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Dionysius of Halicarnassus · Roman Antiquities §11.63.1-11.63.2

Election of Consuls and Report on the Neglected Census

Passage 863 of 962 · Greek

Summary

With the people's vote, Geganius and Quinctius are appointed consuls again. They report to the senate that due to continuous campaigns, the census has been neglected for seventeen years, leading to the flight of wicked citizens.

§11.63.1τῷ δʼ ἑξῆς ἐνιαυτῷ πάλιν ὑπάτους ψηφισαμένου τοῦ δήμου κατασταθῆναι παραλαμβάνουσι τὴν ὕπατον ἀρχὴν τῇ διχομήνιδι τοῦ Δεκεμβρίου μηνὸς Μάρκος Γεγάνιος Μακερῖνος τὸ δεύτερον καὶ Τίτος Κοίντιος Καπιτωλῖνος τὸ πέμπτον.
In the following year, the people having voted that consuls should again be appointed, Marcus Geganius Macerinus for the second time and Titus Quinctius Capitolinus for the fifth time assumed the consulship on the day of the full moon of the month of December.
§11.63.2οὗτοι διδάξαντες τὴν βουλήν, ὅτι πολλὰ μὲν καὶ ἄλλα πράγματα διὰ τὰς συνεχεῖς τῶν ὑπάτων στρατείας ἠμελημένα παρεῖται, πάντων δʼ ἀναγκαιότατον τὸ περὶ τὰς τιμήσεις τῶν βίων νόμιμον, ἐξ ὧν ὅ τʼ ἀριθμὸς τῶν ἐχόντων τὴν στρατεύσιμον ἡλικίαν ἐγινώσκετο καὶ τῶν χρημάτων τὸ πλῆθος, ἀφʼ ὧν ἔδει τὰς εἰς τὸν πόλεμον εἰσφορὰς ἕκαστον τελεῖν, οὐδεμιᾶς τιμήσεως ἐντὸς ἑπτακαίδεκα ἐτῶν γενομένης ἀπὸ τῆς Λευκίου Κορνηλίου καὶ Κοίντου Φαβίου καταλιπεῖν οἱ πονηρότατοί τε καὶ ἀσελγέστατοι Ῥωμαίων, ἀλλὰ τόπον μεταλαμβάνειν, ἐν ᾧ περίεστι ζῆν αὐτοῖς, ὡς προῄρηνται.
These men informed the senate that, while many other matters had been neglected and passed over because of the continuous campaigns of the consuls, the most necessary of all was the custom regarding the census of lives, by which both the number of those of military age was known and the amount of wealth from which each was required to pay the taxes for war; and that, since no census had taken place for seventeen years since the consulship of Lucius Cornelius and Quintus Fabius, the most wicked and licentious of the Romans had abandoned the city and relocated to a place where they could live as they chose.

Notes

  1. 11.63.2διδάξαντες — This is a nominative participle without a finite main verb in the sentence, representing an anacoluthon. It is translated as if it functioned as the main verb of the sentence ('they informed').
  2. 11.63.2καταλιπεῖν — An infinitive of indirect discourse continuing from the ὅτι-clause, coordinated with μεταλαμβάνειν. Its subject is the nominative οἱ πονηρότατοί..., which is an irregular nominative in indirect discourse or a result of anacoluthon.
  3. 11.63.2ἀπὸ τῆς Λευκίου Κορνηλίου καὶ Κοίντου Φαβίου — The noun ὑπατείας (consulship) or ἀρχῆς (magistracy) is omitted after the article τῆς. It means 'since the consulship of Lucius Cornelius and Quintus Fabius' (459 BC).

Cite this passage

Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities §11.63.1-11.63.2. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0081.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:11.63.1-11.63.2

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