Book 3, Chapter 13
Original Latin
Hoc tu igitur censes sapienti accidere posse, ut aegritudine opprimatur, id est miseria? nam cum omnis perturbatio miseria est, tum carnificina est aegritudo. habet ardorem libido, levitatem laetitia gestiens, humilitatem metus, sed aegritudo maiora quaedam, tabem cruciatum adflictationem foeditatem, lacerat exest animum planeque conficit. hanc nisi exuimus sic ut abiciamus, miseria carere non possumus.
28 Atque hoc quidem perspicuum est, tum aegritudinem existere, cum quid ita visum sit, ut magnum quoddam malum adesse et urgere videatur. Epicuro autem placet opinionem mali aegritudinem esse natura, ut, quicumque intueatur in aliquod maius malum, si id sibi accidisse opinetur, sit continuo in aegritudine. Cyrenaici non omni malo aegritudinem effici censent, sed insperato et necopinato malo. est id quidem non mediocre ad aegritudinem augendam: videntur enim omnia repentina graviora. ex hoc et illa iure laudantur: Égo cum genui, túm morituros scívi et ei rei sústuli. Praéterea ad Troiám cum misi ob défendendam Graéciam, Scíbam me in mortíferum bellum, nón in epulas míttere.
Musean translation
Complete machine-assisted translation from the Latin. Latin transcription by the Perseus Project, Trustees of Tufts University, CC BY-SA 4.0.
“So you think this can happen to a wise person—that he can be crushed by distress, which is to say by misery? For while every disturbance is misery, distress is torture. Desire has its burning heat, exultant joy its frivolity, fear its abasement; but distress has something more grievous: wasting, torment, affliction, degradation. It tears the soul, eats it away, and utterly destroys it. Unless we strip it off and cast it away, we cannot be free from misery.
28 “This much is clear: distress arises when something has appeared to us in such a way that a great evil seems to be present and pressing upon us. Epicurus holds that the opinion of evil is by its nature distress: anyone who considers some rather serious evil, if he thinks it has happened to him, is immediately distressed. The Cyrenaics believe that distress is produced not by every evil, but by an unexpected and unforeseen evil. This certainly contributes no little to increasing distress: everything sudden seems more grievous. Hence these lines, too, are rightly praised: “‘When I fathered them, I knew they would die, and raised them for that fate. “‘And when I sent them to Troy to defend Greece, “‘I knew I was sending them into deadly war, not to a feast.’”
Plain English translation
Complete independent machine-assisted translation directly from the Latin. Latin transcription by the Perseus Project, Trustees of Tufts University, CC BY-SA 4.0.
“Is that really what you think can happen to the wise—being crushed by distress, or, in other words, misery? Misery goes with every disturbance of emotion; distress, though, is a torturer. Desire burns hot, overexcited delight is flighty, fear brings people low. With distress come worse things still: wasting away, anguish, self-torment, disfigurement. The mind is torn and eaten up until nothing remains. Freedom from misery is impossible unless we take distress off and cast it aside.
28 “It’s clear that distress comes about when something appears to us in a way that makes a great evil seem present and pressing. Epicurus thinks a belief in something bad naturally produces distress. On his view, if anyone looks at some serious evil and thinks it has happened to them, they immediately feel distress. The Cyrenaics think distress isn’t caused by every evil, but by one that’s unexpected and unforeseen. That certainly adds a good deal to distress. Everything sudden seems harder to bear. That’s why these lines are rightly praised: “‘When I fathered them, I knew they’d die, and raised them for that prospect. “‘And when I sent them off to Troy to fight in Greece’s defense, “‘I knew I was sending them to a deadly war, not to a feast.’”
About this section
Book 3, Chapter 13 is part of Tusculan Disputations 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 89 of 189 in the work, which is kept in the Roman tradition.
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