Chapter 20 Flashcards
Nerone quartum Cornelio Cosso consulibus quinquennale ludicrum Romae institutum est ad morum Graeci certaminis, varia fama, ut cunta ferme nova.
In the consulship of Nero for the fourth time and Cornelius Cossus, quinquennial games were established in Rome after the custom of a Greek competition, the opinions expressed about it being varied as they generally are for all new things.
quippe erant qui Cn. quoque Pompeium incusatum a senioribus ferrent, quod mansuram theatri sedem posuisset.
For in fact there were those who claimed that Gnaeus Pompeius had also been accused by men of older because he had positioned a site of a theatre that would be permanent.
nam antea subitariis gradibus et scaena in tempus structa ludos edi solitos, vel si vetustiora repetas, stantem populum spectavisse, [ne], si consideret theatro, dies totos ignavia continuaret. [ne] spectaculorum quidem antiquitas servaretur, quotiens praetor sederet, nulla cuiquam civium necessitate certandi.
For they said previously the games were accustomed to be put on in rushed together seats and on a stage that had been constructed to suit the moment, or if you sought more traditional things, the people had watched standing, so that if they sat down in the theatre they did not spend whole days in idleness.
ceterum abolitos paulatim patrios mores funditus everti per accitam lasciviam,
Indeed let the antiquities of the spectacles be preserved, whenever the praetors put them on, with no obligation of competing for any of the citizens. But the morals of their fathers having been destroyed little by little were utterly overthrown through imported lasciviousness,
ut, quod usquam corrumpi et corrumpere queat, in urbe visatur, degeneretque studiis externis iuventus, gymnasia et otia et turpes amores exercendo, principe et senatu auctoribus, qui non modo licentiam vitiis permiserint, sed vim adhibeant, [ut] proceres Romani specie orationum et carminum scaena polluantur.
so that anything, anywhere which was able to be corrupted and corrupt was seen in the city, young men degenerated by foreign pursuits, by practising in gymnasia and leisure and base desires, with the emperor and the senate as instigators, who not only permitted freedom for the vices, but applied force so that the Roman leaders on the pretext of speeches and songs were defiled on stage.
