Brutus ou Des orateurs illustres Passage 218

Magna haec immemoris ingeni signa; sed nihil turpius quam quod etiam in scriptis obliviscebatur quid paulo ante posuisset, ut in eo libro, ubi se exeuntem e senatu et cum Pansa nostro et cum Curione filio conloquentem facit [cum senatum Caesar consul habuisset ] omnisque ille sermo ductus est e percontatione fili quid in senatu esset actum. In quo multis verbis cum inveheretur in Caesarem Curio disputatioque esset inter eos, ut est consuetudo dialogorum , cum sermo esset institutus senatu misso , quem senatum Caesar consul habuisset, reprendit eas res quas idem Caesar anno post et deinceps reliquis annis administravisset in Gallia.

These are great signs of a forgetful intellect, but nothing is more shameful than that even in writing he forgot what he had stated shortly before. In one book he represents himself leaving the Senate and conversing with our Pansa and with his son Curio [after Caesar as consul had held a meeting of the Senate]. The entire conversation proceeds from his son's inquiry about what had been done in the Senate. In it Curio attacks Caesar at length and a debate develops between them, as is customary in dialogues. Yet although the conversation was placed after the dismissal of a meeting of the Senate held by Caesar as consul, he censures actions which that same Caesar undertook in Gaul a year later and in subsequent years.

Ce sont là de grands signes d’un esprit sans mémoire; mais rien n’est plus honteux que d’oublier, jusque dans ses écrits, ce que l’on a établi peu auparavant. Ainsi, dans le livre où il se représente sortant du Sénat et s’entretenant avec notre Pansa et avec son fils Curio [après que César, consul, eut réuni le Sénat], toute la conversation part des questions du fils sur ce qui s’était passé au Sénat. Curio y attaque longuement César, et une discussion s’engage entre eux, selon la coutume des dialogues. Or, bien que l’entretien soit placé après la levée d’une séance tenue sous le consulat de César, il y blâme les actes que ce même César n’accomplit en Gaule que l’année suivante et au cours des années ultérieures.