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Livy · History of Rome §36.21.1-36.21.11

Pacification of Euboea and Cato's Victory Report

Passage 1301 of 1770 · Latin

Summary

This passage describes the flight of Antiochus and the complete pacification of Euboea, the dispatch of Cato and Scipio to Rome to report the victory, and the ovation celebrated by Fulvius Nobilior.

§36.21.1Antiochus sub adventum consulis a Chalcide profectus Tenum primo tenuit, inde Ephesum transmisit.
Antiochus, having set out from Chalcis just before the arrival of the consul, first reached Tenos, and from there crossed over to Ephesus.
§36.21.2consuli Chalcidem venienti portae patuerunt, cum appropinquante eo Aristoteles praefectus regis urbe excessisset.
To the consul as he came to Chalcis the gates were opened, since, upon his approach, Aristoteles, the king's commander, had departed from the city.
§36.21.3et ceterae urbes in Euboea sine certamine traditae; post paucosque dies omnibus perpacatis sine ullius noxa urbis exercitus Thermopylas reductus, multo modestia post victoriam quam ipsa victoria laudabilior.
And the other cities in Euboea were surrendered without a struggle; and after a few days, when everything was completely pacified, the army was led back to Thermopylae without damage to any city, their moderation after the victory being far more praiseworthy than the victory itself.
§36.21.4inde consul M. Catonem, per quem quae gesta essent senatus populusque Romanus haud dubio auctore sciret, Romam misit.
From there the consul sent Marcus Cato to Rome, so that through him, as an authority beyond doubt, the Senate and the Roman people might know what had been done.
§36.21.5is a Creusa — Thespiensium emporium est, in intimo sinu Corinthiaco retractum — Patras Achaiae petit; a Patris Corcyram usque Aetoliae atque Acarnaniae littora legit, atque ita ad Hydruntum Italiae traicit.
He, setting out from Creusa — which is a trading port of the Thespians, situated deep within the Corinthian Gulf — made for Patrae in Achaea; from Patrae all the way to Corcyra, he skirted the coasts of Aetolia and Acarnania, and in this way crossed over to Hydruntum in Italy.
§36.21.6quinto die inde pedestri itinere Romam ingenti cursu pervenit.
On the fifth day from there, traveling by land with immense speed, he arrived at Rome.
ante lucem ingressus urbem a porta ad praetorem M. Iunium iter intendit.
Having entered the city before dawn, he directed his steps from the gate straight to the praetor Marcus Junius.
§36.21.7is prima luce in senatum vocavit; quo L. Cornelius Scipio, aliquot diebus ante a consule dimissus, cum adveniens audisset praegressum Catonem in senatu esse, supervenit exponenti, quae gesta essent.
At dawn the praetor summoned the Senate; thither Lucius Cornelius Scipio, who had been sent ahead by the consul some days before, upon arriving and hearing that Cato had preceded him and was in the Senate, came in upon him as he was explaining what had been done.
§36.21.8duo inde legati iussu senatus in contionem sunt producti, atque ibi eadem, quae in — senatu, de rebus in Aetolia gestis exposuerunt.
Then, by order of the Senate, the two envoys were brought forward into the public assembly, and there they explained the same things concerning the events in Aetolia as they had in the Senate.
§36.21.9supplicatio in triduum decreta est et ut quadraginta hostiis maioribus praetor, quibus diis ei videretur, §36.21.10sacrificaret.
A thanksgiving of three days was decreed, and it was ordered that the praetor, to whichever gods seemed good to him, should sacrifice with forty larger victims.
— per eosdem dies et M. Fulvius Nobilior, qui biennio ante praetor in Hispaniam erat profectus, ovans urbem est ingressus; §36.21.11argenti bigati prae se tulit centum triginta milia et extra numeratum duodecim milia pondo argenti, auri pondo centum viginti septem.
During the same days, Marcus Fulvius Nobilior, who two years before had set out for Spain as praetor, also entered the city in an ovation; he carried before him in the procession one hundred and thirty thousand pieces of bigatus silver, and besides that, twelve thousand pounds of silver by weight, and one hundred and twenty-seven pounds of gold.

Notes

  1. §36.21.1sub adventum consulis — The preposition sub followed by the accusative case denotes temporal proximity, meaning 'just before' or 'about the time of'. Here it indicates that Antiochus escaped immediately prior to the consul's arrival.
  2. §36.21.4haud dubio auctore — An ablative absolute construction or an appositive in the ablative within the relative clause. It functions to emphasize that Cato's report would be received from an 'authority beyond all doubt'.
  3. §36.21.5littora legit — The verb legere (originally meaning 'to gather', 'to choose', or 'to read') is used here as a nautical term meaning 'to skirt' or 'to coast along' the shores.
  4. §36.21.7exponenti — Dative singular masculine of the present participle of exponere. It is governed by the compound verb supervenire (to come upon unexpectedly), referring to the person (Cato) who was in the act of explaining the events.
  5. §36.21.9quibus diis — A grammatical attraction of the antecedent (diis) into the relative clause. In a standard structure, it would be sacrificaret diis, qui... ('he should sacrifice to the gods who...'), but the noun is attracted into the relative pronoun's clause.

Cite this passage

Livy, History of Rome §36.21.1-36.21.11. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0914.phi001.humanitext-lat2:36.21.1-36.21.11

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