§1.1Ter bibe vel totiens ternos: sic mystica lex est, §1.2vel tria potanti vel ter tria multiplicanti, §1.3inparibus novies ternis contexere coebum.
Drink three times, or three times three: such is the mystic law, whether for the one who drinks three, or the one who multiplies three by three, to weave a cube with uneven times nine.
§1.4Iuris idem tribus est, quod ter tribus: omnia in istis; §1.5forma hominis coepti plenique exactio partus §1.6quique novem novies fati tenet ultima finis, §1.7tris Ope progeniti fratres, tris ordine partae, §1.8Vesta, Ceres et Iuno, secus muliebre, sorores.
The same right belongs to three as to three times three: all things are in these; the beginning of the formation of man, the completion of full childbirth, and that which holds the ultimate limit of fate, nine times nine (eighty-one years), the three brothers begotten of Ops, and the sisters born in the same order, Vesta, Ceres, and Juno, of the female sex.
§1.9inde trisulca Iovis sunt fulmina, Cerberus inde, §1.10inde tridens triplexque Helenae cum fratribus ovum.
Hence are the three-forked thunderbolts of Jupiter, hence Cerberus, hence the trident, and the triple egg of Helen with her brothers.
Three times did the new purple thread fill the spindles of Nestor, and just as many times did the crow, more long-lived than the triple age, endure.
aevo. §1.13quam novies terni glomerantem saecula tractus §1.14vincunt aeripedes ter temo Nestore cervi, §1.15tris quorum aetates superat Phoebeius oscen, §1.16quem novies senior Gangeticus anteit ales, §1.17ales cinnameo radiatus tempora nido.
Which crow, as it rolls together twenty-seven generations of centuries, the bronze-footed stags surpass by three times (eighty-one generations), while Nestor is surpassed by three times (three generations); whose three ages the prophetic bird of Apollo (the raven) exceeds, which raven the Gangetic bird (the phoenix), nine times older, goes beyond, the bird whose temples are radiated from its cinnamon nest.
§1.18Tergemina est Hecate, tria virginis ora Dianae; §1.19tris Charites, tria Fata, triplex vox, trina elementa, §1.20tris in Trinacria Siredones; omnia terna: §1.21tris volucres, tris semideae, tris semipuellae, §1.22ter tribus ad palmam iussae certare camenis, §1.23ore manu flatu buxo fide voce canentes, §1.24tris sophiae partes, tria Punica bella, trimenstres §1.25annorum caelique vices noctisque per umbram §1.26tergemini vigiles, ter clara instantis Eoi §1.27signa canit serus deprenso Marte satelles.
Triple is Hecate, three are the faces of the virgin Diana; three are the Graces, three the Fates, triple the voice, three the elements, three the Sirens in Trinacria; all things are triple: three birds, three half-goddesses, three half-maidens, ordered to strive for the palm of victory by three times three Muses (Camenae), singing with mouth, hand, breath, boxwood flute, lyre, and voice, three parts of philosophy, three Punic wars, three-monthly changes of the years and of the heavens, and through the shadow of the night triple watchmen, and three times does the late-coming attendant (the rooster) sing the clear signs of the approaching dawn, Mars having been caught.
And he who, conceived on the evening of a tripled night, affixed the commanded spoils to four times three trophies (twelve labors).
§1.30Et lyrici vates numero sunt Mnemosynarum, §1.31tris solas quondam tenuit quas dextera Phoebi: §1.32set Citheron totiens ternas ex aere sacravit
And the lyric poets are equal in number to the daughters of Mnemosyne (nine), of whom the right hand of Apollo once held only three: but Cithaeron consecrated three times three in bronze through the religion of the ancestors, who feared to have slighted the six.
§1.33relligione patrum, qui sex sprevisse timebant, §1.34trina Tarentino celebrata trinoctia ludo, §1.35qualia bis genito Thebis trieterica Baccho.
The triple three nights celebrated in the Tarentine Games (the Secular Games), such as the triennial festivals at Thebes for Bacchus, twice-born.
§1.36tris primas Thraecum pugnas tribus ordine bellis §1.37Iuniadae patrio inferias misere sepulcro, §1.38illa etiam thalamos per trina aenigmata quaerens, §1.39qui bipes et quadrupes foret et tripes, omnia solus, §1.40terruit Aoniam volucris, leo, virgo triformis §1.41sphinx, volucris pennis, pedibus fera, fronte puella.
The first three combats of the Thracians (gladiators), in three wars in order, the descendants of Junius sent as funeral offerings to their ancestral tomb; she too, seeking marriage-alliances through triple riddles, as to who was two-legged, four-legged, and three-legged—all in one alone— terrified Aonia: the bird, lion, virgin triform Sphinx, a bird in wings, a wild beast in feet, a maiden in forehead.
§1.42Trina in Tarpeio fulgent consortia templo, §1.43humana efficiunt habitacula tergenus artes: §1.44parietibus qui saxa locat, qui culmine tigna, §1.45et qui supremo comit tectoria cultu.
Three consorts shine in the Tarpeian temple (the Capitoline), three kinds of arts construct human habitations: he who places stones on the walls, he who places beams on the roof, and he who adorns the plaster with the highest refinement.
§1.46hinc Bromii quadrantal et hinc Sicana medimna: §1.47hoc tribus, hoc geminis tribus explicat usus agendi.
Hence is the quadrantal of Bromius (Bacchus), and hence the Sicilian medimnus: this one unfolds three, that one twice three (six) in practical use.
§1.48in physicis tria prima, deus, mundus, data forma: §1.49tergenus omnigenum, genitor, genetrix, generatum.
In physics, there are three primary principles: God, the world, and given form; three kinds of all-begetting: the generator, the mother, and the begotten.
§1.50Per trinas species trigonorum regula currit, §1.51aequilatus vel crure pari vel in omnibus inpar.
Through three species runs the rule of triangles: equilateral, or with equal legs (isosceles), or unequal in all (scalene).
§1.52tris coit in partes numerus perfectus,1 ut idem §1.53congrege ter temo per ter tria dissoluatur.
The perfect number (six) divides into three parts, so that likewise when gathered together, it is dissolved through three times three (into nine-thirds).
§1.54tris primus par, impar habet mediumque: sed ipse, §1.55ut tris, sic quinque et septem quoque, dividit unus; §1.56et numero in toto positus sub acumine centri §1.57distinguit solidos coebo pergente 2 trientes, §1.58aequipares dirimens partes ex inpare temo: §1.59et paribus triplex medium, cum quattuor et sex §1.60bisque quaternorum secernitur omphalos idem.
The first odd number (three) contains even, odd, and the middle; but itself, as three, so also five and seven, only the number one divides; and placed in the whole number under the sharp point of the center, it distinguishes the solid thirds as the cube proceeds, a central axis dividing equal parts from the odd; and in even numbers, there is a triple middle, when for four, six, and twice four (eight), the same center (navel) is separated.
§1.61Ius triplex, tabulae quod ter sanxere quaternae: §1.62sacrum, privatum et populi commune quod usquam est.
Triple is the law which the twelve tables sanctioned: sacred, private, and what is anywhere common to the people (public).
Triple is the class of interdicts: whence I shall have been expelled by force (vi), or in whichever of the two places (utrubi), or of whose goods (quorum bonorum).
§1.65triplex libertas capitisque minutio triplex.
Triple is freedom, and triple is the loss of status (deminutio capitis).
There is a triple kind of speaking: sublime, moderate, and of a slender thread (simple).
triplex quoque forma medendi, §1.68cui logos aut methodos cuique experientia nomen, §1.69et medicina triplex: servare, cavere, mederi,
Triple also is the form of healing, of which the name is Logos (Rationalists), Methodos (Methodists), and Experience (Empiricists), and medicine is triple: to preserve, to beware, and to cure.
§1.70tris oratorum cultus; regnata Colosso §1.71quem Rhodos, Actaeae quem dilexistis Athenae §1.72et quem de scaenis tetrica ad subsellia traxit §1.73prosa Asiae, in causis numeros imitata chororum.
Three are the styles of orators, ruled by the Colossus which Rhodes loved, and which you, Attic Athens, loved, and which from the stage to the gloomy benches of the court was dragged by the prose of Asia, which in lawsuits imitated the rhythms of the choruses.
§1.74Orpheos hinc tripodes, quia sunt tria, terra, aqua, flamma.
Hence the tripods of Orpheus, because there are three: earth, water, and flame.
§1.75triplex sideribus positus, distantia, forma.
Triple is the position, distance, and shape of the stars.
§1.76et modus et genetrix modulorum musica triplex, §1.77mixta libris, secreta astris, vulgata theatris.
And music, both the measure and the mother of measures, is triple, mixed in books, secret in the stars, made public in theatres.
§1.78Martia Roma triplex: equitatu, plebe, senatu, §1.79hoc numero tribus et sacro de monte tribuni.
Martial Rome is triple: in cavalry, plebeians, and senate; by this number are the tribes and the tribunes from the Sacred Mount.
§1.80tres equitum turmae, tria nomina nobiliorum.
There are three troops of cavalry, three names of the more noble.
§1.81nomina sunt chordis tria, sunt tria nomina mensi.
There are three names for the strings, and three names for the month.
§1.82Geryones triplices, triplex conpago Chimaerae: §1.83Scylla triplex, commissa tribus: cane, virgine, pisce.
Triple is Geryon, triple the structure of Chimera; Scylla is triple, joined of three: dog, virgin, and fish.
§1.84Gorgones Harpalycaeque et Erinyes agmine temo, §1.85et tris fatidicae, nomen commune, Sibyllae, §1.86quarum tergemini fatalia carmina libri, §1.87quos ter quinorum servat cultura virorum.
The Gorgons, the Harpies, and the Furies are three in their troop, and three are the fate-telling Sibyls of a common name, whose triple books of fateful verses are preserved by the worship (care) of the fifteen men.
§1.88Ter bibe.
Drink three times.
tris numerus super omnia, tris deus unus.
The number three is above all things; God is three in one.