipio, but that he was condemned for peculation on account of the Antiochian money; because he would not furnish sureties, he began to be led into prison, and thus, with Gracchus interceding, he was taken out.

XX. Quod Vergilius a Nolanis ob aquam sibi non permissam sustulit e versu suo "Nolam" et posuit "oram"; atque ibi quaedam alia de iucunda consonantia litterarum.

20. That Vergil, because water was not permitted to him by the Nolans, removed "Nola" from his verse and put "shore"; and there some other things about the pleasant consonance of letters.

1 Scriptum in quodam commentario repperi versus istos a Vergilio ita primum esse recitatos atque editos:
talem dives arat Capua et vicina Vesevo
Nola iugo;
postea Vergilium petisse a Nolanis, aquam uti duceret in propincum rus, Nolanos beneficium petitum non fecisse poetam offensum nomen urbis eorum, quasi ex hominum memoria, sic ex carmine suo derasisse "oram"que pro "Nola" mutasse atque ita reliquisse:
et vicina Vesevo
ora iugo.

1 I found written in a certain commentary that these verses by Vergil were at first recited and published thus:
such a one wealthy Capua plows, and Nola near to Vesuvius’s
ridge;
afterwards Vergil asked of the Nolans to be allowed to conduct water into a nearby estate; the Nolans did not grant the requested beneficence; the poet, offended, scraped the name of their city, as from the memory of men, so from his song, and changed “shore” in place of “Nola,” and left it thus:
and the shore near to Vesuvius’s
ridge.

2 Ea res verane an falsa sit, non laboro; quin tamen melius suaviusque ad aures sit "ora" quam "Nola," dubium id non est.

2 Whether that matter is true or false, I do not trouble; indeed, however, that "ora" is better and more suave to the ears than "Nola," that is not in doubt.

3 Nam vocalis in priore versu extrema eademque in sequenti prima canoro simul atque iucundo hiatu tractim sonat.

3 For the vowel, as the last in the prior verse and the same as the first in the following, sounds with a sonorous and at the same time pleasing hiatus, drawn out.

4 Est adeo invenire apud nobiles poetas huiuscemodi suavitatis multa, quae appareat navata esse, non fortuita; sed praeter ceteros omnis apud Homerum plurima.

4 One may indeed find among noble poets many instances of suavity of this kind, which appear to have been wrought by effort, not fortuitous; but beyond all the rest, very many in Homer.

5 Vno quippe in loco tales tamque hiantes sonitus in assiduis vocibus pluribus facit:
he d'hetere therei proreei eikyia chalazei
e chioni psychrei e ex hydatos krystalloi
atque item alio in loco:
laan ano otheske poti lophon.

5 For indeed in one place he makes such and so gaping sounds in several continual vowels:
or in another time, in summer, it flows forth with driving hail,
or with cold snow, or crystals from water;
and likewise in another place:
he kept pushing the stone upward toward the hill.

6 Catullus quoque elegantissimus poetarum in hisce versibus:
minister vetuli puer Falerni,
inger mi calices amariores,
ut lex Postumiae iubet magistrae,
ebria acina ebriosioris,
cum dicere "ebrio" posset, et quod erat usitatius "acinum" in neutro genere appellare, amans tamen hiatus illius Homerici suavitatem "ebriam" dixit propter insequentis "a" litterae concentum. Qui "ebriosa" autem Catullum dixisse putant aut "ebrioso" - nam id quoque temere scriptum invenitur -, in libros scilicet de corruptis exemplaribus factos inciderunt.

6 Catullus too, the most elegant of poets, in these verses:
cupbearer, boy of the old Falernian,
pour me goblets more bitter,
as the law of Postumia the mistress bids,
the drunken grape of the more drunken,
although he could have said “ebrio,” and to call “acinum” in the neuter, which was more customary, yet, loving the sweetness of that Homeric hiatus, he said “ebriam” on account of the consonance with the following letter “a.” But those who think that Catullus said “ebriosa” or “ebrioso” — for that too is found written rashly — fell, of course, upon books made from corrupted exemplars.

XXI. "Quoad vivet" "quoad"que "morietur" cur id ipsum temporis significent, cum ex duobus sint facta contrariis.

21. "As long as he will live" and "as long as" and "he will die": why do they signify that very same time, since they are made from two contraries.

1 "Quoad vivet" cum dicitur, cum item dicitur "quoad morietur", videntur quidem duae res dici contrariae; sed idem atque unum tempus utraque verba demonstrant.

1 When "so long as he will live" is said, and likewise when "so long as he will die" is said, indeed two contrary things seem to be said; but both words demonstrate the same and one time.

2 Item cum dicitur "quoad senatus habebitur" et "quoad senatus dimittetur", tametsi "haberi" atque "dimitti" contraria sunt, unum atque id ipsum tamen utroque in verbo ostenditur.

2 Likewise, when it is said "so long as the senate will be held" and "so long as the senate will be dismissed," although "to be held" and "to be dismissed" are contraries, one and that very same time is nevertheless shown in both words.

3 Tempora enim duo cum inter sese opposita sunt atque ita cohaerentia, ut alterius finis cum alterius initio misceatur, non refert, utrum per extremitatem prioris an per initium sequentis locus ipse confinis demonstretur.

3 For when two times are opposed to each other and so cohere, that the end of the one is mingled with the beginning of the other, it makes no difference whether through the extremity of the prior or through the beginning of the subsequent the very boundary itself is demonstrated.

XXII. Quod censores equum adimere soliti sunt equitibus corpulentis et praepinguibus; quaesitumque, utrum ea res cum ignominia an incolumi dignitate equitum facta sit.

22. That the censors were accustomed to remove the horse from equites who were corpulent and very-fat; and it has been inquired whether this matter was done with ignominy or with the equites’ dignity unharmed.

1 Nimis pingui homini et corpulento censores equum adimere solitos scilicet minus idoneum ratos esse cum tanti corporis pondere ad faciendum equitis munus.

1 The censors were accustomed to take away the horse from a too-fat man and a corpulent one, clearly having judged him less suitable, with the weight of so great a body, for performing the equestrian office.

2 Non enim poena id fuit, ut quidam existimant, sed munus sine ignominia remittebatur.

2 For that was not a penalty, as some think, but the duty was remitted without ignominy.

3 Tamen Cato in oratione, quam de sacrificio commisso scripsit, obicit hanc rem criminosius, uti magis videri possit cum ignominia fuisse.

3 However, Cato, in the oration which he wrote concerning the sacrifice committed, charges this matter more criminously, so that it might more seem to have been with ignominy.

4 Quod si ita accipias, id profecto existimandum est non omnino inculpatum neque indesidem visum esse, cuius corpus in tam inmodicum modum luxuriasset exuberassetque.

4 But if you take it thus, that assuredly must be thought not altogether inculpable, nor to have seemed anything but idle, of one whose body had luxuriated and exuberated in so immoderate a manner.