Note 10 — URBIS RŌMAE VIRĪ INLŪSTRĒS Complete text as printed
Reading edition
15.10 What is the force of this abl. abs.?
15.11 rēgem populus creāvit: This phrase, as it stands, is somewhat misleading. As a matter of fact, the kingship was neither hereditary nor elective. On the death of a king an interrēx, or regent, was chosen, who took the auspices, and the augurs inferred from the signs that the gods favored a certain candidate. He was then elected by the Assembly, and the choice was confirmed by the Senate.
15.12 abl. of specification.
15.13 sustulerant (tollō) animōs: ‘had plucked up courage.’
15.14 Cf. priusquam . . . posset, IV, 25, and note.
15.15 quī . . . repeteret: relative clause of purpose. Rēs repetere = ‘to demand the (stolen) things,’ is a technical phrase of war, and = ‘to demand restitution or satisfaction.’ The opposite is rēs reddere, or rēs dēdere, as in l. 13.
16.1 eum mōrem . . . accēpērunt: ‘that custom posterity (the Romans of later times) adopted.’ Traces of the custom appear as late as the reign of Augustus.
16.2 While praying, the Romans covered their faces with a fold of the toga, that no untoward sight might interrupt their devotions. The lēgātus here covers his face, because he is praying to Jupiter and to the fīnēs, which are personified.
16.3 This word, rather than dīxit, is used with direct discourse, and regularly stands, as here, within the quotation.
16.4 The lēgātus, of course, said fīnēs Albānōrum, or Vēientium, as the case might be.
16.5 ‘official,’ i.e. duly accredited.
16.6 verbīs . . . sit = verbīs meīs crēdite. Cf. II, 48, cuī reī fidem fēcit. sit is a hortatory subjunctive; H 559, 1 (484, II): M 713: A 266: G 263: B 274.
16.7 See Vocab., fētiālis.
16.8 respōnsum . . . Latīnīs = Latīnī respondērunt. The impersonal passive is common.
16.9 hōc: ‘described above,’ in lines 9-16. In l. 9 hōc = ‘described below.’ Hīc more often bears the latter sense, i.e. it refers to what follows.
16.10 profectus . . . fūdit (fundō): cf. p. 15, n. 9.
16.11 ‘transferred, removed.’
16.12 Cum . . . fierent: a causal clause; cf. p. 13, n. 20.
16.13 See Vocab., carcer.
16.14 ad . . . audāciae = ut incrēscentem audāciam terrēret. Cf. p. 3, n. 8, and ad congressum deae, III, 33. audāciae is objective genitive: cf. p. 14, n. 15.
16.15 ponte subliciō: abl. abs., with factō, expressing means. This bridge, the earliest and most famous of the bridges over the Tiber, derived its name from the circumstance that it was always made of wood and supported on piles (sublicae). It is this bridge that figures so largely in Macaulay’s Lays of Ancient Rome, Horatius, stanzas xxix. ff.
17.1 in ōre: ‘at the mouth.’ The town Ostia got its name from its position in ōre Tiberis. It was the port of Rome, and thus attained great importance. Great harbors were built there in the days of the Empire, the remains of which, as well as of the warehouses built for the storage of merchandise from abroad, are still visible.