Quintilian: DECLAMATIONES MAIORES

Vir fortis optet praemium quod volet. Qui causas <voluntariae> mortis in senatu non reddiderit, insepultus abiciatur. Quidam de partu uxoris mathematicum consuluit.

Let a brave man choose whatever reward he wishes. He who shall not have rendered the reasons for <voluntary> death in the senate, let him be cast out unburied. A certain man consulted an astrologer about his wife's delivery.

is respondit virum fortem futurum, qui nasceretur, deinde parricidam. cum adolevisset qui erat natus, bello patriae fortiter fecit. reddit causas voluntariae mortis.

he answered that the one who would be born would be a brave man, then a parricide. when he who had been born had grown up, he acted bravely in a war for the fatherland. he presents the causes of voluntary death.

pater contradicit.

the father contradicts.

[1] Positus, P.C., in ea condicione tristissimae sortis, ut nec morte dignus sim, nisi me parricidam putetis, nec praemio, nisi innocentem, adeoque ludibriis miserrimae diversitatis [necessitatis] inplicitus, ut impetrandum a vobis habeam odii mei favorem, quaeso praeter omnia, quae ante hoc tempus circa nos ordo praedictae veritatis explicuit, attulisse me credatis urgentium malorum probationem: de parricidio venit, quod occidere me possum, de fato, quod mihi non licet mori. non solus mathematicus saeculo temporibusque praedixit has manus; et ego me parricidium credo facturum. plus quam responsum, quam sacrae artis triste praesagium est, quod mihi sic minatur animus meus.

[1] Placed, Conscript Fathers, in that condition of a most sorrowful lot, such that I am neither worthy of death unless you deem me a parricide, nor of reward unless an innocent, and so entangled in the mockeries of a most miserable diversity [necessity], that I must obtain from you the favor of the hatred against me, I ask—beyond all the things which up to this time the order of the aforesaid truth has set forth about us—that you believe I have brought a proof of the urgent evils: on the score of parricide it comes, that I can kill myself; on the score of fate, that it is not permitted me to die. Not the mathematician alone has foretold to the age and to the times these hands; I too believe that I shall commit parricide. More than a response—what sad presage of the sacred art is it—that my mind thus threatens me.

non habeo infelix in cogitationibus, unde non timeam, et facinus, quod sibi pro me pietas patris, quod singularis innocentia <ab>rogat, sentio, patior, agnosco. ne quis me tamen laborare putet miserae persuasionis errore, accipite, cur non possim dubitare de fato: parricidium credit qui facturus est, non timet qui periturus est.

I, unhappy, have nothing in my thoughts from which I do not fear; and the deed which a father’s piety on my behalf, which singular innocence arrogates to itself, I feel, I suffer, I acknowledge. Lest anyone, however, think me to be laboring under the error of a wretched persuasion, receive why I cannot doubt about fate: he who is going to commit parricide believes it; he who is going to perish does not fear.

[2] Ante omnia igitur a gravitate publica peto, ne pro tota innocentia mea contenti sitis hoc, quod volo mori; nec, quia videor contendere cum mathematico, vincere necessitates, expugnare fatum, ideo mihi bene credi putetis et vitam. aliud est facinus non esse facturum, aliud mori velle, ne facias. quin immo, si qua est fides, hoc, quod vos constantiam putatis, infirmitas est.

[2] Before all things, therefore, I ask from the public gravity that you not, for the whole of my innocence, be content with this—that I wish to die; nor, because I seem to contend with the mathematician, to conquer necessities, to storm fate, therefore think me worthy of good credence—and of life. It is one thing not to be going to commit a crime; it is another to wish to die, lest you do it. Nay rather, if there is any good faith, this which you think constancy is infirmity.

quod ad suprema confugio, animum meum novi. novissima victae mentis integritas est in mea potestate; brevi non habebo nec mortem. fidem vestram, P.C., ne quid amplius de misera pietate speretis.

As I take refuge in the last extremity, I know my own mind. The very last integrity of a conquered mind is in my power; soon I shall not have even death. I appeal to your good faith, Conscript Fathers, do not hope for anything more from my wretched piety.

Qui mori volo, ne parricidium admittam, non invenio, quemadmodum illud possim non facere victurus. nam quod ad patrem pertinet, qui me retinet vivere nolentem, non miror, quod adhuc recenti gloriae nostrae gaudio stupet, et in opera mea totus oculis animoque conversus parricidam non videt per virum fortem. hic est animus, quo me quamvis denuntiatum praedictumque servavit, et, cum incertis adhuc dubiisque virtutibus praestiterit, ut viverem, praestat meritis actisque, ne moriar.

I, who want to die lest I commit parricide, do not find how I could avoid doing that and yet live. As for my father, who keeps me—unwilling to live—in life, I do not marvel that he still is stunned by the joy of our recent glory, and, wholly turned with eyes and mind toward my deeds, does not see a parricide in the brave man. This is the spirit by which he preserved me, though it had been denounced and foretold; and whereas, with my virtues still uncertain and doubtful, he ensured that I should live, he now, by my merits and deeds, ensures that I do not die.

nunc ille, quod pietate, quod videor istius perire reverentia, vocat parricidium suum, et in orbitate, quam facere sibi videtur, non remedium meum, sed suum spectat adfectum. filium, qui vult mori, ne parricida sit, aliter sibi videtur remunerare non posse, quam ut ipse moriatur.

now he, because of piety, because I seem to perish out of reverence for that man, calls it his own parricide, and in the bereavement which he seems to be making for himself he regards not my remedy but his own affect. the son who wishes to die, lest he be a parricide, he thinks he cannot remunerate in any other way than that he himself should die.

[3] Merito prorsus, merito miserum senem tristes sollicitudines et praescii metus ad mathematicum et responsa miserunt. debui vir fortis nuntiari, parricida praedici. sive enim miserae coniugis prodigiosa fecunditas tumultuosis pulsibus maritales inquietavit amplexus, seu per anxias noctes dirosque somnos feralibus senex imaginibus agitatus dicitur ad notissimum sacrae artis antistitem non spes, non avida vota, sed suspiria, metus et praesagum magni nescio cuius incerti detulisse pallorem.

[3] Deservedly indeed, deservedly did sad solicitudes and prescient fears send the wretched old man to the astrologer for responses. A brave man I ought to have been announced, a parricide predicted. For whether the prodigious fecundity of his unhappy wife disturbed the marital embraces with tumultuous throbbings, or whether through anxious nights and dire dreams the old man is said to have been agitated by deathly images, to the most renowned prelate of the sacred art he is reported to have brought, not hopes, not greedy vows, but sighs, fears, and the pallor presaging some great I‑know‑not‑what uncertainty.

quid aliud hoc esse vultis, P.C., quam primam fatalis instinctus necessitatem? de partu uxoris non potuit non interrogare, deinde non credidit.

What else do you wish this to be, Conscript Fathers, than the first necessity of fatal instinct? About his wife’s delivery he could not but inquire, then he did not believe.

Referam nunc, P.C., cuius artis, cuius fuisse dicatur auctoritatis, quem putavit adeundum, qui sic timebat? homo qui, quod certum habeo, plurimis meruerat experimentis, ut ad illum velut ad oracula deorum plenumque sacro spiritu pectus hominum sollicitudines metusque confugerent, dicitur inspecta totius ratione caeli, digestis sideribus in numeros ad publici privatique fati stupuisse conspectum, et tanta prosperorum tristiumque congerie magis ipso consultore perterritus diu non commississe verbis quod videbat.

I will relate now, Conscript Fathers, of what art, of what authority he is said to have been, whom he thought should be approached, he who was so afraid. A man who, as I am certain, by very many experiments had deserved that to him, as to the oracles of the gods, and to a breast full of sacred spirit, the anxieties and fears of men might flee for refuge, he is said—when the rationale of the whole sky had been inspected, the stars having been arranged into numbers—to have been astounded at the prospect of public and private fate, and, by so great a heap of prosperous and adverse things, more terrified than the inquirer himself, for a long time not to have committed to words what he saw.

[4] sed o virum gravitatis antiquae dignumque, cui se fatorum arcana nudarent! cum partus, de quo quaerebatur, multa praestaret, propiora prospera, laetos incipientes annos, non fuit contentus meliora praedicere, et, quae certissima est vera proferentium fides, quicquid deprehenderat, protulit in medium et proclamavit futurum virum fortem, deinde parricidam, quis umquam, P.C., fiducia maiore respondit? cum summum facinus denuntiaret, ante se dixit probaturum.

[4] but O man of antique gravity, and worthy that the arcana of the fates should lay themselves bare to him! when the birth, about which inquiry was being made, promised many things—more immediate prosperities, joyous opening years—he was not content to predict the better things, and—what is the surest credit of those who bring forth the true—whatever he had detected, he brought into the open and proclaimed that the man would be brave, then a parricide; who ever, Conscript Fathers, answered with greater confidence? when he was denouncing the highest crime, he declared that he would prove it beforehand.

Fecerat profecto, P.C., interrogando mathematicum pater rem non educaturi, si quid tristius conperisset, nisi hoc primum de fato fuisset, ut viverem. sed nec mathematici fides circa momentum aliquod <ne>que cessavit ordine[m]: non numerus fefellit, non sexus in partu, non iuventa, non robur. illa quoque, quae velut extrinsecus consentiebant, adfuere response: bellum, hostis, acies ad illam ipsam, qua fortiter facere poteramus, aetatem.

He had indeed, P.C., by questioning the astrologer (mathematician), done a thing that would not have been brought out, if he had discovered anything more sad, unless this had been first among the decrees of fate: that I should live. But neither did the astrologer’s credibility fail at any moment, nor did it deviate from due order: neither the number deceived, nor the sex at birth, nor youth, nor strength. Those things also which, as it were, agreed from without, were present in the response: war, an enemy, battle-lines, at that very age at which we were able to act bravely.

pater vero periculi sui denuntiatione non territus arma mihi (pro tristis necessitas!), arma ipse circumdedit et suis ad pugnam manibus aptavit, tamquam mathematico iam credidisset. quis miretur, quod responsum [non] contempserit, dum sperabat, ut fortiter facerem? mori me non vult, et iam non superest nisi parricidium.

but my father, not terrified by the warning of his own peril, himself girded arms upon me (ah, sad necessity!), and with his own hands fitted them for battle, as though he had already believed the astrologer. Who would wonder that he did [not] scorn the response, while he hoped that I would act bravely? He does not want me to die, and now nothing remains except parricide.

o mors laudanda fortibus, expetenda miseris, non recusanda felicibus, quantum te quaesivimus in bello! tuli enim, deos testor, in aciem, tuli non virium iactationem, non gloriae cupiditatem, sed ut patriae praestaret aliquid vilitas mei, ut hunc mihi deploratum spiritum, hoc destinatum damnatumque corpus publicarum utilitatium usus absumeret.

O death, to be praised by the brave, to be sought by the wretched, not to be refused by the fortunate, how greatly we have sought you in war! For I bore, I call the gods to witness, into the battle-line—I bore not an ostentation of strengths, not a cupidity for glory, but that the cheapness of me might render something to the fatherland, that public utility might consume this spirit of mine already bewailed, this body destined and condemned.

[5] ibi primum miser didici, quam multa nescientes, quam multa faceremus inviti: in medios hostium globos perditus pugnator exilui, cessit acies; densissima quaeque certamina solus invasi, resistere nemo sustinuit; obviis ictibus membra nudavi et ad incurrens ubique ferrum vitalia parata circumtuli; vacua circa me tela ceciderunt. miserum me deceptae cogitationis eventu! fortiter feci, dum mereor occidi.

[5] there first, wretched, I learned how many things, unknowing, how many things we would do unwilling: into the midst of the enemies’ masses, a desperate fighter, I leapt forth; the battle line yielded; I alone invaded the thickest contests, no one endured to resist; to the opposing blows I laid bare my limbs, and, as steel rushed upon me everywhere, I carried my vitals around made ready for it; weapons fell harmless around me. wretched me at the outcome of my deceived cogitation! I acted bravely, while I deserved to be slain.

recedite, gratulationes, abite, laudantes; non circumeo templa, non reddo vota numinibus: ad parricidium veni. quem ego paulo ante passus sum miserae conscientiae pudorem! ad patrem arma non rettuli; timui quin immo, ne mihi, dum revertor, occurreret, ne in oscula mea plenasque adhuc victricibus telis manus incauto rueret amplexu.

Withdraw, congratulations, depart, you praisers; I do not go around the temples, I do not render vows to the numina: I have come to parricide. What shame of a wretched conscience I endured a little before! I did not bear arms against my father; I feared—nay rather—that, while I was returning, he might meet me, lest in an incautious embrace he should rush into my kisses and into my hands still full with victorious weapons.

quam tunc inter ceteras exclamationes deducentis exercitus vocem, quod circumstantis populi murmur excepi! 'magnum felicemque iuvenem'; si subito moreretur!

What a voice then, among the other exclamations of the escorting army, what murmur of the surrounding populace, I caught! 'a great and fortunate young man'; if he should die suddenly!

Adiuvate, dii pariter atque homines, dum perire concupisco, dum volo; miseremini, ne hunc ardorem fugientis animae dilatione laxetis. proclamo, testor: in novissimo fati stamus abrupto, prope est, ut occidat patrem parricida praedictus, cum est mori paratus. quid me, pater, adhuc detines, quid moraris abeuntem?

Help, gods and men alike, while I long to perish, while I will it; have pity, lest by delay you slacken this ardor of a fleeing soul. I proclaim, I bear witness: we stand upon the last precipice of fate; it is near that the foretold parricide should kill his father, when he is prepared to die. Why do you, father, still detain me, why do you delay the one departing?

melius quidem fuerat hunc spiritum aut in ipsa maternorum viscerum sede comprimere aut, ut primum contactu suo caelum terrasque polluerit, festinata morte dimittere. sane tamen caritas patriae privatos vicerit metus, et in honorem virtutum scelera nutrita sint; quicquid est, propter quod educari me tanti fuit, explicitum peractumque est. restat una pars fati: ultimum solumque facinus.

It would indeed have been better either to compress this spirit in the very seat of my mother’s womb, or, as soon as by its contact it had polluted heaven and earth, to dismiss it by a hastened death. Granted, however, that love of the fatherland has conquered private fears, and that crimes have been nourished in honor of virtues; whatever it is on account of which it was so worthwhile to educate me has been set forth and accomplished. One part of fate remains: the last and only crime.

frustra me consolaris aequanimitate patientiae tuae; non idem utriusque nostrum discrimen agitur: tu mori periclitaris, ego patrem invitus occidere.

In vain you console me with the equanimity of your patience; the same peril is not at issue for both of us: you risk dying, I—unwilling—of killing my father.

[6] Hoc primum itaque excuso vobis, P.C., quod praemium peto. satis sit hactenus viri fortis nomen agnoscere, hucusque auctoritatem sacrae legis attingere, ut illam in advocationem [sacrae] mortis adducam. relaturum me putatis illa optionum verba sollemnia, non capere magnorum pretia meritorum solas aequitates; tanta remunerandum benignitate quod fortiter fecit aliquis, quanta sollicitaretis, ut faceret?

[6] This first, then, I excuse to you, Conscript Fathers: that I seek a reward. Let it be enough for the present to acknowledge the name of a brave man, thus far to touch the authority of the sacred law, that I may bring it into the advocation of [sacred] death. Do you suppose I am going to recite those solemn words of options, that equities alone do not grasp the rewards of great merits; that what someone has bravely done should be remunerated with as great benignity as you would employ to solicit him to do it?

nemini umquam minus solvendo civitas fuit: praestiti, post quod mori continuo deberem.

To no one ever has the state been less solvent: I have advanced it, after which I ought forthwith to die.

Sed securi estote de aviditate summae potestatis. illud infinitum, illud immodicum, quod nobis voluerunt licere leges, intra se consumit ille, qui morit<ur>. titulos, imagines, honores servate victuris; mihi praestate salutem patris, innocentiam meam, temporum pudorem. quaeso, ne mihi ideo praemium negetis, quia fortassis et hoc debeatis odisse, quod fortiter feci; extra invidiam est optio, cum id exigam, quod inpetrare potuissem etiam antequam fortiter facerem.

But be secure about the avidity of supreme power. That infinite, that immoderate thing, which the laws wished to be permitted to us, he who dies consumes within himself. Preserve titles, images, honors for those who will live; for me, provide a father’s safety, my innocence, the modesty of the times. I beg, do not therefore deny me the reward, because perhaps you ought also to hate this very thing which I did bravely; the option is beyond envy, since I exact that which I could have obtained even before I acted bravely.

nam quod obiter optionis reddo rationem, quaeso, ne quis ideo me parum aut praemio fidere credat aut causis, quia utriusque iuris miscui preces; ignoscite ardori perire cupientis, quod pariter inploro quae singula sufficere potuissent. fidem quin immo vestram, si qua adhuc lex est, quae adiuvare possit mori volentem, commodate, conferte. [est quod in] utriusque iuris auctoritati est, quod in mea morte tribuatis: praestate causis ut moriar, praemio ut sepeliar.

for as to the fact that by the way I render the rationale of the option, I beg that no one therefore believe me to trust too little either in the reward or in the causes, because I have mixed in my prayers the two rights; forgive the ardor of one desiring to perish, that I at once implore things which singly could have sufficed. nay rather, lend—contribute—your faith, if there is still any law which can aid one willing to die. [est quod in] the authority of both laws there is something which you may bestow in my death: furnish the causes that I may die, the reward that I may be buried.

Sentio, P.C., hoc primum ab adfectibus publicis petendum, ne quis ideo mori me velle non credat, quia potius ad causas ac verba confugi, quia a vobis malui petere, quicquid ab his potui manibus accipere.

I perceive, Conscript Fathers, that this must first be sought from the public affections, that no one therefore should believe that I do not wish to die, because I have rather taken refuge in causes and words, because I preferred to ask from you whatever I could have received from these hands.

[7] merui, fateor, malignas interpretationes: vir fortis, ut morerer, a bello reversus arma posui, populi favorem, gaudia civitatis intravi. sed sive hoc est sepulturae suae magna reverentia, pessimeque additae pectoribus humanis infirmitatis, ut esset, quod timeret, qui non timet mortem, seu decuit innocentiae amore pereuntem tranquillitas magna pereundi, ignoscite, quaeso, cunctationi, patientiae, morae: si me continuo occidissem, tamquam parricida moriebar.

[7] I have deserved, I confess, malign interpretations: a brave man, in order that I might die, having returned from war I laid down my arms, I entered the people’s favor, the joys of the city. But whether this is a great reverence for one’s own burial, and the very worst infirmity added to human hearts, that there might be something to fear for one who does not fear death, or whether a great tranquility of dying was fitting for one perishing for love of innocence, forgive, I pray, the hesitation, the patience, the delay: if I had killed myself immediately, I would have died as though a parricide.

Neque est, P.C., quod excludi praemium putetis contradictione patris. eximus per magnorum operum reverentiam de necessitate parendi, et aut interim nobis magna venit contra nominis huius potentiam de virtutum favore libertas, aut obsequia peracta demum optione repetemus. non est, quod vos resistentis moveat auctoritas; neminem invenias mori volentem, qui non habeat aliquem vetantem: ille, cui praesto non sunt pignera caritatis, lacrimis tamen audientium et consolationibus et promptissima semper exhortatione retinetur.

Nor is there, P.C., any reason for you to think the reward excluded by a father’s contradiction. We exit, by the reverence for great works, from the necessity of obeying, and either meanwhile there comes to us, against the potency of this name, a great liberty from the favor of virtues, or, our services performed, we will at last reclaim the choice. There is no reason that the authority of one resisting should move you; you will find no one willing to die who does not have someone forbidding: that man, for whom the pledges of charity are not at hand, is nevertheless held back by the tears of the hearers and by consolations and by the ever most prompt exhortation.

parentibus vero circa liberos unus adfectus est: favere vitae, timere mortem. non habent patientiam nec iustae orbitatis, et inter supplicia [~nemo] poenasque omnes tamen illis innocentes, omnes miseri sumus. ego, P.C., communem hanc impatientiam senis accendo pietate, reverentia.

But in parents regarding their children there is one sentiment: to favor life, to fear death. They have no endurance, not even for a just bereavement, and amid torments [~nemo] and punishments, nevertheless to them we are all innocent, we are all wretched. I, Conscript Fathers, inflame this common impatience of an old man by piety and reverence.

fieri non potest, ut se mori debere persuadeat patri filius, propter quem se videtur occidere.

It is not possible that a son should persuade his father that he ought to die, the very man on account of whom he seems to be killing himself.

[8] Hactenus leges, hactenus merita virtutum; veniamus ad necessitates. mori volo: ita [ut] non reddidi causas? ita non ex hac destinatione sentitis, quicquid dici potest, quicquid dici non potest?

[8] Thus far the laws, thus far the merits of virtues; let us come to necessities. I wish to die: is it thus that I have not set forth the causes? is it thus that from this resolve you do not sense whatever can be said, whatever cannot be said?

viderit, quid nos hucusque protulerit; hinc incipit ratio, quod volo. fingite unum ex populo turbaque petere ius supremorum; non debet hoc vetari, quotiens habet causas, non potest, quotiens non habet. scilicet enim verendum est, ne ad hoc inconsulte, ne temere levitas humana prosiliat, et credibile est, ut quicquid apud hominem pro vita dici potest, ipsa sibi vita non dixerit?

Let it be seen what has carried us thus far; from here begins the rationale that I want. Imagine one from the people and the throng claiming the right of the last things (last rites); this ought not to be forbidden whenever he has reasons; he cannot, whenever he does not have them. For of course it is to be feared lest human levity spring forth to this without counsel, rashly; and is it credible that whatever can be said by a man on behalf of life, life itself has not said to itself?

abite, gratulationes, silete, blanditiae; quotiens iam putatis noluisse me mori? primum hoc maximumque pro incolumitate hominis natura commenta est, ut periremus inviti, et contra tot adversos casus patientiae nobis aequanimitate succurreret. inde est, quod inter luctus et desperationes foeda vivacitate duramus.

Begone, congratulations, be silent, blandishments; how many times already do you suppose that I have been unwilling to die? First and greatest, for the incolumity of man, nature has contrived this: that we should perish unwilling, and that, against so many adverse chances, patience should succor us with equanimity. Hence it is that amid griefs and desperations we endure with a foul tenacity of life.

an vos me movere non creditis, quod iuvenis sum, quod modo vitae voluptates, modo gaudia lucis ingressus sum? quantopere mihi blanditur, quod publicis ex acie reportatus umeris laetitiam civitatis implevi! quotiens mehercule haec vulnera et rorantia hostili cruore arma conspexi, animum supra necessitates erigo, supra fatum pono.

Or do you not believe that I am moved, because I am young, because I have but now entered now the volupties of life, now the joys of the light? How greatly it flatters me, that, borne back from the battle-line on the public’s shoulders, I filled the rejoicing of the city! How often, by Hercules, when I have beheld these wounds and the arms dripping with hostile blood, I lift my spirit above necessities, I set it above fate.

sed omnia mihi iam discussa, consumpta sunt, et honeste pereundi ratione victa cesserunt. quid mihi amplius cum corpore, quod oderunt oculi sui, cum quo cotidie properans anima rixatur? non sunt mea membra, quae possim velut hostis alicuius lacerare, confodere.

but all things for me have now been shaken off, consumed, and, conquered by the reasoning of perishing honorably, have yielded. what further have I to do with the body, which its own eyes hate, with which the soul, hastening, quarrels every day? they are not my limbs, that I could lacerate, transfix as though of some enemy.

homini, qui semel renuntiavit rebus humanis, non redditur vita, sed tempus, et ipsa cupiditas ratioque pereundi hoc ipso quo vetamur, adcrescit. felicior mehercules, qui moritur, antequam debeat, antequam velit; paene sero renuntiat vitae quisquis sic ad exitum pervenit, ut hoc illum facere nemo miretur. ei tantum debet mors negari, de quo non sufficit hoc poenae genus, ut ipse se potius occidat.

To a man who has once renounced human affairs, life is not given back, but time; and the very desire and rationale for perishing, by this very fact by which we are forbidden, increases. Happier, by Hercules, is he who dies before he must, before he wills; he renounces life almost too late, whoever thus comes to his end, such that no one marvels at his doing this. Death ought to be denied only to that man, for whom this kind of penalty does not suffice—that he should rather kill himself.

[9] Nam quod lex iussit, ut moriturus redderet causas, quod insepultum voluit abici, si sic properasset erumpere, ut non nuntiaret hoc prius, non fateretur, fallitur, quisquis ideo factum putat, ut teneremur in vita. illa vero non timet pereundi temeritatem, nec secretum doloris alieni libenter inquirit. sciebat illos non [aliter] ausuros proferre causas, quos sceleris conscientia, quos maioris cruciatus metus in suprema compelleret.

[9] For as to the law’s having commanded that one about to die render his reasons, and that he be cast forth unburied if he had hastened to burst out in such a way as not to announce this beforehand, not to confess—it is mistaken, whoever thinks this was done in order that we be held in life. That law, in truth, does not fear the temerity of perishing, nor does it willingly inquire into the secret of another’s grief. It knew that those whom the conscience of crime, whom the fear of a greater cruciatus, was driving to the last extremities would not [otherwise] dare to bring forward their reasons.

igitur ne supplicia properato lucrarentur obitu, rursus in poenam nocentis insepulti corporis revocavit iniuria. lex placida, mitis causas mortis reddi voluit, non aestimari.

Therefore, lest one should profit by a hastened obit against the punishments, injustice recalled him back again into the penalty of a guilty, unburied body. A placid, gentle law willed that the causes of death be rendered, not assessed.

Possum igitur, P. C., publica quadam voce generis humani respondere quaerentibus causas mortis interrogatus, at ego difficilius redderem vitae: quid iuvat, o misera mortalitas, animam per tot annos, etiam, si natura patiatur, per infinita temporum spatia tristissimo corporis retinere complexu? si cuncta gaudia nostra, si voluptates et quaecumque ex hac universitate mundi vel sollicitant aspectu, vel blandiuntur usu, diligenter excutias, tota vita hominis unus est dies. humiles prorsus abiectaeque mentes, quas non implent haec eadem semperque redeuntia.

Therefore I can, Conscript Fathers, with a certain public voice of the human race, answer those who, when I am questioned, ask the causes of death; but I would with more difficulty render an account of life: what does it profit, O wretched mortality, to retain the soul for so many years, even, if nature permits, through infinite stretches of time, in the most mournful embrace of the body? If you carefully examine all our joys, our pleasures, and whatever things from this universe of the world either solicit by their sight or flatter by their use, the whole life of a man is a single day. Utterly lowly and abject are the minds which these same ever-returning things do not fill.

at qui honestis operatus artibus sciat, quis finis bonorum, quae vera felicitas, numquam sibi videbitur praematura morte periturus, et lucis causas ad animum mentemque referentium neminem cotidie vita non satiat.

but he who, engaged in honorable arts, knows what the end of goods is, what true felicity is, will never seem to himself about to perish by a premature death; and, of those who refer the causes of the light to soul and mind, there is no one whom life does not satiate every day.

[10] relaturum nunc me putatis, quanto plura sint in hac aevi brevitate fugienda, comparaturum gaudiis, prosperis metus, calamitates? illa, illa aestimemus, propter quae fatigamus votis deos, propter quae brevem querimur aetatem. nempe sunt vanitas, cupido, luxuria, libido.

[10] Do you suppose that I am now going to relate how many more things there are, in this brevity of age, to be shunned, and to compare to joys and prosperities the fears, the calamities? Let us reckon those, those things on account of which we fatigue the gods with vows, on account of which we complain of a brief span of life. Surely they are vanity, cupidity, luxury, libido.

Non pudet propter haec ferre debilitates, luctus, spatia morborum, et, cum liceat evadere, malle pati? finge tibi velut ipsam proclamare naturam: 'receptus es in hoc pulcherrimum mundi rerumque consortium et per succedentium vices in ordinem mortalitatis natus bona nostra vidisti; admitte posteros, cede venientibus.' nescis, te quanto diutius vixeris, tanto magis impatientem perire? quantumlibet prorogentur tempora, iungantur aetates, quandoque tamen non potest non exitu perire miseri, qui moritur invitus.

Is it not shameful, on account of these things, to bear debilities, griefs, spans of illnesses, and, when it is permitted to escape, to prefer to suffer? Imagine for yourself, as it were, Nature herself proclaiming: 'You have been received into this most beautiful consortium of the world and of things, and through the vicissitudes of successors, born into the order of mortality; you have seen our goods; admit your posterity, yield to those who are coming.' Do you not know that, the longer you have lived, the more impatient you are to perish? However much times may be prolonged, ages joined together, yet at some point it cannot but come to an exit; wretched is he who dies unwilling.

miraris, quod suprema mea ipse praecipitem? numquid enim non hoc agunt singuli dies? omnis nos hora per tacitos fallentesque cursus adplicat fato, et in hac turpissima perpetuitatis cogitatione districti per exigua festinantis aevi momenta praemorimur.

Do you marvel that I myself precipitate my end? For do not the individual days do this? Every hour, through silent and deceptive courses, attaches us to fate, and, distracted in this most disgraceful cogitation of perpetuity, we die beforehand through the exiguous moments of a hastening age.

faciamus potius de fine remedium, de necessitate solacium; exeamus sponte, consilio, pleni securitatis, gratias agentes. solus vixit, quoad voluit, qui mori mavult.

Let us rather make from the end a remedy, from necessity a solace; let us go forth of our own accord, with counsel, full of security, giving thanks. He alone has lived as long as he wished, who prefers to die.

[11] Indulgete, quaeso, saevae tristesque causae, indulgete, virtutes ut mori tamquam magno animo velim. ita non sufficit ad maturandos exitus quod fortiter feci? infirmae prorsus terrenaeque mentis est, ut numeretis annos; ego, quae felicissima vel lassitudo vel satietas est, virtute consenui.

[11] Indulge, I beg, fierce and grim causes, indulge, O virtues, that I may wish to die as though with a magnanimous spirit. Thus, does what I have done bravely not suffice for maturing my departure? It belongs wholly to a weak and earthly mind to number years; as for me, in that happiest thing—whether lassitude or satiety—I have grown old in virtue.

quid adhuc inter accidentia fragilesque casus ago? homo receptus in publicas gratulationes praesentiae humilitate decresco: minores fiant necesse est diuturnitate, quorum initia confirmavere successus. cum iam nec operibus nec felicitati possit accedere, cum fortuna ruere dementia est et aetatem trahere pereuntem; nullos ego senes degere turpius puto, quam qui fortissimi fuerunt.

What am I still doing amid accidents and fragile chances? A man received into public congratulations, I diminish through the cheapness of presence: by long duration it is necessary that those whose beginnings successes have confirmed should become lesser. When now nothing can be added either to works or to felicity, when to go to ruin with Fortune is madness and to drag out a perishing age; I think no old men live more shamefully than those who were the very bravest.

vultis expectem, ut putres artus foedet pudenda canities, ut sanguine membra vacuata vix nitantur ad gressus, ut hae laudatae manus nec ad cotidianae vitae ministeria sufficiant? quam miserum, quam deforme est meminisse quod fueris, referre cicatricum tuarum redundationes et frigidam praeteritorum memoriam, cum iam fidem membra non habeant, supra sua facta rideri! festinato exire de saeculo debeo, dum alacre corpus, dum spiritus viget, dum teneor, dum desideror, et hoc volo deberi manibus meis, animo meo.

Do you wish me to wait, until putrid limbs are defiled by shameful hoariness, until members drained of blood can scarcely brace themselves for steps, until these praised hands are not even sufficient for the ministries of quotidian life? How wretched, how misshapen it is to remember what you once were, to rehearse the profusion of your scars and the cold memory of things past, when already the limbs have no trustworthiness, to be laughed at when set against one’s own deeds! I ought to hasten to depart from the world, while the body is lively, while the spirit is vigorous, while I am held dear, while I am desired; and I want this to be owed to my own hands, to my own mind.

favete, dii pariter atque homines: mortem vir fortis inveni. est haec communis mihi cum multis fortasse causa, sed veniamus ad meam.

Be favorable, gods and men alike: I, a brave man, have found death. This cause is perhaps common to me with many, but let us come to my own.

[12] Si mihi mathematicus denuntiasset damna membrorum, gravem corporis perpetuumque languorem, ignosceres tanta mala vel incerta fugienti. plus est, quod expavesco, quod timeo; minatus est mihi manus meas meus animus, nullumque voluit esse momentum, quo securus intrepidusque requiescerem. iussus sum vitam per anhelitus metusque consumere.

[12] If a mathematician-astrologer had foretold to me losses of my limbs, a grievous and perpetual languor of the body, you would pardon one fleeing such great evils even if uncertain. Greater is that which I shudder at, which I fear; my mind has threatened me with my own hands, and has wished that there be no moment in which I might rest secure and intrepid. I have been bidden to consume my life in pantings and in fears.

quis inter haec spei, quis consolationis est locus? mori debeo tamquam nocens, si mathematicus verum dixit, tamquam miser, si mentitus est.

What place amid these things is there for hope, what for consolation? I ought to die as if guilty, if the astrologer has spoken true; as if wretched, if he has lied.

Quid, quod me futurum dixit parricidam? en quem mittamus in experimentum, cui credamus! placet potius futurorum incerta[m] tractare ratione[m] quam ad diversas persuasiones et ad loquacissima humanorum pectorum ingenia variari[s]. parricidium dictus sum facturus; si possum post hoc vivere, non sum innocens, etiamsi non fecero.

What about the fact that he said I would be a parricide? Behold the one we should send to the experiment, to whom we should give credence! It is preferable to handle by reason the uncertainties of things to come rather than to be varied according to divergent persuasions and the most loquacious wits of human hearts. I have been said to be about to commit parricide; if I can live after this, I am not innocent, even if I do not do it.

Interrogare mehercules hoc <loco> libet vos, omnes liberi, omnes parentes: quem mihi post hanc denuntiationem adsignetis animum? homo sum, cuius corpus iratum fortasse saeculo numen velut aptissimam facinori videtur elegisse materiam, cui in primis continuo natalibus adsignata est virtus pariter et facinus, omnium incredibilium diversorumque pariter capax, omnibus difficultatibus novitatibusque sufficiens, sceleribus miser et, sine morte sua, nocens, in quo debeatis ipsas quoque odisse virtutes.

By Hercules, in this <place> I am minded to ask you, all children, all parents: what animus you assign to me after this denunciation? I am a man whose body the numen, perhaps enraged at the age, seems to have chosen as the most apt material for a crime; to whom, in the first place, straightway at his birth, virtue and crime alike were assigned, equally capable of all unbelievable and diverse things, sufficient for all difficulties and novelties, wretched through crimes and, without his own death, nocent, in whom you ought to hate the virtues themselves as well.

[13] Nescioquae me prodigiosa feritas in patrem velut telum aliquod casurumque pondus librat, inpingit. facinus me manet, quod contra fidem est, quod profuturum mihi negatur ut nolim cuius non tempus, non locus, non causa praedicitur. an mori debeam, vos aestimabitis; non debui nasci.

[13] Some prodigious ferocity poises me against my father like some missile and a weight about to fall, and hurls me. A crime awaits me, which is against fidelity, which is declared not to be going to profit me, so that I may not wish it—of which neither the time, nor the place, nor the cause is foretold. Whether I ought to die, you will judge; I ought not to have been born.

Sentit pater, quanta sit praedicti sceleris inmanitas, et ideo temptat efficere, ut mathematicam artem non putetis, ac modo contendit non esse fatum, et cuncta casu fortuitoque decurrere, modo, etiam ut providentia regantur, non posse tamen humana scientia deprehendi. dum utrumque colligo, interim apud gravitatem vestram depono sensisse aliquid etiam patrem, cum metuit. ego mathematicum probavi dixisse verum, ille cre<di>dit esse dicturum.

The father perceives how great is the monstrosity of the foretold crime, and therefore he tries to bring it about that you not think the mathematical art, and at one moment he contends that there is no fate and that all things run by chance and fortuity, at another, that they are governed by providence, yet cannot nevertheless be apprehended by human knowledge. While I gather both, meanwhile I submit before your gravity that the father too sensed something, since he was afraid. I have proved that the mathematician spoke the truth; he believed that he would say it.

Casune tibi, pater, haec diversitas videtur in corpus unum dissentientibus solidata primordiis, ut summo vertice locatus igneus vigor cuncta gravia calidi spiritus ardore suspenderet, profundus umor ad ima demersus, unde cotidie superpositi caloris alimenta traherentur, terrenum pondus in medio quanto superne spiritu, tanta penitus inanitate subnixum librata mole consideret, ut saeculorum infinita series per adsiduas temporum vices sua lege festinet? quid haec fulgentium siderum veneranda facies? quod quaedam velut infixa ac cohaerentia perpetua semelque capta sede conlucent, alia toto sparsa caelo vagos cursus certis emetiuntur erroribus, ista credis passim fortuitoque disposita?

Does it seem to you, father, that by chance this diversity has been consolidated into one body from dissentient first-beginnings, so that the igneous vigor placed at the highest vertex would suspend all heavy things by the ardor of a warm spirit, the deep moisture sunk to the lowest parts, whence day by day the aliment of the superposed heat is drawn, the earthy weight set in the middle keeps a balanced mass, propped as much by the spirit above as by the deep void, so that the infinite series of ages, through the constant alternations of times, hastens by its own law? What of this venerable visage of the shining stars? that some, as if fixed and cohering perpetually, shine in a seat once seized, while others, scattered through the whole heaven, measure out wandering courses with definite errors—do you believe these things to have been disposed everywhere at random and by fortuitous chance?

[14] rogo, quid melius ratio fecisset? deus haec, deus, fabricator operis immensi, ex illa rudi primaque caligine protracta posuit in vultum, digessit in partes. postquam dederat universitati parem dignamque faciem, spiritum desuper, quo pariter animarentur, inmisit.

[14] I ask, what better would Reason have done? God—God, the fabricator of the immense work—having drawn these things out from that rude and primal darkness, set them into a visage, disposed them into parts. After he had given to the universe a fitting and worthy face, he sent down from above a spirit, by which all things alike might be animated.

inde est, quod quidquid nascitur, consociata numinis proprietate signatur et in totam aevi sui brevitatem conpositum firmatumque sic accipit futura quasi vitam. haec credo, pater, terrori primis fuisse mortalibus, mox admirationem consumpta novitate meruisse. paulatim deinde hoc, quod stupemus, animus ausus diligenter adtendere in arcana naturae sacrum misit ingenium, et ex adsiduis observationibus notisque redeuntibus latentium ratione collecta pervenit ad causas.

Hence it is that whatever is born is marked by a property consociated with the numen, and for the whole brevity of its age, once composed and confirmed, thus receives its future as it were life. These things, I believe, father, were a terror to the first mortals; soon, the novelty having been consumed, they merited admiration. Gradually then, as to this at which we marvel, the mind, daring to attend carefully, sent its sacred ingenium into the arcana of nature, and from assiduous observations and from the familiar things returning, with the reasoning of hidden things gathered, it arrived at the causes.

miraris fatum hominis posse praedici? defectiones siderum laboresque narrantur, nuntiantur origo tempestatum, lassitudo ventorum, quod sidus immodicos solis ardores, quod severas minetur hiemes, quid significent sparsi longius crines, quid ardentius solito iubar, quid excussa flamma sideribus. non invenio, quid esse possit certius verae artis ingenium quam dicere quid futurum sit, fieri deinde quod dixerit.

Do you marvel that a man’s fate can be foretold? The defections of the stars and their labors are recounted; the origin of tempests is announced, the lassitude of the winds; which star threatens immoderate ardors of the sun, which severe winters; what more-widely scattered hairs signify, what a radiance more burning than usual, what a flame shaken from the stars. I do not find what could be a more certain proof of the genius of true art than to say what will be, and then that what it has said comes to pass.

Quod si esse artem mathematicam probant natura, ratio, experimenta, pater quoque, qui credidit consulendum, superest, ut ostendamus verum dixisse de futuris, quem de praeteritis non possumus probare mentitum.

But if nature, reason, experiments, and you too, father—who believed that consultation should be sought—prove that the mathematical art exists, it remains that we show that he spoke truth about things to come, whom we cannot prove to have lied about things past.

[15] accipite primam certissimae scientiae probationem: homo, qui de partu consulebatur, non confudit turbavitque responsum, nec per varias ambages indeprehensibilem sparsit errorem; nihil ita locutus est, ut illud audientium interpretatio traheret dirigeretque, quo mallet. atquin in eo tota ratio fallendi est, non dare consulentibus quod deposcant, sed caligine magnaque promissorum vanitate suspensos sic dimittere, ut, quicquid casus attulerit, putent esse praedictum. an scilicet haec fuerit ratio fingendi, quod dicebat usitata, communia, quae futurus pater facile crederet, libenter audiret?

[15] receive the first proof of a most certain science: the man who was consulting about a birth did not confound and disturb the response, nor through various circumlocutions did he scatter an inapprehensible error; he spoke nothing in such a way that the interpretation of the hearers might drag and steer it where it pleased. And indeed, in this lies the whole method of deceiving: not to give to the consultants what they demand, but to dismiss them, kept in suspense, with obscurity and the great vanity of promises, so that whatever chance may bring they think has been foretold. Or, forsooth, was this the method of feigning—saying things usual, common, which the future father would easily believe and gladly hear?

'fortiter,' inquit, 'faciet filius tuus.' rogo, ubi magis desinit, qui mentitur? sed quibus ille, dii deaeque, signis, quibus impletus est notis, qui de parricida dissimulare non potuit, cum quaereret pater! artem tantum mirari me, pater, putas?

'Bravely,' he says, 'your son will do.' I ask, where does one who lies more completely give himself away? But by what signs, gods and goddesses, with what marks was he filled—he who could not dissimulate about a parricide, when the father was inquiring! Do you think, father, that I marvel only at the art?

ego miror animum, stupeo constantiam. 'erit,' inquit, 'vir fortis -- et parricida.' rogo, quae ratio fallendi est ea <a>dicere, propter quae nec prioribus debeat credi? in parricidio quod prospiciebat mathematicus, haec sola ratio fuit mendacii, ne praediceretur.

I marvel at the spirit, I am stupefied at the constancy. ‘He will be,’ he says, ‘a brave man -- and a parricide.’ I ask, what method of deceiving is it to say those things because of which not even the earlier statements ought to be believed? In the parricide which the mathematician foresaw, this was the sole rationale of the falsehood: lest it be predicted.

Fero tamen, ut quis in aliis consultationibus decipi possit; at errare de futuro parricida non magis mathematicus potest quam pater interrogare.

I allow, however, that someone may be deceived in other consultations; but a mathematician can no more err about a future parricide than a father can inquire.

[16] omnes, sicuti apud sacrae artis antistites satis constat, animae proprietates et futuras mentium corporumque formas ex illorum siderum qualitate, quibus in ortu suo ~cuncta~ gignuntur, accipiunt. aliquis vagi numinis errore perstrictus est: vitam transiget ille discursibus. placida conceptum stella signavit: erit modesta lenitate conspicuus.

[16] all, just as it is quite settled among the high-priests of the sacred art, receive the properties of the soul and the future forms of minds and bodies from the quality of those stars under which, at their rising, ~all things~ are generated. someone has been stricken by the aberration of a wandering numen: he will spend his life in discursions. a placid star has marked the conception: he will be conspicuous for modest lenity.

ardens nascentis horam sidus accendit: viribus pariter moribusque flagrabit. . . . languido iam vergentis in proclive mundi: hebescentibus tardior membris similis senectae iuventa pigrescet. iam si cui principalium deorum fulgor inluxerit, in populi consurget imperium.

a burning star kindles the hour of the one being born: he will blaze equally in strengths and in morals. . . . with the world already inclining into a down-slope, languid: with the limbs growing dull he will be slower; youth, like to old age, will grow sluggish. and now, if the splendor of the principal gods shall have shone upon anyone, he will rise into the imperium of a people.

credo mehercules in illum natalem monstri mei diem iratorum numinum conspirasse violentiam sedemque prodigiosi spiritus conlato pariter igne pressisse. si verum est post vetusta saecula et innumerabiles annos reddi rursus aliis corporibus animas, fortassis in me renatus sit aliquis ex illis, quorum scelere violatus dies mundum subito mutavit, quos <per> maria terrasque fugientes furiales faces et ultricum dearum terror agitavit.

I believe, by Hercules, that on that natal day of my monster the violence of angered numina conspired, and pressed the seat of the prodigious spirit with fire gathered together alike. If it is true that after ancient ages and innumerable years souls are rendered back again to other bodies, perhaps in me someone has been reborn from those by whose crime the violated day suddenly changed the world, whom, fleeing <per> seas and lands, the Furial torches and the terror of avenging goddesses drove.

Necesse est et maiores notas ventura praemittant, quae non temere nascuntur. sic futuras tempestates pelagi fragor et conscium nemorum murmur enuntiat, sic periturorum fata populorum ardentes caelo faces et crinita siderum flamma praecurrit.

It is necessary that things to come also send ahead greater signs, which do not arise rashly. Thus the roar of the sea and the knowing murmur of the groves announce future tempests; thus the burning torches in the sky and the hairy (crinite) flame of the stars precede the dooms of peoples about to perish.

[17] praedicebar bello, monstrabar armis, agebat ante se ventura feritas publicas calamitates, et omnium malorum consummatione parricida ponebar. at si nunc ista putet aliquis fortuito, non arte sentiri, possit fortasse casu evenire, quod futurum sit; non potest casu fieri, quod praedictum est. ecquando umquam, pater, explicuit manifestius ullius fati necessitatem totus ordo responsi?

[17] I was foretold for war, I was shown forth by arms, the coming ferocity drove before itself public calamities, and I was set down as a parricide at the consummation of all evils. But if now someone thinks these things are perceived fortuitously, not by art, perhaps by chance what is going to be might come to pass; it cannot by chance come to be, what has been foretold. When ever, father, did the whole order of the response unfold more manifestly the necessity of any fate?

'vir,' inquit, 'nascetur;' evenit. 'educabitur, quamvis praedictus sit;' accidit. 'perveniet ad iuventae robur;' adolevi.

'A man,' he says, 'will be born;' it came to pass. 'He will be educated, although he has been predicted;' it happened. 'He will attain to the robustness of youth;' I grew up.

'viribus erit conspicuus;' eminui. 'aderunt bella;' venerunt. 'ibit in aciem te volente;' misisti.

'he will be conspicuous in strength;' I was eminent. 'wars will be at hand;' they came. 'he will go into the battle-line with you willing;' you sent me.

'fortiter faciet;' feci. 'erit parricida;' si vixero.

'he will act bravely;' I did. 'he will be a parricide;' if I live.

Si, pater, tamen secretae profundaeque artis ratio reddenda est, nonne habere tibi grande consortium praedicti videtur ipsa diversitas? virum fortem dixit et parricidam: vicina sunt haec, etiam ut dissimilia, paria viribus, etiam ut mente dissentiant. quid enim me aliud notabilem fecit in bello, quam quod non parco caedibus, cruore non satior, exultans super stratorum corporum strages, palpitantibus adhuc cadaveribus alacer insisto?

If, father, however, an account of the secret and profound art must be rendered, does not this very diversity seem to you to have a great consortium with what was foretold? He said “a brave man” and “a parricide”: these are neighboring, even as they are dissimilar, equal in forces, even though they disagree in mind. For what else made me notable in war, than that I do not spare slaughter, am not sated with gore, exulting over the heaps of bodies laid low, I briskly tread upon corpses still palpitating?

virtutis sunt ista, cum hostis contigit; pax est, quae nos deprehendit, et cum iusta grassandi materia consumpta est, in facinus necesse est otiosus ardor erumpat. ecce iam rei publicae praebita est quies; mihi tamen plurimum est cum gladio meo: totis diebus tracto ferrum, ad arma respicio, tela mea laudo, admiror, adloquor. crede, pater: et parricidium tam facile est quam fortiter facere, cum utrumque de fato est.

those are of virtue, when the enemy is encountered; it is peace that has caught us, and when the just material for rampaging is consumed, idle ardor must erupt into crime. behold, already repose has been afforded to the republic; yet I have very much to do with my sword: all day long I handle the iron, I look back to arms, I praise, admire, address my weapons. believe, father: even parricide is just as easy as to act bravely, since both are from fate.

[18] Sed quousque ratione colligam, quod exitu iam probatum est? quod nullis mathematicus dixit ambagibus, nullis dissimulari artibus potest. partem responsi futuram in alio opere iam vidisti, et, quod praecipue torquet animum, fides sceleris virtus fuit.

[18] But how long shall I piece together by reason what has already been proved by the outcome?—what the astrologer said with no ambiguities, what can be disguised by no arts. You have already seen part of the response destined to appear in another work; and—what especially torments the mind—faith was the virtue of the crime.

explicata est auctoritas responsi, cum de duobus praedictis unum factum est, nec possis de veritate dubitare, quotiens cum incertis experimenta consentiunt. in responso, cui cuncta cesserunt, fieri non potest, ut hoc solum falsum sit, quod novissimum est.

the authority of the response has been unfolded, since of the two things foretold one has come to pass, nor can you doubt the truth, as often as experiments consent with uncertain things. In the response, to which all things have yielded, it cannot be that this alone is false, which is the last.

'Non potest,' inquit, 'fieri parricidium.' vis mirer, pater, si non creditur futurum, quod, etiam cum factum est, vix creditur? falleris, si adversus praedictas necessitates sufficere credis, quod ego bonus filius sum, quod tu optimus pater. tu non mereris ~scire, credo, ego utique nolle me scire~; quid est ergo fatum, nisi quod fit et non habet causas?

'It cannot be,' he says, 'that parricide be done.' Do you wish me to marvel, father, if what is scarcely believed even when it has been done is not believed to be going to happen? You are mistaken, if you think it suffices, against the predicted necessities, that I am a good son, that you are the best father. You do not deserve ~to know, I suppose; I, for my part, to be unwilling to know~; what then is fate, if not that which comes to pass and has no causes?

'quemadmodum ergo,' inquit, 'istud vitari potest, si fieri necesse est?' scilicet hac sola ratione, ut mors inter facinus hominemque ponatur. vincitur, pater, fatum, si resistas, vincit, si contempseris. ago quin immo gratias hoc solo nomine crudelissimis fatis, quod maximum facinus non in prima aevi mei parte posuerunt, quod praemissae sunt ante virtutes, magnorumque operum prior ordo defluxit.

'How then,' he says, 'can that be avoided, if it must happen?' Clearly by this sole rationale: that death be placed between the crime and the man. Fate is conquered, father, if you resist; it conquers if you scorn it. I render—nay rather—thanks under this one title to the most cruel fates, that they did not set the greatest crime in the first part of my age, that virtues were sent ahead before, and that the prior order of great works has flowed by.

potest, puto, caveri parricidium, quod et praedicitur et novissimum est.

Parricide, I think, can be avoided, in that it is both foretold and last.

[19] Fingamus, pater, mathematicum de hac sola vitae meae parte mentitum; quid tanti est, ut credam ista et vivam? 'occidi non potest pater'; sed quid refert, si difficultas ista non est salva animo meo? excedit omnem calamitatem innocentiae suae non credere, diebus ac noctibus timere, suspectum habere animum suum, calumniari manus, incausare visus et parricidalem agere cogitationem.

[19] Let us suppose, father, that the mathematicus lied about this single part of my life; what is worth so much, that I should believe those things and live? 'the father cannot be slain'; but what does it matter, if that impossibility does not keep my mind safe? it surpasses every calamity to not believe in one’s own innocence, to fear by days and nights, to hold one’s own mind suspect, to calumniate one’s hands, to accuse one’s sight, and to prosecute a parricidal thought.

maior mihi ratio moriendi est, si parricidium fieri non potest, et ego me credo facturum. quem tu mihi, pater, imperas laborem, quam asperam exigis patientiam! horreo oscula tua, ne seniles artus nimium gravis amplexus elidat.

I have a greater rationale for dying, if parricide cannot be done, and I believe myself about to do it. What labor you impose on me, father, what harsh patience you exact! I shudder at your kisses, lest a too-heavy embrace crush your aged limbs.

non sustineo eosdem expetere convictus, ne, quos porrexerim cibos, venena fiant. timeo eiusdem peregrinationis adire comitatum, omne fugio secretum, ne quid fortuna, ne quid afferat casus. quousque timebitur animus?

I cannot endure to seek out the same convivial company, lest the foods which I have proffered become poisons. I fear to approach the retinue of that same peregrination; I flee every seclusion, lest Fortune bring something, lest chance bring something. How long will my mind be an object of fear?

mors mihi praestare potest, ne parricidium faciam, mors, ut videar nec fuisse facturus. sed me infelicem, quam multa sunt, quae timere debeam etiam citra animum meum! unde scio, an expulsum me repente sensibus meis aliqua magni discriminis imago raptura sit?

Death can afford me that I not commit parricide—death, so that I may seem not even to have been about to do it. But unhappy me, how many things there are which I ought to fear even apart from my intention! How do I know whether, I being suddenly expelled from my senses, some image of great peril is about to seize me?

prosilibo fortasse, tamquam sequor classici vocantis instinctum, tamquam me ruentis patriae fragor et vociferatio captae civitatis exciverit. me sane custodire possum, sed unde scio, quid adferat nox, casus, error? mathematicus hoc non futurum dixit, ut vellem, sed ut occiderem.

I shall perhaps spring forth, as though I were following the instinct of a calling clarion, as though the crash of a collapsing fatherland and the vociferation of a captured commonwealth had summoned me. I can indeed guard myself, but how do I know what night, chance, error may bring? The astrologer said this would not be—that I would wish it—but that I would kill.

[20] Tu quoque, pater, quanto graviores passurus es ex ipsa dissimulatione cruciatus! felicius illud prorsus est, palam odisse quem timeas. cum bene in osculis meis amplexibusque requiescas, subeat necesse est tacitas cogitationes praedicti periculi metus, et, licet componatur ad fortem superbamque constantiam, naturalis tamen hominis infirmitas potest tam percussorem timere quam mortem.

[20] You too, father, how much heavier torments you are going to suffer from that very dissimulation! More felicitous altogether is this: to hate openly him whom you fear. When you rest well in my kisses and embraces, it must needs be that the silent thoughts of fear of the aforesaid peril steal in; and, although one may be composed to a brave and proud constancy, nevertheless the natural weakness of man can fear the assassin as much as death.

explica nos, pater, tam misero tristique conplexu et longissimas sollicitudines brevi recide patientia; minus indignum est, ut moriar, si innocens futurus sum, quam ut vivam, si parricida.

unclasp us, father, from so wretched and sad embrace, and with brief patience cut off the very long anxieties; it is less unworthy that I should die, if I am to be innocent, than that I should live, if a parricide.

Denuntio tibi, pater, et de suprema necessitate confiteor: iam non sunt meae potestatis hae manus; non regere dexteram, non retinere sufficio. venit ille nescioquis ardor, non sentio, non intuentur oculi. tunc omnia incipio scire, cum gesta sunt.

I warn you, father, and I confess from supreme necessity: these hands are no longer in my power; I do not suffice to rule my right hand, nor to restrain it. That I-know-not-what ardor comes on; I do not feel it, my eyes do not behold. Then I begin to know everything, when the deeds are done.

quid? tu me lacertorum viriumque beneficio stravisse nuper hostes putas? quantum dicuntur narrasse captivi, nescio quem in me monstruosi vultus horruere conspectum.

What? Do you think that I recently laid the enemies low by the benefit of my muscles and strength? According to what the captives are said to have recounted, they shuddered at the sight of I-know-not-what monstrous visage in me.

non tela iaciebam, non iaculabar ictus; furialibus miser facibus ardebam, et pectus istud non lorica, non ferrum, sed diri serpentium clauserant nexus. non fuit illud pugna, non acies: in bello parricida vincebam, excesserunt opera mea humanarum virium mediocritatem: quicquid factum est, rabies, insania fuit.

I was not casting missiles, I was not hurling blows; wretched, I was burning with Furial torches, and that breast had been enclosed not by a cuirass, not by iron, but by the coils of dire serpents. That was not battle, not a battle-line: in war, a parricide, I was conquering; my works exceeded the measure of human powers: whatever was done was frenzy, insanity.

[21] praedico, testor: non ego parricidium faciam, non ego fortiter feci.

[21] I proclaim, I attest: I will not commit parricide, I did not act bravely.

Quod si ulla ratione casuve effici potest, ut praedicta non fiant, fidem vestram, P.C., ut mihi potius innocentia quam fato debeatur: ego dicar expugnasse constitutionem, fregisse vincula necessitatis, mea pietas, mea laudetur integritas. dii non sinant, ut inter me responsumque decernat exitus; mathematicum vincere malo quam reprehendere.

But if by any method or even by chance it can be brought about that the things foretold not happen, I appeal to your good faith, Conscript Fathers, that what is owed to me be due to innocence rather than to fate: let me be said to have stormed the constitution, to have broken the bonds of necessity; let my piety, my integrity be praised. May the gods not allow the outcome to decide between me and the response; I prefer to conquer the astrologer rather than to reprove him.

Quid nunc agam, P.C., quemadmodum me vir fortis ad preces, quemadmodum parricida componam? dicam 'miseremini', dicam 'succurrite'? sic rogari contra mortem solet. novo mihi inauditoque opus est ambitu: ~ malorum~ nisi morior, periclitor, ideo videor causas reddidisse, ut contradiceret pater, et, si bene novi malignas interpretationes, non exitum captasse dicar sed excusationem.

What am I to do now, Conscript Fathers, how am I, a brave man, to be brought to prayers, how am I, a parricide, to compose myself? Shall I say 'have pity,' shall I say 'help'? thus one is wont to be entreated against death. I have need of a new and unheard-of ambit: ~ of evils~ unless I die, I am in peril; therefore I seem to have given reasons so that my father might contradict, and, if I know well malign interpretations, I shall be said to have hunted not an exit but an excuse.

explicate per fidem miseri pudoris aestum! numquam videbitur mori voluisse parricida, si vixerit.

Explicate, by your good faith, the heat of wretched shame! The parricide will never seem to have wished to die, if he shall have lived.

[22] Ad tua nunc genua porrigo, optime pater, has, si vis, tantum fortes manus. per ego, si fas est, quicquid feci, per hanc ipsam mei caritatem, qua me nondum timere coepisti, miserere, filium pietate pereuntem ne velis exitum facere parricidae. praesta mihi patientiam, qua me modo bello credidisti.

[22] I now stretch to your knees, best father, these hands—only strong, if you wish. By— I, if it is lawful— whatever I have done, by this very love for me, by which you have not yet begun to fear me, have mercy: do not wish to make the end of a parricide for a son perishing for his piety. Grant me the patience, with which you lately trusted me for war.

finge nos in ipso prosperi Martis cecidisse conplexu confectumque magnis vulneribus cadaver adferri. relinquo tibi pro me omnes <liberos, omnes> parentes. hunc, quo nos retinere voluisses, in suprema mea transfer adfectum, tuis manibus compone corpus, exstrue rogos, funeri iusta persolve.

Imagine us to have fallen in the very embrace of prosperous Mars, and that a corpse, worn out by great wounds, is brought in. I leave to you, in my stead, all the <children, all> the parents. This affection by which you would have wished to hold us back, transfer to my last rites: with your own hands lay out the body, heap up the pyres, render the due rites to the funeral.

deinde cum iam novissimis osculis supremoque discedens satiatus fueris amplexu, tunc te fas st sublatis ad caelum manibus proclamare: 'mathematice, mentitus es!'

then, when now, with the very last kisses and, departing, sated with the final embrace, you shall have been satisfied, then it is right for you, with hands raised to heaven, to proclaim: 'mathematician, you have lied!'

[23] Reddidimus causas, peregimus preces. reliqua vos, manus, vos adiuvate, cives. non ut liceat mihi mori; licet istud, etiam ut negetis.

[23] We have rendered the causes, we have completed the supplications. the rest, you, hands, you aid, citizens. not that it may be permitted to me to die; that is permitted, even if you deny it.

vir fortis commendo vobis exitum meum. si non continuo letale vulnus inpressero, si non cum sanguine totam animam properans ictus egesserit, adiuvate dexteram, deprimite telum et ante omnia detinete patrem. nescio quam longe manum sparsurus sit fugientis animae dolor, quo cadat extractus mucro visceribus, in quem se collabentis corporis ruina praecipitet.

As a brave man I commend to you my exit. If I do not immediately inflict a lethal wound, if the stroke, hastening, does not drive out the whole spirit together with the blood, aid my right hand, depress the weapon, and before all things detain my father. I do not know how far the pain of the fleeing spirit is going to scatter my hand, where the point, extracted from the viscera, may fall, upon whom the ruin of the collapsing body may precipitate itself.

vultis scire, quantum debeam timere victurus? metuo, ne patrem, dum morior, occidam.

do you want to know how much I ought to fear, about to live? I fear lest, while I die, I kill my father.