Heauton Timorumenos

Heauton Timorumenos (Ancient Greek: Ἑαυτὸν τιμωρούμενος, Heauton timōroumenos, 'The Self-Tormentor') is a play written in Latin by Terence, a dramatist of the Roman Republic, in 163 BC; it was translated wholly or in part from an earlier Greek play by Menander. The play concerns two neighbours, Chremes and Menedemus, whose sons Clitipho and Clinia are in love with different girls, Bacchis and Antiphila. By a series of deceptions, Chremes' wily slave Syrus dupes Chremes into paying money owed to Bacchis, who is a prostitute. The other girl, Antiphila, is discovered to be Chremes' own daughter, whom he promises in marriage to Clinia.

Act I

• Homo sum: humani nil a me alienum puto.
  • I am a man, I hold that what affects another man affects me.
  • 77 (tr. John Sargeaunt)
  • Variant translations:
    • I am a man; I count nothing human alien to me.
      —Clyde Murley, "The Gates of Janus", The Classical Journal, vol. 46, no. 5 (1951), p. 245

• Periclum ex aliis facito tibi quod ex usu siet.
  • Draw from others the lesson that may profit yourself.
  • 211 (tr. John Sargeaunt)

Act III

• Diem adimere aegritudinem hominibus.
  • Time removes distress.
  • 421 (tr. John Sargeaunt)
  • Variant translations:
    • Time assuages sorrow.
      —John Bartlett, Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (1891), p. 704; cp. William Rawle as quoted by D. P. Brown (1836), p. 39
    • Time heals all wounds.
      —The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs, 3rd ed. (1998), p. 273

• Aquilae senectus.
  • The eagle has eternal youth.
  • 520 (tr. John Sargeaunt)
  • See: G. B. Townend, "Aquilae Senectus", The Classical Review, vol. 10, no. 3 (1960), pp. 186–88
  • Variant translations:
    • You have seen the old age of an eagle.
      —W. F. H. King, Classical and Foreign Quotations, 3rd ed. (1904), no. 143

Act IV

• Non licet hominem esse saepe ita ut volt, si res non sinit.
  • It often happens that circumstances may forbid a man to follow his inclination.
  • 666 (tr. John Sargeaunt)
  • Variant translations:
    • Many a time a man cannot be such as he would be, if circumstances do not admit of it.
      —John Bartlett, Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (1891), p. 704

• Nil tam difficilest quin quaerendo investigari possiet.
  • Nothing is too hard for a detective’s industry.
  • 675 (tr. John Sargeaunt)
  • Variant translations:
    • Nothing is so difficult but that it may be found out by seeking.
      —John Bartlett, Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (1891), p. 704

• Quid si nunc caelum ruat?
  • What would follow if the sky fell?
  • 719 (tr. John Sargeaunt)
  • Variant translations:
    • What now if the sky were to fall?
      —John Bartlett, Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (1891), p. 704

• Ius summum saepe summast malitia.
  • Strictest law, worst mischief.
  • 796 (tr. John Sargeaunt)
  • Cp. Cicero, Tusculanae Disputationes, iii, 30
  • Variant translations:
    • Rigorous law is often rigorous injustice.
      —John Bartlett, Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (1891), p. 704

• Aliis si licet, tibi non licet.
  • Others may but you mayn’t.
  • 797 (tr. John Sargeaunt)

• Nullast tam facilis res quin difficilis siet,
  quam invitus facias.
  • Nothing is so easy but it is difficult when you do it against the grain.
  • 805 (tr. John Sargeaunt)
  • Variant translations:
    • There is nothing so easy but that it becomes difficult when you do it with reluctance.
      —John Bartlett, Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (1891), p. 704

• Quam multa iniusta ac prava fiunt moribus!
  • How many unjust things custom makes one do.
  • 839 (tr. John Sargeaunt)
  • Variant translations:
    • How many things, both just and unjust, are sanctioned by custom!
      —John Bartlett, Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (1891), p. 704

Act V

• Modo liceat vivere, est spes.
  • If one may only live, there’s hope.
  • 981 (tr. John Sargeaunt)
  • Cp. Ecclesiastes 9:4
  • Variant translations:
    • While there's life, there's hope.
      —The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs, 3rd ed. (1998), p. 160

About

• In militiam proficisci gnatum Cliniam
  amantem Antiphilam conpulit durus pater
  animique sese angebat facti paenitens.
  mox ut reversust, clam patrem devortitur
  ad Clitiphonem. is amabat scortum Bacchidem.
  cum accerseret cupitam Antiphilam Clinia,
  et eius Bacchis venit amica ac servolae
  habitum gerens Antiphila: factum id quo patrem
  suam celaret Clitipho. hie technis Syri
  decem minas meretriculae aufert a sene.
  Antiphila Clitiphonis reperitur soror:
  hanc Clinia, aliam Clitipho uxorem accipit.
  • Clinia being in love with Antiphila was compelled by his father’s harshness to take service abroad. Afterwards his father tormented himself with regret for his action. After a time the son returned without his father’s knowledge and put up with Clitipho whose mistress was Bacchis. Clinia desiring to see Antiphila, Bacchis came to Clitipho’s in the character of Clinia’s friend with Antiphila in a maidservant’s dress. Clitipho’s object was to deceive his father, and by the tricks of Syrus he obtained from the old man a sum of fifty pounds to pay for Bacchis. Antiphila is discovered to be Clitipho’s sister. Clinia marries her and Clitipho marries Bacchis.
  • Summary (Periocha) by Gaius Sulpicius Apollinaris (tr. John Sargeaunt)

Translations

• Nicholas Udall; John Higgins, Flovvres or eloquent phrases of the Latine speach, gathered ont [sic] of al the sixe comœdies of Terence (London: imprinted by Thomas Marshe, 1581)

• George Colman, The Comedies of Terence, Translated into Familiar Blank Verse (London: printed for T. Becket and P. A. De Hondt ..., W. Johnston ..., W. Flexney ..., R. Davis ..., T. Davies ..., 1765)

• Henry Thomas Riley, The Comedies of Terence, and the Fables of Phædrus (London: Henry G. Bohn, 1853)

• John Benson Rose, Comedies of Publius Terentius Afer (London: Dorrell and Son, 1870)

• John Sargeaunt, Terence I: The Lady of Andros · The Self-Tormentor · The Eunuch, LCL 22 (London: William Heinemann; New York: The Macmillan Co., 1912)