Humanitext Reader

Livy · History of Rome §1.6.1-1.6.4

Restoration of Numitor and the Augury for a New City

Passage 7 of 1770 · Latin

Summary

Numitor announces his brother's crimes and his grandsons' identity to the assembly after Amulius is slain, while Romulus and Remus resolve to found a new city but, driven by ambition, agree to seek the gods' choice through augury.

§1.6.1Numitor inter primum tumultum hostis invasisse urbem atque adortos regiam dictitans, cum pubem Albanam in arcem praesidio armisque obtinendam avocasset, postquam iuvenes perpetrata caede pergere ad se gratulantes vidit, extemplo advocato concilio scelera in se fratris, originem nepotum, ut geniti, ut educati, ut cogniti essent, caedem deinceps tyranni seque eius auctorem ostendit.
Numitor, in the first confusion, repeatedly asserting that enemies had invaded the city and attacked the palace, after he had called away the Alban youth to the citadel to hold it with a garrison and arms, when he saw the young men, after the slaughter was accomplished, coming to him to congratulate him, immediately, having called an assembly, disclosed his brother's crimes against himself, the origin of his grandsons, how they had been born, how brought up, how recognized, and then the slaughter of the tyrant, and that he himself was the author of it.
§1.6.2iuvenes per mediam contionem agmine ingressi cum avum regem salutassent, secuta ex omni multitudine consentiens vox ratum nomen imperiumque regi efficit.
The young men, having entered in a body through the midst of the assembly, when they had saluted their grandfather as king, a consenting shout following from the entire multitude made the title and the sovereign power secure for the king.
§1.6.3ita Numitori Albana re permissa Romulum Remumque cupido cepit in iis locis, ubi expositi ubique educati erant, urbis condendae.
Thus, the government of Alba having been committed to Numitor, a desire seized Romulus and Remus of founding a city in those places where they had been exposed and brought up.
et supererat multitudo Albanorum Latinorumque; ad id pastores quoque accesserant, qui omnes facile spem facerent parvam Albam, parvum Lavinium prae ea urbe, quae conderetur, fore.
Moreover, there was a surplus population of Albans and Latins; to this the shepherds also had been added, who all easily created the hope that Alba would be small, and Lavinium small, in comparison with that city which was to be founded.
§1.6.4intervenit deinde his cogitationibus avitum malum, regni cupido, atque inde foedum certamen, coortum a satis miti principio.
Then, upon these deliberations, intervened an ancestral evil, the desire for royal power, and thence a foul contest, arisen from a sufficiently mild beginning.
quoniam gemini essent nec aetatis verecundia discrimen facere posset, ut dii, quorum tutelae ea loca essent, auguriis legerent, qui nomen novae urbi daret, qui conditam imperio regeret, Palatium Romulus, Remus Aventinum ad inaugurandum templa capiunt.
Since they were twins, and respect for age could make no distinction, in order that the gods, under whose protection those places were, might choose by auguries who should give a name to the new city, and who, when founded, should govern it with sovereign power, Romulus took the Palatine and Remus the Aventine as their quarters for taking the auguries.

Notes

  1. 1.6.1hostis — hostis is the accusative plural (a variant of hostes), serving as the subject of the accusative-with-infinitive construction hostis invasisse ... adortos [esse].
  2. 1.6.1in arcem praesidio armisque obtinendam — The preposition in with the accusative noun arcem and its agreeing gerundive obtinendam expresses purpose ('to hold the citadel'). praesidio armisque is an ablative of means.
  3. 1.6.3urbis condendae — A gerundive construction in the genitive case modifying the noun cupido ('desire'). It means 'of founding a city,' equivalent to the gerund construction urbem condendi.
  4. 1.6.4tutelae — A dative of purpose or service (predicative dative). Combined with the possessive genitive relative pronoun quorum, it means 'under the protection of those gods' (literally, 'for the protection of whom').

Cite this passage

Livy, History of Rome §1.6.1-1.6.4. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0914.phi001.humanitext-lat2:1.6.1-1.6.4

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