1. Polybius, Histories, 10.11.8, 36.17 (2nd cent. BCE - 2nd cent. BCE)
Tagged with subjects: • fate, εἱμαρμένη/fatum • fatum
Found in books: Crabb (2020), Luke/Acts and the End of History, 151, 169; Santangelo (2013), Roman Frugality: Modes of Moderation from the Archaic Age to the Early Empire and Beyond, 208, 210
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10.11.8 1. \xa0Such being the situation of the place, the Roman camp was protected on its inner side without any fortification by the lagoon and by the outer sea.,2. \xa0The intervening space, which connects the city with the mainland and which lay in the middle of his camp, was also left unintrenched by Scipio, either to intimidate the enemy or to adapt it to his own particular purpose, so that there should be no impediment to sorties from his camp and subsequent retirement into it.,4. \xa0The circumference of the city was formerly not more than twenty stades â\x80\x94 I\xa0am quite aware that many state it to be forty, but this is not true, as I\xa0speak not from report but from my own careful observation â\x80\x94 and at the present day it has still further shrunk.,5. \xa0Scipio, then, when the fleet arrived in due time, decided to call a meeting of his troops and address them, using no other arguments than those which had carried conviction to himself and which I\xa0have above stated in detail.,6. \xa0After proving to them that the project was feasible, and pointing out briefly what loss its success would entail on the enemy and what an advantage it would be to themselves, he went on to promise gold crowns to those who should be the first to mount the wall and the usual rewards to such as displayed conspicuous courage.,7. \xa0Finally he told them that it was Neptune who had first suggested this plan to him, appearing to him in his sleep, and promising that when the time for the action came he would render such conspicuous aid that his intervention would be manifest to the whole army.,9. \xa0The combination in this speech of accurate calculation, of the promise of gold crowns, and therewithal of confidence in the help of Providence created great enthusiasm and ardour among the lads. ' "
36.17 1. \xa0For my part, says Polybius, in finding fault with those who ascribe public events and incidents to Fate and Chance, I\xa0now wish to state my opinion on this subject as far as it is admissible to do so in a strictly historical work.,2. \xa0Now indeed as regards things the causes of which it is impossible or difficult for a mere man to understand, we may perhaps be justified in getting out of the difficulty by setting them down to the action of a god or of chance, I\xa0mean such things as exceptionally heavy and continuous rain or snow, or on the other hand the destruction of crops by severe drought or frost, or a persistent outbreak of plague or other similar things of which it is not easy to detect the cause.,3. \xa0So in regard to such matters we naturally bow to public opinion, as we cannot make out why they happen, and attempting by prayer and sacrifice to appease the heavenly powers, we send to ask the gods what we must do and say, to set things right and cause the evil that afflicts us to cease.,4. \xa0But as for matters the efficient and final cause of which it is possible to discover we should not, I\xa0think, put them down to divine action.,5. \xa0For instance, take the following case. In our own time the whole of Greece has been subject to a low birth-rate and a general decrease of the population, owing to which cities have become deserted and the land has ceased to yield fruit, although there have neither been continuous wars nor epidemics.,6. \xa0If, then, any one had advised us to send and ask the gods about this, and find out what we ought to say or do, to increase in number and make our cities more populous, would it not seem absurd, the cause of the evil being evident and the remedy being in our own hands?,7. \xa0For as men had fallen into such a state of pretentiousness, avarice, and indolence that they did not wish to marry, or if they married to rear the children born to them, or at most as a rule but one or two of them, so as to leave these in affluence and bring them up to waste their substance, the evil rapidly and insensibly grew.,8. \xa0For in cases where of one or two children the one was carried off by war and the other by sickness, it is evident that the houses must have been left unoccupied, and as in the case of swarms of bees, so by small degrees cities became resourceless and feeble.,9. \xa0About this it was of no use at all to ask the gods to suggest a means of deliverance from such an evil.,10. \xa0For any ordinary man will tell you that the most effectual cure had to be men's own action, in either striving after other objects, or if not, in passing laws making it compulsory to rear children. Neither prophets nor magic were here of any service,,11. \xa0and the same holds good for all particulars.,12. \xa0But in cases where it is either impossible or difficult to detect the cause the question is open to doubt. One such case is that of Macedonia.,13. \xa0For the Macedonians had met with many signal favours from Rome; the country as a whole had been delivered from the arbitrary rule and taxation of autocrats, and, as all confessed, now enjoyed freedom in place of servitude, and the several cities had, owing to the beneficent action of Rome, been freed from serious civil discord and internecine massacres.\xa0.\xa0.\xa0. But now they witnessed in quite a short time more of their citizens exiled, tortured and murdered by this false Philip than by any of their previous real kings.\xa0.\xa0.\xa0.,14. \xa0But while they were defeated by the Romans in fighting for Demetrius and Perseus, yet now fighting for a hateful man and displaying great valour in defence of his throne, they worsted the Romans.,15. \xa0How can anyone fail to be nonplused by such an event? for here it is most difficult to detect the cause. So that in pronouncing on this and similar phenomena we may well say that the thing was a heaven-sent infatuation, and that all the Macedonians were visited by the wrath of God, as will be evident from what follows. â\x97\x82\xa0previous next\xa0â\x96¸ Images with borders lead to more information. The thicker the border, the more information. (Details here.) UP TO: Polybius Classical Texts LacusCurtius Home A\xa0page or image on this site is in the public domain ONLY if its URL has a total of one *asterisk. If the URL has two **asterisks, the item is copyright someone else, and used by permission or fair use. If the URL has none the item is ©\xa0Bill Thayer. See my copyright page for details and contact information. Page updated: 29\xa0Mar\xa022"' None |
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2. None, None, nan (2nd cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE)
Tagged with subjects: • Fate / fatum / εἱμαρμένη • fatum
Found in books: Maso (2022), CIcero's Philosophy, 40; Santangelo (2013), Roman Frugality: Modes of Moderation from the Archaic Age to the Early Empire and Beyond, 63
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3. None, None, nan (1st cent. BCE - missingth cent. CE)
Tagged with subjects: • Scipio Africanus, and fatum • decemuiri sacris faciundis, and fatum • expiation, redundant with fatum • fatum • fatum, and Sibylline Books • fatum, and death • fatum, and priests • fatum, and the gods • fatum, and uirtus • fatum, avoided as diagnosis • fatum, higher' explanation • fatum, in Livy • fatum, inevitable • fatum, judicious deployment • fatum, of Rome • fatum, patterns in • haruspices, and fatum
Found in books: Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 100, 107, 108, 109, 110, 118; Santangelo (2013), Roman Frugality: Modes of Moderation from the Archaic Age to the Early Empire and Beyond, 207, 208, 209, 233
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4. Tacitus, Annals, 1.3.3, 1.9.1, 1.55.3, 4.58.3, 4.64.1, 6.22.1-6.22.3, 6.46.3, 12.43.1, 16.5.3 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
Tagged with subjects: • Tacitus, and the fatum of Rome • Tiberius, emperor, and fatum • Vespasian, and fatum • Vitellius, and fatum • astrology, and fatum • fate, εἱμαρμένη/fatum • fatum • fatum, and death • fatum, and emperors • fatum, and individuals • fatum, and the gods • fatum, diagnosis • fatum, in Tacitus • fatum, inevitable • fatum, of Rome • fatum, patterns in • fatum, response to • fors, and fatum • fortuna, and fatum
Found in books: Crabb (2020), Luke/Acts and the End of History, 153, 169; Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 161, 171, 172, 173, 175, 212; Shannon-Henderson (2019), Power Play in Latin Love Elegy and its Multiple Forms of Continuity in Ovid’s , 21, 22, 79, 113, 202, 220, 228, 233, 334, 352, 357
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1.3.3 \xa0Meanwhile, to consolidate his power, Augustus raised Claudius Marcellus, his sister's son and a mere stripling, to the pontificate and curule aedileship: Marcus Agrippa, no aristocrat, but a good soldier and his partner in victory, he honoured with two successive consulates, and a little later, on the death of Marcellus, selected him as a son-inâ\x80\x91law. Each of his step-children, Tiberius Nero and Claudius Drusus, was given the title of Imperator, though his family proper was still intact: for he had admitted Agrippa's children, Gaius and Lucius, to the Caesarian hearth, and even during their minority had shown, under a veil of reluctance, a consuming desire to see them consuls designate with the title Princes of the Youth. When Agrippa gave up the ghost, untimely fate, or the treachery of their stepmother Livia, cut off both Lucius and Caius Caesar, Lucius on his road to the Spanish armies, Caius â\x80\x94 wounded and sick â\x80\x94 on his return from Armenia. Drusus had long been dead, and of the stepsons Nero survived alone. On him all centred. Adopted as son, as colleague in the empire, as consort of the tribunician power, he was paraded through all the armies, not as before by the secret diplomacy of his mother, but openly at her injunction. For so firmly had she riveted her chains upon the aged Augustus that he banished to the isle of Planasia his one remaining grandson, Agrippa Postumus, who though guiltless of a virtue, and confident brute-like in his physical strength, had been convicted of no open scandal. Yet, curiously enough, he placed Drusus' son Germanicus at the head of eight legions on the Rhine, and ordered Tiberius to adopt him: it was one safeguard the more, even though Tiberius had already an adult son under his roof. War at the time was none, except an outstanding campaign against the Germans, waged more to redeem the prestige lost with Quintilius Varus and his army than from any wish to extend the empire or with any prospect of an adequate recompense. At home all was calm. The officials carried the old names; the younger men had been born after the victory of Actium; most even of the elder generation, during the civil wars; few indeed were left who had seen the Republic. <" 1.9.1 \xa0Then tongues became busy with Augustus himself. Most men were struck by trivial points â\x80\x94 that one day should have been the first of his sovereignty and the last of his life â\x80\x94 that he should have ended his days at Nola in the same house and room as his father Octavius. Much, too, was said of the number of his consulates (in which he had equalled the combined totals of Valerius Corvus and Caius Marius), his tribunician power unbroken for thirty-seven years, his title of Imperator twenty-one times earned, and his other honours, multiplied or new. Among men of intelligence, however, his career was praised or arraigned from varying points of view. According to some, "filial duty and the needs of a country, which at the time had no room for law, had driven him to the weapons of civil strife â\x80\x94 weapons which could not be either forged or wielded with clean hands. He had overlooked much in Antony, much in Lepidus, for the sake of bringing to book the assassins of his father. When Lepidus grew old and indolent, and Antony succumbed to his vices, the sole remedy for his distracted country was government by one man. Yet he organized the state, not by instituting a monarchy or a dictatorship, but by creating the title of First Citizen. The empire had been fenced by the ocean or distant rivers. The legions, the provinces, the fleets, the whole administration, had been centralized. There had been law for the Roman citizen, respect for the allied communities; and the capital itself had been embellished with remarkable splendour. Very few situations had been treated by force, and then only in the interests of general tranquillity."
1.55.3 \xa0Drusus Caesar and Gaius Norbanus were now consuls, and a triumph was decreed to Germanicus with the war still in progress. He was preparing to prosecute it with his utmost power in the summer; but in early spring he anticipated matters by a sudden raid against the Chatti. Hopes had arisen that the enemy was becoming divided between Arminius and Segestes: both famous names, one for perfidy towards us, the other for good faith. Arminius was the troubler of Germany: Segestes had repeatedly given warning of projected risings, especially at the last great banquet which preceded the appeal to arms; when he urged Varus to arrest Arminius, himself, and the other chieftains, on the ground that, with their leaders out of the way, the mass of the people would venture nothing, while he would have time enough later to discriminate between guilt and innocence. Varus, however, succumbed to his fate and the sword of Arminius; Segestes, though forced into the war by the united will of the nation, continued to disapprove, and domestic episodes embittered the feud: for Arminius by carrying off his daughter, who was pledged to another, had made himself the hated son-inâ\x80\x91law of a hostile father, and a relationship which cements the affection of friends now stimulated the fury of enemies. <
4.58.3 \xa0His exit was made with a slender retinue: one senator who had held a consulship (the jurist Cocceius Nerva) and â\x80\x94 in addition to Sejanus â\x80\x94 one Roman knight of the higher rank, Curtius Atticus; the rest being men of letters, principally Greeks, in whose conversation he was to find amusement. The astrologers declared that he had left Rome under a conjunction of planets excluding the possibility of return: a\xa0fatal assertion to the many who concluded that the end was at hand and gave publicity to their views. For they failed to foresee the incredible event, that through eleven years he would persist self-exiled from his fatherland. It was soon to be revealed how close are the confines of science and imposture, how dark the veil that covers truth. That he would never return to Rome was not said at venture: of all else, the seers were ignorant; for in the adjacent country, on neighbouring beaches, often hard under the city-walls, he reached the utmost limit of old age. <
4.64.1 \xa0The disaster had not yet faded from memory, when a fierce outbreak of fire affected the city to an unusual degree by burning down the Caelian Hill. "It was a fatal year, and the sovereign\'s decision to absent himself had been adopted under an evil star" â\x80\x94 so men began to remark, converting, as is the habit of the crowd, the fortuitous into the culpable, when the Caesar checked the critics by a distribution of money in proportion to loss sustained. Thanks were returned to him; in the senate, by the noble; in the streets, by the voice of the people: for without respect of persons, and without the intercession of relatives, he had aided with his liberality even unknown sufferers whom he had himself encouraged to apply. Proposals were added that the Caelian Hill should for the future be known as the Augustan, since, with all around on fire, the one thing to remain unscathed had been a bust of Tiberius in the house of the senator Junius. "The same," it was said, "had happened formerly to Claudia Quinta; whose statue, twice escaped from the fury of the flames, our ancestors had dedicated in the temple of the Mother of the Gods. The Claudian race was sacrosanct and acceptable to Heaven, and additional solemnity should be given to the ground on which the gods had shown so notable an honour to the sovereign."' "
6.22.1 \xa0For myself, when I\xa0listen to this and similar narratives, my judgement wavers. Is the revolution of human things governed by fate and changeless necessity, or by accident? You will find the wisest of the ancients, and the disciplines attached to their tenets, at complete variance; in many of them a fixed belief that Heaven concerns itself neither with our origins, nor with our ending, nor, in fine, with mankind, and that so adversity continually assails the good, while prosperity dwells among the evil. Others hold, on the contrary, that, though there is certainly a fate in harmony with events, it does not emanate from wandering stars, but must be sought in the principles and processes of natural causation. Still, they leave us free to choose our life: that choice made, however, the order of the future is certain. Nor, they maintain, are evil and good what the crowd imagines: many who appear to be the sport of adverse circumstances are happy; numbers are wholly wretched though in the midst of great possessions â\x80\x94 provided only that the former endure the strokes of fortune with firmness, while the latter employ her favours with unwisdom. With most men, however, the faith is ineradicable that the future of an individual is ordained at the moment of his entry into life; but at times a prophecy is falsified by the event, through the dishonesty of the prophet who speaks he knows not what; and thus is debased the credit of an art, of which the most striking evidences have been furnished both in the ancient world and in our own. For the forecast of Nero's reign, made by the son of this very Thrasyllus, shall be related at its fitting place: at present I\xa0do not care to stray too far from my theme." "6.22.2 \xa0For myself, when I\xa0listen to this and similar narratives, my judgement wavers. Is the revolution of human things governed by fate and changeless necessity, or by accident? You will find the wisest of the ancients, and the disciplines attached to their tenets, at complete variance; in many of them a fixed belief that Heaven concerns itself neither with our origins, nor with our ending, nor, in fine, with mankind, and that so adversity continually assails the good, while prosperity dwells among the evil. Others hold, on the contrary, that, though there is certainly a fate in harmony with events, it does not emanate from wandering stars, but must be sought in the principles and processes of natural causation. Still, they leave us free to choose our life: that choice made, however, the order of the future is certain. Nor, they maintain, are evil and good what the crowd imagines: many who appear to be the sport of adverse circumstances are happy; numbers are wholly wretched though in the midst of great possessions â\x80\x94 provided only that the former endure the strokes of fortune with firmness, while the latter employ her favours with unwisdom. With most men, however, the faith is ineradicable that the future of an individual is ordained at the moment of his entry into life; but at times a prophecy is falsified by the event, through the dishonesty of the prophet who speaks he knows not what; and thus is debased the credit of an art, of which the most striking evidences have been furnished both in the ancient world and in our own. For the forecast of Nero's reign, made by the son of this very Thrasyllus, shall be related at its fitting place: at present I\xa0do not care to stray too far from my theme. <" "6.22.3 \xa0For myself, when I\xa0listen to this and similar narratives, my judgement wavers. Is the revolution of human things governed by fate and changeless necessity, or by accident? You will find the wisest of the ancients, and the disciplines attached to their tenets, at complete variance; in many of them a fixed belief that Heaven concerns itself neither with our origins, nor with our ending, nor, in fine, with mankind, and that so adversity continually assails the good, while prosperity dwells among the evil. Others hold, on the contrary, that, though there is certainly a fate in harmony with events, it does not emanate from wandering stars, but must be sought in the principles and processes of natural causation. Still, they leave us free to choose our life: that choice made, however, the order of the future is certain. Nor, they maintain, are evil and good what the crowd imagines: many who appear to be the sport of adverse circumstances are happy; numbers are wholly wretched though in the midst of great possessions â\x80\x94 provided only that the former endure the strokes of fortune with firmness, while the latter employ her favours with unwisdom. With most men, however, the faith is ineradicable that the future of an individual is ordained at the moment of his entry into life; but at times a prophecy is falsified by the event, through the dishonesty of the prophet who speaks he knows not what; and thus is debased the credit of an art, of which the most striking evidences have been furnished both in the ancient world and in our own. For the forecast of Nero's reign, made by the son of this very Thrasyllus, shall be related at its fitting place: at present I\xa0do not care to stray too far from my theme. <" 6.46.3 \xa0This the emperor knew; and he hesitated therefore with regard to the succession â\x80\x94 first between his grandchildren. of these, the issue of Drusus was the nearer to him in blood and by affection, but had not yet entered the years of puberty: the son of Germanicus possessed the vigour of early manhood, but also the affections of the multitude â\x80\x94 and that, with his grandsire, was a ground of hatred. Even Claudius with his settled years and aspirations to culture came under consideration: the obstacle was his mental instability. Yet, if a successor were sought outside the imperial family, he dreaded that the memory of Augustus â\x80\x94 the name of the Caesars â\x80\x94 might be turned to derision and to contempt. For the care of Tiberius was not so much to enjoy popularity in the present as to court the approval of posterity. Soon, mentally irresolute, physically outworn, he left to fate a decision beyond his competence; though remarks escaped him which implied a foreknowledge of the future. For, with an allusion not difficult to read, he upbraided Macro with forsaking the setting and looking to the rising sun; and to Caligula, who in some casual conversation was deriding Lucius Sulla, he made the prophecy that he would have all the vices of Sulla with none of the Sullan virtues. At the same time, with a burst of tears, he embraced the younger of his grandsons; then, at the lowering looks of the other:â\x80\x94 "Thou wilt slay him," he said, "and another thee." Yet, in defiance of his failing health, he relinquished no detail of his libertinism: he was striving to make endurance pass for strength; and he had always had a sneer for the arts of the physicians, and for men who, after thirty years of life, needed the counsel of a stranger in order to distinguish things salutary to their system from things deleterious. <
12.43.1 \xa0Many prodigies occurred during the year. Ominous birds took their seat on the Capitol; houses were overturned by repeated shocks of earthquake, and, as the panic spread, the weak were trampled underfoot in the trepidation of the crowd. A\xa0shortage of corn, again, and the famine which resulted, were construed as a supernatural warning. Nor were the complaints always whispered. Claudius, sitting in judgement, was surrounded by a wildly clamorous mob, and, driven into the farthest corner of the Forum, was there subjected to violent pressure, until, with the help of a body of troops, he forced a way through the hostile throng. It was established that the capital had provisions for fifteen days, no more; and the crisis was relieved only by the especial grace of the gods and the mildness of the winter. And yet, Heaven knows, in the past, Italy exported supplies for the legions into remote provinces; nor is sterility the trouble now, but we cultivate Africa and Egypt by preference, and the life of the Roman nation has been staked upon cargo-boats and accidents.
16.5.3 \xa0But the spectators from remote country towns in the still austere Italy tenacious of its ancient ways â\x80\x94 those novices in wantonness from far-off provinces, who had come on a public mission or upon private business â\x80\x94 were neither able to tolerate the spectacle nor competent to their degrading task. They flagged with inexperienced hands; they deranged the experts; often they had to be castigated by the soldiers stationed among the blocks of seats to assure that not a moment of time should be wasted in unmodulated clamour or sluggish silence. It was known that numbers of knights were crushed to death while fighting their way up through the narrow gangway and the inrush of the descending crowd, and that others, through spending day and night on the benches, were attacked by incurable disease. For it was a graver ground of fear to be missing from the spectacle, since there was a host of spies openly present, and more in hiding, to note the names and faces, the gaiety and gloom, of the assembly. Hence, the lot of the humble was punishment, at once inflicted: in the case of the great, the debt of hatred, dissembled for a moment, was speedily repaid; and the story was told that Vespasian, reprimanded by the freedman Phoebus for closing his eyelids, and screened with difficulty by the prayers of the better party, was only saved later from the impending destruction by his predestined greatness. <'" None |
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5. Tacitus, Histories, 1.50.4, 1.86, 3.1, 4.26.2, 4.53 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
Tagged with subjects: • Tacitus, and the fatum of Rome • Vespasian, and fatum • fate, εἱμαρμένη/fatum • fatum • fatum, and emperors • fatum, and flattery • fatum, and individuals • fatum, and the gods • fatum, higher' explanation • fatum, in Ammianus • fatum, in Tacitus • fatum, inevitable • fatum, judicious deployment • fatum, of Rome • fatum, response to • fortuna, and fatum
Found in books: Crabb (2020), Luke/Acts and the End of History, 144, 169; Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 157, 161, 174, 176, 215, 220, 272; Shannon-Henderson (2019), Power Play in Latin Love Elegy and its Multiple Forms of Continuity in Ovid’s , 20, 357
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1.50.4 \xa0Rome was in a state of excitement and horror-stricken not only at the recent outrageous crime, but also at the thought of Otho's former character. Now it was terrified in addition by news with regard to Vitellius, which had been suppressed before Galba's death, so that the citizens believed that only the army of Upper Germany had mutinied. Then the thought that two men, the worst in the world for their shamelessness, indolence, and profligacy, had been apparently chosen by fate to ruin the empire, caused open grief not only to the senators and knights who had some share and interest in the state, but even to the common people. Their talk was no longer of the recent horrors of a bloody peace, but they recalled memories of the civil wars and spoke of the many times the city had been captured by Roman armies, of the devastation of Italy, of the plundering of the provinces, of Pharsalia, Philippi, Perusia, and Mutina, names notorious for public disaster. They said that the world had been well-nigh overturned, even when the principate was the prize of honest men; but yet the empire had remained when Julius Caesar won, and had likewise remained when Augustus won; the republic would have remained if Pompey and Brutus had been successful; but now â\x80\x94 should they go to the temples to pray for an Otho or a Vitellius? Prayers for either would be impious and vows for either detestable when, in the struggle between the two, the only thing of which men were certain was that the victor would be the worse. There were some who had forebodings of Vespasian and the armies in the East, and yet although Vespasian was a better man than Otho or Vitellius, they shuddered at another war and another massacre. Indeed Vespasian's reputation was uncertain; he, unlike all his predecessors, was the only emperor who was changed for the better by his office." "
1.86 \xa0Prodigies which were reported on various authorities also contributed to the general terror. It was said that in the vestibule of the Capitol the reins of the chariot in which Victory stood had fallen from the goddess's hands, that a superhuman form had rushed out of Juno's chapel, that a statue of the deified Julius on the island of the Tiber had turned from west to east on a bright calm day, that an ox had spoken in Etruria, that animals had given birth to strange young, and that many other things had happened which in barbarous ages used to be noticed even during peace, but which now are only heard of in seasons of terror. Yet the chief anxiety which was connected with both present disaster and future danger was caused by a sudden overflow of the Tiber which, swollen to a great height, broke down the wooden bridge and then was thrown back by the ruins of the bridge which dammed the stream, and overflowed not only the low-lying level parts of the city, but also parts which are normally free from such disasters. Many were swept away in the public streets, a larger number cut off in shops and in their beds. The common people were reduced to famine by lack of employment and failure of supplies. Apartment houses had their foundations undermined by the standing water and then collapsed when the flood withdrew. The moment people's minds were relieved of this danger, the very fact that when Otho was planning a military expedition, the Campus Martius and the Flaminian Way, over which he was to advance, were blocked against him was interpreted as a prodigy and an omen of impending disaster rather than as the result of chance or natural causes." 3.1 \xa0The generals of the Flavian party were planning their campaign with better fortune and greater loyalty. They had come together at Poetovio, the winter quarters of the Thirteenth legion. There they discussed whether they should guard the passes of the Pannonian Alps until the whole mass of their forces could be raised behind them, or whether it would not be a bolder stroke to engage the enemy at once and struggle with him for the possession of Italy. Those who favoured waiting for the auxiliaries and prolonging the war, emphasized the strength and reputation of the German legions and dwelt on the fact that the flower of the army in Britain had recently arrived with Vitellius; they pointed out that they had on their side an inferior number of legions, and at best legions which had lately been beaten, and that although the soldiers talked boldly enough, the defeated always have less courage. But while they meantime held the Alps, Mucianus, they said, would arrive with the troops from the east; Vespasian had besides full control of the sea and his fleets, and he could count on the enthusiastic support of the provinces, through whose aid he could raise the storm of almost a second war. Therefore they declared that delay would favour them, that new forces would join them, and that they would lose none of their present advantages.
4.26.2 \xa0But there were many things that exasperated their rebellious temper: there was a lack of pay and grain, and at the same time the Gallic provinces scornfully refused a levy and tribute; the Rhine hardly floated boats, owing to a drought unprecedented in that climate; reprovisionment was hampered; detachments were posted all along the bank of the Rhine to keep the Germans from fording it, and for the same reason there was less grain while there were more to eat it. The ignorant regarded even the low water as a prodigy, as if the very rivers, the ancient defences of our empire, were failing us: what they would have called in time of peace an act of chance or nature, they then called fate and the wrath of the gods. When our troops entered Novaesium the Sixteenth legion joined them. Vocula now had Herennius Gallus associated with him to share his responsibilities; and not daring to move against the enemy, they pitched camp at a place called Gelduba. There they improved the morale of their soldiers by drilling them in battle formation, by having them erect fortifications and a palisade, and by all other forms of military training; and to fire their bravery by giving them a chance to pillage, Vocula led a force into the nearest cantons of the Cugerni, who had allied themselves with Civilis; part of the troops remained with Herennius Gallus.' "
4.53 \xa0The charge of restoring the Capitol was given by Vespasian to Lucius Vestinus, a member of the equestrian order, but one whose influence and reputation put him on an equality with the nobility. The haruspices when assembled by him directed that the ruins of the old shrine should be carried away to the marshes and that a new temple should be erected on exactly the same site as the old: the gods were unwilling to have the old plan changed. On the twenty-first of June, under a cloudless sky, the area that was dedicated to the temple was surrounded with fillets and garlands; soldiers, who had auspicious names, entered the enclosure carrying boughs of good omen; then the Vestals, accompanied by boys and girls whose fathers and mothers were living, sprinkled the area with water drawn from fountains and streams. Next Helvidius Priscus, the praetor, guided by the pontifex Plautius Aelianus, purified the area with the sacrifice of the suovetaurilia, and placed the vitals of the victims on an altar of turf; and then, after he had prayed to Jupiter, Juno, Minerva, and to the gods who protect the empire to prosper this undertaking and by their divine assistance to raise again their home which man's piety had begun, he touched the fillets with which the foundation stone was wound and the ropes entwined; at the same time the rest of the magistrates, the priests, senators, knights, and a great part of the people, putting forth their strength together in one enthusiastic and joyful effort, dragged the huge stone to its place. A\xa0shower of gold and silver and of virgin ores, never smelted in any furnace, but in their natural state, was thrown everywhere into the foundations: the haruspices had warned against the profanation of the work by the use of stone or gold intended for any other purpose. The temple was given greater height than the old: this was the only change that religious scruples allowed, and the only feature that was thought wanting in the magnificence of the old structure."" None |
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6. Vergil, Aeneis, 1.235, 1.239, 1.250, 1.257-1.296, 12.828
Tagged with subjects: • Aeneid (Vergil), fatum • fate, εἱμαρμένη/fatum • fatum
Found in books: Crabb (2020), Luke/Acts and the End of History, 85, 135, 150, 171, 240, 280; Santangelo (2013), Roman Frugality: Modes of Moderation from the Archaic Age to the Early Empire and Beyond, 233; Walter (2020), Time in Ancient Stories of Origin, 158, 164, 165, 173
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1.235 hinc fore ductores, revocato a sanguine Teucri,
1.239 solabar, fatis contraria fata rependens;
1.250 nos, tua progenies, caeli quibus adnuis arcem,
1.257 Parce metu, Cytherea: manent immota tuorum 1.258 fata tibi; cernes urbem et promissa Lavini 1.259 moenia, sublimemque feres ad sidera caeli 1.260 magimum Aenean; neque me sententia vertit. 1.261 Hic tibi (fabor enim, quando haec te cura remordet, 1.262 longius et volvens fatorum arcana movebo) 1.263 bellum ingens geret Italia, populosque feroces 1.264 contundet, moresque viris et moenia ponet, 1.266 ternaque transierint Rutulis hiberna subactis. 1.267 At puer Ascanius, cui nunc cognomen Iulo 1.268 additur,—Ilus erat, dum res stetit Ilia regno,— 1.269 triginta magnos volvendis mensibus orbis 1.270 imperio explebit, regnumque ab sede Lavini 1.271 transferet, et longam multa vi muniet Albam. 1.272 Hic iam ter centum totos regnabitur annos 1.273 gente sub Hectorea, donec regina sacerdos, 1.274 Marte gravis, geminam partu dabit Ilia prolem. 1.275 Inde lupae fulvo nutricis tegmine laetus 1.276 Romulus excipiet gentem, et Mavortia condet 1.277 moenia, Romanosque suo de nomine dicet. 1.279 imperium sine fine dedi. Quin aspera Iuno, 1.280 quae mare nunc terrasque metu caelumque fatigat, 1.281 consilia in melius referet, mecumque fovebit 1.282 Romanos rerum dominos gentemque togatam: 1.283 sic placitum. Veniet lustris labentibus aetas, 1.284 cum domus Assaraci Phthiam clarasque Mycenas 1.285 servitio premet, ac victis dominabitur Argis. 1.286 Nascetur pulchra Troianus origine Caesar, 1.287 imperium oceano, famam qui terminet astris,— 1.288 Iulius, a magno demissum nomen Iulo. 1.289 Hunc tu olim caelo, spoliis Orientis onustum, 1.290 accipies secura; vocabitur hic quoque votis. 1.291 Aspera tum positis mitescent saecula bellis; 1.292 cana Fides, et Vesta, Remo cum fratre Quirinus, 1.293 iura dabunt; dirae ferro et compagibus artis 1.294 claudentur Belli portae; Furor impius intus, 1.295 saeva sedens super arma, et centum vinctus aenis 1.296 post tergum nodis, fremet horridus ore cruento.' ' None | sup>
1.235 Then good Achates smote a flinty stone,
1.239 they bring away; and wearied utterly
1.250 the whole herd, browsing through the lowland vale
1.257 in panic through the leafy wood, nor ceased 1.258 the victory of his bow, till on the ground 1.259 lay seven huge forms, one gift for every ship. 1.260 Then back to shore he sped, and to his friends 1.261 distributed the spoil, with that rare wine 1.262 which good Acestes while in Sicily 1.263 had stored in jars, and prince-like sent away 1.264 with his Ioved guest;—this too Aeneas gave; 1.266 “Companions mine, we have not failed to feel 1.267 calamity till now. O, ye have borne 1.268 far heavier sorrow: Jove will make an end 1.269 also of this. Ye sailed a course hard by ' "1.270 infuriate Scylla's howling cliffs and caves. " "1.271 Ye knew the Cyclops' crags. Lift up your hearts! " '1.272 No more complaint and fear! It well may be 1.273 ome happier hour will find this memory fair. 1.274 Through chance and change and hazard without end, 1.275 our goal is Latium ; where our destinies 1.276 beckon to blest abodes, and have ordained 1.277 that Troy shall rise new-born! Have patience all! 1.279 Such was his word, but vexed with grief and care, 1.280 feigned hopes upon his forehead firm he wore, ' "1.281 and locked within his heart a hero's pain. " '1.282 Now round the welcome trophies of his chase 1.283 they gather for a feast. Some flay the ribs 1.284 and bare the flesh below; some slice with knives, 1.285 and on keen prongs the quivering strips impale, 1.286 place cauldrons on the shore, and fan the fires. 1.287 Then, stretched at ease on couch of simple green, 1.288 they rally their lost powers, and feast them well 1.289 on seasoned wine and succulent haunch of game. 1.290 But hunger banished and the banquet done, 1.291 in long discourse of their lost mates they tell, ' "1.292 'twixt hopes and fears divided; for who knows " '1.293 whether the lost ones live, or strive with death, 1.294 or heed no more whatever voice may call? 1.295 Chiefly Aeneas now bewails his friends, 1.296 Orontes brave and fallen Amycus, ' ' None |
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