Quintilian: DECLAMATIONES MAIORES

Duo amici, ex quibus uni mater erat, peregre profecti ad tyrannum appliciti sunt. mater cognito, quod filius haberetur a tyranno, flendo oculos amisit. oblata est a iuvenibus tyranno condicio, ut dimitteret alterum ad visendam matrem ad diem praestitutam reversurum, ita ut, nisi occurrisset ad diem, de eo, qui restiterat, poena sumeretur.

Two friends, of whom one had a mother, having set out abroad, were brought before a tyrant. The mother, once it was learned that her son was held by the tyrant, by weeping lost her eyes. A condition was offered by the young men to the tyrant: that he should dismiss one to visit his mother, to return on a day pre-stipulated, on this term—that, unless he should appear on the day, punishment would be exacted from the one who had remained.

et iureiurando adstrictus est. venit iuvenis in civitatem; mater detinet ex lege, qua parentes in calamitate deserere non licebat.

and he was bound by oath. The youth came into the city; his mother detains him under the law, by which it was not licit to desert parents in calamity.

[1] Etsi, sanctissimi viri, olim omnes videor humanorum pectorum adfectus in solam amicitiam contulisse, et patior invidiam hominis, qui sibi non reliquerit, ut amaret et matrem, quotiens tamen universam pietatis meae conscientiam intueor, in qua minimum est, quod videor bonus amicus, non possum non hanc primam electionis nostrae conplorare fortunam, quod mihi necesse est aut amicum relinquere aut matrem. facinus, severissimi viri, facinus fit inpatientissimis adfectibus meis, quod succurri non potest duobus. excedit omnem querelae meae complorationem, quod me tam diversis meorum conatibus adversa conveniunt, ut videar eligere.

[1] Although, most holy men, I seem long ago to have transferred all the affections of human hearts into friendship alone, and I suffer the ill will of a man who has not left to himself to love even his mother, yet as often as I look upon the whole conscience of my piety, in which the least part is that I seem a good friend, I cannot but bewail first this fortune of our election, that it is necessary for me either to relinquish a friend or a mother. An outrage, most severe men, an outrage is wrought upon my most impatient affections, because succor cannot be given to both. It surpasses all the lamentation of my complaint, that adverse things meet me, so at variance with my endeavors, that I seem to be choosing.

quid non darem miser pro luce matris, qui, ut illam viderem, amicum dedi! fidem vestram, iudices, ne inter maximas necessitates pereat usus hominis, qui paratus est duobus inpendi! iam hic est tota ratio clementiae, ne ibi me detineatis, ubi non prosum.

What would I, wretch, not give for my mother’s light, I who, in order to see her, gave up a friend! By your faith, judges, do not let, amid the greatest necessities, the use of a man—who is prepared to be expended for two—perish! Now here is the whole rationale of clemency: do not detain me there where I am of no use.

nec dissimulo, sanctissimi viri, perferre me cum maxime tam incredibilis exempli fidem, ut non immerito possim videri cum matre colludere. ego videor excogitasse istum colorem, et hoc, quod detineor, amicitiae vocatur infirmitas. miseremini, iudices, temptate me et dimittite.

nor do I dissemble, most holy men, that I am just now putting forward for belief so unbelievable an example, so that I could with good reason seem to be colluding with my mother. I myself seem to have contrived this color (pretext), and this fact, that I am detained, is called a weakness of friendship. Pity me, judges, test me and dismiss me.

an voluerim reverti, scire non potestis, nisi revertor.

whether I have wished to return, you cannot know, unless I return.

[2] Illud, sanctissimi iudices, illud adfectus meos torquet ac lacerat, quod sim ingenti expectatione deceptus: speraveram futurum, ut hoc loco rem magnam faceret et mater. paraveram apud tyrannum hanc iactationem, ut me crederet remissum, et genus ostentationis adamaveram, ut mirarentur homines fidem etiam in orbitate. quo vultis hoc animo feram, quod, etiam ut revertar, amico meo mater inposuit?

[2] That, most holy judges, that torques and lacerates my affections, that I have been deceived in a vast expectation: I had hoped it would come about that in this place even my mother would do a great deed. I had prepared before the tyrant this vaunt, that he might believe me sent back, and I had come to love this kind of ostentation, that men might marvel at fidelity even in orphanhood. With what spirit do you wish that I bear this, that, even in order that I return, my mother has imposed upon my friend?

et quantum ad hanc pertinet, maximum iuvenem decepit, illum, qui meos crediderit adfectus. non possum, iudices, litis huius dissimulare facinus: innocentius fuerat, ut ego nollem reverti.

and as far as she is concerned, she has deceived a very great young man, that one who had believed my feelings. I cannot, judges, dissemble the crime of this suit: it would have been more innocent had I been unwilling to return.

Viderint, sanctissimi viri, . . . sed receptas nominum persuasiones velut aliquam servitutem caritatis attendunt. me si quis interroget, nullos affectus tantum nasci puto, et si quis omnia vera ratione respiciat, quicquid liberos, <parentes,> fratres, propinquos invicem tenet, amicitia est. homines igitur, quos cum maxime incredibilium rerum loquitur invidia, sumus sine dubio non eiusdem pars animae, non eiusdem pondus uteri; sed quanto minus in causis, tanto plus in affectu est.

Let them look to it, most holy men, . . . but they regard the accepted persuasions of names as though a kind of servitude of affection. If anyone asks me, I do not think any affections are born so much from birth; and if someone regards everything by true reason, whatever holds children, <parents,> brothers, and kinsmen mutually together is friendship. Therefore we human beings, about whom envy speaks most of all incredible things, are without doubt not part of the same soul, not the same burden of a womb; but the less there is in causes, the more there is in affection.

admirabilior caritas, in quam coimus viribus nostris. non pudet, iudices, hanc fateri persuasionem: minus debetur homini, qui aliquem ideo tantum amat, quia necesse est. ita est, iudices, ita est: a primis statim aetatibus in eandem coire vitam habet aliquem fraternitatis affectum.

More admirable is the charity into which we come together by our own powers. I am not ashamed, judges, to confess this persuasion: less is owed to the man who loves someone for this reason only, because it is necessary. So it is, judges, so it is: from the very earliest ages, the coming-together into the same life has some feeling of fraternity.

Sic effectum est, ut nos statim fama committeret, et tali certamine coimus, ut, si quid accidisset, uni deberet alter[i] exemplum. inde est, quod et pariter ~reverti~ contempsimus, et, quasi facilius esset ~inter fides~ placuit sub incerta pelagi cohaerere.

Thus it came to pass, that rumor straightway pitted us against one another, and we come together in such a contest, that, if anything had happened, the one would owe to the othe[r] an example. From this it is, that we equally contemned to ~return~, and, as though it were easier ~between faiths~, it pleased us to cohere under the uncertainties of the sea.

[3] nec tamen vanitate, nec discursu putetis extractos; magnas et inexplicabilis navigandi fuisse causas vel hinc potestis aestimare, quod nos non detinuit haec mater.

[3] nor yet think that we were drawn out either by vanity or by discursus; you can estimate even from this that there were great and inexplicable causes for navigating, from the fact that this mother did not detain us.

Utrumne igitur, iudices, sumere de nobis etiam nunc voluit experimentum ipsa amicitia, et parum fortuna credit hominibus adhuc tantum feliciter amantibus, an haec est magnae semper opinionis invidia, nec ulli umquam tam plena confessione laudantur, ut illos non ipsa quoque . . . ~ad~ litoribus appulsi sumus. homines, quorum omnis casus fama custodiebat, ~consumimus~ terrore, qui parentibus statim caecitas est. hinc illud evenit, quod <non> sumus pariter alligati: sic magis adversus solutum carcer inventus est.

Whether then, judges, did friendship itself wish even now to make an experiment upon us, and does Fortune too little trust men thus far loving so happily, or is this the envy of a greatness of opinion always, nor are any ever praised with such a full confession that not even they themselves also . . . ~to~ the shores we were brought to land. men, whose every chance Fame was keeping guard over, we are ~consumed~ by terror, which to parents is immediately blindness. hence it happened that we were <not> bound equally together: thus rather a prison was found against the unbound.

pudet, iudices, fateri: iam in hoc victus, iam inferior recessi; ex duobus magis amatur, quem tyrannus paratus est alligare.

I am ashamed, judges, to confess: already in this I am vanquished, already I have withdrawn as the inferior; of the two, he is more loved whom the tyrant is prepared to bind.

Quantum tibi, amice, debeo! non potuit nos dividere nisi mater. ubi primum caecitas nuntiata est, tuus hic affectus fuit, quod hoc credidit tyrannus.

How much I owe you, friend! no one could divide us except mother. as soon as blindness was announced, such was your affection, that the tyrant believed this.

quid ille non fecit! ut rex desideravit vicarium corpus, amplexus est catenas; sponderi sibi voluit hominem rediturum per maria, per matrem; repromisit de incertis tamquam de animo suo. quis hominum pro se tam multa fecisset?

What did he not do! As soon as the king desired a vicarious body, he embraced the chains; he wished to have a man pledged to himself as one who would return, by the seas, by his mother; he re-promised about uncertainties as if about his own spirit. Who among men would have done so many things for his own sake?

praestitit, inquam, amicus, praestitit rem, quam videbatur ideo tyrannus indulsisse, ne fieret, et hominem, qui in rebus humanis hunc esse nolebat affectum, decipimus, dum temptamur.

He has performed it, I say; the friend has performed the deed which the tyrant seemed for that reason to have indulged, in order that it might not be done; and we deceive the man who did not wish this affection to exist in human affairs, while we are being tested.

[4] Ego non invenio, cur horreat mater arcem, quid sibi velit quasi destinatas operire cervices. non odit me tyrannus, cuius non interest, an alium occidat. miserere, mater, si quis est magnorum meritorum pudor, querere, quod unum decet, impatientius ex uobus amari semper absentem.

[4] I do not find why the mother shudders at the citadel, what she means by covering, as if destined, the necks. The tyrant does not hate me, to whom it is of no concern whether he kills one man or another. Have pity, mother, if there is any sense of honor of great merits; complain of this, which alone befits: that, of the two, the one always absent is loved more impatiently.

cui tu fortunae, quibus necessitatibus inicis manum! me ad amicum meum admitterent alterius catenae tyranni, nunc mihi portas aperiret, subsidio navigium pirata praestaret. si mehercules ante morerer, ire deberes, mater, ad diem.

upon what fortune, upon what necessities do you lay a hand! the chains of another tyrant would admit me to my friend, now he would open the gates for me, a pirate would furnish a ship for succor. by Hercules, if I were to die beforehand, you ought to go, mother, on the appointed day.

misera, non intellegis, quanto te magis [plus] obligaverit amicus? plus debes homini, qui me tibi remisit, ex quo pati non potes, ut revertar.

wretched woman, do you not understand how much more the friend has obligated you [more]? you owe more to the man who sent me back to you, on which account you cannot suffer that I return.

Libet mehercules, iudices, libet misereri hominum, qui me laudant revertentem. amicus mihi credidit, ut redirem. ita nunc ego facio rem magnam, ego sum ille bonus amicus, ille mirabilis, ille narrandus?

By Hercules, judges, I do feel like pitying the men who laud me returning. a friend trusted me that I would return. so now am I doing some great thing—am I that good friend, that marvelous one, that one to be narrated?

si qua dicentis fides est, facinus mihi videtur, quod scio me non esse periturum.

if there is any faith in the speaker, it seems to me a crime that I know I am not going to perish.

Sentit, iudices, et ipsa mater rem se facere turpissimam, si necessitate detinear; itaque mulier, quae adhuc de affectu cuncta fecerat, ad legem subito convertitur. pessima, iudices, causa matris est, in qua plurimum lex potest. liberi parentes in calamitate ne deserant;

She perceives, judges, and the mother herself, that she is doing a most disgraceful thing, if she is held by necessity; and so the woman, who up to now had done everything out of affection, suddenly turns to the law. Very bad, judges, is the mother’s case, in which the law has the most power. Let the children not desert their parents in calamity;

[5] facinus est, iudices, hoc dici homini reverso. ita nunc ego contemno matrem, ego despicio caecitatis obsequia, homo qui omnium calamitatium mearum ambitum in hoc consumpsi, ut redirem, qui inter supremas sollicitudines non pro me rogavi? mihi quisquam contumacium supplicia liberorum, mihi neglectae pietatis minatur invidiam?

[5] it is a crime, judges, that this be said to a man who has returned. So now I contemn my mother, I despise the dutiful services owed to blindness—I, a man who has consumed the whole ambit of all my calamities on this, that I might return, who amid the utmost anxieties did not plead for myself? To me does anyone threaten the punishments of contumacious children, to me threaten the ill will for neglected piety?

bone Iuppiter, quanti mihi constitit, ut malus filius viderer! inputem tibi necesse est, mater, quod meum amicum propter te reliqui, ad quem facinus est non reverti.

O good Jupiter, how much it has cost me, that I should seem a bad son! I must impute to you, mother, that I left my friend on account of you, to whom it is a crime not to return.

Nondum, iudices, necessitates meas, nondum amici merita refero; interim contendo tunc esse tantum legis huius usum, cum in calamitate soli sunt parentes. magnam partem mortalium fortuna dimisit a legibus, nec ulla iura tam tristia sunt, ut ea in adversis patiantur homines. ego, cum me necessitas rapit, sic ~habeo queri~ quasi relinquar.

Not yet, judges, do I recount my necessities, not yet the merits of my friend; meanwhile I contend that only then is there any use of this law, when in calamity parents are alone. Fortune has dismissed a great part of mortals from the laws, nor are any laws so sad that men should endure them in adversities. I, when necessity seizes me, thus ~I have to complain~ as if I were being abandoned.

excusatae sunt parentibus liberorum calamitates, et si quem lex ista deprehenderit in alterius fatum, transeat necesse est tamquam orbitatem. quid enim, si me detinente matre pater a latere revocaret? et si bella militem poscerent, si legatum patria dimitteret, vel, uti ad propriam descendam necessitatis meae conplorationem, si me damnatum poena constringeret, videlicet effringeres carcerem, mater, iniceres carnifici manum et perituri filii iugulum auctoritate iuris operires?

the calamities of children are excused to parents, and if this law should apprehend someone in another’s fate, it must pass it over as though it were bereavement. For what, indeed, if, while my mother was detaining me, my father should call me back from her side? And if wars demanded a soldier, if the fatherland sent forth an envoy, or—to descend to the proper lamentation of my necessity—if punishment bound me, condemned, would you, forsooth, break open the prison, mother, lay hand upon the executioner, and cover the throat of your son about to perish with the authority of the law?

[6] Dii deaeque, quam longe est lex, quae retinet hominem, qui poenae non venit! nescis, quantum intellego, mater, quantam invidiam debeant facere liberis parentes, a quibus relinquuntur. mater, quae se deseri queritur, illud exclamet: 'filium meum civitas peregrina sollicitat; ut amoenos nescio cuius recessus orbis petat, debilitati meae subtrahit umeros.' 'iuvenis meus abducitur amore meretricis, et ab officiis caecitatis vitiis abstrahitur oculorum.' eiusmodi gemitu filium necesse est persequaris, ut, quod detineor, obiter et poena sit.

[6] O gods and goddesses, how far off is the law which restrains a man who has not come to punishment! You do not know, so far as I understand, mother, how great an invidiousness parents ought to create for the children by whom they are left. Let a mother who complains that she is being deserted cry out this: 'A foreign city solicits my son; that he may seek the pleasant recesses of I know not what region of the world, he withdraws his shoulders from my debility.' 'My young man is led away by love of a meretrix, and from his duties he is drawn off by the vices of the blindness of his eyes.' With a groan of this kind you must pursue your son, so that my being detained may incidentally also be a punishment.

non facit ista lex ad liberos, qui misericordia detinentur. ut turpe sit, quod recedo, in eo tantum est, ad quem revertor, et ut facinus sit relicta mater, non faciunt nisi causae relinquendi. homo, qui ad tyrannum revertor, si malo animo relinquo matrem, dignus sum, qui detinear.

That law does not apply to children who are held back by mercy. Whether it is disgraceful that I withdraw depends solely on the one to whom I return; and whether it is a crime that a mother be left is made so only by the causes of leaving. As a man who is returning to a tyrant, if I leave my mother with an evil mind, I am worthy to be detained.

non est itaque, quod subinde nominis vestri beneficia, mater, opponas, non est, quod vilitati tuae fieri putes, si credimus esse in rebus humanis et alterum affectum. amicitia est, quam mihi videtur natura excogitasse, ut coire invicem possit totum hominum genus, quae ideo nondum circa se tenet omnes admirationes, quia tota non contigit, quae tamen pervenerat ad incredibilium fidem, nisi illa vos inpediretis; amicitia, plurium corporum unus animus, vicariae manus, fortior quam matris affectus.

therefore, there is no reason, mother, for you continually to set in opposition the benefits of your name; there is no reason for you to think that a cheapening is being done to your worth, if we believe that among human affairs there is also another affection. it is friendship, which nature seems to me to have devised, so that the whole race of humans might be able mutually to come together; which for that reason does not yet hold all admirations around itself, because it has not come to pass entire; which nevertheless would have attained to the credence of incredible things, had you not impeded it by that; friendship, one soul of many bodies, vicarious hands, stronger than a mother’s affection.

[7] Rogo, quid refert, quid vocetur ille, qui sic amat? Quid interest, ex quibus magna merita descendant? vultis scire, quid de hoc affectu sentiat mater?

[7] I ask, what does it matter what he is called, who loves thus? What difference is it from whom great merits descend? Do you wish to know what the mother feels about this affect?

et amicum meum putat malle, ne revertar.

and she thinks my friend prefers that I should not return.

Finge me <se>positis paulisper meritis, quibus obligatus sum, hoc tantum dicere: 'amicus alligatus est.' ire volo, mater, ut redeat, ut consoler, ut ~dominum regem, ut, si tyrannus exegerit, vicarium corpus opponam. quid detines, quid moraris? hoc est tempus, propter quod coimus.

Imagine me, with the merits by which I am obligated set aside for a little while, saying only this: 'a friend is bound.' I wish to go, mother, so that he may return, so that I may console, to the ~lord king, and, if the tyrant shall have demanded it, that I may set forth a vicarious body. Why do you detain, why do you delay? This is the time on account of which we come together.

nescias, an diligat, cuius non habet experimenta nisi sola felicitas, et, si vitae praestes omnia secunda, amicus otiosa res est. dicturum me putas: 'hoc expectat alligatus'? expectat totum immo genus hominum, et nos in hanc fidem persuasiones receperunt, ut, si hoc faciam, nemo miretur. vis scire, mater, quem affectum, quam reverentiam in calamitatibus amico praestare debeamus?

You may not know whether he loves, when you have no trials of him except only felicity; and, if you furnish all favorable things of life, a friend is an idle thing. Do you think I am going to say: 'Is this what the bound one expects?' The entire—nay, the entire race of men—expects it; and persuasions have received us into this faith, that, if I do this, no one will marvel. Do you wish to know, mother, what affection, what reverence we ought to render to a friend in calamities?

nullam legem timuit, ne relinqueretur.

he feared no law, lest he be abandoned.

Differo interim causam amicitiae; agere paulisper omnium libet. et tyrannus mihi credidit; volo reverti. nulli umquam, mater, plus commisit fides, neminem magis obligaverunt expectationes.

I defer meanwhile the cause of friendship; it pleases me to plead for a little while on behalf of all. And the tyrant has trusted me; I wish to return. To no one ever, mother, has trust committed more; expectations have obligated no one more.

credidit mihi homo, cui res favorabilis contingit, si decipitur, qui sibi excogitasse contra omnes amicos videtur, ut illi inponeremus. non est, quod mihi supplicia, quod omnem mortis apparatum, mater, opponas; facinus est id tantum hominibus bene credere, quod expedit, et actum est de rebus humanis, si sola servatur utilitatium fides. infinitum est, quantum mihi crediderit tyrannus, si me occiderit reversum.

A man has trusted me, for whom the matter turns out favorable if he is deceived—one who seems to himself to have devised, against all friends, that we should impose upon them for him. There is no cause, mother, for you to set before me punishments, the whole apparatus of death; it is a crime to trust men only in what is expedient, and human affairs are done for, if only the faith of utilities is preserved. Boundless is the extent to which the tyrant will have trusted me, if he kills me on my return.

[8] Intellegit, iudices, et ipsa mater, quantae reverentiae locum amicus optineat, quae incipit contendere adfectu. nisi fallor igitur, cum ego sim materia litis, hoc primum aestimare debetis, ut in mea calamitate plus fecerit. ante omnia permitte mihi de hoc adfectus tui genere, mater, queri.

[8] She understands, judges, even the mother herself, what place of reverence a friend occupies, she who begins to contend in emotion. Unless I am mistaken, therefore, since I am the subject-matter of the suit, this first you ought to assess: which of the two has done more in my calamity. Before all else, permit me, mother, to complain about this kind of your emotion.

quid tibi tam rabido, tam praecipiti dolore voluisti, quid adversis tuis praestare faciem et in oculos tuos accipere nuntium? non reliquisti tibi, ut redimeres. sine dubio adiecisti ad matris adfectus; oculos in media orbitate fudisti; sed illud non laxat catenas, non explicat corpus.

what did you desire, with such rabid, such precipitous grief? what—to present your face to your adversities and to receive the message into your very eyes? you left yourself no way to redeem; without doubt you added to a mother’s affections; you poured out your eyes in the very midst of bereavement; but that does not loosen the chains, does not free the body.

quid mihi prodest iste, qui se citra filium consumpsit, adfectus? plus fecisset mater, quae isset ad tyrannum. alligatus sum; tu nunc sic flebis, tamquam solvar in lectulo, tamquam in tuis manibus expirem?

What does that affection profit me, which has consumed itself short of her son? A mother would have done more, who would have gone to the tyrant. I am bound; will you now weep thus, as though I were being unbound on a couch, as though I were expiring in your hands?

in quibusdam calamitatibus desperatio non est summus affectus, et quisquis orbitatem statim credit, festinat ad inpatientiae securitatem. dissimules licet, mater tantae pro me inpatientiae, tam incredibilis adfectus: amicus rem difficiliorem fecit, quod servavit oculos suos, ut alligaretur. dii deaeque, quantum ille praestitit <mihi>, qui [mihi] [in]vidit poenam meam nec recessit!

in certain calamities, desperation is not the supreme affect, and whoever immediately believes in bereavement hastens to the security of impatience. you may dissemble, mother of so great an impatience on my behalf, so incredible an affect: a friend made the matter more difficult, because he preserved his eyes, so that he might be bound. gods and goddesses, how much he rendered <to me>, who [to me] [en]vied my punishment and did not withdraw!

ille, ille terribilem carcerem facit, qui inde procedit. iam non corporis nexus haerebat, nec aliud quam resederant pondere catenae; consumpti longo squalore vultus, concretae noctibus diebusque super ora lacrimae.

He, he makes the prison terrible, the one who proceeds from there. By now the bonds (nexus) of the body no longer clung, and nothing else save that the chains had settled by their weight; the features consumed by long squalor, the tears congealed over the face through nights and days.

[9] Miseremini, iudices, ne perdat auctoritatem meritum, quod ultra expectationem est. ponite sub oculos alligatos, quorum alterum amicus redemerit, alterum mater: rogo, uter plus fecerit? bone Iuppiter, quam avide, quam fortiter vincla nostra tractavit!

[9] Have pity, judges, lest the merit, which is beyond expectation, lose its authority. Set before your eyes the bound ones, of whom the friend has redeemed the one, the mother the other: I ask, which has done more? Good Jupiter, how eagerly, how bravely he handled our bonds!

quibus ille precibus exegit, ut sibi crederetur! 'accipe,' inquit, 'has manus, haec membra, si fieri potest, ut amicum matri remittamus. in totum explebo, si videtur, vicaria poena locum recedentis, vel, si vis utique tibi dimissa membra restitui, spondeo quemcumque iusseris aperto iugulo diem.' fidem deorum hominumque, quid non factum est, ut amicum meum paeniteret?

With what prayers did he bring it to pass, that he might be believed! 'Receive,' he says, 'these hands, these limbs, if it can be done, that we may send the friend back to his mother. I will completely fill, if it seems good, the place of the one departing by a vicarious penalty; or, if you absolutely wish the released limbs to be restored to you, I pledge, for whomever you shall command, a day with the throat laid open.' By the faith of gods and men, what was not done, that my friend might repent?

ingestum est misero illud carceris tenebrarumque secretum, gravioribus vinculis opus esse carnifex dixit ad bonum amicum. accedere ad illud cubile iussi sunt homines nocentes, et subinde dictum est: 'vide tamen, amice, si tanti est.' una vox, unus miseri gemitus: 'urite, lacerate, distrahite, ille tamen revertetur.'

That seclusion of the prison and of darkness was thrust upon the wretch; the executioner said to the good friend that heavier chains were needed. Guilty men were ordered to approach that couch, and presently it was said: “Consider, however, friend, whether it is worth so much.” One voice, one groan of the wretch: “Burn, lacerate, rend apart—he, however, will return.”

Miserere, mater, magna res agitur. amicum meum reliqui contendentem cum tyranno. excuso me vobis, humani generis adfectus, et tibi ante omnia, mater, excuso, quod hoc fieri passus sum.

have mercy, mother, a great matter is at stake. i left my friend contending with the tyrant. i excuse myself to you, affections of the human race, and to you before all, mother, i excuse myself, that i have suffered this to be done.

ulla ergo in rebus humanis necessitas tanti fuit, ut illum amicum meum in carcerem ipse deducerem, ut squalorem meum, meas catenas in membra festinantis exuerem, ut tam abrupti commeatus diem contra tot incerta promitterem? testor te, misera conscientia, et si quod nos in illa necessitate numen aspexit, quantum simus rixati circa catenas, quam omnia fecerim, ut ille potius veniret ad matrem.

Was there, then, any necessity in human affairs of such worth, that I myself should lead that friend of mine into prison, that I should strip off my squalor, my chains, onto the limbs of the one hastening, that I should promise a day for so abrupt a leave against so many uncertainties? I call you to witness, wretched conscience, and, if any numen looked upon us in that necessity, how much we wrangled around the chains, how I did everything, so that he rather might come to his mother.

[10] fateor, iudices, unius cogitationis pudore victus sum, quod tam magni beneficii difficultatem ab amico non accipere adfectus videbatur hominis, qui non credidisset.

[10] I confess, judges, I was overcome by the shame of a single thought: that to not accept from a friend the difficulty of so great a benefit seemed the disposition of a man who would not have trusted.

Miserere, mater, ne me solutum putes; amicum alligavi. hae sunt catenae, quae ligant membra, quae per maria, per infinita terrarum spatia restringunt. sic non potest carcer effringi.

Have pity, mother, do not think me unbound; I have bound a friend. These are the chains that bind the limbs, that restrain across the seas, across the infinite spaces of the lands. Thus the prison cannot be broken open.

invideo tyranno: scit alligare amicos, scit tenere dimissum. iterum ac subinde proclamem necesse est: ego amicum meum alligavi, et, ut te viderem, poenam meam altero homine implevi. scio, quo hoc amicus praestiterit animo, sed ego rem feci hominis non reversuri.

I envy the tyrant: he knows how to bind friends, he knows how to hold even one released. It is necessary that I cry out again and again: I bound my friend, and, in order to see you, I fulfilled my penalty by means of another man. I know with what spirit my friend has rendered this, but I did the deed of a man who will not return.

interrogo hoc loco inpatientiam tuam, mater, interrogo: quid faceres, si nos ad te videndam deduxissent alligatos aliqui satellites, si barbarus aliqui? fruereris osculis, fruereris amplexibus. non est, quod te ista tamquam levior, tamquam expeditior condicio decipiat.

I question here your impatience, mother, I question it: what would you do, if some satellites had conducted us, bound, to see you—if some barbarian had? You would enjoy kisses, you would enjoy embraces. There is no reason for that condition to deceive you, as though lighter, as though more unencumbered.

quid putas esse, quod me dimisit solutum ire, quo vellem? crudelis artifex non reliquit nobis, ut inponeremus.

What do you think it means, that he let me go, unbound, to go where I wished? The cruel contriver did not leave to us even the chance to lay hands.

[11] Supervacuo igitur hoc vos in matris causa movet, quod caeca est. hoc, quod nobis invidiam facit vulneribus oculorum, nolite detinendi putare causas; idem videns faceret, nec plus est, quod non potest caecitas ferre, quam mater. ut aliqua filio carere non possit, non umquam calamitas facit.

[11] Therefore this moves you needlessly in the mother’s case, that she is blind. Do not think that this, which creates ill-will for us because of the wounds of the eyes, supplies causes for detaining; she would do the same seeing, nor is there more that blindness cannot bear than a mother. No calamity ever makes it so that some woman cannot be without her son.

quod si, iudices, in persona mea nec adfectu nec meritis inferior est amicus, quid aliud iustitia vestra debet attendere quam uter plus patiatur? iam satiavit dolorem mater, egessit aestus, edit impetum; iam non desiderant oculi, cum cadunt. adice, quod hanc qualemcumque fortunam inter amicos tenet, inter propinquos; habet omnia ministeria sua debilitas, suas comparationes.

But if, judges, with respect to my person the friend is inferior in neither affection nor merits, what else ought your justice to attend to than which of the two suffers more? Already the mother has satiated her dolor, has driven out her heat, has spent her impetus; now the eyes do not desire, since they fail. Add that she holds this whatever fortune among friends, among kinsfolk; infirmity has all its ministrations, its comparisons.

vis scire, quanto intolerabilius sit, quod patitur amicus? excaecavit te, quod ego sic tenebar. accipere cibos, quos carnifex, quos tortor ~appendebat . . .

do you wish to know how much more intolerable is what the friend suffers? it has blinded you, that I was held thus. to receive food, which the executioner, which the torturer ~was weighing out . . .