§2.36.1ludi forte ex instauratione magni Romae parabantur.
\nBy chance, great games were being prepared at Rome for a re-celebration.
instaurandi haec causa fuerat: ludis mane servum quidam pater familiae nondum commisso spectaculo sub furca caesum medio egerat circo; coepti inde ludi, velut ea res nihil ad religionem pertinuisset. §2.36.2haud ita multo post T. Latinio, de plebe homini, somnium fuit: visus Iuppiter dicere sibi ludis praesultatorem displicuisse; §2.36.3nisi magnifice instaurarentur ii ludi, periculum urbi fore; iret, ea consulibus nuntiaret.
The reason for the re-celebration had been this: on the morning of the games, before the spectacle had yet begun, a certain head of a family had driven his slave, scourged under a fork, through the middle of the circus; then the games were begun, as if that matter had nothing to do with religion.\n\nNot so long afterwards, T. Latinius, a man of the plebs, had a dream: Jupiter seemed to say to him that the leading dancer of the games had displeased him;\n\nunless those games were magnificently re-celebrated, there would be danger to the city; he should go and announce these things to the consuls.
quamquam haud sane liber erat religione animus, verecundia tamen maiestatis magistratuum cum timore vicit, ne in ora hominum pro ludibrio abiret. §2.36.4magno illi ea cunctatio stetit; filium namque intra paucos dies amisit.
Although his mind was by no means free from religious dread, yet bashfulness before the majesty of the magistrates, along with the fear of becoming a laughingstock in the mouths of men, prevailed.\n\nThat hesitation cost him dear; for within a few days he lost his son.
cuius repentinae cladis ne causa dubia esset, aegro animi eadem illa in somnis obversata species visa est rogitare, satin magnam spreti numinis haberet mercedem; maiorem instare, ni eat propere ac nuntiet consulibus. §2.36.5iam praesentior res erat.
Lest the cause of this sudden disaster should be doubtful, the same apparition, presenting itself in his sleep, seemed to ask him, who was sick in mind, whether he had received a sufficiently great reward for the despised divinity; a greater one was threatening, unless he should go quickly and announce it to the consuls.\n\nNow the matter was more immediate.
cunctantem tamen ac prolatantem ingens vis morbi adorta est debilitate subita. §2.36.6tunc enimvero deorum ira admonuit.
Yet as he still hesitated and delayed, a great force of disease attacked him with a sudden paralysis.\n\nThen indeed the anger of the gods warned him.
fessus igitur malis praeteritis instantibusque consilio propinquorum adhibito cum visa atque audita et obversatum totiens somno Iovem, minas irasque caelestes repraesentatas casibus suis exposuisset, consensu inde haud dubio omnium, qui aderant, in forum ad consules lectica defertur. §2.36.7inde in curiam iussu consulum delatus eadem illa cum patribus ingenti omnium admiratione enarrasset, ecce aliud miraculum: §2.36.8qui captus omnibus membris delatus in curiam esset, eum functum officio pedibus suis domum redisse traditum memoriae est.
Exhausted, therefore, by his past and impending misfortunes, after calling a council of his kinsmen, when he had explained what he had seen and heard, and how Jupiter had so often appeared to him in sleep, and how the celestial threats and anger had been realized by his own calamities, then, by the doubtless consensus of all who were present, he was carried on a litter into the forum to the consuls.\n\nCarried thence into the senate house by order of the consuls, when he had related those same things to the senators to the great admiration of all, behold, another miracle:\n\nhe who had been carried into the senate house paralyzed in all his limbs, having performed his duty, returned home on his own feet, so it has been handed down to memory.