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Dionysius of Halicarnassus · Roman Antiquities §12.12.1-12.12.3

Confirmation of the Alban Lake Oracle and Canal Work

Passage 876 of 962 · Greek

Summary

The military tribunes extract the secret of the Alban lake's oracle from the captured diviner and send him to the senate. Subsequently, the envoys from Delphi return with an oracle that matches his ominous prediction, prompting the Romans to begin constructing canals.

§12.12.1τοῦτον τὸν ἄνδρα οἱ χιλίαρχοι λόγοις τε θεραπεύοντες καὶ βασάνων ἀπειλαῖς δεδιττόμενοι ἅπαντα παρεσκεύασαν ἐξειπεῖν, ἃ περὶ τῆς Ἀλβανίδος λίμνης ἀπέκρυπτεν· εἶτα καὶ πρὸς τὴν βουλὴν αὐτὸν ἀναπέμπουσι.
The military tribunes, both coaxing this man with words and terrifying him with threats of torture, induced him to reveal everything that he was concealing about the Alban lake; then they also sent him up to the senate.
τοῖς δʼ ἐκ τοῦ συνεδρίου οὐχ ἡ ὁμοία παρέστη δόξα, ἀλλὰ τοῖς μὲν ἐδόκει πανοῦργός τις εἶναι καὶ γόης ὁ Τυρρηνὸς καὶ καταψεύδεσθαι τὸῦ δαιμονίου τὰ περὶ τὸν χρησμόν, τοῖς δʼ ἀπὸ πάσης ἀληθείας εἰρηκέναι.
But the members of the council did not form the same opinion; rather, to some the Tyrrhenian seemed to be a rogue and a charlatan, and to be lying about the divinity concerning the oracle, while to others he seemed to have spoken with all truth.
§12.12.2ἐν τοιαύτῃ δʼ ἀμηχανίᾳ τῆς βουλῆς ὑπαρχούσης παρῆσαν οἱ προαποσταλέντες εἰς Δελφοὺς θεόπροποι χρησμοὺς κομίζοντες τοῖς ὑπὸ τοῦ Τυρρηνοῦ πρότερον ἀπηγγελμένοις συνᾴδοντας· ὅτι θεοὶ καὶ δαίμονες οἱ λαχόντες τὴν Οὐιεντανῶν πόλιν τοσοῦτον αὐτοῖς ἐγγυῶνται χρόνον ἀσάλευτον φυλάξαι τὴν ἐκ προγόνων παραδοθεῖσαν εὐδαιμονίαν, ὅσον ἂν διαμένωσιν αἱ πηγαὶ τῆς ἐν Ἀλβανῷ λίμνης ὑπερχεόμεναι καὶ μέχρι θαλάττης ἀπορρέουσαι· §12.12.3ὅταν δʼ ἐκεῖναι φύσιν τε τὴν ἑαυτῶν καὶ ὁδοὺς τὰς ἀρχαίας ἐκλιποῦσαι καθʼ ἑτέρας ἐκτραπῶσιν, ὡς μηκέτι μίσγεσθαι τῇ θαλάττῃ, τότε καὶ τὴν πόλιν αὐτῶν ἀνάστατον ἔσεσθαι· τοῦτο δʼ οὐκ εἰς μακρὰν ὑπὸ Ῥωμαίων γενήσεσθαι, ἐὰν ὀρύγμασι καθʼ ἕτερα χωρία γενομένοις ἐκτρέψωσι τὴν πλήμμυραν τῶν ὑδάτων εἰς τὰ πρόσω τῆς θαλάττης πεδία.
While the senate was in such perplexity, the messengers who had been previously sent to Delphi arrived, bringing oracles that agreed with the things previously announced by the Tyrrhenian: namely, that the gods and spirits who had obtained by lot the city of the Veientes guaranteed to protect for them their ancestral prosperity unshaken for so long a time as the springs of the lake near Alba should remain overflowing and running down as far as the sea; but when those springs, abandoning both their own nature and their ancient channels, should be diverted in another direction so as no longer to mingle with the sea, then their city also would be laid waste; and that this would be accomplished before long by the Romans, if, by means of excavations made in other places, they should divert the overflow of the waters into the plains far from the sea.
ταῦτα μαθόντες οἱ Ῥωμαῖοι εὐθὺς ἐπέστησαν τοῖς ἔργοις τοὺς χειροτέχνας.
Having learned this, the Romans immediately set the artisans to the works.

Notes

  1. ¦15¦τοῦτον τὸν ἄνδρα ... παρεσκεύασαν ἐξειπεῖν — The main verb παρεσκεύασαν (induced/caused) governs the accusative and infinitive construction (A.C.I.) with ἐξειπεῖν (to speak out/reveal). The phrase τοῦτον τὸν ἄνδρα at the beginning serves as the direct object of the participles (θεραπεύοντες and δεδιττόμενοι) modifying the main subject (οἱ χιλίαρχοι), while simultaneously functioning as the subject accusative of the infinitive ἐξειπεῖν.
  2. ¦15¦τοῖς δʼ ἀπὸ πάσης ἀληθείας εἰρηκέναι — In this clause corresponding to the preceding τοῖς μὲν ἐδόκει... (to some it seemed...), the impersonal imperfect verb ἐδόκει is omitted after τοῖς δʼ. The subject accusative of the infinitive εἰρηκέναι (to have spoken) is supplied from the subject of the first clause, ὁ Τυρρηνός (the Tyrrhenian), which is understood as a common element.
  3. ¦16¦ὅτι θεοὶ καὶ δαίμονες ... ἀνάστατον ἔσεσθαι — In the indirect discourse reporting the Delphic oracle, the first part is introduced by the conjunction ὅτι followed by the indicative (ἐγγυῶνται), whereas the corresponding main clause in the second part (§12.12.3) shifts to the infinitive (ἔσεσθαι and subsequently γενήσεσθαι). This shows a smooth syntactical transition from a ὅτι-clause to a standard indirect speech construction with infinitives, despite expressing the same reported message.

Cite this passage

Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities §12.12.1-12.12.3. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0081.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:12.12.1-12.12.3

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