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Livy · History of Rome §35.9.1-35.9.8

The Census, Expiation of Portents, and a Colony

Passage 1238 of 1770 · Latin

Summary

The census results from the previous year, countermeasures for various portents, and Cato's dedication of a shrine are recorded, followed by an account of the land distribution during the establishment of a Latin colony at Castrum Frentinum.

§35.9.1censores erant priore anno creati Sex. Aelius Paetus et C. Cornelius Cethegus.
The censors elected in the previous year were Sextus Aelius Paetus and Gaius Cornelius Cethegus.
§35.9.2Cornelius lustrum condidit.
Cornelius performed the lustrum.
censa sunt civium capita CXLIII DCCIV. aquae ingentes eo anno fuerunt, et Tiberis loca plana urbis inundavit; §35.9.3circa portam Flumentanam etiam collapsa quaedam ruinis sunt.
The census of citizens was 143,704 heads. There were great floods in that year, and the Tiber inundated the flat places of the city; near the Flumentane gate some buildings even collapsed into ruins.
et porta Coelimontana fulmine icta est, murusque circa multis locis de caelo tactus; §35.9.4et Ariciae et Lanuvii et in Aventino lapidibus pluvit; et a Capua nuntiatum est examen vesparum ingens in forum advolasse et in Martis aede consedisse; eas collectas cum cura et igni crematas esse.
And the Coelimontane gate was struck by lightning, and the wall around it was touched from heaven (struck by lightning) in many places; and at Aricia, at Lanuvium, and on the Aventine, it rained stones; and it was reported from Capua that a huge swarm of wasps had flown into the forum and settled in the temple of Mars; and that they had been carefully collected and burned with fire.
§35.9.5horum prodigiorum causa decemviri libros adire iussi, et novemdiale sacrum factum, et supplicatio indicta est atque urbs lustrata.
On account of these portents, the decemvirs were ordered to consult the books, a nine-day festival was performed, a thanksgiving was proclaimed, and the city was purified.
§35.9.6iisdem diebus aediculam Victoriae Virginis prope aedem Victoriae M. Porcius Cato dedicavit biennio post, quam vovit.
During those same days, Marcus Porcius Cato dedicated the shrine of Maiden Victory near the temple of Victory, two years after he had vowed it.
§35.9.7eodem anno coloniam Latinam in castrum Frentinum triumviri deduxerunt A. Manlius Volso L. Apustius Fullo Q. Aelius Tubero, cuius lege deducebatur.
In the same year, the triumvirs Aulus Manlius Volso, Lucius Apustius Fullo, and Quintus Aelius Tubero, under whose law the colony was being founded, led a Latin colony to Castrum Frentinum.
tria milia peditum iere, trecenti equites, numerus exiguus pro copia agri.
Three thousand infantry went, and three hundred cavalry, a small number considering the abundance of land.
§35.9.8dari potuere tricena iugera in pedites, sexagena in equites.
Thirty iugera apiece might have been given to the infantry, and sixty to the cavalry.
Apustio auctore tertia pars agri dempta est, quo postea, si vellent, novos colonos adscribere possent.
On the proposal of Apustius, a third part of the land was reserved, so that they might later, if they wished, enroll new colonists.
vicena iugera pedites, quadragena equites acceperunt.
The infantry received twenty iugera apiece, and the cavalry forty.

Notes

  1. 35.9.3de caelo tactus — The perfect passive participle with est omitted. The phrase de caelo tangi (to be touched from heaven) is a formal religious and constitutional expression in Latin meaning 'to be struck by lightning'.
  2. 35.9.4lapidibus pluvit — The verb pluere is used impersonally to describe weather, with the falling substance expressed by the ablative of instrument or accompaniment (lapidibus), meaning 'it rained stones'. This syntax is frequent in the reports of portents (prodigia) in Roman historiography.
  3. 35.9.6biennio post, quam vovit — The word biennio is an ablative of degree of difference. The conjunction postquam is split (by hyperbaton) into post and quam, introducing the indicative perfect vovit. It means 'two years after he had made the vow'.
  4. 35.9.8dari potuere — The verb potuere (= potuerunt) is in the perfect indicative. In Latin, the indicative past of verbs of possibility or obligation (such as posse or debere) is regularly used to express a past potential or unfulfilled possibility ('could have been given'). The following tricena and sexagena are distributive numerals meaning 'thirty each' and 'sixty each'.
  5. 35.9.8quo postea, si vellent, novos colonos adscribere possent — The relative adverb quo functions here as a final conjunction (equivalent to ut eo) introducing a purpose clause without a comparative. The verb possent is in the imperfect subjunctive due to the sequence of tenses, following the perfect dempta est in the main clause.

Cite this passage

Livy, History of Rome §35.9.1-35.9.8. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0914.phi001.humanitext-lat2:35.9.1-35.9.8

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