Delphi Complete Works of Dionysius of Halicarnassus (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics Book 79)

by Dionysius of Halicarnassus

  [3] Others say that after the death of Aeneas Ascanius, having succeeded to the entire sovereignty of the Latins, divided both the country and the forces of the Latins into three parts, two of which he gave to his brothers, Romulus and Remus. He himself, they say, built Alba and some other towns; Remus built cities which he named Capuas, after Capys, his great-grandfather, Anchisa, after his grandfather Anchises, Aeneia (which was afterwards called Janiculum), after his father, and Rome, after himself. This last city was for some time deserted, but upon the arrival of another colony, which the Albans sent out under the leadership of Romulus and Remus, it received again its ancient name. So that, according to this account, there were two settlements of Rome, one a little after the Trojan war, and the other fifteen generations after the first.

  [4] εἰ δέ τις ἀπιδεῖν βουλήσεται τὰ προσωτέρω καὶ τρίτη τις ἀρχαιοτέρα τούτων εὑρεθήσεται Ῥώμη γενομένη πρὶν Αἰνείαν καὶ Τρῶας ἐλθεῖν εἰς Ἰταλίαν. ταῦτα δὲ οὐ τῶν ἐπιτυχόντων τις οὐδὲ νέων συγγραφεὺς ἱστόρηκεν, ἀλλ᾽ Ἀντίοχος ὁ Συρακούσιος, [p. 119] οὑ καὶ πρότερον ἐμνήσθην. φησὶ δὲ Μόργητος ἐν Ἰταλίᾳ βασιλεύοντος ῾ἦν δὲ τότε Ἰταλία ἡ ἀπὸ Τάραντος ἄχρι Ποσειδωνίας παράλιοσ᾽ ἐλθεῖν ὡς αὐτὸν ἄνδρα φυγάδα ἐκ Ῥώμης. λέγει δὲ ὧδε: ῾ἐπεὶ δὲ Ἰταλὸς κατεγήρα, Μόργης ἐβασίλευσεν. ἐπὶ τούτου δὲ ἀνὴρ ἀφίκετο ἐκ Ῥώμης φυγάς: Σικελὸς ὄνομα αὐτῷ.᾿

  [4] And if anyone desires to look into the remoter past, even a third Rome will be found, more ancient than these, one that was founded before Aeneas and the Trojans came into Italy. This is related by no ordinary or modern historian, but by Antiochus of Syracuse, whom I have mentioned before. He says that when Morges reigned in Italy (which at that time comprehended all the seacoast from Tarentum to Posidonia), a man came to him who had been banished from Rome. His words are these: “When Italus was growing old, Morges reigned. In his reign there came a man who had been banished from Rome; his name was Seicelus.”

  [5] κατὰ μὲν δὴ τὸν Συρακούσιον συγγραφέα παλαιά τις εὑρίσκεται καὶ προτεροῦσα τῶν Τρωικῶν χρόνων ἡ Ῥώμη. πότερον δὲ περὶ τοὺς αὐτοὺς ἦν τόπους, ἐν οἷς ἡ νῦν οἰκουμένη πόλις ἐστίν, ἢ χωρίον ἕτερον ἐτύγχανεν οὕτως ὀνομαζόμενον ἀσαφὲς ἐκείνου καταλιπόντος οὐδ᾽ ἐγὼ δύναμαι συμβαλεῖν. περὶ μὲν οὖν τῶν παλαιῶν κτίσεων ἱκανὰ ἡγοῦμαι τὰ προειρημένα.

  [5] According to the Syracusan historian, therefore, an ancient Rome is found even earlier than the Trojan war. However, as he has left it doubtful whether it was situated in the same region where the present city stands or whether some other place happened to be called by this name, I, too, can form no conjecture. But as regards the ancient settlements of Rome, I think that what has already been said is sufficient.

  [1] τὸν δὲ τελευταῖον γενόμενον τῆς Ῥώμης οἰκισμὸν ἢ κτίσιν ἢ ὅτι δήποτε χρὴ καλεῖν Τίμαιος μὲν ὁ Σικελιώτης οὐκ οἶδ᾽ ὅτῳ κανόνι χρησάμενος ἅμα Καρχηδόνι κτιζομένῃ γενέσθαι φησὶν ὀγδόῳ καὶ τριακοστῷ πρότερον ἔτει τῆς πρώτης ὀλυμπιάδος. Λεύκιος δὲ Κίγκιος ἀνὴρ τῶν ἐκ τοῦ βουλευτικοῦ συνεδρίου περὶ τὸ τέταρτον ἔτος τῆς δωδεκάτης ὀλυμπιάδος. Κόϊντος δὲ Φάβιος κατὰ τὸ πρῶτον ἔτος τῆς ὀγδόης ὀλυμπιάδος.

  [74.1] As to the last settlement or founding of the city, or whatever we ought to call it, Timaeus of Sicily, following what principle I do not know, places it at the same time as the founding of Carthage, that is, in the thirty-eighth year before the first Olympiad; Lucius Cincius, a member of the senate, places it about the fourth year of the twelfth Olympiad, and Quintus Fabius in the first year of the eighth Olympiad.

  [2] Κάτων δὲ Πόρκιος Ἑλληνικὸν μὲν οὐχ ὁρίζει χρόνον, ἐπιμελὴς δὲ γενόμενος, εἰ καί τις ἄλλος, περὶ τὴν συναγωγὴν τῆς ἀρχαιολογουμένης ἱστορίας ἔτεσιν ἀποφαίνει δυσὶ καὶ [p. 120] τριάκοντα καὶ τετρακοσίοις ὑστεροῦσαν τῶν Ἰλιακῶν. ὁ δὲ χρόνος οὗτος ἀναμετρηθεὶς ταῖς Ἐρατοσθένους χρονογραφίαις κατὰ τὸ πρῶτον ἔτος πίπτει τῆς ἑβδόμης ὀλυμπιάδος. ὅτι δέ εἰσιν οἱ κανόνες ὑγιεῖς, οἷς Ἐρατοσθένης κέχρηται, καὶ πῶς ἄν τις ἀπευθύνοι τοὺς Ῥωμαίων χρόνους πρὸς τοὺς Ἑλληνικούς, ἐν ἑτέρῳ δεδήλωταί μοι λόγῳ.

  [2] Porcius Cato does not give the time according to Greek reckoning, but being as careful as any writer in gathering the date of ancient history, he places its founding four hundred and thirty-two years after the Trojan war; and this time, being compared with the Chronicles of Eratosthenes, corresponds to the first year of the seventh Olympiad. That the canons of Eratosthenes are sound I have shown in another treatise, where I have also shown how the Roman chronology is to be synchronized with that of the Greeks.

  [3] οὐ γὰρ ἠξίουν ὡς Πολύβιος ὁ Μεγαλοπολίτης τοσοῦτο μόνον εἰπεῖν, ὅτι κατὰ τὸ δεύτερον ἔτος τῆς ἑβδόμης ὀλυμπιάδος τὴν Ῥώμην ἐκτίσθαι πείθομαι, οὐδ᾽ ἐπὶ τοῦ παρὰ τοῖς ἀρχιερεῦσι κειμένου πίνακος ἑνὸς καὶ μόνου τὴν πίστιν ἀβασάνιστον καταλιπεῖν, ἀλλὰ τοὺς ἐπιλογισμούς, οἷς αὐτὸς προσεθέμην, εἰς μέσον ὑπευθύνους τοῖς βουληθεῖσιν ἐσομένους ἐξενεγκεῖν.

  [3] For I did not think it sufficient, like Polybius of Megalopolis, to say merely that I believe Rome was built in the second year of the seventh Olympiad, nor to let my belief rest without further examination upon the single tablet preserved by the high priests, the only one of its kind, but I determined to set forth the reasons that had appealed to me, so that all might examine them who so desired.

  [4] ἡ μὲν οὖν ἀκρίβεια ἐν ἐκείνῳ δηλοῦται τῷ λόγῳ, λεχθήσεται δὲ καὶ διὰ τῆσδε τῆς πραγματείας αὐτὰ τἀναγκαιότατα. ἔχει δὲ οὕτως: ἡ Κελτῶν ἔφοδος, καθ᾽ ἣν ἡ Ῥωμαίων πόλις ἑάλω, συμφωνεῖται σχεδὸν ὑπὸ πάντων ἄρχοντος Ἀθήνησι Πυργίωνος γενέσθαι κατὰ τὸ πρῶτον ἔτος τῆς ὀγδόνς καὶ ἐνενηκοστῆς ὀλυμπιάδος. ὁ δὲ πρὸ τῆς καταλήψεως χρόνος ἀναγόμενος εἰς Λεύκιον Ἰούνιον Βροῦτον καὶ Λεύκιον Ταρκύνιον Κολλατῖνον τοὺς πρώτους ὑπατεύσαντας ἐν Ῥώμῃ μετὰ τὴν κατάλυσιν τῶν βασιλέων ἔτη περιείληφεν εἴκοσι πρὸς τοῖς ἑκατόν.

  [4] In that treatise, therefore, the detailed exposition is given; but in the course of the present work also the most essential of the conclusions there reached will be mentioned. The matter stands thus: It is generally agreed that the invasion of the Gauls, during which the city of Rome was taken, happened during the archonship of
Pyrgion at Athens, in the first year of the ninety-eighth Olympiad. Now if the time before the taking of the city is reckoned back to Lucius Junius Brutus and Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus, the first consuls at Rome after the overthrow of the kings, it comprehends one hundred and twenty years.

  [5] δηλοῦται δὲ ἐξ ἄλλων τε πολλῶν καὶ τῶν καλουμένων τιμητικῶν ὑπομνημάτων, ἃ διαδέχεται παῖς [p. 121] παρὰ πατρὸς καὶ περὶ πολλοῦ ποιεῖται τοῖς μεθ᾽ ἑαυτὸν ἐσομένοις ὥσπερ ἱερὰ πατρῷα παραδιδόναι: πολλοὶ δ᾽ εἰσὶν ἀπὸ τῶν τιμητικῶν οἴκων ἄνδρες ἐπιφανεῖς οἱ διαφυλάττοντες αὐτά: ἐν οἷς εὑρίσκω δευτέρῳ πρότερον ἔτει τῆς ἁλώσεως τίμησιν ὑπὸ τοῦ Ῥωμαίων δήμου γενομένην, ᾗ παραγέγραπται καθάπερ καὶ ταῖς ἄλλαις χρόνος οὗτος: ῾ὑπατεύοντος Λευκίου Οὐαλερίου Ποτίτου καὶ Τίτου Μαλλίου Καπιτωλίνου μετὰ τὴν ἐκβολὴν τῶν βασιλέων ἑνὸς δέοντι εἰκοστῷ καὶ ἑκατοστῷ ἔτει.᾿

  [5] This is proved in many other ways, but particularly by the records of the censors, which receives in succession from the father and takes great care to transmit to posterity, like family rites; and there are many illustrious men of censorian families who preserve these records. In them I find that in the second year before the taking of the city there was a census of the Roman people, to which, as to the rest of them, there is affixed the date, as follows: “In the consulship of Lucius Valerius Potitus and Titus Manlius Capitolinus, in the one hundred and nineteenth year after the expulsion of the kings.”

  [6] ὥστε τὴν Κελτικὴν ἔφοδον, ἣν τῷ δευτέρῳ μετὰ τὴν τίμησιν ἔτει γενομένην εὑρίσκομεν, ἐκπεπληρωμένων τῶν εἴκοσι καὶ ἑκατὸν ἐτῶν γενέσθαι. εἰ δὲ τοῦτο τὸ διάστημα τοῦ χρόνου τριάκοντα ὀλυμπιάδων εὑρίσκεται γενόμενον, ἀνάγκη τοὺς πρώτους ἀποδειχθέντας ὑπάτους ὁμολογεῖν ἄρχοντος Ἀθήνησιν Ἰσαγόρου παρειληφέναι τὴν ἀρχὴν κατὰ τὸ πρῶτον ἔτος τῆς ὀγδόης καὶ ἑξηκοστῆς ὀλυμπιάδος.

  [6] So that the Gallic invasion, which we find to have occurred in the second year after the census, happened when the hundred and twenty years were completed. If, now, this interval of time is found to consist of thirty Olympiads, it must be allowed that the first consuls to be chosen entered upon their magistracy in the first year of the sixty-eighth Olympiad, the same year that Isagoras was archon at Athens.

  [1] καὶ μὴν ἀπό γε τῆς ἐκβολῆς τῶν βασιλέων ἐπὶ τὸν πρῶτον ἄρξαντα τῆς πόλεως Ῥωμύλον ἀναβιβασθεὶς ὁ χρόνος ἔτη τέτταρα πρὸς τοῖς τετταράκοντα καὶ διακοσίοις ἀποτελεῖ. γνωρίζεται δὲ τοῦτο ταῖς διαδοχαῖς τῶν βασιλέων καὶ τοῖς ἔτεσιν, οἷς ἕκαστοι κατέσχον τὴν ἀρχήν. Ῥωμύλος μὲν γὰρ ὁ κτίσας τὴν πόλιν ἑπτὰ καὶ τριάκοντα ἔτη λέγεται κατασχεῖν τὴν δυναστείαν: μετὰ δὲ τὸν Ῥωμύλου θάνατον ἀβασίλευτος ἡ πόλις γενέσθαι χρόνον ἐνιαύσιον.

  [75.1] And, again, if from the expulsion of the kings the time is reckoned back to Romulus, the first ruler of the city, it amounts to two hundred and forty-four years. This is known from the order in which the kings succeeded one another and the number of years each of them ruled. For Romulus, the founder of Rome, reigned thirty-seven years, it is said, and after his death the city was a year without a king.

  [2] ἔπειτα Νόμας Πομπίλιος [p. 122] αἱρεθεὶς ὑπὸ τοῦ δήμου τρία καὶ τετταράκοντα ἔτη βασιλεῦσαι. Τύλλος δὲ Ὁστίλιος μετὰ Νόμαν δύο καὶ τριάκοντα. ὁ δ᾽ ἐπὶ τούτῳ βασιλεύσας Ἄγκος Μάρκιος τέτταρα πρὸς τοῖς εἴκοσι. μετὰ δὲ Μάρκιον Λεύκιος Ταρκύνιος ὁ κληθεὶς Πρίσκος ὀκτὼ καὶ τριάκοντα. τοῦτον δὲ διαδεξάμενος Σερούϊος Τύλλιος τετταράκοντα καὶ τέτταρα. ὁ Σερούϊον δὲ ἀνελὼν Λεύκιος Ταρκύνιος ὁ τυραννικὸς καὶ διὰ τὴν τοῦ δικαίου ὑπεροψίαν κληθεὶς Σούπερβος ἕως εἰκοστοῦ καὶ πέμπτου προαγαγεῖν τὴν ἀρχήν.

  [2] Then Numa Pompilius, who was chosen by the people, reigned forty-three years; after Numa, Tullus Hostilius thirty-two; and his successor, Ancus Marcius, twenty-four; after Marcius, Lucius Tarquinius, called Priscus, thirty-eight; Servius Tullius, who succeeded him, forty-four. And the slayer of Servius, Lucius Tarquinius, the tyrannical prince who, from his contempt of justice, was called Superbus, extended his reign to the twenty-fifth year.

  [3] τεττάρων δὲ καὶ τετταράκοντα καὶ διακοσίων ἀναπληρουμένων ἐτῶν, ἃ κατέσχον οἱ βασιλεῖς, ὀλυμπιάδων δὲ μιᾶς καὶ ἑξήκοντα πᾶσα ἀνάγκη τὸν πρῶτον ἄρξαντα τῆς πόλεως Ῥωμύλον ἔτει πρώτῳ τῆς ἑβδόμης ὀλυμπιάδος παρειληφέναι τὴν βασιλείαν ἄρχοντος Ἀθήνησι τῆς δεκαετίας Χάροπας ἔτος πρῶτον. τοῦτο γὰρ ὁ λογισμὸς τῶν ἐτῶν ἀπαιτεῖ. ὅτι δὲ τοσαῦτα ἕκαστος τῶν βασιλέων ἦρξεν ἔτη δι᾽ ἐκείνου δηλοῦταί μοι τοῦ λόγου.

  [3] As the reigns, therefore, of the kings amount to two hundred and forty-four years or sixty-one Olympiads, it follows necessarily that Romulus, the first ruler of the city, began his reign in the first year of the seventh Olympiad, when Charops at Athens was in the first year of his ten-year term as archon. For the count of the years requires this; and that each king reigned the number of years is shown in that treatise of mine to which I have referred.

  [4] τὰ μὲν δὴ περὶ τοῦ χρόνου καθ᾽ ὃν ἡ νῦν δυναστεύουσα πόλις ᾠκίσθη τοῖς τε πρὸ ἐμοῦ γενομένοις εἰρημένα κἀμοὶ δοκοῦντα τοιάδ᾽ ἐστιν. οἰκισταὶ δ᾽ αὐτῆς οἵτινες ἦσαν καὶ τίσι τύχαις χρησάμενοι τὴν ἀποικίαν ἔστειλαν ὅσα τε ἄλλα περὶ τὴν κτίσιν ταύτην ἱστόρηται πολλοῖς μὲν εἴρηται καὶ διαφόρως τὰ πλεῖστα ἐνίοις, λεχθήσεται δὲ κἀμοὶ τὰ πιθανώτατα τῶν μνημονευομένων. ἔχει δὲ ὧδε: [p. 123]

  [4] This, therefore, is the account given by those who lived before me and adopted by me concerning the time of the settlement of the city which now rules supreme. As to its founders, who they were and by what turns of fortune they were induced to lead out the colony, and any other details told concerning its settlement, all this has been related by many, and the greatest part of it in a different manner by some; and I, also, shall relate the most probable of these stories. They are as follows:

  [1] Ἀμόλιος ἐπειδὴ παρέλαβε τὴν Ἀλβανῶν βασιλείαν τὸν πρεσβύτερον ἀδελφὸν Νεμέτορα τῷ κατισχῦσαι τῆς πατρίου τιμῆς ἀπείρξας, τά τε ἄλλα κατὰ πολλὴν ὑπεροψίαν τῶν δικαίων ἔδρα καὶ τελευτῶν ἔρημον γένους τὸν οἶ�
�ον τοῦ Νεμέτορος ἐπεβούλευσε ποιῆσαι, τοῦ τε δίκην ὑποσχεῖν φόβῳ καὶ ἔρωτι μὴ παυσθῆναί ποτε τῆς ἀρχῆς.

  [76.1] When Amulius succeeded to the kingdom of the Albans, after forcibly excluding his elder brother Numitor from the dignity that was his by inheritance, he not only showed great contempt for justice in everything else that he did, but he finally plotted to deprive Numitor’s family of issue, both from fear of suffer punishment for his usurpation and also because of his desire never to be dispossessed of the sovereignty.

  [2] βουλευσάμενος δὲ ταῦτα ἐκ πολλοῦ πρῶτον μὲν τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ Νεμέτορος Αἴγεστον ἄρτι γενειάζοντα φυλάξας ἔνθα ἐκυνηγέτει, προλοχίσας τοῦ χωρίου τὸ ἀφανέστατον, ἐξελθόντα ἐπὶ θήραν ἀποκτείνει καὶ παρεσκεύασε λέγεσθαι μετὰ τὸ ἔργον ὡς ὑπὸ λῃστῶν ἀναιρεθείη τὸ μειράκιον. οὐ μέντοι κρείττων ἡ κατασκευαστὴ δόξα τῆς σιωπωμένης ἀληθείας ἐγένετο, ἀλλὰ πολλοῖς καὶ παρὰ τὸ

  [2] Having long resolved upon this course, he first observed the neighbourhood where Aegestus, Numitor’s son, who was just coming to man’s estate, was wont to follow the chase, and having placed an ambush in the most hidden part of it, he caused him to be slain when he had come out to hunt; and after the deed was committed he contrived to have it reported that the youth had been killed by robbers. Nevertheless, the rumour thus concocted could not prevail over the truth which he was trying to keep concealed, but many, though it was unsafe to do so, ventured to tell what had been done.