Pacuvius

thumb|O you soul-bending queen of all the world, Eloquence! Marcus Pacuvius (220 – c. 130 BC) was an ancient Roman tragic poet. He is regarded as the greatest of their tragedians prior to Lucius Accius. Quotes Text and translation: E. H. Warmington, Remains of Old Latin, Vol. 2, LCL 314 (1936) Variants: Norbert Gutterman, A Book of Latin Quotations (1966), pp. 28–31 Men servasse ut essent qui me perderent? Ah! Did I save those men that they might beMen who would ruin me? Fragment of Armorium iudicium, quoted by Suetonius, Divus Julius, 84 Flucti flacciscunt, silescunt venti, mollitur mare. Meanwhile the billows droop and drop, the windsFall quiet, the sea sinks soft. Fragment of Chryses, quoted by Nonius, 488, 10 O flexanima atque omnium regina rerum oratio! O you soul-bending queen of all the world,Eloquence! Fragment of Hermiona, quoted by Nonius, 113, 24 Conqueri fortunam advorsam, non lamentari decet;id viri est officium, fletus muliebri ingenio additust. You may complain of adverse fortune, notLament. This is man's duty; weeping isA quality bestowed on woman's nature. Fragment of Niptra, quoted by Cicero, Tusculanae Disputationes, II, 21, 50 Cp. Sophocles, Odysseus Acanthoplex Patria est, ubicumque est bene. Wherever all is well—there is one's native land. Fragment of Teucer, quoted by Cicero, Tusculanae Disputationes, V, 37, 108 Adulescens, tam etsi properas te hoc saxum rogatUt sese aspicias, deinde quod scriptum est legas.Hic sunt poetae Pacuvi Marci sitaOssa. Hoc volebam nescius ne esses. Vale. Young man, although you hurry, yet this stoneAsks that you look upon itself, and thenRead what is written there. Here lie at restMarcus Pacuvius his bones. I wishedThat you should be aware of this. Farewell. Epigramma, quoted by Gellius, I, 24, 4 Other translations: Geoffrey Johnson, "His Own Epitaph" in L. R. Lind, ed., Latin Poetry in Verse Translation (1957), p. 6 Fortunam insanam esse et caecam et brutam perhibent philosophi, ...Insanam autem esse aiunt quia atrox incerta instabilisque sit;caecam ob eam rem esse iterant quia nil cernat quo sese adplicet;brutam quia dignum atque indignum nequeat internoscere.Sunt autem alii philosophi qui contra Fortunam negantesse ullam sed temeritate res regi umnes autumant.Id magis verisimile esse usus reapse experiundo edocet. Dame Fortune, some philosophers maintain,Is witless, sightless, brutish; ...That she is witless for that she is cruel,Untrustworthy, unstaid; and, they repeat,Sightless she is because she nothing seesWhereto she'll steer herself: and brutish tooBecause she cannot tell between the manThat's worthy and the unworthy. But there areOther philosophers who against all thisDeny that there is any goddess Fortune,Saying it is Chance Medley rules the world.That this is more like unto truth and factPractice doth teach us by the experience. Ex incertis fabulis'', quoted in ad Herennium, II, 23, 36 External links Category:Poets from Rome Category:Latin authors Category:Painters Category:BCE births Category:BCE deaths Category:People from Apulia