May they destroy you, by Hercules!—But it is right for me to give thanks for the news; so much good do I now bring you from the harbor.
§870nunc tu mihi places.
Now you please me.
§870bAbi, stultu's, sero post tempus venis.
Go away, you are foolish, you arrive too late, after the time.
§871Igitur olim si advenissem, magis tu tum istuc diceres; §872nunc hanc laetitiam accipe a me, quam fero.
Therefore, if I had arrived before, you would say that even more then; now receive from me this joy which I bring.
nam filium §873tuom modo in portu Philopolemum vivom, salvom et sospitem §874vidi in publica celoce, ibidémque illum adulescentulum §875Aleum una et tuom Stalagmum servom, qui aufugit domo, §876qui tibi surripuit quadrimum puerum filiolum tuom.
For just now I saw your son Philopolemus in the harbor, alive, safe and sound, on a public swift-vessel, and in the same place that young man from Elis with him, and your slave Stalagmus, who fled from home, who stole your four-year-old little boy, your son.
§877Abi in malam rem, ludis me.
Go to the devil, you are mocking me.
§877bIta me amabit sancta Saturitas, §878Hegio, itaque suo me semper condecoret cognomine, §879ut ego vidi.
So may sacred Satiety love me, Hegio, and so may she always adorn me with her own surname, as surely as I saw him.
§879bMeum gnatum?
My son?
§879cTuom gnatum et genium meum.
Your son, and my genius.
§880Et captivom illum Alidensem?
And that captive from Elis?
§880bμὰ τὸν Ἀπόλλω.
By Apollo, indeed.
And my little slave Stalagmus, who stole my son?
§881bναὶ τὰν κόραν.
By Cora, indeed.
§882Iam credo?
Now do I believe?
§882bναὶ τὰν πραινέστην.
By the goddess of Praeneste, indeed.
§882cVenit?
Has he come?
§882dναὶ τὰν σιγνίαν.
By the goddess of Signia, indeed.
§883Certon?
Are you sure?
§883bναὶ τὸν φρουσινῶνα.
By the god of Frusino, indeed.
§883cVide sis.
Please watch out.
§883dναὶ τὸν Ἀλάτριον.
By the god of Alatrium, indeed.
§884Quid tu per barbaricas urbes iuras?
Why do you swear by foreign cities?
Because indeed they are just as rough as you used to say your food was.
§885bVae aetati tuae.
Woe to your life.
§886Quippe quando mihi nil credis, quod ego dico sedulo.
Naturally, since you believe nothing of what I say earnestly.
§887sed Stalagmus quoius erat tunc nationis, cum hinc abit?
But of what nation was Stalagmus then, when he went away from here?
§888Siculus.
A Sicilian.
§888bAt nunc Siculus non est, Boius est, Boiam terit: §889liberorum quaerundorum causa ei, credo, uxor datast.
But now he is not a Sicilian, he is a Boian, he rubs his shackle: I believe a wife was given to him for the sake of getting children.
§890Dic, bonan fide tu mi istaec verba dixisti?
Tell me, did you speak those words to me in good faith?
§890bBona.
In good faith.
§891Di immortales, iterum gnatus videor, si vera autumas.
Immortal gods, I seem to be born again, if you speak the truth.
§892Ain tu? dubium habebis etiam, sancte quom ego iurem tibi?
Do you say so? Will you still have doubt when I solemnly swear to you?
Finally, Hegio, if there is little trust in an oath, go and see at the harbor.
§894bFacere certumst.
I am resolved to do so.
tu intus cura quod opus est.
You inside, take care of what is needed.
§895sume, posce, prome quid vis.
Take, demand, bring out what you wish.
te facio cellarium.
I make you the cellarer.
§896Nam hercle, nisi mantiscinatus probe ero, fusti pectito.
For by Hercules, unless I shall have catered splendidly, comb me with a cudgel.
§897Aeternum tibi dapinabo victum, si vera autumas.
I will provide you with feasts forever, if you speak the truth.
§898Vnde id?
From where is that?
§898bA me meoque gnato.
From me and my son.
§898cSponden tu istud?
Do you promise that?
§898dSpondeo.
I promise.
§899At ego tuom tibi advenisse filium respondeo.
And I answer to you that your son has arrived.
Take care as best as you can.— Go well and return well.
§901illic hinc abiit, mihi rem summam credidit cibariam.
He has gone away from here, he has entrusted to me the supreme command of food.
§902di immortales, iam ut ego collos praetruncabo tegoribus, §903quanta pernis pestis veniet, quanta labes larido, §904quanta sumini absumedo, quanta callo calamitas, §905quanta laniis lassitudo, quanta porcinariis.
Immortal gods, how I will now cut off necks from backs of pork, what a plague will come to hams, what a disaster to bacon, what an exhaustion to sow's udder, what a calamity to rind, what weariness to butchers, what weariness to pork-sellers!
§906nam si alia memorem, quae ad ventris victum conducunt, morast.
For if I were to mention other things which contribute to the nourishment of the belly, it would be a delay.
§907nunc ibo, ut pro praefectura mea ius dicam larido, §908et quae pendent indemnatae pernae, eis auxilium ut feram. — §909Diéspiter te dique, Ergasile, perdant et ventrem tuom, §910parasítosque omnis, et qui posthac cenam parasitis dabit.
Now I will go, so that according to my prefecture I may pronounce judgment on the bacon, and that I may bring help to those hams which hang uncondemned.— May Diespiter and the gods destroy you, Ergasilus, and your belly, and all parasites, and whoever hereafter shall give dinner to parasites.
§911cladés calamitasque, intemperies módo in nostram advenit domum.
Ruin and calamity and a storm have just now come into our house.
§912quasi lúpus esuriens ille metui ne in me faceret impetum.
Like a hungry wolf I feared lest he should make an attack on me.
§912aubi impetum
to make an attack.
§913nimisque hércle ego illum male formidabam, ita frendebat dentibus.
By Hercules, I was terribly afraid of him, so did he gnash his teeth.
§914advéniens deturbavit totum cum carne carnarium: §915arrípuit gladium, praetruncavit tribus tegoribus glandia; §916aulás calicesque omnes confregit, nisi quae modiales erant.
Upon arriving, he threw down the whole larder with the meat: he snatched a sword, cut off the kernels from three backs of pork; he broke all the pots and cups, except those which were of a gallon's capacity.
§917cocum pércontabatur, possentne seriae fervescere.
He kept questioning the cook whether the large jars could boil.
§918cellás refregit omnis intus reclusitque armarium.
He broke open all the cellars inside and unlocked the cupboard.
§919adsérvate istunc, sultis, servi. ego ibo, ut conveniam senem, §920dicam út sibi penum alium adornet, siquidem sese uti volet; §921nam híc quidém, ut adornat, aut iam nihil est aut iam nihil erit. —
Watch him, please, slaves.
§922Ioví disque agó gratiás merito mágnas, §923quom reducem tuo te patri reddiderunt §924quomque ex miseriis plurimis me exemerunt, §925† quae adhuc carens dum huc fui sustentabam, §926quomque hunc conspicor in potestate nostra,
I will go to meet the old man, I will tell him to prepare another provision for himself, if indeed he wishes to use any; for here indeed, as he prepares, either there is already nothing, or there will soon be nothing.— To Jupiter and the gods I give deservedly great thanks, since they have restored you, returned, to your father, since they have rescued me from very many miseries, which I, lacking you while I was here, have hitherto endured, and since I behold this man in our power,