- 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
- Languages
- 日本語 · English · 简体中文 · 한국어
- CTS URN
- urn:cts:latinLit:phi0914.phi001.humanitext-lat2:21.29.1-21.29.7
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-10-23
A clash occurs between Numidian cavalry sent by Hannibal and Roman scouting cavalry, resulting in a Roman victory. Scipio awaits the enemy's next moves, while Hannibal is persuaded by the newly arrived Boian envoys to focus on crossing the Alps into Italy.
dum elephanti traiciuntur, interim Hannibal Numidas equites quingentos ad castra Romana miserat speculatum,1 ubi et quantae copiae essent et quid pararent.
While the elephants were being crossed, Hannibal in the meantime had sent five hundred Numidian horsemen to the Roman camp to reconnoiter where and how large their forces were, and what they were preparing.
huic alae equitum missi, ut ante dictum est, ab ostio Rhodani trecenti Romanorum equites occurrunt. proelium atrocius quam pro numero pugnantium2 editur;
This troop of cavalry was met by three hundred Roman horsemen who, as was said before, had been sent from the mouth of the Rhone. A battle was joined, more fierce than might have been expected from the number of the combatants;
nam praeter multa vulnera caedes etiam prope par utrimque fuit, fugaque et pavor Numidarum Romanis iam admodum fessis victoriam dedit. victores ad centum quadraginta, nec omnes Romani, sed pars Gallorum, victi amplius ducenti ceciderunt.
for besides many wounds, the slaughter was also nearly equal on both sides, and the flight and panic of the Numidians gave the victory to the Romans, who were already extremely fatigued. Of the victors about one hundred and forty fell, not all Romans, but a part Gauls; of the vanquished more than two hundred fell.
hoc principium simul omenque belli ut summae rerum prosperum eventum ita haud sane incruentam ancipitisque certaminis victoriam Romanis portendit. ut re ita gesta ad utrumque ducem sui redierunt, nec Scipioni stare sententia poterat, nisi ut3 ex consiliis coeptisque hostis et ipse conatus caperet, et Hannibalem incertum, utrum coeptum in Italiam intenderet iter an cum eo, qui primus se obtulisset Romanus exercitus, manus consereret, avertit a praesenti certamine Boiorum legatorum regulique Magali adventus,4 qui se duces itinerum, socios periculi fore adfirmantes integro bello nusquam ante libatis viribus Italiam adgrediendam censent.
This beginning and at the same time omen of the war portended for the Romans, as a successful issue for the main event, so a victory by no means bloodless and of a doubtful contest. When, the affair having been thus conducted, their own men returned to each general, Scipio could not fix upon any settled plan, except that he himself should take measures according to the designs and attempts of the enemy, and Hannibal, uncertain whether he should continue the march he had begun into Italy, or join battle with the Roman army that had first presented itself, was turned away from the immediate contest by the arrival of the Boian ambassadors and of their petty king Magalus, who, affirming that they would be guides for the journey and partners in the danger, judged that Italy should be attacked while the war was yet fresh, with their strength nowhere previously diminished.
multitudo timebat quidem hostem nondum oblitterata memoria superioris belli, sed magis iter immensum Alpesque, rem fama utique inexpertis horrendam, metuebat.
The multitude indeed feared the enemy, the memory of the former war not yet being effaced, but they more dreaded the immense march and the Alps, a thing indeed terrible by report to those who had not experienced it.
- 21.29.1speculatum
A supine in -um expressing purpose ("to reconnoiter") after the verb of motion miserat ("had sent").
- 21.29.2pro numero pugnantium
The preposition pro here means "in proportion to" or "considering," establishing the standard of comparison for the fierceness of the battle.
- 21.29.5nec Scipioni stare sententia poterat, nisi ut
The idiom stare sententia with the dative Scipioni means "to form a settled resolution." The phrase nisi ut introduces a conditional limitation, meaning "except so far as to..." or "except that...".
- 21.29.6avertit ... adventus
The core grammatical structure is adventus (arrival, subject) + avertit (turned away, verb) + Hannibalem (object). The object Hannibalem is modified by the long adjectival clause starting with incertum..., and the subject adventus is delayed near the end of the main clause, creating a hyperbaton.