- 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-lat2:21.30.1-21.30.11
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-10-23
Hannibal resolves on the march to Italy and addresses his soldiers, reviewing their past victories and achievements, chiding their fear of crossing the Alps, and encouraging them to aim for Rome as their ultimate goal.
itaque Hannibal, postquam ipsi sententia stetit1 pergere ire atque Italiam petere, advocata contione militum versat animos castigando adhortandoque: mirari se,2 quinam pectora semper inpavida repens terror invaserit. per tot annos vincentis eos stipendia facere neque ante Hispania excessisse, quam omnes gentesque et terrae, quas duo diversa maria amplectantur, Carthaginiensium essent.
Therefore Hannibal, after his resolution remained fixed to continue his march and head for Italy, having called an assembly of the soldiers, stirred their minds by chiding and encouraging them, saying that he wondered what sudden terror had invaded breasts that had always been fearless; that they, who for so many years had been serving as victors, had not departed from Spain before all the nations and lands which two different seas encompass were under the dominion of the Carthaginians;
indignatos deinde, quod, quicumque Saguntum obsedissent, velut ob noxam sibi dedi postularet populus Romanus, Hiberum traiecisse ad delendum nomen Romanorum liberandumque orbem terrarum.
and that afterwards, indignant because the Roman people demanded that whoever had besieged Saguntum should be delivered up to them as if for a crime, they had crossed the Ebro to blot out the Roman name and to set the world free.
tum nemini visum id longum, cum ab occasu solis ad exortus intenderent iter;
At that time, indeed, the march did not seem long to anyone, when they were directing their course from the setting of the sun to its rising;
nunc, postquam multo maiorem partem itineris emensam cernant, Pyrenaeum saltum inter ferocissimas gentes superatum, Rhodanum, tantum amnem, tot milibus Gallorum prohibentibus, domita etiam ipsius fluminis vi traiectum, in conspectu Alpis habeant, quarum alterum latus Italiae sit, in ipsis portis hostium fatigatos subsistere — quid Alpis aliud esse credentes quam montium altitudines?3
but now, after they saw a much greater part of the journey accomplished, the Pyrenean pass overcome among the fiercest tribes, the Rhone, so great a river, crossed in spite of so many thousands of Gauls preventing them, and even the violence of the stream itself being subdued, and they had the Alps in view, of which the other side was Italy, they were stopping, fatigued, in the very gates of the enemy—believing the Alps to be what else than high mountains?
fingerent altiores Pyrenaei iugis:4 nullas profecto terras caelum contingere nec inexsuperabiles humano generi esse. Alpis quidem habitari, coli, gignere atque alere animantes:
Let them imagine them to be higher than the ridges of the Pyrenees; surely no lands touched the sky, nor were insurmountable to the human race. The Alps indeed were inhabited, were cultivated, and produced and nourished living creatures;
pervias faucis esse exercitibus. eos ipsos, quos cernant, legatos non pinnis sublime elatos Alpis transgressos. ne maiores quidem eorum indigenas, sed advenas Italiae cultores has ipsas Alpis ingentibus saepe agminibus cum liberis ac coniugibus migrantium modo tuto transmisisse.
their passes were passable for armies. Those very ambassadors whom they saw had not crossed the Alps raised aloft on wings; nor indeed were their ancestors indigenous, but foreign settlers of Italy, and had often safely crossed these very Alps in immense columns, in the manner of migrants, with their children and wives.
militi quidem armato nihil secum praeter instrumenta belli portanti quid invium aut inexsuperabile esse? Saguntum ut caperetur, quid per octo menses periculi, quid laboris exhaustum esse!
To an armed soldier, indeed, carrying nothing with him but the instruments of war, what could be impassable or insurmountable? That Saguntum might be taken, what danger, what labor had been exhausted for eight months!
Romam, caput orbis terrarum, petentibus quicquam adeo asperum atque arduum videri, quod inceptum moretur?
To those aiming at Rome, the capital of the world, did anything seem so rough or steep as to delay their undertaking?
cepisse quondam Gallos ea, quae adiri posse Poenus desperet. proinde aut cederent animo atque virtute genti per eos dies totiens ab se victae aut itineris finem sperent5 campum interiacentem Tiberi ac moenibus Romanis.
The Gauls had once captured what the Carthaginian despaired of being able to approach. Therefore, they should either yield in spirit and courage to a nation so often defeated by them during those days, or look forward to the end of their journey in the plain lying between the Tiber and the Roman walls.
- 21.30.1postquam ipsi sententia stetit
ipsi is a dative of reference referring to Hannibal. Combined with the idiom sententia stat (a resolution stands firm), it means 'when his own resolution became fixed'.
- 21.30.1mirari se
From this point to the end of section 11, Hannibal's entire speech is reported in indirect discourse (oratio obliqua). mirari se is the accusative and infinitive of the main verb ('he said that he wondered'), and the subsequent sentences follow the rules of indirect speech, taking infinitives or subjunctives.
- 21.30.6quid Alpis aliud esse credentes quam montium altitudines?
A rhetorical question in indirect discourse. While first and second-person questions in direct discourse typically become subjunctive in indirect speech, a third-person rhetorical question ('what did they believe the Alps to be?') is expressed by the accusative and infinitive (esse).
- 21.30.7fingerent altiores Pyrenaei iugis
An imperative in indirect discourse. The imperative in direct speech (fingite or fingant) becomes the imperfect subjunctive (fingerent) due to the sequence of tenses governed by the historical present 'versat'. It expresses an exhortation: 'let them imagine'.
- 21.30.11proinde aut cederent animo atque virtute... aut itineris finem sperent
Imperatives in indirect discourse. While cederent is in the imperfect subjunctive (in sequence), the subsequent sperent is in the present subjunctive, representing a shift in tense within the indirect speech. Although some manuscripts read sperarent, Livy often favors such shifts to the present for vividness.