Phalaris, tyrannus crudelis, Agrigentinos multos necat, exquisitis tormentis implicans.
Perillus, aeris artifex, aeneum taurum facit, tyranni crudelitati aptum: in latere ostium habet per quod immittuntur homines morte puniendi; supposito igne, homines in tauro cremantur.
Perillus tyranno ait, "Propter mortis amaritudinem et ignis fervorem, homines clamant in tauro, sed non creditur vox esse humana; quasi vox feralis resonat. Sic, O rex, minime ad compassionem moveberis."
Phalaris opus laudat et inventori ait, "Mihi crudeli donum aptum tu crudelior obtulisti! Nunc, O inventor, taurum tuum probabis: nulla enim aequior ratio est quam necis artificem arte perire sua."
Sic Perillus crematur in tauro suo.
Inspired by: Gesta Romanorum.
Notes: This story is number 48 in Oesterley, with an English translation in Swan. I have simplified the Latin; you can find the full Latin text here: Gesta 48: Yyrannus et Taurus Eius.
Hi,
ReplyDeleteI do enjoy these latin dabbles, but there is a minor flaw in your representation. You keep referring to the English translations by Swan, but the page you refer to says that the text cannot be shown due to copyright restrictions. I don’t understand why; Swan’s text should after all be in the public domain.
But do keep up the good work.
Yours
Ole Munch-Pedersen
Hello Ole! The Hathi Trust project may be blocked in some countries (it's the site I use because it has the best text-versions of the page scans), although I am not sure why it would be blocked because, just as you say, the book is in the public domain... but you can also find Swan at the Internet Archive, Google Books, whatever online book source works for your area. Here is the link to Internet Archive and a link to Google Books; hopefully one of those will work in your area!
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