Controversia V AD - VI AD
Ennod. - Dict. (Ennod.Dict.21)
Text
LIBERI PARENTES AUT ALANT, AUT VINCIANTUR. Cuidam duo filii, frugi et luxuriosus. Piratas utrique incidere. Scripserunt patri de redemptione. Pater vero venditis facultatibus piratas expetiit: cui optio data est, quem vellet redimeret, quia parum pretii detulisset. Ille elegit luxuriosum, quia aeger erat, redimere. Qui cum reverteretur, in via mortuus est. Frugi piratas evasit. Pater petit, ut alat. Ille contradicit.
Translation
Children must support their parents, or be imprisoned. A certain man had two sons, one frugal, the other a spendthrift. They were both captured by pirates. and wrote a letter to their father asking to be ransomed. After selling his entire fortune, the father went to the pirates. The pirates then gave him the option of choosing which of the two sons he wanted, since he had only brought a small amount of money. He choose to ransom the spendthrift, since he was sick: but he died on the way home. The frugal son escaped. His father demands support, but the son objects.
Main Characters
Father
Characters
Frugal son, Spendthrift son
Issues
Accusations
Support of the father
Narrative themes
Frugality vs. extravagance, Illness, Pirates, Ransom
Legal references
Liberi parentes aut alant aut vinciantur - fathers and sons