The following is an extract from Livy’s account of the incident in the previous post i.e. we’ve reached the point where we can begin to look at some authentic literature; virtually everything that is in this extract has been covered in the group; what is new I’ll refer to.
We
can look at it from two points of view: [1] the language and [2] the content;
it is [2] that takes you slowly up to interpreting the authors and to getting
into the minds of the Romans and their self-image. However, we’ll begin only
with the text and translation moving on to other points in later posts.
Livy: the History of Rome 5.7
[5]
quae ubi Camillus audivit, 'non ad similem' inquit 'tui nec populum nec
imperatorem scelestus ipse cum scelesto munere venisti. │ [5] And when Camillus
heard this, he said “You, wicked man with your wicked gift have come neither to
a people nor a commander similar to yourself.
[6] … sunt et belli sicut pacis iura, iusteque ea non minus quam fortiter didicimus gerere. │ [6] …there are rights of war just as there are rights of peace, and we have learnt to wage our wars justly (with justice) no less than courageously.
[7] arma habemus non adversus eam aetatem, cui etiam captis urbibus parcitur, sed adversus armatos et ipsos, qui nec laesi nec lacessiti a nobis castra Romana ad Veios oppugnarunt. │ [7] We do not use our weapons against those of an age which is spared even when cities have been captured, but against those who are also armed themselves, and who, neither injured nor provoked by us, attacked the Roman camp at Veii.
[8] eos tu, quantum in te fuit, novo scelere vicisti; ego Romanis artibus, virtute, opere, armis, sicut Veios, vincam'. │ [8] As far as you could, you have vanquished these men by a new act of villainy; I shall vanquish them as I vanquished Veii, by Roman arts, by courage and strategy and weapons.’
[9] denudatum deinde eum manibus post tergum inligatis reducendum Falerios pueris tradidit virgasque eis, quibus proditorem agerent in urbem verberantes, dedit… │ [9] The man, stripped and with his hands tied behind his back, he then handed over to the boys to be taken back to Falerii, and he gave them rods with which, while beating him, they might drive the traitor into the city …
aetās, aetātis [3/f]: age
dēnūdō, -āre,
-āvī, -ātus [1]: strip; make naked
Faleriī, -ōrum
(2/m/pl): Falerii, a city in Etruria, home of the Falisci
inligātus
(bound; tied): alternative form of illigātus from illigō, -āre, -āvī, -ātus
[1]: bind; tie together
iūs, iūris
[3/n]: law; right
lacessō, -ere,
lacessīvī, lacessītus [3]: provoke
laedō, -ere,
laesī, laesus [3]: offend; hurt
mūnus, mūneris
[3/n]: gift
opus, operis
[3/n]: various meanings including ‘work’ but also ‘art’ or ‘skill’; the
translation as ‘strategy’ works well in the military context of the passage
i.e. the ‘art’ of warfare
parcō, parcere,
pepercī, parsus [3]: spare; forgive; have mercy for; the verb is followed by
the dative case
prōditor,
-tōris [3/m]: traitor
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