- 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-lat2:23.2.1-23.2.10
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-10-24
Hannibal marches toward the luxurious and dissolute city of Capua. Pacuvius Calavius, a popular leader of Capua, uses the threat of a popular massacre of the senate as a pretext to terrify the senators and traps them inside the senate-house under the guise of saving them.
inde Capuam flectit iter luxuriantem longa felicitate atque indulgentia fortunae, maxime tamen inter corrupta omnia licentia plebis sine modo libertatem exercentis.
From there he turned his march toward Capua, a city luxurious from long prosperity and the indulgence of fortune, but especially, amid the general corruption, because of the license of the populace, who exercised their liberty without restraint.
senatum et sibi et plebi obnoxium Pacuvius Calavius fecerat, nobilis idem ac popularis homo, ceterum malis artibus nanctus opes.
Pacuvius Calavius had made the senate subservient both to himself and to the commons; he was a man of noble birth and at the same time a popular leader, but one who had acquired wealth by evil arts.
is cum eo forte anno, quo res male gesta ad Trasumennum est, in summo magistratu esset, iam diu infestam senatui plebem ratus per occasionem novandi res magnum ausuram facinus,1 ut, si in ea loca Hannibal cum victore exercitu venisset, trucidato senatu traderet Capuam Poenis, inprobus homo, sed non ad extremum perditus, cum mallet incolumi quam eversa re publica dominari, nullam autem incolumem esse orbatam publico consilio crederet, rationem iniit, qua et senatum servaret et obnoxium sibi ac plebi faceret.
Since he happened to be in the highest magistracy in that year in which the disaster occurred at Trasumennus, and thinking that the commons, long hostile to the senate, would dare some great outrage if an opportunity for revolution should arise, so that, if Hannibal should come to those parts with his victorious army, they would massacre the senate and deliver Capua to the Carthaginians; being an unprincipled man, but not completely lost to virtue, since he preferred to rule over an unharmed rather than a ruined state, and believed that no state could be safe when deprived of its public council, he entered upon a plan by which he might both save the senate and make it subservient to himself and the commons.
vocato senatu cum sibi defectionis ab Romanis consilium placiturum nullo modo, nisi necessarium fuisset,2 praefatus esset, quippe qui liberos ex Appii Claudii filia haberet filiamque Romam nuptum M. Livio dedisset;
Having called the senate together, when he had prefaced his remarks by saying that a plan of revolting from the Romans would by no means please him, unless it had been necessary, inasmuch as he had children by the daughter of Appius Claudius and had given his own daughter in marriage to Marcus Livius at Rome;
ceterum maiorem multo rem magisque timendam instare: non enim per defectionem ad tollendum ex civitate senatum plebem spectare, sed per caedem senatus vacuam rem publicam tradere Hannibali ac Poenis velle;
but that a far greater and more dreadful matter was impending; for the commons were not looking toward removing the senate from the state by a revolt, but wished, by a massacre of the senate, to deliver the state, left vacant, to Hannibal and the Carthaginians;
eo se periculo posse liberare eos,3 si permittant sibi et certaminum in re publica obliti credant, — cum omnes victi metu permitterent, “Claudam” inquit “in curia vos et tamquam et ipse cogitati facinoris particeps adprobando consilia, quibus nequiquam adversarer,4 viam saluti vestrae inveniam.
that he could free them from that danger, if they would yield to him, and, forgetting their political struggles, trust him, — when they all, overcome by fear, yielded to him, “I will shut you up,” he said, “in the senate-house, and as though I myself were a sharer in the contemplated crime, by approving plans which I should oppose in vain, I will find a way for your safety.
in hoc fidem, quam voltis ipsi, accipite.” fide data egressus claudi curiam iubet, praesidiumque in vestibulo relinquit, ne quis adire curiam iniussu suo neve inde egredi possit.
For this, receive the pledge which you yourselves wish.” The pledge having been given, he went out and ordered the senate-house to be closed, and left a guard in the vestibule, so that no one might approach the senate-house without his order, nor go out from there.
- 23.2.3plebem ratus ... ausuram facinus
ratus is the perfect participle of the deponent verb reor (to think), functioning here as a participle clause. It governs an accusative with infinitive construction (plebem ... ausuram [esse] ... traderet). ausuram is the future active participle (feminine accusative singular) of audeo (to dare), agreeing with plebem, with the infinitive esse omitted. The ut ... traderet clause expresses the purpose or result of the plot implied by ausuram.
- 23.2.5placiturum nullo modo, nisi necessarium fuisset
This represents the apodosis of a conditional sentence in indirect discourse. placiturum [fuisse] is an elliptical form of the future active infinitive with past-counterfactual force ("would by no means have pleased"), corresponding to the pluperfect subjunctive in the protasis nisi necessarium fuisset ("unless it had been necessary").
- 23.2.8eo se periculo posse liberare eos
In this indirect discourse, the accusative pronoun se (referring to Pacuvius himself) serves as the subject of the infinitive posse, while eos (referring to the senators) is the direct object.
- 23.2.9quibus nequiquam adversarer
The relative pronoun quibus refers to the antecedent consilia (plans) and is in the dative case because the verb adversor (to oppose) governs the dative. The imperfect subjunctive adversarer expresses a hypothetical or potential concession ("plans which I would oppose in vain").