§4.78anne aliud tum praefecti? quorum optimus atque
Was the prefect then any different?
§4.79interpres legum sanctissimus omnia, quamquam §4.80temporibus diris, tractanda putabat inermi §4.81iustitia, venit et Crispi iucunda senectus, §4.82cuius erant mores qualis facundia, mite §4.83ingenium, maria ac terras populosque regenti §4.84quis comes utilior, si clade et peste sub illa §4.85saevitiam damnare et honestum adferre liceret
Of whom the best and most holy interpreter of the laws thought that all things, although in dreadful times, should be handled with unarmed justice, there came also the pleasant old age of Crispus, whose character was like his eloquence, a gentle nature; to the one ruling seas and lands and peoples, who would be a more useful companion, if, under that ruin and plague, it were permitted to condemn cruelty and offer honorable advice?
§4.86consilium? sed quid violentius aure tyranni, §4.87cum quo de pluviis aut aestibus aut nimboso §4.88vere locuturi fatum pendebat amici?
But what is more violent than a tyrant's ear, with whom the fate of a friend, about to talk of rains or heat waves or a cloudy spring, hung in the balance?
§4.89illa igitur numquam derexit bracchia contra §4.90torrentem, nec civis erat qui libera posset §4.91verba animi proferre et vitam inpendere vero.
He therefore never directed his arms against the torrent, nor was he a citizen who could bring forth the free words of his mind and expend his life for the truth.
Thus he saw many winters and his eightieth summer solstice, safe even in that court by these weapons.
§4.94Proximus eiusdem properabat Acilius aevi §4.95cum iuvene indigno quem mors tam saeva maneret §4.96et domini gladiis tam festinata; sed olim §4.97prodigio par est in nobilitate senectus, §4.98unde fit ut malim fraterculus esse gigantis.
Next, Acilius, of the same age, was hurrying with his young son, undeserving that so cruel a death should await him and so hastened by the master's swords; but long since, old age among the nobility is equal to a portent, whence it comes that I would prefer to be a little brother of a giant.
§4.99profuit ergo nihil misero, quod comminus ursos §4.100figebat Numidas Albana nudus harena §4.101venator, quis enim iam non intellegat artes
Therefore it profited the wretched youth nothing that, hand-to-hand, bears of Numidia he used to pierce, naked on the Alban sand as a hunter; for who by now would not understand the arts of the patricians?
§4.102patricias? quis priscum illud miratur acumen.
Who admires that ancient sharpness, Brutus, of yours?
§4.103Brute, tuum? facile est barbato inponere regi.
It is easy to impose on a bearded king.
§4.104Nec melior vultu quamvis ignobilis ibat §4.105Rubrius, offensae veteris reus atque tacendae, §4.106et tamen inprobior saturam scribente cinaedo.
Nor with a better face, although ignoble, went Rubrius, accused of an old and unspeakable offense, and yet more shameless than a pathic writing satire.
§4.107Montani quoque venter adest abdomine tardus, §4.108et matutino sudans Crispinus amomo §4.109quantum vix redolent duo funera, saevior illo §4.110Pompeius tenui iugulos aperire susurro, §4.111et qui vulturibus servabat viscera Dacis §4.112Fuscus marmorea meditatus proelia villa, §4.113et cum mortifero prudens Veiento Catullo, §4.114qui numquam visae flagrabat amore puellae, §4.115grande et conspicuum nostro quoque tempore monstrum, §4.116caecus adulator, dirusque a ponte satelles §4.117dignus Aricinos qui mendicaret ad axes §4.118blandaque devexae iactaret basia raedae.
The belly of Montanus is also present, slow with its paunch, and Crispinus, sweating with morning balsam, smelling as much as scarcely two funerals smell; more cruel than he, Pompey, fit to cut throats with a slender whisper, and Fuscus, who was keeping his entrails for Dacian vultures, having planned battles in his marble villa, and prudent Veiento with deadly Catullus, who burned with love for a girl he had never seen, a huge and conspicuous monster even in our time, a blind flatterer, and a dire attendant from the bridge, worthy to beg at Arician wheels and throw sweet kisses to the descending carriage.
§4.119nemo magis rhombum stupuit; nam plurima dixit §4.120in laevum conversus, at illi dextra iacebat §4.121belua, sic pugnas Cilicis laudabat et ictus §4.122et pegma et pueros inde ad velaria raptos.
No one marvelled more at the turbot; for he said many things turning to the left, but the beast lay to his right, thus he was praising the fights of the Cilician and his blows and the stage-machine and the boys snatched thence to the awnings.
§4.123Non cedit Veiento, set ut fanaticus oestro §4.124percussus, Bellona, tuo divinat et ‘ingens §4.125omen habes,’ inquit, ‘magni clarique triumphi.
Veiento does not yield, but like a priest struck by your gadfly, Bellona, he prophesies and says: 'You have a great omen of a magnificent and famous triumph.
You will capture some king, or from his British chariot-pole Arviragus will fall.
peregrina est belua, cernis §4.128erectas in terga sudes?‘hoc defuit unum §4.129Fabricio, patriam ut rhombi memoraret et annos.
The beast is foreign; do you see the stakes raised on its back?' This thing alone was lacking to Fabricius, to mention the country of the turbot and its age.
§4.130Quidnam igitur censes? conciditur?
‘absit ab illo
What then do you decide? Is it to be cut up?
§4.131dedecus hoc,’ Montanus ait, ‘testa alta paretur, §4.132quae tenui muro spatiosum colligat orbem, §4.133debetur magnus patinae subitusque Prometheus, §4.134argillam atque rotam citius properate; sed ex hoc §4.135tempore iam, Caesar, figuli tua castra sequantur. ’ §4.136vicit digna viro sententia, noverat ille §4.137luxuriam inperii veterem noctesque Neronis §4.138iam medias aliamque famem, cum pulmo Falerno §4.139arderet, nulli maior fuit usus edendi §4.140tempestate mea; Circeis nata forent an §4.141Lucrinum ad saxum Rutupinove edita fundo §4.142ostrea callebat primo deprendere morsu, §4.143et semel aspecti litus dicebat echini.
'Far from him be this disgrace,' says Montanus, 'let a deep vessel be prepared, which with a thin wall may contain the spacious circle; a great and sudden Prometheus is owed to the dish, hasten the clay and the wheel quickly; but from this time onward, Caesar, let potters follow your camp.' The opinion, worthy of the man, won; he had known the old luxury of the empire and Nero's nights, already midnight, and that other hunger, when the lungs burned with Falernian wine; to no one was there a greater experience of eating in my time; whether they were born at Circeii or at the Lucrine rock, or produced on the Rutupian seabed, he was skilled at detecting oysters at the first bite, and he would name the shore of a sea-urchin seen but once.
§4.144Surgitur et misso proceres exire iubentur §4.145consilio, quos Albanam dux magnus in arcem §4.146traxerat attonitos et festinare coactos §4.147tamquam de Chattis aliquid torvisque Sygambris §4.148dicturus, tamquam ex diversis partibus orbis §4.149anxia praecipiti venisset epistula pinna.
They rise, and the council being dismissed, the chiefs are ordered to leave, whom the great leader had dragged to the Alban citadel, astonished and forced to make haste, as if about to say something concerning the Chatti and the fierce Sygambri, or as if from diverse parts of the world an anxious letter had come on a swift wing.
§4.150Atque utinam his potius nugis tota illa dedisset §4.151tempora saevitiae, claras quibus abstulit urbi §4.152inlustresque animas impune et vindice nullo, §4.153sed periit postquam cerdonibus esse timendus §4.154coeperat; hoc nocuit Lamiarum caede madenti.
And would that he had given to these trifles rather all those times of cruelty, in which he took away from the city bright and illustrious souls with impunity and with no avenger, but he perished after he began to be feared by common artisans; this was fatal to him, though dripping with the slaughter of the Lamiae.