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Prosa 2:

P. speaks as if she were Fortuna stating her case. This second powerful female figure is quoted but does not actually appear; hence she remains a creature of P. and is seen through P.'s eyes, not as she might appear if B. encountered her directly. For this reason, we are meant to infer, the portrait is accurate.


postulet: subjunctive of an indirect question.


Quid . . . quam . . . quae: introducing three separate questions. ream: "defendant."


quovis iudice: "with any judge you like." cuiusquam mortalium proprium: "belonging to anyone of mortals," i.e., "the property of any mortal"; predicative. quid horum: "any of these." tua: accusative plural neuter, antecedent of the following quae . sponte: adverb, "voluntarily, freely."


te: object of all the verbs in this sentence. opibus: < ops ; in plural, "wealth." quod . . . facit: almost parenthetical, "[a thing] which makes . . ." nostri: objective genitive. prona: nominative singular, "well-disposed." mei iuris: "in my power."


habes gratiam: "you have thanks [which you owe]." usus: past participle < utor . alienis: "[goods] belonging to someone else"; ablative. prorsus: "entirely." tua: accusative plural neuter.


talium: "of such things [like opes and honores ]."


si . . . forent (= essent ) . . . perdidisses: mixed condition contrary to fact.


Licet . . . proferre: licet with a dative and infinitive often has virtually the force of the concessive subjunctive: "[Although] it is permitted for the sky to bring forth. . ." redimire: "to crown, encircle." frigoribus: < frigus , "chill, cold weather." ius est mari: continues the construction with licet above; "[though] it is lawful for the sea . . ." strato: see on 2M1.9; here, "smooth."


rotam: cf. note on 2P1.19. volubili orbe: "in a whirling circular course."


ea lege, ne, uti cum . . . : "with this provision: that you not think it unjust to descend, when the pattern of my game demands." Either uti or cum is strictly superfluous (some scholars follow a tenth century manuscript and delete cum ) but some doubling of conjunctions with cum is possible in late Latin (LHS, 620).


Croesum: cf. Herodotus 1.86ff; in 1.207.2, Croesus tells Cyrus, "But if you recognize that even you are a man and that you rule over others like yourself, learn this lesson first, that there is a wheel in human affairs and that as it goes around it does not allow the same men always to be fortunate." formidabilem . . . miserandum . . . traditum . . . defensum: modify Croesum in two pairs, while specifying three stages in his career ( miserandum and traditum speak to the same moment).


Paulum: L. Aemilius Paulus (consul in 170 B.C.) defeated the last king of Macedonia, Perseus (genitive: Persi ); Livy and others told of Paulus's sober reflections on the instability of mortal prosperity. se: Paulus; where the subject is impersonal, the reference of the reflexive pronoun is directed by common sense. Quid . . . vertentem?: A ninth-century commentator, Remigius of Auxerre, attributes this definition of tragedy to the early Roman tragic poet Pacuvius; the words indiscreto . . . vertentem may indeed be such a citation, but Pacuvius's works are lost. The definition was much quoted and discussed in the Middle Ages. indiscreto: "indiscriminate."


δύο πίθους, τὸν μὲν ἕνα κακῶν τὸν δεͅ ἕτερον ἑάων : Iliad 24.527f, where Achilles consoles Priam on the death of Hector: "Two jars, the one [full] of evil things, the other of good things." The line is quoted by many philosophers, from Plato in his Republic to various Neoplatonic authors B. might have known. iacere: subject is πίθους , "jars."


mei: objective genitive. tamen ne: Read as tamenne (i.e., tamen + interrogative ne ), "do you still [in spite of all this] . . . ?" (Cf. Gruber) proprio . . . iure: "as [your] own master."

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