§15.88sustinuit, nil umquam hac carne libentius edit.
Even he who endured to gnaw the corpse, never ate anything more gladly than this flesh.
§15.89nam scelere in tanto ne quaeras et dubites an §15.90prima voluptatem gula senserit; ultimus autem §15.91qui stetit, absumpto iam toto corpore ductis §15.92per terram digitis aliquid de sanguine gustat.
For in so great a crime, do not ask or doubt whether the first throat felt pleasure; but the last who stood there, when the whole body was already consumed, with his fingers dragged through the dirt, tastes something of the blood.
§15.93Vascones, haec fama est, alimentis talibus olim §15.94produxere animas, sed res diversa, sed illic §15.95fortunae invidia est bellorumque ultima, casus §15.96extremi, longae dira obsidionis egestas:
The Vascones, so the story goes, once with such nourishment prolonged their lives, but the case was different, for there was the malice of fortune and the extremes of war, the last crises, the dreadful poverty of a long siege.
§15.97huius enim, quod nunc agitur, miserabile debet §15.98exemplum esse cibi, sicut modo dicta mihi gens: §15.99post omnis herbas, post cuncta animalia, quidquid §15.100cogebat vacui ventris furor, hostibus ipsis §15.101pallorem ac maciem et tenuis miserantibus artus, §15.102membra aliena fame lacerabant, esse parati §15.103et sua.
For the pitiable example of food, of which we are now speaking, ought to be such as the nation I just mentioned; after all herbs, after all animals, whatever the fury of an empty stomach compelled, when even the enemies themselves pitied their paleness and thinness and wasted limbs, they mangled others' limbs out of hunger, being ready to eat even their own.
quisnam hominum veniam dare quisve deorum §15.104ventribus abnueret dira atque inmania passis, §15.105et quibus illorum poterant ignoscere manes, §15.106quorum corporibus vescebantur? melius nos
Who of men, or who of the gods, would refuse pardon to stomachs that had suffered things so dire and monstrous, and whom the spirits of those very persons could forgive, on whose bodies they were feeding?
We are better advised by the precepts of Zeno, for they think not all things, but only some are to be done for the sake of life.
sed Cantaber unde §15.109Stoicus, antiqui praesertim aetate Metelli?
But whence could a Cantabrian be a Stoic, especially in the age of ancient Metellus?
§15.110nunc totus Graias nostrasque habet orbis Athenas, §15.111Gallia causidicos docuit facunda Britannos, §15.112de conducendo loquitur iam rhetore Thyle.
Now the whole world has Greek Athens and ours; eloquent Gaul has taught the British lawyers, and now Thule speaks of hiring a rhetorician.
§15.113nobilis ille tamen populus quem diximus, et par §15.114virtute atque fide sed maior clade Zacynthos
Yet that noble people whom we mentioned, and Zacynthos, equal in valor and loyalty but greater in its calamity, excuse such a deed.
§15.115tale quid excusat: Maeotide saevior ara §15.116Aegyptos; quippe illa nefandi Taurica sacri §15.117inventrix homines (ut iam quae carmina tradunt §15.118digna fide credas) tantum immolat, ulterius nil
Egypt is more savage than the Maeotian altar; for indeed, that Tauric land, the inventress of the unspeakable rite, only immolates humans—if you believe what the poems hand down as worthy of credit—and the victim fears nothing further or more severe than the knife.
§15.119aut gravius cultro timet hostia, quis modo casus
But what calamity drove these people?
§15.120inpulit hos? quae tanta fames infestaque vallo §15.121arma coegerunt tam detestabile monstrum
What hunger so great, or what weapons threatening the rampart compelled them to dare so detestable a monstrosity?
Or could they make any other reproach to the dry land of Memphis when the Nile was unwilling to rise?
§15.124qua nec terribiles Cimbri nec Brittones umquam §15.125Sauromataeque truces aut inmanes Agathyrsi, §15.126hac saevit rabie imbelle et inutile vulgus, §15.127parvula fictilibus solitum dare vela phaselis §15.128et brevibus pictae remis incumbere testae.
With such madness as neither the terrible Cimbri, nor the Britons ever raged, nor the fierce Sauromatae, nor the monstrous Agathyrsi, does this warlike-less and useless crowd rage, accustomed to set small sails on earthenware boats and to bend over the short oars of painted clay.
§15.129nec poenam sceleri invenies nec digna parabis §15.130supplicia his populis, in quorum mente pares sunt §15.131et similes ira atque fames, mollissima corda
You will neither find a punishment for their crime, nor prepare fitting torments for these nations, in whose minds equal and similar are anger and hunger.
§15.132humano generi dare se natura fatetur, §15.133quae lacrimas dedit; haec nostri pars optima sensus.
Nature confesses that she gives the softest hearts to the human race, she who gave us tears; this is the best part of our feeling.
§15.134plorare ergo iubet causam dicentis amici §15.135squaloremque rei, pupillum ad iura vocantem §15.136circumscriptorem, cuius manantia fletu §15.137ora puellares faciunt incerta capilli.
Therefore she bids us weep for the squalor of a friend pleading his cause, and of a defendant, and for the ward calling his defrauder to court, whose face, wet with weeping, his girlish locks make uncertain.
§15.138naturae imperio gemimus, cum funus adultae §15.139virginis occurrit vel terra clauditur infans §15.140et minor igne rogi.
We groan by the command of nature, when the funeral of a grown-up maiden meets us, or an infant is closed in the earth, too small for the fire of the pyre.
quis enim bonus et face dignus §15.141arcana, qualem Cereris vult esse sacerdos, §15.142ulla aliena sibi credit mala? separat hoc nos
For what good man, worthy of the secret torch, such as the priest of Ceres wishes him to be, believes any human ills to be alien to himself?
§15.143a grege mutorum, atque ideo venerabile soli §15.144sortiti ingenium divinorumque capaces §15.145atque exercendis pariendisque artibus apti §15.146sensum a caelesti demissum traximus arce, §15.147cuius egent prona et terram spectantia.
This separates us from the herd of dumb beasts, and therefore we alone have received a venerable disposition, capable of divine things, and fit for practicing and producing arts, and have drawn our sense sent down from the heavenly citadel, which those groveling and looking at the earth lack.
mundi §15.148principio indulsit communis conditor illis §15.149tantum animas, nobis animum quoque, mutuus ut nos §15.150adfectus petere auxilium et praestare iuberet, §15.151dispersos trahere in populum, migrare vetusto §15.152de nemore et proavis habitatas linquere silvas, §15.153aedificare domos, laribus coniungere nostris §15.154tectum aliud, tutos vicino limine somnos §15.155ut collata daret fiducia, protegere armis §15.156lapsum aut ingenti nutantem vulnere civem, §15.157communi dare signa tuba, defendier isdem §15.158turribus atque una portarum clave teneri.
In the beginning of the world, the common creator indulged them with life only, but to us gave a soul as well, so that mutual affection might bid us seek and afford help, to draw scattered people into a nation, to migrate from the ancient grove and leave the woods inhabited by our ancestors, to build houses, to join to our household gods another roof, so that a combined trust might give safe sleep by a neighboring threshold, to protect with arms a fallen citizen or one wavering with a huge wound, to give signals by a common trumpet, to be defended by the same towers and be held by a single key of the gates.
But now there is greater concord among serpents; a wild beast spares its kin of similar spots.
quando leoni §15.161fortior eripuit vitam leo? quo nemore umquam
When did a stronger lion take the life of a lion?
§15.162expiravit aper maioris dentibus apri?
In what grove did ever a boar die by the tusks of a larger boar?
§15.163Indica tigris agit rabida cum tigride pacem §15.164perpetuam, saevis inter se convenit ursis.
The Indian tiger maintains a perpetual peace with the raging tiger, and savage bears agree among themselves.
§15.165ast homini ferrum letale incude nefanda §15.166produxisse parum est, cum rastra et sarcula tantum §15.167adsueti coquere et marris ac vomere lassi §15.168nescierint primi gladios extendere fabri,
But for man, to have forged deadly iron on an unspeakable anvil is too little, though the first smiths, accustomed only to forge hoes and mattocks, and tired of spades and the ploughshare, did not know how to extend swords.
§15.169aspicimus populos quorum non sufficit irae §15.170occidisse aliquem, sed pectora bracchia voltum §15.171crediderint genus esse cibi.
We behold nations for whose anger it does not suffice to have killed someone, but they believed chests, arms, and faces to be a kind of food.
quid diceret ergo §15.172vel quo non fugeret, si nunc haec monstra videret §15.173Pythagoras, cunctis animalibus abstinuit qui §15.174tamquam homine et ventri indulsit non omne legumen?
What, then, would Pythagoras say, or whither would he not flee, if he saw these monsters now— he who abstained from all animals as if from a human, and did not indulge his stomach with every kind of legume?