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Livy · History of Rome §37.31.1-37.31.10

Antiochus's Withdrawal and Allied Fleet's Advance

Passage 1356 of 1770 · Latin

Summary

Terrified by the naval defeat, Antiochus withdraws his garrison from Lysimachia and retreats to Sardis to prepare for a pitched battle. Meanwhile, the combined Roman and Rhodian fleets proceed to Phocaea via Chios.

§37.31.1quo territus Antiochus, quia possessione maris pulsus longinqua tueri diffidebat se posse, praesidium ab Lysimachia, ne opprimeretur ibi ab Romanis, deduci pravo, ut res ipsa postea docuit, consilio iussit.
Antiochus, terrified by this, because having been driven from the possession of the sea he did not believe he could protect distant territories, ordered the garrison to be withdrawn from Lysimachia, lest it should be overwhelmed there by the Romans, by a policy which was foolish, as the event itself afterwards showed.
§37.31.2non enim tueri solum Lysimachiam a primo impetu Romanorum facile erat, sed obsidionem etiam tota hieme tolerare et obsidentis quoque ad ultimam inopiam adducere extrahendo tempus et interim spem pacis per occasionem temptare.
For it was not only easy to defend Lysimachia from the first onset of the Romans, but also to endure a siege through the whole winter, and to reduce the besiegers also to the utmost scarcity by spinning out the time, and meanwhile to try the hope of peace as occasion offered.
§37.31.3nec Lysimachiam tantum hostibus tradidit post adversam navalem pugnam, sed etiam Colophonis obsidione abscessit et Sardis recepit se; §37.31.4atque inde in Cappadociam ad Ariarathen, qui auxilia accerserent, et quocumque alio poterat, ad copias contrahendas, in unum iam consilium, ut acie dimicaret, intentus misit.
Nor did he only hand over Lysimachia to the enemy after the adverse naval battle, but he also withdrew from the siege of Colophon and retreated to Sardis; and thence he sent to Ariarathes in Cappadocia to summon auxiliary forces, and wherever else he could to collect troops, intent now upon a single plan, to decide the issue in a pitched battle.
§37.31.5Regillus Aemilius post victoriam navalem profectus Ephesum, derectis ante portum navibus, cum confessionem ultimam concessi maris hosti expressisset, Chium, quo ante navale proelium cursum ab Samo intenderat, navigat.
Regillus Aemilius, having set out for Ephesus after the naval victory, when, by drawing up his ships before the harbor, he had wrung from the enemy the ultimate confession of having yielded the sea, sailed to Chios, whither before the naval battle he had directed his course from Samos.
§37.31.6ibi naves in proelio quassatas cum refecisset, L. Aemilium Scaurum cum triginta navibus Hellespontum ad exercitum traiciendum misit, Rhodios parte praedae et spoliis navalibus decoratos domum redire iubet.
There, when he had repaired the ships damaged in the battle, he sent L. Aemilius Scaurus with thirty ships to the Hellespont to transport the army, and ordered the Rhodians, decorated with a share of the booty and naval spoils, to return home.
§37.31.7Rhodii impigre praevertere ad traiciendas copias consulis; atque eo quoque functi officio, tum demum Rhodum rediere.
The Rhodians energetically applied themselves first to transporting the forces of the consul; and having performed this duty also, then at last they returned to Rhodes.
classis Romana ab Chio Phocaeam traiecit.
The Roman fleet crossed over from Chios to Phocaea.
§37.31.8in sinu maris intimo posita haec urbs est, oblonga forma; duum milium et quingentorum passuum spatium murus amplectitur, coit deinde ex utraque parte in artiorem velut cuneum; §37.31.9Lamptera ipsi appellant.
This city is situated in the innermost recess of a gulf, of an oblong shape; a wall encloses a space of two thousand five hundred paces, and then comes together from both sides into a narrower wedge, as it were; they themselves call it Lampter.
mille et ducentos passus ibi latitudo patet; inde lingua in altum mille passuum excurrens medium fere sinum velut nota distinguit; ubi cohaeret faucibus angustis, duos in utramque regionem versos portus tutissimos habet.
There the width extends for twelve hundred paces; thence a tongue of land, running out into the deep for a thousand paces, divides almost the middle of the gulf as if with a mark; where it connects with narrow straits, it has two very safe harbors facing in both directions.
§37.31.10qui in meridiem vergit, Naustathmon ab re appellant, quia ingentem vim navium capit; alter prope ipsum Lamptera est.
The one which turns to the south they call Naustathmon from the fact, because it holds a huge number of ships; the other is near Lampter itself.

Notes

  1. 37.31.1pravo, ut res ipsa postea docuit, consilio — pravo consilio (by a foolish policy) is an ablative of means or cause, modifying iussit. The adjective and noun are separated (hyperbaton) by the parenthetical clause ut res ipsa postea docuit (as the event itself afterwards showed).
  2. 37.31.2non enim tueri solum ... sed obsidionem etiam ... tolerare et obsidentis quoque ... adducere ... et interim ... temptare — Four nominative infinitive phrases (tueri, tolerare, adducere, temptare) act as subjects in apposition, parallelly dependent on the predicate facile erat (it was easy). The word obsidentis is the accusative plural (for obsidentes) of the present participle used substantively ('the besiegers'), serving as the direct object of adducere.
  3. 37.31.4qui auxilia accerserent — A relative clause of purpose ('in order to summon...'), consisting of the relative pronoun qui with the imperfect subjunctive accerserent. The antecedent is the omitted direct object of misit (he sent), which would be nuntios (messengers).
  4. 37.31.9faucibus angustis — Ablative of association or means ('by/at the narrow straits') modifying cohaeret (it connects).

Cite this passage

Livy, History of Rome §37.31.1-37.31.10. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0914.phi001.humanitext-lat2:37.31.1-37.31.10

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