Humanitext Reader

Plautus · Epidicus §678-733

Discovery of the Truth and Freedom for Epidicus

Passage 12 of 12 · Latin

Summary

Epidicus confronts the angry Periphanes, demanding to be bound and questioned. Periphanes discovers inside the house that his true daughter has indeed been found, and is forced to apologize to Epidicus and grant him his freedom.

§678apolactizo inimicos omnis.
I kick away all my enemies.
§678bVbi illum quaeram gentium?
Where on earth shall I look for him?
§679Dum sine me quaeras, quaeras mea causa vel medio in mari.
As long as you look without me, you may look for all I care even in the middle of the sea.
§680Quid me quaeris? quid laboras? quid hunc sollicitas? ecce me.
Why do you seek me? Why do you trouble yourself? Why do you worry this man? Here I am.
§681num te fugi, num ab domo apsum, num oculis concessi tuis?
Have I fled from you? Have I been absent from home? Have I withdrawn from your eyes?
§683nec tibi supplico.
Nor do I supplicate you.
vincire vis? em, ostendo manus;
Do you want to bind me? Look, I show my hands; You have the thongs, I saw you buy them: why do you delay now?
§684tú habes lora, ego te emere vidi: quid nunc cessas? colliga.
Bind me.
§685Ilicet, vadimonium ultro mi hic facit.
It is all over, he actually offers bail to me of his own accord.
§685bQuin colligas?
Why don't you bind me?
§686Edepol mancipium scelestum.
By Pollux, a wicked slave!
§686bTe profecto, Apoecides, §687nil moror mihi deprecari.
As for you, Apoecides, I certainly don't care for you to plead for me.
§687bFacile exoras, Epidice.
You obtain that easily, Epidicus.
§688Ecquid agis?
Are you doing anything?
§688bTuon arbitratu?
At your pleasure?
§688cMeo hercle vero atque hau tuo §689colligandae haec sunt tibi hodie.
By Hercules, yes, mine and not yours: these must be bound by you today.
§689bAt non lubet, non colligo.
But I don't feel like it, I won't bind them.
§690Tragulam in te inicere adornat, nescio quam fabricam facit.
He is preparing to throw a dart at you, he is making some trick or other.
§691Tibi moram facis, cum égo solutus asto.
You are causing delay for yourself, while I stand here unbound.
age, inquam, colliga.
Come, I say, bind me.
§692At mihi magis lubet solutum te rogitare.
But I prefer to question you unbound.
§692bAt nil scies.
But you will know nothing.
§693Quid ago?
What shall I do?
§693bQuid agas? mos geratur.
What should you do? Do as he wishes.
§693cFrugi es tú homo, Apoecides.
You are a sensible man, Apoecides.
§694Cedo manus igitur.
Give me your hands then.
§694bMorantur nihil.
They are not delaying at all.
atque arte colliga.
And bind them tightly.
§695Nihil moror.
I do not delay.
§695bObnoxiose.
Without sparing.
§695cFacto opere arbitramino.
You shall judge when the work is done.
§696Bene hoc habet.
This is fine.
age nunciam ex me exquire, rogita quod lubet.
Come now, inquire of me, ask what you please.
§697Qua fiducia ausus es primum, quae emptast nudiustertius, §698filiam meam dicere esse?
With what confidence did you first dare, she who was bought the day before yesterday, to say she was my daughter?
§698bLibuit: ea fiducia.
I felt like it: that was my confidence.
§699Ain tu? libuit?
Do you say so? You felt like it?
§699bAio.
I say so.
vel da pignus, ni ea sit filia.
Or make a wager that she is not your daughter.
§700Quam negat novisse mater?
Whom her mother denies she knows?
§700bNi ergo matris filia est, §701in meum nummum, in tuom talentum pignus da.
If she is not, then, her mother's daughter, make a wager: my one coin against your talent.
§701bEnim istaec captiost.
Indeed, that is a trap.
§702sed quis east mulier?
But who is that woman?
§702bTui gnati amica, ut omnem rem scias.
Your son's mistress, so that you may know the whole matter.
§703Dedin tibi minas triginta ob filiam?
Did I give you thirty minae for my daughter?
§703bFateor datas §704et eo argento illam me emisse amicam fili fidicinam §705pro tua filia: is te eam ob rem tetigi triginta minis.
I confess they were given, and with that money I bought that harp-player, your son's mistress, instead of your daughter: for that reason I touched you for thirty minae.
§706Quo modo mé ludos fecisti de illa conducticia §707fidicina?
How you made a game of me concerning that hired harp-player!
§707bFactum hercle vero, et recte factum iudico.
It was done, by Hercules, indeed, and I judge it was rightly done.
§708Quid postremo argento factum est quod dedi? §708bDicam tibi:
What was finally done with the money that I gave?
§709neque malo homini neque maligno tuo dedi Stratippocli.
I will tell you: I gave it to neither a bad nor a stingy man, but to your Stratippocles.
§710Quor dare ausu'sausus es?
Why did you dare to give it?
§710bQuia mi libitum est.
Because I felt like it.
§710cQuae haec, malum, impudentiast?
What, plague, is this impudence?
§711Etiam inclamitor quasi servos?
Am I still cried out at as if I were a slave?
§711bCum tu es liber, gaudeo.
Since you are free, I rejoice.
§712Merui ut fierem.
I have deserved to become so.
§712bTu meruisti?
You deserved it?
§712cVise intro: ego faxo scies §713hoc ita esse.
Look inside: I will make you know that this is so.
§713bQuid est negoti?
What is the matter?
§713cIam ipsa res dicet tibi.
Soon the matter itself will tell you.
§714abi modo intro.
Just go inside.
§714bEi, non illuc temerest.
Ah, that is not for nothing.
§714cAdserva istum, Apoecides. —
Watch that fellow, Apoecides.
§715Quid illuc, Epidice, est negoti?
What is that matter, Epidicus?
§715bMaxima hercle iniuria §716vinctus asto, cuius haec hodie ópera inventast filia.
By Hercules, with the greatest injustice I stand bound, by whose effort his daughter was found today.
§717Ain tu te illius invenisse filiam?
Do you say that you have found his daughter?
§717bInveni, et domi est.
I found her, and she is at home.
§718sed ut acerbum est, pro bene factis cum mali messim metas.
But how bitter it is, when you reap a harvest of evil for good deeds!
§719Quamne hodie per urbem uterque sumus defessi quaerere?
The one whom both of us got tired seeking through the city today?
§720Ego sum defessus reperire, vos defessi quaerere.
I am tired of finding her, you are tired of seeking her.
§721Quid isti oratis opere tanto? mi orandum esse intellego,
Why do you plead for him with so much effort?
§722ut liceat merito huius facere.
I understand that I must beg, so that I may be allowed to do in accordance with his merit.
cedo tu ut exsolvam manus.
Give them to me, so that I may loose your hands.
§723Ne attigas.
Don't touch.
§723bOstende vero.
Show them, indeed.
§723cNolo.
I do not want to.
§723dNon aequom facis.
You are not acting justly.
§724Numquam hercle hodie, nisi supplicium mihi das, me solvi sinam.
By Hercules, never today, unless you make amends to me, will I allow myself to be unbound.
§725Optumum atque aequissumum oras.
You ask what is best and most just.
soccos, tunicam, pallium §726tibi dabo.
I will give you shoes, a tunic, a cloak to you.
§726bQuid deinde porro?
What then next?
§726cLibertatem.
Freedom.
§726dAt postea?
But afterwards?
§727novo liberto opus est quod pappet.
A new freedman needs something to eat.
§727bDabitur, praebebo cibum.
It shall be given, I will provide food.
§728Numquam hercle hodie, nisi me orassis, solves.
By Hercules, never today, unless you beg me, shall you unbind me.
§728bOro te, Epidice, §729mihi ut ignoscas, siquid imprúdens culpa peccavi mea.
I beg you, Epidicus, to forgive me, if through my fault I have sinned unwittingly.
§730at ob eam rem liber esto.
But on account of that matter, be free.
§730bInvitus do hanc veniam tibi, §731nisi necessitate cogar.
I grant this pardon to you unwillingly, unless I were forced by necessity.
solve sane, si lubet.
Go ahead and unbind me, if you please.
§732Hic is homo est qui libertatem malitia invenit sua.
This is the man who found his freedom by his own cunning.
§733plaudite et valete.
Applaud and fare well.
lumbos porgite atque exsurgite.
Stretch your loins and rise up.

Notes

  1. §678apolactizo — A loanword from Greek ἀπολακτίζω ('to kick away, spurn'). In Plautine comedy, Greek words are often used to express a slave's playful or boastful attitude.
  2. §685vadimonium ultro mi hic facit — Meaning 'he actually offers bail to me of his own accord.' Normally a plaintiff demands bail from a defendant, but here it refers to the comic reversal where the slave Epidicus voluntarily demands to be bound and put on trial.
  3. §689colligandae haec sunt tibi hodie — The feminine plural demonstrative pronoun haec refers back to 'hands' (manus, a feminine noun in Latin) which Epidicus stretched out in §683.
  4. §699bni ea sit filia — In the context of a wager (pignus da), ni (nisi) introduces the condition of the bet, meaning 'bet me that she is not your daughter.'
  5. §721Quid isti oratis — Isti is the dative singular of the demonstrative pronoun iste, referring here to Epidicus: 'Why do you plead for that man (Epidicus) with so much effort?'
  6. §728orassis — An archaic sigmatic subjunctive (equivalent to the perfect subjunctive oraveris). This is an archaic form frequently used in conditional (nisi) clauses in early Latin writers like Plautus.

Cite this passage

Plautus, Epidicus §678-733. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0119.phi009.humanitext-lat2:678-733

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