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Livy · History of Rome §41.3.1-41.3.10

Roman Panic at the Shore and Move to Retake the Camp

Passage 1565 of 1770 · Latin

Summary

Following the panic and a clash between Roman soldiers and sailors at the shore, the third legion is recalled to recapture the camp. The military tribune Atius and others encourage the troops, arguing that the enemy, indulging in plunder and wine, can be easily surprised and defeated.

§41.3.1nequaquam eadem est tum rei forma apud Romanos; terra mari trepidatur; nautici tabernacula detendunt commeatumque in litore expositum in naves rapiunt; §41.3.2milites in scaphas et mare territi ruunt; nautae metu, ne compleantur navigia, alii turbae obsistunt, alii ab litore naves in altum expellunt.
By no means was the state of affairs then the same among the Romans; there was panic on land and sea; the sailors struck the tents and hurriedly carried the provisions exposed on the shore into the ships; the soldiers, terrified, rushed into the boats and the sea; the sailors, from fear lest the vessels should be overloaded, some resisted the crowd, others pushed the ships from the shore into the deep water.
§41.3.3inde certamen, mox etiam pugna cum vulneribus et caede in vicem militum nautarumque oritur, donec iussu consulis procul a terra classis submota est.
Hence arose a dispute, and soon even a fight with wounds and slaughter between the soldiers and sailors in turn, until by order of the consul the fleet was moved far away from the land.
secernere inde inermes ab armatis coepit.
He then began to separate the unarmed from the armed.
§41.3.4vix mille ducenti ex tanta multitudine, qui arma haberent, perpauci equites, qui equos secum eduxissent, inventi sunt; cetera deformis turba velut lixarum calonumque, praeda fere futura, si belli hostes meminissent.
Scarcely twelve hundred out of so great a multitude who had arms, and very few cavalrymen who had led out their horses with them, were found; the rest was a disgraceful crowd like sutlers and camp-servants, destined to be an easy prey, if the enemy had remembered that it was war.
§41.3.5tunc demum nuntius missus ad tertiam legionem revocandam et Gallorum praesidium; et simul ex omnibus locis ad castra recipienda demendamque ignominiam rediri coeptum est.
Only then at last was a messenger sent to recall the third legion and the garrison of the Gauls; and at the same time, a return from all places was begun to recover the camp and wipe out the disgrace.
§41.3.6tribuni militum tertiae legionis pabulum lignaque proicere iubent, centurionibus imperant, ut graviores aetate milites binos in ea iumenta, ex quibus onera deiecta erant, imponant; equites ut singulos e iuvenibus pedites secum in equos tollant: §41.3.7egregiam gloriam legionis fore, si castra metu secundanorum amissa sua virtute recipiant.
The military tribunes of the third legion ordered the fodder and wood to be thrown away, and commanded the centurions to place the soldiers who were heavier with age, two by two, upon those beasts of burden from which the loads had been cast off; and they ordered the cavalrymen to take up the young infantrymen, one by one, with themselves on their horses: saying that there would be extraordinary glory for the legion if they should recover by their own courage the camp lost through the fear of the soldiers of the second legion.
et recipi facile esse, si in praeda occupati barbari subito opprimantur; §41.3.8sicut ceperint, posse capi.
And they said that the recovery would be easy, if the barbarians, occupied with plunder, should be suddenly overwhelmed; just as they had taken it, so they could be taken.
summa militum alacritate adhortatio audita est.
The exhortation was heard with the greatest eagerness by the soldiers.
ferunt citati signa, nec signiferos armati morantur.
They carried the standards forward at a rapid pace, and the armed men did not delay the standard-bearers.
priores tamen consul copiaeque, quae a mari reducebantur, ad vallum accesserunt.
Yet the consul and the troops who were being brought back from the sea reached the rampart first.
§41.3.9L. Atius, tribunus primus secundae legionis, non hortabatur modo milites, sed docebat etiam, si victores Histri, quibus armis cepissent castra, iisdem capta retinere in animo haberent, primum exutum castris hostem ad mare persecuturos fuisse, deinde stationes certe pro vallo habituros: §41.3.10vino somnoque veri simile esse mersos iacere.
Lucius Atius, the first tribune of the second legion, not only exhorted the soldiers, but also pointed out to them that if the victorious Istrians intended to retain the captured camp with the same weapons with which they had taken it, they would first have pursued the enemy, stripped of their camp, to the sea, and secondly, they would certainly have stationed outposts in front of the rampart: it was highly probable that they lay overwhelmed with wine and sleep.

Notes

  1. 41.3.1terra mari trepidatur — An impersonal passive construction using the third-person singular passive of the intransitive verb trepidare, meaning 'there was panic on land and sea.'
  2. 41.3.4praeda fere futura, si belli hostes meminissent — A conditional sentence expressing a past contrary-to-fact situation. The protasis is in the pluperfect subjunctive (meminissent), while the apodosis uses the future participle with the omission of esse (praeda futura [esse]), conveying a vivid and imminent conclusion: 'they would have been an easy prey.'
  3. 41.3.9persecuturos fuisse — The apodosis of a past contrary-to-fact conditional sentence in indirect discourse. The direct form (which would have used the active future participle with fui, or the pluperfect subjunctive) is converted into the active future participle with fuisse in the accusative-with-infinitive construction.

Cite this passage

Livy, History of Rome §41.3.1-41.3.10. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0914.phi001.humanitext-lat2:41.3.1-41.3.10

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