- 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-lat2:29.23.1-29.23.10
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-02
The Carthaginians strengthen their defense by making an alliance with King Syphax of Numidia, hastened by his marriage to the daughter of Hasdrubal, son of Gisgo. Hasdrubal persuades the king to send legates warning Scipio not to invade Africa.
dum haec apud Romanos geruntur, Carthaginienses quoque, cum speculis per omnia promunturia positis percunctantes paventesque ad singulos nuntios sollicitam hiemem egissent, haud parvum et ipsi tuendae Africae momentum adiecerunt societatem Syphacis regis, cuius maxime fiducia1 traiecturum in Africam Romanum crediderant.
While these things were being done among the Romans, the Carthaginians also, having spent an anxious winter, inquiring and trembling at every piece of news, with watchtowers posted on all the promontories, they themselves also added no small weight to the defense of Africa by the alliance with King Syphax, reliance upon whom had been their chief reason for believing that the Romans would cross over into Africa.
erat Hasdrubali Gisgonis filio non hospitium modo cum rege, de quo ante dictum est, cum ex Hispania forte in idem tempus Scipio atque Hasdrubal convenerunt, sed mentio quoque inchoata adfinitatis, ut rex duceret filiam Hasdrubalis.
Hasdrubal, the son of Gisgo, had not only a bond of hospitality with the king, of which mention has been made before, when Scipio and Hasdrubal happened to meet at his court at the same time from Spain, but a proposal of affinity had also been initiated, that the king should marry the daughter of Hasdrubal.
ad eam rem consummandam tempusque nuptiis statuendum — iam enim nubilis erat virgo — profectus Hasdrubal ut accensum cupiditate — et sunt ante omnes barbaros Numidae effusi in Venerem — sensit,2 virginem a Carthagine arcessit maturatque nuptias;
Setting out to consummate this matter and to fix a time for the wedding — for the maiden was now of marriageable age — when Hasdrubal perceived that the king was inflamed with desire — and the Numidians are, beyond all other barbarians, prone to love — he sent for the maiden from Carthage and hastened the nuptials;
et inter aliam gratulationem, ut publicum quoque foedus privato adiceretur, societas inter populum Carthaginiensium regemque, data ultro citroque fide eosdem amicos inimicosque habituros, iure iurando adfirmatur.
and amidst other congratulations, in order that a public treaty might also be added to the private alliance, a league between the Carthaginian people and the king was confirmed by an oath, mutual pledges being given that they would hold the same friends and enemies.
ceterum Hasdrubal, memor et cum Scipione initae regi societatis et quam vana et mutabilia barbarorum ingenia essent, veritus, ne, si traiecisset in Africam Scipio, parvum vinculum eae nuptiae essent, dum accensum recenti amore Numidam habet, perpellit blanditiis quoque puellae adhibitis, ut legatos in Siciliam ad Scipionem mittat, per quos moneat eum, ne prioribus suis promissis fretus in Africam traiciat:
But Hasdrubal, mindful both of the alliance which the king had formed with Scipio, and of how vain and changeable the character of barbarians was, and fearing lest, if Scipio should cross over into Africa, this marriage might prove but a weak bond, while he held the Numidian inflamed with his recent love, he prevailed upon him, employing also the blandishments of the girl, to send legates into Sicily to Scipio, through whom he might warn him not to cross over into Africa, relying on his former promises.
se et nuptiis civis Carthaginiensis, filiae Hasdrubalis, quem viderit apud se in hospitio, et publico etiam foedere cum populo Carthaginiensi iunctum optare primum,3 ut procul ab Africa, sicut adhuc fecerint, bellum Romani cum Carthaginiensibus gerant, ne sibi interesse certaminibus eorum armaque aut haec aut illa, abnuentem alteram societatem, sequi necesse sit;4
He warned him that he, bound both by his marriage with a Carthaginian citizen, the daughter of Hasdrubal, whom Scipio had seen at his house as a guest, and also by a public treaty with the Carthaginian people, desired first of all, that the Romans should wage war with the Carthaginians far from Africa, as they had hitherto done, so that he might not be compelled to interfere in their disputes and to follow either one army or the other, thereby rejecting one of the two alliances.
si non abstineat Africa Scipio et Carthagini exercitum admoveat, sibi necessarium fore5 et pro terra Africa, in qua et ipse sit genitus, et pro patria coniugis suae proque parente ac penatibus dimicare.
But if Scipio should not keep away from Africa, and should advance his army against Carthage, it would be necessary for him to fight both for the land of Africa, in which he himself was born, and for the country of his wife, and for her parent and household gods.
- 29.23.2cuius maxime fiducia
fiducia is an ablative of cause or means, taking the genitive relative pronoun cuius (referring to Syphacis) as an objective genitive. It functions adverbially as 'relying chiefly on whom.'
- 29.23.4profectus Hasdrubal ut accensum cupiditate ... sensit
The structure is interrupted by the parenthetical clauses iam enim... and et sunt...; however, the core sentence structure is Hasdrubal ... ut [regem] accensum cupiditate sensit, virginem ... arcessit maturatque nuptias ('Hasdrubal, when he perceived that [the king] was inflamed with desire, sent for the maiden and hastened the nuptials').
- 29.23.8se et nuptiis ... et publico etiam foedere ... iunctum optare primum
In the accusative and infinitive (ACI) construction introduced by optare under indirect speech, the subject accusative is se, referring to King Syphax himself. The object of optare is the following ut ... gerant clause.
- 29.23.9ne sibi interesse certaminibus eorum ... necesse sit
interesse takes the dative certaminibus. The present participle abnuentem is in the accusative because it agrees with the logical subject (accusative) of the infinitive sequi, which is nested within the impersonal construction ne sibi ... necesse sit.
- 29.23.10sibi necessarium fore
fore is the shortened form of futurum esse (future infinitive), forming the impersonal construction 'that it would be necessary' in indirect speech.