Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Benjamin Oliver Foster, Ph.D. (Editor), Frank Gardener Moore (Editor), Evan T. Sage, Ph.D. (Editor), Alfred C. Schlesinger, Ph.D. (Editor), 21.30

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[1]

Accordingly Hannibal, having settled in his own mind to go forward and advance on Italy, called the soldiers together and worked on their feelings with alternate chiding and encouragement.

[2] He marvelled, he said, what sudden terror had invaded breasts that had ever been dauntless. For ¹ these many years they had been victorious in war, nor had they quitted Spain until all the tribes and territories which lay between two distant seas were in the power of the Carthaginians.

[3] Then, indignant that the Roman People should demand that whoever had laid siege to Saguntum be surrendered up to them, as though to expiate a felony, they had crossed the Ebro, in order to wipe out the Roman name and liberate the world.

[4] The march had not then seemed long to any of them, though they meant to advance from the setting to the rising sun;

[5] but now, when they could see that they had measured off the greater part of it; ² when they had made their way, through the fiercest tribes, over the Pyrenees; when they had crossed the Rhone —that mighty river —in the teeth of so many thousand Gauls, overcoming, too, the violence of the stream itself; when the Alps, the other side of which was in Italy, were in full sight;

[6] —were they halting now, as though exhausted, at the very gates of their enemies?

[7] What else did they think that the Alps were but high mountains? They might fancy them higher than the ranges of the Pyrenees; but surely no lands touched the skies or were impassable to man. The Alps indeed were inhabited, were tilled, produced and supported living beings; their defiles were practicable for armies.

[8] Those very ambassadors whom they beheld had not crossed the Alps in the air on wings. Even the ancestors of these men had not been natives of Italy, but had lived there as foreign settlers, and had often crossed these very Alps in great companies, with their children and their wives, ³ in the manner of emigrants. ⁴

[9] For armed soldiers, taking nothing with them but the instruments of war, what could be impassable or insurmountable? To capture Saguntum, what dangers or what hardships had they not endured for eight long months?

[10] Now that Rome, the capital of the world, ⁵ was their objective, could anything seem so painful or so difficult as to delay

[11] their enterprise? Had Gauls once captured that which the Phoenician despaired of approaching? Then let them yield in spirit and manhood to a race which they had so often vanquished in the course of the last few days, or look to end their march in the field ⁶ that lay between the Tiber and the walls of Rome.

Ab urbe condita. Titus Livius (Livy). Benjamin Oliver Foster, Ph.D. (Editor), Frank Gardener Moore (Editor), Evan T. Sage, Ph.D. (Editor), Alfred C. Schlesinger, Ph.D. (Editor). Medford, MA. .

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Funding provided by The National Endowment for the Humanities.

Current edition Perseus

History of Rome (English) (Foster, Benjamin Oliver; Moore, Frank Gardener; Sage, Evan T.; Schlesinger, Alfred C., translators. Cambridge, Mass.; London: Harvard University Press; William Heinemann, Ltd., 1919-1959. (Loeb Classical Library))

Editions (3)

Ab urbe condita Perseus (Pars I-IV, Libri I-XL. Editio Stereotypica. Weissenborn, Wilhelm; Mueller, Moritz, editors. Leipzig: Teubner, 1884-1911.) — 21.30 focus

[1] itaque Hannibal, postquam ipsi sententia stetit pergere ire atque Italiam petere, advocata contione militum versat animos castigando adhortandoque: mnirari mirari se,

[2] quinam pectora semper inpavida repens terror invaserit. per tot annos vincentis eos stipendia facere neque ante Hispania excessisse, quam omnes gentesque et terrae, quas duo diversa maria amplectantur, Carthaginiensium essent.

[3] indignatos deinde, quod, quicumque Saguntum obsedissent, velut ob noxam sibi dedi postularet populus Romanus, Hiberum traiecisse ad delendum nomen Romanorum liberandumque orbem terrarum.

[4] tum nemini visum id longum, cum ab occasu soils solis ad exortus intenderent iter;

[5] nunc, postquam multo maiorem partem itineris emensam cernant, Pyrenaeum saltum inter ferocissimas gentes superatum, Rhodanum, tantum amnem, tot milibus Gallorum prohibentibus, domita etiam ipsius fluminis vi traiectum, in conspectu Alpis habeant,

[6] quarum alterum latus Italiae sit, in ipsis portis hostium fatigatos subsistere — quid Alpis aliud esse credentes quam montium altitudines?

[7] fingerent altiores Pyrenaei iugis: nullas profecto terras caelum contingere nec inexsuperabiles humano generi esse. Alpis quidem habitari, coli, gignere atque alere animantes:

[8] pervias faucis esse exercitibus. eos ipsos, quos cernant, legatos non pinnis sublime elatos Alpis transgressos. ne maiores quidem eorum indigenas, sed advenas Italiae cultores has ipsas Alpis ingentibus saepe agminibus cum liberis ac coniugibus migrantium modo tuto transmisisse.

[9] militi quidem armato nihil secum praeter instrumenta belli portanti quid invium aut inexsuperabile esse? Saguntum ut caperetur, quid per octo menses periculi, quid laboris exhaustum esse!

[10] Romam, caput orbis terrarum, petentibus quicquam adeo asperum atque arduum videri, quod inceptum moretur?

[11] cepisse quondam Gallos ea, quae adiri posse Poenus desperet. proinde aut cederent animo atque virtute genti per eos dies totiens ab se victae aut itineris finem sperent campum interiacentem Tiberi ac moenibus Romanis.

Ab urbe condita Perseus (Conway, Robert Seymour; Walters, Charles Flamstead; Johnson, Stephen Keymer, editors. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1914-1935. (Oxford Classical Texts)) — 21.30 focus

[1]

itaque Hannibal, postquam ipsi sententia stetit pergere ire atque Italiam petere, aduocata contione uarie militum uersat animos castigando adhortandoque:

[2] mirari se quinam pectora semper impauida repens terror inuaserit. per tot annos uincentes eos stipendia facere neque ante Hispania excessisse quam omnes gentesque et terrae quas duo diuersa maria amplectantur Carthaginiensium essent.

[3] indignatos deinde quod quicumque Saguntum obsedissent uelut ob noxam sibi dedi postularet populus Romanus, Hiberum traiecisse ad delendum nomen Romanorum liberandumque orbem terrarum.

[4] tum nemini uisum id longum, cum ab occasu solis ad exortus intenderent iter:

[6] quid Alpes aliud esse credentes quam montium altitudines?

[7] fingerent altiores Pyrenaei iugis: nullas profecto terras caelum contingere nec inexsuperabiles humano generi esse. Alpes quidem habitari, coli, gignere atque alere animantes; peruias paucis esse, esse et exercitibus.

[8] eos ipsos quos cernant legatos non pinnis sublime elatos Alpes transgressos. ne maiores quidem eorum indigenas sed aduenas Italiae cultores has ipsas Alpes ingentibus saepe agminibus cum liberis ac coniugibus migrantium modo tuto transmisisse.

[9] militi quidem armato nihil secum praeter instrumenta belli portanti quid inuium aut inexsuperabile esse? Saguntum ut caperetur, quid per octo menses periculi, quid laboris exhaustum esse?

[10] Romam, caput orbis terrarum, petentibus quicquam adeo asperum atque arduum uideri quod inceptum moretur?

[11] cepisse quondam Gallos ea quae adiri posse Poenus desperet; proinde aut cederent animo atque uirtute genti per eos dies totiens ab se uictae aut itineris finem sperent campum interiacentem Tiberi ac moenibus Romanis.

Ab urbe condita Perseus (Livy in Fourteen Volumes. Foster, Benjamin Oliver; Moore, Frank Gardener; Schlesinger, Alfred C., editors. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd., 1919-1959 (printing).) — 21.30 focus

[1]

itaque Hannibal, postquam ipsi sententia stetit pergere ire atque ¹ Italiam petere, advocata ² contione varie militum versat animos castigando adhortandoque:

[2] mirari se quinam pectora semper impavida repens terror invaserit. per tot annos ³ vincentes eos stipendia facere neque ante Hispania excessisse quam omnes gentesque et terrae ⁴ quas duo diversa maria amplectantur Carthaginiensium essent.

[3] indignatos deinde quod quicumque Saguntum obsedissent velut ob noxam sibi dedi postularet populus Romanus, Hiberum traiecisse ⁵ ad delendum nomen Romanorum liberandumque orbem terrarum.

[4] tum nemini visum id longum, cum ab occasu solis ad exortus intenderent iter;

[5] nunc, postquam multo maiorem partem itineris ⁶ emensam cernant, Pyrenaeum saltum inter ferocissimas gentes superatum, Rhodanum, tantum amnem, tot milibus Gallorum prohibentibus, domita etiam ipsius fluminis vi traiectum, in conspectu Alpes habeant, quarum alterum latus Italiae sit,

[6] in ipsis portis hostium fatigatos subsistere—quid Alpes aliud esse credentes quam montium altitudines?

[7] fingerent altiores Pyrenaei iugis: nullas profecto terras caelum contingere nec inexsuperabiles ⁷ humano generi esse. Alpes quidem habitari coli gignere atque alere animantes; pervias fauces ⁸ esse exercitibus.

[8] eos ipsos quos cernant legatos non pinnis sublime elatos Alpes transgressos. ne maiores quidem eorum indigenas sed advenas Italiae cultores has ipsas Alpes ingentibus saepe agminibus cum liberis ac coniugibus ⁹ migrantium modo tuto transmisisse.

[9] militi quidem armato nihil secum praeter instrumenta belli portanti quid invium aut inexsuperabile esse? Saguntum ut caperetur, quid per octo menses periculi, quid laboris exhaustum esse?

[10] Romam , caput orbis terrarum, petentibus quicquam adeo asperum atque arduum videri, quod inceptum moretur?

[11] cepisse quondam Gallos ea quae adiri posse Poenus desperet? proinde aut cederent animo atque virtute genti per eos dies totiens ab se victae, aut itineris finem sperent campum interiacentem Tiberi ac moenibus Romanis.

Translations (2)

History of Rome Perseus (Spillan, D.; Edmonds, Cyrus; McDevitte, William A., translators. London: Henry G. Bohn, 1849-1868. (Bohn's Classical Library)) — 21.30 focus

[1]

Hannibal, therefore, when his own resolution was fixed to proceed in his course and advance on Italy, having summoned an assembly, works upon the minds of the soldiers in various ways, by reproof and exhortation.

[2] He said, that

he wondered what sudden fear had seized breasts ever before undismayed: that through so many years they had made their campaigns with conquest; nor had departed from Spain before all the nations and countries which two opposite seas embrace, were subjected to the Carthaginians.

[3]

That then, indignant that the Romans demanded those, whosoever had besieged Saguntum, to be delivered up to them, as on account of a crime, they had passed the Iberus to blot out the name of the Romans, and to emancipate the world.

[4]

That then the way seemed long to no one, though they were pursuing it from the setting to the rising of the sun.

[5]

That now, when they saw by far the greater part of their journey accomplished, the passes of the Pyrenees surmounted, amid the most ferocious nations, the Rhone, that mighty river, crossed, in spite of the opposition of so many thousand Gauls, the fury of the river itself having been overcome, when they had the Alps in sight, the other side of which was Italy, should they halt through weariness at

[6]

the very gates of the enemy, imagining the Alps to be —what else than lofty mountains?

[7]

That supposing them to be higher than the summits of the Pyrenees, assuredly no part of the earth reached the sky, nor was insurmountable by mankind. The Alps in fact were inhabited and cultivated; —produced and supported living beings.

[8]

Were they passable by a few men and impassable to armies? That those very ambassadors whom they saw before them had not crossed the Alps borne aloft through the air on wings; neither were their ancestors indeed natives of the soil, but settling in Italy from foreign countries, had often as emigrants safely crossed these very Alps in immense bodies, with their wives and children.

[9]

To the armed soldier, carrying nothing with him but the instruments of war, what in reality was impervious or insurmountable? That Saguntum might be taken, what dangers, what toils were for eight months undergone!

[10]

Now, when their aim was Rome, the capital of the world, could any thing appear so dangerous or difficult as to delay their undertaking?

[11]

That the Gauls had formerly gained possession of that very country which the Carthaginian despairs of being able to approach. That they must, therefore, either yield in spirit and valour to that nation which they had so often during those times overcome; or look forward, as the end of their journey, to the plain which spreads between the Tiber and the walls of Rome.

History of Rome Perseus (Volumes 1-2. Roberts, Canon, Rev, translator. London, New York: J. M. Dent and Sons; E. P. Dutton and Co., 1912.) — 21.30 focus

[1]

When Hannibal had made up his mind to go forward and lose no time in reaching Italy, his goal, he ordered a muster of his troops and addressed them in tones of mingled rebuke and encouragement.

[2] "I am astonished," he said, "to see how hearts that have been always dauntless have now suddenly become a prey to fear. Think of the many victorious campaigns you have gone through, and remember that you did not leave Spain before you had added to the Carthaginian empire all the tribes in the country washed by two widely remote seas.

[3] The Roman people made a demand for all who had taken part in the siege of Saguntum to be given up to them, and you, to avenge the insult, have crossed the Ebro to wipe out the name of Rome and bring freedom to the world.

[4] When you commenced your march, from the setting to the rising sun, none of you thought it too much for you, but now when you see that by far the greater part of the way has been accomplished;

[5] the passes of the Pyrenees, which were held by most warlike tribes, surmounted;

[6] the Rhone, that mighty stream, crossed in the face of so many thousand Gauls, and the rush of its waters checked-now that you are within sight of the Alps, on the other side of which lies Italy, you have become weary and are arresting your march in the very gates of the enemy.

[7] What do you imagine the Alps to be other than lofty mountains? Suppose them to be higher than the peaks of the Pyrenees, surely no region in the world can touch the sky or be impassable to man.

[8] Even the Alps are inhabited and cultivated, animals are bred and reared there, their gorges and ravines can be traversed by armies. Why, even the envoys whom you see here did not cross the Alps by flying through the air, nor were their ancestors native to the soil. They came into Italy as emigrants looking for a land to settle in, and they crossed the Alps often in immense bodies with their wives and children and all their belongings.

[9] What can be inaccessible or insuperable to the soldier who carries nothing with him but his weapons of war? What toils and perils you went through for eight months to effect the capture of Saguntum!

[10] And now that Rome, the capital of the world, is your goal, can you deem anything so difficult or so arduous that it should prevent you from reaching it?

[11] Many years ago the Gauls captured the place which Carthaginians despair of approaching; either you must confess yourselves inferior in courage and enterprise to a people whom you have conquered again and again, or else you must look forward to finishing your march on the ground between the Tiber and the walls of Rome."

Notes on the current edition

Ab Urbe Condita With An English Translation, books 1-10, 21-45, with periochae 11-20

1. B.C. 218

2. Polybius (III. xxxix) estimates the distance covered by Hannibal as follows: New Carthage to the Ebro 2600 stades (the stade is roughly a furlong); the Ebro to Emporium 1600; Emporium to Narbo 600; Narbo to the passage of the Rhone 1600; the passage of the Rhone to the foot of the pass over the Alps 1400; the foot of the pass to the valley of the Po 1200.

3. B.C. 218

4. See v. xxxiv-xxxv. Livy places the earliest Gallic immigration in the reign of Tarquinius Priscus.

5. This expression is a strange anachronism in the mouth of Hannibal; but Livy thinks of Hannibal as realizing —and so perhaps he may have done —that the struggle now beginning would determine whether Rome or Carthage should rule the world.

6. The Campus Martius lay outside the Servian wall, between the Capitoline, Quirinal, and Pincian Hills and the Tiber.

Titus Livius (Livy) Ab urbe condita 21.30

Benjamin Oliver Foster, Ph.D. (Editor), Frank Gardener Moore (Editor), Evan T. Sage, Ph.D. (Editor), Alfred C. Schlesinger, Ph.D. (Editor)

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