- Source
- Titi Livi ab urbe condita libri editionem priman, Pars I-IV, Libri I-XL. Editio Stereotypica. Weissenborn, Wilhelm; Mueller, Moritz, editors. Leipzig: Teubner, 1884-1911.
- Translation
- AI-generated (gemini-3.5-flash) — machine translation; may contain errors
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- CTS URN
- urn:cts:latinLit:phi0914.phi001.humanitext-lat2:2.42.1-2.42.11
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-03
Following the execution of Cassius, domestic discord revived due to the allure of the agrarian law and resentment against the patricians, but was temporarily suspended by foreign wars. As the Fabian family rose to the consulship to oppose the tribunes, ongoing celestial portents culminated in the punishment of the Vestal Virgin Oppia for unchastity.
haud diuturna ira populi in Cassium fuit. dulcedo agrariae legis ipsa per se dempto auctore1 subibat animos, accensaque ea cupiditas est malignitate patrum, qui devictis eo anno Volscis Aequisque militem praeda fraudavere.2
The people’s anger against Cassius was not long-lasting. The sweetness of the agrarian law itself, with its author removed, began to steal into their minds, and this desire was inflamed by the ill-will of the patricians, who, having thoroughly defeated the Volscians and Aequians in that year, defrauded the soldiers of their booty.
quidquid captum ex hostibus est, vendidit Fabius consul ac redegit in publicum. invisum erat Fabium nomen plebi propter novissimum consulem; tenuere tamen patres, ut cum L. Aemilio Caeso Fabius consul crearetur.
Whatever was captured from the enemy, the consul Fabius sold and paid into the public treasury. The name of Fabius was hateful to the plebs on account of the most recent consul; nevertheless, the patricians carried their point that Kaeso Fabius should be elected consul along with Lucius Aemilius.
eo infestior facta plebes seditione domestica bellum externum excivit. bello deinde civiles discordiae intermissae. uno animo patres ac plebs rebellantes Volscos et Aequos duce Aemilio prospera pugna vicere.
The plebs, made all the more hostile by this, provoked a foreign war through domestic sedition. Then, by the war, civil discord was suspended. With one mind, the patricians and the plebs, under the leadership of Aemilius, defeated the rebelling Volscians and Aequians in a successful battle.
plus tamen hostium fuga quam proelium absumpsit: adeo pertinaciter fusos insecuti sunt equites.
However, the flight of the enemy cut off more of them than the battle itself: so relentlessly did the cavalry pursue them once they were routed.
Castoris aedes eodem anno idibus Quintilibus dedicata est. vota erat Latino bello a Postumio dictatore; filius eius duumvir ad id ipsum creatus dedicavit. sollicitati et eo anno sunt dulcedine agrariae legis animi plebis. tribuni plebi popularem potestatem lege populari celebrabant; patres satis superque gratuiti furoris3 in multitudine credentes esse, largitiones temeritatisque invitamenta horrebant. acerrimi patribus duces ad resistendum consules fuere.
The temple of Castor was dedicated in the same year on the Ides of July. It had been vowed during the Latin war by the dictator Postumius; his son, elected as a commissioner for this very purpose, dedicated it. In this year as well, the minds of the plebs were stirred by the sweetness of the agrarian law. The tribunes of the plebs were making their popular power conspicuous by means of a popular law; the patricians, believing that there was already more than enough unprovoked madness in the multitude, dreaded distributions and inducements to recklessness. The consuls were the most energetic leaders for the patricians in resisting.
ea igitur pars rei publicae vicit nec in praesens modo, sed in venientem etiam annum M. Fabium, Caesonis fratrem, et magis invisum alterum plebi accusatione Sp. Cassi, L. Valerium, consules dedit. certatum eo quoque anno cum tribunis est.
Therefore that party of the state prevailed, and gave as consuls, not only for the present but also for the coming year, Marcus Fabius, the brother of Kaeso, and the other, Lucius Valerius, who was even more hated by the plebs because of his prosecution of Spurius Cassius. In that year too, there was a struggle with the tribunes.
vana lex vanique legis auctores iactando inritum munus facti. Fabium inde nomen ingens post tres continuos consulatus unoque velut tenore omnes expertos tribuniciis certaminibus habitum;4 itaque, ut bene locatus, mansit in ea familia aliquamdiu honos. bellum inde Veiens initum, et Volsci rebellarunt.
The law became empty and the authors of the law became futile by boasting of a useless gift. From that time the name of Fabius was held to be immense, after three successive consulships, all of which had been tested, as if in one continuous course, by conflicts with the tribunes; and so, like an investment well placed, that honor remained for some time in that family. After that, a war with Veii began, and the Volscians rebelled.
sed ad bella externa prope supererant vires, abutebanturque iis inter semet ipsos certando.
But they had almost a surplus of strength for foreign wars, and they abused it by contending among themselves.
accessere ad aegras iam omnium mentes prodigia caelestia, prope cotidianas in urbe agrisque ostentantia minas; motique ita numinis causam nullam aliam vates canebant publice privatimque nunc extis nunc per aves consulti, quam haud rite sacra fieri.5
To the already troubled minds of all were added celestial prodigies, showing threats almost daily in the city and the fields; and the prophets, consulted publicly and privately, now by means of entrails, now by birds, declared that there was no other cause for the deity being thus angered than that the sacred rites were not being duly performed.
qui terrores tamen eo evasere, ut Oppia virgo Vestalis damnata incesti poenas dederit.
These terrors, however, culminated in this: that the Vestal Virgin Oppia, convicted of unchastity, paid the penalty.
- 2.42.1dempto auctore
An ablative absolute construction using the perfect passive participle of demere (to remove), meaning "with the author (of the agrarian law, namely Cassius) having been removed" by execution, expressing a condition or cause.
- 2.42.1militem praeda fraudavere
fraudavere is a syncopated form of fraudaverunt. The verb fraudare takes an accusative of the person (militem, here a collective singular) and an ablative of the thing (praeda), meaning "they defrauded the soldiers of their booty."
- 2.42.6satis superque gratuiti furoris
The adverbial phrase satis superque (enough and more than enough) functions substantively and governs the partitive genitive gratuiti furoris (unprovoked madness/frenzy).
- 2.42.8Fabium inde nomen ingens ... habitum
The auxiliary est is omitted in the perfect passive habitum [est] (was held/considered). nomen is the subject and ingens is the predicate. expertos (perfect participle of experior) modifies either the implied consulatus (accusative plural) or Fabios (all the Fabii), referring to their having experienced the conflicts with the tribunes.
- 2.42.10motique ita numinis causam ... quam haud rite sacra fieri
causam is the head noun, followed by nullam aliam ... quam (no other cause than). The phrase haud rite sacra fieri (that the sacred rites were not being duly performed) is an accusative with infinitive (ACI) clause explaining the content of causam, with an omitted esse.