LXIII.
Auditae aliarum quoque civitatium legationem. quorum copia fessi patres, et quia studiis certabatur, (quia studiis certabatur: lit. ‘because it was argued on account of personal favor [among the senators]’; certabatur is impersonal use of the passive; quia is normally with indicative, unless the subjunctive is required for special reasons.) consulibus permisere ut perspecto iure, et si qua iniquitas involveretur, rem integram rursum ad senatum referrent. (ut perspecto iure, et si qua iniquitas involveretur, rem integram rursum ad senatum referrent: perpecto iure is abl. abs. followed by a conditional sentence, the two inside a purpose clause with ut: lit. ‘to the end that, the right of sanctuary having been looked into, [the consuls] should again refer to the senate the entire matter, if some fraud were involved’; si …involveretur, …referrent: being governed by final ut, both protasis and apodosis are necessarily with subjunctive. The tenses are dictated by the historical main verb permisere, according to consecutio temporum.) consules super eas civitates (super eas civitates: the prep. super takes acc. when it means ‘beside’, ‘in addition to.’) quas memoravi apud Pergamum Aesculapii compertum asylum rettulerunt: (apud Pergamum Aesculapii compertum asylum rettulerunt: ‘they reported that near Pergamum there was an irrefutable sanctuary of Aesculapius’; Pergamum is in NW Turkey, inland east of the island of Lesbos. Aesculapius was the son of Apollo and the god of medicine. compertum is here adjective qualifying asylum. Note that rettulerunt introduces indirect speech that continues down to factaque senatus consulta.) ceteros obscuris ob vetustatem initiis niti. nam Zmyrnaeos oraculum Apollinis, cuius imperio Stratonicidi Veneri templum dicaverint, Tenios eiusdem carmen referre, quo sacrare Neptuni effigiem aedemque iussi sint. (ceteros obscuris ob vetustatem initiis niti. nam Zmyrnaeos oraculum Apollinis, cuius imperio Stratonicidi Veneri templum dicaverint, Tenios eiusdem carmen referre, quo sacrare Neptuni effigiem aedemque iussi sint: ‘[they reported] that the other sanctuaries rested on obscure origins. For example (nam), the people of Smyrna relied on an oracle of Apollo, by whose command they dedicated the temple to Venus Stratonicis, those of Tenos on a prophecy of the same god, by which they were enjoined to consecrate a statue and a shrine of Neptune.’ Zmyrnaeos: from Smyrna in Lydia, modern Izmir, on the western coast of Turkey, at the same latitude as the island of Chios. For Stratonicidi see Stratonicea in previous chapter, though the connection between this temple of Venus in Lydia and Stratonicea in Caria is uncertain. It may have been from the name of the grandmother of Seleucus II, king of Syria. Tenios: from Tenos, an island in the Cyclades in the Aegean sea, between the island of Andros and the island of Mykonos. dicaverint and iussi sint are examples of repraesentatio (cf. A.G. 469, N. and 585, b. and N.), in place of dicavissent and iussi essent respectively.) propiora Sardianos: (propiora Sardianos: ellipsis for propiora Sardianos niti, ‘that the Sardians availed themselves of more recent evidence’) Alexandri victoris id donum. neque minus Milesios Dareo rege niti; (Alexandri victoris id donum. neque minus Milesios Dareo rege niti: ‘that this was a favor of the victorious Alexander and no less did the Milesians rely [on a grant] from king Darius’; Dareo rege: abl. with nitor; Darius III, here Dareus, reigned over Persia from 336 to 330 B.C. He fought again Alexander the Great and was defeated twice, in 333 and 331 B.C. Miletus was on the coast of Carya at the mouth of the river Maeander, south of the island of Samos in SW Turkey.) set cultus numinum utrisque Dianam aut Apollinem venerandi. (set cultus numinum utrisque Dianam aut Apollinem venerandi: Latin uses sed or set as a way to cut short an explanation (Ernout), a function the English ‘but’ does not have, so the conjunction, when used this way, is often ignored in translation: lit. ‘the religious (numinum = ‘of the gods’) practice of venerating Diana or Apollo [is] for each of the [cities]’. Freely: ‘either of the two cities practices the cult of Diana and Apollo.’ utrisque is dat. plur. of possessor; cultus …venerandi: objective genitive gerund after a noun; cf. note for …flagitia hominum ut caerimonias deum protegentis in ch. 60. Dianam aut Apollinem: genitive is the only case of the gerund, other than abl. without prep., that admits a direct object.) petere et Cretenses simulacro divi Augusti. (petere et Cretenses simulacro divi Augusti: ‘that the people of Crete also were demanding [the right of sanctuary] for a statue of the divine Augustus’) factaque senatus consulta quis multo cum honore (quis multo cum honore modus…praescribebatur: quis is an archaic form of quibus, here abl. of instrument: ‘by means of which, albeit very respectfully, restraint was prescribed’; multo cum honore is abl. of manner, here with cum interposed when an adj. is present.) modus tamen praescribebatur. iussique ipsis in templis figere aera sacrandam ad memoriam, neu specie religionis in ambitionem delaberentur. (sacrandam ad memoriam, neu specie religionis in ambitionem delaberentur: ad + acc. gerundive denotes purpose, just as dat. gerundive does: lit. ‘for the record [of the rights of asylum] to be solemnized and to prevent them from lapsing into abuses under the disguise of piety’; neu …delaberentur: neu replaces ne when introducing a negative purpose clause after a positive phrase or clause of final sense.)