15. That Carneades the Academic purged his stomach with hellebore when about to write against the dogmas of Zeno the Stoic; and of the nature and curative powers of white and black hellebore. WHEN Carneades, the Academic philosopher, was about to write against the books of the Stoic Zeno, he cleansed the upper part of his body with white hellebore, in order that none of the corrupt humours of his stomach might rise to the abode of his mind and weaken the power and vigour of his intellect; with such care and such preparation did this man of surpassing talent set about refuting what Zeno had written. When I had read of this in Grecian history, I inquired what was meant by the term “white hellebore.” Then I learned that there are two kinds of hellebore distinguished by a difference in colour, white and black; but that those colours are distinguished neither in the seed of the hellebore nor in its plant, but in the root; further, that with white hellebore the stomach and upper belly are purged by vomiting; by the black the so-called lower belly is loosened, and the effect of both is to remove the noxious humours in which the causes of diseases are situated. But that there is danger lest, when every avenue of the body is opened, along with the causes of disease the juices on which the principle of life depends should also pass away, and the man should perish from exhaustion because of the destruction of the entire foundation of natural nourishment. But Plinius Secundus, in his work On Natural History, wrote that hellebore could be taken with the greatest safety in the island of Anticyra. That for this reason Livius Drusus, the former tribune of the commons, when he was suffering from the so-called “election” disease, sailed to Anticyra, drank hellebore in that island, and was thus cured of the ailment. I have read besides that the Gauls, when hunting, dip their arrows in hellebore, because the wild animals that are struck and killed by arrows thus treated become tenderer for eating; but because of the contagion of the hellebore they are said to cut out a large piece of flesh around the wounds made by the arrows.
15. Quod Carneades Academicus elleboroelleloro stomachum purgavit, scripturusscriptures adversus Zenonis Stoici decretadeereta; deque natura medellaque elleboriellelori candidi et nigri. CARNEADES Academicus, scripturus adversum Stoici Zenonis libros, superior corporis elleboro candido purgavit, ne quid ex corruptis in stomacho humoribus ad domicilia usque animi redundaret et instantiam vigoremque mentis labefaceret; tanta cura tantoque apparatuappparatu sui vir ingenio praestanti ad refellenda quae scripserat Zeno aggressus; idque cum in historia Graeca legissem, quod “elleboro candido” scriptum erat, quid esset quaesivi. Tum comperi duas species ellebori esse discerniculo coloris insignes, candidi et nigri; eos autem colores non in semine ellebori neque in virgultis, sed in radice dinosci; candido stomachum et ventrem superiorem vomitionibus purgari; nigro alvum, quae “inferior” vocatur, dilui, utriusque esse hanc vim, ut humoreshumrores noxios in quibus causae morborum sunt extrahant. Esse autem periculum ne inter causas morborum, omni corporum via patefacta, ea quoque ipsa, in quibus causa vivendi est, effluant amissoque omni naturalis alimoniae fundamento homo exhaustus intereat. Set elleborum sumi posse tutissime in insula Anticyra Plinius Secundus in libris Naturalis Historiae scripsit. Propterea Livium Drusum, qui tribunus plebi fuit, cum morbum qui “comitialis” dicitur pateretur, Anticyram navigasse et in ea insula elleborum bibisse ait, atque ita inorbo liberatum. Praeterea scriptum legimus Gallos in venatibus tinguere elleboro sagittas, quod his ictae, exanimatae ferae teneriores ad epulas fiant; sed propter ellebori contagium vulnera ex sagittis facta circumcidere latius dicuntur.
16. That Pontic ducks have a power which is able to expel poisons; and also of the skill of Mithridates in preparing antidotes. IT is said that the ducks of Pontus commonly live by eating poisons. It was also written by Lenaeus, the freedman of Pompey the Great, that Mithridates, the famous king of Pontus, was skilled in medicine and in antidotes of that kind, and that he was accustomed to mix the blood of these ducks with drugs that have the power of expelling poisons, and that the blood was the very most powerful agency in their preparation; furthermore, that the king himself by the constant use of such remedies guarded against hidden plots at banquets; nay more, that lie often voluntarily and wittingly, to show his immunity, drank a swift and rapid poison, which yet did him no harm. Therefore, at a later time, when he had been defeated in battle, and after fleeing to the remotest bounds of his kingdom had resolved to take his own life, having vainly tried the most violent poisons for the purpose of hastening his death, he fell upon his own sword. the most celebrated antidote of this king is the one which is called “Mithridatian.”
16. Anates Ponticas vim habere venenis digerendis potentem; atque inibi de Mitridati regis in id genus medicamentismedicainentum sollertia. ANATES Ponticas dicitur edundis vulgo venenis victitare. Scriptum etiam a Lenaeo, Cn. Pompei liberto, Mitridatem illum Ponti regem medicinae rei et remediorum id genus sollertem fuisse solitumque earum sanguine miscere medicamentis quae digerendis venenis valent, eumque sanguinein vel potentissimum esse in ea confectione; ipsum autem regem adsiduo talium medellarum usu a clandestinis epularum insidiis cavisse, quin et scientem quoque ultro et ostentandi gratia venenum rapidum et velox saepenumero hausisse, atque id tamen sine noxa fuisse. Quamobrem postea, cum proelio victus in ultima regni refugisset et mori decrevisset, venena violentissima festinandae necis causa frustra expertus, suo se ipse gladio transegit. Huius regis antidotus celebratissima est, quae “Mitridatios” vocatur.
17. That Mithridates, king of Pontus, spoke the languages of twenty-five nations; and that Quintus Ennius said that he had three hearts, because he was proficient in three tongues, Greek, Oscan, and Latin. QUINTUS ENNIUS used to say that he had three hearts, because he knew how to speak Greek, Oscan, and Latin. But Mithridates, the celebrated king of Pontus and Bithynia, who was overcome in war by Gnaeus Pompeius, was proficient in the languages of the twenty-five races which he held under his sway. He never spoke to the men of all those nations through an interpreter, but whenever it was necessary for him to address any one of them, he used his language and speech with as much skill as if he were his fellow-countryman.
17. Mitridatem, Ponti regem, quinque et viginti gentium linguis locutum; Quintumque Ennium tria corda habere sese dixisse, quod tris linguas percalluisset, Graecam, Oscam, Latinam. QUINTUS ENNIUS tria corda habere sese dicebat, quod loqui Graece et Osce et Latine sciret. Mitridates autem, Ponti atque Bithyniae rex inclutus, qui a Cn; Pompeio bello superatus est, quinque et viginti gentium quas sub dicione habuit linguas percalluit earumque omnium gentium viris haut umquam per interpretem conlocutus est, sed ut quemque ab eo appellari usus fuit, proinde lingua et oratione ipsius non minus scite quam si gentilis eius esset locutus est.
18. The statement of Marcus Vairo that Gaius Sallustius, the writer of history, was taken in adultery by Annius Milo and was let go only after he had been beaten with thongs and had paid a sum of money. MARCUS VARRO, a man of great trustworthiness and authority in his writings and in his life, in the work which he entitled Pius, or On Peace, says that Gaius Sallustius, the author of those austere and dignified works, whom we see in his history writing and acting, like a censor, was taken in adultery by Annius Milo, soundly beaten with thongs, and allowed to escape only after paying a sum of money.
18. Quod M. Varro C. Sallustium. historiae scriptorem, deprehensum ab Annio Milone in adulterio scribit et loris caesum pecuniaque data dimissumdimrissum. M. VARRO, in litteris atque vita fide homo multa et gravis, in libro quem inscripsit Pius aut De Pace, C. Sallustium scriptorem seriae illius et severae orationis, in cuius historia notiones censorias fieri atque exerceri videmus, in adulterio deprehensum ab Annio Milone loris bene caesuin dicit et, cum dedisset pecuniam, dimissum.
19. What Epictetus the philosophers used to say to worthless and vile men, who zealously followed the pursuit of philosophy; and the two words whose remembrance he enjoyed as by far the most salutary in all respects. I HEARD Favorinus say that the philosopher Epictetus declared that very many of those who professed to be philosophers were of the kind a)/neu tou= pra/ttein, me/xri tou= le/gein, which means “without deeds, limited to words”; that is, they preached but did not practise. But that is still more severe which Arrian, in his work On the Dissertations of Epictetus, has written that this philosopher used to say. “For,” says Arrian, “when he perceived that a man without shame, persistent in wickedness, of abandoned character, reckless, boastful, and cultivating everything else except his soul—when he saw such a man taking up also the study and pursuit of philosophy, attacking natural history, practising logic and balancing and investigating many problems of that kind, he used to invoke the help of gods and men, and usually amid his exclamations chided the man in these terms: 'O man, where are you storing these things? Consider whether the vessel be clean. For if you take them into your self-conceit, they are lost; if they are spoiled, they become urine or vinegar or something worse, if possible.'” Nothing surely could be weightier, nothing truer than these words, in which the greatest of philosophers declared that the learning and precepts of philosophy, flowing into a base and degenerate man, as if into a soiled and filthy vessel, are turned, altered, spoiled, and as he himself more cynically expresses it, become urine or, if possible, something worse than urine. Moreover, that same Epictetus, as we also heard from Favorinus, used to say that there were two faults which were by far the worst and most disgusting of all, lack of endurance and lack of self-restraint, when we cannot put up with or bear the wrongs which we ought to endure, or cannot restrain ourselves from actions or pleasures from which we ought to refrain. “Therefore,” said he, “if anyone would take these two words to heart and use them for his own guidance and regulation, he will be almost without sin and will lead a very peaceful life. These two words,” he said, “are a)ne/xou (bear) and a)pe/xou (forbear).”
19. Quid Epictetus philosophus dicere solitus sit hominibushoninibus nequamneuam et inpuris, disciplinas philosophiaephilosoplhiae studiose tractantibus; et quae duo verba observanda praeceperit omniumomniuni rerum longelone saluberrima. FavorinumFAVOINUM ego audivi dicere Epictetum philosophum dixisse plerosque istos, qui philosophariphilosohari viderentur, philosophos esse huiuscemodieiuscemodi ἄνευ τοῦ πράττειν, μέχρι τοῦ λέγειν; id significat “factis procul, verbis tenus.” Iam illud est vehementius quod Arrianus solitum eum dictitare, in libris quos de dissertationibus eius composuit, scriptum reliquit. “Nam cum,” inquit, “animadverterat hominem pudore amisso, inportuna industria, corruptis moribus, audacem, confidentem lingua ceteraque omnia praeterquam animam procurantem, istiusmodi hominem cum viderat studia quoque et disciplinas philosophiae contrectare et physica adire et meditari dialectica multaque id genus theoremata auspicari sciscitarique, inclamabat deum atque horminum fidem ac plerumque inter clamandum his eum verbis increpabat: ‘Ἄνθρωπε, ποῦ βάλλεις; σκέψαι εἰ κεκάθαρται τὸ ἀγγεῖον· ἂν γὰρ εἰς τὴν οἴησιν αὐτὰ βάλλῃς, ἀπώλετο· ἢν σαπῇ, οὖρον ἢ ὄξος γένοιτο ἢ εἴ τι τούτων χεῖρον.’” Nil profecto his verbis gravius, nil verius, quibus declarabat maximus philosophorum, litteras atque doctrinas philosophiae, cum in hominem falsum atque degenerem tamquam in vas spurcum atque pollutum influxissent, verti, mutari, corrumpi et, quod ipse κυνικώτερον ait, urinam fieri aut si quid est urina spurcius. Praeterea idem ille Epictetus, quod ex eodem Favorino audivimus, solitus dicere est duo esse vitia multo omnium gravissima ac taeterrima, intolerantiam et incontinentiam, cum aut iniurias quae sunt ferendae non toleramus neque ferimus, aut a quibus rebus voluptatibusque nos tenere debemus, non tenemus. “Itaque,” inquit, “si quis haec duo verba cordi habeat eaque sibi imperando atque observando curet, is erit pleraque inpeccabilis vitamque vivet tranquillissimam.” Verba haec duo dicebat: ἀνέχου et ἀπέχου.
20. A passage taken from the Symposium of Plato, skilful. harmonious and fitting in its rhythm and structure, which for the sake of practice I have turned into the Latin tongue. THE Symposium of Plato was being read before the philosopher Taurus. Those words of Pausanias in which, taking his turn among the banqueters, lie eulogizes love, I admired so much that I even resolved to commit them to memory. And tile words, if I remember rightly, are as follows "Every action is of this nature: in and of itself, when done, it is neither good nor bad; for example, what we are now doing, drinking, or singing, or arguing. Not one of these things is in itself good, but it may become so by the way in which it is done. Well and rightly done, it becomes a good action; wrongly done, it becomes shameful. It is the same with love; for not all love is honourable or worthy of raise, but only that which leads us to love worthily." When these words had been read, thereupon Taurus said to me: “Ho! you young rhetorician”— for so he used to call me in the beginning, when I was first admitted to his class, supposing that I had come to Athens only to work up eloquence — “do you see this syllogism, full of meaning, brilliant, well rounded and constructed in brief and smooth numbers with a kind of symmetrical turn? Can you quote us so aptand so melodiously formed a passage from the works of your rhetoricians? But yet I advise you to look upon this rhythm as an incidental feature; for one must penetrate to the inmost depths of Plato's mind and feel the weight and dignity of his subject matter, not be diverted to the charm of his diction or the grace of his expression.” This admonition of Taurus as to Plato's style not only did not deter me, but even encouraged me to try to equal the elegance of the Greek in a Latin rendering; and just as there are small and insignificant animals which through wantonness imitate everything which they have seen or heard, just so I had the assurance, not indeed to rival those qualities which I admired in Plato's style, but to give a shadowy outline of them, such as the following, which I patterned on those very words of his: “Every act, in general,” he says, “is of this nature; it is in itself neither base nor honourable; as, for example, the things which we ourselves are now doing, drinking, singing, arguing. For none of these things is honourable in itself, but it becomes so by the manner in which it is done; if it is done rightly and honourably, it is then honourable; but if it is not rightly done, then it is shameful. It is the same with love; thus not every kind of love is honourable, not every kind is deserving of praise, but only that which leads us to love honourably.”
20. Verba sumptasumnpta ex SymposioSlnmposio PlatonisPllatonis, numerisrumeris coagmentisque verborum scite modulatequelmodtulatequc apta, exercendiexerxcendi gratia in Latinam orationem versa. SymposiumSYIMPOSIUMI Platonis apud philosophum Taurum legebatur. Verba illa Pausaniae inter convivas amorem vice sua laudantis, ea verba ita prorsum amavimus, ut meminisse etiam studuerimusstuduerinius. Sunt adeo, quae meminimus, verba haec: Πᾶσα γὰρ πρᾶξις ὧδε ἔχει· αὐτὴ ἐφʼ αὑτῆς πραττομένη οὔτε καλὴ οὔτε αἰσχρά· οἷον ὃ νῦν ἡμεῖς ποιοῦμεν, ἢ πίνειν ἢ ᾁδειν ἢ διαλέγεσθαι. οὐκ ἔστι τούτων αὐτὸ καθʼ αὑτὸ καλὸν αὐδέν, ἀλλʼ ἐν τῇ πράξει, ὡς ἂν πραχθῇ, τοιοῦτον ἀπέβη· καλῶς μὲν γὰρ πραττόμενον καὶ ὀρθῶς καλὸν γίγνεται, μὴ ὀρθῶς δὲ αἰσχρόν· οὕτω δὴ καὶ τὸ ἐρᾶ, καὶ ὁ Ἔρως οὐ πᾶς ἐστὶν καλὸς οὐδὲ ἄξιος ἐγκωμιάζεσθαι, ἀλλʼ ὁ καλῶς προτρέπων ἐρᾶν. Haec verba ubi lecta sunt, atque ibi Taurus mihi “Heus,” inquit, “tu, rhetorisce,”—sic enim me in principioprinicipio recens in diatribam acceptumaccelptum appellitabat, existimans eloquentiae unius extundendae gratia Athenas venisse,—“videsne,” inquit, “ἐνφύμημα crebrum et coruscum et convexun brevibusque et rotundis numeris cum quadamqualdam aequabili circumactione devinctum?” “Habesne nobis dicere in libris rhetorum vestrorum tam apte tamque modulate compositam orationem? Sed hos,” inquit, “tamen numeros censeo videas ὁδοῦ πάρεργον.” “Ad ipsa enim Platonis penetralia ipsarumque rerum pondera et dignitates pergendum est, non ad vocularum eius amoenitatem nec ad verborum venustates deversitandum.” Haec admonitio Tauri de orationis Platonicae modulis non modo non repressit, sed instrinxit etiam nos ad elegantiam Graecae orationis verbis Latinis adfectandam; atque uti quaedam animalium parva et vilia ad imitandum sunt quas res cumque audierint viderintve petulantia, proinde nos ea quae in Platonis oratione demiramur non aemulari quidem, sed lineas umbrasque facere ausi sumus. Velut ipsum hoc est, quod ex isdem illis verbis eius effinximus: “Omne,” inquit, “omnino factum sic sese habet; neque turpe est, quantum in eo est, neque honestum: velut est, quas nunc facimus ipsi res, bibere, cantare, disserere. Nihil namque horum ipsum ex sese honestum est; quali cum fieret modo factum est, tale extitit; si recte honesteque factum est, tum honestum fit; sin parum recte, turpe fit. Sic amiare; sic amor non honestus omnis neque omnis laude dignus, sed qui facit nos ut honestelioneste amemus.”
21. The times after the foundling of Rome and before the second war with Carthage at which distinguished Greeks and Romans flourished.
21. Quibus temporibus post Romam conditam Graeci Romanique inlustres viri floruerint ante secundum bellum Carthaginiensium.
I WISHED to have a kind of survey of ancient times, and also of the famous men who were born in those days, lest I might in conversation chance to make some careless remark about the date and life of celebrated men, as that ignorant sophist did who lately, in a public lecture, said that Carneades the philosopher was presented with a sum of money by king Alexander, son of Philip, and that Panaetius the Stoic was intimate with the elder Africanus. In order, I say, to guard against such errors in dates and periods of time, I made notes from the books known as Chroicles of the times when those Greeks and Romans flourished who were famous and conspicuous either for talent or for political power, between the founding of Rome and the second Punic war. And these excerpts of mine, made in various and sundry places, I have now put hastily together. For it was not my endeavour with keen and subtle care to compile a catalogue of the eminent men of both nations who lived at the same time, but merely to strew these Nights of mine lightly here and there with a few of these flowers of history. Moreover, it seemed sufficient in this survey to speak of the dates of a few men, from which it would not be difficult to infer the periods also of many more whom I did not name.
UT conspectum quendam aetatum antiquissimarum, item virorum inlustrium qui in his aetatibus nati fuissent haberemus, ne in sermonibus forte inconspectum aliquid super aetate atque vita clarorumelariorum hominum temere diceremus, sicuti sophista ille ἀπαίδευτος, qui publice nuper disserens Carneaden philosophum a rege Alexandro, Philippi filio, pecuniapeciunia donatum et Panaetium Stoicum cum superiore Africano vixisse dixit; litut ab istiusmodiistiusinodi, inquaminlquam, temporum aetatumqueaetatiunqlue erroribus caveremus, et excerpebiamus ex librislilris qui chronici appellantur quibusquilus temporibus floruissent Graeci simul atque Romani viri, qui vel ingenio vel imperio nobiles insignesqueinsigiesque post conditam Romam fuissent ante secundum bellum Carthaginiensium, easque nunc excerptiones nostras variis diversisque in locis factas cursim digessimus. Neque enim id nobis negotium fuit, ut acri atque subtili cura excellentium in utraque gentegenlte hominumlomninuim συγχρονισμούς componeremus, sed ut Noctes istae quadamtenusquadamntenus his quoque historiae flosculis leviter iniectis aspergerentur.
I shall begin, then, with the illustrious Solon; for, as regards Homer and Hesiod, it is agreed by almost all writers, either that they lived at approximately the same period, or that Homer was somewhat the earlier;
Satis autem visum est in hoc conmentario de temporibus paucorum hominum dicere, ex quorum aetatibus de pluribus quoque, quos non nominaremus, haut difficilis coniectura fieri posset.
yet that both lived before the founding of Rome, when the Silvii were ruling in Alba, more than a hundred and sixty years after the Trojan war, as Cassius has written about Homer and Hesiod in the first book of his Annals, but about a hundred and sixty years before the founding of Rome, as Cornelius Nepos says of Homer in the first book of his Chronicles. Well then, we are told that Solon, one of the famous sages, drew up laws for the Athenians when Tarquinius Priscus was king at Rome, in the thirtythird year of his reign.
Incipiemus igitur a Solone claro, quoniam de Homero et Hesiodo inter omnes fere scriptores constitit aetatem eos egisse vel isdem fere temporibus vel Homerum aliquanto antiquiorem, utrumque tamen ante Romam conditam vixisse, Silviis Albae regnantibus, annis post bellum Troianum, ut Cassius in prino Annalium de Homero atque Hesiodo scriptum reliquit, plus centum atque sexaginta, ante Romam autem conditam, ut Cornelius Nepos in primo Chronico de Homero dicit, annis circiter centum et sexaginta.
Afterwards, when Servius Tullius was king, Pisistratus was tyrant at Athens, Solon having previously gone into voluntary exile, since he had not been believed when he predicted that tyranny.
Solonem ergo accepimus, unum ex illo nobili numero sapientium, leges scripsisse Atheniensium, Tarquinio Prisco Romae regnante, anno regni eius tricesimo tertio.
Still later, Pythagoras of Samos came to Italy, when the son of Tarquinius was king, he who was surnamed the Proud, and at that same time Hipparchus, son of Pisistratus and brother of the tyrant Hippias, was slain at Athens by Harmodius and Aristog, iton.
Servio autem Tullio regnante, Pisistratus Athenis tyrannus fuit, Solone ante in exilium voluntarium profecto, quoniam id ei praedicenti non creditum est.Postea Pythagoras Samius in Italiam venit, Tarquini filio regnum optinente, cui cognomentum Superbus fuit,
And Cornelius Nepos adds that when Tullus Hostilius was king at Rome Archilochus was already illustrious and famous for his poems.
isdemque temporibus occisus est Athenis ab HarmodioHarinodio et Aristogitone Hipparchus, Pisistrati filius, Hippiae tyranni frater Archilochum autem Nepos Cornelius tradit,
Then, in the two hundred and sixtieth year after the founding (of Rome, or not much later, it is recorded that the Persians were vanquished by the Athenians in the famous battle of Marathon under the lead of Militiades, who after that victory was condemned by the Athenians and died in the public prison.
Tullo Hostilio Romae regnante, iam tunc fuisse poematis clarum et nobilem.
At that time Aesthylus. the tragic poet, flourished at Athens. In Rome, at about the same time, the commons, as the result of a secession, for the first time elected their own tribunes and aediles;
Ducentesimo deinde et sexagesimo anno post Romam conditam, aut non longelone amplius, victos esse ab AtheniensibusAtheniensilus Persas memoriaememorial traditum est pugnam illam inclutam Marathoniam, Miltiade duce, qui post eam victoriam damnatus a populo Atheniensi in vinculis publicis mortem obiit.
and not much later Gnaeus Marcius Coriolanus, harassed and exasperated by the tribunes of the commons, turned traitor to the republic and joined the Volscians, who were then our enemies, and lade war upon the Roman people. Then a few years later, King Xerxes was beaten and put to flight by the Athenians and a good part of Greece, under the lead of Themistocles, in the sea-fight at Salamis.
Tum Aeschylus Athenis tragoediarum poeta celebris fuit. Romae autem istis ferme temporibus tribunos et aediles tum primumprirnum per seditionem sibi plebes creavit ac non diu post Cn. Marcius Coriolanus exagitatus vexatusque a tribunis plebi ad Vulscos,qui tum hostes erant, a rep. descivit bellumque populo Romano fecit.
About three years afterwards, in the consulship of Menenius Agrippa and Marcus Horatius Pulvillus, during the war with Veii, the patrician Fabii, three hundred and six in number, along with their dependents, were all ambushed at the river Cremera and slain.
Post deinde paucis annis Xerxes rex ab Atheniensibus et pleraque Graecia, ThemistocleThenistocle duce, navali proelio quod ad Salamina factum est victus fugatusque est.
At about that time Empedocles of Agrigentum was eminent in the domain of natural philosophy.
Inde anno fere quarto, Menenio Agrippa, M. Horatio Pulvillo consulibus, bello Veienti apud fluvium Cremeram Fabii sex et trecenti patricii cum familiisfamilies suis universi ab hostibus circumuenticircumvent perierunt.
But at Rome at that epoch it is stated that a board of ten was appointed to codify laws, and that at first they compiled ten tables, to which afterwards two more were added.
Iuxta ea tempora Empedocles Agrigentinus in philosophiae naturalis studio floruit.
Then the great Peloponnesian war began in Greece, which Thucydides has handed down to memory, about three hundred and twenty-three years after the founding of Rome.
Romae autem per eas tempestates decemviros legibus scribundis creatos constitit tabulasque ab his primo decem conscriptas, mox alias duas additas.
At that time Olus Postumius Tubertus was dictator at Rome, and executed his own son, because he had fought against the enemy contrary to his father's order.
Bellum deinde in terra Graecia maximum Peloponnensiacum, quod Thucydides memoriae mandavit, coeptum est circa annum fere post conditam Romam trecentesimum vicesimum tertium.
The people of Fidenae and the Aequians were then at war with the Roman people. During that period Sophocles, and later Euripides, were famous and renowned as tragic poets, Hippocrates as a physician, and as a philosopher, Democritus;
Qua tempestate Olus Postumius Tubertus dictator Romae fuit, qui filium suum, quod contra suum dictum in hostem pugnaverat, securi necavit. Hostes tunc populi Romani fuerunt Fidenates atque Aequi.
Socrates the Athenian was younger than these, but was in part their contemporary. Somewhat later, when the military tribunes with consular authority were in power at Rome, about the three hundred and forty-seventh year after the founding of the city, the notorious thirty tyrants were imposed upon the Athenians by the Lacedaemonians, and in Sicily the elder Dionysius was tyrant.
In hoc tempore nobiles celebresque erant Sophocles ac deinde Euripides tragici poetae et Hippocrates medicus et philosophus Democritus, quibus Socrates Atheniensis natu quidem posterior fuit, sed quibusdam temporibus isdem vixerunt.
A few years later, at Athens, Socrates was condemned to death and executed in prison by means of poison. At about the same time, at Rome, Marcus Furius Camillus was dictator and took Veii. Not long afterwards came the war with the Senones, when the Gauls captured Rome with the exception of the Capitol.
Iam deinde, tribunis militaribus consulari imperio rempublicam Romae regentibus, ad annum fere conditae urbis trecentesimum quadragesimum septimum, triginta illi tyranni praepositi sunt a Lacedaemoniis Atheniensibus et in Sicilia Dionysius superior tyrannidem tenuit, paucisque annis post Socrates Athenis capitis damnatus est et in carcere veneno necatus.Set ea fere tempestate Romae M. Furius Camillus dictator fuitfruit et Veios cepit;ac post non longo tempore bellum Senonicum fuit,
Not long after these events the astronomer Eudoxus was famed in the land of Greece, the Lacedaemonians were defeated by the Athenians at Corinth under the lead of Phormio, and at Rome Marcus Manlius, who during the siege of the Capitol had repulsed the Gauls as they were climbing up its steep cliffs, was convicted of having formed the design of making himself king.
cum Galli Romam praeter Capitolium ceperuntceplerunt.Neque multo postea Eudoxus astrologus in terra Graecia nobilitatus est Lacedaemoniique ab Atheniensibus apud Corinthun superati duce Phormione,
Marcus Varro says that he was condemned to death and hurled from the Tarpeian rock; but Cornelius Nepos has written that he was scourged to death. In the very same year, which was the seventh after the recovery of the city, it is recorded that the philosopher Aristotle was born.
et M. Manlius Romae, qui Gallos in obsidione Capitolii obrepentes per ardua depulerat, convictus est consilium de regno occupando inisse, damnatusquedamatusque capitis e saxo Tarpeio, ut M. Varro ait, praeceps datus, ut Cornelius autem Nepos scriptum reliquit, verberando necatus est;eoque ipso anno, qui erat post reciperatam urbem septimus, Aristotelem philosophum natum esse memoriae mandatum est.
Next, some years after the war with the Senones, the Thebans defeated the Lacedaemonians at Leuctra under the lead of Epaminondas, and a little later in the city of Rome the law of Licinius Stolo provided for the elections of consuls also from the plebeians, whereas before that time it was not lawful for a consul to be chosen except from the patrician familiisfamilies.
Aliquot deinde annis post bellum Senonicum Thebani LacedaemoniosLacedaemonoios duce EpaminondaEpaminoda apud Leuctra superaverunt
Then, about the four hundredth year after the founding of the city, Philip, son of Amyntas and father of Alexander, became king of Macedonia.
ac brevi post temporeteinpore in urbe Roma lege Licinii Stolonis consules creari etiam ex plebe coepti, cum antea ius non esset nisi ex patriciis gentibus fieri consulem.
At that time Alexander was born, and a few years later the philosopher Plato went to the court of the younger Dionysius, tyrant of Sicily; then some little time afterwards Philip defeated the Athenians in the great battle at Chaeronea.
Circa annum deindedcinde urbis conditae quadringentesimumquadlringentesimum Philippus, Amyntae filius, Alexandri pater, regnum Macedoniae adeptus est inque eo tempore Alexander natus estpaucisque inde annis post Plato philosophus ad DionysiumDioilysium Siciliae tyrannum posteriorem profectus est;
At that time the orator Demosthenes sought safety in flight from the battlefield, and when he was bitterly taunted with his flight he jestingly replied in the well-known verse:The man who runs away will fight again.
post deinde aliquanto tempore Philippus apud Chaeroneam proelio magno Athenienses vicit.
Later Philip fell victim to a conspiracy; but Alexander, who succeeded him, crossed over into Asia and the Orient, to subdue the Persians.
Tum Demosthenes orator ex eo proelio salutem fuga quaesivit, cumque id ei quod fugerat probrose obiceretur, versu illo notissimo elusit:“Ἀνήρ,” inquit, “ὁ φεύγων καὶ πάλιν μαχήσεται.”Postea Philippus ex insidiis occiditur;
But another Alexander, surnamed Molossus, came into Italy intending to make war on the Roman people —for already the fame of Roman valour and success was beginning to be conspicuous among foreign nations—but he died before beginning the war.
at Alexander regnum adeptus ad subigendos Persas in Asiam atque in Orientem transgressus est.
We have learned that on his way to Italy that Molossus said that he was going against the Romans as a nation of men, but the Macedonian was going against the Persians as one of women. Later, the Macedonian Alexander, having subdued the greater part of the east, died after a reign of eleven years. Not long after this the philosopher Aristotle ended his life, and a little later, Demosthenes;
Alter autem Alexander, cui cognomentum Molosso fuit, in Italiam venit, bellum populo Romano facturus—iam enim fama virtutis felicitatisque Romanae apud exteras gentes enitescere inceptabat—, sed priusquam bellum faceret, vita decessit. Eum Molossum, cum in Italiam transiret, dixisse accepimus se quidem ad Romanos ire quasi in andronitin, Macedonem ad Persas quasi in gynaeconitin.Postea Macedo Alexander, pleraque parte orientali subacta, cum annos undecim regnavisset, obiit mortis diem.
at about that same time the Roman people engaged in a dangerous and protracted war with the Samites and the consuls Tiberius Veturius and Spurius Postumius were surrounded by the Samites in a perilous position near Caudium and being sent under the yoke were allowed to depart only when they had made a shameful treaty;
Neque haut longe post Aristoteles philosophus et post aliquanto Demosthenes vita functi sunt isdemque
and when for that reason the consuls by vote of the people were surrendered to the Samites through the fetial priests, they were not accepted. Then, about four hundred and seventy years after the founding of the city, war was begun with king Pyrrhus.
ferme tempestatibus populus Romanus gravi ac diutino Samnitium bello conflictatus est consulesque Tiberius Veturius et Spurius Postumius, in locis iniquis apud Caudium a Samnitibus circumvallati ac subiugi missi, turpi foedere facto discesserunt, ob eamque causam, populi iussu Samnitibus per fetiales dediti, recepti non sunt.
At that time Epicurus the Athenian and Zeno of Citium were famed as philosophers, and at the same time the censors at Rome, Gains Fabricius Luscinus and Quintus Aemilius Papus, expelled from the senate Publius Cornelius Rufinus, who had twice been consul and dictator;
Post annum deinde urbis conditae quadringentesimum fere et septuagesimum bellum cum rege Pyrro sumptum est.Ea tempestate Epicurus Atheniensis et Zeno Citiensis philosophi celebres erant,
and they recorded as the reason for that censure the fact that they had learned of his using ten pounds' weight of silverware at a dinner.
eodemque tempore C. Fabricius Luscinus et Q. Aemilius Papus censores Romae fuerunt et P. Cornelium Rufinum, qui bis consul et dictator fuerat, senatu moverunt; causamque isti notae subscripserunt, quod eum comperissent argenti facti cenae gratia decem pondo libras habere.
Then, in about the four hundred and ninetieth year after the founding of Rome, when the consuls were Appius Claudius, surnamed Caudex, brother of the celebrated Appius the Blind, and Marcus Fluvius Flaccus, the first war with the Carthaginians broke out, and not long afterwards Callimachus, the poet of Cyrene, was famous at the court of king Ptolemy at Alexandria.
Anno deinde post Romam conditam quadringentesimo ferme et nonagesimo, consulibus Appio Claudio, cui cognomentum Caudex fuit, Appii illius Caeci fratre, et Marco Fulvio Flacco, bellum adversum Poenos primum coeptum est,
A little more than twenty years later, when peace had been made with the Carthaginians and the consuls were C.
neque diu post Callimachus, poeta Cyrenensis, Alexandriae apud Ptolemaeum regem celebratus est.
Claudius Centho, son of Appius the Blind, and Marcus Sempronius Tuditanus, the poet Lucius Livius was the very first to put plays upon the stage at Rome, more than a hundred and sixty years after the death of Sophocles and Euripides and about fifty-two years after the death of Menander. The consuls Claudius and Tuditanus were followed by Quintus Valerius and Gaius Mamilius, in whose year the poet Quintus Ennius was born, as Marcus Varro has written in the first book of his work On Poets;
Annis deinde postea paulo pluribus quam viginti, pace cum Poenis facta, consulibus C. Claudio Centhone, Appii Caeci filio, et M. SempronioSeimpronio Tuditano, primus omnium L. Livius poeta tabulas docere Romae coepit post Sophoclis et Euripidis mortem annis plus fere centum et sexaginta, post Menandri annis circiter quinquaginta duobus.
and he adds that at the age of sixty-seven Ennius had written the twelfth Book of the Annals, and that Ennius himself says so in that same book.
Claudium et Tuditanum consules secuntur Q. Valerius et C. Mamilius, quibus natum esse Q. Ennium poetam M. Varro in primo De Poetis libro scripsit eumque, cum septimum et sexagesimum annum haberet, duodecimum Annalem scripsisse, idque ipsum Ennium in eodem libro dicere.
Five hundred and nineteen years after the founding of Rome, Spurius Carvilius Ruga, at the advice of his friends, was the first Roman to divorce his wife, on the ground that she was barren and that he had taken oath before the censors that he married for the purpose of having children.
Anno deinde post Romam conditam quingentesimo undevicesimo Sp. Carvilius Ruga primus Romae de amicorum sententia divortium cum uxore fecit, quod sterila esset iurassetque apud censores, uxorem se liberum quaerundorum causa habere,
In that same year the poet Naevius exhibited plays to the people, and Marcus Varro says in the first book of his work On Poets that Naevius served in the first Punic war and that the poet himself makes that statement in the poem which he wrote on that same war. But Porcius Licinius says in the following verses that Rome was later in taking up the poetic art:In the second Punic war with winged flightThe Muse to Romulus' warrior nation came.
eodemque anno Cn. Naevius poeta fabulas apud populum dedit, quem M. Varro in libro De Poetis primo stipendia fecisse ait bello Poenico primo, idque ipsum Naevium dicere in eo carmine quod de eodem bello scripsit. Porcius autem Licinus serius poeticam Romae coepisse dicit in his versibus:Poénico belló secundo Músa pinnató graduÍintulitntulit se béllicosam in Rómuli gentém feram.Ac deinde annis fere post quindecim bellum adversum
Then, about fifteen years later, war was begun with the Carthaginians, and not very long after that Marcus Cato was famous as a political orator and Plautus as a dramatic poet;
Poenos sumptum est atque non nimium longe M. Cato orator in civitate et Plautus poeta in scaena florueruntforuerunt;
and at that same time Diogenes the Stoic, Carneades the Academic, and Critolaus the Peripatetic were sent by the Athenians as envoys to the senate of the Roman people on public business.
isdemque temporibus Diogenes Stoicus et Carneades Academicus et Critolaus Peripateticus ab Atheniensibus ad senatum populi Romani negotii publici gratia legati sunt.
Not very long after this came Quintus Ennius, and then Caecilius and Terence, and afterwards Pacuvius and when Pacuvius was already an old man, Accius and then Lucilius, who was still more famous through his criticisms of the poems of his predecessors.
Neque magno intervallo postea Q. Ennius et iuxta Caecilius et Terentius et subinde et Pacuvius et Pacuvio iam sene Accius clariorque tunc in poematis eorum obtrectandis Lucilius fuit.
But I have gone too far, since the limit that I set for these little notes was the second Punic war.
Sed progressi longius sumus, cum finem proposuerimus adnotatiunculis istis bellum Poenorum secundum.