Valerius Maximus: FACTORVM ET DICTORVM MEMORABILIVM LIBRI NOVEM

8.1.init. Nunc, quo aequiore animo ancipites iudiciorum motus tolerentur, recordemur inuidia laborantes quibus de causis aut absoluti sint aut damnati.

8.1.init. Now, so that the uncertain motions of judgments may be endured with a more equable mind, let us recall those laboring under envy, for what causes they have been either absolved or condemned.

8.1.abs.1 M. Horatius interfectae sororis crimine a Tullo rege damnatus ad populum prouocato iudicio absolutus est. quorum alterum atrocitas necis mouit, alterum causa flexit, quia inmaturum uirginis amorem seuere magis quam impie punitum existimabat. itaque forti punitione liberata fratris dextera tantum consanguineo quantum hostili cruore gloriae haurire potuit.

8.1.abs.1 M. Horatius, condemned by King Tullus on the charge of his slain sister, was acquitted by a judgment appealed to the people. Of these, the atrocity of the killing moved the one, the cause bent the other, because it judged that the maiden’s unripe love had been punished more sternly than impiously. And so, the brother’s right hand, freed by a stout punishment, could draw for glory as much from consanguine blood as from hostile blood.

8.1.abs.2 Acrem se tunc pudicitiae custodem populus Romanus, postea plus iusto placidum iudicem praestitit. cum a Libone tribuno pl. Ser. Galba pro rostris uehementer increparetur, quod Lusitanorum magnam manum interposita fide praetor in Hispania interemisset, actionique tribuniciae M. Cato ultimae senectutis oratione sua, quam in Origines retulit, suscriberet, reus pro se iam nihil recusans paruulos liberos suos et Galli sanguine sibi coniunctum filium flens conmendare coepit eoque facto mitigata contione qui omnium consensu periturus erat paene nullum triste suffragium habuit.

8.1.abs.2 Then the Roman people showed themselves a keen guardian of chastity, afterward a judge more placid than was just. When Servius Galba was being vehemently rebuked by Libo, tribune of the plebs, before the rostra, because, under a pledge of good faith interposed, he, as praetor in Spain, had slain a great band of Lusitanians, and when Marcus Cato, in a speech of his utmost old age—which he set down in the Origines—was subscribing to the tribunician action, the defendant, now refusing to plead anything for himself, began, weeping, to commend his very young children and a son related to him by Gallic blood; and with that done, the assembly being softened, he who by the agreement of all was about to perish had almost no grim vote.

misericordia ergo illam quaestionem, non aequitas rexit, quoniam quae innocentiae tribui nequierat absolutio, respectui puerorum data est.

Therefore mercy, not equity, ruled that inquiry, since the acquittal which could not be attributed to innocence was granted to regard for the children.

8.1.abs.3 Consentaneum quod sequitur. A. Gabinius in maximo infamiae suae ardore suffragiis populi Memmio accusatore subiectus abruptae esse spei uidebatur, quoniam et accusatio partes suas plene exhibebat et defensionis praesidia inualida fide nitebantur et qui iudicabant ira perciti poenam hominis cupide expetebant. igitur uiator et carcer ante oculos obuersabantur, cum interim omnia ista propitiae fortunae interuentu dispulsa sunt: filius namque Gabinii Sisenna consternationis inpulsu ad pedes se Memmii supplex prostrauit, inde aliquod fomentum procellae petens, unde totus impetus tempestatis eruperat.

8.1.abs.3 Consistent is what follows. A. Gabinius, in the greatest blaze of his infamy, being subjected to the votes of the people, with Memmius as accuser, seemed to have his hope cut off, since both the prosecution fully displayed its parts, and the bulwarks of the defense rested on feeble credibility, and those who were judging, stirred by wrath, eagerly sought the man’s punishment. Therefore the bailiff and the prison loomed before his eyes, when meanwhile all those things were dispelled by the intervention of propitious Fortune: for Gabinius’s son, Sisenna, under the impulse of consternation, as a suppliant prostrated himself at Memmius’s feet, seeking from there some foment for the storm, from the very source whence the whole onrush of the tempest had burst forth.

quem truci uultu a se uictor insolens repulsum excusso e manu anulo humi iacere aliquamdiu passus est. quod spectaculum fecit ut Laelius tribunus pl. adprobantibus cunctis Gabinium dimitti iuberet ac documentum daretur neque secundarum rerum prouentu insolenter abuti neque aduersis <prae>propere debilitari oportere: idque proximo exemplo aeque patet.

whom, with a truculent countenance, the insolent victor repelled from himself, and, his ring shaken off from his hand, allowed to lie on the ground for some time. That spectacle brought it about that Laelius, tribune of the plebs, with all approving, ordered Gabinius to be dismissed, and that an object-lesson be given that one ought neither to abuse insolently the success of prosperous affairs nor to be too hastily debilitated by adverse ones: and this is shown equally by the next example.

8.1.abs.4 App. Claudius, nescio religionis maior an patriae iniuria, si quidem illius uetustissimum morem neglexit, huius pulcherrimam classem amisit, infesto populo obiectus, cum effugere debitam poenam nullo modo posse crederetur, subito coorti imbris beneficio tutus fuit a damnatione: discussa enim quaestione aliam uelut dis interpellantibus de integro instaurari non placuit. ita cui maritima tempestas causae dictionem contraxerat, caelestis salutem attulit.

8.1.abs.4 App. Claudius, I know not whether the injury to religion or to the fatherland was greater, since indeed he neglected the former’s most ancient custom, and lost the latter’s most beautiful fleet, being exposed to a hostile people; when it was believed that he could in no way escape the due penalty, by the benefit of a suddenly arisen shower he was safe from condemnation: for, the inquiry having been broken off, it did not please that another be established afresh, as though the gods were interposing. Thus for him whose pleading of his case a maritime tempest had curtailed, a heavenly one brought safety.

8.1.abs.5 Eodem auxilii genere Tucciae uirginis Vestalis incesti criminis reae castitas infamiae nube obscurata emersit. quae conscientia certa sinceritatis suae spem salutis ancipiti argumento ausa petere est: arrepto enim cribro "Vesta" inquit, "si sacris tuis castas semper admoui manus, effice ut hoc hauriam e Tiberi aquam et in aedem tuam perferam." audaciter et temere iactis uotis sacerdotis rerum ipsa natura cessit.

8.1.abs.5 By the same kind of aid, the chastity of the Vestal virgin Tuccia, arraigned on the charge of incest, having been overshadowed by a cloud of infamy, emerged. She, with the sure conscience of her sincerity, dared to seek a hope of acquittal by a two-edged proof: for, having seized a sieve, "Vesta," she says, "if to your sacred rites I have always applied chaste hands, bring it about that with this I may draw water from the Tiber and carry it into your temple." To the vows of the priestess, cast boldly and rashly, the very nature of things yielded.

8.1.abs.6 Item L. Piso a L. Claudio Pulchro accusatus, quod graues et intolerabiles iniurias sociis intulisset, haud dubiae ruinae metum fortuito auxilio uitauit: namque per id ipsum tempus, quo tristes de eo sententiae ferebantur, repentina uis nimbi incidit, cumque prostratus humi pedes iudicum oscularetur, os suum caeno repleuit. quod conspectum totam quaestionem a seueritate ad clementiam et mansuetudinem transtulit, quia satis iam graues eum poenas sociis dedisse arbitrati sunt huc deductum necessitatis, ut abicere se tam suppliciter et attollere tam deformiter cogeretur.

8.1.abs.6 Likewise L. Piso, accused by L. Claudius Pulcher, because he had inflicted grave and intolerable injuries upon the allies, avoided the peril of a not-to-be-doubted ruin by fortuitous aid: for at that very time when grim verdicts were being delivered about him, a sudden force of a rain-storm fell; and when, prostrate on the ground, he was kissing the judges’ feet, he filled his mouth with mud. That sight shifted the whole court of inquiry from severity to clemency and mansuetude, because they judged that he had already paid penalties heavy enough to the allies, being brought by necessity to this point, that he was compelled to cast himself down so suppliantly and to raise himself up again so unseemly.

8.1.abs.7 Subnectam duos accusatorum suorum culpa absolutos. Q. Flauius a C. Valerio aedile apud populum reus actus, cum xiiii tribuum suffragiis damnatus esset, proclamauit se innocentem opprimi. cui Valerius aeque clara uoce respondit nihil sua interesse nocensne an innoxius periret, dummodo periret.

8.1.abs.7 I will subjoin two who were acquitted by the fault of their accusers. Q. Flavius, prosecuted before the people by C. Valerius, the aedile, when he had been condemned by the votes of 14 tribes, cried out that an innocent man was being oppressed. To this Valerius replied in an equally loud voice that it was nothing to his concern whether he perished guilty or innocent, provided that he perished.

qua uiolentia dicti reliquas tribus aduersario donauit. abiecerat inimicum, eundem, dum pro certo pessum datum credit, erexit uictoriamque in ipsa uictoria perdidit.

by that vehemence of the dictum he donated the remaining tribes to his adversary. he had cast down his enemy; the same man, while he believes him for certain to have been sunk, he raised up, and he lost the victory in the very victory.

8.1.abs.8 C. etiam Cosconium Seruilia lege reum, propter plurima et euidentissima facinora sine ulla dubitatione nocentem, Valeri Valentini accusatoris eius recitatum in iudicio carmen, quo puerum praetextatum et ingenuam uirginem a se corruptam poetico ioco significauerat, erexit, si quidem iudices inicum rati sunt eum uictorem dimittere, qui palmam non ex alio ferre, sed de se dare merebatur. magis uero Valerius in Cosconii absolutione damnatus quam Cosconius in sua causa liberatus est.

8.1.abs.8 Gaius Cosconius too, arraigned under the Servilian law, guilty without any doubt on account of many and most evident crimes, was lifted up by the poem of Valerius Valentinus, his accuser, recited in court, in which by a poetic jest he had indicated that he had corrupted a boy in the praetexta and a freeborn virgin; since indeed the judges thought it inequitable to let him go as victor, who deserved not to carry off the palm from another, but to bestow it from himself. Rather, in truth, Valerius was condemned in Cosconius’s acquittal more than Cosconius was freed in his own case.

8.1.abs.9 Attingam eos quoque, quorum salus propriis obruta criminibus proximorum claritati donata est. A. Atilium Calatinum Soranorum oppidi proditione reum admodum infamem imminentis damnationis periculo pauca uerba Q. Maximi soceri subtraxerunt, quibus adfirmauit, si in eo crimine sontem illum ipse conperisset, dirempturum se fuisse adfinitatem: continuo enim populus paene iam exploratam sententiam suam unius iudicio concessit, indignum ratus eius testimonio non credere, cui difficillimis rei publicae temporibus bene se exercitus credidisse meminerat.

8.1.abs.9 I will touch those as well, whose safety, overwhelmed by their own crimes, was donated to the renown of their next of kin. A. Atilius Calatinus, very notorious as a defendant for the betrayal of the town of the Soranans, was withdrawn from the peril of imminent condemnation by a few words of Q. Maximus his father-in-law, in which he affirmed that, if he himself had found that man guilty in that charge, he would have severed the affinity: for forthwith the people yielded their well-nigh already ascertained verdict to the judgment of one man, deeming it unworthy not to believe the testimony of him to whom the armies remembered that they had well entrusted themselves in the most difficult times of the commonwealth.

8.1.abs.10 M. quoque Aemilius Scaurus repetundarum reus adeo perditam et conploratam defensionem in iudicium attulit, ut, cum accusator diceret lege sibi centum atque xx hominibus denuntiare testimonium licere seque non recusare quominus absolueretur, si totidem nominasset, quibus in prouincia nihil abstulisset, tam bona condicione uti non potuerit. tamen propter uetustissimam nobilitatem et recentem memoriam patris absolutus est.

8.1.abs.10 M. Aemilius Scaurus too, arraigned on a charge of extortions, brought into court a defense so ruined and lamented that, when the accuser said that by law it was permitted to him to summon testimony from 120 men, and that he did not refuse that Scaurus be acquitted if he named an equal number from whom he had taken nothing in the province, he could not make use of so good a condition. Nevertheless, on account of his most ancient nobility and the fresh memory of his father, he was acquitted.

8.1.abs.11 Sed quem ad modum splendor amplissimorum uirorum in protegendis reis plurimum ualuit, ita opprimendis non sane multum potuit: quin etiam euidenter noxiis, dum eos acrius inpugnat, profuit. P. Scipio Aemilianus Cottam apud populum accusauit. cuius causa, quamquam grauissimis criminibus erat confossa, septies ampliata et ad ultimum octauo iudicio absoluta est, quia homines uerebantur ne praecipuae accusatoris amplitudini damnatio eius donata existimaretur.

8.1.abs.11 But just as the splendor of the most distinguished men had very great force in protecting defendants, so in crushing them it truly could not do much; indeed it even benefited men manifestly guilty, while it attacked them the more sharply. P. Scipio Aemilianus accused Cotta before the people. His case, although it had been riddled with very grave charges, was seven times ampliated, and at last was acquitted at the eighth trial, because men feared lest his condemnation be thought to have been bestowed as a favor upon the accuser’s preeminent standing.

quos haec secum locutos crediderim: 'nolumus caput alterius petentem in iudicium triumphos et tropaea spoliaque et deuictarum nauium rostra deferre: terribilis sit his aduersus hostem, ciuis uero salutem tanto fragore gloriae subnixus ne insequatur'.

I would believe that they said this to themselves: 'We do not wish one who is seeking another’s head in judgment to bring in triumphs and trophies and spoils and the rostra of conquered ships: with these let him be terrible against the enemy; but as a citizen, supported by so great a crash of glory, let him not pursue a fellow citizen’s safety'.

8.1.abs.12 Tam uehementes iudices aduersus excellentissimum accusatorem quam mites in longe inferioris fortunae reo. Calidius Bononiensis in cubiculo mariti noctu deprehensus, cum ob id causam adulterii diceret, inter maximos et grauissimos infamiae fluctus emersit, tamquam fragmentum naufragii leue admodum genus defensionis amplexus: adfirmauit enim se ob amorem pueri serui eo esse perductum. suspectus erat locus, suspectum tempus, suspecta matris familiae persona, suspecta etiam adulescentia ipsius, sed crimen libidinis confessio intemperantiae liberauit.

8.1.abs.12 So vehement were the judges against a most excellent accuser as they were mild toward a defendant of far inferior fortune. Calidius of Bononia, having been caught at night in the husband’s bedchamber, when on that account he was pleading a charge of adultery, emerged amid the greatest and most weighty waves of infamy, having embraced—as if a fragment of a shipwreck—a very light sort of defense: for he affirmed that he had been led there by love of a slave-boy. The place was suspect, the time suspect, the person of the matron suspect, his own adolescence also suspect, but a confession of intemperance freed him from the crime of lust.

8.1.abs.13 Remissioris hoc, illud aliquanto grauioris materiae exemplum. cum parricidii causam fratres Caelii dicerent splendido Tarracinae loco nati, quorum pater T. Caelius in cubiculo quiescens, filiis altero cubantibus lecto erat interemptus, neque aut seruus quisquam aut liber inueniretur, ad quem suspicio caedis pertineret, hoc uno nomine absoluti sunt, quia iudicibus planum factum est illos aperto ostio inuentos esse dormientes. somnus innoxiae securitatis certissimus index miseris opem tulit: iudicatum est enim rerum naturam non recipere ut occiso patre supra uulnera et cruorem eius quietem capere potuerint.

8.1.abs.13 This, an example of a more remiss matter; that, of a somewhat graver. When the Caelian brothers, born in the splendid place of Tarracina, were on trial for parricide—whose father, T. Caelius, while resting in the bedchamber, had been slain as the sons were lying in another bed—and neither any slave nor free man could be found upon whom suspicion of the slaughter might fall, they were acquitted on this one ground: because it was made plain to the judges that they were found asleep, the door being open. Sleep, the surest index of harmless security, brought aid to the wretched: for it was adjudged that the nature of things does not admit that, with their father slain, they could have taken repose above his wounds and gore.

8.1.damn.1 Percurremus nunc eos, quibus in causae dictione magis quae extra quaestionem erant nocuerunt quam sua innocentia opem tulit. L. Scipio post speciosissimum triumphum de rege Antiocho ductum, perinde ac pecuniam ab eo accepisset, damnatus est. non, puto, quod pretio corruptus fuerat, ut illum totius Asiae dominum et iam Europae uictrices manus inicientem ultra Taurum montem summoueret.

8.1.damn.1 We will now run through those for whom, in the pleading of the case, the things that were outside the question harmed them more than their own innocence brought help. L. Scipio, after a most specious/splendid triumph led over King Antiochus, was condemned as though he had received money from him. Not, I think, because he had been corrupted by a price, to the end that he might drive back beyond Mount Taurus that man, lord of all Asia and already laying victorious hands upon Europe.

sed <et> alioqui uir sincerissimae uitae et ab hac suspicione procul remotus, inuidiae, quae tunc in duorum fratrum inclytis cognominibus habitabat, resistere non potuit.

but <and> otherwise a man of the most sincere life and far removed from this suspicion, he could not resist the envy which at that time dwelt in the illustrious cognomens of the two brothers.

8.1.damn.2 Ac Scipioni quidem maximus fortunae fulgor, C. autem Deciano spectatae integritatis uiro uox sua exitium attulit: nam cum P. Furium inquinatissimae uitae pro rostris accusaret, quia quadam in parte actionis de morte L. Saturnini queri ausus fue rat, nec reum damnauit et insuper ei poenas addictas pependit.

8.1.damn.2 And to Scipio indeed the greatest splendor of fortune, but to C. Decianus, a man of proven integrity, his own voice brought destruction: for when he was accusing P. Furius, a man of most defiled life, before the rostra, because in a certain part of the action he had dared to complain about the death of L. Saturninus, neither was the defendant condemned, and, in addition, he paid the penalties that had been adjudged.

8.1.damn.3 Sex. quoque Titium similis casus prostrauit. erat innocens, erat agraria lege lata gratiosus apud populum: tamen, quod Saturnini imaginem domi habuerat, suffragiis eum tota contio oppressit.

8.1.damn.3 Sextus Titius, too, a similar case laid low. He was innocent; by an agrarian law having been passed he was in favor with the people: nevertheless, because he had had an image of Saturninus at home, the whole assembly crushed him by their votes.

8.1.damn.4 Adiciatur his Claudia, quam insontem crimine, quo accusabatur, uotum impium subuertit, quia, cum a ludis domum rediens turba elideretur, optauerat ut frater suus, maritimarum uirium nostrarum praecipua iactura, reuiuesceret saepiusque consul factus infelici ductu nimis magnam urbis frequentiam minueret.

8.1.damn.4 Let Claudia be added to these, whom, though innocent of the charge with which she was accused, an impious vow overthrew, because, when, as she was returning home from the games, the crowd was being crushed, she had wished that her brother, the chief loss of our maritime forces, might come back to life and, having been made consul more often, by his unlucky leadership might too greatly lessen the city’s great throng.

8.1.damn.5 Possumus et ad illos breui deuerticulo transgredi, quos leues ob causas damnationis incursus abripuit. M. Muluius, Cn. Lollius, L. Sextilius triumuiri, quod ad incendium in sacra uia ortum extinguendum tardius uenerant, a tribunis pl. die dicta apud populum damnati sunt.

8.1.damn.5 We can also, by a short bypath, turn aside to those whom the onset of condemnation carried off for slight causes. M. Mulvius, Cn. Lollius, L. Sextilius, triumvirs, because they had come too late to extinguish a fire that had arisen on the Sacred Way, with a day appointed by the tribunes of the plebs, were condemned before the people.

8.1.damn.6 Item P. Villius triumuir nocturnus a P. Aquilio tribuno pl. accusatus populi iudicio concidit, quia uigilias neglegentius circumierat.

8.1.damn.6 Likewise P. Villius, a nocturnal triumvir, accused by P. Aquilius, tribune of the plebs, fell by the judgment of the people, because he had gone around the watches too negligently.

8.1.damn.7 Admodum seuerae notae et illud populi iudicium, cum M. Aemilium Porcinam a L. Cassio accusatum crimine nimis sublime extructae uillae in Alsiensi agro graui multa affecit.

8.1.damn.7 Of a very severe note too was that judgment of the people, when it afflicted M. Aemilius Porcina, accused by L. Cassius on the charge of a villa built too loftily in the Alsian territory, with a heavy mulct (fine).

8.1.damn.8 Non subprimenda illius quoque damnatio, qui pueruli sui nimio amore correptus, rogatus ab eo ruri ut omasum in cenam fieri iuberet, cum bubulae carnis in propinquo emendae nulla facultas esset, domito boue occiso desiderium eius expleuit eoque nomine publica quaestione adflictus est, innocens, nisi tam prisco saeculo natus esset.

8.1.damn.8 Not to be suppressed is also the condemnation of that man, who, seized by an excessive love for his little boy, when asked by him in the country to order that the omasum be made for dinner, since there was no means near at hand of buying bovine meat, slew a domesticated ox and satisfied his desire, and on that account was afflicted by a public inquiry—innocent, had he not been born in so ancient an age.

8.1.amb.1 Atque ut eos quoque referamus, qui in discrimen capitis adducti neque damnati neque absoluti sunt, apud M. Popilium Laenatem praetorem quaedam, quod matrem fuste percussam interemerat, causam dixit. de qua neutram in partem latae sententiae sunt, quia abunde constabat eandem ueneno necatorum liberorum dolore commotam, quos auia filiae infensa sustulerat, parricidium ultam esse parricidio. quorum alterum ultione, alterum absolutione non dignum iudicatum est.

8.1.amb.1 And so that we may also recount those who were brought into capital peril and were neither condemned nor acquitted, before M. Popilius Laenas the praetor a certain woman pleaded her case on the charge that she had done her mother to death, having struck her with a cudgel. Concerning her, votes were carried to neither side, because it was abundantly established that the same woman, moved by grief for her children killed by poison—whom their grandmother, hostile to her daughter, had taken away—had avenged parricide with parricide. Of which two, the one was judged not worthy of vengeance, the other not worthy of absolution.

8.1.amb.2 Eadem haesitatione Publi quoque Dolabellae proconsulari imperio Asiam obtinentis animus fluctuatus est. mater familiae Zmyrnaea uirum et filium interemit, cum ab his optimae indolis iuuenem, quem ex priore uiro enixa fuerat, occisum conperisset. quam rem Dollabella ad se delatam Athenas ad Arei pagi cognitionem relegauit, quia ipse neque liberare duabus caedibus contaminatam neque punire tam iusto dolore inpulsam sustinebat.

8.1.amb.2 With the same hesitation the mind of Publius Dolabella also, who, holding Asia with proconsular imperium, wavered. A Smyrnaean matron slew her husband and her son, when she had discovered that by them a youth of the best nature, whom she had borne from a former husband, had been killed. Dolabella, the matter having been brought before him, referred it to Athens for the cognizance of the Areopagus, because he himself could not endure either to acquit one stained by two killings or to punish one impelled by so just a grief.

consideranter et mansuete populi Romani magistratus, sed Areopagitae quoque non minus sapienter, qui inspecta causa et accusatorem et ream post centum annos ad se reuerti iusserunt, eodem affectu moti, quo Dolabella. sed ille transferendo quaestionem, hi differendo damnandi atque absoluendi inexplicabilem cunctationem uitabant.

Considerately and gently did the magistrates of the Roman people act, and the Areopagites no less wisely, who, the case examined, ordered both the accuser and the accused woman to return to them after one hundred years, moved by the same impulse as Dolabella. But he, by transferring the inquiry, and they, by deferring it, avoided the inexplicable hesitation between condemning and acquitting.

8.2.init. Publicis iudiciis adiciam priuata, quorum magis aequitas quaestionum delectare quam immoderata turba offendere lectorem poterit.

8.2.init. To the public judgments I will add private ones, of which the equity of the inquiries will be able to delight the reader more than the immoderate throng will be able to offend.

8.2.1 Claudius Centumalus ab auguribus iussus altitudinem domus suae, quam in Caelio monte habebat, summittere, quia his ex arce augurium capientibus officiebat, uendidit eam Calpurnio Lanario nec indicauit quod imperatum collegio augurumerat. a quibus Calpurnius demoliri domum coactus M. Porcium Catonem inclyti Catonis patrem arbitrum ~ cum Claudio adduxit formulam, quidquid sibi dare facere oporteret ex fide bona. Cato, ut est edoctus de industria Claudium praedictum sacerdotum suppressisse, continuo illum Calpurnio damnauit, summa quidem cum aequitate, quia bonae fidei uenditorem nec conmodorum spem augere nec incommodorum cognitionem obscurare oportet.

8.2.1 Claudius Centumalus, ordered by the augurs to lower the height of his house, which he had on the Caelian Hill, because it obstructed them when they were taking augury from the citadel, sold it to Calpurnius Lanarius and did not indicate what had been ordered by the college of augurs. By whom Calpurnius, compelled to demolish the house, brought Marcus Porcius Cato, father of the renowned Cato, as arbiter ~ and, with Claudius, introduced the formula, “whatever he ought to give or do to him according to good faith.” Cato, when he was informed that Claudius had deliberately suppressed the priests’ aforesaid order, immediately condemned him to Calpurnius, indeed with the greatest equity, because a seller of good faith ought neither to augment the hope of advantages nor to obscure the knowledge of disadvantages.

8.2.2 Notum suis temporibus iudicium commemoraui, sed ne quod relatus quidem sum obliteratum silentio. C. Visellius Varro graui morbo correptus trecenta milia nummum ab Otacilia Laterensis, cum qua commercium libidinis habuerat, expensa ferri sibi passus est eo consilio, ut, si decessisset, ab heredibus eam summam peteret, quam legati genus esse uoluit, libidinosam liberalitatem debiti nomine colorando. euasit deinde ex illa tempestate aduersus uota Otaciliae.

8.2.2 I have recalled a judgment well known in its own times, but I will not allow even what I am about to relate to be blotted out by silence. Gaius Visellius Varro, seized by a grave disease, allowed 300,000 coins to be entered as disbursed to him by Otacilia Laterensis, with whom he had had commerce of lust, with the plan that, if he had passed away, she would demand that sum from his heirs—he wished it to be a kind of legacy, by coloring a lustful liberality under the name of a debt. He then escaped from that crisis, contrary to Otacilia’s prayers.

quae offensa, quod spem praedae suae morte non maturasset, ex amica obsequenti subito destrictam feneratricem agere coepit, nummos petendo, quos ut fronte inuerecunda, ita inani stipulatione captauerat. de qua re C. Aquilius uir magnae auctoritatis et scientia iuris ciuilis excellens iudex adductus adhibitis in consilium principibus ciuitatis prudentia et religione sua mulierem reppulit. quod si eadem formula Varro et damnari et <ab> aduersaria absolui potuisset, eius quoque non dubito quin turpem et inconcessum errorem libenter castigaturus fuerit: nunc priuatae actionis calumniam ipse conpescuit, adulterii crimen publicae quaestioni uindicandum reliquit.

She, offended that he had not by his death matured the hope of her plunder, from a compliant mistress suddenly began to play the severe money‑lender, demanding the cash which she had, with a shameless brow and with an empty stipulation, entrapped. In this matter Gaius Aquilius, a man of great authority and outstanding in the knowledge of civil law, brought in as judge, with the chiefs of the city called into counsel, repelled the woman by his prudence and scrupulousness. And if by the same formula Varro could have both been condemned and his adversary acquitted, I do not doubt that he too would gladly have chastised that base and unlawful error: as it was, he himself checked the chicanery of the private action, and left the charge of adultery to be vindicated by a public inquiry.

8.2.3 Multo animosius et ut militari spiritu dignum erat se in consimili genere iudicii C. Marius gessit: nam cum C. Titinius Minturnensis Fanniam uxorem, quam inpudicam de industria duxerat, eo crimine repudiatam dote spoliare conaretur, sumptus inter eos iudex in conspectu habita quaestione seductum Titinium monuit ut incepto desisteret ac mulieri dotem redderet. quod cum saepius frustra fecisset, coactus ab eo sententiam pronuntiare mulierem inpudicitiae sestertio nummo, Titinium summa totius dotis damnauit, praefatus idcirco se hunc iudicandi modum secutum, cum liqueret sibi Titinium patrimonio Fanniae insidias struentem inpudicae coniugium expetisse. Fannia autem haec est, quae postea Marium hostem a senatu iudicatum caenoque paludis, qua extractus erat, oblitum et iam in domum suam custodiendum Minturnis deductum ope quantacumque potuit adiuuit, memor, quod inpudica iudicata esset, suis moribus, quod dotem seruasset, illius religioni acceptum ferri debere.

8.2.3 Much more spiritedly, and as was worthy of a military spirit, Gaius Marius conducted himself in a similar kind of judicium: for when Gaius Titinius of Minturnae tried to despoil of her dowry his wife Fannia—whom he had purposely taken as unchaste, and who had been repudiated on that charge—the judge, having been taken up between them and, the inquiry having been held in their sight, having drawn Titinius aside, admonished him to desist from his undertaking and to return the woman her dowry. When he had done this repeatedly in vain, and was compelled by him to pronounce a sentence, he condemned the woman for unchastity to a single sestertius coin, but Titinius to the full sum of the entire dowry; adding by way of preface that for this reason he had followed this mode of judging: since it was clear to him that Titinius, plotting ambushes against Fannia’s patrimony, had sought a marriage with an unchaste woman. This Fannia, moreover, is the same who later, when Marius had been judged an enemy by the Senate and, smeared with the mud of the marsh from which he had been dragged out, had already been led to her house at Minturnae to be kept under guard, aided him with whatever help she could, mindful that the fact she had been judged unchaste ought to be charged to her own morals, but that the fact the dowry had been preserved ought to be credited to that man’s scrupulousness.

8.2.4 Multus sermo eo etiam iudicio manauit, in quo quidam furti damnatus est, qui equo, cuius usus illi Ariciam conmodatus fuerat, ulteriore eius municipii cliuo uectus esset. quid aliud hoc loci quam uerecundiam illius saeculi laudemus, in quo tam minuti a pudore excessus puniebantur?

8.2.4 Much talk also went abroad from that judgment, in which a certain man was convicted of theft, because he had ridden a horse—the use of which had been lent to him as far as Aricia—up the farther slope of that municipality. What else, in this place, should we praise than the modesty of that age, in which even such minute departures from modesty were punished?

8.3.init. Ne de his quidem feminis tacendum est, quas condicio naturae et uerecundia stolae ut in foro et iudiciis tacerent cohibere non ualuit.

8.3.init. Nor must we keep silence even about those women, whom the condition of nature and the modesty of the stola were not able to restrain so that they should be silent in the forum and in the courts.

8.3.1 Amesia Sentinas rea causam suam L. Titio praetore iudicium cogente maximo populi concursu egit modosque omnes ac numeros defensionis non solum diligenter, sed etiam fortiter executa, et prima actione et paene cunctis sententiis liberata est. quam, quia sub specie feminae uirilem animum gerebat, Androgynen appellabant.

8.3.1 Amesia Sentinas, the defendant, pled her own case, with L. Titius, praetor, convening the court, amid a very great concourse of the people; and having carried out all the modes and measures of a defense not only diligently but also bravely, she was acquitted at the first hearing and by almost all the votes. Her, because under the appearance of a woman she bore a manly spirit, they called “Androgynus.”

8.3.2 C. Afrania uero Licinii Bucconis senatoris uxor prompta ad lites contrahendas pro se semper apud praetorem uerba fecit, non quod aduocatis deficiebatur, sed quod inpudentia abundabat. itaque inusitatis foro latratibus adsidue tribunalia exercendo muliebris calumniae notissimum exemplum euasit, adeo ut pro crimine inprobis feminarum moribus C. Afraniae nomen obiciatur. prorogauit autem spiritum suum ad C. Caesarem iterum Seruilium consules: tale enim monstrum magis quo tempore extinctum quam quo sit ortum memoriae tradendum est.

8.3.2 C. Afrania, indeed, the wife of the senator Licinius Bucco, ready for contracting lawsuits, always spoke on her own behalf before the praetor—not because she was lacking in advocates, but because she abounded in impudence. And so, by assiduously exercising the tribunals with barkings unusual for the forum, she became a most well-known example of feminine calumny, to such a degree that the name of C. Afrania is cast as an indictment for the depraved morals of women. Moreover, she prolonged her life until the consuls G. Caesar for the second time and Servilius: for such a monster is to be handed down to memory rather by the time at which it was extinguished than by that at which it arose.

8.3.3 Hortensia uero Q. Hortensi filia, cum ordo matronarum graui tributo a triumuiris esset oneratus quisquam uirorum patrocinium eis accommodare auderet, causam feminarum apud triumuiros et constanter et feliciter egit: repraesentata enim patris facundia impetrauit ut maior pars imperatae pecuniae his remitteretur. reuixit tum muliebri stirpe Q. Hortensius uerbisque filiae aspirauit, cuius si uirilis sexus posteri uim sequi uoluissent, Hortensianae eloquentiae tanta hereditas una feminae actione abscissa non esset.

8.3.3 But Hortensia, daughter of Q. Hortensius, when the order of matrons had been burdened by the triumvirs with a heavy tribute and no one of the men dared to accommodate to them his patronage, pleaded the cause of the women before the triumvirs both constantly and felicitously: for, her father’s facundity being made present, she obtained that the greater part of the imposed money be remitted to them. Then in the female stock Q. Hortensius revived and breathed upon his daughter’s words; and if the male-sex descendants had wished to follow her force, so great an inheritance of Hortensian eloquence would not have been cut off by the action of a single woman.

8.4.init. Atque ut omnes iudiciorum numeros exequamur, quaestiones, quibus aut creditum non est aut temere habita fides est, referamus.

8.4.init. And, that we may go through all the numbers of judgments, let us recount the investigations, in which either no credence has been given or faith has been rashly held.

8.4.1 M. Agrii argentarii seruus Alexander A. Fanni seruum occidisse insimulatus est eoque nomine tortus a domino admisisse id facinus constantissime adseuerauit. itaque Fannio deditus supplicio adfectus est. paruulo deinde tempore interiecto ille, cuius de nece creditum erat, domum rediit.

8.4.1 Alexander, the slave of M. Agrius the argentary (banker), was accused of having killed the slave of A. Fannius; and on that account, tortured by his master, he most steadfastly asseverated that he had committed that crime. Accordingly, delivered to Fannius, he was visited with punishment. Then, after a very small interval of time had intervened, the man whose death had been believed returned home.

8.4.2 Contra P. Atinii seruus Alexander, cum in [hanc] suspicionem C. Flauii equitis Romani occisi uenisset, sexies tortus pernegauit ei se culpae adfinem fuisse, sed perinde atque confessus et, a iudicibus damnatus et a L. Calpurnio triumuiro in crucem actus est.

8.4.2 By contrast, the slave Alexander of Publius Atinius, when he had come under [this] suspicion of the killing of Gaius Flavius, a Roman equestrian, although tortured six times, utterly denied that he had been involved in the offense against him; but as if he had confessed, he was condemned by the judges and by Lucius Calpurnius, the triumvir, was driven to the cross (crucified).

8.4.3 Item Fuluio Flacco causam dicente Philippus seruus eius, in quo tota quaestio nitebatur, octies tortus nullum omnino uerbum, quo dominus perstringeretur, emisit, et tamen reus damnatus est, cum certius argumentum innocentiae unus octies tortus exhiberet quam octo semel torti praebuissent.

8.4.3 Likewise, while Fulvius Flaccus was pleading his case, his slave Philippus, on whom the whole quaestio rested, though tortured eight times, did not utter any word at all by which the master might be incriminated; and yet the defendant was condemned, although one man tortured eight times exhibited a surer argument of innocence than eight men tortured once would have provided.

8.5.1 Sequitur ut ad testis pertinentia exempla conmemorem. Cn. et Q. Seruiliis Caepionibus isdem parentibus natis et per omnes honorum gradus ad summam amplitudinem prouectis, item fratribus Metellis Quinto et Lucio consularibus et censoriis, altero etiam triumphali, in Q. Pompeium A. f. repetundarum reum acerrime dicentibus testimonium non abrogata fides absoluto Pompeio, sed ne potentia inimicum oppressisse uiderentur occursum est.

8.5.1 It follows that I should recount examples pertaining to witnesses. Gnaeus and Quintus Servilius Caepio, born of the same parents and advanced through all the grades of honors to the highest eminence, likewise the Metelli brothers, Quintus and Lucius, consular and censorial, one even triumphal, when they were prosecuting most sharply against Q. Pompeius, son of Aulus, a defendant on a charge of extortion, the credit of their testimony was not abrogated when Pompeius was acquitted; rather, provision was made so that they might not seem to have crushed an enemy by their power.

8.5.2 M. etiam Aemilius Scaurus princeps senatus C. Memmium repetundarum reum destricto testimonio insecutus est, item C. Flauium eadem lege accusatum testis proscidit: iam C. Norbanum maiestatis crimine publicae quaestioni subiectum ex professo opprimere conatus est. nec tamen aut auctoritate, qua plurimum pollebat, aut religione, de qua nemo dubitabat, quemquam eorum adfligere potuit.

8.5.2 Marcus Aemilius Scaurus too, princeps of the senate, assailed Gaius Memmius, a defendant on a charge of extortion, with unsheathed testimony; likewise, as a witness, he tore to pieces Gaius Flavius, accused under the same law: already he tried avowedly to crush Gaius Norbanus, subjected to the public quaestio on the charge of maiestas (treason). And yet neither by his auctoritas, in which he was most powerful, nor by his religio, about which no one doubted, could he strike down any of them.

8.5.3 L. quoque Crassus, tantus apud iudices, quantus apud patres conscriptos Aemilius Scaurus++ namque eorum suffragia robustissimis et felicissimis eloquentiae stipendiis regebat eratque sic fori, ut ille curiae princeps++, cum uehementissimum testimonii fulmen in M. Marcellum reum iniecisset, impetu grauis, exitu uanus apparuit.

8.5.3 L. too Crassus, as great among the judges as Aemilius Scaurus++ among the Conscript Fathers—for he was governing their suffrages by the most robust and most felicitous campaigns of eloquence—and he was thus of the Forum, as that man was princeps++ of the Curia, when he had hurled the most vehement thunderbolt of testimony against M. Marcellus, the defendant, appeared weighty in onset, vain in outcome.

8.5.4 Age, Q. Metellus Pius, L. M. Luculli, Q. Hortensius, M'. Lepidus C. Cornelii maiestatis rei quam non onerarunt tantum modo testes salutem, sed etiam negantes illo incolumi stare rem publicam posse, depoposcerunt! quae decora ciuitatis, pudet referre, umbone iudiciali repulsa sunt.

8.5.4 Come now, Q. Metellus Pius, L. M. Lucullus, Q. Hortensius, M'. Lepidus—as witnesses against C. Cornelius on a charge of maiestas—not only burdened his very safety, but even, asserting that the commonwealth could not stand with him unharmed, clamored for his condemnation! What ornaments of the city, I am ashamed to report, were driven back by the judicial umbo, the boss of the shield.

8.5.5 Quid, M. Cicero forensi militia summos honores amplissimumque dignitatis locum adeptus, nonne in ipsis eloquentiae suae castris testis abiectus est, dum P. Claudium Romae apud se fuisse iurat, illo sacrilegum flagitium uno argumento absentiae tuente? si quidem iudices Claudium incesti crimine quam Ciceronem infamia periurii liberare maluerunt.

8.5.5 What then of M. Cicero, who, in forensic warfare, having attained the highest honors and the most ample place of dignity—was he not, in the very camp of his own eloquence, cast aside as a witness, while he swore that P. Claudius had been with him at Rome, that man defending his sacrilegious outrage by the single argument of absence? since indeed the judges preferred to free Claudius from the crime of incest rather than Cicero from the infamy of perjury.

8.5.6 Tot eleuatis testibus unum, cuius noua ratione iudicium ingressa auctoritas confirmata est, referam. P. Seruilius consularis, censorius, triumphalis, qui maiorum suorum titulis Isaurici cognomen adiecit, cum forum praeteriens testes in reum dari uidisset, loco testis constitit ac summam inter patronorum pariter et accusatorum admirationem sic orsus est: 'hunc ego, iudices, qui causam dicit, cuias sit aut quam uitam egerit quamque merito uel iniuria accusetur ignoro: illud tantum scio, cum occurrisset mihi Laurentina uia iter facienti admodum angusto loco, equo descendere noluisse. quod an aliquid ad religionem uestram pertineat ipsi aestimabitis: ego id supprimendum non putaui'. iudices reum uix auditis ceteris testibus damnarunt: ualuit enim apud eos cum amplitudo uiri, tum grauis neglectae dignitatis eius indignatio, eumque, qui uenerari principes nesciret, in quodlibet facinus procursurum crediderunt.

8.5.6 After so many witnesses had been set at naught, I will relate one, by whose new method, once Authority had entered the court, it was confirmed. P. Servilius—consular, censorial, triumphal—who added the cognomen Isauricus to the titles of his forefathers, as he was passing through the forum and had seen witnesses being produced against the defendant, took his place as a witness and, to the greatest admiration of both patrons and accusers alike, began thus: 'As for this man, judges, who is pleading his case, of what country he is, or what life he has led, and whether with merit or with injustice he is accused, I do not know: this only I know—that when he met me on the Laurentine Way, as I was making a journey, in a very narrow spot, he was unwilling to dismount from his horse. Whether this pertains in any way to your religious scruple you yourselves will assess: I did not think it should be suppressed.' The judges condemned the defendant with the other witnesses scarcely heard: for there prevailed with them both the eminence of the man and the weighty indignation at his dignity’s neglect, and they believed that one who did not know how to venerate men of rank would rush forward into any crime whatsoever.

8.6.init. Ne illos quidem latere patiamur, qui quae in aliis uindicarant ipsi commiserunt.

8.6.init. Let us not allow even those to escape notice, who themselves have committed the very things which they had punished in others.

8.6.1 C. Licinius cognomine Hoplomachus a praetore postulauit ut patri suo bonis tamquam ea dissipanti interdiceretur, et quidem quod petierat impetrauit, sed ipse paruo post tempore mortuo sene amplam ab eo relictam pecuniam festinanter consumpsit. a uicissitudine poenae fuit, quoniam hereditatem absumere quam heredem maluit tollere.

8.6.1 Gaius Licinius, by the cognomen Hoplomachus, petitioned the praetor that his father be interdicted from his goods, as though he were dissipating them; and indeed he obtained what he had sought, but he himself, a little afterwards, when the old man had died, hastily squandered the ample money left by him. It was a vicissitude of penalty , since he preferred to consume the inheritance rather than remove the heir.

8.6.2 C. autem Marius, cum magnum et salutarem rei publicae ciuem in L. Saturnino opprimendo egisset, a quo in modum uexilli pilleum seruituti ad arma capienda ostentatum erat, L. Sulla cum exercitu in urbem inrumpente ad auxilium seruorum pilleo sublato confugit. itaque, dum facinus quod punierat imitatur, alterum Marium, a quo adfligeretur, inuenit.

8.6.2 But Gaius Marius, when he had acted as a great and salutary citizen of the commonwealth in crushing Lucius Saturninus—by whom, in the manner of a standard, the pileus had been displayed to the slaves for the taking up of arms—when Lucius Sulla was bursting into the city with an army, fled for aid to the slaves, lifting up the pileus. And so, while he imitated the crime which he had punished, he found another “Marius,” by whom he would be struck down.

8.6.3 C. uero Licinius Stolo, cuius beneficio plebi petendi consulatus potestas facta est, cum lege sanxisset ne quis amplius quingenta agri iugera possideret, ipse mille conparauit simulandique criminis gratia dimidiam partem filio emancipauit. quam ob causam a. M. Popilio Laenate accusatus primus sua lege cecidit ac docuit nihil aliud praecipi debere, nisi quod prius quisque sibi imperauit.

8.6.3 But C. Licinius Stolo, by whose benefit the power was granted to the plebs of seeking the consulship, when by law he had ordained that no one should possess more than five hundred iugera of land, himself acquired a thousand, and for the sake of dissimulating the crime emancipated half to his son. For which cause, accused by M. Popilius Laenas, he was the first to fall by his own law and taught that nothing else ought to be prescribed, except what each person shall first have imposed upon himself.

8.6.4 Q. autem Varius propter obscurum ius ciuitatis Hybrida cognominatus tribunus pl. legem aduersus intercessionem collegarum perrogauit, quae iubebat quaeri quorum dolo malo socii ad arma ire coacti essent, magna cum clade rei publicae: sociale enim prius, deinde ciuile bellum excitauit. sed dum ante pestiferum tribunum pl. quam certum ciuem agit, sua lex eum domesticis laqueis constrictum absumpsit.

8.6.4 But Quintus Varius, surnamed Hybrida on account of an obscure right of citizenship, a tribune of the plebs, proposed a law against the intercession of his colleagues, which ordered that inquiry be made as to by whose malicious deceit the allies had been forced to go to arms, with great disaster to the republic: for it stirred up first the Social, then the Civil War. But while he acted the pestiferous tribune of the plebs rather than a steady citizen, his own law consumed him, bound in domestic nooses.

8.7.init. Quid cesso uires industriae commemorare, cuius alacri spiritu militiae stipendia roborantur, forensis gloria accenditur, fido sinu cuncta studia recepta nutriuntur, quidquid animo, quidquid manu, quidquid lingua admirabile est, ad cumulum laudis perducitur? ~ quae cum sit perfectissima uirtus, duramento sui confirmatur.

8.7.init. Why do I delay to commemorate the powers of industry, by whose brisk spirit military service is strengthened, forensic glory is kindled, in whose faithful bosom all pursuits, once received, are nourished, whatever in mind, whatever by hand, whatever by tongue is admirable, is brought to the height of praise? ~ and since it is the most perfect virtue, it is confirmed by its own hardening.

8.7.1 Cato sextum et octogesimum annum agens, dum in re publica tuenda iuuenili animo perstat, ab inimicis capitali crimine accusatus causam suam egit, neque aut memoriam eius quisquam tardiorem aut firmitatem lateris ulla ex parte quassatam aut os haesitatione inpeditum animaduertit, quia omnia ista in suo statu aequali ac perpetua industria continebat. quin etiam in ipso diutissime actae uitae fine disertissimi oratoris Galbae accusationi defensionem suam pro Hispania opposuit. idem Graecis litteris erudiri concupiuit, quam sero, inde aestimemus, quod etiam Latinas paene iam senex didicit, cumque eloquentia magnam gloriam partam haberet, id egit, ut iuris ciuilis quoque esset peritissimus.

8.7.1 Cato, living his 86th year, while he persists with a youthful spirit in guarding the commonwealth, having been accused by enemies on a capital charge, pleaded his own case; nor did anyone observe his memory slower, or the firmness of his chest shaken in any respect, or his mouth impeded by hesitation, because he kept all these in their own steady state by continual industry. Nay more, at the very end of a very long-lived life, he opposed his own defense on behalf of Spain to the accusation of Galba, a most eloquent orator. The same man conceived a desire to be educated in Greek letters—how late, let us judge from this, that he even learned Latin letters when almost already an old man—and though he had obtained great glory by eloquence, he strove that he might be most expert in civil law as well.

8.7.2 Cuius mirifica proles propior aetati nostrae Cato ita doctrinae cupiditate flagrauit, ut ne in curia quidem, dum senatus cogitur, temperaret sibi quo minus Graecos libros lectitaret. qua quidem industria ostendit aliis tempora deesse, alios [superesse] temporibus.

8.7.2 Whose prodigious progeny, nearer to our age, Cato, burned so with a desire for learning that not even in the Curia, while the Senate was being convened, did he restrain himself from repeatedly reading Greek books. By this very industry he showed that for some men times are lacking, others [to be superabundant] for the times.

8.7.3 Terentius autem Varro humanae uitae expleto spatio non annis, quibus saeculi tempus aequauit, quam stilo uiuacior fuit: in eodem enim lectulo et spiritus eius et egregiorum operum cursus extinctus est.

8.7.3 But Terentius Varro, with the span of human life completed, was more long-lived not in years, by which he equaled the time of a century, than by his stylus: for on the same bed both his breath and the course of his distinguished works were extinguished.

8.7.4 Consimilis perseuerantiae Liuius Drusus, qui aetatis uiribus et acie oculorum defectus ius ciuile populo benignissime interpretatus est utilissimaque discere id cupientibus monumenta conposuit: nam ut senem illum natura, caecum fortuna facere potuit, ita neutra interpellare ualuit ne non animo et uideret et uigeret.

8.7.4 Of similar perseverance was Livius Drusus, who, deprived of vigor by age and of the keenness of his eyes, most kindly interpreted the civil law for the people and composed monuments most useful for those desiring to learn it: for just as nature could make that man an old man and fortune could make him blind, so neither had the power to interpose so as to prevent his both seeing and flourishing in mind.

8.7.5 Publilius uero senator et Lupus Pontius eques Romanus suis temporibus celebres causarum actores luminibus capti eadem industria forensia stipendia executi sunt. itaque frequentius etiam audiebantur, concurrentibus aliis, quia ingenio eorum delectabantur, aliis, quia constantiam admirabantur: nam, qui tali conmodo perculsi secessum petunt, duplicant tenebras fortuitis uoluntarias adicientes.

8.7.5 Publilius, indeed a senator, and Lupus Pontius, a Roman equestrian, celebrated pleaders of causes in their own times, though bereft of their lights, carried out the same forensic service with equal industry. And so they were heard even more frequently, some flocking together because they were delighted by their ingenium, others because they admired their constancy: for those who, struck by such an inconvenience, seek retirement, double the darkness, adding voluntary to fortuitous.

8.7.6 Iam P. Crassus, cum in Asiam ad Aristonicum regem debellandum consul uenisset, tanta cura Graecae linguae notitiam animo conprehendit, ut eam in quinque diuisam genera per omnes partes ac numeros penitus cognosceret. quae res maximum ei sociorum amorem conciliauit, qua quis eorum lingua apud tribunal illius postulauerat, eadem decreta reddenti.

8.7.6 Now P. Crassus, when as consul he had come into Asia to finish the war against King Aristonicus, grasped with such care the knowledge of the Greek language in his mind that, divided into five genera, he might thoroughly know it through all its parts and numbers. This thing secured for him the greatest love of the allies, as he returned decrees in the same language in which any one of them had petitioned before his tribunal.

8.7.7 Ne Roscius quidem subtrahatur, scaenicae industriae notissimum exemplum, qui nullum umquam spectante populo gestum, nisi quem domi meditatus fuerat, promere ausus est. quapropter non ludicra ars Roscium, sed Roscius ludicram artem conmendauit, nec uulgi tantum fauorem, uerum etiam principum familiaritates amplexus est. haec sunt attenti et anxii et numquam cessantis studii praemia, propter quae tantorum uirorum laudibus non inpudenter se persona histrionis inseruit.

8.7.7 Nor let Roscius be omitted, a most well-known example of scenic industry, who never dared to bring forth any gesture with the people looking on, except that which he had rehearsed at home. Wherefore it was not the ludic art that commended Roscius, but Roscius that commended the ludic art, and he embraced not only the favor of the crowd, but even the familiarities of princes. These are the rewards of attentive and anxious and never-ceasing study, on account of which the persona of the histrion not shamelessly inserted itself among the praises of such great men.

8.7.ext.1 Graeca quoque industria, quoniam nostrae multum profuit, quem meretur fructum Latina lingua recipiat. Demosthenes, cuius commemorato nomine maximae eloquentiae consummatio audientis animo oboritur, cum inter initia iuuentae artis, quam adfectabat, primam litteram dicere non posset, oris sui uitium tanto studio expugnauit, ut ea a nullo expressius referretur. deinde propter nimiam exilitatem acerbam auditu uocem suam exercitatione continua ad maturum et gratum auribus sonum perduxit.

8.7.ext.1 Let Greek industry also, since it has greatly profited our own, receive from the Latin tongue the fruit it merits. Demosthenes, at the mere mention of whose name the consummation of the greatest eloquence arises in the hearer’s mind, when, in the beginnings of his youth in the art which he aspired to, he could not pronounce the first letter, overcame the defect of his mouth with such zeal that by no one was it rendered more expressively. Then, because his voice, through excessive tenuity, was bitter to the hearing, by continuous exercise he brought it to a sound mature and pleasing to the ears.

lateris etiam firmitate defectus, quas corporis habitus uires negauerat, a labore mutuatus est: multos enim uersus uno impetu spiritus conplectebatur eosque aduersa loca celeri gradu scandens pronuntiabat ac uadosis litoribus insistens declamationes fluctuum fragoribus obluctantibus edebat, ut ad fremitus concitatarum contionum patientia duratis auribus uteretur. fertur quoque ori insertis calculis multum ac diu loqui solitus, quo uacuum promptius esset et solutius. proeliatus est cum rerum natura et quidem uictor abiit malignitatem eius pertinacissimo animi robore superando.

Being also deficient in the firmness of the flank, the strengths which the bodily habit had denied he borrowed from toil: for he would encompass many verses in one rush of breath and would pronounce them while ascending adverse places at a swift pace, and, standing on shallow shores, he delivered declamations with the crashes of the waves struggling against him, so that, with ears hardened by patience, he might make use of the roar of stirred-up assemblies. He is said also to have been accustomed to speak much and long with pebbles inserted into his mouth, in order that, when empty, it might be readier and looser. He fought with the nature of things and indeed went away a victor, overcoming its malignity by the most pertinacious strength of spirit.

itaque alterum Demosthenen mater, alterum industria enixa est.

Thus one Demosthenes was brought forth by his mother, the other by industry.

8.7.ext.2 Atque ut ad uetustiorem industriae actum transgrediar, Pythagoras, perfectissimum opus sapientiae a iuuenta pariter et omnis honestatis percipiendae cupiditate ingressus,++nihil enim, quod ad ultimum sui peruenturum est finem, non et mature et alacriter incipit,++Aegyptum petiit, ubi litteris gentis eius adsuefactus, praeteriti aeui sacerdotum commentarios scrutatus innumerabilium saeculorum obseruationes cognouit. inde ad Persas profectus magorum exactissimae prudentiae se formandum tradidit, a quibus siderum motus cursusque stellarum et unius cuiusque uim, proprietatem, effectum benignissime demonstratum docili animo sorpsit. Cretam deinde et Lacedaemona nauigauit, quarum legibus ac moribus inspectis ad Olympicum certamen descendit, cumque multiplicis scientiae maximam inter totius Graeciae admirationem specimen exhibuisset, quo cognomine censeretur interrogatus, non se sapientem,++iam enim illud vii excellentes uiri occupauerant++sed amatorem sapientiae, id est Graece fil"sofon edidit.

8.7.ext.2 And that I may pass over to an earlier exercise of industry: Pythagoras, having entered upon the most perfect work of wisdom from youth and equally from a desire of apprehending all honesty,++for everything that is going to attain its ultimate end both begins early and with alacrity,++made for Egypt; there, accustomed to the letters of that people, and having scrutinized the commentaries of the priests of a bygone age, he learned the observations of innumerable ages. Thence he set out to the Persians and handed himself over to be formed by the magi of most exact prudence, from whom he imbibed with a docile mind the motions of the stars and the courses of the constellations, and for each single one its force, property, and effect, most kindly demonstrated. Then he sailed to Crete and Lacedaemon, and, after inspecting the laws and customs of these, he went down to the Olympic contest; and when he had displayed, amid the admiration of all Greece, a very great specimen of manifold science, asked by what cognomen he should be styled, he declared that he was not a sage,++for already that title had been occupied by 7 excellent men++but a lover of wisdom, that is, in Greek, philosophos.

in Italiae etiam partem, quae tunc maior Graecia appellabatur, perrexit, in qua plurimis et opulentissimis urbibus effectus studiorum suorum adprobauit. cuius ardentem rogum plenis uenerationis oculis Metapontus aspexit oppidum, Pythagorae quam suorum cinerum nobilius clariusque monumentum.

He also proceeded into the part of Italy which was then called Greater Greece, in which, in very many and most opulent cities, he attested the effects of his studies. The town of Metapontum gazed upon his blazing pyre with eyes full of veneration—what monument for Pythagoras more noble and more illustrious than that of his own ashes.

8.7.ext.3 Platon autem patriam Athenas, praeceptorem Socratem sortitus, et locum et hominem doctrinae fertilissimum, ingenii quoque diuina instructus abundantia, cum omnium iam mortalium sapientissimus haberetur, eo quidem usque, ut, si ipse Iuppiter caelo descendisset, nec elegantiore nec beatiore facundia usurus uideretur, Aegyptum peragrauit, dum a sacerdotibus eius gentis geometriae multiplices numeros caelestium obseruationum rationem percipit. quoque tempore a studiosis iuuenibus certatim Athenae Platonem doctorem quaerentibus petebantur, ipse Nili fluminis inexplicabiles ripas uastissimosque campos, ~ effusam barbariam et flexuosos fossarum ambitus Aegyptiorum senum discipulus lustrabat. quo minus miror in Italiam transgressum, ut ab Archyta Tarenti, a Timaeo et Arione et Echecrate Locris Pythagorae praecepta et instituta acciperet: tanta enim uis, tanta copia litterarum undique colligenda erat, ut inuicem per totum terrarum orbem dispergi et dilatari posset.

8.7.ext.3 Plato, however, having obtained as his fatherland Athens and as his preceptor Socrates—both a place and a man most fertile for doctrine—and endowed also with a divine abundance of talent, when he was already held the wisest of all mortals, indeed to such a degree that, if Jupiter himself had descended from heaven, he would seem about to employ neither a more elegant nor a more beatific eloquence, traversed Egypt, while from the priests of that nation he apprehended the manifold numbers of geometry the method of celestial observations. And at the very time when Athens was being sought by studious youths, competing to obtain Plato as their teacher, he himself, a disciple of the elders of the Egyptians, was surveying the inextricable banks of the river Nile and its most vast fields, ~ the outpoured barbarism and the sinuous circuits of the Egyptians’ ditches. For which reason I am the less amazed that he crossed into Italy, in order that from Archytas of Tarentum, and from Timaeus and Arion and Echecrates at Locri, he might receive the precepts and institutes of Pythagoras: for so great a force, so great an abundance of letters had to be gathered from every side, that in turn it might be dispersed and dilated through the whole orb of lands.

altero etiam et octogesimo anno decedens sub capite Sophronis mimos habuisse fertur. sic ne extrema quidem eius hora agitatione studii uacua fuit.

departing also in his eighty-second year, he is said to have had the mimes of Sophron beneath his head. thus not even his final hour was void of the agitation of study.

8.7.ext.4 At Democritus, cum diuitiis censeri posset, quae tantae fuerunt, ut pater eius Xerxis exercitui epulum dare ex facili potuerit, quo magis uacuo animo studiis litterarum esset operatus, parua admodum summa retenta patrimonium suum patriae donauit. Athenis autem compluribus annis moratus omnia temporum momenta ad percipiendam et exercendam doctrinam conferens ignotus illi urbi uixit, quod ipse quodam uolumine testatur. stupet mens admiratione tantae industriae et iam transit alio.

8.7.ext.4 But Democritus, though he could be appraised by riches, which were so great that his father was able with ease to give a banquet to Xerxes’s army, in order that he might apply himself with a more unencumbered mind to the studies of letters, having retained a very small sum, donated his patrimony to his fatherland. At Athens, however, having stayed for several years, devoting every moments of time to the acquiring and practicing of learning, he lived unknown to that city, as he himself attests in a certain volume. The mind stands amazed with admiration at such industry, and now passes on to another.

8.7.ext.5 Carneades laboriosus et diuturnus sapientiae miles, si quidem xc expletis annis idem illi uiuendi ac philosophandi finis fuit, ita se mirifice doctrinae operibus addixerat, ut, cum cibi capiendi causa recubuisset, cogitationibus inhaerens manum ad mensam porrigere obliuisceretur. sed ei Melissa, quam uxoris loco habebat, temperato [inter] studia non interpellandi et inediae succurrendi officio dexteram suam necessariis usibus aptabat. ergo animo tantum modo uita fruebatur, corpore uero quasi alieno et superuacuo circumdatus erat.

8.7.ext.5 Carneades, a laborious and long-lasting soldier of wisdom, since indeed, with 90 years completed, the same end came to his living and his philosophizing, had so wondrously devoted himself to the works of doctrine that, when he had reclined for the sake of taking food, clinging to his cogitations he would forget to stretch his hand toward the table. But Melissa, whom he held in the place of a wife, with a tempered duty [between] not interrupting his studies and succoring his lack of food, would fit his right hand to necessary uses. Therefore he enjoyed life only in mind, but in body he was encompassed as if by something alien and superfluous.

idem cum Chrysippo disputaturus elleboro se ante purgabat ad expromendum ingenium suum adtentius et illius refellendum acrius. quas potiones industria solidae laudis cupidis adpetendas effecit!

The same man, when about to dispute with Chrysippus, used first to purge himself with hellebore, in order to bring out his genius more attentively and to refute the other’s more sharply. What potions did his industry make to be sought after by those eager for solid praise!

8.7.ext.6 Quali porro studio Anaxagoran flagrasse credimus? qui cum e diutina peregrinatione patriam repetisset possessionesque desertas uidisset, 'non essem' inquit 'ego saluus, nisi istae perissent'. uocem petitae sapientiae compotem! nam si praediorum potius quam ingenii culturae uacasset, dominus rei familiaris intra penates mansisset, non tantus Anaxagoras ad eos redisset.

8.7.ext.6 With what zeal, moreover, do we believe Anaxagoras to have blazed? who, when from a long-continued peregrination he had returned to his fatherland and had seen his estates deserted, said: 'I would not have been safe unless these had perished.' An utterance possessing a full share of the wisdom sought! For if he had had leisure for the culture of his genius rather than for the cultivation of his estates, the master of his household property would have remained within his Penates, and not so great an Anaxagoras would have returned to them.

8.7.ext.7 Archimedis quoque fructuosam industriam fuisse dicerem, nisi eadem illi et dedisset uitam et abstulisset: captis enim Syracusis Marcellus, machinationibus eius multum ac diu uictoriam suam inhibitam senserat, eximia tamen hominis prudentia delectatus ut capiti illius parceretur edixit, paene tantum gloriae in Archimede seruato quantum in oppressis Syracusis reponens. at is, dum animo et oculis in terra defixis formas describit, militi, qui praedandi gratia domum inruperat strictoque super caput gladio quisnam esset interrogabat, propter nimiam cupiditatem inuestigandi quod requirebat nomen suum indicare non potuit, sed protecto manibus puluere 'noli' inquit, 'obsecro, istum disturbare', ac perinde quasi neglegens imperii uictoris obtruncatus sanguine suo artis suae liniamenta confudit. quo accidit ut propter idem studium modo donaretur uita, modo spoliaretur.

8.7.ext.7 I would say that Archimedes’ industry too was fruitful, were it not that the same thing both gave him life and took it away: for when Syracuse had been captured, Marcellus, although he had felt his victory much and for a long time inhibited by his machinations, nevertheless, delighted by the man’s outstanding prudence, issued an edict that his head be spared, setting almost as much glory in Archimedes being preserved as in Syracuse being overthrown. But he, while with mind and eyes fixed on the ground he was tracing forms, to a soldier who had burst into the house for the sake of plundering and, with sword drawn above his head, was asking who he was, because of an excessive desire of investigating what he was seeking could not declare his own name; but, with the dust protected by his hands, he said, “Do not, I beg, disturb that,” and, just as if neglectful of the victor’s command, he was cut down, and with his own blood he confounded the lineaments of his art. Whence it befell that on account of the same pursuit he was now being granted life, now being despoiled of it.

8.7.ext.8 Socraten etiam constat aetate prouectum fidibus tractandis operam dare coepisse satius iudicantem eius artis usum sero quam numquam percipere. et quantula Socrati accessio illa futura scientia erat? sed peruicax hominis industria tantis doctrinae suae diuitiis etiam musicae rationis uilissimum elementum accedere uoluit.

8.7.ext.8 It is also agreed that Socrates, advanced in age, began to devote effort to handling the lyre-strings, judging it better to grasp the use of that art late rather than never. And how small an accession was that future knowledge going to be for Socrates? But the pervicacious industry of the man willed that, to such riches of his doctrine, even the most worthless element of musical reason should be added.

ergo dum ad discendum semper se pauperem credit, ad docendum fecit locupletissimum.

Therefore, while he always believes himself poor for learning, he made himself most opulent for teaching.

8.7.ext.9 Atque ut longae et felicis industriae quasi in unum aceruum exempla redigamus, Isocrates nobilissimum librum, qui Panayhna|ik"w inscribitur, quartum et nonagesimum annum agens, ita ut ipse significat, conposuit, opus ardentis spiritus plenum. ex quo apparet senescentibus membris eruditorum intus animos industriae beneficio florem iuuentae retinere. neque hoc stilo terminos uitae suae clausit: namque admirationis eius fructum quinquennio percepit.

8.7.ext.9 And, that we may as it were gather into one heap the examples of long and felicitous industry, Isocrates composed the most noble book, which is entitled Panayhna|ik"w, being in his ninety-fourth year, as he himself indicates—a work full of ardent spirit. From which it appears that, with the members senescing, the minds within of the erudite, by the benefit of industry, retain the flower of youth. Nor did he with this stylus close the boundaries of his life: for he received the fruit of that admiration for five years.

8.7.ext.10 Citerioris aetatis metas, sed non parui tamen spatii chrysippi uiuacitas flexit: nam octogesimo anno coeptum undequadragesimum Logik´n exactissimae subtilitatis uolumen reliquit. cuius studium in tradendis ingenii sui monumentis tantum operae laborisque sustinuit, ut ad ea, quae scripsit, penitus cognoscenda longa uita sit opus.

8.7.ext.10 Chrysippus’s vivacity bent the bounds of advanced age—and, indeed, over no small span: for, in his eightieth year, he left a thirty-ninth volume of Logic, a work of most exact subtlety, begun then. His zeal in handing down the monuments of his genius sustained so much toil and labor that, for thoroughly coming to know the things he wrote, there is need of a long life.

8.7.ext.11 Te quoque, Cleanthe, tam laboriose haurientem et tam pertinaciter tradentem sapientiam numen ipsius industriae suspexit, cum adulescentem quaestu extrahendae aquae nocturno tempore inopiam tuam sustentantem, diurno Chrysippi praeceptis percipiendis uacantem, eundemque ad undecentesimum annum adtenta cura erudientem auditores tuos uideret: duplici enimlabore unius saeculi spatium occupasti, incertum reddendo discipulusne an praeceptor esses laudabilior.

8.7.ext.11 You too, Cleanthes, as you were so laboriously drawing in and so pertinaciously handing down wisdom, the numen of Industry itself looked up to, when it saw you, a young man, sustaining your penury by the gain from extracting water in the nighttime, and in the daytime free for receiving Chrysippus’s precepts, and the same man, up to the 99th year, schooling your auditors with attentive care: for by a double labor you occupied the span of a single age, making it uncertain whether you were more laudable as a disciple or as a preceptor.

8.7.ext.12 Sophocles quoque gloriosum cum rerum natura certamen habuit, tam benigne mirifica illi opera sua exhibendo quam illa operibus eius tempora liberaliter sumministrando: prope enim centesimum annum attigit, sub ipsum transitum ad mortem Oedipode ßp Kolvn" scripto, qua sola fabula omnium eiusdem studi poetarum praeripere gloriam potuit. idque ignotum esse posteris filius Sophoclis Iophon noluit, sepulcro patris quae retuli insculpendo.

8.7.ext.12 Sophocles too had a glorious contest with Nature, as kindly by exhibiting to him her marvelous works as by liberally supplying to his works the times: for he nearly reached his hundredth year, with Oedipus at Colonus written at the very passage to death, by which single play he could snatch away the glory of all poets of the same pursuit. And Iophon, the son of Sophocles, did not wish this to be unknown to posterity, by insculpting upon his father’s sepulcher the things which I have related.

8.7.ext.13 Simonides uero poeta octogesimo anno et docuisse se carmina et in eorum certamen descendisse ipse gloriatur. nec fuit inicum illum uoluptatem ex ingenio suo diu percipere, cum tam omni aeuo fruendam traditurus esset.

8.7.ext.13 Simonides, indeed, the poet, in his eightieth year himself boasts that he both taught poems and entered into contest in them. Nor was it inequitable that he should long partake of pleasure from his own genius, since he was about to hand down for every age to enjoy so great a thing.

8.7.ext.14 Nam Solon quanta industria flagrauerit et uersibus conplexus est, quibus significat se cotidie aliquid addiscentem senescere, et supremo uitae die confirmauit, quod adsidentibus amicis et quadam de re sermonem inter se conferentibus fatis iam pressum caput erexit interrogatusque quapropter id fecisset respondit 'ut, cum istud, quidquid est, de quo disputatis, percepero, moriar'. migrasset profecto ex hominibus inertia, si eo animo uitam ingrederentur, quo eam Solon egressus est.

8.7.ext.14 For Solon has encompassed in verses how greatly he blazed with industry, in which he signifies that he grows old learning something in addition every day; and on the supreme day of life he confirmed it: for, with friends sitting by and conducting a conversation among themselves about a certain matter, he raised his head, already pressed down by the Fates, and when asked why he had done that he replied, 'so that, when I shall have perceived that—whatever it is—about which you are disputing, I may die.' Sloth would assuredly have migrated from among human beings, if they were to enter life with that spirit with which Solon left it.

8.7.ext.15 Quam porro industrius Themistocles, qui maximarum rerum cura districtus, omnium tamen ciuium suorum nomina memoria conprehendit per summamque iniquitatem patria pulsus et ad Xerxem, quem paulo ante deuicerat, confugere coactus, prius quam in conspectum eius ueniret, Persico sermone se adsuefecit, ut labore parta commendatione regiis auribus familiarem et adsuetum sonum uocis adhiberet.

8.7.ext.15 How moreover industrious was Themistocles, who, though constrained by the care of the greatest affairs, nevertheless grasped by memory the names of all his fellow citizens; and, driven from his fatherland by extreme iniquity and compelled to take refuge with Xerxes, whom he had vanquished a little before, before he came into his sight he accustomed himself to the Persian speech, so that, with a commendation won by labor, he might present to royal ears a familiar and accustomed sound of voice.

8.7.ext.16 Cuius utriusque industriae laudem duo reges partiti sunt, Cyrus omnium militum suorum nomina, Mitridates duarum et xx gentium, quae sub regno eius erant, linguas ediscendo, ille, ut sine monitore exercitum salutaret, hic, ut eos, quibus imperabat, sine interprete adloqui posset.

8.7.ext.16 The commendation of the industry of each was apportioned by two kings, Cyrus by learning the names of all his soldiers, Mithridates by learning by heart the languages of 22 nations that were under his rule; the former, so that he might salute the army without a monitor, the latter, so that he could address those whom he commanded without an interpreter.

8.8.init. Otium, quod [praecipue] industriae et studio maxime contrarium uidetur, praecipue subnecti debet, non quo euanescit uirtus, sed quo recreatur: alterum enim etiam inertibus uitandum, alterum strenuis quoque interdum adpetendum est, illis, ne ~ propriae uitam inermem exigant, his, ut tempestiua laboris intermissione ad laborandum fiant uegetiores.

8.8.init. Leisure, which [especially] seems most contrary to industry and study/zeal, ought especially to be subjoined, not whereby virtue vanishes, but whereby it is refreshed: for the one is to be avoided even by the inert, the other is sometimes to be sought even by the strenuous—by the former, lest they ~ pass their own life unarmed; by the latter, that by a seasonable intermission of labor they may become more vigorous for working.

8.8.1 Par uerae amicitiae clarissimum Scipio et Laelius, cum amoris uinculo tum etiam omnium uirtutum inter se iunctum societate, ut actuosae uitae iter aequali gradu exequebantur, ita animi quoque remissioni communiter adquiescebant: constat namque eos Caietae et Laurenti uagos litoribus conchulas et umbilicos lectitasse, idque se P. Crassus ex socero suo Scaeuola, qui gener Laelii fuit, audisse saepe numero praedicauit.

8.8.1 A pair of true friendship most illustrious, Scipio and Laelius—joined between themselves both by the bond of love and also by a fellowship of all virtues—as they pursued the path of an active life with equal step, so too they would jointly acquiesce in remissions of spirit: for it is agreed that, at Caieta and Laurentum, roaming along the shores, they used to pick up little shells and navel-shells; and P. Crassus declared that he had very often heard this from his father-in-law Scaevola, who was Laelius’s son-in-law.

8.8.2 Scaeuola autem, quiet et remissionis eorum certissimus testis, optime pila lusisse traditur, quia uidelicet ad hoc deuerticulum animum suum forensibus ministeriis fatigatum transferre solebat. alueo quoque et calculis interdum uacasse dicitur, cum bene ac diu iura ciuium caerimonias deorum ordinasset: ut enim in rebus seriis Scaeuolam, ita in [scaelus] lusibus hominem agebat, quem rerum natura continui laboris patientem esse non sinit.

8.8.2 Moreover Scaevola, the most certain witness of their rest and relaxation, is reported to have played ball most excellently, because, namely, he was accustomed to transfer his mind, wearied by forensic ministries, to this little detour. He is also said sometimes to have had leisure for the board and for counters, when he had well and for a long time set in order the laws of the citizens and the ceremonies of the gods: for just as in serious matters he played Scaevola, so in [scaelus] games he played the man, whom the nature of things does not permit to be patient of continuous labor.

8.8.ext.1 Idque uidit, cui nulla pars sapientiae obscura fuit, Socrates, ideoque non erubuit tunc, cum interposita harundine cruribus suis cum paruulis filiolis ludens ab Alcibiade risus est.

8.8.ext.1 And this saw Socrates, to whom no part of sapience was obscure, and therefore he did not blush then, when, with a reed interposed between his legs, playing with his very small little sons, he was laughed at by Alcibiades.

8.8.ext.2 Homerus quoque, ingeni caelestis uates, non aliud sensit uehementissimis Achillis manibus canoras fides aptando, ut earum militare robur leni pacis studio relaxaret.

8.8.ext.2 Homer too, a poet of celestial genius, perceived nothing else in fitting tuneful strings to the most vehement hands of Achilles, than to relax the military vigor of those hands by the gentle pursuit of peace.

8.9.init. Potentiam uero eloquentiae, etsi plurimum ualere animaduertimus, tamen sub propriis exemplis, quo scilicet uires eius testatiores fiant, recognosci conuenit.

8.9.init. The potency of eloquence, indeed, although we observe it to prevail very greatly, nevertheless it is fitting that it be recognized by its own examples, so that, namely, its powers may become the more attested.

8.9.1 Regibus exactis plebs dissidens a patribus iuxta ripam fluminis Anienis in colle, qui sacer appellatur, armata consedit, eratque non solum deformis, sed etiam miserrimus rei publicae status, a capite eius cetera parte corporis pestifera seditione diuisa. ac ni Valeri subuenisset eloquentia, spes tanti imperii in ipso paene ortu suo corruisset: is namque populum noua et insolita libertate temere gaudentem oratione ad meliora et saniora consilia reuocatum senatui subiecit, id est urbem urbi iunxit. uerbis ergo facundis ira, consternatio, arma cesserunt.

8.9.1 With the kings driven out, the plebs, dissenting from the Fathers, settled armed beside the bank of the river Anio on the hill which is called Sacred, and the condition of the republic was not only deformed, but even most miserable, the rest of the body being divided from its head by a pestiferous sedition. And if the eloquence of Valerius had not come to the rescue, the hope of so great an imperium would have collapsed almost in its very birth: for he subjected to the senate the people, rashly rejoicing in a new and unaccustomed liberty, recalled by an oration to better and sounder counsels—that is, he joined city to city. Therefore to eloquent words anger, consternation, arms yielded.

8.9.2 Quae etiam Marianos Cinnanosque mucrones ciuilis profundendi sanguinis cupiditate furentes inhibuerunt: missi enim a saeuissimis ducibus milites ad M. Antonium obtruncandum sermone eius obstupefacti destrictos iam et uibrantes gladios cruore uacuos uaginis reddiderunt. quibus digressis P. Annius ++is enim solus in aditu expers Antonianae eloquentiae steterat++crudele imperium truculento ministerio peregit. quam disertum igitur eum fuisse putemus, quem ne hostium quidem quisquam occidere sustinuit, qui modo uocem eius ad aures suas uoluit admittere?

8.9.2 These also held in check the Marian and Cinnan sword-points, raging with the desire of pouring out civil blood: for soldiers sent by the most savage leaders to butcher M. Antonius, stupefied by his speech, returned to their sheaths swords already drawn and brandished, empty of blood. when these had departed, P. Annius ++for he alone had stood at the entrance devoid of Antonian eloquence++cruelly executed the command with a truculent ministry. How eloquent then are we to suppose him to have been, whom not even any one of the enemy could bring himself to kill, provided he only was willing to admit his voice to his own ears?

8.9.3 Diuus quoque Iulius, quam caelestis numinis tam etiam humani ingenii perfectissimum columen, uim facundiae proprie expressit dicendo in accusatione Cn. Dolabellae, quem reum egit, extorqueri sibi causam optimam L. Cottae patrocinio, si quidem maxima tunc eloquentiae questa est. cuius facta mentione, quoniam domesticum nullum maius adiecerim exemplum, peregrinandum est.

8.9.3 The deified Julius, as much the most perfect pinnacle of celestial divinity as also of human ingenium, most properly expressed the vis of eloquence when, in the prosecution of Cn. Dolabella, whom he arraigned, he declared that his best case was being wrested from him by the patronage of L. Cotta—for at that time the greatest complaint of eloquence was lodged by eloquence itself. Mention having been made of him, since I can add no greater domestic example, we must go abroad.

8.9.ext.1 Pisistratus dicendo tantum ualuisse traditus est, ut ei Athenienses regium imperium oratione capti permitterent, cum praesertim e contraria parte amantissimus patriae Solo niteretur. sed alterius salubriores erant contiones, alterius disertiores. quo euenit ut alioqui prudentissima ciuitas libertati seruitutem praeferret.

8.9.ext.1 Pisistratus is reported to have so prevailed by speaking that the Athenians, captivated by his oration, permitted to him royal imperium, although on the opposing side especially Solon, most loving of his fatherland, was striving. But the public addresses of the one were more salubrious, of the other more eloquent. Whence it came about that a city otherwise most prudent preferred servitude to liberty.

8.9.ext.2 Pericles autem, felicissimis naturae incrementis sub Anaxagora praeceptore summo studio perpolitis instructus, liberis Athenarum ceruicibus iugum seruitutis inposuit: egit enim illam urbem et uersauit arbitrio suo, cumque aduersus uoluntatem populi loqueretur, iucunda nihilo minus et popularis eius uox erat. itaque ueteris comoediae maledica lingua, quamuis potentiam uiri perstringere cupiebat, tamen in labris hominis melle dulciorem leporem fatebatur habitare inque animis eorum, qui illum audierant, quasi aculeos quosdam relinqui praedicabat. fertur quidam, cum admodum senex primae contioni Periclis adulescentuli interesset idemque iuuenis Pisistratum decrepitum iam contionantem audisset, non temperasse sibi quo minus exclamaret caueri illum ciuem oportere, quod Pisistrati orationi simillima eius esset oratio.

8.9.ext.2 Pericles, however, furnished with the happiest increments of nature, polished with the greatest zeal under the preceptor Anaxagoras, laid the yoke of servitude upon the free necks of Athens: for he drove that city and turned it about at his own discretion; and although he spoke against the will of the people, nonetheless his voice was pleasant and popular. And so the maledictive tongue of Old Comedy, although it desired to lash the man’s potentia, yet confessed that on the man’s lips there dwelt a charm sweeter than honey, and proclaimed that in the minds of those who had heard him there were, as it were, certain stings left behind. It is reported that a certain man, when as a very old man he attended the first oration of youthful Pericles, and when as a young man he had heard Pisistratus already decrepit haranguing, did not restrain himself from crying out that that citizen ought to be guarded against, because his oration was most similar to the oration of Pisistratus.

nec hominem aut aestimatio eloqui aut morum augurium fefellit. quid enim inter Pisistratum et Periclen interfuit, nisi quod ille armatus, hic sine armis tyrannidem gessit?

Nor did either the estimation of eloquence or the augury of character deceive the man. For what, indeed, was there between Pisistratus and Pericles, except that the former, armed, the latter unarmed, exercised tyranny?

8.9.ext.3 Quantum eloquentia ualuisse Hegesian Cyrenaicum philosophum arbitramur? qui sic mala uitae repraesentabat, ut eorum miseranda imagine audientium pectoribus inserta multis uoluntariae mortis oppetendae cupiditatem ingeneraret: ideoque a rege Ptolomaeo ulterius hac de re disserere prohibitus est.

8.9.ext.3 How powerful do we reckon the eloquence of Hegesias the Cyrenaic philosopher to have been? who so represented the evils of life, that, with their pitiable image inserted into the breasts of the hearers, he engendered in many a desire to meet voluntary death; and therefore he was forbidden by King Ptolemy to discourse further on this matter.

8.10.init. Eloquentiae autem ornamenta in pronuntiatione apta et conueniente motum corporis consistunt. quibus cum se instruxit, tribus modis homines adgreditur, animos eorum ipsa inuadendo, horum alteri aures, alteri oculos permulcendos tradendo.

8.10.init. But the ornaments of eloquence consist in delivery that is apt and suitable, and in movement of the body. When he has equipped himself with these, he approaches people in three ways: by invading their very minds themselves, and by handing over, for some, their ears to be soothed, for others, their eyes to be soothed.

8.10.1 Sed ut propositi fides in personis inlustribus exhibeatur, C. Gracchus, eloquentiae quam propositi felicioris adulescens, quoniam flagrantissimo ingenio, cum optime rem publicam tueri posset, perturbare impie maluit, quotiens apud populum contionatus est, seruum post se musicae artis peritum habuit, qui occulte eburnea fistula pronuntiationis eius modos formabat aut nimis remissos excitando aut plus iusto concitatos reuocando, quia ipsum calor atque impetus actionis attentum huiusce temperamenti aestimatorem esse non patiebatur.

8.10.1 But in order that the credibility of the thesis be exhibited in illustrious persons: Gaius Gracchus, a youth more fortunate in eloquence than in his purpose, since, with a most blazing genius, although he could most excellently defend the commonwealth, he preferred impiously to throw it into disorder, whenever he harangued before the people, had behind him a slave skilled in the musical art, who secretly with an ivory pipe was shaping the modes of his delivery, either by rousing them when too relaxed or by recalling them when excited more than is just, because the heat and impetus of the action did not allow him himself to be an attentive evaluator of this tempering.

8.10.2 Q. autem Hortensius plurimum in corporis decoro motu repositum credens paene plus studii in eo[dem] laborando quam in ipsa eloquentia adfectanda inpendit. itaque nescires utrum cupidius ad audiendum eum an ad spectandum concurreretur: sic uerbis oratoris aspectus et rursus aspectui uerba seruiebant. constat Aesopum Rosciumque ludicrae artis peritissimos illo causas agente in corona frequenter adstitisse, ut foro petitos gestus in scaenam referrent.

8.10.2 Q. Hortensius, believing that very much was reposed in the decorous motion of the body, expended almost more study in elaborating that same thing than in aiming at eloquence itself. And so you would not know whether people ran together more eagerly to hear him or to see him: thus the orator’s aspect served the words, and in turn the words served the aspect. It is agreed that Aesopus and Roscius, most skilled in the theatrical art, often stood in the circle while he was pleading causes, so that they might carry back gestures sought from the forum onto the stage.

8.10.3 Nam M. Cicero quantum in utraque re, de qua loquimur, momenti sit oratione, quam pro Gallio habuit, significauit M. Calidio accusatori exprobrando, quod praeparatum sibi a reo uenenum testibus, chirographis, quaestionibus probaturum adfirmans remisso uultu et languida uoce et soluto genere orationis usus esset, pariterque et oratoris uitium detexit et causae periclitantis argumentum adiecit totum hunc locum ita claudendo: 'tu istud, M. Calidi, nisi fingeres, sic ageres?'

8.10.3 For M. Cicero indicated, by the oration which he delivered on behalf of Gallius, how much weight there is in each of the two things we are speaking about, by reproaching the accuser M. Calidius because, while affirming that he would prove by witnesses, chirographs, and interrogations that poison had been prepared for him by the defendant, he had used a relaxed countenance and a languid voice and a loose kind of oration; and at the same time he both disclosed the orator’s fault and added an argument that the case was in peril, closing this whole passage thus: 'Would you, M. Calidius, act thus, unless you were fabricating that?'

8.10.ext.1 Consentaneum huic Demosthenis iudicium. qui[dam], cum interrogaretur quidnam esset in dicendo efficacissimum, respondit 'æ Õp"krisiw'. iterum deinde et tertio interpellatus idem dixit, paene totum se illi debere confitendo. recte itaque Aeschines, cum propter iudicialem ignominiam relictis Athenis Rhodum petisset atque ibi rogatu ciuitatis suam prius in Ctesiphontem, deinde Demosthenis pro eodem orationem clarissima et suauissima uoce recitasset, admirantibus cunctis utriusque uoluminis eloquentiam, sed aliquanto magis Demosthenis, 'quid, si' inquit 'ipsum audissetis?' tantus orator et modo tam infestus aduersarius sic inimici uim ardoremque dicendi suspexit, ut se scriptorum eius parum idoneum lectorem esse praedicaret, expertus acerrimum uigorem oculorum, terribile uultus pondus, adconmodatum singulis uerbis sonum uocis, efficacissimos corporis motus.

8.10.ext.1 Consistent with this is Demosthenes’ judgment. A certain man, when he was asked what was most efficacious in speaking, answered ‘delivery’. Then, when interrupted a second and a third time, he said the same thing, confessing that he owed almost everything to it. Rightly therefore Aeschines, when, on account of judicial ignominy, he had left Athens and made for Rhodes, and there at the request of the city had recited, first his own speech Against Ctesiphon, then Demosthenes’ speech on the same matter, with a very clear and most sweet voice, while all admired the eloquence of both rolls, but somewhat more that of Demosthenes, said, ‘What, if you had heard the man himself?’ So great an orator, and just now so hostile an adversary, thus looked up to the enemy’s force and ardor of speaking, that he declared himself a scarcely suitable reader of his writings, having experienced the keenest vigor of the eyes, the terrible weight of the countenance, the sound of the voice accommodated to each single word, the most efficacious movements of the body.

ergo etsi operi illius adici nihil potest, tamen in Demosthene magna pars Demosthenis abest, quod legitur potius quam auditur.

therefore, although nothing can be added to that work, nevertheless in Demosthenes a great part of Demosthenes is absent, because he is read rather than heard.

8.11.init. Effectus etiam artium ~ recognosci posse aliquid adferre uoluptatis, protinusque et quam utiliter excogitatae sint patebit, et memoratu dignae res lucido in loco reponentur et labor in iis edendis suo fructu non carebit.

8.11.init. The effects also of the arts ~ can be recognized as bringing some pleasure; and forthwith both how usefully they have been excogitated will be evident, and things worthy of remembrance will be set in a clear light, and the labor in publishing them will not lack its own fruit.

8.11.1 Sulpicii Galli maximum in omni genere litterarum percipiendo studium plurimum rei publicae profuit: nam cum L. Pauli bellum aduersum regem Persen gerentis legatus esset, ac serena nocte subito luna defecisset, eoque uelut diro quodam monstro perritus exercitus noster manus cum hoste conserendi fiduciam amisisset, de caeli ratione et siderum natura peritissime disputando alacrem eum in aciem misit. itaque inclytae illi Paulianae uictoriae liberales artes Galli aditum dederunt, quia, nisi ille metum nostrorum militum uicisset, imperator uincere hostes non potuisset.

8.11.1 Sulpicius Gallus’s utmost zeal in apprehending every kind of letters profited the commonwealth very greatly: for when he was the legate of L. Paulus, who was conducting war against King Perseus, and on a clear night the moon suddenly was eclipsed, and our army, alarmed by this as by a certain dire prodigy, had lost the confidence of joining hands in combat with the enemy, by discoursing most expertly about the rationale of the heavens and the nature of the stars he sent it eager into the battle line. And so to that renowned Paulian victory the liberal arts of Gallus gave an entry; because, unless he had conquered the fear of our soldiers, the commander could not have conquered the enemy.

8.11.2 Spurinnae quoque in coniectandis deorum monitis efficacior scientia apparuit quam urbs Romana uoluit. praedixerat C. Caesari ut proximos xxx dies quasi fatales caueret, quorum ultimus erat idus Martiae. eo cum forte mane uterque in domum Caluini Domiti ad officium conuenisset, Caesar Spurinnae 'ecquid scis idus iam Martias uenisse?' at is 'ecquid scis illas nondum praeterisse?' abiecerat alter timorem tamquam exacto tempore suspecto, alter ne extremam quidem eius partem periculo uacuam esse arbitratus est.

8.11.2 Spurinna too showed a knowledge, in conjecturing the monitions of the gods, more efficacious than the Roman city would have wished. He had foretold to Gaius Caesar to beware the next 30 days as if fated, the last of which was the Ides of March. On that day, when by chance in the morning both had come together to the house of Domitius Calvinus for the duty, Caesar said to Spurinna, 'Do you know that the Ides of March have now come?' But he, 'Do you know that they have not yet passed?' The one had cast off fear, as though the time of suspicion had elapsed; the other judged that not even its extreme part was free from danger.

utinam haruspicem potius augurium quam patriae parentem securitas fefellisset.

Would that an augury had deceived the haruspex rather than security had deceived the father of the fatherland.

8.11.ext.1 Sed ut alienigena scrutemur, cum obscurato repente sole inusitatis perfusae tenebris Athenae sollitudine angerentur, interitum sibi caelesti denuntiatione portendi credentes, Pericles processit in medium et quae a praeceptore suo Anaxagora pertinentia ad solis et lunae cursum acceperat disseruit nec ulterius trepidare ciues suos uano metu passus est.

8.11.ext.1 But that we may examine a foreigner: when the sun was suddenly obscured and Athens, suffused with unusual darkness, was vexed with solicitude, believing that destruction was being portended to them by a celestial denunciation, Pericles proceeded into the midst and discoursed on those things which he had received from his preceptor Anaxagoras pertaining to the course of the sun and the moon, and he did not allow his citizens to tremble further with vain fear.

8.11.ext.2 Quantum porro dignitatis a rege Alexandro tributum arti existimamus, qui se et pingi ab uno Apelle et fingi a Lysippo tantum modo uoluit?

8.11.ext.2 How much further dignity do we think was attributed to the art by King Alexander, who wished to have himself both painted by Apelles alone and fashioned by Lysippus only?

8.11.ext.3 Tenet uisentis Athenis Volcanus Alcamenis manibus fabricatus: praeter cetera enim perfectissimae artis in eo procurrentia indicia etiam illud mirantur, quod stat dissimulatae claudicationis sub ueste leuiter uestigium repraesentans, ut non exprobratum tamquam uitium, ita tamquam certam propriamque dei notam decore significatam.

8.11.ext.3 Vulcan, fabricated by the hands of Alcamenes, holds those who visit in Athens: for besides the other salient indications of most perfect art projecting in it, they also marvel at this—that he stands, lightly under the garment representing the vestige of a dissimulated claudication, so that, not as if reproached as a defect, but as a certain and proper mark of the god, it is signified with decorum.

8.11.ext.4 Cuius coniugem Praxiteles in marmore quasi spirantem in templo Cnidiorum collocauit, propter pulchritudinem operis a libidinoso cuiusdam conplexu parum tutam. quo excusabilior est error equi, qui uisa pictura equae hinnitum edere coactus est, et canum latratus aspectu picti canis incitatus taurusque ad amorem et concubitum aeneae uaccae Syrasusis nimiae similitudinis inritamento conpulsus: quid enim uacua rationis ania arte decepta miremur, cum hominis sacrilegam cupiditatem muti lapidis liniamentis excitatam uideas?

8.11.ext.4 Whose spouse Praxiteles set up in marble as if breathing in the temple of the Cnidians, scarcely safe, on account of the beauty of the work, from the embrace of a certain libidinous man. Wherefore the error of the horse is more excusable, who, on seeing a painting of a mare, was compelled to utter a whinny; and the barking of dogs was incited by the aspect of a painted dog; and a bull was driven to love and coupling by the incitement of the excessive likeness of a bronze cow at Syracuse: for why should we marvel that animals void of reason are deceived by art, when we see a man’s sacrilegious desire stirred by the lineaments of a mute stone?

8.11.ext.5 Ceterum natura, quem ad modum saepe numero aemulam uirium suarum artem esse patitur, ita aliquando inritam fesso labore dimittit. quod summi artificis Euphranoris manus senserunt: nam cum Athenis xii deos pingeret, Neptuni imaginem quam poterat excellentissimis maiestatis coloribus conplexus est, perinde ac Iouis aliquanto augustiorem repraesentaturus. sed omni impetu cogitationis in superiore opere absumpto posteriores eius conatus adsurgere quo tendebant nequiuerunt.

8.11.ext.5 Moreover, nature, just as it often allows art to be a rival of its own powers, so sometimes lets it go ineffectual, wearied with labor. This the hands of the supreme artificer Euphranor felt: for when at Athens he was painting the 12 gods, he encompassed Neptune’s image with the most excellent colors of majesty he could, as though he were going to represent Jove as somewhat more august. But with all the impulse of his cogitation spent on the prior work, his later efforts were not able to rise to the point to which they aimed.

8.11.ext.6 Quid ille alter aeque nobilis pictor luctuosum immolatae Iphigeniae sacrificium referens, cum Calchantem tristem, maestum Vlixen, [clamantem Aiacem] lamentantem Menelaum circa aram statuisset, caput Agamemnonis inuoluendo nonne summi maeroris acerbitatem arte non posse exprimi confessus est? itaque pictura eius aruspicis et amici et fratris lacrimis madet, patris fletum spectantis adfectu aestumandum reliquit.

8.11.ext.6 What of that other equally noble painter, portraying the mournful sacrifice of Iphigenia immolated, when he had set around the altar Calchas sad, Ulysses sorrowful, [Ajax shouting], Menelaus lamenting—by veiling the head of Agamemnon, did he not confess that the bitterness of the highest grief cannot be expressed by art? And so his painting is soaked with the tears of the haruspex and the friend and the brother; he left the father’s weeping to be assessed by the emotion of the spectator.

8.11.ext.7 Atque ut eiusdem studii adiciam exemplum, praecipuae artis pictor equum ab exercitatione uenientem modo non uiuum labore industriae suae conprehenderat. cuius naribus spumas adicere cupiens tantus artifex in tam paruula materia multum ac diu frustra terebatur. indignatione deinde accensus spongeam omnibus inbutam coloribus forte iuxta se positam adprehendit et ueluti corrupturus opus suum tabulae inlisit.

8.11.ext.7 And so that I may add an example of the same pursuit, a painter of preeminent art had captured a horse coming from exercise, all but living, by the labor of his industry. Wishing to add foam to its nostrils, so great an artificer on so very small a matter was long and much worn out in vain. Then, inflamed with indignation, he seized a sponge soaked with all the colors, which by chance had been placed next to him, and, as though about to corrupt his work, he dashed it against the panel.

quam fortuna ad ipsas equi nares directam desiderium pictoris coegit explere. itaque quod ars adumbrare non ualuit casus imitatus est.

which Fortune, directed to the horse’s very nostrils, compelled to fulfill the painter’s desire. and so what art was not able to adumbrate, chance imitated.

8.12.init. Suae autem artis unum quemque et auctorem et disputatorem optimum esse, ne dubitemus, paucis exemplis admoneamur.

8.12.init. However, that, in his own art, each person is both the best author and the best disputant, let us not doubt; let us be reminded by a few examples.

8.12.1 Q. Scaeuola legum clarissimus et certissimus uates, quotienscumque de iure praediatorio consulebatur, ad Furium et Cascellium, quia huic scientiae dediti erant, consultores reiciebat. quo quidem facto moderationem magis suam commendabat quam auctoritatem minuebat, ab iis id negotium aptius explicari posse confitendo, qui cotidiano usu eius callebant. sapientissimi igitur artis suae professores sunt a quibus et propria studia uerecunde et aliena callide aestimantur.

8.12.1 Q. Scaevola, the most illustrious and most sure vates of the laws, whenever he was consulted about praedial law, used to refer the consultors to Furius and Cascellius, because they were devoted to this discipline. By this deed indeed he commended his moderation rather than diminished his authority, by confessing that that business could be more aptly explicated by those who were skilled in it through quotidian use. Therefore the most sapient professors of their art are those by whom both their own pursuits are modestly, and others’ cleverly, assessed.

8.12.ext.1 Platonis quoque eruditissimum pectus haec cogitatio attigit, qui conductores sacrae arae modo et forma eius secum sermonem conferre conatos ad Eucliden geometren ire iussit scientiae eius cedens, immo professioni.

8.12.ext.1 This cogitation touched the most erudite mind of Plato as well, who ordered the contractors of a sacred altar, having tried to confer discourse with him about its mode and form, to go to Euclid the geometer, yielding to his science—nay rather, to his profession.

8.12.ext.2 Gloriantur Athenae armamentario suo, nec sine causa: est enim illud opus et inpensa et elegantia uisendum. cuius architectum Philonem ita facunde rationem institutionis suae in theatro reddidisse constat, ut disertissimus populus non minorem laudem eloquentiae eius quam arti tribueret.

8.12.ext.2 Athens boasts of its armory, and not without cause: for that work is to be seen for both expense and elegance. Its architect Philon is agreed to have so eloquently rendered in the theater an account of his design, that the most eloquent people bestowed no less praise on his eloquence than on his art.

8.12.ext.3 Mirifice et ille artifex, qui in opere suo moneri se a sutore [suo] de crepida et ansulis passus, de crure etiam disputare incipientem supra plantam ascendere uetuit.

8.12.ext.3 Admirably also that artificer, who, in his work, allowed himself to be admonished by a shoemaker about the sandal and the little straps, but when he began to dispute about the leg as well, forbade him to ascend above the sole.

8.13.init. Senectus quoque ad ultimum sui finem prouecta in hoc eodem opere inter exempla industriae in aliquot claris uiris conspecta est. separatum tamen et proprium titulum habeat, ne, cui deorum inmortalium praecipua indulgentia adfuit, nostra honorata mentio defuisse existimetur, et simul spei diuturnioris uitae quasi adminicula quaedam dentur, quibus insistens alacriorem se respectu uetustae felicitatis facere possit, tranquillitatemque saeculi nostri, qua nulla umquam beatior fuit, subinde fiducia confirmet, salutaris principis incolumitatem ad longissimos humanae condicionis terminos prorogando.

8.13.init. Old age too, borne on to its ultimate end, has in this same work been seen among the exemplars of industry in several famous men. Let it, however, have a separate and proper title, lest it be thought that our honored mention has been lacking to him for whom the special indulgence of the immortal gods has been present; and at the same time let certain, as it were, supports be given to the hope of a more enduring life, by leaning on which he may be able to make himself more sprightly by a regard to ancient felicity, and may from time to time, with confidence, confirm the tranquility of our age—than which none was ever more blessed—by prolonging the well-being of the salutary prince to the farthest limits of the human condition.

8.13.1 M. Valerius Coruinus centesimum annum conpleuit. cuius inter primum et sextum consulatum xl et vi anni intercesserunt, suffecitque integris uiribus corporis non solum speciosissimis publicis ministeriis, sed etiam exactissimae agrorum suorum culturae, et ciuis et patris familiae optabile exemplum.

8.13.1 M. Valerius Corvinus completed his hundredth year. Between his first and his sixth consulship, 46 years intervened, and with his bodily powers intact he was equal not only to the most splendid public services, but also to the most exact cultivation of his own fields, a desirable example both of a citizen and of a paterfamilias.

8.13.2 Cuius uitae spatium aequauit Metellus quartoque anno post consularia imperia senex admodum pontifex maximus creatus tutelam caerimoniarum per duo et xx annos neque ore in uotis nuncupandis haesitante neque in sacrificiis faciendis tremula manu gessit.

8.13.2 The span of whose life Metellus equaled, and in the 4th year after his consular commands, a very old man, he was created pontifex maximus, and he bore the guardianship of the ceremonies for 22 years with neither his mouth hesitating in proclaiming vows nor his hand trembling in performing sacrifices.

8.13.3 Q. autem Fabius Maximus duo et lx annis auguratus sacerdotium sustinuit, robusta iam aetate id adeptus. quae utraque tempora si in unum conferantur, facile saeculi modum expleuerint.

8.13.3 But Q. Fabius Maximus, as augur, sustained the priesthood for 62 years, having obtained it already in robust age. If both these spans be brought together into one, they would easily have filled the measure of a century.

8.13.4 Iam de M. Perpenna quid loquar? qui omnibus, quos in senatum con uocauerat, superstes fuit septemque tantummodo, quos censor, collega L. Philippi, legerat, e patribus conscriptis reliquos uidit, toto ordine amplissimo diuturnior.

8.13.4 Now what shall I say about M. Perpenna? who outlived all those whom, as consul, he had called into the senate, and saw only seven, survivors of those whom, as censor, the colleague of L. Philippus, he had chosen from the conscript fathers; longer-lived than that whole most distinguished order.

8.13.5 Appi uero aeuum clade metirer, quia infinitum numerum annorum orbatus luminibus exegit, nisi quattuor filios, v filias, plurimas clientelas, rem denique publicam hoc casu grauatus fortissime rexisset. quin etiam fessus iam uiuendo lectica se in curiam deferri iussit, ut cum Pyrro deformem pacem fieri prohiberet. hunc caecum aliquis nominet, a quo patria quod honestum erat per se parum cernens coacta est peruidere?

8.13.5 But indeed, I would measure Appius’s lifetime by disaster, because, bereft of his lights, he spent an infinite number of years—had he not, with 4 sons, 5 daughters, very many clienteles, and, finally, the commonwealth itself, weighed down by this mischance, ruled it most bravely. Moreover, now weary of living, he even ordered himself to be carried by litter into the Curia, so that he might prevent a disgraceful peace from being made with Pyrrhus. Will someone call this man blind, by whom the fatherland, which on its own scarcely discerned what was honorable, was compelled to see through it clearly?

8.13.6 Muliebris etiam uitae spatium non minus longum in conpluribus apparauit, quarum aliquas strictim retulisse me satis erit: nam et Liuia Rutili septimum et nonagesimum et Terentia Ciceronis tertium et centesimum et Clodia Aufili quindecim filiis ante amissis quintum decimum et centesimum expleuit annum.

8.13.6 The span of female life too has appeared no less long in a good many, of whom it will be enough for me to have briefly related some: for Livia, of Rutilius, completed her 97th year, and Terentia, of Cicero, her 103rd, and Clodia, of Aufilius, with fifteen sons previously lost, completed her 115th year.

8.13.ext.1 Iungam his duos reges, quorum diuturnitas populo Romano fuit utilissima. Siciliae rector Hiero ad nonagesimum annum peruenit. Masinissa Numidiae rex hunc modum excessit, regni spatium lx annis emensus, uel ante omnes homines robore senectae admirabilis.

8.13.ext.1 I will join to these two kings, whose long duration was most useful to the Roman people. Hiero, ruler of Sicily, reached to his 90th year. Masinissa, king of Numidia, surpassed this measure, completing a span of rule of 60 years, indeed, above all men admirable for the vigor of his old age.

constat eum, quem ad modum Cicero refert libro, quem de senectute scripsit, nullo umquam imbri, nullo frigore ut caput suum ueste tegeret adduci potuisse. eundem ferunt aliquot horis in eodem uestigio perstare solitum, non ante moto pede quam consimili labore iuuenes fatigasset, ac si quid agi ab sedente oporteret, toto die saepe numero nullam in partem conuerso corpore in solio durasse. ille uero etiam exercitus equo insidens noctem diei plerumque iungendo duxit nihilque omnino ex his operibus, quae adulescens sustinere adsueuerat, quo mollius senectutem ageret, omisit.

It is agreed that he, as Cicero reports in the book which he wrote On Old Age, could never be induced by any rain, by any cold, to cover his head with a garment. They say that this same man was accustomed to stand fast for several hours on the same spot, not moving his foot before he had fatigued young men with similar toil; and, if anything had to be done by one sitting, he often for a whole day endured on the chair with his body turned in no direction. He indeed, even riding a horse, led armies, for the most part by joining night to day, and he omitted absolutely nothing from those labors which he had been accustomed to sustain when a youth, in order that he might conduct his old age more gently.

ueneris etiam usu ita semper uiguit, ut post sextum et octogesimum annum filium generaret, cui Methymno nomen fuit. terram quoque, quam uastam et desertam acceperat, perpetuo culturae studio frugiferam reliquit.

even in the use of Venus he always so flourished that, after the eighty-sixth year, he begot a son, whose name was Methymno. he also left the land, which he had received waste and deserted, fruit-bearing, through a perpetual zeal for cultivation.

8.13.ext.2 Gorgias etiam Leontinus, Isocratis et conplurium magni ingenii uirorum praeceptor, sua sententia felicissimus: nam cum centesimum et septimum ageret annum, interrogatus quapropter tam diu uellet in uita remanere, 'quia nihil' inquit 'habeo, quod senectutem meam accusem'. quid isto tractu aetatis aut longius aut beatius? iam alterum saeculum ingressus neque in hoc querellam ullam inuenit neque in illo reliquit.

8.13.ext.2 Gorgias of Leontini, the preceptor of Isocrates and of many men of great talent, happiest in his own judgment: for when he was in his 107th year, asked why he wished to remain in life so long, he said, 'because I have nothing with which to accuse my old age'. What, in that stretch of age, is either longer or more blessed? Already having entered a second century, he found no complaint in this one, nor left one in that.

8.13.ext.3 Biennio minor Xenophilus Chalcidensis Pythagoricus, sed felicitate non inferior, si quidem, ut ait Aristoxenus musicus, omnis humani incommodi expers in summo perfectissimae doctrinae splendore extinctus est.

8.13.ext.3 Younger by a biennium, Xenophilus of Chalcis, a Pythagorean, yet not inferior in felicity, indeed—as Aristoxenus the musician says—being free from every human inconvenience, passed away in the highest splendor of most perfected doctrine.

8.13.ext.4 Arganthonius autem Gaditanus tam diu regnauit, quam diu etiam ad satietatem uixisse abunde foret: lxxx enim annis patriam suam rexit, cum ad imperium xl annos natus accessisset. cuius rei certi sunt auctores. Asinius etiam Pollio, non minima pars Romani stili, in tertio historiarum suarum libro centum illum et xxx annos explesse commemorat, et ipse neruosae uiuacitatis haud paruum exemplum.

8.13.ext.4 Arganthonius of Gades, moreover, reigned so long as would have been abundantly sufficient even to have lived to satiety: for 80 years he ruled his fatherland, having acceded to sovereignty at 40 years of age. Of this matter there are reliable authorities. Asinius Pollio too, no mean part of the Roman style, in the third book of his Histories commemorates that he made up 130 years, he himself also no small example of sinewy vivacity.

8.13.ext.5 Huius regis consummationem annorum minus admirabilem faciunt Aethiopes, quos Herodotus scribit centesimum et uicesimum annum transgredi, et Indi, de quibus Ctesias idem tradit, et Epimenides Cnosius, quem Theopompus dicit septem et l et centum annos uixisse.

8.13.ext.5 The Ethiopians make the completion of this king’s years less admirable, whom Herodotus writes to surpass the 120th year, and the Indians, about whom Ctesias hands down the same, and Epimenides the Cnosian, whom Theopompus says lived 157 years.

8.13.ext.6 Hellanicus uero ait quosdam ex gente Epiorum, quae pars Aetoliae , ducenos explere annos, eique suscribit Damastes, hoc amplius adfirmans, Litorium quendam ex his maximarum uirium staturaeque praecipuae trecentesimum annum cumulasse.

8.13.ext.6 Hellanicus, indeed, says that certain people from the tribe of the Epii, which is a part of Aetolia, complete two hundred years; and Damastes subscribes to this, further affirming that a certain Litorius among them, a man of the greatest strength and of exceptional stature, accumulated his three-hundredth year.

8.13.ext.7 Alexander uero in eo uolumine, quod de Illyrico tractu conposuit, adfirmat Dandonem quendam ad quingentesimum usque annum nulla ex parte senescentem processisse. sed multo liberalius Xenophon, cuius per§plouw legitur: insulae enim Latmiorum regem octingentis uitae annis donauit. ac ne pater eius parum benigne acceptus uideretur, ei quoque sescentos adsignauit annos.

8.13.ext.7 Alexander, however, in that volume which he composed about the Illyrian tract, affirms that a certain Dandon advanced up to the 500th year without in any respect growing old. But far more liberally Xenophon, whose per§plouw is read: for he bestowed upon the king of the island of the Latmians 800 years of life. And lest his father seem too little kindly received, to him also he assigned 600 years.

8.14.init. Gloria uero aut unde oriatur aut cuius sit habitus aut qua ratione debeat conparari et an melius a uirtute uelut non necessaria neglegatur uiderint hi, quorum in contemplandis eius modi rebus cura teritur quibusque quae prudenter animaduerterunt facunde contigit eloqui. ego in hoc opere factis auctores et auctoribus facta sua reddere contentus, quanta cupiditas eius esse soleat propriis exemplis demonstrare conabor.

8.14.init. Glory indeed, whence it arises or what its habit is, or by what method it ought to be procured, and whether it is better that it be neglected by Virtue as if not necessary—let those consider, whose care is worn out in contemplating matters of this sort, and to whom it has fallen to speak eloquently what they have prudently observed. I, in this work, content to render to deeds their authors and to authors their deeds, will endeavor to demonstrate by my own examples how great the desire for it is wont to be.

8.14.1 Superior Africanus Enni poetae effigiem in monumentis Corneliae gentis conlocari uoluit, quod ingenio eius opera sua inlustrata iudicaret, non quidem ignarus, quam diu Romanum imperium floreret et Africa Italiae pedibus esset subiecta totiusque terrarum orbis summum columen arx Capitolina possideret, eorum extingui memoriam non posse, si tamen litterarum quoque illis lumen accessisset, magni aestimans, uir Homerico quam rudi atque inpolito praeconio dignior.

8.14.1 The elder Africanus wanted the effigy of the poet Ennius to be placed in the monuments of the Cornelian gens, because he judged that by his genius his own deeds had been made illustrious; not, to be sure, unaware that, so long as the Roman empire flourished and Africa was subjected to the feet of Italy and the Capitoline citadel possessed the supreme pinnacle of the whole orbit of lands, their memory could not be extinguished—if, however, the light of letters too had been added to them—valuing highly a man more worthy of a Homeric than of a rough and unpolished proclamation.

8.14.2 Similiter honoratus animus erga poetam Accium D. Bruti suis temporibus clari ducis extitit, cuius familiari cultu et prompta laudatione delectatus uersibus templorum aditus, quae ex manubiis consecrauerat, adornauit.

8.14.2 Similarly, an honoring spirit toward the poet Accius was shown by D. Brutus, a leader renowned in his own times, who, delighted by his familiar attendance and ready laudation, adorned with verses the entrances of the temples which he had consecrated from the spoils.

8.14.3 Ne Pompeius quidem Magnus ab hoc affectu gloriae auersus, qui Theophanen Mitylenaeum scriptorem rerum suarum in contione militum ciuitate donauit, beneficium per se amplum accurata etiam et testata oratione prosecutus. quo effectum est ut ne quis dubitaret quin referret potius gratiam quam inchoaret.

8.14.3 Not even Pompey the Great was averse from this affection for glory, who granted Theophanes the Mytilenaean, the writer of his own deeds, citizenship in an assembly of the soldiers, having accompanied the benefaction, ample in itself, also with a careful and attested oration. By which it was brought about that no one doubted that he was rather returning gratitude than initiating it.

8.14.4 L. autem Sulla, etsi ad neminem scriptorem animum direxit, tamen Iugurthae a Boccho rege ad Marium perducti totam sibi laudem cupide adseruit, ut anulo, quo signatorio utebatur, insculptam illam traditionem haberet. ~ et quantus postea ne minimum quidem gloriae uestigium contempsit.

8.14.4 But L. Sulla, although he directed his mind to no writer, nevertheless asserted to himself so eagerly all the praise for Jugurtha’s being led by King Bocchus to Marius that he had that delivering-over engraved on the signet-ring which he used. ~ and how great afterward he did not despise even the least vestige of glory.

8.14.5 Atque ut imperatoribus militis gloriosum spiritum subnectam, Scipionem dona militaria his, qui strenuam operam ediderant, diuidentem T. Labienus ut forti equiti aureas armillas tribueret admonuit, eoque se negante id factum, ne castrensis honos in eo, qui paulo ante seruisset, uiolaretur, ipse ex praeda Gallica aurum equiti largitus est. nec tacite id Scipio tulit: namque equiti 'habebis' inquit 'donum uiri diuitis'. quod ubi ille accepit, proiecto ante pedes Labieni auro uultum demisit. idem, ut audiit Scipionem dicentem 'imperator te argenteis armillis donat', alacer gaudio abiit.

8.14.5 And, that I may append to the imperators the glorious spirit of a soldier: while Scipio was distributing military gifts to those who had rendered strenuous service, he admonished T. Labienus to bestow golden bracelets upon a brave horseman; and when he refused that he would do it, lest a camp honor be violated in the case of one who a little before had been a slave, Scipio himself out of Gallic booty lavished gold upon the horseman. Nor did Scipio take this silently: for to the horseman he said, 'you shall have the gift of a rich man.' When he received that, with the gold cast before Labienus’s feet, he lowered his face. The same man, when he heard Scipio saying, 'the commander gifts you with silver bracelets,' went away quick with joy.

nulla est ergo tanta humilitas, quae dulcedine gloriae non tangatur.

therefore there is no humility so great that is not touched by the sweetness of glory.

8.14.6 Illa uero etiam a claris uiris interdum ex humillimis rebus petita est: nam quid sibi uoluit C. Fabius nobilissimus ciuis, qui, cum in aede Salutis, quam C. Iunius Bubulcus dedicauerat, parietes pinxisset, nomen his suum inscripsit? id enim demum ornamenti familiae consulatibus et sacerdotiis et triumphis celeberrimae deerat. ceterum sordido studio deditum ingenium qualemcumque illum laborem suum silentio obliterari noluit, uidelicet Phidiae secutus exemplum, qui clypeo Mineruae effigiem suam inclusit, qua conuulsa tota operis conligatio solueretur.

8.14.6 That, indeed, has even by illustrious men sometimes been sought from the most humble things: for what did Gaius Fabius, a most noble citizen, mean, who, when he had painted the walls in the temple of Salus, which Gaius Junius Bubulcus had dedicated, inscribed his own name upon them? For that, at last, was lacking as an ornament to a family most celebrated for consulships and priesthoods and triumphs. Moreover, a mind devoted to sordid zeal did not wish that that labor of his, whatever it was, be obliterated by silence—evidently following the example of Phidias, who enclosed his own effigy in the shield of Minerva, such that, if it were torn out, the entire cohesion of the work would be undone.

8.14.ext.1 Sed melius aliquanto, si aliena imitatione capiebatur, Themistoclis ardorem esset aemulatus, quem ferunt stimulis uirtutis agitatum et ob id noctes inquietas exigentem quaerentibus quid ita eo tempore in publico uersaretur respondisse: 'quia me tropaea Miltiadis de somno excitant'. Marathon nimirum animum eius ad Artemisium et Salamina, naualis gloriae fertilia nomina, inlustranda tacitis facibus incitabat. idem theatrum petens cum interrogaretur cuius uox auditu illi futura esset gratissima, dixit 'eius, a quo artes meae optime canentur'. dulcedinem gloriae, paene adieci gloriosam!

8.14.ext.1 But it would have been somewhat better, if he was being captivated by imitation of another, to have emulated the ardor of Themistocles, whom they report to have been driven by the goads of virtue and on that account to be passing restless nights; when people asked why thus at that time he was moving about in public, he replied: 'because the trophies of Miltiades rouse me from sleep'. Marathon, to be sure, was inciting his mind to Artemisium and Salamis—names fertile in naval glory—to be made illustrious by silent torches. The same man, making for the theater, when he was asked whose voice would be most pleasing to him to hear, said: 'that of him by whom my exploits will be sung best'. The sweetness of glory—I almost added “glorious”!

8.14.ext.2 Nam Alexandri pectus insatiabile laudis, qui Anaxarcho comiti suo ex auctoritate Democriti praeceptoris innumerabiles mundos esse referenti 'heu me' inquit 'miserum, quod ne uno quidem adhuc sum potitus!' angusta homini possessio [gloriae] fuit, quae deorum omnium domicilio sufficit.

8.14.ext.2 For Alexander’s breast, insatiable of praise, when to his companion Anaxarchus—reporting on the authority of his teacher Democritus that innumerable worlds exist—he said, 'alas for me, wretched, that I have not yet gotten even one!' a narrow possession [of glory] it was to the man, which suffices for the dwelling-place of all the gods.

8.14.ext.3 Regis et iuuenis flagrantissimae cupiditati similem Aristotelis in capessenda laude sitim subnectam: is namque Theodecti discipulo oratoriae artis libros quos ederet donauerat, molesteque postea ferens titulum eorum sic alii cessisse, proprio uolumine quibusdam rebus insistens, planius sibi de his in Theodectis libris dictum esse adiecit. nisi me tantae et tam late patentis scientiae uerecundia teneret, dicerem dignum philosophum, cuius stabiliendi mores altioris animi philosopho traderentur. Ceterum gloria ne ab his quidem, qui contemptum eius introducere conantur, neglegitur, quoniam quidem ipsis uoluminibus nomina sua diligenter adiciunt, ut quod professione eleuant usurpatione memoriae adsequantur.

8.14.ext.3 I will subjoin Aristotle’s thirst in seizing praise, similar to the most blazing desire of the king and of the youth: for he had given to a disciple of Theodectes books of the oratorical art which he might publish as his own; and later, taking it ill that the title of them had thus passed to another, in his own volume, insisting on certain matters, he added that on these points he himself had spoken more plainly in the books of Theodectes. Were I not restrained by a reverence for so great and so widely spreading a science, I would say him a philosopher worthy that his morals, for being made steadfast, should be handed over to a philosopher of a higher spirit. Nevertheless, glory is not neglected even by those who try to introduce contempt of it, since indeed they carefully append their own names to their volumes, so that what they lower by profession they may gain by the usurpation of memory.

sed qualiscumque horum dissimulatio proposito illorum longe tolerabilior, qui, dum aeternam memoriam adsequerentur, etiam sceleribus innotescere non dubitarunt.

but whatever the dissimulation of these, it is far more tolerable than the purpose of those who, while they were striving to attain eternal memory, did not hesitate to become known even by crimes.

8.14.ext.4 Quorum e numero nescio an in primis Pausanias debeat referri: nam cum Hermoclen percontatus esset quonam modo subito clarus posset euadere, atque is respondisset, si aliquem inlustrem uirum occidisset, futurum ut gloria eius ad ipsum redundaret, continuo Philippum interemit, et quidem quod petierat adsecutus est: tam en se parricidio quam Philippus uirtute notum posteris reddidit.

8.14.ext.4 Of that number I know not whether Pausanias ought to be reckoned among the first: for when he had inquired of Hermocles by what method he might be able to become suddenly famous, and he replied that, if he killed some illustrious man, it would come about that that man’s glory would flow back upon him, he immediately slew Philip, and indeed he achieved what he sought: for by parricide he made himself as well known to posterity as Philip by virtue.

8.14.ext.5 Illa uero gloriae cupiditas sacrilega: inuentus est enim qui Dianae Ephesiae templum incendere uellet, ut opere pulcherrimo consumpto nomen eius per totum terrarum orbem dissiceretur, quem quidem mentis furorem eculeo inpositus detexit. ac bene consuluerant Ephesii decreto memoriam taeterrimi hominis abolendo, nisi Theopompi magnae facundiae ingenium historiis eum suis conprehendisset.

8.14.ext.5 That craving for glory was sacrilegious indeed: for there was found one who wished to set fire to the temple of Diana of Ephesus, so that, once the most beautiful work had been consumed, his name might be spread through the whole orb of the lands; and he laid bare the frenzy of his mind when set upon the rack. And the Ephesians had consulted well, by a decree abolishing the memory of that most loathsome man, had not the talent of Theopompus, a man of great eloquence, encompassed him in his histories.

8.15.init. Candidis autem animis uoluptatem praebuerint in conspicuo posita quae cuique magnifica merito contigerint, quia aeque praemiorum uirtutis atque operum contemplatio iucunda est, ipsa natura nobis alacritatem sumministrante, cum honorem industrie appeti et exsolui grate uidemus. uerum etsi mens hoc loco protinus ad Augustam domum, benificentissimum et honoratissimum templum, omni impetu fertur, melius cohibebitur, quoniam cui ascensus in caelum patet, quamuis maxima, debito tamen minora sunt quae in terris tribuuntur.

8.15.init. But to candid spirits pleasure will have been afforded by those things set in conspicuous view which have, deservedly, befallen each as magnificent; because the contemplation alike of the rewards of virtue and of works is pleasant, nature herself supplying us with alacrity when we see honor industriously sought and gratefully paid. Yet although the mind at this point is borne straightway with all its rush to the August House, the most beneficent and most honored temple, it will be better restrained, since for one to whom ascent into heaven lies open, the things that are bestowed on earth, although very great, are nevertheless less than what is due.

8.15.1 Superiori Africano consulatus citerior legitimo tempore datus est, quod fieri oportere exercitus senatum litteris admonuit. ita nescias utrum illi plus decoris patrum conscriptorum auctoritas an militum consilium adiecerit: toga enim Scipionem ducem aduersus Poenos creauit, arma poposcerunt. cui quae in uita praecipua adsignata sint et longum est referre, quia multa, et non necessarium, quia maiore ex parte iam relata sunt.

8.15.1 To the elder Africanus an earlier consulship was given at the legitimate time, because the army by letters admonished the Senate that it ought to be done. Thus you would not know whether the authority of the Conscript Fathers or the counsel of the soldiers added more honor to him: for the toga created Scipio leader against the Punic (Carthaginians), the arms demanded him. As for what chief distinctions were assigned to him in life, it is both long to recount, because they are many, and not necessary, because for the greater part they have already been related.

itaque quod hodieque eximium capit adiciam. imaginem in cella Iouis optimi maximi positam habet, quae, quotienscumque funus aliquod Corneliae gentis celebrandum est, inde petitur, unique illi instar atrii Capitolium est.

Therefore I will add what outstanding distinction he still today obtains. He has an image placed in the cella of Jupiter Best and Greatest, which, whenever some funeral of the Cornelian gens is to be celebrated, is fetched from there; and for him alone the Capitol is in place of an atrium.

8.15.2 Tam hercule quam curia ~ superioris Catonis effigies illius ad cuius generis officia expromitur. gratum ordinem, qui utilissimum rei publicae senatorem tantum non semper secum habitare uoluit, omnibus numeris uirtutis diuitem magisque suo merito quam fortunae beneficio magnum, cuius prius consilio quam Scipionis imperio deleta Karthago est.

8.15.2 Assuredly, by Hercules, the Curia ~ has the effigy of that Elder Cato, which is brought forth for duties of that kind. A worthy order, which wished to have almost always with itself the senator most useful to the commonwealth, rich in every measure of virtue and great more by his own merit than by the favor of fortune, by whose counsel rather than by Scipio’s command Carthage was destroyed first.

8.15.3 Rarum specimen honoris Scipione quoque Nasica oboritur: eius namque manibus et penatibus nondum quaestori senatus Pythii Apollinis monitu Pessinunte accersitam deam excipi uoluit, quia eodem oraculo praeceptum erat ut haec ministeria Matri deum a sanctissimo uiro praestarentur. explica totos fastos, constitue omnes currus triumphales, nihil tamen morum principatu speciosius reperies.

8.15.3 A rare specimen of honor Scipio Nasica likewise arises: for the senate, at the monition of Pythian Apollo, wished that the goddess summoned from Pessinus be received by his hands and Penates, he being not yet a quaestor, because by the same oracle it had been prescribed that these ministries to the Mother of the gods be performed by a most holy man. explica the whole fasti, set up all the triumphal chariots, yet you will find nothing more splendid than the principate of morals.

8.15.4 Tradunt subinde nobis ornamenta sua Scipiones conmemoranda: Aemilianum enim populus ex candidato aedilitatis consulem fecit. eundem, cum quaestoriis comitiis suffragator Q. Fabi Maximi, fratris filii, in campum descendisset, consulem iterum reduxit. eidem senatus bis sine sorte prouinciam, prius Africam, deinde Hispaniam dedit, atque haec neque ciui ambitioso * * * senatori, quem ad modum non solum uitae eius seuerissimus cursus, sed etiam mors clandestinis inlata insidiis declarauit.

8.15.4 The Scipios from time to time hand down to us their ornaments to be commemorated: for the people made Aemilianus, from a candidate for the aedileship, consul. The same man, when at the quaestorian comitia he had gone down into the field as suffragator of Q. Fabius Maximus, his brother’s son, they brought back as consul a second time. To the same man the senate gave a province twice without lot, first Africa, then Hispania; and these things were granted to him, not to an ambitious citizen, * * * a senator, as not only the most severe course of his life, but also his death inflicted by clandestine plots, has declared.

8.15.5 M. quoque Valerium duabus rebus insignibus di pariter atque ciues speciosum reddiderunt, illi cum quodam Gallo conminus pugnanti coruum propugnatorem subicientes, hi tertium et uicesimum annum ingresso consulatum largiti. quorum alterum decus uetustae originis, optimi nominis gens, Coruini amplexa cognomen usurpat, alterum summo subiungit ornamento tam celeritate quam principio consulatus gloriando.

8.15.5 Marcus Valerius too the gods and the citizens alike made splendid by two notable deeds: the former, when he was fighting at close quarters with a certain Gaul, by supplying a raven as defender; the latter, by granting him the consulship when he had entered his twenty-third year. Of these honors, the gens of the best name, embracing the cognomen Corvinus, usurps the one as of ancient origin; the other it subjoins as a highest ornament, glorying both in the celerity and in the beginning of the consulship.

8.15.6 Ac ne Q. quidem Scaeuolae, quem L. Crassus in consulatu collegam habuit, gloria parum inlustris, qui Asiam tam sancte et tam fortiter obtinuit, ut senatus deinceps in eam prouinciam ituris magistratibus exemplum atque normam officii Scaeuolam decreto suo proponeret.

8.15.6 Nor indeed was the glory of Q. Scaevola, whom L. Crassus had as colleague in the consulship, insufficiently illustrious, who held Asia so sanctly and so bravely that the senate thereafter, by its decree, set forth Scaevola as the example and norm of duty for magistrates about to go into that province.

8.15.7 Inhaerent uni uoci posterioris Africani septem C. Marii consulatus ac duo amplissimi triumphi: ad rogum enim usque gaudio exultauit, quod, cum apud Numantiam sub eo duce equestria stipendia mereret et forte inter cenam quidam Scipionem interrogasset, si quid illi accidisset, quemnam res publica aeque magnum habitura esset imperatorem, respiciens se supra ipsum cubantem 'uel hunc' dixerit. quo augurio perfectissima uirtus maximam orientem uirtutem uideritne certius an efficacius accenderit perpendi uix potest: illa nimirum cena militaris speciosissimas tota in urbe Mario futuras cenas ominata est: postquam enim Cimbros ab eo deletos initio noctis nuntius peruenit, nemo fuit, qui non illi tamquam dis immortalibus apud sacra mensae suae libauerit.

8.15.7 To a single utterance of the Later Africanus there cling the seven consulships of Gaius Marius and two most ample triumphs: for he exulted with joy even up to the pyre, because, when at Numantia he was earning equestrian stipend under that leader and, by chance, during dinner someone had asked Scipio, if anything should befall him, whom the commonwealth would have as an equally great commander, looking back at him, who was reclining above him, he said, “even this one.” By which augury it can scarcely be weighed whether a most consummate virtue more surely saw a greatest virtue arising, or more efficaciously kindled it: that military dinner, assuredly, portended that the most showy banquets in the whole city would be Marius’s; for after a messenger arrived at the beginning of night that the Cimbri had been destroyed by him, there was no one who did not libate to him as to the immortal gods at the sacred rites of his own table.

8.15.8 Iam quae in Cn. Pompeium et ampla et noua congesta sunt, hinc adsensione fauoris, illinc fremitu inuidiae litterarum monumentis obstrepunt. eques Romanus pro consule in Hispaniam aduersus Sertorium pari imperio cum Pio Metello principe ciuitatis missus est. nondum ullum honorem auspicatus bis triumphauit.

8.15.8 Now the things both ample and novel that have been heaped upon Pompey, on this side with the assent of favor, on that with the growl of envy, make a din in the monuments of letters. A Roman knight, as proconsul, was sent into Spain against Sertorius with equal imperium with Pius Metellus, the princeps of the state. Not yet having inaugurated any honor, he twice triumphed.

initia magistratuum a summo imperio cepit. tertium consulatum decreto senatus solus gessit. de Mitridate et Tigrane, de multis praeterea regibus plurimisque ciuitatibus et gentibus et praedonibus unum duxit triumphum.

He began his magistracies from the supreme imperium. He held his third consulship alone by decree of the senate. Over Mithridates and Tigranes, over many kings besides and very many cities and nations and pirates, he led one triumph.

8.15.9 Q. etiam Catulum populus Romanus uoce sua tantum non ad sidera usque euexit: nam cum ab eo pro rostris interrogaretur, si uno Pompeio Magno omnia reponere perseuerasset, absumpto illo subiti casus incursu in quo spem esset habiturus, summo consensu adclamauit 'in te'. uim horati iudicii admirabilem! si quidem magnum Pompeium cum omnibus ornamentis, quae retuli, duarum syllabarum spatio inclusum Catulo aequauit.

8.15.9 Q. Catulus too the Roman people by their own voice all but lifted up to the stars: for when, before the Rostra, he asked them whether, if they had persisted in placing everything in the one Pompeius the Great, and he were removed by the incursion of a sudden mishap, in whom they would have their hope, with the highest unanimity they acclaimed, 'in you.' Admirable the force of an honored judgment! For indeed they equaled to Catulus the great Pompeius, with all the ornaments which I have recounted, enclosed within the space of two syllables.

8.15.10 Potest et M. Catonis ex Cypro cum regia pecunia reuertentis adpulsus ad ripam urbis memorabilis uideri, cui naue egredienti consules et ceteri magistratus et uniuersus senatus populusque Romanus officii gratia praesto fuit, non quod magnum pondus auri et argenti, sed quod M. Catonem classis illa incolumem aduexerat laetatus.

8.15.10 The landfall of M. Cato, returning from Cyprus with the royal funds, at the riverbank of the city may also be seen as memorable; as he was disembarking from the ship, the consuls and the other magistrates and the entire senate and the Roman people were present for the sake of duty, rejoicing not because of a great weight of gold and silver, but because that fleet had conveyed M. Cato safe.

8.15.11 Sed nescio an praecipuum L. Marci inusitati decoris exemplum, quem equitem Romanum duo exercitus P. et Cn. Scipionum interitu uictoriaque Hannibalis lacerati ducem legerunt, quo tempore salus eorum in ultimas angustias deducta nullum ambitioni locum relinquebat.

8.15.11 But I do not know whether the preeminent example of unusual honor is that of Lucius Marcius, a Roman knight, whom two armies, torn by the death of Publius and Gnaeus Scipio and by Hannibal’s victory, chose as their leader, at a time when their safety, brought down into the last straits, left no place for ambition.

8.15.12 Merito uirorum commemorationi Sulpicia Serui Paterculi filia, Q. Fului Flacci uxor, adicitur. quae, cum senatus libris Sibyllinis per decemuiros inspectis censuisset ut Veneris Verticordiae simulacrum consecraretur, quo facilius uirginum mulierumque mens a libidine ad pudicitiam conuerteretur, et ex omnibus matronis centum, ex centum autem decem sorte ductae de sanctissima femina iudicium facerent, cunctis castitate praelata est.

8.15.12 With good reason to the commemoration of men is added Sulpicia, daughter of Servius Paterculus, wife of Quintus Fulvius Flaccus. When the senate, with the Sibylline books inspected by the decemvirs, had decreed that an image of Venus Verticordia be consecrated, in order that the mind of maidens and married women might more easily be converted from lust to modesty, and, from all the matrons, one hundred, and from the hundred ten drawn by lot should render judgment concerning the most holy woman, she was preferred to all in chastity.

8.15.ext.1 Ceterum quia sine ulla deminutione Romanae maiestatis extera quoque insignia respici possunt, ad ea transgrediemur. Pythagorae tanta ueneratio ab auditoribus tributa est, ut quae ab eo acceperant in disputationem deducere nefas existimarent. quin etiam interpellati ad reddendam causam hoc solum respondebant, ipsum dixisse.

8.15.ext.1 However, because without any diminution of Roman majesty foreign insignia too can be regarded, we shall pass over to them. So great a veneration was paid to Pythagoras by his auditors that they deemed it a sacrilege to bring into disputation what they had received from him. Nay even, when pressed to render a reason, they would answer only this: that he himself had said it.

magnus honos, sed schola tenus: illa urbium suffragiis tributa. enixo Crotoniatae studio ab eo petierunt ut senatum ipsorum, qui mille hominum numero constabat, consiliis suis uti pateretur, opulentissimaque ciuitas ~ tam frequentem uenerati post mortem domum Cereris sacrarium fecerunt, quoadque illa urbs uiguit, et dea in hominis memoria et homo in deae religione cultus est.

great honor, but only within the school: that was granted by the suffrages of the cities. With earnest zeal the Crotoniates asked of him that he would allow their senate, which consisted of a thousand men, to make use of his counsels, and the most opulent city ~ having venerated so numerous a body, after his death made his house a sanctuary of Ceres; and so long as that city flourished, both the goddess was worshiped in the memory of the man and the man was worshiped in the religion of the goddess.

8.15.ext.2 Gorgiae uero Leontino studiis litterarum aetatis suae cunctos praestanti, adeo ut primus in conuentu poscere qua de re quisque audire uellet ausus sit, uniuersa Graecia in templo Delphici Apollinis statuam solido ex auro posuit, cum ceterorum ad id tempus auratas collocasset.

8.15.ext.2 But for Gorgias of Leontini, surpassing all of his age in the studies of letters, to such a degree that he was the first in an assembly to dare to ask on what subject each person wished to hear, all Greece set up in the temple of Delphic Apollo a statue of solid gold, whereas up to that time it had placed gilded ones for others.

8.15.ext.3 Eadem gens summo consensu ad Amphiaraum decorandum incubuit, locum, quo humatus est, in formam condicionemque templi redigendo atque inde oracula capi instituendo. cuius cineres idem honoris possident, quod Pythicae cortinae, quod aheno Dodonae, quod Hammonis fonti datur.

8.15.ext.3 The same people, with the highest consensus, eagerly applied themselves to the decorating of Amphiaraus, by reducing the place where he was interred into the form and condition of a temple and by instituting that oracles be taken from there. whose ashes possess the same honor as is given to the Pythian tripod, to the bronze of Dodona, to the spring of Ammon.

8.15.ext.4 Berenices quoque non uulgaris honos, cui soli omnium feminarum gymnico spectaculo interesse permissum est, cum ad Olympia filium Euclea certamen ingressu adduxisset, olympionice patre genita, fratribus eandem palmam adsecutis latera eius cingentibus. partes suas plene exhibebat et defensionis praesidia inualida fide nitebantur et qui iudicabant ira perciti poenam hominis cupide expetebant. igitur uiator et carcer ante

8.15.ext.4 Berenice too had no common honor, to whom alone of all women it was permitted to be present at the gymnic spectacle, when she had led to Olympia her son Eucleas, about to enter the contest, born of a father an olympionicus, her brothers, who had attained the same palm, girding her sides. he was fully presenting his side, and the bulwarks of the defense were relying on feeble credence, and those who were judging, anger-stirred, were eagerly seeking the punishment of the man. therefore the summoner and the prison in front