§6.588plebeium in circo positum est et in aggere fatum; §6.589quae nudis longum ostendit cervicibus aurum §6.590consulit ante falas delphinorumque columnas §6.591an saga vendenti nubat caupone relicto. §6.592Hae tamen et partus subeunt discrimen et omnis §6.593nutricis tolerant fortuna urguente labores; §6.594sed iacet aurato vix ulla puerpera lecto, §6.595tantum artes huius, tantum medicamina possunt, §6.596quae steriles facit atque homines in ventre necandos §6.597conducit.
The fate of the plebeians is settled in the Circus and on the mound; she who displays a long gold chain on her bare neck consults in front of the wooden towers and the columns with dolphins, whether she should leave the innkeeper and marry a seller of coarse cloaks. These women, however, undergo the danger of childbirth, and endure all the labors of a nurse under the pressure of fortune; but scarcely any woman giving birth lies on a gilded bed, so great is the power of her art, so great the drugs of the woman who makes women sterile and contracts to kill human beings in the womb.
gaude, infelix, atque ipse bibendum §6.598porrige quidquid erit; nam si distendere vellet §6.599et vexare uterum pueris salientibus, esses §6.600Aethiopis fortasse pater, mox decolor heres §6.601impleret tabulas numquam tibi mane videndus.
Rejoice, unhappy husband, and yourself hand over whatever it may be to be drunk; for if she wished to distend and vex her womb with leaping infants, you would perhaps be the father of an Ethiopian, and soon a dark-skinned heir would fill your wills, a person you would never wish to see in the morning. I pass over supposititious children, and the joys and vows often deceived at the filthy pools, and the priests sought from there, who, as pontiffs and Salii, will bear the names of the Scauri with a false body.
§6.602Transeo suppositos et gaudia votaque saepe §6.603ad spurcos decepta lacus, atque inde petitos §6.604pontifices, salios Scaurorum nomina falso §6.605corpore laturos, stat Fortuna inproba noctu §6.606adridens nudis infantibus; hos fovet omni §6.607involvitque sinu, domibus tunc porrigit altis §6.608secretumque sibi mimum parat; hos amat, his se §6.609ingerit utque suos semper producit alumnos. §6.610Hic magicos adfert cantus, hic Thessala vendit §6.611philtra, quibus valeat mentem vexare mariti §6.612et solea pulsare natis: quod desipis, inde est, §6.613inde animi caligo et magna oblivio rerum §6.614quas modo gessisti.
Mischievous Fortune stands by night smiling upon the naked infants; these she cherishes and wraps in her whole bosom, then presents them to lofty homes, and prepares a secret comedy for herself; these she loves, on these she forces herself, and always brings them forward as her own foster-children. One brings magical incantations, another sells Thessalian love-potions, with which she may vex her husband's mind and beat his buttocks with a slipper: that you are witless comes from there, from there comes the darkness of the mind and the great forgetfulness of things you have just done.
tamen hoc tolerabile, si non §6.615et furere incipias ut avunculus ille Neronis, §6.616cui totam tremuli frontem Caesonia pulli §6.617infudit. quae non faciet quod principis uxor? §6.618ardebant cuncta et fracta conpage ruebant, §6.619non aliter quam si fecisset Iuno maritum §6.620insanum, minus ergo nocens erit Agrippinae §6.621boletus, siquidem unius praecordia pressit §6.622ille senis tremulumque caput descendere iussit §6.623in caelum et longa manantia labra saliva; §6.624haec poscit ferrum atque ignes, haec potio torquet, §6.625haec lacerat mixtos equitum cum sanguine patres. §6.626tanti partus equae, tanti una venefica constat. §6.627Oderunt natos de paelice: nemo repugnet, §6.628nemo vetet, iam iam privignum occidere fas est. §6.629vos ego, pupilli, moneo, quibus amplior est res, §6.630custodite animas et nulli credite mensae: §6.631livida materno fervent adipata veneno. §6.632mordeat ante aliquis quidquid porrexerit illa §6.633quae peperit, timidus praegustet pocula papas. §6.634Fingimus haec altum satura sumente cothurnum §6.635scilicet, et finem egressi legemque priorum §6.636grande Sophocleo carmen bacchamur hiatu, §6.637montibus ignotum Rutulis caeloque Latino? §6.638nos utinam vani.
Yet this would be tolerable, if you did not also begin to rave like that uncle of Nero, into whom Caesonia poured the whole forehead of a trembling foal. What will a woman not do that the emperor's wife did? All things were ablaze and falling in ruins with broken frame, no differently than if Juno had driven her husband mad; therefore Agrippina's mushroom will be less harmful, since indeed it oppressed the heart of a single old man, and ordered his trembling head and lips dripping with long saliva to descend into heaven; this one demands iron and fires, this potion tortures, this tears to pieces the senators mixed with the blood of knights. Of so much does a mare's birth, of so much does a single poisoner cost. They hate the children of a mistress; let no one resist, let no one forbid; now, indeed, it is lawful to kill a stepson. You, wards, who have a larger estate, I warn you, guard your lives and trust no table: the rich pastries are warm with maternal poison. Let someone else bite first into whatever she who bore you offers, let the fearful tutor taste the cups beforehand. Do we imagine these things, with satire putting on the high buskin indeed, and having transgressed the limit and law of predecessors, are we raving a grand song with Sophoclean mouth, unknown to the Rutulian hills and the Latin sky? Would that we were false!
set clamat Pontia ‘feci, §6.639confiteor, puerisque meis aconita paravi, §6.640quae deprensa patent; facinus tamen ipsa peregi. ’ §6.641tune duos una, saevissima vipera, cena? §6.642tune duos?
septem, si septem forte fuissent! §6.643Credamus tragicis quidquid de Colchide torva §6.644dicitur et Procne; nil contra conor.
But Pontia cries out: "I did it, I confess, and I prepared aconite for my boys, which, discovered, are manifest; yet I myself performed the deed." "You, two in a single meal, most savage viper? You, two?" "Seven, if there had happened to be seven!" Let us believe the tragic poets in whatever is said of grim Colchis and Procne; I attempt nothing against it.
et illae §6.645grandia monstra suis audebant temporibus, sed §6.646non propter nummos; minor admiratio summis §6.647debetur monstris, quotiens facit ira nocentes §6.648hunc sexum et rabie iecur incendente feruntur §6.649praecipites, ut saxa iugis abrupta, quibus mons §6.650subtrahitur clivoque latus pendente recedit: §6.651illam ego non tulerim, quae conputat et scelus ingens §6.652sana facit, spectant subeuntem fata mariti §6.653Alcestim, et similis si permutatio detur, §6.654morte viri cupiant animam servare catellae. §6.655occurrent multae tibi Belides atque Eriphylae §6.656mane, Clytaemestram nullus non vicus habebit, §6.657hoc tantum refert, quod Tyndaris illa bipennem §6.658insulsam et fatuam dextra laevaque tenebat, §6.659at nunc res agitur tenui pulmone rubetae; §6.660sed tamen et ferro, si praegustarit Atrides §6.661Pontica ter victi cautus medicamina regis.
They too dared grand monstrosities in their own times, but not for the sake of money; less wonder is due to the greatest monstrosities whenever anger makes this sex guilty, and with rage burning their liver they are carried headlong, like rocks broken off from ridges, from which the mountain is withdrawn and the side recedes from the hanging slope. But that woman I cannot bear, who calculates and commits a huge crime they watch Alcestis undergoing the fate of her husband, and if a similar exchange were offered, they would wish to save the life of a lapdog by the death of their husband. Many daughters of Belus and Eriphyles will meet you in the morning, every street will have a Clytemnestra; there is only this difference: that famous daughter of Tyndareus held a clumsy and foolish double-axe in her right hand and left, but now the business is done with the thin lung of a toad; yet still with iron too, if Atrides has tasted beforehand the Pontic antidotes of the thrice-conquered king, cautious.