Dionysius of Halicarnassus · Roman Antiquities §11.10.1-11.10.4

Grievances of All Classes and Causes of Citizen Flight

Passage 810 of 962 · Greek

Summary

The speaker reveals the root causes that drive the citizens to abandon their country. He details how the patricians, the middle class, and the poorest plebeians each harbor different grievances and resentments against the rule of the decemvirs, leading to their hatred and flight.

§11.10.1βούλεσθε οὖν ἀκοῦσαι, τίνες εἰσὶν αἱ βιαζόμεναι τοὺς ἀνθρώπους καταλιπεῖν αἰτίαι ἱερὰ καὶ τάφους προγόνων καὶ ἐξερημοῦν ἐφέστια καὶ κτήσεις πατέρων καὶ πᾶσαν ἡγεῖσθαι γῆν ἀναγκαιοτέραν τῆς πατρίδος;

Do you wish, then, to hear what are the causes that compel men to abandon the temples and tombs of their ancestors, to desert their hearths and the estates of their fathers, and to consider every land more necessary than their country?

οὐ γὰρ ἄτερ αἰτίας ταῦθʼ οὕτως ἔχει.

For these things do not stand thus without a cause.

ἐγὼ δὴ φράσω πρὸς ὑμᾶς καὶ οὐκ ἀποκρύψομαι.

I will indeed speak to you and will not hide it.

§11.10.2κατηγορίαι γίνονται τῆς ἀρχῆς ὑμῶν, Ἄππιε, πολλαὶ καὶ παρὰ πολλῶν· εἰ μὲν ἀληθεῖς ἢ ψευδεῖς οὐδὲν δέομαι ζητεῖν ἐν τῷ παρόντι, γίνονται δʼ οὖν ὅμως.

Accusations are made against your rule, Appius, many and by many; whether they are true or false I have no need to inquire at present, but they are made nonetheless.

οὐδεὶς δʼ, ὡς εἰπεῖν, ἔξω τῶν ὑμετέρων ἑταίρων οἰκείως τοῖς παροῦσιν ἔχει πράγμασιν.

And indeed, so to speak, no one except your companions is well-disposed to the present state of affairs.

οἱ μέν γʼ ἀγαθοὶ καὶ ἐξ ἀγαθῶν, οἷς προσῆκεν ἱερᾶσθαί τε καὶ ἄρχειν καὶ τὰς ἄλλας καρποῦσθαι τιμάς, ἃς οἱ πατέρες αὐτῶν ἐκαρποῦντο, ἄχθονται τούτων ἀπελαυνόμενοι διʼ ὑμᾶς τὰς προγονικὰς ἀξιώσεις ἀπολωλεκότες.

For the good men and those born of good men, who were entitled to hold priesthoods, to rule, and to enjoy the other honors which their fathers enjoyed, are aggrieved at being driven from these, having lost their ancestral privileges.

§11.10.3οἱ δὲ τὴν διὰ μέσου τάξιν ἔχοντες ἐν τῇ πόλει καὶ τὴν ἀπράγμονα διώκοντες ἡσυχίαν, χρημάτων τʼ ἀδίκους ἁρπαγὰς ἐγκαλοῦσιν ὑμῖν καὶ προπηλακισμοὺς εἰς γαμετὰς ὀδύρονται γυναῖκας καὶ παροινίας εἰς θυγατέρας ἐπιγάμους καὶ §11.10.4ἄλλας ὕβρεις πολλὰς καὶ χαλεπάς.

And those who hold the middle rank in the city and pursue a quiet life free from business, charge you with unjust seizures of property, and lament the insults to their wedded wives, the drunken outrages against their marriageable daughters, and many other grievous insolences.

τὸ δὲ πενέστατον τοῦ δημοτικοῦ μέρος οὔτʼ ἀρχαιρεσιῶν ἔτι κύριον γινόμενον οὔτε ψηφοφοριῶν οὔτʼ εἰς ἐκκλησίας καλούκενον οὔτʼ ἄλλης πολιτικῆς φιλανθρωπίας μεταλαμβάνον οὐδεμιᾶς, διὰ ταῦτα πάνθʼ ὑμᾶς μισεῖ καὶ τυραννίδα καλεῖ τὴν ἀρχήν.

On the other hand, the poorest part of the plebeians, being no longer masters of the elections of magistrates or of voting, nor being called to the assemblies, nor sharing in any other civic kindness, because of all these things hates you and calls your rule a tyranny.

Notes

11.10.1ἀναγκαιοτέραν — Comparative of the adjective ἀναγκαῖος (necessary, inevitable). Here it is interpreted either in the sense of 'more indispensable/inevitable (as a place of refuge for survival)' than their own country under tyrannical rule, or 'dearer, more welcoming' (by extension from the meaning 'related by blood', ἀναγκαῖοι).
11.10.2οἷς προσῆκεν — The imperfect verb προσῆκεν (it was fitting) used impersonally, taking the relative pronoun in the dative οἷς to denote the subject of the following infinitives (ἱερᾶσθαι, ἄρχειν, etc.). The imperfect tense implies a legitimate right 'which ought to have belonged to them' but has been stripped away under the current decemviral rule.
11.10.3ἐγκαλοῦσιν ... ὀδύρονται — Two verbs with different grammatical constructions are juxtaposed. The former, ἐγκαλοῦσιν, means 'to charge (someone in the dative) with (something in the accusative)', while the latter, ὀδύρονται, means 'to lament (something in the accusative)'. Thus, χρημάτων ἀδίκους ἁρπαγὰς is the object of the former (with the dative ὑμῖν), whereas προπηλακισμοὺς and ἄλλας ὕβρεις in §11.10.4 are the objects of the latter.

Cite this passage

Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities §11.10.1-11.10.4. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0081.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:11.10.1-11.10.4

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