185. quae cum…cuncta: = cum haec cuncta, sc. tela; the INTERLOCKED WORD ORDER (ABAB: quae…obiecto cuncta scuto), common in poetry and in Livy’s often poetic style, is perhaps meant to create a WORD PICTURE, with the word cuncta (= omnia) contained within the phrase obiecto…scuto, just as all (the spears) are themselves pictured as stuck within the circle of the shield.
haesissent: haerere,to cling, stick.
186. ingenti pontem…gradu: another WORD PICTURE with Cocles’ huge stride actually spanning the bridge.
187. detrudere: to thrust down, dislodge.
simul fragor…simul clamor (188): ANAPHORA, ASYNDETON, and ASSONANCE all contribute to the poetic quality of the passage.
fragor:breaking, crash, noise.
189. pavore: pavor, trembling, terror.
190. Tiberine pater: Codes ritually prays to the god of the Tiber; river deities were regularly conceived of as male.
precor: precari,to pray, beseech, invoke.
191. accipias: sc. ut, JUSSIVE NOUN CL. with precor.
193. incolumis: uninjured, safe.
tranavit: tranare,to swim across.
Cocles leaps to safety in the Tiber and is honored by the Romans.
Lunette with Fortitude and Temperance above and Lucius Licinius, Leonidas, Horatius Codes, Scipio Africanus the Elder, Pericles, and Cincinnatus Pietro Perugino, 15th century Collegio del Cambio, Palazzo dei Priori (Comunale), Perugia, Italy
Alinari/Art Resource, NY.
190 Tum Cocles “Tiberine pater,” inquit, “te, sancte, precor, haec arma et hunc militem propitio flumine accipias!” Ita sic armatus in Tiberim desiluit, multisque superincidentibus telis, incolumis ad suos tranavit, rem ausus plus famae habituram ad posteros quam fidei. Grata erga tantam virtutem civitas fuit: 195 statua in comitio posita; agri quantum uno die circumaravit datum. (II.10.1–12)
195. statua: Pliny the Elder reports that an ancient statue of Cocles was still to be seen in Rome in his own day (the first century A.D.).
agri: PARTITIVE GEN. with quantum, as much land as.
datum: i.e., ei datum est.
198. obsidendam: obsidere, to besiege.
199. accitis: accire, to summon, send for.
et ad…et ut (200):both for…and so that.
200. frumenti: frumentum, grain.
201. praedatum: supine of praedari, to plunder.
202. brevi: sc. tempore.
203. cetera: i.e., the rest of their belongings.
204. propellere: sc. pecus.
206. obsidio erat: obsidio, siege; i.e., the siege continued.
nihilo minus: i.e., despite a temporarily successful Roman action against some Etruscan foragers.
caritate: caritas, here, high price.
207. inopia: want, lack, need.
208. cum: when, should introduce constituit, but the cl. becomes so involved that after fuderit Livy starts all over with itaque.
C. Mucius:Gaius Mucius Scaevola, whose bold venture described here is another very old Roman legend.
indignum videbatur:it seemed disgraceful that, governing the IND. STATE. that follows.
209. servientem, cum…esset: lit., being in slavery when under the kings = when enslaved under the kings.
210. liberum eundem populum (211): sc. sed.
212. fuderit: sc. populus Romanus; strictly speaking, the hist, sequence of tenses requires fudisset in this SUBORDINATE CL. IN IND. STATE., but Livy often employs primary tenses in hist, sequence.
facinore: facinus,deed, crime.
