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Cornelius Nepos · Dion §10.1-10.3

Shift in Public Sentiment and Public Funeral of Dion

Passage 10 of 10 · Latin

Summary

Following Dion's murder, confusion and wrongful killings occur among the crowd, but once his death is publicized, public opinion shifts dramatically to praise him as the liberator of his country. Dion is given a public funeral and dies at around the age of fifty.

§10.1Confecta caede, cum multitudo visendi gratia introisset, nonnulli ab insciis pro noxiis conciduntur.
When the murder was completed, and the crowd had entered for the sake of seeing, several persons were cut down by those who were ignorant of the facts, being mistaken for the guilty.
nam celeri rumore dilato, Dioni vim allatam, multi concurrerant, quibus tale facinus displicebat.
For a swift rumor having spread that violence had been offered to Dion, many had run together to whom such a deed was displeasing.
ii falsa suspicione ducti immerentes ut sceleratos occidunt.
These, led by a false suspicion, killed the innocent as if they were the criminals.
§10.2huius de morte ut palam factum est, mirabiliter vulgi mutata est voluntas.
As soon as his death became publicly known, the disposition of the populace was wonderfully changed.
nam qui vivum eum tyrannum vocitarant, eidem liberatorem patriae tyrannique expulsorem praedicabant.
For those who when he was alive had repeatedly called him a tyrant, now proclaimed the same man the liberator of his country and the expeller of a tyrant.
sic subito misericordia odio successerat, ut eum suo sanguine ab Acherunte, si possent, cuperent redimere.
Thus suddenly had pity succeeded to hatred, so that they wished, if they could, to redeem him from Acheron with their own blood.
§10.3itaque in urbe celeberrimo loco, elatus publice, sepulcri monumento donatus est.
Therefore, in the most celebrated place of the city, having been carried out to burial at public expense, he was honored with a tomb.
diem obiit circiter annos quinquaginta natus, quartum post annum, quam ex Peloponneso in Siciliam redierat.
He died when he was about fifty years old, in the fourth year after he had returned from the Peloponnese to Sicily.

Notes

  1. §10.1Dioni vim allatam — An accusative with infinitive clause explaining the content of the preceding celeri rumore (swift rumor), with the auxiliary verb esse omitted in the perfect passive infinitive allatam [esse]. Dioni is the dative (indirect object) governed by the verb inferre (here in the passive).
  2. §10.2vivum eum tyrannum — The object construction of vocitarant (had repeatedly called). eum (him) is the direct object and tyrannum (tyrant) is the predicate accusative, forming a double accusative construction. The adjective vivum agrees with eum and is used predicatively, expressing a temporal circumstance ('when he was alive').
  3. §10.3quartum post annum, quam — A temporal construction expressing elapsed time, where the conjunction postquam (after) is separated (tmesis) into the adverb post and the conjunction quam, with quartum annum (the fourth year) placed between them. It means 'in the fourth year after...' or 'four years after...'.

Cite this passage

Cornelius Nepos, Dion §10.1-10.3. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0588.abo010.humanitext-lat2:10.1-10.3

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