Met. 15.1Quaeritur intereā quis tantae pondera mōlis
sustineat tantōque queat succēdere rēgī:
dēstinat imperiō clārum praenūntia vērī
fāma Numam;Meanwhile the question is asked who could bear the weight of so great a burden and be able to succeed so great a king: Fame, the herald of truth, marks out illustrious Numa for the throne; Met. 15.4nōn ille satis cognōsse Sabīnae
5gentis habet rītūs: animō maiōra capācī
concipit et, quae sit rērum nātūra, requīrit.he does not think it enough to have learned the rites of the Sabine people: in his capacious mind he conceives greater things and inquires what the nature of the universe is. Met. 15.7Huius amor cūrae, patriā Curibusque relictīs,
fēcit ut Herculeī penetrāret ad hospitis urbem.Love of this pursuit made him leave his homeland and Cures and make his way to the city of Hercules' host. Met. 15.9Grāia quis Italicīs auctor posuisset in ōrīs
10moenia, quaerentī sīc ē seniōribus ūnus
rettulit indigenīs, veteris nōn īnscius aevī:
"Dīves ab Oceanō būbus Iove nātus Hibērīs
lītora fēlīcī tenuisse Lacīnia cursū
fertur et, armentō tenerās errante per herbās,
15ipse domum magnī nec inhospita tēcta Crotōnis
intrāsse et requiē longum relevāsse labōrem
atque ita discēdēns "aevō" dīxisse "nepōtum
hic locus urbis erit";When he asked what founder had set Greek walls on Italian shores, one of the older natives, not ignorant of the ancient past, answered him thus: 'The son of Jupiter, rich with the Iberian cattle from Ocean, is said to have reached the Lacinian shores after a fortunate voyage, and, while his herd wandered through the tender grass, to have himself entered the house of great Croton, a roof not inhospitable, and relieved his long toil with rest, and as he left to have said: "In the age of your grandsons this will be the site of a city"; Met. 15.18prōmissaque vēra fuērunt.and the promise proved true.
Met. 15.19Nam fuit Argolicō generātus Alemone quīdam
20Myscelos, illīus dīs acceptissimus aevī.For there was a certain Myscelos, born of Argive Alemon, the man most favoured by the gods in that age. Met. 15.21Hunc super incumbēns pressum gravitāte sopōris
clāviger adloquitur: "Lapidōsās Aesaris undās
ī, pete dīversī!Leaning over him as he lay weighed down by heavy sleep, the club-bearer addresses him: "Go, seek the stony waters of the far-off Aesar! Met. 15.23Patriās, age, dēsere sēdēs!"Come, abandon your ancestral home!" Met. 15.24et, nisi pāruerit multa ac metuenda minātur;and he threatens many fearful things if he does not obey; Met. 15.25post ea discēdunt pariter somnusque deusque.after that, sleep and the god depart together. Met. 15.26Surgit Alemonidēs tacitāque recentia mente
vīsa refert, pugnatque diū sententia sēcum:
nūmen abīre iubet, prohibent discēdere lēgēs,
poenaque mors posita est patriam mūtāre volentī.The son of Alemon rises and turns over the fresh vision in his silent mind, and his judgement long struggles with itself: the deity bids him go, the laws forbid him to leave, and death is fixed as the penalty for one who wishes to change his country.
Met. 15.30Candidus Oceanō nitidum caput abdiderat Sōl,
et caput extulerat dēnsissima sīdereum Nox:
vīsus adesse īdem deus est eademque monēre
et, nisi pāruerit, plūra et graviōra minārī.Gleaming Sol had hidden his shining head in Ocean, and darkest Night had raised her starry head: the same god seemed to be present, to give the same warning, and to threaten more and heavier things if he did not obey. Met. 15.34Pertimuit patriumque simul trānsferre parābat
35in sēdēs penetrāle novās: fit murmur in urbe,
sprētārumque agitur lēgum reus;He was terrified, and was at once preparing to move his ancestral household gods to a new home: a murmur arises in the city, and he is put on trial for scorning the laws; Met. 15.36utque perācta est
causa prior crīmenque patēns sine teste probātum,
squālidus ad superōs tollēns reus ōra manūsque
"ō cui iūs caelī bis sex fēcēre labōrēs,
40fer, precor" inquit, "opem!and when the prosecution had been completed and the charge proved plain without a witness, the accused, unkempt, raising his face and hands to the gods above, said: "O you to whom twice six labours gave a right to heaven, bring help, I pray!
Met. 15.40nam tū mihi crīminis auctor."For you are the cause of my crime." Met. 15.41Mōs erat antīquus niveīs ātrīsque lapillīs,
hīs damnāre reōs, illīs absolvere culpā;There was an ancient custom of using white and black pebbles, condemning the accused with the black, acquitting them of guilt with the white; Met. 15.43tunc quoque sīc lāta est sententia trīstis, et omnis
calculus inmītem dēmittitur āter in urnam.then too the grim verdict was cast in this way, and every pebble dropped into the pitiless urn was black. Met. 15.45Quae simul effūdit numerandōs versa lapillōs,
omnibus ē nigrō color est mūtātus in album,
candidaque Herculeō sententia nūmine facta
solvit Alemonidēn.As soon as the urn, turned over, poured out the pebbles to be counted, the colour of all had changed from black to white, and the verdict, made white by the power of Hercules, set the son of Alemon free. Met. 15.48Grātēs agit ille parentī
Amphitryōniadae, ventīsque faventibus aequor
50nāvigat Īonium, Sallentīnumque Neretum
praeterit et Sybarin Crimisēnque et Iāpygis arva;He gives thanks to his patron, the son of Amphitryon, and with favouring winds sails the Ionian sea, passes Sallentine Neretum, and Sybaris, and Crimisa, and the fields of Iapyx; Met. 15.53vixque pererrātīs, quae spectant lītora, terrīs,
invēnit Aesareī fātālia flūminis ōra
55nec procul hinc tumulum, sub quō sacrāta Crotōnis
ossa tegēbat humus, iussaque ibi moenia terrā
condidit et nōmen tumulātī trāxit in urbem."and when he had barely travelled along the lands that face these shores, he finds the fated mouth of the river Aesar, and not far from there a mound beneath which the earth covered the hallowed bones of Croton; and there, in the land he had been commanded, he founded walls and gave the city the name of the man buried there.' Met. 15.58Tālia cōnstābat certā prīmordia fāmā
esse locī positaeque Ītalīs in fīnibus urbis.Such, by sure and agreed tradition, were the beginnings of the place and of the city set within Italian borders.