§8.31.1Fabius contione extemplo advocata obtestatus milites est, ut, qua virtute rem publicam ab infestissimis hostibus defendissent, eadem se, cuius ductu auspicioque vicissent, ab inpotenti crudelitate dictatoris tutarentur:
Fabius, having immediately called an assembly, implored the soldiers that, with the same courage with which they had defended the commonwealth from most hostile enemies, they would protect him, under whose leadership and auspices they had conquered, from the uncontrollable cruelty of the dictator.
§8.31.2venire amentem invidia, iratum virtuti alienae felicitatique; furere, quod se absente res publica egregie gesta esset; malle, si mutare fortunam posset, apud Samnites quam Romanos victoriam esse;
He said that the dictator was coming, mad with jealousy and angry at another's courage and good fortune; that he was raging because the commonwealth had been conducted excellently in his absence; and that he would prefer, if he could change fortune, that the victory belonged to the Samnites rather than the Romans.
§8.31.3imperium dictitare spretum, tamquam non eadem mente pugnari vetuerit, qua pugnatum doleat: et tunc invidia inpedire virtutem alienam voluisse cupidissimisque arma ablaturum fuisse militibus, ne se absente moveri possent,
He was repeatedly asserting that his command had been slighted, as if he had not forbidden them to fight with the very same mind with which he now grieved that they had fought; and that even then he had wished to hinder another's courage through jealousy, and would have taken arms away from the most eager soldiers, so that they could not move in his absence.
§8.31.4et nunc id furere, id aegre pati, quod sine L. Papirio non inermes, non manci milites fuerint, quod se Q. Fabius magistrum equitum duxerit ac non accensum dictatoris.
And now he was raging and taking it ill that without L. Papirius the soldiers had been neither unarmed nor helpless, and that Q. Fabius had conducted himself as master of the horse, and not as an attendant of the dictator.
§8.31.5quid illum facturum fuisse, si, quod belli casus ferunt Marsque communis, adversa pugna evenisset, qui sibi devictis hostibus, re publica bene gesta, ita ut non ab illo unico duce melius geri potuerit, supplicium magistro equitum minetur?
What would that man have done, if, as the chances of war and common Mars bring about, a defeat had occurred—he who, when the enemy has been thoroughly conquered and the commonwealth so well managed that it could not have been done better even by that unique leader, threatens the master of the horse with punishment?
§8.31.6neque illum magistro equitum infestiorem quam tribunis militum, quam centurionibus, quam militibus esse.
Nor was he more hostile to the master of the horse than to the military tribunes, to the centurions, and to the soldiers.
si posset, in omnes saeviturum fuisse; §8.31.7quia id nequeat, in unum saevire; etiam invidiam tamquam ignem summa petere; in caput consilii, in ducem incurrere; si se simul cum gloria rei gestae extinxisset, tunc victorem velut in capto exercitu dominantem, quidquid licuerit in magistro equitum, in militibus ausurum.
If he had been able, he would have vented his rage upon all; since he was unable to do that, he was raging against one; even envy, like fire, seeks the highest places and attacks the head of the enterprise, the leader; if he should extinguish him together with the glory of the deed, then the victor, ruling as if over a captured army, would dare to do against the soldiers whatever had been permitted against the master of the horse.
proinde adessent in sua causa omnium libertati.
Therefore, let them stand by the liberty of all in his cause.
§8.31.8si consensum exercitus eundem, qui in proelio fuerit, in tuenda victoria videat et salutem unius omnibus curae esse, inclinaturum ad clementiorem sententiam animum; §8.31.9postremo se vitam fortunasque suas illorum fidei virtutique permittere.
If he should see that the agreement of the army in preserving the victory was the same as it had been in the battle, and that the safety of one was the care of all, he would bend his mind to a milder sentence; finally, he committed his life and fortunes to their fidelity and courage.