§13.1exemplo quodcumque malo committitur, ipsi §13.2displicet auctori: prima est haec ultio, quod se §13.3iudice nemo nocens absolvitur, improba quamvis §13.4gratia fallaci praetoris vicerit urna. §13.5quid sentire putas omnes, Calvine, recenti §13.6de scelere et fidei violatae crimine? sed nec
Whatever is committed with a bad example displeases the very author of it: this is the first revenge, that with himself as judge, no guilty person is acquitted, although dishonest influence may have won in the deceptive urn of the praetor. What do you think everyone feels, Calvinus, concerning the recent crime and the charge of violated trust?
§13.7tam tenuis census tibi contigit, ut mediocris §13.8iacturae te mergat onus, nec rara videmus §13.9quae pateris; casus multis hic cognitus ac iam §13.10tritus et e medio fortunae ductus acervo. §13.11ponamus nimios gemitus, flagrantior aequo §13.12non debet dolor esse viri nec vulnere maior, §13.13tu quamvis levium minimam exiguamque malorum §13.14particulam vix ferre potes spumantibus ardens §13.15visceribus, sacrum tibi quod non reddat amicus §13.16depositum; stupet haec qui iam post terga reliquit §13.17sexaginta annos Fonteio consule natus? §13.18an nihil in melius tot rerum proficis usu? §13.19Magna quidem, sacris quae dat praecepta libellis, §13.20victrix fortunae sapientia; ducimus autem §13.21hos quoque felices, qui ferre incommoda vitae §13.22nec iactare iugum vita didicere magistra, §13.23quae tam festa dies, ut cesset prodere furem, §13.24perfidiam, fraudes atque omni ex crimine lucrum §13.25quaesitum et partos gladio vel pyxide nummos? §13.26rari quippe boni: numera, vix sunt totidem quot §13.27Thebarum portae vel divitis ostia Nili. §13.28nona aetas agitur peioraque saecula ferri §13.29temporibus, quorum sceleri non invenit ipsa §13.30nomen et a nullo posuit natura metallo. §13.31nos hominum divumque fidem clamore demus §13.32quanto Faesidium laudat vocalis agentem §13.33sportula. dic, senior bulla dignissime, nescis §13.34quas habeat veneres aliena pecunia? nescis
But neither did so slender a fortune fall to your lot that the burden of a moderate loss would sink you, nor do we see as rare what you suffer; this misfortune is known to many and now commonplace, and drawn from the middle of fortune's heap. Let us lay aside excessive groans, a man's grief ought not to be more burning than is proper nor greater than the wound. Although you can hardly bear the smallest and tiniest particle of light evils, burning with foaming entrails, because a friend does not return to you a sacred deposit; is he amazed at this who has already left behind his back sixty years, born when Fonteius was consul? Or do you profit nothing for the better by so much experience of things? Great indeed is wisdom, which gives precepts in sacred books, the conqueror of fortune; but we also deem those happy who have learned to bear the discomforts of life and not to toss the yoke, with life as their teacher. What day is so festive that it ceases to bring to light a thief, perfidy, frauds, and gain sought from every crime and money produced by the sword or the poison-box? Indeed, the good are rare: count them, they are barely as many as the gates of Thebes or the mouths of the rich Nile. A ninth age is being spent, and epochs worse than the times of iron, for whose wickedness nature itself has found no name and has assigned it from no metal. We call upon the faith of men and gods with a shout as great as the vocal dole-gatherers praise Faesidius when he pleads. Tell me, old man most worthy of the golden amulet, do you not know what charms another's money has?
§13.35quem tua simplicitas risum vulgo moveat, cum §13.36exigis a quoquam ne peieret et putet ullis §13.37esse aliquod numen templis araeque rubenti? §13.38quondam hoc indigenae vivebant more, priusquam §13.39sumeret agrestem posito diademate falcem §13.40Saturnus fugiens, tunc cum virguncula Iuno §13.41et privatus adhuc Idaeis Iuppiter antris; §13.42nulla super nubes convivia caelicolarum, §13.43nec puer Iliacus formosa nec Herculis uxor §13.44ad cyathos, et iam siccato nectare tergens §13.45bracchia Vulcanus Liparaea nigra taberna. §13.46prandebat sibi quisque deus, nec turba deorum §13.47talis ut est hodie, contentaque sidera paucis §13.48numinibus miserum urguebant Atlanta minori §13.49pondere, nondum aliquis sortitus triste profundi §13.50imperium, aut Sicula torvos cum coniuge Pluton, §13.51nec rota nec Furiae nec saxum aut vulturis atri §13.52poena, sed infernis hilares sine regibus umbrae. §13.53inprobitas illo fuit admirabilis aevo, §13.54credebant quo grande nefas et morte piandum, §13.55si iuvenis vetulo non adsurrexerat et si §13.56barbato cuicumque puer, licet ipse videret §13.57plura domi fraga et maiores glandis acervos; §13.58tam venerabile erat praecedere quattuor annis, §13.59primaque par adeo sacrae lanugo senectae. §13.60Nunc si depositum non infitietur amicus, §13.61si reddat veterem cum tota aerugine follem, §13.62prodigiosa fides et Tuscis digna libellis, §13.63quaeque coronata lustrari debeat agna. §13.64egregium sanctumque virum si cerno, bimembri §13.65hoc monstrum puero et miranti sub aratro §13.66piscibus inventis et fetae comparo mulae, §13.67sollicitus, tamquam lapides effuderit imber §13.68examenque apium longa consederit uva §13.69culmine delubri, tamquam in mare fluxerit amnis §13.70gurgitibus miris et lactis vertice torrens. §13.71Intercepta decem quereris sestertia fraude §13.72sacrilega.
Do you not know what laughter your simplicity moves among the crowd, when you demand of anyone that he should not perjure himself and should think there is some deity in any temples and the red altar? Formerly, the natives lived in this manner, before Saturn, fleeing, took up the rustic sickle, having laid aside his diadem, at that time when Juno was a little girl and Jupiter was still a private person in the Idaean caves; there were no banquets of the heaven-dwellers above the clouds, nor the Iliac boy nor the beautiful wife of Hercules at the cups, and Vulcan, now wiping his black arms from the Liparaean workshop after draining the nectar. Each god dined by himself, nor was the crowd of gods such as it is today, and the stars, content with a few deities, pressed upon wretched Atlas with a lighter weight; not yet had anyone obtained by lot the sad empire of the deep, or grim Pluto with his Sicilian wife, nor was there a wheel, nor Furies, nor a stone, or the punishment of the black vulture, but happy shades without infernal kings. Wickedness was a thing to be wondered at in that age, when they believed it a great crime and to be expiated by death, if a young man had not risen up for an old man, and if any boy for any bearded person, although he himself saw more strawberries at home and larger heaps of acorns; so venerable was it to precede by four years, and the first down was equal to sacred old age. Now, if a friend should not deny a deposit, if he should return the old purse with all its rust, it is a prodigious faithfulness, worthy of the Tuscan books, and which ought to be expiated with a crowned lamb. If I perceive an excellent and upright man, I compare this monster to a double-limbed boy, and to fish found under a wondering plow, and to a pregnant mule, anxious, as if a shower had poured down stones, and a swarm of bees had settled in a long cluster on the summit of a temple, as if a river had flowed into the sea with wondrous whirlpools and a torrent with a head of milk. You complain that ten sestertia have been intercepted by sacrilegious fraud.
quid si bis centum perdidit alter
What if another has lost two hundred secret sestertia in this manner?
§13.73hoc arcana modo? maiorem tertius illa §13.74summam, quam patulae vix ceperat angulus arcae? §13.75tam facile et pronum est superos contemnere testes,
A third a larger sum than that, which the corner of a wide chest had scarcely held? It is so easy and natural to despise the gods as witnesses, if no mortal knows the same!
§13.76si mortalis idem nemo sciat! aspice quanta §13.77voce neget, quae sit ficti constantia vultus: §13.78per Solis radios Tarpeiaque fulmina iurat §13.79et Martis frameam et Cirrhaei spicula vatis, §13.80per calamos venatricis pharetramque puellae §13.81perque tuum, pater Aegaei Neptune, tridentem; §13.82addit et Herculeos arcus hastamque Minervae, §13.83quidquid habent telorum armamentaria caeli. §13.84si vero et pater est,
comedam,
inquit flebile, ‘nati
Look with how great a voice he denies it, what constancy there is in his feigned look: he swears by the rays of the Sun and the Tarpeian thunderbolts, and the spear of Mars and the darts of the Cirrhaean prophet, by the shafts and the quiver of the huntress girl, and by your trident, father Neptune of the Aegean; he adds also the Herculean bow and the spear of Minerva, whatever weapons the armories of heaven possess. If indeed he is also a father, "I will eat my son," he says tearfully.