My fame has long been gathered in and where it is ’tis in safe custody; am I to suffer its being put to the hazard? Full well do I realize that habit is a stronger force than nature, nor am I ignorant of the rapidity with which we forget an art that we have ceased to exercise. The whip of an unpractised charioteer is powerless to urge on his horses; the hand that is unaccustomed thereto cannot bend the bow. And yet it were unjust, I admit, to refuse aught to Justice. Thou first didst draw man from his woodland cave and free the human race from its foul manner of life. Thanks to thee we practise law and have put off the temper of wild beasts. Whosoever has drunk of thee with pure heart will rush fearless through flames, will sail the wintry seas, and overcome unarmed the densest company of foemen. Justice is to the just as rain to temper even the heat of Ethiopia, a breath of spring to journey with him across the deserts of Scythia.”
So spake he and took from the goddess’ hand the four reins that lay stretched along the huge pole of Justice’s car. The first harnesses the rivers Po and Tiber and Italy with all her glittering towns; the second guides Numidia and Carthage; the third runs out across the land of Illyria; the last holds Sardinia, Corsica, three-cornered Sicily and the coasts beaten by the Tyrrhenian wave or that echo to the Ionian. The splendour and magnitude of the undertaking troubled thee not one whit; but as the lofty summit of Olympus, far removed from the winds and tempests of the lower air, its eternal bright serene untroubled by any cloud, is lifted above the rain storms and hears the hurricane rushing
sub pedibus nimbos et rauca tonitrua calcat: 210 sic patiens animus per tanta negotia liber emergit similisque sui, iustique tenorem flectere non odium cogit, non gratia suadet. nam spretas quis opes intactaque pectora lucro commemoret? fuerint aliis haec forte decora: 215 nulla potest laus esse tibi, quae crimina purget. servat inoffensam divina modestia vocem: temperiem servant oculi; nec lumina fervor asperat aut rabidas suffundit sanguine venas, nullaque mutati tempestas proditur oris. 220 quin etiam sontes expulsa corrigis ira et placidus delicta domas; nec dentibus umquam instrepis horrendum, fremitu nec verbera poscis. Qui fruitur poena, ferus est, legumque videtur vindictam praestare sibi; cum viscera felle 225 canduerint, ardet stimulis ferturque nocendi prodigus, ignarus causae: dis proximus ille, quem ratio, non ira movet, qui facta rependens consilio punire potest. mucrone cruento se iactent alii, studeant feritate timeri 230 addictoque hominum cumulent aeraria censu. lene fluit Nilus, sed cunctis amnibus extat utilior nullo confessus murmure vires; acrior ac rapidus tacitas praetermeat ingens Danuvius ripas; eadem dementia sani 235 gurgitis inmensum deducit in ostia Gangen. torrentes inmane fremant lassisque minentur