- 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-lat2:2.57.1-2.57.4
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-02
After the plebs and the consul Appius are pacified respectively by the consul Quinctius and the patricians, a debate is held in the senate. Although Appius protests against the senate's consensus to avoid conflict, he eventually yields to their pressure, and the law concerning elections in the tribal assembly is passed in silence.
aegre sedata ab Quinctio plebs, multo aegrius consul alter a patribus.1
The plebs was pacified with difficulty by Quinctius, and the other consul with much greater difficulty by the patricians.
dimisso tandem concilio plebis senatum consules habent. ubi cum timor atque ira in vicem sententias variassent, quo magis spatio interposito ab impetu ad consultandum avocabantur, eo plus2 abhorrebant a certatione animi, adeo ut Quinctio gratias agerent, quod eius opera mitigata discordia esset.
The assembly of the plebs having been finally dismissed, the consuls held a meeting of the senate. Where, when fear and anger had in turn varied their opinions, the more they were recalled from impulse to deliberation by the interval of time interposed, the more their minds shrank from conflict, so much so that they returned thanks to Quinctius because by his effort the discord had been mitigated.
ab Appio petitur, ut tantam consularem maiestatem esse vellet, quanta esse in concordi civitate posset. dum tribuni consulesque ad se quisque omnia trahant, nihil relictum esse virium in medio; distractam laceratamque rem publicam; magis quorum in manu sit, quam ut incolumis sit, quaeri.3
Appius was requested to wish that the consular majesty should be only as great as it could be in a harmonious state. It was argued that while the tribunes and the consuls each dragged everything to their own side, nothing of strength was left in the middle; the republic was distracted and torn to pieces; and it was being asked more in whose hands it should be, than that it should be safe.
Appius contra testari deos atque homines rem publicam prodi per metum ac deseri, non consulem senatui, sed senatum consuli deesse; graviores accipi leges, quam in Sacro monte acceptae sint. victus tamen patrum consensu quievit. lex silentio perfertur.
Appius, on the contrary, called gods and men to witness that the republic was being betrayed and deserted through fear, and that it was not the consul who was failing the senate, but the senate that was failing the consul; more grievous laws were being accepted than those which had been accepted on the Sacred Mount. Yet, overcome by the consensus of the patricians, he remained quiet. The law was passed in silence.
- 2.57.1consul alter a patribus
The verb sedatus est (was pacified) is omitted in the second clause, which should be understood from sedata [est] in the first clause (aegre sedata ab Quinctio plebs). consul alter refers to Appius Claudius.
- 2.57.2quo magis ... eo plus
The correlative construction quo ... eo ... (the more ... the more ...) expresses proportion. The ablative absolute spatio interposito indicates the cause or means of their being recalled (avocabantur), and as a result, their minds (animi, nominative plural) shrank from conflict.
- 2.57.3magis quorum in manu sit, quam ut incolumis sit, quaeri
In this indirect discourse, the passive infinitive quaeri has as its subject the indirect question quorum in manu sit (in whose hands it is), which is contrasted via quam with the ut-clause ut incolumis sit (that it should be safe).