Humanitext Reader

Cornelius Nepos · Themistocles §1.1-1.4

Youth, Disinheritance, and Rise of Themistocles

Passage 1 of 10 · Latin

Summary

This passage describes the origin and wild youth of Themistocles of Athens, who, spurred by the disgrace of being disinherited by his father, devoted himself to public affairs and rose to prominence rapidly through his exceptional talent.

§1.1Themistocles, Neocli filius, Atheniensis.
Themistocles, son of Neocles, Athenian.
huius vitia ineuntis adulescentiae magnis sunt emendata virtutibus, adeo ut anteferatur huic nemo, pauci pares putentur.
The vices of his early youth were corrected by great virtues, so that no one is preferred to him, and few are thought to be his equals.
§1.2sed ab initio est ordiendus.
But he must be described from the beginning.
pater eius Neocles generosus fuit.
His father, Neocles, was of noble birth.
is uxorem Acarnanam civem duxit, ex qua natus est Themistocles.
He took as wife a citizen of Acarnania, from whom Themistocles was born.
qui cum minus esset probatus parentibus, quod et liberius vivebat et rem familiarem neglegebat, a patre exheredatus est.
When he was not well approved of by his parents, because he lived too freely and neglected his family estate, he was disinherited by his father.
quae contumelia non fregit eum, sed erexit.
This disgrace did not break him, but built him up.
§1.3nam cum iudicasset sine summa industria non posse eam exstingui, totum se dedidit rei publicae, diligentius amicis famaeque serviens.
For, having judged that this disgrace could not be wiped out without the greatest industry, he devoted himself entirely to the state, serving his friends and reputation more diligently.
multum in iudiciis privatis versabatur, saepe in contionem populi prodibat; nulla res maior sine eo gerebatur; celeriter quae opus erant §1.4reperiebat, facile eadem oratione explicabat, neque minus in rebus gerendis promptus quam excogitandis erat, quod et de instantibus, ut ait Thucydides, verissime iudicabat et de futuris callidissime coniciebat.
He was much engaged in private lawsuits, and often came forward into the public assembly; no matter of importance was conducted without him; he quickly found out what things were necessary, and easily explained the same with eloquence; nor was he less prompt in executing affairs than in conceiving them, because he both judged most truly of present things, as Thucydides says, and conjectured most shrewdly of future things.
quo factum est ut brevi tempore illustraretur.
Whereby it happened that in a short time he became famous.

Notes

  1. §1.1ineuntis adulescentiae — A genitive phrase with the present participle ineuntis (entering, beginning) modifying the noun vitia, functioning as a genitive of time ("of his early youth").
  2. §1.2parentibus — Dative of agent used with the passive verbal expression esset probatus. The preceding minus functions as a virtual negative meaning "not very" or "less".
  3. §1.2quae contumelia — Connecting relative (relative connection). It refers back to his being disinherited by his father, functioning at the beginning of the sentence as a demonstrative ("And this disgrace").
  4. §1.3eam — The feminine singular pronoun eam has contumelia from the preceding sentence as its antecedent. The phrase non posse eam exstingui is an accusative with infinitive clause acting as the object of iudicasset, in which eam is the subject accusative of the passive infinitive exstingui.
  5. §1.3quae opus erant — A structure where the antecedent (such as ea) of the neuter plural relative pronoun quae is omitted. In the impersonal construction opus est (there is need of), quae here acts as the subject agreeing with erant (plural).
  6. §1.4in rebus gerendis promptus quam excogitandis — The preposition in governs both rebus gerendis (in executing affairs) and excogitandis (in conceiving them), with the shared noun rebus omitted in the second phrase. Both are gerundive constructions in the ablative.

Cite this passage

Cornelius Nepos, Themistocles §1.1-1.4. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0588.abo002.humanitext-lat2:1.1-1.4

Please note the AI-draft status of the translation and the date accessed.

Translation, notes and summary are AI-generated drafts, revised through reader feedback.