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PRINCIPUM POTENTIA.

THE POWER OF PRINCES

Soldiers gathered before man on a throne.
[Click on image to enlarge]

Magnorum in orbe Principum[1]
Nae magna maiestas, Deűm
Accedit ad potentiam!
Quorum in manu mors, aut salus.
Nam verbulo, vel nutibus
Quod imperant: fit illico.
En Rex homo throno sedet.
Armata circunstat cohors.
Homo sed alter supplicans
Adest praehensus, qui suae
Vitae, necísve pendulam
Procumbit ad sententiam.
O quantum homo praestat homini!
O veritas proverbii!
Ἄνθρωπος ἀνθρώπου θεὸς

The great princes of this world approach the power of gods. O great majesty! Life or death is in their hands, for what they command with little word or nod of head is done immediately. See, then, a king and man: he sits on a throne with an armed battalion around him. But another man, a supplicant, is there, taken and bound, who falls according to the other’s dangling judgement of his life and death. O HOW MUCH POWER DOES ONE MAN HAVE OVER ANOTHER! How true it is, the old proverb: Man’s god to man.

Notes:

1.  Iambic dimeters.

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