“Haec mē admonent,” inquit Pūblius, “dē carmine ā poētā Catullō scrīptō, cum domum redīsset, postquam in Asiā annum āfuit. Versūs aliquōs fortasse memoriā prōnūntiāre possum:
“Tē laudō, Pūblī,” inquit Cornēlius, “quod tantam operam poētīs nostrīs dās;[6] etsī satis sciō multōs cīvēs nostrōs parvī[7] poētās omnēs facere. Sed nūlla est disciplīna, quā facilius ad hūmānitātem vēram perveniās.”[8]
“Sed mihi nunc abeundum est,” inquit mercātor. “Spērō aliquandō nōs iterum in urbe Rōmā convenīre posse. Iam valēte.”
“Vīve et valē,” inquiunt omnēs, ut mercātor in cymbam dēscendēbat; quī ad terram vectus brevī ē cōnspectū āmissus est inter hominēs quī convēnerant, ut cognōscerent quae nāvēs in portum noctū pervēnissent.
Interim līberī quam[9] longissimē prōspiciēbant, sī forte[10] Onēsimum et Stasimum redeuntēs aspicere possent. Cum autem diū frūstrā exspectāssent, Annam quaerere coepērunt, ratī eī persuādērī posse ut fābulam aliquam nārrāret, quō minus tardē hōrae discēdere vidērentur.
Anna, quae haud procul cum Lūciō cōnsēderat, cum līberōs vīdisset, rīsit et: “Quid nunc, līberī?” inquit. “Nōnne Onēsimus iam rediit?”
- ↑ solūtīs, relaxed; with curīs (abl. with comp.)
- ↑ repōnō, -pōnere, -posuī, -positus, tr., lay down.
- ↑ lār, laris, m., freely, rooftree.
- ↑ dēsīderātus, -a, -um, adj., sing. longed for; abl. of place where in text.
- ↑ adquiēscō, -quiēscere, -quiēvī, intr., rest.
- ↑ quod … dās, for giving.
- ↑ parvī: gen. of value.
- ↑ perveniās: subj. indef. sec. sing.
- ↑ quam: cf. II, 74.
- ↑ forte: cf. V, 112.
