Livy Book 30
Notes on Chapter 5
his praeparatis: The first of three ablative absolutes in a row.
et dicere exploratoribus iussis: Take in this order: et exploratoribus iussis dicere ...
quae comperta adferrent: literally, what things-having-been-learned they were bringing. What discoveries they had to report.
Massinissaque: Ablative, added to exploratoribus. Masinissa also was told to report what he knew.
King Massinissa 'is another of Livy's heroes, all that a noble ally should be: Livy treats him tenderly over the affair with Sophonisba, and produces a remarkable argument in justification of his desertion from Carthage in 207: "The reason for his sudden change of sides was not, at the time, entirely clear; but that he had acted, even then, on reasonable grounds, was proved later by his unswerving loyalty to Rome down to his extreme old age."' - Betty Radice, introduction to Penguin translation.
For the
1911 Encyclopedia Britannica article on Massinissa see here.
cui omnia hostium nota erant: Massinissa knew all the affairs of the enemy because he had until recently been one of them.
in proximam noctem: what he was preparing for the next night.
tribunis - legiones: clauses are packed inside each other like a Russian doll.
Main clause: tribunis edicit
Indirect command: ut ... extemplo educerent castris legiones.
Temporal clause: ubi ... signa concinuissent
Ablative absolute: praetorio dimisso.
tribunis: Military tribunes were short-service, 'amateur' officers, young nobles hoping for a political career in Rome. The professionals were the centurions.
praetorio: The praetorium was the general's tent, and so by extension of meaning, a council-of-war held in the general's tent.
signa concinuissent: concino means sing or sound together. We might have expected 'tubae', trumpets, as the subject. signum is any sign or signal, whether a legionary standard (as in the next sentence), or a nod, or, as here, a particular bugle call. Caesar writes of ordering his trumpeter 'signum tuba dare' to give a signal with his trumpet.
educerent castris: to lead out of camp. Livy might have written 'e castris', but he felt that the prefix in e-ducerent was enough to give the meaning, and need not be repeated.
sub occasum solis: sub can mean just before or just after.
signa ... efferri sunt coepta: The standards began to be carried out. When used with a passive infinitive, the verb coepi is put into the passive itself.
ad primam ... vigiliam: ad, with an expression of time, can mean about or toward. vigilia was discussed in a note on chapter 4. There were four vigiliae during the night. Clearly some time elapsed between sunset, when the legions left camp, and darkness, when the marching column spread out into its fighting formation. Why do you suppose the army advanced in battle line for several hours, between the beginning of darkness and midnight?
septem ... milia: seven Roman miles. The full phrase is milia passuum, thousands of paces. One passus was the distance between the left foot leaving the ground and touching the ground again, i.e. two steps.
perventum est: the verb can be used impersonally in the passive, meaning something like 'there was a reaching'. When translating, supply whatever subject seems, from the context, the obvious one.
partem copiarum ... Masinissamque ac Numidas: These are all objects of attribuit. The name Laelio sits confusingly among the three objects.
Laelio: Gaius Laelius, (d. after 160 BC), was a Roman general and politician who contributed to Roman victory during the Second Punic War (218-201) between Rome and Carthage.
Owing his political advancement to his friend, the renowned commander Scipio Africanus, Laelius accompanied Scipio on his Spanish campaign (210-206). While in Africa with Scipio from 204 to 202, Laelius defeated the Numidian prince Syphax, an ally of the Carthaginians, and commanded the cavalry in Scipio's decisive victory over Hannibal at Zama (now in Tunisia; 202). After the war Laelius advanced from plebeian aedile (197) to praetor of Sicily (196) to consul (190). As consul he was employed in organizing the recently conquered territory in Cisalpine Gaul. Placentia and Cremona were repeopled, and a new colony founded at Bononia. In 160 he met Polybius and supplied the historian with a great deal of information about the life of Scipio Africanus.
ignesque conicere: The ignes would probably be flaming torches made of a piece of wood covered in tar, which would burn fiercely.
Thrown onto a thatched roof, they would start a fire at once.
singulos - seductos: Laelium ac Masinissam are the objects of obtestatur, and because there are two of them the adjective singulos and the participle seductos are plural.
quantum ... tantum ...: however much of forward planning the night takes away, just so much they are to fill up with diligence and care. Night throws the best-laid plans out, and the commanders need to think on their feet. Notice that a number of the verbs at this point in the narrative are in the present tense. This 'historic present' gives an extra sense of immediacy and urgency.
se ... adgressurum: This accusative and infinitive (the esse of the future infinitive usually being omitted) has no verb of saying or thinking to introduce it. Once Livy has begun to report what Scipio commanded, he slips into more reported speech, this time indirect statement. The whole passage is what is known by grammarians as 'oratio obliqua.'
ceterum: but
ante ... quam: the conjunction antequam is often split between the two clauses as Livy does here. Translate the two words together as 'until'.
coepturum: a second future infinitive, with the same 'se'. But he wouldn't begin (the attack) until he saw ...
neque ... : Livy is now beginning a set-piece description of the burning of the camp. Work out how he makes the narrative vivid and compelling. Remember that all Roman literature was written to be read aloud to an audience. Pay attention to the way each word in its (Latin) order adds to the scene. Does Livy use short or long sentences, or a mixture? Does he get inside the minds of the Romans, or of the Carthaginians and their allies? From whose viewpoint is he writing at any particular time? It may help if you imagine the whole passage as a film script; interpret it as different kinds of shot, long shot, close-up, panning shot, zoom. Are there bits of Livy's prose that can't be filmed?
Livy introduces the account by making Scipio wait for the fires to be seen, and thus arouses our anticipation too. The words come in this order:
on the first huts - thrown fire - it has stuck - suddenly - the next one - no, all of them - then - endless - embrace - on all of them - all over the place - spread - panic - as much as - it was inevitable - in the night-time.. - spread so wide - conflagration - started up.
This string of words in English gives an impression of the images that come to the hearer of the Latin. In Latin, however, it is not a mere string of unrelated words, but a highly organised sentence, each part of which fits in to the syntax of the whole. You could experiment along these lines with the rest of the fire story.
ceterum fortuitum: Now the panic (trepidatio) mentioned before leads Livy to see things from the Carthaginian point of view. They think it's an accident, so they rush off to fight the fire and, bang! into armed men they crash - enemies!
Numidas: The participle agreeing with Numidas is dispositos.
notitia: with/using his familarity with the King's camp. Remember that he used to be on the Carthaginian side. He knew where to station his troops most effectively.
multos ... multi: Many stayed in bed and were roasted while still half asleep; many rushed off in panicked flight, but came to a sticky end just the same. There was no escape.
super alios alii: The normal word order is 'alii super alios'. If Livy had put alii first, the listener would have taken it as a third group: multos, multi, alii. The order he chooses has men rushing, tripping over bodies (super alios) and then in the narrowness of the gates being trampled to death - a vividly pictured sequence of events.
