§40.13.1exsequamur tamen quocumque modo conficti ordinem criminis.
Let us however trace, in whatever way we can, the order of the fabricated charge.
pluribus modis se petitum criminatus est, et omnes insidiarum vias in unum diem contulit.
He has complained of being attacked in several ways, and has crowded all the methods of plot into a single day.
§40.13.2volui interdiu eum post lustrationem, cum concurrimus, et quidem, si diis placet, lustrationum die occidere; volui, cum ad cenam invitavi, veneno scilicet tollere; volui, cum comisatum gladiis succincti me secuti sunt, ferro interficere.
I wanted, it seems, to kill him during the day, after the purification, when we clashed, and indeed, if it please the gods, on the very day of the purifications; I wanted, when I invited him to dinner, to remove him, of course, by poison; I wanted, when they followed me girt with swords to the revel, to slay him with steel.
§40.13.3tempora quidem qualia sint ad parricidium electa, vides: lusus, convivii, comisationis.
You see indeed what kind of times were chosen for parricide: of play, of banquet, of revelry.
quid? dies qualis? quo lustratus exercitus, quo inter divisam victimam, praelatis omnium, qui umquam fuere, Macedoniae regum armis regiis, duo soli tua tegentes latera, pater, praevecti sumus, et secutum est Macedonum agmen: §40.13.4hoc ego, etiam si quid antea admisissem piaculo dignum, lustratus et expiatus sacro, tum cum maxime in hostiam itineri nostro circumdatam intuens, parricidium venena gladios in comisationem praeparatos volutabam in animo, ut quibus aliis deinde sacris contaminatam omni scelere mentem expiarem?
What? What kind of day? On which the army was purified, on which between the divided victim, with the royal arms of all the kings of Macedonia who ever were carried before us, we two alone, father, rode in front guarding your sides, and the Macedonian line followed: On this day, did I, even if I had previously committed anything worthy of expiation, purified and atoned for by the sacred rite, at the very moment when looking upon the victim placed along our route, revolve in my mind parricide, poisons, swords prepared for the revel, so that by what other sacred rites thereafter could I expiate a mind contaminated with every crime?
§40.13.5sed caecus criminandi cupiditate animus, dum omnia suspecta efficere vult, aliud alio confundit.
But a mind blinded by the desire of accusing, while it wants to make everything suspected, confounds one thing with another.
§40.13.6nam si veneno te inter cenam tollere volui, quid minus aptum fuit quam pertinaci certamine et concursu iratum te efficere, ut merito, sicut fecisti, invitatus ad cenam abnueres?
For if I wanted to remove you by poison during dinner, what was less fitting than to make you angry by an obstinate contest and clash, so that, as you deservedly did, when invited to dinner you would refuse?
§40.13.7cum autem iratus negasses, utrum, ut placarem te, danda opera fuit, ut aliam quaererem occasionem, quoniam semel venenum paraveram, §40.13.8an ab illo consilio velut transiliendum ad aliud fuit, ut ferro te, et quidem eodem die, per speciem comisationis occiderem?
Moreover, when you had angrily refused, was pains to be taken so that, in order to appease you, I might seek another opportunity, since I had once prepared the poison, or was there to be a leap, as it were, from that plan to another, so that I might kill you with steel, and indeed on the same day, under the guise of a revel?
§40.13.9quo deinde modo, si te metu mortis credebam cenam vitasse meam, non ab eodem metu comisationem quoque vitaturum existimabam?
In what way then, if I believed that you had avoided my dinner from fear of death, did I not suppose that you would also avoid the revel from the same fear?