non idem gemitus olim neque uulnus erat par
damnorum sociis florentibus et modo uictis.
plena domus tunc omnis, et ingens stabat aceruos 100
nummorum, Spartana chlamys, conchylia Coa,
et cum Parrhasii tabulis signisque Myronis
Phidiacum uiuebat ebur, nec non Polycliti
multus ubique labor, rarae sine Mentore mensae.
inde ~Dolabella atque hinc~ Antonius, inde 105
sacrilegus Verres referebant nauibus altis
occulta spolia et plures de pace triumphos.
nunc sociis iuga pauca boum, grex paruus equarum,
et pater armenti capto eripietur agello,
ipsi deinde Lares, si quod spectabile signum. 110
[si quis in aedicula deus unicus; haec etenim sunt
pro summis, nam sunt haec maxima. despicias tu]
forsitan inbellis Rhodios unctamque Corinthon
despicias merito: quid resinata iuuentus
cruraque totius facient tibi leuia gentis? 115
horrida uitanda est Hispania, Gallicus axis
Illyricumque latus; parce et messoribus illis
qui saturant urbem circo scenaeque uacantem;
quanta autem inde feres tam dirae praemia culpae,
cum tenuis nuper Marius discinxerit Afros? 120
curandum in primis ne magna iniuria fiat
fortibus et miseris. tollas licet omne quod usquam est
auri atque argenti, scutum gladiumque relinques.
[et iaculum et galeam; spoliatis arma supersunt.]
[98] Very different in days of old were the wailings of our allies and the harm inflicted on them by losses, when they had been newly conquered and were wealthy still. Their houses then were all well-stored; they had piles of money, with Spartan mantles and Coan purples; beside the paintings of Parrhasius, and the statues of Myron, stood the living ivories of Phidias; everywhere the works of Polyclitus were to be seen; few tables were without a Mentor. But after that came now a Dolabella, now an Antonius, and now a sacrilegious Verres, loading big ships with secret spoils, peace-trophies more numerous than those of war. Nowadays, on capturing a farm, you may rob our allies of a few yoke of oxen, or a few mares, with the sire of the herd; or of the household gods themselves, if there be a good statue left, or a single Deity in his little shrine; such are the best and choicest things to be got now. You despise perchance, and deservedly, the unwarlike Rhodian and the scented Corinthian: what harm will their resined youths do you, or the smooth legs of the entire breed? But keep clear of rugged Spain, avoid the land of Gaul and the Dalmatian shore; spare, too, those harvesters who fill the belly of a city that has no leisure save for the Circus and the play: what great profit can you reap from outrages upon Libyans, seeing that Marius has so lately stripped Africa to the skin? Beware above all things to do no wrong to men who are at once brave and miserable. You may take from them all the gold and silver that they have; but plundered though they be, they will still have their arms; they will still have their shields and their swords, their javelins and helmets.
quod modo proposui, non est sententia, uerum est; 125
credite me uobis folium recitare Sibyllae.
si tibi sancta cohors comitum, si nemo tribunal
uendit acersecomes, si nullum in coniuge crimen
nec per conuentus et cuncta per oppida curuis
unguibus ire parat nummos raptura Celaeno, 130
tum licet a Pico numeres genus, altaque si te
nomina delectant omnem Titanida pugnam
inter maiores ipsumque Promethea ponas.
[de quocumque uoles proauom tibi sumito libro.]
quod si praecipitem rapit ambitio atque libido, 135
si frangis uirgas sociorum in sanguine, si te
delectant hebetes lasso lictore secures,
incipit ipsorum contra te stare parentum
nobilitas claramque facem praeferre pudendis.
omne animi uitium tanto conspectius in se 140
crimen habet, quanto maior qui peccat habetur.
quo mihi te, solitum falsas signare tabellas,
in templis quae fecit auus statuamque parentis
ante triumphalem? quo, si nocturnus adulter
tempora Santonico uelas adoperta cucullo? 145
[125] What I have just propounded is no mere theme, it is the truth; you may take it that I am reading out to you one of the Sibyl’s leaves. If your whole staff be incorruptible: if no long-haired Ganymede sells your judgments; if your wife be blameless; if, in your circuit through the towns and districts, there is no Harpy ready to pounce with crooked talons upon gold, — then you may trace back your race to Picus; if you delight in lofty names, you may count the whole array of Titans, and Prometheus himself, among your ancestors, and select for yourself a great-grandfather from whatever myth you please. But if you are carried away headlong by ambition and by lust; if you break your rods upon the bleeding backs of our allies; if you love to see your axes blunted and your headsmen weary, then the nobility of your own parents begins to rise up in judgment against you, and to hold a glaring torch over your misdeeds. The greater the sinner’s name, the more signal the guiltiness of the sin. If you are wont to put your signature to forged deeds, what matters it to me that you sign them in temples built by your grandfather, or in front of the triumphal statue of your father? What does that matter, if you steal out at night for adultery, your brow concealed under a cowl of Gallic wool?
praeter maiorum cineres atque ossa uolucri
carpento rapitur pinguis Lateranus, et ipse,
ipse rotam adstringit sufflamine mulio consul,
nocte quidem, sed Luna uidet, sed sidera testes
intendunt oculos. finitum tempus honoris 150
cum fuerit, clara Lateranus luce flagellum
sumet et occursum numquam trepidabit amici
iam senis ac uirga prior adnuet atque maniplos
soluet et infundet iumentis hordea lassis.
interea, dum lanatas robumque iuuencum 155
more Numae caedit, Iouis ante altaria iurat
solam Eponam et facies olida ad praesepia pictas.
sed cum peruigiles placet instaurare popinas,
obuius adsiduo Syrophoenix udus amomo
currit, Idymaeae Syrophoenix incola portae 160
hospitis adfectu dominum regemque salutat,
et cum uenali Cyane succincta lagona.
[146] The bloated Lateranus whirls past the bones and ashes of his ancestors in a rapid car; with his own hands this muleteer Consul locks the wheel with the drag. It is by night, indeed: but the moon looks on; the stars strain their eyes to see. When his time of office is over, Lateranus will take up his whip in broad daylight; not shrinking to meet a now-aged friend, he will be the first to salute him with his whip; he will unbind the trusses of hay, and deal out the fodder to his weary cattle. Meanwhile, though he slays woolly victims and tawny steers after Numa’s fashion, he swears by no other deity before Jove’s high altar than the Goddess of horseflesh, and the images painted on the reeking stables. And when it pleases him to go back to the all-night tavern, a Syro-Phoenician runs forth to meet him — a denizen of the Idumaean gate perpetually drenched in perfumes — and salutes him as lord and prince with all the airs of a host; and with him comes Cyane, her dress tucked up, carrying a flagon of wine for sale.
defensor culpae dicet mihi ‘fecimus et nos
haec iuuenes.’ esto, desisti nempe nec ultra
fouisti errorem. breue sit quod turpiter audes, 165
quaedam cum prima resecentur crimina barba.
indulge ueniam pueris: Lateranus ad illos
thermarum calices inscriptaque lintea uadit
maturus bello Armeniae Syriaeque tuendis
amnibus et Rheno atque Histro. praestare Neronem 170
securum ualet haec aetas. mitte Ostia, Caesar,
mitte, sed in magna legatum quaere popina:
inuenies aliquo cum percussore iacentem,
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permixtum nautis et furibus ac fugitiuis,
inter carnifices et fabros sandapilarum 175
et resupinati cessantia tympana galli.
aequa ibi libertas, communia pocula, lectus
non alius cuiquam, nec mensa remotior ulli.
quid facias talem sortitus, Pontice, seruum?
nempe in Lucanos aut Tusca ergastula mittas. 180
at uos, Troiugenae, uobis ignoscitis et quae
turpia cerdoni Volesos Brutumque decebunt.
[163] An apologist will say to me, “We too did the same as boys.” Perhaps: but then you ceased from your follies and let them drop. Let your evil days be short; let some of your misdoings be cut off with your first beard. Boys may be pardoned; but when Lateranus frequented those hot liquor shops with their inscribed linen awnings, he was of ripe age, fit to guard in arms the Armenian and Syrian rivers, the Danube and the Rhine; fit to protect the person of his Emperor. Send your Legate to Ostia, O Caesar, but search for him in some big cookshop! There you will find him, lying cheek-by-jowl beside a cut-throat, in the company of bargees, thieves, and runaway slaves, beside hangmen and coffin-makers, or of some eunuch priest lying drunk with idle timbrels. Here is Liberty Hall! One cup serves for everybody; no one has a bed to himself, nor a table apart from the rest. What would you do, friend Ponticus, if you chanced upon a slave like this? You would send him to your Lucanian or Tuscan bridewell. But you gentlemen of Trojan blood find excuses for yourselves; what would disgrace a huckster sits gracefully on a Volesus or a Brutus!
quid si numquam adeo foedis adeoque pudendis
utimur exemplis, ut non peiora supersint?
consumptis opibus uocem, Damasippe, locasti 185
sipario, clamosum ageres ut Phasma Catulli.
Laureolum uelox etiam bene Lentulus egit,
iudice me dignus uera cruce. nec tamen ipsi
ignoscas populo; populi frons durior huius,
qui sedet et spectat triscurria patriciorum, 190
planipedes audit Fabios, ridere potest qui
Mamercorum alapas. quanti sua funera uendant
quid refert? uendunt nullo cogente Nerone,
nec dubitant celsi praetoris uendere ludis.
finge tamen gladios inde atque hinc pulpita poni, 195
quid satius? mortem sic quisquam exhorruit, ut sit
zelotypus Thymeles, stupidi collega Corinthi?
res haut mira tamen citharoedo principe mimus
nobilis. haec ultra quid erit nisi ludus? et illic
dedecus urbis habes, nec murmillonis in armis 200
nec clipeo Gracchum pugnantem aut falce supina;
damnat enim talis habitus [sed damnat et odit,
nec galea faciem abscondit]: mouet ecce tridentem.
postquam uibrata pendentia retia dextra
nequiquam effudit, nudum ad spectacula uoltum 205
erigit et tota fugit agnoscendus harena.
credamus tunicae, de faucibus aurea cum se
porrigat et longo iactetur spira galero.
ergo ignominiam grauiorem pertulit omni
uolnere cum Graccho iussus pugnare secutor. 210
[183] What if I can never cite any example so foul and shameful that there is not something worse behind? Your means exhausted, Damasippus, you hired out your voice to the stage, taking the part of the Clamorous Ghost of Catullus. The nimble Lentulus acted famously the part of Laureolus : deserving, in my judgment, to be really and truly crucified. Nor can the spectators themselves be forgiven: the populace that with brazen front sits and beholds the triple buffooneries of our patricians, that can listen to a bare-footed Fabius, and laugh to see the Mamerci cuffing each other. What matters it at what price they sell their deaths? No Nero compels them to sell; yet they hesitate not to sell themselves at the games of the exalted Praetor. And yet suppose that on one side of you were placed a sword, on the other the stage: which were the better choice? Was ever any man so afraid of death that he would choose to be the jealous husband of a Thymele, or the colleague of the clown Corinthus? Yet when an Emperor has taken to harp-playing, it is not so very strange that a noble should act in a mime. Beyond this, what will be left but the gladiatorial school? And that scandal too you have seen in our city: a Gracchus fighting, not indeed as a murmillo, nor with the round shield and scimitar : such accoutrements he rejects, ay rejects and detests; nor does a helmet shroud his face. See how he wields his trident! and when with poised right hand he has cast the trailing net in vain, he lifts up his bare face to the benches and flies, for all to recognise, from one end of the arena to the other. We cannot mistake the golden tunic that flutters from his throat, and the twisted cord that dangles from the high-crowned cap; and so the pursuer who was pitted against Gracchus endured a shame more grievous than any wound.
libera si dentur populo suffragia, quis tam
perditus ut dubitet Senecam praeferre Neroni?
cuius supplicio non debuit una parari
simia nec serpens unus nec culleus unus.
par Agamemnonidae crimen, sed causa facit rem 215
dissimilem. quippe ille deis auctoribus ultor
patris erat caesi media inter pocula, sed nec
Electrae iugulo se polluit aut Spartani
sanguine coniugii, nullis aconita propinquis
miscuit, in scena numquam cantauit Orestes, 220
Troica non scripsit. quid enim Verginius armis
debuit ulcisci magis aut cum Vindice Galba,
quod Nero tam saeua crudaque tyrannide fecit?
haec opera atque hae sunt generosi principis artes,
gaudentis foedo peregrina ad pulpita cantu 225
prostitui Graiaeque apium meruisse coronae.
maiorum effigies habeant insignia uocis,
ante pedes Domiti longum tu pone Thyestae
syrma uel Antigones seu personam Melanippes,
et de marmoreo citharam suspende colosso. 230
[211] If free suffrage were granted to the people, who would be so abandoned as not to prefer Seneca to Nero — Nero, for whose chastisement no single ape or adder, no solitary sack, should have been provided? His crime was like that of Agamemnon’s son; but the case was not the same, seeing that Orestes, at the bidding of the Gods, was avenging a father slain in his cups. Orestes never stained himself with Electra’s blood, or with that of his Spartan wife; he never mixed poison-drafts for his own kin; he never sang upon the stage, he never wrote an Epic upon Troy! For of all the deeds of Nero’s cruel and bloody tyranny, which was there that more deserved to be avenged by the arms of a Verginius, of a Vindex or a Galba? These were the deeds, these the graces of our high-born Prince, whose delight it was to prostitute himself by unseemly singing upon a foreign stage, and to earn a chaplet of Greek parsley! Let thy ancestral images be decked with the trophies of thy voice! Place thou at the feet of a Domitius the trailing robe of Thyestes or Antigone, or the mask of Melanippa, and hang up thy harp on a colossus of marble!
quid, Catilina, tuis natalibus atque Cethegi
inueniet quisquam sublimius? arma tamen uos
nocturna et flammas domibus templisque paratis,
ut bracatorum pueri Senonumque minores,
ausi quod liceat tunica punire molesta. 235
sed uigilat consul uexillaque uestra coercet.
hic nouus Arpinas, ignobilis et modo Romae
municipalis eques, galeatum ponit ubique
praesidium attonitis et in omni monte laborat.
tantum igitur muros intra toga contulit illi 240
nominis ac tituli, quantum ~in~ Leucade, quantum
Thessaliae campis Octauius abstulit udo
caedibus adsiduis gladio; sed Roma parentem,
Roma patrem patriae Ciceronem libera dixit.
Arpinas alius Volscorum in monte solebat 245
poscere mercedes alieno lassus aratro;
nodosam post haec frangebat uertice uitem,
si lentus pigra muniret castra dolabra.
hic tamen
et Cimbros et summa pericula rerum
excipit et solus trepidantem protegit urbem, 250
atque ideo, postquam ad Cimbros stragemque uolabant
qui numquam attigerant maiora cadauera corui,
nobilis ornatur lauro collega secunda.
[231] Where can be found, O Catiline, nobler ancestors than thine, or than thine, Cethegus? Yet you plot a night attack, you prepare to give our houses and temples to the flames as though you were the sons of trousered Gauls, or sprung from the Senones, daring deeds that deserved the shirt of torture. But our Consul is awake, and beats back your hosts. Born at Arpinum, of ignoble blood, a municipal knight new to Rome, he posts helmeted men at every point to guard the affrighted citizens, and is alert on every hill. Thus within the walls his toga won for him as much name and honour as Octavius gained by battle in Leucas; as much as Octavius won by his blood-dripping sword on the plains of Thessaly; but then Rome was yet free when she styled him the Parent and Father of his country! Another son of Arpinum used to work for hire upon the Volscian hills, toiling behind a plough not his own; after that, a centurion’s knotty staff would be broken over his head if his pick were slow and sluggish in the trench. Yet it is he who faces the Cimbri, and the mightiest perils; alone he saves the trembling city. And so when the ravens, who had never before seen such huge carcasses, flew down upon the slaughtered Cimbri, his high-born colleague is decorated with the second bay.
plebeiae Deciorum animae, plebeia fuerunt
nomina; pro totis legionibus hi tamen et pro 255
omnibus auxiliis atque omni pube Latina
sufficiunt dis infernis Terraeque parenti.
[pluris enim Decii quam quae seruantur ab illis.]
[254] Plebeian were the souls of the Decii, plebeian were their names; yet they were accepted by the Gods beneath and by Mother Earth in lieu of all the Legions and the allies, and all the youth of Latium, for the Decii were more precious than the hosts whom they saved.
Delphi Complete Works of Juvena Page 38