Humanitext Reader

Livy · History of Rome §1.2.1-1.2.6

War with Turnus and Union of the Latins

Passage 3 of 1770 · Latin

Summary

Turnus wages war against the Aborigines and the Trojans but is defeated, and King Latinus falls in battle. Aeneas unites the two peoples under the name of Latins and leads them against the powerful Etruscans, in which conflict he performs his final mortal work.

§1.2.1bello deinde Aborigines Troianique simul petiti.
Thereupon, the Aborigines and the Trojans were simultaneously attacked in war.
Turnus, rex Rutulorum, cui pacta Lavinia ante adventum Aeneae fuerat, praelatum sibi advenam aegre patiens simul Aeneae Latinoque bellum intulerat.
Turnus, the king of the Rutuli, to whom Lavinia had been betrothed before the arrival of Aeneas, bearing it with resentment that a stranger was preferred to him, had brought war upon Aeneas and Latinus at the same time.
§1.2.2neutra acies laeta ex eo certamine abiit: victi Rutuli; victores Aborigines Troianique ducem Latinum amisere.
Neither army departed from that contest with joy: the Rutuli were defeated; the victorious Aborigines and Trojans lost their leader Latinus.
§1.2.3inde Turnus Rutulique diffisi rebus ad florentes opes Etruscorum Mezentiumque, regem eorum, confugiunt, qui Caere, opulento tum oppido, imperitans iam inde ab initio minime laetus novae origine urbis et tum nimio plus, quam satis tutum esset accolis, rem Troianam crescere ratus haud gravatim socia arma Rutulis iunxit.
Thereupon Turnus and the Rutuli, distrusting their fortunes, fled to the flourishing power of the Etruscans and to Mezentius, their king, who, ruling Caere, which was then a wealthy town, had been from the very beginning far from pleased with the origin of the new city, and then, thinking that the Trojan state was growing far more than was safe enough for its neighbors, joined his allied arms to the Rutuli without reluctance.
§1.2.4Aeneas, adversus tanti belli terrorem ut animos Aboriginum sibi conciliaret nec sub eodem iure solum sed etiam nomine omnes essent, Latinos utramque gentem appellavit.
Aeneas, in order to conciliate the minds of the Aborigines to himself against the terror of so great a war, and so that all might be not only under the same law but also under the same name, called both nations Latins.
§1.2.5nec deinde Aborigines Troianis studio ac fide erga regem Aeneam cessere.
And from then on, the Aborigines did not yield to the Trojans in zeal and loyalty toward King Aeneas.
fretusque his animis coalescentium in dies magis duorum populorum Aeneas, quamquam tanta opibus Etruria erat, ut iam non terras solum sed mare etiam per totam Italiae longitudinem ab Alpibus ad fretum Siculum fama nominis sui inplesset, tamen, cum moenibus bellum propulsare posset, in aciem copias eduxit.
Relying on these spirits of the two peoples coalescing more day by day, Aeneas—although Etruria was so great in power that it had already filled with the fame of its name not only the lands but also the sea through the entire length of Italy from the Alps to the Sicilian Strait—nevertheless, though he could have repelled the war with his walls, led his forces out into the battle line.
§1.2.6secundum inde proelium Latinis, Aeneae etiam ultimum operum mortalium fuit.
The battle that followed was a victory for the Latins, and also for Aeneas the last of his mortal works.
situs est, quemcumque eum dici ius fasque est, super Numicum flumen; Iovem indigetem appellant.
He is buried, by whatever name it is right and lawful for him to be called, above the river Numicus; they call him Jupiter Indiges.

Notes

  1. 1.2.1pacta Lavinia — pacta is the perfect participle of the deponent verb paciscor used in a passive sense, here forming the pluperfect passive with fuerat. cui is a dative of reference or agent, meaning 'Lavinia had been betrothed [to whom]'.
  2. 1.2.3nimio plus, quam satis tutum esset — nimio is an ablative of degree of difference modifying the comparative adverbial expression plus ('by far more'). esset is a subjunctive in the comparative clause introduced by quam, representing Mezentius's subjective assessment or a hypothetical state rather than a simple objective fact.
  3. 1.2.6quemcumque eum dici ius fasque est — The impersonal expression ius fasque est ('it is right and lawful') governs an accusative and infinitive construction (Aci) consisting of the subject accusative eum, the passive infinitive dici, and the predicate accusative quemcumque. It literally means 'by whatever name it is right and lawful for him to be called,' a euphemistic expression reflecting a religious hesitation to directly name the deified Aeneas.

Cite this passage

Livy, History of Rome §1.2.1-1.2.6. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0914.phi001.humanitext-lat2:1.2.1-1.2.6

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