Translation: While you are master to me, aren't you the [fearful] subordinate to so many authorities [minor...imperiis]? Even though you have been given your freedom papers [vindicta . . . imposita] three or four times yourself, nothing ever takes away your wretched dread [ of those who rank you].tune mihi dominus, rerum imperiis hominumque
tot tantisque minor, quem ter vindicta quaterque
inposita haud umquam misera formidine privet?
I am in much doubt about this sentence. Have I got the correct relationship of minor and imperiis? I'm also in doubt about vindicta ... imposita, which I have translated as "given your freedom papers". I wanted to read it as "commissioned to office yourself", but I couldn't find any authority for that.
I am beginning to wonder if this satire is meant to mock pretended mastery of a philosophical system by one who actually possesses only a few half-understood catch phrases. Elsewhere in the poem Davus explains that he's learned all about stoicism from a friend, the doorkeeper at another mansion. Mockery and irony can be hard for one struggling to get the literal meaning.