Minucius Felix — Octavius 4
IV. Therefore when we were all caught by this pleasure of the spectacle, Caecilius was attending to nothing nor laughing about the contest, but silent, anxious, separated, was confessing by his face that he was grieving I-know-not-what. To whom I: "What is this matter? Why do I not recognize, Caecilius, that alacrity of yours and why do I miss that cheerfulness of the eyes even in serious things?"
Then he: "For a long time already the speech of our Octavius sharply distresses and frets me, by which having inveighed against you he rebuked negligence, so that more gravely he was covertly accusing me of ignorance. And so I will go further: I have a matter with Octavius about the whole intact issue. If it please that I, a man of his own school, dispute with him, he will already certainly understand that it is easier to argue among companions than to join battle with wisdom.
Only let us sit on those barriers of rocks cast for the protection of the baths and running out into the deep, so that we may both rest from the journey and dispute more intently." And at his word we sat down, so that they covered me in the middle of the three by the surrounding of their sides: and this was not of deference or of rank or of honor, since friendship always either receives or makes equals, but so that as arbiter and nearest to both I might give ears and as middle separate the two disputing.
Latin
IV. Igitur cum omnes hac spectaculi voluptate caperemur, Caecilius nihil intendere neque de contentione ridere, sed tacens, anxius, segregatus dolere nescio quid vultu fatebatur. Cui ego: "Quid hoc est rei? cur non agnosco, Caecili, alacritatem tuam illam et illam oculorum etiam in seriis hilaritatem requiro?" Tum ille: "Iam dudum me Octavi nostri acriter angit et remordet oratio, qua in te invectus obiurgavit neglegentiae, ut me dissimulanter gravius argueret inscientiae. Itaque progrediar ulterius: de toto integro mihi cum Octavio res est. Si placet, ut ipsius sectae homo cum eo disputem, iam profecto intelleget facilius esse in contubernalibus disputare quam conserere sapientiam. Modo in istis ad tutelam balnearum iactis et in altum procurrentibus petrarum obicibus residamus, ut et requiescere de itinere possimus et intentius disputare." Et cum dicto eius adsedimus, ita ut me ex tribus medium lateris ambitione protegerent: nec hoc obsequi fuit aut ordinis aut honoris, quippe cum amicitia pares semper aut accipiat aut faciat, sed ut arbiter et utrisque proximus aures darem et disceptantes duos medius segregarem.