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Dionysius of Halicarnassus · Roman Antiquities §3.38.1-3.38.4

Recapture of Latin Cities and Destruction of Ficana

Passage 209 of 962 · Greek

Summary

Marcius repeatedly attacked the Latin cities of Politorium, Tellenae, and Medullia, and after capturing Ficana for the second time, he thoroughly destroyed it because his previous lenient treatment had allowed the enemy to reuse it.

§3.38.1τῷ δʼ ἑξῆς ἐνιαυτῷ Λατίνων εἰς ἔρημον τὸ Πολιτώριον ἐποίκους ἀποστειλάντων καὶ τὴν τῶν Πολιτωρίνων χώραν ἐπεργαζομένων ἀναλαβὼν τὴν δύναμιν ὁ Μάρκιος ἦγεν ἐπʼ αὐτούς.
In the following year, when the Latins had sent colonists into the abandoned Politorium and were cultivating the territory of the Politorians, Marcius took up his army and led it against them.
προελθόντων δὲ τοῦ τείχους τῶν Λατίνων καὶ παραταξαμένων νικήσας αὐτοὺς παραλαμβάνει τὴν πόλιν τὸ δεύτερον.
And when the Latins had advanced outside the wall and drawn up their lines, he defeated them and captured the city a second time.
ἐμπρήσας δὲ τὰς οἰκίας καὶ τὸ τεῖχος κατασκάψας, ἵνα μηθὲν αὖθις ὁρμητήριον ἔχοιεν οἱ πολέμιοι μηδʼ ἐργάζοιντο τὴν γῆν, ἀπῆγε τὴν στρατιάν.
Then, having burned the houses and demolished the wall, so that the enemy might not again have any stronghold nor cultivate the land, he led his army away.
§3.38.2τῷ δʼ ἑξῆς ἔτει Λατῖνοι μὲν ἐπὶ Μεδυλλίαν πόλιν στρατεύσαντες, ἐν ᾗ Ῥωμαίων ἦσαν ἄποικοι, προσκαθεζόμενοι τῷ τείχει καὶ πανταχόθεν ποιησάμενοι τὰς προσβολὰς αἱροῦσιν αὐτὴν κατὰ κράτος.
In the following year, the Latins, having marched against the city of Medullia, in which there were Roman colonists, and having laid siege to the wall and made assaults from all sides, took it by storm.
Μάρκιος δὲ Τελλήνας πόλιν τῶν Λατίνων ἐπιφανῆ κατὰ τὸν αὐτὸν αἱρεῖ χρόνον ἐκ παρατάξεώς τε νικήσας καὶ διὰ τειχομαχίας παραστησάμενος, τούς τε ἁλόντας οὐδὲν ὧν εἶχον ἀφελόμενος εἰς Ῥώμην μητήγαγε καὶ τῆς πόλεως εἰς κατασκευὴν οἰκιῶν τόπον ἀπεμέρισε·
On the other hand, Marcius, at the same time, captured Tellenae, an illustrious city of the Latins, having both defeated them in a pitched battle and subdued them by siege; and without taking away any of the possessions of those captured, he transferred them to Rome and set aside a plot of land in the city for the construction of their houses.
§3.38.3Μεδυλλίαν τε τριετῆ χρόνον ὑπὸ τοῖς Λατίνοις γενομένην τῷ τετάρτῳ κομίζεται πάλιν ἐνιαυτῷ πολλαῖς καὶ μεγάλαις παραστησάμενος μάχαις.
And Medullia, which had been under the power of the Latins for three years, he recovered in the fourth year, having subdued it through many great battles.
καὶ μετʼ οὐ πολὺ τὴν Φικαναίων αἱρεῖ πόλιν, ἣν τρίτῳ πρότερον ἐνιαυτῷ λαβὼν καθʼ ὁμολογίας καὶ τοὺς ἐξ αὐτῆς ἅπαντας εἰς Ῥώμην μεταγαγών, ἄλλο δὲ τῆς πόλεως οὐδὲν κακώσας, ἐπιεικέστερον μᾶλλον ἢ φρονιμώτερον ἔδοξε βουλεύεσθαι.
And not long after, he captured the city of the Ficanaeans, which he had taken three years before by capitulation and had transferred all its inhabitants to Rome, while doing no other damage to the city, so that he seemed to have planned more with leniency than with wisdom.
§3.38.4ἀποίκους γὰρ ἀποστείλαντες εἰς αὐτὴν οἱ Λατῖνοι καὶ τὴν χώραν αὐτῶν διακατέχοντες αὐτοὶ τὴν τῶν Φικαναίων ἐκαρποῦντο, ὥστε ἠναγκάσθη πάλιν ὁ Μάρκιος τὸ δεύτερον ἐπὶ τὴν πόλιν στρατεῦσαι καὶ μετὰ πολλῆς πραγματείας κύριος αὐτῆς καταστὰς ἐμπρῆσαί τε τὰς οἰκίας καὶ τὰ τείχη κατασκάψαι.
For the Latins, having sent colonists into it and holding their territory, were themselves enjoying the fruits of the Ficanaeans' land, so that Marcius was forced to march against the city a second time, and having become master of it after much trouble, to burn the houses and demolish the walls.

Notes

  1. ¦522¦προελθόντων δὲ τοῦ τείχους τῶν Λατίνων καὶ παραταξαμένων — Genitive absolute construction. It adverbially supplements the main clause, whose subject is Marcius (παραλαμβάνει), by describing the Latins advancing outside the wall and drawing up their lines.
  2. ¦p.v.1p.351¦οὐδὲν ὧν εἶχον ἀφελόμενος — The relative pronoun ὧν represents the attraction of the relative from the accusative ἅ (the object of εἶχον inside the relative clause) to the genitive under the influence of the omitted antecedent τούτων, which is governed by the verb of depriving, ἀφελόμενος.
  3. ¦523¦ἐπιεικέστερον μᾶλλον ἢ φρονιμώτερον — A double comparative construction where two comparative adjectives are linked by μᾶλλον ἤ to compare the degrees of two different qualities of the same subject ("more leniently than wisely").

Cite this passage

Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities §3.38.1-3.38.4. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0081.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:3.38.1-3.38.4

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