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Livy · History of Rome §38.23.1-38.23.11

Rout of the Gauls and Distribution of Spoils

Passage 1410 of 1770 · Latin

Summary

The camp of the Gauls falls, and they flee in all directions, with many dying by falling from the steep terrain. The Romans distribute the booty, and Attalus, among others, is highly praised for his exceptional courage.

§38.23.1patentibus iam portis, priusquam irrumperent victores, fuga e castris Gallorum in omnis partes facta est.
With the gates now open, before the victors could burst in, a flight of the Gauls from the camp in all directions took place.
ruunt caeci per vias, per invia; nulla praecipitia saxa, nullae rupes obstant; §38.23.2nihil praeter hostem metuunt; itaque plerique, praecipites per vastam altitudinem prolapsi, contusi aut debilitati exanimantur.
They rush blindly through paths and trackless places; no precipitous rocks, no cliffs stand in their way; they fear nothing except the enemy; and so most of them, slipping headlong down a vast depth, are killed, bruised or disabled.
consul captis castris direptione praedaque abstinet militem; sequi pro se quemque et instare et perculsis pavorem addere iubet.
The consul, having captured the camp, keeps the soldier from plundering and booty; he orders each one to follow as best he can and press on, and to add panic to those who are terrified.
§38.23.3supervenit et alterum cum L. Manlio agmen; nec eos castra intrare sinit; protinus ad persequendos hostis mittit, et ipse paulo post tradita captivorum custodia tribunis militum sequitur, debellatum ratus, si in illo pavore quam plurimi caesi forent aut capti.
The other column with Lucius Manlius also arrives; nor does he allow them to enter the camp; he immediately sends them to pursue the enemy, and he himself follows a little later, after handing over the custody of the prisoners to the military tribunes, thinking that the war would be finished if as many as possible were killed or captured in that panic.
§38.23.4egresso consule C. Helvius cum tertio agmine advenit, nec continere suos ab direptione castrorum valuit, praedaque eorum, iniquissima sorte, qui pugnae non interfuerant, facta est.
After the consul departed, Gaius Helvius arrived with the third column, nor was he able to keep his men from plundering the camp, and their booty, by a most unfair lot, became the property of those who had not been present at the fight.
equites diu ignari et pugnae et victoriae suorum steterunt; §38.23.5deinde et ipsi, quantum equis subire poterant, sparsos fuga Gallos circa radices montis consectati cecidere aut cepere.
The cavalry stood for a long time ignorant both of the battle and of the victory of their men; then they too, as far as they could approach on horseback, pursued the Gauls scattered in flight around the foot of the mountain, and killed or captured them.
§38.23.6numerus interfectorum haud facile iniri potuit, quia late per omnis amfractus montium fugaque et caedes fuit, §38.23.7et magna pars rupibus inviis in profundae altitudinis convalles delapsa est, pars in silvis vepribusque occisa.
The number of the slain could not easily be estimated, because the flight and slaughter took place far and wide through all the windings of the mountains, and a great part slipped down precipitous rocks into valleys of immense depth, and part was killed in the woods and brambles.
§38.23.8Claudius, qui bis pugnatum in Olympo monte scribit, ad quadraginta milia hominum auctor est caesa, Valerius Antias, qui magis immodicus in numero augendo esse solet, non plus decem milia.
Claudius, who writes that there were two battles on Mount Olympus, asserts that about forty thousand men were slain; Valerius Antias, who is usually more immoderate in exaggerating numbers, says not more than ten thousand.
§38.23.9numerus captivorum haud dubie milia quadraginta explevit, quia omnis generis aetatisque turbam secum traxerant demigrantium magis quam in bellum euntium modo.
The number of prisoners undoubtedly reached forty thousand, because they had dragged along with them a crowd of every gender and age, in the manner of emigrants rather than of people going to war.
§38.23.10consul armis hostium uno concrematis cumulo ceteram praedam conferre omnis iussit, et aut vendidit, quod eius in publicum redigendum erat, aut cum cura, ut quam aequissima esset, per milites divisit.
The consul, having burned the weapons of the enemy in a single heap, ordered everyone to bring together the rest of the booty, and either sold what of it was to be turned over to the public treasury, or distributed it among the soldiers with care that it should be as fair as possible.
§38.23.11laudati quoque pro contione omnes sunt, donatique pro merito quisque, ante omnis Attalus summo ceterorum adsensu; nam singularis eius iuvenis cum virtus et industria in omnibus laboribus periculisque tum modestia etiam fuerat.
They were also all praised before the assembly, and each was rewarded according to his merit, above all Attalus, with the greatest approval of the rest; for not only had the courage and diligence of this young man in all labors and dangers been extraordinary, but also his modesty.

Notes

  1. §38.23.1priusquam irrumperent — The subjunctive imperfect irrumperent is used with the conjunction priusquam to indicate anticipation or prevention ('before the victors could burst in') rather than a simple temporal sequence.
  2. §38.23.2pro se quemque — The combination of the accusative quemque with the prepositional phrase pro se acts as an idiomatic adverbial expression meaning 'each as best he could' or 'each to the limit of his power.'
  3. §38.23.3debellatum — This is the impersonal passive perfect infinitive debellatum [esse] (with esse omitted), serving as the infinitive in the indirect statement introduced by the participle ratus ('thinking that the war was finished').
  4. §38.23.8auctor est caesa — The phrase auctor est ('is the authority for', 'asserts') introduces an accusative with infinitive construction, in which the infinitive esse and the accusative subject milia are omitted, leaving the participle caesa to agree with the omitted neuter plural accusative subject.

Cite this passage

Livy, History of Rome §38.23.1-38.23.11. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0914.phi001.humanitext-lat2:38.23.1-38.23.11

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