Māne abīre dēstināverant; cum autem gustāssent, Anna maesta nūntiāvit Lūcium tam adsiduē flēre, ut plānē morbō labōrāre vidērētur. Quō audītō, Drūsilla: “Heu,” inquit; “semper metuēbam nē quid malī illī parvulō miserō accideret, cum tam raptim terrā marīque iter facerēmus. Quid nunc faciendum est?”
Interim accesserat caupō avārus; quī, ubi haec audīvit, cum hospitēs tam locuplētēs quam diūtissimē apud sē retinēre vellet: “Etiam dī significāre videntur,” inquit, “hodiē vōbīs nōn abeundum esse. Nam modo in viā aliquem fīcōs[1] vēndentem audīvī, quī identidem ‘cauneās’[2] clāmāret.”
“Quō modō istud ad rem pertinet?” inquit Cornēlius.
“Ōmen manifestum est,” inquit caupō. “Nam etsī homō haud distīnctē[3] prōnūntiābat, idem fit quasi[4] ‘cavē nē eās’[5] dīxisset. Melius erit igitur, sī hinc hodiē nōn proficīscēminī.”
“Istīus modī rēs minimī faciō,” inquit Cornēlius; “et properāmus.”
At Drūsilla: “Paulisper, obsecrō, hīc morēmur. Medicum saltem adhibērī[6] volō, priusquam abeāmus.”
“Fīat,” inquit Cornēlius. Tum caupōnī: “Medicus statim arcessātur;[7] et cūrā[8] ut optimus ille sit.”
“Licet,”[9] inquit caupō; “nam haud procul habitat medicus, quō[10] melior etiam Rōmae vix invenīrī potest.”
- ↑ fīcus, -ī, f., fig.
- ↑ caunea, -ae, f.; pl., dried figs (from Caunos in Caria).
- ↑ distīnctē, adv., exactly; cf. Dickens’s ‘fypunnote’ for ‘five-pound note.’
- ↑ idem fit quasi, it amounts to the same thing as if.
- ↑ cavē nē eās: a form of prohibition.
- ↑ adhibeō, -ēre, -uī, -itus, tr., call in.
- ↑ arcessātur, have … summoned.
- ↑ cūrā, see to it.
- ↑ Licet, freely, surely.
- ↑ quō: abl. with comp.
