- 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-lat2:8.40.1-8.40.5
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-10-24
Livy discusses the historical discrepancies regarding why Aulus Cornelius was appointed dictator, and how funeral eulogies and false inscriptions by noble families corrupted early Roman historical records, leaving no reliable contemporary accounts.
nec discrepat, quin dictator eo anno A. Cornelius fuerit;
Nor is there any disagreement that Aulus Cornelius was dictator in that year;
id ambigitur, belline gerendi causa creatus sit, an ut esset, qui ludis Romanis, quia L. Plautius praetor gravi morbo forte inplicitus erat, signum mittendis quadrigis daret1 functusque eo haud sane memorandi imperii ministerio2 se dictatura abdicaret. nec facile est aut rem rei aut auctorem auctori praeferre.
what is disputed is whether he was appointed for the purpose of waging war, or so that there might be someone to, since the praetor Lucius Plautius happened to have been afflicted with a severe illness, give the signal for starting the chariots at the Roman Games, and, having performed this duty of an office by no means memorable, resign the dictatorship. Nor is it easy to prefer either account to account, or author to author.
vitiatam memoriam funebribus laudibus reor falsisque imaginum titulis, dum familiae ad se quaeque famam rerum gestarum honorumque fallenti mendacio trahunt.
I believe that the memory of history has been corrupted by funeral panegyrics and false inscriptions on busts, while individual families, with deceptive falsehood, drag the fame of achievements and offices to themselves.
inde certe et singulorum gesta et publica monumenta rerum confusa; nec quisquam aequalis temporibus illis scriptor extat, quo satis certo auctore stetur.3
From this, certainly, both the deeds of individuals and the public records of events have been confounded; nor does any writer contemporary with those times exist, on whom we may rely as a sufficiently certain authority.
- 8.40.2belline gerendi causa creatus sit, an ut esset, qui... daret
A disjunctive indirect question structure introduced by the enclitic -ne and the conjunction an ("whether... or"). It functions as the subject (or appositive) of the impersonal verb ambigitur. Within the clause following an, the purpose clause introduced by ut (ut esset) contains a relative clause of characteristic or purpose qui... daret (imperfect subjunctive).
- 8.40.3functusque eo haud sane memorandi imperii ministerio
functus is the perfect participle of the deponent verb fungor (to perform), used with an active meaning ("having performed"). Consequently, eo... ministerio is in the ablative case as the object of functus. haud sane memorandi (by no means to be remembered) is a gerundive in the genitive case, modifying the noun imperii.
- 8.40.5quo satis certo auctore stetur
The relative pronoun quo (ablative) forms an appositive or a predicative ablative with certo auctore ("with whom as a certain authority"). stetur is the present subjunctive impersonal passive of the intransitive verb stare, which here carries the meaning "to stand by, rely on, or abide by" (governing the ablative). The entire relative clause modifies the antecedent scriptor, meaning "a writer on whom one can rely as a sufficiently certain authority."