Terence: Adelphoe

C. SVLPICI APOLLINARIS PERIOCHA
Duos cum haberet Demea adulescentulos,
dat Micioni fratri adoptandum Aeschinum,
sed Ctesiphonem retinet. hunc citharistriae
lepore captum sub duro ac tristi patre
frater celabat Aeschinus; famam rei,
amorem in sese transferebat; denique
fidicinam lenoni eripit. uitiauerat
idem Aeschinus ciuem Atticam pauperculam
fidemque dederat hanc sibi uxorem fore.

C. SULPICIUS APOLLINARIS PERIOCHA
When Demea had two adolescent youths,
he gives Aeschinus to his brother Micio for adoption,
but keeps Ctesipho. This one, captivated by the charm of a citharist girl,
Aeschinus the brother concealed from their hard and grim father; the notoriety of the affair,
the love, he transferred onto himself; finally he snatches the lyre‑player from the pimp.
The same Aeschinus had seduced a poor Attic citizen‑girl
and had given his pledge that this one would be his wife.

Demea iurgare, grauiter ferre; mox tamen,
ut ueritas patefacta est, ducit Aeschinus
uitiatam, potitur Ctesipho citharistriam.

Demea quarrels, takes it gravely; soon, however,
as the truth was laid open, Aeschinus takes to wife the violated girl,
Ctesipho gains possession of the citharist.

PERSONAE
MICIO SENEX
DEMEA SENEX
SANNIO LENO
AESCHINVS ADVLESCENS
BACCHIS MERETRIX
PARMENO SERVOS
SYRVS SERVOS
CTESIPHO ADVLESCENS
SOSTRATA MATRONA
CANTHARA ANVS
GETA SERVOS
HEGIO SENEX
PAMPHILA VIRGO
DROMO PVER.

CHARACTERS
MICIO OLD MAN
DEMEA OLD MAN
SANNIO PIMP
AESCHINVS YOUNG MAN
BACCHIS PROSTITUTE
PARMENO SLAVE
SYRVS SLAVE
CTESIPHO YOUNG MAN
SOSTRATA MATRON
CANTHARA OLD WOMAN
GETA SLAVE
HEGIO OLD MAN
PAMPHILA MAIDEN
DROMO BOY.

PROLOGVS

PROLOGUE

Postquam poeta sensit scripturam suam
ab iniquis obseruari et aduorsarios
rapere in peiorem partem quam acturi sumus,
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
indicio de se ipse erit, uos eritis iudices,
laudin an uitio duci id factum oporteat.
Synapothnescontes Diphili comoediast:
eam Commorientes Plautus fecit fabulam.
in Graeca adulescens est, qui lenoni ieripit
meretricem in prima tabula: eum Plautus locum
reliquit integrum.

After the poet perceived that his writing was being watched by unjust men,
and that adversaries snatch it into a worse meaning than we are going to perform,
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
he himself will be evidence about himself; you will be the judges,
whether that deed ought to be taken for praise or for blame.
Synapothnescontes is Diphilus’s comedy:
Plautus made that play Commorientes.
in the Greek there is a young man, who snatches from a pimp
a courtesan in the first scene: Plautus left that place
intact.

eum nunc hic sumpsit sibi
in Adelphos, uerbum de uerbo expressum extulit.
eam nos acturi sumus nouam: pernoscite
furtumne factum existumetis an locum
reprehensum, qui praeteritus neclegentiast.
nam quod isti dicunt maliuoli, homines nobilis
hunc adiutare adsidueque una scribere:
quod illi maledictum uehemens esse existumant,
eam laudem hic ducit maxumam, quom illis placet,
qui uobis uniuorsis et populo placent,
quorum opera in bello, in otio, in negotio
suo quisque tempore usust sine superbia.

he has now here taken that for himself
into The Brothers, and has brought it out expressed word-for-word.
we are going to perform it as new: ascertain
whether you judge a theft to have been done or a passage
recovered, which was passed over through negligence.
for as to what those malicious men say, that noble men
assist him and constantly write together with him:
what they suppose to be a vehement malediction,
he counts that the greatest praise, when he pleases those
who please all of you and the people,
whose services in war, in leisure, in business
each at his own time has made use of without haughtiness.

dehinc ne exspectetis argumentum fabulae:
senes qui primi uenient, ei partem aperient,
in agendo partem ostendent. facite aequanimitas
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
poetae ad scribendum augeat industriam.

From here on, do not expect the argument of the play:
the old men who come first, they will disclose a part,
in the acting they will show a part. See to it that your equanimity
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
may augment the poet’s industry for writing.

MICIO
SENEX

MICIO
OLD MAN

Storax! non rediit hac nocte a cena Aeschinus
neque seruolorum quisquam, qui aduorsum ierant.
profecto hoc uere dicunt: si absis uspiam
atque ibi si cesses, euenire ea satius est,
quae in te uxor dicit et quae in animo cogitat
irata, quam illa quae parentes propitii.

Storax! Aeschinus did not return this night from dinner,
nor any of the slave-boys who had gone to meet him.
indeed they truly say this: if you are away somewhere,
and if you linger there, it is better that those things come to pass,
which your wife, angry, says against you and thinks in her mind,
than those which propitious parents say.

uxor, si cesses, aut te amare cogitat
aut helluari aut potare atque animo obsequi
et tibi bene esse, soli sibi quom sit male.
ego quia non rediit filius quae cogito!
quibus nunc sollicitor rebus!

A wife, if you tarry, either thinks you are in love,
or gourmandizing, or drinking and indulging your mind,
and that it is well with you, when it goes ill for herself alone.
I—because my son has not returned—what things I think!
By what matters I am now made anxious!

ne aut ille alserit
aut uspiam ceciderit ac praefregerit
aliquid. uah, quemquamne hominem in animum stituere
parare quod sit carius quam ipse est sibi!
atque ex me hic natus non est, sed fratre ex meo.

lest either he has caught a chill
or has fallen somewhere and has smashed
something. Ugh, does any human being set in his mind
to prepare something that is dearer than he himself is to himself!
and yet this one was not born from me, but from my brother.

dissimili is studiost iam inde ab adulescentia.
ego hanc clementem uitam urbanam atque otium
secutus sum et, quod fortunatum isti putant,
uxorem numquam habui. ille contra haec omnia:
ruri agere uitam, semper parce ac duriter
se habere, uxorem duxit, nati filii
duo: inde ego hunc maiorem adoptaui mihi:
eduxi a paruolo, habui, amaui pro meo;
in eo me oblecto: solum id est carum mihi.

his pursuits are dissimilar from adolescence onward.
I have followed this clement urban life and leisure,
and, what those men think fortunate,
I never had a wife. he, by contrast in all these things:
to live life in the country, to conduct himself always parsimoniously and harshly,
he married a wife; two sons were born.
after that I adopted this elder one for myself:
I reared and educated him from a little child, I held and loved him as my own;
in him I take my delight: that alone is dear to me.

ille lit item contra me habeat facio sedulo:
do, praetermitto, non necesse habeo omnia
pro meo iure agere: postremo, alii clanculum
patres quae faciunt, quae fert adulescentia,
ea ne me celet consuefeci filium.
nam qui mentiri aut fallere insuerit patrem
hau dubie tanto magis audebit ceteros.
pudore et liberalitate liberos
retinere satius esse credo quam metu.

I take pains that he likewise should feel the same toward me:
I give, I pass over; I have no need to do everything according to my right:
finally, the things which other fathers do clandestinely, the things that youth brings,
I have accustomed my son not to conceal from me.
for he who has become used to lying to or deceiving his father
without doubt will so much the more dare to do so to others.
by modesty and liberality I believe it is better to retain children
than by fear.

haec fratri mecum non conueniunt neque placent
uenit ad me saepe clamans quid agis, Micio?
quor perdis adulescentem nobis? quor amat?

these things, as to me, do not agree with my brother, nor do they please.
he comes to me often, clamoring, what are you doing, Micio?
why are you ruining the adolescent for us? why does he love?

quor potat? quor tu his rebus sumptum suggeris
uestitu nimio indulges? nimium ineptus es.
nimium ipsest durus praeter aequomque et bonum,
o et errat longe mea quidem sententia,
qui imperium credat grauius esse aut stabilius
ui quod fit, quam illud quod amicitia adiungitur.

why does he drink? why do you supply expense for these things—
do you indulge him in excessive vesture? you are too inept.
he himself is too harsh, beyond what is equitable and good,
oh, and he errs far, in my judgment indeed,
who would believe that imperium is graver or more stable
when it is made by force, than that which is joined by friendship.

mea sic est ratio et sic animum induco meum
malo coactus qui suom officium facit,
dum id rescitum iri credit, tantisper cauet:
si sperat fore clam, rursum ad ingenium redit.
ille quem beneficio adiungas ex animo facit,
studet par referre, praesens absensque idem erit.
hoc patriumst, potius consuefacere filium
sua sponte recte facere quam alieno metu:
hoc pater ac dominus interest.

Thus is my rationale, and thus I incline my mind:
he who does his duty when driven by punishment,
so long as he believes that it will be found out, meanwhile is wary;
if he hopes it will be secret, again he returns to his nature.
he whom you join by benefaction acts from the soul,
he strives to render an equal return; present and absent he will be the same.
this is paternal: rather to accustom a son
to do rightly of his own accord than by another’s fear:
this is what distinguishes a father and a master.

hoc qui nequit,
fateatur nescire imperare liberis.
sed estne hic ipsus, de quo agebam? et certe is
nescio quid tristem uideo: credo iam, ut solet
iurgabit.

he who cannot do this,
let him confess he does not know how to command children.
but is this the very one of whom i was speaking? and surely i
see him somewhat gloomy: i believe now, as he is wont,
he will scold.

saluom te aduenire, Demea,
gaudemus.

That you arrive safely, Demea,
we rejoice.

DEMEA MICIO
SENES DUO

DEMEA MICIO
TWO OLD MEN

DE. Ehem opportune: te ipsum quaerito.
MI. Quid tristis es? DE. Rogas me, ubi nobis Aeschinus
sic est, quid tristis ego sim? MI. Dixin hoc fore?

DE. Ah, timely: I’m looking for you yourself.
MI. Why are you sad? DE. You ask me, when Aeschinus for us
is thus, why I should be sad? MI. Did I not say this would be?

quid is fecit? DE. Quid ille fecerit? quem neque pudet
quicquam nec metuit quemquam neque legem putat
tenere se ullam.

What has he done? DE. What he has done? who neither is ashamed of anything
nor fears anyone nor thinks that any law holds him.

nam illa quae antehac facta sunt
omitto: modo quid dissignauit! MI. Quidnam id est?
DE. Fores ecfregit atque in aedis inruit
alienas: ipsum dominum atque omnem familiam
mulcauit usque ad mortem: eripuit mulierem
quam amabat.

for those things which were done before this
I omit: but what he has just contrived! MI. What, then, is that?
DE. He broke the doors and rushed into another’s house;
he chastised the master himself and the whole household
to the point of death; he snatched away the woman
whom he loved.

clamant omnes indignissume
factum esse. hoc aduenienti quot mihi, Micio,
dixere! in orest omni populo.

they all clamor that it has been done most unworthily.
as i was arriving, how many said this to me, Micio!
it is on the lips of all the people.

denique,
si conferendum exemplumst, non fratrem re;
uidet operam dare, ruri esse parcum ac sobrium?
nullum huius simile factum. haec quom illi, Micio,
dico, tibi dico: tu illum corrumpi sinis.

finally,
if an exemplar is to be compared, is it not his brother in reality?
does he see him give effort, to be parsimonious and sober in the country?
nothing like this deed of his. when I say these things to him, Micio,
I say them to you: you allow him to be corrupted.

MI. Homine inperito numquam quicquam iniustiust,
qui nisi quod ipse fecit nil rectum putat.
DE. Quorsum istuc? MI. Quia tu, Demea, haec male iudicas.

MI. Nothing is ever more unjust than an inexperienced man,
who thinks nothing right except what he himself has done.
DE. To what does that tend? MI. Because you, Demea, you judge these things badly.

non est flagitium, mihi crede, adulescentulum
scortari, neque potare: non est: neque fores
ecfringere. haec si ne,que ego neque tu fecimus,
non siit egestas facere nos: tu nunc tibi
id laudi ducis, quod tunc fecisti inopia.
iniuriumst: nam si esset unde id fieret,
faceremus.

it is not a disgrace, believe me, for a young adolescent
to consort with courtesans, nor to drink: it is not: nor to break
doors open. If neither I nor you did these things,
indigence did not allow us to do them: you now take
that to your laud, which then you did from want.
it is unjust: for if there were the means by which that could be done,
we would do it.

et tu illum tuom, si esses homo
sineres nunc facere, dum per aetatem licet,

and you, that boy of yours, if you were a man,
would allow him to do it now, while by age it is permitted,

potius quam, ubi te exspectatum eiecisset foras,
alieniore aetate post faceret tamen.
DE. Pro Iuppiter! tu, homo, adigis me ad insaniam.

rather than that, when, after waiting for you, he had thrown you out of doors,
he would nevertheless do it later at a more alien age.
DE. By Jupiter! you, man, drive me to insanity.

non est flagitium facere haec adulescentulum? MI. Ah,
ausculta, ne me optundas de hac re saepius.
tuom filium dedisti adoptandum mihi:
is meus est factus: siquid peccat, Demea,
mihi peccat: ego illi maxumam partem fero.

is it not a scandal for this adolescent to do these things? MI. Ah,
listen, so that you don’t batter me about this matter too often.
you gave your son to me to be adopted:
he has become mine: if he commits any fault, Demea,
he commits it against me: I bear the greatest share for him.

scortatur, potat, olet unguenta? de meo;
fores ecfregit? restituentur; discidit
uestem?

he wenches, drinks, reeks of unguents? on my dime;
he broke the doors open? they will be restored; he tore
a garment?

resarcietur. est dis gratia,
et est unde haec fiant, et adhuc non molesta sunt.
postremo aut desine aut cedo quemuis arbitrum:
te plura.

it will be mended. there is, thanks to the gods,
and there are means whence these things may be done, and as yet they are not troublesome.
finally, either stop or yield me any arbiter:
you are more in the wrong.

in hac re peccare ostendam. DE. Ei mihi!
pater esse disce ab illis qui uere sciunt.

I will show that in this matter you are at fault. DE. Ah me! learn to be a father from those who truly know.

MI. Natura tu illi pater es, consiliis ego.
DE. Tun consiliis? quicquam.. MI. Ah, si pergis, abiero.

MI. By nature you are his father; in counsel, I.
DE. You, for counsel? anything.. MI. Ah, if you proceed, I will depart.

DE. Sicine agis? MI. An ego totiens de eadem re audiam?
DE. Curaest mihi.

DE. Do you act so? MI. Am I to hear so often about the same thing?
DE. It is a concern to me.

MI. Et mihi curaest. uerum, Demea,
so curemus aequam uterque partem: tu alterum,
ego item alterum. nam curare ambos propemodum
reposcere illum est quem dedisti.

MI. And I care, too. But, Demea,
let us both care for an equal part: you the one,
I likewise the other. For to take care of both is pretty much
to demand back that one whom you gave.

DE. Ah, Micio!
MI. Mihi sic uidetur. DE. Quid istic?

DE. Ah, Micio!
MI. It seems so to me. DE. What of that?

tibi si istuc placet,
profundat perdat pereat! nihil ad me attinet.
iam si uerbum unum posthac . . MI. Rursum, Demea,
irascere?

if that pleases you,
let him pour it away, let him lose it, let him perish! it pertains nothing to me.
now if a single word hereafter . . MI. Again, Demea,
are you getting angry?

DE. An non credis? repeton quem dedi?
aegrest; alienus non sum; si obsto .. em desino.

DE. Or do you not believe? Am I to reclaim the one whom I gave?
it is grievous; I am not alien; if I stand in the way .. there, I desist.

unum uis curem? curo. et est dis gratia,
quom ita lit uolo esse est; tuos iste ipse sentiet

do you want me to take care of one thing? i take care. and thanks be to the gods,
when it is thus as i wish it to be; that very fellow will himself feel what your sons are like

posterius . . nolo in illum grauius dicere. ---
MI. Nec nil neque omnia haec sunt quae dicit; tamen
non nil molesta haec sunt mihi; sed ostendere
me aegre pati illi nolui. nam itast homo:
quom placo, aduorsor sedulo et deterreo,
tamen uix humane patitur; uerum si augeam
aut etiam adiutor sim eius iracundiae,
insaniam profecto cum illo.

later . . I do not wish to speak more gravely against him. ---
MI. Neither nothing nor everything are these things he says; nevertheless
these things are not without annoyance to me; but I did not wish to show
him that I bear it with difficulty. For such is the man:
when I placate him, I oppose him sedulously and deter him,
yet he scarcely endures it humanely; but if I should augment it
or even be an abettor of his irascibility,
I should assuredly go insane along with him.

etsi Aeschinus
non nullam in hac re nobis facit iniuriam.
quam hic non amauit meretricem? aut quoi non dedit
aliquid?

even though Aeschinus
does us no small injustice in this matter.
what courtesan has this man not loved? or to whom has he not given
something?

postremo nuper (credo iam omnium
taedebat) dixit uelle uxorem ducere.
sperabam iam deferuisse adulescentiam:
gaudebam. ecce autem de integro!

finally recently (I think by now it was wearisome to everyone)
he said he wanted to marry a wife.
I was hoping that adolescence had by now cooled off:
I was rejoicing. Look then—afresh all over again!

nisi quidquid est
uolo scire atque hominem conuenire, si apud forumst.

but whatever it is
I want to know and to meet the man, if he is at the forum.

SANNIO BACCHIS AESCERNVS
LENO MERETRlX ADVLESCENS

SANNIO BACCHIS AESCERNVS
PIMP COURTESAN ADOLESCENT

PARMENO
SERVOS

PARMENO
SLAVE

SA. Obsecro, populares, ferte misero atque innocenti auxilium:
subuenite inopi. AE. Otiose nunciam ilico hic consiste.
quid respectas?

SA. I beg you, fellow citizens, bring help to a wretched and innocent man:
come to the aid of the needy. AE. Take it easy now; stand right here on the spot.
what are you looking back at?

nil periclist: numquam, dum ego adero, hic te tanget.
SA. Ego istam inuitis omnibus. AE. Quamquamst scelestus, non committet hodie umquam iterum ut uapulet.

no peril: never, while I am here, will this man touch you.
SA. I will have that girl, against everyone’s will. AE. Although he is a scoundrel, he will not bring it about today ever again that he get a thrashing.

SA. Aesehine, audi, ne te ignarum fuisse dicas meorum morum,
leno ego sum. AE. Scio. SA. At ita, ut usquam fuit fide quisquam optuma.

SA. Aesehine, listen, so that you not say you were ignorant of my mores;
I am a pimp. AE. I know. SA. But such a one, as ever there was, with the very best good faith.

tu quod te posterius purges, hanc iniuriam mihi nolle

as for you, because you clear yourself later, do not wish this injury to me

factam esse, huius non faciam. crede hoc, ego meum ius persequar:
neque tu uerbis solues umquam, quod mihi re male feceris.
noui ego uostra haec nollem factum: ius iurandum iniuria hae
te esse indignum dabitur, quom ego indignis sim acceptus modis.

that it has been done, I will not make light of this. Believe this: I will pursue my right:
nor will you ever loosen by words what you have done ill to me in deed.
I know these things of yours; I would that it had not been done: an oath will be exacted that, by this injury, you are unworthy, since I have been treated in unworthy modes.

AE. Abi prae strenue ac fores aperi. SA. Ceterum hoc nihili facis?
AE. f intro nunciam tu. SA. Enim non sinam.

AE. Go on ahead strenuously and open the doors. SA. But do you value this at nothing?
AE. Get inside now at once, you. SA. Indeed, I will not allow it.

AE. Accede illuc, Parmeno:
nimium istoc abisti: hic propter hunc adsiste: em sic uolo.
caue nunciam oculos a meis quoquam oculis demoueas tuos,
ne mora sit, si innuerim, quin pugnus continuo in mala haereat.
SA. Istuc uolo ego me ipsum experiri.

AE. Step over there, Parmeno:
you have gone too far that way: stand here next to this man: look, so I want it.
be careful now not to move your eyes anywhere away from my eyes,
so there is no delay, if I give a sign, but that a fist at once sticks in his jaws.
SA. That I want to try out myself.

AE. Em serua: omitte mulierem!
SA. O indignum facinus! AE Nisi caues, geminabit.

AE. There—hold fast: let the woman go!
SA. O outrageous deed! AE Unless you look out, he will double it.

SA. Ei misero mihi!
AE. Non innueram; uerum in istam partem potius peccato tamen.
i nunciam---SA. Quid hoc rei est?

SA. Oh, wretched me!
AE. I had not given the nod; but nevertheless it is better to have sinned in that direction.
go now at once---SA. What is this business?

regnumne, Aesehine, hic tu possides?
AE. Si possiderem, ornatus esses ex tuis uirtutibus.
SA. Quid tibi rei mecumst?

Do you possess a kingdom here, Aeschinus?
AE. If I did possess one, you would be adorned from your own virtues.
SA. What business have you with me?

AE. NiL SA. Quid? nostin qui sim? AE. Non desidero.

AE. Nothing SA. What? do you know who I am? AE. I do not desire.

SA. Tetigin tui quicquam? AE. Si attigisses, ferres infortunium.
SA. Qui tibi meam magis licet habere, pro qua ego argentum dedi?

SA. Have I touched anything of yours? AE. If you had laid a hand on it, you would be bearing ill-fortune.
SA. How is it that you are more permitted to have what is mine, the one for whom I gave silver?

responde. AE. Ante aedes non fecisse erit melius hic conuitium:
nam si molestus pergis esse, iam intro abripiere atque ibi
usque ad necem operiere loris. SA. Loris liber?

responde. AE. Before the house, it will be better not to have made reviling here:
for if you persist in being molest, right now you will be snatched inside, and there
you will be covered with thongs up to death. SA. A free man—with thongs?

AE. Sic erit.
SA. O hominem inpurum! hicin libertatem aiunt esse aequam omnibus?

AE. So it will be.
SA. O impure man! Is liberty here said to be equal to all?

AE. Si satis iam debacchatus es, leno, audi si uis nunciam.
SA. Egon autem debacchatus sum an tu? AE. Mitte ista atque ad rem redi.
SA. Quam rem?

AE. If you have raved enough now, pimp, listen, if you wish, now then.
SA. Am I the one who has raved, or you? AE. Drop that and return to the point.
SA. What matter?

quo redeam? AE. Iamne me uis dicere id quod ad te attinet?
SA. Cupio, aequi modo aliquid.

Where am I to return? AE. Do you now want me to say that which pertains to you?
SA. I desire it, provided only something equitable.

AE. Vah, leno iniqua me non uolt loqui!
SA. Leno sum, pernicies communis, fateor, adulescentium,
periurus, pestis: tamen tibi a me nulla ortast iniuria.
AE. Nam hercle etiam hoc restat.

AE. Bah, the pimp does not want me to speak iniquitous things!
SA. I am a pimp, the common pernicious ruin, I confess, of adolescents,
a perjurer, a pest: yet no injury to you has arisen from me.
AE. For by Hercules, this too remains.

SA. Illuc quaeso redi, quo coepisti, Aeschine.
AE. Minis uiginti tu illam emisti (quae res tibi uortat male):
argenti tantum dabitur. SA. Quid?

SA. Please go back there, to where you began, Aeschinus.
AE. You bought that girl for twenty minae (may that matter turn out ill for you): only that amount of silver will be given.
SA. What?

si ego tIbi illam nolo uendere,
coges me? AE. Minume. SA. Namque id metui. AE. Neque uendundam censeo,
quae liberast: nam ego liberali illam adsero causa manu.

if I do not wish to sell her to you,
will you compel me? AE. Not at all. SA. For that I feared. AE. Nor do I judge her to be sold,
she who is free: for I assert her as free by the hand, on a cause of liberty.

nunc uide, utrum uis? argentum accipere an causam meditari tuam?
delibera hoc, dum ego redeo, leno.---SA. Pro supreme Iuppiter,
minume miror qui insanire occipiunt ex iniuria.

now see, which do you wish? to receive the silver or to meditate your case?
deliberate this, while I return, pander.---SA. O supreme Jupiter,
by no means do I marvel at those who begin to go insane from injury.

domi me arripuit, uerberauit: me inuito abduxit meam.

at home he seized me, he flogged me: against my will he abducted my girl.

ob malefacta haec tantidem emptam postulat sibi tradier.
uerum enim quando bene promeruit, fiat: suom ius postulat.
age iam cupio, si modo argentum reddat.

on account of these malefactions he demands that she, purchased for the same amount, be delivered to him.
indeed, since he has well merited, let it be done: he demands his own right.
come now, i am eager, if only he render back the silver.

sed ego hoc hariolor:
ubi me dixero dare tanti, testis faciet ilico,
so uendidisse me, de argento somnium: mox: cras redi.
id quoque, si modo reddat, possum ferre, quamquam iniuriumst.
uerum cogito id quod res est: quando eum quaestum occeperis,
accipiunda et mussitanda iniuria adulescentiumst.

but I divine this:
when I have said that I will give that much, he will straightway produce a witness
that he sold to me—about the silver, a dream: soon: come back tomorrow.
that too, if only he would pay back, I can bear, although it is injurious.
but I consider what the reality is: whenever you have undertaken that business,
the injury of adolescents must be accepted and hushed up.

sed nemo dabit: frustra ego mecum hanc rationem deputo.

but no one will give: in vain I compute this account with myself.

SYRVS SANNIO
SERVOS LENO

SYRUS SANNIO
SLAVE PANDER

SY. Tace, egomet conueniam ipsum: cupide accipiat iam faxo ac bene
dicat secum etiam esse actum. quid istuc, Sannio, est quod te audio
nescio quid concertasse cum ero? SA. Numquam uidi iniquius
certationem comparatam, quam quae hodie inter nos fuit:
ego uapulando, ille uerberando, usque ambo defessisumus.

SY. Be silent; I myself will meet him: I’ll see to it that he now receives it eagerly and says to himself that it has been well handled for him too.
What’s that, Sannio, that I hear you’ve, I don’t know, had some sort of contention with the master?
SA. Never have I seen a contest more iniquitously matched than the one that was today between us:
I by being beaten, he by doing the beating—right through, both of us were worn out.

SY. Tua culpa. SA. Quid facerem? SY. Adulescenti morem gestum oportuit.

SY. Your fault. SA. What was I to do? SY. You ought to have humored the young man.

SA. Qui potui melius, qui hodie usque os praebui? SY. Age, scis quid loquar?
pecuniam in loco neclegere maxumum interdumst lucrum.

SA. How could I have done better, I who today kept offering my face? SY. Come, do you know what I’m saying? to neglect money in its place is sometimes the greatest lucre.

SA. Hui!
SY: Metuisti, si nunc de tuo iure concessisses paululum,
o adulescenti esses morigeratus, hominum homo stultissume,
ne non tibi istuc faeneraret. SA. Ego spem pretio non emo.

SA. Ugh!
SY: You were afraid that, if just now you had conceded a little of your right, O that you would have been compliant to the adolescent, you most foolish man of men, that that would not have yielded you interest. SA. I do not buy hope at a price.

SY. Numquam rem facies: abi, inescare nescis homines, Sannio.
SA. Credo istuc melius esse: uerum ego numquam adeo astutus fui,
quin quidquid possem mallem auferre potius in praesentia.
SY. Noui tuom animum: quasi tanti umquam tibi sint uiginti minae
dum huic obsequare.

SY. You’ll never pull it off: be off—you don’t know how to bait men, Sannio.
SA. I believe that is better; but I have never been so astute
as not to prefer, for the present, to carry off whatever I could.
SY. I know your mind: as though twenty minas were ever worth so much to you,
so long as you be obsequious to this fellow.

praeterea autem te a;unt proficisci Cyprum, SA. Hem!
SY. coemisse hinc quae illuc ueheres multa, nauem conductam: hoc scio,
animus tibi pendet. ubi illim ut spero redieris, tum tu hoc ages.

moreover, they say you are setting out to Cyprus, SA. Eh!
SY. that you have bought up here many things to carry thither, a ship chartered: this I know—your mind hangs in suspense. when from there, as I hope, you have returned, then you will attend to this.

SA. Nusquam pedem. perii hercle: hac illi spe hoc inceperunt. SY. Timet:
inieci scrupulum homini.

SA. Not a step. I’m ruined, by Hercules! On this hope they began this. SY. He’s afraid:
I have cast a scruple into the man.

SA. O scelera: illud uide,
ut in ipso articulo oppressit. emptae mulieres
complures et item hinc alia quae porto Cyprum.
nisi eo ad mercatum uenio, damnum maxumumst.

SA. Oh, the villainy—look at that,
how he has oppressed me at the very critical moment. Several purchased women,
and likewise other things from here which I am carrying to Cyprus.
unless I get there to market, it is the greatest loss.

nunc si hoc omitto ac tum agam ubi illinc rediero,
nihil est; refrixerit res: nunc demum uenis?
quor passus? ubi eras?

now, if I omit this and then act when I have returned from there,
it’s nothing; the matter will have cooled off: “now at last you’re coming?
why did you allow it? where were you?”

ut sit satius perdere
quam hic nunc manere tam diu aut tum persequi.
SY. Iamne enumerasti id quod ad te rediturum putes?

that it is more advisable to lose it
than to remain here now so long or then to pursue it.
SY. Have you already enumerated that which you think will return to you?

SA. Hocine illo dignumst? hocine incipere Aeschinum,
per oppressionem ut hanc mi eripere postulet!
SY. Labascit.

SA. Is this worthy of him? For Aeschinus to begin like this,
by oppression that he should demand to snatch her from me!
SY. He is weakening.

unum hoc habeo: uide si satis placet:
potius quam uenias in periclum, Sannio,
seruesne an perdas totum, diuiduom face.
minas decem conradet alicunde. SA. Ei mihi,
etiam de sorte nunc uenio in dubium miser?

i have this one thing: see if it pleases enough:
rather than that you come into peril, Sannio,
whether you preserve or lose the whole, make it divided.
he will scrape together ten minas from somewhere. SA. Alas for me,
do I, wretch, now even come into doubt about the principal sum?

pudet nihil? omnis dentis labefecit mihi,
praeterea colaphis tuber est totum caput:
etiam insuper defrudet? nusquam abeo.

is he ashamed of nothing? he has loosened all my teeth for me,
besides, with blows my whole head is one great swelling:
and on top of that will he defraud me as well? i am not going away.

SY. Vt lubet:
numquid uis quin abeam? SA. Immo hercle hoc quaeso, Syre
utut haec sunt facta, potius quam lites sequar
meum mihi reddatur, saltem quanti emptast. Syre,
scio te antehac non esse usum amicitia mea:
memorem me dices esse et gratum.

SY. As you please:
anything you want before I go? SA. Nay indeed, by Hercules, this I beg, Syrus—
however these things have been done, rather than that I follow litigation,
let what is mine be rendered back to me, at least for as much as it was bought. Syrus,
I know that heretofore you have not used my friendship:
you will say that I am mindful and grateful.

SY. Sedulo
faciam. sed Ctesiphonem uideo: laetus est
de amica. SA. Quid quod te oro?

SY. Diligently
I will do it. but I see Ctesipho: he is glad
about the girlfriend. SA. What about what I ask you?

SY. Paulisper mane.

SY. Wait a moment.

CTESIPHO SANNIO SYRVS
ADVLESCENS LENO SERVOS

CTESIPHO SANNIO SYRUS
ADOLESCENT PANDER SLAVE

CT. Abs quiuis homine, quomst opus, beneficium accipere gaudeas:
uerum enim uero id demum iuuat, si quem aequomst facere is bene facit.
o frater frater, quid ego nunc te laudem? satis certo scio:
numquam ita magnifice quicquam dicam, id uirtus quin superet tua.

CT. From any man, when there is need, you may rejoice to receive a benefit;
but indeed in very truth that alone pleases, if the one whom it is equitable should do it is the one who does good.
O brother, brother, how shall I now praise you? I know quite certainly:
never shall I say anything so magnificently that your virtue will not surpass it.

itaque unam hanc rem me habere praeter alios praecipuam arbitror
fratrem homini nemini esse primarum artium magis principem.
SY. O Ctesipho. CT. O Syre, Aeschinus ubist?

and so I judge that I possess this one thing as preeminent beyond others:
that no man has a brother more principal in the foremost arts.
SY. O Ctesipho. CT. O Syrus, where is Aeschinus?

SY. Ellum, te exspectat domi. CT. Hem.
SY. Quid est?

SY. There he is, he is waiting for you at home. CT. Ha.
SY. What is it?

CT. Quid sit? opera illius, Syre, nunc uiuo: festiuom caput,
qui quom omnis res sibi post putarit esse prae meo commodo,
maledicta, famam, meum laborem et peccatum in se transtulit;
nil pote supra. sed quid foris crepuit?

What is it? By his efforts, Syrus, I now live: what a delightful fellow, who, when he considered that all his own concerns should come after my advantage, shifted the curses, the infamy, my labor and the fault onto himself; nothing could surpass that. But what creaked outside?

SY. Mane mane ipse exit foras.

SY. Wait, wait, he himself is coming out.

AESCHINVS CTESIPEO SYRVS SANNIO
ADVLESCENTES DVO SERVOS LENO

AESCHINVS CTESIPEO SYRUS SANNIO
TWO ADOLESCENTS SLAVES PANDER

AE. Vbi est ille sacrilegus? SA. Me quaerit. numquidnam ecfert?

AE. Where is that sacrilegious fellow? SA. He is looking for me. Is he by any chance carrying anything out?

occidi:
nil uideo. AE. Ehem opportune: te ipsum quaero. quid fit, Ctesipho?

I am slain:
I see nothing. AE. Ahem, opportune: I am seeking you yourself. What is happening, Ctesipho?

in tutost omnis res: omitte uero tristitiem tuam.
CT. Ego illam hercle facile omitto, quiquidem te habeam fratrem: o mi Aeschine,
o mi germane! ah uereor coram in os te laudare amplius,
ne id adsentandi magis quam quo habeam gratum facere existumes.

everything is in safety: but lay aside your sadness.
CT. I, by Hercules, easily lay that aside, since indeed I have you as a brother: O my Aeschinus,
O my brother-german! ah, I fear to praise you further to your face,
lest you suppose it to be assentation rather than that I do it out of gratitude.

AE. Age inepte, quasi nunc non norimus nos inter nos, Ctesipho.
sed hoc mihi dolet, nos sero rescisse et rem paene in eum locum
redisse, ut si omnes cuperent tibi nil possent auxiliarier.
o CT. Pudebat.

AE. Come now, inept one, as though we did not know one another by now, Ctesipho.
but this pains me: that we learned too late and that the matter has almost reverted to such a point
that, even if all wished it, they could do nothing to assist you.
o CT. I was ashamed.

AE. Ah, stultitiast istaec, non pudor: tam ob paruolam
rem paene e patria! turpe dictu. deos quaeso ut istaec prohibeant.

AE. Ah, that is foolishness, not shame: for so tiny a matter
almost out of the fatherland! shameful to say. I pray the gods that they forbid this.

CT. Peccaui. AE. Quid ait t;andem nobis Sannio? SY. Iam mitis est.

CT. I have done wrong. AE. What does Sannio say to us, at last? SY. He is mild now.

AE. Ego ad forum ibo, ut hunc absoluam: tu i intro ad illam, Ctesipho.
SA. Syre, insta. SY. Eamus: namque hic properat in Cyprum.

AE. I will go to the forum, to have this man absolved; you, go inside to her, Ctesipho.
SA. Syrus, press on. SY. Let us go: for indeed this fellow hastens to Cyprus.

SA. Non tam quidem
quam uis: et iam maneo otiosus hic. SY. Reddetur: ne time.
SA. At ut omne reddat.

SA. Not so much indeed
as you wish: and now I remain at leisure here. SY. It will be rendered: do not fear.
SA. But see that he render all.

SY. Omne reddet: tace modo ac sequere hac. SA. Sequor.---
CT. Heus heus, Syre. SY. Em, quid est?

SY. He will pay back everything; just be silent and follow this way. SA. I follow.---
CT. Hey, hey, Syrus. SY. Look, what is it?

CT. Obsecro te hercle, hominem istum inpurissumum
quam primum absoluitote, ue, si magis irritatus siet,
aliqua hoc permanet ad patrem atque ego tum perpetuo perierim.
SY. Non fiet, bono animo es: tu cum illa te oblecta intus interim
et lectulos iube sterni nobis et parari cetera.
ego iam transacta re conuortam me domum cum opsonio.

CT. I beg you, by Hercules, that most impure man
absolve as soon as possible; or, if he should be more irritated,
somehow this will make its way to the father, and then I will have perished forever.
SY. It will not happen; take heart: amuse yourself with her inside meanwhile,
and order the little couches to be spread for us and the rest to be prepared.
I, once the matter is transacted, will turn back home with the provisions.

CT. Ita, quaeso: quando hoc bene successit, hilare hunc sumamus diem.

CT. Yes, please: since this has succeeded well, let us spend this day cheerfully.

SOSTRATA CANTHARA
MATRONA ANVS

SOSTRATA CANTHARA
MATRON OLD WOMAN

SO. Obsecro, mea nutrix, quid nunc fiet? CA. Quid fiat rogas?
recte edepol, spero.

SO. I beseech you, my nurse, what will happen now? CA. You ask what will happen? All right, by Pollux, I hope.

SO. Modo dolores, mea tu, occipiunt primulum.
CA. Iam nunc times? quasi numquam adfueris, numquam tute pepereris!

SO. Just now the pains, my dear, are just beginning a little.
CA. Are you already afraid? As if you had never been present, never yourself given birth!

SO. Heu me miseram! habeo neminem,
solae sumus: Geta autem hic non adest, qui arcessat Aeschinum.
CA. Pol is quidem iam hic aderit: nam numquam unum intermittit diem,
quin semper ueniat.

SO. Alas, miserable me! I have no one,
we are alone: but Geta is not here, who might summon Aeschinus.
CA. By Pollux, he indeed will be here now: for he never intermits a single day,
without always coming.

SO. Solus mearum miseriarumst remedium.
CA. E re nata melius fieri hau potuit quam factumst, era,
quando uitium oblatumst, quod ad illum attinet potissumum,
talem, tali ingenio atque animo, natum ex tanta familia.
SO. Ita pol res est ut dicis: saluos nobis deos quaeso ut siet.

SO. He alone is the remedy of my miseries.
CA. Under the matter as born, it could not have been done better than it has been done, mistress,
since a fault has occurred, which pertains most especially to him,
such a one, of such ingenium and spirit, born from so great a family.
SO. So, by Pollux, the matter is as you say: I pray the gods that he may be safe for us.

GETA SOSTRATA CANTHARA
SERVOS MATRONA ANVS

GETA SOSTRATA CANTHARA
SLAVE MATRON OLD WOMAN

GE. Nunc illud est, quom, si omnia omnes sua consilia conferant
atque huic malo salutem quaerant, auxili nihil adferant,
quod mihique eraeque filiaeque erilist. uae misero mihi!
tot res repente circumuallant se, unde emergi non potest:
uis egestas iniustitia solitudo infamia.

GE. Now it is that time when, if everyone were to bring together all their own counsels
and seek salvation for this evil, they would bring no aid,
which is for me and for the mistress and for the master’s daughter. Woe to miserable me!
so many things suddenly hem me in, from which one cannot emerge:
violence, poverty, injustice, solitude, infamy.

hocine saeclum! o scelera, o genera sacrilega, o hominem inpium,
SO. Me miseram, quidnam est quod sic uideo timidum et properantem Getam?
GE. quem neque fides neque ius iurandum neque illum misericordia
repressit neque reflexit neque quod partus instabat prope,

Is this the age! O crimes, O sacrilegious kinds, O impious man,
SO. Wretched me, what is it, that I see Geta so fearful and hurrying thus?
GE. whom neither faith nor a sworn oath nor mercy toward that man
restrained nor turned back, nor that childbirth was pressing near,

o quoi miserae indigne per uim uitium optulerat. SO. Non intellego
satis quae loquitur. CA. Propius obsecro accedamus, Sostrata.

O the one to whom he had shamefully, by force, inflicted a violation upon the wretched girl. SO. I do not quite understand what he is saying.
CA. Let us come nearer, I beg, Sostrata.

GE. Ah
me miserum! uix compos sum animi, ita ardeo iracundia.
nihil est quod malim quam illam totam familiam dari mi obuiam,
ut ego hanc iram in eos euomam omnem, dum aegritudo haec est recens.

GE. Ah
miserable me! I am scarcely in control of my mind, so I burn with irascibility.
There is nothing I would rather than for that whole family to be given to meet me,
that I may vomit out all this ire upon them, while this grief is recent.

satis mi id habeam supplici.
seni animam primum exstinguerem ipsi, qui illud produxit scelus:
tum autem Syrum inpulsorem, uah, quibus illum lacerarem modis!
sublimen medium arriperem et capite pronum in terra statuerem, ut cerebro dispergat uiam.

That would be enough for me as punishment.
first I would extinguish the life of the old man himself, who brought forth that crime:
then indeed Syrus the instigator—ugh—by what modes I would lacerate him!
I would seize him aloft by the middle and set him headlong on the ground, so that with his brain he might strew the way.

ao adulescenti ipsi eriperem oculost posthac praecipitem darem.
ceteros ruerem agerem raperem tunderem et prosternerem.
sed cesso eram hoc malo inpertire propere?

ah, from the adolescent himself I would tear out his eyes; after that I would hurl him headlong.
the rest I would rush at, drive, snatch, beat, and lay low.
but do I delay to impart this evil promptly?

SO. Reuocemus. Geta! GE. Hem,
quisquis es, sine me. SO. Ego sum Sostrata.

SO. Let us call him back. Geta! GE. Eh,
whoever you are, leave me alone. SO. I am Sostrata.

GE. Vbi east? te ipsam quaerito,
te ex:peto: oppido opportune te optulisti mi obuiam.
era . . SO. Quid est?

GE. Where is she? I am looking for you yourself,
I seek you: quite opportunely you have presented yourself to meet me for me.
mistress . . SO. What is it?

quid trepidas? GE. Ei mihi. CA. Quid festinas, mi Geta?

why are you flustered? GE. Alas for me. CA. Why do you hasten, my Geta?

animam recipe. GE. Prorsus SO. Quid istuc prorsus ergost? GE. periimus.

recover your breath. GE. Absolutely SO. What is that 'absolutely,' then? GE. We perish.

SO. Eloquere ergo, te obsecro, quid actumst? GE. Iam SO. Quid iam, Geta?
GE . Aeschinus SO. Quid is ergo?

SO. Speak out then, I beseech you, what has been done? GE. Now— SO. What now, Geta?
GE . Aeschinus— SO. What of him, then?

GE. alienus est ab nostra familia. SO. Hem,
perii. qua re? GE. Amare occepit aliam.

GE. He is estranged from our household. SO. Alas,
I am ruined. For what reason? GE. He has begun to love another.

SO. Vae miserae mihi!
GE. Neque id occulte fert, a lenone ipsus eripuit palam.
SO. Satin hoc certumst?

SO. Woe to wretched me!
GE. Nor does he keep it hidden; he himself snatched her from the pimp openly.
SO. Are you quite sure of this?

GE. Certum: hisce oculis egomet uidi, Sostrata. SO. Ah
me miseram! quid iam credas?

GE. Certain: with these eyes I myself saw it, Sostrata. SO. Ah
wretched me! what now are you to believe?

aut quoi credas? nostrumne Aeschinum!
nostram omnium uitam, in quo nostrae spes opesque omnes sitae!

or whom would you credit? our Aeschinus!
the life of us all, in whom all our hopes and resources are situated!

qui se sine hac iurabat unum numquam uicturum diem!
qui se in sui gremio positurum puerum dicebat patris!
ita obsecraturum, ut liceret hanc sibi uxorem ducere!

who swore that he would never live one day without this woman!
who said that he would place the boy in the lap of his father!
and that he would beseech so, that it be permitted him to take this woman as wife!

GE. Era, lacrumas mitte ac potius quod ad hanc rem opus est porro prospice:
patiamurne an narremus quoipiam? CA. Au au, mi homo, sanun es?
an hoc proferendum tibi uidetur usquam? GE. Miquidem non placet.

GE. Mistress, send away the tears and rather look ahead to what is needed for this matter henceforth: shall we put up with it, or shall we tell it to someone? CA. Oh, oh, my man, are you sane? Or does it seem to you that this should be brought forth anywhere? GE. For my part, it does not please me.

iam primum illum alieno animo a nobis esse res ipsa indicat.
nunc si hoc palam proferimus, ille infitias ibit, sat scio:
tua fama et gnatae uita in dubium ueniet. tum si maxume
fateatur, quom amet aliam, non est utile hanc illi dari.

now first of all the thing itself indicates that he is of an alien mind toward us.
now if we proffer this openly, he will go into denials, I know well enough:
your fame and your daughter’s life will come into doubt. then even if to the utmost
he should confess, since he loves another, it is not utile that this one be given to him.

quapropter quoquo pacto tacitost opus. SO. Ah minume gentium:
non faciam. GE. Quid ages?

wherefore, by whatever means, there is need that it be kept quiet. SO. Ah, by no means in the world:
I will not do it. GE. What will you do?

SO. Proferam. CA. Hem, mea Sostrata, uide quam rem agas.
SO. Peiore res loco non potis est esse quam in quo nunc sitast.

SO. I will bring it forth. CA. Ha, my Sostrata, see what matter you are about.
SO. The matter cannot be in a worse position than that in which it now is situated.

primum indotatast: tum praeterea, quae secunda ei dos erat,
periit: nuptum pro uirgine dari non potest. hoc relicuomst:
si infitias ibit, testis mecum est anulus quem amiserat.
postremo quando ego conscia mihi sum, a me culpam esse hanc procul,
neque pretium neque rem ullam intercessisse illa aut me indignam, Geta,
experiar.

first she is undowered: then besides, what was her second dowry has perished:
she cannot be given in marriage as a maiden. this is what remains:
if he goes into denial, I have as witness with me the ring which she had lost.
finally, since I am conscious that this fault is far from me,
and that neither price nor any matter has intervened unworthy of her or of me, Geta,
I will make the attempt.

GE. Quid istic? cedo, ut melius dicis. SO. Tu quantum potis
abi atque Hegioni cognato huius rem enarrato omnem ordine:
nam is nostro Simulo fuit summus et nos coluit maxume.

GE. What of it? Come on, since you put it better. SO. You, as far as you can,
go off and to Hegio, her kinsman, narrate the whole matter in order:
for he was a most intimate friend to our Simulus, and he honored us most highly.

GE. Nam hercle alius nemo respicit nos. SO. Propera tu, mea Canthara,
curre, obstetricem arcesse, ut quom opus sit ne in mora nobis siet.

GE. For, by Hercules, no one else has regard for us. SO. Hurry, my Canthara,
run, fetch the midwife, so that, when there is need, she may not be in delay for us.

DEMEA SYRVS
SENEX SERVOS

DEMEA SYRUS
OLD MAN SLAVE

DE. Disperii: Ctesiphonem audiui filium
una adfuisse in raptione cum Aeschino.
id misero restat mihi mali, si illum potest,
qui aliquoi reist etiam, eum ad nequitiem adducere.
ubi ego illum quaeram?

DE. I am undone: I have heard that my son Ctesipho was present together in the abduction with Aeschinus.
that remains to me, in my misery, of harm: that, if he can, he even leads that one—who is still of use to someone—into knavery.
where am I to seek him?

credo abductum in ganeum
aliquo: persuasit ille inpurus, sat scio.
sed eccum Syrum ire uideo: iam hinc scibo ubi siet.
atqui hercle hic de grege illost: si me senserit
eum quaeritare, numquam dicet carnufex.

i believe him abducted into some cookshop
somewhere: that impure fellow persuaded him, i know full well.
but look, i see Syrus going: now from here i’ll find out where he is.
and yet, by Hercules, this one is of that gang: if he notices me
searching for him, that executioner will never tell.

o non ostendam id me uelle. SY. Omnem rem modo seni
quo pacto haberet ordine enarrauimus.
nil quicquam uidi laetius.

Oh, I will not show that I want it. SY. Just now we explained to the old man the whole matter, in what manner it stood, in order.
I have seen nothing at all happier.

DE. Pro Iuppiter,
hominis stultitiam! SY. Conlaudauit filium;
mihi, qui id dedissem consilium, egit gratias.
DE. Disrumpor.

DE. By Jupiter,
the man's stupidity! SY. He highly commended his son;
to me, who had given that counsel, he gave thanks.
DE. I am bursting.

SY. Argentum adnumerauit ilico;
dedit praeterea in sumptum dimidium minae:
id distributum sanest ex sententia. DE. Em
huic mandes, siquid recte curatum uelis!
SY. Ehem Demea, haud aspex:eram te; quid agitur?

SY. He counted out the silver on the spot;
he gave, besides, for expenses, half a mina:
that has been distributed, to be sure, according to plan. DE. There—
to this man you’d entrust it, if you want anything cared for rightly!
SY. Ahem, Demea, I had not caught sight of you; what’s going on?

DE. Quid agatur? uostram nequeo mirari satis
rationem. SY. Est hercle inepta, ne dicam dolo,
absurda.

DE. What is going on? I cannot marvel enough at your plan.
SY. By Hercules, it is inept— not to say deceitful—
absurd.

piscis ceteros purga, Dromo;
gongrum istum maxumum in aqua sinito ludere
tantisper; ubi ego rediero, exossabitur;
prius nolo. DE. Haecin flagitia! SY. Miquidem non placent,
et clamo saepe.

clean the other fish, Dromo;
let that very large conger-eel play in the water
for the time being; when I have returned, it will be deboned;
I do not want it earlier. DE. These flagitious deeds! SY. For my part they do not please me,
and I shout often.

salsamenta haec, Stephanio,
fac macerentur pulcre. DE. Di uostram fidem!
utrum studione id sibi habet an laudi putat
fore, si perdiderit gnatum?

these pickled things, Stephanio,
see that they be macerated nicely. DE. Gods, your good faith!
does he count that to himself as zeal, or does he think it will be for praise
if he destroys his son?

uae misero mihi!
uidere uideor iam diem illum, quom hinc egens
profugiet aliquo militatum. SY. O Demea,
istuc est sapere, non quod ante pedes modost
uidere, sed etiam illa quae futura sunt
prospicere.

woe to wretched me!
I seem to see already that day, when, needy, he will flee from here somewhere to serve as a soldier. SY. O Demea,
that is to be wise, not to see only what is before one’s feet,
but also to foresee those things which are going to be.

DE. Quid? istaec iam penes uos psaltriast?
SY. Ellam intus.

DE. What? Is that harp-girl already in your house?
SY. There she is inside.

DE. Eho, an domist habiturus? SY. Credo, ut est
dementia. DE. Haecin fieri!

DE. Hey, is he going to be living at home? SY. I suppose so, given his
madness. DE. That this should happen!

SY. Inepta lenitas
patris et facilitas praua. DE. Fratris me quidem
pudet pigetque. SY. Nimium inter uos, Demea,
(non quia ades praesens dico hoc) pernimium interest.

SY. Inept lenity of the father and a perverse facility.
DE. Of my brother I am indeed ashamed and vexed.
SY. There is too much between you, Demea (I do not say this because you are present), far too much difference.

tu quantusquantus mi nisi sapientia es,
ille somnium. sineres uero illum tu tuom
facere haec? DE. Sinerem illum?

you, however great you are, to me you are nothing but wisdom,
that one is a dream. Would you indeed allow him, your own,
to do these things? DE. Would I allow him?

an non sex totis mensibus
prius olfecissem, quam ille quicquam coeperet?
SY. Vigilantiam tuam tu mihi narras? DE. Sic siet

or would I not have sniffed it out a full six whole months
earlier, before he began anything?
SY. Are you telling me of your vigilance? DE. So be it.

modo ut nunc est, quaeso. SY. Vt suom quisque esse uolt, itast.
DE. Quid eum?

just as he is now, please. SY. As each man wants his own to be, so it is.
DE. What of him?

uidistin hodie? SY. Tuomne filium?
abigam hunc rus.

Did you see him today? SY. Your own son?
I’ll drive this one to the country.

iam dudum aliquid ruri agere arbitror.
DE. Satin scis ibi esse? SY. Oh, quem egomet produxi.

I’ve been thinking for some time he’s doing something in the country.
DE. Are you quite sure he’s there? SY. Oh, the very one I myself brought out.

DE. Optumest:
metui ne haereret hic. SY. Atque iratum admodum.
DE. Quid autem?

DE. It’s for the best:
I feared lest he would stick here. SY. And exceedingly angry.
DE. But why?

SY. Adortus iurgiost fratrem apud forum
de psaltria ista. DE. Ain uero? SY. Vah, nil reticuit.

SY. He has started a quarrel with his brother at the forum
about that psaltrist. DE. Is that so? SY. Bah, he held nothing back.

nam ut numerabatur forte argentum, interuenit
homo de inprouiso: coepit clamare Aeschine,
haecin flagitia facere te! haec te admittere
indigna genere nostro! DE. Oh, lacrumo gaudio.
SY. Non tu hoc argentum perdis, sed uitam tuam.

for as the silver was by chance being counted, there intervened
a man unexpectedly: he began to shout, Aeschinus,
are you doing such outrages as these! to commit things
unworthy of our lineage! DE. Oh, I weep for joy.
SY. You are not losing this silver, but your life.

DE. Saluos sit spero: est similis maiorum suom. SY. Hui!
DE. Syre, praeceptorum plenust istorum ille.

DE. May he be safe, I hope: he is like his ancestors. SY. Huh!
DE. Syrus, he is full of those precepts of yours.

SY. Phy!
domi habuit unde disceret. DE. Fit sedulo:
nil praetermitto: consuefacio: denique
inspicere tamquam in speculum in uitas omnium
iubeo atque ex aliis sumere exemplum sibi.

SY. Fie!
He had at home where to learn. DE. It is done sedulously:
I omit nothing: I accustom him: finally
I bid him to inspect, as if into a mirror, the lives of all,
and to take an example for himself from others.

hoc facito. SY. Recte sane. DE. Hoc fugito.

Do this. SY. Quite right indeed. DE. Avoid this.

SY. Callide.
DE. Hoc laudist. SY. Istaec res est.

SY. Cleverly.
DE. This is laudable. SY. That is the thing.

DE. Hoc uitio datur.
SY. Probissume. DE. Porro autem .. SY. Non hercle otiumst
nunc mi auscultandi.

DE. This is attributed to a fault.
SY. Most properly. DE. Furthermore, however .. SY. By Hercules, I have no leisure
now to listen.

piscis ex sententia
nanctus sum: ei mihi ne corrumpantur cautiost:
nam id nobis tam flagitiumst quam illa, Demea,
non facere uobis, quae modo dixti: et quod queo
conseruis ad eundem istunc praecipio modum:
hoc salsumst, hoc adustumst, hoc lautumst parum:
illud recte: iterum sic memento. sedulo
moneo, quae possum pro mea sapientia:

fish I have gotten to satisfaction
ah me—let there be caution lest they be spoiled:
for that is as much a scandal to us as those things, Demea,
not to do for you what you just said: and whatever I can
I prescribe to the fellow-servants in that same manner:
this is salty, this is adust, this is washed too little:
that is right: remember so again. Sedulously
I admonish, what I can, according to my sapience:

postremo tamquam in speculum in patinas, Demea,
inspicere iubeo et moneo quid facto usus sit.
inepta haec esse, nos quae facimus, sentio;
uerum quid facias? ut homost.

finally, as into a mirror, into the platters, Demea,
I bid them inspect and I admonish what usage requires to be done.
I sense that these things we do are inept;
but what can you do? such as man is.

ita morem geras.
numquid uis? DE. Mentem uobis meliorem dari.

so humor him.
do you want anything else? DE. That a better mind be given to you.

SY. Tu rus hinc ibis? DE. Recta. SY. Nam quid tu hic agas?

SY. Are you going out to the country from here? DE. Straightaway. SY. For what would you be doing here?

ubi siquid bene praecipias, nemo optemperet. ---
DE. Ego uero hinc abeo, quando is, quam ob rem huc ueneram,
rus abiit: illum curo unum, ille ad me attinet.
quando ita uolt frater, de istoc ipse uiderit.

where, if you give any good precepts, no one obeys. ---
DE. Indeed I am going away from here, since he, on account of whom I had come here,
has gone to the country: him alone I care for, he pertains to me.
since my brother so wills, let him look to that himself.

sed quis illic est, quem uideo procul? estne Hegio
tribulis noster? si satis cerno, is est hercle: uah,
homo amicus nobis iam inde a puero (o di boni,
ne illius modi iam magna nobis ciuium
penuriast) homo antiqua uirtute ac fide.

but who is that there, whom I see far off? is it Hegio,
our fellow-tribesman? if I discern well, by Hercules, it is he: ah,
a man friendly to us ever since he was a boy (O good gods,
may there not already be a great scarcity for us of citizens
of that kind), a man of ancient virtue and faith.

haud cito mali quid ortum ex hoc sit publice.
quam gaudeo, ubi etiam huius generis reliquias
restare uideo! ah, uiuere etiam nunc lubet.

Not readily will any evil have arisen publicly from this.
How I rejoice, when I see even the relics of this genus still remaining!
ah, even now it pleases me to live.

opperiar hominem hic, ut salutem et conloquar.

I will wait for the man here, so that I may greet and converse with him.

HEGIO DEMEA GETA PAMPHILIA
SENES DVO SERVOS VIRGO

HEGIO DEMEA GETA PAMPHILIA
TWO OLD MEN SLAVES MAIDEN

HE. Pro di inmortales, facinus indignum, Geta,
quod narras t GE. Sic est factum. HE. EX illan familia
tam inliberale esse ortum facinus! o Aeschine,
pol haud paternum istuc dedisti.

HE. By the immortal gods, Geta, an unworthy deed, what you recount t GE. So it was done. HE. From that household for so unfreeborn a deed to have arisen! O Aeschinus, by Pollux, you have not displayed anything paternal in that.

DE. Videlicet
de psaltria hae audiuit: id illi nunc dolet
alieno. at pater? is nihili pendit: ei mihi,
utinam hic prope adesset alicubi atque audiret haec!

DE. Of course
she has heard about the psaltrist: that now pains
her on account of another. But the father? He esteems it at nothing: ah me,
if only he were somewhere near here and heard these things!

HE. Nisi facient quae illos aequomst, haud sic auferent.

HE. Unless they do what is equitable for them, they will not get away with it like this.

GE. In te spes omnis, Hegio, nobis sitast:
te solum habemus, tu es patronus, tu pater:
tibi moriens ille nos commendauit senex:
si deseris tu, periimus. HE. Caue dixeris:
neque faciam neque me satis pie posse arbitror.
DE. Adibo.

GE. In you all our hope, Hegio, has been set for us:
we have you alone, you are our patron, you our father:
to you, as he was dying, that old man commended us:
if you desert us, we perish. HE. Do not say that:
nor will I, nor do I judge that I could do so piously enough.
DE. I will approach.

saluere Hegionem plurumum
iubeo. HE. Oh, te quaerebam ipsum: salue, Demea.
DE. Quid autem?

I bid Hegio very many greetings.
HE. Oh, I was looking for you yourself: hail, Demea.
DE. What then?

HE. Maior filius tuos Aeschinus,
quem adoptandum dedisti fratri, ueque boni
neque liberalis functus officiumst uiri.
DE. Quid istuc est? HE. Nostrum amicum uoras Simulum
aequalem?

HE. Your elder son Aeschinus,
whom you gave to your brother to be adopted, has not fulfilled the duty of a good and liberal man.
DE. What is that? HE. Is he devouring our friend Simulus, his equal?

DE. Quid ni? HE. Filiam eius uirginem
uitiauit. DE. Hem! HE. Mane: nondum audisti, Demea,
quod est grauissumum.

DE. Why not? HE. His daughter, a virgin,
he vitiated. DE. What! HE. Wait: you have not yet heard, Demea,
what is most grievous.

DE. An quicquam etiam est amplius?
HE. Vero amplius: nam hoc quidem ferundum aliquo modost:
amor persuasit, nox uinum adulescentia:
humanumst. ubi scit factum, ad matrem uirginis
uenit ipsus ultro lacrumans orans obsecrans
fidem dans, iurans se illam ducturum domum.

DE. Is there anything even more?
HE. Indeed, more: for this indeed is somehow tolerable:
love persuaded, night, wine, adolescence:
it is human. When he learned what had been done, to the maiden’s mother
he came himself unbidden, weeping, praying, beseeching,
giving his pledged faith, swearing that he would lead her home as his wife.

ignotumst, tacitumst, creditumst. uirgo ex eo
compressu grauidast facta (hic mensis decumus est).
ille bonus uir nobis psaltriam, si dis placet,
parauit quicum uiuat, illam deserit.
DE. Pro certon tu istaec dicis?

It is unknown, it is tacit, it is entrusted. The maiden from that embrace has been made pregnant (this is the tenth month). That fine fellow, if it please the gods, has procured a psaltery‑player with whom to live; he deserts her.
DE. Are you saying these things for certain?

HE. Mater uirginis
in mediost, ipsa uirgo, res ipsa, hic Geta
praeterea, ut captust seruolorum, non malus
neque iners: alit illas, solus omnem familiam
sustentat: hunc abduce, uinci, quaere rem.
GE. Immo hercle extorque, nisi ita factumst, Demea;
postremo non negabit: coram ipsum cedo.
DE. Pudet: nec quid agam nec quid huic respondeam
scio.

HE. The mother of the maiden
is in the middle, the maiden herself, the thing itself, here is Geta
besides, who, as the capacity of slaves goes, is not bad
nor inert: he nourishes them, he alone sustains the whole household:
lead this man away, have him bound, inquire into the matter. GE. Nay, by Hercules, extort it, unless it is thus done, Demea;
in the end he will not deny it: bring the man himself before me face-to-face. DE. I am ashamed: neither what I should do nor what I should answer this man
do I know.

PA. (intus) Me miseram, differor doloribus.
Iuno Lucina, fer opem: serua me obsecro. HE. Hem,
numnam illa quaeso parturit?

PA. (within) Wretched me, I am torn apart by pains.
Juno Lucina, bring help: save me, I beseech. HE. Ha,
pray, is she by any chance in labor?

GE. Certe, Hegio.
HE. Em illaec fidem nunc uostram inplorat, Demea:
quod ilis uos cogit, id uoluntate inpetret.
haec primum ut fiant deos quaeso ut uobis decet.

GE. Certainly, Hegio.
HE. Look, that woman now implores your faith, Demea:
what she compels you to do for them, let her obtain by your volition.
these things first, I beg the gods, to be done, as befits you.

sin aliter animus uoster est, ego, Demea,
summa ui defendam hanc atque illum mortuom.
cognatus mihi erat: una a pueris paruolis
sumus educti: una semper militiae et domi
fuimus: paupertatem una pertulimus grauem.
quapropter nitar faciam experiar, denique
animam relinquam potius quam illas deseram.

but if your disposition is otherwise, I, Demea,
with utmost force will defend this woman and that dead man.
he was a kinsman to me: together from very small boys
we were brought up: together always in military service and at home
we were: grievous poverty we endured together.
wherefore I will strive, I will do, I will make trial; finally
I will rather relinquish my life than desert them.

quid mihi respondes? DE. Fratrem conueniam, Hegio.
HE. Sed, Demea, hoc tu facito cum animo cogites:
quam uos facillume agitis, quam estis maxume
potentes dites fortunati nobiles,
tam maxume uos aequa aequo animo noscere
oportet, si uos uoltis perhiberi probos.

what do you answer me? DE. I will meet my brother, Hegio.
HE. But, Demea, do you make sure to think this over in your mind:
in proportion as you act most easily, in proportion as you are most
potent, wealthy, fortunate, noble,
by so much the more you ought to recognize what is equitable with an even mind,
if you wish to be reputed upright.

DE. Redito. fient quae fieri aequomst omnia.
HE. Decet te facere.

DE. Return. All things that it is just to do will be done.
HE. It is fitting for you to do so.

Geta, duc me intro ad Sostratam.---
DE. Non me indicente haec fiunt: utinam hic sit modo
defunctum! uerum nimia illaec licentia
profecto euadet in aliquod magnum malum.
ibo ac requiram fratrem, ut in eum haec euomam.

Geta, lead me inside to Sostrata.---
DE. These things do not happen without my pointing them out: would that it only were finished here! but that excessive license will assuredly issue in some great evil.
I will go and look for my brother, so that I may vomit these things upon him.

HEGIO
SENEX

HEGIO
OLD MAN

Bono animo fac sis, Sostrata, et istam quod potis
fac consolere. ego Micionem, si apud forumst,
conueniam atque ut res gestast narrabo ordine:
si est, is facturus ut sit officium suom,
faciat: sin aliter de hac re est eius sententia,
respondeat mi, ut quid agam quam primum sciam.

Take heart, Sostrata, and do what you can to console her. I will meet Micio, if he is at the forum, and I will tell in order how the matter has been conducted: if he is going to do what is his duty, let him do it; but if his opinion about this matter is otherwise, let him answer me, so that I may know as soon as possible what I am to do.

CTESIPHO SYRVS
ADVLESCENS SERVOS

CTESIPHO SYRUS
YOUNG MAN SLAVE

CT. Ain patrem hinc abisse rus? SY. Iam dudum. CT. Dic sodes.

CT. Do you say father has gone from here to the country? SY. Quite a while ago. CT. Tell me, please.

SY. Apud uillamst
nunc quom maxume operis aliquid facere credo CT. Vtinam quidem!
quod cum salute eius fiat, ita se defetigarit uelim,
ut triduo hoc perpetuo prorsum e lecto nequeat surgere.
SY Ita fiat, et istoc siqui potis est rectius.

SY. He is at the villa
now, when most of all, I suppose, he is doing some work. CT. If only indeed!
which, provided it be done with his safety, I would wish that he wear himself out so,
that for these three days straight he cannot get up from the bed.
SY So may it be, and, if anything can be, more rightly than that.

CT. Ita: nam hunc diem
misere nimis cupio, ut coepi, perpetuom m laetitia degere.
et illud rus nulla alia causa tam male odi, nisi quia propest: quod si abesset longius,
prius nox oppressisset illi, quam huc reuorti posset iterum.
nunc ubi me illi non uidebit, iam huc recurret.

CT. Yes: for this day
I miserably, excessively desire, as I have begun, to spend it all through in joy.
and that country estate I so badly hate for no other cause, except because it is close by: which if it were farther away,
night would have overtaken him before he could return here again.
now, when he does not see me there, he will at once run back here.

sat scio
rogitabit me, ubi fuerim: ego hoc te toto non uidi die:
quid dicam? SY. Nilne in mentemst? CT. Numquam quicquam.

well enough I know
he will keep questioning me, where I may have been: I have not seen you this whole day:
what shall I say? SY. Has nothing come into your mind? CT. Never anything.

SY. Tanto nequior.
cluens amicus hospes nemost uobis? CT. Sunt: quid postea?

SY. So much the more good‑for‑nothing.
Is there no friend, no guest‑friend known to you? CT. There are: what then?

SY. Hisce opera ut data sit. CT. Quae non data sit? non potest fieri.

SY. That help be given to these. CT. What has not been given? It cannot be done.

SY. Potest.
CT. Interdius: sed si hic pernocto, causae quid dicam, Syre?
SY. Vah, quam uellem etiam noctu amicis operam mos esset dari!

SY. It can be done.
CT. In the daytime: but if I spend the night here, what excuse shall I say, Syrus?
SY. Bah, how I would that even at night it were the custom for service to be given to friends!

quin tu otiosus esto: ego illius sensum pulcre calleo.
quom feruit maxume, tam placidum quam ouem reddo CT. Quo modo?
SY. Laudari per te audit lubenter: facio te apud illum deum:
uirtutes narro.

why don’t you be at ease: I know his disposition quite well.
when he is boiling most, I render him as placid as a sheep CT. How?
SY. He gladly hears himself being lauded by you: I make you a god with him:
I recount his virtues.

CT. Meas? SY. Tuas: homini ilico lacrumae cadunt

CT. Mine? SY. Yours: immediately the man's tears fall

quasi puero gaudio. em tibi autem! CT. Quidnam est?

as with a boy, from joy. There you are, then! CT. What is it?

SY. Lupus in fabula.
CT. Pater est? SY. Is est ipsus.

SY. Speak of the devil.
CT. Is it father? SY. He is the very one.

CT. Syre, quid agimus? SY. Fuge modo intro, ego uidero.
CT. Siquid rogabit, nusquam tu me: audistin?

CT. Syrus, what shall we do? SY. Just run inside, I’ll see to it.
CT. If he asks anything, you never saw me: did you hear?

SY. Potin ut desinas?

SY. Could you stop?

DEMEA CTESIPHO SYRVS
SENEX ADVLESCENS SERVOS

DEMEA CTESIPHO SYRVS
OLD MAN ADOLESCENT SLAVE

DE. Ne ego homo sum infelix: fratrem nusquam inuenio gentium:
praeterea autem, dum illum quaero, a uilla mercennarium
uidi: is filium negat esse ruri: nec quid agam scio.
CT. Syre! SY. Quid est?

DE. Indeed I am an unlucky man: I can find my brother nowhere in the world:
and besides, while I look for him, I saw a hired man from the villa: he says the son is not in the country: nor do I know what to do.
CT. Syrus! SY. What is it?

CT. Men quaerit? SY. Verum.
CT. Perii.

CT. Does he seek me? SY. True.
CT. I have perished.

SY. Quin tu animo bono es.
DE. Quid hoc malum infelicitatis! nequeo satis decernere
nisi me credo huic esse natum rei, ferundis miseriis.
primus sentio mala nostra: primus rescisco omnia:
primus porro obnuntio: aegre solus, siquid fit, fero.

SY. Why don’t you be of good cheer.
DE. What is this evil of infelicity! I cannot sufficiently determine,
unless I believe myself to have been born for this business, for bearing miseries.
I am first to feel our evils; first to find out everything;
first, moreover, to announce ill news; I alone, if anything happens, bear it with difficulty.

SY. Rideo hunc: primum ait se scire: is solus nescit omnia.
DE. nunc redeo: si forte frater redierit uiso. CT. Syre,
obsecro, uide ne ille huc prorsus se inruat.

SY. I laugh at this fellow: first, he says that he knows; he alone is ignorant of everything.
DE. Now I will go back, in case by chance my brother has returned to pay a visit. CT. Syrus,
I beg, see to it that he does not rush straight in here.

SY. Etiam taces?
ego cauebo. CT. Numquam hercle hodie ego istuc committam tibi:
nam me iam in cellam aliquam cum illa concludam: id tutissumumst.

SY. Are you still silent?
I will take care. CT. Never, by Hercules, today will I commit that to you:
for I will now shut myself up in some cellar with her: that is the safest.

---
SY. Age, tamen ego hunc amouebo. DE. Sed eccum sceleratum Syrum.
SY. Non hercle hic qui uolt durare quisquam, si sic fit, potest.

---
SY. Come on, yet I will remove this fellow. DE. But look, here’s the wicked Syrus.
SY. By Hercules, no one here who wants to endure can, if it goes like this.

scire equidem uolo, quot mihi sint domini: quae haec est miseria!
DE. Quid ille gannit? quid uolt?

I indeed want to know how many masters I have: what misery is this!
DE. What is that fellow snarling? what does he want?

quid ais, bone uir? est frater domi?
SY. Quid malum bone uir mihi narras?

what do you say, good man? is my brother at home?
SY. what the devil, good man, are you telling me?

equidem perii. DE. Quid tibi est?
SY. Rogitas?

indeed I have perished. DE. What is the matter with you?
SY. Do you ask?

Ctesipho me pugnis miserum et istam psaltriam
usque occidit. DE. Hem, quid narras? SY. Em uide ut discidit labrum.

Ctesipho with his fists has almost killed wretched me and that psaltery‑player. DE. Ha! what are you saying? SY. Here, look how he has split my lip.

DE. Quam ob rem? SY. Me inpulsore hanc emptam esse ait. DE. Non tu eum rus hinc modo
produxe aibas?

DE. For what reason? SY. He says that, with me as the instigator, this girl was bought. DE. Didn’t you say you had just now led him out from here to the countryside?

SY. Factum: uerum uenit post insaniens:
nil pepercit. non puduisse uerberare hominem senem!
quem ego modo puerum tantillum inmanibus gestaui meis.

SY. Done: but he came back afterwards, raving:
he spared nothing. That he was not ashamed to beat an old man!
whom I, when he was just a tiny boy, carried in my own immense hands.

DE. Laudo: Ctesipho, patrissas: abi, uirum te iudico.
SY. Laudas? ne ille continebit posthac, si sapiet, manus.

DE. I praise: Ctesipho, you take after your father: go, I judge you a man.
SY. You praise? Indeed he will restrain his hands hereafter, if he is wise.

DE. Fortiter. SY. Perquam, quia miseram mulierem et me seruolum,
qui referire non audebam, uicit: hui, perfortiter.
DE. Non potuit melius.

DE. Bravely. SY. Very much so, since he defeated a wretched woman and me, a little slave,
who did not dare to retaliate: whew, very bravely indeed.
DE. He could not have done better.

idem quod ego sensit, te esse huic rei caput.
sed estne frater intus? SY. Non est.

he felt the same as I, that you are the head of this affair.
But is the brother inside? SY. He is not.

DE. Vbi illum inueniam cogito.
SY. Scio ubi sit, uerum hodie numquam monstrabo. DE. Hem, quid ais?

DE. I am thinking where to find him.
SY. I know where he is, but today I will not show you at all. DE. Ha, what are you saying?

SY. Ita.
DE. Dimminuetur tibi quidem iam cerebrum. SY. At nomen nescio
illius hominis, sed locum noui ubi sit.

SY. Yes.
DE. Your brain indeed will now be diminished. SY. But I do not know
that man’s name, but I know the place where he is.

DE. Dic ergo locum.
SY. Nostin porticum apud macellum hac deorsum? DE. Quid ni nouerim?

DE. Then tell the place.
SY. Do you know the portico by the macellum down this way? DE. Why should I not know it?

SY. Praeterito recta platea sursum hanc: ubi eo ueneris,

SY. Go past straight up this street: when you come there,

cliuos deorsum uorsum est: istac praecipitato; postea
est ad hanc manum sacellum: ibi angiportum propter est,
DE. Quanam? SY. Illi ubi etiam caprificus magna est. DE. Noui.

the slope is turned downward: headlong that way; afterwards
there is on this hand a little shrine: there a narrow alley is nearby,
DE. Which way? SY. There, where there is also a great wild fig tree. DE. I know it.

SY. Hac pergito.
DE. Id quidem angiportum non est peruium. SY. Verum hercle: uah,
censen hominem me esse?

SY. Go on this way.
DE. That alley indeed is not pervious. SY. True, by Hercules: bah,
do you think I am a man?

erraui: in porticum rursum redi:
sane hac multo propius ibis et minor est erratio.
scin Cratini huius ditis aedes? DE. Scio.

I was mistaken: go back again into the portico:
indeed by this way you will go much nearer, and the errancy is less.
do you know the house of this rich Cratinus? DE. I know.

SY. Vbi eas praeterieris,
ad sinistram hac recta platea; ubi ad Dianae ueneris,
ito ad dextram: prius quam ad portam uenias, apud ipsum lacum
est pistrilla, ei exaduorsum fabrica: ibist. DE. Quid ibi facit?
SY. Lectulos illi salignis pedibus faciundos dedit.

SY. When you have passed those,
to the left along this straight platea; when you come to Diana,
go to the right: before you come to the gate, right by the lake itself
there is a little bakehouse; straight opposite it a fabrica: there he’ll be. DE. What is he doing there?
SY. He gave him little couches with willow feet to be made.

DE. Vbi potetis uos? bene sane. sed cesso ad eum pergere.

DE. Where do you drink? Very well indeed. But why do I delay to go to him?

---
SY. I sane: ego te exercebo hodie, ut dignus es, silicernium.
Aeschinus otiose cessat; prandium corrumpitur;
Ctesipho autem in amorest totus. ego iam prospiciam mihi:
nam iam abibo atque unum quidquid, quod quidem erit bellissumum,
carpam et cyathos sorbilans paulatim hunc producam diem.

---
SY. Yes indeed: I will work you over today, as you deserve, you funeral‑feast.
Aeschinus idly loafs; the luncheon is being spoiled;
but Ctesipho is wholly in love. I’ll now look out for myself:
for now I’ll go off and pluck some one thing, whatever indeed will be most delightful,
and, sipping little cups, I’ll little by little draw out this day.

MICIO HEGIO
SENES DVO

MICIO HEGIO
TWO OLD MEN

MI. Ego in hac re nil reperio, quam ob rem lauder tanto opere, Hegio.
Meum officium facio: quod peccatum a nobis ortumst corrigo.
nisi si me in illo credidisti esse hominum numero, qui ita putant,
sibi fieri iniuriam ultro, si quam fecere ipsi expostules,
et ultro accusant.

MI. In this matter I find nothing for which I should be praised so greatly, Hegio.
I do my duty: I correct the fault that has arisen on our part.
unless perhaps you believed me to be in that number of men who think this way,
that an injury is being done to themselves unprovoked, if you expostulate about anything they themselves have done,
and unprovoked they become the accusers.

id quia a me non est factum, agis gratias?
HE. Ah, minume: numquam te aliter atque es esse animum induxi meum.
sed quaeso, Micio, Vt mecum una eas ad matrem uirginis
atque istaec eadem mihi quae dixti tute dicas mulieri:
suspitionem hanc propter fratrem esse: eius esse illam psaltriam.

Because that was not done by me, do you give thanks?
HE. Ah, not at all: never did I bring my mind to think you otherwise than you are.
but I beg, Micio, that you go along with me to the mother of the maiden,
and that you yourself tell the woman these same things you said to me:
that this suspicion is on account of the brother: that the lyre-player is his.

nam et illi iam releuabis animum, quae dolore ac miseria
tabescit, et tuom officium fueris functus. sed si aliter putas,
egomet narrabo quae mihi dixti. MI. Immo ego ibo.

for you will now relieve her spirit, who is wasting away with pain and misery,
and you will have discharged your office. But if you think otherwise,
I myself will narrate what you told me. MI. No indeed, I will go.

HE. Bene facis:
omnes, quibus res sunt minus secundae, magis sunt nescio quo modo
suspitiosi: ad contumeliam omnia accipiunt magis:
propter suam inpotentiam se semper credunt ludier.
quapropter te ipsum purgare ipsi coram placabilius est.
MI. Et recte et uerum dicis.

HE. You do well:
all those whose affairs are less favorable are, somehow, more suspicious:
they take everything more as contumely:
on account of their own impotence they always believe themselves to be played with.
wherefore to purge yourself before her in person is more likely to appease.
MI. Both rightly and truly you speak.

HE. Sequere me ergo
hac intro. MI. Maxume.

HE. Follow me then
this way in. MI. By all means.

AESCHINVS
ADVLESCENS

AESCHINUS
ADOLESCENT

Discrucior animi: hocin mihi mali de inprouiso obici
tantum ut neque quid ego de me faciam nec quid agam certum siet!
membra mihi metu debilia sunt: animus timore oh stipuit: pectori consistere
nil consili quit. quo modo hac me expediam turba?

I am racked in soul: that this evil should be thrust upon me unexpectedly
so that I have no sure sense either what to make of myself or what to do!
my limbs are weak with fear: my mind—oh—has stiffened with fear: in my breast
no counsel can settle. How am I to extricate myself from this turmoil?

tanta nunc
suspitio de me incidit: uah, neque ea inmerito: Sostrata
credit mihi me psaltriam emisse hanc: id anus mi indicium fecit.
nam ut hinc forte ea ad obstetricem erat missa, ubi eam uidi, ilico
accedo: rogito, Pamphila quid agat, iam partus adsiet
eone obstetricem arcessat. illa exclamat abi, abi iam, Aeschine:
satis diu dedisti uerba, sat adhuc tua nos frustratast fides.

So great a suspicion has now
fallen upon me: bah, nor undeservedly: Sostrata
believes that I bought this psaltery-girl; the old woman gave me that indication.
for when by chance she had been sent from here to the midwife, when I saw her, straightway
I approach: I ask what Pamphila is doing, whether the birth is now at hand,
whether for that she should summon the midwife. She cries out, go, go now, Aeschinus:
you have given words long enough; enough—up to now your good faith has frustrated us.

"hem, quid istuc obsecro" inquam "est?" ualeas, habeas illam quae placet.
sensi ilico id illas suspicari: sed me reprehendi tamen,
nequid de fratre garrulae illi dicerem ac fieret palam.
nunc quid faciam?

"Ha! what is that, I beseech," I said, "what is it?" Fare you well, have that one who pleases you.
I perceived at once that they were suspecting that; but I checked myself nonetheless,
lest I say anything about my brother to those garrulous women and it be made public.
Now what am I to do?

dicam fratris esse hanc? quod minumest opus
usquam ecferri. age mitto: fieri potis est ut nequa exeat.

Shall I say that she is my brother’s?—which has the least need to be brought out anywhere.
Come, I let it go: it can be that nothing gets out.

ipsum id metuo ut credant: tot concurrunt ueri similia:
egomet rapui ipse, egomet solui argentum, ad me abductast domum.
haec adeo mea culpa fieri fateor. non me hanc rem patri,

this very thing I fear, that they will not believe: so many verisimilitudes converge:
I myself snatched her, I myself paid the silver, to my house she has been abducted.
these things indeed I confess to happen by my fault. I will not tell this matter to my father,

utut erat gesta, indicasse! exorassem ut eam ducerem.
cessatum usque adhuc est: nunc porro, Aeschine, expergiscere!

However it was done, you ought to have indicated it! I would have prevailed so that I might take her as wife.
Loitering has gone on up to now: now then, Aeschinus, wake up!

nunc hoc primumst: ad illas ibo, ut purgem me. accedam ad fores.
perii: horresco semper, ubi pultare hasce occipio miser.
heus heus!

now this is first: I will go to those women, to purge myself. I will approach the doors.
I am undone: I always shudder whenever, wretched, I begin to knock at these doors.
hey, hey!

Aeschinus sum ego. aperite aliquis actutum ostium.
prodit nescio quis: concedam huc.

I am Aeschinus. Someone, open the door at once.
Someone I know not comes forth: I will withdraw here.

MICIO AESCHINVS
SENEX ADVLESCENS

MICIO AESCHINUS
OLD MAN ADOLESCENT

MI. Ita uti dixi, Sostrata,
facite: ego Aeschinum conueniam, ut quo modo acta haec sint sciat.
sed quis ostium hoc pultauit? AE. Pater hercle est, perii.

MI. Just as I said, Sostrata,
do so: I will meet Aeschinus, so that he may know in what way these things have been done. But who knocked at this door? AE. It’s father, by Hercules—I’m done for.

MI. Aeschine,
AE. Quid huic hic negotist? MI. tune has pepulisti fores?
tacet.

MI. Aeschinus,
AE. What business has he here? MI. Was it you who knocked on these doors?
he is silent.

quor non ludo hunc aliquantisper? melius est,
quandoquidem hoc numquam mi ipse uoluit credere.
nil mihi respondes?

why not play with him for a little while? it is better,
since he himself has never wanted to believe me in this.
do you answer nothing to me?

AE. Non equidem istas, quod sciam.
MI. Ita? nam mirabar, quid hic negoti esset tibi.

AE. Not indeed these, so far as I know.
MI. Is that so? For I was wondering what business you had here.

erubuit: salua res est. AE. Die sodes, pater,
o tibi uero quid istic est re;? MI. Nil mihi quidem.
amicus quidam me a foro abduxit modo
huc aduocatum sibi.

he blushed: the matter is safe. AE. Say, please, father,
oh, truly, what matter is there there for you? MI. Nothing for me indeed.
a certain friend just led me away from the forum
hither as his advocate.

AE. Quid? MI. Ego dicam tibi.
habitant hic quaedam mulieres pauperculae:
ut opinor eas non nosse te, et certo scio:
neque enim diu huc migrarunt.

AE. What? MI. I will tell you.
certain rather poor women dwell here:
as I suppose you do not know them, and I surely know it:
for they have not migrated here long.

AE. Quid tum postea?
MI. Virgo est cum matre. AE. Perge.

AE. What then after that?
MI. The girl is with her mother. AE. Go on.

MI. Haec uirgo orbast patre:
hic meus amicus illi generest proxumus:
huic leges cogunt nubere hanc. AE. Perii. MI. Quid est?

MI. This maiden is bereft of her father:
this friend of mine is to her the closest prospective bridegroom:
the laws compel this girl to marry this man. AE. I am undone. MI. What is it?

AE. Nil: recte: perge. MI. Is uenit ut secum auehat:
nam habitat Mileti. AE. Hem, uirginem ut secum auehat?

AE. Nothing: all right: go on. MI. He comes to carry her off with him:
for he lives at Miletus. AE. Ha, to carry the virgin off with him?

MI. Sic est. AE. Miletum usque obsecro? MI. Ita.

MI. So it is. AE. All the way to Miletus, I beseech you? MI. Yes.

AE. Animo malest.
quid ipsae? quid aiunt?

AE. I am sick at heart.
what about the women themselves? what do they say?

MI. Quid illas censes? nihil enim.
commentast mater esse ex alieno uiro
nescio quo puerum natum: neque eum nominat:
priorem esse illum, non oportere huic dari.

MI. What do you think of them? Nothing, in fact.
the mother has fabricated that a boy was born from some other man I know not which:
nor does she name him:
that that one is prior, that it ought not to be given to this one.

AE. Eho, nonne haec iusta tibi uidentur poscier?
MI. Non. AE. Obsecro non?

AE. Come now, do not these seem just to you to be demanded?
MI. No. AE. I beseech you, no?

an illam hinc abducet, pater?
MI. Quid illam ni abducat? AE. Factum a uobis duriter
inmisericorditerque atque etiam, si est, pater,
dicendum magis aperte, inliberaliter.

or will he lead her away from here, father?
MI. Why shouldn’t he lead her away? AE. What has been done by you is harsh and unmerciful, and even—if it must be said more openly, father—illiberal.

MI. Quam ob rem? AE. Rogas me? quid illi tandem creditis
fore animi misero, quicum ea consueuit prius
(qui infelix hauscio an illam misere nunc amet),
quom hanc sibi uidebit praesens praesenti eripi
abduci ab oculis? facinus indig,num, pater!

MI. For what reason? AE. You ask me? What do you suppose, then, will be his state of mind, the poor man, with whom she was formerly accustomed (who, unhappy, I know not but that he now loves her miserably), when he, being present, will see this girl snatched from him before his very eyes and led away from his sight? an unworthy deed, father!

MI. Qua ratione istuc? quis despondit? quis dedit?

MI. By what arrangement is that? Who betrothed her? Who gave her?

quoi quando nupsit? auctor his rebus quis est?
quor duxit alienam?

To whom did she wed? when? who is the author of these matters?
why did he lead off another man’s woman?

AE. An sedere oportuit
domi uirginem tam grandem, dum cognatus huc
illim ueniret exspectantem? haec, mi pater,
te dicere aequom fuit et id defendere.
MI. Ridiculum: aduorsumne illum causam dicerem,
quoi ueneram aduocatus?

AE. Or ought so grown a maiden to have sat at home,
waiting until a kinsman should come here from there?
these things, my father, it was fair for you to say and to defend.
MI. Ridiculous: should I plead a case against him,
to whom I had come as advocate?

sed quid ista, Aeschine
nostra? aut quid nobis cum illis? abeamus.

but what are those matters, our Aeschinus?
or what have we to do with them? let us depart.

quid est?
quid lacrumas? AE. Pater, obsecro, ausculta.

What is it?
Why are you crying? AE. Father, I beg you, listen.

MI. Aeschine, audiui omnia
et scio: nam te amo: quo magis quae agis curae sunt mihi.
AE. Ita uelim me promerentem ames dum uiuas, mi pater,
ut me hoc delictum admisisse in me, id mihi uehemeuter dolet
et me tui pudet. MI. Credo hercle: nam ingenium noui tuom
liberale; sed uereor ne indiligens nimium sies.

MI. Aeschinus, I have heard everything
and I know: for I love you: all the more are the things you do a concern to me.
AE. So I would wish that, as I prove deserving, you love me as long as you live, my father,
that I have committed this offense to my own hurt—this pains me vehemently,
and I am ashamed before you. MI. I believe it, by Hercules: for I know your liberal
nature; but I fear lest you be too negligent.

in qua civitate tandem te arbitrare uiuere?
uirginem uitiasti, quam te ius non fuerat tangere.
iam id peccatum primum magnum, magnam, at humanum tamen:
fecere alii saepe item boni.

in what commonwealth do you suppose yourself to be living, pray?
you have violated a virgin, whom it was not your right to touch.
now that sin is, first, great—great; yet human, however:
others too, even good men, have often done the same.

at postquam euenit, cedo
numquid circumspexti? aut numquid tute prospexti tibi,
quid fieret? qua fieret?

but after it came to pass, come, tell me
did you look around at all? or did you yourself look out for yourself,
what would happen? by what way it would happen?

si te ipsum mihi puduit proloqui,
qua resciscerem? haec dum dubitas, menses abierunt decem.
prodidisti et te ex illam miseram et gnatum, quod quidem in te fuit.

if you yourself were ashamed to declare it to me,
how was I to find it out? while you hesitate about these things, ten months have gone by.
you have betrayed both yourself and that wretched woman and the offspring, so far as lay in you.

quid? credebas dormienti haec tibi confecturos deos?
et illam sine tua opera in cubiculum iri deductum domum?

What? Did you believe the gods would accomplish these things for you while you were sleeping?
and that she, without your effort, would be escorted home into the bedchamber?

nolim ceterarum rerum te socordem eodem modo.
bono animo es, duces uxorem hanc. AE. Hem!

I would not wish you to be slothful about the other matters in the same way.
Be of good cheer, you will take this woman as your wife. AE. Huh!

MI. Bono, inquam, animo es. AE. Pater
obsecro, num ludis nunc tu me? MI. Ego te? quam ob rem? AE. Nescio:
quia tam misere hoc esse cupio uerum, eo uereor magis.
MI. Abi domum ac deos comprecare, ut uxorem arcessas: abi.

MI. Good, I say, be of good cheer. AE. Father,
I beg you, surely you’re not playing with me now? MI. I, with you? For what reason? AE. I don’t know:
because I so wretchedly desire this to be true, therefore I fear the more.
MI. Go home and pray to the gods, that you may send for your wife: go.

AE. Quid? eam uxorem? MI. Eam.

AE. What? her as wife? MI. Her.

AE. Iam? MI. iam
quantum potis. AE. Di me, pater,
omnes oderint, ni magis te quam oculos nunc ego amo meos.

AE. Now? MI. now
as much as you can. AE. May the gods, father,
all hate me, if I do not love you more than my own eyes now.

MI. Quid? quam illam? AE. Aeque.

MI. What? that one? AE. Equally.

MI. Perbenigne. AE. Quid? ille ubist Milesius?

MI. Most kindly. AE. What? where is that Milesian?

MI. Periit, abiit, nauem ascendit; sed quor cessas? AE. Abi, pater,
tu potius deos comprecare: nam tibi eos certo scio,
quo uir melior multo es quam ego, optemperaturos magis.
MI. Ego eo intro, ut quae opus sunt parentur: tu fac ut dixi, si sapis.---
AE. Quid hoc est negoti?

MI. He has perished, he has gone, he boarded a ship; but why do you delay? AE. Go, father,
you rather beseech the gods: for I surely know that they, because you are a much better man than I, will be more compliant.
MI. I am going inside, so that the things that are needed may be prepared: you do as I said, if you are wise.---
AE. What is this business?

hoc est patrem esse aut hoc est filium esse?
si fr&ter aut sodalis esset, qui magis morem gereret.?
hic non amandust? hicine non gestandus in sinust?

is this to be a father, or is this to be a son?
if he were a brother or a sodalis, who would show more deference.?
is he not to be loved? is this one not to be borne in the bosom?

hem:
itaque adeo magnam mi inicit sua commoditate curam,
ne inprudens faciam forte quod nolit; sciens cauabo.
sed cesso ire intro, ne morae meis nuptiis egomet sim?

hah:
and so to such a degree his obligingness injects a great care into me,
lest imprudently I do by chance what he would not wish; knowingly I will be cautious.
but do I delay to go inside, lest I myself be the delay to my own nuptials?

DEMEA
SENEX

DEMEA
OLD MAN

Defessus sum ambulando: ut, Syre, te cum tua
monstratione magnus perdat Iuppiter!
perreptaui usque omne oppidum: ad portam, ad lacum,
quo non? neque illi ulla fabrica erat nec fratrem homo
uidisse se aibat quisquam.

I am exhausted with walking: oh, Syrus, may great Jupiter destroy you along with your directions!
I have perambulated all the way through the whole town: to the gate, to the lake, where not?
nor was there any workshop for that fellow, nor did anyone say that he had seen his brother.

nunc uero domi
certum obsidere est usque donec redierit.

Now indeed at home
it is resolved to besiege continuously until he returns.

MICIO DEMEA
SENES DVO

MICIO DEMEA
TWO OLD MEN

MI. Ibo, illis dicam nullam esse in nobis moram
DE. Sed eccum ipsum. te iam dudum quaero, Micio.
MI. Quidnam?

MI. I will go, I will tell them there is no delay on our part
DE. But look—here he is himself. I have been looking for you for a long time, Micio.
MI. What is it?

DE. Fero alia flagitia ad te ingentia
boni illius adulescentis. MI. Ecce autem DE. Noua
capitalia. MI. Ohe iam!

DE. I bring to you other enormous flagitious deeds
of that good adolescent. MI. Behold then— DE. New
capital ones. MI. Oh, enough now!

DE. Nescis qui uir sit. MI. Scio.
DE. O stulte, tu de psaltria me somnias
agere: hoc peccatum in uirginemst ciuem.

DE. You do not know what sort of man he is. MI. I know.
DE. O fool, you dream me about a psaltrist
to be talking: this sin is against a virgin, a citizen.

MI. Scio.
DE. Eho, scis et patere? MI. Quid ni patiar?

MI. I know.
DE. Come now, you know and allow it? MI. Why should I not allow it?

DE. Dic mihi,
non clamas? non insanis? MI. Non.

DE. Tell me,
are you not shouting? are you not insane? MI. No.

DE. Malim quidem.
puer natust. MI. Di bene uortant!

DE. I would indeed prefer it.
a boy has been born. MI. May the Gods turn it well!

DE. Virgo nihil habet.
MI. Audiui. DE. Et ducenda indotatast.

DE. The maiden has nothing.
MI. I have heard. DE. And she is to be married dowryless.

MI. Scilicet.
DE. Quid nunc futurumst? MI. Id enim quod res ipsa fert:
illinc huc transferetur uirgo.

MI. Naturally.
DE. What is going to happen now? MI. Namely, that which the matter itself dictates:
from there to here the virgin will be transferred.

DE. O Iuppiter,
istocin pacto oportet? MI. Quid faciam amplius?
DE. Quid facias?

DE. O Jupiter,
must it be in this fashion? MI. What more am I to do?
DE. What are you to do?

si non eapse re tibi istuc dolet,
simulare certe. est hominis. MI. Quin iam uirginem
despondi, res compositast, fiunt nuptiae,
dempsi metum omnem: haec magis sunt hominis.

if that thing itself does not hurt you,
to simulate at least—this is human. MI. Why, I have already the virgin
betrothed, the matter is arranged, the nuptials are happening,
I have removed all fear: these are more the part of a man.

DE. Ceterum
placet tibi factum, Micio? MI. Non, si queam
mutare. nunc quom non queo, aequo animo fero.

DE. But otherwise
does the deed please you, Micio? MI. No, if I could
change it. Now, since I cannot, I bear it with equanimity.

ita uitast hominum, quasi quom ludas tesseris:
si illud quod maxume opus est iactu non cadit,
illud quod cecidit forte, id arte ut corrigas.
DE. Corrector! nempe tua arte uiginti minae
pro psaltria periere: quae quantum potest
aliquo abiciundast, si non pretio, gratiis.

so is the life of men, as when you play with dice:
if that which is most needed does not fall on the throw,
by art you should correct that which fell by chance.
DE. Corrector! Surely by your art twenty minae
for the psaltria have perished: who, as far as possible,
ought to be thrown away somewhere—if not for a price, then gratis.

eque est neque illam sane studeo uendere.
DE. Quid igitur facies? MI. Domi erit.

nor is there, nor indeed do I really care to sell her.
DE. What then will you do? MI. She will be at home.

DE. Pro diuom fidem,
meretrix et mater familias una in domo?
MI. Quor non? DE. Sanum te credis esse?

DE. By the faith of the gods,
a prostitute and a materfamilias in one house?
MI. Why not? DE. Do you think yourself to be sane?

MI. Equidem arbitror.
DE. Ita me di ament, ut tuam ego uideo ineptiam,
facturum credo, ut habeas quicum cantites.
MI. Quor non?

MI. Indeed, I think so.
DE. So may the gods love me, as I see your ineptitude, I believe you will bring it about that you have someone with whom you can sing.
MI. Why not?

DE. Et noua nupta eadem haec discet. MI. Scilicet.
DE. Tu inter eas restim ductans saltabis.

DE. And the new bride will learn these same things. MI. Naturally.
DE. You will be dancing the rope between them.

MI. Probe.
DE. Probe? MI. Et tu nobiscum una, si opus sit.

MI. Good.
DE. Good? MI. And you along with us too, if there is need.

DE. Ei mihi!
non te haec pudent? MI. Iam uero omitte, Demea,
tuam istanc iracundiam atque ita uti decet
hilarum ac lubentem fac te gnati in nuptiis.

DE. Alas for me!
do not these things shame you? MI. Now indeed, Demea,
set aside that irascibility of yours, and, as is fitting,
make yourself cheerful and well-disposed at your son's nuptials.

ego hos conuenio: post huc redeo.---DE. O Iuppiter,
hancin uitam! hoscin mores! hanc dementiam!

i go to meet these men: afterward i return here.---DE. O Jupiter,
this life! these morals! this dementia!

uxor sine dote ueniet, intus psaltriast,
domus sumptuosa, adulescens luxu perditus,
senex delirans. ipsa si cupiat Salus,
seruare prorsus non potest hanc familiam.

a wife will come without a dowry, inside there is a female harpist,
a sumptuous house, an adolescent ruined by luxury,
an old man delirious. Even Salus herself, if she should desire it,
cannot possibly save this family.

SYRVS DEMEA
SERVOS SENEX

SYRUS DEMEA
SLAVE OLD MAN

SY. Edepol, Syrisce, te curasti molliter
lauteque munus administrasti tuom.
abi. sed postquam intus sum omnium rerum satur,
prodambulare hic lubitumst.

SY. By Pollux, Syrus, you have taken care of yourself softly,
and lavishly you have administered your duty.
go on. but after I am inside sated with all things,
it has pleased me to stroll out here.

DE. Illud sis uide:
exemplum disciplinae eccum. SY. Ecce autem hic adest
senex noster. quid fit?

DE. Please look at that:
here’s the example of discipline. SY. Behold, but here is
our old man. What’s happening?

quid tu es tristis? DE. Oh, scelus!
SY. Ohe iam: tu uerba fundes hic sapientia?

Why are you sad? DE. Oh, villainy!
SY. Hey now: are you going to pour forth words of sapience here?

DE. Tu si meus esses.. SY. Dis quidem esses, Demea,
ac tuam rem constabilisses. DE. Exemplo omnibus
curarem ut esses. SY. Quam ob rem?

DE. You, if you were mine.. SY. You would indeed be rich, Demea, and you would have stabilized your estate. DE. I would take care that you be an example to all. SY. For what reason?

quid feci? DE. Rogas?
in ipsa turba atque in peccato maxumo,
quod uix sedatum satis est, potasti, scelus,
quasi re bene gesta.

What did I do? DE. You ask?
in the very tumult and in the greatest sin,
which is scarcely settled enough, you drank, you scoundrel,
as if the matter were well done.

SY. Sane nollem huc exitum.

SY. I certainly would not have wished this outcome.

DROMO DEMEA SYRVS
PVER SENEX SERVOS

DROMO DEMEA SYRVS
BOY OLD MAN SLAVE

DR. Heus Syre, rogat te Ctesipho ut redeas. SY. Abi.---
DE. Quid Ctesiphonem hic narrat? SY. Nil.

DR. Hey, Syrus, Ctesipho asks you to come back. SY. Be off.---
DE. What is he saying about Ctesipho here? SY. Nothing.

DE. Eho, carnufex,
est Ctesipho intus? SY. Non est. DE. Quor hic nominat?

DE. Hey, executioner,
is Ctesipho inside? SY. He is not. DE. Then why does he mention him here?

SY. Est alius quidam, parasitaster paululus:
nostin? DE. Iam scibo. SY. Quid agis?

SY. There is another certain fellow, a tiny parasitaster:
do you know him? DE. I shall know presently. SY. What are you doing?

quo abis? DE. Mitte me.
SY. Noli inquam. DE. Non manum abstines, mastigia?

Where are you going? DE. Let me go.
SY. Don’t, I say. DE. Will you not keep your hand off, you whipping-post?

an tibi iam mauis cerebrum dispergam hic?---SY. Abit.
edepol comissatorem haud sane commodum,
praesertim Ctesiphoni! quid ego nunc agam?

Or do you now prefer that I scatter your brain here?---SY. He goes away.
By Pollux, a carouser not really convenient at all,
especially for Ctesipho! What am I to do now?

nisi, dum hae silescunt turbae, interea in angulum
aliquo abeam atque edormiscam hoc uilli. sic agam.

unless, while these crowds fall silent, meanwhile into a corner
somewhere I go away and sleep off this wine. So will I do.

MICIO DEMEA
SENES DVO

MICIO DEMEA
TWO OLD MEN

MI. Parata a nobis sunt, ita ut dixi, Sostrata:
ubi uis.. quisnam a me pepulit tam grauiter fores?
DE. Ei mihi, quid faciam? quid agam?

MI. The things are prepared by us, just as I said, Sostrata:
where you wish.. who indeed has banged my doors so heavily?
DE. Ah me, what am I to do? what shall I do?

quid clamem aut querar?
o caelum, o terra, o maria Neptuni! MI. Em tibi,
resciuit omnem rem: id nunc clamat.

What am I to cry out or complain?
O heaven, O earth, O seas of Neptune! MI. There you are,
he has found out the whole affair: that is what he is shouting now.

scilicet,
paratae lites: succurrendumst. DE. Eccum adest
communis corruptela nostrum liberum.
MI. Tandem reprime iracundiam atque ad te redi.

of course,
the quarrels are prepared: help must be given. DE. Here he is
the common corruption of our children.
MI. Finally repress your irascibility and return to yourself.

DE. Repressi, redii, mitto maledicta omnia:
rem ipsam putemus. dictum hoc inter nos fuit
(ex te adeost ortum), ne tu curares meum
neue ego tuom? responde, factumst?

DE. I have repressed myself, I have returned; I dismiss all maledictions:
let us consider the matter itself. This was the agreement between us
(it had its origin from you), that you should not care for mine,
nor I for yours? Answer—was it done?

MI. Non nego.
DE. Quor nunc apud te potat? quor recipis meum?

MI. I do not deny it.
DE. Why is he now drinking at your place? why do you receive my son?

quor emis amicam, Micio? numqui minus
mihi idem ius tecum ipse aequomst quod mecumst tibi?
quando ego tuom non curo, ne cura meum.

why do you buy a mistress, Micio? is it in any way less
equitable that I myself have the same right with you as you have with me?
since I don’t care for what is yours, don’t care for what is mine.

MI. Non aequom dicis. DE. Non? MI. Nam uetus uerbum hoc quidemst,
communia esse amicorum inter se omnia.

MI. You do not speak justly. DE. Not so? MI. For this is indeed an old proverb,
that all things are common among friends with one another.

DE. Facete: nunc demum istaec nata oratiost.
MI. Ausculta paucis, nisi molestumst, Demea.
principio, si id te mordet, sumptus filii
quos faciunt, quaeso hoc facito tecum cogites:
tu illos duo olim pro re tollebas tua
quod satis putabas tua bona ambobus fore,
et me tum uxorem credidisti scilicet
ducturum: eandem illam rationem antiquam optine:
conserua, parce, quaere, fac quam plurumum
illis relinquas, gloriam tu istanc tibi.

DE. Witty: now at last that speech is born.
MI. Listen to a few words, unless it’s troublesome, Demea.
To begin with, if this is what bites you—the expenses of the son
which they incur—please do this: consider this with yourself:
you used to maintain those two in proportion to your means,
because you thought your goods would be enough for both,
and you then, of course, believed that I would take a wife:
keep to that same old reckoning:
conserve, spare, acquire—see that you leave to them as much as possible;
claim that glory for yourself.

mea, quae praeter spem euenere, utantur sine.
de summa nil decedet: quod hinc accesserit,
id de lucro putato esse omne. haec si uoles
in animo uere cogitare, Demea,
et mihi et tibi et illis dempseris molestiam.

let them use my things, which have turned out beyond hope, freely.
from the sum nothing will be deducted: whatever has accrued from here,
consider all of that to be profit. if you will truly think these things
in your mind, Demea, you will subtract annoyance both from me and from you and from them.

DE. Mitto rem: consuetudinem ipsorum.. MI. Mane:
scio: istuc ibam. multa in homine, Demea,
signa insunt, quibus ex coniectura facile fit,
duo quom idem f:aciunt, saepe ut possis dicere
`hoc licet inpune facere huic, illi non licet',
non quo dissimilis res sit, sed quo is qui facit.
quae ego inesse in illis uideo, ut confidam fore
ita ut uolumus.

DE. I waive the matter: their own habit..
MI. Wait:
I know: I was going to that. Many signs are in a man, Demea,
by which from conjecture it is easy,
when two do the same, often that you can say
`this it is permitted to do with impunity for this one; for that one it is not permitted',
not because the thing is dissimilar, but because he who does it is.
which things I see to be in them, so that I am confident it will be
as we wish.

uideo sapere, intellegere, in loco
uereri, inter se amare. siris liberum
ingenium atque animum: quo uis illos tu die
redducas. at enim metuas, ne ab re sint tamen
omissiores paulo.

I see [them] to be wise, to understand, in due measure
to revere, to love one another among themselves. You will allow a free
disposition and mind: on whatever day you wish you
can lead them back. But indeed you may fear, lest they be, however,
a little more remiss about the matter.

o noster Demea
ad omnia alia aetate sapimus rectius;
solum unum hoc uiti senectus adfert hominibus:
attentiores sumus ad rem omnes, quam sat est:
quod illos sat aetas acuet. DE. Ne nimium modo
bonae tuae istae nos rationes, Micio,
et tuos iste animus aequos subuortat! MI. Tace:
non fiet.

o our Demea
in all other things by age we are wiser more rightly;
this one vice alone old age brings to men:
we are more attentive to every matter than is enough:
for age will sharpen them enough. DE. Only let not
those good reasonings of yours, Micio,
and that equitable spirit of yours, subvert us! MI. Hush:
it will not happen.

mitte iam istaec: da te hodie mihi:
exporge frontem. DE. Scilicet ita tempus fert,
faciundumst. ceterum ego rus cras cum filio
cum primo luci ibo hinc.

leave off these things now: give yourself to me today:
smooth your brow. DE. Of course, since the time so bears,
it must be done. But as for the rest, I will go to the country
tomorrow with my son, at first light, from here.

MI. De nocte, censeo:
hodie modo hilarum fac te. DE. Et istam psaltriam
una illuc mecum hinc abstraham. MI. Pugnaueris
eo pacto prorsum illi adligaris filium.
modo facito ut illam serues.

MI. In the night, I think:
just make yourself cheerful today. DE. And I will drag that psaltrist off there along with me from here. MI. You will have made a fight; by that course you will straightway tie the son to her.
only see that you keep that girl safe.

DE. Ego istuc uidero:
atque ibi fauillae plena, fumi ac pollinis
coquendo sit faxo et molendo; praeterhac
meridie ipso faciam ut stipulam conligat;
tam excoctam reddam atque atram quam carbost. MI. Placet:
nunc mihi uidere sapere. atque equidem filium
tum etiam si nolit cogam ut. cum illa una cubet.

DE. I will see to that:
and there, full of embers, of smoke and of dust,
I’ll make sure she is by cooking and by grinding; besides this
I will make her collect stubble at midday itself;
I’ll render her as overcooked and as black as charcoal is. MI. It pleases me:
now you seem to me to be wise. And indeed my son,
then even if he is unwilling, I will compel to lie together with her.

DE. Derides? fortunatus, qui isto animo sies.
ego sentio.. MI. Ah, pergisne?

DE. Do you deride? Fortunate, you who are of that spirit. I perceive it.. MI. Ah, do you proceed?

DE. Iam iam desino.
MI. I ergo intro, et quoi rei est, ei rei hunc sumamus diem.

DE. Right now I stop.
MI. Go then inside, and for whatever affair it is, for that affair let us take this day.

DEMEA
SENEX

DEMEA
OLD MAN

Numquam ita quisquam bene subducta ratione ad uitam fuit,
quin res aetas usus semper aliquid adportet noui,
aliquid moneat: ut illa quae te scisse credas nescias,
et quae tibi putaris primat in experiundo ut repudies.
quod nunc mi euenit: nam ego uitam duram, quam uixi usque adhuc,
prope iam excurso spatio omitto. id quam ob rem?

Never was anyone, with the reckoning well drawn up, set for life,
but that things, age, experience always bring in something new,
offer some admonition: such that those things which you believe you have known, you do not know,
and what you have thought for yourself as prime, in the experiencing you repudiate.
which has now happened to me: for I the hard life, which I have lived up to now,
with my course now almost run, am abandoning. For what reason is that?

re eapse repperi
facilitate nihil esse homini melius neque clementia.
id esse uerum ex me atque ex fratre quoiuis facilest noscere.
suam ille semper egit uitam in otio, in conuiuiis,
clemens, placidus, nulli laedere os, adridere omnibus:
sibi uixit, sibi sumptum fecit: omnes bene dicunt, amant.

by the thing itself I have discovered
that for a man nothing is better than affability nor than clemency.
that this is true it is very easy for anyone to learn from me and from my brother.
he has always conducted his life in leisure, in banquets,
clement, placid, to insult no one, to smile upon everyone:
he lived for himself, he made expense for himself: everyone speaks well of him, they love him.

ego ille agrestis saeuos tristis parcus truculentus tenax
duxi uxorem: quam ibi miseriam uidi! nati filii:
alia cura heia autem, dum studeo illis ut quam plurumum
facerem, contriui in quaerundo uitam atque aetatem meam:
nunc exacta aetate hoc fructi pro labore ab eis fero,
odium; ille alter sine labore patria potitur commoda.
illum amant, me fugitant; illi credunt consilia omnia,
illum diligunt, apud illum sunt ambo, ego desertus sum;
illum ut uiuat optant, meam autem mortem exspectant scilicet.

I, that rustic, savage, sad, parsimonious, truculent, tenacious fellow,
took a wife: what misery I saw there! sons were born:
another care—alas, however, while I strive for them that I might do as much as possible,
I wore down my life and my age in seeking (earning):
now, with my age spent, this fruit for my labor I bear from them—hatred; that other, without labor, enjoys a father’s advantages.
they love him, they shun me; to him they entrust all counsels,
him they esteem; with him both of them are, I am deserted;
that he may live they wish, but my death, of course, they expect.

ita eos meo labore eductos maxumo hic fecit suos
paulo sumptu: ego miseriam omnem capio, hic potitur gaudia.
age age nunc porro experiamur contra ecquid ego possiem
blande dicere aut benigne facere, quando hoc prouocat.
ego quoque a meis me amari et magni pendi postulo.

thus those, brought up by my very great labor, this fellow has made his own
by a small outlay: I take all the misery, he has possession of the joys.
come, come, now then let us try in turn whether I can do anything
to speak blandly or to act benignly, since this provokes/challenges it.
I too demand from my own to be loved and to be esteemed at a great price.

si id fit dando atque obsequendo, non posteriores feram.
derit? id mea minume re fert, qui sum natu maxumus.

If that is done by giving and by obsequiously complying, I will not bear to be behind.
Will it be lacking? That concerns me not at all, I who am eldest by birth.

SYRVS DEMEA
SERVOS SENEX

SYRUS DEMEA
SLAVE OLD MAN

SY. Heus Demea, rogat pater ne abeas longius.
DE. Quis homo? o Syre noster, salue: quid fit?

SY. Hey, Demea, your father asks that you not go any farther.
DE. What man? O our Syrus, hail; what’s happening?

quid agitur?
SY. Recte. DE. Optumest: iam nunc haec tria primum addidi
praeter naturam: `o noster, quid fit?

what is being done?
SY. Rightly. DE. It is excellent: even now I have, first of all, added these three beyond my nature:
`O our man, what is happening?

quid agitur?'
seruom haud inliberalem praebes te, et tibi
iubens bene faxim. SY. Gratiam habeo. DE. Atqui, Syre,
hoc uerumst, et re eapse experiere propediem.

what is going on?'
you present yourself as a not illiberal slave, and for you
by ordering I will do well. SY. I have gratitude. DE. But indeed, Syrus,
this is true, and by the thing itself you will experience it very soon.

GETA DEMEA
SERVOS SENEX

GETA DEMEA
SLAVE OLD MAN

GE. Era, ego huc ad hos prouiso, quam mox uirginem
arcessant. sed eccum Demeam. saluos sies.

GE. Mistress, I’m here to look to these men, how soon they will summon the maiden.
But look, here’s Demea. May you be safe.

DE. O---qui uocare? GE. Geta. DE. Geta, hominem maxumi
preti te esse hodie iudicaui animo meo:
nam is mihi profectost seruos spectatus satis,
quoi dominus curaest, ita uti tibi sensi, Geta,
et tibi ob eam rem, siquid usus uenerit,
lubens bene faxim.

DE. O—whom are you calling? GE. Geta. DE. Geta, I have today judged in my mind that you are a man of the greatest price:
for indeed, to me that slave is sufficiently proven,
for whom his master is a care, just as I have sensed it is with you, Geta,
and to you for that reason, if any need should arise,
I will gladly do you good.

meditor esse adfabilis,
et bene procedit. GE. Bonus es, quom haec existumas.
DE. Paulatim plebem primulum facio meam.

I practice to be affable, and it proceeds well. GE. You are good, since you think these things. DE. Little by little I am, at the very first, making the plebeians mine.

AESCHINUS DEMEA SYRVS GETA
ADVLESCENS SENEX SERVI DVO

AESCHINUS DEMEA SYRUS GETA
ADOLESCENT OLD MAN TWO SLAVES

AE. Occidunt mequidem, dum nimis sanctas nuptias
student facere: in adparando consumunt diem.
DE. Quid agitur, Aeschine? AE. Ehem, pater mi, tu hic eras?

AE. They are killing me indeed, while they strive to make the nuptials too sacred: in preparing they consume the day.
DE. What is going on, Aeschinus? AE. Ahem, my father, you were here?

DE. Tuos hercle uero et animo et natura pater
qui te amat plus quam hosce oculos. sed quor non domum
uxorem arcessis? AE. Cupio; uerum hoc mihi moraest:
tibicina et hymenaeum qui cantent.

DE. Your father indeed, by Hercules, both in mind and in nature
who loves you more than these very eyes. But why don’t you summon your wife home?
AE. I desire to; but this is my delay: a flute-girl and those to sing the Hymenaeus.

DE. Eho,
uin tu huic seni auscultare? AE. Quid? DE. Missa haec face
hymenaeum turbam lampadas tibicinas,
atque hanc in horto maceriam iube dirui
quantum potest: hac transfer, unam fac domum:
transduc et matrem et familiam omnem ad nos.

DE. Hey,
do you want to listen to this old man? AE. What? DE. Let this go—
the hymeneal, the crowd, the torches, the flute-girls—,
and order this wall in the garden to be torn down
as much as can be: through here transfer, make one house:
lead across both the mother and the whole household to us.

AE. Placet,
pater lepidissume. DE. Euge, iam lepidus uocor.
fratri aedes fient peruiae, turbam domum
adducet, sumptu amittet multa: quid mea?

AE. It pleases me,
father most charming. DE. Bravo, now I am called charming.
for my brother the house will be made pervious, he will bring a crowd home,
he will lose much in expense: what’s that to me?

ego lepidus ineo gratiam. iube nunciam
dinumeret ille Babylo uiginti minas.
Syre, cessas ire ac facere?

I, as a charming fellow, ingratiate myself. Order now at once that Babylo count out twenty minas.
Syrus, are you delaying to go and do it?

SY. Quid eoo? DE. Dirue.
tu illas abi ac transduce.

SY. What about it? DE. Tear it down.
you go off and bring those women across.

--- GE. Di tibi, Demea,
bene faciant, quom te uideo nostrae familiae
tam ex animo factum uelle. DE. Dignos arbitror.

--- GE. May the gods do well by you, Demea,
since I see you wish, from the heart, a good deed to be done for our family.
DE. I consider them deserving.

quid tu ais? AE. Sic opinor. DE. Multo rectiust
quam illam puerperam huc nunc duci per uiam
aegrotam.

what do you say? AE. So I suppose. DE. Much more proper
than for that puerperal woman, sick, to be led here now along the road.

AE. Nil enim uidi melius, mi pater.
DE. Sic soleo. sed eccum Micio egreditur foras.

AE. For I have seen nothing better, my father.
DE. So I am accustomed. But look, here is Micio coming out.

MICIO DEMEA AESCHINVS
SENES DVO ADVLESCENS

MICIO DEMEA AESCHINUS
TWO OLD MEN ADOLESCENT

MI. Iubet frater? ubi is est? tun iubes hoc, Demea?

MI. Does my brother bid it? Where is he? Is it you who bid this, Demea?

DE. Ego uero iubeo et hac re et aliis omnibus
quam maxume unam facere nos hanc familiam,
colere adiuuare adiungere. AE. Ita quaeso, pater.
MI. Haud aliter censeo.

DE. I indeed bid that in this matter and in all others
that we make this family as much as possible one—
to cultivate, to aid, to join. AE. So, please, father.
MI. I think not otherwise.

DE. Immo hercle ita nobis decet:
primum huius uxori est mater. MI. Est. quid postea?

DE. Nay, by Hercules, so it befits us:
first, his wife has a mother. MI. She has. What next?

DE. Proba et modesta. MI. Ita; aiunt. DE. Natu grandior.

DE. Upright and modest. MI. Yes; they say so. DE. Older in years.

MI. Scio. DE. Parere iam diu haec per annos non potest:
nec qui eam respiciat quisquam est: solast. MI. Quam hic rem agit?

MI. I know. DE. This woman, for a long time now, on account of her years, cannot bear:
nor is there anyone to regard her: she is alone. MI. What is he up to here?

D:E. Hanc te aequomst ducere, et te operam ut fiat dare.
MI. Me ducere autem? DE. Te. MI. Me? DE. Te inquam.

D:E. It is right that you marry her, and that you give your effort to make it happen.
MI. Me marry her, then? DE. You. MI. Me? DE. You, I say.

MI. Ineptis. DE. Si tu sis homo,
hic faciat. AE. Mi pater!

MI. Nonsense. DE. If you were a man, let this fellow do it.
AE. My father!

MI. Quid tu autem huic, asine, auscultas? DE. Nihil agis:
fieri aliter non potest. MI. Deliras.

MI. What, then, are you listening to this fellow for, you ass? DE. You do nothing: it cannot be done otherwise.
MI. You rave.

AE. Sine te exorem, mi pater.
MI. Insanis: aufer te. DE. Age, da ueniam filio. MI. Satin sanus es?
ego nouos maritus anno demum quinto et sexagensumo
fiam atque anum decrepitam ducam?

AE. Allow me to win you over, my father.
MI. You are insane: be off with you. DE. Come now, grant pardon to your son. MI. Are you quite sane?
Am I to become a new bridegroom at last in my sixty-fifth year and marry a decrepit old woman?

idne estis auctores mihi?
AE. Fac: promisi ego illis. MI. Promisti autem?

Is this what you are the guarantors for to me?
AE. Do it: I promised them. MI. You promised, did you?

de te largitor, puer.
DE. Age, quid siquid te maius oret? MI. Quasi non hoc sit maxumum.

be lavish on your own account, boy.
DE. Come, what if something greater should beg you? MI. As if this were not the greatest thing.

DE. Da ueniam. AE. Ne grauare. DE. Fac, promitte.

DE. Grant pardon. AE. Do not be reluctant. DE. Do it, promise.

MI. Non omittitis?
AE. Non, nisi te exorem. MI. Vis est haec quidem.

MI. Will you not desist?
AE. No, not unless I prevail upon you. MI. This indeed is force.

Age prolixe, Micio.
MI. Etsi hoc mihi prauom ineptum absurdum atque alienum a uita mea
uidetur, si uos tanto opere istuc uoltis, fiat. AE. Bene facis.

Come, be generous, Micio.
MI. Although this seems to me wrong, inept, absurd, and alien to my way of life,
if you all so greatly want that, let it be done. AE. You do well.

DE. Merito te amo. uerum quid ego dicam, hoc quom confit quod uolo?
MI. Quid?

DE. Rightly do I love you. But what am I to say, when this concedes what I want?
MI. What?

numquid restat? DE. Hegio cognatus his est proxumus,
adfinis nobis, pauper: bene nos aliquid facere illi decet.
MI. Quid facere?

Is there anything left? DE. Hegio is their nearest kinsman,
an in-law to us, poor: it befits us to do something good for him.
MI. What are we to do?

DE. Agelli est hic sub urbe paulum quod locitas foras:
huic demus qui fruatur. MI. Paulum id autemst? DE. Si multumst, tamen
faciundumst: pro patre huic est, bonus est, noster est, recte datur.

DE. There is here near the city a little plot which you lease out to others:
to this man let us give it, that he may enjoy it. MI. Is that little, then? DE. Even if it is much, nevertheless
it must be done: he is as a father to him, he is a good man, he is one of ours, it is rightly given.

postremo nunc meum illud uerbum facio, quod tu, Micio,
bene et sapienter dixti dudum: `uitium commune omniumst,
quod nimium ad rem in senecta attenti sumus'. hanc maculam nos decet
ecfugere: et dictumst uere et re eapse fieri oportet. AE. Mi pater!
MI. Quid istic?

finally now I make that saying mine, which you, Micio,
said well and wisely a little while ago: `it is the common vice of all,
that in old age we are too intent upon our affairs'. This blemish it befits us to
escape: and it has been said truly, and it ought to be effected in the thing itself. AE. My father!
MI. What is it?

ager dabitur Hegioni, quandoquidem hic uolt. AE. Gaudeo.
DE. Nunc tu mihi es germanus frater pariter animo et corpore.

the field will be given to Hegio, since indeed he here wills it. AE. I am glad. DE. Now you are to me a german brother alike in mind and in body.

suo sibi gladio hunc iugulo.

I jugulate him with his own sword.

SYRVS DEMEA MICIO AESCHINVS
SERVOS SENES DVO ADULESCENS

SYRUS DEMEA MICIO AESCHINUS
SLAVE TWO OLD MEN YOUNG MAN

SY. Factumst quod iussisti, Demea.
DE. Frugi homo's. ergo edepol hodie mea quidem sententia
iudico Syrum fieri esse aequom liberum. MI. Istunc liberum?

SY. What you ordered is done, Demea.
DE. You’re a worthy man. Therefore, by Pollux, today, at least in my opinion,
I judge it equitable that Syrus be made free. MI. That fellow free?

quodnam ob factum? DE. Multa. SY. o noster Demea, edepol uir bonus:
ego istos uobis usque a pueris curaui ambos sedulo;
docui, monui, bene praecepi semper quae potui omnia.

for what deed? DE. Many. SY. O our Demea, by Pollux, a good man:
I have cared for those two for you from boyhood continually, diligently;
I taught, I admonished, I gave good precepts—always all that I could.

DE. Res apparet: et quidem porro haec, opsonare cum fide,
scortum adducere, adparare de die conuiuium:
non mediocris hominis haec sunt officia. SY. O lepidum caput!
DE. Postremo hodie in psaltria ista emunda hic adiutor fuit,
hic curauit: prodesse aequomst.

DE. The matter is evident: and indeed further these things— to do the marketing faithfully,
to bring a courtesan, to prepare a banquet in broad daylight:
these are not the offices of a mediocre man. SY. O charming head!
DE. Finally, today in buying that harp-girl this man was a helper,
he took care of it: it is right to benefit him.

alii meliores erunt.
denique hic uolt fieri. MI. Vin tu hoc fieri?

others will be better.
finally, this man wants it to be done. MI. Do you want this to be done?

AE. Cupio. MI. Si quidem
tu uis: Syre, eho accede huc ad me: liber esto. SY. Bene facis;
omnibus gratiam habeo, et seorsum tibi praeterea, Demea.

AE. I desire. MI. If indeed you wish: Syrus, hey, come here to me: be free. SY. You do well; I have gratitude to all, and separately to you besides, Demea.

DE. Gaudeo. AE. Et ego. SY. Credo: utinam hoc perpetuom fiat gaudium,
Phrygiam ut uxorem meam una mecum uideam liberam!

DE. I rejoice. AE. And I as well. SY. I believe: would that this joy become perpetual,
that I may see Phrygia, my wife, free together with me!

DE. Optumam istam mulierem. SY. Et quidem tuo nepoti huius filio
hodie prima mammam dedit haec. DE. Hercle uero serio,
siquidem prima dedit, hau dubiumst quin emitti aequom siet.

DE. An excellent woman, that. SY. And indeed, to your grandson, this woman’s son, today she gave the breast for the first time. DE. By Hercules, truly, in earnest, since she was the first to give it, there’s no doubt that it is right she be manumitted.

MI. Ob eam rem? DE. Ob eam: postremo a me argentum quantist sumito.
SY. Di tibi, Demea, omnia omnes semper optata offerant!

MI. For that reason? DE. For that reason: finally, take from me the money, whatever it amounts to.
SY. May the gods offer to you, Demea, all things—every one—always as you have desired!

MI. Syre, processisti hodie pulcre. DE. Siquidem porro, Micio,
hi tuom officium facies, atque huic aliquid paulum prae manu
dederis, unde utatur: reddet tibi cito. MI. Istoc uilius.

MI. Syrus, you have proceeded handsomely today. DE. Since indeed moreover, Micio, if you will do your duty to these, and will have given this man a little something in hand, to make use of, he will render it back to you quickly. MI. Cheaper than that.

AE. Frugi homost. SY. Reddam hercle, da modo. AE. Age, pater!

AE. He’s a frugal man. SY. By Hercules, I’ll pay it back—just give it now. AE. Come, father!

MI. Post consulam.
DE. Faciet. SY. O uir optume!

MI. I will consult later.
DE. He will do it. SY. O best of men!

AE. O pater mi festiuissume!
MI. Quid istuc? quae res tam repente mores mutauit tuos
quod prolubium?

AE. O my most delightful father!
MI. What is this? What thing has so suddenly changed your ways—what impulse?

quae istaec subitast largitas? DE. Dicam tibi:
ut id ostenderem, quod te isti facilem et festiuom putant,
id non fieri ex uera uita neque adeo ex aequo et bono,
sed ex adsentando indulgendo et largiendo, Micio.
nunc adeo si ob eam rem uobis mea uita inuisa, Aeschine, est,
quia non iusta iniusta prorsus omnia omnino obsequor,
missam facio: ecfundite, emite, facite quod uobis lubet.

what sudden largess is this? DE. I will tell you:
to show this, that those fellows think you easy and festive,
that does not arise from true living nor indeed from equity and the good,
but from assenting, indulging, and largessing, Micio.
now then, if for that reason my way of life is hateful to you, Aeschinus,
because I do not in every way comply with absolutely everything, just and unjust,
I let it go: pour out, buy, do what you please.

sed si id uoltis potius, quae uos propter adulescentiam
minus uidetis, magis inpense cupitis, consulitis parum,
haec reprehendere et corrigere quem, obsecundare in loco:
ecce me qui id faciam uobis. AE. Tibi, pater, permittimus:
plus scis quod opus factost. sed de fratre quid fiet?

but if you prefer this rather: that the things which, on account of your adolescence
you see less, you desire more intensely, you consult too little,
to reprove and to correct these, to second them in their proper time:
behold me, I who will do that for you. AE. To you, father, we permit it:
you know better what work needs to be done. But about my brother—what will happen?

DE. Sino:
habeat; in istac finem faciat. MI. Istuc recte. CANTOR.

DE. I allow it:
let him have it; in that matter let him make an end. MI. That is right. SINGER.

Plaudite.

Applaud.