Plutarch De fortuna Romanorum 10

Frank Cole Babbitt (Translator)

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De fortuna Romanorum. Plutarch. Frank Cole Babbitt (Translator). Cambridge, MA. 1936.

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Funding provided by The National Endowment for the Humanities.

Current edition Perseus

On the Fortunes of the Romans (English) (Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. IV. Babbitt, Frank Cole, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1936 (printing).)

Editions (2)
Περὶ τῆς Ῥωμαίων τύχης Perseus (Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. IV. Babbitt, Frank Cole, editor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1936 (printing).) — 10 focus
Περὶ τῆς Ῥωμαίων τύχης Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarchi Chaeronensis Moralia, Vol 2. Vernardakēs, Grēgorios N., editor. Leipzig: Teubner, 1889.) — 10 focus
Translations (1)
Concerning the fortune of the Romans Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals, Vol. IV. Goodwin, William W., editor; Oswald, John, translator. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company; Cambridge: Press of John Wilson and Son, 1874.) — 10 focus

Notes on the current edition

On the Fortune of the Romans

1. Cf. Pausanias, iv. 30. 6.
2. It is possible that in the mss. the next section, which interrupts the historical sequence, is a copyist’s error, being perhaps copied from an earlier page of the archetype ( sc. 318 d-f, supra) with some slight additions, changes, and omissions by later copyists. Another theory, however, is possible: the section before us appeared in Plutarch’s first sketch of the essay, and was later modified and completed in chap. v. ( supra); Plutarch did not himself publish the essay, but after his death the first editor neglected to cancel the present passage (Bruhn and Stegmann.) A translation follows:
One may consider the matter thus: there is in Rome an honoured shrine of Virtue which they themselves call the shrine of Virtus; but it was built late and after a considerable lapse of time by Marcellus, who captured Syracuse. There is also a shrine of Reason, or verily of Good Counsel, which they call Mens (Mind); but this also was dedicated by Aemilius Scaurus, who lived in the era of the Cimbrian Wars, at which time rhetoric and sophistry and Greek argumentation had already found their way into the City. But even now they have no temple of Wisdom or Prudence or Constancy or Magnanimity. But of Fortune there are very many ancient and splendid temples built with every honour, one might say, and interspersed throughout the most conspicuous districts and localities of the City. The shrine of the Men’s Fortune was built by Ancus Marcius, the fourth king, and so named because Fortune has the largest share with Manly Fortitude for winning the victory. And again, that the shrine of the Women’s Fortune was dedicated by the women who turned back Marcius Coriolanus when he was leading enemies against Rome, there is no one who does not know.
3. Cf. 273 b, supra.
4. Cf. 281 e and 289 b-c, supra; Cicero, De Legibus, ii. 11. 28; Livy, xxix. 36. 8, xxxiv. 53. 5.
5. With this and the following passage 281 d-f, supra, should be carefully compared.
6. Is this meant to be a translation of Redux?
7. A literal quotation from Demosthenes, Olynthiac ii. 22.
8. Cf. Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities, iv. 1; Ovid, Fasti, vi. 627 ff.; Livy, i. 39; Pliny, Natural History, xxxvi. 27. 204.
9. Peter, Frag. Hist. Rom. p. 154, Valerius Antias, Frag. 12.
10. Cf. 273 c, supra.
11. Cf. Livy, i. 48. 9; Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities, iv. 40. 3.