162. exurebatur: exurere, to burn up.
amoenissimus:the most lovely.
ager: here, district, countryside.
163. Massici montis: Mount Massicus, along the border of Latium and Campania, north of the Volturnus.
164. de integro: anew.
accensa: accendere,to kindle, set on fire, stir up, incite; sc. est.
in suos…intentus (165):alert to his own men.
167. infamem: unpopular.
169. actum est: impers. pass.; agere here = discuss.
170. enimvero: adv., indeed, certainly.
171. dictatorem: subj. of the IND. STATE., which continues through the next several cls. to the end of the sent., following an understood speech vb.
rei bene gerendae: freely, the proper management of matters; dat. with obstitisse.
172. gestae: sc. rei bene, paralleling rei bene gerendae; the ever-cautious Fabius had expressed reluctance to celebrate even a recent battle in which the Romans had enjoyed a minor victory.
sedulo: adv., deliberately.
173. quo: by which action, but essentially = ut; quo was often used to introduce a PURPOSE CL. containing a comparative adj. or adv.
174. promulgaturum: sc. se as subj. of the IND. STATE.; with rogationem, to introduce a bill.
175. de aequando…iure: the whole purpose of the dictatorship was to secure in an emergency greater efficiency by granting all the imperium to one man instead of two consuls; thus the measure here proposed was by no means modicam, as it nullified the original intent of the dictatorship. After being appointed co-dictator, Minucius and his army were trapped by Hannibal until they were rescued by Fabius; thereafter Minucius had the good sense to recognize Fabius as his superior until the end of Fabius’ six-month term.
Disagreement with Fabius increases both in the army and at Rome.
“The Banquet of Syphax” (with Scipio Africanus) Geraert van der Strecken 17th century Palazzo Labia Venice, Italy
Scala/Art Resource, NY.
Ut vero, postquam ad Volturnum flumen castra sunt posita, exurebatur amoenissimus Italiae ager villaeque passim incendiis fumabant, per iuga Massici montis Fabio ducente, tum prope de integro seditio accensa. Fabius pariter in suos haud 165 minus quam in hostes intentus, prius ab illis invictum animum praestat. Quamquam probe scit non in castris modo suis sed iam etiam Romae infamem suam cunctationem esse, obstinatus tamen tenore eodem consiliorum, aestatis reliquum extraxit. De iis rebus persaepe et in senatu et in contione actum est. Tum 170 M. Metilius, tribunus plebis, id enimvero ferendum esse negat: non praesentem solum dictatorem obstitisse rei bene gerendae, sed absentem etiam gestae obstare, et in ducendo bello sedulo tempus terere, quo diutius in magistratu sit solusque et Romae et in exercitu imperium habeat; nunc modicam rogationem promulgaturum 175 de aequando magistri equitum et dictatoris iure; nec tamen ne ita quidem prius mittendum ad exercitum Q. Fabium quam consulem in locum C. Flamini suffecisset. Unus inventus est suasor legis, C. Terentius Varro, qui priore anno praetor fuerat, loco non humili solum sed etiam sordido ortus. (XXII. 14.1–25.18, excerpts)
176. nec…ne ita quidem: the double negatives do not cancel each other, and not even so.
prius…quam (177):sooner…than, until.
mittendum: sc. esse, still IND. STATE.
177. Flamini: who had died at Trasimene.
suffecisset: sufficere,to suffice, supply, substitute, appoint (in place of another).
178. suasor: recommender, advocate.
C. Terentius Varro: praetor in 218, Gaius Terentius Varro became consul in 216, when, along with Lucius Aemilius Paulus, he led the Roman army that Hannibal crushed at the battle of Cannae.
179. loco…sordido: ABL. OF ORIGIN, a common construction, usually, as here, without a prep.; his father was a butcher and he was himself a plebeian and, in Livy’s somewhat biased account, a demagogue.
180. cum: conj.
orationibus: delivered by a tribune who had inveighed against the patricians.
181. rogando collegae: for electing a colleague, DAT. OF PURPOSE.
182. experta: experiri; lit., having tried = realizing from experience.
competitoribus: one of the two consuls had to be a plebeian and the other a patrician, but the patrician vote had been split among several candidates, so that none had received the required majority and only Varro had been initially elected; thus the patricians were especially eager to find a candidate who would be a strong match for his plebeian colleague.
183. plebei: an alternate fifth decl. form for plebi; Paulus had earlier been consul, in 219 B.C., and was involved in an indictment brought by the people against his colleague, hence his hostility.
recusantem: recusare,to decline, refuse, protest.
184. ad petitionem: to the campaign for election, to run for election.
185. eum proficiscentem: i.e., Paulus; Fabius, no longer dictator, addresses the consul as he leaves for the war.
