PAGE 21. Tribunus pl. et quæ postea... habuerat. Flaminius had been trib 161 une, and had then carried an agràrian law for a general assignation of the Ager Picenus, B. c. 232. He had been consul for the first time in the year B. C. 223. After his appointment, when he was already engaged in the war with the Insubrian Gauls, the senate sent orders to both the consuls to return home immediately. But Flaminius refused to obey the summons, and continued his operations till the end of the season with much success, and, on his return home, demanded a triumph. The senate refused it, but he obtained it by a decree of the comitia.See Arn. Hist. Rome, vol. 2, p. 267. 162 26. Ne quis senator...haberet. This law forbade all senators and sons of senators from being the owners of a ship of a burden of more than three hundred amphora. The amphora, a weight of eighty pounds, was used, like our word ton, to estimate a ship's burden. The express object of the law was to hinder the Roman aristocracy from entering upon mercantile speculations, and becoming, like the Venetian nobles, a company of wealthy merchants.-See Arn. Hist. vol. 2, 26, 9. 32. Auspiciis ementiendis. Auspicia ementiri est falsa auspicia nuntiare.-Drakenborch. In his first consulship, Flaminius had been ordered home, on the ground that dreadful prodigies had been manifested, and that the omens had not been duly observed at the time of his election. 33. Latinarumque feriarum. This was a festival annually celebrated by the ambassadors of the Latin people, under the direction of the consuls. The particular time of the celebration was always determined by the consuls. 3. Spretorum; sc. et deorum et hominum; from a consciousness of having despised them.-Capitolium-nuncupationem. The commencement of the consulate was always celebrated by a solemn procession to the capitol, and a sacrifice there to Jupiter Capitolinus, associated with solemn vows and prayers; and, after that, there was a great meeting in the senate.-Dict. Antiqq., p. 306. 9. Paludatis; clothed with the paludamentum. It was the custom for a Roman magistrate, after he had received the imperium from the comitia curiata, and had offered up his vows in the capitol, to march out of the city, arrayed in the paludamentum (exire paludatus, Cic. ad Fam. 8, 10), attended by his lictors in similar attire. PAGE 163 BOOK TWENTY-SECOND. I-II. Prodigies at Rome.-Hannibal's passage of the Apennines. 5. Pro eo, ut, etc.; instead of this that they themselves, etc., i. e. instead · of themselves plundering, etc. In like manner, pro eo is joined with quod, quantum.-See Hand, Turs. 4, p. 587. 11. Errore etiam. Error (see n. I. 24) means uncertainty, doubt; and hence that which occasions uncertainty, leads into error. Here it means the deception which Hannibal practised to mislead his enemies. Etiam, in connection with insidiis, means also, the idea being that he had secured himself against the snares of his enemies by deception also on his own part. Mutando-capitis, explanatory of err. et., specifies particular artifices to which he resorted. 21. Nec privatum, etc. It was customary for the new consul to bold the auspices at Rome on the day he entered upon office. If this were not done, the auspices, afterwards held elsewhere, were deemed not valid. As Flaminius failed to follow the usage, he was considered not a consul, but only a private citizen. 27. Sanguine sudasse. Sudare, like pluere ( see XXI. 62), and many other verbs, is construed with abl. or acc. 9. Sortes attenuatas. See n. XXI. 62. 21. Dii divinis carminibus. Alschefski thus reads, instead of divis carminibus, retaining divinis, which is found in nearly all the MSS., but supplying, by conjecture, dii, which we can readily believe may have fallen out before divinis (di divinis). The other dat. with cordi is thus furnished in sibi understood referring to dii. 29. Quin et ut, etc.; nay even that, etc. 35. Saturnalia. See description of this festival in Dict. Antiqq. 1. Delectu; for this form of the dative, see H. 116, 4, 3). 5. Viam per paludem, etc. Hannibal "crossed the Apennines, not by the ordinary road to Lucca, descending the valley of the Macra, but, as it appears, by a straighter line down the valley of the Auser or Serchio; and, leaving Lucca on his right, he proceeded to struggle through the low and flooded country, which lay between the right bank of the Arno and the Apennines, below Florence, and of which the marsh or lake of Fucecchio still remains a specimen."-Arn. Hist. Rome, vol. 2, p. 295. = 13. Qua modo. Qua is equivalent to quacumque via, and modo is restrictive, dummodo, if only. The sense is, that they went anywhere, if only the guides there led the way. 164 165 PAGE 16. Neque...neque...ant, etc. The negation in neque neque be 165 longs also to the clause aut—sustinebant. 19. Ubi...procubuissent; the subj. of repeated action. H. 486, III. 5. 25. Tantum...aqua; literally, so much as stood out, etc.; i. e. only for somewhat that stood out of the water. Tantum is the object of quærentibus. 30. Vigiliis tamen; tamen in reference to elephanto—vectus, and the words vigiliis—caput follow up primum, though deinde is not expressed. III-VII. The battle of Lake Trasimene. 166 2. Quæ cognosse in rem erat. In rem esse utile esse; which it was expedient to know. 167 6. Non modo...sed ne.... .quidem. See n. on this construction, I. 40. 20. In consilio; "in the council of war, composed of persons of senatorian rank, the legates, tribunes, and first centurions."-Fabri. 26. Quum dedisset, immo, etc. The reading quum dedisset Alschefski adopts in his larger edition from the Harleian MS. The common reading is proposuit; but it rests upon doubtful authority. Immo from Alschefski, instead of quia immo. Immo is ironical = aye. Aye, let us sit down, etc 37. Num litteras, etc. See XXI. 63, on tribunus plebis, etc. 10. Ad loca nata insidiis. On the scene of this battle, Arnold thus remarks: "The modern road along the lake, after passing the village of Passignano, runs for some way close to the water's edge on the right, hemmed in on the left by a line of cliffs, which make it an absolute defile. Then it turns from the lake, and ascends the hills; yet, although they form something of a curve, there is nothing to deserve the name of a valley; and the road, after leaving the lake, begins to ascend almost immediately, so that there is a very short distance during which the hills on the right and left command it.-Hist. Rome, vol. 2, p. 296. Compare Arnold's note, ib. 505.-Ubi-consideret. Ubi is relative, quo or in quibus; and with consideret expresses purpose; in which to post himself. 22. Tantum...erat. Tantum-quod, so much—as; ex adverso, opposite to him. It is unnecessary, with 26. Qui ubi, etc.; qui refers to omnibus; as soon as these, etc. 30. Pariter has reference to time; at the same time. 31. Romanus... prius... quam...sensit. Walch and Bekker, to change the position of prius, and place it directly before quam. Indeed, by such an arrangement, we might be misled, by supposing that clamore orto are in the ablative absolute. Render thus: The Romans, by the shout that arose, before they could see distinctly, perceived that they were surrounded. With cerneret we may supply se circumventum esse, or hostem, or cerneret may be taken absolutely. Cernere means to see distinctly, in distinction from videre, simply to see. 35. Ut in re trepida. See notes on ut, I. 57, and XXI. 34. PAGE 6. Tantumque aberat, etc. The subj. nosceret is one of result depen-168 dent upon the impers. verb aberat, and competeret and opprimerentur also express result, but in dependence upon tantum; and the soldiers so far from knowing, etc., had scarcely sufficient presence of mind, etc. 21. Per principes, etc. According to the ordinary arrangement, the hastati formed the first line, the principes the second, and the triarii the third, as Livy himself has described it in VIII. 8, 8. In this passage he has principes hastatosque, because these two lines preceded the signa, (hence antesignani), and formed, as it were, one body. 36. Facie quoque...consul en. Compare the similar passage above in II. 6. 13. Capessere fugam impulerit; for ad capessendam fugam, or ut 169 fugam capesserent. This construction with the infinitive occurs very frequently in Tacitus, and also in the poets, but is otherwise rare. Fabri cites Tacitus, Ann. 6, 45; 13, 19; 14, 60.-Impulerit in the perf. subj. after qui with an indefinite antecedent, in the same way as so often after ut in clauses of result. See n. I. 3, on ausi sint. 31. Quæ...conjecit. On the expression Punica rel., compare XXI. 4. Atque is equivalent to et ita, and so.-Hand, Turs. 1, p. 478. Memorata is purposely 34. Hæc...nobilis...memorata...clades. used instead of memorabilis or memoranda, memorable, as the latter expression would be repulsive both to the historian and his Roman readers. Memorata is equivalent to quæ memoratur, and the historian prefers to say: One among the few recorded defeats which the Roman people have suffered, rather than-One among the few memorable defeats of the Roman people. 3. Nihil haustum ex vano, etc. Haustum ex vano means drawn from 170 an uncertain source, a source not to be relied upon. 5. Fabium. Q. Fabius Pictor, the earliest Roman historian. Comp. n. on II. 40. 9. Flaminii...corpus... inquisitum non invenit: briefly for: Flaminii-corpus-inquiri jussit, sed inventum non est.—Alschefski. 16. In comitium et curiam versa magistratus. The comitium occupied the upper or eastern end of the Forum; it was separated from the Forum, in the narrower sense of that word, by the Rostra.-See the Plan of Rome.-The curia here mentioned was the Curia Hostilia, so called from the king who built it, which was on the north side of the Comitium. It was the most important of the buildings early erected upon the Comitium; in it were held the meetings of the Senate, and around it the people were wont to gather, as at the time here referred to, on all occasions of great public interest.-Becker's Handbuch der Röm. Alt. 1, pp. 281, seqq.; Classical Museum, No. xi. p. 9, seqq.; Dict. Antiqq. p. 451. 33. Cerneres. See n. on timerem, II. 7. PAGS 171 VIII. The defeat of Caius Centenius.—Measures taken at Rome. 12. Ex comparatione; literally, in consequence of the comparison, i. e., in comparison with. 14. Ut...sentiretur, etc. Magis must be joined with sentiretur, and gravior corresponds to levis, and agrees with causa. Valido is in the same construction with affecto; as if it were written in full, quam in valido corpore gravior, etc. Observe the different tenses of the verbs sentiretur, inciderit; the imperf. in the former, because the clause is hypothetical; the perf. in the latter, because the clause expresses what is conceived as an actual occurrence.-Estimandum esse. The acc. with the infinitive depends upon a verb easily supplied from the preceding æstimare. 172 173 IX-X. Hannibal's march into Lower Italy.-Precautionary measures at Rome. 4. Satis quietis...gaudentibus. Quietis, the conjectural reading of Gronovius, is here adopted, in preference to quieti, the reading of the MSS., and given in the former edition. 6. Marsos. Devastat governs Marsos as well as agrum, also Marrucinos and Pelignos, as the name of the people stands here for the country itself. 13. Dictator iterum. Fabius had been appointed Dictator four years before. 19. Libros Sibyllinos. See n., XXI. 62. 23. Ludos magnos. See n. on spectacula, I. 35. 24. Erycine; from Mt. Eryx, in Sicily, on which was a temple, sacred to Venus. Hence the epithet.-Lectisternium. See n. on XXI. 62; and on supplicatio, see Dict. Antiqq., p. 938. 35. Velitis jubeatisne. See n., I. 46. 36. Populi Romani Quiritium. On this expression, see note on Priscis Latinis, I. 32. 37. Quod duellum...sunt. These words Alschefski, following the MSS., has, in his larger edition, placed immediately after Quiritium ; but they are so closely connected with hisce duellis, that I have preferred, with most editors, and also Alschefski in his minor edition, to place them immediately after those words. 2. Datum donum duit. Whether we take datum substantively, and read with Stroth and Fabri datum, donum, or explain datum, with Gronovius, as = nunc voto datum, the meaning is substantially the same. The expression has the usual characteristics of all the language of solemn |