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Livy · History of Rome §30.22.1-30.22.6

Plea of the Carthaginian Envoys before the Senate

Passage 1003 of 1770 · Latin

Summary

The Carthaginian envoys addressed the Roman senate, blaming Hannibal entirely for starting the war and requesting to maintain the previous peace treaty. However, when the young envoys claimed they could not remember past treaties in response to the senators' questions, they were accused of Carthaginian deceit.

§30.22.1orationem eandem ferme quam apud Scipionem habuerunt, culpam omnem belli a publico consilio in Hannibalem vertentes: §30.22.2eum iniussu senatus non Alpes modo sed Hiberum quoque transgressum, nec Romanis solum sed ante etiam Saguntinis privato consilio bellum intulisse; senatui ac populo Carthaginiensi, §30.22.3si quis vere aestimet, foedus ad eam diem inviolatum esse cum Romanis.
They delivered almost the same speech as they had before Scipio, shifting all the blame for the war from the public council onto Hannibal: alleging that he, without the order of the senate, had crossed not only the Alps but also the Ebro, and had made war, by his private counsel, not only on the Romans but even before that on the Saguntines; and that, for the Carthaginian senate and people, if one were to estimate it truly, the treaty with the Romans had remained inviolate up to that day.
§30.22.4itaque nihil aliud sibi mandatum esse uti peterent, quam ut in ea pace, quae postremo cum C. Lutatio facta esset, manere liceret.
Therefore, they said, no other mandate had been given to them than to request that they might be allowed to remain in that peace which had last been made with Gaius Lutatius.
cum more tradito patribus potestatem interrogandi, §30.22.5si quis quid vellet, legatos praetor fecisset, senioresque, qui foederibus interfuerant, alii alia interrogarent, nec meminisse se per aetatem — etenim omnes ferme iuvenes erant — §30.22.6dicerent legati, conclamatum ex omni parte curiae est Punica fraude electos, qui veterem pacem repeterent, cuius ipsi non meminissent.
When the praetor, according to traditional custom, had given the senators the power of questioning the envoys if anyone wished to ask anything, and when the elder senators, who had been present at the making of the treaties, asked various questions, but the envoys said that they, by reason of their age—for almost all of them were young men—did not remember, a shout arose from every part of the senate-house that they had been chosen with Carthaginian deceit to demand an ancient peace of which they themselves had no memory.

Notes

  1. 30.22.3foedus ad eam diem inviolatum esse — This accusative and infinitive construction is part of the indirect discourse (oratio obliqua) continued from the participle `vertentes` in section 1. The main verb of saying is implied by the context.
  2. 30.22.5cum ... fecisset ... dicerent legati — The conjunction `cum` governs both the pluperfect subjunctive `fecisset` in section 4 and the imperfect subjunctive `dicerent` in section 5. The subject of `dicerent` is `legati`, while `seniores... interrogarent` is an intervening coordinating clause.
  3. 30.22.6Punica fraude electos — `electos` is an infinitive with `esse` omitted (`electos esse`). This accusative and infinitive clause depends on the impersonal passive `conclamatum est` ('a shout arose'), representing the content of the shout in indirect discourse.

Cite this passage

Livy, History of Rome §30.22.1-30.22.6. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0914.phi001.humanitext-lat2:30.22.1-30.22.6

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