Now when your letter has violated my eyes, the glory of not writing back did not seem slight.
You, a stranger, dared to tempt the lawful fidelity of a wife, violating the sacred rites of hospitality!
§17.5Scilicet idcirco ventosa per aequora vectum §17.6Excepit portu Taenaris ora suo, §17.7Nec tibi, diversa quamvis e gente venires, §17.8Oppositas habuit regia nostra fores, §17.9Esset ut officii merces iniuria tanti!
Doubtless it was for this that the Taenarian shore received you in its harbor, carried through the windy seas, and our palace did not hold its doors closed against you, although you came from a different nation — so that the reward of such great kindness should be injury!
§17.10Qui sic intrabas, hospes an hostis eras?
You who entered thus, were you a guest or an enemy?
Nor do I doubt that this complaint of ours, although it is so just, will be called rustic in your judgment.
Let me be rustic indeed, provided I am not forgetful of shame, and as long as the course of my life is without stain.
§17.15Si non est ficto tristis mihi vultus in ore, §17.16Nec sedeo duris torva superciliis, §17.17Fama tamen clara est, et adhuc sine crimine vixi, §17.18Et laudem de me nullus adulter habet.
If I do not have a stern expression on a feigned face, nor do I sit frowning with harsh brows, nevertheless my reputation is clear, and up to now I have lived without crime, and no adulterer holds any boast over me.
Wherefore I wonder the more what is the confidence of your undertaking, and what cause has given you hope of my bed.
Or, because the Neptunian hero brought violence upon us, does it seem that I, having been carried off once, am worthy to be carried off a second time also?
It would have been my crime if I had been seduced; since I was carried off, what was mine except to be unwilling?
Yet he did not bear away from the deed the sought-for fruit; I returned having suffered nothing except fear.
The shameless one took only a few kisses from me as I struggled; further than that, he has nothing of mine.
§17.29Quae tua nequitia est, non his contenta fuisset —
Such is your wickedness, it would not have been content with these — may the gods forbid!
§17.30Di melius! similis non fuit ille tui.
He was not like you.
§17.31Reddidit intactam, minuitque modestia crimen, §17.32Et iuvenem facti paenituisse patet; §17.33Thesea paenituit, Paris ut succederet illi, §17.34Ne quando nomen non sit in ore meum?
He returned me untouched, and his modesty lessened the crime, and it is clear that the youth repented of his deed; did Theseus repent so that Paris might succeed him, lest at any time my name should not be on everyone's lips?
§17.35Nec tamen irascor — quis enim succenset amanti? — §17.36Si modo, quem praefers, non simulatur amor.
Nor yet am I angry — for who is angry with a lover? — if only the love which you display is not feigned.
§17.37Hoc quoque enim dubito — non quod fiducia desit, §17.38Aut mea sit facies non bene nota mihi; §17.39Sed quia credulitas damno solet esse puellis, §17.40Verbaque dicuntur vestra carere fide.
For of this too I doubt — not because confidence is lacking, or because my face is not well known to me; but because credulity is wont to be a damage to girls, and your words are said to lack faith.
§17.41At peccant aliae, matronaque rara pudica est.
But others sin, and a chaste matron is rare.
§17.42Quis prohibet raris nomen inesse meum?
Who forbids my name to be among those rare ones?
§17.43Nam mea quod visa est tibi mater idonea, cuius §17.44Exemplo flecti me quoque posse putes, §17.45Matris in admisso falsa sub imagine lusae §17.46Error inest; pluma tectus adulter erat.
For as to your thinking my mother a suitable example, by whose instance you suppose I also can be bent, there was error in my mother's deed, she having been deceived under a false image; the adulterer was covered in feathers.
If I should sin, I can have been ignorant of nothing, nor will there be any error to overshadow the crime of the deed.
§17.49Illa bene erravit vitiumque auctore redemit.
She erred well, and redeemed her fault by the authority of the author.
§17.50Felix in culpa quo Iove dicar ego?
By what Jupiter shall I be said to be happy in my fault?
§17.51Sed genus et proavos et regia nomina iactas.
But you boast of your family and ancestors and royal names.
§17.52Clara satis domus haec nobilitate sua est.
This house is sufficiently famous by its own nobility.
§17.53Iuppiter ut soceri proavus taceatur et omne §17.54Tantalidae Pelopis Tyndareique decus, §17.55Dat mihi Leda Iovem cygno decepta parentem, §17.56Quae falsam gremio credula fovit avem.
Though Jupiter, the great-grandfather of my father-in-law, be unmentioned, and all the glory of Pelops, son of Tantalus, and of Tyndareus, Leda, deceived by the swan, gives me Jupiter as a parent, she who credulously cherished the false bird in her bosom.
Go now and relate the far-reaching origins of the Phrygian race, and Priam with his Laomedon!
§17.59Quos ego suspicio; sed qui tibi gloria magna est §17.60Quintus, is a nostro nomine primus erit.
Whom I respect; but he who is a great glory to you as fifth, will be the first from our name.
Although I suppose the sceptre of your land is powerful, yet I do not think these are less than those.
If indeed this place is surpassed in wealth and number of men, yet certainly your land is barbarian.