Statius, Achilleid 2.1-4

Sunrise, epic-style.

exuit implicitum tenebris umentibus orbem
Oceano prolata dies, genitorque coruscae
lucis adhuc hebetem vicina nocte levabat
et nondum excusso rorantem lampada ponto.

Day, brought forth from Ocean, drew the world out from the moist darkness that enveloped it, and the father of the flashing light lifted up his torch which was yet dull with the neighbouring night and dripping with sea it had not yet shaken off.

Sophocles, Oedipus the King 296

ᾧ μή ’στι δρῶντι τάρβος, οὐδ’ ἔπος φοβεῖ.

A man who feels no fear at doing the deed isn’t scared by words.

Lucan, Civil War 5.260

quidquid multis peccatur inultum est.

A sin that is committed by many goes unpunished.

Theophrastus, Enquiry into Plants 3.1.6

A little bit of agricultural advice.

ἁπλῶς γὰρ τὸ μέγιστον (ὥσπερ πολλάκις εἴρηται) τὸ λαβεῖν οἰκείαν ἀέρα καὶ τόπον· ἐκ τούτων γὰρ ἡ εὐθένεια καὶ εὐκαρπία. ταῦτα δὲ ἐναντία φαίνεται τοῖς παρὰ φύσιν ἡμερουμένοις.

In a word, the thing of greatest importance (as has often been said) is that a plant should receive its proper air and location; from these things come abundance and fruitfulness. But they [i.e. air and location] seem to work in the opposite way for plants cultivated contrary to their nature.

Tacitus, Annals 14.44

In a Senate speech on the punishment of rebellious slaves, Gaius Cassius discusses the Roman practice of decimation, pour encourager les autres.

nam et ex fuso exercitu cum decimus quisque fusti feritur, etiam strenui sortiuntur. habet aliquid ex iniquo omne magnum exemplum, quod contra singulos utilitate publica rependitur.

For when every tenth man from a defeated army is killed with a club, the lot falls on even the brave men. Every great precedent has some injustice about it: the public good balances out the individual men.

Sophocles, fr. 954

χρόνος δ’ ἀμαυροῖ πάντα κεἰς λήθην ἄγει.

Time dims all things and leads them into oblivion.

Naevius, Punic War, fr.1 Morel

Here is an elegant fragment perhaps from the very opening of Naevius‘ poem on the Punic War. As Michael von Albrecht says, ‘the unusual luxury of invoking all nine Muses would chime with Naevius’ Campanian arrogance’!

novem Iovis concordes filiae sorores…

Nine sisters like-minded, Jupiter’s daughters…

Sophocles, fr. 930 (Radt)

Preserved, like the fragment from two days ago, in Stobaeus’ Anthology.

κλέπτων δ’ ὅταν τις ἐμφανῶς ἐφευρεθῇ,
σιγᾶν ἀνάγκη, κἂν λάλον φορῇ στόμα.

When someone has been caught red-handed in theft, they need to keep silent, even if they bear a talkative mouth.

Seneca, Mad Hercules 178

dum fata sinunt vivite laeti.

While the fates allow it, live happily.

Sophocles, Tereus, fr.583 (Radt)

Procne, sister of Philomela and wife of king Tereus, on the sorrows of women. This passage is the longest surviving fragment of Sophocles’ lost play.

νῦν δ’ οὐδέν εἰμι χωρίς· ἀλλὰ πολλάκις
ἔβλεψα ταύτῃ τὴν γυναικείαν φύσιν,
ὡς οὐδέν ἐσμεν. αἳ νέαι μὲν ἐν πατρὸς
ἥδιστον, οἶμαι, ζῶμεν ἀνθρώπων βίον·
τερπνῶς γὰρ ἀεὶ παῖδας ἁνοία τρέφει.
ὅταν δ’ ἐς ἥβην ἐξικώμεθ’ ἔμφρονες,
ὠθούμεθ’ ἔξω καὶ διεμπολώμεθα
θεῶν πατρῴων τῶν τε φυσάντων ἄπο,
αἱ μὲν ξένους πρὸς ἄνδρας, αἱ δὲ βαρβάρους,
αἱ δ’ εἰς ἀγηθῆ δώμαθ’, αἱ δ’ ἐπίρροθα.
καὶ ταῦτ’, ἐπειδὰν εὐφρόνη ζεύξῃ μία,
χρεὼν ἐπαινεῖν καὶ δοκεῖν καλῶς ἔχειν.

And now I am nothing on my own. But often have I seen women’s nature to be like this, since we are nothing. Young girls in their father’s house live, I think, the happiest life of all humanity. For folly always brings up children delightfully. But when we have reached the prime of life and are prudent, we are pushed out and sold, away from our ancestral gods and our parents, some of us to foreign husbands, some to barbarians, some to joyless homes, and some to abusive ones. And, when a single night has yoked us, this is what we must approve of and think of as a good life.