§8ἀλλὰ γὰρ αἱ μὲν ἀπὸ τῶν μαρτύρων πίστεις τοσαῦται τῇ Τύχῃ πάρεισι.
Indeed, such are the proofs on behalf of Fortune derived from witnesses.
δεῖ δὲ καὶ τὰς ἀπὸ τῶν πραγμάτων αὐτῶν εἰσάγειν, ἀρχὴν τοῦ λόγου τὴν ἀρχὴν τῆς πόλεως λαβόντας.
But we must also introduce those from the events themselves, taking the origin of the city as the origin of our discourse.
εὐθὺς οὖν τίς οὐκ ἂν εἴποι πρὸς τὴν Ῥωμύλου γένεσιν καὶ σωτηρίαν καί, τροφὴν καὶ αὔξησιν τὴν μὲν Τύχην ὑποβολὰς κατατεθεῖσθαι τὴν δʼ Ἀρετὴν ἐξῳκοδομηκέναι;
Immediately, then, who would not say, in view of Romulus’s birth, preservation, rearing, and growth, that Fortune laid the foundations, while Virtue built upon them?
πρῶτον μὲν οὖν τὸ περὶ τὴν γένεσιν καὶ τὴν τέκνωσιν αὐτῶν τῶν ἐνιδρυσαμένων καὶ κτισάντων τὴν πόλιν εὐτυχίας ἔοικε θαυμαστῆς γενέσθαι.
First of all, the circumstances of the birth and parentage of those who established and founded the city seem to have been of a wondrous good fortune.
θεῷ γὰρ ἡ τεκοῦσα μειχθῆναι λέγεται, καὶ καθάπερ τὸν Ἡρακλέα σπαρῆναί φασιν ἐν μακρᾷ νυκτί, τῆς ἡμέρας ἐπισχεθείσης παρὰ φύσιν καὶ τοῦ ἡλίου βραδύναντος, οὕτω περὶ τὴν Ῥωμύλου σπορὰν καὶ καταβολὴν τὸν ἥλιον ἐκλιπεῖν ἱστοροῦσι, ποιησάμενον ἀτρεκῆ σύνοδον πρὸς σελήνην, ᾧπερ ὁ Ἄρης θεὸς ὢν τῇ Σιλβίᾳ θνητῇ συνῆλθε.
For their mother is said to have united with a god; and just as they say Heracles was begotten in a long night, when the day was unnaturally held back and the sun delayed, so they relate that at the sowing and conception of Romulus the sun suffered an eclipse, making an exact conjunction with the moon, at which very time Ares, being a god, united with the mortal Silvia.
ταὐτὸ δὲ συντυχεῖν τῷ Ῥωμύλῳ καὶ περὶ τὴν μετάστασιν αὐτὴν τοῦ βίου· λέγουσι γὰρ ἐκλείποντος τοῦ ἡλίου ἠφανίσθαι νώναις καπρατίναις, ἣν ἄχρι νῦν ἡμέραν ἐπιφανῶς ἑορτάζουσιν.
And the very same thing happened to Romulus regarding his departure from life; for they say that when the sun was eclipsed, he disappeared on the Nones of the Capratinae, which day they celebrate splendidly even to this day.
ἔπειτα γεννηθέντας αὐτούς, τοῦ τυράννου τάττοντος ἀνελεῖν, παρέλαβε κατὰ τύχην οὐ βάρβαρος οὐδʼ ἄγριος ὑπηρέτης, ἐλεήμων δέ τις καὶ φιλάνθρωπος, ὥστε μὴ κτεῖναι ἀλλὰ τοῦ ποταμοῦ τις ἦν ὄχθη χλοερῷ λειμῶνι προσκλύζουσα καὶ περισκιαζομένη χθαμαλοῖς δένδρεσιν· ἐνταῦθα κατέθηκε τὰ βρέφη πλησίον ἐρινεοῦ τινος, ὃν ῥουμινᾶλιν ὠνόμαζον.
Next, when they were born, the tyrant ordering them to be made away with, by fortune it was not a barbarian or wild servant who took them, but one merciful and humane, so that he did not kill them; but there was a bank of the river washed by a green meadow and shaded by low trees; there he deposited the infants near a certain wild fig tree, which they used to call Ruminalis.
εἶτα λύκαινα μὲν νεοτόκος σπαργῶσα καὶ πλημμυροῦσα τοὺς μαστοὺς γάλακτι, τῶν σκύμνων ἀπολωλότων, αὐτὴ χρῄζουσα κουφισμοῦ, περιέστειξε τὰ βρέφη καὶ θηλὴν ἐπέσχεν, ὥσπερ ὠδῖνα δευτέραν ἀποτιθεμένη τὴν τοῦ γάλακτος.
Then a she-wolf, recently having given birth, with swollen dugs overflowing with milk, her cubs having perished and herself in need of relief, came around the infants and offered her teat, shedding her milk as if it were a second birth-pang.
ἱερὸς δʼ ὄρνις Ἄρεος, ὃν δρυοκολάπτην καλοῦσιν, ἐπιφοιτῶν καὶ προσκαθίζων ἀκρώνυχος, ἐν μέρει τῶν νηπίων ἑκατέρου στόμα τῇ χηλῇ διοίγων, ἐνετίθει ψώμισμα, τῆς αὑτοῦ τροφῆς ἀπομερίζων.
And a sacred bird of Ares, which they call a woodpecker, visiting and perched nearby on the very edge of the basket, opening the mouth of each of the babes in turn with its claws, put in morsels of food, sharing its own nourishment.
τὸν μὲν οὖν ἐρινεὸν ῥουμινᾶλιν ὠνόμασαν ἀπὸ τῆς θηλῆς, ἣν ἡ λύκαινα παρʼ αὐτῷ ὀκλάσασα τοῖς βρέφεσι παρέσχε.
They named the wild fig tree Ruminalis after the teat which the she-wolf, crouching down beside it, offered to the infants.
μέχρι δὲ πολλοῦ διεφύλαττον οἱ περὶ τὸν τόπον ἐκεῖνον κατοικοῦντες μηδὲν ἐκτιθέναι τῶν γεννωμένων, ἀλλʼ ἀναιρεῖσθαι πάντα καὶ τρέφειν, τὸ Ῥωμύλου πάθος καὶ τὴν ὁμοιότητα τιμῶντες.
And for a long time, those who inhabited that place took care to expose none of their offspring, but to take up and rear all of them, honoring the experience of Romulus and its similarity.
καὶ μὴν τό τε λαθεῖν αὐτοὺς τρεφομένους καὶ παιδευομένους ἐν Γαβίοις ἀγνοηθῆναι τε Σιλβίας ὄντας υἱοὺς καὶ θυγατριδοῦς Νομίτορος τοῦ βασιλέως παντάπασι Τύχης κλέμμα α καὶ σόφισμα α φαίνεται γεγενημένον, ὅπως μὴ ἀπόλωνται πρὸ τῶν ἔργων διὰ τὸ γένος, ἀλλʼ ἐν αὐτοῖς φανῶσι τοῖς κατορθώμασι, γνωρίσματα τῆς εὐγενείας τὴν ἀρετὴν παρέχοντες.
Furthermore, that they should be reared and educated in Gabii without being detected, and that it should remain unknown that they were the sons of Silvia and grandsons of King Numitor, seems to have been entirely a theft and trick of Fortune, so that they might not perish because of their birth before their deeds, but might appear in their very achievements, displaying their virtue as the proof of their noble birth.
ἐνταῦθά μοι μεγάλου καὶ φρονίμου στρατηγοῦ λόγος ἔπεισι Θεμιστοκλέους ῥηθεὶς πρός τινας τῶν ὕστερον εὐημερούντων Ἀθήνησι στρατηγῶν καὶ προτιμᾶσθαι τοῦ Θεμιστοκλέους ἀξιούντων.
Here there comes to my mind a saying of the great and wise general Themistocles, spoken to some of the generals who later enjoyed success in Athens and claimed to be preferred to Themistocles.
ἔφη γὰρ τὴν ὑστεραίαν ἐρίσαι πρὸς τὴν ἑορτὴν λέγουσαν ὡς ἐκείνη μέν ἐστι κοπώδης καὶ ἄσχολος, ἐν αὐτῇ δὲ τῶν παρεσκευασμένων ἀπολαύουσι μεθʼ ἡσυχίας.
For he said that the Day After disputed with the Feast Day, saying that the latter is full of toil and busy, whereas on the former people enjoy in peace what has been prepared.
τὴν οὖν ἑορτὴν εἰπεῖν,
ἀληθῆ λέγεις, ἀλλʼ ἐμοῦ μὴ γενομένης, ποῦ ἂν σὺ ἦσθα; κἀμοῦ τοίνυν,
ἔφη,
μὴ γενομένου περὶ τὰ Μηδικά, τίς ἂν ὑμῶν ἦν νῦν ὄνησις; τοῦτό
μοι δοκεῖ πρὸς τὴν Ῥωμύλου Ἀρετὴν ἡ Τύχη λέγειν,
λαμπρὰ μὲν τὰ σὰ ἔργα καὶ μεγάλα καὶ θεῖον ὡς ἀληθῶς ἐξέφηνας αἷμα καὶ γένος οὖσαν σεαυτήν·
Then the Feast Day said: "You speak the truth; but if I had not been, where would you be?" "So too," said he, "if I had not existed during the Persian War, what use would any of you be now?" This, it seems to me, Fortune says to the Virtue of Romulus: "Your deeds are indeed brilliant and great, and you have truly shown yourself to be of divine blood and race.
ἀλλʼ ὁρᾷς πόσον ὑστερεῖς μου;
But do you see how much you lag behind me?
εἰ γὰρ ἐγὼ τότε μὴ παρηκολούθησα χρηστὴ καὶ φιλάνθρωπος, ἀλλʼ ἀπέλιπον καὶ προηκάμην τὰ νήπια, σὺ πῶς ἂν ἐγένου καὶ πόθεν ἐξέλαμψας;
For if I had not then accompanied you, kind and humane, but had abandoned and given up the infants, how would you have come into being and from where would you have shone forth?
εἰ τότε μὴ θῆλυ θηρίον ἐπῆλθε φλεγμαῖνον ὑπὸ πλήθους καὶ φορᾶς γάλακτος καὶ τραφησομένου δεόμενον μᾶλλον ἢ θρέψοντος, ἀλλʼ ἀνήμερόν τι τελέως καὶ λιμῶττον, οὐκ ἂν ἔτι νῦν τὰ καλὰ ταῦτα βασίλεια καὶ ναοὶ καὶ θέατρα καὶ περίπατοι καὶ ἀγοραὶ καὶ ἀρχεῖα βοτηρικαὶ καλύβαι καὶ σταθμοὶ νομέων ἦσαν Ἀλβανὸν ἢ Τυρρηνὸν ἢ Λατῖνον ἄνδρα δεσπότην προσκυνούντων; ἀρχὴ
μὲν δὴ μέγιστον ἐν παντί, μάλιστα δʼ ἐν ἱδρύσει καὶ κτίσει πόλεως·
If at that time a female beast, swollen with abundance and flow of milk and needing to be suckled rather than to suckle, had not come, but rather some completely wild and starving beast, would these beautiful palaces, temples, theaters, walks, assemblies, and offices not still be shepherd huts and folds of herdsmen, with their inhabitants worshipping an Alban, Tyrrhenian, or Latin master?" The beginning is indeed the greatest thing in everything, and most of all in the establishment and founding of a city; and Fortune provided this by saving and preserving the founder.
ταύτην δʼ ἡ Τύχη παρέσχε σῴσασα καὶ φυλάξασα τὸν κτίστην ἡ μὲν γὰρ Ἀρετὴ μέγαν ἐποίησε Ῥωμύλον, ἡ Τύχη δʼ ἄχρι τοῦ γενέσθαι μέγαν ἐτήρησε.
For Virtue made Romulus great, but Fortune preserved him until he could become great.