Sulpicia IV

Alright I’ve been building this poem up so let’s see if it lives up to all the hype. This edition of Sulpicia is unrelated to the last two, and is instead about an event that has happened “off camera.” As always, using Latin Library for the Latin, and this time using a couple different translations to keep me on track.

Gratum est, securus multum quod iam tibi de me
    permittis, subito ne male inepta cadam.
Sit tibi cura togae potior pressumque quasillo
    scortum quam Servi filia Sulpicia:
Solliciti sunt pro nobis, quibus illa dolori est,
    ne cedam ignoto, maxima causa, toro.

It’s pleasing, you, untroubled, permit so many things about yourself to me

so that I do not fall unexpectedly, badly, foolishly.

Let the toga and the whore, oppressed by her little basket,

Carry a greater weight for you

Than Sulpicia, daughter of Servius:

They are concerned for us, those for whom it is an indignation,

A great deal, that I not concede to an ignorant cushion.

So, Sulpicia’s wording is a little confusing here, but essentially, she is a woman scorned. She says, thank god you’ve revealed enough to me about yourself that I haven’t foolishly tripped into staying with the mess that you are. Evidently she thinks that Cerinthus has been going to brothels, and that he thinks his responsibility is too important to bother himself with her. She says that there are people worried about them, and that it is a big deal to them that Sulpicia shouldn’t be embarrassed like this. This poem was surprisingly difficult, and the translation I have is sort of literal, but I switched up the syntax of some of the words so that it would make sense in English. Gratias!