§83.19Nunc quoque non est minor, sed brevior.
Now also it is not less, but shorter.
Refer Alexandri Macedonis exemplum, qui Clitum, carissimum sibi ac fidelissimum, inter epulas transfodit et intellecto facinore mori voluit, certe debuit.
Mention the example of Alexander of Macedon, who run Clitus through, most dear and faithful to him, amidst feasts, and having understood his crime, wanted to die, certainly ought to have.
Omne vitium ebrietas et incendit et detegit, obstantem malis conatibus verecundiam removet.
Drunkenness both inflames and uncovers every vice, it removes the shame that stands in the way of evil undertakings.
Plures enim pudore peccandi quam bona voluntate prohibitis abstinent.
For more keep away from forbidden things through shame of sinning than through good will.
§83.20Ubi possedit animum nimia vis vini, quicquid mali latebat, emergit.
When the excessive power of wine has possessed the mind, whatever evil lay hidden emerges.
Non facit ebrietas vitia, sed protrahit; tunc libidinosus ne cubiculum quidem expectat, sed cupiditatibus suis quantum petierunt sine dilatione permittit; tunc inpudicus morbum profitetur ac publicat; tunc petulans non linguam, non manum continet.
Drunkenness does not make vices, but brings them out; then the lustful man does not even wait for his bedroom, but permits his desires without delay as much as they have asked; then the shameless man confesses and publishes his disease; then the petulant man restrains neither his tongue nor his hand.
Crescit insolenti superbia, crudelitas saevo, malignitas livido.
Pride increases in the insolent, cruelty in the savage, malice in the envious.
§83.21Omne vitium laxatur et prodit.
Every vice is loosened and comes forth.
Adice illam ignorationem sui, dubia et parum explanata verba, incertos oculos, gradum errantem, vertiginem capitis, tecta ipsa mobilia velut aliquo turbine circumagente totam domum, stomachi tormenta, cum effervescit merum ac viscera ipsa distendit.
Add that ignorance of oneself, doubtful and poorly explained words, unsteady eyes, a wandering step, giddiness of the head, the very roofs moving as if some whirlwind were turning the whole house around, the torments of the stomach when the unmixed wine boils up and distends the very entrails.
Tunc tamen utcumque tolerabile est, dum illi vis sua est; quid, cum somno vitiatur et quae ebrietas fuit, cruditas facta est?
Yet then it is somehow tolerable, while its force is in him; what about when it is spoiled by sleep, and what was drunkenness has become indigestion?
§83.22Cogita, quas clades ediderit publica ebrietas; haec acerrimas gentes bellicosasque hostibus tradidit, haec multorum annorum pertinaci bello defensa moenia patefecit, haec contumacissimos et iugum recusantes in alienum egit arbitrium, haec invictos acie mero domuit.
Think what disasters public drunkenness has brought about; this has handed over the fiercest and most warlike nations to their enemies, this has opened walls defended by a persistent war of many years, this has driven the most stubborn and those refusing the yoke into another's will, this has subdued those unconquered in battle by unmixed wine.
§83.23Alexandrum, cuius modo feci mentionem, tot itinera, tot proelia, tot hiemes, per quas victa temporum locorumque difficultate transierat, tot flumina ex ignoto cadentia, tot maria tutum dimiserunt; intemperantia Iubendi et ille Herculaneus ac fatalis scyphus condidit.
Alexander, of whom I just now made mention, so many marches, so many battles, so many winters, through which he had passed overcoming the difficulty of times and places, so many rivers falling from the unknown, so many seas sent away safe; intemperance in commanding and that Herculean and fatal cup buried him.
§83.24Quae gloria est capere multum? Cum penes te palma fuerit et propinationes tuas strati somno ac vomitantes recusaverint, cum superstes toti convivio fueris, cum omnes viceris virtute magnifica et nemo vini tam capax fuerit, vincens a dolio.
What glory is it to hold much? When the palm is in your hands and those laid low by sleep and vomiting refuse your toasts, when you are the survivor of the whole banquet, when you have conquered all by magnificent virtue and no one has been so capable of wine, you are conquered by the jar.
§83.25M. Antonium, magnum virum et ingenii nobilis, quae alia res perdidit et in externos mores ac vitia non Romana traiecit quam ebrietas nec minor vino Cleopatrae amor? Haec illum res hostem rei publicae, haec hostibus suis imparem reddidit;
Marcus Antonius, a great man and of noble character, what other thing destroyed him and dragged him into foreign manners and non-Roman vices than drunkenness, and no less than wine, his love for Cleopatra?
haec crudelem fecit, cum capita principum civitatis cenanti referrentur, cum inter apparatissimas epulas luxusque regales ora ac manus proscriptorum recognosceret, cum vino gravis sitiret tamen sanguinem.
This thing made him an enemy of the republic, this made him unequal to his enemies; this made him cruel, when the heads of the leaders of the state were brought to him as he dined, when among the most elaborate feasts and royal luxury he recognized the faces and hands of the proscribed, when heavy with wine he nevertheless thirsted for blood.
Intolerabile erat, quod ebrius fiebat, cum haec faceret; quanto intolerabilius, quod haec in ipsa ebrietate faciebat!
It was intolerable that he got drunk when he did these things; how much more intolerable that he did these things in drunkenness itself!
§83.26Fere vinolentiam crudelitas sequitur; vitiatur enim exasperaturque sanitas mentis.
Cruelty almost follows wininess; for the health of the mind is corrupted and exasperated.
Ut querulos difficilesque faciunt diutini morbi et ad minimam rabidos offensionem, ita ebrietates continuae efferant animos.
As long illnesses make people complaining and difficult and mad at the slightest offense, so continuous drunkenness wildens minds.
Nam eum saepe apud se non sint, consuetudo insaniae durat et vitia vino concepta etiam sine illo valent.
For since they are often not in their own possession, the habit of madness endures, and vices conceived from wine are strong even without it.
§83.27Dic ergo, quare sapiens non debeat ebrius fieri.
Say then why the wise man ought not to get drunk.
Deformitatem rei et inportunitatem ostende rebus, non verbis.
Show the deformity of the thing and its inappropriateness by facts, not by words.
Quod facillimum est, proba istas, quae voluptates vocantur, ubi transcenderant modum, poenas esse.
Which is very easy: prove that those things which are called pleasures, when they have exceeded the measure, are punishments.
Nam si illud argumentaberis, sapientem multo vino inebriari et retinere rectum tenorem, etiam si temulentus sit; licet colligas nec veneno poto moriturum nec sopore sumpto dormiturum nec elleboro accepto, quicquid in visceribus haerebit, eiecturum deiecturumque. Sed si temptantur pedes, widely used by the ancients.
For if you argue this, that the wise man is inebriated by much wine and retains his right course, even if he is tipsy; you may conclude that neither will he die when poison is drunk, nor will he sleep when a soporific is taken, nor when hellebore is received—widely used by the ancients.
It was also applied in cases of mental derangement.
It was also applied in cases of mental derangement.
The native Latin term is veratrum.
The native Latin term is veratrum. —will he eject and purge whatever sticks in his entrails.
lingua non constat, quid est, quare illum existimes in parte sobrium esse, in parte ebrium? VALE.
But if his feet are tripped, his tongue does not stand firm, what is there for which you should think him sober in part, and drunk in part? FAREWELL.