- 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-lat2:3.55.1-3.55.15
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-10-31
The new consuls, Valerius and Horatius, enact laws to protect the rights and liberty of the plebs. These include the binding force of plebiscites on the entire people, the safeguard of the right of appeal, the legalization of the sacrosanctity of tribunes, and the preservation of senate decrees.
per interregem deinde consules creati L. Valerius, M. Horatius, qui extemplo magistratum occeperunt. quorum consulatus popularis sine ulla patrum iniuria nec sine offensione fuit;
Then, through an interrex, consuls were elected, Lucius Valerius and Marcus Horatius, who immediately entered upon their office. Their consulship was popular, without any injustice to the patricians, yet not without giving offence to them;
quidquid enim libertati plebis caveretur, id suis decedere opibus credebant.
for whatever was secured for the liberty of the plebs, they believed that that was detracted from their own power.
omnium primum, cum velut in controverso iure esset, tenerenturne patres plebi scitis,1 legem centuriatis comitiis tulere, ut, quod tributim plebes iussisset, populum teneret; qua lege tribuniciis rogationibus telum acerrimum datum est.
First of all, when it was as it were a disputed point of law whether the patricians were bound by the plebiscites, they carried a law in the centuriate assembly that what the plebs had ordered by tribes should bind the whole people; by which law a most sharp weapon was given to the tribunitian proposals.
aliam deinde consularem legem de provocatione, unicum praesidium libertatis, decemvirali potestate eversam, non restituunt modo, sed etiam in posterum muniunt sanciendo novam legem, ne quis ullum magistratum sine provocatione crearet; qui creasset, eum ius fasque esset occidi,2 neve ea caedes capitalis noxae haberetur.
Then, another consular law concerning appeal, the unique safeguard of liberty, which had been overthrown by the decemviral power, they not only restored, but also secured for the future by enacting a new law, that no one should create any magistrate without the right of appeal; and that if anyone should have created such, it should be lawful and right for him to be killed, nor should that killing be held as a capital crime.
et cum plebem hinc provocatione, hinc tribunicio auxilio satis firmassent, ipsis quoque tribunis, ut sacrosancti viderentur, cuius rei prope iam memoria aboleverat, relatis quibusdam ex magno intervallo caerimoniis renovarunt, et cum religione inviolatos eos tum lege etiam fecerunt sanciendo, ut, qui tribunis plebis, aedilibus, iudicibus decemviris nocuisset, eius caput Iovi sacrum esset,3 familia ad aedem Cereris, Liberi Liberaeque venum iret.
And when they had sufficiently strengthened the plebs, on the one hand by the right of appeal, and on the other by tribunitian aid, they also restored for the tribunes themselves, so that they might seem sacrosanct—the memory of which thing had by now almost faded away— by reviving certain ceremonies after a long interval, and they made them inviolable not only by religion but also by law, by enacting that whoever should harm the tribunes of the plebs, the aediles, or the decemviral judges, his head should be devoted to Jupiter, and his family should be sold at the temple of Ceres, Liber, and Libera.
hac lege iuris interpretes negant quemquam sacrosanctum esse, sed eum, qui eorum cuiquam nocuerit, Iovi sacrum sanciri;
By this law, the interpreters of the law deny that any one is sacrosanct, but they assert that he who harms any of them is ordained to be devoted to Jupiter;
itaque aedilem prendi ducique a maioribus magistratibus, quod etsi non iure fiat — noceri enim ei, cui hac lege non liceat4 —, tamen argumentum esse non haberi pro sacrosancto aedilem;
and therefore, that an aedile is arrested and led away by the superior magistrates, which, although it is not done lawfully—for it is not permitted to harm him to whom it is not allowed by this law—is nevertheless a proof that an aedile is not held as sacrosanct;
tribunos vetere iure iurando plebis, cum primum eam potestatem creavit, sacrosanctos esse.
but that the tribunes are sacrosanct by the ancient oath of the plebs, when they first created that power.
fuere, qui interpretarentur eadem hac Horatia lege consulibus quoque et praetoribus, quia eisdem auspiciis quibus consules crearentur, cautum esse; iudicem enim consulem appellari.
There were some who interpreted that by this same Horatian law, provision was made also for the consuls and praetors, because they were created under the same auspices as the consuls; for, they said, a consul was called a judge.
quae refellitur interpretatio, quod iis temporibus nondum consulem iudicem, sed praetorem appellari mos fuerit.
Which interpretation is refuted, because in those times it was not yet the custom for a consul to be called a judge, but a praetor.
hae consulares leges fuere. institutum etiam ab iisdem consulibus, ut senatus consulta in aedem Cereris ad aediles plebis deferrentur, quae antea arbitrio consulum supprimebantur vitiabanturque.
These consular laws were passed. It was also instituted by the same consuls, that the decrees of the senate should be delivered to the aediles of the plebs at the temple of Ceres, which previously had been suppressed and altered at the pleasure of the consuls.
M. Duillius deinde tribunus plebis plebem rogavit plebesque scivit, qui plebem sine tribunis reliquisset quique magistratum sine provocatione creasset, tergo ac capite puniretur.
Then Marcus Duillius, tribune of the plebs, proposed to the plebs, and the plebs resolved, that whoever should leave the plebs without tribunes, or whoever should create a magistrate without the right of appeal, should be punished with scourging and death.
haec omnia ut invitis, ita non adversantibus patriciis transacta, quia nondum in quemquam unum saeviebatur.
All these things were transacted, although against the will of the patricians, yet without their opposition, because as yet no severity was exercised against any single individual.
- 3.55.3tenerenturne patres plebi scitis
An indirect question clause introduced by the interrogative enclitic -ne attached to 'tenerentur'. 'plebi scitis' (equivalent to 'plebiscitis') refers to the decrees of the plebeian assembly. The entire clause specifies the disputed point of law (controverso iure) mentioned in the preceding cum-clause.
- 3.55.5eum ius fasque esset occidi
An accusative-with-infinitive construction where the passive infinitive 'occidi' with its subject accusative 'eum' functions as the subject of the impersonal phrase 'ius fasque esset'. It means 'that it should be humanly (ius) and divinely (fas) right for him to be killed'.
- 3.55.7caput Iovi sacrum esset
'sacrum' here does not simply mean 'sacred' but refers to the legal status of 'sacer' (devoted/cursed) under archaic Roman law. A person whose head was made 'sacer' was excluded from the protection of the community, meaning they could be killed by anyone with impunity.
- 3.55.9noceri enim ei, cui hac lege non liceat
Since the verb 'nocere' governs the dative, its passive is used only impersonally ('noceri'). The dative 'ei' is the object of the passive action, further qualified by the relative clause 'cui...non liceat', meaning 'for harm to be done to him, to whom it is not permitted by this law'.
Translated by Gemini 3.5 Flash (published 2026-05-25) · Revision history (1, latest 2026-09-21)
- 2026-09-21 AI review — source 1