§7.3.1nec tamen ludorum primum initium procurandis religionibus datum aut religione animos aut corpora morbis levavit; §7.3.2quin etiam, cum medios forte ludos circus Tiberi superfuso inrigatus inpedisset, id vero, velut aversis iam dis aspernantibusque placamina irae, terrorem ingentem fecit.
Yet the first introduction of the plays, though undertaken to discharge religious obligations, did not relieve either the minds of men from superstitious fear or their bodies from disease; nay, even, when by chance in the midst of the games the circus, flooded by the overflow of the Tiber, interrupted them, that indeed, as if the gods were already turned away and despising the means of appeasing their wrath, caused great terror.
§7.3.3itaque Cn. Genucio L. Aemilio Mamercino iterum consulibus, cum piaculorum magis conquisitio animos quam corpora morbi adficerent, repetitum ex seniorum memoria dicitur, pestilentiam quondam clavo ab dictatore fixo sedatam.
And so, in the consulship of Gnaeus Genucius and Lucius Aemilius Mamercinus for the second time, when the searching out of expiations troubled their minds even more than the disease afflicted their bodies, it is said to have been recalled from the memory of the elders that a pestilence had once been stayed by a nail driven by a dictator.
§7.3.4ea religione adductus senatus dictatorem clavi figendi causa dici iussit.
Induced by this religious dread, the senate ordered a dictator to be named for the purpose of driving the nail.
dictus L. Manlius Imperiosus L. Pinarium magistrum equitum dixit.
Lucius Manlius Imperiosus was named, and he appointed Lucius Pinarius master of the horse.
§7.3.5lex vetusta est, priscis litteris verbisque scripta, ut, qui praetor maximus sit, idibus Septembribus clavum pangat; fixa fuit dextro lateri aedis Iovis optimi maximi, ex qua parte Minervae templum est.
There is an ancient law, written in archaic letters and words, that he who is the chief praetor should drive a nail on the Ides of September; it was fixed to the right side of the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus, on the side where the temple of Minerva is.
§7.3.6eum clavum, quia rarae per ea tempora litterae erant, notam numeri annorum fuisse ferunt eoque Minervae templo dicatam legem, quia numerus Minervae inuentum sit.
They say that this nail, because writing was rare in those times, was a mark of the number of years, and that for this reason the law was dedicated in the temple of Minerva, because number is the invention of Minerva.
§7.3.7Volsiniis quoque clavos indices numeri annorum fixos in templo Nortiae, Etruscae deae, conparere diligens talium monumentorum auctor Cincius adfirmat.
Cincius, a diligent authority on such monuments, asserts that at Volsinii also, nails fixed as indicators of the number of years are visible in the temple of Nortia, an Etruscan goddess.
§7.3.8Horatius consul ea lege templum Iovis optimi maximi dedicavit anno post reges exactos; a consulibus postea ad dictatores, quia maius imperium erat, sollemne clavi figendi translatum est.
The consul Horatius dedicated the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus in accordance with that law in the year after the expulsion of the kings; afterwards, because the authority (imperium) was greater, the solemn rite of driving the nail was transferred from the consuls to the dictators.
intermisso deinde more digna etiam per se visa res, propter quam dictator crearetur.
Later, when the custom had been interrupted, the matter seemed worthy even in itself for a dictator to be created.
§7.3.9qua de causa creatus L. Manlius, perinde ac rei gerendae ac non solvendae religionis gratia creatus esset, bellum Hernicum adfectans dilectu acerbo iuventutem agitavit; tandemque omnibus in eum tribunis plebis coortis, seu vi seu verecundia victus, dictatura abiit
Lucius Manlius, having been created for this reason, just as if he had been created for the purpose of waging war and not of discharging a religious obligation, aiming at a war with the Hernici, harassed the youth with a harsh levy; and at length, when all the tribunes of the plebs rose up against him, overcome either by force or by shame, he resigned his dictatorship.