Valerius Maximus: FACTORVM ET DICTORVM MEMORABILIVM LIBRI NOVEM

5.1.init. Liberalitati quas aptiores comites quam humanitatem et clementiam dederim, quoniam idem genus laudis expetunt? quarum prima ~ inopia, proxima occupatione, tertia ancipiti fortuna praestatur, cumque nescias quam maxime probes, eius tamen commendatio praecurrere uidetur, cui nomen ex ipso numine quaesitum est.

5.1.init. To generosity — what companions more apt have I given than humanity and clemency, since they seek the same kind of praise? of which the first is shown by want, the next by occupation, the third by double-edged fortune; and although you do not know whom you most approve, yet the commendation seems to run before him whose name has been sought from the very divinity.

5.1.1 Ante omnia autem humanissima et clementissima senatus acta referam. qui, cum Karthaginiensium legati ad captiuos redimendos in urbem uenissent, protinus his nulla pecunia accepta reddidit iuuenes numerum duum milium et septingentorum et xl trium ð expletissimos rerum tantum hostium exercitum dimissum, tantam pecuniam contemptam, tot Punicis iniuriis ueniam datam: ipsos legatos obstipuisse arbitror ac secum dixisse 'o munificentiam gentis Romanae deorum benignitati aequandam! o etiam nostram legationem supra uota felicem!

5.1.1 Above all I will relate the most humane and most clement acts of the senate. When the Carthaginian envoys had come into the city to ransom captives, it at once, taking no money from them, restored youths to the number of 2,743 and sent away an enemy host swelled only with possessions — so much money spurned, so many Punic wrongs forgiven: I think the envoys themselves were astonished and said to one another, "O munificence of the Roman people, matched by the benignity of the gods! O our embassy also, fortunate beyond hopes!"

nam quod beneficium numquam dedissemus, accepimus.' Illud quoque non paruum humanitatis senatus indicium est: Syphacem enim, quondam opulentissimum Numidiae regem, captiuum in custodia Tiburi mortuum publico funere censuit efferendum, ut uitae dono honorem sepulturae adiceret. consimilique clementia in Perse usus est: nam cum Albae, in quam custodiae causa relegatus erat, decessisset, quaestorem misit, qui eum publico funere efferret, ne regias reliquias iacere inhonoratas pateretur.

for "what benefit we had never given, we received." That also is not a small indication of the senate's humanity: for Syphax, once the most opulent king of Numidia, a captive who died in custody at Tibur, the senate decreed that he be borne out with a public funeral, so that to the gift of life it might add the honor of burial. He showed like clemency toward Perse: for when he had died at Alba, to which he had been relegated for the sake of custody, he sent a quaestor to carry him out with a public funeral, lest he suffer the royal remains to lie dishonored.

Hostibus haec et miseris et fato functis officia [regibus] erogata, illa amicis et felicibus et uiuis tributa sunt. confecto Macedonico bello Musochanes Masinissae filius cum equitibus, quos in praesidium Romanorum adduxerat, ab imperatore Paulo ad patrem remissus tempestate classe dispersa Brundisium aeger delatus est. quod ubi senatus cognouit, continuo illo quaestorem ire iussit, cuius cura et hospitium adulescenti expediretur et omnia, quae ad ualitudinem opus essent, praeberentur inpensaeque liberaliter cum ipsi tum toti comitatui praestarentur, naues etiam ut prospicerentur, quibus se bene ac tuto cum suis in Africam traiceret.

To enemies these duties, both to the wretched and to those expired by fate, were discharged for the kings, those things were bestowed upon friends and the fortunate and the living. When the Macedonian war having been finished, Musochanes, son of Masinissa, with the cavalry whom he had led as a garrison to the Romans, sent back by the emperor Paulus to his father, was carried sick to Brundisium by a fleet scattered in a storm. When the senate learned this, it at once ordered a quaestor to go, whose care and hospitality should be made ready for the young man and that all things which were needed for his recovery be supplied, and expenses generously provided both for him and for the whole retinue, and that ships also be provided by which he might cross into Africa with his people safely and securely.

equitibus singulas libras argenti et quingenos sestertios dari imperauit. quae tam prompta et tam exquisita patrum conscriptorum humanitas efficere potuit ut, etiamsi expirasset adulescens, aequiore animo desiderium eius pater toleraret.

He ordered that to each of the horsemen one pound of silver and five hundred sesterces be given. Such prompt and such exquisite humanity of the patres conscripti could bring it about that, even if the young man had expired, his father would endure his longing with a more equable spirit.

Idem senatus, cum <ad gratulandum> sibi Pru sian Bithyniae regem Perse <deuicto> uenire audisset, obuiam illi P. Cornelium Scipionem quaestorem Capuam misit censuitque ut ei domus Romae quam optima conduceretur et copiae non solum ipsi, sed etiam comitibus eius publice praeberentur, in eoque excipiendo tota urbs unius humani amici uultum habuit. itaque qui amantissimus nostri uenerat, duplicata erga nos beniuolentia in regnum suum reuersus est.

The same senate, when it had heard that Prusias, king of Bithynia, had come to them <to offer congratulations> with Perseus <having been defeated>, sent P. Cornelius Scipio, quaestor, to meet him at Capua and resolved that for him a house in Rome as good as possible should be provided and that forces should be supplied not only to him but also publicly to his companions; and in receiving him the whole city showed the countenance of a single humane friend. Thus he who had come most devoted to us returned to his kingdom with his goodwill toward us doubled.

Ne Aegyptus quidem Romanae humanitatis expers fuit. Rex eius Ptolomaeus a minore fratre regno spoliatus petendi auxilii gratia cum paucis admodum seruis squalore obsitus Romam uenerat ac se in hospitium Alexandrini pictoris contulerat. id postquam senatui relatum est, accersito iuuene quam potuit accurata excusatione usus est, quod nec quaestorem illi more maiorum obuiam misisset nec publico eum hospitio excepisset, eaque non sua neglegentia, sed ipsius subito et clandestino aduentu facta dixit et illum e curia protinus ad publicos penates deduxit hortatusque est ut depositis sordibus adeundi ipsius diem peteret.

Nor was Egypt indeed free from Roman humanitas. Its king Ptolemaeus, having been deprived of the kingdom by his younger brother, had come to Rome, besieged by squalor with very few slaves, to seek aid and had taken refuge in the lodging of an Alexandrian painter. When this was reported to the senate, they summoned the youth and used as careful an excuse as they could: that neither had they, according to the custom of their ancestors, sent a quaestor to meet him nor received him in a public hospitium, and that these things had happened not through their negligence but because of his sudden and clandestine arrival; and they immediately led him from the curia to the public penates and encouraged him, having shed his filth, to seek an audience on a fit day.

quin etiam curae habuit ut ei munera per quaestorem cotidie darentur. his gradibus officiorum iacentem ad regium fastigium erexit effecitque ut plus spei in auxilio populi Romani quam metus in sua fortuna reponeret.

It even took care that gifts be given to him daily through a quaestor. By these steps of officium, it raised him, lying prostrate, to the royal fastigium and brought it about that he should repose more of his spei in the auxilio of the Roman people than metus in his own fortuna.

5.1.2 Atque ut ab uniuersis patribus conscriptis ad singulos ueniam, L. Cornelius consul primo Punico bello, cum Olbiam oppidum cepisset, pro quo fortissime dimicans Hanno dux Karthaginiensium occiderat, corpus eius e tabernaculo suo amplo funere ex tulit nec dubitauit hostis exequias ipse celebrare, eam demum uictoriam et apud deos et apud homines minimum inuidiae habituram credens, quam plurimum humanitatis habuisset.

5.1.2 And so, that from all the enrolled fathers leniency might extend to each, L. Cornelius, consul in the First Punic War, when he had taken the town Olbía, for which Hanno, leader of the Carthaginians, had fallen fighting most bravely, brought his body from his tent with a lavish funeral and did not hesitate, though an enemy, to perform the exequies himself, believing that that victory would at last have the least envy both before the gods and before men, had shown the very greatest humanitas.

5.1.3 Quid de Quintio Crispino loquar, cuius mansuetudinem potentissimi adfectus, ira atque gloria, quatere non potuerunt? Badium Campanum et hospitio benignissime domi suae exceperat et aduersa ualitudine correptum adtentissima cura recreauerat. a quo post illam nefariam Campanorum defectionem in acie ad pugnam prouocatus, cum et uiribus corporis animi uirtute aliquanto esset superior, monere ingratum quam uincere maluit: nam 'quid agis' inquit, 'demens, aut quo te praua cupiditas transuersum rapit?

5.1.3 What shall I say of Quintius Crispinus, whose mildness the most powerful affections, anger and glory, could not shake? He had received Badius the Campanian most kindly in hospitality at his house and by the most attentive care had restored him, seized by an adverse sickness. After that nefarious defection of the Campanians, provoked by him into battle in the line, although he was somewhat superior both in the strengths of the body and in the virtue of the mind, he preferred to admonish the ungrateful man rather than to conquer: for he said, "What are you doing, madman, or to what side does wicked desire drag you astray?"

parum habes publica impietate furere, nisi etiam priuata lapsus fueris? unus uidelicet tibi Romanorum Quintius placet, in quo sceleste exerceas arma, cuius penatibus et honoris uicissitudinem et salutem tuam debes! at me foedus amicitiae diique hospitales, sancta nostro sanguini, uestris pectoribus uilia pignora, hostili certamine congredi tecum uetant.

Is it not enough that you rage in public impiety, unless you have also slipped into private wrongdoing? One, plainly, Quintius of the Romans pleases you, in whom you wickedly wield arms, to whose penates and to the vicissitude of his honour and to your safety you are indebted! But the bond of friendship and the hospitable gods, sacred pledges to our blood, vile pledges on your breasts, forbid me to join you in hostile contest.

quin etiam, si in concursu exercituum fortuito umbonis mei inpulsu prostratum agnouissem, adplicatum iam ceruicibus tuis mucronem reuocassem. tuum ergo crimen sit hospitem occidere uoluisse, meum non eris hospes occisus. proinde aliam qua occidas dexteram quaere, quoniam mea te seruare didicit'. dedit utrique caeleste numen debitum exitum, si quidem in eo proelio Badius obtruncatus est, Quintius insigni pugna clarus euasit.

Indeed, even if in the clash of armies by chance I had recognised you prostrate from the blow of my shield, with the point already pressed to your necks I would have withdrawn the blade. So let it be your crime to have wished to kill a guest; let mine be that you were not killed as a guest. Therefore seek another right hand by which to kill, since mine has learned to preserve you. A heavenly numen gave to each the due outcome: for in that battle Badius was cut down, Quintius came through famed in a notable fight.

5.1.4 Age, M. Marcelli clementia quam clarum quamque memorabile exemplum haberi debet! qui captis ab se Syracusis in arce earum constitit, ut urbis modo opulentissimae, tunc adflictae fortunam ex alto cerneret. ceterum casum eius lugubrem intuens fletum cohibere non potuit.

5.1.4 Behold how illustrious and how memorable an example the clemency of M. Marcellus ought to be! who, having captured Syracuse, stood in their citadel so that from on high he might behold the fortune of a city just now most opulent and then afflicted. yet, beholding its lugubrious fall, he could not restrain his tears.

quem si quis ignarus uiri aspexisset, alterius uictoriam esse credidisset. itaque, Syracusana ciuitas, maxima clade tua aliquid admixtum gratulationis habuisti, quia, si tibi incolumem stare fas non erat, leniter sub tam mansueto uictore cecidisti.

If anyone ignorant of the man had seen him, he would have believed it to be another’s victory. And so, Syracusan city, in your greatest disaster you had something mingled with congratulation, for since it was not lawful for you to stand uninjured, you fell gently beneath so meek a victor.

5.1.5 Q. uero Metellus Celtibericum in Hispania gerens bellum, cum urbem Centobrigam obsideret et iam admota machina partem muri, quae sola conuelli poterat, disiecturus uideretur, humanitatem propinquae uictoriae praetulit: nam cum Rhoetogenis filios, qui ad eum transierat, Centrobigenses machinae ictibus obiecissent, ne pueri in conspectu patris crudeli genere mortis consumerentur, quamquam ipse Rhoetogenes negabat esse inpedimento quominus etiam per exitium sanguinis sui expugnationem perageret, ab obsidione discessit. quo quidem tam clementi facto etsi non unius ciuitatis moenia, omnium tamen Celtiberarum urbium animos cepit effecitque ut ad redigendas eas in dicionem populi Romani non multis sibi obsidionibus opus esset.

5.1.5 But Q. Metellus, conducting the Celtiberian war in Hispania, when he was besieging the city Centobriga and now, with a siege-engine brought up, seemed about to batter down that part of the wall which alone could be torn away, preferred humanity to the near victory: for when the Centobrigans had in the way of engine-blows exposed the sons of Rhoetogenes, who had come over to him, lest the boys be consumed before their father's eyes by a cruel kind of death, although Rhoetogenes himself declared that this was no impediment to his completing the capture even by the destruction of his own blood, he withdrew from the siege. By this so clement a deed, though he did not win the ramparts of a single city, he nevertheless captured the minds of all the Celtiberian towns and made it so that few sieges would be needed to reduce them into the dominion of the Roman people.

5.1.6 Africani quoque posterioris humanitas speciose lateque patuit: expugnata enim Karthagine circa ciuitates Siciliae litteras misit, ut ornamenta templorum suorum a Poenis rapta per legatos recuperarent inque pristinis sedibus reponenda curarent. beneficium dis pariter atque hominibus acceptum!

5.1.6 The clemency of the later Africanus likewise shone forth splendidly and far and wide: for after Carthage was captured he sent letters concerning the cities of Sicily, that the ornaments of their temples, seized by the Poeni (the Carthaginians), should be recovered through legates and cared for to be restored to their former seats. A benefaction accepted alike by gods and by men!

5.1.7 Huic facto par eiusdem uiri ~ humanitas. a quaestore suo hastae subiectos captiuos uendente puer eximiae formae et liberalis habitus missus est. de quo cum explorasset Numidam esse, orbum relictum a patre, educatum apud auunculum Masinissam, eo ignorante inmaturam aduersus Romanos ingressum militiam, et errori illius ueniam dandam et amicitiae regis fidissimi populo Romano debitam uenerationem tribuendam existimauit.

5.1.7 To this deed a corresponding humanity of the same man ~ of which: from his quaestor, who was selling captives exposed under the spear, a boy of exceptional beauty and liberal bearing was sent. When he had discovered that he was a Numidian, left fatherless, reared with his maternal-uncle Masinissa, who was ignorant that he had prematurely entered military service against the Romans, he thought that pardon should be granted for that error and that the veneration owed by the Roman people should be bestowed upon the king most faithful in friendship.

itaque puerum anulo fibulaque aurea et tunica laticlauia Hispanoque sagulo et ornato equo donatum datis qui eum prosequerentur equitibus ad Masinissam misit, eos uictoriae maximos fructus ratus, dis ornamenta, hominibus [regibus] sanguinem suum restituere.

and so, having given the boy a gold ring and brooch and a laticlavian tunic and a Spanish sagulum and an ornate horse, he sent him to Masinissa with horsemen to escort him, thinking these the greatest fruits of victory: to the gods the ornamenta, to men [to kings] to restore his sanguinem.

5.1.8 L. etiam Pauli in tali genere laudis memoria adprehendenda est. qui, cum Persen parui temporis momento captiuum ex rege ad se adduci audisset, occurrit ei Romani imperii decoratus ornamentis conatumque ad genua procumbere dextera manu adleuauit et Graeco sermone ad spem exhortatus est. introductum etiam in tabernaculum lateri suo proximum in consilio sedere iussit nec honore mensae indignum iudicauit.

5.1.8 L. Pauli etiam in tali genere laudis memoria adprehendenda est. who, when he had heard that Perses, captured in a short time, was being brought from the king to him, met him adorned with the ornaments of the Roman imperium and, when the man tried to fall prostrate to his knees, raised him with his right hand and exhorted him to hope in the Greek tongue. He also ordered that the man, having been introduced, sit next to his side, close in counsel, and judged him not unworthy of the honor of the table.

proponatur in conspicuo acies, qua prostratus est Perses, et harum rerum, quas retuli, contextus, utro magis spectaculo delectentur homines dubitabunt: nam si egregium est hostem abicere, non minus tamen laudabile infelicis scire misereri.

Let the battle-line in conspicuous view, by which Perses was prostrated, and the context of these things which I have recounted, be set forth; men will doubt which of the two spectacles most delights them: for if it is outstanding to cast down the enemy, it is no less laudable to know how to pity the unfortunate.

5.1.9 Haec L. Pauli humanitas admonet me ne de Cn. Pompei clementia taceam. regem Armeniae Tigranem, qui et per se magna cum populo Romano bella gesserat et infestissimum urbi nostrae Mitridatem Ponto pulsum uiribus suis protexerat, in conspectu suo diutius iacere supplicem passus non est, sed benignis uerbis recreatum diadema, quod abiecerat, capiti reponere iussit certisque rebus imperatis in pristinum fortunae habitum restituit, aeque pulchrum esse iudicans et uincere reges et facere.

5.1.9 This humanity of L. Pauli admonishes me not to be silent about the clemency of Cn. Pompey. He did not allow Tigranes, king of Armenia, who had himself waged great wars against the Roman people and with his forces had sheltered Mithridates of Pontus, most hostile to our city, to lie any longer a suppliant in his presence; but, revived by benign words, he ordered the diadem which he had cast off to be replaced on his head, and by certain commands restored him to his former estate of fortune, judging it equally beautiful to conquer kings and to make them.

5.1.10 Quam praeclarum tributae humanitatis specimen Cn. Pompeius, quam miserabile desideratae idem euasit exemplum! nam qui Tigranis tempora insigni regio texerat, eius caput tribus coronis triumphalibus spoliatum in suo modo terrarum orbe nusquam sepulturae locum habuit, sed abscisum a corpore inops rogi nefarium Aegyptiae perfidiae munus portatum est etiam ipsi uictori miserabile: ut enim id Caesar aspexit, oblitus hostis soceri uultum induit ac Pompeio cum proprias tum et filiae suae lacrimas reddidit, caput autem plurimis et pretiosissimis odoribus cremandum curat. quod si non tam mansuetus animus diuini principis extitisset, paulo ante Romani imperii columen habitum++sic mortalium negotia fortuna uersat++inhumatum iacuisset. Catonis quoque morte Caesar audita et se illius gloriae inuidere et illum suae inuidisse dixit patrimoniumque eius liberis ipsius incolume seruauit.

5.1.10 How splendid a specimen of bestowed humanity Cn. Pompey was, how pitiable an example of the same man escaped by what he desired! For he who had wrapped up Tigranes’ fortunes with distinguished kingship, his head, stripped of three triumphal crowns, in its own part of the world had nowhere a place of burial; but cut off from the body and lacking a pyre, as a nefarious gift of Egyptian perfidy it was carried — even to the victor a pitiable thing: for when Caesar saw it, forgetting the face of an enemy put on the face of a father‑in‑law and restored to Pompey both his own and his daughter’s tears, and he caused the head to be burned with very many and most precious scents. But if the spirit of the divine prince had not been so gentle, a little earlier he who was held the pillar of the Roman empire — ++thus fortune turns the affairs of mortals++ — would have lain unburied. When also Caesar heard of Cato’s death he said that he envied that man’s glory and that the man had envied his, and he preserved his patrimony for his children intact.

et hercule diuinorum Caesaris operum non parua pars Catonis salus fuisset.

and, by Hercules, the salvation of Cato would have been no small part of Caesar’s divine works.

5.1.11 M. etiam Antoni animus talis humanitatis intellectu non caruit: M. enim Bruti corpus liberto suo sepeliendum tradidit, quoque honoratius cremaretur, inici ei suum paludamentum iussit, iacentem hostem deposito aestimans odio: cumque interceptum a liberto paludamentum conperisset, ira percitus pronus in eum animaduertit hac ante praefatione usus: 'quid? tu ignorasti cuius tibi uiri sepulturam conmisissem'? fortem piamque eius uictoriam Philippii campi libenter uiderunt, sed ne ista quidem generosissimae indignationis uerba inuiti audierunt.

5.1.11 Marcus Antonius' mind likewise was not lacking in such an understanding of humanity: for Marcus delivered the body of Brutus to his freedman to be buried, and so that it might be cremated more honorably he ordered that his own paludamentum be laid upon him, thinking hatred laid aside toward the prostrate enemy. And when he discovered that the paludamentum had been intercepted by the freedman, struck with anger he at once reproached him, using this prefatory rebuke: 'What? did you not know whose man's burial I had entrusted to you?' They gladly beheld his brave and pious victory on the plain of Philippi, but not even those words of the most generous indignation did they hear willingly.

5.1.ext.1 Commemoratione Romani exempli in Macedoniam deductus morum Alexandri praeconium facere cogor, cuius ut infinitam gloriam bellica uirtus, ita praecipuum amorem clementia meruit. is, dum omnes gentes infatigabili cursu lustrat, quodam loci niuali tempestate oppressus senio iam confectum Macedonem militem nimio frigore obstupefactum ipse sublimi et propinqua igni sede residens animaduertit factaque non fortunae, sed aetatis utriusque aestimatione descendit et illis manibus, quibus opes Darii adflixerat, corpus frigore duplicatum in suam sedem inposuit: id ei salutare futurum, quod apud Persas capital extitisset, solium regium occupasse. quid ergo mirum est, si sub eo duce tot annis militare iucundum ducebant, cui gregarii militis incolumitas proprio fastigio carior erat?

5.1.ext.1 By the commemoration of the Roman example, brought into Macedonia I am compelled to sing the praise of Alexander’s mores, who earned as boundless a glory by martial virtue as a preeminent love by clemency. He, while he traversed all nations with tireless course, was, in a certain place struck by a snowy tempest, himself observing a Macedonian soldier already spent by old age and stupefied by excessive cold, seated on a lofty and nearby hearth; and, seeing the fact judged not by fortune but by regard for the ages of both, he descended and with those very hands by which he had humbled the wealth of Darius laid the body, doubled by the cold, into his own seat: for it would be salutary to him, as it had been decisive among the Persians, to have occupied the royal throne. What therefore is it to be wondered at, if under such a leader they deemed soldiering pleasant for so many years, to whom the safety of a common soldier was dearer than his own highness?

idem non hominum ulli, sed naturae fortunaeque cedens, quamquam uiolentia morbi dilabebatur, in cubitum tamen erectus dexteram omnibus, qui eam contingere uellent, porrexit. quis autem illam osculari non cuperet, quae iam fato oppressa maximi exercitus conplexui humanitate quam spiritu uiuidior suffecit?

He yielded not to any men, but to nature and fortune; although he was being worn away by the violence of the sickness, yet rising to his bed he stretched out his right hand to all who wished to touch it. And who would not long to kiss that hand, which, already oppressed by fate, in the embrace of the greatest army proved more vivid in humanity than in spirit?

5.1.ext.2 Non tam robusti generis humanitas, sed et ipsa tamen memoria prosequenda Pisistrati Atheniensium tyranni narrabitur. qui, cum adulescens quidam amore filiae eius uirginis accensus in publico obuiam sibi factam osculatus esset, hortante uxore ut ab eo capitale supplicium sumeret respondit, 'si eos, qui nos amant, interficiemus, quid eis faciemus, quibus odio sumus'? minime digna uox cui adiciatur eam ex tyranni ore [de humanitate] manasse. in hunc modum filiae iniuriam tulit, suam multo laudabilius.

5.1.ext.2 Not merely a robust sort of humanity, but even its memory must be recounted in the case of Pisistratus, tyrant of the Athenians. For when a certain young man, fired by love for his daughter the maiden, met her in public and kissed her, and his wife urged that he take capital punishment from him, he replied, "If we kill those who love us, what will we do to those who hate us?" Hardly a voice worthy to be added that this [on humanity] flowed from the tyrant's mouth. In this manner he bore the injury to his daughter, far more laudably than his own.

a Thrasippo amico inter cenam sine fine conuicio laceratus ita et animum et uocem ab ira cohibuit, ut putares satellitem <a> tyranno male audire. abeuntem quoque, ueritus ne propter metum maturius se conuiuio subtraheret, inuitatione familiari coepit retinere. Thrasippus concitatae temulentiae impetu euectus os eius sputo respersit nec tamen in uindictam sui ualuit accendere.

a Thrasippus a friend, torn by uninterrupted insult amid the banquet, so restrained both his mind and voice with anger that you would think a satellitem <a> dared speak ill to the tyrant. And, fearing that as he was leaving he might withdraw from the feast sooner through fear, he began to detain him with a familiar invitation. Thrasippus, borne up by a gust of excited drunkenness, sprinkled his mouth with spit, yet was not able to kindle himself to a vindicta for his own cause.

ille uero etiam filios suos uiolatae patris maiestati subuenire cupientis retraxit. posteroque die Thrasippo supplicium a se uoluntaria morte exigere uolente uenit ad eum dataque fide in eodem gradu amicitiae mansurum, ab incepto reuocauit. si nihil aliud dignum honore memoriae gessisset, his tamen factis abunde se posteritati conmendasset.

He, moreover, even restrained his own sons from assisting one wishing to succor the violated majesty of their father. And on the next day, when Thrasippus came to him desiring to exact punishment from him by voluntary death, and, having given his pledge, to remain in the same degree of friendship, he recalled him from the undertaking. If he had done nothing else worthy of honor and memory, by these deeds at least he would have abundantly commended himself to posterity.

5.1.ext.3 Aeque mitis animus Pyrri regis. audierat quodam in conuiuio Tarentinorum parum honoratum de sermonem habitum: accersitos qui ei interfuerant percontabatur an ea, quae ad aures ipsius peruenerant, dixissent. tum ex his unus, 'nisi' inquit 'uinum nos defecisset, ista, quae tibi relata sunt, prae eis, quae de te locuturi eramus, lusus ac iocus fuissent'. tam urbana crapulae excusatio tamque simplex ueritatis confessio iram regis conuertit in risum.

5.1.ext.3 Equally mild was the mind of King Pyrrhus. He had heard that at a certain banquet of the Tarentines a conversation had been held about himself that did him little honour: he had those who had been present summoned and asked whether they had said the things that had reached his ears. Then one of them said, "If wine had not failed us, those things which have been reported to you would, compared with those things we were about to say about you, have been mere sport and jest." So urbane an excuse of intoxication and so simple a confession of truth turned the king's anger into laughter.

qua quidem clementia et moderatione adsecutus est ut et sobrii sibi Tarentini gratias agerent et ebrii bene precarentur. Ab eadem altitudine humanitatis legatis Romanorum ad redimendos captiuos castra sua petentibus, quo tutius uenirent, Lyconem Molosson obuiam misit, quo honoratius exciperentur, ipse cum ornatu regio <salu>tatum extra portam occurrit, secundarum rerum prouentu non corruptus, ut officii respectum in iis deponeret, qui tum maxime armis cum eo dissidebant.

By that very clemency and moderation he obtained that the sober Tarentines gave him thanks and the drunken prayed well for him. From that same height of humanity, when envoys of the Romans came to his camp to ransom captives, he sent Lycon the Molossian to meet them so that they might come more safely and be received with greater honor; he himself, in royal attire, went out to meet those saluted beyond the gate, not corrupted by the prospect of prosperous affairs so as to lay aside a regard for duty toward those who at that time most disagreed with him in arms.

5.1.ext.4 Cuius tam mitis ingenii debitum fructum ultimo fati sui tempore cepit: nam cum diris auspiciis Argiuorum inuasisset urbem, abscisumque eius caput Alcyoneus Antigoni regis filius ad patrem++ propugnator enim laboran aderat++laetus uelut aliquod felicissimum uictoriae opus attulisset, Antigonus correpto iuuene, quod tanti uiri subitae ruinae inmemor humanorum casuum effuso gaudio insultaret, humo caput sublatum causea, qua uelatum caput suum more Macedonum habebat, texit corporique Pyrri redditum honoratissime cremandum curauit. quin etiam filium eius Helenum captiuum ad se pertractum et cultum et animum regium gerere iussit ossaque ei Pyrri aurea inclusa urna Epirum in patriam ad Alexandrum fratrem portanda dedit.

5.1.ext.4 Of whom so mild a spirit took the due fruit at the last hour of his fate: for when he had invaded the city of the Argives under dire auspices, and its head had been cut off, Alcyoneus, son of King Antigonus, ++ for a champion was present to those striving ++ rejoicing as if he had brought some most fortunate work of victory, Antigonus, having seized the youth, because he, forgetful of human fortunes, was exulting with unbounded joy at the sudden ruin of so great a man, covered with the causea—wherewith he wore his head veiled in the Macedonian custom—the head lifted from the ground, and saw to it that the body, returned to Pyrrhus, was burned most honorably. Moreover he ordered his son Helenus, brought to him as a captive, to bear a royal bearing and spirit, and gave the bones of Pyrrhus, enclosed in a golden urn, to be carried to Epirus to Alexander his brother.

5.1.ext.5 Campani autem exercitum nostrum cum consulibus apud Caudinas furcas sub iugum a Samnitibus missum nec inermem tantum, sed etiam nudum urbem suam intrantem perinde ac uictorem et spolia hostium prae se ferentem uenerabiliter exceperunt protinusque consulibus insignia honoris, mili bus uestem, arma, equos, commeatum benignissime praestando et inopiam et deformitatem Romanae cladis mutarunt. quo animo si pro imperio nostro aduersus Hannibalem quoque usi fuissent, truculentis securibus materiem saeuiendi non praebuissent.

5.1.ext.5 But the Campanians received our army, which at the Caudine Forks had been sent under the yoke by the Samnites, not only unarmed but even naked as it entered their city, with veneration as if it were a conqueror bearing the spoils of the enemy; and immediately, by most kindly supplying the consuls with insignia of honor, the mili bus with clothing, arms, horses, and provisions, they changed both the want and the disgrace of the Roman calamity. With what spirit—if for our imperium they had used the same course also against Hannibal—they would not have furnished matter for savage slaughter with bloody axes.

5.1.ext.6 Facta mentione acerrimi hostis mansuetudinis eius operibus, quam Romano nomini praestitit, locum, qui inter manus est, finiam: Hannibal enim Aemilii Pauli apud Cannas trucidati quaesitum corpus, quantum in ipso fuit, inhumatum iacere passus non est. Hannibal Ti. Gracchum Lucanorum circumuentum insidiis cum summo honore sepulturae mandauit et ossa eius in patriam portanda militibus nostris tradidit. Hannibal M. Marcellum in agro Bruttio, dum conatus Poenorum cupidius quam consideratius speculatur, interemptum legitimo funere extulit punicoque sagulo et corona donatum aurea rogo inposuit.

5.1.ext.6 With mention made of the very fierce enemy’s lenity in the deeds he showed to the Roman name, I will end at the place that lies within my hands: for Hannibal would not suffer the sought body of Aemilius Paulus, slaughtered at Cannae, to lie unburied so far as it was in his power. Hannibal committed Tiberius Gracchus, surrounded and betrayed by the Lucanians, to burial with the highest honor and delivered his bones to our soldiers to be carried to his homeland. Hannibal raised Marcus Marcellus, killed in the Bruttian field while he regarded the attempts of the Carthaginians more eagerly than prudently, to a lawful funeral, clothed him with a Punic cloak and crowned him with a golden crown, and placed him upon the funeral pyre.

ergo humanitatis dulcedo etiam in <ef>ferata barbarorum ingenia penetrat toruosque et truces hostium mollit oculos ac uictoriae insolentissimos spiritus flectit. nec illi arduum ac difficile est inter arma contraria, inter destrictos conminus mucrones placidum iter reperire. uincit iram, prosternit odium hostilemque sanguinem hostilibus lacrimis miscet.

Therefore the sweetness of humanity even penetrates the efferrate natures of barbarians and softens the stern and savage eyes of enemies and bends the most insolent spirits of victory. Nor is it arduous or difficult for them, amid opposing arms, amid swords drawn and clashing at close quarters, to find a placid path. It conquers anger, overthrows hatred, and mingles hostile blood with hostile tears.

quae etiam Hannibalis admirabilem uocem pro funeribus Romanorum ducum arbitria statuentis expressit. quin aliquanto ei plus gloriae Paulus et Gracchus et Marcellus sepulti quam oppressi attulerunt, si quidem illos Punico astu decepit, Romana mansuetudine honorauit. uos quoque, fortes ac piae umbrae, non paenitendas sortitae estis exequias: nam ut optabilius in patria, ita speciosius pro patria conlapsae supremi officii decus infelicitate amissum uirtute recuperastis.

which also revealed Hannibal’s admirable judgment in determining the rites for the funerals of Roman commanders. Indeed, Paulus and Gracchus and Marcellus, buried rather than crushed, brought him somewhat more glory, since he by Punic craft deceived them and by Roman clemency honored them. You also, brave and pious shades, have been allotted funeral rites not to be regretted: for as more desirable in the fatherland, so more glorious for the fatherland, having fallen you restored by virtue the honour of the final duty which misfortune had taken away.

5.2.init. Gratas uero animi significationes et ingrata facta libuit oculis subicere, ut uitio ac uirtuti iusta merces aestimationis ipsa comparatione accederet. sed quoniam contrario proposito sese distinxerunt, nostro quoque stilo separentur, prioremque locum obtineant quae laudem quam quae reprehensionem merentur.

5.2.init. It pleased me, however, to present to the eyes the grateful significations of the mind and the ungrateful deeds, so that by the very comparison the just consequence of esteem might come to vice and virtue. But since they have distinguished themselves by contrary disposition, let them also be separated by our style, and let those that deserve praise hold the prior place rather than those that deserve reproach.

5.2.1 Atque ut a publicis actis ordiar, Marcium patriae * * conantem admotoque portis urbis ingenti Volscorum exercitu funus ac tenebras Romano imperio minantem Veturia mater et Volumnia uxor nefarium opus exequi precibus suis passae non sunt. in quarum honorem senatus matronarum ordinem benignissimis decretis adornauit: sanxit namque ut feminis semita uiri cederent, confessus plus salutis rei publicae in stola quam in armis fuisse, uetustisque aurium insignibus nouum uittae discrimen adiecit. permisit quoque his purpurea ueste et aureis uti segmentis.

5.2.1 And that I begin from the public acts: Marcius, striving for the fatherland * * and with a mighty Volscian army brought up to the gates of the city and threatening funeral and darkness to the Roman empire, Veturia the mother and Volumnia the wife did not permit that nefarious work to be accomplished by their prayers. In whose honor the senate adorned the order of matrons with most benign decrees: for it enacted that women should yield the man’s path, having confessed that more of the republic’s safety lay in the stola than in arms, and it added to the ancient ear insignia a new distinction of the vitta. It also permitted them to use the purple garment and golden ornaments.

super haec aedem et aram Fortunae muliebri eo loco, quo Coriolanus exoratus fuerat, faciendam curauit, memorem beneficii animum suum exquisito religionis cultu testando. Quem secundi etiam Punici belli tempore exhibuit: cum enim a Fuluio Capua obsideretur ac duae Campanae mulieres beniuolentiam erga Romanos dimittere ex animis noluissent, Vestia Oppia mater familiae et Cluuia Facula meretrix, quarum altera cotidie pro salute exercitus nostri sacrificauit, altera captis militibus Romanorum alimenta subministrare non destitit, urbe illa oppressa senatus his et libertatem et bona restituit, et si quid amplius praemii petissent, libenter se daturum adseuerauit. uacasse tanto gaudio patribus conscriptis duabus humillimis feminis referre gratiam, nedum tam prompte retulisse mirandum.

Moreover he caused a temple and an altar of Womanly Fortune to be made on that spot where Coriolanus had been entreated, attesting his mind mindful of the benefit by a refined cult of religion. He showed this likewise in the time of the Second Punic War: for when Capua was besieged by Fulvius and two Campanian women would not from their hearts abandon goodwill toward the Romans, Vestia Oppia, a matron of a household, and Cluvia Facula, a meretrix, of whom the one sacrificed daily for the safety of our army and the other did not cease to supply food to captured Roman soldiers, the senate, that city being oppressed, restored to these women both freedom and goods, and averred that if they had asked anything more as a reward he would gladly give it. It was not marvelous that the conscript fathers, moved by so great a joy, returned thanks to two most lowly women, much less that they did so so promptly.

5.2.2 Quid illa quoque iuuentute Romana gratius, quae Nautio et Minucio consulibus ultro nomina sua militari sacramento obtulit, ut Tusculanis, quorum fines Aequi occupauerant, praesidium ferrent, quia paucis ante mensibus constantissime et fortissime imperium populi Romani defenderant? ergo, quod auditu nouum est, ne patriae grata uoluntas cessasse uideretur, exercitus se ipse conscripsit.

5.2.2 What could be more pleasing to those Roman youths, who of their own accord offered their names by military oath to the consuls Nautius and Minucius, to carry a garrison to the Tusculans, whose borders the Aequi had occupied, since but a few months before they had defended with the most steadfastness and bravery the imperium of the Roman people? Therefore, lest it appear that their grateful goodwill toward the fatherland had faltered at the new report, the army enrolled itself.

5.2.3 Magnum grati populi specimen in Q. Fabio Maximo enituit: nam cum quinque consulatibus salutariter re publica administrata decessisset, certatim aes contulit, quo maior ac speciosior funeris eius pompa duceretur. eleuet aliquis praemia uirtutis, cum animaduertat fortes uiros felicius sepeliri quam uiuere ignauos.

5.2.3 A great proof of the people's gratitude shone forth in Q. Fabius Maximus: for when, after five consulships and having administered the republic salutarily, he had died, they eagerly contributed money so that a larger and more splendid pomp of his funeral might be conducted. One might exalt the rewards of virtue, when he observes that brave men are more happily buried than cowards live.

5.2.4 Fabio autem etiam incolumi summa cum gloria gratia relata est. dictatori ei magister equitum Minucius scito plebis, quod numquam antea factum fuerat, aequatus partito exercitu separatim in Samnio cum Hannibale conflixerat. ubi temere inito certamine pestiferum habiturus exitum subsidio Fabi conseruatus, et ipse eum patrem appellauit et ab legionibus suis patronum salutari uoluit ac deposito aequalis imperii iugo magisterium equitum, sicut par erat, dictaturae subiecit inprudentisque uulgi errorem gratae mentis significatione correxit.

5.2.4 But to Fabius even, while still unharmed, the highest favour was returned with great glory. His magister equitum Minucius, with the sanction of the plebs (which had never before been done), having been made equal and allotted a share of the army, had engaged separately in Samnium with Hannibal. Where, having rashly entered the engagement and about to suffer a pestilential outcome, he was preserved by the aid of Fabius; and he himself called him father and wished him to be a patron to his legions for their salvation, and, the yoke of equal command having been laid aside, he submitted the mastership of horse, as was proper, to the dictatorship, and by the signification of a grateful mind corrected the error of the imprudent populace.

5.2.5 Tam hercule probabiliter quam Q. Terentius Culleo praetoria familia natus et inter paucos senatorii ordinis splendidus optimo exemplo Africani superioris currum triumphantis, quia captus a Karthaginiensibus ab eo fuerat recuperatus, pilleum capite gerens secus est: auctori enim libertatis suae tamquam patrono accepti beneficii confessionem spectante populo Romano merito reddidit.

5.2.5 As truly, by Hercules, so Q. Terentius Culleo, born of the praetorian household and splendid among the few of the senatorial order, following as an example the chariot of Africanus the Elder triumphant, because having been captured by the Carthaginians he had been recovered by him, followed wearing the pilleus on his head: for to the author of his liberty, as to a patron, he rightly rendered a confession of the benefit received before the watching Roman people.

5.2.6 At Flaminini de Philippo rege triumphantis currum non unus, sed duo milia ciuium Romanorum pilleata comitata sunt, quae is Punicis bellis intercepta et in Graecia seruientia cura sua collecta in pristinum gradum restituerat. ~ geminarum ea decus imperatoris, a quo simul et deuicti hostes et conseruati ciues spectaculum patriae praebuerunt. illorum quoque salus dupliciter omnibus accepta fuit, et quia tam multi et quia tam grati exoptatum libertatis statum recuperauerant.

5.2.6 But at Flamininus, after triumphing over King Philip, not one but two thousand Roman citizens wearing the pilleus accompanied the chariot, whom, intercepted in the Punic wars and serving in Greece, he had by his care gathered and restored to their former rank. ~ that double glory was the honour of the commander, by whom both the conquered enemies and the preserved citizens at once provided a spectacle for the fatherland. Their safety too was received by all in a twofold way, both because so many and because so grateful they had recovered the long‑desired condition of liberty.

5.2.7 Metellus uero Pius pertinaci erga exulem patrem amore tam clarum lacrimis quam alii uictoriis cognomen adsecutus non dubitauit consul pro Q. Calidio praeturae candidato supplicare populo, quod tribunus pl. legem, qua pater eius in ciuitatem restitueretur, tulerat. quin etiam patronum eum domus et familiae suae semper dictitauit. nec hac re de principatu, quem procul dubio obtinebat, quicquam decerpsit, quia non humili, sed grato animo longe inferioris hominis maximo merito eximiam summittebat dignitatem.

5.2.7 Metellus Pius, however, by a pertinacious love toward his exiled father so famed by his tears as others by their victories, attained that cognomen, and did not hesitate, as consul, to entreat the people on behalf of Q. Calidius, a candidate for the praetorship, because the tribune of the plebs had carried a law whereby his father should be restored to the citizenship. Moreover he always named him patron of his house and family. Nor did he by this act detract anything from the principate which he doubtless held, for he was not lowering, but with a grateful mind he conferred an exceptional dignity upon a man far inferior, by great merit.

5.2.8 Nam C. quidem Marii non solum praecipuus, sed etiam praepotens gratae mentis fuit impetus: duas enim Camertium cohortes mira uirtute uim Cimbrorum sustinentis in ipsa acie aduersus condicionem foederis ciuitate donauit. quod quidem factum et uere et egregie excusauit dicendo, inter armorum strepitum uerba se iuris ciuilis exaudire non potuisse. et sane id tempus tunc erat, quo magis defendere quam audire leges oportebat.

5.2.8 For G. Marius indeed was not only preeminent, but even overpoweringly potent in the impulse of a grateful mind: for he gave to the city, as a condition of the treaty, two Camertine cohorts—sustaining by marvelous virtue the force of the Cimbri on the very line of battle. Which deed he both truly and excellently excused, saying that amid the clamor of arms he could not hear the words of civil law. And certainly that was a time when it was more proper to defend than to listen to laws.

5.2.9 C. Marii uestigia ubique L. Sulla certamine laudis subsequitur: dictator enim priuato et Pompeio et caput adaperuit et sella adsurrexit et equo descendit eaque se libenter facere in contione praedicauit, memor ab eo duo de xx annos nato partes suas exercitu paterno adiutas. multa insignia Pompeio, sed nescio an hoc quicquam admirabilius contigerit, quod magnitudine beneficii sui obliuisci Sullam coegit.

5.2.9 The footsteps of C. Marius are everywhere followed by L. Sulla in a contest of praise: for the dictator both uncovered his head to the private Pompey and rose from the sella curulis and dismounted from his horse, and declared in the contio that he would gladly do these things, remembering that from him two men of 20 years of age had their portions aided by the paternal army. Many honours to Pompey, but I do not know whether anything more admirable happened than that, by the greatness of his benefaction, he compelled Sulla to forget.

5.2.10 Sit aliquis in summo splendore etiam sordibus gratis locus. M. Cornuto praetore funus Hirti et Pansae iussu senatus locante qui tunc libitinam exercebant cum rerum suarum usum tum ministerium suum gratuitum polliciti sunt, quia hi pro re publica dimicantes occiderant, perseuerantique postulatione extuderunt ut exequiarum apparatus sestertio nummo ipsis praebendus addiceretur. quorum laudem ~ adiecta lege condicio auget magis quam extenuat, quoniam quidem quaestum contempserunt nulli alii rei quam quaestui uiuentes.

5.2.10 Let someone be in the highest splendour, even if his place is gratis with sordidness. When M. Cornutus, as praetor, arranged the funerals of Hirtus and Pansa by order of the senate, those who then exercised the libitina promised both the use of their goods and their ministry free of charge, because these men had been killed fighting for the res publica; and, persisting in their demand, they forced that the apparatus of the funerals should be assigned to them for the sum of a sestertius coin. The condition added by law rather increases than lessens their praise, since indeed they scorned gain, living for no other thing than profit.

5.2.ext.init. Pace cinerum suorum reges gentium exterarum secundum hunc tam contemptum gregem referri se patientur, qui aut non adtingendus aut [non] in ultima parte domesticorum exemplorum conlocandus fuit. sed dum honesti etiam ab infimis istis editi memoria non intercidat, licet separatum locum obtineant, ut nec his adiecti nec illis praelati uideantur.

5.2.ext.init. For the sake of the peace of their ashes the kings of foreign nations endure to be reckoned among this so-contemptible flock, who are either not to be touched or [not] to be placed in the lowest rank of domestic examples. But so long as the memory of those honorably brought forth even from these low ones does not perish, though they obtain a separate place, they may seem neither joined to these nor preferred to those.

5.2.ext.1 Darius priuatae adhuc fortunae amiculo Sylosontis Sami delectatus curiore contemplatione fecit ut ultro sibi et quidem a cupido daretur. cuius muneris quam grata aestimatio animo eius esset adlapsa regno potitus ostendit: totam namque urbem et insulam Samiorum Sylosonti fruendam tradidit: non enim pretium rei aestimatum, sed occasio libertatis honorata est, magisque a quo donum proficisceretur quam ad quem perueniret prouisum.

5.2.ext.1 Darius, delighting in the little cloak of Syloson of Samos, by the more curious contemplation contrived that it be given to him voluntarily and indeed from desire. Having obtained the kingdom, he showed how grateful an estimation of that gift had entered his mind: for he delivered the whole city and the island of the Sami to Syloson for enjoyment; for it was not the price of the thing that was esteemed, but the occasion of liberality that was honoured, and it was provided more who sent forth the gift than to whom it would come.

5.2.ext.2 Mitridates quoque rex magnifice gratus apparuit, quoniam pro Leonico, acerrimo salutis suae defensore, a Rhodiis nauali pugna excepto omnes hostium captiuos permutauit satius esse existimans ab inuisissimis circumiri quam bene merito gratiam non referre.

5.2.ext.2 Mithridates also the king appeared magnificently grateful, since for Leonico, a most fervent defender of his safety, rescued by the Rhodians from a naval battle, he exchanged all the enemy captives, thinking it better to be beset by the most hostile than not to render well‑deserved gratitude.

5.2.ext.3 Liberalis populus Romanus magnitudine muneris, quod Attalo regi Asiam dono dedit. sed Attalus etiam testamenti aequitate gratus, qui eandem Asiam populo Romano legauit. itaque nec huius munificentia nec illius tam memor beneficii animus tot uerbis laudari potest, quot amplissimae ciuitates uel amice datae uel pie redditae sunt.

5.2.ext.3 The liberal Roman people, by the greatness of the gift which they gave to King Attalus as a donation of Asia, appeared munificent; but Attalus also, grateful by the equity of his testament, who bequeathed that same Asia to the Roman people. And so neither by the munificence of this one nor by the so-mindful spirit of that one can so many words be used in praise as there are very ample cities either given in friendship or piously restored.

5.2.ext.4 Ceterum nescio an praecipue Masinissae regis pectus grati animi pignoribus fuerit refertum: beneficio enim Scipionis et persua regni modo liberius auctus memoriam inclyti muneris ad ultimum uitae finem, longa etiam a dis immortalibus senectute do natus, constantissima fide perduxit, adeo ut eum non solum Africa, sed etiam cunctae gentes scirent amiciorem Corneliae familiae atque urbi Romanae quam sibimet si ~ superesse. ille cum graui Karthaginiensium bello premeretur ac uix tutelae imperii sui sufficeret, tamen Scipioni Aemiliano, quia nepos Africani erat, bonam magnamque partem Numidici exercitus, quam Lucullum consulem, a quo ad auxilia petenda missus fuerat, in Hispaniam duceret, promptissima mente tradidit praesentique periculo respectum pristini beneficii anteposuit. ille, cum iam aetate deficiente magnas regni opes quattuor et quinquaginta filiorum numero relinquens in lectulo laberetur, M'. Manilium, qui pro consule Africam obtinebat, litteris obsecrauit ut ad se Scipionem Aemilianum sub eo tunc militantem mitteret, feliciorem mortem suam futuram ratus, si in conplexu dexterae eius supremum spiritum ac mandata posuisset.

5.2.ext.4 Moreover, I know not whether especially the breast of King Masinissa was filled with pledges of grateful feeling: for by Scipio’s benefaction and by the persuasion of the kingdom more liberally enlarged, he carried the memory of the renowned gift with constant fidelity even to the end of his life, and, born to a long old age by the immortals, he led it with most steadfast faith, so that not only Africa but all peoples knew him to be more a friend of the Cornelian family and of the city of Rome than to himself to remain. When he was pressed by the severe war of the Carthaginians and scarcely sufficient for the protection of his rule, nevertheless to Scipio Aemilianus, because he was a grandson of Africanus, he entrusted a large and good part of the Numidian army, which he would lead into Spain to Lucullus the consul, by whom he had been sent to seek auxiliaries, with the most prompt mind and preferred regard for the present danger to the remembrance of former benefit. That man, when already failing in years and slipping on his bed leaving great resources of the kingdom and fifty-four sons in number, implored by letters M'. Manilius, who then held Africa as proconsul, that he send to him Scipio Aemilianus, then serving under him, thinking his death would be happier if he had placed his last breath and his charges in the embrace of his right hand.

ille aduentum Scipionis fatis suis praecurrentibus haec uxori liberisque praeceperat, unum in terris populum Romanum et unam in populo Romano Scipionis domum nossent, integra omnia Aemiliano reseruarent, eum diuidendi regni arbitrum haberent: quod is statuisset perinde <ac> testamento cautum inmutabile ac sanctum optinerent. tot tamque uariis rebus se Masinissa infatigabili pietatis serie ad centesimum extendit annum. his et horum similibus exemplis benificientia generis humani nutritur atque augetur: hae sunt eius faces, hi stimuli, propter quos iuuandi et emerendi cupiditate flagrat.

He, with the Fates foretelling Scipio’s coming, had ordered these things to his wife and children: that they should recognize one people on earth, the Roman people, and one House of Scipio within the Roman people; that they should reserve all things intact for Aemilianus, and hold him as the arbiter for the division of the kingdom — which they should maintain just as if fixed and secured by a testament, immutable and sacred. In so many and so various deeds Masinissa extended himself by an untiring sequence of pieties to his 100th year. By these and like examples the beneficence of the human race is nourished and increased: these are his torches, these his stimuli, on account of which it burns with a desire both to assist and to procure (favors).

et sane amplissimae et speciosissimae diuitiae sunt feliciter erogatis beneficiis late posse censeri. quorum quoniam religiosum cultum instituimus, nunc neglectum suggillandi gratia, quo sit gratior, referemus.

And truly the most ample and most splendid riches are those which, happily bestowed as benefits, may be reckoned widespread. Since we have instituted their religious cult, we will now restore what has been neglected for the sake of sealing it, that it may be the more pleasing.

5.3.1 Vrbis nostrae parentem senatus in amplissimo dignitatis gradu ab eo conlocatus in curia lacerauit, nec duxit nefas ei uitam adimere, qui aeternum Romano imperio spiritum ingenerauerat. rude nimirum illud et ferox saeculum, quod conditoris sui cruore foede maculatum ne summa quidem posteritatis dissimulare pietas potest.

5.3.1 The senate of our city, having set the father of the city in the most ample grade of dignity, tore him in the curia, nor did they deem it impious to take the life of him who had engendered an eternal spirit in the Roman empire. Truly rude and fierce that age, which, foully stained with the blood of its founder, not even the utmost pietas of posterity can hide.

5.3.2 Hunc ingrate lapsae mentis errorem consentanea ciuitatis nostrae paenitentia sequitur. uirium Romanarum et incrementum laetissimum et tula certissima, Furius Camillus, in urbe incolumitatem suam tueri non ualuit, cuius ipse salutem stabilierat, felicitatem auxerat: a L. enim Apuleio tribuno pl. tamquam peculator Veientanae praedae reus factus duris atque, ut ita dicam, ferreis sententiis in exilium missus est, et quidem eo tempore, quo optimo iuuene filio spoliatus solaciis magis adleuandus quam cladibus onerandus erat. sed inmemor patria tanti uiri maximorum meritorum exequiis filii damnationem patris iunxit.

5.3.2 This error of a mind fallen into ingratitude is followed by the penitence consonant with our commonwealth. The parent of our city, in the most ample degree of dignity, guardian most certain and the most joyous growth of Roman powers, Furius Camillus, could not preserve his own safety in the city, whose salvation he himself had established and whose felicity he had increased: for L. Apuleius, tribune of the plebs, having made him out to be an embezzler of the Veientine booty, was convicted by harsh and, so to speak, iron sentences and sent into exile; and indeed at that very time, when, robbed of his excellent young son, he ought to have been comforted with consolations rather than burdened with calamities. But, the state being forgetful at the funeral rites of so great a man of his very great merits, joined the condemnation of the son to that of the father.

at, inquit, aerario abesse tribunus pl. querebatur xv milia aeris: tanti namque poena finita est. indignam summam, propter quam populus Romanus tali principe careret!

But, he said, the tribune of the plebs complained that 15,000 asses were missing from the treasury: for so great a penalty had been imposed. An unworthy sum, for the sake of which the Roman people would be bereft of so great a prince!

Priore adhuc querella uibrante alia deinceps exurgit. Africanus superior non solum contusam et confractam belli Punici armis rem publicam, sed paene iam exsanguem atque morientem Karthaginis dominam reddidit. cuius clarissima opera iniuriis pensando ciues <uici> ignobilis eum ac desertae paludis accolam fecerunt.

With the prior complaint still vibrating, another forthwith rises up. Africanus the Elder not only restored the res publica bruised and shattered by the arms of the Punic war, but made the mistress of Carthage almost bloodless and dying. For whose most famous deeds, as recompense for injuries, the citizens of an ignoble village made him a dweller of a deserted marsh.

eiusque uoluntarii exilii acerbitatem non tacitus ad inferos tulit, sepulcro suo inscribi iubendo 'ingrata patria, ne ossa quidem mea habes'. quid ista aut necessitate indignius aut querella iustius aut ultione moderatius? cineres ei suos negauit, quam in cinerem conlabi passus non fuerat. igitur hanc unam Scipionis uindictam ingrati animi urbs Romana sensit, maiorem me hercule Coriolani uiolentia: ille enim patriam metu pulsauit, hic uerecundia.

And he did not carry the bitterness of his voluntary exile silently to the infernal realm, but ordering it to be inscribed on his sepulchre, 'ingrata patria, ne ossa quidem mea habes' — "ungrateful fatherland, you do not even have my bones." What is this that is more unworthy by necessity, or more just as a querella, or more moderate as vindicta? He was denied his own cineres, which had not been allowed to be reduced into cinerem. Therefore the Roman urbs felt this one vindicta of Scipio's ungrateful mind; greater, by Hercules, was the uiolentia of Coriolanus against me: for ille drove the patria out by metus, hic by verecundia.

de qua [re] ne queri quidem++tanta uerae pietatis constantia++nisi post fata sustinuit.

concerning which matter she did not even complain++so great a constancy of true piety she sustained until after his death.

Talia passo, credo, quae fratri eius accidere solacio esse potuerunt. cui rex Antiochus deuictus et Asia imperio populi Romani adiecta speciosissimusque triumphus ut peculatus reus fieret et in carcerem duci iuberetur causam praebuit.

Having endured such things, I believe, which could have served as a solace to his brother for what befell. To him, King Antiochus, having been defeated and Asia added to the imperium of the Roman people, and the most splendid triumph furnished the pretext that he be made accused of peculation and ordered to be led into prison.

Nihilo uirtute posterior Africanus auo minor, sed ne exitu quidem felicior: duabus enim urbibus, Numantia atque Karthagine, imperio Romano inminentibus ex rerum natura depulsis raptorem spiritus domi inuenit, mortis punitorem in foro non repperit.

By no means was Africanus the younger inferior in virtue to his grandfather, but he was not even more fortunate in his end: for when two cities, Numantia and Carthage, looming over the Roman rule, were driven off by the course of events, he found at home a robber of life, and in the forum he did not find a punisher of death.

Quis ignorat tantum laudis Scipionem Nasicam toga quantum armis utrumque Africanum meruisse, qui pestifera Ti. Gracchi manu faucibus conprehensam rem publicam strangulari passus non est? sed is quoque propter iniquissimam uirtutum suarum apud ciues aestimationem sub titulo legationis Pergamum secessit et quod uitae superfuit ibi sine ullo ingratae patriae desiderio peregit.

Who does not know that Scipio Nasica deserved as much praise in the toga as in arms, both Africani, who would not permit the republic, seized by the pestiferous hand of T. Gracchus in its jaws, to be strangled? But he also, on account of the most unjust estimation of his virtues among the citizens, withdrew to Pergamum under the title of a legation, and what remained of his life he passed there without any longing for his ungrateful fatherland.

In eodem nomine uersor necdum Corneliae gentis querellas exhausi: namque P. Lentulus clarissimus et amantissimus rei publicae ciuis, cum in Auentino C. Gracchi nefarios conatus et aciem pia ac forti pugna magnis uulneribus exceptis fugasset, proelii illius, quo leges, pacem libertatemque in suo statu retinuerat, hanc mercedem tulit ne in urbe nostra moreretur: si quidem inuidia et obtrectatione conpulsus legatione <a> senatu libera impetrata habitaque contione, qua a dis inmortalibus petiit ne umquam ad ingratum populum reuerteretur, in Siciliam profectus est ibique perseueranter morando compotem se uoti fecit. quinque igitur deinceps Cornelii totidem sunt notissima ingratae patriae exempla.

I dwell in the same name and have not yet exhausted the complaints of the Cornelian gens: for Publius Lentulus, most illustrious and most devoted a citizen of the res publica, when on the Aventine he had routed the nefarious attempts of C. Gracchus and his battle‑line with pious and brave fighting, having received great wounds, by that battle in which he had kept the laws, peace and liberty in their state, received this reward — that he should not die in our city: for being driven by envy and detraction, with a legation freely obtained from the senate and an assembly held, in which he begged of the immortal gods that he might never be sent back to an ungrateful people, he set out for Sicily, and there, by persevering delay, made himself bound to his vow. Therefore five Cornelii in succession are equally the most noted examples of an ungrateful patria.

Atque horum quidem secessus uoluntari: Ahala uero, cum magister equitum Sp. Maelium regnum adfectantem occidisset, custoditae libertatis ciuium exilio suo poenas pependit.

And indeed those secessions were voluntary: but Ahala, when, as master of the horse, he had slain Sp. Maelius, who was seeking the kingship, paid the penalty for the citizens’ preserved liberty by his own exile.

5.3.3 Ceterum ut senatus populique mens in modum subitae tempestatis concitata leni querella prosequenda est, ita singulorum ingrata facta liberiore dignatione proscindenda sunt, quia potentes consilii, cum utrumque ratione perpendere liceret, scelus pietati praetulerunt: quo enim nimbo, qua porcella uerborum impium Sextili caput obrui meretur, quod C. Caesarem, a quo cum studiose tum etiam feliciter grauissimi criminis reus defensus fuerat, Cinnanae proscriptionis tempore profugum, praesidium suum in fundo Tarquiniensi cladis condicione inplorare, beneficii iure repetere coactum, a sacris perfidae mensae et altaribus nefandorum penatium auulsum truculento uictori iugulandum tradere non exhorruit? finge accusatorem eius fortuna publica in supplicis nomen conuersum tam luctuosam illam opem genibus adnixum orasse, crudeliter tamen repulsus uideretur, quia etiam quos iniuriae inuisos faciunt, gratiosos miseriae reddunt. uerum Sextilius non accusatorem, sed patronum saeuissimae inimici uiolentiae suis manibus obiecit, si metu mortis, uita indignus, si praemii spe, dignissimus morte.

5.3.3 Moreover, just as the mind of the senate and people, stirred up like a sudden storm, must be followed with a mild complaint, so the ungrateful deeds of individuals must be cut open with freer indignation, because the powerful of counsel, when it was permitted to weigh both with reason, preferred crime to piety: for by what cloud — by what little swarm of impious words — Sextilius’ head deserved to be overwhelmed, who, though C. Caesar, by whom he had been defended with both zeal and even happily against the gravest charge, had been driven into exile at the time of Cinna’s proscription, and forced to implore his protection on his estate at Tarquinii under the condition of disaster, to demand it back as a right of benefaction, was not shunned from the sacred board of the perfidious table and torn from the altars of accursed household gods to be handed over, slaughtered, to the ferocious victor? Suppose the public fortune, turned into the name of a suppliant, had prayed that doleful aid prostrate on its knees, yet it would have seemed cruelly repulsed, for even those whom injuries make hateful are rendered pleasing by misery. But Sextilius exposed not an accuser, but the patron of his most savage enemy’s violence to his own hands: if by fear of death, unworthy of life; if by hope of reward, most deserving of death.

5.3.4 Sed ut ad alium consentaneum huic ingrati animi actum transgrediar, M. Cicero C. Popilium Laenatem Picenae regionis rogatu M. Caeli non minore cura quam eloquentia defendit eumque causa admodum dubia fluctuantem saluum ad penates suos remisit. hic Popilius postea nec re nec uerbo a Cicerone laesus ultro M. Antonium rogauit ut ad illum proscriptum persequendum et iugulandum mitteretur, impetratisque detestabilis ministerii partibus gaudio exultans Caietam cucurrit et uirum, mitto quod amplissimae dignitatis, certe ~ salubritate studio praestantis officii priuatim sibi uenerandum, iugulum praebere iussit ac protinus caput Romanae eloquentiae et pacis clarissimam dexteram per summum et securum otium amputauit eaque sarcina tamquam opimis spoliis alacer in urbem reuersus est: neque enim scelestum portanti onus succurrit illud se caput ferre, quod pro capite eius quondam perorauerat. inualidae ad hoc monstrum suggillandum litterae, quoniam qui talem Ciceronis casum satis digne deplorare possit, alius Cicero non extat.

5.3.4 But to pass to another act consonant with this ungrateful disposition, M. Cicero defended Gaius Popilius Laenas of the Picene region at the request of M. Caelius with no less care than eloquence, and sent him, his cause wavering very doubtfully, safe to his penates. This Popilius afterwards, neither injured in deed nor word by Cicero, voluntarily entreated M. Antonius that he be sent to pursue and slaughter that proscribed man; and, having obtained the detestable parts of that service, exulting with joy, he ran to Caieta and ordered the man — whom, I omit that he was of the most ample dignity, certainly privately venerable to me for the salutary zeal of his outstanding service — to present his throat, and at once he amputated the head of Roman eloquence and the most illustrious right hand of peace in the height and security of otium, and returned to the city eager with that burden as with rich spoils: for it does not help the bearer of a wicked load to carry that head which once had pleaded for his life in its stead. Letters are inadequate to brand this monster, since another Cicero does not exist who could mourn Cicero’s fall with sufficient dignity.

5.3.5 Quo te nunc modo, Magne Pompei, attingam nescio: nam et amplitudinem fortunae tuae, quae quondam omnes terras et omnia maria fulgore suo occupauerat, intueor et ruinam eius maiorem esse quam ut manu mea adtemptari debeat memini. sed tamen nobis quoque tacentibus Cn. Carbonis, a quo admodum adulescens de paternis bonis in foro dimicans protectus es, iussu tuo interempti mors animis hominum non sine aliqua reprehensione obuersabitur, quia tam ingrato facto plus L. Sullae uiribus quam propriae indulsisti uerecundiae.

5.3.5 In what manner now I should address you, Great Pompey, I do not know: for I behold the amplitude of your fortune, which once occupied all lands and all seas with its radiance, and I remember that its ruin is greater than ought to be assayed by my hand. Yet nevertheless, with us also being silent, the death of Cn. Carbo—by whom, when very young and contending in the forum about his paternal goods, you were protected—having been slain at your command will present itself to men's minds not without some reprehension, because by so ungrateful a deed you yielded more to the forces of L. Sulla than to your own modesty.

5.3.ext.1 Ac ne nostra confessis alienigenae urbes insultent, Karthaginienses Hannibalem, qui pro illorum incolumitate et uictoria tot imperatores totque exercitus nostros trucidauerat, quot gregarios milites hostium si occidisset magnae gloriae foret, conspectu suo summouere animum induxerunt.

5.3.ext.1 And lest foreign cities, with our misfortunes confessed, should gloat, the Carthaginians put into their minds the intention to remove from their sight Hannibal, who, for their safety and victory, had slaughtered so many of our commanders and so many of our armies — as many common soldiers of the enemy as it would have been of great glory if he had slain .

5.3.ext. 2 Neminem Lycurgo aut maiorem aut utiliorem uirum Lacedaemon genuit, utpote cui Apollo Pythius oraculum petenti respondisse fertur nescire se utrum illum hominum an deorum numero adgregaret. huic tamen neque uitae summa sinceritas neque constantissimus erga patriam amor neque leges salutariter excogitatae auxilio esse potuerunt quo minus infestos ciues experiretur: saepe enim lapidibus petitus, aliquando foro eiectus, oculo etiam priuatus, ad ultimum ipsa patria pulsus est.

Sparta bore no man greater or more useful than Lycurgus, as one to whom Apollo Pythius, when asked, is said to have replied that he did not know whether to reckon him among men or among gods. Yet for him neither the highest sincerity of life nor the most steadfast love for his patria nor laws salutarily devised could be of such aid that he was not felt to be hostile by fellow citizens: for he was often assailed with stones, at times driven out of the forum, even deprived of an eye, and at last was expelled by his very patria.

quid aliae faciant urbes, ubi etiam illa, quae constantiae et moderationis et grauitatis eximiam sibi laudem uindicat, tam ingrata aduersus tam bene meritum extitit?

what are other cities to do, when even that one, which vindicates for itself an eminent praise of constancy, moderation, and gravitas, has proved so ungrateful toward one so well-deserving?

5.3.ext.2 Detrahe Atheniensibus Thesea, nullae aut non tam clarae Athenae erunt, si quidem ille uicatim dispersos ciues suos in [suam] unam urbem contraxit, separatimque et agresti more uiuenti populo amplissimae ciuitatis formam atque imaginem inposuit. idem saeua potentissimi regis Minois imperia uixdum aetate pubescente reppulit: idem effrenatam Thebarum insolentiam domuit: idem opem liberis Herculis tulit et quidquid ubique monstri aut sceleris fuit uirtute animi ac robore dexterae comminuit. huius tamen summoti ab Atheniensibus Scyros, exule minor insula, ossa mortui cepit.

5.3.ext.2 Remove Theseus from the Athenians, and there will be no Athens, or none so illustrious; for he, district by district, gathered his scattered citizens into one (his) city, and imposed upon a people living apart and in a rustic fashion the form and image of a very great civitas. The same man repelled the savage commands of the most powerful King Minos when scarcely come to manhood; the same subdued the unbridled insolence of Thebes; the same brought aid to the children of Hercules and, by courage of spirit and the strength of his right hand, crushed whatever everywhere there was of monster or crime. Yet Scyros, a small island in exile, received the bones of the dead man after he had been removed by the Athenians.

5.3.ext. 3 Iam Solon, qui tam praeclaras tamque utiles Atheniensibus leges tulit, ut, si his perpetuo uti uoluissent, sempiternum habituri fuerint imperium, qui Salaminam uelut hostilem arcem ex propinquo saluti eorum inminentem recuperauit, qui Pisistrati tyrannidem primus uidit orientem, solus armis opprimi debere palam dictitare ausus, senectutem Cypri profugus exegit, neque ei in patria, qua optime meruerat, humari contigit.

5.3.ext. 3 Now Solon, who brought such illustrious and so useful laws to the Athenians that, had they wished to use them continually, they would have held an eternal dominion, who recovered Salamis, as it were an enemy stronghold threatening their nearby safety, who first perceived the rising tyranny of Pisistratus and alone dared openly to declare that he ought to be crushed by arms, spent his old age exiled in Cyprus, nor did it fall to him to be buried in the fatherland for which he had most deserved.

Bene egissent Athenienses cum Miltiade, si eum post ccc milia Persarum Marathone deuicta in exilium protinus misissent ac non in carcere et uinculis mori coegissent. at, puto, hactenus saeuire aduersus optime meritum abunde duxerunt. immo ne corpus quidem eius sic expirare coacti sepulturae prius mandari passi sunt quam Cimo filius eius eisdem se uinculis constringendum traderet.

The Athenians would have done well by Miltiades if, after the defeat of 300,000 Persians at Marathon, they had at once sent him into exile and had not forced him to die in prison and in chains. But, I think, up to now they have judged it sufficient to rage abundantly against one most excellently deserving. Nay, they did not even allow his body thus to expire and be committed to burial before Cimon his son handed himself over to be bound with the same chains.

hanc hereditatem paternam maximi ducis filius et futurus ipse aetatis suae dux maximus solam se creuisse, catenas et carcerem, gloriari potuit.

This paternal inheritance the son of the greatest commander, and himself the future greatest leader of his age, could boast that he had acquired only chains and a prison.

Aristides etiam, quo totius Graeciae iustitia censetur, continentiae quoque eximium specimen, patria iussus excedere est. felices Athenas, quae post illius exilium inuenire aliquem aut uirum bonum aut amantem sui ciuem potuerunt, cum quo tunc ipsa sanctitas migrauit!

Aristides also, who is esteemed the justice of all Greece and an outstanding exemplar of continence, was ordered to depart his fatherland. Happy Athens, which after his exile was able to find anyone either a good man or a lover of its citizenry, with whom then its very sanctity migrated!

Themistocles eorum, qui ingratam patriam experti sunt, celeberrimum exemplum, cum illam incolumem, claram, opulentam, principem Graeciae reddidisset, eo usque sensit inimicam, ut ad Xerxis, quem paulo ante destruxerat, non debitam sibi misericordiam perfugere necesse haberet.

Themistocles, the most celebrated example of those who have experienced an ungrateful fatherland, when he had rendered it safe, famed, wealthy, the leader of Greece, felt it so hostile that he was forced to take refuge with Xerxes, whom a little before he had destroyed.

Phocion uero his dotibus, quae ad pariendum homin<um amor>em potentissimae iudicantur, clementia et liber<ali>tate instructissimus tantum non in eculeum ab Atheniensibus inpositus est. certe post obitum nullam Atticae regionis, quae ossibus eius iniceretur, glebulam inuenit, iussus extra fines proici, intra quos optimus ciuis uixerat.

Phocion, however, with those endowments which are judged most potent for winning the love of men, most thoroughly furnished with clemency and liberality, was all but set upon an eculeum by the Athenians. Certainly after his death not a single clod of the region of Attica was found to be cast upon his bones; he was ordered to be thrown beyond the bounds within which that best citizen had lived.

Quid abest igitur, quin publica dementia sit existimanda summo consensu maximas uirtutes quasi grauissima delicta punire beneficiaque iniuriis rependere? quod cum ubique tum praecipue Athenis intolerabile uideri debet, in qua urbe aduersus ingratos actio constituta est, et recte, quia dandi et accipiendi beneficii commercium, sine quo uix uita hominum ~ experet tollit quisquis bene merito parem referre gratiam neglegit. quantam ergo reprehensionem me rentur qui, cum aequissima iura, sed iniquissima ingenia haberent, moribus suis quam legibus uti maluerunt?

What, then, prevents us from judging public madness by highest consensus—to punish the greatest virtues as if they were the gravest crimes and to repay benefits with injuries? This, though everywhere, ought especially to seem intolerable at Athens, in which city an action against the ungrateful was instituted, and rightly, because the commerce of giving and receiving benefits, without which the life of men scarcely exists, is destroyed by whoever, well and deservedly served, neglects to return equal gratitude. How great, therefore, the reproof deserved by those who, though they had the most equitable laws, yet possessed the most unjust minds, preferring to follow their manners rather than their laws?

quod si qua prouidentia deorum effici posset ut excellentissimi uiri, quorum modo casus retuli, legem ingratorum uindicem retinentes patriam suam in ius ad aliam ciuitatem pertraherent, nonne ingeniosum et garrulum populum mutum atque elinguem hac postulatione reddidissent? 'Discordes foci tui pagisque diuidua tuguria Graeciae facta sunt columen: lucet Marathon Persicis tropaeis: Salamis et Artemisium Xerxis naufragia numerantur: praeualidis manibus exhausta moenia pulchrioribus operibus consurgunt. harum rerum auctores ubi uixerunt?

but if by any providence of the gods it could be brought about that the most excellent men, whose fortunes I have just related, retaining the law vindictive against the ungrateful, should drag their country into law before another city, would they not have made an ingenious and garrulous people mute and tongueless by this demand? 'Your discordant hearths and the huts divided among villages have become the column of Greece: Marathon shines with Persian trophies: Salamis and Artemisium are reckoned among Xerxes' shipwrecks: the walls, spent by overpowering hands, rise again with more beautiful works. Where did the authors of these things live?'

ubi iacent? responde! nempe Thesea paruulo in scopulo sepeliri et Miltiadem in carcere mori et Cimona paternas induere catenas et Themistoclea uictorem uicti hostis genua conplecti Solonemque cum Aristide et Phocione penates suos ingrata fugere coegisti, cum interim cineribus nostris foede ac miserabiliter dispersis Oedipodis [ossa], caede patris, nuptiis matris contaminati, inter ipsum Arium pagum, diuini atque humani certaminis uenerabile domicilium, et excelsam praesidis Mineruae arcem honore arae decoratos sacro sanctiores colis.

Where do they lie? Answer!—namely, that you caused Theseus to be buried on a little rock, and Miltiades to die in prison, and Cimon to wear paternal chains, and Themistocles, the vanquished enemy, to clasp the knees of the victor, and forced Solon, with Aristides and Phocion, ingrate, to flee his penates; while meanwhile our ashes were foully and miserably scattered, the bones of Oedipus—stained by the slaughter of his father and by his mother's marriage—lie among that very Arian village, a venerable dwelling of the contest between the divine and the human, and you inhabit the lofty citadel of Minerva, more sacred than the altar, adorned with the honor of the shrine.

adeo tibi aliena mala tuis bonis gratiora sunt. lege itaque legem, quae te iure iurando obstrictam tenet, et quia bene meritis debita reddere praemia noluisti, laesis iusta piacula exsolue'. tacent mutae illorum umbrae, fati necessitate constrictae: at, inmemores beneficiorum Athenae, reprehensionis lingua sermone licenti soluta non tacet.

So greatly do another's evils seem pleasanter to you than your own goods. Read, then, the law—yes the law—which holds you bound by an oath of right, and because you would not restore to the well‑deserving the rewards due, pay the just piacula for the injured. Their shades are silent, mute, constrained by the necessity of fate: but, forgetful of Athena's benefits, the tongue of reproach, loosened by licentious speech, is not silent.

5.4.init. Sed omittamus ingratos et potius de piis loquamur: aliquanto enim satius est fauorabili quam inuisae rei uacare. uenite igitur in manus nostras, prospera parentium uota, felicibus auspiciis propagatae suboles, quae efficitis ut et genuisse iuuet et generare libeat.

5.4.init. But let us pass over the ungrateful and rather speak of the pious: for it is somewhat better to occupy oneself with a favorable than with a thing hated. Come therefore into our hands, prosperous vows of your parents, offspring propagated under felicitous auspices, which you make it both pleasing to have begotten and delightful to beget.

5.4.1 Coriolanus maximi uir animi et altissimi consilii optimeque de re publica meritus iniquissimae damnationis ruina prostratus ad Volscos infestos tunc Romanis confugit. magno ubique pretio uirtus aestimatur. itaque, quo latebras quaesitum uenerat, ibi breui summum est adeptus imperium, euenitque ut quem pro se salutarem imperatorem ciues habere noluerant, paene pestiferum aduersus se ducem experirentur: frequenter enim fusis exercitibus nostris uictoriarum suarum gradibus aditum iuxta moenia urbis Volsco militi struxit.

5.4.1 Coriolanus, a man of greatest animi and of the highest consilium and most merited in res publica, thrown low by the ruin of a most iniquitous damnation, fled to the Volsci then hostile to the Romans. Virtus is esteemed everywhere at a great price. And so, where he had sought a latebra, there shortly he obtained summum imperium; and it happened that he whom the citizens had not wished to have as a salutary imperator for themselves, they almost found to be a pestiferous dux against themselves: for frequently, our exercitibus having been routed, he built an access beside the walls of the city for the Volscian milites to reach the very gradus of his victoriarum.

quapropter fastidiosus ille in aestimandis bonis suis populus, qui reo non pepercerat, exuli coactus est supplicare. missi ad eum deprecandum legati nihil profecerunt: missi deinde sacerdotes cum infulis aeque sine effectu redierunt. stupebat senatus, trepidabat populus, uiri pariter ac mulieres exitium imminens lamentabantur.

Therefore that people, proud in the valuing of their own goods, who had shown no mercy to the accused, were compelled to supplicate the exile. Envoys sent to him to entreat achieved nothing: then priests sent with their infulae likewise returned without effect. The senate was stupefied, the populus trembled, men and women alike bewailed the impending exitium.

tunc Veturia Coriolani mater Volumniam uxorem eius et liberos secum trahens castra Volscorum petiit. quam ubi filius aspexit, 'expugnasti' inquit 'et uicisti iram meam, patria, precibus huius admotis, cuius utero quamuis merito mihi inuisam dono', continuoque agrum Romanum hostilibus armis liberauit. ergo pectus dolore acceptae iniuriae, spe potiendae uictoriae, uerecundia detrectandi ministerii, metu mortis refertum, totum sibi pietas uacuefecit, uniusque parentis aspectus bellum atrox salutari pace mutauit.

then Veturia, mother of Coriolanus, drawing with her Volumnia his wife and his children, sought the camp of the Volsci. When her son beheld her, "you have stormed," he said, "and you have conquered my anger, O fatherland, by the prayers of this woman offered, whose womb, though justly hateful to me, I give as a gift," and immediately he freed the Roman land from hostile arms. Therefore his breast, full of sorrow for the injury received, of the hope of gaining victory, of the modesty of declining the ministrations, and of fear of death, was wholly emptied by pietas, and the sight of one parent changed savage war into a salutary peace.

5.4.2 Eadem pietas uiribus suis inflammatum Africanum superiorem uixdum annos pubertatis ingressum ad opem patri in acie ferendam uirili robore armauit: consulem enim eum apud Ticinum flumen aduersis auspiciis cum Hannibale pugnantem, grauiter saucium intercessu suo seruauit, neque illum aut aetatis infirmitas aut militiae tirocinium aut infelicis proelii etiam ueterano bellatori pertimescendus exitus interpellare ualuit, quo minus duplici gloria conspicuus coronam imperatore simul et patre ex ipsa morte rapto mereretur.

5.4.2 The same piety, inflaming the Africanus elder with its own forces, scarcely having entered the years of puberty, equipped him with manly strength to bring aid to his father in the battle-line: for he saved that consul at the river Ticinum, fighting with Hannibal under adverse auspices, gravely wounded, by his interposition; nor could the perilous outcome, to be feared even by a veteran warrior, be averted by weakness of age or the tyroship of soldiery or the misfortune of the battle, whereby, conspicuous with double glory, he deserved a crown — both of commander and of father — for having snatched him from death itself.

5.4.3 Auribus ista tam praeclara exempla Romana ciuitas accepit, illa uidit oculis. L. Manlio Torquato diem ad populum Pomponius tribunus pl. dixerat, quod occasione bene ficiendi belli inductus legitimum optinendi imperii tempus excessisset quodque filium optimae indolis iuuenem rustico opere grauatum publicis usibus subtraheret. id postquam Manlius adulescens cognouit, protinus urbem petiit et se in Pomponii domum prima luce direxit.

5.4.3 Such illustrious examples the Roman state received by hearsay, and those she beheld with her own eyes. L. Manlius Torquatus — a day had been fixed before the people by Pomponius, tribune of the plebs — because, tempted by the opportunity of successfully completing the war, he had passed over the lawful time for obtaining command, and was withdrawing his son, a young man of the best natural gifts, burdened by rustic labour, from public service. When the young Manlius learned this, he at once hastened to the city and, at first light, made for Pomponius’ house.

qui existimans in hoc eum uenisse, ut patris crimina, a quo plus iusto aspere tractabatur, deferret, excedere omnes iussit cubiculo, quo licentius remotis arbitris indicium perageret. nactus occasionem opportunam proposito suo iuuenis gladium, quem tectum adtulerat, destrinxit tribunumque minis ac terrore conpulsum iurare coegit a patris eius accusatione recessurum, eoque effectum est ne Torquatus causam diceret. commendabilis est pietas, quae mansuetis parentibus praestatur.

who, thinking that he had come for this purpose — to bring forward the crimes of his father, by whom he was being handled more harshly than justice warranted — ordered everyone to leave the chamber, so that with the arbitrators removed he might more freely pursue the accusation. Having found an occasion favorable to his plan, the young man drew the sword which he had brought concealed, and, the tribune driven by threats and terror, forced him to swear that he would desist from accusing his father; and by this means it came about that Torquatus did not plead his case. Commendable is the pietas which is shown to mild parents.

sed Manlius, quo horridiorem patrem habuit, hoc periculo eius laudabilius subuenit, quia ad eum diligendum praeter naturalem amorem nullo indulgentiae blandimento inuitatus fuerat.

but Manlius, for whom he had a more severe father, came to his aid in this peril the more laudably, because to love him he had been invited by no blandishment of indulgence beyond natural affection.

5.4.4 Hanc pietatem aemulatus M. Cotta eo ipso die, quo togam uirilem sumpsit, protinus ut a Capitolio descendit, Cn. Carbonem, a quo pater eius damnatus fuerat, postulauit peractumque reum iudicio adflixit, et ingenium et adulescentiam praeclaro opere auspicatus.

5.4.4 Emulating this piety, M. Cotta on that very day on which he took the manly toga, immediately as he descended from the Capitol, demanded Gnaeus Carbo, by whom his father had been condemned, and hurled the accused into trial, and by this splendid action gave promise of both his talent and his youth.

5.4.5 Apud C. quoque Flaminium auctoritas patria aeque potens fuit: nam cum tribunus pl. legem de Gallico agro uiritim diuidendo inuito et repugnante senatu promulgasset, precibus minisque eius acerrime resistens ac ne exercitu quidem aduersum se conscripto, si in eadem sententia perseueraret, absterritus, postquam pro rostris ei legem iam referenti pater manum iniecit, priuato fractus imperio descendit e rostris, ne minimo quidem murmure destitutae contionis reprehensus.

5.4.5 At C. Flaminius likewise the authority of his patria was equally potent: for when the tribune of the plebs had promulgated a law for dividing the Gallic field by allotments to individuals, with the senate unwilling and opposing, he most fiercely resisted the tribune’s entreaties and threats, and, deterred even by the prospect of an army enrolled against him should he persist in the same opinion, after his father laid a hand on him as he was already proclaiming the law from the rostra, shattered in his private authority he descended from the rostra, and the assembly, deserted, did not reproach him with even the smallest murmur.

5.4.6 Magna sunt haec uirilis pietatis opera, sed nescio an his omnibus ualentius et animosius Claudiae Vestalis uirginis factum. quae, cum patrem suum triumphantem e curru uiolenta tribuni manu animaduertisset, mira celeritate utrisque se interponendo amplissimam potestatem inimicitiis accensam depulit. igitur alterum triumphum pater in Capitolium, alterum filia in aedem Vestae duxit, nec discerni potuit utri plus laudis tribueretur, cui uictoria an cui pietas comes aderat.

5.4.6 These are great deeds of manly piety, but I know not whether more powerful and more spirited than all these was the act of Claudia the Vestal virgin. For when she perceived her father, triumphant, being violently dragged from his chariot by the hand of the tribune , with wondrous swiftness she interposed herself between them both and drove off a very great authority, inflamed by enmities. Thus the father led one triumph to the Capitol, the daughter led another into the temple of Vesta, and it could not be determined to which more praise should be assigned, to him whom victory attended or to her whom piety accompanied.

5.4.7 Ignoscite, uetustissimi foci, ueniamque aeterni date ignes, si a uestro sacratissimo templo ad necessarium magis quam speciosum urbis locum contextus operis nostri progressus fuerit: nulla enim acerbitate fortunae, nullis sordibus pretium carae pietatis euilescit, quin etiam eo certius quo miserius experimentum habet. Sanguinis ingenui mulierem praetor apud tribunal suum capitali crimine damnatam triumuiro in carcere necandam tradidit. quo receptam is, qui custodiae praeerat, misericordia motus non protinus strangulauit: aditum quoque ad eam filiae, sed diligenter excussae, ne quid cibi inferret, dedit existimans futurum ut inedia consumeretur.

5.4.7 Forgive, most ancient hearths, and grant mercy, eternal fires, if the progress of the woven work of our composition has ranged from your most sacred temple to a part of the city more necessary than showy: for by no harshness of fortune, by no baseness does the price of dear piety perish, nay rather it is the more certain the more miserable the trial it endures. The praetor handed the woman of free birth, condemned by his tribunal for a capital crime, over to a triumvir in the prison to be killed. When received there, he who was over the custody, moved by compassion, did not at once strangle her; he also gave access to her daughter, but after she had been carefully searched so that she might carry in no food, thinking that she would be consumed by hunger.

cum autem plures iam dies intercederent, secum ipse quaerens quidnam esset quo tam diu sustentaretur, curiosius obseruata filia animaduertit illam exerto ubere famem matris lactis sui subsidio lenientem. quae tam admirabilis spectaculi nouitas ab ipso ad triumuirum, a triumuiro ad praetorem, a praetore ad consilium iudicum perlata remissionem poenae mulieri impetrauit. quo non penetrat aut quid non excogitat pietas, quae in carcere seruandae genetricis nouam rationem inuenit?

But when several days had now passed, he himself asking with himself what it was by which she was sustained so long, the daughter, having observed more curiously, perceived that she, with her breast bared, was soothing the mother’s hunger by the succor of her own milk. This novelty so admirable a spectacle, carried by him to the triumvir, from the triumvir to the praetor, from the praetor to the council of judges, obtained a remission of the woman’s punishment. What does piety not penetrate, or what does it not devise, which in prison for the sake of preserving a mother found a new expedient?

quid enim tam inusitatum, quid tam inauditum quam matrem uberibus natae alitam? putarit aliquis hoc contra rerum naturam factum, nisi diligere parentis prima naturae lex esset.

For what so unaccustomed, what so unheard-of as a mother nursed at the breasts of her own offspring? One might think this done against the nature of things, were it not that the first law of nature is to love the parent.

5.4.ext.1 Idem praedicatum de pietate Perus existimetur, quae patrem suum Mycona consili fortuna adfectum parique custodiae traditum iam ultimae senectutis uelut infantem pectori suo admotum aluit. haerent ac stupent hominum oculi, cum huius facti pictam imaginem uident, casusque antiqui condicionem praesentis spectaculi admiratione renouant, in illis mutis membrorum liniamentis uiua ac spirantia corpora intueri credentes. quod necesse est animo quoque euenire, aliquanto efficaciore pictura litterarum uetera pro recentibus admonito recordari.

5.4.ext.1 Let the same praise with regard to piety be thought to belong to Perus, who nourished his father Myconus, afflicted by a like fortune and delivered over to equal custody, and now in the last years of old age fed him as if an infant applied to his breast. Men’s eyes cling and gape when they see the painted image of this deed, and by the spectacle of the present renew with admiration the ancient condition of the case, believing that living and breathing bodies are to be seen in those mute outlines of the limbs. Which must necessarily also occur to the soul, more strongly, painting reminding the old things to the recently living than letters do.

5.4.ext.2 Ne quidem, Cimo, silentio inuoluam, qui patri tuo sepulturam uoluntariis uinculis emere non dubitasti: nam etsi maximo tibi postea et ciui et duci euadere contigit, plus tamen aliquanto laudis in carcere quam in curia adsecutus es: ceterae enim uirtutes admirationis tantum modo multum, pietas uero etiam amoris plurimum meretur.

5.4.ext.2 Not even you, Cimo, will I wrap in silence, who did not hesitate to purchase a burial for your father with voluntary bonds: for although afterwards it happened that you came forth great both as a citizen and as a leader, yet you obtained somewhat more praise in prison than in the curia; for other virtues deserve much only of admiration, but pietas indeed merits very much of love.

5.4.ext.3 Vos quoque, fratres, memoria conplectar, quorum animus origine fuit nobilior, siquidem admodum humiles in Hispania nati pro parentium alimentis spiritum erogando specioso exitu uitae inclaruistis: xii enim milia nummum, quae post mortem uestram his darentur, a Paciaecis pacti, ut eorum patris interfectorem Etpastum gentis suae tyrannum occideretis, nec ausi solum insigne facinus estis, sed etiam strenuo ac forti exitu clausistis: isdem enim manibus Paciaecis ultionem, Etpasto poenam, genitoribus nutrimenta, uobis gloriosa fata peperistis. itaque tumulis etiam nunc uiuitis, quia parentium senectutem tueri quam uestram expectare satius esse duxistis.

5.4.ext.3 I embrace you also, brothers, in memory, whose spirit was nobler by origin, since, being born very humble in Hispania, you shone forth by giving up your life in a glorious exit for the sustenance of your parents: for 12 thousand coins, which after your death would be given to those men, had been agreed with the Paciaeci, so that you should kill the slayer of their father, Etpastus, the tyrant of their people; and you not only dared that conspicuous deed, but also closed it with a strenuous and brave outcome: for by those same Paciaecian hands you brought about vengeance, punishment for Etpastus, sustenance for your parents, and glorious fates for yourselves. Thus you live even now in your tombs, because you judged it more fitting to protect your parents’ old age than to await your own.

5.4.ext.4 Notiora sunt fratrum paria Cleobis et Biton, Amphinomus et Anapias, illi, quod ad sacra Iunonis peragenda matrem uexerint, hi, quod patrem et matrem umeris per medios ignes portarint, sed neutris pro spiritu parentium expirare propositum fuit.

5.4.ext.4 The better-known pairs of brothers are Cleobis and Biton, Amphinomus and Anapias; the former because they vexed their mother so that the rites of Juno might be performed, the latter because they carried their father and mother on their shoulders through the midst of fires, but neither had the design to die for the spirit of their parents.

5.4.ext.5 Nec ego Argiuam detrecto laudem aut Aetnaei montis gloriam minuo, uerum obscuriori propter ignorantiam pietati notitiae lumen admoueo, sicut Scythis libenter pietatis testimonium reddo: Dareo enim totis regni sui uiribus in eorum regionibus subinde impetum facienti paulatim cedentes ad ultimas iam solitudines peruenerant. interrogati deinde ab eo per legatos quem finem fugiendi aut quod initium pugnandi facturi essent, responderunt se nec urbes ullas nec agros cultos, pro quibus dimicarent, habere: ceterum, cum ad parentium suorum monumenta uenisset, sciturum quemadmodum Scythae proeliari solerent. quo quidem uno tam pio dicto inmanis et barbara gens ab omni se feritatis crimine redemit.

5.4.ext.5 Nor do I slight Argive praise or diminish the glory of Mount Aetna; but, because of my darker ignorance, I move the light of knowledge toward piety, and as to the Scythians I willingly give testimony of piety: for Darius, with the whole force of his kingdom making repeated incursions into their regions, found them slowly yielding and at last come to the remotest deserts. When then, through envoys, he asked what end of flight or what beginning of fighting they would make, they answered that they had neither any cities nor cultivated fields for which they would fight: however, when he came to the tombs of their parents, he would learn in what manner the Scythians were wont to fight. By this single pious statement the vast and barbarous people redeemed themselves from every charge of savagery.

prima igitur et optima rerum natura pietatis est magistra, quae nullo uocis ministerio, nullo usu litterarum indigens propriis ac tacitis uiribus caritatem parentium liberorum pectoribus infundit. quid ergo doctrina proficit? ut politiora scilicet, non ut meliora fiant ingenia, quoniam quidem solida uirtus nascitur magis quam fingitur.

First, then, and best among things, Nature is the teacher of piety, which, needing no ministry of voice, needing no practice of letters, by its own and tacit powers pours the parents’ charity into the breasts of children. What then does doctrine profit? That dispositions become more polished, to be sure, not better; for solid virtue is born rather than fashioned.

5.4.ext.6 Quis enim plaustris uagos et siluarum latebris corpora sua tegentes in modumque ferarum laniatu pecudum uiuentes sic Dario respondere docuit? illa nimirum, quae etiam Croesi filium loquendi usu defectum ad protegendam patris incolumitatem ministerio uocis instruxit: captis enim a Cyro Sardibus, cum unus e numero Persarum ignarus uiri caedem eius concitato impetu ferretur, uelut oblitus quid sibi fortuna nascenti denegasset, ne Croesum regem occideret proclamando paene iam inpressum iugulo mucronem reuocauit. ita, qui ad id tempus mutus sibi uixerat, saluti parentis uocalis factus est.

5.4.ext.6 Who indeed taught Darius to answer thus — those wandering in wagons and hiding their bodies in the lairs of the woods and living, by the laceration of beasts, like flocks? She, certainly, who even instructed Croesus’s son, deficient in the use of speech, by the ministry of the voice to shield his father’s safety: for taken by Cyrus at Sardis, when one of the Persians, ignorant of the man, was being carried in a roused onrush to his slaughter, as if forgetting what fortune had denied to one newly born, proclaiming that he would not kill King Croesus, he recalled the blade already almost fixed in the throat. Thus he who until that time had lived mute became the vocal means of his parent’s salvation.

5.4.ext.7 Eadem caritas Italico bello Pinnensem iuuenem, cui Pultoni erat cognomen, tanto animi corporisque robore armauit, ut, cum obsessae urbis suae claustris praesideret et Romanus imperator patrem eius captiuum in conspectu ipsius constitutum destrictis militum gladiis circumdedisset, occisurum se minitans, nisi inruptioni suae iter praebuisset, solus e manibus senem rapuerit, duplici pietate memorandus, quod et patris seruator nec patriae fuit proditor.

5.4.ext.7 The same affection in the Italian war armed the Pinnense youth, whose cognomen was Pulton, with so great a strength of mind and body that, while he was guarding the gates of his besieged city and the Roman emperor had set his captive father before his very eyes and, the soldiers' swords drawn, had surrounded him, threatening that he would kill him unless the city made way for his assault, he alone snatched the old man from their hands, to be remembered for a twofold pietas, since he was both the savior of his father and not a traitor to his country.

5.5.init. Hanc caritatem proximus fraternae beniuolentiae gradus excipit: nam ut merito primum amoris uinculum ducitur plurima et maxima beneficia accepisse, ita proximum iudicari debet simul accepisse. quam copiosae enim suauitatis illa recordatio est: in eodem domicilio antequam nascerer habitaui, in isdem incunabulis infantiae tempora peregi, eosdem appellaui parentes, eadem pro me uota excubuerunt, parem ex maiorum imaginibus gloriam traxi!

5.5.init. The next degree of brotherly benevolence takes up this charity: for just as rightly the first bond of love is held to have received very many and very great benefits, so one ought to judge the neighbor to have received them together. For how copious the sweetness of that recollection is: in the same domicile I dwelt before I was born, in the same incunabulis of infancy I passed my early times, I called them the same parents, the same vows kept watch for me, I drew an equal glory from the images of my forebears!

cara est uxor, dulces liberi, iucundi amici, accepti adfines, sed postea cognitis nulla beniuolentia accedere debet, quae priorem exhauriat.

Dear is the wife, sweet the children, pleasant the friends, welcomed in-laws; but once these later ones are known no benevolence ought to arise that would exhaust the former.

5.5.1 Atque haec teste Scipione Africano loquor, qui, tametsi artissima familiaritate Laelio iunctus erat, tamen senatum supplex orauit ne prouinciae sors fratri suo erepta ad eum transferretur legatumque se L. Scipioni in Asiam iturum promisit, et maior natu minori et fortissimus inbelli et gloria excellens laudis inopi et, quod super omnia est, nondum Asiatico iam Africanus. itaque clarissimorum cognominum alterum sumpsit, alterum dedit triumphique praetextum huius cepit, illius tradidit, ministerio maior aliquanto quam frater imperio.

5.5.1 And I say this with Scipio Africanus as witness, who, although joined in the closest familiaritas to Laelius, nonetheless as a supplicant entreated the senate that the lot of the province not be taken from his brother and transferred to him, and promised that he, L. Scipio, would go as legate into Asia; and he gave the elder to the younger and the most valiant in war, outstanding in gloria yet poor in laus, and, above all, not yet African but already Asiatic. Thus he assumed one of the most famous cognomina, bestowed the other, and took the praetext of triumph for this one and handed over that of the other, being in ministerium somewhat greater than his brother in imperium.

5.5.2 M. uero Fabius consul inclita pugna Etruscis et Veientibus superatis delatum sibi summo senatus populique studio triumphum ducere non sustinuit, quia eo proelio Q. Fabius frater eius consularis fortissime dimicans occiderat. quantam in eo pectore pietatem fraternae caritatis habitasse existimemus, propter quam tantus amplissimi honoris fulgor extingui potuit?

5.5.2 Marcus Fabius, moreover, with the famous battle having put the Etruscans and Veientes to flight, when a triumph had been bestowed on him with the highest zeal of senate and people, would not endure to celebrate the triumph, because in that engagement Quintus Fabius, his brother, a man of consular rank, fighting very bravely, had been killed. How great a piety of brotherly charity must we reckon to have dwelt in that heart, by reason of which the splendor of so great and most ample an honor could be extinguished?

5.5.3 Hoc exemplo uetustas, illo saeculum nostrum ornatum est, cui contingit fraternum iugum Claudiae prius, nunc etiam Iuliae gentis intueri decus: tantum enim amorem princeps parensque noster insitum animo fratris Drusi habuit, ut cum Ticini, quo uictor hostium ad conplectendos parentes uenerat, graui illum et periculosa ualitudine in Germania fluctuare cognosset, protinus inde metu attonitus erumperet. iter quoque quam rapidum et praeceps uelut uno spiritu corripuerit eo patet, quod Alpes Rhenumque transgressus die ac nocte mutato subinde cc milia passuum per modo deuictam barbariam Namantabagio duce solo comite contentus euasit. sed eum tum maximo labore et periculo implicatum mortaliumque frequentia defectum sanctissimum pietatis numen et di fautores eximiarum uirtutum et fidissimus Romani imperi custos Iuppiter comitatus est.

5.5.3 By this example antiquity adorned our age, to which it is granted to behold the fraternal yoke first of the Claudian, now also the glory of the Julian gens: for so great a love did our prince and father implant in the mind of his brother Drusus, that when at the Ticinum, where the victor of the enemies had come to embrace his parents, he learned that that man was wavering there with a severe and dangerous sickness in Germania, he immediately, struck with fear, burst forth from there. How rapid and headlong his journey was, as if seized in one breath, is shown by the fact that, having crossed the Alps and the Rhine, he passed two hundred miles on horseback by day and night without change, and, content with Namantabagio as leader and alone as companion, escaped through the region subdued in the manner of conquest. But then, entangled in the greatest toil and danger and abandoned by the multitude of mortals, the most holy providence of piety and the gods who favor extraordinary virtues and Jupiter, the most faithful guardian of the Roman empire, accompanied him.

Drusus quoque, quamquam fato iam suo quam illius officio propior erat, uigore spiritus et corporis uiribus conlapsus, eo ipso tamen, quo uita ac mors distinguitur, momento legiones cum insignibus suis fratri obuiam procedere iussit, ut imperator salutaretur. praecepit etiam dextera in parte praetorium ei statui, et consulare et imperatorium nomen optinere <eum> uoluit, eodemque tempore et fraternae maiestati cessit et uita excessit. his scio equidem nullum aliud quam Castoris et Pollucis specimen consanguineae caritatis conuenienter adici posse.

Drusus also, although by fate already closer to his own end than to that man's office, having failed in vigour of spirit and bodily strength, nevertheless at that very moment, by which life and death are distinguished, ordered the legions with their standards to move forward to meet his brother, so that the commander might be greeted. He also commanded that the right hand be set in the praetorium on that side, and wished <eum> to hold both the consular and the imperatorial name; and at the same time he yielded to his brother’s majesty and departed life. To these things, I know indeed, no other example than that of Castor and Pollux, a fitting specimen of consanguineous charity, can properly be added.

5.5.4 Sed omnis memoriae clarissimis imperatoribus profecto non erit ingratum, si militis summa erga fratrem suum pietas huic parti uoluminis adhaeserit: is namque in castris Cn. Pompei stipendia peragens, cum Sertorianum militem acrius sibi in acie instantem conminus interemisset iacentemque spoliaret, ut fratrem germanum esse cognouit, multum ac diu conuicio deos ob donum impiae uictoriae insecutus, prope castra transtulit et pretiosa ueste opertum rogo inposuit. ac deinde subiecta face protinus eodem gladio, quo illum interemerat, pectus suum transuerberauit seque super corpus fratris prostratum communibus flammis cremandum tradidit. licebat ignorantiae beneficio innocenti uiuere, sed ut sua potius pietate quam aliena uenia uteretur, comes fraternae neci non defuit.

5.5.4 But to the memory of all the most illustrious emperors certainly it will not be displeasing, if the soldier’s highest pietas toward his brother adheres to this part of the volume: for he, serving out his term in the camps of Cn. Pompey, when he had in close combat slain a Sertorian soldier who was pressing upon him the more fiercely in the line and was stripping the man as he lay, when he learned that he was his full brother, long and loudly with reproach invoked the gods on account of the gift of impious victory, carried him near the camp and, wrapped in a precious garment, placed him on the pyre. And then, a torch applied beneath, immediately with the same sword with which he had killed him he transpierced his own breast and, prostrate over his brother’s body, delivered himself to be burned in the common flames. It was permitted, by the benefit of ignorance, to live innocent, but that he might make use of his own pietas rather than another’s pardon, he did not fail to be companion of his brother’s death.

5.6.init. Artissimis sanguinis uinculis pietas satis fe cit: restat nunc ut patriae exhibeatur. cuius maiestati etiam illa, quae deorum numinibus aequatur, auctoritas parentium uires suas subicit, fraterna quoque caritas animo aequo ac libenter cedit, summa quidem cum ratione, quia euersa domo inter [status] rei publicae status manere potest, urbis ruina penates omnium secum trahat necesse est.

5.6.init. By the closest bonds of blood piety has certainly done enough: it remains now that it be shown to the fatherland. To whose majesty even that authority, which is equal to the numina of the gods, subjects the forces of parents; brotherly affection also yields with an even and willing mind, indeed with the greatest reason, for if the house, once overthrown, the inter [status] of the res publica cannot remain, the ruin of the city will necessarily drag the penates of all with it.

uerum quid adtinet uerbis ista conplecti, quorum tanta uis est, ut ali<i e>a salutis suae impendio testati sint?

But truly, what does it avail to embrace these things in words, whose force is so great that others have testified to them at the cost of their salvation?

5.6.1 Brutus consul primus cum Arrunte Tarquinii Superbi regno expulsi filio in acie ita equo concurrit, ut pariter inlatis hastis uterque mortifero uulnere ictus exanimis prosterneretur. merito adiecerim populo Romano libertatem suam magno stetisse.

5.6.1 Brutus, the consul, first in the battle met Arruns, the son of Tarquinius Superbus, expelled from the kingship, on horseback so that, with spears hurled alike, each, struck by a mortal wound, was cast down lifeless. I should rightly add that for the Roman people their liberty stood at great cost.

5.6.2 Cum autem in media parte fori uasto ac repentino hiatu terra subsideret responsumque esset ea re illum tantum modo conpleri posse, qua populus Romanus plurimum ualeret, Curtius et animi et generis nobilissimi adulescens interpretatus urbem nostram uirtute armisque praecipue excellere, militaribus insignibus ornatus equum conscendit eumque uehementer admotis calcaribus praecipitem in illud profundum egit, super quem uniuersi ciues honoris gratia certatim fruges iniecerunt, continuoque terra pristinum habitum recuperauit. magna postea decora in foro Romano fulserunt, nullum tamen hodieque pietate Curtii erga patriam clarius obuersatur exemplum. cui principatum gloriae obtinenti consimile factum subnectam.

5.6.2 But when in the middle part of the forum the earth sank down into a vast and sudden chasm, and the answer was that that thing could be completed only by that in which the populus Romanus most prevailed, Curtius, a youth of both most noble spirit and lineage, interpreting that our city especially excelled by virtue and arms, adorned with military insignia mounted his horse and, with spurs fiercely applied, drove him headlong into that depth; upon whom all the citizens, for the sake of honor, eagerly cast crops, and immediately the ground recovered its former condition. Great honors thereafter shone in the Roman forum, yet even today no example is shown more clearly of Curtius’s pietas toward the patria. To him, having attained the principate of glory, I will append a like deed.

5.6.3 Genucio Cipo praetori paludato portam egredienti noui atque inauditi generis prodigium incidit: namque in capite eius subito ueluti cornua erepserunt, responsumque est regem eum fore, si in urbem reuertisset. quod ne accideret, uoluntarium ac perpetuum sibimet indixit exilium. dignam pietatem, quae, quod ad solidam gloriam attinet, septem regibus praeferatur.

5.6.3 To Genucius Cippus, the paludated praetor, as he was leaving the gate there befell a portent of a new and unheard-of kind: for on his head suddenly, as it were, horns sprouted, and the response was that he would be king, if he had returned into the city. In order that this should not happen, he proclaimed for himself a voluntary and perpetual exile. A piety worthy — which, as to solid glory, is preferred to seven kings.

cuius testandae gratia capitis effigies aerea portae, qua excesserat, inclusa est dictaque Rauduscula: nam olim aera raudera dicebantur.

For the sake of attesting it, a brazen effigy of his head was enclosed in the gate through which he had gone forth, and it was called Rauduscula: for formerly brazen things were called aera raudera.

5.6.4 Genucius laudis huius, qua maior uix cogitari potest, successionem tradit Aelio praetori. cui ius dicenti cum in capite picus consedisset, aruspicesque adfirmassent conseruato eo fore ipsius domus statum felicissimum, rei publicae miserrimum, occiso in contrarium utrumque cessurum, e uestigio picum ~ morsu suo in conspectu senatus necauit. decem et vii Aelia tum familia eximiae fortitudinis uiros Cannensi proelio amisit: res publica procedente tempore ad summum imperii fastigium excessit.

5.6.4 Genucius hands down the succession of this praise, than which greater can hardly be conceived, to Aelius the praetor. To him, while he was administering justice, a woodpecker settled upon his head, and the haruspices affirmed that, if it were preserved, the state of his house would be most felicitous and that of the republic most miserable, but if it were killed both would turn out the contrary; from its beak he killed the woodpecker with his own bite in the sight of the senate. The Aelian family then lost seventeen men of exceptional courage in the Cannaean battle: the republic, with time advancing, rose to the highest zenith of empire.

haec nimirum exempla Sulla et Marius et Cinna tamquam stulta riserunt.

These examples, doubtless, Sulla and Marius and Cinna laughed at as though foolish.

5.6.5 P. Decius , qui consulatum in familiam suam primus intulit, cum Latino bello Romanam aciem inclinatam et paene iam prostratam uideret, caput suum pro salute rei publicae deuouit ac protinus concitato equo in medium hostium agmen patriae salutem, sibi mortem petens inrupit factaque ingenti strage plurimis telis obrutus super corruit. ex cuius uulneribus et sanguine insperata uictoria emersit.

5.6.5 P. Decius (Mus), who first brought the consulship into his family, when he saw the Roman battle‑line bowed and almost already prostrate in the Latin War, vowed his head for the safety of the res publica and straightaway, with horse urged on, burst into the midst of the enemy host, seeking the fatherland’s salvation and his own death; and, a great slaughter being made, overwhelmed by very many spears he fell upon them. From whose wounds and blood an unexpected victory arose.

5.6.6 Vnicum talis imperatoris specimen esset, nisi animo suo respondentem filium genuisset: is namque in quarto consulatu patris exemplum secutus deuotione simili, aeque strenua pugna, consentaneo exitu labantis perditasque uires urbis nostrae correxit. ita dinosci arduum est utrum Romana ciuitas Decios utilius habuerit duces an amiserit, quoniam uita eorum ne uinceretur obstitit, mors fecit ut uinceret.

5.6.6 It would have been the sole exemplar of such a commander, had he not sired a son answering his spirit: for that son, in his father's fourth consulship, following the example with similar devotion and with equally strenuous fighting, and with a like end, restored the wavering and ruined strength of our city. Thus it is hard to tell whether the Roman commonwealth had the Decii more usefully as leaders or lost them, since their life prevented them from being overcome, death made them conquer.

5.6.7 Non est extinctus pro re publica superior Scipio Africanus, sed admirabili uirtute ne res publica extingueretur prouidit: siquidem cum adflicta Cannensi clade urbs nostra nihil aliud quam praeda uictoris esse [Hannibalis] uideretur, ideoque reliquiae prostrati exercitus deserendae Italiae auctore Q. Metello consilium agitarent, tribunus militum admodum iuuenis stricto gladio mortem unicuique mitando iurare omnes numquam se relicturos patriam coegit pietatemque non solum ipse plenissimam exhibuit, sed etiam ex pectoribus aliorum abeuntem reuocauit.

5.6.7 Scipio Africanus did not perish for the republic, but by admirable virtue provided that the republic should not be extinguished: for since, with the city afflicted by the Cannaean disaster, our city seemed nothing else than the prey of the victor [Hannibalis], and therefore the remnants of the routed army, with Q. Metellus as proponent of abandoning Italy, were debating that plan, a very young tribunus militum, with his sword drawn and threatening death to each, compelled all to swear that they would never abandon their fatherland; and he displayed not only the fullest pietas himself, but even recalled to others the pietas that was departing from their breasts.

5.6.8 Age, ut a singulis ad uniuersos transgrediar, quanto et quam aequali amore patriae tota ciuitas flagrauit! nam cum secundo Punico bello exhaustum aerarium ne deorum quidem cultui sufficeret, publicani ultro aditos censores hortati sunt ut omnia sic locarent, tamquam res publica pecunia abundaret, seque praestaturos cuncta nec ullum assem nisi bello confecto petituros polliciti sunt. domini quoque eorum seruorum, quos Sempronius Gracchus ob insignem pugnam Beneuenti manu miserat, pretia ab imperatore exigere supersederunt.

5.6.8 Come now, that I may pass from the individuals to the whole, with what and how equal a love of the fatherland the entire city burned! For when, after the Second Punic War, the treasury was exhausted so that it would not suffice even for the worship of the gods, the publicani, of their own accord, exhorted the censors when approached to lease everything in this way, as if the res publica abounded in money, and promised that they would furnish all things and would demand no coin until the war was finished. The masters also of those slaves whom Sempronius Gracchus had sent by a notable hand to fight at Beneventum ceased to exact payments from the imperator.

in castris etiam non eques, non centurio stipendium dari sibi desiderauit. uiri ac feminae quidquid auri argentiue habuerunt, item pueri insignia ingenuitatis ad sustentandam temporis difficultatem contulerunt. ac ne beneficio senatus <quidem>, qui muneribus his functos tributi onere liberauerat, quisquam uti uoluit, sed insuper id omnes promptissimis animis praestiterunt: non ignorabant enim captis Veis, cum decimarum nomine, quas Camillus uouerat, aurum Apollini Delphico mitti oporteret neque emendi eius facultas esset, matronas ornamenta sua in aerarium retulisse, similiterque audierant mille pondo auri, quod Gallis pro obsidione Capitolii omissa debebatur, earum cultu expletum.

in the camps not even a cavalryman, not even a centurion desired that his pay be given to him. Men and women whatever gold or silver they had, likewise boys the tokens of their free birth, contributed to sustain the temporal hardship. And that benefit of the senate itself, which had freed those who had performed these services from the burden of tribute, no one wished to use; rather they additionally performed that for all with the most ready spirits: for they were not ignorant that, when Veii had been captured, the gold which, under the name of tithes, Camillus had vowed ought to be sent to Apollo of Delphi and which could not be bought, the matrons had restored their ornaments into the treasury; and likewise they had heard that the thousand pounds of gold which, left unpaid for the Gauls as the ransom for the siege of the Capitoline, had been expended on their dress.

itaque et proprio ingenio <et> exemplo uetustatis admoniti nulla sibi in re cessandum existimauerunt.

and so, admonished by their own character by the example of antiquity, they judged that in no matter ought they give way.

5.6.ext.1 et externa eiusdem propositi exempla. Rex Atheniensium Codrus, cum ingenti hostium exercitu Attica regio debilitata ferro igni uastaretur, diffidentia humani auxilii ad Apollinis Delphici oraculum confugit perque legatos sciscitatus est quonam modo tam graue illud bellum discuti posset. respondit deus ita finem ei fore, si ipse hostili manu occidisset.

5.6.ext.1 also external examples of the same purpose. Codrus, king of the Athenians, when the Attic region was weakened by a vast army of enemies and was laid waste by iron and by fire, fleeing distrustful of human aid, resorted to the oracle of Apollo at Delphi and, through envoys, asked by what means so grave a war might be dispelled. The god answered that it would come to an end for him if he himself were slain by the hostile hand.

quod quidem non solum totis Athenis, sed in castris etiam contrariis percrebruit, eoque factum est ut ediceretur ne quis Codri corpus uulneraret. id postquam cognouit, depositis insignibus imperii famularem cultum induit ac pabulantium hostium globo se obiecit unumque ex his falce percussum in caedem suam conpulit. cuius interitu ne Athenae occiderent effectum est.

which indeed spread not only through all Athens but even widely in the enemy camps, and it came to pass that an edict was proclaimed that no one should wound Codrus’s body. When he learned this, having laid aside the insignia of rule he assumed the garb of a servant and threw himself into the throng of the foraging enemy, and one of them, struck with a sickle, drove him into his own slaughter. By his death it was brought about that the Athenians were not slain.

5.6.ext.2 Ab eodem fonte pietatis Thrasybuli quoque animus manauit. is, cum Atheniensium urbem xxx tyrannorum taeterrima dominatione liberare cuperet paruaque manu maximae rei molem adgrederetur, et quidam consciis dixisset 'quantas tandem tibi Athenae per te libertatem consecutae gratias debebunt?' respondit 'di faciant ut quantas ipse illis debeo uidear retulisse'. quo adfectu inclytum destructae tyrannidis opus laude cumulauit.

5.6.ext.2 From the same fount of pietas likewise flowed the spirit of Thrasybulus. He, when he wished to free the city of the Athenians from the most vile domination of 30 tyrants and with a small band undertook the burden of a great matter, and when someone with accomplices had said, "How great thanks, at last, will Athens owe you for the freedom achieved through you?" replied, "May the gods grant that I may seem to have restored to them as much as I myself owe them." With that affection he crowned the renowned deed of the overthrown tyranny with praise.

5.6.ext.3 Themistocles autem, quem uirtus sua uictorem, iniuria patriae imperatorem Persarum fecerat, ut se ab ea obpugnanda abstineret, instituto sacrificio exceptum patera tauri sanguinem hausit et ante ipsam aram quasi quaedam pietatis clara uictima concidit. quo quidem tam memorabili eius excessu ne Graeciae altero Themistocle opus esset effectum est.

5.6.ext.3 Themistocles, however, whom his virtue had made victor, by the injustice of his country had been made commander of the Persians so that he would refrain from attacking it; at the appointed sacrifice, having been received by the patera, he drank the blood of a bull and fell before the very altar as if some conspicuous victim of piety. By that so memorable his departure it was effected that Greece did not need a second Themistocles.

5.6.ext.4 Sequitur eiusdem generis exemplum. cum inter Karthaginem et Cyrenas de modo agri pertinacissima contentio esset, ad ultimum placuit utrimque eodem[que] tempore iuuenes mitti et locum, in quem hi conuenissent, finem ambobus haberi populis. uerum hoc pactum Karthaginienses duo fratres nomine Philaeni perfidia praecucurrerunt, citra constitutam horam maturato gressu in longius promotis terminis.

5.6.ext.4 An example of the same sort follows. When between Carthage and Cyrene there was a most obstinate contention about the boundary of the land, at last it was agreed that youths be sent from both sides at the same time and that the place to which these should come would be the limit for both peoples. But the Carthaginians anticipated this pact by perfidy: two brothers named Philaeni, before the appointed hour, with hastened step, pushed the boundary-stones forward farther.

quod cum intellexissent Cyrenensium iuuenes, diu de fallacia eorum questi postremo acerbitate condicionis iniuriam discutere conati sunt: dixerunt namque sic eum finem ratum fore, si Philaeni uiuos ibi se obrui passi essent. sed consilio euentus non respondit: illi enim nulla interposita mora corpora sua his terra operienda tradiderunt. qui, quoniam patriae quam uitae suae longiores terminos esse maluerunt, bene iacent manibus et ossibus suis dilatato Punico imperio.

When the youths of Cyrene learned this, having long complained of their deceit, at last they strove by the bitterness of the condition to dispel the injury: for they said that the treaty would be held valid only if the Philaeni had permitted themselves to be buried alive there. But the event did not answer the design: for with no delay interposed they delivered their bodies to be covered by that earth. Who, since they preferred the broader bounds of their fatherland to those of their life, lie well with their hands and bones for the enlarged Punic empire.

ubi sunt superbae Karthaginis alta moenia? ubi maritima gloria inclyti portus? ubi cunctis litoribus terribilis classis?

where are the proud high walls of Carthage?
where the maritime glory, the renowned ports?
where the terrible fleet along all the shores?

ubi tot exercitus? ubi tantus equitatus? ubi inmenso Africae spatio non contenti spiritus?

Where are so many armies? Where so great a cavalry? Where the spirits, not content with the immense expanse of Africa?

omnia ista duobus Scipionibus fortuna partita est: at Philaenorum egregii facti memoriam ne patriae quidem interitus extinxit. nihil est igitur excepta uirtute, quod mortali animo ac manu inmortale quaeri possit

All those things fortune apportioned to two Scipios: but the memory of the distinguished deeds of the Philaeni was not extinguished even by the ruin of their patria. Therefore there is nothing, except virtue, that by mortal mind and hand can be sought as immortal.

5.6.ext.5 Iuuenali ardore plena haec pietas. Aristoteles uero, supremae uitae reliquias senilibus ac rugosis membris in summo litterarum otio uix custodiens adeo ualenter pro salute patriae excubuit, ut eam [ab] hostilibus armis solo aequatam in lectulo Athenis iacens, et quidem Macedonum manibus, quibus abiecta erat, erigeret. ita urbs strata atque euersa Alexandri quam restituta Aristotelis notum est opus.

5.6.ext.5 This piety, full of youthful ardor. Aristotle, however, scarcely keeping the remnants of his final life in senile and wrinkled limbs in the highest leisure of letters, kept watch so valiantly for the safety of the patria that he, though the city had been laid level by hostile arms, lying on a little couch in Athens and indeed raised up by the hands of the Macedonians by which he had been cast down, restored it. Thus the work is known to have restored Aristotle rather than, so much as, Alexander’s city being strewn and overthrown.

patet ergo quam benignae quamque profusae pietatis erga patriam omnium ordinum, omnis aetatis homines extiterint, sanctissimisque naturae legibus mirificorum etiam exemplorum ~ clara mundo suscripsit ubertas.

It is therefore evident how benign and how profuse the piety toward the fatherland of men of all orders and of every age has been; and abundance, clear to the world, has inscribed even wondrous examples under the most holy laws of nature.

5.7.init. Det nunc uela pii et placidi adfectus parentium erga liberos indulgentia salubrique aura prouecta gratam suauitatis dotem secum adferat.

5.7.init. May now the sails of the pious and placid affections of parents toward their children — indulgence — and, borne forward by a salutary breeze, bring with them a grateful dowry of sweetness.

5.7.1 Fabius Rullianus quinque consulatibus summa cum gloria peractis omnibusque et uirtutis et uitae meritis stipendiis legatus ire Fabio Gurgiti filio ad bellum difficile et periculosum conficiendum grauatus non est, paene ipso per se dumtaxat animo sine corpore militaturus, utpote propter ultimam senectutem lectuli otio quam labori proeliorum habilior. idem triumphantem equo insidens sequi, quem ipse paruulum triumphis suis gestauerat, in maxima uoluptate posuit, nec accessio gloriosae illius pompae, sed auctor spectatus est.

5.7.1 Fabius Rullianus, with five consulships carried through with the highest glory and with all merits both of virtue and of life and of merited services, did not grudge to go as legate to Fabius Gurgits son to accomplish a difficult and dangerous war; he was almost to fight by himself in spirit alone, without body, as one adapted, because of extreme old age, more to the leisure of the little bed than to the toil of battles. Likewise he set following the triumphant horse, riding which he himself had borne as a small boy in his own triumphs, in the greatest pleasure; and he was regarded not as an addition to that glorious pomp but as its auctor (author/originator).

5.7.2 Non tam speciosa Caeseti equitis Romani sors patria, sed par indulgentia. qui ab Caesare omnium iam et externorum domesticorum hostium uictore cum abdicare filium suum iuberetur, quod is tribunus pl. cum Marullo collega inuidiam ei tamquam regnum adfectanti fecerat, in hunc modum respondere sustinuit: 'celerius tu mihi, Caesar, omnes filios meos eripies quam ex his ego unum nota mea pellam'. habebat autem duos praeterea optimae indolis filios, quibus Caesar se incrementa dignitatis benigne daturum pollicebatur. hunc patrem tametsi summa diuini principis clementia tutum praestitit, quis tamen non humano ingenio maius ausum putet, quod cui totus terrarum orbis succubuerat non cessit?

5.7.2 Not so much a splendid lot for a Roman eques as a paternal indulgence. He who, with Caesar now conqueror of all enemies both external and domestic, when commanded to abdicate his son — because that son as tribune of the plebs with his colleague Marullus had made an offence against him as one aspiring to kingship — endured to reply in this manner: "you will more quickly snatch all my sons from me, Caesar, than I will drive away one of them by my mark." Moreover he had two other sons of the best disposition, to whom Caesar promised he would kindly grant increments of dignity. That father, although the supreme clemency of the divine prince secured him safe, who nevertheless will not think the daring greater than human genius, since he did not yield to him to whom the whole orb of the lands had succumbed?

5.7.3 Sed nescio an Octauius Balbus concitatioris et ardentioris erga filium beniuolentiae fuerit. proscriptus a triumuiris, cum domo postico clam esset egressus iamque fugae expeditum initium haberet, postquam filium intus trucidari falso clamore uiciniae accepit, ei se neci, quam euaserat, obtulit occidendumque militibus tradidit, pluris nimirum illud momentum, quo illi praeter spem incolumem uidere filium contigerat, quam salutem suam aestimans. miseros adulescentis oculos, quibus amantissimum sui patrem ipsius opera sic expirantem intueri necesse fuit!

5.7.3 But I know not whether Octavius Balbus was not of a more impassioned and ardent benevolence toward his son. Proscribed by the triumvirs, when he had slipped out through a back door in secret and already had the beginning of a ready escape, after he received from a false shout of the neighborhood that his son was being slaughtered within, he offered himself to death in place of the son whom he had escaped, and delivered him to the soldiers to be killed — judging that that moment, in which by a hope beyond expectation the father had seen his son safe, was worth more to him than his own safety. Miserable were the young man’s eyes, which were forced to behold the most loving of fathers so expire by his own act!

5.7.ext.1 Ceterum ut ad iucundiora cognitu ueniamus, Seleuci regis filius Antiochus nouercae Stratonices infinito amore correptus, memor quam inprobis facibus arderet, impium pectoris uulnus pia dissimulatione contegebat. itaque diuersi adfectus isdem uisceribus ac medullis inclusi, summa cupiditas et maxima uerecundia, ad ultimam tabem corpus eius redegerunt. iacebat ipse in lectulo moribundo similis, lamentabantur necessarii, pater maerore prostratus de obitu unici filii deque sua miserrima orbitate cogitabat, totius domus funebris magis quam regius erat uultus.

5.7.ext.1 Moreover, that we may come to more pleasant knowledge, Antiochus, son of King Seleucus, seized by an infinite love for his stepmother Stratonice, mindful how he burned with dishonorable flames, covered the impious wound of his heart with pious dissimulation. Thus contrary affections shut up in the same viscera and marrow — the utmost desire and the greatest modesty — drove his body to final wasting. He himself lay on a little deathbed like one dying; the household mourners lamented, the father, prostrated by grief, pondered the death of his only son and his own most miserable bereavement, and the countenance of the whole house was more funerary than royal.

sed hanc tristitiae nubem Leptinis mathematici uel, ut quidam tradunt, Erasistrati medici prouidentia discussit: iuxta enim Antiochum sedens, ut eum ad introitum Stratonices rubore perfundi et spiritu increbrescere eaque egrediente palle<sce>re et ~ excitatiorem anhelitum subinde recuperare animaduertit, curiosiore obseruatione ad ipsam ueritatem penetrauit: intrante enim Stratonice et rursus abeunte brachium adulescentis dissimulanter adprehendendo modo uegetiore modo languidiore pulsu uenarum conperit cuius morbi aeger esset, protinusque id Seleuco exposuit. qui carissima sibi coniuge filio cedere non dubitauit, quod in amorem incidisset, fortunae acceptum referens, quod dissimulare eum ad mortem usque paratus esset, ipsius pudori inputans. subiciatur animis senex, rex, amans: iam patebit quam multa quamque difficilia paterni adfectus indulgentia supera<ue>rit.

but this cloud of sorrow was dispersed by the providence of a Leptinian mathematician or, as some relate, by Erasistratus the physician: for sitting beside Antiochus, when he observed that at the entrance of Stratonice he was reddening with shame and his breath quickening and that on her departing he would grow paler<sce> and ~ repeatedly regain a more excited respiration, he penetrated to the very truth by a more curious observation: for, Stratonice entering and then leaving, he secretly felt the young man’s arm, detecting by turns a stronger and then a weaker pulse of the veins whose sickness the patient had; and at once he disclosed this to Seleucus. Who did not hesitate to yield his most beloved wife to his son, attributing the event to fortune, and imputing to the youth’s modesty that he had been prepared to conceal it even unto death. Let the old man, the king, the lover be put before your minds: now it will be evident how many and how difficult things paternal indulgence overcame.

5.7.ext.2 Ac Seleucus quidem uxore, Ariobarzanes autem filio suo Cappadociae regno cessit in conspectu Cn. Pompei. cuius cum tribunal conscendisset inuitatusque ab eo in curuli sella sedisset, postquam filium in cornu scribae humiliorem fortuna sua locum obtinentem conspexisset, non sustinuit infra se conlocatum intueri, sed protinus sella descendit et diadema in caput eius transtulit hortarique coepit ut eo transiret, unde ipse surrexerat. exciderunt lacrimae iuueni, cohorruit corpus, delapsum diadema est, nec quo iussus erat progredi potuit, quodque paene ueritatis fidem excedit, laetus erat qui regnum deponebat, tristis cui dabatur.

5.7.ext.2 And Seleucus indeed yielded with his wife, while Ariobarzanes yielded the kingdom of Cappadocia with his son in the sight of Cn. Pompey. When he had ascended the tribunal of the latter and, having been invited by him, had sat in the curule chair, after he saw his son occupying a place in the corner by the scribe, humbler than his fortune, he could not endure to behold him set beneath himself; but at once he rose from the seat and transferred the diadem onto his son's head and began to exhort him to pass into that position from which he himself had risen. Tears fell from the youth, his body shuddered, the diadem slipped down, nor could he advance where he was ordered; and, what almost exceeds credence, the man who was laying down a kingdom was glad, the man to whom it was given sad.

nec ullum finem tam egregium certamen habuisset, nisi patriae uoluntati auctoritas Pompei adfuisset: filium enim et regem appellauit et diadema sumere iussit et in curuli sella considere coegit.

nor would so distinguished a contest have had any end, had not Pompey's authority been present to the will of the fatherland: for he called the son both king and ordered him to take the diadem and compelled him to sit in the curule chair.

5.8.1 Comicae lenitatis hi patres, tragicae asperitatis illi. L. Brutus, gloria par Romulo, quia ille urbem, hic libertatem Romanam condidit, filios suos dominationem Tarquini a se expulsam reducentes summum imperium obtinens conprehensos proque tribunali uirgis caesos et ad palum religatos securi percuti iussit. exuit patrem, ut consulem ageret, orbusque uiuere quam publicae uindictae deesse maluit.

5.8.1 Those fathers of comic gentleness, those of tragic harshness. L. Brutus, a glory equal to Romulus, since the one founded the city, the other founded Roman liberty: his sons, who, restoring the dominion of Tarquinius expelled by him and having obtained the supreme power, were seized, and before the tribunal he ordered them beaten with rods and bound to a stake and struck with the axe. He stripped off the father’s role that he might act as consul, and, bereft, preferred to live rather than fail the public vindication.

5.8.2 Huius aemulatus exemplum Cassius filium , qui tribunus pl. agrariam legem primus tulerat multisque aliis rebus populariter animos hominum amore sui deuinctos tenebat, postquam illam potestatem deposuit, adhibito propinquorum et amicorum consilio adfectati regni crimine domi damnauit uerberibusque adfectum necari iussit ac peculium eius Cereri consecrauit.

5.8.2 Emulating this example, Cassius condemned his son , who, as tribune of the plebs, had first carried the agrarian law and, with many other deeds , had held men's minds bound by love of him; after he laid down that power, with the counsel of kinsmen and friends having been consulted, he condemned him at home on the charge of aspiring to kingship and ordered the aspirant to be killed with blows, and consecrated his peculium to Ceres.

5.8.3 T. autem Manlius Torquatus, propter egregia multa rarae dignitatis, iuris quoque ciuilis et sacrorum pontificalium peritissimus, in consimili facto ne consilio quidem necessariorum indigere se credidit: nam cum ad senatum Macedonia de filio eius D. Silano, qui eam prouinciam optinuerat, querellas per legatos detulisset, a patribus conscriptis petiit ne quid ante de ea re statuerent quam ipse Macedonum filiique sui causam inspexisset. summo deinde cum amplissimi ordinis tum etiam eorum, qui questum uenerant, consensu cognitione suscepta domi consedit solusque utrique parti per totum biduum uacauit ac tertio plenissime die diligentissimeque auditis testibus ita pronuntiauit: 'cum Silanum filium meum pecunias a sociis accepisse probatum mihi sit, et re publica eum et domo mea indignum iudico protinusque e conspectu meo abire iubeo'. tam tristi patris sententia perculsus Silanus lucem ulterius intueri non sustinuit suspendioque se proxima nocte consumpsit. peregerat iam Torquatus seueri et religiosi iudicis partis, satis factum erat rei publicae, habebat ultionem Macedonia, potuit tam uerecundo fili obitu patris inflecti rigor: at ille neque exequiis adulescentis interfuit et, cum maxime funus eius duceretur, consulere se uolentibus uacuas aures accommodauit: uidebat enim se in eo atrio consedisse, in quo imperiosi illius Torquati seueritate conspicua imago posita erat, prudentissimoque uiro succurrebat effigies maiorum [suorum] cum titulis suis idcirco in prima parte aedium poni solere, ut eorum uirtutes posteri non solum legerent, sed etiam imitarentur.

5.8.3 Titus Manlius Torquatus, on account of many outstanding deeds of rare dignity, most expert also in civil law and pontifical rites, in a like affair believed that he did not even need the counsel of necessary men: for when he had brought complaints by legates to the senate at Macedonia concerning his son Decius Silanus, who had obtained that province, he asked the senators that they decide nothing about that matter before he himself had examined the cause of the Macedonians and of his son. Then, with the highest consent of the most distinguished order and also of those who had come to make complaint, having taken up the inquiry he sat at home and alone devoted two whole days to each party and on the third day, with witnesses having been heard most fully and diligently, he pronounced thus: "Since it is proven to me that my son Silanus received money from associates, and I judge him unworthy of the res publica and of my house, I order him to depart at once from before my sight." Struck by so sad a sentence of his father, Silanus could no longer endure to look upon the light and the next night consumed himself by hanging. Torquatus had now completed the part of a severe and religious judge; sufficient had been done for the res publica, Macedonia had its vengeance, the sternness could be softened by the modest death of a son: yet he neither attended the young man's funeral nor, when his funeral was being conducted most solemnly, lent his ears to those who wished to console — for he saw that he had taken his place in the atrium in which the conspicuous image of that imperious Torquatus, by his severity, had been set, and to the most prudent man there came to aid the likeness of his ancestors, with their inscriptions, which therefore was accustomed to be placed in the foremost part of the house, so that their virtues might not only be read by descendants, but also imitated.

5.8.4 M. uero Scaurus, lumen ac decus patriae, cum apud Athesim flumen impetu Cimbrorum Romani equites pulsi deserto Catulo urbem pauidi repeterent, consternationis eorum participi filio suo misit qui diceret libentius se in acie eius interfecti ossibus occursurum quam ipsum tam deformis fugae reum uisurum: itaque, si quid modo reliquum in pectore uerecundiae superesset, conspectum degenerati patris uitaturum: recordatione enim iuuentae suae qualis M. Scauro aut habendus aut spernendus filius esset admonebatur. quo nuntio accepto iuuenis coactus est fortius aduersus semet ipsum gladio uti quam aduersus hostes usus fuerat.

5.8.4 M. vero Scaurus, the light and glory of the fatherland, when at the Athesis river by the onrush of the Cimbri the Roman horsemen, routed, with Catulus having deserted, were returning to the city in alarm, sent his son to share in their consternation, to say that rather he would meet him in the battle‑line with his slain bones than behold him himself guilty of so shameful a flight; and so, if any remnant of modesty remained in his breast, he would avoid the sight of a degenerate father: for by recollection of his youth he was admonished what sort of son he ought to be to M. Scaurus, either to be esteemed or to be scorned. On receiving that message the youth was forced to use his sword more stoutly against himself than he had ever used it against the enemies.

5.8.5 Nec minus animose A. Fuluius uir senatorii ordinis euntem in aciem filium retraxit quam Scaurus ex proelio fugientem increpuit: namque iuuenem et ingenio et litteris et forma inter aequales nitentem, prauo consilio amicitiam Catilinae secutum inque castra eius temerario impetu ruentem medio itinere abstractum supplicio mortis adfecit, praefatus non se Catilinae illum aduersus patriam, sed patriae aduersus Catilinam genuisse. licuit, donec belli ciuilis rabies praeteriret, inclusum arcere: uerum illud cauti patris narretur opus, hoc seueri refertur.

5.8.5 Nor less boldly did A. Fuluius, a man of the senatorial order, drag back his son going into the line of battle than Scaurus rebuked him as he fled from the fight: for the youth, shining among his equals in both mind and learning and appearance, having followed the perverse counsel of friendship with Catiline and rushing into his camp with a rash assault, was pulled aside in the middle of the march and dealt the punishment of death; the father declared that he had not begotten him for Catiline against the fatherland, but for the fatherland against Catiline. It was permissible to detain him while the madness of civil war should pass; yet that deed is told to the credit of the cautious father, this to the account of the severe one.

5.9.init. Sed ut hanc incitatam et asperam seueritatem mitiores relati patrum mores clementiae suae mixtura temperent, exactae poenae concessa uenia iungatur.

5.9.init. But so that this incited and harsh severity may be tempered by a mingling of their clemency with the milder manners to which the fathers have been brought, let pardon be joined to the exacted punishment when mercy is granted.

5.9.1 L. Gellius omnibus honoribus ad censuram defunctus, cum grauissima crimina de filio, in nouercam conmissum stuprum et parricidium cogitatum, propemodum explorata haberet, non tamen ad uindictam continuo procucurrit, sed paene uniuerso senatu adhibito in consilium expositis suspicionibus defendendi se adulescenti potestatem fecit spectaque diligentissime causa absoluit eum cum consilii tum etiam sua sententia. quod si impetu irae abstractus saeuire festinasset, admisisset magis scelus quam uindicasset.

5.9.1 L. Gellius, having filled every office up to the censorship, when he had almost fully discovered very grave crimes concerning his son — adultery committed with his stepmother and a plotted parricide — nevertheless did not at once rush to vindictive action, but, with almost the whole senate called into counsel and the suspicions laid out, gave the young man the opportunity to defend himself; and having examined the case most diligently he acquitted him both by the council’s vote and by his own sentence. For if, snatched away by the onrush of anger, he had hastened to rage, he would have committed a crime rather than vindicated one.

5.9.2 Q. autem Hortensii, qui suis temporibus ornamentum Romanae eloquentiae fuit, admirabilis in filio patientia extitit: cum enim eo usque inpietatem eius suspectam et nequitiam inuisam haberet, ut Messalam sororis suae filium heredem habiturus, ambitus reum defendens iudicibus diceret, si illum damnassent, nihil sibi praeter osculum nepotum, in quibus adquiesceret, superfuturum, hac scilicet sententia, quam etiam editae orationi inseruit, filium potius in tormentis animi quam in uoluptatibus reponens, tamen, ne naturae ordinem confunderet, non nepotes, sed filium heredem reliquit moderate usus adfectibus suis, quia et uiuus moribus eius uerum testimonium et mortuus sanguini honorem debitum reddidit.

5.9.2 But Q. Hortensius, who in his time was the ornament of Roman eloquence, showed admirable patience toward his son: for he so regarded his son’s impiety suspected and his wickedness hateful that, intending to make Messala, his sister’s son, his heir, while defending the defendant on a charge of ambitus before the judges he would say that if they condemned that man, nothing would remain to him except the kiss of his grandchildren, in whom he would take pleasure; with this very sentiment, which he also inserted into a published oration, preferring to place his son rather in the torments of the mind than in pleasures. Yet, lest he confuse the order of nature, he did not leave his grandchildren but his son as heir, having used his affections with moderation, for both while alive he gave true testimony by his morals concerning him, and dead he returned to his blood the honour due.

5.9.3 Idem fecit clari generis magnaeque dignitatis uir Fuluius, sed in filio aliquantum taetriore: nam cum auxilium senatus inplorasset, ut suspectus in parricidio et ob id latens per triumuirum conquireretur ac iussu patrum conscriptorum conprehensus esset, non solum eum non notauit, sed etiam decedens dominum omnium esse uoluit, quem genuerat heredem instituens, non quem fuerat expertus.

5.9.3 The same was done by a man of illustrious family and great dignity, Q. Fuluius, but in regard to his son somewhat more foul: for when he had implored the senate’s aid, since the son was suspected of parricide and was therefore being secretly sought by the tresviri and had been seized by order of the conscript fathers, he not only did not mark him (for punishment), but even, as he was dying, wished him to be lord of all his goods, appointing as heir the one whom he had begotten, not the one whom he had proved.

5.9.4 Magnorum uirorum clementibus actis ignoti patris nouae atque inusitatae rationis consilium adiciam. qui, cum a filio insidias necti sibi comperisset nec inducere in animum posset ut uerum sanguinem ad hoc sceleris progressum crederet, seductam uxorem suppliciter rogauit ne se ulterius celaret, siue illum adulescentem subiecisset siue ex alio concepisset. adseueratione deinde eius et iure iurando [se] nil tale suspicari persuasus in locum desertum filio perducto gladium, quem occultum secum adtulerat, tradidit ac iugulum feriendum praebuit, nec ueneno nec latrone ei ad peragendum parricidium opus esse adfirmans.

5.9.4 I will add the counsel of an unknown father, of a new and unusual kind, to the merciful acts of great men. He, when he discovered that his son had woven plots against him and could not bring himself to believe that true blood would advance to such a crime, humbly begged his seduced wife that she no longer conceal him, whether she had subjected him while young or had conceived him by another. Then, persuaded by her oath and by a sworn affirmation that she suspected nothing of the sort, he, his son being led into a deserted place, handed him the sword which he had secretly brought with him and offered his throat to be struck, asserting that neither poison nor assassin was needed for the committing of the parricide.

quo facto non paulatim, sed magno impetu recta cogitatio pectus iuuenis occupauit continuoque abiecto gladio 'tu uero' inquit, 'pater, uiue, et si tam obsequens et hoc precari filio permittas, me quoque exupera. sed tantum quaeso, ne meus erga te amor eo sit tibi uilior, quod a paenitentia oritur'. solitudinem sanguine meliorem pacatioresque penatibus siluas et alimentis blandius ferrum ac mortis oblatae quam datae uitae felicius beneficium!

When this was done, not little by little but with a great impulse a straight thought seized the young man's breast, and straightaway, his sword thrown down, he said, "But you, father, live; and if you, being so compliant, permit even this pleading of a son, surpass me likewise. Only I beg that my love toward you be not the cheaper to you because it springs from penitence." Solitude made better by blood, woods and provisions more pacific for the penates, the sword and death offered more gently than life given — a more felicitous benefit!

5.10.init. Commemoratis patribus, qui iniurias filiorum patienter exceperunt, referamus eos, qui mortes aequo animo tolerarunt.

5.10.init. Having commemorated the fathers who patiently endured the injuries of their sons, let us recount those who bore deaths with an even mind.

5.10.1 Horatius Puluillus, cum Capitolio Ioui optimo maximo aedem pontifex dedicaret inque nuncupationem sollemnium uerborum postem tenens mortuum esse filium suum audisset, neque manum a poste remouit, ne tanti templi dedicationem interrumperet, neque uultum a publica religione ad priuatum dolorem deflexit, ne patris magis quam pontificis partes egisse uideretur.

5.10.1 Horatius Pulvillus, when, the Capitol, as pontifex he was dedicating a temple to Jupiter Best and Greatest and, in the pronouncing of the solemn words holding the post, had heard that his son was dead, neither removed his hand from the post, so that he might not interrupt the dedication of so great a temple, nor turned his face from public religion to private grief, lest he should seem to have acted more as a father than as a pontifex.

5.10.2 clarum exemplum, nec minus tamen inlustre quod sequitur. Aemilius Paulus, nunc felicissimi, nunc miserrimi patris clarissima repraesentatio, ex quattuor filiis formae insignis, egregiae indolis duos iure adoptionis in Corneliam Fabiamque gentem translatos sibi ipse denegauit: duos ei fortuna abstulit. quorum alter triumphum patris funere suo quartum ante diem praecessit, alter in triumphali curru conspectus post diem tertium expirauit.

5.10.2 a striking example, no less illustrious than the foregoing. Aemilius Paulus, the clearest representation of a father now most fortunate, now most miserable, of four sons distinguished by beauty and of outstanding character, refused two himself who had been transferred by right of adoption into the Cornelian and Fabian gens; fortune took two from him. Of these, one preceded his father's triumph by dying four days earlier, the other, seen in the triumphal chariot, expired on the third day afterward.

itaque qui ad donandos usque liberos abundauerat, in orbitate subito destitutus est. quem casum quo robore animi sustinuerit oratione, quam de rebus a se gestis apud populum habuit, hanc adiciendo clausulam nulli ambiguum reliquit: 'cum in maximo prouentu felicitatis nostrae, Quirites, timerem ne quid mali fortuna moliretur, Iouem optimum maximum Iunonemque reginam et Mineruam precatus sum ut, si quid aduersi populo Romano inmineret, totum in meam domum conuerteretur. quapropter bene habet: annuendo enim uotis meis id egerunt, ut uos potius meo casu doleatis quam ego uestro ingemescerem'.

and so he who had been profuse in bestowing even to children was suddenly left in bereavement. What strength of mind he sustained that calamity with he made plain in the speech he gave to the people about the things he had done, adding this closing clause so that none might doubt: 'when, in the greatest prosperity of our success, Quirites, I feared lest Fortune contrive any ill, I prayed Jupiter Optimus Maximus, Juno the queen, and Minerva that, if any adversity threatened the Roman people, it might all be turned upon my household. Wherefore it fares well: by granting my vows they have done this, so that you should rather grieve at my fall than I lament yours.'

5.10.3 Vno etiam nunc domestico exemplo adiecto in alienis luctibus orationi meae uagari permittam. Q. Marcius Rex, superioris Catonis in consulatu collega, filium summae pietatis et magnae spei et, quae non parua calamitatis accessio fuit, unicum amisit, cumque se obitu eius subrutum et euersum uideret, ita dolorem altitudine consilii coercuit, ut a rogo iuuenis protinus curiam peteret senatumque, quem eo die lege habere oportebat, conuocaret. quod nisi fortiter maerorem ferre scisset, unius diei lucem inter calamitosum patrem et strenuum consulem neutra in parte cessato officio partiri non potuisset.

5.10.3 With one domestic example now added, I will permit my speech to wander into the griefs of others. Q. Marcius Rex, colleague in the consulship of the elder Cato, lost a son of the utmost pietas and great promise and, which was no small accession of calamity, his only child; and when he saw himself shaken down and overthrown by that death, he so checked his sorrow by the loftiness of his counsel that from the pyre the young man at once sought the curia and summoned the senate, which by law ought to be held on that day. For if he had not known how to bear sorrow bravely, the single day’s light could not have been shared between the afflicted father and the resolute consul, neither part yielding in its duty.

5.10.ext.1 Princeps Atheniensium Pericles intra quadriduum duobus mirificis adulescentibus filiis spoliatus his ipsis diebus et uultu pristinum habitum retinente et oratione nulla ex parte infractiore contionatus est. ille uero caput quoque solito more coronatum gerere sustinuit, ut nihil ex uetere ritu propter domesticum uulnus detraheret. non sine causa igitur tanti roboris animus ad Olympii Iouis cognomen ascendit.

5.10.ext.1 The leader of the Athenians, Pericles, within four days bereaved of two wondrous young sons, retained his former countenance during those same days and addressed the assembly with his speech unbroken in any part. Moreover he even endured to bear his head crowned in the customary fashion, so that on account of the domestic wound he might detract nothing from the old ritual. Not without cause, therefore, did a spirit of such strength mount to the cognomen “Olympian Jove.”

5.10.ext.2 Xenophon autem, quod ad Socraticam disciplinam adtinet, proximus a Platone felicis ac beatae facundiae gradus, cum sollemne sacrificium perageret, e duobus filiis maiorem natu nomine Gryllum apud Mantineam in proelio cecidisse cognouit: nec ideo institutum deorum cultum omittendum putauit, sed tantum modo coronam deponere contentus fuit. quam ipsam percontatus quonam modo occidisset, ut audiit fortissime pugnantem interisse, capiti reposuit, numina, quibus sacrificabat, testatus maiorem se ex uirtute fiii uoluptatem quam ex morte amaritudinem sentire. alius remouisset hostiam, abiecisset altaria, lacrimis respersa tura disiecisset: Xenophontis corpus ~religioni inmobile stetit et animus in consilio prudentiae stabilis mansit ac dolori succumbere ipsa clade, quae nuntiata erat, tristius duxit.

5.10.ext.2 Xenophon, however, insofar as Socratic discipline is concerned, next after Plato in the rank of happy and blessed eloquence, when he was performing the customary sacrifice, learned that the elder of his two sons, by name Gryllus, had fallen at Mantinea in battle: nor did he therefore think that the instituted worship of the gods should be omitted, but was content merely to lay aside his crown. Having asked in what manner that same man had died, and when he heard that he had perished fighting very bravely, he replaced the crown on his head, invoking the deities to whom he was sacrificing, and declared that he felt greater pleasure from his son's virtue than bitterness from his death. Another would have removed the victim, thrown down the altars, and scattered the incense bedewed with tears: Xenophon's body stood unmoved toward religion, and his mind remained steady in counsel and prudence, and he judged that to yield to grief itself was sadder than the very calamity that had been reported.

5.10.ext.3 Ne Anaxagoras quidem supprimendus est: audita namque morte filii 'nihil mihi' inquit 'inexspectatum aut nouum nuntias: ego enim illum ex me natum sciebam esse mortalem'. has uoces utilissimis praeceptis inbutas uirtus mittit. quas si quis efficaciter auribus receperit, non ignorabit ita liberos esse procreandos, ut meminerit his a rerum natura et accipiendi spiritus et reddendi eodem momento temporis legem dici, atque ut mori neminem solere, qui non uixerit, ita ne uiuere [aliquem] quidem posse qui non sit moriturus.

5.10.ext.3 Not even Anaxagoras is to be set aside: for upon hearing of his son's death he said, “you bring me nothing unexpected or new; for I knew that he, born from me, was mortal.” Virtue sends forth these words, imbued with most useful precepts. If anyone has received them effectively by ear, he will not be ignorant that children are to be begotten with the remembrance of the law of nature that at the same instant they receive spirit and give it back, and that just as no one is wont to die who has not lived, so neither can anyone live who is not destined to die.