§7.1.1si te dolor aliqui corporis aut infirmitas valetudinis tuae tenuit quo minus ad ludos venires, fortunae magis tribuo quam sapientiae tuae; sin haec, quae ceteri mirantur, contemnenda duxisti et, cum per valetudinem posses, venire tamen noluisti, utrumque laetor, et sine dolore corporis te fuisse et animo valuisse, cum ea, quae sine causa mirantur alii, neglexeris, modo ut tibi constiterit fructus oti tui; quo quidem tibi perfrui mirifice licuit, cum esses in ista amoenitate paene solus relictus.
If some bodily pain or weakness of your health kept you from coming to the games, I attribute it more to fortune than to your wisdom; but if you thought that these things, which others admire, were to be despised, and, although you were able as far as your health was concerned, you nevertheless did not wish to come, I rejoice at both: both that you were without bodily pain and that you were healthy in mind, since you neglected those things which others admire without cause, provided only that the fruit of your leisure was secured to you; which indeed you were wonderfully permitted to enjoy to the full, since you were left almost alone in that pleasant retreat of yours.
neque tamen dubito quin tu in illo cubiculo tuo, ex quo tibi Stabianum perforasti et patefecisti sinum, per eos dies matutina tempora lectiunculis consumpseris, cum illi interea, qui te istic reliquerunt, spectarent communis mimos semisomni.
Nor indeed do I doubt that you, in that bedchamber of yours from which you broke through and opened up the Stabian gulf to your view, spent your morning hours during those days in light reading, while those people meanwhile, who left you behind there, were watching common mimes half-asleep.
reliquas vero partis dici tu consumebas iis delectationibus, quas tibi ipse ad arbitrium tuum compararas; nobis autem erant ea perpetienda, quae Sp. Maecius probavisset.
But the remaining parts of the day you were spending in those pleasures which you had provided for yourself at your own choice; whereas we had to endure those things which Spurius Maecius had approved.
§7.1.2omnino, si quaeris, ludi apparatissimi, sed non tui stomachi; coniecturam enim facio de meo.
On the whole, if you ask, the games were extremely splendid, but not to your taste; for I make a conjecture from my own.
nam primum honoris causa in scaenam redierant ii quos ego honoris causa de scaena decessisse arbitrabar.
For first, for the sake of honor, those had returned to the stage who, as I thought, had retired from the stage for the sake of their honor.
deliciae vero tuae, noster Aesopus, eius modi fuit ut ei desinere per omnis homines liceret.
Indeed, your favorite, our Aesopus, was in such a condition that everyone would have readily allowed him to retire.
is iurare cum coepisset, vox eum defecit in illo loco: 'si sciens fallo. ' quid tibi ego alia narrem? nosti enim reliquos ludos;
When he had begun to swear an oath, his voice failed him at that very passage: "if I knowingly deceive." Why should I tell you other things?
qui ne id quidem leporis habuerunt, quod solent mediocres ludi.
For you know the rest of the games; which indeed did not possess even that much charm which ordinary games usually have.
apparatus enim spectatio tollebat omnem hilaritatem, quo quidem apparatu non dubito quin animo aequissimo carueris.
For the spectacle of the elaborate preparation took away all cheerfulness, of which preparation indeed I do not doubt that you, with the most contented mind, were glad to be free.
quid enim delectationis habent sescenti muli in 'Clytaemestra' aut in 'Equo Troiano' creterrarum tria milia aut armatura varia peditatus et equitatus in aliqua pugna? quae popularem admirationem habuerunt, delectationem tibi nullam attulissent.
For what pleasure is there in six hundred mules in 'Clytemnestra', or in 'The Trojan Horse' three thousand mixing-bowls, or the varied armor of infantry and cavalry in some battle? These things, which gained the admiration of the populace, would have brought you no pleasure.
§7.1.3quod si tu per eos dies operam dedisti Protogeni tuo, dum modo is tibi quidvis potius quam orationes meas legerit, ne tu haud paulo plus quam quisquam nostrum delectationis habuisti.
But if during those days you gave your attention to your Protogenes, provided only that he read to you anything else you pleased rather than my speeches, surely you had not a little more pleasure than any of us.
non enim te puto Graecos aut Oscos ludos desiderasse, praesertim cum Oscos vel in senatu vestro spectare possis, Graecos ita non ames ut ne ad villam quidem tuam via Graeca ire soleas.
For I do not think that you missed the Greek or Oscan plays, especially since you can watch Oscans even in your local senate, and you dislike Greek things so much that you are not even accustomed to go to your villa by the Greek Way.
nam quid ego te athletas putem desiderare, qui gladiatores contempseris? in quibus ipse Pompeius confitetur se et operam et oleum perdidisse.
For why should I think that you missed the athletes, you who have despised gladiators? in which Pompey himself confesses that he lost both trouble and oil.
reliquae sunt venationes binae per dies quinque, magnificae, nemo negat; sed quae potest homini esse polito delectatio, cum aut homo imbecillus a valentissima bestia laniatur aut praeclara bestia venabulo transverberatur? quae tamen, si videnda sunt, saepe vidisti; neque nos, qui haec spectamus, quicquam novi vidimus.
There remain the wild-beast hunts, two a day for five days, magnificent, no one denies; but what pleasure can there be for a refined man when either a weak human being is torn to pieces by a very powerful beast, or a splendid beast is transfixed with a hunting spear? Which indeed, if they are worth seeing, you have often seen; nor did we, who watched these things, see anything new.
extremus elephantorum dies fuit.
The last day was that of the elephants.
in quo admiratio magna vulgi atque turbae, delectatio nulla exstitit; quin etiam misericordia quaedam consecuta est atque opinio eius modi, esse quandam illi beluae cum genere humano societatem.
In this there was great admiration on the part of the common people and the crowd, but no pleasure; nay, there even followed a certain pity and a feeling of this kind, that that beast has a certain kinship with the human race.
§7.1.4his ego tamen diebus ludis scaenicis, ne forte videar tibi non modo beatus sed liber omnino fuisse, dirupi me paene in iudicio Galli Canini, familiaris tui.
During these days of theatrical games, however, lest by chance I should seem to you not only happy but completely free, I almost tore myself to pieces in the trial of Gallus Caninius, your friend.
quod si tam facilem populum haberem quam Aesopus habuit, libenter me hercule artem desinerem tecumque et cum similibus nostri viverem.
But if I had as easy an audience as Aesopus had, I would gladly, by Hercules, abandon my profession and live with you and with those like us.
nam me cum antea taedebat, cum et aetas et ambitio me hortabatur, et licebat denique, quem nolebam, non defendere, tum vero hoc tempore vita nulla est.
For whereas I was already tired of it before, when both my age and ambition were urging me on, and when, finally, I was allowed not to defend whom I did not wish to; indeed at this time, there is no life at all.
neque enim fructum ullum laboris exspecto et cogor non numquam homines non optime de me meritos rogatu eorum, qui bene meriti sunt defendere.
For I neither expect any fruit of my labor, and I am sometimes forced to defend men who have not deserved particularly well of me, at the request of those who have deserved well.
§7.1.5itaque quaero causas omnis aliquando vivendi arbitratu meo teque et istam rationem oti tui et laudo vehementer et probo, quodque nos minus intervisis, hoc fero animo aequiore, quod, si Romae esses, tamen neque nos lepore tuo neque te, si qui est in me, meo frui liceret propter molestissimas occupationes meas.
Therefore I seek every excuse for living at last according to my own choice, and I both strongly praise and approve of you and that manner of your leisure; and as to your visiting us less often, I bear this with a more patient mind for this reason: that even if you were in Rome, we nevertheless would not be allowed to enjoy your charm, nor you mine (if there is any in me), on account of my most troublesome occupations.
quibus si me relaxaro (nam, ut plane exsolvam, non postulo), te ipsum, qui multos annos nihil aliud commentaris, docebo profecto quid sit humaniter vivere.
If I ever relax myself from these (for I do not ask to release myself completely), I will surely teach you yourself, who for many years have contemplated nothing else, what it is to live like a human being.
tu modo istam imbecillitatem valetudinis tuae sustenta et tuere, ut facis ut nostras villas obire et mecum simul lecticula concursare possis.
Do you only support and take care of that weakness of your health, as you do, so that you may be able to visit our villas and run about together with me in a litter.
§7.1.6haec ad te pluribus verbis scripsi quam soleo, non oti abundantia sed amoris erga te, quod me quadam epistula subinvitaras, si memoria tenes, ut ad te aliquid eius modi scriberem, quo minus te praetermisisse ludos paeniteret.
I have written these things to you in more words than I am accustomed to, not from an abundance of leisure but of love toward you, because in a certain letter you had gently invited me, if you remember, to write something of this kind to you, so that you might regret less having missed the games.
quod si adsecutus sum, gaudeo; sin minus, hoc me tamen consolor, quod posthac ad ludos venies nosque vises neque in epistulis relinques meis spem aliquam delectationis tuae.
If I have achieved this, I rejoice; if not, I nevertheless console myself with this: that hereafter you will come to the games and visit us, and will not leave all hope of your pleasure to my letters.