Livy Book 30
Chapter 13 Notes
Syphacem: This chapter belongs to
Syphax. In the first half, remarks of bystanders about his greatness are reported. The second half consists of the speech of Syphax about himself to Scipio. The whole chapter was doubtless invented by Livy as a means of summing up the career, achievements and failings of this man.
Syphacem in castra adduci: Consider how the hearer will experience this sentence. These four words will be recognised as a reported statement. It is as if we hear someone rushing in with the message '
Syphax is being brought into camp!' The following words
cum esset nuntiatum confirm that this is indeed the construction of the sentence, but the effect is more dramatic than the 'normal' word order: cum nuntiatum esset Syphacem in castra adduci.
uelut ad spectaculum triumphi:
The Roman triumph was not a victory but the celebration following a victory. There was a procession through the streets of Rome to the Temple of Jupiter on the Capitoline Hill. Soldiers paraded with symbols of the lands conquered or of the enemies killed, and enemy prisoners were paraded in chains. (See the description of a later triumph
here.) The whole occasion was like a carnival for the Roman populace. Here the return from battle of the commander and soldiers with the enemy king as captive seems like a triumph.
omnis uelut ad spectaculum triumphi multitudo: The image of the triumph is bound closely to the crowd in camp by being 'sandwiched' between
omnis and
multitudo.
grex nobilium Numidarum: Livy uses an unusual word,
grex, for the group of Numidian nobles. It is properly used of sheep and other animals, a flock. Livy is not the first prose writer to use it of people. It may have a disparaging sense.
uictoriam suam augendo: The greater the enemy the Romans had conquered, the more important and glorious their achievement. Livy is about to report the comments of the Roman soldiers at length, and here he slips in a warning not to take these judgements as wholly accurate.
illum esse regem: Here begins the long passage of reported speech (oratio obliqua). The main clauses will be accusative + infinitive, and all subordinate clauses have verbs in the subjunctive.
duo potentissimi in terris ... populi: The world of Livy and his readers/hearers centred on the Mediterranean and did not extend a great distance beyond. India and China, and all Africa south of the Sahara were for practical purposes unknown. Egypt's time of greatest influence was past. The Parthians were not yet seen as a threat. Within the Mediterranean world Rome and Carthage were indeed the great commercial and military powers.
ut Scipio ... Hasdrubal:
Syphax had been an enemy of Carthage and had been supported by Scipio in Spain.
"After winning over a number of Spanish chiefs he[Scipio] achieved in 206 a decisive victory over the full Carthaginian levy at Ilipa (near Corduba), which resulted in the evacuation of Spain by the Punic commanders. With the idea of striking a blow at Carthage in Africa, he paid a short visit to the Numidian princes, Syphax and Massinissa, but at the court of Syphax he was foiled by the presence of Hasdrubal, the son of Gisgo, whose daughter Sophonisba was married to the Numidian chief." - Encyclopedia Britannica 1911 edition.
Read Livy's account (in English) here.
quinqueremis: See article on
quinqueremes here. A hypothetical diagram of the five banks of rowers is
here.
sicut ab dis immortalibus ... ita ab eo: The comparison is justified insofar as both sides, Roman and Carthaginian, sought the favour of the gods and also tried to get Syphax on their side, but the implication that Syphax was in some sense as important as the gods is one of the exaggerations that Livy wrote of.
ut Masinissam regno pulsum eo redegerit ut ...(etc): From a
website on the Punic Wars is this explanation. The section in heavy type explains how Masinissa escaped death because Syphax thought him dead:
Hasdrubal Gisco got Syphax to attack Masinissa by offering him all his lands and Sophonisba. Masinissa was defeated by the more numerous Massaesylians fleeing to the mountains with a few followers. While Syphax was busy occupying his lands, Masinissa rallied some of his supporters and began to launch raids against Syphax and the Carthaginians, whose vehement complaints obliged Syphax to send his general Bucar to hunt down Masinissa. Bucar surprised Masinissa's camp, scattered most of his followers, hounded the survivors across Carthaginian territory, finally cornering the Numidian and his 50 remaining men near the town of Clupea.
Though wounded, Masinissa cut his way through the enemy along with four of his men, plunging into a rain-swollen wadi in the desperate escape. Two of the men drowned in full view of Bucar, who was convinced the others had met the same fate. Masinissa and his two remaining companions in fact escaped a watery grave, but were reduced to hiding in a cave until his wound healed. Once he had recovered sufficiently to ride, Masinissa returned to show the Massylians he was still alive. Before long he recruited another army, resumed raiding his enemies, and seized a strong position in the hills between his occupied capital of Cirta (Constantine) and Hippo Regius on the coast. Syphax again took the field against his seemingly indestructible adversary, dispatching his son Vermina to attack Masinissa from behind while he assaulted him in front. The Massylians were defeated once again, this time Masinissa escaping with only 60 horsemen. Since it was now too dangerous for him to remain in Numidian or Carthaginian territory, Masinissa made his way to Syrtis Minor (Gulf of Gabes), hiding out in the region between the Carthaginian Emporiae (southeastern Tunisia) and the lands of the Garamantes (modern southwestern Libya).
eius ... uiuentis: notice how far away the two words are from each other, even though they agree grammatically ("of him ... being alive")
movit et Scipionem: It moved
even (et) Scipio ..., Even Scipio was moved by ...
cum ... tum: both ... and
hospitii dextraeque datae et foederis: These were three powerful bonds.
Hospitium was an arrangement linking two families down the generations; when a member of one family travelled to the land of the other he or she would expect, and would receive, hospitality and support. Because the obligation was equally on each family to offer this hospitality and support, the term
hospes meant equally what we call a guest and a host. The giving of right hands was a solemn pledge, as in UK society it used to be and in some circumstances still is. A
foedus was a treaty normally sealed by religious sanctions such as a sacrifice; to break a treaty was to set oneself against the gods.
societatem: Not 'society' in the modern sense, but the relationship of a
socius or ally.
ultro: Of his own accord, without provocation.
pecasse: shortened form of
peccavisse.
tum se insanisse: "The moment when he had gone mad" was not when he broke the treaty with Rome, but earlier, when he received a Carthaginan woman into his home as his wife. Compare Genesis chapter 3, when Adam is being questioned by God, and tries to shift the blame onto Eve: "The woman you gave me - she beguiled me, and I ate."
Carthaginiensem matronam: A bride was known as
matrona after her wedding night. Syphax regrets taking a foreign wife.
illis nuptialibus facibus regiam conflagrasse suam: Greek and Roman marriages included a torchlight procession from the bride's parental home to the house of her new husband, and the wedding torch
(See Cupid holding a torch in front of bride and groom here)
was one of the chief symbols of marriage, as the bride's bouquet might be for us. To say that the wedding torches set fire to his house is a colourful metaphor for the bride bringing destruction to his fortunes.
illam furiam: The Furies in Greek mythology were goddesses who pursued guilty people - almost like a personified conscience. They were famously shown on stage in Aeschylus' play 'Eumenides' a href="http://www.gradesaver.com/ClassicNotes/Titles/eumenides/shortsumm.html"> (summary of the play here). Livy's readers/hearers would know women in Greek myths who brought destruction on the homes they entered: Helen who caused the destruction of Troy; Medea who slaughtered her own children to spite her husband. In Euripides'
Medea Jason her husband says:
I married you, chose hatred and murder for my wife -
No woman, but a tiger; a Tuscan Scylla, but more savage.
alienasse ... conquiesse: Shortened from alienavisse and conquievisse.
suis ... sibi: In Oratio Obliqua the words
se and
suus normally refer to the speaker, as does
sibi here. 'Ipsa ... suis', however, is such a common phrase that 'suis' is naturally taken to refer to Sophonisba, not Syphax.
hospitem atque amicum: These words refer to Scipio and pick up the
hospitii dextraeque datae a few lines back.
hoc ... solatii: 'This of consolation', 'this much comfort'.
in ... domum: Although the word
domum is frequently used without a preposition, the inclusion on
in allows Livy to 'sandwich' four words describing Masinissa - 'of all people the most hostile to him'. Syphax seems at first to be glad that his enemy is to be cursed with such a woman; soon, however, he is clearly warning Scipio that if Masinissa marries Sophonisba she will turn him against the Romans. He is cleverly sowing seeds of discord between Scipio and Masinissa.
iuuenta: ablative: because of his youth.
certe .... duxisse: Livy's word order makes it seem that the comparison is between 'her' and himself - eam quam se. In fact the people compared are 'illum' and 'se', Masinissa and Syphax.
Eam is the object of
duxisse. In between object and verb the words
quam se come rather strangely.
