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Livy · History of Rome §35.2.1-35.2.9

Flaminius' Request for Reinforcements and Senate's Refusal

Passage 1231 of 1770 · Latin

Summary

The praetor Gaius Flaminius requested the senate to decree him an urban legion due to the unfavorable situation in Spain, but the elders refused, allowing only local emergency levies. An alternative account by Valerius Antias is also mentioned.

§35.2.1nondum ab Roma profectus erat C. Flaminius praetor, cum haec in Hispania gerebantur.
The praetor Gaius Flaminius had not yet set out from Rome when these things were being done in Spain.
§35.2.2itaque adversae quam secundae res per ipsum amicosque eius magis sermonibus celebrabantur; §35.2.3et temptaverat, quoniam bellum ingens in provincia exarsisset, et exiguas reliquias exercitus ab Sex. Digitio atque eas ipsas plenas pavoris ac fugae accepturus esset, ut sibi unam ex urbanis legionibus decernerent, §35.2.4ad quam cum militem ab se ipso scriptum ex senatus consulto adiecisset, eligeret ex omni numero sex milia et ducentos pedites, equites trecentos: §35.2.5ea se legione — nam in Sex. Digiti exercitu haud multum spei esse — rem gesturum.
Therefore, unsuccessful rather than successful results were, through himself and his friends, more widely celebrated in conversation; and he had attempted, since a huge war had flared up in the province and he was about to receive from Sextus Digitius only scanty remains of an army, and those themselves full of terror and flight, to have one of the urban legions decreed to him, to which, when he had added the soldiers enlisted by himself in accordance with a decree of the senate, he might choose from the whole number six thousand two hundred infantry and three hundred cavalry: with this legion—for there was little hope in the army of Sextus Digitius—he would conduct the campaign.
§35.2.6seniores negare ad rumores a privatis temere in gratiam magistratuum confictos senatus consulta facienda esse; nisi quod aut praetores ex provinciis scriberent aut legati renuntiarent, nihil ratum haberi debere; §35.2.7si tumultus in Hispania esset, placere tumultuarios milites extra Italiam scribi a praetore.
The elders denied that decrees of the senate ought to be made upon rumors rashly fabricated by private individuals for the favor of magistrates; they asserted that nothing ought to be held as valid unless either the praetors wrote from the provinces or legates reported; if there were a tumult in Spain, they resolved that tumultuary soldiers should be enlisted outside Italy by the praetor.
mens ea senatus fuit, ut in Hispania tumultuarii milites legerentur.
This was the mind of the senate, that tumultuary soldiers should be levied in Spain.
§35.2.8Valerius Antias et in Siciliam navigasse dilectus causa C. Flaminium scribit, et, ex Sicilia Hispaniam petentem, tempestate in Africam delatum vagos milites de exercitu P. Africani sacramento rogasse; §35.2.9his duarum provinciarum dilectibus tertium in Hispania adiecisse.
Valerius Antias writes both that Gaius Flaminius sailed to Sicily for the sake of a levy, and that, while seeking Spain from Sicily, he was driven by a storm to Africa and bound with an oath the wandering soldiers from the army of Publius Africanus; to these levies of two provinces he added a third in Spain.

Notes

  1. §35.2.3temptaverat ... ut sibi unam ex urbanis legionibus decernerent — The verb temptaverat is used here with an ut-clause to mean 'had attempted to' or 'had lobbied that'. The subjunctive decernerent is in a clause of purpose or petition introduced by ut.
  2. §35.2.4eligeret — Imperfect subjunctive. It expresses Flaminius's further intention or plan arising from the preceding ut-clause (ut... decernerent), meaning 'so that he might choose', or functions as a subjunctive of command or will in indirect speech.
  3. §35.2.5rem gesturum — An accusative with infinitive construction (indirect speech) with the future active infinitive active ending, where esse is omitted, and se as the subject. The main verb of saying or thinking is contextually omitted, continuing from the thought implied in temptaverat.
  4. §35.2.6negare — Historical infinitive (the present infinitive used instead of an indicative perfect or imperfect). The subject is the plural noun seniores (the older senators).
  5. §35.2.8sacramento rogasse — A military idiom meaning to bind soldiers with an oath of allegiance, hence to enlist them. The word rogasse is a syncopated form of rogavisse (perfect active infinitive), forming part of the accusative with infinitive construction governed by scribit.

Cite this passage

Livy, History of Rome §35.2.1-35.2.9. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0914.phi001.humanitext-lat2:35.2.1-35.2.9

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