[Nonius p. 42M:] “You expect, then, the whole prudence of this governor, which has gained even this very name from foreseeing (providendo).” [Nonius p. 256M:] “For which reason this citizen must so equip himself that he be always armed against those things which disturb the constitution of the state.” [Nonius p. 25M; Servius:] “And this dissension of the citizens, because some go aside to others, is called sedition.” [Nonius p. 519M:] “In civil dissension, when the good prevail by more than the many, I think the citizens must be weighed, not numbered.” [Nonius p. 424M:] “For lusts, those weighty mistresses of our thoughts, drive on and command certain limitless things; which, since they can in no way be filled or satisfied, drive on to every crime those whom they have set on fire by their lures.” [Nonius p. 492M:] “… who shall have crushed his force and that unbridled fierceness.”

im petu liberavissent, nec C. Duelius, A. Atilius, L. Metellus terrore Karthaginis, non duo Scipiones oriens incendium belli Punici secundi sanguine suo restinxissent, nec id excitatum maioribus copiis aut Q. Maximus enervavisset aut M. Marcellus contudisset aut a portis huius urbis avolsum P. Africanus compulisset intra hostium moenia. M. vero Catoni, homini ignoto et novo, quo omnes, qui isdem rebus studemus, quasi exemplari ad industriam virtutemque ducimur, certe licuit Tusculi se in otio delectare salubri et propinquo loco. Sed homo demens, ut isti putant, cum cogeret eum necessitas nulla, in his undis et tempestatibus ad summam senectutem maluit iactari quam in illa tranquillitate atque otio iucundissime vivere. Omitto innumerabilis viros, quorum singuli saluti huic civitati fuerunt, et quia sunt haud procul ab aetatis huius memoria, commemorare eos desino, ne quis se aut suorum aliquem praetermissum queratur. Unum hoc definio, tantam esse necessitatem virtutis generi hominum a natura tantumque amorem ad communem salutem defendendam datum, ut ea vis omnia blandimenta voluptatis otiique vicerit.

[Aulus Gellius 7.16.11; Nonius:] “… which was the greater for this reason: that, although his colleagues were in equal cause, they were not only not in equal odium, but the affection toward Gracchus turned away even the odium toward Claudius.” [Nonius p. 409M:] “… which voices of optimates and leading men he met with: he abandoned that grave sound full of dignity.” [Nonius p. 501M:] “… that, as he writes, daily into the forum a thousand men with cloaks dyed in shellfish-purple were coming down.” [Nonius p. 517M:] “… in which, as you remember, by the gathering of the lightest mob and a heap of bronze coins the funeral was got up on a sudden.” [Nonius p. 512M; Priscian:] “For our forefathers wished marriages to be firmly established.” [Nonius p. 398M:] “Laelius’s speech — which we all have in our hands — on how the priests’ wooden bowls and Samian basins, as he writes, are pleasing to the immortal gods.”

Nec vero habere virtutem satis est quasi artem aliquam, nisi utare; etsi ars quidem, cum ea non utare, scientia tamen ipsa teneri potest, virtus in usu sui tota posita est; usus autem eius est maximus civitatis gubernatio et earum ipsarum rerum, quas isti in angulis personant, reapse, non oratione perfectio. Nihil enim dicitur a philosophis, quod quidem recte honesteque dicatur, quod non ab iis partum confirmatumque sit, a quibus civitatibus iura discripta sunt. Unde enim pietas aut a quibus religio? unde ius aut gentium aut hoc ipsum civile quod dicitur? unde iustitia, fides, aequitas? unde pudor, continentia, fuga turpitudinis, adpetentia laudis et honestatis? unde in laboribus et periculis fortitudo? Nempe ab iis, qui haec disciplinis informata alia moribus confirmarunt, sanxerunt autem alia legibus.

[Eulogius on the Somnium Scipionis:] “… [Cicero referring to the legendary Pamphylian who] when set on the funeral pyre, came back to life and told many secrets of the underworld — that what is said about the immortality of the soul and about heaven is not the contrivances of dreaming philosophers, nor incredible fables which the Epicureans deride, but the conjectures of the prudent.”

Quin etiam Xenocraten ferunt, nobilem in primis philosophum, cum quaereretur ex eo, quid adsequerentur eius discipuli, respondisse, ut id sua sponte facerent, quod cogerentur facere legibus. Ergo ille civis, qui id cogit omnis imperio legumque poena, quod vix paucis persuadere oratione philosophi possunt, etiam iis, qui illa disputant, ipsis est praeferendus doctoribus. Quae est enim istorum oratio tam exquisita, quae sit anteponenda bene constitutae civitati publico iure et moribus? Equidem quem ad modum ’urbes magnas atque imperiosas’, ut appellat Ennius, viculis et castellis praeferendas puto, sic eos, qui his urbibus consilio atque auctoritate praesunt, iis, qui omnis negotii publici expertes sint, longe duco sapientia ipsa esse anteponendos. Et quoniam maxime rapimur ad opes augendas generis humani studemusque nostris consiliis et laboribus tutiorem et opulentiorem vitam hominum reddere et ad hanc voluptatem ipsius naturae stimulis incitamur, teneamus eum cursum, qui semper fuit optimi cuiusque, neque ea signa audiamus, quae receptui canunt, ut eos etiam revocent, qui iam processerint.

[Augustine, City of God 22.28:] “… that he wished rather to play than to affirm that as the truth.”

His rationibus tam certis tamque inlustribus opponuntur ab iis, qui contra disputant, primum labores, qui sint re publica defendenda sustinendi, leve sane inpedimentum vigilanti et industrio, neque solum in tantis rebus, sed etiam in mediocribus vel studiis vel officiis vel vero etiam negotiis contemnendum. Adiunguntur pericula vitae, turpisque ab his formido mortis fortibus viris opponitur, quibus magis id miserum videri solet, natura se consumi et senectute, quam sibi dari tempus, ut possint eam vitam, quae tamen esset reddenda naturae, pro patria potissimum reddere. Illo vero se loco copiosos et disertos putant, cum calamitates clarissimorum virorum iniuriasque iis ab ingratis inpositas civibus colligunt.

“… will it offend you to learn the nature of the roots and seeds? Not at all, if only the work [of governing] shall remain. Do you think this the bailiff’s pursuit? By no means; since labour very often falls short of agriculture. As, then, the bailiff knows the nature of the field, the steward knows letters, and either of them refers himself from the delight of knowledge to the use of getting the work done — so let our governor have studied right and laws thoroughly, have looked into their very fountains, but not let himself be hindered by giving counsel and reading and writing, that he may, as it were, dispense the commonwealth and, in some way, oversee it: most skilled in the highest right, without which no one can be just; not unskilled in civil right, but as the steersman uses astronomy and the doctor physics — each uses these things for his own art, but is not hindered from his own duty by them. But this man will see …

Hinc enim illa et apud Graecos exempla, Miltiadem, victorem domitoremque Persarum, nondum sanatis volneribus iis, quae corpore adverso in clarissima victoria accepisset, vitam ex hostium telis servatam in civium vinclis profudisse, et Themistoclem patria, quam liberavisset, pulsum atque proterritum non in Graeciae portus per se servatos, sed in barbariae sinus confugisse, quam adflixerat; nec vero levitatis Atheniensium crudelitatisque in amplissimos civis exempla deficiunt; quae nata et frequentata apud illos etiam in gravissumam civitatem nostram dicuntur redundasse;

“… in states where the best men seek praise and dignity, and shun reproach and disgrace. Nor are they so much terrified by the fear and penalty which is set up by the laws as by shame, which nature has given to man as a kind of fear, not unjust, of being blamed. This [shame] our governor of public matters has increased by opinion and perfected by institutions and disciplines, that the citizen’s modesty would no less keep him from misdeeds than fear. And these things indeed pertain to praise, which could have been said more broadly and richly.

nam vel exilium Camilli vel offensio commemoratur Ahalae vel invidia Nasicae vel expulsio Laenatis vel Opimii damnatio vel fuga Metelli vel acerbissima C. Marii clades principum que caedes vel eorum multorum pestes, quae paulo post secutae sunt. Nec vero iam meo nomine abstinent et, credo, quia nostro consilio ac periculo sese in illa vita atque otio conservatos putant, gravius etiam de nobis queruntur et amantius. Sed haud facile dixerim, cur, cum ipsi discendi aut visendi causa maria tramittant

“As for the system of life and the use of living, this has been arranged by lawful marriages, by legitimate children, by the holy seats of the household gods of Penates and Lares, that all may use both common and their own conveniences; and that one cannot live well without a good commonwealth, nor anything be more blessed than a state well constituted. Wherefore it is wont to seem most strange to me, what is so great a learning …

salvam esse consulatu abiens in contione populo Romano idem iurante iuravissem, facile iniuriarum omnium compensarem curam et molestiam. Quamquam nostri casus plus honoris habuerunt quam laboris neque tantum molestiae, quantum gloriae, maioremque laetitiam ex desiderio bonorum percepimus quam ex laetitia improborum dolorem. Sed si aliter, ut dixi, accidisset, qui possem queri? cum mihi nihil inproviso nec gravius, quam exspectavissem, pro tantis meis factis evenisset. Is enim fueram, cui cum liceret aut maiores ex otio fructus capere quam ceteris propter variam suavitatem studiorum, in quibus a pueritia vixeram, aut si quid accideret acerbius universis, non praecipuam, sed parem cum ceteris fortunae condicionem subire, non dubitaverim me gravissimis tempestatibus ac paene fulminibus ipsis obvium ferre conservandorum civium causa meisque propriis periculis parere commune reliquis otium.

[Macrobius, Saturnalia 1.4.2sq.:] “But although for wise men the consciousness itself of distinguished deeds is the amplest reward of virtue, yet that divine virtue desires not statues set in lead, nor triumphs with withering laurels, but certain firmer and greener kinds of rewards. “What, then, are these,” said Laelius? Then Scipio: “Bear with me, since this is now the third day of our holiday …” [The Somnium Scipionis, preserved separately by Macrobius.]

Neque enim hac nos patria lege genuit aut educavit, ut nulla quasi alimenta exspectaret a nobis ac tantum modo nostris ipsa commodis serviens tutum perfugium otio nostro suppeditaret et tranquillum ad quietem locum, sed ut plurimas et maximas nostri animi, ingenii, consilii partis ipsa sibi ad utilitatem suam pigneraretur tantumque nobis in nostrum privatum usum, quantum ipsi superesse posset, remitteret.

“When I had come into Africa to consul Manius Manilius, as you know, as tribune of the soldiers to the fourth legion, nothing was more important to me than to meet King Masinissa, by just causes the dearest friend of our family. When I came to him, the old man embraced me, shed tears, and after a little while looked up to heaven and said: “Thanks I render to thee, highest Sun, and to you the rest of the heaven-dwellers, that, before I pass from this life, I behold in my own kingdom and within these roofs Publius Cornelius Scipio, by whose very name I am refreshed: so that the memory of that best and most invincible of men never departs from my mind.” Then I asked him about his kingdom, he asked me about our commonwealth; and with many words spoken back and forth, that day was used up by us.

Iam illa perfugia, quae sumunt sibi ad excusationem, quo facilius otio perfruantur, certe minime sunt audienda, cum ita dicunt, accedere ad rem publicam plerumque homines nulla re bona dignos, cum quibus comparari sordidum, confligere autem multitudine praesertim incitata miserum et periculosum sit. Quam ob rem neque sapientis esse accipere habenas, cum insanos atque indomitos impetus volgi cohibere non possit, neque liberi cum inpuris atque inmanibus adversariis decertantem vel contumeliarum verbera subire vel expectare sapienti non ferendas iniurias; proinde quasi bonis et fortibus et magno animo praeditis ulla sit ad rem publicam adeundi causa iustior, quam ne pareant inprobis neve ab isdem lacerari rem publicam patiantur, cum ipsi auxilium ferre, si cupiant, non queant.

“Afterwards, having been received in royal style, we drew out the talk far into the night, while the old man spoke of nothing but Africanus, and remembered all of his deeds — and even his sayings. Then, when we parted to bed, both wearied from the road, and one who had been awake until late, a deeper sleep than I was used to held me. Here (I think indeed from what we had been saying; for it generally happens that our thoughts and conversations bring forth in sleep something such as Ennius writes about Homer, of whom plainly he was wont to think and speak most often when waking) Africanus appeared to me in the form which to me was more familiar from his image than from himself; and when I knew him, I shuddered, but he: “Be of good cheer,” he said, “and put away fear, Scipio, and commit to memory what I shall say.

Illa autem exceptio cui probari tandem potest, quod negant sapientem suscepturum ullam rei publicae partem, extra quam si eum tempus et necessitas coegerit? quasi vero maior cuiquam necessitas accidere possit, quam accidit nobis; in qua quid facere potuissem, nisi tum consul fuissem? Consul autem esse qui potui, nisi eum vitae cursum tenuissem a pueritia, per quem equestri loco natus pervenirem ad honorem amplissimum? Non igitur potestas est ex tempore, aut cum velis, opitulandi rei publicae, quamvis ea prematur periculis, nisi eo loco sis, ut tibi id facere liceat.

“Do you see that city, which, forced through me to obey the Roman people, renews her ancient wars and cannot rest?” (And he was showing me Carthage from a high and bright place, full of stars.) “Which you now come to besiege, almost a common soldier. Within these next two years you will overthrow it as consul, and you will have that surname won by you yourself which you have so far inherited from us. But when you have destroyed Carthage, held a triumph, and been censor, and have travelled as legate to Egypt, Syria, Asia, and Greece, you will be elected consul a second time in your absence, and finish a great war: you will raze Numantia. But when you have ridden into the Capitol in your chariot, you will find the commonwealth thrown into confusion by the counsels of my grandson.

Maximeque hoc in hominum doctorum oratione mihi mirum videri solet, quod, qui tranquillo mari gubernare se negent posse, quod nec didicerint nec umquam scire curaverint, iidem ad gubernacula se accessuros profiteantur excitatis maximis fluctibus. Isti enim palam dicere atque in eo multum etiam gloriari solent, se de rationibus rerum publicarum aut constituendarum aut tuendarum nihil nec didicisse umquam nec docere, earumque rerum scientiam non doctis hominibus ac sapientibus, sed in illo genere exercitatis concedendam putant. Quare qui convenit polliceri operam suam rei publicae tum denique, si necessitate cogantur? cum, quod est multo proclivius, nulla necessitate premente rem publicam regere nesciant. Equidem, ut verum esset sua voluntate sapientem descendere ad rationes civitatis non solere, sin autem temporibus cogeretur, tum id munus denique non recusare, tamen arbitrarer hanc rerum civilium minime neglegendam scientiam sapienti, propterea quod omnia essent ei praeparanda, quibus nesciret an aliquando uti necesse esset.

“Here, Africanus, you must show your country the light of your spirit, your genius, your counsel. But I see, as it were, a doubtful path of fates at that time. For when your age shall have run through eight courses and returns of the sun, of seven years each, and these two numbers, of which each is held complete one for one reason, the other for another, shall by their natural cycle have made up your fated sum, then upon you alone, and upon your name, the whole state will turn. You the senate, you all the good men, you the allies, you the Latins will look to. You will be the one on whom the safety of the state will rest — and, in short, as dictator you must set up the commonwealth, if you escape the impious hands of your kinsmen.” At this Laelius cried out, and the rest groaned more violently; but Scipio, smiling slightly: “Hush, please,” said he, “do not wake me from my sleep, and listen a little to the rest.

Haec pluribus a me verbis dicta sunt ob eam causam, quod his libris erat instituta et suscepta mihi de re publica disputatio; quae ne frustra haberetur, dubitationem ad rem publicam adeundi in primis debui tollere. Ac tamen si qui sunt, qui philosophorum auctoritate moveantur, dent operam parumper atque audiant eos, quorum summa est auctoritas apud doctissimos homines et gloria; quos ego existimo, etiamsi qui ipsi rem publicam non gesserint, tamen, quoniam de re publica multa quaesierint et scripserint, functos esse aliquo rei publicae munere. Eos vero septem, quos Graeci sapientis nominaverunt, omnis paene video in media re publica esse versatos. Neque enim est ulla res, in qua propius ad deorum numen virtus accedat humana, quam civitatis aut condere novas aut conservare iam conditas.

“But that you may be the more eager, Africanus, to guard the commonwealth, hold thus: for all who shall have preserved, helped, increased their fatherland, there is a fixed place set in heaven, where the blessed enjoy an eternal age. For nothing is more pleasing to that supreme God who rules all the world — of all that is done on earth — than the assemblies and gatherings of men joined by right, which are called states; the rulers and preservers of these go forth from this place, and to it they return.”

Quibus de rebus, quoniam nobis contigit, ut iidem et in gerenda re publica aliquid essemus memoria dignum consecuti et in explicandis rationibus rerum civilium quandam facultatem non modo usu, sed etiam studio discendi et docendi † essemus auctores, cum superiores alii fuissent in disputationibus perpoliti, quorum res gestae nullae invenirentur, alii in gerendo probabiles, in disserendo rudes. Nec vero nostra quaedam est instituenda nova et a nobis inventa ratio, sed unius aetatis clarissimorum ac sapientissimorum nostrae civitatis virorum disputatio repetenda memoria est, quae mihi tibique quondam adulescentulo est a P. Rutilio Rufo, Smyrnae cum simul essemus compluris dies, exposita, in qua nihil fere, quod magno opere ad rationes omnium rerum pertineret, est praetermissum.

“Here, although I was thoroughly frightened — not so much by fear of death as by fear of plots from my own kin — I yet asked whether he himself was alive, and my father Paulus, and the others whom we judged dead. “Indeed,” he said, “these are alive, who have flown out of the bonds of the body as out of a prison; that life of yours, which it is called, is death. Why do you not look at your father Paulus coming to you?” When I saw him I poured forth a flood of tears; but he, embracing me and kissing me, forbade me to weep.

Nam cum P. Africanus hic, Pauli filius, feriis Latinis Tuditano cons. et Aquilio constituisset in hortis esse familiarissimique eius ad eum frequenter per eos dies ventitaturos se esse dixissent, Latinis ipsis mane ad eum primus sororis filius venit Q. Tubero; quem cum comiter Scipio appellavisset libenterque vidisset, Quid tu, inquit, tam mane, Tubero? dabant enim hae feriae tibi oportunam sane facultatem ad explicandas tuas litteras. Tum ille: Mihi vero omne tempus est ad meos libros vacuum; numquam enim sunt illi occupati; te autem permagnum est nancisci otiosum, hoc praesertim motu rei publicae. Tum Scipio: Atqui nactus es, sed mehercule otiosiorem opera quam animo. Et ille: At vero animum quoque relaxes oportet; sumus enim multi, ut constituimus, parati, si tuo commodo fieri potest, abuti tecum hoc otio. Libente me vero, ut aliquid aliquando de doctrinae studiis admoneamur.

“And as soon as, holding back my tears, I could begin to speak, I said: “I beg you, most holy and most excellent father, since this is life — as I hear Africanus say — why do I delay on the earth? Why do I not hurry to come hither to you?” “It is not so,” he said. “Unless that God, whose temple is everything you behold, has freed you from those guards of the body, the way hither cannot lie open to you. For men have been brought forth under this law, that they should keep watch over that globe which you see in the middle of this temple, which is called the earth; and a soul has been given them out of those everlasting fires which you call constellations and stars, which, globed and round, animated by divine minds, accomplish their circles and orbits with marvellous swiftness. Therefore for you also, Publius, and for all pious men, the soul must be kept in the watch of the body; nor without command of him, by whom that soul is given to you, must you depart from the life of men, lest you seem to have fled from the human duty assigned by God.

Tum ille: Visne igitur, quoniam et me quodam modo invitas et tui spem das, hoc primum, Africane, videamus, ante quam veniunt alii, quidnam sit, de isto altero sole quod nuntiatum est in senatu? neque enim pauci neque leves sunt, qui se duo soles vidisse dicant, ut non tam fides non habenda quam ratio quaerenda sit. Hic Scipio: Quam vellem Panaetium nostrum nobiscum haberemus! qui cum cetera, tum haec caelestia vel studiosissime solet quaerere. Sed ego, Tubero, (nam tecum aperte, quod sentio, loquar) non nimis adsentior in omni isto genere nostro illi familiari, qui, quae vix coniectura qualia sint possumus suspicari, sic adfirmat, ut oculis ea cernere videatur aut tractare plane manu. Quo etiam sapientiorem Socratem soleo iudicare, qui omnem eius modi curam deposuerit eaque, quae de natura quaererentur, aut maiora, quam hominum ratio consequi posset, aut nihil omnino ad vitam hominum adtinere dixerit.

“But thus, Scipio, like this grandfather of yours, like me who begot you, cultivate justice and piety, which is great in parents and kinsmen, but greatest in country. That life is the way to heaven and to this gathering of those who have already lived, and, freed from the body, dwell in that place which you see” (and that was a circle, shining among the flames with the brightest brightness) — “which you, as you have received it from the Greeks, call the Milky Way.” From which, as I gazed, all other things seemed splendid and marvellous. There were stars which we have never seen from this place, and magnitudes of all of them which we have never suspected to be; and from these the smallest was that which, furthest from heaven, nearest from earth, shone with a borrowed light. The globes of the stars were easily greater than the size of the earth. By now the earth itself seemed to me so small that I was sorry for our empire, by which we touch, as it were, but a point of it.

Dein Tubero: Nescio, Africane, cur ita memoriae proditum sit, Socratem omnem istam disputationem reiecisse et tantum de vita et de moribus solitum esse quaerere. Quem enim auctorem de illo locupletiorem Platone laudare possumus? cuius in libris multis locis ita loquitur Socrates, ut etiam, cum de moribus, de virtutibus, denique de re publica disputet, numeros tamen et geometriam et harmoniam studeat Pythagorae more coniungere. Tum Scipio: Sunt ista, ut dicis; sed audisse te credo, Tubero, Platonem Socrate mortuo primum in Aegyptum discendi causa, post in Italiam et in Siciliam contendisse, ut Pythagorae inventa perdisceret, eumque et cum Archyta Tarentino et cum Timaeo Locro multum fuisse et Philoleo commentarios esse nanctum, cumque eo tempore in iis locis Pythagorae nomen vigeret, illum se et hominibus Pythagoreis et studiis illis dedisse. Itaque cum Socratem unice dilexisset eique omnia tribuere voluisset, leporem Socraticum subtilitatemque sermonis cum obscuritate Pythagorae et cum illa plurimarum artium gravitate contexuit.

“As I gazed at it more, “Pray,” said Africanus, “how long shall your mind be fixed on the ground? Do you not see into what temples you have come? All things are joined together for you in nine orbs — or rather globes; one of which is the heavenly, the outermost, which embraces all the others: the highest god himself, restraining and holding the rest. In which are fixed those everlasting courses of the stars which roll round; under which are seven globes, which turn back with a motion contrary to that of the heaven; of which one globe is held by that one which on earth they call Saturnian. Then there is that which is prosperous and saving for the human race, which is called of Jupiter; then the ruddy and dreadful to lands, which you call of Mars; then below, in the middle region, the sun holds his place: leader and prince and moderator of the other lights, the mind of the world and its tempering, of so great a magnitude that he illumines and fills all things with his own light. Him, like companions, follow the courses of Venus and of Mercury; in the lowest orb the moon turns round, kindled by the sun’s rays. Below, however, there is now nothing but mortal and falling, except the souls given to the human race by the gift of the gods; above the moon all things are eternal. For that which is the middle and ninth, the earth, neither moves and is the lowest, and on it all weights are borne by their own force.

Haec Scipio cum dixisset, L. Furium repente venientem aspexit, eumque ut salutavit, amicissime adprehendit et in lecto suo conlocavit. Et cum simul P. Rutilius venisset, qui est nobis huius sermonis auctor, eum quoque ut salutavit, propter Tuberonem iussit adsidere. Tum Furius: Quid vos agitis? num sermonem vestrum aliquem diremit noster interventus? Minime vero, Africanus; soles enim tu haec studiose investigare, quae sunt in hoc genere, de quo instituerat paulo ante Tubero quaerere; Rutilius quidem noster etiam sub ipsis Numantiae moenibus solebat mecum interdum eius modi aliquid conquirere. Quae res tandem inciderat? inquit Philus. Tum ille: De solibus istis duobus; de quo studeo, Phile, ex te audire quid sentias.

“While I was looking on these things, stupefied, when I had recovered: “What,” I said, “is this that fills my ears, this great and so sweet a sound?” “This is that which, divided by intervals unequal but yet by reason marked off proportionally, is wrought by the impulse and motion of the very orbs themselves, and, tempering the high with the low, brings forth varied harmonies evenly: for nor in silence can such great motions be set in motion, and nature bears it that the extremes from one part should sound deep, from the other high. For which reason that highest course of heaven, the star-bearing, whose revolution is the swifter, is moved with a high and stirred-up sound; this lunar and lowest with the deepest. For the earth, the ninth, remaining unmoved, sticks always in one seat, embracing the middle place of the world. Those eight courses, however — in which the same force is of two — effect seven sounds distinguished by intervals; which number is the knot of nearly all things. Learned men, imitating it on strings and in songs, opened for themselves a return to this place — as did the others who, with outstanding genius, cultivated divine studies in human life.

Dixerat hoc ille, cum puer nuntiavit venire ad eum Laelium domoque iam exisse. Tum Scipio calceis et vestimentis sumptis e cubiculo est egressus, et cum paululum inambulavisset in porticu, Laelium advenientem salutavit et eos, qui una venerant, Spurium Mummium, quem in primis diligebat, et C. Fannium et Quintum Scaevolam, generos Laelii, doctos adulescentes, iam aetate quaestorios; quos cum omnis salutavisset, convertit se in porticu et coniecit in medium Laelium; fuit enim hoc in amicitia quasi quoddam ius inter illos, ut militiae propter eximiam belli gloriam Africanum ut deum coleret Laelius, domi vicissim Laelium, quod aetate antecedebat, observaret in parentis loco Scipio. Dein cum essent perpauca inter se uno aut altero spatio conlocuti Scipionique eorum adventus periucundus et pergratus fuisset, placitum est, ut in aprico maxime pratuli loco, quod erat hibernum tempus anni, considerent; quod cum facere vellent, intervenit vir prudens omnibusque illis et iucundus et carus, M’. Manilius, qui a Scipione ceterisque amicissime consalutatus adsedit proximus Laelio.

“With this sound, the ears of men, filled, have grown deaf; nor is any sense duller in you than hearing — as where the Nile, at those places called the Catadupa, falls from the highest mountains, the people who dwell about that place, on account of the greatness of the noise, lack the sense of hearing. But this sound, made by the most rapid revolution of the whole world, is so great that the ears of men cannot take it in — as you cannot look directly at the sun, but the keenness and sense of your sight is overcome by his rays.” Marvelling at these things, I yet kept turning my eyes back to the earth.

Tum Philus: Non mihi videtur, inquit, quod hi venerunt, alius nobis sermo esse quaerendus, sed agendum accuratius et dicendum dignum aliquid horum auribus. Hic Laelius: Quid tandem agebatis, aut cui sermoni nos intervenimus? Quaesierat ex me Scipio, quidnam sentirem de hoc, quod duo soles visos esse constaret. Ain vero? Phile, iam explorata nobis sunt ea, quae ad domos nostras quaeque ad rem publicam pertineant? siquidem, quid agatur in caelo, quaerimus. Et ille: An tu ad domos nostras non censes pertinere scire, quid agatur et quid fiat domi? quae non ea est, quam parietes nostri cingunt, sed mundus hic totus, quod domicilium quamque patriam di nobis communem secum dederunt, cum praesertim, si haec ignoremus, multa nobis et magna ignoranda sint. Ac me quidem, ut hercule etiam te ipsum, Laeli, omnisque avidos sapientiae cognitio ipsa rerum consideratioque delectat.

“Then Africanus: “I see,” he said, “that you are still gazing on the seat and home of men. If that seems to you small, as it is, then look always at these heavenly things, and despise the human. For what celebration of men’s talk, or what glory worth seeking, can you attain? You see how the earth is inhabited in scattered and narrow places, and that, in those very as it were spots where it is inhabited, vast wastes are interposed; and those who inhabit the earth are not only so cut off that nothing among themselves can pass from some to others, but partly stand sideways to you, partly crosswise, partly even opposed to you — from whom you can certainly hope for no glory.

Tum Laelius: Non inpedio, praesertim quoniam feriati sumus; sed possumus audire aliquid an serius venimus? Nihil est adhuc disputatum, et, quoniam est integrum, libenter tibi, Laeli, ut de eo disseras, equidem concessero. Immo vero te audiamus, nisi forte Manilius interdictum aliquod inter duos soles putat esse componendum, ut ita caelum possideant, ut uterque possederit. Tum Manilius: Pergisne eam, Laeli, artem inludere, in qua primum excellis ipse, deinde sine qua scire nemo potest, quid sit suum, quid alienum? Sed ista mox; nunc audiamus Philum, quem video maioribus iam de rebus quam me aut quam P. Mucium consuli.

“You see also that the same earth is encircled and bound, as it were, by certain belts. Of which two, mostly opposed to each other, and propped from either side on the very poles of the heaven, you see have grown stiff with frost; while that middle and greatest is parched by the heat of the sun. Two are habitable, of which the southern — in which those who stand point their footsteps opposed to yours — is nothing to your race; this other, set under the north wind, which you inhabit, see by how thin a part it touches you. For all the land that is cultivated by you, narrowed at the poles, broader on the sides, is some little island encompassed by that sea which on earth you call the Atlantic, the Great, or Ocean — which yet, despite so great a name, you see how small it is.

Tum Philus: Nihil novi vobis adferam, neque quod a me sit cogitatum aut inventum; nam memoria teneo C. Sulpicium Gallum, doctissimum, ut scitis, hominem, cum idem hoc visum diceretur et esset casu apud M. Marcellum, qui cum eo consul fuerat, sphaeram, quam M. Marcelli avus captis Syracusis ex urbe locupletissima atque ornatissima sustulisset, cum aliud nihil ex tanta praeda domum suam deportavisset, iussisse proferri; cuius ego sphaerae cum persaepe propter Archimedi gloriam nomen audissem, speciem ipsam non sum tanto opere admiratus; erat enim illa venustior et nobilior in volgus, quam ab eodem Archimede factam posuerat in templo Virtutis Marcellus idem.

“From these very cultivated and known lands, has either your name, or any of ours, been able to climb over this Caucasus you see, or to swim across that Ganges? Who in the rest of the parts of the rising or setting sun, or of the north wind or south wind, will hear your name? With these cut off, you certainly see in what straits your glory is willing to stretch itself out. They themselves, however, who speak of us — how long will they speak?

Sed posteaquam coepit rationem huius operis scientissime Gallus exponere, plus in illo Siculo ingenii, quam videretur natura humana ferre potuisse, iudicavi fuisse. Dicebat enim Gallus sphaerae illius alterius solidae atque plenae vetus esse inventum, et eam a Thalete Milesio primum esse tornatam, post autem ab Eudoxo Cnidio, discipulo, ut ferebat, Platonis, eandem illam astris stellisque, quae caelo inhaererent, esse descriptam; cuius omnem ornatum et descriptionem sumptam ab Eudoxo multis annis post non astrologiae scientia, sed poetica quadam facultate versibus Aratum extulisse. Hoc autem sphaerae genus, in quo solis et lunae motus inessent et earum quinque stellarum, quae errantes et quasi vagae nominarentur, in illa sphaera solida non potuisse finiri, atque in eo admirandum esse inventum Archimedi, quod excogitasset, quem ad modum in dissimillimis motibus inaequabiles et varios cursus servaret una conversio. Hanc sphaeram Gallus cum moveret, fiebat, ut soli luna totidem conversionibus in aere illo, quot diebus in ipso caelo, succederet, ex quo et in caelo sphaera solis fieret eadem illa defectio et incideret luna tum in eam metam, quae esset umbra terrae, cum sol e regione

“Indeed, even if that posterity of men to come desires to hand down to its successors the praises of each one of us, taken from their fathers, yet on account of the deluges and burnings of the lands which must happen at fixed times, we cannot attain not merely an everlasting, but not even a long-lasting glory. What does it matter, that there will be talk about you among those who shall be born afterwards, when there has been none among those who were born before us?

fuit, quod et ipse hominem diligebam et in primis patri meo Paulo probatum et carum fuisse cognoveram. Memini me admodum adulescentulo, cum pater in Macedonia consul esset et essemus in castris, perturbari exercitum nostrum religione et metu, quod serena nocte subito candens et plena luna defecisset. Tum ille, cum legatus noster esset anno fere ante, quam consul est declaratus, haud dubitavit postridie palam in castris docere nullum esse prodigium, idque et tum factum esse et certis temporibus esse semper futurum, cum sol ita locatus fuisset, ut lunam suo lumine non posset attingere. Ain tandem? inquit Tubero; docere hoc poterat ille homines paene agrestes et apud imperitos audebat haec dicere? Ille vero et magna quidem cum

“… [those who came before] who were neither fewer nor certainly worse men — especially since among those very men by whom our name can be heard, no one can compass the memory of a single year. For men, by popular reckoning, measure the year only by the return of the sun, that is, of one star; but when all the stars shall have returned to that same point whence they once set out, and shall have brought back, after long intervals, the same arrangement of the whole heaven — then that may truly be called the turning year; in which I scarcely dare to say how many ages of men are contained. For just as the sun once seemed to men to fail and be quenched, when the soul of Romulus penetrated into these very temples, so whenever the sun shall fail again, in the same part and at the same time, then, when all the signs and stars have been called back to the beginning, count the year complete — of which year, indeed, know that not yet a twentieth part has been turned.

neque in solens ostentatio neque oratio abhorrens a persona hominis gravissimi; rem enim magnam adsecutus est, quod hominibus perturbatis inanem religionem timoremque deiecerat.

“Therefore, if you despair of return to this place, in which all things are for great and excellent men, of how much, after all, is that human glory worth, which can scarcely pertain even to one slender part of one year? Therefore, if you wish to look upward, and to gaze upon this seat and eternal home, you will neither give yourself up to the talk of the crowd, nor place the hope of your fortunes in the prizes of men. Virtue itself, by its own enticements, must draw you to true honour: what others say of you, let them see to it; but they will speak in any case. All that talk is hemmed by the narrow regions you see, nor was it ever for any man unbroken; and it is buried by the death of men and quenched by the forgetfulness of posterity.”

Atque eius modi quiddam etiam bello illo maximo, quod Athenienses et Lacedaemonii summa inter se contentione gesserunt, Pericles ille, et auctoritate et eloquentia et consilio princeps civitatis suae, cum obscurato sole tenebrae factae essent repente Atheniensiumque animos summus timor occupavisset, docuisse civis suos dicitur, id quod ipse ab Anaxagora, cuius auditor fuerat, acceperat, certo illud tempore fieri et necessario, cum tota se luna sub orbem solis subiecisset; itaque, etsi non omni intermenstruo, tamen id fieri non posse nisi certo intermenstruo tempore. Quod cum disputando rationibusque docuisset, populum liberavit metu; erat enim tum haec nova et ignota ratio, solem lunae oppositu solere deficere, quod Thaletem Milesium primum vidisse dicunt. Id autem postea ne nostrum quidem Ennium fugit; qui ut scribit, anno trecentesimo quinquagesimo fere post Romam conditam Nonis Iunis soli luna obstitit et nox. Atque hac in re tanta inest ratio atque sollertia, ut ex hoc die, quem apud Ennium et in maximis annalibus consignatum videmus, superiores solis defectiones reputatae sint usque ad illam, quae Nonis Quinctilibus fuit regnante Romulo; quibus quidem Romulum tenebris etiamsi natura ad humanum exitum abripuit, virtus tamen in caelum dicitur sustulisse.

“When he had said this, “Indeed, Africanus,” I said, “if for those who have well deserved of their country a path lies open, as it were, to the entrance of heaven, although from boyhood I have followed in the footsteps of my father, and yours, and have not failed your honour — yet now, with so great a prize set forth, I shall strive much more vigilantly.” And he: “Strive indeed, and hold thus: it is not you that are mortal, but this body. For neither are you what that figure declares; but the mind of each man is each man — not that figure which can be pointed at with the finger. Know, then, that you are a god — if at least there be a god which is alive, which feels, which remembers, which foresees, which so rules and tempers and moves that body to which it has been set in charge, as that prince god rules this world. And as the world, which is in some part mortal, is moved by an eternal god himself, so the fragile body is moved by an everlasting soul.

Tum Tubero: Videsne, Africane, quod paulo ante secus tibi videbatur, doc lis, quae videant ceteri. Quid porro aut praeclarum putet in rebus humanis, qui haec deorum regna perspexerit, aut diuturnum, qui cognoverit, quid sit aeternum, aut gloriosum, qui viderit, quam parva sit terra, primum universa, deinde ea pars eius, quam homines incolant, quamque nos in exigua eius parte adfixi plurimis ignotissimi gentibus speremus tamen nostrum nomen volitare et vagari latissime?

“For what is always moved is eternal; and what brings motion to something else, and is itself driven from elsewhere, must, when it has an end of motion, have an end of life. Only that, then, which moves itself, since it is never deserted by itself, never even ceases to move; nay rather, for the rest that move, this is the fountain, this the beginning of moving. But of a beginning there is no origin: for from a beginning all things arise, but it itself can be born of no other thing; for that would not be a beginning, which were begotten elsewhere. And if it never arises, it never sets either; for a beginning extinguished can neither itself be reborn from another nor create another from itself, since it is necessary that all things arise from a beginning. So it comes about that the beginning of motion is from that which is moved by itself; this can neither be born nor die, or all heaven and all nature must collapse and stand still, nor would it find any force by which, set in motion at the start, it might be moved.

Agros vero et aedificia et pecudes et inmensum argenti pondus atque auri qui bona nec putare nec appellare soleat, quod earum rerum videatur ei levis fructus, exiguus usus, incertus dominatus, saepe etiam deterrimorum hominum inmensa possessio, quam est hic fortunatus putandus! cui soli vere liceat omnia non Quiritium, sed sapientium iure pro suis vindicare, nec civili nexo, sed communi lege naturae, quae vetat ullam rem esse cuiusquam nisi eius, qui tractare et uti sciat; qui inperia consulatusque nostros in necessariis, non in expetendis rebus, muneris fungendi gratia subeundos, non praemiorum aut gloriae causa adpetendos putet; qui denique, ut Africanum avum meum scribit Cato solitum esse dicere, possit idem de se praedicare, numquam se plus agere, quam nihil cum ageret, numquam minus solum esse, quam cum solus esset.

“Since then it is plain that that is eternal which is moved by itself, who is there that would deny this nature has been granted to souls? For everything is inanimate which is driven by an external blow; what is animate is moved by an inner motion of its own; for this is the proper nature and force of soul. If this is one out of all those things which moves itself, then certainly it is not born and is eternal.

Quis enim putare vere potest plus egisse Dionysium tum, cum omnia moliendo eripuerit civibus suis libertatem, quam eius civem Archimedem, cum istam ipsam sphaeram, nihil cum agere videretur, de qua modo dicebatur effecerit? quis autem non magis solos esse, qui in foro turbaque, quicum conloqui libeat, non habeant, quam qui nullo arbitro vel secum ipsi loquantur vel quasi doctissimorum hominum in concilio adsint, cum eorum inventis scriptisque se oblectent? Quis vero divitiorem quemquam putet quam eum, cui nihil desit, quod quidem natura desideret, aut potentiorem quam illum, qui omnia, quae expetat, consequatur, aut beatiorem, quam qui sit omni perturbatione animi liberatus, aut firmiore fortuna, quam qui ea possideat, quae secum, ut aiunt, vel e naufragio possit ecferre? Quod autem imperium, qui magistratus, quod regnum potest esse praestantius quam despicientem omnia humana et inferiora sapientia ducentem nihil umquam nisi sempiternum et divinum animo volutare? cui persuasum sit appellari ceteros homines, esse solos eos, qui essent politi propriis humanitatis artibus;

“Exercise this in the best of pursuits! And the best are the cares for the safety of the country; the soul, driven and exercised by them, will the more swiftly fly to this seat and its home; and it will do this the more quickly if, even then, when it is shut in the body, it shall stretch out beyond, and contemplating the things outside, withdraw itself as much as possible from the body. For the souls of those who have given themselves up to the body’s pleasures, and have offered themselves as their ministers, and have, by the impulse of lusts obeying pleasures, violated the rights of gods and of men, when they have slipped from the body, roll about the earth itself, and do not return to this place except after many ages, when they have been thoroughly stirred.” He departed; I was loosed from sleep. [Closing fragments of Book 6, preserved by various authors.]

ut mihi Platonis illud, seu quis dixit alius, perelegans esse videatur; quem cum ex alto ignotas ad terras tempestas et in desertum litus detulisset, timentibus ceteris propter ignorationem locorum animadvertisse dicunt in arena geometricas formas quasdam esse descriptas; quas ut vidisset, exclamavisse, ut bono essent animo; videre enim se hominum vestigia; quae videlicet ille non ex agri consitura, quam cernebat, sed ex doctrinae indiciis interpretabatur. Quam ob rem, Tubero, semper mihi et doctrina et eruditi homines et tua ista studia placuerunt.

“But you will know this much more easily,” said Africanus, “if you see the commonwealth advancing, and coming by some natural road and course into the best constitution; nay, you will set down this very thing as praiseworthy in the wisdom of our forefathers — that you will understand that many things, even taken from elsewhere, became much better with us than they had been there whence they were taken hither, and where they had first arisen; and you will understand that the Roman people was made firm not by chance, but by counsel and discipline — nor yet with fortune turning against it.

Tum Laelius: Non audeo quidem, inquit, ad ista, Scipio, dicere, neque tam te aut Philum aut Manilium in ipsius paterno genere fuit noster ille amicus, dignus huic ad imitandum, Egregie cordatus homo, catus Aelius Sextus, qui ’egregie cordatus’ et ’catus’ fuit et ab Ennio dictus est, non quod ea quaerebat, quae numquam inveniret, sed quod ea respondebat, quae eos, qui quaesissent, et cura et negotio solverent, cuique contra Galli studia disputanti in ore semper erat ille de Iphigenia Achilles: A/strologorum si/gna in caelo qui/d fit observa/tionis, Cu/m capra aut nepa au/t exoritur no/men aliquod be/luarum! Quo/d est ante pedes ne/mo spectat, cae/li scrutantu/r plagas. Atque idem (multum enim illum audiebam et libenter) Zethum illum Pacuvii nimis inimicum doctrinae esse dicebat; magis eum delectabat Neoptolemus Ennii, qui se ait ’philosophari velle, sed paucis; nam omnino haud placere’. Quodsi studia Graecorum vos tanto opere delectant, sunt alia liberiora et transfusa latius, quae vel ad usum vitae vel etiam ad ipsam rem publicam conferre possumus. Istae quidem artes, si modo aliquid valent, id valent, ut paulum acuant et tamquam inritent ingenia puerorum, quo facilius possint maiora discere.

“With King Pompilius dead, the people, on the interrex’s proposal, by the curiate comitia made Tullus Hostilius king; and he, after the example of Pompilius, consulted the people in the curies on his command. His glory in military matters was outstanding, and great were his deeds in war. He both made and hedged about, from his spoils, the Comitium and the Curia. He set up the law by which wars should be declared — which, most justly invented by him, he sanctioned with the religion of the fetiales, that every war which had not been announced and declared should be judged unjust and impious. And, that you may turn your minds to how wisely our kings already saw that something must be granted to the people (for many things on that subject must be said by us), Tullus did not even dare use the kingly insignia except by command of the people. For that he might have twelve lictors with the rods marching before him …

Tum Tubero: Non dissentio a te, Laeli, sed quaero, quae tu esse maiora intellegas. Dicam mehercule et contemnar a te fortasse, cum tu ista caelestia de Scipione quaesieris, ego autem haec, quae videntur ante oculos esse, magis putem quaerenda. Quid enim mihi L. Pauli nepos, hoc avunculo, nobilissima in familia atque in hac tam clara re publica natus, quaerit, quo modo duo soles visi sint, non quaerit, cur in una re publica duo senatus et duo paene iam populi sint? Nam, ut videtis, mors Tiberii Gracchi et iam ante tota illius ratio tribunatus divisit populum unum in duas partis; obtrectatores autem et invidi Scipionis initiis factis a P. Crasso et Appio Claudio tenent nihilo minus illis mortuis senatus alteram partem dissidentem a vobis auctore Metello et P. Mucio neque hunc, qui unus potest, concitatis sociis et nomine Latino, foederibus violatis, triumviris seditiosissimis aliquid cotidie novi molientibus, bonis viris locupletibus perturbatis his tam periculosis rebus subvenire patiuntur.

[Aulus Gellius 1.22.8:] “I should not refuse, Laelius, were I not to think that they too wished it, and were I not myself eager that you also should touch some part of this our discussion, especially since yesterday you yourself said that you would have something left for us.” “But indeed that cannot be done; that you should not be wanting, we all ask you.” [Nonius:] … “but he is by no means to be listened to by our youth; for if he meant what he said, he is a foul man; but if otherwise (which I prefer), still his speech was monstrous.”

Quam ob rem, si me audietis, adulescentes, solem alterum ne metueritis; aut enim nullus esse potest, aut sit sane, ut visus est, modo ne sit molestus, aut scire istarum rerum nihil aut, etiamsi maxime sciemus, nec meliores ob eam scientiam nec beatiores esse possumus; senatum vero et populum ut unum habeamus, et fieri potest, et permolestum est, nisi fit, et secus esse scimus et videmus, si id effectum sit, et melius nos esse victuros et beatius.

[Lactantius, Divine Institutes 6.8.6:] “True law is right reason, agreeing with nature, diffused in all, constant, everlasting, which calls to duty by commanding and deters from fraud by forbidding; which yet bids the upright neither in vain nor forbids them, nor moves the wicked by commanding or forbidding. Against this law it is sin to legislate; nor is it lawful to derogate anything from it; nor can it be wholly abolished; nor can we be released from this law either by the senate or by the people; nor must any other expounder or interpreter of it be sought; nor will there be one law at Rome, another at Athens; one law now, another hereafter; but one and everlasting and unchanging law will hold all nations and at all time, and there will be one common, as it were, master and commander of all — God: He, the founder of this law, its arbiter, its proposer; whoever shall not obey it will flee himself, and despising the nature of man will by this very fact suffer the greatest penalties, even if he should escape the other punishments which are thought to be.”

Tum Mucius: Quid esse igitur censes, Laeli, discendum nobis, ut istud efficere possimus ipsum, quod postulas? Eas artis, quae efficiant, ut usui civitati simus; id enim esse praeclarissimum sapientiae munus maximumque virtutis vel documentum vel officium puto. Quam ob rem, ut hae feriae nobis ad utilissimos rei publicae sermones potissimum conferantur, Scipionem rogemus, ut explicet, quem existimet esse optimum statum civitatis. Deinde alia quaeremus; quibus cognitis spero nos ad haec ipsa via perventuros earumque rerum rationem, quae nunc instant, explicaturos.

“But from those penalties which even the most foolish feel — want, exile, chains, scourges — private men often slip away by the swiftness of death set before them. For states, however, death itself is the penalty, which seems to free single men from a penalty. For the state ought so to be set up that it be eternal. So there is no destruction of a commonwealth that is natural, as of a man, in whom death is not only necessary but very often even to be desired. But when a state is taken away, destroyed, blotted out, it is somehow alike — to compare small things with great — as if all this world should perish and fall.

Cum id et Philus et Manilius et Mummius admodum adproba vissent Diom. GL I, p. 365 Keil Nullum est exemplum, cui malimus adsimulare rem publicam. Non. p. 85M, p. 289M Quare, si placet, deduc orationem tuam de caelo ad haec citeriora. non solum ob eam causam fieri volui, quod erat aequum de re publica potissimum principem rei publicae dicere, sed etiam quod memineram persaepe te cum Panaetio disserere solitum coram Polybio, duobus Graecis vel peritissimis rerum civilium, multaque colligere ac docere, optimum longe statum civitatis esse eum, quem maiores nostri nobis reliquissent. Qua in disputatione quoniam tu paratior es, feceris, ut etiam pro his dicam, si, de re publica quid sentias, explicaris, nobis gratum omnibus.

… [his son] was easily received into the citizenship; on account of his cultivation and learning, he became intimate with King Ancus, even to such a degree that he was thought to share in all his counsels and to be almost a partner in the kingdom. There was in him besides the highest courtesy, the greatest generosity in giving help, aid, defence, even bounty to all citizens. So when Marcius died, by all the people’s votes Lucius Tarquinius was made king. For so he had bent his name from a Greek name, that in every kind of thing he might seem to have imitated the custom of this people. And, when he had carried a law on his command, he first doubled that original number of the senators, and called the old senators those of the major clans (whom he asked first for their opinion), those taken in by himself those of the minor.

Tum ille: Non possum equidem dicere me ulla in cogitatione acrius aut diligentius solere versari quam in ista ipsa, quae mihi, Laeli, a te proponitur. Etenim cum in suo quemque opere artificem, qui quidem excellat, nihil aliud cogitare, meditari, curare videam, nisi quo sit in illo genere melior, ego, cum mihi sit unum opus hoc a parentibus maioribusque meis relictum, procuratio atque administratio rei publicae, non me inertiorem esse confitear quam opificem quemquam, si minus in maxima arte, quam illi in minimis, operae consumpserim?

[Augustine, City of God 19.21:] “Why, then, does God rule man, the mind the body, reason lust and the other faulty parts of the mind?”

Sed neque his contentus sum, quae de ista consultatione scripta nobis summi ex Graecia sapientissimique homines reliquerunt, neque ea, quae mihi videntur, anteferre illis audeo. Quam ob rem peto a vobis, ut me sic audiatis, neque ut omnino expertem Graecarum rerum neque ut eas nostris in hoc praesertim genere anteponentem, sed ut unum e togatis patris diligentia non inliberaliter institutum studioque discendi a pueritia incensum, usu tamen et domesticis praeceptis multo magis eruditum quam litteris.

[Augustine, Against Julian 4.12.61:] “Do we not see that lordship has been given by nature itself to every best man, with the highest advantage of the weak? Why, then, does God rule man, the mind the body, reason lust and anger and the other faulty parts of the same mind?” [Augustine:] “But the dissimilitudes both of commanding and of serving are to be known. For as the mind is said to command the body, so it is said also to command lust; but the body as a king his citizens or a parent his children, but lust as a master slaves — because it represses and breaks it. Just so the commands of kings, of generals, of magistrates, of fathers, of peoples preside over citizens and allies as the mind over the body; whereas masters wear out their slaves as the best part of the mind, that is, wisdom, [wears out] the faulty and weak parts of the same mind, the lusts and angers and other passions.” [Augustine, City of God 14.23:] “so that the children’s command [is exercised] over the body’s members on account of their ease of obeying; the faulty parts of the mind, however, [are restrained] like slaves with a harsher rule.” [Nonius:] “For there is a kind of unjust slavery, when those are another’s who could be their own; but when they serve [a master, that is just]…”

Hic Philus: Non hercule, inquit, Scipio, dubito, quin tibi ingenio praestiterit nemo, usu quidem in re publica rerum maximarum facile omnis viceris; quibus autem studiis semper fueris, tenemus. Quam ob rem, si, ut dicis, animum quoque contulisti in istam rationem et quasi artem, habeo maximam gratiam Laelio; spero enim multo uberiora fore, quae a te dicentur, quam illa, quae a Graecis hominibus scripta sunt, omnia. Tum ille: Permagnam tu quidem expectationem, quod onus est ei, qui magnis de rebus dicturus est, gravissimum, inponis orationi meae. Et Philus: Quamvis sit magna, tamen eam vinces, ut soles; neque enim est periculum, ne te de re publica disserentem deficiat oratio.

“But when Tarquinius had perished by the plot of Ancus’s sons, and Servius, as I said before, had begun to reign, not by command but by the will and consent of the citizens (because, when Tarquinius had been falsely said to be sick from his wound and yet alive, Servius had pronounced judgement in royal robes, freed debtors with his own money, and, by the use of the greatest courtesy, had made it credible that he gave judgement at Tarquinius’s command), he did not commit himself to the senators; but, with Tarquinius buried, he himself consulted the people about himself, and being ordered to reign carried a curiate law about his command. And first he avenged in war the wrongs of the Etruscans; out of which when …

Hic Scipio: Faciam, quod vultis, ut potero, et ingrediar in disputationem ea lege, qua credo omnibus in rebus disserendis utendum esse, si errorem velis tollere, ut eius rei, de qua quaeretur, si, nomen quod sit, conveniat, explicetur, quid declaretur eo nomine; quod si convenerit, tum demum decebit ingredi in sermonem; numquam enim, quale sit illud, de quo disputabitur, intellegi poterit, nisi, quid sit, fuerit intellectum prius. Quare, quoniam de re publica quaerimus, hoc primum videamus, quid sit id ipsum, quod quaerimus. Cum adprobavisset Laelius, Nec vero, inquit Africanus, ita disseram de re tam inlustri tamque nota, ut ad illa elementa revolvar, quibus uti docti homines his in rebus solent, ut a prima congressione maris et feminae, deinde a progenie et cognatione ordiar verbisque, quid sit et quot modis quidque dicatur, definiam saepius; apud prudentes enim homines et in maxima re publica summa cum gloria belli domique versatos cum loquar, non committam, ut non sit inlustrior illa ipsa res, de qua disputem, quam oratio mea; nec enim hoc suscepi, ut tamquam magister persequerer omnia, neque hoc polliceor me effecturum, ut ne qua particula in hoc sermone praetermissa sit. Tum Laelius: Ego vero istud ipsum genus orationis, quod polliceris, expecto.

[Priscian:] “… in which I assent that anxious and dangerous justice is not the wise man’s [concern].”

Est igitur, inquit Africanus, res publica res populi, populus autem non omnis hominum coetus quoquo modo congregatus, sed coetus multitudinis iuris consensu et utilitatis communione sociatus. Eius autem prima causa coeundi est non tam inbecillitas quam naturalis quaedam hominum quasi congregatio; non est enim singulare nec solivagum genus hoc, sed ita generatum, ut ne in omnium quidem rerum affluen tia

[Augustine quotes Cicero:] In a brief time, the dispersed and wandering multitude had become, by concord, a single state.

August. epist. 138.10 Brevi multitudo dispersa atque vaga concordia civitas facta erat.

… [in] Asia Tiberius Gracchus persisted [in his ways] toward our citizens; he despised the rights of the allies and the Latin name and the treaties. If this habit and licence shall begin to spread further and shall translate our command from right to force, so that those who up to now obey us by their will may be held by terror — although for those of us who are of this age, the watch is well-nigh over, yet I am anxious for our descendants and for that immortality of the commonwealth, which could have been perpetual, were the country to live by its ancestral institutions and morals.”

quae dam quasi semina, neque reliquarum virtutum nec ipsius rei publicae reperiatur ulla institutio. Hi coetus igitur hac, de qua exposui, causa instituti sedem primum certo loco domiciliorum causa constituerunt; quam cum locis manuque saepsissent, eius modi coniunctionem tectorum oppidum vel urbem appellaverunt delubris distinctam spatiisque communibus. Omnis ergo populus, qui est talis coetus multitudinis, qualem exposui, omnis civitas, quae est constitutio populi, omnis res publica, quae, ut dixi, populi res est, consilio quodam regenda est, ut diuturna sit. Id autem consilium primum semper ad eam causam referendum est, quae causa genuit civitatem.

When Laelius had said this, although all who were present made known that they were greatly delighted by him, yet beyond the rest Scipio, raised up as if by some joy: “You have, Laelius, defended many causes so often, that I should not compare with you not only Servius Galba, our colleague, whom you, while he lived, set above all others, but not even any of the Attic orators in his … [textual gap] [Nonius:] “Two things, he said, were lacking in him to keep him from speaking among the people and in the forum: confidence, and a voice.” [Scholiast on Juvenal:] “With the groan of the men shut up inside, the bull lowed.”

Deinde aut uni tribuendum est aut delectis quibusdam aut suscipiendum est multitudini atque omnibus. Quare cum penes unum est omnium summa rerum, regem illum unum vocamus et regnum eius rei publicae statum. Cum autem est penes delectos, tum illa civitas optimatium arbitrio regi dicitur. Illa autem est civitas popularis (sic enim appellant), in qua in populo sunt omnia. Atque horum trium generum quodvis, si teneat illud vinclum, quod primum homines inter se rei publicae societate devinxit, non perfectum illud quidem neque mea sententia optimum est, sed tolerabile tamen, ut aliud alio possit esse praestantius. Nam vel rex aequus ac sapiens vel delecti ac principes cives vel ipse populus, quamquam id est minime probandum, tamen nullis interiectis iniquitatibus aut cupiditatibus posse videtur aliquo esse non incerto statu.

“… [Phalaris’s bull] to bring back. Therefore who would call that a thing of the people — that is, a commonwealth — when, by the cruelty of one, all are crushed, and there is neither one bond of right nor any agreement and association of an assembly, which is what a people is? And the same at Syracuse: that splendid city, which Timaeus calls the greatest of Greek cities, and the most beautiful of all, with a citadel to be seen, harbours flowing into the very bays of the town and to the city’s quays, broad streets, colonnades, temples, walls — not at all the more, while Dionysius held it, was it a commonwealth: for nothing belonged to the people, and the people itself belonged to one. Therefore where there is a tyrant, there must be said — not (as I said yesterday) a corrupt commonwealth, but, as reason now compels, plainly no commonwealth at all.

Sed et in regnis nimis expertes sunt ceteri communis iuris et consilii, et in optimatium dominatu vix particeps libertatis potest esse multitudo, cum omni consilio communi ac potestate careat, et cum omnia per populum geruntur quamvis iustum atque moderatum, tamen ipsa aequabilitas est iniqua, cum habet nullos gradus dignitatis. Itaque si Cyrus ille Perses iustissimus fuit sapientissimusque rex, tamen mihi populi res (ea enim est, ut dixi antea, publica) non maxime expetenda fuisse illa videtur, cum regeretur unius nutu ac modo; si Massilienses, nostri clientes, per delectos et principes cives summa iustitia reguntur, inest tamen in ea condicione populi similitudo quaedam servitutis; si Athenienses quibusdam temporibus sublato Areopago nihil nisi populi scitis ac decretis agebant, quoniam distinctos dignitatis gradus non habebant, non tenebat ornatum suum civitas.

“You speak excellently,” said Laelius; “for I see now whither your speech is going.” “Do you see, then, that not even that one which is wholly in the power of a faction can truly be called a commonwealth?” “So plainly I judge.” “And most rightly you judge. For what was that thing of the Athenians, when, after that great Peloponnesian war, those thirty men presided most unjustly over the city? Did either the city’s old glory, or the splendid look of the town, or the theatre, the gymnasia, the colonnades, or the noble propylaea, or the citadel, or the wonderful works of Phidias, or that magnificent Piraeus make it a commonwealth?” “Not at all,” said Laelius, “since indeed it was no thing of the people.” “What? When the decemvirs at Rome were without right of appeal in that third year, when liberty itself had lost the right of claiming security?” “It was no thing of the people — nay, the people itself acted to recover its own thing.”

Atque hoc loquor de tribus his generibus rerum publicarum non turbatis atque permixtis, sed suum statum tenentibus. Quae genera primum sunt in iis singula vitiis, quae ante dixi, deinde habent perniciosa alia vitia; nullum est enim genus illarum rerum publicarum, quod non habeat iter ad finitimum quoddam malum praeceps ac lubricum. Nam illi regi, ut eum potissimum nominem, tolerabili aut, si voltis, etiam amabili, Cyro, subest ad inmutandi animi licentiam crudelissimus ille Phalaris, cuius in similitudinem dominatus unius proclivi cursu et facile delabitur. Illi autem Massiliensium paucorum et principum administrationi civitatis finitimus est, qui fuit quodam tempore apud Athenienses triginta virorum consensus et factio. Iam Atheniensium populi potestatem omnium rerum ipsi, ne alios requiramus, ad furorem multitudinis licentiamque conversam pesti

“I come now to that third kind, in which there will perhaps appear straits. When all things are said to be done by the people and to be in the power of the people, when the multitude takes punishment of whomever it wishes, when they drive on, snatch up, hold, dissipate the things they wish — can you then deny, Laelius, that it is a commonwealth? When all is the people’s, since indeed we wish a commonwealth to be the people’s affair?” Then Laelius: “And nothing more swiftly than that would I deny to be a commonwealth, which is wholly …” [textual gap] … “But … [we have agreed] that there was no commonwealth at Syracuse, nor at Agrigentum, nor at Athens, when there were tyrants; nor here, when there were the decemvirs. Nor do I see how the name of commonwealth can the more appear under the lordship of a multitude. For first, a people, as you have most excellently defined, Scipio, is no people unless it is held together by the agreement of right; but that mob is as much a tyrant as if it were one — the more foul because no beast is more savage than that thing which imitates the appearance and the name of a people. Nor is it fitting that, when by the laws the goods of madmen are in the power of their kinsmen […]…

deterrimus et ex hac vel optimatium vel factiosa tyrannica illa vel regia vel etiam persaepe popularis, itemque ex ea genus aliquod ecflorescere ex illis, quae ante dixi, solet, mirique sunt orbes et quasi circumitus in rebus publicis commutationum et vicissitudinum; quos cum cognosse sapientis est, tum vero prospicere inpendentis in gubernanda re publica moderantem cursum atque in sua potestate retinentem magni cuiusdam civis et divini paene est viri. Itaque quartum quoddam genus rei publicae maxime probandum esse sentio, quod est ex his, quae prima dixi, moderatum et permixtum tribus.

… [the same things] could be said: why is that a commonwealth and an affair of the people, which has been said about a kingdom?” “And much more so,” said Mummius; “for the likeness of a master falls more on a king, since he is one. But where many good men shall hold the matters of the commonwealth, nothing can be more blessed than it. Yet I would rather have a kingdom than a free people; that third kind of most corrupted commonwealth remains for you.”

Hic Laelius: Scio tibi ita placere, Africane; saepe enim ex te audivi; sed tamen, nisi molestum est, ex tribus istis modis rerum publicarum velim scire quod optimum iudices. Nam vel profuerit aliquod ad cog

Here Scipio: “I recognize,” he said, “Spurius, that custom of yours, averse from the system of the people; and although it can be borne more mildly than you are wont to bear it, still I assent that there is none of these three kinds which is less to be approved. But on this I do not assent to you, that the optimates are to be preferred to a king; for if it is wisdom that steers the commonwealth, what does it matter whether this be in one or in many? But we are deceived by some error in arguing thus; for when men are called optimates, nothing can seem more excellent — for what better thing can be thought than the best? But when mention is made of a king, an unjust king too comes to mind. We, however, are saying nothing now of an unjust king, since we are inquiring about the kingly commonwealth itself. Therefore think of Romulus or Pompilius or Tullus as king, and perhaps you will be less displeased with that commonwealth.”

et talis est quaeque res publica, qualis eius aut natura aut voluntas, qui illam regit. Itaque nulla alia in civitate, nisi in qua populi potestas summa est, ullum domicilium libertas habet; qua quidem certe nihil potest esse dulcius, et quae, si aequa non est, ne libertas quidem est. Qui autem aequa potest esse, omitto dicere in regno, ubi ne obscura quidem est aut dubia servitus, sed in istis civitatibus, in quibus verbo sunt liberi omnes? ferunt enim suffragia, mandant inperia, magistratus, ambiuntur, rogantur, sed ea dant, quae, etiamsi nolint, danda sint, et quae ipsi non habent, unde alii petunt; sunt enim expertes imperii, consilii publici, iudicii delectorum iudicum, quae familiarum vetustatibus aut pecuniis ponderantur. In libero autem populo, ut Rhodi, ut Athenis, nemo est civium, qui

“What praise, then, do you leave for a popular commonwealth?” Then he: “What? Does the commonwealth of the Rhodians, Spurius, with whom we lately stayed together, seem to you no commonwealth at all?” “It seems to me a commonwealth indeed, and by no means to be reproached.” “You speak rightly. But, if you remember, all were the same men, sometimes from the plebs, sometimes senators; and they had alternations, in which months they performed the popular service, in which the senatorial. In either they received their pay; both in the theatre and in the curia they judged capital and all other matters; the senate was as powerful, and worth as much as, the multitude … [Book 3 fragments preserved by other authors]

po pulo aliquis unus pluresve divitiores opulentioresque extitissent, tum ex eorum fastidio et superbia nata esse commemorant cedentibus ignavis et inbecillis et adrogantiae divitum succumbentibus. Si vero ius suum populi teneant, negant quicquam esse praestantius, liberius, beatius, quippe qui domini sint legum, iudiciorum, belli, pacis, foederum, capitis unius cuiusque, pecuniae. Hanc unam rite rem publicam, id est rem populi, appellari putant. Itaque et a regum et a patrum dominatione solere in libertatem rem populi vindicari, non ex liberis populis reges requiri aut potestatem atque opes optimatium.

“So you have the first rise of the tyrant; for the Greeks wished this name to belong to an unjust king. Our own people called all those kings who alone had perpetual power over peoples. Hence both Spurius Cassius and Marcus Manlius and Spurius Maelius are said to have wished to seize a kingdom, and lately Tiberius Gracchus …

Et vero negant oportere indomiti populi vitio genus hoc totum liberi populi repudiari, concordi populo et omnia referente ad incolumitatem et ad libertatem suam nihil esse inmutabilius, nihil firmius; facillimam autem in ea re publica esse concordiam, in qua idem conducat omnibus; ex utilitatis varietatibus, cum aliis aliud expediat, nasci discordias; itaque, cum patres rerum potirentur, numquam constitisse civitatis statum; multo iam id in regnis minus, quorum, ut ait Ennius, ’nulla regni sancta societas nec fides est.’ Quare cum lex sit civilis societatis vinculum, ius autem legis aequale, quo iure societas civium teneri potest, cum par non sit condicio civium? Si enim pecunias aequari non placet, si ingenia omnium paria esse non possunt, iura certe paria debent esse eorum inter se, qui sunt cives in eadem re publica. Quid est enim civitas nisi iuris societas?

“Lycurgus called those at Lacedaemon gerontes — too few indeed, twenty-eight — in whose hands he wished the chief counsel to be, while the king held the chief command. From whom our forefathers, following and interpreting the same thing, named those whom he called the senes the senate, as we said Romulus had already done with the chosen senators (patres). Yet there the kingly force, power, and name stand out and are eminent. You allot some power to the people, as both Lycurgus and Romulus did; you do not satisfy them with liberty, but inflame them with the desire of liberty, when you have only given them the power of tasting it; and there will always hang over you the fear that the king (which often happens) may turn out to be unjust. Therefore that fortune of a people is fragile which is set in the will or morals of one man, as I said before.

Ceteras vero res publicas ne appellandas quidem putant iis nominibus, quibus illae sese appellari velint. Cur enim regem appellem Iovis optimi nomine hominem dominandi cupidum aut imperii singularis, populo oppresso dominantem, non tyrannum potius? tam enim esse clemens tyrannus quam rex inportunus potest; ut hoc populorum intersit, utrum comi domino an aspero serviant; quin serviant quidem, fieri non potest. Quo autem modo adsequi poterat Lacedaemo illa tum, cum praestare putabatur disciplina rei publicae, ut bonis uteretur iustisque regibus, cum esset habendus rex, quicumque genere regio natus esset? Nam optimatis quidem quis ferat, qui non populi concessu, sed suis comitiis hoc sibi nomen adrogaverunt? Qui enim iudicatur iste optimus? doctrina, artibus, studiis

“Wherefore let this be the first form, and image, and origin of a tyrant, found by us in that commonwealth which Romulus founded with auspices, not in that one which (as Plato has set out) Socrates himself depicted in that tripartite discourse: how, like Tarquinius, having gained no new power but using unjustly that which he had, he overturned this whole kind of regal state. Let there be set against him another, good and wise and skilled in the advantage and dignity of the citizens, as it were the guardian and steward of the commonwealth: for so let him be called, whoever shall be ruler and steersman of the state. Make sure you recognize that man; for he is the one who can guard the state by counsel and effort. Since this name is up to now less worn in our speech, and the kind of this man will more often have to be handled in the rest of our discourse …

si fortuito id faciet, tam cito evertetur quam navis, si e vectoribus sorte ductus ad gubernacula accesserit. Quodsi liber populus deliget, quibus se committat, deligetque, si modo salvus esse vult, optimum quemque, certe in optimorum consiliis posita est civitatium salus, praesertim cum hoc natura tulerit, non solum ut summi virtute et animo praeessent inbecillioribus, sed ut hi etiam parere summis velint. Verum hunc optimum statum pravis hominum opinionibus eversum esse dicunt, qui ignoratione virtutis, quae cum in paucis est, tum a paucis iudicatur et cernitur, opulentos homines et copiosos, tum genere nobili natos esse optimos putant. Hoc errore vulgi cum rem publicam opes paucorum, non virtutes tenere coeperunt, nomen illi principes optimatium mordicus tenent, re autem carent eo nomine. Nam divitiae, nomen, opes vacuae consilio et vivendi atque aliis imperandi modo dedecoris plenae sunt et insolentis superbiae, nec ulla deformior species est civitatis quam illa, in qua opulentissimi optimi putantur.

… [Plato sought] foundations, and arrived at a state to be hoped for rather than wished for, as small as he could — not what could exist, but in which the system of civic affairs could be looked into. But I, if I can in any way attain it, by the same reasonings which he saw, will strive — not in the shadow and image of a state, but in the most extensive commonwealth — to seem to touch each cause of public good and ill as if with a wand. For when those two hundred and forty-odd kingly years had passed, with the interregnums included, and Tarquin had been driven out, the Roman people held so great a hatred of the kingly name as it had held longing for it after the death — or rather the departure — of Romulus. Therefore, as it had then been unable to do without a king, so, with Tarquin driven out, it could not bear to hear the name of king. Here, when …

Virtute vero gubernante rem publicam quid potest esse praeclarius? cum is, qui inperat aliis, servit ipse nulli cupiditati, cum, quas ad res civis instituit et vocat, eas omnis conplexus est ipse nec leges inponit populo, quibus ipse non pareat, sed suam vitam ut legem praefert suis civibus. Qui si unus satis omnia consequi posset, nihil opus esset pluribus; si universi videre optimum et in eo consentire possent, nemo delectos principes quaereret. Difficultas ineundi consilii rem a rege ad plures, error et temeritas populorum a multitudine ad paucos transtulit. Sic inter infirmitatem unius temeritatemque multorum medium optimates possederunt locum, quo nihil potest esse moderatius; quibus rem publicam tuentibus beatissimos esse populos necesse est vacuos omni cura et cogitatione aliis permisso otio suo, quibus id tuendum est neque committendum, ut sua commoda populus neglegi a principibus putet.

… that whole law was annulled. With this in mind our forefathers then both drove out the innocent Collatinus on the suspicion of his kinship, and the rest of the Tarquinii on the offence of the name; and with the same mind Publius Valerius first ordered the rods to be lowered, when he had begun to speak in the assembly, and brought down his house under the Velia, after he saw the people’s suspicion stirred because he had begun to build on a higher place of the Velia, in that very spot where King Tullus had lived. The same man — in which Publicola most especially showed his name — carried the law to the people, the first carried in the centuriate comitia: that no magistrate should put a Roman citizen to death or scourge him against his appeal.

Nam aequabilitas quidem iuris, quam amplexantur liberi populi, neque servari potest (ipsi enim populi, quamvis soluti ecfrenatique sint, praecipue multis multa tribuunt, et est in ipsis magnus dilectus hominum et dignitatum), eaque, quae appellatur aequabilitas, iniquissima est. Cum enim par habetur honos summis et infimis, qui sint in omni populo necesse est, ipsa aequitas iniquissima est; quod in iis civitatibus, quae ab optimis reguntur, accidere non potest. Haec fere, Laeli, et quaedam eiusdem generis ab iis, qui eam formam rei publicae maxime laudant, disputari solent.

“That appeal lay even from kings is shown by the books of the pontifices, and ours of the augurs make the same plain; and that one might appeal from every judgement and penalty the Twelve Tables show in many laws. And what has been handed down to memory — that the decemvirs who wrote the laws were created without right of appeal — shows clearly enough that other magistrates were not without appeal; and the consular law of Lucius Valerius Potitus and Marcus Horatius Barbatus, men wisely friendly to the people for the sake of concord, sanctioned that no magistrate should be created without right of appeal. Nor did the Porcian laws — which are three, of three Porcii, as you know — bring anything new beyond a sanction.

Tum Laelius: Quid tu, inquit, Scipio? e tribus istis quod maxime probas? Recte quaeris, quod maxime e tribus, quoniam eorum nullum ipsum per se separatim probo anteponoque singulis illud, quod conflatum fuerit ex omnibus. Sed si unum ac simplex pro bandum sit, regium pro bem....... pri........ in.................... hoc loco appellatur, occurrit nomen quasi patrium regis, ut ex se natis, ita consulentis suis civibus et eos conservantis stu dios ius quam.....entis.......tem.........is.........tibus...........uos sustentari unius optimi et summi viri diligentia.

“So Publicola, after that law on appeal had been carried, immediately ordered the axes to be taken from the rods; and on the next day he had Spurius Lucretius substituted to himself as colleague, and ordered his own lictors to pass over to him, because he was older; and he was the first to lay it down that, for each consul in turn, the lictors should march before him in alternate months, that there should not be more insignia of command in a free people than there had been under a kingdom. This man, as I at least understand, was no middling man, who, by giving the people moderate liberty, more easily kept the authority of the leading men. Nor do I now without cause sing to you these so old and so worn things, but in distinguished persons and times I lay down examples of men and matters, to which the rest of my speech may be directed.

Adsunt optimates, qui se melius hoc idem facere profiteantur plusque fore dicant in pluribus consilii quam in uno et eandem tamen aequitatem et fidem. Ecce autem maxima voce clamat populus neque se uni neque paucis velle parere; libertate ne feris quidem quicquam esse dulcius; hac omnes carere, sive regi sive optimatibus serviant. Ita caritate nos capiunt reges, consilio optimates, libertate populi, ut in comparando difficile ad eligendum sit, quid maxime velis. Credo, inquit, sed expediri, quae restant, vix poterunt, si hoc incohatum reliqueris.

“In this state, then, the senate held the commonwealth in those times, that in a free people few things were done by the people, most by the authority and ordinance and custom of the senate; and that the consuls held a power that was indeed yearly in time, but kingly in kind itself and in right. And what was perhaps the chief means of keeping power among the nobility was strenuously kept up: that the people’s comitia were not valid unless the authority of the senators had approved them. And in these very times, almost ten years after the first consuls, a dictator was instituted — Titus Larcius — and that new kind of command seemed near to the likeness of a kingdom. But still all things were held with the highest authority by the leading men, while the people gave way; and great matters in those times were carried on in war by the bravest men, equipped with supreme command, dictators and consuls.

Imitemur ergo Aratum, qui magnis de rebus dicere exordiens a Iove incipiendum putat. Quo Iove? aut quid habet illius carminis simile haec oratio? Tantum, inquit, ut rite ab eo dicendi principia capiamus, quem unum omnium deorum et hominum regem esse omnes docti indoctique † expoliri consentiunt. Quid? inquit Laelius. Et ille: Quid censes, nisi quod est ante oculos? Sive haec ad utilitatem vitae constituta sunt a principibus rerum publicarum, ut rex putaretur unus esse in caelo, qui nutu, ut ait Homerus, totum Olympum converteret idemque et rex et pater haberetur omnium, magna auctoritas est multique testes, siquidem omnis multos appellari placet, ita consensisse gentes decretis videlicet principum, nihil esse rege melius, quoniam deos omnis censent unius regi numine; sive haec in errore inperitorum posita esse et fabularum similia didicimus, audiamus communis quasi doctores eruditorum hominum, qui tamquam oculis illa viderunt, quae nos vix audiendo cognoscimus. Quinam, inquit Laelius, isti sunt? Et ille: Qui natura omnium rerum pervestiganda senserunt omnem hunc mundum mente

“For when the state was disturbed by debt, the plebs took possession first of the Sacred Mount, then of the Aventine. Not even the discipline of Lycurgus held those reins among the Greeks; for at Sparta also, in the reign of Theopompus, there are likewise five whom they call ephors; in Crete ten, who are called cosmoe — as the tribunes of the plebs were set against the consular command, so they were set against the kingly force.

Sed, si vis, Laeli, dabo tibi testes nec nimis antiquos nec ullo modo barbaros. Istos, inquit, volo. Videsne igitur minus quadringentorum annorum esse hanc urbem, ut sine regibus sit? Vero minus. Quid ergo? haec quadringentorum annorum aetas ut urbis et civitatis num valde longa est? Ista vero, inquit, adulta vix. Ergo his annis quadringentis Romae rex erat? Et superbus quidem. Quid supra? Iustissimus, et deinceps retro usque ad Romulum, qui ab hoc tempore anno sescentesimo rex erat. Ergo ne iste quidem pervetus? Minime ac prope senescente iam Graecia. Cedo, num, Scipio, barbarorum Romulus rex fuit? Si, ut Graeci dicunt omnis aut Graios esse aut barbaros, vereor, ne barbarorum rex fuerit; sin id nomen moribus dandum est, non linguis, non Graecos minus barbaros quam Romanos puto. Et Scipio: Atqui ad hoc, de quo agitur, non quaerimus gentem, ingenia quaerimus. Si enim et prudentes homines et non veteres reges habere voluerunt, utor neque perantiquis neque inhumanis ac feris testibus.

“There had been perhaps some way for our forefathers of remedying that debt, which had escaped neither the Athenian Solon not long before, nor afterwards by no long time our own senate; when, on account of one man’s lust, all bonds of citizens were freed, and afterwards the binding ceased; and always for this kind, when the plebs, weakened by the public disaster of expenditures, was failing, some relief and remedy has been sought for the safety of all. With which counsel then passed by, the cause arose for the people, with two tribunes of the plebs created in the sedition, that the power and authority of the senate should be lessened. Yet that authority remained heavy and great, because the wisest and bravest men, guarding the state with arms and counsel, flourished above all in authority — because, while they far surpassed the rest in office, they were inferior in pleasures and not generally superior in money; and so the virtue of each was the more welcome in public matters, because, in private matters, they most diligently watched over each citizen by service, counsel, and substance.

Tum Laelius: Video te, Scipio, testimoniis satis instructum, sed apud me, ut apud bonum iudicem, argumenta plus quam testes valent. Tum Scipio: Utere igitur argumento, Laeli, tute ipse sensus tui. Cuius, inquit ille, sensus? Si quando, si forte, tibi visus es irasci alicui. Ego vero saepius, quam vellem. Quid? tum, cum tu es iratus, permittis illi iracundiae dominatum animi tui? Non mehercule, inquit, sed imitor Archytam illum Tarentinum, qui cum ad villam venisset et omnia aliter offendisset ac iusserat, ’A te infelicem’, inquit vilico, ’quem necassem iam verberibus, nisi iratus essem.’ Optime, inquit Scipio.

“In which condition of the commonwealth, when Spurius Cassius, flourishing in the highest favour with the people, was working to seize a kingdom, the quaestor accused him; and as you have heard, when his father said he had found him to be in that fault, with the people giving way, he had him put to death. And in about the fifty-fourth year after the first consuls, the consuls Spurius Tarpeius and Aulus Aternius carried that grateful law on a fine and bond in the centuriate comitia. Twenty years later, after the censors Lucius Papirius and Publius Pinarius, by demanding many fines, had turned the substance of cattle from private men to the public, a light valuation of cattle in the law on fines was established by the consuls Gaius Iulius and Publius Papirius.

Ergo Archytas iracundiam videlicet dissidentem a ratione seditionem quandam animi vere ducebat eam que consilio sedari volebat; adde avaritiam, adde imperii, adde gloriae cupiditatem, adde libidines; et illud vides, si in animis hominum regale imperium sit, unius fore dominatum, consilii scilicet (ea est enim animi pars optima), consilio autem dominante nullum esse libidinibus, nullum irae, nullum temeritati locum. Sic, inquit, est. Probas igitur animum ita adfectum? Nihil vero, inquit, magis. Ergo non probares, si consilio pulso libidines, quae sunt innumerabiles, iracundiaeve tenerent omnia? Ego vero nihil isto animo, nihil ita animato homine miserius ducerem. Sub regno igitur tibi esse placet omnis animi partes, et eas regi consilio? Mihi vero sic placet. Cur igitur dubitas, quid de re publica sentias? in qua, si in plures translata res sit, intellegi iam licet nullum fore, quod praesit, inperium, quod quidem, nisi unum sit, esse nullum potest.

“But some years before, when the highest authority lay in the senate and the people were patient and obedient, a method was devised: that both the consuls and the tribunes of the plebs should resign their magistracy, and that ten men should be created with supreme power and without right of appeal, who should both hold the chief command and write the laws. When they had written ten tables, with the highest fairness and prudence in the laws, they substituted, for the next year, other decemvirs, whose faith and justice were not similarly praised. Yet from that college that singular praise belongs to Gaius Iulius, who, when he himself held supreme power because he was a decemvir without right of appeal, yet demanded sureties of a noble man, Lucius Sestius, in whose bedroom he said he had seen a dead body dug up, in his own presence: because he denied he would neglect that famous law which forbade the trial of a Roman citizen on a capital charge except by the centuriate comitia.

Tum Laelius: Quid, quaeso, interest inter unum et plures, si iustitia est in pluribus? Et Scipio: Quoniam testibus meis intellexi, Laeli, te non valde moveri, non desinam te uti teste, ut hoc, quod dico, probem. Me, inquit ille, quonam modo? Quia animum adverti nuper, cum essemus in Formiano, te familiae valde interdicere, ut uni dicto audiens esset. Quippe vilico. Quid? domi pluresne praesunt negotiis tuis? Immo vero unus, inquit. Quid? totam domum num quis alter praeter te regit? Minime vero. Quin tu igitur concedis idem in re publica, singulorum dominatus, si modo iusti sint, esse optimos? Adducor, inquit, ut prope modum adsentiar.

“A third year of the decemvirs followed, when the same men were [in office] and would not have others substituted. In this condition of the commonwealth — which I have already often said could not last long, because it was not equal in all orders of the state — the whole commonwealth was in the hands of the leading men, with the most noble decemvirs presiding, no tribunes of the plebs set against them, no other magistrates joined to them, no right of appeal to the people left against death and stripes.

Et Scipio: Tum magis adsentiare, Laeli, si, ut omittam similitudines, uni gubernatori, uni medico, si digni modo sint iis artibus, rectius esse alteri navem committere, aegrum alteri quam multis, ad maiora pervenero. Quaenam ista sunt? Quid? tu non vides unius inportunitate et superbia Tarquinii nomen huic populo in odium venisse regium? Video vero, inquit. Ergo etiam illud vides, de quo progrediente oratione plura me dicturum puto, Tarquinio exacto mira quadam exultasse populum insolentia libertatis; tum exacti in exilium innocentes, tum bona direpta multorum, tum annui consules, tum demissi populo fasces, tum provocationes omnium rerum, tum secessiones plebei, tum prorsus ita acta pleraque, ut in populo essent omnia. Est, inquit, ut dicis.

“Therefore, out of the injustice of these men, suddenly arose the greatest disturbance and a total change of the commonwealth. They had added two tables of unjust laws, in which they sanctioned with most inhuman law that even those marriages which are wont to be granted to peoples disjoined from us should not exist between plebeians and patricians (this was afterwards annulled by Canuleius’s plebiscite); and they presided over the people in every command lustfully, harshly, and greedily. Famous, of course, is that affair, celebrated in many records of letters: when one Decimus Verginius slew his maiden daughter with his own hand in the Forum on account of the lust of one of those decemvirs, and, mourning, fled to the army (which was then on Algidus); and how the soldiers left the war they had in hand, and first occupied, in arms, the Sacred Mount (as had been done before in like cause), and afterwards the Aventine …

Est vero, inquit Scipio, in pace et otio; licet enim lascivire, dum nihil metuas, ut in navi ac saepe etiam in morbo levi. Sed ut ille, qui navigat, cum subito mare coepit horrescere, et ille aeger ingravescente morbo unius opem inplorat, sic noster populus in pace et domi imperat et ipsis magistratibus minatur, recusat, appellat, provocat, in bello sic paret ut regi; valet enim salus plus quam libido. Gravioribus vero bellis etiam sine collega omne imperium nostri penes singulos esse voluerunt, quorum ipsum nomen vim suae potestatis indicat. Nam dictator quidem ab eo appellatur, quia dicitur, sed in nostris libris vides eum, Laeli, magistrum populi appellari. Video, inquit. Et Scipio: Sapienter igitur illi vete res

When Scipio had said this, and the rest of his discourse was awaited in the silence of all, then Tubero: “Since these elders of ours ask nothing of you, Africanus, you shall hear from me what I find wanting in your speech.” “Indeed,” said Scipio, “and gladly.” Then he: “You seem to me to have praised our commonwealth, when Laelius had asked you not about ours, but about every commonwealth. Yet I have not learned from your speech by what discipline, what morals, what laws we may set up or preserve that very commonwealth which you praise.”

iusto quidem rege cum est populus orbatus, ’pectora diu tenet desiderium’, sicut ait Ennius, ’post optimi regis obitum’; simul inter Sese sic memorant: ’o Romule, Romule die, Qualem te patriae custodem di genuerunt! O pater, o genitor, o sanguen dis oriundum!’ Non eros nec dominos appellabant eos, quibus iuste paruerunt, denique ne reges quidem, sed patriae custodes, sed patres, sed deos; nec sine causa; quid enim adiungunt? Tu produxisti nos intra luminis oras. Vitam, honorem, decus sibi datum esse iustitia regis existimabant. Mansisset eadem voluntas in eorum posteris, si regum similitudo permansisset, sed vides unius iniustitia concidisse genus illud totum rei publicae. Video vero, inquit, et studeo cursus istos mutationum non magis in nostra quam in omni re publica noscere.

Here Africanus: “I think there will soon be a fitter place for us, Tubero, to discuss the founding and preserving of states; on the best constitution, however, I thought I had answered enough to what Laelius had asked. For first I had distinguished by number three approved kinds of states, and three ruinous opposed to those three; that none of these by itself was the best, but that there stood out above the single ones that which was moderately tempered out of the first three.

Et Scipio: Est omnino, cum de illo genere rei publicae, quod maxime probo, quae sentio, dixero, accuratius mihi dicendum de commutationibus rerum publicarum, etsi minime facile eas in ea re publica futuras puto. Sed huius regiae prima et certissima est illa mutatio: Cum rex iniustus esse coepit, perit illud ilico genus, et est idem ille tyrannus, deterrimum genus et finitimum optimo; quem si optimates oppresserunt, quod ferme evenit, habet statum res publica de tribus secundarium; est enim quasi regium, id est patrium consilium populo bene consulentium principum. Sin per se populus interfecit aut eiecit tyrannum, est moderatior, quoad sentit et sapit, et sua re gesta laetatur tuerique vult per se constitutam rem publicam. Si quando aut regi iusto vim populus attulit regnove eum spoliavit aut etiam, id quod evenit saepius, optimatium sanguinem gustavit ac totam rem publicam substravit libidini suae (cave putes autem mare ullum aut flammam esse tantam, quam non facilius sit sedare quam effrenatam insolentia multitudinem), tum fit illud, quod apud Platonem est luculente dictum, si modo id exprimere Latine potuero; difficile factu est, sed conabor tamen.

“As for my having used the example of our own state, this had its force not toward defining the best constitution (for that could be done without an example), but that, in our greatest of states, the matter described by reasoning and speech might be discerned in fact. But if you ask, apart from the example of any people, the very kind of the best constitution, we must use the image of nature, since you … [will not be content with] this image of city and people …

’Cum’ enim inquit ’inexplebiles populi fauces exaruerunt libertatis siti malisque usus ille ministris non modice temperatam, sed nimis meracam libertatem sitiens hausit, tum magistratus et principes, nisi valde lenes et remissi sint et large sibi libertatem ministrent, insequitur, insimulat, arguit, praepotentes, reges, tyrannos vocat.’ Puto enim tibi haec esse nota. Vero mihi, inquit ille, notissima.

… whom I have long sought and to whom I am eager to come. Are you perhaps asking for the prudent man?” Then he: “That very one.” “You have, of those very men present, a fine supply — or to begin from yourself.” Then Scipio: “And would that the supply were proportionate from the whole senate! But still, that man is prudent who, as we have often seen in Africa, sitting on the savage and vast beast, restrains and rules the beast wherever he wishes, and with a slight prompting, not blow, bends that wild creature. I have known him, and when I was your legate I often saw him. So that Indian or Carthaginian restrains one beast — and that one teachable and accustomed to human ways. But that thing which lies hidden in the minds of men, that part of the mind which is called mens, must rein in and tame not one nor easy creature for subduing, when ever it can do this — which it very rarely can. For also that fierce thing must be held in …

Ergo illa sequuntur: ’eos, qui pareant principibus, agitari ab eo populo et servos voluntarios appellari; eos autem, qui in magistratu privatorum similes esse velint, eosque privatos, qui efficiant, ne quid inter privatum et magistratum differat, ferunt laudibus et mactant honoribus, ut necesse sit in eius modi re publica plena libertatis esse omnia, ut et privata domus omnis vacet dominatione et hoc malum usque ad bestias perveniat, denique ut pater filium metuat, filius patrem neglegat, absit omnis pudor, ut plane liberi sint, nihil intersit, civis sit an peregrinus, magister ut discipulos metuat et iis blandiatur spernantque discipuli magistros, adulescentes ut senum sibi pondus adsumant, senes autem ad ludum adulescentium descendant, ne sint iis odiosi et graves; ex quo fit, ut etiam servi se liberius gerant, uxores eodem iure sint, quo viri, inque tanta libertate canes etiam et equi, aselli denique liberi sic incurrant, ut iis de via decedendum sit. Ergo ex hac infinita,’ inquit, ’licentia haec summa cogitur, ut ita fastidiosae mollesque mentes evadant civium, ut, si minima vis adhibeatur imperii, irascantur et perferre nequeant; ex quo leges quoque incipiunt neglegere, ut plane sine ullo domino sint.’

… [Nonius:] which is fed with blood, which exults in every cruelty so much that it is scarcely glutted with the bitter funerals of men. [Nonius:] … and to the desirous, lustful, dissolute man wallowing in pleasures. [Nonius:] and the fourth, anxiety, prone to mourning and grieving, and always troubling itself. [Nonius:] that they are afflicted with anguish, with misery, or cast down by timidity and cowardice. [Nonius:] as an unskilled charioteer is dragged from the chariot, trodden on, torn, dashed in pieces.

Tum Laelius: Prorsus, inquit, expressa sunt a te, quae dicta sunt ab illo. Atque, ut iam ad sermonis mei auctorem revertar, ex hac nimia licentia, quam illi solam libertatem putant, ait ille ut ex stirpe quadam existere et quasi nasci tyrannum. Nam ut ex nimia potentia principum oritur interitus principum, sic hunc nimis liberum populum libertas ipsa servitute adficit. Sic omnia nimia, cum vel in tempestate vel in agris vel in corporibus laetiora fuerunt, in contraria fere convertuntur, maximeque id in rebus publicis evenit, nimiaque illa libertas et populis et privatis in nimiam servitutem cadit. Itaque ex hac maxima libertate tyrannus gignitur et illa iniustissima et durissima servitus. Ex hoc enim populo indomito vel potius immani deligitur aliqui plerumque dux contra illos principes adflictos iam et depulsos loco audax, inpurus, consectans proterve bene saepe de re publica meritos, populo gratificans et aliena et sua; cui quia privato sunt oppositi timores, dantur imperia et ea continuantur, praesidiis etiam, ut Athenis Pisistratus, saepiuntur, postremo, a quibus producti sunt, existunt eorum ipsorum tyranni; quos si boni oppresserunt, ut saepe fit, recreatur civitas; sin audaces, fit illa factio, genus aliud tyrannorum, eademque oritur etiam ex illo saepe optimatium praeclaro statu, cum ipsos principes aliqua pravitas de via deflexit. Sic tamquam pilam rapiunt inter se rei publicae statum tyranni ab regibus, ab iis autem principes aut populi, a quibus aut factiones aut tyranni, nec diutius umquam tenetur idem rei publicae modus.

… could be said. Then Laelius: “I see now the man whom I was awaiting — whom you would set up for office and duty.” “To this one, plainly,” said Africanus, “almost alone (for in this one are nearly all the rest): that he should never depart from looking at and contemplating his own self, that he should call others to imitation of himself, that by the splendour of his mind and life he should offer himself as a mirror to the citizens. For just as in lyres or pipes, and in the very song and voices, a certain harmony must be kept out of distinct sounds, which when changed or discordant the cultivated ear cannot bear; and that harmony, by the modulation of the most unlike voices, is yet made concordant and agreeing — so out of the highest and the lowest and the middle orders, set between like sounds, the state, by the moderate ratio, sounds together by the consent [as Augustine quotes:] of the most unlike. And what is called by musicians harmony in song, is in the state concord — the closest and best bond of safety in every commonwealth; and this can in no way exist without justice.”

Quod ita cum sit, ex tribus primis generibus longe praestat mea sententia regium, regio autem ipsi praestabit id, quod erit aequatum et temperatum ex tribus optimis rerum publicarum modis. Placet enim esse quiddam in re publica praestans et regale, esse aliud auctoritati principum inpartitum ac tributum, esse quasdam res servatas iudicio voluntatique multitudinis. Haec constitutio primum habet aequabilitatem quandam magnam, qua carere diutius vix possunt liberi, deinde firmitudinem, quod et illa prima facile in contraria vitia convertuntur, ut existat ex rege dominus, ex optimatibus factio, ex populo turba et confusio, quodque ipsa genera generibus saepe conmutantur novis, hoc in hac iuncta moderateque permixta conformatione rei publicae non ferme sine magnis principum vitiis evenit. Non est enim causa conversionis, ubi in suo quisque est gradu firmiter collocatus et non subest, quo praecipitet ac decidat.

… [the commonwealth must be] full of justice. Then Scipio: “I assent indeed, and I declare to you that we should suppose nothing said as yet about the commonwealth, nor anywhere we can go further, unless it is established not only that this is false, that without injustice the state cannot be carried on, but also that this is most true, that without the highest justice the state can in no way be carried on. But, if you please, this far for today; let us put off the rest — enough remains — till tomorrow.” This being agreed, an end of debate was made for that day.

Sed vereor, Laeli vosque homines amicissimi ac prudentissimi, ne, si diutius in hoc genere verser, quasi praecipientis cuiusdam et docentis et non vobiscum simul considerantis esse videatur oratio mea. Quam ob rem ingrediar in ea, quae nota sunt omnibus, quaesita autem a nobis iam diu. Sic enim decerno, sic sentio, sic adfirmo, nullam omnium rerum publicarum aut constitutione aut discriptione aut disciplina conferendam esse cum ea, quam patres nostri nobis acceptam iam inde a maioribus reliquerunt. Quam, si placet, quoniam ea, quae tenebatis ipsi, etiam ex me audire voluistis, simul et qualis sit et optimam esse ostendam expositaque ad exemplum nostra re publica accommodabo ad eam, si potero, omnem illam orationem, quae est mihi habenda de optimo civitatis statu. Quod si tenere et consequi potuero, cumulate munus hoc, cui me Laelius praeposuit, ut opinio mea fert, effecero.

Then Laelius: “Yours, indeed, Scipio,” he said, “and yours alone. For who better than you should speak either of the institutions of our forefathers, since you yourself are sprung from the most distinguished forefathers? Or of the best constitution of a state? — which, if we have it (though hardly even now), then who could be more flourishing than you? Or of counsels for the future, since you, having driven away two terrors of this city, have looked forward to all time?” [Book 1 fragments preserved by other authors]

Tum Laelius: Tuum vero, inquit, Scipio, ac tuum quidem unius. Quis enim te potius aut de maiorum dixerit institutis, cum sis clarissimis ipse maioribus? aut de optimo statu civitatis? quem si habemus, etsi ne nunc quidem, tum vero quis te possit esse florentior? aut de consiliis in posterum providendis, cum tu duobus huius urbis terroribus depulsis in omne tempus prospexeris?

[Nonius p. 42M:] “You expect, then, the whole prudence of this governor, which has gained even this very name from foreseeing (providendo).” [Nonius p. 256M:] “For which reason this citizen must so equip himself that he be always armed against those things which disturb the constitution of the state.” [Nonius p. 25M; Servius:] “And this dissension of the citizens, because some go aside to others, is called sedition.” [Nonius p. 519M:] “In civil dissension, when the good prevail by more than the many, I think the citizens must be weighed, not numbered.” [Nonius p. 424M:] “For lusts, those weighty mistresses of our thoughts, drive on and command certain limitless things; which, since they can in no way be filled or satisfied, drive on to every crime those whom they have set on fire by their lures.” [Nonius p. 492M:] “… who shall have crushed his force and that unbridled fierceness.”

Plin. Nat. praef. 7 nec docti/ssimis. †Manium Persium haec le/gere nolo, Iu/nium Congu/m volo.

[Aulus Gellius 7.16.11; Nonius:] “… which was the greater for this reason: that, although his colleagues were in equal cause, they were not only not in equal odium, but the affection toward Gracchus turned away even the odium toward Claudius.” [Nonius p. 409M:] “… which voices of optimates and leading men he met with: he abandoned that grave sound full of dignity.” [Nonius p. 501M:] “… that, as he writes, daily into the forum a thousand men with cloaks dyed in shellfish-purple were coming down.” [Nonius p. 517M:] “… in which, as you remember, by the gathering of the lightest mob and a heap of bronze coins the funeral was got up on a sudden.” [Nonius p. 512M; Priscian:] “For our forefathers wished marriages to be firmly established.” [Nonius p. 398M:] “Laelius’s speech — which we all have in our hands — on how the priests’ wooden bowls and Samian basins, as he writes, are pleasing to the immortal gods.”

Non. p. 426M Sic, quoniam plura beneficia continet patria et est antiquior parens quam is, qui creavit, maior ei profecto quam parenti debetur gratia.

[Eulogius on the Somnium Scipionis:] “… [Cicero referring to the legendary Pamphylian who] when set on the funeral pyre, came back to life and told many secrets of the underworld — that what is said about the immortality of the soul and about heaven is not the contrivances of dreaming philosophers, nor incredible fables which the Epicureans deride, but the conjectures of the prudent.”

Non. p. 526M Nec tantum Karthago habuisset opum sescentos fere annos sine consiliis et disciplina.

[Augustine, City of God 22.28:] “… that he wished rather to play than to affirm that as the truth.”

Non. p. 276M Cognoscere mehercule, inquit, consuetudinem istam et studium sermonis.

“… will it offend you to learn the nature of the roots and seeds? Not at all, if only the work [of governing] shall remain. Do you think this the bailiff’s pursuit? By no means; since labour very often falls short of agriculture. As, then, the bailiff knows the nature of the field, the steward knows letters, and either of them refers himself from the delight of knowledge to the use of getting the work done — so let our governor have studied right and laws thoroughly, have looked into their very fountains, but not let himself be hindered by giving counsel and reading and writing, that he may, as it were, dispense the commonwealth and, in some way, oversee it: most skilled in the highest right, without which no one can be just; not unskilled in civil right, but as the steersman uses astronomy and the doctor physics — each uses these things for his own art, but is not hindered from his own duty by them. But this man will see …

Lactant. Div. Inst. 3.16.5 Profecto omnis istorum disputatio, quamquam uberrimos fontes virtutis et scientiae continet, tamen collata cum eorum actis perfectisque rebus vereor ne non tantum videatur attulisse negotii hominibus, quantam oblectationem.

“… in states where the best men seek praise and dignity, and shun reproach and disgrace. Nor are they so much terrified by the fear and penalty which is set up by the laws as by shame, which nature has given to man as a kind of fear, not unjust, of being blamed. This [shame] our governor of public matters has increased by opinion and perfected by institutions and disciplines, that the citizen’s modesty would no less keep him from misdeeds than fear. And these things indeed pertain to praise, which could have been said more broadly and richly.

Arusianus Messius GL 7.457K A qua isti avocabant.

[Nonius p. 42M:] “You expect, then, the whole prudence of this governor, which has gained even this very name from foreseeing (providendo).” [Nonius p. 256M:] “For which reason this citizen must so equip himself that he be always armed against those things which disturb the constitution of the state.” [Nonius p. 25M; Servius:] “And this dissension of the citizens, because some go aside to others, is called sedition.” [Nonius p. 519M:] “In civil dissension, when the good prevail by more than the many, I think the citizens must be weighed, not numbered.” [Nonius p. 424M:] “For lusts, those weighty mistresses of our thoughts, drive on and command certain limitless things; which, since they can in no way be filled or satisfied, drive on to every crime those whom they have set on fire by their lures.” [Nonius p. 492M:] “… who shall have crushed his force and that unbridled fierceness.”

Cum omnes flagrarent cupi ditate audiendi, ingressus est sic loqui Scipio: Catonis hoc senis est, quem, ut scitis, unice dilexi maximeque sum admiratus cuique vel patris utriusque iudicio vel etiam meo studio me totum ab adulescentia dedidi; cuius me numquam satiare potuit oratio; tantus erat in homine usus rei publicae, quam et domi et militiae cum optime, tum etiam diutissime gesserat, et modus in dicendo et gravitate mixtus lepos et summum vel discendi studium vel docendi et orationi vita admodum congruens.

[Aulus Gellius 7.16.11; Nonius:] “… which was the greater for this reason: that, although his colleagues were in equal cause, they were not only not in equal odium, but the affection toward Gracchus turned away even the odium toward Claudius.” [Nonius p. 409M:] “… which voices of optimates and leading men he met with: he abandoned that grave sound full of dignity.” [Nonius p. 501M:] “… that, as he writes, daily into the forum a thousand men with cloaks dyed in shellfish-purple were coming down.” [Nonius p. 517M:] “… in which, as you remember, by the gathering of the lightest mob and a heap of bronze coins the funeral was got up on a sudden.” [Nonius p. 512M; Priscian:] “For our forefathers wished marriages to be firmly established.” [Nonius p. 398M:] “Laelius’s speech — which we all have in our hands — on how the priests’ wooden bowls and Samian basins, as he writes, are pleasing to the immortal gods.”

Is dicere solebat ob hanc causam praestare nostrae civitatis statum ceteris civitatibus, quod in illis singuli fuissent fere, qui suam quisque rem publicam constituissent legibus atque institutis suis, ut Cretum Minos, Lacedaemoniorum Lycurgus, Atheniensium, quae persaepe commutata esset, tum Theseus, tum Draco, tum Solo, tum Clisthenes, tum multi alii, postremo exsanguem iam et iacentem doctus vir Phalereus sustentasset Demetrius, nostra autem res publica non unius esset ingenio, sed multorum, nec una hominis vita, sed aliquot constituta saeculis et aetatibus. Nam neque ullum ingenium tantum extitisse dicebat, ut, quem res nulla fugeret, quisquam aliquando fuisset, neque cuncta ingenia conlata in unum tantum posse uno tempore providere, ut omnia complecterentur sine rerum usu ac vetustate.

[Eulogius on the Somnium Scipionis:] “… [Cicero referring to the legendary Pamphylian who] when set on the funeral pyre, came back to life and told many secrets of the underworld — that what is said about the immortality of the soul and about heaven is not the contrivances of dreaming philosophers, nor incredible fables which the Epicureans deride, but the conjectures of the prudent.”

Quam ob rem, ut ille solebat, ita nunc mea repetet oratio populi originem; libenter enim etiam verbo utor Catonis. Facilius autem, quod est propositum, consequar, si nostram rem publicam vobis et nascentem et crescentem et adultam et iam firmam atque robustam ostendero, quam si mihi aliquam, ut apud Platonem Socrates, ipse finxero.

[Augustine, City of God 22.28:] “… that he wished rather to play than to affirm that as the truth.”

Hoc cum omnes adprobavissent, Quod habemus, inquit, institutae rei publicae tam clarum ac tam omnibus notum exordium quam huius urbis condendae principium profectum a Romulo? qui patre Marte natus (concedamus enim famae hominum, praesertim non inveteratae solum, sed etiam sapienter a maioribus proditae, bene meriti de rebus communibus ut genere etiam putarentur, non solum ingenio esse divino)—is igitur, ut natus sit, cum Remo fratre dicitur ab Amulio, rege Albano, ob labefactandi regni timorem ad Tiberim exponi iussus esse; quo in loco cum esset silvestris beluae sustentatus uberibus pastoresque eum sustulissent et in agresti cultu laboreque aluissent, perhibetur, ut adoleverit, et corporis viribus et animi ferocitate tantum ceteris praestitisse, ut omnes, qui tum eos agros, ubi hodie est haec urbs, incolebant, aequo animo illi libenterque parerent. Quorum copiis cum se ducem praebuisset, ut iam a fabulis ad facta veniamus, oppressisse Longam Albam, validam urbem et potentem temporibus illis, Amuliumque regem interemisse fertur.

“… will it offend you to learn the nature of the roots and seeds? Not at all, if only the work [of governing] shall remain. Do you think this the bailiff’s pursuit? By no means; since labour very often falls short of agriculture. As, then, the bailiff knows the nature of the field, the steward knows letters, and either of them refers himself from the delight of knowledge to the use of getting the work done — so let our governor have studied right and laws thoroughly, have looked into their very fountains, but not let himself be hindered by giving counsel and reading and writing, that he may, as it were, dispense the commonwealth and, in some way, oversee it: most skilled in the highest right, without which no one can be just; not unskilled in civil right, but as the steersman uses astronomy and the doctor physics — each uses these things for his own art, but is not hindered from his own duty by them. But this man will see …

Qua gloria parta urbem auspicato condere et firmare dicitur primum cogitavisse rem publicam. Urbi autem locum, quod est ei, qui diuturnam rem publicam serere conatur, diligentissime providendum, incredibili oportunitate delegit. Neque enim ad mare admovit, quod ei fuit illa manu copiisque facillimum, ut in agrum Rutulorum Aboriginumque procederet, aut in ostio Tiberino, quem in locum multis post annis rex Ancus coloniam deduxit, urbem ipse conderet, sed hoc vir excellenti providentia sensit ac vidit, non esse oportunissimos situs maritimos urbibus eis, quae ad spem diuturnitatis conderentur atque imperii, primum quod essent urbes maritimae non solum multis periculis oppositae, sed etiam caecis.

“… in states where the best men seek praise and dignity, and shun reproach and disgrace. Nor are they so much terrified by the fear and penalty which is set up by the laws as by shame, which nature has given to man as a kind of fear, not unjust, of being blamed. This [shame] our governor of public matters has increased by opinion and perfected by institutions and disciplines, that the citizen’s modesty would no less keep him from misdeeds than fear. And these things indeed pertain to praise, which could have been said more broadly and richly.

Nam terra continens adventus hostium non modo expectatos, sed etiam repentinos multis indiciis et quasi fragore quodam et sonitu ipso ante denuntiat; neque vero quisquam potest hostis advolare terra, quin eum non modo esse, sed etiam quis et unde sit, scire possimus. Maritimus vero ille et navalis hostis ante adesse potest, quam quisquam venturum esse suspicari queat, nec vero, cum venit, prae se fert, aut qui sit aut unde veniat aut etiam quid velit, denique ne nota quidem ulla, pacatus an hostis sit, discerni ac iudicari potest.

“As for the system of life and the use of living, this has been arranged by lawful marriages, by legitimate children, by the holy seats of the household gods of Penates and Lares, that all may use both common and their own conveniences; and that one cannot live well without a good commonwealth, nor anything be more blessed than a state well constituted. Wherefore it is wont to seem most strange to me, what is so great a learning …

Est autem maritimis urbibus etiam quaedam corruptela ac demutatio morum; admiscentur enim novis sermonibus ac disciplinis et inportantur non merces solum adventiciae, sed etiam mores, ut nihil possit in patriis institutis manere integrum. Iam qui incolunt eas urbes, non haerent in suis sedibus, sed volucri semper spe et cogitatione rapiuntur a domo longius, atque etiam cum manent corpore, animo tamen exulant et vagantur. Nec vero ulla res magis labefactatam diu et Carthaginem et Corinthum pervertit aliquando quam hic error ac dissipatio civium, quod mercandi cupiditate et navigandi et agrorum et armorum cultum reliquerant.

[Macrobius, Saturnalia 1.4.2sq.:] “But although for wise men the consciousness itself of distinguished deeds is the amplest reward of virtue, yet that divine virtue desires not statues set in lead, nor triumphs with withering laurels, but certain firmer and greener kinds of rewards. “What, then, are these,” said Laelius? Then Scipio: “Bear with me, since this is now the third day of our holiday …” [The Somnium Scipionis, preserved separately by Macrobius.]

Multa etiam ad luxuriam invitamenta perniciosa civitatibus subpeditantur mari, quae vel capiuntur vel inportantur; atque habet etiam amoenitas ipsa vel sumptuosas vel desidiosas inlecebras multas cupiditatum. Et, quod de Corintho dixi, id haud scio an liceat de cuncta Graecia verissime dicere; nam et ipsa Peloponnesus fere tota in mari est, nec praeter Phliuntios ulli sunt, quorum agri non contingant mare, et extra Peloponnesum Aenianes et Doris et Dolopes soli absunt a mari. Quid dicam insulas Graeciae? quae fluctibus cinctae natant paene ipsae simul cum civitatum institutis et moribus.

“When I had come into Africa to consul Manius Manilius, as you know, as tribune of the soldiers to the fourth legion, nothing was more important to me than to meet King Masinissa, by just causes the dearest friend of our family. When I came to him, the old man embraced me, shed tears, and after a little while looked up to heaven and said: “Thanks I render to thee, highest Sun, and to you the rest of the heaven-dwellers, that, before I pass from this life, I behold in my own kingdom and within these roofs Publius Cornelius Scipio, by whose very name I am refreshed: so that the memory of that best and most invincible of men never departs from my mind.” Then I asked him about his kingdom, he asked me about our commonwealth; and with many words spoken back and forth, that day was used up by us.

Atque haec quidem, ut supra dixi, veteris sunt Graeciae. Coloniarum vero quae est deducta a Graiis in Asiam, Thracam, Italiam, Siciliam, Africam praeter unam Magnesiam, quam unda non adluat? Ita barbarorum agris quasi adtexta quaedam videtur ora esse Graeciae; nam e barbaris quidem ipsis nulli erant antea maritumi praeter Etruscos et Poenos, alteri mercandi causa, latrocinandi alteri. Quae causa perspicua est malorum commutationumque Graeciae propter ea vitia maritimarum urbium, quae ante paulo perbreviter adtigi. Sed tamen in his vitiis inest illa magna commoditas, et, quod ubique genitum est, ut ad eam urbem, quam incolas, possit adnare, et rursus ut id, quod agri efferant sui, quascumque velint in terras, portare possint ac mittere.

“Afterwards, having been received in royal style, we drew out the talk far into the night, while the old man spoke of nothing but Africanus, and remembered all of his deeds — and even his sayings. Then, when we parted to bed, both wearied from the road, and one who had been awake until late, a deeper sleep than I was used to held me. Here (I think indeed from what we had been saying; for it generally happens that our thoughts and conversations bring forth in sleep something such as Ennius writes about Homer, of whom plainly he was wont to think and speak most often when waking) Africanus appeared to me in the form which to me was more familiar from his image than from himself; and when I knew him, I shuddered, but he: “Be of good cheer,” he said, “and put away fear, Scipio, and commit to memory what I shall say.

Qui potuit igitur divinius et utilitates conplecti maritimas Romulus et vitia vitare, quam quod urbem perennis amnis et aequabilis et in mare late influentis posuit in ripa? quo posset urbs et accipere a mari, quo egeret, et reddere, quo redundaret, eodemque ut flumine res ad victum cultumque maxime necessarias non solum mari †absorberet, sed etiam invectas acciperet ex terra, ut mihi iam tum divinasse ille videatur hanc urbem sedem aliquando et domum summo esse imperio praebituram; nam hanc rerum tantam potentiam non ferme facilius ulla in parte Italiae posita urbs tenere potuisset.

“Do you see that city, which, forced through me to obey the Roman people, renews her ancient wars and cannot rest?” (And he was showing me Carthage from a high and bright place, full of stars.) “Which you now come to besiege, almost a common soldier. Within these next two years you will overthrow it as consul, and you will have that surname won by you yourself which you have so far inherited from us. But when you have destroyed Carthage, held a triumph, and been censor, and have travelled as legate to Egypt, Syria, Asia, and Greece, you will be elected consul a second time in your absence, and finish a great war: you will raze Numantia. But when you have ridden into the Capitol in your chariot, you will find the commonwealth thrown into confusion by the counsels of my grandson.

Urbis autem ipsius nativa praesidia quis est tam neglegens qui non habeat animo notata ac plane cognita? cuius is est tractus ductusque muri cum Romuli, tum etiam reliquorum regum sapientia definitus ex omni parte arduis praeruptisque montibus, ut unus aditus, qui esset inter Esquilinum Quirinalemque montem, maximo aggere obiecto fossa cingeretur vastissima, atque ut ita munita arx circumiectu arduo et quasi circumciso saxo niteretur, ut etiam in illa tempestate horribili Gallici adventus incolumis atque intacta permanserit. Locumque delegit et fontibus abundantem et in regione pestilenti salubrem; colles enim sunt, qui cum perflantur ipsi, tum adferunt umbram vallibus.

“Here, Africanus, you must show your country the light of your spirit, your genius, your counsel. But I see, as it were, a doubtful path of fates at that time. For when your age shall have run through eight courses and returns of the sun, of seven years each, and these two numbers, of which each is held complete one for one reason, the other for another, shall by their natural cycle have made up your fated sum, then upon you alone, and upon your name, the whole state will turn. You the senate, you all the good men, you the allies, you the Latins will look to. You will be the one on whom the safety of the state will rest — and, in short, as dictator you must set up the commonwealth, if you escape the impious hands of your kinsmen.” At this Laelius cried out, and the rest groaned more violently; but Scipio, smiling slightly: “Hush, please,” said he, “do not wake me from my sleep, and listen a little to the rest.

Atque haec quidem perceleriter confecit; nam et urbem constituit, quam e suo nomine Romam iussit nominari, et ad firmandam novam civitatem novum quoddam et subagreste consilium, sed ad muniendas opes regni ac populi sui magni hominis et iam tum longe providentis secutus est, cum Sabinas honesto ortas loco virgines, quae Romam ludorum gratia venissent, quos tum primum anniversarios in circo facere instituisset, Consualibus rapi iussit easque in familiarum amplissimarum matrimoniis collocavit.

“But that you may be the more eager, Africanus, to guard the commonwealth, hold thus: for all who shall have preserved, helped, increased their fatherland, there is a fixed place set in heaven, where the blessed enjoy an eternal age. For nothing is more pleasing to that supreme God who rules all the world — of all that is done on earth — than the assemblies and gatherings of men joined by right, which are called states; the rulers and preservers of these go forth from this place, and to it they return.”

Qua ex causa cum bellum Romanis Sabini intulissent proeliique certamen varium atque anceps fuisset, cum T. Tatio, rege Sabinorum, foedus icit matronis ipsis, quae raptae erant, orantibus; quo foedere et Sabinos in civitatem adscivit sacris conmunicatis et regnum suum cum illorum rege sociavit.

“Here, although I was thoroughly frightened — not so much by fear of death as by fear of plots from my own kin — I yet asked whether he himself was alive, and my father Paulus, and the others whom we judged dead. “Indeed,” he said, “these are alive, who have flown out of the bonds of the body as out of a prison; that life of yours, which it is called, is death. Why do you not look at your father Paulus coming to you?” When I saw him I poured forth a flood of tears; but he, embracing me and kissing me, forbade me to weep.

Post interitum autem Tatii cum ad eum dominatus omnis reccidisset, quamquam cum Tatio in regium consilium delegerat principes (qui appellati sunt propter caritatem patres) populumque et suo et Tatii nomine et Lucumonis, qui Romuli socius in Sabino proelio occiderat, in tribus tris curiasque triginta discripserat (quas curias earum nominibus nuncupavit, quae ex Sabinis virgines raptae postea fuerant oratrices pacis et foederis)—sed quamquam ea Tatio sic erant discripta vivo, tamen eo interfecto multo etiam magis Romulus patrum auctoritate consilioque regnavit.

“And as soon as, holding back my tears, I could begin to speak, I said: “I beg you, most holy and most excellent father, since this is life — as I hear Africanus say — why do I delay on the earth? Why do I not hurry to come hither to you?” “It is not so,” he said. “Unless that God, whose temple is everything you behold, has freed you from those guards of the body, the way hither cannot lie open to you. For men have been brought forth under this law, that they should keep watch over that globe which you see in the middle of this temple, which is called the earth; and a soul has been given them out of those everlasting fires which you call constellations and stars, which, globed and round, animated by divine minds, accomplish their circles and orbits with marvellous swiftness. Therefore for you also, Publius, and for all pious men, the soul must be kept in the watch of the body; nor without command of him, by whom that soul is given to you, must you depart from the life of men, lest you seem to have fled from the human duty assigned by God.

Quo facto primum vidit iudicavitque idem, quod Spartae Lycurgus paulo ante viderat, singulari imperio et potestate regia tum melius gubernari et regi civitates, si esset optimi cuiusque ad illam vim dominationis adiuncta auctoritas. Itaque hoc consilio et quasi senatu fultus et munitus et bella cum finitimis felicissime multa gessit et, cum ipse nihil ex praeda domum suam reportaret, locupletare civis non destitit.

“But thus, Scipio, like this grandfather of yours, like me who begot you, cultivate justice and piety, which is great in parents and kinsmen, but greatest in country. That life is the way to heaven and to this gathering of those who have already lived, and, freed from the body, dwell in that place which you see” (and that was a circle, shining among the flames with the brightest brightness) — “which you, as you have received it from the Greeks, call the Milky Way.” From which, as I gazed, all other things seemed splendid and marvellous. There were stars which we have never seen from this place, and magnitudes of all of them which we have never suspected to be; and from these the smallest was that which, furthest from heaven, nearest from earth, shone with a borrowed light. The globes of the stars were easily greater than the size of the earth. By now the earth itself seemed to me so small that I was sorry for our empire, by which we touch, as it were, but a point of it.

Tum, id quo retinemus hodie magna cum salute rei publicae, auspiciis plurimum obsecutus est Romulus. Nam et ipse, quod principium rei publicae fuit, urbem condidit auspicato et omnibus publicis rebus instituendis, qui sibi essent in auspiciis, ex singulis tribubus singulos cooptavit augures et habuit plebem in clientelas principum discriptam (quod quantae fuerit utilitati, post videro) multaeque dictione ovium et bovum (quod tum erat res in pecore et locorum possessionibus, ex quo pecuniosi et locupletes vocabantur), non vi et suppliciis coercebat.

“As I gazed at it more, “Pray,” said Africanus, “how long shall your mind be fixed on the ground? Do you not see into what temples you have come? All things are joined together for you in nine orbs — or rather globes; one of which is the heavenly, the outermost, which embraces all the others: the highest god himself, restraining and holding the rest. In which are fixed those everlasting courses of the stars which roll round; under which are seven globes, which turn back with a motion contrary to that of the heaven; of which one globe is held by that one which on earth they call Saturnian. Then there is that which is prosperous and saving for the human race, which is called of Jupiter; then the ruddy and dreadful to lands, which you call of Mars; then below, in the middle region, the sun holds his place: leader and prince and moderator of the other lights, the mind of the world and its tempering, of so great a magnitude that he illumines and fills all things with his own light. Him, like companions, follow the courses of Venus and of Mercury; in the lowest orb the moon turns round, kindled by the sun’s rays. Below, however, there is now nothing but mortal and falling, except the souls given to the human race by the gift of the gods; above the moon all things are eternal. For that which is the middle and ninth, the earth, neither moves and is the lowest, and on it all weights are borne by their own force.

Ac Romulus cum septem et triginta regnavisset annos et haec egregia duo firmamenta rei publicae peperisset, auspicia et senatum, tantum est consecutus, ut, cum subito sole obscurato non conparuisset, deorum in numero conlocatus putaretur; quam opinionem nemo umquam mortalis adsequi potuit sine eximia virtutis gloria.

“While I was looking on these things, stupefied, when I had recovered: “What,” I said, “is this that fills my ears, this great and so sweet a sound?” “This is that which, divided by intervals unequal but yet by reason marked off proportionally, is wrought by the impulse and motion of the very orbs themselves, and, tempering the high with the low, brings forth varied harmonies evenly: for nor in silence can such great motions be set in motion, and nature bears it that the extremes from one part should sound deep, from the other high. For which reason that highest course of heaven, the star-bearing, whose revolution is the swifter, is moved with a high and stirred-up sound; this lunar and lowest with the deepest. For the earth, the ninth, remaining unmoved, sticks always in one seat, embracing the middle place of the world. Those eight courses, however — in which the same force is of two — effect seven sounds distinguished by intervals; which number is the knot of nearly all things. Learned men, imitating it on strings and in songs, opened for themselves a return to this place — as did the others who, with outstanding genius, cultivated divine studies in human life.

Atque hoc eo magis est in Romulo admirandum, quod ceteri, qui dii ex hominibus facti esse dicuntur, minus eruditis hominum saeculis fuerunt, ut fingendi proclivis esset ratio, cum imperiti facile ad credendum inpellerentur, Romuli autem aetatem minus his sescentis annis iam inveteratis litteris atque doctrinis omnique illo antiquo ex inculta hominum vita errore sublato fuisse cernimus. Nam si, id quod Graecorum investigatur annalibus, Roma condita est secundo anno Olympiadis septumae, in id saeculum Romuli cecidit aetas, cum iam plena Graecia poetarum et musicorum esset minorque fabulis nisi de veteribus rebus haberetur fides. Nam centum et octo annis postquam Lycurgus leges scribere instituit, prima posita est Olympias, quam quidam nominis errore ab eodem Lycurgo constitutam putant; Homerum autem, qui minimum dicunt, Lycurgi aetati triginta annis anteponunt fere.

“With this sound, the ears of men, filled, have grown deaf; nor is any sense duller in you than hearing — as where the Nile, at those places called the Catadupa, falls from the highest mountains, the people who dwell about that place, on account of the greatness of the noise, lack the sense of hearing. But this sound, made by the most rapid revolution of the whole world, is so great that the ears of men cannot take it in — as you cannot look directly at the sun, but the keenness and sense of your sight is overcome by his rays.” Marvelling at these things, I yet kept turning my eyes back to the earth.

Ex quo intellegi potest permultis annis ante Homerum fuisse quam Romulum, ut iam doctis hominibus ac temporibus ipsis eruditis ad fingendum vix quicquam esset loci. Antiquitas enim recepit fabulas fictas etiam non numquam August. C.D. 22.6 incondite, haec aetas autem iam exculta praesertim eludens omne, quod fieri non potest, respuit.

“Then Africanus: “I see,” he said, “that you are still gazing on the seat and home of men. If that seems to you small, as it is, then look always at these heavenly things, and despise the human. For what celebration of men’s talk, or what glory worth seeking, can you attain? You see how the earth is inhabited in scattered and narrow places, and that, in those very as it were spots where it is inhabited, vast wastes are interposed; and those who inhabit the earth are not only so cut off that nothing among themselves can pass from some to others, but partly stand sideways to you, partly crosswise, partly even opposed to you — from whom you can certainly hope for no glory.

us ne pos ei us, ut di xeru nt quidam, e x filia. Quo autem ille mor tuus, e odem est an no na tus Si moni des Ol ympia de se xta et quin qua gesima, ut f acilius intel legi pos sit tu m de Ro mu li inmortalitate creditum, cum iam inveterata vita hominum ac tractata esset et cognita. Sed profecto tanta fuit in eo vis ingenii atque virtutis, ut id de Romulo Proculo Iulio, homini agresti, crederetur, quod multis iam ante saeculis nullo alio de mortali homines credidissent; qui inpulsu patrum, quo illi a se invidiam interitus Romuli pellerent, in contione dixisse fertur a se visum esse in eo colle Romulum, qui nunc Quirinalis vocatur; eum sibi mandasse, ut populum rogaret, ut sibi eo in colle delubrum fieret; se deum esse et Quirinum vocari.

“You see also that the same earth is encircled and bound, as it were, by certain belts. Of which two, mostly opposed to each other, and propped from either side on the very poles of the heaven, you see have grown stiff with frost; while that middle and greatest is parched by the heat of the sun. Two are habitable, of which the southern — in which those who stand point their footsteps opposed to yours — is nothing to your race; this other, set under the north wind, which you inhabit, see by how thin a part it touches you. For all the land that is cultivated by you, narrowed at the poles, broader on the sides, is some little island encompassed by that sea which on earth you call the Atlantic, the Great, or Ocean — which yet, despite so great a name, you see how small it is.

Videtisne igitur unius viri consilio non solum ortum novum populum neque ut in cunabulis vagientem relictum, sed adultum iam et paene puberem? Tum Laelius: Nos vero videmus, et te quidem ingressum ratione ad disputandum nova, quae nusquam est in Graecorum libris. Nam princeps ille, quo nemo in scribendo praestantior fuit, aream sibi sumsit, in qua civitatem extrueret arbitratu suo, praeclaram ille quidem fortasse, sed a vita hominum abhorrentem et moribus,

“From these very cultivated and known lands, has either your name, or any of ours, been able to climb over this Caucasus you see, or to swim across that Ganges? Who in the rest of the parts of the rising or setting sun, or of the north wind or south wind, will hear your name? With these cut off, you certainly see in what straits your glory is willing to stretch itself out. They themselves, however, who speak of us — how long will they speak?

reliqui disseruerunt sine ullo certo exemplari formaque rei publicae de generibus et de rationibus civitatum; tu mihi videris utrumque facturus; es enim ita ingressus, ut, quae ipse reperias, tribuere aliis malis quam, ut facit apud Platonem Socrates, ipse fingere et illa de urbis situ revoces ad rationem, quae a Romulo casu aut necessitate facta sunt, et disputes non vaganti oratione, sed defixa in una re publica. Quare perge, ut instituisti; prospicere enim iam videor te reliquos reges persequente quasi perfectam rem publicam.

“Indeed, even if that posterity of men to come desires to hand down to its successors the praises of each one of us, taken from their fathers, yet on account of the deluges and burnings of the lands which must happen at fixed times, we cannot attain not merely an everlasting, but not even a long-lasting glory. What does it matter, that there will be talk about you among those who shall be born afterwards, when there has been none among those who were born before us?

Ergo, inquit Scipio, cum ille Romuli senatus, qui constabat ex optimatibus, quibus ipse rex tantum tribuisset, ut eos patres vellet nominari patriciosque eorum liberos, temptaret post Romuli excessum, ut ipse regeret sine rege rem publicam, populus id non tulit desiderioque Romuli postea regem flagitare non destitit; cum prudenter illi principes novam et inauditam ceteris gentibus interregni ineundi rationem excogitaverunt, ut, quoad certus rex declaratus esset, nec sine rege civitas nec diuturno rege esset uno nec committeretur, ut quisquam inveterata potestate aut ad deponendum imperium tardior esset aut ad optinendum munitior.

“… [those who came before] who were neither fewer nor certainly worse men — especially since among those very men by whom our name can be heard, no one can compass the memory of a single year. For men, by popular reckoning, measure the year only by the return of the sun, that is, of one star; but when all the stars shall have returned to that same point whence they once set out, and shall have brought back, after long intervals, the same arrangement of the whole heaven — then that may truly be called the turning year; in which I scarcely dare to say how many ages of men are contained. For just as the sun once seemed to men to fail and be quenched, when the soul of Romulus penetrated into these very temples, so whenever the sun shall fail again, in the same part and at the same time, then, when all the signs and stars have been called back to the beginning, count the year complete — of which year, indeed, know that not yet a twentieth part has been turned.

Quo quidem tempore novus ille populus vidit tamen id, quod fugit Lacedaemonium Lycurgum, qui regem non deligendum duxit, si modo hoc in Lycurgi potestate potuit esse, sed habendum, qualiscumque is foret, qui modo esset Herculis stirpe generatus; nostri illi etiam tum agrestes viderunt virtutem et sapientiam regalem, non progeniem quaeri oportere.

“Therefore, if you despair of return to this place, in which all things are for great and excellent men, of how much, after all, is that human glory worth, which can scarcely pertain even to one slender part of one year? Therefore, if you wish to look upward, and to gaze upon this seat and eternal home, you will neither give yourself up to the talk of the crowd, nor place the hope of your fortunes in the prizes of men. Virtue itself, by its own enticements, must draw you to true honour: what others say of you, let them see to it; but they will speak in any case. All that talk is hemmed by the narrow regions you see, nor was it ever for any man unbroken; and it is buried by the death of men and quenched by the forgetfulness of posterity.”

Quibus cum esse praestantem Numam Pompilium fama ferret, praetermissis suis civibus regem alienigenam patribus auctoribus sibi ipse populus adscivit eumque ad regnandum Sabinum hominem Romam Curibus accivit. Qui ut huc venit, quamquam populus curiatis eum comitiis regem esse iusserat, tamen ipse de suo imperio curiatam legem tulit, hominesque Romanos instituto Romuli bellicis studiis ut vidit incensos, existimavit eos paulum ab illa consuetudine esse revocandos.

“When he had said this, “Indeed, Africanus,” I said, “if for those who have well deserved of their country a path lies open, as it were, to the entrance of heaven, although from boyhood I have followed in the footsteps of my father, and yours, and have not failed your honour — yet now, with so great a prize set forth, I shall strive much more vigilantly.” And he: “Strive indeed, and hold thus: it is not you that are mortal, but this body. For neither are you what that figure declares; but the mind of each man is each man — not that figure which can be pointed at with the finger. Know, then, that you are a god — if at least there be a god which is alive, which feels, which remembers, which foresees, which so rules and tempers and moves that body to which it has been set in charge, as that prince god rules this world. And as the world, which is in some part mortal, is moved by an eternal god himself, so the fragile body is moved by an everlasting soul.

Ac primum agros, quos bello Romulus ceperat, divisit viritim civibus docuitque sine depopulatione atque praeda posse eos colendis agris abundare commodis omnibus amoremque eis otii et pacis iniecit, quibus facillime iustitia et fides convalescit, et quorum patrocinio maxime cultus agrorum perceptioque frugum defenditur. Idemque Pompilius et auspiciis maioribus inventis ad pristinum numerum duo augures addidit et sacris e principum numero pontifices quinque praefecit et animos propositis legibus his, quas in monumentis habemus, ardentis consuetudine et cupiditate bellandi religionum caerimoniis mitigavit adiunxitque praeterea flamines, Salios virginesque Vestales omnisque partis religionis statuit sanctissime.

“For what is always moved is eternal; and what brings motion to something else, and is itself driven from elsewhere, must, when it has an end of motion, have an end of life. Only that, then, which moves itself, since it is never deserted by itself, never even ceases to move; nay rather, for the rest that move, this is the fountain, this the beginning of moving. But of a beginning there is no origin: for from a beginning all things arise, but it itself can be born of no other thing; for that would not be a beginning, which were begotten elsewhere. And if it never arises, it never sets either; for a beginning extinguished can neither itself be reborn from another nor create another from itself, since it is necessary that all things arise from a beginning. So it comes about that the beginning of motion is from that which is moved by itself; this can neither be born nor die, or all heaven and all nature must collapse and stand still, nor would it find any force by which, set in motion at the start, it might be moved.

Sacrorum autem ipsorum diligentiam difficilem, apparatum perfacilem esse voluit; nam quae perdiscenda quaeque observanda essent, multa constituit, sed ea sine inpensa. Sic religionibus colendis operam addidit, sumtum removit, idemque mercatus, ludos omnesque conveniundi causas et celebritates invenit. Quibus rebus institutis ad humanitatem atque mansuetudinem revocavit animos hominum studiis bellandi iam immanis ac feros. Sic ille cum undequadraginta annos summa in pace concordiaque regnavisset (sequamur enim potissimum Polybium nostrum, quo nemo fuit in exquirendis temporibus diligentior), excessit e vita duabus praeclarissimis ad diuturnitatem rei publicae rebus confirmatis, religione atque clementia.

“Since then it is plain that that is eternal which is moved by itself, who is there that would deny this nature has been granted to souls? For everything is inanimate which is driven by an external blow; what is animate is moved by an inner motion of its own; for this is the proper nature and force of soul. If this is one out of all those things which moves itself, then certainly it is not born and is eternal.

Quae cum Scipio dixisset, Verene, inquit Manilius, hoc memoriae proditum est, Africane, regem istum Numam Pythagorae ipsius discipulum aut certe Pythagoreum fuisse? saepe enim hoc de maioribus natu audivimus et ita intellegimus vulgo existimari; neque vero satis id annalium publicorum auctoritate declaratum videmus. Tum Scipio: Falsum est enim, Manili, inquit, id totum, neque solum fictum, sed etiam imperite absurdeque fictum; ea sunt enim demum non ferenda in mendacio, quae non solum ficta esse, sed ne fieri quidem potuisse cernimus. Nam quartum iam annum regnante Lucio Tarquinio Superbo Sybarim et Crotonem et in eas Italiae partis Pythagoras venisse reperitur; Olympias enim secunda et sexagesima eadem Superbi regni initium et Pythagorae declarat adventum.

“Exercise this in the best of pursuits! And the best are the cares for the safety of the country; the soul, driven and exercised by them, will the more swiftly fly to this seat and its home; and it will do this the more quickly if, even then, when it is shut in the body, it shall stretch out beyond, and contemplating the things outside, withdraw itself as much as possible from the body. For the souls of those who have given themselves up to the body’s pleasures, and have offered themselves as their ministers, and have, by the impulse of lusts obeying pleasures, violated the rights of gods and of men, when they have slipped from the body, roll about the earth itself, and do not return to this place except after many ages, when they have been thoroughly stirred.” He departed; I was loosed from sleep. [Closing fragments of Book 6, preserved by various authors.]

Ex quo intellegi regiis annis dinumeratis potest anno fere centesimo et quadragesimo post mortem Numae primum Italiam Pythagoram attigisse; neque hoc inter eos, qui diligentissime persecuti sunt temporum annales, ulla est umquam in dubitatione versatum. Di inmortales, inquit Manilius, quantus iste est hominum et quam inveteratus error! Ac tamen facile patior non esse nos transmarinis nec inportatis artibus eruditos, sed genuinis domesticisque virtutibus.

“But you will know this much more easily,” said Africanus, “if you see the commonwealth advancing, and coming by some natural road and course into the best constitution; nay, you will set down this very thing as praiseworthy in the wisdom of our forefathers — that you will understand that many things, even taken from elsewhere, became much better with us than they had been there whence they were taken hither, and where they had first arisen; and you will understand that the Roman people was made firm not by chance, but by counsel and discipline — nor yet with fortune turning against it.

Atqui multo id facilius cognosces, inquit Africanus, si progredientem rem publicam atque in optimum statum naturali quodam itinere et cursu venientem videris; quin hoc ipso sapientiam maiorum statues esse laudandam, quod multa intelleges etiam aliunde sumta meliora apud nos multo esse facta, quam ibi fuissent, unde huc translata essent atque ubi primum extitissent, intellegesque non fortuito populum Romanum, sed consilio et disciplina confirmatum esse nec tamen adversante fortuna.

“With King Pompilius dead, the people, on the interrex’s proposal, by the curiate comitia made Tullus Hostilius king; and he, after the example of Pompilius, consulted the people in the curies on his command. His glory in military matters was outstanding, and great were his deeds in war. He both made and hedged about, from his spoils, the Comitium and the Curia. He set up the law by which wars should be declared — which, most justly invented by him, he sanctioned with the religion of the fetiales, that every war which had not been announced and declared should be judged unjust and impious. And, that you may turn your minds to how wisely our kings already saw that something must be granted to the people (for many things on that subject must be said by us), Tullus did not even dare use the kingly insignia except by command of the people. For that he might have twelve lictors with the rods marching before him …

Mortuo rege Pompilio Tullum Hostilium populus regem interrege rogante comitiis curiatis creavit, isque de imperio suo exemplo Pompilii populum consuluit curiatim. Cuius excellens in re militari gloria magnaeque extiterunt res bellicae, fecitque idem et saepsit de manubiis comitium et curiam constituitque ius, quo bella indicerentur, quod per se iustissime inventum sanxit fetiali religione, ut omne bellum, quod denuntiatum indictumque non esset, id iniustum esse atque inpium iudicaretur. Et ut advertatis animum, quam sapienter iam reges hoc nostri viderint, tribuenda quaedam esse populo (multa enim nobis de eo genere dicenda sunt), ne insignibus quidem regiis Tullus nisi iussu populi est ausus uti. Nam ut sibi duodecim lictores cum fascibus anteire liceret

[Lactantius, Divine Institutes 6.8.6:] “True law is right reason, agreeing with nature, diffused in all, constant, everlasting, which calls to duty by commanding and deters from fraud by forbidding; which yet bids the upright neither in vain nor forbids them, nor moves the wicked by commanding or forbidding. Against this law it is sin to legislate; nor is it lawful to derogate anything from it; nor can it be wholly abolished; nor can we be released from this law either by the senate or by the people; nor must any other expounder or interpreter of it be sought; nor will there be one law at Rome, another at Athens; one law now, another hereafter; but one and everlasting and unchanging law will hold all nations and at all time, and there will be one common, as it were, master and commander of all — God: He, the founder of this law, its arbiter, its proposer; whoever shall not obey it will flee himself, and despising the nature of man will by this very fact suffer the greatest penalties, even if he should escape the other punishments which are thought to be.”

neque enim serpit, sed volat in optimum statum instituto tuo sermone res publica. Post eum Numae Pompilii nepos ex filia rex a populo est Ancus Marcius constitutus, itemque de imperio suo legem curiatam tulit. Qui cum Latinos bello devicisset, adscivit eos in civitatem, atque idem Aventinum et Caelium montem adiunxit urbi, quosque agros ceperat, divisit et silvas maritimas omnis publicavit, quas ceperat, et ad ostium Tiberis urbem condidit colonisque firmavit. Atque ita cum tres et viginti regnavisset annos, est mortuus. Tum Laelius: Laudandus etiam iste rex; sed obscura est historia Romana, siquidem istius regis matrem habemus, ignoramus patrem. Ita est, inquit; sed temporum illorum tantum fere regum inlustrata sunt nomina.

“But from those penalties which even the most foolish feel — want, exile, chains, scourges — private men often slip away by the swiftness of death set before them. For states, however, death itself is the penalty, which seems to free single men from a penalty. For the state ought so to be set up that it be eternal. So there is no destruction of a commonwealth that is natural, as of a man, in whom death is not only necessary but very often even to be desired. But when a state is taken away, destroyed, blotted out, it is somehow alike — to compare small things with great — as if all this world should perish and fall.

Sed hoc loco primum videtur insitiva quadam disciplina doctior facta esse civitas. Influxit enim non tenuis quidam e Graecia rivulus in hanc urbem, sed abundantissimus amnis illarum disciplinarum et artium. Fuisse enim quendam ferunt Demaratum Corinthium et honore et auctoritate et fortunis facile civitatis suae principem; qui cum Corinthiorum tyrannum Cypselum ferre non potuisset, fugisse cum magna pecunia dicitur ac se contulisse Tarquinios, in urbem Etruriae florentissimam. Cumque audiret dominationem Cypseli confirmari, defugit patriam vir liber ac fortis et adscitus est civis a Tarquiniensibus atque in ea civitate domicilium et sedes collocavit. Ubi cum de matre familias Tarquiniensi duo filios procreavisset, omnibus eos artibus ad Graecorum disciplinam eru diit

… [his son] was easily received into the citizenship; on account of his cultivation and learning, he became intimate with King Ancus, even to such a degree that he was thought to share in all his counsels and to be almost a partner in the kingdom. There was in him besides the highest courtesy, the greatest generosity in giving help, aid, defence, even bounty to all citizens. So when Marcius died, by all the people’s votes Lucius Tarquinius was made king. For so he had bent his name from a Greek name, that in every kind of thing he might seem to have imitated the custom of this people. And, when he had carried a law on his command, he first doubled that original number of the senators, and called the old senators those of the major clans (whom he asked first for their opinion), those taken in by himself those of the minor.

facile in civitatem receptus esset, propter humanitatem atque doctrinam Anco regi familiaris est factus usque eo, ut consiliorum omnium particeps et socius paene regni putaretur. Erat in eo praeterea summa comitas, summa in omnis civis opis, auxilii, defensionis, largiendi etiam benignitas. Itaque mortuo Marcio cunctis populi suffragiis rex est creatus L. Tarquinius; sic enim suum nomen ex Graeco nomine inflexerat, ut in omni genere huius populi consuetudinem videretur imitatus. Isque ut de suo imperio legem tulit, principio duplicavit illum pristinum patrum numerum et antiquos patres maiorum gentium appellavit, quos priores sententiam rogabat, a se adscitos minorum.

[Augustine, City of God 19.21:] “Why, then, does God rule man, the mind the body, reason lust and the other faulty parts of the mind?”

Deinde equitatum ad hunc morem constituit, qui usque adhuc est retentus, nec potuit Titiensium et Rhamnensium et Lucerum mutare, cum cuperet, nomina, quod auctor ei summa augur gloria Attus Navius non erat. Atque etiam Corinthios video publicis equis adsignandis et alendis orborum et viduarum tributis fuisse quondam diligentis. Sed tamen prioribus equitum partibus secundis additis ↀ ⅠↃ ⅭⅭⅭ fecit equites numerumque duplicavit. Postea bello subegit Aequorum magnam gentem et ferocem et rebus populi Romani imminentem, idemque Sabinos cum a moenibus urbis reppulisset, equitatu fudit belloque devicit. Atque eundem primum ludos maximos, qui Romani dicti sunt, fecisse accepimus aedemque in Capitolio Iovi optimo maximo bello Sabino in ipsa pugna vovisse faciendam mortuumque esse, cum duodequadraginta regnavisset annos.

[Augustine, Against Julian 4.12.61:] “Do we not see that lordship has been given by nature itself to every best man, with the highest advantage of the weak? Why, then, does God rule man, the mind the body, reason lust and anger and the other faulty parts of the same mind?” [Augustine:] “But the dissimilitudes both of commanding and of serving are to be known. For as the mind is said to command the body, so it is said also to command lust; but the body as a king his citizens or a parent his children, but lust as a master slaves — because it represses and breaks it. Just so the commands of kings, of generals, of magistrates, of fathers, of peoples preside over citizens and allies as the mind over the body; whereas masters wear out their slaves as the best part of the mind, that is, wisdom, [wears out] the faulty and weak parts of the same mind, the lusts and angers and other passions.” [Augustine, City of God 14.23:] “so that the children’s command [is exercised] over the body’s members on account of their ease of obeying; the faulty parts of the mind, however, [are restrained] like slaves with a harsher rule.” [Nonius:] “For there is a kind of unjust slavery, when those are another’s who could be their own; but when they serve [a master, that is just]…”

Tum Laelius: Nunc fit illud Catonis certius, nec temporis unius nec hominis esse constitutionem rei publicae; perspicuum est enim, quanta in singulos reges rerum bonarum et utilium fiat accessio. Sed sequitur is, qui mihi videtur ex omnibus in re publica vidisse plurimum. Ita est, inquit Scipio. Nam post eum Servius Tullius primus iniussu populi regnavisse traditur, quem ferunt ex serva Tarquiniense natum, cum esset ex quodam regis cliente conceptus. Qui cum famulorum in numero educatus ad epulas regis adsisteret, non latuit scintilla ingenii, quae iam tum elucebat in puero; sic erat in omni vel officio vel sermone sollers. Itaque Tarquinius, qui admodum parvos tum haberet liberos, sic Servium diligebat, ut is eius vulgo haberetur filius, atque eum summo studio omnibus iis artibus, quas ipse didicerat, ad exquisitissimam consuetudinem Graecorum erudiit.

“But when Tarquinius had perished by the plot of Ancus’s sons, and Servius, as I said before, had begun to reign, not by command but by the will and consent of the citizens (because, when Tarquinius had been falsely said to be sick from his wound and yet alive, Servius had pronounced judgement in royal robes, freed debtors with his own money, and, by the use of the greatest courtesy, had made it credible that he gave judgement at Tarquinius’s command), he did not commit himself to the senators; but, with Tarquinius buried, he himself consulted the people about himself, and being ordered to reign carried a curiate law about his command. And first he avenged in war the wrongs of the Etruscans; out of which when …

Sed cum Tarquinius insidiis Anci filiorum interisset Serviusque, ut ante dixi, regnare coepisset non iussu, sed voluntate atque concessu civium, quod, cum Tarquinius ex vulnere aeger fuisse et vivere falso diceretur, ille regio ornatu ius dixisset obaeratosque pecunia sua liberavisset multaque comitate usus iussu Tarquinii se ius dicere probavisset, non commisit se patribus, sed Tarquinio sepulto populum de se ipse consuluit iussusque regnare legem de imperio suo curiatam tulit. Et primum Etruscorum iniurias bello est ultus; ex quo cum ma

[Priscian:] “… in which I assent that anxious and dangerous justice is not the wise man’s [concern].”

duodeviginti censu maximo. Deinde equitum magno numero ex omni populi summa separato relicuum populum distribuit in quinque classis senioresque a iunioribus divisit easque ita disparavit, ut suffragia non in multitudinis, sed in locupletium potestate essent, curavitque, quod semper in re publica tenendum est, ne plurimum valeant plurimi. Quae discriptio si esset ignota vobis, explicaretur a me; nunc rationem videtis esse talem, ut †equitum centuriae cum sex suffragiis et prima classis addita centuria, quae ad summum usum urbis fabris tignariis est data, lxxxviiii centurias habeat; quibus ex centum quattuor centuriis (tot enim reliquae sunt) octo solae si accesserunt, confecta est vis populi universa, relicuaque multo maior multitudo sex et nonaginta centuriarum neque excluderetur suffragiis, ne superbum esset, nec valeret nimis, ne esset periculosum.

[Lactantius:] “Virtue plainly wishes for honour, and there is no other reward of virtue. Yet she takes it easily and demands it not bitterly. What riches will you set before this man? What commands? What kingdoms? — one who counts these things human, and judges his own goods divine. But if either ungrateful peoples, or many enviers, or powerful enemies, strip virtue of its rewards, then virtue solaces itself with many comforts and most of all sustains itself by its own dignity.” [Augustine, City of God 22.4:] “Their bodies are not raised to heaven; for nature would not allow that what was of the earth should remain anywhere except on earth.” [Nonius:] “Never have the bravest men’s fortitude, energy, patience […]” [Nonius:] “Pyrrhus’s bounty, indeed, was not wanting to Fabricius, nor the Samnites’ wealth to Curius.” [Nonius:] “Whose hearth our Cato, when he had gone to him in the Sabine country, used to visit (as we used to hear from himself), at whose seat that man, sitting, had once refused the gifts of the Samnites, then his enemies, now his clients.”

In quo etiam verbis ac nominibus ipsis fuit diligens; qui cum locupletis assiduos appellasset ab asse dando, eos, qui aut non plus mille quingentos aeris aut omnino nihil in suum censum praeter caput attulissent, proletarios nominavit, ut ex iis quasi proles, id est quasi progenies civitatis, expectari videretur. Illarum autem sex et nonaginta centuriarum in una centuria tum quidem plures censebantur quam paene in prima classe tota. Ita nec prohibebatur quisquam iure suffragii, et is valebat in suffragio plurimum, cuius plurimum intererat esse in optimo statu civitatem. Quin etiam accensis velatis, liticinibus, cornicinibus, proletariis

… [in] Asia Tiberius Gracchus persisted [in his ways] toward our citizens; he despised the rights of the allies and the Latin name and the treaties. If this habit and licence shall begin to spread further and shall translate our command from right to force, so that those who up to now obey us by their will may be held by terror — although for those of us who are of this age, the watch is well-nigh over, yet I am anxious for our descendants and for that immortality of the commonwealth, which could have been perpetual, were the country to live by its ancestral institutions and morals.”

Non. p. 342M Statu esse optimo constitutam rem publicam, quae ex tribus generibus illis, regali et optumati et populari, confusa modice nec puniendo inritet animum inmanem ac ferum.

When Laelius had said this, although all who were present made known that they were greatly delighted by him, yet beyond the rest Scipio, raised up as if by some joy: “You have, Laelius, defended many causes so often, that I should not compare with you not only Servius Galba, our colleague, whom you, while he lived, set above all others, but not even any of the Attic orators in his … [textual gap] [Nonius:] “Two things, he said, were lacking in him to keep him from speaking among the people and in the forum: confidence, and a voice.” [Scholiast on Juvenal:] “With the groan of the men shut up inside, the bull lowed.”

quinque et sexaginta annis antiquior, quod erat xxxviiii ante primam Olympiadem condita. Et antiquissimus ille Lycurgus eadem vidit fere. Itaque ista aequabilitas atque hoc triplex rerum publicarum genus videtur mihi commune nobis cum illis populis fuisse. Sed, quod proprium est in nostra re publica, quo nihil possit esse praeclarius, id persequar, si potero, subtilius; quod erit eius modi, nihil ut tale ulla in re publica reperiatur. Haec enim, quae adhuc exposui, ita mixta fuerunt et in hac civitate et in Lacedaemoniorum et in Karthaginiensium, ut temperata nullo fuerint modo.

“… [Phalaris’s bull] to bring back. Therefore who would call that a thing of the people — that is, a commonwealth — when, by the cruelty of one, all are crushed, and there is neither one bond of right nor any agreement and association of an assembly, which is what a people is? And the same at Syracuse: that splendid city, which Timaeus calls the greatest of Greek cities, and the most beautiful of all, with a citadel to be seen, harbours flowing into the very bays of the town and to the city’s quays, broad streets, colonnades, temples, walls — not at all the more, while Dionysius held it, was it a commonwealth: for nothing belonged to the people, and the people itself belonged to one. Therefore where there is a tyrant, there must be said — not (as I said yesterday) a corrupt commonwealth, but, as reason now compels, plainly no commonwealth at all.

Nam in qua re publica est unus aliquis perpetua potestate, praesertim regia, quamvis in ea sit et senatus, ut tum fuit Romae, cum erant reges, ut Spartae Lycurgi legibus, et ut sit aliquod etiam populi ius, ut fuit apud nostros reges, tamen illud excellit regium nomen, neque potest eius modi res publica non regnum et esse et vocari. Ea autem forma civitatis mutabilis maxime est hanc ob causam, quod unius vitio praecipitata in perniciosissimam partem facillime decidit. Nam ipsum regale genus civitatis non modo non est reprehendendum, sed haud scio an reliquis simplicibus longe anteponendum, si ullum probarem simplex rei publicae genus, sed ita, quoad statum suum retinet. Is est autem status, ut unius perpetua potestate et iustitia omnique sapientia regatur salus et aequabilitas et otium civium. Desunt omnino ei populo multa, qui sub rege est, in primisque libertas, quae non in eo est, ut iusto utamur domino, sed ut nul lo

“You speak excellently,” said Laelius; “for I see now whither your speech is going.” “Do you see, then, that not even that one which is wholly in the power of a faction can truly be called a commonwealth?” “So plainly I judge.” “And most rightly you judge. For what was that thing of the Athenians, when, after that great Peloponnesian war, those thirty men presided most unjustly over the city? Did either the city’s old glory, or the splendid look of the town, or the theatre, the gymnasia, the colonnades, or the noble propylaea, or the citadel, or the wonderful works of Phidias, or that magnificent Piraeus make it a commonwealth?” “Not at all,” said Laelius, “since indeed it was no thing of the people.” “What? When the decemvirs at Rome were without right of appeal in that third year, when liberty itself had lost the right of claiming security?” “It was no thing of the people — nay, the people itself acted to recover its own thing.”

ferebant. Etenim illi iniusto domino atque acerbo aliquam diu in rebus gerundis prospera fortuna comitata est. Nam et omne Latium bello devicit et Suessam Pometiam, urbem opulentam refertamque, cepit et maxima auri argentique praeda locupletatus votum patris Capitolii aedificatione persolvit et colonias deduxit et institutis eorum, a quibus ortus erat, dona magnifica quasi libamenta praedarum Delphos ad Apollinem misit.

“I come now to that third kind, in which there will perhaps appear straits. When all things are said to be done by the people and to be in the power of the people, when the multitude takes punishment of whomever it wishes, when they drive on, snatch up, hold, dissipate the things they wish — can you then deny, Laelius, that it is a commonwealth? When all is the people’s, since indeed we wish a commonwealth to be the people’s affair?” Then Laelius: “And nothing more swiftly than that would I deny to be a commonwealth, which is wholly …” [textual gap] … “But … [we have agreed] that there was no commonwealth at Syracuse, nor at Agrigentum, nor at Athens, when there were tyrants; nor here, when there were the decemvirs. Nor do I see how the name of commonwealth can the more appear under the lordship of a multitude. For first, a people, as you have most excellently defined, Scipio, is no people unless it is held together by the agreement of right; but that mob is as much a tyrant as if it were one — the more foul because no beast is more savage than that thing which imitates the appearance and the name of a people. Nor is it fitting that, when by the laws the goods of madmen are in the power of their kinsmen […]…

Hic ille iam vertetur orbis, cuius naturalem motum atque circuitum a primo discite adgnoscere. Id enim est caput civilis prudentiae, in qua omnis haec nostra versatur oratio, videre itinera flexusque rerum publicarum, ut, cum sciatis, quo quaeque res inclinet, retinere aut ante possitis occurrere. Nam rex ille, de quo loquor, primum optimi regis caede maculatus integra mente non erat, et cum metueret ipse poenam sceleris sui summam, metui se volebat; deinde victoriis divitiisque subnixus exultabat insolentia neque suos mores regere poterat neque suorum libidines.

… [the same things] could be said: why is that a commonwealth and an affair of the people, which has been said about a kingdom?” “And much more so,” said Mummius; “for the likeness of a master falls more on a king, since he is one. But where many good men shall hold the matters of the commonwealth, nothing can be more blessed than it. Yet I would rather have a kingdom than a free people; that third kind of most corrupted commonwealth remains for you.”

Itaque cum maior eius filius Lucretiae, Tricipitini filiae, Conlatini uxori, vim attulisset mulierque pudens et nobilis ob illam iniuriam sese ipsa morte multavisset, tum vir ingenio et virtute praestans, L. Brutus, depulit a civibus suis iniustum illud durae servitutis iugum. Qui cum privatus esset, totam rem publicam sustinuit primusque in hac civitate docuit in conservanda civium libertate esse privatum neminem. Quo auctore et principe concitata civitas et hac recenti querella Lucretiae patris ac propinquorum et recordatione superbiae Tarquinii multarumque iniuriarum et ipsius et filiorum exulem et regem ipsum et liberos eius et gentem Tarquiniorum esse iussit.

Here Scipio: “I recognize,” he said, “Spurius, that custom of yours, averse from the system of the people; and although it can be borne more mildly than you are wont to bear it, still I assent that there is none of these three kinds which is less to be approved. But on this I do not assent to you, that the optimates are to be preferred to a king; for if it is wisdom that steers the commonwealth, what does it matter whether this be in one or in many? But we are deceived by some error in arguing thus; for when men are called optimates, nothing can seem more excellent — for what better thing can be thought than the best? But when mention is made of a king, an unjust king too comes to mind. We, however, are saying nothing now of an unjust king, since we are inquiring about the kingly commonwealth itself. Therefore think of Romulus or Pompilius or Tullus as king, and perhaps you will be less displeased with that commonwealth.”

Videtisne igitur, ut de rege dominus extiterit uniusque vitio genus rei publicae ex bono in deterrumum conversum sit? Hic est enim dominus populi, quem Graeci tyrannum vocant; nam regem illum volunt esse, qui consulit ut parens populo conservatque eos, quibus est praepositus, quam optima in condicione vivendi, sane bonum, ut dixi, rei publicae genus, sed tamen inclinatum et quasi pronum ad perniciosissimum statum.

“What praise, then, do you leave for a popular commonwealth?” Then he: “What? Does the commonwealth of the Rhodians, Spurius, with whom we lately stayed together, seem to you no commonwealth at all?” “It seems to me a commonwealth indeed, and by no means to be reproached.” “You speak rightly. But, if you remember, all were the same men, sometimes from the plebs, sometimes senators; and they had alternations, in which months they performed the popular service, in which the senatorial. In either they received their pay; both in the theatre and in the curia they judged capital and all other matters; the senate was as powerful, and worth as much as, the multitude … [Book 3 fragments preserved by other authors]

Simul atque enim se inflexit hic rex in dominatum iniustiorem, fit continuo tyrannus, quo neque taetrius neque foedius nec dis hominibusque invisius animal ullum cogitari potest; qui quamquam figura est hominis, morum tamen inmanitate vastissimas vincit beluas. Quis enim hunc hominem rite dixerit, qui sibi cum suis civibus, qui denique cum omni hominum genere nullam iuris communionem, nullam humanitatis societatem velit? Sed erit hoc de genere nobis alius aptior dicendi locus, cum res ipsa admonuerit, ut in eos dicamus, qui etiam liberata iam civitate dominationes adpetiverunt.

“So you have the first rise of the tyrant; for the Greeks wished this name to belong to an unjust king. Our own people called all those kings who alone had perpetual power over peoples. Hence both Spurius Cassius and Marcus Manlius and Spurius Maelius are said to have wished to seize a kingdom, and lately Tiberius Gracchus …

Habetis igitur primum ortum tyranni; nam hoc nomen Graeci regis iniusti esse voluerunt; nostri quidem omnes reges vocitaverunt, qui soli in populos perpetuam potestatem haberent. Itaque et Spurius Cassius et M. Manlius et Spurius Maelius regnum occupare voluisse dicti sunt, et modo Tib. Gracchus

“Lycurgus called those at Lacedaemon gerontes — too few indeed, twenty-eight — in whose hands he wished the chief counsel to be, while the king held the chief command. From whom our forefathers, following and interpreting the same thing, named those whom he called the senes the senate, as we said Romulus had already done with the chosen senators (patres). Yet there the kingly force, power, and name stand out and are eminent. You allot some power to the people, as both Lycurgus and Romulus did; you do not satisfy them with liberty, but inflame them with the desire of liberty, when you have only given them the power of tasting it; and there will always hang over you the fear that the king (which often happens) may turn out to be unjust. Therefore that fortune of a people is fragile which is set in the will or morals of one man, as I said before.

Lycurgus ge/rontas La cedaemone appellavit, nimis is quidem paucos, xxviii, quos penes summam consilii voluit esse, cum imperii summam rex teneret; ex quo nostri idem illud secuti atque interpretati, quos senes ille appellavit, nominaverunt senatum, ut iam Romulum patribus lectis fecisse diximus; tamen excellit atque eminet vis, potestas nomenque regium. Inperti etiam populo potestatis aliquid, ut et Lycurgus et Romulus; non satiaris eum libertate, sed incenderis cupiditate libertatis, cum tantum modo potestatem gustandi feceris; ille quidem semper inpendebit timor, ne rex, quod plerumque evenit, exsistat iniustus. Est igitur fragilis ea fortuna populi, quae posita est in unius, ut dixi antea, vel voluntate vel moribus.

“Wherefore let this be the first form, and image, and origin of a tyrant, found by us in that commonwealth which Romulus founded with auspices, not in that one which (as Plato has set out) Socrates himself depicted in that tripartite discourse: how, like Tarquinius, having gained no new power but using unjustly that which he had, he overturned this whole kind of regal state. Let there be set against him another, good and wise and skilled in the advantage and dignity of the citizens, as it were the guardian and steward of the commonwealth: for so let him be called, whoever shall be ruler and steersman of the state. Make sure you recognize that man; for he is the one who can guard the state by counsel and effort. Since this name is up to now less worn in our speech, and the kind of this man will more often have to be handled in the rest of our discourse …

Quare prima sit haec forma et species et origo tyranni inventa nobis in ea re publica, quam auspicato Romulus condiderit, non in illa, quam, ut perscripsit Plato, sibi ipse Socrates tripertito illo in sermone depinxerit, ut, quem ad modum Tarquinius, non novam potestatem nactus, sed, quam habebat, usus iniuste totum genus hoc regiae civitatis everterit; sit huic oppositus alter, bonus et sapiens et peritus utilitatis dignitatisque civilis quasi tutor et procurator rei publicae; sic enim appelletur, quicumque erit rector et gubernator civitatis. Quem virum facite ut agnoscatis; is est enim, qui consilio et opera civitatem tueri potest. Quod quoniam nomen minus est adhuc tritum sermone nostro saepiusque genus eius hominis erit in reliqua nobis oratione trac tandum

… [Plato sought] foundations, and arrived at a state to be hoped for rather than wished for, as small as he could — not what could exist, but in which the system of civic affairs could be looked into. But I, if I can in any way attain it, by the same reasonings which he saw, will strive — not in the shadow and image of a state, but in the most extensive commonwealth — to seem to touch each cause of public good and ill as if with a wand. For when those two hundred and forty-odd kingly years had passed, with the interregnums included, and Tarquin had been driven out, the Roman people held so great a hatred of the kingly name as it had held longing for it after the death — or rather the departure — of Romulus. Therefore, as it had then been unable to do without a king, so, with Tarquin driven out, it could not bear to hear the name of king. Here, when …

sas requisivit civitatemque optandam magis quam sperandam, quam minimam potuit, non quae posset esse, sed in qua ratio rerum civilium perspici posset, effecit. Ego autem, si quo modo consequi potuero, rationibus eisdem, quas ille vidit, non in umbra et imagine civitatis, sed in amplissima re publica enitar, ut cuiusque et boni publici et mali causam tamquam virgula videar attingere. Iis enim regiis quadraginta annis et ducentis paulo cum interregnis fere amplius praeteritis expulsoque Tarquinio tantum odium populum Romanum regalis nominis tenuit, quantum tenuerat post obitum vel potius excessum Romuli desiderium. Itaque ut tum carere rege, sic pulso Tarquinio nomen regis audire non poterat. Hic facultatem cum

[Nonius p. 526M:] “Therefore that splendid constitution of Romulus, when it had remained firm for almost two hundred and twenty years …”

Non. 526M Itaque illa praeclara constitutio Romuli cum ducentos annos et viginti fere firma mansisset

… that whole law was annulled. With this in mind our forefathers then both drove out the innocent Collatinus on the suspicion of his kinship, and the rest of the Tarquinii on the offence of the name; and with the same mind Publius Valerius first ordered the rods to be lowered, when he had begun to speak in the assembly, and brought down his house under the Velia, after he saw the people’s suspicion stirred because he had begun to build on a higher place of the Velia, in that very spot where King Tullus had lived. The same man — in which Publicola most especially showed his name — carried the law to the people, the first carried in the centuriate comitia: that no magistrate should put a Roman citizen to death or scourge him against his appeal.

lex illa tota sublata est. Hac mente tum nostri maiores et Conlatinum innocentem suspicione cognationis expulerunt et reliquos Tarquinios offensione nominis; eademque mente P. Valerius et fasces primus demitti iussit, cum dicere in contione coepisset, et aedis suas detulit sub Veliam, posteaquam, quod in excelsiore loco Veliae coepisset aedificare eo ipso, ubi rex Tullus habitaverat, suspicionem populi sensit moveri; idemque, in quo fuit Publicola maxime, legem ad populum tulit eam, quae centuriatis comitiis prima lata est, ne quis magistratus civem Romanum adversus provocationem necaret neve verberaret.

“That appeal lay even from kings is shown by the books of the pontifices, and ours of the augurs make the same plain; and that one might appeal from every judgement and penalty the Twelve Tables show in many laws. And what has been handed down to memory — that the decemvirs who wrote the laws were created without right of appeal — shows clearly enough that other magistrates were not without appeal; and the consular law of Lucius Valerius Potitus and Marcus Horatius Barbatus, men wisely friendly to the people for the sake of concord, sanctioned that no magistrate should be created without right of appeal. Nor did the Porcian laws — which are three, of three Porcii, as you know — bring anything new beyond a sanction.

Provocationem autem etiam a regibus fuisse declarant pontificii libri, significant nostri etiam augurales, itemque ab omni iudicio poenaque provocari licere indicant xii tabulae conpluribus legibus; et quod proditum memoriae est, x viros, qui leges scripserint, sine provocatione creatos, satis ostenderit reliquos sine provocatione magistratus non fuisse; Luciique Valerii Potiti et M. Horatii Barbati, hominum concordiae causa sapienter popularium, consularis lex sanxit, ne qui magistratus sine provocatione crearetur; neque vero leges Porciae, quae tres sunt trium Porciorum, ut scitis, quicquam praeter sanctionem attulerunt novi.

“So Publicola, after that law on appeal had been carried, immediately ordered the axes to be taken from the rods; and on the next day he had Spurius Lucretius substituted to himself as colleague, and ordered his own lictors to pass over to him, because he was older; and he was the first to lay it down that, for each consul in turn, the lictors should march before him in alternate months, that there should not be more insignia of command in a free people than there had been under a kingdom. This man, as I at least understand, was no middling man, who, by giving the people moderate liberty, more easily kept the authority of the leading men. Nor do I now without cause sing to you these so old and so worn things, but in distinguished persons and times I lay down examples of men and matters, to which the rest of my speech may be directed.

Itaque Publicola lege illa de provocatione perlata statim securis de fascibus demi iussit postridieque sibi collegam Sp. Lucretium subrogavit suosque ad eum, quod erat maior natu, lictores transire iussit instituitque primus, ut singulis consulibus alternis mensibus lictores praeirent, ne plura insignia essent inperii in libero populo quam in regno fuissent. Haud mediocris hic, ut ego quidem intellego, vir fuit, qui modica libertate populo data facilius tenuit auctoritatem principum. Neque ego haec nunc sine causa tam vetera vobis et tam obsoleta decanto, sed inlustribus in personis temporibusque exempla hominum rerumque definio, ad quae reliqua oratio derigatur mea.

“In this state, then, the senate held the commonwealth in those times, that in a free people few things were done by the people, most by the authority and ordinance and custom of the senate; and that the consuls held a power that was indeed yearly in time, but kingly in kind itself and in right. And what was perhaps the chief means of keeping power among the nobility was strenuously kept up: that the people’s comitia were not valid unless the authority of the senators had approved them. And in these very times, almost ten years after the first consuls, a dictator was instituted — Titus Larcius — and that new kind of command seemed near to the likeness of a kingdom. But still all things were held with the highest authority by the leading men, while the people gave way; and great matters in those times were carried on in war by the bravest men, equipped with supreme command, dictators and consuls.

Tenuit igitur hoc in statu senatus rem publicam temporibus illis, ut in populo libero pauca per populum, pleraque senatus auctoritate et instituto ac more gererentur, atque uti consules potestatem haberent tempore dumtaxat annuam, genere ipso ac iure regiam. Quodque erat ad optinendam potentiam nobilium vel maximum, vehementer id retinebatur, populi comitia ne essent rata, nisi ea patrum adprobavisset auctoritas. Atque his ipsis temporibus dictator etiam est institutus decem fere annis post primos consules, T. Larcius, novumque id genus imperii visum est et proximum similitudini regiae. Sed tamen omnia summa cum auctoritate a principibus cedente populo tenebantur, magnaeque res temporibus illis a fortissimis viris summo imperio praeditis, dictatoribus atque consulibus, belli gerebantur.

“But what the very nature of things compelled — that the people, freed from kings, should arrogate to itself a little more right — it attained, no long interval after, in about the sixteenth year, in the consulship of Postumius Cominius and Spurius Cassius. In which there was wanting, perhaps, system; but the very nature of commonwealths often overcomes system. For hold to this — which I said at the beginning — that, unless there be in the state an even balance of right and duty and office, so that there is enough power in the magistrates, enough authority in the council of leading men, and enough liberty in the people, this unchanging condition of the commonwealth cannot be preserved.

Sed id, quod fieri natura rerum ipsa cogebat, ut plusculum sibi iuris populus adscisceret liberatus a regibus, non longo intervallo, sexto decimo fere anno, Postumo Cominio Sp. Cassio consulibus consecutus est; in quo defuit fortasse ratio, sed tamen vincit ipsa rerum publicarum natura saepe rationem. Id enim tenetote, quod initio dixi, nisi aequabilis haec in civitate conpensatio sit et iuris et officii et muneris, ut et potestatis satis in magistratibus et auctoritatis in principum consilio et libertatis in populo sit, non posse hunc incommutabilem rei publicae conservari statum.

“For when the state was disturbed by debt, the plebs took possession first of the Sacred Mount, then of the Aventine. Not even the discipline of Lycurgus held those reins among the Greeks; for at Sparta also, in the reign of Theopompus, there are likewise five whom they call ephors; in Crete ten, who are called cosmoe — as the tribunes of the plebs were set against the consular command, so they were set against the kingly force.

Nam cum esset ex aere alieno commota civitas, plebs montem sacrum prius, deinde Aventinum occupavit. Ac ne Lycurgi quidem disciplina tenuit illos in hominibus Graecis frenos; nam etiam Spartae regnante Theopompo sunt item quinque, quos illi ephoros appellant, in Creta autem decem, qui cosmoe vocantur, ut contra consulare imperium tribuni pl., sic illi contra vim regiam constituti.

“There had been perhaps some way for our forefathers of remedying that debt, which had escaped neither the Athenian Solon not long before, nor afterwards by no long time our own senate; when, on account of one man’s lust, all bonds of citizens were freed, and afterwards the binding ceased; and always for this kind, when the plebs, weakened by the public disaster of expenditures, was failing, some relief and remedy has been sought for the safety of all. With which counsel then passed by, the cause arose for the people, with two tribunes of the plebs created in the sedition, that the power and authority of the senate should be lessened. Yet that authority remained heavy and great, because the wisest and bravest men, guarding the state with arms and counsel, flourished above all in authority — because, while they far surpassed the rest in office, they were inferior in pleasures and not generally superior in money; and so the virtue of each was the more welcome in public matters, because, in private matters, they most diligently watched over each citizen by service, counsel, and substance.

†Fuerat fortasse aliqua ratio maioribus nostris in illo aere alieno medendi, quae neque Solonem Atheniensem non longis temporibus ante fugerat neque post aliquanto nostrum senatum, cum sunt propter unius libidinem omnia nexa civium liberata nectierque postea desitum; semperque huic generi, cum plebes publica calamitate inpendiis debilitata deficeret, salutis omnium causa aliqua sublevatio et medicina quaesita est. Quo tum consilio praetermisso causa populo nata est, duobus tribunis plebis per seditionem creatis ut potentia senatus atque auctoritas minueretur; quae tamen gravis et magna remanebat sapientissimis et fortissimis et armis et consilio civitatem tuentibus, quorum auctoritas maxime florebat, quod, cum honore longe antecellerent ceteris, voluptatibus erant inferiores nec pecuniis ferme superiores; eoque erat cuiusque gratior in re publica virtus, quod in rebus privatis diligentissime singulos cives opera, consilio, re tuebantur.

“In which condition of the commonwealth, when Spurius Cassius, flourishing in the highest favour with the people, was working to seize a kingdom, the quaestor accused him; and as you have heard, when his father said he had found him to be in that fault, with the people giving way, he had him put to death. And in about the fifty-fourth year after the first consuls, the consuls Spurius Tarpeius and Aulus Aternius carried that grateful law on a fine and bond in the centuriate comitia. Twenty years later, after the censors Lucius Papirius and Publius Pinarius, by demanding many fines, had turned the substance of cattle from private men to the public, a light valuation of cattle in the law on fines was established by the consuls Gaius Iulius and Publius Papirius.

Quo in statu rei publicae Sp. Cassium de occupando regno molientem, summa apud populum gratia florentem, quaestor accusavit, eumque, ut audistis, cum pater in ea culpa esse conperisse se dixisset, cedente populo morte mactavit. Gratamque etiam illam legem quarto circiter et quinquagesimo anno post primos consules de multa et sacramento Sp. Tarpeius et A. Aternius consules comitiis centuriatis tulerunt. Annis postea xx ex eo, quod L. Papirius P. Pinarius censores multis dicendis vim armentorum a privatis in publicum averterant, levis aestumatio pecudum in multa lege C. Iulii P. Papirii consulum constituta est.

“But some years before, when the highest authority lay in the senate and the people were patient and obedient, a method was devised: that both the consuls and the tribunes of the plebs should resign their magistracy, and that ten men should be created with supreme power and without right of appeal, who should both hold the chief command and write the laws. When they had written ten tables, with the highest fairness and prudence in the laws, they substituted, for the next year, other decemvirs, whose faith and justice were not similarly praised. Yet from that college that singular praise belongs to Gaius Iulius, who, when he himself held supreme power because he was a decemvir without right of appeal, yet demanded sureties of a noble man, Lucius Sestius, in whose bedroom he said he had seen a dead body dug up, in his own presence: because he denied he would neglect that famous law which forbade the trial of a Roman citizen on a capital charge except by the centuriate comitia.

Sed aliquot ante annis, cum summa esset auctoritas in senatu populo patiente atque parente, inita ratio est, ut et consules et tribuni pl. magistratu se abdicarent, atque ut x viri maxima potestate sine provocatione crearentur, qui et summum imperium haberent et leges scriberent. Qui cum x tabulas summa legum aequitate prudentiaque conscripsissent, in annum posterum decemviros alios subrogaverunt, quorum non similiter fides nec iustitia laudata. Quo tamen e collegio laus est illa eximia C. Iulii, qui hominem nobilem, L. Sestium, cuius in cubiculo ecfossum esse se praesente mortuum diceret, cum ipse potestatem summam haberet, quod decemvirum sine provocatione esset, vades tamen poposcit, quod se legem illam praeclaram neglecturum negaret, quae de capite civis Romani nisi comitiis centuriatis statui vetaret.

“A third year of the decemvirs followed, when the same men were [in office] and would not have others substituted. In this condition of the commonwealth — which I have already often said could not last long, because it was not equal in all orders of the state — the whole commonwealth was in the hands of the leading men, with the most noble decemvirs presiding, no tribunes of the plebs set against them, no other magistrates joined to them, no right of appeal to the people left against death and stripes.

Tertius est annus x viralis consecutus, cum iidem essent nec alios subrogare voluissent. In hoc statu rei publicae, quem dixi iam saepe non posse esse diuturnum, quod non esset in omnis ordines civitatis aequabilis, erat penes principes tota res publica praepositis x viris nobilissimis, non oppositis tribunis pl., nullis aliis adiunctis magistratibus, non provocatione ad populum contra necem et verbera relicta.

“Therefore, out of the injustice of these men, suddenly arose the greatest disturbance and a total change of the commonwealth. They had added two tables of unjust laws, in which they sanctioned with most inhuman law that even those marriages which are wont to be granted to peoples disjoined from us should not exist between plebeians and patricians (this was afterwards annulled by Canuleius’s plebiscite); and they presided over the people in every command lustfully, harshly, and greedily. Famous, of course, is that affair, celebrated in many records of letters: when one Decimus Verginius slew his maiden daughter with his own hand in the Forum on account of the lust of one of those decemvirs, and, mourning, fled to the army (which was then on Algidus); and how the soldiers left the war they had in hand, and first occupied, in arms, the Sacred Mount (as had been done before in like cause), and afterwards the Aventine …

Ergo horum ex iniustitia subito exorta est maxima perturbatio et totius commutatio rei publicae; qui duabus tabulis iniquarum legum additis, quibus, etiam quae diiunctis populis tribui solent conubia, haec illi ut ne plebei cum patribus essent, inhumanissima lege sanxerunt, quae postea plebei scito Canuleio abrogata est, libidinoseque omni imperio et acerbe et avare populo praefuerunt. Nota scilicet illa res et celebrata monumentis plurimis litterarum, cum Decimus quidam Verginius virginem filiam propter unius ex illis x viris intemperiem in foro sua manu interemisset ac maerens ad exercitum, qui tum erat in Algido, confugisset, milites bellum illud, quod erat in manibus, reliquisse et primum montem sacrum, sicut erat in simili causa antea factum, deinde Aventinum ar matos insedisse

[Philargyrius, Servius on Georgics 3.125:] … Lucius Quinctius being named dictator. “I judge that our forefathers both most approved [this institution] and most wisely retained it.”

Philarg., Serv. G. 3.125 dictatore L. Quinctio dicto. maio res nostros et probavisse maxime et retinuisse sapientissime iudico.

When Scipio had said this, and the rest of his discourse was awaited in the silence of all, then Tubero: “Since these elders of ours ask nothing of you, Africanus, you shall hear from me what I find wanting in your speech.” “Indeed,” said Scipio, “and gladly.” Then he: “You seem to me to have praised our commonwealth, when Laelius had asked you not about ours, but about every commonwealth. Yet I have not learned from your speech by what discipline, what morals, what laws we may set up or preserve that very commonwealth which you praise.”

Cum ea Scipio dixisset silentioque omnium reliqua eius expectaretur oratio, tum Tubero: Quoniam nihil ex te, Africane, hi maiores natu requirunt, ex me audies, quid in oratione tua desiderem. Sane, inquit Scipio, et libenter quidem. Tum ille: Laudavisse mihi videris nostram rem publicam, cum ex te non de nostra, sed de omni re publica quaesisset Laelius. Nec tamen didici ex oratione tua, istam ipsam rem publicam, quam laudas, qua disciplina, quibus moribus aut legibus constituere vel conservare possimus.

Here Africanus: “I think there will soon be a fitter place for us, Tubero, to discuss the founding and preserving of states; on the best constitution, however, I thought I had answered enough to what Laelius had asked. For first I had distinguished by number three approved kinds of states, and three ruinous opposed to those three; that none of these by itself was the best, but that there stood out above the single ones that which was moderately tempered out of the first three.

Hic Africanus: Puto nobis mox de instituendis et conservandis civitatibus aptiorem, Tubero, fore disserundi locum; de optimo autem statu equidem arbitrabar me satis respondisse ad id, quod quaesierat Laelius. Primum enim numero definieram genera civitatum tria probabilia, perniciosa autem tribus illis totidem contraria, nullumque ex eis unum esse optimum, sed id praestare singulis, quod e tribus primis esset modice temperatum.

“As for my having used the example of our own state, this had its force not toward defining the best constitution (for that could be done without an example), but that, in our greatest of states, the matter described by reasoning and speech might be discerned in fact. But if you ask, apart from the example of any people, the very kind of the best constitution, we must use the image of nature, since you … [will not be content with] this image of city and people …

Quod autem exemplo nostrae civitatis usus sum, non ad definiendum optimum statum valuit (nam id fieri potuit sine exemplo), sed ut civitate maxima reapse cerneretur quale esset id, quod ratio oratioque describeret. Sin autem sine ullius populi exemplo genus ipsum exquiris optimi status, naturae imagine utendum est nobis, quoniam tu hanc imaginem urbis et populi ni

… whom I have long sought and to whom I am eager to come. Are you perhaps asking for the prudent man?” Then he: “That very one.” “You have, of those very men present, a fine supply — or to begin from yourself.” Then Scipio: “And would that the supply were proportionate from the whole senate! But still, that man is prudent who, as we have often seen in Africa, sitting on the savage and vast beast, restrains and rules the beast wherever he wishes, and with a slight prompting, not blow, bends that wild creature. I have known him, and when I was your legate I often saw him. So that Indian or Carthaginian restrains one beast — and that one teachable and accustomed to human ways. But that thing which lies hidden in the minds of men, that part of the mind which is called mens, must rein in and tame not one nor easy creature for subduing, when ever it can do this — which it very rarely can. For also that fierce thing must be held in …

quem iam dudum quaero et ad quem cupio pervenire. Prudentem fortasse quaeris? Tum ille: Istum ipsum. Est tibi ex eis ipsis, qui adsunt, bella copia, vel ut a te ipso ordiare. Tum Scipio: Atque utinam ex omni senatu pro rata parte esset! Sed tamen est ille prudens, qui, ut saepe in Africa vidimus, immani et vastae insidens beluae coercet et regit beluam, quocumque vult, levi admonitu †non actu inflectit illam feram. Novi et, tibi cum essem legatus, saepe vidi. Ergo ille Indus aut Poenus unam coercet beluam, et eam docilem et humanis moribus adsuetam; at vero ea, quae latet in animis hominum quaeque pars animi mens vocatur, non unam aut facilem ad subigendum frenat et domat, si quando id efficit, quod perraro potest. Namque et illa tenenda est ferox

… [Nonius:] which is fed with blood, which exults in every cruelty so much that it is scarcely glutted with the bitter funerals of men. [Nonius:] … and to the desirous, lustful, dissolute man wallowing in pleasures. [Nonius:] and the fourth, anxiety, prone to mourning and grieving, and always troubling itself. [Nonius:] that they are afflicted with anguish, with misery, or cast down by timidity and cowardice. [Nonius:] as an unskilled charioteer is dragged from the chariot, trodden on, torn, dashed in pieces.

Non. 300M quae sanguine alitur, quae in omni crudelitate sic exultat, ut vix hominum acerbis funeribus satietur. Non. 491M cupido autem et expetenti et lubidinoso et volutabundo in voluptatibus. Non. 72M quartaque anxitudo prona ad luctum et maerens semperque ipsa se sollicitans. Non. 228M esse autem angore, esse miseria adflictas aut abiectas timiditate et ignavia. Non. 292M Ut auriga indoctus e curru trahitur, opteritur, laniatur, eliditur.

… could be said. Then Laelius: “I see now the man whom I was awaiting — whom you would set up for office and duty.” “To this one, plainly,” said Africanus, “almost alone (for in this one are nearly all the rest): that he should never depart from looking at and contemplating his own self, that he should call others to imitation of himself, that by the splendour of his mind and life he should offer himself as a mirror to the citizens. For just as in lyres or pipes, and in the very song and voices, a certain harmony must be kept out of distinct sounds, which when changed or discordant the cultivated ear cannot bear; and that harmony, by the modulation of the most unlike voices, is yet made concordant and agreeing — so out of the highest and the lowest and the middle orders, set between like sounds, the state, by the moderate ratio, sounds together by the consent [as Augustine quotes:] of the most unlike. And what is called by musicians harmony in song, is in the state concord — the closest and best bond of safety in every commonwealth; and this can in no way exist without justice.”

dici possit. Tum Laelius: Video iam, illum, quem expectabam, virum cui praeficias officio et muneri. Huic scilicet, Africanus, uni paene (nam in hoc fere uno sunt cetera), ut numquam a se ipso intuendo contemplandoque discedat, ut ad imitationem sui vocet alios, ut sese splendore animi et vitae suae sicut speculum praebeat civibus. Ut enim in fidibus aut tibiis atque ut in cantu ipso ac vocibus concentus est quidam tenendus ex distinctis sonis, quem inmutatum aut discrepantem aures eruditae ferre non possunt, isque concentus ex dissimillimarum vocum moderatione concors tamen efficitur et congruens, sic ex summis et infimis et mediis interiectis ordinibus ut sonis moderata ratione civitas consensu August. C.D. 2.21 dissimillimorum concinit; et quae harmonia a musicis dicitur in cantu, ea est in civitate concordia, artissimum atque optimum omni in re publica vinculum incolumitatis, eaque sine iustitia nullo pacto esse potest.

… [the commonwealth must be] full of justice. Then Scipio: “I assent indeed, and I declare to you that we should suppose nothing said as yet about the commonwealth, nor anywhere we can go further, unless it is established not only that this is false, that without injustice the state cannot be carried on, but also that this is most true, that without the highest justice the state can in no way be carried on. But, if you please, this far for today; let us put off the rest — enough remains — till tomorrow.” This being agreed, an end of debate was made for that day.

plenam esse iustitiae. Tum Scipio: Adsentior vero renuntioque vobis nihil esse, quod adhuc de re publica dictum putemus aut quo possimus longius progredi, nisi erit confirmatum non modo falsum illud esse, sine iniuria non posse, sed hoc verissimum esse, sine summa iustitia rem publicam geri nullo modo posse. Sed, si placet, in hunc diem hactenus; reliqua (satis enim multa restant) differamus in crastinum. Cum ita placuisset, finis disputandi in eum diem factus est.

[Nonius p. 42M:] “You expect, then, the whole prudence of this governor, which has gained even this very name from foreseeing (providendo).” [Nonius p. 256M:] “For which reason this citizen must so equip himself that he be always armed against those things which disturb the constitution of the state.” [Nonius p. 25M; Servius:] “And this dissension of the citizens, because some go aside to others, is called sedition.” [Nonius p. 519M:] “In civil dissension, when the good prevail by more than the many, I think the citizens must be weighed, not numbered.” [Nonius p. 424M:] “For lusts, those weighty mistresses of our thoughts, drive on and command certain limitless things; which, since they can in no way be filled or satisfied, drive on to every crime those whom they have set on fire by their lures.” [Nonius p. 492M:] “… who shall have crushed his force and that unbridled fierceness.”

[Eulogius on the Somnium Scipionis:] “… [Cicero referring to the legendary Pamphylian who] when set on the funeral pyre, came back to life and told many secrets of the underworld — that what is said about the immortality of the soul and about heaven is not the contrivances of dreaming philosophers, nor incredible fables which the Epicureans deride, but the conjectures of the prudent.”

et vehiculis tarditati, eademque cum accepisset homines inconditis vocibus inchoatum quiddam et confusum sonantes, incidit has et distinxit in partis et ut signa quaedam sic verba rebus inpressit hominesque antea dissociatos iucundissimo inter se sermonis vinclo conligavit. A simili etiam mente vocis, qui videbantur infiniti, soni paucis notis inventis sunt omnes signati et expressi, quibus et conloquia cum absentibus et indicia voluntatum et monumenta rerum praeteritarum tenerentur. Accessit eo numerus, res cum ad vitam necessaria, tum una inmutabilis et aeterna; quae prima inpulit etiam, ut suspiceremus in caelum nec frustra siderum motus intueremur dinumerationibusque noctium ac die rum

[Augustine, City of God 22.28:] “… that he wished rather to play than to affirm that as the truth.”

quorum animi altius se extulerunt et aliquid dignum dono, ut ante dixi, deorum aut efficere aut excogitare potuerunt. Quare sint nobis isti, qui de ratione vivendi disserunt, magni homines, ut sunt, sint eruditi, sint veritatis et virtutis magistri, dum modo sit haec quaedam, sive a viris in rerum publicarum varietate versatis inventa sive etiam in istorum otio ac litteris tractata res, sicut est, minime quidem contemnenda, ratio civilis et disciplina populorum, quae perficit in bonis ingeniis, id quod iam persaepe perfecit, ut incredibilis quaedam et divina virtus exsisteret.

“… will it offend you to learn the nature of the roots and seeds? Not at all, if only the work [of governing] shall remain. Do you think this the bailiff’s pursuit? By no means; since labour very often falls short of agriculture. As, then, the bailiff knows the nature of the field, the steward knows letters, and either of them refers himself from the delight of knowledge to the use of getting the work done — so let our governor have studied right and laws thoroughly, have looked into their very fountains, but not let himself be hindered by giving counsel and reading and writing, that he may, as it were, dispense the commonwealth and, in some way, oversee it: most skilled in the highest right, without which no one can be just; not unskilled in civil right, but as the steersman uses astronomy and the doctor physics — each uses these things for his own art, but is not hindered from his own duty by them. But this man will see …

Quodsi quis ad ea instrumenta animi, quae natura quaeque civilibus institutis habuit, adiungendam sibi etiam doctrinam et uberiorem rerum cognitionem putavit, ut ii ipsi, qui in horum librorum disputatione versantur, nemo est, quin eos anteferre omnibus debeat. Quid enim potest esse praeclarius, quam cum rerum magnarum tractatio atque usus cum illarum artium studiis et cognitione coniungitur? aut quid P. Scipione, quid C. Laelio, quid L. Philo perfectius cogitari potest? qui, ne quid praetermitterent, quod ad summam laudem clarorum virorum pertineret, ad domesticum maiorumque morem etiam hanc a Socrate adventiciam doctrinam adhibuerunt.

“… in states where the best men seek praise and dignity, and shun reproach and disgrace. Nor are they so much terrified by the fear and penalty which is set up by the laws as by shame, which nature has given to man as a kind of fear, not unjust, of being blamed. This [shame] our governor of public matters has increased by opinion and perfected by institutions and disciplines, that the citizen’s modesty would no less keep him from misdeeds than fear. And these things indeed pertain to praise, which could have been said more broadly and richly.

Quare qui utrumque voluit et potuit, id est ut cum maiorum institutis, tum doctrina se instrueret, ad laudem hunc omnia consecutum puto. Sin altera est utra via prudentiae deligenda, tamen, etiamsi cui videbitur illa in optimis studiis et artibus quieta vitae ratio beatior, haec civilis laudabilior est certe et inlustrior, ex qua vita sic summi viri ornantur, ut vel M’. Curius, Quem nemo ferro potuit superare nec auro, vel

“As for the system of life and the use of living, this has been arranged by lawful marriages, by legitimate children, by the holy seats of the household gods of Penates and Lares, that all may use both common and their own conveniences; and that one cannot live well without a good commonwealth, nor anything be more blessed than a state well constituted. Wherefore it is wont to seem most strange to me, what is so great a learning …

fuisse sapientiam, tamen hoc in ratione utriusque generis interfuit, quod illi verbis et artibus aluerunt naturae principia, hi autem institutis et legibus. Pluris vero haec tulit una civitas, si minus sapientis, quoniam id nomen illi tam restricte tenent, at certe summa laude dignos, quoniam sapientium praecepta et inventa coluerunt. Atque etiam, quot et sunt laudandae civitates et fuerunt, quoniam id est in rerum natura longe maximi consilii, constituere eam rem publicam, quae possit esse diuturna, si singulos numeremus in singulas, quanta iam reperiatur virorum excellentium multitudo! Quodsi aut Italiae Latium aut eiusdem Sabinam aut Volscam gentem, si Samnium, si Etruriam, si magnam illam Graeciam conlustrare animo voluerimus, si deinde Assyrios, si Persas, si Poenos, si haec

[Macrobius, Saturnalia 1.4.2sq.:] “But although for wise men the consciousness itself of distinguished deeds is the amplest reward of virtue, yet that divine virtue desires not statues set in lead, nor triumphs with withering laurels, but certain firmer and greener kinds of rewards. “What, then, are these,” said Laelius? Then Scipio: “Bear with me, since this is now the third day of our holiday …” [The Somnium Scipionis, preserved separately by Macrobius.]

cati. Et Philus: Praeclaram vero causam ad me defertis, cum me improbitatis patrocinium suscipere voltis. Atqui id tibi, inquit Laelius, verendum est, si ea dixeris, quae contra iustitiam dici solent, ne sic etiam sentire videare, cum et ipse sis quasi unicum exemplum antiquae probitatis et fidei neque sit ignota consuetudo tua contrarias in partis disserendi, quod ita facillume verum inveniri putes. Et Philus: Heia vero, inquit, geram morem vobis et me oblinam sciens; quod quoniam, qui aurum quaerunt, non putant sibi recusandum, nos, cum iustitiam quaeramus, rem multo omni auro cariorem, nullam profecto molestiam fugere debemus. Atque utinam, quem ad modum oratione sum usurus aliena, sic mihi ore uti liceret alieno! Nunc ea dicenda sunt L. Furio Philo, quae Carneades, Graecus homo et consuetus, quod commodum esset, verbis

“When I had come into Africa to consul Manius Manilius, as you know, as tribune of the soldiers to the fourth legion, nothing was more important to me than to meet King Masinissa, by just causes the dearest friend of our family. When I came to him, the old man embraced me, shed tears, and after a little while looked up to heaven and said: “Thanks I render to thee, highest Sun, and to you the rest of the heaven-dwellers, that, before I pass from this life, I behold in my own kingdom and within these roofs Publius Cornelius Scipio, by whose very name I am refreshed: so that the memory of that best and most invincible of men never departs from my mind.” Then I asked him about his kingdom, he asked me about our commonwealth; and with many words spoken back and forth, that day was used up by us.

Non. 263M ut Carneadi respondeatis, qui saepe optimas causas ingenii calumnia ludificari solet.

“Do you see that city, which, forced through me to obey the Roman people, renews her ancient wars and cannot rest?” (And he was showing me Carthage from a high and bright place, full of stars.) “Which you now come to besiege, almost a common soldier. Within these next two years you will overthrow it as consul, and you will have that surname won by you yourself which you have so far inherited from us. But when you have destroyed Carthage, held a triumph, and been censor, and have travelled as legate to Egypt, Syria, Asia, and Greece, you will be elected consul a second time in your absence, and finish a great war: you will raze Numantia. But when you have ridden into the Capitol in your chariot, you will find the commonwealth thrown into confusion by the counsels of my grandson.

Non. 373M Iustitia foras spectat et proiecta tota est atque eminet. Non. 299M Quae virtus praeter ceteras totam se ad alienas porrigit utilitatis atque explicat.

“Here, Africanus, you must show your country the light of your spirit, your genius, your counsel. But I see, as it were, a doubtful path of fates at that time. For when your age shall have run through eight courses and returns of the sun, of seven years each, and these two numbers, of which each is held complete one for one reason, the other for another, shall by their natural cycle have made up your fated sum, then upon you alone, and upon your name, the whole state will turn. You the senate, you all the good men, you the allies, you the Latins will look to. You will be the one on whom the safety of the state will rest — and, in short, as dictator you must set up the commonwealth, if you escape the impious hands of your kinsmen.” At this Laelius cried out, and the rest groaned more violently; but Scipio, smiling slightly: “Hush, please,” said he, “do not wake me from my sleep, and listen a little to the rest.

et reperiret et tueretur, alter autem de ipsa iustitia quattuor implevit sane grandis libros. Nam ab Chrysippo nihil magnum nec magnificum desideravi, qui suo quodam more loquitur, ut omnia verborum momentis, non rerum ponderibus examinet. Illorum fuit heroum eam virtutem, quae est una, si modo est, maxime munifica et liberalis, et quae omnis magis quam sepse diligit, aliis nata potius quam sibi, excitare iacentem et in illo divino solio non longe a sapientia conlocare.

“But that you may be the more eager, Africanus, to guard the commonwealth, hold thus: for all who shall have preserved, helped, increased their fatherland, there is a fixed place set in heaven, where the blessed enjoy an eternal age. For nothing is more pleasing to that supreme God who rules all the world — of all that is done on earth — than the assemblies and gatherings of men joined by right, which are called states; the rulers and preservers of these go forth from this place, and to it they return.”

Nec vero illis aut voluntas defuit (quae enim iis scribendi alia causa aut quod omnino consilium fuit?) aut ingenium, quo omnibus praestiterunt; sed eorum et voluntatem et copiam causa vicit. Ius enim, de quo quaerimus, civile est aliquod, naturale nullum; nam si esset, ut calida et frigida, ut amara et dulcia, sic essent iusta et iniusta eadem omnibus.

“Here, although I was thoroughly frightened — not so much by fear of death as by fear of plots from my own kin — I yet asked whether he himself was alive, and my father Paulus, and the others whom we judged dead. “Indeed,” he said, “these are alive, who have flown out of the bonds of the body as out of a prison; that life of yours, which it is called, is death. Why do you not look at your father Paulus coming to you?” When I saw him I poured forth a flood of tears; but he, embracing me and kissing me, forbade me to weep.

Nunc autem, si quis illo Pacuviano ’invehens alitum anguium curru’ multas et varias gentis et urbes despicere et oculis conlustrare possit, videat primum in illa incorrupta maxime gente Aegyptiorum, quae plurimorum saeculorum et eventorum memoriam litteris continet, bovem quendam putari deum, quem Apim Aegyptii nominant, multaque alia portenta apud eosdem et cuiusque generis beluas numero consecratas deorum; deinde Graeciae, sicut apud nos, delubra magnifica humanis consecrata simulacris, quae Persae nefaria putaverunt; eamque unam ob causam Xerses inflammari Atheniensium fana iussisse dicitur, quod deos, quorum domus esset omnis hic mundus, inclusos parietibus contineri nefas esse duceret.

“And as soon as, holding back my tears, I could begin to speak, I said: “I beg you, most holy and most excellent father, since this is life — as I hear Africanus say — why do I delay on the earth? Why do I not hurry to come hither to you?” “It is not so,” he said. “Unless that God, whose temple is everything you behold, has freed you from those guards of the body, the way hither cannot lie open to you. For men have been brought forth under this law, that they should keep watch over that globe which you see in the middle of this temple, which is called the earth; and a soul has been given them out of those everlasting fires which you call constellations and stars, which, globed and round, animated by divine minds, accomplish their circles and orbits with marvellous swiftness. Therefore for you also, Publius, and for all pious men, the soul must be kept in the watch of the body; nor without command of him, by whom that soul is given to you, must you depart from the life of men, lest you seem to have fled from the human duty assigned by God.

Post autem cum Persis et Philippus, qui cogitavit, et Alexander, qui gessit, hanc bellandi causam inferebat, quod vellet Graeciae fana poenire; quae ne reficienda quidem Graii putaverunt, ut esset posteris ante os documentum Persarum sceleris sempiternum. Quam multi, ut Tauri in Axino, ut rex Aegypti Busiris, ut Galli, ut Poeni, homines immolare et pium et dis immortalibus gratissumum esse duxerunt! Vitae vero instituta sic distant, ut Cretes et Aetoli latrocinari honestum putent, Lacedaemonii suos omnes agros esse dictitarint, quos spiculo possent attingere. Athenienses iurare etiam publice solebant omnem suam esse terram, quae oleam frugesve ferret; Galli turpe esse ducunt frumentum manu quaerere, itaque armati alienos agros demetunt;

“But thus, Scipio, like this grandfather of yours, like me who begot you, cultivate justice and piety, which is great in parents and kinsmen, but greatest in country. That life is the way to heaven and to this gathering of those who have already lived, and, freed from the body, dwell in that place which you see” (and that was a circle, shining among the flames with the brightest brightness) — “which you, as you have received it from the Greeks, call the Milky Way.” From which, as I gazed, all other things seemed splendid and marvellous. There were stars which we have never seen from this place, and magnitudes of all of them which we have never suspected to be; and from these the smallest was that which, furthest from heaven, nearest from earth, shone with a borrowed light. The globes of the stars were easily greater than the size of the earth. By now the earth itself seemed to me so small that I was sorry for our empire, by which we touch, as it were, but a point of it.

nos vero iustissimi homines, qui Transalpinas gentis oleam et vitem serere non sinimus, quo pluris sint nostra oliveta nostraeque vineae; quod cum faciamus, prudenter facere dicimur, iuste non dicimur, ut intellegatis discrepare ab aequitate sapientiam. Lycurgus autem, ille legum optumarum et aequissumi iuris inventor, agros locupletium plebi ut servitio colendos dedit.

“As I gazed at it more, “Pray,” said Africanus, “how long shall your mind be fixed on the ground? Do you not see into what temples you have come? All things are joined together for you in nine orbs — or rather globes; one of which is the heavenly, the outermost, which embraces all the others: the highest god himself, restraining and holding the rest. In which are fixed those everlasting courses of the stars which roll round; under which are seven globes, which turn back with a motion contrary to that of the heaven; of which one globe is held by that one which on earth they call Saturnian. Then there is that which is prosperous and saving for the human race, which is called of Jupiter; then the ruddy and dreadful to lands, which you call of Mars; then below, in the middle region, the sun holds his place: leader and prince and moderator of the other lights, the mind of the world and its tempering, of so great a magnitude that he illumines and fills all things with his own light. Him, like companions, follow the courses of Venus and of Mercury; in the lowest orb the moon turns round, kindled by the sun’s rays. Below, however, there is now nothing but mortal and falling, except the souls given to the human race by the gift of the gods; above the moon all things are eternal. For that which is the middle and ninth, the earth, neither moves and is the lowest, and on it all weights are borne by their own force.

Genera vero si velim iuris, institutorum, morum consuetudinumque describere, non modo in tot gentibus varia, sed in una urbe, vel in hac ipsa, milliens mutata demonstrem, ut hic iuris noster interpres alia nunc Manilius iura dicat esse de mulierum legatis et hereditatibus, alia solitus sit adulescens dicere nondum Voconia lege lata; quae quidem ipsa lex utilitatis virorum gratia rogata in mulieres plena est iniuriae. Cur enim pecuniam non habeat mulier? cur virgini Vestali sit heres, non sit matri suae? cur autem, si pecuniae modus statuendus fuit feminis, P. Crassi filia posset habere, si unica patri esset, aeris milliens salva lege, mea triciens non posset

“While I was looking on these things, stupefied, when I had recovered: “What,” I said, “is this that fills my ears, this great and so sweet a sound?” “This is that which, divided by intervals unequal but yet by reason marked off proportionally, is wrought by the impulse and motion of the very orbs themselves, and, tempering the high with the low, brings forth varied harmonies evenly: for nor in silence can such great motions be set in motion, and nature bears it that the extremes from one part should sound deep, from the other high. For which reason that highest course of heaven, the star-bearing, whose revolution is the swifter, is moved with a high and stirred-up sound; this lunar and lowest with the deepest. For the earth, the ninth, remaining unmoved, sticks always in one seat, embracing the middle place of the world. Those eight courses, however — in which the same force is of two — effect seven sounds distinguished by intervals; which number is the knot of nearly all things. Learned men, imitating it on strings and in songs, opened for themselves a return to this place — as did the others who, with outstanding genius, cultivated divine studies in human life.

sanxisset iura nobis, et omnes isdem et iidem non alias aliis uterentur. Quaero autem, si iusti hominis et si boni est viri parere legibus, quibus? an quaecumque erunt? At nec inconstantiam virtus recipit, nec varietatem natura patitur, legesque poena, non iustitia nostra comprobantur; nihil habet igitur naturale ius; ex quo illud efficitur, ne iustos quidem esse natura. An vero in legibus varietatem esse dicunt, natura autem viros bonos eam iustitiam sequi, quae sit, non eam, quae putetur? esse enim hoc boni viri et iusti, tribuere id cuique, quod sit quoque dignum.

“With this sound, the ears of men, filled, have grown deaf; nor is any sense duller in you than hearing — as where the Nile, at those places called the Catadupa, falls from the highest mountains, the people who dwell about that place, on account of the greatness of the noise, lack the sense of hearing. But this sound, made by the most rapid revolution of the whole world, is so great that the ears of men cannot take it in — as you cannot look directly at the sun, but the keenness and sense of your sight is overcome by his rays.” Marvelling at these things, I yet kept turning my eyes back to the earth.

Ecquid ergo primum mutis tribuemus beluis? non enim mediocres viri, sed maxumi et docti, Pythagoras et Empedocles, unam omnium animantium condicionem iuris esse denuntiant clamantque inexpiabilis poenas impendere iis, a quibus violatum sit animal. Scelus est igitur nocere bestiae, quod scelus qui velit

“Indeed, even if that posterity of men to come desires to hand down to its successors the praises of each one of us, taken from their fathers, yet on account of the deluges and burnings of the lands which must happen at fixed times, we cannot attain not merely an everlasting, but not even a long-lasting glory. What does it matter, that there will be talk about you among those who shall be born afterwards, when there has been none among those who were born before us?

Sunt enim omnes, qui in populum vitae necisque potestatem habent, tyranni, sed se Iovis optimi nomine malunt reges vocari. Cum autem certi propter divitias aut genus aut aliquas opes rem publicam tenent, est factio, sed vocantur illi optimates. Si vero populus plurimum potest omniaque eius arbitrio reguntur, dicitur illa libertas, est vero licentia. Sed cum alius alium timet, et homo hominem et ordo ordinem, tum quia sibi nemo confidit, quasi pactio fit inter populum et potentis; ex quo existit id, quod Scipio laudabat, coniunctum civitatis genus; etenim iustitiae non natura nec voluntas, sed inbecillitas mater est. Nam cum de tribus unum est optandum, aut facere iniuriam nec accipere aut et facere et accipere aut neutrum, optimum est facere, impune si possis, secundum nec facere nec pati, miserrimum digladiari semper tum faciendis, tum accipiendis iniuriis. Ita qui primum illud adsequi

[Nonius:] “For when it was asked of him by what crime he was driven to make the sea unsafe with one little galley, he said: “By the same crime by which you make the world unsafe.”” [The pirate’s reply to Alexander.]

Non. 125M,318M,534M Nam cum quaereretur ex eo, quo scelere inpulsus mare haberet infestum uno myoparone, ’Eodem’, inquit, ’quo tu orbem terrae.’

“… [those who came before] who were neither fewer nor certainly worse men — especially since among those very men by whom our name can be heard, no one can compass the memory of a single year. For men, by popular reckoning, measure the year only by the return of the sun, that is, of one star; but when all the stars shall have returned to that same point whence they once set out, and shall have brought back, after long intervals, the same arrangement of the whole heaven — then that may truly be called the turning year; in which I scarcely dare to say how many ages of men are contained. For just as the sun once seemed to men to fail and be quenched, when the soul of Romulus penetrated into these very temples, so whenever the sun shall fail again, in the same part and at the same time, then, when all the signs and stars have been called back to the beginning, count the year complete — of which year, indeed, know that not yet a twentieth part has been turned.

omni tote. Sapientia iubet aug e r e opes, amplificare divitias, proferre finis (unde enim esset illa la us in summo ru m imperatoru m inci sa moni m e n ti s: finis imperii propagavit, nisi aliquid de alieno accessisset?), imperare quam plurimis, frui voluptatibus, pollere, regnare, dominari; iustitia autem praecipit parcere omnibus, consulere generi hominum, suum cuique reddere, s ac ra, publica, alie na non tangere. Quid igitur efficitur, si sapientiae pareas? divitiae, potestates, opes, honores, imperia, regna vel privatis vel populis. Sed quoniam de re publica loquimur, sunt inlustriora, quae publice fiunt, quoniamque eadem est ratio iuris in utroque, de populi sapientia dicendum puto. Ut iam omittam alios, noster hic populus, quem Africanus hesterno sermone a stirpe repetivit, cuius imperio iam orbis terrae tenetur, iustitia an sapientia est e minimo omnium maximus factus?

“Therefore, if you despair of return to this place, in which all things are for great and excellent men, of how much, after all, is that human glory worth, which can scarcely pertain even to one slender part of one year? Therefore, if you wish to look upward, and to gaze upon this seat and eternal home, you will neither give yourself up to the talk of the crowd, nor place the hope of your fortunes in the prizes of men. Virtue itself, by its own enticements, must draw you to true honour: what others say of you, let them see to it; but they will speak in any case. All that talk is hemmed by the narrow regions you see, nor was it ever for any man unbroken; and it is buried by the death of men and quenched by the forgetfulness of posterity.”

praeter Arcadas et Atheniensis, qui, credo, timentes hoc interdictum iustitiae ne quando existeret, commenti sunt se de terra tamquam hos ex arvis musculos extitisse.

“When he had said this, “Indeed, Africanus,” I said, “if for those who have well deserved of their country a path lies open, as it were, to the entrance of heaven, although from boyhood I have followed in the footsteps of my father, and yours, and have not failed your honour — yet now, with so great a prize set forth, I shall strive much more vigilantly.” And he: “Strive indeed, and hold thus: it is not you that are mortal, but this body. For neither are you what that figure declares; but the mind of each man is each man — not that figure which can be pointed at with the finger. Know, then, that you are a god — if at least there be a god which is alive, which feels, which remembers, which foresees, which so rules and tempers and moves that body to which it has been set in charge, as that prince god rules this world. And as the world, which is in some part mortal, is moved by an eternal god himself, so the fragile body is moved by an everlasting soul.

Ad haec illa dici solent primum ab iis, qui minime sunt in disserendo mali, qui in ea causa eo plus auctoritatis habent, quia, cum de viro bono quaeritur, quem apertum et simplicem volumus esse, non sunt in disputando vafri, non veteratores, non malitiosi; negant enim sapientem idcirco virum bonum esse, quod eum sua sponte ac per se bonitas et iustitia delectet, sed quod vacua metu, cura, sollicitudine, periculo vita bonorum virorum sit, contra autem improbis semper aliqui scrupus in animis haereat, semper iis ante oculos iudicia et supplicia versentur; nullum autem emolumentum esse, nullum iniustitia partum praemium tantum, semper ut timeas, semper ut adesse, semper ut impendere aliquam poenam putes, damna

[Lactantius:] “I ask — if there be two men, one of whom is the best, the most fair, of the highest justice, of singular faith; the other of marked crime and audacity — and if a state be in such error that it thinks the good man criminal, foul, abominable, and on the contrary holds him who is most wicked to be of the highest probity and faith, and on the strength of this opinion of all citizens that good man be tormented, dragged off, hands at last laid upon him, his eyes gouged out, condemned, bound, burned, exiled, made needy …”

Lactant. Div. Inst. 5.12.5 Quaero, si duo sint, quorum alter optimus vir, aequissimus, summa iustitia, singulari fide, alter insigni scelere et audacia, et si in eo sit errore civitas, ut bonum illum virum sceleratum, facinorosum, nefarium putet, contra autem, qui sit improbissimus, existimet esse summa probitate ac fide, proque hac opinione omnium civium bonus ille vir vexetur, rapiatur, manus ei denique adferantur, effodiantur oculi, damnetur, vinciatur, uratur, exterminetur egeat,

“For what is always moved is eternal; and what brings motion to something else, and is itself driven from elsewhere, must, when it has an end of motion, have an end of life. Only that, then, which moves itself, since it is never deserted by itself, never even ceases to move; nay rather, for the rest that move, this is the fountain, this the beginning of moving. But of a beginning there is no origin: for from a beginning all things arise, but it itself can be born of no other thing; for that would not be a beginning, which were begotten elsewhere. And if it never arises, it never sets either; for a beginning extinguished can neither itself be reborn from another nor create another from itself, since it is necessary that all things arise from a beginning. So it comes about that the beginning of motion is from that which is moved by itself; this can neither be born nor die, or all heaven and all nature must collapse and stand still, nor would it find any force by which, set in motion at the start, it might be moved.

postremo iure etiam optimo omnibus miserrimus esse videatur, contra autem ille improbus laudetur, colatur, ab omnibus diligatur, omnes ad eum honores, omnia imperia, omnes opes, omnes undique copiae conferantur, vir denique optimus omnium existimatione et dignissimus omni fortuna optima iudicetur, quis tandem erit tam demens, qui dubitet, utrum se esse malit?

“Since then it is plain that that is eternal which is moved by itself, who is there that would deny this nature has been granted to souls? For everything is inanimate which is driven by an external blow; what is animate is moved by an inner motion of its own; for this is the proper nature and force of soul. If this is one out of all those things which moves itself, then certainly it is not born and is eternal.

Quod in singulis, idem est in populis: nulla est tam stulta civitas, quae non iniuste imperare malit quam servire iuste. Nec vero longius abibo. Consul ego quaesivi, cum vos mihi essetis in consilio, de Numantino foedere. Quis ignorabat Q. Pompeium fecisse foedus, eadem in causa esse Mancinum? alter, vir optimus, etiam suasit rogationem me ex senatus consulto ferente, alter acerrime se defendit. Si pudor quaeritur, si probitas, si fides, Mancinus haec attulit, si ratio, consilium, prudentia, Pompeius antistat. Utrum

[Aulus Gellius 1.22.8:] “I should not refuse, Laelius, were I not to think that they too wished it, and were I not myself eager that you also should touch some part of this our discussion, especially since yesterday you yourself said that you would have something left for us.” “But indeed that cannot be done; that you should not be wanting, we all ask you.” [Nonius:] … “but he is by no means to be listened to by our youth; for if he meant what he said, he is a foul man; but if otherwise (which I prefer), still his speech was monstrous.”

Gel. N.A. 1.22.8 Non gravarer, Laeli, nisi et hos velle putarem et ipse cuperem te quoque aliquam partem huius nostri sermonis attingere, praesertim cum heri ipse dixeris te nobis etiam superfuturum. Verum id quidem fieri non potest; ne desis, omnes te rogamus. Non. 323M, 324M sed iuventuti nostrae minime audiendus; quippe, si ita sensit, ut loquitur, est homo impurus; sin aliter, quod malo, oratio est tamen immanis.

[Lactantius, Divine Institutes 6.8.6:] “True law is right reason, agreeing with nature, diffused in all, constant, everlasting, which calls to duty by commanding and deters from fraud by forbidding; which yet bids the upright neither in vain nor forbids them, nor moves the wicked by commanding or forbidding. Against this law it is sin to legislate; nor is it lawful to derogate anything from it; nor can it be wholly abolished; nor can we be released from this law either by the senate or by the people; nor must any other expounder or interpreter of it be sought; nor will there be one law at Rome, another at Athens; one law now, another hereafter; but one and everlasting and unchanging law will hold all nations and at all time, and there will be one common, as it were, master and commander of all — God: He, the founder of this law, its arbiter, its proposer; whoever shall not obey it will flee himself, and despising the nature of man will by this very fact suffer the greatest penalties, even if he should escape the other punishments which are thought to be.”

Lactant. Div. Inst. 6.8.6 Est quidem vera lex recta ratio naturae congruens, diffusa in omnes, constans, sempiterna, quae vocet ad officium iubendo, vetando a fraude deterreat; quae tamen neque probos frustra iubet aut vetat nec improbos iubendo aut vetando movet. Huic legi nec obrogari fas est neque derogari ex hac aliquid licet neque tota abrogari potest, nec vero aut per senatum aut per populum solvi hac lege possumus, neque est quaerendus explanator aut interpres eius alius, nec erit alia lex Romae, alia Athenis, alia nunc, alia posthac, sed et omnes gentes et omni tempore una lex et sempiterna et immutabilis continebit, unusque erit communis quasi magister et imperator omnium deus, ille legis huius inventor, disceptator, lator; cui qui non parebit, ipse se fugiet ac naturam hominis aspernatus hoc ipso luet maximas poenas, etiamsi cetera supplicia, quae putantur, effugerit.

[Augustine, City of God 22.6:] “No war is to be undertaken by the best state except either for faith or for safety.”

August. C.D. 22.6 nullum bellum suscipi a civitate optima nisi aut pro fide aut pro salute.

“But from those penalties which even the most foolish feel — want, exile, chains, scourges — private men often slip away by the swiftness of death set before them. For states, however, death itself is the penalty, which seems to free single men from a penalty. For the state ought so to be set up that it be eternal. So there is no destruction of a commonwealth that is natural, as of a man, in whom death is not only necessary but very often even to be desired. But when a state is taken away, destroyed, blotted out, it is somehow alike — to compare small things with great — as if all this world should perish and fall.

Sed his poenis quas etiam stultissimi sentiunt, egestate, exilio, vinculis, verberibus, elabuntur saepe privati oblata mortis celeritate, civitatibus autem mors ipsa poena est, quae videtur a poena singulos vindicare; debet enim constituta sic esse civitas, ut aeterna sit. Itaque nullus interitus est rei publicae naturalis ut hominis, in quo mors non modo necessaria est, verum etiam optanda persaepe. Civitas autem cum tollitur, deletur, extinguitur, simile est quodam modo, ut parva magnis conferamus, ac si omnis hic mundus intereat et concidat.

[Isidore, Origins 18.1.2sq.:] “Those wars are unjust which are undertaken without cause; for outside the cause of avenging or driving back enemies no war can be justly waged.” [Isidore:] “No war is held just unless it be announced, declared, with restoration of property demanded.”

Isid. Orig. 18.1.2sq. Illa iniusta bella sunt, quae sunt sine causa suscepta. Nam extra ulciscendi aut propulsandorum hostium causam bellum geri iustum nullum potest. Isid. Orig. 18.1.2sq. Nullum bellum iustum habetur nisi denuntiatum, nisi indictum, nisi repetitis rebus.

[Nonius:] “Our people, however, by defending its allies, has now mastered all the lands.”

Non. 498M Noster autem populus sociis defendendis terrarum iam omnium potitus est.

[Augustine, City of God 19.21:] “Why, then, does God rule man, the mind the body, reason lust and the other faulty parts of the mind?”

August. C.D. 19.21 Cur igitur deus homini, animus imperat corpori, ratio libidini ceterisque vitiosis animi partibus?

[Augustine, Against Julian 4.12.61:] “Do we not see that lordship has been given by nature itself to every best man, with the highest advantage of the weak? Why, then, does God rule man, the mind the body, reason lust and anger and the other faulty parts of the same mind?” [Augustine:] “But the dissimilitudes both of commanding and of serving are to be known. For as the mind is said to command the body, so it is said also to command lust; but the body as a king his citizens or a parent his children, but lust as a master slaves — because it represses and breaks it. Just so the commands of kings, of generals, of magistrates, of fathers, of peoples preside over citizens and allies as the mind over the body; whereas masters wear out their slaves as the best part of the mind, that is, wisdom, [wears out] the faulty and weak parts of the same mind, the lusts and angers and other passions.” [Augustine, City of God 14.23:] “so that the children’s command [is exercised] over the body’s members on account of their ease of obeying; the faulty parts of the mind, however, [are restrained] like slaves with a harsher rule.” [Nonius:] “For there is a kind of unjust slavery, when those are another’s who could be their own; but when they serve [a master, that is just]…”

August. c. Iul. 4.12.61 An non cernimus optimo cuique dominatum ab ipsa natura cum summa utilitate infirmorum datum? Cur igitur deus homini, animus imperat corpori, ratio libidini iracundiaeque et ceteris vitiosis eiusdem animi partibus? August. c. Iul. 4.12.61 Sed et imperandi et serviendi sunt dissimilitudines cognoscendae. Nam ut animus corpori dicitur imperare, dicitur etiam libidini, sed corpori ut rex civibus suis aut parens liberis, libidini autem ut servis dominus, quod eam coercet et frangit, sic regum, sic imperatorum, sic magistratuum, sic patrum, sic populorum imperia civibus sociisque praesunt ut corporibus animus, domini autem servos ita fatigant, ut optima pars animi, id est sapientia, eiusdem animi vitiosas imbecillasque partes, ut libidines, ut iracundias, ut perturbationes ceteras. August. C.D. 14.23 ut filiis imperari corporis membris propter oboediendi facilitatem, vitiosas vero animi partes ut servos asperiore imperio coerceri? Non. 109M Est enim genus iniustae servitutis, cum ii sunt alterius, qui sui possunt esse; cum autem ii famulantur

[Priscian:] “… in which I assent that anxious and dangerous justice is not the wise man’s [concern].”

Prisc. GL 2.399K in quibus adsentior sollicitam et periculosam iustitiam non esse sapientis.

[Lactantius:] “Virtue plainly wishes for honour, and there is no other reward of virtue. Yet she takes it easily and demands it not bitterly. What riches will you set before this man? What commands? What kingdoms? — one who counts these things human, and judges his own goods divine. But if either ungrateful peoples, or many enviers, or powerful enemies, strip virtue of its rewards, then virtue solaces itself with many comforts and most of all sustains itself by its own dignity.” [Augustine, City of God 22.4:] “Their bodies are not raised to heaven; for nature would not allow that what was of the earth should remain anywhere except on earth.” [Nonius:] “Never have the bravest men’s fortitude, energy, patience […]” [Nonius:] “Pyrrhus’s bounty, indeed, was not wanting to Fabricius, nor the Samnites’ wealth to Curius.” [Nonius:] “Whose hearth our Cato, when he had gone to him in the Sabine country, used to visit (as we used to hear from himself), at whose seat that man, sitting, had once refused the gifts of the Samnites, then his enemies, now his clients.”

Lactant. Div. Inst. 5.18.4 Vult plane virtus honorem, nec est virtutis ulla alia merces. Quam tamen illa accipit facile, exigit non acerbe. Huic tu viro quas divitias obicies? quae imperia? quae regna? qui ista putat humana, sua bona divina iudicat. Sed si aut ingrati universi aut invidi multi aut inimici potentes suis virtutem praemiis spoliant, ne illa se multis solaciis oblectat maximeque suo decore se ipsa sustentat. August. C.D. 22.4 Quorum non corpora sunt in caelum elata; neque enim natura pateretur, ut id, quod esset e terra, nisi in terra maneret. Non. 125M Numquam viri fortissimi fortitudinis, inpigritatis, patientiae Non. 132M Pyrrhi videlicet largitas Fabricio aut Samnitium copiae Curio defuerunt. Non. 522M,68M Cuius etiam focum Cato ille noster, cum venerat ad se in Sabinos, ut ex ipso audiebamus, visere solebat, apud quem sedens ille Samnitium, quondam hostium, tum iam clientium suorum, dona repudiaverat.

… [in] Asia Tiberius Gracchus persisted [in his ways] toward our citizens; he despised the rights of the allies and the Latin name and the treaties. If this habit and licence shall begin to spread further and shall translate our command from right to force, so that those who up to now obey us by their will may be held by terror — although for those of us who are of this age, the watch is well-nigh over, yet I am anxious for our descendants and for that immortality of the commonwealth, which could have been perpetual, were the country to live by its ancestral institutions and morals.”

Asia Ti. Gracchus, perseveravit in civibus, sociorum nominisque Latini iura neglexit ac foedera. Quae si consuetudo ac licentia manare coeperit latius imperiumque nostrum ad vim a iure traduxerit, ut, qui adhuc voluntate nobis oboediunt, terrore teneantur, etsi nobis, qui id aetatis sumus, evigilatum fere est, tamen de posteris nostris et de illa immortalitate rei publicae sollicitor, quae poterat esse perpetua, si patriis viveretur institutis et moribus.

When Laelius had said this, although all who were present made known that they were greatly delighted by him, yet beyond the rest Scipio, raised up as if by some joy: “You have, Laelius, defended many causes so often, that I should not compare with you not only Servius Galba, our colleague, whom you, while he lived, set above all others, but not even any of the Attic orators in his … [textual gap] [Nonius:] “Two things, he said, were lacking in him to keep him from speaking among the people and in the forum: confidence, and a voice.” [Scholiast on Juvenal:] “With the groan of the men shut up inside, the bull lowed.”

Quae cum dixisset Laelius, etsi omnes, qui aderant, significabant ab eo se esse admodum delectatos, tamen praeter ceteros Scipio quasi quodam gaudio elatus: Multas tu quidem, inquit, Laeli, saepe causas ita defendisti, ut ego non modo tecum Servium Galbam, collegam nostrum, quem tu, quoad vixit, omnibus anteponebas, verum ne Atticorum quidem oratorum quemquam aut sua vitate. Non. 262M duas sibi res, quo minus in vulgus et in foro diceret, confidentiam et vocem, defuisse Sch. Iuvenal. Sat. 6.480 inclusorum hominum gemitu mugiebat taurus.

“… [Phalaris’s bull] to bring back. Therefore who would call that a thing of the people — that is, a commonwealth — when, by the cruelty of one, all are crushed, and there is neither one bond of right nor any agreement and association of an assembly, which is what a people is? And the same at Syracuse: that splendid city, which Timaeus calls the greatest of Greek cities, and the most beautiful of all, with a citadel to be seen, harbours flowing into the very bays of the town and to the city’s quays, broad streets, colonnades, temples, walls — not at all the more, while Dionysius held it, was it a commonwealth: for nothing belonged to the people, and the people itself belonged to one. Therefore where there is a tyrant, there must be said — not (as I said yesterday) a corrupt commonwealth, but, as reason now compels, plainly no commonwealth at all.

reportare. Ergo illam rem populi, id est rem publicam, quis diceret tum, cum crudelitate unius oppressi essent universi, neque esset unum vinculum iuris nec consensus ac societas coetus, quod est populus? Atque hoc idem Syracusis. Urbs illa praeclara, quam ait Timaeus Graecarum maxumam, omnium autem esse pulcherrimam, arx visenda, portus usque in sinus oppidi et ad urbis crepidines infusi, viae latae, porticus, templa, muri nihilo magis efficiebant, Dionysio tenente ut esset illa res publica; nihil enim populi et unius erat populus ipse. Ergo ubi tyrannus est, ibi non vitiosam, ut heri dicebam, sed, ut nunc ratio cogit, dicendum est plane nullam esse rem publicam.

“You speak excellently,” said Laelius; “for I see now whither your speech is going.” “Do you see, then, that not even that one which is wholly in the power of a faction can truly be called a commonwealth?” “So plainly I judge.” “And most rightly you judge. For what was that thing of the Athenians, when, after that great Peloponnesian war, those thirty men presided most unjustly over the city? Did either the city’s old glory, or the splendid look of the town, or the theatre, the gymnasia, the colonnades, or the noble propylaea, or the citadel, or the wonderful works of Phidias, or that magnificent Piraeus make it a commonwealth?” “Not at all,” said Laelius, “since indeed it was no thing of the people.” “What? When the decemvirs at Rome were without right of appeal in that third year, when liberty itself had lost the right of claiming security?” “It was no thing of the people — nay, the people itself acted to recover its own thing.”

Praeclare quidem dicis, Laelius; etenim video iam, quo pergat oratio. Vides igitur ne illam quidem, quae tota sit in factionis potestate, posse vere dici rem publicam. Sic plane iudico. Et rectissime quidem iudicas; quae enim fuit tum Atheniensium res, cum post magnum illud Peloponnesiacum bellum triginta viri illi urbi iniustissime praefuerunt? num aut vetus gloria civitatis aut species praeclara oppidi aut theatrum, gymnasia, porticus aut propylaea nobilia aut arx aut admiranda opera Phidiae aut Piraeus ille magnificus rem publicam efficiebat? Minime vero, Laelius, quoniam quidem populi res non erat. Quid? cum decemviri Romae sine provocatione fuerunt tertio illo anno, cum vindicias amisisset ipsa libertas? Populi nulla res erat, immo vero id populus egit, ut rem suam recuperaret.

“I come now to that third kind, in which there will perhaps appear straits. When all things are said to be done by the people and to be in the power of the people, when the multitude takes punishment of whomever it wishes, when they drive on, snatch up, hold, dissipate the things they wish — can you then deny, Laelius, that it is a commonwealth? When all is the people’s, since indeed we wish a commonwealth to be the people’s affair?” Then Laelius: “And nothing more swiftly than that would I deny to be a commonwealth, which is wholly …” [textual gap] … “But … [we have agreed] that there was no commonwealth at Syracuse, nor at Agrigentum, nor at Athens, when there were tyrants; nor here, when there were the decemvirs. Nor do I see how the name of commonwealth can the more appear under the lordship of a multitude. For first, a people, as you have most excellently defined, Scipio, is no people unless it is held together by the agreement of right; but that mob is as much a tyrant as if it were one — the more foul because no beast is more savage than that thing which imitates the appearance and the name of a people. Nor is it fitting that, when by the laws the goods of madmen are in the power of their kinsmen […]…

Venio nunc ad tertium genus illud, in quo esse videbuntur fortasse angustiae. Cum per populum agi dicuntur et esse in populi potestate omnia, cum, de quocumque volt, supplicium sumit multitudo, cum agunt, rapiunt, tenent, dissipant, quae volunt, pot esne tum, Laeli, negare rem esse illam p ub licam? cum populi sint omnia, quoniam quidem populi esse rem volumus rem publicam. Tum Laelius: Ac nullam quidem citius negav e rim esse rem publicam, quam istam, quae tota....... p.pu......... ni.s.ls....... mo.....obis non placu it Syracusis fuisse rem publicam neq ue Agrigenti neq ue Athenis, cum es se nt tyranni, ne c hic, cum decemviri; ne c video, qui magis in multitudinis dominatu rei publicae nomen appareat, quia primum mihi populus non est, ut tu optime definisti, Scipio, nisi qui consensu iuris continet u r, sed est tam tyrannus iste conventus, quam si esset unus, hoc etiam taetrior, quia nihil ista, quae populi speciem et nomen imitatur, immanius belua est. Nec vero convenit, cum furiosorum bona legibus in adgnatorum potestate sint, quod eorum iam

… [the same things] could be said: why is that a commonwealth and an affair of the people, which has been said about a kingdom?” “And much more so,” said Mummius; “for the likeness of a master falls more on a king, since he is one. But where many good men shall hold the matters of the commonwealth, nothing can be more blessed than it. Yet I would rather have a kingdom than a free people; that third kind of most corrupted commonwealth remains for you.”

dici possint, cur illa sit res publica resque populi, quae sunt dicta de regno. Et multo etiam magis, inquit Mummius; nam in regem potius cadit domini similitudo, quod est unus; plur es vero boni in qua re publica rerum potientur, nihil poterit esse illa beatius. Sed tamen vel regnum malo quam liberum populum; id enim tibi restat genus vitiosissumae rei publicae tertium.

Here Scipio: “I recognize,” he said, “Spurius, that custom of yours, averse from the system of the people; and although it can be borne more mildly than you are wont to bear it, still I assent that there is none of these three kinds which is less to be approved. But on this I do not assent to you, that the optimates are to be preferred to a king; for if it is wisdom that steers the commonwealth, what does it matter whether this be in one or in many? But we are deceived by some error in arguing thus; for when men are called optimates, nothing can seem more excellent — for what better thing can be thought than the best? But when mention is made of a king, an unjust king too comes to mind. We, however, are saying nothing now of an unjust king, since we are inquiring about the kingly commonwealth itself. Therefore think of Romulus or Pompilius or Tullus as king, and perhaps you will be less displeased with that commonwealth.”

Hic Scipio: Adgnosco, inquit, tuum morem istum, Spuri, aversum a ratione populi; et quamquam potest id lenius ferri, quam tu soles ferre, tamen adsentior nullum esse de tribus his generibus, quod sit probandum minus. Illud tamen non adsentior tibi, praestare regi optimates; si enim sapientia est, quae gubernet rem publicam, quid tandem interest, haec in unone sit an in pluribus? Sed errore quodam fallimur ita disputando; cum enim optumates appellantur, nihil potest videri praestabilius; quid enim optumo melius cogitari potest? cum autem regis est facta mentio, occurrit animis rex etiam iniustus. Nos autem de iniusto rege nihil loquimur nunc, cum de ipsa regali re publica quaerimus. Quare cogitato Romulum aut Pompilium aut Tullium regem, fortasse non tam illius te rei publicae paenitebit.

“What praise, then, do you leave for a popular commonwealth?” Then he: “What? Does the commonwealth of the Rhodians, Spurius, with whom we lately stayed together, seem to you no commonwealth at all?” “It seems to me a commonwealth indeed, and by no means to be reproached.” “You speak rightly. But, if you remember, all were the same men, sometimes from the plebs, sometimes senators; and they had alternations, in which months they performed the popular service, in which the senatorial. In either they received their pay; both in the theatre and in the curia they judged capital and all other matters; the senate was as powerful, and worth as much as, the multitude … [Book 3 fragments preserved by other authors]

Quam igitur relinquis populari rei publicae laudem? Tum ille: Quid? tibi tandem, Spuri, Rhodiorum, apud quos nuper fuimus una, nullane videtur esse res publica? Mihi vero videtur, et minime quidem vituperanda. Recte dicis; sed, si meministi, omnes erant iidem tum de plebe, tum senatores vicissitudinesque habebant, quibus mensibus populari munere fungerentur, quibus senatorio; utrobique autem conventicium accipiebant, et in theatro et in curia res capitalis et reliquas omnis iudicabant iidem; tantum poterat tantique erat, quanti multitudo, senatus

[Nonius p. 42M:] “You expect, then, the whole prudence of this governor, which has gained even this very name from foreseeing (providendo).” [Nonius p. 256M:] “For which reason this citizen must so equip himself that he be always armed against those things which disturb the constitution of the state.” [Nonius p. 25M; Servius:] “And this dissension of the citizens, because some go aside to others, is called sedition.” [Nonius p. 519M:] “In civil dissension, when the good prevail by more than the many, I think the citizens must be weighed, not numbered.” [Nonius p. 424M:] “For lusts, those weighty mistresses of our thoughts, drive on and command certain limitless things; which, since they can in no way be filled or satisfied, drive on to every crime those whom they have set on fire by their lures.” [Nonius p. 492M:] “… who shall have crushed his force and that unbridled fierceness.”

Non. 301M Est igitur quiddam turbulentum in hominibus singulis, quod vel exultat voluptate vel molestia frangitur.

[Aulus Gellius 7.16.11; Nonius:] “… which was the greater for this reason: that, although his colleagues were in equal cause, they were not only not in equal odium, but the affection toward Gracchus turned away even the odium toward Claudius.” [Nonius p. 409M:] “… which voices of optimates and leading men he met with: he abandoned that grave sound full of dignity.” [Nonius p. 501M:] “… that, as he writes, daily into the forum a thousand men with cloaks dyed in shellfish-purple were coming down.” [Nonius p. 517M:] “… in which, as you remember, by the gathering of the lightest mob and a heap of bronze coins the funeral was got up on a sudden.” [Nonius p. 512M; Priscian:] “For our forefathers wished marriages to be firmly established.” [Nonius p. 398M:] “Laelius’s speech — which we all have in our hands — on how the priests’ wooden bowls and Samian basins, as he writes, are pleasing to the immortal gods.”

Non. 364M Sed ut ipsi †seu animum periclitentur sum vident, quid se putent esse facturos.

[Eulogius on the Somnium Scipionis:] “… [Cicero referring to the legendary Pamphylian who] when set on the funeral pyre, came back to life and told many secrets of the underworld — that what is said about the immortality of the soul and about heaven is not the contrivances of dreaming philosophers, nor incredible fables which the Epicureans deride, but the conjectures of the prudent.”

Non. 431M Poeni primi mercaturis et mercibus suis avaritiam et magnificentiam et inexplebiles cupiditates omnium rerum inportaverunt in Graeciam.

[Augustine, City of God 22.28:] “… that he wished rather to play than to affirm that as the truth.”

Sch. Iuvenal. Sat. 10.362 Sardanapallus ille vitiis multo quam nomine ipso deformior.

“… will it offend you to learn the nature of the roots and seeds? Not at all, if only the work [of governing] shall remain. Do you think this the bailiff’s pursuit? By no means; since labour very often falls short of agriculture. As, then, the bailiff knows the nature of the field, the steward knows letters, and either of them refers himself from the delight of knowledge to the use of getting the work done — so let our governor have studied right and laws thoroughly, have looked into their very fountains, but not let himself be hindered by giving counsel and reading and writing, that he may, as it were, dispense the commonwealth and, in some way, oversee it: most skilled in the highest right, without which no one can be just; not unskilled in civil right, but as the steersman uses astronomy and the doctor physics — each uses these things for his own art, but is not hindered from his own duty by them. But this man will see …

Prisc. GL 2.255K nisi si quis Athonem pro monumento vult funditus efficere. Quis enim est Athos aut Olympus tantus?

[Nonius p. 42M:] “You expect, then, the whole prudence of this governor, which has gained even this very name from foreseeing (providendo).” [Nonius p. 256M:] “For which reason this citizen must so equip himself that he be always armed against those things which disturb the constitution of the state.” [Nonius p. 25M; Servius:] “And this dissension of the citizens, because some go aside to others, is called sedition.” [Nonius p. 519M:] “In civil dissension, when the good prevail by more than the many, I think the citizens must be weighed, not numbered.” [Nonius p. 424M:] “For lusts, those weighty mistresses of our thoughts, drive on and command certain limitless things; which, since they can in no way be filled or satisfied, drive on to every crime those whom they have set on fire by their lures.” [Nonius p. 492M:] “… who shall have crushed his force and that unbridled fierceness.”

Non. 500M Atque ipsa mens ea, quae futura videt, praeterita meminit. Lactant. Div. Inst. 5.11.2 Etenim, si nemo est quin emori malit quam converti in aliquam figuram bestiae, quamvis hominis mentem sit habiturus, quanto est miserius in hominis figura animo esse efferato! Mihi quidem tanto videtur, quanto praestabilior est animus corpore. August. c. Iul. 5.12.59 se non putare idem esse arietis et P. Africani bonum. Non. 234M eademque obiectu suo umbram noctemque efficiat cum ad numerum dierum aptam, tum ad laborum quietem. Non. 343M Cumque autumno terra se ad concipiendas fruges patefecerit, hieme ad †concipiendas relaxarit, aestiva maturitate alia mitigaverit, alia torruerit. Non. 159M cum adhibent in pecuda pastores.

[Aulus Gellius 7.16.11; Nonius:] “… which was the greater for this reason: that, although his colleagues were in equal cause, they were not only not in equal odium, but the affection toward Gracchus turned away even the odium toward Claudius.” [Nonius p. 409M:] “… which voices of optimates and leading men he met with: he abandoned that grave sound full of dignity.” [Nonius p. 501M:] “… that, as he writes, daily into the forum a thousand men with cloaks dyed in shellfish-purple were coming down.” [Nonius p. 517M:] “… in which, as you remember, by the gathering of the lightest mob and a heap of bronze coins the funeral was got up on a sudden.” [Nonius p. 512M; Priscian:] “For our forefathers wished marriages to be firmly established.” [Nonius p. 398M:] “Laelius’s speech — which we all have in our hands — on how the priests’ wooden bowls and Samian basins, as he writes, are pleasing to the immortal gods.”

gratiam. Quam commode ordines discripti, aetates, classes, equitatus, in quo suffragia sunt etiam senatus, nimis multis iam stulte hanc utilitatem tolli cupientibus, qui novam largitionem quaerunt aliquo plebei scito reddendorum equorum.

[Eulogius on the Somnium Scipionis:] “… [Cicero referring to the legendary Pamphylian who] when set on the funeral pyre, came back to life and told many secrets of the underworld — that what is said about the immortality of the soul and about heaven is not the contrivances of dreaming philosophers, nor incredible fables which the Epicureans deride, but the conjectures of the prudent.”

Considerate nunc, cetera quam sint provisa sapienter ad illam civium beate et honeste vivendi societatem; ea est enim prima causa coeundi, et id hominibus effici ex re publica debet partim institutis, alia legibus. Principio disciplinam puerilem ingenuis, de qua Graeci multum frustra laborarunt, et in qua una Polybius noster hospes nostrorum institutorum neglegentiam accusat, nullam certam aut destinatam legibus aut publice expositam aut unam omnium esse voluerunt. Nam Serv. A. 5.546 ad militiam euntibus dari solitos esse custodes, a quibus primo anno regantur. Non. 20M non modo ut Spartae, rapere ubi pueri et clepere discunt. Serv. A. 10.325 opprobrio fuisse adulescentibus, si amatores non haberent.

[Augustine, City of God 22.28:] “… that he wished rather to play than to affirm that as the truth.”

nudari puberem. Ita sunt alte repetita quasi fundamenta quaedam verecundiae. Iuventutis vero exercitatio quam absurda in gymnasiis! quam levis epheborum illa militia! quam contrectationes et amores soluti et liberi! mitto apud Eleos et Thebanos, apud quos in amore ingenuorum libido etiam permissam habet et solutam licentiam; Lacedaemonii ipsi, cum omnia concedunt in amore iuvenum praeter stuprum, tenui sane muro dissaepiunt id, quod excipiunt; conplexus enim concubitusque permittunt palliis interiectis. Hic Laelius: Praeclare intellego, Scipio, te in iis Graeciae disciplinis, quas reprendis, cum populis nobilissimis malle quam cum tuo Platone luctari, quem ne attingis quidem, praesertim cum

“… will it offend you to learn the nature of the roots and seeds? Not at all, if only the work [of governing] shall remain. Do you think this the bailiff’s pursuit? By no means; since labour very often falls short of agriculture. As, then, the bailiff knows the nature of the field, the steward knows letters, and either of them refers himself from the delight of knowledge to the use of getting the work done — so let our governor have studied right and laws thoroughly, have looked into their very fountains, but not let himself be hindered by giving counsel and reading and writing, that he may, as it were, dispense the commonwealth and, in some way, oversee it: most skilled in the highest right, without which no one can be just; not unskilled in civil right, but as the steersman uses astronomy and the doctor physics — each uses these things for his own art, but is not hindered from his own duty by them. But this man will see …

Non. 362M et noster Plato magis etiam quam Lycurgus, omnia qui prorsus iubet esse communia, ne quis civis propriam aut suam rem ullam queat dicere. Non. 308M Ego vero eodem, quo ille Homerum redimitum coronis et delibutum unguentis emittit ex ea urbe, quam sibi ipse fingit.

“… in states where the best men seek praise and dignity, and shun reproach and disgrace. Nor are they so much terrified by the fear and penalty which is set up by the laws as by shame, which nature has given to man as a kind of fear, not unjust, of being blamed. This [shame] our governor of public matters has increased by opinion and perfected by institutions and disciplines, that the citizen’s modesty would no less keep him from misdeeds than fear. And these things indeed pertain to praise, which could have been said more broadly and richly.

Non. 24M Censoris iudicium nihil fere damnato nisi ruborem offert. Itaque, ut omnis ea iudicatio versatur tantum modo in nomine, animadversio illa ignominia dicta est. Non. 423M Horum †in severitatem dicitur inhorruisse primum civitas. Non. 499M Nec vero mulieribus praefectus praeponatur, qui apud Graecos creari solet, sed sit censor, qui viros doceat moderari uxoribus. Non. 5M Ita magnam habet vim disciplina verecundiae; carent temeto omnes mulieres. Non. 306M Atque etiam si qua erat famosa, ei cognati osculum non ferebant. Non. 23M Itaque a petendo petulantia, a procando, id est poscendo, procacitas nominata est.

“As for the system of life and the use of living, this has been arranged by lawful marriages, by legitimate children, by the holy seats of the household gods of Penates and Lares, that all may use both common and their own conveniences; and that one cannot live well without a good commonwealth, nor anything be more blessed than a state well constituted. Wherefore it is wont to seem most strange to me, what is so great a learning …

Non. 24M Nolo enim eundem populum imperatorem et portitorem esse terrarum. Optimum autem et in privatis familiis et in re publica vectigal duco esse parsimoniam. Fides enim nomen ipsum mihi videtur habere, cum fit, quod dicitur. Non. 194M In cive excelso atque homine nobili blanditiam, adsentationem, ambitionem †meam esse levitatis.

[Macrobius, Saturnalia 1.4.2sq.:] “But although for wise men the consciousness itself of distinguished deeds is the amplest reward of virtue, yet that divine virtue desires not statues set in lead, nor triumphs with withering laurels, but certain firmer and greener kinds of rewards. “What, then, are these,” said Laelius? Then Scipio: “Bear with me, since this is now the third day of our holiday …” [The Somnium Scipionis, preserved separately by Macrobius.]

Non. 430Msq. Admiror, nec rerum solum, sed verborum etiam elegantiam. Si iurgant, inquit. Benivolorum concertatio, non lis inimicorum, iurgium dicitur. Iurgare igitur lex putat inter se vicinos, non litigare. Non. 174M eosdem terminos hominum curae atque vitae, sic pontificio iure sanctitudo sepulturae. Non. 293M quod insepultos reliquissent eos, quos e mari propter vim tempestatis excipere non potuissent, innocentes necaverint. Non. 519M nec in hac dissensione suscepi populi causam, sed bonorum. Prisc. GL 3.76K Non enim facile valenti populo resistitur, si aut nihil iuris impertias aut parum. Non. 469M Cui quidem utinam vere fideliter †abundiente auguraverim.

“When I had come into Africa to consul Manius Manilius, as you know, as tribune of the soldiers to the fourth legion, nothing was more important to me than to meet King Masinissa, by just causes the dearest friend of our family. When I came to him, the old man embraced me, shed tears, and after a little while looked up to heaven and said: “Thanks I render to thee, highest Sun, and to you the rest of the heaven-dwellers, that, before I pass from this life, I behold in my own kingdom and within these roofs Publius Cornelius Scipio, by whose very name I am refreshed: so that the memory of that best and most invincible of men never departs from my mind.” Then I asked him about his kingdom, he asked me about our commonwealth; and with many words spoken back and forth, that day was used up by us.

August. C.D. 2.14ext. Ad quos cum accessit clamor et adprobatio populi quasi magni cuiusdam et sapientis magistri, quas illi obducunt tenebras, quos invehunt metus, quas inflammant cupiditates!

“Afterwards, having been received in royal style, we drew out the talk far into the night, while the old man spoke of nothing but Africanus, and remembered all of his deeds — and even his sayings. Then, when we parted to bed, both wearied from the road, and one who had been awake until late, a deeper sleep than I was used to held me. Here (I think indeed from what we had been saying; for it generally happens that our thoughts and conversations bring forth in sleep something such as Ennius writes about Homer, of whom plainly he was wont to think and speak most often when waking) Africanus appeared to me in the form which to me was more familiar from his image than from himself; and when I knew him, I shuddered, but he: “Be of good cheer,” he said, “and put away fear, Scipio, and commit to memory what I shall say.

August. C.D. 2.13 Cum artem ludicram scaenamque totam in probro ducerent, genus id hominum non modo honore civium reliquorum carere, sed etiam tribu moveri notatione censoria voluerunt.

“Do you see that city, which, forced through me to obey the Roman people, renews her ancient wars and cannot rest?” (And he was showing me Carthage from a high and bright place, full of stars.) “Which you now come to besiege, almost a common soldier. Within these next two years you will overthrow it as consul, and you will have that surname won by you yourself which you have so far inherited from us. But when you have destroyed Carthage, held a triumph, and been censor, and have travelled as legate to Egypt, Syria, Asia, and Greece, you will be elected consul a second time in your absence, and finish a great war: you will raze Numantia. But when you have ridden into the Capitol in your chariot, you will find the commonwealth thrown into confusion by the counsels of my grandson.

August. C.D. 2.9 Numquam comoediae, nisi consuetudo vitae pateretur, probare sua theatris flagitia potuissent. quem illa non adtigit vel potius quem non vexavit? cui pepercit? Esto, populares homines inprobos, in re publica seditiosos, Cleonem, Cleophontem, Hyperbolum laesit. Patiamur, etsi eius modi cives a censore melius est quam a poeta notari; sed Periclen, cum iam suae civitati maxima auctoritate plurimos annos domi et belli praefuisset, violari versibus, et eos agi in scaena non plus decuit, quam si Plautus noster voluisset aut Naevius Publio et Gnaeo Scipioni aut Caecilius Marco Catoni male dicere

“Here, Africanus, you must show your country the light of your spirit, your genius, your counsel. But I see, as it were, a doubtful path of fates at that time. For when your age shall have run through eight courses and returns of the sun, of seven years each, and these two numbers, of which each is held complete one for one reason, the other for another, shall by their natural cycle have made up your fated sum, then upon you alone, and upon your name, the whole state will turn. You the senate, you all the good men, you the allies, you the Latins will look to. You will be the one on whom the safety of the state will rest — and, in short, as dictator you must set up the commonwealth, if you escape the impious hands of your kinsmen.” At this Laelius cried out, and the rest groaned more violently; but Scipio, smiling slightly: “Hush, please,” said he, “do not wake me from my sleep, and listen a little to the rest.

Nostrae contra duo decim tabulae cum perpaucas res capite sanxissent, in his hanc quoque sanciendam putaverunt, si quis occentavisset sive carmen condidisset, quod infamiam faceret flagitiumve alteri. Praeclare; iudiciis enim magistratuum, disceptationibus legitimis propositam vitam, non poetarum ingeniis, habere debemus nec probrum audire nisi ea lege, ut respondere liceat et iudicio defendere. veteribus displicuisse Romanis vel laudari quemquam in scaena vivum hominem vel vituperari.

“But that you may be the more eager, Africanus, to guard the commonwealth, hold thus: for all who shall have preserved, helped, increased their fatherland, there is a fixed place set in heaven, where the blessed enjoy an eternal age. For nothing is more pleasing to that supreme God who rules all the world — of all that is done on earth — than the assemblies and gatherings of men joined by right, which are called states; the rulers and preservers of these go forth from this place, and to it they return.”

August. C.D. 2.11 Aeschines Atheniensis, vir eloquentissimus, cum adulescens tragoedias actitavisset, rem publicam capessivit, et Aristodemum, tragicum item actorem, maximis de rebus pacis et belli legatum ad Philippum Athenienses saepe miserunt.

[Nonius p. 42M:] “You expect, then, the whole prudence of this governor, which has gained even this very name from foreseeing (providendo).” [Nonius p. 256M:] “For which reason this citizen must so equip himself that he be always armed against those things which disturb the constitution of the state.” [Nonius p. 25M; Servius:] “And this dissension of the citizens, because some go aside to others, is called sedition.” [Nonius p. 519M:] “In civil dissension, when the good prevail by more than the many, I think the citizens must be weighed, not numbered.” [Nonius p. 424M:] “For lusts, those weighty mistresses of our thoughts, drive on and command certain limitless things; which, since they can in no way be filled or satisfied, drive on to every crime those whom they have set on fire by their lures.” [Nonius p. 492M:] “… who shall have crushed his force and that unbridled fierceness.”

August. C.D. 2.21,Non. 417M Ennius Moribus antiquis res stat Romana virisque, quem quidem ille versum vel brevitate vel veritate tamquam ex oraculo mihi quodam esse effatus videtur. Nam neque viri, nisi ita morata civitas fuisset, neque mores, nisi hi viri praefuissent, aut fundare aut tam diu tenere potuissent tantam et tam fuse lateque imperantem rem publicam. Itaque ante nostram memoriam et mos ipse patrius praestantes viros adhibebat, et veterem morem ac maiorum instituta retinebant excellentes viri. Nostra vero aetas cum rem publicam sicut picturam accepisset egregiam, sed iam evanescentem vetustate, non modo eam coloribus eisdem, quibus fuerat, renovare neglexit, sed ne id quidem curavit, ut formam saltem eius et extrema tamquam liniamenta servaret. Quid enim manet ex antiquis moribus, quibus ille dixit rem stare Romanam? quos ita oblivione obsoletos videmus, ut non modo non colantur, sed iam ignorentur. Nam de viris quid dicam? Mores enim ipsi interierunt virorum penuria, cuius tanti mali non modo reddenda ratio nobis, sed etiam tamquam reis capitis quodam modo dicenda causa est. Nostris enim vitiis, non casu aliquo, rem publicam verbo retinemus, re ipsa vero iam pridem amisimus.

[Eulogius on the Somnium Scipionis:] “… [Cicero referring to the legendary Pamphylian who] when set on the funeral pyre, came back to life and told many secrets of the underworld — that what is said about the immortality of the soul and about heaven is not the contrivances of dreaming philosophers, nor incredible fables which the Epicureans deride, but the conjectures of the prudent.”

nihil esse tam regale quam explanationem aequitatis, in qua iuris erat interpretatio, quod ius privati petere solebant a regibus, ob easque causas agri arvi et arbusti et pascui lati atque uberes definiebantur, qui essent regii qui colerenturque sine regum opera et labore, ut eos nulla privati negotii cura a populorum rebus abduceret. Nec vero quisquam privatus erat disceptator aut arbiter litis, sed omnia conficiebantur iudiciis regiis. Et mihi quidem videtur Numa noster maxime tenuisse hunc morem veterem Graeciae regum. Nam ceteri, etsi hoc quoque munere fungebantur, magnam tamen partem bella gesserunt et eorum iura coluerunt; illa autem diuturna pax Numae mater huic urbi iuris et religionis fuit, qui legum etiam scriptor fuisset, quas scitis extare, quod quidem huius civis proprium, de quo agimus

[Augustine, City of God 22.28:] “… that he wished rather to play than to affirm that as the truth.”

Non. 497M sed tamen ut bono patri familias colendi, aedificandi, ratiocinandi quidam usus opus est.

“… will it offend you to learn the nature of the roots and seeds? Not at all, if only the work [of governing] shall remain. Do you think this the bailiff’s pursuit? By no means; since labour very often falls short of agriculture. As, then, the bailiff knows the nature of the field, the steward knows letters, and either of them refers himself from the delight of knowledge to the use of getting the work done — so let our governor have studied right and laws thoroughly, have looked into their very fountains, but not let himself be hindered by giving counsel and reading and writing, that he may, as it were, dispense the commonwealth and, in some way, oversee it: most skilled in the highest right, without which no one can be just; not unskilled in civil right, but as the steersman uses astronomy and the doctor physics — each uses these things for his own art, but is not hindered from his own duty by them. But this man will see …

ra dicum seminumque cognoscere num te offendet? Nihil, si modo opus extabit. Num id studium censes esse vilici? Minime; quippe cum agri culturam saepissime opera deficiat. Ergo, ut vilicus naturam agri novit, dispensator litteras scit, uterque autem se a scientiae delectatione ad efficiendi utilitatem refert, sic noster hic rector studuerit sane iuri et legibus cognoscendis, fontis quidem earum utique perspexerit, sed se responsitando et lectitando et scriptitando ne impediat, ut quasi dispensare rem publicam et in ea quodam modo vilicare possit, summi iuris peritissimus, sine quo iustus esse nemo potest, civilis non inperitus, sed ita, ut astrorum gubernator, physicorum medicus; uterque enim illis ad artem suam utitur, sed se a suo munere non inpedit. Illud autem videbit hic vir

“… in states where the best men seek praise and dignity, and shun reproach and disgrace. Nor are they so much terrified by the fear and penalty which is set up by the laws as by shame, which nature has given to man as a kind of fear, not unjust, of being blamed. This [shame] our governor of public matters has increased by opinion and perfected by institutions and disciplines, that the citizen’s modesty would no less keep him from misdeeds than fear. And these things indeed pertain to praise, which could have been said more broadly and richly.

civi tatibus, in quibus expetunt laudem optumi et decus, ignominiam fugiunt ac dedecus. Nec vero tam metu poenaque terrentur, quae est constituta legibus, quam verecundia, quam natura homini dedit quasi quendam vituperationis non iniustae timorem. Hanc ille rector rerum publicarum auxit opinionibus perfecitque institutis et disciplinis, ut pudor civis non minus a delictis arceret quam metus. Atque haec quidem ad laudem pertinent, quae dici latius uberiusque potuerunt.

“As for the system of life and the use of living, this has been arranged by lawful marriages, by legitimate children, by the holy seats of the household gods of Penates and Lares, that all may use both common and their own conveniences; and that one cannot live well without a good commonwealth, nor anything be more blessed than a state well constituted. Wherefore it is wont to seem most strange to me, what is so great a learning …

Ad vitam autem usumque vivendi ea discripta ratio est iustis nuptiis, legitimis liberis, sanctis penatium deorum Larumque familiarium sedibus, ut omnes et communibus commodis et suis uterentur, nec bene vivi sine bona re publica posset nec esse quicquam civitate bene constituta beatius. Quocirca permirum mihi videri solet, quae sit tanta doc

[Macrobius, Saturnalia 1.4.2sq.:] “But although for wise men the consciousness itself of distinguished deeds is the amplest reward of virtue, yet that divine virtue desires not statues set in lead, nor triumphs with withering laurels, but certain firmer and greener kinds of rewards. “What, then, are these,” said Laelius? Then Scipio: “Bear with me, since this is now the third day of our holiday …” [The Somnium Scipionis, preserved separately by Macrobius.]

Cic. Att. 8.11.1 Ut enim gubernatori cursus secundus, medico salus, imperatori victoria, sic huic moderatori rei publicae beata civium vita proposita est, ut opibus firma, copiis locuples, gloria ampla, virtute honesta sit; huius enim operis maximi inter homines atque optimi illum esse perfectorem volo. August. epist. 104.7 Et ubi est, quod et vestrae litterae illum laudant patriae rectorem, qui populi utilitati magis consulat quam voluntati?

“When I had come into Africa to consul Manius Manilius, as you know, as tribune of the soldiers to the fourth legion, nothing was more important to me than to meet King Masinissa, by just causes the dearest friend of our family. When I came to him, the old man embraced me, shed tears, and after a little while looked up to heaven and said: “Thanks I render to thee, highest Sun, and to you the rest of the heaven-dwellers, that, before I pass from this life, I behold in my own kingdom and within these roofs Publius Cornelius Scipio, by whose very name I am refreshed: so that the memory of that best and most invincible of men never departs from my mind.” Then I asked him about his kingdom, he asked me about our commonwealth; and with many words spoken back and forth, that day was used up by us.

August. C.D. 5.13 alendum esse gloria maiores suos multa mira atque praeclara gloriae cupiditate fecisse. P.Pictav. Bibl. Lugd. 22.824 principem civitatis gloria esse alendum, et tam diu stare rem publicam, quam diu ab omnibus honor principi exhiberetur. Non. 233M Tum virtute, labore, industria tueretur summi viri indolem, nisi nimis animose ferox natura illum nescio quo Non. 201M quae virtus fortitudo vocatur, in qua est magnitudo animi, mortis dolorisque magna contemptio.

“Afterwards, having been received in royal style, we drew out the talk far into the night, while the old man spoke of nothing but Africanus, and remembered all of his deeds — and even his sayings. Then, when we parted to bed, both wearied from the road, and one who had been awake until late, a deeper sleep than I was used to held me. Here (I think indeed from what we had been saying; for it generally happens that our thoughts and conversations bring forth in sleep something such as Ennius writes about Homer, of whom plainly he was wont to think and speak most often when waking) Africanus appeared to me in the form which to me was more familiar from his image than from himself; and when I knew him, I shuddered, but he: “Be of good cheer,” he said, “and put away fear, Scipio, and commit to memory what I shall say.

Non. 337M Marcellus ut acer et pugnax, Maximus ut consideratus et lentus. Char. GL 1.139K orbi terrarum comprehensos Non. 37M quod molestiis senectutis suae vestras familias impertire posset.

“Do you see that city, which, forced through me to obey the Roman people, renews her ancient wars and cannot rest?” (And he was showing me Carthage from a high and bright place, full of stars.) “Which you now come to besiege, almost a common soldier. Within these next two years you will overthrow it as consul, and you will have that surname won by you yourself which you have so far inherited from us. But when you have destroyed Carthage, held a triumph, and been censor, and have travelled as legate to Egypt, Syria, Asia, and Greece, you will be elected consul a second time in your absence, and finish a great war: you will raze Numantia. But when you have ridden into the Capitol in your chariot, you will find the commonwealth thrown into confusion by the counsels of my grandson.

Gel. N.A. 12.2.6sq. ut Menelao Laconi quaedam fuit suaviloquens iucunditas breviloquentiam in dicendo colat. Amm. Marc. 30.4.10 Cumque nihil tam incorruptum esse debeat in re publica quam suffragium, quam sententia, non intellego, cur, qui ea pecunia corruperit, poena dignus sit, qui eloquentia, laudem etiam ferat. Mihi quidem hoc plus mali facere videtur, qui oratione, quam qui pretio iudicem corrumpit, quod pecunia corrumpere pudentem nemo potest, dicendo potest. Non. 521M Quae cum Scipio dixisset, admodum probans Mummius; erat enim odio †quorum rhetorum inbutus C. anon. Verg. G. I, 2.348 Bandin. tum in optimam segetem praeclara essent sparsa semina.

[Nonius p. 42M:] “You expect, then, the whole prudence of this governor, which has gained even this very name from foreseeing (providendo).” [Nonius p. 256M:] “For which reason this citizen must so equip himself that he be always armed against those things which disturb the constitution of the state.” [Nonius p. 25M; Servius:] “And this dissension of the citizens, because some go aside to others, is called sedition.” [Nonius p. 519M:] “In civil dissension, when the good prevail by more than the many, I think the citizens must be weighed, not numbered.” [Nonius p. 424M:] “For lusts, those weighty mistresses of our thoughts, drive on and command certain limitless things; which, since they can in no way be filled or satisfied, drive on to every crime those whom they have set on fire by their lures.” [Nonius p. 492M:] “… who shall have crushed his force and that unbridled fierceness.”

Non. 42M Totam igitur expectas prudentiam huius rectoris, quae ipsum nomen hoc nacta est ex providendo. Non. 256M Quam ob rem se comparet hic civis ita necesse est, ut sit contra haec, quae statum civitatis permovent, semper armatus. Non. 25M, Serv. A. 1.149 Eaque dissensio civium, quod seorsum eunt alii ad alios, seditio dicitur. Non. 519M Et vero in dissensione civili, cum boni plus quam multi valent, expendendos civis, non numerandos puto. Non. 424M Graves enim dominae cogitationum lubidines infinita quaedam cogunt atque imperant, quae quia nec expleri nec satiari ullo modo possunt, ad omne facinus inpellunt eos, quos inlecebris suis incenderunt. Non. 492M qui contuderit eius vim et ecfrenatam illam ferociam.

[Aulus Gellius 7.16.11; Nonius:] “… which was the greater for this reason: that, although his colleagues were in equal cause, they were not only not in equal odium, but the affection toward Gracchus turned away even the odium toward Claudius.” [Nonius p. 409M:] “… which voices of optimates and leading men he met with: he abandoned that grave sound full of dignity.” [Nonius p. 501M:] “… that, as he writes, daily into the forum a thousand men with cloaks dyed in shellfish-purple were coming down.” [Nonius p. 517M:] “… in which, as you remember, by the gathering of the lightest mob and a heap of bronze coins the funeral was got up on a sudden.” [Nonius p. 512M; Priscian:] “For our forefathers wished marriages to be firmly established.” [Nonius p. 398M:] “Laelius’s speech — which we all have in our hands — on how the priests’ wooden bowls and Samian basins, as he writes, are pleasing to the immortal gods.”

Gel. N.A. 7.16.11,Non. 290M Quod quidem eo fuit maius, quia, cum causa pari collegae essent, non modo invidia pari non erant, sed etiam Claudii invidiam Gracchi caritas deprecabatur. Non. 409M Qui †numero optumatum et principum optulit is vocibus et gravitatis suae liquit illum tristem et plenum dignitatis sonum. Non. 501M ut, quem ad modum scribit ille, cotidiano in forum mille hominum cum palliis conchylio tinctis descenderent. Non. 517M in his, ut meministis, concursu levissimae multitudinis et aere congesto funus desubito esset ornatum. Non. 512M,Prisc. GL 3.70K Firmiter enim maiores nostri stabilita matrimonia esse voluerunt. Non. 398M Oratio Laelii, quam omnes habemus in manibus, quam simpuvia pontificum dis immortalibus grata sint Samiaeque, ut is scribit, capudines.

[Eulogius on the Somnium Scipionis:] “… [Cicero referring to the legendary Pamphylian who] when set on the funeral pyre, came back to life and told many secrets of the underworld — that what is said about the immortality of the soul and about heaven is not the contrivances of dreaming philosophers, nor incredible fables which the Epicureans deride, but the conjectures of the prudent.”

Eulog. somn. Scip. 401Or. qui rogo impositus revixisset multaque de inferis secreta narrasset haec, quae de animae immortalitate dicerentur caeloque, non somniantium philosophorum esse commenta nec fabulas incredibiles, quas Epicurei derident, sed prudentium coniecturas.

[Augustine, City of God 22.28:] “… that he wished rather to play than to affirm that as the truth.”

August. C.D. 22.28 ut eum lusisse potius quam †quod id verum esse adfirmet dicere voluisse.

[Macrobius, Saturnalia 1.4.2sq.:] “But although for wise men the consciousness itself of distinguished deeds is the amplest reward of virtue, yet that divine virtue desires not statues set in lead, nor triumphs with withering laurels, but certain firmer and greener kinds of rewards. “What, then, are these,” said Laelius? Then Scipio: “Bear with me, since this is now the third day of our holiday …” [The Somnium Scipionis, preserved separately by Macrobius.]

Macr. Sat. 1.4.2sq. Sed quamquam sapientibus conscientia ipsa factorum egregiorum amplissimum virtutis est praemium, tamen illa divina virtus non statuas plumbo inhaerentes nec triumphos arescentibus laureis, sed stabiliora quaedam et viridiora praemiorum genera desiderat. Quae tandem ista sunt, inquit Laelius? Tum Scipio: Patimini me, quoniam tertium diem iam feriati sumus

“When I had come into Africa to consul Manius Manilius, as you know, as tribune of the soldiers to the fourth legion, nothing was more important to me than to meet King Masinissa, by just causes the dearest friend of our family. When I came to him, the old man embraced me, shed tears, and after a little while looked up to heaven and said: “Thanks I render to thee, highest Sun, and to you the rest of the heaven-dwellers, that, before I pass from this life, I behold in my own kingdom and within these roofs Publius Cornelius Scipio, by whose very name I am refreshed: so that the memory of that best and most invincible of men never departs from my mind.” Then I asked him about his kingdom, he asked me about our commonwealth; and with many words spoken back and forth, that day was used up by us.

OMNIUM Cum in Africam venissem M’. Manilio consuli ad quartam legionem tribunus, ut scitis, militum, nihil mihi fuit potius, quam ut Masinissam convenirem regem, familiae nostrae iustis de causis amicissimum. Ad quem ut veni, conplexus me senex conlacrimavit aliquantoque post suspexit ad caelum et: Grates, inquit, tibi ago, summe Sol, vobisque, reliqui Caelites, quod, ante quam ex hac vita migro, conspicio in meo regno et his tectis P. Cornelium Scipionem, cuius ego nomine ipso recreor; itaque numquam ex animo meo discedit illius optimi atque invictissimi viri memoria. Deinde ego illum de suo regno, ille me de nostra re publica percontatus est, multisque verbis ultro citroque habitis ille nobis consumptus est dies.

“Afterwards, having been received in royal style, we drew out the talk far into the night, while the old man spoke of nothing but Africanus, and remembered all of his deeds — and even his sayings. Then, when we parted to bed, both wearied from the road, and one who had been awake until late, a deeper sleep than I was used to held me. Here (I think indeed from what we had been saying; for it generally happens that our thoughts and conversations bring forth in sleep something such as Ennius writes about Homer, of whom plainly he was wont to think and speak most often when waking) Africanus appeared to me in the form which to me was more familiar from his image than from himself; and when I knew him, I shuddered, but he: “Be of good cheer,” he said, “and put away fear, Scipio, and commit to memory what I shall say.

Post autem apparatu regio accepti sermonem in multam noctem produximus, cum senex nihil nisi de Africano loqueretur omniaque eius non facta solum, sed etiam dicta meminisset. Deinde, ut cubitum discessimus, me et de via fessum, et qui ad multam noctem vigilassem, artior quam solebat somnus complexus est. Hic mihi (credo equidem ex hoc, quod eramus locuti; fit enim fere, ut cogitationes sermonesque nostri pariant aliquid in somno tale, quale de Homero scribit Ennius, de quo videlicet saepissime vigilans solebat cogitare et loqui) Africanus se ostendit ea forma, quae mihi ex imagine eius quam ex ipso erat notior; quem ubi agnovi, equidem cohorrui, sed ille: Ades, inquit, animo et omitte timorem, Scipio, et, quae dicam, trade memoriae.

“Do you see that city, which, forced through me to obey the Roman people, renews her ancient wars and cannot rest?” (And he was showing me Carthage from a high and bright place, full of stars.) “Which you now come to besiege, almost a common soldier. Within these next two years you will overthrow it as consul, and you will have that surname won by you yourself which you have so far inherited from us. But when you have destroyed Carthage, held a triumph, and been censor, and have travelled as legate to Egypt, Syria, Asia, and Greece, you will be elected consul a second time in your absence, and finish a great war: you will raze Numantia. But when you have ridden into the Capitol in your chariot, you will find the commonwealth thrown into confusion by the counsels of my grandson.

Videsne illam urbem, quae parere populo Romano coacta per me renovat pristina bella nec potest quiescere? (ostendebat autem Karthaginem de excelso et pleno stellarum illustri et claro quodam loco) ad quam tu oppugnandam nunc venis paene miles. Hanc hoc biennio consul evertes, eritque cognomen id tibi per te partum, quod habes adhuc a nobis hereditarium. Cum autem Karthaginem deleveris, triumphum egeris censorque fueris et obieris legatus Aegyptum, Syriam, Asiam, Graeciam, deligere iterum consul absens bellumque maximum conficies, Numantiam excindes. Sed cum eris curru in Capitolium invectus, offendes rem publicam consiliis perturbatam nepotis mei.

“Here, Africanus, you must show your country the light of your spirit, your genius, your counsel. But I see, as it were, a doubtful path of fates at that time. For when your age shall have run through eight courses and returns of the sun, of seven years each, and these two numbers, of which each is held complete one for one reason, the other for another, shall by their natural cycle have made up your fated sum, then upon you alone, and upon your name, the whole state will turn. You the senate, you all the good men, you the allies, you the Latins will look to. You will be the one on whom the safety of the state will rest — and, in short, as dictator you must set up the commonwealth, if you escape the impious hands of your kinsmen.” At this Laelius cried out, and the rest groaned more violently; but Scipio, smiling slightly: “Hush, please,” said he, “do not wake me from my sleep, and listen a little to the rest.

Hic tu, Africane, ostendas oportebit patriae lumen animi, ingenii consiliique tui. Sed eius temporis ancipitem video quasi fatorum viam. Nam cum aetas tua septenos octiens solis anfractus reditusque converterit, duoque ii numeri, quorum uterque plenus alter altera de causa habetur, circuitu naturali summam tibi fatalem confecerint, in te unum atque in tuum nomen se tota convertet civitas, te senatus, te omnes boni, te socii, te Latini intuebuntur, tu eris unus, in quo nitatur civitatis salus, ac, ne multa, dictator rem publicam constituas oportet, si impias propinquorum manus effugeris. Hic cum exclamasset Laelius ingemuissentque vehementius ceteri, leniter arridens Scipio: St! quaeso, inquit, ne me e somno excitetis, et parumper audite cetera.

“But that you may be the more eager, Africanus, to guard the commonwealth, hold thus: for all who shall have preserved, helped, increased their fatherland, there is a fixed place set in heaven, where the blessed enjoy an eternal age. For nothing is more pleasing to that supreme God who rules all the world — of all that is done on earth — than the assemblies and gatherings of men joined by right, which are called states; the rulers and preservers of these go forth from this place, and to it they return.”

Sed quo sis, Africane, alacrior ad tutandam rem publicam, sic habeto: omnibus, qui patriam conservaverint, adiuverint, auxerint, certum esse in caelo definitum locum, ubi beati aevo sempiterno fruantur; nihil est enim illi principi deo, qui omnem mundum regit, quod quidem in terris fiat, acceptius quam concilia coetusque hominum iure sociati, quae civitates appellantur; harum rectores et conservatores hinc profecti huc revertuntur.

“Here, although I was thoroughly frightened — not so much by fear of death as by fear of plots from my own kin — I yet asked whether he himself was alive, and my father Paulus, and the others whom we judged dead. “Indeed,” he said, “these are alive, who have flown out of the bonds of the body as out of a prison; that life of yours, which it is called, is death. Why do you not look at your father Paulus coming to you?” When I saw him I poured forth a flood of tears; but he, embracing me and kissing me, forbade me to weep.

Hic ego, etsi eram perterritus non tam mortis metu quam insidiarum a meis, quaesivi tamen, viveretne ipse et Paulus pater et alii, quos nos extinctos arbitraremur. Immo vero, inquit, hi vivunt, qui e corporum vinculis tamquam e carcere evolaverunt, vestra vero, quae dicitur, vita mors est. Quin tu aspicis ad te venientem Paulum patrem? Quem ut vidi, equidem vim lacrimarum profudi, ille autem me complexus atque osculans flere prohibebat.

“And as soon as, holding back my tears, I could begin to speak, I said: “I beg you, most holy and most excellent father, since this is life — as I hear Africanus say — why do I delay on the earth? Why do I not hurry to come hither to you?” “It is not so,” he said. “Unless that God, whose temple is everything you behold, has freed you from those guards of the body, the way hither cannot lie open to you. For men have been brought forth under this law, that they should keep watch over that globe which you see in the middle of this temple, which is called the earth; and a soul has been given them out of those everlasting fires which you call constellations and stars, which, globed and round, animated by divine minds, accomplish their circles and orbits with marvellous swiftness. Therefore for you also, Publius, and for all pious men, the soul must be kept in the watch of the body; nor without command of him, by whom that soul is given to you, must you depart from the life of men, lest you seem to have fled from the human duty assigned by God.

Atque ego ut primum fletu represso loqui posse coepi, Quaeso, inquam, pater sanctissime atque optime, quoniam haec est vita, ut Africanum audio dicere, quid moror in terris? quin huc ad vos venire propero? Non est ita, inquit ille. Nisi enim deus is, cuius hoc templum est omne, quod conspicis, istis te corporis custodiis liberaverit, huc tibi aditus patere non potest. Homines enim sunt hac lege generati, qui tuerentur illum globum, quem in hoc templo medium vides, quae terra dicitur, iisque animus datus est ex illis sempiternis ignibus, quae sidera et stellas vocatis, quae globosae et rotundae, divinis animatae mentibus, circulos suos orbesque conficiunt celeritate mirabili. Quare et tibi, Publi, et piis omnibus retinendus animus est in custodia corporis nec iniussu eius, a quo ille est vobis datus, ex hominum vita migrandum est, ne munus humanum adsignatum a deo defugisse videamini.

“But thus, Scipio, like this grandfather of yours, like me who begot you, cultivate justice and piety, which is great in parents and kinsmen, but greatest in country. That life is the way to heaven and to this gathering of those who have already lived, and, freed from the body, dwell in that place which you see” (and that was a circle, shining among the flames with the brightest brightness) — “which you, as you have received it from the Greeks, call the Milky Way.” From which, as I gazed, all other things seemed splendid and marvellous. There were stars which we have never seen from this place, and magnitudes of all of them which we have never suspected to be; and from these the smallest was that which, furthest from heaven, nearest from earth, shone with a borrowed light. The globes of the stars were easily greater than the size of the earth. By now the earth itself seemed to me so small that I was sorry for our empire, by which we touch, as it were, but a point of it.

Sed sic, Scipio, ut avus hic tuus, ut ego, qui te genui, iustitiam cole et pietatem, quae cum magna in parentibus et propinquis, tum in patria maxima est; ea vita via est in caelum et in hunc coetum eorum, qui iam vixerunt et corpore laxati illum incolunt locum, quem vides, (erat autem is splendidissimo candore inter flammas circus elucens) quem vos, ut a Graiis accepistis, orbem lacteum nuncupatis; ex quo omnia mihi contemplanti praeclara cetera et mirabilia videbantur. Erant autem eae stellae, quas numquam ex hoc loco vidimus, et eae magnitudines omnium, quas esse numquam suspicati sumus, ex quibus erat ea minima, quae ultima a caelo, citima a terris luce lucebat aliena. Stellarum autem globi terrae magnitudinem facile vincebant. Iam ipsa terra ita mihi parva visa est, ut me imperii nostri, quo quasi punctum eius attingimus, paeniteret.

“As I gazed at it more, “Pray,” said Africanus, “how long shall your mind be fixed on the ground? Do you not see into what temples you have come? All things are joined together for you in nine orbs — or rather globes; one of which is the heavenly, the outermost, which embraces all the others: the highest god himself, restraining and holding the rest. In which are fixed those everlasting courses of the stars which roll round; under which are seven globes, which turn back with a motion contrary to that of the heaven; of which one globe is held by that one which on earth they call Saturnian. Then there is that which is prosperous and saving for the human race, which is called of Jupiter; then the ruddy and dreadful to lands, which you call of Mars; then below, in the middle region, the sun holds his place: leader and prince and moderator of the other lights, the mind of the world and its tempering, of so great a magnitude that he illumines and fills all things with his own light. Him, like companions, follow the courses of Venus and of Mercury; in the lowest orb the moon turns round, kindled by the sun’s rays. Below, however, there is now nothing but mortal and falling, except the souls given to the human race by the gift of the gods; above the moon all things are eternal. For that which is the middle and ninth, the earth, neither moves and is the lowest, and on it all weights are borne by their own force.

Quam cum magis intuerer, Quaeso, inquit Africanus, quousque humi defixa tua mens erit? Nonne aspicis, quae in templa veneris? Novem tibi orbibus vel potius globis conexa sunt omnia, quorum unus est caelestis, extumus, qui reliquos omnes complectitur, summus ipse deus arcens et continens ceteros; in quo sunt infixi illi, qui volvuntur, stellarum cursus sempiterni; cui subiecti sunt septem, qui versantur retro contrario motu atque caelum; ex quibus unum globum possidet illa, quam in terris Saturniam nominant. Deinde est hominum generi prosperus et salutaris ille fulgor, qui dicitur Iovis; tum rutilus horribilisque terris, quem Martium dicitis; deinde subter mediam fere regionem sol obtinet, dux et princeps et moderator luminum reliquorum, mens mundi et temperatio, tanta magnitudine, ut cuncta sua luce lustret et compleat. Hunc ut comites consequuntur Veneris alter, alter Mercurii cursus, in infimoque orbe luna radiis solis accensa convertitur. Infra autem iam nihil est nisi mortale et caducum praeter animos munere deorum hominum generi datos, supra lunam sunt aeterna omnia. Nam ea, quae est media et nona, tellus, neque movetur et infima est, et in eam feruntur omnia nutu suo pondera.

“While I was looking on these things, stupefied, when I had recovered: “What,” I said, “is this that fills my ears, this great and so sweet a sound?” “This is that which, divided by intervals unequal but yet by reason marked off proportionally, is wrought by the impulse and motion of the very orbs themselves, and, tempering the high with the low, brings forth varied harmonies evenly: for nor in silence can such great motions be set in motion, and nature bears it that the extremes from one part should sound deep, from the other high. For which reason that highest course of heaven, the star-bearing, whose revolution is the swifter, is moved with a high and stirred-up sound; this lunar and lowest with the deepest. For the earth, the ninth, remaining unmoved, sticks always in one seat, embracing the middle place of the world. Those eight courses, however — in which the same force is of two — effect seven sounds distinguished by intervals; which number is the knot of nearly all things. Learned men, imitating it on strings and in songs, opened for themselves a return to this place — as did the others who, with outstanding genius, cultivated divine studies in human life.

Quae cum intuerer stupens, ut me recepi, Quid? hic, inquam, quis est, qui conplet aures meas tantus et tam dulcis sonus? Hic est, inquit, ille, qui intervallis disiunctus inparibus, sed tamen pro rata parte ratione distinctis inpulsu et motu ipsorum orbium efficitur et acuta cum gravibus temperans varios aequabiliter concentus efficit; nec enim silentio tanti motus incitari possunt, et natura fert, ut extrema ex altera parte graviter, ex altera autem acute sonent. Quam ob causam summus ille caeli stellifer cursus, cuius conversio est concitatior, acuto et excitato movetur sono, gravissimo autem hic lunaris atque infimus; nam terra nona inmobilis manens una sede semper haeret complexa medium mundi locum. Illi autem octo cursus, in quibus eadem vis est duorum, septem efficiunt distinctos intervallis sonos, qui numerus rerum omnium fere nodus est; quod docti homines nervis imitati atque cantibus aperuerunt sibi reditum in hunc locum, sicut alii, qui praestantibus ingeniis in vita humana divina studia coluerunt.

“With this sound, the ears of men, filled, have grown deaf; nor is any sense duller in you than hearing — as where the Nile, at those places called the Catadupa, falls from the highest mountains, the people who dwell about that place, on account of the greatness of the noise, lack the sense of hearing. But this sound, made by the most rapid revolution of the whole world, is so great that the ears of men cannot take it in — as you cannot look directly at the sun, but the keenness and sense of your sight is overcome by his rays.” Marvelling at these things, I yet kept turning my eyes back to the earth.

Hoc sonitu oppletae aures hominum obsurduerunt; nec est ullus hebetior sensus in vobis, sicut, ubi Nilus ad illa, quae Catadupa nominantur, praecipitat ex altissimis montibus, ea gens, quae illum locum adcolit, propter magnitudinem sonitus sensu audiendi caret. Hic vero tantus est totius mundi incitatissima conversione sonitus, ut eum aures hominum capere non possint, sicut intueri solem adversum nequitis, eiusque radiis acies vestra sensusque vincitur. Haec ego admirans referebam tamen oculos ad terram identidem.

“Then Africanus: “I see,” he said, “that you are still gazing on the seat and home of men. If that seems to you small, as it is, then look always at these heavenly things, and despise the human. For what celebration of men’s talk, or what glory worth seeking, can you attain? You see how the earth is inhabited in scattered and narrow places, and that, in those very as it were spots where it is inhabited, vast wastes are interposed; and those who inhabit the earth are not only so cut off that nothing among themselves can pass from some to others, but partly stand sideways to you, partly crosswise, partly even opposed to you — from whom you can certainly hope for no glory.

Tum Africanus: Sentio, inquit, te sedem etiam nunc hominum ac domum contemplari; quae si tibi parva, ut est, ita videtur, haec caelestia semper spectato, illa humana contemnito. Tu enim quam celebritatem sermonis hominum aut quam expetendam consequi gloriam potes? Vides habitari in terra raris et angustis in locis et in ipsis quasi maculis, ubi habitatur, vastas solitudines interiectas, eosque, qui incolunt terram, non modo interruptos ita esse, ut nihil inter ipsos ab aliis ad alios manare possit, sed partim obliquos, partim transversos, partim etiam adversos stare vobis; a quibus expectare gloriam certe nullam potestis.

“You see also that the same earth is encircled and bound, as it were, by certain belts. Of which two, mostly opposed to each other, and propped from either side on the very poles of the heaven, you see have grown stiff with frost; while that middle and greatest is parched by the heat of the sun. Two are habitable, of which the southern — in which those who stand point their footsteps opposed to yours — is nothing to your race; this other, set under the north wind, which you inhabit, see by how thin a part it touches you. For all the land that is cultivated by you, narrowed at the poles, broader on the sides, is some little island encompassed by that sea which on earth you call the Atlantic, the Great, or Ocean — which yet, despite so great a name, you see how small it is.

Cernis autem eandem terram quasi quibusdam redimitam et circumdatam cingulis, e quibus duos maxime inter se diversos et caeli verticibus ipsis ex utraque parte subnixos obriguisse pruina vides, medium autem illum et maximum solis ardore torreri. Duo sunt habitabiles, quorum australis ille, in quo qui insistunt, adversa vobis urgent vestigia, nihil ad vestrum genus; hic autem alter subiectus aquiloni, quem incolitis, cerne quam tenui vos parte contingat. Omnis enim terra, quae colitur a vobis, angustata verticibus, lateribus latior, parva quaedam insula est circumfusa illo mari, quod Atlanticum, quod magnum, quem Oceanum appellatis in terris, qui tamen tanto nomine quam sit parvus, vides.

“From these very cultivated and known lands, has either your name, or any of ours, been able to climb over this Caucasus you see, or to swim across that Ganges? Who in the rest of the parts of the rising or setting sun, or of the north wind or south wind, will hear your name? With these cut off, you certainly see in what straits your glory is willing to stretch itself out. They themselves, however, who speak of us — how long will they speak?

Ex his ipsis cultis notisque terris num aut tuum aut cuiusquam nostrum nomen vel Caucasum hunc, quem cernis, transcendere potuit vel illum Gangen tranatare? Quis in reliquis orientis aut obeuntis solis ultimis aut aquilonis austrive partibus tuum nomen audiet? quibus amputatis cernis profecto quantis in angustiis vestra se gloria dilatari velit. Ipsi autem, qui de nobis loquuntur, quam loquentur diu?

“Indeed, even if that posterity of men to come desires to hand down to its successors the praises of each one of us, taken from their fathers, yet on account of the deluges and burnings of the lands which must happen at fixed times, we cannot attain not merely an everlasting, but not even a long-lasting glory. What does it matter, that there will be talk about you among those who shall be born afterwards, when there has been none among those who were born before us?

Quin etiam si cupiat proles illa futurorum hominum deinceps laudes unius cuiusque nostrum a patribus acceptas posteris prodere, tamen propter eluviones exustionesque terrarum, quas accidere tempore certo necesse est, non modo non aeternam, sed ne diuturnam quidem gloriam adsequi possumus. Quid autem interest ab iis, qui postea nascentur, sermonem fore de te, cum ab iis nullus fuerit, qui ante nati sunt?

“… [those who came before] who were neither fewer nor certainly worse men — especially since among those very men by whom our name can be heard, no one can compass the memory of a single year. For men, by popular reckoning, measure the year only by the return of the sun, that is, of one star; but when all the stars shall have returned to that same point whence they once set out, and shall have brought back, after long intervals, the same arrangement of the whole heaven — then that may truly be called the turning year; in which I scarcely dare to say how many ages of men are contained. For just as the sun once seemed to men to fail and be quenched, when the soul of Romulus penetrated into these very temples, so whenever the sun shall fail again, in the same part and at the same time, then, when all the signs and stars have been called back to the beginning, count the year complete — of which year, indeed, know that not yet a twentieth part has been turned.

qui nec pauciores et certe meliores fuerunt viri, praesertim cum apud eos ipsos, a quibus audiri nomen nostrum potest, nemo unius anni memoriam consequi possit. Homines enim populariter annum tantum modo solis, id est unius astri, reditu metiuntur; cum autem ad idem, unde semel profecta sunt, cuncta astra redierint eandemque totius caeli discriptionem longis intervallis rettulerint, tum ille vere vertens annus appellari potest; in quo vix dicere audeo quam multa hominum saecula teneantur. Namque ut olim deficere sol hominibus exstinguique visus est, cum Romuli animus haec ipsa in templa penetravit, quandoque ab eadem parte sol eodemque tempore iterum defecerit, tum signis omnibus ad principium stellisque revocatis expletum annum habeto; cuius quidem anni nondum vicesimam partem scito esse conversam.

“Therefore, if you despair of return to this place, in which all things are for great and excellent men, of how much, after all, is that human glory worth, which can scarcely pertain even to one slender part of one year? Therefore, if you wish to look upward, and to gaze upon this seat and eternal home, you will neither give yourself up to the talk of the crowd, nor place the hope of your fortunes in the prizes of men. Virtue itself, by its own enticements, must draw you to true honour: what others say of you, let them see to it; but they will speak in any case. All that talk is hemmed by the narrow regions you see, nor was it ever for any man unbroken; and it is buried by the death of men and quenched by the forgetfulness of posterity.”

Quocirca si reditum in hunc locum desperaveris, in quo omnia sunt magnis et praestantibus viris, quanti tandem est ista hominum gloria, quae pertinere vix ad unius anni partem exiguam potest? Igitur alte spectare si voles atque hanc sedem et aeternam domum contueri, neque te sermonibus vulgi dedideris nec in praemiis humanis spem posueris rerum tuarum; suis te oportet inlecebris ipsa virtus trahat ad verum decus, quid de te alii loquantur, ipsi videant, sed loquentur tamen. Sermo autem omnis ille et angustiis cingitur iis regionum, quas vides, nec umquam de ullo perennis fuit et obruitur hominum interitu et oblivione posteritatis extinguitur.

“When he had said this, “Indeed, Africanus,” I said, “if for those who have well deserved of their country a path lies open, as it were, to the entrance of heaven, although from boyhood I have followed in the footsteps of my father, and yours, and have not failed your honour — yet now, with so great a prize set forth, I shall strive much more vigilantly.” And he: “Strive indeed, and hold thus: it is not you that are mortal, but this body. For neither are you what that figure declares; but the mind of each man is each man — not that figure which can be pointed at with the finger. Know, then, that you are a god — if at least there be a god which is alive, which feels, which remembers, which foresees, which so rules and tempers and moves that body to which it has been set in charge, as that prince god rules this world. And as the world, which is in some part mortal, is moved by an eternal god himself, so the fragile body is moved by an everlasting soul.

Quae cum dixisset, Ego vero, inquam, Africane, siquidem bene meritis de patria quasi limes ad caeli aditum patet, quamquam a pueritia vestigiis ingressus patris et tuis decori vestro non defui, nunc tamen tanto praemio exposito enitar multo vigilantius. Et ille: Tu vero enitere et sic habeto, non esse te mortalem, sed corpus hoc; nec enim tu is es, quem forma ista declarat, sed mens cuiusque is est quisque, non ea figura, quae digito demonstrari potest. Deum te igitur scito esse, siquidem est deus, qui viget, qui sentit, qui meminit, qui providet, qui tam regit et moderatur et movet id corpus, cui praepositus est, quam hunc mundum ille princeps deus; et ut mundum ex quadam parte mortalem ipse deus aeternus, sic fragile corpus animus sempiternus movet.

“For what is always moved is eternal; and what brings motion to something else, and is itself driven from elsewhere, must, when it has an end of motion, have an end of life. Only that, then, which moves itself, since it is never deserted by itself, never even ceases to move; nay rather, for the rest that move, this is the fountain, this the beginning of moving. But of a beginning there is no origin: for from a beginning all things arise, but it itself can be born of no other thing; for that would not be a beginning, which were begotten elsewhere. And if it never arises, it never sets either; for a beginning extinguished can neither itself be reborn from another nor create another from itself, since it is necessary that all things arise from a beginning. So it comes about that the beginning of motion is from that which is moved by itself; this can neither be born nor die, or all heaven and all nature must collapse and stand still, nor would it find any force by which, set in motion at the start, it might be moved.

Nam quod semper movetur, aeternum est; quod autem motum adfert alicui, quodque ipsum agitatur aliunde, quando finem habet motus, vivendi finem habeat necesse est. Solum igitur, quod sese movet, quia numquam deseritur a se, numquam ne moveri quidem desinit; quin etiam ceteris, quae moventur, hic fons, hoc principium est movendi. Principii autem nulla est origo; nam ex principio oriuntur omnia, ipsum autem nulla ex re alia nasci potest; nec enim esset id principium, quod gigneretur aliunde; quodsi numquam oritur, ne occidit quidem umquam. Nam principium exstinctum nec ipsum ab alio renascetur nec ex se aliud creabit, siquidem necesse est a principio oriri omnia. Ita fit, ut motus principium ex eo sit, quod ipsum a se movetur; id autem nec nasci potest nec mori; vel concidat omne caelum omnisque natura et consistat necesse est nec vim ullam nanciscatur, qua a primo inpulsa moveatur.

“Since then it is plain that that is eternal which is moved by itself, who is there that would deny this nature has been granted to souls? For everything is inanimate which is driven by an external blow; what is animate is moved by an inner motion of its own; for this is the proper nature and force of soul. If this is one out of all those things which moves itself, then certainly it is not born and is eternal.

Cum pateat igitur aeternum id esse, quod a se ipso moveatur, quis est, qui hanc naturam animis esse tributam neget? Inanimum est enim omne, quod pulsu agitatur externo; quod autem est animal, id motu cietur interiore et suo; nam haec est propria natura animi atque vis; quae si est una ex omnibus, quae sese moveat, neque nata certe est et aeterna est.

“Exercise this in the best of pursuits! And the best are the cares for the safety of the country; the soul, driven and exercised by them, will the more swiftly fly to this seat and its home; and it will do this the more quickly if, even then, when it is shut in the body, it shall stretch out beyond, and contemplating the things outside, withdraw itself as much as possible from the body. For the souls of those who have given themselves up to the body’s pleasures, and have offered themselves as their ministers, and have, by the impulse of lusts obeying pleasures, violated the rights of gods and of men, when they have slipped from the body, roll about the earth itself, and do not return to this place except after many ages, when they have been thoroughly stirred.” He departed; I was loosed from sleep. [Closing fragments of Book 6, preserved by various authors.]

Hanc tu exerce optimis in rebus! sunt autem optimae curae de salute patriae, quibus agitatus et exercitatus animus velocius in hanc sedem et domum suam pervolabit; idque ocius faciet, si iam tum, cum erit inclusus in corpore, eminebit foras et ea, quae extra erunt, contemplans quam maxime se a corpore abstrahet. Namque eorum animi, qui se corporis voluptatibus dediderunt earumque se quasi ministros praebuerunt inpulsuque libidinum voluptatibus oboedientium deorum et hominum iura violaverunt, corporibus elapsi circum terram ipsam volutantur nec hunc in locum nisi multis exagitati saeculis revertuntur. Ille discessit; ego somno solutus sum.

[Nonius p. 42M:] “You expect, then, the whole prudence of this governor, which has gained even this very name from foreseeing (providendo).” [Nonius p. 256M:] “For which reason this citizen must so equip himself that he be always armed against those things which disturb the constitution of the state.” [Nonius p. 25M; Servius:] “And this dissension of the citizens, because some go aside to others, is called sedition.” [Nonius p. 519M:] “In civil dissension, when the good prevail by more than the many, I think the citizens must be weighed, not numbered.” [Nonius p. 424M:] “For lusts, those weighty mistresses of our thoughts, drive on and command certain limitless things; which, since they can in no way be filled or satisfied, drive on to every crime those whom they have set on fire by their lures.” [Nonius p. 492M:] “… who shall have crushed his force and that unbridled fierceness.”

Non. 321M idque ipsa natura non invitaret solum, sed etiam cogeret.

[Aulus Gellius 7.16.11; Nonius:] “… which was the greater for this reason: that, although his colleagues were in equal cause, they were not only not in equal odium, but the affection toward Gracchus turned away even the odium toward Claudius.” [Nonius p. 409M:] “… which voices of optimates and leading men he met with: he abandoned that grave sound full of dignity.” [Nonius p. 501M:] “… that, as he writes, daily into the forum a thousand men with cloaks dyed in shellfish-purple were coming down.” [Nonius p. 517M:] “… in which, as you remember, by the gathering of the lightest mob and a heap of bronze coins the funeral was got up on a sudden.” [Nonius p. 512M; Priscian:] “For our forefathers wished marriages to be firmly established.” [Nonius p. 398M:] “Laelius’s speech — which we all have in our hands — on how the priests’ wooden bowls and Samian basins, as he writes, are pleasing to the immortal gods.”

Diom. GL 1.339K nitito

[Eulogius on the Somnium Scipionis:] “… [Cicero referring to the legendary Pamphylian who] when set on the funeral pyre, came back to life and told many secrets of the underworld — that what is said about the immortality of the soul and about heaven is not the contrivances of dreaming philosophers, nor incredible fables which the Epicureans deride, but the conjectures of the prudent.”

Diom. GL 1.374K excellunt

“… will it offend you to learn the nature of the roots and seeds? Not at all, if only the work [of governing] shall remain. Do you think this the bailiff’s pursuit? By no means; since labour very often falls short of agriculture. As, then, the bailiff knows the nature of the field, the steward knows letters, and either of them refers himself from the delight of knowledge to the use of getting the work done — so let our governor have studied right and laws thoroughly, have looked into their very fountains, but not let himself be hindered by giving counsel and reading and writing, that he may, as it were, dispense the commonwealth and, in some way, oversee it: most skilled in the highest right, without which no one can be just; not unskilled in civil right, but as the steersman uses astronomy and the doctor physics — each uses these things for his own art, but is not hindered from his own duty by them. But this man will see …

Serv. A. 6.877 Fanni, causa difficilis laudare puerum; non enim res laudanda, sed spes est.

“… in states where the best men seek praise and dignity, and shun reproach and disgrace. Nor are they so much terrified by the fear and penalty which is set up by the laws as by shame, which nature has given to man as a kind of fear, not unjust, of being blamed. This [shame] our governor of public matters has increased by opinion and perfected by institutions and disciplines, that the citizen’s modesty would no less keep him from misdeeds than fear. And these things indeed pertain to praise, which could have been said more broadly and richly.

Lactant. Div. Inst. 1.18.11 Si fas endo plagas caelestum ascendere cuiquam est, Mi soli caeli maxima porta patet, Est vero, Africane; nam et Herculi eadem ista porta patuit.

“As for the system of life and the use of living, this has been arranged by lawful marriages, by legitimate children, by the holy seats of the household gods of Penates and Lares, that all may use both common and their own conveniences; and that one cannot live well without a good commonwealth, nor anything be more blessed than a state well constituted. Wherefore it is wont to seem most strange to me, what is so great a learning …

Sen. Ep. 108.32sq. reapse sepse Quoniam sumus ab ipsa calce eius interpellatione revocati. cui nemo civis neque hostis Quivit pro factis reddere par pretium.

[Macrobius, Saturnalia 1.4.2sq.:] “But although for wise men the consciousness itself of distinguished deeds is the amplest reward of virtue, yet that divine virtue desires not statues set in lead, nor triumphs with withering laurels, but certain firmer and greener kinds of rewards. “What, then, are these,” said Laelius? Then Scipio: “Bear with me, since this is now the third day of our holiday …” [The Somnium Scipionis, preserved separately by Macrobius.]

Anon. Parad. Koronne,Bielowsk Quicumque epulis et conviviis et sumptibus existimationem hominum sibi conciliant, palam ostendunt sibi verum decus, quod ex virtute ac dignitate nascitur, deficere.

“When I had come into Africa to consul Manius Manilius, as you know, as tribune of the soldiers to the fourth legion, nothing was more important to me than to meet King Masinissa, by just causes the dearest friend of our family. When I came to him, the old man embraced me, shed tears, and after a little while looked up to heaven and said: “Thanks I render to thee, highest Sun, and to you the rest of the heaven-dwellers, that, before I pass from this life, I behold in my own kingdom and within these roofs Publius Cornelius Scipio, by whose very name I am refreshed: so that the memory of that best and most invincible of men never departs from my mind.” Then I asked him about his kingdom, he asked me about our commonwealth; and with many words spoken back and forth, that day was used up by us.

Cod. ms. note 458 p. 82bib. Ossol. leniter atque placide fides, non vi et impetu, concuti debere

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