- 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-lat2:44.42.1-44.42.9
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-13
Following the defeat at Pydna, King Perseus and the Macedonian cavalry manage to escape, while the infantry face a brutal slaughter as they are trapped by the sea. The Romans inflict massive casualties on the enemy with minimal losses of their own.
ceterum sicut peditum passim caedes fiebant, nisi qui abiectis armis fugerunt, sic equitatus prope integer pugna excessit.
But while the slaughter of the infantry was made everywhere, except for those who threw away their arms and fled, the cavalry escaped from the battle almost untouched.
princeps fugae rex ipse erat. iam a Pydna cum sacris alis equitum Pellam petebat; confestim eos Cotys sequebatur Odrysarumque equitatus.
The leader of the flight was the king himself. He was already heading for Pella from Pydna with the sacred squadrons of cavalry; Cotys and the cavalry of the Odrysae immediately followed them.
ceterae quoque Macedonum alae integris abibant ordinibus, quia interiecta peditum acies, cuius caedes victores tenebat, inmemores fecerat sequendi equites.1
The other squadrons of the Macedonians also departed with their ranks unbroken, because the intervening line of infantry, whose slaughter detained the victors, had made them unmindful of pursuing the cavalry.
diu phalanx a fronte, a lateribus, ab tergo caesa est. postremo qui ex hostium manibus elapsi erant, inermes ad mare fugientes, quidam aquam etiam ingressi, manus ad eos, qui in classe erant, tendentes, suppliciter vitam orabant;
For a long time the phalanx was cut down from the front, from the sides, and from behind. At last, those who had escaped from the hands of the enemy, fleeing unarmed to the sea, and some even entering the water, stretching out their hands to those who were in the fleet, suppliantly begged for their lives;
et cum scaphas concurrere undique ab navibus cernerent, ad excipiendos sese venire rati,2 ut caperent potius quam occiderent, longius in aquam, quidam etiam natantes, progressi sunt.
and when they saw the boats rushing together from all sides from the ships, thinking that they were coming to receive them, in order to capture rather than kill them, they advanced further into the water, and some even swimming.
sed cum hostiliter e scaphis caederentur, retro, qui poterant, nando repetentes terram in aliam foediorem pestem incidebant; elephanti enim ab rectoribus ad litus acti exeuntis obterebant elidebantque.
But when they were hostilely slaughtered from the boats, those who could, swimming back, sought the land again and fell into another more horrible destruction; for the elephants, driven to the shore by their mahouts, trampled and crushed those who came out.
facile convenit3 ab Romanis numquam una acie tantum Macedonum interfectum. caesa enim ad viginti milia hominum sunt; ad sex milia, qui Pydnam ex acie perfugerant, vivi in potestatem pervenerunt, et vagi ex fuga quinque milia hominum capta.
It is easily agreed that never was so great a number of Macedonians slain by the Romans in a single battle. For about twenty thousand men were killed; up to six thousand, who had fled from the battle to Pydna, fell alive into their power, and five thousand wandering from the flight were captured.
ex victoribus ceciderunt non plus centum, et eorum multo maior pars Paeligni; volnerati aliquanto plures sunt.
Of the victors not more than a hundred fell, and of these a much greater part were Paelignians; the wounded were considerably more .
quod si maturius pugnari coeptum esset, ut satis diei victoribus ad persequendum superesset, deletae omnes copiae forent:4 nunc imminens nox et fugientes texit et Romanis pigritiem ad sequendum locis ignotis fecit.
Indeed, if the battle had been begun earlier, so that enough of the day remained for the victors to pursue, all the forces would have been destroyed; as it was, the looming night both covered the fugitives and made the Romans reluctant to pursue in unknown places.
- 44.42.3inmemores fecerat sequendi equites
"inmemores" is the object complement of "fecerat" (agreeing with an implied object "victores", the victors) and governs the genitive of the gerund "sequendi" (of pursuing). "equites" is the accusative object of the gerund "sequendi". Thus, the phrase means "had made [the victors] unmindful of pursuing the cavalry," and should not be misread as "the cavalry forgot to pursue."
- 44.42.5ad excipiendos sese venire rati
"rati" is the perfect participle (nominative plural) of the deponent verb "reor" (to think), agreeing with the subject of the main clause (the soldiers who advanced into the water). "venire" forms an accusative with infinitive construction, with "scaphas" (boats) from the preceding sentence as its subject. "ad excipiendos sese" is a gerundive construction with "ad" expressing purpose: "to rescue them (the soldiers themselves)."
- 44.42.7facile convenit
The impersonal verb "convenit" (it is agreed/recognized) with the adverb "facile" takes the following accusative with infinitive clause "nunquam una acie tantum Macedonum interfectum [esse]" as its subject.
- 44.42.9deletae omnes copiae forent
The apodosis of a past contrary-to-fact conditional sentence. "forent" is an alternative form of "essent" preferred in poetic and historical styles; "deletae forent" is equivalent to the pluperfect passive "deletae essent" (would have been destroyed).