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), 38.47

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[1] Such was the argument of Furius and Aemilius.¹ Manlius, I have heard, replied in about the following manner: "It was formerly the custom, conscript Fathers, that tribunes of the people should oppose candidates

[2] for triumphs; in this case I am grateful to them because they have conceded this much, whether to me or to the greatness of my achievements —that they do not merely by their silence approve my distinction but even seem ready to propose it if necessary; it is among the ten commissioners (heaven

[3] help us!), a council which our ancestors created for awarding victory and its honours to commanders, that I find

[4] my opponents. Lucius Furius and Lucius Aemilius forbid me to mount the triumphal car, they strip the garland of victory from my head, these men whom, if the tribunes were obstructing my triumph, I should have summoned as witnesses to what I

[5] have done. For my part, conscript Fathers, I grudge no man his distinction; when the tribunes of the people, brave and energetic men, not long ago were opposing the² triumph of Quintus Fabius Labeo,³ you checked them by

[6] your authority; he triumphed, although his enemies circulated the story, not that he had waged an illegal war, but that he had not set eyes on an enemy at all;⁴ I who have so often fought with a hundred thousand of the fiercest enemies, who captured or killed more than forty thousand men, who took two of their camps, who left everything on this side of the ridges of Taurus more peaceful than is the land of Italy, am not only cheated out of my triumph but am pleading my case before you, conscript Fathers, with my own lieutenants as

[7] my accusers! Their charge, as you have observed, conscript Fathers, is twofold: for they said that I should not have waged war with the Gauls and that the war was conducted rashly

[8] and heedlessly. 'The Gauls,' they say, 'were not enemies, but you attacked them while they were peaceful and obedient to

[9] our orders.' I shall not ask you, conscript Fathers, to believe about those Gauls also who dwell in Asia what you know in general about the barbarous character of the people of the Gauls and their most deadly hatred of the name of Rome; setting aside the ill repute and ill fame of the race as a whole, judge them

[10] by themselves. Would that King Eumenes were here, would that all the cities of Asia were here, and that you could hear them complaining of rather than me accusing

[11] the Gauls. Come, send ambassadors around all the cities of Asia and ask them whether they were freed from a more grievous slavery when Antiochus was expelled beyond the ridges of Taurus or when the Gauls

[12] were subdued.⁵ Let them tell you how often their fields were devastated, how often plunder was carried away, when they had barely the wealth to ransom their captives and kept hearing of human victims slain and their own

[13] children sacrificed. Know that your own allies had been paying tribute to the Gauls and even now, when liberated by you from the king's control, would still have been paying it if I had failed them.

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.) — 38.47 focus

[1] talis oratio Furii et Aemilii fuit. Manlium in hunc maxime modum respondisse accepi: “tribuni plebis antea solebant triumphum postulantibus adversari, patres conscripti;

[2] quibus ego gratiam habeo, quod seu mihi seu magnitudini rerum gestarum hoc dederunt, ut non solum silentio comprobarent honorem meum, sed referre etiam, si opus eseet, esset, viderentur parati esse;

[3] ex decem legatis, si diis placet, quod consilium dispensandae cohonestandaeque victoriae imperatoribus maiores dederunt nostri, adversarios habeo.

[4] L. Furius et L. Aemilius currum triumphalem me conscendere prohibent, coronam insignem capiti detrahunt, quos ego, si tribuni triumphare me prohiberent,

[5] testes citaturus fui rerum a me gestarum. nullius equidem invideo honori, patres conscripti; vos tribunos plebei nuper, viros fortes ac strenuos, impedientes Q. Fabii Labeonis triumphum auctoritate vestra deterruistis;

[6] triumphavit, quem non bellum iniustum gessisse, sed hostem omnino non vidisse inimici iactabant; ego, qui cum centum milibus ferocissimorum hostium signis collatis totiens pugnavi, qui plus quadraginta milia hominum cepi aut occidi, qui bina castra eorum expugnavi, qui citra iuga Tauri omnia pacatiora, quam terra Italia est, reliqui, non triumpho modo fraudor,

[7] sed causam apud vos, patres conscripti, accusantibus meis ipse legatis dico.

[8] duplex eorum, ut animadvertistis, patres conscripti, accusatio fuit: nam nec gerendum mihi fuisse bellum cum Gallis, et gestum temere atqcue atque imprudenter dixerunt. “non erant Galli hostes, sed tu eos pacatos imperata facientes violasti.”

[9] non sum postulaturus a vobis, patres conscripti, ut, quae communiter de immanitate gentis Gallorum, de infestissimo odio in nomen Romanum scitis, ea de illis quoque, qui Asiam incolunt, existimetis Gallis;

[10] remota universae gentis infamia atque invidia per se ipsos aestimate. utinam rex Eumenes, utinam Asiae omnes civitates adessent, et illos potius querentes quam me accusantem audiretis.

[11] mittite, agedum, legatos circa omnes Asiae urbes et quaerite, utra graviori servitute, Antiocho ultra Tauri iuga emoto an Gallis subactis, liberati sint.

[12] quotiens agri eorum vastati sint, quotiens praedae abactae, referant, cum vix redimendi captivos copia esset, et mactatas humanas hostias immolatosque liberos suos audirent.

[13] stipendium scitote pependisse socios vestros Gallis et nunc, liberatos per vos regio imperio, fuisse pensuros, si a me foret cessatum.

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).) — 43.23 focus

[1]

Rex cum non ¹ minore vexatione iumentorum hominumque quam venerat in Macedoniam rediit; Appium tamen ab obsidione Phanotes fama ducentis ad Stratum Persei summovit.

[2] Cleuas cum praesidio impigrorum iuvenum insecutus sub radicibus prope inviis montium ² ad mille hominum ex agmine impedito occidit, ad ducentos cepit.

[3] Appius superatis angustiis in campo quem Meleona vocant stativa dierum paucorum habuit. interim Cleuas assumpto Philostrato, qui quingentos ex ³ Epirotarum gente habebat, in agrum Antigonensem transcendit. ⁴ Macedones ad depopulationem profecti;

[4] Philostratus⁵ cum cohorte sua in insidiis loco ⁶ obscuro consedit. in palatos populatores cum erupissent ab Antigonea armati, ⁷ fugientes eos persequentes effusius in vallem insessam ab hostibus praecipitant.

[5] ibi ad mille ⁸ occisis, centum ferme captis, et ubique prospere gesta re prope stativa Appi castra movent, ne qua vis sociis suis ab Romano exercitu inferri possit.

[6] Appius nequiquam in his locis terens tempus, dimissis Chaonum Thesprotorumque ⁹ et si qui alii Epirotae erant praesidiis, cum Italicis militibus in Illyricum regressus, per Parthinorum ¹⁰ socias urbes in hiberna militibus divisis, ¹¹ ipse Romam sacrificii causa redit.

[7] Perseus ex Penestarum gente mille pedites, ducentos equites revocatos Cassandream, praesidio ut essent, misit.

[8] Ab Gentio eadem adferentes redierunt. nec deinde alios atque alios mittendo temptare eum destitit, cum appareret, quantum in eo praesidii esset, nec tamen impetrare ab animo posset, ut impensam in rem maximi ad omnia momenti faceret.

Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn Perseus (Weissenborn, W.; Müller, H. J., editors. Berlin: Weidmannsche Buchhandlung, 1873-1883.) — 38.47 focus

[1]

talis oratio Furii et Aemilii fuit. Manlium in hunc maxime modum respondisse accepi. “tribuni plebis antea solebant triumphum postulantibus adversari, patres conscripti;

[2] quibus ego gratiam habeo, quod seu mihi seu magnitudini rerum gestarum hoc dederunt, ut non solum silentio comprobarent honorem meum, sed referre etiam, si opus esset, viderentur parati esse;

[3] ex decem legatis, si diis placet, quod consilium dispensandae cohonestandaeque victoriae imperatoribus maiores dederunt nostri, adversarios habeo.

[4] L. Furius et L. Aemilius currum triumphalem me conscendere prohibent, coronam insignem capiti detrahunt; quos ego, si tribuni me triumphare prohiberent, testes citaturus fui rerum a me gestarum.

[5] nullius equidem invideo honori, patres conscripti: vos tribunos plebei nuper, viros fortes ac strenuos, impedientes Q. Fabii Labeonis triumphum auctoritate vestra deterruistis; triumphavit, quem non bellum iniustum gessisse, sed hostem omnino non vidisse inimici iactabant:

[6] ego, qui cum centum milibus ferocissimorum hostium signis collatis totiens pugnavi, qui plus quadraginta milia hominum cepi aut occidi, qui ¹ bina castra eorum expugnavi, qui citra iuga Tauri omnia pacatiora, quam terra Italia est, reliqui, non triumpho modo fraudor, sed causam apud vos, patres conscripti, accusantibus meis ipse legatis dico.

[7] duplex eorum, ut animadvertistis, patres conscripti, accusatio fuit: nam nec gerendum mihi fuisse bellum cum Gallis, et gestum temere atque imprudenter dixerunt. “non erant Galli hostes, sed tu eos pacatos imperata facientes violasti.

[8] ” non sum postulaturus a vobis, patres conscripti, ut, quae communiter de immanitate gentis Gallorum de infestissimo odio in nomen Romanum scitis, ea de illis quoque, qui has terras incolunt, existimetis Gallis:

[9] remota universae gentis infamia atque invidia per se ipsos aestimate. utinam rex Eumenes, utinam Asiae civitates omnes adessent, et illos potius querentes quam me accusantem audiretis.

[10] mittite, agedum, legatos circa omnes Asiae urbes et quaerite, utra graviore servitute, Antiocho ultra Tauri iuga emoto an Gallis subactis, liberati sint:

[11] quotiens agri eorum vastati sint, ² quotiens praedae abactae, referant, cum vix redimendi captivos copia esset, et mactatas humanas hostias immolatosque liberos suos audirent.

[12] stipendium scitote pependisse socios vestros Gallis et nunc, liberatos per vos regio imperio, fuisse pensuros, si a me foret cessatum.

Translations (2)

History of Rome Perseus (Spillan, D.; Edmonds, Cyrus; McDevitte, William A., translators. London: Henry G. Bohn, 1849-1868. (Bohn's Classical Library)) — 38.47 focus

[1]

Such were the arguments of Furius and Aemilius. We have heard that Manlius replied in nearly the following manner: "Conscript fathers, formerly the tribunes of the people were accustomed to oppose generals demanding a triumph.

[2] I am thankful to the present tribunes because they have conceded so much either to me, or to the greatness of my services, as not only to show, by their silence, their approbation of my pretensions to that honour, but likewise their readiness, if there were occasion, to make a motion to that purpose.

[3] I have, since it is the pleasure of the gods, as my opponents some of the ten ambassadors, the actual council which our ancestors assigned to generals for the purpose of arranging their conquests and gracing their victories.

[4] Lucius Furius and Lucius Aemilius forbid me to mount the triumphal chariot, and pluck from my head the crown of glory, the persons whom, if the tribunes had opposed my triumph, I should have cited as witnesses to bear testimony to my services.

[5] Conscript fathers, I envy no man's honours; but, on a late occasion, you yourselves deterred by your authority the tribunes of the people, brave and active men, from impeding the triumph of Quintus Fabius Labeo.

[6] Fabius enjoyed a triumph; and yet his adversaries alleged, not that he had carried on an unjust war, but that he had not seen the enemy at all. Whereas I, who fought so many pitched battles with one hundred thousand of your fiercest enemies; who killed or made prisoners more than forty thousand; who stormed two of their camps; who left all the countries on this side of the summits of Taurus in greater tranquillity than is the country of Italy; am not only defrauded of a triumph, but obliged to plead my cause before you, conscript fathers, whilst my own council of ambassadors accuse me.

[7] Conscript fathers, their charge, as you perceive, is two-fold: for they assert, that I ought not to have waged war with the Gauls; and besides, that the war was carried on rashly and imprudently.

[8] The Gauls were not enemies; but, you committed hostilities against them, when peaceable and obedient to your orders. I am not about to require from you, conscript fathers, that you may attribute to the Gauls who inhabit Asia, those characteristics which you are well aware belong to the Gallic race in general, savage fierceness and most inveterate hatred to the name of Rome.

[9] Excluding the infamous and odious character of the whole nation, judge of these Gauls by themselves. I wish king Eumenes, I wish all the states of Asia were present, and that you heard their complaints, rather than my charges against them.

[10] Send ambassadors round all the cities of Asia, and ask whether they were relieved from more grievous servitude by the removal of Antiochus beyond the summits of Taurus, or by the conquest of the Gauls.

[11] Let them tell you how often their territories were ravaged, how often their property and their people were carried off as prey; while they had scarcely ever an opportunity of ransoming any prisoners, they heard of nothing but human victims slain, and their children offered up in sacrifice.

[12] Be assured that your allies paid tribute to these Gauls; and, though delivered now by you from the yoke of Antiochus, must still have continued to pay it, if I had been inactive.

[13] The farther Antiochus was removed, the more tyrannically would the Gauls have domineered in Asia; and all the countries on this side of Taurus you would have annexed to their empire, not to your own.

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.) — 38.47 focus

[1]

This was the substance of what Furius and Aemilius said. I understand that Manlius spoke to the following effect: "Formerly, senators, it was the tribunes of the plebs who usually opposed those who claimed a triumph.

[2] I am grateful to them for having conceded this much to me, either personally or in acknowledgment of the greatness of my services, that they not only showed by their silence their approval of my being thus honoured, but were even ready, if necessary, to recommend it to the senate.

[3] It is amongst the ten commissioners that I find my opponents, those whom our ancestors assigned to their commanders for the purpose of gathering the fruits of their victories and enhancing their glory.

[4] L. Furius and L. Aemilius forbid me to enter the triumphal chariot; they snatch the victor's wreath from my brow; these very men whom I was going to call as witnesses to what I have done, had the tribunes opposed my triumph.

[5] I envy no man his honours, senators. Only the other day when the tribunes of the plebs were trying to prevent the triumph of Q. Fabius Labeo, strong and determined as they were, you overawed them by your authority.

[6] His enemies laid it to his charge, not that he had fought an unjust war, but that he had never even seen an enemy. Still he enjoyed his triumph. I, who have fought so many pitched battles with 100,000 of our fiercest enemies, who have killed or taken prisoners 40,000, who have stormed two of their camps, who have left all the country this side the Taurus more peaceable than the land of Italy-I am not only being defrauded of my triumph, but actually have to defend myself

[7] before you against the accusations of my commissioners.

[8] "You have noticed, senators, that they bring a double charge against me; that I ought not to have made war on the Gauls, and that I conducted it in a rash and imprudent way. 'The Gauls,' they say, 'were not hostile to us, but you wantonly attacked them while they were quietly carrying out your orders.'

[9] I am not going to ask you, senators, to judge the Gauls who inhabit those countries from what you know of the savagery common to the race, and their deadly hatred to the name of Rome. Keep out of sight the infamous and hateful character of the race as a whole and judge those men by themselves.

[10] I wish Eumenes, I wish all the cities of Asia were here, and that you were hearing their complaints rather than the charges I am bringing. Send commissioners to visit all the cities of Asia and find out which has delivered them from the heavier thraldom, the removal of Antiochus beyond the Taurus or the subjugation of the Gauls.

[11] Let them bring back word how often the fields of those people have been devastated, how often they and all their property have been

[12] carried off, with hardly a chance of ransoming the captives, and knowing that human victims were being sacrificed and their children immolated.

[13] Let me tell you that your allies paid tribute to the Gauls, and would have been paying it now, though freed from the rule of Antiochus, if it had not been put a stop to by me.

Notes on the current edition

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

1. Livy may have used a speech by one or the other of the two —there is no way to determine which —as the basis for his version of the dispute.

2. B.C. 187

3. In XXXVII. lx. 6 Livy quoted Valerius Antias as the authority for this triumph and seemed to have no other information about it.

4. In XL. xxxviii. 9 the consuls of 181 B.C. are said to have been the first to triumph without having done any fighting.

5. B.C. 187

Titus Livius (Livy) Ab urbe condita 38.47

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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