Florus: EPITOME DE T. LIVIO BELLORUM OMNIUM ANNORUM DCC LIBRI DUO

Populus Romanus a rege Romulo in Caesarem Augustum septingentos per annos tantum operum pace belloque gessit, ut, si quis magnitudinem imperii cum annis conferat, aetatem ultra putet. Ita late per orbem terrarum arma circumtulit, ut qui res illius legunt non unius populi, sed generis humani facta condiscant. Tot in laboribus periculisque iactatus est, ut ad constituendum eius imperium contendisse Virtus et Fortuna videatur.

The Roman People, from King Romulus to Caesar Augustus, for seven hundred years carried on so many works in peace and in war that, if anyone compares the magnitude of the empire with the years, he would think its lifespan beyond them. So widely did it bear arms over the orb of lands, that those who read its affairs learn not the deeds of one people, but of the human race. It was tossed in so many labors and dangers, that for the establishing of its empire Virtue and Fortune seem to have contended.

Qua re, cum, si quid aliud, hoc quoque operare pretium sit cognoscere, tamen, quia ipsa sibi obstat magnitudo rerumque diversitas aciem intentionis abrumpit, faciam quod solent qui terrarum situs pingunt: in brevi quasi tabella totam eius imaginem amplectar, non nihil ut spero, ad admirationem principis populi conlaturus, si pariter atque in semel universam magnitudinem eius ostendero.

Wherefore, since, if anything else, it is worth the effort to learn this as well, yet, because the very magnitude and the diversity of the matters hinders itself and breaks the keenness of attention, I will do what those are wont to do who depict the situation of the lands: on a brief, as-it-were tablet I will embrace its whole image, contributing, as I hope, not nothing to the admiration of the chief people, if I shall have shown its entire magnitude together and at one stroke.

Si quis ergo populum Romanum quasi unum hominem consideret totamque eius aetatem percenseat, ut coeperit utque adoleverit, ut quasi ad quandam iuventae frugem pervenerit, ut postea velut consenuerit, quattuor gradus processusque eius inveniet. Prima aetas sub regibus fuit prope per annos CCL, quibus circum urbem ipsam cum finitimis luctatus est. Haec erit eius infantia.

If, therefore, someone should consider the Roman people as if a single man and reckon its whole lifetime—how it began and how it grew up, how it came, as it were, to a certain fruit/prime of youth, how afterwards it, as it were, grew old—he will find four stages and processes of it. The first age was under the kings for nearly 250 years, during which it struggled with the neighbors around the city itself. This will be its infancy.

Sequens a Bruto Collatinoque consulibus in Appium Claudium Marcum Fulvium consules CCL annos patet, quibus Italiam subegit. Hoc fuit tempus viris, armis incitatissimum, ideoque quis adulescentiam dixerit. Deinceps ad Caesarem Augustum CC anni, quibus totum orbem pacavit.

Next, from Brutus and Collatinus as consuls to Appius Claudius and Marcus Fulvius, consuls, the span extends 250 years, during which it subdued Italy. This was a time most impetuous in men and arms, and so one may call it its adolescence. Thereafter, to Caesar Augustus, 200 years, during which it pacified the whole orb.

Hic iam ipsa iuventus imperii et quaedam quasi robusta maturitas. A Caesare Augusto in saeculum nostrum haud multo minus anni ducenti, quibus inertia Caesarum quasi consenuit atque decoxit, nisi quod sub Traiano principe movit lacertos et praeter spem omnium senectus imperii quasi reddita iuventute reviserit.

Here now is the empire’s very youth and a kind of, as it were, robust maturity. From Caesar Augustus to our age not much less than 200 years, during which the inertia of the Caesars as it were grew old and boiled away—except that under the prince Trajan it flexed its muscles, and beyond everyone’s hope the old age of the empire, as though youth had been restored, returned.

I. Primus ille et urbis et imperii conditor Romulus fuit, Marte genitus et Rhea Silvia. Hoc de se sacerdos gravida confessa est, nec mox Fama dubitavit, cum Amulii regis imperio abiectus in profluentem cum Remo fratre non potuit exstingui, si quidem et Tiberinus amnem repressit, et relictis catulis lupa secuta vagitum ubera admovit infantibus matremque se gessit. Sic repertos apud arborem Faustulus regii gregis pastor tulit in casam atque educavit.

1. The first founder both of the city and of the empire was Romulus, begotten by Mars and Rhea Silvia. A pregnant priestess confessed this about herself, nor thereafter did Fame hesitate, when, by the command of King Amulius, he was cast into the running stream with his brother Remus and could not be drowned, since indeed Tiberinus both checked the river, and a she-wolf, leaving her whelps behind, following the wail, offered her teats to the infants and conducted herself as a mother. Thus, found near a tree, Faustulus, shepherd of the royal flock, carried them into his hut and brought them up.

Alba tunc erat Latio caput, Iuli opus; nam Lavinium patris Aeneae contempserat. Ab his Amulius iam septima subole regnabat, fratre pulso Numitore, cuius ex filia Romulus. Igitur statim prima iuventae face patruum ab arce deturbat, avum reponit.

Alba was then the head of Latium, the work of Iulus; for it had disdained Lavinium, the city of father Aeneas. From these, Amulius was now reigning in the seventh generation, his brother Numitor having been expelled, from whose daughter Romulus was born. Therefore, straightway at the first torch of youth, he drives his paternal uncle from the citadel and reinstates his grandfather.

Ipse fulminis amator et montium, apud quod erat educatus, moenia novae urbis agitabat. Gemini erant; uter auspicaretur et regeret, adhibere placuit deos. Remus montem Aventinum, hic Palatinum occupat.

He himself, a lover of the thunderbolt and of mountains, near which he had been reared, was considering the walls of the new city. They were twins; as to which should take the auspices and rule, it pleased them to call in the gods. Remus occupies the Aventine Mount, this one the Palatine.

Prior ille sex vultures, his postea, sed duodecim vidit. Sic victor augurio urbem excitat, plenus spei bellatricem fore; id adsuetae sanguine et praeda aves pollicebantur. Ad tutelam novae urbis sufficere vallum videbatur, cuius dum angustias Remus increpat saltu, dubium an iussu fratris, occisus est: prima certe victima fuit munitionemque urbis novae sanguine suo consecravit.

The former saw six vultures, the latter afterwards saw twelve. Thus, victor by augury, he raises the city, full of hope that it would be bellicose; the birds accustomed to blood and prey were promising this. For the tutelage of the new city a rampart seemed sufficient; but while Remus reproaches its narrowness with a leap—doubtful whether by his brother’s order—he was slain: he was certainly the first victim, and he consecrated the fortification of the new city with his own blood.

Imaginem urbis magis quam urbem fecerat: incolae deerant. Erat in proximo lucus; hunc asylum facit, et statim mira vis hominum: Latini Tuscique pastores, quidam etiam transmarini, Phryges qui sub Aenea, Arcades qui sub Evandro duce influxerant. Ita ex variis quasi elementis congregavit corpus unum, populumque Romanum ipse fecit.

He had made more the image of a city than a city: inhabitants were lacking. There was a grove close by; he makes this an asylum, and at once a wondrous multitude of men: Latin and Tuscan shepherds, some even transmarine, Phrygians who had come in under Aeneas, Arcadians who had flowed in under Evander as leader. Thus from various, as it were, elements he congregated one body, and he himself made the Roman people.

Res erat unius aetatis populus virorum. Itaque matrimonia a finitimis petita quia non inpetrabantur, manu capta sunt. Simulatis quippe ludis equestribus virgines, quae ad spectaculum venerant, praedae fuere.

It was a people of men of a single age. And so marriages, sought from the neighbors because they were not being obtained, were seized by hand. For, with equestrian games feigned, the virgins who had come to the spectacle were booty.

Et haec statim causa bellorum. Pulsi fugatique Veientes. Caeninensium captum ac dirutum est oppidum.

And this was immediately the cause of wars. The Veientes were driven back and put to flight. The town of the Caeninenses was captured and demolished.

Spolia insuper opima de rege Acrone Feretrio Iovi manibus suis rex reportavit. Sabinis proditae portae per virginem Tarpeiam. Nec dolo—sed puella pretium rei quae gerebant in sinistris petierat, dubium clipeos an armillas—illi, ut et fidem solverent et ulciscerentur, clipeis obruere.

Moreover, the king brought back with his own hands the Spolia Opima from King Acron to Jupiter Feretrius. To the Sabines the gates were betrayed by the maiden Tarpeia. Not by trickery—rather, the girl had asked for the price of the thing which they were bearing on their left hands, doubtful whether shields or armlets—they, in order both to discharge their pledge and to avenge themselves, overwhelmed her with their shields.

Ita admissis intra moenia hostibus, atrox in ipso foro pugna, adeo ut Romulus Iovem oraret, foedam suorum fugam sisteret; hinc templum et Stator Iuppiter. Tamen furentibus intervenere raptae laceris comis. Sic pax facta cum Tatio foedusque percussum, secutaque res mira dictu, ut relictis sedibus suis novam in urbem hostes demigrarent et cum generis suis avitas opes pro dote sociarent.

Thus, with the enemies admitted within the walls, there was a fierce fight in the very forum, to such a degree that Romulus prayed to Jupiter to stay the shameful flight of his own men; hence the temple and Jupiter Stator. Nevertheless, the abducted women, with torn hair, intervened among the frenzied combatants. Thus peace was made with Tatius and a treaty was struck, and a matter followed, wondrous to say: with their own seats left behind, the enemies migrated into the new city and, together with their sons-in-law, joined their ancestral wealth as a dowry.

Auctis brevi viribus, hunc rex sapientissimus statum rei publicae inposuit: iuventus divina per tribus in equis et armis ad subita belli excubaret, consilium rei publicae penes senes esset, qui ex auctoritate patres, ob aetatem senatus vocabatur. His ita ordinatis repente, cum contionem haberet ante urbem apud Caprae paludem, e conspectu ablatus est. Discerptum aliqui a senatu putant ob asperius ingenium; sed oborta tempestas solisque defectio consecrationis speciem praebuere.

With the forces soon increased, this most wise king imposed this settlement of the republic: that the youth, divided by tribes, should keep watch on horses and under arms for sudden emergencies of war; that the counsel of the republic should be in the hands of the elders, who, from their authority, were called Fathers, and, on account of their age, the council was called the Senate. With these things thus arranged, suddenly, while he was holding an assembly before the city at the Caprae Marsh, he was taken from sight. Some think he was torn apart by the senate on account of a rather harsh disposition; but a storm arising and an eclipse of the sun offered the appearance of consecration.

Cui mox Iulius Proculus fidem fecit, visum a se Romulum adfirmans augustiore forma quam fuisset; mandare praeterea ut se pro numine acciperent; Quirinum in caelo vocari; placitum diis ut gentium Roma poteretur.

Soon thereafter Julius Proculus gave credence to this, affirming that Romulus had been seen by him in a more august form than he had borne; moreover he mandated that they should receive him as a divinity; that in heaven he is called Quirinus; that it had pleased the gods that Rome should be master of the nations.

Succedit Romulo Numa Pompilius, quem Curibus Sabinis agentem ultro petiverunt ob inclitam viri regionem. Ille sacra et caerimonias omnemque cultum deorum inmortalium docuit, ille pontifices, augures, Salios ceteraque sacerdotia creavit annumque in duodecim menses, fastos dies nefastoque discriptis, ille ancilia atque Palladium, secreta quaedam imperii pignora, Ianumque geminum fidem pacis ac belli, in primis focum Vestae virginibus colendum dedit, ut ad simulacrum caelestium siderum custos imperii flamma vigilaret: haec omnia quasi monitu deae Egeriae, quo magis barbari acciperet. Eo denique ferocem populum redegit, ut quod vi et iniuria occuparat imperium, religione atque iustitia gubernaret.

Succeeds to Romulus Numa Pompilius, whom, living at Cures in the Sabine land, they sought unbidden on account of the man’s renowned piety. He taught the sacred rites and ceremonies and the whole cult of the immortal gods, he created pontiffs, augurs, the Salii, and the other priesthoods, and he set the year into twelve months, with days lawful and unlawful (fasti and nefasti) marked out; he entrusted the ancilia and the Palladium, certain secret pledges of empire, and the twin Janus (Janus Geminus), the token of peace and war; and, above all, he assigned the hearth of Vesta to be tended by the virgins, so that, in likeness to the image of the celestial stars, the flame, guardian of the empire, might keep watch: all these things as if by the monition of the goddess Egeria, that the barbarous people might the more readily accept them. To this point, finally, he brought the fierce people, that the dominion which it had seized by force and injustice, it governed by religion and justice.

Excipit Pompilium Numam Tullus Hostilius, cui in honorem virtutis regnum ultro datum. Hic omnem militarem disciplinam artemque bellandi condidit. Itaque mirum in modum exercita iuventute provocare ausus Albanos, gravem et diu principem populum.

Tullus Hostilius succeeds Numa Pompilius, to whom, in honor of his virtue, the kingship was given of their own accord. He established the whole military discipline and the art of war-making. And so, with the youth trained in a marvelous manner, he dared to provoke the Albans, a grave and long-principal people.

Sed cum pari robore frequentibus proeliis utrique comminuerentur, misso in compendium bello, Horatiis Curiatiisque, trigeminis hinc atque inde fratribus, utriusque populi fata permissa sunt. Anceps et pulchra contentio exituque ipso mirabilis. Tribus quippe illinc volneratis, hinc duobus occisis, qui supererat Horatius addito ad virtutem dolo, ut distraheret hostem, simulat fugam singulosque, prout sequi poterant, adortus exsuperat.

But when, with equal strength, in frequent battles both sides were being worn down, the war having been sent into a compendium, the fates of both peoples were entrusted to the Horatii and the Curiatii, triplet brothers on this side and that. A double-edged and fair contest, and marvelous by the outcome itself. For indeed, with the three on that side wounded, and on this side two slain, the Horatius who remained, with a dolus added to his virtue, so that he might distract the enemy, feigns flight, and, attacking them one by one, as they were able to pursue, prevails.

Sic—rarum alias decus—unius manu parta victoria est, quam ille mox parricidio foedavit. Flentem spolia circa se sponsi quidem, sed hostis, sororem viderat. Hunc tam inmaturum amorem virginis ultus est ferro.

Thus—an honor rare otherwise—the victory was achieved by the hand of one, which he soon defiled by parricide. He had seen his sister weeping, with the spoils of her betrothed—indeed, but an enemy—around her. This so immature love of the virgin he avenged with iron.

Citavere leges nefas, sed abstulit virtus parricidam et facinus infra gloriam fuit. Nec diu in fide Albanus. Nam Fidenates bello missi in auxilium ex foedere medii inter duos exspectavere fortunam.

The laws cited the nefarious act; but virtue carried off the parricide, and the deed was beneath his glory. Nor was the Alban long in good faith. For the Fidenates, sent to the war in aid by the treaty, waited, midway between the two, for fortune.

Sed rex callidus ubi inclinare socios ad hostem videt, tollit animos, quasi ipse mandasset: spes inde nostris, metus hostibus. Sic fraus proditorum inrita fuit. Itaque hoste vincto ruptorem foederis Mettum Fufetium religatum inter duos currus pernicibus equis distrahit, Albamque ipsam quamvis parentem, aemulam tamen diruit, cum prius omnes opes urbis ipsumque populum Romam transtulisset: prorsus ut consanguinea civiutas non perisse, sed in suum corpus redisse rursus videretur.

But the shrewd king, when he sees the allies incline toward the enemy, lifts their spirits, as if he himself had given the order: thence hope for our men, fear for the foes. Thus the treachery of the betrayers was ineffectual. And so, the enemy bound, he has Mettus Fufetius, the breaker of the treaty, fastened and torn apart between two chariots by fleet horses, and he razes Alba itself—though a parent, yet a rival—after he had first transferred to Rome all the resources of the city and the people themselves: altogether so that the consanguine commonwealth might seem not to have perished, but to have returned back into its own body.

Ancus deinde Marcius, nepos Pompili ex filia, pari ingenio. Igitur et muro moenia amplexus est et interfluentem urbi Tiberium ponte commisit Ostiamque in ipso maris fluminisque confinio coloniam posuit, iam tum videlicet praesagiens animo futurum ut totius mundi opes et commeatus illo velut maritimo urbis hospitio reciperentur. Tarquinius postea Priscus transmarinae originis, regnum ultro petens accepit ob industriam atque elegantiam; quippe qui oriundus Corintho Graecum ingenium Italicis artibus miscuisset.

Ancus then Marcius, grandson of Pompilius through a daughter, with an equal genius. Accordingly he both embraced the city-walls with a wall and joined the Tiber, flowing through the city, by a bridge; and he placed a colony at Ostia, at the very boundary of sea and river—already then, plainly, foreboding in mind that it would come to pass that the wealth and convoys of the whole world would be received there, as in the city’s, as it were, maritime hospitium. Tarquinius afterward, Priscus, of overseas origin, seeking the kingship of his own accord received it on account of his industry and elegance; indeed he, sprung from Corinth, had mixed Greek genius with Italian arts.

Hic et senatus maiestatem numero ampliavit, et centuriis tribus auxit, quatenus Attius Nevius numerum augere prohibebat, vir summus augurio. Quem rex in experimentum rogavit, fierine posset, quod ipse mente conceperat. Ille rem expertus augurio, posse respondit.

He both amplified the majesty of the senate in number, and augmented it by three centuries, inasmuch as Attius Navius was forbidding the number to be increased, a man most eminent in augury. The king asked him, for an experiment, whether what he himself had conceived in mind could be done. He, the matter tested by augury, replied that it could be done.

"Atquin hoc", inquit, "agitaram, an cotem illam secare novacula possem"; et augur " potes ergo", inquit, et secuit. Inde Romanis sacer auguratus. Neque pace Tarquinius quam bello promptior.

"But indeed this," he said, "I had been considering, whether I could cut that whetstone with a razor"; and the augur " you can, therefore," he said, and he cut it. Thence among the Romans the augurate was sacred. Nor in peace was Tarquinius more prompt than in war.

Duodecim namque Tusciae populos frequentibus armis subegit. Inde fasces, trabeae, curules, anuli, phalerae, paludamenta, praetextae, inde quod aureo curru, quattuor equis triumphatur, togae pictae tunicaeque palmatae, omnia denique decora et insignia, quibus imperii dignitas eminet. Servius Tullius deinceps gubernacula urbis invadit, nec obscuritas inhibuit quamvis matre serva creatum.

For he subdued by frequent arms the 12 peoples of Tuscany. Thence the fasces, trabeae, curule seats, rings, phalerae, paludaments, praetextae; thence that one triumphs in a golden chariot with four horses, the togae pictae and tunics palmatae—finally, all the ornaments and insignia by which the dignity of imperium stands out. Servius Tullius thereafter seizes the helm of the city, nor did obscurity hinder him, although born of a slave mother.

Nam eximiam indolem uxor Tarquini Tanaquil liberaliter educaverat, et clarum fore visa circa caput flamma promiserat. Ergo inter Tarquini mortem adnitente regina substitutus in locum regis quasi in tempus, regnum dolo partum sic egit industrie, ut iure adeptus videretur. Ab hoc populus Romanus relatus in censum, digestus in classes, decuriis atque collegii distributus, summaque regis sollertia ita est ordinata res publica, ut omnia patrimonii, dignitatis aetatis, artium officiorumque discrimina in tabulas referentur, ac sic maxima civitas minimae domus diligentia contineretur.

For Tanaquil, the wife of Tarquinius, had liberally educated his outstanding natural disposition, and a flame seen around his head had promised that he would be illustrious. Therefore, amid Tarquinius’s death, with the queen striving, he was put in the place of the king as if for a time; the kingship, begotten by guile, he so industriously administered that he seemed to have acquired it by right. From this man the Roman people were entered in the census, arranged into classes, distributed into decuries and colleges, and by the utmost skill of the king the commonwealth was so ordered that all distinctions of patrimony, dignity, age, arts, and offices were recorded on tablets, and thus the greatest state was contained by the diligence of a very small household.

Postremus fuit omnium regum Tarquinius, cui cognomen Superbo ex moribus datum. Hic regnum avitum, quod a Servio tenebatur, rapere maluit quam exspectare, inmissisque in eum percussoribus scelere partam potestatem non melius egit quam adquisiverat. Nec abhorrebat moribus uxor Tullia, quae ut virum regem salutarat, supra cruentum patrem vecta carpento consternatos equos exegit.

Tarquinius was the last of all the kings, to whom the cognomen “the Proud” was given from his character. This man preferred to seize the ancestral kingdom, which was held by Servius, rather than to wait; and, assassins having been sent against him, he exercised the power procured by crime no better than he had acquired it. Nor did his wife Tullia differ in character: when she had saluted her husband as king, borne in a carriage above her bloodied father, she drove on the panic-stricken horses.

Sed ipse in senatum caedibus, in plebem verberibus, in omnis superbia, quae crudelitate gravior est bonis, grassatus, cum saevitiam domi fatigasset, tandem in hostes conversus est. Sic valida oppido in Latio capta sunt, Ardea, Ocriculum, Gabi, Suessa Pometia. Tum quoque cruentus in suos.

But he himself, having raged against the senate with slaughters, against the plebs with beatings, against all with arrogance, which is more grievous than cruelty for good men, when he had wearied out savagery at home, at length turned against the enemies. Thus strong towns in Latium were taken, Ardea, Ocriculum, Gabi, Suessa Pometia. Then too he was bloody against his own.

Neque enim filium verberare dubitavit, ut simulanti transfugam apud hostis hinc fides esset. Cui Gabiis, ut voluerat, recepto et per nuntios consulenti quid fieri vellet, eminentia forte papaverum capita virgula excutiens, cum per hoc interficiendos esse principes vellet intellegi—qua superbia!—sic respondit tamen. De manubiis captarum urbium templum erexit.

For he did not hesitate to scourge his son, so that, as one feigning a transfuge among the enemies, he might gain credence from this. When he had been received at Gabii, as he had wished, and, through messengers, was consulting what he wanted done, he, by chance brushing off with a little rod the prominent heads of the poppies—since by this he wished it to be understood that the princes were to be killed—thus nevertheless replied. From the spoils of captured cities he erected a temple.

Quod cum inauguraretur, cedentibus ceteris diis—mira rei dictu—restitere Iuventas et Terminus. Placuit vatibus contumacia numinum, si quidem firma omnia et aeterna pollicebantur. Sed illud horrendum, quod molientibus aedem in fundamentis humanum repertum est caput, nec dubitavere cuncti monstrum pulcherrimum imperii sedem caputque terrarum promittere.

What, when it was being inaugurated, with the other gods yielding—a marvel to say—Juventas and Terminus stood fast. The contumacy of the numina pleased the vates, since indeed they promised all things to be firm and eternal. But this was horrendous: while they were building the temple, a human head was found in the foundations; nor did all hesitate to declare that this most beautiful prodigy promised the seat of empire and the head of the world.

Tam diu superbiam regis populus Romanus perpessus est, donec aberat libido; hanc ex liberis eius inportunitatem tolerare non potuit. Quorum cum alter ornatissimae feminae Lucretiae stuprum intulisset, matrona dedecus ferro expiavit; imperium regibus abrogatum.

For so long the Roman people endured the king’s arrogance, so long as lust was absent; this insolence from his offspring they could not tolerate. When one of them had inflicted sexual outrage upon Lucretia, a most distinguished woman, the matron expiated the disgrace with iron; the imperium was abrogated from the kings.

II. Haec est prima aetas populi Romani et quasi infantia, quam habuit sub regibus septem, quadam fatorum industria tam variis ingenio, ut rei publicae ratio et utilitas postulabat. Nam quid Romulo ardentius? Tali opus fuit, ut invaderet regnum.

2. This is the first age of the Roman people and, as it were, its infancy, which it had under seven kings, by a certain industry of the fates, so various in genius as the plan and utility of the republic demanded. For what was more ardent than Romulus? There was need of such a one, in order that he might seize the kingship.

Quid Numa religiosius? Ita res poposcit, ut ferox populus deorum metu mitigaretur. Quid ille militiae artifex Tullus?

What more religious than Numa? Thus the situation demanded, that the fierce people be mitigated by fear of the gods. What of that artificer of warfare, Tullus?

Bellatoribus viris quam necessarius, ut acueret ratione virtutem! Quid aedificator Ancus, ut urbem colonia extenderet, ponte iungeret, muro tueretur? Iam vero ornamenta Tarquinii et insignia quantam principi populo addiderunt ex ipso habitu dignitatem!

How necessary to warrior men, to sharpen virtue by reason! What of Ancus the builder, that he might extend the city with a colony, join it with a bridge, defend it with a wall? Now indeed the ornaments and insignia of Tarquinius—how much dignity did they add to the leading people from the very habit/attire!

Actus a Servio census quid effecit, nisi ut ipsa se nosset Romana res publica? Postremo Superbi illius inportuna dominatio non nihil, immo vel plurimum profuit. Sic enim effectum est, ut agitatus iniuriis populus cupiditate libertatis incenderetur.

What did the census driven by Servius accomplish, except that the Roman commonwealth came to know itself? Lastly, the inopportune domination of that Proud one profited not a little—indeed even very greatly. For thus it was brought about that the people, agitated by injuries, were inflamed with a desire for liberty.

III. Igitur Bruto Collatinoque ducibus et auctoribus, quibus ultionem sui moriens matrona mandaverat, populus Romanus ad vindicandum libertatis ac pudicitiae decus quodam quasi instinctu deorum concitatus regem repente destituit, bona diripit, agrum Marti suo consecrat, imperium in eosdem libertatis suae vindices transfert, mutato tamen et iure et nomine. Quippe ex perpetuo annuum placuit, ex singulari duplex, ne potestas solitudine vel mora corrumperetur, consulesque appellavit pro regibus, ut consulere civibus suis debere meminisset. Tantumque libertatis novae gaudium incesserat, ut vix mutati status fidem caperent alterumque ex consulibus, Lucretiae maritum, tantum ob nomen et genus regium fascibus abrogatis urbe dimitterent.

3. Therefore, with Brutus and Collatinus as leaders and instigators, to whom the dying matron had entrusted the avenging of herself, the Roman people, stirred as if by a certain instigation of the gods to vindicate the honor of liberty and chastity, suddenly abandoned the king, plundered his goods, consecrated the field to their own Mars, transferred the command to these same vindicators of their liberty, with both the law and the name, however, changed. Namely, instead of a perpetual office, an annual one pleased them; instead of a single, a double, lest the power be corrupted by solitude or by delay; and they called them consuls in place of kings, that they might remember they ought to consult their fellow-citizens. And so great a joy of new liberty had set in, that they scarcely could credit the changed condition, and they dismissed from the city one of the consuls, the husband of Lucretia, solely on account of the royal name and stock, his fasces having been abrogated.

Itaque substitutus Horatius Publicola ex summo studio adnixus est ad augendam liberi populi maiestatem. Nam et fasces ei pro contione submisit, et ius provocationis adversus ipsos dedit, et ne specie arcis offenderet, eminentis aedis suas in plana submisit. Brutus vero favori civium etiam domus suae clade et parricidio velificatus est.

And so Horatius Publicola, substituted in office, strove with utmost zeal to augment the majesty of the free people. For he both lowered the fasces to the people before the assembly, and he granted the right of appeal (provocatio) against those very magistrates, and, lest he offend by the appearance of a citadel, he brought his prominent dwelling down from its height onto the level ground. But Brutus, for his part, had his sails filled toward the favor of the citizens even by the ruin of his own house and by parricide.

Quippe cum studere revocandis in urbem regibus liberos suos comperisset, protraxit in forum et contione media virgis cecidit securique percussit, ut plane publicus parens in locum liberorum adoptasse sibi populum videretur. Liber iam hinc populus Romanus prima adversus exteros arma pro libertate corripuit, mox pro finibus, deinde pro sociis, tum gloria et imperio, lacessentibus adsidue usquequaque finitimis; quippe cum patrii soli glaeba nulla, sed statim hostile pomerium, mediusque inter Latium atque Tuscos quasi in quodam bivio conlocatus omnibus portis in hostem incurreret; donec quasi contagio quodam per singulos itum est et proximis quibusque correptis totam Italiam sub se redegerunt.

For when he had discovered that his own sons were zealously aiming at recalling the kings into the city, he dragged them into the forum and in the midst of the assembly flogged them with rods and struck them with the axe, so that he seemed plainly, as a public parent, to have adopted the people to himself in place of children. Free from this point, the Roman people first snatched up arms against foreigners for liberty, soon for frontiers, then for allies, then for glory and empire, their neighbors on every side continually provoking them; since there was no clod of native soil, but straightway a hostile pomerium, and, placed midway between Latium and the Tuscans as it were at a certain crossroads, they would rush upon the enemy from all gates; until, as by a certain contagion, it went from one to the next, and, having seized each nearest people, they brought all Italy under their control.

IV. Pulsis urbe regibus prima pro libertate arma corripuit. Nam Porsenna rex Etruscorum ingentibus copiis aderat et Tarquinios manu reducebat. Hunc tamen, quamvis et armis, et fame urgueret occupatoque Ianiculo ipsis urbis faucibus incubaret, sustinuit, reppulit novissime etiam tanta admiratione perculit, ut superior ultro cum paene victis amicitiae foedera feriret.

4. With the kings driven from the city, it first seized arms for liberty. For Porsenna, king of the Etruscans, was present with enormous forces and was bringing back the Tarquins by force. Nevertheless this one, although he pressed both by arms and by famine, and, the Janiculum having been seized, lay upon the very jaws of the city, it withstood, drove him back, and at last even struck him with such admiration that, as the superior, he of his own accord struck treaties of friendship with those almost conquered.

Tum illa tria Romani nominis prodigia atque miracula, Horatius, Mucius, Cloelia, qui nisi in annalibus forent, hodie fabulae viderentur. Quippe Horatius Cocles postquam hostes undique instantes solus submovere non poterat, ponte rescisso transnatat Tiberim nec arma dimittit. Mucius Scaevola regem per insidias in castris ipsius adgreditur, sed ubi frustrato circa purpuratum eius ictu tenetur, ardentibus focis inicit manum terroremque geminat dolo.

Then those three prodigies and miracles of the Roman name—Horatius, Mucius, Cloelia—who, unless they were in the annals, would today seem fables. For indeed Horatius Cocles, after he could not alone drive off the enemies pressing on from every side, with the bridge cut down swims across the Tiber nor does he let go his arms. Mucius Scaevola assails the king by ambush in his very camp; but when, his blow having gone astray about his purple‑clad attendant, he is seized, he casts his hand onto the burning hearths and doubles the terror by his ruse.

"En, ut scias" inquit, "quem virum effugeris; idem trecenti iuravimus"; cum interim—inmane dictu—hic interritus, ille trepidaret, tamquam manus regis arderet. Sic quidem viri; sed ne qui sexus a laude cessaret, ecce et virginum virtus: una ex opsidibus regi datis elapsa custodiam, Cloelia, per patrium flumen equitabat. Et rex quidem tot tantisque esse iussit.

"Lo, so that you may know," he said, "what a man you have escaped; we three hundred have sworn the same"; meanwhile—monstrous to say—this one was undaunted, that one trembled, as though the king’s hand were burning. Thus indeed the men; but lest any sex should be absent from praise, behold also the virtue of virgins: one of the hostages given to the king, having slipped her guard, Cloelia, was riding on horseback through her fatherland’s river. And the king indeed ordered that there be honors so many and so great.

Tarquinii tamen tam diu dimicaverunt, donec Arruntem filium regis manu sua Brutus occidit superque ipsum mutuo volnere exspiravit, plane quasi adulterum ad inferos usque sequeretur.

Nevertheless the Tarquins fought for so long, until Brutus, with his own hand, killed Arruns, the king’s son, and expired upon him from a mutual wound, plainly as if he were pursuing an adulterer even down to the underworld.

V. Latini quoque Tarquinios adserebant aemulatione et invidia, ut populus qui foris dominabatur saltim domi serviret. Igitur omne Latium Mamilio Tusculano duce quasi in regis ultionem tollit animos. Apud Regilli lacum dimicatur diu Marte vario, donec Postumius ipse dictator signum in hostis iaculatus est—novum et insigne commentum—ut inde peteretur.

5. The Latins also were championing the Tarquins out of emulation and envy, so that the people who lorded it abroad might at least serve at home. Therefore all Latium, with Mamilius of Tusculum as leader, lifts its spirits, as if for the king’s vengeance. By Lake Regillus battle is fought for a long time, with the fortune of war varying, until Postumius himself, the dictator, hurled the standard into the enemy—a new and notable contrivance—so that it might be sought from there.

Cossus equitum magister exuere frenos imperavit—et hoc novum—quo acrius incurrerent. Ea denique atrocitas proelii fuit, ut interfuisse spectaculo deos fama tradiderit. Duo in candidis equis iuvenes more siderum praetervolaverunt: Castorem atque Pollucem nemo dubitavit.

Cossus, the master of horse, ordered the bridles to be stripped off—this too was novel—so that they might charge more keenly. Such, in fine, was the atrocity of the battle, that tradition has reported the gods to have been present at the spectacle. Two youths on white horses flew past in the manner of stars: no one doubted they were Castor and Pollux.

Itaque et imperator ipse veneratus est pactusque victoriam templa promisit et reddidit, plane quasi stipendium commilitonibus diis. Hactenus pro libertate, mox de finibus cum isdem Latinis adsidue et sine intermissione pugnatum est. Cora—qui credat?—et Alsium terrori fuerunt, Satricum atque Corniculum provinciae.

And so even the commander himself paid veneration and, having struck a pact for victory, promised temples and delivered them—plainly as if a stipend to his comrades-in-arms, the gods. Thus far it was for liberty; soon thereafter it was fought over borders with these same Latins assiduously and without intermission. Cora—who would believe it?—and Alsium were a terror, Satricum and Corniculum a province.

De Verulis et Bovillis pudet, sed triumphavimus. Tibur, nunc suburbanum, et aestivae Praeneste deliciae nuncupantis in Capitolio votis petebantur. Idem tunc Faesulae quod Carrhae nuper, idem nemus Aricinum quod Hercynius saltus, Fregellae quod Gesoriacum, Tiberis quod Euphrates.

Of Verulae and Bovillae one is ashamed, but we have triumphed. Tibur, now a suburb, and Praeneste—the summer delights of the one proclaiming vows on the Capitol—were sought by vows. The same then was Faesulae as recently Carrhae, the same the Arician grove as the Hercynian forest, Fregellae as Gesoriacum, the Tiber as the Euphrates.

Coriolos quoque—pro pudor!—victos adeo gloriae fuisse, ut captum oppidum Gnaeus Marcius Coriolanus quasi Numantiam aut Africam nomini indueret. Exstant et parta de Antio spolia, quae Maenius in suggestu fori capta hostium classe suffixit—si tamen illa classis, nam sex fuere rostratae. Sed hic numerus illis initiis navale bellum fuit.

Corioli too—shame!—when vanquished proved so much a glory, that Gnaeus Marcius Coriolanus put the captured town onto his name as if it were Numantia or Africa. There also exist spoils won from Antium, which Maenius fastened upon the platform of the Forum from the captured enemy fleet—if indeed that was a fleet, for there were six rostrate ships. But this tally, in those beginnings, was a naval war.

Pervicacissimi tamen Latinorum Aequi et Volsci fuere et cotidiani, ut sic dixerim, hostes. Sed hos praecipue Titus Quinctius domuit, ille dictator ab aratro, qui obsessa et paene iam capta Manili consulis castra egregia virtute servavit. Medium erat tempus forte sementis, cum patricium virum innixum aratro suo lictor in ipso opere deprehendit.

Yet the Aequi and the Volsci were the most obstinate among the Latins and, so to speak, quotidian enemies. But these Titus Quinctius especially subdued, that dictator from the plow, who by exemplary valor saved the camp of the consul Manilius, besieged and now almost captured. It happened to be the very middle of sowing-time, when a lictor caught a patrician man leaning on his own plow in the very act of work.

Inde in aciem profectus, victos, ne quid a rustici operis imitatione cessaret, more pecudum sub iugum misit. Sic expeditione finita rediit ad boves rursus triumphalis agricola—fidem numinum—qua velocitate! Intra quindecim dies coeptum peractumque bellum, prorsus ut festinasse dictator ad relictum opus videretur.

Thence, having set out into the battle-line, he sent the conquered, so that nothing might slacken from the imitation of rustic work, under the yoke in the manner of cattle. Thus, the expedition finished, he returned to the oxen again—the triumphal farmer—by the faith of the numina—what velocity! Within fifteen days the war was begun and completed, exactly so that the dictator seemed to have hastened to the work left behind.

VI. Adsidui vero et anniversarii hostes ab Etruria fuere Veientes, adeo ut extraordinariam manum adversus eos promiserit privatumque gesserit bellum gens una Fabiorum. Satis superque idonea clades. Caesi apud Cremeram trecenti, patricius exercitus; id scelerato signat nomine quae proficiscentes in proelium porta dimisit.

6. But the Veientes from Etruria were assiduous and anniversary enemies, to such a degree that an extraordinary band was pledged against them and a private war was waged by the one gens of the Fabii. A calamity sufficient and more than sufficient. At the Cremera, 300 were cut down, a patrician army; that brands with an accursed name the gate which sent them forth as they set out into battle.

Sed ea clades ingentibus expiata victoriis, postquam per alios atque alios robustissima capta sunt oppida, vario quidem eventu. Falisci sponte se dediderunt, crematae suo igne Fidenae, direpti funditur deletique Veientes. Falisci cum obsiderentur, mira est visa fides imperatoris, nec inmerito, quod ludi magistrum, urbis proditorem, cum his quos adduxerat pueris vinctum sibi ultro remisisset.

But that disaster was expiated by enormous victories, after one after another the most robust towns were captured, indeed with a varied outcome. The Faliscans surrendered of their own accord; Fidenae was burned by its own fire; the Veientines were plundered and utterly destroyed. When the Faliscans were being besieged, the marvelous fidelity of the commander was seen—and not without desert—in that he had of his own accord sent back to them the schoolmaster, the city’s betrayer, bound together with the boys whom he had brought.

Eam namque vir sanctus et sapiens veram sciebat esse victoriam, quae salva fide et integra dignitate pareretur. Fidenae quia pares non erant ferro, ad terrorem movendum facibus armatae et discoloribus serpentium in modum vittis furiali more processerant; sed habitus ille feralis eversionis omen fuit. Veientium quanta res fuerit, indicat decennis obsidio.

For that the holy and wise man knew to be true victory, which is obtained with faith kept safe and with integral dignity. The Fidenates, because they were not a match for the sword, to arouse terror had advanced armed with torches and with variegated fillets in the manner of serpents, in Furial fashion; but that funereal attire was an omen of overthrow. How great a matter the Veientes were, the decennial siege indicates.

Tum primo hiematum sub pellibus, taxata stipendio hiberna, adactus miles sua sponte iure iurando ne nisi capta urbe remearet. Spolia de Larte Tolumnio rege ad Feretrium reportata. Denique non scalis nec inruptione, sed cuniculo et subterraneis dolis peractum urbis excidium.

Then for the first time they wintered under skins, the winter quarters assessed to the stipend; the soldiery, of their own accord, were bound by oath not to return unless the city were taken. The spoils from King Lars Tolumnius were carried back to the Feretrian shrine. Finally, the destruction of the city was effected not by ladders nor by an irruption, but by a mine and subterranean stratagems.

Ea denique visa est praedae magnitudo, cuius decimae Apollini Pythio mitterentur, universusque populus Romanus ad direptionem urbis vocaretur. Hoc tunc Vei fuere. Nunc fuisse quis meminit?

At last such a magnitude of booty was seen, that tithes should be sent to Apollo Pythian, and the entire Roman people be summoned to the direption of the city. Such then were Veii. Who now remembers that they ever were?

Quae reliquiae? Quodve vestigium? Laborat annalium fides, ut Veios fuisse credamus.

What relics? Or what vestige? The faith of the annals labors, that we may believe Veii once existed.

VII. Hic sive invidia deum sive fato rapidissimus procurrentis imperii cursus parumper Gallorum Senonum incursione supprimitur. Quod tempus populo Romano nescio utrum clade funestius fuerit, an virtutis experimentis speciosius. Ea certe fuit vis calamitatis, ut in experimentum inlatam putem divinitus, scire volentibus inmortalibus dis, an Romana virtus imperium orbis mereretur.

VII. Here, whether by the envy of the gods or by fate, the most rapid course of the advancing imperium is for a little while suppressed by the incursion of the Gallic Senones. Which time for the Roman people I do not know whether it was more funereal with disaster, or more splendid with experiments of virtus. Such, certainly, was the force of the calamity, that I think it was brought in as an experiment divinely, the immortal gods wishing to know whether Roman virtus merited the imperium of the orb.

Galli Senones, gens natura ferox, moribus incondita, ad hoc ipsa corporum mole, perinde armis ingentibus, adeo omni genere terribilis fuit, ut plane nata ad hominum interitum, urbium stragem videretur. Hi quondam ab ultimis terrarum oris et cingente omnia Oceano ingenti agmine profecti cum iam media vastassent, positis inter. Alpes et Padum sedibus, ne his quidem contenti per Italiam vagabantur; tum Clusium urbem obsidebant.

The Gallic Senones, a race ferocious by nature, incondite in morals, and furthermore by the very mass of their bodies, likewise by enormous arms, were so terrible in every respect that they seemed plainly born for the destruction of men and the wreck of cities. These once, from the farthest shores of the earth, with Ocean encircling all, set out in a huge marching column; and when they had already laid waste the midlands, after establishing settlements between the Alps and the Po, not even content with these, they wandered through Italy; then they were besieging the city of Clusium.

Pro sociis ac foederatis Romanus intervenit; missi ex more legati. Sed quod ius apud barbaros? Ferocius agunt, et inde certamen.

On behalf of the allies and confederates, the Roman intervened; legates were sent according to custom. But what right among barbarians? They act more ferociously, and from that, a contest.

Conversis igitur a Clusio Romamque venientibus ad Alliam flumen cum exercitus Fabius consul occurrit. Non temere foedior clades; itaque hunc diem fastis Roma damnavit. Fuso exercitu iam moenibus urbis propinquabant.

Therefore, when they had turned away from Clusium and were coming toward Rome, at the river Allia the consul Fabius met them with the army. Seldom was there a fouler disaster; therefore Rome condemned this day in the Fasti. The army routed, they were now drawing near to the walls of the city.

Erant nulla praesidia. Tum igitur aut numquam alias apparuit vera illa Romana virtus. Iam primum maiores natu, amplissimis usi honoribus, in forum coeunt, ibi devovente pontifice se diis manibus consecrant, statimque in suas quisque aedes regressi, sic ut in trabeis erant et amplissimo cultu, in curulibus sellis sese reposuerunt, ut, cum venisset hostis, in sua quisque dignitate morerentur.

There were no defenses. Then, therefore, or at no other time, did that true Roman virtus appear. First of all, the elders, who had enjoyed the most ample honors, gather in the forum; there, with the pontiff pronouncing a devotio, they consecrate themselves to the divine Manes, and immediately, each having gone back to his own house, just as they were in their trabeae and in most splendid attire, they set themselves down in their curule chairs, so that, when the enemy should come, each might die in his own dignity.

Pontifices et flamines quidquid religiosissimi in templis erat, partim in doleis defossa terra recondunt, partim inposita plaustris secum Veios auferunt. Virgines simul ex sacerdotio Vestae nudo pede fugientia sacra comitantur. Tamen excepisse fugientis unus a plebe fertur Albinius, qui depositis uxore et liberis virgines in plaustrum recepit.

The pontiffs and the flamens conceal whatever was most sacred in the temples: some they re-hide in casks sunk in the earth; some, set upon wagons, they carry off with them to Veii. The virgins likewise from the priesthood of Vesta accompany the fleeing sacra barefoot. Yet Albinius, one man of the plebs, is said to have taken up the fugitives, who, having set down his wife and children, received the virgins into the wagon.

Adeo tunc quoque in ultimis religio publica privatis adfectibus antecellebat. Iuventus vero, quam satis constat vix mille hominum fuisse, duce Manlio arcem Capitolini montis insedit, obtestata ipsum quasi praesentem Iovem, ut "quem ad modum ipsi ad defendendum templum eius concurrissent, ita ille virtutem eorum numine suo tueretur". Aderant interim Galli apertamque urbem primo trepidi, ne qui subesset dolus, mox, ubi solitudinem vident, pari clamore et impetu invadunt. Patentes passim domos adeunt.

To such a degree then too, even in the last extremities, the public religion outshone private affections. The youth, moreover—of whom it is sufficiently agreed there were scarcely a thousand men—under the leader Manlius occupied the citadel of the Capitoline mount, calling upon Jupiter himself as if present, that “just as they themselves had run together to defend his temple, so he would protect their virtus by his numen.” Meanwhile the Gauls were at hand, and, the city lying open, at first, fearful lest some trick were lurking beneath, soon, when they see the solitude, with equal clamor and onset they burst in. They go into open houses everywhere.

Ibi sedentes in curulibus suis praetextato senes velut deos geniosque venerati, mox eosdem, postquam esse homines liquebat, alioquin nihil respondere dignantes pari vecordia mactant facesque tectis iniciunt et totam urbem igni, ferro, manibus exaequant. Sex mensibus barbari—quis crederet?—circa montem unum pependerunt, nec diebus modo, sed noctibus quoque omnia experti; cum tamen Manlius nocte subeuntis clangore anseris excitatus a summa rupe deiecit, et ut spem hostibus demeret, quamquam in summa fame, tamen ad speciem fiduciae panes ab arce iaculatus est. Et stato quodam die per medias hostium custodias Fabium pontificem ab arce dimisit, qui solemne in Quirinali monte conficeret.

There, sitting in their curule chairs, the praetextate elders, as though venerating them as gods and genii, soon the same men—after it was clear that they were men—otherwise deeming them not worthy to answer anything, with equal madness they slaughter, and they cast torches upon the roofs and level the whole city with fire, iron, and their hands. For six months the barbarians—who would believe it?—hung about one hill, and tried everything not only by day but also by night; when, nevertheless, Manlius, roused at night by the clangor of a goose, hurled down from the top of the cliff those who were climbing up, and, in order to remove hope from the enemies, although in utmost famine, nevertheless for a show of confidence hurled loaves from the citadel. And on a certain appointed day he sent down from the citadel through the midst of the enemies’ guards the pontiff Fabius, to complete the solemn rite on the Quirinal Mount.

Atque ille per media hostium tela incolumis religionis auxilio redivit propitioque deos renuntiavit. Novissime cum iam obsidio sua barbaros fatigasset, mille pondo auri recessum suum venditantes, idque ipsum per insolentiam, cum ad iniqua pondera addito adhuc gladio insuper "vae victis" increparent, subito adgressus a tergo Camillus adeo cecidit, ut omnia incendium vestigia Gallicis sanguinis inundatione deleret. Agere gratia dis inmortalibus ipso tantae cladis nomine libet.

And he, through the midst of the enemy’s missiles, returned unhurt by the aid of religion and reported the gods propitious. At last, when now the siege had wearied the barbarians, selling their withdrawal for a thousand pounds of gold—and that very thing, through insolence, when, to unjust weights, with a sword added on top besides, they cried out “woe to the conquered”—Camillus, suddenly attacking from the rear, struck them down to such a degree that he wiped out all traces of the conflagration by a flood of Gallic blood. It is pleasing to render thanks to the immortal gods at the very name of so great a disaster.

Pastorum casas ignis ille et flamma paupertatem Romuli abscondit. Incendium illud quid egit aliud, nisi ut destinata hominum ac deorum domicilio civitas non deleta nec obruta, sed expiata potius et lustrata videatur? Igitur post adsertam a Manlio, restitutam a Camillo urbem acrius etiam vehementiusque in finitimos resurrexit.

That fire and flame concealed the shepherds’ huts and the poverty of Romulus. What did that conflagration accomplish other than that the city, destined for the domicile of men and gods, might seem not destroyed nor overwhelmed, but rather expiated and lustrated? Therefore, after the city had been asserted by Manlius and restored by Camillus, it rose up even more keenly and more vehemently against its neighbors.

VIII. Ac primum omnium illa ipsam Gallicam gentem non contentus moenibus expulisse, cum per Italiam naufragia sua latius traherent, sic persecutus est duce Camillo, ut hodie nulla Senonum vestigia supersint. Semel apud Anienem trucidati, cum singulari certamine Manlius aureum torquem barbaro inter spolia detraxit, unde Torquati. Iterum Pomptino agro, cum in simili pugna Valerius, insidente galeae sacra alite adiutus, tulit spolia; et inde Corvini.

8. And first of all, not content to have expelled that Gallic nation itself from the walls, while they were dragging their own shipwrecked remnants more widely through Italy, he pursued them under the leadership of Camillus in such a way that today no vestiges of the Senones survive. Once at the Anio they were butchered, when in single combat Manlius tore a golden torque from the barbarian amid the spoils, whence the Torquati. Again in the Pomptine countryside, when in a similar fight Valerius, aided by a sacred bird perching on his helmet, carried off the spoils; and thence the Corvini.

Nec non tamen post aliquod annos omnis reliquias eorum in Etruria ad lacum Vadimonis Dolabella delevit, ne quis exstaret ex ea gente, quae incensam a se Romanam urbem gloriaretur.

And nonetheless, after some years, Dolabella obliterated all their remnants in Etruria at Lake Vadimon, lest anyone exist from that nation who would vaunt that the Roman city had been burned by it.

IX. Conversus a Gallis in Latinos Manlio Torquato Decio Mure consulibus, semper quidem aemulatione imperii infestos, tum vero contemptu urbis incensae, cum ius civitatis, partem imperii et magistratuum posceret, atque iam amplius quam congredi auderent. Quo tempore quis cessisse hostem mirabitur? Cum alter consulum filium suum, quia contra imperium repugnaverat, quamvis victorem occiderit ostenderitque plus esse in imperio quam in victoria; alter quasi monitu deorum capite velato primam ante aciem dis manibus se devoverit, ut in confertissima se hostium tela iaculatus novum ad victoriam iter sanguinis sui limite aperiret.

9. Turning from the Gauls to the Latins, with Manlius Torquatus and Decius Mus as consuls, a people always indeed hostile through rivalry for dominion, but then truly through contempt for the city having been burned, in that they demanded the right of citizenship, a share of rule and of magistracies, and now were daring things beyond coming to an engagement. Who at that time will wonder that the enemy yielded? When one of the consuls killed his own son, because he had fought contrary to orders, although victorious, and showed that there is more in command than in victory; the other, as if at the monition of the gods, with head veiled, devoted himself to the Manes before the front line, so that, having hurled himself into the thickest missiles of the enemy, he might open a new way to victory by the track of his own blood.

X. A Latinis adgressus est gentem Sabinorum, qui immemores factae sub Tito Tatio adfinitatis quodam contagio belli se Latinis adiunxerant. Sed Curio Dentato consule omnem eum tractum, qua Nar, Anio, fontes Velini, Hadriano tenus mari, igni ferroque vastavit. Qua victoria tantum hominum, tantum agrorum redactum in potestatem, ut in ultro plus esset nec ipse posset aestimare qui vicerat.

10. From the Latins he advanced against the nation of the Sabines, who, unmindful of the affinity formed under Titus Tatius, had joined themselves to the Latins by a certain contagion of war. But with Curius Dentatus as consul, he laid waste with fire and sword all that tract where the Nar, the Anio, the sources of the Velinus are, as far as the Adriatic Sea. By that victory so many men, so many fields were reduced into power that there was more over and above, nor could even he who had conquered estimate it.

XI. Precibus deinde Campaniae motus non pro se, sed eo speciosius pro sociis Samnitas invadit. Erat foedus cum utrisque percussum, sed hoc Campani sanctius et prius omnium suorum deditione fecerunt; sic ergo Romanus bellum Samniticum tamquam sibi gessit. Omnium non modo Italiae, sed toto orbe terrarum pulcherrima Campaniae plaga est.

11. Moved then by the entreaties of Campania, he attacks the Samnites not for himself, but all the more honorably for his allies. A treaty had been struck with both parties, but the Campanians made this more sacred and prior by the surrender of all that was theirs; thus therefore the Roman waged the Samnite war as though for himself. Of all, not only in Italy, but in the whole orb of the lands, the most beautiful tract is that of Campania.

Nihil mollius caelo: denique bis floribus vernat. Nihil uberius solo: ideo Liberi Cererisque certamen dicitur. Nihil hospitalius mari: hic illi nobiles portus Caieta, Misenus, tepentes fontibus Baiae, Lucrinus et Avernus, quaedam maris otia.

Nothing softer in the sky: indeed it twice blooms with flowers. Nothing more abundant in the soil: therefore the contest of Liber and Ceres is said. Nothing more hospitable in the sea: here it has those noble harbors Gaeta, Misenus, Baiae warm with springs, Lucrinus and Avernus, a certain repose of the sea.

Hic amicti vitibus montes Gaurus, Falernus, Massicus et pulcherrimus omnium Vesuvius, Aetnaei ignis imitator. Vrbes ad mare Formiae, Cumae, Puteoli, Neapolis, Herculaneum, Pompei, et ipsa caput urbium, Capua, quondam inter tres maximas (Romam Carthaginemque) numerata. Pro hac urbe, his regionibus populus Romanus Samnitas invadit, gentem si opulentiam quaeras, aureis et argenteis armis et discolori veste usque ad ambitum ornatam; si fallaciam, saltibus fere et montium fraude grassantem; si rabiem ac furorem, sacratis legibus humanisque hostiis in exitium urbis agitatam; si pertinaciam, sexies rupto foedere cladibusque ipsis animosiorem.

Here the mountains cloaked with vines are Gaurus, Falernus, Massicus, and the most beautiful of all, Vesuvius, an imitator of the Aetnaean fire. Cities on the sea are Formiae, Cumae, Puteoli, Neapolis, Herculaneum, Pompeii, and the very head of cities, Capua, once counted among the three greatest (Rome and Carthage). For the sake of this city, for these regions, the Roman people attack the Samnites, a nation, if you ask as to opulence, adorned with golden and silver arms and with a variegated garment ornamented all the way to the border; if as to fallacy, advancing for the most part by forest-passes and by the fraud of the mountains; if as to rabies and fury, driven, by sacred laws and human victims, to the destruction of the city; if as to pertinacity, with the treaty broken six times and made more spirited by the disasters themselves.

Hos tamen quinquaginta annis per Fabios ac Papirios patres eorumque liberos ita subegit ac domuit, ita ruinas ipsas urbium diruit, ut hodie Samnium in ipso Samnio requiratur nec facile appareat materia quattuor et viginti triumphorum. Maxime tamen nota et inlustris apud Caudinas furculas ex hac gente clades Veturio Postumioque consulibus accepta est. Cluso per insidias intra eum saltum exercitu, unde non posset evadere, stupens tanta occasione dux hostium Pontius Herennium patrem consuluit.

These, however, in fifty years, through the Fabii and the Papirii, the fathers and their children, he so subjugated and subdued, he so demolished even the very ruins of the cities, that today Samnium is sought in Samnium itself, nor does the material for 24 triumphs easily appear. Most notably and illustriously, the calamity at the Caudine Forks from this people was sustained under the consuls Veturius and Postumius. With the army shut in by ambush within that pass, whence it could not escape, the leader of the enemy, Pontius, astonished at so great an opportunity, consulted his father Herennius.

Et ille, mitteret omnes vel occideret, sapienter ut senior suaserat: hic armis exutos mittere sub iugum maluit, ut nec amici forent beneficio et post flagitium hostes magis. Itaque et consules statim magnifice voluntaria deditione turpitudinem foederis dirimunt, et ultionem flagitans miles Papirio duce—horribile dictu—strictis ensibus per ipsam viam ante pugnam furit; et in congressu arsisse omnium oculos hostis auctor fuit. Nec prius finis caedibus datus, quam iugum et hostibus et duci capto reposuerunt.

And he, that he should either send all away or kill them, had wisely, as an elder, advised: this one preferred to send them, stripped of arms, under the yoke, so that they would be neither friends by a benefaction and, after the disgrace, all the more enemies. And so the consuls at once, magnificently, by a voluntary surrender sever the disgrace of the treaty; and the soldiery, demanding vengeance, with Papirius as leader—horrible to say—with swords drawn rages along the very road before the battle; and in the encounter the foe was the instigator that the eyes of all blazed. Nor was an end to the slaughters granted before they put back the yoke both upon the enemies and upon their captured leader.

XII. Hactenus cum singulis gentium, mox acervatim; sic tamen quoque par omnibus fuit. Etruscorum duodecim populi, Vmbri in id tempus intacti, antiquissimus Italiae populus, Samnitium reliqui in excidium Romani nominis reperte coniurant.

12. Thus far he dealt with the nations one by one, soon en masse; yet even so he was a match for all. The twelve peoples of the Etruscans, the Umbri, untouched to that time, the most ancient people of Italy, and the rest of the Samnites, openly conspire for the destruction of the Roman name.

Erant terror ingens tot simul tantorumque populorum. Late per Etruriam infesta quattuor agminum signa volitabant. Ciminius interim saltus in medio, ante invius plane quasi Caledonius vel Hercynius, adeo tum terrori erat, ut senatus consuli denuntiaret ne tantum periculi ingredi auderet.

There was an immense terror at so many peoples, all at once and so great. Far and wide through Etruria the hostile standards of four columns were flitting. Meanwhile the Ciminian pass, in the midst, formerly plainly impassable, as if Caledonian or Hercynian, was then so much a cause of terror that the Senate warned the consul not to dare to enter upon so great a peril.

Sed nihil horum terruit ducem; quin fratre praemisso explorat accessus. Ille per nocte pastorio habitu speculatus omnia refert tutum iter. Sic Fabius Maximus periculosissimum bellum sine periculo explicuit.

But none of these things terrified the leader; rather, with his brother sent ahead, he explored the approaches. He, by night, in a shepherd’s habit, having spied out everything, reported a safe route. Thus Fabius Maximus brought the most perilous war to an end without peril.

Nam subito inconditos atque palantis adgressus est captisque superioribus iugis in subiectos suo iure detonuit. Ea namque species fuit illius belli, quasi in terrigenas e caelo ac nubibus tela iacerentur. Nec incruenta tamen illa victoria.

For suddenly he attacked the disordered and the stragglers, and, the higher ridges having been seized, he thundered down upon those below by his own right. For such was the aspect of that war, as if missiles were being hurled from heaven and the clouds against earth-born men. Nor, however, was that victory bloodless.

Nam oppressus in sinu vallis alter consulum Decius more patrio devotum dis manibus optulit caput, sollemnemque familiae suae consecrationem in victoriae pretium redegit.

For, overwhelmed in the bosom of the valley, the other of the consuls, Decius, offered his head, devoted to the di Manes, by ancestral custom, and converted the solemn consecration of his family into the price of victory.

XIII. Sequitur bellum Tarentinum, unum quidem titulo et nomine, sed victoria multiplex. Hoc enim Campanos, Apulos atque lucanos et caput belli Tarentinos, id est totam Italiam, et cum his omnibus Pyrrhum, clarissimum Graeciae regem, una veluti ruina pariter involvit, ut eodem tempore et Italiam consummaret et transmarinos triumphos auspicaretur. Tarentos, Lacedaemoniorum opus, Calabriae quondam et Apuliae totiusque Lucaniae caput, cum magnitudine et muris portuque nobilis, tum mirabilis situ, quippe in ipsis Hadriani maris faucibus posita in omnis terras, Histriam, Illyricum, Epiron, Achaiam, Africam, Siciliam vela dimittit.

13. The Tarentine war follows—one indeed in title and name, but manifold in victory. For this one, as if in a single common ruin, alike wrapped up the Campanians, the Apulians and the Lucanians, and the head of the war, the Tarentines—that is to say, all Italy—and with all these Pyrrhus, the most illustrious king of Greece, so that at the same time it both consummated Italy and inaugurated transmarine triumphs. Tarentum, a work of the Lacedaemonians, once the head of Calabria and Apulia and all Lucania, notable for its size and its walls and its harbor, and marvelous in its site—in fact, set in the very jaws of the Adriatic Sea—sends forth its sails to all lands: Histria, Illyricum, Epirus, Achaia, Africa, Sicily.

Inminet portui ad prospectum maris positum mavis theatrum, quod quidem causa miserae civitati fuit omnium calamitatum. Ludos forte celebrabat, cum adremigantes litoris Romanas classes videant, atque hostem rati emicant, sine discrimine insultant. Qui enim aut unde Romani?

A theatre overhangs the harbor, set for a prospect of the sea, which indeed was the cause to the miserable city of all its calamities. By chance it was celebrating games, when they see the Roman fleets rowing along the shoreline, and, thinking them an enemy, they dart out and assail without distinction. For who, indeed, or whence, were the Romans?

Nec satis. Aderat sine mora querelam ferens legatio: hanc quoque foede per obscenam turpemque dictu contumeliam violant; et hinc bellum. Sed apparatus horribilis, cum tot simul populi pro Tarentinis consurgeret omnibusque vehementior Pyrrhus, qui semigraecam ex Lacedaemoniis conditoribus civitatem vindicaturus cum totis viribus Epiri, Thessaliae, Macedoniae incognitisque in id tempus elephantis mari, terra, viris, equis, armis, addito insuper ferarum terrore veniebat.

Nor was it enough. Without delay there was present a legation bearing a complaint: this too they outrage foully with an obscene and shameful-to-say contumely; and from this, war. But the apparatus was horrific, since so many peoples at once rose up for the Tarentines, and more vehement than all was Pyrrhus, who, to vindicate a half-Greek city with Lacedaemonian founders, was coming with the full forces of Epirus, Thessaly, and Macedonia, and with elephants unknown till that time, by sea and land, with men, horses, arms, the terror of the beasts added besides.

Apud Heracleam Campaniae fluviumque Lirim Laevino consule prima pugna, quae tam atrox fuit ut Ferentanae turmae praefectus Obsidius, invectus in regem, turbaverit coegeritque proiectis insignibus proelio excedere. Actum erat, nisi elephanti converso in spectaculum bello procucurrissent, quorum cum magnitudine tum deformitate et novo odore simul ac stridore consternati equi, cum incognitas sibi beluas amplius quam erant suspicarentur, fugam stragemque late dederunt. In Apulia deinde apud Asculum melius dimicatum est Curio Fabricioque consulibus.

At Heraclea in Campania and by the river Liris, with Laevinus as consul, the first battle took place, which was so atrocious that Obsidius, prefect of the Ferentane squadron, having charged upon the king, threw him into turmoil and forced him, with his insignia cast away, to withdraw from the battle. It would have been finished, had not the elephants, with the battle turned into a spectacle, rushed forward; at whose both magnitude and deformity, and the novel odor as well as the screeching, the horses, thrown into consternation, since they suspected the beasts unknown to them to be more than they were, gave flight and a wide-spread carnage. Then in Apulia near Asculum, there was better fighting, with Curio and Fabricius as consuls.

Iam quippe terror beluarum exoleverat, et Gauis Numicius quartae legionis hastatus unius proboscide abscisa mori posse beluas ostenderat. Itaque in ipsas pila congesta sunt, et in turres vibratae faces tota hostium agmina ardentibus ruinis operuerunt: nec alius cladi finis fuit quam mox dirimeret, postremusque fugientium <rex> ipse a satellitibus umero saucius in armis suis referretur. Lucaniae suprema pugna sub Arusini quos vocant campis, ducibus isdem quibus superius; sed tum tota victoria.

For by now the terror of the beasts had died out, and Gaius Numicius, a hastatus of the fourth legion, by cutting off the proboscis of one had shown that the beasts could die. And so the pila (javelins) were heaped upon the beasts themselves, and torches, hurled into the towers, covered the whole battle-lines of the enemy with blazing ruins: nor was there any other end to the slaughter than that it was soon broken off, and, last of the fugitives, the <king> himself, wounded in the shoulder, was carried back by his bodyguards in his armor. The final battle of Lucania was under the fields which they call Arusini, with the same commanders as above; but then with total victory.

Exitum, quem datura virtus fuit, casus dedit. Nam provectis in primam aciem rursus elephantis, unum ex his pullum adacti in caput teli gravis ictus avertit; qui cum per stragem suorum recurrens stridore quereretur, mater agnovit et quasi vindicaret exiluit, tum omnia circa quasi hostilia gravi mole permiscuit. Ac sic eaedem ferae, quae primam victoriam abstulerunt, secundam parem fecerunt, tertiam sine controversia tradiderunt.

The outcome which valor was going to grant, chance gave. For when the elephants had again been brought forward into the front line, a heavy blow of a weapon driven into the head turned aside one of them, a calf; and as it, running back through the carnage of its own, was complaining with a shrill stridor, the mother recognized it and, as though to avenge, leapt forth, then with her heavy mass threw everything around, as if hostile, into confusion. And thus the same beasts who had taken away the first victory made the second equal, and handed over the third without controversy.

Nec vero tantum armis et in campo, sed consiliis quoque et domi (intra urbem) cum rege Pyrrho dimicatum est. Quippe post primam victoriam intellecta vir callidus virtute Romana statim desperavit armis seque ad dolos contulit. Nam interemptos cremavit, captivosque indulgenter habuit et sine pretio restituit, missisque legatis in urbem omni modo adnixus est, ut facto foedere in amicitiam reciperetur.

Nor indeed was there fighting only with arms and in the field, but also with counsels and at home (within the city) with King Pyrrhus. For, after the first victory, once Roman virtus had been understood, the crafty man straightway despaired of arms and betook himself to dolos. For he cremated the slain, and treated the captives indulgently and restored them without price, and, legates having been sent into the city, he strove in every way that, a foedus having been made, he might be received into friendship.

Sed et bello et pace et foris et domi omnem in partem Romana virtus tum se adprobavit, nec alia magis quam Tarentina victoria ostendit populi Romani fortitudinem, senatus sapientiam, ducum magnanimitatem. Quinam illi fuerunt viri, quos ab elephantis primo proelio obtritos accepimus? Omnium volnera in pectore, quidam hostibus suis morte sua commortui, omnium in manibus ensis, et relictae in voltibus minae, et in ipsa morte ira vivebat.

But both in war and in peace, and abroad and at home, in every respect Roman virtue then approved itself; nor did anything more than the Tarentine victory show the fortitude of the Roman people, the sapience of the senate, the magnanimity of the leaders. Who, pray, were those men, whom we have received as having been crushed by the elephants in the first battle? The wounds of all upon the breast; certain men died together with their enemies by their own death; the sword in the hands of all; and threats left on their faces, and in death itself anger was living.

Quod adeo Pyrrhus miratus est ut diceret "o quam facile erat orbis imperium occupare, aut mihi Romanis militibus, aut me rege Romanis". Quae autem eorum qui superfuerunt in reparando exercitu festinatio, cum Pyrrhus "video me", inquit, "plane procreatum Herculis semine, cui quasi ab angue Lernaeo tot caesa hostium capita quasi de sanguine suo renascuntur". Qui autem ille senatus fuit, cum perorante Appio Caeco pulsi cum muneribus suis ab urbe legati interroganti regi suo, quid de hostium sede sentirent, urbem templum sibi visam, senatum regum esse confiterentur. Qui porro ipsi duces, vel in castris, cum medicum venale regis caput offerentem Curius remisit, Fabricius oblatam sibi a rege imperii partem repudiavit; vel in pace, cum Curius fictilia sua Samnitico praeferret auro, Fabricius decem pondo argenti circa Rufinum consularem virum quasi luxuriam censoria gravitate damnaret. Quis ergo miretur his moribus, ea virtute militum victorem populum Romanum fuisse, unoque bello Tarentino intra quadriennium maximam partem Italiae, fortissimas gentes, opulentissimas urbes uberrimasque regiones subegisse?

Which Pyrrhus so marveled at that he said, "O how easy it was to seize the dominion of the orbis, either for me with Roman soldiers, or for the Romans with me as king." And what haste there was of those who survived in repairing the army, when Pyrrhus said, "I see that I am plainly begotten from the seed of Hercules; for to him, as from the Lernaean serpent, so many heads of enemies cut down are, as it were, reborn from his own blood." And what a Senate that was, when, Appius the Blind concluding his speech, the envoys, driven from the city with their gifts, confessed to their king, asking what they thought of the enemy’s seat, that the city had seemed to them a temple, and the Senate to be a council of kings. And moreover what commanders they themselves were, whether in camp, when Curius sent back a physician offering the king’s head for sale, and Fabricius repudiated the share of empire offered to him by the king; or in peace, when Curius preferred his earthenware to Samnite gold, and Fabricius, with censorial gravity, condemned as luxury the ten pounds of silver in the case of Rufinus, a consular man. Who then would wonder that, with such mores, with such virtue of soldiers, the Roman people was victorious, and that in one Tarentine war, within a four-year period, it subdued the greatest part of Italy, the bravest nations, the most opulent cities, and the most fertile regions?

Aut quid adeo fidem superet, quam si principia belli cum exitu conferantur? Victor primo proelio Pyrrhus tota tremente Campania Lirim Fregellasque populatus, prope captam urbem a Praenestina arce prospexit et a vicesimo lapide oculos trepidae civitatis fumo ac pulvere inplevit. Eodem postea bis exuto castris, bis saucio et in Graeciam suam trans mare ac terras fugato, pax et quies et tanta de opulentissimis tot gentibus spolia, ut victoriam suam Roma non caperet.

Or what so surpasses credence as when the beginnings of the war are compared with the exit? Victorious in the first battle, Pyrrhus, with all Campania trembling, ravaged the Liris and Fregellae; he looked out upon the almost-captured city from the Praenestine citadel, and from the twentieth milestone he filled the eyes of the panic-stricken city with smoke and dust. The same man afterwards, twice stripped of his camp, twice wounded, and driven in flight across sea and lands into his own Greece—there followed peace and quiet, and such great spoils from so many most opulent nations, that Rome could not contain her own victory.

Nec enim temere ullus pulchrior in urbem aut speciosior triumphus intravit. Ante hunc diem nihil praeter pecora Volscorum, greges Sabinorum, carpenta Gallorum, fracta Samnitium arma vidisses: tum si captivos aspiceres, Molossi, Thessali, Macedones, Bruttius, Apulus atque Lucanus; si pompam, aurum, purpura, signa tabulae Tarentinaeque deliciae. Sed nihil libentius populus Romanus aspexit quam illas, quam timuerat cum turribus suis beluas, quae non sine sensu captivitatis submissis cervicibus victores equos sequebantur.

For indeed hardly ever did any triumph enter the city more beautiful or more splendid. Before this day you would have seen nothing except the herds of the Volsci, the flocks of the Sabines, the wagons of the Gauls, the broken arms of the Samnites: then, if you looked at the captives—Molossians, Thessalians, Macedonians, Bruttians, an Apulian and a Lucanian; if at the pomp—gold, purple, statues, paintings, and Tarentine delights. But nothing did the Roman people gaze upon more gladly than those beasts, which it had feared with their towers, who, not without a sense of captivity, with necks submitted, were following the victors’ horses.

XIV. Omnis mox Italia pacem habuit—quid enim post Tarenton auderent?—nisi quod ultro persequi socios hostium placuit. Domiti ergo Picentes et caput gentis Asculum Sempronio duce, qui tremente inter proelium campo Tellurem deam promissa aede placavit.

14. Soon all Italy had peace—what, indeed, would they dare after Tarentum?—save that it pleased them of their own accord to pursue the allies of the enemy. Therefore the Picentes were subdued, and Asculum, the head of the tribe, with Sempronius as leader, who, while the field trembled amid the battle, appeased the goddess Tellus (Earth) with a vowed shrine.

XV. Sallentini Picentibus additi caputque regionis Brundisium inclito portu M. Atilio duce. Et in hos certamine victoriae pretium templum sibi pastoria Pales ultro poposcit.

15. The Sallentini were added to the Picentes, and Brundisium, the head of the region, with its renowned port, with M. Atilius as leader. And against these, in the contest, as the price of victory, the pastoral Pales of her own accord demanded a temple for herself.

XVI. Postremi Italicorum in fidem venere Volsini, opulentissimi Etruscorum, inplorantes opem adversus servos quondam suos, qui libertatem a dominis datam in ipsos erexerant translatasque in se re publica dominabantur. Sed hic quoque duce Fabio Gurgite poenas dederunt.

16. Last among the Italians to come into allegiance were the Volsinians, the most opulent of the Etruscans, imploring help against their once-servants, who had turned the liberty given by their masters against them and, the commonwealth transferred onto themselves, were lording it. But here too, with Fabius Gurges as leader, they paid the penalty.

XVII. Haec est secunda aetas populi Romani et quasi adulescentia, quae maximae viruit et quodam flore virtutis exarsit ac ferbuit. Itaque inerat quaedam adhuc ex pastoribus feritas, quiddam adhuc spirabat indomitum. Inde est quod exercitus Postumium imperatorem, infitiantem quas promiserat praedas, facta in castris seditione lapidavit; quod sub Appio Claudio noluit vincere hostem, cum posset; quod duce Volerone detrectantibus plerisque militiam, fracti consulis fasces.

17. This is the second age of the Roman people and, as it were, adolescence, which flourished to the utmost and blazed and boiled with a certain bloom of virtue. And so there still was a certain ferocity from shepherds, something still breathed indomitable. Hence it is that the army stoned the general Postumius, denying the spoils he had promised, a sedition having been raised in the camp; that under Appius Claudius it did not wish to conquer the enemy, though it could; that, with Volero as leader, as very many were detrecting military service, the consul’s fasces were broken.

Inde clarissimos principes, quod adversarentur voluntati suae, exsulatione multavit, ut Coriolanum colere agros iubentem—nec minus ille ferociter iniuriam armis vindicasset, nisi quod iam inferentem signa filium mater Veturia lacrumis suis exarmavit—ut ipsus Camillum, quod inique inter plebem et exercitum divisisse Veientem praedam videretur. Sed hic melior in capta urbe consenuit et mox supplices de hoste Gallo vindicavit. Cum senatu quoque vehementius aequo bonoque certatum est, adeo ut relictis sedibus solitudinem et interitum patriae suae minaretur.

Then he punished with exile the most illustrious leading men, because they opposed his will—such as Coriolanus, bidding that the fields be tilled (nor would he have less fiercely vindicated the injury by arms, had not Mother Veturia, with her tears, disarmed her son as he was already bearing in the standards)—and even Camillus himself, because he seemed to have divided the Veientine booty unfairly between the plebs and the army. But this better man grew old in the captured city and soon vindicated the suppliants from the Gallic enemy. With the senate also it was contended more vehemently than was according to the fair and the good, to such a degree that, their seats abandoned, solitude and the destruction of their fatherland were threatened.

Prima discordia ob inpotentiam feneratorum. Quibus in terga quoque serviliter saevientibus, in sacrum montem plebs armata secessit aegreque, nec nisi tribunos inpetrasset, Meneni Agrippae, facundi et sapientis viri, auctoritate revocata est. Exstat orationis antiquae satis efficax ad concordiam fabula, qua dissedisse inter se quondam humanos dixit artus, quod omnibus opere fugientibus solus venter immunis ageret; deinde moribundos ea seiunctione redisse in gratiam, quando sensissent quod eius opera redactis in sanguinem cibis inrigarentur.

First discord on account of the insolence of the usurers. As they raged even upon backs in servile fashion, the armed plebs seceded to the Sacred Mount, and with difficulty—and not unless it had obtained tribunes—by the authority of Menenius Agrippa, a fluent and wise man, it was called back. There exists from ancient oratory a fable quite effective for concord, in which he said that once the human limbs dissented among themselves, because, with all shunning work, the belly alone, exempt, was acting; then, dying from that separation, they returned into favor, when they had perceived that by its operation, once the foods had been reduced into blood, they were irrigated.

Secundam in urbe media decemviratus libido conflavit. Adlatas a Graecia leges decem principes lecti iubente populo conscripserant, ordinataque erat in duodecim tabulis tota iustitia, cum tamen traditor fasces regio quodam furore retinebat. Ante ceteros Appius eo insolentiae elatus est, ut ingenuam virginem stupro destinaret, oblitus et Lucretiae et regnum et iuris quod ipse composuerat.

A second was kindled in the very midst of the city by the lust of the decemvirate. The laws brought from Greece ten chosen leaders, at the people’s command, had written down, and all justice had been set in order in Twelve Tables, although nevertheless the traitor was holding on to the fasces with a certain regal frenzy. Before the rest, Appius was raised to such insolence that he destined a freeborn maiden for rape, forgetful both of Lucretia and of the kingship and of the law which he himself had composed.

Itaque cum oppressam iudicio filiam trahit in servitutem videret Virginius pater, nihil cunctatus in medio foro manu sua interficit, admotisque signis commilitonum totam eam dominationem obsessam armis in carcerem et catenas ab Aventino monte detraxit.

And so, when Virginius the father saw his daughter, oppressed by a judgment, being dragged into servitude, hesitating not at all he kills her with his own hand in the middle of the forum, and, with the standards of his fellow-soldiers brought up, he dragged down from the Aventine Hill that whole domination, besieged with arms, into prison and chains.

Tertiam seditionem excitavit matrimoniorum dignitas, ut plebei cum patriciis iungerentur; qui tumultus in monte Ianiculo duce Canuleio tribuno plebis exarsit.

The dignity of matrimonies stirred up a third sedition, that the plebeians might be joined with the patricians; which tumult flared up on the Janiculum hill, with Canuleius, tribune of the plebs, as leader.

Quartam honorum cupido, ut plebei quoque magistratus crearentur. Fabius Ambustus duarum pater alteram Sulpicio patriciis sanguinis dederat, alteram plebeius Stolo sibi iunxit. <Quae> quodam tempore, quod lictoriae virgae sonum ignotum penatibus suis expaverat, a sorore satis insolenter inrisa, iniuriam non tulit.

The fourth was a desire for honors, namely that plebeians too might be elected magistrates. Fabius Ambustus, father of two daughters, had given one to Sulpicius, of patrician blood; the other the plebeian Stolo joined to himself. <She> at a certain time, because she had taken fright at the sound of the lictorial rods, unfamiliar to her household Penates, having been rather insolently mocked by her sister, did not bear the injury.

Itaque nanctus tribunatum honorum et magistratuum consortium quamvis invito senatui extorsit.

And so, having obtained the tribunate, he extorted from the senate, though unwilling, a consortium of honors and magistracies.

Verum in his ipsis seditionibus principem populum non immerito suspexeris. Si quidem nunc libertatem, nunc pudicitiam, tum natalium dignitatem, tum honorum decora et insignia vindicavit, interque haec omnia nullius acrior custos quam libertatis fuit, nullaque in pretium eius largitione corrumpi, cum ut in magno et in dies maiore populo interim perniciosi cives existerent. (Spurium) largitione, Cassium agraria lege suspectum regiae dominationis praesenti morte multavit.

But even in these very seditions you would not without merit have looked up to the people as preeminent. Since indeed now liberty, now pudicity, then the dignity of birth, then the decorations and insignia of honors it vindicated, and among all these it was the keenest guardian of none more than of liberty, nor could it be corrupted by any largess into a price for it, since, as in a great and day-by-day greater people, meanwhile pernicious citizens would arise. (Spurius) for largess, and Cassius, suspected of royal domination by his agrarian law, it punished with present death.

Ac de Spurio quidem supplicium pater ipsius sumpsit, hunc Quincti dictatoris imperio in medio foro magister equitum Servilius Ahala confodit. Manlium vero Capitolii vindicem, quia plerosque debitorum liberaverat altius se et incivilius efferentem, ab illa ipsa quam defenderat arce deiecit.

And as for Spurius, indeed, his own father exacted punishment; this man, by the command of the dictator Quinctius, Servilius Ahala, master of the horse, stabbed in the middle of the Forum. Manlius, however, the vindicator of the Capitol, because he had freed many of the debtors and was carrying himself higher and more uncivilly, they cast down from that very citadel which he had defended.

Talis domi ac foris, talis pace belloque populus Romanus fretum adulescentiae, id est secundam imperii aetatem habuit, in qua totam inter Alpes fretumque Italiam armis subegit.

Such at home and abroad, such in peace and in war, the Roman people, reliant on adolescence, that is, the second age of its imperium, in which, by arms, it subjugated all Italy between the Alps and the Strait.

XVIII. Domita subactaque Italia populus Romanus prope quingentensimum annum agens cum bona fide adolevisset, si quod est robur, si qua iuventas, tum ille vere robustus et iuvenis et par orbi terrarum esse coepit. Ita—mirum et incredibile dictu—qui prope quingentis annis domi luctatus est—adeo difficile fuerat dare Italiae caput—his ducentis annis qui secuntur Africam, Europam, Asiam, totum denique orbem terrarum bellis victorisque peragravit.

18. With Italy tamed and subdued, when the Roman people, spending almost the five-hundredth year, had grown up in good faith—if there be any strength, if any youth—then it truly began to be robust and young and a match for the orb of the world. Thus—wonderful and incredible to say—who for nearly five hundred years had wrestled at home—so difficult had it been to give a head to Italy—in these two hundred years that follow it traversed Africa, Europe, Asia, finally the whole orb of the world, by wars and victories.

Igitur victor Italiae populus Romanus cum ad fretum usque venisset, more ignis, qui obvias populatus incendio silvas interveniente flumine abrumpitur, paulisper substitit. Mox cum videret opulentissimam in proximo praedam quodam modo Italiae suae abscisam et quasi revolsam, adeo cupiditate eius exarsit ut, quatenus nec mole iungi nec pontibus posset, armis belloque iungenda et ad continentem suam revocata bello videretur. Sed ecce, ultro ipsos viam pandentibus fatis, nec occasio defuit, cum de Poenorum inpotentia foederata Siciliae civitas Messana quereretur.

Therefore, the Roman people, victors of Italy, when they had come up to the strait, in the manner of a fire which, having devastated the woods it meets, is broken off by an intervening river, halted for a little while. Soon, when they saw a most opulent prey close at hand, in a certain way cut off from their own Italy and as if torn back from it, they blazed with such desire for it that, since it could be joined neither by a mole nor by bridges, it seemed that it must be joined by arms and war, and called back to its own continent by war. But behold, with the Fates themselves unbidden opening the way for them, there was no lack of an occasion, when Messana, a federate city of Sicily, complained of the insolence of the Phoenicians (Carthaginians).

Adfectabat autem, ut Romanus, ita Poenus Siciliam et eodem tempore paribus uterque votis ac viribus imperium orbis agitabat. Igitur specie quidem socios iuvandi, re autem sollicitante praeda, quamquam territaret novitas rei, tamen—tanta in virtute fiducia est—ille rudis, ille pastorius populus vereque terrester ostendit nihil interesse virtutis, equis an navibus, terra an mari dimicaretur.

However, as the Roman, so the Punic was aiming at Sicily, and at the same time each, with equal desires and forces, was driving at dominion of the world. Therefore, under the appearance of aiding allies, but in reality with booty urging them on, although the novelty of the affair might terrify, yet—so great is confidence in virtue— that raw, that pastoral people and truly terrestrial showed that for virtue it makes no difference whether the fighting be on horses or on ships, on land or on sea.

Appio Claudio consule primum fretum ingressus est fabulosis infame monstris aestuque violentum, sed adeo non est exterritus, ut illam ipsam ruentis aestus violentiam pro munere amplecteretur, quod velocitas navium mari iuvaretur, statimque ac sine mora Hieronem Syracusanum tanta celeritate devicit, ut ille se prius victum quam hostem videret fateretur.

With Appius Claudius as consul, he for the first time entered the strait, infamous for fabulous monsters and violent with its tide; but he was so far from being terrified that he embraced that very violence of the rushing tide as a gift, because the velocity of the ships was aided by the sea; and straightway and without delay he defeated Hiero the Syracusan with such celerity that he confessed he had seen himself conquered before he saw the enemy.

Duilio Cornelioque consulibus etiam mari congredi ausus est. Tum quidem ipsa velocitas classis comparatae victoriae auspicium fuit. Intra enim sexagensimum diem quam caesa silva fuerat centum sexaginta navium classis in anchoris stetit, ut non arte factae, sed quodam munere deorum conversae in naves atque mutatae arbores viderentur.

With Duilius and Cornelius as consuls, he even dared to engage on the sea. Then indeed the very velocity of the prepared fleet was an auspice of victory. For within the 60th day from when the forest had been felled, a fleet of 160 ships rode at anchor, so that they seemed not made by art, but, by a certain gift of the gods, trees converted into ships and transformed.

Proelii vero forma mirabilis, cum illas celeris volucresque hostium naves hae graves tardaeque comprehenderent. Longe illis nauticae artes, detorquere remos et ludificari fuga nostra. Iniectae enim ferreae manus machinaeque validae, ante certamen multum ad hoste derisae, coactique hostes quasi in solido decernere.

Truly the form of the battle was marvelous, when these heavy and slow ships seized those swift and winged ships of the enemy. Their nautical arts—twisting the oars and making sport of our pursuit by flight—were far from helping them. For iron hands and sturdy machines, much derided by the enemy before the contest, were thrown on, and the enemies were compelled to decide the issue as if on solid ground.

Victor ergo apud Liparas mersa aut fugata hostium classe primum illum maritimum egit triumphum. Cuius quod gaudium fuit, cum Duilius imperator, non contentus unius diei triumpho, per vitam omnem, ubia cena rediret, praelucere funalia et praecinere sibi tibias iussit, quasi cotidie triumpharet. Prae tanta huius victoria leve huius proelii damnum fuit alter consulum interceptus Asina Cornelius; qui simulato conloquio evocatus atque ita oppressus, fuit perfidiae Punicae documentum.

Victorious therefore near the Liparae, with the enemy’s fleet sunk or put to flight, he performed that first maritime triumph. What a joy that was, when Duilius the imperator, not content with a triumph of a single day, for his whole life, whenever he returned from dinner, ordered torches to shine before him and flutes to play in prelude for him, as if he were triumphing every day. In view of so great a victory as this, the loss of this battle was light: the other of the consuls, Cornelius Asina, was intercepted; who, having been summoned out by a simulated colloquy and thus overpowered, was a proof of Punic perfidy.

Calatino dictatore fere omnia praesidia Poenorum Agrigento, Drepanis, Panhormo, Eryce Lilybaeoque detraxit. Trepidatum est semel circa Camerinensium saltum, sed eximia virtute Calpurni Flammae tribuni militum evasimus. Qui lecta trecentorum manu insessum ab hostibus tumultum occupavit adeoque moratus <est> hostes, dum exercitus omnis evaderet.

With Calatinus as dictator, he removed nearly all the Punic garrisons from Agrigentum, Drepanum, Panormus, Eryx, and Lilybaeum. There was once a panic around the pass of the Camerinians, but by the exceptional virtue of Calpurnius Flamma, tribune of the soldiers, we escaped. He, with a chosen band of three hundred, seized a mound held by the enemy, and so delayed the enemy until the whole army could escape.

Ac sic pulcherrimo exitu Thermopylarum et Leonidae famam adaequavit, hoc inlustrior noster, quod expeditioni tantae supervixit, licet nihil inscripserit sanguine.

And thus, by the most noble end of Thermopylae, he equaled the fame of Leonidas—ours the more illustrious in this, that he survived so great an expedition, although he inscribed nothing in blood.

Lucio Cornelio Scipione consule, cum iam Sicilia suburbana esset populi Romani provincia, serpente latius bello Sardiniam adnexamque Corsicam transit. Olbiae hic, ibi Aleriae urbis excidio incolas terruit, adeoque omni terra et mari Poenos repurgavit, ut iam victoriae nihil nisi Africa ipsa restaret.

With Lucius Cornelius Scipio as consul, when by now Sicily was a suburban province of the Roman people, with the war creeping more broadly he crosses over to Sardinia and to Corsica appended to it. At Olbia here, there at Aleria, by the destruction of the city he terrified the inhabitants, and he so purged the Carthaginians from all land and sea that now for victory nothing remained except Africa itself.

Marco Attilio Regulo duce iam in Africam navigabat bellum. Nec defuerant qui ipso Punici maris nomine ac terrore deficerent, insuper augente Nautio tribuno metum, in quem, nisi paruisset, securi destricta imperator metu mortis navigandi fecit audaciam. Mox deinde ventis remisque properatum est, tantusque terror hostici adventus Poenis fuit, ut apertis paene portis Carthago caperetur.

Marcus Atilius Regulus being leader, the war was now sailing into Africa. Nor were there lacking those who, at the very name and terror of the Punic sea, lost heart—moreover with the tribune Nautius augmenting the fear—against whom, unless he obeyed, the commander, with the axe drawn, by fear of death made boldness for sailing. Soon then they hastened with winds and oars, and so great was the terror to the Punics at the hostile arrival that Carthage was almost taken, its gates nearly thrown open.

Praemium belli fuit civitas Clipea; prima enim a Punico litore quasi arx et specula procurrit. Et haec et trecenta amplius castella vastata sunt. Nec cum hominibus, sed cum monstris quoque dimicatum est, cum quasi in vindictam Africae nata mirae magnitudinis serpens posita apud Bagradam castra vexaverit.

The prize of the war was the city Clipea; for it projects first from the Punic shore like a citadel and a watchtower. Both this and more than three hundred little forts were laid waste. Nor was the fighting with men alone, but with monsters as well, when a serpent of wondrous magnitude, as if born for the vengeance of Africa, vexed the camp pitched near the Bagradas.

Sed omnium victor Regulus cum terrorem nominis sui late circumtulisset cumque magnam vim iuventutis ducesque ipsos aut cecidisset aut haberet in vinculis, classemque ingenti praeda onustam et triumpho gravem in urbem praemisisset, iam ipsam, caput belli, Carthaginem urguebat obsidio ipsisque portis inhaerebant. Hic paululum circumacta fortuna est, tantum ut plura essent Romanae virtutis insignia cuius fere magnitudo calamitatibus adprobatur. Nam conversis ad externa auxilia hostibus, cum Xanthippum illis ducem Lacedaemon misisset, a viro militiae peritissimo vincimur—foeda clades Romanisque usu incognita—: vivus in manus hostium venit fortissimus imperator.

But Regulus, victor over all, when he had borne far and wide the terror of his name and had either cut down a great force of youth and the leaders themselves or held them in chains, and had sent ahead into the city the fleet laden with immense booty and heavy with triumph, was now pressing Carthage itself, the head of the war, and the siege was clinging to the very gates. Here fortune was turned a little—only so that there might be more insignia of Roman virtue, whose greatness is generally proved by calamities. For when the enemies turned to external auxiliaries, since Lacedaemon had sent to them Xanthippus as leader, we are conquered by a man most skilled in soldiery—an ugly disaster, and unknown by experience to the Romans—: the bravest commander came alive into the hands of the enemies.

Sed ille quidem per tantae calamitati fuit; nam nec Punico carcere infractus est nec legione suscepta. Quippe diversa quam hostis mandaverat censuit, ne pax fieret nec commutatio captivorum reciperetur. Sed nec illo voluntario ad hostis suos reditu nec ultimo sive carceris seu crucis supplicio deformata maiestas, immo his omnibus admirabilior.

But he indeed was equal to so great a calamity; for neither was he broken by the Punic prison nor by the legation undertaken. Indeed he judged contrary to what the enemy had enjoined, that neither should peace be made nor the exchange of captives be accepted. But neither by that voluntary return to his own enemies nor by the ultimate punishment, whether of prison or of the cross, was his majesty disfigured—nay, by all these things the more admirable.

Quid aliud quam victor de victoribus atque etiam, quia Carthago non cesserat, de fortuna triumphavit? Populus autem Romanus multo acrior intentiorque pro ultione Reguli quam pro victoria fuit. Metello igitur consule spirantibus altius Poenis et reverso in Siciliam bello, apud Panhormum sic hostes cecidit, ut nec amplius eam insulam cogitarent.

What else but that, a victor over victors, and even—since Carthage had not yielded—a triumphator over Fortune, did he become? But the Roman People was much keener and more intent for the vengeance of Regulus than for victory. Therefore, with Metellus as consul, the Phoenicians breathing higher, and the war returned to Sicily, at Panormus he struck down the enemies in such wise that they no longer even thought of that island.

Argumentum ingentis victoriae centum circiter elephantorum captivitas, sic quoque magna praeda, si gregem illum non bello, sed venatione cepisset.

The argument of an immense victory was the captivity of about one hundred elephants—likewise great prey, even if he had captured that herd not in war but by hunting.

Appio Claudio consule non ab hostibus, sed a dis ipsis superatus est, quorum auspicia contempserat, ibi statim classe demersa, ubi ille praecipitari pullos iusserat, quod pugnare ab iis vetaretur. Marco Fabio Buteone consule classem hostium iam in Africo mari apud Aegimurum in Italiam ultro navigantem cecidit. Quantus, o, tum triumphus tempestate intercidit, cum opulenta praeda classis adversis acta ventis naufragio suo Africam et Syrtis et omnium interiacentium insularum litora implevit!

Appius Claudius being consul, he was overcome not by enemies, but by the gods themselves, whose auspices he had contemned; there straightway the fleet was sunk, in the very place where he had ordered the chickens to be hurled headlong, because by them he was forbidden to fight. Marcus Fabius Buteo being consul, he struck down the enemy’s fleet already in the African sea near Aegimurum, sailing of its own accord toward Italy. How great, O, a triumph then perished in a tempest, when the opulent booty of the fleet, driven by adverse winds, by its own shipwreck filled Africa and the Syrtes and the shores of all the islands lying between!

Magna clades, sed non sine aliqua principis populi dignitate, interceptam tempestate victoriam et triumphum perisse naufragio. Et tamen, Punicae praedae omnium promunturiis insulisque fluitarent, populus Romanus et sic triumphavit.

A great disaster, but not without some dignity of the leader of the people, that a victory intercepted by a tempest and a triumph perished by shipwreck. And yet, though the Punic booty was floating along all promontories and islands, the Roman people even so triumphed.

Lutatio Catulo consule tandem bello finis inpositus apud insulas, quibus nomen Aegatae, nec maior alia in mari pugna. Aderat quippe commeatibus, exercitus, propugnaculis, armis gravis hostium classis et in ea quasi tota Carthago; quod ipsum exitio fuit. Romana classis prompta, levis, expedita et quodam genere castrensis ad similitudinem pugnae equestris sic remis quasi habenis agebatur et in hoc vel in illos ictus mobilia rostra speciem viventium praeferebant.

With Lutatius Catulus as consul, at length an end was imposed upon the war near the islands whose name is the Aegates, nor was there any greater battle on the sea. For the enemy fleet was heavy with supplies, troops, bulwarks, and arms, and in it, as it were, the whole of Carthage; which very thing was its ruin. The Roman fleet was prompt, light, unencumbered, and, in a certain camp-fashion, after the likeness of a cavalry battle, was driven with the oars as if with reins, and for a stroke at these or at those its movable rams presented the appearance of living things.

Itaque momento temporis lacerate hostium rates totum inter Siciliam Sardiniamque pelagus naufragio suo operuerunt. Tanta denique fuit illa victoria, ut de excidendis hostium moenibus non quaereretur. Supervacuum visum est in arcem murosque saevire, cum iam in mari esset deleta Carthago.

Therefore, in a moment of time, the lacerated vessels of the enemy covered the whole sea between Sicily and Sardinia with their own shipwreck. So great, in fine, was that victory that no question was raised about razing the enemy’s walls. It seemed superfluous to rage against the citadel and the walls, since Carthage had already been destroyed at sea.

XIX. Peracto Punico bello secuta est brevis sane quasi ad recuperandum spiritum requies, argumentumque pacis et bona fide cessantium armorum tum primum post Numam clausa porta Iani fuit; deinceps statim ac sine mora patuit. Quippe iam Ligures, iam Insubres Galli, nec non et Illyrii lacessebant, sitae sub Alpibus, id est sub ipsis Italiae faucibus gentes, deo quodam incitante adsidue, ne robiginem ac situm scilicet arma sentiret. Denique utrique cotidiani et quasi domestici hostes tirocinia militum inbuebant, nec aliter utraque gente quam quasi cote quadam populus Romanus ferrum suae virtutis acuebat.

19. With the Punic war completed, there followed a brief respite indeed, as if to recover breath; and, as an argument of peace and that arms had in good faith ceased, then for the first time after Numa the Gate of Janus was closed; thereafter it stood open at once and without delay. For already the Ligurians, already the Insubrian Gauls, and likewise the Illyrians were provoking—peoples situated under the Alps, that is, under the very passes of Italy—with some god, as it were, continually inciting them, lest, to wit, the arms should feel rust and mold. Finally, these daily and, so to speak, domestic enemies were imbuing the soldiers’ apprenticeships, and, using either nation as if a certain whetstone, the Roman people sharpened the iron of their own virtue.

Ligures imis Alpium iugis adhaerentis inter Varum et Macram flumen inplicitosque dumi silvestribus maior aliquanto labor erat invenire quam vincere. Tuli locis et fuga, durum atque velox genus, ex occasione latrocinia magis quam bella faciebant. Itaque cum diu multumque eluderent Saluvii, Deciates, Oxubii, Euburiates, Ingauni, tamen Fulvius latebras eorum ignibus saepsit.

Ligurians adhering to the lowest ridges of the Alps between the river Varus and the river Macra, and entangled in woodland brambles, were by a good margin harder to find than to conquer. Secured by their positions and by flight, a hard and swift race, they practiced latrociny rather than wars as occasion offered. And so, although for a long time and much the Saluvii, Deciates, Oxubii, Euburiates, and Ingauni eluded (us), nevertheless Fulvius hemmed in their hiding-places with fires.

Baebius in plana deduxit, Postumius ita exarmavit, ut vix reliquerint ferrum quo terra coleretur.

Baebius led them down into the plains, Postumius so disarmed them that they scarcely left iron by which the earth might be cultivated.

XX. Gallis Insubribus et his accolis Alpium animi ferarum, corpora plus quam humana erant, sed—experimento deprehensum est, quippe sicut primum impetus eis maior quam virorum est, ita sequens minor quam feminarum—Alpina corpora umenti caelo educata habent quiddam simile nivibus suis: quae mox ut caluere pugna, statim in sudorem eunt et levi motu quasi sole laxantur. Hi saepe et alias et Britomaro duce non prius posituros se baltea quam Capitolium ascendissent iuraverant. Factum est: victos enim Aemilius in Capitolio discinxit.

20. Among the Insubrian Gauls and those neighbors of the Alps, their spirits were of wild beasts, their bodies more than human; but—it was detected by experiment—for just as at the first their impetus is greater than that of men, so the sequel is less than that of women—the Alpine bodies, reared under a humid sky, have something like their own snows: which, as soon as they have grown warm with battle, immediately go into sweat and by slight motion are, as if by the sun, loosened. These men often, at other times also, and with Britomarus as leader, had sworn that they would not lay off their belts before they had climbed the Capitol. So it came to pass: for Aemilius unbelted them, conquered, on the Capitol.

Mox Ariovisto duce vovere de nostrorum militum praeda Marti suo torquem. Inceperit Iuppiter votum; nam de torquibus eorum aerum tropaeum Iovi Flaminius erexit, Viridomaro rege Romana arma Volcano promiserant. Aliorsum vota ceciderunt; occiso enim rege Marcellus tertia post Romulum patrem Feretrio Iovi opima suspendit.

Soon, with Ariovistus as leader, they vowed to their own Mars a torque from the booty of our soldiers. Let Jupiter inaugurate the vow; for from their torques Flaminius erected to Jupiter a bronze trophy. With Viridomarus as king, they had promised Roman arms to Vulcan. The vows fell out otherwise; for, the king having been slain, Marcellus suspended to Jupiter Feretrius the opima spoils, the third after Romulus the Father.

XXI. Illyrii seu Liburni sub extremis Alpium radicibus agunt inter Arsiam Titiumque flumen, longissime per totum Hadriani maris litus effusi. Hi regnante Teutana muliere populationibus non contenti licentiae scelus addiderunt. Legatos quippe nostros, ob ea quae deliquerant iure agentes, ne gladio quidem, sed ut victimas securi percutiut, praefectos navium igne conburunt; idque quo indignus foret, mulier imperavit.

21. The Illyrians, or Liburnians, dwell beneath the farthest roots of the Alps between the rivers Arsia and Titius, spread very far along the whole shore of the Adriatic Sea. These, with the woman Teuta reigning, not content with depredations, added crime to license. For our envoys, acting according to law on account of the offenses they had committed, they struck down not even with the sword, but with an axe, like victims; they burned the captains of ships with fire; and, that it might be the more unworthy, a woman gave the order.

Itaque Gnaeo Centumalo duce late domantur. Strictae in principium colla secures legatorum manibus litavere.

Therefore, under Gnaeus Centumalus as leader, they are subdued far and wide. The drawn axes, at the outset, propitiated the Manes of the legates with necks.

XXII. Post primum Punicum bellum vix quadriennii requies: ecce alterum bellum, minus quidem spatio—nec enim amplius decem et octo annos habet—sed adeo claudium atrocitate terribilius ut, si quis conferat damna utriusque populi, similior victo sit populus ille qui vicit. Vrebat nobilem populum ablatum mare, raptae insulae, dare tributa, quae iubere consueverant. Hinc ultionem puer Hannibal ad aram patri iuraverat, nec morabatur.

22. After the First Punic War, scarcely a four-years’ respite: behold a second war, lesser indeed in span—for it has no more than 18 years—but, precisely in its stuntedness, more terrible in atrocity, so that, if anyone compare the losses of both peoples, that people which won would be more like the vanquished. It burned the noble people that the sea had been taken away, the islands snatched, to pay tributes, which they had been accustomed to order. Hence the boy Hannibal had sworn vengeance at the altar to his father, nor was he delaying.

Igitur in causam belli Saguntos electa est, vetus Hispaniae civitas et opulenta fideique erga Romanos magnum quidem sed triste monumentum, quam in libertatem communi foedere exceptam Hannibal, causas novorum motuum quaerens, et suis et ipsorum manibus evertit, ut Italiam sibi rupto foedere aperiret. Summa foederum Romanis religio est; itaque ad auditum sociae civitatis obsidium, memores icti cum Poenis quoque foederis, non statim ad arma procurrunt, dum prius more legitimo queri malunt. (Saguntini) interim iam novem mensibus fessi fame, machinis, ferro, versa denique in rabiem fidem inmanem in foro excitant rogum, tum desuper se suosque cum omnibus opibus suis ferro et igne corrumpunt.

Therefore Saguntum was chosen as the cause of the war, an old city of Spain and opulent, and a great indeed but sad monument of loyalty toward the Romans, which, received into liberty by a common federal treaty, Hannibal, seeking causes of new movements, overthrew by both his own hands and theirs, in order that, with the treaty ruptured, he might open Italy to himself. The Romans’ religion of treaties is of the highest order; and so, at the hearing of the siege of their allied city, mindful of the treaty struck with the Phoenicians also, they do not straightway run to arms, while they prefer first to complain in the legitimate manner. (Saguntini) meanwhile, now for nine months wearied by hunger, engines, and iron, their loyalty at last turned into frenzy, raise a monstrous pyre in the forum; then from above they destroy themselves and their own along with all their resources by iron and fire.

Huius tantae cladis auctor Hannibal poscitur. Tergiversantibus Poenis, dux legionibus "quae", inquit, "mora est"? Fabius "in hoc ego sinu bellum pacemque porto; utrum eligit?" subclamantibus "bellum", "bellum igitur", inquit, "accipite". Et excusso in media curia togae gremio non sine horrore, quasi plane sinu bellum ferret, effudit.

Hannibal, the author of so great a disaster, is demanded. As the Carthaginians were tergiversating, the leader to the legions: "What," he says, "is the delay?" Fabius: "In this fold of my toga I carry war and peace; which does he choose?" When they shouted "war," "Then war," he says, "take it." And, shaking out the lap of his toga in the middle of the Curia, not without a shudder, as though he plainly were bearing war in his bosom, he poured it out.

Similis exitus belli initiis fuit. Nam quasi has inferias sibi Saguntinorum ultimae dirae in illo publico parricidio incendioque mandassent, ita manibus eorum vastatione Italiae, captivitate Africae, ducum et regnum qui in gessere bellum exitio parentatum est. Igitur ubi semel se in Hispania movit illa gravis et luctuosa Punici belli vis atque tempestas destinatumque Romanis iam diu fulmen Saguntino igne conflavit, statim quodam impetu rapta medias perfregit Alpes et in Italiam ab illis fabulosae altitudinis nivibus velut caelo missa descendit.

The outcome of the war was similar to its beginnings. For as if the Manes of the Saguntines had entrusted to him these inferiae, their last dread rites, in that public parricide and conflagration, so propitiation to their Manes was made by the devastation of Italy, the captivity of Africa, and the destruction of the leaders and the kingdoms that waged the war. Therefore, when once in Spain that grave and lugubrious force and tempest of the Punic war set itself in motion, and the thunderbolt long destined for the Romans was forged by the Saguntine fire, at once, snatched by a certain impetus, it broke through the mid Alps and descended into Italy from those snows of fabulous altitude, as if sent from heaven.

Ac primi quidem impetus turbo inter Padum atque Ticinum valido statim fragore detonuit. Tum Scipione duce fusus exercitus; saucius etiam ipse venisset in hostium manus imperator, nisi protectum patrem praetextatus admodum filius ab ipsa morte rapuisset. Hic erit Scipio, qui in exitium Africae crescit, nomen ex, malis eius habiturus.

And indeed the whirlwind of the first impetus detonated at once with a mighty crash between the Padus and the Ticinus. Then, with Scipio as leader, the army was routed; the commander himself, wounded, would even have come into the hands of the enemies, had not his son, still very much in the praetexta, having shielded his father, snatched him from death itself. This will be Scipio, who grows for the destruction of Africa, destined to have a name from its evils.

Ticino Trebia succedit. Hic secunda Punici belli procella desaevit Sempronio consule. Tum callidissimi hostes, frigidum et nivalem nancti diem, cum se ignibus prius oleoque fovissent—horribile dictu—homines a meridie et sole venientes nostra nos hieme vicerunt.

Trebia succeeds the Ticinus. Here the second storm of the Punic war spent its fury, Sempronius being consul. Then the most crafty enemies, having chanced upon a cold and snowy day, after they had first warmed themselves with fires and oil—horrible to say—men coming from the south and the sun conquered us with our own winter.

Trasimenus lacus tertium fulmen Hannibalis imperatore Flaminio. Ibi quoque ars nova Punicae fraudis: quippe nebula lacus palustribusque virgultis tectus eques erga subito pugnantium invasit. Nec de dis possumus queri.

Lake Trasimene was the third thunderbolt of Hannibal, with the general Flaminius. There too a new art of Punic fraud: for the cavalry, covered by the lake’s mist and the marshy brushwood, advanced against men suddenly engaged in fighting. Nor can we complain about the gods.

Inminentes temerario duci cladem praedixerant insidentia signis examina et aquilae prodire nolentes et commissam aciem secutus ignes terrae tremor, nisi illum horrorem soli equitum, virorumque discursus et mota vehementius arma fecerunt.

The impending disaster for the temerarious leader had been foretold by swarms settling upon the standards and by eagles unwilling to go forth, and, once the battle-line was joined, by fires and a tremor of the earth—unless that horror was produced by the ground of the horsemen, by the running to and fro of the men, and by weapons moved more vehemently.

Quartum id est paene ultimum volnus imperii Cannae, ignobilis Apuliae vicus; sed magnitudine cladis emersit et sexaginta milium caede parta nobilitas. Ibi in exitium infelicis exercitus dux, terra, caelum, dies, tota rerum natura consensit. Si quidem non contentus simulatis transfugis Hannibal, qui mox terga pugnantium ceciderunt, insuper callidus imperator in patentibus campis, observato loci ingenio, quod et sol ibi acerrimus et plurimus pulvis et eurus ab oriente semper quasi ad constitutum, ita instruxit aciem, ut Romanis adversus haec omnia obversis secundum caelum tenens vento, pulvere, sole pugnaret.

The fourth—that is, the almost penultimate—wound of the empire was Cannae, an ignoble village of Apulia; but by the magnitude of the disaster it emerged, and nobility achieved by the slaughter of sixty thousand. There, into the ruin of the unlucky army, the leader, the land, the sky, the day, the whole nature of things conspired. For indeed Hannibal, not content with feigned defectors, who soon fell upon the backs of the combatants, moreover, a crafty imperator on open plains, having observed the nature of the place—namely that both the sun there is most fierce, the dust very abundant, and the Eurus from the east always, as if by appointment—so arrayed his battle-line that, with the Romans turned to face all these things, himself holding the favorable heaven, he fought with wind, dust, and sun.

Itaque duo maximi exercitus caesi ad hostium satietatem, donec Hannibal diceret militi suo "parce ferro". Ducum fugit alter, alter occisus est; dubium uter maiore animo: Paulum puduit, Varro non desperavit. Documenta cladis cruentus aliquamdiu Aufidus, pons de cadaveribus iussu ducis factus in torrente Vergelli, modii duo anulorum Carthaginem missi dignitasque equestris taxata mensura. Dubium deinde non erit quin ultimum illum diem habitura fuerit Roma quintumque intra diem epulari Hannibal in Capitolio potuerit, si, quod Poenum illum dixisse Maharbalem Bomilcaris ferunt, Hannibal quem ad modum sciret vincere, sic uti victoria scisset.

And so two very great armies were cut down to the enemies’ satiety, until Hannibal said to his soldiery, “spare the steel.” Of the commanders, one fled, the other was slain; it is doubtful which had the greater spirit: Paulus felt shame, Varro did not despair. Documents of the disaster were the Aufidus bloody for some time, a bridge made of corpses by order of the general in the torrent of the Vergellus, two modii of rings sent to Carthage, and the equestrian dignity assessed by measure. Then there will be no doubt that Rome would have had that as her last day, and that Hannibal could have feasted on the Capitol within the fifth day, if—what they report that that Carthaginian, Maharbal, son of Bomilcar, said—Hannibal, in the way he knew how to conquer, had likewise known how to use victory.

Sed tum quidem illum, ut dici volgo solet, aut fatum urbis imperaturae aut ipsius mens mala et aversi a Carthagine di in diversum abstulerunt. Cum victoria posset uti, frui maluit relictaque Roma Campaniam Tarentumque peragrare; ubi mox et ipse et exercitus ardor elanguit, adeo ut vere dictum sit Capuam Hannibali Cannas fuisse. Si quidem invictum Alpibus, indomitum armis, Campani—quis crederet?—soles et tepentes fontibus Baiae subegerunt.

But then indeed, as it is commonly said, either the fate of the city destined to rule, or his own evil mind, and the gods turned away from Carthage, carried him off in a different direction. When he could have used the victory, he preferred to enjoy it, and, Rome left behind, to traverse Campania and Tarentum; where soon both his and the army’s ardor languished, to such a degree that it was truly said that Capua was Hannibal’s Cannae. For indeed, unconquered by the Alps, indomitable by arms, he was subdued—who would believe it?—by the Campanian suns and by Baiae warmed with springs.

Interim respirare Romanus et quasi ab inferis emergere. Arma non erant: detracta sunt templis. Deerat iuventus: in sacramentum liberat servitia.

Meanwhile the Roman begins to respire and, as if from the infernal regions, to emerge. There were no arms: they were taken down from the temples. The youth was lacking: he frees the slaves into the sacrament.

Egebat aerarium: opes suas senatus in medium libens protulit, nec praeter quod in bullis singulisque anulis erat quicquam sibi auri reliquerunt. Eques secutus exemplum imitataeque equidem tribus. Denique vix suffecere tabulae, vix scribarum manus Laevino Marcelloque consulibus, cum privatorum opes in publicum deferrentur.

The treasury was in want: the senate gladly brought forth its resources into the common stock, and they left to themselves no gold except what was in bullae and in individual rings. The equestrian order followed the example, and indeed the tribes imitated it. Finally, the tablets scarcely sufficed, scarcely the hands of the scribes, with Laevinus and Marcellus as consuls, when the resources of private persons were being transferred into the public treasury.

Quid autem? In eligendis magistratibus quae centuriarum sapientia, cum iuniores a senioribus consilium de creandis consulibus petierunt. Quippe adversus hostem totiens victorem, tam callidum, non virtute tantum, sed suis etiam pugnare consiliis oportebat.

But what then? In choosing magistrates, what wisdom of the centuries, when the younger men sought counsel from the elders about creating consuls! For indeed, against an enemy so often a victor, so cunning, it was necessary to fight not only by virtue, but also with their own counsels.

Prima redeuntis et, ut sic dixerim, reviviscentis imperii spes Fabius fuit, qui novam de Hannibale victoriam commentus est, non pugnare. Hinc illi cognomen novum et rei publicae salutare Cunctator; hinc illud ex populo, ut imperii scutum vocaretur. Itaque per Samnium totum, per Falernos Gauranosque saltus sic maceravit Hannibalem, ut qui frangi virtute non poterat, mora comminueretur.

Fabius was the first hope of the returning and, so to speak, revivescent imperium, who devised a new victory over Hannibal: not to fight. Hence for him a new cognomen, and salutary to the Republic, “Cunctator”; hence this from the people, that he was called the shield of the Empire. And so throughout all Samnium, through the Falernian and Gauran defiles, he so wore down Hannibal that he who could not be broken by valor was diminished by delay.

Inde Claudio Marcello duce etiam congredi ausus est: comminus venit et perculit in Campania sua et ab obsidione Nolae urbis excussit. Ausus et Sempronio Graccho duce per Lucaniam sequi et premere terga cedentis, quamvis tum—o pudor!—manu servili pugnaret: nam hucusque tot mala compulerant. Sed libertate donati fecerant de servitute Romanos.

Inde, with Claudius Marcellus as leader, he even dared to engage: he came to close quarters and struck him in Campania, and shook him off from the siege of the city of Nola. He dared also, with Sempronius Gracchus as leader, through Lucania to follow and press the back of the one retreating, although then—O shame!—he was fighting with a servile hand; for thus far so many evils had driven them. But, endowed with liberty, they had made out of servitude Romans.

O horribilem in tot adversis fiduciam! Immo o singularem animum ac spiritum populi Romani! Tam artis adfictisque rebus, ut de Italia sua dubitaret, ausus tamen est in diversa respicere, cumque hostis in iugulo per Campaniam Apuliamque volitaret mediaque de Italia Africam faceret, eodem tempore et hunc sustinebat et in Siciliam, Sardiniam, Hispaniam diversa per terrarum orbem arma mittebat.

O horrible confidence amid so many adversities! Nay rather, O the singular mind and spirit of the Roman people! In circumstances so straitened and afflicted that it was doubting about its own Italy, nevertheless it dared to look in different directions; and while the enemy was flitting at its very throat through Campania and Apulia, and was making Africa out of the middle of Italy, at the same time it both was withstanding this foe and was sending arms in different directions throughout the orb of lands—to Sicily, Sardinia, and Spain.

Sicilia mandata Marcello. Nec diu restitit: tota enim insula in una urbe superata est. Grande illud et ante id tempus invictum caput, Syracusae, quamvis Archimedis ingenio deferentur, aliquando cessarunt.

Sicily was entrusted to Marcellus. Nor did it resist for long: for the whole island was overcome in one city. That great and, before that time, unconquered capital, Syracuse, although it was defended by the genius of Archimedes, at length yielded.

Longe illi triplex murus totidemque arces, portus ille marmoreus et fons celebratus Arethusae; nisi quod hactenus profuere ut pulchritudini victae urbis parceretur. Sardiniam Gracchus arripuit. Nihil illi gentium feritas Insanorumque—nam sic vocantur—inmanitas montium profuere.

By far for that city there were a triple wall and just as many citadels, that marble harbor and the celebrated fountain of Arethusa; except that thus far they profited only to the extent that the beauty of the conquered city might be spared. Gracchus seized Sardinia. Nothing to them did the ferocity of the peoples and the immensity of the mountains of the “Madmen”—for thus they are called—profit.

Saevitum in urbes urbemque urbium Caralim, ut gens contumax vilisque mortis saltem desiderio patrii soli domaretur.

Savagery was exercised against the cities and the city of cities, Caralis, so that the contumacious people, reckoning death cheap, might at least be tamed by desire for their native soil.

In Hispaniam missi Gnaeus et Publius Scipiones paene totam Poenis eripuerant, sed insidiis Punicae fraudis oppressi rursum amiserat, magnis quidem illi proeliis cum Punicas opes cecidissent. Sed Punicae insidiae alterum ferro castra metantem, alterum, cum evasisset in turrem, cinctum facibus oppresserant. Igitur in ultionem patris ac patrui missus cum exercitu Scipio, cui iam grande de Africa nomen fata decreverant, bellatricem illam, viris armisque nobilem Hispaniam, illam seminarium hostilis exercitus, illam Hannibalis eruditricem—incredibile dictu—totam a Pyrenaeis montibus in Herculis columnas et Oceanum recuperavit, nescias citius an felicius.

In Spain, Gnaeus and Publius Scipio, having been sent, had almost snatched the whole from the Punics; but, overwhelmed by the ambushes of Punic fraud, it was lost again—though they, in great battles, had brought down the Punic power. But Punic ambushes had crushed the one with the sword while he was marking out the camp, the other, when he had escaped into a tower, they overwhelmed, ringed with torches. Therefore, Scipio, sent with an army in avengement of his father and his uncle—he to whom the fates had already decreed a great name from Africa—recovered that warlike Spain, noble in men and arms, that nursery of the hostile army, that instructress of Hannibal—unbelievable to say—the whole from the Pyrenean mountains to the Pillars of Hercules and the Ocean: you would not know whether more swiftly or more fortunately.

Quam velociter, quattuor anni fatentur; quam facile, vel una civitas probat. Eodem quippe quo obsessa est die capta est, omenque Africanae victoriae fuit, quod tam facile victa est Hispaniae Carthago. Certum est tamen ad profligandam provinciam maxime profecisse singularem ducis sanctitatem, quippe qui captivos pueros puellasque praecipuae pulchritudinis barbaris restituerit, ne in conspectum quidem suum passum adduci, ne quid de virginitatis integritate delibasse saltem vel oculis videretur.

How swiftly—four years confess; how easily—even a single city proves. For on the very day on which it was besieged it was captured, and it was an omen of the African victory, that the Carthage of Spain was so easily vanquished. It is certain, however, that for the prostrating of the province the singular sanctity of the leader contributed most, inasmuch as he restored to the barbarians the captive boys and girls of preeminent beauty, not allowing them even to be brought into his sight, lest he should seem to have tasted in any degree, even with his eyes, of the integrity of their virginity.

Haec inter diersa terrarum populus Romanus. Nec ideo tamen visceribus Italiae inhaerentem submovere poterat Hannibalem. Plerasque ad hostem defecerant, et dux acerrimus contra Romanos Italicis quoque viribus utebatur.

Meanwhile, among these diverse regions of the earth, the Roman people. And yet not even for that reason could they remove Hannibal, clinging to the very vitals of Italy. Most had defected to the enemy, and a most fierce commander was employing Italian forces as well against the Romans.

Iam tamen eum plerisque oppidis et regionibus excusseramus, iam Tarentos ad nos redierat, iam et Capua, sedes et domus et patria altera Hannibalis, tenebatur cuius amissio tantum Poeno duci dolorem dedit, ut inde totis viribus Romam converteretur. O populum dignum orbis imperio, dignum omnium favore et admiratione hominum ac deorum! Compulsus ad ultumos metus ab incepto non destitit et de sua urbe sollicitus Capuam tamen non omisit, sed parte exercitus sub Appio consule relicta, parte Flaccum in urbem secuta, absens simul praesensque pugnabat.

Already, however, we had shaken him out of most towns and regions; already Tarentum had returned to us; already even Capua—the seat and home and second fatherland of Hannibal—was being held, whose loss gave such pain to the Punic leader that from there with all his forces he turned toward Rome. O people worthy of the empire of the world, worthy of the favor and admiration of all men and gods! Driven to the utmost fears, he did not desist from his enterprise, and, though anxious about his own city, he did not, however, neglect Capua; but with part of the army left under the consul Appius, and part having followed Flaccus into the city, he fought both absent and present at once.

Quid ergo miramur moventi castra a tertio lapide Hannibali iterum ipsos deos—deos inquam, nec fateri pudebit—restitisse? Tanta enim ad singulos illius motus vis imbrium effusa est, tanta ventorum violentia coorta est, ut divinitus hostem submoveri non a caelo, sed ab urbis ipsius moenibus e Capitolio videretur. Itaque fugit et cessit et in ultimum se Italiae recepit sinum, cum urbem tantum non adoratam reliquisset.

Why then do we marvel that, as Hannibal was moving his camp from the third milestone, the very gods—the gods, I say, nor will it shame me to confess—again stood against him? For so great a force of rains was poured out at each of his movements, so great a violence of winds arose, that it seemed from the Capitol that the enemy was being removed by divine agency not from the sky, but from the very walls of the city. And so he fled and yielded and withdrew himself into the farthest recess of Italy, when he had left the city all but adored.

parva res dictu, sed ad magnanimitatem populi Romani probandam satis efficax, quod illis ipsis quibus obsidebatur diebus ager, quem Hannibal castris insederat, venalis Romae fuit hastaeque subiectus invenit emptorem. Voluit Hannibal contra imitari fiduciam subiecitque argentaria urbis tabernas: nec sector inventus est, ut scias etiam praesagia fatis adfuisse.

a small thing to say, but sufficiently efficacious for proving the magnanimity of the Roman people, that in those very days during which it was being besieged, the field which Hannibal had occupied with his camp was for sale at Rome and, put up to the spear (auction), found a buyer. Hannibal wished, by contrast, to imitate this confidence and put up for sale the city’s banking shops; but no bidder was found, so that you may know that even presages had been present to the Fates.

Nihil actum erat tanta virtute, tanto favore etiam deorum, si quidem ab Hispania Hasdrubal frater Hannibalis cum exercitu novo, novis viribus, nova belli mole veniebat. Actum erat procul dubio si vir ille se cum fratre iunxisset. Sed hunc quoque, tantum quod ab Alpe descenderat, apud Metaurum castra metantem Claudius Nero cum Livio Salinatore debellat.

Nothing had been accomplished by so great a virtue, with so great a favor even of the gods, since indeed from Hispania Hasdrubal, the brother of Hannibal, was coming with a new army, new forces, a new mass of war. It would have been all over, beyond doubt, if that man had joined himself with his brother. But him too, only just after he had descended from the Alps, as he was laying out his camp at the Metaurus, Claudius Nero, together with Livius Salinator, decisively defeated.

Nero in ultimo Italiae angulo submovebat Hannibalem, Livius in diversissimam partem, id est in ipsas nascentis Italiae fauces signa converterat. Tanto, id est omni qua longissima Italia, solo interiacente, quo consilio, qua celeritate consules castra coniunxerint inopinatumque hostem conlatis signis oppresserint, neque in fieri Hannibal senserit, difficile dictu est. Certe Hannibal re cognita cum proiectum fratris caput ad sua castra vidisset, "agnosco", inquit, "infelicitatem Carthaginis". Haec fuit illius viri non sine praesagio quodam fati inminentis prima confessio.

Nero, in the farthest corner of Italy, was driving back Hannibal; Livius, in a completely different quarter, that is, into the very throat of nascent Italy, had turned his standards. With so great a stretch of ground—namely, with land intervening across the entire length of Italy—by what plan, with what celerity the consuls joined their camps and, with standards brought together, overwhelmed the unexpected enemy, and Hannibal did not perceive it while it was in the making, is difficult to say. Certainly, when the matter was known and he had seen his brother’s head flung before his own camp, “I recognize,” he said, “the ill-fortune of Carthage.” This was that man’s first confession, not without a certain presage of impending fate.

Iam certium erat Hannibalem etiam ipsius confessione posse vinci: sed tot rerum prosperarum fiducia plenus populus Romanus magni aestimabat asperrimum hostem in sua Africa debellare. Duce igitur Scipione in ipsam Africam tota mole conversus imitari coepit Hannibalem et Italiae suae clades in Africa vindicare. Quas ille, dii boni, Hasdrubalis copias fudit, quos Syphacis Numidici regis equitatus!

Now it was certain—by his own confession, too—that Hannibal could be conquered; but the Roman People, full of confidence from so many prosperous affairs, esteemed it a great thing to debellate the fiercest enemy in his own Africa. Therefore, with Scipio as leader, turned with its whole mass into Africa itself, it began to imitate Hannibal and to avenge in Africa the disasters of its Italy. What forces of Hasdrubal he routed—good gods!—what cavalry of Syphax, the Numidian king!

Quae quantae utriusque castra facibus inlatis una nocte delevit! Denique iam non a tertio lapide, sed ipsas Carthaginis portas obsidione quatiebat. Sic factum ut haerentem atque incubantem Italiae extorqueret Hannibalem.

What and how great camps of both sides he destroyed by bringing in torches in a single night! Finally he was shaking by siege, not from the third milestone, but the very gates of Carthage. Thus it came to pass that he wrenched Hannibal, clinging to and brooding over Italy, away.

Non fuit maior sub imperio Romano dies quam ille, cum duo omnium et ante te postea ducum maxime duces, ille Italiae, hic Hispaniae victor, conlatis comminus signis direxere aciem. Sed et conloquium fuit inter ipsos de legibus pacis: steterunt diu mutua admiratione defixi. Vbi de pace non convenit, signa cecinere.

There was no greater day under the Roman imperium than that, when the two greatest of all generals, both before you and after, the one the victor of Italy, the other the victor of Spain, with the standards brought together at close quarters, arrayed the battle line. But there was also a colloquy between them about the terms of peace: they stood for a long time, transfixed by mutual admiration. When they did not agree about peace, the signals sounded.

Constat utriusque confessione nec melius instrui aciem nec acrius potuisse pugnari, hoc Scipio de Hannibalis, Hannibal de Scipionis exercitu praedicaverunt. Sed tamen Hannibal cessit, praemiumque victoriae Africa fuit et secutus Africam statim terrarum orbis.

It stands by the confession of both that neither could the battle-line have been better arrayed nor the fighting have been waged more keenly; this Scipio proclaimed of Hannibal’s, and Hannibal of Scipio’s army. Yet Hannibal yielded, and Africa was the prize of victory, and straightway the orb of lands followed Africa.

XXIII. Post Carthaginem vinci neminem puduit. Servate sunt statim Africam gentes, Macedonia, Graecia, Syria ceteraque omnia quodam quasi aestu et torrente fortunae: sed primi omnium Macedones, adfectator quondam imperii populus. Itaque quamvis tum Philippus regno praesideret, Romani tamen dimicare sibi cum rege Alexandro videbantur.—Macedonium bellum nomine amplius quam spectatione gentis fuit.

23. After Carthage, it shamed no one to be conquered. Straightway the peoples of Africa, Macedonia, Greece, Syria, and all the rest were swept along by a kind of swell and torrent of fortune: but first of all the Macedonians, a people once an aspirant to empire. Therefore, although at that time Philip presided over the kingdom, nevertheless the Romans seemed to themselves to be fighting with King Alexander.—The Macedonian war was more in name than in the spectacle of the nation.

Causa coepit a foedere Philippi, quo res iam pridem dominantem in Italia Hannibalem sibi socium iunxerat; postea crevit inplorantibus Athenis auxilium contra regis iniurias, cum ille ultra vis victoriae in templa et aras et sepulchra ipsa saeviret. Placuit senatui opem tantis ferre supplicibus. Quippe iam gentium reges, duces, populi nationes praesidia sibi ab hac urbe repetebant.

The cause began from Philip’s treaty, by which he had joined to himself as ally Hannibal, already long dominating in Italy; afterwards it grew, with Athens imploring aid against the king’s injuries, since he, beyond the license of victory, was raging against temples and altars and the very sepulchers. It pleased the Senate to bring help to such great suppliants. Indeed already the kings of the nations, leaders, peoples, and nations were seeking protections for themselves from this city.

Primum igitur Laevino consule populus Romanus Ionium mare ingressus, tota Graeciae litora veluti triumphanti classe peragravit. Spolia quippe Siciliae, Sardiniae, Hispaniae Africae praeferebat, et manifestam victoriam nata in praetoria puppi laurus pollicebatur. Aderat sponte in auxilium Attalus, rex Pergamenorum, aderat Rhodii, nauticus populus, qui manibus a mari, consul a terris omnia equis virisque quatiebat.

Therefore, first, with Laevinus as consul, the Roman people, having entered the Ionian Sea, traversed all the shores of Greece as if with a triumphing fleet. For it bore before it the spoils of Sicily, Sardinia, Spain, and Africa, and a laurel, sprung on the stern of the praetorial ship, promised manifest victory. Attalus, king of the Pergamenians, was present of his own accord to give aid; the Rhodians were present, a nautical people—who from the sea with their very hands, while the consul from the land—shook all things with horses and men.

Bis victus, bis fugatus rex, bis exutus castris, cum tamen nihil terribilius Macedonibus fuit ipso volnerum adspectu, quae non spiculi nec sagittis nec ullo Graeculo ferro sed ingentibus pilis nec minoribus adacta gladiis ultra mortem patebant. Enimvero Flaminio duce invios antea Chaonum montes Aoumque amnem per abrupta vadentem et ipsa Macedoniae claustra penetravimus. Introisse victoria fuit.

Twice defeated, twice put to flight the king, twice stripped of his camp; yet nothing was more terrifying to the Macedonians than the very sight of the wounds, which gaped beyond death, not from darts nor arrows nor any Greekling iron, but driven by huge pila and by no less swords. Indeed, with Flamininus as leader we penetrated the mountains of the Chaones, previously pathless, and the river Aous running through precipices, and the very barriers of Macedonia. To have entered was the victory.

Nam postea numquam ausus congredi rex ab tumulos, quos Cynoscephalas vocant, uno ac ne hoc quidem iusto proelio opprimitur.Et illi quidem consul pacem dedit regnumque concessit, mox, ne quid esset hostile, Thebas et Euboean et grassantem sub Nabide suo Lacedaemona compescuit. Graeciae vero veterem statum reddidit, ut legibus viveret suis et avita libertate frueretur. Quae gaudia, quae vociferationes fuerunt, cum hos forte Nemeae in theatro quinquennalibus ludis a praecone caneretur!

For afterwards the king, never daring to engage, is overwhelmed at the hills which they call Cynoscephalae, in a single—and not even this a just—battle.And to him indeed the consul gave peace and granted the kingdom; soon, lest there be anything hostile, he restrained Thebes and Euboea and Lacedaemon running riot under its own Nabis. To Greece indeed he restored the ancient status, that it might live by its own laws and enjoy ancestral liberty. What joys, what vociferations there were, when these things, by chance at Nemea, in the theater at the quinquennial games, were being sung by the herald!

Quo certavere plausu! Quid florum in consulem profuderunt! Et iterum iterumque praeconem repetere vocem illam iubebant, qua libertas Achaiae pronuntiabatur, nec aliter illa consulari sententia quam modulatissimo aliquo tibiarum aut fidium cantu fruebantur.

With what applause they vied! What flowers they poured out upon the consul! And again and again they bade the herald repeat that very voice whereby the liberty of Achaia was proclaimed, nor did they enjoy that consular pronouncement otherwise than as some most modulated song of pipes or of strings.

XXIV. Macedoniam statim et regem Philippum Antiochus excepit quodam casu, quasi de industria sic adgubernante fortuna, ut quem ad modum ab Africa in Europam, sic ab Europa in Asiam ultro se suggerentibus causis imperium procederet, et cum terrarum orbis situ ipse ordo victoriarum navigaret. Non aliud formidolosius fama bellum fuit; quippe cum Persas et orientem, Xerxen atque Darium cogitarent, quando perfossi invii montes, quando velis opertum mare nuntiaretur. Ad hoc caelestes minae territabant, cum umore continuo Cumanus Apollo sudaret.

24. Macedonia and King Philip Antiochus immediately took up, by a certain chance, as if by design with Fortune thus helming, so that just as from Africa into Europe, so from Europe into Asia, with causes proffering themselves unbidden, the imperium advanced, and, with the situation of the orb of lands, the very order of victories sailed. No other war was more formidable in report; for they would think of the Persians and the Orient, Xerxes and Darius, when impassable mountains pierced-through, when a sea covered with sails was being announced. To this, celestial menaces were terrifying, since the Cumaean Apollo was sweating with continuous moisture.

Sed hic faventis Asiae suae numinis timor erat. Nec sane viris, opibus, armis quidquam copiosius Syria; sed in manus tam ignavi regis inciderat, ut nihil fuerit in Antiocho speciosius quam quod a Romanis victus est. Inpulere regem id in bellum illic Thoas Aetoliae princeps, inhonoratam apud Romanos querens adversus Macedonas militiae suae societatem, hinc Hannibal, qui in Africa victus, profugus et pacis inpatiens hostem populo Romano toto orbe quaerebat.

But here it was the fear of the favoring numen of his own Asia. Nor indeed was anything more copious than Syria in men, resources, and arms; but it had fallen into the hands of so ignoble and slothful a king, that nothing was more noteworthy in Antiochus than that he was conquered by the Romans. Into this war drove the king, on that side Thoas, princeps of Aetolia, complaining that with the Romans the partnership of his soldiery against the Macedonians had been held in dishonor; on this side Hannibal, who, defeated in Africa, an exile and impatient of peace, was seeking an enemy for the Roman People through the whole world.

Et quod illud fuisset periculum, si se consiliis eius rex tradidisset, id est in Asiae viribus usus fuisset miser Hannibal! Sed rex suis opibus et nomine regio fretus satis habuit bellum movere. Europa iam dubio procul iure belli ad Romanos pertinebat.

And what a danger that would have been, if the king had entrusted himself to his counsels—that is, if wretched Hannibal had made use of Asia’s forces! But the king, relying on his own resources and on the royal name, deemed it enough to set war in motion. Europe already, beyond doubt, by the right of war, pertained to the Romans.

Hic Lysimachiam, urbem in litore Thracio positam a maioribus suis, Antiochus ut hereditario iure repetebat. Hoc velut sidere, Asiatici belli mota tempestas. Et maximum regum, contentus fortiter indixisse bellum, cum ingenti strepitu ac tumultu movisset litoribus, otia et luxus quasi victor agitabat.

Here Antiochus was reclaiming Lysimachia, a city on the Thracian littoral established by his forefathers, as by hereditary right. With this as, as it were, a star, the tempest of the Asiatic war was set in motion. And that greatest of kings, satisfied to have stoutly proclaimed war, after he had, with immense din and tumult, set the coasts astir, was passing his days in leisure and luxury as if a victor.

Euboean insulam continenti adhaerentem tenui freto reciprocantibus aquis Euripus abscidit. Hic ille positis aureis sericisque tentoriis sub ipso freti murmure, cum praefluentes aquae tibiis fidibusque concinerent, conlatis undique quamvis per hiemem rosis, ne non aliquo genere ducem agere videretur, virginum puerorumque dilectus habebat. Talem ergo regem iam luxuria sua debellatum Acilio Glabrione consule populus Romanus in insula adgressus ipso statim adventus sui nuntio coegit ab insula fugere.

The Euripus cuts off the Euboean island, adhering to the continent by a narrow strait with waters that ebb and flow. Here he, with golden and silken tents pitched beneath the very murmur of the strait, while the flowing waters harmonized with pipes and strings, and with roses gathered from everywhere even in winter, lest he might not seem to play the leader in some fashion, was holding a levy of maidens and boys. Such a king, therefore, already defeated by his own luxury, the Roman people, having attacked on the island, with Acilius Glabrio as consul, compelled to flee from the island at the very announcement of their arrival.

Tum praecipitem apud Thermopylas adsecutus, locum trecentorum Laconum speciosa caede memorandum, ne ibi quidem fiducia loci resistentem mari ac terra cedere coegit. Statim et e vestigio itur in Syriam. Classis regia Polyxenidae Hannibalique commissa—nam rex proelium nec spectare poterat—duce Aemilio Regillo, adremigantibus Rhodis tota laceratur.

Then, having overtaken him in headlong flight at Thermopylae, a place memorable for the splendid slaughter of the three hundred Laconians, he forced him, even there, though confident in the strength of the position, to yield by sea and by land. Straightway and on the very heels of it they go into Syria. The royal fleet, entrusted to Polyxenidas and to Hannibal—for the king could not even look upon the battle—under the leadership of Aemilius Regillus, with the Rhodians rowing up alongside, was torn to pieces in its entirety.

Ne sibi placeant Athenae: in Antiocho vicimus Xerxen, in Aemilio Alcibiadem aequavimus, Epheso Salamina pensavimus. Tum consule Scipione, cui frater, ille modo victor Carthaginis Africanus, voluntaria legatione aderat, debellari regem placet. Et iam toto cesserant mari, sed nos imus ulterius.

Let Athens not be pleased with themselves: in Antiochus we conquered Xerxes, with Aemilius we equaled Alcibiades, at Ephesus we balanced Salamis. Then, with Scipio as consul, to whom his brother—the one just now the victor of Carthage, Africanus—was present on a voluntary legation, it was decided to finish off the king. And already they had yielded on the whole sea, but we go further.

Maeandrum ad amnem montemque Sipylum castra ponuntur. Hic rex incredibile dictu quibus auxiliis, quibus copiis consederat. Trecenta milia peditum, equitum falcatorumque curruum non minor numerus.

The camp is pitched by the river Maeander and Mount Sipylus. Here the king had taken position—unbelievable to say—with what auxiliaries, with what forces. Three hundred thousand (300,000) foot-soldiers, and of horsemen and scythed chariots no smaller number.

Elephantis ad hoc immensae magnitudinis, auro, purpura, argento et suo ebore fulgentibus, aciem utriumque vallaverat. Sed haec omnia praepedita magnitudine sua, ad hoc imbre, qui subito perfusus mira felicitate Persicos arcus corruperat. Primum trepidatio, mox fuga, deinde triumphus fuerunt.

With elephants, moreover, of immense magnitude, gleaming with gold, purple, silver, and their own ivory, he had enclosed the battle line on both sides. But all these things were hampered by their own magnitude, and in addition by a rain-shower, which, suddenly poured with wondrous good fortune, had ruined the Persian bows. First there was trepidation, soon flight, then triumph.

Victo et supplici pacem partemque regni dari placuit eo libentius, quod tam facile cessisset.

It pleased that peace and a part of the kingdom be given to the conquered and suppliant, the more willingly because he had so easily ceded.

XXV. Syriaco bello successit, et debebat, Aetolicum. Victo quippe Romanus Antiocho faces Asiatici belli persequebatur. Ergo Fulvio Nobiliori mandata ultio est.

25. The Aetolian war followed the Syrian war, as indeed it ought. For with Antiochus conquered, the Roman was pursuing the fires of the Asiatic war. Therefore vengeance was entrusted to Fulvius Nobilior.

Hic protinus caput gentis Ambraciam, regiam Pyrrhi, machinis quatit. Secuta deditio est. Aderant Aetolorum precibus Attici, Rhodii, et memineramus auxilii: sic placuit ignoscere.

Hereupon straightway he shakes with machines the capital of the nation, Ambracia, Pyrrhus’s royal residence. Surrender followed. At the prayers of the Aetolians were present the Attics and the Rhodians, and we remembered the succor: thus it pleased to forgive.

Serpsit tamen latius in proximos bellum omnemque late Cephalleniam, Zacynthon et quidquid insularum in eo mari inter Ceraunios montes iugumque Maleum: Aetoli belli accessio fuerunt.

Nevertheless, the war crept more widely into the neighbors, and far and wide over all Cephallenia, Zacynthus, and whatever islands in that sea between the Ceraunian mountains and the ridge of Malea: they were an accession to the Aetolian war.

XXVI. Histri sequuntur Aetolos; quippe bellantes eos nuper adiuverant. Et initia pugnae hosti prospera fuerunt eademque exitii causa. Nam cum Gnaei Manli castra cepissent opimaeque praedae incubarent, epulantes ac ludibundos plerosque, qui aut ubi essent prae poculi nescientes, Appius Pulcher invadit.

26. The Histri follow after the Aetolians; for, while warring, they had lately assisted them. And the beginnings of the battle were prosperous for the enemy, and these same were the cause of their ruin. For when they had taken the camp of Gnaeus Manlius and were lying upon opulent booty, most of them banqueting and skylarking, not knowing, by reason of the cup, either who they were or where they were, Appius Pulcher falls upon them.

Sic cum sanguine et spiritu male partam revomuere victoriam. Ipse rex Aepulo equo inpositus, cum subinde crapula et capitis errore lapsaret, captum sese vix et aegre, postquam expergefactus est, didicit.

Thus, with blood and breath, they vomited back the ill-gotten victory. The king Aepulo himself, set upon a horse, since he kept slipping from crapulence and confusion of the head, scarcely and with difficulty, after he was roused, learned that he had been captured.

XXVII. Gallograeciam quoque Syriaci belli ruina convolvit. Fuerant inter auxilia regis Antiochi, an fuisse cupidus triumphis Mansius Volso simulaverit, dubium; certe negatus est victori triumphus, quia causam belli non adprobavit. Ceterum gens Gallograecorum, sicut ipsum nomen indicio est, mixta et adulterata est: reliquiae Gallorum, qui Brenno duce vastaverant Graeciam, orientem secuti, in media Asiae parte sederunt; itaque, uti frugum semina mutato solo degenerant, sic illa genuina feritas eorum Asiatica amoenitate mollita est.

27. Gallo-Graecia too was swept up by the ruin of the Syrian war. They had been among King Antiochus’s auxiliaries—or whether they had been, Manius Volso, eager for triumphs, pretended, is doubtful; certainly a triumph was denied to the victor, because he did not approve the cause of the war. Moreover the nation of the Gallo-Greeks, as the very name is evidence, is mixed and adulterated: the remnants of the Gauls who, under Brennus as leader, had laid waste Greece, following eastward, settled in the middle part of Asia; and so, just as the seeds of crops degenerate when the soil is changed, so that genuine ferity of theirs was softened by Asiatic amenity.

Duobus itaque proeliis fusi fugatisque sunt, quamvis sub adventu hostis relictis sedibus in altissimos se montes recepissent. Tolostobogi Olympum. Tectosagi Magabam insederant.

Thus in two battles they were routed and put to flight, although, at the advent of the enemy, with their seats abandoned, they had withdrawn into the loftiest mountains. The Tolostobogii had occupied Olympus. The Tectosages had occupied Magaba.

Vtrimque fundis sagittisque detracti in perpetuam se pacem dediderunt. Sed alligati miraculo quidam fuere, cum catenas morsibus et ore temptassent, cum offocandas invicem fauces praebuissent. Nam Orgiacontis regis uxor a centurione stuprum passa memorabili exemplo custodiam evasit, revolsumque adulteri hostis caput ad maritum reportavit.

On both sides, dragged down by slings and arrows, they surrendered themselves into perpetual peace. But some were bound in a wondrous fashion, since they had tested the chains with their teeth and mouth, since they had offered their throats to one another to be throttled. For the wife of King Orgiacontes, having suffered outrage from a centurion, by a memorable example escaped custody, and carried back to her husband the wrenched-off head of the adulterer-enemy.

XXVIII. Dum aliae aliaeque gentes Syriaci belli secuntur ruinam, Macedonia rursus se erexit. Fortissimum populum memoria et recordatio suae nobilitatis agitabat, et successerant Philippo filius Perses, qui semel in perpetuum victam esse Macedoniam non putabat ex gentis dignitate. Multo vehementius sub hoc Macedones quam sub patre consurgunt.

28. While one people after another followed the ruin of the Syrian war, Macedonia again raised herself. The most brave people was stirred by the memory and recollection of its nobility, and to Philip there had succeeded his son Perseus, who, by reason of the nation’s dignity, did not think that Macedonia had been conquered once and for all. The Macedonians rise up much more vehemently under this man than under the father.

Quippe Thracas in vires suas traxerant, atque ita industriam Macedonum viribus Thracum, ferociam Thracum disciplina Macedonica temperavere. Accessit his consilium ducis, qui situm regionum suarum a summo spectaculo Haemo positis per abrupta castris ita Macedoniam suam armis ferroque vallaverat, ut non reliquisse aditum nisi a caelo venturis hostibus videretur. Tamen Marcio Philippo consule eam provinciam ingressus populus Romanus, exploratis diligenter accessibus per Ascurida paludem Perrhaebosque tumulos illa volucribus quoque, ut videbantur, invia accessit regemque securum et nihil tale metuentem subita belli inruptione deprehendit.

Indeed they had drawn the Thracians into their own forces, and thus they tempered the industry of the Macedonians by the strengths of the Thracians, and the fierceness of the Thracians by Macedonian discipline. To these there was added the counsel of the leader, who, from the highest lookout of Haemus, with camps placed along the precipices, had so ramparted his Macedonia with arms and iron that he seemed to have left no access except to enemies coming from the sky. Nevertheless, in the consulship of Marcus Philippus, the Roman people entered that province and, the approaches having been carefully reconnoitered, through the Ascurida marsh and the Perrhaebian hills—places, as they seemed, inaccessible even to birds—came up and caught the king, secure and fearing nothing of the sort, by a sudden inrush of war.

Cuius tanta trepidatio fuit, ut pecuniam omnem in mare iusserit mergi ne periret, classem cremari ne incenderetur. Paulo consule cum maiora et crebriora essent inposita praesidia, per alias Macedonia deprensa est, summa quidem arte et industria ducis, cum alia eminatus alia inrepsisset. Cuius adventus ipse adeo terribilis regi fuit, ut interesse non auderet, sed gerenda ducibus bella mandaverit.

His trepidation was so great that he ordered all the money to be plunged into the sea lest it perish, and the fleet to be burned lest it be set on fire. With Paulus as consul, when greater and more frequent garrisons had been put in place, from other quarters Macedonia was caught, indeed by the highest art and industry of the leader, since while threatening in some places he had crept in by others. Whose arrival itself was so terrifying to the king that he did not dare to take part, but entrusted the wars to be waged to his commanders.

Absens ergo victus fugit in maria insulamque Samothracen, fretus celebri religione, quasi templa et arae possent defendere, quem nec montes sui nec arma potuissent. Nemo regum divitius amissae fortunae conscientiam retinuit. Supplex cum scriberet ad imperatorem ab illo quo confugerat templo nomenque epistolae notaret suum, regem addidit.

Therefore, being absent and defeated, he fled into the seas and to the island Samothrace, relying on its celebrated religion, as though temples and altars could defend him whom neither his own mountains nor arms had been able to defend. No king more richly retained the consciousness of a lost fortune. As a suppliant, when he wrote to the emperor from that temple to which he had taken refuge and marked his own name on the letter, he added “king.”

Sed nec reverentior captae maiestatis alius Paulo fuit. Cum in conspectum venisset hostis, in tribunali recepit et conviviis adhibuit liberosque admovit suos ut fortunam, cui tantum liceret, reverentur. Inter pulcherrimos hunc quoque populo Romanus de Macedonia duxit ac vidit triumphum; quippe cuius spectaculo triduum inpleverit.

But nor was anyone more reverent toward captured majesty than Paullus. When the enemy had come into his sight, he received him on the tribunal and admitted him to banquets, and he brought his own children near, that they might revere Fortune, to whom so much is permitted. Among the most splendid, he too led for the Roman people a triumph from Macedonia and saw it; indeed, with the spectacle of it he filled three days.

Primus dies signa tabulasque, sequens arma pecuniam transvexit, tertius captivos ipsumque regem adtonitum adhuc tamquam subito malo et stupentem. Sed multo prius gaudium victoriae populus Romanus quam epistolis victoris praeceperat. Quippe eodem die quo victus est Perses in Macedonia, Romae cognitum est: duo iuvenes candidis equis apud Iuturnae lacum pulverem et cruorem abluebant.

The first day carried the standards and the tablets, the next transported the arms and money, the third the captives and the king himself, still thunderstruck as if by a sudden misfortune and stupefied. But the Roman people anticipated the joy of victory much earlier than the victor’s letters had conveyed it. For on the same day on which Perseus was defeated in Macedonia, it was learned at Rome: two youths with white horses, at the Lake of Juturna, were washing off dust and blood.

Hi nuntiavere. Castorem et Pollucem fuisse creditum volgo, quod gemini fuissent; interfuisse bello, quod sanguine maderent; a Macedonia venire, quod adhuc anhelarent.

These announced it. It was commonly believed that they were Castor and Pollux, because they were twins; that they had taken part in the war, because they were soaked with blood; that they were coming from Macedonia, because they were still panting.

XXIX. Macedonici belli contagio traxit Illyrios; si quidem, ut Romanum a tergo distringeret, a Perse conducti pecunia militaverunt. Sine mora ab Anicio praetore subiguntur. Scodram caput gentis delesse suffecerit; statim secuta dedito est.

29. The contagion of the Macedonian war drew in the Illyrians; indeed, hired with money by Perseus so that he might distract the Roman from the rear, they served as soldiers. Without delay they are subdued by the praetor Anicius. To have razed Scodra, the head of the nation, sufficed; immediately a surrender followed.

Denique hoc bellum ante finitum est quam geri Romae nuntiaretur.

Finally, this war was finished before it was reported at Rome that it was being waged.

XXX. Quodam fato, quasi ita convenisset inter Poenos et Macedonas ut tertio quoque vinceretur, eodem tempore utrique arma moverunt. Sed prior iugum excutit. Macedo, aliquanto quam ante gravior, dum contemnitur.

30. By a certain fate, as though it had been agreed between the Punics and the Macedonians that even every third time should be conquered, at the same time both took up arms. But the former shakes off the yoke first. The Macedonian is considerably graver than before, while he is contemned.

Causa belli prope erubescenda. Quippe regnum pariter et bellum vir ultimae sortis Andriscus invaserat, dubium liber an servus, mercennarius certe; sed quia volgo Philippus ex similitudine Philippi Persae filii vocabatur, regiam formam, regium nomen, animum quoque regis inplevit. Igitur dum haec ipsa contemnit populus Romanus, Iuventio praetore contentus, virum non Macedonicis modo, sed Thraciae quoque auxiliis ingentibus validum temere temptavit invictusque non a veris regibus, sed ab illo imaginario et scaenico rege superatus est.

The cause of the war was almost blush-inducing. Indeed, a man of the lowest lot, Andriscus, had invaded both the kingdom and the war alike—doubtful whether free or slave, a mercenary certainly; but because he was commonly called Philip, from his likeness to Philip, son of Perseus, he assumed the royal form, the royal name, and even the spirit of a king. Therefore, while the Roman people despised these very things, content with Juventius as praetor, it rashly tried a man strong not only with Macedonian forces but also with the vast auxiliaries of Thrace; and, unconquered, it was overcome not by true kings, but by that imaginary and theatrical king.

Sed consul Metellus amissum cum legione praetorem plenissime ultus est. Nam et Macedoniam servitute multavit et ducem belli deditum ab eo, ad quem confugerat, Thraciae regulo in urbem in catenis reduxit, hoc quoque illi in malis suis indulgente fortuna, ut de eo populos Romanus quasi de rege vero triumpharet.

But the consul Metellus most completely avenged the praetor who had been lost with his legion. For he both penalized Macedonia with servitude and led back into the City in chains the leader of the war, delivered up by the petty king of Thrace to whom he had fled—Fortune indulging him even in his misfortunes in this too—that the Roman People might triumph over him as if over a true king.

XXXI. Tertium cum Africa bellum et tempore exiguum—nam quadriennio raptum est—et in comparatione priorum minimum labore—non enim tam cum viris quam cum ipsa urbe pugnatum est—sed plane maximum eventu: quippe tamen Carthago finita est. Atquin si quis trium temporum momenta consideret primo commissum est bellum, profligatum secundo, tertio vero confectum. Sed huius causa belli, quod contra foederis legem adversus Numidas quidem, sed parassent classem et exercitum.

31. The third war with Africa was exiguous in time—for it was snatched away in 4 years—and, in comparison with the former ones, minimal in labor—for the fighting was not so much with men as with the city itself—yet plainly greatest in outcome: for in fact Carthage was finished. And yet, if one considers the moments of the three periods, in the first the war was commenced, in the second it was prostrated, but in the third it was completed. But the cause of this war was that, contrary to the law of the treaty, they had prepared a fleet and an army—indeed against the Numidians.

Frequens autem Masinissa finis territabat; sed huic ut bono socioque regi favebatur. Cum de bello sederet, de belli fine tractatum est. Cato inexpiabili odio delendam esse Carthaginem, et cum de alio consuleretur, pronuntiabat, Scipio Nasica servandam, ne metu ablato aemulae urbis luxuriari felicitas urbis inciperet; medium senatus elegit, ut urbs tantum loco moverentur.

But Masinissa was frequently terrifying the frontiers; yet favor was shown to him as to a good ally and king. When they sat about the war, there was treatment concerning the war’s end. Cato, with inexpiable hatred, would pronounce that Carthage must be destroyed, and even when he was consulted about something else, he would pronounce the same; Scipio Nasica [declared] that it must be preserved, lest, with fear removed, the felicity of the city should begin to luxuriate from a rival city; the senate chose a middle course, that the city only be moved from its place.

Nihil enim speciosus videbatur quam esse Carthaginem, quae non timeretur. Igitur Manilio Censorinoque consulibus populus Romanus adgressus Carthaginem spe pacis iniecta traditam a volentibus classem sub ipso ore urbis incendit. Tum evocatis principibus, si salvi esse vellent, ut migrarent finibus imperavit.

For nothing seemed more splendid than that there be a Carthage which was not feared. Therefore, in the consulship of Manilius and Censorinus, the Roman people, having set upon Carthage, with the hope of peace cast in, burned the fleet—handed over by the willing—right before the very face of the city. Then, with the chiefs summoned, the Roman people ordered that, if they wished to be safe, they should migrate from their borders.

Quod pro rei atrocitate adeo movit iras, ut extrema mallent. Comploratum igitur publice statim et pari voce clamatum est "ad arma!" seditque sententia, quoquo modo rebellandum; non quia iam spes ulla superesset, sed quia patriam suam mallent hostium quam suis manibus everti. Qui rebellantium fuerit furor, vel hinc intellegi pote est, quod in usum novae classis tecta domuum resciderunt; in armorum officinas aurum et argentum pro aere ferroque conflatum est, in tormentorum vincula matronae crinis suos contulerunt.

Which, in proportion to the atrocity of the affair, so moved their wraths that they preferred the last extremities. Therefore there was straightway public lamentation, and with one voice it was shouted "ad arma!"; and the opinion settled that, in whatever way, there must be rebellion—not because any hope now survived, but because they preferred their fatherland to be overthrown by enemies rather than by their own hands. How great the fury of the rebels was can be understood even from this: that for the use of a new fleet they cut down the roofs of houses; into the workshops of arms gold and silver were melted down in place of bronze and iron; for the bindings of the engines the matrons contributed their own hair.

Mancino deinde consule, terra marique fervebat obsidio. Operti portus, nudatus et primum et sequens, iam et tertius murus, cum tamen Byrsa, quod nomen arci fuit, quasi altera civitas resistebat. Quamvis profligato urbis excidio, tamen fatale Africae nomen Scipionum videbatur.

Then, with Mancinus as consul, the siege seethed by land and by sea. The harbors were shut, the first and the following wall laid bare, and now the third as well, although the Byrsa, which was the name of the citadel, resisted as if a second city. Although the city’s overthrow had been brought to completion, nevertheless the name of the Scipios seemed fated for Africa.

Igitur in alium Scipionem conversa res publica finem belli reposcebat. Hunc Paulo Macedonico procreatum Africani illius magni filius in decus gentis adsumpserat, hoc scilicet fato, ut quam urbem concusserant avus, nepos eius everteret. Sed quem ad modum maxime mortiferi morsus solent esse morientium bestiarum, sic plus negoti fuit cum semiruta Carthagine quam cum integra.

Therefore the commonwealth, turning to another Scipio, was demanding the end of the war. This man, begotten by Paulus Macedonicus, the son of that great Africanus had adopted into the honor of the clan—by this fate, namely, that the city which the grandfather had shaken, his grandson would overturn. But just as the bites of dying beasts are wont to be most mortiferous, so there was more business with half-ruined Carthage than with it intact.

Compulsis in unam arcem hostibus portum quoque mari Romanus obstruxerat. Illi autem sibi portum ab alia urbis parte foderunt, nec ut fugerent; sed qua nemo illos nec evadere posse credebat, inde quasi enata subito classis erupit, cum interim iam diebus, iam noctibus nova aliqua moles, nova machina, nova perditorum hominum manus quasi ex obruto incendio subita de cineribus flamma prodibat. Deploratis novissime rebus triginta sex milia virorum se dediderunt, quo minus credat, duce Hasdrubale.

With the enemies driven into a single citadel, the Roman had blocked the harbor as well from the sea. They, however, dug themselves a harbor from another part of the city—not in order to flee; but from a quarter whence no one believed they could even get out, from there a fleet burst forth as if suddenly born, while in the meantime, now by day, now by night, some new mole, some new machine, some new band of desperadoes was emerging, like a sudden flame from a buried conflagration out of the ashes. When their affairs were at last despaired of, 36,000 men surrendered—the less credible, with Hasdrubal as their leader.

Quanto fortius femina et uxor ducis! Quae comprehensis duobus liberis a culmine se domus in medium misit incendium, imitata reginam quae Carthaginem condidit. Quanta urbs deleta sit, ut de ceteris taceam, vel ignium mora probari potest.

How much more bravely the woman, the wife of the commander! She, with her two children seized, from the house’s rooftop hurled herself into the midst of the conflagration, imitating the queen who founded Carthage. How great a city has been destroyed, to say nothing of the rest, can be proved even by the delay of the fires.

Quippe per continuos decem et septem dies vix potuit incendium exstingui quod domibus ac templis suis sponte hostes inmiserant; ut, quatenus urbs eripi Romanis non poterat triumphis arderet.

For indeed through continuous 17 days the conflagration could scarcely be extinguished, which the enemies had of their own accord admitted into their own houses and temples; so that, since the city could not be snatched from the Romans, it would burn for triumphs.

XXXII. Quasi saeculum illud eversionibus urbium curreret, ita Carthaginis ruinam statim Corinthos excepit, Achaiae caput, Graeciae decus, inter duo maria, Ionium et Aegaeum, quasi spectaculo exposita. Haec—facinus indignum—ante oppressa est quam in numerum certorum hostium referretur. Critolaus causa belli, qui libertate a Romanis data adversus ipsos usus est legatosque Romanos, dubium an et manu, certe oratione violavit.

32. As if that age were running on with the overturnings of cities, so the ruin of Carthage was straightway followed by Corinth, the head of Achaia, the ornament of Greece, set between the two seas, the Ionian and the Aegean, as if exposed for a spectacle. This—an unworthy deed—was suppressed before it was counted in the number of recognized enemies. Critolaus was the cause of the war, who used the liberty granted by the Romans against them and violated the Roman legates—doubtful whether also by hand, certainly by speech.

Igitur Metello ordinanti cum maxime Macedoniam mandata est ultio; et hinc Achaicum bellum. Ac primum Critolai manum Metellus consul per patentis Elidos campos toto cecidit Alphio. Et uno proelio peractum erat bellum; iam et urbem ipsam terrebat obsidio; sed—fata rerum—cum Metellus dimicasset, ad victoriam Mummius venit.

Therefore, while Metellus was at that very time setting Macedonia in order, vengeance was entrusted to him; and hence the Achaean war. And first the consul Metellus cut down the force of Critolaus across the open fields of Elis, along the whole Alpheus. And with a single battle the war had been completed; already even the city itself was being terrified by a siege; but—the fates of affairs—though Metellus had fought, Mummius came to the victory.

Hic alterius ducis Diaei late exercitum sub ipsis Isthmi faucibus fudit geminosque portus sanguine infecit. Tum ab incolis deserta civitas direpta primum, deinde tuba praecinente deleta est. Quid signorum, quid vestium quidve tabularum raptum incensum atque proiectus est!

Here he routed far and wide the army of the other leader, Diaeus, beneath the very jaws of the Isthmus, and he stained the twin harbors with blood. Then the city, deserted by its inhabitants, was first plundered, and afterwards, with the trumpet pre-sounding, was destroyed. What a quantity of statues, of vestments, and of tablets (paintings) was snatched, burned, and cast away!

Quantas opes et abstulerit et cremaverit hinc scias, quod quidquid Corinthii aeris toto orbe laudatur incendio superfuisse comperimus. Nam et aeris notam pretiosiorem ipsa opulentissimae urbis fecit iniuria, quia incendio permixtis plurimis statuis atque simulacris aeris auri argentique venae in commune fluxerunt.

From this you may know how great riches it both carried off and burned: that whatever of Corinthian bronze is praised throughout the whole world we have found to have survived the conflagration. For even the injury to the most opulent city itself made the mark of the bronze more precious, because, with very many statues and simulacra mixed by the fire, the veins of bronze, gold, and silver flowed together in common.

XXXIII. Vt Carthaginem Corinthos, ita Corinthon Numantia secuta est; nec deinde orbe toto quidquam intactum armis fuit. Post illa duo clarissimarum urbium incendia late atque passim, nec per vices, sed simul pariter quasi unum undique bellum fuit; prorsus ut illae, quasi agitantibus ventis, diffudisse quaedam belli incendia orbio toto viderentur. Hispaniae numquam animus fuit adversum nos universae consurgere, numquam conferre vires suas libuit, neque aut imperium experiri aut libertatem tueri suam publice.

33. As Corinth followed Carthage, so Numantia followed Corinth; and thereafter in the whole orb nothing was left untouched by arms. After those two conflagrations of the most renowned cities, far and wide and everywhere, not by turns, but at the same time equally, there was, as it were, one war on every side; altogether so that those, as if with winds agitating, seemed to have diffused certain fires of war through the whole orb. Spain never had the spirit to rise against us as a whole, never was it her pleasure to combine her forces, nor either to make trial of dominion or to defend her liberty publicly.

Alioquin ita undique mari Pyrenaeoque vallata est, ut ingenio situs ne adiri quidem potuerit. Sed ante a Romanis obsessa est quam se ipsa cognosceret, et sola omnium provinciarum vires suas postquam victa est, intellexit. In hac prope ducentos per annos dimicatum est a primis Scipionibus in primum Caesarem Augustum, non continuo nec cohaerenter, sed prout causae lacessierant, nec cum Hispanis initio, sed cum Poenis in Hispania.

Otherwise, it is so on every side walled-in by the sea and the Pyrenaean range, that by the ingenuity of its site it could not even be approached. But it was beset by the Romans before it knew itself, and alone of all provinces it understood its own forces only after it had been conquered. In this land for nearly two hundred years fighting was carried on, from the first Scipios down to the first Caesar Augustus, not continuously nor coherently, but as causes provoked; and not with the Spaniards at the beginning, but with the Punics in Spain.

Inde contagium serpens causaeque bellorum.

Thence a creeping contagion and the causes of wars.

Prima per Pyrenaeum iugum signa Romana Publius et Gnaeus Scipiones intulerunt proeliisque ingentibus Hannonem et Hasdrubalem fratres Hannibalis ceciderunt; raptaque erat impetu Hispania, nisi fortissimi viri in ipsa victoria sua oppressi Punica fraude cecidissent, terra marique victores. Igitur quasi novam integramque provinciam ultor patris et patrui Scipio ille mox Africanum invasit, isque statim carta Carthagine et aliis urbibus, non contentus Poenos expulisse, stipendiariam nobis provinciam fecit, omnes citra ultraque Hiberum subiecit imperio primusque Romanorum ducum victor ad Gades et Oceani ora pervenit. Plus est provinciam retinere quam facere.

Prima through the Pyrenean ridge the Roman standards Publius and Gnaeus Scipio brought in, and in huge battles they struck down Hanno and Hasdrubal, Hannibal’s brothers; and Spain had been seized by an impetuous assault, had not the bravest men, overwhelmed in their very victory by Punic fraud, fallen—victors by land and sea. Therefore, as though a new and intact province, the avenger of his father and uncle, that Scipio, soon Africanus, invaded; and he, with Carthage taken straightway and other cities, not content to have driven out the Punics, made the province stipendiary to us, subjected all on this side and beyond the Iberus to our command, and as the first of Roman leaders came as victor to Gades and the shores of the Ocean. There is more in retaining a province than in making it.

Itaque per partes iam huc iam illuc missi duces, qui ferocissimas et in id tempus liberas gentes ideoque inpatientes iugi multo labore nec incruentis certaminibus servire docuerunt. Cato ille censorius Celtiberos, id est robur Hispaniae, aliquot proeliis fregit. Gracchus, pater ille Gracchorum, eosdem centum et quinquaginta urbium eversione multavit.

Therefore, commanders sent in detachments now here, now there, taught the most ferocious and, up to that time, free peoples—therefore impatient of the yoke—to serve, with much labor and in contests not bloodless. That Cato the Censor shattered the Celtiberians, that is, the strength of Spain, in several battles. Gracchus, that father of the Gracchi, punished these same by the overthrow of 150 cities.

Metellus ille, cui ex Macedonia cognomen, meruerat et Celtibericus fieri, cum et Contrebiam memorabili cepisset exemplo et Nertobrigae maiore gloria pepercisset. Lucullus Turdulos atque Vaccaeos, de quibus Scipio ille posterior singulari certamine, cum rex fuisset provocator, opima rettulerat. Decimus Brutus aliquando latius Celticos Lusitanosque et omnis Gallaeciae populus formidatumque militibus flumen Oblivionis, peragratoque victor Oceani litore non prius signa convertit quam cadentem in maria solem obrutumque * aquis ignem non sine quodam sacrilegii metu et horrore deprendit.

That Metellus, whose cognomen was from Macedonia, had deserved also to become Celtibericus, since he both took Contrebia with a memorable example and spared Nertobriga with greater glory. Lucullus dealt with the Turduli and the Vaccaei, about whom that later Scipio, in a singular combat, when the king had been the provocator, had carried off the spolia opima. Decimus Brutus at one time more broadly the Celtici and the Lusitanians and all the peoples of Gallaecia—and the River of Oblivion feared by the soldiers—and, the shore of the Ocean traversed as victor, he did not turn his standards before he caught the sun falling into the seas and the fire overwhelmed by the * waters, not without a certain fear and horror of sacrilege.

Sed tota certaminum moles cum Lusitanis fuit et Numantinis. Nec inmerito. Quippe solis gentium Hispaniae duces contigerunt.

But the whole mass of the struggles was with the Lusitanians and the Numantines. Nor without merit. Indeed, it was their lot alone among the peoples of Hispania to have leaders.

Fuisset et cum omnibus Celtiberis, nisi dux illius motus initio belli vi oppressus esset, summus vir aestu et audacia, si processisset, Olyndicus, qui hastam argenteam quatiens quasi caelo missam vaticinanti similis omnium in se mentes converterat. Sed cum pari temeritate sub nocte castra consulis adisset, iuxta tentorium ipsum pilo vigilis exceptus est. Ceterum Lusitanos Viriatus erexit, vir calliditatis acerrimae, qui ex venatore latro, ex latrone subito dux atque imperator et, si fortuna cessisset, Hispaniae Romulus, non contentus libertatem suorum defendere, per quattuordecim annos omnia citra ultraque Hiberum et Tagum igni ferroque populatus, castra etiam praetorum et praesidia adgressus, Claudium Vnimanum paene ad internecionem exercitus cecidisset et insignia trabeis et fascibus nostris quae ceperat in montibus suis tropaea fixisset.

There would have been war also with all the Celtiberians, had not the leader of that movement at the beginning of the war been overpowered by force—a man supreme in ardor and audacity, had he advanced—Olyndicus, who, brandishing a silver spear as if sent from heaven, like one vaticinating, had turned all minds to himself. But with equal temerity, when by night he approached the consul’s camp, he was caught by the sentinel’s javelin close by the very tent. However, Viriatus roused the Lusitanians, a man of most acute shrewdness, who from a hunter became a brigand, from a brigand suddenly a leader and imperator, and—had fortune yielded—a Romulus of Spain; not content to defend the liberty of his own, for 14 years he ravaged everything on this side and beyond the Hiberus and the Tagus with fire and iron, even attacking the camps of praetors and the garrisons, and he had almost cut down to extermination the army of Claudius Unimanus, and the insignia—our trabeae and fasces—which he had taken he fixed as trophies in his own mountains.

Tandem eum Fabius Maximus consul oppresserat; sed a successore Popilio violata victoria est: quippe qui conficiendae rei cupidus, fractum ducem et extrema deditionis agitantem per fraudem et insidias et domesticos percussores adgressus, hanc hosti gloriam dedit, ut videretur aliter unici non potuisse.

At length the consul Fabius Maximus had overpowered him; but by his successor Popilius the victory was violated: for, eager for the finishing of the affair, he attacked the broken leader, who was turning over the last steps of surrender, by fraud and ambush and domestic assassins, and he gave this glory to the enemy, that a singular man seemed not to have been able to be gotten otherwise.

XXXIV. Numantia quantum Carthaginis, Capuae, Corinthi opibus inferior, ita virtutis nomine et honore per omnibus, summumque, si viro aestimes, Hispaniae decus. Quippe quae sine muro, sine turribus, modice edito in tumulo apud flumen sita, quattuor milibus Celtiberorum quadraginta exercitum per annos undecim sola sustinuit, nec sustinuit modo, sed saevius aliquanto perculit pudendisque foederibus adfectis. Novissime, cum invictam esse constaret, opus fuit eo qui Carthaginem everterat.

34. Numantia, although inferior in resources to Carthage, Capua, and Corinth, yet in the name and honor of valor stood before all, and, if you judge by manly virtue, was the highest ornament of Hispania. For it, without wall, without towers, set upon a modestly raised mound by a river, with four thousand Celtiberians alone withstood an army of forty thousand for eleven years, and not only withstood, but struck them somewhat more savagely and drove them into shameful treaties. At last, since it was agreed that it was unconquered, there was need of him who had overthrown Carthage.

Non temere, si fateri licet, illius causa belli iniustior. Segidenses, socios et consanguineos suos, Romanorum manibus elapsos, exceperant. Habita pro his deprecatio nihil valuit.

Not lightly—if it is permitted to confess it—was the cause of that war more unjust. The Segidenses had taken in their allies and their kinsmen, who had slipped from the hands of the Romans. The deprecation made on their behalf availed nothing.

Cum se ab omni bellorum contagione removeret, in legitimi foederis pretium iussi arma deponere. Hoc sic a barbaris acceptum, quasi manus absciderentur. Itaque statim Megaravico fortissimo duce ad arma conversi.

When he removed himself from all contagion of wars, they were ordered to lay down their arms as the price of a legitimate treaty. This was thus received by the barbarians as if their hands were being cut off. And so immediately, with Megaravicus, a most valiant leader, they turned to arms.

Pompeium proelio adgressi, foedus tamen maluerunt, cum debellare potuissent; Hostilium deinde Mancinum: hunc quoque adsiduis caedibus subegerunt, ut ne oculos quidem aut vocem Numantini viri quisquam sustineret. Tamen cum hoc quoque foedus maluere, contenti armorum manubiis, cum ad internecionem saevire potuissent. Sed non minus Numantini quam Caudini illius foederis flagrans ignominia ac pudore populus Romanus dedecus quidem praesentis flagitii deditione Mancini expiavit, ceterum duce Scipione, Carthaginis incendiis ad excidia urbium imbuto, tamen etiam in ultionem excanduit.

Having attacked Pompeius in battle, they nevertheless preferred a treaty, though they could have debellated; next Hostilius Mancinus: him too they subdued by assiduous slaughters, so that no one could even endure the eyes or the voice of a Numantine man. Yet with this one too they preferred a treaty, content with the spoils of arms, although they could have raged to extermination. But the Roman people, blazing with ignominy and shame at that Numantine foedus no less than at the Caudine, indeed expiated the disgrace of the present outrage by the surrender of Mancinus; but, with Scipio as leader—imbued by the conflagrations of Carthage for the destruction of cities—they nevertheless also flared up into vengeance.

Sed tum acrius in castris quam in campo, nostro cum milite quam cum Numantino proeliandum fuit.

But then it had to be fought more fiercely in the camp than in the field, with our soldiery rather than with the Numantine.

Quippe adsiduis et iniustis et servilibus maxime operibus adtriti ferre plenius vallum, qui arma nescirent, luto inquinari, qui sanguine nollent, iubebantur. Ad hoc scorta, calones, sarcinae nisi ad usum necessariae amputantur. Tanti esse exercitum quanti imperatorem vere proditum est.

Indeed, worn down by assiduous, unjust, and most servile labors, those who did not know arms were ordered to carry the rampart all the more; those who were unwilling for bloodshed were ordered to be befouled with mud. In addition, harlots, camp-servants, and baggage not necessary for use are cut off. It has been truly handed down that an army is worth as much as its commander.

Sic redacto in disciplinam milite commissa acies, quodque nemo visurum se umquam speraverat, factum ut fugientes Numantinos quisquam videret. Dedere etiam se volebant, si toleranda viris imperarentur. Sed cum Scipio veram vellet et sine exceptione victoriam, eo necessitatum compulsi primum ut destinata morte in proelium ruerent, cum se prius epulis quasi inferiis inplevissent carnis semicrudae et celiae; sic vocant indigenam ex frumento potionem.

Thus, with the soldiery reduced into discipline and the battle joined, that which no one had ever hoped to see befell: that someone saw the Numantines fleeing. They even wished to surrender themselves, if terms tolerable to men were imposed. But since Scipio wanted a true and exceptionless victory, driven by this pressure of necessities they first rushed into battle with death destined, after they had beforehand filled themselves at a feast, as if a funeral-offering, on half-raw meat and on celia—so they call an indigenous beverage made from grain.

Intellectum ab imperatore consilium: itaque non est permissa pugna morituris. Cum fossa atque lorica quattuorque castris circumdatos fames premeret, a duce orantes proelium, ut tamquam viros occideret, ubi non inpetrabant, placuit eruptio. Sic conserta manu plurimi occisi, et cum urgeret fames, aliquantisper inde vixerunt.

The plan was understood by the emperor: and so battle was not permitted to the doomed. When hunger was pressing those surrounded with a ditch and a rampart and by four camps, begging a battle from the leader, that he might kill them as men—when they did not obtain it, a sally was decided. Thus, with hands joined in close combat, very many were slain; and as hunger pressed, from that they lived for some while.

Novissime consilium fugae sedit; sed hoc quoque ruptis equorum cingulis uxores ademere, summo scelere per amorem. Itaque deplorato exitu in ultimam rabiem furoremque conversi, postremo Rhoecogene duce se, suos, patriam, ferro, venero, subiecto undique igni peremerunt. Macte esse fortissimam et meo iudicio beatissimam in ipsis malis civitatem!

At last the counsel of flight was decided; but this too their wives took away, by breaking the horses’ girths, a supreme crime out of love. Therefore, with the outcome lamented, turned into ultimate rabidity and fury, finally, with Rhoecogenes as leader, they destroyed themselves, their own, their fatherland, with iron, with poison, with fire set on every side. Be honored, city most brave and, in my judgment, most blessed even in your very evils!

Adservit cum fide socios, populum orbis terrarum viribus fultum sua manu aetate tam longa sustinuit. Novissime maximo duce oppressa civitas nullum de se gaudium hosti reliquit. Vnus enim vir Numantinus non fuit qui in catenis duceretur; praeda ut de pauperrimis, nulla: arma ipsi cremaverunt.

He maintained the allies with fidelity, and by his own hand he sustained for so long an age the people of the world, propped by the forces of the whole earth. At the last, though oppressed by the greatest general, the city left no joy about itself to the enemy. For there was not a single Numantine man to be led in chains; as for plunder—as from the very poorest—none: they themselves burned their arms.

Triumphus fuit tantum de nomine. Hactenus populus Romanus pulcher, egregius, pius, sanctus atque magnificus: reliqua saeculi, ut grandia aeque, ita vel magis turbida et foeda, crescentibus cum ipsa magnitudine imperii vitiis; adeo ut, si quis hanc tertiam eius aetatem transmarinam, quam ducentorum annorum fecimus, dividat, centum hoc priores, quibus Africam, Macedoniam, Siciliam, Hispaniam domuit, aureos, sicut poetae canunt, iure meritoque fateatur, centum sequentes ferreos plane et cruentos et si quid inmanius; quippe qui Iugurthinis, Cimbricis, Mithridaticis, Parthicis, piraticis bellis, Gallicis atque Germanicis, quibus caelum ipsum gloria ascendit Gracchanas Drusianasque caedes, ad hoc servilia bella miscuerint et, ne quid turpitudini desit, gladiatoria. Denique in se ipse conversus Marianis atque Sullanis, novissime Pompei et Caesaris manibus, quasi per rabiem et furorem—nefas!—semet ipse laceravit.

It was a triumph only in name. Thus far the Roman people was beautiful, outstanding, pious, holy, and magnificent; the rest of the age, though equally grand, yet was even more turbid and foul, the vices increasing with the very magnitude of the empire—so much so that, if anyone divides this its third, transmarine age, which we have made of 200 years, he would acknowledge the earlier 100, in which it subdued Africa, Macedonia, Sicily, and Spain, as golden, by right and by desert, as the poets sing; the following 100 as plainly iron and bloody, and, if anything, more monstrous—for they mixed in the Jugurthine, Cimbrian, Mithridatic, Parthian, piratic wars, and the Gallic and German, by which it climbed to the sky itself in glory, the Gracchan and Drusian slaughters, and to this the servile wars, and, lest anything be lacking to turpitude, the gladiatorial. Finally, turned upon itself by the hands of Marius and Sulla, and at last of Pompey and Caesar, as if through rabies and frenzy—nefas!—it tore itself to pieces.

Quae etsi iuncta inter se sunt omnia atque confusa, tamen quo melius appareant, simul et ne scelera virtutibus obstrepant, separatim perferentur, priusque, ut coepimus, iusta illa et pia cum exteris gentibus bella memorabimus, magnitudo crescenti in dies imperii appareat; tum ad illa civium scelera turpesque et inpias pugnas revertemur.

Although all these things are joined to one another and confused together, yet, in order that they may appear better, and at the same time lest crimes drown out virtues, they will be set forth separately; and first, as we have begun, we shall commemorate those just and pious wars with foreign peoples, that the magnitude of the empire, growing day by day, may appear; then we shall return to those crimes of the citizens and the base and impious combats.

XXXV. Victa ad occasum Hispania populus Romanus ad orientem pacem agebat, nec pacem modo, sed inusitata et incognita quadam felicitate relictae regiis hereditatibus opes et tota insimul regna veniebant. Attalus, rex Pergamenorum, regis Eumenis filius, socii quondam commilitonique nostri testamentum reliquit: "populus Romanus bonorum meorum heres esto. In bonis regiis hanc fuerunt". Adita igitur hereditate provinciam populus Romanus non quidem bello nec armis, sed, quod aequius, testamenti vire retinebat.

35. With Spain conquered toward the West, the Roman people was conducting peace toward the East, and not peace only, but with a certain unusual and unknown felicity, wealth left by royal inheritances and entire kingdoms at once were coming. Attalus, king of the Pergamenians, son of King Eumenes, once an ally and fellow-soldier of ours, left a testament: "Let the Roman people be the heir of my goods. Among the royal goods were these." Therefore, the inheritance having been entered upon, the Roman people was holding the province not indeed by war nor by arms, but, what is more equitable, by the right of a testament.

Sed hanc difficile dictu est utrum facilius amiserit populus Romanus an recuperaverit. Aristonicus, regii sanguinis ferox iuvenis, urbis regibus parere consuetas ferox iuvenis, urbis regibus parere consuetas partim facile sollicitat, paucas resistentis, Myndon, Samon, Colophona vi recepit, Crassi quoque praetoris cecidit exercitum ipsumque cepit. Sed ille memor et familiae et Romani nominis custodem sui barbarum virgula excaecat et in exitium sui, quod volebat, ita concitat.

But this it is difficult to say whether the Roman people more easily lost or recovered. Aristonicus, a fierce youth of royal blood, easily in part solicits the cities accustomed to obey kings, a few resisting; Myndus, Samos, and Colophon he took by force; he also cut down the army of the praetor Crassus and captured the man himself. But he, mindful both of his family and of the Roman name, with a little rod blinds his barbarian guard and thus, as he wished, incites him into his own destruction.

Mox a Perperna domitus et captus et per deditionem in vinculis habitus. Aquilius Asiatici belli reliquias confecit, mixtis—nefas!—veneno fontibus ad deditionem quarundam urbium. Quae res ut maturam, ita infamem fecit victoriam, quippe cum contra fas deum moresque maiorum medicaminibus inpuris in id tempus sacrosancta Romana arma violasset.

Soon he was subdued and captured by Perperna and, upon surrender, kept in chains. Aquilius finished off the remnants of the Asiatic war, by mixing—nefarious!—poison into the fountains to bring about the surrender of certain cities. This deed made the victory as swift as it was infamous, since, contrary to the divine law and the customs of the ancestors, with impure medicaments he had violated the hitherto sacrosanct Roman arms.

XXXVI. Haec ad orientem; sed non ad meridianam plagam eadem quies. Qui speraret post Carthaginem aliquod in Africa bellum? Atqui non leviter se Numidia concussit, et fuit in Iugurtha quod post Hannibales timeretur.

36. These things to the east; but not the same quiet toward the meridian region. Who would hope, after Carthage, for any war in Africa? And yet Numidia was not lightly shaken, and there was in Jugurtha something to be feared after the Hannibals.

Quippe rex callidissimum populum Romanum armis inclitum et invictum opibus adgressus est. Citra spem omnium fortuna cessit, ut rex fraude praecipuus fraude caperetur. Hic, avo Masinissa et Micipsa patre per adoptionem, cum interficere fratres statuisset agitatus regni cupiditate, nec illo magis quam senatum populusque Romanum, quorum in fide et clientela regnum erat, metueret, primum scelus mandat insidiis.

Indeed, the king assailed the most crafty Roman people, renowned in arms and unconquered in resources. Contrary to the hope of all, fortune yielded, so that a king pre-eminent in fraud was captured by fraud. He—Masinissa his grandfather, and Micipsa his father by adoption—when he had resolved to kill his brothers, driven by desire for the kingdom, and fearing not them so much as the Senate and Roman People, in whose good faith and clientage the kingdom was, entrusted his first crime to ambush.

Potitus Hiempsalis capite cum se in Adherbalem convertisset isque Romam profugisset, missa per legatos pecunia traxit in sententiam suam senatum. Et haec eius fuit de nobis prima victoria. Missos deinde, qui regnum inter illum Adherbalemque dividerent, similiter adgressus, cum in Scauro ipso Romani imperii mores expugnasset, inchoatum nefas perfecit audacia.

Having gotten possession of Hiempsal’s head, when he had turned upon Adherbal and he had fled to Rome, by money sent through legates he drew the Senate into his own opinion. And this was his first victory over us. Then, assailing in like manner those who were sent to divide the kingdom between himself and Adherbal, since in Scaurus himself he had stormed the very morals of the Roman imperium, he completed the nefarious deed he had begun by audacity.

Sed non diu latent scelera. Corruptae nefas legationis erupit placuitque persequi bello parricidam. Primus in Numidiam Calpurnium Bestia consul inmittitur; sed rex peritus fortius adversus Romanos aurum esse quam ferrum, pacem emit.

But the crimes do not lie hidden for long. The crime of the corrupted legation burst forth, and it was resolved to pursue the parricide with war. First, the consul Calpurnius Bestia is sent into Numidia; but the king, experienced that against the Romans gold is stronger than iron, bought peace.

Cuius flagitii reus cum interveniente pudica fide a senatu arcesseretur, pari audacia et venit et competitorem imperii Massivam inmisso percussore confecit. Haec altera contra regem fuit causa bellandi. Igitur sequens ultio mandatur Albino.

Accused of this outrage, when he was summoned by the senate with a pudic, unsullied pledge of good faith intervening, with equal audacity he both came and, by sending in an assassin, finished off Massiva, a competitor for the kingdom. This was the second cause for waging war against the king. Therefore the ensuing vengeance is entrusted to Albinus.

Sed huius quoque—pro dedecus!—frater ita corrupit exercitum, ut voluntaria nostrorum fuga vinceret Numida castrisque poteretur, addito etiam turpi foedere in pretium salutis, quo quos emerat dimisit exercitus. Tandem in ultionem non tam imperii Romani quam pudoris Metellus adsurgit, qui callidissime hostem nunc precibus, nunc minis, iam simulata, iam vera fuga eludentem artibus suis adgressus est. Agrorum atque vicorum populatione non contentus in ipsa Numidiae capita impetum fecit; et Zamam quidem frustra adsiluit, ceterum Thalam, gravem armis thensaurisque regiis, diripuit.

But even this man’s—shame upon it!—brother corrupted the army in such wise that, through the voluntary flight of our men, the Numidian prevailed and got possession of the camp, with a disgraceful pact added as the price of safety, by which he sent away the army he had bought. At last Metellus rises up to take vengeance, not so much for the Roman imperium as for decency, who most cunningly addressed the foe—now with entreaties, now with menaces, now with simulated, now with genuine flight—as he eluded, with his own arts. Not content with the devastation of fields and villages, he made an assault upon the very chief places of Numidia; and upon Zama indeed he sprang in vain, but Thala, weighty with arms and royal treasures, he sacked.

Tunc urbibus exutum regem et iam finium suorum regique fugitivum per Mauros atque Gaetuliam sequebatur. Postremo Marius auctis admodum copiis, cum pro obscuritate generi sui capite censos sacramento adegisset, iam fusum et saucium regem adortus, non facilius tamen vicit quam si integrum ac recentem. Hic et urbem Herculi conditam Capsam, in media Africa sitam anguibus harenisque vallatam, mira quadam felicitate superavit, et saxeo inditam monti Muluccham urbem per Ligurem aditu arduo inaccessoque penetravit.

Then he was pursuing the king, stripped of his cities and now a fugitive from his own borders and even to a king, through the Moors and Gaetulia. At last Marius, his forces very greatly increased—since, on account of the obscurity of his birth, he had driven the head-count to the sacrament (oath)—attacking the king now routed and wounded, nevertheless did not conquer him more easily than if he were intact and fresh. Here too he overcame, with a certain wondrous felicity, the city Capsa, founded by Hercules, situated in the midst of Africa, girded by serpents and sands; and he penetrated the city Muluccha, set into a rocky mountain, by means of a Ligurian, through an approach steep and inaccessible.

Mox non ipsum modo, sed Bocchum quoque Mauretaniae regem, iure sanguinis Numidam vindicantem, apud oppidum Circam graviter cecidit. Qui ubi diffisus rebus suis alienae cladis accessio fieri timet, pretium foederis atque amicitiae regem facit. Sic fraudulentissimus regum fraude gener soceri sui in insidias deductus Sullae in manum traditur, tandemque opertum catenis Iugurtham in triumpho populus Romanus adspexit.

Mox he struck down with a heavy blow not him only, but Bocchus too, king of Mauretania, who, asserting a claim to the Numidian by right of blood, was defeated at the town of Cirta. When he, distrusting his own fortunes, feared to become an accession to another’s disaster, he makes the king the price of a foedus and friendship. Thus the most fraudulent of kings, by a fraud the son‑in‑law of his father‑in‑law, having been led into ambushes, is handed over into Sulla’s hand; and at last the Roman people beheld Jugurtha overcast with chains in a triumph.

Sed ille quoque, quamvis victus ac vinctus, vidit urbem, quam venalem et quandoque perituram, si habuisset emptorem, frustra cecinerat. Iam, ut venalis fuisset, habuit emptorem; cum illum evaserit, certum erit non esse perituram.

But he too, although conquered and bound, saw the city, which he had sung in vain to be venal and someday to perish, if it had had a buyer. Now, in that it was for sale, it has had a buyer; when it shall have escaped him, it will be certain that it is not going to perish.

XXXVII. Sic ad meridiem populus Romanus. Multo atrocius et multipliciter magis a septentrione venientem... . Nihil hac plaga infestius. Atrox caelum, perinde ingenia.

CHAPTER 37. Thus as to the south, the Roman people. Much more atrociously and in many ways more, the one coming from the north... . Nothing more hostile than this quarter. A savage sky, likewise the temperaments.

Omni igitur tractu violentus hostis a dextris atque levis et a medio septentrionibus erupit.

Therefore, along every tract the violent enemy erupted on the right and on the left, and from the middle from the North.

Prima trans Alpes arma nostra sensere Saluvii, cum de incursionibus eorum fidissima atque amicissima civitas Massilia quereretur; Allobroges deinde et Arverni, cum adversus eos similes Haeduorum querelae opem et auxilium nostrum flagitarent; utriusque victoriae testes Isara et Vindelicus amnes et inpiger fluminum Rhodanus. Maximus barbaris terror elephanti fuere, inmanitati gentium pares. Nihil tam conspicuum in triumpho quam rex ipse Bituitus discoloribus in armis argenteoque carpento, qualis pugnaverat.

The first beyond the Alps to feel our arms were the Saluvii, when the most faithful and most friendly city, Massilia, complained of their incursions; then the Allobroges and the Arverni, when, against them, complaints similar to those of the Haedui were calling for our help and aid; witnesses of the victory over both were the rivers Isara and Vindelicus, and the Rhone, the untiring of rivers. The greatest terror to the barbarians were the elephants, equal to the inhumanity of the nations. Nothing was so conspicuous in the triumph as King Bituitus himself, in parti-colored arms and in a silver chariot, such as he had fought in.

Vtriusque victoriae quod quantumque gaudium fuerit, vel hinc aestimari potest, quod et Domitius Ahenobarbus et Fabius Maximus ipsis quibus dimicaverant locis saxeas erexere turres et desuper exornata armis hostilibus tropaea fixerunt, cum hic mos inusitatus fuerit nostris. Numquam enim populus Romanus hostibus domitis victoriam exprobravit.

What sort and how great the joy of each victory was can even from this be estimated: that both Domitius Ahenobarbus and Fabius Maximus, in the very places where they had fought, erected stone towers and from above fixed trophies adorned with the enemy’s arms—though this custom was unaccustomed among our people. For never did the Roman people, with the foes subdued, exprobrate their victory.

XXXVIII. Cimbri, Teutoni atque Tigurini ab extremis Galliae profugi, cum terras eorum inundasset Oceanus, novas sedes toto orbe quaerebant, exclusisque et Gallia et Hispania cum in Italiam demigrarent, misere legatos in castra Silani, inde ad senatum, petentes ut Martius populus aliquid sibi terrae daret quasi stipendium, ceterum ut vellet manibus atque armis suis uteretur. Sed quas daret terras populos Romanus agrariis legibus intra se dimicaturus? Repulsi igitur, quod nequiverant precibus, armis petere coeperunt.

38. The Cimbri, Teutones, and Tigurini, exiles from the farthest parts of Gaul, when the Ocean had inundated their lands, were seeking new seats throughout the whole world, and, shut out from both Gaul and Spain, when they were migrating into Italy, they sent envoys to the camp of Silanus, thence to the senate, asking that the people of Mars grant them some land as a sort of stipend, and moreover that it be willing to make use of their hands and their arms. But what lands was the Roman people, about to contend among itself over agrarian laws, to give? Therefore, repulsed, what they had been unable to obtain by prayers, they began to seek by arms.

Sed nec primum impetum barbarorum Silanus, nec secundum Mallius, nec tertium Caepio sustinere potuerunt; omnes fugati, exuti castris. Actum erat, nisi Marius illi saeculo contigisset.

But neither could Silanus sustain the first impetus of the barbarians, nor Mallius the second, nor Caepio the third; all were routed, stripped of their camps. It would have been all over, had not Marius happened to that age.

Ille quoque non ausus congredi statim militem tenuit in castris, donec invicta illa rabies et impetus, quem pro virtute barbari habent, consenesceret. Recessere igitur increpantes et—tanta erat capiendae urbis fiducia—consulentes, si quid ad uxores suas mandarent. Nec segnius quam minati fuerant tripartito agmine per Alpes, id est claustra Italiae, ferebantur.

He also, not daring to engage at once, held the soldiery in the camp, until that unconquered frenzy and impetus, which the barbarians have in place of virtue, should grow old. They withdrew, therefore, taunting, and—so great was their confidence of taking the city—asking whether they had any message to send to their wives. And no less briskly than they had threatened, in a threefold column they were borne through the Alps, that is, the barriers of Italy.

Marius mira statim velocitate occupatis compendiis praevenit hostem, prioresque Teutonas sub ipsis Alpium radicibus adsecutus in loco quem Aquas Sextiam vocant quo—fidem numinum!—proelio oppressit! Vallem fluviumque medium hostes tenebant, nostris aquarum nulla copia. Consultone id egerit imperator, an errorem in consilium verterit, dubium; certe necessitate aucta virtus causa victoriae fuit.

Marius, with wondrous velocity at once, the shortcuts having been seized, forestalled the enemy, and, having overtaken the foremost Teutones under the very roots of the Alps, in the place which they call Aquae Sextiae—where—by the faith of the divinities!—he crushed them in battle! The enemy held the valley and the river in the middle; for our men there was no supply of water. Whether the commander did this by consultation, or turned a mistake into counsel, is doubtful; certainly virtue, augmented by necessity, was the cause of victory.

Nam flagitante aquam exercitu, "si viri", inquit, "estis, en, illic habetis". Itaque tanto ardore pugnatum est atque caedes hostium fuit, ut victor Romanus de cruento flumine non plus aquae biberit quam sanguinis barbarorum. Certe rex ipse Teutobodus, quaternos senoque equos transilire solitus, vix unum, cum fugeret, ascendit, proximoque in saltu comprehensus insigne spectaculum triumphi fuit. Quippe vir proceritatis eximiae super tropaea sua eminebat.

For when the army was clamoring for water, “if you are men,” he said, “look, there you have it.” And so the fighting was waged with such ardor and there was such a slaughter of the enemy, that the Roman victor drank from the blood-stained river no more water than blood of the barbarians. Certainly King Teutobodus himself, accustomed to leap over four and even six horses, scarcely mounted one as he fled; and, captured in the nearest woodland pass, he was a notable spectacle of the triumph. Indeed, a man of exceptional tallness, he towered above his own trophies.

Sublatis funditus Teutonis in Cimbros convertitur. Hi iam—quis crederet?—per hiemem, quae altius Alpes levat, Tridentinis iugis in Italiam provoluti veluti ruina descenderant. Athesim flumen non ponte nec navibus, sed quadam stoliditate barbarica primum corporibus adgressi, postquam retinere amnem manibus et clipeis frustra temptaverant, ingesta obrutum silva transiluere: et si statim infesto agmine urbem petissent, grande discrimen; sed in Venetia, quo fere tractu Italia mollissima est, ipsa soli caelique clementia robus elanguit.

With the Teutoni utterly uprooted, he turns against the Cimbri. These already—who would believe it?—through the winter, which lifts the Alps higher, had been hurled down over the Tridentine ridges into Italy, descending as it were like a ruin. The Athesis River they assailed not with bridge nor with ships, but with a certain barbaric stolidity, first with their bodies; after they had tried in vain to hold back the stream with their hands and shields, they vaulted across it by piling in a forest and choking it. And if at once with a hostile column they had sought the city, it would have been a grave crisis; but in Venetia, where in almost that whole tract Italy is most soft, the very clemency of soil and sky made their strength languish.

Ad hoc panis usu carnisque coctae et dulcedine uni mitigatos Marius in tempore adgressus est. Venere illi—quam et in barbaris multa vestigia! +: diem pugnare a nostro imperatore petierunt; et sic proximum dedit.

In addition, with the use of bread and of cooked meat and by the sweetness of wine having softened them, Marius engaged them in timely fashion. They came to him—how many traces of this too among barbarians!—+: they asked from our general a day to fight; and thus he granted the next.

In patentissimo, quem Raudium vocant, campo concurrere. Inde milia sexaginta quinque cecidere, hinc trecentis minus; per omnem diem conciditur barbarus. Istic quoque imperator addiderat virtuti—dolum secutus Hannibalem artemque Cannarum; primum nebulosum nanctus diem ut hosti inopinatus occurreret, tum ventosum quoque, ut pulvis in oculos et ora ferretur, tum acie conversa in orientem, ut, quod ex captivis mox cognitum est, ex splendore galearum ac repercussu quasi ardente caelum videretur.

They met in the very open field which they call Raudium. There 65,000 fell, here fewer than 300; throughout the whole day the barbarian is cut down. There too the general had added to valor—a trick, following Hannibal and the art of Cannae: first, having chanced upon a foggy day so that he might come upon the enemy unanticipated; then a windy one as well, so that dust might be carried into eyes and faces; then, with the battle-line turned toward the East, so that, as was soon learned from captives, from the splendor of the helmets and the reflection the sky seemed as if burning.

Nec minor cum uxoribus eorum pugna quam cum ipsis fuit; cum obiectis undique plaustris atque carpentis altae desuper quasi e turribus lanceis contisque pugnarent. Perinde speciosa mors earum fuit quam pugna. Nam cum missa ad Marium legatione libertatem ac sacerdotium non impetrassent—nec fas erat—suffocatis elisisque passim infantibus suis aut mutuis concidere volneribus aut vinculo e crinibus suis facto ab arboribus iugisque plaustrorum pependerunt.

No less was the fight with their wives than with the men themselves; with wagons and carriages thrown up on every side as obstacles, high aloft from above, as if from towers, they fought with lances and pikes. Their death was just as splendid to behold as the battle. For when, after an embassy had been sent to Marius, they did not obtain liberty and the priesthood—it was not permitted by divine law—they, their infants everywhere suffocated and crushed, either fell by mutual wounds, or hung themselves, with a cord made from their own hair, from trees and from the yokes of the wagons.

Boiorix rex in prima acie dimicans inpigre nec inultus occubuit.

King Boiorix, fighting in the front line, fell—vigorously and not unavenged.

Tertia Tigurinorum manus, quae quasi in subsidio Noricos insederat Alpium tumulos, in diversa lapsi fuga ignobili et latrocinis evanuit. Hunc tam laetum tamque felicem liberatae Italiae adsertique imperii nuntium non per homines, ut solebat, populus Romanus accepit, sed per ipsos, si credere fas est, deos. Quippe eodem die quo gesta res est visi pro aede Pollicis et Castoris iuvenes laureatas praetori litteras tradere frequensque in spectaculo rumor "Victoriae Cimbricae feliciter!" dixit.

Tertia of the Tigurini, the band which had, as if in reserve for the Norici, occupied the hillocks of the Alps, having slipped apart in different directions, vanished in ignoble flight and into brigandage. This so glad and so felicitous message of an Italy liberated and of an imperium vindicated the Roman people received not through men, as it was accustomed, but through the gods themselves, if it is lawful to believe. Indeed, on the same day on which the deed was done, young men were seen before the shrine of Pollux and Castor to hand to the praetor letters laurel-wreathed, and the crowded rumor at the spectacle said, "Success to the Cimbric Victory!"

Quo quid admirabilius, quid insignius fieri pote est? Quippe vel elata montibus suis Roma spectaculo belli interesset, quod in gladiatorio munere fieri solet. uno eodemque momento, cum in acie Cimbri succumberent, populus in urbe plaudebat.

Than this, what more admirable, what more illustrious can be brought to pass? For even, lifted upon her own hills, Rome was present at the spectacle of the war, as is wont to happen in a gladiatorial show. At one and the same moment, while the Cimbri were succumbing on the battle-line, the people in the city were applauding.

XXXIX. Post Macedonas, si dis placet, Thraces rebellabant, illi quondam tributarii Macedonum; nec in proximas modo provincias contenti incurrere, Thessaliam atque Dalmatiam, in Hadriaticum mare usque venerunt; eoque fine contenti, quasi interveniente natura, contorta in ipsas aquas tela miserunt. Nihil interim per id omne tempus residuum crudelitatis fuit in captivos saevientibus: itaque dis sanguine humano, bibere in ossibus capitum, huiuscemodi ludibriis foedare mortem tam igne quam fumo, partus quoque gravidarum mulierum extorquere tormentis. Saevissimi omnium Thracum Scordisci simularum et montium situ cum ingenio consentiebant.

39. After the Macedonians, if it pleases the gods, the Thracians were rebelling—those once tributaries of the Macedonians; and not content to make incursions only into the nearest provinces, Thessaly and Dalmatia, they came even as far as the Adriatic Sea; and content with that boundary, as if nature were intervening, they hurled their missiles, whirled, into the waters themselves. Meanwhile, during all that time, nothing of cruelty was left untried upon the captives by those raging: and so to the gods with human blood, to drink from the skull-bones, to defile death with mockeries of this kind by both fire and smoke, and even to wrench the offspring of pregnant women by tortures. The Scordisci, the fiercest of all the Thracians, had the situation of forests and mountains in accord with their disposition.

Itaque non fusus modo ab his aut fugatus, sed—simile prodigio—omnino totus interceptus exercitus quem duxerat Cato. Didius vagos et libera populatione diffusos intra suam reppulit Thraciam. Drusus ulterius egit et vetuit transire Danuvium.

And so not only was he routed by them or put to flight, but—like a prodigy—the entire army which Cato had led was altogether intercepted. Didius drove back into their own Thrace those roaming at large and spread out in free ravaging. Drusus drove farther and forbade them to cross the Danube.

Minucius toto vastavit Hebro, multis quidem amissis, dum per perfidum glacie flumen equitatur. Volso Rhodopen Caucasumque penetravit. Curio Dacia tenus venit, sed tenebras saltuum expavit.

Minucius ravaged all along the Hebrus, with many indeed lost, while cavalry was riding across the treacherous, ice-bound river. Volso penetrated Rhodope and Caucasus. Curio came as far as Dacia, but took fright at the darkness of the forest passes.

Appius in Sarmatas usque pervenit, Lucullus ad terminum gentium Tanain lacumque Maeotin. Nec aliter cruentissimi hostium quam suis moribus domiti. Quippe in captivos igni ferroque saevitum est; sed nihil barbaris atrocius visum est quam quod abscisis manibus relicti vivere superstites poenae suae iubebantur.

Appius reached even as far as the Sarmatians, Lucullus to the boundary of the nations, the Tanais and the Maeotis lake. Nor otherwise were the most blood-crimsoned of the enemies subdued than by their own customs. Indeed, upon the captives there raged fire and iron; but nothing seemed more atrocious to the barbarians than that, with their hands cut off, they were left and were ordered to live on, survivors of their own punishment.

XL. Ponticae gentes a septentrione in sinistrum iacent, a Pontico cognominatae mari. Harum gentium atque regionum rex antiquissimus Aeetas, post Artabaxes, a septem Persis oriundus, inde Mithridates, omnium longe maximus. Quippe cum quattuor Pyrrho, quattuordecim anni Hannibali suffecerint, ille per quadraginta annos restitit, donec tribus ingentibus bellis subactus felicitate Sullae, virtute Luculli, magnitudine Pompei consumeretur.

40. The Pontic peoples lie, from the north, on the left-hand side, surnamed from the Pontic sea. Of these peoples and regions the most ancient king was Aeëtes; after him Artabazes, sprung from the Seven Persians; thereafter Mithridates, by far the greatest of all. For whereas four years sufficed Pyrrhus, and fourteen years sufficed Hannibal, that man held out for forty years, until, subdued in three vast wars—by the felicity of Sulla, the virtue of Lucullus, the magnitude of Pompey—he was consumed.

Causam quidem illius belli praetenderat apud Cassium legatum, adtrectari terminos suos a Nicomede Bithyno; ceterum elatus animis ingentibus Asiae totius, et, si posset, Europae cupiditate flagrabat. Spem ac fiduciam dabant nostra vitia; quippe cum civilibus bellis distringeremur, invitabat occasio, nudumque latus imperi ostendebat procul Marius, Sulla, Sertorius. Inter haec rei publicae volnera et hos tumultus repente quasi captato tempore in lassos simul atque districtos subitus turbo Pontici belli ab ultima veluti specula septentrionis erupit.

Causam indeed of that war he had pretended before Cassius the legate, that his boundaries were being encroached upon by Nicomedes the Bithynian; but, exalted in immense spirits, he blazed with a cupiditas for all Asia, and, if he could, for Europe. Our vices were giving him hope and confidence; for, since we were being distracted by civil wars, the occasion invited, and from afar Marius, Sulla, Sertorius were exposing the naked flank of the empire. Amid these wounds of the commonwealth and these tumults, suddenly, as if the moment were seized, upon men at once weary and distracted, a sudden whirlwind of the Pontic war burst forth from the farthest, as it were, watchtower of the north.

Primis statim impetus belli Bithyniam rapuit, Asia inde pari terrore correpta est, nec cunctanter ad regem ab urbibus nostris populisque descitum est. Aderat, instabat, saevitia quasi virtute utebatur. Nam quid atrocius uno eius edicto, cum omnes qui in Asia forent Romanae civitatis homines interfici iussit?

At the very first onsets of the war, Bithynia was snatched away; thereafter Asia was seized with equal terror, and without delay there was defection to the king from our cities and peoples. He was present, he pressed hard, he used savagery as if it were virtue. For what is more atrocious than his single edict, when he ordered all men of Roman citizenship who were in Asia to be killed?

Tum quidem domus templa et arae, humana omnia atque divina iura violata sunt. Sed hic terror Asiae Europam quoque regi aperiebat. Itaque missis Archelao Neoptolemoque praefectis, excepta Rhodo, quae pro nobis firmius stetit, ceterae Cyclades, Delos, Euboea et ipsum Graeciae decus Athenae tenebantur.

Then indeed houses, temples, and altars, and all human and divine laws were violated. But this terror of Asia was also opening Europe to the king. Accordingly, after sending his prefects Archelaus and Neoptolemus, with Rhodes excepted, which stood more firmly for us, the other Cyclades, Delos, Euboea, and Athens itself, the ornament of Greece, were held.

Italiam iam ipsamque urbem Romam regius terror adflabat. Itaque L. Sulla festinat, vir armis optimus, parique violentia ruentem ulterius hostem quadam quasi manu reppulit. Primumque Athenas urbem—quis crederet?—frugum parentem, obsidione ac fame ad humanos cibos compulit; mox subrutus Piraei portus sex aut amplius muris cinctus.

Italy and the city Rome itself the royal terror was already blowing upon. And so Lucius Sulla hastens, a man best in arms, and with equal violence he repelled the enemy rushing further by, as it were, with a certain hand. And first the city of Athens—who would believe it?—the parent of crops, he compelled by siege and famine to human foods; soon the harbor of Piraeus, girded with six or more walls, was undermined.

Postquam domuerat ingratissimos hominum, tamen, ut ipse dixit, in honorem mortuorum sacris suis famaeque donavit. Mox cum Euboea atque Boeotia praesidia regis dispulisset, omnis copias uno apud Chaeroniam, apud Orchomenon altero bello dissipavit, statimque in Asiam transgressus ipsum opprimit. Et debellatum foret, nis de Mithridate triumphare cito quam vero maluisset.

After he had subdued the most ungrateful of men, nevertheless, as he himself said, he donated it, in honor of the dead, to his own sacred rites and to renown. Soon, when he had scattered the king’s garrisons in Euboea and Boeotia, he routed all his forces in one battle at Chaeronea, in a second at Orchomenus, and immediately, having crossed into Asia, he crushed the man himself. And the fighting would have been finished, had he not preferred to triumph over Mithridates quickly rather than truly.

Ac tum quidem hunc Asiae statum Sulla dederat: ictum cum Ponticis foedus, recepit Bithyniam a rege Nicomedes, Ariobarzanes Cappadociam: Asia rursus nostra, ut coeperat, Mithridates tantum repulsus. Itaque non fregit ea res Ponticos, sed incendit. Quippe rex Asia et Europa quodam modo inescatus non iam alienam, sed, quia amiserat, quasi raptam belli iure repetebat.

And then indeed Sulla had given this settlement to Asia: a treaty was struck with the Pontics; Nicomedes received back Bithynia as king, Ariobarzanes Cappadocia; Asia was again ours, as it had begun; Mithridates only was repulsed. And so that affair did not break the Pontics, but inflamed them. For the king, in a certain way lured by Asia and Europe, was now reclaiming not something alien, but, because he had lost it, as though snatched from him, by the right of war.

Igitur ut exstincta parum fideliter incendia maiore flamma reviviscunt, ita ille de integro, auctis maiorem in modum copiis, tota denique regni sui mole in Asiam rursus mari terra fluminibusque veniebat.

Therefore, just as fires imperfectly extinguished revive with a greater flame, so he afresh, his forces augmented in greater measure, with the whole mass of his realm, was coming again into Asia by sea, by land, and by rivers.

Cyzicum, nobilis civitas, arce, moenibus, portu turribusque marmoreis Asiaticae plagae litora inlustrat. Hanc ille quasi alteram Romam toto invaserat bello. Sed fiduciam oppidanis resistendi nuntius fecit, docens adventare Lucullum, qui—horribile dictu—per medias hostium naves utre suspensus et pedibus iter adgubernans, videntibus procul quasi marina pristis evaserat.

Cyzicus, a noble civitas, with its citadel, walls, port, and marble towers, illumines the shores of the Asiatic region. This he had invaded as if a second Rome, with the whole weight of the war. But a message gave the townsmen confidence to resist, informing them that Lucullus was approaching, who—horrible to say—through the midst of the enemy’s ships, suspended on a waterskin and steering his course with his feet, had escaped, while men watching from afar saw him like a marine sawfish.

Mox clade conversa, cum ex mora obsidi regem fames et ex fame pestilentia urgeret, recentem Lucullus adsequitur adeoque caedit, ut Granicus et Aesepus amnem cruenti redderentur. Rex callidus Romanaeque avaritiae peritus spargi a fugientibus sarcinas et pecuniam iussit, qua sequentes moraretur.

Soon, with the calamity reversed, when from the delay of the siege hunger pressed the king, and from hunger pestilence, Lucullus overtook him still fresh from it and cut him down to such a degree that the streams Granicus and Aesepus were rendered bloody. The king, crafty and well-versed in Roman avarice, ordered baggage and money to be scattered by the fugitives, by which he might delay those pursuing.

Nec felicior in mari quam in terra fuga. Quippe centum amplius navium classem adparatu belli gravem in Pontico mari adgressa tempestas tam foeda strage laceravit, ut navalis belli instar efficeret, planeque ut Lucullus quodam cum fluctibus procellisque commercio debellandum tradidisse regem ventis viderentur. Adtritae iam omnes validissimi regni vires erant, sed animus malis augebatur.

Nor was flight upon the sea more felicitous than upon the land. For a storm, having assailed in the Pontic Sea a fleet of more than a hundred ships, heavy with the apparatus of war, tore it with so foul a carnage as to make the likeness of a naval war, and plainly as though Lucullus, by a certain commerce with the waves and the squalls, had delivered the king over to the winds to be fought down. By now all the forces of the most puissant kingdom were worn down, but his spirit was being increased by his troubles.

Itaque conversus ad proximas gentes totum paene orientem ac septentrionem ruina sua involvit. Hiberni, Caspii, Albani et utraeque sollicitantur Armeniae, per quae omnia decus et nomen et titulos Pompeio suo Fortuna quaerebat. Qui ubi novis motibus ardere Asiam videt aliosque prodire reges, nihil cunctandum ratus, priusquam inter se gentium robora coirent, statim ponte facto omnium ante se primus transit Euphratem regemque fugientem media nactus Armenia—quanta felicitas viri!

It was thus that, turned toward the nearest nations, he involved almost the whole East and North in his own ruin. The Hiberians, the Caspians, the Albanians, and both Armenias are stirred up, through all of which Fortune was seeking for her Pompey honor, name, and titles. When he sees Asia blazing with new commotions and other kings coming forth, thinking that nothing should be delayed, before the strengths of the nations could unite among themselves, at once, a bridge having been made, first of all he crosses the Euphrates ahead of everyone and, having come upon the king fleeing in the midst of Armenia—what felicity of the man!

uno proelio confecit. Nocturna ea dimicatio fuit et luna in partibus. Quippe quasi commilitans cum a ergo se hostibus, a facie Romanis praebuisset, Pontici per errorem longius cadentis umbras suas quasi hostium corpora petebant.

he finished it with one battle. That combat was nocturnal, and the moon was on their side. For, as if a fellow-soldier with him, the moon had presented itself to the enemies from the rear and to the Romans from the front; and the Pontics, through the error of their shadows falling longer, were aiming at their own shades as if at the bodies of foes.

Et Mithridates quidem nocte illa debellatus est. Nihil enim postea valuit, quamquam omnia expertus more anguium, qui optrito capite postremum cauda minantur. Quippe cum effugisset hostem Colchis tenus, iungere Bosporon, inde per Thraciam Macedoniamque et Graeciam transilire, sic Italiam nec opinatus invadere tantum cogitavit!

And Mithridates indeed was vanquished on that night. For he had no power thereafter, although having tried everything in the manner of serpents, which, with the head crushed, finally menace with the tail. Specifically, when he had escaped the enemy as far as Colchis, he planned to join the Bosporus, then to leap across through Thrace and Macedonia and Greece, and thus, unlooked-for, to invade Italy—so much only did he conceive!

Sed defectione civium Pharnacisque fili scelere praeventus male temptatum veneno spiritum ferro expulit.

But, forestalled by the defection of the citizens and by the crime of Pharnaces, his son, he expelled his spirit with iron, the attempt with poison having gone ill.

Gnaeus interim Magnus rebellis Asiae reliquias sequens per diversa gentium terrarumque volitabat. Nam sub orientem secutus Armenios, capit, ipso capite gentis, Artaxatis supplicem iussit regnare Tigranen. At in septentrione Scythicum iter tamquam in mari stellis secutus Colchos cecidit, ignovit Hiberniae, pepercit Albanis.

Gnaeus Magnus, meanwhile, pursuing the rebellious remnants of Asia, flitted through the diverse regions of peoples and lands. For toward the Orient, having followed the Armenians, he took them, and at Artaxata, the very head of the nation, he ordered Tigranes, as a suppliant, to reign. But in the North, following a Scythian route by the stars as on the sea, he struck down the Colchians, forgave Iberia, and spared the Albani.

Regem colchorum Orodem, positis sub ipso Caucaso castris, iussit in plana descendere, at Artocen, qui Hibernis imperabat, et obsides liberos dare; Oroden etiam remuneratus est, ultro ab Albania sua lectum aureum et alia dona mittentem. Nec non et in meridiem verso agmine Libanum Syriae Damascumque transgressus per memoria illa odorata, per turis et balsami silvas Romana circumtulit signa. Arabes, si quid imperaret, praesto fuere.

He ordered Orodes, the king of the Colchians, with camps pitched beneath the Caucasus itself, to descend into the plains, and Artoces, who ruled the Hiberians, to give his children as hostages; he also remunerated Orodes, who of his own accord from his Albania sent a golden couch and other gifts. And with the column turned toward the south, having crossed Lebanon of Syria and Damascus, through those fragrant places of memory, through the groves of frankincense and balsam, he bore the Roman standards around. The Arabs were at hand, ready for whatever he commanded.

Hierosolymam defendere temptavere Iudaei; verum haec quoque et intravit et vidit illud grande inpiae gentis arcanum patens, sub aurea vite Caelum. Dissidentibusque de regno fratribus arbiter factus regnare iussit Hyrcanum; Aristobulum, quia renovabat imperium, in catenas dedit. Sic Pompeio duce populus totam, qua latissima est, Asiam pervagatus, quam extremam imperii habebat provinciam mediam fecit.

The Jews tried to defend Jerusalem; but he too both entered it and saw that great secret of the impious nation lying open, the Heaven beneath the golden vine. And with the brothers dissenting about the kingship, having been made arbiter he ordered Hyrcanus to reign; Aristobulus, because he was renewing his power, he delivered into chains. Thus, with Pompey as leader, the people, having traversed all Asia where it is very broad, made the province which they had at the extremity of the empire its middle.

Exceptis quippe Parthis, qui foedus maluerunt, et Indis, qui adhuc nos nec noverant, omnis Asia inter rubrum et Caspium et Oceanum Pompeianis domita vel oppressa signis tenebatur.

Except indeed for the Parthians, who preferred a treaty, and the Indians, who as yet did not even know us, all Asia between the Red Sea and the Caspian and the Ocean was held by Pompeian standards, tamed or oppressed.

XLI. Interim dum populus Romanus per diversa terrarum districtus est, Cilices invaserat maria sublatisque commerciis, rupto foedere generis humani, sic maria bello quasi tempestate praecluserant. Audaciam perditis furiosisque latronibus dabat inquieta Mithridaticis proeliis Asia, dum sub alieni belli tumultu exterique regis invidia inpune grassantur. Ac primum dum Isidoro contenti proximo mari Cretam inter atque Cyrenas et Achaiam sinumque Maleum, quod a spoliis aureum ipsi vocavere, latrocinabantur.

41. Meanwhile, while the Roman people was drawn off through diverse parts of the lands, the Cilicians had invaded the seas, and, commerce having been removed and the compact of the human race broken, thus had shut the seas with war as if with a storm. Restless Asia, with the Mithridatic wars, was giving audacity to desperado and frenzied brigands, while under the tumult of another’s war and the enmity of a foreign king they ranged with impunity. And at first, while, content with the nearest sea by Isidorus, they were pirating between Crete and the Cyrenae, and Achaia and the Malean gulf—which they themselves, from the spoils, called “Golden”—they practiced brigandage.

Missusque in eos Publius Servilius, quamvis leves et fugaces myoparonas gravi et Martia classe turbaret, non incruenta victoria superat. Sed nec mari submovisse contentus, validissimas urbes eorum et diutina praeda abundantes, Phaselin et Olympon evertit Isaurosque ipsam arcem Ciliciae, unde conscius sibi magni laboris Isaurici cognomen adamavit. Non ideo tamen tot cladibus domiti terra se continere potuerunt; sed ut quaedam animalia, quibus aquam terramque incolendi gemina natura est, sub ipso hostis recessu inpatientes soli in aquas suas resiluerunt, et aliquando latius quam prius Siciliae quoque litora et Campaniam nostram subito adventu terrere voluerunt.

And Publius Servilius, sent against them, although he harried their light and fugitive myoparons with a heavy and Martial fleet, did not achieve a bloodless victory. But not content with having driven them off the sea, he overthrew their most powerful cities, abounding with long-stored prey—Phaselis and Olympus—and the Isauri, the very citadel of Cilicia; whence, conscious to himself of the great labor, he adopted the cognomen Isauricus. Not therefore, though broken by so many disasters, were they able to confine themselves to the land; but, like certain animals to which there is a twin nature of inhabiting both water and earth, upon the very withdrawal of the foe, impatient of the soil, they leapt back into their waters, and at times, more widely than before, they sought to terrify by sudden arrival even the shores of Sicily and our Campania.

Sic Cilix dignus victoria Pompei visus est et Mithridaticae provinciae facta accessio. Ille dispersam toto mari pestem semel et in perpetuum volens exstinguere divino quodam adparatu adgressus est. Quippe classibus et suis et socialibus Rhodiorum abundaret, pluribus legatis atque praefectis utraque Ponti et Oceani ora complexus est.

Thus the Cilician was seen as worthy of Pompey’s victory, and an accession was made to the Mithridatic province. He, wishing to extinguish the plague scattered over the whole sea once and for all and for perpetuity, set upon it with a certain quasi-divine apparatus. For he abounded in fleets both his own and the allied fleets of the Rhodians, and, with numerous legates and prefects, he encompassed both shores of the Pontus and of the Ocean.

Gellius Tusco mari inpositus, Plotius Siculo; Atilius Ligusticum sinum, Pomponius Gallicum obsedit, Torquatus Balearicum, Tiberius Nero Gaditanum fretum, qua primum maris nostri limen aperitur, Libycum Lentulus Marcellinus, Aegyptium Pompei iuvenes, Hadriaticum Varro Terentius, Aegaeum et Ponticum et Pamphylium Metellus, Asiaticum Caepio; ipsas Propontidos fauces Porcius Cato sic obsitis navibus quasi portam obseravit. Sic per omnis aequoris portus, sinus, latebras, recessus, promunturia, freta, paeninsulas quidquid piratarum fuit quadam indagine inclusum et oppressum est. Ipse Pompeius in originem fontemque belli Ciliciam.

Gellius was set over the Tuscan sea, Plotius over the Sicilian; Atilius blockaded the Ligurian gulf, Pomponius the Gallic; Torquatus the Balearic, Tiberius Nero the Gaditan strait, where the first threshold of our sea is opened; the Libyan, Lentulus Marcellinus; the Egyptian, Pompey’s youths; the Adriatic, Varro Terentius; the Aegean and the Pontic and the Pamphylian, Metellus; the Asiatic, Caepio; Porcius Cato barred the very jaws of the Propontis, with ships so set as if he were bolting a gate. Thus through all the sea’s harbors, bays, hiding-places, recesses, promontories, straits, peninsulas, whatever there was of the pirates was enclosed and crushed by a kind of net. Pompey himself went against the origin and fountain of the war, Cilicia.

Nec hostes detrectavere certamen. Non ex fiducia, sed quia oppressi erant, ausi videbantur; sed nihil tamen amplius, quam ut ad primum ictum concurrerent. Mox ubi circumfusa undique rostra viderunt, abiectis statim telis remisque plausu undique pari, quod supplicantium signum fuit, vitam petierunt.

Nor did the enemies decline the contest. Not from confidence, but because they were oppressed, they seemed to have dared; yet nothing more than to rush together at the first blow. Soon, when they saw the rams’ prows poured around them on every side, their weapons and oars straightway cast down, with equal clapping from all quarters—which was the sign of suppliants—they begged for life.

Non alia tam incruenta victoria usi umquam sumus; sed nec fidelior in posterum reperta gens ulla est. Idque prospectum singulari consilio ducis, qui maritimum genus a conspectu longe removit maris et mediterraneis agris quasi obligavit, eodemque tempore et usum maris navibus recuperaverit et terrae homines suos reddidit. Quid prius in hac mirere victoria?

We have never employed any other victory so bloodless; nor was any nation more faithful found thereafter. And this was provided for by the singular counsel of the leader, who removed the maritime race far from the sight of the sea and, as it were, bound it to inland fields, and at the same time both recovered the use of the sea for ships and gave men back to the land. What first would you marvel at in this victory?

Velocitatem, quod quadragensimo die parta est? an felicitatem, quod ne una quidem navis amissa est? an vero perpetuitatem, quod amplius piratae non fuerunt?

The velocity, that it was achieved on the 40th day? or the felicity, that not even a single ship was lost? or indeed the perpetuity, that thereafter there were no pirates any longer?

XLII. Creticum bellum, si vera volumus, nos fecimus sola vincendi nobilem insulam cupiditate. Favisse Mithridati videbatur: hoc placuit armis vindicare. Primus invasit insulam Marcus Antonius, cum ingenti quidem victoriae spe atque fiducia, adeo ut pluris catenas in navibus quam arma portaret.

42. The Cretan war, if we want the truth, we ourselves made, by the mere cupidity of conquering a noble island. It seemed to have favored Mithridates: this it pleased us to vindicate with arms. Marcus Antonius was the first to invade the island, with enormous hope and confidence of victory, to such a degree that he carried more chains on the ships than weapons.

Dedit itaque poenas vecordiae. Nan plerasque naves intercepere hostes, captivaque corpora religantes velis ac funibus suspendere, ac sic velificantes triumphantium in modum Cretes portibus suis adremigaverunt. Metellus deinde totam insulam igni ferroque populatus intra castella et urbes redegit, Cnoson, Eleuthernas et, ut Graeci dicere solent, urbium matrem, Cydoneam; adeoque saeve in captivos consulebatur, ut veneno se plerique conficerent, alii deditionem suam ad Pompeium absentem mitteret.

He therefore paid the penalties of his folly. For the enemies intercepted most of the ships, and, binding the captive bodies fast, they hung them to the sails and ropes, and thus, making sail in the manner of triumphers, the Cretans rowed into their own harbors. Metellus then, having ravaged the whole island with fire and steel, reduced to obedience Knossos, Eleutherna, and, as the Greeks are accustomed to say, the mother of cities, Cydonia; and so savage a policy was adopted toward the captives that many ended themselves by poison, while others sent their surrender to Pompey in his absence.

Et cum ille res in Asia gerens, eo quoque praefectum misisset Antonium, in aliena provincia inritus fuit, eoque infestior Metellus in hostes vis victoris exercuit, victisque Lasthene et Panare, Cydoneae ducibus, victor redit. Nec quidquam tamen amplius de tam famosa victoria quam cognomen Creticum reportavit.

And when that man, conducting affairs in Asia, had sent there too a prefect, Antonius, he was ineffectual in another’s province; and therefore Metellus, the more hostile, exercised the force of a victor upon the enemies, and, Lasthenes and Panares, leaders of Cydonea, having been conquered, returned a victor. Yet he carried back nothing more from so famed a victory than the cognomen “Creticus.”

XLIII. Quatenus Metelli Macedonici domus bellicis agnominibus adsueverat, altero et liberis eius Cretico facto mora non fuit quin alter quoque Balearicus vocaretur. Baleares per id tempus insulae piratica rabie maria corruperat. Homines feros atque silvestris mireris ausos a scopulis suis saltem maria prospicere.

43. Inasmuch as the house of Metellus Macedonicus had grown accustomed to bellicose agnomina, when one—together with his children—had been made “Creticus,” there was no delay before another too was called “Balearicus.” The Balearic islands at that time had corrupted the seas with piratical rabidity. You would marvel that men fierce and sylvan dared, from their crags at least, to look out upon the seas.

Ascendere etiam inconditas rates et praeternavigantes subinde inopinato impetu terruere. Sed cum unientem ab alto Romanam classem prospexissent, praedam putantes, ausi etiam occurrere, et primo impetu ingenti lapidum saxorumque nimbo classem operuerunt. Tribus quisque fundis proeliantur.

They even boarded unshaped, crude rafts and, from time to time, frightened those sailing past with an unexpected assault. But when they had sighted the Roman fleet coming from the deep, thinking it prey, they dared even to meet it; and at the first onset they shrouded the fleet with a huge nimbus of stones and rocks. Each man fights with three slings.

Certos esse quis miretur ictus, cum haec sola genti arma sint, id unum ab infantia studium?

Who would marvel that the blows are certain, since these are the only arms of the nation, that one pursuit from infancy?

Cibum puer a matre non accipit, nisi quem ipsa monstrare percusserit. Sed non diu lapidatione terruere Romanos. Nam postquam comminus ventum est expertique rostra et pila venientia, pecudum in morem clamorem sublato petierunt fuga litora, dilapsique in proximos tumulos quaerendi fuerunt ut vincerentur.

The boy does not receive food from his mother, except that which she herself has shown by striking. But they did not for long terrify the Romans with stoning. For after it came to close quarters and they experienced the rams and the javelins coming, like cattle, with a shout raised they sought the shores in flight, and, having scattered over the nearest mounds, they had to be sought out so that they might be conquered.

XLIV. Aderat fatum insularum. Igitur et Cypros recepta sine bello. Insulam veteribus divitiis abundantem et ob hoc Veneri sacram Ptolemaeus regebat.

44. The fate of the islands was at hand. Therefore Cyprus too was recovered without war. Ptolemy was ruling the island, abundant in ancient wealth and for this reason sacred to Venus.

Et divitiarum tanta erat fama, nec falso, ut victor gentium populus et donare regna consuetus P. Clodio tribuno plebis duce socii vivique regis confiscationem mandaverit. Et ille quidem ad rei famam veneno fata praecepit. Ceterum Porcius Cato Cyprias opes Liburnis per Tiberium hostium invexit.

And so great was the fame of its riches—and not falsely—that the people, conqueror of nations and accustomed to donate kingdoms, under P. Clodius, tribune of the plebs, as leader, entrusted the confiscation of an allied and still-living king. And he indeed, at the report of the affair, anticipated his fate with poison. Moreover, Porcius Cato brought the Cyprian wealth in Liburnians through the enemy’s Tiber.

Quae res latius aerarium populi Romani quam ullus triumphus inplevit.

This act filled the treasury of the Roman people more amply than any triumph.

XLV. Asia Pompei manibus subacta, reliqua quae restabant in Europa, Fortuna in Caesarem transtulit. Restabant autem inmanissimi gentium Galli atque Germani et quamvis toto orbe divisi, tamen quia vincere libuit, Britanni. Primus Galliae motus ab Helvetis coepit, qui Rhodanum inter et Rhenum siti, non sufficientibus terris venere sedem petitum, incensis moenibus suis; hoc sacramentum fuit, ne redirent.

45. Asia, subdued by the hands of Pompey, Fortune transferred to Caesar the remaining things that were left in Europe. There remained, moreover, the most savage of the nations, the Gauls and the Germans, and the Britons—although cut off from the whole world—yet, because it pleased to conquer. The first movement of Gaul began from the Helvetii, who, situated between the Rhone and the Rhine, with their lands not sufficient, came to seek a seat, their own walls having been burned; this was the sacrament, that they should not return.

Sed petito tempore ad deliberandum, cum inter moras Caesar Rhodani ponte rescisso abstulisset fugam, statim bellicosissimam gentem sic in sedes suas quasi greges in stabula pastor reduxit. Sequens longe longeque cruentior pugna Belgarum, quippe pro libertate pugnantium. Hic cum multa Romanorum militum insignia, tum illud egregium ipsius ducis, quod, nutante in fugam exercitu, rapto fugientis e manu scuto in primam volitans aciem manu proelium restituit.

But, time having been asked for deliberation, when amid the delays Caesar, with the bridge of the Rhone cut down, had cut off their flight, at once he led back that most bellicose people into their seats, as a shepherd leads the flocks into the stalls. Following this came the battle of the Belgae, far and far more sanguinary, indeed of men fighting for liberty. Here, not only were there many insignia/distinctions of Roman soldiers, but especially that outstanding deed of the leader himself: that, when the army was wavering toward flight, snatching a shield from a fugitive’s hand and darting into the front line, he restored the battle by his own hand.

Inde cum Venetis etiam navale bellum, sed maior cum Oceano quam cum ipsis navibus rixa. Quippe illae rudes et informes et statim naufragae, cum rostra sensissent; sed haerebat in vadis pugna, cum aestibus solitis cum ipso certamine subductus Oceanus intercedere bello videretur. Illae quoque accessere diversitate pro gentium locorumque natura.

Then there was also a naval war with the Veneti, but the quarrel was greater with the Ocean than with the ships themselves. For those were crude and formless and straightway shipwrecked when they had felt the rams; but the fight stuck fast in the shallows, since, with its accustomed tides, the Ocean, withdrawn during the contest itself, seemed to interpose itself in the war. There also accrued diversities, in proportion to the nature of the peoples and of the places.

Aquitani, callidum genus in speluncas se recipiebat: iussit includi; Morini dilabebantur in silvas: iussit incendi. Nemo tantum feroces dixerit Gallos: fraudibus agunt. Indutiomarus Treveros, Ambiorix concitavit Eburones.

The Aquitani, a cunning race, were withdrawing into caves: he ordered them to be shut in; the Morini were slipping away into the forests: he ordered them to be set on fire. Let no one call the Gauls merely ferocious: they act by frauds. Indutiomarus stirred up the Treveri, Ambiorix the Eburones.

Vtrique absente Caesare coniuratione facta invasere legatos. Sed ille fortiter a Dolabella submotus est, relatumque regis caput; hic insidis in valle dispositis dolo perculit. Itaque et castra direpta sunt et Aurunculeium Cottam cum Titurio Sabino legatos amisimus.

Both, with Caesar absent, a conjuration having been made, assailed the legates. But that one was bravely driven back by Dolabella, and the head of the king was brought back; this one, with ambushes arranged in a valley, struck them down by guile. And so both the camp was plundered and we lost the legates Aurunculeius Cotta and Titurius Sabinus.

Nec ulla de rege mox ultio; quippe perpetua trans Rhenum fuga latuit.

Nor was there any vengeance concerning the king soon after; indeed, in perpetual flight across the Rhine he lay hidden.

Nec Rhenus ergo immunis; nec enim fas erat ut liber esset receptator hostium atque defensor. Et prima contra Germanos illius pugna iustissimis quidem ex causis: Haedui de incursionibus eorum querebantur. Quae Ariovisti regis superbia!

Nor, therefore, was the Rhine exempt; for indeed it was not right by divine law that he be free as a harborer of enemies and a defender. And his first battle against the Germans was indeed for the most just causes: the Aedui were complaining about their incursions. What arrogance of King Ariovistus!

Cui cum legati dicerent "veni ad Caesarem" et " quis est Caesar?" et "si vult, veniat" inquit, et "quid ad illum, quid agat nostra Germania? Num ego me interpono Romanis?" Itaque tantum gentis novae terror in castris, ut testamenta passim etiam in principiis scriberentur. Sed illa inmania corpora quo maiora erant, eo magis gladiis ferroque patuerunt.

To whom, when the legates said “come to Caesar,” he replied “and who is Caesar?” and “if he wishes, let him come,” and “what is it to him, what our Germany is doing? Am I to interpose myself with the Romans?” And so great was the terror of that new nation in the camp, that testaments were being written everywhere, even in the principia. But those enormous bodies, the greater they were, so much the more they lay open to swords and iron.

Qui calor in proeliando militum fuerit, nullo magis exprimi pote est quam quod, elatis super caput scutis cum se testudine barbarus tegeret, super ipsa Romani scuta salierunt, et inde in iugulos gladiis descendebant. Iterum de Germano Tencteri querebantur. Hic vero iam Caesar ultro Mosellam navali ponte trangreditur ipsumque Rhenum et Hercyniis hostem quaerit in silvis; sed in saltus ac paludis genus omne diffugiebat: tantum pavoris incussit intra ripam subito Romana vis.

What heat of the soldiers in battling there was can be expressed by nothing more than by this: with their shields lifted above the head, when the barbarian was covering himself in a testudo, the Romans leapt upon the shields themselves, and from there with swords came down upon the jugulars. Again they were complaining about the German Tencteri. Here indeed now Caesar, unprovoked, crosses the Moselle by a naval (pontoon) bridge and the Rhine itself, and seeks the enemy in the Hercynian forests; but into defiles and marshes every sort scattered in flight: so great a terror did the sudden Roman force instill along the bank.

Nec semel Rhenus, sed iterum quoque, et quidem ponte facto penetratus est. Maior aliquanto trepidatio. Quippe cum Rhenum suum sic ponte quasi iugo captum viderent, fuga rursus in silvas et paludes, et, quod acerbissimum Caesari fuit, non fuere qui vincerentur.

Not once only was the Rhine, but a second time as well—indeed, penetrated with a bridge constructed. The trepidation was somewhat greater. For since they saw their Rhine thus captured by a bridge as if by a yoke, there was flight again into the forests and marshes; and—what was most bitter to Caesar—there were none to be conquered.

Omnibus terra marique peragratis respexit Oceanum et, quasi hic Romanis orbis non sufficeret, alterum cogitavit. Classe igitur comparata Britanniam transit mira celeritate; quippe qui tertia vigilia cum Morinorum solvisset a portu, minus quam medio die insulam ingressus est. Plena erant tumultu hostico litora, et trepidantia ad conspectum rei novae carpenta volitabant.

With everything by land and by sea traversed, he looked back toward the Ocean, and, as though this world did not suffice for the Romans, he conceived another. Therefore, with a fleet prepared, he crossed to Britain with wondrous celerity; for, since at the third watch he had loosed from the port of the Morini, he entered the island in less than half a day. The shores were full of hostile tumult, and carriages, trepidating at the sight of the novelty, were flitting about.

Itaque trepidatio pro victoria fuit. Arma et obsides accepit a trepidis et ulterius isset, nisi inprobam classem naufragio castigasset Oceanus. Reversus igitur in Galliam, classe maiore auctisque copiis in eundem rursus Oceanum eosdemque rursus Britannos.

And so trepidation served as victory. He received arms and hostages from the panic‑stricken, and he would have gone further, had not the Ocean castigated the unruly fleet with shipwreck. Therefore, having returned to Gaul, with a larger fleet and his forces augmented, he made again for the same Ocean and the same Britons.

Caledonias secutus in silvas unum quoque e regibus Cassivellaunum in vincula dedit. Contentus his—non enim provinciae, sed nomini studebatur—cum maiore quam prius praeda revectus est, ipso quoque Oceano tranquillo magis et propitio, quasi imparem se fateretur.

Having pursued into the Caledonian forests, he delivered even one of the kings, Cassivellaunus, into chains. Content with these—for there was zeal not for a province, but for the name—he was borne back with booty greater than before, the Ocean itself too more tranquil and propitious, as if it were confessing itself unequal.

Sed maxima omnium eademque novissima coniuratio fuit Galliarum cum omnis pariter Arvernos atque Biturigas, Carnuntas simul Sequanosque contraxit corpore, armis spirituque terribilis, nomine etiam quasi ad terrorem composito, Vercingetorix. Ille festis diebus et conciliabulis, cum frequentissimos in lucis haberet, ferocibus dictis ad ius pristinum libertatis erexit. Aberat tunc Caesar Ravennae dilectum agens, et hieme creverant Alpes: sic interclusum putabant iter.

But the greatest of all and likewise the latest conspiracy was that of the Gauls, when Vercingetorix—terrible in arms and spirit, and with even his very name, as if composed for terror—drew together alike all the Arverni and the Bituriges, the Carnutes as well and the Sequani, in person. He, on feast days and at conciliabula, when he had the crowds in the groves in very great numbers, with ferocious words roused them to the pristine right of liberty. Caesar at that time was away at Ravenna holding a levy, and in winter the Alps had swelled; thus they supposed the route was shut off.

Sed ille, qualis erat ad nuntium rei—felicissimam temeritatem—per invios ad id tempus montium tumulos, per intactas vias et nives, expedita manu emersus Galliam, et ex distantibus hibernis castra contraxit, et ante in media Gallia fuit quam ab ultima timeretur. Tum ipsa capita belli adgressus urbes, Avaricum cum quadraginta milibus propugnantium sustulit, Alesiam ducentorum quinquaginta milium iuventute subnixam flammis adaequavit. Circa Gergoviam Arvernorum tota belli moles fuit.

But he, such as he was at the news of the matter—most felicitous temerity—emerged into Gaul with an unencumbered force through, until that time, pathless heights of the mountains, through untrodden tracks and snows; and from far-flung winter quarters he concentrated the camp, and he was in mid Gaul before he was feared from the farthest parts. Then, attacking the very heads of the war—the cities—he took Avaricum, with 40,000 defenders, and he leveled Alesia with flames, though supported by a youth of 250,000. Around Gergovia of the Arverni lay the whole mass of the war.

Quippe cum octoginta milia muro et arce et abruptis ripis defenderet maximam civitatem, vallo, sudibus et fossa inductoque fossae flumine, ad hoc decem et octo castellis ingentique lorica circumdatam, primum fame domuit, mox audentem eruptiones in vallo gladiis sudibusque concidit, novissime in deditionem redegit. Ipse ille rex, maximum victoriae decus, supplex cum in castra venisset, ecum et phaleras et sua arma ante Caesaris genua proiecit: "Habe", inquit, "fortem virum, vir fortissime, vicisti".

Since eighty thousand were defending a very great city with a wall and a citadel and steep banks, with a rampart, stakes, and a trench, and with a river led into the trench, in addition surrounded with eighteen forts and an enormous breastwork, he first subdued it by hunger; soon he cut down with swords and stakes those daring sorties against the rampart; and at the last he brought it into surrender. He himself, that king, the greatest ornament of the victory, when as a suppliant he had come into the camp, threw his horse and trappings and his own arms before Caesar’s knees: "Have, a brave man, bravest of men, you have conquered."

XLVI. Dum Gallos per Caesarem in septentrione debellat, ipse interim ad orientem grave volnus a Parthis populus Romanus accepit. Nec de fortuna queri possumus; caret solacio clades. Adversis et dis et hominibus cupiditas consulis Crassi, dum Parthico inhiat auro, undecim strage legionum et ipsius capite multata est.

46. While he, through Caesar, was finishing off the Gauls in the north, meanwhile in the east the Roman people received a grievous wound from the Parthians. Nor can we complain of Fortune; the calamity lacks solace. With both gods and men adverse, the greed of the consul Crassus, while gaping after Parthian gold, was punished by the slaughter of eleven legions and by his own head.

Et tribunus plebi Metellus exeuntem ducem hostilibus Diris devoverat, et cum Zeugma transisset exercitus, rapta subitis signa turbinibus hausit Euphrates, et cum apud Nicephorium castra posuisset, missi ab Orode rege legati denuntiave, percussorum cum Pompeio foederum Sullaque meminisset. Regiis inhians ille thensauris, nihil ne imaginario quidem iure, sed Seleuciae se responsurum esse respondit. Itaque dii foederum ultores nec insidiis nec virtuti hostium defuerunt.

And the tribune of the plebs Metellus had devoted the departing leader to hostile Dirae; and when the army had crossed Zeugma, the Euphrates swallowed the standards, snatched up by sudden whirlwinds; and when he had pitched camp near Nicephorium, legates sent by King Orodes gave notice, warning him to remember the treaties struck with Pompey and with Sulla. Greedy and gaping after the royal treasures, he replied that he would acknowledge no right, not even an imaginary one, but that he would give his answer at Seleucia. And so the avenging gods of treaties were not lacking to either the ambushes or the valor of the enemies.

Iam primum, qui solus et subvehere commeatus et munire poterat a tergo relictus Euphrates, dum simulato transfugae cuidam Mazarae Syro creditur. Tum in mediam camporum vastitatem eodem duce ductus exercitus, ut undique hosti exponeretur. Itaque vixdum venerat Carrhas, cum undique praefecti regis Silaces et Surenas ostendere signa auro sericisque vexillis vibrantia.

Now, to begin with, the Euphrates—who alone could both carry up supplies and furnish fortification—was left behind in the rear, while credence was given to a certain feigned deserter, a Syrian of Mazara. Then the army, conducted by the same guide, was led into the middle vastness of the plains, so as to be exposed to the enemy on every side. And so he had scarcely come to Carrhae, when on all sides the king’s prefects, Silaces and Surenas, displayed standards quivering, resplendent with gold and with silken vexilla.

Tunc sine mora circumfusi undique equitatus in modum grandinis atque nimborum densa pariter tela fuderunt. Sic miserabili strage deletus exercitus. Ipse in conloquium sollicitatus, signo dato vivus in hostium manus incidisset, nisi tribunis reluctantibus fugam ducis barbari ferro occupassent.

Then without delay, the cavalry, surging around on every side, poured out dense missiles alike in the manner of hail and storm-clouds. Thus the army was obliterated in a miserable slaughter. He himself, solicited to a colloquy, with the signal given, would have fallen alive into the enemies’ hands, had not the tribunes, though reluctant, preempted the flight of the barbarian leader with iron.

Filium ducis paene in conspectu patris idem telis operuerunt. Sic quoque relatum* caput ludibrio hostibus fuit. Reliquiae infelicis exercitus, quo quemque rapuit fuga, in Armeniam, Ciliciam Syriamque distractae, vix nuntium cladis rettulerunt.

They covered the leader’s son with missiles almost in his father’s sight. Thus also the head brought back* was for derision to the enemies. The remnants of the unlucky army, wherever flight snatched each one, scattered into Armenia, Cilicia, and Syria, scarcely brought back a message of the disaster.

Caput eius recisum cum dextera manu ad regem reportatum ludibrio fuit, neque indigne. Aurum enim liquidum in rictum oris infusum est, ut cuius animus arserat auri cupiditate, eius etiam mortuum et exsangue corpus auro ureretur.

His head, severed, together with the right hand, having been carried back to the king, was made a mockery—and not undeservedly. For liquid gold was poured into the gaping mouth, so that he whose mind had burned with cupidity for gold, his body too, dead and bloodless, might be seared by gold.

XLVII. Haec est illa tertia aetas populi Romani transmarina, qua Italia progredi ausus orbe toto arma circumtulit. Cuius aetatis superiores centum anni sancti, pii et, ut diximus, aurei, sine flagitio, sine scelere, dum sincera adhuc et innoxia pastoriae illius sectae integritas, dumque Poenorum hostium inminens metus disciplinas veteres continebat. Postremi centum, quos a Carthaginis, Corinthi Numantiaque excidiis et Attali regis Asiatica hereditate deduximus in Caesarem et Pompeium secutumque hos, de quo dicemus, Augustum, ut claritate rerum bellicarum magnifici, ita domesticis cladibus miseri et erubescendi.

47. This is that third, transmarine age of the Roman people, in which Italy, having dared to advance, carried arms around the whole orb. Of which age the earlier hundred years were holy, pious, and, as we said, golden, without disgrace, without crime, while as yet the sincere and innoxious integrity of that pastoral sect endured, and while the imminent fear of the Punic enemies was holding the ancient disciplines fast. The last hundred, which we have traced down from the destructions of Carthage, Corinth, and Numantia and the Asiatic inheritance of King Attalus, down to Caesar and Pompey and, following these—of whom we shall speak—Augustus, were as magnificent in the clarity of military affairs, so wretched and shameworthy in domestic disasters.

Quippe sicut Galliam, Thraciam, Ciliciam, Cappadociam, uberrimas validissimaque provincias, Armenios etiam et Britannos, ut non in usum, ita ad imperii speciem magna nomina adquisisse pulchrum ac decorum: ita eodem tempore dimicasse domi cum civibus, sociis, mancipiis, gladiatoribus totoque inter se senatu turpe atque miserandum. Ac nescio an satius fuerit populo Romano Sicilia et Africa contento fuisse, aut his etiam ipsis carere dominanti in Italia sua, quam eo magnitudinis crescere, ut virtutibus suis conficerentur. Quae enim res alia civiles furores peperit quam nimiae felicitates?

Indeed, just as to have acquired Gaul, Thrace, Cilicia, Cappadocia—most fertile and most puissant provinces—yes, even the Armenians and the Britons, great names not so much for use as for the semblance of empire, was fair and decorous: so, at the same time, to have fought at home with citizens, allies, slaves, gladiators, and the whole senate among themselves was shameful and pitiable. And I do not know whether it would have been better for the Roman people to have been content with Sicily and Africa, or even to have lacked these very ones while ruling in its own Italy, rather than to grow to such a magnitude that they were brought to an end by their own virtues. For what other thing bore civil furies than excessive felicities?

Syria prima nos victa corrupit, mox Asiatica Pergameni regis hereditas. Illae opes atque divitiae adfixere saeculi mores, mersamque vitiis suis quasi sentina rem publicam pessum dedere. Vnde enim populus Romanus a tribunis agros et cibaria flagitaret, nisi per famem quam luxus fecerat?

Syria, the first conquered, corrupted us; soon after, the Asiatic inheritance of the king of Pergamum. That wealth and riches fastened the morals of the age, and the commonwealth, sunk by their vices as by bilge-water, they sent to the bottom. For whence would the Roman people have demanded from the tribunes lands and provisions, if not through the hunger which luxury had made?

Hinc ergo Gracchana prima et secunda et illa tertia Apuleiana seditio. Vnde iudiciariis legibus divolsus a senatu eques, nisi ex avaritia, ut vectigalia rei publicae atque ipsa iudicia in quaestu haberentur? Hinc Drusus et promissa civitas Latio et per hoc arma sociorum.

Hence therefore the first and second Gracchan sedition, and that third Apuleian one. Whence was the equestrian order torn from the Senate by judicial laws, if not out of avarice, so that the public vectigalia of the commonwealth and the judgments themselves might be held for profit? Hence Drusus and citizenship promised to Latium, and through this the arms of the allies.

Quid autem? Bella servilia unde nobis, nisi ex abundantia familiarum? Vnde gladiatori adversus dominos suos exercitus, nisi ad conciliandum plebis favorem effusa largitio, dum spectaculis indulget, supplicia quondam hostium artem facit?

But what then? Whence for us the servile wars, if not from the abundance of households? Whence armies of gladiators against their own masters, if not from lavish largesse poured out to conciliate the favor of the plebs, while it indulges in spectacles, making into an art the punishments once of enemies?

Iam ut speciosiora vitia tangamus, nonne ambitus honorum ab isdem divitiis concitatus? Atqui inde Mariana, inde Sullana tempestas. Aut magnificus apparatus convivorum et sumptuosa largitio non ab opulentia paritura mox egestatem?

Now, to touch upon the more showy vices, is not the ambition for honors stirred up by the same riches? And indeed, from that came the Marian, from that the Sullan storm. Or is not the magnificent apparatus of banquets and the sumptuous largess, from opulence, soon destined to beget destitution?

Haec Catilinam patriae suae inpegit. Denique illa ipsa principatus et dominanti cupido unde nisi ex nimiis opibus venit? Atquin haec Caesarem atque Pompeium furialibus in exitium rei publicae facibus armavit.

These things impelled Catiline against his own fatherland. Finally, that very lust for the principate and for domination—whence did it come if not from excessive wealth? And indeed these armed Caesar and Pompey with furial torches for the destruction of the Republic.

Hoc igitur omnis domesticos motus separatos ab externis iustisque bellis ordine persequemur.

Accordingly we shall pursue in order all the domestic commotions, set apart from external and just wars.