![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quislibetSub idem tempus senatui praebuit imperator occasionem decrendi pecuniam, qua bello diu meditato, diutius vulgato rem Parthicam conflictaret, quamquam rationibus aerarii pridem compositis iamque nostro ad Euphraten milite. Quanto rarius priscum arbitrium rei militaris, tanto laetior senatus, et de muraenis in lacu Camplano coercendis frustra actum est.
At about the same time the commander-in-chief offered the senate the opportunity to decree money by which he might afflict the Parthians with a war long planned and longer rumored, although the account of the treasury had already been settled and our soldiers were now at the Euphrates. Rare as it was to be permitted the ancient authority to decide military matters, the senators were accordingly pleased, and they passed a futile resolution aimed at reducing the number of lampreys in the Champlain lake.
[English below]
Inter quae Naius Robertus censuit ne cibus, cui Gallicum est vocabulum, gentis tam nobis infensae nomen usurparet. Haud enim frustra placitum olim ut quaedam alimenta corporis nomine libertatis appellarentur, ne virtus minueretur recordatione hostium. Non superbam tantum et ignavam gentem, sed, si licentia adsit, ingratam, potestatis avidam, tum et falsam: non enim insontibus foedera praetendi, pacem observare. Fruerentur sane more prisco deditionis, caseis formidulosis: mensas fortium virorum ne foedarent.
Dicebatur contra: hostes non Gallos, sed Pathos esse; morem fuisse maioribus, quotiens inirent bellum, non alium cibum mutare quam illum, ex quo velut ante oculos versarentur armati in acie -- neque cum Gallis de iure belli gerendi bellum fore gessum. "'Liberavimus Germanis' -- haud dubie; quippe non in Britannos adiuverant? 'Res suas prospectant' -- o scelus! socios se ferre, non subiectos aut servos. Optimus quisque gratiam reddit non adsentatione, sed dicendo quae sentiat; si non licentia huic ordini, de nostris consiliis disserant externi." Praevaluit tamen Nai sententia.
At Frutex laetus pulso Sadame imperatorem maius quam principem agens *****
-------------------------------------------
In the midst of this Naius Robertus moved that the food called "Gallic" should not be named after a race so hostile to us. For not at all in vain had it been decided in the past that certain nourishments of the body should be called by the name of liberty, lest virtue be lessened by recollection of the enemy. [The Gauls] were not only an arrogant and cowardly race but, if they were free to act as they pleased, ungrateful, greedy for power, and now deceitful: for it was not innocent men who held out treaties as an excuse, who paid court to peace. Let them enjoy indeed their ancestral custom of surrender, their alarming cheeses: but the tables of brave men must not be sullied.
On the other side it was argued that our enemy was not Gaul, but Parthia; it had been the habit of our ancestors, whenever they went to war, to change only those foods which, so to speak, conjured up visions of an armed foe on a field of battle -- and it was out of the question that they would go to war with the Gauls over the right to go to war. "'But we liberated them from the Germans' -- no doubt; of course they had not aided us against the British. 'They are only looking out for their own interests': a shocking crime indeed, to behave as allies and not subjects or slaves! The best men render gratitude not by servile agreement, but by saying what they think, and if we of the senate cannot take such liberties, let foreigners debate our policies." Nonetheless the motion of Naius was carried.
Meanwhile Frutex, pleased at the expulsion of Sadames, played the general rather than the statesman, *****
At about the same time the commander-in-chief offered the senate the opportunity to decree money by which he might afflict the Parthians with a war long planned and longer rumored, although the account of the treasury had already been settled and our soldiers were now at the Euphrates. Rare as it was to be permitted the ancient authority to decide military matters, the senators were accordingly pleased, and they passed a futile resolution aimed at reducing the number of lampreys in the Champlain lake.
[English below]
Inter quae Naius Robertus censuit ne cibus, cui Gallicum est vocabulum, gentis tam nobis infensae nomen usurparet. Haud enim frustra placitum olim ut quaedam alimenta corporis nomine libertatis appellarentur, ne virtus minueretur recordatione hostium. Non superbam tantum et ignavam gentem, sed, si licentia adsit, ingratam, potestatis avidam, tum et falsam: non enim insontibus foedera praetendi, pacem observare. Fruerentur sane more prisco deditionis, caseis formidulosis: mensas fortium virorum ne foedarent.
Dicebatur contra: hostes non Gallos, sed Pathos esse; morem fuisse maioribus, quotiens inirent bellum, non alium cibum mutare quam illum, ex quo velut ante oculos versarentur armati in acie -- neque cum Gallis de iure belli gerendi bellum fore gessum. "'Liberavimus Germanis' -- haud dubie; quippe non in Britannos adiuverant? 'Res suas prospectant' -- o scelus! socios se ferre, non subiectos aut servos. Optimus quisque gratiam reddit non adsentatione, sed dicendo quae sentiat; si non licentia huic ordini, de nostris consiliis disserant externi." Praevaluit tamen Nai sententia.
At Frutex laetus pulso Sadame imperatorem maius quam principem agens *****
-------------------------------------------
In the midst of this Naius Robertus moved that the food called "Gallic" should not be named after a race so hostile to us. For not at all in vain had it been decided in the past that certain nourishments of the body should be called by the name of liberty, lest virtue be lessened by recollection of the enemy. [The Gauls] were not only an arrogant and cowardly race but, if they were free to act as they pleased, ungrateful, greedy for power, and now deceitful: for it was not innocent men who held out treaties as an excuse, who paid court to peace. Let them enjoy indeed their ancestral custom of surrender, their alarming cheeses: but the tables of brave men must not be sullied.
On the other side it was argued that our enemy was not Gaul, but Parthia; it had been the habit of our ancestors, whenever they went to war, to change only those foods which, so to speak, conjured up visions of an armed foe on a field of battle -- and it was out of the question that they would go to war with the Gauls over the right to go to war. "'But we liberated them from the Germans' -- no doubt; of course they had not aided us against the British. 'They are only looking out for their own interests': a shocking crime indeed, to behave as allies and not subjects or slaves! The best men render gratitude not by servile agreement, but by saying what they think, and if we of the senate cannot take such liberties, let foreigners debate our policies." Nonetheless the motion of Naius was carried.
Meanwhile Frutex, pleased at the expulsion of Sadames, played the general rather than the statesman, *****
