Jordanes: De summa temporum vel origine actibusque gentis Romanorum

1 Vigilantiae vestrae, nobilissime frater Vigili, gratias refero, quod me longo per tempore dormientem vestris tandem interrogationibus excitastis. Deo magno gratias, qui vos ita fecit sollicitos, ut non solum vobis tantum, quantum et aliis vigiletis. Mactae virtutis et meriti.

1 I render thanks to your vigilance, most noble brother Vigilius, because by your inquiries you have at last roused me, sleeping through a long time. Thanks be to the great God, who has made you so solicitous that you keep vigil not only for yourselves, but equally for others. Be exalted in virtue and in merit.

2 Vis enim praesentis mundi erumnas cognuscere aut quando coepit vel quid ad nos usque perpessus est, edoceri. Addes praeterea, ut tibi, quomodo Romana res publica coepit et tenuit totumque pene mundum subegit et hactenus vel imaginariae teneat, ex dictis maiorum floscula carpens breviter referam: vel etiam quomodo regum series a Romulo et deinceps ab Augusto Octaviano in Augustum venerit Iustinianum, quamvis simpliciter, meo tamen tibi eloquio pandam. 3 Licet nec conversationi meae quod ammones convenire potest nec peritiae, tamen, ne amici petitionibus obviemus, quoquo modo valuimus, late sparsa collegimus.

2 For you wish to know the miseries of the present world, and to be taught when it began and what it has endured down to us. You add, furthermore, that I, for you, how the Roman republic began and held, and has subdued almost the whole world, and even to this day holds it in imaginary fashion, plucking little blossoms from the sayings of the elders, should briefly relate: or also how the series of kings from Romulus, and thereafter from Augustus Octavian down to Justinian as Augustus, has come—although simply, yet I will lay it open to you in my own elocution. 3 Although what you admonish can agree neither with my manner of life nor with my expertise, nevertheless, lest we oppose a friend’s petitions, in whatever way we have been able, we have gathered things widely scattered.

Et prius ab auctoritate divinarum scripturarum, cui et inservire convenit, inchoantes et usque ad orbis terrae diluvium per familiarum capita currentes, devenimus ad regnum Nini, qui Assyriorum in gente regnans omnem pene Asiam subiugavit, et usque ad Arbacem Medum, qui distructo regno Assyriorum in Medos eum convertit tenuitque usque ad Cyrum Persam, qui itidem Medorum regnum subversum in Parthos transtulit, et exinde usque ad Alexandrum Magnum Macedonem, qui devictis Parthis in Grecorum dicione rem publicam demutavit. 4 Post hec quomodo Octavianus Augustus Cesar subverso regno Grecorum in ius dominationemque Romanorum perduxit. Et quia ante Augustum iam per septingentos annos consolum, dictatorum regumque suorum sollertia Romana res publica nonnulla subegerat, ab ipso Romulo aedificatore eius originem sumens, in vicensimo quarto anno Iustiniani imperatoris, quamvis breviter, uno tamen in tuo nomine et hoc parvissimo libello confeci, iungens ei aliud volumen de origine actusque Getice gentis, quam iam dudum communi amico Castalio ededissem, quatinus diversarum gentium calamitate conperta ab omni erumna liberum te fieri cupias et ad deum convertas, qui est vera libertas.

And first, beginning from the authority of the divine Scriptures, to which it is fitting also to be subservient, and running on as far as the flood of the world by the heads of families, we came to the kingdom of Ninus, who, reigning among the race of the Assyrians, subjugated almost all Asia; and on to Arbaces the Mede, who, the kingdom of the Assyrians having been destroyed, converted it into that of the Medes and held it until Cyrus the Persian, who likewise, the kingdom of the Medes overthrown, transferred it to the Parthians; and thence to Alexander the Great the Macedonian, who, the Parthians having been defeated, changed the commonwealth into the jurisdiction of the Greeks. 4 After these, how Octavian Augustus Caesar, the kingdom of the Greeks being overthrown, brought it into the law and dominion of the Romans. And because before Augustus, already for seven hundred years, by the skill of its consuls, dictators, and kings, the Roman commonwealth had subdued not a few things, taking its origin from Romulus himself, its builder, I have, although briefly, nevertheless composed it in your name in this very small booklet, in the 24th year of the emperor Justinian, adding to it another volume on the origin and deeds of the Getic nation, which I had long since published to our common friend Castalius, to the end that, the calamity of diverse nations being learned, you may wish to be made free from every hardship and turn to God, who is true liberty.

5 Legens ergo utrosque libellos, scito quod diligenti mundo semper necessitas imminet. Tu vero ausculta Iohannem apostolum, qui ait: 'carissimi, nolite dilegere mundum neque ea que in mundo sunt. Quia mundus transit et concupiscentia eius: qui autem fecerit voluntatem dei, manet in aeternum'. Estoque toto corde diligens deum et proximum, ut adimpleas legem et ores pro me, novilissime et magnifice frater.

5 Therefore, reading both little books, know that necessity ever hangs over him who loves the world. But do listen to the apostle John, who says: 'dearest, do not love the world nor the things that are in the world. For the world passes and its concupiscence; but he who has done the will of God abides forever.' And be with your whole heart loving God and neighbor, that you may fulfill the law, and pray for me, most noble and magnificent brother.

6 Romani, ut ait Iamblicus, armis et legibus exercentes orbem terrae suum fecerunt: armis si quidem construxerunt, legibus autem conservaverunt. Quod et ego, sequens eruditissimum virum, dum aliqua de cursu temporum scribere delibero, necessarium duxi opusculo meo velut insigne quoddam ornamentum praeponere. Cupio namque ad inquisitionibus amici fidelissimi, ex diversis voluminibus maiorum praelibans aliqua floscula pro captu ingenii mei in unum redigere et in modum storiunculae tam annorum seriae quam etiam eorum virorum, qui fortiter in re publica laboraverunt, gesta strictim breviterque collegere.

6 The Romans, as Iamblichus says, by exercising the orb of the earth with arms and laws made it their own: by arms indeed they constructed it, but by laws they conserved it. Which I also, following a most erudite man, while I deliberate to write some things about the course of the times, have deemed it necessary to set before my little work, as it were, a certain badge-like ornament. For I wish, in answer to the inquiries of a most faithful friend, skimming some little blossoms from diverse volumes of the ancients according to the capacity of my wit, to reduce them into one and, in the mode of a little story, to gather succinctly and briefly both the series of years and also the deeds of those men who labored bravely in the commonwealth.

7 Quod quamvis simpliciter reor dictum videri doctissimis, gratum tamen fore aestimo mediocribus, dum et brevia sine fastidio legant et sine aliquo fuco verborum quae lectitaverint sentiant. Ab originem etenim orbis primaque creatione tam hominis quam elementorum et usque orbis terrae diluvio secundum veredici legislatoris verba Mosei duo milia ducentos quadraginta et duo annos collegimus. In quibus annis adhuc rudi et simplici hominum natura non reges, sed familiarum capita suo in genere erant.

7 Although I think this may seem to have been said simply to the most learned, yet I reckon it will be welcome to the mediocre, while they both read brief things without distaste and perceive what they have perused without any cosmetic coloring of words. From the origin of the world and the first creation both of man and of the elements, and up to the flood of the orb of the earth, according to the words of the truth-speaking lawgiver Moses, we have collected 2,242 years. In which years, while the nature of men was still rude and simple, there were not kings, but the heads of families were in authority in their own lineage.

Quorum tamen ordo huiuscemodi fuit.

However, their order was of this kind.

8 Adam protoplastus primusque mortalium vixit annos ccxxx et genuit Seth.
Seth vixit an. ccv et genuit Enos.
Enos autem vixit an. cxc et genuit Cainan.

8 Adam, the protoplast and the first of mortals, lived 230 years and begot Seth.
Seth lived 205 years and begot Enos.
Enos, moreover, lived 190 years and begot Cainan.

Cainan item vixit an. clxx et genuit Malelehel.
Malelehel vixit an. clxv et genuit Iareth.
Iareth vero vixit an. clxii et genuit Enoch.

Cainan likewise lived 170 years and begot Malelehel.
Malelehel lived 165 years and begot Iareth.
Iareth indeed lived 162 years and begot Enoch.

Enoch vero vixit an. clxv et genuit Mathusala.
Mathusala vixit an. clxvii et genuit Lamech.
Lamech quoque vixit an. clxxxviii et genuit Noe.

Enoch indeed lived 165 years and begot Methuselah.
Methuselah lived 167 years and begot Lamech.
Lamech likewise lived 188 years and begot Noah.

9 Noe vero sexcentorum erat annorum, quando diluvium mundi crudelissima facinora expiavit. A cuius regimine vel ab ipso diluvio usque ad confusionem linguarum, que item ob delecta aedificantium turrem facta est in campo Sennahar, et usque Heber, in quo Hebreorum genus et lingua prisca remansit, quia nec in illa conspiratione interfuit, sunt anni dxxv per familias sic.

9 But Noah was 600 years old, when the flood expiated the world’s most cruel misdeeds. From his rule, or from the flood itself, up to the confusion of tongues—which likewise was done on account of the offenses of those building the tower in the plain of Shinar—and up to Eber, in whom the race of the Hebrews and the pristine language remained, because he did not take part in that conspiracy, there are 525 years, by families thus.

10 Arfaxath, filius Sem, nepus Noe, qui post diluvium anno secundo est genitus, vixit annos cxxxv et genuit Cainan.

10 Arphaxad, son of Shem, grandson of Noah, who was begotten in the second year after the Deluge, lived 135 years and begot Cainan.

Cainan vero vixit an. cxxx et genuit Sala.
Sala autem vixit an. cxxx et genuit Heber.
Heber quoque vixit an. cxxx et genuit Falech.

Cainan indeed lived 130 years and begot Sala.
But Sala lived 130 years and begot Heber.
Heber likewise lived 130 years and begot Falech.

A confusione ergo linguarum et primatu Heber, a quo Hebrei, et usque nativitatem Abrahae, quando et primus rex in mundo in gente regnabat Assyriorum Ninus anno regni sui xlii, supra scripto familiarum serie currentes, fiunt anni dxli sic.

From the confusion of languages and the primacy of Heber, from whom the Hebrews are named, and up to the nativity of Abraham, when also the first king in the world in the nation of the Assyrians, Ninus, was reigning in the 42nd year of his reign, running through the above-written series of families, the years come to 541 thus.

Falech vixit an. cxxx et genuit Ragau.
Ragau vixit an. cxxxii et genuit Seruch.
Seruch autem vixit ann.

Falech lived 130 years and begot Ragau.
Ragau lived 132 years and begot Seruch.
Seruch, however, lived years.

cxxx et genuit Nachor.
Nachor vero vixit an. lxxviiii et genuit Thara.
Thara quoque vixit an. lxx et genuit Abram.

lived 130 years and begot Nahor.
But Nahor lived 79 years and begot Terah.
Terah likewise lived 70 years and begot Abram.

11 Simul ergo ab Adam et usque ad nativitatem Abrahae, id est ab ortu mundi et usque quadragesimo secundo anno regis primi Assyriorum Nini, ut superius diximus, per familias capitaque eorum fiunt generationes viginti, anni autem IIIcccviii, unde iam relictis familiis regum seriem persequamur et, sicut Eusevius vel Hieronimus, primum Assyriorum, deinde Medorum Persarumque et Grecorum currentes, ad Romanum quomodo delatum est vel quali tempore, latius, si dominus permiserit, exequamur.

11 Accordingly, from Adam and up to the nativity of Abraham—that is, from the birth of the world and up to the forty-second year of Ninus, the first king of the Assyrians, as we said above—through the families and their heads there come to be twenty generations, and the years are 3,308; whence now, the families left aside, let us pursue the series of kings and, as Eusebius or Jerome, running first through the Assyrians, then the Medes and Persians and the Greeks, let us set forth more broadly, if the Lord permits, how it was handed down to the Roman power and at what time.

12 Origo ergo regum regnorumque antiqua Assiria nobis amplexanda est, in qua primus Ninus Beli filius, urbem sui nominis fabricans Niniven, regnavit an. xlii, ubi a primo anno ipsius Nini et usque in ultimum annum Thonos Concoloros, quem Greci Sardanafalum appellant, quem occidit Arbaces Medorum praefectus, regnum illud transferens in Medos, regnatum est a regibus trigenta et sex per annos mille ducentos quadraginta sic.

12 Therefore the origin of kings and kingdoms must be taken up by us in ancient Assyria, in which first Ninus, son of Belus, building the city of his own name, Nineveh, reigned for 42 years, where from the first year of that Ninus and up to the last year of Thonos Concoloros, whom the Greeks call Sardanapalus, whom Arbaces, prefect of the Medes, killed, transferring the kingdom to the Medes, it was ruled by kings thirty-six in number for 1,240 years, thus.

13 Ninus rex Assyriorum post nativitatem Abrahae regnavit ann. x.

13 Ninus, king of the Assyrians, after the nativity of Abraham, reigned for 10 years.

14 Semiramis uxor Nini annis xlii. Hanc dicunt quasi Babyloniae conditricem, quamvis non legatur quia condidit, sed quia reparavit. Sub ea Abram adoliscit in Chaldea.

14 Semiramis, the wife of Ninus, [reigned] for 42 years. They call her, as it were, the foundress of Babylon, although it is not read that she founded it, but that she repaired it. Under her Abram grows up in Chaldea.

15 Zameis, qui et Ninias, filius Nini et Semiramidis, ann. xxxviii. Cuius trecessimo tertio anno facta est promissio ad Abram, cum esset annorum lxxv.

15 Zameis, who is also Ninias, son of Ninus and Semiramis, 38 years. In his 33rd year the promise was made to Abram, when he was 75 years old.

16 Arius ann. xxx. Cuius decimo anno centenarius Abraham genuit filium Isaac.

16 Arius, years 30. In his tenth year, centenarian Abraham begot the son Isaac.

17 Aralius an. xl. Huius in ultimo regni anno nascuntur gemini Isaac, id est Iacob et Esau.

17 Aralius, 40 years. In the final year of his reign the twins of Isaac are born, that is Jacob and Esau.

18 Xerses, qui et Baleus, an. xxx. In huius regni tempore Iacob, germanum fugiens Esau, descendit in Aegypto solus ditatusque cum turba ascendit.

18 Xerses, also called Baleus, 30 years. In the time of his reign Jacob, fleeing his german brother Esau, descended into Egypt alone, and, enriched, ascended with a multitude.

19 Armamitres ann. xxxviii. Iacob a servitute soceri Laban recedens ad patrem revertitur.

19 Armamitres years 38. Jacob, withdrawing from the servitude of his father-in-law Laban, returns to his father.

20 Belochus ann. xxxv. Hoc regnante Ioseph aduliscens somnia sua fratribus narrat et patri.

20 Belochus, years 35. In his reign Joseph, a youth, recounts his dreams to his brothers and to his father.

21 Baleus an. lii. Huius anno trecensimo Iacob famis penuria discendit in Egypto ibique filium suum repperit praepositum terrae totius Egypti.

21 Baleus, 52 years. In his 300th year Jacob, by penury of famine, went down into Egypt, and there he found his son set as prefect over the whole land of Egypt.

22 Altadus ann. xxxii. Hoc regnante Iacob defunctus est in Aegyptum, cuius cadaber Ioseph cum magno honore vocat in terra Chanaan.

22 Altadus, years 32. While this one was reigning, Jacob died in Egypt, whose cadaver Joseph, with great honor, conveyed into the land of Canaan.

23 Maminthus ann. xxx. Sub istius regni tempore moritur Ioseph et Hebreos depraement Egyptii gravissima servitute.

23 Maminthus, 30 years. In the time of this one’s reign Joseph dies, and the Egyptians oppress the Hebrews with very grievous servitude.

24 Macthaleus ann. xxx. Et hoc regnante servitus perdurat in Egypto Hebreorum.

24 Macthaleus years 30. And under his reign the servitude of the Hebrews in Egypt endures.

25 Spherus ann. xxx. Huius regni temporibus ultimis Ambra ex tribu Levvi genuit Moysen.

25 Spherus, 30 years. In the last times of his reign Amram from the tribe of Levi begot Moses.

26 Mamilus ann. xxx. Hoc regnante adoliscens Moyses omnem philosophiam dedicit Aegyptiorum.

26 Mamilus years 30. In his reign the adolescent Moses learned all the philosophy of the Egyptians.

27 Sparethus ann. xl. Quo tempore Moyses occiso Egyptio in terra fugit Madia.

27 Sparethus years 40. At that time Moses, after killing an Egyptian, fled into the land of Midian.

28 Astacades ann. xl. Huius regni anno octavo Moyses ccccxxx anno repromissionis populum Hebraeum in signis et virtutibus educit ex Egypto eisque in heremo per annos quadraginta legem exponit.

28 Astacades years 40. In the eighth year of his reign Moses, in the 430th year of the promise, leads the Hebrew people out of Egypt with signs and wonders, and for them in the wilderness for forty years he expounds the law.

29 Amyntas ann. xlv. Huius nono anno moritur Moyses et Hiesus Nave ducatum populo praebit.

29 Amyntas, years 45. In his ninth year Moses dies, and Jesus Nave provides the leadership to the people.

30 Belochus an. xxv. Sub quo Gothonihel iudex Hebraeorum et sacerdotium continet Finees.

30 Belochus 25 years. Under whom Gothonihel is judge of the Hebrews, and Phinehas holds the priesthood.

31 Belepares ann. xxx. Quo tempore Hebraeorum iudex Aod Allofilique infesti omnino.

31 Belepares, 30 years. At which time the judge of the Hebrews was Aod, and the Philistines were altogether hostile.

32 Lamprides ann. xxxvii. Et in huius regno ipse iudex Ebreis perdurat Aod.

32 Lamprides, 37 years. And in his reign the judge for the Hebrews himself, Aod, endures.

33 Sosares ann. xx. Et huius temporibus quamvis senis tamen adhuc consistit Aod pugnadque cum alienigenis et vincit iubatus a deo.

33 Sosares years 20. And in his times, although an old man, Aod nevertheless still stands fast and fights with the alien-born, and conquers, being bidden by God.

34 Lamperes ann. xxx. Quo regnante Iudaeis praeerat Deborra et Barach.

34 Lamperes, 30 years. Under whose reign Deborah and Barak presided over the Jews.

35 Pannias ann. xlv. Sub cuius tempora Iudeis praefuit Gedeon, qui et Ieroboal.

35 Pannias, 45 years. Under whose time Gideon, who is also Jerubbaal, presided over the Jews.

36 Sosarmus ann. xviiii. Sub cuius tempora Thola et Abimelech iudices erant Hebraeorum.

36 Sosarmus, 19 years. In whose time Thola and Abimelech were judges of the Hebrews.

37 Mithreus ann. xxviiii. Sub quo Iudeis praeerat Iair.

37 Mithreus years 29. Under whom Jair was presiding over the Jews.

38 Tautanes ann. xxii. Cuius sub regno iudices Hebraeorum Hesebon et Labdon.

38 Tautanes, 22 years. Under whose reign the judges of the Hebrews were Hesebon and Labdon.

Nam et ipso tempore Greci Troiam vastaverunt; unde Aeneas fugiens in Italiam venit, se quoque cum Latino Fauni filio Pici nepotem Saturnique abnepotem adfinitatis gratia iungens accepta filia eius in uxore Labinia. Vnitosque Frigas Italosque populos nominavere Latinos. 39 Et sic iam ex tunc et deinceps, quamvis in pauperrimo regno locoque angusto, quod dicibatur agro Laurentum, regnaverunt post Latinum Aeneas et successores eius, qui et Silvii sunt Albanique vocitati, pro Albano urbe et pro postumo Aeneae idem Enea, qui idcirco Silvius dictus est, quia Lavinia post mortem Aeneae, timens Ascanii invidiam, clam eum in silva generavit Aeneamque Silvium nominavit.

For even at that very time the Greeks laid waste Troy; whence Aeneas, fleeing, came into Italy, joining himself also with Latinus, son of Faunus, grandson of Picus, and great-grandson of Saturn, for the sake of affinity, having received his daughter Labinia in marriage. And the united Phrygian and Italian peoples they named Latins. 39 And so from then on and thereafter, although in a very poor kingdom and a narrow place, which was called the Laurentian field, after Latinus Aeneas and his successors reigned, who were also called the Silvii and the Albans, on account of the city Alba; and as for Aeneas’s posthumous son, likewise named Aeneas, who for that reason was called Silvius, because Lavinia, after the death of Aeneas, fearing Ascanius’s envy, secretly bore him in a wood and named him Aeneas Silvius.

Ante quem, ut superius diximus, Italiae regnatum est a Iano, Saturno, Pico, Fauno adque Latino per annos circiter clxxx.

Before whom, as we said above, Italy was reigned over by Janus, Saturn, Picus, Faunus, and also Latinus for about 180 years.

40 Teuteus ann. xl. Sub quo Samson ille ultra fortis fortissimus iudix Hebraeorum.

40 Teuteus, 40 years. Under whom that Samson, ultra-strong, the strongest, judge of the Hebrews.

41 Thineus ann. xxx. Hoc regnante anno octavo decimo Heli sacerdos, audito nuntio filiorum arcaque testamenti ablata, cadens mortuus est.

41 Thineus years 30. During his reign, in the 18th year, Eli the priest, on hearing the news about his sons and that the ark of the covenant had been taken away, fell and died.

42 Dercylus ann. xl. Sub quo aliquantum tempus Saul rex Hebreorum, aliud vero David rex ex tribu Iuda constitutus regnavit.

42 Dercylus years 40. Under whom for some time Saul, king of the Hebrews, and for another period David, a king appointed from the tribe of Judah, reigned.

43 Eupales an. xxxviii. Hoc regnante anno trecesimo secundo Salomon templum domini inchoavit et perfecit singulariter in mundo per annos septem.

43 Eupales years 38. In his reign, in the thirty-second year, Solomon began the temple of the Lord and completed it, unique in the world, over seven years.

44 Laosthenes ann. xlv. Et hoc regnante Assyriis Salomon regnat Hebraeis, Saddoch vero et Achias Selonitis prophetant.

44 Laosthenes, 45 years. And with this man reigning over the Assyrians, Solomon reigns over the Hebrews, while Zadok and Ahijah the Shilonite prophesy.

45 Pritiades ann. xxx. Sub quo, iam mortuo Salomone, inter Roboam et Ieroboam regnum dividitur Hebraeorum et alii Iudaei, alii dicuntur Israhelitae.

45 Pritiades, years 30. Under whom, Solomon now dead, the kingdom of the Hebrews is divided between Rehoboam and Jeroboam, and some are called Jews, others Israelites.

46 Ofrateus ann. xx. Sub isto in parte Iudeorum regnat Iosaphat; Israhelitarum vero, caeleri morte Nabad et Baaz, Ela et Ambri obeuntibus, tenebat regimen Achab cum Hiezabel.

46 Ofrateus, years 20. Under him, on the side of the Judeans, Jehoshaphat reigns; but of the Israelites, with Nadab and Baasha, Elah and Omri meeting a swift death, Ahab with Jezebel held the rule.

47 Ofrathanes ann. l. Sub quo Ioram, Ochozias et Gotholia et Ioas parti Iudae regnabant; Israheli vero Ochozias, Ioram et Ieu principatui unus post alium successerunt.

47 Ofrathanes, years 50. Under whom, in the portion of Judah, Ioram, Ochozias, and Gotholia and Ioas were reigning; but for Israel, Ochozias, Ioram, and Ieu succeeded to the principate one after another.

48 Acrazapes ann. xlii. Sub quo Amesias in Iuda regno ascitus obtinet principatum; Israheli vero Ioachab et Ioas unus post alium regnat.

48 Acrazapes, years 42. Under whom Amesias, admitted to the kingdom in Judah, obtains the principate; but for Israel Ioachab and Ioas reign one after the other.

49 Thonos Concoloros, quem Greci Sardanafalum nominant, ann. xx. Sub quo Iudeorum Azarias qui et Ozias, Israhelitis vero Roboam.

49 Thonos Concoloros, whom the Greeks name Sardanapalus, years 20. Under whom, of the Jews, Azariah, who is also Uzziah; but of the Israelites, Rehoboam.

Regnum ergo Assyriorum post annorum numero mille ducentos et quadraginta finem tantae diuturnitatis accepit ad Medosque translatum est. Nam Arbaces praefectus Medorum Sardanafalum occisum regnum eius invasit et in Medos deduxit.

Therefore the kingdom of the Assyrians, after the number of 1,240 years, received an end to so great a long duration and was transferred to the Medes. For Arbaces, prefect of the Medes, Sardanapalus having been slain, seized his kingdom and led it over to the Medes.

50 Arbaces Medorum rex ann. xxviii. Sub quo regnat adhuc Azarias qui et Ozias Iudae in partae.

50 Arbaces, king of the Medes, years 28. Under whom Azariah, who is also Uzziah, still reigns, of Judaea in part.

In Israhel autem post Roboam paucis diebus fuerat Zacharias rursusque Sellum, quibus successerat Maneae.

In Israel, however, after Rehoboam, there had been Zechariah for a few days, and again Shallum, to whom Menahem had succeeded.

51 Sosarmus ann. xxx. In Iudae parte regnabat Ioatham, Israhelitis Faceae, quando et quinto decimo eius anno prima Olympiades coepta est nominari.

51 Sosarmus, 30 years. In the Judean part Jotham was reigning, for the Israelites Pekah, when also in his 15th year the first Olympiad began to be named.

Tunc etenim post innumeraviles, ut ita dicam, Laurenti loci et Latio reges Silvios Albanosque, qui trecentos per annos in parte Italiae regnaverunt quamvis pauperrime, Amulius rex Numitoris fratris sui filiam Ream nomine, que et Ilia vocabatur, Vestalem virginem fecerat. Quae gravida inventa dum scelus suum nititur excusare, a Marte se conpressam mentita est. Ex qua genitis duobus geminis rex exponi praecepit.

Then indeed, after an innumerable, so to speak, number of kings of the Laurentian place and Latium—the Silvii and the Albans—who reigned for three hundred years in a part of Italy, though very poorly, Amulius, the king, had made his brother Numitor’s daughter, named Rhea, who was also called Ilia, a Vestal virgin. She, found pregnant, while she strove to excuse her crime, pretended that she had been compressed by Mars. From her, when two twin sons had been born, the king ordered them to be exposed.

Quos vagientes meretrix quaedam Lupa nomine cum audisset, statim tollens ad Faustulum pastorem adduxit. Quos Acca uxor eius nutriens inter alios pastores conversari aedocuit.

When a certain meretrix named Lupa heard them wailing, she immediately, taking them up, brought them to Faustulus the shepherd. Acca, his wife, nursing them, taught them to consort among the other shepherds.

52 Madidus ann. xl. Quo Medis regnante Iudeis regnabat Achas, Israhelitis alius Faceae. Annoque Madidi nono, septima Olympiade Romulus eiusque germanus, quos inter pastores diximus enutritos, collecta pastorum multitudine Romane urbis aedificia inchoaverunt suoque de nomine iunior, qui germanum peremerat, urbem vocari Romam praecepit.

52 Madidus, year 40. During which, with him reigning over the Medes, over the Jews Achas was reigning, over the Israelites another, Faceae. And in the 9th year of Madidus, in the 7th Olympiad, Romulus and his brother, whom we have said were nurtured among shepherds, with a multitude of shepherds gathered, began the buildings of the Roman city, and the younger, who had slain his brother, ordered the city to be called Rome from his own name.

Cuius actus seriemque successorum eius saltu quodam modo praetergrediens externa regna, ut coepi, percurram et cum se locus obtulerit, ad eum ordinem redeam. Tantum qui legis, adverte ab origine mundi et huius usque magnae urbis exortu ann. fuisse IIIIdcl.

Passing over by a kind of leap his acts and the series of his successors, I will run through the external kingdoms, as I have begun, and when the opportunity offers itself, I will return to that order. Only, you who read, note that from the origin of the world up to the rise of this great city there were 654 years.

53 Cardices ann. xiii. Sub quo Ezechias, filius Achas, succedens regnat Iudaeis.

53 Cardices, years 13. Under whom Hezekiah, son of Ahaz, succeeding, reigns over the Jews.

Nam Israhelitarum gentes supra dicti Madidi iam quinto decimo anno a Salmanassar Chaldeorum rege Medorum sunt in montibus transductae captivae, postquam regnassent in Samaria ann. ccl.

For the nations of the Israelites, already in the fifteenth year of the above-mentioned Madidus, were led over into the mountains as captives by Salmanassar, king of the Chaldeans of the Medes, after they had reigned in Samaria 250 years.

54 Deiocis ann. liiii. Huius tempore primo Hebraeorum Iuda Manasses ductus captivus et ferreis vinculis inligatus fertur paenitentiam egisse.

54 Deioces, years 54. At the beginning of his reign, Manasseh of Judah of the Hebrews, led captive and bound with iron chains, is said to have done penitence.

Cuius et canticum paenitentiae legitur. Postea vero reversus in regno successorem reliquid filium suum Ammon.

Of whom also a canticle of penitence is read. Afterwards, however, having returned, in the kingdom he left his son Ammon as successor.

55 Fraortes ann. xxiii. Sub quo Iosias rex Iudeorum qui lucos succidit et gentium idola de suo regno abiecit deumque caeli integre coluit.

55 Fraortes, years 23. Under whom Josiah, king of the Judeans, cut down the sacred groves and cast the idols of the nations out from his kingdom, and worshipped the God of heaven with integrity.

56 Cyaxares ann. xxxii. Sub quo Iudaeis regnat Ioachas, cui successit Eliachim, qui et Ioachim, alterque Ioachim primo adhuc Cyaxare vivente successit, in quo et finis regni evenit.

56 Cyaxares, 32 years. Under whom Jehoahaz reigns over the Jews, who was succeeded by Eliakim, who is also Jehoiakim; and another, Jehoiachin, at first, while Cyaxares was still living, succeeded, in whom also the end of the kingdom occurred.

57 Astiages ann. xxxviii. Huius anno octavo Iudaei de Hierusolyma captivantur a Nabochodonosor rege Babyloniorum.

57 Astyages, 38 years. In his eighth year the Jews from Jerusalem are taken captive by Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Babylonians.

Sic regnum Medorum, quod per ann. cclviii regnavit, distructum est et in Persas translatum, quia Cyrus rex Persarum et Darius Medorum, filius supra scripti Astiages, parentela coniuncti nepus avunculusque fuerunt: inruentesque super Baltasar abnepotem Nabochodonosor regem Babyloniae, id est Caldeorum, regnum eius pervadunt. Mortuoque Dario Cyrus et suum, id est Persarum et affinis sui Darii, hoc est Medorum cum illud quod captivaverat tertio regno potitus ammodum Persarum gentem elevavit.

Thus the kingdom of the Medes, which ruled for 258 years, was destroyed and transferred to the Persians, because Cyrus, king of the Persians, and Darius of the Medes, son of the above-written Astyages, joined by kinship, were nephew and uncle; and, rushing upon Belshazzar, great-grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylonia, that is, of the Chaldeans, they overran his kingdom. And with Darius dead, Cyrus, having obtained both his own realm, that is, of the Persians, and that of his kinsman Darius, that is, of the Medes, together with that which he had captured, being in possession of a third kingdom, greatly exalted the nation of the Persians.

Quae gens a Cyro praedicto et usque ad Darium, filium Arsami, regnavit per ann. pl. m. ccxxx, et sic ad Grecos devenit post reges decem Persarum de gente.

Which nation, from the aforesaid Cyrus and down to Darius, son of Arsames, reigned for about 230 years, and thus it passed to the Greeks after ten kings of the Persian race.

58 Cyrus Persa ann. xxxii. Hic fere quinquaginta milia Iudaeorum laxata captivitate regredi fecit in Iudaea: qui constructo altari templi fundamenta iecerunt.

58 Cyrus the Persian, 32 years. He caused nearly 50,000 Jews, their captivity released, to return into Judea: who, the altar having been constructed, laid the foundations of the temple.

Cumque a vicinis gentibus impediretur, opus usque ad Darium remansit inperfectum.

And when it was being impeded by the neighboring peoples, the work remained unfinished until Darius.

59 Cambises ann. viii. Et sub isto opus inpeditum a vicinis consistet nec aedificatur.

59 Cambyses, 8 years. And under him the work, impeded by the neighbors, will stand still and is not built.

60 Magi duo fratres regnant mensibus viii.

60 Two Magi brothers reign for 8 months.

61 Darius ann. xxxvi. Cuius anno secundo reaedificatum est templum a Zorobabel et Iesu filio Iosedech quingentesimo duodecimo anno post primam sub Salomone aedificationem, ab Adam vero plus minus iiiidccccxxx.

61 Darius, 36 years. In his second year the temple was re-edified by Zorobabel and Jesus, son of Josedek, in the 512th year after the first edification under Solomon, but from Adam, more or less 934.

62 Xerses deinde, filius Darii, ann. xx. Regnavit Persis, Medis atque Chaldeis.

62 Then Xerxes, son of Darius, years 20. He reigned over the Persians, Medes, and Chaldeans.

63 Artabanus menses vii.

63 Artabanus months 7.

64 Artaxerses, qui Macrochir dicebatur, ann. xl.

64 Artaxerxes, who was called Macrochir, 40 years.

65 Xerses menses duo.

65 Xerxes two months.

66 Sogdianus menses vii.

66 Sogdianus 7 months.

67 Darius cognomento Notus ann. xviiii.

67 Darius, by the cognomen Notus, 19 years.

68 Artaxerses qui et Mnemon, Darii et Paresatidis filius, ann. xl. Ipse est ab Hebreis qui dicitur Asuerus, sub quo liber Hester confectus est.

68 Artaxerxes, who is also Mnemon, son of Darius and Parysatis, years 40. He himself is the one who is called Ahasuerus by the Hebrews, under whom the Book of Esther was completed.

69 Artaxerses qui et Ochus ann. xxvi. Hic etenim Sidonem subvertit Aegyptumque suo subegit imperio Syriamque cunctam invasit.

69 Artaxerxes, also called Ochus, ann. 26. For indeed he subverted Sidon and subjugated Egypt to his own empire, and he invaded all Syria.

70 Arses, filius Ochi, ann. iiii. Sub quo Iaddus maximus et insignis pontifex Iudaeorum.

70 Arses, son of Ochus, years 4. Under whom Jaddus, greatest and distinguished pontiff of the Jews.

71 Darius, filius Asarmi, ann. vi. Hunc Alexander Magnus Macedo occidit regnumque eius in suo redegit dominio, qui Alexandriam in suo nomine condidit; ubi regnatum est a regibus Grecorum per ann. ccxcvi sic.

71 Darius, son of Arsames, 6 years. This one Alexander the Great the Macedonian killed and reduced his kingdom into his own dominion, who founded Alexandria in his own name; where it was ruled by the kings of the Greeks for 296 years thus.

72 Alexander Magnus post morte Darii ann. v.

72 Alexander the Great, after the death of Darius, 5 years.

73 Ptholomeus, Lagi filius, ann. xl. Hic iterum gentem Hebraeorum captivam ducit in Aegypto.

73 Ptolemy, son of Lagus, 40 years. He again leads the nation of the Hebrews captive in Egypt.

74 Ptholomeus Filadelfus ann. xxviii. Hic captivitatem Iudaeorum relaxatam muneribusque Eleazaro pontifice Iudaeorum placato divinas scripturas per septuaginta interpretes ex Hebrea lingua vertit in Greca.

74 Ptolemy Philadelphus, 28 years. He relaxed the captivity of the Jews and, with Eleazar, the high priest of the Jews, appeased by gifts, translated the divine Scriptures from the Hebrew language into Greek through seventy interpreters.

75 Ptholomeus Evergetis ann. xxvi. Huius temporibus Hiesus filius Syrach sapientiae librum scripsit.

75 Ptolemy Euergetes, years 26. In his times Jesus, son of Sirach, wrote a book of wisdom.

76 Ptholomeus Filopater ann. xvii. Sub hoc item victi Iudaei et sexaginta milia eorum caesa ab Anthioco rege Syriae, quando et pontifex magnus Onias.

76 Ptolemy Philopator, years 17. Under him likewise the Jews were defeated, and sixty thousand of them were cut down by Antiochus, king of Syria, when also the high priest Onias.

77 Ptholomeus Epifanis ann. xxiiii. Hic directo Scopa principe militiae capit Iudaeam; rursusque Anthioco Scopa superante Iudaeam sibi sociat in amicitia Antiochus.

77 Ptolemy Epiphanes, years 24. He, having dispatched Scopas, the princeps of the soldiery, seizes Judea; and again, with Antiochus defeating Scopas, Antiochus allies Judea to himself in friendship.

78 Ptholomeus Filomitor ann. xxxv. Sub hoc rege Aristobolus Iudeus peripaticus filosophus scripsit commentarios in libros Moysi et regi obtulit Ptholomeo.

78 Ptolemy Philometor, years 35. Under this king, Aristobulus, a Jewish Peripatetic philosopher, wrote commentaries on the books of Moses and offered them to King Ptolemy.

Antiochus autem agens contra legem Iudaeorum multos interemit. Contra quem Iudas, qui et Macchabeus, arma commovit.

But Antiochus, acting against the law of the Jews, slew many. Against him Judas, who is also Maccabaeus, raised arms.

79 Ptholomeus Evergetis ann. xxviii. Hoc regnante Ionathas dux Iudaeorum praeclarus, qui cum Romanis Spartiatisque foedus iniit.

79 Ptolemy Euergetes, years 28. In his reign Jonathan, an illustrious leader of the Jews, entered into a treaty with the Romans and the Spartiates.

80 Ptholomeus Fiscon, qui et Soter, ann. xvii. Sub hoc Aristobolus Ionathae filius rex pariter et pontifex constituitur Iudaeorum.

80 Ptolemy Physcon, also called Soter, years 17. Under him Aristobulus, son of Jonathan, is established as both king and high priest of the Jews.

81 Ptholomeus, qui et Alexander, ann. x. Quo regnante multa Iudaeorum populus tam ab Alexandrinis quam etiam ab Anthiocensibus tolerabat.

81 Ptolemy, who is also Alexander, years 10. In whose reign the Jewish people was enduring many hardships both from the Alexandrians and also from the Antiochenes.

82 Ptholomeus, qui a matre fuerat eiectus, ann. viii. Iudaeis tunc regnat Ianneus, qui et Alexander.

82 Ptolemy, who had been ejected by his mother, years 8. Over the Jews then reigns Ianneus, who is also Alexander.

83 Ptholomeus Dionisus ann. xxx. Sub cuius regno Alexandra, que et Salina, uxor Alexandri regis Hebraeorum, Hierosolimis regnat, ex cuius aetate Iudaeos rerum confusio et variae clades oppresserunt.

83 Ptolemy Dionysus, years 30. Under whose reign Alexandra, who is also Salina, the wife of Alexander, king of the Hebrews, reigns at Jerusalem, during whose era confusion of affairs and various calamities oppressed the Jews.

84 Cleopatra ann. xxii. Qua regnante Iudaei in amicitias Romanorum se sociantes eorum iam legibus vivent, quia Pompeius regnum ab Aristobolo sublato Hircanum fratrem eius praefecerat.

84 Cleopatra 22 years. During whose reign the Jews, associating themselves in friendships with the Romans, already live under their laws, because Pompey, the kingdom having been taken away from Aristobulus, had put Hyrcanus, his brother, in charge.

Hanc si quidem Cleopatram Romanus ductor suscipiens Antonius et suo socians lateri contra cives proprios dimicat. Quem Augustus Octavianus in certamine superans Actiatico in litore, egit, ut utrique iugales se ipsos peremerent, regnumque eorum in Romanorum imperio devenit, ubi et usque actenus, et usque in finem mundi secundum Danielis prophetia regni debetur successio. Et quod abhinc Augustalis exoritur potestas, animo recondendum est.

This same Cleopatra, indeed, the Roman commander Antony, taking up and joining to his own side, fights against his own fellow citizens. Whom Augustus Octavian, overcoming in contest on the Actian shore, brought it about that the two yoked-together spouses destroyed themselves, and their kingdom came into the empire of the Romans, where also even up to the present, and up to the end of the world, according to Daniel’s prophecy, the succession of the kingdom is owed. And it is to be stored in mind that from this point the Augustan power arises.

85 Augustus imperator, qui et Octavianus dicebatur, a quo posteri principes Augusti sunt vocati, tam cives patrios rebellans quam etiam gentes exteras superans, singularem sibi vindicat principatum, regnans per ann. lvi. Huius quadragesimo secundo anno imperii dominus noster Iesus Christus de sancta virgine natus, ut verus deus ita et verus homo, in signis et virtutibus ammirandis enituit anno ab origine mundi vd ab urbe Romae autem conditione anno dcclv.

85 Augustus the emperor, who was also called Octavian, from whom later princes are called Augusti, both subduing his own citizens in rebellion and also overcoming foreign nations, claimed for himself a singular principate, reigning for 56 years. In the 42nd year of his rule our Lord Jesus Christ, born of the holy virgin, as true God and likewise true man, shone forth in signs and admirable virtues in the year 5500 from the origin of the world, but from the founding of the City of Rome in the year 755.

86 Et quia Romanarum rerum ordine actosque inquirere statuisti et nos breviter tuis percunctationibus respondere sumus polliciti, necessarium est ergo nobis ea interim, que ad tempora Augusti imperatoris dicuntur, omittere et rursus ad Romanae urbis primordia repedare originemque Romuli eius conditoris exponere simulque successorum eius regum consolumque annos actosque ad liquidum demonstrare, qui sunt hi.

86 And since you have determined to inquire into the order and acts of Roman affairs, and we have promised briefly to respond to your percontations, it is therefore necessary for us in the meantime to omit those things which are said concerning the times of the emperor Augustus, and to retrace our steps back to the beginnings of the Roman city and set forth the origin of Romulus its founder, and at the same time to demonstrate to full clarity the years and acts of his successors, the kings and the consuls, which are these.

87 Ab origine urbis Romae et usque Tarquinium regem cognomento Superbum, qui et expulsus est, numerantur anni ccxliii. Nam primus ille et urbis et imperii conditor Romulus fuit Marte, ut ipsorum verbis loquamur, genitus et Rea Siluia. Hoc de se sacerdos gravida confessa est.

87 From the origin of the city of Rome and up to King Tarquin by cognomen the Proud, who also was expelled, there are counted 243 years. For the first founder both of the city and of the imperium was Romulus, begotten by Mars and Rhea Silvia, to speak in their own words. This the pregnant priestess confessed about herself.

Nec mox fama dubitavit, cum Amullii regis imperio abiectus in profluentem cum Remo fratre non potuit extingui, si quidem et Tiberinus amnem repressit et relictis catulis lupa secuta vagitum uber ammovit infantibus, matrisque gessit officium. 88 Sic repertos apud arborem Faustulus regii gregis pastor tulit in casam atque educauit. Alba tum erat Latio caput, Iulii opus: nam Labinium patris Aenaeae contemserat.

Nor then did rumor hesitate, when by the command of King Amullius, cast into the flowing stream with his brother Remus, he could not be extinguished, since Tiberinus too repressed the river, and a she-wolf, with her whelps left behind, following the wail, moved her udder to the infants and bore a mother’s office. 88 Thus found near a tree, Faustulus, shepherd of the royal flock, carried them into his cottage and brought them up. Alba was then the head of Latium, a work of Iulius: for it had contemned the Labinium of father Aeneas.

Ab bis Amullius iam septima subole regnabat fratre pulso Numitore, cuius ex filia Romulus. Igitur statim prima iuventutis facie patruum ab arce deturbat, avum reponit. Ipse fluminis amator et montium, apud quos erat educatus, moenia novae urbis agitabat.

From these, Amulius was now reigning in the seventh generation, his brother Numitor having been expelled—Romulus from his daughter. Therefore, straightway in the first bloom of youth he drives his uncle from the citadel and restores his grandfather. He himself, a lover of the river and of the mountains among which he had been brought up, was planning the walls of a new city.

89 Gemini erant: uter auspicaretur et regeret, adhibere placuit deos. Remus montem Aventinum, hic Palatinum occupant. Prius ille sex vultures, hic postea, sed duodecim vidit.

89 They were twins: as to which should take the auspices and rule, it pleased them to call in the gods. Remus occupies the Aventine, this one the Palatine. That one first saw six vultures; this one afterward, but twelve.

Sic victor augurio urbem excitat, plenus spei bellatricem fore: id assuetae sanguine et preda aves pollicebantur. Ad tutelam novae urbis sufficere vallum videbatur: cuius dum angustias Remus increpat, saltu transilivit. Dubium an iussu fratris, occisus est.

Thus, victor by augury, he rouses the city, full of hope that it would be bellicose: this the birds, accustomed to blood and booty, were promising. For the tutelage of the new city a rampart seemed sufficient: the narrowness of which, while Remus was reproaching it, he leapt over in a bound. It is doubtful whether, by his brother’s order, he was slain.

Prima certe victima fuit munitionemque urbis novae sanguine suo consecravit. 90 Imaginem urbis magis quam urbem fecerat: incolae deerant. Erat in proximo locus: hunc asylum facit, et statim mira vis hominum Latini Tuscique pastores, etiam transmarini Fryges, qui sub Aena, Arcades, qui sub Euandro duce influxerant.

He was certainly the first victim, and he consecrated the fortification of the new city with his own blood. 90 He had made more an image of a city than a city: inhabitants were lacking. There was a place in proximity: this he makes an asylum, and straightway a wondrous multitude of men—Latin and Tuscan shepherds, even transmarine Phrygians, who under Aeneas, Arcadians, who under the leader Evander had flowed in.

Ita ex variis quasi elementis congregavit corpus unum populumque Romanum ipse fecit. Res erat unius aetatis, populus virorum. Itaque matrimonia a finitimis petita quia non impetrabantur, manu capta sunt.

Thus out of various, as it were, elements he congregated one body and himself made the Roman people. The affair was of one age, a people of men. Therefore marriages, sought from the neighbors, because they were not obtained, were taken by hand—by force.

Simulatis quippe ludis equestribus virgines quae ad expectaculum venerant praede fuere. 91 Haec statim causa bellorum. Pulsi fugatique Veientes.

Indeed, with equestrian games simulated, the virgins who had come to the spectacle were booty. 91 This was immediately the cause of wars. The Veientes were driven back and routed.

Ceninensium captum ac direptum est oppidum. Spolia insuper opima de rege Agrone Feretrio Iovi manibus rex reportavit. Savinis proditae portae per virginem Tarpeiam, non dolo, sed puella praetium rei quae gerebant in sinistris petierat, dubium clypeos an armillas.

The town of the Ceninenses was captured and plundered. In addition, the king brought back with his own hands the richest spoils (spolia opima) from King Agron to Jupiter Feretrius. To the Sabines the gates were betrayed by the maiden Tarpeia, not by fraud, but the girl had asked as the price for the thing which they were bearing on their left arms, uncertain whether shields or bracelets.

Illi ut et fidem solverent et ulciscerentur, clypeis obruere. Ita ammissis intra moenia hostibus atrox in ipso foro pugna, adeo ut Romulus Iovem oraret foedam suorum fugam sisteret. Hinc templum et Stator Iuppiter.

They, in order both to discharge their pledge and to take vengeance, overwhelmed her with their shields. Thus, the enemies admitted within the walls, there was a savage battle in the very Forum, to such a degree that Romulus prayed to Jupiter to halt the foul flight of his own men. Hence the temple and Jupiter Stator.

92 Tandem funeribus intervenere raptae laceris comis: sic pax facta cum Tatio foedusque percussum. Secutaque res misera dictu, ut relictis sedibus suis novam in urbem hostes demigrarent et cum generis suis avitas opes pro dote sociarent. 93 Auctis brevi viribus hunc rex sapientissimus statum rei publicae inposuit: iuventus divisa per tribus, in aequis et armis ut ad subita bella excubaret, consilium rei publicae penes senes esset, qui ex auctoritate patres, ob aetatem senatus vocabatur.

92 At last the abducted women, with torn locks, intervened amid the funerals: thus peace was made with Tatius and a treaty was struck. And a thing pitiable to say followed, that the enemies, leaving their seats, migrated into the new city and, with their sons-in-law, joined their ancestral wealth as a dowry. 93 With the forces soon increased, the most wise king imposed this constitution upon the commonwealth: the youth, divided by tribes, on horses and under arms so as to keep watch against sudden wars; the counsel of the state was in the hands of the elders, who, from their authority, were called Fathers, and on account of their age it was called the Senate.

94 His ita ordinatis repente, cum contionem haberet ante urbem apud Caprae paludes, e conspectu ablatus est. Discerptum aliqui a senatu putant ob asperius ingenium: sed oborta tempestas solisque defectio consecrationis speciem praebuere. Cui mox Iulius Proculus fidem fecit, visum a se Romulum adfirmans augustiore forma, quam fuisset: mandare praeterea, ut se pro numine acceperent: Quirinum in caelo vocari: placitum diis, ut gentium Roma potiretur.

94 With these things thus ordered, suddenly, when he was holding an assembly before the city at the Caprae Marshes, he was removed from sight. Some think he was torn to pieces by the senate on account of a somewhat harsher temperament; but an arising tempest and a defect of the sun gave the appearance of a consecration. To this story soon Julius Proculus lent credence, affirming that Romulus had been seen by him in a more august form than he had been; moreover, that he was mandating that they should receive him as a divinity: that in heaven he is called Quirinus: it having pleased the gods that Rome should possess the nations.

95 Successit Romulo Numa Pompilius, quem Curibus Savinis agentem ultro petiverunt ob inclitam viri religionem: ille sacra et caerimonias omnemque cultum deorum inmortalium docuit: ille pontifices augures salios ceteraque sacerdotia: annumque in xii menses, festos dies nefastosque discripsit. Ille ancilia adque palladium, secreta quedam imperii pignora, Ianumque bifrontem, Fidem pacis ac belli, in primis focum Vestae virginibus colendum dedit, ut ad simulacrum caelestium siderum custus imperii flamma vigilaret. Haec omnia quasi monitu deae egregiae, quo magis barbari acciperent.

95 Numa Pompilius succeeded Romulus, whom, while he was living at Cures among the Sabines, they sought unbidden on account of the renowned religion of the man: he taught the sacred rites and ceremonies and the whole cult of the immortal gods: he appointed pontiffs, augurs, Salii, and the other priesthoods: and he divided the year into 12 months, and marked out festival and non‑festival days. He entrusted the Ancilia and the Palladium—certain secret pledges of empire—and the two‑faced Janus, and Faith in peace and in war; and above all he gave the hearth of Vesta to be tended by the virgins, so that, as an image of the celestial stars, a flame—the guardian of the empire—might keep vigil. All these things, as if by the monition of an excellent goddess, so that the barbarians might all the more accept them.

Eo denique ferocem populum redegit, ut quod vi et iniuria occuparat imperium, religione atque iustitia gubernaret.

He finally brought the fierce people to this point: that the empire which it had seized by force and injustice, it governed by religion and justice.

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

96 Tullus Hostilius succeeded Numa Pompilius, to whom the kingship was granted unbidden in honor of his virtue. He instituted all military discipline and the art of waging war. And so, with the youth trained in wondrous fashion, he dared to challenge the Albans, a grave and long the principal people.

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

But since with equal strength, in frequent battles, both sides were being worn down, the fates of both peoples were entrusted, the war having been brought into a short compass, to the Horatii and the Curiatii, triplet brothers on this side and on that. A doubtful and fair contention, and marvelous in the very outcome. For, with three there wounded and here two slain, the Horatius who remained—adding stratagem to valor, in order to draw the enemy apart—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. Nam flentem spolia circa se sponsi quidem, sed ostis, sororem viderat: hunc tam inmaturum amorem virginis ultus est ferro, ut auderet leges, nefas: sed abstulit virtus parricidam et facinus infra gloriam fuit.

Sic (a distinction rare otherwise) victory was won by the hand of one man. Which he soon defiled by parricide. For he had seen his sister weeping, with the spoils of her betrothed—indeed, but an enemy—around her: he avenged with the sword this so immature love of the virgin, because she dared, against the laws—an abomination: but virtue removed the parricide, and the deed was beneath his glory.

97 Nec diu in fide Albanus: nam Fidenate bello misit in auxilium ex foedere: medii inter duos expectavere fortunam. Sed rex callidus ubi inclinare socios ad ostem videt, tollit animos, quasi mandasset. Spes inde Romanis, metus hostibus.

97 Nor was the Alban long in good faith: for, in the Fidenate war, he sent them as aid under the treaty: midway between the two they awaited fortune. But the cunning king, when he sees the allies inclining toward the enemy, lifts spirits, as if he had mandated it. Thence hope to the Romans, fear to the enemies.

Sic fraus proditorum irrita fuit. Itaque hoste victo ruptorem foederis Mettum Furetium religatum inter duos curros pernicibus equis distrait Albamque ipsam quamvis parentem, emulam tamen diruit, cum primus omnes opes urbis ipsumque populum Romam transtulisset: prorsus ut consanguinea civitas non perisse, sed in suum corpus redisse rursus videretur.

Thus the fraud of the betrayers was ineffectual. And so, the enemy having been conquered, he had the breaker of the treaty, Mettus Furetius, bound between two chariots, torn apart by swift horses; and he razed Alba itself—though a parent, yet a rival—since he first had transferred all the resources of the city and the people themselves to Rome: altogether so that the kindred city seemed not to have perished, but to have returned again into its own body.

98 Ancus deinde Marcius nepus Pompilii ex filia, pravo ingenio. Igitur et muro moenia amplexus est et influentem urbi Tyberinum ponte commisit Ostiamque in ipso maris fluminisque confinio coloniam posuit, iam tunc videlicet praesagiens animo futurum, ut totius mundi opes et comeatus illo velut maritimo urbis ospitio receperentur.

98 Then Ancus Marcius, the grandson of Pompilius by his daughter, of a crooked disposition. Therefore he both encompassed the city-walls with a wall and joined the Tiber, flowing into the city, by a bridge, and at Ostia, at the very boundary of sea and river, he set a colony, even then, it is plain, foreboding in mind that it would come to pass that the wealth and the convoys of the whole world would be received there, as it were by the city’s maritime hospitality.

99 Tarquinius postea Priscus quamvis transmarinae originis regnum ultro petens accepit ob industriam atque elegantiam, quippe qui oriundus Corintho Grecum ingenium Italicis artibus miscuisset. Hic et senatus maiestatem numero ampliavit et centuriis tribus auxit, quatenus Actius Nevius numerum augeri prohibebat, vir summus augurio. Quem rex in experimentum rogavit, fierine posset, quod ipse mente coeperat.

99 Afterwards Tarquinius Priscus, although of transmarine origin, seeking the kingship unbidden, received it on account of his industry and elegance, indeed he, sprung from Corinth, had mixed a Greek ingenium with Italian arts. He both enlarged the majesty of the senate in number and increased it by three centuries, inasmuch as Actius Nevius, a man paramount in augury, was forbidding the number to be augmented. The king asked him for an experiment, whether that could be done which he himself had conceived in mind.

Ille rem expertus augurio, posse respondit. 'Adquin hoc', inquid, 'agitaram cutem illam secari novacula posse'. Et augur, 'potes', inquid: et secuit. Inde Romanis sacer auguratus.

He, having tested the matter by augury, responded that it was possible. 'Nay rather, this,' he said, 'that that whetstone could be cut with a razor.' And the augur said, 'you can,' and he cut it. Thence the augurate was sacred among the Romans.

100 Neque pace Tarquinius quam bello promptior: duodecim namque Tusciae populos frequentibus armis subegit. Inde fasces trabeae curules anuli phalere paludamenta praetextae, inde quod aureo curru, quattuor equis triumphatur, togae pictae tunicaeque palmate, omnia denique decora et insignia, quibus imperii dignitas aeminet, sumpta sunt.

100 Nor was Tarquinius more prompt in peace than in war: for he subdued the twelve peoples of Etruria with frequent arms. From there were taken the fasces, the trabeae, the curule chairs, the rings, the phalerae, the paludaments, the praetextae; from there the fact that one triumphs in a golden chariot with four horses, the painted togas and palmated (palm‑embroidered) tunics—finally, all the ornaments and insignia by which the dignity of imperium stands out, were adopted.

101 Servius Tullius deinceps gubernacula urbis invadit, nec obscuritas inhibuit quamvis matre serva creatum. Nam eximiam indolem uxor Tarquinii Tanaquil liberaliter educaverat et clarum fore visa circa caput flamma promiserat. Ergo inter Tarquinii mortem annitente regina substitutus in locum regis quasi in tempus regnum dolo partum sic egit industriae, ut iure adeptus videretur.

101 Servius Tullius thereafter seized the helm of the city, nor did obscurity inhibit him, although born from a slave mother. For Tanaquil, the wife of Tarquinius, had liberally educated his exceptional nature, and, a flame having been seen around his head, had promised that he would be illustrious. Therefore, after Tarquinius’s death, with the queen striving, he was substituted in the place of the king; as if, for the time, the kingship had been procured by guile, he so conducted himself with industry that he seemed to have obtained it by right.

102 Ab hoc populus Romanus relatus in censum, digestus in classes, decuriis atque collegiis distributus, summaque regis sollertia ita est ordinata res publica, ut omnia patrimonii dignitatis aetatis artium officiorumque discrimina in tabulas referrentur ac sic maxima civitas minimae domus diligentia conteneretur.

102 From this man the Roman people were enrolled in the census, arranged into classes, distributed into decuries and collegia, and by the king’s highest ingenuity the republic was so ordered that all the distinctions of patrimony, dignity, age, arts, and offices were entered into the registers, and thus the greatest commonwealth was contained by the diligence of the smallest household.

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

103 Tarquinius was the last of all the kings, to whom the cognomen “the Proud” was given from his character. He preferred to snatch the ancestral kingship, which was held by Servius, rather than to wait for it, and, assassins having been sent against him, he managed the power obtained by crime no better than he had acquired it. Nor did his wife Tullia shrink from such morals, who, in order to hail her husband as king, borne in a carriage over her blood-stained father, drove on the panic-stricken horses.

104 Sed ipse in senatum caedibus, in plebem verberibus, in omnes superbia, que crudelitate gravior est bonis, grassatus cum sevitiam domi fatigasset, tandem in ostes conversus est. Sic valida Latio oppida capta sunt, Ardea, Ocricolum, Gavii, Suessa Pometia. Tum coque cruentus in suos.

104 But he himself, against the senate with slaughters, against the plebs with beatings, against all with arrogance, which for good men is heavier than cruelty, having raided about—when he had wearied out his savagery at home, at last he turned against the enemies. Thus the strong towns in Latium were captured, Ardea, Ocricolum, Gavii, Suessa Pometia. Then also he was blood-stained against his own.

Neque enim filium verberare dubitavit, ut simulantis transfugam apud hostes hinc fides esset. 105 Quo a Gaviis 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, ut senserant tamen. 106 De manubiis captarum urbium templum erexit.

For he did not hesitate to scourge his son, so that there might be trust among the enemies in his simulating desertion. 105 When he had been received by the Gaviis as he had wished, and, through messengers, was consulting what he wanted to be done, striking off with a little rod the eminent heads of poppies, since by this he wanted it to be understood that the principal men were to be killed, he thus replied in his arrogance, yet as they had perceived. 106 From the spoils of the captured cities he erected a temple.

Quod cum inauguraretur, cedentibus ceteris diis, mira res dicitur extitisse: resistere Iuventas et Terminus. Placuit vatibus contumacia numinum, si quidem firma omnia et aeterna pollicebantur. Sed illud horrentius, quod molientibus edem in fundamentis humanum caput repertum est.

When this was being inaugurated, with the other gods ceding, a wondrous thing is said to have appeared: Juventas and Terminus resisted. The contumacy of the divinities pleased the seers, since indeed they were promising that all things would be firm and eternal. But more horrifying was this: that, as they were constructing the temple, a human head was found in the foundations.

Nec dubitavere cuncti monstrum pulcherrimum imperii sedem caputque terrarum promittere. 107 Tamdiu 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.

Nor did all hesitate that a most beautiful portent promised the seat of empire and the head of the lands. 107 The Roman people endured the king’s pride so long as lust was absent: this importunity from his children he could not tolerate. When one of them had inflicted rape upon Lucretia, a most adorned woman, the matron expiated the disgrace with iron, the imperium was abrogated from the kings.

108 Haec est prima aetas populi Romani et quasi infantia, quam habuit sub regibus septem, per annos, ut diximus, ccxliii, quadam fatorum industria tam variis ingenio, ut rei publicae ratio et utilitas postulabat. 109 Nam quid Romolo ardentius? Tali opus fuit, ut invaderet regnum.

108 This is the first age of the Roman people and, as it were, its infancy, which it had under seven kings, for 243 years, as we have said, by a certain industry of the Fates, so various in genius as the rationale and utility of the commonwealth demanded. 109 For what was more ardent than Romulus? There was need of such a one, to invade the kingdom.

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

What more religious than Numa? Thus the matter demanded, that the ferocious people be mitigated by fear of the gods. What of Tullus, that artificer of soldiery?

Bellatoribus viris quam necessarius, ut acueret ratione virtutem. Quid aedificator Ancus? Vt urbem colonia extenderet, ponte iungeret, muro tueretur.

How necessary to warrior men, that he might 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.

110 Iam vero ornamenta Tarquinii et insignia, quantam principi populo addiderunt ex ipso abitu dignitatem? Actus a Servio census quid effecit, nisi ut ipsa se nosset Romana res publica? Postremo Superbi illius inportuna dominatio nonnihil, immo vel plurimum profuit.

110 And indeed the ornaments and insignia of Tarquinius—how much dignity did they add to the sovereign people by his very departure? The census carried out by Servius—what did it effect, except that the Roman commonwealth came to know itself? Lastly, the inopportune domination of that Proud one (Superbus) was not a little—nay rather, most—beneficial.

Sic enim effectum est, ut agitatus iniuriis populus cupiditate libertatis incenderetur. 111 Mutataque regali dominatione ad consolum infulas se conferret; qui bini in annis singulis rem publicam gubernantes sequenti anno ab aliis venientibus succedebantur, scientesque se annis tantum singulis praeesse in populo taliter erga alios agebant, qualiter eos erga se acturos postea cupiebant. 112 Qui ordo usque ad Augustum Caesarem obtenuit privilegium, per viris dccccxvi in ann.

Thus indeed it was brought about, that the people, agitated by injuries, were inflamed with a desire for liberty. 111 And with the royal domination changed, it betook itself to the consular fillets; who, in pairs, each single year governing the republic, were in the following year succeeded by others coming in, and knowing that they presided only for single years, they acted toward others among the people in such a manner as they desired those to act toward themselves thereafter. 112 Which order held the privilege down to Augustus Caesar, being borne by 916 men in the course of the years.

cccclviii. Novem si quidem annos sine consulibus, sed tantum sub tribunos plebis fuit, quattuor sine iudicibus. 113 Nam post exactos reges annum unum quinis diebus singuli senatorum rem publicam obtenuerunt et tunc duobus creatis consulibus Bruto et Collatino ordinem in posterum usque ad Pansam et Sergium servaverunt per ann.

458. Indeed for nine years it was without consuls, but only under the tribunes of the plebs, and for four without judges.113 For after the kings were driven out, for one year each of the senators in turn held the commonwealth for five days apiece; and then, with two consuls created, Brutus and Collatinus, they preserved the order thereafter down to Pansa and Sergius for years.

praenotatos. 114 Et quia omnium consulum nomina actosque conscribere et mihi tedium et tibi, qui legis, fastidio fore praecavi, aliqua exinde praelibans milita supersedi, quod pene a nonnullis iam usurpatum esse breviatumque opus cognovi.

the afore-noted. 114 And because I foresaw that to write down the names and acts of all the consuls would be wearisome for me and distasteful for you who read, merely touching on some matters therefrom, I have refrained from military affairs, since I have learned that the work has been almost already undertaken and abridged by some.

115 Igitur primi consolum Brutus et Collatinus, 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, ut diximus, et iure et nomine. 116 Quippe ex perpetuo annuum placuit, ex singulari duplex, ne potestas solitudine vel mora corrumperetur, consulesque appellavit pro regibus, ut consulere civibus suis debere meminissent tantumque libertatis novae gaudium intercesserat, ut vix mutati status fidem caperent alterumque ex consulibus Lucretiae maritum tantum ob nomen et genus regium fascibus abrogatis urbem dimitterent. 117 Itaque substitutus Oratius Publicola summo studio annisus est ad augendam liberi populi maiestatem.

115 Therefore the first of the consuls, Brutus and Collatinus, to whom the dying matron had entrusted the avenging of herself, the Roman people, stirred to vindicate the honor of liberty and pudicity by a certain, as it were, instigation of the gods, suddenly deposed the king, plundered his goods, consecrated the field to their own Mars, transferred the imperium to those same vindicators of their liberty, though, as we said, with both the law and the name changed. 116 Indeed, it pleased them to make what had been perpetual annual, and what had been singular double, lest power be corrupted by solitude or delay; and they called them consuls instead of kings, so that they might remember they ought to consult their fellow citizens; and so great was the joy of the new liberty that they could scarcely credit the altered status, and they dismissed from the city one of the consuls, Lucretia’s husband, with his fasces abrogated, merely on account of the royal name and stock. 117 And so Horatius Publicola, substituted in his place, strove with utmost zeal to augment the majesty of the free people.

Nam et fasces ei pro contione summisit et ius provocationis adversus ipsos dedit et ne species arcis offenderet, eminentes aedes suas in plana submisit. 118 Brutus vero favori civium etiam domus suae clade et parricidio velificatus est. Quippe cum studere de revocandis in urbem regibus liberos suos conperisset, protraxit in forum, et contione media virgis cecidit securique percussit, ut plane publicus parens in locum liberorum adobtasse sibi populum videretur.

For he both lowered the fasces before the assembly and granted the right of provocation against themselves, and, lest the appearance of a citadel give offense, he brought down his towering aedes into the plain. 118 But Brutus, indeed, rode the favor of the citizens even by the disaster of his own house and by parricide. For when he had discovered that his sons were intent on recalling the kings into the city, he dragged them into the Forum, and in the midst of the contio he beat them with rods and struck them with the axe, so that plainly, as a public parent, he seemed to have adopted the people to himself in place of his children.

119 Liber iam hinc populus Romanus prima adversus exteros arma pro libertate corripuit, mox pro finibus, deinde pro sociis, tum gloria et imperio, lacessentibus adsidue usque quaque finitimis: quippe cum patrii soli gliba nulla sit, sed statim hostile pomerium mediusque inter Latium adque Etruscos 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 redigerunt. 120 Nam Porsenna rex Etruscorum ingentibus copiis aderat et Tarquinios manu reducebat. Hunc tamen quamvis et armis et fame urgueret occupatoque Ianiculo in ipsis urbis faucibus incubaret, sustenuit, reppulit, novissimae etiam tanta admiratione perculit, ut superior ultro cum pene victis amicitiae foedera feriret.

119 Now, once free from here, the Roman people seized their first arms against foreigners for liberty, soon for boundaries, then for allies, then for glory and imperium, with the neighbors constantly provoking on every side: since there is no clod of native soil, but straightway a hostile pomerium, and, placed midway between Latium and the Etruscans as if at a certain crossroads, it would rush upon the enemy from all gates, until, as if by a certain contagion, advance was made step by step and, each of the nearest seized, they brought all Italy under themselves. 120 For Porsenna, king of the Etruscans, was present with huge forces and was bringing the Tarquins back by force. Yet this man, although he pressed them both with arms and with hunger, and, the Janiculum having been occupied, lay in the very jaws of the city, they withstood, they drove back, and even struck him with such admiration for the most recent exploit that, though superior, he of his own accord concluded treaties of friendship with those almost conquered.

121 Nam Mucius Scevola Romanorum fortissimus regem per insidias in castris ipsius adgreditur. Sed ubi frustrato circa purpuratum eius ictu tenetur, ardentibus mox focis intulit manum terroremque geminat dolo. 'En, ut scias', inquid, 'quem virum effugeris: idem trecenti iuravimus'. Cum inter immane dictu hic interritus, ille trepidaret, tamquam manus regis arderet.

121 For Mucius Scevola, the bravest of the Romans, attacks the king by ambush in the very camp of the latter. But when, his stroke having been frustrated upon his purple-clad attendant, he is seized, he straightway thrust his hand into the burning fires and doubles the terror by a ruse. 'Lo, that you may know,' he says, 'what sort of man you have escaped: we three hundred have sworn the same.' While, amid a thing monstrous to tell, this man was undaunted, that man trembled, as though the king’s hand were burning.

122 Sic quidem viri. Set ne sexus alter a laude cessaret, ecce et virginum virtus. Vna ex obsidibus regi data elapsa custodiae Cloelia per patrium flumen equitabat.

122 Thus indeed the men. But lest the other sex be lacking in praise, behold also the maidens’ valor. Cloelia, one of the hostages given to the king, having slipped from custody, was riding across the fatherland’s river.

Rex quidem tot tantisque virtutum territus monstris valere liberosque esse iussit. 123 Tarquinii tamen diu dimicaverunt, donec Arruntem filium regis manu sua Brutus occidit superque ipsum mutuo vulnere expiravit, plane quasi adulterum ad inferos usque sequeretur.

The king, indeed, terrified by so many and so great prodigies of virtue, ordered them to go unharmed and to be free. 123 The Tarquins, however, fought for a long time, until Brutus with his own hand slew Arruns, the king’s son, and over him expired from a mutual wound, plainly as if he were following an adulterer even down to the infernal regions.

124 Nec secus Latini a Mamilio Tuscolano duce apud Regilli lacum expugnantur, vincuntur atque subiciuntur. Satricum adque Corniculum, Soraque et Alsium eorum urbes captas provinciaque effecta. De Verulis et Bobillis pudet, sed triumphavere Romani.

124 Likewise the Latins, with Mamilius of Tusculum as leader, at the Lake of Regillus are stormed, conquered, and subjugated. Satricum and Corniculum, and Sora and Alsium—their cities—were captured and made into a province. Of Verulis and Bobillis one is ashamed, but the Romans triumphed.

Tibur nunc suburbanum et aestivae Praenestae deliciae nuncupatis in Capitolio votis petebantur: 125 idem tunc Fesulae quod Charrae nuper: idem nemus Aricinus, quod Hercylius saltus: Fregellae, quod Caesoriacum: Tiberis quod Eufrates. Curiolos quoque, pro pudor, victos adeo gloriae fuisse, ut captum oppidum Gneus Marcius Coriolanus quasi Numantiam aut Affricam nomini indueret. 126 Extant et parta de Antio spolia, que Menius in suggesto fori capta hostium classe suffixit: si tamen illa classis, nam sex fuere rostratae.

Tibur, now a suburb, and the summer delights of Praeneste, were being sought by vows proclaimed on the Capitol: 125 the same then was Fesulae as lately Carrhae; the same the Arician grove as the Hercynian forest; Fregellae as Caesoriacum; the Tiber as the Euphrates. The Curioli too—shame!—when conquered were so much a matter for glory, that Gnaeus Marcius Coriolanus would put on the captured town to his name as if it were Numantia or Africa. 126 There also exist the spoils won from Antium, which Menius affixed upon the speaker’s platform of the forum from the enemy fleet he had captured—if, however, that is to be called a fleet, for there were six rostrate ships.

Sed hic numerus illis initiis navale bellum fuit. Pervicacissimi tamen Latinorum Equi et Vulsci fuere et cotidiani, ut sic dixerim, hostes. 127 Et hos praecipue Titus Quintius domuit, ille dictator ab aratro, qui obsessa et pene iam capta Manlii consulis castra egregia.

But such a number constituted, in those beginnings, a naval war. Yet the Equi and the Vulsci were the most pervicacious of the Latins and, so to speak, quotidian enemies. 127 And these especially Titus Quintius tamed, that dictator from the plow, who delivered the distinguished camp of the consul Manlius, besieged and almost already captured.

victoria recuperavit. Medium erat tempus forte sementis, cum patricium virum innixum aratro suo lictor in ipso opere depraehendit. 128 Inde in aciem profectus, ne quid a rustici operis imitatione cessaret, pecodum more sub iugum misit expeditioneque finita rediit ad bobes rursus triumphalis agricola.

he recovered it by victory. It chanced to be the very mid-season of sowing, when a lictor caught a patrician man, leaning upon his own plow, in the very work. 128 Thence, setting out into the battle-line, so that there might be no cessation from the imitation of rustic work, he sent them under the yoke after the manner of cattle; and the expedition finished, he returned to the oxen again, a triumphal husbandman.

Fidem numinum, qua uelocitate! Intra quindecem dies captum peractumque bellum, prorsus ut festinasse dictator ad relictum opus videretur.

By the faith of the divinities, with what velocity! Within fifteen days the war was taken and completed, altogether so that the dictator seemed to have hastened to the work left behind.

129 Pari tenore Veientes, Falesci et Fidenates tunc magno labore devicti sunt. Qui modo et si fuerint, non videntur. Que reliquiae?

129 With equal tenor, the Veientes, the Falisci, and the Fidenates were then, with great labor, conquered. They who but lately—even if they have been—are not seen. What relics?

Quod vestigium? Laborat enim annalium fides, ut Veios, Faliscos, Fidenates fuisse credamus.

What vestige? For the credence of the annals labors, that we may believe the Veians, the Faliscans, the Fidenates to have existed.

130 Galli autem 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 baccabantur. 131 Tunc Clusium Tusciae urbem obsidebant, ubi pro sociis ac foederatis Romanus intervenit missis ex more legatis.

130 But the Gauls, the Senones, a people fierce by nature, ill-ordered in manners, in addition by the very mass of their bodies, likewise by huge arms, were so terrible in every kind that they seemed plainly born for the destruction of men and the wreck of cities. These once, from the furthest borders of the earth, the Ocean encircling all, set out in a huge column; and when they had already laid waste the middle regions, having established seats between the Alps and the Po, not even content with these, they were running riot through Italy. 131 Then they were besieging Clusium, a city of Tuscia, where, on behalf of allies and federates, the Roman intervened, with envoys sent according to custom.

Sed quod ius apud barbaros? Ferocius agunt et inde certamen. Conversi Galli a Clusio Romam.

But what right is there among barbarians? They act more ferociously, and from that a contest. The Gauls, turned from Clusium, toward Rome.

Quibus ad Alliam flumen cum exercitu Fabius consul occurrit. Non temere foedior cladis: itaque hunc diem fastis Roma damnavit. 132 Fuso exercitu Galli iam moenibus urbis adpropinquabant, ubi pene nulla erant praesidia.

To meet them at the river Allia, the consul Fabius came with the army. Not lightly was there a fouler disaster: therefore Rome condemned this day in the Fasti. 132 With the army routed, the Gauls were now approaching the walls of the city, where there were almost no defenses.

Tum igitur sic ut numquam alias apparuit illa vera Romana virtus. Iam primum maiores natu amplissimis usi honoribus in forum coeunt, ibi devovente pontifice diis se 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 moreretur. 133 Pontifices autem et flamines quidquid religiosissimi in templis erat, partim in doleis refossa terra reconderunt, partim inposita plaustris secum Veios auferunt: virgines simul ex sacerdotio Vestae nudo pede fugientia sacra comitantur.

Then therefore, as at no other time, that true Roman virtus appeared. Now first the elders, who had enjoyed the most ample honors, gather in the forum; there, with the pontifex devoting, they consecrate themselves to the divine Manes, and immediately, each having returned to his own house, just as they were in their trabeae and in most ample attire, they settled themselves in their curule chairs, in order that, when the enemy had come, each might die in his own dignitas. 133 But the pontiffs and the flamines, whatever was most religious in the temples, partly hid it away again, having dug up the earth, in great jars, partly, placed upon wagons, they carry it off with them to Veii: at the same time the virgins from the priesthood of Vesta, with bare foot, accompany the fleeing sacra.

Tamen excepisse fugientes unus e plebe fertur Atinius, qui depositis uxore et liberis virgines in plaustrum recepit. Adeo tunc quoque in ultimis religio publica privatis affectibus antecellebat. 134 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 occurrissent, ita ille virtutem eorum numine suo tueretur.

Nevertheless, Atinius, one from the plebs, is said to have taken in the fugitives, who, after setting down his wife and children, received the virgins into a wagon. So much did public religion then too, even in the last extremities, excel private affections. 134 But the youth, whom it is sufficiently agreed were scarcely a thousand men, with Manlius as leader occupied the citadel of the Capitoline hill, calling upon Jove himself as if present, that just as they had run to defend the temple, so he would protect their virtue by his numen.

135 Aderant interim Galli apertamquae urbem adeunt. Ibi sedentibus in curulibus suis praetextatos 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. 136 Sex mensibus (barbaros quis crederet?) circa montem unum pependerunt, nec diebus modo, sed noctibus coque 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: 137 et stato quodam die per medias hostium custodias Fabium pontificem ab arce dimisit, qui solemne sacrum in Quirinali monte conficeret: atque ille per media hostium tela incolomis religionis auxilio rediit propitiosque deos renuntiavit.

135 Meanwhile the Gauls were at hand and they approach the city, lying open. There, as the praetexted elders sat in their curule chairs, they venerated them as if gods and genii; soon these same, after it became clear that they were men, they, not deigning otherwise to make any reply, with equal madness slaughter them, and they hurl torches upon the roofs and level the whole city with fire, iron, and their hands. 136 For six months (who would believe it of barbarians?) they hung about a single hill, and not by days only, but by nights also tried everything; yet Manlius, roused by the honk of a goose, cast down those coming up by night from the topmost cliff; and, that he might take away hope from the enemies, although in utmost famine, yet for a show of confidence, he hurled loaves from the citadel: 137 and on a certain stated day he sent down from the citadel the pontiff Fabius through the midst of the enemy’s guards, to complete the solemn sacred rite on the Quirinal hill: and he, by the aid of religion, returned unharmed through the midst of the enemies’ missiles and reported the gods propitious.

Novissime cum iam obsidio sua barbaros fatigasset, mille pondo auro recessum suum venditantes, .............................. ut omnia incendiorum vestigia Gallici sanguinis inundatione deleret.

Finally, when now their own siege had wearied the barbarians, selling their withdrawal for a thousand pounds of gold, .............................. so that he might obliterate all the vestiges of the conflagrations by an inundation of Gallic blood.

138 Igitur pastorum quondam casa urbs enituit: post assertam a Manlio faciem restitutamque a Camillo acrius etiam vehementiusque in finitimos resurrexit. 139 Nec tamen contenti Romani suis eos moenibus expulisse. Cum per Italiam naufragia sua latius traherent, sic persecuti sunt, ductante Camillo, ut odiae nulla Senonum vestigia supersint.

138 Therefore the city, once a shepherds’ cottage, shone forth: after the semblance asserted by Manlius and the restoration by Camillus, it rose again even more keenly and more vehemently against its neighbors. 139 Nor, however, were the Romans content to have driven them from their own walls. While they were dragging their shipwrecks more widely through Italy, thus they pursued them, with Camillus leading, that no vestiges of hatred against the Senones should survive.

Semel apud Anienem trucidati, cum singulari certamine Manlius aureum torquem barbaro inter spolia detraxit, unde et Torquatus est dictus. 140 Iterum Pomptino agro, cum in simili pugna Valerius insidente galeae sacra alite adiutus rettulit spolia dictusque est ipse Corvinus. Nec non tamen post aliquod annos omnes reliquias eorum in Etruria ad lacum Vadi montis Dolabella delevit, ne quis extaret ex ea gente quae incensam a se Romanam urbem gloriaretur.

Once, near the Anio, they were slaughtered, when in a single combat Manlius tore off a golden torque from the barbarian among the spoils, whence he also was called Torquatus. 140 Again in the Pomptine field, when in a similar fight Valerius, aided by a sacred bird alighting upon his helmet, carried off the spoils and he himself was called Corvinus. And nonetheless, after some years, Dolabella destroyed all their remnants in Etruria at the lake of Vadi Mountain, so that no one might survive from that clan who would boast that the Roman city had been set on fire by themselves.

141 Conversoque a Gallis Manlio Torquato Latini experti sunt et devicti. 142 Indeque Savini, qui eorum belli socii ductante Tatio extitissent, a Curio Dentato consule subiecti, eorumque loca a Varanio fonte in Adriano tenus mari igni ferroque vastata, tantumque Romano populo addit opes, ut nec ipse posset aestimare qui vicerat.

141 With Manlius Torquatus turned from the Gauls, the Latins were put to the test and defeated. 142 Then the Sabines, who had been allies of their war under the leadership of Tatius, were subjected by the consul Curius Dentatus, and their regions from the Varanian spring as far as the Adriatic Sea were laid waste by fire and iron, and he added so much wealth to the Roman people that not even he who had conquered could estimate it.

143 Praecibus deinde Campaniae motus non pro se sed pro sociis Samnitas invadit. Omnium namque non modo Italiae tantum, sed pene toto orbe terrarum pulcherrima Campaniae plaga est. Nihil mollius caelo: denique bis floribus vernat.

143 Then, moved by the prayers of Campania, not for himself but for his allies he invades the Samnites. For of all, not only of Italy alone, but almost of the whole orb of the lands, the most beautiful tract is that of Campania. Nothing gentler in climate: indeed it blooms twice with flowers.

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 hostia. Hic amici vitibus montes Caurus Falernus Massicus et pulcherrimus cunctorum Vesubius Aetnaei ignis imitator.

Nothing more fertile in soil: therefore it is called the contest of Liber and Ceres. Nothing more hospitable to the sea: here are its noble harbors, Gaeta, Misenus, Baiae warmed by springs, the Lucrine and Avernus, certain mouths of the sea. Here are mountains friendly to vines—Gaurus, Falernus, Massicus—and, most beautiful of all, Vesuvius, an imitator of Aetnaean fire.

Vrbes ad mare Formiae Cumae Puteoli Herculaneum Pompei et ipsa caput urbium Capua, quondam inter tres maximas Romam Carthaginemque numerata. 144 Pro hac urbe, his regionibus populus Romanus Samnitas invadit, gentem, si opulentiam quaeras, aureis et argenteis armis et discolori veste usque ad ambitum armatam: si fallaciam, saltibus ferae et montium fraude grassantem: si rabiem ac furorem, sacris legibus humanisque hostiis in exitium urbis agitatam: si pertinaciam, sexies rupto foedere cladibusque ipsis animosiorem. Hos tamen quinquaginta annis per Fabios ac Papirios patres eorumque liberos ita subegit et domuit, ita ruinas ipsas urbium diruit, ut hodiae Samnium in ipso Samnio requiratur nec facile appareat materia quattuor et viginti triumphorum.

Cities on the sea: Formiae, Cumae, Puteoli, Herculaneum, Pompeii, and Capua itself, the very head of cities, once counted among the three greatest together with Rome and Carthage. 144 For this city, for these regions, the Roman people invades the Samnites, a nation which—if you ask about opulence—was equipped with golden and silver arms and with parti-colored dress right down to the hem; if about cunning, prowling like a wild beast in the forest-passes and advancing by the treachery of mountains; if about rage and frenzy, whipped up by sacred rites and by human victims toward the destruction of the city; if about stubbornness, with the treaty broken six times and made more spirited by the very disasters. Yet these the Roman people, in 50 years, through the Fabii and the Papirii, the fathers and their sons, so subdued and tamed, so razed even the very ruins of the cities, that today Samnium must be searched for in Samnium itself, nor does the material for 24 triumphs easily appear.

145 Maximae tamen nota et inlustris apud Caudinas forculas ex hac gente clades Veturio Postumioque consulibus accepta est. Clusum per insidias intra eum saltum exercitum, unde non posset evadere, stupens tanta occassione dux ostium Pontius Herineum patrem consuluit: 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. 146 Itaque et consules statim magnifice voluntaria deditione turpitudinem foederis dirimunt et ultionem flagitans miles Papirio duce — orribile dictu — strictis ensibus per ipsam viam ante pugnam fuit et in congressu arsisse omnium oculos hostis auctor fuit.

145 Nevertheless the greatest and most notable and illustrious calamity at the Caudine Forks was received from this people, with Veturius and Postumius as consuls. The army, shut in by ambush within that pass whence it could not evade, the leader, astonished at so great an occasion, Pontius, leader of the enemy, consulted his father Herennius: and he, wisely, as an elder, had advised that he should either send them all away or kill them; this man preferred to send them, stripped of arms, under the yoke, so that they would neither be friends by a benefaction and, after the disgrace, would be more enemies. 146 And so even the consuls at once, magnificently, by voluntary surrender, sever the turpitude of the treaty, and the soldier demanding vengeance, with Papirius as leader — horrible to say — with swords drawn was along the very road before the battle, and in the encounter the enemy was the author attesting that the eyes of all were aflame.

Nec prius finis caedibus datus, quam iugum sibi promissum Romani et duci Samnitum et hostibus reposuerunt.

Nor was an end to the slaughters granted before the Romans repaid to the leader of the Samnites and to the enemies the yoke promised to themselves.

147 Hactenus cum singulis gentibus, mox catervatim. Sic tamen coque par omnibus fuit. Etruscorum duodecem populi, Vmbrii in id tempus intacti antiquissimus Italiae populus, Samnitium reliqui in excidium Romani nominis repente coniurant.

147 Thus far with individual peoples, soon thereafter en masse. Yet even so he too was a match for all. The twelve peoples of the Etruscans, the Umbrians—up to that time untouched—the most ancient people of Italy, and the rest of the Samnites suddenly conspire for the destruction of the Roman name.

Erat terror ingens tot simul tantorumque populorum. Late per Etruriam infesta quattuor agminum signa volitabant. 148 Geminius interim saltus in medio, ante invius plane quasi Calydonius vel Herquinius, adeo terror erat, ut senatus consuli denuntiaret, ne tantum periculi ingredi auderet.

There was immense terror at so many peoples, and so great, all at once. Far and wide through Etruria the hostile standards of four columns were flying about. 148 Meanwhile the Geminian Pass in the midst, previously plainly pathless, as if the Calydonian or the Hercynian, so great was the 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 exploraret accessus. Ille per noctem pastorali habitu speculatus omnia, refert tutum iter. 149 Sic Fabius Maximus periculosissimum bellum sine periculo explicuit.

But none of these things terrified the leader, so that, his brother sent ahead, he explored the approaches. He, through the night, having reconnoitered everything in pastoral guise, reports a safe route. 149 Thus Fabius Maximus conducted the most perilous war without peril.

Nam subito inconditos atque palantes 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 unorganized and straggling; and, the higher ridges having been seized, he thundered down by right upon those below. For such was the aspect of that war, as if missiles were being cast from heaven and the clouds against earth‑born men. Nor, however, was that victory bloodless.

Nam oppressus in sinu vallis alter consolum Decius more patrio devotum diis manibus optulit caput, sollemnemque familiae suae consecrationem in victoriae praetium redegit.

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

150 Necdum Etrusco bello exempto mox sequitur Tarentinum, unum quidem in nomine, sed multiplex in victoriis. Hoc enim Campanos Apulos atque Lucanos et caput belli Tarentinos, id est totam pene Italiam, et cum his omnibus Pyrrum clarissimum Epyrotarum Greciae regem una veluti ruina pariter involuit, ut eodem tempore et Italiam consummaret et transmarinos triumphos auspicaretur. 151 Tarentus Lacedemoniorum opus, Calabriae quondam et Apuliae totiusque Lucaniae caput, cum magnitudine et muris portuque nobilis tum mirabili situ, quippe in ipsis Adriae maris faucibus posita in omnes terras Histriam Illyricum Epyron Achaiam Africam Siciliam vela dimittit.

150 And not yet with the Etruscan war removed, there soon follows the Tarentine, one indeed in name, but multiple in victories. For this one, as if in a single common ruin, wrapped up together the Campanians, the Apulians, and the Lucanians, and the head of the war, the Tarentines—that is, almost the whole of Italy—and along with all these Pyrrhus, the most illustrious king of the Epirotes of Greece, so that at the same time he might both consummate Italy and inaugurate transmarine triumphs. 151 Tarentum, a work of the Lacedaemonians, once the head of Calabria and of Apulia and of all Lucania, notable both for its magnitude and its walls and harbor and also for its wondrous site; since, set in the very jaws of the Adriatic Sea, it sends forth sails to all lands—Histria, Illyricum, Epirus, Achaea, Africa, Sicily.

152 Imminet portui ad prospectum maris positum theatrum, quod quidem causa miserae cupiditatis fuit omnium calamitatum. Ludos forte celebrabat, cum adremigantes litore Romanam classem vident atque ostem rati aemicant sine discrimine et insultant. Qui enim aut unde Romani?

152 A theater, set for a prospect of the sea, overhangs the harbor, which indeed, through miserable cupidity, was the cause of all the calamities. By chance it was celebrating games, when, as men were rowing toward the shore, they see the Roman fleet and, thinking it a foe, they signal wantonly without discrimination and heap insults. For who indeed are the Romans, or from where?

Nec satis. Aderat sine mora querillam ferens legatio: hanc quoque foede per obscenam turpemque dictu contumeliam violant: et hinc bellum. 153 Sed apparatus horribilis, cum tot simul populi pro Tarentinis consurgerent omnibusque vehementior Pyrrus, qui semigrecam ex Lacedemoniis conditoribus civitatem vindicaturus cum totis viribus Epyri Thessaliae Macedoniae incognitisque in id tempus elefantis mari terra viris equis armis, addito insuper ferarum terrore veniebat.

Nor was that enough. There was present without delay a legation bearing a complaint: this too they foully violate through an obscene and shameful-to-say contumely; and hence, war. 153 But the preparation was terrible, since so many peoples at once were rising for the Tarentines, and Pyrrhus, more vehement than all, who, about to vindicate a semi-Greek city from Lacedaemonian founders, was coming with the full forces of Epirus, Thessaly, and Macedonia, and with elephants unknown up to that time, by sea and land, with men, horses, arms, the terror of the beasts moreover being added.

154 Apud Eracleam Campaniae fluviumque Lirem Laevino cons. prima pugna, que tam atrox fuit, ut Forentanee turmae prefectus Obsidius invectus in regem turbaverit coegeritque proiectis insignibus proelio excedere. Actum erat, nisi elefanti converso in spectaculo bello procucurrissent.

154 At Heraclea in Campania and by the river Liris, under Laevinus, consul, the first battle, which was so atrocious that Obsidius, prefect of a Forentan troop, charging upon the king, threw him into confusion and compelled him, with his insignia cast aside, to withdraw from the battle. The issue would have been decided, had not the elephants, turning the war into a spectacle, rushed forward.

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. 155 In Apulia deinde apud Asculum melius dimicatum est Curio Fabricioque consulibus — iam quippe terror beluarum exoleverat et Gaius Numicius quartae legionis astatus unius promoscide abscisa mori posse beluas ostenderat. Itaque in ipsos pila congesta sunt et in turres vibratae faces tota hostium agmina ardentibus ruinis operuerunt.

The horses, dismayed both by the magnitude and the deformity of them and by the new odor as well as the screeching, since they suspected the beasts, unknown to them, to be more formidable than they were, caused rout and carnage far and wide. 155 Then in Apulia, near Asculum, the fighting was better under the consulship of Curio and Fabricius — for by now the terror of the beasts had worn off, and Gaius Numicius, a hastatus of the Fourth Legion, had shown that the beasts could die, with the proboscis of one cut off. Therefore pila were heaped upon the beasts themselves, and torches brandished against the towers covered the entire battle-lines of the enemy with blazing ruins.

Nec alius cladi finis fuit quam nox dirimeret postremusque fugientium rex ipse a satellitibus humero saucius in armis suis referretur. 156 Lucaniae suprema pugna Sybarusinis quos vocant campis, ducibus hisdem quibus superius, sed tum tota victoria. Exitum, quem datura virtus fuit, casus dedit.

Nor was there any other end to the slaughter than that night should sever it, and the last of the fleeing, the king himself, wounded in the shoulder, was borne back by his satellites in their arms. 156 The final battle in Lucania, on the Sybarusine fields, as they call them, with the same commanders as earlier, but then with total victory. The outcome which valor was going to give, chance gave.

Nam provectis in primam aciem rursus elefantis unum ex his pullum adacti in caput teli gravis ictus avertit, qui cum per stragem suorum recurrens stridore quereretur, mater agnovit et quasi vindicaret, exiliit, tum omnia circa quasi hostilia gravi mole permiscuit: ac sic eaedem ferae, que primam victoriam abstulerunt, secundam parem fecerunt, tertiam sine controversia tradiderunt. 157 Nec vero tantum armis et in campo, sed consiliis et domi coque intra urbem cum rege Pyrro dimicatum est. Quippe post primam victoriam intellecta Romana virtute statim desperavit armis, seque ad dolos contulit.

For when the elephants, having been advanced into the front line again, a heavy blow of a missile driven into the head turned aside one of their calves, who, as he ran back through the slaughter of his own, was keening with a shriek; the mother recognized him and, as though to avenge, leapt forth, then with her heavy mass threw everything around, as though hostile, into confusion: and thus the same wild beasts, who took away the first victory, made the second equal, and handed over the third without controversy. 157 Nor indeed was the fighting only by arms and in the field, but by counsels and at home and even within the city with King Pyrrhus. For after the first victory, the Roman virtue having been understood, he straightway despaired of arms and betook himself to wiles.

Nam interemptos cremavit captivosque indulgenter habuit et sine pretio restituit missisque legatis in urbem omni modo annisus est, ut facto foedere in amicitiam reciperetur. 158 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. 159 Nec alius pulchrior in urbem aut speciosior triumphus intravit.

For he cremated the slain and treated the captives indulgently and restored them without price; and, envoys having been sent into the city, he strove in every way that, a treaty having been made, he might be received into friendship. 158 But both in war and in peace and abroad and at home Roman virtue then approved itself on every side; and none more than the Tarentine victory displayed the fortitude of the Roman people, the wisdom of the Senate, the magnanimity of the commanders. 159 Nor did any other triumph more beautiful or more specious enter the city.

Ante hunc diem nihil praeter pecora Vulscorum, greges Savinorum, carpenta Gallorum, fracta Samnitium arma vidisset. Tum antem, si captivos aspiceres, Molossi Thessales Macedones Bruttius Apulus atque Lucanus: si pompam, aurum purpura signa tabulae Tarentinaeque diliciae. Sed nihil libentius populus Romanus aspexit quam illas quas timuerat cum turribus suis beluas, quae non sine sensu captivitatis summissis cervicibus victores equos sequebantur.

Before this day he had seen nothing except the herds of the Volsci, the flocks of the Sabines, the carriages of the Gauls, the broken arms of the Samnites. Then, however, if you looked at the captives: Molossians, Thessalians, Macedonians, Bruttians, Apulians, and also Lucanians; if at the pomp, gold, purple, standards, panels, and Tarentine delicacies. But nothing did the Roman people look upon more gladly than those beasts with their towers, which they had feared, who, not without a sense of captivity, with necks lowered were following the victors’ horses.

160 Post Tarentinam cladem domiti Picentes et caput gentis Asculum a Sempronio duce, qui tremente inter proelium campo, Tellurem deam promissa aede placavit.

160 After the Tarentine defeat, the Picentes were subdued, and Asculum, the head of the nation, by the leader Sempronius, who, with the field trembling amid the battle, appeased the goddess Tellus with a promised temple.

161 Salentini vero Picentibus additi caputque his regionibus Brundisium inclyto portu Atilio duce, et in hoc certamine victoriae praetium templum sibi pastoria Pales ultro poposcit.

161 The Salentines indeed were added to the Picentes, and the head for these regions, Brundisium with its illustrious port, under Atilius as leader, and in this contest, as the price of victory, the pastoral Pales of her own accord demanded a temple for herself.

162 Postremi Italicorum in fidem venere Vulsini opulentissimi Etruscorum, implorantes opem adversus servos quondam suos, qui libertatem a dominis datam in ipsos erexerant translataque in se re publica dominabantur, sed hi quoque duce Fabio Gurgite poenas dederunt.

162 Last of the Italians to come into allegiance were the Vulsinii, most opulent of the Etruscans, imploring aid against their once slaves, who had turned the liberty given by their masters against them and, with the commonwealth transferred onto themselves, were exercising dominion; but these too, with Fabius Gurges as leader, paid the penalty.

163 Domita subactaque Italia populus Romanus Appio Claudio consule primum fretum ingressus est fabulosis fame monstris estuque violentum, sed adeo non est exterritus, ut ipsam illam ruentis estus violentiam pro munere amplecteretur, quod velocitas navium mari iuvaretur, statimque ac sine mora Hyeronem Syracusanum tanta celeritate devicit, ut ille ipse prius se victum, quam hostem videret, fateretur. 164 Duellio Cornelioque consulibus etiam mari congredi ausus est. Tum quidem ipsa velocitas classis comparatae victoriae auspicium fuit.

163 Italy having been tamed and subdued, the Roman people, with Appius Claudius as consul, first entered the strait, violent with the surge and with monsters famous in fable; but he was so far from being terrified that he embraced that very violence of the rushing tide as a boon, because the speed of the ships was aided by the sea; and straightway and without delay he defeated Hiero the Syracusan with such celerity that he himself confessed himself conquered before he saw the enemy. 164 With Duillius and Cornelius as consuls, he even dared to engage at sea. Then indeed the very speed of the mustered fleet was a presage of victory.

Intra enim sexagesimum 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. Proelii vero forma miravilis, cum illas caeleres volucresque hostium naves hae graves tardaeque conpraehenderent. Longe illis nauticae artes detorquere remos et ludificari fuga rostra.

For within the sixtieth day after the forest had been felled, a fleet of one hundred sixty ships stood at anchor, so that they seemed not made by art, but by a certain gift of the gods—trees converted into ships and transformed. The shape of the battle was marvelous indeed, since these heavy and slow ships were grasping those swift and winged vessels of the enemy. Far from them were the nautical arts: to twist aside the oars and to make sport of the rams by flight.

Iniectae enim ferreae manus machinaeque validae ante certamen multum ab oste derisae coactique hostes quasi in solido decernere. 165 Victor ergo apud Liparas mersa aut fugata hostium classe primum illum maritimum egit triumphum. Cuius quod gaudium fuit, cum Duellius imperator non contentus unius diei triumpho per vitam omnem, ubi a cena rediret, praelucere funalia et praecinere sibi tibias iussit, quasi cotidie triumpharet.

For iron "hands" were cast aboard and stout machines, which before the contest had been much derided by the enemy, and the foes were forced to decide the issue as if on solid ground. 165 Therefore, victorious at the Liparae (the Lipari Islands), with the enemy’s fleet sunk or put to flight, he conducted that first maritime triumph. And what joy was there of this, when Duellius the commander, not content with a one-day triumph, for his whole life, whenever he returned from dinner, ordered torches to shine before him and pipes to play before him, as if he were triumphing every day.

Prae tanta victoria leve huius proelii damnum fuit alter consulum interceptus Asina Cornelius, qui simulato colloquio evocatus atque ita oppressus fuit perfidiae Punicae documentum. 166 Calatino dictatore fere omnia praesidia Poenorum Agrigento Dripanis Panormo Eryce Lilybeoque detraxit. Trepidatum est semel circa Cameriniensium saltum: sed eximia virtute Calpurni Flammae tribuni militum evasimus.

In comparison with so great a victory, the loss of this battle was light: the other of the consuls, Cornelius Asina, was intercepted—having been called out on a feigned conference and so overpowered—and was a proof of Punic perfidy. 166 With Calatinus as dictator, he stripped almost all the garrisons of the Carthaginians from Agrigentum, Drepanum, Panormus, Eryx, and Lilybaeum. There was panic once around the pass of the Camerinians; but by the outstanding valor of Calpurnius Flamma, a military tribune, we escaped.

Qui lecta trecentorum manu insessum ab hostibus tumulum occupavit adeoque moratus ostes, dum exercitus omnis evaderet: ac sic pulcherrimo exitu Thermopylarum et Leonidae famam adaequavit, hoc inlustrior noster, quod expeditioni tantae superfuit et nihil inscripserit sanguine. 167 Lucio Cornelio Scipione cum iam Sicilia suburbana esset populi Romani provincia serpente latius bello Sardiniam adnexamque Corsicam transiit Olbiam. Ibi Ateriae urbis excidio incolas terruit adeoque omni terra et mari Poenos purgavit, ut iam victoriae nihil nisi Africa ipsa restaret.

Who, with a picked band of three hundred, seized a hill occupied by the enemies and thus delayed the foes while the whole army got away: and so, by a most beautiful end, he equaled the fame of Thermopylae and Leonidas—ours the more illustrious in this, that he survived so great an expedition and did not inscribe anything with blood. 167 Under Lucius Cornelius Scipio, when already Sicily was a suburban province of the Roman people, the war creeping more widely, he crossed over to Olbia, to Sardinia, and to Corsica annexed to it. There, by the destruction of the city Ateria, he terrified the inhabitants, and to such a degree did he purge the Poeni (the Carthaginians) from every land and sea, that now for victory nothing remained except Africa itself.

168 Marco Atilio Regulo duce iam in Africam navigabat bellum. Nec defuerant qui in ipso Punico maris nomine ac terrore deficerent: insuper augente Natio tribuno metum, in quem nisi paruisset securi destricta imperator metu mortis navigandi fecit audaciam. Mox deinde ventis remisque prosperatum est tantusque terror hostici adventus Poenis fuit, ut apertis pene portis Chartago caperetur.

168 with Marcus Atilius Regulus as leader, the war was now sailing to Africa. Nor were there lacking those who, at the very name and terror of the Punic sea, lost heart: moreover, as Natio the tribune was augmenting the fear, the general, with the axe drawn over him unless he obeyed, fashioned boldness for sailing by the fear of death. Soon thereafter success was had by winds and oars, and so great was the terror of the enemy’s arrival for the Punics that Carthage would be taken with its gates almost open.

169 Prima prooemium belli fuit civitas Clypea: prima enim a Punico litore quasi arx et spectacula 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 Bracadam castra vixaverit.

169 The first proem of the war was the city Clypea: for it projects first from the Punic shore as if a citadel and a spectacle. Both this and more than three hundred forts were laid waste. Nor was it fought with men, but with monsters too, when a serpent of wondrous magnitude, as though born for the vengeance of Africa, harassed the camp pitched near Bracada.

170 Sed omnium victor Regulus cum terrorem nominis sui latae circumtulisset, cumque magnam vim iuventutis ducesque ipsos aut cepisset aut haberet in vinculis classemque ingenti praeda onustam et triumpho gravem in urbem praemisisset, iam ipsam belli caput Chartaginem urguebat obsidione ipsisque portis inherebat. 171 Hic paululum circumacta fortuna est, tantum ut plura essent Romanae virtutis insignia, cuius fere magnitudo calamitatibus adprobatur. Nam conversis ad externa auxilia hostibus cum Xantyppum illis ducem Lacedemon misisset, a viro militiae peritissimo Regulus victus est, foedaque clades Romanisque usu incognita: nam vivus in manus hostium venit fortissimus imperator.

170 But Regulus, victor over all, when he had borne around the terror of his name far and wide, and when he had either captured a great force of youth and the leaders themselves or was holding them in chains, and had sent ahead to the city a fleet laden with immense booty and heavy with triumph, was now pressing Carthage itself, the head of the war, with a siege, and was clinging to the very gates. 171 Here fortune was turned a little, only so that there might be more insignia of Roman virtue, whose magnitude is almost approved by calamities. For when the enemies, turning to foreign auxiliaries, and Lacedaemon had sent to them Xanthippus as leader, Regulus was defeated by a man most expert in soldiery, and there was a foul disaster, unknown in experience to the Romans: for the bravest commander came alive into the hands of the enemies.

172 Sed ille quidem par tantae calamitatis fuit, nam nec Punico carcere infractus est nec legatione suscepta: quippe diversa quam hostis mandaverat censuit, ne pax fieret nec commutatio captivorum receperetur. Sed nec illo voluntario ad hostes suos redito nec ultimo sive carcere seu supplicio deformata maiestas. Immo his omnibus ammirabilior quid aliud quam victor de victoribus atque etiam, quia Chartago non cesserat, de fortuna triumphavit?

172 Yet he was indeed equal to so great a calamity, for neither was he broken by the Punic prison nor by the embassy he undertook: for, contrary to what the enemy had enjoined, he judged that neither peace should be made nor the exchange of captives accepted. Nor was his majesty disfigured either by that voluntary return to his enemies or by the ultimate, whether prison or punishment. Nay rather, by all this the more admirable, what else than that he triumphed as a victor over victors and even—since Carthage had not yielded—over Fortune?

Populus autem Romanus multo acrior intentiorque pro ultione Reguli quam pro victoria fuit. 173 Metello igitur consule conspirantibus artius Poenis et reverso in Siciliam bello apud Panormum sic hostes cecidit Romanus exercitus, ne amplius eam insulam adgredi cogitarent. Argumentum ingens victoriae centum circiter elefantorum captivitas.

The Roman people, however, were much fiercer and more intent for the avenging of Regulus than for victory. 173 Therefore, under the consulship of Metellus, with the Carthaginians conspiring more closely and the war returned into Sicily, at Panormus the Roman army struck down the enemy, so that they no longer thought to attack that island further. A huge proof of the victory was the capture of about a hundred elephants.

Sic quoque magnas praedas egit, ut gregem illum non bello, sed venatione cepisset. 174 Appius Claudius consul non ab hostibus sed a diis ipsis superatus est, quorum auspicia contempserat, ibi statim classe dimersa, ubi ille praecipitari pullos iusserat, quod pugnare ab his vetaretur. 175 Marcus Fabius Buteo classem iam in Africo mari apud Egimurum hostium in Italiam ultro navigantem cecidit.

Thus also he carried off great spoils, as if he had captured that herd not by war, but by a hunt. 174 Appius Claudius the consul was overcome not by the enemies but by the gods themselves, whose auspices he had contemned, his fleet being sunk there immediately where he had ordered the sacred chicks to be thrown headlong, because he was forbidden by them to fight. 175 Marcus Fabius Buteo struck down the fleet of the enemy, already in the African sea near Aegimurum, sailing of its own accord toward Italy.

Quantusque tum triumphus tempestate intercidit, cum opulenta praeda classis adversis acta ventis naufragio suo Africam et Syrtis, omnium imperia gentium insularum litora implevit. Magna clades, sed non sine aliqua principis populi dignitate interceptam tempestate victoriam et triumphum perisse naufragio. Et tamen cum Punicae praedae omnibus promuntoriis insulisque fluitarent, populus Romanus et sic triumphavit.

And how great a triumph then was cut off by the tempest, when the fleet, driven by adverse winds, by its own shipwreck filled Africa and the Syrtes, the shores of the dominions of all nations and of islands, with opulent booty. A great disaster, but not without some dignity of the foremost people, that a victory intercepted by the tempest and a triumph should have perished by shipwreck. And yet, when the Punic spoils were floating along all promontories and islands, the Roman people even so triumphed.

176 Lutatio Catulo consule tandem bello finis inpositus apud insulas, quibus nomen Aecatae: nec maior alias in mari pugna: aderat quippe commeatibus exercito propugnaculis armis gravis classis et in ea quasi tota Chartago, quod ipsum exitio fuit. Romana classis prompta levis expedita et quodam genere castrensis ad similitudinem pugnae equestris sic remis quasi avenis agebatur et in hos vel illos ictus mobilia rostra speciem viventium praeferebant. Itaque momento temporis laceratae hostium rates totum inter Siciliam Sardiniamque pelagus naufragio suo operuerunt.

176 With Lutatius Catulus as consul, at last an end was imposed on the war near the islands whose name is Aecatae: nor was there at any other time a greater battle on the sea: for there was present a heavy fleet, burdened with supplies, troops, bulwarks, and arms, and in it, as it were, all Carthage— which very thing was its ruin. The Roman fleet was prompt, light, unencumbered, and in a certain camp-like fashion, in the likeness of an equestrian battle, was driven by oars as if by reeds, and its mobile rostra, for blows upon these or those, presented the appearance of living things. And so, in a moment of time, the enemy’s rafts, torn to pieces, covered the whole sea between Sicily and Sardinia with their own shipwreck.

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 Chartago.

So great, in the end, was that victory, that there was no question of razing the enemy’s walls. It seemed superfluous to rage against the citadel and walls, since Carthage had already been destroyed at sea.

177 Peracto si quidem Punico et nec dum quantulum respirato sequitur Liguricum. Nam Ligures hi imis Alpium iugis adhaerentes inter Varum Magramque amnem implicitos dumis silvestribus victitabant, quos pene maius fuit invenire quam vincere. Tuti si quidem locis et fuga durum atque velox genus ex occasione latrocinia magis quam bella faciebant.

177 With the Punic [war] indeed completed, and not yet with even a small breathing-space, there follows the Ligurian [war]. For the Ligurians, clinging to the lowest ridges of the Alps, between the Var and the Magra river, lived entangled in woodland brambles—men whom it was almost a greater task to find than to conquer. Secure, to be sure, by their locales, and in flight a tough and swift race, they practiced brigandage rather than formal wars as occasion offered.

Itaque cum diu multumque eluderent saltu viis Decilates Oxuvii Buriates Ingauni, tandem Fulvius latebras eorum igni sepsit, Bebius vero in plana deduxit, Postumius ita exarmavit, ut vix reliquerit ferrum, quo terra coleretur.

Therefore, since for a long time and much the Decilates, the Oxuvii, the Buriates, and the Ingauni eluded by the woodland and paths, at length Fulvius hedged in their hiding-places with fire, Bebius indeed led them down into the plains, and Postumius so disarmed them that he scarcely left iron with which the earth might be cultivated.

178 Post quos mox Galli. Insubribus et his Alpium incolis animi ferarum, corpora plus quam humana erant, sed experimento depraehensum est. Quippe virtus eorum sicut primo impetu maior quam virorum est, ita sequens minor quam feminarum.

178 After whom, soon, the Gauls. Among the Insubres and these inhabitants of the Alps there were minds of wild beasts, bodies more-than-human; but it was apprehended by experience. For indeed their valor, just as at the first impetus is greater than that of men, so in what follows is less than that of women.

Alpina corpora humente caelo educata habent quiddam simile nivibus suis: cum mox caluere pugna, statim in sudorem eunt et levi motu quasi sole laxantur. 179 Hi saepe et alias et Brittomaro duce non prius posituros se baltea quam Capitolium ascendissent iuraverant. Factum autem est, et victos eos Emilius in Capitolio discinxit.

Alpine bodies, reared under a humid sky, have something akin to their own snows: as soon as they grow warm with battle, straightway they go into sweat and, with slight motion, are as if relaxed by the sun. 179 These men often, and at other times as well, and with Brittomarus as leader, had sworn that they would not lay down their belts before they had ascended the Capitol. But it came to pass; and Emilius, with them conquered, unbelted them on the Capitol.

Et quod dux eorum de Romano militi praedam Marti suo torquem aureum devotasset, intercepit Iuppiter votum et de eius ipsius Ariobistonis relicorumque Gallorum torquibus aureum tropeum Iovi erexit Flamminius. Rex quoque eorum Viridomarus Romana arma Vulcano promisserat: aliorsum vota ceciderunt. Occiso enim eo Marcellus tertio post patrem Romulum Feretrio Iovi opima suspendit.

And because their leader had devoted to his own Mars, as plunder from a Roman soldier, a golden torque, Jupiter intercepted the vow, and from the torques of that Ariobistus himself and of the rest of the Gauls Flaminius set up a golden trophy to Jupiter. Their king too, Viridomarus, had promised Roman arms to Vulcan: the vows fell otherwise. For with him slain, Marcellus, third after Father Romulus, hung up the spolia opima to Jupiter Feretrius.

180 Illyres autem, id est Veneti, seu Liburnes sub extremis Alpium radicibus agunt inter Arsiam Titulumque flumen longissimae per totum Adriani maris litus effusi. Hi regnante Teutana muliere populationibus non contenti licentiae scelus addiderunt. Legatos quippe Romanos, ob ea quae deliquerant iure agentes, ne gladio quidem, sed ut victimas securi percutiunt, praefectos navium igni conburunt idque quo indignius foret, mulier imperavit.

180 The Illyrians, that is, the Veneti, or the Liburnians, dwell under the farthest roots of the Alps between the rivers Arsia and Titulus, spread out in a very great length along the whole shore of the Adriatic Sea. These, with the woman Teutana ruling, not content with depredations, added the crime of license. For they strike the Roman legates—who were acting according to law concerning the things they had delinquently done—not even with the sword, but, like victims, with the axe; they burn the prefects of ships with fire; and, that it might be the more outrageous, a woman commanded it.

Itaque Gneo Fulvio Gentimalo duce late domantur. Strictae secures in principum colla legatorum manibus litavere.

Therefore, under Gnaeus Fulvius Gentimalus as leader, they are subdued far and wide. Drawn axes, upon the necks of the princes, made propitiation by the hands of the legates.

181 Post primum autem Punicum bellum vix quadriennium requies: ecce alterum bellum, minus quidem spatio — nec enim amplius xviii annos tenens — sed adeo cladium atrocitate terribilis, ut si quis conferat damna utriusque populi, similior victo sit populus ille qui vicit. Vrebat nobilem populum mare ablatum, raptae insulae, dare tributa quae iubere consueverat. Hinc ultionem puer Annibal ad aram patris iuraverat, nec morabatur.

181 After the First Punic War, scarcely a four-year respite: behold the second war, less indeed in duration — for it lasted no more than 18 years — but so terrible in the atrocity of its slaughters, that, if anyone should compare the losses of both peoples, that people which conquered would be more like the conquered. The noble people burned: the sea removed, the islands snatched away, and to pay tributes which it had been accustomed to order. Hence the boy Hannibal had sworn vengeance at his father’s altar, and he did not delay.

182 Igitur in causa belli Saguntus electa est, velut Spaniae civitas et opulenta fideique erga Romanos magnum quidem, sed triste monumentum. Quam in libertatem communi foedere exceptam Annibal, causas novorum motuum quaerens, et suis et suorum 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 quaeri malunt.

182 Therefore Saguntum was chosen as the casus belli, as it were a city of Spain and wealthy, and a great indeed, but sad monument of loyalty toward the Romans. This city, admitted into liberty by a common treaty, Hannibal, seeking pretexts for new commotions, overthrew by both his own hands and those of his men, so that, the treaty broken, he might open Italy to himself. The Romans have the highest religion of treaties: therefore, at the hearing of the siege of an allied city, mindful of the treaty struck with the Carthaginians as well, they do not immediately run to arms, while they prefer first that inquiry be made in lawful fashion.

Interim iam novem mensibus fessi fame machinis ferro, versa denique in rabiem fide, immanem in foro excitant rogum, tum desuper se suosque cum omnibus opibus suis ferro et igni conrumpunt. 183 Huius tantae cladis autor Annibal poscitur. Tergiversantibus Poenis dux legationis: 'quae', inquid, 'mora est?' Fabius: 'in hoc ego sinu bellum pacemque porto, utrum elegitis?' Subclamantibus 'bellum'; 'bellum igitur', inquid, 'accipite'. Et excusso in media curia togae gremio non sine horrore, quasi plane sinu bellum ferret, effudit.

Meanwhile, already for nine months worn out by hunger, by machines, by iron, their loyalty at length turned into rabies, they raise a monstrous pyre in the forum; then from above they, themselves and their own, with all their wealth, they destroy by sword and fire. 183 Hannibal, the author of so great a calamity, is demanded. With the Carthaginians prevaricating, the leader of the legation: 'what', he said, 'is the delay?' Fabius: 'in this bosom of mine I carry war and peace; which have you chosen?' With them shouting 'war'; 'war then', he said, 'receive.' And, shaking out in the middle of the curia the lap of his toga, not without a shudder, as if plainly he were carrying war in his bosom, he poured it out.

184 Similis exitus belli initiis fuit. Nam quasi has inferias sibi Saguntinorum ultimae dirae in illo publico parricidio incendioque mandassent, ita manibus eorum vastatione Italiae, captivitatae Africae, ducum et regum qui id gessere bellum exitio parentatum est. Igitur ubi semel se in Spaniam movit illa gravis et luctuosa Punici belli vis atque tempestas distinatumque Romanis iam diu fulmen Saguntino igne conflavit, statim quodam impetu rapta medias perfraegit Alpes et in Italiam ab illis fabolusae altitudinis nivibus velud caelo missa discendit.

184 The outcome of the war was similar to its beginnings. For as if the final dire dooms of the Saguntines had prescribed these funeral offerings for themselves in that public parricide and conflagration, thus parentation was rendered to their shades by the devastation of Italy, the captivity of Africa, and the destruction of the leaders and kings who waged that war. Therefore, when once that grievous and mournful force and tempest of the Punic war moved itself into Spain, and in the Saguntine fire forged the thunderbolt long since destined for the Romans, at once, swept along by a certain impetus, it broke through the midst of the Alps and descended into Italy from those snows of fabulous altitude, as if sent from heaven.

185 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 ammodum filius ab ipsa morte rapuisset. Hic erit Scipio, qui in exitum Africae crescit, nomen ex malis eius habiturus.

185 And the whirlwind of the first impetus between the Padus and the Ticinus detonated at once with a strong crash. 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 quite-young son, still in the purple-bordered toga (praetextatus), snatched his father, whom he was shielding, from death itself. This will be Scipio, who grows for the ruin of Africa, destined to have a name from its misfortunes.

186 Ticino Trevia succedit. Hic secunda Punici belli procella desaevit Sempronio consulae. Tum callidissimi hostes frigidum et nivalem nancti diem cum se ignibus prius, oleo quoque fovissent — horribilae dictu — homines a meridiae et sole venientes nostra nos hieme vicerunt.

186 To the Ticinus the Trebia succeeds. Here the second tempest of the Punic war raged out upon the consul Sempronius. Then the most crafty enemies, having gotten a cold and snowy day, after they had first fomented themselves by fires, and also by oil — horrible to say — men coming from the south and from the sun overcame us by our own winter.

187 Tharsymenus lacus tertium fulmen Annibalis imperatore Flamminio. Ars nova Punicae fraudis: quippe nebula lacus palustribusque virgultis tectus equitatus terga subito pugnantium invasit. Nec de diis possumus queri: imminentem temerario duci cladem praedixerant insidentia signis examina et aquilae prodire nolentes commissamque aciem secutus terrae tremor, nisi illum horrorem soli aequitum virorumque discursus et mota vehementius arma fecerunt.

187 Lake Trasimene was the third thunderbolt of Hannibal, with Flaminius as commander. A new art of Punic fraud: indeed the cavalry, covered by the lake’s fog and marshy thickets, suddenly attacked the backs of the combatants. Nor can we complain of the gods: the swarms settling on the standards and the eagles unwilling to go forth had foretold the disaster impending over the temerarious leader; and an earth-tremor followed when the battle was committed—unless that dread was produced solely by the scurrying of horsemen and men and by arms brandished too vehemently.

188 Quartum, id est pene ultimum vulnus imperii Cannae, ignobilis Apuliae vicus, sed magnitudine cladis emersit, et sexaginta milium caede parta nobilitas. Ibi in excidium infelicis exercitus dux terra caelum dies tota rerum natura consensit. Si quidem non contentus simulatis transfugis Annibal, qui mox terga pugnantium caeciderant, 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 et sole pugnaret.

188 The fourth, that is, almost the last wound of the empire, was Cannae, an ignoble village of Apulia, but by the magnitude of the calamity it emerged, and a nobility was obtained by the slaughter of sixty thousand. There, for the destruction of the unlucky army, leader, earth, heaven, day—the whole nature of things—conspired. For indeed Hannibal, not content with simulated deserters, who soon cut down the backs of those fighting, in addition, the crafty commander, in the open plains, having observed the genius of the place—that both the sun there was most fierce, and the dust very abundant, and the Eurus from the east always, as if by appointment—so drew up the battle-line that, with the Romans turned to face all these, holding the sky as favorable he fought with the wind, the dust, and the sun.

Itaque duo maximi exercitus caesi ad hostium satietatem, donec Annibal diceret militi suo 'parce ferro'. 189 Ducum fugit alter, alter occisus est, dubium uter maiore animo: Paulum puduit, Varro non disperavit. Documenta cladis cruentus aliquamdiu Aufidus: pons de cadaveribus iussu ducis factus in torrente Vergello: modii duo anulorum Chartaginem missi dignitasque aequestris taxata mensura. 190 Dubium deinde non erit, quin ultimum illum diem habitura fuerit Roma quintumque intra diem epulari Annibal in Capitolio potuerit — sicut Poenum illum dixisse Maharbalem Bomilcari ferunt — si Annibal, quemadmodum sciret vincere, sic uti victoria scisset.

Accordingly two very great armies were cut down to the enemies’ satiety, until Hannibal said to his soldiers, ‘spare the iron’. 189 Of the commanders, one fled, the other was slain—doubtful which with the greater spirit: Paulus was ashamed, Varro did not despair. Proofs of the disaster: the Aufidus bloody for some time; a bridge of corpses, by the general’s order, made in the torrent Vergellus; two modii of rings sent to Carthage and the equestrian dignity assessed by a measure. 190 Then there will be no doubt that Rome would have had that as her last day, and that Hannibal could have banqueted on the Capitol within the fifth day—just as they report that that Punic man, Maharbal, said to Bomilcar—if Hannibal, in the way he knew how to conquer, had likewise known how to use the victory.

Sed tum quidem illum, ut dici vulgo soled, aut fatum urbis imperaturae aut ipsius mens mala et aversi a Chartagine dii in diversum abstulerunt. 191 Cum victoria posset uti, frui maluit relictaque Roma Campaniam Tarentumque perrexit, ubi mox et ipse et ipsius exercitus ardor elanguit, adeo ut vere dictum sit Capuam Annibali Cannas fuisse. Si quidem invictum Alpibus indomitumque 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. 191 When he could have made use of the victory, he preferred to enjoy it, and with Rome left behind he proceeded to Campania and Tarentum, where soon both he himself and the ardor of his army languished, to such a degree that it has truly been said that Capua was for Hannibal a Cannae. Since indeed—who would believe it?—unconquered by the Alps and untamed by arms, he was subdued by the Campanian suns and the tepid springs of Baiae.

192 Permissum est interim respirare Romanis et quasi ab inferis emergere. Arma non erant: detracta sunt templis. Deerat iubentus: in sacramentum liberata servitia.

192 It was permitted meanwhile for the Romans to breathe again and, as if from the infernal regions, to emerge. Arms were not at hand: they were taken down from the temples. The youth was lacking: the servile ranks were manumitted for the sacrament (military oath).

Aegebat aerarium: opes suas senatus in medium libens protulit, nec praeter quod in bullis singulisque anulis erat quicquam sibi auri reliquerunt. Aeques secutus exemplum imitateque aequitem tribus, denique vix suffecere tabulae, vix scribarum manus Leuino Marcelloque consulibus, cum privatorum opes in publicum referrentur. 193 Quid autem?

The treasury was ailing: the senate gladly brought its resources into the common stock, and they left to themselves no gold except what was in their bullae and individual rings. The equestrian order followed the example, and the tribes imitated the equestrian order; finally, the tablets scarcely sufficed, the hands of the scribes scarcely sufficed, with Leuinus and Marcellus as consuls, when the wealth of private citizens was being brought into the public. 193 But what then?

In elegendis magistratibus quae centuriarum sapientia, cum iuniores a senioribus consilium de creandis consulibus petierunt? Quippe adversus ostem totiens victorem, tam callidum non virtute tantum, sed suis etiam pugnare consiliis oportebat prima redeuntis et ut ita dixerim reviviscentis imperii spes Fabius fuit, 194 qui novam de Annibale victoriam commentus est non pugnare. Hinc illi cognomen novum et rei publicae salutare cunctator: hinc illud ex populo, ut imperii scutum vocaretur.

In electing the magistracies—what wisdom of the centuries—when the juniors sought counsel from the seniors about creating consuls? Indeed, against an enemy so often the victor, so cunning, it was necessary to fight not by virtue only, but also with his own counsels; the first hope of the returning and, so to speak, reviving imperium was Fabius, 194 who devised a new victory over Hannibal: not to fight. Hence for him the new cognomen, salutary to the Republic, “Cunctator”; hence that saying from the people, that he was called the shield of the imperium.

Itaque per Samnium totum, per Falernos Gauranosque saltus sic maceravit Annibalem, ut quia frangi virtute non poterat, mora comminueretur. 195 Inde Claudio Marcello duce etiam congredi ausus est, comminus venit et perpulit in Campania sua et ab obsidione Nolae urbis exclusit. Ausus est et Sempronio Graccho duce per Lucaniam sequi et praemere terga caedentis, quamvis tum, o pudor, servili pugnaret exercitu — nam hucusque tot mala conpulerunt — sed libertate donati de servitute Romanos fecerunt.

Therefore through all of Samnium, through the Falernian and Gauran passes, he so macerated Hannibal that, since he could not be broken by virtue, he was diminished by delay. 195 Then, with Claudius Marcellus as leader, he even dared to engage, came to close quarters and drove him within our Campania, and shut him out from the siege of the city of Nola. He also dared, with Sempronius Gracchus as leader, to follow through Lucania and to press the rear of the slayer, although then—O shame—he fought with a servile army (for to this point so many evils had compelled them); but, endowed with liberty, they made from servitude Romans.

O horribilem in tot adversis fiduciam, o singularem animum ac spiritum populi Romani. Tam artis afflictisque rebus, ut de Italia sua dubitare debuisset, ausus tamen est in diversa respicere, cumque hostis in iugulo per Campaniam Apuliamque volitaret mediamque iam de Italia Africam faceret, eodem tempore et hunc sustinebat et in Siciliam Sardiniam Spaniamque divisa per terrarum orbem arma mittebat. 196 Sicilia mandata Marcello.

O horrible confidence in so many adversities, O singular mind and spirit of the Roman people. So straitened and afflicted were affairs, that he ought to have doubted about his own Italy; yet he dared to look in different directions, and while the enemy was flitting at his throat through Campania and Apulia and was already making Africa out of the middle of Italy, at the same time he both sustained him and was sending arms into Sicily, Sardinia, and Spain, distributed throughout the orb of lands. 196 Sicily was entrusted to Marcellus.

Nec diu restitit: tota enim insula in una urbe superata est. Grande illud et ante id tempus invictum caput Syracusae quamvis Archimedis ingenio defenderentur, aliquando cesserunt. Longe illi treplix murus totidemque arces, portus ille marmoreus et fons caelebratus Arethusae, nisi quod actenus profuere, ut pulchritudini victae urbis parceretur.

Nor did it hold out long: for the whole island was overcome in one city. That great and, before that time, unconquered capital, Syracuse—although they were defended by the genius of Archimedes—at last yielded. Far from helping them were the triple wall and just so many citadels, that marble harbor and the celebrated fountain of Arethusa, except in this, that they thus far profited—to the extent that the beauty of the conquered city was spared.

197 Sardiniam Gracchus arripuit. Nihil illi gentium feritas Insanorumque — nam sic vocantur — immanitas montium profuere. Saevitum in urbes urbemque urbium Caralim, ut gens contumax vilisque mortis saltim desiderio patrii soli domaretur.

197 Gracchus seized upon Sardinia. Neither the ferocity of the nations nor the monstrousness of the mountains of the “Insani” — for so they are called — availed anything against him. Savagery was wrought upon the cities and upon the city of cities, Caralis, so that the contumacious people, cheap in the matter of death, might at least be tamed by desire for their native soil.

198 In Spaniam vero missi Gneus et Publius Scipiones pene totam Poenis eripuerunt provinciam. Sed insidiis Punicae fraudis oppressi rursum amiserant, magnis quidem illi proeliis cum Punicas opes caecidissent. Sed Punicae fraudis insidiae alterum ferro castra metantem, alterum cum evasisset in turrem cinctum facibus oppresserunt.

198 In truth, sent into Spain, Gnaeus and Publius Scipio almost snatched the whole province from the Punics. But, overwhelmed by the ambushes of Punic fraud, they had lost it again—though in great battles they had cut down the Punic powers. Yet the ambushes of Punic fraud crushed the one by the sword while he was marking out the camp, the other, when he had escaped into a tower, they surrounded with torches and overwhelmed.

Igitur in ultionem patris ac patrui missus cum exercitu Scipio, cui iam grande nomen de Africa fata decreverant, bellatricem illam viris armisque nobilem Spaniam, illam seminarium hostilis exercitus, illam iam Annibalis eruditricem — incredibile dictu — totam a Pyrineis montibus in Herculis columnas, in Oceanum recuperavit. Nescias citius an felicius. Quam velociter, quattuor anni fatentur: quam facile, vel una civitas probat: eodem quidem quo obsessa est, eodem die capta est omenque Africanae victoriae fuit, quod tam facile victa est Spaniae Chartago.

Therefore, sent with an army to avenge his father and uncle, Scipio—to whom the fates had already decreed a great name from Africa—recovered that warlike Spain, noble in men and arms, that seedbed of the hostile army, that instructress already of Hannibal—incredible to say—the whole from the Pyrenaean mountains to the Pillars of Hercules, to the Ocean. You would not know whether more quickly or more fortunately. How swiftly, four years confess; how easily, even a single civitas proves: on the very day on which it was besieged, on that same day it was taken; and it was an omen of the African victory, that Spain’s Carthage was so easily conquered.

199 Certum est tamen ad profligandam provinciam maxime proficisse singularem ducis sanctitatem, quippe qui captivos pueros puellasque praecipuae pulchritudinis barbaris restitueret, ne in conspectum suum quidem passus adduci, ne quid de virginitatis integritate delibasse saltim oculis videretur. 200 Haec in diversa terrarum populus Romanus. Nec ideo tamen visceribus Italiae inhaerentem submovere poterat Annibalem.

199 It is certain, however, that for subduing the province the singular sanctity of the leader most greatly profited, inasmuch as he would restore captive boys and girls of exceptional beauty to the barbarians, not even allowing them to be led into his sight, lest he should seem to have tasted, even with his eyes, anything of the integrity of their virginity. 200 Such things the Roman people did in the diverse regions of the earth. Yet not even for that could they remove Hannibal, clinging to the very vitals of Italy.

Pleraque ad ostem defecerant, et dux acerrimus contra Romanos Italicis coque viribus utebatur. Iam tamen eum plerisque oppidis et regionibus excussere Romani. Iam Tarentum retulerant, iam et Capua sedis, domus et patria altera Annibalis tenebatur, cuius amissio tantum Poeno duci dolorem dedit, ut inde totis viribus Romam converteretur.

Most had defected to the enemy, and the most ardent leader against the Romans was employing Italian forces as well. Yet by now the Romans had shaken him out of most towns and regions. By now they had recovered Tarentum; and now Capua too—the seat, home, and second fatherland of Hannibal—was held, the loss of which gave the Punic leader such pain that from there he turned all his forces upon Rome.

201 O populum dignum orbis imperio dignumque omnium favore et ammiratione hominum ac deorum! Conpulsus ad ultimos metus ab incepto non desistit et de sua urbe sollicitus Capuam tamen non omisit, sed parte exercitus sub Appio consule relicta, parte Flaccum in urbe secuta absens simul praesensque pugnabat. 202 Quid ergo miramur moventi castra a tertio lapide Annibali iterum ipsos deos restitisse?

201 O people worthy of the empire of the world and worthy of the favor and admiration of all men and gods! Compelled to the utmost fears, they did not desist from their undertaking; and, though anxious for their own city, nevertheless they did not neglect Capua, but, with part of the army left under the consul Appius, and part having followed Flaccus in the city, they fought absent and present at the same time. 202 Why, then, do we marvel that, as Hannibal was moving his camp from the third milestone, the very gods again stood against him?

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 et Capitulio videretur. Itaque fugit et cessit et in ultimum se Italiae recepit sinum, cum urbem tantam non adoratam reliquisset. 203 Si quidem ab Spania Hasdrubal frater Annibalis cum exercitu novo, novis viribus, nova belli mole veniebat.

For so great a force of rains was poured forth at each of his movements, so great a violence of winds arose, that it seemed the enemy was being removed by divine agency not from the sky, but from the very walls of the city and from the Capitol. And so he fled and yielded and withdrew himself into the farthest recess of Italy, though he had left so great a city not assailed. 203 Indeed from Spain Hasdrubal, Hannibal’s brother, was coming with a new army, new forces, a new mass of war.

Actum est procul dubio, si vir ille se cum fratre iuncxisset. Sed hunc quoque tantum quod ab Alpe descenderat apudque Metaurum castra metantem Claudius Nero cum Livio Salinatore debellat. Nero in ultimo Italiae angulo submoverat Annibalem: Livius in diversissimam partem, id est in ipsas nascentis Italiae fauces signa converterat.

It would, beyond doubt, have been all over, if that man had joined himself with his brother. But him too—only just descended from the Alps and pitching camp by the Metaurus—Claudius Nero, with Livius Salinator, utterly defeats. Nero had driven Hannibal back into the farthest angle of Italy; Livius had turned the standards to a completely opposite quarter, that is, into the very jaws, the passes, of a nascent Italy.

204 Tanto, id est omni qua longissima est Italia solo interiacente quo consilio, qua celeritate consules castra coniuncxerint inopinatumque hostem conlatis signis oppresserint neque id fieri Annibal senserit, difficile dictu est. Certe Annibal re cognita cum proiectum fratris caput ad sua castra vidisset, 'agnosco', inquid, 'infelicitatem Chartaginis'. Haec fuit illius viri non sine praesagio quodam fati inminentis prima confessio. 205 Iam certum erat Annibalem etiam ipsius confessione posse vinci.

204 At such a distance—namely, with all the land intervening where Italy is longest—by what plan, with what speed the consuls joined their camps and overwhelmed the unsuspecting enemy, with standards brought together, and that Hannibal did not perceive this being done, is difficult to say. Certainly, when the matter was learned and Hannibal saw his brother’s head cast 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 the impending fate. 205 Already it was certain, even by his own confession, that Hannibal could be conquered.

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 Annibalem et Italiae suae clades in Africam vindicare. Quas ille, dii boni!

But, full of confidence from so many prosperous things, the Roman People considered it a great thing to bring the most harsh enemy to decisive defeat in his own Africa. Therefore, with Scipio as leader, having turned with his whole might into Africa itself, he began to imitate Hannibal and to vindicate upon Africa the disasters of his own Italy. Which he—good gods!

Hasdrubalis cupias fudit! Quos Syphacis Numidici regis equitatus! Quae quantaque utriusque classis castra facibus inlatis una nocte delevit!

He routed Hasdrubal’s forces! What cavalry of Syphax, the Numidian king! What, and how great, the camps of both fleets he destroyed in a single night, with torches brought in!

Denique iam non a tertio lapide, sed ipsas Chartaginis portas obsidione quatiebat. 206 Sic factum, ut herentem atque incubantem Italiae extorqueret Annibalem. Non fuit maior sub imperio Romano dies quam ille, cum duo omnium et ante et postea ducum maximi duces, ille Italiae, hic Spaniae victor collatis comminus signis direxere aciem.

Finally, now he was shaking by siege not from the third milestone, but the very gates of Carthage. 206 Thus it came to pass that he wrenched Hannibal, clinging to and brooding over Italy, away. There was no greater day under the Roman imperium than that, when the two greatest generals of all generals, both before and after—one, victor of Italy; the other, victor of Spain—with standards brought together at close quarters, drew up the battle line.

Sed et colloquium fuit inter ipsos de legibus pacis. Steterunt diu mutua ammiratione defixi: ubi vero de pace non convenit, signa cecinere. 207 Constat utriusque confessione nec melius instrui aciem nec acrius potuisse pugnari.

But there was also a colloquy between them about the terms of peace. They stood for a long time, fixed in mutual admiration: but when indeed they did not come to an agreement about peace, the signals sounded. 207 It stands, by the confession of each, that neither could the battle-line have been arrayed better nor could the fighting have been carried on more fiercely.

Hoc Scipio de Annibalis, Annibal de Scipionis exercitu praedicaverunt. Sed tamen Annibal cessit praemiumquae victoriae Africa fuit. Et secutus Africam statim terrarum orbis.

This did Scipio proclaim about Hannibal, and Hannibal about Scipio’s army. But nevertheless Hannibal yielded, and Africa was the prize of the victory. And straightway the world followed Africa.

208 Post Africam iam vinci neminem puduit, sed aequo iure ubique subactae. Primum igitur Levino consule populus Romanus Ionium mare ingressus tota Greciae litora velut triumphanti classe peragravit. Spolia quippe Siciliae Sardiniae Africae preferebat et manifestam victoriam, quam nata in praetoria puppi laurus pollicebatur.

208 After Africa, now it shamed no one to be conquered, but everywhere they were subdued under equal law. First, therefore, under the consulship of Levinus, the Roman people, having entered the Ionian Sea, traversed all the shores of Greece with a fleet as if triumphing. For indeed it was bearing before it the spoils of Sicily, Sardinia, and Africa, and a manifest victory, which the laurel grown on the flagship’s stern was promising.

Aderat sponte in auxilium Attalus rex Pergamenorum, aderant et Rodii nauticus populus, quibus a mari, consul a terris omnia equis virisque quatiebat. 209 Bis victus, bis fugatus rex Macedonum, bis exutus castris, cum tamen nihil terribilius Macedonibus fuit ipso vulnerum aspectu, quae non spiculis nec sagittis nec ullo Greculo ferro, sed ingentibus pilis nec minoribus adacta gladiis ultra mortem patebant. Enim vero Flamminio duce populus Romanus invios antea Chaonum montes Saumque amnem per abrupta vadentem et ad ipsa Macedoniae claustra penetravit.

Attalus, king of the Pergamenians, was present of his own accord for aid, and the Rhodians too, a nautical people, were present, by whom from the sea, the consul from the land, was shaking everything with horses and men. 209 Twice defeated, twice routed the king of the Macedonians, twice stripped of his camps, since yet nothing was more terrible to the Macedonians than the very sight of the wounds, which were opening not by darts nor by arrows nor by any Greekling steel, but, driven in by huge pila and by swords no smaller, were gaping beyond death. Indeed truly, with Flamminius as leader the Roman people penetrated the previously pathless mountains of the Chaones and the river Sau, running through precipitous places, to the very barriers of Macedonia.

Introisse victoria fuit. Nam postea numquam ausus congredi rex ad tumulos, quos Cynocephalos vocant, uno ac ne hoc quidem iusto proelio oppremitur.

To have entered was victory. For afterwards the king, never daring to engage at the mounds which they call Cynoscephalae, is crushed in a single—and not even this a pitched—battle.

210 In Numidia tunc amici populi Romani regnabant. Sed Iugurtha contra se bellum movit Romanorum propter necem Aterbalae et Empsalae Mecipsae liberos expugnataque est primum a Metello consule, dehinc a Mario domita. Mauretaniam vero Buccho rex tuebatur.

210 In Numidia at that time the friends of the Roman people were reigning. But Iugurtha, on account of the slaying of Aterbal and Empsal, the sons of Mecipsa, set in motion against himself a war of the Romans; and Numidia was first taken by storm by the consul Metellus, then subdued by Marius. Mauretania, for its part, was being protected by King Buccho.

211 Sed cum subiectio omnium Maurorum facta est, Iubas rex, quae pugnae fuisset occasio, mox superatum se sensit, veneno hausto defecit omnisque Mauretania Romanis subacta. Tripolis namque et utraeque Maurataniae Sitifensis et Caesariensis similiter Romano iurae, ceterorum formidine tacti, ultro se subegerunt.

211 But when the subjection of all the Moors was accomplished, King Juba—whatever had been the occasion of the battle—soon perceived himself overcome; having drained poison, he expired, and all Mauretania was subjugated by the Romans. For Tripolis and both the Mauretaniae, Sitifensis and Caesariensis, similarly, to Roman jurisdiction, moved by fear at the fate of the others, of their own accord subjected themselves.

212 Spanias quamvis, ut superius diximus, Saguntina cladis ab amicitiis Romanorum segregasset, Scipio tamen eos tam gratia quam virtute rursus Romanis coniuncxit rursusque resistentibus Sylla consul sedavit. Celtiberes similiter cum Numantinis adversus Romanos insurgentes Scipio iunior sedavit, conpescuit atque pene subvertit. 213 Cantabri et Astures confisi montium suorum munimine dum resistere moliuntur, plenissime demoliti sunt et in provinciam redacti, Tarraconenses Lysitani Gallicii Chartaginisii et Seticaniae contra promuntorium Africae sitae omnes uno pene proelio superatae et in provincias Romanas descriptae sunt.

212 Although the Spains, as we said above, the Saguntine calamity had segregated from the amity of the Romans, Scipio nevertheless conjoined them again to the Romans both by grace and by virtue, and when they again resisted the consul Sulla soothed them. Similarly the Celtiberians together with the Numantines, rising up against the Romans, Scipio the Younger soothed, repressed, and almost overthrew. 213 The Cantabri and Astures, trusting in the bulwark of their mountains, while they try to resist, were most fully demolished and reduced into a province, the Tarraconenses Lusitani Gallaecians Carthaginians and the Seticani, situated opposite the promontory of Africa, all were overcome in almost a single battle and were enrolled into Roman provinces.

214 Epyrotae, qui Inlyrico, quamvis cum Pyrrho rege suo contra Italiam conspirassent, tamen primum pace molliti, secundo et tertio rebellantes cum Achivis et Thessaliis edomiti Romano iugo subacti sunt. 215 Macedonia namque primum sub Philippum, deinde sub Perseo, tertio sub Pseudophilippo arma contra se provocavit Romana, oppressaque primo a Flamminio consule, secundo a Paulo, tertio a Metello superata colla submisit Romanaque provincia facta. 216 Illyriam autem Gentione suo rege Macedonibus auxiliantibus vicit Romanorum Lucius praetor et in provinciam redegit.

214 The Epirotes, who in Illyricum, although they had conspired with their king Pyrrhus against Italy, yet first were softened by peace; and rebelling a second and a third time with the Achaeans and Thessalians, they were tamed and subjected under the Roman yoke. 215 For Macedonia, first under Philip, then under Perseus, third under Pseudo-Philip, provoked the Roman arms against herself, and, crushed first by the consul Flaminius, second by Paulus, third by Metellus, after being overcome lowered her neck and was made a Roman province. 216 However, Illyria, with its king Gentius and the Macedonians giving aid, was conquered by Lucius, a praetor of the Romans, and reduced into a province.

Dardanos Mysosque Curion primum proconsul edomuit primusque omnium Romanorum Danubium amnem usque profectus cuncta eius loca vastavit. Pannonum quoque regem in certamine superans idem Lucius redegit in provinciam utrasque Pannonias. Amantinos autem, qui inter Saum Draumque flumina insident, rege eorum interempto ipsa vice Romanam fecit provinciam.

Curio, first as proconsul, subdued the Dardanians and Mysians, and he, first of all the Romans, advanced as far as the river Danube and devastated all its locales. The same Lucius, overcoming the king of the Pannonians in combat, reduced both Pannonias into a province. But the Amantini, who are seated between the rivers Savus and Dravus, their king having been slain, on that occasion he made into a Roman province itself.

217 Marcomanni namque et Quadi in illa Valeria, que inter Draum Danubiumque interiacet, ab eodem tunc ductore oppressi finesque inter Romanos et barbaros Augustas Vindicas per Noricum Moesiamque dispositae. Daces autem post haec iam sub imperio suo Traianus, Decebalo eorum rege devicto, in terras ultra Danubium, quae habent mille milia spatia, in provinciam redegit. Sed Gallienus eos dum regnaret amisit Aurelianusque imperator evocatis exinde legionibus in Mysia conlocavit ibique aliquam partem Daciam mediterraneam Daciamque ripensem constituit et Dardaniam iunxit.

217 For the Marcomanni and the Quadi in that Valeria, which lies between the Dravus and the Danube, were at that time crushed by the same leader, and the boundaries between Romans and barbarians were arranged at Augusta Vindelicum through Noricum and Moesia. But afterward Trajan, with Decebalus their king defeated, brought the Dacians, now under his own imperium, into a province in the lands beyond the Danube, which have a stretch of 1,000 miles. But Gallienus, while he reigned, lost them; and Emperor Aurelian, having called the legions out from there, stationed them in Moesia, and there he established a certain part, Dacia Mediterranea and Dacia Ripensis, and he joined Dardania.

218 Illyricus autem cuncta per partes quidem et membra devicta ad unum tamen corpus apta est, quae habet intra se provincias xviii et sunt Norici duo, Pannonias duas, Valeria, Suavia, Dalmatia, Moesia superior, Dardania, Dacias duas, Macedonia, Thessalia, Achaia, Epyros duos, Praevales, Creta, simul xviii.

218 Illyricum, however, all conquered in its parts and members, has nevertheless been fitted to one body, which has within itself 18 provinces, and they are the two Norici, the two Pannonias, Valeria, Suavia, Dalmatia, Upper Moesia, Dardania, the two Dacias, Macedonia, Thessaly, Achaia, the two Epiri, Praevales, Crete—18 in all.

219 Thracias autem non aliter nisi occasio Macedonici belli fecit adgredere. Diri namque homines omniumque gentium ferocissimi sunt Thraces, quorum saevitiam pariter habent et Scordisci et Emimontii Asticique, ob quorum immanitatem Romani multa et gravia pertulerunt, crebrisque certatibus exercitus caesus. Ad postremum a Marco Didio et ipsi subacti, et loca eorum in provinciam redacta, iugum excepit Romanum.

219 But the Thracians were not approached except when the occasion of the Macedonian war made it so. For the Thracians are dire men, the most ferocious of all nations, whose savagery the Scordisci and the Emimontii and the Astici likewise possess; on account of whose enormity the Romans endured many and grave hardships, and in frequent encounters the army was cut down. At last they too were subdued by Marcus Didius, and their places were reduced into a province; it accepted the Roman yoke.

220 Nam Marcus Drusus intus eos in montibus eorum contrivit, Minucius in Ebro amne eorum multos extinxit et vicit. Rodopeni per Appium Claudium devicti sunt et civitates maritimas Europae, quae dudum Romanae fuissent et postmodum rebellassent, Marcus Romanis subegit Lucullus: 221 si quidem primus in Thracia contra Bessos pugnans eos qui in fortitudine famaque praeibant devicit Emimontiosque debellans, Pulpudeva, quae nunc Philippopolis, et Vscudama, quae Adrianopolis vocitantur, in Romanorum redegit dominio. Similiterque capiens et civitates, quae litori Pontico inherebant, id est Apollonia Galato Parthenopolim Thomos Istro, omniaque loca usque ad Danubium subdens Scythis ostendit Romanorum virtutem.

220 For Marcus Drusus crushed them within, in their mountains, Minucius on their Hebrus river extinguished many of them and prevailed. The Rhodopaeans were defeated by Appius Claudius, and the maritime cities of Europe, which had formerly been Roman and afterward had rebelled, Marcus Lucullus subjugated to the Romans: 221 since indeed, first in Thrace fighting against the Bessi, he defeated those who were preeminent in fortitude and fame, and, warring down the Emimontii, he brought Pulpudeva, which is now Philippopolis, and Vscudama, which they call Adrianopolis, back into the dominion of the Romans. And similarly, taking also the cities that adhered to the Pontic littoral, that is Apollonia, Galato, Parthenopolis, Thomos, Istro, and subjecting all places up to the Danube, he showed to the Scythians the virtue of the Romans.

222 Hactenus ad partes occiduas: nunc que in Eoa plaga acta sunt percurramus. Primum quidem in Asia locum Romani hereditario iure invenerunt. Nam Attalus rex amicissimus populi Romani humanis rebus excedens per testamentum suum Romanos suo in regno heredes constituit: quam pene non ante Romanus populus adiit, nisi et suo labore vicina loca cepisset, id est Lydia Caria Ellispontu utrasque Frigias.

222 Thus far as to the occidental parts: now let us run through the things that were done in the Eoan quarter. First indeed, in Asia the Romans found a position by hereditary right. For Attalus, a king most friendly to the Roman people, departing from human affairs, by his testament appointed the Romans heirs in his own kingdom: which the Roman people had scarcely approached before, unless also by their own labor they had seized the neighboring places, that is Lydia, Caria, the Hellespont, and both Phrygias.

223 Nam Rodus opinatissima insula et totius Atriae insularum metropolis cum pene omnibus Cycladibus, arma pertimescens Romana, iam dudum se foederatam populo illi coniuncxerat et nabali bello solacia condonabat. Cum quibus Servilius proconsul directus quasi piratico bello obtenuit tamen Pamphyliam, Lyciam Pisidiamque devicit fecitque provinciam. Bithiniam vero Nicomedis rex moriens testamentali voce Romanis reliquid.

223 For Rhodes, a most-renowned island and the metropolis of all the Atria’s islands, together with almost all the Cyclades, fearing Roman arms, had long since joined itself as federate to that people and was granting succors in naval war. With them Servilius, dispatched as proconsul, as it were in a piratical war, nevertheless secured Pamphylia, conquered Lycia and Pisidia, and made them a province. Bithynia indeed King Nicomedes, dying, left to the Romans by testamentary voice.

224 Gallogreciam autem, id est Galatiam, Syriaci belli ruina convoluit. Fuit namque inter auxilia regis Anthiochi: an fuisse cupidus triumphi Manlius Visus simulaverit, dubium est. Duobus itaque proeliis fusi fugatique sunt, quamvis sub adventu ostis relictis sedibus in altissimos se montes recepissent.

224 But Gallo-Greece, that is Galatia, the crash of the Syrian war engulfed. For it was among the auxiliaries of King Antiochus; whether Manlius Visus, desirous of a triumph, pretended that it had been so, is doubtful. Therefore in two battles they were routed and put to flight, although at the advent of the foe, with their seats abandoned, they had withdrawn into the most lofty mountains.

Coloscobegi Olympum, Tectosagi Magaba insederant. Vtrimque fundis sagittisque detracti in perpetuam se pacem dediderunt: sed alligati miraculo quodam fuere, cum catenas morsibus et ore temptassent, cum offucandas in vicem fauces prebuissent. Nam Orgiacontis uxor a centurione stuprum passa memorabili exemplo custodiam evasit revulsumque adulteri hostis caput ad maritum reportavit.

The Coloscobegi had occupied Olympus, the Tectosages Magaba. On both sides, brought down by slings and arrows, they surrendered themselves into perpetual peace: but, once bound, they proved a certain marvel, in that they tried the chains with bites and the mouth, and offered their throats in turn to be throttled. For the wife of Orgiacontes, having suffered rape by a centurion, by a memorable example escaped custody and carried back to her husband the wrenched-off head of the adulterous enemy.

225 Deiotarum si quidem amicum senatus praefecit Galatiae. Sed post haec Caesar eos redegit fecitque in provincias. Cappadoces quoque sub Epafra rege constituti primum per legatos suos Romanorum amicitias petierunt, dehinc Acuriobarzane rege succedente et a Mitridate expulso ultro se Romano servitio dediderunt magnamque civitatem suam Mazacam in honore Caesaris Caesaream appellaverunt.

225 The senate indeed appointed Deiotarus, its friend, over Galatia. But after these things Caesar reduced them and made them into provinces. The Cappadocians also, established under King Epafras, first through their own legates sought the amity of the Romans; then, when King Acuriobarzanes succeeded and had been expelled by Mithridates, they of their own accord surrendered themselves to Roman servitude, and they appellated their great city Mazaca “Caesarea” in honor of Caesar.

Post haec iterum sub Claudio imperatore rex eorum Archelaus Romae adveniens quasi amicus populi Romani ibique defunctus testamentali voce Cappadociam Romanis reliquid et sic iam ex integro in provinciam facta est. 226 Pontus a Pompeio devicta cum suo rege Mitridate et facta provincia est. Paflagoniae Pylemenis rex amicus populi Romani, a multis dum inquietaretur, Romanorum petiit auxilium.

After these things, again under the emperor Claudius, their king Archelaus, coming to Rome as if a friend of the Roman people and passing away there, by a testamentary voice bequeathed Cappadocia to the Romans, and thus now afresh it was made into a province. 226 Pontus, conquered by Pompey together with its king Mithridates, was likewise made a province. Pylaemenes, king of Paphlagonia, a friend of the Roman people, while he was being troubled by many, sought the aid of the Romans.

Se quoque dum de inimicis ulcisceretur, defunctus Romanos per testamentum heredes reliquid.

He also, while avenging himself upon his enemies, having died, left the Romans as heirs by testament.

227 Hactenus intra Taurum: nunc ulterius transgrediamur et quae patriae aut quibus subiugantibus populo Romano coniunctae sint, memorabimus. Anthiocus Syriae fortissimus rex magnum apparatum belli contra populum Romanum commovit. xxx milia si quidem armatorum currusque falcatos quam plures, elefantos innumeros turritos et ad instar murale in acie ordine sitos.

227 Thus far within the Taurus: now let us cross farther and we shall recount which countries, and under which subjugators, were joined to the Roman people. Antiochus, the most valiant king of Syria, stirred up a great preparation of war against the Roman people. 30 thousand indeed of armed men, and very many scythed chariots, elephants without number turreted and, in the likeness of a wall, set in order in the battle line.

Cui obvians Scipio Africani Scipionis frater in Asia ad Magnesiam civitatem commissoque proelio Anthiocus victus est, percussumque foedus cum Romanis ab Asia discessit et ultra Taurum ex senatus consilio regnare permissus est, filiosque eius in obsidato Romae deductos post patris obitum regnare genitali loco concessit. 228 Cilices cum Isauris piratae effecti et in mari magno saepe latrocinia concitantes a Servilio proconsule victi et prostrati sunt. Hic quoque Servilius primus Romanorum Tauri iugum pervium fecit triumphansque de eorum spoliis Isauricus Cilicusque vocatus est.

Scipio, brother of Scipio Africanus, met him in Asia at the city of Magnesia; and when battle had been joined, Antiochus was vanquished, and, a pact having been struck with the Romans, he departed from Asia and was permitted by the Senate’s counsel to reign beyond the Taurus; and his sons, having been brought to Rome as hostages, the Senate allowed to reign in their native place after their father’s death. 228 The Cilicians together with the Isaurians, having turned pirates and often arousing brigandage on the great sea, were defeated and prostrated by the proconsul Servilius. This Servilius also, first of the Romans, made the ridge of the Taurus passable, and, triumphing over their spoils, was called Isauricus and Cilicus.

229 Cyprum Cato classe navigera directus invasit. Negantibus Cypriis habere se aliquid magnas illis opes repperit proscriptionibusque multavit. Quod non ferens Gnosius rex eorum veneno hausto semet occidit et sic Cyprus Romana facta provincia.

229 Cato, dispatched with a naval fleet, invaded Cyprus. While the Cypriots denied that they had anything, he found great riches among them and punished them with proscriptions. Not bearing this, the Gnosian king of theirs, having drunk poison, killed himself, and thus Cyprus was made a Roman province.

Lybiam, id est Pentapolim, totam a primo illo Ptholomeo Romanis sub libertate concessam tamen resistentibus dehinc Appionis consilium Romano populo subdidit. Aegyptus omnis ab amicis Romanorum, id est Lagidis per Ptholomeos possessa. Post haec Cleopatra et Antonius iure proprio vindicantes et se et illa amittunt.

Libya, that is, the Pentapolis, though in its entirety granted by that first Ptolemy to the Romans under liberty, nevertheless, with some resisting, thereafter by Apion’s counsel (i.e., will) was subjected to the Roman people. All Egypt was possessed by the friends of the Romans, that is, the Lagids, through the Ptolemies. After these things Cleopatra and Antony, vindicating a claim by their own right, lose both themselves and those very holdings.

230 Montes vero Armeniae primum per Lucullum Romana arma viderunt, per quem et in Hosroine Saracinorum filarchi devicti Romanis se dediderunt. Mesopotamiamque idem ipse, Nitzebem quoque urbem invasit. Post quem Pompeius eadem loca ingrediens Romano confirmavit imperio.

230 But the mountains of Armenia first saw Roman arms through Lucullus, through whom also in Osroene the phylarchs of the Saracens, once defeated, surrendered themselves to the Romans. And the same man invaded Mesopotamia and the city of Nisibis as well. After him Pompey, entering the same places, confirmed them under Roman imperium.

231 Syriam Coelen iusto proelio Tigrane devicto invaserat. Arabaes et Palestini eodem Pompeio ductante devicti sunt.

231 Coele Syria he had invaded, Tigranes having been defeated in a just battle. The Arabs and the Palestinians were conquered with that same Pompey leading.

232 Babylonii autem crebro concertantes sepenumero victi, numquam tamen ad integrum domiti sunt. Quos tamen primum Lucius Sylla proconsul sub Arsacem eorum regem devicit ab eoque rogatus per legatos pacem concessit. Secundo dum Lucius Lucullus a Pontico regno Tigranem Armeniae regem cum decem et octo milibus superatum expelleret, omnemque Armeniam invasam ad Mesopotamiam venit, ibi Nitziben cum fratre regis Parthorum cepit, aequa sorte Persidam cupiens devastare, nisi Pompeius a senatu directus ei advenisset successor.

232 The Babylonians, however, frequently contending and many times defeated, were never yet subdued to the full. Them, nevertheless, Lucius Sulla, proconsul, first defeated while Arsaces, their king, was in power, and, having been asked by him through envoys, he granted peace. Secondly, when Lucius Lucullus from the Pontic kingdom was driving into exile Tigranes, king of Armenia, defeated with eighteen thousand, and, with all Armenia overrun, came to Mesopotamia, there he took Nisibis together with the brother of the king of the Parthians, wishing to devastate Persia in equal turn, had not Pompey, dispatched by the senate, arrived to him as successor.

233 Hic etenim Pompeius ilico veniens, mox nocturno proelio in minore Armenia super Mitridatem inruens, xlii milia armatorum eius prosternens castraque succendit. Vnde Mitridatis cum uxore et duobus satellitibus fugiens Bosforo venit nimiaque desperatione detentus venenum accepit. Sed dum nec sic mors ei accederet, alterum e duobus satellitem rogavit.

233 Here indeed Pompey, coming immediately, soon, in a nocturnal battle in Lesser Armenia, charging upon Mithridates and throwing down 42 thousand of his men-at-arms, set the camp ablaze. Whence Mithridates, fleeing with his wife and two bodyguards, came to the Bosporus, and, held fast by excessive desperation, took poison. But since not even thus did death approach him, he asked the other of the two bodyguards.

ut se perimeret. 234 Pompeius autem maioris Armeniae regem dum persequeretur, cur Tigrani contra Romanos auxilium commodasset, ille in Artaxata urbe regno deposito ultro diademam suam Pompeio optulit; sed Pompeius pietate ductus ultro maiorem Armeniam ei concessit regnare, auferens ab eo Mesopotamiam et Syriam partemque Foenicis cum Armenia. Nam Bosforianis Colchisque Aristharcum regem Pompeius praeposuit Albanosque insequens Orodem regem eorum tertio superavit.

to kill himself. 234 Pompey, however, while pursuing the king of Greater Armenia, as to why he had furnished aid to Tigranes against the Romans, he in the city of Artaxata, laying down his royal power, of his own accord proffered his diadem to Pompey; but Pompey, led by piety, in turn granted him to reign over Greater Armenia, taking away from him Mesopotamia and Syria and the part of Phoenicia together with Armenia. For over the Bosporans and the Colchians Pompey appointed Aristarchus as king, and, pursuing the Albanians, he for the third time overcame their king Orodes.

Ad postremum rogatus pacem concessit. Hiberiam similiter cum Artace rege in deditionem excepit. 235 Saracenos Arabasque exuperans Hierosolimam Iudeae captivavit.

At the end, having been asked, he conceded peace. He likewise accepted Iberia with King Artaces into surrender. 235 Overcoming the Saracens and Arabs, he captured Jerusalem of Judea.

Cum Persis foedus percusso, revertens Dafnensem agrum Antiochenis concessit ob nimiam loci amoenitatem pro munere.

After striking a treaty with the Persians, on returning he granted the Daphnean district to the Antiochenes as a gift, on account of the excessive amenity of the place.

236 His et aliis rebus in Syria bene gestis unius foedavit avaritia. Nam Crassus consul, dum Parthico inhiat auro, undecim legiones pene cum suo capite amisit. Cuius conspectu et filius hostilibus telis effossus et ipse peremptus caputque eius praecisum cum dextera manu ad regem reportatum ludibrium fuit neque indigno: aurum enim liquidum in rictum oris infusum est, ut cuius animus arserat auri cupiditate, eius etiam mortuum et exsangue corpus auro ureretur.

236 With these and other affairs in Syria well accomplished, the avarice of one man defiled them. For Crassus the consul, while he gaped after Parthian gold, almost lost eleven legions together with his own head. Before his very eyes his son, pierced through by hostile missiles, was slain, and he himself was killed; and his head, cut off along with his right hand and carried back to the king, was made a mockery—and not undeservedly: for liquid gold was poured into the gape of his mouth, so that he whose spirit had burned with cupidity for gold, his body also, dead and bloodless, might be seared by gold.

Reliqui vero infelicis exercitus, quo quemque rapuit fuga, in Armeniam Celiciam Syriamque distracti vix cladis tantae nuntium retulerunt.

But the rest of the ill-fated army, wherever flight snatched each man, scattered into Armenia, Cilicia, and Syria, scarcely carried back the message of so great a calamity.

237 Hac ergo clade Parthi altius animos elevantes per Pacorum ducem Syriam invadunt ducemque Labinium, quem dudum ceperant, exercitui praeponentes contra socios, id est Romanos in proelio dirigunt. Sed Ventidius Bassus Persas sub utroque duce Syriam populantes superatos effugat Labiniumque interfecit, Pacorum vero regium iuvenem telis undique circumseptum extinxit moxque caput eius dempto et circumlato per urbes que disciverant Syriam sine bello recepit. Sic Crassianam cladem Ventidius Pacori caput Labiniique morte pensavit.

237 Therefore, by this disaster the Parthians, lifting their spirits higher, invade Syria under the leader Pacorus, and, appointing as general Labinius—whom they had previously taken—array him against their allies, that is, the Romans, in battle. But Ventidius Bassus, after defeating the Persians who were ravaging Syria under both leaders, put them to flight, and killed Labinius; and Pacorus, a royal youth, surrounded with missiles on every side, he extinguished; and soon, his head having been removed and carried around through the cities which had seceded, he recovered Syria without war. Thus Ventidius balanced the disaster of Crassus with Pacorus’s head and the death of Labinius.

238 Nec sic contentus populus Romanus Crassiano interitu oblivisci nisi adhuc saevit in Parthos. 239 Nam Marcus Antonius in Madianea ingressus contra eos arma commovit, ubi primum eos superans, dehinc, cum duabus legionibus inedia hiemeque corruptus vix in Armenia Parthis sequentibus fugit ibique ereptus est. 240 Sub Augusto dehinc Octaviano Armeni cum Parthis commixti per Claudium Caesarem nepotem Augusti ocius superantur.

238 Not even thus was the Roman people content to forget the Crassian demise, but it still raged against the Parthians. 239 For Marcus Antonius, having entered Media, stirred arms against them; where, at first defeating them, then, with two legions, corrupted by inanition and winter, he scarcely fled into Armenia with the Parthians following, and there he was snatched away. 240 Thereafter, under Augustus Octavian, the Armenians commixed with the Parthians are more swiftly overcome through Claudius Caesar, the grandson of Augustus.

Armeni si quidem utilius rati Romanorum amicitiis reconciliari et proprias sedes incolere, quam cum Parthis coniuncti et sedes perdere et Romanos infestos habere.

The Armenians, indeed, having reckoned it more useful to be reconciled to the friendships of the Romans and to inhabit their own seats, than, joined with the Parthians, both to lose their seats and to have the Romans hostile.

241 Sic quoque dum in partibus orientalium Romanus laborat exercitus, occiduae plagae infesti sunt. Norici in Alpibus Noricis habitantes credebant, quasi in rupes et nives bellum non posset ascendere: sed mox omnes illius cardinis populos Brennos Teutonios Cennos atque Vendilicos, per eodem Claudio Caesarem Romanus vicit exercitus. Quae tamen fuerit Alpinarum gentium feritas, facile est vel per mulieres ostendere, quae deficientibus telis infantes suos adflictos humi in ora militum adversa miserunt.

241 Thus also, while in the parts of the Orient the Roman army labors, the occidental quarters are hostile. The Norici, dwelling in the Noric Alps, believed as though war could not climb onto crags and snows; but soon all the peoples of that quarter—the Brenni, Teutoni, Ceni, and Vendilici—the Roman army conquered by means of that same Claudius Caesar. What, however, was the ferocity of the Alpine nations it is easy even to show through the women, who, their missiles failing, hurled their infants, dashed upon the ground, into the faces of the opposing soldiers.

242 Nec minores his saevitia Illyri pariter accenduntur. Contra quos ipse Augustus e vicino egressus pontem, unde aquas transiret, fieri imperavit. Dumque aquis et hostibus ad ascensum milites turbarentur, scutum ipse rapuit et viam primus ingressus est.

242 Nor were the Illyrians kindled in savagery any less than these. Against whom Augustus himself, having gone out from nearby, ordered a bridge to be made, by which to cross the waters. And while the soldiers were being thrown into confusion for the ascent by the waters and by the enemies, he himself snatched up a shield and was the first to enter the way.

Tum agmine secuto cum subruptus multitudine pons succidisset, sauciis manibus et cruribus, speciosior sanguine et ipso periculo auctior terga ostium cecidit. 243 Pannonii vero duobus acribus fluviis Drao Savoque vallantur. Contra quos Duennium misit, qui eos plus velociter vicit, quam eorum flumina cursu rapido currunt.

Then, with the column following, when the bridge, wrenched away by the multitude, had collapsed, with his hands and legs wounded, more splendid with blood and made greater by the peril itself, he fell upon the backs of the enemy. 243 The Pannonians, in truth, are walled in by two fierce rivers, the Dravus and the Savus. Against them he sent Duennius, who conquered them more swiftly than their rivers run with rapid course.

244 Dalmatae similiter silvis commanentes plurimam partem latrocinando vastabant: ad quos edomandos Vibium mandat, qui efferum genus fodere terras coegit aurumque venis repurgare. 245 Moesi vero quam feri, quam truces erant? Vt unus ducum ante aciem postulato silentio 'qui vos estis?' inquid.

244 The Dalmatians likewise, dwelling together in the forests, were laying waste for the most part by brigandage: to tame whom he dispatches Vibius, who compelled the savage race to dig the earth and to repurge gold from the veins. 245 But the Moesians—how fierce, how truculent they were! When one of the leaders, before the battle-line, silence having been requested, said, 'who are you?'

Responsum est: 'Romani gentium domini'. Et ille: 'ita fiet', inquid, 'si nos viceritis'. Sed mox ad bellum ventum est, nec classicum audire valuerunt: sic a Marcio superati sunt. 246 Thraces autem antea saepe, tunc tamen Romaetalca regnante sibi a Romanis disciscunt. Nam is barbaros et disciplina et signis militaribus adsueverat: sed a Pisone perdomiti in ipsa captivitate rabiem ostendebant: nam catenas, quibus legati erant, morsibus vellicantes feritatem suam ipsi puniebant.

The answer was: 'The Romans, lords of the nations.' And he: 'so it will be,' he said, 'if you conquer us.' But soon it came to battle, nor were they able to hear the battle-clarion: thus they were overcome by Marcius. 246 The Thracians, however, often before, then nevertheless, with Romaetalcus reigning over them, defected from the Romans. For he had accustomed the barbarians both to discipline and to military standards; but, thoroughly subdued by Piso, they were displaying frenzy even in their very captivity: for, gnawing with their teeth at the chains with which they had been bound, they themselves were punishing their own savagery.

247 Daciam quoque ultra Danubium sitam exindeque saepius Dacos gelato Danubii alveo ad furta in Romania transeuntibus Lentulo misso vicit, expulit atque subegit. Sarmatas quoque per eundem Lentulum ultra Danubium pepulit. Qui nihil aliud ubi degunt praeter nives pruinasque et silvas habent, tantaque barbaries in illis est, ut nec intellegant pacem.

247 Dacia too, situated beyond the Danube, and from there the Dacians, with the channel of the Danube frozen, more often crossing into Romania for thefts—sending Lentulus, he conquered, expelled, and subjugated them. The Sarmatians too, through this same Lentulus, he drove beyond the Danube. They have nothing where they dwell except snows and hoarfrosts and forests, and so great a barbarity is in them that they do not even understand peace.

248 Marmaridas vero et Garamantes in orientali hiemali plaga per Quirinum subegit. 249 Germanos Gallos Brittones Spanos Hiberes Astures Cantabros occiduali axe iacentes et post longum servitium desciscentes per se ipse Augustus accedens rursus servire coegit Romanisque legibus vivere.

248 The Marmaridae indeed and the Garamantes in the eastern, wintry quarter he subdued through Quirinus. 249 The Germans, Gauls, Britons, Spaniards, Iberians, Asturians, Cantabrians, lying under the western axis and, after a long servitude, defecting—Augustus himself, by approaching in person, compelled them again to serve and to live by Roman laws.

250 Cleopatra vero Alexandrinorum regina ex genere Lagidarum Ptholomeorumque successor prius contra viri sui Ptholomei insidias Gaium Iulium Caesarem interpellavit, qui ob stupri, ut perhibent, gratiam regnum eius confirmavit ipsamque in urbem cum magna pompa Alexandriae remisit regnare. Cassius Iudea capta templum spoliavit. 251 Occiso vero in curia Romae Caesare Octavianus nepus eius suscepit Angustus principatum, quem Antonius dum invideret nihilque laedere posset, urbem Romam ingreditur et ad partes Aegypti quasi Romanae rei publicae provisor accedit.

250 But Cleopatra, queen of the Alexandrians, of the line of the Lagids and successor of the Ptolemies, first, against the plots of her husband Ptolemy, appealed to Gaius Julius Caesar, who, for the favor of debauchery, as they report, confirmed her kingdom and sent her back to the city of Alexandria with great pomp to reign. Cassius, Judaea having been captured, despoiled the temple. 251 But when Caesar was slain in the Curia at Rome, Octavian, his nephew, assumed the principate as Augustus; and Antony, while he envied him and could harm him in nothing, enters the city of Rome and goes over to the party of Egypt, as if a provisor of the Roman commonwealth.

Vbi iam viduam a viro regnantem repperiens Cleopatram se quoque cum illa consocians coepit sibi dominationem parare, nec tacitae, sed patriae nominis togae fascium oblitum totum in monstrum illud ut mente ita animo quoque cultuque desciverat. 252 Aureum in manu baculum, in latus acinaces, purporea vestis ingentibus obstricta gemmis. Diadema deerat, ut regina rex et ipse frueretur.

When he found Cleopatra now widowed from her husband and reigning, associating himself also with her, he began to prepare domination for himself; and, forgetful of the quiet of the toga and of the fasces of the fatherland’s name, wholly into that monster he had defected, as in mind so also in spirit and in attire. 252 A golden staff in his hand, an acinace at his side, a purple garment bound with huge gems. The diadem was lacking, so that, as the queen, the king himself too might enjoy it.

Quod Augustus Caesar audiens a Brundisio Calabriae in Epiro, ut eum a coepta removeret tyrannide, transierat. Nam Antonius omne Actiacum litus iam classibus obsedebat. Sed mox ubi ad proelium vintum est et Caesaris classe illius coepit turbare navigium, prima dux fugae regina cum aurea puppe veloque purporeo in altum dedit.

Hearing this, Augustus Caesar had crossed over from Brundisium of Calabria into Epirus, so that he might remove him from the tyranny begun. For Antony was already besieging the whole Actian shore with fleets. But soon, when it came to battle and Caesar’s fleet began to throw his shipping into turmoil, the queen, first as leader of flight, with a golden stern and a purple sail, put out into the deep.

Mox secutus Antonius. 253 Sed instare vestigiis Caesar, itaque nec praeparata in oceanum fuga nec munita praesidiis utraque Aegypti cornua Paretonium atque Pelusium profuere. Prope manu tenebantur.

Soon Antony followed. 253 But Caesar pressed hard on their heels, and so neither the flight prepared into the ocean nor the two horns of Egypt, Paretonium and Pelusium, fortified with garrisons, were of use. They were held almost within hand’s reach.

Primum ferrum occupavit Antonius. Regina ad pedes Augusti provoluta temptavit oculos ducis. Frustra quidem.

Antony seized the sword first. The queen, having flung herself at Augustus’s feet, tried to soften the leader’s gaze. Indeed, in vain.

Nam pulchritudo intra pudicitiam principis fuit. Nec illa de vita, quae auferebatur, sed de parte regni laborabat. 254 Quod ubi desperavit a principe servarique se triumpho cognovit, incautiorem nancta custodiam, in mausuleum se regum recepit ibique maximos, ut solebat, induta cultus in referto odoribus solio iuxta suum se conlocavit Antonium admotisque ad venas serpentibus sic morte quasi somno soluta est.

For beauty was within the modesty of the princeps. Nor was she anxious about life, which was being taken away, but about a portion of the kingdom. 254 When she despaired of this from the princeps and learned that she would be kept for a triumph, having found her guard more incautious, she withdrew into the mausoleum of the kings; and there, clothed in the greatest adornments, as she was wont, upon a throne crammed with odors she placed herself next to her own Antony, and, serpents applied to her veins, thus was loosed from life as if from sleep.

Hic finis bellorum Augusti Caesaris tam cum civibus quam cum extraneis. 255 Sic quoque Augustus Caesar Octavianus, quo nullus imperatorum in bellis felicior nec pace moderatior fuit, civilissimus in omnibus. Qui ab oriente in occidente, a septentrione in meridie ac per totum oceani circulum cunctis gentibus una pace conpositis Iani portas ipse tunc clausit 256 et censum Romae cum Tiberio agitans invenit hominum nonagies trecenta septuaginta milia omnemque orbem venientis Iesu Christi notu pacatum censeri praecepit regnavitque ann.

Here is the end of the wars of Augustus Caesar, both with citizens and with foreigners. 255 Thus also Augustus Caesar Octavianus, than whom no emperor was more felicitous in wars nor more moderate in peace, was most civil in all things. He, with all the nations composed in one peace from the east to the west, from the north to the south, and through the whole circle of the Ocean, himself then closed the gates of Janus, 256 and, conducting the census at Rome with Tiberius, found the number of human beings to be 33,300,000, and he ordered the whole world—pacified by the notice of the coming Jesus Christ—to be registered, and he reigned for years.

lvi. Sed imperii eius secundo et quadragensimo anno dominus Iesus Christus ex spiritu sancto et Maria virgine deus verus et homo verus nasci dignatus est. 257 Quattuordecem residuos annos post domini adventum corporali praesentia in pace regnans et ipse singularem optenuit principatum et posteris eandem imperii potestatem cum suo nomine Augusti derelinquens rebus excessit humanis, successorem relinquens Tiberium prevignum suum.

56. But in the forty-second year of his imperium, the Lord Jesus Christ, from the Holy Spirit and Mary the virgin, true God and true man, deigned to be born.257 For fourteen remaining years after the Lord’s advent, ruling in peace with bodily presence, he too held a singular principate, and, leaving to posterity the same power of imperium together with his own name of Augustus, he departed from human affairs, leaving as successor Tiberius, his stepson.

258 Tiberius Augustus Caesar regnavit ann. xxiii. Qui multos reges ad se blanditiis evocatos numquam ad propria regna remisit, in quibus et Archelaum Cappadocum rege.

258 Tiberius Augustus Caesar reigned 23 years. He summoned many kings to himself by blandishments and never sent them back to their own kingdoms, among whom also Archelaus, king of the Cappadocians.

Cuius et regnum, postquam defunctus est, in provinciam verso Mazacam civitatem eius de nomine suo Caesaream vocitavit. Huius ergo xviii anno dominus noster Iesus Christus sub Pontio Pilato in Iudaea carne passus est, non deitate.

And whose kingdom also, after he had died, having been turned into a province, he called Mazaca, his city, Caesarea from his own name. Therefore, in his 18th year, our Lord Jesus Christ under Pontius Pilate in Judaea suffered in the flesh, not in the deity.

259 Gaius Caesar cognomento Caligula regnavit ann. iii menses x. Hic namque Memmium Regulum coegit ut uxorem suam sibi loco filiae coniugem daret strumentaque matrimonii ut pater conscriberet. Haec et his similia perpetrans nec non et in templo Hierosolimitano Iovis statuam per Gaium Petronium statuens et in Alexandria Iudeos per Flaccum Avilium praefectum oppraemens postremo a protectoribus suis in palatio Romae occisus est anno aetatis vicensimo nono.

259 Gaius Caesar surnamed Caligula reigned 3 years, 10 months. For he compelled Memmius Regulus to give his wife to him as a spouse in the place of a daughter, and to write the instruments of marriage as a father. Doing these and similar things, and also setting up in the Jerusalem temple a statue of Jupiter through Gaius Petronius, and in Alexandria oppressing the Jews through Flaccus Avilius, the prefect, at last he was slain by his protectors in the palace at Rome, in the twenty-ninth year of his age.

260 Claudius dehinc huic succedens regnavit ann. xiii m. viiii. Fecit etiam hic Claudius expeditionem in Brittania insulam, quam nemo ante Iulium Caesarem neque post eum quisquam adire ausus fuerat.

260 Claudius then, succeeding to him, reigned 13 years 9 months. This Claudius also made an expedition into the island of Britain, which no one before Julius Caesar nor after him anyone had dared to approach.

Exercitum duxit ibique sine ullo proelio ac sanguine intra paucissimos dies plurimam insulae partem in deditionem recepit. Orcadas autem insulas ultra Brittaniam in oceano positas Romano adiecit imperio. Ac sexto quo profectus erat mensae Romae repedavit ibique defunctus est annorum lxiiii.

He led the army, and there, without any battle or bloodshed, within very few days he received the greatest part of the island into surrender. Moreover, he added the Orcades islands, situated beyond Britain in the ocean, to the Roman Empire. And in the sixth month from which he had set out he returned to Rome, and there he died at the age of 64.

261 Nero nepus Gai Caligulae regnavit ann. xiii m. viii. Tantaeque luxoriae fuit ut frigidis et calidis lavaretur unguentis, etenim non solum quia non profuit rei publicae, immo obfuit nimis.

261 Nero, the nephew of Gaius Caligula, reigned 13 years 8 months. And he was of such luxury that he was bathed in unguents, both cold and hot; indeed, not only did he not profit the Republic, rather he harmed it exceedingly.

Nam duas legiones in Armenia cum ipsa provincia simul amisit, qui Parthico iugo servientes gravem infamiam Romanis dederunt. 262 Iuxta omne scelus et parricidium quod in proprios parentes commiserat, addidit facinus, ut ad instar Troiae Romam incenderet, manusque iniciens in Christianos persecutionem concitat ipsosque doctores fidei Petrum et Paulum in urbe interemit, alterum cruci figens, alterum capite plectens. Eoque cum dedecore regno evulso Galba in Hiberia, Vitellius in Germania, Otho Romae imperium arripuerunt, omnesque tamen celeri interitu perierunt.

For he lost two legions in Armenia together with the province itself at the same time, which, serving under the Parthian yoke, brought grievous infamy upon the Romans. 262 Alongside every crime and parricide that he had committed against his own parents, he added a deed to set Rome on fire after the manner of Troy; and, laying hands upon the Christians, he stirs up a persecution and in the city put to death the very doctors of the faith, Peter and Paul, fixing the one to a cross, beheading the other. And with his reign torn out in such disgrace, Galba in Iberia, Vitellius in Germany, and Otho at Rome seized the empire, and yet all perished by a swift destruction.

263 Vespasianus apud Iudaeam ab exercitu in regno ascitus regnavit ann. x. Nam relicto filio suo Tito ad expugnationem Hierusolimorum ipse Romae profectus regnavit in pace.

263 Vespasian, in Judaea, was elevated to the rule by the army, and reigned 10 years. For, leaving his son Titus for the expugnation (storming) of Jerusalem, he himself, having set out to Rome, reigned in peace.

264 Titus filius Vespasiani idemque Vespasianus, debellator Iudeae gentis, regnavit ann. duobus mensibus duobus. Hic namque secundum Ioseppi fidem undecies centena milia Iudaeorum fame et gladio interemit et alia centum milia captivorum publice vendidit.

264 Titus, son of Vespasian and himself likewise Vespasianus, the debellator of the Judean nation, reigned 2 years and 2 months. For this man, according to the testimony of Josephus, destroyed 1,100,000 Judeans by famine and by the sword, and publicly sold another 100,000 captives.

Tantam multitudinem in Hierosolymis autem paschalis festivitas adunaverat.

However, the paschal festivity had gathered together so great a multitude in Jerusalem.

265 Domitianus frater Titi, filius Vespasiani, regnavit ann. xv m. v, tantaeque fuit superviae ut se dominum ab omnibus primum appellari praeciperet multosque nobilium exilio relegans nonnullosque occidens de substantiis eorum aureas argenteasque sibi statuas fecit. Manusque in Christianos iniciens, Iohannem apostolum et evangelistam, postquam in fervente oleo missum non potuisset extingui, Pathmo eum insulam exulem relegavit, ubi apocalypsim vidit.

265 Domitian, brother of Titus, son of Vespasian, reigned for 15 years and 5 months, and was of such arrogance that he ordered that he be called “lord” by all first and foremost; and, relegating many of the nobles to exile and killing some, he made for himself golden and silver statues from their properties. And laying hands upon the Christians, John the apostle and evangelist—after he had been cast into boiling oil and could not be extinguished—he banished as an exile to the island of Patmos, where he saw the Apocalypse.

Cuius crudelitatem non tolerantes Romani in palatio Romae interficere statuerunt omniaque quod constituerat inritum fore.

Not tolerating his cruelty, the Romans decided to put him to death in the palace at Rome, and that all which he had decreed would be null and void.

266 Nerva admodum senes regnavit anno uno m. iiii. Qui ut privata vita lenis, lenior fuit in regno nec quicquam profuit rei publicae, nisi quod Traianum se vivente elegit.

266 Nerva, very aged, reigned for 1 year and 4 months. He, as he was gentle in private life, was gentler in rule, and he did nothing to benefit the Republic, except that he chose Trajan while he was still living.

267 Traianus pene omnium imperatorum potior regnavit an. xviii m. vi. Hic enim de Dacis Scythisque triumphavit Hiberosque et Sauromatas, Osroenos, Arabas, Bosforanos, Colchos edomuit, postquam ad feritatem prorupissent. Seleuciam et Tesifontem Babyloniamque pervasit et tenuit. 268 Nec non et in mari rubro classem, unde Indiae fines vastaret, instituit ibique suam statuam dedicavit et post tot labores apud Seleuciam Isauriae profluvio ventris extinctus est anno aetatis lxiii.

267 Trajan, almost superior to all emperors, reigned 18 years and 6 months. For he triumphed over the Dacians and the Scythians, and he subdued the Iberians and the Sarmatians, the Osroeni, Arabs, Bosporans, and Colchians, after they had broken out into savagery. He overran and held Seleucia and Ctesiphon and Babylonia. 268 And indeed he also established a fleet on the Red Sea, whence he might lay waste the borders of India, and there he dedicated his own statue; and after so many labors, at Seleucia of Isauria, he was extinguished by a flux of the belly, in the 63rd year of his age.

Ossaque eius in urna aurea conlocata et in foro sub columna posita solusque omnium imperatorum intra urbem sepultus.

And his bones were placed in a golden urn and set in the Forum beneath a column, and he alone of all the emperors was buried within the city.

269 Adrianus Italicae Spania natus consubrinae Traiani filius regnavit ann. xxi. Hic pene nil profuit rei publicae, nisi quod dudum subversas Alexandriam et Hierusolymam propriis reparavit expensis nonnullisque in locis publica relaxavit tributa.

269 Adrian, born at Italica in Spain, the son of Trajan’s cousin, reigned 21 years. He profited the republic almost not at all, except that he restored Alexandria and Jerusalem, long since overthrown, at his own expense, and in several places he remitted public taxes.

270 Hierusolimam si quidem suo de nomine Eliam appellans nulli Iudaeorum ingredi permisit. Nam claret eum invidum factis Traiani, quia mox ei successit, ilico nulla faciente necessitate exercitum ad se revocans Mesopotamiam Assyriamque et Armeniam Persis reliquid, Eufratem fluvium finem terminumque inter Parthos Romanosque constituens. Quo regnante Aquila Ponticus scripturas de Hebreo transtulit.

270 calling Jerusalem indeed Aelia from his own name, he allowed none of the Jews to enter. For it is clear that he was envious of Trajan’s deeds, because, as he soon succeeded him, immediately, with no necessity compelling it, recalling the army to himself, he left Mesopotamia and Assyria and Armenia to the Persians, establishing the river Euphrates as the boundary and limit between the Parthians and the Romans. In his reign Aquila the Pontic translated the Scriptures from Hebrew.

Adrianus morbo apud Baias faciente obiit.

Hadrian died of illness at Baiae.

271 Antoninus cognomento Pius cum suis liberis Aurelio et Lucio regnavit ann. xxii m. iii. Et si non profuit quicquam Antoninus, nullam tamen lesionem eius res publica sensit.

271 Antoninus, with the cognomen Pius, reigned with his children Aurelius and Lucius for 22 years and 3 months. And if Antoninus profited nothing, nevertheless the Republic sensed no injury from him.

Defunctus est duodecimo urbis miliario, in villa sua Lorio nuncupata, anno aetatis septuagesimo sexto.

He died at the city's twelfth milestone, in his villa called Lorio, in the 76th year of his age.

272 Marcus Antoninus, qui et Verus, et Lucius Aurelius Commodus affinitate coniuncti aequo iure imperium administraverunt. E quibus iunior contra Parthos arma movens magna egit et fortia Seleuciamque urbem eorum cum quadringenta milia pugnatorum cepit, e quibus cum magna gloria triumphavit. Senior vero multis bellis sepe interfuit sepiusque per duces suos triumphum revexit, maxime de gente Quadorum.

272 Marcus Antoninus, who is also Verus, and Lucius Aurelius Commodus, joined by affinity, administered the imperium with equal right. Of these, the younger, moving arms against the Parthians, did great and brave deeds and took their city Seleucia with four hundred thousand fighting men, over whom he triumphed with great glory. The elder indeed was often present in many wars, and more often through his leaders he brought back a triumph, especially over the nation of the Quadi.

Sed unus in Alteno apoplexiam passus defunctus est, alter in Pannonia morbo periit.

But one at Alteno, having suffered apoplexy, died; another in Pannonia perished from disease.

273 Commodus, filius Antonini, regnavit ann. xiii magnumque triumphum de gente revexit Germanica et post haec in domo Vestiliani strangulatus defecit.

273 Commodus, the son of Antoninus, reigned 13 years and brought back a great triumph over the Germanic people, and after these things, in the house of Vestilianus, he was strangled and died.

274 Helvius Pertinax maior sexagenario cum praefecturam ageret, ex senatus consulto imperator creatus regnavit m. vi. Hic etenim obsecrante senatu ut uxorem suam Augustam filiumque Caesarem appellaret, 'sufficere', inquid, 'debet quod ego ipse invitus regnavi, cum non merer.' Nimis aequissimus omniumque communis, quem Iulianus iuris peritus in palatio eius peremit ipseque postea a Severo occisus est.

274 Helvius Pertinax, older than sixty, while he was holding the prefecture, was created emperor by decree of the senate, and he reigned 6 months. For when the senate was beseeching that he should entitle his wife Augusta and his son Caesar, “it ought to suffice,” he said, “that I myself have reigned unwillingly, since I did not merit it.” Most exceedingly equitable and accessible to all, he was slain in his palace by Julianus, a jurist, and he himself afterward was killed by Severus.

275 Severus genere Afer Tripolitanus regnavit an. xviii ultusque occisionem Pertinacis in Iuliano, se quoque Pertinacem appellavit. Hic etenim Parthos et Adiabennos contra Romaniam insurgentes mirabiliter superavit. Arabas quoque interiores ita cecidit ut regionem eorum Romanam provinciam faceret.

275 Severus, African by stock, a Tripolitanian, reigned 18 years, and, having avenged the slaying of Pertinax upon Julianus, he also called himself Pertinax. For he wondrously overcame the Parthians and the Adiabeni rising against Romania. He likewise struck down the Inner Arabs so that he made their region a Roman province.

Sic quoque triumphans Parthicus, Arabicus et Adiabennicus dictus est. 276 Hoc regnante Samaritis quidam Symmachus Iudaeorum factus proselitus item divinas scripturas ex Hebreo sermone Greca lingua transfudit suamque condidit editionem. Post quem pene tertio anno secutus Theodotion Ponticus item suam in eodem opere editionem scripturarum conposuit.

Thus also, triumphing, he was called Parthian, Arabic, and Adiabennic. 276 In his reign a certain Samaritan, Symmachus, having become a proselyte of the Jews, likewise transfused the divine Scriptures from the Hebrew speech into the Greek tongue and established his own edition. After him, almost in the third year, Theodotion the Pontic, following, likewise composed his own edition of the Scriptures in the same work.

Brittanicum bellum exortum, unde Severus mirabiliter triumphavit.

A British war arose, whence Severus marvellously triumphed.

277 Antoninus cognomento Caracalla, filius Severi, regnavit ann. vii. Nam ideo hoc nomen nanctus est eo quod eiusdem vestium genere Romae de manubiis erogans sibi nomen Caracalla et vesti Antoniana dederit.

277 Antoninus, by surname Caracalla, son of Severus, reigned 7 years. For he obtained this name because, doling out at Rome from the spoils garments of that same kind of clothing, he gave to himself the name Caracalla and to the garment the Antonine designation.

Sub hoc iterum editio scripturarum divinarum, quam quintam nominamus, in Hiericho in doleo reperta est. Hic etenim imperator, dum contra Persas movit procinctum, Osroene Edessa defunctus est.

Under him, again an edition of the divine Scriptures, which we name the fifth, was found at Jericho in a cask. For this emperor, while he was moving the battle-line against the Persians, died in Osroene at Edessa.

278 Macrinus praefecturam agens praetorianam imperator creatus est regnavitque anno uno occiditurque Archilaide.

278 Macrinus, while exercising the praetorian prefecture, was created emperor and reigned for one year, and was killed at Archilaïs.

279 Marcus Aurelius Antonini Caracallae filius templique Heliogabali sacerdos imperator factus regnavit ann. iiii. Emmaus in Iudaea constructa et Nicopolim nominata.

279 Marcus Aurelius, son of Antoninus Caracalla, and priest of the temple of Heliogabalus, was made emperor and reigned 4 years. Emmaus in Judaea was built and named Nicopolis.

Tunc et Africanus egregius temporum scriptor pro ipsa legationem suscepit ad principem. Sed imperator, dum nullum genus obscenitatis in regno suo quod non faceret praetermittebat, occisus est tumultu militari.

Then too Africanus, an excellent writer of the times, undertook an embassy on her behalf to the emperor. But the emperor, while he left no kind of obscenity in his kingdom that he did not commit, was slain in a military tumult.

280 Alexander Mamae filius ignobilis fortunae existens adhuc iuvenis regni moderatione suscepit moxque contra Xersen regem Persarum arma arripiens mirabiliter de Parthorum spoliis triumphavit. Sub huius item imperio in Nicopolim Actiacam, id est Epiro, editio quae sexta dicitur divinarum scripturarum in dolio reperta est. Ipseque Mogontiaco tumulto occiditur militari, cui successit Maximinus ex corpore militari in regno.

280 Alexander, son of Mamaea, being of ignoble fortune, while still a youth undertook the governance of the realm, and soon, taking up arms against Xerxes, king of the Persians, he marvellously triumphed with the spoils of the Parthians. Under his rule likewise, at Actian Nicopolis, that is, in Epirus, the edition of the divine scriptures which is called the sixth was found in a jar. And he himself was killed at Mogontiacum in a military tumult, and Maximinus from the military body succeeded him in rule.

281 Maximinus genere Gothico, patre Micca Ababaque Alana genitus matre, sola militum voluntate ad imperium concedens, bellum adversus Germanos feliciter gessit, indeque revertens, contra Christianos movens intestino proelio, vix tres annos regnans, Aquileia a Puppieno occisus est.

281 Maximinus, of Gothic stock, born of a father Micca and a mother Ababa, an Alan, acceding to the imperium by the soldiers’ will alone, waged war successfully against the Germans; and returning thence, setting in motion an intestine war against the Christians, after reigning scarcely three years, at Aquileia he was slain by Pupienus.

282 Gordianus ammodo puer imperator factus vix regnavit sex annos. Hic etenim mox Romae ingressus est, ilico Puppienum et Albinum, qui Maximino occidentes tyrannidem arripuissent, occidit, Ianumque geminum aperiens ad Orientem profectus Parthis intulit bellum, indeque cum victoria revertens fraude Philippi praefecti praetorii haut longe a Romano solo interfectus est.

282 Gordian, still a boy, made emperor, scarcely reigned six years. For he soon entered Rome, and immediately put to death Pupienus and Albinus, who, having slain Maximinus, had seized tyranny; and, opening the twin Janus, he set out to the Orient and brought war upon the Parthians; and thence returning with victory, by the deceit of Philip, prefect of the praetorium, he was slain not far from Roman soil.

283 Philippus in imperio impudenter ingressus est regnavit ann. vii. Hic etenim filium suum idem Philippum consortem regni fecit ipseque primus omnium imperatorum Christianus effectus est tertioque anno imperii sui festivitatem Romanae urbis, millesimo anno quod expleverat, caelebravit urbemque nominis sui in Thracia, que dicebatur Pulpudeva, Philippopolim reconstruens nominavit.

283 Philip entered upon the imperium impudently and reigned 7 years. For he made his son, likewise Philip, a consort in the rule; and he himself, the first of all emperors, became a Christian; and in the 3rd year of his reign he celebrated the festival of the Roman city, at the 1,000th year which it had completed, and the city of his name in Thrace, which was called Pulpudeva, rebuilding it he named Philippopolis.

284 Decius e Pannonia inferiore Budalie natus occisis Philippis utrisque regnavit an. uno et mensibus tribus, armaque in Christianos erecta ob Philipporum nominis odium. Ipse bellantibus Getis cum filio suo crudeli morte occubuit Abritto.

284 Decius, born at Budalia in Lower Pannonia, after both the Philippi had been slain, reigned for 1 year and 3 months, and he raised arms against the Christians out of hatred for the name of the Philippi. He himself, while the Getae were warring, fell by a cruel death at Abritto together with his son.

285 Gallus et Volusianus regnaverunt ann. ii m. iiii. Hi cum adversum Emilianum, qui in Moesia res novas moliebatur, ex urbe profecti essent, in Foro Flamminii interfecti sunt.

285 Gallus and Volusianus reigned for 2 years and 4 months. These men, when they had set out from the city against Aemilianus, who in Moesia was plotting a revolution, were killed at Forum Flaminii.

286 Emilianus vero tertio mense invasae tyrannidis extinctus est.

286 Emilianus, however, was extinguished in the third month of the usurped tyranny.

287 Valerianus et Gallienus, dum unus in Retia a militibus, alter Romae a senatu in imperio levarentur, regnaverunt an. xv. Valerianus si quidem in Christianos persecutione commota statim a Sapore rege Persarum capitur ibique servitute miserabili consenescit. Gallienus illius exitum cernens Christianis pacem dedit. Sed dum nimis in regno lasciviret nec virile aliquid ageret, Parthi Syriam Ciliciamque vastaverunt, Germani et Alani Gallias depraedantes Ravennam usque venerunt, Greciam Gothi vastaverunt, Quadi et Sarmatae Pannonias invaserunt, Germani rursus Spanias occupaverunt.

287 Valerian and Gallienus, while the one in Raetia was being raised to the imperium by the soldiers, the other at Rome by the senate, reigned 15 years. Valerian indeed, with a persecution against the Christians stirred up, was immediately captured by Shapur, king of the Persians, and there in miserable servitude grew old. Gallienus, seeing his end, gave peace to the Christians. But while he was too wanton in his rule and did nothing virile, the Parthians devastated Syria and Cilicia, the Germans and Alans, plundering the Gauls, came as far as Ravenna, the Goths devastated Greece, the Quadi and Sarmatians invaded the Pannonias, the Germans again occupied the Spains.

Idcirco Gallienus Mediolani occisus est.

Therefore Gallienus was killed at Milan.

288 Claudius regnavit ann. i m. viiii, qui Gothos iam per xv annos Illiricum Macedoniamque vastantes bello adortus incredibili strage delevit, scilicet ut in curia ei cIypeus aureus et in Capitolio statua aurea poneretur. Occisusque Sirmium est.

288 Claudius reigned 1 year 9 months, who, having attacked in war the Goths already for 15 years ravaging Illyricum and Macedonia, destroyed them with incredible slaughter, such that in the Curia for him a golden shield (clipeus) and on the Capitol a golden statue were set up. And he was slain at Sirmium.

289 Post cuius mortem Quintilius frater eius a senatu Augustus appellatus octavo decimo imperii sui diae Aquilaeia occisus est.

289 After his death, Quintillus, his brother, having been styled Augustus by the Senate, was slain on the 18th day of his rule at Aquileia.

290 Aurelianus Dacia Ripense oriundus regnavit an. v m. vi. Qui mox Tetricum apud Catalaunos prodente exercitum suum Gallias recepit, expeditioneque facta in Danubium Gothos magnis proeliis profligavit cultoresque divini nominis persecutus est. Odenathus Palmyrenus ante ipsum collecta rusticorum manu Persas de Mesopotamia expellens ipse ea loca invaserat. 291 Quem uxor sua occisum Orientis tenebat imperium; contra quam expiditionem suscipiens Aurelianus apud Hymmas vicino Antiochiae superavit Romaeque in triumpho suo vivam perduxit, ac dehinc secundo arripiens expeditionem inter Byzantium et Heracleam in Caeno Frurio viae veteris occiditur.

290 Aurelian, originating from Dacia Ripensis, reigned 5 years 6 months. He soon recovered the Gauls, Tetricus at the Catalauni betraying his own army, and, an expedition made to the Danube, he routed the Goths in great battles, and persecuted the worshippers of the divine name. Odaenathus the Palmyrene, before him, having gathered a band of rustics, expelling the Persians from Mesopotamia, had himself seized those places. 291 He having been slain, his wife held the rule of the East; against whom undertaking an expedition, Aurelian defeated her at Hymmas, near Antioch, and led her alive to Rome in his triumph; and thereafter, seizing a second expedition, he is slain between Byzantium and Heraclea, at Caeno Frurio of the old road.

292 Tacitus regnavit ann. vi. Quo occiso apud Pontem suscepit imperium Florianus tenuitque diebus lxxxviii. Similiterque et ipse apud Tharso interfectus est.

292 Tacitus reigned 6 years. When he had been killed in Pontus, Florianus assumed the imperium and held it for 88 days. And similarly he himself was slain at Tarsus.

293 Probus regnavit an. vi m. iiii. Hic etenim Gallos et Spanos vineas habere permisit. Quo tempore Saturninus magister militum, dum ad restaurationem Antiochenae civitatis missus fuisset, arrepta ibidem tyrannide mox oppressus est et Appamiae interfectus.

293 Probus reigned 6 years, 4 months. For he indeed permitted the Gauls and the Spaniards to have vineyards. At that time Saturninus, master of the soldiers, while he had been sent for the restoration of the city of Antioch, with tyranny seized there, was soon suppressed and killed at Apamea.

Ipse quoque imperator Probus tumultu militari Sermio in turre quae vocatur Ferrata occisus est.

The emperor Probus himself also was slain in a military tumult at Sirmium, in the tower which is called the Ferrata.

294 Carus cum filiis Carino et Numeriano regnavit an. ii, oriundus Narbona Galliae. Hic admirabiliter pene omnem Persidam vastatam novilissimas eorum urbes occupavit Cochem et Ctesifonfem. Bellum Sarmaticum feliciter superavit.

294 Carus, with his sons Carinus and Numerian, reigned for 2 years, a native of Narbonne in Gaul. He, marvelously, after laying waste nearly all Persia, seized their most noble cities, Coche and Ctesiphon. He successfully overcame the Sarmatian War.

Ipse quoque Carus super Tigridem amnem dum castra metaret, fulmine ictus occubuit.

Carus himself also, upon the Tigris river, while he was measuring out the camp, was struck by lightning and fell dead.

295 Numerianus autem oculorum dolore tentus dum in lecticula veheretur, soceri sui Apri insidiis occisus fetore cadaveris vix tertio die est agnitus. Carinus vero apud Margum in proelio victus occiditur.

295 Numerian, however, afflicted with pain of the eyes, while he was being carried in a little-litter, was slain by the plots of his father-in-law Aper, and by the fetor of the cadaver was scarcely recognized on the third day. But Carinus, at Margus, defeated in battle, is slain.

296 Dioclitianus Delmata, scribe filius, imperator electus regnavit ann. xx. Hic etenim mox in regno levatus est, ilico Aprum in militum contione percussit, iurans sine suo scelere illum Numerianum interemisse. Et mox in consortio suo Maximianum Herculium ascivit.

296 Diocletian, a Dalmatian, the son of a scribe, chosen emperor, reigned for 20 years. For he, soon raised to the throne, immediately struck down Aper in an assembly of the soldiers, swearing that, without any guilt on his own part, that man had slain Numerian. And soon he took Maximian Herculius into his consortship.

Qui Maximianus rusticorum multitudine oppressa, quos Bacaudas dicunt, pacem Galliis reddidit. 297 Quo tempore Carausius sumpta purpura Brittanias occupaverat, Narseus rex Persarum Horienti bellum intulerat, Quinquegentiani Africam infestaverant, Achilleus Egyptum invaserat. 298 Ob quae Constantius et Galerius Maximianus Caesares adsumuntur in regno.

This Maximian, with the multitude of rustics crushed—whom they call the Bacaudae—restored peace to Gaul. 297 At that time Carausius, having assumed the purple, had occupied the Britains; Narseus, king of the Persians, had brought war upon the Orient; the Quinquegentiani had infested Africa; Achilleus had invaded Egypt. 298 On account of which Constantius and Galerius Maximianus are taken up as Caesars into the rule.

Quorum Constantius Claudii ex filia nepus fuit, Galerius in Dacia non longe a Serdica natus. Atque ut eos Dioclitianus etiam adfinitate coniungeret, Constantius prevignam Herculii Theodoram accepit, ex qua et sex liberos procreavit; Galerius autem Valeriam Dioclitiani filiam accepit, utrique pristino matrimonio repudiantes. 299 Carporum si quidem gens tunc devicta et in Romanum solum translata est.

Of whom Constantius was the grandson of Claudius through a daughter, Galerius was born in Dacia not far from Serdica. And so that Diocletian might also join them by affinity, Constantius took the stepdaughter of Herculius, Theodora, by whom he also procreated six children; but Galerius took Valeria, the daughter of Diocletian, both repudiating their former marriage. 299 Indeed, the nation of the Carpi was then vanquished and transferred onto Roman soil.

Tunc etenim primus omnium imperatorum Dioclitianus adorari se ut deum praecepit et gemmas vestibus calciamentisque inseruit diademaque in capite, cum ante eum omnes clamidem tantum purpuream, ut a privatis discernerentur, habebant et ut ceteri iudices salutabantur. 300 Adsumpta ergo unusquisque principum expeditione Dioclitianus Aegypti tyrannum octavo mense devictum provinciam cunctam subegit. Maximianus Herculius in Africa Quinquegentianos exsuperavit.

Then indeed, Diocletian, first of all emperors, commanded that he be adored as a god, and he set gems into his garments and footwear and a diadem upon his head, whereas before him all had only the purple cloak, so that they might be distinguished from private persons, and were saluted as the other judges. 300 Therefore, with an expedition taken up by each of the princes, Diocletian, the tyrant of Egypt having been defeated in the eighth month, subdued the entire province. Maximianus Herculius in Africa overmatched the Quinquegentiani.

Constantius iuxta Lingonas una die lx milia Alamannorum cecidit. 301 Galerius Maximianus victus primo proelio a Narseo ante carpentum Dioclitiani purpuratus cucurrit. Qua verecundia conpunctus secundo viriliter dimicavit, superavit Narseum, uxores eius abegit ac liberos, et condigno honore a Dioclitiano susceptus est.

Constantius near the Lingones in one day struck down 60,000 Alamanni. 301 Galerius Maximianus, defeated in the first battle by Narseus, ran, purple-clad, before Diocletian’s carriage. Stung by this shame, in the second he fought manfully, overcame Narseus, drove off his wives and children, and was received by Diocletian with condign honor.

302 Post quam victoriam mirabiliter Dioclitianus et Maximianus Romae triumphaverunt antecedentibus sibi liberis uxoribusque regis Persarum praedaque illa ingenti gentium diversarum. Sic quoque concitata persecutione in Christianos Dioclitianus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

302 After which victory Diocletian and Maximian marvelously triumphed at Rome, with the children and wives of the king of the Persians going before them, and with that immense booty of peoples of diverse nations. Thus too, with a persecution stirred up against the Christians, Diocletian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

303 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cappadociamque defunctus est Constantius.

303 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . and Constantius died in Cappadocia.

304 Iulianus apostata regnavit an. uno m. viii, relictaque Christianitate ad idolorum cultura conversus est multosque blanda persecutione inliciens ad sacrificandum idolis conpulit. Ipse si quidem vir egregius et rei publicae necessarius Parthis ingenti apparatu intulit bellum. Vbi proficiscens Christianorum post victoriam sanguinem diis suis votavit nonnullaque Parthorum oppida in deditione accepit multaque vi populatus est, castraque aliquandiu apud Ctesifontem habuit.

304 Julian the Apostate reigned 1 year and 8 months, and, Christianity left behind, having turned to the cult of idols, and enticing many by a bland persecution, he compelled them to sacrifice to idols. He himself indeed, a remarkable man and necessary to the commonwealth, brought war upon the Parthians with enormous apparatus. When setting out, he vowed to his gods, after victory, the blood of Christians, and he received some towns of the Parthians in surrender and ravaged much by force, and for some time he held camp near Ctesiphon.

305 Vnde egressus, dolo cuiusdam transfugae in deserta perductus, cum vi sitis, ardore solis confectus periret exercitus, ipse tantorum discriminum anxius, dum per vasta deserti incautius evagatur, ab obvio quodam hostium equite conto ilia percussus interiit anno aetatis suae trecesimo tertio. Post quem sequenti diae ab exercitu Iobianus primicerius domesticorum in regno ascitus est.

305 Whence having gone out, led by the trick of a certain turncoat into the deserts, when by the force of thirst, worn out by the heat of the sun, the army was perishing, he himself, anxious at such great crises, while he wandered incautiously through the vastness of the desert, was struck in the groin by the lance of a certain oncoming enemy horseman and perished, in the thirty-third year of his age. After him, on the following day, Jovianus, primicerius of the domestics, was taken up into the kingship by the army.

306 Iobianus regnavit menses octo. Qui mox rerum necessitate conpulsus Nitzibim et magnam Mesopotamiae partem Sapori Parthorum regi contradedit ipseque odore prunarum offucatus defunctus est Dadasthanae anno aetatis xxxiii.

306 Jovian reigned eight months. He, soon compelled by the necessity of affairs, handed over Nisibis and a great part of Mesopotamia to Sapor, king of the Parthians, and he himself, smothered by the fumes of coals, died at Dadastana in the 33rd year of his age.

307 Valentinianus et Valens regnaverunt ann. xiii m. v. Nam Pannones erant Cibalenses utrimque germani. In Nicomedia tribunatum Valentinianus agebat, qui imperator creatus fratrem Valentem consortem regni adsumpsit.

307 Valentinian and Valens reigned years 13 months 5. For they were Pannonians, Cibalans, full brothers on both sides. In Nicomedia Valentinian was holding a tribunate; having been created emperor, he took his brother Valens as a consort of the realm.

Ipse vero egregius et Aureliani similis moribus, nisi quod severitatem eius nimiam et parcitatem quidam crudelitatem et avaritiam causabantur. Relicto germano Orientali in regno, ipse Esperium tenuit. 308 Quo tunc regnante alter Valentinianus in Brittania tyrannidem adsumens in continenti oppressus est.

He himself, in truth, was outstanding and similar to Aurelian in character, except that some alleged his excessive severity and parsimony to be cruelty and avarice. Leaving his brother in the East in the rule, he himself held the Hesperian West. 308 During his reign then, another Valentinian, assuming tyranny in Britain, was suppressed on the Continent.

Constantinopolim quoque Procopius quidam contra Valentem insurgens nihilque praevalens urbe egreditur, et in Frygiam Salutariam tyrannizans extinctus est, multique partis Procopianae caesi atque proscripti. Valens ab Eudoxio Arrianorum episcopo suasus et baptizatus contra orthodoxos infestus insurgit. 309 Gratianum filium suum Valentinianus Ambianis imperatorem constituit, quem habuit de Severa priore iugale, et contra Saxones Burgutionesque, qui plus lxxx milia armatorum primum Reni in limbo castra metassent, movit procinctum, sed apoplexia subito et sanguinis eruptione Bregitione defunctus est.

To Constantinople also a certain Procopius, rising against Valens and prevailing nothing, goes out of the city, and, tyrannizing in Phrygia Salutaris, was extinguished; and many of the Procopian party were cut down and proscribed. Valens, persuaded and baptized by Eudoxius, bishop of the Arians, rises hostile against the orthodox. 309 Valentinian at Amiens appointed his son Gratian emperor, whom he had from Severa, his earlier yoke-mate, and he moved the battle-array against the Saxons and the Burgundians, who had first pitched camp on the bank of the Rhine with more than 80,000 armed men; but by a sudden apoplexy and an eruption of blood he died at Bregitione.

310 Tunc Gratianus Valentiniano fratre de Iustina secunda uxore natu in regno consortem adsumit. Nam Valentinianus senior dudum laudante Severa uxore sua pulchritudine Iustinae sibi eam sociavit in matrimonio legesque propter illam concessit, ut omnes viri, qui voluissent, inpune bina matrimonia susciperent, quia ideo populosas fore gentes, quia hoc apud eos solemne est et multarum uxorum unus maritus auditur. 311 Acceptaque ergo, ut diximus, Valentinianus Iustina edidit ex ipsa quattuor filios, Valentinianum supra dictum imperatorem et Gratam Iustamque et Gallam.

310 Then Gratian takes as a consort in the realm Valentinian, his brother, born from Justina, his second wife. For the elder Valentinian, with Severa his wife praising the beauty of Justina, joined her to himself in matrimony, and on account of her conceded laws, that all men who wished might with impunity contract two matrimonies, because for that reason the nations would be populous, since among them this is customary and one husband is spoken of as the husband of many wives. 311 And Justina therefore having been taken, as we have said, Valentinian begot from her four children, Valentinian the aforesaid emperor, and Grata and Justa and Galla.

De qua Galla dehinc Theodosius imperator Flacilla defuncta, quae Archadium Honoriumque pepererat, Placidiam generavit, quae mater fuit moderni Valentiniani iunioris imperatoris. Sed nos ad propositum redeamus. 312 Valens imperator lege data ut monachi militarent, nolentesque iussit interfici.

From whom Galla, thereafter, the emperor Theodosius—Flacilla being deceased, who had borne Arcadius and Honorius—engendered Placidia, who was the mother of the modern Emperor Valentinian the Younger. But let us return to the proposed subject. 312 Emperor Valens, a law having been given that monks should serve in the military, ordered those unwilling to be executed.

Quando et Theodosius Theodosii imperatoris postea pater multique nobilium occisi sunt Valentis insania. Gratianus imperator Alamannorum plus xxx milia apud oppidum Argentarium Gallie in bello prostravit Galliasque pacavit. 313 Gens Hunnorum super Gothos inruens certos ex ipsis subiugat, alios fugat.

At that time also Theodosius, afterwards the father of the emperor Theodosius, and many of the nobles were slain by the insanity of Valens. Emperor Gratian laid low more than 30 thousand of the Alamanni near the town Argentarium of Gaul in war and pacified the Gauls. 313 The nation of the Huns, rushing upon the Goths, subjugates some of them, drives others to flight.

Qui venientes in Romania sine armorum suscepti depositione per avaritiam ducis Maximi fame conpulsi rebellare coacti sunt, superatisque Romanis in congressione funduntur in Tracias. 314 Contra quos Valens ab Antiocia exire conpulsus in Thraciam proficiscitur, ibique lacrimabili bello commisso imperator sagitta saucius in casa deportatur vilissima, ubi superuenientibus Gothis igneque supposito incendio concrematus est. Gothi vero occiso imperatore iam securi ad urbem properant Constantinopolitanam, ubi tunc Dominica Augusta Valentis uxor multa pecunia plebi largita ab urbis vastatione hostes submovit regnumque cognatis, usque dum ille Theodosium ordinasset, fideliter viriliterque servavit.

Who, coming into Romania, were received without the laying down of arms, and, through the avarice of the duke Maximus, compelled by hunger, were forced to rebel; and the Romans having been overcome in an encounter, they pour into Thrace. 314 Against whom Valens, compelled to depart from Antioch, proceeds into Thrace; and there, a lamentable war having been joined, the emperor, wounded by an arrow, is carried into a most wretched hut, where, the Goths supervening and fire being applied beneath, he was cremated by the conflagration. But the Goths, the emperor having been slain, now secure, hasten to the Constantinopolitan city, where then Dominica Augusta, the wife of Valens, by largessing much money to the plebs, drove the enemies away from the devastation of the city, and faithfully and manfully kept the regnum for his kinsmen, until he had appointed Theodosius.

315 Theodosius Spanus, Italicae divi Traiani civitatis a Gratiano Augusto apud Sirmium post Valentis interitum factus est imperator, regnavitque an. xvii; veniensque Thessalonica ab Acolio sancto episcopo baptizatus est ammodumque religiosus ecclesiae enituit propagator rei publiceque defensor eximius. Nam Hunnos et Gothos, qui eam sub Valente defetigassent, diversis proeliis vicit atque a prava vastatione conpescuit. Cum Persis quoque petitus pacem pepigit.

315 Theodosius the Spaniard, of Italica, the city of the deified Trajan, was made emperor by the Augustus Gratian at Sirmium after the death of Valens, and he reigned 17 years; coming to Thessalonica he was baptized by Acolius, a holy bishop, and, being very religious, he shone as a propagator of the Church and an outstanding defender of the res publica. For the Huns and the Goths, who had wearied it under Valens, he conquered in diverse battles and restrained from depraved devastation. When attacked by the Persians as well, he concluded peace.

316 Maximum autem tyrannum, qui Gratianum interficerat et sibi Gallias vindicabat, apud Mediolanum una cum Valentiniano imperatore adgrediens ab Oriente, clausit cepit occidit. 317 Eugenium quoque tyrannum atque Arbogasten divino auxilio praeditus vicit, deletis eorum decem milibus pugnatorum. Hic etenim Eugenius confisus viribus Arbogasti, postquam apud Viennam Valentinianum extincxerat, regnum invasit, sed mox simul cum vita imperium perdidit.

316 Maximus, however, the tyrant, who had slain Gratian and was claiming the Gauls for himself, approaching at Milan together with the emperor Valentinian from the East, he shut him in, captured him, killed him. 317 He also, endowed with divine aid, defeated the tyrant Eugenius and Arbogast, with ten thousand of their combatants destroyed. For this Eugenius, relying on the forces of Arbogast, after he had extinguished Valentinian at Vienne, seized the realm, but soon, together with his life, he lost the empire.

Nam occiso Arbogaste desperans sua se manu peremit. 318 Omnesque inimicos Theodosius superatos in pace rebus humanis apud Mediolanum excessit utramque rem publicam utrisque filiis quietam relinquens. Corpus eius eodem anno Constantinopolim adlatum atque sepultum.

For, Arbogast having been slain, despairing, he killed himself by his own hand. 318 And Theodosius, all his enemies overcome, in peace departed from human affairs at Milan, leaving both commonwealths quiet to both his sons. His body in the same year was brought to Constantinople and buried.

319 Archadius et Honorius fratres filii Theodosii imperatoris utrumque imperium divisis tantum sedibus tenere coeperunt, id est Archadius senior Constantinopolitanam urbem, Honorius vero Romanam. Tunc Rufinus patricius Archadio principi insidias tendens Halaricum Gothorum regem, ut Grecias devastaret, missis clam pecuniis invitavit. Porro detectus Rufinus ab Italiae militibus et Archadio cum Gaina comite missus, ante portas urbis detruncatus est caputque eius et dextera manus Constantinopolim ad ludibrium circumductum uxoremque eius exulatam opes cunctas Eutropius spado promeruit.

319 Arcadius and Honorius, brothers, sons of the emperor Theodosius, began to hold both empires with only the seats divided, that is, Arcadius the elder the Constantinopolitan city, but Honorius the Roman. Then Rufinus the patrician, laying snares against the prince Arcadius, invited Halaric, king of the Goths, by moneys sent secretly, to devastate Greece. But Rufinus, detected by the soldiers of Italy and, by Arcadius, sent with the count Gainas, was cut down before the gates of the city; and his head and right hand were led around Constantinople for mockery, and his wife was exiled, and Eutropius the eunuch earned all the wealth.

320 Gildo tunc Africae comis a Theodosio dudum ordinatus, ac si iuvenilem regnum utrumque despiciens, sibi velle coepit Africam optinere et a fratre proprio Mascezel dum se vidisset detectum oppressionique vicinum, propria se manu peremit. Gaina vero supra nominatus comis Constantinopolim civile bellum commovens totam urbem igni ferroque turbavit fugiensque Hellisponto piratico ritu vivebat. Contra quem navali proelio dato multi Gothorum eius extincti.

320 Gildo then, count of Africa, long ago appointed by Theodosius, and as if despising the youthful rule of both, began to wish to hold Africa for himself; and when he saw himself detected by his own brother Mascezel and near to oppression, he destroyed himself by his own hand. But Gaina, the above-named count, stirring up a civil war at Constantinople, threw the whole city into turmoil with fire and iron, and fleeing to the Hellespont lived in piratic fashion. Against him, a naval battle having been engaged, many of his Goths were slain.

Ipse quoque bello evadens mox tamen capite plectitur. 321 Post cuius oppressionem Isauri per montem Tauri discursantes ingens dispendium rei publicae inportarunt. Contra quos Narbazaicus directus maius continuo rependit incommodum.

He himself too, escaping the war, soon nevertheless is punished by beheading. 321 After whose suppression the Isaurians, running about through Mount Taurus, brought in a huge loss to the commonwealth. Against whom Narbazaicus, dispatched, straightway repaid with an even greater setback.

Hesperia vero plaga in regno Honorii imperatoris primum Radagaisus Scytha cum ducenta milia suorum inundavit. Quem Huldin et Sarus Hunnorum Gothorumque reges superantes omnes captivos, quos retulerant, singulis aureis vendiderunt. 322 Stilico vero comis, cuius duae filiae Maria et Hermantia singulae uxores Honorii principis fuere et utraeque virgines sunt defunctae, spraeto Honorio regnumque eius inhians Alanorum Suavorum Vandalorumque gentes donis pecuniisque inlectas contra regnum Honorii excitavit, Eucherium filium suum paganum et Christianis insidias molientem cupiens Caesarem ordinare.

But indeed the Hesperian tract, in the reign of the emperor Honorius, first Radagaisus the Scythian flooded in with two hundred thousand of his own. Whom Huldin and Sarus, kings of the Huns and Goths, overcoming, sold all the captives whom they had brought back for one gold piece apiece. 322 But Stilicho the comes, whose two daughters, Maria and Hermantia, each were wives of the prince Honorius, and both died virgins, with Honorius spurned and gaping after his kingdom, stirred up the peoples of the Alans, Sueves, and Vandals—enticed by gifts and monies—against the realm of Honorius, wishing to appoint as Caesar his son Eucherius, a pagan and contriving plots against Christians.

Qui cum eodem filio suo detecto dolo occisus est. Quo anno et Archadius Orientalis imperator, regnans post obitum patris ann. xiii, defunctus est.

He was killed, together with that same son of his, once the trick had been detected. In which year also Archadius, the Eastern emperor, reigning after the decease of his father for 13 years, died.

323 Theodosius iunior Archadii filius loco patris successit in imperio, aduliscens egregius, regnavitque an. xliii. Halaricus rex Vesegotharum vastatam Italiam Romam ingressus est opesque Honorii Augusti depraedatas Placidiam sororem eius duxit captivam, quam post haec Atauulfo successori suo, in matrimonio ut acciperet, delegavit. 324 Constantinus tunc quidam Gallias occupatas invasit imperio filiumque suum Constantem ex monacho Caesarem ordinavit.

323 Theodosius the Younger, son of Arcadius, succeeded to the empire in the place of his father, a distinguished adolescent, and he reigned 43 years. Alaric, king of the Visigoths, after laying waste Italy, entered Rome and, having despoiled the wealth of Honorius Augustus, led his sister Placidia away captive; after this he consigned her to his successor Ataulf, that he might receive her in matrimony. 324 Then a certain Constantine, having seized the Gauls, usurped the imperial power and appointed his son Constans, from being a monk, as Caesar.

Sed mox ipse apud Arelatum, filius eius apud Viennam regnum cum vita amiserunt. 325 Itemque eorum exitu inmemores Iobinus et Sebastianus ibi in Galliis tyrannide moliuntur, sed et ipsi ilico esse desierunt. Haeraclianus post haec cum septingentis et tribus navibus armatis ad urbem Romam depraedandam advenit; contra quem Marinus comis egressus sic eum perterruit, ut tantum cum una nave Chartagine fugiret, ubi mox ingressus interfectusque est.

But soon he himself at Arelate (Arles), his son at Vienna (Vienne), lost the kingship along with life. 325 And likewise, unmindful of their demise, Iobinus and Sebastianus there in the Gauls set about a tyranny, but they too immediately ceased to be. After these things Heraclianus arrived with seven hundred and three armed ships to depredate the city of Rome; against whom Count Marinus, having gone out, so terrified him that he fled to Carthage with only one ship, where, soon after entering, he was killed.

326 Valia rex Vesegotharum facta pace cum Honorio Placidiam sororem eius reddidit, quam Constantio patricio, qui eam revocaverat, in matrimonio iungens Honorius rebus humanis excessit. Maximus et Iovinus de Spanias ferro vincti abducti atque interfecti sunt. 327 Iohannes vero Honorio defuncto regnum occidentalem invasit.

326 Valia, king of the Visigoths, with peace made with Honorius, returned his sister Placidia, whom—joining her in marriage to Constantius the patricius, who had recalled her—Honorius departed from human affairs. Maximus and Jovinus, out of Spain, bound in irons, were led away and slain. 327 John, however, with Honorius deceased, invaded the western kingdom.

Contra quem Placidia creatam Augustam et Valentinianus filius eius Caesar diriguntur. Quem et dolo potius Asparis et Ardaburis quam virtute Aetii superant. 328 Occisoque Iohanne tyranno Valentinianus Rauenna imperator a patruele Theodosio ordinatur.

Against him, Placidia, created Augusta, and Valentinian, her son, Caesar, are sent. Whom also they overcome more by the stratagem of Aspar and Ardaburius than by the valor of Aetius. 328 And with the tyrant John slain, Valentinian at Ravenna is ordained emperor by his cousin Theodosius.

Cuius germana Honoria dum ad aulae decus virginitatem suam cogeretur custodire, clam misso clientulo Attilam Hunnorum regem invitat in Italia. Cumque veniente Attila votum suum nequivit explere facinusque, quod cum Attila non fecerat, cum Eugenio procuratori suo committit. Quam ob rem tenta a germano et in Constantinopolim Theodosio principi destinata est.

Whose sister Honoria, while she was being forced to guard her virginity for the court’s honor, secretly, with a little client sent, invited Attila, king of the Huns, into Italy. And when Attila was coming she could not fulfill her vow, and the deed which she had not done with Attila she committed with Eugenius, her procurator. For which reason, tried by her brother, she was sent to Constantinople to Prince Theodosius.

329 Post haec iii anno Valentinianus imperator a Roma Constantinopolim ob suscipiendam in matrimonio Eudoxiam Theodosii principis filiam venit datamque pro munere soceri sui totam Illyricum celebratis nuptiis ad sua regna cum uxore secessit. 330 Africana provincia per Bonifatium comitem Vandalis tradita et a Romano iure subtracta est, quia Bonifatius, dum in offensa Valentiniani venisset, malo publico se defendere voluit invitatoque ab Spaniis Gizerico Vandalorum rege dolum quod conceperat peperit. 331 Hunnorum rex Attila iunctis secum Gepidas cum Ardarico, Gothosque cum Valamir, diversasque alias nationes suis cum regibus, omnem Illyricum Traciamque et utramque Daciam, Mysiam et Scythiam populatus est.

329 After these things, in the 3rd year the emperor Valentinian came from Rome to Constantinople to take in marriage Eudoxia, the daughter of the princeps Theodosius, and, with the whole Illyricum given as a gift by his father-in-law, after the nuptials were celebrated he withdrew with his wife to his own realms. 330 The African province was handed over to the Vandals by Count Bonifatius and removed from Roman law, because Bonifatius, when he had fallen into the offense of Valentinian, wished to defend himself to the public harm, and, with Gizeric, king of the Vandals, invited from the Spains, he brought forth the stratagem which he had conceived. 331 Attila, king of the Huns, having joined to himself the Gepids with Ardaric, and the Goths with Valamir, and various other nations with their kings, laid waste all Illyricum and Thrace and both Dacias, Moesia and Scythia.

Contra quem Arnegisclus magister militum Mysiae egressus a Marcianopolim fortiter dimicavit, equoque sub se decidente praeventus est, et nec sic quiescens bellare, occisus est.

Against him Arnegisclus, Master of Soldiers of Moesia, having set out from Marcianopolis, fought bravely; and, his horse collapsing beneath him, he was forestalled, and, not even so resting from warfare, he was slain.

332 Marcianus imperator regnavit an. vi m. vi. Hic etenim mox defuncto Theodosio in regno ascitus Pulcheriam germanam Theodosii, quae in palatio iam matura mulier virginitatem servaverat, in matrimonio adsumens regnum quod delicati decessores prodecessoresque eius per annos fere sexaginta vicissim imperantes minuerant, divina provisione sic reparavit ut exultatio ingens cunctis adcresceret. 333 Nam cum Parthis et Vandalis omnino infestantibus pacem instituit, Attilae minas conpescuit, Novades Blemmesque Ethiopia prolapsos per Florum Alexandrinae urbis procuratorem sedavit et pepulit a finibus Romanorum, obitumque Attilae et Zenonis Isauri interitum, antequam moriretur, felix conperit infelicium; omniumque inimicorum suorum colla domini virtute calcans sexto anno sextoque mense regnans in pace quievit. 334 Valentinianus autem occidentalis imperator dolo Maximi patricii, cuius etiam fraude Aetius perierat, in campo Martio per Optilam et Thraufistilam Aetii satellites iam percusso Eraclio spadone truncatus est.

332 Emperor Marcian reigned 6 years 6 months. For he, soon after Theodosius died, being admitted to the kingship and taking in marriage Pulcheria, sister of Theodosius, who in the palace, now a mature woman, had preserved virginity, repaired by divine provision the realm which his delicate predecessors and predecessors, ruling by turns for almost 60 years, had diminished, in such a way that a huge exultation increased for all. 333 For he instituted peace with the Parthians and Vandals, who were altogether harrying; he checked Attila’s threats; the Nobades and the Blemmyes, having slipped down from Ethiopia, through Florus, procurator of the city of Alexandria, he soothed and drove from the borders of the Romans; and the death of Attila and the destruction of Zeno the Isaurian, before he died, happy among the unhappy, he learned; and, treading by the Lord’s virtue upon the necks of all his enemies, reigning in the 6th year and 6th month, he came to rest in peace. 334 Valentinian, however, the Western emperor, by the trick of the patrician Maximus, by whose fraud Aetius too had perished, in the Campus Martius, by Optila and Thraufistila, Aetius’s satellites, with the eunuch Heraclius already struck, was cut down.

Imperium quoque eius idem Maximus invasit tertioque tyrannidis suae mense membratim Romae a Romanis discerptus est. Gizericus tunc rex Vandalorum ab Eudoxia Valentiniani uxore invitatus ex Africa Romam ingressus est eamque urbem rebus omnibus expoliatam eandem Eudoxiam cum duabus filiabus secum in Africa rediens duxit.

That same Maximus also seized his empire, and in the third month of his tyranny he was torn limb from limb at Rome by the Romans. Then Geiseric, king of the Vandals, invited by Eudoxia, the wife of Valentinian, entered Rome from Africa and, the city having been stripped of all goods, took that same Eudoxia with her two daughters with him as he returned to Africa.

335 Leo Bessica ortus progeniae Asparis patricii potentia ex tribuno militum factus est imperator. Cuius nutu mox loco Valentiniani apud Ravennam Maiorianus Caesar est ordinatus, qui tertio necdum anno expleto in regno apud Dertonam occiditur locoque eius sine principis iussu Leonis Severianus invasit; 336 sed et ipse tyrannidis sui tertio anno expleto Romae occubuit. Tunc Leo Anthemium divi Marciani generum ex patricio Caesarem ordinans Romae in imperio distinavit Bigelemque Getarum regem per Ardaburem Asparis filium interemit.

335 Leo, sprung from Bessica, by the power of the progeny of Aspar the patrician, from a tribune of soldiers was made emperor. At his nod, soon, in place of Valentinian at Ravenna, Majorian was appointed Caesar; he, with not yet the third year of his reign completed, is slain at Dertona, and in his place Severianus, without the order of the prince Leo, seized it; 336 but he too, with the third year of his tyranny completed, died at Rome. Then Leo, appointing Anthemius, the son-in-law of the divine Marcian, from patrician to Caesar, dispatched him to Rome into the imperium, and he did away with Bigelus, king of the Getae, through Ardabur, the son of Aspar.

337 Basiliscum cognatum suum, id est fratrem Augustae Verinae Africam dirigens cum exercitu, qui navali proelio Chartaginem saepe adgrediens ante ea victus cupiditate pecuniis vendidit regi Vandalorum, quam in Romanorum potestatem redigeret. 338 Asparum autem patricium cum filiis Ardaburem et Patriciolum Zenonis generi sui instinctu in palatio trucidavit occisoque Romae Anthemio Nepotem filium Nepotiani copulata nepte sua in matrimonio apud Ravennam per Domitianum clientem suum Caesarem ordinavit. Qui Nepus regno potitus legitimo Glycerium, qui sibi tyrannico more regnum inposuisset, ab imperio expellens in Salona Dalmatiae episcopum fecit.

337 Sending Basiliscus, his kinsman—that is, the brother of the Augusta Verina—with an army to Africa, who, assailing Carthage often in a naval battle, earlier, overcome by greed, sold out for monies to the king of the Vandals, rather than restore it into the power of the Romans. 338 Moreover, at the instigation of Zeno, his son-in-law, he butchered Aspar the patrician with his sons Ardabures and Patriciolus in the palace; and with Anthemius slain at Rome, he appointed Nepos, the son of Nepotianus—his granddaughter having been joined to him in marriage—as Caesar at Ravenna through Domitianus, his client. This Nepos, having obtained the legitimate rule, expelling Glycerius—who had imposed the rule upon himself in tyrannical manner—from the imperial power, made him bishop at Salona of Dalmatia.

339 Sic quoque Leo Leonem iuniorem ex Ariagne filia nepotem suum in imperio ordinans Orientale anno regni sui sexto decimo obiit.

339 Thus too Leo, ordaining Leo the Younger, his grandson from his daughter Ariadne, in the Eastern imperium, died in the 16th year of his reign.

340 Leo iunior mox paucis mensibus puerilem, ordinante tamen patre, rexisset imperium, manu sua genitorem suum Zenonem coronans imperatoremque constituens rebus humanis excessit.

340 Leo the Younger soon, for a few months, ruled the empire as a boy, his father nonetheless directing; with his own hand he crowned his father Zeno and constituted him emperor, and he departed from human affairs.

341 Zenon natione Isaurus gener Leonis imperatoris regnavit ann. xvii. Hic etenim dum processibus Chalcedona degeret, subito Verina Augusta socrus sua fratrem suum Basiliscum in imperio inducens Augustum in urbe appellavit.

341 Zeno, by nation an Isaurian, son-in-law of Leo the emperor, reigned 17 years. For indeed, while he was spending time at Chalcedon on progresses, suddenly Verina Augusta, his mother-in-law, bringing her brother Basiliscus into the empire, called him Augustus in the city.

342 Quod conperiens Zeno Chalcedona sine aliqua rei publicae lesione Isauriam secessit, malens se solum cum Ariagne Augusta exulari quam sui causa rei publicae aliquid ex bellis civilibus incommodum provenire. Quod Basiliscus cognoscens Zenonisque fugam laetatus Marcum filium suum Caesarem ordinavit. Qui perfidia Nestoriana inflatus multa contra ecclesiam temptavit protinus agere; sed volente deo ante inflatus crepuit quam penitens stare potuerat.

342 Learning of this, Zeno withdrew to Chalcedon and, without any injury to the Republic, retired to Isauria, preferring that he alone with Augusta Ariagne be exiled rather than that, on his account, anything disadvantageous from civil wars should come upon the Republic. Basiliscus, recognizing this and rejoicing at Zeno’s flight, ordained his son Marcus as Caesar. He, inflated by Nestorian perfidy, immediately attempted to do many things against the church; but, God willing, the inflated man burst before he could have stood as a penitent.

343 Nam revertens Zenon rursus in regno proprio et eum et patrem et matrem in exilio oppidi Lemni provinciae Cappadociae destinavit. Vbi quia caritas dei et proximi in illos refrixerat, frigore consumpti sunt vitaque cum regno amiserunt. 344 Parte vero Esperia Nepotem imperatorem Orestes fugatum Augustulum suum filium in imperium conlocavit.

343 For Zeno, returning again to his own realm, sent both him and his father and mother into exile at the town of Lemnus in the province of Cappadocia. Where, since the charity of God and of neighbor toward them had grown cold, they were consumed by cold and lost their life along with their kingdom. 344 But in the Hesperian part, Orestes, having driven the emperor Nepos into flight, installed his own son Augustulus into the empire.

Sed mox Odoacer genere Rogus Thorcilingorum Scirorum Herolorumque turbas munitus Italiam invasit Augustulumque imperatorem de regno evulsum in Lucullano Campaniae castello exilii poena damnavit. 345 Sic quoque Hesperium regnum Romanique populi principatum, quod septingentesimo nono urbis conditae anno primus Augustorum Octavianus Augustus tenere coepit, cum hoc Augustulo periit anno decessorum regni imperatorum quingentesimo vicesimo secundo, Gothorum dehinc regibus Romam tenentibus. 346 Theodoricus autem Triarii filius cognomento Strabo rex Gothorum ascitis suis usque ad Anaplum quarto urbis milio armatus advenit; nulli tamen Romanorum noxius continuo reversus porro Inlyricum properans dum inter suorum moventia plaustra progreditur, iacentis super carpentum teli acumen paviscentisque equi sui inpulsione fixus transverberatus interiit et rei publicae diem festum morte sua donavit.

But soon Odoacer, by stock a Rugian, fortified by the bands of the Thorcilingi, the Sciri, and the Heruli, invaded Italy and, having torn the emperor Augustulus from his rule, condemned him to the penalty of exile in the Lucullan castle of Campania. 345 Thus too the Hesperian kingdom and the principate of the Roman people, which in the 709th year from the founding of the City Octavian Augustus, first of the Augusti, began to hold, perished with this Augustulus in the 522nd year of the reigns of the emperors who had gone before, the kings of the Goths thereafter holding Rome. 346 But Theodoric, son of Triarius, by surname the Squinter (Strabo), king of the Goths, having mustered his men, came armed as far as Anaplus at the 4th mile from the City; yet harmful to none of the Romans, he straightway turned back, and hurrying further toward Illyricum, while he advanced among the moving wagons of his people, he was transfixed and perished, fixed by the point of a spear lying upon a cart through the impulse of his stumbling horse, and by his death he bestowed a feast-day upon the republic.

347 Valamero rege Gothorum in bello Scirorum defuncto Theodemir in regno fratris successit cum Vidimero fratre et filio Theodorico. Sed missa sorte Vidimero cum Vidimero filio partes Hesperias, Theodemir cum filio Theodorico Illyricum Thraciasque vastandas obvenit. Relictaque ergo Pannonia alter Italiam, alter Illyricum suscepit populandum; sed utrique reges mox sortita loca ingressi sunt, ilico rebus humanis excedunt, Vidimer Italia, Illyrico Theodemir.

347 Valamer, king of the Goths, having perished in the war of the Sciri, Theodemir succeeded to his brother’s realm together with his brother Vidimer and his son Theodoric. But when the lot was cast, to Vidimer with his son Vidimer fell the Hesperian parts; to Theodemir with his son Theodoric, Illyricum and Thrace, to be laid waste. And so, Pannonia having been left behind, the one undertook Italy, the other Illyricum, to be ravaged; but both kings, having soon entered the places allotted by lot, immediately depart from human affairs, Vidimer in Italy, Theodemir in Illyricum.

Relictis filiis decesserunt, quorum Vidimer ab Italis proeliis victus, ad partes Galliae Spaniaeque omissa Italia tendit; 348 Theodoricus vero Zenonis Augusti humanitate pellectus Constantinopolim venit, ubi magister militum praesentis effectus consulis ordinarii triumphum ex publico dono peregit. Sed quia tunc, ut diximus, Odoacer regnum Italiae occupasset, Zenon imperator cernens iam gentes illam patriam possidere, maluit Theodorico ac si proprio iam clienti eam committi quam illi quem nec noverat. Secumque ita deliberans, ad partes eum Italiae mandans, Romanum illi populum senatumque commendat.

Leaving behind their sons, they departed: of whom Vidimer, defeated by the Italians in battles, turned toward the regions of Gaul and Spain, Italy having been left aside; 348 but Theodoric, enticed by the humanity of Zeno Augustus, came to Constantinople, where, having been made Master of Soldiers of the Presence, he carried out the triumph of an ordinary consul by a public grant. But because at that time, as we have said, Odoacer had occupied the kingdom of Italy, Emperor Zeno, perceiving that already the gentes possessed that fatherland, preferred that it be entrusted to Theodoric as if now to his own client rather than to that man whom he did not even know. And thus deliberating with himself, sending him to the parts of Italy, he commends to him the Roman people and the senate.

349 Obansque rex gentium et consul Romanus Theodoricus Italiam petiit magnisque proeliis fatigatum Odoacrum Ravenna in deditione suscepit. Deinde vero ac si suspectum Ravenna in palatio iugulans regnum gentis sui et Romani populi principatum prudenter et pacifice per triginta annos continuit. Illus autem Isaurus, magister officiorum et Zenoni imperatori in privata vita amicissimus caritateque coniunctus, dum secreto in detractionem Ariagnes Augustae cum eius viro locutus est, in zelo Augustum concitavit.

349 And the king of the nations and Roman consul Theodoric sought Italy and received Odoacer, wearied by great battles, at Ravenna in surrender. Then indeed, as if suspect, killing him at Ravenna in the palace, he maintained both the kingdom of his nation and the principate of the Roman people prudently and peacefully for thirty years. But Illus the Isaurian, Master of the Offices and in private life most friendly to Emperor Zeno and joined to him by affection, while he spoke in secret with her husband into the detraction of Ariagne Augusta, stirred up the Augustus in jealousy.

350 Qui deliberans eam perimere uni suorum rem tacite demandavit. Quod dum ille agere nititur, cuidam cubiculariae prodit scelus eadem nocte facturum. Regina scelus cognovit suoque in lectulo eandem qui rem suggesserat conlocatam in episcopio ad Acacium neminem scientem subterfugit.

350 He, deliberating to destroy her, tacitly committed the matter to one of his own. But while that man endeavors to do it, he divulges to a certain chamber‑woman that he will commit the crime that same night. The Queen learned of the crime, and, having placed that same woman who had suggested the matter upon her own little bed, she slipped away to the episcopium to Acacius, with no one knowing.

351 Posteraque diae Zeno rem aestimans perpetratam, dum, lucto quodam quasi gerens, neminem suscipit, Acacius episcopus ingressus et facti arguit impietatem veniaeque fidem exposcit Augustamque suspicionis innoxiam compromittit acceptamque fidem veniae pactione Augusta revertitur. Secumque dum crebro deliberat, qua sorte de inimico suo exigat ultionem, nanctam (ut opinata est) oportunitatem uni suorum mandat in abditis stanti, ut Illo a se recedenti perimeret. Qui parens praeceptis reginae, dum avidus ferit in capite ense, non cervices, ut cupiebat, sed aurem illius amputavit.

351 And on the following day Zeno, reckoning that the deed had been perpetrated, while, as if bearing a certain mourning, he admitted no one; Bishop Acacius entered and arraigns the impiety of the act and demands the assurance of pardon, and he pledges that the Augusta is innocent of suspicion; and the Augusta, the pledge of pardon having been received by a pact, returns. And while she often deliberates with herself by what means she might exact vengeance on her enemy, having found (as she supposed) an opportunity, she orders one of her own, standing in a hidden spot, to slay Illus as he was withdrawing from her. He, obeying the queen’s precepts, while eagerly he strikes with the sword at the head, cut off not the neck, as he desired, but that man’s ear.

352 Quod periculum evadens Illus mox ab urbe recedens Zenonique infestus Orientem invasit. Contra quem Leontius directus ab ipsoque pellacibus verbis iniectus diademam arripuit simulque Leontius et Illus rei publicae inimici effecti tyranni in partes Syriae et Isauriae dibacchantur additoque super solito Isauris dono omnes simul conspirant contra Zenonem, cuius thesauros in Papirio castello monitissimo repertos desaeviunt. 353 Sed non post multum ab exercito Zenonis in eodem castello capti decollatique sunt et capita eorum Constantinopolim adlata praefixaque astilibus tabuerunt.

352 Evading that peril, Illus, soon withdrawing from the city and hostile to Zeno, invaded the Orient. Against him Leontius was sent, and, ensnared by his cajoling words, seized the diadem; and together Leontius and Illus, made enemies of the republic, as tyrants run riot through the parts of Syria and Isauria; and with a gift to the Isaurians added beyond the customary, all together conspire against Zeno, and they rage upon the treasures of Zeno, found in the most fortified Papirius castle. 353 But not long after, by the army of Zeno, in the same castle they were captured and beheaded, and their heads, brought to Constantinople and fixed on spear-shafts, rotted away.

Sic quoque Zenon superatis inimicis suis in bona pace quievit.

Thus also Zeno, his enemies having been overcome, rested in good peace.

354 Anastasius ex silentiario subito ab Ariagne Augusta in imperio sumptus simulque imperator et maritus innotuit, regnavitque ann. xxvii m. ii. Contra quem Isauri dum sibi quod illis tyrannus ille adiecerat donativum et Zenon reconciliationis gratia invitus largierat ab isto fraudantur, arma arripiunt. 355 Consertoque proelio iuxta Cotziaium Frygiae civitatem castra metati pene per sex continuos annos rei publicae adversantur; ubi et Lilingis, eorum et in bello et in consilio praevius, quamvis pedibus ob corporis debilitate signis, eques tamen in bello acerrimus, dum peremptus fuisset, omnes Isauri fugierunt atque dispersi sunt et devicti et perquaquam exilio relegati urbesque eorum nonnullae solo usque prostratae.

354 Anastasius, from silentiarius, was suddenly taken up into the imperium by Ariagne Augusta, and at once became known as both emperor and husband, and he reigned ann. 27 m. 2. Against whom the Isaurians, while they are defrauded by him of the donative which that tyrant had added to them and which Zeno, for the sake of reconciliation, had reluctantly bestowed, seize arms. 355 And with battle joined near Cotziaium, a city of Phrygia, having pitched camp, for nearly six continuous years they oppose the commonwealth; where also Lilingis, their leader both in war and in counsel, although in his feet marked because of a debility of body, yet as a horseman in war most keen, when he had been slain, all the Isaurians fled and were scattered and were defeated and altogether relegated into exile, and some of their cities were laid even to the ground.

356 Variis namque sub Anastasio milis proeliis fatigatus et nunc Illyrico cum Saviniano et Mundone ad Margum, nunc cum Pumpeio ad Adrianopolim, nunc cum Aristo ad Tzortam, nunc cum Parthis in Syriam, ut omittam intestina clade et pugnas in foro regiae civitatis, ad postremo contra Italiam plus piratico quam publico Marte concertans, frustratus est. 357 Sed et quod plus fuit dolendum, contra ultimum suum famulum Vitalianum de Scythiam per sex annos civile bellum extraxit. Is si quidem Vitalianus cum lx milibus armatorum tertio pene non rei publicae sed regi infestus accedens multa suborbana regiae urbis praedis spoliisque adtrivit.

356 For indeed, under Anastasius, wearied by various battles—and now in Illyricum with Sabinianus and Mundo at Margus, now with Pompeius at Adrianople, now with Aristo at Tzorta, now with the Parthians into Syria, to say nothing of internal slaughter and of fights in the forum of the royal city—and at last, when contending against Italy with warfare more piratical than public Mars, he was foiled. 357 But also, what was more to be lamented, he prolonged a civil war for 6 years against his own servant Vitalianus, from Scythia. He, namely Vitalianus, with 60 thousand armed men, approaching for the third time, hostile not to the republic but to the king, wore down many suburban districts of the royal city with plunder and spoils.

358 Contra quem dum Hypatius nepus Caesaris cum exercitu numeroso pugnaturus egreditur, ante ab Hunnis auxiliaribus capitur et Vitaliano mula insedens turpiter venditur, antequam aperto proelio parte adversa sese inimicum ostenderet. Post quem item Rufinus Alathortque mag. mil.

358 Against whom, while Hypatius, nephew of the Caesar, goes out about to fight with a numerous army, he is beforehand captured by Hunnic auxiliaries and, sitting on a mule, is shamefully sold to Vitalianus, before in open battle he might show himself an enemy on the opposing side. After him likewise Rufinus and Alathor, masters of soldiers.

saepe superati, saepe inrisi ab eo et spreti sunt. 359 Sic quoque diversis partibus inimicorum vallatus agminibus Anastasius saepe congemuit nullique tamen meruit inimicorum suorum vindictam audire; sicut nec ipse ecclesiae iura servavit, immo maerens et furens maior octogenario aetatis anno regnique vicesimo et octavo rebus humanis excessit, contritaque res publica vix Iustino ei succedente quantolum respiravit.

often they were overpowered, often mocked by him and scorned. 359 Thus also, walled-in by the battle-lines of his enemies from different quarters, Anastasius often groaned, and yet he never came to hear the vengeance of any of his enemies; just as he himself did not keep the rights of the Church, nay rather, grieving and raging, beyond eighty years of age and in the 28th year of his reign he departed from human affairs, and the republic, crushed, scarcely, with Justin succeeding him, breathed a little.

360 Iustinus ex comite scubitorum a senatu imperator electus ann. regnavit viiii. Qui mox inhiantes regno suo Amantium praepositum palatii, Andream et Misahel et Ardaburem cubicularios sentiens aflixit.

360 Justin, chosen emperor by the senate from the Count of the Excubitors, reigned 9 years. He, who soon, perceiving Amantius, praepositus of the palace, and Andrew and Misahel and Ardabur, cubicularies, to be gaping after his rule, punished them.

Nam Amantium et Andream ferro truncavit, Misahelu et Ardaburem Serdica in exilio misit. Theocritum quoque satellitem Amantii, quem idem Amantius ad regnandum clam praeparaverat, conpraehensum carceratumque saxis contusit ingentibus salsumque in gurgite iacuit, sepultura cum imperio, cui inhiaverat, eum privans; 361 foedusque cum Vitaliano percussit et ad se evocitum magistrum militum praesentis et consulem ordinarium fecit; quem rursus in suspicionem habens facti prioris xvi vulneribus in palatio cum Celeriano et Paulo satellitibus effosum peremit. 362 Hic quoque imperator ante quarto mense obitus sui, senectute sua consulens et rei publicae utilitatibus, Iustinianum ex sorore sua nepotem consortem regni successoremque imperii ordinans, rebus humanis excessit.

For he lopped off Amantius and Andreas with iron, and sent Misahel and Ardabur into exile at Serdica. He also, having apprehended and imprisoned Theocritus, henchman of Amantius—whom that same Amantius had secretly prepared for reigning—crushed him with huge stones and, salted, cast him into a whirlpool, depriving him of burial together with the empire which he had gaped after; 361 and he struck a pact with Vitalian and, having called him to himself, made him Master of Soldiers of the Praesent command and ordinary consul; whom, again holding under suspicion of the former deed, he slew in the palace, having him hacked with 16 wounds, together with Celerianus and Paul, his henchmen. 362 This emperor also, four months before his decease, taking counsel for his own old age and the utilities of the commonwealth, appointing Justinian, his nephew from his sister, as consort of the reign and successor of the empire, departed from human affairs.

363 Iustinianus imperator regnat iam iubante domino ann. xxiiii. Qui ut sceptris genio a suo avunculo mancipatus est, mox Parthos bella moventes destinato exercitu conpescuit et fines proprios tutans Parthorum saepe multos adflixit.

363 Emperor Justinian now reigns, at the Lord’s bidding, for 24 years. He, as soon as he was transferred to the scepters by the Genius by his uncle, at once restrained the Parthians raising wars with an appointed army and, safeguarding his own borders, often afflicted many of the Parthians.

Postea vero facientibus peccatis in die sabbati sancti paschae inito certamine, exercitui et non ducis instinctu in fluvio Eufrate, fugiens Parthos, Romanus numerosus ruit exercitus. Illyricumque saepe ab Herulis Gipidisque et Bulgaris devastantibus per suos iudices frequenter obstitit viriliterque cecidit. 364 Post haec Hypatium Pompeiumque regni sui insidiatoribus coacta civili manu circum ingressis et Hypatio torque aureo redemito pro diademate locoque imperatoris iam occupante, Pompeium vero sub clamidem luricatum et iam palatio invadentem, utrumque detentum ante fores palatii captum catenatumque discussit amputatisque eorum capitibus ante eos fecit imperium perdere quam haberent.

Afterwards indeed, sins bringing it to pass, on the day of the Sabbath of holy Pascha, a contest having been entered, at the impulse of the army and not of the leader, in the river Euphrates, as they fled the Parthians, the numerous Roman army rushed to ruin. And Illyricum, often being devastated by the Heruli, the Gepids, and the Bulgars, he frequently withstood through his own judges and manfully cut them down. 364 After these things, when Hypatius and Pompeius, plotters against his realm, with a civilian band gathered had come in around—and Hypatius, girt with a golden torque in place of a diadem and already occupying the emperor’s seat, while Pompeius, armored beneath a cloak and already assaulting the palace—he quashed them both, detained before the doors of the palace, captured and chained; and with their heads cut off he caused them to lose the imperium before they could have it.

Sociosque eorum, qui evaserant a caede, proscriptos, veluti grande hoste prostrato de manubiis triumphavit. 365 Eodemque anno post diuturnum immanemque laborem, quod contra Parthos Romanorum fuisset gestum sudoribus, per Rufinum patricium perque Hermogenem magistrum officiorum et utrumque legatum directum a principe pax depicta est foedusque initum et munera ab utroque sibi invice principe distinata. 366 Mox quoque soluto de Orientali parte exercitu eundem ductorem, quem dudum Orienti transmiserat, elegit Belesarium, cui numerosos fortissimosque milites deputatis ad australem plagam contra Vandalos mittit.

And their associates, who had escaped from the slaughter, having been proscribed, he triumphed from the spoils, as though, a great enemy having been laid low. 365 And in the same year, after long and immense labor—what had been done against the Parthians by the sweats of the Romans—through Rufinus the patrician and through Hermogenes the master of offices, both sent as legates by the prince, peace was drawn up and a treaty concluded, and gifts were destined by each prince for one another in turn. 366 Soon also, with the army from the Eastern quarter disbanded, he chose that same leader whom he had previously sent to the East, Belisarius, to whom, numerous and very stout soldiers having been assigned, he sends to the southern region against the Vandals.

Quo favente deo qua venerat facilitate, ea celeritate Vandalos superavit, Lybiamque ad corpus totius rei publicae iungens, Gelimer regem opesque Chartaginis in urbe regia principi spectante populo optulit. Cuius notu remuneratus consulque ordinarius mox designatus, de manubiis Vandalicis Belesarius triumphavit.

With God favoring him, with the facility with which he had come, with that celerity he overcame the Vandals, and, joining Libya to the body of the whole commonwealth, in the royal city he presented King Gelimer and the wealth of Carthage to the prince, the people looking on. Remunerated by his notice and soon designated Ordinary Consul, Belisarius triumphed from the Vandal spoils.

367 In Italia vero Theodorico rege defuncto Athalaricus nepus eius ipso ordinante successit, octo annos quamvis pueriliter vivens matre tamen regente Amalasuentha degebat, quando et Gallias diu tentas Francis repetentibus reddidit. 368 Mortuoque Athalarico mater sua Theodahadum consubrinum suum regni sui participem faciens non post multum ipso iubente occisa est. Et quia dudum se suoque filio commendaverat principi Iustiniano, is mortem eius audiens doluit nec passus est inultum transire.

367 In Italy, indeed, with King Theodoric deceased, Athalaric, his nephew, succeeded by his own ordering; although living in a boyish way for eight years, he nevertheless passed his life with his mother Amalasuntha governing, at which time also he returned Gaul, long contested, to the Franks who were demanding it back. 368 And with Athalaric dead, his mother, having made Theodahad, her cousin, a partner in her rule, not long after was killed at his order. And because she had long before commended herself and her son to the Emperor Justinian, he, hearing of her death, grieved and did not allow it to pass unavenged.

Sed mox eundem ducem belli, qui Poenorum domitor fuerat et de opibus Vandalicis triumphans adhuc in fascibus erat, agmini diversarum praeponens nationum ad partes Hesperias destinavit. 369 Qui primo accessu mox Siciliam pervadit duce eius Sinderith superato; ubi dum aliquantum temporis ob ordinandam patriam resederet, conperit in Africa civilia bella intestinoque proelio dibacchari. Nam Stotzas pene ultimus militum et Martini clientulus mag.

But soon, appointing that same war-leader, who had been the tamer of the Punics and, triumphing over Vandalic resources, was still in the fasces, to the vanguard of diverse nations, he dispatched him to the Hesperian parts. 369 Who at his first approach straightway overran Sicily, its dux Sinderith having been overcome; where, while he remained for some time for the sake of ordering the country, he learned that in Africa civil wars were raging and an intestine battle was running riot. For Stotzas, almost the lowest of the soldiers, and a petty client of Martinus the Magister...

mil., tyrannidem arripiens auctorque seditiosorum effectus Cyrillum Marcellum Faram aliosque diversos iudices dolo peremptis in duce Solomone saeviebat totamque Africam tyrannico ritu vastabat. 370 Emenso ergo Belesarius a Sicilia in Africa pelago solita felicitate, rebelles fugat, provinciam liberat Solomonemque rursum Chartagine conlocans Siciliam redit. Vbi mox Evermud Theodahadi Gothorum regis gener, qui contrarius cum exercitu venerat, cernens prosperitatem consulis ultro se ad partes dedit victoris hortaturque, ut iam anhelantem suique adventui suspectam subveniret Italiam.

Stotzas, almost the lowest of the soldiers and a hanger‑on of Martinus, master of the soldiery, seizing tyranny and becoming the author of the seditious, was raging against the general Solomon, Cyril, Marcellus, Fara, and other diverse judges having been slain by guile, and he was devastating all Africa in tyrannical fashion. 370 Therefore Belisarius, the sea from Sicily into Africa having been traversed with his accustomed felicity, puts the rebels to flight, frees the province, and, placing Solomon again at Carthage, returns to Sicily. Where soon Evermud, son‑in‑law of Theodahad, king of the Goths, who had come as an adversary with an army, seeing the prosperity of the consul, of his own accord gave himself to the victor’s side and urges that he should come to the aid of Italy, now gasping and suspicious of his arrival.

Constructo ergo Belesarius exercitu et tam navali quam equistri agmine ductans, vallavit Neapolim paucisque diebus eam obsidens per aquaeductum noctu invasit et tam Gothis qui aderant quam Romanis rebellantibus interfectis urbem plenissime spoliavit. 371 Quod Theodahadus animadvertens, Vitiges unum inter alios ductorem exercitus praeponens contra Belesarium dirigit. 372 Qui Campania ingressus mox ad campos venisset Barbaricos, ilico exercitus favore, quod contra Theodahadum suspectum habebat, excepit, et 'quid', inquid, 'vultis?' ad illi: 'tollatur', inquiunt, 'de medio qui cum sanguine Gothorum et interitu sua cupit scelera excusari.' Factoque impetu in eo consona voce Vitigis regem denuntiant.

Therefore, Belisarius, with the army constructed and leading a column both naval and equestrian, invested Naples, and, besieging it for a few days, by night invaded through the aqueduct and, both the Goths who were present and the Romans rebelling having been slain, he most fully despoiled the city. 371 Which Theodahad noticing, appointing Vitiges, one leader among others of the army, he dispatches him against Belisarius. 372 Who, having entered Campania, soon came to the Barbaric fields; immediately he received the favor of the army, which held suspicion against Theodahad; and, 'what,' he says, 'do you want?' and they to him: 'let him be taken from the midst, he who wishes his crimes to be excused with the blood of the Goths and by their destruction.' And, an onset having been made upon him, with one voice they proclaim Vitiges king.

At ille regno levatus, quod ipse optaverat, mox populi vota consentit, directisque e sociis Theodahadum Ravenna revertentem extinguit. 373 Regnoque suo confirmans, expeditionem solvit et privata coniuge repudiata regiam puellam Maathesuentam Theodorici regis neptem sibi plus vi copolat quam amori. Dumque ille novis nuptiis delectatur Ravenna, consul Belesarius Romanam urbem ingressus est exceptusque ab illo populo quondam Romano et senatu iam pene ipso nomine cum virtute sepulto confestim vicina occupat loca urbium oppidorumque monimina.

But he, lifted up to the kingdom, which he himself had desired, soon consents to the people’s wishes, and, sending agents from among his associates, he extinguishes Theodahadus as he was returning to Ravenna. 373 And confirming his own reign, he launches an expedition, and, his private wife repudiated, he couples to himself the royal girl Maathesuenta, granddaughter of King Theodoric, more by force than by love. And while he is delighting in his new nuptials at Ravenna, the consul Belesarius entered the Roman city and, being received by that people once Roman and by the senate, now with the very name almost buried along with its virtue, immediately seizes the neighboring places, the fortifications of cities and towns.

374 Primaque Getica congressione Hunnila ductante Perusinum ad oppidum superat et plus quam septem milibus trucidatis reliquos Ravennam usque proturbat. Secundo vero ipso Vitigis Romanas arces vallante congreditur machinasque illius et turres, quibus urbem adire temptabat, igne consumptis per anni spatium quamvis inaedia laborans deludit. 375 Post haec ad Ariminum persecutus exindeque eum effugatum Ravenna clausum in deditionem suscepit, atque unus consul dum contra Getas dimicat, pene pari eventu de Francis, qui cum Theodeperto rege suo plus ducenta milia advenerant, triumphavit.

374 And in the first Gothic encounter, with Hunnila leading, he overcomes them at the Perusine town and, with more than seven thousand slaughtered, he drives the rest in rout as far as Ravenna. But in the second, with Vitigis himself besieging the Roman citadels, he engages him; and, his machines and towers, with which he was trying to approach the city, having been consumed by fire, he foils him for the span of a year, though laboring under famine. 375 After these things, having pursued him to Ariminum and from there having driven him off, he received him, shut up in Ravenna, into surrender; and the one consul, while he fought against the Getae, with nearly equal outcome also triumphed over the Franks, who had come with their king Theodepert to the number of more than two hundred thousand.

Sed quia ad alia occupatus alibi noluit implicari, rogantibus Francis pacem concessit et sine suorum dispendio de fines Italos expulit sumptoque rege et regina simulque et opes palatii ad principem qui eum miserat reportavit. Sicque intra pauci temporis spatium Iustinianus imperator per fidelissimum consulem duo regna duasque res publicas suae dicioni subegit.

But because, occupied with other matters, he did not wish to be implicated elsewhere, he granted peace at the request of the Franks and, without loss of his own, drove them out from the Italian borders; and, having taken the king and queen and likewise the wealth of the palace, he brought them back to the prince who had sent him. And thus, within the space of a little time, Justinian the emperor, through the most faithful consul, subjected two kingdoms and two republics to his dominion.

376 Quod Parthus conperiens facibusque invidiae exardescens in Syriam movit procinctum, et Callinicum Soras Neocaesariamque devastans Anthiochiam venit. Vbi Germanus patricius cum Iustino filio suo eodemque consule postquam ab Africana provincia remeasset, dum adventum Parthorum obviare nequit, relicta urbe ad partes secessit Ciliciae. Persi vero vacuam ab exercitu Anthiochiam nancti populumque per Orontis alveum ad Seleuciam maritimam cum militibus mixtis fugientem aspiciunt nec secuntur, sed predas per urbem certatim diripiunt vicinasque urbes et oppida partim invasa partim pecuniae quantitate multata praetereunt et totius Cylesyriae bona sibi unius in anni spatium pene Parthus adsumit.

376 Which, the Parthian learning and blazing with the torches of envy, he moved a battle-preparation into Syria, and devastating Callinicum, Sura, and Neocaesarea, came to Antioch. Vbi Germanus the patrician, with Justin his son and likewise consul, after he had returned from the African province, since he could not go to meet the arrival of the Parthians, the city having been left, withdrew to the parts of Cilicia. The Persians indeed, finding Antioch empty of an army, see the populace fleeing along the channel of the Orontes to maritime Seleucia, mingled with the soldiers, and they do not pursue, but they tear away spoils throughout the city in emulous rivalry, and the neighboring cities and towns they pass by, partly having been invaded, partly mulcted with a sum of money, and the Parthian almost appropriates to himself for the space of a single year the goods of all Coele-Syria.

377 Nec sic quoque recedit, sed iugiter adversum Romanam rem publicum dimicat. Contra quem Vandalicus Geticusque consul solite distinatur. Qui etsi non ut reliquas gentes eum edomuit, tamen ut intra suos se fines recollegeret conpulit, fuissetque et de hac gente felici duci parta victoria, ni clades Italiae, quae post eius discessum emerserat, celerem ei successorem dedisset Martinum.

377 Nor even thus does he withdraw, but unceasingly he fights against the Roman commonwealth. Against him the Vandalic and Getic consul, as usual, is detailed. Who, although he did not subdue him as he did the remaining nations, nevertheless compelled him to gather himself within his own borders; and even a victory over this people would have been won for the fortunate leader, had not the disaster of Italy, which had arisen after his departure, given him a swift successor, Martin.

Qui etsi viribus inpar, consilio tamen quamvis cum Constantiano coniuncto non minor, dum resisti contra Parthos non praevalet, ne bella diu teneret, pacem effecit.

Who, although unequal in forces, yet in counsel—though joined with Constantianus—was no lesser; and since he did not prevail to resist the Parthians, so that he might not hold wars for long, he effected peace.

378 Cladem vero quam diximus in Esperia plaga ut liquidius lector cognoscat, apertius memorabo. Egrediente Belesario consule ab Italia et ut diximus, rege regina opesque palatii ad principem reportante Gothi, qui trans Padum in Liguria consistebant, recrudiscentes animos ad bella consurgunt et ordinato sibi regulo Heldebado militi existunt adversi; contra quos dum non unius, sed diversorum temptat varius apparatus, illi fortiores effecti persistunt annique spatio vix emenso Heldebadus interficitur et loco eius succedit Erarius; 379 qui et ipse vix anno expleto peremptus est et in regno. Malo Italiae Baduila iuvenis nepus asciscitur Heldebadi.

378 The disaster indeed which we mentioned in the Hesperian quarter, that the reader may know more clearly, I will relate more openly. As Belisarius the consul was going out from Italy and, as we said, while he was carrying back the king, the queen, and the wealth of the palace to the emperor, the Goths, who were stationed beyond the Po in Liguria, their spirits recrudescing for wars, rise up, and, having appointed for themselves a regulus, Heldebadus, a soldier, they stand forth as adversaries; against whom, while a varied apparatus—not of one, but of different leaders—makes trial, they, made stronger, persist, and with scarcely the space of a year elapsed Heldebadus is slain and in his place Erarius succeeds; 379 who also himself, with scarcely a year completed, was slain, and in his kingship. To the harm of Italy, Baduila, a young man, the nephew of Heldebadus, is adopted.

Qui mox et sine mora Faventino in oppido Emiliae soli proelio commisso Romanum superavit exercitum; et nec diu post haec item per suos ad Mucellos annonariae Tusciae feliciter dimicans iudices fugat, exercitum partim donis, partim blanditiis sibi consociat totamque Italiam cum ipsa Roma pervadit omniumque urbium munimenta distruens, cunctos senatores nudatos demolita Roma Campaniae terra transmutat. 380 Contra quem, ut superius diximus, Belesarius de Oriente diregitur cum paucis, ratus omnem exercitum, quem demiserat, integrum reperire. Et ideo postquam Ravenna ingressus est nec cum quibus ei obviaret invenit, remensoque Adriatico mare Epiro revertitur, ubi Iohannes et Valerianus ei coniuncti, dum in contiones et iurgia concertant, Totila qui Baduila hostile opus in Italia peragit.

Who soon, and without delay, with battle joined at Faventia, a town in the soil of Emilia, overcame the Roman army; and not long after these things likewise, through his own men, at the Mucelli of the grain-supply Tuscia, fighting successfully, he puts the judges to flight, wins over the army to himself partly by gifts, partly by blandishments, and overruns all Italy with Rome herself, and destroying the fortifications of all the cities, with Rome demolished, he transfers all the senators, stripped bare, to the land of Campania. 380 Against him, as we said above, Belisarius is directed from the East with a few, thinking to find intact the whole army which he had sent down. And therefore, after he entered Ravenna and found not those with whom he might meet him, and, the Adriatic Sea having been re-crossed, he returns to Epirus, where John and Valerian joined him; while they contend in public assemblies and in quarrels, Totila, who is Baduila, carries through hostile work in Italy.

Belesarius quoque inpatiens tantae crudelitati navali classe a Sicilia solvens, per Tyrreni maris aestum Romano portu se recepit statione egressusque ad urbem quam ut destructam et desolatam adtendit, condoluit, hortansque socios ad reparationem tantae urbis accingitur. 381 Vbi necdum vallo circumseptus infestum experitur Totilam, sed solitis victoriis intrepidus, quamvis cum paucis contra eum egressus, sic effugavit, ut plus fugientes Tiberi demergerentur quam gladio caderent. Indeque hortatus exercitus regreditur Siciliam, quatenus et Romae annonae faceret cupiam et vicinus ad fretum Totilanem turbaret in Campania commorantem.

Belesarius also, impatient at such great cruelty, setting sail with a naval fleet from Sicily, through the swell of the Tyrrhenian Sea made his way back to the Roman port and, taking up station, went out to the city; and when he observed how it had been destroyed and desolated, he grieved, and, exhorting his comrades to the restoration of so great a city, girds himself for it. 381 Where, not yet surrounded by a rampart, he encounters Totila as a hostile force; but, unshaken in his accustomed victories, although he went out against him with few men, he so put him to flight that more of the fugitives were drowned in the Tiber than fell by the sword. And then, having encouraged the army, he returns to Sicily, in order both to provide a supply of grain for Rome and, being near the Strait, to harry Totila, who was lingering in Campania.

Sed ut adsolet, rerum mutatio et principum voluntate diversa. 382 Quiescenti in domino Theodora Augusta evocatur ad urbem Belesarius de Siciliam. Post cuius discessum Totila securus iterata rabie tradentibus Isauris invadit Romam; et sic sumptis undique viribus militarique vallatus auxilio ingreditur capitque Siciliam.

But, as is wont, there is a change of affairs and the will of princes is different. 382 Theodora Augusta, resting in the Lord, Belesarius is summoned to the City from Sicily. After whose departure, Totila, secure, with rage renewed, the Isaurians betraying it, invades Rome; and thus, forces taken up on every side and girded with military aid, he enters and seizes Sicily.

383 Contra quem Germanus patricius dum exire disponit cum exercitu, Mathesuentham Theodorici regis neptem et a Vitigis mortuo derelictam, tradente sibi principe in matrimonio sumptam, in Sardicense civitate extremum halitum fudit, relinquens uxorem gravidam, quae post eius obitum postumum ei edidit filium vocavitque Germanum; qua felicitate sibi Totila conperta totam pene insultans Romanis devastat Italiam.

383 Against whom, while Germanus the patrician was preparing to set out with the army, having taken in marriage Mathesuentha, the granddaughter of King Theodoric and left behind by Vitigis now dead, the prince having handed her over to him, he breathed out his last in the city of Sardica, leaving a pregnant wife, who after his death bore him a posthumous son and named him Germanus; with this good fortune discovered by Totila for himself, almost insulting the Romans, he devastates nearly all Italy.

384 Africa vero a Mauris dudum perempto Solomone Stotzas et Iohannes invicem singulari certamine corruunt; aliusque Iohannis, qui Stotzas iunior dicebatur, suscepta tyrannide Guntharic mag. militum secum suadet. Qui interfecto Areobinda iugalem eius neptem imperatoris sibi cupiens sociare praevenitur ab Artabane.

384 But in Africa—Solomon having some time before been slain by the Moors—Stotzas and John fall, each by the other, in single combat; and another John, who was called Stotzas the Younger, having assumed tyranny, draws to his side Guntharic, magister of the soldiery. He, after killing Areobindus, wishing to join to himself as spouse his consort, the emperor’s niece, is forestalled by Artabanes.

Qui eum in convivio trucidatum neptemque imperatoris ereptam ad urbem principi dirigit cum honore, simulque ferreis vinculis conligatum ei tyrannum destinavit Iohannem, qui Stotzam peremptum in eadem successerat tyrannide. 385 Quem in urbem praefectus discussum manibusque truncatis, ad exemplum ceterorum in patibulo fixit. Iohannem dehinc patricium cognomine Troglitam Africae procuratione commissa, Artabanus evocatus mag.

Who, with him butchered at a banquet and the emperor’s niece rescued, sends her to the city to the prince with honor, and at the same time dispatched to him the tyrant John bound with iron chains, who had succeeded the slain Stotzas in the same tyranny. 385 Whom, in the city, the prefect, after he had been battered and his hands cut off, fixed upon the gibbet as an example to the rest. Thereafter John the patrician, surnamed Troglita, with the procuration of Africa entrusted to him; Artabanes was recalled as master of soldiers.

militum praesentis accepit dignitatem. Nec diu intercedente in ipso principe manus inicere gestiens detectus et conprobatus pietate tamen principale inpunitus permansit et quasi benivolus contra Totilanem Sicilia cum Liberio patricio properavit. Iohannes vero in Africana provincia feliciter degens Mauros partis adversae per Pacificos Mauros superatos, una die decem et septem eorum praefectos extincxit, pacemque totius Africae iubante domino impetravit.

he received the dignity of Master of Soldiers in the Presence. Nor, with not much time intervening, though eager to lay hands upon the emperor himself, having been detected and proven, by imperial piety he nevertheless remained unpunished, and, as if well-disposed, he hastened with the patrician Liberius into Sicily against Totila. John, however, prosperously residing in the African province, the Moors of the adverse party having been overcome by means of the Pacific Moors, in one day cut down seventeen of their prefects, and, at the Lord’s bidding, obtained the peace of all Africa.

386 Langobardorum gens, socia Romani regni principibus, et Theodahadi sororis filiam dante sibi imperatore in matrimonio iungens regi suo, contra emulos Romanorum Gepidas una die pugna commissa eorum pene castra pervasit, cecideruntque ex utraque parte amplius lx milia; 387 nec par, ut ferunt, audita est in nostris temporibus pugna a diebus Attilae in illis locis, praeter illa quae ante hanc contigerat sub Calluce mag. mil. idem cum Gepidas aut certe Mundonis cum Gothis, in quibus ambobus auctores belli pariter conruerunt.

386 The nation of the Langobards, ally to the princes of the Roman realm, and—with the emperor giving to them in marriage the sister’s daughter of Theodahad—joining her to their own king, against the rivals of the Romans, the Gepids, with battle joined in a single day, nearly overran their camp, and more than 60 thousand fell on both sides; 387 nor, as they say, has an equal battle been heard of in our times in those places since the days of Attila, except for those which before this had occurred under Calluc, master of soldiers, the same with the Gepids, or certainly of Mundus with the Goths, in both of which alike the authors of the war fell.

388 Hi sunt casus Romanae rei publicae preter instantia cottidiana Bulgarum, Antium et Sclavinorum. Que si quis scire cupit, annales consulumque seriem revolvat sine fastidio repperietque dignam nostri temporis rem publicam tragydiae. Scietque unde orta, quomodo aucta, qualiterve sibi cunctas terras subdiderit et quomodo iterum eas ab ignaris rectoribus amiserit.

388 These are the misfortunes of the Roman commonwealth, besides the quotidian urgencies of the Bulgars, the Antae, and the Slavs. And if anyone desires to know, let him turn back the annals and the series of consuls without fastidiousness, and he will find the res publica of our time worthy of a tragedy. And he will know whence it originated, how it was augmented, in what manner it subjected all lands to itself, and how again it lost them through unknowing rulers.

Quod et nos pro capta ingenii breviter tetigimus, quatenus diligens lector latius ista legendo cognoscat.

Which also we have briefly touched upon, to the extent our genius has grasped, so that the diligent reader may more broadly come to know these things by reading.