Valerius Maximus: FACTORVM ET DICTORVM MEMORABILIVM LIBRI NOVEM

2.1.init. Diues et praepotens naturae regnum scrutatus iniciam stilum qua nostrae urbis qua exterarum gentium priscis ac memorabilibus institutis: opus est enim cognosci huiusce uitae, quam sub optimo principe felicem agimus, quaenam fuerint elementa, ut eorum quoque respectus aliquid praesentibus moribus prosit.

2.1.init. Having examined the rich and very powerful realm of nature, I shall set up my stylus whereby I may treat the ancient and memorable institutions of our city and of foreign peoples: for it is necessary that the elements of this life, which we live happily under the best prince, be known, that consideration of them may also profit present morals.

2.1.1 Apud antiquos non solum publice, sed etiam priuatim nihil gerebatur nisi auspicio prius sumpto. quo ex more nuptiis etiam nunc auspices interponuntur, qui, quamuis auspicia petere desierint, ipso tamen nomine ueteris consuetudinis uestigia usurpantur.

2.1.1 Among the ancients not only publicly but also privately nothing was done unless an auspice had first been taken. From this custom even now augurs are interposed at marriages, who, although they have ceased to request auspices, nevertheless by the very name of the old custom appropriate its vestiges.

2.1.2 Feminae cum uiris cubantibus sedentes cenitabant. quae consuetudo ex hominum conuictu ad diuina penetrauit: nam Iouis epulo ipse in lectulum, Iuno et Minerua in sellas ad cenam inuitabantur. quod genus seueritatis aetas nostra diligentius in Capitolio quam in suis domibus conseruat, uidelicet quia magis ad rem pertinet dearum quam mulierum disciplinam contineri.

2.1.2 Women, while the men reclined, sat and dined. This custom passed from human conviviality into divine practice: for at Jupiter’s feast he himself was invited to the couch, Juno and Minerva to chairs for the dinner. This sort of austerity our age preserves more diligently in the Capitol than in its own houses, evidently because it is more to the purpose that the discipline of the goddesses be maintained than that of women.

2.1.3 Quae uno contentae matrimonio fuerant corona pudicitiae honorabantur: existimabant enim eum praecipue matronae sincera fide incorruptum esse animum, qui depositae uirginitatis cubile [in publicum] egredi nesciret, multorum matrimoniorum experientiam quasi legitimae cuiusdam intemperantiae signum esse credentes.

2.1.3 Women who had been content with one marriage were honored as a crown of chastity: for matrons thought that especially a mind was incorrupt through sincere fidelity which, virginity having been laid aside, did not know how to leave the bed [in public]; they believed the experience of many marriages to be a sign of a certain lawful intemperance.

2.1.4 Repudium inter uxorem et uirum a condita urbe usque ad centesimum et quinquagesimum annum nullum intercessit. primus autem Sp. Caruilius uxorem sterilitatis causa dimisit. qui, quamquam tolerabili ratione motus uidebatur, reprehensione tamen non caruit, quia ne cupiditatem quidem liberorum coniugali fidei praeponi debuisse arbitrabantur.

2.1.4 No repudiation between wife and husband occurred from the founding of the city up to the 150th year. But the first was Sp. Caruilius, who repudiated his wife on account of sterility. He, although he seemed moved by a tolerable reason, was nevertheless not free from reproach, because they judged that not even the desire for children ought to have been preferred to conjugal fidelity.

Sed quo matronale decus uerecundiae munimento tutius esset, in ius uocanti matronam corpus eius adtingere non permiserunt, ut inuiolata manus alienae tactu stola relinqueretur.

But so that the matronal decus might be more safely guarded by the bulwark of modesty, they did not permit the matron’s body to be touched when summoned into court, that her stola might be left inviolate by the touch of another’s hand.

2.1.5 Vini usus olim Romanis feminis ignotus fuit, ne scilicet in aliquod dedecus prolaberentur, quia proximus a Libero patre intemperantiae gradus ad inconcessam uenerem esse consueuit. ceterum ut non tristis earum et horrida pudicitia, sed [et] honesto comitatis genere temperata esset,++indulgentibus namque maritis et auro abundanti et multa purpura usae sunt++quo formam suam concinniorem efficerent, summa cum diligentia capillos cinere rutilarunt: nulli enim tunc subsessorum alienorum matrimoniorum oculi metuebantur, sed pariter et uidere sancte et aspici mutuo pudore custodiebatur.

2.1.5 The use of wine was formerly unknown to Roman women, lest, to be sure, they should fall into any disgrace, because the step nearest to Liber, the father of intemperance, was accustomed to lead to unpermitted desire. But so that their chastity might not be sad and horrid, but [et] tempered by an honest kind of comeliness,++for indulgent husbands and abundant in gold and much purple they made use of++by which they might render their appearance more graceful, with the greatest care they tinged their hair red with ash: for then the eyes of foreign suitors were feared by no one, but both to see sacredly and to be seen was guarded by mutual modesty.

2.1.6 Quotiens uero inter uirum et uxorem aliquid iurgi intercesserat, in sacellum deae Viriplacae, quod est in Palatio, ueniebant et ibi inuicem locuti quae uoluerant contentione animorum deposita concordes reuertebantur. dea nomen hoc a placandis uiris fertur adsecuta, ueneranda quidem et nescio an praecipuis et exquisitis sacrificiis colenda utpote cotidianae ac domesticae pacis custos, in pari iugo caritatis ipsa sui appellatione uirorum maiestati debitum a feminis reddens honorem.

2.1.6 Whenever, however, some quarrel had arisen between husband and wife, they would go to the little shrine of the goddess Viriplaca, which is in the Palace, and there, having spoken to one another what they wished, with the contention of minds laid aside they would return reconciled. The goddess is said to have acquired this name from placating husbands, to be worshipped indeed — perhaps with foremost and exquisite sacrifices — as guardian of daily and domestic peace, in the equal yoke of affection herself by that appellation restoring to the majesty of husbands the honour due from women.

2.1.7 Huius modi inter coniuges uerecundia: quid, inter ceteras necessitudines nonne apparet consentanea? nam ut minimo indicio maximam uim eius significem, aliquandiu nec pater cum filio pubere nec socer cum genero lauabatur. manifestum igitur est tantum religionis sanguini et adfinitati quantum ipsis dis inmortalibus tributum, quia inter ista tam sancta uincula non magis quam in aliquo sacrato loco nudare se [ne]fas esse credebatur.

2.1.7 This sort of modesty among spouses: what, does it not appear consonant among their other intimacies? For, that I may show its greatest force by the smallest sign, for a while neither father with his pubescent son nor father‑in‑law with his son‑in‑law bathed together. It is therefore manifest that as much of religion was due to blood and affinity as was paid to the immortal gods themselves, since among these so holy bonds it was believed that it was no less impious to undress oneself than in any consecrated place.

2.1.8 Conuiuium etiam sollemne maiores institue runt idque caristia appellauerunt, cui praeter cognatos et adfines nemo interponebatur, ut, si qua inter necessarias personas querella esset orta, apud sacra mensae et inter hilaritatem animorum et fautoribus concordiae adhibitis tolleretur.

2.1.8 A solemn banquet the ancestors likewise instituted, and called it the caristia, to which, besides kinsmen and affines, no one was admitted, so that if any quarrel had arisen among those bound by necessity it might be removed at the sacred table, amid the cheer of minds and with supporters of concord brought in.

2.1.9 Senectuti iuuenta ita cumulatum et circumspectum honorem reddebat, tamquam maiores natu adulescentium communes patres essent. quocirca iuuenes senatus die utique aliquem ex patribus conscriptis aut propinquum aut paternum amicum ad curiam deducebant adfixique ualuis expectabant, donec reducendi etiam officio fungerentur. qua quidem uoluntaria statione et corpora et animos ad publica officia inpigre sustinenda roborabant breuique processurarum in lucem uirtutum suarum uerecunda laboris meditatione ipsi doctores erant.

2.1.9 Old age returned to youth such a heaped and circumspect honor, as if the elders by birth were the common fathers of the young. Wherefore the young, on the appointed day of the senate, would certainly conduct to the curia some one of the patribus conscriptis, either a kinsman or a paternal friend, and wait at the bolted doors, until they should also discharge the duty of conducting him back. By this voluntary station they strengthened both bodies and minds to bear public duties eagerly, and by the modest meditation of labor in the short processions bringing their virtues to light they themselves were teachers.

Inuitati ad cenam diligenter quaerebant quinam ei conuiuio essent interfuturi, ne seniorum aduentum discubitu praecurrerent, sublataque mensa priores consurgere et abire patiebantur. ex quibus apparet cenae quoque tempore quam parco et quam modesto sermone his praesentibus soliti sint uti.

The guests invited to the dinner carefully inquired who would be present at that banquet, lest by reclining they anticipate the arrival of the elders; and when the table was cleared they allowed the seniors to rise first and depart. From this it appears how frugal and how modest in speech they were wont to be at the time of a dinner with those present.

2.1.10 Maiores natu in conuiuiis ad tibias egregia superiorum opera carmine conprehensa ~ pangebant, quo ad ea imitanda iuuentutem alacriorem redderent. quid hoc splendidius, quid etiam utilius certamine? pubertas canis suum decus reddebat, defuncta [uiri] cursu aetas ingredientes actuosam uitam feruoris nutrimentis prosequebatur.

2.1.10 The elders by age at banquets, to the sound of pipes, would sing (pangebant) the outstanding deeds of their predecessors caught up in song, whereby they made the youth keener to imitate them. What could be more splendid than this, what even more useful than such rivalry? Youth, like a hound, restored its own glory; the race of the man having ended, the entering age pursued an active life, nourished by the aliment of fervor.

quas Athenas, quam scholam, quae alienigena studia huic domesticae disciplinae praetulerim? inde oriebantur Camilli, Scipiones, Fabricii, Marcelli, Fabii, ac ne singula imperii nostri lumina simul percurrendo sim longior, inde, inquam, caeli clarissima pars, diui fulserunt Caesares.

Which Athens, which school, which foreign studies did I prefer to this domestic disciplina? From thence arose the Camilli, the Scipiones, the Fabricii, the Marcelli, the Fabii; and, lest I be long in running through individually the lumina of our imperium, from thence, I say, the clearest part of the heavens, the divine Caesars, shone.

2.2.1 Adeo autem magna caritate patriae tenebantur, ut arcana consilia patrum conscriptorum multis saeculis nemo senator enuntiauerit. Q. Fabius Maximus tantum modo, et is ipse per inprudentiam, de tertio Punico bello indicendo quod secro in curia erat actum P. Crasso rus petens domum reuertenti in itinere narrauit, memor eum triennio ante quaestorem factum, ignarus nondum a censoribus in ordinem senatorium allectum, quo uno modo etiam iis, qui iam honores gesserant, aditus in curiam dabatur. sed quamuis honestus error Fabii esset, uehementer tamen a consulibus obiurgatus est: numquam enim taciturnitatem, optimum ac tutissimum administrandarum rerum uinculum, labefactari uolebant.

2.2.1 They were held by so great a caritas for the patria that the secret deliberations of the patres conscripti were declared by no senator for many centuries. Only Q. Fabius Maximus — and he himself through imprudence — spoke of the third Punic war’s being decreed, which had been done in secreto in the curia, when P. Crassus, seeking the countryside and returning home on a journey, related it, remembering that three years earlier he had been made quaestor, not yet, ignorant, admitted by the censors into the senatorial order, by which one way also access to the curia was given to those who had already borne offices. But although Fabius’s mistake was honest, he was nevertheless severely rebuked by the consuls: for they never wished the taciturnity — the best and safest bond of administering affairs — to be weakened.

Ergo, cum Asiae rex Eumenes amantissimus nostrae urbis bellum a Perse aduersus populum Romanum conparari senatui nuntiasset, non ante sciri potuit quid aut ille locutus esset aut patres respondissent quam captum Persen cognitum est. fidum erat et altum rei publicae pectus curia silentique salubritate munitum et uallatum undique, cuius limen intrantes abiecta priuata caritate publicam induebant. itaque non dicam unum, sed neminem audisse crederes quod tam multorum auribus fuerat commissum.

Therefore, when Eumenes, king of Asia, most devoted to our city, had reported to the senate that war by Perse against the Roman people was being prepared, it could not be known what either he had said or the fathers had answered until the capture of Perse was made known. The curia was a faithful and deep breast of the republic, fortified and walled about by salutary silence, whose threshold — those entering — cast aside private affection and assumed the public. Thus I will not say that one had not heard, but you would believe that no one had heard, so many ears had been entrusted with it.

2.2.2 Magistratus uero prisci quantopere suam populique Romani maiestatem retinentes se gesserint hinc cognosci potest, quod inter cetera obtinendae grauitatis indicia illud quoque magna cum perseuerantia custodiebant, ne Graecis umquam nisi latine responsa darent. quin etiam ipsos linguae uolubilitate, qua plurimum ualent, excussa per interpretem loqui cogebant non in urbe tantum nostra, sed etiam in Graecia et Asia, quo scilicet Latinae uocis honos per omnes gentes uenerabilior diffunderetur. nec illis deerant studia doctrinae, sed nulla non in re pallium togae subici debere arbitrabantur, indignum esse existimantes inlecebris et suauitati litterarum imperii pondus et auctoritatem donari.

2.2.2 The magistrates, however, of old — how greatly they comported themselves while retaining their own and the Roman people's majesty — may be known from this: among other signs of preserving dignity they also with great perseverance guarded that they would never give answers to Greeks except in Latin. Indeed they compelled the Greeks themselves, shaken by the volubility of their tongue by which they are very powerful, to speak through an interpreter not only in our city but also in Greece and Asia, that the honor of the Latin word might be more venerably spread among all nations. Nor did they lack zeal for learning, but they held that the pallium must be subordinated to the toga in every matter, judging it unworthy that the weight and authority of the empire be entrusted to the allurements and sweetness of letters.

2.2.3 Quapropter non es damnandus rustici rigoris crimine, C. Mari, quia gemina lauru coronatam senectutem tuam, Numidicis et Germanicis inlustrem tropaeis, uictor deuictae gentis facundia politiorem fieri noluisti, credo, ne alienigena ingenii exercitatione patrii ritus serus transfuga existeres. quis ergo huic consuetudini, qua nunc Graecis actionibus aures curiae exurdantur, ianuam patefecit? ut opinor, Molo rhetor, qui studia M. Ciceronis acuit: eum namque ante omnes exterarum gentium in senatu sine interprete auditum constat.

2.2.3 Therefore you are not to be condemned for the charge of rustic strictness, C. Marius, since twin laurels crown your old age, illustrious with Numidian and Germanic trophies; I believe you did not wish your eloquence, that of the victor of a conquered people, to become more refined, lest by practice of a foreign talent you should, too late, prove a deserter of your native rites. Who then opened the door to that habit, by which now the hearings of the curia are deafened with Greek pleadings? As I suppose, Molo the rhetorician, who sharpened the studies of M. Cicero: for it is agreed that he was heard in the senate before all foreign nations without an interpreter.

quem honorem non inmerito cepit, quoniam summam uim Romanae eloquentiae adiuuerat. conspicuae felicitatis Arpinas <m>unic<ipi>um, siue litterarum gloriosissimum contemptorem siue abundantissimum fontem intueri uelis.

an honor which he did not undeservedly receive, since he had aided the supreme force of Roman eloquence. If you wish to behold Arpinum, the municipium of conspicuous felicity, either as the most glorious despiser of letters or as their most abundant fountain.

2.2.4 Maxima autem diligentia maiores hunc morem retinuerunt, ne quis se inter consulem et proximum lictorem, quamuis officii causa una progrederetur, interponeret. filio dumtaxat et ei puero ante patrem consulem ambulandi ius erat. qui mos adeo pertinaciter retentus est, ut Q. Fabius Maximus quinquies consul, uir et iam pridem summae auctoritatis et tunc ultimae senectutis, a filio consule inuitatus ut inter se et lictorem procederet, ne hostium Samnitium turba, ad quorum conloquium descendebant, elideretur, facere id noluerit.

2.2.4 With the greatest diligence our ancestors preserved this custom, that no one should interpose himself between a consul and the next lictor, even though for the sake of duty they were advancing together. Only the son and that boy had the right to walk before the consul. The custom was retained so pertinaciously that Q. Fabius Maximus, five times consul, a man long of the highest authority and then in extreme old age, when invited by his son the consul to proceed between him and the lictor so that the crowd of Samnite enemies, to whose assembly they were descending, might not be crushed, would not do it.

Idem a senatu legatus ad filium consulem Suessam <Pometiam> missus, postquam animaduertit eum ad officium suum extra moenia oppidi processisse, indignatus quod ex XI lictoribus nemo se equo descendere iussisset, plenus irae sedere perseuerauit. <quod cum filius sensisset, proximo lictori ut sibi appareret imperauit.> cuius uoci continuo Fabius obsecutus 'non ego' inquit, 'fili, summum imperium tuum contempsi, sed experiri uolui an scires consulem agere: nec ignoro quid patriae uenerationi debeatur, uerum publica instituta priuata pietate potiora iudico'.

The same man was sent by the senate as legate to his son, the consul Suessa Pometia; and after he noticed that the son had advanced outside the town walls to his duty, indignant that out of 11 lictors no one had ordered him to dismount from his horse, he remained seated, full of anger. To that summons Fabius at once replied, "Not I, my son," he said, "I have not scorned your supreme authority, but I wished to try whether you knew how to act as consul; nor am I ignorant of what is owed to the veneration of the fatherland, yet I judge public institutions preferable to private piety."

2.2.5 Relatis Q. Fabi laudibus offerunt se mirificae constantiae uiri, qui legati a senatu Tarentum ad res petendas missi, cum grauissimas ibi iniurias accepissent, unus etiam urina respersus esset, in theatrum, ut est consuetudo Graeciae, introducti legationem quibus acceperant uerbis peregerunt. de his, quae passi erant, questi non sunt, ne quid ultra ac mandatum esset loquerentur, intusque pectoribus eorum antiqui moris respectus dolore, qui ex contumelia grauissimus sentitur, conuelli non potuit. finem profecto fruendarum opum, quibus ad inuidiam diu abundaueras, Tarentina ciuitas, quaesisti: nam dum horridae uirtutis in se ipsum conixum stabilimentum nitore fortunae praesentis inflata fastidiose aestimas, in praeualidum imperii nostri mucronem caeca et amens inruisti.

2.2.5 When these things were related, they present themselves as examples of the marvelous constancy of the man Q. Fabius, who, sent by the senate as legates to Tarentum to recover matters , after they had received there very grave injuries — one even having been besprinkled with urine — were led into the theatrum, as is the custom of Greece, and completed the legation with the words they had received. They complained not of those things which they had suffered, lest they should speak anything beyond their mandate; and the regard for an ancient custom in their breasts, a respect born of a pain most severe in its contumely, could not be torn away. Truly, O Tarentine city, you sought the end of the enjoyment of the wealth by which you long abounded to the envy: for while, swollen with the sheen of present fortune, you disdainfully esteem the proven bulwark of terrible valour exerted in itself, you blindly and madly rushed upon the very strong point of our imperium.

2.2.6 Sed ut a luxu perditis moribus ad seuerissima maiorum instituta transgrediar, antea senatus adsiduam stationem eo loci peragebat, qui hodieque senaculum appellatur: nec expectabat ut edicto contraheretur, sed inde citatus protinus in curiam ueniebat, ambiguae laudis ciuem existimans, qui debitis rei publicae officiis non sua sponte, sed iussus fungeretur, quia quidquid imperio cogitur exigenti magis quam praestanti acceptum refertur.

2.2.6 But that I may pass from morals ruined by luxury to the most severe institutions of our ancestors, formerly the senate kept a continual station in that place which even today is called the senaculum: nor did one wait to be summoned by edict, but, being cited thence, came straight into the curia, thinking himself a citizen of doubtful praise, who performed the duties owed to the res publica not of his own will but because ordered, for whatever is forced by command is reckoned as taken more by compulsion than by merit.

2.2.7 Illud quoque memoria repetendum est, quod tribunis pl. intrare curiam non licebat, ante ualuas autem positis subselliis decreta patrum attentissima cura examinabant, ut, si qua ex eis improbassent, rata esse non sinerent. itaque ueteribus senatus consultis C littera subscribi solebat, eaque nota significabatur illa tribunos quoque censuisse. qui, quamuis pro commodis plebis excubabant inque imperiis conpescendis occupati erant, instrui tamen ea argenteis uasis et anulis aureis publice praebitis patiebantur, quo talium rerum usu auctoritas magistratuum esset ornatior.

2.2.7 That also must be recalled to memory, that it was not permitted for the tribunes of the plebs to enter the curia; but with benches placed before the doors they examined the decrees of the fathers with the most attentive care, so that if they disapproved any of them they would not allow them to stand as valid. And so it was customary for the letter C to be subscribed to old senatorial decrees, and by that mark it was indicated that they too had given judgment. Those men, although they stood watch for the conveniences of the plebs and were occupied in checking magistracies, yet allowed themselves to be furnished with silver vessels and gold rings publicly provided, whereby by the use of such things the authority of the magistrates would be the more ornamented.

2.2.8 Quorum quemadmodum maiestas amplificabatur, ita abstinentia artissime constringebatur: immolatarum enim ab his hostiarum exta ad quaestores aerarii delata uenibant, sacrificiisque populi Romani cum deorum immortalium cultus tum etiam hominum continentia inerat, imperatoribus nostris quam sanctas manus habere deberent apud ista altaria discentibus: continentiaeque tantum tribuebatur, ut multorum aes alienum, quia prouincias sincere administrauerant, a senatu persolutum sit: nam quorum opera publicam auctoritatem splendorem suum procul obtinuisse uiderant, eorum dignitatem domi conlabi indignum sibique deforme esse arbitrabantur.

2.2.8 As their majesty was thus amplified, so their abstinence was most tightly constrained: for the entrails of the victims immolated by them were carried to the quaestors of the aerarium and sold, and in the sacrifices of the Roman people there was, along with the worship of the immortal gods, also the continence of men, teaching our imperatores how sacred hands they ought to have at those altars; and so much was ascribed to continence that the debts of many men, because they had administered the provinces sincerely, were paid by the senate: for those by whose deeds the public authority had seemed to obtain its splendour from afar judged it unworthy that their dignity at home should collapse, and deformed for themselves to be.

2.2.9 Equestris uero ordinis iuuentus omnibus annis bis urbem spectaculo sui sub magnis auctoribus celebrabat: Lupercalium enim mos a Romulo et Remo inchoatus est tunc, cum laetitia exultantes, quod his auus Numitor rex Albanorum eo loco, ubi educati erant, urbem condere permiserat sub monte Palatino, hortatu Faustuli educatoris sui, quem Euander Arcas consecrauerat, facto sacrificio caesisque capris epularum hilaritate ac uino largiore prouecti, diuisa pastorali turba, cincti obuios pellibus immolatarum hostiarum iocantes petiuerunt. cuius hilaritatis memoria annuo circuitu feriarum repetitur. trabeatos uero equites idibus Iuliis Q. Fabius transuehi instituit.

2.2.9 The youth of the equestrian order, however, each year celebrated the city twice with a spectacle of their own under great leaders: for the custom of the Lupercalia was begun by Romulus and Remus then, when, exulting with joy because their grandfather Numitor, king of the Albans, had permitted them to found a city at the place where they had been reared beneath the Palatine hill, at the urging of their fosterer Faustulus whom Evander the Arcadian had consecrated, after a sacrifice made and goats slain and having been carried forward in the hilarity of feasts and with more abundant wine, the divided pastoral crowd, girded with the skins of the sacrificed victims, playfully sought to meet. The memory of that hilarity is renewed in the annual circuit of the festivals. But Q. Fabius instituted that the trabeate horsemen be conveyed on the Ides of July.

idem censor cum P. Decio seditionis finiendae gratia, quam comitia in humillimi cuiusque potestatem redacta accenderant, omnem forensem turbam in quattuor tantummodo tribus discripsit easque urbanas appellauit. quo tam salubri facto uir alioquin bellicis operibus excellens Maximus cognominatus est.

That same censor, together with P. Decius, for the sake of ending the sedition which the comitia, reduced to the power of the very humblest, had kindled, divided the entire forensical crowd into only four tribes and called them urban. By that so salutary deed the man, otherwise outstanding in warlike works, was surnamed Maximus.

2.3.init. Laudanda etiam populi uerecundia est, qui inpigre se laboribus et periculis militiae offerendo dabat operam ne imperatoribus capite censos sacramento rogare esset necesse, quorum nimia inopia suspecta erat, ideoque his publica arma non committebant.

2.3.init. Also to be praised is the people's verecundia, who, eagerly offering themselves to the labours and perils of military service, took pains that it should not be necessary for the emperors to demand the sacrament from those enrolled by head (capite censos), whose excessive poverty was suspected, and therefore they did not entrust the public arms to these.

2.3.1 sed hanc diutina usurpatione formatam consuetudinem C. Marius capite censum legendo militem abrupit, ciuis alioqui magnificus, sed nouitatis suae conscientia uetustati non sane propitius memorque, si militaria signa humilitatem spernere perseuerarent, se a maligno uirtutum interprete uelut capite censum imperatorem conpellari posse. itaque fastidiosum dilectus genus in exercitibus Romanis oblitterandum duxit, ne talis notae contagio ad ipsius quoque gloriae subgillationem penetraret.

2.3.1 but this custom, formed by long usage, C. Marius, by taking the census by head, severed the soldier from the census — a citizen otherwise magnanimous, yet conscious of his novelty and not altogether friendly to antiquity, and mindful that if the military ensigns persisted in scorning humility, he might be, by a malicious interpreter of virtues, accused as one who had imposed the census on the commander by head. Therefore he judged that that fastidious kind of levy in the Roman armies must be obliterated, lest such a contagion of stigma penetrate even to the diminution of his own glory.

2.3.2 Armorum tractandorum meditatio a P. Rutilio consule Cn. Malli collega militibus est tradita: is enim nullius ante se imperatoris exemplum secutus ex ludo C. Aureli Scauri doctoribus gladiatorum arcessitis uitandi atque inferendi ictus subtiliorem rationem legibus ingenerauit uirtutemque arti et rursus artem uirtuti miscuit, ut illa impetu huius fortior, haec illius scientia cautior fieret.

2.3.2 The meditation on handling arms was handed over to the soldiers by P. Rutilius, consul, with his colleague Cn. Mallius: for he, following the example of no commander before him, having summoned the teachers of gladiators from the school of C. Aurelius Scaurus, engendered in the legions a subtler method of avoiding and of inflicting blows, and mingled virtue with art and again art with virtue, so that the one became the stronger by the other's impulse, the other the more cautious by the other's knowledge.

2.3.3 Velitum usus eo bello primum repertus est, quo Capuam Fuluius Flaccus imperator obsedit: nam cum equitatui Campanorum crebris excursionibus equites nostri, quia numero pauciores erant, resistere non possent, Q. Nauius centurio e peditibus lectos expediti corporis breuibus et incuruis septenis armatos hastis, paruo tegumine munitos, ueloci saltu iungere se equitantibus et rursus celeri motu delabi instituit, quo facilius equestri proelio subiecti pedites uiros pariter atque equos hostium telis incesse rent, eaque nouitas pugnae unicum Campanae perfidiae debilitauit auxilium, ideoque auctori eius Nauio honos a duce est habitus.

2.3.3 The employment of velites was first discovered in that war in which the commander Fulius Flaccus besieged Capua: for when, by the frequent forays of the Campanian cavalry, our horsemen, because they were fewer in number, could not stand fast, Q. Nauius, a centurion, selected from the infantry men of nimble body those equipped with short and slightly curved spears of seven (units), and small shields, and devised that they should, by a swift leap, join the horsemen and again with rapid motion drop away, whereby the footsoldiers, being put to the cavalry fight, might more easily assail alike the men and the horses of the enemy with missiles; and this novelty of fighting alone weakened the Campanian treachery’s single aid, and therefore honor was bestowed on its inventor Nauius by the commander.

2.4.1 Proximus militaribus institutis ad urbana castra, id est theatra, gradus faciendus est, quoniam haec quoque saepe numero animosas acies instruxerunt excogitataque cultus deorum et hominum delectationis causa non sine aliquo pacis rubore uoluptatem et religionem ciuili sanguine scaenicorum portentorum gratia macularunt.

2.4.1 Next, toward the military institutions a step must be made to the urban camps, that is, the theatres, since these too often, by their numbers, drew up spirited ranks, and the contrived cults of gods and of men for the sake of delight stained pleasure and religion with civil blood, not without some blush of peace, for the sake of the scenic portents.

2.4.2 Quae inchoata quidem sunt a Messala et Cassio censoribus. ceterum auctore P. Scipione Nasica omnem apparatum operis eorum subiectum hastae uenire placuit, atque etiam senatus consulto cautum est ne quis in urbe propiusue passus mille subsellia posuisse sedensue ludos spectare uellet, ut scilicet remissioni animorum * standi uirilitas propria Romanae gentis nota esset.

2.4.2 These things were indeed begun by the censors Messala and Cassius. Moreover at the initiative of P. Scipio Nasica it was resolved that all the apparatus of their spectacle should come under the spear, and by a senatorial decree it was guarded that no one, either in the city or nearer, should be permitted to set up a thousand benches or to sit and watch the games, in order that, namely, for the relaxation of spirits the *standi* virility proper to the Roman people might be made known.

2.4.3 Per quingentos autem et quinquaginta et octo annos senatus populo mixtus spectaculo ludorum interfuit. sed hunc morem Atilius Serranus et L. Scribonius aediles ludos Matri deum facientes, posterioris Africani sententiam secuti discretis senatus et populi locis soluerunt, eaque res auertit uulgi animum et fauorem Scipionis magnopere quassauit.

2.4.3 For 558 years the senate, joined with the people, took part in the spectacle of the games. But Atilius Serranus and L. Scribonius, aediles, while holding games for the Mother of the Gods, following the opinion of the later Africanus, paid out from the separate funds of senate and people, and this affair turned the mind of the crowd and greatly shook Scipio’s favour.

2.4.4 Nunc causam instituendorum ludorum ab origine sua repetam. C. Sulpico Petico C. Licinio Stolone consulibus intoleranda uis ortae pestilentiae ciuitatem nostram a bellicis operibus reuocatam domestici atque intestini mali cura adflixerat, iamque plus in exquisito et nouo cultu religionis quam in ullo humano consilio positum opis uidebatur. itaque placandi caelestis numinis gratia conpositis carminibus uacuas aures praebuit ad id tempus circensi spectaculo contenta, quod primus Romulus raptis uirginibus Sabinis Consualium nomine celebrauit.

2.4.4 Now I will trace back the cause of instituting the games to their origin. In the consulship of C. Sulpicius Peticus and C. Licinius Stolo, the intolerable force of a pestilence having arisen had afflicted our city, recalled from warlike labors and stricken by the care of a domestic and internal evil, and now aid seemed placed more in an exquisite and new cult of religion than in any human counsel. Therefore, for the sake of appeasing the heavenly numen, with chants composed he offered vacant ears to that time, content with the circus spectacle which Romulus first celebrated under the name Consualium when the Sabine maidens had been seized.

uerum, ut est mos hominum paruula initia pertinaci studio prosequendi, uenerabilibus erga deos uerbis iuuentus rudi atque inconposito motu corporum iocabunda gestus adiecit, eaque res ludium ex Etruria arcessendi causam dedit. cuius decora pernicitas uetusto ex more Curetum Lydorumque, a quibus Tusci originem traxerunt, nouitate grata Romanorum oculos permulsit, et quia ludius apud eos hister appellabatur, scaenico nomen histrionis inditum est. paulatim deinde ludicra ars ad saturarum modos perrepsit, a quibus primus omnium poeta Liuius ad fabularum argumenta spectantium animos transtulit, isque sui operis actor, cum saepius a populo reuocatus uocem obtudisset, adhibito pueri ac tibicinis concentu gesticulationem tacitus peregit.

But, as is the custom of men, small beginnings pursued with persistent zeal: the youth, with reverent words toward the gods, added to their crude and uncomposed bodily motion joking gestures, and this matter gave a cause for the performer to be summoned from Etruria. The graceful vivacity of these spectacles, pleasing to Roman eyes by novelty because of the ancient custom of the Curetes and the Lydians, from whom the Tusci drew their origin, and because among them the performer was called hister, the scenic name histrio was bestowed. Gradually thereafter the playful art crept into the manner of satires, from which Livius first of all transferred the minds of those intent on the plots to the arguments of fabulae; and he himself, actor in his own work, when often recalled by the people had blunted his voice, with a boy and pipe-players brought in, silently completed his gesticulation in concert.

atellani autem ab Oscis acciti sunt. quod genus delectationis Italica seueritate temperatum ideoque uacuum nota est: nam neque tribu mouetur <actor> nec a militaribus stipendiis repellitur.

Atellani, however, were summoned from the Oscans. That kind of delectation, tempered by Italian severity, is therefore noted as exempt: for neither is the <actor> moved into a tribe nor is he barred from receiving military stipends.

2.4.5 Et quia ceteri ludi ipsis appellationibus unde trahantur apparet, non absurdum uidetur saecularibus initium suum, cuius [generis] minus trita notitia est, reddere. Cum ingenti pestilentia urbs agrique uastarentur, Valesius uir locuples rusticae uitae duobus filiis et filia ad desperationem usque medicorum laborantibus aquam calidam iis a foco petens, genibus nixus lares familiares ut puerorum periculum in ipsius caput transferrent orauit. orta deinde uox est, habiturum eos saluos, si continuo flumine Tiberi deuectos Tarentum portasset ibique ex Ditis patris et Proserpinae ara petita aqua recreasset.

2.4.5 And because the other games show by their very appellations whence they are drawn, it does not seem absurd to give an origin for the Saecular Games, of which a less familiar knowledge of that kind exists. When, with a great pestilence, city and fields were being laid waste, Valesius, a wealthy man of rustic life, pleading for hot water from the hearth for his two sons and daughter — who, to the point of despair, were laboring under the physicians —, having kneeled, entreated the household Lares that they transfer the danger of the children upon his own head. Then a voice arose that he would have them safe if he should at once carry them down the Tiber to Tarentum and there, at the altar sought of Dis the father and Proserpina, restore them with water.

eo praedicto magnopere confusus, quod et longa et periculosa nauigatio imperabatur, spe tamen dubia praesentem metum uincente pueros ad ripam Tiberis protinus detulit++habitabat enim in uilla sua propter uicum Sabinae regionis Eretum++ac luntre Ostiam petens nocte concubia ad Martium campum appulit, sitientibusque aegris succurrere cupiens, igne in nauigio non suppetente ex gubernatore cognouit haud procul apparere fumum, et ab eo iussus egredi Tarentum++id nomen ei loco est++cupide adrepto calice aquam flumine haustam eo, unde fumus erat obortus, iam laetior pertulit, diuinitus dati remedii quasi uestigia quaedam in propinquo nanctum se existimans, inque solo magis fumante quam ullas ignis habente reliquias, dum tenacius omen adprehendit, contractis leuibus et quae fors obtulerat nutrimentis pertinaci spiritu flammam euocauit calefactamque aquam pueris bibendam dedit. qua potata salutari quiete sopiti diutina ui morbi repente sunt liberati patrique indicauerunt uidisse se in somnis a nescio quo deorum spongea corpora sua pertergeri et praecipi ut ad Ditis patris <et> Proserpinae aram, a qua potio ipsis fuerat adlata, furuae hostiae immolarentur lectisterniaque <ac> ludi nocturni fierent. is, quod eo loci nullam aram uiderat, desiderari credens ut a se constitueretur, aram empturus in urbem perrexit relictis qui fundamentorum constituendorum gratia terram ad solidum foderent.

Greatly confused by that which had been said, since a long and dangerous navigation was being ordered, yet with dubious hope prevailing over his present fear he at once carried the boys to the bank of the Tiber++for he lived in his villa near the village Eretum of the Sabine region++and, making for Ostia by skiff, at night he landed his company on the Campus Martius, and, wishing to succor the feverish thirsty ones, he learned from the helmsman that smoke was appearing not far off while there was no fire aboard the ship; and, being ordered by him to go ashore, Tarentum++that is the name of the place++having eagerly seized a cup he brought water drawn from the river at the place whence the smoke had risen, and, now more joyful, carried it, thinking himself to have found some signs of a divinely given remedy nearby; and on the ground more smoking than showing any relics of flame, while he more eagerly embraced the omen, having gathered up light and such nourishment as chance offered, with a stubborn spirit he called forth a flame and gave the warmed water to the boys to drink. After they had drunk that salutary draught and, soothed into quiet, by long strength of disease were suddenly freed, they declared to their father that they had seen in dreams their bodies touched with a sponge by some unknown of the gods and commanded that to the altar of Dis the father <and> Proserpina, from which the potion had been brought to them, black victims should be sacrificed and lectisternia <and> nocturnal games be held. He, because he had seen no altar at that place, believing it was desired that one be established by him, went into the city to buy an altar, leaving those who for the sake of setting the foundations should dig the earth solid.

hi domini imperium exequentes, cum ad xx pedum altitudinem humo egesta peruenissent, animaduerterunt aram Diti patri Proserpinaeque inscriptam. hoc postquam Valesius nuntiante seruo accepit, omisso emendae arae proposito hostias nigras, quae antiquitus furuae dicebantur, Tarenti immolauit ludosque et lectisternia continuis tribus noctibus, quia totidem filii periculo liberati erant, fecit. cuius exemplum Valerius Publicola, qui primus consul fuit, studio succurrendi ciuibus secutus apud eandem aram publice nuncupatis uotis caesisque atris bubus, Diti maribus, feminis Proserpinae, lectisternioque ac ludis trinoctio factis aram terra, ut ante fuerat, obruit.

These men, executing their lord’s command, when they had ascended to a height of 20 feet above the ground, perceived an altar inscribed to Dis the father and to Proserpina. After Valesius received this, a slave announcing it, he, abandoning the plan to purchase an altar, sacrificed black victims — which in old times were called furuae — at Tarentum, and held games and a lectisternium for three continuous nights, because as many sons had been freed from danger. His example was followed by Valerius Publicola, who was the first consul, moved by zeal to succor the citizens: at the same altar, with vows publicly proclaimed and with black oxen slaughtered — to Dis the males, to Proserpina the females — and with a lectisternium and games held for three nights, he covered the altar with earth, as it had been before.

2.4.6 Religionem ludorum crescentibus opibus secuta lautitia est. eius instinctu Q. Catulus Campanam imitatus luxuriam primus spectantium consessum uelorum umbraculis texit. Cn. Pompeius ante omnes aquae per semitas decursu aestiuum minuit feruorem.

2.4.6 As wealth increased, luxury followed the religion of the games. At its prompting Q. Catulus, imitating Campania, was the first to cover the spectators’ seating with awnings and parasols. Cn. Pompeius, before all others, diminished the summer’s fervor by directing water along channels.

Claudius Pulcher scaenam uarietate colorum adumbrauit uacuis ante pictura tabulis extentam. quam totam argento C. Antonius, auro Petreius, ebore Q. Catulus praetexuit. uersatilem fecerunt Luculli, argentatis choragiis P. Lentulus Spinther adornauit.

Claudius Pulcher shaded the stage with a variety of colors, the scene stretched out with painted panels before the empty space. Which C. Antonius edged wholly with silver, Petreius with gold, Q. Catulus with ivory. The Luculli made it versatile, and P. Lentulus Spinther adorned it with silvered choragic trappings.

translatum antea poenicis indutum tunicis M. Scaurus exquisito genere uestis cultum induxit.

having previously been brought over and clad in Punic tunics, M. Scaurus introduced a dress-fashion of exquisite kind.

2.4.7 nam gladiatorium munus primum Romae datum est in foro boario App. Claudio Q. Fuluio consulibus. dederunt Marcus et Decimus filii Bruti funebri memoria patris cineres honorando.

2.4.7 for the first gladiatorial munus in Rome was given in the Forum Boarium, when Appius Claudius and Quintus Fulvius were consuls. Marcus and Decimus, sons of Brutus , gave it, honoring with a funeral memorial their father's ashes.

athletarum certamen a M. Scauri tractum est munificentia.

the contest of athletes was furnished by the munificence of M. Scauri.

2.5.1 Statuam auratam nec in urbe nec in ulla parte Italiae quisquam prius aspexit quam a. M'. Acilio Glabrione equestris patri poneretur in aede Pietatis. eam autem aedem P. Cornelio Lentulo M. Baebio Tamphilo consulibus ipse dedicauerat compos uoti factus rege Antiocho apud Thermopylas superato.

2.5.1 No one had before seen a gilded statue either in the city or in any part of Italy than when it was placed by A. M'. Acilius Glabrio to his equestrian father in the temple of Pietas. But he himself had dedicated that very temple in the consulship of P. Cornelius Lentulus and M. Baebius Tamphilus, having fulfilled a vow after King Antiochus was overcome at Thermopylae.

2.5.2 Ius ciuile per multa saecula inter sacra caerimoniasque deorum inmortalium abditum solisque pontificibus notum Cn. Flauius libertino patre genitus et scriba, cum ingenti nobilitatis indignatione factus aedilis curulis, uulgauit ac fastos paene toto foro exposuit. qui, cum ad uisendum aegrum collegam suum ueniret neque a nobilibus, quorum frequentia cubiculum erat completum, sedendi loco reciperetur, sellam curulem adferri iussit et in ea honoris pariter atque contemptus sui uindex consedit.

2.5.2 The civil law, hidden for many centuries among the sacra and ceremonies of the immortal gods and known only to the pontiffs, Gnaeus Flavius, born of a freedman father and a scribe, when made curule aedile amid the great indignation of the nobility, made it public and exposed the fasti to almost the whole forum. He, when he came to visit his sick colleague and was not received by the nobles, whose throng had filled the cubiculum and denied him a place for sitting, ordered a curule chair to be brought and, as vindicator of both his honor and his contempt, sat in it.

2.5.3 Veneficii quaestio et moribus et legibus Romanis ignota conplurium matronarum patefacto scelere orta est. quae, cum uiros suos clandestinis insidiis ueneno perimerent, unius ancillae indicio protractae, pars capitali iudicio damnatae C et septuaginta numerum expleuerunt.

2.5.3 The inquiry into poisoning, unknown to Roman mores and laws, arose on the exposure of the crime of very many matrons. These, since they were killing their husbands by secret ambushes with poison, when produced by the testimony of one maidservant, some being condemned to capital sentence, made up the number one hundred and seventy.

2.5.4 Tibicinum quoque collegium solet in foro uulgi oculos in se conuertere, cum inter publicas priuatasque serias actiones personis tecto capite uariaque ueste uelatum concentus edit. inde tracta licentia. quondam uetiti in aede Iouis, quod prisco more factitauerant, uesci Tibur irati se contulerunt.

2.5.4 The collegium of tibicines likewise is wont to turn the eyes of the crowd upon itself in the forum, when, amid public and private serious performances, with persons veiled, covered-headed, and in diverse vesture, it produces a concentus. From that springs drawn licentia. Once, when forbidden in the temple of Jupiter because they had contrived it in the ancient manner, they, angered, betook themselves to Tibur to feed.

quorum ministerio senatus deserta sacra non aequo animo ferens per legatos a Tiburtibus petiit ut eos gratia sua Romanis templis restituerent. quos illi in proposito perseuerantes interposita festae epulationis simulatione mero somnoque sopitos plaustris in urbem deuehendos curauerunt. quibus et honos pristinus restitutus et huiusce lusus ius est datum.

By whose ministry the Senate, bearing the deserted sacra with an unwilling mind, asked through legates from Tibur that they restore them by their grace to the Roman temples. Those men, persevering in their purpose, contrived that, with a simulated banquet interposed and lulled by wine and sleep, they should be conveyed in wagons into the city. To whom both their former honor was restored and the right of this very ludus was granted.

personarum usus pudorem circumuentae temulentiae causam habet.

The use of personae has for its cause modesty, surrounded by temulence (drunkenness).

2.5.5 Fuit etiam illa simplicitas antiquorum in cibo capiendo humanitatis simul et continentiae certissima index: nam maximis uiris prandere et cenare in propatulo uerecundiae non erat. nec sane ullas epulas habebant, quas populi oculis subicere erubescerent. erant adeo continentiae adtenti, ut frequentior apud eos pultis usus quam panis esset, ideoque in sacrificiis mola quae uocatur ex farre et sale constat.

2.5.5 That simplicity of the ancients in taking food was also the surest index of both humanity and continence: for it was no shame for the greatest men to breakfast and dine in public view. Nor indeed did they have any banquets which they would be ashamed to expose to the eyes of the people. They were so attentive to continence that pottage was more common among them than bread, and therefore in sacrifices the mola, which is named from far (spelt), consists of grain and salt.

exta farre sparguntur et pullis, quibus auspicia petuntur, puls obicitur. primitiis enim et libamentis uictus sui deos eo efficacius quo simplicius placabant.

The entrails are sprinkled with spelt, and to the birds by which auspices are sought a puls is thrown. For with first-fruits and libations of their sustenance they placated the gods the more effectively the more simply.

2.5.6 Et ceteros quidem ad benefaciendum uenerabantur, Febrem autem ad minus nocendum templis colebant, quorum adhuc unum in Palatio, alterum in area Marianorum monumentorum, tertium in summa parte uici longi extat, in eaque remedia, quae corporibus aegrorum adnexa fuerant, deferebantur. haec ad humanae mentis aestus leniendos cum aliqua usus ratione excogitata. ceterum salubritatem suam industriae certissimo ac fidelissimo munimento tuebantur, bonaeque ualitudinis eorum quasi quaedam mater erat frugalitas, inimica luxuriosis epulis et aliena nimiae uini abundantiae et ab inmoderato ueneris usu auersa.

2.5.6 And they indeed worshipped the others to do good, but they cultivated Fever so that it would harm less in temples, one of which still stands on the Palatine, another in the precinct of the Marian monuments, a third on the highest part of the long quarter, and to these were brought the remedies that had been applied to the bodies of the sick. these things were devised with some rational use to soothe the heats of the human mind. moreover they guarded their health by the most certain and faithful bulwark of industry, and frugality was as it were a mother of their good condition, hostile to luxurious banquets and alien to excessive abundance of wine and averse to immoderate use of love.

2.6.1 Idem sensit proxi maiorum nostorum grauitati Spartana ciuitas, quae seuerissimis Lycurgi legibus obtemperans aliquamdiu ciuium suorum oculos a contemplanda Asia retraxit, ne inlecebris eius capti ad delicatius uitae genus prolaberentur: audierant enim inde lautitiam et inmodicos sumptus et omnia non necessariae uoluptatis genera fluxisse, primosque Ionas unguenti coronarumque in conuiuio dandarum et secundae mensae ponendae consuetudinem haud parua luxuriae inritamenta repperisse. ac minime mirum est quod homines labore ac patientia gaudentes tenacissimos patriae neruos externarum deliciarum contagione solui et hebetari noluerunt, cum aliquanto faciliorem uirtutis ad luxuriam quam luxuriae ad uirtutem transitum uiderent. quod eos non frustra timuisse dux ipsorum Pausanias patefecit, qui maximis operibus editis, ut primum se Asiae moribus permisit, fortitudinem suam effeminato eius cultu mollire non erubuit.

2.6.1 The same thing the Spartan city perceived for the gravitas of our ancestors, which, obeying the most severe laws of Lycurgus, for a time withdrew the eyes of its citizens from beholding Asia, lest, captured by its allurements, they should slide into a more delicate mode of life: for they had heard that from there had flowed lavishness and immoderate expenditures and all kinds of unnecessary pleasure, and that the first Ionians had introduced the custom of handing out unguents and garlands at banquets and placing them on the second table — a custom found to be no small incentive to luxury. And it is by no means surprising that men rejoicing in toil and endurance did not wish the strongest sinews of their fatherland to be loosened and dulled by the contagion of foreign delights, since they saw the passage from virtue to luxury somewhat easier than from luxury to virtue. That their fear was not groundless Pausanias, their leader, made plain, who, after great deeds performed, as soon as he permitted himself to Asian habits, did not shrink from softening his courage by that effeminate cultivation.

2.6.2 Eiusdem ciuitatis exercitus non ante ad dimicandum descendere solebant quam tibiae concentu et anapaesti pedis modulo cohortationis calorem animo traxissent, uegeto et crebro ictus sono strenue hostem inuadere admoniti. idem ad dissimulandum et occultandum uulnerum suorum cruorem punicis in proelio tunicis utebantur, non ne ipsis aspectus eorum terrorem, sed ne hostibus fiduciae aliquid adferret.

2.6.2 The army of that same city were not wont to descend to battle until, by the concert of pipes and by the anapaestic foot’s cadence of exhortation, they had drawn a heat into their spirit, vigorous and by the frequent sound of blows earnestly reminded to assail the enemy. The same also, for dissembling and hiding the blood of their wounds, used crimson tunics in the fight—not so that the sight of them would terrify themselves, but lest it should bring any confidence to the enemies.

2.6.3 Egregios uirtutis bellicae spiritus Lacedaemoniorum prudentissimi pacis moribus Athenienses subsecuntur, apud quos inertia e latebris suis languore marcens in forum perinde ac delictum aliquod protrahitur fitque ut facinorosae, ita erubescendae rea culpae.

2.6.3 The outstanding martial spirits of the Lacedaemonians are followed by the Athenians, most prudent in the manners of peace; among whom inertia, wasting away in their retreats through languor, is dragged into the forum just as any offence is, and it comes about that a criminal deed, but a shameworthy fault, is treated as guilt.

2.6.4 Eiusdem urbis et sanctissimum consilium Areios pagus quid quisque Atheniensium ageret aut quonam quaestu sustentaretur diligentissime inquirere solebat, ut homines honestatem, uitae rationem memores reddendam esse, sequerentur.

2.6.4 The same city's most holy council, the Areios Pagus, was wont to inquire most diligently what each of the Athenians did or by what gain he was supported, so that men, mindful that honesty and an account of life must be rendered, would follow.

2.6.5 Eadem bonos ciues corona decorandi prima consuetudinem introduxit, duobus oleae conexis ramulis clarum Periclis cingendo caput, probabile institutum, si rem siue personam intueri uelis: nam et uirtutis uberrimum alimentum est honos et Pericles dignus a quo talis muneris dandi potestas potissimum initium caperet.

2.6.5 The same introduced the first custom of adorning good citizens with a crown, encircling the famed head of Pericles with two olive-branches joined together, a credible institution, if you would regard the thing or the person: for honour is the most abundant aliment of virtue, and Pericles was worthy, from whom above all the power of giving such a gift would take its beginning.

2.6.6 Age, quid illud institutum Athenarum, quam memorabile, quod conuictus a patrono libertus ingratus iure libertatis exuitur! 'supersedeo te' inquit 'habere ciuem tanti muneris impium aestimatorem nec adduci possum ut credam urbi utilem quem domui scelestum cerno. abi igitur et esto seruus, quoniam liber esse nescisti'.

2.6.6 Come now, what that institution of the Athenians, how memorable, that a freedman, ungrateful to his patron, is by right of liberty stripped of his freedom because of a convivium! "I reject you," he says, "to hold as a citizen — an impious despiser of so great a gift — nor can I be induced to believe him useful to the city whom I discern wicked toward the household. Go therefore and be a slave, since you did not know how to be free."

2.6.7 Idem Massilienses quoque ad hoc tempus usurpant, disciplinae grauitate, prisci moris obseruantia, caritate populi Romani praecipue conspicui. qui tres in eodem manumissiones rescindere permittunt, si ter ab eo[dem] deceptum dominum cognouerunt. quarto errori subueniendum non putant, quia sua iam culpa iniuriam accepit, qui ei se totiens obiecit.

2.6.7 The Massilians likewise, up to this time, employ this practice, conspicuous especially for the gravity of their disciplina, the observance of ancient custom, and the caritas of the Roman people. They permit rescission of manumissions in the same case if they have recognized that the same master was deceived three times by him. They do not think a fourth error should be remedied, because he who has so often opposed himself to him has by his own culpa already suffered the iniuria.

Eadem ciuitas seueritatis custos acerrima est, nullum aditum in scaenam mimis dando, quorum argumenta maiore ex parte stuprorum continent actus, ne talia spectandi consuetudo etiam imitandi licentiam sumat. omnibus autem, qui per aliquam religionis simulationem alimenta inertiae quaerunt, clausas portas habet, [et] mendacem et fucosam superstitionem submouendam esse existimans. ceterum a condita urbe gladius est ibi, quo noxii iugulantur, rubigine quidem exesus et uix sufficiens ministerio, sed index in minimis quoque rebus omnia antiquae consuetudinis monumenta seruantium.

The same city is the fiercest guardian of severity, admitting no entrance to the stage for mimes, whose plots for the greater part contain stupral acts, lest the habit of watching such things also take license for imitation. But to all who, by some simulation of religion, seek the nourishment of sloth it has closed doors, [et] deeming mendacious and fucosam superstition to be removed. Moreover, from the city’s founding there is the sword there by which the guilty are slaughtered—indeed eaten away by rust and scarcely adequate for service—but serving as a token, even in the smallest matters, of all who keep the monuments of ancient custom.

Duae etiam ante portas eorum arcae iacent, altera qua liberorum, altera qua seruorum corpora ad sepulturae locum plaustro deuehuntur sine lamentatione, sine planctu. luctus funeris die domestico sacrificio adhibitoque necessariorum conuiuio finitur: etenim quid adtinet aut humano dolori indulgeri aut diuino numini inuidiam fieri, quod inmortalitatem suam nobiscum partiri noluerit? Venenum cicuta temperatum in ea ciuitate publice custoditur, quod datur ei, qui causas sescentis++id enim senatus eius nomen est++exhibuit, propter quas mors sit illi expetenda, cognitione uirili beniuolentia temperata, quae neque egredi uita temere patitur et sapienter excedere cupienti celerem fati uiam praebet, ut uel aduersa uel prospera nimis usis fortuna++utraque enim finiendi spiritus, illa, ne perseueret, haec, ne destituat, rationem praebuerit ++conprobato exitu terminetur.

Two chests also lie before their gates, one in which the bodies of their children are conveyed by wagon to the place of burial, the other in which the bodies of their slaves are borne, without lamentation, without wailing. The grieving for a funeral is finished on the domestic day by a sacrifice and by the necessary convivial meal applied: for what avails it either to indulge in human sorrow or to incur hatred of the divine numen, because he refused to share his immortality with us? A poison mixed with cicuta is publicly kept in that city; it is given to him who has set forth the causes 600 — for that is the name of their senate — which make death to be sought, tempered by manly knowledge and measured by benevolence, which neither rashly allows life to go on nor refuses to the man who wisely desires to pass an expeditious road of fate; so that whether fortune has been used too adversly or too prosperously — for both provide a reason for ending the breath, the one that he not persevere, the other that he not be abandoned — it may be terminated with a proved issue.

2.6.8 Quam consuetudinem Massiliensium non in Gallia ortam, sed ex Graecia translatam inde existimo, quod illam etiam in insula Cea seruari animaduerti, quo tempore Asiam cum Sex. Pompeio petens Iulidem oppidum intraui: forte enim euenit ut tunc summae dignitatis ibi femina, sed ultimae iam senectutis, reddita ratione ciuibus cur excedere uita deberet, ueneno consumere se destinarit mortemque suam Pompei praesentia clariorem fieri magni aestimaret. nec preces eius uir ille, ut omnibus uirtutibus, ita humanitatis quoque laude instructissimus, aspernari sustinuit.

2.6.8 I judge that custom of the Massilians not to have arisen in Gaul but to have been transferred from Greece, for I observed that it was also observed on the island of Cea, at the time when, seeking Asia with Sex. Pompey, I entered the town Iulidem: for it chanced that then a woman of the highest dignity there, but already of extreme old age, having given an account to the citizens why she ought to leave life, determined to consume herself with poison, and thought that her death would be made more famous by the presence of Pompey the Great. Nor did that man, endowed with all virtues and likewise famed for humanity, endure to repulse her entreaties.

uenit itaque ad eam facundissimoque sermone, qui ore eius quasi e beato quodam eloquentiae fonte manabat, ab incepto consilio diu nequicquam reuocare conatus ad ultimum propositum exequi passus est. quae nonagesimum annum transgressa cum summa et animi et corporis sinceritate lectulo, quantum dinoscere erat, cotidiana consuetudine cultius strato recubans et innixa cubito 'tibi quidem' inquit, 'Sex. Pompei, dii magis quos relinquo quam quos peto gratias referant, quod nec hortator uitae meae nec mortis spectator esse fastidisti.

He therefore came to her and with the most eloquent speech — which from his mouth flowed as from a certain blessed spring of eloquence — long in vain tried to recall her from her begun plan, and at last permitted her to carry out her purpose. She, having passed her 90th year, with the utmost sincerity of both mind and body, on her little bed, as far as could be discerned, reclining upon the coverlet in her habitual daily manner and leaning on her elbow, said, "To you indeed, Sex. Pompeius, may the gods whom I leave rather than those whom I seek give thanks, because you did not disdain to be the encourager of my life nor the witness of my death."

ceterum ipsa hilarem fortunae uultum semper experta, ne auiditate lucis tristem intueri cogar, reliquias spiritus mei prospero fine, duas filias et ~ uno nepotum gregem superstitem relictura permuto'. cohortata deinde ad concordiam suos distributo eis patrimonio et cultu suo sacrisque domesticis maiori filiae traditis poculum, in quo uenenum temperatum erat, constanti dextera arripuit. tum defusis Mercurio delibamentis et inuocato numine eius, ut se placido itinere in meliorem sedis infernae deduceret partem, cupido haustu mortiferam traxit potionem ac sermone significans quasnam subinde partes corporis sui rigor occuparet, cum iam uisceribus eum et cordi imminere esset elocuta, filiarum manus ad supremum opprimendorum oculorum officium aduocauit. nostros autem, tametsi nouo spectaculo obstupefacti erant, suffusos tamen lacrimis dimisit.

But she herself, always proved to wear the cheerful countenance of fortune, lest by avarice for light I be forced to gaze sadly, exchanged the remnants of my spirit for a prosperous end, about to leave two daughters and one little flock of grandsons surviving. Then, having exhorted her own to concord and having distributed to them her patrimony and her manner and domestic rites, handed over to the elder daughter the cup in which the poison had been tempered, and with a firm right hand she seized it. Then, after libations poured to Mercury and his divinity invoked, that by a gentle journey she might be led to the better portion of the nether seat, with desire she drew a death-bringing draught of the potion and, speaking, signified which parts of her body were immediately to be seized by rigidity; when, having spoken that it already pressed upon the entrails and the heart, she called the hands of her daughters to the final office of closing the eyes to be pressed. Our men, however, although stunned by the novel spectacle, yet dismissed her suffused with tears.

2.6.9 Sed ut Massiliensium ciuitatem, unde in hoc deuerticulum excessi, reuertar, intrare oppidum eorum nulli cum telo licet, praestoque est qui id custodiae gratia acceptum exituro reddat, ut hospitia sua, quemadmodum aduenientibus humana sunt, ita ipsis quoque tuta sint.

2.6.9 But that I may return to the city of the Massilians, from which I set aside into this detour, no one is permitted to enter their town with a weapon, and there is at hand one who, for the sake of custody, will receive what has been entrusted and will restore it on departure, so that their inns may be as safe for them as, humanly, they are for those arriving.

2.6.10 Horum moenia egressis uetus ille mos Gallorum occurrit, quos memoria proditum est pecunias mutuas, quae his apud inferos redderentur, dare, quia persuasum habuerint animas hominum inmortales esse. dicerem stultos, nisi idem bracati sensissent, quod palliatus Pythagoras credidit.

2.6.10 To those who have gone forth from their walls that old custom of the Gauls presents itself, which tradition reports — that they gave mutual monies to be paid back to them among the dead, because they had been persuaded that the souls of men are immortal. I would call them fools, were it not that the same trousered folk perceived what the pallium‑clad Pythagoras believed.

2.6.11 Auara et feneratoria Gallorum philosophia, alacris et fortis Cimbrorum et Celtiberorum, qui in acie gaudio exultabant tamquam gloriose et feliciter uita excessuri, lamentabantur in morbo quasi turpiter et miserabiliter perituri. Celtiberi etiam nefas esse ducebant proelio superesse, cum is occidisset, pro cuius salute spiritum deuouerant. laudanda utrorumque [populorum] animi praesentia, quod et patriae incolumitatem fortiter [tueri] et fidem amicitiae constanter praestandam arbitrabantur.

2.6.11 The avaricious and usurious philosophy of the Gauls, the lively and brave Cimbri and Celtiberi, who on the battle-line exulted with joy as if to depart life gloriously and happily, bewailed in sickness as if shamefully and miserably about to perish. The Celtiberi even held it a nefas to survive a battle when he had fallen for whose safety they had vowed their breath. Praiseworthy is the presence of mind of both [populorum], because they judged that the fatherland’s safety should be defended bravely [tueri] and the fidelity of friendship constantly demonstrated.

2.6.12 Thraciae uero illa natio merito sibi sapientiae laudem uindicauerit, quae natales hominum flebiliter, exequias cum hilaritate celebrans sine ullis doctorum praeceptis uerum condicionis nostrae habitum peruidit. remoueatur itaque naturalis omnium animalium dulcedo uitae, quae multa et facere et pati turpiter cogit, si ortu eius aliquanto felicior ac beatior finis reperietur.

2.6.12 Moreover that nation of Thrace will rightly have claimed for itself the praise of wisdom, which, lamenting the births of men and celebrating funerals with hilarity, without any precepts of the learned truly perceived the condition of our lot. Let, then, the natural sweetness of life common to all animals be removed, which compels many to do and to suffer shamefully, if by its origin a somewhat more fortunate and more blessed end is found.

2.6.13 Quocirca recte Lycii, cum his luctus incidit, muliebrem uestem induunt, ut deformitate cultus commoti maturius stultum proicere maerorem uelint.

2.6.13 Therefore rightly the Lycians, when mourning falls upon them with these things, put on a womanly garment, so that, moved by the deformity of their dress, they may wish to cast off foolish grief the sooner.

2.6.14 Verum quid ego fortissimos hoc in genere prudentiae uiros laudem? respiciantur Indorum feminae, quae, cum more patrio conplures eidem nuptae esse soleant, mortuo marito in certamen iudiciumque ueniunt, quam ex his maxime dilexerit. uictrix gaudio exultans deductaque a necessariis laetum prae ferentibus uultum coniugis se flammis superiacit et cum eo tamquam felicissima crematur: superatae cum tristitia et maerore in uita remanent.

2.6.14 But why should I praise the most brave men in this kind of prudence? Let the women of the Indians be considered, who, by ancestral custom, are wont to be married to several men in turn; when a husband dies they come into contest and judgment to determine which of these loved him most. The victor, exulting with joy and, having put aside necessities and bearing before herself the husband’s cheerful countenance, throws herself upon the flames and is burned with him as if most fortunate: the vanquished remain in life with sorrow and mourning.

protrahe in medium Cimbricam audaciam, adice Celtibericam fidem, iunge animosam Thraciae ~ potentiam sapientiam, adnecte Lyciorum in luctibus abiciendis callide quaesitam rationem, Indico tamen rogo nihil eorum praeferes, quem uxor<ia> pietas in modum genialis tori propinquae mortis secura conscendit.

protrah into the open the Cimbrian audacity, add the Celtiberian fidelity, join the spirited Thracian power, the wisdom, attach the Lycians’ reason cleverly sought for casting off griefs; yet to the Indian I ask that you prefer none of these — whom wifely pietas, in the manner of the genialis torus, secure against impending death, climbed.

2.6.15 Cui gloriae Punicarum feminarum, ut ex conparatione turpius appareat, dedecus subnectam: Siccae enim fanum est Veneris, in quod se matronae conferebant atque inde procedentes ad quaestum, dotis corporis iniuria contrahebant, honesta nimirum tam inhonesto uinculo coniugia iuncturae.

2.6.15 To the glory of the Punic women, that it may appear fouler by comparison, I will add a shame: for Sicca is the shrine of Venus, into which matrons used to betake themselves, and coming forth thence to their gain they contracted by an injury to the dowry of their bodies; plainly, honest nuptials were joined in so dishonorable a bond.

2.6.16 Nam Persarum admodum probabile institutum fuit, quod liberos suos non prius aspiciebant septimum annum inplessent, quo paruulorum amissionem aequiore animo sustinerent.

2.6.16 For it was a very probable custom of the Persians that they did not behold their children until they had fulfilled the seventh year, whereby they might bear the loss of the little ones with a more equable mind.

2.6.17 Ne Numidiae quidem reges uituperandi, qui more gentis suae nulli mortalium osculum ferebant: quidquid enim in excelso fastigio positum est, humili et trita consuetudine, quo sit uenerabilius, uacuum esse conuenit.

2.6.17 Nor indeed are the kings of Numidia to be blamed, who by the custom of their people scarcely gave a kiss to any mortal: for whatever is placed on a lofty summit, it is fitting that it be kept free from the humble and worn familiarity by which it would be made more venerable.

2.7.init. Venio nunc ad praecipuum decus et ad stabilimentum Romani imperii, salutari perseuerantia ad hoc tempus sincerum et incolume seruatum, militarisdisciplinae tenacissimum uinculum, in cuius sinu ac tutela serenus tranquillusque beatae pacis status adquiescit.

2.7.init. I come now to the chief glory and the support of the Roman empire, the salutary perseverance preserved sincere and uninjured to this time, the most tenacious bond of military discipline, in whose bosom and protection the serene and tranquil state of blessed peace rests.

2.7.1 P. Cornelius Scipio, cui deleta Karthago auitum cognomen dedit, consul in Hispaniam missus, ut insolentissimos Numantinae urbis spiritus superiorum ducum culpa nutritos contunderet, eodem momento temporis, quo castra intrauit, edixit ut omnia ex his, quae uoluptatis causa conparata erant, auferrentur ac summouerentur: nam constat tum maximum inde institorum et lixarum numerum cum duobus milibus scortorum abisse. hac turpi atque erubescenda sentina uacuefactus exercitus noster, qui paulo ante metu mortis deformi se foederis ictu maculauerat, erecta et recreata uirtute acrem illam et animosam Numantiam incendiis exustam ruinisque prostratam solo aequauit. itaque neglectae disciplinae militaris indicium Mancini miserabilis deditio, seruatae merces speciosissimus Scipionis triumphus extitit.

2.7.1 P. Cornelius Scipio, to whom the destroyed Carthage gave the ancestral cognomen, sent as consul into Hispania to crush the most insolent spirits of the city of Numantia, nourished by the guilt of earlier leaders, at the very moment he entered the camp ordered that all those things prepared for the sake of pleasure should be taken away and removed: for it is recorded that then the greatest number of merchants and laundresses had departed with two thousand prostitutes. Having been emptied of this foul and shameful cesspool, our army, which a little before had defiled itself by the hideous fear of death at the blow of the treaty, with its virtue raised and restored made that fierce and spirited Numantia, burned by fires and overthrown by ruins, equal to the ground. Thus the miserable surrender of Mancinus proved a sign of neglected military discipline, while the most splendid triumph of Scipio resulted from preserved spoils.

2.7.2 Eius sectam Metellus secutus, cum exercitum in Africa Iugurthino bello nimia Spuri Albini indulgentia corruptum consul accepisset, omnibus imperii neruis ad reuocandam pristinae disciplinam militiae conisus est: nec singulas partes adprehendit, sed totam continuo in suum statum redegit: protinus namque lixas e castris submouit cibumque coctum uenalem proponi uetuit: in agmine neminem militum ministerio seruorum iumentorumque, ut arma sua et alimenta ipsi ferrent, uti passus est: castrorum subinde locum mutauit: eadem, tamquam Iugurtha semper adesset, uallo fossaque aptissime cinxit. quid ergo restituta continentia, quid repetita industria profecit? crebras scilicet uictorias et multa tropaea peperit ex eo hoste, cuius tergum sub ambitioso imperatore Romano militi uidere non contigerat.

2.7.2 Metellus, having followed that sect, when as consul he received an army in the Jugurthine war corrupted by the excessive indulgence of Spurius Albinus, strove with all the sinews of command to restore the former discipline of the soldiery: nor did he seize single parts, but immediately reduced the whole back into his own condition: for straightaway he removed the prostitutes from the camps and forbade cooked food being offered for sale: in the march he would not allow any soldier to be served by slaves and beasts of burden, but made them carry their own arms and provisions: he changed the site of the camps in succession: he enclosed them most fitly with rampart and ditch, as if Jugurtha were always present. What, then, did restored continence, what did renewed industry avail? Clearly he begot frequent victories and many trophies from that foe, whose back the Roman soldier had not happened to see under an ambitious commander.

2.7.3 Bene etiam illi disciplinae militari adfuerunt, qui necessitudinum perruptis uinculis ultionem uindictamque laesae cum ignominia domuum suarum exigere non dubitauerunt: nam P. Rupilius consul

2.7.3 Those too were well fitted to military discipline who, with the bonds of relationship having been broken, did not hesitate to exact vengeance and retribution for the injuries to their households: for P. Rupilius, consul,

2.7.4 P. Aurelium [filium] Pecuniolam sanguine sibi iunctum, quem obsidioni Liparitanae ad auspicia repetenda Messanam transiturus praefecerat, uirgis caesum militiae munere inter pedites fungi coegit, quod eius culpa agger incensus, paene castra erant capta.

2.7.4 compelled P. Aurelius [son] Pecuniola, joined to him by blood, whom, about to cross to Messana to renew the auspices for the Liparitan siege, he had placed in command, to endure being beaten with rods and to discharge the duty of military service among the infantry, because by his fault the rampart was set on fire and the camp was nearly taken.

2.7.5 Q. etiam Fuluius Flaccus censor Fuluium fratrem consortem legionem, in qua tribunus militum erat, iniussu consulis domum dimittere ausum senatu mouit. ~ non digna exempla tam breuiter, nisi maioribus urguerer, referrentur: quid enim tam difficile factu quam copulatae societati generis et imaginum deformem in patriam reditum indicere aut communioni nominis ac familiae ueteris propinquitatis serie cohaerenti uirgarum contumeliosa uerbera adhibere aut censorium supercilium aduersus fraternam caritatem destringere? Dentur haec singula quamuis claris ciuitatibus, abunde tamen gloria disciplinae militaris instructae uidebuntur:

2.7.5 Q. etiam Fulvius Flaccus, censor, moved the senate because Fulvius his brother, partner in the legion in which he was military tribune, had dared to dismiss his household without the consul’s order. ~ Such examples would not be reported so briefly, were I not pressed by greater ones: for what is more difficult to effect than to proclaim to the fatherland the shameful return of a joined society of rank and images, or to apply the contumelious rod-blows to the communion of name and of an old family’s kinship cohering in series, or to strip away fraternal affection with the censorial brow? Let these particulars be granted even to illustrious cities; yet they will nevertheless seem amply endowed with the glory of military discipline:

2.7.6 at nostra urbs, quae omni genere mirificorum exemplorum totum terrarum orbem repleuit, imperatorum proprio sanguine manantes secures [habet], ne turbato militiae ordine uindicta deesset, ex castris publice speciosas, priuatim lugubres duplici uultu recepit, incerta gratulandi prius an adloquendi officio fungeretur. igitur ego quoque haesitante animo uos, bellicarum rerum seuerissimi custodes, Postumi Tuberte et Manli Torquate, memoria ac relatione conplector, qui animaduerto fore ut pondere laudis, quam meruistis, obrutus magis inbecillitatem ingenii mei detegam quam uestram uirtutem, sicut par est, repraesentem. tu namque, Postumi, dictator A. Postumium, quem ad generis penetraliumque sacrorum successionem propagandam genueras, cuius infantiae blandimenta sinu atque osculis foueras, quem puerum litteris, quem iuuenem armis instruxeras, sanctum, fortem, amantem tui pariter ac patriae, quia non tuo iussu, sed sua sponte praesidio progressus hostis fuderat, uictorem securi feriri iussisti et ad hoc peragendum imperium paternae uocis ministerio sufficere ualuisti: nam oculos tuos certum scio clarissima in luce tenebris offusos ingens animi opus intueri nequiuisse.

2.7.6 but our city, which with every kind of wondrous examples has filled the whole orb of the lands, having axes [has] flowing with the very blood of emperors, lest vengeance be lacking when the order of the soldiery was disturbed, received them from the camps publicly with a specious face, privately with a mournful one, with a double countenance, uncertain whether it should first perform the duty of rejoicing or of addressing them. therefore I also, with my mind hesitating, embrace you, most severe guardians of warlike affairs, Postumus Tubertus and Manlius Torquatus, with memory and report, who I perceive will be such that, weighed down more by the burden of the praise which you have deserved, I shall reveal the weakness of my own genius rather than, as is fitting, represent your virtue. for you, Postumus, when you were dictator ordered A. Postumius, whom you begot for the propagation of the lineage and the inner rites, whose infant blandishments you cherished in your bosom and with kisses, whom as a boy you instructed in letters, whom as a youth in arms you equipped, holy, brave, loving both you and the fatherland alike, because not by your order but of his own accord having advanced as a garrison he had routed the enemy, you ordered the victor to be struck with the axe and for the carrying out of this you were able to suffice by the ministry of a paternal voice: for I know that your eyes, I am sure, overwhelmed by the brightest light were unable to gaze upon the vast work of spirit.

tu item, [Postumi] Torquate, Latino bello consul filium, quod prouocatus a Gemino Maecio duce Tusculanorum ad dimicandum te ignaro descenderat, gloriosam uictoriam et speciosa spolia referentem abripi ab lictore et in modum hostiae mactari iussisti, satius esse iudicans patrem forti filio quam patriam militari disciplina carere.

you likewise, Postumius Torquatus, consul in the Latin war, because—provoked by Geminus Maecius, leader of the Tusculans—your son had descended to fight you unawares, ordered that he, bearing a glorious victory and splendid spoils, be seized from him by the lictor and sacrificed in the manner of a hostia, judging it better that a father be bereft of a brave son than that the fatherland lack military disciplina.

2.7.7 Age, quanto spiritu putamus usum L. Quintium Cincinnatum dictatorem eo tempore, quo deuictis Aequiculis et sub iugum missis L. Minucium consulatum deponere coegit, quod castra eius idem hostes obsederant? indignum enim maximo imperio credidit quem non sua uirtus, sed fossa uallumque tutum praestiterat, cuique uerecundiae non fuerat arma Romana metu trepida clausis portis contineri. ergo imperiosissimi xii fasces, penes quos senatus et equestris ordinis et uniuersae plebis summum decus erat, quorumque nutu Latium ac totius Italiae uires regebantur, contusi atque fracti dictatoriae se animaduersioni substrauerunt: ac, ne inulta foret laesa gloria militaris, consul delicti omnis uindex punitus est.

2.7.7 Come now, with what spirit do we suppose L. Quintius Cincinnatus made use of the dictatorship at that time, when, the Aequiculi having been defeated and L. Minucius sent under the yoke, he compelled him to lay down the consulship, because the same enemies had besieged his camp? For he entrusted the supreme command to one whom not his own virtue but ditch and rampart had rendered safe, and to whom from a modesty the Roman arms were not kept trembling behind closed gates. Therefore the twelve most imperious fasces, in whose charge was the highest honour of the Senate and of the equestrian order and of the whole people, and by whose nod the forces of Latium and of all Italy were governed, were battered and broken and withdrew themselves from dictatorial oversight: and, lest the injured military glory remain unavenged, the consul was punished as the avenger of the whole offence.

his, ut ita dicam, piaculis, Mars, imperii nostri pater, ubi aliqua ex parte a tuis auspiciis degeneratum erat, numen tuum propitiabatur, adfinium et cognatorum et fratrum nota, filiorum strage, ignominiosa consulum eiuratione.

By these, so to speak, transgressions, Mars, father of our empire, when in some part it had degenerated from your auspices, your numen was propitiated — the ties of adfines and cognates and brothers made manifest by the slaughter of sons and by the ignominious swearing of the consuls.

2.7.8 Eiusdem ordinis quod sequitur. Papirius dictator, cum aduersus imperium eius Q. Fabius Rullianus magister equitum exercitum in aciem eduxisset, quamquam fusis Samnitibus in castra redierat, tamen neque uirtute eius neque successu neque nobilitate motus uirgas expediri eumque nudari iussit. o spectaculum admirabile!

2.7.8 Of the same order that follows. Papirius the dictator, when against his authority Q. Fabius Rullianus, master of horse, had led the army into the line, although with the Samnites routed he had returned to camp, nevertheless, moved by neither his bravery nor his success nor his nobility, ordered the rods to be produced and him to be stripped. O admirable spectacle!

et Rullianus et magister equitum et uictor scissa ueste spoliatoque corpore lictorum se uerberibus lacerandum praebuit, ut in acie exceptorum uulnerum nodosis ictibus cruore renouato uictoriarum, quas modo speciosissimas erat adeptus, titulos respergeret. precibus deinde suis exercitus occasionem Fabio confugiendi in urbem dedit, ubi frustra senatus auxilium inplorauit: nihilo minus enim Papirius in exigenda poena perseuerauit. itaque coactus est pater eius post dictaturam tertiumque consulatum rem ad populum deuocare auxiliumque tribunorum plebi supplex pro filio petere.

Both Rullianus — both Master of the Horse and victor — with his garment torn and his body stripped by the lictors, offered himself to be lacerated by their scourges, that, the wounds received in the battle, by knotted blows with blood renewed, he might besprinkle the titles of the victories, which he had just won most splendid, with blood. Then by his prayers the army gave Fabius the opportunity to flee into the city, where in vain he implored aid from the Senate: nevertheless Papirius persevered in exacting punishment. And so his father was forced, after the dictatorship and his third consulship, to refer the matter to the people and, as a suppliant, to beg the aid of the tribunes of the plebs for his son.

neque hac re seueritas Papiri refrenari potuit. ceterum, cum ab uniuersis ciuibus et ipsis tribunis plebi rogaretur, testatus est se poenam illam non Fabio, sed populo et tribuniciae concedere potestati.

nor by this thing could Papirius’s severity be reined in. yet, when he was entreated by all the citizens and by the tribunes themselves on behalf of the plebs, he declared that he could concede that punishment not to Fabius but to the people and to the tribunician authority.

2.7.9 L. quoque Calpurnius Piso consul, cum in Sicilia bellum aduersus fugitiuos gereret et Titius equitum praefectus [fugitiuorum] multitudine hostium circumuentus arma iis tradidisset, his praefectum ignominiae generibus adfecit: iussit eum toga laciniis abscisis amictum discinctaque tunica indutum nudis pedibus a mane in noctem usque ad principia per omne tempus militiae adesse. interdixit etiam ei conuictum hominum usumque balnearum, turmasque equitum, quibus praefuerat, ademptis equis in funditorum alas transcripsit. magnum profecto dedecus patriae pari sontium dedecore uindicatum est, quoniam quidem id egit Piso, ut qui cupiditate uitae adducti cruce dignissimis fugitiuis tropaea de se statuere concesserant libertatique suae seruili manu flagitiosum inponi iugum non erubuerant, amarum lucis usum experirentur mortemque, quam effeminate timuerant, uiriliter optarent.

2.7.9 L. Calpurnius Piso likewise, consul, when he was waging war in Sicily against fugitives and C. Titius, prefect of the cavalry, having been surrounded by a multitude of enemies had delivered arms to the [fugitives], afflicted them with a kind of ignominious prefecture: he ordered him to be clothed in a toga with its fringes cut off and wearing a tunic unbound, with bare feet, to be present from morning to night at the principia for the whole time of the military service. He also forbade him social intercourse and the use of the baths, and, the squadrons of cavalry which he had commanded having had their horses taken away, transferred them into the wings of the slingers. Truly a great disgrace of the fatherland was avenged by an equal disgrace of the guilty, for Piso did this so that those who, led by a craving for life, had granted trophies to fugitives most worthy of the cross and had not blushed to place upon their freedom a shameful yoke with a servile hand, might taste the bitter enjoyment of life and, which they had effeminately feared, manfully choose death.

2.7.10 Nec minus Pisone acriter Q. Metellus. qui, cum apud trebiam res gereretur, conlocatas a se in quadam statione quinque cohortes atque ex ea uiribus hostium depulsas repetere eandem stationem e uestigio iussit, non quod speraret ab his amissum locum recuperari posse, sed ut praeteritae culpam pugnae insequentis certaminis manifesto periculo puniret. edixit etiam ut, si quis ex his fugiens castra petisset, pro hoste interficeretur.

2.7.10 Nor less fiercely toward Piso was Q. Metellus, who, when affairs were being conducted at trebia, ordered five cohorts which he had posted in a certain station, and after they had been driven from it by the enemy’s force, to regain the same station from the very spot; not because he hoped that the lost place could be recovered by them, but that he might punish the fault of the past fight by the manifest danger of the ensuing contest. He also issued an edict that if any of these, fleeing, should seek the camp, he should be put to death as if an enemy.

qua seueritate conpressi milites et corporibus fatigatis et animis desperatione uitae inplicatis loci tamen iniquitatem multitudinemque hostium superarunt. humanae igitur inbecillitatis efficacissimum duramentum est necessitas.

By that severity pressed, the soldiers, their bodies fatigued and their minds entangled in the desperation of life, nevertheless overcame the iniquity of the place and the multitude of the enemy. Therefore necessity is the most efficacious hardening of human inbecility.

2.7.11 In eadem prouincia Q. Fabius Maximus ferocissimae gentis animos contundere et debilitare cupiens mansuetissimum ingenium suum ad tempus deposita clementia [seueriore] uti seueritate coegit: omnium enim, qui ex praesidiis Romanorum ad hostes fugerant captique erant, manus abscidit, ut trunca prae se brachia gestantes metum defectionis reliquis inicerent. rebelles itaque manus a corporibus suis distractae inque cruentato solo sparsae ceteris ne idem committere auderent documento fuerunt.

2.7.11 In the same province Q. Fabius Maximus, eager to crush and debilitate the spirits of a most ferocious gent, compelled his most gentle ingenium, mercy laid aside for a time, to use a severer severity: for he cut off the hands of all who had fled from the Roman praesidia to the hostes and had been captured, so that, bearing their truncated arms before them, they would instill in the rest the fear of defection. The rebels therefore, their hands torn from their corpor bodies and scattered on the blood-stained soli, were a demonstration that the others would not dare to commit the same.

2.7.12 Nihil mitius superiore Africano. is tamen ad firmandam disciplinam militarem aliquid ab alienissima sibi crudelitate amaritudinis mutuandum existimauit: si quidem deuicta Karthagine, cum omnes, qui ex nostris exercitibus ad Poenos transierant, in suam potestatem redegisset, grauius in Romanos quam in Latinos transfugas animaduertit: hos enim tamquam patriae fugitiuos crucibus adfixit, illos tamquam perfidos socios securi percussit. non prosequar hoc factum ulterius, et quia Scipionis est et quia Romano sanguini quamuis merito perpesso seruile supplicium insultare non adtinet, cum praesertim transire ad ea liceat, quae sine domestico uulnere gesta narrari possunt.

2.7.12 Nothing gentler than the foregoing African. He, however, thought that something of a cruelty of bitterness most alien to himself ought to be borrowed for the strengthening of military discipline: for, with Carthage subdued, when he had reduced to his power all who from our armies had passed over to the Poeni, he visited the deserters more grievously when they were Romans than when they were Latins: for he nailed those, as fugitives from the fatherland, to crosses, he struck the others, as perfidious allies, with the axe. I will not follow this deed further, both because it is Scipio’s and because it is not fitting to exult over servile punishment inflicted on Roman blood, however deserved, especially since it is permitted to pass over those things which can be told without a domestic wound.

2.7.13 Nam posterior Africanus euerso Punico imperio exterarum gentium transfugas in edendis populo spectaculis feris bestiis obiecit, [cont.

2.7.13 For the later Africanus, with the Punic empire overthrown, exposed deserters of foreign peoples as spectacles to the people to be devoured by wild beasts, [cont.

2.7.14]

2.7.14 et L. Paulus Perse rege superato eiusdem generis et culpae homines elephantis proterendos substrauit, utilissimo quidem exemplo, si tamen acta excellentissimorum uirorum humiliter aestimare sine insolentiae reprehensione permittitur: aspero enim et absciso castigationis genere militaris disciplina indiget, quia uires armis constant, quae ubi a recto tenore desciuerint, oppressura sunt, nisi opprimantur.

2.7.14 and L. Paulus, Perse the king having been overcome, withheld men of the same rank and guilt from being prostrated by elephants, a very useful example indeed, if yet it is permitted to judge the acts of most excellent men humbly without the censoriousness of insolence: for military discipline needs a harsh and severed kind of castigation, because forces depend on arms, which, when they have deviated from the straight course, are about to oppress, unless they are suppressed.

2.7.15 Sed tempus est eorum quoque mentionem fieri, quae iam non a singulis, uerum ab uniuerso senatu pro militari more obtinendo defendendoque administrata sunt. L. Marcius tribunus militum, cum reliquias duorum exercituum Publi et Gnaei Scipionum, quos arma Punica in Hispania absumpserant, dispersas mira uirtute collegisset earumque suffragiis dux esset creatus, senatui de rebus actis a se scribens in hunc modum orsus est: 'L. Marcius pro praetore'. cuius honoris usurpatione uti eum patri bus conscriptis non placuit, quia duces a populo, non a militibus creari solerent. quo tempore tam ~ iniusto, tam graui propter inmane rei publicae damnum etiam tribunus militum adulandus erat, quoniam quidem ad statum totius ciuitatis corrigendum unus suffecerat.

2.7.15 But it is time that mention be made also of those things which were no longer managed and administered for obtaining and defending the military by individuals, but by the whole senate. Lucius Marcius, military tribune, when he had gathered by marvelous valour the remnants of the two armies of Publius and Gnaeus Scipio, which the Punic arms had consumed in Spain, scattered, and by their votes had been made leader, writing to the senate about the deeds he had done, began thus: 'L. Marcius pro praetore.' The usurpation of that honour did not please the fathers enrolled, because commanders were wont to be chosen by the people, not by the soldiers. At a time so ~ unjust, so grave on account of the enormous loss to the republic, even the military tribune had to be flattered, since indeed one man was enough for correcting the state of the whole city.

sed nulla clades, nullum meritum ualentius militari disciplina fuit. Succurrebat enim illis quam animosa seueritate Tarentino bello maiores eorum usi fuissent, in quo quassatis et adtritis rei publicae uiribus, cum magnum captiuorum ciuium suorum numerum a Pyrro rege ultro missum recepissent, decreuerunt ut ex iis, qui equo meruerant, peditum numero militarent, qui pedites fuerant, in funditorum auxilia transcriberentur, neue quis eorum intra castra tenderet, neue locum extra adsignatum uallo aut fossa cingeret, neue tentorium ex pellibus haberet. recursum autem his ad pristinum militiae ordinem proposuerunt, si quis bina spolia ex hostibus tulisset.

but no defeat, no merit was more potent than military discipline. For they applied to them the same spirited severity which their ancestors had used in the Tarentine war, in which, the forces of the republic shaken and worn away, when they had received, at the king Pyrrhus's voluntary sending, a great number of their citizens taken captive, they decreed that those who had deserved by horse should serve in the number of foot-soldiers, that those who had been foot-soldiers should be transferred into the auxiliaries of slingers, and that no one of them should pitch within the camp, nor enclose a place outside assigned by rampart or ditch, nor have a tent made of hides. They, however, proposed a recourse to the former order of military service for these men, if anyone had taken two spoils from the enemy.

quibus suppliciis conpressi ex deformibus Pyrri munusculis acerrimi hostes extiterunt. Parem iram senatus aduersus illos destrinxit, qui apud Cannas rem publicam deseruerant: nam cum eos grauitate decreti ultra mortuorum condicionem relegasset, acceptis a M. Marcello litteris, ut eorum sibi opera ad expugnationem Syracusarum uti liceret, rescripsit indignos esse qui in castra reciperentur: ceterum se ei permittere ut faceret quod expedire rei publicae iudicasset, dum ne quis ex his munere uacaret aut dono militiae donaretur aut in Italiam, donec hostes in ea essent, accederet. sic eneruis animos odisse uirtus solet.

By these punishments, crushed and rendered contemptible by the hideous little gifts of Pyrrhus, they proved to be the fiercest of enemies. The senate loosened an equal anger against those who at Cannae had deserted the republic: for when severity of decree had relegated them beyond the condition of the dead, having received letters from M. Marcellus that he might be permitted to make use of their services for the capture of Syracuse, he replied that they were unworthy to be received into the camp; however he entrusted to him the right to do what he judged expedient for the republic’s interest, provided that none of those men should be exempt from service by gift or be bestowed the gift of soldiership, or come into Italy while the enemies were there. Thus valour is wont to enervate minds with hatred.

Age, quam grauiter senatus tulit quod Q. Petilium consulem fortissime aduersus Ligures pugnantem occidere milites passi essent! legioni neque stipendium anni procedere neque aera dari uoluit, quia pro salute imperatoris hostium se telis non obtulerant. idque decretum amplissimi ordinis speciosum et aeternum Petili monumentum extitit, sub quo in acie morte, in curia ultione clari cineres eius adquiescunt.

Come now, how gravely the Senate bore that soldiers had suffered Q. Petilius, the consul fighting most bravely against the Ligurians, to be killed! It would grant to the legion neither the year's stipend nor the coin, because for the emperor's safety they had not offered themselves to the enemies with their weapons. And that decree of the most distinguished order proved a splendid and eternal monument of Petilius, beneath which—by death on the field, in the curia by vengeance—his renowned ashes repose.

Consimili animo, cum ei Hannibal vi milium Romanorum, quae capta in castris habebat, redimendorum potestatem fecisset, condicionem spreuit memor tantam multitudinem armatorum iuuenum, si honeste mori uoluisset, turpiter capi non potuisse. quorum nescio utrum maius dedecus fuerit quod patria spei an quod hostis metus nihil in his reposuerit, ~ haec pro se, ille ne aduersus se dimicarent parui ducendo. Sed cum aliquotiens senatus pro militari disciplina seuere excubuerit, nescio an tum praecipue, cum milites, qui Regium iniusto bello occupauerant mortuoque duce Iubellio M. Caesium scribam eius sua sponte imperatorem delegerant, carcere inclusit, ac M. Fuluio Flacco tribuno plebi denuntiante ne in ciues Romanos aduersus morem maiorum animaduerteret, nihilo minus propositum executus est.

With a like spirit, when Hannibal had given him by force the power of ransoming the thousands of Romans which he held captive in the camps, he spurned the condition, mindful that so great a multitude of armed youths, if they had wished to die honorably, could not have been taken shamefully. Of these I do not know which was the greater disgrace, that their country left nothing for hope or that fear of the enemy left nothing in them — this (they thought) for themselves, he by treating them as of little account so that they would not contend against him. But since the senate at times has watched severely for military discipline, I know not whether especially then, when the soldiers who had seized Regium in an unjust war, and with their leader Iubellius dead had of their own accord chosen M. Caesius his scribe as their commander, he shut them up in prison; and though M. Fulvius Flaccus, tribune of the plebs, denounced that he should not punish Roman citizens contrary to the custom of the ancestors, he nevertheless carried out what he had proposed.

ceterum quo minore cum inuidia id perageretur, quinquagenos per singulos dies uirgis caesos securi percuti iussit eorumque corpora sepulturae mandari mortemque lugeri uetuit.

but, so that it might be carried out with as little invidia as possible, he ordered fifty men to be beaten with rods each day and struck by the axe, and commanded that their bodies be consigned to burial and that their death be forbidden to be lamented.

2.7.ext.1 Leniter hoc patres conscripti, si Karthaginiensium senatus in militiae negotiis procurandis uiolentiam intueri uelimus, a quo duces bella prauo consilio gerentes, etiam si prospera fortuna subsecuta esset, cruci tamen suffigebantur, quod bene gesserant deorum inmortalium adiutorio, quod male commiserant ipsorum culpae inputante.

2.7.ext.1 Let us take this gently, conscript fathers, if we wish to look into the violence of the Carthaginians’ senate in managing military affairs, by which authority leaders conducting wars with perverse counsel, even if prosperous fortune had followed, were nevertheless impaled—because they had acted well by the aid of the immortal gods, and were treated as if they had done ill, their very guilt being imputed to them.

2.7.ext.2 Clearchus uero Lacedaemonium dux egregio dicto disciplinam militiae continebat, identidem exercitus sui auribus inculcando a militibus imperatorem potius quam hostem metui debere. quo aperte denuntiabat futurum ut spiritum poenae inpenderent, quem pugnae [acceptum ferre] dubitassent. idque a duce praecipi non mirabantur maternarum blanditiarum memores, quibus exituri ad proeliandum monebantur ut aut uiui cum armis in conspectum earum uenirent aut mortui in armis referrentur.

2.7.ext.2 Clearchus, moreover, general of the Lacedaemonians, with a remarkable severity kept the discipline of the soldiery, repeatedly inculcating into the ears of his troops that they ought to fear the commander rather than the enemy. By this he openly warned that it would come to pass that they would direct the spirit of punishment against those whom they suspected had hesitated to bear the accepted hazards of battle. And they were not surprised to be thus commanded by their leader, mindful of the motherly blandishments by which, when about to march forth to fight, they were warned either to come into their sight alive with arms or to be carried back dead in arms.

hoc intra domesticos parietes accepto signo Spartanae acies dimicabant. sed aliena prospexisse tantum modo satis est, cum propriis multoque uberioribus et felicioribus exemplis gloriari liceat.

having received this token within their household walls, they fought the Spartan battle‑lines. But it is enough that they only looked to foreign matters, since one may boast of his own — far more plentiful and more fortunate — examples.

2.8.init. Disciplina militaris acriter retenta principatum Italiae Romano imperio peperit, multarum urbium, magnorum regum, ualidissimarum gentium regimen largita est, fauces Pontici sinus patefecit, Alpium Taurique montis conuulsa claustra tradidit, ortumque e paruula Romuli casa totius terrarum orbis fecit columen. ex cuius sinu quoniam omnes triumphi manarunt, sequitur ut de triumphandi iure dicere incipiam.

2.8.init. By fiercely retained military discipline it begot the principate of Italy for the Roman empire, bestowed the regimen of many cities, of great kings, of most powerful nations, opened the passes of the Pontic gulf, delivered the broken barriers of the Alps and the Taurus mountain, and from the small house of Romulus made the pillar of the whole world. Since from whose bosom all triumphs flowed, it follows that I begin to speak of the right of triumphing.

2.8.1 Ob leuia proelia quidam imperatores triumphos sibi decerni desiderabant. quibus ut occurreretur, lege cautum est ne quis triumpharet, nisi qui V milia hostium una acie cecidisset: non enim numero, sed gloria triumphorum excelsius urbis nostrae futurum decus maiores existimabant. ceterum ne tam praeclara lex cupiditate laureae oblitteraretur, legis alterius adiutorio fulta est, quam L. Marcius et M. Cato tribuni plebei tulerunt: poenam enim imperatoribus minatur, qui aut hostium occisorum in proelio aut amissorum ciuium falsum numerum litteris senatui ausi essent referre, iubetque eos, cum primum urbem intrassent, apud quaestores urbanos iurare de utroque numero uere ab iis senatui esse scriptum.

2.8.1 Some commanders wished that triumphs be conferred on them for slight battles. To prevent this, it was provided by law that no one should triumph unless he had slain 5,000 of the enemy in a single line of battle: for our ancestors thought that the higher honor of our city would be exalted not by number but by the glory of triumphs. Moreover, lest so illustrious a law be blotted out by desire for the laurel, it was buttressed by the aid of another law which L. Marcius and M. Cato, tribunes of the plebs, carried: for it threatens a penalty to commanders who had dared to report in writing to the Senate a false number either of enemies killed in battle or of citizens lost, and it orders them, as soon as they enter the city, to swear before the urban quaestors that both numbers were truly written by them to the Senate.

2.8.2 Post has leges iudicii illius tempestiua mentio introducetur, in quo de iure triumphandi inter clarissimas personas et actum et excussum est. C. Lutatius consul [Catulus] et Q. Valerius praetor circa Siciliam insignem Poenorum classem deleuerant. quo nomine Lutatio consuli triumphum senatus decreuit.

2.8.2 Afterwards a timely mention will be introduced of the laws of that trial, in which the right to triumph among the most illustrious persons was both acted upon and examined. C. Lutatius, consul (Catulus), and Q. Valerius, praetor, had destroyed a notable Punic fleet about Sicily. On that account the senate decreed a triumph for Lutatius the consul.

cum autem Valerius sibi quoque eum decerni desideraret, negauit id fieri oportere Lutatius, ne in honore triumphi minor potestas maiori aequaretur, pertinaciusque progressa contentione Valerius sponsione Lutatium prouocauit, ni suo ductu Punica classis esset oppressa, nec dubitauit restipulari Lutatius. itaque iudex inter eos conuenit Atilius Calatinus, apud quem Valerius in hunc modum egit, consulem ea pugna in lectica claudum iacuisse, se autem omnibus imperatoriis partibus functum. tunc Calatinus, prius quam Lutatius causam suam ordiretur, 'quaero' inquit, 'Valeri, a te, si dimicandum necne esset contrariis inter uos sententiis dissedissetis, utrum quod consul an quod praetor imperasset maius habiturum fuerit momentum.' respondit Valerius non facere se controuersiam quin priores partes consulis essent futurae.

When Valerius also desired that it be awarded to him, Lutatius said that this ought not to be done, lest in the honor of the triumph a lesser potestas be equated to a greater; and with the contention having grown more pertinacious, Valerius challenged Lutatius by a sponsio that, unless the Punic fleet were crushed under his own dux, — nor did Lutatius hesitate to make a restipulatio. Thus they agreed upon Atilius Calatinus as judge between them, before whom Valerius pleaded in this manner: that in that battle the consul had lain shut up in a lectica, whereas he himself had discharged all the imperatorial parts. Then Calatinus, before Lutatius began his cause, said, “I ask you, Valeri, if you two had differed with contrary opinions about whether to fight or not, which command — that of the consul or that of the praetor — would have had the greater moment?” Valerius answered that he would not make a controversy, since the prior parts of the consul would be the ones to carry weight.

'age deinde' inquit Calatinus, 'si diuersa auspicia accepissetis, cuius magis auspicio staretur?' 'item' respondit Valerius 'consulis'. 'iam hercules' inquit, 'cum de imperio et auspicio inter uos disceptationem susceperim, et tu utroque aduersarium tuum superiorem fuisse fatearis, nihil est quod ulterius dubitem. itaque, Lutati, quamuis adhuc tacueris, secundum te litem do'. mirifice iudex, quod in manifesto negotio tempus teri passus non est: probabilius Lutatius, quod ius amplissimi honoris constanter defendit: sed ne Valerius quidem inprobe, quia fortis et prosperae pugnae ut non legitimum ita * * * praemium petiit.

'Come then,' said Calatinus, 'if you had received differing auspices, by whose auspice would it have stood more firmly?' 'Likewise,' replied Valerius, 'the consul’s.' 'Now by Hercules,' he said, 'since I have undertaken a dispute between you about imperium and auspices, and you confess that in both respects your adversary was superior, there is nothing further that I doubt. Therefore, Lutatius, although you have hitherto been silent, I give the suit in your favor.' Wonderful judge, who in a manifest case did not suffer time to be wasted: more probable for Lutatius, because he steadfastly maintained the right of the most splendid honor; yet not even Valerius improperly, for being brave and of a successful fight he sought as his prize, not lawful so much as * * *.

2.8.3 Quid facias Cn. Fuluio Flacco, qui tam expetendum aliis triumphi honorem decretum sibi a senatu ob res bene gestas spreuit ac repudiauit, nimirum ~ non plura praecerpens quam acciderunt?++ nam ut urbem intrauit, continuo quaestione publica adflictus exilio multatus est,++ut, si quid religionis insolentia commisisset, poena expiaret.

2.8.3 What is to be made of Cn. Fulvius Flaccus, who spurned and rejected for himself that honor of a triumph so eagerly sought by others, decreed by the senate for his well‑performed deeds, namely ~ not rehearsing more than had occurred?++ For when he entered the city, immediately upon being afflicted by a public inquiry he was punished with exile,++ so that, if he had committed any insolence against religion, he might expiate the penalty.

2.8.4 Sapientiores igitur Q. Fuluius, qui Capua capta, et L. Opimius, qui Fregellanis ad deditionem conpulsis triumphandi potestatem a senatu petierunt, uterque editis operibus magnificus, sed neuter petitae rei compos non quidem inuidia patrum conscriptorum, cui numquam aditum in curiam esse uoluerunt, sed summa diligentia obseruandi iuris, quo cautum erat ut pro aucto imperio, non pro reciperatis quae populi Romani fuissent triumphus decerneretur: tantum enim interest adicias aliquid an detractum restituas, quantum distat beneficii initium ab iniuriae fine.

2.8.4 Therefore the wiser were Q. Fuluius, who, Capua having been captured, and L. Opimius, who, the Fregellani having been driven to surrender, sought from the senate the power to triumph; each magnificent with the spoils they had taken, yet neither settled about the thing sought—not on account of envy of the patres conscripti, to whom they never wished to have access in the curia, but from a scrupulous observance of the law, by which it was provided that a triumph should be decreed for an increased imperium, not for recoveries of things that had belonged to the Roman people: for it makes as much difference whether you add something or restore what was taken away as there is between the beginning of a benefit and the end of an injury.

2.8.5 Quin etiam ius, de quo loquor, sic custoditum est, ut P. Scipioni ob reciperatas Hispanias, M. Marcello ob captas Syracusas triumphus non decerneretur, quod ad eas res gerendas sine ullo erant missi magistratu. probentur nunc cuiuslibet gloriae cupidi, qui ex desertis montibus myoparonumque piraticis rostris laudis inopes laureae ramulos festinabunda manu decerpserunt: Karthaginis imperio abrupta Hispania et Siciliae caput abscisum, Syracusae, triumphalis iungere currus nequiuerunt: et quibus uiris? Scipioni et Marcello, quorum ipsa nomina instar aeterni sunt triumphi.

2.8.5 Moreover the law of which I speak was so guarded that a triumph was not decreed to P. Scipio for the recovered Spaniards, nor to M. Marcellus for the captured Syracuse, because no magistrates had been sent to conduct those affairs. Let those now be proved greedy for glory, who from deserted mountains and from the piratical rostra of myoparon have, poor in branches of laurel of praise, with hasty hand plucked off the little twigs: Spain torn away from the empire of Carthage and the head severed from Sicily, they could not join Syracuse to the triumphal chariots: and to which men? To Scipio and Marcellus, whose very names are as an eternal triumph.

sed clarissimos solidae ueraeque uirtutis auctores humeris suis salutem patriae gestantes, etsi coronatos intueri senatus cupiebat, iustiori tamen reseruandos laureae putauit.

but the most illustrious auctores of solid and true virtue, bearing on their humeri the salvation of the patria, although the senate wished to gaze upon them coronated, yet thought the laureae ought rather to be reserved for a more just occasion.

2.8.6 His illud subnectam: moris est ab imperatore ducturo triumphum consules inuitari ad cenam, deinde rogari ut uenire supersedeant, ne quis eo die, quo ille triumpharit, maioris in eodem conuiuio sit imperii.

2.8.6 To these things I will add this: it is the custom that the consuls be invited by the emperor about to celebrate a triumph to a dinner, and then asked to refrain from coming, lest anyone on that day, on which he has triumphed, be of higher rank in the same banquet of the empire.

2.8.7 Verum quamuis quis praeclaras res maximeque utiles rei publicae ciuili bello gessisset, imperator tamen eo nomine appellatus non est, neque ullae supplicationes decretae sunt, neque aut ouans aut curru triumphauit, quia, ut necessariae istae, ita lugubres semper existimatae sunt uictoriae utpote non externo, sed domestico partae cruore. itaque et Nasica Ti. Gracchum et ~ G. Metellus Opimi factiones maesti trucidarunt. Q. Catulus M. Lepido collega suo cum omnibus seditionis copiis ~ extinctoque tum moderatum prae se ferens gaudium in urbem reuertit.

2.8.7 But although anyone had carried out illustrious deeds and actions most useful to the res publica in civil war, nevertheless he was not called imperator by that title, nor were any supplications decreed, nor did he triumph either on foot or by chariot; for, as these things are necessary, so victories have always been reckoned mournful, being won not by foreign but by domestic blood. And so both Nasica and Ti. Gracchus and ~ G. Metellus Opimi crushed the factions in sorrowful slaughter. Q. Catulus returned to the city with his colleague M. Lepidus, with all the forces of the sedition ~ then extinguished, bearing before him a restrained joy.

Gaius etiam Antonius Catilinae uictor abstersos gladios in castra retulit. L. Cinna et C. Marius hauserant quidem auidi ciuilem sanguinem, sed non protinus ad templa deorum et aras tetenderunt. iam L. Sulla, qui plurima bella ciuilia confecit, cuius crudelissimi et insolentissimi successus fuerunt, cum consummata atque constructa potentia sua triumphum duceret, ut Graeciae et Asiae multas urbes, ita ciuium Romanorum nullum oppidum uexit.

Gaius also, victor over Catilina, carried the wiped swords back into the camp. L. Cinna and C. Marius had indeed drunk eagerly of civil blood, but they did not straightway stretch themselves toward the temples of the gods and the altars. Now L. Sulla, who completed very many civil wars, whose successes were most cruel and most insolent, when, his power consummated and established, he celebrated a triumph, though he had borne many cities of Greece and Asia, carried not a single town of Roman citizens.

Piget taedetque per uulnera rei publicae ulterius procedere. lauream nec senatus cuiquam dedit nec quisquam sibi dari desiderauit ciuitatis parte lacrimante. ceterum ad quercum pronae manus porriguntur, ubi ob ciues seruatos corona danda est, qua postes Augustae domus sempiterna gloria triumphant.

It pains and disgusts to proceed further through the wounds of the republic. The senate gave the laurel to no one, nor did any man desire it to be given to himself, with the citizenry weeping. Yet bent hands are stretched toward the oak, where, because the citizens were saved, a crown must be bestowed, by which the doorposts of the Augustan house triumph with everlasting glory.

2.9.init. Castrensis disciplinae tenacissimum uinculum et militaris rationis diligens obseruatio admonet me ut ad censuram pacis magistram custodemque transgrediar: nam ut opes populi Romani in tantum amplitudinis imperatorum uirtutibus excesserunt, ita probitas et continentia, censorio supercilio examinata, est opus effectu par bellicis laudibus: quid enim prodest foris esse strenuum, si domi male uiuitur? expugnentur licet urbes, corripiantur gentes, regnis manus iniciantur, nisi foro et curiae officium ac uerecundia sua constiterit, partarum rerum caelo cumulus aequatus sedem stabilem non habebit.

2.9.init. The most tenacious bond of camp discipline and the diligent observation of military reason admonish me to pass over to the censure of peace, its mistress and guardian: for just as the resources of the Roman people have surpassed in such magnitude the virtues of commanders, so probity and continence, examined under the censorial brow, are a work equal in effect to warlike praises: for what profit is it to be vigorous abroad, if at home one lives ill? Let cities be stormed, let peoples be rebuked, let hands be laid upon kingdoms, yet unless the duty of the forum and the curia and their own modesty stand firm, the heap of acquired things, though matched to the heavens, will not have a stable seat.

ad rem igitur pertinet nosse atque adeo recordari acta censoriae potestatis.

It therefore pertains to the matter to know and even to recall the acts of censorial power.

2.9.1 Camillus et Postumius censores aera poenae nomine eos, qui ad senectutem caelibes peruenerant, in aerarium deferre iusserunt, iterum puniri dignos, si quo modo de tam iusta constitutione queri sunt ausi, cum in hunc modum increparentur: 'natura uobis quemadmodum nascendi, ita gignendi legem scribit, parentesque uos alendo nepotum nutriendorum debito, si quis est pudor, alligauerunt. accedit his quod etiam fortuna longam praestandi huiusce muneris aduocationem estis adsecuti, cum interim consumpti sunt anni uestri et mariti et patris nomine uacui. ite igitur et non odiosam exsoluite stipem, utilem posteritati numerosae.'

2.9.1 Camillus and Postumius, as censors, ordered into the aerarium the fines called aera poenae — those who had come to old age unmarried — and to be punished again those who in any way had dared to complain about so just a constitution, when they were reproached in this way: 'Nature prescribes for you, just as the law of being born, so the law of begetting, and parents by the duty of nourishing have bound you to rear grandchildren, if there be any shame. To these things is added that by fortune you have obtained a long summons to perform this office, when meanwhile your years are consumed and you are free from the name of husband and father. Go therefore and not unwillingly discharge the levy, useful to a numerous posterity.'

2.9.2 Horum seueritatem M. Valerius Maximus et C. Iunius Brutus Bubulcus censores consimili genere animaduersionis imitati sunt: L. enim Annium senatu mouerunt, quod quam uirginem in matrimonium duxerat repudiasset nullo amicorum [in] consilio adhibito. at hoc crimen nescio an superiore maius: illo nam coniugalia sacra spreta tantum, hoc etiam iniuriose tractata sunt. optimo ergo iudicio censores indignum eum aditu curiae existimauerunt,

2.9.2 The severity of these men M. Valerius Maximus and C. Iunius Brutus Bubulcus, censors, imitated in a similar kind of animadversion: for they removed L. Annius from the senate because he had repudiated as a wife a woman he had taken in marriage, no counsel of friends being consulted. But this crime I know not whether greater than the former: for by the latter the conjugal sacred rites were only scorned, by this they were also handled injuriously. Therefore in the best judgment the censors deemed him unworthy of admission to the curia,

2.9.3 sicut Porcius Cato L. Flamininum, quem e numero senatorum sustulit, quia in prouincia quendam damnatum securi percusserat tempore supplicii ad arbitrium et spectaculum mulierculae, cuius amore tenebatur, electo. et poterat inhiberi respectu consulatus, quem is gesserat, atque auctoritate fratris eius Titi Flaminini. sed et censor Cato, duplex seueritatis exemplum, eo magis illum notandum statuit, quod amplissimi honoris maiestatem tam taetro facinore inquinauerat nec pensi duxerat isdem imaginibus ascribi meretricis oculos humano sanguine delectatos et regis Philippi supplices manus.

2.9.3 just as Porcius Cato expelled L. Flamininus from the roll of senators, because in the province he had struck down with the axe a certain man condemned, at the time of execution, chosen as the arbitrium and spectacle of a little woman, by whose love he was held. And it could have been restrained out of respect for the consulship which he had borne, and by the authority of his brother Titus Flamininus. But the censor and Cato, a double exemplar of severity, judged him all the more worthy of note, because he had soiled the majesty of the most ample honor with so foul a deed and had not hesitated to assign in the same likenesses the eyes of a prostitute delighted with human blood and the supplicant hands of King Philip.

2.9.4 Quid de Fabrici Luscini censura loquar? narrauit omnis aetas et deinceps narrabit ab eo Cornelium Rufinum duobus consulatibus et dictatura speciosissime functum, quod X pondo uasa argentea conparasset, perinde ac malo exemplo luxuriosum in ordine senatorio retentum non esse. ipsae medius fidius mihi litterae saeculi nostri obstupescere uidentur, cum ad tantam seueritatem referendam ministerium adcommodare coguntur, ac uereri ne non nostrae urbis acta commemorare existimentur: uix enim credibile est intra idem pomerium X pondo argenti et inuidiosum fuisse censum et inopiam haberi contemptissimam.

2.9.4 What shall I say of the censorship of Fabricius Luscinus? every age has told and will tell thereafter that Cornelius Rufinus by him served most splendidly, with two consulships and a dictatorship, because he had purchased silver vessels weighing 10 pounds, and consequently, as by a bad example, a man luxurious was not retained in the senatorial order. truly, by Hercules, the writings of our age themselves seem to me struck dumb, since they are forced to adapt their office to be referred to so great a severity, and fear lest they be thought to recall the deeds of our own city: for scarcely is it credible that within the same pomerium 10 pounds of silver could be an object of envy and that poverty should be held most contemptible.

2.9.5 M. autem Antonius et L. Flaccus censores Duronium senatu mouerunt, quod legem de coercendis conuiuiorum sumptibus latam tribunus plebi abrogauerat. mirifica notae causa: quam enim inpudenter Duronius rostra conscendit illa dicturus: 'freni sunt iniecti uobis, Quirites, nullo modo perpetiendi. alligati et constricti estis amaro uinculo seruitutis: lex enim lata est, quae uos esse frugi iubet.

2.9.5 M. Antonius and L. Flaccus, censors, expelled Duronius from the senate, because the tribune of the plebs had repealed a law enacted about restraining the expenses of banquets. The cause of the notoriety is marvelous: for how shamelessly Duronius mounted the rostra to say this: 'Bridles have been cast upon you, Quirites, to be endured in no way. You are bound and constricted by the bitter bond of servitude: for a law has been passed which commands that you be frugal.'

abrogemus igitur istud horridae uetustatis rubigine obsitum imperium: etenim quid opus libertate, si uolentibus luxu perire non licet?'

let us therefore abrogate that imperium, stained with the rust of horrid antiquity: for what use is liberty, if those wishing to perish by luxury are not permitted?

2.9.6 Age, par proferamus aequali iugo uirtutis honorumque societate iunctum, instinctu autem aemulationis animo dissidens. Claudius Nero Liuiusque Salinator, secundi Punici belli temporibus firmissima rei publicae latera, quam destrictam simul egerunt censuram! nam cum equitum centurias recognoscerent et ipsi propter robur aetatis etiam nunc eorum essent e numero, ut est ad Polliam uentum tribum, praeco lecto nomine Salinatoris citandum necne sibi esset haesitauit.

2.9.6 Come now, let us bring forth a pair yoked in an equal yoke of virtue and the fellowship of honors, yet divided in spirit by the impulse of emulation. Claudius Nero and Livius Salinator, the most steadfast pillars of the republic in the times of the Second Punic War, how vigorously they together discharged the censorship! For when they were reviewing the centuries of the equites, and they themselves, by reason of the strength of their age, were still of that number — as happened with the Pollian tribe — when the herald had been chosen he hesitated whether Salinator’s name should be proclaimed to be summoned.

quod ubi intellexit Nero, et citari collegam et equum uendere iussit, quia populi iudicio damnatus esset. Salinator quoque eadem animaduersione Neronem persecutus est adiecta causa, quod non sincera fide secum in gratiam redisset. quibus uiris si quis caelestium significasset futurum ut eorum sanguis inlustrium imaginum serie deductus in ortum salutaris principis nostri conflueret, depositis inimicitiis artissimo se amicitiae foedere iunxissent, seruatam ab ipsis patriam communi stirpi seruandam relicturi.

When Nero perceived this, he ordered that the colleague be cited and the horse be sold, because he had been condemned by the judgment of the people. Salinator likewise pursued Nero with the same animadversion, adding as a cause that he had not returned to favour with him in sincere faith. If any of the celestial ones had signified to those men that it would come to pass that their blood, traced down in a series of illustrious images, would flow together into the birth of our salutary prince, having laid aside their hostilities they would have joined themselves by the closest bond of friendship, leaving the fatherland, preserved by them, to be kept for a common stock.

Salinator uero quattuor atque XXX tribus inter aerarios referre non dubitauit, <quod,> cum se damnassent, postea consulem et censorem fecissent, praetexuitque causam, quia necesse esset eas alterutro facto crimine temeritatis aut periurii teneri. unam tantum modo tribuum Maeciam uacuam nota reliquit, quae eum suffragiis suis ut non damnatione, ita ne honore quidem dignum iudicauerat. quam putemus constantis et praeualidi illum ingenii fuisse, qui neque tristi iudiciorum exitu conpelli neque honorum magnitudine adduci potuit quo se blandiorem in administratione rei publicae gereret?

Salinator, however, did not hesitate to reckon 34 tribes among the aerarians, <quod,> since they had condemned him, afterwards had made him consul and censor, and he pretexted the reason, that it was necessary they be held guilty of one or the other crime committed — rashness or perjury. He left only one of the tribes, Maecia, vacant by a mark, which by its votes had judged him, as not by condemnation, so likewise not even by honor, worthy. Shall we suppose him to have been of a steadfast and very powerful genius, who could be compelled neither by the gloomy outcome of judgments nor be led by the magnitude of honors to comport himself more ingratiatingly in the administration of the republic?

2.9.7 Equestris quoque ordinis bona magnaque pars cccc iuuenes censoriam notam patiente animo sustinuerunt, quos M'. Valerius et P. Sempronius, quia in Sicilia ad munitionum opus explicandum ire iussi facere id neglexerant, equis publicis spoliatos in numerum aerariorum retulerunt.

2.9.7 The property of the equestrian order likewise and a large part — 400 youths — endured the censorial mark with patient spirit; whom M'. Valerius and P. Sempronius, because they had been ordered to go to Sicily to carry out the work of the fortifications and had neglected to do so, after stripping them of their public horses reduced them to the rank (in numerum) of the aerarii.

2.9.8 Turpis etiam metus censores summa cum seueritate poenam exegerunt: M. enim Atilius Regulus et L. Furius Philus M. Metellum quaestorem conpluresque equites Romanos, qui post infeliciter commissam Cannensem pugnam cum eo abituros se Italia iurauerant, dereptis equis publicis inter aerarios referendos curauerunt. eos que graui nota adfecerunt, qui cum in potestatem Hannibalis uenissent, legati ab eo missi ad senatum de permutandis captiuis, neque inpetrassent quod petebant, in urbe manserunt, quia et Romano sanguini fidem praestare conueniens erat et M. Atilius Regulus censor perfidiam notabat, cuius pater per summos cruciatus expirare quam fallere Karthaginienses satius esse duxerat. iam haec censura ex foro in castra transcendit, quae neque timeri neque decipi uoluit hostem.

2.9.8 An ignoble fear also the censors, with the greatest severity, exacted punishment: for M. Atilius Regulus and L. Furius Philus caused M. Metellus the quaestor and several Roman equites, who after the ill-fated Cannaean battle had sworn that they would depart with him to Italy, to be stripped of their public horses and returned among the aerarii. them also they afflicted with a grievous mark of disgrace who, when they had come into Hannibal’s power and had been sent by him as legates to the senate concerning the exchange of captives, and had not obtained what they sought, remained in the city; for it was fitting to show faith to Roman blood, and the censor M. Atilius Regulus noted the perfidy, whose father had judged it preferable that Carthaginians breathe their last by the severest tortures than betray. Now this censure passed from the forum into the camps, which would neither allow the enemy to be feared nor deceived.

2.9.9 Secuntur duo eiusdem generis exempla, eaque adiecisse satis erit. Geta, cum a L. Metello et Cn. Domitio censoribus senatu motus esset, postea censor factus est. item M. Valerius Messala censoria nota perstrictus censoriam postmodum potestatem impetrauit.

2.9.9 Two examples of the same kind follow, and it will suffice to have added these. Geta, when he had been removed from the senate by the censors L. Metellus and Cn. Domitius, was afterward made censor. Likewise M. Valerius Messala, checked by a censorial mark, afterward obtained the censorial power.

quorum ignominia uirtutem acuit: rubore enim eius excitati omnibus uiribus incubuerunt, ut digni ciuibus uiderentur, quibus dari potius quam obici censura deberet.

whose ignominy sharpened their virtue: for, stirred by that shame, they applied themselves with all their strength, so that they seemed worthy of those citizens to whom censure ought rather to be given than to be applied.

2.10.init. Est et illa quasi priuata censura, maiestas clarorum uirorum, sine tribunalium fastigio, sine apparitorum ministerio potens in sua amplitudine obtinenda: grato enim et iucundo introitu animis hominum adlabitur admirationis praetexto uelata. quam recte quis dixerit longum et beatum honorem esse sine honore.

2.10.init. There is also that almost private censorship, the majesty of illustrious men, powerful in obtaining its own amplitude without the summit of tribunals, without the service of apparitors: for with a grateful and pleasant entrance it glides upon the minds of men, veiled by the praetext of admiration. How rightly one has said that an honor is long and blessed which is without honor.

2.10.1 Nam quid plus tribui potuit consuli quam est datum reo Metello? qui cum causam repetundarum diceret tabulaeque eius ab accusatore expostulatae ad nomen inspiciendum circa iudices ferrentur, totum consilium ab earum contemplatione oculos auertit, ne de aliqua re, quae in his relatae erant, uideretur dubitasse. non in tabulis, sed in uita Q. Metelli argumenta sincere administratae prouinciae legenda sibi iudices crediderunt, indignum rati integritatem tanti uiri exigua cera et paucis litteris perdi.

2.10.1 For what greater thing could be granted to a consul than was granted to the defendant Metellus? Who, when he was pleading the cause of extortions and his records were being carried by the accuser to be inspected by name before the judges, turned his whole counsel away from the contemplation of them, lest he appear to have hesitated about any matter that had been related in them. The judges, believing the arguments about the province to be read not in the records but in the life of Q. Metellus, sincerely administered, thought it unworthy that the integrity of so great a man should be weighed down by a little wax and a few letters.

2.10.2 Sed quid mirum, si debitus honos a ciuibus Metello tributus est, quem superiori Africano etiam hostis praestare non dubitauit? si quidem rex Antiochus bello, quod cum Romanis gerebat, filium eius a militibus suis interceptum honoratissime excepit regiisque muneribus donatum ultro et celeriter patri remisit, quamquam ab eo tum maxime finibus imperii pellebatur. sed et rex lacessitus maiestatem excellentissimi uiri uenerari quam dolorem suum ulcisci maluit.

2.10.2 But what wonder, if the due honor was paid to Metellus by the citizens, whom even the enemy did not hesitate to render more than to the earlier Africanus? For if King Antiochus, in the war which he was waging with the Romans, received his son, intercepted by his own soldiers, most honorably, and, having been presented with royal gifts, voluntarily and swiftly sent him back to his father, although at that time he was being driven by him most grievously from the borders of his empire; yet even the king, being provoked, preferred to venerate the majesty of that most excellent man rather than to avenge his own pain.

Ad eundem Africanum in Liternina uilla se continentem conplures praedonum duces uidendum eodem tempore forte confluxerunt. quos cum ad uim faciendam uenire existimasset, praesidium domesticorum in tecto conlocauit eratque in his repellendis et animo et apparatu occupatus. quod ut praedones animaduerterunt, dimissis militibus abiectisque armis ianuae adpropinquant et clara uoce nuntiant Scipioni non uitae eius hostes, sed uirtutis admiratores uenisse conspectum et congressum tanti uiri quasi caeleste aliquod beneficium expetentes: proinde securum se ~ nobis spectandum praebere ne grauetur.

To the same Africanus, dwelling in the villa at Liternum, several chiefs of robbers happened to converge at the same time to see him. When he thought that they had come to make an attack, he stationed a guard of household slaves on the roof and was occupied both in spirit and in equipment with repelling them. But when the robbers noticed this, having dismissed their soldiers and cast aside their arms they approached the door and with a clear voice announced to Scipio that they had come not as enemies of his life but as admirers of his virtue to behold and meet him, seeking, as it were, some heavenly favour: therefore they begged that he present himself to them safely so as not to be burdened.

haec postquam domestici Scipioni retulerunt, fores reserari eosque intromitti iussit. qui postes ianuae tamquam aliquam religiosissimam aram sanctumque templum uenerati cupide Scipionis dexteram adprehenderunt ac diu osculati positis ante uestibulum donis, quae deorum inmortalium numini consecrari solent, laeti, quod Scipionem uidisse contigisset, ad ~ lares reuerterunt. quid hoc fructu maiestatis excelsius, quid etiam iucundius?

After his household had reported these things to Scipio, he ordered the doors to be unbarred and them to be admitted. They, revering the doorposts like some most religious altar and the threshold as a sacred temple, eagerly seized Scipio’s right hand and, having kissed it for a long time and placed gifts—such as are wont to be consecrated to the numen of the immortal gods—before the vestibule, returned joyfully to the lares. What dignity higher than this reward, what thing more delightful?

hostis iram admiratione sui placauit, spectaculo praesentiae suae latronum gestientis oculos uidit. delapsa caelo sidera hominibus si se offerant, uenerationis amplius non recipient.

The enemy appeased his wrath by admiration of him; he saw the spectacle of the thieves’ eyes yearning for his presence. If the stars, fallen from the sky, should offer themselves to men, they would receive no more veneration.

2.10.3 Et haec quidem uiuo Scipioni, illud autem Aemilio Paulo exanimi contigit: nam cum exequiae eius celebrarentur ac forte tunc principes Macedoniae legationis nomine Romae morarentur, funebri lecto sponte sua sese subiecerunt. quod aliquanto maius uidebitur, si qui cognoscat lecti illius frontem Macedonicis triumphis fuisse adornatam: quantum enim Paulo tribuerunt, propter quem gentis suae cladium indicia per ora uulgi ferre non exhorruerunt! quod spectaculum funeri speciem alterius triumphi adiecit: bis enim te, Paule, Macedonia urbi nostrae inlustrem ostendit, incolumem spoliis suis, fato functum umeris.

2.10.3 And these things indeed happened while Scipio was living, but that other befell Aemilius Paulus when he was lifeless: for when his funeral rites were being celebrated and by chance then the chiefs of Macedonia were lingering at Rome under the name of a delegation, of their own accord they exposed themselves beneath the funerary bier. This will seem all the greater if anyone learns that the brow of that bier had been adorned with Macedonian triumphs: for how much they assigned to Paulus, by whom they did not shrink from bearing about the tokens of their nation’s ruin through the mouths of the common people! This spectacle lent to the funeral the appearance of another triumph: for twice, Paulus, Macedonia showed you illustrious to our city, uninjured in her spoils, and by fate bereft of your shoulders.

2.10.4 Ne fili quidem tui Scipionis Aemiliani, quem in adoptionem dando duarum familiarum ornamentum esse uoluisti, maiestati parum honoris tributum est, cum eum adulescentem admodum a Lucullo consule petendi auxilii gratia ex Hispania in Africam missum Karthaginienses et Masinissa rex de pace disceptatorem uelut consulem et imperatorem habuerunt. ignara quidem fatorum suorum Karthago: orientis enim illud iuuentae decus deorum atque hominum indulgentia ad excidium eius alebatur, ut superius cognomen Africanum capta, posterius euersa Corneliae genti daret.

2.10.4 Not even to your son Scipio Aemilianus, whom by granting adoption you wished to be the ornament of two families, was due honor paid enough to majesty; for when, still very young, he was sent by the consul Lucullus from Hispania into Africa to solicit aid, the Carthaginians and King Masinissa held him, as if a consul and imperator, to judge the peace. Carthage indeed ignorant of her fates: for that eastern glory of youth, fostered by the indulgence of gods and men, was nourished toward her ruin, so that having first taken the cognomen Africanus when taken, later, when overturned, she would give it to the Cornelian gens.

2.10.5 Quid damnatione, quid exilio miserius? atqui P. Rutilio conspiratione publicanorum perculso auctoritatem adimere non ualuerunt. cui Asiam petenti omnes prouinciae illius ciuitates legatos secessum eius opperientes obuiam miserunt.

2.10.5 What is more miserable, condemnation or exile? Yet, struck down by a conspiracy of the publicans, they were not able to deprive P. Rutilius of his authority. To him, seeking Asia, all the cities of that province sent legates out to meet him, awaiting his withdrawal.

exulare aliquis ~ loco hoc aut triumphare iustius dixerit.

someone will have said that to exile from this place or to triumph is more just.

2.10.6 C. etiam Marius in profundum ultimarum miseriarum abiectus ex ipso uitae discrimine beneficio maiestatis emersit: missus enim ad eum occidendum in priuata domo Minturnis clausum seruus publicus natione Cimber et senem et inermem et squalore obsitum strictum gladium tenens adgredi non sustinuit et claritate uiri obcaecatus abiecto ferro attonitus inde ac tremens fugit. Cimbrica nimirum calamitas oculos hominis praestrinxit, deuictaeque gentis suae interitus animum comminuit, etiam dis inmortalibus indignum ratis ab uno eius nationis interfici Marium, quam totam deleuerat. Minturnenses autem maiestate illius capti conprehensum iam et constrictum dira fati necessitate incolumem praestiterunt.

2.10.6 C. also Marius, cast down into the depths of final miseries, from the very brink of death rose by the favour of maiestas: for a public slave, of the Cimber nation, sent to him to kill him, shut up in a private house at Minturnae, could not bring himself to attack the old, unarmed man, clothed in squalor, and holding a drawn sword, and, blinded by the man's renown, astonished at the discarded iron, thence fled away trembling. The Cimbrian calamity had surely bound the man's eyes, and the ruin of his conquered people crushed his spirit; it was even unworthy of the immortal gods that Marius, whom that nation had utterly destroyed, should be slain by one of that same nation. The Minturnans, however, seized by his majesty, having already seized and bound him by the dread necessity of fate, delivered him unharmed.

nec fuit eis timori asperrima Sullae uictoria, cum praesertim ipse Marius eos a conseruando Mario absterrere posset.

nor was Sulla’s most bitter victory a terror to them, since especially Marius himself could have deterred them from rescuing Marius.

2.10.7 M. quoque Porcium Catonem admiratio fortis ac sincerae uitae adeo uenerabilem senatui fecit, ut, cum inuito C. Caesare consule aduersus publicanos dicendo in curia diem traheret ob id iussu eius a lictore in carcerem duceretur, uniuersus senatus illum sequi non dubitaret. quae res diuini animi perseuerantiam flexit.

2.10.7 M. likewise made Porcius Cato so venerable to the senate by a strong admiration for his sincere life, that, when, with C. Caesar as consul unwilling, he was drawing out the day in the curia by speaking against the publicans and on that account by his order was being led by a lictor into prison, the whole senate did not hesitate to follow him. This affair bent the perseverance of a divine spirit.

2.10.8 Eodem ludos Florales, quos Messius aedilis faciebat, spectante populus ut mimae nudarentur postulare erubuit. quod cum ex Fauonio amicissimo sibi una sedente cognosset, discessit e theatro, ne praesentia sua spectaculi consuetudinem impediret. quem abeuntem ingenti plausu populus prosecutus priscum morem iocorum in scaenam reuocauit, confessus plus se maiestatis uni illi tribuere quam sibi uniuerso uindicare.

2.10.8 At the same time he was ashamed that, with the people watching the Floralia which Messius the aedile was staging, they demanded that the mimae be stripped. When he perceived this, Fauonius, his most dear friend, sitting beside him, he left the theatre, lest his presence impede the customary course of the spectacle. The people, following him as he went with tremendous applause, in the old manner of jests recalled him back onto the stage, he confessing that he attributed more majesty to that one man than he could claim for himself against the whole crowd.

quibus opibus, quibus imperiis, quibus triumphis hoc datum est? exiguum uiri patrimonium, astricti continentia mores, modicae clientelae, domus ambitioni clausa, paterni generis una [inl.] imago, minime blanda frons, sed omnibus numeris perfecta uirtus. quae quidem effecit ut quisquis sanctum et egregium ciuem significare uelit, sub nomine Catonis definiat.

By what wealth, by what commands, by what triumphs was this granted? A man’s small patrimony, morals of strict continence, a modest clientela, a house closed to ambition, one image of paternal stock [inl.], a countenance by no means bland, but virtue perfect in all respects. Which indeed brought it about that whoever would wish to signify a holy and outstanding citizen, let him define under the name of Cato.

2.10.ext.1 Dandum est aliquid loci etiam alienigenis exemplis, ut dometicis aspersa ipsa uarietate delectent. Harmodi et Aristogitonis, qui Athenas tyrannide liberare conati sunt, effigies aeneas Xerxes ea urbe deuicta in regnum suum transtulit. longo deinde interiecto tempore Seleucus in pristinam sedem reportandas curauit.

2.10.ext.1 Some allowance of place must be given even to foreigners by examples, so that, sprinkled with domestic variety, they may themselves be pleased. The brazen effigies of Harmodius and Aristogiton, who strove to free Athens from tyranny, Xerxes, that city having been conquered, carried off into his kingdom. Then, after a long interval of time, Seleucus saw to their being restored to their former seat.

Rhodii quoque eas urbi suae adpulsas, cum in hospitium publice inuitassent, sacris etiam <in> puluinaribus conlocauerunt. nihil hac memoria felicius, quae tantum uenerationis in tam paruulo aere possidet.

They likewise placed those, brought to their city by the Rhodians, even in the sacred pulvinars of their city, having publicly invited them into hospitality. Nothing more fortunate than this memorial, which possesses so great a veneration on so small a bronze.

2.10.ext.2 Quantum porro honoris Athenis Xenocrati, sapientia pariter ac sanctitate claro, tributum est! cum testimonium dicere coactus ad aram accessisset, ut more eius ciuitatis iuraret omnia se uere retulisse, uniuersi iudices consurrexerunt proclamaruntque ne ius iurandum diceret, quodque sibimet ipsis postmodum dicendae sententiae loco remissuri non erant, sinceritati eius concedendum existimarunt.

2.10.ext.2 How great, moreover, the honor paid by Athens to Xenocrates, famed alike for wisdom and sanctity! When, forced to give testimony, he had approached the altar, that by the custom of that city he might swear that he had truly reported everything, all the judges rose and proclaimed that he should not take the oath; and because they were not afterward disposed to remit anything in place of the sentence they themselves were to pronounce, they thought that his sincerity must be conceded.