ēgisse, cum interim nihil aliud agere quam ut muscās captāret[1] ac stilō transfīgeret acūtō. Ōlim, cum quīdam rogāsset, num quis cum imperātōre intus esset, haud absurdē[2] respōnsum est: ‘Nē musca quidem.’“
“Quāle mōnstrum hominis!” inquit Cornēlia. “Tālia perinvīta audiō. Dēsine, obsecrō, plūra eius modī dīcere.”
“Ūnum modo addam,” inquit Pūblius: “Quīdam poēta adeō Domitiānum ōderat,[3] ut eum ‘calvum Nerōnem’ appellāret.”
At Sextus: “Quid est,[4] obsecrō, cūr plērīque calvitiem tantopere ōderint? Nam animadvertī paene omnēs calvōs rāritātis capillī suī pudēre.”
“Poēta Aeschylus saltem,” inquit Pūblius, “causam iūstam[5] habuit, cūr eum calvitiēī suae paenitēret.”[6]
“Quō modō?” inquit Sextus. “Haec, sīs, nōbīs nārrā.”
“Memoriae[7] trāditum est,” inquit frāter, “illum ōlim, in Siciliā morantem, exīsse ex moenibus urbis et in locō aprīcō[8] sēdisse. Tum aquila, testūdinem rōstrō[9] ferēns, dēcepta splendōre[10] poētae capitis (nam erat capillō vacuum), lapidem esse rata, in id testūdinem immīsit, ut, testā[11] frāctā, carne vēscerētur. Quō cāsū poēta ēgregius occīsus est.”
“Vah!” inquit Sextus. “Exitum quam mīrandum! Sed haec mē admonent dē fābulā, quam Anna nūper nobīs nārrāvit.”
“Quid locūta est?” inquit Pūblius.
At Sextus: “Dīxit quondam gentis suae vātem calvum fuisse, quem puerī in viā cōnsectārī solitī essent, cum cantārent : ‘Abī in malam rem,[12] calve; abī in malam rem, calve.’ Postrēmō vātēs,
- ↑ quam ut … captāret, than catch.
- ↑ absurdē, adv., without point.
- ↑ ōderat: plup. of this verb stands for any past tense.
- ↑ Quid est, What is the reason?
- ↑ iūstus, -a, -um, adj., good.
- ↑ paenitēret: impers.; (with eum) trans., ‘regret.’
- ↑ Memoriae: dat.
- ↑ aprīcus, -a, -um, adj., sunny.
- ↑ rōstrō: abl. of means; trans. ‘in.’
- ↑ splendor, -ōris, m., resplendence.
- ↑ testa, -ae, f., shell.
- ↑ Abī in malam rem: a common form of malediction.
