previous next
11. These particulars, even though the memory of every religious and secular usage has been wiped out by men's preference of the new and outlandish to the ancient and homebred, I have thought it not foreign to my purpose to repeat, and in the very words in which they were formulated and handed down.

[2] i find in certain writers that it was not until the battle was over that the Samnites, who had been [p. 45]waiting [3??] for the outcome of the engagement, came1 up to support the Romans. [4] The Latins, too, were already defeated when the Lavinians, who were consuming time in deliberation, began to march to their assistance; and receiving word of the disaster to the Latins just as their foremost ensigns and a portion of their column had passed out through the gates, they faced about and returned into the city, their praetor, Milionius, remarking, so it is said, that they would have to pay a large price to the Romans for that little march.

[5] such of the Latins as survived the battle, after being dispersed over many roads, were reunited, and took refuge in the town of Vescia. [6] in the councils which they held there, Numisius, their commander —inchief, asserted that the fortune of war had in truth been common,2 overwhelming both armies with equal carnage. [7] The Romans, he said, were victorious only in name, in all else they too were as though they had been defeated; both consular headquarters were polluted, the one by the blood of a son, the other by the death of the devoted consul; their whole army had been cut to pieces, their first and second lines had been massacred, and the slaughter had extended from the troops before the standards to those behind them; finally the veterans had restored the day; [8] but though the Latin forces had been equally cut up, yet, for recruiting, either Latium or the Volscian country was nearer than Rome; [9] if therefore it seemed good to then, he would speedily summon the fighting men front the Latin and Volscian tribes, and would return with an embattled host to Capua, where the unexpectedness of his arrival would strike dismay into the Romans, [p. 48]who just then were looking for anything rather than3 a battle. [10] misleading letters were sent out to all parts of Latium and the country of the Volsci, and since those who received them had not been present at the battle, gained ready credence; and an army of militia was levied in hot haste and brought together from every quarter.

[11] this force Torquatus the consul met near Trifanum, a place situated between Sinuessa and Minturnae. both armies, without waiting to choose sites for their camps, piled their baggage and fell to fighting, and the war was ended then and there; [12] for the enemy's strength was brought so low that, when the consul led his victorious army to pillage their fields, the Latins all surrendered, and the Campanians followed their example. Latium and Capua were deprived of territory. [13] The Latin territory, with the addition of that belonging to Privernum, together with the Falernian —which had belonged to the Campanian people —as far as the river Volturnus, was parcelled out amongst the Roman plebs. [14] The assignment was two iugera in Latium supplemented with three —fourths of a iugerum from the land of Privernum, or three iugera in the Falernian district, —a fourth of a iugerum being added to compensate for its remoteness.4 [15] The Laurentes and the Campanian knights were exempted from the punishment inflicted on the Latins, because they had not revolted; it was ordered that the treaty with the Laurentes should be renewed, and it has been renewed every year from that time, on the tenth day after the Latin Festival. [16] The Campanian knights received Roman citizenship, and to commemorate the occasion a bronze tablet was fastened up in [p. 49]the temple of Castor at Rome.5 moreover, the6 Campanian people were commanded to pay them each a yearly stipend —there were sixteen hundred of them —amounting to four hundred and fifty denarii.7

1 B.C. 340

2 communis Mars belli, like c'est la guerre, was a phrase that was often on the lips of the unsuccessful, cf. v. xii. 1.

3 B.C. 340

4 Castor and Pollux were protectors of the Roman knights and hence appropriately chosen as patrons of the friendly relations established with the aristocracy of Capua.

5 Castor and Pollux were protectors of the Roman knights and hence appropriately chosen as patrons of the friendly relations established with the aristocracy of Capua.

6 B.C. 340

7 The denarius was a silver coin weighing 70 grains Troy and reckoned as equivalent to 16 asses. but silver was not coined in Rome until 268 B.C.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

load focus Notes (W. Weissenborn, H. J. Müller, 1898)
load focus Summary (Latin, Benjamin Oliver Foster, Ph.D., 1926)
load focus Summary (English, Benjamin Oliver Foster, Ph.D., 1926)
load focus Summary (Latin, W. Weissenborn, H. J. Müller, 1898)
load focus English (Rev. Canon Roberts, 1912)
load focus Latin (Benjamin Oliver Foster, Ph.D., 1926)
load focus Latin (W. Weissenborn, H. J. Müller, 1898)
load focus English (D. Spillan, A.M., M.D., 1857)
load focus Latin (Charles Flamstead Walters, Robert Seymour Conway, 1919)
hide Dates (automatically extracted)
Sort dates alphabetically, as they appear on the page, by frequency
Click on a date to search for it in this document.
268 BC (1)
hide References (64 total)
  • Commentary references to this page (11):
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 31-32, commentary, 31.10
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 31-32, commentary, 31.41
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 31-32, commentary, 31.6
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 31-32, commentary, 31.7
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 33-34, commentary, 33.19
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 33-34, commentary, 33.3
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 35-38, commentary, 35.11
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 35-38, commentary, 38.41
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 39-40, commentary, 40.21
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 41-42, commentary, 42.4
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 43-44, commentary, 43.13
  • Cross-references to this page (33):
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Latini
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Laurentes.
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Menturnae
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Millionius
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Numisius.
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Signa
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Sinuessa
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Tabulae
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Trifanum
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Aedes Aesculapii Carthagine
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Ager publicus
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Vescia
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Vulturnus
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Campani
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Castori
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Civitas
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Denarius
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Dies
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Equites:
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Exereitus
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Falernus
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Foederis
    • A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), MAJESTAS
    • A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), SIGNA MILITARIA
    • A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), TRIBUS
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), CAMPA´NIA
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), CA´PUA
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), FALERNUS AGER
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), ITA´LIA
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), LAURENTUM
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), LAV´INIUM
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), VULTURNUS
    • Smith's Bio, Numi'sius
  • Cross-references in notes to this page (1):
  • Cross-references in general dictionaries to this page (19):
hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: