Ep. 4.7.1Saepe tibi dīcō īnesse vim Rēgulō.I often tell you that Regulus has force. Ep. 4.7.1Mīrum est quam efficiat in quod incubuit.It is amazing how he accomplishes whatever he has set his mind to. Ep. 4.7.1Placuit eī lūgēre fīlium: lūget ut nēmō.He decided to mourn his son: he mourns as no one else does. Ep. 4.7.1Placuit statuās eius et imāginēs quam plūrimās facere: hoc omnibus officīnīs agit, illum colōribus illum cērā illum aere illum argentō illum aurō ebore marmore effingit.He decided to have as many statues and portraits of him made as possible: he is about this in every workshop, he has him represented in paint, in wax, in bronze, in silver, in gold, ivory and marble. Ep. 4.7.2Ipse vērō nūper adhibitō ingentī audītōriō librum dē vītā eius recitāvit;He himself recently gathered an enormous audience and read aloud a book about his life; Ep. 4.7.2dē vītā puerī, recitāvit tamen.about the life of a boy, yet he read it all the same. Ep. 4.7.2Eundem in exemplāria mīlle trānscrīptum per tōtam Ītaliam prōvinciāsque dīmīsit.He had the same book copied out in a thousand copies and sent it all over Italy and the provinces.
Ep. 4.7.2Scrīpsit pūblicē, ut ā decuriōnibus ēligerētur vōcālissimus aliquis ex ipsīs, quī legeret eum populō: factum est.He wrote officially asking that the town councillors should choose whoever among them had the best voice to read it to the people: it was done. Ep. 4.7.3Hanc ille vim, seu quō aliō nōmine vocanda est intentiō quidquid velīs optinendī, sī ad potiōra vertisset, quantum bonī efficere potuisset!If he had turned this force — or whatever other name should be given to a determination to obtain whatever you want — to better ends, how much good he could have done! Ep. 4.7.3Quamquam minor vīs bonīs quam malīs īnest, ac sīcut ita rēcta ingenia, dēbilitat verēcundia perversa cōnfirmat, audācia recta ingenia debilitat verecundia, perversa confirmat audacia.And yet there is less force in the good than in the bad, and just as 'ignorance brings boldness, but reflection hesitation', so modesty weakens upright characters and audacity strengthens perverse ones. Ep. 4.7.4Exemplō est Rēgulus.Regulus is an example. Ep. 4.7.4Imbēcillum latus, ōs cōnfūsum, haesitāns lingua, tardissima inventiō, memoria nūlla, nihil dēnique praeter ingenium īnsānum, et tamen eō impudentiā ipsōque illō furōre pervēnit, ut ōrātor habeātur.Weak lungs, a confused delivery, a stammering tongue, the slowest invention, no memory, nothing in short but a mad temperament, and yet by impudence and that very madness he has got so far as to be regarded as an orator.
Ep. 4.7.5Itaque Herennius Seneciō mīrificē Catōnis illud dē ōrātōre in hunc ē contrāriō vertit: "Ōrātor est vir malus dīcendī imperītus."So Herennius Senecio wonderfully turned Cato's famous saying about the orator round against him: 'An orator is a bad man unskilled in speaking.' Ep. 4.7.5Nōn mehercule Catō ipse tam bene vērum ōrātōrem quam hic Rēgulum expressit.Cato himself, I swear, did not portray the true orator as well as Senecio portrayed Regulus. Ep. 4.7.6Habēsne quō tālī epistulae parem grātiam referās?Have you anything with which to repay such a letter in kind? Ep. 4.7.6Habēs, sī scrīpseris num aliquis in mūnicipiō vestrō ex sodālibus meīs, num etiam ipse tū hunc lūctuōsum Rēgulī librum ut circulātor in forō lēgerīs, scīlicet ut, ait Dēmosthenēs Demosthenes, τὴν φωνὴν καὶ γεγηθὼς καὶ λαρυγγίζων.You have, if you write and tell me whether any of my friends in your town, or even you yourself, has read this mournful book of Regulus' in the forum like a street-performer, 'raising', no doubt, as Demosthenes says, 'his voice, exulting and bawling at the top of his throat'. Ep. 4.7.7Est enim tam ineptus ut rīsum magis possit exprimere quam gemitum: crēdās nōn dē puerō scrīptum sed ā puerō.For it is so absurd that it could draw laughter rather than groans: you would think it written not about a boy but by one.
Ep. 4.7.7Valē.Farewell.