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Plautus · Stichus §339b-403

News of the Return and Gelasimus's Dread of Rivals

Passage 6 of 12 · Latin

Summary

Panegyris rejoices at her husband's safe return and orders the house to be cleaned, while Pinacium reports that he has returned with immense wealth and other parasites. Gelasimus fears for his survival due to the arrival of these rivals.

§339bSalva sum.
Panegyris: I am saved.
§340At ego perii, quoi medullam lassitudo perbibit.
Pinacium: But I am ruined, whose marrow weariness has drunk up.
§341Quid ego, quoi misero medullam ventris percepit fames.
Gelasimus: What about me, miserable, whose stomach's marrow hunger has seized?
§342Ecquem convenisti?
Panegyris: Did you meet anyone?
§342bMultos.
Pinacium: Many.
§342cAt virum?
Panegyris: But my husband?
§342dEquidem plurimos: §343verum ex multis nequiorem nullum quám hic est.
Pinacium: Indeed, very many: but out of many, no one is more worthless than this fellow here.
§343bQuo modo?
Gelasimus: How so?
§344iam dudum ego ístum patior dicere iniuste mihi.
For a long time now I have been enduring him speaking unjustly to me.
§345praeterhac si me inritassis— §345bEdepol essuries male.
Besides, if you irritate me further— Pinacium: By Pollux, you will hunger wretchedly.
§346Animum inducam, ut istuc verum te elocutum esse arbitrer.
Gelasimus: I will induce my mind to believe that you have spoken the truth.
§347Munditias volo fieri.
Panegyris: I want a cleaning to be done.
ecferte huc scopas simulque harundinem, §348ut operam omnem araneorum perdam et texturam improbem §349deiciamque eorum ómnis telas.
Bring out hither brooms and at the same time a rod, so that I may ruin all the work of the spiders and condemn their weaving, and throw down all their webs.
§349bMiseri algebunt postea.
Gelasimus: The wretched things will be cold afterwards.
§350Quid? illos itidemne esse censes quasi te, cum veste unica?
Pinacium: What? Do you think they are just like you, with only a single garment?
§351cape illas scopas.
Panegyris: Take those brooms.
§351bCápiam.
Gelasimus: I will take them.
§351cHoc egomet, tu hoc converre.
Panegyris: I myself will sweep this, you sweep that.
§351dEgo fecero.
Gelasimus: I will do it.
§352Ecquis huc effert nassiternam cúm aqua?
Panegyris: Will someone bring hither a watering pot with water?
§352bSine suffragio §353populi tamen aedilitatem hic quidém gerít.
Gelasimus: Without the vote of the people, however, this fellow indeed is acting as aedile.
§353bAge tu ocius §354† pinge, humum consperge ante aedis.
Pinacium: Come, do it quickly, [decorate], sprinkle the ground before the house.
§354bFaciam.
Gelasimus: I will do so.
§354cFactum oportuit.
Pinacium: It ought to have been done.
§355ego hinc araneas de foribus deiciam et de pariete.
I will throw down the cobwebs from the doors and from the wall.
§356Edepol rem negotiosam.
Gelasimus: By Pollux, a busy business.
§356bQuid sit, nil etiam scio, §357nisi forte hospites venturi sunt.
What it is, I still know nothing, unless by chance guests are going to arrive.
§357bVos lectos sternite.
Panegyris: You spread the couches.
§358Principium placet de lectis.
Gelasimus: The beginning pleases, about the couches.
§358bAlii ligna caedite, §359alii piscis depurgate, quos piscatu rettuli, §360pernam et glandium deicite.
Panegyris: Others, cut firewood, others, clean the fish, which I brought back from fishing, take down the ham and the neck-gland pork.
§360bHic hercle homo nimium sapit.
Gelasimus: By Hercules, this fellow knows too much.
§361Non ecastor, ut ego opinor, satis erae morem geris.
Pinacium: By Castor, as I think, you are not sufficiently compliant with your mistress.
§362Immo res omnis relictas habeo prae quod tu velis.
Gelasimus: Nay, I hold all things abandoned compared to what you wish.
§363Tum tu igitur, qua causa missus es ad portum, id expedi.
Panegyris: Then you therefore, dispatch that for which cause you were sent to the port.
§364Dicam.
Pinacium: I will tell you.
postquam me misisti ad portum, cum luci simul, §365commodum radiosus sese sol superabat ex mari.
After you sent me to the port, together with the light, just then the beaming sun was rising itself from the sea.
§366dum percontor portitores, ecquae navis venerit §367ex Asia, negant venisse, conspicatus sum interim §368cercurum, quo ego me maiorem non vidisse censeo.
While I inquired of the harbor officers whether any ship had come from Asia, they said none had come, in the meantime I caught sight of a cercurus, than which I think I have never seen a larger.
§369in portum vento secundo, velo passo pervenit.
It arrived into the port with a favorable wind and sails spread.
§370alius alium percontamur: quoiast navis? quid vehit?
We asked one another: whose ship is it? What does it carry?
§371interibi Epignomúm conspicio tuom virum et servom Stichum.
Meanwhile I caught sight of Epignomus, your husband, and the slave Stichus.
§372Hem quid? Epignomum elocutu's?
Panegyris: Ah, what? Did you say Epignomus?
§372bTuom virum.
Pinacium: Your husband.
§372cEt vitam meam.
Gelasimus: And my life.
§373Venit inquam.
Pinacium: He has come, I say.
§373bTutin ipsus ipsum vidisti?
Panegyris: Did you yourself see him in person?
§373cLubens.
Pinacium: Gladly.
§374argentí aurique advexit nimium.
He has brought a vast amount of silver and gold.
§374bNimis factum bene.
Panegyris: Exceedingly well done!
§375hercle vero capiam scopas atque hoc convorram lubens.
Gelasimus: By Hercules indeed, I will take the brooms and sweep this place gladly.
§376Lanam purpuramque multam.
Pinacium: A large amount of wool and purple cloth.
§376bEm qui ventrem vestiam.
Gelasimus: Lo, wherewithal I may clothe my belly.
§377Lectos eburatos, auratos.
Pinacium: Couches inlaid with ivory, and gilded.
§377bAccubabo regie.
Gelasimus: I shall recline like a king.
§378Tum Babylonica et peristroma tonsilia et tappetia §379advexit, nimium bonae rei.
Pinacium: Then Babylonian tapestries, shorn coverlets, and carpets he has brought, an immense quantity of good things.
§379bHercle rem gestam bene.
Gelasimus: By Hercules, a business well done.
§380Poste, ut occepi narrare, fidicinas, tibicinas, §381sambucas advexit secum forma eximia.
Pinacium: Afterwards, as I began to relate, female lute-players, flute-players, and triangular-harp players of exquisite beauty with him.
§381bEugepae,
Gelasimus: Well done!
§382quando adbibero, adludiabo: tum sum ridiculissumus.
when I have drunk a bit, I will play with them: then I am most ridiculous.
§383Poste unguenta multigenerum multa.
Pinacium: Afterwards, many ointments of many kinds.
§383bNon vendo logos.
Gelasimus: I am not selling jokes anymore.
§384iam non facio aúctionem, mi optigit hereditas:
I am no longer holding an auction, an inheritance has fallen to me.
§385malivoli, perquisitores auctionum, perierint.
Let the malevolent, the searchers of auctions, perish.
§386Hercules, decumam esse adauctam tibi quam vovi gratulor.
Hercules, I congratulate you that your tithe, which I vowed, is increased.
§388Poste autem advexit parasitos secum.
Pinacium: But afterwards, moreover, he brought parasites with him.
§388bEi, perii miser.
Gelasimus: Ah, miserable me, I am ruined!
§389Ridiculissumos.
Pinacium: Most ridiculous ones.
§389bRevorram hercle hoc quod converri modo.
Gelasimus: By Hercules, I will sweep back what I just swept up.
§390Vidistin virum sororis Pamphilum?
Panegyris: Did you see Pamphilus, my sister's husband?
§390bNon.
Pinacium: No.
§390cNon adest?
Panegyris: Is he not present?
§391Immo venisse eum simitu aiebat ille: ego huc citus §392praecucurri, ut nuntiarem nuntium exoptabilem.
Pinacium: Nay, he said that he had come together with him; I quickly ran ahead hither, to announce the longed-for news.
§393Venales logi sunt illi, quos negabam vendere.
Gelasimus: Those jokes are for sale, which I said I would not sell.
§394ilicet, iam meo malost quod malevolentes gaudeant.
It is all over; now there is a misfortune for me, over which the malevolent may rejoice.
§395Hercules, qui deus sis, sane discessisti non bene.
Hercules, what a god you are, indeed you have departed not well.
§396I intro, Pinacium, iube fámulos rem divinam mi apparent.
Panegyris: Go inside, Pinacium, order the servants to prepare a sacred rite for me.
§397bene vale.
Fare you well.
§397bVin administrem?
Gelasimus: Do you want me to assist?
§397cSat servorum habeo domi.
Panegyris: I have enough servants at home.
§398Enim vero, Gelasime, opinor provenisti futtile, §399si neque ille adest neque hic, qui venit, quicquam subvenit.
Gelasimus: Indeed, Gelasimus, I think you have come off uselessly, if neither that one is present, nor this one who has come helps at all.
§400ibo intro ad libros et discam de dictis melioribus; §401nam ni illos homines expello, ego occidi planissume.
I will go inside to my books and learn some better jokes; for unless I drive those men out, I am most clearly ruined.
§402Quom bene re gesta salvos convortor domum, §403Neptuno grates habeo et Tempestatibus;
Epignomus: Since, with things well done, I return home safe, I give thanks to Neptune and to the Tempests;

Notes

  1. 345inritassis — An archaic form derived from the sigmatic perfect, equivalent to classical *irrita veris* (perfect subjunctive or future perfect of *irritare*), used here in a conditional clause meaning "if you irritate me."
  2. 351dfecero — Future perfect of *facere* (first-person singular). In early Latin colloquial style, especially in Plautus, the future perfect is frequently used instead of the simple future (*faciam*) to express immediate action, quick compliance, or a strong promise ("I will have it done in a moment").
  3. 362prae quod — A colloquial construction where the preposition *prae* is combined with the relative pronoun/conjunction *quod*, functioning as a conjunction meaning "in comparison with what" or "compared to what."
  4. 386decumam — Archaic spelling of *decimam* ("a tenth part"). It refers to the Roman custom of vowing a tithe (one-tenth) of windfall profits or unexpected gains (here, the "inheritance" Gelasimus hopes to receive from Epignomus's return) to Hercules in gratitude.

Cite this passage

Plautus, Stichus §339b-403. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0119.phi018.humanitext-lat2:339b-403

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