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IUSTA ULTIO.
Just revenge
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Raptabat volucres captum pede corvus in auras,
Scorpion, audaci praemia parta gulae.
Ast ille infuso sensim per membra veneno,
Raptorem in stygias compulit ultor aquas.
O risu res digna, aliis qui fata parabat,
Ipse perit, propriis sucubuitque dolis.[1]
A raven was carrying off into the flying winds a scorpion gripped in its talons, a prize won for its audacious gullet. But the scorpion, injecting its poison drop by drop through the raven’s limbs, despatched the predator to the waters of the Styx and so took its revenge. What a laughable thing! The one who was preparing death for others himself perishes and has succumbed to his own wiles.
1. This is a fairly free translation of Anthologia graeca 9.339. See Erasmus, Adagia 58, Cornix scorpium, where the Greek epigram is again translated.
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- song-birds: raven (+ animal with prey) [25F32(RAVEN)(+452)] Search | Browse Iconclass
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- scorpions (+ poison ~ product of animal) [25F715(+92)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Fortune and Misfortune [54F] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Revenge, Requital, Retaliation; 'Vendetta' (Ripa) (+ emblematical representation of concept) [57AA741(+4):52B5111(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Styx (river of Hades); 'Stige' (Ripa) [9.30E+22] Search | Browse Iconclass
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Section: FORTUNA (Fortune, good or bad). View all emblems in this section.
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Fortuna, Virtutem superans.
Fortune triumphant over virtue
Caesareo postquàm superatus milite, vidit
Civili undantem sanguine Pharsaliam:
Iamiam stricturus moribunda in pectora ferrum,
Audaci hos Brutus protulit ore sonos.
Infelix Virtus & solis provida verbis,
Fortunam in rebus cur sequeris dominam?[1]
Brutus, defeated by the Caesarean troops, saw Pharsalia flowing with citizen blood. As he was about to plunge the sword into his dying heart, he spoke these words with undaunted voice: ‘Unhappy virtue, prudent only in word - why do you in reality submit to dominating fortune?’
1. After the assassination of Julius Caesar, Brutus and Cassius became the leaders of the Republican cause. The Caesarean troops, led by Mark Antony and Octavian, Caesar’s heir, defeated them in 42 BC in two battles at Philippi in Macedonia. (Pharsalus in Thessaly was the site of the battle in 48 BC in which Julius Caesar had defeated Pompey in a previous round of the Civil Wars. Pharsalia is here loosely used, as in the Roman poets, to refer to both sites of similar civil conflict.) For Brutus’ suicide after the defeat, see the end of Plutarch’s Life of Brutus.
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