Prose Literature: Marital Conflict

Question 1

quod me scribis de sorore tua, testis erit tibi ipsa quantae mihi curae fuerit ut Quinti fratris animus in eam esset is qui esse deberet.

Answer 1

[Regarding] what you write to me about your sister, she herself will be a witness to you of how much concern it has been to me, that my brother Quintus’ attitude towards her should be that which it ought to be.

Question 2

quem cum esse offensiorem arbitrarer, eas litteras ad eum misi quibus et placarem ut fratrem et monerem ut minorem et obiurgarem ut errantem.

Answer 2

When I thought that he was somewhat offensive, I sent letters to him, with which [I was trying] both to appease him as a brother and to advise him as my junior and to chide him as doing wrong.

Question 3

itaque ex iis quae postea saepe ab eo ad me scripta sunt confido ita esse omnia ut et oporteat et velimus.

Answer 3

Therefore, [judging] from the things which afterward have often been written by him to me, I trust that everything is both as it should be and as we would wish.

Question 4

postridie ex Arpinati profecti sumus…. prandimus in Arcano [nosti hunc fundum].

Answer 4

On the next day we set out from Arpinum…. we had lunch at Arcanum [you know this farm].

Question 5

quo ut venimus, humanissime Quintus, ‘Pomponia,’ inquit, ‘tu invita mulieres, ego vero accivero pueros’;

Answer 5

When we arrived there, in a very civilised way Quintus said ‘Pomponia, you invite the women, I will summon the boys’

Question 6

nihil potuit mihi quidem ut visum est, dulcius idque cum verbis tum etiam animo ac vultu

Answer 6

Nothing, at any rate as it seemed to me, could have been sweeter and that [was] both with his words and even his manner and expression.

Question 7

at illa audientibus nobis ‘ego ipsa sum’ inquit, ‘hic hospita’;

Answer 7

But she, with us listening, said ‘I myself am a stranger here’,

Question 8

id autem ex eo, ut opinor, quod antecesserat Statius ut prandium nobis videret.

Answer 8

and this was, I think because Statius had gone in front so that he could see to dinner for us.

Question 9

tum Quintus, ‘en,’ inquit mihi, ‘haec ego patior cotidie.’ dices ‘quid quaeso istuc erat?’ magnum;

Answer 9

Then Quintus said to me ‘Look! I suffer these things every day.’ You may say ‘What, I ask was that [to you]? A lot;

Question 10

idque me ipsum commoverat;

Answer 10

and it had affected me personally;

Question 11

sic absurde et aspere verbis vultuque responderat.

Answer 11

she had responded so irrationally and harshly with both her words and her expression.

Question 12

dissimulavi dolens.

Answer 12

I hid [that] I was upset.

Question 13

discubuimus omnes praeter illam, cui tamen Quintus de mensa misit; illa reiecit.

Answer 13

We all reclined [to eat] except her, to whom however Quintus sent [food] from the table. She rejected [it].

Question 14

quid multa? nihil meo fratre lenius, nihil asperius tua sorore mihi visum est….ego inde Aquinum.

Answer 14

What else? Nothing was seen by me [that was] more gentle than my brother, nothing more harsh than your sister; …. I [went] from there to Aquinum.

Question 15

Quintus in Arcano remansit et in Aquinum ad me postridie mane venit mihique narravit nec secum illam dormire voluisse et cum discessura esset fuisse eius modi qualem ego vidissem.

Answer 15

Quintus remained in Arcanum and came to me in Aquinum on the next day in the morning and told me that she refused to sleep with him and when she was about to leave, she was in the same mood, as that which I had seen.