Livy Book 30
Chapter 14 Notes
haec ... cum dixisset: If Livy had written
cum haec ... dixisset we should have thought it more natural, although
haec cum dixisset is not unusual. What makes it a little surprising is the separation of
haec from
cum dixisset by no fewer than 12 words. Was Livy merely trying to be unexpected?
non ... modo ... sed ... etiam: not only ... but also. Hatred and jealousy go together.
amatam apud aemulum: his beloved with his rival. Masinissa and Syphax had been enemies for years, rivals for the throne (see the notes on their previous history), and now they were rivals in love for Sophonisba.
non mediocri cura: by no ordinary anxiety. This is a forceful way of saying 'extraordinary anxiety'.
pepulit:
pello is a forceful verb with the sense of beating, striking, driving. What Syphax told him really shocked Scipio.
raptae prope inter arma nuptiae: The wedding was (translating literally) 'snatched almost among weapons'. Livy conjures up the vivid image of Masinissa taking a few moments in the midst of battle to snatch away his bride.
tamque praeceps festinatio: This, grammatically, is also the subject of
faciebant, along with
raptae ... nuptiae. In translating, it makes more natural English to say: 'And so precipitate had been his haste that ...'
quo die ... eodem: on the day when ... on that same day. Was it really love at first sight, or did Masinissa have a political motive in marrying the queen of his recaptured kingdom at once?
ad penates: Livy uses Roman terms and thinks of the wedding as being like a
Roman wedding. The Penates were the gods of a household who lived in the store-cupboard, and were worshipped along with Vesta and the Lares.
eo foediora ... quod:
eo with a comparative adjective or adverb followed by
quod is a normal way of say 'All the more ... because.'
foedus, -a, -um, foul, disgraceful, must not be confused with
foedus, foederis (n), a treaty.
ipsum in Hispania iuvenem: Scipio was 26 when he went with pro-consular authority to Spain. Masinissa was probably the same age at the time of this story.
volutanti:
volutare is the frequentative verb from
volvere and
therefore means 'to keep on rolling, turning'. Scipio was turning his thoughts over and over in his mind. (Frequentative verbs add letters including a 't' to the simple verb, and belong to the first conjugation. e.g. venio=come, ventito=come often.)
frequenti praetorio: in a crowded pretorium - an ablative vaguely used to describe the circumstances in which the action takes place, sometimes called 'ablative of attendant circumstances'. The pretorium was the general's tent, or equivalent in a permanent camp. The crowd would probably have consisted of army officers.
egregiis: The adjective is from
e, outside, and
grex, a flock. So the meaning is 'standing out from the general crowd', 'outstanding'.
celebrasset: another shortened pluperfect subjunctive, for
celebravisset. Celebrare means first of all to crowd or fill, and only later to honour or celebrate.
aliqua ... bona: some good things, good qualities. The translation at this point is very literal, to make clear how the Latin sentence works. We might want to re-cast the sentence along these lines: "I think it must have been because you saw some good qualities in me that you came to seek my friendship."
ad iungendam ... amicitiam: literally, in order to join friendship.
Amicitia to the Romans was a more formal relationship than the English word 'friendship' suggests. A powerful
patronus would call his
clientes 'amici'. The philosopher Seneca wrote that slaves were
'humiles amici', lowly friends. Scipio may have been misrepresenting what happened between Masinissa and himself in Spain. See the
encyclopedia article on Masinissa.
postea in Africa: Masinissa needed Roman help to drive out his enemy Syphax. The 'virtues' of Scipio may have had nothing to do with his joining forces with the invading Romans.
atqui: but somehow, but yet.
nulla earum virtus est propter quas ... qua ...: There is no virtue (out) of those (virtues) of account of which (virtues plural) I have seemed to be courted by you, than which (virtue singular) I have boasted as much as (aeque ac) self-control... Masinissa wanted to be Scipio's friend because of his many virtues, but Scipio himself ranked self-control as his one most glorious virtue.
velim: The present subjunctive makes the wish more polite: 'I should like', rather than 'I want'.
non est, non: This emphatic repetition of
non sounds much more like a public speech than a private conversion. Livy could not forget his Roman education in rhetoric.
tantum ab ... periculi quantum ab ...:
tantum periculi, so much danger. Literally 'so much of danger', a partitive genitive. Separating
periculi from
tantum by two phrases is another example of Livy striving for a remarkable style.
tantum ab ... quantum ab: so much from ... as from...
circumfusis undique uoluptatibus:
voluptas was a dangerous thing to Romans. Livy's history charts the decline of Rome from its early virtue and purity down to what he saw as the loose morals and desire for pleasure of his own day. Scipio, one of Livy's heroes, fought against the temptations of the flesh. Scipio pictures people as surrounded by a flood of pleasures (
circumfusis undique, poured out on every side). The true Roman - and the non-Roman who aspires to live the virtuous Roman way - will not yield to that flood.
In the Preface to his history Livy writes:
Ceterum aut me amor negotii suscepti fallit, aut nulla unquam res publica nec maior nec sanctior nec bonis exemplis ditior fuit, nec in quam [civitatem] tam serae avaritia luxuriaque immigraverint, nec ubi tantus ac tam diu paupertati ac parsimoniae honos fuerit. Adeo quanto rerum minus, tanto minus cupiditatis erat: nuper diuitiae auaritiam et abundantes voluptates desiderium per luxum atque libidinem pereundi perdendique omnia invexere.
Moreover, either love of the business undertaken deceives me or else no other Res Publica ever was greater or more sacred or richer in good examples, nor has there been one into which so late avarice and luxuriousness immigrated, nor ever one in which for such a long time and to such an extent honour consisted in poverty and frugality — by as much as there was less property, by so much was there less covetousness. Recently wealth has brought in a desire, through luxury and lust, that all things perish and be destroyed.
qui ... habemus: The belief that the conquest of one's own lusts was more glorious than the conquest of an enemy was typical of
Stoicism, the dominant philosophy of ancient Rome.
commemoravi: Scipio mentioned them in the crowded Pretorium just before taking Masinissa aside for this private talk.
cetera ... malo: Scipio is certainly older than Masinissa, but he is talking to him like a school-teacher to a naughty child. "Just go away and think about what you have done. You ought to be ashamed."
populi Romani auspiciis: The auspices were a method of seeing the future by watching the flight of birds. Only the general could take the auspices on behalf of the army, so the auspices came to stand for authority and command. Scipio extends the meaning by saying it was the Roman people, and not just himself, who took the auspices. In other words, Scipio was acting on behalf of the Roman people, and with their power behind him.
ipse coniunx regnum ...: This list of possessions of Syphax (which include his wife) is given without any conjunctions like
et. This is called asyndeton (Greek for 'not bound together'). Unlike a list in English, where normally there is an 'and' before the last item, Latin either has a word for 'and' between each of the words, or none.
praeda populi Romani est: The verb is singular, even after a list of people and things, because it agrees with the nearest subject,
quicquid.
regem coniugemque ... oporteret mitti: These words form the main clause: It would be right for the king and his wife to be sent.
oporteret is subjunctive because the sentence is conditional. It would be right even if the queen were not Carthaginian and her father were not the enemy commander.
arbitrium esse: This infinitive
esse depends, like
mitti, on
oportet, it is right.
regem socium nobis alienasse: Syphax had been supported by Scipio when he was Carthage's enemy; having married the daughter of the Carthaginian general he turned against Rome. See the short biography of
Syphax.
dicatur: Present subjunctive of
dicere, not present indicative of
dicare.
cave deformes:
caveo sometimes has
ne and the subjunctive, sometimes plain subjunctive: 'beware of spoiling (bringing out of shape) ...'
gratiam ... culpa: Masinissa has won Scipio's favour (
gratiam) by many services; let him not destroy that favour by a fault-that-brings-blame (
culpa) greater than the cause of the fault is. In other words, Sophonisba is just not worth it. Don't throw away your good standing with Rome for the sake of your infatuation with a woman.
