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Dionysius of Halicarnassus · Roman Antiquities §17_18.3.1

Pretext and True Cause of the War and Roman Preparations

Passage 925 of 962 · Greek

Summary

The public pretext (assisting the Lucanians) and the true cause (fear of the growing power of the Samnites) of the Samnite War are explained, and Rome begins war preparations.

§17_18.3.1ἡ μὲν δὴ φανερὰ τοῦ Σαυνιτικοῦ πολέμου πρόφασις καὶ πρὸς ἅπαντας εὐπρεπὴς λέγεσθαι ἡ Λευκανῶν ἐγένετο βοήθεια τῶν καταφυγόντων ἐπʼ αὐτούς· ὡς κοινὸν δή τι τοῦτο καὶ πάτριον ἔθος τῇ Ῥωμαίων πόλει τοῖς ἀδικουμένοις καὶ καταφεύγουσιν ἐπʼ αὐτὴν βοηθεῖν·
The manifest and, to all, honorable-to-state pretext for the Samnite War was the assistance rendered to the Lucanians who fled to them; on the ground that it was a certain common and ancestral custom for the city of the Romans to assist those who were wronged and fled to her.
ἡ δʼ ἀφανὴς καὶ μᾶλλον αὐτοὺς ἀναγκάζουσα διαλύεσθαι τὴν φιλίαν ἡ τῶν Σαυνιτῶν ἰσχὺς πολλή τʼ ἤδη γεγονυῖα καὶ ἔτι πλείων γενήσεσθαι νομιζομένη, εἰ Λευκανῶν τε χειρωθέντων καὶ διʼ αὐτοὺς τῶν προσοίκων ἀκολουθήσειν ἔμελλε τά βαρβαρικὰ ἔθνη τὰ προσεχῆ τούτοις.
But the hidden cause, which rather forced them to dissolve the friendship, was the power of the Samnites, which had already become great and was expected to become still greater, if, after the Lucanians had been subdued and through them the neighbors, the barbarian nations adjacent to them were likely to follow.
αἵ τε δὴ σπονδαὶ μετὰ τὴν ἄφιξιν τῶν πρεσβευτῶν εὐθὺς ἐλέλυντο, καὶ στρατιαὶ δύο κατεγράφοντο.
Thus, immediately after the arrival of the ambassadors, the treaty was dissolved, and two armies were enrolled.

Notes

  1. 16.14πρὸς ἅπαντας εὐπρεπὴς λέγεσθαι — An infinitive of limitation (or respect) modifying the adjective εὐπρεπής, meaning "honorable/seemly to state to all."
  2. 16.14ἡ δʼ ἀφανὴς — The noun πρόφασις (pretext/cause) is omitted after ἡ δ' ἀφανής, and the copula (such as ἦν) is also omitted. The subject of this clause is the subsequent ἡ τῶν Σαυνιτῶν ἰσχὺς (the power of the Samnites).
  3. 16.14εἰ Λευκανῶν τε χειρωθέντων καὶ διʼ αὐτοὺς τῶν προσοίκων — Within the conditional εἰ-clause, there is a genitive absolute participle phrase Λευκανῶν τε χειρωθέντων, and the same participle χειρωθέντων is omitted in the coordinated phrase καὶ διʼ αὐτοὺς τῶν προσοίκων.

Cite this passage

Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities §17_18.3.1. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0081.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:17_18.3.1

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