party solicit guiltily, for himself or for another, public
office.

virtute dixit vos victores vivere,
non ambitione neque perfidia: qui minus
eadem histrioni sit lex quae summo viro?
virtute ambire oportet, non favitoribus.
sat habet favitorum semper qui recte facit,
si illis fides est quibus est ea res in manu. 80

’Tis worth has won your wars for you, saith he, not
solicitation or unfairness: why should not the same law hold
for player as for noblest patriot? Worth, not hired support,
should solicit victory. He who plays his part aright ever
has support enough, if it so be that honour dwells in those
whose concern it is to judge his acts.

hoc quoque etiam mihi pater in mandatis dedit,
ut conquaestores fierent histrionibus:
qui sibi mandasset delegati ut plauderent
quive quo placeret alter fecisset minus,
eius ornamenta et corium uti conciderent.

This injunction, too, did Jove lay upon me: that
inspectors should be appointed for the actors, to the end
that whosoever has enjoined claqueurs to clap himself, or
whosoever has endeavoured to compass the failure of another,
may have his player’s costume cut to shreds, also his hide.

mirari nolim vos, quapropter Iuppiter