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Livy · History of Rome §4.16.1-4.16.8

Demolition of Maelius' House and Election of Military Tribunes

Passage 214 of 1770 · Latin

Summary

Maelius's house is demolished to become the "Aequimelium," while Minucius is honored for distributing grain. Stirred up by certain tribunes, elections for military tribunes are held instead of consuls, but the plebs elect only three patrician-leaning figures.

§4.16.1domum deinde, ut monumento area esset oppressae nefariae spei, dirui extemplo iussit.
Then he immediately ordered the house to be demolished, so that the site might be a monument of the crushed impious hope.
id Aequimelium appellatum est.
It was called the Aequimelium.
§4.16.2L. Minucius bove aurato et statua extra portam Trigeminam est donatus ne plebe quidem invita, quia frumentum Maelianum assibus in modios aestimatum plebi divisit.
Lucius Minucius was presented with a gilded bull and a statue outside the Porta Trigemina, with not even the plebs being unwilling, because he distributed the Maelian grain to the plebs, valued at an as per modius.
§4.16.3hunc Minucium apud quosdam auctores transisse a patribus ad plebem undecimumque tribunum plebis cooptatum seditionem motam ex Maeliana caede sedasse invenio;
I find in some authors that this Minucius crossed over from the patricians to the plebs, and, having been co-opted as an eleventh tribune of the plebs, quieted the sedition stirred up by the slaughter of Maelius.
§4.16.4ceterum vix credibile est numerum tribunorum patres augeri passos, idque potissimum exemplum a patricio homine introductum, nec deinde id plebem concessum semel obtinuisse aut certe temptasse. sed ante omnia refellit falsum imaginis titulum paucis ante annis lege cautum, ne tribunis collegam cooptare liceret.
But it is scarcely credible that the patricians would have allowed the number of tribunes to be increased, and that such a precedent should have been introduced by a patrician, and that the plebs, having once been granted this, did not subsequently retain it or at least attempt to.
Q. Caecilius, Q. Iunius, Sex. §4.16.5Titinius soli ex collegio tribunorum neque tulerant de honoribus Minuci legem et criminari nunc Minucium nunc Servilium apud plebem querique indignam necem Maelii non destiterant.
But above all, the law enacted a few years before, providing that it should not be lawful for the tribunes to co-opt a colleague, refutes the false inscription on the bust.
§4.16.6pervicerunt igitur, ut tribunorum militum potius quam consulum comitia haberentur, haud dubii, quin sex locis — tot enim iam creari licebat — et plebei aliqui profitendo se ultores fore Maelianae caedis crearentur.
Quintus Caecilius, Quintus Junius, Sextus Titinius alone from the college of tribunes had neither proposed the law concerning the honors of Minucius, and did not cease to accuse now Minucius, now Servilius before the plebs, and to complain of the unworthy death of Maelius.
Plebs, §4.16.7quamquam agitata multis eo anno et variis motibus erat, nec pluris quam tres tribunos consulari potestate creavit et in his L. Quinctium, Cincinnati filium, ex cuius dictaturae invidia tumultus quaerebatur.
Therefore, they carried their point that the elections for military tribunes rather than consuls should be held, having no doubt that in the six places—for so many was it now permitted to be elected—some plebeians also, by declaring that they would be avengers of the Maelian slaughter, would be elected.
§4.16.8praelatus suffragiis Quinctio Mam. Aemilius, vir summae dignitatis;
The plebs, although agitated by many and various movements in that year, elected no more than three tribunes with consular power, and among these Lucius Quinctius, the son of Cincinnatus, from the unpopularity of whose dictatorship a tumult was being sought.
L. Iulium tertium creant.
Mamercus Aemilius, a man of the highest dignity, was preferred in the votes to Quinctius; they elected Lucius Julius as the third.

Notes

  1. §4.16.1oppressae nefariae spei — Objective genitive dependent on the noun `monumento`, meaning 'a monument of/for the crushed impious hope.'
  2. §4.16.2ne plebe quidem invita — Ablative absolute with concessive force, meaning 'not even with the plebs being unwilling' or 'although not even the plebs were unwilling.'
  3. §4.16.4nec deinde id plebem concessum semel obtinuisse aut certe temptasse — Part of the accusative and infinitive construction dependent on the impersonal `vix credibile est`. `plebem` is the subject accusative of the infinitives `obtinuisse` and `temptasse`, while the neuter pronoun `id` (referring to the precedent/privilege) is the direct object, modified by the perfect passive participle `concessum`.
  4. §4.16.6haud dubii, quin — The nominative plural adjective `dubii` (agreeing with the subject of the main verb `pervicerunt`), negated by `haud`, expresses certainty and introduces a clause with `quin` followed by the subjunctive (`crearentur`), standard after expressions of doubt accompanied by a negative.

Cite this passage

Livy, History of Rome §4.16.1-4.16.8. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0914.phi001.humanitext-lat2:4.16.1-4.16.8

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