capita haec et culmina rerum esse iubes, nec Roma tibi sine pace probatur, et pax ut placeat facit excellentia Romae, quae motus varios simul et dicione coercet et terrore premit; nec enim spoliata prioris robore virtutis senuit nec saecula sensit, nec tremulis, cum bella vocant, capit arma lacertis, nec tam degeneri venerandis supplicat ore principibus, quam vult praenobilis ille senator orandi arte potens et callida fingere doctus mentitumque gravis personae inducere pondus, ut tragicus cantor ligno tegit ora cavato, grande aliquod cuius per hiatum crimen anhelet.
These Thou dost command to be the heads and highest powers of the world. Rome without peace finds no favour with Thee; and it is the supremacy of Rome, keeping down disorders here or there by the awe of her sovereignty, that secures the peace, so that Thou hast pleasure in it. She has not been robbed of the might of her former valour and grown feeble with age, she has not felt the force of time, and it is with no shaking arm that she takes up her weapons at the call of war. With no such failing voice does she petition her august emperors as that very noble senator would have it, who is such a master of the art of speech, so skilful in inventing clever arguments and putting on an impressive figure to lend them false weight, just as a player in a tragedy covers his face with a piece of hollow-shaped wood to utter some great wickedness with all his breath through its gaping mouth.
final_alignments\Prudentius_Reply_to_Symmachus_Book2.json