Prudentius: LIBER PERISTEPHANON

Romane, Christi fortis adsertor dei,
elinguis oris organum fautor moue,
largire comptum carmen infantissimo,
fac ut tuarum mira laudum concinam!
nam scis et ipse posse mutos eloqui. Plectrum palati et faucium saeuus tibi
tortor reuulsit nec tamen silentium
indixit ori, quo fatebaris deum.

Romanus, strong champion of Christ God,
patron, move the organ of a speechless mouth,
bestow an adorned song upon the most inarticulate,
make it that I may sing the wondrous praises of you!
for you yourself know that even the mute can speak. The plectrum of the palate and of the throat the savage
torturer tore away for you, and yet he did not impose silence
upon the mouth with which you were confessing God.

uox ueritatis testis extingui nequit,
nec si recisis palpitet meatibus. Sic noster haerens sermo lingua debili
balbutit et modis laborat absonis,
sed si superno rore respergas iecur
et spiritali lacte pectus inriges,
uox inpeditos rauca laxabit sonos.

The voice of verity, a witness, cannot be extinguished,
nor even if, with the passages severed, it palpitates. Thus our discourse, sticking with a debilitated tongue,
stammers and labors in dissonant modes;
but if with supernal dew you besprinkle the liver
and with spiritual milk you irrigate the breast,
the hoarse voice will loosen the impeded sounds.

Euangelista scripsit ipsum talia
praecepta Messian dedisse apostolis:
'nolite uerba, cum sacramentum meum
erit canendum, prouidenter quaerere,
ego inparatis quae loquantur suggeram'. Sum mutus ipse, sed potens facundiae
mea lingua Christus luculente disseret.
ipse explicabit, quos supremo spiritu
daemon tumultus, dum domatur, mouerit,
furore pestis peior in nouissimo. Sic uulneratus anguis ictu spiculi
ferrum remordet et dolore saeuior
quassando pressis inmoratur dentibus,
hastile fixum sed manet profundius
nec cassa sentit morsuum pericula.

The Evangelist wrote that the Messiah himself gave such
precepts to the apostles:
'do not, when my sacrament is to be chanted,
seek words providently;
I will suggest to the unprepared what they are to speak'. I myself am mute, but powerful in eloquence—
Christ, my tongue, will lucidly discourse.
he himself will unfold what tumults the demon,
at the supreme Spirit, has stirred, while it is being tamed,
with a fury, a pestilence worse at the last. Thus a wounded serpent, by the stroke of a dart,
bites back the iron and, fiercer from pain,
by shaking lingers with pressed-down teeth;
but the shaft, fixed, remains more deeply,
nor does it feel the vain perils of its bites.

Galerius orbis forte Romani stature
ductor regebat, ut refert antiquitas,
inmitis, atrox, asper, inplacabilis.
edicta late mundum in omnem miserat:
Christum negaret, quisque mallet uiuere. Haec ille serpens ore dictat regio,
qui mortuorum de sepulcris exiens
clamat: 'quid ante tempus aduentu cito
mea regna soluis?

Galerius, by chance the leader of the Roman world in stature,
was ruling, as antiquity reports,
unmerciful, atrocious, harsh, implacable.
he had sent edicts widely into the whole world:
that whoever preferred to live should deny Christ. These things that serpent dictates with a regal mouth,
who, going forth from the tombs of the dead,
cries out: 'Why, before the time, by your swift arrival,
are you unloosing my realms?'

parce, fili altissimi,
uel possidere corda porcorum iube?' Praefectus istis inminens negotiis
Aselepiades ire mandat milites
ecclesiasten usque de sacrariis
raptare plebem mancipandam uinculis,
ni disciplinam Nazarenam respuat.

'Spare, Son of the Most High,
or command that we possess the hearts of swine?' The Prefect, looming over these affairs,
Asclepiades orders the soldiers to go
to seize the ecclesiast even from the sanctuaries,
to drag off the plebs to be handed over to chains,
unless he reject the Nazarene discipline.

Mox ipse templum cogitans inrumpere
et dissipare sancta sanctorum studens
armis profanus praeparabat inpiis
altaris aram funditus pessum dare
foresque et ipsas in ruinam soluere. Praecurrit index his repente cognitis
Romanus acris heros excellentiae,
uenire in armis perduelles nuntiat
animos pauentum praestruens hortatibus,
stent ut parati neue cedant turbini. Conspirat uno foederatus spiritu
grex christianus, agmen inperterritum
matrum, uirorum, paruulorum, uirginum;
fixa et statuta est omnibus sententia
fidem tueri uel libenter emori.

Soon he himself, thinking to break into the temple
and striving to dissipate the holy of holies,
the profane one with impious arms was preparing
to consign the altar utterly to ruin,
and to unfasten the very doors into collapse. An informer runs ahead, these things suddenly learned,
Romanus, a keen hero of excellence,
announces that public enemies are coming in arms,
buttressing the spirits of the terrified with exhortations,
that they may stand prepared and not yield to the whirlwind. The Christian flock, federated in one spirit, conspires—
an intrepid host
of mothers, men, little ones, virgins;
fixed and established is the judgment for all:
to guard the faith or to die gladly.

Refert repulsus miles ad subsellia
plebis rebellis esse Romanum ducem:
flagrare cunctos peruicaci audacia,
iugulos retectos obstinate opponere,
quo gloriosa morte fortes oppetant. Praeceps iubetur inde Romanus rapi
solusque ut incitator et fax omnium
pro contumaci plebe causam dicere.
it non resistens seque uinciri petit
flexas et ultro torquet in tergum manus.

Driven back, the soldier reports to the benches
that the leader of the rebellious plebs is Romanus:
that all burn with pervicacious audacity,
baring their throats and obstinately exposing them,
so that the brave may meet a glorious death. Forthwith Romanus is ordered to be seized headlong
and alone, as the inciter and torch of all,
to plead his case on behalf of the contumacious plebs.
he goes not resisting and asks that he himself be bound,
and of his own accord twists his hands, bent, behind his back.

Amor coronae paene praeuenit trucem
lictoris artem sponte nudas offerens
costas bisulcis exsecandas ungulis.
inrumpit altum limen et praeconibus
stupore mutis ipse tortorem trahit.

Love of the crown almost forestalled the grim
art of the lictor, of his own accord offering
his ribs bare to be excised by bifurcate claws.
he bursts across the lofty threshold, and with the heralds
mute with stupor, he himself drags the torturer.

Adstanti ob ora sic tyrannus incipit:
'infame monstrum, uilis, intestabilis
tu uentilator urbis et uulgi leuis
procella mentes inquietas mobiles,
ne se inperita turba dedat legibus. Populate quiddam sub colore gloriae
inlitterata credidit frequentia,
ut se per aeuum consecrandos autument,
si bella diuis ceu gigantes inferant
uictique flammis obruantur montium. Hoc tu parasti, perdite, spectaculum
cladis cruentae denecandis ciuibus,
quos ut profanos inpiati et saeculi
reos necesse est te magistro interfici,
tu causa mortis, tu malorum signifer.

Standing before his face, thus the tyrant begins:
'infamous monster, base, unspeakable,
you, winnower of the city and a light squall of the rabble,
a storm that stirs restless, changeful minds,
lest the unskilled crowd give itself over to the laws. A certain "popular" thing under the color of glory
the illiterate concourse has believed,
to the effect that they assert they are to be consecrated through the age,
if they bring wars against the gods like Giants
and, conquered, be overwhelmed by the flames of the mountains. This spectacle you have prepared, you ruined wretch,
a show of bloody disaster for citizens to be put to death,
whom, as profane, unholy, and guilty against the age,
it is necessary, with you as their master, to have slain,
you the cause of death, you the standard-bearer of evils.'

Ni fallor, aequum est, ut, quod auctor inprobus
tolerare multos conpulisti ut carnifex,
in te recurrat proque tantis caedibus,
quae mox futurae, primus exitium luas
feras et ipse, quod ferendum suaseras.' His ille contra reddit ore libero:
'amplector, o praefecte, nec me subtraho,
ut pro fideli plebe solus inmoler
dignus subire cuncta, si me consulis,
quaecumque uestra iusserit crudelitas. Intrare seruis idolorum ac daemonum
sanetam salutis non licet nostrae domum,
ne polluatur purus orandi locus;
confido sancto in spiritu numquam tibi
dandum, ut beatum limen attingas pede,

If I err not, it is equitable that what, as a wicked author, you have compelled many to tolerate as an executioner,
should recoil upon you, and for such great slaughters,
which are soon to be, you first should pay the penalty of ruin,
and that you yourself should bear what you had counseled was to be borne.' To this he in turn replies with a free mouth:
'I embrace it, O Prefect, nor do I withdraw myself,
that for the faithful plebs I alone be immolated,
worthy to undergo all things, if you consult me,
whatever your cruelty shall have commanded. To the slaves of idols and of demons
it is not permitted to enter the holy house of our salvation,
lest the pure place of praying be polluted;
I trust in the Holy Spirit that it will never be granted to you
to touch the blessed threshold with your foot,

nisi forte noster factus in nostrum gregem
mereare sumi, quod pater faxit deus.'
incensus his Asclepiades iusserat
euiscerandum corpus eculeo eminus
pendere et uncis uinculisque crescere. Apparitores sed furenti suggerunt
illum uetusta nobilem prosapia
meritisque multis esse primum ciuium.
iubet amoueri noxialem stipitem,
plebeia clarum poena ne damnet uirum.

unless perhaps, having been made ours into our flock,
you may merit to be taken up, which may the Father God bring to pass.'
Inflamed by these things, Asclepiades had ordered
the body to be eviscerated, to hang on the rack from afar,
and to be made to increase by hooks and bonds. But the apparitors suggest to the raging man
that he is of ancient noble lineage
and by many merits is first of the citizens.
he orders the noxious stake to be removed,
lest a plebeian penalty condemn a renowned man.

'Tundatur', inquit, 'terga crebris ictibus
plumboque ceruix uerberata extuberet.
persona quaeque conpetenter plectitur
magnique refert, uilis an sit nobilis;
gradu reorum forma tormentis datur.'

'Let the backs be beaten with frequent blows,' he says, 'and let the neck, beaten with lead, swell with welts.
each person is punished appropriately,
and it greatly matters whether he is base or noble;
according to the grade of the accused, the form of torments is assigned.'

Pulsatus ergo martyr illa grandine
postquam inter ictus dixit hymnum plumbeos,
erectus infit: 'absit, ut me nobilem
sanguis parentum praestet aut lex curiae;
generosa Christi secta nobilitat uiros. Si, prima nostris quae sit incunabulis
origo, textu stemmatis recenseas,
dei parentis esse ab ore coepimus.
cui quisque seruit, ille uere est nobilis,
patri rebellis inuenitur degener.

Pummeled then the martyr by that hail,
after, amid leaden blows, he said a hymn,
upright he begins: 'Far be it that the blood of parents
or the law of the curia should render me noble;
the generous sect of Christ ennobilitates men. If, what the first origin is
for our swaddlings, you review in the weave of the pedigree,
we began to be from the mouth of God the Parent.
He whom each one serves—he is truly noble,
a rebel against the Father is found degenerate.'

Honos deinde stemmati accedit nouus
et splendor ingens ut magistratus uenit,
si confitendi nominis testem probum
signent inusta ferri et ignis uulnera
et uim dolorum mors sequatur inclyta.

Then a new honor accrues to the pedigree
and vast splendor comes as a magistracy arrives,
if the branded wounds of iron and fire
mark him as a proven witness of the Name to be confessed,
and illustrious death follows the force of pains.

Caue, benignus esse peruerse uelis,
nec mi remissus leniter peperceris;
incumbe membris, tortor, ut sim nobilis!
his ampliatus si fruar successibus,
genus patris matrisque flocci fecero. Haec ipsa uestra dignitatum culmina
quid esse censes?

Beware, lest you perversely wish to be benign,
nor, being remiss toward me, spare me gently;
press upon my limbs, torturer, that I may be noble!
if, amplified by these successes, I enjoy them,
I shall have reckoned the stock of father and mother at a trifle. These very summits of your dignities,
what do you suppose they are?

nonne cursim transeunt
fasces, secures, sella, praetextae togae,
lictor, tribunal et trecenta insignia,
quibus tumetis moxque detumescitis? Cum consulatum initis, ut uernae solent --
pudet fateri -- farre pullos pascitis;
aquila ex eburn sumit adrogantiam
gestator eius ac superbit beluae
inflatus osse, cui figura est alitis.

do not the fasces, axes, the chair, praetextate togas,
the lictor, the tribunal and three hundred insignia
pass swiftly by, with which you swell and soon detumesce? When you enter upon the consulship, as houseborn slaves are wont —
shame to confess it — you feed the chicks with spelt;
the eagle from ivory takes on arrogance,
and its bearer too grows proud, inflated by the bone of a beast,
which has the figure of a winged creature.

Iam si sub aris ad sigillorum pedes
iaceatis infra sectilem quercum siti,
quid esse uobis aestimem proiectius?
nudare plantas ante carpentum scio
proceres togatos matris Ideae sacris. Lapis nigellus euehendus essedo
muliebris oris clausus argento sedet,
quem dum ad lauacrum praeeundo ducitis
pedes remotis atterentes calceis,
Almonis usque peruenitis riuulum.

Now if beneath the altars at the feet of the statuettes
you lie set beneath carved-oak work,
what should I judge to be more abject for you?
I know that toga-clad grandees bare their soles before the carriage
at the rites of the Idaean Mother. A little black stone, to be carried out on a chariot,
enclosed in silver, with a woman’s visage, sits,
which, while you, going before, lead to the bath,
chafing your feet with your shoes removed,
you come all the way to the little stream of the Almo.

Quid illa turpis pompa? nempe ignobiles
nos esse monstrat, cum luperci curritis.
quem seruulorum non rear uilissimum,
nudus plateas si per omnes cursitans
pulset puellas uerbere ictas ludicro?

What about that shameful pomp? surely it shows that we are ignoble,
when you luperci run. Which of the slave-boys would I not reckon most vile,
if, naked, scurrying through all the streets,
he were to strike girls with a lash in sport?

Miseret tuorum me sacrorum et principum
morumque, Roma, saeculi summum caput.
age, explicemus, si placet, mysteria,
praefecte, uestra: iam necesse est audias,
nolis uelisne, quid colatis sordium. Nec terret ista, qua tumes, uaesania,
quod uultuosus, quod supinus, quod rigens
tormenta leti comminaris asperi;
si me mouere rebus ullis niteris,
ratione mecum, non furore, dimica!

I feel pity for your sacred rites and for the morals of the princes, Rome, the supreme head of the age.
manners too, Rome, the supreme head of the age.
come, let us unfold, if it pleases, the mysteries,
prefect, of yours: now it is necessary that you hear,
whether you do not wish or wish, what filth you worship. Nor does that insanity, with which you swell, terrify me,
that, grim-visaged, that supine, that rigid,
you threaten torments of harsh death;
if you strive to move me by any means,
fight with me by reason, not by frenzy!

Iubes, relictis patris et Christi sacris
ut tecum adorem feminas mille ac mares,
deas deosque deque sexu duplici
natos, nepotes, abnepotes, editos
et tot stuprorum sordidam prosapiam.

You bid, with the sacred rites of the Father and of Christ left behind,
that I adore with you a thousand females and males,
goddesses and gods, and of the twofold sex
the born, grandsons, great-grandsons, issued,
and the sordid progeny of so many debaucheries.

Nubunt puellae, saepe luduntur dolis,
amasionum conprimuntur fraudibus,
incesta feruent, furta moechorum calent,
fallit maritus, odit uxor paelicem,
deos catenae conligant adulteros. Ostende, quaeso, quas ad aras praecipis
ueruece caeso fumet ut caespes meus?
Delfosne pergam?

Girls wed; often they are toyed with by tricks,
they are constrained by the frauds of lovers;
incest seethes, the furtive deeds of adulterers burn hot;
the husband deceives, the wife hates the mistress;
let chains bind the adulterous gods. Show me, I pray, to which altars you prescribe
that my sod-altar smoke with a wether slain?
Am I to go to Delphi?

sed uetat palestrici
corrupta ephybi fama, quem uester deus
effeminauit gymnadis licentia. Mox fleuit inpuratus occisum graui
disco et dicauit florulentum subcubam;
conductus idem pauit alienum pecus,
furem deinde perditi passus gregis
segnis bubulcus tela et ipsa perdidit.

but the corrupted repute of the palestric ephebe forbids it, whom your god
effeminated by the license of the gymnasia. Soon, impure, he wept for the one slain by a heavy
discus and he dedicated a flowery concubine;
hired, the same one pastured another’s herd,
then, having endured the thief of the ruined flock,
the sluggish cowherd even lost his weapons themselves.

An ad Cybebes ibo lucum pineum?
puer sed obstat gallus ob libidinem
per triste uulnus perque sectum dedecus
ab inpudicae tutus amplexu deae,
per multa Matri sacra plorandus spado. Sed, credo, magni limen amplectar Iouis,
qui si citetur legibus uestris reus,
laqueis minacis implicatus Iuliae
luat seueram uictus et Scantiniam
te cognitore dignus ire in carcerem.

Or shall I go to the pine grove of Cybebe?
but the boy—now a gallus—stands in the way on account of lust,
by the sad wound and the cut disgrace,
safe from the embrace of the shameless goddess,
a eunuch to be wept for through many rites of the Mother. But, I suppose, I will embrace the threshold of great Jove,
who, if he be cited as defendant under your laws,
entangled in the minacious snares of the Julian Law,
let him, once convicted, pay the severe Scantinian as well,
worthy to go to prison with you as his advocate.

Quid, aureorum conditorem temporum
censes colendum? quem fugacem non negas
latuisse furtim, dum reformidat malum,
quem si beate uiuere audit Iuppiter,
plectat necesse est occulendi conscios.

What, do you deem the founder of the golden times to be worshiped?
whom you do not deny to have been a fugitive, to have lain hidden by stealth, while he dreaded evil,
whom, if Jupiter hears is living blessedly, it is necessary that he punish the accomplices privy to the concealment.

Quid, inter aras dissidentum numinum
putas agendum? Martis indignabitur
offensa uirtus, si colatur Lemnius,
Iunonis iram sentiet, quisque ut deum
signo aut sacello consecrarit Herculem. Dicis licenter haec poetas tingere,
sed sunt et ipsi talibus mysteriis
tecum dicati, quodque describunt, colunt.

What do you think is to be done among the altars of dissident divinities?
the offended valor of Mars will be indignant, if the Lemnian be worshiped,
Juno’s wrath will be felt by whoever has consecrated Hercules as a god
by a statue or a little sacellum. You say poets licentiously tinge these things,
but they themselves too are dedicated with you to such mysteries,
and what they describe, they worship.

tu cur piaclum tam libenter lectitas,
cur in theatris te uidente id plauditur? Cygnus stuprator peccat inter pulpita,
saltat Tonantem tauricornem ludius,
spectator horum pontifex summus sedes
ridesque et ipse nec negando diluis,
cum fama tanti polluatur numinis.

why do you so gladly keep reading the piacle,
why in the theaters, with you looking on, is it applauded? The Swan, the ravisher, commits his sin among the stage-boards,
the actor dances the Thunderer bull-horned,
you, spectator of these things, sit as supreme pontiff
and you yourself laugh, nor by denying do you wash it away,
when the repute of so great a numen is polluted.

Cur tu, sacrate, per cachinnos solueris,
cum se maritum fingit Alcmenae deus?
meretrix Adonero uulneratum scaenica
libidinoso plangit adfectu palam,
nec te lupanar Cypridis sanctae mouet? Quid, quod sub ipsis ueritas signis patet,
formata in aere criminum uestigiis?

Why do you, consecrated one, dissolve into cackles,
when the god feigns himself the husband of Alcmene?
the stage courtesan publicly bewails the wounded Adonis
with a libidinous affect,
and does not the brothel of holy Cypris move you? What of the fact that beneath the very images truth lies open,
molded in bronze with the traces of crimes?

quid uult sigillum semper adfixum Ioui
auis ministrae? nempe uelox armiger
leno, exoletum qui tyranno pertulit. Facem recincta ueste praetendit Ceres:
cur, si deorum nemo rapuit uirginem,
quam nocte quaerens mater errat peruigil?

What does the seal of the ministering bird, always affixed to Jove, mean?
Surely the swift armiger is a pimp, who carried a catamite to the tyrant. Ceres, with garment ungirded, holds forth a torch:
why, if none of the gods ravished the virgin, does the mother, seeking her by night, wander sleepless?

fusos rotantem cernimus Tirintium:
cur, si Neaerae non fuit ludibrio?

we discern the Tirynthian rotating spindles:
why, if he was not a laughing-stock to Neaera?

Quid, rusticorum monstra detester deum,
Faunos, Priapos, fistularum praesides,
nymfas natantes incolasque aquatiles,
sitas sub alto more ranarum lacu,
diuinitatis ius in algis uilibus? Ad haec colenda me uocas, censor bone?
potesne quidquam tale, si sanum sapis,
sanctum putare?

What—should I detest as monsters of the rustic gods,
Fauns, Priapi, presiding guardians of reed-pipes,
swimming nymphs and aquatic inhabitants,
set beneath the deep lake in the manner of frogs,
the jurisdiction of divinity in cheap algae? To the worship of these you call me, good censor?
are you able, if you are of sound sense,
to deem anything such as this sacred?

nonue pulmonem mouet
derisus istas intuens ineptias,
quas uinolentae somniis fingunt anus? Aut si, quod usquam est uanitatis mysticae,
nobis colendum est, ipse primus incipe.
promisce adora, quidquid in terris sacri est,
deos Latinos et deos Aegyptios,
quis Roma libat, quis Canopus supplicat.

does not derision move even your lungs,
as you gaze at these ineptitudes,
which wine-soaked old women fashion in dreams? Or if, whatever there is anywhere of mystical vanity,
must be worshiped by us, do you yourself begin first.
promiscuously adore whatever there is of sacred on earth,
the Latin gods and the Egyptian gods,
those to whom Rome pours libations, to whom Canopus makes supplication.

Venerem precaris, conprecare et simiam;
placet sacratus aspis Aesculapii:
crocodillus, ibis et canis cur displicent?
adpone porris religiosas arulas,
uenerare acerbum caepe, mordax allium. Fuliginosi ture placantur lares
et respuuntur consecrata holuscula?

You pray to Venus; implore the simian as well;
the consecrated asp of Aesculapius pleases:
why do the crocodile, the ibis, and the dog displease?
set up religious little altars for the leeks,
venerate the harsh onion, the biting garlic. The fuliginous Lares are appeased with incense,
and are the consecrated little vegetables spat out?

aut unde maior esse maiestas focis
quam nata in hortis sarculatis creditur,
si numen ollis, numen et porris inest? Sed pulchra res est forma in aere sculptilis:
quid inprecabor officinis Graeciae,
quae condiderunt gentibus stultis deos?
forceps Mironis, malleus Polycliti
natura uestrum est atque origo caelitum.

or whence should there be a greater majesty for hearths
than is believed born in hoe-tilled gardens,
if numen is in pots and numen in leeks as well? But a fair thing is a sculptile form in bronze:
what imprecation shall I call down upon the workshops of Greece,
which founded gods for foolish peoples?
the tongs of Myron, the hammer of Polyclitus—
these are the nature and origin of your heaven-dwellers.

Ars seminandis efficax erroribus
barbam rigentem dum Iouis circumplicat,
dum defluentem leniter flectens comam
limat capillos et corimbos Liberi
et, dum Mineruae pectus hydris asperat, iniecit atram territis formidinem,
ut fulmen aeris ceu Tonantis horreant,
tremant uenenum sibilantis Gorgonae,
putent ephybum post triumphos Indicos
ferire thyrso posse, cum sit ebrius. Tum quod Dianam molle succinctam uident,
uenantis arcum pertimescunt uirginis;
si forte uultum tristioris Herculis
liquore crispo massa finxit fusilis,
clauam minari, ni colatur, creditur.

An art efficacious for sowing errors,
while it entwines the rigid beard of Jove,
while, gently bending the flowing hair,
it polishes the locks and the corymbs of Liber,
and, while it roughens the breast of Minerva with hydras,
has cast black dread into the terrified,
so that they shudder at a thunderbolt of bronze as if of the Thunderer,
they tremble at the venom of the hissing Gorgon,
they suppose the ephebe, after Indian triumphs,
able to strike with the thyrsus, when he is drunk.
Then because they see Diana softly girt,
they greatly fear the bow of the virgin huntress;
if by chance the molten mass has fashioned the face of a rather gloomy Hercules
with crinkling liquid (metal),
he is believed to menace the club, unless he be worshiped.

Iam quis pauentum corda terror occultat,
Iunonis iram si polite expresserit?
uelut retortis intuens obtutibus
auertat ora de litantis hostia,
lapis seuera fronte mentitur minas. Miror, quod ipsum non sacrastis Mentorem
nec templum et aras ipse Fidias habet,
fabri deorum uel parentes numinum,
qui si caminis institissent segnius,
non esset ullus Iuppiter conflatilis.

Now what terror hides the hearts of the fearful,
if one should express Juno’s wrath with polish?
as if, gazing with twisted glances,
the victim might avert its faces from the sacrificer,
a stone with a severe brow feigns threats. I marvel that you have not consecrated Mentor himself,
nor does Phidias himself have a temple and altars,
the craftsmen of the gods, or the parents of the divinities,
who, if they had applied themselves more sluggishly to the furnaces,
there would be no cast Jupiter.

Non erubescis, stulte, pago dedite,
te tanta semper perdidisse obsonia,
quae dis ineptus obtulisti talibus,
quos trulla, peluis, cantharus, sartagines,
fracta et liquata contulerunt uascula?

Do you not blush, fool, devoted to the pagus,
that you have always squandered such great provisions,
which you, inept, have offered to such gods,
whom a trulla, a pelvis, a cantharus, frying-pans,
broken and liquated little vessels have assembled?

Ignosco fatuis haec tamen uulgaribus,
quos lana terret discolora in stipite,
quos saepe falsus circulator decipit,
quibus omne sanctum est, quod pauendum rancidae
edentularum cantilenae suaserint; uos eruditos miror et doctos uiros,
perpensa uitae quos gubernat regula,
nescire uel diuina uel mortalia
quo iure constent, quanta maiestas regat,
quidquid creatum est, quae creauit omnia. Deus perennis, res inaestimabilis,
non cogitando, non uidendo clauditur,
excedit omnem mentis humanae modum
nec conprehendi uisibus nostris ualet
extraque et intus inplet ac superfluit.

I pardon these things nevertheless to common fools,
whom varicolored wool on a stake frightens,
whom a false conjurer often deceives,
to whom everything is sacred, whatever the to-be-feared chants of rancid
toothless women have persuaded; but you, the learned and educated men, I marvel at,
whom the well-weighed rule of life governs,
to not know either things divine or mortal
by what law they consist, what majesty rules,
whatever has been created—the majesty which created all things. The perennial God, an inestimable thing,
is not enclosed by thinking, not by seeing,
he exceeds every measure of the human mind
nor is he able to be comprehended by our sight
and outside and inside he fills and overflows.

Intemporalis, antequam primus dies,
esse et fuisse semper unus obtinet;
lux ipse uera ueri et auctor luminis,
cum lumen esset, lumen effudit suum,
ex luce fulgor natus hic est filius. Vis una patris, uis et una est filii
unusque ab uno lumine splendor satus
pleno refulsit claritatis numine;
natura simplex pollet unius dei
et, quidquid usquam est, una uirtus condidit: caelum solumque, uim marini gurgitis,
globos dierum noctiumque praesides,
uentos, procellas, fulgura, imbres, nubila,
septem triones, hesperos, aestus, niues,
fontes, pruinas et metalla et flumina;

Timeless, before the first day,
the One maintains to be and to have been always;
he himself the true Light of truth and the author of light,
when he was Light, he poured forth his light,
from Light a radiance was born—this is the Son. One power of the Father, and one power is of the Son,
and a single splendor, begotten from a single Light,
has shone back with the full divine power of brightness;
the simple nature of the one God prevails
and, whatever is anywhere, one power established: heaven and earth, the force of the sea’s surge,
the globes, guardians of days and nights,
winds, tempests, lightnings, rains, clouds,
the seven Plough-oxen, the evening stars, tides, snows,
springs, frosts, and metals and rivers;

praerupta, plana, montium conuallia,
feras, uolucres, reptiles, natatiles,
iumenta, pecua, subiugales, beluas,
flores, frutecta, germina, herbas, arbores,
quae sunt odori quaeque uernant esui. Haec non labore et arte molitus deus
sed iussione, quam potestas protulit,
mandauit esse; facta sunt, quae non erant,
uerbo creauit omniformem machinam,
uirtus paterna semper in uerbo fuit. Cognostis ipsum, nunc colendi agnoscite
ritum modumque, quale sit templi genus,
quae dedicari sanxerit donaria,
quae uota poscat, quos sacerdotes uelit,
quod mandet illic nectar inmolarier.

steeps, flats, the valleys of mountains,
wild beasts, birds, reptiles, swimming creatures,
beasts of burden, herds, yoke-animals, brutes,
flowers, thickets, sprouts, herbs, trees,
things that are for scent and that spring up for eating. God did not toil and contrive these by labor and art,
but by a command which his power brought forth,
he commanded them to be; the things which were not were made;
by the Word he created the omniform world-machine,
the paternal power has always been in the Word. You have known him; now recognize the rite and the mode of worship,
what sort of temple there is,
what donaries he has sanctioned to be dedicated,
what vows he demands, what priests he wills,
what he commands to be immolated there as nectar.

Aedem sibi ipse mente in hominis condidit
uiuam, serenam, sensualem, flabilem,
solui incapacem posse nec distructilem,
pulchram, uenustam, praeminentem culmine,
discriminatis inlitam coloribus. Illic sacerdos stat sacrato in limine
foresque primas uirgo custodit Fides,
inncxa crines uinculis regalibus
poscit litari uictimas Christo et patri,
quas scit placere candidatas, simplices: frontis pudorem, cordis inocentiam,
pacis quietem, castitatem corporis,
dei timorem, regulam scientiae,
ieiuniorum parcitatem sobriam,
spem non iacentem, semper et largam manum.

He himself founded for himself a temple in the mind of man
living, serene, sensible, breathing,
incapable of being dissolved and not destructible,
beautiful, charming, preeminent in its summit,
smeared with distinguished colors. There the priest stands on the consecrated threshold
and Faith, a maiden, guards the foremost doors,
her hair bound with royal bonds,
she demands that victims be sacrificed to Christ and the Father,
which she knows to please—candid, simple: the modesty of the brow, the innocence of the heart,
the quiet of peace, the chastity of the body,
the fear of God, the rule of knowledge,
the sober sparingness of fasts,
a hope not lying prostrate, and an ever generous hand.

Ex his amoenus hostiis surgit uapor
uincens odorem balsami, turis, croci,
auras madentes Persicorum aromatum,
sublatus inde caelum adusque tollitur
et prosperatum dulce delectat deum. Hanc disciplinam quisquis infensus uetat,
uetat probatum uiuere et sanctum sequi,
uetat uigorem mentis alte intendere
nostrique acumen ignis ad terram uocat
nec excitari uim sinit prudentiae. O mersa limo caecitas gentilium,
o carnulenta nationum pectora,
o spissus error, o tenebrosum genus
terris amicum, deditum cadaueri,
subiecta semper intuens, numquam supra!

From these sacrifices a pleasant vapor rises
surpassing the odor of balsam, of incense, of crocus,
the airs dripping with Persian aromatics,
lifted up from there it is raised even unto heaven
and, thus favored, it sweetly delights God. Whoever, hostile, forbids this discipline,
forbids to live approved and to follow the holy,
forbids the vigor of the mind to be stretched high,
and calls the keenness of our fire down to earth,
nor allows the force of prudence to be roused. O blindness of the gentiles sunk in slime,
O carnal hearts of the nations,
O dense error, O tenebrous race,
friendly to the earth, devoted to the corpse,
always gazing at things below, never above!

Furorne summus ultima et dementia est
deos putare, qui creantur nuptiis,
rem spiritalem terrulente quaerere,
elementa mundi consecrare altaribus,
id, quod creatum est, conditorem credere, deasceato supplicate stipiti,
uerris cruore scripta saxa spargere,
aras ofellis obsecrare bubulis,
homines fuisse cum scias, quos consecras,
urnas reorum morticinas lambere? Desiste, iudex saeculi, tantum nefas
uiris iubere fortibusque et liberis!
nil est amore ueritatis celsius;
dei perennis nomen adserentibus
nihil pauori est, mors et ipsa subiacet.

Is it the highest frenzy and the ultimate dementia
to think gods those who are created by nuptials,
to seek a spiritual thing in an earth‑soiled way,
to consecrate the elements of the world on altars,
to believe that what is created is the Founder, to supplicate a post adze‑hewn,
to sprinkle stones written upon with the gore of a boar,
to beseech the altars with little bovine morsels,
when you know that those whom you consecrate were men,
to lick the mortuary urns of the guilty? Cease, judge of the age, to command so great a nefariousness
to men who are brave and free!
nothing is loftier than love of truth;
to those asserting the name of the perennial God
there is nothing for fear; even death itself is subject.

Dudum coquebat disserente martyre
Asclepiades intus iram subdolam
stomachatus alto felle, dum longum silet
bilemque tectis concipit praecordiis,
tandem latentis uim furoris euomit: 'Pro Iuppiter! quid est, quod ex hoc audio?
stat inter aras et deorum imagines
et, quod fateri cogor, in medio foro
tacente memet ac perorat perditus,
quidquid sacrorum est ore foedans inpio.

Distantly before, while the martyr was discoursing,
Asclepiades was cooking up within a sly wrath,
stomached with deep gall, while he keeps long silence,
and he conceives bile in his hidden precordia,
at length he vomits forth the force of his lurking fury: 'By Jupiter! what is this that I hear from this man?
he stands among the altars and the images of the gods
and—what I am compelled to confess—in the middle of the forum
with myself silent, the reprobate perorates,
defiling with an impious mouth whatever of the sacred rites there is.

O fas priorum, moris o prisci status!
inuenta regum pro salute publica
Pompiliorum nostra carpunt saecula.
quis hos sofistas error inuexit nouus,
qui non colendos esse diuos disputent?

O divine law of the forefathers, O status of ancient custom!
the inventions of kings for the public safety,
of the Pompilii, our ages carp at.
what new error has brought in these sophists,
who dispute that the gods are not to be worshiped?

Nunc dogma nobis christianum nascitur
post euolutos mille demum consules
ab urbe Roma, ne retexam Nestoras.
quidquid nouellum surgit, olim non fuit.
uis summa rerum nosse?

Now the Christian dogma is being born for us,
after at last a thousand consuls have rolled by
from the city of Rome, so that I do not reweave the Nestors.
whatever is novel that rises once did not exist.
do you wish to know the sum of things?

Pyrram consule! Vbi iste uester tunc erat summus deus,
diuum fauore cum puer Mauortius
fundaret arcem septicollem Romulus?
quod Roma pollet auspicato condita,
Ioui Statori debet et dis ceteris.

Consult Pyrrha! Where then was that highest god of yours,
when, by the favor of the divinities, the Mavortian boy
Romulus was founding the seven-hilled citadel?
that Rome is puissant, auspiciously founded,
it owes to Jupiter Stator and to the other gods.

Hoe sanctum ab aeuo est, hoc ab atauis traditum:
placanda nobis pro triumphis principis
delubra, faustus ut secundet gloriam
procinctus utque subiugatis hostibus
ductor quietum frenet orbem legibus.

This is sacred from of old, this handed down from forefathers:
the shrines must be appeased by us for the triumphs of the Princeps,
so that an auspicious battle-array may second his glory,
and that, with the enemies subjugated,
the leader may bridle the peaceful world with laws.

Accingere ergo, quisquis es, nequissime,
pro principali rite nobiscum deos
orare uita uel, quod hostem publicum
pati necesse est, solue poenam sanguine:
spreuisse templa respuisse est principem.' Tunc ille: 'Numquam pro salute et maximis
fortissimisque principis cohortibus
aliter precabor, quam fidele ut militent
Christique lymfis ut renascantur patri,
capiant et ipsum caelitus paraclitum, ut idolorum respuant caliginem,
cernant ut illud lumen aeternae spei
non suculentis influens obtutibus
nec corporales per fenestras emicans,
puris sed intus quod relucet mentibus.

Gird yourself then, whoever you are, most nefarious one,
to pray the gods duly with us on behalf of the princeps,
or, since it is necessary to suffer as a public enemy,
pay the penalty with your blood:
to have spurned the temples is to have rejected the prince.' Then he: 'Never for the safety and the very great
and most brave cohorts of the princeps
will I pray otherwise, than that they may soldier faithfully,
and that by Christ’s lymphs they may be reborn to the Father,
and that they may receive the Paraclete himself from heaven,
so that they may spit out the caliginous gloom of idols,
that they may behold that light of eternal hope
not flowing into swinish glances
nor flashing through bodily windows,
but which shines back within pure minds.

Pupilla carnis crassa crassum perspicit
et res caduca, quod resoluendum est, uidet,
liquidis uidendis aptus est animae liquor,
natura feruens sola feruentissimae
diuinitatis uim coruscantem capit. Hoc, opto, lumen imperator nouerit
tuus meusque, si uelit fieri meus;
nam si resistit christiano nomini,
meus ille talis imperator non erit,
scelus iubenti, crede, numquam seruiam.' 'Statis, ministri?' clamitans iudex ait,
'statis manusque continetis uindices?
non rupta sulcis dissecatis uiscera,
animam nec intus abditam rimamini,
erumpit unde uox profana in principem?'

The pupil of flesh, gross, perceives the gross
and sees the perishable things, what is to be dissolved;
for seeing the limpid, the soul’s liquor is apt,
fervent by nature, it alone grasps the coruscating force
of the most-fervent divinity. This light, I hope, may the emperor know—
yours and mine, if he is willing to become mine;
for if he resists the Christian name,
such an emperor will not be mine—
believe me, I will never serve one commanding crime.' 'Do you stand, attendants?' the judge, shouting, says,
'do you stand and restrain your avenging hands?
Are you not rending the entrails, dissected with furrows,
nor probing the soul hidden within,
whence bursts the profane voice against the emperor?'

Scindunt utrumque milites teterrimi
mucrone hiulco pensilis latus uiri,
sulcant per artus longa tractim uulnera,
obliqua rectis, recta transuersis secant
et iam retectis pectus albet ossibus. Nitendo anhelant, diffluunt sudoribus,
cum sit quietus heros, in quem saeuiunt.
haec inter addit sponte Romanus loqui:
'si quaeris, o praefecte, uerum noscere,
hoc omne, quidquid lancinamur, non dolet.

They split on both sides, the most foul soldiers,
with a gaping point the side of the hanging man,
they furrow through the limbs long wounds drawn along,
they cut slantwise with straight cuts, straight with transverse,
and now, the bones laid bare, the breast grows white. Straining, they pant, they stream with sweat,
while the hero, upon whom they rage, is at rest.
amid these things the Roman adds of his own accord to speak:
'if you seek, O Prefect, to know the truth,
all this, however we are being lacerated, does not hurt.

Dolet, quod error pectori insedit tuo,
populos quod istos perditos tecum trahis.
currunt frequentes undique ad spectaculum,
gentile uulgus, heu, gemenda corpora,
crudumque nostrae sortis exemplum tremunt.

It pains me, that error has settled in your breast,
that you drag those lost peoples with you.
they run in crowds from everywhere to the spectacle,
the gentile crowd, alas, bodies to be lamented,
and they shudder at the raw example of our lot.

Audite cuncti, clamo longe ac praedico,
emitto uocem de catasta celsior:
Christus paternae gloriae splendor, deus,
rerum creator, noster idem particeps
spondet salutem perpetem credentibus, animae salutem, sola quae non occidit,
sed iuge durans dispares casus subit:
aut luce fulget aut tenebris mergitur,
Christum secuta patris intrat gloriam,
disiuncta Christo mancipatur tartaro. Curanda mercis qualitas, quaenam mihi
contingat olim perpetis substantiae;
nam membra parui pendo, quo pacto cadant,
casura certe lege naturae suae.
instat ruina; quod resoluendum est, ruat.

Hear, all, I shout afar and I proclaim,
I send forth a voice from the auction‑block, higher up:
Christ, the splendor of paternal glory, God,
creator of things, and likewise our fellow participant,
pledges perpetual salvation to believers, salvation of the soul, which alone does not perish,
but, enduring continually, undergoes diverse chances:
either it shines with light or is plunged into darkness;
having followed Christ it enters the Father’s glory,
disjoined from Christ it is made over to Tartarus. The quality of the wares must be cared for—what portion
of perpetual substance may someday befall me;
for I reckon the limbs at little, in what manner they fall,
sure to fall by the law of their own nature.
Ruin is at hand; let what must be dissolved, fall.

Nec distat, ignis et fidiculae saeuiant,
an corpus aegrum languor asper torqueat,
cum saepe morbos maior armet saeuitia.
non ungularum tanta uis latus fodit,
mucrone quanto dira pulsat pleurisis, nec sic inusta lamminis ardet cutis,
ut febris atro felle uenas exedit
uel summa pellis ignis obductus coquit
papulasque feruor aestuosus excitat:
credas cremari stridulis cauteribus. Miserum putatis, quod retortis pendeo
extentus ulnis, quod reuelluntur pedes,
conpago neruis quod sonat crepantibus:
sic heiulantes ossa clamant diuidi,
nodosa torquet quos podagra et artrisis.

Nor does it differ, whether fire and rack-cords rage,
or a harsh languor torments a sick body,
since often diseases arm a greater savagery.
Not so great the force of claws/hooks that digs the flank,
as with what point the dire pleurisy pounds; nor does skin singed by plates burn thus,
as fever with black bile eats out the veins,
or when a fire laid over cooks the upper hide
and a sweltering fervor stirs up pustules:
you’d think there were cremation by hissing cauteries. You think me wretched, because with arms twisted back I hang
stretched, because my feet are wrenched away,
because the framework with crepitating nerves crackles:
so, howling, the bones cry to be split,
those whom knotty podagra and arthritis torment.

Horretis omnes hasce carnificum manus:
num mitiores sunt manus medentium,
laniena quando saeuit Hippocratica?
uiuum secatur uiscus et recens cruor
scalpella tinguit, dum putredo abraditur. Putate ferrum triste chirurgos meis
inferre costis, quod secat salubriter;
non est amarum, quo reformatur salus:
uidentur isti carpere artus tabidos,
sed dant medellam rebus intus uiuidis.

You all shudder at these hands of executioners:
are the hands of the healers any gentler,
when the Hippocratic butchery rages?
living viscera are cut, and fresh blood
dyes the scalpels, while putrescence is abraded. Think that the surgeons are bringing the grim iron
to my ribs, which cuts in a healthful way;
that by which health is refashioned is not bitter:
these men seem to pluck at tabid limbs,
but they give a remedy to the things within that are alive.

Quis nescit autem, quanta corruptela sit
contaminatae carnis ac solubilis?
sordet, tumescit, liquitur, faetet, dolet,
inflatur ira, soluitur libidine,
plerumque felle tincta liuores trahit.

Who does not know, moreover, how great the corruption is
of contaminated and dissoluble flesh?
it is filthy, it swells, it melts, it stinks, it aches,
it is inflated with anger, it is loosened by lust,
for the most part, dyed with bile, it draws livid bruisings.

Aurum regestum nonne carni adquiritur?
inlusa uestis, gemma, bombyx, purpura
in carnis usum mille quaeruntur dolis,
luxus uorandi carnis aruinam fouet,
carnis uoluptas omne per nefas ruit. Medere, quaeso, carnifex, tantis malis,
concide, carpe fomitem peccaminum,
fac, ut resecto debilis carnis situ
dolore ab omni mens supersit libera
nec gestet ultra, quod tyrannus amputet.

Is not heaped-up gold acquired for the flesh?
the inlaid garment, the gem, silk, purple-dye
are sought by a thousand wiles for the use of the flesh,
the luxury of devouring fosters the grease of the flesh,
the voluptuousness of the flesh rushes headlong through every nefariousness. Heal, I beg, executioner, such great ills,
cut down, pluck away the tinder of sins,
see to it that, with the decay of the flesh cut out,
the mind may remain free from every pain,
and may no longer carry what the tyrant might amputate.

Nec terrearis turba circumstantium:
hoc perdo solum, quod peribit omnibus,
regi, clienti pauperique et diuiti.
sic uernularum, sic senatorum caro
tabescit, imo cum sepulcro condita est.

Do not be terrified by the crowd of bystanders:
I destroy only this, which will perish for everyone,
for the king, for the client, and for the poor man and the rich man.
thus the flesh of home-born slaves, thus of senators,
wastes away; nay rather, is buried in the sepulcher.

Iactura uilis mordet et damnum leue,
si, quo carendum est, perdere extimescimus.
cur, quod necesse est, non uoluntas occupat,
natura cur non uertit in rem gloriae?
legale damnum deputemus praemiis.

A paltry forfeiture bites and a light loss,
if we dread to lose what must be done without.
why does the will not anticipate what is necessary,
why does nature not turn it into a matter of glory?
let us reckon the legal loss as rewards.

Sed praemiorum forma quae sit fortibus,
uideamus, illa nempe, quae numquam petit.
caelo refusus subuolabit spiritus,
dei parentis perfruetur lumine
regnante Christo stans in arce regia. Quandoque caelum ceu liber plicabitur,
cadet rotati solis in terram globus,
sferam ruina menstrualem distruet,
deus superstes solus et iusti simul
cum sempiternis permanebunt angelis.

But the form of the rewards for the brave,
let us see, namely, those which he never seeks.
the spirit, poured back to heaven, will fly up,
he will fully enjoy the light of the Father-God
standing in the royal citadel with Christ reigning. Someday heaven, like a book, will be folded,
the orb of the revolving Sun will fall to the earth,
collapse will destroy the monthly sphere,
God alone surviving, and the just as well
will remain together with the sempiternal angels.

Contemne praesens utile, o prudens homo,
quod terminandum, quod relinquendum est tibi,
omitte corpus, rem sepulcri et funeris,
tende ad futuram gloriam, perge ad deum,
agnosce, qui sis, uince mundum et saeculum!' Vixdum elocutus martyr hanc peregerat
orationem, cum furens interserit
Asclepiades: 'uertat ictum carnifex
in os loquentis inque maxillas manum
sulcosque acutos et fidiculas transferat. Verbositatis ipse rumpatur locus,
scaturrientes perdat ut loquacitas
sermonis auras perforatis follibus,
quibus sonandi nulla lex ponit modum;
ipsa et loquentis uerba torqueri uolo.'

Scorn the present profitable thing, O prudent man,
that which must be ended, that which must be left to you,
leave aside the body, the thing of sepulcher and funeral,
stretch toward future glory, press on to God,
recognize who you are, conquer the world and the age!' Hardly had the martyr spoken out and completed this
oration, when, raging, Asclepiades interjected:
Asclepiades: 'Let the executioner turn the blow
upon the mouth of the speaker and his hand upon the cheeks,
and transfer sharp furrows and the torture-cords. Let the very locus of verbosity be burst,
so that loquacity may lose the gushing
breezes of speech, with the bellows perforated,
for which no law sets a measure of sounding;
I even want the words of the speaker themselves to be tormented.'

Inplet iubentis dicta lictor inpius;
charaxat ambas ungulis scribentibus
genas cruentis et secat faciem notis,
hirsuta barbis soluitur carptim cutis
et mentum adusque uultus omnis scinditur. Martyr fluentem fatur inter sanguinem:
'grates tibi, o praefecte, magnas debeo,
quod multa pandens ora iam Christum loquor:
artabat ampli nominis praeconium
meatus unus, inpar ad laudes dei. Rimas patentes inuenit uox edita
multisque fusa rictibus reddit sonos
hinc inde plures et profatur undique
Christi patrisque sempiternam gloriam:
tot ecce laudant ora, quot sunt uulnera.'

The impious lictor fulfills the words of the one ordering;
he engraves with scribing claws
both cheeks with bloody marks, and he cuts the face with signs,
the skin hirsute with beards is loosened bit by bit,
and the whole face is torn right up to the chin. The martyr, amid flowing blood, speaks:
'I owe you great thanks, O prefect,
that, opening many mouths, I now speak Christ:
a single passage was constricting the proclamation of the ample Name,
unequal to the praises of God.
The uttered voice finds gaping cracks
and, poured out through many gapes, renders sounds,
on this side and that more and on every side it proclaims
the eternal glory of Christ and of the Father:
behold, as many mouths praise as there are wounds.'

Tali repressus cognitor constantia
cessare poenam praecipit, tunc sic ait:
'per Solis ignes iuro, qui nostros dies
reciprocatis administrat circulis,
cuius recursu lux et annus ducitur, ignes parandos iam tibi tristis rogi,
qui fine digno corpus istud deuorent,
quod perseuerans tam resistit nequiter
sacris uetustis nec dolorum spiculis
uictum fatiscit fitque poenis fortius. Quis hunc rigorem pectori iniecit stupor?
mens obstinata est, corpus omne obcalluit,
tantus nouelli dogmatis regnat furor:
hic nempe uester Christus haud olim fuit,
quem tu fateris ipse suffixum cruci.'

Checked by such constancy, the examiner
orders the punishment to cease; then thus he says:
“I swear by the fires of the Sun, who administers our days
with reciprocating circuits,
by whose return light and the year are conducted, that the fires of a sad pyre are now to be prepared for you,
which, with a worthy end, may devour this body,
which, persevering, so wickedly resists the ancient sacred rites, nor, vanquished by the darts of pains,
grows faint, but becomes stronger by punishments. What stupefaction has cast this rigidity into your breast?
The mind is obstinate, the whole body has grown callous;
so great a frenzy of a novel dogma reigns:
this, to be sure, your Christ did not exist in olden times,
whom you yourself confess affixed to the cross.”

'Haec illa crux est omnium nostrum salus',
Romanus inquit, 'hominis haec redemptio est.
scio incapacem te sacramenti, inpie,
non posse caecis sensibus mysterium
haurire nostrum: nil diurnum nox capit. Tamen in tenebris proferam claram facem,
sanus uidebit, lippus oculos obteget.

'This is that cross, the salvation of us all,' says Romanus, 'this is the redemption of man.
I know you incapable of the sacrament, impious one,
not able with blind senses to imbibe our mystery:
night comprehends nothing diurnal. Yet in the darkness I will bring forth a bright torch,
the sound-sighted will see, the bleary-eyed will cover his eyes.

remouete lumen, dicet insanabilis,
iniuriosa est nil uidenti claritas.
audi, profane, quod grauatus oderis! Regem perennem rex perennis protulit
in se manentem nec minorem tempore,
quia tempus illum non tenet; nam fons retro
exordiorum est et dierum et temporum,
ex patre Christus: hoc pater quod filius.

remove the light, the incurable will say,
clarity is injurious to one seeing nothing.
hear, profane one, what, burdened, you will hate! The perennial king brought forth the perennial king,
remaining in himself and not lesser by time,
because time does not hold him; for he is the fount back
of beginnings and of days and of times,
Christ from the Father: the Father is what the Son is.

Hic se uidendum praestitit mortalibus,
mortale corpus sumpsit inmortalitas,
ut, dum caducum portat aeternus dens,
transire nostrum posset ad caelestia:
homo est peremptus et resurrexit deus. Congressa mors est membra gestanti deo;
dum nostra temptat, cessit inmortalibus.
stultum putatis hoc, sofistae saeculi,
sed stulta mundi summus elegit pater,
ut stultus esset saeculi prudens dei.

Here he presented himself to be seen by mortals,
immortality assumed a mortal body,
so that, while the eternal god carries the perishable,
he might be able to transfer what is ours to the celestials:
a man was slain and a god rose again. Death engaged with the god bearing our members;
while she tries what is ours, she yielded to immortal things.
you think this foolish, sophists of the age,
but the highest Father chose the foolish things of the world,
that the wise of God might be foolish to the age.

Antiquitatem Romuli et Mauortiam.
lupam renarras primum et omen uulturum.
si res nouellas respuis, nil tam recens:
uix mille fastis inplet hanc aetatulam
cursus dierum conditore ab augure.

The antiquity of Romulus and the Mavortian origin. You recount again first the she-wolf and the omen of vultures. If you spurn novel matters, nothing is so recent: scarcely a thousand in the Fasti does the course of days fill this little age, since the founder by augury.

Sescenta possum regna pridem condita
proferre toto in orbe, si sit otium,
multo ante clara, quam capellam Gnosiam
suxisse fertur Iuppiter, Martis pater.
sed illa non sunt, haec et olim non erunt. Crux ista Christi, quam nouellam dicitis,
nascente mundo factus ut primum est homo,
expressa signis, expedita est litteris,
aduentus eius mille per miracula
praenuntiatus ore uatum consono.

Six hundred realms long since founded I can proffer throughout the whole orb, if there be leisure,
famous long before the time when Jupiter, father of Mars, is said to have sucked the Gnosian she‑goat.
but those are not, and these will not be hereafter. The Cross of Christ, which you call “novel,”
as the world was being born, when man was first made,
was expressed by signs, was set forth by letters,
his advent was preannounced through a thousand miracles
by the mouth of seers with consonant voice.

Reges, profetae iudicesque et principes
uirtute, bellis, cultibus sacris, stilo
non destiterunt pingere formam crucis,
crux praenotata, crux adumbrata est prius,
crucem uetusta conbiberuut saecula.

Kings, prophets, judges and princes
by virtue, in wars, in sacred cults, with the stylus
did not cease to depict the form of the cross;
the cross was pre-noted, the cross was adumbrated before,
the ancient ages imbibed the cross.

Tandem retectis uocibusque profeticis
aetate nostra conprobata antiquitas
coram refulsit ore conspicabili,
ne fluctuaret ueritas dubia fide,
si non pateret teste uisu comminus. Hinc nos et ipsum non perire credimus
corpus, sepulcro quod uorandum traditur,
quia Christus in se mortuum corpus cruci
secure excitatum uexit ad solium patris
uiamque cunctis ad resurgendum dedit. Crux illa nostra est, nos patibulum ascendimus,
nobis peremptus Christus et nobis deus
Christus reuersus, ipse qui moriens homo est,
natura duplex: moritur et mortem domat,
reditque in illud, quod perire nesciat.

At length, with prophetic voices laid bare,
antiquity proved in our age
shone forth before us with a countenance fit to be beheld,
lest Truth waver with a doubtful faith,
if it did not lie open, with a witnessing sight at close quarters. Hence we also believe that even the body itself does not perish
the body, which is handed over to the sepulcher to be devoured,
because Christ, having in himself a body dead upon the cross,
borne up securely, carried it to the Father’s throne
and gave the way for all to rise again. That cross is ours; we ascend the gibbet,
for us Christ was slain, and for us God—
Christ returned—the very one who, dying, is man—
of a double nature: he dies and he tames death,
and he returns into that which knows not how to perish.

Dixisse pauca sit satis de mysticis
nostrae salutis deque processu spei;
iam iam silebo: margaritas spargere
Christi uetamur inter inmundos sues,
lutulenta sanctum ne terant animalia. Sed quia profunda non licet luctarier
ratione tecum, consulamus proxima:
interrogetur ipsa naturalium
simplex sine arte sensuum sententia,
fuci inperitus fac ut adsit arbiter. Da septuennem circiter puerum ant minus,
qui sit fauoris liber et non oderit
quemquam nec ullum mentis in uitium cadat;
periclitemur, quid recens infantia
dicat sequendum, quid nouus sapiat uigor.'

Let it be enough to have said a few things about the mystic matters of our salvation and about the process of hope;
now, now I will be silent: we are forbidden to scatter the pearls of Christ among unclean swine,
lest muddy animals trample the holy thing. But since it is not permitted to wrestle with you by reason about the deep things,
let us consult what is nearest: let the very judgment of the natural senses, simple and without art, be questioned,
see to it that there be present as arbiter one unskilled in deceit. Give a boy of about seven years, or less,
who may be free of favor and may hate no one and may fall into no vice of mind;
let us put to the test what fresh infancy says is to be followed, what new vigor savors.'

Hanc ille sancti martyris uocem libens
amplexus unum de caterua infantium
paruum nec olim lacte depulsum capi
captumque adeSse praecipit: 'quiduis roga',
inquit, 'sequamur, quod probarit pusio.' Romanus ardens experiri innoxiam
lactantis oris indolem: 'filiole', ait,
'dic, quid uidetur esse uerum et congruens,
unumne Christum colere et in Christo patrem,
an conprecari mille formarum deos?' Adrisit infans nec moratus rettulit:
'est quidquid illud, quod ferunt homines deum,
unum esse oportet, et, quod uni, est unicum.
cum Christus hoc sit, Christus est uerus deus,
genera deorum multa nec pueri putant.'

He gladly embraced this utterance of the holy martyr,
and from the crowd of infants he ordered that one little child,
not yet weaned from milk, be taken up
and, once taken, be brought in: “ask whatever you like,”
he says, “let us follow what the little boy shall approve.” Romanus, burning to test the innocent
disposition of the suckling’s mouth, says, “little son,
tell what seems to be true and congruent—
whether to worship one Christ and in Christ the Father,
or to pray to gods of a thousand forms?” The infant smiled and, not delaying, replied:
“Whatever that is which men call God,
it ought to be One, and what belongs to the One is unique.
Since Christ is this, Christ is the true God,
nor do even boys suppose many kinds of gods.”

Stupuit tyrannus sub pudore fluctuans
nec uim decebat innocenti aetatulae
inferre leges nec loquenti talia
furor sinebat efferatus parcere:
'quis auctor', inquit, 'uocis est huius tibi?' Respondit ille: 'mater et matri deus:
illa ex parente spiritu docta inbibit,
quo me inter ipsa pasceret cunabula,
ego ut gemellis uberum de fontibus
lac paruus hausi, Christum et hausi credere.' 'Ergo ipsa mater adsit', exclamat, 'cedo',
Asclepiades, 'disciplinae et exitum
tristem suae magistra spectet inpia,
male eruditi torqueatur funere
infantis orba, quemque corrupit, fleat.

The tyrant was astonished, wavering under pudor, nor did it befit to bring the force of laws against an innocent little age, nor did savage furor, as he spoke such things, allow him to spare: “Who,” he says, “is the author of this voice for you?” He answered: “My mother, and for my mother God: she, taught by the Parent-Spirit, drank it in, with which she might feed me among the very cradles; and I, a little one, as I drew milk from the twin fountains of the breasts, I also drew in to believe in Christ.” “Therefore let the mother herself be present,” he exclaims, “yield, Asclepiades, to discipline, and let the impious magistra look upon the sad outcome of her own teaching; bereft of the infant, ill-instructed, let her be tormented with a death, and let her weep the very one whom she has corrupted.”

Absit, ministros uilis ut muliercula
nostros fatiget: quantulus autem dolor
uexabit artus mortis auxilio breuis!
oculi parentis punientur acrius,
quam si cruentae membra carpant ungulate.' Vix haec profatus pusionem praecipit
sublime tollant et manu pulsent nates,
mox et remota ueste uirgis uerberent
tenerumque duris ictibus tergum secent,
plus unde laetis quam cruoris defluat. Quae cautis illud perpeti spectaculum,
quis ferre possit aeris aut ferri rigor?

Far be it, that a paltry little woman should fatigue our ministers;
but how slight a pain will vex the limbs, brief with death’s help!
the eyes of the parent will be punished more sharply,
than if bloody talons were to tear the limbs.' Scarcely having spoken these things, he orders that they lift the little boy
on high and strike the buttocks with the hand,
and soon, the garment removed, that they lash with rods
and cut the tender back with hard blows,
whence there may flow more for the delighted than of blood. What prudent ones could endure that spectacle,
what rigor of bronze or of iron could bear it?

inpacta quotiens corpus attigerat salix,
tenui rubebant sanguine uda uimina,
quem plaga fierat roscidis liuoribus.

whenever the willow, driven on, had touched the body,
the wet withes were reddening with thin sanguine,
and the blow had made a bruise with dewy livid marks.

Ferunt minaces uerberantium genas
inlacrimasse sponte dimanantibus
guttis per ora barbarum frementia,
scribas et ipsos et coronam plebium
proceresque siccis non stetisse uisibus. At sola mater hisce lamentis caret,
soli sereno frons renidet gaudio:
stat in piorum corde pietas fortior
amore Christi contumax doloribus
firmatque sensum mollis indulgentiae. Sitire sese paruus exclamauerat --
animae aestuantis ardor in cruciatibus
hoc exigebat, lymfae ut haustum posceret --,
quem torua mater eminus triste intuens
uultu et seueris uocibus sic increpat:

They report that the menacing cheeks of the floggers wept of their own accord, with drops flowing down over faces that were growling barbarously,
that the very scribes and the ring of the plebeians and the nobles did not remain with dry eyes. But the mother alone is without these laments,
to her alone the brow shines back with serene joy:
in the heart of the pious there stands a stronger pietas,
by love of Christ defiant to pains,
and it strengthens the sense against soft indulgence. The little one had cried out that he was thirsty --
the ardor of a soul seething in torments was demanding this, that he should ask for a draught of water --,
whom his grim mother, gazing from afar with a sad countenance,
and with severe words, thus rebukes:

'Puto, inbecillo, nate, turbaris metu
et te doloris horror adflictum domat.
non hanc meorum uiscerum stirpem fore
deo spopondi, non in hanc spem gloriae
te procreaui, cedere ut leto scias. Aquam bibendam postulas, cum sit tibi
fons ille uiuus praesto, qui semper fluit
et cuncta solus inrigat uiuentia,
intus forisque spiritum et corpus simul,
aeternitatem largiens potantibus.

'I suppose, feeble one, son, you are disturbed by fear
and the horror of pain tames you, cast down.
not that this stock of my womb would be such
I pledged to God, not for this hope of glory
did I procreate you, that you should know to yield to death. You ask for water to drink, when for you
that living fountain is at hand, which ever flows
and alone irrigates all living things,
within and without, spirit and body together,
bestowing eternity upon those who drink.

Venies ad illud mox fluentum, si modo
animo ac medullis solus ardor aestuet
uidere Christum, quod semel potum adfatim
sic sedat omnem pectoris flagrantiam,
uita ut beata iam sitire nesciat.

You will come to that flowing stream soon, if only
in your mind and marrow the sole ardor seethe
to see Christ, which, once drunk sufficiently,
thus sedates every burning of the breast,
so that the blessed life no longer knows to thirst.

Hic, hic bibendus, nate, nunc tibi est calix,
mille in Bethleem quem biberunt paruuli:
oblita lactis et papillarum inmemor
aetas amaris, mox deinde dulcibus
refecta poclis mella sumpsit sanguinis. Exemplum ad istud nitere, o fortis puer,
generosa prolis matris et potentia!
omnes capaces esse uirtutum pater
mandauit annos, neminem excepit diem
ipsis triumphos adnuens uagitibus.

Here, here is the chalice to be drunk, son, now for you,
which a thousand little ones in Bethlehem drank:
the age forgetful of milk and unmindful of breasts
by bitter cups, soon thereafter by sweet refreshed, has taken the honeys of blood. Strive toward that example, O brave boy,
noble progeny of your mother and of potency!
the Father has mandated that all ages be capable of virtues, he has excepted no day
nodding assent to triumphs in their very wailings.

Scis, saepe dixi, cum docenti adluderes
et garrulorum signa uerborum dares,
Isaac fuisse paruulum patri unicum,
qui, cum inmolandus aram et ensem cerneret,
ultro sacranti colla praebuerit seni.

You know, I have often said, when you would play with your teacher
and give signs of garrulous words,
that Isaac was a very little one, an only son to his father,
who, when he saw the altar and the sword as he was to be immolated,
of his own accord offered his neck to the sacrificing old man.

Narraui et illud nobile ac memorabile
certamen, una matre quod septem editi
gessere pueri, sed tamen factis uiri,
hortante eadem matre in ancipiti exitu,
poenae et coronae sanguini ut ne parcerent. Videbat ipsos apparatus funerum
praesens suorum nec mouebatur parens
laetata, quotiens aut oliuo stridula
sartago frixum torruisset puberem
dira aut cremasset lamminarum inpressio. Comam cutemque uerticis reuulserat
a fronte tortor, nuda testa ut tegmine
ceruicem adusque dehonestaret caput;
clamabat illa: 'patere, gemmis uestiet
apicem hunc corona regio ex diademate.'

I have narrated also that noble and memorable
contest, which seven boys born of one mother
waged—yet by deeds, men—while the same mother urged,
with the outcome hanging in the balance,
that, for penalty and crown, they should not spare their blood. She saw in person the very preparations of the funerals
of her own, and the parent was not moved,
rejoicing whenever either the frying-pan hissing
with oil had roasted the pubescent youth in frying,
or the dire pressing of plates had burned him to ash. The torturer had torn back the hair and the skin of the crown
from the brow, so that, with the skull bare as a covering,
he might dishonor the neck and the head up to the summit;
she cried out: ‘Endure; a crown from a royal diadem
will clothe with gems this apex.’

Linguam tyrannus amputari iusserat
uni ex ephybis; mater aiebat: 'satis
iam parta nobis gloria est, pars optima
deo inmolatur ecce nostri corporis,
digna est fidelis lingua, quae sit hostia. Interpres animi, enuntiatrix sensuum,
cordis ministra, praeco operti pectoris,
prima offeratur in sacramentum necis
et sit redemptrix prima membrorum omnium,
ducem dicatam mox sequentur cetera. His Maccabeos incitans stimulis parens
hostem subegit subiugatum septies,
quot feta natis, tot triumphis inclyta;
me partus unus ut feracem gloriae,
mea uita, praestet, in tua est situm manu.

The tyrant had ordered the tongue to be cut off
from one of the ephebes; the mother was saying: 'enough
glory has already been obtained for us; behold, the best part
of our body is immolated to God,
the faithful tongue is worthy to be a victim. Interpreter of the soul, enunciatrix of perceptions,
handmaid of the heart, herald of the hidden breast,
let it be first offered in the sacrament of slaying,
and let it be the first redeemer of all the members;
the rest will soon follow their consecrated leader. With these goads inciting the Maccabees, the parent
subdued the enemy, brought under the yoke seven times—
as many births as sons, so renowned for as many triumphs;
that a single childbirth may render me fertile of glory—
my life—lies set in your hand.'

Per huius alui fida conceptacula,
per hospitalem mense bis quino larem,
si dulce nostri pectoris nectar tibi,
si molle gremium, grata si crepundia,
persiste et horum munerum auctorem adsere! Quanam arte nobis uiuere intus coeperis,
nihilumque et illud, unde corpus, nescio,
nouit animator solus et factor tui;
inpendere ipsi, cuius ortus munere es,
bene in datorem, quod dedit, refuderis'. Talia canente matre iam laetus puer
uirgas strepentes et dolorem uerberum
ridebat. hic tum cognitor pronuntiat:
'claudatur infans carcere et tanti mali
Romanus auctor torqueatur acrius'.

By the faithful receptacles of this womb,
by the hospitable hearth of twice-five months,
if the sweet nectar of our breast was to you,
if the soft lap, if the welcome rattles,
persist, and claim the author of these gifts! By what art you began to live within us,
and the nothingness and that whence the body, I know not;
the Animator alone and your Maker knows; to devote yourself to Him, by whose gift you have your birth,
well into the Giver you will have poured back what He gave.' While the mother sang such things, the boy already glad
laughed at the rattling rods and the pain of the lashes.
Then the examiner pronounces:
'Let the infant be shut in prison, and let the Roman author of so great an evil be tortured more sharply.'

Illum recentes per cicatricum uias
denuo exarabant, quaque acutum traxerant
paulo ante ferrum, mox recrudescentibus
plagis apertas persequebantur notas,
quos iam superbus uictor ignauos uocat. 'O non uirile robur, o molles manus,
unam labantis dissipare tam diu
uos non potesse fabricam corpusculi!
uix iam cohaeret nec tamen penitus cadit
uincens lacertos dexterarum inertium.

They were furrowing him anew along the fresh tracks of scars,
and wherever they had dragged the sharp
iron a little before, soon, with the wounds recrudescing,
they were pursuing the opened marks,
whom now the proud victor calls cowards. 'O not-virile vigor, O soft hands,
that you could not for so long dissipate the single fabric
of a tottering little body!
scarcely now it coheres, and yet it does not wholly fall,
conquering the muscles of the inert right hands.

Citius cadauer dentibus carpunt canes
longeque morsus uulturum efficacior
ad deuorandas carnis offas mortuae;
languetis inbelli fame ac fatiscitis,
gula est ferina sed socors edacitas'.

More quickly do dogs rend a cadaver with their teeth,
and far more efficacious are the bites of vultures
for devouring the morsels of dead flesh;
you languish with unwarlike hunger and you flag,
the gullet is ferine but the edacity is slothful'.

Exarsit istis turbida ira iudicis
seque in supremam concitat sententiam:
'si te morarum paenitet, finem citum
subeas, licebit: ignibus uorabere
damnatus et fauilla iam tenuis fies.' Abiens at ille, cum foro abriperent uirum
truces ministri, pone respectans ait:
'appello ab ista, perfide, ad Christum meum
crudelitate, non metu mortis tremens,
sed ut probetur esse nil, quod iudicas'. 'Quid differo', inquit ille, 'utrosque perdere,
puerum ac magistrum, conplices sectae inpiae?
gladius recidat uile uix hominis caput
infantis, istum flamma uindex concremet,
sit his sub uno fine dispar exitus.'

At these things the turbid wrath of the judge blazed up
and he stirs himself to the supreme sentence:
'if you regret delays, you may undergo a swift end:
you will be devoured by fires,
condemned, and you will already become a thin cinder.' But he, going away, while the savage attendants were snatching the man from the forum,
looking back behind, says:
'I appeal from this, perfidious one, to my Christ,
trembling at your cruelty, not at fear of death,
but so that it may be proved that what you judge is nothing.' 'Why do I defer,' he says, 'to destroy both,
the boy and the master, accomplices of an impious sect?
let the sword cut off the vile head, scarcely of a man,
of the infant; let the avenging flame burn this one up;
let there be for these, under one end, a disparate exit.'

Peruentum ad ipsum caedis inplendae locum.
natum gerebat mater amplexu et sinu,
ut primitiuum crederes fetum geri
deo offerendum sancti Abelis ferculo,
lectum ex ouili, puriorem ceteris. Puerum poposcit carnifex, mater dedit,
nec inmorata est fletibus, tantum osculum
inpressit unum: 'uale', ait, 'dulcissime,
et, cum beatus regna Christi intraueris,
memento matris, iam patrone ex filio!' Dixit.

They arrived at the very place for the killing to be carried out.
the mother was carrying her son in her embrace and bosom,
so that you would believe a first-born offspring to be borne
to be offered to God on the dish of holy Abel,
chosen from the sheepfold, purer than the rest. The executioner demanded the boy; the mother gave [him],
and she did not linger in tears, only a kiss
she pressed, a single one: 'Farewell,' she said, 'sweetest one,
and, when blessed you have entered the realms of Christ,
remember your mother, now my patron made from a son!' She spoke.

deinde, dum ferit ceruiculam
percussor ense, docta mulier psallere
hymnum canebat carminis Dauitici:
'pretiosa sancti mors sub aspectu dei,
tuus ille seruus, prolis ancillae tuae'.

then, while the executioner strikes the little neck
with the sword, the learned woman, to psalm, was singing
a hymn of Davidic song:
'precious is the death of the holy one under the aspect of God,
that servant of yours, the offspring of your handmaid'.

Talia retexens explicabat pallium
manusque tendebat sub ictu et sanguine,
uenarum ut undam profluam manantium
et palpitantis oris exciperet globum:
excepit et caro adplicauit pectori. At parte campi ex altera inmanem pyram
texebat ustor fumidus pinu arida,
sarmenta mixtim subdita et faeni struem
spargens liquato rote feruentis picis,
quo flamma pastu cresceret ferocius. Et iam retortis bracchiis furca eminus
Romanus actus ingerebatur rogo:
'scio', inquit ille, 'non futurum, ut concremer,
nec passionis hoc genus datum est mihi,
et restat ingens quod fiat miraculum.'

Retelling such things, she was unrolling the mantle,
and she was stretching out her hands beneath the blow and the blood,
so that she might catch the flowing wave of the veins as they streamed,
and the globe of the palpitating face:
she caught it and pressed the dear flesh to her breast. But on the other side of the field a huge pyre
the smoky burner was weaving with dry pine,
brushwood set beneath in mixed fashion and a heap of hay,
sprinkling, by a wheel, the melted run of boiling pitch,
that the flame by its feeding might grow more ferocious. And now, with arms twisted back upon a fork, at a distance,
the Roman, driven, was being thrust onto the pyre:
“I know,” he said, “it will not come to pass that I be burned to ashes,
nor has this kind of passion been given to me,
and a mighty miracle remains to be done.”

Haec eius orsa sequitur inmensus fragor
nubis ruentis, nimbus undatim nigro
praeceps aquarum flumine ignes obruit.
alunt oliuo semiconbustas faces,
sed uincit imber iam madentem fomitem. Trepidare teter carnifex rebus nouis
turbatus et, qua posset arte, insistere,
uersare torres cum fauillis umidis,
prunas maniplis confouere stuppeis
et semen ignis inter undas quaerere.

These his words are followed by an immense crash
of a rushing cloud; a nimbus, wave-wise, with a black
headlong river of waters, overwhelms the fires.
they feed the half-burned torches with oil,
but the shower conquers the tinder now drenched. the foul executioner, troubled by novelties,
and, by whatever art he could, to press on,
to turn the logs with wet cinders,
to foster the coals with handfuls of tow,
and to seek the seed of fire amid the waves.

Quod cum tumenti nuntiatum iudici,
commouit iram fellis inplacabilis:
'quousque tandem summus hic nobis magus
inludet', inquit, 'Thessalorum carmine
poenam peritus uertere in ludibrium?

When this was reported to the puffed-up judge,
it stirred the wrath of implacable gall:
'how long, pray, will this supreme magus mock us,' he says, 'by Thessalian incantation,
skilled to turn punishment into mockery?'

Fortasse ceruix, si secandam iussero,
flecti sub ensem non patebit uulneri,
uel amputatum plaga collum diuidens
rursus coibit ac reglutinabitur
umerisque uertex eminebit additus. Temptemus igitur ante partem quampiam
truncare ferro corporis superstitis,
ne morte simpla criminosus multiplex
cadat uel una perfidus caede oppetat:
quot membra gestat, tot modis pereat uolo. Libet experiri, Lerna, sicut traditur,
utrum renatis pullulascat artubus
ac se inminuti corporis damnis nouum
instauret: ipse praesto erit tunc Hercules
hydrina suetus ustuire uulnera.

Perhaps the neck, if I order it to be cut,
will not allow itself, by bending beneath the sword, to lie open to the wound,
or the blow dividing the neck, though amputated,
will close up again and be re-glued,
and the head will jut forth, added back upon the shoulders. Therefore let us first attempt
to truncate with iron some part of the surviving body,
lest with a single death the manifold criminal
fall, or with one slaughter the perfidious man meet his end:
as many limbs as he bears, by so many ways I want him to perish. I am minded to try, Lerna, as it is handed down,
whether, with limbs reborn, he may sprout forth,
and, with the damages of a diminished body, renew
and restore himself anew: then Hercules himself will be at hand,
accustomed to cauterize Hydra-like wounds.

Iam nunc secandi doctus adsit artifex,
qui cuncta norit uiscerum confinia
uel nexa neruis disparare uincula:
date hunc, reuulsis qui medetur ossibus
aut fracta nodis sarciens conpaginat. Linguam priorem detrahat radicitus,
quae corpore omni sola uiuit nequior;
illa et procaci pessima in nostros deos
inuecta motu fas profanauit uetus
audax et ipsi non pepercit principi.' Aristo quidam medicus accitus uenit,
proferre linguam praecipit. profert statim
martyr retectam, pandit ima et faucium
ille et palatum tractat et digito exitum
uocis pererrans uulneri explorat locum.

Now let there be present at once a craftsman skilled in cutting,
who knows all the confines of the viscera,
or how to separate bonds tied with sinews:
produce such a one, who heals bones when they have been torn asunder,
or, patching fractures at the joints, fits together the framework. Let him tear out from the very root the original tongue,
which alone in the whole body lives more depravedly;
that most pestilent thing, too, by saucy motion carried against our gods,
has profaned the ancient divine law,
bold and it did not spare even the prince himself.' Aristo, a certain physician, having been summoned, comes,
he orders the tongue to be brought forth. At once the martyr
brings it forth laid bare, he opens the depths both of the jaws and of the throat;
that man too handles the palate and, with his finger roaming the outlet
of the voice, explores the place for the wound.

Linguam deinde longe ab ore protrahens
scalpellum in usque guttur insertans agit.
illo secante fila sensim singula
numquam momordit martyr aut os dentibus
conpressit artis nec cruorem sorbuit. Inmotus et patente rictu constitit,
dum sanguis extra defluit scaturriens,
perfusa pulcher menta russo stemmate
fert et cruenti pectoris spectat decus
fruiturque et ostro uestis ut iam regiae.

Then, drawing the tongue far from the mouth,
he works the scalpel, inserting it in up to the gullet.
As he cuts, the threads gradually, one by one,
never did the martyr bite, or with clenched teeth
compress his mouth, nor did he suck in the gore. Motionless and with gaping jaws he stood,
while the blood outside flows down, gushing forth,
he bears his fair chin drenched with a ruddy diadem,
and he beholds the adornment of his blood-stained breast,
and even takes delight in the purple as of a royal garment.

Praefectus ergo ratus elinguem uirum
cogi ad sacrandum posse, cum uerbis carens
nil in deorum blateraret dedecus,
iubet reduci iam tacentem ac debilem
multo loquentis turbine olim territus.

The Prefect therefore, thinking the tongueless man
could be compelled to sacrifice, since, lacking words,
he would blather no disgrace against the gods,
orders him to be led back, now silent and feeble,
once terrified by the whirlwind of his much-speaking.

Reponit aras ad tribunal denuo
et tus et ignem uiuidum in carbonibus
taurina et exta uel suilla abdomina;
ingressus ille, ut hos paratus perspicit,
insufflat, ipsos ceu uideret daemonas. Inridet hoc Asclepiades laetior,
addit deinde: 'numquid inclementius,
sicut solebas, es paratus dicere?
effare quiduis ac perora et dissere;
permitto, uocem libere ut exerceas.' Romanus alto corde suspirans diu
gemitu querellam traxit et sic orsus est:
'Christum loquenti lingua numquam defuit,
nec uerba quaeras quo regantur organo,
cum praedicatur ipse uerborum dator.

He sets up the altars at the tribunal anew,
and incense and living fire on the coals,
bovine entrails and or swine abdomens;
he, having entered, when he perceives these preparations,
blows upon them, as if he were seeing the demons themselves. Asclepiades, rather more joyful, mocks this,
then adds: ‘Are you perhaps prepared to speak more unmercifully,
as you used to? Speak whatever you please and perorate and discourse;
I permit you to exercise your voice freely.’ Romanus, long sighing from a deep heart,
drew out a complaint with a groan and thus began:
‘To one speaking Christ the tongue has never failed,
nor should you seek by what organ words are governed,
when the very giver of words is being preached.’

Qui fecit, ut uis uocis expressa intimo
pulmone et oris torta sub testudine
nunc ex palato det repercussos sonos,
nunc temperetur dentium de pectine
sitque his agendis lingua plectrum mobile, si mandet idem faucium sic fistulas
spirare flatu concinentes consono,
ut uerba in ipsis explicent meatibus
uel exitu oris, cymbalis profarier
nunc pressa parce labra, nunc hiantia, dubitasne uerti posse naturae statum,
cui facta forma est, qualis esset primitus?
hanc nempe factor uertere, ut libet, potest
positasque leges texere ac retexere,
linguam loquella ne ministram postulet.

He who made it that the force of the voice, expressed from the inmost lung and twisted beneath the tortoise-shell of the mouth, now from the palate gives back repercussed sounds, now is tempered from the comb of the teeth, and that for managing these things the tongue be a mobile plectrum, if that same one should command the pipes of the throats thus to breathe with a breath, harmonizing in consonant concord,
so that words may unfold in the very passages or at the exit of the mouth, to be spoken forth by cymbals—the lips now pressed sparingly, now gaping,
do you doubt that the state of nature can be turned, for which a form was made such as it was at first? Indeed the Maker can turn this as he pleases and weave and reweave the established laws, so that speech may not require the tongue as its ministrant.

Vis scire nostri numinis potentiam?
fluctus liquentis aequoris pressit pede,
natura fluxa ac tenuis in solidum coit:
quam dispar illis legibus, quis condita est!
solet natatus ferre, fert uestigia.

Do you wish to know the potency of our numen?
he pressed with his foot the billows of the liquid sea,
the flowing and tenuous nature coalesces into solid:
how unlike to those laws by which it was founded!
it is wont to bear the swimmer, it bears footprints.

Habet usitatum munus hoc diuinitas,
quae uera nobis colitur in Christo et patre,
mutis loquellam, percitum claudis gradum,
surdis fruendam reddere audientiam,
donare caecis lucis insuetae diem. Haec si quis amens fabulosa existimat,
uel ipse tute si parum fidelia
rebare pridem, uera cognoscas licet:
habes loquentem, cuius amputaueras
linguam: probatis cede iam miraculis.'

The divinity has this usual gift,
which is truly worshiped by us in Christ and the Father,
to give to the mute speech, to the lame a quickened step,
to render to the deaf a hearing to be enjoyed,
to grant to the blind a day of unaccustomed light. If anyone, out of his mind, deems these things fabulous,
or if you yourself previously reckoned them insufficiently credible,
you may nonetheless recognize the truths:
you have a speaking man, whose tongue you had cut off;
yield now to proven miracles.'

Horror stupentem persecutorem subit
timorque et ira pectus in caliginem
uertere: nescit, uigilet anne somniet,
miratur haerens, quod sit ostenti genus:
formido frangit, armat indignatio. Nec uim domare mentis effrenae potest
nec, quo furoris tela uertat, inuenit.
postremo medicum saeuus insontem iubet
reum citari, nundinatum hunc arguit,
mercede certa pactus ut conluderet, aut ferrum in ore nil agens et irritum
uersasse frustra seu retunsis tactibus
aut arte quadam uulnus inlatum breue,
quod sauciata parte linguam laederet
neruos nec omnes usque quaque abscideret.

Horror comes upon the stunned persecutor
and fear and anger turn his breast into gloom;
he does not know whether he is awake or asleep,
he marvels, hanging fast, what kind of portent it is:
fear breaks him; indignation arms him. Nor can he subdue the force of his unbridled mind,
nor does he find where to turn the missiles of his frenzy.
At last the savage man orders the innocent physician to be summoned as defendant,
charges this one with having been bought in the marketplace,
a fixed fee agreed so that he might collude, or that the iron in the mouth, doing nothing and ineffectual,
he had turned about in vain, either with blunted touches,
or by some art a slight wound had been inflicted,
which, with the part wounded, would injure the tongue
and would not cut off all the nerves everywhere.

Manere saluam uocis harmoniam probe
non posse, inani concauo uerba exprimi,
quae concrepare ligula moderatrix facit.
esto, ut resultet spiritus uacuo specu,
echo sed extat inde, non oratio. Veris refutat medicus hanc calumniam:
'scrutare uel tu nunc latebras faucium
intraque dentes curiosum pollicem
circumfer haustus uel patentes inspice,
lateatne quidquam, quod regat spiramina.

that the harmony of the voice cannot properly remain intact,
that words are expressed in an empty concave,
which the regulating little tongue makes to rattle.
be it so, that breath rebounds from a hollow cavern,
but what stands forth from there is an echo, not speech. The physician refutes this calumny with truths:
'scrutinize you yourself now the hiding-places of the throat,
and within the teeth carry a curious thumb around,
or inspect the open inlets, look whether anything lies hidden
that might govern the breathing-passages.

Quamquam forassem forte si puncto leui
tenuiue linguam contigissem uulnere,
titubante plectro fatus esset debilis;
nam cum magistra uocis in uitium cadit,
usus necesse est et loquendi intercidat.

Although perhaps by chance, if with a light puncture
or a tenuous wound I had touched the tongue,
with the plectrum faltering the utterance would have been feeble;
for when the mistress of the voice falls into a fault,
it is necessary that the use of speaking also be cut off.

Fiat periclum, si placet, cuiusmodi
edat querellam quadrupes lingua eruta,
elinguis et quem porca grunnitum strepat,
cui uox fragosa, clamor est inconditus,
probabo mutam nil sonare stridulum. Testor salutem principis me simplici
functum secantis arte, iudex optime,
seruisse iussis absque fraude publicis;
sciat hic, quis illi uerba suggillet deus,
ego, unde mutus sit disertus, nescio.' His sese Aristo purgat, at contra inpium
nil haec latronem christianorum mouent,
magis magisque fertur in uesaniam.
quaerit, alienus sanguis ille asperserit
uirum, suone fluxerit de uulnere.

Let a trial be made, if it please, of what sort
a quadruped, its tongue torn out, would give forth a complaint,
and, tongueless, what grunting a sow would rattle,
whose voice is fragorous, the clamor is incondite,
I will prove that the mute sounds nothing stridulous. I bear witness by the safety of the Prince that I, with the simple art of cutting, most excellent judge,
have served the public commands without fraud;
let this man know what god hammers in words for him,
as for me, whence a mute should be eloquent, I do not know.' With these Aristo purges himself, but against the impious
brigand of the Christians these things move nothing,
he is borne more and more into vesania.
he asks whether alien blood has sprinkled
the man, or whether his own has flowed from a wound.

Respondit his Romanus: 'eccum, pracsto sum,
meus iste sanguis uerus est, non bubulus.
agnoscis illum, quem loquor, miserrime
pagane, uestri sanguinem sacrum bouis,
cuius litata caede permadescitis? Summus sacerdos nempe sub terram scrobe
acta in profundum consecrandus mergitur,
mire infulatus festa uittis tempora
nectens, corona tum repexus aurea,
cinctu Gabino sericam fultus togam.

Romanus replied to these things: 'Look, I stand ready,
that blood of mine is true, not bovine.
Do you recognize it, the one I speak of, most wretched
pagan, the sacred blood of your bull,
by whose propitiatory slaughter you are drenched? The high priest indeed beneath the earth, in a pit
dug down to the depth, is plunged for consecration,
wondrously filleted, binding his temples with festal fillets,
knotting them, then with a golden crown set on hair combed back,
with the Gabine cincture, borne up by a silken toga.

Tabulis superne strata texunt pulpita
rimosa rari pegmatis conpagibus,
scindunt subinde uel terebrant aream
crebroque lignum perforant acumine,
pateat minutis ut frequens hiatibus.

They cover from above with boards laid the pulpits,
with the cracked joinings of a sparse scaffold-framework;
they split ever and anon, or bore the flooring,
and frequently perforate the wood with a sharp point,
so that it stands open, replete with minute hiatuses.

Huc taurus ingens fronte torua et hispida
sertis reuinctus aut per armos floreis
aut inpeditis cornibus deducitur,
nec non et auro frons coruscat hostiae
saetasque fulgor brattealis inficit. Hic ut statuta est inmolanda belua,
pectus sacrato diuidunt uenabulo;
eructat amplum uulnus undam sanguinis
feruentis inque texta pontis subditi
fundit uaporum flumen et late aestuat. Tum per frequentes mille rimarum uias
inlapsus imber tabidum rorem pluit,
defossus intus quem sacerdos excipit
guttas ad omnes turpe subiectans caput
et ueste et omni putrefactus corpore.

Hither a huge bull, with grim and bristly brow,
garlanded with wreaths either over the shoulders with flowery ones
or with his horns entangled, is led down;
and indeed the forehead of the victim coruscates with gold,
and the bracteal gleam stains the bristles. Here, when the beast is appointed to be immolated,
they split the breast with a consecrated hunting-spear;
the ample wound belches a wave of seething blood,
and upon the woven structures of the platform set beneath
it pours a river of vapors and seethes far and wide. Then through the manifold thousand ways of the cracks
the shower, having slipped in, rains a putrid dew,
which the priest, buried down within, receives,
thrusting his foul head under every drop,
and made putrid both in garment and in his whole body.

Quin os supinat, obuias offert genas,
supponit aures, labra, nares obicit,
oculos et ipsos perluit liquoribus,
nec iam palato parcit et linguam rigat,
donec cruorem totus atrum conbibat. Postquam cadauer sanguine egesto rigens
conpege ab illa fiamines retraxerint,
procedit inde pontifex uisu horridus,
ostentat udum uerticem, barbam grauem,
uittas madentes atque amictus ebrios. Hunc inquinatum talibus contagiis,
tabo recentis sordidam piaculi,
omnes salutant atque adorant eminus,
uilis quod illum sanguis et bos mortuus
foedis latentem sub cauernis lauerint.

Indeed he turns up his face, offers his cheeks to meet,
puts beneath his ears, sets forth his lips and nostrils,
washes even his eyes themselves with the liquids,
nor now spares his palate, and he irrigates his tongue,
until he altogether drinks down the black gore. After the corpse, stiff with the blood drained out,
the flamens have drawn it back from that framework,
then the pontifex proceeds thence, horrid to behold,
he displays his dripping crown, his weighty beard,
his sodden fillets and his drunken (soaked) garments. This man, polluted with such contagions,
befouled with the ichor of a fresh expiation,
all salute and adore from afar,
because cheap base blood and a dead ox
have washed him as he lurked beneath foul caverns.

Addamus illam, uis, hecatomben tuam,
centena ferro cum cadunt animalia
uariaque abundans caede restagnat cruor,
uix ut cruentis augures natatibus
possint meare per profundum sanguinis? Sed quid macellum pingue puluinarium,
quid maximorum lancinatores gregum
euiscerata carne crudos criminor?
sunt sacra, quando uosmet ipsi exciditis,
uotiuus et cum membra detruncat dolor.

Let us add, if you will, that hecatomb of yours,
when a hundred animals fall by iron,
and the gore, abounding with varied slaughter, back-pools,
so that the augurs can scarcely, with bloody swim-strokes,
make their way through the deep of blood? But why the fat meat-market of the couch-feasts,
why do I arraign as raw the lacerators of the greatest herds
with eviscerated flesh? These are sacred rites, when you yourselves excise yourselves,
and when a votive pain truncates limbs.

Cultrum in lacertos exerit fanaticus
sectisque Matrem bracchiis placat deam,
furere ac rotari ius putatur mysticum;
parca ad secandum dextra fertur inpia,
caelum meretur uulnerum crudelitas.

The fanatic thrusts a knife into his upper arms,
and with his forearms cut he placates the Mother goddess,
to rage and to whirl is deemed a mystic right;
the impious right hand is borne, sparing, to the cutting,
heaven is earned by the cruelty of wounds.

Ast hic metenda dedicat genitalia,
numen reciso mitigans ab inguine
offert pudendum semiuir donum deae,
illam reuulsa masculini germinis
effluenti pascit auctam sanguine. Vterque sexus sanctitati displicet,
medium retentat inter alternum genus,
mas esse cessat ille nec fit femina.
felix deorum mater inberbes sibi
parat ministros lenibus nouaculis.

But this one dedicates his genitals to be reaped,
mitigating the numen with the groin cut away,
the semi-vir offers the pudendum as a gift to the goddess,
he feeds her with the thing torn from the masculine germ,
augmented with effluent blood. Either sex displeases sanctity,
he holds fast a middle genus between the two,
he ceases to be a male and does not become a female.
happy mother of the gods prepares for herself beardless ministers with gentle razors.

Quid, cum sacrandus accipit sfragitidas?
acus minutas ingerunt fornacibus,
his membra pergunt urere, ut igniuerint;
quamcumque partem corporis feruens nota
stigmarit, hanc sic consecratam praedicant.

What then, when the one to be consecrated receives the sphragitides?
they thrust tiny needles into the furnaces,
with these they proceed to sear the members, until they have ignited;
whatever part of the body the fervent mark
has stigmatized, this they proclaim consecrated thus.

Functum deinde cum reliquit spiritus
et ad sepulcrum pompa fertur funeris,
partes per ipsas inprimuntur bratteae,
insignis auri lammina obducit cutem,
tegitur metallo, quod perustum est ignibus. Has ferre poenas cogitur gentilitas,
hac dii coercent lege cultores suos:
sic daemon ipse ludit hos, quos ceperit,
docet execrandas ferre contumelias,
tormenta inuri mandat infelicibus. At noster iste sanguis ex uestra fIuit
crudelitate, uos tyrannide inpia
exulceratis innocentum corpora.

Then, when the spirit has left the one who has finished his course,
and to the sepulchre the pomp of the funeral is borne,
foils are pressed upon the very parts,
a distinguished lamina of gold draws over the skin,
he is covered with metal that has been scorched by fires. By these penalties heathenism is forced to suffer,
by this law the gods coerce their worshipers:
thus the demon himself sports with those whom he has seized,
he teaches them to bear execrable contumelies,
he orders torments to be branded upon the unfortunate. But this our blood has flowed from your cruelty,
you, by impious tyranny,
exulcerate the bodies of the innocent.

si uos sinatis, incruente uiuimus,
at si cruente puniamur, uincimus.

if you allow us, we live bloodlessly,
but if we are punished bloodily, we conquer.

Sed iam silebo, finis instat debitus,
finis malorum, passionis gloria,
iam non licebit, inprobe, ut licuit modo,
torquere nostra uel secare uiscera,
cedas necesse est uictus et iam desinas.' 'Cessabit equidem tortor et sector dehinc',
iudex minatur, 'sed peremptoris manus
succedet illis, strangulatrix faucium,
aliter silere nescit oris garruli
uox inquieta, quam tubam si fregero.' Dixit foroque protrahi iussit uirum,
trudi in tenebras noxialis carceris,
elidit illic fune collum martyris
lictor nefandus. sic peracta est passio,
anima absoluta uinculis caelum petit.

But now I will be silent, the due end stands near,
the end of evils, the glory of the passion;
now it will not be permitted, shameless one, as it was just now,
to torture our viscera or to cut them;
you must yield, conquered, and now cease.' 'Indeed the torturer and the cutter will cease henceforth,'
the judge threatens, 'but the hand of the slayer
will succeed to them, a strangulatress of throats;
the restless voice of a garrulous mouth does not know how otherwise to be silent
than if I break the trumpet.' He spoke and ordered the man to be dragged into the forum,
to be thrust into the darkness of a noxious prison;
there the abominable lictor with a rope crushes the martyr’s neck.
Thus the passion was accomplished,
the soul, absolved from its bonds, makes for heaven.

Gesta intimasse cuncta fertur principi
praefectus addens ordinem uoluminum
seriemque tantae digerens tragoediae,
laetatus omne crimen in fasces refert
suum tyrannus chartulis uiuacibus. Illas sed aetas conficit diutina,
fuligo timeat, puluis obducit situ,
carpit scnectus aut ruinis obruit;
inscripta Christo pagina inmortalis est
nec obsolescit ullus in caelis apex. Excepit adstans angelus coram deo
et quae locutus martyr et quae pertulit,
nec uerba solum disserentis condidit,
sed ipsa pingens uulnera expressit stilo
laterum, genarum pectorisque et faucium.

It is reported that the prefect intimated all the deeds to the emperor,
adding the order of the volumes,
and arranging the sequence of so great a tragedy;
rejoicing, the tyrant consigns every crime into bundles,
his own, to long-lived papers. But long duration wears those out,
soot is to be feared, dust overlays by disuse,
old age nibbles or overwhelms with ruins;
a page inscribed to Christ is immortal
nor does any apex in heaven obsolesce. A standing-by angel received it before God,
both what the martyr spoke and what he endured,
nor did he store up only the words of the one discoursing,
but painting the very wounds he etched with his stylus
those of the sides, the cheeks, the breast, and the throat.

Omnis notata est sanguinis dimensio,
ut quamque plagam sulcus exarauerit,
altam, patentem, proximam, longam, breuem,
quae uis doloris quiue segmenti modus,
guttam cruoris ille nullam perdidit. Hic in regestis est liber caelestibus,
monumenta seruans laudis indelebilis,
relegendus olim sempiterno iudici,
libramine aequo qui malorum pondera
et praemiorum conparabit copias. Vellem sinister inter haedorum greges
ut sum futurus, eminus dinoscerer
atque hoc precante diceret rex optimus:
'Romanus orat, transfer hunc haedum mihi,
sit dexter, agnus induatur uellere.'

Every dimension of the blood has been noted,
how a furrow has ploughed each wound,
deep, gaping, near, long, short,
what force of pain, or what measure of the segmenting,
he lost not a single drop of gore. Here, in the celestial registers, there is a book,
preserving the monuments of indelible praise,
to be read again one day by the everlasting Judge,
who, with an even balance, will compare the weights of evils
and the stores of rewards. I would that, on the left among the herds of kids,
as I am going to be, I might be distinguished from afar,
and that, while this man prays, the best King would say:
“Romanus prays; transfer this kid to me,
let him be on the right, let him be clothed with a lamb’s fleece.”