Livy, History of Rome I: A Selection by John Storey

Author:John Storey [Storey, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781350060395
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2021-03-25T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 58

58.1

paucis interiectis diebus: Ablative Absolute, little more than ‘a few days later’.

inscio Collatino: obvious from what follows, but here establishing the impropriety of Sextus’ subsequent visit to Collatia.

58.2

ubi … inquit: Tarquinius’ arrival is described in a complicated series of clauses making up a single long sentence – everything happens in sequence in a complex and planned fashion.

ubi: ‘there’.

exceptus benigne ab ignaris consilii: ‘received kindly by those unaware of the plan’ – the hospitality shown to Sextus stands in sharp contrast to the outrage he is planning to enact.

cum … deductus esset: Sextus is provided with both a dinner and a suitable guestroom – his hostess is blissfully unaware of the threat, and acting with absolute propriety.

amore ardens: brief and simple, but powerfully expressed, Participial phrase reminding the reader of Sextus’ ‘burning’ passion; note assonance.

postquam … videbantur: Temporal Clause; Sextus doesn’t act hastily, but rather waits for the rest of the household to be asleep – his passion may be blazing, but his actions are cold and calculating.

satis tuta circa sopitique omnes: ‘everything around was safe enough and all were asleep.’

stricto gladio: Ablative Absolute, ‘with his sword drawn’.

ad dormientem Lucretiam: Lucretia has gone to bed unaware of the threat within her home.

sinistraque manu mulieris pectore oppresso: ‘with his left hand he pressed down upon the woman’s breast’ – his right hand, of course, is holding his sword. These two Ablative Absolutes (stricto gladio and pectore oppresso) frame the simplicity of the main clause (ad dormientem Lucretiam venit) to give a truly threatening image: it is a terrifying way for her to wake up.

‘tace … vocem.’: by contrast with the complex sentence describing Sextus’ arrival and entry into Lucretia’s bedroom, his words are quick and to the point, expressed in short self-contained periods.

moriere: variant Second Person Singular, for morieris ‘you will die’.

58.3

pavida ex somno: ‘startled from her sleep’.

nullam opem, prope mortem imminentem: supply esse – ‘that there was no help, death threatening nearby …’.

Tarquinius fateri…, orare, miscere, versare: Historic Infinitives in Asyndeton – Sextus continues to speak with breathless urgency. We note a slide in his technique from a confession of love, through begging, to threatening and manipulating: this is not real love.

versare in omnes partes muliebrem animum: ‘twisted her womanly mind in every direction’, i.e. applied every conceivable pressure on it.

58.4

obstinatam: supply eam … esse – Indirect Statement ‘that she was resolute’.

ne mortis quidem metu inclinari: again, supply eam – Indirect Statement ‘that she was not even caused to waver by fear of death’.

addit ad metum dedecus: a very simple clause expresses Sextus’ final method – he identifies what Lucretia is really afraid of, dishonour. dedecus is Accusative.

cum mortua: ‘beside her in death’.

iugulatum servum nudum positurum: supply esse – ‘that he would place a naked slave with his throat cut’. The anonymity of the slave contributes to the horror of the suggestion.

ut … dicatur: Purpose Clause – ‘so that it would be said’.

in sordido adulterio: the implication is that the adultery with which she would be posthumously charged would be even more dishonourable because with a slave.

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