109 NOTES I ROMULUS AND REMUS. (1) Sed debebatur.] Livy has just been relating how Amulius endeavoured to destroy his brother Numitor's race by dedicating Rea Silvia, his daughter, as a vestal virgin. But the Fates, he says, interfered to bring about the destined rise of the Roman empire. Some of the more poetical features of this legend are preserved by Ovid, Fasti III.; which should be read in connection with Livy's story, taken from that of the oldest Roman historian, Fabius Pictor. Forte quadam divinitus.] Compare the Greek Osia rivi rúxy. Chance was, in the ancient idea, a kind of divinity. Fors Fortuna was worshipped as a deity at Rome, as Τύχη was in Greece with the title Σώτειρα. Justi amnis.]='Flowing within its banks,' its regular condition. So a regular set battle was called 'justum proelium;' a complete army of two legions 'justus exercitus.' Adiri poterat.] A neuter impersonal for poterant adire. Languida.] The water here was stagnant, as opposed to the swift stream of the swollen river. Faustulo.] Supply illi. The proper name is commonly put in the dative in apposition to the pronoun. We might also say 'Faustulus.' This part of the story may be well compared with the tale of Cyrus and his bringing up by Cyno, the shepherd's wife. See REGES ET HEROES, Chapter VIII. Itaque.] Here et ita. Peragrare and the following infinitives are historic, to be translated as imperfects indicative. The historic infinitive really depends on 'dicitur,' or some such word suppressed. = Subsistere sustinere.] The more common word is resistere. Livy uses subsistere in such phrases as 'hosti subsistere,' or 'equites subsistere,' with dative or accusative. (2) Lupercal hoc.] Hoc means that the very same ceremony which was practised in Livy's time was in existence in the time of Romulus, hodie à nobis celebratum. Look out 'Lupercalia' in Dict. of Antiquities. In the following clause the subject is montem. Deditis.] Governed by insidiatos. This sentence is in oratio obliqua, because it depends on ferunt above. Cum sollenne notum esset. The festival was already one that recurred at stated times (sollenne), and this the robbers knew and took advantage of. Jam inde ab initio.] All the incidents here closely resemble the story of Cyrus; the suspicions of Faustulus, the recognition of the twins by Numitor, and the consequent deposition of the king. (3) Numitori. . . . tetigerat animum memoria nepotum.] The Dativus Commodi is used here as governed by the sense of the sentence (Synesis). Tetigerat animum : objecta erat. It is not uncommon in Livy to find the construction slightly altered as the sentence proceeds. Ita regem obtruncant.] A similar story is told of the death of Tarquinius Priscus. See Chapter XIV. Numitor.] This sentence is a very good example of Livy's great copiousness of style. Instead of expressing the several actions by separate sentences, or by a repetition of the same phrase, he here uses four forms: the present participle; the subjunctive with cum; postquam with the indicative; and the ablative absolute. Observe, avocasset expresses an action antecedent to vidit. Therefore we have the subjunctive mood. In arcem .. obtinendam.] The gerundive obtinendam stands for a subordinate clause, such as ut eam obtinerent. Ratum.... confirmavit. effecit.] The verb and adjective must be taken together Urbis condenda.] The original form of this phrase would be condendi urbem.' Then the case is changed by 'attraction,' and, instead of the gerund 'condendi,' we have the gerundive 'condendæ,' agreeing with 'urbis.' Sometimes the gerund is kept, as 'amor habendi librorum,' for 'habendi libros,' or 'habendorum librorum.' In these cases the gerund or gerundive answers to the Greek infinitive with the article. When the gerundive is used with the impersonal est in the sense of 'it ought,' it answers to the Greek verbal in -réog. The following forms should be carefully noticed: a. Cupido condendi urbem and B. Cupido condendæ urbis = = ἐπιθυμία τοῦ οἰκοδομεῖν πόλιν, γ. Cupido urbium condendarum = ἐπιθυμία τοῦ οἰκοδομεῖν πόλεις. δ. Cupido urbium condendi = ἐπιθυμία πολέων οἰκοδομεῖν. ε. Condenda est urbs= οἰκοδομητέα ἐστι ἡ πόλις. %. Condendum est urbem = oikodoμnтiov or οικοδομητέα } ἐστι τὴν πόλιν. Etatis verecundia.] Etatis the genitive of the object='for age.' Notice in this sentence the clause beginning with quoniam gives the reason of capiunt, the clause with ut the object. Auguriis, templa.] Templum = Tempulum, diminutive of 'Tempus.' Compare Téμevos from the root of riμvw. Valleys divided by mountains were called Téμлn; a division of time, 'tempus;' 'tempora,' the divisions of the forehead; 'templum,' a space marked out in the sky for purposes of augury, like our word 'field,' in astronomy. Hence a building with the roof left open, for the same purpose; and thence any religious building or 'temple.' Augur Aviger. The birds, called præpetes, because, the omen was taken from their flight, had to pass within the appointed 'field' of the sky. = Ludibrio fratris.] See note on 'Ætatis verecundia,' above. Sic deinde.] Supply pereat. In remorse for his brother's death, Romulus is said to have instituted the festival of the 'Lemuria,' or 'Remuria.' See Ovid, Fasti v. 479, and the preceding lines. Græco.] Ritu. III HERCULES AND CACUS. Compare the account of Cacus in Ovid, Fasti, book i., 543—586, and the far more elaborate description in Virgil, Æneid, viii. 185-275. It may be observed here that in all the old legends of Rome we meet with Greek names, such as Evander, Cacus, Numitor, Emulius, Roma, Romulus, and others. The existence of these names and their Greek origin, as well as the connection of Hercules with Italy, show that these tales are derived from a Pelasgian source. Lato.] Compare 'Quid faciat lætas segetes.'-Virgil, Georg. i. 1. "Quatuor a stabulis præstanti corpore tauros Avertit, totidem formâ superante juvencas.'-En. viii. 207 So we have the common phrase avertere pecuniam, 'to embezzle money.' With reference to the cattle the word retains to a great extent its literal sense, in which we have aversos used immediately afterwards. Si forte ferrent.] Supply visurus. (2) Miraculo literarum]. This trait again points to an original Greek source of this story. It was the Roman notion, as it was our own till lately, that everything came directly from Greece to Italy. Aram Maximam.] So Virgil, closely following the same legend as Livy, 'Hanc aram luco statuit: quæ Maxima semper Dicetur nobis, et erit quæ Maxima semper.' - En. viii. 271. Potitiis ac Pinariis.] These families continued to discharge the same duties in these rites down to the censorship of Appius Claudius, B.C. 312, when the sacrifices were taken into the hands of the Senate, and the priestly families broken up. Livy represents the extinction of the Potitii as a punishment for their sacrilege in allowing slaves to discharge their duties for them. See also Livy, ix. 29. Peregrina.] Here means 'Greek' = foreign to the soil. The Etruscan rites adopted at Rome were native Italian in Livy's opinion. IV CAPTURE OF SABINE WOMEN. (1) Hominis ætatem.] Sc 'Haud ultra humanam vitam." It would perish with the then existing generation. Urbes quoque.] This speech is in oratio obliqua, depending on qui dicerent, implied in peterent, just as the short speech below, commencing at Ecquod feminis' depends on rogitantibus. Consus.] Romulus spread a report that he had discovered the altar of an unknown God: 'Consus' is probably 'conditus,' and means either 'The Deity of Secrecy,' or the 'Deity of the Hidden World,' or 'Hades.' The horse was sacred to him as an Inferus.' Hence the confusion with Neptune. Videndæ novæ urbis.] See note on urbis condendæ, in chapter II. Proximi quique.] Quisque, uterque, and alter are used in the singular of individuals, in the plural of classes. Thus, Uterque vestrum =both of you. Utrique vestrum = So here, Proximi quique each set of you. the nearest states. Proximus quisque = the nearest persons. |