- 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-lat2:39.16.1-39.16.13
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-10
The consul warns that the corruption of the Bacchanalia is no longer a private scandal but a systemic conspiracy threatening the state. Citing historical precedents of regulating foreign rites, he defends the legitimacy of the current investigation and urges the citizens' cooperation.
minus tamen esset, si flagitiis tantum effeminati forent — ipsorum id magna ex parte dedecus erat —, a facinoribus manus, mentem a fraudibus abstinuissent:1
Yet it would be less of an evil, if they had only been made effeminate by their debaucheries — that was largely their own disgrace —, and had kept their hands from crimes and their minds from frauds:
numquam tantum malum in re publica fuit, nec ad plures nec ad plura pertinens. quidquid his annis libidine, quidquid fraude, quidquid scelere peccatum est, ex illo uno sacrario scitote ortum esse.
never has there been so great an evil in the state, pertaining neither to more people nor to more things. Whatever has been sinned in these years by lust, whatever by fraud, whatever by crime, know that it has arisen from that one shrine.
necdum omnia, in quae coniurarunt, edita facinora habent.2 adhuc privatis noxiis, quia nondum ad rem publicam opprimendam satis virium est, coniuratio sese impia tenet. crescit et serpit quotidie malum. iam maius est, quam ut capere id privata fortuna possit:
And they have not yet committed all the crimes which they have sworn to do. For now, because there is not yet enough strength to oppress the state, the impious conspiracy holds itself within private harms. The evil grows and creeps daily. Already it is greater than a private fortune can contain:
ad summam rem publicam spectat. nisi praecavetis, Quirites, iam huic diurnae, legitime ab consule vocatae, par nocturna contio esse poterit. nunc illi vos singuli universos contionantes timent: iam ubi vos dilapsi domos et in rura vestra eritis, illi coierint, consultabunt de sua salute simul ac vestra pernicie: tum singulis vobis universi timendi erunt.
it regards the sum of the state. Unless you take precautions, Quirites, soon a nightly assembly will be able to be equal to this daytime one, legally called by the consul. Now, as individuals, they fear you when you are assembled as a whole; soon, when you have dispersed to your homes and into your countrysides, they will gather and consult about their own safety and at the same time your ruin; then, as a whole, they will have to be feared by you as individuals.
optare igitur unusquisque vestrum debet, ut bona mens suis omnibus fuerit. si quem libido, si furor in illum gurgitem abripuit, illorum eum, cum quibus in omne flagitium et facinus coniuravit, non suum iudicet esse.
Therefore, each one of you ought to pray that a good mind has been present in all his people. If lust, if madness has swept anyone away into that gulf , let him judge him to belong to those with whom he conspired into every disgrace and crime, not to himself.
ne quis etiam errore labatur vestrum, Quirites, non sum securus. nihil enim in speciem fallacius est quam prava religio. ubi deorum numen praetenditur sceleribus, subit animum timor, ne fraudibus humanis vindicandis divini iuris aliquid immixtum violemus. hac vos religione innumerabilia decreta pontificum, senatus consulta, haruspicum denique responsa liberant.
I am not without anxiety, Quirites, lest any of you should slip by error. For nothing is more deceptive in appearance than a depraved religion. When the divine power of the gods is held out as a pretext for crimes, a fear enters the mind lest, in avenging human frauds, we may violate something of divine law mixed in. From this religious concern, countless decrees of the pontiffs, decrees of the senate, and finally responses of the haruspices free you.
quotiens hoc patrum avorumque aetate negotium est magistratibus datum, uti sacra externa fieri vetarent, sacrificulos vatesque foro circo urbe prohiberent, vaticinos libros conquirerent comburerentque, omnem disciplinam sacrificandi praeterquam more Romano abolerent.
How often in the time of our fathers and grandfathers was this duty given to the magistrates, that they should forbid foreign rites to be performed, banish sacrificing priests and prophets from the forum, the circus, and the city, search out and burn prophetic books, and abolish every method of sacrificing except in the Roman manner.
iudicabant enim prudentissimi viri omnis divini humanique iuris nihil aeque dissolvendae religionis esse,3 quam ubi non patrio sed externo ritu sacrificaretur.
For those most wise men judged that nothing was so effective in dissolving religion as when sacrifice was made not according to ancestral but according to foreign rites.
haec vobis praedicenda ratus sum, ne qua superstitio agitaret animos vestros, cum demolientes nos Bacchanalia discutientesque nefarios coetus cerneretis.
I thought that these things ought to be forewarned to you, lest any superstition should agitate your minds when you see us demolishing the Bacchanalia and dispersing the impious gatherings.
omnia diis propitiis volentibusque faciemus; qui quia suum numen sceleribus libidinibusque contaminari indigne ferebant, ex occultis ea tenebris in lucem extraxerunt, nec patefieri, ut impunita essent, sed ut vindicarentur et opprimerentur, voluerunt.
We shall do all things with the gods favorable and willing; who, because they were indignant that their divine power was being contaminated by crimes and lusts, dragged those things out from hidden darkness into the light, and did not wish them to be laid open so that they might be unpunished, but so that they might be avenged and suppressed.
senatus quaestionem extra ordinem de ea re mihi collegaeque meo mandavit. nos, quae ipsis nobis agenda sunt, impigre exsequemur; vigiliarum nocturnarum curam per urbem minoribus magistratibus mandavimus.
The senate has mandated an extraordinary inquiry concerning this matter to me and my colleague. We shall energetically execute what must be done by ourselves; we have mandated the care of the nightly watches throughout the city to the minor magistrates.
vos quoque aequum est, quae vestra munia sunt, quo quisque loco positus erit, quod imperabitur, impigre praestare, et dare operam, ne quid fraude noxiorum periculi aut tumultus oriatur.”
It is fair that you too energetically perform what are your duties, in whatever place each one shall be stationed, and whatever shall be commanded, and make efforts lest any danger or tumult should arise from the fraud of the guilty.”
- 39.16.1minus tamen esset, si flagitiis tantum effeminati forent... abstinuissent
A contrary-to-fact conditional sentence. While the apodosis is minus esset (imperfect subjunctive), the protasis is mixed with forent (imperfect subjunctive) and abstinuissent (pluperfect subjunctive). This represents a distinction between a continuous state in the past (being effeminate) and a specific past action (refraining from crimes).
- 39.16.3edita facinora habent
A periphrastic perfect construction combining the perfect participle edita with habent as an auxiliary. Rather than a simple perfect (ediderunt), it emphasizes the current state resulting from past actions. This construction prefigures the compound perfect tenses in Romance languages (equivalent to the English "have done" structure).
- 39.16.9nihil aeque dissolvendae religionis esse
The genitive of the gerundive phrase dissolvendae religionis functions here as a genitive of quality or tendency ("tending to dissolve religion"). It fits into the comparative structure nihil aeque... esse quam... ("nothing is equally tending to dissolve religion as...").