Ab Urbe Condita 1.29

Liv. 1.29.1Inter haec iam praemissī Albam erant equitēs, quī multitūdinem trādūcerent Rōmam.

Meanwhile horsemen had already been sent ahead to Alba to bring the population over to Rome.

Liv. 1.29.1Legiōnēs deinde ductae ad dīruendam urbem.

Then the legions were led there to pull down the city.

Liv. 1.29.2Quae ubi intrāvēre portās, nōn quidem fuit tumultus ille nec pavor, quālis captārum esse urbium solet, cum effrāctīs portīs strātīsve ariete mūrīs aut arce vī captā clāmor hostīlis et cursus per urbem armātōrum omnia ferrō flammāque miscet;

When they entered the gates, there was not indeed the uproar and panic usual in captured cities, when, after the gates are broken or the walls levelled by the ram or the citadel taken by force, the enemy's shouting and armed men running through the city throw everything into confusion with sword and fire;

Note. quālis … solet: 'such as is usual'. The cum-clause pictures what normally happens when a city is captured, to contrast Alba's silent end.

Liv. 1.29.3sed silentium trīste ac tacita maestitia ita dēfīxit omnium animōs, ut prae metū, quid relinquerent, quid sēcum ferrent, dēficiente cōnsiliō rogitantēsque aliī aliōs nunc in līminibus stārent, nunc errābundī domōs suās ultimum illud vīsūrī pervagārentur.

but a gloomy silence and quiet grief so froze everyone's spirits that, unable to think for fear what to leave and what to take with them, they asked one another again and again, now standing on their doorsteps, now wandering through their own houses to see them for the last time.

Note. prae metū: 'because of fear'; prae with a preventing cause. The indirect questions quid relinquerent, quid … ferrent depend on cōnsiliō dēficiente. ultimum illud vīsūrī: 'to see it for the last time', the future participle expressing purpose.

Liv. 1.29.4Ut vērō iam equitum clāmor exīre iubentium īnstābat, iam fragor tēctōrum, quae dīruēbantur, ultimīs urbis partibus audiēbātur pulvisque ex distantibus locīs ortus velut nūbe inductā omnia inplēverat, raptim quibus quisque poterat ēlātīs cum larem ac penātēs tēctaque, in quibus nātus quisque ēducātusque esset, relinquentēs exīrent, iam continēns agmen migrantium inplēverat viās, et cōnspectus aliōrum mūtuā miserātiōne integrābat lacrimās, vōcēsque etiam miserābilēs exaudiēbantur mulierum praecipuē, cum obsessa ab armātīs templa augusta praeterīrent ac velut captōs relinquerent deōs.

But when the shouts of the horsemen ordering them out pressed on them, when the crash of houses being demolished could already be heard in the farthest parts of the city and dust rising in distant places had covered everything as if a cloud had come down, and they went out, hurriedly carrying what each could and leaving their household god and Penates and the roofs under which each had been born and brought up, an unbroken line of people leaving soon filled the roads; the sight of one another renewed their tears in mutual pity, and pitiful cries were heard too, above all from the women, as they passed their revered temples now occupied by armed men and left their gods behind as if captive.

Note. A single long period (periodic sentence) that piles up the sounds and sights of the evacuation. The household gods (Lar and Penates) were left behind with the houses.

Liv. 1.29.6Ēgressīs urbe Albānīs Rōmānus passim pūblica prīvātaque omnia tēcta adaequat solō, ūnāque hōrā quadringentōrum annōrum opus, quibus Alba steterat, excidiō ac ruīnīs dedit;

When the Albans had left the city, the Romans level all the buildings, public and private, everywhere to the ground, and in a single hour they gave over to destruction and ruin the work of four hundred years, during which Alba had stood;

Note. ūnā hōrā quadringentōrum annōrum opus: a pointed contrast, one hour against four hundred years.

Liv. 1.29.6templīs tamen deum— ita enim ēdictum ab rēge fuerat— temperātum est.

the temples of the gods, however, were spared, for so the king had ordered.

Note. deum = deōrum, the older genitive plural. temperātum est: impersonal passive, 'restraint was shown'.