Clem. 1.18.1Servīs imperāre moderātē laus est.To rule slaves with moderation is praiseworthy. Clem. 1.18.1Et in mancipiō cōgitandum est, nōn quantum illud impūne possit patī, sed quantum tibi permittat aequī bonīque nātūra, quae parcere etiam captīvīs et pretiō parātīs iubet.Even with a slave one must consider not how much he can suffer with impunity, but how much the nature of right and good allows you, which bids us spare even captives and those bought for a price. Clem. 1.18.1Quantō iūstius iubet hominibus līberīs, ingenuīs, honestīs nōn ut mancipiīs abūtī sed ut hīs, quōs gradū antecēdās quōrumque tibi nōn servitūs trādita sit, sed tūtēla.How much more justly does it bid us not to abuse men who are free, freeborn and respectable as if they were slaves, but to treat them as those whom you surpass in rank, and whose protection, not servitude, has been entrusted to you. Clem. 1.18.1Servīs ad statuam licet cōnfugere ;Slaves may take refuge at a statue; Clem. 1.18.2cum in servum omnia liceant, est aliquid, quod in hominem licēre commūne iūs animantium vetet.though everything is permitted against a slave, there is something which the common law of living beings forbids to be permitted against a human being.
Clem. 1.18.2Quis nōn Vedium Polliōnem peius ōderat quam servī suī, quod mūraenās sanguine hūmānō sagīnābat et eōs, quī sē aliquid offenderant, in vīvārium, quid aliud quam serpentium, abicī iubēbat ?Who did not hate Vedius Pollio worse than his own slaves did, because he fattened his lampreys on human blood and ordered those who had offended him in any way to be thrown into his fish-pond, what else but a pond of serpents? Clem. 1.18.2Ō hominem mīlle mortibus dignum, sīve dēvorandōs servōs obiciēbat mūraenīs, quās ēsūrus erat, sīve in hoc tantum illās alēbat, ut sīc aleret.O man worthy of a thousand deaths, whether he threw slaves to be devoured to the lampreys he was going to eat, or kept the lampreys only to feed them in this way! Clem. 1.18.3Quemadmodum dominī crūdēlēs tōtā cīvitāte commōnstrantur invīsīque et dētestābilēs sunt, ita rēgum et iniūria lātius patet et īnfāmia atque odium saeculīs trāditur ;Just as cruel masters are pointed out through the whole city, and are hated and loathed, so the wrongdoing of kings extends more widely, and their infamy and hatred are handed down to the ages; Clem. 1.18.3quantō autem nōn nāscī melius fuit, quam numerārī inter pūblicō malō nātōs !and how much better it would have been not to be born than to be counted among those born for the public's harm!