Consolation à Marcia Chapitre 22

Querens, Marcia, non tam diu filium tuum vixisse quam potuisset ? Unde enim scis an diutius illi expedient vivere ? an illi hac morte consultum sit ? Quemquam invenire hodie potes, cuius res tam bene positae sunt fundataeque, ut nihil illi procedent! tempore timendum sit ? Labant humana ac fluunt neque ulla pars vitae nostrae tam obnoxia aut tenera est quam quae maxime placet, ideoque felicissimis optanda mors est, quia in tanta inconstantia turbaque rerum nihil nisi quod praeterit certum est. Quis tibi recipit illud fili tui pulcherrimum corpus et summa pudoris custodia inter luxuriosae urbis oculos con- servatum potuisse tot morbos ita evadere, ut ad se- nectutem inlaesum perferret formae decus ? Cogita animi mille labes ; neque enim recta ingenia qualem in adulescentia spem sui fecerant usque in senectutem pertulerunt, sed interversa plerumque sunt ; aut sera eoque foedior luxuria invasit coepitque dehonestare speciosa principia, aut in popinam ventremque pro- cubuerunt toti summaque illis curarum fuit, quid essent, quid biberent. Adice incendia, ruinas, naufragia lacerationesque medicorum ossa vivis legentium et totas in viscera manus demittentium et non simplici cum dolore pudenda curantium ; post haec exilium (non fuit innocentior filius tuus quam Rutilius), carcerem (non fuit sapientior quam Socrates), voluntario vulnere transfixum pectus (non fuit sanctior quam Cato). Cum ista perspexeris, scies optime cum is agi, quos natura, quia illos hoc manebat vitae stipendium, cito in tutum recepit. Nihil est tam fallax quam vita humana, nihil tam insidiosum ; non me hercules quis- quam illam accepisset, nisi daretur inscientibus. Ita- que si felicissimum est non nasci, proximum est, puto, brevi aetate defunctos cito in integrum restitui. Propone illud acerbissimum tibi tempus, quo Seianus patrem tuum clienti suo Satrio Secundo con- giarium dedit. Irascebatur illi ob unum aut alterum liberius dictum, quod tacitus ferre non potuerat Seianum in cervices nostras ne imponi quidem, sed escendere. Decernebatur illi statua in Pompei theatro ponenda, quod exustum Caesar reficiebat ; exclamavit Cordus tunc vere theatrum perire. Quid ergo ? Non rumperetur supra cineres Cn. Pompei constitui Seianum et in monimentis maximi impera- toris consecrari perfidum militem ? Consecratur subscriptio, et acerrimi canes, quos ille ut sibi uni mansuetos, omnibus feros haberet, sanguine humano pascebat, circumlatrare hominem etiam illum iam pedica captum incipiunt. Quid faceret ? Si vivere vellet, Seianus rogandus erat, si mori, filia, uterque inexorabilis. Constituit filiam fallere. Usus itaque balineo, quo plus virium poneret, in cubiculum se quasi gustaturus contulit et dimissis pueris quaedam per fenestram, ut videretur edisse, proiecit ; a cena deinde, quasi iam satis in cubiculo edisset, abstinuit. Altero quoque die et tertio idem fecit ; quartus ipsa infirmitate corporis faciebat indicium. Complexus itaque te: " Carissima," inquit, " filia et hoc unum tota celata vita, iter mortis ingressus sum et iam medium fere teneo; revocare me nec debes nec potes." Atque ita iussit lumen omne praecludi et se in tene- bras condidit. Cognito consilio eius publica voluptas erat, quod e faucibus avidissimorum luporum educeretur praeda. Accusatores auctore Seiano adeunt consulum tribunalia,queruntur mori Cordum, ut interpellarent quod coegerant ; adeo illis Cordus videbatur effugere. Magna res erat in quaestione, an mortis ius rei perderent ; dum deliberatur, dum accusatores iterum adeunt, ille se absolverat. Videsne, Marcia, quantae iniquorum temporum vices ex inopi- nato ingruant ? Fles, quod alicui tuorum mori necesse fuit ? Paene non licuit !

Do you complain, Marcia, that your son did not live as long as he might have done? How do you know that it was to his advantage to live longer? whether his interest was not served by this death? Whom can you find at the present time whose fortunes are grounded on such sure foundations that they have nothing to fear in the future? All human affairs are evanescent and perishable, nor is any part of our life so frail and liable to accident as that which we especially enjoy. We ought, therefore, to pray for death when our fortune is at its best, because so great is the uncertainty and turmoil in which we live, that we can be sure of nothing but what is past. Think of your son’s handsome person, which you had guarded in perfect purity among all the temptations of a voluptuous capital. Who could have undertaken to keep that clear of all diseases, so that it might preserve its beauty of form unimpaired even to old age? Think of the many taints of the mind: for fine dispositions do not always continue to their life’s end to make good the promise of their youth, but have often broken down: either extravagance, all the more shameful for being indulged in late in life, takes possession of men and makes their well-begun lives end in disgrace, or they devote their entire thoughts to the eating-house and the belly, and they become interested in nothing save what they shall eat and what they shall drink. Add to this conflagrations, falling houses, shipwrecks, the agonizing operations of surgeons, who cut pieces of bone out of men’s living bodies, plunge their whole hands into their entrails, and inflict more than one kind of pain to effect the cure of shameful diseases. After these comes exile; your son was not more innocent than Rutilius: imprisonment; he was not wiser than Socrates: the piercing of one’s breast by a self-inflicted wound; he was not of holier life than Cato. When you look at these examples, you will perceive that nature deals very kindly with those whom she puts speedily in a place of safety because there awaited them the payment of some such price as this for their lives. Nothing is so deceptive, nothing is so treacherous as human life; by Hercules, were it not given to men before they could form an opinion, no one would take it. Not to be born, therefore, is the happiest lot of all, and the nearest thing to this, I imagine, is that we should soon finish our strife here and be restored again to our former rest. Recall to your mind that time, so painful to you, during which Sejanus handed over your father as a present to his client Satrius Secundus: he was angry with him about something or other which he had said with too great freedom, because he was not able to keep silence and see Sejanus climbing up to take his seat upon our necks, which would have been bad enough had he been placed there by his master. He was decreed the honour of a statue, to be set up in the theatre of Pompeius, which had been burned down and was being restored by Caesar. Cordus exclaimed that “Now the theatre was really destroyed.” What then? should he not burst with spite at a Sejanus being set up over the ashes of Gnaeus Pompeius, at a faithless soldier being commemorated within the memorial of a consummate commander? The inscription was put up: and those keen-scented hounds whom Sejanus used to feed on human blood, to make them tame towards himself and fierce to all the world beside, began to bay around their victim and even to make premature snaps at him. What was he to do? If he chose to live, he must gain the consent of Sejanus; if to die, he must gain that of his daughter; and neither of them could have been persuaded to grant it: he therefore determined to deceive his daughter, and having taken a bath in order to weaken himself still further, he retired to his bed-chamber on the pretence of taking a meal there. After dismissing his slaves he threw some of the food out of the window, that he might appear to have eaten it: then he took no supper, making the excuse that he had already had enough food in his chamber. This he continued to do on the second and the third day: the fourth betrayed his condition by his bodily weakness; so, embracing you, “My dearest daughter,” said he, “from whom I have never throughout your whole life concealed aught but this, I have begun my journey towards death, and have already travelled half-way thither. You cannot and you ought not to call me back.” So saying he ordered all light to be excluded from the room and shut himself up in the darkness. When his determination became known there was a general feeling of pleasure at the prey being snatched out of the jaws of those ravening wolves. His prosecutors, at the instance of Sejanus, went to the judgment-seat of the consuls, complained that Cordus was dying, and begged the consuls to interpose to prevent his doing what they themselves had driven him to do; so true was it that Cordus appeared to them to be escaping: an important matter was at stake, namely, whether the accused should lose the right to die. While this point was being debated, and the prosecutors were going to attend the court a second time, he had set himself free from them. Do you see, Marcia, how suddenly evil days come upon a man? and do you weep because one of your family could not avoid dying? one of your family was within a very little of not being allowed to die.

Songez aux mille souillures de l’âme : car les bons naturels ne tiennent pas tous en vieillissant les heureuses promesses de l’adolescence ; trop souvent ils tournent au mal. Plus tard, et avec plus de honte, la volupté les gagne et les pousse à déshonorer de nobles débuts ; ou, de bonne heure voués aux tavernes et à la gloutonnerie, leur affaire essentielle devient leur manger et leur boire. Et les incendies, les chutes d’édifices, les naufrages, le fer déchirant du médecin qui extrait des os de corps vivants, qui plonge ses mains tout entières dans nos entrailles, et opère, avec des souffrances compliquées, sur les plus honteuses parties de nous-mêmes ! Ajoutez l’exil : votre fils n’était pas plus innocent que Rutilius ; la prison : était-il plus sage que Socrate ? le glaive du suicide qui se perce le sein : était-il plus vénérable que Caton ? En présence de telles perspectives, avouez que la nature s’est montrée généreuse d’avoir promptement mis en lieu sûr ceux à qui la vie réservait un pareil salaire. Rien de si fallacieux que cette vie, rien de si traître que ses pièges : nul assurément ne l’accepterait, s’il ne la recevait à son insu. Puis donc que le mieux serait de ne pas naître, comptez qu’après cette faveur, la plus grande est de cesser d’être au plus tôt, de rentrer bien vite dans son premier état . Rappelez-vous cet horrible temps où Séjan livrait votre père à son client Satrius Secundus, comme on donne une gratification de guerre. Le ministre était furieux de quelques mots hardis de Cremutius, qui n’avait pu s’empêcher de dire : On ne place pas Séjan sur nos têtes ; il y monte. Un décret plaçait la statue de cet homme au théâtre de Pompée qu’avaient consumé les flammes, et que Tibère rebâtissait. Votre père s’écria : Pour le coup ce théâtre est vraiment perdu. Eh ! qui n’éclaterait de voir sur la cendre de Pompée ériger un Séjan, sur le monument du grand capitaine consacrer un soldat sans foi! Il est consacré, on y lit son nom ; et ces chiens dévorants, apprivoisés pour le maître seul, terribles pour tout autre, et qu’il engraissait de sang humain, s’en viennent aboyer par son ordre autour de votre père. Que faire ? S’il voulait vivre, il fallait implorer Séjan ; mourir, il fallait l’obtenir de vous, sa fille : tous deux sont inflexibles ; son choix est fait : il trompera sa fille. Ayant donc pris un bain qui l’affaiblît le plus possible, il se retire dans sa chambre sous prétexte d’y faire une collation ; et renvoyant ses esclaves, il jette par la fenêtre quelques débris de mets pour faire croire qu’il a mangé ; ensuite il s’abstient de souper comme s’il eût déjà pris assez de nourriture. Le second, le troisième jour, il fait de même : le quatrième jour son état de faiblesse le trahit. Alors vous serrant dans ses bras : « Ma chère fille, apprends la seule chose que je t’aie jamais cachée : tu me vois en chemin de mourir, et le passage est presque à demi franchi. Ne me rappelle pas à la vie : tu ne le dois ni le peux. » Puis il ordonne qu’on ferme tout accès à la lumière, et s’ensevelit dans les ténèbres. Sa résolution, connue, ce fut une joie publique de voir la voracité de ces loups insatiables frustrée de sa proie. Les accusateurs, à l’instigation de Séjan, portent plainte au tribunal des consuls de ce que Cremutius Cordus se laisse mourir ; ils s’y opposent, eux qui l’y ont contraint, tant ils craignent qu’il ne leur échappe. La question était importante : un accusé a-t-il le droit de se laisser mourir ? Pendant qu’on délibère, que les accusateurs reviennent à la charge, il s’était mis, lui, hors de cause. Vous voyez, Marcia, quelles crises imprévues fondent sur nous dans ces jours d’iniquité. La mort, dont vous gémissez que le fils ait subi la nécessité, fut presque interdite à l’aïeul.