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

by Dionysius of Halicarnassus

  [20.1] Servius Sulpicius opposed nothing the other had said concerning peace and the renewal of the treaty; but, since the Latins had been the first to violate the treaty, and not now for the first time either — in which case they might deserve some forgiveness when they put forward necessity and their own deception as excuses — but often in the past too, so that they needed correction, he proposed that impunity and their liberty should be granted to all of them because of their kinship, but that they should be deprived of one half of their land and that Roman colonists should be sent thither to enjoy its produce and see to it that the Latins created no further disturbances.

  [2] τοὺς ἄνδρας μηδὲν ἔτι νεωτερίσαι σπουδάσουσι. Σπόριος δὲ Κάσσιος ἀνελεῖν τὰς πόλεις αὐτῶν συνεβούλευε θαυμάζειν λέγων ἐπὶ ταῖς εὐηθείαις τῶν παραινούντων ἀφεῖναι τὰς ἁμαρτίας αὐτοῖς ἀζημίους, εἰ μηδὲ δύνανται καταμαθεῖν, ὅτι διὰ τὸν φθόνον τὸν ἔμφυτόν τε καὶ ἀναφαίρετον, ὃν ἔχουσι πρὸς τὴν πόλιν αὐτῶν αὐξομένην, ἄλλους ἐπ᾽ ἄλλοις ἐπιτεχνῶνται πολέμους καὶ οὐδέποτε παύσονται τῆς ἐπιβούλου προαιρέσεως ἑκόντες, ἕως αὐτῶν τοῦτ᾽ ἐν ταῖς ψυχαῖς τὸ δύστηνον ἐνοικεῖ πάθος: οἵ γε τελευτῶντες ὑπὸ τυράννῳ ποιήσασθαι, θηρίων ἁπάντων ἀγριωτάτῳ, συγγενῆ σφῶν πόλιν ἐπεχείρησαν ἁπάσας ἀνατρέψαντες τὰς ἐπὶ θεῶν ὁμολογίας, οὐκ ἄλλαις τισὶν ἐλπίσιν ἐπαρθέντες, ἀλλ᾽ ὅτι ἂν μὴ αὐτοῖς κατὰ γνώμην χωρήσῃ τὰ τοῦ πολέμου δίκην οὐδεμίαν ὑφέξουσιν ἤ

  [2] Spurius Cassius advised them to raze the Latin cities, saying he wondered at the simple-mindedness of those who urged letting their offences go unpunished, why they could not understand that, because of the inborn and ineradicable envy which the Latins felt towards the rising power of Rome, they were constantly fomenting one war after another against them and would never willingly give over their treacherous intent so long as this unfortunate passion dwelt in their hearts; indeed, they had finally endeavoured to bring a kindred people under the power of a tyrant more savage than any wild beast, thereby overturning all the covenants they had sworn by the gods to observe, induced by no other hopes than that, if the war did not succeed according to their expectation, they should incur either no punishment at all or a very slight one.

  [3] τινα μικρὰν κομιδῇ. παραδείγμασί τε καὶ αὐτὸς ἠξίου χρῆσθαι τοῖς τῶν προγόνων ἔργοις, οἳ τὴν Ἀλβανῶν πόλιν, ἐξ ἧς αὐτοί τ᾽ ἀπῳκίσθησαν καὶ Λατίνων ἅπασαι πόλεις, ἐπειδὴ φθονοῦσαν ἔγνωσαν τοῖς αὑτῶν [p. 291] ἀγαθοῖς καὶ τὴν ἄδειαν, ἣν ἐπὶ τοῖς πρώτοις ἁμαρτήμασιν εὕρετο, μείζονος ἐπιβουλῆς ἀφορμὴν ποιησαμένην, ἐν ἡμέρᾳ καθελεῖν ἔγνωσαν μιᾷ: ἐν ἴσῳ δόξαντες εἶναι τῷ μηδένα οἰκτείρειν τῶν τὰ μέτρια ἁμαρτανόντων τὸ μηδένα τιμωρεῖσθαι τῶν τὰ μέγιστα καὶ

  [3] He too asked them to take as examples the actions of their ancestors, who, when they knew that the city of Alba, of which both they themselves and all the other Latin cities were colonies, was envious of their prosperity and had made use of the impunity it had obtained for its first transgressions as an opportunity for greater treachery, resolved to destroy it in a single day, believing that to punish none of those who had committed the greatest and the most irremediable crimes was no better than to show compassion to none of those who were guilty of moderate errors.

  [4] ἀδιόρθωτα ἀδικούντων. μωρίας δὲ πολλῆς εἶναι καὶ ἀναλγησίας ἔργον: οὐ γὰρ δὴ φιλανθρωπίας οὐδὲ μετριότητος: τὸν τῶν ἀποικισάντων σφᾶς φθόνον, ἐπεὶ πέρα τοῦ δέοντος ἔδοξεν εἶναι βαρὺς καὶ ἀφόρητος, οὐκ ἀνασχομένους τὸν τῶν ὁμογενῶν ὑπομένειν τούς τ᾽ ἐν ἐλάττοσι πείραις ἐλεγχθέντας πολεμίους ἀφαιρέσει πόλεως ζημιώσαντας, παρὰ τῶν πολλάκις τὸ μῖσος ἀδιάλλακτον ἀποδειξαμένων μηδεμίαν εἰσπράξασθαι δίκην.

  [4] It would be an act of great folly and stupidity, surely not one of humanity and moderation, for those who would not endure the envy of their mother-city, when it appeared beyond measure grievous and intolerable, to submit now to that of their mere kinsman, and for those who had punished enemies convicted in milder attempts of being such, by depriving them of their city, to exact no punishment now from such as had often shown their hatred of them to be irreconcilable.

  [5] ταῦτ᾽ εἰπὼν καὶ τὰς ἀποστάσεις τῶν Λατίνων ἁπάσας ἐξαριθμησάμενος τῶν τ᾽ ἀπολομένων ἐν τοῖς πρὸς αὐτοὺς πολέμοις Ῥωμαίων τὸ πλῆθος ὅσον ἦν ἀναμνήσας, ἠξίου τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον χρήσεσθαι καὶ τούτοις, ὃν ἐχρήσαντο Ἀλβανοῖς πρότερον: τὰς μὲν οὖν πόλεις αὐτῶν ἀνελεῖν καὶ τὴν χώραν αὐτῶν τῇ Ῥωμαίων προσθεῖναι, τῶν δ᾽ ἀνθρώπων τοὺς μὲν εὔνοιάν τινα: πρὸς αὐτοὺς ἀποδειξαμένους ἔχοντας τὰ σφέτερα πολίτας ποιήσεσθαι, τοὺς δ᾽ αἰτίους τῆς ἀποστάσεως, ὑφ᾽ ὧν αἱ σπονδαὶ διελύθησαν, ὡς προδότας [p. 292] ἀποκτεῖναι: ὅσον δὲ τοῦ δήμου πτωχὸν καὶ ἀργὸν καὶ ἄχρηστον ἐν ἀνδραπόδων ποιήσεσθαι λόγῳ.

  [5] After he had spoken thus and had enumerated all the rebellions of the Latins and reminded the senators of the vast number of Romans who had lost their lives in the wars against them, he advised them to treat these also in the same manner as they had formerly treated the Albans, namely, to raze their cities and add their territory to that of the Romans; and as for the inhabitants, to make citizens of such as had shown any goodwill towards them, permitting them to retain their possessions, but to put to death as traitors the authors of the revolt by whom the treaty had been broken, and to make slaves of the poor, the lazy and the useless among the populace.

  [1] ταῦτα μὲν οὖν τὰ λεχθέντα ὑπὸ τῶν προεστηκότων τῆς βουλῆς, τοῦ δὲ δικτάτορος τὴν Λαρκίου γνώμην προελομένου καὶ οὐδενὸς ἔτι λέξαντος τἀναντία παρῆσαν εἰσκληθέντες εἰς τὸ συνέδριον οἱ πρέσβεις τὰς ἀποκρίσεις ληψόμενοι: καὶ ὁ Ποστόμιος ὀνειδίσας αὐτοῖς τὴν οὐδέποτε σωφρονισθῆναι δυναμένην κακίαν: δίκαιον μὲν ἦν, ἔφη, τὰ ἔσχατα παθεῖν, ἅτε δὴ καὶ αὐτοὶ πράττειν ἐμέλλετε, εἰ κατωρθώσατε ἃς πολλάκις ἤλθετε ἐπ᾽ % αὐτοὺς ὁδούς: οὐ μέντοι Ῥωμαίους τὰ δίκαια πρὸ τῶν ἐπιεικῶν προελέσθαι λογιζομένους, ὅτι συγγενεῖς εἰσι καὶ ἐπὶ τὸν ἔλεον τῶν ἀδικουμένων καταπεφεύγασιν, ἀλλὰ καὶ ταύτας τὰς ἁμαρτίας αὐτοῖς ἀζημίους ἀφιέναι θεῶν τε ὁμογνίων ἕνεκα καὶ τύχ
ης ἀτεκμάρτου, παρ᾽ ἧς τὸ κράτος ἔσχον.

  [21.1] These were the opinions expressed by the leading men of the senate, but the dictator gave the preference to that of Larcius; and, no further opposition being made to it, the ambassadors were called in to the senate to receive their answer. Postumius, after reproaching them with an evil disposition never to be reformed, said: “It would be right that you should suffer the utmost severity, which is just the way you yourselves were intending to treat us, if you had succeeded in the many attempts you made against us.” Nevertheless, he said, the Romans had not chosen mere rights in preference to clemency, bearing in mind that the Latins were their kinsmen and had had recourse to the mercy of those whom they had injured; but they were allowing these offences of theirs also to go unpunished, from a regard both to the gods of their race and to the uncertainty of Fortune, to whom they owed their victory.

  [2] νῦν μὲν οὖν, ἔφη, παντὸς ἠλευθερωμένοι δέους πορεύεσθε, ἐὰν δὲ τοὺς αἰχμαλώτους ἀπολύσητε καὶ τοὺς αὐτομόλους παραδῶτε ἡμῖν καὶ τοὺς φυγάδας ἐξελάσητε, τότε τοὺς περὶ φιλίας τε καὶ συμμαχίας διαλεξομένους πρέσβεις πέμπετε πρὸς ἡμᾶς, ὡς οὐδενὸς ἀτυχήσοντες τῶν μετρίων. ἀπῄεσαν οἱ πρέσβεις ταύτας [p. 293] τὰς ἀποκρίσεις λαβόντες καὶ μετ᾽ ὀλίγας ἡμέρας ἧκον τούς τ᾽ αἰχμαλώτους ἀφεικότες καὶ τοὺς ἁλόντας τῶν αὐτομόλων δεσμίους ἄγοντες καὶ τοὺς ἅμα Ταρκυνίῳ φυγάδας ἐξεληλακότες ἐκ τῶν πόλεων. ἀνθ᾽ ὧν εὕροντο παρὰ τῆς βουλῆς τὴν ἀρχαίαν φιλίαν καὶ συμμαχίαν καὶ τοὺς ὅρκους τοὺς ὑπὲρ τούτων ποτὲ γενομένους διὰ τῶν εἰρηνοδικῶν ἀνενεώσαντο. ὁ μὲν δὴ πρὸς τοὺς τυράννους συστὰς πόλεμος τετρακαιδεκαέτης ἀπὸ τῆς ἐκπτώσεως αὐτῶν γενόμενος τοιαύτης ἔτυχε τελευτῆς.

  [2] “For the present, therefore, go your way,” he said, “relieved of all fear; and after you have released to us the prisoners, delivering the deserters, and expelled the exile, then send ambassadors to us to treat of friendship and of an alliance, in the assurance that they shall fail of naught that is reasonable.” The ambassadors, having received this answer, departed, and a few days later returned, having released the prisoners and expelled the exiles with Tarquinius from their cities, and bringing with them in chains all the deserters they had taken. In return for this they obtained of the senate their old treaty of friendship and alliance and renewed through the fetiales the oaths they had previously taken concerning it. Thus ended the war against the tyrants, after it had lasted fourteen years from their expulsion.

  [3] Ταρκύνιος δ᾽ ὁ βασιλεύς, οὗτος γὰρ ἔτι λοιπὸς ἐκ τοῦ γένους ἦν, ὁμοῦ τι γεγονὼς ἐνενηκονταέτης κατὰ τὸν χρόνον τοῦτον, ἀπολωλεκὼς τὰ τέκνα καὶ τὸν τῶν κηδεστῶν οἶκον καὶ γῆρας ἐλεεινὸν καὶ παρ᾽ ἐχθροῖς διαντλῶν, οὔτε Λατίνων ὑποδεχομένων αὐτὸν ἔτι ταῖς πόλεσιν, οὔτε Τυρρηνῶν οὔτε Σαβίνων οὔτ᾽ ἄλλης πλησιοχώρου πόλεως ἐλευθέρας οὐδεμιᾶς, εἰς τὴν Καμπανίδα Κύμην ᾤχετο πρὸς Ἀριστόδημον τὸν ἐπικληθέντα Μαλακὸν τυραννοῦντα τότε Κυμαίων: παρ᾽ ᾧ βραχύν τινα ἡμερῶν ἀριθμὸν ἐπιβιοὺς ἀποθνήσκει καὶ θάπτεται ὑπ᾽ αὐτοῦ. τῶν δὲ σὺν ἐκείνῳ φυγάδων οἱ μὲν ἐν τῇ Κύμῃ κατέμειναν, οἱ δ᾽ εἰς ἄλλας τινὰς πόλεις σκεδασθέντες ἐπὶ ξένης τὸν βίον κατέστρεψαν.

  [3] King Tarquinius — for he still survived of his family — being now about ninety years of age and having lost his children and the household of his relations by marriage, dragged out a miserable old age, and that too among his enemies. For when neither the Latins, the Tyrrhenians, the Sabines, nor any other free people near by would longer permit him to reside in their cities, he retired to Cumae in Campania and was received by Aristodemus, nicknamed the Effeminate, who was at that time tyrant of the Cumaeans; and after living a few days there, he died and was buried by him. Some of the exiles who had been with him remained at Cumae; and the rest, dispersing themselves to various other cities, ended their days on foreign soil.

  [1] Ῥωμαίοις δὲ καταλυσαμένοις τοὺς ὑπαίθρους πολέμους ἡ πολιτικὴ στάσις αὖθις ἐπανίστατο τῆς μὲν βουλῆς ψηφισαμένης καθίζειν τὰ δικαστήρια καὶ τὰς [p. 294] ἀμφισβητήσεις, ἃς διὰ τὸν πόλεμον ἀνεβάλλοντο, κρίνεσθαι κατὰ τοὺς νόμους: τῶν δὲ περὶ τὰς συναλλαγὰς ἀμφισβητημάτων εἰς μεγάλους κλύδωνας καὶ δεινὰς προβεβηκότων ἀτοπίας τε καὶ: ἀναισχυντίας, τῶν μὲν δημοτικῶν ἀδυνάτως ἔχειν σκηπτομένων διαλύειν τὰ χρέα, χώρας τ᾽ αὐτοῖς κεκομμένης ἐν τῷ πολυετεῖ πολέμῳ καὶ βοσκημάτων διεφθαρμένων καὶ ἀνδραπόδων αὐτομολίαις καὶ καταδρομαῖς σπανισθέντων τῆς τε κατὰ πόλιν κτήσεως ἐξανηλωμένης ταῖς εἰς τὴν στρατείαν δαπάναις: τῶν δὲ δανειστῶν ταύτας μὲν τὰς συμφορὰς ὁμοίας ἅπασι γεγονέναι λεγόντων καὶ οὐ μόνοις τοῖς χρεωφειλέταις, οὐκ ἀνεκτὸν δ᾽ ἡγουμένων σφίσι μὴ μόνον, ἃ διὰ τὸν πόλεμον ἀφῃρέθησαν ὑπὸ τῶν ἐχθρῶν, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἃ δεομένοις τισὶ τῶν 5 πολιτῶν ἐν εἰρήνῃ συνήλλαξαν, ἀπολωλέναι.

  [22.1] After the Romans had put an end to the foreign wars, the civil strife sprang up again. For the senate ordered the courts of justice to sit and that all suits which they had postponed on account of the war should be decided according to the laws. The controversies arising over contracts resulted in great storms and terrible instances of outrageous and shameless behaviour, the plebeians, on the one hand, pretending they were unable to pay their debts, since their land had been laid waste during the long war, their cattle destroyed, the number of their slaves reduced by desertion and raids, and their fortunes in the city exhausted by their expenditures for the campaign, and the money-lenders, on the other hand, alleging that these misfortunes had been common to all and not confined to the debtors only, and regarding it as intolerable that they should lose, not only what they had been stripped of by the enemy in the war, but also what they had lent in time of peace to some of the citizens who asked for their assistance.

  [2] ἀξιούντων δ᾽ οὔτε τῶν δανειστῶν οὐδὲν μέτριον ὑπομένειν οὔτε τῶν χρεωφειλετῶν ποιεῖν οὐδὲν δίκαιον, ἀλλὰ τῶν μὲν οὐδὲ τοὺς τόκους ἀφιέναι, τῶν δὲ μηδὲ αὐτὰ τὰ συναλλάγματα διαλύειν: ἐξ ὧν σύνοδοι μὲν ἤδη κατὰ συστροφὰς τῶν ἐν ταῖς ὁμοίαις ὄντων τύχαις ἐγένοντο καὶ ἀντιπαρατάξεις κατὰ τὴν ἀγοράν, ἔστι δ᾽ ὅτε καὶ χειρῶν ἁψιμαχίαι, καὶ συνετετάρακτο πᾶς ὁ πολιτικὸς

  [2] And as
neither the money-lenders were willing to accept anything that was reasonable nor the debtors to do anything that was just, but the former refused to abate even the interest, and the latter to pay even the principal itself, those who were in the same plight were already gathering in knots and opposing parties faced one another in the Forum and sometimes actually came to blows, and the whole established order of the state was thrown into confusion.

  [3] κόσμος: ταῦθ᾽ ὁρῶν ὁ Ποστόμιος, ἕως ἔτι τὸ τιμώμενον εἶχε παρὰ πάντων ὅμοιον πολέμῳ βαρεῖ καλὸν [p. 295] ὑπεκδῦναι τοὺς πολιτικοὺς χειμῶνας ἔγνω: καὶ πρὶν ἐκπληρῶσαι τὸν ἔσχατον τῆς αὐτοκράτορος ἀρχῆς χρόνον, τήν τε δικτατορίαν ἐξωμόσατο καὶ προθεὶς ἀρχαιρεσιῶν ἡμέραν μετὰ τοῦ συνυπάτου τὰς πατρίους κατέστησεν ἀρχάς.

  [3] Postumius, observing this, while he still retained the respect of all alike for having brought a severe war to an honourable conclusion, resolved to avoid the civil storms, and before he had completed the whole term of his sovereign magistracy he abdicated the dictatorship, and having fixed a day for the election, he, together with his fellow-consul, restored the traditional magistrates.

  [1] παραλαμβάνουσι δὴ ὕπατοι πάλιν τὴν ἐνιαύσιόν τε καὶ νόμιμον ἀρχὴν Ἄππιος Κλαύδιος Σαβῖνος καὶ Πόπλιος Σερουίλιος Πρίσκος: οἳ τὸ μὲν ἀνωτάτω συμφέρον εἶδον ὀρθῶς, ὅτι δεῖ περισπᾶν τὸν ἐντὸς τείχους θόρυβον ἐπὶ τοὺς ἔξω πολέμους: καὶ παρεσκευάζοντο κατὰ τοῦ Οὐολούσκων ἔθνους τὸν ἕτερον σφῶν ἐξάγειν στρατιάν, τιμωρήσασθαί τ᾽ αὐτοὺς προαιρούμενοι τῆς ἀποσταλείσης κατὰ Ῥωμαίων Λατίνοις συμμαχίας καὶ προκαταλαβεῖν τὰς παρασκευὰς αὐτῶν ἔτι συνεσταλμένας. ἠγγέλλοντο γὰρ κἀκεῖνοι δυνάμεις ἤδη καταγράφειν ἁπάσῃ σπουδῇ καὶ εἰς τὰ πλησίον ἔθνη πρεσβεύεσθαι παρακαλοῦντες ἐπὶ τὴν συμμαχίαν, πυθόμενοι τοὺς δημοτικοὺς ἀφεστηκέναι τῶν πατρικίων καὶ νομίσαντες οὐ χαλεπὸν εἶναι πόλιν οἰκείῳ πολέμῳ νοσοῦσαν ἄρασθαι.