Quintilian: DECLAMATIONES MAIORES

Malae tractationis sit actio. Speciosum filium, infamem, tamquam incestum cum matre committeret, pater in secreta parte domus torsit et occidit in tormentis. interrogat illum mater, quid ex filio compererit; nolentem dicere malae tractationis accusat.

Let there be an action for maltreatment. His handsome son, disgraced, as though he were committing incest with his mother, the father tortured in a secret part of the house and killed under torture. the mother asks him what he had discovered from the son; when he is unwilling to speak, she accuses him of maltreatment.

[1] Etsi, iudices, callidissimus parricida facinus suum sic ordinavit, ut vobis matrem faceret invisam, sive dissimularet misera mortem filii sui, sive quereretur, tantaque monstrorum novitate circumdatam eo perduxit, ut sibi videatur infamaturus iterum vel patientiam nostram vel dolorem, matri tamen, cuius calamitatibus ~ne minimum sibi vindicat orbitas locum, ideo ad vos fugiendum fuit, ut sciretis non illi praestari, quod tacet maritus. laudo, iudices, laudo miseram, quod interrogare noluit domi, quod nihil fecit et ipsa secreto. hic coram civitate, coram liberis ac parentibus et, licet dissimulare parricida videatur, coram rumore mater inquirit, quid tormentis unici quaesierit, quid morte compererit.

[1] Although, judges, the most cunning parricide arranged his crime in such a way as to make the mother odious to you, whether the wretched woman should dissimulate the death of her son or should complain, and has brought her, surrounded by so great a novelty of monstrosities, to this point, that he seems to himself about to defame once again either our patience or our grief, yet for the mother, whose calamities ~bereavement claims for itself not the least place, it was necessary to flee to you, so that you might know that there is not being afforded to her that which the husband keeps silent about. I praise, judges, I praise the wretched woman, that she did not wish to interrogate at home, that she too did nothing in secret. Here before the community, before children and parents, and—although the parricide may seem to dissemble—before rumor, the mother inquires what by the tortures of her only one he sought, what by death he discovered.

respondeat saltim reus, fateatur iratus, cui in peracta crudelitate modestia[e] frontis obstitit. nec uxori potest videri parcere, de qua scire voluit, an esset incesta, nec filio, quem, tamquam sciret, occidit.

Let the defendant at least answer, let him confess in his anger, he to whom, when the cruelty had been carried through, the modesty of his brow stood in the way. Nor can he seem to spare his wife, about whom he wished to know whether she was incestuous, nor his son, whom, as though he knew, he killed.

Ante omnia igitur, iudices, mulier infelicissimi pudoris hoc ab adfectibus publicis petit, ne vobis accusare videatur: ream se incesti, ream parricidii putat, exhibet populo conscientiam suam et adversus quemcumque sermonem, quodcumque secretum marito famaeque praestat interrogandi potestatem. vellet innocentiam suis probare visceribus, vellet in eculeos, in ignes hanc miseram praecipitare pietatem.

Before all things, then, judges, the woman of most ill-fated modesty asks this from public affections, that she may not seem to accuse before you: she deems herself a defendant of incest, a defendant of parricide, she exhibits to the people her conscience, and, against whatever discourse, she furnishes to her husband and to her reputation the power of interrogating whatever secret. She would wish to prove her innocence with her own viscera, she would wish to cast headlong this wretched pietas onto racks, into fires.

[2] ignoscite, iudices, inpatientiae, quae contra callidissimam dissimulationem libertate doloris exaestuat; incestum probaretur silentio patris, si taceret et mater.

[2] Forgive, judges, the impatience, which seethes against the most crafty dissimulation with the liberty of grief; the incest would be proved by the father’s silence, if the mother too were silent.

Equidem, iudices, tam contrarios adfectus senis satis admirari, satis stupere non possum: in rumore tam suspicax, post tormenta <tam> patiens, modo ad fabulas vulgaresque sermones pronus ac facilis, in orbitate, in parricidio, <in> reatus quoque dolore conticuit. quo repente conversus est, in quam modestiam desperationemque defecit? torsit tamquam dicturum, tacet, tamquam dixerit.

Indeed, judges, I cannot sufficiently admire, cannot sufficiently be astonished at such contrary affections of the old man: in rumor so suspicious, after tortures so patient, just now prone and compliant to tales and common talk, in bereavement, in parricide, he even fell silent at the pain of the charge. Into what has he suddenly been turned, into what modesty and into what despair has he ebbed away? He writhed as though about to speak; he is silent, as though he had spoken.

fidem igitur vestram, iudices, ne cui praestet magnae severitatis auctoritatem non posse defendi, neve ideo suspicari nefanda malitis, quia se silentio parricida miratur. parcere nunc illum cuiquam tacendo creditis? loqui se cum maxime putat, et, si bene artes et profundae mentis consilia perspicio, respondere sibi videtur plus quam mater interrogat.

Therefore I appeal to your good faith, judges, lest the authority of great severity furnish anyone a warrant that he cannot be defended, and lest you prefer for that reason to suspect nefarious things, because the parricide makes a marvel of himself by silence. Do you think he now spares anyone by keeping silent? He thinks he is speaking most of all; and, if I rightly discern the arts and the counsels of a profound mind, he seems to himself to be responding more than the mother interrogates.

fallitur, quisquis hunc esse credit inexplicabilis doloris aestum et inter silentii confessionisque causas miserum pudorem; alium exitum non habet, quam ut respondere nolle videatur, quisquis filium occidit et probare non potest, propter quod debuerit occidi.

He is mistaken, whoever believes this to be a surge of inexplicable dolor and, among the causes of silence and confession, a wretched shame; whoever has killed his son and cannot prove for what cause he ought to have been killed has no other outcome than to seem unwilling to reply.

[3] Coniungat, quantum volet, nocentissimus senex cum rumore populi silentium suum, et relaturae ordinem tristissimae sortis conlata malignitate cludat ora, compescat auditus. securi tamen estote, mortales, fas est, fas est innocentissimae matri velut in templis, velut apud ipsos proclamare superos: 'amavi filium meum!' matrona, iudices, cuius puellares annos, primam rudemque coniugii mentem nulla libidinum respersit infamia, cui impudens rumor, suspicax maritus nihil umquam potuit obicere nisi filium, quae pudicitiae prima fiducia est, edidit partum, quem maritus agnosceret. non timuit, ne stupra furtivosque concubitus parvuli vultus aut crescentis infantiae similitudo detegeret.

[3] Let the most guilty old man, as much as he pleases, yoke his silence with the rumor of the people, and, with malice heaped up, shut mouths and restrain hearings against the order of what is to be reported of a most sorrowful lot. Yet be unafraid, mortals; it is lawful, it is lawful for the most innocent mother, as though in temples, as though before the gods above themselves, to proclaim: “I loved my son!” A matron, judges, whose maiden years and the first, untrained disposition of marriage no infamy of lusts ever bespattered, against whom neither shameless rumor nor a suspicious husband was ever able to throw anything except a son—which is the first assurance of chastity—brought forth an offspring whom her husband would acknowledge. She did not fear lest the little one’s face or the likeness of his growing infancy might uncover defilements and furtive couplings.

natum de te continuo, si quid ipsi creditis, inpatientius complexa quam reliqui parentes non in nutrices nec in ministeria seposuit; suis aluit uberibus, suo fovit amplexu. numquid et hos annos, parricida, numquid et pueritiam miseri iuvenis infamas? actum est de sacrorum nominum fide, si, ut videatur innocens mater, aetas tantum filii facit.

Having at once, if you credit her at all, embraced the child born from you more impatiently than other parents, she did not set him aside into nurses nor into attendants; she nourished him at her own breasts, she cherished him in her own embrace. Do you also, parricide, do you also defame these years, do you defame the boyhood of the wretched young man? It is done for with the faith owed to sacred names, if, in order that the mother may appear innocent, only the son’s age does the work.

accendebat hanc erga unicum optimae matris inpatientiam rigidus pater, asper maritus, et sibi videbatur parum implere, quem pro duobus conferebat, adfectum. rarus hic namque ad oscula, difficilis amplexibus, et qui unicum aspiceret animo, quo quandoque posset occidere, fecit, ut notabilior esset caritas matris. omnis igitur miserae sermo cum filio, omnis in publicum pariter egressus.

The rigid father, a harsh husband, was inflaming this impatience of the best mother toward her only son, and she seemed to herself to be too little fulfilling the affection which she was contributing on behalf of two. For this man was sparing in kisses, difficult in embraces, and, as one who looked upon the only one with a spirit by which he could someday kill him, he made the mother’s charity (love) more notable. Therefore every speech of the wretched woman was with her son, every egress into the public was together.

gaudebat etiam, quod laudandus occursibus, quod omni frequentia coetuque conspicuus populo iam ipse fateretur, quod plus amaretur a matre.

He rejoiced also, that he, worthy to be acclaimed in encounters, and conspicuous to the people in every throng and assembly—as they themselves now admitted—was more loved by his mother.

[4] miseremini, iudices, ne nefandas suspiciones maritum ex ullius traxisse credatis indiciis; suum rigorem, suum tantum secutus est animum. filium si non ames, videatur tibi mater adamasse.

[4] Have pity, judges, lest you believe that the husband has drawn unspeakable suspicions from anyone’s indications; he followed only his own rigor, only his own spirit. If you do not love the son, let it seem to you that the mother has loved him.

Questurum nunc me, iudices, putatis de licentia sermonis humani? ego vero iuxta hunc patrem non accuso rumorem. quae materia fabulae tam inpudentis, qui fuerit auctor, iste probavit, qui credidit.

Do you think now, judges, that I am going to seek action about the license of human speech? For my part, alongside this father I do not accuse rumor. As to what the material of so impudent a fable was, and who its author was—the man who believed it has approved it.

facillimum fuit, ut loqueretur populus de incesto, de quo mirabatur patrem suspicari.

It was very easy for the populace to speak about incest, about which they marveled that the father suspected.

Haec sunt, iudices, quae mater fecit secure, simpliciter, palam, coram marito, coram civitate. referat nunc suum iste secretum. iuvenem, quae integritatis prima simplicitas est, nihil timentem in partem domus, qua nulla proclamatio, nullus poterat gemitus audiri, rapuit, abduxit.

These are, judges, the things which the mother did securely, simply, openly, in the presence of her husband, in the presence of the citizen body. Let that fellow now report his own secret. A young man—fearing nothing, as simplicity is the first mark of integrity—he seized and led away into a part of the house where no outcry, no groan could be heard.

ibi verberibus, ignibus, omni crudelitatis arte consumpsit. quis umquam, iudices, peius de innocentia temporum, de sacris meruit adfectibus? torsit filium, ut probaretur incestum; occidit, ut crederetur.

there she consumed him with scourgings, with fires, with every art of cruelty. who ever, judges, has deserved worse against the innocence of his years, against sacred affections? she racked her son, so that incest might be proved; she killed him, so that it might be believed.

Ponite nunc ante oculos, iudices, duorum parentum confessionem. mater exclamat: 'filium amavi!' pater dicit: 'occidi.' nefas est utrumque putetis innocentem. iam quidem, nocentissime senex, grande deprehensae feritatis indicium est, quod, cum filium occideris, ut interrogeris, expectas: non erumpis ab illo secreto tuo terribilis in publicum, et homo filii cruore perfusus non proclamas, non deos hominesque testaris, non occidis et matrem?

Set now before your eyes, judges, the confession of two parents. The mother cries out: 'I loved my son!' The father says: 'I killed him.' It is an impiety that you should think both innocent. Now indeed, most guilty old man, it is a great indication of ferocity apprehended that, though you have killed your son, you wait to be interrogated: you do not burst forth from that secret of yours, terrible, into the public, and, a man drenched with your son’s gore, you do not cry aloud, you do not call gods and men to witness, do you not also kill the mother?

scilicet modestia te scelerum tuorum cum maxime decet, et ideo tibi relinquis, unde sis quietae patientiae:

of course, modesty most especially befits you, given your crimes, and therefore you reserve to yourself that whence you may be of quiet patience:

[5] miser parcis uxori, coniugales deos et lectuli iura revereris. o quam non habet nec quod mentiatur!

[5] Wretch, you spare your wife; you revere the conjugal gods and the rights of the marriage-bed. O how he has not even what he might lie about!

Malae tractationis agimus. placet ergo, iudices, ut illa voce, qua matrimoniorum conquerimur iniurias, gemitu, quo corporum contumelias, damna cultus et negatos in publicum deflemus egressus, orbitates ac liberorum suprema plangantur? quid tamen facere vultis miserum dolorem, si non habet aliam sexus hic legem, si intra iuris huius angustias omnis nuptiarum querela constricta est?

We are dealing with ill-treatment. Does it please, then, judges, that with that voice with which we complain of the injuries of marriages, with the groan with which we bewail the contumelies of bodies, the damages to adornment and the denied egresses into the public, bereavements and the last rites of children should be lamented? What, however, do you wish wretched grief to do, if this sex has no other law, if within the straits of this law every complaint of marriage is constricted?

mater, quae de morte filii maritum malae tractationis accusat, non vindicat, sed probare contenta est, quod non debuerit occidi.

the mother, who accuses the husband of ill-treatment concerning the death of her son, does not exact vengeance, but is content to prove that he ought not to have been killed.

Omittamus paulisper, iudices, orbitatis tristissimae dolorem, et in parricidio malae tractationis reddamus aliunde causas. ita non iuste quereretur uxor, si diceret: 'adulterium de me facile suspicatus es, cito credidisti'? matronalis pudor tutelam non ex sua tantum innocentia habet, infirmitas huius sexus non potest totam [in]probitatis existimationem debere tantum moribus suis; omnis in feminas venit maritorum praedicatione reverentia, omnes sermones originem de vestris pectoribus accipiunt. tristior vultus, querela, fastidium fatum est coniugii.

Let us omit for a little while, judges, the grief of most mournful bereavement, and in the parricide let us render the causes of maltreatment from elsewhere. Thus would not a wife complain justly, if she were to say: “you easily suspected adultery of me, you quickly believed”? Matronal modesty has protection not from its own innocence only; the weakness of this sex cannot owe the whole estimation of probity solely to its own morals; all reverence toward women comes by the proclamation of their husbands, all talk takes its origin from your hearts. A sadder countenance, complaint, distaste is the fate of wedlock.

de pudore pronuntiat, mittit in ora populi, mittit in fabulas. hoc proxima ministeria narrant, hoc exteri putant. nemo peiore exemplo temere de uxore credit, quam cui omnes credituri sunt.

he pronounces on modesty, he sends it into the mouths of the populace, he sends it into fables. this the closest attendants report, this the outsiders suppose. no one, with a worse example, rashly believes concerning his wife than the one to whom all are going to give credence.

sane faciat vos pronos ad suspiciones nimia caritas, et <ex> inpatientia diligendi plerumque descendat, ut credas facile, quod timeas; furtiva stupra raptosque concubitus obiciat vel falso maritus; fas est, fieri solet; parcius tamen, si iam sit et mater, si in fidem castitatis uxoria fecunditate profecerit. quid, si sit iam iuvene quoque filio severa, iam nurum nepotesque prospiciat?

surely let excessive affection make you prone to suspicions, and <ex> the impatience of loving for the most part come down to this, that you readily believe what you fear; let the husband even falsely allege furtive debaucheries and ravished couplings; it is right, it usually happens; yet more sparingly, if she be now also a mother, if she has advanced the credit of chastity by wifely fecundity. What if she is now severe even with a son who is a young man, and already looks ahead to a daughter-in-law and grandchildren?

[6] miseremini temporum, ne alienae innocentiae interpretationem de suis quisque moribus trahat. incestum posse fieri pater hoc solo vult probare, quod filium potuit occidere.

[6] Pity the times, lest each man draw the interpretation of another’s innocence from his own morals. The father wishes to prove by this alone that incest can occur—that he could kill his son.

'Rumor,' inquit, 'fuit.' est hercules, cui contra rerum naturam, contra parentes liberosque credatur! 'rumor fuit.' hoc ergo sic audiemus, tamquam si diceres: 'conscius detulit servus, nuntiavit ancilla, inprovisus adstiti, dum non timeor, adveni'? rogo, iudices, utrum credibilius putatis incestum de matre an de rumore mendacium? rem inpudentissimam populus loquendo fecerat, nisi pater credidisset.

'There was a rumor,' he says. There is, by Hercules, one to whom, against the nature of things, against parents and children, credence is given! 'There was a rumor.' Shall we then hear this so, as if you were saying: 'a privy slave reported it, a handmaid announced it, I stood by unawares, I arrived while I am not feared'? I ask, judges, which do you think more credible: incest of the mother, or a mendacity about rumor? The people would have made the most impudent thing so by their talking, had not the father believed.

Pessimum, iudices, humanarum mentium malum est, quod semper avidius nefanda finguntur, nec umquam se maius operae pretium putant maligni facere sermones, quam cum incredibilia quasi deprehensa narrantur. Necesse est contentiosius loquaris quod probare non possis, et adfirmationem sumit ex homine quicquid non habet ex veritate. est tamen hoc iniquissimum de loquacitate populi, quod plerumque accendit contentio non credentium fama<m>: materiam miraris rumoris, de qua nemo nec sibi credit, quam qui narrat, adsignat alii.

The worst, judges, evil of human minds is this: that nefarious things are always more greedily feigned, and malignant speeches never think themselves to be doing a greater worth of effort than when incredible things are narrated as if apprehended. It is necessary that one speak more contentiously about what he cannot prove, and whatever does not have affirmation from truth takes affirmation from the person. Yet this is most inequitable about the loquacity of the people: that for the most part the contention of non-believers kindles the fama<m>: you marvel at the material of the rumor, about which no one even trusts himself; the one who narrates it assigns it to another.

rumor res sine teste, sine indice, res ex incertis inprobissima, maligna, fallax et similis silentio tuo.

rumor, a thing without a witness, without an informer, a thing most untrustworthy from uncertainties, malignant, fallacious, and similar to your silence.

[7] quid et ipse de rumore senseris, vis breviter probem? tormentis quaerendum putasti, an verum diceret.

[7] Do you wish me briefly to prove what you yourself have thought about rumor? You judged that it must be examined by torture, whether it was speaking the truth.

Sane sit aliqua publici sermonis auctoritas in illis, ad quae fas est populi pervenire notitiam. vide[o], cur adulteria proferantur in fabulas: explicantur per ministeria, per conscios; habent inconsulta gaudia. pars voluptatis videtur esse iactatio.

Indeed, let there be some authority of public discourse in those matters to which it is right for the people to attain notice. I see why adulteries are brought out into fables: they are explicated through ministrations, through those privy; they have unconsidered joys. Vaunting seems to be part of the pleasure.

facinus vero, cui, si fas est, ut illud humanae mentis capiat audacia, circumdatur undique nox profunda, densior caligo tenebrarum, quod nocentes suis quoque oculis vix fatentur, non servo, non creditur ancillae. quid internuntiis, quid opus est ministeriis? sufficit animus duorum, explicat omne filius materque secretum.

But the crime indeed—which, if it be lawful that the audacity of the human mind should grasp it—is surrounded on every side by deep night, a denser murk of darkness, a thing which the guilty scarcely confess even to their own eyes; it is not entrusted to a slave, not to a handmaid. What need of go-betweens, what need is there of ministries? The mind of two suffices; the son and the mother unfold the whole secret.

incestum tanto incredibilius est, quanto et de illo plures locuntur.

incest is all the more incredible, the more people also speak about it.

O misera condicio sexus, cuius ipsae plerumque virtutes fabulas parant! 'cur ista nullis in publicum gaudet egressibus? unde adversum omnes tam rigida conversatio, tam severus adfectus?

"O wretched condition of the sex, whose very virtues for the most part prepare tales! 'why does that woman delight in no egresses into the public? whence, against all, so rigid a way of life, so severe an affect?

nihil concupiscit, nihil ergo desiderat? filius possidet cuncta tempora, universos occupavit adfectus, filius matris tota iactatio est. rogo, numquid adamavit?' mihi credite, non est nefandorum ista simplicitas.

She covets nothing, therefore she desires nothing? The son possesses all her time; he has occupied all her affections; the son is the mother’s whole vaunt. I ask, has she perchance fallen in love?' Believe me, that is not the simplicity of unspeakable things.

da, ut sit haec inter matrem ac filium conscientia; parcent osculis palam, abstinebunt coram patre complexibus, omnis familiaritas substringetur in publico, sermones, occursus coram servulis libertisque vitabunt, et maximi sceleris ardor captabit adfectare gravitatem.

grant that this be the complicity between mother and son; they will refrain from kisses openly, they will abstain from embraces before the father, all familiarity will be drawn tight in public, they will avoid conversations, encounters in the presence of the little slaves and the freedmen, and the ardor of the greatest crime will try to affect gravitas.

[8] elige, parricida, quod voles: incestum diligens suspectum non erit, neglegens deprehendetur.

[8] Choose, parricide, what you will: if careful, the incest will not be suspected; if careless, it will be detected.

Sed quid ego sic ago, tamquam inauditum, incredibile scelus locutus sit populus? teneo in hoc sermone facinus unius. mali mariti non interest, incestum de uxore fingat an credat.

But why do I proceed thus, as though the people had spoken of an unheard-of, incredible crime? I am dealing in this discourse with the crime of a single man. It is no concern of a bad husband whether he feigns incest concerning his wife or believes it.

quid? iste ergo non timuit tam nefandae rei famam, nec ad aures patris pervenire rumor erubuit? dissimules licet, a te malignitas accepit ortum, te secutus est, quisquis hoc ausus est narrare, proferre.

What? Did that man then not fear the fame of so nefarious a thing, nor did the rumor blush to reach the father’s ears? Dissemble as you please; from you malignity took its origin—whoever dared to narrate this, to proffer it, followed you.

da bonum patrem, bonum maritum; dicturum me putas, non credet? nesciet esse rumorem. ite nunc, iudices, et adhuc dubitate, quis famae fuerit auctor, cuius pater agit causam.

Grant a good father, a good husband; do you think I am going to say, he will not believe? he will not know it to be rumor. Go now, judges, and still doubt who was the author of the report, the one whose father pleads the case.

[9] 'Speciosus,' inquit, 'fuit.' non magis hoc facinus in matre est quam crimen in filio. 'speciosus fuit.' ut hoc obici possit, ut debeat, adice, 'et adulter et raptor; in illa matrona maritali dolore paene percussus, in illa virgine publica subclamatus invidia.' quamquam haec quoque intra notos decurrunt iuventutis excursus. quid ais?

[9] 'Handsome,' he says, 'he was.' This is no more a crime in the mother than a charge in the son. 'he was handsome.' So that this may be objected, as it ought, add, 'both an adulterer and a ravisher; in the case of that matron, almost smitten with marital grief; in the case of that maiden, publicly cried out against by envy.' Although these too run within the well-known excursions of youth. What say you?

ab incesto libidines coeperunt? hoc primum umquam iuvenis admisit? hoc solum argumentum sumis ex forma?

Did his libidines begin from incest? Did the young man ever commit this as his first act? Do you take this as your sole argument from his form?

dic potius: 'deprehendi iuvenem mihi venena miscentem, in necem meam conscientia sceleris est armatus.' infinitum est, quantum debeat ante fecisse filius, ut de illo incestum pater sibi credat. 'speciosus fuit.' quis enim non est formosus filius matri? amant debilitates, amplectuntur illum morborum suppliciorumque pallorem, et in vires caritatis adcrescit ipsa miseratio.

say rather: 'I caught the youth mixing poisons for me, armed with the conscience of his crime for my slaughter.' it is boundless, how much the son would have had to have done beforehand, for a father to believe incest of him against himself. 'he was handsome.' for who is not a son handsome to his mother? they love weaknesses, they embrace that pallor of diseases and punishments, and pity itself grows into the powers of charity.

non inpedit <s>acrae pietatis animum deformitas, pulchritudo non auget; amare liberos unus adfectus est. liberi, marite, liberi non amantur oculis, non complectitur mater ore, non vultu, sed est in filio matri nescio quid homine formosius. possit forsitan novitas sollicitare visus, expugnare mentes; in matris aspectu coalescit infantia, pueritia consurgit, iuventa subrepit; speciosum suum cotidie videt, miratur, amplectitur.

deformity does not hinder the spirit of acred piety, beauty does not augment it; to love children is a single affection. Children, husband, children are not loved by the eyes; a mother does not embrace by the mouth, nor by the countenance; but in a son there is for a mother an I-know-not-what more beautiful than a human being. Novelty perhaps can solicit the eyes, storm the minds; in the mother’s aspect infancy coalesces, boyhood rises, youth steals in; she sees her beautiful one every day, marvels, embraces.

quae tamdiu amavit, quando incipiat amare desinere? non est opus, nocentissime senex, ad hoc nefas caritate, sed amentia, sed furore. ut in iuvene suo mater possit concupiscere, quod formosus est, oderit oportet, quod filius est, et adeo sacris adfectibus non adiuvatur in facinus, ut ad illud nisi per oblivionem sui transire non possit.

She who has loved him so long—when would she begin to cease to love? There is no need, most guilty old man, of charity for this nefarious deed, but of amentia, rather of furor. For a mother to be able to conceive concupiscence for her own young man because he is handsome, she must hate the fact that he is her son; and she is so little aided by sacred affections toward a crime that she cannot pass over to it except through forgetfulness of herself.

[10] Quid, quod et hoc incredibilius est, quod parem duorum poscit insaniam, et ad incestum opus est, ut adamet et filius, non ut adametur? ab utro deinde vultis incipere preces, venire sermonem? audebit hoc rogare filius matrem, mater hoc inpetraturam se sperabit a filio?

[10] What then—and this is even more incredible—is that it demands an equal insanity from both, and for incest the requirement is that the son fall in love, not that he be loved. From which of the two, then, do you wish the entreaties to begin, the conversation to come? Will the son dare to ask this of the mother, will the mother hope to obtain this from the son?

hunc animum tuum, senex, quo cum maxime taces, si non est callida, non maligna simulatio, de fide tanti sceleris interrogo: an potest mater admittere, quod loqui non potest pater?

this disposition of yours, old man, with which you are most silent—if it is not a crafty, not a malignant dissimulation—I inquire about the credibility of so great a crime: can a mother commit what a father cannot speak?

'Speciosus fuit.' libet interrogare hoc loco omnes humani generis adfectus. placet ergo, ut, si filio optigerit indulgentior facies, vultus erectior, refugiat mater amplexus? si virginem usque ad notabilem speciem natura formaverit, timeat oscula pater horreatque contactum?

'He was handsome.' it pleases me at this point to interrogate all the affections of the human race. does it please, then, that, if a more indulgent face, a more erect countenance, has fallen by lot to the son, the mother should flee embraces? if nature has fashioned a maiden to a notable appearance, should the father fear kisses and shudder at contact?

dii deaeque male perdant tam inpudentes sollicitudines, tam nefarios metus! prope est ab incesto timere, ne fiat. malo simplicitatem, quae non vereatur infamiam, malo nudos adfectus inconsultamque pietatem; nihil de se fingi, nihil credant posse narrari.

May the gods and goddesses destroy such impudent solicitudes, such nefarious fears! It is close to incest to fear lest it happen. I prefer simplicity, which does not dread infamy; I prefer naked affections and unadvised piety; let them believe that nothing about themselves is being feigned, nothing can be narrated.

teneat insatiabiliter, avide; tanti fama non est, ut amet filium mater sollicitudine pudicae.

let her hold him insatiably, avidly; fame is not worth so much that a mother should love her son with the solicitude of a pudic woman.

Me quidem, marite, si quis interroget, omnes matres liberos suos, tamquam adamaverint, amant. videbis oculos numquam a facie vultuque deflectere, comere caput habitumque componere; suspirare cum recesserit, exultare, cum venerit, conserere manus, pendere cervicibus, non o<s>culis, non conloquiis, non praesentiae voluptate satiari. hoc est ergo <in> tam nefanda suspicione saevissimum: incestum non potest fingi, nisi de optima matre.

For my part, husband, if anyone should ask, all mothers love their children, as though they had fallen in love with them. You will see their eyes never turn away from the face and countenance, to comb the head and compose the attire; to sigh when he has withdrawn, to exult when he has come, to clasp hands, to hang upon the neck, not to be sated with kisses, not with colloquies, not with the pleasure of presence. This, therefore, is the most savage thing in so nefarious a suspicion: incest cannot be imagined, except of the best mother.

execrarer mehercules, iudices, si crimen istud clarius obiecisset filio pater, si usque ad verborum processisset amentiam. nemini minus fas esse debet credere incestum, quam qui propter illud paratus est filium occidere.

I would execrate, by Hercules, judges, if the father had more plainly alleged that crime against his son, if he had proceeded even to the madness of words. To no one should it be less permitted to credit incest than to him who, on account of it, is prepared to kill his son.

[11] Quid, quod non credis tantum, nefande, sed quaeris? Ita tu non times monstri huius agitare secretum? 'populus loquitur incestum;' sed tu nega.

[11] What of it, that you not only believe, wretch, but also inquire? So you do not fear to agitate the secret of this monstrosity? 'the populace speaks of incest;' but you deny it.

'civitas infamat;' tanto magis osculare unicum et coniugem, tene pariter, duos circa tuum stringe complexum. pro inaudita feritas! ita patri non sufficit non credere incestum, quod non potest probare?

'the city defames;' all the more kiss your only son and consort, hold them together, tighten your embrace around the two. O unheard-of ferocity! Is it thus not enough for a father not to believe in an incest which he cannot prove?

ferrem tamen adhuc suspiciones tuas, nefandissime senex, si dissimulanter indicia tanti sceleris agitasses: observa sermones, secreta custodi, omnium dierum noctiumque momentis sagax scrutator insiste. quid tibi cum abruptis, quid cum supremis? incestum iam credas oportet, ut torqueas.

I would yet still bear your suspicions, most unspeakable old man, if you had, with dissimulation, handled the indicia of so great a crime: observe the speeches, guard the secrets, press on as a sagacious scrutator in the moments of all days and nights. What have you to do with things abrupt, what with last extremities? You must already believe the incest, in order that you may torture.

at tu -- pro nefas! -- verberibus, ignibus et tota crudelitatis arte scrutaris rem, de qua non deberes interrogare servos, de qua vernilium quoque corporum patientiam petulanter excuteres. laminas accendis, eculeos moves et parricidio suspicaris incestum.

but you -- O abomination! -- with beatings, with fires, and with the whole art of cruelty you scrutinize the matter, about which you ought not to interrogate slaves, about which you would petulantly shake out the endurance of even the bodies of the homeborn slaves. you heat the plates, you set the racks in motion, and you suspect incest as parricide.

nescis, quod praeceps, quod abruptum tam nefandae diligentiae furore commoveas? pater, qui de incesto filium torquet, non est neganti crediturus.

Do you not know how headlong, how precipitous a thing you are stirring by the fury of such nefarious diligence? A father who tortures his son about incest is not going to believe him when he denies it.

Omnium quidem, iudices, incertorum suspiciones pessime semper a corporibus incipiunt, nec bene de cuiusquam moribus illam partem hominis interroges, quae non animo, sed dolore respondet. nondum dico, quem torqueas, quis inter eculeos ignesque ponatur; criminis argu<men>ta prius, indicia praecedant. novissimum debet esse, quicquid obiter et torquet[ur] et punit.

Indeed, judges, in all things uncertain, suspicions most disastrously always begin from the bodies; nor is it good, concerning anyone’s morals, to interrogate that part of a man which answers not with mind but with pain. I am not yet saying whom you should torture, who should be set among racks and fires; let the arguments of the charge come first, let the indications precede. Whatever both tortures and punishes by the way ought to be the last resort.

fidem hominum deorumque, ne gravitatem putetis a novissimis ultimisque coepisse! non habet probationem facinus, de quo pater non potest alium torquere quam filium.

by the faith of men and gods, do not think that the severity has begun from the newest and the last things! the crime has no proof, one about which a father cannot put anyone other than his son to the rack.

[12] Video, qua possis ratione defendi, si omnia ante fecisti, ut incestum aliter erueres. quid ais? interrogasti servulos, nec potuit conscius inveniri?

[12] I see by what rationale you could be defended, if you had beforehand done everything, so that you might unearth the incest by another way. What do you say? You interrogated the slave-boys, and no accomplice could be found?

exquisisti ancillas, non apparuit ministra flagitii? non obscena litterarum commercia, non fatentis deprehendisti nefanda blanditias? nihil invenis maritus, dominus, pater?

You examined the maidservants, did no minister of the flagitious deed appear? no obscene commerce of letters, did you not catch the nefarious blandishments of one confessing? do you find nothing, husband, master, father?

i nunc et dic scisse rumorem!

Go now and say that you knew the rumor!

Sed, ut torqueas, ducatur tamen quaestio per coniugis ministeria, per filii servulos, in illa potius vilitate desaeviat. prius est, ut repudietur uxor, ut divortio fiat in domo grande secretum. excedit omnem inmanitatem filium ideo torquere, ut scias, an nocens torqueatur.

But, in order that you may torture, let the inquest nevertheless be conducted through the ministrations of the spouse, through the son’s slave-boys; let it rage rather in that baseness. It is preferable first that the wife be repudiated, that by a divorce a great secret be made in the house. It exceeds every inhumanity to torture the son for this reason, in order that you may know whether the one being tortured is guilty.

unicum pater ignibus verberibusque interrogas; rogo, quid facturus, si pernegaverit? videlicet, ut laudes, deinde dimittas, ut amplectaris perusta vitalia et laceri pectoris vulnera pietati rursus admoveas? solus superest pudor homini, qui torsit unicum, ~ut torquere debuerit~. faciat te necesse est res ista pessimum patrem, et oderis oportet filium, cui satisfacere non possis.

father, you interrogate your only son with fires and scourgings; I ask, what will you do, if he flatly denies it? doubtless, so that you may praise him, then dismiss him, so that you may embrace the scorched vitals and once more apply the wounds of a lacerated breast to piety? the only thing that remains to the man who tortured his only one is shame, ~that he ought to have tortured~. it is necessary that this thing make you the worst father, and you must hate the son whom you cannot satisfy.

iamiam malo venena, ferrum, subitos ictus inprovisamque mortem. incestum qui non credit, torquere non debet; qui credit, statim debet occidere.

Right now I prefer poisons, iron, sudden blows, and unforeseen death. He who does not believe the incest ought not to torture; he who does believe ought straightway to kill.

Quodsi tormenta etiam filii placent, si praestanda est satisfactio tam nefanda rumori[s], exigo, ne perdas quaestionem. in media civitate, in ipsa constitue fama, advoca illos malignos, illos loquaces, et saeculi rem exquire audiente populo. coram omnibus torqueri debet, de quo locuntur omnes.

But if even the torments of a son are pleasing, if satisfaction so nefarious is to be rendered to the rumor[s], I demand that you not squander the inquest. in the middle of the city, set it up in fame itself, summon those malicious men, those loquacious ones, and inquire into the world’s business with the people listening. before all he ought to be tortured, he about whom all speak.

interroget quisque, quod volet, suis auribus, suis credat oculis. cur in abditam semotamque partem iuvenis abducitur? secretum quaestionis nec incesto filio debetur nec innocenti.

Let each person ask whatever he wills with his own ears; let him trust his own eyes. Why is the youth led away into a hidden and secluded part? The secrecy of the inquisition is owed neither to an incestuous son nor to an innocent one.

dabo adhuc inter secretum publicationemque temperamentum: advoca propinquos, adhibe amicos, circumpone iuveni serios senes, intersint magistratus, adsistant, quibus habere possit civitas fidem. praestare debes aut tibi, ut probare possis, si confessus fuerit, aut filio, si pernegaverit.

I will still grant a moderation between secrecy and publication: call in the kinsmen, bring in the friends, surround the youth with serious elders; let the magistrates be present, let those stand by in whom the civic community can have faith. You ought to provide either for yourself—that you may be able to make good your case, if he has confessed—or for your son, if he has denied it.

[13] at tu, nefande, crudelis, tollis quaestionis alteram partem: efficis, ne possit amplius innocens esse, qui tortus est. quid agunt contra populum tormenta secreta? praedico, testor, iterum dantur malignis alimenta sermonibus, et a quaestione seposita in maius reditur incertum.

[13] But you, nefarious, cruel one, you remove the other part of the inquiry: you bring it about that he who has been tortured can no longer be innocent. What do secret tortures accomplish against the people? I forewarn, I attest, once again nourishment is given to malign talk, and, with the inquiry set aside, there is a return into a greater uncertainty.

coram omnibus torquere debet filium pater, et qui vult absolvere et qui est paratus occidere.

before everyone the father ought to torture his son, both he who wishes to absolve and he who is prepared to kill.

Non vultis, iudices, ad facinus indignissimae quaestionis accedat et quod ipse torsit filium pater? adeone non potuit libertis aut servulis necessitas ista mandari, non carnifex potius adhiberi? pater in tormentis filii non aversos tenuit oculos; ipse vestes scidit, velamenta laceravit, manibus flagella concussit, renovavit ignes et mori filium contentione non sivit; diduxit os, quod iam suprema claudebant, fovit animum, ut longis cruciatibus patientia sufficeret.

Do you not wish, judges, that to the crime of a most disgraceful interrogation there be added also this: that the father himself tortured his son? Was it so impossible that this necessity be entrusted to freedmen or to little servants, was not rather an executioner to be employed? The father, amid the son’s torments, did not keep his eyes turned away; he himself tore the garments, rent the coverings, with his hands shook the scourges, renewed the fires, and by his insistence did not allow the son to die; he pried open the mouth which the last breaths were already closing, he cherished the spirit, so that patience might suffice for long cruciations.

o dignum patrem, cui dicat innocens filius 'feci'!

O worthy father, to whom an innocent son would say 'I did it'!

Non mehercules inprobe mihi proclamaturus hoc loco videor hominem, qui torquetur in matrem, debere coram matre torqueri. cur excluditur infelix a sua causa, a sua quaestione? adhibe speciosi cruciatibus hanc nimis amantem, huius gemitus excipe, huius suspiria oculosque custodi; si quod facinus admissum est, torquebis quidem filium, sed fatebitur mater.

I do not, by Hercules, seem about to proclaim anything improper in this place: that the man who is tortured concerning his mother ought to be tortured before his mother. Why is the wretched woman excluded from her own cause, from her own inquisition? Bring to these showy torments this woman who loves too much; catch her groans, keep watch over her sighs and her eyes; if any crime has been committed, you will indeed torture the son, but the mother will confess.

[14] Inrumpere me cum maxime puta in illud tuum, parricida, secretum; inicio properanti quaestioni manum: inhibe ictus, subtrahe paulisper ignes. quicquid est, quod eruisti, profer in medium. memento te fecisse de filio, propter quod tibi non debeat credi.

[14] Imagine me at this very moment bursting into that secret of yours, parricide; I lay my hand upon the hurrying inquisition: check the blows, withdraw the fires for a little. Whatever it is that you have unearthed, bring it forth into the open. Remember that you have done this concerning your son, on account of which you ought not to be believed.

quid spiritum dolore praecipitas, quid miserae intervalla patientiae pertinaci crudelitate continuas? [si] frustra tibi sufficere credis, quod audieris, nuntiare, proferre: incestum ut credatur, ipse debet audiri.

why do you precipitate her breath by pain, why do you, by pertinacious cruelty, string together the intervals of the wretched woman’s patience? [if] you believe it to suffice, though in vain, to announce, to proffer what you have heard: in order that the incest be believed, he himself ought to be heard.

Mirabar et ego, iudices, si tam nefanda quaestio alium exitum potuisset habere quam mortem. hic est parricidii pudor, sic desinunt, quae incipere non debent. facinus quaestionis operis scelere maiore: exire tibi videris per orbitatem.

I too was marveling, judges, whether so nefarious an inquest could have had any other outcome than death. This is the shame of parricide; thus do things end which ought not to begin. A crime—the work of an inquest—with a greater wickedness: you seem to yourself to escape by way of bereavement.

scimus, unde venerit ista contentio: nihil extorsit saevitia misero. vincit torquentem qui occiditur.

we know, whence that contention has come: cruelty extorted nothing from the wretched man. he who is killed conquers the tormentor.

Iamiam non miror, quod post ista non habes vocem, verba non invenis. unicum sine teste lacerasti, unicum occidisti soli tibi. deinde vis videri celare facinus, et in parricidio quaeris aliunde tristitiam.

Now I no longer marvel that after these things you have no voice and find no words. You lacerated the only one without a witness, you killed the only one for yourself alone. Then you wish to seem to hide the crime, and in parricide you seek grief from elsewhere.

praepostera res est filium occidere, deinde erubescere. fas non est non esse notum, propter quod se parricida putat innocentem. eligas utrum voles: aut tormenta damnes necesse est aut silentium.

It is a preposterous thing to kill a son, then to blush. It is not lawful that that be not known, by reason of which the parricide deems himself innocent. Choose whichever you will: either you must condemn the torments or the silence.

quod non debet indicari, non debet quaeri. posses videri fortassis, crudelissime senex, silentium filio praestare, si viveret; consumpta est paterni nominis religio, omnis pietatis sublata reverentia. si hoc ille meruit, parum in quaestione, parum ultionis in morte est.

What ought not to be indicated ought not to be inquired into. You might perhaps seem, most cruel old man, to bestow silence upon your son, if he were alive; the religion of the paternal name has been consumed, the reverence of all piety has been removed. If he deserved this, there is too little in the inquisition, too little of vengeance in the death.

vindicare vis confessionem? traduc cadaver, et super illa vulnera omnes pone causas. non est eiusdem fateri, cur torseris, et tacere, cur occideris.

Do you wish to vindicate the confession? Parade the cadaver, and upon those wounds place all the causes. It is not of the same man to confess why you have tortured and to be silent why you have killed.

[15] Quid ais, severissime parricida? filium consumpsisti per flagella, per laminas: potes tacere? viscera de tuis concepta vitalibus, sanguinem, qui de tua fluxit anima, non insania, non furore sed, quantum vis videri, consilio, gravitate lacerasti: potes tacere?

[15] What say you, most severe parricide? you have consumed your son by scourges, by plates: can you be silent? the entrails conceived from your own vitals, the blood which flowed from your own soul, not in insanity, not in fury but, as much as you wish to seem, by counsel, by gravity you have lacerated: can you be silent?

super vulnera unici, super exustos artus metuendus adsistis, et causas quaerente matre, quaerente populo hoc solum dicis: 'occidi; contenta esse debet incerto.' interrogari nunc te, marite, credis a matre sola? causas mortis illius reposcit sollicitudo generis humani: stant circa liberos attoniti parentes, horret invicem se caritas fraterna complecti, rupta est illa osculorum inter soceros generosque simplicitas. quousque nos cum silentii tui interpretatione committis?

over the wounds of the only-begotten, over the burned limbs you stand as a formidable presence, and while the mother is seeking the causes, while the people are seeking them, this alone you say: 'I killed; she ought to be content with uncertainty.' Do you believe, husband, that you are now being questioned by the mother alone? the solicitude of the human race demands back the causes of that death: around their children stand astonished parents, fraternal charity shudders to embrace itself in turn, that simplicity of kisses between fathers-in-law and sons-in-law has been broken. how long do you commit us to the interpretation of your silence?

si nihil factum est, quod debeat erubescere temporum pudor, quid sibi volunt verba media, suspensa? si nefas prodigiosis simile fabulis deprehendisti, miserere, ne sis una morte contentus. incestam gravius odisse debes, quod et venit in forum, quod audaciam innocentis imitatur, et tacenti videtur irasci.

if nothing has been done that the modesty of the times ought to blush at, what do these middle, suspended words mean to themselves? if you have detected a nefas like to prodigious tales, have mercy, do not be content with a single death. you ought to hate the incestuous woman more gravely, because she even comes into the forum, because she imitates the audacity of the innocent, and seems to be angry at the one who is silent.

cum filium propter rumorem torseris, propter tormenta occideris, non est media res, ut neutrum sciamus.

since you have tortured your son because of a rumor, and have killed him because of the tortures, there is no middle ground, that we should be left knowing neither.

Mater quidem, iudices, innocentissima hoc complorat, hoc ferre non potest, quod nihil parricida respondet, sed nobis videtur iamiamque esse dicturus.

Indeed the mother, judges, most innocent, bewails this; this she cannot bear: that the parricide answers nothing, but it seems to us that even now he is about to speak.

[16] non fallit nos, nefande, quid captes: hoc, quod supra silentium trahis alta suspiria, quod in prorumpenti videris exclamatione deficere, mendacio paratur auctoritas, et in fidem erupturae vocis adfertur, ut fateri videaris invitus. dic tamen! par est huic rei matris integritas, ut mentiaris.

[16] It does not escape us, nefarious one, what you are aiming at: this, that beyond silence you draw deep sighs, that in an exclamation bursting forth you seem to fail; authority is being prepared by a lie, and it is brought in as a pledge of the voice about to erupt, so that you may seem to confess unwillingly. Speak, nevertheless! The mother’s integrity is on a par with this matter, that you should lie.

o quanto nunc dolore torqueris, quod instantem non potes aliqua truci proclamatione discutere! non verba tibi contra miseram, sed argumenta desunt, non voce, sed probatione deficeris. quod solum datur, relinquis infamiae, et nos cum perpetua sermonum malignitate committis.

O how great a pain you are wracked with now, because you cannot dispel the imminent matter by some truculent proclamation! It is not words that are lacking to you against the wretched woman, but arguments; you fail not in voice, but in proof. What alone is afforded, you consign to infamy, and you expose us to the perpetual malignity of talk.

qui interrogantem uxorem nec damnat nec absolvit, rumore contentus est. modestiam mariti pariter et patris accipite: de muliere, quae convinci non potest, sufficere sibi putat, ut incesta credatur. quis umquam tam nefandas artes, tam cruentum deprehendit ingenium?

He who neither condemns nor absolves the wife under questioning is content with rumor. Receive the modesty of the husband and likewise of the father: about a woman who cannot be convicted, he thinks it suffices for himself that she be believed incestuous. Who ever detected such nefarious arts, such a sanguinary disposition?

quia non potest probare, quod dixerit, captat, ut credatur, quod non dixerit. dissimulas, taces, saeve, crudelis; invenisti tormenta matris.

because he cannot prove what he has said, he angles that what he has not said be believed. you dissemble, you are silent, savage, cruel; you have invented torments for your mother.

[17] Audi, quid misera simplicissimo dolore proclamet. 'non efficies,' inquit, 'callidissime parricidarum, ut non audeam cadaver amplecti. ego vero incesta sum, si possum moderari gemitus, conprimere lacrimas coite in funus, omnes liberi, omnes parentes, custodite planctus meos, observate suspiria.

[17] Hear what the wretched woman proclaims with most simple grief. 'You will not effect,' she says, 'most cunning of parricides, that I should not dare to embrace the cadaver. I indeed am incestuous, if I can moderate my groans, compress my tears. Come together to the funeral, all children, all parents; keep watch over my lamentations, observe my sighs.

si quid feci, si quid admisi, fatebor. ecce supra lectulum effusa feralem laceros artus et perustum complexa corpus exclamo: teneo unicum meum, velit nolit invidia, meum misera formosum. hoc erat, quod infelicissimam matrem ultra solitae caritatis exagitabat adfectus: amabam, marite, periturum.

If I have done anything, if I have committed anything, I will confess. Behold, flung over the little couch, embracing the funereal mangled limbs and the charred body, I cry out: I hold my only one, whether envy will or not, my beautiful one—wretched me. This was the affection which drove the most ill-fated mother beyond her accustomed charity: I loved, husband, one destined to perish.

infames quantumlibet hanc inpatientiam, ego mihi videor defuisse, cessasse, multum de laetitia, multum perdidisse de gaudiis. nemo umquam filium nimis amavit.'

Defame this impatience as much as you please; I seem to myself to have been deficient, to have been remiss, to have lost much of gladness, much of my rejoicings. No one ever loved a son too much.'

'Excuso tibi,' inquit, 'iuvenis innocentissime, quod supremis tuis nondum praestiti misera comitatum. vivere quidem te defuncto continuo non debui, sed mori marito tacente non potui. rumpam taedium lucis invisae, si prius licuerit coram civitate manibus tuis iusta persolvere, cum damnato supra callidissimum silentium parricida nihil te dixisse constiterit.

'“I excuse myself to you,” she said, “most innocent young man, because I, wretched, have not yet furnished attendance at your last rites. Indeed, once you had died, I ought straightway not to have lived; but I could not die while my husband kept silence. I will break the weariness of a hateful light, if first it is permitted, before the community, to pay the due rites to your Manes, when, the parricide condemned notwithstanding his most crafty silence, it has been established that you said nothing.

ignosce, quod ad iudicium istud orbata duravi. timui, ne, si ad exitum impatientia, si praecipiti pietate properassem, faceret alium parricida de mea morte rumorem.'

forgive me, that, bereft, I have endured to that judgment. I feared lest, if in impatience unto the end, if with headlong piety I had hastened, the parricide would make another rumor about my death.'