§3Mutant et bestiae pro veste formam; quamquam et pavo pluma vestis, et quidem de cataclistis, immo omni conchylio pressior qua colla florent, et omni patagio inauratior qua terga fulgent, et omni syrmate solutior qua caudae iacent, multicolor et discolor et versicolor, nunquam ipsa semper alia, etsi semper ipsa quando alia, totiens denique mutanda quotiens movenda.
Beasts also change their form instead of clothing; although the peacock has feathers for clothing, and indeed of the finest sort, nay, deeper than any purple where the neck blossoms, and more gilded than any gold-bordered tunic where the back shines, and more flowing than any long robe where the trail lies, multicolored and diverse-colored and changeful-colored, never itself yet always another, even if always itself when another, to be changed, in short, as many times as it is to be moved.
Nominandus est et serpens, licet pone pavum; na(??) et iste quod sortitus est convertit, corium et aevum.
The serpent also must be named, though behind the peacock; for he too changes what he was allotted, his skin and his age.
Siquidem ut senium persensit, in angustias stipat, pariterque specum ingrediens et cutem egrediens ab ipso statim limine erasus exuviis ibidem relictis novus explicat; cum squamis et anni recusantur.
Indeed, as he feels old age, he squeezes himself into narrow straits, and entering a cave and leaving his skin at the same time, scraped from the very threshold and leaving his slough there, he unfolds new; with the scales, the years also are refused.
Hyaena, si observes, sexus annalis est, marem et feminam alternat.
The hyena, if you observe, is of annual sex, alternating male and female.
Taceo cervum, quod et ipse, aetatis suae arbiter, serpente pastus veneno languescit in iuventutem.
I say nothing of the stag, because he too, the arbiter of his own age, feeding on a serpent, languishes from poison into youth.
Est et
Quadrupes tardigrada, agrestis, humilis, aspera.
There is also the quadruped, slow-paced, rustic, low, rough.
Testudinem Pacuvianam putas? Non est.
Do you think it is the Pacuvian tortoise? It is not.
Capit et alia bestiola versiculum, de mediocribus oppido, sed nomen grande.
Another little beast also fits this verse, of the quite common sort, but with a grand name.
Chamaeleontem qui audieris haud ante gnarus, iam timebis aliquid amplius cum leone.
He who hears of the chameleon, not having known of it before, will fear something grander, as if with a lion.
At cum offenderis apud vineam ferme sub pampino totum, ridebis illico audaciam egregiam nominis, quippe nec sucus est corpori, quod minutioribus multo liquet.
But when you come upon it in a vineyard, usually under a vine leaf, you will laugh at once at the extraordinary boldness of the name, since there is not even moisture in its body, which is clear to much smaller things.
Chamaeleon pellicula vivit.
The chameleon lives on a thin skin.
Capitulum statim a dorso; nam deficit cervix.
Its head is immediately from its back, for it lacks a neck.
Itaque durum reflecti, sed circumspectu emissicii ocelli, immo luminis puncta vertiginant.
Therefore it is hard for it to turn around, but with the circular gaze of its protruding little eyes, indeed points of light, they rotate.
Hebes, fessus, vix a terra suspendit, molitur incessum stupens et promovet, gradum magis demonstrat quam explicat, ieiunus scilicet semper et indefectus; oscitans vescitur, follicans ruminat, de vento cibus.
Dull, weary, it scarcely suspends itself from the earth, moves its gait in a daze and advances, demonstrating its step rather than unfolding it, hungry indeed always and never failing; it feeds by gaping, ruminates by swelling like a bellows, its food from the wind.
Tamen et chamaeleon mutare totus, nec aliud, valet.
Yet the chameleon also is able to change entirely, and nothing else.
Nam cum illi coloris proprietas una sit, ut quid accessit, inde suffunditur.
For since it has only one proper color, as something approaches, it is tinged from it.
Hoc soli chamaeleonti datum, quod vulgo dictum est, de corio suo ludere.
This is given to the chameleon alone, as is commonly said, to play with its own skin.
Multa dicendum fuit, ut ad hominem praestructim perveniretur.
Much had to be said, so that we might reach man in a preparatory way.
Hunc quoquo primordio accipitis, nudus certe et investis figulo suo constitit; post demum sapientiam haud dum licitum praereptam potitur.
In whatever origin you receive him, he stood surely naked and unclothed before his potter; only afterwards does he possess wisdom, snatched away before it was yet permitted.
Ibidem quod in novo corpore indebitum adhuc pudori erat protegere festinans ficulneis foliis interim circumdat: dehinc cum de originis loco exterminat, quippe deliquerat, pellitus orbi ut metallo datur.
In that very place, hastening to cover what in his new body was not yet due to shame, he surrounds himself in the meantime with fig leaves; then, when he is banished from his place of origin because indeed he had transgressed, he is given to the world, clothed in skins, as if to a mine.
Sed arcana ista, nec omnium nosse.
But these are secrets, and not for all to know.
Cedo iam de vestro quod Aegyptii narrant et Alexander digerit et mater legit de tempestate Osiridis qua ad illum ex Libya Ammon facit ovium dives.
Grant now from your own what the Egyptians tell, and Alexander arranges, and his mother reads, concerning the time of Osiris, when Ammon, rich in sheep, came to him from Libya.
Denique cum ipsis Mercurium autumant forte palpati arietis mollitie delectatum deglubasse oviculam, dumque pertemptat et, quod facilitas materiae suadebat, tractu prosequente filum eliquat, in retis pristini modum, quem philyrae taeniis iunxerat, texuisse.
In short, they assert that Mercury, delighted by the softness of a ram he happened to stroke, flayed a little sheep, and while he tried it and, as the ease of the material persuaded, drew out a thread by pulling, he wove it in the manner of an ancient net, which he had joined with bands of linden bark.
Sed vos omnem lanicii dispensationem structuramque telarum Minervae maluistis, cum penes Arachnen diligentior officina.
But you preferred to ascribe the whole management of wool-working and the structure of looms to Minerva, though a more diligent workshop was in the hands of Arachne.
Exinde materia: nec de ovibus dico Milesiis et Selgicis et Altinis, aut quis Tarentum vel Baetica cluet natura colorante, sed quoniam et arbusta vestiunt, et lini herbida post virorem lavacro nivescunt, nec fuit satis tunicam pangere et serere, ni etiam piscari vestitum contigisset.
Thence the material: and I do not speak of Milesian, Selgic, and Altinian sheep, or those for which Tarentum or Baetica is famous for its natural coloring, but since trees also clothe us, and the grass of flax after its greenness grows white in the wash, nor was it enough to plant and sow a tunic, unless it had also happened to fish for clothing.
Nam et de mari vellera, qua muscosae lanositatis lautiores, conchae comant.
For fleeces also from the sea, where they are more elegant with mossy woolliness, adorn shells.
Prorsus haud latet bombycem (vermiculi genus est) quae per aerem liquando araneorum horoscopis idonius distendit, dehinc devorat, moi salva reddere.
Indeed, the silkworm (it is a kind of small worm) is not hidden, which by floating through the air extends webs more fitly than the horoscopes of spiders, and then devours them, soon to return them safe.
Proinde, si necaveris, animata iam stamina volves.
Therefore, if you kill it, you will wind threads already animated.
Tantam igitur paraturam materiarum ingenia quoque vestificinae prosecuta, primum tegendo homini, qua necessitas praecessit, dehinc et ornando, immo et inflando, qua ambitio successit, varias indumentorum formas promulgare.
To such a preparation of materials, the skills of clothes-making also succeeded, first for covering man, where necessity preceded, and then also for adorning, nay even for puffing up, where ambition followed, to publish various forms of garments.
Quarum pars gentilitus inhabitantur, ceteris incommunes, pars vero passivitus, omnibus utiles, ut hoc pallium, etsi Graecum magis, sed lingua iam penes Latium est.
Of these, some are worn nationally, unshared with others, but some passively, useful to all, like this pallium, though more Greek, yet its name is already in the power of Latium.
Cum voce vestis intravit.
Along with the word, the garment entered.
Atque adeo ipse qui Graecos praeter urbem censebat, litteras eorum vocemque senex iam eruditus, idem Cato iuridicinae suae in tempore humerum exertus, haud minus palliato habitu Graecis favit.
And even he himself who thought the Greeks should be banished from the city, having in old age learned their letters and speech, that same Cato, baring his shoulder in the time of his administration of justice, favored the Greeks no less with his palliate habit.