Controversia I BC
Cic. - Inv. (Cic.Inv.2.14-15)
Text
In itinere quidam, proficiscentem ad mercatum quendam et se cum aliquantum nummorum ferentem, est comitatus. Cum hoc, ut fere fit, in via sermonem contulit; ex quo factum est, ut illud iter familiarius facere vellent. Quare cum in eandem tabernam devertissent, simul cenare et in eodem loco somnum capere voluerunt. Cenati discubuerunt ibidem. Copo autem – nam ita dicitur post inventum, cum in alio maleficio deprehensus est – cum illum alterum, videlicet qui nummos haberet, animum advertisset, noctu, postquam illos artius iam ut ex lassitudine dormire sensit, accessit et alterius eorum, qui sine nummis erat, gladium propter adpositum e vagina eduxit et illum alterum occidit, nummos abstulit, gladium cruentum in vaginam recondidit, ipse se in suum lectum recepit. Ille autem, cuius gladio occisio erat facta, multo ante lucem surrexit, comitem illum suum inclamavit semel et saepius. Illum somno inpeditum non respondere existimavit; ipse gladium et cetera, quae se cum adtulerat, sustulit, solus profectus est. Copo non multum post conclamat hominem esse occisum et cum quibusdam devorsoribus illum, qui ante exierat, consequitur in itinere. Hominem conprehendit, gladium eius e vagina educit, reperit cruentum. Homo in urbem ab illis deducitur ac reus fit.
Translation
On a highway a traveller joined himself to another who was on a business trip and had with him a considerable sum of money. As is natural, they fell into conversation as tey went along, and th result was that they were ready to make a th trip together as close friends. Therefore on stopping at the same inn, they planned to dine together and went to bed in the same room. Then the innkeeper - for it is said the truth was found out when he had been caught in another crime - who had taken note of one of the travellers, that is the one with the money, came in the dead of night when he knew that they were sleeping heavily as people do when tired, drew the sword of the one who did not have the money - it was lying bi his side - killed the other man, took his money, replaced the blood-stained sword in its sheath and went back to his own bed. Long before dawn the mane whose sword had been used to commit the murder, got up and called his companion again and again. (15) Deciding that he did not answer because he was sound asleep, the traveller took his sword and the rest of his belongings and set out alone. Not long afterward the innkeeper raises a cry of "murder" and with some of the guests goes down the road in pursuit of the traveller who had left earlier. He seizes him, draws the sword from the sheath and finds it stained with blood. The fellow is brought to the city and accused of the crime.
Main Characters
Innkeeper, Travellers
Characters
Issues
Coniectura
Accusations
Murder
Narrative themes
Inn, Innkeeper, Travel