[De duobus amantibus Euryalo et Lucretia]

E subden c? julius sandal.?

Lucrecia never fades, she whom I have taken and kissed, while she speaks thus: Nisus, Achates, and Plinius are gathered and surpassed by them, nor was she known by these before she was at home. When the bags were full and the outcome of the business was set forth, he narrates what fear and what joy intervened in his mind, now like one fearing, now like one exulting. But in the midst of the fearing, "Alas," he said, "I have lost my foolish head. He did not warn me of this, when he taught me that I should seek the faith of no one. He used to say that wisdom is an indomitable animal, unfaithful, changeable, cruel, and owed to a thousand passions. I, unmindful of paternal discipline, entrusted my life to a little woman. What if someone had recognized me burdened with grain? C subpua c? julius sandal.? What disgrace, what infamy would have happened to me and my descendants? If he had hidden me as a stranger, he could have despised me as light and insane. But what if he had found me hiding while he was turning the chests? Cruel is the Lex Julia Julian Law against adulterers. It demands from the sorrow of the husband greater penalties than any law has ever granted. Nor is he satisfied with killing with iron, that one with bloody breasts; but let us suppose he had barely spared my life. Would he have thrown me into chains or handed me over to Cesar as infamous? Let us say that I could have escaped his hands, which were unarmed, because a faithful sword was sticking to my side. But he was barely accompanied, and the weapon was hanging from the wall, easy to be captured. In the house, a long slaughter of servants would have soon involved me; the doors would have been closed, then the punishment would have been inflicted upon me. Woe is me, the madman, that no prudence freed me from this danger, but chance! What is chance? that is Nay, rather, the ready wit of Lucrecia. O faithful wisdom, O wise lover, O notable love illustrious to us, why do I not entrust myself to you? Why do I not follow your faith? If a thousand necks were present, I would commit them all to you. You are faithful, you are cautious, you are prudent, you know how to love and protect the loved one. Who could have thought out so quickly a way that would take away the quiet, as you yourself thought? You in this life, I devote myself to the same for you. It is not mine, but yours, the breath that I breathe. It will not be for me a loss of leaders to perish because of you, conquers whom I hold before myself. You have right over my life, you have the power of death. O white breast, O sweet tongue, O sweet eyes. O swift wit. O marble limbs, so full, when will I revisit you, when will I again touch the coral lips, when will I again feel the trembling tongue murmuring in my mouth? May I never retract those nipples." "It is little," says Achates, "what you have seen in this woman. The more she is a woman, the more beautiful she is. The beautiful wife of King Candaules of Lydia is not more beautiful."