Ab Urbe Condita 1.38

Liv. 1.38.1Collātia et quidquid citrā Collātiam agrī erat, Sabīnīs adēmptum;

Collatia and whatever land lay on this side of Collatia was taken from the Sabines;

Note. Collatia lay about ten miles east of Rome; this is the town later linked with Tarquinius Collatinus, husband of Lucretia.

Liv. 1.38.1Ēgerius— frātris hic fīlius erat rēgis— Collātiae in praesidiō relictus.

Egerius — he was the son of the king's brother — was left at Collatia with a garrison.

Note. frātris … rēgis: Egerius was the son of Tarquinius' brother Arruns. Livy breaks into the sentence with a parenthesis.

Liv. 1.38.1Dēditōsque Collātīnōs ita accipiō eamque dēditiōnis fōrmulam esse;

I understand that the people of Collatia surrendered in this way, and that this was the form of the surrender:

Note. ita accipiō: 'this is how I understand it'. Livy now quotes an old legal formula for surrender (dēditiō), probably preserved in priestly records.

Liv. 1.38.2rēx interrogāvit: "estisne vōs lēgātī ōrātōrēsque missī ā populō Conlātīnō, ut vōs populumque Collātīnum dēderētis?"

the king asked: "Are you the envoys and spokesmen sent by the people of Collatia, to surrender yourselves and the people of Collatia?"

Note. estisne: the question particle -ne attached to the verb. ut … dēderētis: purpose clause. Notice the formal repetition (vōs populumque), typical of legal language.

Liv. 1.38.2Sumus.

"We are."

Liv. 1.38.2"Estne populus Collātīnus in suā potestāte?"

"Is the people of Collatia its own master?"

Note. in suā potestāte: 'in its own power', i.e. free and entitled to surrender itself.

Liv. 1.38.2Est.

"It is."

Liv. 1.38.2"Dēditisne vōs populumque Collātīnum, urbem, agrōs, aquam, terminōs, dēlūbra, ūtēnsilia, dīvīna hūmānaque omnia in meam populīque Rōmānī diciōnem?"

"Do you surrender yourselves and the people of Collatia, the city, the fields, the water, the boundaries, the shrines, the movable goods, all things divine and human, into my power and that of the Roman people?"

Note. The list covers everything a community owned, sacred and profane: dīvīna hūmānaque omnia. in … diciōnem: 'into the power'.

Liv. 1.38.3Dedimus.

"We surrender them."

Note. Dedimus: the answer repeats the verb of the question, as Latin usually does instead of saying 'yes'.

Liv. 1.38.3"At ego recipiō."

"And I accept."

Liv. 1.38.3Bellō Sabīnō perfectō Tarquinius triumphāns Rōmam redit.

When the Sabine war was finished, Tarquinius returned to Rome in triumph.

Note. triumphāns: 'celebrating a triumph', the victory procession to the Capitol.

Liv. 1.38.3Inde Prīscīs Latīnīs bellum fēcit.

Next he made war on the Old Latins.

Note. Prīscī Latīnī: the 'Old Latins', the ancient Latin communities as distinct from later Latin colonies.

Liv. 1.38.4Ubi nusquam ad ūniversae reī dīmicātiōnem ventum est;

There it never came to a decisive battle for the whole;

Note. ad ūniversae reī dīmicātiōnem: 'to a battle deciding the whole issue'. ventum est: impersonal passive, 'it came'.

Liv. 1.38.4ad singula oppida circumferendō arma omne nōmen Latīnum domuit.

by carrying his arms round to the towns one at a time he subdued the whole Latin name.

Note. circumferendō arma: ablative of the gerund with a direct object, 'by carrying arms round'. nōmen Latīnum: 'the Latin name', i.e. the whole Latin people.

Liv. 1.38.4Corniculum, Ficulea vetus, Cameria, Crustumerium, Ameriola, Medullia, Nōmentum, haec dē Prīscīs Latīnīs aut quī ad Latīnōs dēfēcerant, capta oppida.

Corniculum, old Ficulea, Cameria, Crustumerium, Ameriola, Medullia, Nomentum — these towns were taken from the Old Latins or from those who had gone over to the Latins.

Note. A list in apposition to oppida, with capta (sunt) understood. Most of these towns lay in the hills north-east of Rome.

Liv. 1.38.4Pāx deinde est facta.

Then peace was made.

Liv. 1.38.5Maiōre inde animō pācis opera inchoāta, quam quantā mōle gesserat bella, ut nōn quiētior populus domī esset, quam mīlitiae fuisset;

After that, the works of peace were begun with even greater spirit than the effort with which he had waged his wars, so that the people had no more rest at home than they had had in the field;

Note. maiōre animō … quam quantā mōle: 'with greater spirit than the effort with which…'. mīlitiae: locative, 'on campaign'. pācis opera: 'the works of peace', i.e. public building.

Liv. 1.38.6nam et mūrō lapideō, cuius exōrdium operis Sabīnō bellō turbātum erat, urbem, quā nōndum mūnierat, cingere parat et īnfima urbis loca circā forum aliāsque interiectās collibus convallēs, quia ex plānīs locīs haud facile ēvehēbant aquās, cloācīs fastīgiō in Tiberim ductīs siccat et āream ad aedem in Capitōliō Iovis, quam vōverat bellō Sabīnō, iam praesāgiente animō futūram ōlim amplitūdinem locī occupat fundāmentīs.

for he set about surrounding the city with a stone wall, in the places where it was not yet fortified — the beginning of the work had been interrupted by the Sabine war — and he drained the low-lying parts of the city around the Forum and the other valleys lying between the hills, where the water could not easily run off from the flat ground, by means of sewers sloping down into the Tiber; and he took possession of the site for the temple of Jupiter on the Capitol, which he had vowed in the Sabine war, laying foundations there, his mind already foreseeing the future greatness of the place.

Note. A long Livian period with three main verbs: parat, siccat, occupat. cloācīs fastīgiō … ductīs: 'by sewers led down with a slope'; this is the beginning of the Cloaca Maxima, which drained the Forum valley. The temple of Jupiter on the Capitol was finished under the last king.