Kitap 27
11.2
This man was carried on the swift wings—as the poets’ fancy expresses it-of a kind of congenital good fortune, which showed him to be now generous and ready to advance his friends, but sometimes a cruel schemer, working harm by his deadly jealousies. And although he had great power so long as he lived, because of the sums that he gave awayCf. Claud, in cons. Oyb. et Prob. 42 f., hic non divitias iji(rantibus abdicit antris, nec tenebris damnavit opes; sed largior imbre sueverat innumeras hominum ditare catervas. and his constant resumption of offices, yet he was sometimes timid when boldly confronted, though arrogant against those who feared him; so that in his moments of confidence he seemed to thunder from tragic buskin, and when he was afraid, to be more humble than any wearer of the slipper.Of an actor of comedy.
11.3
And as the finny tribe,Cf. xxvi. 10, 16. when removed from its own element, does not breathe very long on dry land, so he pined away when not holding prefectures; these he was compelled to seek because of the constant lawlessness of certain families which on account of their boundless avarice were never free from guilt, and in order to carry out their many evil designs with impunity, plunged their patron into affairs of state.That is, they used their power secretly by controlling a high magistrate; mergentium suits the metaphor of the finny tribe.
