De principibus et aliis magnatibus fortiter arguendis pro eorum forefactis (146) Refert Augustinus in "de civitate dei", quod

Dyonides pirata galea una longo tempore in mari homines spoliavit et cepit. Qui cum multis navibus iussu Alexandri fuisset quaesitus et tandem captus, et Alexandro praesentatus, eum interrogavit dicens: "Quare mare habet te infestum?" Ille statim respondit: "Quare te orbis terrarum? Sed quia ego hoc ago una galea, latro vocor, tu vero mundum opprimens navium multitudine magna, diceris imperator; sed si circa me fortuna mansuesceret, fierem melior; e converso tu quanto fortunatior, tanto deterior." Alexander respondit: "Fortunam tibi mutabo, ne malitia tuae fortunae, sed meritis ascribatur." Sicque ditatus est per eum et de latrone factus est princeps et zelator iustitiae. Alexander, -dr m Alexander (the Great) ascrb, -ere, -ps, -ptum to Augustinus, - m St. Augustine cvits, -ttis f city dterior, -ius adj worse dt to enrich Dyonides, -idis m Dyonides fortuntus, -a, -um adj lucky, fortunate galea, -ae f helmet nfestus, -a, -um adj hostile, unsafe interrog (1) to interrogate iussus, -s m order iustitia, -ae f justice latr, -nis m thief malitia, -ae f badness, ill-will mansuesc, -ere, mansuev to tame opprim, -ere, oppress, oppressum to supress pirata, -ae m pirate praesentatus, -a, -um adj presented +dat. quod conj that spoli (1) to rob zelator, -ris m zealot 5

Notes
This is one of the Gesta Romanorum. They are a collection of anonymous medieval moral tales. This particular text has been taken from thelatinlibrary.com. All words on the Dickinson top 1,000 have been left off. 1. refert he relates, introduces indirect speech, here as quod + another clause gale n not nominative 2. cum mults nvibus notice that we are using cum here to indicate means, even though classical Latin does not use a preposition in this setting. 3. fuisset quaestus etcaptuspraesenttus not how it is done in classical settings, but medieval Latin sometimes will hook perfect participles onto the pluperfect to indicate pluperfect passive. 4. dcns saying, present active participle orbis terrrum the world, the usual idiom for referring to the whole world 5. opprimns suppressing, agrees with you (Alexander) 6. quanttant as muchthe more, this sort of word shows up in qt pairs often. 8. per m through me, this is an alternate way to show agency in medieval Latin.