OF

THE HISTORY OF LIVY.

TRANSLATED

BY WILLIAM A. M‘DEVITTE, Sen. Mod. Ex. Schol. A. B. T. C. D.

N. B. An asterisk is prefixed to such fragments as can, by a probable conjecture, be referred to the books to which they belong: the other fragments, to which we cannot assign their proper place in the books of Livy, together with what remains of a letter inscribed to his son, have been added subsequently.

* Belonging to the 12th book.

Pyrrhus was a consummate tactician, but more skilful in the arrangements of a battle than the operations of a war.—Servius on Virg. Æn. i. 456.

* Belonging to the 13th book.

We might have held it in private.—Priscian.

* Belonging to the 14th book.

Both Livy and Sallust inform us that the ancients used scythe-armed chariots.—Servius. Virg. Æn. i. 476.

* Belonging to the 16th book.

SichÆeus was called Sicharbas; Belus, the father of Dido, Methres; Carthage from Carthada, (as we read it,) which is found in the history of the Carthaginians, and in Livy.—Servius. Virg. Æn. i. 343.

Carthage signifies, in the Punic tongue, “New City,” as Livy informs us.—Servius. Virg. Æn. i. 366.

Bitias was the admiral of the Punic fleet, as Livy informs us. Servius.—Virg. Æn. i. 738.

* Belonging to the 17th book.

The day before the Nones. The day before the Ides.—Priscian.

* Belonging to the 18th book.

Beardless.—Charis. book i.

There is also mention made by Livy of a serpent, in a narrative alike interesting and eloquent.

For he says that there was in Africa, at the river Bagradas, a snake of such enormous size, that it prevented the army of Atilius Regulus from using the water: and that, after seizing many of the soldiers in its powerful fangs, and crushing several to death in the folds of its tail, as soon as they discovered that it could not be injured by weapons cast by the hand, it was at last attacked on every side by missiles from the engines, and killed by numerous and ponderous blows of huge stones; and that it appeared to all, both cohorts and legions, more terrible than Carthage itself. He narrates that the Romans were compelled to remove their camp, owing to the river being tinged with its blood, and the air in the vicinity being corrupted by the pestilential effluvia.

He says, too, that the skin of the monster, which was a hundred and twenty feet long, was sent to Rome.—Valerius Maximus.

* Belonging to the 19th book.

The third (secular) games were celebrated, according to Antias and Livy, in the consulship of Publius Claudius Pulcher, and Caius Junius Pullus.—Censorinus.

It is recorded in Livy that when a certain general, who was desirous of carrying on a war, was prevented by one of the tribunes of the commons from setting out on the expedition, he ordered the sacred chickens to be brought forward: when they did not eat the corn that was cast before them, the consul, in derision of the augury, said, “let them drink,” and cast them into the Tiber. Afterwards, when returning victorious in his ships, he was drowned off the coast of Africa, with all that he commanded.—Servius. Virg. Æn. vi. 198.

* Belonging to the 22nd book.

And in repeating the attack with a small body of troops on the walls of Alisfa, after coming like a marauder, an elephant covered with armour broke forth from the town: the consul took it, and after slaying those on its back, reserved it for the fight. But the townsmen, as they felt little anxiety about it, on the second day, armed with shields, engraven with the figures of elephants, attack a few fugitives, and retake the elephant under more favourable omens; and the inhabitants give the name of AlifÆ to the town, formerly called Ruffius, from the circumstance of the favourable following the unfavourable omen.

This fragment is undoubtedly spurious.

* Belonging to the 49th book.

There are three different opinions concerning the date of the fourth (secular) games. For Antias, and Varro, and Livy have recorded, that they were exhibited in the consulate of Lucius Marcius Censorinus and Manius Manilius, in the six hundred and fifth year after the foundation of Rome.—Censorinus.

* Belonging to the 56th book.

Who say that Pompey pleaded disease as an excuse, lest, by his presence in the tumult, he might irritate the minds of the Numantines.—Priscian.

* Belonging to the 77th book.

Sulla makes a most noble matrimonial alliance, by marrying CÆcilia, the daughter of Metellus, the pontifex maximus. For which reason the populace chanted many lampoons against him, and many of the principal men envied him, considering him, whom they judged deserving of consulship, unworthy of that woman, as Livy remarks.—Plutarch. Sulla.

Livy relates that, when Sulla first advanced to the city against Marius, the entrails appeared so propitious to the person sacrificing, that Postumius, the soothsayer, expressed his willingness to give himself into custody, on condition that he should suffer capital punishment, if Sulla did not, by the aid of the gods, succeed in the projects which he had in contemplation.—Augustin.

* Belonging to the 83rd book.

Since when all the statues were overthrown and burned along with the town, the statue of Minerva alone is reported (as Livy says) to have stood uninjured under the ruins of that immense temple.—Augustin.

Belonging to the 91st book.

The inhabitants of Contrebia, although they were attacked by the pangs of famine, in addition to their other calamities, after making many ineffectual attempts to repel the war from their city and walls, injured the works of Sertorius by casting fire from the walls; and a tower of many stories, which exceeded in height all the fortifications of the city, being consumed by the spreading flames, fell to the ground with a great crash. However, during the following night another tower was reared in the same place, by the efforts of Sertorius, who remained awake all night; the sight of which at the dawn struck the enemy with astonishment. At the same time the city-tower, which had been their strongest defence, as its foundations were undermined, began to yawn with great rents, and afterwards take fire from a torch that was thrown against it; and the inhabitants of Contrebia, being terrified by the fear of the fire and fall of the battlements combined, fled in alarm from the walls: and the whole populace shouted out that ambassadors should be sent to surrender the city. The same valour which had urged Sertorius to besiege them when they provoked him, made him, when victorious, more inclined to mercy. After receiving hostages, he exacted a small sum of money, and took away from them all their arms. He ordered the deserters that were freemen to be brought alive to him: he ordered the inhabitants to slay the fugitive slaves, of whom there was a greater number. They cut their throats and cast them from the walls. Having reduced Contrebia, after a siege of forty-four days, which cost him a great number of men, and having left Lucius Insteius in command there with a strong garrison, he himself marched his army to the river Iberus. Then having built his winter quarters nigh to the town, which is called Castra Ælia, he remained in person in the camp; during the day he held a congress of the allied states in the town. He had previously issued a proclamation throughout the entire province, that each state should make arms in proportion to its resources: and after inspecting them, he ordered his soldiers to bring in their other arms, which had been rendered ineffective by frequent marches, or assaults and battles, and divided the new arms among the men by means of the centurions. He also furnished the cavalry with new arms: and distributed among them clothes, which had been previously prepared for them, and gave them pay also. He searched carefully for mechanics, and brought them together from every quarter, and erected public manufactories in which he could employ their labour, and made calculations of the amount of work that could be done each day. Therefore all the implements of war were in process of preparation at the same time: neither did the mechanics want materials, as all things had been previously prepared by the zealous efforts of the states; nor was any department of the service unprovided with proper workmen. Then, after calling together the embassies of all the nations and states, he returned them thanks, because they furnished the supplies which had been levied on them for the infantry: he laid before them a statement of the acts which he had performed in defending his allies and besieging the cities of the enemy, and encouraged them to prosecute the war with vigour: he informed them, briefly, how deeply the provinces of Spain were interested in the success of his party. He then dismissed the assembly, and after bidding them all to be of good courage, and return to their respective states, he sent Marcus Perperna early in spring with twenty thousand infantry and fifteen hundred cavalry, to the nation of the Ilercaonians, to defend the maritime coast of that country: he gave him instructions relative to the routes by which he should march to defend the cities in alliance with him, which Pompey was besieging, and pointed out the places in which he might lay ambuscades for Pompey on his march. At the same time he sent letters to Herennuleius, who was in the same country, and to Lucius Hirtulius, in the other province, with instructions as to the manner in which he wished the war to be conducted: charging him especially “to defend the allied states in such a manner as not to fight a pitched battle with Metellus, for whom he was not a match either in influence or strength. That he himself did not intend to march against Pompey; nor did he believe that the latter would come to a pitched battle; since if the war were protracted, the enemy could procure supplies from every quarter by their shipping, as they had the sea at their back, and all the provinces under their dominion; and that he himself would be reduced to want of every thing, since what he had previously stored was consumed during the former summer. That Perperna was appointed to the command of the region bordering on the sea, in order that he might be able to defend the country which was as yet free from the ravages of the enemy, and at the same time attack them unawares, if any opportunity should occur.” He determined to march in person with his army against the Beronians and Autrigonians; because he ascertained that they had frequently, during the winter, solicited aid from Pompey, and had sent persons to point out the way to the Roman army, during the time that he himself was employed in besieging the Celtiberian cities; and besides, his soldiers were often harassed by their cavalry during the siege of Contrebia, in whatsoever direction they might proceed in search of corn and forage. They had even the hardihood at that time to solicit the Arevaci to join their party. He intended, after giving them an example of the severity of war, to deliberate which of his two enemies he should attack, which of the two provinces he should repair to: whether he should go to the maritime coast, to prevent Pompey from entering Ilercaonia and Contestania, both of which were allied nations, or should turn his attention to Metellus and Lusitania. Sertorius, anxiously deliberating on these plans, marched his army peaceably along the banks of the river Iberus, through the territory of his allies, without injuring any one. Then he marched into the territories of the Bursaonians, Cascantinians, and Gracchuritanians; and after wasting every thing, and trampling down the crops, came to Calaguris Nasica, a city of the allies; and after passing the river nigh to the town, by a bridge built for the occasion, he encamped there. On the next day he sent Marcus Marius, the quÆstor, into the territory of the Arevacans and Cerindonians, to enlist soldiers among those nations, and to convey the corn from them to Contrebia, called also Leucas, near which city lay the most convenient roads leading out of the country of the Beronians, in whatever direction he should determine to march his army: and he sent Caius Insteius, the prefect of the cavalry, to Liguria and the nation of the VaccÆans, to search for horsemen, with orders to wait for him at Contrebia with such cavalry as he could collect. After despatching them, he himself set out, and having marched his army through the territory of the Vasconians, pitched his camp on the confines of the Beronians. On the next day he went forward with the cavalry to reconnoitre the roads, after giving orders to the infantry to march in the form of a square, and came to VaccÆa, the strongest city in that country. He came on them unexpectedly during the night. The townsmen having summoned from every quarter the cavalry, both of their own nation and the Autrigonians, made a sally and marched against Sertorius, to prevent him from entering the pass.—The Vatican copy of Livy. This was the first battle that was fought between Sertorius and Pompey. We have the authority of Livy, that Pompey’s army lost ten thousand men and all their baggage.—Frontinus.

* Belonging to the 94th book.

Livy says, in his 94th book, that Inarime was in part of MÆonia, where, for an extent of fifty miles, the earth has been burned with fire. He intimates that Homer signified the same fact.—Servius. Æn. ix. 715.

Belonging to the 97th book.

Livy relates that thirty thousand armed men (composed of the fugitives conquered by Crassus) were slain in that battle with their leaders, Castus and Gannicus, and that five of the Roman eagles were recovered, besides twenty-six military standards, and many spoils, among which were the rods and axes.—Frontinus.

* Belonging to the 98th book.

Livy says that the Romans never before, with such inferior numbers, engaged an enemy. For the victors were scarcely equal in number to a twentieth, or even a smaller portion, of the conquered.—Plutarch. Lucullus. We have the authority of Livy that in the former engagement (that at Tigranocerta) a greater number of the enemy was slain and taken prisoners, but in the latter battle (that at Artaxata) the noblest of the nation met that fate.—Plutarch. Lucullus.

* Belonging to the 99th book.

Crete had at first a hundred cities; from which circumstance it was called Hecatompolis; afterwards it contained twenty-four; and subsequently, as we are told, two, Gnossus and Hierapytna: although Livy says that several were stormed by Metellus.—Servius. Virg. Æn. iii. 106.

* Belonging to the 102nd book.

After having dissolved this.—Agroetius. For on the capture of the city, (he alludes to the capture of Jerusalem by Cneius Pompeius,) in the third month of the siege, on a fast-day, in the 179th Olympiad, in the consulship of Caius Antonius and Marcus Tullius Cicero, when the Romans, after storming the town, were butchering those who were in the temple; notwithstanding all this, those who were engaged in the sacred ceremonies continued to offer divine worship with the same attention, and were not induced, either by the fear of losing their lives, or by the number of men who were slain around them, to take to flight, for they considered it better to suffer at the very altars whatever they might be compelled to endure, than to neglect any of the commandments instituted by their forefathers. Those who have recorded the achievements of Pompey, testify that these facts were not invented, merely with a tendency to extol a false piety, but that they are really true; among these writers may be enumerated Strabo and Nicolaus, and in addition to them Titus Livy, the writer of Roman History.—Josephus.

Belonging to the 103rd book.

The cancer which eats away the body is more horrible. When concealed it consumes the vitals; when palpable, tears them away: formerly the ancients expelled it by various remedies. For the 103rd book of Titus Livy informs us that such an ulcer was cut out by a red-hot knife, or driven away by drinking the seed of rape: he asserts that the life of a person who has received the infection can scarcely be prolonged for seven days; so great is the violence of the disease.—Q. Seren. Lamon.

* Belonging to the 105th book.

Livy among the ancients, and Fabius Rusticus among the moderns, both most eloquent writers, have compared the shape of Great Britain to an oblong shield, or two-edged battle-axe.—Tacitus. Agric. Although no one as yet has made the circuit of the entire of Britain, as Livy relates, still various opinions have been expressed by many in speaking on that subject.—Jornandes.

* Belonging to the 109th book.

In the seven hundredth year from the foundation of Rome, a conflagration, the origin of which has not been ascertained, broke out in that city, and consumed fourteen divisions of it: never, as Livy remarks, was it wasted by a greater fire; so extensive was it, that several years after, CÆsar Augustus gave a large sum of money out of the public treasury for the purpose of rebuilding those edifices which were then burned to the ground.—Orosius. CÆsar, having crossed the river Rubicon, on his reaching Ariminum soon after, issued the necessary commands to the five cohorts, which were the only troops that he then had, and with which, as Livy says, he attacked the world.—Orosius.

* Belonging to the 111th book.

Caius Crastinus was the first that struck an enemy on the late occasion, which he did with the first javelin that he could seize.—Scholiast on Lucan. Caius Cornelius, a man skilled in the science of augury, the fellow-citizen and intimate friend of Livy the historian, happened to be engaged in taking auspices at the same time. He first, as Livy records, knew the exact period of the battle (of Pharsalia), and told the bystanders that the affair was going on at that moment, and that the leaders were commencing battle. When he took the auguries a second time, and beheld the signs, he leaped up in a fit of inspiration, shouting out, “CÆsar, thou art conquering!” While they who were present were astonished, he took off the garland from his head, and swore that he would not replace it until the event was proved to correspond to his art. Livy positively asserts that this is true.—Plutarch. CÆsar.

Belonging to the 112th book.

Bogud Bogudis, the name of a barbarian, which Livy has declined in the 112th book with the genitive Bogudis.—Priscian. Cassius and Bogud attacked the camp also in different parts, and were not far from forcing the works. At which time also he endeavoured to transport his army rapidly into Africa, for the purpose of strengthening the kingdom of Bogud. Cassius would have waged war against Trebonius, if he could have induced Bogud to become a partner in his mad design.—Priscian. Four hundred thousand books, the noblest monument of the wealth of kings that ever existed, were burned at Alexandria. Other writers have spoken in favour of this library; Livy, for instance, who said that it was the surpassing work of the elegance and research of kings.—Seneca.

Belonging to the 113th book.

And he himself defended the coast about Palpud.

* Belonging to the 114th book.

These are the accounts that some give of Bassus; but Livy says that he fought under the command of Pompey, and on his defeat lived privately at Tyre, and by bribing some of the legionary soldiers, succeeded in being elected general by them when Sextus was killed.—Appian. I should wish my lot to be such as Titus Livy describes Cato’s to have been: for his glory was of such an elevated character, that no addition to or diminution of it was made by the praise or blame of any man, though men of the greatest abilities did both. He alludes to Marcus Cicero and Caius CÆsar, the former of whom wrote in praise, and the latter in condemnation, of the above-mentioned individual.—Hieronymus.

* Belonging to the 116th book.

According to the narrative of Livy, an ornamental top had been added to the house of CÆsar, by a decree of the senate, to give it beauty and grandeur. His wife Calpurnia imagined in her dreams that this had fallen, and that she was lamenting and weeping over it. Therefore, when day dawned, she entreated CÆsar not to go into the street that day, but postpone the meeting of the senate to another occasion, if he could possibly effect it.—Plutarch. CÆsar. It is considered an evil omen when Mount Ætna, in Sicily, emits not only smoke, but balls of fire: and Livy says that such extensive flames issued from it before the death of CÆsar; that not only the neighbouring cities, but also the state of Rhegium, which is far distant from it, felt the fiery vapour.—Servius. The remark that was generally made concerning Julius CÆsar, and attributed to Titus Livy, is applicable also to the winds; namely, that it was doubtful whether his existence or non-existence would have been more advantageous to the republic.—Seneca.

* Belonging to the 118th book.

In opposition to the murderers of Caius CÆsar, he levied some troops to assist his avengers.

* Belonging to the 120th book.

Marcus Cicero had left the city a little before the arrival of the triumvirs, considering it certain that there was no greater possibility of his being rescued from Antonius, than of Brutus and Cassius being saved from CÆsar, and so the matter really was. He fled first to the territory of Tusculum, and afterwards proceeded by crossroads into the territory of FormiÆ, with the intention of embarking at Caieta. From which he sailed out several times into the deep sea, but when the adverse winds at one time drove him back, at another he himself could not endure the pitching of the ship in the heavy roll of the sea, he was at length seized with a disgust at both life and flight: and having returned to his upper villa, which is little more than a mile from the sea, he said, “I will die in my native land that I have saved so often.” It is ascertained that his slaves were prepared to fight with bravery and fidelity; and that he himself ordered them to lay down the litter, and bear with resignation whatever the severity of fortune would enjoin. As he stretched forth from the litter, and held his neck unmoved, his head was cut off. Nor did that suffice the senseless cruelty of the soldiers. They cut off his hands also, in reproach of their having written any thing against Antonius. In this way his head was brought to Antonius, and by his orders placed between his hands on the rostrum. The people, raising up their eyes bedimmed with tears, could scarcely bear the sight of his dismembered limbs. He lived sixty-three years; so that in the absence of violence his death would not have seemed a premature one: his genius was successfully displayed in his works, and in gaining the rewards of his works: he himself was for a long time prosperous, yet during his long career of success suffering occasionally great calamities: namely, exile, the ruin of the party which he had espoused, the death of his daughter, his own, so miserable and galling; none of which calamities he bore with the firmness worthy of a man, except his death, which, to a man that estimated matters justly, might seem less likely to call forth indignation, as he had not suffered from his victorious enemy greater cruelty than he would himself have practised, if he had been equally successful. However, if any one will weigh accurately his virtues against his vices, he will come to the conclusion that he was a great, energetic, and remarkable man, and one who would require the eulogies of a second Cicero to do justice to his merit.

Belonging to the 127th book.

Since traces of the dissensions between Augustus and Antonius still existed, Cocceius Nerva, the ancestor of that Nerva who was subsequently emperor of Rome, recommended to Augustus to send deputies to treat of affairs in general. Therefore MÆcenas and Agrippa were sent, who brought both armies into one camp, as Livy relates in the 127th book. But we must understand that when Fonteius was deputed by Antonius, Augustus sent MÆcenas and others to the same place.—Acro on Horace. When a dispute arose between CÆsar Augustus and Antonius, Cocceius Nerva, the ancestor of him who was afterwards emperor of Rome, requested of CÆsar to send some one to Tarracina to negotiate the principal points. MÆcenas held the conference first, and was shortly after joined by Agrippa, and there entered into a most solemn compact with Antonius’s deputies, and ordered the standards of both armies to be brought together into the same camp. Livy mentions this also in the 127th book, but makes no mention of Capito.—Porphyrio on Horace. Fonteius Capito had been sent as deputy by Antonius and MÆcenas, and Agrippa, in a similar capacity, by Augustus, owing to the mediation of Cocceius Nerva, who possessed great influence with both Augustus and Antonius, and was the ancestor of the emperor Nerva. But the deputies met for the purpose of negotiating the general interests of their principals, and settling the disputes that had broken out between these two commanders; which they did, and brought both armies into one camp, near Brundusium; an event which was hailed with great demonstrations of joy, as Livy relates in the 127th book.—Commentator Cruquii on Horace.

* Belonging to the 133rd book.

Livy relates that Cleopatra, when after her capture by Augustus she was designedly treated with great indulgence, used to say: I will not grace a triumph.—Commentator Cruquii. Hor. Odes, i. 37.

Belonging to the 136th book.

In the same year CÆsar celebrated the secular games with great pomp; they were usually celebrated every hundredth year (for such was the limit of a secular period).—Censorinus.

A man of great but ill-directed abilities.—Seneca.

I confess that I am astonished that Titus Livy, a most celebrated writer, in one of the volumes of his history, which he traces back to the foundation of the city, used the following exordium: that he had already acquired sufficient glory, and had it in his power to cease his exertions, were it not that his intellectual restlessness obtained food by labour.—Pliny.

Titus Livy and Cornelius Nepos have recorded that the breadth of the Straits of Gibraltar at the narrowest part is seven miles; but at the widest part ten miles.—Pliny. The proper number of consuls being elected.—Servius.

Thou, whosoever thou art, shalt be ours, are the words of a general receiving a deserter under his protection, in which sense we meet them in Livy.—Servius.

I was destined from my birth to be a general, not a common soldier.

William of Malmesbury appears to have borrowed this expression of Scipio from Livy.

Tell me, when we often read in Roman history, on the authority of Livy, that countless thousands of men perished very frequently in this city by the breaking out of plagues, and that matters often came to such a state that there were scarcely sufficient men to constitute an army in those warlike times, were no sacrifices offered to your god, Februarius, at that period? Or was his worship utterly ineffectual? Were not the Lupercalia celebrated at that time? For you cannot say that these sacred rites were unknown at the time since they were said to have been introduced into Italy by Evander before the date of Romulus. But Livy, in his second decade, tells us the reason of the institution of the Lupercalia (as they are intimately connected with his own superstitions): he does not say that they were instituted to check disease, but to remove the barrenness of women, which was then prevalent.—Gelasius.

According to Livy, ambassadors suing for peace are called heralds.—Servius.

Livy calls silver heavy; he means masses of it.—Servius.

On this eminence (the promontory of CircÆum) was a town, which was called both CircÆum and CircÆi. For Livy uses both.—Servius.

Titus Livius was so unfavourable to Sallust, that he reproached him with this sentence, “prosperity has a wonderful tendency to cloak misconduct,” as being not only translated, but even spoiled in the translation. Nor does he do this out of regard to Thucydides, with a view to extol him. He praises him whose rivalry he does not fear, and thinks that Sallust could be more easily surpassed by him if he were previously excelled by Thucydides.—Seneca.

Titus Livy used to say that Miltiades, the rhetorician, made the following elegant remark—“they are mad on common-place subjects ...” in reference to orators who hunt after antiquated or obsolete terms, and consider chastity of style to consist in obscurity of diction.—Seneca.

Several have fallen into the same error: nor is it a novel defect, since I find, even in Livy, that there was a certain teacher of rhetoric who ordered his pupils to throw an air of mystery over their expressions, which he expressed by the Greek word [Greek: skotison]. From which circumstance originated the remarkable expression of approbation: “so much the better: even I myself did not understand.”—Quintilian.

Therefore that hint was the safest, of which an example occurs in Livy, in the letter written to his son, “we ought to read Demosthenes and Cicero, and them too in such a manner that each of us should closely resemble Demosthenes and Cicero.”—Quintilian.

THE END.