Valerius Maximus: FACTORVM ET DICTORVM MEMORABILIVM LIBRI NOVEM

9.1.init. Blandum etiam malum luxuria, quam accusare aliquanto facilius est quam uitare, operi nostro inseratur, non quidem ut ullum honorem recipiat, sed ut se ipsa recognoscens ad paenitentiam inpelli possit. iungatur illi libido, quoniam ex isdem uitiorum principiis oritur, neque aut a reprehensione aut ab emendatione separentur, gemino mentis errore co<ne>xae.

9.1.init. Let also the pleasant evil luxury be inserted into our work, which it is somewhat easier to accuse than to avoid, not that it receive any honor, but that, recognizing itself, it may be driven to penitence. Let libido be joined to it, since it springs from the same principles of vices, nor are they separated either from blame or from amendment, bound together by a twin error of the mind.

9.1.1 C. Sergius Orata pensilia balinea primus facere instituit. quae inpensa <a> leuibus initiis coepta ad suspensa caldae aquae tantum non aequora penetrauit. idem, uidelicet ne gulam Neptuni arbitrio subiectam haberet, peculiaria sibi maria excogitauit, aestuariis intercipiendo fluctus pisciumque diuersos greges separatim molibus includendo, ut nulla tam saeua tempestas inciderit, qua non Oratae mensae uarietate ferculorum abundarent.

9.1.1 C. Sergius Orata first set about making pensilia balinea, suspended baths. These, begun with slight outlay, by means of suspended hot water reached out almost over the sea. He likewise, lest his throat be subject to Neptune’s arbitrium, contrived private seas for himself, intercepting the tides, checking the waves, and enclosing separate schools of diverse fishes with distinct moles, so that no storm so savage might fall that Orata’s table would not abound in a variety of dishes.

aedificiis etiam spatiosis et excelsis deserta ad id tempus ora Lucrini lacus pressit, quo recentiore usu conchyliorum frueretur: ubi <dum> se publicae aquae cupidius inmergit, cum Considio publicano iudicium nanctus est. in quo L. Crassus aduersus illum causam agens errare amicum suum Considium dixit, quod putaret Oratam remotum a lacu cariturum ostreis: namque ea, si inde petere non licuisset, in tegulis reperturum.

with spacious and lofty buildings he even pressed the deserted shores of the Lucrine lake at that time, so that the more recent use of shellfish might be enjoyed: where, he more eagerly plunged himself into the public waters, he obtained a judgment with the tax-farmer Considius. in that matter L. Crassus, pleading against him, said that his friend Considius erred, because he thought Orata, removed from the lake, would be destitute of oysters: for they, if it had not been permitted to seek them there, would be found in the roof-tiles.

9.1.2 Huic nimirum magis Aesopus tragoedus in adoptionem dare filium suum quam bonorum suorum heredem relinquere debuit, non solum perditae, sed etiam furiosae luxuriae iuuenem. quem constat cantu conmendabiles auiculas inmanibus emptas pretiis pro ficedulis ponere acetoque liquatos magnae summae uniones potionibus aspergere solitum, amplissimum patrimonium tamquam amaram aliquam sarcinam quam celerrime abicere cupientem. quorum alterius senis, alterius adulescentis sectam secuti longius manus porrexerunt: neque enim ullum uitium finitur ibi, ubi oritur.

9.1.2 To him indeed Aesopus the tragedian ought rather to have given his son in adoption than to leave him heir of his goods, a youth not only ruined but even mad with luxury. Whom it is reported he was wont to set up little auiculas, commendable by song and bought at monstrous prices, in place of figs, and to sprinkle with potions the unions boiled in vinegar — great sums lavished — desiring to cast away his very ample patrimony as if it were some bitter bundle as quickly as possible. Having followed the faction of one old man and of another young man, their hands reached farther; for no vice is ended where it begins.

inde ab oceani litoribus adtracti pisces, inde infusae culinis arcae censibusque edendi ac bibendi uoluptas reperta.

thence fish drawn from the ocean’s litorals, thence coffers poured into kitchens and in the inventories the pleasures of eating and drinking discovered.

9.1.3 Vrbi autem nostrae secundi Punici belli finis et Philippus Macedoniae rex deuictus licentioris uitae fiduciam dedit. quo tempore matronae Brutorum domum ausae sunt obsidere, qui abrogationi legis Oppiae intercedere parati erant, quam feminae tolli cupiebant, quia his nec ueste uarii coloris uti nec auri plus semunciam habere nec iuncto uehiculo propius urbem mille passus nisi sacrificii gratia uehi permittebat. et quidem optinuerunt ut ius per continuos xx annos seruatum aboleretur: non enim prouiderunt saeculi illius uiri ad quem cultum tenderet insoliti coetus pertinax studium aut quo se usque effusura esset legum uictrix audacia.

9.1.3 But to our city the end of the Second Punic War, and Philip, king of Macedonia, having been defeated, gave confidence to a more licentious life. At that time the matrons dared to besiege the house of the Bruti, who were ready to intercede for the abrogation of the Oppian law, which the women wished to have removed, because it allowed them neither to wear garments of varied color nor to possess more than a half‑ounce of gold nor to be carried in a joined vehicle nearer the city than a thousand paces except for the sake of a sacrifice. And indeed they prevailed that a right which had been observed for twenty continuous years should be abolished: for the men of that age did not foresee to what form of luxury the pertinacious zeal of an unaccustomed assemblage would tend, nor how far the law‑victorious audacity would spread itself.

quod si animi muliebris apparatus intueri potuissent, quibus cotidie aliquid nouitatis sumptuosius adiectum est, in ipso introitu ruenti luxuriae obstitissent. sed quid ego de feminis ulterius loquar, quas et inbecillitas mentis et grauiorum operum negata adfectatio omne studium ad curiosiorem sui cultum hortatur conferre, cum temporum superiorum et nominis et animi excellentis uiros in hoc priscae continentiae ignotum deuerticulum prolapsos uideam? idque iurgio ipsorum pateat.

But if the trappings of a woman's mind could have been seen, to which each day something more sumptuous and novel was added, they would have checked the very onrush of luxury at its entrance. But why farther speak of women, whom both the weakness of mind and the refusal of heavier labors urge to devote every zeal to a more curious self‑adornment, when I behold men of earlier times—excellent both in name and spirit—slipping into this byway unknown to the old continence? And let that be made plain by their own reproach.

9.1.4 Cn. Domitius L. Crasso collegae suo altercatione orta obiecit, quod columnas Hymettias in porticu domus haberet. quem continuo Crassus quanti ipse domum suam aestimaret interrogauit, atque ut respondit 'sexagies sestertio', 'qu<ant>o ergo eam' inquit, 'minoris fore existimas, si decem arbusculas inde succidero?' 'ipso tricies sestertio' Domitius. tunc Crassus: 'uter igitur luxuriosior est, egone, qui decem columnas centum milibus nummum emi, an tu, qui decem arbuscularum umbram tricies sestertii summa conpensas?' sermonem oblitum Pyrri, inmemorem Hannibalis iamque transmarinorum stipendiorum abundantia oscitantem!

9.1.4 Cn. Domitius, in a quarrel with his colleague L. Crassus, objected that he had Hymettian columns in the portico of his house. Crassus at once asked how much he himself valued his house, and when he answered "sixty by the sestertius," "how much then," he said, "do you reckon it will be less if I cut down ten little trees from it?" "It will be thirty by the sestertius itself," Domitius replied. Then Crassus: "Which of us, then, is the more luxurious — I, who bought ten columns for one hundred thousand coins, or you, who reckon the shade of ten little trees at the sum of thirty sestertii?" — a conversation that forgot Pyrrhus, unmindful of Hannibal, and already yawning at the plenty of overseas pay!

et quanto tamen insequentium saeculorum aedificiis et nemoribus angustiorem ~ quam introduxerunt atque inchoatam a se lautitiam posteris relinquere quam a maioribus acceptam continentiam retinere maluerunt.

and yet by how much they preferred to leave to succeeding ages buildings and groves more constrained ~ than those they had introduced, and a luxury begun by themselves to their posterity, rather than to retain the continence received from their ancestors.

9.1.5 Quid enim sibi uoluit princeps suorum temporum Metellus Pius tunc, cum in Hispania aduentus suos ab hospitibus aris et ture excipi patiebatur? cum Attalicis aulaeis contectos parietes laeto animo intuebatur? cum inmanibus epulis apparatissimos interponi ludos sinebat?

9.1.5 What, then, did the prince of his day, Metellus Pius, desire for himself at that time, when in Hispania his arrivals were suffered to be received by his hosts with altars and incense? when he looked with a joyful spirit upon walls hung with Attalic tapestries? when, amid vast banquets, he allowed the most elaborately prepared games to be interposed?

cum palmata ueste conuiuia celebrabat demissasque lacunaribus aureas coronas uelut caelesti capite recipiebat? et ubi ista? non in Graecia neque in Asia, quarum luxuria seueritas ipsa corrumpi poterat, sed in horrida et bellicosa prouincia, cum praesertim acerrimus hostis Sertorius Romanorum exercituum oculos Lusitanis telis praestringeret: adeo illi patris sui Numidica castra exciderant.

when, clad in a palm-emblazoned robe, he celebrated banquets and received golden crowns let down from the coffered ceilings as upon a celestial head? and where were these things? not in Greece nor in Asia, whose luxury severity itself might have corrupted, but in a rugged and warlike province, when, above all, the fiercest enemy Sertorius was checking the eyes of the Roman armies with Lusitanian javelins: so completely had his father’s Numidian camps fallen away from him.

patet igitur quam celeri transitu luxuria affluxerit: nam cuius adulescentia priscos mores uidit, senectus nouos orsa est.

It is therefore plain how with swift transit luxury has flowed in: for he whose youth saw the ancient mores, in old age began new ones.

9.1.6 Consimilis mutatio in domo Curionum extitit, si quidem forum nostrum et patris grauissimum supercilium et filii sescenties sestertium aeris alieni aspexit, contractum famosa iniuria nobilium iuuenum. itaque eodem tempore et in isdem penatibus diuersa saecula habitarunt, frugalissimum alterum, alterum nequissimum.

9.1.6 A similar change occurred in the house of the Curiones, since it saw our forum and the very grave frown of its father and the son’s 600,000 sesterces of debt, contracted by the infamous outrage of noble youths. Thus at the same time and under the same roof different ages dwelt: one most frugal, the other most depraved.

9.1.7 P. autem Clodi iudicium quanta luxuria et libidine abundauit! in quo, ut euidenter incesti crimine nocens reus absolueretur, noctes matronarum et adulescentium nobilium magna summa emptae mercedis loco iudicibus erogatae sunt. quo in flagitio tam taetro tamque multiplici nescias primum quem detestere, qui istud corruptelae genus excogitauit, an qui pudicitiam suam sequestrem periurii fieri passi sunt, an qui religionem stupro permutarunt.

9.1.7 How great luxury and lust overflowed in the trial of P. Clodius! In which, so that the defendant manifestly guilty of the crime of incest might be absolved, the nights of matrons and of noble young women were delivered to the judges as if in the place of a large sum of purchased pay. In that outrage so foul and so manifold you scarcely know first whom to detest: him who devised that sort of corruption, or those who allowed their chastity to be made the pawn of perjury, or those who exchanged religion for rape.

9.1.8 Aeque flagitiosum illud conuiuium, quod Gemellus tribunicius uiator ingenui sanguinis, sed officii intra seruilem habitum deformis Metello [et] Scipioni consuli ac tribunis pl. magno cum rubore ciuitatis conparauit: lupanari enim domi suae instituto Muniam et Flauiam, cum a patre tum a uiro utramque inclitam, et nobilem puerum Saturninum in eo prostituit. probrosae patientiae corpora, ludibrio temulentae libidini futura! epulas consuli et tribunis non celebrandas, sed uindicandas!

9.1.8 Equally scandalous that banquet which Gemellus, a tribunician viator of ingenuous blood, yet in dutiful service deformed by a servile garb, prepared for Metellus and Scipio, the consul, and for the tribunes of the plebs, to the great shame of the city: for he established a brothel in his own house and there prostituted Munia and Flavia, celebrated both from their father and from their husband, and the noble boy Saturninus. Bodies of shameful endurance, destined to be the sport of drunken lust! The feasts of a consul and of tribunes are not to be celebrated, but to be avenged!

9.1.9 Verum praecipue Catilinae libido scelesta: nam uaesano amore Aureliae Orestillae correptus, cum unum impedimentum uideret quo minus nuptiis inter se iungerentur, filium suum, quem et solum et aetate iam puberem habebat, ueneno sustulit protinusque ex rogo eius maritalem facem accendit ac nouae maritae orbitatem suam loco muneris erogauit. eodem deinde animo ciuem gerens quo patrem egerat, filii pariter manibus et nefarie adtemptatae patriae poenas dedit.

9.1.9 But above all Catiline’s wicked lust: for, seized by a mad passion for Aurelia Orestilla, when he saw one impediment by which they might be the less joined in marriage, he poisoned his son — whom he had both as his only one and already of marriageable age — and at once from his pyre kindled the nuptial torch for her and bestowed his son’s widowhood upon the new bride in place of a gift. Then, bearing toward the citizen the same spirit with which he had driven his father, he inflicted penalties with his own hands both on his son and on the fatherland, nefariously assailed.

9.1.ext.1 At Campana luxuria perquam utilis nostrae ciuitati fuit: inuictum enim armis Hannibalem inlecebris suis conplexa uincendum Romano militi tradidit. illa uigilantissimum ducem, illa exercitum acerrimum dapibus largis, abundanti uino, unguentorum fragrantia, ueneris usu lasciuiore ad somnum et delicias euocauit. ac tum demum fracta et contusa Punica feritas est, cum Seplasia ei <et> Albana castra esse coeperunt.

9.1.ext.1 But Campanian luxury was exceedingly useful to our state: for having embraced Hannibal, unconquered in arms, with her seductions, she delivered him to be overcome by the Roman soldier. She lured even the most vigilant leader, she lured the most fierce army with lavish banquets, abundant wine, the fragrance of unguents, and the lascivious use of Venus to sleep and delights. And then at last the Punic ferocity was broken and crushed, when the Seplasean and Alban camps began to be established for him.

quid iis ergo uitiis foedius, quid etiam damnosius, quibus uirtus atteritur, uictoriae relanguescunt, sopita gloria in infamiam conuertitur animique pariter et corporis uires expugnantur, adeo ut nescias ab hostibusne <an> ab illis capi perniciosius habendum sit?

what then is fouler to those vices, what even more pernicious, by which virtue is worn away, victories grow limp, sleeping glory is turned into infamy, and alike the forces of mind and body are overcome, so that you do not know whether it is more ruinous to be seized by the enemies or by those men?

9.1.ext.2 Quae etiam Volsiniensium urbem grauibus et erubescendis cladibus inplicauerunt. erat opulenta, erat moribus et legibus ordinata, Etruriae caput habebatur: sed postquam luxuria prolapsa est, in profundum iniuriarum et turpitudinis decidit, ut seruorum se insolentissimae dominationi subiceret. qui primum admodum pauci senatorium ordinem intrare ausi, mox uniuersam rem publicam occupauerunt, testamenta ad arbitrium suum scribi iubebant, conuiuia coetusque ingenuorum fieri uetabant, filias dominorum in matrimonium ducebant.

9.1.ext.2 Which also entangled the city of the Volsinians in grave and shameful calamities. It was opulent, it was ordered in mores and laws, and was held the head of Etruria: but after luxury had fallen, it sank into the depths of injustices and turpitude, so that it subjected itself to the most insolent domination of its slaves. Those who at first, very few, dared to enter the senatorial order, soon seized the whole republic, they commanded wills to be written at their own arbitrium, they forbade banquets and assemblies of the ingenuous, and they took the daughters of their masters in marriage.

postremo lege sanxerunt ut stupra sua in uiduis pariter atque nuptis inpunita essent ac ne qua uirgo ingenuo nuberet, cuius castitatem non ante ex numero ipsorum aliquis delibasset.

finally by law they ordained that their stupras against widows as well as against married women should go unpunished, and that no freeborn virgin should marry a freeborn man whose chastity had not previously been assayed by some one of their own number.

9.1.ext.3 Age, Xerxes opum regiarum ostentatione eximia eo usque luxuria gaudens, ut edicto praemium ei proponeret, qui nouum uoluptatis genus repperisset, quanta, dum deliciis nimiis capitur, amplissimi imperii ruina euasit!

9.1.ext.3 Come then, Xerxes, rejoicing in the surpassing ostentation of royal riches, so given to luxury that by edict he set a prize for whoever should discover a new kind of pleasure—what a great ruin of the most ample empire he escaped, while seized by excessive delights!

9.1.ext.4 Antiochus quoque Syriae rex nihilo cont<in>entioris exempli. cuius caecam et amentem luxuriam exercitus imitatus magna ex parte aureos clauos crepidis subiectos habuit argenteaque uasa ad usum culinae conparauit et tabernacula textilibus sigillis adornata statuit, auaro potius hosti praeda optabilis quam ulla ad uincendum strenuo mora.

9.1.ext.4 Antiochus also, king of Syria, no less a lavish exemplar. His blind and frantic luxury—imitated by a great part of the army—had golden nails set under their sandals, and he provided silver vessels for use in the kitchen, and raised tents adorned with woven insignia, things more desirable as booty to a covetous enemy than any delay useful to conquer a vigorous man.

9.1.ext.5 Nam Ptolomaeus rex accessio uitiorum suorum uixit ideoque Physcon appellatus est. cuius nequitia quid nequius? sororem natu maiorem communi fratri nuptam sibi nubere coegit.

9.1.ext.5 For King Ptolemy lived by an accession of his vices, and for that reason was called Physcon. Whose depravity—what could be more depraved? He compelled his sister, older by birth and married to their common brother, to wed him.

postea deinde filia eius per uim stuprata ipsam dimisit, ut uacuum locum nuptiis puellae faceret.

postea deinde he dismissed his daughter herself, having been raped by force, so as to make a vacant place for the girl’s nuptials.

9.1.ext.6 Consentaneus igitur regibus suis gentis Aegyptiae populus, qui ductu Archelai aduersus A. Gabinium moenibus urbis egressus, cum castra uallo atque fossa cingere iuberetur, uniuersus succlamauit ut id opus publica pecunia faciendum locaretur. quapropter deliciis tam enerues animi spiritum exercitus nostri sustinere non potuerunt.

9.1.ext.6 Therefore the people of the Egyptian gens, compliant with their kings — who under the leadership of Archelaus, having sallied forth against A. Gabinium to the city's walls — when they were ordered to encircle the camp with rampart and ditch, all together cried out that that work should be let to be done with public money. Wherefore our army, so enervated in spirit by indulgences, could not sustain its courage.

9.1.ext.7 Sed tamen effeminatior multitudo Cypriorum, qui reginas suas mulierum corporibus uelut gradibus constructis, quo mollius uestigia pedum ponerent, currus conscendere aequo animo sustinebant: uiris enim, si modo uiri erant, uita carere quam tam delicato imperio optemperare satius fuit.

9.1.ext.7 But yet the more effeminate multitude of the Cyprians, who set their queens upon women's bodies constructed like steps, that they might place the soles of their feet the more softly, endured to mount chariots with an even mind: for to the men, if indeed they were men, it was preferable to lack life than to obey so delicate a rule.

9.2.init. Haec societas uitiorum lasciui uultus et nouae cupiditati inhaerentium oculorum ac delicato cultu affluentis perque uarios inlecebrarum motus uolitantis animi: crudelitatis uero horridus habitus, truculenta species, uiolenti spiritus, uox terribilis, omnia minis et cruentis imperiis referta. cui silentium donare crementum est adicere: <et>enim quem modum sibi ipsa statuet, si ne suggillationis quidem frenis fuerit reuocata? ad summam, cum penes illam sit timeri, penes nos sit odisse.

9.2.init. This society of vices — a lascivious visage and a novel cupidity clinging to the eyes, affluent in delicate dress, and through the various seductive movements of allurements a mind flying about — and, on the other hand, the horrid habit of cruelty, a truculent aspect, a violent spirit, a terrible voice, all full of threats and bloody commands. To give silence to her is to add to her growth: for what limit will she set for herself, if she is not even recalled by the reins of flogging? In short, since fear lies with her, hatred lies with us.

9.2.1 L. Sulla, quem neque laudare neque uituperare quisquam satis digne potest, quia, dum quaerit uictorias, Scipionem [se] populo Romano, dum exercet, Hannibalem repraesentauit,++egregie namque auctoritate nobilitatis defensa crudeliter totam urbem atque omnes Italiae partes ciuilis sanguinis fluminibus inundauit++quattuor legiones contrariae partis fidem suam secutas in publica uilla, quae in Martio campo erat, nequiquam fallacis dexterae misericordiam inplorantes obtruncari iussit. quarum lamentabiles quiritatus trepidae ciuitatis aures receperunt, lacerata ferro corpora Tiberis inpatiens tanti oneris cruentatis aquis uehere est coactus. v milia Praenestinorum spe salutis per P. Cethegum data extra moenia municipii euocata, cum abiectis armis humi corpora prostrauissent, interficienda protinusque per agros dispergenda curauit.

9.2.1 L. Sulla, whom neither can anyone praise nor blame sufficiently worthily, because, while he sought victories he set forth Scipio to the Roman people, and while he campaigned he portrayed Hannibal,++for defended splendidly by the authority of the nobility he cruelly flooded the whole city and all parts of Italy with rivers of civil blood++he commanded that four legions, having followed his fidelity from the opposite faction, in a public villa which was on the Campus Martius, vainly imploring the mercy of a treacherous right hand, be slaughtered. The lamentable cries of these were taken into the ears of the trembling city; the Tiber, its waters bloodied, intolerant of so great a burden, was forced to carry bodies torn by iron. He caused 5,000 Praenestines, summoned outside the walls of the municipality by a hope of safety given by P. Cethegus, when, with arms cast aside, they had prostrated their bodies on the ground, to be put to death at once and forthwith scattered through the fields.

quattuor milia et dcc dirae proscriptionis edicto iugulatos in tabulas publicas retulit, uidelicet ne memoria tam praeclarae rei dilueretur. nec contentus in eos saeuire, qui armis a se dissenserant, etiam quieti animi ciues propter pecuniae magnitudinem per nomenclatorem conquisitos proscriptorum numero adiecit. aduersus mulieres quoque gladios destrinxit, quasi parum caedibus uirorum satiatus.

He entered 4,700 by the edict of the dire proscription, slaughtered, onto the public lists, no doubt so that the memory of so illustrious a deed should not be effaced. And not content to rage against those who had dissented from him with arms, he even added to the number of the proscribed citizens men of peaceful mind, seized by the nomenclator on account of the magnitude of their wealth. He drew his swords also against women, as if he were not yet sated with the slaughter of men.

id quoque inexplebilis feritatis indicium est: abscisa miserorum capita modo non uultum ac spiritum retinentia in conspectum suum afferri uoluit, ut oculis illa, quia ore nefas erat, manderet. quam porro crudeliter se in M. Mario praetore gessit! quem per ora uulgi ad sepulcrum Lutatiae gentis pertractum non prius uita priuauit quam oculos infelices erueret et singulas corporis partes confringeret.

that too is an insatiable indication of ferocity: he wished the severed heads of the wretched, which retained neither face nor breath, to be brought into his sight, that he might consign them to his eyes, because to the mouth it would have been a crime. How cruelly moreover he dealt with M. Marius the praetor! whom, dragged by the mouths of the populace to the tomb of the Lutatia gens, he did not deprive of life until he had torn out the unlucky man’s eyes and broken every limb of his body.

uix mihi ueri similia narrare uideor: at ille etiam M. Plaetorium, quod ad eius supplicium exanimis ceciderat, continuo ibi mactauit, nouus punitor misericordiae, apud quem iniquo animo scelus intueri scelus admittere fuit. sed mortuorum umbris saltem pepercit? minime: nam C. Marii, cuius, etsi postea hostis, quaestor tamen aliquando fuerat, erutos cineres in Anienis alueum sparsit.

Scarcely do I seem able to tell things like the truth: but he even there sacrificed M. Plaetorius, who had fallen lifeless at his execution, immediately— a new punisher of mercy—before whom, with a wicked mind, it was both to behold crime and to commit crime. But did he at least spare the shades of the dead? By no means: for he scattered the dug-up ashes of C. Marius, who, although later an enemy, had once been quaestor, into the bed of the Anio.

en quibus actis felicitatis nomen adserendum putauit!

Lo! In those deeds he thought the name of felicity should be asserted!

9.2.2 Cuius tamen crudelitatis C. Marius inuidiam leuat: nam et ille nimia cupiditate persequendi inimicos iram suam nefarie destrinxit, C. Caesaris consularis et censorii nobilissimum corpus ignobili saeuitia trucidando, et quidem apud seditiosissimi et abiectissimi hominis bustum: id enim malorum miserrimae tunc rei publicae deerat, ut Vario Caesar piaculo caderet. paene tanti uictoriae eius non fuerunt, quarum oblitus plus criminis domi quam laudis in militia meruit. idem caput M. Antoni abscisum laetis manibus inter epulas per summam animi ac uerborum insolentiam aliquamdiu tenuit clarissimique et ciuis et oratoris sanguine contaminari mensae sacra passus <est> atque etiam P. Annium, qui id attulerat, in sinum suum recentis caedis uestigiis aspersum recepit.

9.2.2 Yet C. Marius removed any envy of that cruelty: for he too, by excessive cupidity in pursuing his enemies, wickedly unleashed his anger, slaughtering the most noble body of C. Caesar, consul and censor, with ignoble savagery, and indeed at the tomb of a most seditious and despicable man; for what that most miserable state of evils then lacked was that Caesar should fall as a sacrifice to Vario. He was scarcely the author of so great victories, the memory of which being lost earned him more blame at home than praise in military service. Likewise he held the severed head of M. Antonius with rejoicing hands among banquets for some time, through the utmost arrogance of mind and words, and allowed the sacred table to be defiled with the blood of that most illustrious citizen and orator; and even he received P. Annius, who had brought it, into his lap, sprinkled with the traces of the recent slaughter.

9.2.3 Damasippus nihil laudis habuit, quod corrumperet, itaque memoria eius licentiore accusatione perstringitur. cuius iussu principum ciuitatis capita hostiarum capitibus permixta sunt Carbonisque Aruinae truncum corpus patibulo adfixum gestatum est. adeo aut flagitiosissimi hominis praetura multum aut rei publicae maiestas nihil potuit.

9.2.3 Damasippus had no praise to corrupt him, and so his memory is flogged by a more licentious accusation. At his command the heads of the city’s leading men were mingled with the heads of sacrificial victims, and the trunk of Carbo’s Aruina was fixed to a gibbet and carried about. Thus either the praetorship of a most infamous man could do much, or the majesty of the republic could do nothing.

9.2.4 Munatius etiam Flaccus, Pompeiani nominis acrior quam probabilior defensor, cum ab imperatore Caesare in Hispania inclusus moenibus Ateguensium obsideretur, efferatam crudelitatem suam truculentissimo genere uaesaniae exercuit: omnes enim eius oppidi ciues, quos studiosiores Caesaris senserat, iugulatos muris praecipitauit. feminas quoque citatis nominibus uirorum, qui in contrariis castris erant, ut caedes coniugum suarum cernerent, maternis<que> gremiis superpositos liberos trucidauit. infantes alios in conspectu parentum humo infligi, alios superiactatos pilis excipi iussit.

9.2.4 Munatius Flaccus, a defender of the Pompeian name more acrid than probable, when shut up by the emperor Caesar in Hispania and besieged within the walls of the Ateguenses, exercised his ferocious cruelty in the most truculent sort of vesania: for he hurled down to be slaughtered against the walls all the townsmen of that place whom he had judged more devoted to Caesar. He also, calling aloud the names of the husbands who were in the opposing camp so that they might behold the slaughter of their spouses, massacred the children laid upon their motherly<que> knees. He ordered some infants to be dashed against the ground in sight of their parents, others, after being thrown up, to be received upon spears.

quae auditu etiam intolerabilia Romano iussu Lusitanis manibus administrata sunt, cuius gentis praesidio Flaccus uallatus diuinis opibus uaecordi pertinacia resistebat.

which, intolerable even to hear, were executed by Roman command with Lusitanian hands, by whose nation’s protection Flaccus, fortified with divine opes, resisted with foolhardy pertinacity.

9.2.ext.1 Transgrediemur nunc ad illa, quibus ut par dolor, ita nullus nostrae ciuitatis rubor inest. Karthaginienses Atilium Regulum palpebris resectis machinae, in qua undique praeacuti stimuli eminebant, inclusum uigilantia pariter et continuo tractu doloris necauerunt, tormenti genus haud dignum passo, auctoribus dignissimum. eadem usi crudelitate milites nostros quo<dam> mar<i>ti<mo> certamine in suam potestatem redactos nauibus substrauerunt, ut earum carinis ac pondere elisi inusitata ratione mortis barbaram feritatem satiarent, taetro facinore pollutis classibus ipsum mare uiolaturi.

9.2.ext.1 We shall now pass to those matters for which, as the pain is equal, so no shame of our state is present. The Carthaginians, having cut off the eyelids of Atilius Regulus, enclosed him in a machine in which on all sides very sharp spikes protruded, and put him to death by constant watchfulness and the uninterrupted drawing-out of pain — a kind of torture by no means worthy of the sufferer, most worthy of its authors. Using the same cruelty, they took away our soldiers, reduced into their power by a certain naval engagement, beneath the ships, so that, bruised by their keels and by the weight, they satisfied their barbarous ferocity with an unusual mode of death, the fleets polluted by the foul outrage as if they would violate even the sea itself.

9.2.ext.2 Eorum dux Hannibal, cuius maiore ex parte uirtus saeuitia constabat, in flumine <Ver>gello corporibus Romanis ponte facto exercitum transduxit, ut aeque terrestrium scelestum Karthaginiensium copiarum ingressum terra quam maritimarum Neptunus experiretur. idem captiuos nostros oneribus et itinere fessos iam prima pedum parte succisa relinquebat. quos uero in castra perduxerat, paria fere fratrum et propinquorum iungens ferro decernere cogebat neque ante sanguine explebatur quam ad unum uictorem omnes redegisset.

9.2.ext.2 Their leader Hannibal, whose virtue was for the greater part ferocity, in the river Vergello, having made a bridge of Roman bodies, led his army across, so that Neptune might try equally the ingress of the wicked Carthaginian forces by land as by sea. The same man left our captives, worn out by burdens and the march, now with the foreparts of their feet cut off. But those whom he had brought into the camp he forced, joining almost pairs of brothers and kinsmen with iron, to decide by the sword, and he was not sated with blood until he had driven them all back to a single victor.

iusto ergo illum odio, uerum tamen tardo supplicio senatus Prusiae regis factum supplicem ad uoluntariam mortem conpulit.

Therefore, with a just hatred of him, yet by a slow punishment, the senate compelled the suppliant of King Prusias to voluntary death.

9.2.ext.3 Tam hercule quam Mitridatem regem, qui una epistola lxxx ciuium Romanorum in Asia per urbes negotiandi gratia dispersa interemit tantaeque prouinciae hospitalis deos iniusto, sed non inulto cruore respersit, quoniam cum maximo cruciatu ueneno repugnantem spiritum suum tandem succumbere coegit simulque piacula crucibus illis dedit, quibus [illos] amicos suos auctore Gauro spadone libidinosus obsequio, scelestus imperio adfecerat.

9.2.ext.3 Both, by Hercules, and King Mithridates, who by a single letter put to death 80 Roman citizens scattered through the cities of Asia for the sake of trade, and stained the hospitable gods of so great a province with unjust, though not unavenged, blood; for with the greatest tortures by poison he forced a spirit resisting to succumb at last, and at the same time paid expiations to those crucifixions, by which [those] friends of his Gaurus the spadone, as instigator, had affected with lascivious favour and wicked command.

9.2.ext.4 ~ Zisemis, Diogyridis filii, Thraciae regis, etsi minus admirabilem crudelitatem gentis ipsius feritas, narrandam tamen rabies saeuitiae facit, cui neque uiuos homines medios secare neque parentes liberorum uesci <cogere> corporibus nefas fuit.

9.2.ext.4 ~ Zisemis, son of Diogyris, king of Thrace, and though the ferocity of his people’s brutality is less admirable, yet the rage of its savagery makes it worthy of telling; for to this madness it was no impiety neither to cut living men in the midst nor to compel parents of children to feed on bodies <cogere>.

9.2.ext.5 Iterum Ptolomaeus Physcon emergit, paulo ante libidinosae amentiae taeterrimum exemplum, idem inter praecipua crudelitatis indicia referendus: quid enim hoc facto truculentius? filium suum nomine Memphiten, quem ex Cleopatra, eadem sorore et uxore, sustulerat, liberalis formae, optimae spei puerum, in conspectu suo occidi iussit protinusque caput eius et pedes praecisos [et manus] in cista chlamyde opertos pro munere natalicio matri misit, perinde quasi ipse cladis, quam illi inferebat, expers, ac non infelicior, quod in communi orbitate Cleopatram miserabilem cunctis, se inuisum reddiderat. adeo caeco furore summa quaeque efferuescit crudelitas, cum munimentum ex se ipsa repperit: nam cum animaduerteret quanto sui odio patria teneretur, timori remedium scelere petiuit, quoque tutius plebe trucidata regnaret, frequens iuuentute gymnasium armis et igni circumdedit omnesque, qui in eo erant, partim ferro, partim flamma necauit.

9.2.ext.5 Again Ptolemy Physcon appears, a little before the foulest example of lustful madness, to be reckoned among the chief signs of cruelty: for what could be more savage than this deed? He ordered his son called the Memphite, whom he had taken from Cleopatra, the same sister and wife, a boy generous in form and of the highest hope, to be killed before his eyes, and immediately sent his head and his severed feet [and hands], wrapped in a cloak in a chest, to his mother as a birthday present — as if he himself were not party to the disaster he inflicted on her, and not the less unhappy, since in their common bereavement Cleopatra was made pitiable to all and he made himself hated. So blind a fury boils cruelty up to the utmost, when it finds defence in itself: for when he perceived how greatly his country was held by hatred of him, he sought a remedy for fear by crime, and that he might more securely reign with the populace slaughtered, he surrounded the often-used gymnasium with arms and fire and put to death all who were there, some by the sword, some by flame.

9.2.ext.6 Ochus autem, qui postea Darius appellatus est, sanctissimo Persis iure iurando obstrictus ne quem ex coniuratione, quae septem magos cum eo oppresserat, aut ueneno aut ferro aut ulla ui aut inopia alimentorum necaret, crudeliorem mortis rationem excogitauit, qua ~ hosustos sibi non perrupto uinculo religionis tolleret: saeptum enim altis parietibus locum cinere conpleuit superpositoque tigno prominente benigne cibo et potione exceptos in eo conlocabat, e quo somno sopiti in illam insidiosam congeriem decidebant.

9.2.ext.6 Ochus, however, who was afterwards called Darius, being bound by the most sacred oath of the Persians that he would not kill any one of the conspiracy — which had struck down the seven magi with him — neither by poison nor by sword nor by any force nor by want of food, contrived a crueller device of death, by which he might remove them without breaking the bond of religion: for he filled a place walled high with ashes and, with a projecting beam laid over it, placed those hospitably received with food and drink therein; from which, stupefied by sleep, they fell into that treacherous heap.

9.2.ext.7 Apertior et taetrior alterius Ochi cognomine Artaxerxis crudelitas, qui Atossam sororem atque eandem socrum uiuam capite defodit et patruum cum centum amplius filiis ac nepotibus uacua area destitutum iaculis confixit nulla iniuria lacessitus, sed quod in his maximam apud Persas probitatis et fortitudinis laudem consistere uidebat.

9.2.ext.7 More open and fouler was the cruelty of the other Ochus, surnamed Artaxerxes, who buried alive Atossa, his sister and likewise his mother‑in‑law, and impaled with javelins his patruus, left in a vacant area with more than a hundred sons and grandsons—moved by no injury, but because he thought that in these acts the greatest praise of probity and fortitude among the Persians consisted.

9.2.ext.8 Consimili genere aemulationis instincta ciuitas Atheniensium indigno gloriae suae decreto Aeginensium iuuentuti pollices abscidit, ut classe potens populus in certamen maritimarum uirium secum descendere nequiret. non agnosco Athenas timori remedium a crudelitate mutuantis.

9.2.ext.8 Inspired by a like kind of emulation, the city of the Athenians, by a decree unworthy of its glory, cut off the thumbs of the youth of Aegina, so that a people powerful in fleet might be unable to go down with them into a contest of maritime forces. I do not acknowledge Athens as one that borrows from cruelty a remedy for fear.

9.2.ext.9 Saeuus etiam ille aenei tauri inuentor, quo inclusi subditis ignibus longo et abdito cruciatu mugitus resonantem spiritum edere cogebantur, ne eiulatus eorum humano sono uocis expressi Phalaridis tyranni misericordiam implorare possent. quam quia calamitosis deesse uoluit, taeterrimum artis suae opus primus inclusus merito auspicatus est.

9.2.ext.9 That cruel inventor of the brazen bull, in which those enclosed were compelled by fires set beneath to give forth a bellowing, resonant breath under a long and hidden torment, so that their shrieks, rendered into the human sound of voices, might implore the mercy of the tyrant Phalaris. But because he wished mercy to be wanting to the wretched, the most foul work of his art was, deservedly, the first to be enclosed — he himself being confined as an omen.

9.2.ext.10 Ac ne Etrusci quidem parum feroces in poena excogitanda, qui uiuorum corpora cadaueribus aduersa aduersis alligata atque constricta, ita ut singulae membrorum partes singulis essent adconmodatae, tabescere simul patiebantur, amari uitae pariter ac mortis tortores.

9.2.ext.10 And not even the Etruscans were lacking in ferocity in devising punishment, who bound and constricted the bodies of the living to corpses face to face, so that the several parts of the limbs were fitted to corresponding persons, and they suffered to waste away together, torments equally bitter of life and of death.

9.2.ext.11 Sicut illi barbari, quos ferunt mactatarum pecudum intestinis et uisceribus egestis homines inserere, ita ut capitibus tantummodo emineant, quoque [ut] diutius poenae sufficiant, cibo et potione infelicem spiritum prorogare, donec intus putrefacti laniatui sint animalibus, quae tabidis in corporibus nasci solent. queramur nunc cum rerum natura, quod nos multis et asperis aduersae ualetudinis incommodis obnoxios esse uoluerit, habitumque caelestis roboris humanae condicioni denegatum moleste feramus, cum tot cruciatus sibimet ipsa mortalitas inpulsu crudelitatis excogitauerit.

9.2.ext.11 Just as those barbarians, who are said to insert men into the intestines and entrails of slaughtered cattle, with only their heads protruding, and also, that they may serve the punishment longer, to prolong the unhappy spirit by food and drink, until, putrefied within, they be torn asunder by animals that are wont to be born in the rottenness of bodies; so let us now complain with the nature of things that she willed us to be subject to many and harsh inconveniences of adverse health, and that we sorely bear the denial of the habit/gift of celestial strength to the human condition, when mortality itself, by an impulse of cruelty, has devised so many tortures for itself.

9.3.init. Ira quoque et odium in pectoribus humanis magnos fluctus excitant, procursu celerior illa, nocendi cupidine hoc pertinacius, uterque consternationis plenus affectus ac numquam sine tormento sui uiolentus, quia dolorem, cum inferre uult, patitur, amara sollicitudine ne non contingat ultio anxius. sed proprietatis eorum certissimae sunt imagines, quas <di> ipsi in claris personis aut dicto aliquo aut facto uehementiore conspici uoluerunt.

9.3.init. Anger also and hatred in human breasts raise great surges, the former swifter in its onset, the latter more persistent in the desire to harm; each a feeling full of consternation and never without torment, violent toward itself, because when it would inflict pain it suffers, anxious with bitter solicitude lest vengeance not befall. But the surest images of their properties are those which themselves in clear personages, either by some saying or by a more vehement deed, wished to be made conspicuous.

9.3.1 Cum aduersus Hasdrubalem Liuius Salinator bellum gesturus urbe egrederetur, monente Fabio Maximo ne ante descenderet in aciem quam hostium uires animumque cognosset, primam occasionem pugnandi non omissurum se respondit interrogatusque ab eodem quid ita tam festinanter manum conserere uellet, 'ut quam celerrime' inquit 'aut gloriam ex hostibus uictis aut ex ciuibus prostratis gaudium capiam'. ira tunc et uirtus sermonem eius inter se diuiserunt, illa iniustae damnationis memor, haec triumphi gloriae intenta. sed nescio an eiusdem fuerit hoc dicere et sic uincere.

9.3.1 When Livius Salinator left the city to wage war against Hasdrubal, Fabius Maximus warning him not to descend into the battle‑line before he had learned the enemies’ strength and spirit, he answered that he would not miss the first opportunity of fighting; and when asked by the same why he wished to join hand so hastily, “that as swiftly as possible,” he said, “I may gain either glory from enemies conquered or joy from citizens overthrown.” Anger then and courage divided his speech between them, the former mindful of unjust condemnation, the latter intent on the glory of triumph. But I do not know whether it was the same thing to say this and thus to win.

9.3.2 Ardentis spiritus uirum et bellicis operibus adsuetum huc iracundiae stimuli egerunt: C. autem Figulum mansuetissimum, pacato iuris ciuilis studio celeberrimum, prudentiae moderationisque inmemorem reddiderunt: consulatus enim repulsae dolore accensus, eo quidem magis, quod illum bis patri suo datum meminerat, cum ad eum postero comitiorum die multi consulendi causa uenissent, omnes dimisit, praefatus 'an nos consulere scitis, consulem facere nescitis?' dictum grauiter et merito, sed tamen aliquanto melius non dictum: nam quis populo Romano irasci sapienter potest?

9.3.2 The goads of this anger drove hither a man of ardent spirit and accustomed to warlike operations: but they made C. Figulus most gentle, most celebrated for his peaceful study of civil law, and forgetful of prudence and moderation: for, enraged by the pain of being refused the consulship, all the more because he remembered that it had been granted to his father twice, when on the following day of the comitia many had come to him for counsel, he dismissed them all, having prefaced, 'Do you know how to consult us? You do not know how to make a consul?'—spoken gravely and deservedly, yet perhaps somewhat better left unspoken: for who can be angry with the Roman people wisely?

9.3.3 Itaque ne illi quidem probandi, quamuis factum eorum nobilitatis splendore protectum sit, qui, quod Cn. Flauius humillimae quondam sortis praeturam adeptus erat, offensi anulos aureos sibimet ipsis et phaleras equis suis detractas abiecerunt, doloris inpotentiam tantum non luctu professo testati.

9.3.3 Therefore not even those were praiseworthy, although their deed was protected by the splendour of their nobility, who, because Cn. Flavius had attained a praetorship once of the humblest condition, — offended, cast away the golden rings and the phalerae torn from their own horses, and by proclaiming their grief testified to nothing but the impotence of their pain.

9.3.4 Talis irae motus aut singulorum aut paucorum aduersus populum uniuersum: multitudinis erga principes ac duces eius modi. Manlio Torquato amplissimam et gloriosissimam ex Latinis et Campanis uictoriam in urbem referenti, cum seniores omnes laetitia ouantes occurrerent, iuniorum nemo obuiam processit, quod filium adulescentem fortissime aduersus imperium suum proeliatum securi percusserat. miserti sunt aequalis nimis aspere puniti: nec factum eorum defendo, sed irae uim indico, quae unius ciuitatis et aetates et adfectus diuidere ualuit.

9.3.4 Such a movement of anger — whether of individuals or of a few — against the whole people: of a multitude toward its principes and duces of that sort. When Manlius Torquatus, bringing into the city a most ample and glorious victory over the Latins and Campanians, arrived and all the seniores, shouting with joy, ran out to meet him, not one of the iuniores stepped forward to greet him, because he had struck down with the axe his own son, a youth who had fought very bravely against his command. They pitied the young man, punished far too harshly: I do not defend their deed, but I point out the force of ira, which was able to divide one civitas in both aetates and affectus.

9.3.5 Eademque tantum potuit, ut uniuersum populi Romani equitatum a Fabio consule ad hostium copias persequendas missum, cum et tuto et facile eas liceret delere, legis agrariae ab eo impeditae memorem inmobilem retineret. illa uero etiam Appio duci, cuius pater, dum pro senatus amplitudine nititur, commoda plebis acerrime inpugnauerat, infensum exercitum faciendo uoluntaria fuga terga hosti, ne triumphum imperatori quaereret, dare coegit. quotiens uictoriae uictrix!

9.3.5 And that same anger could do so much that it kept the whole cavalry of the Roman people, sent by the consul Fabius to pursue the enemy forces—when he could both safely and easily have destroyed them—immovably mindful of the agrarian law he had obstructed. That same passion moreover even forced Appius the leader, whose father, while striving for the greatness of the senate, had bitterly attacked the comforts of the plebs, by making the army hostile, to give their backs to the enemy in a voluntary flight, lest he seek a triumph for the commander. How often victorious over victory!

congratulationem eius in Torquato spernendam, in Fabio pulcherrimam partem omittendam, in Appio totam fugae postponendam reddidit.

He reduced his congratulations to be scorned in Torquatus, to have the most beautiful part omitted in Fabius, and to have the whole of the flight postponed in Appius.

9.3.6 Age, quam uiolenter se in pectore uniuersi populi Romani gessit eo[dem] tempore, quo suffragiis eius dedicatio aedis Mercurii M. Plaetorio primi pili centurioni data est praeteritis consulibus, Appio, quod obstitisset quo minus aeri alieno suo succurreretur, Seruilio, quod susceptam causam suam languido patrocinio protexisset. negas efficacem esse iram, cuius hortatu miles summo imperio praelatus est?

9.3.6 Come, see how violently it bore itself in the breast of the whole Roman people at the same time when, by popular suffrages, the dedication of the temple of Mercury was given to M. Plaetorius, centurion of the first pilus, the consuls being passed over; hostile to Appius because he had opposed that he be relieved in regard to his public debt; hostile to Servilius because he had shielded his undertaken cause with sluggish patronage. Do you deny that this anger was efficacious, by whose urging a soldier was preferred to the highest command?

9.3.7 Quae quidem non proculcauit tantum imperia, sed etiam gessit inpotenter: nam Q. Metellus, cum utramque Hispaniam consul prius, deinde pro consule paene <to>tam subegisset, postquam cognouit Q. Pompeium consulem inimicum suum successorem sibi mitti, omnes, qui modo militiam suam uoluerunt finiri, dimisit, commeatus petentibus neque causis excussis neque constituto tempore dedit, horrea custodibus remotis opportuna rapinae praebuit, arcus sagittasque Cretensium frangi atque in amnem abici iussit, elephantis cibaria dari uetuit. quibus factis ut cupiditati suae indulsit, ita magnifice gestarum rerum gloriam corrupit meritumque honorem triumphi hostium quam irae fortior uictor amisit.

9.3.7 Which indeed not only trampled down commands, but also acted impotently: for Q. Metellus, when as consul first and then as proconsul he had almost subjugated both Hispaniæ, after he learned that Q. Pompeius, the consul, his enemy, was being sent to him as successor, dismissed all who had merely wished their military service to be ended, granted no leave to those petitioning for furloughs, neither after causes were examined nor at the appointed time, left granaries with their guards removed convenient for plunder, ordered the bows and arrows of the Cretans to be broken and thrown into the river, and forbade food to be given to the elephants. Having done these things, insofar as he indulged his cupidity, thus he corrupted the glory of his great deeds and lost the deserved merit and honor of a triumph — the victor, more potent in anger than against his enemies, having thereby lost them.

9.3.8 Quid Sulla, dum huic uitio obtemperat, nonne multo alieno sanguine profuso ad ultimum et suum erogauit? Puteolis enim ardens indignatione, quod Granius princeps eius coloniae pecuniam a decurionibus ad refectionem Capitolii promissam cunctantius daret, animi concitatione nimia atque immoderato uocis impetu conuulso pectore spiritum cruore ac minis mixtum euomuit, nec senio iam prolapsus, utpote sexagesimum ingrediens annum, sed alita miseriis rei publicae inpotentia furens. igitur in dubio est Sullane prior an iracundia sullae sit extincta.

9.3.8 What of Sulla, while he yielded to this vice — did he not, after much alien blood had been shed, at last expend even his own? For at Puteoli, burning with indignation because Granius, the chief of that colony, more slowly gave the money promised by the decurions for the repair of the Capitol, with excessive agitation of mind and with an immoderate outburst of voice, his breast convulsed, he vomited forth a breath mingled with blood and threats; not yet fallen into old age, indeed entering his sixtieth year, but nourished by the miseries of the republic and raging in impotent fury. Therefore it is doubtful whether Sulla came first or whether Sulla’s iracundity was extinguished.

9.3.ext.init. Neque ab ignotis exempla petere iuuat et maximis uiris exprobare uitia sua uerecundiae est. ceterum cum propositi fides excellentissima quaeque conplecti moneat, uoluntas operi cedat, dum praeclara libenter probandi necessaria narranti conscientia non desit.

9.3.ext.init. Nor is it pleasing to seek examples from unknown men, and to lay open one's faults before the greatest men is a mark of modesty. However, since the fidelity of purpose advises us to embrace even the most excellent things, let the will yield to the work, provided that the conscience of the one who gladly recounts the necessary matters for proof be not wanting.

9.3.ext.1 Alexandrum iracundia sua propemodum caelo deripuit: nam quid obstitit quo minus illuc adsurgeret nisi Lysimachus leoni obiectus et Clitus hasta traiectus et Callisthenes mori iussus, quia tres maximas uictorias totidem amicorum iniustis caedibus uicto reddidit?

9.3.ext.1 The wrath of his temper almost tore Alexander from the heavens: for what stood in the way of his rising up there except Lysimachus thrown to the lion and Clitus pierced by a spear and Callisthenes ordered to die, since, defeated, he repaid three greatest victories with the unjust slayings of as many friends?

9.3.ext.2 Quam uehemens deinde aduersus populum Romanum Hamilcaris odium! quattuor enim puerilis aetatis filios intuens eiusdem numeri catulos leoninos in perniciem imperii nostri alere se praedicabat. digna nutrimenta, quae in exitium patriae suae, ut euenit, conuerterentur.

9.3.ext.2 How vehement then was Hamilcar’s hatred against the Roman people! For seeing four sons of boyish age, he proclaimed that he was raising lion‑like whelps of the same number for the ruin of our empire. Worthy nourishment, which, as it came to pass, would be turned to the destruction of his own fatherland.

9.3.ext.3 E quibus Hannibal mature adeo patria uestigia subsecutus est, ut eo exercitum in Hispaniam traiecturo et ob id sacrificante viiii annorum natu altaria tenens iuraret se, cum primum per aetatem potuisset, acerrimum hostem populi Romani futurum, <et> pertinacissimis precibus instantis belli commilitium exprimeret. idem significare cupiens quanto inter se odio Karthago et Roma dissiderent, inflicto in terram pede suscitatoque puluere, tunc inter eas finem fore belli dixit, cum alterutra [pars] in habitum pulueris esset redacta.

9.3.ext.3 Of these Hannibal, following his father’s footsteps so soon, that, about to carry an army into Spain and for that purpose sacrificing, holding the altars at the age of 8 years, swore that, as soon as by age he could, he would become the fiercest enemy of the Roman people, and by the most stubborn prayers urging on would press himself into comradeship in the war. Wishing likewise to show how great the hatred was between Carthage and Rome, he stamped his foot into the ground and raised the dust, and then said that there would be an end to the war between them when one or other [part] had been reduced to the condition of dust.

9.3.ext.4 In puerili pectore tantum uis odii potuit, sed in muliebri quoque aeque multum ualuit: namque Samiramis Assyriorum regina, cum ei circa cultum capitis sui occupatae nuntiatum esset Babylona defecisse, altera parte crinium adhuc soluta protinus ad eam expugnandam cucurrit nec prius decorem capillorum in ordinem quam urbem in potestatem suam redegit. quocirca statua eius Babylone posita est illo habitu, quo ad ultionem exigendam celeritate praecipi<ti> tetendit.

9.3.ext.4 So great a force of hatred could dwell in a boyish breast, but in a womanly one it availed just as much: for Samiramis, queen of the Assyrians, when she was told while occupied about the arranging of her hair that Babylon had revolted, with one part of her locks still unbound at once ran to assault it, and did not set the adornment of her hair in order before she had reduced the city to her power. Wherefore her statue was set up at Babylon in that guise in which, rashly hurrying, she stretched forth to exact vengeance.

9.4.init. Protrahatur etiam auaritia, latentium indagatrix lucrorum, manifestae praedae auidissima uorago, neque habendi fructu felix et cupiditate quaerendi miserrima.

9.4.init. Let avarice be drawn out too, the investigator of hidden lucre, a most avid gulf of manifest prey, neither happy in the fruit of possessing nor less wretched in the cupiditas of seeking.

9.4.1 Cum admodum locupleti L. Minucio Basilo falsum testamentum quidam in Graecia subiecisset eiusdemque confirmandi gratia potentissimos ciuitatis nostrae uiros, M. Crassum et Q. Hortensium, quibus Minucius ignotus fuerat, tabulis heredes inseruisset, quamquam euidens fraus erat, tamen uterque pecuniae cupidus facinoris alieni munus non repudiauit. quantam culpam quam leniter retuli! lumina curiae, ornamenta fori, quod scelus uindicare debebant, inhonesti lucri captura inuitati auctoritatibus suis texerunt.

9.4.1 When to the very wealthy L. Minucius Basilus a certain man in Greece had put forward a false testament, and, to secure its confirmation, had inserted as heirs in the tablets the most powerful men of our state, M. Crassus and Q. Hortensius, to whom Minucius had been unknown, although the fraud was plain, yet each, greedy for money, did not refuse to accept the office of another’s crime. How lightly I have related the guilt! the lights of the curia, the ornaments of the forum — those who ought to have exacted vengeance for the crime — lured by the prospect of dishonourable gain, covered it with their authorities, unwilling to take it up.

9.4.2 Verum aliquanto maiores uires in Q. Cassio exhibuit, qui in Hispania Silium et Calpurnium, occidendi sui gratia cum pugionibus deprehensos quinquagies sestertium ab illo, ab hoc sexagies pactus dimisit. en quem dubites, si alterum tantum daretur, iugulum quoque suum aequo animo illis fuisse praebiturum.

9.4.2 But he showed rather greater powers in Q. Cassius, who in Spain, when Silius and Calpurnius were caught with daggers for the sake of killing him, dismissed them after agreeing to take fifty sesterces from the one and sixty from the other. See whom you would doubt — that, had only the one been given, he would with equal calm have offered his throat to them as well.

9.4.3 Ceterum auaritia ante omnes L. Septimulei praecordia possedit, qui, cum C. Gracchi familiaris fuisset, caput eius abscidere et per urbem pilo fixum ferre sustinuit, quia Opimius consul auro id se repensurum edixerat. sunt qui tradant liquato plumbo eum cauatam partem capitis, quo ponderosius esset, explesse. fuerit ille seditiosus, bono perierit exemplo, clientis tamen scelesta famis in has usque iacentis iniurias esurire non debuit.

9.4.3 Moreover, above all greed seized the breast of L. Septimuleius, who, although he had been a familiar of C. Gracchus, endured to cut off his head and to bear it fixed on a spear through the city, because the consul Opimius had proclaimed that he would repay that with gold. There are those who relate that, with molten lead, they filled the hollow part of the head, so that it might be the more ponderous. He may have been seditious; he perished as a salutary example, yet the client’s wicked hunger ought not to have hungered after such injuries to one lying thus.

9.4.ext.1 Odium merita Septimulei auaritia, Ptolomaei autem regis Cypriorum risu prosequenda: nam cum anxiis sordibus magnas opes corripuisset propterque eas periturum se uideret et ideo omni pecunia inposita nauibus in altum processisset, ut classe perforata suo arbitrio periret et hostes praeda carerent, non sustinuit mergere aurum et argentum, sed futurum necis suae praemium domum reuexit. procul dubio hic non possedit diuitias, sed a diuitiis possessus est, titulo rex insulae, animo pecuniae miserabile mancipium.

9.4.ext.1 The hatred deserved for Septimuleius’ avarice, and the laugh of Ptolemy, king of the Cypriots, should be noted: for when, with anxious squalor, he had seized great riches and saw that he would perish on their account, and therefore, having placed all his money on ships, had put out into the deep, so that, the fleet having been pierced, it might perish at his will and the enemies lack booty, he could not endure to drown gold and silver, but carried home the reward of his impending death. Without doubt he did not possess wealth, but was possessed by wealth; in title king of an island, in spirit a miserable mancipium of money.

9.5.1 Atque ut superbia quoque et inpotentia in conspicuo ponatur, M. Fuluius Flaccus consul M. Plautii Hypsaei collega, cum perniciosissimas rei publicae leges introduceret de ciuitate <Italiae> danda et de prouocatione ad populum eorum, qui ciuitatem mutare noluissent, aegre conpulsus est ut in curiam ueniret: deinde partim monenti, partim oranti senatui ut incepto desisteret, responsum non dedit. tyrannici spiritus consul haberetur, si aduersus unum senatorem hoc modo se gessisset, quo Flaccus in totius amplissimi ordinis contemnenda maiestate uersatus est.

9.5.1 And that pride and incapacity might also be set in plain view, M. Fuluius Flaccus, consul, colleague of M. Plautius Hypsaeus, when he introduced most pernicious laws of the res publica about granting the citizenship of <Italy> and about the appeal to the people for those who had refused to change their citizenship, was reluctantly forced to come into the curia; then, the senate, partly warning, partly beseeching him to desist from what he had begun, received no answer. He would have been held a consul of tyrannical spirit if he had behaved thus toward a single senator; yet Flaccus conducted himself in this way toward the majesty of the whole most eminent order, treating it as deserving of contempt.

9.5.2 Quae a M. quoque Druso tribuno pl. per summam contumeliam uexata est: parum enim habuit L. Philippum consulem, quia interfari se contionantem ausus fuerat, obtorta gula, et quidem non per uiatorem, sed per clientem suum adeo uiolenter in carcerem praecipitem egisse, ut multus e naribus eius cruor profunderetur, uerum etiam, cum senatus ad eum misisset, ut in curiam ueniret, 'quare non potius' inquit 'ipse in Hostiliam curiam propinquam rostris, id est ad me, uenit?' piget adicere quod sequitur: tribunus senatus imperium despexit, senatus tribuni uerbis paruit.

9.5.2 This was also vexed by M. Drusus, tribune of the plebs, through the utmost contumely: for he had little regard for L. Philippus the consul, because he had dared to be slain while speaking in the assembly, his throat having been twisted, and indeed not by a messenger but by his own client so violently hurled headlong into prison that much blood gushed from his nostrils; moreover, when the senate had sent to him that he should come into the curia, "why does he not rather himself come into the Hostilian Curia near the rostra, that is, to me?" he said. It grieves me to add what follows: the tribune scorned the authority of the senate, the senate yielded to the tribune's words.

9.5.3 Cn. autem Pompeius quam insolenter! qui balineo egressus ante pedes suos prostratum Hypsaeum ambitus reum, et nobilem uirum et sibi amicum, iacentem reliquit contumeliosa uoce proculcatum: nihil enim eum aliud agere quam ut conuiuium suum moraretur respondit, et huius dicti conscius securo animo cenare potuit. ille uero etiam in foro non erubuit P. Scipionem socerum suum legibus <ob>noxium, quas ipse tulerat, in maxima quidem reorum [et] inlustrium ruina muneris loco a iudicibus deposcere, maritalis lecti blanditiis statum rei publicae temerando.

9.5.3 How insolently Cn. Pompeius acted! Who, having left the bath, left Hypsaeus—accused of ambitus, a noble man and his friend—prostrate before his feet, and with a contumelious voice trampled him underfoot: for he answered that he was doing nothing else than delaying his banquet, and knowing this word he was able to dine with a careless mind. Moreover he did not even redden in the forum to demand that P. Scipio, his father‑in‑law, guilty by the laws which he himself had carried, be deposed by the judges—at the very great ruin of the accused and illustrious, in the place of a munus—and by the blandishments of the marital couch, recklessly imperiling the state.

9.5.4 Taetrum facto pariter ac dicto M. Antonii conuiuium: nam cum ad eum triumuirum Caesetii Rufi senatoris caput allatum esset, auersantibus id ceteris propius admoueri iussit ac diu diligenterque considerauit. cunctis deinde expectantibus quidnam esset dicturus, 'hunc ego' inquit 'notum non habui'. superba de senatore, inpotens de occiso confessio.

9.5.4 A foul banquet, alike in deed and in word, of M. Antonius: for when the head of the senator Caesetius Rufus, a triumvir, had been brought to him, he ordered it, others turning away, to be moved nearer and he long and diligently examined it. then, with all awaiting what he would say, 'hunc ego' he said 'notum non habui' — "I did not know this man." proud as to the senator, powerless in confession regarding the slain man.

9.5.ext.1 Satis multa de nostris: aliena nunc adiciantur. Alexandri regis uirtus ac felicitas tribus insolentiae euidentissimis gradibus exultauit: fastidio enim Philippi Iouem Hammonem patrem asciuit, taedio morum et cultus Macedonici uestem et instituta Persica adsumpsit, spreto mortali habitu diuinum, aemulatus est, nec fuit ei pudori filium, ciuem, hominem dissimulare.

9.5.ext.1 Quite many things about our own: let alien matters now be added. The virtue and felicity of King Alexander exulted in three most evident grades of insolence: for in contempt of Philip he proclaimed Jove Ammon as father, from weariness of Macedonian mores and culture he assumed Persian dress and institutions, scornful of the mortal garb he made it divine and emulated it, nor did he feel shame to disguise a son, a citizen, a man.

9.5.ext.2 Iam Xerxes, cuius in nomine superbia et inpotentia habitat, suo iure ~ tam insolenter, quod Graeciae indicturus bellum adhibitis Asiae principibus, 'ne uiderer' inquit 'meo tantum modo usus consilio, uos contraxi. ceterum mementote parendum magis uobis esse quam suadendum'. adroganter, etiam si uictori repetere ei regiam contigisset: tam deformiter uicti nescias utrum insolentius dictum an inprudentius.

9.5.ext.2 Now Xerxes, in whose name arrogance and impotence dwell, by his own right ~ behaved so insolently that, about to proclaim war against Greece, with the princes of Asia summoned, he said, "Lest I seem to have used only my own counsel, I have bound you." Moreover, "Remember that it is more for you to be obeyed than to advise." Arrogantly said — even if to the victor it had fallen to reclaim the royal dignity — so disgracefully were they conquered that one does not know whether the utterance was more insolent or more imprudent.

9.5.ext.3 Hannibal autem Cannensis pugnae successu elatus nec admisit quemquam ciuium suorum in castris nec responsum ulli <nisi> per interpretem dedit. Maharbalem etiam, ante tabernaculum suum clara uoce adfirmantem prospexisse quonam modo paucis diebus Romae in Capitolio cenaret, aspernatus est. adeo felicitatis et moderationis diuiduum contubernium est.

9.5.ext.3 Hannibal, however, elated by the success of the Cannae battle, admitted none of his citizens into the camp and gave no answer to anyone except through an interpreter. He even spurned Maharbal, who before his tent, with a clear voice, affirmed that he had foreseen how in a few days he would dine on the Capitol in Rome. So great a dual contubernium of felicity and moderation is this.

9.5.ext.4 Insolentiae uero inter Karthaginiensem et Campanum senatum quasi aemulatio fuit: ille enim separato a plebe balineo lauabatur, hic diuerso foro utebatur. quem morem Capuae aliquamdiu retentum C. quoque Gracchi oratione in Plautium scripta patet.

9.5.ext.4 Indeed there was, between the Carthaginian and the Campanian senate, a sort of emulation of insolence: for the one bathed in a balneum separated from the plebs, the other made use of a different forum. That custom of Capua being retained for some time is likewise evident from C. Gracchus’s speech written against Plautius.

9.6.init. Occultum iam et insidiosum malum, perfidia, latebris suis extrahatur. cuius efficacissimae uires sunt mentiri ac fallere, fructus in aliquo admisso scelere consistit, tum certus, cum credulitatem nefariis uinculis circumdedit, tantum inconmodi humano generi adferens, quantum salutis bona fides praestat. habeat igitur non minus reprehensionis quam illa laudis consequitur.

9.6.init. Hidden and insidious evil now, perfidy, is dragged out of its lairs. Whose most efficacious powers are to lie and to deceive; its fruit consists in some crime committed, and then is certain, when it has bound credulity with nefarious bonds, to bring to the human race as much harm as good faith affords to salvation. Let it therefore have no less reprehension than that enjoys of praise.

9.6.1 Romulo regnante Spurius Tarpeius arci praeerat. cuius filiam uirginem aquam sacris petitum extra moenia egressam Tatius ut armatos Sabinos in arcem secum reciperet corrupit, mercedis nomine pactam quae in sinistris manibus gerebant: erant autem <in> his armillae et anuli magno ex pondere auri. loco potitum agmen Sabinorum puellam praemium flagitantem armis obrutam necauit, perinde quasi promissum, quod ea quoque laeuis gestauerant, solui<sse>t. absit reprehensio, quia inpia proditio celeri poena uindicata est.

9.6.1 In the reign of Romulus Spurius Tarpeius presided over the arx. His daughter, a virgin, having gone out beyond the walls to fetch water for the sacred rites, Tatius corrupted her so that he might receive the armed Sabines into the citadel with him, the pact agreed in the name of a reward which they wore on their left hands: among these were armillae and rings of great weight of gold. Having gained the place, the column of Sabines, the girl demanding the promised reward, overwhelmed by arms, killed her — just as if the promise, which they also bore on the left, had been discharged. Let there be no reproach, since the impious treachery was avenged by swift punishment.

9.6.2 Ser. quoque Galba summae perfidiae: trium enim Lusitaniae ciuitatium conuocato populo tamquam de conmodis eius acturus viii, in quibus flos iuuentutis consistebat, electa et armis exuta partim trucidauit, partim uendidit. quo facinore maximam cladem barbarorum magnitudine criminis antecessit.

9.6.2 Servius Galba also of the utmost perfidy: for, the people of three Lusitanian communities having been summoned, as though about to deal out their goods — 8 — in which the flower of youth was gathered, the chosen, stripped of arms, he partly slaughtered, partly sold. By that wicked deed he surpassed the greatest massacre of the barbarians in the magnitude of the crime.

9.6.3 Cn. autem Domitium summi generis et magni animi uirum nimia gloriae cupiditas perfidum existere coegit: iratus namque Bituito regi Aruernorum, quod [tum] suam et Allobrogum gentem se etiam tum in prouincia morante ad Q. Fabii successoris sui dexteram confugere hortatus esset, per conloquii simulationem arcessitum hospitioque exceptum uinxit ac Romam naue deportandum curauit. cuius factum senatus neque probare potuit neque rescindere uoluit, ne remissus in patriam Bituitus bellum renouaret. igitur eum Albam custodiae causa relegauit.

9.6.3 Gnaeus Domitius, however, a man of the highest rank and of great spirit, was driven to perfidy by an excessive desire for glory: for being angry with Bituitus, king of the Arverni, because he had then urged both his own people and the Allobroges, even while lingering in the province, to take refuge at the right hand of Q. Fabius, his successor, he by the pretence of a conference had him summoned and, received under hospitality, bound him and arranged that he be conveyed by ship to Rome. The senate could neither approve the act nor would it annul it, lest, if restored to his country, Bituitus renew the war. Therefore he was banished to Alba for custody.

9.6.4 Viriathi etiam caedes duplicem perfidiae accusationem recipit, in amicis, quod eorum manibus interemptus est, in Q. Seruilio Caepione consule, quia is sceleris huius auctor inpunitate promissa fuit uictoriamque non meruit, sed emit.

9.6.4 Viriathus also bears a double accusation of perfidy: against his friends, because he was slain by their hands, and against Q. Seruilius Caepio, consul, because he, the author of this crime, was promised impunity and did not win the victory by merit but bought it.

9.6.ext.1 Verum ut ipsum fontem perfidiae contemplemur, Karthaginienses Xanthippum Lacedaemonium, cuius optima opera primo Punico bello usi fuerant et quo iuuante Atilium Regulum ceperant, simulantes domum se reuehere, in alto merserunt, quid tanto facinore petentes? an ne uictoriae eorum socius superesset? extat nihilo minus, et quidem cum opprobrio, quem sine ulla gloriae iactura inuiolatum reliquissent.

9.6.ext.1 Yet to behold the very fountain of perfidy, the Carthaginians drowned Xanthippus the Lacedaemonian, whose best works they had employed in the First Punic War and by whose aid they had captured Atilius Regulus, feigning that they were returning home; what, by so great a crime, did they seek? that a partner of their victory should not survive? There remains nevertheless an opprobrium, and indeed one which they could have left unviolated without any loss to their glory.

9.6.ext.2 Hannibal porro Nucerinos hortatu suo cum binis uestimentis urbem inexpugnabilibus muris cinctam egressos uapore et fumo balnearum strangulando, et Acerranorum senatum eadem ratione extra moenia euocatum in profundum puteorum abiciendo nonne bellum aduersus populum Romanum et Italiam professus aduersus ipsam fidem acrius gessit, mendaciis et fallacia quasi praeclaris artibus gaudens? quo euenit ut alioqui insignem nominis sui memoriam relicturus, in dubio maiorne an peior uir haberi deberet poneret.

9.6.ext.2 Hannibal moreover, by his urging the Nucerini having gone forth clad in two garments, the city girded with impregnable walls, stifling it with the steam and smoke of the baths, and the senate of the Acerrae summoned out beyond the walls in the same fashion and cast into the depths of wells — did he not, having declared war against the Roman people and Italy, carry it on the more fiercely even against faith itself, rejoicing in lies and deceit as if they were splendid arts? How did it come about that, otherwise about to leave a notable memory of his name, he set the question whether he ought to be reckoned a greater or a worse man?

9.7.init. Sed ut uiolentiae <et> seditionis tam togatae quam etiam armatae facta referantur,ä

9.7.init. But that the deeds of violence <et> of sedition, both togated and even armed, be related,ä

9.7.1 (Sed ut uiolentiae <et> seditionis tam togatae quam etiam armatae facta referantur =init.), L. Equitium, qui se Ti. Gracchi filium simulabat tribunatumque aduersus leges <cum> L. Saturnino petebat, a C. Mario quintum consulatum gerente in publicam custodiam ductum populus claustris carceris conuulsis raptum humeris suis per summam animorum alacritatem portauit.

(But that the deeds of violence <and> sedition, both of the togaed and even of the armed, be related =init.), L. Equitius, who pretended to be the son of Ti. Gracchus and sought the tribunate against the laws <with> L. Saturninus, was led into public custody during C. Marius’ fifth consulship, and the people, with the bars of the prison torn away, snatched him up on their shoulders and carried him off with the utmost alacrity of spirit.

9.7.2 idemque Q. Metellum censorem, quod ab eo tamquam Gracchi filio censum recipere nolebat, lapidibus prosternere conatus est, adfirmantem tres tantum modo filios Ti. Graccho fuisse, e quibus unum in Sardinia stipendia merentem, alterum infantem Praeneste, tertium post patris mortem natum Romae decessisse, neque oportere clarissimae familiae ignotas sordes inseri, cum interim inprouida concitatae multitudinis temeritas++pro inpudentia et audacia!++aduersus consulatum et censuram tetendit principesque suos omni petulantiae genere uexauit.

9.7.2 and likewise he attempted to hurl down with stones Q. Metellus the censor, because he would not accept the censorship from him as if he were the son of Gracchus, Metellus asserting that T. Gracchus had only three sons, of whom one was earning pay in Sardinia, another an infant at Praeneste, the third, born at Rome after his father's death, had died, and that it was not fitting that unknown squalors be grafted into a most illustrious family; when meanwhile the imprudent temerity of the agitated multitude—pro impudence and audacity!—stretched itself against the consulship and the censorship and vexed its leaders with every sort of petulance.

9.7.3 Vaesana haec tantum modo, illa etiam cruenta seditio: populus enim Nunnium conpetitorem Saturnini nouem iam creatis tribunis unoque loco duobus candidatis restante ui prius in aedes priuatas conpulit, extractum deinde interemit, ut caede inte gerrimi ciuis facultas apiscendae potestatis taeterrimo [ciui] daretur.

9.7.3 This seditiousness merely frenzied, that also bloodstained: for the people, with nine tribunes now already chosen and with two candidates contending for one remaining place, by force first drove him into private houses, then dragged him out and killed Nunnius, a rival of Saturninus, so that by the slaughter of the most upright citizen the most foul opportunity of acquiring power might be handed to a citizen.

9.7.4 Creditorum quoque consternatio aduersus Semproni Asellionis praetoris urbani caput intolerabili modo exarsit. quem, quia causam debitorum susceperat, concitati a L. Cassio tribuno pl. pro aede Concordiae sacrificium facientem ab ipsis altaribus fugere extra forum coactum inque tabernula latitantem praetextatum discerpserunt.

9.7.4 The consternation of the creditors likewise flared against Sempronius Asellio, praetor urbanus, in an intolerable manner. He, because he had taken up the cause of the debtors, was driven from the very altars by the excited mob urged on by L. Cassius, tribune of the plebs, while he was performing a sacrifice at the Temple of Concord; forced out into the forum and fleeing to hide in a little shop, the praetexta about him, they tore him to pieces.

9.7.mil.rom.1 Detestanda fori condicio, sed si castra respicias, aeque magna orietur indignatio. cum C. Mario lege Sulpicia prouincia Asia, ut aduersus Mitridatem bellum gereret, priuato decreta esset, missum ab eo Gratidium legatum ad L. Sullam consulem accipiendarum legionum causa milites trucidarunt, procul dubio indignati, quod ab summo imperio ad eum, qui nullo in honore uersaretur, transire cogerentur. sed quis ferat militem scita plebis exitio legati corrigentem?

9.7.mil.rom.1 The condition of the forum is detestable, but if you look to the camp, an equally great indignation will arise. When by the Sulpician law the province of Asia had been assigned to C. Marius, to wage war against Mithridates, though he was a private man, the soldiers slew Gratidius, whom he had sent as legate to L. Sulla the consul for the purpose of receiving legions, doubtless indignant that they were being forced to transfer from the supreme command to one who held no honour. But who will endure a soldier correcting the decrees of the people by the destruction of a legate?

9.7.mil.rom.2 Pro consule istud tam uiolenter exercitus, illud aduersus consulem: Q. enim Pompeium Sullae collegam senatus iussu ad exercitum Cn. Pompei, quem aliquamdiu inuita ciuitate obtinebat, contendere ausum ambitiosi ducis inlecebris corrupti milites sacrificare incipientem adorti in modum hostiae mactarunt tantumque scelus, curia castris cedere se confessa, inultum abiit.

9.7.mil.rom.2 For that thing by the army so violently against the proconsul, and that other against the consul: for Quintus Pompeius, Sulla’s colleague, by the senate’s order to join the army of Cn. Pompeius — whom for some time he was holding against the will of the city — when he dared to contend, the soldiers, corrupted by the blandishments of an ambitious leader, set upon him as he was beginning to offer a sacrifice and slaughtered him in the fashion of a victim; and so great a crime, the curia, having admitted that it yielded to the camp, went unpunished.

9.7.mil.rom.3 Ille quoque exercitus nefarie uiolentus, qui C. Carbonem, fratrem Carbonis ter consulis, propter bella ciuilia dissolutam disciplinam militarem praefractius et rigidius astringere conatum priuauit uita satiusque duxit maximo scelere coinquinari quam prauos ac taetros mores mutare.

9.7.mil.rom.3 That army likewise, nefariously violent, which put C. Carbo—brother of Carbo, thrice consul—to death, because he had attempted to bind up the military disciplina, loosened by civil wars, somewhat more sternly and rigidly, deprived him of life, and deemed it better to be stained with a great crime than to reform their perverse and foul mores.

9.8.init. Temeritatis etiam et subiti <et> uehementes sunt impulsus, quorum ictibus hominum mentes concussae nec sua pericula dispicere nec aliena facta iusta aestimatione prosequi ualent.

9.8.init. Rash and sudden and vehement impulses are also present, whose blows, the minds of men shaken, are neither able to discern their own dangers nor to pursue the deeds of others with a just estimation.

9.8.1 Quam enim temere se Africanus superior ex Hispania duabus quinqueremibus ad Syphacem traiecit, in unius Numidae infidis praecordiis suam pariter et patriae salutem depositurus! itaque exiguo momento maximae rei casus fluctuatus est, utrum interfector an captiuus Scipionis Syphax fieret.

9.8.1 For how rashly did the elder Africanus cross from Hispania to Syphax in two quinqueremes, about to entrust alike his own and his country’s safety to the treacherous breast of a single Numidian! and thus, in a brief moment, the fortunes of the greatest affair were in fluctuation — whether Syphax would become Scipio’s slayer or his captive.

9.8.2 Nam C. Caesaris anceps conatus, etsi caelestium cura protectus est, [non] tamen uix sine horrore animi referri potest: si quidem inpatiens legionum tardioris a Brundisio Apolloniam traiectus per simulationem aduersae ualetudinis conuiuio egressus maiestate sua seruili ueste occultata nauiculam conscendit <et> e flumine Aoo maris Hadriatici saeua tempestate fauces petiit protinusque in altum dirigi iusso nauigio multum ac diu contrariis iactatus fluctibus tandem necessitati cessit.

9.8.2 For the perilous attempt of C. Caesar, although he was protected by the care of the heavens, can nevertheless hardly be recounted without horror of spirit: for, impatient of the slow legions, transported from Brundisium to Apollonia, he, having left a banquet by a feigning of adverse ill‑health, with his majesty hidden by a servile robe, boarded a little boat <et> from the river Aous sought the mouths of the Adriatic Sea; and immediately, his ordered voyage laid out into the deep, having been tossed long and much by contrary waves, at last yielded to necessity.

9.8.3 Age, illa quam execrabilis militum temeritas! fecit enim ut A. Albinus, nobilitate, moribus, honorum omnium consummatione ciuis eximius, propter falsas et inanes suspiciones in castris ab exercitu lapidibus obrueretur, quodque accessionem indignationis non recipit, oranti atque obsecranti duci a militibus causae dicendae potestas negata est.

9.8.3 Come now, what an execrable temerity of the soldiers! For it brought about that A. Albinus, distinguished as a citizen by nobility, by morals, and by the consummation of all honors, on account of false and empty suspicions was in the camp overwhelmed with stones by the army; and—what increases the indignation—the power for the cause to be spoken was denied by the soldiers to the general who was pleading and beseeching.

9.8.ext.1 Itaque minus miror apud trucem et saeuum animum Hannibalis defensionis locum innoxio gubernatori non fuisse, quem a Petilia classe Africam repetens freto adpulsus, dum tam paruo spatio Italiam Siciliamque inter se diuisas non credit, uelut insidiosum cursus rectorem interemit, posteaque diligentius inspecta ueritate tunc absoluit, cum eius innocentiae nihil ultra sepulcri honorem dari potuit. igitur angusti atque aestuosi maris alto e tumulo speculatrix statua quam memoriae Pelori tam Punicae temeritatis ultra citraque nauigantium oculis conlocatum indicium est.

9.8.ext.1 Therefore I am less surprised that in Hannibal’s truculent and savage mind there was no place of defense for the innocent pilot, whom, having been driven ashore from Petilia’s fleet while returning to Africa across the strait — and, while he did not believe that so short a distance divided Italy and Sicily from one another — he killed as if an insidious helmsman of the course; and afterwards, when the truth was more diligently examined, he then acquitted him, since nothing beyond the honor of burial could be granted to his innocence. Thus the statue, standing watch on a high tomb above the narrow and seething sea, placed as a memorial at Pelorus of so Punic a temerity, both on this side and beyond within the sight of sailors, is an indication.

9.8.ext.2 Iam Atheniensium ciuitas ad uaesaniam usque temeraria, quae x uniuersos imperatores suos, et quidem a pulcherrima uictoria uenientis, capitali iudicio exceptos necauit, quod militum corpora saeuitia maris interpellante sepulturae mandare non potuissent, necessitatem puniens, cum honorare uirtutem deberet.

9.8.ext.2 Now the city of the Athenians, rash even to madness, which executed all 10 of its commanders, and indeed those taken after a most glorious victory, by capital sentence, because the bodies of the soldiers, the sea’s fury intervening, could not be committed to burial, punished necessity when it ought to have honored virtue.

9.9.init. Temeritati proximus est error, quem ad modum ad laedendum par, ita cui facilius quis ignouerit, quia non sua sponte, sed uanis concitatus imaginibus culpae se inplicat. qui quam late in pectoribus hominum uagetur si conplecti coner, uitio, de quo loquor, sim obnoxius. paucos igitur eius lapsus referemus.

9.9.init. Error stands next to temerity; in just the way it is apt to wound, so is it the more easily forgiven, for, not of his own will but stirred by vain excited images, one entangles himself in the fault. If I were to try to embrace how widely it wanders in men's breasts, I should be the more liable to the vice of which I speak. Therefore we will recount a few of its slips.

9.9.1 C. Heluius Cinna tribunus pl. ex funere C. Caesaris domum suam petens populi manibus discerptus est pro Cornelio Cinna, in quem saeuire se existimabat iratus ei, quod, cum adfinis esset Caesaris, aduersus eum nefarie raptum impiam pro rostris orationem habuisset, eoque errore propulsus est, ut caput Helui perinde atque Corneli circa rogum Caesaris fixum iaculo ferret, officii sui, alieni erroris piaculum miserabile!

9.9.1 C. Helvius Cinna, tribune of the plebs, coming from the funeral of C. Caesar and seeking his home, was torn to pieces by the hands of the people mistaken for Cornelius Cinna, at whom they thought he had been raging in anger — because, although he was Caesar’s relation by marriage, he had, unlawfully seized, made an impious speech against him at the rostra — and by that error was driven to such a point that they bore Helvius’s head just as they would have borne Cornelius’s, fixed with a javelin about Caesar’s pyre: a miserable expiation of his duty and of another’s error!

9.9.2 Nam C. Cassium error a semet ipso poenas exigere coegit: inter illum enim pugnae quattuor exercituum apud Philippos uarium ipsisque ducibus ignotum euentum missus ab eo Ti<ti>nius centurio nocturno tempore, ut specularetur quonam in statu res M. Bruti essent, dum crebros excessus uiae petit, quia tenebrarum obscuritas hostesne an conmilitones occurrerent dinoscere non sinebat, tardius ad Cassium rediit. quem is exceptum ab hostibus omniaque in eorum potestatem recidisse existimans finire uitam properauit, cum et castra hostium inuicem capta et Bruti copiae magna ex parte incolumes essent. Titini uero non obliteranda silentio uirtus, qui oculis paulisper haesit inopinato iacentis ducis spectaculo attonitus, deinde profusus in lacrimas 'etsi inprudens' inquit, 'imperator, causa tibi mortis fui, tamen, ne id ipsum inpunitum sit, accipe me fati tui comitem', superque exanime corpus eius iugulo suo gladium capulo tenus demisit ac permixto utriusque sanguine duplex uictima iacuit, pietatis haec, erroris illa.

9.9.2 For the error of C. Cassius forced him to exact punishment from himself: for during that battle of the 4 armies at Philippi, a changeable event unknown even to the commanders — he had sent Ti<ti>nius the centurion by night, to reconnoiter in what state the affairs of M. Brutus were; while he made frequent sallies along the road, because the darkness of night did not allow him to tell whether those he met were enemies or comrades, he returned to Cassius more slowly. Cassius, thinking him intercepted by the enemy and that all had fallen into their power, hastened to end his life, although the enemy camps had in turn been taken and Brutus’s forces were for the most part uninjured. Nor is the virtue of Titinius to be left unmentioned, who, his eyes for a little while fixed, astonished at the unexpected sight of his fallen leader, then pouring forth tears said, 'etsi inprudens,' inquit, 'imperator, causa tibi mortis fui, tamen, ne id ipsum impunitum sit, accipe me fati tui comitem,' and upon his lifeless body he plunged his sword into his own throat as far as the hilt, and, mingled with the blood of both, a double victim lay — this of piety, that of error.

9.9.3 Ceterum falsa opinatio nescio an praecipuam iniuriam Lartis Tolumni Veientium regis penatibus intulerit: nam cum in tesserarum prospero iactu per iocum conlusori dixisset 'occide', et forte Romanorum legati interuenissent, satellites eius errore uocis inpulsi interficiendo legatos lusum ad inperium transtulerunt.

9.9.3 Moreover a false opinion, I know not whether, has inflicted a singular injury upon the penates of Lartus Tolumnius, king of the Veientes: for when, in the lucky cast of the dice, he had said to his playing companion in jest "kill," and by chance Roman envoys had intervened, his satellites, misled by the error of the voice, urged on to kill the envoys, transformed a game into an imperium.

9.10.init. Vltionis autem quem ad modum acres, ita iusti aculei sunt, qui lacessiti concitantur, acceptum dolorem <dolore> pensare cupientes: quos latius conplecti non adtinet.

9.10.init. The stings of vengeance, however, are as keen as the aculei of the just; who, when provoked, are roused, desirous of weighing off the pain received <dolore>: it does not befit to embrace them more broadly.

9.10.1 Tribunus pl. M. Flauius ad populum de Tusculanis retulit, quod eorum consilio Veliternos Priuernatesque ~ rebellaturos diceret. qui cum <cum> coniugibus ac liberis squalore obsiti supplices Romam uenissent, accidit ut reliquis tribubus salutarem sententiam secutis sola Pollia iudicaret oportere publice eos uerberatos securi percuti, inbellem multitudinem sub corona uenire. quam ob causam Papiria tribus, in qua plurimum postea Tusculani in ciuitatem recepti potuerunt, neminem umquam candidatum Polliae tribus fecit magistratum, ne ad eam ullus honor suffragiis <suis> perueniret, quae illis uitam ac libertatem, quantum in ipsa fuit, ademerat.

9.10.1 The tribune of the plebs M. Flavius reported to the people concerning the Tusculans that by their counsel the Veliterni and the Privernates were said to be about to rebel. These, when with wives and children oppressed by squalor they had come to Rome as suppliants, it happened that, the other tribes having followed the salutary resolution, only the Pollia judged that it was fitting publicly to have them flogged with the axe and to bring the unarmed multitude under the crown. For this reason the Papiria tribe, in which subsequently most of the Tusculans could be received into the city, never made any candidate of the Pollia tribe for magistracy, lest by their votes any honor should reach that tribe which had taken from them life and liberty, so far as it lay in its power.

9.10.2 Illam uero ultionem et senatus et consensus omnium adprobauit: cum enim Adrianus ciuis Romanos, qui Vticae consistebant, sordido imperio uexasset idcircoque ab his uiuus esset exustus, nec quaestio ulla in urbe hac de re habita nec querella uersata est.

9.10.2 That very vengeance, moreover, was approved by the senate and by the consensus of all: for when Adrianus, a Roman citizen, had vexed the Romans who were stationed at Utica with a sordid command, and was therefore burned alive by them, no inquiry at all was held in this city about the matter, nor was any complaint pursued.

9.10.ext.1 Clarae ultionis utraque regina, et Tomyris, quae caput Cyri abscisum in utrem humano sanguine repletum demitti iussit exprobrans illi insatiabilem cruoris sitim simulque poenas occisi ab eo filii sui exigens, et Berenice, quae Laodices insidiis interceptum sibi filium grauiter ferens armata currum conscendit persecutaque satellitem regium, crudelis operis ministrum nomine Caeneum, quem hasta nequiquam petierat, saxo ictum prostrauit ac super eius corpus actis equis inter infesta contrariae partis agmina ad domum, in qua interfecti pueri corpus occultari arbitrabatur, perrexit.

9.10.ext.1 Both queens of conspicuous vengeance — Tomyris, who, reproaching him for an insatiable thirst for blood, ordered Cyrus’s severed head to be sent down in a wineskin filled with human blood and at the same time demanded punishment for her son slain by him; and Berenice, who, sorely grieving that her son had been intercepted by Laodice’s treachery, mounted an armed chariot and, having pursued the king’s satellite, the cruel minister of the deed named Caeneus — whom she had vainly assailed with a spear — struck him down with a stone and, with horses driven over his body amid the hostile ranks of the opposing side, proceeded to the house in which she supposed the slain boy’s body to be concealed.

9.10.ext.2 Iasonem Thessalum Persarum regi bellum inferre parantem an satis iusta ultio absumpserit ambiguae aestimationis est: Taxillo enim gymnasiarcho a quibusdam iuuenibus pulsatum se questo permisit ut aut tricenas ab his drachmas exigeret aut denas plagas singulis inponeret. quo posteriore uindicta uso qui uapulauerant Iasonem interfecerunt, animi, non corporis dolore poenae modum aestimantes. ceterum paruo inritamento ingenui pudoris maximae rei expectatio subruta est, quoniam opinione Graeciae tantum in spe Iasonis quantum in effectu Alexandri reponitur.

9.10.ext.2 Whether he consumed Jason the Thessalian, preparing to make war on the Persian king, as a sufficiently just vengeance is of ambiguous estimation: for Taxillus, the gymnasiarch, having been struck by certain youths, complaining, permitted himself either to exact thirty drachmas from them or to impose ten lashes on each. With the latter vindication having been used, those who had beaten him killed Jason, reckoning the measure of punishment by the pain of the mind, not of the body. Moreover, from a small affront to ingenuous modesty the expectation of a greatest matter was robbed, since in the opinion of Greece as much hope is placed in Jason as in the achievement of Alexander.

9.11.init. Nunc, quatenus uitae humanae cum bona tum etiam mala substitutis exemplorum imaginibus persequimur, dicta inproba et facta scelerata referantur.

9.11.init. Now, insofar as in human life we pursue both good and also bad things under substituted images of examples, let base words and wicked deeds be recounted.

9.11.1 Vnde autem potius quam a Tullia ordiar, quia tempore uetustissimum, conscientia nefarium, uoce monstri simile exemplum est? cum carpento ueheretur et is, qui iumenta agebat, succussis frenis constitisset, repentinae morae causam requisiuit, et ut comperit corpus patris Seruii Tulli occisi ibi iacere, supra id duci uehiculum iussit, quo celerius in conplexum interfectoris eius Tarquinii ueniret.qua tam impia tamque probrosa festinatione non solum se aeterna infamia, sed etiam ipsum uicum cognomine sceleris conmaculauit.

9.11.1 Whence indeed should I rather begin than with Tullia, since she is the most ancient in time, nefarious in conscience, and by voice an example like a monster? when she was being borne in a carpentum and he who drove the beasts had stopped his horses with the shaken reins, she inquired the cause of the sudden delay, and when she discovered the body of Servius Tullius her father lying there slain, she ordered the vehicle to be driven over it, so that she might more quickly come into the embrace of Tarquinius, his murderer. By so impious and so shameful a haste she not only stained herself with eternal infamy, but even defiled the very street with the surname of crime.

9.11.2 Non tam atrox C. Fimbriae est factum et dictum, sed si per se aestimetur, utrumque audacissimum. id egerat, ut Scaeuola in funere C. Marii iugularetur. quem postquam ex uulnere recreatum conperit, accusare apud populum instituit.

9.11.2 The deed and the utterance of C. Fimbria are not so atrocious, but if each be judged by itself, both are most audacious. He had contrived that Scaevola should be slaughtered at the funeral of C. Marius. When he learned that the man had been restored from his wound, he set about accusing him before the people.

interrogatus deinde quid de eo secus dicturus esset, cui pro sanctitate morum satis digna laudatio reddi non posset, respondit obiecturum se illi quod parcius corpore telum recepisset. licentiam furoris aegrae rei publicae gemitu prosequendam!

asked then what else he would say about him, to whom, for the sanctity of his morals, no sufficiently worthy laudation could be rendered, he replied that he would object to him that he had received the wound rather sparingly upon his body. Shall the licence of a fury of the ailing republic be bewailed with a groan!

9.11.3 L. uero Catilina in senatu M. Cicerone incendium ab ipso excitatum dicente 'sentio', inquit 'et quidem illud, si aqua non potuero, ruina restinguam'. quem quid aliud existimemus quam conscientiae stimulis actum reum [a] se inchoati parricidii peregisse?

9.11.3 L. vero Catilina in senatu M. Cicerone incendium ab ipso excitatum dicente 'sentio', inquit 'et quidem illud, si aqua non potuero, ruina restinguam'. quem quid aliud existimemus quam conscientiae stimulis actum reum se inchoati parricidii peregisse?

9.11.4 Consternatum etiam Magi Chilonis amentia pectus, qui M. Marcello datum a Caesare spiritum sua manu eripuit, uetus <amicus> et Pompeianae militiae comes, indignatus aliquos sibi amicorum ab eo praeferri: urbem enim a Mytilenis, quo se contulerat, repetentem in Atheniensium portu pugione confodit protinusque ad inritamenta uaesaniae suae trucidanda tetendit, amicitiae hostis, diuini beneficii interceptor, publicae religionis, quod ad salutem clarissimi ciuis recuperandam attinuit, acerba labes.

9.11.4 Also the breast of Magus Chilo was shattered by madness, who with his own hand tore away the life given to M. Marcellus by Caesar — an old friend and comrade of Pompeian soldiery — indignant that some of his friends were preferred before him by that man: for, when Marcellus was returning to the city from Mytilene, whither he had gone, he stabbed him in the Athenians' harbour with a dagger and immediately stretched him out to be slaughtered at the promptings of his frenzy, an enemy of friendship, interceptor of a divine favour, a bitter blot on public piety insofar as it concerned the recovery of the safety of the most illustrious citizen.

9.11.5 Hanc crudelitatem, cui nihil adici posse uidetur, C. Toranius atrocitate parricidi superauit: namque triumuirorum partes secutus proscripti patris sui praetorii et ornati uiri latebras, aetatem notasque corporis, quibus agnosci posset, centurionibus edidit, qui eum persecuti sunt. senex de filii magis uita et incrementis quam de reliquo spiritu suo sollicitus an incolumis esset et an imperatoribus satis faceret interrogare eos coepit. e quibus unus 'ab illo' inquit, 'quem tantopere diligis, demonstratus nostro ministerio filii indicio occideris', protinusque pectus eius gladio traiecit.

9.11.5 This cruelty, to which nothing seems able to be added, C. Toranius surpassed in the atrocity of parricide: for having taken on the parts of a triumvir, he handed over the hiding-places, the age and bodily marks by which recognition was possible, of his proscribed father — a praetorian and ornamented man — to the centurions who pursued him. The old man, more anxious about his son's life and growth than about his remaining breath, whether he would be unharmed and whether he would satisfy the commanders, began to question them. One of them said, 'By that man whom you so greatly love, having been pointed out by our service as the informer of your son, you shall be killed,' and immediately pierced his breast with his sword.

conlapsus itaque est infelix, auctore caedis quam ipsa caede miserior.

and so the unfortunate one collapsed, more pitiable by the author of the slaughter than by the slaughter itself.

9.11.6 Cuius fati acerbitatem L. Villius Annalis sortitus, cum in campum ad quaestoria comitia filii descendens proscriptum se cognosset, ad clientem suum confugit. sed ne fide eius tutus esse posset, scelere nefarii iuuenis effectum est, si quidem per ipsa uestigia patris militibus ductis occidendum eum in conspectu suo obiecit, bis parricida, consilio prius, iterum spectaculo.

9.11.6 Lucius Villius Annalis was allotted the bitterness of that fate: when, descending into the field for his son's quaestorial elections, he found himself proscribed, he fled to his client. But that he could not be safe by that man's fidelity was brought about by the crime of the nefarious youth; for indeed, having led soldiers along his father's very footprints, he set him up to be slain in his own sight—parricide twice over, first by counsel, again by spectacle.

9.11.7 Ne Vettius quidem Salassus proscriptus parum amari exitus. quem latentem uxor interficiendum, quid dicam, tradidit an ipsa iugulauit? quanto enim leuius est scelus, cui tantum modo manus abest?

9.11.7 Nor did the proscribed Vettius Salassus come to an end that was little hated. While he was hiding, did his wife betray him to be put to death, or—what shall I say—did she herself slit his throat? For how much the lighter is a crime to which only the hand is wanting?

9.11.ext.1 Illud autem facinus, quia externum est, tranquilliore adfectu narrabitur. Scipione Africano patris et patrui memoriam gladiatorio munere Karthagine Noua celebrante duo regis filii nuper patre mortuo in harenam processerunt pollicitique sunt ibi se de regno proeliaturos, quo spectaculum illud inlustrius pugna sua facerent. eos cum Scipio monuisset ut uerbis quam ferro diiudicare mallent uter regnare deberet, ac iam maior natu consilio eius obtemperaret, minor corporis uiribus fretus in amentia perstitit initoque certamine pertinacior impietas fortunae iudicio morte multata est.

9.11.ext.1 That deed, however, because it is foreign, will be related with a more tranquil mood. With Scipio Africanus celebrating the memory of his father and uncle by a gladiatorial munus at New Carthage, two sons of the king, recently bereaved of their father, advanced into the arena and there promised that they would fight for the kingdom, so that by their fight they would make that spectacle more illustrious. When Scipio had admonished them to decide by words rather than by sword which ought to reign, and now the elder, greater in age, complied with his counsel, the younger, relying on the strength of his body, persisted in his frenzy; and having begun the contest, his more obstinate impiety was punished with death as the verdict of fortune.

9.11.ext.2 Mitridates autem multo sceleratius, qui non cum fratre de paterno regno, sed cum ipso patre bellum de dominatione gessit. in quo qui aut homines ullos adiutores inuenerit aut deos inuocare ausus sit, prae<cipuam> admirationem habet.

9.11.ext.2 But Mithridates far more wicked, who not with his brother about the paternal kingdom, but with his very father waged war for domination. In this, whoever either found any men as auxiliaries or dared to invoke the gods deserves chief admiration.

9.11.ext.3 Quamquam quid hoc quasi inusitatum illis gentibus miremur, cum Sariaster aduersus patrem suum Tigranen Armeniae regem ita cum amicis consenserit, ut omnes <e d>exteris manibus sanguinem mitterent atque eum inuicem sorberent? vix ferrem pro salute parentis tam cruenta conspiratione foedus facientem.

9.11.ext.3 Although — why should we marvel at this as if it were unusual to those peoples — when Sariaster against his father Tigranes, king of Armenia, so conspired with his friends that they all from <e d>exteris hands would send blood and would mutually suck it up? I could scarcely endure him making a pact for the safety of his parent by so bloody a conspiracy.

9.11.ext.4 Sed quid ego ista consector aut quid his immoror, cum unius parricidii cogitatione cuncta scelera superata cernam? omni igitur impetu mentis, omnibus indignationis uiribus ad id lacerandum pio magis quam ualido adfectu rapior: quis enim amicitiae fide extincta genus humanum cruentis in tenebris sepelire conatum profundo debitae execrationis satis efficacibus uerbis adegerit? tu uidelicet efferatae barbariae immanitate truculentior habenas Romani imperii, quas princeps parensque noster salutari dextera continet, capere potuisti?

9.11.ext.4 But why do I pursue those things or why linger on them, when I see every crime eclipsed by the very thought of a single parricide? Therefore with every impulse of my mind, with all the powers of indignation to tear that to pieces, I am seized by a more pious than vigorous passion: for who, the faith of friendship having been extinguished, would have driven the human race to attempt to bury itself in bloody darkness — with words sufficiently efficacious for the depth of the deserved execration? You, evidently, were able to take the reins of the Roman imperium, more truculent in the ferocity of savage barbarity, which our prince and parent holds in check with a salutary right hand?

aut te conpote furoris mundus in suo statu mansisset? urbem a Gallis captam et trecentorum inclytae gentis uirorum strage foedatum <amnem Cremeram et> Alliensem diem et oppressos in Hispania Scipiones et Trasimennum lacum et Cannas bellorumque ciuilium domestico sagnuine manantis ~ furores amentibus propositis furoris tui repraesentare et uincere uoluisti. sed uigilarunt oculi deorum, sidera suum uigorem obtinuerunt, arae, puluinaria, templa praesenti numine uallata sunt, nihilque, quod pro capite augusto ac patria excubare debuit, torporem sibi permisit, et in primis auctor ac tutela nostrae incolumitatis ne excellentissima merita sua totius orbis ruina conlaberentur diuino consilio prouidit.

or would the world, you being master of madness, have remained in its own state? — the city taken by the Gauls and defiled by the slaughter of three hundred illustrious men of the nation, <the river Cremera and> the day of Allia, and the Scipios overwhelmed in Spain, and the lake Trasimene and Cannae, and civil wars flowing with domestic blood ~ the frenzies proposed by maniacs you would rehearse and surpass with your own madness. But the eyes of the gods kept watch, the stars retained their vigour, altars, pulvina, temples were walled by a present divinity, and nothing that ought to stand guard for the august head and the fatherland permitted itself slumber; and first of all the author and guardian of our safety, lest his most exalted merits be overthrown by the ruin of the whole world, provided by divine counsel.

itaque stat pax, ualent leges, sincerus priuati ac publici officii tenor seruatur. qui autem haec uiolatis amicitiae foederibus temptauit subuertere, omni cum stirpe sua populi Romani uiribus obtritus etiam apud inferos, si tamen illuc receptus est, quae meretur supplicia pendit.

thus peace stands, laws prevail, the sincere tenor of private and public office is preserved. but he who, having violated these bonds of friendship and treaties, sought to overthrow them, crushed with all his stock by the forces of the Roman people, even among the infernal—if indeed he has been received thither—endures the punishments he deserves.

9.12.init. Humanae autem uitae condicionem praecipue primus et ultimus dies continet, quia plurimum interest quibus auspiciis inchoetur et quo fine claudatur, ideoque eum demum felicem fuisse iudicamus, cui et accipere lucem prospere et reddere placide contigit. medii temporis cursus, prout fortuna gubernaculum rexit, modo aspero, modo tranquillo motu peragitur, spe semper minor, dum et cupide uotis extenditur et fere sine ratione consumitur. nam et si eo bene uti uelis, etiam paruum amplissimum efficies, numerum annorum multitudine operum superando: alioquin quid attinet inerti mora gaudere, si magis exigis uitam quam adprobas?

9.12.init. The condition of human life especially contains the first and last day, because it makes great difference under what auspices it is begun and with what end it is closed; and therefore we judge happy only him to whom it has been granted both to receive the light prosperously and to return it placidly. The course of the middle time, as fortune has steered the helm, is carried through now with harsh, now with tranquil motion, ever diminished in hope, while it is both greedily prolonged by wishes and almost without reason consumed. For even if you wish to use it well, you will make a very small span exceedingly ample by surpassing the number of years with a multitude of deeds; otherwise what avails it to delight in inert delay, if you demand life more than you approve it?

sed ne longius euager, eorum mentionem faciam, qui non uulgari genere mortis absumpti sunt.

but lest I wander farther, I will make mention of those who were consumed by a death not of the common sort.

9.12.1 Tullus Hostilius fulmine ictus cum tota domo conflagrauit. singularem fati sortem, qua accidit ut columen urbis in ipsa urbe raptum ne supremo quidem funeris honore a ciuibus decorari posset, caelesti flamma in eam condicionem redactum, ut eosdem penates et regiam et rogum et sepulcrum haberet.

9.12.1 Tullus Hostilius, struck by lightning, burned up with his entire household. By a singular lot of fate — so that it came about that the columen of the city, snatched away within the city itself, could not be adorned by the citizens even with the last honor of a funeral — he was by a celestial flame reduced to such a condition that he had the same penates and the regia and the pyre and the sepulchre.

9.12.2 Vix ueri simile est in eripiendo spiritu idem gaudium potuisse quod fulmen, et tamen idem ualuit. nuntiata enim clade, quae ad lacum Trasimennum inciderat, altera <mater>, sospiti filio ad ipsam portam facta obuia, in conplexu eius expirauit, altera, cum falso mortis filii nuntio maesta domi sederet, ad primum conspectum redeuntis exanimata est. genus casus inusitatum!

9.12.2 It is scarcely credible that in the snatching away of a breath the same joy could be possible as by lightning, and yet the same prevailed. For, on the news of the disaster that had fallen at Lake Trasimene, one , meeting her son—now safe—at the very gate, expired in his embrace; the other, sitting at home sorrowful on the false report of her son’s death, was struck lifeless at the first sight of his returning son. An unusual kind of event!

quas dolor <non> extinxerat, laetitia consumpsit.

those things which sorrow had not extinguished, joy consumed.

9.12.3 Sed minus miror, quod mulieres. M'. Iuuentius Thalna consul, collega Ti. Gracchi consulis iterum, cum in Corsica, quam nuper subegerat, sacrificaret, receptis litteris decretas ei a senatu supplicationes nuntiantibus, intento illas animo legens caligine <ob>orta ante foculum conlapsus mortuus humi iacuit. quem quid aliud quam nimio gaudio enectum putemus?

9.12.3 But I am less amazed that women. M'. Iuuentius Thalna, consul, colleague of Ti. Gracchus, consul for a second time, while sacrificing in Corsica, which he had lately subdued, — the letters having been received which announced to him that supplications had been decreed by the senate — reading them with his mind intent, a darkness arising, collapsed and lay dead on the ground before the hearth. whom should we think him to have been carried off by, other than excessive joy?

en cui Numantia aut Karthago excindenda traderetur!

Behold to whom Numantia or Karthago would be handed over to be destroyed!

9.12.4 Maioris aliquanto spiritus dux Q. Catulus, Cimbrici triumphi C. Mario particeps a senatu datus, sed exitus uiolentioris: namque ab hoc eodem Mario postea propter ciuiles dissensiones mori iussus, recenti calce inlito multoque igni percalefacto cubiculo se inclusum peremit. cuius * * * tam dira necessitas maximus Marianae gloriae rubor extitit.

9.12.4 A leader of somewhat greater spirit, Q. Catulus, sharer with C. Marius in the Cimbrian triumph, was appointed by the senate, but of a more violent end: for by that same Marius afterwards, on account of civil dissensions, he was ordered to die; with fresh lime having been smeared on and the chamber made exceedingly hot by much fire, he put an end to himself shut up in the room. cuius * * * tam dira necessitas maximus Marianae gloriae rubor extitit.

9.12.5 Qua tempestate rei publicae L. quoque Cornelius Merula consularis et flamen Dialis, ne ludibrio insolentissimis uictoribus esset, in Iouis sacrario uenis incisis contumeliosae mortis denuntiationem effugit, sacerdotisque sui sanguine uetustissimi foci maduerunt.

9.12.5 At that season of the republic Lucius Cornelius Merula, likewise a consul and the flamen Dialis, so that he would not be a mockery to the most insolent victors, in Jupiter’s sanctuary cut his veins and thus escaped the threatened ignominious death, and the most ancient hearth was soaked with the blood of its priest.

9.12.6 Acer etiam et animosus uitae exitus Herenni Siculi, quo C. Gracchus et aruspice et amico usus fuerat: nam cum eo nomine in carcerem duceretur, in postem eius inliso capite in ipso ignominiae aditu concidit ac spiritum posuit, uno gradu a publico supplicio manuque carnificis citerior.

9.12.6 A keen and spirited end of life also of Herennius the Sicilian, by whom C. Gracchus had been used both as haruspex and as friend: for when he was being led to prison under that name, with his head smeared on the lintel he fell and gave up his spirit at the very entrance of his ignominy, one step nearer than the public execution and the hand of the executioner.

9.12.7 Consimili impetu mortis C. Licinius Macer uir praetorius, Calui pater, repetundarum reus, dum sententiae diriberentur, [in] maenianum conscendit. si quidem, cum M. Ciceronem, qui id iudicium cogebat, praetextam ponentem uidisset, misit ad eum qui diceret se non damnatum, sed reum perisse, nec sua bona hastae posse subici, ac protinus sudario, quod forte in manu habebat, ore et faucibus suis coartatis incluso spiritu poenam morte praecucurrit. qua cognita re Cicero de eo nihil pronuntiauit.

9.12.7 With a like onslaught of death Gaius Licinius Macer, a man of praetorian rank, father of Calvus, accused of extortion, when the verdicts were being drawn up, [onto] the maenianum ascended. For when he had seen Marcus Cicero, who was conducting that trial, laying aside his praetexta, he sent to him one to say that he had not died condemned but had died guilty, and that his goods could not be subject to the auction; and immediately, with the handkerchief which by chance he had in his hand, having closed his mouth and throat and his breath thus checked, he forestalled the punishment by death. When this affair was known, Cicero pronounced nothing concerning him.

igitur inlustris ingenii orator et ab inopia rei familiaris et a crimine domesticae damnationis inusitato paterni fati genere uindicatus est.

igitur the orator of illustrious genius was vindicated by an unusual kind of paternal fate, freed both from the poverty of his household estate and from the charge of a domestic condemnation.

9.12.8 Fortis huius mors, illorum perridicula: Cornelius enim Gallus praetorius et T. Etereius, eques Romanus, inter usum [puerilis] ueneris absumpti sunt. quamquam quorsum attinet eorum cauillari fata, quos non libido sua, sed fragilitatis humanae ratio abstulit? fine namque uitae nostrae uariis et occultis causis exposito interdum quae inmerentia <sunt>, supremi fati titulum occupant, cum magis in tempus mortis incidant quam ipsa mortem accersant.

9.12.8 Brave is his death, laughably ridiculous theirs: for Cornelius Gallus, praetorian, and T. Etereius, a Roman knight, were consumed in the practice of boyish love. Yet what concern is it to jest about the fates of those whom not their own lust but the frailty of human nature carried off? For at the end of our life, with it exposed to various and hidden causes, sometimes those things which are undeserving <sunt> seize the title of the supreme fate, since they fall more into the time of death than summon death itself.

9.12.ext.1 Sunt et externae mortes dignae adnotatu. qualis in primis Comae, quem ferunt maximi latronum ducis Cleonis fratrem fuisse: is enim ad <P.> Rupilium consulem Hennam, quam praedones tenuerant, in potestatem nostram redactam perductus, cum de uiribus et conatibus fugitiuorum interrogaretur, sumpto tempore ad se colligendum caput operuit innixusque genibus conpresso spiritu inter ipsas custodum manus inque conspectu summi imperii exoptata securitate adquieuit. torqueant se miseri, quibus extingui quam superesse utilius est, in trepido et anxio consilio quanam ratione uita exeant quaerentes: ferrum acuant, uenena temperent, laqueos adprehendant, uastas altitudines circumspiciant, tamquam magno apparatu aut exquisita molitione opus sit, ut corporis atque animi infirmo uinculo cohaerens societas dirimatur.

9.12.ext.1 There are also external deaths worthy of note. Such, in the first place, was Comas, whom they say was the brother of Cleon, the foremost leader of bandits: for he, having been brought into our power after Henna, which the robbers had held, was reduced to the command of Rupilius the consul, when he was questioned about the strength and the efforts of the fugitives, after a time taken to collect himself covered his head, and, leaning on his knees and his breath oppressed, expired in the very hands of his guards and, in the sight of the supreme empire, rested in the longed‑for security. Wretches torment themselves, to whom it is more useful to be extinguished than to survive, seeking in trembling and anxious counsel by what method they may depart life: they sharpen iron, compound poisons, seize nooses, peer about at yawning heights, as if with great apparatus or exquisite contrivance it were necessary that the tie binding body and mind be dissolved.

nihil horum Coma, sed intra pectus inclusa anima finem sui repperit: enimuero non nimio studio retinendum bonum, cuius caduca possessio tam leui adflatu uiolentiae concussa dilabi potuit.

Coma did none of these things, but the soul, enclosed within her breast, found the end of herself: for indeed the good not to be retained by excessive zeal — a possession so caducous that, shaken by so slight a blast of violence, it could slip away.

9.12.ext.2 Aeschyli uero poetae excessus quem ad modum non uoluntarius, sic propter nouitatem casus referendus. in Sicilia moenibus urbis, in qua morabatur, egressus aprico in loco resedit. super quem aquila testudinem ferens elusa splendore capitis++erat enim capillis uacuum++perinde atque lapidi eam inlisit, ut fractae carne uesceretur, eoque ictu origo et principium fortioris tragoediae extinctum est.

9.12.ext.2 The death of the poet Aeschylus, however, must be related not as involuntary in manner, but on account of the novelty of the incident. In Sicily, outside the walls of the city in which he was dwelling, having gone out he sat down in a sunny place. Above him an eagle, bearing a tortoise, having been diverted by the sheen of his head—for it was bare of hair—dashed it against him just as one would against a stone, so that it fed upon the fractured flesh; and by that blow the origin and beginning of a mightier tragedy was extinguished.

9.12.ext.3 Non uulgaris etiam Homeri mortis causa fertur, qui in <Io> insula, quia quaestionem a piscatoribus positam soluere non potuisset, dolore absumptus creditur.

9.12.ext.3 A not-common cause is also reported for Homer's death, namely that on the island, because he had not been able to solve a question posed by fishermen, he is believed to have been consumed by grief.

9.12.ext.4 Sed atrocius aliquanto Euripides finitus est: ab Archelai enim regis cena in Macedonia domum hospitalem repetens, canum morsibus laniatus obiit: crudelitas fati tanto ingenio non debita.

9.12.ext.4 But Euripides met a somewhat more atrocious end: for, returning from King Archelaus’s banquet to a hospitable house in Macedonia, he was torn to pieces by the bites of dogs: a cruelty of fate not due to so great a genius.

9.12.ext.5 Sicut illi excessus inlustrium poetarum et moribus et operibus indignissimi: Sophocles ultimae iam senectutis, cum in certamen tragoediam demisisset, ancipiti sententiarum euentu diu sollicitus, aliquando tamen una sententia uictor causam mortis gaudium habuit.

9.12.ext.5 As likewise those deaths of illustrious poets, most unworthy in both morals and works: Sophocles, already of extreme old age, when he had sent a tragedy into competition, long anxious about the doubtful outcome of the votes, yet at last, being declared victor by a single verdict, had joy as the cause of his death.

9.12.ext.6 Philemonem autem uis risus inmoderati abstulit. paratas ei ficus atque in conspectu positas asello consumente puerum ut illum abigeret inclamauit. qui cum iam comestis omnibus superuenisset, 'quoniam' inquit 'tam tardus fuisti, da nunc merum asello'. ac protinus urbanitatem dicti crebro anhelitu cachinnorum prosecutus, senile guttur salebris spiritus grauauit.

9.12.ext.6 But an excessive fit of laughter carried Philemon away. He cried that figs had been prepared for him and, with them set in sight and a donkey eating them, he shouted to the boy to drive it off. When the boy had now come to all the banquets, he said, "since you were so late, give now unmixed wine to the donkey." And straightaway, following up the urbanity of the remark with frequent gasps of laughter, the hoarse breath grievously oppressed his senile throat.

9.12.ext.7 At Pindarus, cum in gymnasio super gremium pueri, quo unice delectabatur, capite posito quieti se dedisset, non prius decessisse cognitus est quam gymnasiarcho claudere iam eum locum uolente nequiquam excitaretur. cui quidem crediderim eadem benignitate deorum et tantum poeticae facundiae et tam placidum uitae finem attributum.

9.12.ext.7 But Pindar, when in the gymnasium, upon the lap of a boy with whom he alone delighted, had laid his head and given himself to rest, was not known to have died until the gymnasiarch, wishing now to close that place, in vain tried to rouse him. To whom indeed I would ascribe the same benignity of the gods, so great a poetic eloquence, and so placid an end of life.

9.12.ext.8 Sicut Anacreonti quoque, quem usitatum humanae uitae modum supergressum [dum] passae uuae suco tenues et exiles uirium reliquias fouentem unius grani pertinacior in aridis faucibus mora absumpsit.

9.12.ext.8 As with Anacreon too, who, having exceeded the accustomed measure of human life, while the grapes he had endured, their juice nourishing the thin and meagre remnants of his strength, was consumed by a more pertinacious lodging of a single grain in his dry throat.

9.12.ext.9 Iungam illos, quos et propositum et exitus pares fecit. Milo Crotoniates, cum iter faciens quercum in agro cuneis adactis fissam uidisset, fretus uiribus accessit ad eam insertisque manibus diuellere conatus est. quas arbor excussis cuneis in suam naturam reuocata conpressit eumque cum tot gymnicis palmis lacerandum feris praebuit.

9.12.ext.9 I will join those whom both purpose and outcome made equal. Milo of Croton, while traveling, saw an oak in the field split by wedges driven in; relying on his strength he came up to it and, inserting his hands, tried to tear it apart. The tree, the wedges having been shaken out, restored itself to its nature, crushed him, and, with his many gymnastic palms, presented him to the wild beasts to be torn.

9.12.ext.10 Item Polydamas athleta tempestate speluncam subire coactus [est], nimio et subito incursu aquae labefactata ea ac ruente, ceteris comitibus fuga periculi egressis solus restitit tamquam humeris suis totius ruinae molem sustentaturus, sed pondere omni corpore humano potentiore <op>pressus imbris petitam latebram dementis facti sepulcrum habuit. possunt hi praebere documentum nimio robore membrorum uigorem mentis hebescere, quasi, abnuente natura utriusque boni largitionem, [ne] supra mortalem sit felicitatem eundem et ualentissimum esse et sapientissimum.

9.12.ext.10 Likewise Polydamas, an athlete, forced by a tempest to enter a cave [was], that cave loosened and rushing by the excessive and sudden onset of water; the other comrades, having departed in flight from the danger, retired, he alone remained as if to sustain with his shoulders the mass of the whole ruin, but crushed by a weight more potent than any human body <op>pressus, the refuge sought from the rains became his tomb, made by those driven mad. These things can furnish a lesson: that by excessive strength of the limbs the vigour of the mind may grow dull, as if nature, refusing the bestowal of each good, [that] above mortal felicity the same man should be both the most mighty and the most wise.

9.13.init. Verum quia excessus e uita et fortuitos et uiriles, quosdam etiam temerarios oratione attigimus, subiciamus nunc aestimationi enerues et effeminatos, ut ipsa conparatione pateat quanto non solum fortior, sed etiam sapientior mortis interdum quam uitae sit cupiditas.

9.13.init. But because the excesses of life, both fortuitous and virile, and some even rash ones we have touched on by speech, let us now submit to judgment the enervate and effeminate, so that by the very comparison it may be made clear by how much not only stronger, but also wiser, the desire for death sometimes is than the desire for life.

9.13.1 M'. Aquilius, cum sibi gloriose <extingui> posset, Mithridati maluit turpiter seruire. quem non<ne> aliquis merito dixerit Pontico supplicio quam Romano imperio digniorem, quoniam conmisit ut priuatum obprobium publicus rubor existeret?

9.13.1 M'. Aquilius, when he could gloriously have been extinguished, preferred shamefully to serve Mithridates. Who would not, with justice, have said him more worthy of Pontic punishment than of Roman rule, since he contrived that a private opprobrium should become a public blush?

9.13.2 Cn. quoque Carbo magnae uerecundiae est Latinis annalibus. tertio in consulatu suo iussu Pompei in Sicilia ad supplicium ductus petiit a militibus demisse et flebiliter ut sibi aluum leuare prius quam expiraret liceret, quo miserrimae lucis usu diutius frueretur, eo <us>que moram trahens, donec caput eius sordido in loco sedentis abscideretur. ipsa uerba tale flagitium narrantis secum luctantur, nec silentio amica, quia occultari non meretur, neque relationi familiaria, quia dictu fastidienda sunt.

9.13.2 Gnaeus Carbo also is of great modesty in the Latin annals. In his third consulship, by Pompey’s order led to execution in Sicily, he begged of the soldiers humbly and lamentingly that he be allowed to relieve his belly before he expired, so that he might enjoy the use of that most miserable light a little longer, drawing out the delay even so far that his head was cut off in the filthy place where he was sitting. The words themselves struggle with the teller of such a shame, neither friendly to silence, for it does not deserve to be hidden, nor fit for domestic relation, for they are loathsome to speak.

9.13.3 Quid, <D.> Brutus exiguom et infelix momentum uitae quanto dedecore emit! qui a Furio, quem ad eum occidendum Antonius miserat, conprehensus, non solum ceruicem gladio subtraxit, sed etiam constantius eam praebere admonitus ipsis his uerbis iurauit: 'ita uiuam, dabo'. <o> cunctationem fati aerumnosam! o iurandi stolidam fidem!

9.13.3 What— Brutus bought a tiny and unhappy moment of life with what great dishonor! who, having been seized by Furio, whom Antonius had sent to kill him, not only drew his neck back from the sword, but when admonished to present it more steadfastly swore with these very words: "so shall I live, I will give." O the woeful hesitation of fate! O the stolid faithfulness of an oath!

sed hos tu furores inmoderata retinendi spiritus dulcedo subicis sanae rationis modum expugnando, quae uitam diligere, mortem non timere praecepit.

but you subject these your furies to the immoderate sweetness of the spirit of retaining, overthrowing the measure of sound reason, which enjoins to love life, not to fear death.

9.13.ext.1 Eadem Xerxen regem pro totius Asiae armata iuuentute, quod intra centum annos esset obitura, profundere lacrimas coegisti. qui mihi specie alienam, re uera suam condicionem deplorasse uidetur, opum magnitudine quam altiore animi sensu felicior: quis enim mediocriter prudens mortalem se natum fleuerit?

9.13.ext.1 You compelled the same Xerxes, king, to shed tears for the armed youth of all Asia, because it would be destroyed within 100 years. He who to me, in appearance, seems to have bewailed another’s lot but in truth his own, happier in the magnitude of his riches than by a loftier feeling of spirit: for who, moderately prudent, would have lamented being born mortal?

9.13.ext.2 Referam nunc eos, quibus aliquos suspectos habentibus exquisitior sui quaesita custodia est: nec a miserrimo, sed ab eo, qui inter paucos felicissimus fuisse creditur, incipiam. Masinissa rex parum fidei in pectoribus hominum reponens salutem suam custodia canum uallauit. quo tam late patens imperium?

9.13.ext.2 I will now relate those for whom, when they hold some persons suspect, a more exact and self-seeking guard is sought: nor will I begin with the most miserable, but with him who is thought to have been most fortunate among a few. King Masinissa, placing little trust in the breasts of men, enwalled his safety with a watch of dogs. How, then, is so wide a dominion left open?

quo tantum liberorum numerum? quo denique tam arta beniuolentia constrictam Romanam amicitiam, si ad hanc tuendam nihil canino latratu ac morsu ualentius duxit?

what is so great a number of children for? and indeed to what end such close benevolence constraining Roman friendship, if to defend this nothing more potent was brought forward than a canine barking and bite?

9.13.ext.3 Hoc rege infelicior Alexander, cuius praecordia hinc amor, hinc metus torserunt: nam cum infinito ardore coniugis Thebes teneretur, ad ea[nde]m ex epulis in cubiculum ueniens barbarum conpunctum notis Thraciis stricto gladio iubebat anteire, nec prius se eidem lecto committebat quam a stipatoribus diligenter esset scrutatus. supplicium irato deorum numine conpositum, neque libidini neque timori posse imperare. cuius timoris eadem et causa et finis fuit: Alexandrum enim Thebe paelicatus ira mota interemit.

9.13.ext.3 Less fortunate than that king was Alexander, whose very breast was twisted now by love, now by fear: for when Thebes was held by the infinite passion of his wife, he, returning from the same banquet into the bedchamber, ordered a barbarian, pricked with Thracian scars and with his sword drawn, to go before him, nor did he entrust himself to that same man having lain down until he had been carefully searched by his attendants. The punishment was arranged by the wrathful numen of the gods, for neither lust nor fear could command it. The cause and the end of that fear were one and the same: for Alexander, having taken a Theban as his concubine, slew her moved by anger.

9.13.ext.4 Age, Dionysius Syracusanorum tyrannus huiusce tormenti quam longa fabula! qui duodequadraginta annorum dominationem in hunc modum peregit. summotis amicis in eorum locum ferocissimarum gentium homines et a familiis locupletium electos praeualidos seruos, quibus latera sua conmitteret, substituit.

9.13.ext.4 Come now, Dionysius, tyrant of the Syracusans — what a long tale of this torment! — who carried on a domination of thirty-eight years in this fashion. With his friends removed he set in their place men of the most ferocious nations and, chosen from households for their wealth, exceedingly powerful slaves, to whom he would entrust his flanks.

tonsorum quoque metu tondere filias suas docuit. quarum ipsarum, postquam adultae aetati adpropinquabant, manibus ferrum non ausus conmittere, instituit ut candentibus iuglandium nucum putaminibus barbam sibi et capillum adurerent. nec securiorem maritum egit quam patrem.

He also taught his daughters to be shorn through fear of the tonsors. Those same ones, when they were drawing near to mature age, not daring to commit iron to their hands, he ordered that with glowing walnut-nut husks they scorch their beard and hair. Nor did he make a husband more secure than their father.

duarum enim eodem tempore, Aristomaches Syracusanae et Locrensis Doridis, matrimoniis inligatus neutrius umquam nisi excussae conplexum petiit atque etiam cubicularem lectum perinde quasi castra lata fossa cinxit, in quem se ligneo ponte recipiebat, cum forem cubiculi extrinsecus a custodibus opertam interiore claustro ipse diligenter obserasset.

for he was bound in marriage to two at the same time, Aristomaches of Syracuse and Doris of Locri; he sought neither’s embrace except when stripped, and even girded the bedroom couch as though it were a broad camp with a ditch, into which he withdrew himself by a wooden bridge, after he had diligently observed the chamber door from the outside, closed by the guards with an inner bolt.

9.14.init. De similitudine autem oris et totius corporis altiore doctrina praediti subtilius disputant, eorumque alii in ea sunt opinione ut existiment illam origini et contextui sanguinis respondere, nec paruum argumentum ex ceteris animalibus trahunt, quae fere gignentibus similia nascuntur. alii negant hanc esse certam naturae legem, sed species mortalium, prout fortuita sors conceptionis obtulit, attribui, atque ideo plerumque ex speciosis deformis et ex robustis inualidos partus edi. <igi>tur, quoniam ista quaestio in ambiguo uersatur, pauca inter alienos conspectae similitudinis exempla referemus.

9.14.init. Concerning the resemblance of the face and of the whole body, those endowed with higher doctrine dispute more subtly, and some of them are in the opinion that they hold that this corresponds to the origin and constitution of the blood, nor do they draw a small argument from other animals, which are almost born similar to those that beget them. Others deny that this is a certain law of nature, but attribute it to the species of mortals, as the chance lot of conception has offered, and therefore often from the beautiful ugly, and from the robust weak, offspring are borne. Igitur, since that question hangs in doubt, we will relate a few examples of likeness seen among unrelated persons.

9.14.1 Magno Pompeio Vibius ingenuae stirpis et Publicius libertinus ita similes fuerunt, ut permutato statu et Pompeius in illis et illi in Pompeio salutari possent. certe, quocumque aut Vibius aut Publicius accesserant, ora hominum in se obuertebant, uno quoque speciem amplissimi ciuis in personis mediocribus adnotante.

9.14.1 Vibius, of an ingenuae stirps, and Publicius, a libertinus, were so alike to the great Pompeius that, with their status exchanged, Pompeius could pass for one of them and they for Pompeius to good effect. Certainly, wherever either Vibius or Publicius approached, the faces of men turned toward them, each also marking the appearance of the most amplissimus civis upon otherwise mediocre persons.

9.14.2 Quod quidem fortuitum ludibrium quasi hereditarium ad eum penetrauit: nam pater quoque eius eo usque Menogenis coci sui similis esse uisus est, ut uir et armis praepotens et ferox animo sordidum eius nomen repellere a se non ualuerit.

9.14.2 This fortuitous mockery, as if hereditary, indeed penetrated to him: for his father also seemed so like Menogenes his cook, that a man mighty in arms and fierce in spirit could not shake off that sordid name from himself.

9.14.3 Eximiae uero nobilitatis adulescens Cornelius Scipio, cum plurimis et clarissimis familie suae cognominibus abundaret, in seruilem Serapionis appellationem uulgi sermone inpactus est, quod huiusce nominis uictimari <per>quam similis erat. neque illi aut morum probitas aut respectus tot imaginum quo minus hac contumelia aspergeretur opitulata sunt.

9.14.3 The young Cornelius Scipio, of outstanding nobility, though he abounded in very many and most illustrious family cognomina, was branded in popular speech with the servile appellation Serapion, because he was more than somewhat like the victim of that name. Nor did the probity of his manners or the respect due to so many images avail to assist him so that he would not be smeared by this contumely.

9.14.4 Generosissimum consulatus collegium Lentuli et Metelli fuit. qui ambo in scaena propter similitudinem histrionum propemodum spectati sunt. sed alter ex quodam secundarum cognomen Spintheris traxit, alter, nisi Nepotis a moribus accepisset, Pamphili tertiarum, cui simillimus esse ferebatur, habuisset.

9.14.4 The most noble college of the consulship was Lentulus and Metellus. Both were, on account of a likeness to actors, almost regarded as if on the stage. But one drew from a certain secondary cognomen the name Spinther; the other would have borne Pamphilus of the tertiary name—of which he was thought to be almost the very likeness—had he not from his manners acquired the name Nepos.

9.14.5 At M. Messala consularis et censorius Menogenis Curioque omnibus honoribus abundans Burbulei, ille propter oris aspectum, hic propter parem corporis motum, uterque scaenici nomen coactus est recipere.

9.14.5 But M. Messala, consular and censorial, and Menogenes and Curio, Burbuleius abounding in all honours, — that one on account of the aspect of his face, this one because of a like movement of his body, — each was forced to receive the stage-name.

9.14.ext.1 At M. Messala consularis et censorius Menogenis Curioque omnibus honoribus abundans Burbulei, ille propter oris aspectum, hic propter parem corporis motum, uterque scaenici nomen coactus est recipere. Regi Antiocho unus ex aequalibus et ipse regiae stirpis nomine Artemo perquam similis fuisse traditur. quem Laodice uxor Antiochi interfecto uiro dissimulandi sceleris gratia in lectulo perinde quasi ipsum regem aegrum conlocauit admissumque uniuersum populum et sermone eius et uultu consimili fefellit, credideruntque homines ab Antiocho moriente Laodicen et natos eius sibi conmendari.

9.14.ext.1 But M. Messala, consular and censorial, and Menogenes and Curio, and Burbuleus, abounding in all honors — that one because of the aspect of his face, this because of a like bodily motion — each was forced to receive the name of actor. It is reported that to King Antiochus one of his equals, Artemo by name and himself very like of royal stock, was exceedingly similar. Whom Laodice, Antiochus’s wife, with her husband slain, in order to conceal the crime placed on a little bed precisely as if the king himself were ill, and, having admitted the whole people, deceived them both by his speech and by a similar countenance; and when Antiochus was dying, men believed that Laodice and her children were being entrusted to them.

9.14.ext.2 Hybrean autem Mylasenum copiosae atque concitatae facundiae oratorem Cymaeorum seruo strigmenta gymnasii colligenti tantum non germanum fratrem totius Asiae oculi adsignarunt: ita liniamentis oris et omnium membrorum conpares erant.

9.14.ext.2 But the Hybrean of Mylasa, an orator of copious and ardent eloquence, was by the eyes of all Asia assigned as if almost the very brother to the Cymaeans’ servant who was gathering the gymnasium’s strigils: so comparable were they in the lines of the face and of all their limbs.

9.14.ext.3 Ille uero, quem in Sicilia prouinciae <rect>oris admodum similem fuisse constat, petulantis animi: pro consule enim dicente mirari se quapropter sui tam similis esset, cum pater suus in eam prouinciam numquam accessisset, "at meus" inquit "Romam accessit:" ioco namque lacessitam matris suae pudicitiam inuicem suspicione in matrem eius reiecta audacius quam uirgis et securibus subiecto conueniebat ultus est.

9.14.ext.3 He, moreover, who is known to have been exceedingly similar in countenance to the governor of the province in Sicily, was of a petulant spirit: for when the proconsul said that he wondered why he should be so like him, since his father had never come into that province, "but mine," he said, "came to Rome": for by a jest having provoked his mother's chastity, and the suspicion being cast back upon her mother, he meted out his vengeance more boldly than by rods and axes.

9.15.init. Sed tolerabilis haec et uni tantum modo anceps temeritas. quod sequitur inpudentiae genus nec ferendum ullo modo periculique cum priuatim tum etiam publice late patentis.

9.15.init. But this temerity, ambivalent only in one respect, is tolerable. What follows is a kind of impudence not to be borne in any way, and dangerous, both privately and also publicly widely manifest.

9.15.1 Nam ut Equitium Firmo Piceno monstrum ueniens, relatum iam in huiusce libri superiore parte, praeteream, cuius in amplectendo Ti. Graccho patre euidens mendacium turbulento uulgi errore, amplissima tribunatus potestate uallatum est, Herophilus ocularius medicus C. Marium VII consulem auum sibi uindicando [ita se] extudit, ut et coloniae se ueteranorum complures et municipia splendida collegiaque fere omnia patronum adoptarent. quin etiam cum C. Caesar Cn. Pompeio adulescente in Hispania oppresso populum in hortis suis admisisset, proximo intercolumnio paene pari studio frequentiae salutatus est. quod nisi diuinae Caesaris uires huic erubescendae procellae obstitissent, simile uulnus res publica excepisset atque in Equitio acceperat.

9.15.1 For I will pass over Equitius Firmus of Picenum, a monster already related in the earlier part of this book, whose manifest falsehood in claiming Ti. Gracchus as his father, by the turbulent error of the mob, was bolstered by the most ample power of the tribunatus. Herophilus, an oculist, boasting himself by asserting Gaius Marius, consul 7 times, to be his grandfather [thus himself], so vaunted, that many veteran colonies and splendid municipia and almost all collegia adopted him as patron. Indeed, when Gaius Caesar, with Gnaeus Pompey as a youth crushed in Spain, had admitted the people into his gardens, he was greeted in the next intercolumniation with an almost equal zeal of attendance. Had not the divine forces of Caesar opposed this shameful storm, the res publica would have suffered a wound like that which it had received from Equitius.

ceterum decreto eius extra Italiam relegatus, postquam ille caelo receptus est, in urbem rediit et consilium interficiendi senatus capere sustinuit. quo nomine iussu patrum necatus in carcere seras prompti animi ad omne moliendum scelus poenas pependit.

But by his decree exiled beyond Italy, after that man was received into heaven he returned to the city and persisted in taking counsel for the killing of the senate. Wherefore, having been slain by order of the fathers, in prison at the bolts he paid the penalties — a man of ready spirit to contrive every crime.

9.15.2 Ne diui quidem Augusti etiam nunc terras regentis excellentissimum numen intemptatum ab hoc iniuriae genere. extitit qui clarissimae ac sanctissimae sororis eius Octauiae utero se genitum fingere auderet, propter summam autem inbecillitatem corporis ab eo, cui datus erat, perinde atque ipsius filium retentum, subiecto in locum suum proprio filio, diceret, uidelicet ut eodem tempore sanctissimi penates et ueri sanguinis memoria spoliarentur et falsi sordida contagione inquinarentur. sed dum plenis inpudentiae uelis ad summum audaciae gradum fertur, imperio Augusti remo publicae triremis adfixus est.

9.15.2 Not even the most excellent divine numen of the divine Augustus, still ruling the lands, remained unassailed by this sort of injury. There arose one who dared to pretend that he had been born in the womb of his most famous and most holy sister Octavia; moreover, because of the extreme feebleness of his body he was held by the man to whom she had been given just as if he were that man’s son, and with that man’s own son set in his proper place, he would say—namely so that at one and the same time the most sacred household gods and the memory of true blood might be deprived and polluted by the sordid contagion of a false one. But while, with the full sails of impudence, he was borne to the highest pitch of audacity, by Augustus’s command he was fastened to the oar of the state’s triremes.

9.15.3 Repertus est etiam qui se diceret esse Q. Sertorii filium, quem ut agnosceret uxor eius nulla ui conpelli potuit.

9.15.3 There was also found one who claimed to be the son of Q. Sertorius, whom his wife could not be compelled by any force to acknowledge.

9.15.4 Quid Trebellius Calca, quam adseueranter se Clodium tulit! et quidem dum de bonis eius contendit, in centumuirale iudicium adeo fauorabilis descendit, ut uix iustis et aequis sententiis consternatio populi ullum relinqueret locum. in illa tamen quaestione neque calumniae petitoris neque uiolentiae plebis iudicantium religio cessit.

9.15.4 What of Trebellius Calca — how vehemently he assailed Clodius! and indeed, while he argued about his property, he came before the centumviral court so favorably received that the consternation of the people left scarcely any place for just and equitable verdicts. in that inquiry, however, neither the plaintiff’s calumny nor the violence of the plebeian judges overthrew their reverence for the law.

9.15.5 Multo fortius ille, qui Cornelio Sulla rerum potiente in domum Cn. Asini Dionis inrupit filiumque eius patriis penatibus expulit uociferando non illum, sed se Dione esse procreatum. uerum postquam a Sullana uiolentia Caesariana aequitas <rem publicam> reduxit, gubernacula Romani imperii iustiore principe obtinente in publica custodia spiritum posuit.

9.15.5 Much more forcible was that man who, while Cornelius Sulla was ruling affairs, burst into the house of Cn. Asinius Dion and drove his son from the ancestral penates, shouting that not he but Dion had begotten him. But after, from Sullan violence, Caesarian equity restored <the republic>, the helm of the Roman empire being obtained by a more just prince, it set the spirit in public custody.

9.15.ext.1 Eodem praeside rei publicae in consimili mendacio muliebris temeritas Mediolani repressa est. si quidem cum se pro Rubria quaedam, perinde ac falso credita esset incendio perisse, nihil ad se pertinentibus bonis insereret neque ei aut tractus eius splendidi testes aut cohortis Augustae fauor deesset, propter inexpugnabilem Caesaris constantiam inrita nefarii propositi abiit.

9.15.ext.1 Under the same governor of the republic, in a similar falsehood a woman’s temerity at Milan was suppressed. For when a certain woman, passing herself off as Rubria, as if she had perished in a fire falsely believed, made claims to none of the goods belonging to her, and neither the testimony of her splendid retinue nor the favour of the cohort of the Augusta was wanting to her, by reason of Caesar’s impregnable constancy the nefarious scheme came to naught.

9.15.ext.2 Idem barbarum quendam ob eximiam similitudinem Cappadociae regnum adfectantem, tamquam Ari<ar>athes esset, quem a M. Antonio interemptum luce clarius erat, quamquam paene totius orientis ciuitatium et gentium credula suffragatione fultum caput imperio dementer inminens iusto inpendere supplicio coegit.

9.15.ext.2 The same compelled a certain barbarian, seeking the kingdom of Cappadocia because of an extraordinary similarity, as if he were Ariarathes — whom it was more manifest had been slain by M. Antonius — and who, supported by the credulous suffrage of almost all the cities and peoples of the East, with his head madly threatening the empire, to suffer a just punishment.