Frasi di Publio Papinio Stazio

“Libera dalle improvvise ceneri il tuo volto semidistrutto, o Partenope, e le tue chiome, sepolte sotto il monte scosso dall'aria che soffia al suo interno, poni sul tumulo e sulle reliquie del tuo grande figlio.”

“E già avevi concepito il disegno di piangere in un pietoso canto l'eruzione del Vesuvio e di ripagare coi tuoi lamenti i danni subiti dalla tua patria allorché il Padre svelse dal suolo il monte, lo sollevò sino alle stelle e lo riversò per larga estensione sulle misere città.”

“Pure la nostra sirena vedrai, Partenope, alla quale, condotta di qua dal mare, lo stesso Apollo indicò con la colomba Dionea il fertile suolo. A questa mia sede natale io ti invito. Qui è mite l'inverno e fresca l'estate: qui con le onde sue lente batte il mare tranquillo, ed è la pace sicura e il dolce far niente e una quiete senza fine; e si dorme qui, tanto!”

“Esca omai fuor con le mentite frodi, | figlie del suo timore, il sacerdote | o ch'io farò veder quanto sia vano | il volar degli augelli.”

“La viltade, e il timor fecero i Numi.”

“Oh, mirabile senso di fiducia! Crederà mai la futura generazione degli uomini, quando di nuovo verdeggeranno le messi, quando ormai si copriranno di verdi erbe questi luoghi ora deserti, che sotto i loro piedi giacciono sepolte città e popolazioni e che antichissime campagne sono state da per tutto inghiottite dal mare?”

“Source: Presente anche in Petronio Arbitro.”

“A Nemean steed in terror of the fight bears the hero from the citadel of Pallas, and fills the fields with the huge flying shadow, and the long trail of dust rises upon the plain.”
Illum Palladia sonipes Nemeaeus ab arce devehit arma pavens umbraque inmane volanti implet agros longoque attollit pulvere campum.

“The wood that crowns the peak of Nesis set fast in ocean.”
Silvaque quae fixam pelago Nesida coronat.

“While spear in hand he repels the hounds agape to rend him.”
Tela manu, reicitque canes in vulnus hiantes.

“Hear oh hear, if my prayer be worthy and such as you yourself might whisper to my frenzy. Those I begot (no matter in what bed) did not try to guide me, bereft of sight and sceptre, or sway my grieving with words. Nay behold (ah agony!), in their pride, kings this while by my calamity, they even mock my darkness, impatient of their father's groans. Even to them am I unclean? And does the sire of the gods see it and do naught? Do you at least, my rightful champion, come hither and range all my progeny for punishment. Put on your head this gore-soaked diadem that I tore off with my bloody nails. Spurred by a father's prayers, go against the brothers, go between them, let steel make partnership of blood fly asunder. Queen of Tartarus' pit, grant the wickedness I would fain see.”
Exaudi, si digna precor quaeque ipsa furenti subiceres. orbum visu regnisque carentem non regere aut dictis maerentem flectere adorti, quos genui quocumque toro; quin ecce superbi —pro dolor!—et nostro jamdudum funere reges insultant tenebris gemitusque odere paternos. hisne etiam funestus ego? et videt ista deorum ignavus genitor? tu saltem debita vindex huc ades et totos in poenam ordire nepotes. indue quod madidum tabo diadema cruentis unguibus abripui, votisque instincta paternis i media in fratres, generis consortia ferro dissiliant. da, Tartarei regina barathri, quod cupiam vidisse nefas.

“Whoever worships the gods in good faith, loves their priests too.”
Qui bona fide deos colit amat et sacerdotes.

“You are the grandson of the sky and sea.”
Tu caeli pelagique nepos.

“Spying a young plane tree with long stem and countless branches and summit aspiring to heaven.”
Primaevam visu platanum, cui longa propago innumeraeque manus et iturus in aethera vertex.

“All soil is human birthright.”
Omne homini natale solum.

“Too little mindful of your folk.”
Nimiumque oblite tuorum.

“"The thunderbolt, ay, where the thunderbolt?" Apollo laments.”
Fulmen, io ubi fulmen?' ait. gemit auctor Apollo.

“The claw tips are tamed with gold.”
Auro mansueverat ungues.

“…glad applause and the heaven-flung shout of the populace.”
Laetifici plausus missusque ad sidera vulgi clamor.

“Pleasant is it to the unhappy to speak, and to recall the sorrows of old time.”
Dulce loqui miseris veteresque reducere questus.

“And now it was your purpose to weep Vesuvius' flames in pious melody and spend your tears on the losses of your native place, what time the Father took the mountain from earth and lifted it to the stars only to plunge it down upon the hapless cities far and wide.”
Jamque et flere pio Vesuvina incendia cantu mens erat et gemitum patriis impendere damnis, cum pater exemptum terris ad sidera montem sustulit et late miseras deiecit in urbes.

“Love of life, which departs last from the heart.”
Qui mente novissimus exit, lucis amor.

“And bold Stesichorus and rash Sappho, who feared not Leucas but took the manly leap.”
Stesichorusque ferox saltusque ingressa viriles non formidata temeraria Leucade Sappho.

“Like is he to a wolf that has forced an entrance to a rich fold of sheep, and now, his breast all clotted with foul corruption and his gaping bristly mouth unsightly with blood-stained wool, hies him from the pens, turning this way and that his troubled gaze, should the angry shepherds find out their loss and follow in pursuit, and flees all conscious of his bold deed.”
Ille velut pecoris lupus expugnator opimi, pectora tabenti sanie grauis hirtaque saetis ora cruentata deformis hiantia lana, decedit stabulis huc illuc turbida versans lumina, si duri comperta clade sequantur pastores, magnique fugit non inscius ausi.

“The flowing vineyards of Bacchic Gaurus.”

“Among them pert-faced Elegy draws near.”
Quas inter vultu petulans Elegea propinquat.

“Wonderful but true! Shall future progeny of men believe, when crops grow again and this desert shall once more be green, that cities and peoples are buried below and that an ancestral countryside vanished in a common doom? Nor does the summit yet cease its deadly thrust.”
Mira fides! credetne virum ventura propago, cum segetes iterum, cum iam haec deserta virebunt, infra urbes populosque premi proavitaque tanto rura abiisse mari? necdum letale minari cessat apex.

“So in the dark of night a dense crowd of shepherds wards off a wolf from the steer he has caught.”
Sic densa lupum jam nocte sub atra arcet ab apprenso pastorum turba juvenco.

“Even so a crowd of nestlings, seeing their mother returning through the air afar, would fain go to meet her, and lean gaping from the edge of the nest, and would even now be falling, did she not spread all her motherly bosom to save them, and chide them with loving wings.”
Volucrum sic turba recentum, cum reducem longo prospexit in aere matrem, ire cupit contra summique e margine nidi extat hians, iam iamque cadat, ni pectore toto obstet aperta parens et amantibus increpat alis.

“That day was the day of Tydeus: from him they flee and tremble.”
Tydeos illa dies, illum fugiuntque tremuntque.

“Raise your half-buried countenance from the sudden shower of dust, Parthenope, and place your locks, singed by the mountains breath, on the tomb and body of your great foster son.”
Exsere semirutos subito de pulvere vultus, Parthenope, crinemque adflato monte sepultum pone super tumulos et magni funus alumni.

“Yet all does the sire himself ruthlessly condemn to the murky flames, and bid his own signs of rank be borne withal, if by their loss he may sate his devouring grief.”
Cuncta ignibus atris damnat atrox suaque ipse parens gestamina ferri, si damnis rabidum queat exaturare dolorem.

“As a mariner caught in a winter sea, to whom neither lazy Wain nor Moon with friendly radiance shows directions, stands clueless in mid commotion of land and sea, expecting every moment rocks sunk in treacherous shallows, or foaming cliffs with spiky tops to run upon the rearing prow.”
Ac velut hiberno deprensus navita ponto, cui neque Temo piger neque amico sidere monstrat Luna vias, medio caeli pelagique tumultu stat rationis inops, jam jamque aut saxa malignis expectat summersa vadis aut vertice acuto spumantes scopulos erectae incurrere prorae.

“They wonder in silence and turn pale for the dubious thunderbolt.”
Mirantur taciti et dubio pro fulmine pallent.

“For they say that Aegina was carried by force from her father's stream.”
Namque ferunt raptam patriis Aeginan ab undis.

“The loss of one lion alone drew a tear from mighty Caesar's eye.”
Magni quod Caesaris ora... unius amissi tetigit jactura leonis.