Nepos, Hannibal 4

Hann. 4.1Cōnflīxerat apud Rhodanum cum P. Cornēliō Scīpiōne cōnsule eumque pepulerat.

He had fought at the Rhone with the consul Publius Cornelius Scipio and had driven him back.

Note. Conflīxerat is pluperfect: Nepos steps back to tell the battles in Italy in order. P. Cornelius Scipio, father of the later Africanus, was beaten at the river Ticinus near the Rhone route (218 BC).

Hann. 4.1Cum hōc eōdem Clastidiī apud Padum dēcernit sauciumque inde ac fugātum dīmittit.

He fights this same man at Clastidium near the Po and sends him away wounded and routed.

Note. dēcernit and dīmittit are historic presents, which make the narrative vivid. Clastidiī is a locative, 'at Clastidium'. sauciumque … ac fugātum: both participles describe Scipio, the object of dīmittit.

Hann. 4.2Tertiō īdem Scīpiō cum collēgā Ti. Longō apud Trebiam adversus eum vēnit.

A third time the same Scipio, with his colleague Tiberius Longus, came against him at the Trebia.

Note. At the Trebia (December 218 BC) the two consuls Scipio and Ti. Sempronius Longus were heavily defeated.

Hann. 4.2Cum iīs manum cōnseruit, utrōsque prōflīgāvit.

He engaged them and crushed both.

Hann. 4.2Inde per Ligurēs Appennīnum trānsiit, petēns Etrūriam.

From there he crossed the Apennines through the land of the Ligurians, heading for Etruria.

Hann. 4.3Hōc in itinere adeō gravī morbō afficitur oculōrum, ut posteā numquam dextrō aequē bene ūsus sit.

On this march he was struck by such a bad disease of the eyes that afterwards he never again had the same use of the right one.

Note. dextrō is short for dextrō oculō, an ablative after ūsus sit (ūtor takes the ablative). Hannibal lost the sight of one eye while crossing the flooded Arno marshes.

Hann. 4.3Quā valētūdine cum etiamnum premerētur lectīcāque ferrētur, C. Flāminium cōnsulem apud Trasumennum cum exercitū īnsidiīs circumventum occīdit, neque multō post C. Centēnium praetōrem cum dēlēctā manū saltūs occupantem.

While he was still suffering from this illness and was being carried in a litter, he trapped and killed the consul Gaius Flaminius with his army at Lake Trasimene, and not long after the praetor Gaius Centenius, who was holding the passes with a picked force.

Note. Lake Trasimene (217 BC): Hannibal hid his army in the hills above the lake shore and trapped the consul Flaminius in the morning mist. Note neque multō post 'and not long after': multō is an ablative of the degree of difference with the adverb post.

Hann. 4.4Hinc in Āpūliam pervēnit.

From there he came to Apulia.

Hann. 4.4Ibi obviam eī vēnērunt duo cōnsulēs, C. Terentius et L. Aemilius.

There two consuls came to meet him, Gaius Terentius and Lucius Aemilius.

Note. obviam … vēnērunt 'came to meet him' (obviam with the dative eī). C. Terentius Varro and L. Aemilius Paulus were the consuls of 216 BC.

Hann. 4.4Utrīusque exercitūs ūnō proeliō fugāvit, Paulum cōnsulem occīdit et aliquot praetereā cōnsulārēs, in eīs Cn. Servīlium Geminum, quī superiōre annō fuerat cōnsul.

He routed the armies of both in one battle, and killed the consul Paulus and several ex-consuls besides, among them Gnaeus Servilius Geminus, who had been consul the year before.

Note. This is Cannae (216 BC), the greatest Roman defeat: Utrīusque exercitūs 'the armies of both' (consuls). Nepos does not even name the battle here; he names it later (Cannēnsem pugnam).