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Plautus · Trinummus §1072-1136

The House Sale Revealed and Callicles's Explanation

Passage 18 of 19 · Latin

Summary

The returned Charmides learns the shocking news from his slave Stasimus that his son has sold the house. Callicles then appears and explains that he bought the house to protect a hidden treasure intended for Charmides' daughter's dowry.

§1072certe is est, is est profecto.
Certainly it is he, it is he indeed.
o mí ere exoptatissime, §1073salve.
Oh my most longed-for master, hail.
§1073bSalve, Stasime.
Greetings, Stasimus.
§1073cSalvom te— §1073dScio et credo tibi.
That you are safe— I know, and I believe you.
§1074sed omitto alia, hoc mihi responde: liberi quid agunt mei, §1075quos reliqui hic filium atque filiam?
But leaving other things aside, answer me this: how are my children doing, whom I left here, my son and daughter?
§1075bVivont, valent.
They are alive and well.
§1076Nempe uterque?
Surely both of them?
§1076bVterque.
Both of them.
§1076cDi me salvom et servatum volunt.
The gods want me safe and preserved.
§1077cetera intus otiose percontabor quae volo.
The rest of the things I want to know I will inquire about inside at leisure.
§1078eamus intro, sequere.
Let us go inside, follow me.
§1078bQuo tu té agis?
Where are you going?
§1078cQuonam nisi domum?
Where else but home?
§1079Hicine nos habitare censes?
Do you think we live here?
§1079bVbinam ego alibi censeam?
Where else indeed should I think?
§1080Iam— §1080bQuid iam?
Already— Already what?
§1080cNon sunt nostrae aedis istae.
Those house is not ours.
§1080dQuid ego ex te audio?
What am I hearing from you?
§1081Vendidit tuos natus aedis.
Your son sold the house.
§1081bPerii.
I am ruined.
§1081cPraesentariis §1082argenti minis numeratis— §1082bQuot?
For cash, silver minae paid down— How many?
§1082cQuadraginta.
Forty.
§1082dOccidi.
I am dead.
§1083quis eas emit?
Who bought it?
§1083bCallicles, cui tuam rem commendaveras; §1084is habitatum huc commigravit nosque exturbavit foras.
Callicles, to whom you had entrusted your property; he moved in here to live and drove us out of doors.
§1085Vbi nunc filius meus habitat?
Where does my son live now?
§1085bHic in hoc posticulo.
Here in this little back-building.
§1086Male disperii.
I am wretchedly undone.
§1086bCredidi aegre tibi id, ubi audisses, fore.
I believed that it would be hard for you when you heard it.
§1087Ego miserrumis periclis sum per maria maxuma §1088vectus, capitali periclo per praedones plurimos §1089me servavi, salvos redii: nunc hic disperii miser, §1090propter eosdem quorum causa fui hac aetate exercitus.
I was carried through the greatest dangers over vast seas, I saved myself from capital danger through many pirates, and returned safe: now here I have perished in misery, because of those very ones for whose sake I was harrassed at this age.
§1091adimit animam mi aegritudo.
Grief takes away my breath.
Stasime, tene me.
Stasimus, hold me.
§1091bVisne aquam §1092tibi petam?
Do you want me to fetch water for you?
§1092bRes quom animam agebat, tum esse offusam oportuit.
When the estate was gasping its last, that was when water ought to have been poured over it.
§1093Quid hoc híc clamoris audio ante aedis meas?
What is this clamor I hear here before my house?
§1094O Callicles, o Callicles, o Callicles, §1095qualine amico mea commendavi bona?
O Callicles, o Callicles, o Callicles, to what sort of friend have I entrusted my goods?
§1096Probo et fideli et fido et cum magna fide.
To an upright and faithful and trusty one, and of great good faith.
§1097et salve et salvom te advenisse gaudeo.
Greetings to you, and I rejoice that you have arrived safe.
§1098Credo, omnia istaec sí ita sunt ut praedicas.
I believe it, if all those things are as you declare.
§1099sed quis iste est tuos ornatus?
But what is that attire of yours?
§1099bEgo dicam tibi.
I will tell you.
§1100thensaurum effodiebam intus, dotem, filiae §1101tuae quaé daretur.
I was digging up a treasure inside, as a dowry to be given to your daughter.
sed intus narrabo tibi §1102et hoc et alia.
But inside I will tell you both this and other things.
sequere.
Follow me.
§1102bStasime.
Stasimus.
Yes?
§1102dStrenue §1103curre in Piraeum, atque unum curriculum face.
Run quickly to the Piraeus, and make it one continuous run.
§1104videbis iam illic navem qua advecti sumus.
You will see there the ship in which we sailed.
§1105iubeto Sangarionem quae imperaverim §1106curare ut efferantur, et tu ito simul.
order Sangario to take care that the things I commanded are brought out, and you go along with him.
§1107solutumst portitori iam portorium: §1108nihil est morae.
The harbor-duty has already been paid to the customs officer: there is no delay.
i, i, ambula, actutum redi.
Go, go, move, return at once.
§1109Illic sum atque hic sum.
I am there and here at the same time.
§1109bSequere tu hac me intro. — §1109cSequor. — §1110Hic meo ero amicus solus firmus restitit, §1111neque demutavit animum de firma fide, §1112quamquam labores multos
You, follow me inside this way. —— I follow. —— This man alone stood firm as a friend to my master, nor did he change his mind from firm fidelity, although many labors...
§1113sed hic unus, ut ego suspicor, servat fidem.
but this one alone, as I suspect, keeps faith.
§1114† ob rem laborem eum ego cepisse censeo. — §1115Hic homóst omnium hominum praécipuos, §1116voluptátibus gaudiisque ántepotens: §1117ita cómmoda quae cupio éveniunt, §1118quod ago ádsequitur, subest, súbsequitur, §1119ita gaúdiis gaudium súppeditat.
I think he undertook that labor for this purpose. —— This man is the most outstanding of all men, supreme in pleasures and joys: so do the convenient things I desire turn out, what I do succeeds, is near, and follows, so does joy supply joy.
§1120módo me Stasimus Lesbonici servos convenit domi; §1121is mihi dixit, suom erum peregre huc advenisse Charmidem.
Just now Stasimus, the servant of Lesbonicus, met me at home; he told me that his master Charmides had arrived here from abroad.
§1122nunc mi is propere conveniundust, ut quae cum eius filio §1123egi, ei rei fundus pater sit potior.
Now I must meet him in haste, so that the father may be a more powerful authority for that business which I transacted with his son.
eo quantum potest.
I am going as fast as possible.
§1124sed fores haé sonitu suo míhi moram obiciunt incommode.
But these doors, with their creaking, throw an inconvenient delay in my way.
§1125Neque fuit neque erit neque esse quemquam hominem in terra arbitror, §1126quoi fides fidelitasque amicum erga aequiperet tuam; §1127nam exaedificavisset me ex his aedibus, apsque te foret.
I believe there neither has been, nor will be, nor is any man on earth, whose faith and fidelity towards a friend can equal yours; for he would have entirely evicted me from this house, had it been without you.
§1128Si quid amicum erga bene feci aut consului fideliter, §1129non videor meruisse laudem, culpa caruisse arbitror.
If I have done any good or counselled faithfully towards a friend, I do not seem to have deserved praise; I think I have only avoided blame.
§1132Est ita ut tu dicis. sed ego hoc nequeo mirari satis,
It is as you say.
§1133eum sororem despondisse suam in tam fortem familiam.
But I cannot wonder enough at this, that he has betrothed his sister into so powerful a family.
§1134Lysiteli quidem Philtonis filio.
Indeed to Lysiteles, the son of Philto.
§1134bEnim me nominat.
Indeed he names me.
§1135Familiam optumam occupavit.
He has connected himself with an excellent family.
§1135bQuid ego cesso hos conloqui?
Why do I hesitate to speak to them?
§1136sed maneam etiam opinor, namque hoc commodum orditur loqui.
But I think I had better wait, for he is beginning to speak of this opportunely.

Notes

  1. 1080cnostrae aedis istae — aedis is an archaic spelling for the nominative plural aedes, agreeing with the feminine plural demonstrative istae. It functions here as a plural noun meaning 'our house'.
  2. 1092bRes quom animam agebat — animam agere is an idiomatic expression meaning 'to gasp one's last' or 'to be at the point of death'. The subject res refers to Charmides' estate or circumstances. In response to Stasimus' offer to fetch water, Charmides sarcastically replies that water should have been poured then (to save the estate from ruin), not now.
  3. 1123ei rei fundus pater sit potior — fundus is used here in a Roman legal sense to mean an 'authorizer' or 'guarantor'. It indicates that for the marriage agreement Lysiteles made with Charmides' son, the father (pater) needs to act as a more legally binding authority or guarantor.
  4. 1127apsque te foret — The preposition absque (spelled archaically as apsque) with the ablative te and the imperfect subjunctive foret forms a contrary-to-fact conditional clause meaning 'were it not for you' (equivalent to si sine te esset). This is a characteristic construction of Early Latin.

Cite this passage

Plautus, Trinummus §1072-1136. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0119.phi019.humanitext-lat2:1072-1136

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