Orosius: HISTORIARUM ADVERSUM PAGANOS LIBRI VII

[1] Neminem iam esse hominum arbitror, quem latere possit, quia hominem in hoc mundo Deus fecerit. unde etiam peccante homine mundus arguitur ac propter nostram intemperantiam conprimendam terra haec, in qua uiuimus, defectu ceterorum animalium et sterilitate suorum fructuum castigatur.² itaque si creatura Dei, merito et dispensatio Dei sumus; quis enim magis diligit, quam ille qui fecit?

[1] I think that there is now no one among humans from whom it could lie hidden, that God has made man in this world. Whence also, when man sins, the world is reproved, and, for the restraining of our intemperance, this earth in which we live is chastised by a deficiency of the other animals and a sterility of its own fruits.² Therefore, if we are the creature of God, deservedly also we are the dispensation of God; for who loves more than he who made us?

quis autem ordinatius regit, quam is qui et fecit et diligit? quis uero sapientius et fortius ordinare et regere facta potest, quam qui et facienda prouidit et prouisa perfecit? ³ quapropter omnem potestatem a Deo esse omnemque ordinationem, et qui non legerunt sentiunt et qui legerunt recognoscunt.

who more orderly rules, than he who both made and loves? who indeed can more wisely and more strongly order and rule the things done, than he who both provided for the things to be done and perfected the things foreseen? ³ wherefore all power is from God and every ordination, and both those who have not read perceive it and those who have read recognize it.

quod si potestates a Deo sunt, quanto magis regna, a quibus reliquae potestates progrediuntur; ⁴ si autem regna diuersa, quanto aequius regnum aliquod maximum, cui reliquorum regnorum potestas uniuersa subicitur, quale a principio Babylonium et deinde Macedonicum fuit, post etiam Africanum atque in fine Romanum quod usque ad nunc manet, ⁵ eademque ineffabili ordinatione per quattuor mundi cardines quattuor regnorum principatus distinctis gradibus eminentes, ut Babylonium regnum ab oriente, a meridie Carthaginiense, a septentrione Macedonicum, ab occidente Romanum: ⁶ quorum inter primum ac nouissimum, id est inter Babylonium et Romanum, quasi inter patrem senem ac filium paruum, Africanum ac Macedonicum breuia et media, quasi tutor curatorque uenerunt potestate temporis non iure hereditatis admissi. quod utrum ita sit, apertissime expedire curabo.

but if powers are from God, how much more the kingdoms, from which the remaining powers proceed; ⁴ if moreover the kingdoms are diverse, how much more equitable some greatest kingdom, to which the universal power of the remaining kingdoms is subjected—such as from the beginning the Babylonian was and then the Macedonian, afterwards also the African, and in the end the Roman, which remains even until now; ⁵ and by the same ineffable ordination, over the four cardinal points of the world, the primacies of four kingdoms, eminent in distinct degrees: the Babylonian kingdom from the east, from the south the Carthaginian, from the north the Macedonian, from the west the Roman: ⁶ of which between the first and the last, that is, between the Babylonian and the Roman, as between an old father and a small son, the African and the Macedonian came as brief and intermediate, as though a tutor and a curator, admitted by the power of time, not by the right of inheritance. Whether this is so, I shall take care to set forth most openly.

[2] Rex primus apud Assyrios, qui eminere ceteris potuit, Ninus fuit. occiso Nino Samiramis uxor eius, totius Asiae regina, Babylonam urbem instaurauit caputque regni Assyriis ut esset instituit.² regnum Assyriorum diu inconcussa potentia stetit; sed cum Arbatus, quem alii Arbacen uocant, praefectus Medorum idemque natione Medus, Sardanapallum regem suum apud Babylonam interfecisset, regni nomen et summam ad Medos transtulit.

[2] The first king among the Assyrians who was able to stand out above the rest was Ninus. With Ninus slain, Semiramis, his wife, queen of all Asia, restored the city of Babylon and instituted it to be the head of the kingdom for the Assyrians.² The kingdom of the Assyrians stood for a long time with unshaken potency; but when Arbatus, whom others call Arbacas, prefect of the Medes and himself by nation a Mede, had killed his own king Sardanapalus at Babylon, he transferred the name and the supremacy of the kingdom to the Medes.

³ ita Nini et Babylonis regnum eo anno in Medos deriuatum est, quo anno apud Latinos Procas, Amuli et Numitoris pater, auus autem Rheae Siluiae, quae mater Romuli fuit, regnare coepit. ⁴ ut autem omnia haec ineffabilibus mysteriis et profundissimis Dei iudiciis disposita, non aut humanis uiribus aut incertis casibus accidisse perdoceam, omnes historiae antiquae a Nino incipiunt, omnes historiae Romanae a Proca exoriuntur. ⁵ deinde a primo anno imperii Nini usque quo Babylon a Samiramide instaurari coepta est, interueniunt anni LXIIII, et a primo anno Procae, cum regnare coepit, usque ad conditionem urbis factam a Romulo intersunt aeque anni LXIIII.

³ thus the kingdom of Ninus and of Babylon was diverted into the Medes in that year, in which year among the Latins Procas, the father of Amulius and Numitor, and the grandfather moreover of Rhea Silvia, who was the mother of Romulus, began to reign. ⁴ And, in order that I may teach thoroughly that all these things, disposed by ineffable mysteries and the most profound judgments of God, did not befall either by human forces or by uncertain chances, all ancient histories begin from Ninus, all Roman histories arise from Procas. ⁵ Then from the first year of the rule of Ninus up to the time when Babylon began to be restored by Samiramis, there intervene 64 years, and from the first year of Procas, when he began to reign, up to the founding of the city effected by Romulus there are likewise 64 years.

ita regnante Proca futurae Romae sementis iacta est, etsi nondum germen apparet. eodem anno regni ipsius Procae Babylonis regnum defecit, etsi adhuc Babylon ipsa consistit. ⁶ discedente autem Arbato in Medos, partem regni penes se retinuere Chaldaei, qui Babylonam sibi aduersum Medos uindicauerunt.

thus, with Proca reigning, the seed of future Rome was sown, although the germ does not yet appear. In that same year of Proca’s own reign the kingdom of Babylon failed, although Babylon itself still stands. ⁶ But with Arbatus departing into the Medes, the Chaldaeans retained part of the kingdom in their own possession, who claimed Babylon for themselves against the Medes.

⁷ ita Babyloniae potestas apud Medos, proprietas apud Chaldaeos fuit: Chaldaei autem propter antiquam regiae urbis dignitatem non illam suam, sed se illius uocare maluerunt. ⁸ unde factum est, ut Nabuchodonossor ceterique post eum usque ad Cyrum reges, quamuis Chaldaeorum uiribus potentes et Babyloniae nomine clari legantur, in numero tamen et cardine regum non habentur inlustrium. ⁹ Babylon itaque eo anno sub Arbato praefecto dehonorata, quo Roma sub Proca rege, ut proprie dixerim, seminata est.

⁷ thus the power of Babylonia was with the Medes, the ownership with the Chaldaeans: but the Chaldaeans, on account of the ancient dignity of the royal city, preferred not to call that city theirs, but to call themselves as belonging to it. ⁸ whence it came about that Nebuchadnezzar and the others after him up to Cyrus, although read as powerful by the forces of the Chaldaeans and renowned by the name of Babylonia, are nevertheless not held in the number and cardinal place of illustrious kings. ⁹ Babylon therefore in that year was dishonored under Arbatus the prefect, in which year Rome under King Proca, to speak properly, was sown.

Babylon nouissime eo tempore a Cyro rege subuersa, quo primum Roma a Tarquiniorum regum dominatione liberata est. ¹⁰ siquidem sub una eademque conuenientia temporum illa cecidit, ista surrexit; illa tunc primum alienorum perpessa dominatum, haec tunc primum etiam suorum aspernata fastidium, illa tunc quasi moriens dimisit hereditatem, haec uero pubescens tunc se agnouit heredem; tunc orientis occidit et ortum est occidentis imperium.

Babylon most recently at that time was subverted by King Cyrus, when for the first time Rome was liberated from the domination of the Tarquin kings. ¹⁰ Indeed, under one and the same concurrence of times, that fell, this arose; that then for the first time endured the dominion of aliens, this then for the first time, even spurning the disdain toward her own; that then, as if dying, released the inheritance, but this, coming to maturity, then recognized herself as heir; then the empire of the Orient set, and that of the Occident arose.

¹¹ Et ne diutius uerbis morer, committo me dentibus insanientium, sed ueritatis praesidio liberandum.

¹¹ And so that I may not linger longer in words, I commit myself to the teeth of the raving, but to be freed by the protection of truth.

[3] Regnauit Ninus annis LII. cui successit, ut dixi, uxor sua. Samiramis: quae cum et ipsa XLII annis regnauerit, medio imperii sui tempore Babylonam caput regni condidit.

[3] Ninus reigned for 52 years. To him succeeded, as I said, his own wife, Samiramis: who, when she also had reigned for 42 years, in the middle of her rule founded Babylon as the head of the kingdom.

² ita Babylon post annos MCLX et propemodum quattuor, quam condita erat, a Medis et [ab] Arbato, rege eorum, praefecto autem suo, spoliata opibus et regno atque ipso rege priuata est: ipsa tamen postea aliquamdiu mansit incolumis. ³ similiter et Roma post annos totidem, hoc est MCLX et [fere] quattuor, a Gothis et Alaricho rege eorum, comite autem suo, inrupta et opibus spoliata non regno, manet adhuc et regnat incolumis, ⁴ quamuis in tantum arcanis statutis inter utramque urbem conuenientiae totius ordo seruatus sit, ut et ibi praefectus eius Arbatus regnum inuaserit et hic praefectus huius Attalus regnare temptarit; tametsi apud hanc solam merito Christiani imperatoris adtemptatio profana uacuata sit.

² thus Babylon, after 1160 years and almost four from when it was founded, by the Medes and [by] Arbatus, their king, yet their own prefect, was despoiled of its wealth and of the kingdom and was deprived of the king himself: it itself, however, afterwards for some time remained unscathed. ³ similarly also Rome, after just as many years, that is 1160 and [almost] four, by the Goths and Alaric, their king, yet his own count, having been broken into and despoiled of its wealth, not of its kingship, remains still and reigns unscathed, ⁴ although to such an extent, by secret statutes of the whole compact maintained between both cities, the order has been preserved, that both there its prefect Arbatus usurped the kingship, and here the prefect of this city, Attalus, tried to reign; although in this one alone, deservedly, the profane attempt against the Christian emperor has been voided.

⁵ Itaque haec ob hoc praecipue commemoranda credidi, ut tanto ineffabilium iudiciorum Dei ex parte patefacto intellegant hi, qui insipienter utique de temporibus Christianis murmurant, unum Deum disposuisse tempora et in principio Babyloniis et in fine Romanis, illius clementiae esse, quod uiuimus, quod autem misere uiuimus, intemperantiae nostrae. ⁶ ecce similis Babyloniae ortus et Romae, similis potentia, similis magnitudo, similia tempora, similia bona, similia mala; tam en non similis exitus similisue defectus. illa enim regnum amisit, haec retinet; illa interfectione regis orbata, haec incolumi imperatore secura est.

⁵ And so I believed these things were especially to be commemorated for this reason: that, with so much of the ineffable judgments of God laid open in part, those who, indeed foolishly, murmur about Christian times may understand that one God has disposed the times—at the beginning for the Babylonians and at the end for the Romans—that it is to His clemency that we live, but that we live miserably is due to our intemperance. ⁶ behold a similar origin of Babylon and of Rome, similar power, similar magnitude, similar times, similar goods, similar evils; and yet not a similar outcome nor a like decline. for that one lost its kingship, this one retains it; that one, bereft by the slaying of its king, this one is secure with its emperor unharmed.

⁷ et hoc quare? quoniam ibi in rege libidinum turpitudo punita, hic Christianae religionis continentissima aequitas in rege seruata est; ibi absque religionis reuerentia auiditatem uoluptatis licentia furoris impleuit, hic et Christiani fuere, qui parcerent, et Christiani, quibus parcerent, et Christiani, propter quorum memoriam et in quorum memoria parceretur. ⁸ quapropter desinant religionem lacerare et lacessere patientiam Dei propter quam habent, uti et hoc quoque inpunitum habeant, si aliquando desistant.

⁷ And why this? Because there the turpitude of lusts was punished in the king, here the most restrained equity of the Christian religion was preserved in the ruler; there, without reverence for religion, the greed of pleasure was fulfilled by the license of frenzy, here there were Christians who spared, and Christians who were spared, and Christians for whose memory and in whose memory mercy was shown. ⁸ Wherefore let them cease to lacerate religion and to provoke the patience of God, thanks to which they have it, so that they may have even this also with impunity, if at some time they desist.

⁹ recolant sane mecum maiorum suorum tempora, bellis inquietissima, sceleribus exsecrabilia, dissensionibus foeda, miseriis continuatissima, quae et merito possunt horrere, quia fuerunt, et necessario debent rogare, ne sint: ¹⁰ eum sane rogare solum Deum, qui et tunc occulta iustitia permisit, ut fierent, et nunc aperta misericordia praestat, ut non sint. quae modo a me plenius ab ipso Urbis exordio, reuolutis per ordinem historiis, proferentur.

⁹ let them indeed recollect with me the times of their ancestors, most unquiet with wars, execrable with crimes, foul with dissensions, most continuous with miseries, which may deservedly inspire horror, because they existed, and must of necessity pray that they may not be: ¹⁰ to pray, namely, the one God alone, who both then by hidden justice permitted that they should happen, and now by open mercy provides that they be not. which now by me more fully, from the very beginning of the City, with the histories unrolled in order, will be set forth.

[4] Anno post euersionem Troiae CCCCXIIII, olympiade autem sexta, quae quinto demum anno quattuor in medio expletis apud Elidem Graeciae ciuitatem agone et ludis exerceri solet, urbs Roma in Italia a Romulo et Remo geminis auctoribus condita est.² cuius regnum continuo Romulus parricidio imbuit, parique successu crudelitatis sine more raptas Sabinas, inprobis nuptiis confoederatas maritorum et parentum cruore dotauit. ³ itaque Romulus, interfecto primum auo Numitore dehinc Remo fratre, arripuit imperium urbemque constituit; regnum aui, muros fratris, templum soceri sanguine dedicauit; sceleratorum manum promissa inpunitate collegit.

[4] In the year 414 after the overthrow of Troy, and in the sixth Olympiad, which is accustomed to be conducted with contest and games at Elis, a city of Greece, only in the fifth year, the four in the middle having been completed, the city Rome in Italy was founded by Romulus and Remus, twin authors.² Its rule Romulus straightway imbued with parricide, and with an equal success of cruelty he dowered the Sabine women, seized without lawful custom and made confederate by improper nuptials, with the gore of husbands and parents. ³ And so Romulus, with his grandsire Numitor first slain and then his brother Remus, seized the imperium and constituted the city; he dedicated the kingdom of his grandsire, his brother’s walls, and his father-in-law’s temple with blood; he gathered a band of criminals by promised impunity.

⁴ primus illi campus ad bellum forum urbis fuit, mixta simul externa ciuiliaque bella numquam defutura significans. ⁵ Sabinorum, quos foedere ludisque pellexerat, feminas tam inhoneste praesumpsit quam nefarie defendit. ⁶ ducem eorum Titum Tatium, senem honestis pietatis causis insistentem, diu armis propulsatum, mox, ut in societatem regni adsumpsit, occidit.

⁴ his first field for war was the forum of the city, signifying that mixed together foreign and civil wars would never be lacking. ⁵ the women of the Sabines, whom he had enticed by treaty and games, he presumed upon as dishonorably as he defended them nefariously. ⁶ their leader Titus Tatius, an old man insisting on honorable causes of piety, long repelled by arms, soon—as he took him into a partnership of the kingship—he killed.

⁷ cum Veientibus proelium adhuc paruo nomine, iam magnis uiribus, agitatum. Caeninensium captum ac dirutum oppidum. ⁸ adsumptis semel armis numquam quies, quippe quibus egestas turpis atque obscena fames domi timerentur, si umquam paci adquieuissent.

⁷ A battle with the Veientes, their name still small but their forces already great, was waged. The town of the Caeninenses was captured and demolished. ⁸ Once arms had been assumed, there was never rest; for indeed they would have feared disgraceful want and obscene hunger at home, if ever they had acquiesced to peace.

iam hinc incessabilia certamina et iuxta quantitatem uirium semper grauia quam breuissime strinxerim: ⁹ Tullum Hostilium militaris rei institutorem fiducia bene exercitae iuuentutis Albanis intulisse bellum et diu altrinsecus spe incerta, certa clade, tandem pessimos exitus et dubios euentus conpendiosa tergeminorum congressione finisse; ¹⁰ rursus pace disrupta Mettum Fufetium Fidenate bello, meditata etiam proditione suspensum, curribus in diuersa raptantibus duplicis animi noxam poena diuisi corporis expendisse; ¹¹ Latinos Anco Marcio duce saepe congressos, aliquando superatos; Tarquinium Priscum omnes finitimos et potentes tunc Tusciae duodecim populos innumeris concidisse conflictibus; Veientes Seruio Tullio insistente uictos fuisse nec domitos; ¹² Tarquinii Superbi regnum occisi soceri scelere adsumptum, habita in ciues crudelitate detentum, flagitio adulteratae Lucretiae amissum, et inter domestica uitia uirtutesque forinsecus emicantes, id est oppida ualida in Latio per eum capta Ardeam Oricolum Suessam Pometiamque et quidquid in Gabios uel fraude propria uel poena filii uel Romanis uiribus perpetrauit. ¹³ sed Romani quanta mala per CCXLIII annos continua illa regum dominatione pertulerint, non solum unius regis expulsio uerum etiam eiuratio regii nominis et potestatis ostendit. ¹⁴ nam si unius tantum superbia fuisset in culpa, ipsum solum oportuisset expelli seruata regia dignitate melioribus.

From here on I will compress as briefly as possible the unceasing contests, always weighty in proportion to the quantity of forces: ⁹ that Tullus Hostilius, an institutor of the military art, in the confidence of a youth well exercised, brought war upon the Albans, and for a long time, on both sides with hope uncertain but with ruin certain, at length ended the worst outcomes and doubtful events by the expeditious encounter of the triplets; ¹⁰ again, the peace being broken, that Mettius Fufetius—held in suspense for the war with Fidenae, treason even having been meditated—paid for the guilt of his double mind by the penalty of a body torn apart, as chariots, dragging in opposite directions, snatched him away; ¹¹ that the Latins, with Ancus Marcius as leader, were often engaged, sometimes overcome; that Tarquinius Priscus cut down all the neighbors and then the twelve powerful peoples of Etruria in numberless conflicts; that the Veientines, with Servius Tullius pressing on, were conquered but not tamed; ¹² that the kingdom of Tarquinius Superbus was assumed by the crime of his murdered father-in-law, held by cruelty practiced against citizens, lost by the scandal of Lucretia’s violation, and, amid domestic vices with virtues flashing forth outside, namely, strong towns in Latium captured by him—Ardea, Oriculum, Suessa Pometia—and whatever he accomplished in Gabii either by his own fraud or by the penalty of his son or by Roman forces. ¹³ But how great evils the Romans endured through 243 years under that continuous domination of kings, not only the expulsion of one king but even the renunciation of the royal name and power shows. ¹⁴ For if only the pride of one had been at fault, him alone it would have been fitting to expel, the royal dignity being preserved for better men.

¹⁵ igitur regibus urbe propulsis Romani, consulendum sibi quam cuiquam suae libertati dominandum rati, consules creauerunt: quibus ueluti adulta reipublicae crescentis aetas robustioribus ausis exercebatur.

¹⁵ therefore, the kings having been driven from the city, the Romans, thinking that deliberation should be for themselves rather than that anyone should dominate their liberty, created consuls: under whom, as though the growing republic had reached an adult age, it was exercised with more robust undertakings.

[5] Anno post urbem conditam CCXLIIII Brutus primus apud Romanos consul primum conditorem regemque Romae non solum exaequare parricidio sed et uincere studuit; quippe duos filios suos adulescentes totidemque uxoris suae fratres, Vitellios iuuenes, reuocandorum in Urbem regum placito insimulatos, in contionem protraxit, uirgis cecidit securique percussit.² ipse deinde Veientum Tarquiniensiumque bello cum Arrunte, Superbi filio, congresso sibi commortuoque procubuit. ³ Porsenna rex Etruscorum, grauissimus regii nominis suffragator, Tarquinium manu ingerens, tribus continuis annis trepidam urbem terruit conclusit obsedit; et nisi hostem uel Mucius constanti urendae manus patientia uel uirgo Cloelia admirabili transmeati fluminis audacia permouissent, profecto Romani conpulsi forent perpeti aut captiuitatem hoste insistente superati, aut seruitutem recepto rege subiecti.

[5] In the year 244 after the founding of the City, Brutus, the first consul among the Romans, strove by parricide not only to equal but even to surpass the first founder and king of Rome; indeed, he dragged into the assembly two adolescent sons of his own and an equal number of his wife’s brothers, the Vitellian youths, charged with a plan for recalling the kings into the City, beat them with rods, and struck them with the axe.² He himself then, in the war of the Veientes and Tarquinians, having engaged with Arruns, the son of the Proud, fell, and together with him died. ³ Porsenna, king of the Etruscans, a most weighty suffragator of the royal name, forcing Tarquin in by hand, for three continuous years terrified, shut in, and besieged the anxious city; and unless either Mucius had moved the enemy by steadfast endurance of a hand to be burned, or the maiden Cloelia by admirable audacity in crossing the river, assuredly the Romans would have been compelled to endure either captivity, overcome with the enemy pressing on, or servitude, subjected with the king received back.

⁴ post haec Sabini conrasis undique copiis magno apparatu belli Romam contendunt. quo metu consternati Romani dictatorem creant, cuius auctoritas et potentia consulem praeiret; quae res in illo tunc bello plurimum emolumenti tulit. ⁵ sequitur discessio plebis a patribus, cum, M. Valerio dictatore dilectum militum agente, uariis populus stimulatus iniuriis Sacrum Montem insedit armatus.

⁴ after these things the Sabines, with forces scraped together from everywhere and with a great apparatus of war, press toward Rome. By which fear dismayed, the Romans create a dictator, whose authority and potency would outrank the consul; which matter in that war at that time brought very great emolument. ⁵ there follows the secession of the plebs from the fathers, when, Marcus Valerius being dictator and conducting a levy of soldiers, the people, goaded by various injuries, seized the Sacred Mount in arms.

qua pernicie quid atrocius, cum corpus a capite desectum perditionem eius, per quod inspirabat, meditaretur? actumque de Romano nomine intestina pernicie foret, nisi maturata reconciliatio subrepsisset prius quam se discessio ipsa cognosceret. ⁶ urguet se atque inminet sibi extra illas apertas bellorum clades successu misero clandestina pernicies : quippe T. Gesonio et P. Minucio consulibus duo uel maxima omnium malorum abominamenta, fames et pestilentia fessam urbem corripuere.

what more atrocious than that ruin, when a body cut off from its head was meditating the destruction of that by which it breathed? and it would have been done for the Roman name by internal ruin, had a ripened reconciliation slipped in before the secession itself recognized itself. ⁶ beyond those open disasters of wars, with a miserable outcome, a clandestine ruin presses upon and hangs over it : for, with T. Gesonius and P. Minucius as consuls, the two abominations—perhaps the greatest of all evils—famine and pestilence—seized the weary city.

cessatum est paulisper a proelis, cessatum tamen a mortibus non est. ⁷ Veientes Etrusci graues hostes adiunctis sibi finitimorum copiis in bella surgentes obuiis M. Fabio et Cn. Manlio consulibus excipiuntur: ubi post sacramentum iurationis, quo se Romani deuouerant non nisi post uictoriam ad castra redituros, adeo atrox certamen fuit et uictis uictoribusque par forma, ut, amisso plurimo exercitu occisisque in pugna Manlio consule et Fabio consulari, M. Fabius consul oblatum sibi a senatu triumphum suscipere recusarit, quia tantis reipublicae detrimentis luctus potius debebatur. ⁸ gloriosissima illa numero et uiribus Fabiorum familia Veientanum sortita certamen quantam reipublicae orbitatem occasu suo intulerit, infamibus usque ad nunc uocabulis testes sunt fluuius qui perdidit et porta quae misit.

There was a pause for a little while from battles, yet there was no pause from deaths. ⁷ The Veientes, Etruscans, weighty enemies, rising to wars with the forces of their neighbors joined to them, are met by the consuls M. Fabius and Cn. Manlius: where, after the sacrament of an oath, by which the Romans had devoted themselves that they would return to camp only after victory, so atrocious was the combat, and with an equal aspect to both the vanquished and the victors, that, with a very great part of the army lost and with the consul Manlius and Fabius, a man of consular rank, slain in the fight, the consul M. Fabius refused to accept the triumph offered to him by the senate, because to such losses of the republic mourning rather was owed. ⁸ How great a bereavement to the republic that most glorious family of the Fabii, in number and in strength, having drawn the Veientine contest, brought in by its downfall, witnesses even up to now are, with infamous names, the river which destroyed and the gate which sent forth.

⁹ nam cum sex et trecenti Fabii, uere clarissima Romani status lumina, speciale sibi aduersum Veientes decerni bellum expetiuissent, spem temere sumptae expeditionis primis successibus firmauerunt: dehinc inducti in insidias circumuentique ab hostibus, omnes ibidem trucidati sunt, uno tantum ad enuntiandam cladem reseruato, ut miserius audiret patria perditos, quam perdidisset. ¹⁰ ad haec non Romae tantum talia gerebantur, sed quaeque prouincia suis ignibus aestuabat et, quod poeta praecipuus in una urbe descripsit, ego de toto orbe dixerim :
crudelis ubique
Luctus, ubique pauor et plurima mortis imago.

⁹ for when three hundred and six Fabii, truly the most illustrious lights of the Roman state, had sought that a special war be decreed to themselves against the Veientes, they confirmed the hope of an expedition rashly undertaken by the first successes: thereafter, led into ambush and surrounded by the enemies, all were slaughtered there, with only one preserved to announce the disaster, so that the fatherland might hear more miserably of the lost than it had lost them. ¹⁰ moreover, not at Rome only were such things being done, but each province was burning with its own fires; and what the chief poet described in one city, I would say of the whole world:
cruel everywhere
Mourning, everywhere fear and a very manifold image of death.

[6] Igitur eodem tempore Cyrus, rex Persarum - quem superius explicandae historiae causa commemoraveram, qui tunc Asiam Scythiam totumque orientem armis peruagabatur, cum Tarquinius Superbus urbem uel rex uel hostis aut seruitio premebat aut bello -² Cyrus, ut dixi, cunctis aduersum quos ierat perdomitis, Assyrios et Babylonam petit, gentem urbemque tunc cunctis opulentiorem; sed impetum eius Gyndes fluuius, secundae post Euphraten magnitudinis, intercepit. ³ nam unum regiorum equorum candore formaque excellentem, transmeandi fiducia persuasum, qua per rapacem alueum offensi uado uertices attollebantur, abreptum praecipitatumque merserunt. ⁴ rex iratus ulcisci in amnem statuit, contestans eum, qui nunc praeclarum equum uorauisset, feminis uix genua tinguentibus permeabilem reliquendum.

[6] Therefore at the same time Cyrus, king of the Persians - whom above I had mentioned for the sake of explaining the history, who then was ranging with arms through Asia, Scythia, and the whole Orient, while Tarquinius Superbus was pressing the city, whether as king or as enemy, either with servitude or with war -² Cyrus, as I said, with all those against whom he had gone subdued, made for the Assyrians and Babylon, a nation and a city then more opulent than all; but his onset the river Gyndes, second in magnitude after the Euphrates, intercepted. ³ For one of the royal horses, outstanding in whiteness and form, persuaded by the confidence of crossing, where, through the ravening channel, with the shoal striking them the eddies were lifted, was swept away, hurled headlong, and drowned. ⁴ The king, angered, resolved to avenge himself upon the stream, declaring that it, which had now devoured a distinguished horse, must be left passable with women scarcely wetting their knees.

nec peragendo segnior totis copiis perpeti anno Gynden fluuium per magnas concisum deductumque fossas in quadringentos sexaginta alueos comminuit. ⁵ eo opere praedoctis fossoribus, etiam Euphraten longe ualidissimum et mediam Babyloniam interfluentem deriuauit. ⁶ ac sic meabilibus uadis siccum etiam patentibus aluei partibus iter fecit, cepitque urbem, quam uel humano opere exstrui potuisse uel humana uirtute destrui posse utrumque paene incredibile apud mortales erat.

nor was he slower in carrying it out: with all his forces, for a whole year, he cut up and drew off the river Gyndes through great ditches and broke it into 460 channels. ⁵ With the diggers pre-taught by that work, he also diverted the Euphrates, by far the most powerful and flowing through the middle of Babylonia. ⁶ And thus, with the fords passable and even the open parts of the riverbed dry, he made a way and took the city, which—whether that it could have been constructed by human work or that it could be destroyed by human virtue—both were almost unbelievable among mortals.

⁷ namque Babylonam a Nebrot gigante fundatam, a Nino uel Samiramide reparatam multi prodidere. ⁸ haec campi planitie undique conspicua, natura loci laetissima, castrorum facie moenibus paribus per quadrum disposita. murorum eius uix credibilis relatu firmitas et magnitudo, id est latitudine cubitorum quinquaginta, altitudine quater tanta.

⁷ for Babylon, founded by the giant Nebrot, and repaired by Ninus or Semiramis, many have handed down. ⁸ this city, conspicuous on every side by the levelness of the plain, with the nature of the place most joyous, was arranged as a square in the aspect of a camp with equal walls. the firmness and magnitude of its walls are scarcely credible to relate, that is, with a breadth of 50 cubits, with a height four times as great.

⁹ ceterum ambitus eius quadringentis octoginta stadiis circumuenitur. murus coctili latere atque interfuso bitumine conpactus, fossa extrinsecus late patens uice amnis circumfluit. ¹⁰ a fronte murorum centum portae aereae.

⁹ moreover, its circuit is encompassed by 480 stadia. the wall, compacted of baked brick with bitumen poured between, and on the outside a fosse, widely spreading, flows around in lieu of a river. ¹⁰ on the face of the walls are one hundred brazen gates.

ipsa autem latitudo in consummatione pinnarum utroque latere habitaculis defensorum aeque dispositis, media intercapedine sui citas quadrigas capit. domus intrinsecus quatergeminae habitationis minaci proceritate mirabiles. ¹¹ et tamen magna illa Babylon, illa prima post reparationem humani generis condita, nunc paene etiam minima mora uicta capta subuersa est.

the breadth itself, however, at the consummation of the battlements, with the dwellings of the defenders equally arranged on either side, in its middle interval admits swift four-horse chariots. the houses within, of fourfold habitation, are marvelous in menacing loftiness. ¹¹ and yet that great Babylon, that first founded after the restoration of the human race, now has been conquered, captured, subverted almost even with the least delay.

¹² ibi tunc Croesus rex Lydorum famosus opibus cum ad auxiliandum Babyloniis uenisset, uictus sollicite in regnum refugit. Cyrus autem posteaquam Babylonam ut hostis inuasit ut uictor euertit ut rex disposuit, bellum transtulit in Lydiam; ubi conterritum superiore iam proelio exercitum nullo negotio superauit. ipsum etiam Croesum cepit captumque et uita et patrimonio donauit.

¹² there then Croesus, king of the Lydians, famous for wealth, when he had come to aid the Babylonians, defeated, anxiously fled back into his kingdom. But Cyrus, after he as an enemy invaded Babylon, as a victor overthrew it, as a king arranged it, transferred the war into Lydia; where he overcame with no trouble the army already panic‑struck by the earlier battle. He even seized Croesus himself, and, once captured, granted him both his life and his patrimony.

¹³ Exaggerare hoc loco mutabilium rerum instabiles status non opus est: quidquid enim est opere et manu factum, labi et consumi uetustate, Babylon capta confirmat: cuius ut primum imperium ac potentissimum exstitit ita et primum cessit, ut ueluti quodam iure succedentis aetatis debita posteris traderetur hereditas, ipsis quoque eandem tradendi formulam seruaturis. ¹⁴ ita ad proxima aduentantis Cyri temptamenta succubuit magna Babylon et ingens Lydia, amplissima orientis cum capite suo bracchia unius proelii expeditione ceciderunt: et nostri incircumspecta anxietate causantur, si potentissimae illae quondam Romanae reipublicae moles nunc magis inbecillitate propriae senectutis quam alienis concussae uiribus contremescunt.

¹³ To exaggerate in this place the unstable statuses of mutable things is not needful: for whatever is made by work and by hand, that it slides and is consumed by old age, captured Babylon confirms: whose dominion, as it was first and most potent, so also it first yielded, so that, as by a certain law of a succeeding age, the inheritance owed might be handed down to posterity, they themselves also being about to maintain the same formula of handing on. ¹⁴ Thus at the proximate attempts of the approaching Cyrus great Babylon and vast Lydia succumbed, the very broad arms of the East with its head fell by the expedition of a single battle: and our people, with incircumspect anxiety, make complaints, if those masses of the once most powerful Roman commonwealth now tremble more from the debility of their own old age than from forces of others having shaken them.

[7] Igitur idem Cyrus proximi temporis successu Scythis bellum intulit. quem Thamyris regina quae tunc genti praeerat cum prohibere transitu Araxis fluminis posset, transire permisit, primum propter fiduciam sui, dehinc propter opportunitatem ex obiectu fluminis hostis inclusi.² Cyrus itaque Scythiam ingressus, procul a transmisso flumine castra metatus, insuper astu eadem instructa uino epulisque deseruit, quasi territus refugisset.

[7] Therefore the same Cyrus, with the success of the recent time, brought war upon the Scythians. Him queen Thamyris, who then presided over the nation, although she could prohibit from the crossing of the river Araxes, allowed to cross—first on account of confidence in herself, then on account of the opportunity from the interposition of the river, the enemy being enclosed.² Cyrus, therefore, having entered Scythia, having pitched camp far from the river he had crossed, moreover by stratagem abandoned the same, furnished with wine and banquets, as if, terrified, he had fled.

hoc conperto regina tertiam partem copiarum et filium adulescentulum ad persequendum Cyrum mittit. ³ barbari ueluti ad epulas inuitati primum ebrietate uincuntur, mox reuertente Cyro uniuersi cum adulescente obtruncantur. ⁴ Thamyris exercitu ac filio amisso uel matris uel reginae dolorem sanguine hostium diluere potius quam suis lacrimis parat.

With this discovered, the queen sends a third part of the forces and her adolescent son to pursue Cyrus. ³ The barbarians, as though invited to a feast, are first overcome by drunkenness; soon, with Cyrus returning, all are hacked down together with the youth. ⁴ Thamyris, her army and her son lost, prepares to wash away the grief either of a mother or of a queen with the blood of enemies rather than with her own tears.

simulat diffidentiam desperatione cladis inlatae paulatimque cedendo superbum hostem in insidias uocat. ⁵ ibi quippe conpositis inter montes insidiis ducenta milia Persarum cum ipso rege deleuit, adiecta super omnia illius rei admiratione, quod ne nuntius quidem tantae cladis superfuit. ⁶ regina caput Cyri amputari atque in utrem humano sanguine oppletum coici iubet non muliebriter increpitans: Satia te, inquit, sanguine quem sitisti, cuius per annos triginta insatiabilis perseuerasti.

she simulates diffidence by the desperation of the inflicted disaster, and by yielding little by little she calls the proud enemy into ambush. ⁵ There indeed, with ambushes arranged among the mountains, she annihilated two hundred thousand Persians with the king himself, with, above all, the wonder at that affair added, that not even a messenger of so great a disaster survived. ⁶ The queen orders the head of Cyrus to be amputated and to be thrown into a wineskin filled with human blood, rebuking not womanishly: “Sate yourself,” she says, “with the blood which you thirsted for, in the pursuit of which for thirty years you have persevered insatiable.”

[8] Anno ab urbe condita CCXLV Darius Cyro apud Scythas interfecto post aliquantum interuallum sorte regnum adeptus est. regnauit enim medius eorum Cambyses Cyri filius;² qui deuicta Aegypto cunctam Aegypti religionem abominatus caerimonias eius et templa deposuit. ³ post hunc etiam magi sub nomine quem occiderant regis regno obrepere ausi; qui quidem mox deprehensi et oppressi sunt.

[8] In the year 245 from the founding of the City, Darius, with Cyrus slain among the Scythians, after some interval obtained the kingship by lot. For in the meantime Cambyses, the son of Cyrus, reigned;² who, Egypt having been conquered, abominating the entire religion of Egypt, removed its ceremonies and temples. ³ After him even the Magi, under the name of the king whom they had killed, dared to creep into the kingdom; who indeed were soon detected and suppressed.

⁴ Darius itaque, unus ex his qui magorum audaciam ferro coercuerant, consensu omnium rex creatus est. qui postquam Assyrios ac Babylonam a Persarum regno deficientem bello recuperauit, Antyro, regi Scytharum, hac uel maxime causa bellum intulit, quod filiae eius petitas sibi nuptias non obtinuisset. ⁵ magna scilicet necessitas, pro unius libidine hominis septingenta milia uirorum periculo mortis exponi.

⁴ Darius therefore, one of those who had restrained the audacity of the magi by iron, was by the consensus of all created king. After he had by war recovered the Assyrians and Babylon, which was defecting from the kingdom of the Persians, he brought war against Antyrus, king of the Scythians, especially for this very cause: that he had not obtained for himself the sought-for nuptials of his daughter. ⁵ A great necessity, forsooth: that, for the lust of a single man, 700,000 men be exposed to the peril of death.

incredibili quippe apparatu cum septingentis milibus armatorum Scythiam ingressus, non facientibus hostibus iustae pugnae potestatem, insuper repentinis incursibus extrema copiarum dilacerantibus, ⁶ metuens ne sibi reditus interrupto ponte Histri fluminis negaretur, amissis octoginta milibus bellatorum trepidus refugit, quamuis hunc amissorum numerum inter damna non duxerit, et, quem habendum uix quisquam ambire ausus esset, perditum ille non sensit. ⁷ inde Asiam Macedoniamque adgressus perdomuit. Ionas quoque nauali congressione superauit.

indeed, with an incredible apparatus, having entered Scythia with seven hundred thousand armed men, as the enemies did not grant the power of a just battle, and moreover with sudden incursions tearing at the extremities of his forces, ⁶ fearing lest return be denied him if the bridge of the river Hister were cut, with eighty thousand warriors lost he fled in alarm, although he did not reckon this number of the lost among losses, and that which scarcely anyone would have dared to aspire to have, he did not feel as lost. ⁷ thence, having attacked Asia and Macedonia, he thoroughly subdued them. He also overcame the Ionians in a naval engagement.

deinde in Athenienses, cur Ionas aduersum se auxilio iuuissent, impetum fecit atque arma direxit. ⁸ porro autem Athenienses ubi aduentare Darium conpererunt, quamuis auxilium a Lacedaemoniis poposcissent, tamen, cum detineri Persas quadriduanae religionis otio conpertum haberent, spem occasione sumentes instructis tantum decem milibus ciuium et Plataeensibus auxiliaribus mille aduersum sescenta milia hostium campis Marathoniis proruperunt. ⁹ Miltiades ei tunc bello praefuit, qui celeritate magis quam uirtute fretus alacri satis expeditione prius hosti comminus inhaesit quam posset expedito sagittarum iactu propulsari.

then against the Athenians, because the Ionians had helped them against him, he made an attack and directed his arms. ⁸ moreover, when the Athenians learned that Darius was approaching, although they had asked aid from the Lacedaemonians, yet, since they had ascertained that the Persians were detained by the leisure of a four-day religious observance, taking hope from the opportunity, having drawn up only 10,000 citizens and 1,000 Plataean auxiliaries, they burst forth against 600,000 enemies onto the Marathonian fields. ⁹ Miltiades then was in command of the war, who, relying on speed rather than valor, with a brisk enough advance fastened upon the enemy at close quarters before he could be driven off by a ready volley of arrows.

¹⁰ tanta in eo bello diuersitas certandi fuit, ut ex alia parte uiri ad occidendum parati, ex alia pecudes ad moriendum praeparatae putarentur. ¹¹ ducenta milia Persarum apud campos Marathonios ea tempestate ceciderunt. ¹² sensit Darius hoc damnum: nam uictus fugatusque arreptis nauibus refugit in Persas.

¹⁰ So great a diversity of contending was in that war, that on one side men prepared for killing, on the other beasts prepared for dying, were thought. ¹¹ Two hundred thousand Persians fell on the Marathonian fields at that time. ¹² Darius felt this loss: for, conquered and put to flight, having seized the ships he fled back to the Persians.

¹³ cum autem instauraret bellum et ulcisci in uictores moliretur, in ipso apparatu concidit olympiade LXXIIII, hoc est post urbem conditam anno CCLXXV, quo tempore Romae Popilia uirgo ob crimen stupri uiua defossa est.

¹³ however, when he was renewing the war and endeavoring to avenge himself upon the victors, in the very preparations he fell, in the 74th Olympiad, that is after the founding of the City in the year 275, at which time at Rome the virgin Popilia, on a charge of unchastity, was buried alive.

[9] Xerxes Dario patri in regnum succedens bellum aduersus Graeciam a patre susceptum per quinquennium instruxit; quod Demaratus Lacedaemonius, qui tunc forte apud Xerxen exulabat, per tabellas primum scriptas deinde ceratas suis prodidit.² igitur Xerxes septingenta milia armatorum de regno et trecenta de auxiliis, rostratas etiam naues mille ducentas, onerarias autem tria milia numero habuisse narratur; ut merito inopinato exercitu inmensaeque classi uix ad potum flumina, uix terras ad ingressum, uix maria ad cursum suffecisse memoratum sit. ³ huic tam incredibili temporibus nostris agmini, cuius numerum nunc difficilius est adstrui quam tunc fuit uinci, Leonida rex Spartanorum cum quattuor milibus hominum in angustiis Thermopylarum obstitit.

[9] Xerxes, succeeding his father Darius in the realm, for five years prepared the war against Greece undertaken by his father; which Demaratus the Lacedaemonian, who then by chance was in exile with Xerxes, disclosed to his own people by tablets, first written, then wax-coated.² Accordingly, Xerxes is related to have had 700,000 armed men from the realm and 300,000 from the auxiliaries, also 1,200 beaked ships, and freight-ships to the number of 3,000; so that with good reason it has been recorded that scarcely did the rivers suffice for drink for the unexpected army and the immense fleet, scarcely the lands for entry, scarcely the seas for their course. ³ To this column so incredible to our times, whose number is now more difficult to establish than it then was to be conquered, King Leonidas of the Spartans with 4,000 men stood opposed in the narrows of Thermopylae.

⁴ Xerxes autem contemptu paucitatis obiectae iniri pugnam, conseri manum imperat. porro illi, quorum cognati et commanipulares in campis Marathoniis occubuerant, et certaminis simul et cladis exstitere principium. ⁵ deinde succedens sibi turba maior ac segnior, cum iam neque ad procurrendum libera neque ad pugnandum expedita neque ad fugiendum prompta solis mortibus subrigeretur, triduo continuo non duorum pugna, sed caedes unius populi fuit.

⁴ Xerxes, however, in contempt of the paucity thrown in his face, orders the battle to be entered upon, hand-to-hand to be joined. Moreover, those whose cognates and fellow-manipulars had fallen on the Marathonian plains stood forth as the beginning both of the contest and of the disaster. ⁵ Then, as a greater and more sluggish crowd came up in succession, since now free neither for rushing forward nor ready for fighting nor prompt for fleeing, and propped up only by deaths, for three continuous days it was not the fight of two, but the slaughter of one people.

⁶ quarto autem die cum uideret Leonida undique hostem circumfundi hortatur auxiliares socios, ut subtrahentes se pugnae in cacumen montis euadant ac se ad meliora tempora reseruent; sibi uero cum Spartanis suis aliam sortem esse subeundam: plus se patriae debere quam uitae. ⁷ dimissis sociis Spartanos admonet, de gloria plurimum, de uita nihil sperandum; neque exspectandum uel hostem uel diem, sed occasione noctis perrumpenda castra, conmiscenda arma, conturbanda agmina fore; nusquam uictores honestius quam in castris hostium esse perituros. ⁸ persuasi igitur mori malle, in ultionem futurae mortis armantur tam quam ipsi interitum suum et exigerent et uindicarent.

⁶ on the fourth day, however, when Leonidas saw the enemy being poured around on all sides, he urges the auxiliary allies to, withdrawing themselves from the fight, escape to the summit of the mountain and reserve themselves for better times; but that for himself with his Spartans another lot must be undergone: that he owes more to his fatherland than to life. ⁷ the allies having been dismissed, he admonishes the Spartans that much is to be hoped for of glory, nothing of life; and that neither the enemy nor the day is to be awaited, but that by the occasion of night the camp must be broken through, arms commingled, the battle-lines thrown into confusion; nowhere would victors perish more honorably than in the enemy’s camp. ⁸ therefore, persuaded to prefer to die, they are armed for the avenging of their future death, as though they themselves both exacted and vindicated their own destruction.

mirum dictu sescenti uiri castra sescentorum milium inrumpunt. ⁹ tumultus totis castris oritur; Persae quoque ipsi Spartanos adiuuant mutuis caedibus suis; Spartani quaerentes regem nec inuenientes caedunt sternuntque omnia, castra peruagantur uniuersa et inter densas strues corporum raros homines uix sequuntur: uictores sine dubio, nisi mori elegissent. ¹⁰ proelium a principio noctis in maiorem diei partem tractum: ad postremum uincendo fatigati, ubi quisque eorum deficientibus membris uisus est sibi mortis suae ultione satiatus, ibi inter impedimenta cadauerum campumque crasso et semigelato sanguine palpitantem lassus lapsus et mortuus est.

wondrous to say, six hundred men break into the camp of six hundred thousand. ⁹ a tumult arises through the whole camp; the Persians themselves also aid the Spartans by their mutual slaughters; the Spartans, seeking the king and not finding him, cut down and lay low everything, they range through the entire camp, and amid dense strata of bodies can scarcely pursue the few men: victors without doubt, had they not chosen to die. ¹⁰ the battle, drawn out from the beginning of the night into the greater part of the day: at last, wearied by conquering, when each of them, with his limbs failing, seemed to himself satisfied with the avengement of his own death, there among the baggage, the corpses, and the field palpitating with thick and half-congealed blood, he, weary, fell and died.

[10] Xerxes bis uictus in terra nauale proelium parat. sed Themistocles dux Atheniensium cum intellexisset Ionas - quibus dum auxilium superiore bello praebet, in se Persarum impetum uerterat - in auxilium Xerxis instructam classem deducere, sollicitare eos parti suae hostique subtrahere statuit.² et quia conloquendi facultas negabatur, locis quibus Iones accessuri nauibus uidebantur proponi symbolos saxisque adfigi iubet, socios quondam et participes periculorum, nunc autem iniuste desides apta increpatione corripiens atque ad antiquorum iura foederum religiosa adhortatione persuadens praecipueque admonens, uti commisso proelio cedentium uice inhibeant remos seseque bello auferant.

[10] Xerxes, twice conquered on land, prepares a naval battle. But Themistocles, leader of the Athenians, when he had understood that the Ionians—whom, while he was affording help in the previous war, he had turned the onset of the Persians upon himself—were leading down a well‑equipped fleet to the aid of Xerxes, decided to stir them to his own side and to withdraw them from the enemy.² And because the opportunity of conversing was denied, he orders symbols to be displayed and affixed to rocks in the places to which the Ionians seemed likely to approach with their ships, rebuking with apt reproof those once allies and partners of dangers, but now unjustly idle, and persuading them by a religious exhortation to the rights of the ancient treaties, and especially admonishing that, once the battle is joined, they should hold back their oars in the manner of those yielding, and remove themselves from the war.

³ igitur rex, partem nauium sibi detinens, spectator pugnae in litore manet. contra autem Artemidora, regina Halycarnasi, quae in auxilium Xerxi uenerat, inter primos duces acerrime bello inmiscetur, ita ut uersa uice in uiro feminea cautela, in femina uirilis audacia spectaretur. ⁴ cum autem anceps pugna esset, Iones iuxta praeceptum Themistoclis paulatim se certamini subtrahere coeperunt: quorum defectio Persas iam fugam circumspicientes aperte fugere persuasit.

³ therefore the king, detaining a part of the ships for himself, remains on the shore as a spectator of the battle. But on the other hand Artemidora, queen of Halicarnassus, who had come to the aid of Xerxes, among the foremost leaders is most keenly embroiled in war, such that, with the roles reversed, feminine caution was seen in a man, and manly audacity in a woman. ⁴ But when the fight was two-headed (in the balance), the Ionians, according to the instruction of Themistocles, began gradually to withdraw themselves from the contest: whose defection persuaded the Persians, already looking about for flight, to flee openly.

⁵ in qua trepidatione multae naues mersae captaeque sunt, plures tamen saeuitiam regis uelut immanitatem hostis timentes domos dilabuntur. ⁶ anxium tot malis regem Mardonius adgreditur suadens, regem in regnum redire oportere prius quam aduersa fama nouas res domi moliretur; ⁷ se autem, si residuae sibi copiae traderentur, et ultionem ab hoste exacturum et ignominiam domesticam propulsaturum, aut, si aduersa belli perseuerassent, cessurum se quidem hosti, sed tamen sine regis infamia. ⁸ probato consilio exercitus Mardonio traditur.

⁵ In that trepidation many ships were sunk and captured; more, however, fearing the savagery of the king as though the immanity of an enemy, slip away to their homes. ⁶ Mardonius addresses the king, anxious at so many evils, advising that the king ought to return into his kingdom before adverse rumor should set new affairs in motion at home; ⁷ but that he, if the remaining forces were handed over to him, would both exact vengeance from the enemy and repel domestic ignominy; or, if the adversities of war should persist, he would indeed yield to the enemy, yet without disgrace to the king. ⁸ The plan having been approved, the army is handed over to Mardonius.

rex Abydum, ubi pontem ueluti uictor maris conseruerat, cum paucis proficiscitur. sed cum pontem hibernis tempestatibus dissolutum offendisset, piscatoria scapha trepidus transiit. ⁹ erat sane quod spectare humanum genus et dolere debuerit mutationes rerum hac vel maxime uarietate permetiens: exiguo contentum latere nauigio, sub quo ipsum pelagus ante latuisset et iugum captiuitatis suae iuncto ponte portasset; ¹⁰ uilissimo unius seruuli egere ministerio, cuius potentiae, dum montes exciduntur, ualles replentur, amnes exhauriuntur, ipsa etiam rerum natura cessisset.

the king sets out to Abydos, where he had preserved the bridge as though a victor over the sea, with a few companions. but when he had found the bridge dissolved by the winter storms, anxious, he crossed in a fishing skiff. ⁹ there was indeed something which the human race ought to have looked upon and lamented, enduring the changes of affairs, most especially marked by this contrast: content to lie hidden in a paltry boat, he under whom the sea itself had formerly lain concealed and had borne the yoke of his captivity, the bridge having been joined; ¹⁰ to have needed the service of a single most lowly slave, he whose power—while mountains were cut away, valleys were filled up, rivers were drained—had made even Nature herself give way.

¹¹ pedestres quoque copiae, quae ducibus commissae fuerant, labore fame ac metu ita distabuerunt et crudescente morbo tanta pestis tantaque foeditas morientium exorta est, ut uiae cadaueribus replerentur, dirae etiam alites atque improbae bestiae escarum inlecebris sollicitatae moribundum sequerentur exercitum.

¹¹ the infantry forces also, which had been entrusted to their leaders, wasted away so with toil, hunger, and fear, and as the disease grew harsher, so great a pestilence and such foulness of the dying arose, that the roads were filled with corpses, and even dread birds and wicked beasts, enticed by the lures of carrion, followed the dying army.

[11] At uero Mardonius, cui reliqua belli Xerxes commiserat, adflatus primum successu breui mox in extrema deiectus est. Olynthum siquidem Graeciae oppidum expugnauit.² Athenienses uaria sollicitatione adducere in spem pacis adgressus, ubi inexpugnabilem eorum libertatem uidet, incensa urbis parte in Boeotiam omnem belli apparatum deducit.

[11] But indeed Mardonius, to whom Xerxes had entrusted the remainder of the war, inflated at first by brief success, was soon cast down to the worst. He took by storm Olynthus, a town of Greece.² Having attempted by various solicitation to bring the Athenians into the hope of peace, when he sees their unconquerable liberty, with part of the city set on fire he brings down all the apparatus of war into Boeotia.

³ illuc quoque eum centum milia Graecorum insecuta sunt et commisso sine mora proelio Mardonium deletis copiis ipsius uelut e naufragio nudum cum paucis fugere conpulerunt; castra regiis opibus referta ceperunt, non paruo quidem antiquae industriae damno: nam post huius praedae diuisionem aurum Persicum prima Graeciae uirtutis corruptio fuit. ⁴ urguet igitur inceptus miseros extrema perditio. nam forte eodem die, quo in Boeotia Mardonii copiae deletae sunt, pars Persici exercitus in Asia sub monte Mycale nauali proelio dimicabat.

³ Thither also a hundred thousand Greeks followed him, and, with the battle joined without delay, they compelled Mardonius—his forces destroyed—to flee with a few, naked as if from a shipwreck; they seized the camp crammed with royal wealth, indeed with no small damage to ancient industry: for after the division of this booty, Persian gold was the first corruption of the virtue of Greece. ⁴ Accordingly, once begun, ultimate perdition presses upon the wretched. For by chance on the same day on which Mardonius’s forces were destroyed in Boeotia, a part of the Persian army in Asia, under Mount Mycale, was fighting a naval battle.

⁵ ibi nouus repente rumor utriusque classis et populi inpleuit aures, Mardonii exstinctas copias, Graecos exstitisse uictores. mira diuini iudicii ordinatio, in Boeotia oriente sole bellum fuisse commissum, in Asia meridianis horis sub eadem die tantis spatiis maris terraeque interiacentibus nuntiatum! ⁶ qui rumor ei uel maxime rei adstipulatus est, quod Persas, audita clade sociorum primum dolore dehinc desperatione correptos, nec bello expeditos nec fugae habiles reddidit.

⁵ there a new rumor suddenly filled ears, of both the fleet and the people: that Mardonius’s forces had been extinguished, that the Greeks had stood forth as victors. A wondrous ordering of divine judgment: in Boeotia, with the sun rising, the war had been joined; in Asia, at the meridian hours on the same day—though such expanses of sea and land lay between—it was announced! ⁶ which rumor most especially attested this very thing: that the Persians, on hearing of their allies’ disaster, seized first by grief and then by desperation, were rendered neither ready for battle nor fit for flight.

atque ita consternatos profligatosque constantior factus hostis successu felicitatis inuasit. ⁷ Xerxes, bello in Graecia infeliciter gesto contemptibilis suis factus, per Artabanum praefectum suum in regia circumuentus occiditur.

and thus, with them dismayed and routed, the enemy, made more steadfast by the success of good fortune, attacked. ⁷ Xerxes, the war in Greece having been unhappily waged and having become contemptible to his own, is surrounded in the palace and slain by Artabanus, his prefect.

⁸ O tempora desiderio et recordatione dignissima! o dies illos inoffensae serenitatis, qui nobis ueluti e tenebris respiciendi proponuntur! quibus breuissimo interuallo de uisceribus unius regni decies nouies centena milia uirorum tribus proximis regibus tria bella rapuerunt; ut taceam de infelicissima tunc Graecia, quae totum hunc, de quo nunc hebescimus, numerum moriendo superauit.

⁸ O times most worthy of longing and recollection! o those days of unoffended serenity, which are set before us, as it were, to be looked back upon out of the darkness! in which, within a very brief interval, from the bowels of a single kingdom, nineteen hundred thousand men were snatched away by three wars for three most recent kings; not to speak of most-unfortunate then Greece, which by dying outstripped this whole number, at which we now grow numb.

⁹ Leonida ille clarissimus Lacedaemoniorum in bello isto aduersus Xerxen, quod supremum ipsi atque hostibus fuit, cum sescentis suis famosissima illa incitamenta dixisset: "Prandete tamquam apud inferos cenaturi", auxiliaribus tamen, quos excedere bello iubebat, misericorditer suasit, ut se ad meliora tempora reseruarent. ¹⁰ ecce cum ille promisit futura meliora, isti adserunt meliora praeterita, quid aliud colligi datur utroque in suis detestante praesentia, nisi aut semper bona esse sed ingrata aut numquam omnino meliora?

⁹ That Leonidas, the most illustrious of the Lacedaemonians, in that war against Xerxes, which was final for himself and for the enemies, after he had said to his six hundred those most famous exhortations: "Take lunch as though you were going to dine in the underworld," yet to the auxiliaries, whom he ordered to withdraw from the war, he mercifully advised that they reserve themselves for better times. ¹⁰ Behold, while that man promised better things to come, these men assert that the better things are past; what else can be gathered, with each detesting the present in his own case, except either that things are always good but ungratefully regarded, or that there are never better things at all?

[12] At Romae - ut ad id tempus redeam unde digressus sum: neque enim interuallo miseriarum ad alios transire conpellor, sed, sicuti se quondam efferuescentia ubique mala. ipsis actibus conligarunt, ita etiam permixta referuntur: nobis quippe conferre inter se tempora orbis, non cuiusquam partis eius laboribus insultare propositum est -² Romae ergo post urbem conditam anno CCLXL suspenso ad modicum bello grauis pestilentia, quae semper ibi raras indutias aut factas intercepit aut ut fierent coegit, per uniuersam ciuitatem uiolenter incanduit, ut merito praecedente prodigio caelum ardere uisum sit, quando caput gentium tanto morborum igne flagrauit. ³ nam eo anno Aebutium et Seruilium ambo consules pestilentia consumpsit, militares copias plurima ex parte confecit, multos nobiles praecipueque plebem foeda tabe deleuit; ⁴ quamuis iam etiam superiore quarto anno oborta lues eundem populum depopulata sit.

[12] But at Rome — that I may return to that time whence I digressed: for I am not compelled by an interval of miseries to pass over to others, but, just as once the evils effervescing everywhere were bound together by the acts themselves, so also they are reported intermingled: for our purpose is to compare the times of the world with one another, not to insult the sufferings of any part of it —² at Rome, therefore, in the year 290 after the city was founded, with the war suspended for a little, a grave pestilence — which there always either intercepted the rare truces that were made or compelled that they be made — flared violently through the whole city, so that, the prodigy preceding with good reason, the sky was seen to burn, when the head of the nations blazed with so great a fire of diseases. ³ for in that year the pestilence consumed Aebutius and Servilius, both consuls; it finished off the military forces for the greater part; it destroyed many nobles, and especially the plebs, with a foul wasting; ⁴ although already also, four years earlier, a plague having arisen had laid waste this same people.

⁵ Proximo dehinc anno ciues exules seruique fugitiui duce Herbonio, uiro Sabino, inuaserunt incenderuntque Capitolium. ⁶ ubi fortissime quidem Valerio consule et imperatore obstitere iuniores; sed adeo atrox et graue discrimen proelii fuit, ut ipse quoque consul Valerius ibi fuerit occisus et indignam de seruis uictoriam insuper etiam sua morte foedarit.

⁵ In the next year thereafter, citizen exiles and fugitive slaves, under the leadership of Herbonius, a Sabine man, invaded and set the Capitol on fire. ⁶ There the younger men, with Valerius, consul and imperator, made a most brave stand; but the crisis of the battle was so atrocious and grave, that the consul Valerius himself too was slain there and, in addition, by his own death he marred the unworthy victory over slaves.

⁷ Sequitur annus, in quo cum uicto exercitu consul obsessus est. nam Minucium consulem congressum proelio Aequi Vulscique superarunt et fugientem in Algido fame ferroque cinxerunt, actumque infeliciter foret, ni Quintius Cincinnatus, praecipuus ille dictator, artatam obsidionem oppresso hoste soluisset. ⁸ qui repertus in rure, ab aratro arcessitus ad fasces, sumpto honore instructoque exercitu mox uictor effectus iugum boum Aequis inposuit uictoriamque quasi stiuam tenens subiugatos hostes prae se primus egit.

⁷ The year follows, in which, with his army defeated, the consul was besieged. For the Aequi and the Volsci overpowered the consul Minucius, engaged in battle, and, as he fled, hemmed him in on Algidus with hunger and with iron; and it would have gone ill, if Quintius Cincinnatus, that preeminent dictator, had not, the enemy crushed, loosed the tightened siege. ⁸ He, found in the countryside, summoned from the plow to the fasces, the honor assumed and the army equipped, soon made victor, placed the yoke of oxen upon the Aequians, and, holding victory as if a plow-handle, he, foremost, drove the subjugated enemies before him.

[13] Anno qui proximus trecentesimo ab urbe condita fuit, dum legati ad Athenienses propter Solonis leges transferendas missi exspectantur, arma Romana fames pestilentiaque compescuit.

[13] In the year which was the one next before the 300th from the founding of the city, while legates sent to the Athenians for the transference of Solon’s laws were awaited, famine and pestilence checked Roman arms.

² Ipso autem trecentesimo anno, hoc est olympiade nonagensima quinta, potestas consulum decemuiris tradita constituendarum legum Atticarum gratia magnam perniciem reipublicae inuexit. ³ nam primus ex decemuiris cedentibus ceteris solus Appius Claudius sibi continuauit imperium, statimque aliorum coniuratio subsecuta est, ut more contempto, quo insigne imperii penes unum potestas autem communis erat, omnes omnia propriis libidinibus agitarent. ⁴ itaque inter cetera, quae insolentissime cuncti praesumebant, repente singuli cum duodenis fascibus ceterisque imperatoriis insignibus processerunt: ⁵ et nouo improbae ordinationis incepto, ablegata religione consulum emicuit agmen tyrannorum, duabus tabulis legum ad decem priores additis, agentes insolentissimo fastu plurima, die, quo deponere magistratus mos erat, cum isdem insignibus processerunt.

² But in the three-hundredth year itself, that is, in the 95th Olympiad, the power of the consuls, handed over to the decemvirs for the sake of establishing Attic laws, brought great ruin into the republic. ³ For the first of the decemvirs, Appius Claudius—when the others were stepping down—alone prolonged command for himself, and immediately a conspiracy of the others followed, so that, the custom disregarded, by which the insignia of command were with one but the power was common, they all drove everything by their own lusts. ⁴ And so, among the other things which they all were most insolently presuming, suddenly each one advanced with twelve fasces and the other imperial insignia: ⁵ and, with a new undertaking of a shameless arrangement, the reverence of the consulship sent away, a battle-line of tyrants flashed forth, with two tables of laws added to the former ten; doing very many things with the most insolent pomp, on the day on which it was the custom to lay down magistracies, they marched forth with the same insignia.

⁶ maximam etiam Appii Claudii libido auxit inuidiam, qui ut Verginiae uirgini stuprum inferret, prius seruitutis causam intulit; quamobrem adactus Verginius pater dolore libertatis et pudore dedecoris protractam ad seruitutem filiam in conspectu populi pius parricida prostrauit. ⁷ qua populus necessitatis atrocitate permotus et periculo libertatis admonitus montem Auentinum occupauit armatus. nec tueri libertatem armis destitit, nisi postquam se coniuratorum conspiratio ipsis quoque honoribus abdicauit.

⁶ Appius Claudius’s lust also augmented to the utmost the ill-will, who, in order to inflict rape upon Verginia, a maiden, first brought a suit of servitude; wherefore Verginius the father, driven by grief for liberty and by shame at disgrace, when his daughter was being dragged to servitude, in the sight of the people, as a pious parricide struck her down. ⁷ At this the people, moved by the atrocity of necessity and warned by the peril to liberty, seized the Aventine mount under arms. Nor did it cease to guard liberty with arms, until after the conspirators’ conspiracy abdicated itself even from their very honors.

⁸ Tertia et quinta post centesimam olympiade per totum fere annum tam crebri tamque etiam graues in Italia terrae motus fuerunt, ut de innumeris quassationibus ac ruinis uillarum oppidorumque adsiduis Roma nuntiis fatigaretur, ⁹ deinde ita iugis et torrida siccitas fuit, ut praesentis tunc futurique anni spem gignendis terrae fructibus abnegarit, ¹⁰ isdemque temporibus cum Fidenates hostes maximorum auxiliorum manu stipante terribiles Romanis arcibus imminerent, Aemilius tertium dictator magnam mali molem ipsis Fidenis uix captis depulit et sanauit. ¹¹ tanta in ipsis erat malorum animorumque contentio, ut uel domesticas clades superfusa forinsecus bella oblitterarent uel post damna bellorum indutias relaxatas diuersae pestes caelo terraque excandescentes incessabili infestatione corrumperunt.

⁸ In the third and in the fifth after the hundredth Olympiad, for almost the whole year there were in Italy earthquakes so frequent and also so grave, that Rome was wearied by continual reports about innumerable shakings and the ruins of villas and towns; ⁹ then there was such continuous and torrid drought, that it denied the hope of the present then and of the future year for begetting the fruits of the earth; ¹⁰ and in the same times, when the Fidenates, enemies, terrible to the Romans with a thronging band of very great auxiliaries, were threatening the Roman citadels, Aemilius, dictator for the third time, drove off and healed a great mass of evil, with Fidenae itself scarcely captured. ¹¹ So great was the contention of evils and of spirits in those very days, that either the wars from outside, poured over, would obliterate domestic disasters, or, after the losses of wars, the truces relaxed, diverse plagues, kindling from sky and earth, corrupted all with unceasing infestation.

[14] Sicilia ab initio patria Cyclopum et post eos semper nutrix tyrannorum fuit, saepe etiam captiua servorum, quorum primi carnibus hominum, medii cruciatibus, postremi mortibus pascebantur, excepto eo, quod externis bellis aut praeda habebatur aut praemium.² haec, ut quam breuissime absoluam, requiem malorum nisi nunc nescit, immo, ut euidentius diuersitates temporum declarentur, sicut antea uel intestinos vel externos tumultus perpessa est inter omnes sola semper, ita nunc ex omnibus sola numquam. ³ nam etiam - ut sileam de diuturnitate uel illius calamitatis, qua pressa est, uel istius e contrario, qua fruitur, pacis - Aethna ipsa, quae tunc cum excidio urbium atque agrorum crebris eruptionibus aestuabat, nunc tantum innoxia specie ad praeteritorum fidem fumat.

[14] Sicily from the beginning was the fatherland of the Cyclopes and after them was always the nurse of tyrants, often even a captive of slaves, of whom the first were fed on the flesh of men, the middle ones on tortures, the last on deaths, except that in foreign wars it was held either as booty or as a prize.² This, to conclude as briefly as possible, knows no respite from evils except now; nay rather, that the diversities of the times may be shown more evidently, just as before, alone among all, she always endured tumults either domestic or external, so now, out of all, she alone never suffers them. ³ For even—to be silent about the long duration either of that calamity by which she was pressed, or, on the contrary, of this peace which she enjoys—Aetna itself, which then, with the destruction of cities and fields, burned hot with frequent eruptions, now only smokes in a harmless guise as a pledge of things past.

⁴ igitur - ut praetermittam interim de tyrannis, quorum mox qui fuit ultor successor effectus est - medio tempore, hoc est anno ab urbe condita CCCXXXV, cum Regini apud Siciliam discordia laborarent ciuitasque per dissensionem diuisa in duas partes esset, pars una ueteranos ab Himera urbe Siciliae in auxilium uocauit. ⁵ porro illi, pulsis ciuitate primum his contra quos inplorabantur, deinde mox caesis etiam illis quibus ad auxiliandum conuenerant, urbem cum coniugibus ac liberis sociorum occupauere, ausi facinus nulli tyranno comparandum: ⁶ quippe cum Reginis quiduis perpeti satius fuerit, quam ut ultro inuitarent, quibus patriam coniuges liberos ac penates ipsi extorres ad praedam relinquerent.

⁴ therefore — to pass over for now the tyrants, of whom soon the one who was the avenger became the successor — meanwhile, that is, in the year from the founding of the City 335, when the Regini near Sicily were laboring under discord and the city, through dissension, was divided into two parts, one faction summoned veterans from Himera, a city of Sicily, for aid. ⁵ But they, after first expelling from the city those against whom they had been implored, then soon after even slaughtering those to whom they had come to render assistance, seized the city along with the wives and children of their allies, having dared a deed comparable to no tyrant’s: ⁶ for indeed, for the Regini it would have been better to endure anything than to invite of their own accord men to whom they themselves, as exiles, would leave their fatherland, wives, children, and household gods for plunder.

⁷ At etiam Catinenses cum Syracusanos graues infestosque paterentur, ab Atheniensibus auxilia poposcerunt. Sed Athenienses suo magis quam sociorum studio instructam classem in Siciliam misere, cum et sibi propagare molirentur imperium et Syracusanam classem nuper instructam Lacedaemoniis proficere uererentur. ⁸ et quoniam Athenienses qui missi erant caesis hostibus prospera initia sumpserant, maiores copias robustioremque exercitum cum Lachete et Chariade ducibus in Siciliam reduxerunt.

⁷ But the Catanians also, since they were enduring the Syracusans as grievous and hostile, asked for aids from the Athenians. But the Athenians sent into Sicily a fleet equipped more by zeal for themselves than for their allies, since they were both striving to propagate their own imperium and were afraid that the Syracusan fleet, recently outfitted, would profit the Lacedaemonians. ⁸ And because the Athenians who had been sent, with the enemies cut down, had taken auspicious beginnings, they brought back into Sicily larger forces and a more robust army, with Laches and Chariades as leaders.

⁹ sed Catinenses, belli taedio permoti, cum Syracusanis foedus ineunt, auxilia Atheniensium spernunt; ¹⁰ post autem, Syracusanis condiciones pacis meditatione dominationis transgredientibus, denuo legatos Athenas mittunt, qui capillo barbaque squalidi et lugubribus induti misericordiam atque auxilium et sermone et habitu precarentur. ¹¹ igitur magna classis instruitur ducibus Nicia et Lamacho, tantisque uiribus Sicilia repetitur, ut suffragia sua et hi timerent, qui impetrauissent. ¹² Athenienses duas ilico pedestres pugnas secundis successibus faciunt, confectos in urbe hostes et obiecta classe circumdatos terra marique concludunt.

⁹ but the Catanians, moved by the tedium of war, enter into a treaty with the Syracusans and spurn the Athenian auxiliaries; ¹⁰ afterwards, however, when the Syracusans were overstepping the conditions of peace in a meditation of domination, they again send legates to Athens, who, with hair and beard squalid and clad in mourning garments, might beg pity and help both by speech and by appearance. ¹¹ accordingly a great fleet is equipped with Nicias and Lamachus as leaders, and Sicily is sought again with such forces that even those who had carried the suffrages feared their own votes. ¹² the Athenians at once fight two infantry battles with favorable successes, and, the enemies worn out in the city and, the fleet thrown in their way, surrounded by land and sea they shut them in.

¹³ at Syracusani fractis fessisque rebus auxilium a Lacedaemoniis petunt. a quibus mox mittitur Gylippus, solus quidem sed in quo omnium praesidiorum instar praeferebatur. qui ueniens ut audiuit inclinatum iam belli statum, auxiliis partim in Graecia partim in Sicilia contractis opportuna bello loca occupauit.

¹³ but the Syracusans, with their affairs shattered and wearied, seek aid from the Lacedaemonians. from whom soon Gylippus is sent, alone indeed, but in whom the equivalent of all garrisons was displayed. who, on arriving, when he heard that the state of the war was already inclined, with auxiliaries gathered partly in Greece and partly in Sicily, occupied places opportune for war.

¹⁴ deinde duobus proeliis uictus nec territus, tertio congressu Lamachum occidit, hostes in fugam uertit, socios obsidione liberauit. ¹⁵ hinc Athenienses terrestri proelio uicti, experimenta maris ineunt et nauali certamine congredi parant; quo cognito Gylippus classem instructam a Lacedaemoniis arcessit; ¹⁶ aeque Athenienses in locum amissi ducis Demosthenen et Eurymedonta cum supplemento copiarum mittunt; Peloponnesii quoque cum multarum urbium consensu et decreto ingentia Syracusanis auxilia misere. ¹⁷ ita sub specie socialis belli domesticos motus exsequuntur, et, quasi placito de Graecia translatum certamen in Siciliam fuerit, sic ex utraque parte summis uiribus dimicatur.

¹⁴ then, defeated in two battles and not terrified, in the third encounter he killed Lamachus, turned the enemies to flight, and freed the allies from the siege. ¹⁵ From there the Athenians, defeated in a terrestrial battle, make trial of the sea and prepare to engage in a naval contest; on learning this, Gylippus summons a fleet equipped by the Lacedaemonians; ¹⁶ likewise the Athenians send Demosthenes and Eurymedon in place of the lost commander, with a supplement of troops; the Peloponnesians also, with the concurrence and decree of many cities, sent immense assistance to the Syracusans. ¹⁷ Thus, under the appearance of a “social” (allied) war, they execute domestic commotions; and, as though by common accord the contest had been transferred from Greece into Sicily, so on both sides it is fought with utmost forces.

¹⁸ igitur Athenienses prima congressione uincuntur, castra quoque cum omni pecunia uel publica uel priuata et cum uniuerso instructu diuturnae expeditionis amittunt; ¹⁹ fractis opibus et in angustum redactis, suadet Demosthenes, dum nondum omnino res perditae sint quamlibet uideantur adflictae domum redeant Siciliaque decedant; ²⁰ Nicias autem, pudore male gestarum rerum ab initio, desperatior redditus, remanere contendit. ²¹ reparant nauale certamen et mox per inscitiam in angustias Syracusani maris deducti insidiis hostium circumueniuntur: Eurylochus dux primus occiditur, undecim naues incenduntur. Demosthenes et Nicias classem dimittunt quasi tutius terrena expeditione fugituri.

¹⁸ therefore the Athenians are conquered at the first engagement, they also lose the camp along with all the money, both public and private, and with the entire equipment of a long expedition; ¹⁹ with their resources shattered and reduced to straits, Demosthenes advises that, while matters are not yet utterly lost, however afflicted they may seem, they should return home and withdraw from Sicily; ²⁰ Nicias, however, from shame at the ill-managed affairs from the beginning, rendered more desperate, argues to remain. ²¹ they renew the naval contest, and soon, through inexperience, led into the narrows of the Syracusan sea, they are surrounded by the ambushes of the enemy: Eurylochus, the leader, is killed first, eleven ships are set on fire. Demosthenes and Nicias dismiss the fleet, as if about to flee more safely by a land expedition.

²² Gylippus autem primum naues eorum relictas centum triginta inuadit, dehinc ipsos fugientes persequi adgressus capit caeditque quam plurimos. Demosthenes dedecus seruitutis uoluntaria morte declinat, Nicias uero indignam turpemque uitam dedecore captiuitatis accumulat.

²² Gylippus, however, first attacks their ships left behind, one hundred and thirty; then, setting out to pursue them as they flee, he captures and cuts down very many. Demosthenes shuns the disgrace of servitude by voluntary death, but Nicias, indeed, heaps upon an unworthy and shameful life the dishonor of captivity.

[15] Igitur Athenienses, biennio apud Siciliam non sine Lacedaemoniorum damno conflictati, aliis domi malis circumueniuntur. Alcibiades enim, dux pridem aduersus Syracusas pronuntiatus, mox ad iudicium pro quadam insimulatione detentus,² uoluntario exilio Lacedaemonem se contulit inpulitque Spartanos, ut turbatis Atheniensibus nouo rursus bello insisterent, neque eis respirandi spatium, quin opprimerentur, relaxarent. ³ cui incepto ita Graecia omnis adstipulata est, quasi ad commune incendium restinguendum bono publico congestis uiribus consuleretur.

[15] Therefore the Athenians, having been engaged for two years in Sicily, not without loss to the Lacedaemonians, are hemmed in by other evils at home. For Alcibiades, a leader previously designated against Syracuse, soon, detained for trial on account of a certain insinuation,² betook himself to Lacedaemon in voluntary exile and impelled the Spartans to press upon the Athenians—thrown into confusion—with a new war again, and not to relax for them any breathing-space, without their being crushed. ³ To this undertaking the whole of Greece so assented, as if, for the public good, with forces heaped together, counsel were being taken to extinguish a common conflagration.

⁴ Darius etiam rex Persarum, memor paterni auitique in hanc urbem odii, per Tissafernen praefectum Lydiae cum Lacedaemoniis foedus paciscitur eisque sumptus belli et copias pollicetur. ⁵ mirum dictu, Atheniensium tantas ea tempestate opes fuisse, ut, cum aduersus eos, hoc est aduersus unam urbem, Graeciae Asiae totiusque orientis uiribus incursum sit, pugnando saepe nec umquam cedendo consumpti magis uideantur fuisse quam uicti. ⁶ principio enim Alcibiades omnes socios deficere ab his ad Lacedaemonios coegit, sed et ab his quoque per inuidiam insidiis adpetitus aufugit et ad Tissafernen [in Mediam] concessit.

⁴ Darius too, king of the Persians, mindful of his paternal and ancestral hatred toward this city, through Tissaphernes, prefect of Lydia, strikes a treaty with the Lacedaemonians and promises them the expenses of war and troops. ⁵ A marvel to say, that the Athenians had such great resources at that time that, when an attack was made against them—that is, against a single city—by the forces of Greece, Asia, and the whole Orient, by fighting often and never yielding they seem to have been consumed rather than conquered. ⁶ For at the beginning Alcibiades compelled all the allies to defect from them to the Lacedaemonians, but from these too, assailed by plots through envy, he fled and withdrew to Tissaphernes [into Media].

⁷ cui statim accommodato ingenio et apti eloquii gratia familiarior factus persuadet, ne Lacedaemonios tam profusis opibus iuuet; eum potius istius certaminis arbitrum spectatoremque fieri debere, integrasque Lydiae uires aduersum uictorem reseruandas. ⁸ quamobrem Tissafernes partem classis cum aliquanta manu deduci Lacedaemonam iubet, ne uel abundantes suffragiis alieno tuti periculo dimicarent uel in totum destituti susceptum certamen omitterent.

⁷ to whom, his ingenuity straightway accommodated and by the grace of apt eloquence made more familiar, he persuades not to aid the Lacedaemonians with such profuse resources; that he rather ought to become the arbiter and spectator of that contest, and that the intact forces of Lydia should be reserved against the victor. ⁸ wherefore Tissaphernes orders part of the fleet with a considerable force to be led off to Lacedaemon, so that they might neither, abounding in suffrages and safe by another’s peril, fight, nor, being utterly deserted, abandon the undertaken contest.

[16] Apud Athenienses uero cum diu domestica discordia agitaretur, imminente periculo summa imperii ad senatum populi uoluntate transfertur: quippe otio discordiae nutriuntur, at ubi necessitas incubuit, postpositis priuatis causis atque odiis in commune consulitur.² sed hoc ipsum cum propter insitam genti superbiam et tyrannicas libidines perniciosum foret, tandem Alcibiades exul ab exercitu reuocatur et dux classis constituitur. ³ quo conperto principes primo Spartanis urbem prodere moliti sunt; deinde, cum id frustra cogitassent, in exilium sponte cesserunt.

[16] Among the Athenians indeed, while for a long time domestic discord was being agitated, with danger impending the supreme command (summa imperii) is transferred to the Senate by the will of the people: for in leisure discords are nourished, but when necessity has settled upon them, with private causes and hatreds set aside, counsel is taken for the common good.² But this very measure, since on account of the inborn pride of the nation and tyrannical lusts it would be pernicious, at last Alcibiades, an exile, is recalled by the army and is appointed commander of the fleet. ³ When this was learned, the leading men at first endeavored to betray the city to the Spartans; then, when they had conceived that in vain, they withdrew into exile of their own accord.

igitur Alcibiades patria liberata classem in hostes dirigit. ⁴ commisso proelio uictoriam Athenienses capessunt. porro autem maior pars Spartani exercitus caesa, duces quoque paene omnes interfecti et octoginta naues captae absque his, quae in conflictu incensae demersaeque perierunt.

Therefore Alcibiades, with the fatherland freed, directs the fleet against the enemies. ⁴ With the battle joined, the Athenians seize victory. Furthermore, the greater part of the Spartan army was cut down, and almost all the leaders were slain, and eighty ships were captured, apart from those which in the conflict were burned and sunk and perished.

⁵ rursus bellum in terram translatum Spartanis aeque infeliciter cessit. quibus rebus fracti Lacedaemonii petiere pacem, nec tamen impetrare potuerunt. ⁶ praeterea Syracusana praesidia in Siciliam audita Carthaginiensis belli infestatione reuocata sunt.

⁵ Again the war, transferred to land, resulted equally unhappily for the Spartans. Broken by these events, the Lacedaemonians sought peace, yet they could not obtain it. ⁶ Moreover, the Syracusan garrisons, upon hearing of the invasion of the Carthaginian war, were recalled into Sicily.

quamobrem Alcibiades classe uictrici totam Asiam peruagatur, bellis incendiis caedibus rapit sternitque omnia; urbes, quae dudum a societate defecerant, capit recipitque quamplurimas.

wherefore Alcibiades, with a victorious fleet, ranges through all Asia, with wars, conflagrations, and slaughters he plunders and lays everything low; the cities which some time ago had defected from the alliance he captures and receives back in very great number.

⁷ Sic Alcibiades magni nominis factus Athenas cum admiratione et gaudio omnium uictor ingreditur. ⁸ paruo post interuallo auget uires, exercitum classemque numero prouehit rursusque Asiam petit. Lacedaemonii uero Lysandrum ducem classi belloque praeficiunt.

⁷ Thus Alcibiades, made a man of great renown, enters Athens as victor with the admiration and joy of all. ⁸ After a small interval he augments his forces, advances the army and the fleet in number, and again makes for Asia. The Lacedaemonians, for their part, appoint Lysander as leader, setting him over the fleet and the war.

⁹ Cyrus etiam frater Darii, in locum Tissafernis Ioniae Lydiaeque praepositus, magnis eos opibus auxiliisque confirmat. Lysander itaque Alcibiadis exercitum praedae intentum ac per hoc ubique dispersum ac uagum repentino incursu opprimit, sine aliquo conflictu uincit caeditque fugientem. ¹⁰ magna haec clades Atheniensibus, et multo hoc atrocius uulnus, quam dudum inflixerant, susceperunt.

⁹ Cyrus also, the brother of Darius, appointed in the place of Tissaphernes over Ionia and Lydia, strengthens them with great resources and auxiliaries. Accordingly Lysander overwhelms by a sudden incursion the army of Alcibiades, intent on booty and therefore everywhere scattered and wandering; without any conflict he conquers and cuts them down as they flee. ¹⁰ This was a great disaster for the Athenians, and they sustained a wound much more atrocious than that which they had formerly inflicted.

quo conperto Athenienses opinati sunt Alcibiaden antiquum exilii sui dolorem isto scelere proditionis uindicare curasse, ¹¹ ideoque in locum eius Cononem constituunt, cui residuam manum et summam belli committunt. ¹² qui supplere saltem numero exhaustas copias uolens, senes ac pueros legit exercitumque conscripsit. sed huiusmodi manus moram bello non attulit: quippe quod robore, non numero confici solet.

On this being discovered, the Athenians supposed that Alcibiades had taken pains to avenge the ancient grief of his exile by this crime of treason, ¹¹ and so they appoint Conon in his place, to whom they commit the remaining force and the supreme command of the war. ¹² He, wishing at least by number to replenish the exhausted troops, chose old men and boys and conscripted an army. But a force of this kind brought no delay to the war: indeed, because it is wont to be accomplished by strength, not by number.

¹³ itaque statim inbellis manus uel capta uel caesa est, tantaque strages occisorum illo proelio facta est, ut deletum non solum regnum, sed etiam nomen Atheniensium uideretur. ¹⁴ at illi desperatis rebus statuunt urbem peregrinis dare - ut, qui per totam Asiam paulo ante dominati sunt, nunc ex hac conluuie muros saltem libertatemque tueantur - et, quamuis uel suo iudicio ad haec tuenda etiam obiectis muris non sufficiant, iterum tamen experiri nauale proelium parant. ¹⁵ expers consilii furor dolorem uirtutem putat, quantumque meditatur ira, tantum promittit audacia.

¹³ and so at once the unwarlike band was either captured or cut down, and so great a slaughter of the slain was made in that battle that it seemed that not only the kingdom, but even the name of the Athenians had been obliterated. ¹⁴ but they, with affairs despaired of, resolve to give the city to foreigners - so that they who a little before had dominated through all Asia might now from this rabble at least guard the walls and liberty - and, although by their own judgment they are not sufficient for defending these things even with walls thrown up in front, nevertheless they prepare again to try a naval battle. ¹⁵ frenzy devoid of counsel takes grief for virtue, and as much as anger meditates, so much does audacity promise.

¹⁶ itaque omnibus partim captis partim interfectis de ipsis quoque reliquiis nihil reliqui factum est. solus dux Conon superstes bello et populo, timens ciuium crudelitatem, ad Cyrum regem concessit. ¹⁷ Euacoras autem dux Lacedaemoniorum ademptis omnibus ciuitatibus nihil Atheniensibus praeter inanem urbem reliquit; nec hoc diu, nam et ipsam urbem postea obsidione circumdedit.

¹⁶ and so, with all partly captured and partly slain, from the very remnants too nothing was left remaining. Conon alone, the commander, surviving both war and people, fearing the cruelty of his fellow citizens, withdrew to King Cyrus. ¹⁷ But Euacoras, the leader of the Lacedaemonians, with all the communities taken away, left to the Athenians nothing except an empty city; nor this for long, for he afterwards encompassed the city itself with a siege.

agebat intrinsecus fames desolatio et morbus obsessos, ¹⁸ et cum post omnia miseriarum abominamenta, quae etiam dicere horror est, nihil spei praeter mortem occurreret, pacem petiuere.

Within, famine, desolation, and disease were afflicting the besieged, ¹⁸ and when, after all the abominations of miseries—which it is a horror even to speak—nothing of hope presented itself except death, they sought peace.

[17] magna hinc inter Spartanos et socios deliberatio fuit: cum plurimi inquietissimam ciuitatem sternendam solo populumque infestissimum cum ipso nomine abolendum pronuntiarent,² Spartani negauerunt se permissuros uti e duobus Graeciae oculis unus erueretur; insuper etiam pacem promiserunt, si Piraei portus ducentia in urbem munimina uerterentur nauesque reliquas ultro traderent, deinde rectores sibi triginta lectos susciperent. ³ huic condicioni addictis et succumbentibus Lacedaemonii Lysandrum ad conponendas in urbe parendi leges constituerunt. ⁴ insignis hic annus et expugnatione Athenarum et morte Darii Persarum regis et exilio Dionysii Siciliae tyranni fuit.

[17] Great deliberation hence among the Spartans and the allies: while very many pronounced that the most unquiet city must be leveled to the ground and the most hostile people abolished together with the very name,² the Spartans denied that they would permit that, out of the two eyes of Greece, one be torn out; moreover they also promised peace, if the fortifications conducting into the city from the harbors of the Piraeus were demolished and the remaining ships were voluntarily handed over, then that they should receive for themselves thirty chosen rectors. ³ With them bound to this condition and submitting, the Lacedaemonians appointed Lysander to arrange in the city laws to be obeyed. ⁴ This year was remarkable both for the expugnation of Athens and for the death of Darius, king of the Persians, and for the exile of Dionysius, tyrant of Sicily.

⁵ Igitur triginta rectores Atheniensibus ordinati triginta tyranni exoriuntur: qui primo se tribus milibus satellitum stipant, mox etiam septingentos milites uictoris exercitus lateribus suis circumponunt. ⁶ caedem omnium passim futuram occiso Alcibiade auspicantur, qui fugiens, in itinere clausus cubiculo, uiuus incensus est. ⁷ quo interfecto quasi sublato ultore securi miseras urbis reliquias caedibus rapinisque exhauriunt.

⁵ Therefore, with thirty rectors appointed for the Athenians, the Thirty Tyrants arise: who at first surround themselves with three thousand satellites/bodyguards, and soon also set seven hundred soldiers of the victor’s army about their flanks. ⁶ They inaugurate a slaughter of all indiscriminately, taking their auspice with Alcibiades slain, who, fleeing, was, on the journey, shut in his bedchamber and burned alive. ⁷ With him killed, as though the avenger were removed, secure they drain the wretched remnants of the city by slaughters and plunderings.

Theramenen quoque, unum e numero suo, cui haec displicere senserunt, in exemplum timoremque reliquorum trucidant. ⁸ itaque omnes passim ex urbe diffugiunt, sed interdicto Lacedaemoniorum cum per totam Graeciam exulibus negaretur hospitium, omnes se Argos ac Thebas contulerunt: ubi ita hospitalitatis obsequio foti sunt, ut non solum dolorem amissae patriae lenirent, uerum etiam spem recuperandae meditarentur. ⁹ erat inter exules Thrasybulus, uir strenuus et generis nobilitate inter suos clarus: qui auctor audendi pro patria fuit.

They also butcher Theramenes, one from their own number, whom they perceived to disapprove of these things, as an example and a terror to the rest. ⁸ And so all indiscriminately scatter from the city, but by the interdict of the Lacedaemonians, since hospitality (guest-right) was denied to exiles throughout all Greece, they all betook themselves to Argos and Thebes: where they were so cherished by the offices of hospitality that they not only soothed the grief of a lost fatherland, but even meditated the hope of recovering it. ⁹ Among the exiles was Thrasybulus, a vigorous man and, by the nobility of his birth, renowned among his own: who was the author of daring for the fatherland.

itaque castellum Fylen Atticorum finium collecti exules capiunt multarumque ciuitatum opibus adiuti uires capessunt: quibus Lysias quoque Syracusanus orator quasi in auxilium urbis, quae esset patria communis eloquentiae, quingentos milites cum stipendiis suis misit. ¹⁰ atrox id proelium fuit, sed his pro patria libertate, illis pro aliena dominatione certantibus animorum atque causarum ipsa quoque tulit pugna iudicium: nam uicti tyranni in urbem refugerunt omnesque, quos ex Atheniensibus prius sibi satellites legerant, tunc suspectos proditionis, urbis custodia remouerunt. ¹¹ Thrasybulum quoque ipsum temptare corruptione ausi sunt: quod ubi frustra speratum est, arcessitis a Lacedaemona auxiliis rursus in bellum ruunt.

And so the exiles, having gathered, seize the fortress Phyle on the borders of the Attic land, and aided by the resources of many cities they take up strength; to them Lysias too, the Syracusan orator, as if to the aid of the city, which was the common fatherland of eloquence, sent five hundred soldiers with their stipends. ¹⁰ That battle was fierce; but with these fighting for the fatherland’s liberty, those for another’s domination, the fight itself also rendered a judgment of spirits and of causes: for the tyrants, defeated, fled back into the city, and all whom they had previously chosen from the Athenians as their satellites, then, suspected of treachery, they removed from the city’s guard. ¹¹ They even dared to try to tempt Thrasybulus himself by corruption; and when this hope proved vain, with auxiliaries summoned from Lacedaemon they rush again into war.

ubi duo saeuissimi omnium longe tyrannorum trucidantur. ¹² ceteros uictos et in fugam uersos Thrasybulus ubi uel maxime Athenienses esse intellegit, clamore consequitur, oratione retinet, precibus ligat, proponens ante oculos eorum, quos fugere uel ad quos refugere uellent; sibi aduersum triginta dominos, non aduersum ciues miseros bellum esse susceptum. quin potius omnes, qui se meminerint esse Athenienses, sequi oportere Atheniensium libertatis ultores.

where two, by far the most savage of all tyrants, are cut down. ¹² the rest, conquered and turned to flight, Thrasybulus, when he perceives that they are, above all, Athenians, pursues with a shout, holds with an oration, binds with entreaties, setting before their eyes whom they were fleeing or to whom they wished to take refuge; that he had undertaken war against thirty masters, not against wretched citizens. rather, all who remember themselves to be Athenians ought to follow the avengers of Athenian liberty.

¹³ itaque haec adhortatio tantum apud illos ualuit, ut mox reuersi in ciuitatem tyrannos arce decedere atque Eleusinam emigrare conpulerint. qui postquam in societatem urbis ciues suos, eatenus exules, receperunt, tyrannos in bellum aemulatione suscitant, quibus libertas aliorum quasi ipsorum seruitus uidebatur. ¹⁴ tunc indicta pugna cum prius quasi ad conloquium conuenirent, circumuenti insidiis ueluti pacis uictimae trucidantur: ita reuocati in unum, post inexplebiles magnorum lacrimas gaudiorum haec prima fundamina recuperatae libertatis instaurant proposita iuris iurandi contestatione, uti discordiae animositatesque praeteritae in obliuionem perpetuam atque immortale silentium deducantur.

¹³ and so this exhortation prevailed so greatly among them that soon, having returned into the city, they compelled the tyrants to depart from the citadel and to emigrate to Eleusis. who, after they had received into the fellowship of the city their own fellow citizens, exiles up to that point, stir up the tyrants to war out of emulation, to whom the liberty of others seemed as if their own slavery. ¹⁴ then, battle having been indicted, when first they came together as if for a colloquy, they are surrounded by snares and butchered like victims of peace: thus, recalled into one (unity), after the insatiable tears of great joys, they establish these first foundations of recovered liberty, with the attestation of an oath set forth, that the discords and animosities of the past be led down into perpetual oblivion and immortal silence.

¹⁵ quod pactionis genus quasi nouam uitae institutionem nouamque felicitatem status sui informantes amnestiam uocauerunt, id est abolitionem malorum.

¹⁵ which kind of pact, as if shaping a new institution of life and a new felicity of their status, they called amnesty, that is, the abolition of evils.

Sapientissima Atheniensium, praesertim post tanta miseriarum documenta, prouisio: si quo pacto res humanae manente consensu hominum ita ut ordinantur valerent; ¹⁶ sed adeo hoc idem placitum inter ipsa paene placiti uerba corruptum est, ut uix intercedente biennio Socrates ille clarissimus philosophorum adactus malis ueneno sibi apud eos uitam extorserit, deinde uix quadraginta annis interuenientibus, ut alia sileam, idem Athenienses adempta sibi penitus libertate sub Philippo Macedonum rege seruierint. ¹⁷ uerumtamen sapientissimi omnium Athenienses etiam suis malis satis docti concordia minimas res crescere, discordia maximas labi, cunctaque uel bona uel etiam mala quae foris geruntur internis esse radicata et emissa principiis, domi abstersere odia et foris bella presserunt reliqueruntque posteris suis de ruina sui exemplum, de reparatione consilium: si tamen ob infirmissimam humanae mentis mutabilitatem, quod in adflictis rebus consulitur, in prosperis seruaretur.

The most wise provision of the Athenians, especially after such documents of miseries: if in any way human affairs, the consensus of men remaining, might prevail as they are ordained; ¹⁶ but this very same placitum was so corrupted almost amid the very words of the placitum, that, scarcely a biennium intervening, that most illustrious Socrates among philosophers, driven by evils, by poison extorted life from himself among them; then, with scarcely forty years intervening—so that I may be silent about other things—the same Athenians, their liberty utterly taken away, served under Philip, king of the Macedonians. ¹⁷ Nevertheless the most wise of all, the Athenians, taught sufficiently even by their own evils that by concord the smallest things grow, by discord the greatest slip, and that all things, whether good or even evil, which are carried on outside are rooted in and emitted from internal principles, at home absterged hatreds and abroad suppressed wars, and left to their posterity from their ruin an example, from their repair a counsel—if only, however, on account of the most infirm mutability of the human mind, that which is consulted in afflicted circumstances were preserved in prosperous ones.

[18] Isdem fere diebus bellum ciuile, immo etiam plus quam ciuile, uix parricidio terminatum, apud Persas gerebatur. mortuo enim rege Dario cum Artaxerxes et Cyrus filii eius de regno ambigerent, tandem apparatibus magnis, prouinciarum ac populorum ruinis utrimque certatum:² in quo conflictu cum e diuerso concurrentes sibi ambo fratres mutuo casus obiectauisset, prior Artaxerxes uulneratus a fratre equi uelocitate morti exemptus euasit. Cyrus autem mox a cohorte regia oppressus finem certamini dedit.

[18] In almost the same days a civil war—nay, even more than civil—scarcely terminated by parricide, was being waged among the Persians. For, King Darius having died, when Artaxerxes and Cyrus, his sons, were disputing about the kingdom, at length, with great apparatus, to the ruin of provinces and peoples on both sides, there was contest:² in which conflict, as both brothers, converging upon each other from opposite directions, had dealt one another mutual downfalls, Artaxerxes, first wounded by his brother, escaped, snatched from death by the speed of his horse. But Cyrus, soon overpowered by the royal cohort, gave an end to the struggle.

Artaxerxes ergo et praeda fraternae expeditionis et exercitu potitus potestatem regni parricidio firmauit. ³ sic uniuersa Asia atque Europa, partim in se singulae, partim inter se inuicem funeribus et flagitiis permiscebantur.

Artaxerxes therefore, having gained possession both of the booty of the fraternal expedition and of the army, established the power of the kingdom by parricide. ³ thus the whole of Asia and Europe, partly each within themselves, partly among themselves mutually, were being commingled with funerals and flagitious deeds.

⁴ Ecce paruissima pagina uerbisque paucissimis quantos de tot prouinciis populis atque urbibus non magis explicui actus operum, quam inplicui globos miseriarum. quis enim cladem illius temporis, quis fando funera explicet aut aequare lacrimis possit dolores? ⁵ uerumtamen haec ipsa, quia multo interiectu saeculorum exoleuerunt, facta sunt nobis exercitia ingeniorum et oblectamenta fabularum.

⁴ Behold, on a very tiny page and with very few words, how many, from so many provinces, peoples, and cities, I have not so much explicated the courses of deeds as entangled masses of miseries. For who, indeed, could declare the ruin of that time, who by speaking could unfold the funerals, or be able to equal with tears the pains? ⁵ Nevertheless these very things, because with a great interposition of ages they have grown obsolete, have become for us exercises of wits and amusements of tales.

quamquam si quis intentius adhibeat animum seseque toto mentis adfectu ipsis paene causis bellisque permisceat ac rursus uelut in arce spectaculi constitutus utrumque in suis qualitatibus tempus permetiatur, facile dixerim eum iudicaturum, neque illa nisi irato atque auersato Deo posse tam infeliciter perturbari ac permisceri neque ista sic nisi propitio et miserante conponi.

Although, if anyone should apply his mind more intently and, with the whole affect of his mind, almost commingle himself with the very causes and the wars, and again, as if set upon the citadel of a spectacle, should measure through each period in its own qualities, I would readily say he will judge that neither those things could be so unhappily perturbed and commixed save with God angered and turned away, nor could these be thus composed save with God propitious and pitying.

⁶ His deinde temporibus grauissimo motu terrae concussa Sicilia, insuper exaestuantibus Aethnae montis ignibus fauillisque calidis cum detrimento plurimo agrorum uillarumque uastata est.

⁶ Then in these times Sicily, shaken by a most grave movement of the earth, moreover, with the fires of Mount Etna seething and with hot cinders, was laid waste with very great loss of fields and villas.

⁷ Tunc etiam Atalante ciuitas, Locris adhaerens terrae contigua, repentino maris impetu abscissa atque in insulam desolata est. Atheniensium quoque miserabiles reliquias pestis inuasit diuque populata est.

⁷ Then also the city of Atalante, adhering to the Locrians, contiguous with the land, was cut off by a sudden impetus of the sea and desolated into an island. The pest likewise invaded the pitiable remnants of the Athenians and for a long time depopulated them.

[19] Anno ab urbe condita CCCLV obsidio Veiorum decem continuis annis magis obsessores quam obsessos detriuit. nam Romani repentinis saepe hostium eruptionibus comminuti, praeterea in hibernis bella sortiri, hiemare sub pellibus, postremo famem ac frigus in conspectu hostium perpeti coacti sunt;² urbem nouissime sine ullo digno Romanae uirtutis testimonio cuniculis et clandestina obreptione ceperunt. ³ hanc utilem magis quam nobilem uictoriam primo dictatoris Camilli, qui eam de Veientibus patrauit, exilium, dehinc inruptio Gallorum et incendium urbis insequitur.

[19] In the year from the founding of the City 355 the siege of Veii, for ten continuous years, wore down the besiegers rather than the besieged. For the Romans, often shattered by the enemy’s sudden sallies, moreover were compelled to allot the campaigns while in winter-quarters, to winter under skins, and finally to endure hunger and cold in the sight of the enemy;² at last they took the city by tunnels and by clandestine creeping-in, without any testimony worthy of Roman virtus. ³ This victory, more useful than noble, is followed first by the exile of the dictator Camillus, who achieved it over the Veientes, and then by the inrush of the Gauls and the burning of the city.

⁴ cui cladi audeat quisquam, si potest, aliquos motus huius temporis conparare: quamuis non aeque pendat praeteriti mali fabulam praesentis iniuria. ⁵ igitur Galli Senones duce Brenno exercitu copioso et robusto nimis cum urbem Clusini, quae nunc Tuscia dicitur, obsiderent, legatos Romanorum, qui tunc conponendae inter eos pacis gratia uenerant, in acie aduersum se uidere pugnantes: qua indignatione permoti, Clusini oppidi obsidione dimissa, totis uiribus Romam contendunt. ⁶ hos ita ruentes Fabius cum exercitu consul excepit; nec tamen obstitit, immo potius hostilis ille impetus quasi aridam segetem succidit strauit et transiit.

⁴ To which calamity who would dare, if he can, to compare any commotions of this time: although the injury of the present does not weigh the tale of past evil equally. ⁵ Therefore the Gauls, the Senones, with Brennus as leader, with an army copious and overly robust, when they were besieging the city of Clusium, which is now called Tuscany, saw the envoys of the Romans, who then had come for the sake of composing peace between them, fighting in the battle line against themselves: moved by this indignation, the siege of the town of Clusium having been abandoned, with all their forces they hasten toward Rome. ⁶ The consul Fabius with an army intercepted these thus rushing; nor, however, did he withstand—nay rather, that hostile impetus, as if a dry crop, cut them down, strewed them, and passed over.

testatur hanc Fabii cladem fluuius Halia, sicut Cremera Fabiorum. non enim facile aliquis similem ruinam Romanae militiae recenseret, etiam si Roma insuper incensa non esset. ⁷ patentem Galli urbem penetrant, trucidant rigentes simulacrorum modo in suis sedibus senatores eosque incendio domorum crematos lapsu culminum suorum sepeliunt.

The river Allia bears witness to this disaster of Fabius, just as the Cremera does to that of the Fabii. For not easily would anyone recount a similar collapse of the Roman soldiery, even if Rome besides had not been set on fire. ⁷ The Gauls, finding the city lying open, penetrate it, they butcher the senators, rigid like statues in their own seats, and they bury them—burned by the conflagration of their houses—under the fall of their own rooftops.

⁸ uniuersam reliquam iuuentutem, quam constat uix mille hominum tunc fuisse, in arce Capitolini montis latentem obsidione concludunt ibique infelices reliquias fame peste desperatione formidine terunt subigunt uendunt : ⁹ nam mille libris auri discessionis pretium paciscuntur, non quo apud Gallos Roma parui nominis fuerit, sed quo illam sic iam ante detriuerint, ut amplius tunc ualere non posset. ¹⁰ exeuntibus Gallis remanserat in illo quondam urbis ambitu informium ruinarum obscena congeries, et undique per impedita errantium et inter sua ignotorum offensae uocis imago respondens trepidos suspendebat auditus. ¹¹ horror quatiebat animos, silentia ipsa terrebant: siquidem materia pauoris est raritas in spatiosis.

⁸ they shut up the whole remaining youth, which it is agreed were scarcely a thousand men then, lurking on the citadel of the Capitoline hill, with a siege; and there they wear down, subdue, sell the unhappy relics with famine, pestilence, desperation, dread : ⁹ for they bargain a price of departure at a thousand pounds of gold, not because at the Gauls Rome was of little name, but because they had already so worn it down before that it could not then be worth more. ¹⁰ as the Gauls were going out, in that former compass of the city there had remained an obscene heap of formless ruins, and on every side, through impediments for wanderers and, among their own things, as if unknown, the image of a voice, striking and answering back, was holding their trembling hearings in suspense. ¹¹ horror shook souls, the silences themselves terrified: indeed sparsity in spacious places is matter of fear.

hinc illis mutare sedes, aliud incolere oppidum, altero etiam censeri nomine cogitatum placitum atque temptatum est.

from this, by them it was considered, approved, and even attempted to change their seats, to inhabit another town, to be enrolled even under another name.

¹² En tempora, quorum conparatione praesentia ponderantur; en, de quibus recordatio suspirat; en, quae incutiunt de electa uel potius de neglecta religione paenitentiam. ¹³ reuera pares sunt et conferuntur inter se hae duae captiuitates: illa sex mensibus desaeuiens et tribus diebus ista transcurrens; Galli exstincto populo urbe deleta ipsum quoque Romae nomen in extremis cineribus persequentes et Gothi relicta intentione praedandi ad confugia salutis, hoc est sanctorum locorum, agmina ignara cogentes; ibi uix quemquam inuentum senatorem, qui uel absens euaserit, hic uix quemquam requiri, qui forte ut latens perierit. ¹⁴ recte sane conpararim, hunc fuisse ibi seruatorum numerum, qui hic fuerit perditorum.

¹² Behold the times, by comparison with which the present is weighed; behold, those for which remembrance sighs; behold, those which instill repentance concerning the chosen—or rather the neglected—religion. ¹³ Truly these two captivities are equal and are set in comparison with one another: that one raging for six months, and this one passing through in three days; the Gauls, with the people extinguished and the city destroyed, pursuing even the very name of Rome into the last ashes, and the Goths, abandoning the intention of plundering, compelling unknowing throngs to the refuges of safety—that is, to the holy places; there scarcely was any senator found who had escaped even by being absent, here scarcely is anyone sought who perhaps, as one hiding, has perished. ¹⁴ Rightly indeed might I compare, that the number there of those preserved was the same as that here of those lost.

plane, quod re proditur, et fatendum est: in hac clade praesenti plus Deum saeuisse, homines minus, cum, peragendo ipse quod illi non inpleuissent, cur eos miserit demonstrauit. ¹⁵ quippe cum supra humanas uires esset, incendere aeneas trabes et subruere magnarum moles structurarum, ictu fulminum forum cum imaginibus uanis, quae superstitione miserabili uel deum uel hominem mentiuntur, abiectum est, horumque omnium abominamentorum, quod inmissa per hostem flamma non adiit, missus e caelo ignis euertit.

Plainly, as is brought to light by the reality, and it must be confessed: in this present calamity God raged more, men less, since, by himself carrying through what they had not fulfilled, he demonstrated why he had sent them. ¹⁵ For since it was beyond human powers to kindle bronze beams and to undermine the masses of great structures, by the stroke of lightnings the Forum, with its vain images, which by miserable superstition pretend either a god or a man, was cast down; and of all these abominations, what the flame sent in by the enemy did not reach, a fire sent from heaven overturned.

¹⁶ Et quoniam uber dicendi materia est, quae nequaquam hoc concludi libro potest, hic praesentis uoluminis finis sit, ut in subsequentibus cetera persequamur.

¹⁶ And since the materia for speaking is abundant, which by no means can be concluded in this book, let this be the end of the present volume, so that in the subsequent ones we may pursue the rest.