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Livy · History of Rome §34.20.1-34.20.9

Capture of the Lacetani Town through a Feigned Retreat

Passage 1187 of 1770 · Latin

Summary

The consul exploited the hostility between the Lacetani and the Suessetani to lure the enemy out of their town, allowing his selected cohorts to slip into the undefended city and capture it, leading to the Lacetani's surrender.

§34.20.1ea tam exigua manu oppida aliquot cepit.
With this so small a force he captured several towns.
defecere ad eum Sedetani, §34.20.2Ausetani, Suessetani.
The Sedetani revolted to him, as did the Ausetani and Suessetani.
Lacetanos, deviam et silvestrem gentem, cum insita feritas continebat in armis, tum conscientia, dum consul exercitusque Turdulo bello esset occupatus, depopulatorum subitis incursionibus sociorum.
The Lacetani, a remote and forest-dwelling tribe, were kept in arms both by their inborn wildness and by their consciousness of the allies plundered by their sudden incursions while the consul and the army were occupied with the Turdulian war.
§34.20.3igitur ad oppidum eorum oppugnandum consul ducit non Romanas modo cohortes, sed iuventutem etiam merito infensorum iis sociorum.
Therefore, to attack their town, the consul led not only Roman cohorts, but also the youth of the allies who were deservedly hostile to them.
§34.20.4oppidum longum, in latitudinem haudquaquam tantundem patens habebant.
They had a town that was long, by no means extending as much in width.
quadringentos inde ferme passus constituit signa.
About four hundred paces from there, he halted the standards.
§34.20.5ibi delectarum cohortium stationem relinquens praecepit iis, ne se ex eo loco ante moverent, quam ipse ad eos venisset; ceteras copias ad ulteriorem partem urbis circumducit.
Leaving there a guard of selected cohorts, he ordered them not to move from that place before he himself should come to them; the rest of the forces he led around to the further part of the city.
maximum ex omnibus auxiliis numerum Suessetanae iuventutis habebat; eos ad murum oppugnandum subire iubet.
He had the largest number of Suessetan youth of all the auxiliaries; he ordered them to advance to attack the wall.
§34.20.6quorum ubi arma signaque Lacetani cognovere, memores, quam saepe in agro eorum impune persultassent, quotiens ipsos signis collatis fudissent fugassentque, patefacta repente porta universi in eos erumpunt.
When the Lacetani recognized their arms and standards, mindful of how often they had overrun their territory with impunity, and how many times they had routed and put them to flight in pitched battle, suddenly opening the gate, they all sallied out against them.
§34.20.7vix clamorem eorum, nedum impetum Suessetani tulere.
The Suessetani could scarcely bear their shout, much less their onset.
quod postquam, §34.20.8sicut futurum ratus erat, consul fieri etiam vidit, equo citato subter murum hostium ad cohortes avehitur atque eas arreptas, §34.20.9effusis omnibus ad sequendos Suessetanos, qua silentium ac solitudo erat, in urbem inducit priusque omnia cepit, quam se reciperent Lacetani.
After this, just as the consul had thought would happen, he actually saw it taking place, and riding at full gallop under the enemy's wall, he hastened to the cohorts, and having set them in motion, since everyone had poured out to pursue the Suessetani, he led them into the city where there was silence and solitude, and captured the whole place before the Lacetani could return.
mox ipsos nihil praeter arma habentis in deditionem accepit.
Soon afterwards, he accepted them in surrender, having nothing left except their arms.

Notes

  1. 34.20.2Lacetanos, deviam et silvestrem gentem, cum insita feritas continebat in armis, tum conscientia — The accusative noun Lacetanos at the beginning of the sentence, followed by an appositive phrase (deviam et silvestrem gentem), serves as the direct object of the verb continebat in the cum... tum... construction. The subjects are the two nominative nouns, insita feritas (inborn wildness) and conscientia (consciousness/guilt).
  2. 34.20.2depopulatorum subitis incursionibus sociorum — The perfect participle depopulatus of the deponent verb depopulor (to plunder) is used here in a passive sense ('plundered') and modifies the genitive sociorum (allies). The phrase functions as an objective genitive dependent on conscientia, meaning 'consciousness/guilt concerning the allies who had been plundered by sudden incursions.'
  3. 34.20.5ne se ex eo loco ante moverent, quam ipse ad eos venisset — An indirect command (praecepit iis ne...) containing the correlative construction ante... quam ('not... before/until'). The pluperfect subjunctive venisset represents an action that would be completed in the future relative to the past main verb (praecepit).
  4. 34.20.7quod postquam, sicut futurum ratus erat, consul fieri etiam vidit — The postquam clause begins with a relative connection (quod, referring to the flight of the Suessetani). fieri is the present infinitive of fio, forming an accusative-with-infinitive construction with the verb of perception vidit (with quod as the subject accusative): 'after the consul actually saw this happening.' In the parenthetic clause, futurum (esse) is the future infinitive of sum, acting as the object of ratus erat.

Cite this passage

Livy, History of Rome §34.20.1-34.20.9. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0914.phi001.humanitext-lat2:34.20.1-34.20.9

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