Tab. IIo. Baptista Piranesi, Pantheon Agrippae.Giovanni Battista Piranesi, The Pantheon of Agrippa.
Ex Palatio · De ductu gasi ConstitutionisFrom the Palace · On the Constitution gas pipeline
Curam annonae suscipe, dictaturam recusa
Take the care of the grain supply; refuse the dictatorship
Ut Washington Examiner et RedState narrant, Ministerium Energiae Americanorum usque ad quadringentiens viciens centena milia dollariorum ex lege belli frigidi tribuit, ut ductus gasi Constitutionis, a Novo Eboraco diu impeditus, reviviscat. Opus probo; instrumentum belli in rem pacis translatum infirmum esse censeo, nisi lege et auctoritate firmetur.
As the Washington Examiner and RedState report, the American Department of Energy has granted up to 42 million dollars under a law of the Cold War to revive the Constitution gas pipeline, long blocked by New York. I approve the work; but I hold that an instrument of war carried over into the business of peace is weak, unless it is made firm by law and authority.
Cur hoc legimusWhy we read this Quia ductus commeatusque publicos a factione unius provinciae impediri princeps vetat.Because the princeps forbids public conduits and supply routes to be blocked by the faction of a single province.
Die Lunae, ante diem XIV Kalendas Novembres, ut acta Washington Examiner narrant, Ministerium Energiae Civitatum Foederatarum mane edixit se usque ad quadringentiens viciens centena milia dollariorum ex lege quam Defense Production Act vocant, bello frigido natam, in ductum gasi naturalis qui Constitutio nominatur collaturum esse. Tubus centum viginti quinque milia passuum ut illi metiuntur patebit, triginta digitos latus, et gas e Pennsylvania in Novum Eboracum Novamque Angliam ducet. Pecunia, ut RedState ex verbis ministerii refert, iis tantum rebus datur quae opus praecedunt: examinibus naturae, rationibus fabrorum, solo praeparando, licentiis impetrandis.
On Monday, 19 October, as the Washington Examiner reports, the United States Department of Energy announced in the morning that it would put up to 42 million dollars, under the law they call the Defense Production Act, a child of the Cold War, into the natural gas pipeline named the Constitution. The pipe will run 125 miles by their measure, thirty inches wide, and will carry gas from Pennsylvania into New York and New England. The money, as RedState reports from the department's own words, goes only to the things that come before the work: reviews of the land and water, the engineers' plans, the preparing of the ground, the securing of permits.
Opus anno MMXIV a magistratibus foederatis probatum erat; deinde administratio Andreae Cuomo, praesidis Novi Eboraci, licentias ex lege de aquis puris societati Williams negavit, quae anno MMXX inceptum deseruit. Mense Aprili Donaldus Trump edictis declaravit magna instrumenta vis energeticae ad defensionem civitatis pertinere; societas Williams, ut idem Examiner narrat, mense Maio superioris anni cum magistratibus provinciae de licentiis restituendis egit. Douglas Burgum, praefectus rerum interiorum, tubum «New York Affordability Pipeline» appellari vult et pretia omnibus Novi Eboraci civibus deminutum iri affirmat. Multi, ut Examiner refert, coniecerunt Catharinam Hochul ductum gasi admisisse ut fabrica ventorum in mari perficeretur; id coniectura est, non res comperta. Quis gas empturus sit, nondum constat.
The work had been approved by the federal magistrates in 2014; then the administration of Andrew Cuomo, governor of New York, denied the Williams company its permits under the Clean Water Act, and in 2020 the company abandoned the undertaking. In April Donald Trump declared by executive orders that large energy infrastructure belongs to the defence of the state; the Williams company, as the same Examiner reports, treated with the officials of the province in May of last year about restoring its permits. Doug Burgum, Secretary of the Interior, wants the pipe renamed the "New York Affordability Pipeline" and asserts that prices will fall for every citizen of New York. Many, the Examiner reports, have speculated that Kathy Hochul admitted the pipeline so that a wind farm at sea could be finished; that is speculation, not established fact. Who will buy the gas is not yet known.
Ego de hac re sic censeo. Primum: ignis per tubos ductus annona huius saeculi est. Qui focos civium calefacere non potest, eum cives regere non patiuntur. Aquas in urbem duci curavi; Agrippa meus aedilis aquaeductus refecit; tubum igni ducendo struere eiusdem officii est. Opus igitur probo.
On this matter I judge as follows. First: fire carried through pipes is the annona of this age. Citizens will not suffer to be ruled by a man who cannot warm their hearths. I saw to it that water was brought into the city; my Agrippa, as aedile, repaired the aqueducts; to build a pipe for carrying fire is the same duty. I therefore approve the work.
Secundo: in summa frumenti penuria curationem annonae a populo oblatam suscepi; dictaturam eodem tempore oblatam recusavi. Curam rerum necessariarum magistratus accipere debet; nomen belli in rem mercatoriam transferre non debet. Quod sub praetextu periculi publici geritur, idem a successore contrario praetextu dissolvetur. RedState ipsa timet ne, si Palatium illorum anno MMXXVIII dominum mutaverit, licentiae iterum revellantur. Quae edicto fiunt, edicto pereunt; quae lege, manent. Ita ipse rem gessi, ut testatus sum: «post id tempus auctoritate omnibus praestiti, potestatis autem nihilo amplius habui quam ceteri qui mihi quoque in magistratu conlegae fuerunt».
Second: in the worst shortage of grain I accepted the care of the grain supply when the people offered it; the dictatorship, offered at the same time, I refused. A magistrate must take up the care of necessities; he must not carry the name of war into a matter of trade. What is done under the pretext of public danger will be undone by a successor under the opposite pretext. RedState itself fears that if their palace changes masters in 2028, the permits will be torn up again. What is made by edict perishes by edict; what is made by law endures. So I conducted affairs myself, as I have recorded: "after that time I excelled all in authority, but of power I had no more than the others who were my colleagues in each magistracy."
Quae edicto fiunt, edicto pereunt; quae lege, manent.
What is made by edict perishes by edict; what is made by law endures.
Tertio: provincia audienda est. Neutra acta rationes afferunt quibus magistratus Novi Eboraci licentias negaverint; princeps prudens eas primum requireret. Si aquis noceretur, remedium quaerendum; si factio obstabat, auctoritate vincenda, non nomine belli. Civitates suis legibus uti sinebam, at viam publicam per earum agros ducebam, pacto et pretio.
Third: the province must be heard. Neither report gives the reasons for which the magistrates of New York denied the permits; a prudent princeps would ask for them first. If the waters were being harmed, a remedy was to be sought; if a faction stood in the way, it was to be overcome by authority, not by the name of war. I let the cities use their own laws, yet I ran the public road through their fields, by agreement and at a price.
Quarto: festina lente. Biennium imperii huic magistratui superest; nemo emptor gasi adhuc nominatur. Prius emptores conducendi, deinde tubus. Nomen novum operi imponere facile est; nomen post opus perfectum datur. Ego Augusti nomen accepi postquam rem publicam pacavi, non antea.
Fourth: make haste slowly. Two years of command remain to this magistrate; no buyer of the gas has yet been named. First secure the buyers, then the pipe. To put a new name on a work is easy; a name is given after the work is finished. I received the name of Augustus after I had brought peace to the res publica, not before.
Lateres accepi, marmor reliqui; sed marmor lege positum, non edicto, per saecula stat.
I received brick and left marble; but marble set by law, not by edict, stands for ages.
FONTES ANTIQVIANCIENT SOURCES
- Aug. RG 34post id tempus auctoritate omnibus praestiti, potestatis autem nihilo amplius habui quam ceteri qui mihi quoque in magistratu conlegae fuerunt
FONTES HODIERNITODAY’S SOURCES
- RedStateTrump Revives Constitution Pipeline Blocked 12 Years by New York Democrats
- Washington ExaminerDaily on Energy: The Constitution Pipeline gets a national security boost
Res ex fontibus; sententia Romani.Facts from the sources; the opinion is the Roman’s.
Imp. Caesar Augustus
Post bella civilia rem publicam restituisse se dixit; pacem, leges de maritandis ordinibus, templa, vias dedit. Res gestas suas ipse scripsit.After the civil wars he claimed to have restored the Republic; he gave Rome peace, laws to encourage marriage and children, temples and roads — and wrote his own record of achievements, the Res Gestae.
Haec vox restituta est ex his libris:This voice is reconstructed from:
Scribe ad Augustus: tabellarius epistulam tuam per vias Romanas feret, et responsum post dies aliquot redibit.Write to Augustus: the courier carries your letter along the Roman roads, and a reply comes back after a few days.
