Eloquentia fortitudine prae-
stantior.[1]

Eloquence superior to strength

Arcum laeva tenet, rigidam fert dextera clavam,
Contegit & Nemees corpora nuda leo.
Herculis haec igitur facies? non convenit illud
Quòd vetus & senio tempora cana gerit.
Quid quòd lingua illi levibus traiecta catenis.
Queis fissa facileis allicit aure viros?
Anne quòd Alciden lingua, non robore Galli
Praestantem populis iura dedisse ferunt?
Cedunt arma togae,[2] & quamvis durissima corda
Eloquio pollens ad sua vota trahit.

His left hand holds a bow, his right hand a stout club, the lion of Nemea clothes his bare body. So this is a figure of Hercules. But he is old and his temples grizzled with age - that does not fit. What of the fact that his tongue has light chains passing through it, which are attached to men’s pierced ears, and by them he draws them unresisting along? The reason is surely that the Gauls say that Alceus’ descendant excelled in eloquence rather than might and gave laws to the nations. - Weapons yield to the arts of peace, and even the hardest of hearts the skilled speaker can lead where he will.

Describit pictam hîc imaginem, quae arcum
  Link to an image of this page  [k4v p152]sinistra, dextra verò ferream Clavam tenet,
indutaque pelle Leonis ex Nemea (regio est
Arcadiae, in cuius quadam sylva Hercules in-
gentem occidit Leonem, eius deinde pelle
vestiebatur, ut apud Theocritum lib. 21.) Hercu-
lis igitur est figura, sed non convenit cani-
cies, nec cathena illa: quae sibi lingua haeret:
leviter autem auriculas plurium virorum te-
net. Hoc autem significatur fortissimum Alcidem
(id est, Herculem sic dictum à Graeco nomi-
ne ἀλκὴ quod est robur) iura dedisse & sub-
egisse feroces populos, non ut iuvenis forti-
tudine seu armis, sed instar senis prudentis,
eloquentia sua singulari. Cedunt arma togae,
id est, bella interdum aspera eloquentiae vi &
persuasione docta faciliùs dirimuntur & se-
dantur, toga enim pro pace accipitur, nam
huiusmodi habitu utebantur prisci Romani
praesertim pacis tempore. Disertus denique
poterit vel durissimos etiam homines & fe-
rocissimos eloquentia citius quàm ro-
bore & violentia, in suam senten-
tiam trahere ut de Her-
cule habetur apud
Xenophon-
tem.

REMEDIA IN ARDUO MALA.
in prono esse.

Remedies are hard, damage is easy

Aetheriis postquam deiecit sedibus Aten,
Iupiter[1] heu vexat quàm mala noxa viros.
Evolat haec pedibus celer & pernicibus alis,
Intactumque nihil casibus esse sinit.
Ergo litae proles Iovis hanc comitantur euntem,[2]
Sarcturae quicquid fecerit illa mali.
Sed quia segnipedes strabae[3] lassaeque senecta,
Nil nisi post longo tempore restituunt.[4]

Once Jupiter had cast Ate down from the heavenly abode, what an evil bane thereafter assailed poor man! Ate flies out fleet of foot with fast-beating wing and leaves nothing untouched by mishap. So Jove’s daughters, the Litae, accompany her as she goes, to mend whatever ill she has brought about. But they are slow-footed, poor of sight and weary with age, and so they restore nothing until later, after long passage of time.