Prudentius: LIBER PERISTEPHANON

Sylla Forum statuit Cornelius; hoc Itali urbem
uocant ab ipso conditoris nomine.
Hic mihi, cum peterem te, rerum maxima Roma,
spes est oborta prosperum Christum fore.
Stratus humi tumulo aduoluebar, quem sacer ornat
martyr dicato Cassianus corpore.

Cornelius Sulla established the Forum; this the Italians call the city
from the founder’s very name.
Here for me, when I was seeking you, Rome, greatest of things,
a hope arose that Christ would be favorable.
Laid on the ground, I was rolling toward the tomb, which the holy
martyr Cassian adorns with his dedicated body.

Dum lacrimans mecum reputo mea uulnera et omnes
uitae labores ac dolorum acumina,
erexi ad caelum faciem, stetit obuia contra
fucis colorum picta imago martyris
plagas mille gerens, totos lacerata per artus,
ruptam minutis praeferens punctis cutem.
Innumeri circum pueri---miserabile uisu---
confossa paruis membra ligebant stilis,
unde pugillares soliti percurrere ceras
scholare murmur adnotantes scripserant.
Aedituus consultus ait: 'quod prospicis, hospes,
non est inanis aut anilis fabula;
historiam pictura refert, quae tradita libris
ueram uetusti temporis monstrat fidem.

While, weeping, I reckon with myself my wounds and all
the labors of life and the sharp points of pains,
I raised my face to heaven; there stood facing me opposite
the image of the martyr painted with the dyes of colors,
bearing a thousand blows, torn through all his limbs,
displaying skin broken with minute pricks.
Innumerable boys around—miserable to see—
were pinning the pierced limbs with little styli,
with which they were wont to run over their wax tablets,
having written down the scholastic murmur in notes.
The sacristan, when consulted, says: “What you behold, guest,
is not an empty or old-wives’ fable;
the painting relates the history, which, handed down in books,
shows the true faith of an ancient time.”

Praefuerat studiis puerilibus et grege multo
saeptus magister litterarum sederat,
uerba notis breuibus conprendere cuncta peritus
raptimque punctis dicta praepetibus sequi.
Aspera nonnumquam praecepta et tristia uisa
inpube uulgus mouerant ira et metu;
doctor amarus enim discenti semper efybo
nec dulcis ulli disciplina infantiae est.
Ecce fidem quatiens tempestas saeua premebat
plebem dicatam christianae gloriae.

He had presided over boyish studies, and, hedged by a great throng,
the master of letters had sat;
skilled to compress all words into brief notes,
and to follow utterances swiftly with winged points.
Sometimes the harsh precepts and those seen as sad
had stirred the beardless crowd with anger and fear;
for the teacher is bitter to the learning ephebe always,
nor is the discipline of infancy sweet to anyone.
Behold, a savage storm, shaking the faith, was pressing
the people dedicated to Christian glory.

Extrahitur coetu e medio moderator alumni
gregis, quod aris supplicare spreuerat.
Poenarum artifici quaerenti, quod genus artis
uir nosset alto tam rebellis spiritu,
respondent: 'agmen tenerum ac puerile gubernat
fictis notare uerba signis inbuens.'
'Ducite', conclamat, 'captiuum ducite, et ultro
donetur ipsis uerberator paruulis.
Vt libet, inludant, lacerent inpune manusque
tinguant magistri feriatas sanguine;
ludum discipulis uolupe est ut praebeat ipse
doctor seuerus, quos nimis coercuit.'
Vincitur post terga manus spoliatus amictu,
adest acutis agmen armatum stilis.

He is dragged out from the midst of the company, the moderator of the pupil-flock,
because he had spurned to supplicate at the altars.
To the artificer of penalties asking what kind of art
the man knew, so rebellious in lofty spirit,
they answer: 'he governs a tender and puerile agmen,
imbuing them to mark words with fictive signs.'
'Lead him,' he shouts, 'lead the captive, and moreover
let the flogger be granted to the little ones themselves.
As it pleases, let them mock, let them lacerate with impunity, and let their hands,
on holiday from the master, be tinged with blood;
it is a delight to the disciples that the severe doctor himself
should provide a game, those whom he has too much coerced.'
His hands are bound behind his back, stripped of his cloak,
there is present a troop armed with sharp styli.

Quantum quisque odii tacita conceperat ira,
effundit ardens felle tandem libero.
Coniciunt alii fragiles inque ora tabellas
frangunt, relisa fronte lignum dissilit,
buxa crepant cerata genis inpacta cruentis
rubetquc ab ictu curta et umens pagina.
Inde alii stimulos et acumina ferrea uibrant,
qua parte aratis cera sulcis scribitur,
et qua secti apices abolentur et aequoris hyrti
rursus nitescens innouatur area.

As much hatred as each had conceived in silent wrath,
he pours out, blazing, with bile at last set free.
Others hurl the brittle tablets and into his face
they break them; with his brow struck, the wood springs apart,
the waxed boxwood cracks, driven upon bloodied cheeks,
and from the blow the short and moist page reddens.
Then others brandish goads and iron points,
by that side with which the wax is written in ploughed furrows,
and by that with which the incised strokes are effaced and the surface of the rough plain,
shining again, is renewed.

Hinc foditur Christi confessor et inde secatur,
pars uiscus intrat molle, pars scindit cutem.
Omnia membra manus pariter fixere ducente
totidemque guttae uulnerum stillant simul.
Major tortor erat, qui summa pupugerat infans,
quam qui profuuda perforarat uiscera,
ille leuis, quoniam percussor morte negata
saeuire solis scit dolorum spiculis,
hic, quanto interius uitalia condita pulsat.

Hence on this side the confessor of Christ is stabbed and on that side cut,
part enters the soft viscera, part rends the skin.
Their hands, with the leader directing, pierced all the limbs alike,
and just as many drops of wounds drip at once.
Greater was the torturer, the child who had pricked the outer parts,
than he who had perforated the deep entrails;
that one is light, since, a striker with death denied,
he knows to rage only with the darts of pains,
this one, in that he strikes more inwardly the hidden vitals.

plus dat medellae, dum necem prope applicat.
'Este, precor, fortes et uincite uiribus annos,
quod defit aeuo, suppleat crudelitas!'
Sed male conatus tener infirmusque laborat,
tormenta crescunt, dum fatiscit carnifex.
'Quid gemis?' exclamat quidam, 'tute ipse magister
istud dedisti ferrum et armasti manus.

he gives more to the remedy, while he applies death close at hand.
“Be, I pray, brave, and with your strengths conquer the years;
let cruelty make up what is lacking to age!”
But, ill-attempted, the tender and feeble one struggles;
the torments increase, while the executioner crumbles.
“Why do you groan?” someone exclaims, “you yourself, teacher,
gave that iron and armed the hands.”

Reddimus ecce tibi tam milia multa notarum,
quam stando, flendo te docente excepimus.
Non potes irasci, quod scribimus; ipse iubebas,
numquam quietum dextera ut ferret stilum.
Non petimus totiens te praeceptore negatas,
auare doctor, iam scholarum ferias.

Behold, we render back to you so many thousands of notes,
as we took down, standing and weeping, with you instructing.
You cannot be angry that we write; you yourself commanded,
that the right hand should never bear the stylus at rest.
We do not ask for, so often denied by you as preceptor,
avaricious teacher, now the school holidays.

Pangere puncta libet sulcisque intexere sulcos,
flexas catenis inpedire uirgulas.
Emendes licet inspectos longo ordine uersus,
mendosa forte si quid errauit manus,
exerce imperium, ius est tibi plectere culpam,
si quis tuorum te notauit segnius.'
Talia ludebant pueri per membra magistri
nec longa fessum poena soluebat uirum.
Tandem luctantis miseratus ab aethere Christus
iubet resolui pectoris ligamina
difficilesque moras animae ac retinacula uitae
relaxat artas et latebras expedit.

It pleases to drive punctures and to interweave furrow with furrows,
to impede the bent little rods with chains.
You may amend the verses inspected in long order,
if perchance the faulty hand has erred in anything;
exercise dominion; it is your right to punish the fault,
if any of your own has noted you too sluggishly.'
Such things the boys were playing over the master’s limbs,
nor did the long penalty release the wearied man.
At last Christ, pitying the one struggling from the aether,
commands the bonds of the breast to be loosed
and the difficult delays of the soul and the retinacles of life
he relaxes, and he frees the hiding-places.

Sanguis ab interno uenarum fonte patentes
uias secutus deserit praecordia
totque foraminibus penetrati corporis exit
fibrarum anhelans ille uitalis calor.
'Haec sunt, quae liquidis expressa coloribus, hospes,
miraris, ista est Cassiani gloria.
Suggere, si quod habes iustum uel amabile uotum,
spes si qua tibi est, si quid intus aestuas!

Blood from the inner fountain of the veins, having followed the open ways,
deserts the precordia,
and through so many openings of the penetrated body goes out
that vital heat, gasping from the fibers.
'These are the things which, expressed with liquid colors, O guest,
you marvel at; this is the glory of Cassian.
Proffer, if you have any just or lovable vow,
if there is any hope for you, if you seethe within about anything!'

Audit, crede, preces martyr prosperrimus omnes
ratasque reddit, quas uidet probabiles.'
Pareo: conplector tumulum, lacrimas quoque fundo,
altar tepescit ore, saxum pectore.
Tunc arcana mei percenseo cuncta laboris,
tunc, quod petebarn, quod timebam, murmuro:
et post terga domum dubia sub sorte relictam
et spem futuri forte nutantem boni.
Audior, 'urbem adeo, dextris successibus utor,
domum reuertor, Cassianum praedico.

He hears—believe it—the most prosperous martyr, all prayers,
and renders ratified those which he sees as approvable.'
I obey: I embrace the tomb, I also pour forth tears,
the altar grows warm at my mouth, the stone at my chest.
Then I review all the arcana of my labor,
then what I was seeking, what I was fearing, I murmur:
and the home left behind my back under a dubious lot,
and the hope of future good perhaps wavering.
I am heard, 'I go to the city, I enjoy favorable successes,
I return home, I proclaim Cassianus.