Livy Book 30 chapter 31 - notes
in hanc fere sententiam: 'roughly to this effect.' Livy admits, as Thucydides did, that he is not reproducing the actual words spoken.
non me fallebat: Although this can mean nothing more than 'It did not escape my notice', yet
fallo does often have a sinister meaning, of deliberate deception. The Romans accused the Carthaginians of habitual deceit. 'Punica fides' was a way of saying 'treachery'. Later in this chapter Scipio accuses the Carthaginians of
fraus. Scipio's own conduct in carrying on peace negotiations while sending spies disguised as aides to the negotiators into the enemy camps was not above reproach.
aduentus tui spe ...: in expectation of your arrival. The truce was considered broken when the Carthaginians captured Roman supply ships which had gone aground and been abandoned by their crews. There was no suggestion at the time that the Carthaginians had been thinking of Hannibal's return when they authorised this. In fact, it was recalling Hannibal and his army that the Romans considered another breach of the truce.
et ... fidem et spem: Scipio accuses the Carthaginians of throwing into confusion both their present loyalty to the truce and their future hopes of peace.
turbasse, shortened from
turbauisse, goes better with
spem than with
fidem.
neque tu ... dissimulas:
dissimulare is to pretend something is not so, when in fact it is so. (
simulare is to make the opposite pretense.) By using this word of deceit, even while saying it is not what Hannibal is doing, Livy makes Scipio keep up the suggestion of underhand dealings.
qui ... subtrahas:
qui with the present subjunctive suggests something beyond a plain relative clause: 'since you ...'
superioribus: earlier. Latin regards time as flowing downwards from past to future. c.f. 'Time like an ever-rolling stream.' These were the terms that Scipio had proposed in chapter 16:
"He stated the terms of peace, which were the surrender of all prisoners, deserters and refugees; the withdrawal of the armies from Italy and Gaul; the abandonment of all action in Spain; the evacuation of all the islands lying between Italy and Africa and the surrender of their entire navy with the exception of twenty vessels. They were also to provide 500,000 pecks of wheat and 300,000 of barley, but the actual amount of the money indemnity is doubtful. In some authors I find 5000 talents, in others 5000 pounds of silver mentioned; some only say that double pay for the troops was demanded."
omnia subtrahas praeter ea ... : Hannibal was asking for peace on condition that Rome kept all that she had gained by conquest in the war, as we saw in chapter 30. Scipio evidently feels that he has the military advantage, and can make whatever demands he likes, not caring whether his terms are accepted or not.
ceterum: but
ut tibi curae est: ut with indicative: (just) as it is your care (predicative dative), lit. it is for a care to you.
sentire ciues tuos: acc + infin: that your citizens realise
quanto per te onere leuentur: lit. from how great a burden they are being relieved through you. This burden is apparently the surrender of ships and the payments in wheat, barley and money, which Hannibal is no longer offering.
sic ...: So I must labour lest they have (habeant) as rewards of perfidy [the things] which they then pledged subtracted (from the terms) today. I.e. I must see that their treachery isn't rewarded by being relieved today from terms that they agreed to previously.
indigni ... petitis: Unworthy to have the same terms open to you (plural - Scipio includes Hannibal and all the Carthaginians), you even seek that your fraudulence should profit you.
neque ... bellum: As elsewhere, Livy distributes the words in common between two contrasting sentences:
neque patres nostri priores de Sicilia [fecimus bellum]
neque nos [priores] de Hispania fecimus bellum.
et tunc ... et nunc: Two more contrasting phrases:
et tunc Mamertinorum sociorum periculum
et nunc Sagunti excidium.
These were the flashpoints of the First and Second Punic Wars. The first war began over the Carthaginian occupation of Messana in Sicily; the second began because of the Carthaginian siege of Saguntum in Spain.
The Mamertines were a body of Campanian mercenaries who had settled in Syracuse. They siezed Messana when their employer died, between 288 and 283 B.C. They dominated and plundered north east Sicily. They appealed to Carthage to send a garrison to Messana, and later appealed to Rome for help. Rome agreed to be their ally, so they drove out the Carthaginian garrison and called in the Roman army. So the first Punic War began. Scipio's version is one-sided.
Saguntum, the town in Spain, was an ally of Rome, and was besieged and captured by Hannibal in 219 B.C. Scipio's father and uncle re-took it in 217 B.C.
The underlying cause of both Punic Wars was the rivalry between two expanding empires. This Mediterranean ain't big enough for the both of us.
nobis ... induerunt arma: A striking use of language. The two events are said to have "clothed the Romans in loyal and righteous armour."
uos lacessisse ... fateris: You yourself (singular) admit that you (plural - all the Carthaginians) did the injury.
di testes sunt: The gods bear witness by giving victory to the righteous side. Does history bear this out? Do the good always win?
et illius ... dabunt: Once again, parallel clauses:
et illius belli exitium, secundum ius fasque, dederunt
et huius [belli exitium, secundum ius fasque,] dant et dabunt.
illius belli is the First Punic War, huius is the Second.
exitium usually means destruction. Here 'outcome' seems an appropriate translation.
secundum ius fasque, according to justice and moral right.
quod ad me attinet: As for as I am concerned. Scipio now sets out to answer Hannibal's criticisms of his youth, rashness and hubris.
humanae infirmitatis memini: Remembering, as forgetting in the previous chapter, takes a genitive. Scipio does not consider himself immortal or infallible, as Hannibal had suggested, just because Fortune has smiled on him up till now.
uim fortunae reputo: Hannibal had harped on the part that Fortune plays. He used the phrase
uim fortunae. He used the verb
reputo: ea quae euenire possent reputaremus. Scipio says he does what Hannibal in his youth did not do, ponders the force of Fortune.
omnia quaecumque agimus subiecta esse mille casibus scio: Hannibal had said:
non temere incerta casuum reputat quem fortuna nunquam decepit.. Scipio shows that he is perfectly aware of the dangers of chance.
superbe et uiolenter: Scipio is now countering the charge of hubris. He suggests one action which would have shown hubris - if he had rejected a personally delivered plea for peace while Hannibal was winning, and about to go home voluntarily. To reject a plea for peace now is not hubris at all. But Scipio is imagining the unimaginable. No general would willingly pack up and go home when he is on top - least of all Scipio himself. And if he were to do this impossible thing, he would not go personally to the opposing leader to sue for peace.
nulla sum tibi uerecundia obstrictus: Hannibal, in his speech, has been very conscious of his own greatness and achievements. Any ordinary person would approach such a great general with
uerecundia, shyness, self-consciousness, reverence. Scipio brushes all this aside. He is not bound, tied, fettered (obstrictus) by any such feeling. Hannibal is on the run, and deserves no respect. AS an example of someone who refused to be overawed, as Scipio refused to be overawed by Hannibal, I am reminded of Churchill's remark about travelling in Germany in the 1930s, and just missing meeting Hitler. Although Hitler was then Fuehrer and Churchill a private citizen, he writes: "So Hitler missed his one opportunity of meeting me."
proinde: therefore; Scipio spells out the humiliation that he proposes the Carthaginians shall suffer.
ad ea: in addition to the conditions imposed previously, when it seemed that peace would be agreed.
multa: again, a fine, not part of
multus. Scipio is again picking up the very words used by Hannibal. 'If something ... such as a fine for the ships with their cargoes attacked during the truce, and for the envoys ill-treated, is added, ...'
est quod referam: There is something for me to refer to the council. Scipio proposes harsh terms, and even then does not promise anything other than to consult with his council about them. In chapter 4 Livy tells us how much Scipio's promises to consult his council were worth:
"He told Syphax's messenger that he would consult his council, and on the following day declared that his solitary effort had been all to no purpose and nobody else on his war-council had been in favour of peace."
sin: but if
quoniam pacem pati non potuistis: Having laid down terms impossible for Hannibal to accept, Scipio blames him for not only not wanting peace, but not being able to endure peace. Wrecking the chances of peace and then blaming the other side reminds me strongly of one or two Ulster politicians.
se recepissent: they had taken themselves back, they had returned
renuntiant: everything from
frustra uerba temptata [esse] to
di dedissent is oratio obliqua depending on this verb.
armis decernendum esse ...: Two gerundives of obligation, here with an infinitive because they are an indirect statement.
quam di dedissent: Subjunctive verb in a subordinate clause in oratio obliqua. Hannibal had spoken about Fortuna and the gods ruling the outcome of battles.
