LXXIX.
Actum deinde in senatu ab Arruntio et Ateio (ab Arruntio et Ateio: see ch. 76.) an ob moderandas Tiberis exundationes verterentur flumina et lacus, (an ob moderandas Tiberis exundationes verterentur flumina et lacus: the interrogative particle an, usually associated with disjunctive questions, is found after Livy used to ask simple Yes or No questions (G. 457, Note 3); in indirect questions an has the English meaning of “whether’: lit. ‘whether rivers and lakes should be diverted in view of (ob) the inundations of the Tiber to be controlled’. Freely, ‘…, because of the need to control the inundations of the Tiber’) per quos augescit; auditaeque municipiorum et coloniarum legationes, orantibus Florentinis ne Clanis solito alveo demotus in amnem Arnum transferretur idque ipsis perniciem adferret. (orantibus Florentinis ne Clanis solito alveo demotus in amnem Arnum transferretur idque ipsis perniciem adferret: Florentini are the inhabitants of Florentia, modern Florence in Tuscany: ‘the people of Florence insisting that the river Clanis, turned away from its original bed, should not be redirected to the river Arnus, and that this change would bring ruin to themselves’; Clanis is the river Chiana, that flowed into the Tiber after arising in the swamps near Arezzo, SSE of Florence; Arnus is the river Arno, which flows through Florence and Pisa before emptying in the Ligurian sea. By diverting the Chiana into the Arno, the Tiber would have been less likely to cause flooding in Rome. ne …transferretur …adferret: the verb oro is often found followed by ut or ne clause.) congruentia his Interamnates disseruere: (congruentia his Interamnates disseruere: ‘the people of Terni fielded arguments similar to these.’ congruentia his: the neuter plural congruentia is the adj. congruens used as a noun, lit. ‘things similar to these’, where his refers to the reasons adduced by the Florentines.) pessum ituros fecundissimos Italiae campos, si amnis Nar (id enim parabatur) in rivos diductus superstagnavisset. (pessum ituros fecundissimos Italiae campos, si amnis Nar (id enim parabatur) in rivos diductus superstagnavisset: Nar is the river Nera between the two branches of which lies Terni in Umbria, hence the name Interamna, ‘between the rivers’: lit. ‘the best agricultural land in Italy would be ruined if the river Nar, having been divided up into small channels, (for this was being projected) should have overflowed and formed swamps.’ The idea was to create a network of irrigation canals in the hope that the excess waters would disappear into the soil by being spread over a large area. pessum ituros [esse] … campos, si amnis …superstagnavisset: the idiom pessum ire, where pessum is adverb, means ‘to go to the bottom’, ‘to be destroyed’; the sentence is conditional in oratio obliqua after disseruere: grammatically, the construction is the same as that of imparem oneri rem publicam [esse / fore], nisi vicesimo militiae anno veterani dimitterentur in previous chapter, of which see note, except that the imperfect subjunctive is replaced here by pluperfect. In id enim parabatur, enim, normally the second word in a clause, has causal sense in that it gives a reason for what has just been said. The only occurrence of superstagno in Latin (Oxford Latin dictionary).) nec Reatini silebant, Velinum lacum, qua in Narem effunditur, obstrui recusantes, quippe in adiacentia erupturum; (nec Reatini silebant, Velinum lacum, qua in Narem effunditur, obstrui recusantes, quippe in adiacentia erupturum: Reatini are the people of Reate, modern Rieti, a town SE of Terni in Latium, now on the Velino river, a tributary of the Nera, a branch of the Tiber. The town was in Roman times on a homonymous large lake fed by the river, the lake having now virtually disappeared after extensive drainage work: lit. ‘nor did the Reatini keep silent, refusing [to accept] that the lake Velinus be blocked where it empties into the Nera river, the reason being that it could burst its bounds [and flood] the entire region’. Beginning in classical times, quippe progressively acquired the causal sense of quod, quia, or quando (Ernout). It may be of interest to note that the Velino river, which from Rieti turns NW towards Terni, before merging with the Nera forms the spectacular ‘Cascate (‘falls’) delle Marmore’ through a passage cut by Manius Curius Dentatum in about 275 B.C.) optume rebus mortalium consuluisse naturam, quae sua ora fluminibus, suos cursus utque originem, ita finis dederit; (naturam, quae sua ora fluminibus, suos cursus utque originem, ita finis dederit: nature is personified, thus, feminine in English: ‘Nature, who had assigned to rivers their founts, their courses, so also gave an end , just as she gave an origin, [to their journey]. ora: here probably for ‘sources’, ‘founts’, though often interpreted as being the mouths of rivers; the use of the possessive adjectives sua an suos for nouns that are not the subject of the clause, is justified by the fact that they have the heightened sense of ‘their very own’ (G. 309, 2.); quae …utque originem, ita finis dederit: the rel. clause is in oratio obliqua, so the verb must be subjunctive even for the main verb of a comparative sentence; one would expect dedisset after nec …silebant, a historical verb of saying, but Tacitus prefers a more flexible concordance, always seeking bold ways to vary and liven up the narrative. See also note for cur abstinuerit spectaculo ipse, varie trahebant in ch. 76. The construction of dicaverint in the next rel. clause below, introduced by qui, is the same as for dederit.) spectandas etiam religiones sociorum, (spectandas etiam religiones sociorum: ‘that the religious beliefs of the allies ought also to be respected’; in 90 B.C., at the end of the Social War, Roman citizenship was extended to all Italians, thus sociorum refers back to the time when Rome had formed alliances with other peoples of Italy, such as the Sabines, the Etruscans, the Marsi, the Peligni, the Samniti.) qui sacra et lucos et aras patriis amnibus dicaverint: quin ipsum Tiberim nolle prorsus accolis fluviis orbatum minore gloria fluere. (quin ipsum Tiberim nolle prorsus accolis fluviis orbatum minore gloria fluere: quin is an emphatic adverb corroborating what precedes: ‘nay, even the Tiber itself may not altogether (prorsus) want to flow with diminished grandeur, deprived of tributaries, its neighbors.’ accolis fluviis: two nouns, one apposition of the other.) seu preces coloniarum seu difficultas operum sive (seu …seu …sive: ‘whether …or …or’; these disjunctive conditional particles are normally followed by indicative; the use together of seu and sive, in place of repeated seu or sive, is post-classical or poetic. Cf. A.G. 525, c.) superstitio valuit, ut in sententiam Pisonis concederetur, qui nil mutandum censuerat. (valuit, ut in sententiam Pisonis concederetur, qui nil mutandum censuerat: valere is here followed by consecutive ut; also found with infinitive (G. 423, 2. N. 2 and 553, 1.): lit. ‘…prevailed, so that it was given in to Piso’s opinion, who had advised that nothing should be changed’; for Piso see ch. 13 and 74.)