§3.6.1comitia inde habita; creati consules L. Aebutius, P. Servilius.
Then the assemblies were held; Lucius Aebutius and Publius Servilius were elected consuls.
kal. Sextilibus, ut tunc principium anni agebatur, consulatum ineunt.
On the Kalends of Sextilis, as the beginning of the year was then observed, they entered upon their consulship.
§3.6.2grave tempus et forte annus pestilens erat urbi agrisque nec hominibus magis quam pecori; et auxere vim morbi terrore populationis pecoribus agrestibusque in urbem acceptis.
It was a grievous time, and by chance a pestilential year for the city and the fields, and not more for men than for cattle; and they increased the violence of the disease by admitting the cattle and the rustics into the city through fear of plundering.
§3.6.3ea conluuio = mixtorum omnis generis animantium et odore insolito urbanos et agrestem confertum in arta tecta aestu ac vigiliis angebat, ministeriaque in vicem ac contagio ipsa volgabant morbos.
That congestion of all kinds of living creatures mixed together, and the unaccustomed stench, distressed both the citizens and the rustic crowded into cramped dwellings, with the heat and lack of sleep, while mutual services and contagion itself spread the diseases.
§3.6.4vix instantes sustinentibus clades repente legati Hernici nuntiant in agro suo Aequos Volscosque coniunctis copiis castra posuisse; inde exercitu ingenti fines suos depopulari.
While they were scarcely sustaining the pressing disasters, suddenly Hernician ambassadors announced that the Aequi and Volsci with joint forces had pitched their camp in their territory; and from there were devastating their borders with a huge army.
§3.6.5praeterquam quod infrequens senatus indicio erat sociis adflictam civitatem pestilentia esse, maestum etiam responsum tulere, ut per se ipsi Hernici cum Latinis res suas tutarentur: urbem Romanam subita deum ira morbo populari; si qua eius mali quies veniat, ut anno ante, ut semper alias sociis opem laturos.
Besides the fact that the thinly attended senate was proof to the allies that the state was afflicted with pestilence, they also carried back a mournful reply: that the Hernicians themselves, along with the Latins, should defend their own possessions; that the Roman city was being devastated by disease through the sudden anger of the gods; but if any cessation of that evil should come, they would bring aid to the allies, as they had done the year before, and as they always did on other occasions.
§3.6.6discessere socii pro tristi nuntio tristiorem domum reportantes, quippe quibus per se sustinendum bellum erat, quod vix Romanis fulti viribus sustinuissent.
The allies departed, carrying home a sadder reply in exchange for their sad news, since they had to sustain by themselves a war which they would have scarcely sustained even when supported by the Roman power.
§3.6.7non diutius se in Hernico hostis continuit; pergit inde infestus in agros Romanos etiam sine belli iniuria vastatos.
The enemy did not contain himself any longer in the Hernician territory; from there he proceeded hostilely into the Roman fields, which were already devastated even without the injury of war.
ubi cum obvius nemo ne inermis quidem fieret perque omnia non praesidiis modo deserta sed etiam cultu agresti transirent, pervenere ad tertium lapidem Gabina via.
Where, when no one met them, not even an unarmed man, and they passed through places entirely deserted not only of garrisons but even of agricultural cultivation, they reached the third milestone on the Gabinian Way.
mortuus Aebutius erat Romanus consul; §3.6.8collega eius Servilius exigua in spe trahebat animam; adfecti plerique principum, patrum maior pars, militaris fere aetas omnis, ut non modo ad expeditiones, quas in tanto tumultu res poscebat, sed vix ad quietas stationes viribus sufficerent.
Aebutius, the Roman consul, was dead; his colleague Servilius was drawing his breath in slender hope of life; most of the leading men were afflicted, the greater part of the senators, and almost the entire military age, so that they were not only insufficient in strength for the expeditions which the situation demanded in so great a tumult, but scarcely even for quiet guard duties.
§3.6.9munus vigiliarum senatores, qui per aetatem ac valetudinem poterant, per se ipsi obibant; circumitio ac cura aedilium plebi erat; ad eos summa rerum ac maiestas consularis imperii venerat.
The duty of the watches was performed by the senators themselves, as many as were able by reason of age and health; the going of the rounds and the care of the city belonged to the plebeian aediles; to them the supreme direction of affairs and the majesty of the consular power had devolved.