Frasi di Silio Italico

“Rompi gl'indugi: poco dura il grande favore della fortuna.”

“Così, dapprima dilettati, tentiamo l'ascesa delle torreggianti Alpi, ci eleviamo al di sopra delle valli, e crediamo di calcare il cielo; già paiono oltrepassate le nevi eterne, e le prime nubi e montagne sembrano le ultime; ma raggiunte queste, ci accorgiamo con spavento delle fatiche che s'aggiungono in una via più lunga, la prospettiva che si dilata stanca i nostri occhi vaganti, cime s'affacciano oltre cime e dietro le Alpi sorgono altre Alpi.”

“Peace is the best thing that man may know; peace alone is better than a thousand triumphs”
Pax optima rerum quas homini novisse datum est, pax una triumphis innumeris potior, pax custodire salutem et civis aequare potens revocetur in arcis tandem Sidonias, et fama fugetur ab urbe perfidiae, Phoenissa, tua.

“He took his way to the abode of sacred Loyalty, seeking to discover her hidden purpose. It chanced that the goddess, who loves solitude, was then in a distant region of heaven, pondering in her heart the high concerns of the gods. Then he who gave peace to Nemea accosted her thus with reverence: "Goddess more ancient than Jupiter, glory of gods and men, without whom neither sea nor land finds peace, sister of Justice…"”
Ad limina sanctae contendit Fidei secretaque pectora temptat. arcanis dea laeta polo tum forte remoto caelicolum magnas uoluebat conscia curas. quam tali adloquitur Nemeae pacator honore: 'Ante Iouem generata, decus diuumque hominumque, qua sine non tellus pacem, non aequora norunt, iustitiae consors...'

“Men leave arms and legs behind, severed by the frost, and the cruel cold cuts off the limbs already broken.”
Abscisa relincunt membra gelu, fractosque asper rigor amputat artus.

“Victorious Carthage measures the downfall of Rome by all the heap of gold that was torn from the left hands of the slain.”
Congesto laevae quodcumque avellitur auro metitur Latias victrix Carthago ruinas.

“War calls for strategy: valour is less praiseworthy in a commander.”
Bellandum est astu; leuior laus in duce dextrae.

“So, when a pebble breaks the surface of a motionless pool, in its first movements it forms tiny rings; and next, while the water glints and shimmers under the growing force, it swells the number of the circles over the rounding pond, until at last one extended circle reaches with wide-spreading compass from bank to bank.”
Sic, ubi perrupit stagnantem calculus undam, exiguos format per prima volumina gyros, mox tremulum uibrans motu gliscente liquorem multiplicat crebros sinuati gurgitis orbes, donec postremo laxatis circulus oris contingat geminas patulo curuamine ripas.

“He was ever first to undertake hardship.”
Primus sumpsisse laborem.

“Even so a shepherd, seeking safety for his flock, lures the wolves at night by the bleating of a tethered lamb into the pitfall masked by a slender covering of leafage.”
Haud secus ac stabulis procurans otia pastor in foveam parco tectam velamine frondis ducit nocte lupos positae balatibus agnae.

“Then the shouting of the sailors, which had long been rising from the open sea, filled all the shore with its sound; and, when the rowers all together brought the oars back sharply to their breasts, the sea foamed under the stroke of a hundred blades.”
At patulo surgens iam dudum ex aequore late nauticus implebat resonantia litora clamor, et simul adductis percussa ad pectora tonsis centeno fractus spumabat verbere pontus.

“My attendants are Honour and Praise, Renown and Glory with joyful countenance, and Victory with snow-white wings like mine.”
Mecum Honor ac Laudes et laeto Gloria vultu et Decus ac niveis Victoria concolor alis.

“He had the folly to believe that to be feared is glory.”
Metui demens credebat honorem.

“Here I begin the war by which the fame of the Aeneadae was raised to heaven and proud Carthage submitted to the rule of Italy.”
Ordior arma, quibus caelo se gloria tollit Aeneadum, patiturque ferox Oenotria iura Carthago.

“That crystal river keeps its pools of blue water free from all stain above its shallow bed, and slowly draws along its fair stream of greenish hue. One would scarce believe it was moving; so softly along its shady banks, while the birds sing sweet in rivalry, it leads along in a shining flood its waters that tempt to sleep.”
Caeruleas Ticinus aquas et stagna uadoso perspicuus seruat turbari nescia fundo ac nitidum uiridi lente trahit amne liquorem. uix credas labi: ripis tam mitis opacis argutos inter uolucrum certamine cantus somniferam ducit lucenti gurgite lympham.

“Huge as the snakes that armed the Giants when they stormed heaven, or as the hydra that wearied Hercules by the waters of Lerna, or as Juno's snake that guarded the boughs with golden foliage.”
Quantis armati caelum petiere Gigantes anguibus, aut quantus Lernae lassavit in undis Amphitryoniaden serpens, qualisque comantis auro servauit ramos Junonius anguis.

“Make haste! The flood-tide of Fortune soon ebbs.”

“Groundless superstition ill becomes an army; Valour is the only deity that rules in the warrior's breast.”
Deforme sub armis vana superstitio est: dea sola in pectore Virtus bellantum viget.

“Altars seldom smoke in prosperous times.”
Rarae fumant felicibus arae.

“Nowhere do men remain loyal for long when Fortune proves unstable.”
Stat nulla diu mortalibus usquam, Fortuna titubante, fides.

“When Hannibal's eyes were sated with the picture of all that valour, he saw next a marvellous sight—the sea suddenly flung upon the land with the mass of the rising deep, and no encircling shores, and the fields inundated by the invading waters. For, where Nereus rolls forth from his blue caverns and churns up the waters of Neptune from the bottom, the sea rushes forward in flood, and Ocean, opening his hidden springs, rushes on with furious waves. Then the water, as if stirred to the depths by the fierce trident, strives to cover the land with the swollen sea. But soon the water turns and glides back with ebbing tide; and then the ships, robbed of the sea, are stranded, and the sailors, lying on their benches, await the waters' return. It is the Moon that stirs this realm of wandering Cymothoe and troubles the deep; the Moon, driving her chariot through the sky, draws the sea this way and that, and Tethys follows with ebb and flow.”
Postquam oculos varia implevit virtutis imago, mira dehinc cernit: surgentis mole profundi injectum terris subitum mare nullaque circa litora et infuso stagnantis aequore campos. nam qua caeruleis Nereus evoluitur antris atque imo freta contorquet Neptunia fundo, proruptum exundat pelagus, caecosque relaxans Oceanus fontis torrentibus ingruit undis. tum uada, ceu saevo penitus permota tridenti, luctantur terris tumefactum imponere pontum. mox remeat gurges tractoque relabitur aestu, ac ratis erepto campis deserta profundo, et fusi transtris expectant aequora nautae. Cymothoes ea regna vagae pelagique labores Luna mouet, Luna, immissis per caerula bigis, fertque refertque fretum, sequiturque reciproca Tethys.

“The appearance of [Virtue] was far different: her hair, seeking no borrowed charm from ordered locks, grew freely above her forehead; her eyes were steady; in face and gait she was more like a man; she showed a cheerful modesty; and her tall stature was set off by the snow-white robe she wore.”
[Virtutis] dispar habitus: frons hirta nec umquam composita mutata coma, stans vultus, et ore incessuque viro propior laetique pudoris celsa umeros niveae fulgebat stamine pallae.

“And their manliness is slowly sapped and weakened by the seductive poison of indolence.”
Blandoque veneno desidiae virtus paulatim evicta senescit.

“Like a trembling hind pursued by a Hyrcanian tigress, or like a pigeon that checks her flight when she sees a hawk in the sky, or like a hare that dives into the thicket at sight of the eagle hovering with outstretched wings in the cloudless sky.”
...ceu tigride cerva Hyrcana cum pressa tremit, vel territa pennas colligit accipitrem cernens in nube columba, aut dumis subit, albenti si sensit in aethra librantem nisus aquilam, lepus.

“Inaction is safety in peril.”
Aegris nil mouisse salus rebus.

“She gave way under the sudden weight, the sea rushed in, and the Io sank beneath the wave. Shields and helmets float on the water, images of tutelary gods and javelins with useless points.”
Subito cum pondere victus, insiliente mari, summergitur alveus undis. scuta virum cristaeque et inerti spicula ferro tutelaeque deum fluitant.

“Mantua, the home of the Muses, raised to the skies by immortal verse, and a match for the lyre of Homer.”
Mantua, Musarum domus atque ad sidera cantu evecta Aonio et Smyrnaeis aemula plectris.

“Doubt not a woman's hardihood; no danger is too great for wedded love to face.”
Crede vigori femineo. Castum haud superat labor ullus amorem.

“Manhood is tested by trial, and valour climbs unterrified the rocky path and difficult ascent that leads to glory.”
Explorant adversa viros, perque aspera duro nititur ad laudem virtus interrita clivo.

“The higher they climbed in their struggle to reach the top, the harder grew their toil. When one height had been mastered, a second opens and springs up before their aching sight.”
Quoque magis subiere iugo atque euadere nisi erexere gradum, crescit labor. ardua supra sese aperit fessis et nascitur altera moles.

“And Poverty, an unsightly plague that leads men to crime; Error, with staggering gait, and Discord that delights to confound sea with sky.”
Et deforme malum ac sceleri proclivis Egestas Errorque infido gressu, et Discordia gaudens permiscere fretum caelo.