Viris Illustribus: Cato

Latin Learning Latin
1

What is this all about:

Ab alio homine improbo
contumeliis proscissus:
Iniqua, inquit,
tecum
mihi est pugna:
tu enim
probra facile audis,
et dicis libenter;
mihi vero
et dicere ingratum,
et audire insolitum.

Dicere solebat
acerbos inimicos
melius
de quibusdam
mereri
quam
eos amicos
qui dulces videantur;
illos enim
saepe verum dicere,
hos nunquam.

http://www.slu.edu/colleges/AS/languages/classical/latin/tchmat/readers/lhomond/lho3b.htm#cato

This is my guess at it, though it does not seem that elegant, grammatically correct, or meaningful:

From the other shameless man,
castigated with indignities,
unjust, he said,
with you it is a fight for me,
you in fact, easily hear insults,
and you say them freely,
whereas I am ungrateful to say them (dicere ingratum?)
and unaccustomed to hear them.

He was accustomed to say better things
of his worst enemies
than they deserved
And of his friends that seem sweet (dulces videantur?)
that they often tell the truth (illos saepe verum dicere?),
although they never did (hos nunquam?)

2

Sic verto:

When he was berated with insults by a different [/another] rude fellow, he said:
“A fight with you is unfair to me for you readily listen to and speak [/use] abusive language;
For me, however, [it’s] unpleasant to speak [so] and something [I’m] unaccustomed [to].”
He was in the habit of saying that bitter enemies were worth more in some regards [/about certain things] than seemingly charming friends; for the former often tell the truth, the latter never.

3

Thanks Adrianus, your translation makes perfect sense. Sometimes the way the sentences are split up in seperate lines actually throws me off rather than helps me, like the first line of the paragragh. And as for “worth more than” (melius mereri quam) I feel kind of dumb that I wasn’t able to spot that, but I guess I just need more practice.