Papirio, un puero prudente

(Languages of this post: Interlingua, Latin, English)

Secundo le mores del senatores, le filios in togas juvenil vadeva con le senatores in le curia. Tunc, quando in le senato on discuteva alique grave que esseva postponite usque le die proxime, illes decretava: "Que nemo parla sur le problema discutite ante que illo es decidite."

Ma le matre del puero Papirio, qui habeva vadite a in le curia con su patre, demandava a su filio lo que habeva facite le patres (senatores). Le puero respondeva que ille esseva obligate a mantener le silentio e que ille non poteva revelar isto.

Le femina tamen voleva audir isto plus ardentemente, e le silentio del puero inflamava su desiros de saper isto, e su demandas deveniva etiam plus insistente.

Tunc le puero a causa del insistentia de su matre, concipeva le idea de responder con un mentita habile e intelligente. Le senato, ille diceva, habeva deliberate pro decider si il esserea plus utile al republica si un homine habeva duo sponsas o si un femina se maritava con duo homines.

Audiente isto, illa deveniva palide, e, tremulante, illa sortiva ex su focar pro vider le resto del matronas. Con lacrimas e supplicationes illas insisteva que on debe permitter que un femina ha duo maritos in vice de insister que cata homine ha duo feminas.

Le senatores, vadente a in le curia, se demandava proque le feminas se portava de iste maniera ultragiose e le significantia de iste demanda lore.

Le puero Papirio vadeva a in le medio del curia e narrava lo que su matre voleva saper con tante insistentia e lo que ille habeva dicite a illa. Le senato laudava su ingeniositate e decretava: "Post isto un patre non pote portar su pueros a in le senato, con le sol exception de Papirio."

Postea on dava le puero, honoris causa, le supernomine "praetextus" a causa de su prudentia e de su silentio in su prime discurso al senato in un toga juvenil.

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Papirius, puer prudens

Mos antea senatoribus Romae fuit, in curiam cum praetextatis filis introire. Tum, cum in senatu res maior quaedam consultata eaque in diem posterum prolata est, ita decreverunt: "nemo quaestionem tractatam enuntiet, priusquam decreta sit."

Mater vero Papirii pueri, qui cum parente suo in curia fuerat, percunctata est filium, quidnam in senatu patres egissent. Puer respondit, id tacendum esse, neque dici licere.

Sed mulier fit audiendi cupidior; secretum rei et silentium pueri animum eius ad inquirendum incendit; quaerit igitur violentius.

Tum puer, matre urgente, lepidi atque festivi mendacii consilium capit. Deliberavisse senatum dixit, utrum videretur utilius rei publicae, ut unus vir duas uxores haberet, an ut una femina duobus viris nuberet.

Hoc illa ubi audivit, compavescit, et domo trepidans egreditur ad ceteras matronas. Pervenit ad senatum postridie matronarum caterva. Lacrimantes atque obsecrantes orant, ut una potius duobus nupta fieret, quam ut uni duae.

Senatores ingredientes in curiam, quae esset illa mulierum intemperies et quid postulatio ista significaret, mirabantur.

Puer Papirius, in medium curiae progressus, quid mater audire institisset, et quid ipse matri dixisset, denarravit. Senatus fidem atque ingenium eius laudabat et consultum facit: "Ne post hac pueri cum patribus introeant, praeter ille unus Papirius."

Huic puero postea cognomen honoris gratia inditum est "Praetextatus," ob tacendi loquendique in aetate togae praetextae prudentiam.

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Papirius, a Prudent Boy

According to senate custom, the minor sons went into the curia with their fathers who were senators. Then, when the senate discussed something important that was postponed to the following day, they decreed, "Let nobody talk about the problem being discussed until a final decision is made."

But the mother of the boy Papirius, who had gone into the curia with his father, asked her son what the senate had done. The boy answered that he had to keep quiet and could not tell her this.

The woman became even more eager to hear this, however; and the boy's silence inflamed her eagerness, and her demands became even more insistent.

Then the boy, because of his mother's insistence, thought up the idea of answering her with a clever lie. The senate, he said, had deliberated to decide whether whether it would be more useful for the republic if a man had two wives or if a woman could get married to two men.

On hearing this, she became pale and, trembling, she left her home to see the rest of the matrons. With tears and entreaties they insisted that one woman should be allowed to have two husbands instead of insisting that each man have two women.

The senators, as they were going into the senate house, wondered about the women's outrageous conduct and and the reason for this demand of theirs.

The boy Papirius stepped into the middle of the curia and told about what his mother wanted to know so insistently and what he had said to her. The senate praised his cleverness and decreed: "After this a father cannot bring his boys into the senate, with the sole exception of Papirius."

After the surname Praetextatus was bestowed on this boy as an honor, on account of his prudence in being silent and for his first speech to the senate in a children's toga.