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Dionysius of Halicarnassus · Roman Antiquities §10.39.1-10.39.4

Call to Ratify the Land Law and Punish Disruptors

Passage 779 of 962 · Greek

Summary

The speaker criticizes the plebeians for tolerating the violence against their leaders, urging them to ratify the land law, resist the young patricians' disruptions, and prosecute the private individuals who acted as the consuls' agents.

§10.39.1ἐῶ τἆλλα·
I pass over other things.
ἀλλʼ οἱ νῦν ἄρχοντες ὑμῶν, ὅτι τοῖς κατισχυομένοις τῶν δημοτικῶν ἠξίουν βοηθεῖν, οὓς ὑμεῖς ἱεροὺς καὶ ἀσύλους ἐποιήσατε τῷ νόμῳ, τί οὐ πεπόνθασι τῶν δεινῶν;
But your current magistrates—who, because they deemed it right to help those of the plebeians who were being oppressed, though you had made them sacred and inviolable by law—what of terrible things have they not suffered?
οὐχὶ τυπτόμενοι καὶ λακτιζόμενοι καὶ πᾶσαν αἰκίαν ὑπομείναντες ἀπηλάσθησαν ἐκ τῆς ἀγορᾶς;
Were they not driven from the Forum, being beaten and kicked and having endured every outrage?
καὶ ὑμεῖς ταῦτα πάσχοντες ἀνέχεσθε καὶ οὐ ζητεῖτε, ὅπως παρʼ αὐτῶν λήψεσθε δίκας ταῖς γοῦν ψήφοις, ἐν αἷς μόναις ἔξεστιν ὑμῖν ἀποδείξασθαι τὴν ἐλευθερίαν.
And do you, suffering these things, tolerate it, and do you not seek how you will exact punishment from them, at least by your votes, in which alone it is permitted to you to demonstrate your freedom?
§10.39.2ἀλλʼ ἔτι καὶ νῦν, ὦ δημόται, φρόνημα λαβόντες ἐλεύθερον τὸν γεωμορικὸν νόμον εἰσφερόντων τῶν δημάρχων ἐπικυρώσατε μηδὲ §10.39.3φωνὴν ἀνασχόμενοι τῶν τἀναντία ἀξιούντων.
But even now, citizens, taking up a free spirit, ratify the land law when the tribunes introduce it, and do not even tolerate the voice of those who demand the opposite.
ὑμεῖς δʼ, ὧ δήμαρχοι, παρακλήσεως μὲν εἰς τοῦτο τὸ ἔργον οὐ δεῖσθε· καὶ γὰρ ἤρξατε αὐτοῦ καὶ οὐχ ὑποκατακλίνεσθε, καλῶς ποιοῦντες·
And you, tribunes, do not indeed need encouragement for this work; for you have both begun it and do not yield, doing well.
ἐὰν δʼ ἐκ τῶν νέων αὐθάδεια καὶ ἀναίδεια ὑμῖν ἐμποδὼν γένηται τοὺς καδίσκους ἀνατρεπόντων ἢ τὰς ψήφους ἁρπαζόντων ἢ ἄλλο τι περὶ τὴν ψηφοφορίαν ἀκοσμούντων, δείξατε αὐτοῖς ἣν ἔχει τὸ ἀρχεῖον ἰσχύν.
But if any arrogance and impudence on the part of the young men gets in your way—they overturning the voting urns or snatching the ballots or committing some other disorder concerning the voting—show them what power your office possesses.
§10.39.4καὶ ἐπειδὴ οὐ τοὺς ὑπάτους ἔξεστι παῦσαι τῆς ἐξουσίας, τοὺς ἰδιώτας οἷς πρὸς τὰ βίαια ὑπηρέταις ἐκεῖνοι χρῶνται καταστήσαντες ὑπὸ δίκην, ἀνάδοτε τῷ δήμῳ τὰς περὶ αὐτῶν ψήφους, αἰτιασάμενοι παρὰ τοὺς ἱεροὺς νόμους βιάζεσθαι καὶ καταλύειν ὑμῶν τὴν ἀρχήν.
And since it is not permitted to remove the consuls from their authority, bring to trial those private citizens whom they use as agents for their acts of violence, and submit to the people the votes concerning them, accusing them of acting with violence contrary to the sacred laws and of subverting your authority.

Notes

  1. 10.39.1οἱ νῦν ἄρχοντες ὑμῶν ... τί οὐ πεπόνθασι τῶν δεινῶν; — The nominative phrase οἱ νῦν ἄρχοντες ὑμῶν stands at the beginning of the sentence as a nominative pendens. After the intervening causal and relative clauses, it serves as the logical subject of the main rhetorical question, which literally asks 'what of terrible things have they not suffered?'
  2. 10.39.1ταῦτα πάσχοντες ἀνέχεσθε — The participle πάσχοντες is nominative plural, agreeing with the subject ὑμεῖς (you). It indicates that the plebeians themselves are experiencing these sufferings (either directly or by extension through their leaders) while enduring them. The verb ἀνέχομαι takes a supplementary participle to mean 'tolerate doing/suffering something'.
  3. 10.39.3ἀνατρεπόντων — The genitive participle ἀνατρεπόντων (along with ἁρπαζόντων and ἀκοσμούντων) agrees with the implied genitive plural noun τῶν νέων extracted from the prepositional phrase ἐκ τῶν νέων. It describes the specific disruptive actions of the young men when their arrogance and impudence get in the way.
  4. 10.39.4καταστήσαντες ... αἰτιασάμενοι — Both the aorist active participle καταστήσαντες and the aorist middle participle αἰτιασάμενοι agree with the subject of the main imperative ἀνάδοτε (the tribunes). The former expresses a prior condition or means ('having brought to trial'), while the latter expresses the ground of accusation ('accusing them of...').

Cite this passage

Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities §10.39.1-10.39.4. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0081.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:10.39.1-10.39.4

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