[1] (PORCI) LATRONIS. Hoc expectastis, ut capite demisso verecundia se ipsa, antequam impelleretur, deieceret? id enim deerat, ut modestior in saxo esset quam in sacrario fuerat. constitit et circumlatis in frequentiam oculis sanctissimum numen, quasi parum violasset inter altaria[que], coepit in ipso quo vindicabatur violare supplicio: hoc alterum damnatae incestum fuit. Damnata est, quia incesta erat; deiecta est, quia damnata erat; repetenda est, quia et incesta et damnata et deiecta est. Dubitari potest, quin usque eo deicienda sit, donec efficiatur propter quod deiecta est? Patrocinium suum vocat pereundi infelicitatem. Quid tibi, importuna mulier, [im]precer, nisi ut ne bis quidem deiecta pereas? Veniet ad colendum Romani imperii pignus etiamsi non stupro, at certe carnificis manu incesta? ‘Invocavi’ inquit ‘deos’; statuta in illo saxo deos nominasti et miraris, si te iterum deici volunt? si nihil aliud, loco incestarum stetisti.

Note on text: In a number of places in this and following chapters extra sections of the text are supplied by one manuscript tradition (V2).

Vocabulary:

The repetition of damno in remarkable.

Grammar:

Syntax:

The syntax of the Controversiae is relatively straight-forward. We mostly see simple sentences and direct questions. Certain rhetorical devices are used for effect, such as repeated words/phrases (anaphora) and opposites (antithesis).

se ipsa: The Romans had a fondness for emphasizing persons, so that a name or a pronoun often stands in an emphatic place (Allen and Greenough 598l).

Damnata est, quia incesta erat; deiecta est, quia damnata erat; repetenda est, quia et incesta et damnata et deiecta est: Examples of the rhetorical device anaphora, i.e. when the same word or word-order is repeated in successive phrases.

quia et incesta et damnata et deiecta est: the correlative conjunctions et… et mean both… and and although both implies only two in English, Latin allows repeated et’s.