Paulus Diaconus: HISTORIA ROMANA

1 Dum bellum in Numidia contra Iugurtam geritur, Romani consules Marcus Mallius et Quintus Coepio a Cymbris et Teutonis et Tugurinis et Ambronibus, quae erant Germanorum et Gallorum gentes, uicti sunt iuxta flumen Rodanum et ingenti internitione etiam castra sua et magnam partem exercitus perdiderunt. Timor Romae grandis fuit, quantus uix Annibalis tempore Punicis bellis, ne iterum Galli Romam uenirent. Ergo Marius post uictoriam Iugurtinam secundo consul est factus, bellumque ei contra Cymbros et Teutonas decretum est.

1 While war was being waged in Numidia against Jugurtha, the Roman consuls Marcus Mallius and Quintus Coepio were defeated by the Cimbri and Teutons and Tugurini and Ambrones, who were peoples of the Germans and Gauls, beside the river Rhone, and with great destruction they also lost their camp and a large part of their army. There was great fear at Rome, such as scarcely even in the time of Hannibal during the Punic Wars, that the Gauls might come to Rome again. Therefore Marius, after the victory over Jugurtha, was made consul a second time, and a war was decreed for him against the Cimbri and Teutons.

Tertio quoque ei et quarto delatus est consulatus, quia bellum Cymbricum protrahebatur. Sed in quarto consulatu collegam habuit Quintum Lutatium Catulum. Cum Cymbris itaque conflixit et duobus proeliis cc milia hostium cecidit, lxxx milia coepit et ducem eorum Teutomodum, propter quod meritum absens consul est factus.

The consulship was likewise conferred on him a third and a fourth time, because the Cimbrian war was protracted. But in his fourth consulship he had as colleague Quintus Lutatius Catulus. Therefore he clashed with the Cimbri, and in two battles 200,000 of the enemy fell, he took 80,000 and their leader Teutomodus, and on account of this merit he was made consul in absentia.

2 Interea Cymbri et Teutones, quorum copia adhuc infinita erat, ad Italiam transierunt. Iterum a Gaio Mario et Quinto Catulo contra eos dimicatum est, sed a Catuli parte felicius. Nam proelio, quod simul ambo gesserunt, cxl milia aut in pugna aut in fuga caesa sunt, lx milia capta.

2 Meanwhile the Cimbri and Teutones, whose force was still seemingly infinite, crossed into Italy. Again Gaius Marius and Quintus Catulus fought against them, but more successfully on Catulus’s part. For in the battle which both together conducted, 140,000 were cut down either in fight or in flight, 60,000 taken captive.

Romani milites ex utroque exercitu trecenti perierunt. Tria et triginta Cymbris signa sublata sunt, ex his exercitus Marii duo reportauit, Catuli exercitus xxxi.

Three hundred Roman soldiers from both armies perished. Thirty-three standards were taken from the Cimbri; of these Marius’s army recovered 2, Catulus’s army 31.

Sed ab eorum mulieribus grauiorem paene quam ab ipsis pugnam Romani experti sunt; hae etenim plaustris in modum castrorum dispositis ipsae desuper propugnantes diu obstitere Romanis. Sed cum ab eis nouo cedis genere terrerentur, abscisis enim cum crine ceruicibus inhonesto satis uulnere turpes relinquebantur, ferrum, quod in hostes sumpserant, in se suosque uerterunt. Nam aliae concursu mutuo iugulatae, aliae adprehensis inuicem faucibus strangulatae, aliae funibus ad sua colla ligatis equorumque cruribus protractae interierunt, aliae laqueo de subrectis plaustrorum temonibus pependerunt; quaedam dum se suspenderet, duos filios traiectis per colla eorum laqueis ad suos pedes uinxit.

But the Romans experienced a fiercer fight from their women almost than from the men themselves; for these, with wagons arranged in the manner of camps and themselves defending from above, long resisted the Romans. But when they were alarmed by a new kind of outrage — for with their hair cut off they were left shamefully, with a wound sufficient to dishonor their necks — they turned the iron which they had taken up against the enemies upon themselves and their own. For some, in mutual onset, were slaughtered by cutting of the throat; others, seizing one another by the jaws, were strangled; others, with ropes tied about their necks and dragged by the horses’ legs, perished; others hung by a noose from the raised yokes of the wagons; one, while suspending herself, bound two sons to her feet by passing nooses through their necks.

Ita his duobus proeliis cccxl milia Gallorum occisa, cxl milia capta sunt absque innumera multitudine mulierum, quae femineo furore se suosque paruulos necauerunt. His belli finis fuit; triumphus utrique decretus est.

Thus in these two battles 340,000 Gauls were killed, 140,000 taken captive, besides the innumerable multitude of women, who, in feminine fury, killed themselves and their little ones. With these things the war ended; a triumph was decreed to each.

3 Sexto Iulio Caesare et Lucio Marcio Philippo consulibus sexcentesimo quinquagesimo nono anno ab Vrbe condita, cum prope alia omnia bella cessarent, in Italia grauissimum bellum Picentes, Marsi Pelignique mouerunt, qui cum annis numerosis iam populo Romano oboedirent, tum libertatem sibi aequam adserere coeperunt. Perniciosum admodum hoc bellum fuit. Rutilius consul in eo occisus est, Coepio nobilis iuuenis, Portius Cato alius consul.

3 In the consulship of Sextus Julius Caesar and Lucius Marcius Philippus, in the year 659 from the founding of the City, when almost all other wars were ceasing, in Italy a very grave war was stirred up by the Picentes, the Marsi, and the Peligni, who, although for many years they had obeyed the Roman people, then began to claim for themselves an equal liberty. This war was exceedingly pernicious. Rutilius the consul was killed in it, Coepio a noble youth, Portius Cato another consul.

Duces autem aduersus Romanos Picentibus et Marsis fuerunt Titus Vettius, Hierius Asianus, Titus Legennius, Aulus Cluentius. A Romanis bene contra eos pugnatum est a Gaio Mario, qui sexies consul fuerat, et a Gneo Pompeio, maxime tamen a Lucio Cornelio Sylla, qui inter alia egregia ita Cluentium hostium ducem cum magnis copiis fudit, ut ex suis unum amitteret. Quadriennio cum graui tamen calamitate hoc bellum tractum est.

The leaders against the Romans for the Picentes and the Marsi were Titus Vettius, Hierius Asianus, Titus Legennius, Aulus Cluentius. The Romans fought well against them under Gaius Marius, who had been consul six times, and under Gnaeus Pompeius, but above all under Lucius Cornelius Sulla, who, among other outstanding exploits, so routed the leader of the Cluentian enemies with great forces that he lost one of his own men. Yet this war was carried on for four years with serious calamity.

Quinto demum anno finem accepit per Lucium Cornelium Syllam consulem, cum antea in eodem bello ipse multa strenue sed praetor gessisset.

In the fifth year at last it came to an end through Lucius Cornelius Sulla, consul, although before in the same war he himself, as praetor, had conducted many things strenuously.

Ipso in tempore dira prodigia uisa sunt: nam sub ortu solis globus ignis a regione septentrionis cum maximo caeli fragore emicuit; apud Arretinos in conuiuio cruor e panibus quasi e uulneribus corporum fluxit; per septem continuos dies grando lapidum inmixtis etiam testarum fragmentis terram latissime uerberauit; in Samnitibus e uastissimo terrae hiatu flamma prorupit et usque in caelum extendi uisa est. Tunc etiam omnium generum animalia, quae inter homines uiuere solita erant, relictis stabulis pascuisque cum balatu, hinnitu mugituque miserabili ad siluas montesque fugerunt; canes quoque, quorum natura est extra homines esse non posse, lacrimosis ululatibus uagi luporum ritu oberrarunt; nec mora post haec tam grauia prodigia ciuilia bella secuta sunt. Apud Iudaeos ea tempestate primus Aristobolus rex pariter et pontifex diadematis sumpsit insigne.

At that very time dreadful prodigies were seen: for at sunrise a globe of fire flashed forth from the region of the north with a great crash of the sky; among the Arretines at a banquet blood flowed from the breads as if from the wounds of bodies; for seven continuous days hail of stones, with fragments of tiles mixed in, battered the earth far and wide; in the Samnite lands from a most vast gaping of the earth a flame burst forth and was seen to extend up even into the heavens. Then likewise animals of every sort, which were wont to live among men, abandoning stalls and pastures, with bleating, neighing and lowing fled miserably to the woods and mountains; dogs also, whose nature is not to be apart from humans, wandered about like packs of wolves with tearful howlings; nor long after these events did such heavy prodigies cease, but civil wars followed. Among the Jews in that season Aristobulus first took upon himself alike the kingship and the priestly insignia of the diadem.

4 Anno Vrbis conditae sexcentesimo sexagesimo secundo primum Romae bellum ciuile commotum est, eodem anno etiam Mitridaticum. Causam bello ciuili Gaius Marius sexies consul dedit. Nam cum Sylla consul contra Mitridatem gesturus bellum, qui Asiam et Achaiam occupauerat, mitteretur, isque exercitum in Campania paulisper teneret, ut belli socialis, de quo diximus, quod intra Italiam gestum fuerat, reliquiae tollerentur, Marius affectauit ut ipse ad bellum Mitridaticum mitteretur.

4 In the 662nd year since the founding of the City the first civil war was stirred up at Rome; in the same year also the Mithridatic war. The cause of the civil war was given by Gaius Marius, six‑times consul. For when Sylla, consul, was to be sent to wage war against Mithridates, who had occupied Asia and Achaia, and when he was holding his army for a short while in Campania so that the remnants of the Social War, of which we spoke, that had been waged within Italy, might be removed, Marius sought that he himself be sent to the Mithridatic war.

Qua re Sylla commotus cum exercitu ad Vrbem uenit. Illic contra Marium et Sulpicium dimicauit. Primus Vrbem armatus ingressus est, Sulpicium interfecit, Marium fugauit, atque ita ordinatis consulibus in futurum annum Gneo Octauio et Cornelio Cinna ad Asiam profectus.

Wherefore Sylla, moved, came with his army to the City. There he fought against Marius and Sulpicius. He was the first to enter the City armed, he killed Sulpicius, routed Marius, and, with the consuls thus ordained for the coming year—Gnaeus Octavius and Cornelius Cinna—he set out for Asia.

5 Mitridates, qui Ponti rex erat atque Armeniam minorem et totum Ponticum mare in circuitu in Bosphoro tenebat, primo Nicomeden amicum populi Romani Bithynia uoluit expellere senatuique mandauit bellum se ei, propter iniurias quas passus fuerat, inlaturum. A senatu responsum Mitridati est: si id faceret, quod bellum a Romanis et ipse pateretur. Quare iratus Cappadociam statim occupauit et ex ea Ariobarzanem regem et amicum populi Romani fugauit.

5 Mithridates, who was king of Pontus and held Lesser Armenia and the whole Pontic sea around as far as the Bosphorus, at first wished to expel Nicomedes, a friend of the Roman people, from Bithynia and declared to the senate that he would bring war upon him for the injuries he had suffered. The senate answered Mithridates: if he did that, he himself would suffer war from the Romans. Wherefore, enraged, he at once occupied Cappadocia and from it expelled Ariobarzanes, king and friend of the Roman people.

Mox etiam Bithyniam inuasit et Paflagoniam, pulsis ex ea regibus amicis populi Romani Polemene et Nicomede. Inde et Ephesum contendit et per omnem Asiam litteras misit, ut ubicumqne inuenti essent ciues Romani, uno die occiderentur.

Soon he also invaded Bithynia and Paphlagonia, having driven out from there the kings Polemene and Nicomedes, friends of the Roman people. Thence he hastened to Ephesus and sent letters through all Asia, that wherever Roman citizens were found they should be killed in one day.

6 Interea etiam Mathone ciuitas Achaiae ab Aristone Atheniensi Mitridati tradita est. Miserat enim iam ad Achaiam Mitridates Archelaum ducem suum cum centum et uiginti milibus equitum ac peditum, per quem etiam reliqua Grecia occupata est. Sylla Archelaum apud Pyreum non longe ab Athenis obsedit, ipsas coepit.

6 Meanwhile the city of Mathone in Achaia was handed over to Mithridates by Ariston the Athenian. For Mithridates had already sent to Achaia Archelaus his commander with 120,000 horse and foot, by whom the rest of Greece was likewise occupied. Sylla besieged Archelaus at Piraeus not far from Athens, and began upon the city itself.

Postea commisso proelio contra Archelaum ita eum uicit, ut ex cxx milibus uix decem Archelao superessent, ex Syllae exercitu xiii tantum hommes interficerentur. Hac pugna Mitridates cognita, septuaginta milia lectissima ex Asia Archelao misit, contra quem Sylla iterum commisit. Primo proelio xv milia hostium interfecta sunt et filius Archelai Diogenes; secundo omnes Mitridatis copiae extinctae sunt, Archelaus ipse triduo nudus in paludibus latuit.

Thereafter, in a battle undertaken against Archelaus he so defeated him that out of 120 scarcely ten remained to Archelaus; from Sylla’s army only 13 men were killed. When Mitridates learned of this engagement, he sent to Archelaus seventy thousand chosen men from Asia, against whom Sylla again engaged. In the first battle 15,000 of the enemy were slain and Archelaus’s son Diogenes; in the second all of Mitridates’s forces were destroyed, and Archelaus himself hid naked in the marshes for three days.

Hac re audita Mitridates iussit cum Sylla de pace agi.

Hearing this, Mitridates ordered that with Sylla negotiations about peace be conducted.

7 Interim eo tempore Sylla etiam Dardanos, Scordiscos, Dalmatas et Moesos partim uicit, alios in fidem accepit. Sed cum legati a rege Mitridate, qui pacem petebant, uenissent, non aliter se daturum Sylla esse respondit, nisi rex relictis his quae occupauerat, ad regnum suum redisset. Postea tamen ad colloquium ambo uenerunt.

7 Meanwhile at that time Sylla also partly conquered the Dardanians, Scordisci, Dalmatians and Moesians, and received others into his allegiance. But when envoys from King Mithridates, who sought peace, had come, Sylla answered that he would not yield otherwise, unless the king, having abandoned those things which he had seized, returned to his kingdom. Afterwards, however, both came to a colloquy.

Pax inter eos ordinata est, ut Sylla ad bellum ciuile festinans a tergo periculum non haberet. Nam dum Sylla in Achaia atque Asia Mitridatem uicit, Marius, qui fugatus erat, et Cornelius Cinna unus ex consulibus bellum in Italia reparauerunt et ingressi urbem Romam nobilissimos e senatu et consulares uiros interfecerunt, multos proscripserunt, ipsius Syllae domo euersa filios et uxorem ad fugam compulerunt. Vniuersus reliquus senatus ex Vrbe fugiens ad Syllam in Greciam uenit, orans ut patriae subueniret.

A peace between them was arranged, so that Sylla, hastening to the civil war, would not have danger in his rear. For while Sylla in Achaia and Asia was defeating Mithridates, Marius, who had been driven out, and Cornelius Cinna, one of the consuls, renewed the war in Italy and, having entered the city Rome, slew the most noble men of the senate and consulars, proscribed many, and with Sylla’s house overthrown forced his sons and wife into flight. The whole remaining senate, fleeing from the City, came to Sylla in Greece, beseeching that he come to the aid of the fatherland.

Ille in Italiam traiecit, bellum ciuile gesturus aduersus Norbanum et Scipionem consules. Et primo proelio contra Norbanum dimicauit non longe a Capua. Tum sex milia eius cecidit, sex coepit, xxiiii suos amisit.

He crossed into Italy to wage civil war against the consuls Norbanus and Scipio. And at the first battle against Norbanus he fought not far from Capua. Then six thousand of his men fell, six were taken captive, and twenty-four of his own he lost.

Inde etiam ad Scipionem se conuertit et ante proelium totum eius exercitum sine sanguine in deditionem accepit.

Thereupon he also turned to Scipio and, before the battle, received his entire army into surrender without bloodshed.

8 Sed cum Romae mutati consules essent, Marius Marii filius ac Papirius Carbo consulatum accepissent, Sylla contra Marium iuniorem dimicauit et xv milibus eius occisis cccc de suis perdidit. Sylla deinde cum Campanio Samnitium duce et reliquis copiis ad portam Collinam signa contulit, octoginta milia hominum occidit. Mox etiam Vrbem ingressus tria milia hominum contra fidem datam inermes peremit cumque magna crudelitate aduersus sontes insontesque seuiret, Quintus Catulus palam Syllae dixit: «Cum quibus tandem uicturi sumus, si in bello armatos, in pace inermes occidimus?» Sylla dehinc Marcomarium de caprili casa extractum uinciri iussit ductumque trans Tiberim effossis oculis, membris minutatim exsectis uel fractis trucidari.

8 But when the consuls at Rome had been changed, Marius the son of Marius and Papirius Carbo had taken the consulship, Sulla fought against the younger Marius and, with 15,000 of his men killed, lost 400 of his own. Sylla then, with Campanius, leader of the Samnites, and the remaining forces, drew his standards up to the Colline Gate, and killed eighty thousand men. Soon also, having entered the City, he slew three thousand unarmed men contrary to the faith given, and, with great cruelty, wreaked vengeance alike against the guilty and the innocent; Quintus Catulus openly said to Sulla: “With whom, then, shall we be victorious, if in war we slay the armed, and in peace the unarmed?” Thereafter Sulla ordered Marcomarius, dragged out from a goat‑shed hut, to be bound, and, led across the Tiber, with his eyes dug out and his limbs cut away or broken bit by bit, to be slaughtered.

Marium Marii filium Praeneste persecutus obsedit et ad mortem compulit. Rursus pugnam grauissimam habuit contra Lamponium et Carinatem duces partis Marianae ad portam Collinam. lxx milia hostium in eo proelio contra Syllam fuisse dicuntur.

Marius, the son of Marius, pursued him to Praeneste, besieged him, and compelled him to death. Again he fought a very grievous battle against Lamponius and Carinatus, leaders of the Marian party, at the Colline Gate. Seventy thousand of the enemy are said to have been in that engagement against Sulla.

xii milia se Syllae dediderunt, coeteri in acie, in castris, in fuga insatiabili ira uictoris consumpti sunt. Gaius quoque Carbo consul alter ab Arimino in Siciliam fugit et ibi per Gneum Pompeium interfectus est, quem adulescentem Sylla atque annos unum et uiginti natum cognita eius industria tantis exercitibus praefecerat, ut secundus a Sylla haberetur.

Twelve thousand surrendered to Sulla; the rest, in the battle‑line, in the camps, in flight, were consumed by the victor’s insatiable wrath. Gaius Carbo, the other consul, also fled from Ariminum to Sicily and there was killed by Gnaeus Pompeius — whom, a youth of twenty‑one years, Sulla, having learned of his industry, had set over such armies, so that he was held as Sulla’s second.

9 Occiso ergo Carbone, Siciliam Pompeius recepit. Transgressus inde ad Africam Domitium Marianae partis ducem et Ierdam regem Mauritaniae, qui Domitio auxilium ferebat, occidit. Post haec Sylla de Mitridate ingenti gloria triumphauit.

9 Therefore, Carbo having been slain, Pompeius took back Sicily. Crossing thence into Africa he killed Domitius, leader of the Marian party, and Ierdas, king of Mauretania, who was bringing aid to Domitius. After these things Sylla triumphed over Mithridates with great glory.

Gneus etiam Pompeius, quod nulli Romanorum tributum erat, quartum et uicesimum annum agens de Africa triumphauit. Hunc finem habuerunt duo bella funestissima, Italicum, quod et sociale dictum est, et ciuile, quae ambo tracta sunt per annos decem. Consumpserunt autem ultra cl milia hominum, uiros consulares xxiii, praetorios vii, aedilicios lx, senatores fere cc. Post haec tamen Sylla mortuo Lepidus Marianae partis aduersus Catulum Syllanum ducem consurgens bellum reparauit; bis tunc acie certatum est, plurimi Romanorum extincti.

Gnaeus Pompeius likewise, since no tribute was due from any of the Romans, celebrating his twenty-fourth year, triumphed over Africa. These two most deadly wars had this ending: the Italic, which is also called the Social, and the Civil, both of which were carried on for ten years. They consumed moreover more than 100,000 men: 23 consulars, 7 praetorians, 60 aediles, and nearly 200 senators. After these things, however, with Sulla dead, Lepidus, rising as leader of Marius’s party against Catulus Syllanus, renewed the war; it was then fought twice in the line of battle, and very many Romans were destroyed.

Albanorum ciuitas, pro eo quod illuc Scipio Lepidi filius confugisset, expugnata et capta est. Brutus in Cisalpinam Galliam fugiens apud Regium interfectus est. Hoc tempore Hierosolimis Alexandra uxor Alexandri regnabat, ex cuius aetate Iudaeos rerum confusio et uariae clades oppressere.

The city of the Albani, because Scipio, son of Lepidus, had fled thither, was stormed and taken. Brutus, fleeing into Cisalpine Gaul, was killed at Regium. At this time in Jerusalem Alexandra, wife of Alexander, reigned; from whose era the Jews were oppressed by a confusion of affairs and by various calamities.

EXPLICIT HISTORIAE ROMANAE LIBER QVINTVS

HERE ENDS THE ROMAN HISTORY, BOOK 5