Ad aliam ratiōnem, quandō dīcis, quod ego ex libīdine hoc fēcī, respondeō: hoc nūllō modō potest fierī, quia libīdō aut est propter pulchritūdinem aut propter dīvitiās aut propter fortitūdinem. Sed fīlius tuus nūllum istōrum habuit, quia pulchritūdō eius per carcerem erat annihilāta; nec dīves fuit, quia nōn habuit, unde sē ipsum redimeret; nec fortis, quia fortitūdinem perdidit per carceris macerātiōnem. Ergō sōla pietās mē movēbat, quod ipsum līberāvī.
Pater hoc audiēns nōn potuit fīlium arguere ulterius. Fīlius ergō cum magnā solennitāte eam in uxōrem dūxit et in pāce vītam fīnīvit.
Vocabulary
[i]
[1] Look out for variant spellings:
sollemnitās, -tātis [3/f]: solemnity; formality
here: solennitāte; the consonant cluster of -mn- often occurs in Mediaeval writing as -mpn- / -mnn- / -nn-, for example:
sollemnis, -e > sollempnis
[ii]
arguō, -ere, -uī, argūtus [3]: (here) blame
dēpauperō, -āre, -āvī, -ātus [1] (Mediaeval) impoverish
indigeō, -ēre, -uī [2]: need, want, require, lack
+ ablative: alicuius auxiliō nōn indiget | he does not need the help of anybody
perpendō, -ere, -pendī, -pensus [3]: consider, examine (carefully), ponder
[iii]
dītior: wealthier; comparative of dīves, divitis
locuplēs, -ētis: wealthy
Notes
Mediaeval features
[i] quod introducing indirect statement:
quandō dīcis, quod ego dēcēpī patrem meum proprium
when you say that I deceived my own father
quandō dīcis, quod ego ex libīdine hoc fēcī
when you say that I did this out of desire
[ii] quod introducing clause of result:
pater meus tam locuplēs est, quod alicuius auxiliō nōn indiget
my father is so wealthy that he has no need of anyone’s help
Subjunctive usage
[i] sī pater meus prō eō redemptiōnem accepisset, nōn multum propter hoc dītior fuisset et tū per redemptiōnem dēpauperātus essēs.
if my father had received a ransom for him, he would not have been much richer because of it, and you would have been impoverished through the ransom
conditional clause: past contrary-to-fact
https://adckl.blogspot.com/2026/04/140926-level-3-conditional-clauses-9.html
[ii] quia nōn habuit, unde sē ipsum redimeret
… because he had nothing with which he could ransom himself
characteristic
https://adckl.blogspot.com/search/label/subjunctive%3A%20characteristic
____________________
The girl, hearing these arguments, said: “To the first I reply: when you say that I deceived my own father, that is not true. He is deceived who is diminished in some good. But my father is so wealthy that he has no need of anyone’s help. When I considered this, I freed that young man from prison, since if my father had received a ransom for him, he would not have been much richer because of it, and you would have been impoverished through the ransom. Therefore in that action I saved you by not giving the ransom, and I did no injury to my father.
To the second argument, when you say that I did this out of desire, I reply that this can in no way be the case, because desire exists either on account of beauty, or wealth, or strength. But your son had none of these, since his beauty had been destroyed by imprisonment; nor was he rich, because he had nothing with which to ransom himself; nor was he strong, because he had lost his strength through the weakening of prison. Therefore only compassion moved me, when I freed him.”
The father, hearing this, was no longer able to accuse his son further. Therefore the son, with great solemnity, took her as his wife, and ended his life in peace.
