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| Letter VI. To Salvius: a Complaint that the Country People Were Harassed, and Their Possessions Plundered.
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Letter VI.
To Salvius: a Complaint that the Country People Were Harassed,
and Their Possessions Plundered.
Forensic excitement ought to be
at full heat during the time of business in the law-courts; for it is
fitting that the arms of industry, as it struggles daily, should
display energetic movements. But when loud-toned eloquence has sounded
a retreat, and has retired to peaceful groves and pleasant
dwelling-places, it is right that one lay aside idle murmurs, and cease
to utter ineffectual threats. For we know that palm-bearing steeds,
when they have retired from the circus, rest with the utmost quietness
in their stables. Neither constant fear nor doubtful palms of victory
distress them, but at length, haltered to the peaceful cribs, they now
no longer stand in awe of the master urging them on, enjoying sweet
oblivion of the restless rivalry which had prevailed. In like manner,
let it delight the boastful soldier after his term of service is
completed, to hang up his trophies, and patiently to bear the burden of
age.
But I do not quite understand why you should take
a delight in terrifying miserable husbandmen; and I do not comprehend
why you wish to harass my rustics with the fear of want of
sustenance;242
| 242 “exhibitionis
formidine”—a strange phrase. | as if, indeed, I
did not know how to console them, and to deliver them from fear, and to
show them that there is not so great a reason to fear as you pretend. I
confess that, while we were occupied in the plain, I was often
frightened by the arms of your eloquence, but frequently I returned you
corresponding blows, as far as I was able. I certainly learned along
with you, by what right, and in what order, the husbandmen are demanded
back, to whom a legal process is competent, and to whom the issue of a
process is not competent. You say that the Volusians wished you brought
back, and frequently, in your wrath, you repeat that you will withdraw
the country people from my little keep; and you, the very man, as I
hope and desire, bound to me by the ties of old relationship, now
rashly threaten that, casting our agreement to the winds, you will lay
hold upon my men. I ask of your illustrious knowledge, whether there is
one law for advocates, and another for private persons, whether one
thing is just at Rome, and quite another thing at Matarum.
In the meantime, I do not know that you were ever
lord of the Volusian property, since Dionysius is said to have
preserved the right of possession to it, and he never wanted heirs;
who, while he lived, was accustomed to hurl the envenomed jibes of his
low language upon a multitude of individuals.243
| 243 The text is
uncertain, and the meaning very obscure. |
There was, at that time, one Porphyrius, the son of Zibberinus, and yet
he was not properly named the son of Zibberinus. He kept hidden, by
military service, the question as to his birth, and, that he might
dispel the cloud from his forehead, he took part in officious services
and willing acts of submission. He was much with me both at home and in
the forum, having often employed me as his defender with my father, and
as his advocate before the judge. Sometimes I even kept back Dionysius,
feeling that he ought not, for the sake of twenty acres to discharge
vulgar abuse upon Porphyrius.
See, here is the reason why thy remarkable prudence
threatened my agents, so that, though you are not the owner of the
place, you everywhere make mention of my husbandmen. But if you give
yourself out as the successor of Porphyrius, you must know that the
narrow
space of twenty acres
cannot certainly be managed by one cultivator, or, if mindful of your
proper dignity and determined to maintain it, you shrink from naming
yourself the heir of Porphyrius, it is certain and obvious that he can
commence proceedings,244
to whom the right
of doing so belongs, so as to go to law with those who have no property
in that land. But if you diligently look into the matter, you will see
that the endeavor to recover it most especially devolves on me.
Wherefore, my much esteemed lord and brother, it behooves you to be at
peace, and to return to friendship with me, while you condescend to
come to a private conference. Cease, I pray you, to disturb inactive
and easily frightened persons, and utter your boastful words at a
distance. Believe me, however, that I am delighted with your high
spirit, and by no means offended; for we are neither of a harsh
disposition, nor destitute of learning. Let Maximinus at least render
you gentle.245
| 245 We thoroughly agree
with Clericus that this letter is, in style, more alien even than the
preceding from the genuine epistles of Sulpitius. It is barbarous as
regards composition, and in several places not intelligible. | E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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