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Dionysius of Halicarnassus · Roman Antiquities §6.27.1-6.27.3

News of Enemy Approach, Consular Clash, and Plebeian Refusal

Passage 433 of 962 · Greek

Summary

On the following day, as the consuls Appius and Servilius clash before the gathered crowd, Latin horsemen report the enemy's approach; while the wealthy quickly arm themselves, the poor oppressed by debt refuse to fight and protest.

§6.27.1τότε μὲν οὖν ᾤχοντο ἐκ τῆς ἀγορᾶς, τῇ δʼ ἑξῆς ἡμέρᾳ παρῆν οὐ μόνον ὁ κατὰ πόλιν ὄχλος, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐκ τῶν σύνεγγυς ἀγρῶν τὸ δημοτικὸν πλῆθος καὶ ἦν ἐξ ἑωθινοῦ πλήρης ἡ ἀγορά.
Thus they departed from the forum then, but on the next day, there was present not only the crowd from the city, but also the plebeian multitude from the nearby fields, and the forum was full from dawn.
τῆς δὲ βουλῆς συναχθείσης, ἵνα περὶ τούτων βουλεύσειεν, ὅ τι χρὴ πράττειν, ὁ μὲν Ἄππιος δημοκόπον ἐκάλει τὸν συνάρχοντα καὶ τῆς ἀπονοίας τῶν ἀπόρων ἡγεμόνα, ὁ δὲ Σερουίλιος ἐκεῖνον αὐστηρὸν καὶ αὐθάδη καὶ τῶν παρόντων τῇ πόλει κακῶν αἴτιον· τέλος δʼ οὐδὲν ἐγίνετο τῶν λόγων.
When the senate was assembled to deliberate on these matters, what ought to be done, Appius called his colleague a demagogue and a leader of the madness of the poor, while Servilius called him harsh, obstinate, and the cause of the evils present in the city; and in the end nothing came of their words.
§6.27.2ἐν δὲ τούτῳ Λατίνων ἱππεῖς κατὰ σπουδὴν ἐλαύνοντες τοὺς ἵππους παρῆσαν εἰς τὴν ἀγορὰν ἐξεληλυθότας ἀγγέλλοντες τοὺς πολεμίους μεγάλῃ στρατιᾷ καὶ ὄντας ἐπὶ τοῖς ἑαυτῶν ὁρίοις ἤδη.
Meanwhile, horsemen of the Latins, riding their horses in haste, arrived at the forum, reporting that the enemy had gone out with a great army and were already at their borders.
καὶ οἱ μὲν ταῦτα, οἱ δὲ πατρίκιοι καὶ τὸ τῶν ἱππέων πλῆθος τῶν τʼ ἄλλων, ὅσοι πλούτους ἢ δόξας προγονικὰς εἶχον, οἷα δὴ περὶ μεγάλων κινδυνεύοντες ὡπλίζοντο διὰ τάχους·
And while they reported this, the patricians and the multitude of the horsemen, and of the others as many as possessed wealth or ancestral glory, armed themselves in haste, as they were indeed in danger concerning great matters.
§6.27.3ὅσοι δʼ ἦσαν αὐτῶν ἄποροι, μάλιστα δʼ οἱ τοῖς δανείοις πιεζόμενοι, οὔθʼ ὅπλων ἥπτοντο οὔτʼ ἄλλως παρείχοντο τοῖς κοινοῖς πράγμασιν ἐπικουρίαν οὐδεμίαν, ἡδόμενοι δὲ καὶ κατʼ εὐχὴν δεχόμενοι τὸν ἔξωθεν πόλεμον, ὡς τῶν παρόντων σφᾶς κακῶν ἐλευθερώσοντα, τοῖς δὲ δεομένοις ἀμύνειν ἐπιδεικνύντες τὰς ἁλύσεις καὶ τὰς πέδας, ἐπικερτομοῦντες ἠρώτων, εἰ τούτων φυλακῆς ἕνεκα τῶν ἀγαθῶν ἄξιον εἴη σφίσι πολεμεῖν· πολλοὶ δὲ καὶ λέγειν ἐτόλμων, ὡς ἄμεινον εἴη Οὐολούσκοις δουλεύειν μᾶλλον ἢ τὰς ὕβρεις τῶν πατρικίων ὑπομένειν· ἥ τε πόλις οἰμωγῆς καὶ θορύβου καὶ παντοίων γυναικείων ὀδυρμῶν ἐνεπίμπλατο.
But as many of them as were poor, and especially those oppressed by debts, neither touched arms nor in any other way offered any help to the public cause, but rejoicing and welcoming the war from without as a prayer answered, in the belief that it would free them from their present evils, and showing their chains and fetters to those who begged them to help defend, they asked in mockery if it was worth their while to fight for the preservation of these "blessings." And many even dared to say that it was better to be slaves to the Volscians than to endure the insolence of the patricians; and the city was filled with wailing, tumult, and all kinds of lamentations of women.

Notes

  1. 1102ἵνα περὶ τούτων βουλεύσειεν, ὅ τι χρὴ πράττειν — A nested structure where the indirect question clause ὅ τι χρὴ πράττειν ('what ought to be done') is subordinated within the purpose clause introduced by ἵνα ('to deliberate on these matters'), which in turn modifies the genitive absolute τῆς δὲ βουλῆς συναχθείσης.
  2. 1102ἐξεληλυθότας ἀγγέλλοντες τοὺς πολεμίους ... καὶ ὄντας — An accusative-with-participle construction serving as the object of the verb of reporting (here the participle ἀγγέλλοντες), where τοὺς πολεμίους is the subject of the action and ἐξεληλυθότας and ὄντας are the predicate participles, meaning 'reporting that the enemy had gone out and were already...'
  3. 1103ὡς τῶν παρόντων σφᾶς κακῶν ἐλευθερώσοντα — The particle ὡς with the future participle ἐλευθερώσοντα (agreeing with τὸν πόλεμον in the masculine accusative singular) expresses the subjective expectation or belief of the people ('believing that it would free them from their present evils').
  4. 1103τούτων φυλακῆς ἕνεκα τῶν ἀγαθῶν — An inversion (hyperbaton) occurs where the preposition ἕνεκα, which governs the genitive, is placed inside the noun phrase τούτων τῶν ἀγαθῶν. Furthermore, τῶν ἀγαθῶν ('these blessings') is used ironically to refer to the 'chains and fetters' mentioned immediately before.

Cite this passage

Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities §6.27.1-6.27.3. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0081.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:6.27.1-6.27.3

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