Section 25
Original Latin
itaque, credo, si civis Romanus Archias legibus non esset, ut ab aliquo imperatore civitate donaretur perficere non potuit. Sulla cum Hispanos et Gallos donaret, credo, hunc petentem repudiasset; quem nos vidimus, cum ei libellum malus poeta de populo subiecisset, quod epigramma in eum fecisset tantum modo alternis versibus longiusculis, statim ex eis rebus quas tum vendebat iubere ei praemium tribui, sed ea condicione ne quid postea scriberet. qui sedulitatem mali poetae duxerit aliquo tamen praemio dignam, huius ingenium et virtutem in scribendo et copiam non expetisset?
Musean translation
Complete machine-assisted Musean translation made directly from the Latin in Clark’s 1911 edition; source-language model review recorded. Perseus transcription: CC BY-SA 4.0, credited to the Perseus Project, Tufts University.
And so, I suppose, if Archias had not been a Roman citizen by law, he could not have arranged for some commander to grant him citizenship! Sulla, while granting it to Spaniards and Gauls, would surely have rejected his request! Yet we ourselves saw Sulla, when a bad poet from the crowd handed him a little book containing an epigram in his honor, written merely in alternating lines of rather excessive length, immediately order that the man receive a reward from the property he was then selling—but on condition that he never write again. Would a man who thought even a bad poet’s diligence worthy of some reward not have sought this man’s genius, excellence in writing, and abundance of expression?
Plain English translation
Complete machine-assisted Plain English translation made independently and directly from the Latin, not from the Musean edition; source-language model review recorded. Perseus transcription: CC BY-SA 4.0, credited to the Perseus Project, Tufts University.
So I suppose that if the law had not already made Archias a Roman citizen, he could never have persuaded a commander to give him citizenship! Sulla gave it to Spaniards and Gauls. I suppose he would have refused Archias if he had asked! We saw Sulla’s reaction to a booklet a bad poet in the crowd handed him. The man had written an epigram about him, with nothing to recommend it except alternating lines that were rather too long. Sulla immediately ordered a reward for him out of the property he was selling at the time. There was one condition: the man must not write anything else. Sulla thought even a bad poet’s effort deserved some payment. Would he not have wanted Archias’s talent, skill as a writer, and rich command of language?
About this section
Section 25 is part of For Archias the Poet by Marcus Tullius Cicero. This page sets the Latin original beside 2 direct-source translations, so any line can be checked against the source. It is part 25 of 32 in the work, which is kept in the Roman tradition.
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