- 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-lat2:5.40.1-5.40.10
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-10-28
As the elders remain to face death and the rest of the citizens flee the city, the flamen of Quirinus and the Vestal virgins attempt to evacuate the sacred objects; witnessing this, the plebeian Albinius yields his wagon to secure their safe passage to Caere.
haec inter seniores morti destinatos iactata solacia. versae inde adhortationes ad agmen iuvenum, quos in Capitolium atque in arcem prosequebantur, commendantes1 virtuti eorum iuventaeque urbis per trecentos sexaginta annos omnibus bellis victricis, quaecumque reliqua esset fortuna.
These were the consolations exchanged among the elders destined for death. Then the words of encouragement were turned to the column of the youth, whom they were escorting to the Capitol and the citadel, committing whatever fortune might remain to their courage and youth, which belonged to a city that had been victorious in all wars for three hundred and sixty years.
digredientibus, qui spem omnem atque opem secum ferebant, ab iis, qui captae urbis non superesse statuerant exitio, cum ipsa res speciesque miserabilis erat, tum muliebris fletus et concursatio incerta nunc hos nunc illos sequentium rogitantiumque viros natosque, cui se fato darent, nihil, quod humani superesset mali,2 relinquebant.
As those who carried with them all hope and help were departing from those who had resolved not to survive the destruction of the captured city, not only was the event itself and the sight pitiful, but also the weeping of the women and their uncertain running about, following now these, now those, and asking their husbands and sons to what fate they were surrendering them, left nothing of human misery remaining.
magna pars tamen earum in arcem suos persecutae sunt nec prohibente ullo nec vocante, quia, quod utile obsessis ad minuendam inbellem multitudinem, id parum humanum erat.
Yet a great part of them followed their people into the citadel, with no one forbidding or calling them, because, although it was useful to the besieged for reducing the non-combatant multitude, it was not very humane.
alia maxime plebis turba, quam nec capere tam exiguus collis nec alere in tanta inopia frumenti poterat, ex urbe effusa velut agmine iam uno petiit Ianiculum.
Another crowd, mostly of the plebeians, which so small a hill could neither contain nor support in such a great scarcity of grain, poured out of the city and headed for the Janiculum as if in a single column.
inde pars per agros dilapsi, pars urbes petunt finitimas sine ullo duce aut consensu suam quisque spem, sua consilia communibus deploratis sequentes.
From there, some dispersed through the fields, others headed for neighboring cities, without any leader or consensus, each following his own hope and plans, having despaired of the common ones.
flamen interim Quirinalis virginesque Vestales omissa rerum suarum cura, quae sacrorum secum ferenda, quae, quia vires ad omnia ferenda deerant, relinquenda essent, consultantes, quisve ea locus fideli adservaturus custodia esset, optimum ducunt condita in doliolis sacello proximo aedibus flaminis Quirinalis, ubi nunc despui religio est, defodere; cetera inter se onere partito ferunt via, quae sublicio ponte ducit ad Ianiculum. in eo clivo eas cum L. Albinius, de plebe homo, conspexisset plaustro coniugem ac liberos avehens inter ceteram turbam, quae inutilis bello urbe excedebat, salvo etiam tum discrimine divinarum humanarumque rerum, religiosum ratus3 sacerdotes publicas sacraque populi Romani pedibus ire ferrique ac suos in vehiculo conspici, descendere uxorem ac pueros iussit, virgines sacraque in plaustrum inposuit et Caere, quo iter sacerdotibus erat, pervexit.
Meanwhile, the flamen of Quirinus and the Vestal virgins, putting aside the care of their own affairs, were consulting which of the sacred things should be carried with them, and which had to be left behind because they lacked the strength to carry all, and what place would keep them in faithful custody. They judged it best to bury those things, packed in small jars, in the shrine nearest to the house of the flamen of Quirinus, where it is now a religious offense to spit; the rest they carried, dividing the burden among themselves, along the road that leads by the Sublician bridge to the Janiculum. On that slope, when Lucius Albinius, a man of the plebeians, had seen them as he was carrying his wife and children in a wagon among the rest of the crowd that was leaving the city as useless for war, respecting even then the distinction between divine and human affairs, and thinking it an impiety that the public priestesses and the sacred things of the Roman people should go on foot and be carried while his own family was seen in a vehicle, he ordered his wife and children to get down, placed the virgins and the sacred things in the wagon, and carried them to Caere, where the priestesses were heading.
- 5.40.1commendantes
The present participle commendantes (nominative plural) modifies the implied subject of the main action (the elders and citizens who were escorting the youth), expressing their simultaneous action of committing whatever fortune remained to the courage of the young men, rather than agreeing with the accusative object quos.
- 5.40.3nihil, quod humani superesset mali
The noun mali is the genitive singular (partitive genitive) of the neuter malum (evil, misery), depending on nihil. It is modified by the genitive adjective humani. The subjunctive verb superesset in the relative clause is in the imperfect subjunctive, characterizing the type of misery.
- 5.40.10religiosum ratus
The perfect participle ratus (from the deponent reor, 'thinking', nominative singular masculine agreeing with the subject L. Albinius) takes an accusative and infinitive construction with an omitted esse. The subject of the infinitive is the contrast between the priestesses walking (sacerdotes ... ire ferrique) and his own family being seen in a vehicle (suos ... conspici), which he deemed to be an impiety (religiosum).