Licet haec ipsa et quae deinceps dicturus sum aures tuae, Materne, respuant, cui bono est si apud te Agamemnon aut Iason diserte loquitur? Quis ideo domum defensus et tibi obligatus redit? Quis Saleium nostrum, egregium poetam vel, si hoc honorificentius est, praeclarissimum vatem, deducit aut  salutat aut prosequitur? Nempe si amicus eius, si propinquus, si denique ipse in aliquod negotium inciderit, ad hunc Secundum recurret aut ad te, Materne, non quia poeta es, neque ut pro eo versus facias; hi enim Basso domi nascuntur, pulchri quidem et iucundi, quorum tamen hic exitus est, ut cum toto anno, per omnes dies, magna noctium parte unum librum excudit et elucubravit, rogare ultro et ambire cogatur ut sint qui dignentur audire, et ne id quidem gratis; nam et domum mutuatur et auditorium exstruit et subsellia conducit et libellos dispergit.
Very likely you will not relish what I am saying, Maternus, or what I intend to state in the course of my argument; but I ask all the same, When an Agamemnon or a Jason talks well in one of your plays, who profits by that? Does anyone gain a verdict by it, and feel beholden to you accordingly, as he goes home? Take our friend Saleius, a first-rate poet, or'if that is a more complimentary designation'a most illustrious bard: does any one escort him to his house, or wait on him to pay his respects, or follow in his train? Why surely, if any of his friends or relatives gets into trouble, or even himself, he will hie him to you, Secundus, or to you, Maternus'not because you are a poet, or with any idea of getting you to write verses in his defence: Bassus has his own home supply of these, and pretty, charming verses they are, though the upshot of them all is that, when he has concocted after long lucubration a single volume in a whole year, working every day and most nights as well, he finds himself obliged to run round into the bargain and beg people to be kind enough to come and form an audience. That too costs him something, for he has to get the loan of a house, to fit up a recitation-hall, to hire chairs, and to distribute programmes.
final_alignments\Tacitus_Dialogus.json