previous next
3. Nor was the war with the Ligures in Italy any slower to begin. Pisa was already besieged by about forty thousand men, large numbers daily pouring in by reason of the report of the war and in [p. 9]the hope of booty. [2] The consul Minucius arrived at1 Arretium on the day on which he had ordered the troops to assemble.2 Thence he led the force in a hollow-square formation toward Pisa, and since the enemy had moved their camp across the river,3 no more than a mile from the town, the consul marched into the city that had without doubt been saved by his arrival. [3] The next day he too crossed the river and encamped about five hundred paces from the enemy. [4] From this base he defended the allies' country from ravage by fighting petty battles; he did not dare to march out in battle-line with raw troops, collected from many tribes and not yet well enough known to one another to feel confidence in their comrades.4 [5] The Ligures both marched out to battle, trusting in their numbers and prepared to risk a decisive engagement, and, since they had abundance of men, sent out many parties to plunder in all directions on the borders of the territory, [6??] and when a large number of animals and much booty had been collected, guards were available to conduct them to their forts and villages.

1 B.C. 193

2 Cf. XXXIV. lvi. 4.

3 This is apparently the Auser river (Plin. N.H. III. 50), now the Serchio, which once emptied into the Arno near by.

4 This statement is difficult to accept, in view of the fact that the major component of his force was the two urbanae legiones of the year before: cf. the note to ii. 3 above. The Romans, like modern commanders, stressed the necessity of homogeneity and mutual confidence in combatant troops.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

load focus Notes (W. Weissenborn, 1873)
load focus Notes (W. Weissenborn, H. J. Müller, 1911)
load focus Summary (Latin, Evan T. Sage, PhD professor of latin and head of the department of classics in the University of Pittsburgh, 1935)
load focus Summary (Latin, W. Weissenborn, H. J. Müller, 1911)
load focus Summary (English, Evan T. Sage, PhD professor of latin and head of the department of classics in the University of Pittsburgh, 1935)
load focus Latin (W. Weissenborn, H. J. Müller, 1911)
load focus Latin (W. Weissenborn, 1873)
load focus Latin (Evan T. Sage, PhD professor of latin and head of the department of classics in the University of Pittsburgh, 1935)
load focus English (Cyrus Evans, 1850)
load focus English (Rev. Canon Roberts, 1912)
hide References (18 total)
  • Commentary references to this page (12):
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 33-34, commentary, 33.39
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 33-34, commentary, 34.55
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 33-34, commentary, 34.56
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 33-34, commentary, 34.56
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 35-38, commentary, 37.22
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 35-38, commentary, 37.23
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 39-40, commentary, 39.1
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 39-40, commentary, 40.17
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 41-42, commentary, 41.13
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 41-42, commentary, 42.13
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 41-42, commentary, 42.48
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 43-44, commentary, 44.34
  • Cross-references to this page (6):
hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: