Seneca: DE IRA

1. Quod maxime desiderasti, Nouate, nunc facere temptabimus, iram excidere animis aut certe refrenare et impetus eius inhibere. Id aliquando palam aperteque faciendum est, ubi minor uis mali patitur, aliquando ex occulto, ubi nimium ardet omnique inpedimento exasperatur et crescit; refert quantas uires quamque integras habeat, utrum reuerberanda et agenda retro sit an cedere ei debeamus dum tempestas prima desaeuit, ne remedia ipsa secum ferat. 2. Consilium pro moribus cuiusque capiendum erit; quosdam enim preces uincunt, quidam insultant instantque summissis, quosdam terrendo placabimus; alios obiurgatio, alios confessio, alios pudor coepto deiecit, alios mora, lentum praecipitis mali remedium, ad quod nouissime descendendum est.

1. What you most desired, Novatus, we will now attempt to do: to excise anger from souls, or at least to restrain it and inhibit its impulses. This must sometimes be done openly and plainly, when the lesser force of the evil allows; sometimes from concealment, when it burns too hotly and is exasperated and grows by every impediment; it matters how great its forces are and how intact, whether it should be beaten back and driven in reverse, or whether we ought to yield to it while the first storm rages furiously, lest it carry off the remedies themselves with it. 2. Counsel must be taken according to each person’s character; for prayers overcome some, some insult and press upon the submissive, some we shall appease by frightening; rebuke has cast down some, confession others, shame others from what they had begun; others are checked by delay—the slow remedy of a headlong evil—to which one must descend last of all.

3. Ceteri enim adfectus dilationem recipiunt et curari tardius possunt, huius incitata et se ipsa rapiens uiolentia non paulatim procedit sed dum incipit tota est; nec aliorum more uitiorum sollicitat animos, sed abducit et inpotentes sui cupidosque uel communis mali exagitat, nec in ea tantum in quae destinauit sed in occurrentia obiter furit. 4. Cetera uitia inpellunt animos, ira praecipitat. Etiam si resistere contra adfectus suos non licet, at certe adfectibus ipsis licet stare: haec, non secus quam fulmina procellaeque et si qua alia inreuocabilia sunt quia non eunt sed cadunt, uim suam magis ac magis tendit.

3. For the other affections admit dilatation and can be treated more tardily; the violence of this one, incited and snatching itself along, does not proceed little by little, but while it begins it is entire; nor, in the manner of other vices, does it merely solicit minds, but it carries them off and agitates them, powerless over themselves and eager even for harm in common, and it rages not only against those things at which it has aimed, but, in passing, against what meets it on the way. 4. The rest of the vices impel minds, anger precipitates. Even if it is not permitted to resist against one’s own affections, yet at least it is permitted for the affections themselves to stand still: this one, no differently than lightning-bolts and tempests and whatever other things are irrevocable because they do not go but fall, strains its force more and more.

5. Alia uitia a ratione, hoc a sanitate desciscit; alia accessus lenes habent et incrementa fallentia: in iram deiectus animorum est. Nulla itaque res urget magis attonita et in uires suas prona et siue successit superba, siue frustratur insana; ne repulsa quidem in taedium acta, ubi aduersarium fortuna subduxit, in se ipsa morsus suos uertit. Nec refert quantum sit ex quo surrexerit; ex leuissimis enim in maxima euadit.

5. Other vices defect from reason; this one defects from sanity; other vices have gentle accesses and deceptive increments: anger is a casting-down of the spirits. Therefore nothing more urges on those who are thunderstruck and prone toward their own strength; and whether it succeeds, it is proud, or whether it is frustrated, it is insane; and not even when repulsed and driven into tedium, when Fortune has withdrawn the adversary, it turns its bites upon itself. Nor does it matter how small that is from which it has arisen; for from the lightest it issues into the greatest.

II.

1. Nullam transit aetatem, nullum hominum genus excipit. Quaedam gentes beneficio egestatis non nouere luxuriam; quaedam, quia exercitae et uagae sunt, effugere pigritiam; quibus incultus mos agrestisque uita est, circumscriptio ignota est et fraus et quodcumque in foro malum nascitur: nulla gens est quam non ira instiget, tam inter Graios quam inter barbaros potens, non minus perniciosa leges metuentibus quam quibus iura distinguit modus uirium. 2. Denique cetera singulos corripiunt, hic unus adfectus est qui interdum publice concipitur.

1. It passes by no age, exempts no kind of men. Certain peoples, by the benefice of indigence, have not known luxury; certain ones, because they are exercised and wandering, escape sloth; for those to whom an uncultivated custom and a rustic life belong, overreaching is unknown, and fraud, and whatever evil is born in the forum: there is no nation that anger does not instigate, powerful as much among the Greeks as among the barbarians, no less pernicious to those who stand in awe of laws than to those for whom the measure of might distinguishes rights. 2. Finally, other things seize individuals; this is the one passion that is sometimes conceived publicly.

Numquam populus uniuersus feminae amore flagrauit nec in pecuniam aut lucrum tota ciuitas spem suam misit; ambitio uiritim singulos occupat, inpotentia non est malum publicum; saepe in iram uno agmine itum est. 3. Viri feminae, senes pueri, principes uulgusque consensere, et tota multitudo paucissimis uerbis concitata ipsum concitatorem antecessit; ad arma protinus ignesque discursum est et indicta finitimis bella aut gesta cum ciuibus; 4. totae cum stirpe omni crematae domus, et modo eloquio fauorabili habitus in multo honore iram suae contionis excepit; in imperatorem suum legiones pila torserunt; dissedit plebs tota cum patribus; publicum consilium senatus non expectatis dilectibus nec nominato imperatore subitos irae suae duces legit ac per tecta urbis nobiles consectatus uiros supplicium manu sumpsit; 5. uiolatae legationes rupto iure gentium rabiesque infanda ciuitatem tulit, nec datum tempus quo resideret tumor publicus, sed deductae protinus classes et oneratae tumultuario milite; sine more, sine auspiciis populus ductu irae suae egressus fortuita raptaque pro armis gessit, deinde magna clade temeritatem audacis irae luit. 6. Hic barbaris forte inruentibus in bella exitus est: cum mobiles animos species iniuriae perculit, aguntur statim et qua dolor traxit ruinae modo legionibus incidunt, incompositi interriti incauti, pericula adpetentes sua; gaudent feriri et instare ferro et tela corpore urgere et per suum uulnus exire.

Never has a whole people burned with love for a woman, nor has an entire city set its hope upon money or gain; ambition seizes individuals man by man, lack of self‑mastery is not a public evil; often there has been a march into wrath in a single battle‑line. 3. Men and women, old men and boys, chiefs and common folk were of one mind, and the whole multitude, stirred by the very fewest words, outstripped the inciter himself; straightway there was a rush to arms and to fires, and wars were proclaimed upon neighbors or waged with fellow‑citizens; 4. whole houses with their entire stock were burned, and the man but now held in much honor for favorable eloquence incurred the wrath of his own assembly; against their own emperor the legions hurled their pila; the whole plebs fell out with the Fathers; the public counsel of the senate, the levies not awaited and no emperor named, chose sudden leaders of its rage, and, chasing noble men through the roofs of the city, took punishment by its own hand; 5. legations were violated, the ius gentium broken, and unspeakable fury carried off the commonwealth, nor was time granted for the public swelling to subside, but fleets were launched forthwith and laden with tumultuary soldiery; without custom, without auspices, the people, under the leading of its own wrath, went out and bore chance and snatched‑up things for arms, then with great disaster paid for the rashness of daring wrath. 6. This is the outcome when by chance barbarians rush in to wars: when the appearance of an injury strikes their mobile spirits, they are driven at once, and wheresoever pain has drawn them, in the manner of a collapse they fall upon legions—uncomposed, undaunted, incautious, courting dangers for themselves; they rejoice to be struck and to press on with steel and to drive missiles with the body and to go out through their own wound.

III.

1. 'Non est' inquis 'dubium quin magna ista et pestifera sit uis: ideo quemadmodum sanari debeat monstra.' Atqui, ut in prioribus libris dixi, stat Aristoteles defensor irae et uetat illam nobis exsecari: calcar ait esse uirtutis, hac erepta inermem animum et ad conatus magnos pigrum inertemque fieri. 2. Necessarium est itaque foeditatem eius ac feritatem coarguere et ante oculis ponere quantum monstri sit homo in hominem furens quantoque impetu ruat non sine pernicie sua perniciosus et ea deprimens quae mergi nisi cum mergente non possunt. 3. Quid ergo?

1. 'There is,' you say, 'no doubt that that force is great and pestiferous: therefore show how it ought to be healed.' But yet, as I said in the prior books, Aristotle stands as a defender of wrath and forbids that it be excised from us: he says it is a spur of virtue; with this snatched away, the mind becomes unarmed and, for great endeavors, sluggish and inert. 2. It is necessary, therefore, to convict its foulness and ferocity and to set before the eyes how much of a monster man is when raging against man, and with how great an impetus he rushes headlong—pernicious, not without his own perdition—and pressing down those things which cannot be submerged except along with the submerger. 3. What then?

sanum hunc aliquis uocat qui uelut tempestate correptus non it sed agitur et furenti malo seruit, nec mandat ultionem suam sed ipse eius exactor animo simul ac manu saeuit, carissimorum eorumque quae mox amissa fleturus est carnifex? 4. Hunc aliquis adfectum uirtuti adiutorem comitemque dat, consilia sine quibus uirtus nihil gerit obturbantem? Caducae sinistraeque sunt uires et in malum suum ualidae in quas aegrum morbus et accessio erexit.

Does someone call this man sane, who, as if seized by a tempest, does not go but is driven and serves a frenzied evil, and does not entrust his vengeance but is himself its exactor, rages both in mind and in hand, the executioner of his dearest ones and of the very things which, once lost, he will soon bewail? 4. Does someone grant this affect as helper and companion to virtue, though it confounds the counsels without which virtue accomplishes nothing? Caducous and sinister are the forces, strong to their own harm, into which disease and an accession have lifted the sick man.

5. Non est ergo quod me putes tempus in superuacuis consumere, quod iram, quasi dubiae apud homines opinionis sit, infamem, cum sit aliquis et quidem de inlustribus philosophis qui illi indicat operas et tamquam utilem ac spiritus subministrantem in proelia, in actus rerum, ad omne quodcumque calore aliquo gerendum est uocet. 6. Ne quem fallat tamquam aliquo tempore, aliquo loco profutura, ostendenda est rabies eius effrenata et attonita apparatusque illi reddendus est suus, eculei et fidiculae et ergastula et cruces et circumdati defossis corporibus ignes et cadauera quoque trahens uncus, uaria uinculorum genera, uaria poenarum, lacerationes membrorum, inscriptiones frontis et bestiarum immanium caueae: inter haec instrumenta conlocetur ira dirum quiddam atque horridum stridens, omnibus per quae furit taetrior.

5. Do not, then, suppose that I am spending time on superfluities, that I am blackening anger—as if it were of doubtful standing among men—when there is someone, and indeed among the illustrious philosophers, who assigns it services and, as something useful and supplying spirit, summons it into battles, into the acts of affairs, to everything whatsoever that is to be carried out with some heat. 6. Lest it deceive anyone, as if at some time, in some place, it would be of profit, its unbridled and thunderstruck rabies must be displayed, and its own apparatus must be restored to it: the racks and the torturing-cords and the workhouses and the crosses, and fires ringed about bodies sunk in the ground, and the hook dragging even corpses, various kinds of bonds, various of punishments, lacerations of limbs, inscriptions on the forehead, and cages of monstrous beasts: among these instruments let anger be set, something dire and horrid, hissing, more loathsome than all the things through which it rages.

IV.

1. Vt de ceteris dubium sit, nulli certe adfectui peior est uultus, quem in prioribus libris descripsimus: asperum et acrem et nunc subducto retrorsus sanguine fugatoque pallentem, nunc in os omni calore ac spiritu uerso subrubicundum et similem cruento, uenis tumentibus, oculis nunc trepidis et exilientibus, nunc in uno obtutu defixis et haerentibus; 2. adice dentium inter se arietatorum ut aliquem esse cupientium non alium sonum quam est apris tela sua adtritu acuentibus; adice articulorum crepitum cum se ipsae manus frangunt et pulsatum saepius pectus, anhelitus crebros tractosque altius gemitus, instabile corpus, incerta uerba subitis exclamationibus, trementia labra interdumque compressa et dirum quiddam exsibilantia. 3. Ferarum mehercules, siue illas fames agitat siue infixum uisceribus ferrum, minus taetra facies est, etiam cum uenatorem suum semianimes morsu ultimo petunt, quam hominis ira flagrantis. Age, si exaudire uoces ac minas uacet, qualia excarnificati animi uerba sunt!

1. Though it may be doubtful about the rest, to no affect is the countenance worse, which we described in the earlier books: harsh and sharp, and now, with the blood withdrawn backward and driven off, pallid; now, with all heat and breath turned into the face, somewhat ruddy and like one blood-stained; the veins swelling, the eyes now fluttering and starting out, now fixed and stuck in a single gaze; 2. add the clashing of teeth butting against one another, as if longing to be upon someone, a sound no other than that of boars sharpening their weapons by rubbing; add the crackling of the joints when the hands themselves crush themselves, and the chest beaten again and again, frequent pantings and groans drawn more deeply, an unsteady body, uncertain words with sudden exclamations, trembling lips, and at times compressed and hissing out something dire. 3. By Hercules, the visage of wild beasts—whether hunger drives them or steel fixed in their entrails—even when, half-alive, they seek their hunter with a last bite, is less loathsome than that of a man blazing with anger. Come now, if there is leisure to hear the voices and threats, what words they are of a flayed mind!

4. Nonne reuocare se quisque ab ira uolet, cum intellexerit illam a suo primum malo incipere? Non uis ergo admoneam eos qui iram summa potentia exercent et argumentum uirium existimant et in magnis magnae fortunae bonis ponunt paratam ultionem, quam non sit potens, immo ne liber quidem dici possit irae suae captiuus? 5. Non uis admoneam, quo diligentior quisque sit et ipse se circumspiciat, alia animi mala ad pessimos quosque pertinere, iracundiam etiam eruditis hominibus et in alia sanis inrepere?

4. Will not each one wish to call himself back from anger, when he has understood that it begins first from his own ill? Do you not wish, then, that I admonish those who exercise anger in the highest potency and reckon it an argument of strength and place ready vengeance among the great goods of great fortune, how he who is a captive to his own anger can be called not powerful—nay, not even free? 5. Do you not wish me to admonish, that each may be the more diligent and look around himself, that other evils of the mind pertain to the worst sort, but irascibility creeps in even to erudite men and to those sound in other respects?

adeo ut quidam simplicitatis indicium iracundiam dicant et uulgo credatur facillimus quisque huic <maxime> obnoxius.

to such a degree that some call irascibility an indication of simplicity, and it is commonly believed that whoever is most easily moved is especially liable to it.

1. 'Quorsus' inquis 'hoc pertinet?' Vt nemo se iudicet tutum ab illa, cum lenes quoque natura et placidos in saeuitiam ac uiolentiam euocet. Quemadmodum aduersus pestilentiam nihil prodest firmitas corporis et diligens ualetudinis cura (promiscue enim inbecilla robustaque inuadit), ita ab ira tam inquietis moribus periculum est quam compositis et remissis, quibus eo turpior ac periculosior est quo plus in illis mutat. 2. Sed cum primum sit non irasci, secundum desinere, tertium alienae quoque irae mederi, dicam primum quemadmodum in iram non incidamus, deinde quemadmodum nos ab illa liberemus, nouissime quemadmodum irascentem retineamus placemusque et ad sanitatem reducamus.

1. 'To what end,' you ask, 'does this pertain?' That no one should judge himself safe from it, since it calls even those gentle by nature and placid into savagery and violence. Just as, against a pestilence, the firmness of the body and a diligent care of health profits nothing (for it invades indiscriminately both the weak and the robust), so from anger there is peril to characters as unsettled as to those composed and relaxed; in whom it is the more disgraceful and more dangerous the more it changes them. 2. But since first is not to grow angry, second to cease, third to heal another’s anger as well, I shall say first how we may not fall into anger, then how we may free ourselves from it, and last of all how we may restrain and placate one who is becoming angry and bring him back to sanity.

3. Ne irascamur praestabimus, si omnia uitia irae nobis subinde proposuerimus et illam bene aestimauerimus. Accusanda est apud nos, damnanda; perscrutanda eius mala et in medium protrahenda sunt; ut qualis sit appareat, comparanda cum pessimis est. 4. Auaritia adquirit et contrahit, quo aliquis melior utatur: ira inpendit, paucis gratuita est.

3. We shall ensure that we do not grow angry, if we repeatedly set before ourselves all the vices of anger and have well estimated it. It must be accused before us, condemned; its evils must be scrutinized and brought forth into the open; in order that what sort it is may appear, it must be compared with the worst. 4. Avarice acquires and amasses, in order that someone better may use it: anger expends, and is generous to only a few.

Iracundus dominus quot in fugam seruos egit, quot in mortem! Quanto plus irascendo quam id erat propter quod irascebatur amisit! Ira patri luctum, marito diuortium attulit, magistratui odium, candidato repulsam.

An irascible master has driven how many slaves into flight, how many into death! How much more did he lose by becoming irate than the very thing on account of which he was angry! Anger brought mourning to a father, divorce to a husband, odium to a magistracy, repulse to a candidate.

5. Peior est quam luxuria, quoniam illa sua uoluptate fruitur, haec alieno dolore. Vincit malignitatem et inuidiam; illae enim infelicem fieri uolunt, haec facere; illae fortuitis malis delectantur, haec non potest expectare fortunam: nocere ei quem odit, non noceri uult. 6. Nihil est simultatibus grauius: has ira conciliat.

5. It is worse than luxury, since that enjoys its own pleasure, this another’s pain. It surpasses malignity and envy; for those wish someone to become unfortunate, this to make him so; those take delight in fortuitous evils, this cannot await fortune: it wishes to harm him whom it hates, it does not wish to be harmed. 6. Nothing is graver than feuds: anger brings these about.

Nihil est bello funestius: in hoc potentium ira prorumpit; ceterum etiam illa plebeia ira et priuata inerme et sine uiribus bellum est. Praeterea ira, ut seponamus quae mox secutura sunt, damna insidias perpetuam ex certaminibus mutuis sollicitudinem, dat poenas dum exigit; naturam hominis eiurat: illa in amorem hortatur, haec in odium; illa prodesse iubet, haec nocere. 7. Adice quod, cum indignatio eius a nimio sui suspectu ueniat, ut animosa uideatur, pusilla est et angusta; nemo enim non eo a quo se contemptum iudicat minor est.

Nothing is more funereal than war: in it the wrath of the powerful bursts forth; moreover even that plebeian and private wrath is a war, unarmed and without forces. Furthermore anger—so that we set aside what is soon to follow—[brings] losses, plots, a perpetual solicitude from mutual contests; it pays penalties while it exacts them; it abjures the nature of man: that urges toward love, this toward hatred; that bids to be of use, this to harm. 7. Add this, that, since its indignation comes from an excessive suspicion of itself, in order to seem spirited it is petty and narrow; for everyone is less than him by whom he judges himself to be despised.

At ille ingens animus et uerus aestimator sui non uindicat iniuriam, quia non sentit. 8. Vt tela a duro resiliunt et cum dolore caedentis solida feriuntur, ita nulla magnum animum iniuria ad sensum sui adducit, fragilior eo quod petit. Quanto pulchrius uelut nulli penetrabilem telo omnis iniurias contumeliasque respuere!

But that mighty spirit and true estimator of himself does not avenge an injury, because he does not feel it. 8. As missiles rebound from something hard, and when one strikes a solid thing it is the striker who feels the pain, so no injury brings the magnanimous spirit to a sense of itself; what assails it is more fragile than that which it seeks. How much more beautiful to reject all injuries and insults, as though penetrable by no missile!

Vltio doloris confessio est; non est magnus animus quem incuruat iniuria. Aut potentior te aut inbecillior laesit: si inbecillior, parce illi, si potentior, tibi.

Vengeance is a confession of pain; it is not a great spirit whom injury bends. Either someone more powerful than you or someone weaker has hurt you: if weaker, spare him; if more powerful, spare yourself.

VI.

1. Nullum est argumentum magnitudinis certius quam nihil posse quo instigeris accidere. Pars superior mundi et ordinatior ac propinqua sideribus nec in nubem cogitur nec in tempestatem inpellitur nec uersatur in turbinem; omni tumultu caret: inferiora fulminantur. Eodem modo sublimis animus, quietus semper et in statione tranquilla conlocatus, omnia infra se premens quibus ira contrahitur, modestus et uenerabilis est et dispositus; quorum nihil inuenies in irato.

1. There is no more certain argument of magnitude than that nothing by which you are instigated can come to pass. The superior part of the world, more ordered and nearer to the stars, is neither condensed into cloud nor driven into tempest nor turned in a whirlwind; it lacks all tumult: the lower things are fulminated. In the same way a sublime mind, always quiet and placed in a tranquil station, pressing all things beneath itself by which anger is contracted, is modest and venerable and well-ordered; of which you will find nothing in an angry man.

2. Quis enim traditus dolori et furens non primam reiecit uerecundiam? Quis impetu turbidus et in aliquem ruens non quidquid in se uenerandi habuit abiecit? Cui officiorum numerus aut ordo constitit incitato?

2. For who, handed over to pain and raging, has not first rejected modesty? Who, troubled by an impetus and rushing upon someone, has not cast away whatever of the venerable he had in himself? For whom, when incited, has the number or the order of duties stood fast?

Quis linguae temperauit? Quis ullam partem corporis tenuit? Quis se regere potuit inmissum?

Who has tempered his tongue? Who has held any part of his body in check? Who has been able to govern himself once let loose?

3. Proderit nobis illud Democriti salutare praeceptum, quo monstratur tranquillitas si neque priuatim neque publice multa aut maiora uiribus nostris egerimus. Numquam tam feliciter in multa discurrenti negotia dies transit ut non aut ex homine aut ex re offensa nascatur quae animum in iras paret. 4. Quemadmodum per frequentia urbis loca properanti in multos incursitandum est et aliubi labi necesse est, aliubi retineri, aliubi respergi, ita in hoc uitae actu dissipato et uago multa inpedimenta, multae querellae incidunt: alius spem nostram fefellit, alius distulit, alius intercepit; non ex destinato proposita fluxerunt.

3. That salutary precept of Democritus will be of use to us, by which tranquility is shown, if neither privately nor publicly we have undertaken many things or things greater than our forces. Never does the day pass so happily for one running about among many businesses that there does not arise, either from a person or from a matter, an offense which prepares the mind for angers. 4. Just as for one hurrying through the crowded places of the city it is necessary to run into many, and elsewhere to slip, elsewhere to be held back, elsewhere to be splashed, so in this action of life, dissipated and wandering, many impediments, many complaints befall: one has deceived our hope, another has deferred it, another has intercepted it; our purposes have not flowed as destined.

5. Nulli fortuna tam dedita est ut multa temptanti ubique respondeat; sequitur ergo ut is cui contra quam proposuerat aliqua cesserunt inpatiens hominum rerumque sit, ex leuissimis causis irascatur nunc personae, nunc negotio, nunc loco, nunc fortunae, nunc sibi. 6. Itaque ut quietus possit esse animus, non est iactandus nec multarum, ut dixi, rerum actu fatigandus nec magnarum supraque uires adpetitarum. Facile est leuia aptare ceruicibus et in hanc aut illam partem transferre sine lapsu, at quae alienis in nos manibus inposita aegre sustinemus, uicti in proximo effundimus; etiam dum stamus sub sarcina, inpares oneri uacillamus.

5. Fortune is so dedicated to no one that she responds everywhere to one attempting many things; it follows therefore that he to whom some things have turned out contrary to what he had proposed is impatient of men and of things, grows angry from the lightest causes—now with the person, now with the business, now with the place, now with Fortune, now with himself. 6. Therefore, that the mind may be able to be quiet, it must not be tossed about nor wearied by the act of many things, as I said, nor by great things aspired after beyond one’s powers. It is easy to fit light burdens to the neck and to transfer them to this or that side without a slip; but those which, placed upon us by others’ hands, we scarcely sustain, and, overcome, we spill at the next moment; even while we stand under the pack, unequal to the burden we totter.

VII.

1. Idem accidere in rebus ciuilibus ac domesticis scias. Negotia expedita et habilia sequuntur actorem, ingentia et supra mensuram gerentis nec dant se facile et, si occupata sunt, premunt atque abducunt administrantem tenerique iam uisa cum ipso cadunt: ita fit ut frequenter inrita sit eius uoluntas qui non quae facilia sunt adgreditur, sed uult facilia esse quae adgressus est. 2. Quotiens aliquid conaberis, te simul et ea quae paras quibusque pararis ipse metire; faciet enim te asperum paenitentia operis infecti.

1. Know that the same thing happens in civil and domestic affairs. Expeditious and handy businesses follow the agent; immense ones and beyond the measure of the bearer do not give themselves up easily, and, if they have been taken in hand, they press and drag off the administrator, and things that seemed already to be held fall with him: thus it happens that the will is often vain of the man who does not tackle what is easy, but wants to be easy what he has tackled. 2. Whenever you attempt something, measure at once yourself and the things you are preparing and the resources with which you are equipped; for the penitence for work left undone will make you harsh.

Hoc interest utrum quis feruidi sit ingenii an frigidi atque humilis: generoso repulsa iram exprimet, languido inertique tristitiam. Ergo actiones nostrae nec paruae sint nec audaces et inprobae, in uicinum spes exeat, nihil conemur quod mox adepti quoque successisse miremur.

This makes a difference, whether someone is of a fervid temperament or frigid and humble: a generous (well‑born) man at a repulse will express anger, the languid and inert will express sadness. Therefore let our actions be neither small nor audacious and improper; let our hope go out toward what is near at hand; let us attempt nothing which, even when soon obtained, we ourselves would marvel to have succeeded.

VIII.

1. Demus operam ne accipiamus iniuriam, quia ferre nescimus. Cum placidissimo et facillimo et minime anxio morosoque uiuendum est; sumuntur a conuersantibus mores et ut quaedam in contactos corporis uitia transiliunt, ita animus mala sua proximis tradit: ebriosus conuictores in amorem meri traxit, inpudicorum coetus fortem quoque et silice natum uirum emolliit, auaritia in proximos uirus suum transtulit. 2. Eadem ex diuerso ratio uirtutum est, ut omne quod secum habent mitigent; nec tam ualetudini profuit utilis regio et salubrius caelum quam animis parum firmis in turba meliore uersari.

1. Let us take pains not to receive an injury, because we do not know how to bear it. One must live with one most placid and most facile and least anxious and least morose; from those with whom we consort, manners are taken, and just as certain diseases of the body leap to those they touch, so the mind hands down its evils to those nearest: a drunkard has drawn his table-companions into a love of neat wine, a company of the unchaste has softened even a brave man born of flint, avarice has transferred its virus to its neighbors. 2. Conversely the same principle holds for virtues, that they soften everything which they have with them; nor has a helpful region and a more salubrious sky so profited health as for minds too little firm to move in better company.

3. Quae res quantum possit intelleges, si uideris feras quoque conuictu nostro mansuescere nullique etiam immani bestiae uim suam permanere, si hominis contubernium diu passa est: retunditur omnis asperitas paulatimque inter placida dediscitur. Accedit huc quod non tantum exemplo melior fit qui cum quietis hominibus uiuit, sed quod causas irascendi non inuenit nec uitium suum exercet. Fugere itaque debebit omnis quos inritaturos iracundiam sciet.

3. How much this thing can avail you will understand, if you see even wild beasts grow tame by our convivium and that not even a savage beast retains its own force, if it has long borne a man’s companionship: all asperity is blunted, and little by little, amid placid surroundings, it is unlearned. There is added to this that he who lives with quiet men becomes better not only by example, but because he does not find causes for getting angry nor exercise his vice. He ought, therefore, to flee all those whom he knows will irritate his irascibility.

'Qui sunt' inquis 'isti?' 4. Multi ex uariis causis idem facturi: offendet te superbus contemptu, dicax contumelia, petulans iniuria, liuidus malignitate, pugnax contentione, uentosus et mendax uanitate; non feres a suspicioso timeri, a pertinace uinci, a delicato fastidiri. 5. Elige simplices faciles moderatos, qui iram tuam nec euocent et ferant; magis adhuc proderunt summissi et humani et dulces, non tamen usque in adulationem, nam iracundos nimia adsentatio offendit: erat certe amicus noster uir bonus sed irae paratioris, cui non magis tutum erat blandiri quam male dicere. 6. Caelium oratorem fuisse iracundissimum constat.

'Who are they?' you ask, 'these?' 4. Many, from various causes, will do the same: the proud will offend you by contempt, the snappy-tongued by contumely, the petulant by injury, the livid by malignity, the pugnacious by contention, the windy and lying by vanity; you will not endure to be feared by a suspicious man, to be overcome by a pertinacious one, to be disdained by a delicate one. 5. Choose the simple, the facile, the moderate, who neither call forth your anger and can bear it; more yet will those be profitable who are unassuming and humane and sweet, yet not to the point of adulation, for excessive assentation offends the irascible: there was, to be sure, our friend, a good man but readier to anger, for whom it was no safer to flatter than to speak ill. 6. It is agreed that Caelius the orator was most irascible.

Cum quo, ut aiunt, cenabat in cubiculo lectae patientiae cliens, sed difficile erat illi in copulam coniecto rixam eius cui cohaerebat effugere; optimum iudicauit quidquid dixisset sequi et secundas agere. Non tulit Caelius adsentientem et exclamauit, 'dic aliquid contra, ut duo simus!' Sed ille quoque, quod non irasceretur iratus, cito sine aduersario desit. 7. Eligamus ergo uel hos potius, si conscii nobis iracundiae sumus, qui uultum nostrum ac sermonem sequantur: facient quidem nos delicatos et in malam consuetudinem inducent nihil contra uoluntatem audiendi, sed proderit uitio suo interuallum et quietem dare.

With him, as they say, there was dining in a private room a client of select patience; but for that man, once thrown into a coupling, it was hard to escape the quarrel of the one to whom he was attached. He judged it best to follow whatever he had said and to play the second parts. Caelius did not endure the assentient and exclaimed, 'say something against, so that we may be two!' But he too, being angry because the other would not grow angry, quickly ceased to have an adversary. 7. Let us choose, then—or rather these, if we are conscious to ourselves of irascibility—those who follow our countenance and our speech: they will indeed make us delicate and will induce us into the bad consuetude of hearing nothing against our will, but it will be profitable to give the vice itself an interval and a rest.

Difficiles quoque et indomiti natura blandientem ferent: nihil asperum tetricumque palpanti est. 8. Quotiens disputatio longior et pugnacior erit, in prima resistamus, antequam robur accipiat: alit se ipsa contentio et demissos altius tenet; facilius est se a certamine abstinere quam abducere.

Even the difficult and the untamed by nature will bear one who is blandishing: nothing is harsh or grim to one who is coaxing. 8. As often as the disputation is longer and more pugnacious, let us resist at the outset, before it takes on strength: contention feeds itself and holds those who have yielded more deeply; it is easier to abstain from the contest than to draw oneself away.

IX.

1. Studia quoque grauiora iracundis omittenda sunt aut certe citra lassitudinem exercenda, et animus non inter dura uersandus, sed artibus amoenis tradendus: lectio illum carminum obleniat et historia fabulis detineat; mollius delicatiusque tractetur. 2. Pythagoras perturbationes animi lyra componebat; quis autem ignorat lituos et tubas concitamenta esse, sicut quosdam cantus blandimenta quibus mens resoluatur? Confusis oculis prosunt uirentia et quibusdam coloribus infirma acies adquiescit, quorundam splendore praestringitur: sic mentes aegras studia laeta permulcent.

1. More serious studies too should be omitted by the irascible, or at any rate practiced short of lassitude, and the mind should not be turned among hard things, but handed over to pleasant arts: let the reading of songs/poems soften it and let history detain it with tales; let it be handled more softly and more delicately. 2. Pythagoras composed the perturbations of the mind with a lyre; and who does not know that clarions and trumpets are incitements, just as certain songs are blandishments whereby the mind is relaxed? For eyes that are confused, greenery is beneficial, and at some colors a weak sight finds repose, by the brilliance of certain ones it is dazzled: so cheerful studies soothe ailing minds.

3. Forum aduocationes iudicia fugere debemus et omnia quae exulcerant uitium, aeque cauere lassitudinem corporis; consumit enim quidquid in nobis mite placidumque est et acria concitat. 4. Ideo quibus stomachus suspectus est, processuri ad res agendas maioris negotii bilem cibo temperant, quam maxime mouet fatigatio, siue quia calorem in media conpellit et nocet sanguini cursumque eius uenis laborantibus sistit, siue quia corpus attenuatum et infirmum incumbit animo; certe ob eandem causam iracundiores sunt ualetudine aut aetate fessi. Fames quoque et sitis ex isdem causis uitanda est: exasperat et incendit animos.

3. We ought to flee the Forum, advocations, judgments, and all things which ulcerate the vice, and equally beware the weariness of the body; for it consumes whatever in us is gentle and placid, and rouses the sharp things. 4. Therefore those whose stomach is suspect, when about to proceed to transact matters of greater business, temper their bile with food, which fatigue moves most of all, whether because it drives the heat into the middle parts and harms the blood and, with the veins laboring, checks its course, or because the attenuated and feeble body bears down upon the mind; certainly for the same reason those wearied by ill-health or by age are more irascible. Hunger and thirst too, for the same reasons, must be avoided: they exasperate and inflame spirits.

5. Vetus dictum est a lasso rixam quaeri; aeque autem et ab esuriente et a sitiente et ab omni homine quem aliqua res urit. Nam ut ulcera ad leuem tactum, deinde etiam ad suspicionem tactus condolescunt, ita animus adfectus minimis offenditur, adeo ut quosdam salutatio et epistula et oratio et interrogatio in litem euocent: numquam sine querella aegra tanguntur.

5. It is an old saying that a quarrel is sought by the weary; equally, however, by the hungry and the thirsty and by every man whom some matter burns. For as ulcers ache at a light touch, and then even at the mere suspicion of a touch, so a mind under affection is offended by the very least things, to such a degree that a salutation and a letter and an oration and an interrogation call some into strife: when sick, the sore spots are never touched without a querella.

10.

1. Optimum est itaque ad primum mali sensum mederi sibi, tum uerbis quoque suis minimum libertatis dare et inhibere impetum. 2. Facile est autem adfectus suos, cum primum oriuntur, deprehendere: morborum signa praecurrunt. Quemadmodum tempestatis ac pluuiae ante ipsas notae ueniunt, ita irae amoris omniumque istarum procellarum animos uexantium sunt quaedam praenuntia.

1. Therefore it is best to remedy oneself at the first sense of the evil, and then also to give one’s words the least liberty and to inhibit the impulse. 2. Moreover, it is easy to apprehend one’s affections when first they arise: the signs of diseases run before. Just as the tokens of storm and of rain come before the things themselves, so for anger, love, and all those tempests that vex the soul there are certain foretokens.

3. Qui comitiali uitio solent corripi iam aduentare ualetudinem intellegunt, si calor summa deseruit et incertum lumen neruorumque trepidatio est, si memoria sublabitur caputque uersatur; solitis itaque remediis incipientem causam occupant, et odore gustuque quidquid est quod alienat animos repellitur, aut fomentis contra frigus rigoremque pugnatur; aut, si parum medicina profecit, uitauerunt turbam et sine teste ceciderunt. 4. Prodest morbum suum nosse et uires eius antequam spatientur opprimere. Videamus quid sit quod nos maxime concitet: alium uerborum, alium rerum contumeliae mouent; hic uult nobilitati, hic formae suae parci; hic elegantissimus haberi cupit, ille doctissimus; hic superbiae inpatiens est, hic contumaciae; ille seruos non putat dignos quibus irascatur, hic intra domum saeuus est, foris mitis; ille rogari iniuriam iudicat, hic non rogari contumeliam.

3. Those who are wont to be seized by the comitial disease understand that the sickness is already drawing near, if the heat has deserted the extremities and there is an uncertain light and a trepidation of the nerves, if memory slips and the head is turned; and so with the usual remedies they preoccupy the incipient cause, and by smell and by taste whatever it is that alienates the spirits is repelled, or with fomentations they fight against cold and rigidity; or, if medicine has profited too little, they have avoided the crowd and have fallen without a witness. 4. It profits to know one’s own disease and to crush its forces before they have room to range. Let us see what it is that most excites us: one man is moved by contumelies of words, another by contumelies of deeds; this one wants sparing shown to his nobility, this one to his beauty; this one desires to be accounted most elegant, that one most learned; this one is impatient of pride, this one of contumacy; that one does not think slaves worthy objects upon whom to be angry, this one is savage within the house, mild outside; that one judges it an injury to be asked, this one a contumely not to be asked.

Non omnes ab eadem parte feriuntur; scire itaque oportet quid in te inbecillum sit, ut id maxime protegas.

Not all are struck from the same quarter; therefore it behooves you to know what in you is infirm, so that you may protect that most of all.

XI.

11.

1. Non expedit omnia uidere, omnia audire. Multae nos iniuriae transeant, ex quibus plerasque non accipit qui nescit. Non uis esse iracundus?

1. It is not expedient to see everything, to hear everything. Let many injuries pass us by, of which most are not received by one who does not know. Do you not wish to be irascible?

ne fueris curiosus. Qui inquirit quid in se dictum sit, qui malignos sermones etiam si secreto habiti sunt eruit, se ipse inquietat. Quaedam interpretatio eo perducit ut uideantur iniuriae; itaque alia differenda sunt, alia deridenda, alia donanda.

Be not curious. He who inquires what has been said about himself, who digs up malicious talk even if it has been held in secret, disquiets himself. A certain interpretation leads to this point, that things appear as injuries; therefore some things are to be deferred, others to be derided, others to be pardoned.

2. Circumscribenda multis modis ira est; pleraque in lusum iocumque uertantur. Socraten aiunt colapho percussum nihil amplius dixisse quam molestum esse quod nescirent homines quando cum galea prodire deberent. 3. Non quemadmodum facta sit iniuria refert, sed quemadmodum lata; nec uideo quare difficilis sit moderatio, cum sciam tyrannorum quoque tumida et fortuna et licentia ingenia familiarem sibi saeuitiam repressisse.

2. Anger must be circumscribed in many modes; let most things be turned into play and jest. They say that Socrates, struck with a cuff, said nothing more than that it was troublesome that men did not know when they ought to go out with a helmet. 3. It is not how the injury was done that matters, but how it was borne; nor do I see why moderation should be difficult, since I know that the dispositions of tyrants too, swollen both by fortune and by license, have repressed the savagery familiar to them.

4. Pisistratum certe, Atheniensium tyrannum, memoriae proditur, cum multa in crudelitatem eius ebrius conuiua dixisset nec deessent qui uellent manus ei commodare et alius hinc alius illinc faces subderent, placido animo tulisse et hoc inritantibus respondisse, non magis illi se suscensere quam si quis obligatis oculis in se incucurrisset.

4. It is handed down to memory that Pisistratus, the tyrant of the Athenians, when a dinner-guest, drunk, had said many things against his cruelty, and there were not lacking those who were willing to lend him a hand and, one from here, another from there, to put torches beneath, bore it with a placid mind, and replied to those inciting this that he was no more angry with that man than if someone with his eyes bound had run into him.

XII.

12.

1. Magna pars querellas manu fecit aut falsa suspicando aut leuia adgrauando. Saepe ad nos ira uenit, saepius nos ad illam. Quae numquam arcessenda est: etiam cum incidit, reiciatur.

1. A great many have made complaints by the hand—either by suspecting false things or by aggravating light ones. Often anger comes to us; more often we go to it. It is never to be summoned: even when it falls upon us, let it be rejected.

2. Nemo dicit sibi, 'hoc propter quod irascor aut feci aut fecisse potui'; nemo animum facientis sed ipsum aestimat factum: atqui ille intuendus est, uoluerit an inciderit, coactus sit an deceptus, odium secutus sit an praemium, sibi morem gesserit an manum alteri commodauerit. Aliquid aetas peccantis facit, aliquid fortuna, ut ferre ac pati aut humanum sit aut utile. 3. Eo nos loco constituamus quo ille est cui irascimur: nunc facit nos iracundos iniqua nostri aestimatio et quae facere uellemus pati nolumus.

2. No one says to himself, 'This thing on account of which I am angered I either did or could have done'; no one appraises the animus of the doer, but the deed itself: and yet he is the one to be looked at—whether he willed it or stumbled into it, was coerced or deceived, followed odium or a reward, consulted his own habit or lent his hand to another. Something the age of the offender effects, something Fortune, so that to bear and to endure is either human or useful. 3. Let us set ourselves in that very place in which he stands at whom we are angered: as it is, what makes us irascible is an inequitable appraisal of ourselves, and what we would wish to do, we are unwilling to suffer.

4. Nemo se differt; atqui maximum remedium irae dilatio est,ut primus eius feruor relanguescat et caligo quae premit mentem aut residat aut minus densa sit. Quaedam ex his quae te praecipitem ferebant hora, non tantum dies molliet, quaedam ex toto euanescent; si nihil egerit petita aduocatio, apparebit iam iudicium esse, non iram. Quidquid uoles quale sit scire, tempori trade: nihil diligenter in fluctu cernitur.

4. No one defers himself; yet the greatest remedy of anger is delay, so that its first fervor may grow faint and the cloud that weighs upon the mind may either settle or be less dense. Some of those things which were carrying you headlong an hour—nay, a day—will soften; some will vanish altogether. If the adjournment sought has achieved nothing, it will be clear that it is now judgment, not anger. Whatever you wish to know of what sort it is, hand it over to time: nothing is discerned carefully in the surge.

5. Non potuit inpetrare a se Plato tempus, cum seruo suo irasceretur, sed ponere illum statim tunicam et praebere scapulas uerberibus iussit, sua manu ipse caesurus; postquam intellexit irasci se, sicut sustulerat manum suspensam detinebat et stabat percussuro similis; interrogatus deinde ab amico qui forte interuenerat quid ageret, 'exigo' inquit 'poenas ab homine iracundo.' 6. Velut stupens gestum illum saeuituri deformem sapienti uiro seruabat, oblitus iam serui, quia alium quem potius castigaret inuenerat. Itaque abstulit sibi in suos potestatem et ob peccatum quoddam commotior 'tu,' inquit 'Speusippe, seruulum istum uerberibus obiurga; nam ego irascor.' 7. Ob hoc non cecidit propter quod alius cecidisset. 'Irascor' inquit; 'plus faciam quam oportet, libentius faciam: non sit iste seruus in eius potestate qui in sua non est.' Aliquis uult irato committi ultionem, cum Plato sibi ipse imperium abrogauerit?

5. Plato could not obtain time from himself when he was angry with his slave, but at once ordered him to put off his tunic and offer his shoulders to the lashes, intending to strike him with his own hand; after he realized that he was angry, just as he had raised his hand he detained it suspended, and stood like one about to strike; then, asked by a friend who had happened to come in what he was doing, he said, 'I exact penalties from an irascible man.' 6. As if amazed, he kept that bearing—of one about to be savage—unseemly to a wise man, now forgetful of the slave, because he had found another whom he ought rather to chastise. And so he took away from himself the power over his own household, and, being somewhat more stirred on account of a certain fault, said, 'You, Speusippus, objurgate that little slave with blows; for I am angry.' 7. On account of this he did not strike for that for which another would have struck. 'I am angry,' he said; 'I shall do more than is fitting, I shall do it more willingly: let that slave not be in the power of one who is not in power over himself.' Does anyone wish vengeance to be entrusted to an angry man, when Plato has abrogated command over himself?

Nihil tibi liceat dum irasceris. Quare? quia uis omnia licere.

Let nothing be permitted to you while you are angry. Why? Because you want everything to be permitted.

XIII.

13.

1. Pugna tecum ipse: si uincere iram, non potest te illa. Incipis uincere, si absconditur, si illi exitus non datur. Signa eius obruamus et illam quantum fieri potest occultam secretamque teneamus.

1. Fight with yourself: if you wish to conquer anger, it cannot conquer you. You begin to conquer, if it is hidden, if no exit is given to it. Let us overwhelm its signs and keep it, as far as can be done, hidden and secret.

2. Cum magna id nostra molestia fiet (cupit enim exilire et incendere oculos et mutare faciem), sed si eminere illi extra nos licuit, supra nos est. In imo pectoris secessu recondatur, feraturque, non ferat. Immo in contrarium omnia eius indicia flectamus: uultus remittatur, uox lenior sit, gradus lentior; paulatim cum exterioribus interiora formantur.

2. This will be done with great vexation to us (for it longs to leap out and to inflame the eyes and to alter the face), but if it has been allowed to it to stand out beyond us, it is above us. Let it be hidden in the inmost recess of the breast, and let it be borne, not bear. Nay rather, let us bend all its indicia to the contrary: let the countenance be relaxed, let the voice be gentler, the step slower; little by little, with the externals the internals are formed.

3. In Socrate irae signum erat uocem summittere, loqui parcius; apparebat tunc illum sibi obstare. Deprendebatur itaque a familiaribus et coarguebatur, nec erat illi exprobratio latitantis irae ingrata. Quidni gauderet quod iram suam multi intellegerent, nemo sentiret?

3. In Socrates a sign of anger was to lower the voice, to speak more sparingly; it was apparent then that he was putting a check on himself. He was thus detected by his intimates and was reproved, nor was the reproach of his lurking anger unwelcome to him. Why should he not rejoice that many understood his anger, no one felt it?

Sensissent autem, nisi ius amicis obiurgandi se dedisset, sicut ipse sibi in amicos sumpserat. 4. Quanto magis hoc nobis faciendum est! Rogemus amicissimum quemque ut tunc maxime libertate aduersus nos utatur cum minime illam pati poterimus, nec adsentiatur irae nostrae; contra [nos] potens malum et apud nos gratiosum, dum consipimus, dum nostri sumus, aduocemus.

S they would have sensed it, however, unless he had given his friends the right of rebuking him, just as he had assumed it for himself toward his friends. 4. How much more must we do this! Let us ask each most friendly friend to use liberty against us then most of all when we will least be able to endure it, and let him not assent to our anger; against [us] a potent evil and one in our good graces, while we are sober, while we are ourselves, let us call in advocates.

5. Qui uinum male ferunt et ebrietatis suae temeritatem ac petulantiam metuunt, mandant suis ut e conuiuio auferantur; intemperantiam in morbo suam experti parere ipsis in aduersa ualetudine uetant. 6. Optimum est notis uitiis inpedimenta prospicere et ante omnia ita componere animum ut etiam grauissimis rebus subitisque concussus iram aut non sentiat aut magnitudine inopinatae iniuriae exortam in altum retrahat nec dolorem suum profiteatur. 7. Id fieri posse apparebit, si pauca ex turba ingenti exempla protulero, ex quibus utrumque discere licet, quantum mali habeat ira ubi hominum praepotentium potestate tota utitur, quantum sibi imperare possit ubi metu maiore compressa est.

5. Those who bear wine badly and fear the temerity and petulance of their drunkenness give orders to their own people to be removed from the convivium; having experienced their own intemperance in illness, they forbid their attendants to obey them when they are in adverse health. 6. The best course is, with known vices, to foresee impediments and, before all things, to compose the mind in such a way that, even when shaken by very weighty and sudden matters, it either does not feel anger, or, having arisen from the magnitude of an unlooked-for injury, it draws it back into the deep and does not profess its pain. 7. That this can be done will appear, if I shall bring forward a few examples out of the vast multitude, from which one may learn both: how much evil anger contains where, through the full authority of prepotent men, it avails itself wholly; and how much it can command itself where it has been compressed by a greater fear.

XIV.

14.

1. Cambysen regem nimis deditum uino Praexaspes unus ex carissimis monebat ut parcius biberet, turpem esse dicens ebrietatem in rege, quem omnium oculi auresque sequerentur. Ad haec ille 'ut scias' inquit 'quemadmodum numquam excidam mihi, adprobabo iam et oculos post uinum in officio esse et manus.' 2. Bibit deinde liberalius quam alias capacioribus scyphis et iam grauis ac uinolentus obiurgatoris sui filium procedere ultra limen iubet adleuataque super caput sinistra manu stare. Tunc intendit arcum et ipsum cor adulescentis (id enim petere se dixerat) figit rescissoque pectore haerens in ipso corde spiculum ostendit ac respiciens patrem interrogauit satisne certam haberet manum.

1. Praexaspes, one of the dearest, was warning King Cambyses, too devoted to wine, to drink more sparingly, saying that drunkenness was disgraceful in a king, whom the eyes and ears of all were following. To this he said, 'so that you may know how I shall never fall short of myself, I will now prove that even after wine both my eyes and my hands are on duty.' 2. Then he drank more liberally than at other times from more capacious cups, and now heavy and wine-intoxicated, he orders the son of his reprover to step forward beyond the threshold and, with his left hand raised above his head, to stand. Then he bends his bow and strikes the very heart of the youth (for that, he had said, was what he was seeking), and, the breast being torn open, he shows the arrow sticking fast in the very heart, and looking back at the father he asked whether he held his hand sure enough.

At ille negauit Apollinem potuisse certius mittere. 3. Di illum male perdant animo magis quam condicione mancipium! eius rei laudator fuit cuius nimis erat spectatorem fuisse.

But he denied that Apollo could have sent it more surely. 3. May the gods damn that man— a slave more in spirit than in condition! He was the laudator of a deed of which it was already too much that he had been the spectator.

Occasionem blanditiarum putauit pectus filii in duas partes diductum et cor sub uulnere palpitans: controuersiam illi facere de gloria debuit et reuocare iactum, ut regi liberet in ipso patre certiorem manum ostendere. 4. O regem cruentum! o dignum in quem omnium suorum arcus uerterentur!

He considered the son’s breast split into two parts and the heart palpitating beneath the wound an occasion for blandishments; he ought to have made with him a controversy about glory and to revoke the cast, so that it might be free to the king to show a more certain hand upon the father himself. 4. O blood-stained king! O one worthy that the bows of all his own be turned against him!

Cum execrati fuerimus illum conuiuia suppliciis funeribusque soluentem, tamen sceleratius telum illud laudatum est quam missum. Videbimus quomodo se pater gerere debuerit stans super cadauer fili sui caedemque illam cuius et testis fuerat et causa: id de quo nunc agitur apparet, iram supprimi posse. 5. Non male dixit regi, nullum emisit ne calamitosi quidem uerbum, cum aeque cor suum quam fili transfixum uideret.

Although we shall have execrated that man paying for his banquets with punishments and funerals, nevertheless that weapon was more criminally praised than launched. We shall see how the father ought to have conducted himself, standing over the cadaver of his son and that killing of which he had been both witness and cause: as to the matter now being dealt with, it appears that anger can be suppressed. 5. He did not speak ill to the king; he emitted no word, not even a calamitous one, when he saw his own heart no less than his son’s transfixed.

Potest dici merito deuorasse uerba; nam si quid tamquam iratus dixisset, nihil tamquam pater facere potuisset. 6. Potest, inquam, uideri sapientius se in illo casu gessisse quam cum de potandi modo praeciperet <ei> quem satius erat uinum quam sanguinem bibere, cuius manus poculis occupari pax erat. Accessit itaque ad numerum eorum qui magnis cladibus ostenderunt quanti constarent regum amicis bona consilia.

He can deservedly be said to have devoured his words; for if he had said anything as though angry, he could have done nothing as a father. 6. He can, I say, seem to have carried himself more wisely in that case than when he was giving precepts about the manner of drinking to him for whom it were better to drink wine than blood, for whom the being occupied in his hands with cups was peace. Accordingly he was added to the number of those who by great disasters have shown how much good counsels cost to the friends of kings.

XV.

15.

1. Non dubito quin Harpagus quoque tale aliquid regi suo Persarumque suaserit, quo offensus liberos illi epulandos adposuit et subinde quaesiit an placeret conditura; deinde, ut satis illum plenum malis suis uidit, adferri capita illorum iussit et quomodo esset acceptus interrogauit. Non defuerunt misero uerba, non os concurrit: 'apud regem' inquit 'omnis cena iucunda est.' Quid hac adulatione profecit? ne ad reliquias inuitaretur.

1. I do not doubt that Harpagus also advised something of this sort to his own king and to the Persians, at which offense he set his children before him to be feasted on and again and again asked whether the condiment pleased; then, when he saw him sufficiently stuffed with his own evils, he ordered their heads to be brought in and asked how it had been received. Words did not fail the wretch, nor did his countenance flinch: “at a king’s table,” he said, “every dinner is pleasant.” What did he profit by this adulation? that he should not be invited to the leftovers.

2. Non ueto patrem damnare regis sui factum, non ueto quaerere dignam tam truci portento poenam, sed hoc interim colligo, posse etiam ex ingentibus malis nascentem iram abscondi et ad uerba contraria sibi cogi. 3. Necessaria ista est doloris refrenatio, utique hoc sortitis uitae genus et ad regiam adhibitis mensam: sic estur apud illos, sic bibitur, sic respondetur; funeribus suis adridendum est. An tanti sit uita uidebimus: alia ista quaestio est.

2. I do not forbid the father to condemn the deed of his king, I do not forbid him to seek a punishment worthy of so savage a portent, but this meanwhile I gather: that anger arising even from immense evils can be concealed and be forced to words contrary to itself. 3. This refrenation of grief is necessary, especially for those who have drawn this kind of life by lot and are admitted to the royal table: thus people eat among them, thus they drink, thus they reply; one must smile at one’s own funerals. Whether life is worth so much we shall see: that is another question.

Non consolabimur tam triste ergastulum, non adhortabimur ferre imperia carnificum: ostendemus in omni seruitute apertam libertati uiam. Is aeger animo et suo uitio miser est, cui miserias finire secum licet. 4. Dicam et illi qui in regem incidit sagittis pectora amicorum petentem et illi cuius dominus liberorum uisceribus patres saturat: 'quid gemis, demens?

We will not console so sad a prison-house, we will not exhort to bear the commands of executioners: we will show, in every servitude, an open road to liberty. He is sick in mind and wretched by his own fault, to whom it is permitted to finish his miseries with himself. 4. I will say both to the man who has fallen in with a king seeking with arrows the breasts of friends, and to him whose master satiates fathers with the entrails of their children: 'why do you groan, madman?'

Quid expectas ut te aut hostis aliquis per exitium gentis tuae uindicet aut rex a longinquo potens aduolet? quocumque respexeris, ibi malorum finis est. Vides illum praecipitem locum?

What are you waiting for—that either some enemy vindicate you through the ruin of your nation, or that a king, potent from afar, fly to you? Wherever you cast your glance, there is the finish of your ills. Do you see that precipitous place?

illac ad libertatem descenditur. Vides illud mare, illud flumen, illum puteum? libertas illic in imo sedet.

by that way, one descends to liberty. Do you see that sea, that river, that well? liberty sits there at the bottom.

Vides illam arborem breuem retorridam infelicem? pendet inde libertas. Vides iugulum tuum, guttur tuum, cor tuum?

Do you see that short, scorched, ill-fated tree? From there liberty hangs. Do you see your jugular, your gullet, your heart?

effugia seruitutis sunt. Nimis tibi operosos exitus monstro et multum animi ac roboris exigentes? Quaeris quod sit ad libertatem iter?

They are escapes from servitude. Do I show you exits too laborious and demanding much spirit and strength? Do you ask what the road to liberty is?

quaelibet in corpore tuo uena.'

'any vein in your body.'

XVI.

16.

1. Quam diu quidem nihil tam intolerabile nobis uidetur ut nos expellat e uita, iram, in quocumque erimus statu, remoueamus. Perniciosa est seruientibus; omnis enim indignatio in tormentum suum proficit et imperia grauiora sentit quo contumacius patitur. Sic laqueos fera dum iactat adstringit; sic aues uiscum, dum trepidantes excutiunt, plumis omnibus inlinunt.

1. So long indeed as nothing seems to us so intolerable as to expel us from life, let us remove anger, in whatever state we shall be. It is pernicious to those in servitude; for all indignation progresses into its own torment, and it feels heavier commands the more contumaciously it endures. Thus a wild beast, while it flings the snares, tightens them; thus birds, while in their trepidation they shake off the birdlime, smear it over all their feathers.

Nullum tam artum est iugum quod non minus laedat ducentem quam repugnantem: unum est leuamentum malorum ingentium, pati et necessitatibus suis obsequi. 2. Sed cum utilis sit seruientibus adfectuum suorum et huius praecipue rabidi atque effreni continentia, utilior est regibus: perierunt omnia ubi quantum ira suadet fortuna permittit, nec diu potest quae multorum malo exercetur potentia stare; periclitatur enim ubi eos qui separatim gemunt communis metus iunxit. Plerosque itaque modo singuli mactauerunt, modo uniuersi, cum illos conferre in unum iras publicus dolor coegisset.

There is no yoke so strait that it does not wound the one leading no less than the one resisting: there is one alleviation of enormous evils—to endure and to comply with one’s necessities. 2. But although continence is useful to those enslaved to their affections—and especially to this passion, rabid and unbridled—it is more useful to kings: all is lost where fortune permits as much as anger persuades, nor can a power that is exercised to the harm of many stand for long; for it is in peril when common fear has joined those who groan separately. Thus very many have been slaughtered, now by individuals, now by all together, when public pain compelled them to bring their angers into one.

3. Atqui plerique sic iram quasi insigne regium exercuerunt, sicut Dareus, qui primus post ablatum mago imperium Persas et magnam partem orientis obtinuit. Nam cum bellum Scythis indixisset orientem cingentibus, rogatus ab Oeobazo nobili sene ut ex tribus liberis unum in solacium patri relinqueret, duorum opera uteretur, plus quam rogabatur pollicitus omnis se illi dixit remissurum et occisos in conspectu parentis abiecit, crudelis futurus si omnis abduxisset. 4. At quanto Xerses facilior!

3. And yet very many have exercised anger as though it were a royal insignia, as did Darius, who first, after the power had been taken from the Magus, held sway over the Persians and a great part of the Orient. For when he had proclaimed war upon the Scythians, who gird the Orient, he was asked by Oeobazus, a noble old man, that out of three sons he would leave one to the father for solace, and make use of the service of two; having promised more than was being asked, he said he would send all back to him—and he cast them down, slain, before the parent’s sight, about to have been called cruel if he had led them all away. 4. But how much more easy-going was Xerxes!

qui Pythio quinque filiorum patri unius uacationem petenti quem uellet eligere permisit, deinde quem elegerat in partes duas distractum ab utroque uiae latere posuit et hac uictima lustrauit exercitum. Habuit itaque quem debuit exitum: uictus et late longeque fusus ac stratam ubique ruinam suam cernens medius inter suorum cadauera incessit.

who to Pythius, the father of five sons, when he was requesting exemption for one, permitted him to choose whichever he wished; then the one he had chosen, torn into two parts, he placed on either side of the road, and with this victim he lustrated the army. He had, therefore, the outcome he owed: vanquished and routed far and wide, and seeing his ruin strewn everywhere, he strode in the midst between the cadavers of his own men.

XVII.

17.

1. Haec barbaris regibus feritas in ira fuit, quos nulla eruditio, nullus litterarum cultus inbuerat: dabo tibi ex Aristotelis sinu regem Alexandrum, qui Clitum carissimum sibi et una educatum inter epulas transfodit manu quidem sua, parum adulantem et pigre ex Macedone ac libero in Persicam seruitutem transeuntem. 2. Nam Lysimachum aeque familiarem sibi leoni obiecit. Numquid ergo hic Lysimachus felicitate quadam dentibus leonis elapsus ob hoc, cum ipse regnaret, mitior fuit?

1. This was the ferocity in anger of barbarian kings, whom no erudition, no cultivation of letters had imbued: I will give you from Aristotle’s bosom King Alexander, who pierced through with his own hand Cleitus, most dear to him and reared together with him, during banquets, for flattering too little and for sluggishly passing over from being a Macedonian and a free man into Persian servitude. 2. For he even threw Lysimachus, equally intimate with him, to a lion. Did then this Lysimachus, having by a certain felicity slipped from the lion’s teeth, on this account, when he himself reigned, prove milder?

3. Nam Telesphorum Rhodium amicum suum undique decurtatum, cum aures illi nasumque abscidisset, in cauea uelut nouum aliquod animal et inusitatum diu pauit, cum oris detruncati mutilatique deformitas humanam faciem perdidisset; accedebat fames et squalor et inluuies corporis in stercore suo destituti; 4. callosis super haec genibus manibusque, quas in usum pedum angustiae loci cogebant, lateribus uero adtritu exulceratis non minus foeda quam terribilis erat forma eius uisentibus, factusque poena sua monstrum misericordiam quoque amiserat. Tamen, cum dissimillimus esset homini qui illa patiebatur, dissimilior erat qui faciebat.

3. For Telesphorus the Rhodian, his friend, having been cut down on every side, after he had cut off his ears and nose, he long kept in a cage as though some new and unaccustomed animal, since the deformity of a truncated and mutilated face had lost the human visage; there was added hunger and squalor and the foulness of a body left in its own filth; 4. with callused knees and hands, which the narrowness of the place compelled into the use of feet, and with his sides ulcerated by attrition, his appearance was no less foul than terrible to those beholding, and, made by his punishment a monster, he had lost compassion as well. Yet, although he who suffered those things was most unlike a man, he who did them was even more unlike.

XVIII.

18.

1. Vtinam ista saeuitia intra peregrina exempla mansisset nec in Romanos mores cum aliis aduenticiis uitiis etiam suppliciorum irarumque barbaria transisset! M. Mario, cui uicatim populus statuas posuerat, cui ture ac uino supplicabat, L. Sulla praefringi crura, erui oculos, amputari linguam manus iussit, et, quasi totiens occideret quotiens uulnerabat, paulatim et per singulos artus lacerauit. 2. Quis erat huius imperii minister?

1. Would that such savagery had remained within foreign examples, and that into Roman mores, along with other adventitious vices, there had not crossed over even the barbarity of punishments and of rages! Against M. Marius, to whom the people, ward by ward, had set up statues, to whom they made supplication with incense and wine, L. Sulla ordered the legs to be broken, the eyes to be gouged out, the tongue and hands to be cut off, and, as if he were killing him as many times as he wounded him, he mangled him little by little and limb by limb. 2. Who was the minister of this command?

quis nisi Catilina iam in omne facinus manus exercens? Is illum ante bustum Quinti Catuli carpebat grauissimus mitissimi uiri cineribus, supra quos uir mali exempli, popularis tamen et non tam inmerito quam nimis amatus, per stilicidia sanguinem dabat. Dignus erat Marius qui illa pateretur, Sulla qui iuberet, Catilina qui faceret, sed indigna res publica quae in corpus suum pariter et hostium et uindicum gladios reciperet.

who but Catiline, already exercising his hands for every crime? He was tearing at him before the funeral pyre of Quintus Catulus, most grievously with the ashes of a most gentle man, above which the man of bad example—yet a popular man, and not so undeservedly as too much beloved—was giving blood through the stillicides. Marius was worthy to suffer those things, Sulla to order them, Catiline to do them; but the commonwealth was unworthy, which received into its own body alike the swords both of enemies and of avengers.

3. Quid antiqua perscrutor? modo C. Caesar Sex. Papinium, cui pater erat consularis, Betilienum Bassum quaestorem suum, procuratoris sui filium, aliosque et senatores et equites Romanos uno die flagellis cecidit, torsit, non quaestionis sed animi causa; 4. deinde adeo inpatiens fuit differendae uoluptatis, quam ingentem crudelitas eius sine dilatione poscebat, ut in xysto maternorum hortorum (qui porticum a ripa separat) inambulans quosdam ex illis cum matronis atque aliis senatoribus ad lucernam decollaret.

3. Why do I rummage ancient things? Lately Gaius Caesar, Sextus Papinius (whose father was a consular), Betilienus Bassus his quaestor, the son of his procurator, and others both senators and Roman equestrians, in a single day he beat with scourges and tortured—not for the sake of inquisition but of his temper; 4. then he was so impatient of deferring the pleasure which his vast cruelty demanded without delay, that, walking up and down in the xystus of the Materni Gardens (which separates the portico from the bank), by lamplight he beheaded some of them, together with matrons and other senators.

Quid instabat? Quod periculum aut priuatum aut publicum una nox minabatur? Quantulum fuit lucem expectare denique, ne senatores populi Romani soleatus occideret!

What was pressing? What peril, whether private or public, was a single night threatening? How small a thing would it have been to await the light, at least, so that he would not slay the senators of the Roman People in slippers!

XIX.

19.

1. Quam superba fuerit crudelitas eius ad rem pertinet scire, quamquam aberrare alicui possimus uideri et in deuium exire; sed hoc ipsum pars erit irae super solita saeuientis. Ceciderat flagellis senatores: ipse effecit ut dici posset 'solet fieri'. Torserat per omnia quae in rerum natura tristissima sunt, fidiculis talaribus, eculeo igne uultu suo. 2. Et hoc loco respondebitur: 'magnam rem!

1. How haughty his cruelty was pertains to the matter to know, although we may seem to someone to wander and go out into a byway; but this very thing will be a part of the wrath raging beyond what is customary. He had laid low senators with scourges: he himself brought it about that it could be said 'it is wont to happen.' He had tortured by all the things which in the nature of things are most dire, with ankle-cords, with the rack, with fire, with his own countenance. 2. And at this point it will be answered: 'a great matter!

si tres senatores quasi nequam mancipia inter uerbera et flammas diuisit homo qui de toto senatu trucidando cogitabat, qui optabat ut populus Romanus unam ceruicem haberet, ut scelera sua tot locis ac temporibus diducta in unum ictum et unum diem cogeret.' Quid tam inauditum quam nocturnum supplicium? Cum latrocinia tenebris abscondi soleant, animaduersiones quo notiores sunt plus in exemplum emendationemque proficiunt. 3. Et hoc loco respondebitur mihi: 'quod tanto opere admiraris isti beluae cotidianum est; ad hoc uiuit, ad hoc uigilat, ad hoc lucubrat.' Nemo certe inuenietur alius qui imperauerit omnibus iis in quos animaduerti iubebat os inserta spongea includi, ne uocis emittendae haberent facultatem.

if three senators he parceled out, as if worthless chattels, amid lashes and flames—the man who was thinking about butchering the entire senate, who was wishing that the Roman people had one neck, so that he might compress his crimes, drawn apart in so many places and times, into one blow and one day.' What is so unheard-of as a nocturnal punishment? Since robberies are wont to be hidden by darkness, punishments, the more notorious they are, the more they profit as an example and for correction. 3. And at this point it will be answered to me: 'what you so greatly marvel at is that beast’s everyday practice; for this he lives, for this he keeps vigil, for this he lucubrates.' Surely no one else will be found who ordered that for all those upon whom he commanded animadversion to be inflicted the mouth be shut with a sponge inserted, so that they might not have the faculty of emitting a voice.

Cui umquam morituro non est relictum qua gemeret? Timuit ne quam liberiorem uocem extremus dolor mitteret, ne quid quod nollet audiret; sciebat autem innumerabilia esse quae obicere illi nemo nisi periturus auderet. 4. Cum spongeae non inuenirentur, scindi uestimenta miserorum et in os farciri pannos imperauit.

Who ever, when about to die, has not been left the means with which to groan? He feared lest final pain emit any freer voice, lest he hear anything he would not wish; moreover, he knew that there were innumerable things which no one except one about to perish would dare to bring as objections against him. 4. When sponges were not found, he ordered the garments of the wretched to be torn and rags to be stuffed into the mouth.

Quae ista saeuitia est? Liceat ultimum spiritum trahere, da exiturae animae locum, liceat illam non per uulnus emittere. 5. Adicere his longum est quod patres quoque occisorum eadem nocte dimissis per domos centurionibus confecit, id est, homo misericors luctu liberauit.

What is that savagery? Let it be permitted to draw the final breath, grant a place for the soul that is about to exit, let it be permitted not to emit it through a wound. 5. It would be a long matter to add to these things that he also finished off the fathers of the slain that same night, with centurions sent through the houses, that is, the merciful man liberated them from grief.

Non enim Gai saeuitiam sed irae propositum est describere, quae non tantum uiritim furit sed gentes totas lancinat, sed urbes et flumina et tuta ab omni sensu doloris conuerberat.

For it is not the savagery of Gaius but that of anger that it is the purpose to describe, which not only rages man by man but lacerates whole peoples, and scourges cities and rivers and things safe from every sensation of pain.

XX.

20.

1. Sic rex Persarum totius populi nares recidit in Syria, unde Rhinocolura loco nomen est. Pepercisse illum iudicas quod non tota capita praecidit? nouo genere poenae delectatus est.

1. Thus the king of the Persians cut off the nostrils of the entire people in Syria, whence the place has the name Rhinocolura. Do you judge that he spared them because he did not cut off their whole heads? He was delighted with a new kind of penalty.

2. Tale aliquid passi forent et Aethiopes, qui ob longissimum uitae spatium Macrobioe appellantur; in hos enim, quia non supinis manibus exceperant seruitutem missisque legatis libera responsa dederant, quae contumeliosa reges uocant, Cambyses fremebat et non prouisis commeatibus, non exploratis itineribus, per inuia, per arentia trahebat omnem bello utilem turbam. Cui intra primum iter deerant necessaria, nec quicquam subministrabat sterilis et inculta humanoque ignota uestigio regio; 3. sustinebant famem primo tenerrima frondium et cacumina arborum, tum coria igne mollita et quidquid necessitas cibum fecerat; postquam inter harenas radices quoque et herbae defecerant apparuitque inops etiam animalium solitudo, decimum quemque sortiti alimentum habuerunt fame saeuius. 4. Agebat adhuc regem ira praecipitem, cum partem exercitus amisisset, partem comedisset, donec timuit ne et ipse uocaretur ad sortem: tum demum signum receptui dedit.

2. Something like this the Ethiopians too would have suffered, who, on account of the very long span of life, are called Macrobians; for against them, because they had not received slavery with upturned hands and, legates having been sent, had given free answers, which kings call contumelious, Cambyses was raging, and, with supplies not provided, with routes not explored, through pathless places, through arid tracts, he was dragging all the multitude useful for war. To him within the first march the necessaries were lacking, nor did the region, sterile and uncultivated and unknown to the human footprint, supply anything; 3. they sustained hunger at first with the very tenderest of foliage and the tops of trees, then with hides softened by fire and with whatever necessity had made into food; after, when among the sands roots too and grasses had failed, and the solitude appeared needy even of animals, having cast lots they had every tenth man as sustenance, more savage than hunger. 4. Anger was still driving the king headlong, when he had lost a part of the army, a part he had eaten, until he feared lest he too be called to the lot: then at last he gave the signal for a retreat.

Seruabantur interim generosae illi aues et instrumenta epularum camelis uehebantur, cum sortirentur milites eius quis male periret, quis peius uiueret.

Meanwhile those noble birds were being kept, and the instruments of banquets were being carried by camels, while his soldiers were drawing lots as to who should perish badly, and who should live worse.

XXI.

21.

1. Hic iratus fuit genti et ignotae et inmeritae, sensurae tamen: Cyrus flumini. Nam cum Babylona oppugnaturus festinaret ad bellum, cuius maxima momenta in occasionibus sunt, Gynden late fusum amnem uado transire temptauit, quod uix tutum est etiam cum sensit aestatem et ad minimum deductus est. 2. Ibi unus ex iis equis qui trahere regium currum albi solebant abreptus uehementer commouit regem; iurauit itaque se amnem illum regis comitatus auferentem eo redacturum ut transiri calcarique etiam a feminis posset.

1. Here a man was angry at a nation both unknown and undeserving, yet one that would nevertheless feel it: Cyrus was angry at a river. For when, about to assault Babylon, he was hastening to war, whose greatest critical moments are in opportunities, he attempted to cross the Gyndes, a river widely spread, by a ford, which is scarcely safe even when it feels summer and is reduced to the minimum. 2. There one of those horses, white, who were accustomed to draw the royal chariot, being swept away, vehemently disturbed the king; he swore, therefore, that he would bring that river, which had carried off a companion of the king’s retinue, to such a condition that it could be crossed and even trodden under heel by women.

3. Hoc deinde omnem transtulit belli apparatum et tam diu adsedit operi donec centum et octoginta cuniculis diuisum alueum in trecentos et sexaginta riuos dispergeret et siccum relinqueret in diuersum fluentibus aquis. 4. Periit itaque et tempus, magna in magnis rebus iactura, et militum ardor, quem inutilis labor fregit, et occasio adgrediendi inparatos, dum ille bellum indictum hosti cum flumine gerit. 5. Hic furor — quid enim aliud uoces?

3. He then transferred to this the whole apparatus of war and sat down to the work so long until, the riverbed divided by one hundred and eighty tunnels, he might disperse it into three hundred and sixty rivulets and leave it dry, the waters flowing in different directions. 4. And so both time perished—a great loss in great matters—and the ardor of the soldiers, which useless labor broke, and the occasion of attacking the unprepared, while he, with war indicted against the enemy, wages it with the river. 5. This is madness—what else, indeed, would you call it?

— Romanos quoque contigit. C. enim Caesar uillam in Herculanensi pulcherrimam, quia mater sua aliquando in illa custodita erat, diruit fecitque eius per hoc notabilem fortunam; stantem enim praenauigabamus, nunc causa dirutae quaeritur.

— It befell the Romans as well. For Gaius Caesar demolished a most beautiful villa at Herculaneum, because his mother had once been kept under guard in it, and by this made its fortune notable; for when it was standing we used to sail past it, now the reason for its demolition is asked after.

XXII.

22.

1. Et haec cogitanda sunt exempla quae uites, et illa ex contrario quae sequaris, moderata, lenia, quibus nec ad irascendum causa defuit nec ad ulciscendum potestas. 2. Quid enim facilius fuit Antigono quam duos manipulares duci iubere, qui incumbentes regis tabernaculo faciebant quod homines et periculosissime et libentissime faciunt, de rege suo male existimabant? Audierat omnia Antigonus, utpote cum inter dicentes et audientem palla interesset; quam ille leuiter commouit et 'longius' inquit 'discedite, ne uos rex audiat.' 3. Idem quadam nocte, cum quosdam ex militibus suis exaudisset omnia mala inprecantis regi, qui ipsos in illud iter et inextricabile lutum deduxisset, accessit ad eos qui maxime laborabant et cum ignorantis a quo adiuuarentur explicuisset, 'nunc' inquit 'male dicite Antigono, cuius uitio in has miserias incidistis; ei autem bene optate qui uos ex hac uoragine eduxit.' 4. Idem tam miti animo hostium suorum male dicta quam ciuium tulit.

1. And you must ponder both the examples to avoid and, conversely, those to follow—moderate, lenient ones—in which neither was a cause for becoming angry lacking nor the power for exacting vengeance. 2. For what would have been easier for Antigonus than to order two rank‑and‑file soldiers to be led off, who, leaning upon the king’s tent, were doing what men do both most perilously and most gladly—forming a bad opinion about their king? Antigonus had heard everything, since a mere curtain stood between the speakers and the hearer; he gently moved it and said, “Go farther away, lest the king hear you.” 3. The same man, on a certain night, when he had overheard some of his soldiers imprecating every evil upon the king who had led them into that march and inextricable mud, went up to those who were toiling most; and when he had explained to them, ignorant as they were of by whom they were being aided, he said, “Now speak ill of Antigonus, by whose fault you have fallen into these miseries; but wish well to the one who has led you out of this whirlpool.” 4. The same man bore the ill‑sayings of his enemies as gently as those of his fellow‑citizens.

Itaque cum in paruulo quodam castello Graeci obsiderentur et fiducia loci contemnentes hostem multa in deformitatem Antigoni iocarentur et nunc staturam humilem, nunc conlisum nasum deriderent, 'gaudeo' inquit 'et aliquid boni spero, si in castris Silenum habeo.' 5. Cum hos dicaces fame domuisset, captis sic usus est ut eos qui militiae utiles erant in cohortes discriberet, ceteros praeconi subiceret, idque se negauit facturum fuisse, nisi expediret iis dominum habere qui tam malam haberent linguam.

And so, when in a certain very small fortress the Greeks were being besieged, and, in confidence of the position, contemning the enemy, they were jesting many things upon the deformity of Antigonus, and now they derided his low stature, now his battered nose, 'I rejoice,' he said, 'and I hope for something good, if I have Silenus in the camp.' 5. When he had tamed these smart‑mouthed men with hunger, he dealt with the captured thus: he assigned those who were useful for military service into cohorts, and subjected the rest to the auctioneer; and he said that he would not have done this, unless it were expedient for those who had so evil a tongue to have a master.

XXIII.

23.

1. Huius nepos fuit Alexander, qui lanceam in conuiuas suos torquebat, qui ex duobus amicis quos paulo ante rettuli alterum ferae obiecit, alterum sibi. Ex his duobus tamen qui leoni obiectus est uixit. 2. Non habuit hoc auitum ille uitium, ne paternum quidem; nam si qua alia in Philippo uirtus, fuit et contumeliarum patientia, ingens instrumentum ad tutelam regni.

1. The grandson of this man was Alexander, who used to hurl a lance at his own banquet‑guests, who, from two friends whom I a little before mentioned, cast one to a wild beast, the other to his own hand. Of these two, however, the one who was thrown to the lion lived. 2. He did not have this as an ancestral vice, nor even a paternal one; for if there was any other virtue in Philip, there was also patience of contumelies, a vast instrument for the tutelage of the kingdom.

Demochares ad illum Parrhesiastes ob nimiam et procacem linguam appellatus inter alios Atheniensium legatos uenerat. Audita benigne legatione Philippus 'dicite' inquit 'mihi facere quid possim quod sit Atheniensibus gratum.' Excepit Demochares et 'te' inquit 'suspendere.' 3. Indignatio circumstantium ad tam inhumanum responsum exorta erat; quos Philippus conticiscere iussit et Thersitam illum saluum incolumemque dimittere. 'At uos' inquit 'ceteri legati, nuntiate Atheniensibus multo superbiores esse qui ista dicunt quam qui inpune dicta audiunt.'

Demochares, to him called ‘Parrhesiastes’ on account of an excessive and saucy tongue, had come among the other legates of the Athenians. When the embassy had been kindly heard, Philip said, ‘Tell me what I can do that would be pleasing to the Athenians.’ Demochares took it up and said, ‘Hang yourself.’ 3. The indignation of those standing around had arisen at so inhuman an answer; but Philip ordered them to be silent and to let that Thersites go away safe and unharmed. ‘But you,’ he said, ‘the rest of the legates, announce to the Athenians that those who say such things are much more superb than those who hear them with impunity.’

4. Multa et diuus Augustus digna memoria fecit dixitque ex quibus appareat iram illi non imperasse. Timagenes historiarum scriptor quaedam in ipsum, quaedam in uxorem eius et in totam domum dixerat, nec perdiderat dicta; magis enim circumfertur et in ore hominum est temeraria urbanitas. 5. Saepe illum Caesar monuit, moderatius lingua uteretur; perseueranti domo sua interdixit.

4. Many things both did the deified Augustus do and say worthy of memory, from which it appears that anger did not command him. Timagenes, a writer of histories, had said certain things against himself, certain against his wife and against his whole house, nor had his sayings perished; for rash urbanity is more carried about and on the lips of men. 5. Caesar often warned him to use his tongue more moderately; when he persisted, he forbade him his house.

Postea Timagenes in contubernio Pollionis Asini consenuit ac tota ciuitate direptus est: nullum illi limen praeclusa Caesaris domus abstulit. 6. Historias quas postea scripserat recitauit [et combussit] et libros acta Caesaris Augusti continentis in ignem inposuit; inimicitias gessit cum Caesare: nemo amicitiam eius extimuit, nemo quasi fulguritum refugit, fuit qui praeberet tam alte cadenti sinum. 7. Tulit hoc, ut dixi, Caesar patienter, ne eo quidem motus quod laudibus suis rebusque gestis manus attulerat; numquam cum hospite inimici sui questus est.

Afterwards Timagenes grew old in the household of Asinius Pollio and was torn to pieces throughout the whole city: no threshold was denied him—though the house of Caesar was barred. 6. The histories which he had written later he recited [and he burned them], and he placed into the fire the books containing the Acts of Caesar Augustus; he carried on enmities with Caesar: no one stood in dread of his friendship, no one shunned him as though lightning-blasted; there was someone to offer the fold of his garment to one falling from so high. 7. Caesar bore this, as I have said, patiently, not moved even by this, that he had laid hands upon his praises and his achievements; he never lodged a complaint with his enemy’s host.

8. Hoc dumtaxat Pollioni Asinio dixit, ' theriotropheis'; paranti deinde excusationem obstitit et 'fruere,' inquit 'mi Pollio, fruere!' et cum Pollio diceret 'si iubes, Caesar, statim illi domo mea interdicam', 'hoc me' inquit 'putas facturum, cum ego uos in gratiam reduxerim?' Fuerat enim aliquando Timageni Pollio iratus nec ullam aliam habuerat causam desinendi quam quod Caesar coeperat.

8. To Asinius Pollio he said only this, 'you keep wild beasts'; then, when he was beginning an excuse, he checked him and said, 'enjoy, my Pollio, enjoy!' and when Pollio said, 'if you order, Caesar, I will immediately interdict him from my house,' he said, 'do you think I would do this, when I have brought you back into favor?' For once upon a time Pollio had been angry with Timagenes, and had had no other cause for desisting than that Caesar had begun it.

XXIV.

24.

1. Dicat itaque sibi quisque, quotiens lacessitur: 'numquid potentior sum Philippo? illi tamen inpune male dictum est. Numquid in domo mea plus possum quam toto orbe terrarum diuus Augustus potuit?

1. Let each person, therefore, say to himself, whenever he is provoked: 'Am I more powerful than Philip? yet he was reviled with impunity. Do I have more power in my own house than the deified Augustus could in the whole world?

ille tamen contentus fuit a conuiciatore suo secedere.' 2. Quid est quare ego serui mei clarius responsum et contumaciorem uultum et non peruenientem usque ad me murmurationem flagellis et compedibus expiem? Quis sum, cuius aures laedi nefas sit? Ignouerunt multi hostibus: ego non ignoscam pigris neglegentibus garrulis?

he, however, was content to withdraw from his reviler.' 2. Why is it that I should expiate with scourges and fetters my slave’s louder reply, his more contumacious countenance, and a murmuration that does not even reach all the way to me? Who am I, whose ears it would be nefarious to be injured? Many have forgiven enemies: shall I not forgive the slothful, the negligent, the garrulous?

3. Puerum aetas excuset, feminam sexus, extraneum libertas, domesticum familiaritas. Nunc primum offendit: cogitemus quam diu placuerit; saepe et alias offendit: feramus quod diu tulimus. Amicus est: fecit quod noluit; inimicus: fecit quod debuit.

3. Let age excuse the boy, sex the woman, liberty the outsider, familiarity the household member. Now for the first time he offends: let us consider how long he has pleased; he has often offended on other occasions as well: let us bear what we have long borne. He is a friend: he did what he did not wish; an enemy: he did what he ought.

4. Prudentiori credamus, stultiori remittamus; pro quocumque illud nobis respondeamus, sapientissimos quoque uiros multa delinquere, neminem esse tam circumspectum cuius non diligentia aliquando sibi ipsa excidat, neminem tam maturum cuius non grauitatem in aliquod feruidius factum casus inpingat, neminem tam timidum offensarum qui non in illas dum uitat incidat.

4. Let us trust the more prudent, let us remit to the more foolish; for whomsoever it be, let us answer this to ourselves, that even the most wise men err in many things, that no one is so circumspect that his diligence does not sometimes fall away from itself, that no one is so mature that chance does not impel his gravity into some more heated deed, that no one is so timid of offenses that he does not, while avoiding them, fall into them.

XXV.

25.

1. Quomodo homini pusillo solacium in malis fuit etiam magnorum uirorum titubare fortunam et aequiore animo filium in angulo fleuit qui uidit acerba funera etiam ex regia duci, sic animo aequiore fert ab aliquo laedi, ab aliquo contemni, cuicumque uenit in mentem nullam esse tantam potentiam in quam non occurrat iniuria. 2. Quod si etiam prudentissimi peccant, cuius non error bonam causam habet? Respiciamus quotiens adulescentia nostra in officio parum diligens fuerit, in sermone parum modesta, in uino parum temperans.

1. Just as it was a solace in evils to a small man that even the fortune of great men stumbles, and he who saw bitter funerals led forth even from a royal palace wept for his son in a corner with a more equable spirit, so he bears with a more equable mind to be injured by someone, to be contemned by someone, to whomsoever it comes into mind that there is no power so great upon which wrong does not occur. 2. But if even the most prudent men sin, whose error does not have a good cause? Let us look back how often our adolescence was too little diligent in duty, too little modest in speech, too little temperate in wine.

Si iratus est, demus illi spatium quo dispicere quid fecerit possit: ipse se castigabit. Denique debeat poenas: non est quod cum illo paria faciamus. 3. Illud non ueniet in dubium, quin se exemerit turbae et altius steterit quisquis despexit lacessentis: proprium est magnitudinis uerae non sentire percussum.

If he is angry, let us give him a space in which he may be able to discern what he has done: he will chastise himself. Finally, let him pay the penalties: there is no reason for us to seek parity with him. 3. This will not come into doubt, that he has removed himself from the crowd and has stood higher, whoever has looked down upon the provokers: it is proper to true greatness not to feel the blow.

Sic immanis fera ad latratum canum lenta respexit, sic inritus ingenti scopulo fluctus adsultat. Qui non irascitur, inconcussus iniuria perstitit, qui irascitur, motus est. 4. At ille quem modo altiorem omni incommodo posui tenet amplexu quodam summum bonum, nec homini tantum sed ipsi fortunae respondet: 'omnia licet facias, minor es quam ut serenitatem meam obducas.

Thus the savage beast slowly looked back at the barking of the dogs, thus the wave, ineffectual, leaps against the huge crag. He who does not grow irate has stood fast unshaken by injury, he who grows irate has been moved. 4. But that man whom I just now set higher than every discommode holds in a certain embrace the highest good, and he answers not only to man but to Fortune herself: 'although you may do all things, you are too small to overcast my serenity.'

Vetat hoc ratio, cui uitam regendam dedi. Plus mihi nocitura est ira quam iniuria. Quidni plus?

Reason, to which I have entrusted the governance of my life, forbids this. Anger will harm me more than the injury. Why not more?

illius modus certus est, ista quo usque me latura sit dubium est.'

that one’s limit is certain; how far this will carry me is doubtful.'

XXVI.

26.

1. 'Non possum' inquis 'pati; graue est iniuriam sustinere.' Mentiris; quis enim iniuriam non potest ferre qui potest iram? Adice nunc quod id agis ut et iram feras et iniuriam. Quare fers aegri rabiem et phrenetici uerba, puerorum proteruas manus?

1. 'I cannot,' you say, 'endure; it is grievous to sustain an injury.' You lie; for who cannot bear an injury who can bear anger? Add now that you so act as to bear both anger and the injury. Why then do you bear the rage of a sick man and the words of a phrenetic, the insolent hands of boys?

nempe quia uidentur nescire quid faciant. Quid interest quo quisque uitio fiat inprudens? inprudentia par in omnibus patrocinium est.

namely because they seem to not know what they do. What difference is there by what vice each person becomes imprudent? imprudence is an equal patronage/defense for all.

2. 'Quid ergo?' inquis 'inpune illi erit?' Puta uelle te, tamen non erit; maxima est enim factae iniuriae poena fecisse, nec quisquam grauius adficitur quam qui ad supplicium paenitentiae traditur. 3. Deinde ad condicionem rerum humanarum respiciendum est, ut omnium accidentium aequi iudices simus; iniquus autem est qui commune uitium singulis obiecit. Non est Aethiopis inter suos insignitus color, nec rufus crinis et coactus in nodum apud Germanos uirum dedecet: nihil in uno iudicabis notabile aut foedum quod genti suae publicum est.

2. 'What then?' you ask, 'will it be with impunity for him?' Suppose you wish it; nevertheless it will not be; for the greatest penalty for an injury done is to have done it, nor is anyone more gravely afflicted than he who is handed over to the punishment of penitence. 3. Then we must look to the condition of human affairs, that we may be equitable judges of all accidents; but he is iniquitous who charges upon individuals a common vice. The color of the Aethiopian is not remarkable among his own, nor does reddish hair, forced into a knot, disgrace a man among the Germans: you will judge nothing notable or foul in one person which is common to his nation.

Et ista quae rettuli unius regionis atque anguli consuetudo defendit: uide nunc quanto in iis iustior uenia sit quae per totum genus humanum uulgata sunt. 4. Omnes inconsulti et inprouidi sumus, omnes incerti queruli ambitiosi — quid lenioribus uerbis ulcus publicum abscondo? — omnes mali sumus.

And those things which I have recounted are defended by the custom of a single region and corner: see now how much more just the pardon is in those things which have been made common through the whole human race. 4. We are all unadvised and improvident, we all are uncertain, querulous, ambitious — why do I hide the public ulcer with gentler words? — we all are wicked.

Quidquid itaque in alio reprenditur, id unusquisque in sinu suo inueniet. Quid illius pallorem, illius maciem notas? pestilentia est.

Whatever therefore is reprehended in another, each one will find in his own bosom. Why do you note his pallor, his emaciation? It is a pestilence.

Placidiores itaque inuicem simus: mali inter malos uiuimus. Vna nos res facere quietos potest, mutuae facilitatis conuentio. 5. 'Ille iam mihi nocuit, ego illi nondum.' Sed iam aliquem fortasse laesisti, sed laedes.

Therefore let us be more placid toward one another: we are evil among evils. One thing can make us quiet— a convention of mutual lenity. 5. 'He has already harmed me, I have not yet harmed him.' But perhaps you have already injured someone, but you will injure.

Noli aestimare hanc horam aut hunc diem, totum inspice mentis tuae habitum: etiam si nihil mali fecisti, potes facere.

Do not estimate this hour or this day; inspect the entire habit of your mind: even if you have done nothing evil, you can do it.

XXVII.

27.

1. Quanto satius est sanare iniuriam quam ulcisci! Multum temporis ultio absumit, multis se iniuriis obicit dum una dolet; diutius irascimur omnes quam laedimur. Quanto melius est abire in diuersum nec uitia uitiis opponere!

1. How much more satisfying it is to heal an injury than to avenge it! Vengeance consumes much time; it exposes itself to many injuries while it grieves over one; we all are angry longer than we are injured. How much better it is to go in a different direction and not oppose vices with vices!

Numquis satis constare sibi uideatur, si mulam calcibus repetat et canem morsu? 2. 'Ista' inquis 'peccare se nesciunt.' Primum quam iniquus est apud quem hominem esse ad inpetrandam ueniam nocet! Deinde, si cetera animalia hoc irae tuae subducit quod consilio carent, eodem loco tibi sit quisquis consilio caret; quid enim refert an alia mutis dissimilia habeat, si hoc quod in omni peccato muta defendit simile habet, caliginem mentis?

Does anyone seem sufficiently consistent with himself, if he requites a mule with kicks and a dog with a bite? 2. 'Those creatures,' you say, 'do not know that they sin.' First, how iniquitous is the one in whose eyes the fact of being a human being harms one in the obtaining of pardon! Then, if this—namely, that they lack counsel—withdraws the other animals from your wrath, let whoever lacks counsel be in the same position for you; for what difference does it make whether he have other things unlike the dumb creatures, if he has this similar thing which in every sin defends the mute—darkness of mind?

3. Peccauit: hoc enim primum? hoc enim extremum? Non est quod illi credas, etiam si dixerit 'iterum non faciam': et iste peccabit et in istum alius et tota uita inter errores uolutabitur.

3. He has erred: is this then the first? is this then the last? There is no reason for you to believe him, even if he should say 'I will not do it again': and this man too will err, and against this man another, and the whole life will be rolled among errors.

Mansuete inmansueta tractanda sunt. 4. Quod in luctu dici solet efficacissime, et in ira dicetur: utrum aliquando desines an numquam? Si aliquando, quanto satius est iram relinquere quam ab ira relinqui!

The untamed must be handled gently. 4. What is most effectively said in mourning will likewise be said in anger: will you ever cease, or never? If ever, how much better it is to relinquish anger than to be relinquished by anger!

An semper haec agitatio permanebit? Vides quam inpacatam tibi denunties uitam? qualis enim erit semper tumentis?

Will this agitation always remain? Do you see how unpeaceful a life you announce to yourself? For what, indeed, will the life be of one always tumid?

5. Adice nunc quod, cum bene te ipse succenderis et subinde causas quibus stimuleris renouaueris, sua sponte ira discedet et uires illi dies subtrahet: quanto satius est a te illam uinci quam a se!

5. Add now this, that, when you have well kindled yourself and from time to time have renewed the causes by which you are stimulated, anger will of its own accord withdraw, and the day will subtract strength from it: how much more advisable that it be conquered by you than by itself!

XXVIII.

28.

1. Huic irasceris, deinde illi; seruis, deinde libertis; parentibus, deinde liberis; notis, deinde ignotis: ubique enim causae supersunt nisi deprecator animus accessit. Hinc te illo furor rapiet, illinc alio, et nouis subinde inritamentis orientibus continuabitur rabies: age, infelix, ecquando amabis? O quam bonum tempus in re mala perdis!

1. You grow angry at this one, then at that; at slaves, then at freedmen; at parents, then at children; at acquaintances, then at strangers: for everywhere pretexts remain unless a deprecatory spirit has come in. From here fury will snatch you to that one, from there to another, and with new irritants repeatedly arising the rage will be kept going: come, unhappy man, when ever will you love? O how good a time you waste on an evil affair!

2. Quanto nunc erat satius amicos parare, inimicos mitigare, rem publicam administrare, transferre in res domesticas operam, quam circumspicere quid alicui facere possis mali, quod aut dignitati eius aut patrimonio aut corpori uulnus infligas, cum id tibi contingere sine certamine ac periculo non possit, etiam si cum inferiore concurses! 3. Vinctum licet accipias et ad arbitrium tuum omni patientiae expositum: saepe nimia uis caedentis aut articulum loco mouit aut neruum in iis quos fregerat dentibus fixit; multos iracundia mancos, multos debiles fecit, etiam ubi patientem est nancta materiam. Adice nunc quod nihil tam inbecille natum est ut sine elidentis periculo pereat: inbecillos ualentissimis alias dolor, alias casus exaequat.

2. How much more advisable it were now to procure friends, mitigate enemies, administer the commonwealth, transfer your effort into domestic affairs, than to look around for what evil you can do to someone, so that you may inflict a wound upon his dignity or patrimony or body, when this cannot befall you without contest and peril, even if you clash with an inferior! 3. Granted that you take him bound and exposed to your discretion for every endurance: often the excessive force of the smiter either has moved a joint from its place or has pinned a sinew upon the teeth he had broken; anger has made many maimed, many crippled, even where it has found a patient material. Add now that nothing is born so feeble as to perish without peril to the one crushing it: the feeble are sometimes made equal to the strongest by pain, sometimes by chance.

4. Quid quod pleraque eorum propter quae irascimur offendunt nos magis quam laedunt? Multum autem interest utrum aliquis uoluntati meae obstet an desit, eripiat an non det. Atqui in aequo ponimus utrum aliquis auferat an neget, utrum spem nostram praecidat an differat, utrum contra nos faciat an pro se, amore alterius an odio nostri.

4. What of this—that most of the things on account of which we grow angry offend us more than they harm us? Yet there is a great difference whether someone obstructs my will or simply is absent, snatches away or does not give. And yet we place on an equal level whether someone takes away or denies, whether he cuts off our hope or defers it, whether he does something against us or for himself, out of love for another or out of hatred for us.

5. Quidam uero non tantum iustas causas standi contra nos sed etiam honestas habent: alius patrem tuetur, alius fratrem, alius patriam, alius amicum; his tamen non ignoscimus id facientibus quod nisi facerent inprobaremus, immo, quod est incredibile, saepe de facto bene existimamus, de faciente male. 6. At mehercules uir magnus ac iustus fortissimum quemque ex hostibus suis et pro libertate ac salute patriae pertinacissimum suspicit et talem sibi ciuem, talem militem contingere optat.

5. Indeed, certain men have not only just causes of standing against us but even honorable ones: one protects his father, another his brother, another his fatherland, another his friend; yet we do not pardon these men for doing that which, if they did not do it, we would disapprove—nay rather, what is incredible, we often think well of the deed, ill of the doer. 6. But, by Hercules, a great and just man looks up to each bravest of his enemies and the most pertinacious for the freedom and safety of the fatherland, and he wishes that such a citizen, such a soldier would befall him.

XXIX.

29.

1. Turpe est odisse quem laudes; quanto uero turpius ob id aliquem odisse propter quod misericordia dignus est, si captiuus in seruitutem subito depressus reliquias libertatis tenet nec ad sordida ac laboriosa ministeria agilis occurrit, si ex otio piger equum uehiculumque domini cursu non exaequat, si inter cotidiana peruigilia fessum somnus oppressit, si rusticum laborem recusat aut non fortiter obiit a seruitute urbana et feriata translatus ad durum opus! 2. Distinguamus utrum aliquis non possit an nolit: multos absoluemus, si coeperimus ante iudicare quam irasci. Nunc autem primum impetum sequimur, deinde, quamuis uana nos concitauerint, perseueramus, ne uideamur coepisse sine causa, et, quod iniquissimum est, pertinaciores nos facit iniquitas irae; retinemus enim illam et augemus, quasi argumentum sit iuste irascentis grauiter irasci.

1. It is shameful to hate him whom you praise; how much more shameful, indeed, to hate someone on account of that for which he is worthy of mercy, if, a captive suddenly cast down into servitude, he holds the remnants of liberty and does not nimbly run to sordid and laborious ministries, if, sluggish from leisure, by his running he does not equal the pace of the master’s horse and vehicle, if, amid the daily vigils, sleep has overwhelmed him, weary, if he refuses rustic labor or does not stoutly undergo it, transferred from an urban and holiday servitude to hard work! 2. Let us distinguish whether someone cannot or will not: we shall absolve many, if we begin to judge before we grow angry. Now, however, we follow the first impulse; then, although vain things have stirred us, we persevere, lest we seem to have begun without cause, and—what is most iniquitous—the iniquity of anger makes us more pertinacious; for we retain it and augment it, as if to be gravely angry were an argument of one justly growing angry.

XXX.

30.

1. Quanto melius est initia ipsa perspicere quam leuia sint, quam innoxia! Quod accidere uides animalibus mutis, idem in homine deprendes: friuolis turbamur et inanibus. Taurum color rubicundus excitat, ad umbram aspis exsurgit, ursos leonesque mappa proritat: omnia quae natura fera ac rabida sunt consternantur ad uana.

1. How much better it is to perceive the beginnings themselves—how light, how innocuous they are! What you see happen to mute animals, the same you will detect in man: we are disturbed by frivolous and inane things. A ruddy color excites the bull, at a shadow the asp rears up, a napkin provokes bears and lions: all things which by nature are feral and rabid are thrown into consternation at empty things.

2. Idem inquietis et stolidis ingeniis euenit: rerum suspicione feriuntur, adeo quidem ut interdum iniurias uocent modica beneficia, in quibus frequentissima, certe acerbissima iracundiae materia est. Carissimis enim irascimur quod minora nobis praestiterint quam mente concepimus quamque alii tulerunt, cum utriusque rei paratum remedium sit. 3. Magis alteri indulsit: nostra nos sine comparatione delectent; numquam erit felix quem torquebit felicior.

2. The same befalls restless and stolid dispositions: they are struck by suspicion of things, indeed to such a degree that sometimes they call modest benefactions injuries—where lies the most frequent, certainly the most bitter, matter of anger. For we grow angry with our dearest because they have rendered to us less than we conceived in mind and than others have conferred, although a remedy is prepared for each case. 3. He has indulged another more: let what is ours delight us without comparison; never will he be happy whom a happier man torments.

Minus habeo quam speraui: sed fortasse plus speraui quam debui. Haec pars maxime metuenda est, hinc perniciosissimae irae nascuntur et sanctissima quaeque inuasurae. 4. Diuum Iulium plures amici confecerunt quam inimici, quorum non expleuerat spes inexplebiles.

I have less than I hoped: but perhaps I hoped for more than I ought. This part is most to be feared, from here the most pernicious angers arise and those that will invade whatever is most sacred. 4. The Divine Julius was finished off by more friends than enemies, whose insatiable hopes he had not fulfilled.

Voluit quidem ille — neque enim quisquam liberalius uictoria usus est, ex qua nihil sibi uindicauit nisi dispensandi potestatem — sed quemadmodum sufficere tam inprobis desideriis posset, cum tantum omnes concupiscerent quantum unus poterat? 5. Vidit itaque strictis circa sellam suam gladiis commilitones suos, Cimbrum Tillium, acerrimum paulo ante partium defensorem, aliosque post Pompeium demum Pompeianos. Haec res sua in reges arma conuertit fidissimosque eo conpulit ut de morte eorum cogitarent pro quibus et ante quos mori uotum habuerant.

He indeed was willing—for no one made more liberal use of victory, from which he vindicated nothing for himself except the power of dispensing—but how could he suffice such inordinate desires, since all coveted as much as a single man could receive? 5. Accordingly he saw around his chair his comrades-in-arms with swords drawn, Tillius Cimber, most keen a little before as a defender of the party, and others, Pompeians only after Pompey. This affair turned his own arms against kings and drove the most faithful to such a point that they thought about the death of those for whom, and before whom, they had vowed to die.

XXXI.

31.

1. Nulli ad aliena respicienti sua placent: inde dis quoque irascimur quod aliquis nos antecedat, obliti quantum hominum retro sit et paucis inuidentem quantum sequatur a tergo ingentis inuidiae. Tanta tamen inportunitas hominum est ut, quamuis multum acceperint, iniuriae loco sit plus accipere potuisse. 2. 'Dedit mihi praeturam, sed consulatum speraueram; dedit duodecim fasces, sed non fecit ordinarium consulem; a me numerari uoluit annum, sed deest mihi ad sacerdotium; cooptatus in collegium sum, sed cur in unum?

1. To no one who is looking toward another’s things do his own please: thence we grow angry even with the gods because someone goes before us, forgetting how many men are behind, and how great a mass of envy follows from behind upon one who envies a few. Such, however, is the importunity of men that, although they have received much, it counts as an injury that they could have received more. 2. 'He gave me the praetorship, but I had hoped for the consulship; he gave twelve fasces, but he did not make me an ordinary consul; he wished the year to be counted by me, but I lack a priesthood; I was coopted into a college, but why into one?'

consummauit dignitatem meam, sed patrimonio nihil contulit; ea dedit mihi quae debebat alicui dare, de suo nihil protulit.' 3. Age potius gratias pro his quae accepisti; reliqua expecta et nondum plenum esse te gaude: inter uoluptates est superesse quod speres. Omnes uicisti: primum esse te in animo amici tui laetare. Multi te uincunt: considera quanto antecedas plures quam sequaris.

he consummated my dignity, but contributed nothing to my patrimony; he gave me those things which he was obliged to give to someone, from his own he produced nothing.' 3. Come rather, give thanks for the things you have received; await the rest and rejoice that you are not yet full: among pleasures it is a delight that there remains something to hope for. You have vanquished all: rejoice that you are first in your friend’s mind. Many surpass you: consider by how much you go before more people than you follow.

Quod sit in te uitium maximum quaeris? falsas rationes conficis: data magno aestimas, accepta paruo.

You ask what the greatest vice in you is? You concoct false reckonings: you estimate the things given at a great value, the things received at a small.

XXXII.

32.

1. Aliud in alio nos deterreat: quibusdam timeamus irasci, quibusdam uereamur, quibusdam fastidiamus. Magnam rem sine dubio fecerimus, si seruulum infelicem in ergastulum miserimus! Quid properamus uerberare statim, crura protinus frangere?

1. Let different things in different people deter us: of some let us fear to grow angry, of some let us feel reverence, of some let us be fastidious. Without doubt we shall have done a great thing, if we have sent a wretched little slave into the ergastulum! Why do we hasten to beat at once, to break the legs forthwith?

non peribit potestas ista, si differetur. 2. Sine id tempus ueniat quo ipsi iubeamus: nunc ex imperio irae loquemur; cum illa abierit, tunc uidebimus quanto ista lis aestimanda sit. In hoc enim praecipue fallimur: ad ferrum uenimus, ad capitalia supplicia, et uinculis carcere fame uindicamus rem castigandam flagris leuioribus.

That power will not perish, if it is deferred. 2. Let that time come when we ourselves give the order: now we shall speak under the command of anger; when it has gone away, then we shall see how much this case is to be estimated. For in this especially we are mistaken: we come to the sword, to capital punishments, and with chains, prison, and hunger we avenge a matter that ought to be chastised with lighter scourges.

3. 'Quomodo' inquis 'nos iubes intueri quam omnia per quae laedi uideamur exigua misera puerilia sint!' Ego uero nihil magis suaserim quam sumere ingentem animum et haec propter quae litigamus discurrimus anhelamus uidere quam humilia et abiecta sint, nulli qui altum quiddam aut magnificum cogitat respicienda.

3. 'How,' you say, 'do you bid us to consider that all the things by which we seem to be harmed are petty, miserable, puerile!' I for my part would urge nothing more than to take up a great spirit, and to see how low and abject are these things on account of which we litigate, run about, and pant—things not to be looked at by anyone who is thinking on something high or magnificent.

XXXIII.

33.

1. Circa pecuniam plurimum uociferationis est: haec fora defetigat, patres liberosque committit, uenena miscet, gladios tam percussoribus quam legionibus tradit; haec est sanguine nostro dilibuta; propter hanc uxorum maritorumque noctes strepunt litibus et tribunalia magistratuum premit turba, reges saeuiunt rapiuntque et ciuitates longo saeculorum labore constructas euertunt ut aurum argentumque in cinere urbium scrutentur. 2. Libet intueri fiscos in angulo iacentis: hi sunt propter quos oculi clamore exprimantur, fremitu iudiciorum basilicae resonent, euocati ex longinquis regionibus iudices sedeant iudicaturi utrius iustior auaritia sit. 3. Quid si ne propter fiscum quidem sed pugnum aeris aut inputatum a seruo denarium senex sine herede moriturus stomacho dirrumpitur?

1. Around money there is the most vociferation: this wearies out the fora, sets fathers and children at odds, mixes poisons, hands swords both to assassins and to legions; this is besmeared with our blood; on account of this the nights of wives and husbands ring with litigation and a crowd presses the tribunals of the magistrates, kings rage and seize and overthrow cities constructed by the long labor of ages, that they may rummage for gold and silver in the ashes of the cities. 2. I am pleased to look at money-chests lying in a corner: these are the things on account of which eyes are squeezed out by shouting, the basilicas resound with the roar of lawsuits, judges summoned from far-distant regions sit to judge which party’s avarice is more just. 3. What if, not even on account of a money-chest, but for a fistful of bronze or a denarius not entered by a slave, an old man, about to die without an heir, bursts with indignation?

Quid si propter usuram uel milesimam ualetudinarius fenerator distortis pedibus et manibus ad computandum non relictis clamat ac per uadimonia asses suos in ipsis morbi accessionibus uindicat? 4. Si totam mihi ex omnibus metallis quae cum maxime deprimimus pecuniam proferas, si in medium proicias quidquid thesauri tegunt, auaritia iterum sub terras referente quae male egesserat, omnem istam congeriem non putem dignam quae frontem uiri boni contrahat. Quanto risu prosequenda sunt quae nobis lacrimas educunt!

What if, on account of usury or even the thousandth-rate, a sickly moneylender, with feet and hands twisted, not left for computing, shouts and by recognizances claims his asses in the very seizures of his illness? 4. If you were to bring out to me all the money from all the mines which we are just now digging down, if you were to throw into the midst whatever the treasure-hoards cover, with avarice again carrying back beneath the earth what it had ill done, I would not think all that heap worthy to wrinkle the brow of a good man. With how much laughter ought those very things to be pursued which draw tears from us!

XXXIV.

34.

1. Cedo nunc, persequere cetera, cibos potiones horumque causa paratas in ambitionem munditias, uerba contumeliosa, motus corporum parum honorificos, contumacia iumenta et pigra mancipia, et suspiciones et interpretationes malignas uocis alienae, quibus efficitur ut inter iniurias naturae numeretur sermo homini datus: crede mihi, leuia sunt propter quae non leuiter excandescimus qualiaque pueros in rixam et iurgium concitant. 2. Nihil ex iis quae tam tristes agimus serium est, nihil magnum: inde, inquam, uobis ira et insania est, quod exigua magno aestimatis. Auferre hic mihi hereditatem uoluit; hic me diu in spem supremam captato criminatus est; hic scortum meum concupiuit: quod uinculum amoris esse debebat seditionis atque odi causa est, idem uelle.

1. Come now, pursue the rest: the foods, the potations, and the neatnesses prepared for their sake into ambition; contumelious words; movements of bodies little honorable; contumacious beasts of burden and sluggish slaves; and suspicions and malign interpretations of another’s voice, whereby it comes about that speech given to man is counted among nature’s injuries: believe me, light are the things on account of which we blaze up not lightly, and such as stir boys to brawl and wrangling. 2. Nothing of the things which we do so grimly is serious, nothing great: from this, I say, come for you wrath and insanity, that you estimate trifles as great. This man wished to take away an inheritance from me; this man for a long time, by angling for my supreme hope, brought a charge against me; this man coveted my harlot: that which ought to be a bond of love is a cause of sedition and hatred—the wanting of the same thing.

3. Iter angustum rixas transeuntium concitat, diffusa et late patens uia ne populos quidem conlidit: ista quae adpetitis, quia exigua sunt nec possunt ad alterum nisi alteri erepta transferri, eadem adfectantibus pugnas et iurgia excitant.

3. A narrow path stirs up quarrels among those passing; a road that is broad and widely open does not dash even peoples together: those things which you crave, because they are petty and cannot be transferred to one unless snatched from another, rouse fights and wranglings in those who aim at the same.

XXXV.

35.

1. Respondisse tibi seruum indignaris libertumque et uxorem et clientem: deinde idem de re publica libertatem sublatam quereris quam domi sustulisti. Rursus, si tacuit interrogatus, contumaciam uocas. 2. Et loquatur et taceat et rideat!

1. You are indignant that a slave has answered you—and a freedman, and your wife, and a client: then, the same you complain about the Republic that liberty has been taken away, which you have taken away at home. Again, if he has kept silent when questioned, you call it contumacy. 2. Let him speak and be silent and laugh!

'Coram domino?' inquis. Immo coram patre familiae. Quid clamas?

'Before the master?' you ask. Rather, before the paterfamilias. Why are you shouting?

quid uociferaris? quid flagella media cena petis quod serui loquuntur, quod non eodem loco turba contionis est, silentium solitudinis? 3. In hoc habes aures, ut non modulata tantum et mollia et ex dulci tracta compositaque accipiant: et risum audias oportet et fletum, et blanditias et lites, et prospera et tristia, et hominum uoces et fremitus animalium latratusque.

why do you vociferate? why do you demand flagellation in the middle of dinner because the slaves speak, because in the same place there is not both the crowd-tumult of an assembly and the silence of solitude? 3. for this you have ears, that they may receive not only things modulated and soft and drawn from sweetness and composed: and you ought to hear both laughter and weeping, both blandishments and quarrels, both prosperous and sad things, and the voices of men and the growls of animals and barking.

Quid miser expauescis ad clamorem serui, ad tinnitum aeris aut ianuae inpulsum? cum tam delicatus fueris, tonitrua audienda sunt. 4. Hoc quod de auribus dictum est transfer ad oculos, qui non minus fastidio laborant si male instituti sunt: macula offenduntur et sordibus et argento parum splendido et stagno non ad solum perlucente.

Why, poor wretch, do you grow pale in terror at a slave’s clamor, at the ringing of bronze or the blow dealt to the door? Since you have been so delicate, thunderclaps must be listened to. 4. Transfer what has been said about the ears to the eyes, which suffer no less from fastidiousness if they have been ill-trained: they are offended by a spot and by filth and by silver insufficiently splendid, and by pewter not translucent down to the floor.

5. Hi nempe oculi, qui non ferunt nisi uarium ac recenti cura nitens marmor, qui mensam nisi crebris distinctam uenis, qui nolunt domi nisi auro pretiosiora calcare, aequissimo animo foris et scabras lutosasque semitas spectant et maiorem partem occurrentium squalidam, parietes insularum exesos rimosos inaequales. Quid ergo aliud est quod illos in publico non offendat, domi moueat, quam opinio illic aequa et patiens, domi morosa et querula?

5. These, forsooth, are the eyes that cannot endure anything except variegated marble gleaming with recent care, that cannot bear a table unless marked out with frequent veins, that do not want at home to tread on anything unless more precious than gold; yet with a most even mind outside they look upon scabrous and muddy footpaths, and the greater part of those they meet squalid, and the walls of the tenement-blocks eaten away, cracked, uneven. What, then, is there else that does not offend them in public but vexes them at home, than an opinion there fair and patient, at home morose and querulous?

XXXVI.

36.

1. Omnes sensus perducendi sunt ad firmitatem; natura patientes sunt, si animus illos desit corrumpere, qui cotidie ad rationem reddendam uocandus est. Faciebat hoc Sextius, ut consummato die, cum se ad nocturnam quietem recepisset, interrogaret animum suum: 'quod hodie malum tuum sanasti? Cui uitio obstitisti?

1. All the senses must be led through to firmness; by nature they are patient, if the mind should cease to corrupt them, which must be called daily to render a reckoning to reason. Sextius used to do this: when the day had been consummated, when he had withdrawn to nocturnal quiet, he would interrogate his mind: 'what evil of yours did you heal today? To which vice did you oppose yourself?

Qua parte melior es?' 2. Desinet ira et moderatior erit quae sciet sibi cotidie ad iudicem esse ueniendum. Quicquam ergo pulchrius hac consuetudine excutiendi totum diem? Qualis ille somnus post recognitionem sui sequitur, quam tranquillus, quam altus ac liber, cum aut laudatus est animus aut admonitus et speculator sui censorque secretus cognouit de moribus suis!

'In what part are you better?' 2. Ire will cease and will be more moderate, which will know that it must come daily to a judge. Is anything, then, more beautiful than this custom of examining the whole day? What a sleep follows after the recognition of oneself, how tranquil, how deep and free, when either the mind has been praised or admonished, and the observer of himself and secret censor has learned about his morals!

3. Vtor hac potestate et cotidie apud me causam dico. Cum sublatum e conspectu lumen est et conticuit uxor moris iam mei conscia, totum diem meum scrutor factaque ac dicta mea remetior; nihil mihi ipse abscondo, nihil transeo. Quare enim quicquam ex erroribus meis timeam, cum possim dicere: 'uide ne istud amplius facias, nunc tibi ignosco.

3. I use this authority and every day I plead my case before myself. When the light has been removed from sight and my wife, now conscious of my custom, has fallen silent, I scrutinize my whole day and re-measure my deeds and words; I hide nothing from myself, I pass over nothing. For why should I fear anything from my errors, since I can say: 'see that you do that no more; now I pardon you.'

4. In illa disputatione pugnacius locutus es: noli postea congredi cum imperitis; nolunt discere qui numquam didicerunt. Illum liberius admonuisti quam debebas, itaque non emendasti sed offendisti: de cetero uide, [ne] non tantum an uerum sit quod dicis, sed an ille cui dicitur ueri patiens sit: admoneri bonus gaudet, pessimus quisque rectorem asperrime patitur.

4. In that disputation you spoke more pugnaciously: do not hereafter engage with the unlearned; they are unwilling to learn who have never learned. You admonished that man more freely than you ought, and thus you did not emend but offended: for the rest see, [lest] you consider not only whether what you say is true, but whether he to whom it is said is patient of truth: to be admonished the good man rejoices, but the worst sort endures a director most harshly.

XXXVII.

37.

1. In conuiuio quorundam te sales et in dolorem tuum iacta uerba tetigerunt: uitare uulgares conuictus memento; solutior est post uinum licentia, quia ne sobriis quidem pudor est. 2. Iratum uidisti amicum tuum ostiario causidici alicuius aut diuitis quod intrantem summouerat, et ipse pro illo iratus extremo mancipio fuisti: irasceris ergo catenario cani? et hic, cum multum latrauit, obiecto cibo mansuescit.

1. At the convivium of certain people, sallies and words flung out touched you in your pain: remember to avoid vulgar company; license is looser after wine, since not even the sober have modesty. 2. You saw your friend angry at the ostiary of some advocate or rich man because he had driven him back when entering, and you yourself, on his behalf, were angry at the lowest mancipium: do you grow angry, then, at a chained dog? and he too, after much barking, is tamed when food is thrown before him.

3. Recede longius et ride! Nunc iste se aliquem putat quod custodit litigatorum turba limen obsessum; nunc ille qui intra iacet felix fortunatusque est et beati hominis iudicat ac potentis indicium difficilem ianuam: nescit durissimum esse ostium carceris. Praesume animo multa tibi esse patienda: numquis se hieme algere miratur, numquis in mari nausiare, in uia concuti?

3. Withdraw farther and laugh! Now that fellow thinks himself someone because he guards a threshold besieged by a crowd of litigants; now the one who lies within is happy and fortunate, and he judges the difficult doorway to be the sign of a blessed and powerful man: he does not know that the hardest door is the door of the prison. Presume in your mind that many things are to be suffered by you: does anyone marvel at being cold in winter, anyone to nauseate at sea, to be shaken on the road?

Fortis est animus ad quae praeparatus uenit. 4. Minus honorato loco positus irasci coepisti conuiuatori, uocatori, ipsi qui tibi praeferebatur: demens, quid interest quam lecti premas partem? honestiorem te aut turpiorem potest facere puluinus?

The spirit is strong for the things to which it comes prepared. 4. Set in a less honored place, you began to grow angry at the banquet-host, at the inviter, at the very man who was being preferred to you: madman, what does it matter which part of the couch you press? can a cushion make you more honorable or more base?

5. Non aequis quendam oculis uidisti, quia de ingenio tuo male locutus est: recipis hanc legem? Ergo te Ennius, quo non delectaris, odisset et Hortensius simultates tibi indiceret et Cicero, si derideres carmina eius, inimicus esset. Vis tu aequo animo pati candidatus suffragia?'

5. You looked upon a certain person with unfair eyes, because he spoke ill of your talent: do you accept this law? Therefore Ennius, whom you do not take delight in, would have hated you, and Hortensius would have declared feuds against you, and Cicero, if you mocked his poems, would be an enemy. Do you wish, as a candidate, to endure the suffrages with an even mind?'

XXXVIII.

38.

1. Contumeliam tibi fecit aliquis: numquid maiorem quam Diogeni philosopho Stoico, cui de ira cum maxime disserenti adulescens proteruus inspuit? Tulit hoc ille leniter et sapienter: 'non quidem' inquit 'irascor, sed dubito tamen an oporteat irasci.' 2. Quanto noster melius! qui, cum agenti causam in frontem mediam quantum poterat adtracta pingui saliua inspuisset Lentulus ille patrum nostrorum memoria factiosus et inpotens, abstersit faciem et 'adfirmabo' inquit 'omnibus, Lentule, falli eos qui te negant os habere.'

1. Someone has done you an insult: surely not a greater one than to the philosopher Diogenes the Stoic, upon whom, when he was at the very moment discoursing about anger, an insolent youth spat? He bore this mildly and wisely: “I am not indeed angry,” he said, “but I still doubt whether one ought to be angry.” 2. How much better our ! who, when Lentulus—that faction-monger and unrestrained man in the memory of our fathers—had spat, with thick saliva drawn up as much as he could, right into the middle of his forehead as he was pleading a case, wiped his face and said, “I will affirm to everyone, Lentulus, that those are mistaken who deny that you have a mouth.”

XXXIX.

39.

1. Contigit iam nobis, Nouate, bene componere animum: aut non sentit iracundiam aut superior est. Videamus quomodo alienam iram leniamus; nec enim sani esse tantum uolumus, sed sanare.

1. It has already befallen us, Novatus, to compose the mind well: either it does not feel irascibility or it is superior to it. Let us see how we may soothe another’s anger; for we wish not only to be sound, but to heal.

2. Primam iram non audebimus oratione mulcere: surda est et amens; dabimus illi spatium. Remedia in remissionibus prosunt; nec oculos tumentis temptamus uim rigentem mouendo incitaturi, nec cetera uitia dum feruent: initia morborum quies curat. 3. 'Quantulum' inquis 'prodest remedium tuum, si sua sponte desinentem iram placat!' Primum, ut citius desinat efficit; deinde custodit, ne reccidat; ipsum quoque impetum, quem non audet lenire, fallet: remouebit omnia ultionis instrumenta, simulabit iram ut tamquam adiutor et doloris comes plus auctoritatis in consiliis habeat, moras nectet et, dum maiorem poenam quaerit, praesentem differet.

2. We shall not dare to mollify the first anger by oration: it is deaf and mad; we shall give it space. Remedies are of use in remissions; nor do we try the rigid force of swollen eyes, being about to incite it by moving them, nor the other ailments while they are seething: rest cures the beginnings of diseases. 3. 'How little,' you say, 'does your remedy profit, if it placates an anger that is ceasing of its own accord!' First, it brings it about that it ceases more quickly; then it keeps watch, lest it relapse; it will also trick the very impulse which it does not dare to soothe: it will remove all the instruments of vengeance, it will simulate anger so that, as a helper and companion of the pain, it may have more authority in counsels, it will weave delays and, while it seeks a greater punishment, it will defer the present one.

4. Omni arte requiem furori dabit: si uehementior erit, aut pudorem illi cui non resistat incutiet aut metum; si infirmior, sermones inferet uel gratos uel nouos et cupiditate cognoscendi auocabit. Medicum aiunt, cum regis filiam curare deberet nec sine ferro posset, dum tumentem mammam leniter fouet, scalpellum spongea tectum induxisse: repugnasset puella remedio palam admoto, eadem, quia non expectauit, dolorem tulit. Quaedam non nisi decepta sanantur.

4. By every art he will give requiem to the fury: if it is more vehement, he will instill either shame or fear into the one who does not resist it; if weaker, he will introduce discourses either pleasing or new and will divert by the cupidity of knowing. They say that a medic, when he had to cure the king’s daughter and could not do so without iron, while he gently fomented the swollen breast, brought in a scalpel covered with a sponge: the girl would have resisted the remedy if it had been applied openly; the same, because she did not expect it, endured the pain. Certain things are not healed except when deceived.

XL.

40.

1. Alteri dices 'uide ne inimicis iracundia tua uoluptati sit', alteri 'uide ne magnitudo animi tui creditumque apud plerosque robur cadat. [alteri] Indignor mehercules et non inuenio dolendi modum, sed tempus expectandum est; dabit poenas. Serua istud in animo tuo: cum potueris, et pro mora reddes.' 2. Castigare uero irascentem et ultro obirasci incitare est: uarie adgredieris blandeque, nisi forte tanta persona eris ut possis iram comminuere, quemadmodum fecit diuus Augustus, cum cenaret apud Vedium Pollionem.

1. To one you will say, 'see lest your anger be a delight to your enemies'; to another, 'see lest the greatness of your spirit and the strength credited to you with the majority should collapse. [to another] I am indignant, by Hercules, and I do not find a measure for grieving, but time must be waited for; he will pay the penalty. Keep this in your mind: when you can, and you will render in proportion to the delay.' 2. To chastise a man who is becoming angry is to incite him to be angry in return: you will approach in various ways and gently, unless perhaps you are so great a personage that you can diminish anger, as the deified Augustus did, when he was dining at Vedius Pollio’s house.

Fregerat unus ex seruis eius crustallinum; rapi eum Vedius iussit ne uulgari quidem more periturum: murenis obici iubebatur, quas ingentis in piscina continebat. Quis non hoc illum putaret luxuriae causa facere? saeuitia erat.

One of his slaves had broken a crystal vessel; Vedius ordered him to be seized, not even to perish in the vulgar manner: he was commanded to be thrown to the moray eels, which he kept, huge, in a fishpond. Who would not have thought that he was doing this for the sake of luxury? It was savagery.

3. Euasit e manibus puer et confugit ad Caesaris pedes, nihil aliud petiturus quam ut aliter periret, ne esca fieret. Motus est nouitate crudelitatis Caesar et illum quidem mitti, crustallina autem omnia coram se frangi iussit conplerique piscinam. 4. Fuit Caesari sic castigandus amicus; bene usus est uiribus suis: 'e conuiuio rapi homines imperas et noui generis poenis lancinari?

3. The boy escaped from their hands and fled to Caesar’s feet, seeking nothing else than that he might perish otherwise, lest he become food. Moved by the novelty of the cruelty, Caesar ordered that he indeed be released, but that all the crystalware be broken before him and that the fishpond be filled up. 4. A friend was thus to be chastised by Caesar; he used his powers well: 'from a banquet you command men to be snatched away and to be lacerated by punishments of a new kind?

Si calix tuus fractus est, uiscera hominis distrahentur? Tantum tibi placebis ut ibi aliquem duci iubeas ubi Caesar est?' 5. Sic cui tantum potentiae est ut iram ex superiore loco adgredi possit, male tractet, at talem dumtaxat qualem modo rettuli, feram immanem sanguinariam, quae iam insanabilis est nisi maius aliquid extimuit.

If your cup has been broken, will a man’s viscera be torn asunder? Will you be so pleased with yourself as to order someone to be led there where Caesar is?' 5. Thus let him who has so much power that he can attack anger from a superior position deal harshly, but only with the sort of creature I have just recounted, a monstrous, bloodthirsty beast, who is now incurable unless he has dreaded something greater.

XLI.

41.

1. Pacem demus animo quam dabit praeceptorum salutarium adsidua meditatio actusque rerum boni et intenta mens ad unius honesti cupiditatem. Conscientiae satis fiat, nil in famam laboremus; sequatur uel mala, dum bene merentis. 2. 'At uulgus animosa miratur et audaces in honore sunt, placidi pro inertibus habentur.' Primo forsitan aspectu; sed simul aequalitas uitae fidem fecit non segnitiem illam animi esse sed pacem, ueneratur illos populus idem colitque.

1. Let us grant peace to the mind, which assiduous meditation on salutary precepts and the practice of good things will give, and a mind intent upon desire for the one honorable thing. Let the conscience be satisfied; let us labor nothing for reputation; let even ill repute follow, provided it be of one meriting well. 2. 'But the crowd admires the spirited, and the bold are in honor; the placid are held as inert.' Perhaps at first sight; but as soon as the evenness of life has given assurance that that is not sluggishness of spirit but peace, the same people venerates and honors them.

3. Nihil ergo habet in se utile taeter iste et hostilis adfectus, at omnia ex contrario mala, ferrum et ignes. Pudore calcato caedibus inquinauit manus, membra liberorum dispersit, nihil uacuum reliquit a scelere, non gloriae memor, non infamiae metuens, inemendabilis cum ex ira in odium occalluit.

3. Therefore that foul and hostile affect has nothing useful in itself, but, on the contrary, everything is evil—iron and fires. With shame trampled underfoot, it has befouled its hands with slaughters, it has scattered the limbs of children, it has left nothing empty of crime, mindful of no glory, fearing no infamy, incorrigible when from anger it has grown callous into hatred.

XLII.

42.

1. Careamus hoc malo purgemusque mentem et exstirpemus radicitus quae quamuis tenuia undecumque haeserint renascentur, et iram non temperemus sed ex toto remoueamus — quod enim malae rei temperamentum est? Poterimus autem, adnitamur modo. 2. Nec ulla res magis proderit quam cogitatio mortalitatis.

1. Let us be without this evil and purge the mind, and let us extirpate by the roots those things which, however slight, from whatever quarter they have fastened, will sprout again; and let us not temper anger but remove it altogether — for what tempering can there be of an evil thing? We shall be able, only let us strive. 2. Nor will anything be more profitable than the cogitation of mortality.

Sibi quisque atque alteri dicat: 'quid iuuat tamquam in aeternum genitos iras indicere et breuissimam aetatem dissipare? Quid iuuat dies quos in uoluptatem honestam inpendere licet in dolorem alicuius tormentumque transferre? Non capiunt res istae iacturam nec tempus uacat perdere.

Let each one say to himself and to another: 'What does it avail to impose anger as if born for eternity and to dissipate a most brief lifespan? What does it avail to transfer the days which it is permitted to expend on honorable pleasure into someone’s pain and torment? These matters do not admit loss, nor is there time to lose.'

3. Quid ruimus in pugnam? Quid certamina nobis arcessimus? Quid inbecillitatis obliti ingentia odia suscipimus et ad frangendum fragiles consurgimus?

3. Why do we rush into battle? Why do we summon contests upon ourselves? Why, forgetful of our infirmity, do we undertake immense hatreds and, fragile, rise up to shatter?

Iam istas inimicitias quas inplacabili gerimus animo febris aut aliquod aliud malum corporis uetabit geri; iam par acerrimum media mors dirimet. 4. Quid tumultuamur et uitam seditiosi conturbamus? stat supra caput fatum et pereuntis dies inputat propiusque ac propius accedit; istud tempus quod alienae destinas morti fortasse circa tuam est.

Already those enmities which we wage with an implacable mind a fever or some other evil of the body will forbid to be waged; already death will sunder a most fierce pair in the very midst. 4. Why do we raise a tumult and, seditious, throw life into disorder? Fate stands above the head and imputes the day of the perishing, and it comes nearer and nearer; that time which you destine for another’s death perhaps is hovering about your own.

XLIII.

43.

1. Quin potius uitam breuem colligis placidamque et tibi et ceteris praestas? Quin potius amabilem te dum uiuis omnibus, desiderabilem cum excesseris reddis? Quid illum nimis ex alto tecum agentem detrahere cupis?

1. Why not rather gather up a brief and placid life and provide it both for yourself and for the others? Why not rather render yourself amiable to all while you live, and desirable when you have departed? Why do you desire to drag down him who is dealing with you too loftily from on high?

Quid illum oblatrantem tibi, humilem quidem et contemptum sed superioribus acidum ac molestum, exterere uiribus tuis temptas? Quid seruo, quid domino, quid regi, quid clienti tuo irasceris? Sustine paulum: uenit ecce mors quae uos pares faciat.

Why do you try to grind down that one barking at you—humble indeed and despised, but acrid and troublesome to his superiors—by your own strength? Why are you angry with your slave, with your master, with the king, with your client? Endure a little: behold, death comes to make you equals.

2. Videre solemus inter matutina harenae spectacula tauri et ursi pugnam inter se conligatorum, quos, cum alter alterum uexarunt, suus confector expectat: idem facimus, aliquem nobiscum adligatum lacessimus, cum uicto uictorique finis et quidem maturus immineat. Quieti potius pacatique quantulumcumque superest exigamus; nulli cadauer nostrum iaceat inuisum. 3. Saepe rixam conclamatum in uicinia incendium soluit et interuentus ferae latronem uiatoremque diducit: conluctari cum minoribus malis non uacat, ubi metus maior apparuit.

2. We are accustomed to see among the morning spectacles of the arena a combat of a bull and a bear bound together, whom, when the one has vexed the other, their own executioner awaits: we do the same—we provoke someone bound together with us—when for both the conquered and the conqueror an end, and indeed a timely one, impends. Let us rather spend whatever little remains in quiet and pacified; let our corpse lie odious to no one. 3. Often a quarrel is dissolved by a fire cried out in the neighborhood, and the intervention of a wild beast separates the robber and the wayfarer: it is no time to wrestle with lesser evils, when a greater fear has appeared.

Quid nobis cum dimicatione et insidiis? Numquid amplius isti cui irasceris quam mortem optas? etiam te quiescente morietur.

What have we to do with combat and ambushes? Do you desire anything more for that fellow at whom you are angry than death? Even if you keep quiet, he will die.

Perdis operam, si facere uis quod futurum est. 4. "Nolo" inquis "utique occidere, sed exilio, sed ignominia, sed damno adficere." Magis ignosco ei qui uulnus inimici quam qui pusulam concupiscit; hic enim non tantum mali animi est sed pusilli. Siue de ultimis suppliciis cogitas siue de leuioribus, quantulum est temporis quo aut ille poena sua torqueatur aut tu malum gaudium ex aliena percipias!

You waste your effort, if you want to do what is going to happen. 4. "I do not wish," you say, "at any rate to kill, but to afflict with exile, with ignominy, with loss." I pardon more the one who desires the enemy’s wound than the one who longs for a pustule; for this man is not only of an evil mind but of a petty one. Whether you are thinking of the ultimate penalties or of the lighter, how little is the time during which either he is tortured by his own penalty, or you receive an evil joy from another’s suffering!

5. Iam istum spiritum expuemus. Interim, dum trahimus, dum inter homines sumus, colamus humanitatem; non timori cuiquam, non periculo simus; detrimenta iniurias, conuicia uellicationes contemnamus et magno animo breuia feramus incommoda: dum respicimus, quod aiunt, uersamusque nos, iam mortalitas aderit.'

5. We will soon spit out this breath. Meanwhile, while we drag it out, while we are among men, let us cultivate humanity; let us be a fear to no one, a danger to no one; let us contemn losses, injuries, insults, pinches, and with a great spirit bear brief incommodities: while we look back, as they say, and turn ourselves about, mortality will already be at hand.'