plagarum strepitu et nullam Sirena flagellis
conparat, Antiphates trepidi laris ac Polyphemus, 20
tunc felix, quotiens aliquis tortore uocato
uritur ardenti duo propter lintea ferro?
quid suadet iuueni laetus stridore catenae,
quem mire adficiunt inscripta, ergastula, carcer?
rusticus expectas ut non sit adultera Largae 25
filia, quae numquam maternos dicere moechos
tam cito nec tanto poterit contexere cursu
ut non ter deciens respiret? conscia matri
uirgo fuit, ceras nunc hac dictante pusillas
implet et ad moechum dat eisdem ferre cinaedis. 30
sic natura iubet: uelocius et citius nos
corrumpunt uitiorum exempla domestica, magnis
cum subeant animos auctoribus. unus et alter
forsitan haec spernant iuuenes, quibus arte benigna
et meliore luto finxit praecordia Titan, 35
sed reliquos fugienda patrum uestigia ducunt
et monstrata diu ueteris trahit orbita culpae.
[15] When Rutilus delights in the sound of a cruel flogging, deeming it sweeter than any siren’s song, and being himself a very Antiphates, or a Polyphemus, to his trembling household, is he inculcating gentleness, and leniency to slight faults: does he hold that the bodies and souls of slaves are made of the same stuff and elements as our own; or is he inculcating cruelty, never happy until he has summoned a torturer, and he can brand some one with a hot iron for stealing a couple of towels? What counsel does the father give to his son when he revels in the clanking of a chain, and takes wondrous pleasure in branded slaves, in prisons and his country bridewell? Are you simple enough to suppose that Larga’s daughter will remain virtuous when she cannot count over her mother’s lovers so rapidly, or string their names together so quickly, as not to take breath full thirty times? She was her mother’s confidante as a girl; at her dictation she now indites her own little love-notes, despatching them to her paramours by the hand of the self-same menials. So Nature ordains; no evil example corrupts us so soon and so rapidly as one that has been set at home, since it comes into the mind on high authority. Here and there perhaps a youth may decline to follow the bad example: one whose soul the Titan has fashioned with kindlier skill and of a finer clay; but the rest are led on by the parental steps which they should avoid, and are dragged into the old track of vice which has so long been pointed out to them.
abstineas igitur damnandis. huius enim uel
una potens ratio est, ne crimina nostra sequantur
ex nobis geniti, quoniam dociles imitandis 40
turpibus ac prauis omnes sumus, et Catilinam
quocumque in populo uideas, quocumque sub axe,
sed nec Brutus erit Bruti nec auunculus usquam.
nil dictu foedum uisuque haec limina tangat
intra quae pater est. procul, a procul inde puellae 45
lenonum et cantus pernoctantis parasiti.
maxima debetur puero reuerentia, si quid
turpe paras, nec tu pueri contempseris annos,
sed peccaturo obstet tibi filius infans.
nam si quid dignum censoris fecerit ira 50
quandoque et similem tibi se non corpore tantum
nec uultu dederit, morum quoque filius et qui
omnia deterius tua per uestigia peccet,
corripies nimirum et castigabis acerbo
clamore ac post haec tabulas mutare parabis. 55
unde tibi frontem libertatemque parentis,
cum facias peiora senex uacuumque cerebro
iam pridem caput hoc uentosa cucurbita quaerat?
[38] Abstain therefore from things which you must condemn: for this there is at least one all-powerful motive, that our crimes be not copied by our children. For we are all of us teachable in what is base and wrong; you may find a Catiline among any people, and in any clime, but nowhere will you find a Brutus, or the uncle of a Brutus. Let no foul word or sight cross the threshold within which there is a father. Away with you, ye hireling damsels! Away with the songs of the night-revelling parasite! If you have any evil deed in mind, you owe the greatest reverence to the young; disregard not your boy’s tender years, and let your infant son stand in the way of the sin that you propose. For if some day or other he shall do a deed deserving the censor’s wrath, and shall show himself like to you, not in form and face only, but also your child in vice, and following in all your footsteps with sin deeper than your own, you will doubtless rebuke him and chide him angrily and thereafter prepare to change your will. But how can you assume the grave brow and the free tone of a father if you in your old age are doing things worse than he did, and your own empty pate has long been needing the windy cupping-glass?
hospite uenturo cessabit nemo tuorum.
‘uerre pauimentum, nitidas ostende columnas, 60
arida cum tota descendat aranea tela,
hic leue argentum, uasa aspera tergeat alter.’
uox domini furit instantis uirgamque tenentis.
ergo miser trepidas, ne stercore foeda canino
atria displiceant oculis uenientis amici, 65
ne perfusa luto sit porticus, et tamen uno
semodio scobis haec emendat seruulus unus:
illud non agitas, ut sanctam filius omni
aspiciat sine labe domum uitioque carentem?
gratum est quod patriae ciuem populoque dedisti, 70
si facis ut patriae sit idoneus, utilis agris,
utilis et bellorum et pacis rebus agendis.
plurimum enim intererit quibus artibus et quibus hunc tu
moribus instituas. serpente ciconia pullos
nutrit et inuenta per deuia rura lacerta: 75
illi eadem sumptis quaerunt animalia pinnis.
uoltur iumento et canibus crucibusque relictis
ad fetus properat partemque cadaueris adfert:
hic est ergo cibus magni quoque uolturis et se
pascentis, propria cum iam facit arbore nidos. 80
sed leporem aut capream famulae Iouis et generosae
in saltu uenantur aues, hinc praeda cubili
ponitur: inde autem cum se matura leuauit
progenies stimulante fame festinat ad illam
quam primum praedam rupto gustauerat ouo. 85
[59] When you expect a guest, not one of your household will be idle. “Sweep the pavement! Polish up the pillars! Down with that dusty spider, web and all! One of you clean the plain silver, another the embossed vessels!” So shouts the master, standing over them whip in hand. And so you are afraid, poor fool, that the eyes of your expected guest may be offended by the sight of dog’s filth in the hall or of a portico splashed with mud — things which one slave-boy can put right with half a peck of sawdust: and yet will you take no pains that your son may behold a stainless home, free from any stain and blemish? It is good that you have presented your country and your people with a citizen, if you make him serviceable to his country, useful for the land, useful for the things both of peace and war. For it will make all the difference in what practices, in what habits, you bring him up. The stork feeds her young upon the serpents and the lizards which she finds in the wilds; the young search for the same things when they have gotten to themselves wings. The vulture hurries from dead cattle and dogs and gibbets to bring some of the carrion to her offspring; so this becomes the food of the vulture when he is full-grown and feeds himself, making his nest in a tree of his own. The noble birds that wait on Jove hunt the hare or the roe in the woods, and from them serve up prey to their eyrie; so when their progeny are of full age and soar up from the nest, hunger bids them swoop down upon that same prey which they had first tasted when they chipped the shell.
aedificator erat Caetronius et modo curuo
litore Caietae, summa nunc Tiburis arce,
nunc Praenestinis in montibus alta parabat
culmina uillarum Graecis longeque petitis
marmoribus uincens Fortunae atque Herc
ulis aedem, 90
ut spado uincebat Capitolia nostra Posides.
dum sic ergo habitat Caetronius, inminuit rem,
fregit opes, nec parua tamen mensura relictae
partis erat.
[86] Cretonius was given to building; now on Caieta’s winding shore, now on the heights of Tibur, now on the Praenestine hills, he would rear lofty mansions, with marbles fetched from Greece and distant lands, outdoing the temples of Fortune and of Hercules by as much as the eunuch Posides overtopped our own Capitol. Housed therefore in this manner, he impaired his fortune and frittered away his wealth; some goodly portion of it still remained, but it was all squandered by his madman of a son in building new mansions of still costlier marbles.
totam hanc turbauit filius amens,
dum meliore nouas attollit marmore uillas. 95
quidam sortiti metuentem sabbata patrem
nil praeter nubes et caeli numen adorant,
nec distare putant humana carne suillam,
qua pater abstinuit, mox et praeputia ponunt;
Romanas autem soliti contemnere leges 100
Iudaicum ediscunt et seruant ac metuunt ius,
tradidit arcano quodcumque uolumine Moyses:
non monstrare uias eadem nisi sacra colenti,
quaesitum ad fontem solos deducere uerpos.
sed pater in causa, cui septima quaeque fuit lux 105
ignaua et partem uitae non attigit ullam.
[95] Some who have had a father who reveres the Sabbath, worship nothing but the clouds, and the divinity of the heavens, and see no difference between eating swine’s flesh, from which their father abstained, and that of man; and in time they take to circumcision. Having been wont to flout the laws of Rome, they learn and practise and revere the Jewish law, and all that Moses committed to his secret tome, forbidding to point out the way to any not worshipping the same rites, and conducting none but the circumcised to the desired fountain. For all which the father was to blame, who gave up every seventh day to idleness, keeping it apart from all the concerns of life.
sponte tamen iuuenes imitantur cetera, solam
inuiti quoque auaritiam exercere iubentur.
fallit enim uitium specie uirtutis et umbra,
cum sit triste habitu uultuque et ueste seuerum, 110
nec dubie tamquam frugi laudetur auarus,
tamquam parcus homo et rerum tutela suarum
certa magis quam si fortunas seruet easdem
Hesperidum serpens aut Ponticus. adde quod hunc de
quo loquor egregium populus putat adquirendi 115
artificem; quippe his crescunt patrimonia fabris
[sed crescunt quocumque modo maioraque fiunt]
incude adsidua semperque ardente camino.
[107] All vices but one the young imitate of their own free will; avarice alone is enjoined on them against the grain. For that vice has a deceptive appearance and semblance of virtue, being gloomy of mien, severe in face and garb. The miser is openly commended for his thrift, being deemed a saving man, who will be a surer guardian of his own wealth than if it were watched by the dragons of the Hesperides or of Colchis. Moreover, such a one is thought to be skilled in the art of money-getting; for it is under workers such as he that fortunes grow. And they grow bigger by every kind of means: the anvil is ever working, and the forge never ceases to glow.
[et pater ergo animi felices credit auaros]
qui miratur opes, qui nulla exempla beati 120
pauperis esse putat, iuuenes hortatur ut illa
ire uia pergant et eidem incumbere sectae.
sunt quaedam uitiorum elementa, his protinus illos
inbuit et cogit minimas ediscere sordes;
mox adquirendi docet insatiabile uotum. 125
seruorum uentres modio castigat iniquo
ipse quoque esuriens, neque enim omnia sustinet umquam
mucida caerulei panis consumere frusta,
hesternum solitus medio seruare minutal
Septembri nec non differre in tempora cenae 130
alterius conchem aestiuam cum parte lacerti
signatam uel dimidio putrique siluro
filaque sectiui numerata includere porri.
inuitatus ad haec aliquis de ponte negabit.
sed quo diuitias haec per tormenta coactas, 135
cum furor haut dubius, cum sit manifesta phrenesis,
ut locuples moriaris, egentis uiuere fato?
interea, pleno cum turget sacculus ore,
crescit amor nummi quantum ipsa pecunia creuit,
et minus hanc optat qui non habet. ergo paratur 140
altera uilla tibi, cum rus non sufficit unum
et proferre libet finis maiorque uidetur
et melior uicina seges; mercaris et hanc et
arbusta et densa montem qui canet oliua.
quorum si pretio dominus non uincitur ullo, 145
nocte boues macri lassoque famelica collo
iumenta ad uiridis huius mittentur aristas
nec prius inde domum quam tota noualia saeuos
in uentres abeant, ut credas falcibus actum.
dicere uix possis quam multi talia plorent 150
et quot uenales iniuria fecerit agros.
[119] Thus the father deems the miser to be fortunate; and when he worships wealth, believing that no poor man was ever happy, he urges his sons to follow in the same path and to attach themselves to the same school. There are certain rudiments in vice; in these he imbues them from the beginning, compelling them to study its pettiest meannesses; after a while he instructs them in the inappeasable lust of money-getting. He pinches the bellies of his slaves with short rations, starving himself into the bargain; for he cannot bear to eat up all the mouldy fragments of stale bread. In the middle of September he will save up the hash of yesterday; in summer-time he will preserve under seal for to-morrow’s dinner a dish of beans, with a bit of mackerel, or half a stinking sprat, counting the leaves of the cut leeks before he puts them away. No beggar from a bridge would accept an invitation to such a meal! But for what end do you pile up riches gathered through torments such as these, when it is plain madness and sheer lunacy to live in want that you may be wealthy when you die? Meantime, while your purse is full to bursting, your love of gain grows as much as the money itself has grown, and the man who has none of it covets it the least. And so when one country house is not enough for you, you buy a second; then you must extend your boundaries, because your neighbour’s field seems bigger and better than your own; you must buy that too, and his vineyard, and the hill that is thick and grey with olive-trees. And if no price will persuade the owner to sell, you will send into his green corn by night a herd of lean and famished cattle, with wearied necks, who will not come home until they have put the whole crop into their ravenous bellies; no sickle could make a cleaner job! How many bewail wrongs like these can scarce be told, nor how many fields have been brought to the hammer by such outrages.
sed qui sermones, quam foede bucina famae!
‘quid nocet haec?’ inquit ‘tunicam mihi malo lupini
quam si me toto laudet uicinia pago
exigui ruris paucissima farra secantem.’ 155
scilicet et morbis et debilitate carebis
et luctum et curam effugies, et tempora uitae
longa tibi posthac fato meliore dabuntur,
si tantum culti solus possederis agri
quantum sub Tatio populus Romanus arabat. 160
mox etiam fractis aetate ac Punica passis
proelia uel Pyrrhum inmanem gladiosque Molossos
tandem pro multis uix iugera bina dabantur
uulneribus; merces haec sanguinis atque laboris
nulli uisa umquam meritis minor aut ingratae 165
curta fides patriae. saturabat glebula talis
patrem ipsum turbamque casae, qua feta iacebat
uxor et infantes ludebant quattuor, unus
uernula, tres domini; sed magnis fratribus horum
a scrobe uel s
ulco redeuntibus altera cena 170
amplior et grandes fumabant pultibus ollae.
nunc modus hic agri nostro non sufficit horto.
[152] But what a talk there will be! How loud the blast of evil rumour! “What harm in that?” you will say: “better keep my peapods for myself than have the praises of the whole country-side if I am to have but a small farm and a miserable crop.” Yes; and no doubt you will escape disease and weakness, you will have no sorrow, no trouble, you will have long and ever happier days, if only you are sole possessor of as many acres of good land as the Roman people tilled in the days of Tatius. In later times, Romans broken with old age, who had fought in the Punic battles or against the dread Pyrrhus or the swords of the Molossians, received at last, in return for all their wounds, a scanty two acres of land. None ever deemed such recompense too small for their service of toil and blood; none spoke of a shabby, thankless country. A little plot like that would feed the father himself and the crowd at the cottage where lay the wife in childbed, with four little ones playing around — one slave-born, three the master’s own; for their big brothers, on their return from ditch or furrow, a second and ampler supper of porridge would be smoking in a lordly dish. To-day we don’t think such a plot of ground big enough for our garden!
inde fere scelerum causae, nec plura uenena
miscuit aut ferro grassatur saepius ullum
humanae mentis uitium quam saeua cupido 175
inmodici census. nam diues qui fieri uolt,
et cito uolt fieri; sed quae reuerentia legum,
quis metus aut pudor est umquam properantis auari?
‘uiuite contenti casulis et collibus istis,
o pueri,’ Marsus dicebat et Hernicus olim 180
Vestinusque senex, ‘panem quaeramus aratro,
qui satis est mensis: laudant hoc numina ruris,
quorum ope et auxilio gratae post munus aristae
contingunt homini ueteris fastidia quercus.
nil uetitum fecisse uolet, quem non pudet alto 185
per glaciem perone tegi, qui summouet euros
pellibus inuersis: peregrina ignotaque nobis
ad scelus atque nefas, quaecumque est, purpura ducit.’
Delphi Complete Works of Juvena Page 46