Iusta ultio.

Just revenge

Raptabat volucres captum pede corvus in auras
Scorpion, audaci praemia parta gulae.
Ast ille infuso sensim per membra veneno,
aptorem in Stygias compulit ultor aquas.
O risu res digna! aliis qui fata parabat,
Ipse perit, propriis succubuítque 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.

SImile apud Aesopum de corvo cibum quaeritáte,
convertitur in id quod vulgò dici solet, captores
capi, raptores etiam à raptoribus abripi & illaquea-
ri: ut cùm à veneficis falsarii, calumniatores, & id
genus alii tolluntur de medio, vel etiam latrones
à praedonibus spoliantur.

In eum qui truculentia suorum
perierit.

On one who perished through the savagery of his own people.

Delphinem invitum me in littora compulit aestus,
Exemplum infido quanta pericla mari.
  Link to an image of this page  [h7v p126]Nam si nec propriis Neptunus parcit alumnis,
Quis tutos homines navibus esse putet?[1]

I am a dolphin whom the tide drove ashore against my will, an example showing what great dangers there are in the treacherous sea. For if Neptune does not spare even his own nurslings, who can think that men are safe in ships?

Delphinus (piscis maris omnium velocissi-
mus, de quo multa Plinius lib. 9. cap. 8.) in ma-
gna maris tempestate invitus in siccum littus
proiectus fuit. Exemplo esse potest perfidiae
& iniquitatis crudelissimi maris. Si enim Ne-
ptunus, qui Deus maris creditur, propriis suis
alumnis in aquis natis atque nutritis non
parcit, quis homines eorumve naves in mari
tutos ese credet? Ideoque etiam Propertius lib. 1.
exclamat,

Ah pereat quicunque rateis & vela paravit,
Primus & invito gurgite fecit iter.

Mare infinitis aerumnis & calamitatibus
abundare, sentit Plautus in Asinaria, & Te-
rentius in Andria. Nescis, inquit, quid mali
praeterieris, qui nunquam es ingressus mare.