Plutarch, Quaestiones Romanae, ed. William W. Goodwin, 82

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[82]

Question 82.

Why before the chief officers are rods carried bound together, with the axes fastened to them?

Solution. What if it be a significant ceremony, to show that a magistrate’s anger ought not to be rash and ungrounded? Or is it that, while the rods are leisurely unloosing, they make deliberation and delay in their anger, so that oftentimes they change their sentence as to the punishment? Now, whereas some sort of crimes are curable, some incurable, rods correct the corrigible, but the axes are to cut off the incorrigible.

Quaestiones Romanae. Plutarch. ed. William W. Goodwin. Boston. 1874.

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Current edition Perseus

Roman Questions (English) (Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals, Vol. II. Goodwin, William W., editor; Chauncy, Isaac translator. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company; Cambridge: Press of John Wilson and Son, 1874.)

Editions (2)

Αἴτια Ῥωμαϊκά Perseus (Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. IV. Babbitt, Frank Cole, editor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1936 (printing).) — 82 focus

283e

διὰ τί τῶν στρατηγῶν αἱ ῥάβδοι συνδεδεμέναι προσηρτημένων τῶν πελέκεων φέρονται;

πότερον ὅτι σύμβολόν ἐστι τοῦ μὴ δεῖν πρόχειρον εἶναι καὶ λελυμένην τὴν ὀργὴν τοῦ ἄρχοντος, ἢ διατριβὴν καὶ μέλλησιν ἐμποιοῦν τῇ ὀργῇ τὸ λύειν ἀτρέμα τὰς ῥάβδους πολλάκις ἐποίησε μεταγνῶναι περὶ τῆς κολάσεως; ἐπεὶ δὲ τῆς κακίας τὸ μὲν ἰάσιμόν ἐστι τὸ δʼ ἀνήκεστον, αἱ μὲν ῥάβδοι νουθετοῦσι 283f τὸ μεταθέσθαι δυνάμενον, οἱ ¹ δὲ πελέκεις ἀποκόπτουσι τὸ ἀνουθέτητον.

Κεφαλαίων καταγραφή Ῥωμαϊκά Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarchi Chaeronensis Moralia, Vol IΙ. Vernardakēs, Grēgorios N., editor. Leipzig: Teubner, 1889.) — 82 focus

[82] διὰ τί τῶν στρατηγῶν αἱ ῥάβδοι συνδεδεμέναι προσηρτημένων τῶν πελέκεων φέρονται; 15 πότερον ὅτι σύμβολόν ἐστι τοῦ μὴ δεῖν πρόχειρον εἶναι καὶ λελυμένην τὴν ὀργὴν τοῦ ἄρχοντος, ἢ διατριβὴν καὶ μέλλησιν ἐμποιοῦν τῇ ὀργῇ τὸ λύειν ἀτρέμα τὰς ῥάβδους πολλάκις ἐποίησε μεταγνῶναι περὶ τῆς κολάσεως; ἐπεὶ δὲ τῆς κακίας τὸ μὲν ἰάσιμόν 20 ἐστι τὸ δʼ ἀνήκεστον, αἱ μὲν ῥάβδοι νουθετοῦσι τὸ μεταθέσθαι δυνάμενον, οἱ δὲ ¹ πελέκεις ἀποκόπτουσι 283f τὸ ἀνουθέτητον.

Translations (1)

The Roman Questions Perseus (Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. IV. Babbitt, Frank Cole, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1936 (printing).) — 82 focus

[82] Why are the rods of the praetors carried in bundles with axes attached?

Is it because this is a symbolic indication that the temper of the official should not be too quick or unrestrained? Or does the deliberate unfastening of the rods, which creates delay and postponement of his iit of temper, oftentimes cause him to change his mind about the punishment? Now since some badness is curable, but other badness is past remedy, the rods correct that which may be amended and the axes cut off the incorrigible.

Plutarch Quaestiones Romanae 82

ed. William W. Goodwin

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Question 82.

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