The Life of Cnaeus Julius Agricola |
Translator: Alfred John Church
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| 45 |
Non vidit Agricola obsessam curiam et clausum armis senatum et eadem strage tot consularium caedes , tot nobilissimarum feminarum exilia et fugas . una adhuc victoria Carus Mettius censebatur , et intra Albanam arcem sententia Messalini strepebat , et Massa Baebius iam tum reus erat : mox nostrae duxere Helvidium in carcerem manus ; nos Maurici Rusticique visus foedavit ; nos innocenti sanguine Senecio perfudit . Nero tamen subtraxit oculos suos iussitque scelera , non spectavit : praecipua sub Domitiano miseriarum pars erat videre et aspici , cum suspiria nostra subscriberentur , cum denotandis tot hominum palloribus sufficeret saevus ille vultus et rubor , quo se contra pudorem muniebat . Tu vero felix , Agricola , non vitae tantum claritate , sed etiam opportunitate mortis . ut perhibent qui interfuere novissimis sermonibus tuis , constans et libens fatum excepisti , tamquam pro virili portione innocentiam principi donares . sed mihi filiaeque eius praeter acerbitatem parentis erepti auget maestitiam , quod adsidere valetudini , fovere deficientem , satiari vultu complexuque non contigit . excepissemus certe mandata vocesque , quas penitus animo figeremus . noster hic dolor , nostrum vulnus , nobis tam longae absentiae condicione ante quadriennium amissus est . omnia sine dubio , optime parentum , adsidente amantissima uxore superfuere honori tuo : paucioribus tamen lacrimis comploratus es , et novissima in luce desideravere aliquid oculi tui .
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Agricola did not see the senate-house besieged, or the senate hemmed in by armed men, or so many of our consulars falling at one single massacre, or so many of Rome's noblest ladies exiles and fugitives. Carus Metius had as yet the distinction of but one victory, and the noisy counsels of Messalinus were not heard beyond the walls of Alba, and Massa Bæbius was then answering for his life. It was not long before our hands dragged Helvidius to prison, before we gazed on the dying looks of Manricus and Rusticus, before we were steeped in Senecio's innocent blood. Even Nero turned his eyes away, and did not gaze upon the atrocities which he ordered; with Domitian it was the chief part of our miseries to see and to be seen, to know that our sighs were being recorded, to have, ever ready to note the pallid looks of so many faces, that savage countenance reddened with the hue with which he defied shame. Thou wast indeed fortunate, Agricola, not only in the splendour of thy life, but in the opportune moment of thy death. Thou submittedst to thy fate, so they tell us who were present to hear thy last words, with courage and cheerfulness, seeming to be doing all thou couldst to give thine Emperor full acquittal. As for me and thy daughter, besides all the bitterness of a father's loss, it increases our sorrow that it was not permitted us to watch over thy failing health, to comfort thy weakness, to satisfy ourselves with those looks, those embraces. Assuredly we should have received some precepts, some utterances to fix in our inmost hearts. This is the bitterness of our sorrow, this the smart of our wound, that from the circumstance of so long an absence thou wast lost to us four years before. Doubtless, best of fathers, with that most loving wife at thy side, all the dues of affection were abundantly paid thee, yet with too few tears thou wast laid to thy rest, and in the light of thy last day there was something for which thine eyes longed in vain. |
| 46 |
Si quis piorum manibus locus , si , ut sapientibus placet , non cum corpore extinguuntur magnae animae , placide quiescas , nosque domum tuam ab infirmo desiderio et muliebribus lamentis ad contemplationem virtutum tuarum voces , quas neque lugeri neque plangi fas est . admiratione te potius et immortalibus laudibus et , si natura suppeditet , similitudine colamus : is verus honos , ea coniunctissimi cuiusque pietas . id filiae quoque uxorique praeceperim , sic patris , sic mariti memoriam venerari , ut omnia facta dictaque eius secum revolvant , formamque ac figuram animi magis quam corporis complectantur , non quia intercedendum putem imaginibus quae marmore aut aere finguntur , sed , ut vultus hominum , ita simulacra vultus imbecilla ac mortalia sunt , forma mentis aeterna , quam tenere et exprimere non per alienam materiam et artem , sed tuis ipse moribus possis . quidquid ex Agricola amavimus , quidquid mirati sumus , manet mansurumque est in animis hominum in aeternitate temporum , fama rerum ; nam multos veterum velut inglorios et ignobilis oblivio obruit : Agricola posteritati narratus et traditus superstes erit .
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If there is any dwelling-place for the spirits of the just; if, as the wise believe, noble souls do not perish with the body, rest thou in peace; and call us, thy family, from weak regrets and womanish laments to the contemplation of thy virtues, for which we must not weep nor beat the breast. Let us honour thee not so much with transitory praises as with our reverence, and, if our powers permit us, with our emulation. That will be true respect, that the true affection of thy nearest kin. This, too, is what I would enjoin on daughter and wife, to honour the memory of that father, that husband, by pondering in their hearts all his words and acts, by cherishing the features and lineaments of his character rather than those of his person. It is not that I would forbid the likenesses which are wrought in marble or in bronze; but as the faces of men, so all similitudes of the face are weak and perishable things, while the fashion of the soul is everlasting, such as may be expressed not in some foreign substance, or by the help of art, but in our own lives. Whatever we loved, whatever we admired in Agricola, survives, and will survive in the hearts of men, in the succession of the ages, in the fame that waits on noble deeds. Over many indeed, of those who have gone before, as over the inglorious and ignoble, the waves of oblivion will roll; Agricola, made known to posterity by history and tradition, will live for ever. |