Note 5 — URBIS RŌMAE VIRĪ INLŪSTRĒS Complete text as printed
Reading edition
42.5 quō diē: we should expect diē quō, or eōdem diē quō, but the antecedent, as often, is incorporated into the relative clause and made to agree with the pronoun: H 399, 3 (445, 9): A 200, b: G 616: B 251, 4.
42.6 auspicia habēret: cf. auspicia adhibēre, I, 42.
42.7 pullārius . . . vescī: on setting out for the seat of war, the commanding general often took with him a cage of sacred chickens, in charge of a special keeper (pullārius). If, when food was thrown before them, the chickens ate so greedily that portions of the food fell from their mouths to the ground, it was considered a very favorable omen. The circumstance described in the text would be regarded by the superstitious soldiery as of very dire significance.
43.1 infinitive of edō.
43.2 quasi . . . diīs: ‘because (as they supposed), the gods were angry.’ Cf. p. 3, n. 6. īrātīs diīs is an abl. abs.
43.3 The battle was fought off Drepanum, in Sicily. Appius lost 93 out of 123 ships.
43.4 que here = ‘but,’ a meaning which it bears more frequently after negative sentences (p. 13, n. 12).
43.5 Cf. p. 25, n. 6.
43.6 in . . . carpentō: an abl. abs., giving the cause of optāvit.
43.7 Cf. p. 14, n. 13.
43.8 gravis . . . multa: ‘a heavy fine was imposed upon her.’
43.9 dat. of disadvantage.