§2.1.1Cum tot sustineas et tanta negotia solus, §2.1.2res Italas armis tuteris, moribus ornes, §2.1.3legibus emendes, in publica commoda peccem, §2.1.4si longo sermone morer tua tempora, Caesar.
Since you support so many and such great affairs alone, protect the Italian land with arms, adorn it with morals, and correct it with laws, I should sin against the public interest, Caesar, if I should delay your time with a long discourse.
§2.1.5Romulus et Liber pater et cum Castore Pollux, §2.1.6post ingentia facta deorum in templa recepti, §2.1.7dum terras hominumque colunt genus, aspera bella §2.1.8componunt, agros assignant, oppida condunt, §2.1.9ploravere suis non respondere favorem
Romulus, and Father Liber, and Pollux with Castor, received into the temples of the gods after huge achievements, while they cultivated the lands and the race of men, settled bitter wars, assigned fields, and founded towns, lamented that the expected favor did not respond to their merits.
§2.1.10speratum meritis, diram qui contudit hydram §2.1.11notaque fatali portenta labore subegit, §2.1.12comperit invidiam supremo fine domari,
He who crushed the dreadful hydra and subdued the famous monsters with fated labor, found that envy is tamed only by the final end.
§2.1.13urit enim fulgore suo, qui praegravat artis §2.1.14infra se positas; exstinctus amabitur idem.
For he burns with his own brilliance who oppresses the arts placed below him; yet when extinguished, the same man will be loved.
§2.1.15praesenti tibi maturos largimur honores, §2.1.16iurandasque tuum per numen ponimus aras, §2.1.17nil oriturum alias, nil ortum tale fatentes.
To you, while present, we grant mature honors, and set up altars to swear by your divinity, confessing that nothing like you will ever arise, nor has arisen.
§2.1.18Sed tuus hic populus sapiens et iustus in uno, §2.1.19te nostris ducibus, te Grais anteferendo, §2.1.20cetera nequaquam simili ratione modoque §2.1.21aestimat et, nisi quae terris semota suisque §2.1.22temporibus defuncta videt, fastidit et odit; §2.1.23sic fautor veterum, ut tabulas peccare vetantis, §2.1.24quas bis quinque viri sanxerunt, foedera regum §2.1.25vel Gabiis vel cum rigidis aequata Sabinis, §2.1.26pontificum libros, annosa volumina vatum §2.1.27dictitet Albano Musas in monte locutas.
But this people of yours, wise and just in this one thing, in preferring you to our leaders, and to the Greeks, estimates other things by no means with similar reason and measure, and, unless it sees things removed from the earth and finished with their times, it loathes and hates them; so much a supporter of the ancients that it would repeatedly assert that the laws forbidding sin, which the decemvirs enacted, the treaties of the kings made equal either with Gabii or with the rigid Sabines, the books of the pontiffs, and the ancient volumes of the prophets, were spoken by the Muses on the Alban mount.
§2.1.28Si, quia Graiorum sunt antiquissima quaeque §2.1.29scripta vel optima, Romani pensantur eadem §2.1.30scriptores trutina, non est quod multa loquamur: §2.1.31nil intra est olea, nil extra est in nuce duri; §2.1.32venimus ad summum fortunae, pingimus atque §2.1.33psallimus et luctamur Achivis doctius unctis.
If, because the oldest writings of the Greeks are also the best, Roman writers are weighed on the same balance, there is no reason for us to speak much: there is nothing hard inside an olive, nothing hard outside in a nut; we have come to the summit of fortune, we paint and play the lyre and wrestle more skillfully than the anointed Greeks.
§2.1.34Si meliora dies, ut vina, poemata reddit, §2.1.35scire velim, chartis pretium quotus arroget annus.
If time makes poems better, like wines, I should like to know which year arrogates value to the papers.
§2.1.36scriptor abhinc annos centum qui decidit, inter §2.1.37perfectos veteresque referri debet an inter §2.1.38vilis atque novos? excludat iurgia finis.
A writer who died a hundred years ago, should he be referred among the perfect and ancient, or among the worthless and new? Let a limit exclude disputes.
§2.1.39est vetus atque probus, centum qui perficit annos. §2.1.40quid, qui deperiit minor uno mense vel anno,
"He is ancient and honest who completes a hundred years." What about him who died less by one month or year, among whom shall he be referred?
§2.1.41inter quos referendus erit? veteresne poetas, §2.1.42an quos et praesens et postera respuat aetas?
The ancient poets, or those whom both the present and future age should reject?
§2.1.43“iste quidem veteres inter ponetur honeste, §2.1.44qui vel mense brevi vel toto est iunior anno. ” §2.1.45utor permisso, caudaeque pilos ut equinae §2.1.46paulatim vello et demo unum, demo etiam unum, §2.1.47dum cadat elusus ratione ruentis acervi, §2.1.48qui redit in fastos et virtutem aestimat annis §2.1.49miraturque nihil nisi quod Libitina sacravit.
"That man indeed will be placed honorably among the ancients, who is younger by even a brief month or a whole year." I use the permission, and like the hairs of a horse's tail I pluck them out little by little and take away one, and take away another, until he falls, deceived by the logic of the collapsing heap, who recurs to the annals and estimates virtue by years and admires nothing except what Libitina has consecrated.
§2.1.50Ennius et sapiens et fortis et alter Homerus, §2.1.51ut critici dicunt, leviter curare videtur, §2.1.52quo promissa cadant et somnia Pythagorea.
Ennius, both wise and brave, and a second Homer, as critics say, seems to care lightly whither his promises and Pythagorean dreams may fall.
§2.1.53Naevius in manibus non est et mentibus haeret
Is Naevius not in our hands, yet clings to our minds almost as if fresh?
§2.1.54paene recens? adeo sanctum est vetus omne poema,
So sacred is every old poem.
§2.1.55ambigitur quotiens, uter utro sit prior, aufert §2.1.56Pacuvius docti famam senis, Accius alti, §2.1.57dicitur Afrani toga convenisse Menandro, §2.1.58Plautus ad exemplar Siculi properare Epicharmi, §2.1.59vincere Caecilius gravitate, Terentius arte.
As often as it is debated which is superior to which, Pacuvius carries off the fame of a learned old man, Accius of a lofty one, Afranius's toga is said to have fitted Menander, Plautus to hasten after the model of Sicilian Epicharmus, Caecilius to excel in gravity, Terence in art.
§2.1.60hos ediscit et hos arto stipata theatro §2.1.61spectat Roma potens; habet hos numeratque poetas §2.1.62ad nostrum tempus Livi scriptoris ab aevo.
These powerful Rome learns by heart, and these in the crowded theater she watches; she holds and numbers these as poets down to our time from the age of the writer Livius.
§2.1.63Interdum volgus rectum videt, est ubi peccat,
Sometimes the crowd sees what is right, sometimes it errs.