96-100 Flashcards
. Ac primo ad illa aestiva praetoris accedunt, ipsam illam ad partem litoris ubi iste per eos dies tabernaculis positis castra luxuriae collocarat. Quem posteaquam inanem locum offenderunt et praetorem commosse ex eo loco castra senserunt, statim sine ullo metu in ipsum portum penetrare coeperunt. Cum in portum dico, iudices—explanandum est enim diligentius eorum causa qui locum ignorant—in urbem dico atque in urbis intimam partem venisse piratas; non enim portu illud oppidum clauditur, sed urbe portus ipse cingitur et continetur, ut non adluantur mari moenia extrema, sed ipse influat in urbis sinum portus.
And first they came to those summer quarters of the praetor, that very part of the shore where he had pitched his tens and installed his pleasure camp through those days. But after they found the place empty and understood that the praetor had moved his camp from that place, they at once, without any fear, began to penetrate into the harbour itself. When I say into the harbour, judges, (for it is necessary to explain more carefully for the sake of those who do not know the place), I mean into the city and that the pirates came into the innermost part of city; for that town is not bounded by a harbour, but the harbour itself is surrounded by and enclosed within the city, so that it is not the outermost city walls being washed against by the sea, but the harbour itself flowing into the heart of the city.
Hic te praetore Heracleo pirata cum quattuor myoparonibus parvis ad arbitrium suum navigavit. Pro di immortales! piraticus myoparo, cum imperii populi Romani nomen ac fasces essent Syracusis, usque ad forum Syracusanorum et ad omnes crepidines urbis accessit, quo neque Carthaginiensium gloriosissimae classes, cum mari plurimum poterant, multis bellis saepe conatae umquam aspirare potuerunt, neque populi Romani invicta ante te praetorem gloria illa navalis umquam tot Punicis Siciliensibusque bellis penetrare potuit; qui locus eius modi est ut ante Syracusani in moenibus suis, in urbe, in foro hostem armatum ac victorem quam in portu ullam hostium navem viderint
Here, while you were praetor, Heracleo the pirate sailed at his own will with three small cutters. By the immortal gods! A piratical cutter, when the name and representative of the authority of the Roman people were in Syracuse, came all the way to the forum of Syracusans and to all the sea-walls of the city, to where the most glorious fleets of the Carthaginians, in the days of their naval supremacy, having tried often in many wars were never able to come near; and that naval glory of the Roman people invincible until your praetorship, in so many Punic and Sicilian wars was never able to penetrate; which place is of such a crime that the Syracusans saw the enemy armed and victorious within their walls, in the city, and in the forum before they saw any ship of the enemy in the harbour.
Hic te praetore praedonum naviculae pervagatae sunt, quo Atheniensium classis sola post hominum memoriam trecentis navibus vi ac multitudine invasit; quae in eo ipso portu loci ipsius portusque natura victa atque superata est. Hie primum opes illius civitatis comminutae depressaeque sunt; in hoc portu Atheniensium nobilitatis, imperii, gloriae naufragium factum existimatur.
XXXVIII. Eone pirata penetravit quo simul atque adisset non modo a latere sed etiam a tergo magnam partem urbis relinqueret? Insulam totam praetervectus est, quae est urbs Syracusis suo nomine ac moenibus, quo in loco maiores, ut ante dixi, Syracusanum habitare vetuerunt, quod, qui illam partem urbis tenerent, in eorum potestatem portum futurum intellegebant.
Here, while you were praetor, vessels of pirates sailed around where since the memory of man, only the Athenian fleet with three hundred ships had entered by force and number; which in that very harbour was defeated and overcome by the nature of the place and harbour. Here first the power of that famous city was broken and brought low; it is in this harbour a shipwreck is reckoned to have been made of the renown, power, and glory of Athens. Did a pirate really penetrate at such a place, where as soon as he had entered he left behind a great part of the city was not only to the side but also the back? He sailed beyond the whole island, which is the city at Syracuse in its own right and with its own walls, in which place our ancestors, as I said before, prohibited any Syracusan to dwell, because they understood that the harbour would come into the power of those whom were holding that part of the city.
At quem ad modum est pervagatus! Radices palmarum agrestium, quas in nostris navibus invenerant, iactabant, ut omnes istius improbitatem et calamitatem Siciliae possent cognoscere. Siculosne milites, aratorumne liberos, quorum patres tantum labore suo frumenti exarabant ut populo Romano totique Italiae suppeditare possent, eosne in insula Cereris natos, ubi primum fruges inventae esse dicuntur, eo cibo esse usos a quo maiores eorum ceteros quoque frugibus inventis removerunt! Te praetore Siculi milites palmarum stirpibus, piratae Siculo frumento alebantur!
And in what manner he wandered! They were throwing the roots of wild palm trees, which they found in our boats, so that everyone could get to know the wickedness of that man and the disaster of Sicily. Did the Sicilian soldiers, children of farmers, who harvested such amounts of corn that they were able to furnish the Roman people and the whole of Italy, and were these men born on the island of Ceres, where the first fruits are said to be found, they made use of that food from which their ancestors had also removed others with discovered crops! While you were praetor, Sicilian soldiers were fed on roots of palm trees, and pirates on Sicilian corn!
O spectaculum miserum atque acerbum! ludibrio esse urbis gloriam, populi Romani nomen, nostrorum hominum1 conventum atque multitudinem piratico myoparoni! in portu Syracusano de classe populi Romani triumphum agere piratam, cum praetoris inertissimi nequissimique oculos praedonum remi respergerent!
Posteaquam e portu piratae non metu aliquo affecti sed satietate exierunt, tum coeperunt quaerere homines causam illius tantae calamitatis. Dicere omnes et palam disputare minime esse mirandum si, remigibus militibusque dimissis, reliquis egestate et fame perditis, praetore tot dies cum mulierculis perpotante, tanta ignominia et calamitas esset accepta.
O miserable and bitter spectacle! The glory of the city was made a laughing-stock, and the name of the Roman people, and the gathering and multitude of all men by a pirate cutter! In the harbour of Syracuse a pirate triumphed over a fleet of Roman people, when the oars of the pirates sprinkled the eyes of the laziest and most wretched governor!
After the pirates went out of the harbour not influenced by any fear but weariness, then men began to seek the cause of that so great a disaster. They were all saying and openly arguing that it was only the smallest bit strange, if with the oarsmen and soldiers discharged, and the rest destroyed by want and hunger, while the praetor was perpetually drinking for so many days with his prostitutes, that such a disgrace and calamity should have befallen them.
