Titus Livius (Livy) Ab urbe condita 5.21

D. Spillan, A.M., M.D. (Translator), Cyrus Edmonds (Translator), William A. McDevitte (Translator)

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Ab urbe condita. Titus Livius (Livy). D. Spillan, A.M., M.D. (Translator), Cyrus Edmonds (Translator), William A. McDevitte (Translator). Medford, MA. .

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Funding provided by The National Endowment for the Humanities.

Current edition Perseus

History of Rome (English) (Spillan, D.; Edmonds, Cyrus; McDevitte, William A., translators. London: Henry G. Bohn, 1849-1868. (Bohn's 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.) — 5.21 focus
Ab urbe condita Perseus (Conway, Robert Seymour; Walters, Charles Flamstead; Johnson, Stephen Keymer, editors. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1914-1935. (Oxford Classical Texts)) — 5.21 focus
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).) — 5.21 focus
Translations (2)
History of Rome Perseus (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)) — 5.21 focus
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.) — 5.21 focus

Notes on the current edition

History of Rome, books 1-10, 21-45

1.
This 2 vow frequently occurs in Grecian history, like that made of the Persian booty, but this is the only instance in the history of Rome.
— Niebuhr, vol. ii. 239.
2. Evocatos. When the Romans besieged a town, and thought themselves 4 sure of taking it, they used solemnly to call out of it the gods in whose protection the place was supposed to be.
3. The idea of the Romans working a mine, even through the soil of Veii, so as to be sure of reaching not only the town and the citadel, and even the temple, is considered by Niebuhr as extremely ridiculous. He deems the circumstance 9 a clear proof of the fiction that attaches to the entire story of the capture of Veii. The whole seems to be an imitation of the siege of Troy. — Gunne.
4. The passage in the original, in the generality of editions, 13?? is read as follows: ut eam invidiam lenire, quàm minimo suo private incommodo publicoque, populo Romano liceret: i. e. that both himself and the Roman people may get over the evil consequences of the jealousy of the gods with as little detriment as possible to either: populi Romani seems preferable here: i. e.
that 14?? it might be allowed to lighten that jealousy, by the least possible injury to his own private interest, and to the public interests of the Roman people.
There were certainly two persons concerned in the invidia and incommodum here, Camillus himself, and the Roman people; to whom respectively the damnatio, and clades captae urbis, afterwards mentioned, obviously refer. Some editions read, invidiam lenire suo privato incommodo, quàm minimo publico populi Romani liceret. This is the reading 15?? adopted by Crevier; i. e.
to appease the jealousy by his own private loss, rather than the least public loss.
This is more in accordance with the account given of Camillus by Plutarch, and contains a sentiment certainly more worthy both of Livy and of Camillus. Sentiments ascribed by Plutarch to Camillus, will have suo private incommodo, quam minimo publico P. R., giving him the patriotic wish to render light the odium by his own private loss, 16?? rather than the least public loss; or, by his own private loss, but if not, by as small a public loss as possible. Pop- li R- i , better than o, o, as liceret would, in the latter case, apply only to one of the parties; in the former both are understood.