- 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-lat2:40.13.1-40.13.9
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-11
Demetrius exposes the contradictions in Perseus's accusations regarding multiple assassination plots supposedly scheduled for a single day, arguing the absurdity of planning such a crime on the sacred day of the army's purification.
exsequamur tamen quocumque modo conficti ordinem criminis. pluribus modis se petitum criminatus est, et omnes insidiarum vias in unum diem contulit.
Let us however trace, in whatever way we can, the order of the fabricated charge. He has complained of being attacked in several ways, and has crowded all the methods of plot into a single day.
volui interdiu eum post lustrationem, cum concurrimus, et quidem, si diis placet,1 lustrationum die occidere; volui, cum ad cenam invitavi, veneno scilicet tollere; volui, cum comisatum gladiis succincti me secuti sunt, ferro interficere.
I wanted, it seems, to kill him during the day, after the purification, when we clashed, and indeed, if it please the gods, on the very day of the purifications; I wanted, when I invited him to dinner, to remove him, of course, by poison; I wanted, when they followed me girt with swords to the revel, to slay him with steel.
tempora quidem qualia sint ad parricidium electa, vides: lusus, convivii, comisationis. quid? dies qualis? quo lustratus exercitus, quo inter divisam victimam, praelatis omnium, qui umquam fuere, Macedoniae regum armis regiis,2 duo soli tua tegentes latera, pater, praevecti sumus, et secutum est Macedonum agmen:
You see indeed what kind of times were chosen for parricide: of play, of banquet, of revelry. What? What kind of day? On which the army was purified, on which between the divided victim, with the royal arms of all the kings of Macedonia who ever were carried before us, we two alone, father, rode in front guarding your sides, and the Macedonian line followed:
hoc ego, etiam si quid antea admisissem piaculo dignum, lustratus et expiatus sacro, tum cum maxime in hostiam itineri nostro circumdatam intuens, parricidium venena gladios in comisationem praeparatos volutabam in animo, ut quibus aliis deinde sacris contaminatam omni scelere mentem expiarem?3
On this day, did I, even if I had previously committed anything worthy of expiation, purified and atoned for by the sacred rite, at the very moment when looking upon the victim placed along our route, revolve in my mind parricide, poisons, swords prepared for the revel, so that by what other sacred rites thereafter could I expiate a mind contaminated with every crime?
sed caecus criminandi cupiditate animus, dum omnia suspecta efficere vult, aliud alio confundit.
But a mind blinded by the desire of accusing, while it wants to make everything suspected, confounds one thing with another.
nam si veneno te inter cenam tollere volui, quid minus aptum fuit quam pertinaci certamine et concursu iratum te efficere, ut merito, sicut fecisti, invitatus ad cenam abnueres?
For if I wanted to remove you by poison during dinner, what was less fitting than to make you angry by an obstinate contest and clash, so that, as you deservedly did, when invited to dinner you would refuse?
cum autem iratus negasses, utrum, ut placarem te, danda opera fuit, ut aliam quaererem occasionem, quoniam semel venenum paraveram, an ab illo consilio velut transiliendum ad aliud fuit, ut ferro te, et quidem eodem die, per speciem comisationis occiderem?
Moreover, when you had angrily refused, was pains to be taken so that, in order to appease you, I might seek another opportunity, since I had once prepared the poison, or was there to be a leap, as it were, from that plan to another, so that I might kill you with steel, and indeed on the same day, under the guise of a revel?
quo deinde modo, si te metu mortis credebam cenam vitasse meam, non ab eodem metu comisationem quoque vitaturum existimabam?
In what way then, if I believed that you had avoided my dinner from fear of death, did I not suppose that you would also avoid the revel from the same fear?
- 40.13.2si diis placet
Literally 'if it pleases the gods,' a formulaic expression used here with heavy irony ('if you can believe it' or 'to top it all off') to highlight the absurdity and impiety of the accuser's claim.
- 40.13.3praelatis omnium, qui umquam fuere, Macedoniae regum armis regiis
An ablative absolute construction consisting of the participle praelatis and the noun armis regiis. It is interrupted by a complex genitive phrase omnium... Macedoniae regum (of all the kings of Macedonia) which contains a relative clause qui umquam fuere (who ever were), resulting in a long hyperbaton. The core structure is praelatis armis regiis.
- 40.13.4ut quibus aliis deinde sacris contaminatam omni scelere mentem expiarem?
The imperfect subjunctive expiarem is used in a rhetorical question to express impossibility or deliberation. The introductory ut connects to the consequence of the previous condition ('granted that [I was plotting during the ritual], how then could I...'), emphasizing that no other sacred rite could ever cleanse a mind so polluted.