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Livy · History of Rome §43.3.1-43.3.7

Establishment of Carteia and African Embassies

Passage 1660 of 1770 · Latin

Summary

An embassy from Spain consisting of children of Roman soldiers and Spanish women requests a town, and the senate establishes a Latin colony for them at Carteia. Envoys from Numidia and Carthage also arrive, with the Numidian prince Gulussa warning of Carthaginian military preparations.

§43.3.1et alia novi generis hominum ex Hispania legatio venit.
And another embassy of a new class of men came from Spain.
§43.3.2ex militibus Romanis et ex Hispanis mulieribus, cum quibus conubium non esset, natos se memorantes, supra quattuor milia hominum, orabant, ut sibi oppidum, in quo habitarent, daretur.
Declaring that they were born of Roman soldiers and Spanish women with whom there was no right of intermarriage, they, numbering over four thousand men, begged that a town might be given to them in which they might dwell.
§43.3.3senatus decrevit, uti nomina sua apud L. Canuleium profiterentur eorumque, si quos manumisissent; eos Carteiam ad Oceanum deduci placere; §43.3.4qui Carteiensium domi manere vellent, potestatem fieri, uti numero colonorum essent, agro adsignato. Latinam eam coloniam esse libertinorumque appellari.
The senate decreed that they should register their names, and those of any slaves they might have manumitted, before Lucius Canuleius; and that it was resolved that they should be led to Carteia on the Ocean; that those of the Carteians who wished to remain at home should have the opportunity to be included in the number of the colonists, land being assigned to them; and that this colony should be a Latin one and be called the colony of the libertini.
§43.3.5eodem tempore ex Africa et Gulussa regulus, Masinissae filius, legatus patris, et Carthaginienses venerunt.
At the same time, from Africa came both the prince Gulussa, son of Masinissa and envoy of his father, and the Carthaginians.
§43.3.6Gulussa prior in senatum introductus et, quae missa erant ad bellum Macedonicum a patre suo, exposuit et, si qua praeterea vellent imperare, praestaturum merito populi Romani est pollicitus et monuit patres conscriptos, ut a fraude Carthaginiensium caverent: §43.3.7classis eos magnae parandae consilium cepisse, specie pro Romanis et adversus Macedonas; ubi ea parata instructaque esset, ipsorum fore potestatis, quem hostem aut socium habeant.
Gulussa was introduced first into the senate and set forth what had been sent by his father for the Macedonian war; and he promised that, in return for the services of the Roman people, he would supply whatever else they might wish to order, and warned the conscript fathers to beware of the treachery of the Carthaginians: namely, that they had formed a plan to build a large fleet, ostensibly for the Romans and against the Macedonians; but once it was prepared and equipped, it would be in their own power to decide whom to treat as enemy or ally.
hanc iniec
They threw this

Notes

  1. 43.3.2cum quibus conubium non esset — The subjunctive (esset) is a subjunctive of characteristic, defining the class of Spanish women with whom the Roman soldiers had no legal right of intermarriage (conubium).
  2. 43.3.3eorumque, si quos manumisissent — The noun nomina is understood from the preceding clause (nomina sua... eorumque [nomina]). The subjunctive pluperfect manumisissent represents a future perfect in indirect speech, referring to any slaves they might have set free.
  3. 43.3.4qui Carteiensium — Carteiensium is a partitive genitive depending on the relative pronoun qui, meaning 'those of the Carteians who...'
  4. 43.3.7ipsorum fore potestatis — The genitive potestatis is a predicate genitive of possession or characteristic with fore (futurum esse), meaning 'it would belong to their own power' or 'it would be in their hands.'

Cite this passage

Livy, History of Rome §43.3.1-43.3.7. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0914.phi001.humanitext-lat2:43.3.1-43.3.7

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