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Livy · History of Rome §3.30.1-3.30.8

Increase of Tribunes to Ten and Victory over Enemies

Passage 156 of 1770 · Latin

Summary

New consuls take office, but domestic disputes over the law continue. Faced with threats from the Aequi and Sabines, the plebeians agree to the levy on the condition that the number of tribunes be increased to ten, and the Roman forces subsequently achieve victory.

§3.30.1Secuntur consules Q. Minucius, M. Horatius Pulvillus.
The consuls Q. Minucius and M. Horatius Pulvillus succeed.
cuius initio anni cum foris otium esset, domi seditiones iidem tribuni, eadem lex faciebat; §3.30.2ulteriusque ventum foret — adeo exarserant animis —, ni velut dedita opera nocturno impetu Aequorum Corbione amissum praesidium nuntiatum esset.
At the beginning of this year, while there was peace abroad, at home the same tribunes and the same law were causing seditions; and they would have gone further — so inflamed were their minds —, had it not been announced, as if by design, that the garrison at Corbio had been lost by a night attack of the Aequi.
§3.30.3senatum consules vocant: iubentur subitarium scribere exercitum atque in Algidum ducere.
The consuls summon the senate; they are ordered to levy an emergency army and lead it to Mount Algidus.
inde posito legis certamine nova de dilectu contentio orta; §3.30.4vincebaturque consulare imperium tribunicio auxilio, cum alius additur terror: Sabinum exercitum praedatum descendisse in agros Romanos, inde ad urbem venire.
Thereupon, the contest over the law being laid aside, a new struggle arose concerning the levy; and the consular authority was being overcome by the tribunician aid, when another terror was added: that a Sabine army had come down into Roman territory to plunder, and from there was approaching the city.
§3.30.5is metus perculit, ut scribi militem tribuni sinerent, non sine pactione tamen, ut, quoniam ipsi quinquennium elusi essent parvumque id plebi praesidium foret, decem deinde tribuni plebis crearentur.
This fear struck them so much that the tribunes permitted the soldiers to be levied, yet not without an agreement that, since they themselves had been baffled for five years and that was but a small protection for the plebs, ten tribunes of the plebs should thereafter be created.
§3.30.6expressit hoc necessitas patribus; id modo excepere, ne postea eosdem tribunos viderent.
Necessity wrung this from the patricians; they only excepted this, that they should not afterwards see the same tribunes.
tribunicia comitia, ne id quoque post bellum ut cetera vanum esset, extemplo habita.
The tribunician elections, lest this also, like other things, should be in vain after the war, were held immediately.
§3.30.7tricesimo sexto anno a primis tribuni plebis decem creati sunt, bini ex singulis classibus, itaque cautum est ut postea crearentur.
In the thirty-sixth year from the first, ten tribunes of the plebs were created, two from each of the classes, and thus it was provided that they should be created afterwards.
§3.30.8dilectu deinde habito Minucius contra Sabinos profectus non invenit hostem.
The levy having then been held, Minucius, marching against the Sabines, did not find the enemy.
Horatius, cum iam Aequi Corbione interfecto praesidio Ortonam etiam cepissent, in Algido pugnat, multos mortalis occidit, fugat hostem non ex Algido modo, sed a Corbione Ortonaque.
Horatius, since the Aequi, having put the garrison at Corbio to death, had now also taken Ortona, fights on Mount Algidus, kills many men, and drives the enemy not only from Algidus but from Corbio and Ortona.
Corbionem etiam diruit propter proditum praesidum.
He also destroyed Corbio because of the betrayed garrison.

Notes

  1. §3.30.2ulteriusque ventum foret — An impersonal passive construction (equivalent to ventum esset, the pluperfect subjunctive of the intransitive verb venire), representing a past contrary-to-fact condition ('they would have gone further').
  2. §3.30.4cum alius additur terror — An instance of cum inversum (inverted cum). While the main clause describes a continuing state in the imperfect (vincebatur), the cum-clause introduces a sudden event with the indicative present (historical present, additur).
  3. §3.30.5non sine pactione tamen, ut — The ut clause explaining pactione functions as an appositive clause, specifying the terms of the agreement ('on the condition that...').
  4. §3.30.6expressit hoc necessitas patribus — patribus is a dative of separation used with the verb of wresting or extorting (expressit), meaning 'wrung this from the patricians'.
  5. §3.30.8proditum praesidum — An ab urbe condita construction, where the perfect passive participle proditum modifying the noun praesidum (a syncopated genitive plural or irregular form of the garrison) expresses the action itself: 'the betrayal of the garrison'.

Cite this passage

Livy, History of Rome §3.30.1-3.30.8. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0914.phi001.humanitext-lat2:3.30.1-3.30.8

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