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5. Cum robore peditum.] With the flower of his infantry. Robur, the pith or kernel of a thing.

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6. Angustiorem] Narrower' than usual. Subjectam jugo, 'situated immediately under the heights.' The track often passes through defiles of the most formidable character, being no more than a narrow ledge above a furious torrent, with cliffs rising above it absolutely precipitous.' (Arnold, iii. 73.)

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7. Maxima vis hominum.] An enormous force of men.' Cf. ingentem aquæ vim, 26. 8.

In eos versa, &c.] The ranks of infantry opposed to them left no doubt'-i.e. the desperate fighting of the infantry left no doubt that, unless the rear of the column had been covered, a great reverse must have been received in that pass.' Extrema, -orum, the rear parts. 'Foot-soldiers on such ground were able to move, where horses would be quite helpless.' (Arnold, iii. 73.) 8. Tunc.] Even as it was.

Ut-ita.] On the one hand-on the other.' Equitibus præsidio, a protection to the cavalry;' an instance of the double dative after sum.

9. Per obliqua.] Sideways.

Interrupto medio agmine, &c.] They cut his column in two, and occupied the pass.' Medio should be taken closely with interrupto, as it is an extension of the sense of the participle. XXXV. 1. Jam segnius intercursantibus.] 'Annoying them from this time less resolutely.'

2. Modo-modo.] At one time-at another time.' Primum agmen, the van:' novissimum agmen, the rearguard.'

3. Insuetis metus erat.] Lit., 'there was terror to them, being unused to them.' 'Wherever the elephants were the line of march was secure, for the barbarians beheld those huge creatures with terror, having never had the slightest knowledge of them, and not daring to approach when they saw them.' (Arnold, iii. 73.) 4. Per invia pleraque.] Loca must be understood: 'through places without a road for the most part.'

Temere inite valles.] Gorges entered at a venture.' Those who have tried to ascend any considerable mountain by the course of a stream will know how easy it is, where the horizon is limited, to mistake the course of a tributary for that of the main stream.

5. Stativa.] Castra understood. 'A stationary camp.' Whenever circumstances rendered it expedient for a force to occupy the same ground for any length of time, the encampment was distinguished as castra stativa.

6. Disheartened as they were by the fatigue of so many hardships, a fall of snow also inspired a new and powerful terror, as the constellation of the Pleiads was already setting.' Vergilia, that is the spring stars, was the Italian name for the Pleiades. They rose in the first half of May and set quite towards the end of October. Hannibal was on the summit of the Alps about the end of October; the first winter snows had already fallen. But two hundred years before the Christian era,

the climate of the Alps was far colder than at present, and the snow lay on the passes all through the year.' (Arnold, iii. 74.)

7. Signis motis.] 'The standards having been carried forward,' i.e. having begun the march.'

9. Uno aut summum altero prælio.] 'In one or at the most in a second battle.' Summum is used here adverbially.

10. Jam.] ‘By this time.' If we consider the force of ne quidem, we shall see the jam refers to the season of the year rather than to any feeling of the barbarians that they had had enough of opposition. It was getting too late even for the natives to be abroad on the Alps in any force, though a few determined marauders still hung about the march, and stole where and what they could.

11. Alpium.] The partitive gen. after pleraque: the generality of the Alps'=' the Alps as a rule.' Ab Italia, 'on the side of Italy.' Sicut breviora ita arrectiora, 'shorter, no doubt

but steeper.'

12. Ut neque sustinere, &c.] 'So that neither could they hold themselves up from falling, because the track was slippery, lubrica; nor could those who had tripped a little make good a footing when down,' because it was narrow, angusta; and so that men and beasts fell headlong one over the other,' because it was precipitous, præceps.

XXXVI. 1. At last they came to a place where an avalanche had carried away the track altogether for about three hundred yards, leaving the mountain side a mere wreck of scattered rocks and snow. To go round was impossible, for the depth of the snow on the heights above rendered it hopeless to scale them; nothing, therefore, was left but to repair the road.' (A. iii. 75.)

2. In pedum, &c.] Had been carried away to the depth of fully a thousand feet.' That is, the whole side of the rock for a thousand feet in depth had slipped.

4. Quin per invia, &c.] But that he must take his army round by paths trackless all round, and never trodden before, by a circuit of indefinite length.' Quamvis longo, as long as you please,' i.e. ' exceedingly long.'

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Ea via.] That way,' viz., the way over the top of the rock. 5. Nam quum, &c.] For since upon the old and untrodden snow there was fresh snow of moderate depth, the feet of those who went upon it readily held to it, being yielding and not too deep.' The freshly fallen snow would bind together and form a very good footing for a few men; but, when this coating of fresh snow was trodden off, and they came to the half-thawed slush below, no advance was possible.

6. Fluentem tabem.] The watery ooze.

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7. Aglacie.] Arising from the ice.' Then arose a sickening struggle, as it well might, with the slippery ice not affording a hold for the feet, and on the slope instantly tripping the feet.' Tabida nive.] 'Rotten snow.'

8. Tamen must be taken closely with interdum: 'sometimes at any rate.'

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Infimam nivem.] This was the lowest layer of snow, glaciers that never melt.

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XXXVII. 2. Ad rupem muniendam.] To mine the rock. Munio means here to make passable, so munire viam is 'to open a way.' The Carthaginians would have to cut an open gallery or arch out of the rock. Quum cædendum esset saxum, since solid rock must be hewn.'

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Vis venti.] A gale of wind.' For this use of vis cf. 26. 8. and 34. 7.

3. Ardentiaque saxa, &c.] 'And they make the red-hot rocks friable by pouring vinegar upon them.'

Opposuit natura Alpemque nivemque :

Diducit scopulos et montem rumpit aceto.'-Juv. x. 152.

The story of the vinegar is generally rejected.

6. Ibi.] Viz. on the plateaus halfway down the side. Et quies, &c., and rest for three days was given to the soldiers As triduo clearly expresses worn out with road-making.'

duration of time here, we should rather have expected the acc.

Locis, &c.] These are both abl. absolutes: both the region and the tempers of the inhabitants being now less savage.'

XXXVIII. 1. Perventum est, sc. ab Hannibale.] 'H. arrived.' 2. How many troops H. had on his passage into Italy is by no means settled among our informants. According to his own statement, he brought out of the Alpine valleys no more than 12,000 African and 8,000 Spanish infantry, with 6,000 cavalry; so that his march from the Pyrenees to the plains of Northern Italy must have cost him 33,000 men. (Arnold, iii. 76.)

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3. Maxime auctor moveret.] Would have influenced me the most as an informant.' The Gauls and Ligurians were the tribes on the Italian side of the Alps.

5. E Taurinis.] What then really was H.'s route over the Alps? We do not know, and never shall know. Mommsen and Arnold both declare for the pass of the Little St. Bernard. The route by the Little St. Bernard keeps by the valley of the Upper Isère, up to the very foot of the Little St. Bernard, and is the broadest, most fertile, and most populous of all the Alpine valleys. The pass, moreover, of the Little St. Bernard, while not the lowest of all the natural passes of the Alps, is by far the easiest. This route, which only leads over two mountain ridges, was, in fine, from the earliest times, the great military route from the Celtic to the Italian territory.' (Mommsen, ii. p. 106.) On the other hand the route over Mont Cenis would be much more direct to the territory of the Taurini, as the position of Turin still shows us.

6. Ambigi.] Used impersonally. I am the more astonished that it is disputed by what way H. crossed the Alps.'

Credere.] Understand homines: and that men commonly believe.'

7. Panino.] Everybody seems, at all events, to be agreed that the Pennine pass is out of the question.

8. Nec verisimile, &c.] Nor is it probable that at that time those routes had been opened into Gaul.' 'A military road was first constructed by Pompey over the Cottian Alps, to furnish a shorter communication between Cisalpine and Transalpine Gaul.' (Mommsen, ii. 106.)

9. Neque hercule, &c.] Nor, in sooth, do the Seduni and Veragri, inhabiting that range, know of a name bestowed on these mountains from any passage of Phoenicians.'

XXXIX. 1. Taurinis.] The dative of agent after the participle motum.

In reficiendo.] In recruiting:' the gerund is used abso lutely. He means that it was not until they came to repair the waste they had undergone that they discovered its extent.

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2. Ex labore.] After hardship.' Ex expresses transition from one state to another. Inopia, ‘privation.'

3. Tirone, &c.] 'Newly levied and smarting under their recent reverses.' These were the troops that had been so severely handled by the Boii and Insubres; see c. 25.

5. Veniebant.] Give the full force of the imperfect: 'because they were not for coming.'

Oppressisset.] Had overawed them.'

6. Quæ pars sequenda esset.] 'Which side should be followed.' The gerundives of deponent verbs are used with a passive sense.

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8. Celeberrimum nomen erat.] 'His name was in many mouths.' It is better even here not to translate celebrated.' Cf. quorum celebre per Hispaniam responsum, 19. 7.

10. Priusquam educeret in aciem.] Scipio must certainly have delivered this speech a good deal too soon, at least some days before the battle. He was at this time still on the left bank of the Ticinus, over which he had not yet even thrown a bridge: see c. 45.

XL. 1. Supersedissem loqui.] 'I would have forborne to speak to you.' 'I should have thought it needless to speak to you.' This constr. of supersedere with an infinitive is un

common.

2. Egregie vicissent.] The account of this 'splendid' victory is given 29. 2-4, where the engagement is represented as practically drawn: cædes prope par utrimque fuit.

3. Hispaniæ provinciæ scriptus.] Raited for the seat of war in Spain. See c. 17.

Meis auspiciis.] This means much more than 'under my auspices' in the loose sense in which we use that phrase now. The consul, as the successor to the kingly power, had the right of taking the auspicia majora. When at Rome he would have the assistance of the college of augurs, but in the field he exercised his own discretion. And it must be remembered that the power of taking the auspices originally resided in the magistrates, the augu being at first merely skilled assessors. Along with any part of the consular office went also the power of taking the auspices

Imperatori.] Dat. of the agent after the gerundivo facienda. 5. Genus belli.] The character of the war:' how far it was formidable or not. The genus of a war seems to have been one of the regular heads under which a war was discussed. It forms one of the main divisions of Cicero's speech Pro lege Manilia.

Per viginti annos.] Over twenty years.' For other allusions to the terms of the peace of Catulus, see 1. 5, 18. 8.

7. Plures pane.] 'Almost as many more,' i.e. 'nearly twice as many.' Have plucked up more hope, when nearly twice as many have fallen as survive.' He is, of course, speaking in irony.

8. At enim.] These words introduce an objection raised by one of his hearers: 'yes, but.' This is a common use of at. Enim here has no notion of 'for' attaching to it; it is merely a word of reference to what goes before; in fact it does little more than emphasise the at; as we say 'yes,' with a long pause, but,' &c.

9. Immo introduces the answer to the previous objection introduced by at. Why, no, they are spectres, phantoms of men.' Enecti.] Gaunt.'

10. Reliquiæ are the ashes of a body that has been burned on the funeral pyre; so that Scipio says virtually that H.'s men are already dead and buried.

Vos.] Emphatic. Although you have fought.'
To launch and wind up the

11. Committere ac profligare.]

war.' Profligare means to do all the hard work, to bear the brunt of the war.

XLI. 1. Ipsum here distinguishes Scipio from what he says. 'in myself,' i.e.' at heart.'

2. Molem belli.]

'A coil of war.' Moles is applicable to any object of vast and unwieldy bulk, implying effort in the agént or the object. Cf. Tante molis erat Romanam condere gentem, Virg. Æn. i. 33.

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4. Regressus is, of course, a participle in this reading. The common reading is neque regressus ad naves erat, nor was there any means of retreat to the ships;' but what that could mean in this connexion no one would venture to say.

Tanto maris terrarumque circuitu.] By so great a compass round sea and land;' so great, that is, as you know it to be: 'by all this compass,' &c. Timendo, ironical.

6. Experiri juvat.] Lit. 'it delights me to prove,' i.e. 'it is a welcome test.'

Egates.] This is one more allusion to the naval victory by which C. Catulus ended the First Punic War. Cf. Egates insulas Erycemque ante oculos proponite, 10. 7.

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Duodevicenis, &c.] 'Priced at 18 denarii a head.' The denarius varied in value from ten to eighteen asses. equivalent to an Attic drachma, which was th of a mina, or theth of a talent. 18 denarii 14s. 6d. about. Catulus had originally demanded that Hamilcar should deliver up his arms and the Roman deserters, but, finding that this point would never bo conceded, he compromised matters by the ransom.

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