§12#1τί δʼ οὐχὶ καὶ περὶ τὰς μεγίστας συμφορὰς ὤρθου τὴν πόλιν ἡ Τύχη;
But why did Fortune not also raise up the city during its greatest calamities?
Κελτῶν μὲν περὶ τὸ Καπετώλιον στρατοπεδευόντων καὶ πολιορκούντων τὴν ἀκρόπολιν,
"νοῦσον ἀνὰ στρατὸν ὦρσε κακήν, ὀλέκοντο δὲ λαοί· "
τὴν δὲ νυκτερινὴν ἔφοδον αὐτῶν, λεληθότων πάντας ἀνθρώπους, ἡ Τύχη καὶ ταὐτόματον ἔκπυστον ἐποίησε γενέσθαι.
When the Celts were encamped around the Capitol and besieging the citadel, "she sent a grievous plague upon the army, and the people perished;" and their nightly assault, though they were hidden from all men, Fortune and chance made discovered.
περὶ ἧς κἀν βραχεῖ πλείω διελθεῖν ἴσως οὐκ ἄκαιρόν ἐστι.
Concerning this, it is perhaps not inopportune to discourse in more detail in brief.
μετὰ τὴν ἐπʼ Ἀλλίᾳ ποταμῷ Ῥωμαίων μεγάλην ἧτταν οἱ μὲν εἰς Ῥώμην κατάραντες ἀπὸ τῆς φυγῆς καὶ ταραχῆς συναναπλήσαντες τὸν δῆμον ἐξεπτόησαν καὶ διεσκέδασαν, ὀλίγων εἰς τὸ Καπετώλιον ἀνασκευασαμένων καὶ διακαρτερούντων.
After the great defeat of the Romans at the river Allia, those who arrived in Rome from the flight and confusion, filling the populace with their own panic, terrified and scattered them, while a few packed up and held out in the Capitol.
οἱ δʼ εὐθὺς ἀπὸ τῆς τροπῆς εἰς Βηίους συναθροισθέντες ᾑροῦντο δικτάτωρα Φούριον Κάμιλλον, ὃν εὐτυχῶν μὲν καὶ ὑψαυχενῶν ὁ δῆμος ἀπεσείσατο καὶ κατέβαλε, δίκῃ περιπεσόντα δημοσίων κλοπῶν· πτήξας δὲ καὶ ταπεινωθεὶς ἀνεκαλεῖτο μετὰ τὴν ἧτταν, ἐγχειρίζων καὶ παραδιδοὺς ἀνυπεύθυνον ἡγεμονίαν.
But those who gathered at Veii immediately after the rout wanted to choose Furius Camillus as dictator, whom the populace, when he was prosperous and high-necked, had shaken off and cast down, he having fallen under a charge of stealing public funds; but having cowered and been humbled, they called him back after the defeat, putting into his hands and delivering to him an unaccountable command.
ἵνʼ οὖν μὴ καιρῷ δοκῇ νόμῳ δὲ λαμβάνειν ὁ ἀνήρ, μηδʼ, ὡς ἀπ ἐγνωκὼς τὴν πόλιν, ὅπλοις ἀρχαιρεσιάζῃ τὰ τοῦ στρατοῦ σποράδος καὶ πλάνητος, ἔδει τοὺς ἐν Καπετωλίῳ βουλευτὰς ἐπιψηφίς ασθαι τὴν τῶν στρατιωτῶν γνώμην μαθόντας.
Therefore, so that the man might not seem to receive it by temporary opportunity but by law, and so that he might not, as if having despaired of the city, conduct elections by force of arms with a scattered and wandering army, it was necessary for the senators in the Capitol to ratify the opinion of the soldiers after learning it.
ἦν οὖν Γάιος Πόντιος ἀνὴρ ἀγαθός,ʼ καὶ τῶν δεδογμένων αὐτάγγελος ὑποστὰς ἔσεσθαι τοῖς ἐν Καπετωλίῳ μέγαν ἀνεδέξατο κίνδυνον· ἡ γὰρ ὁδὸς ἦν διὰ τῶν πολεμίων κύκλῳ φυλακαῖς καὶ χάραξι τὴν ἄκραν περιεχόντων.
Now there was Gaius Pontius, a brave man, who, having undertaken to be the self-announced messenger of what had been resolved to those in the Capitol, underwent great danger; for the way was through the enemy who surrounded the citadel with guards and palisades.
ὡς οὖν ἐπὶ τὸν ποταμὸν ἦλθε νύκτωρ, φελλοὺς πλατεῖς ὑποστερνισάμενος καὶ τὸ σῶμα τῇ κουφότητι, τοῦ ὀχήματος παραθέμενος ἀφῆκε τῷ ῥόῳ· τυχὼν δὲ πράου καὶ σχολαίως ὑποφέροντος ἥψατο τῆς ἀντιπέρας ὄχθης ἀσφαλῶς, καὶ ἀποβὰς ἐχώρει πρὸς τὸ τῶν φώτων διάκενον, τῷ τε σκότει καὶ ʼτῇ σιωπῇ τὴν ἐρημίαν τεκμαιρόμενος· ἐμφὺς δὲ τῷ κρημνῷ, καὶ ταῖς δεχομέναις τὴν ἐπίβασιν καὶ παρεχούσαις ἀντίληψιν ἐγκλίσεσι καὶ περιαγωγαῖς καὶ τραχύτησι τῆς πέτρας παραδοὺς ἑαυτὸν καὶ ἐπερεισάμενος ἐξίκετο πρὸς τὸ ἄνω πέτρας καὶ ἀναληφθεὶς ὑπὸ τῶν προφυλάκων ἐδήλωσε τοῖς ἔσω τὰ δεδογμένα· καὶ λαβὼν τὸ ψήφισμα πάλιν ᾤχετο πρὸς τὸν Κάμιλλον.
When therefore he came to the river by night, having placed broad corks under his breast and trusting his body to the lightness of his vehicle, he committed himself to the current; and meeting with a gentle and slowly bearing stream, he reached the opposite bank safely, and having disembarked, he went toward the gap in the lights, conjecturing the desertion of the place by both the darkness and the silence; and clinging to the cliff, committing and supporting himself on the slopes, turns, and roughness of the rock that received his feet and afforded a handhold, he reached the top of the rock, and being pulled up by the outguards, he made known to those within what had been resolved; and having received the decree, he departed again to Camillus.
ἡμέρας δὲ τῶν βαρβάρων τις ἄλλως τὸν τόπον περιιὼν ὡς εἶδε τοῦτο μὲν ἴχνη ποδῶν ἀκρώνυχα καὶ περιολισθήσεις, τοῦτο δʼ ἀποτριβὰς καὶ περικλάσεις τῆς ἐπιβλαστανούσης τοῖς γεώδεσι πόας ὁλκούς τε σώματος πλαγίους καὶ ἀπερείσεις, ἔφραζε τοῖς ἄλλοις.
But by day, one of the barbarians, wandering around the place for no particular reason, when he saw in one place the toe-prints of feet and slipping marks, and in another the rubbing and breaking of the grass growing on the earthy ground, and the sideways dragging and leaning marks of a body, pointed it out to the others.
οἱ δὲ δείκνυσθαι τὴν ὁδὸν αὑτοῖς ὑπὸ τῶν πολεμίων νομίζοντες ἐπεχείρουν ἁμιλλᾶσθαι, καὶ τῆς νυκτὸς τὸ ἐρημότατον διαφυλάξαντες ἀνέβησαν λαθόντες οὐ μόνον τοὺς φύλακας, ἀλλὰ
And they, thinking that the way was being shown to them by the enemy, attempted to emulate it, and having watched for the most deserted part of the night, they went up undetected not only by the guards, but