9 42. Vixdum perfunctum eum bello atrocior domi seditio 37. excepit; et per ingentia certamina dictator senatusque victus, ut rogationes tribuniciae acciperentur; et comitia consulum adversa nobilitate habita, quibus L. Sextius de plebe 10 primus consul factus. Et ne is quidem finis certaminum fuit. Quia patricii se auctores futuros negabant, prope secessionem plebis res terribilesque alias minas civilium II certaminum venit, cum tandem per dictatorem condicionibus sedatae discordiae sunt concessumque ab nobilitate plebi de consule plebeio, a plebe nobilitati de praetore uno, qui 12 ius in urbe diceret, ex patribus creando. Ita ab diutina ira tandem in concordiam redactis ordinibus cum dignam eam Consuls were elected by the comitia centuriata. 10. patricii. . . negabant: the election of consuls was not complete until it received the official sanction of the patrician members of the senate, the patrum auctoritas. Elsewhere Livy uses patres, not patricii, in this sense. — prope : cf. 1, 25, 13. II. condicionibus: by an agreement, compromise. sedatae sunt : see on 5, 46, I convertit. — praetore in 242 B.C. a second praetor was added, one having charge of cases between citizens (praetor urbanus), the other of cases in which one or more of the parties were foreigners (praetor peregrinus). The number was constantly increased until under Julius Caesar there were sixteen. A plebeian held the office for the first time in patribus 337 B.C. nobilitate, the whole class of patricians. = rem senatus censeret esse, meritoque id, si quando umquam alias, deum inmortalium fore, ut ludi maximi fierent et dies unus ad triduum adiceretur, recusantibus id munus aedili- 13 bus plebis, conclamatum a patriciis est iuvenibus se id honoris deum inmortalium causa libenter facturos, ut aediles fierent. Quibus cum ab universis gratiae actae essent, 14 factum senatus consultum, ut duoviros aediles ex patribus dictator populum rogaret, patres auctores omnibus eius anni comitiis fierent. 12. si . . . alias: see on 1, 28, iot races, athletic contests, and, 4. deum inmortalium: connect after 364 B.C., dramatic perfor with merito; according to the merit of the gods, i.e. as they deserved. — ut . . . adiceretur: this clause was anticipated in dignam, but the intervening words, merito . . . fore, unless they are to be taken as entirely parenthetical, compel us to explain it as a substantive clause, in app. with id. - ludi maximi: first celebrated, according to Livy I, 35, 9, by Tarquinius Priscus, — sollemnes (celebrated in fulfillment of a vow), deinde annui, mansere ludi, Romani magnique varie appellati. They came to be celebrated regularly in the fall, and the number of days, originally one, was constantly increased until, under Augustus, the celebration continued from the 4th of September to the 15th; see on 45, 1, 2. After they were regularly established as an annual festival, they were called ludi Romani. They included a procession, char mances. 13. recusantibus: as the state furnished the money, it is hard to find a reason for this refusal; probably this is an attempt to explain another concession on the part of the plebeians. — aedilibus plebis: first appointed in 494 as assistants of the tribunes, but their powers had been gradually increased; they had a general supervision of certain festivals. ut: provided that; cf. Sen. Ben. 2, 15, I dabo egenti, sed ut ipse non egeam. 14. aediles: curule aediles were elected by the comitia tributa, and some years later acquired membership in the senate. The patricians relinquished in a few years the exclusive right to the office. —~ rogaret used with two accusatives in the technical sense, to propose for election. - auctores: § 10. see on B.C. BOOK VII Beginning of the Drama I 2. Et hoc et insequenti anno C. Sulpicio Petico, C. 2 Licinio Stolone consulibus pestilentia fuit. Eo nihil dig364 num memoria actum, nisi quod pacis deum exposcendae causa tertio tum post conditam urbem lectisternium fuit. 3 Et cum vis morbi nec humanis consiliis nec ope divina levaretur, victis superstitione animis ludi quoque scaenici, nova res bellicoso populo-nam circi modo spectaculum fuerat, inter alia caelestis irae placamina instituti di Book VII. 2. References: Val. Max. 2, 4, 4. Teuffel, Hist. of Roman Lit., trans. by Warr, 1, 328. Sellar, Roman Poets of the Republic, 37-42, 52-58. Nettleship, Essays, 61–66. Mommsen, Hist. of Rome, 2, 97-99; 3, 135 ff. 2. 1. C. Licinio Stolone: his colleague in the tribuneship, L. Sextius, had been consul two years before, in 366, the first plebeian who held the office. 2. eo: i.e. the year of the consulship just mentioned. - pacis favor; see on 1, 16, 3.- - tertio : for the third time; the usual adverb in this sense is tertium. The first lectisternium was celebrated in 399 after consultation of the Sibylline Books. The date of the second is unknown. - lectisternium: a sacrifice offered to the gods in times of great distress; images of the gods were placed on couches, food was placed be fore them, and prayers were offered at all the shrines. 3. quoque with reference not to lectisternium, but to the following inter alia. nova res: no doubt there had been before this rude performances of a more or less dramatic nature, especially at the festivals of rural gods, but they had never been given officially before, or with any formality. Verg. Georg. 2, 385 ff.; Hor. Epist. 2, 145–146; Tibull. 2, 1, 51 ff. It is probable that this innovation is to be connected with the extension of the ludi Romani and the appointment of curule aediles to manage the festival; see 6, 42, 12-14. circi: the valley of the Circus Maximus, between the Palatine and the Aventine, was used for games, according to the tradition, as early as Romulus, but no seats were constructed until the reign of Tarquinius Priscus. - spectacu cuntur. Ceterum parva quoque, ut ferme principia omnia, 4 et ea ipsa peregrina res fuit. Sine carmine ullo, sine imitandorum carminum actu ludiones, ex Etruria acciti, ad tibicinis modos saltantes haud indecoros motus more Tusco dabant. Imitari deinde eos iuventus simul inconditis inter 5 se iocularia fundentes versibus coepere, nec absoni a voce motus erant. Accepta itaque res saepiusque usurpando 6 excitata. Vernaculis artificibus, quia ister Tusco verbo ludio vocabatur, nomen histrionibus inditum; qui non, sicut 7 ante, Fescennino versu similem inconpositum temere ac lum: chariot races and athletic contests. 4. quoque: with reference to peregrina; see on § 3 and cf. 4, 49, 6 Bolas quoque, sicut Labicos, coloni mitterentur. - et... peregrina: and imported at that. sine carmine . . . actu: with no words, and with no action to express the meaning of words; i.e. it was neither play nor pantomime, but only a dance. -ludiones: lit., players, but here dancers; another form is ludius. Tac. Ann. 14, 21 maiores quoque non abhorruisse spectaculorum oblectamentis pro fortuna quae tum erat, eoque a Tuscis accitos histriones. - dabant: see on 5, 38, 3. 5. imitari. coepere: Livy treats the earlier and purely original efforts of the Romans as not coming properly under the head of the drama; cf. § 7 and see on § 3 nova res. — inconditis: see on 5, 49, 7; rude verses in the Saturnian meter, a native Roman pro duction.—coepere: for the number see on 2, 28, 9. 6. accepta . . . excitata: thus the drama was introduced and through frequent practice gathered strength.-usurpando: a loose and awkward use of the abl. of the gerund; see on I, 5, 6 conparando and cf. 9, 5, 11 experiundo.- artificibus cf. our use of the word "artist" as applied to players, musicians, etc. - ludio: a word of general meaning, which might. have been applied to any one who took part in ludi; histrio is the regular word for actor. - histrionibus: see on I, I, 3 Troiano. : 7. sicut ante: referring to the young men of § 5. This section describes the third stage in the development of the drama, the first being represented by the Etruscan dancers, the second by the iuventus of § 5. - Fescennino: Hor. Epist. 2, 1, 145-146 Fescennina per hunc inventa licentia morem Versibus alternis opprobria rudem alternis iaciebant, sed inpletas modis saturas descripto iam ad tibicinem cantu motuque congruenti perage8 bant. Livius post aliquot annis, qui ab saturis ausus est rustica fudit. The name is probably connected with that of the Etruscan town Fescennium (cf. § 11 Atellanis), though the reason for this connection is not clear. This was one of the primitive forms of native Latin comedy, consisting of rude dialogue in Saturnian verse with appropriate gestures and dancing. As the Romans had long been familiar with this sort of performance, it is hard to see why Livy regards the arrival of the Etruscan dancers and the subsequent exhibitions of the young men as a real invention, and as marking the introduction of the drama; what he describes in § 5 is not different from the Fescennini versus. versu: dat. with similem; cf. 9, 5, 6 exercitu. The word does not mean here a particular kind of verse, but the whole performance, usually expressed by the plural. — similem : SC. versum. inconpositum temere: with a careless lack of continuity; conpositum temere would have meant the same thing, but it seems better to connect temere with inconpositum than with iaciebant. - alternis: an adverb; versibus is not to be supplied, though the meaning is the same as in the passage from Horace quoted above; the two actors recited alternate lines. iaciebant: note the contrast between the meaning of this word and that of peragebant. inpletas modis: all in verse. saturas: satura (sc. fabula and cf. lex satura, lanx satura) was another primitive form of Latin comedy, a variety show, including probably recitation, singing, and dancing. Livy here applies the word to a more definite form of entertainment, approaching the legitimate drama, all in verse, properly adapted to a musical accompaniment. It may be said. here that certain recent writers have discredited all statements regarding a native Roman drama (satura, fabula Atellana, etc.), believing them to be based upon an attempt to parallel the theories of Aristotle and other Greek writers. 8. Livius: Livius Andronicus came to Rome as a slave after the capture of Tarentum in 272. He was freed and became a teacher of Greek and Latin. Besides translating the Odyssey into Latin saturnians, he translated Greek plays, especially tragedies, into Latin, using the simpler meters of the originals. The first public performance of a play of this sort was in 240 B.C. post aliquot annis grammatically connected |