§25.6.1hi permissu Lentuli primores equitum centurionumque et robora ex legionibus peditum legatos in hiberna ad M. Marcellum miserunt, e quibus unus potestate dicendi facta: §25.6.2“consulem te, M. Marcelle, in Italia adissemus, cum primum de nobis etsi non iniquum, certe triste senatus consultum factum est, nisi hoc sperassemus, §25.6.3in provinciam nos morte regum turbatam ad grave bellum adversus Siculos simul Poenosque mitti et sanguine nostro vulneribusque nostris senatui satisfacturos esse, sicut patrum memoria, qui capti a Pyrrho ad Heracleam erant, adversus Pyrrhum ipsum pugnantes satisfecerunt.
These men, with the permission of Lentulus, sent the chief of the cavalry and the centurions, and the flower of the infantry legions, as envoys to Marcus Marcellus at his winter quarters; and one of them, when permission to speak was granted, said: "We should have approached you, Marcus Marcellus, as consul in Italy, as soon as that decree of the senate, which, if not unjust, was certainly harsh, was passed concerning us, had we not hoped for this: that we were being sent into a province thrown into confusion by the death of its kings, for a serious war against both the Sicilians and the Carthaginians, and that we should satisfy the senate with our blood and our wounds, just as, within the memory of our fathers, those who were captured by Pyrrhus at Heraclea satisfied them by fighting against Pyrrhus himself.
§25.6.4quamquam quod ob meritum nostrum suscensuistis, patres conscripti, nobis, aut suscensetis?
And yet, for what demerit of ours, conscript fathers, did you become angry with us, or are you still angry?
§25.6.5ambo mihi consules et universum senatum intueri videor, cum te, M. Marcelle, intueor, quem si ad Cannas consulem habuissemus, melior et rei publicae et nostra fortuna esset.
I seem to myself to behold both consuls and the whole senate when I look at you, Marcus Marcellus; if we had had you as consul at Cannae, both the fortune of the state and our own would have been better.
§25.6.6sine, quaeso, priusquam de condicione nostra queror, noxam, cuius arguimur, nos purgare si non deum ira nec fato, cuius lege immobilis rerum humanarum ordo seritur, sed culpa periimus ad Cannas, cuius tandem ea culpa fuit? militum an imperatorum?
Allow us, I pray, before I complain of our condition, to clear ourselves of the guilt with which we are charged. If we perished at Cannae not through the anger of the gods nor by fate, by whose law the unchangeable order of human affairs is woven, but by guilt, whose guilt, pray, was it? That of the soldiers, or of the generals?
§25.6.7equidem miles nihil umquam dicam de imperatore meo, cui praesertim gratias sciam ab senatu actas, quod non desperaverit de re publica cui post fugam a Cannis per omnes annos prorogatum imperium.
For my part, as a soldier, I will never say anything of my general, especially since I know that thanks were returned to him by the senate because he did not despair of the commonwealth, and since his command has been prorogued through all the years following his flight from Cannae.
§25.6.8ceteros item ex reliquiis cladis eius, quos tribunos militum habuimus, honores petere et gerere et provincias obtinere audivimus.
We have heard likewise that others from the remnants of that disaster, whom we had as military tribunes, are seeking and holding offices and governing provinces.
§25.6.9an vobis vestrisque liberis ignoscitis facile, patres conscripti, in haec villa capita saevire libet? et consuli primoribusque aliis civitatis fugere, cum spes alia nulla esset, turpe non fuit; §25.6.10milites utique morituros in aciem misistis? ad Alliam prope omnis exercitus fugit;
Or do you easily pardon yourselves and your children, conscript fathers, while you like to vent your rage upon these worthless heads? Was it not shameful for the consul and the other chief men of the state to flee, when there was no other hope; did you send soldiers into the battle line solely to die?
ad Furculas Caudinas ne expertus quidem certamen arma tradidit hosti, ut alias pudendas clades exercituum taceam: §25.6.11tamen tantum afuit ab eo, ut ulla ignominia iis exercitibus quaereretur, ut et urbs Roma per eum exercitum, qui ab Allia Veios transfugerat, §25.6.12reciperaretur, et Caudinae legiones, quae sine armis redierant Romam, armatae remissae in Samnium eundem illum hostem sub iugum miserint, qui hac sua ignominia laetatus fuerat.
At the Allia, almost the entire army fled; at the Caudine Forks, without even trying a contest, they surrendered their arms to the enemy, to say nothing of other shameful disasters of our armies: yet so far were those armies from having any ignominy inflicted upon them, that both the city of Rome was recovered by that army which had fled from the Allia to Veii, and the Caudine legions, which had returned to Rome without arms, were sent back armed into Samnium and sent under the yoke that very enemy who had rejoiced in their disgrace.
§25.6.13Cannensem vero quisquam exercitum fugae aut pavoris insimulare potest, ubi plus quinquaginta milia hominum ceciderunt, unde consul cum equitibus septuaginta fugit, unde nemo superest, nisi quem hostis caedendo fessus reliquit?
But can anyone accuse the army of Cannae of flight or panic, where more than fifty thousand men fell, from which the consul fled with only seventy horsemen, from which no one survived except those whom the enemy, weary of slaughter, left alive?
§25.6.14cum captivis redemptio negabatur, nos vulgo homines laudabant, quod rei publicae nos reservassemus, quod ad consulem Venusiam redissemus, et speciem iusti exercitus fecissemus; §25.6.15nunc deteriore condicione sumus, quam apud patres nostros fuerant captivi.
When redemption was denied to the captives, people generally praised us, because we had preserved ourselves for the commonwealth, because we had returned to the consul at Venusia and had formed the appearance of a regular army; now we are in a worse condition than the captives were in the days of our fathers.
quippe illis arma tantum atque ordo militandi locusque, in quo tenderent in castris, est mutatus, quae tamen semel navata rei publicae opera et uno felici proelio recuperarunt: §25.6.16nemo eorum relegatus in exilium est, nemini spes emerendi stipendia adempta, hostis denique est datus, cum quo dimicantes aut vitam semel aut ignominiam finirent; — §25.6.17nos, quibus, nisi quod commisimus, ut quisquam ex Cannensi acie miles Romanus superesset, nihil obici potest, non solum a patria procul Italiaque sed ab hoste etiam relegati sumus, §25.6.18ubi senescamus in exilio, ne qua spes, ne qua occasio abolendae ignominiae, ne qua placandae civium irae, ne qua denique bene moriendi sit.
For in their case, only their arms, their rank in the service, and the place where they pitched their tents in the camp were changed; and yet they recovered these by once performing active service for the state and by a single successful battle: none of them was banished into exile, from none was the hope of completing their service taken away, and finally, an enemy was given to them, in fighting with whom they might either end their lives at once or end their disgrace; — while we, against whom nothing can be charged except that we committed the offense of surviving as Roman soldiers from the battleline of Cannae, have been banished not only far from our native land and Italy, but even away from the enemy, where we are to grow old in exile, with no hope, no opportunity of wiping out our disgrace, no means of appeasing the anger of our fellow-citizens, and finally, no way of dying honorably.
neque ignominiae finem §25.6.19nec virtutis praemium petimus; modo experiri animum et virtutem exercere liceat.
We seek neither an end to our disgrace nor the reward of valor; only let us try our spirit and exercise our valor.
laborem et periculum petimus, ut virorum, ut militum officio fungamur.
We ask for labor and danger, so that we may perform the duty of men, of soldiers.
§25.6.20bellum in Sicilia iam alterum annum ingenti dimicatione geritur; urbes alias Poenus, alias Romanus expugnat; §25.6.21peditum equitum acies concurrunt; ad Syracusas terra marique geritur res; clamorem pugnantium crepitumque armorum exaudimus resides ipsi ac segnes, tamquam nec manus nec arma habeamus.
War in Sicily is now being waged for a second year with intense struggle; the Carthaginian storms some cities, the Roman others; the battle lines of infantry and cavalry clash; at Syracuse the struggle goes on by land and sea; we ourselves, idle and sluggish, hear the shouting of the combatants and the clashing of arms, as if we had neither hands nor weapons.
servorum legionibus Ti. Sempronius consul totiens iam cum hoste signis conlatis pugnavit; operae pretium habent libertatem civitatemque: — §25.6.22pro servis saltem ad hoc bellum emptis vobis simus, congredi cum hoste liceat et pugnando quaerere libertatem.
The consul Tiberius Sempronius has already fought so many times with the enemy in pitched battle with legions of slaves; they have as the reward of their service freedom and citizenship: — let us at least be to you in place of slaves bought for this war, let us be allowed to meet the enemy and seek our freedom by fighting.
vis tu mari, vis terra, vis acie, vis urbibus oppugnandis experiri virtutem?
Do you wish to try our valor by sea, or by land, in a pitched battle, or in storming cities?
§25.6.23asperrima quaeque ad laborem periculumque deposcimus, ut, quod ad Cannas faciundum fuit, quam primum fiat, quoniam, quidquid postea viximus, id omne destinatum ignominiae est. ”
We demand the most difficult of tasks for labor and danger, so that what ought to have been done at Cannae may be done as soon as possible, since whatever life we have lived since then is all doomed to ignominy."