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6. during their year of administration the1 foreign relations of the state were fairly peaceful: [2] the Etruscans were kept quiet by their failure in [p. 379]war and by the truce; the Samnites, tamed by the2 defeats of many years, had not wearied as yet of the new covenant. [3] at Rome also the relief afforded by the emigration of large numbers to the colonies had quieted the commons3 Nevertheless, that tranquillity might not be found everywhere, the plebeian tribunes Quintus and Gnaeus Ogulnius stirred up a quarrel among the first men of the state, both patrician and [4] plebeian. they had sought in every quarter occasions for maligning the Fathers to the plebs; and having tried everything else in vain, they set on foot a project by which they might inflame, not the lowest of the rabble, but the very leaders of the plebs [5] —the commones, namely, who had enjoyed consulships and triumphs, an who lacked nothing but priesthoods, which were not yet open to all, to complete their list of [6] honours. The Ogulnii accordingly proposed a law, that whereas there were then four augurs and four pontiffs and it was desired to augment the number of priests, four pontiffs and five augurs should be added, and should all be taken from the [7] plebs. —How this college could have been reduced to four augurs, unless by the death of two, I cannot discover; since it is a settled principle amongst the augurs that their number should be uneven, to the end that the three ancient tribes, the Ramnes, Titienses and Luceres, should each have its augur, or else [8] —if a larger number should be needed —that they should increase the priests in the same proportion; as in fact they were increased when five were added to the four, and, making up the number of nine, gave each tribe [9] [p. 381]three.4 —But since they were to be added from the5 plebs, the patricians were as distressed by the proposal as they had been when they saw the consulship thrown [10] open. they pretended that' the gods were more concerned than they themselves were: the gods would see to it that their rites should not be contaminated; for their own part they only hoped that no disaster might come upon the [11] state. they made, however, no great struggle, accustomed as they now were to being worsted in contests of this kind; and they beheld their adversaries no longer reaching out after great honours which they had formerly scarce any hopes of attaining, but in full possession of all the things for which they had striven with dubious prospects of success —repeated consulships, censorships, and triumphs.

1 B.C. 300

2 B.C. 300

3 Weissenborn thinks that Livy has in mind the colonies of a later day whose principal aim was to lighten the City of its over —population. The colonies actually alluded to were intended primarily to protect the frontiers.

4 Livy means that originally there had been three augurs and that each subsequent increase in their number had been by multiples of three. he can only account for the tradition that there were four at this time on the assumption that two had died, and their places had not yet been filled when the Ogulnii made their proposal.

5 B.C. 300

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load focus Notes (W. Weissenborn, H. J. Müller, 1898)
load focus Summary (English, Benjamin Oliver Foster, Ph.D., 1926)
load focus Summary (Latin, W. Weissenborn, H. J. Müller, 1898)
load focus Summary (Latin, Benjamin Oliver Foster, Ph.D., 1926)
load focus Latin (Charles Flamstead Walters, Robert Seymour Conway, 1919)
load focus English (Rev. Canon Roberts, 1912)
load focus Latin (W. Weissenborn, H. J. Müller, 1898)
load focus English (D. Spillan, A.M., M.D., Cyrus Evans, 1849)
load focus Latin (Benjamin Oliver Foster, Ph.D., 1926)
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  • Commentary references to this page (8):
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 31-32, commentary, 31.44
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 33-34, commentary, 34.45
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 35-38, commentary, 36.8
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 35-38, commentary, 37.53
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 35-38, commentary, 38.50
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 39-40, commentary, 39.32
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 39-40, commentary, 40.42
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 43-44, commentary, 44.35
  • Cross-references to this page (21):
  • Cross-references in notes to this page (1):
  • Cross-references in general dictionaries to this page (11):
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