Humanitext Reader

Dionysius of Halicarnassus · Roman Antiquities §10.37.1-10.37.5

Dentatus Recounts His Honors and Attacks Land Monopoly

Passage 777 of 962 · Greek

Summary

Dentatus enumerates the numerous honors and wounds he received in his past battles, and strongly criticizes the current situation where he and other plebeian soldiers have received no share of the public land, while shameless and violent men monopolize it without any just claim.

§10.37.1ταῦτʼ ἐστίν, ὦ δημόται, τὰ φανερώσαντά με καὶ εἰς ἡγεμονίας προαγαγόντα γενναῖα ἔργα.
These, citizens, are the noble deeds that made me famous and promoted me to commands.
ἐπεὶ δʼ ὀνόματος ἤδη λαμπροῦ τυγχάνων φανερὸς ἤμην, ἅπαντας ὑπέμενον τοὺς λοιποὺς ἀγῶνας αἰδούμενος τὰς ἐπὶ τοῖς προτέροις ἔργοις τιμὰς καὶ χάριτας ἀφανίσαι.
But when, already possessing an illustrious name, I became prominent, I endured all the remaining contests, being ashamed to erase the honors and gratitude for my former deeds.
καὶ διετέλεσα πάντα τὸν μεταξὺ χρόνον στρατευόμενος καὶ ταλαιπωρῶν καὶ οὐδένα κίνδυνον δεδιὼς οὐδὲ ὑπολογιζόμενος· ἐξ ὧν ἁπάντων ἀριστεῖα καὶ σκῦλα καὶ στεφάνους καὶ τὰς ἄλλας τιμὰς παρὰ §10.37.2τῶν ὑπάτων ἔλαβον· ἵνα δὲ συνελὼν εἴπω, μάχας μὲν ἐν τοῖς τετταράκοντα ἔτεσιν, ἐν οἷς διατελῶ στρατευόμενος, ἀμφὶ τὰς ἑκατὸν εἴκοσι μεμάχημαι, τραύματα δὲ πέντε καὶ τετταράκοντα εἴληφα καὶ πάντα ἐμπρόσθια, κατὰ νώτου δʼ οὐθέν.
And I continued all the intervening time serving and suffering hardship, and fearing or taking into account no danger; from all of which I received rewards for valor, spoils, crowns, and other honors from the consuls; and to speak briefly, in the forty years during which I have continued to serve, I have fought in about one hundred and twenty battles, and have received forty-five wounds, and all in front, and none on my back.
καὶ τούτων δώδεκά ἐστιν, ἃ συνέβη μοι λαβεῖν ἐν ἡμέρᾳ μιᾷ, ὅτε Σαβῖνος Ἑρδώνιος τὴν ἄκραν καὶ τὸ Καπιτώλιον κατελάβετο.
And of these, twelve are those which happened to me to receive in a single day, when the Sabine Herdonius seized the citadel and the Capitoline.
§10.37.3ἀριστεῖα δʼ ἐκ τῶν ἀγώνων ἐξενήνεγμαι τεσσαρεσκαίδεκα μὲν στεφάνους πολιτικούς, οἷς ἀνέδησάν με οἱ σωθέντες ἐν ταῖς μάχαις ὑπʼ ἐμοῦ, τρεῖς δὲ πολιορκητικοὺς πρῶτος ἐπιβὰς πολεμίων τείχεσι καὶ κατασχών, ὀκτὼ δὲ τοὺς ἐκ παρατάξεως, οἷς ὑπὸ τῶν αὐτοκρατόρων ἐτιμήθην·
And as rewards for valor from the contests I have carried off: fourteen civic crowns, with which I was crowned by those who had been saved by me in the battles; three crowns for sieges, because I was the first to mount the enemy's walls and hold them; and eight crowns from pitched battles, with which I was honored by the commanders.
πρὸς δὲ τούτοις ὀγδοήκοντα μὲν καὶ τρεῖς χρυσοῦς στρεπτοὺς περιαυχενίους, ἑξήκοντα δὲ καὶ ἑκατὸν περιβραχιόνια χρύσεα, δόρατα δʼ ὀκτωκαίδεκα, φάλαρα δʼ ἐπίσημα πέντε πρὸς τοῖς εἴκοσιν, % ὧν ἐννέα ἦσαν, οὓς μονομαχῆσαί τινα ἡμῶν προκαλεσαμένους ἑκούσιος ὑποστὰς ἐνίκησα.
In addition to these, eighty-three golden neck-chains, one hundred and sixty golden armlets, eighteen spears, and twenty-five decorated medallions, nine of which were won when I voluntarily stood against and defeated those who challenged one of us to single combat.
§10.37.4οὗτος μέντοι Σίκκιος, ὦ πολῖται, ὁ τοσαῦτα μὲν ἔτη στρατευσάμενος ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν, τοσαύτας δὲ μάχας ἀγωνισάμενος, τοσούτοις δὲ τετιμημένος ἀριστείοις, ὁ μηδένα κίνδυνον ὀκνήσας πώποτε μηδʼ ἀπειπάμενος ἄλλῃ ἐν παρατάξεσι καὶ ἐν τειχομαχίαις καὶ ἐν πεζοῖς καὶ ἐν ἱππεῦσι καὶ μετὰ πάντων καὶ σὺν ὀλίγοις καὶ μόνος, καὶ κατατετρωμένος ὅλον τὸ σῶμα, ὁ συγκατακτησάμενος τῇ πατρίδι πολλὴν καὶ ἀγαθὴν γῆν, τοῦτο μὲν ἣν Τυρρηνούς τε παὶ Σαβίνους ἀφείλεσθε, τοῦτο δὲ ἣν Αἰκανῶν καὶ Οὐολούσκων καὶ Πωμεντίνων κρατήσαντες ἔχετε, οὐδὲ τὴν ἐλαχίστην ἔχω μοῖραν ἐξ αὐτῆς λαβών, οὐδʼ ὑμῶν, ὦ δημόται, τῶν τὰ ὅμοια ταλαιπωρησάντων οὐδείς· οἱ δὲ βιαιότατοι τῶν ἐν τῇ πόλει καὶ ἀναιδέστατοι τὴν καλλίστην κατέχουσιν ἐξ αὐτῆς καὶ πολλὰ ἔτη κεκάρπωνται οὔτε δωρεὰν παρʼ ὑμῶν λαβόντες οὔτε χρημάτων πριάμενοι οὔτε ἄλλην δικαίαν κτῆσιν οὐδεμίαν αὐτῆς ἀποδεῖξαι δυνάμενοι.
Yet this Siccius, citizens, who has served so many years for you, has fought in so many battles, has been honored with so many rewards, who never shrank from or refused any danger in pitched battles, in sieges, as infantry, as cavalry, with all, with few, and alone, and whose whole body is covered with wounds, who helped to acquire for his country much and good land—on the one hand, that which you took from the Etruscans and Sabines, and on the other hand, that which you hold after conquering the Aequi, Volscians, and Pometines—I do not have even the smallest portion of it, having received none, nor does any of you, citizens, who suffered similar hardships; but the most violent and shameless men in the city occupy the finest parts of it and have enjoyed its fruits for many years, neither having received it as a gift from you, nor having bought it with money, nor being able to show any other just ownership of it.
§10.37.5καὶ εἰ μὲν ἴσα τοῖς ἄλλοις ἡμῖν ταλαιπωρήσαντες, ὅτʼ αὐτὴν ἐκτώμεθα, πλεῖον ἠξίουν ἡμῶν ἔχειν, ἦν μὲν οὐδʼ οὕτω δίκαιον οὐδὲ πολιτικὸν ὀλίγους σφετερίσασθαι τὰ κοινά, οὐ μὴν ἀλλʼ εἶχέ γέ τινα λόγον ἡ πλεονεξία τῶν ἀνθρώπων·
And if, having suffered hardships equal to the rest of us when we were acquiring it, they demanded to have more than us, it would not even so be just or civic for a few to appropriate the common property, and yet their greed would have some reason.
ὁπότε δʼ οὐθὲν ἔχοντες ἐπιδείξασθαι μέγα καὶ νεανικὸν ἔργον, ἀνθʼ οὗ τὰ ἡμέτερα βίᾳ κατέσχον, ἀναισχυντοῦσι καὶ οὐδʼ ἐξελεγχόμενοι μεθίενται αὐτῶν, τίς ἂν ἀνάσχοιτο;
But when, having no great and youthful deed to display in return for which they violently seized our property, they act shamelessly and do not release it even when exposed, who could endure it?

Notes

  1. 10.37.1ταῦτʼ ἐστίν... τὰ φανερώσαντά με καὶ εἰς ἡγεμονίας προαγαγόντα γενναῖα ἔργα — The subject is the demonstrative pronoun ταῦτα and the predicate is the neuter plural noun phrase with the article τὰ ... γενναῖα ἔργα, within which the attributive participial phrases φανερώσαντά με ('which made me famous') and εἰς ἡγεμονίας προαγαγόντα ('which promoted me to commands') are embedded in a hyperbaton.
  2. 10.37.4οὗτος μέντοι Σίκκιος... οὐδὲ τὴν ἐλαχίστην ἔχω μοῖραν — The opening phrase οὗτος μέντοι Σίκκιος and the subsequent series of articular participles are in the third-person nominative, but the main verb ἔχω ('I have') is in the first-person singular, creating an anacoluthon. This shift from third to first person is a rhetorical device that transitions from an objective self-description to an emotionally charged personal appeal.
  3. 10.37.5ἦν μὲν οὐδʼ οὕτω δίκαιον — The imperfect ἦν is used with the impersonal expression δίκαιον ('just') without the particle ἄν to express a counterfactual assertion in the apodosis ('even so it would not have been just').

Cite this passage

Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities §10.37.1-10.37.5. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0081.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:10.37.1-10.37.5

Please note the AI-draft status of the translation and the date accessed.

Translation, notes and summary are AI-generated drafts, revised through reader feedback.