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NON VULGANDA CON
SILIA.
Keep counsels secret.
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Limine quod caeco obscura & caligine monstrum[1],
Gnosiacis clausit Daedalus in latebris.
Depictum Romana phalanx in praelia gestat,
Semiviroque nitent signa superba[2] bove,
Nosque monent debere ducum secreta[3] latere,
Consilia auctori cognita techna[4] nocet.
The monster that Daedalus imprisoned in its Cretan lair, with hidden entrance and obscuring darkness, the Roman phalanx carries painted into battle; the proud standards flash with the half-man bull. These remind us that the secret plans of leaders must stay hid. A ruse once known brings harm to its author.
1. ‘The monster that Daedalus imprisoned’, i.e. the Minotaur, the half-man, half-bull monster kept in the famous Labyrinth at Knossos, which Daedalus, the Athenian master-craftsman, constructed for King Minos.
2. According to Pliny, Natural History 10.5.16, before the second consulship of Marius (104 BC) Roman standards bore variously eagles, wolves, minotaurs, horses and boars. Marius made the eagle universal.
3. Cf. Festus, De verborum significatu (135 Lindsay): the Minotaur appears among the military standards, because the plans of leaders should be no less concealed than was the Minotaur’s lair, the Labyrinth.
4. Corrected from the Errata
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POTENTISSIMUS AFFECTUS
amor.
Love, the all-powerful emotion
Emblema 104.
Aspice ut invictus vires auriga leonis,
Expressus gemma pusio vincat Amor.
Utque manu hac scuticam tenet, hac ut flectit habenas,
Utque est in pueri plurimus ore decor.
Dira lues procul esto: feram qui vincere talem
Est potis, à nobis temperet anne manus?[1]
Look - here’s Love the lad, carved on a gem. He rides triumphant in his chariot and subdues the lion’s might. In one hand he holds a lash, with the other he guides the reins, and on his countenance rests the loveliness of youth. - Dread pestilence keep far away. Would one who has the power to conquer such a beast keep his hands from us?
1. This is a translation of Anthologia graeca 9.221, an epigram about a seal carved with a representation of Eros driving a chariot drawn by lions.
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