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Livy · History of Rome §40.20.1-40.20.6

Foreign Embassies and Perseus's Plot against Demetrius

Passage 1523 of 1770 · Latin

Summary

As embassies from various kings and allies are introduced to the senate, Philip of Macedon sends two envoys who are secretly complicit in Perseus's conspiracy against Demetrius, leading Demetrius to isolate himself to avoid suspicion.

§40.20.1legationes deinde in senatum introduxerunt, regum primas Eumenis et Ariarathis Cappadocis et Pharnacis Pontici.
Then they introduced the embassies into the senate, those of the kings being first: of Eumenes, of Ariarathes the Cappadocian, and of Pharnaces of Pontus.
nec ultra quicquam eis responsum est quam missuros, qui de controversiis eorum cognoscerent statuerentque.
No further answer was given to them than that they would send commissioners to investigate and decide on their controversies.
§40.20.2Lacedaemoniorum deinde exsulum et Achaeorum legati introducti sunt, et spes data exsulibus est scripturum senatum Achaeis, ut restituerentur.
Next, the ambassadors of the Lacedaemonian exiles and of the Achaeans were introduced; and hope was given to the exiles that the senate would write to the Achaeans to restore them.
Achaei de Messene recepta compositisque ibi rebus cum adsensu patrum exposuerunt.
The Achaeans, with the approval of the senators, explained about the recovery of Messene and the settlement of affairs there.
et a Philippo rege Macedonum duo legati venerunt, §40.20.3Philocles et Apelles, nulla super re, quae petenda ab senatu esset, speculatum magis inquisitumque missi de iis, quorum Perseus Demetrium insimulasset sermonum cum Romanis, maxime cum T. Quinctio, adversus fratrem de regno habitorum.
And from Philip, king of the Macedonians, came two ambassadors, Philocles and Apelles, sent not for any matter that was to be requested from the senate, but rather to spy and inquire concerning those conversations which Perseus had accused Demetrius of having held with the Romans, especially with Titus Quinctius, against his brother concerning the kingdom.
§40.20.4hos tamquam medios nec in alterius favorem inclinatos miserat rex: erant autem et hi Persei fraudis in fratrem ministri et participes.
The king had sent them as if they were impartial and not inclined to the favor of either; however, these men also were assistants and accomplices in Perseus's treachery against his brother.
Demetrius omnium praeterquam fraterno scelere, §40.20.5quod nuper eruperat, ignarus primo neque magnam neque nullam spem habebat patrem sibi placari posse; minus deinde in dies patris animo fidebat, cum obsideri aures a fratre cerneret.
Demetrius, ignorant of everything except his brother's wickedness which had recently broken out, at first had a hope, neither great nor yet none, that his father could be reconciled to him; but then day by day he trusted less in his father's mind, when he saw his ears besieged by his brother.
§40.20.6itaque circumspiciens dicta factaque sua, ne cuius suspiciones augeret, maxime ab omni mentione et contagione Romanorum abstinebat, ut neque scribi sibi vellet, quia hoc praecipue criminum genere exasperari patris animum sentiebat.
Therefore, looking closely to his own words and deeds so that he might not increase anyone's suspicions, he especially abstained from all mention and contact of the Romans, so that he did not even wish letters to be written to him, because he felt that his father's mind was especially exasperated by this class of accusations.

Notes

  1. §40.20.1missuros — An ellipsis of (se) missuros esse, forming an accusative with infinitive construction dependent on the impersonal passive responsum est, with the subject accusative se (referring to the Romans) omitted.
  2. §40.20.3speculatum magis inquisitumque — Accusatives of the supine (from speculor and inquiro) expressing purpose, dependent on the verb of motion missi.
  3. §40.20.3quorum Perseus Demetrium insimulasset sermonum ... habitorum — The verb insimulasset (had accused) governs the genitive of the charge, sermonum ... habitorum. The relative pronoun quorum agrees in gender and number with its antecedent sermonum and is attracted into the relative clause. Syntactically, the core structure is 'of the conversations... which Perseus had accused Demetrius of having held'.

Cite this passage

Livy, History of Rome §40.20.1-40.20.6. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0914.phi001.humanitext-lat2:40.20.1-40.20.6

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