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Livy · History of Rome §26.34.1-26.34.13

The Senate's Decrees on the Fate of the Campanians

Passage 829 of 1770 · Latin

Summary

The senate decides on individual punishments for the Campanians; while a few who deserved well are pardoned, many face property confiscation, enslavement, or forced relocation beyond the Tiber.

§26.34.1ex hoc plebei scito senatus consultus Oppiae Cluviaeque primum bona ac libertatem restituit: si qua alia praemia petere ab senatu vellent, venire eas Romam.
In accordance with this plebiscite, the senate, by a decree, first restored to Oppia and Cluvia their property and liberty; if they wished to petition the senate for any other rewards, they were to come to Rome.
§26.34.2Campanis in familias singulas decreta facta, quae non operae pretium est omnia enumerare.
For the rest of the Campanians, decrees were made for individual families, which it is not worth while to enumerate in full.
§26.34.3aliorum bona publicanda, ipsos liberosque eorum et coniuges vendendas extra filias, quae enupsissent, priusquam in populi Romani potestatem venirent; §26.34.4alios in vincula condendos, ac de iis posterius consulendum; aliorum Campanorum summam etiam census distinxerunt, publicanda necne bona essent.
The property of some was to be confiscated, and they themselves, their children, and their wives were to be sold, except for those daughters who had married into other families before they came into the power of the Roman people; others were to be thrown into prison, and their cases decided upon later; for other Campanians, they even distinguished by the amount of their census whether their property should be confiscated or not.
§26.34.5pecua captiva praeter equos et mancipia praeter puberes virile secus et omnia, quae solo non continerentur, restituenda censuerunt dominis.
Captured cattle, except for horses, and slaves, except for adult males, and all things not attached to the soil, they voted should be restored to their owners.
§26.34.6Campanos omnis Atellanos, Calatinos, Sabatinos, extra quam qui eorum aut ipsi aut parentes eorum apud hostis essent, §26.34.7liberos esse iusserunt ita, ut nemo eorum Civis Romanus aut Latini nominis esset, neve quis eorum, qui Capuae fuisset, dum portae clausae essent, in urbe agrove Campano intra certam diem maneret, locus ubi habitarent trans Tiberim, qui non contingeret Tiberim, daretur; §26.34.8qui nec Capuae nec in urbe Campana, quae a populo Romano defecisset, per bellum fnissent, eos cis Lirim amnem Romam versus; §26.34.9qui ad Romanos transissent, priusquam Capuam Hannibal veairet, cis Vulturnum emovendos censuerunt, ne quis eorum propius mare quindecim milibus passuum agrum aedificiumve haberet.
All the Campanians, Atellans, Calatinians, and Sabatinians, except those who, either themselves or their parents, had been among the enemy, they ordered to be free, but on the condition that none of them should be a Roman citizen or of the Latin name, and that none of those who had been in Capua while the gates were closed should remain in the city or territory of Campania after a certain day, and that a place to dwell in should be given them across the Tiber, not touching the Tiber; as for those who during the war had been neither in Capua nor in any Campanian city which had revolted from the Roman people, they were to be moved to this side of the Liris river, toward Rome; and those who had gone over to the Romans before Hannibal came to Capua were to be moved to this side of the Volturnus river, with the restriction that none of them should have land or a building within fifteen miles of the sea.
§26.34.10qui eorum trans Tiberim emoti essent, ne ipsi posterive eorum uspiam pararent haberentve nisi in Veiente, Sutrino Nepesinove agro, dum ne cui maior quam quinquaginta iugerum agri modus esset.
As for those who had been moved across the Tiber, neither they nor their descendants were to acquire or hold land anywhere except in the territory of Veii, Sutrium, or Nepete, and even then, provided that no one's allotment of land should be greater than fifty iugera.
§26.34.11senatorum omnium quique magistratus Capuae, Atellae, Calatiae gessissent bona venire Capuae iusserunt, libera corpora, quae venum dari placuerat, Romam mitti ac Romae venire.
They ordered the property of all the senators and those who had held magistracies at Capua, Atella, or Calatia to be sold at Capua, and the free persons whom it had been decided to sell to be sent to Rome and sold at Rome.
§26.34.12signa, statuas aeneas, auae capta de hostibus dicerentur, quae eorum sacra ac profana essent, ad pontificum collegium reiecerunt.
The images and bronze statues which were said to have been captured from the enemy, and what among them was sacred or profane, they referred to the college of pontiffs.
§26.34.13ob haec decreta maestiores aliquanto quam Romam venerant, Campanos dimiserunt.
By these decrees, the Campanians were dismissed in a state of mind considerably more sorrowful than that in which they had come to Rome.
nec iam Q. Fulvii saevitiam in sese, sed iniquitatem deum atque execrabilem fortunam suam incusabant.
They no longer blamed the cruelty of Q. Fulvius toward them, but the injustice of the gods and their own accursed fortune.

Notes

  1. §26.34.1senatus consultus — This can be understood as an ablative of manner, equivalent to the variant reading senatus consulto ('by a decree of the senate'). The subject of the main verb restituit is senatus.
  2. §26.34.3extra filias, quae enupsissent, priusquam in populi Romani potestatem venirent — The priusquam clause with the imperfect subjunctive venirent refers to the time before 'they came under the power of the Roman people.' This historical context excludes (extra) those daughters who had already married out (enupsissent) prior to that moment from being sold into slavery.
  3. §26.34.5virile secus — An idiomatic accusative expression consisting of the neuter noun secus ('sex, kind') and the adjective virile. It modifies the preceding noun (here, mancipia) appositively to mean 'of the male sex,' indicating the exclusion of adult (puberes) male slaves.
  4. §26.34.11venire — Here, venire is not the present active infinitive of the intransitive verb venio ('to come'), but the present active infinitive of veneo ('to be sold'). The same applies to Romae venire later in the sentence, carrying a passive sense.

Cite this passage

Livy, History of Rome §26.34.1-26.34.13. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0914.phi001.humanitext-lat2:26.34.1-26.34.13

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