In translating this passage, Mr. Melmoth has shewn equal judgement. Without attempting to imitate the brevity of the original, which he knew to be impossible, he saw that the characterising features of the passage were ease and vivacity; and these he has very happily transfused into his translation.
“If it were not for the compliments you sent me by Chrysippus, the freedman of Cyrus the architect, I should have imagined I no longer possessed a place in your thoughts. But surely you are become a most intolerable fine gentleman, that you could not bear the fatigue of writing to me, when you had the opportunity of doing so by a man, whom, you know, I look upon as one almost of my own family. Perhaps, however, you may have forgotten the use of your pen: and so much the better, let me tell you, for your clients, as they will lose no more causes by its blunders. But if it is myself only that has escaped your remembrance, I must endeavour to refresh it by a visit, before I am worn out of your memory, beyond all power of recollection.”
Numberless instances of a similar exercise of judgement and of good taste are to be found in Mr. Murphy’s excellent translation of Tacitus. After the death of Germanicus, poisoned, as was suspected, by Piso, with the tacit approbation of Tiberius, the public loudly demanded justice against the supposed murderer, and the cause was solemnly tried in the Roman Senate. Piso, foreseeing a judgement against him, chose to anticipate his fate by a voluntary death. The senate decreed that his family name should be abolished for ever, and that his brother Marcus should be banished from his country for ten years; but in deference to the solicitations of the Empress, they granted a free pardon to Plancina, his widow. Tacitus proceeds to relate, that this sentence of the senate was altered by Tiberius: Multa ex ea sententia mitigata sunt a principe; “ne nomen Pisonis fastis eximeretur, quando M. Antonii, qui bellum patriæ fecisset, Juli Antonii, qui domum Augusti violasset, manerent;” et M. Pisonem ignominiæ exemit, concessitque ei paterna bona; satis firmus, ut sæpe memoravi, adversus pecuniam; et tum pudore absolutæ Plancinæ placabilior. Atque idem cum Valerius Messalinus signum aureum in æde Martis Ultoris, Cæcina Severus aram ultioni statuendam censuissent, prohibuit: ob externas ea victorias sacrari dictitans, domestica mala tristitia operienda. An. l. 3, c. 18.
Thus necessarily amplified, and translated with the ease of original composition, by Mr. Murphy:
“This sentence, in many particulars, was mitigated by Tiberius. The family name, he said, ought not to be abolished, while that of Mark Antony, who appeared in arms against his country, as well as that of Julius Antonius, who by his intrigues dishonoured the house of Augustus, subsisted still, and figured in the Roman annals. Marcus Piso was left in possession of his civil dignities, and his father’s fortune. Avarice, as has been already observed, was not the passion of Tiberius. On this occasion, the disgrace incurred by the partiality shewn to Plancina, softened his temper, and made him the more willing to extend his mercy to the son. Valerius Messalinus moved, that a golden statue might be erected in the temple of Mars the Avenger. An altar to Vengeance was proposed by Cæcina Severus. Both these motions were over-ruled by the Emperor. The principle on which he argued was, that public monuments, however proper in cases of foreign conquest, were not suited to the present juncture. Domestic calamity should be lamented, and as soon as possible consigned to oblivion.”
The conclusion of the same chapter affords an example yet more striking of the same necessary and happy amplification by the translator.
Addiderat Messalinus, Tiberio et Augustæ, et Antoniæ, et Agrippinæ, Drusoque, ob vindictam Germanici grates agendas, omiseratque Claudii mentionem; et Messalinum quidem L. Asprenas senatu coram percunctatus est, an prudens præterîsset? Actum demum nomen Claudii adscriptum est. Mihi quanto plura recentium, seu veterum revolvo, tanto magis ludibria rerum mortalium cunctis in negotiis obversantur; quippe fama, spe, veneratione potius omnes destinabantur imperio, quam quem futurum principem fortuna in occulto tenebat.
“Messalinus added to his motion a vote of thanks to Tiberius and Livia, to Antonia, Agrippina, and Drusus, for their zeal in bringing to justice the enemies of Germanicus. The name of Claudius was not mentioned. Lucius Asprenas desired to know whether that omission was intended. The consequence was, that Claudius was inserted in the vote. Upon an occasion like this, it is impossible not to pause for a moment, to make a reflection that naturally rises out of the subject. When we review what has been doing in the world, is it not evident, that in all transactions, whether of ancient or of modern date, some strange caprice of fortune turns all human wisdom to a jest? In the juncture before us, Claudius figured so little on the stage of public business, that there was scarce a man in Rome, who did not seem, by the voice of fame and the wishes of the people, designed for the sovereign power, rather than the very person, whom fate, in that instant, cherished in obscurity, to make him, at a future period, master of the Roman world.”
So likewise in the following passage, we must admire the judgement of the translator in abandoning all attempt to rival the brevity of the original, since he knew it could not be attained but with the sacrifice both of ease and perspicuity: