In the year 543 from the founding of the City, Claudius Marcellus, at the second assault, barely captured Syracuse, the most opulent city of Sicily; when he had besieged it long before, he had been unable to take it by storm, being repulsed by the engines of Archimedes, a citizen of Syracuse endowed with admirable genius.
1 Anno ab urbe condita DXLIII Claudius Marcellus Syracusas opulentissimam urbem Siciliae secunda oppugnatione uix cepit, quam cum iam pridem obsedisset, Archimedis Syracusani ciuis admirabili ingenio praediti machinis repulsus expugnare non potuit.
In the tenth year after Hannibal had come into Italy, in the consulship of Gnaeus Fulvius and Publius Sulpicius, Hannibal moved his army from Campania and, setting out by the Latin Way through the territory of the Sidicini and of Suessa with great destruction to all, encamped at the river Anio, three miles from the City, to the incredible terror of the whole citizenry;
2 decimo anno post quam Hannibal in Italiam uenerat, Cn. Fuluio P. Sulpicio consulibus Hannibal de Campania mouit exercitum et cum ingenti clade omnium per Sedicinum Suessanumque agrum uia Latina profectus ad Anienem fluuium tribus milibus ab urbe consedit incredibili totius ciuitatis metu,
while the senate and the people were in alarm with their various cares, the matrons too, frantic with fear, ran along the battlements and were eager to carry stones up onto the walls and to be the first to fight in defence of the walls.
3 cum senatu populoque diuersis curis trepido matronae quoque amentes pauore per propugnacula currerent et conuehere in muros saxa primaeque pro muris pugnare gestirent.
He himself, with light-armed horsemen, came menacingly right up to the Colline Gate, and then drew up all his forces in line of battle; but the consuls, and Fulvius the proconsul, did not decline the fight either.
4 ipse autem cum expeditis equitibus usque ad portam Collinam infestus accessit, deinde omnes copias in aciem direxit, sed et consules Fuluiusque proconsule non detrectauere pugnam.
But when the lines had been drawn up on both sides and stood ready, in sight of Rome, the prize of whoever should conquer, so great a rainstorm mixed with hail suddenly poured from the clouds that the columns, thrown into disorder and barely keeping hold of their arms, withdrew to their own camps.
5 at ubi expositae utrimque acies constiterunt, in conspectu Romae praemium uictoris futurae tantus se subito imber e nubibus grandine mixtus effudit, ut turbata agmina uix armis retentis in sua se castra colligerent.
Then, when fair weather had returned and the forces had come back to the field and into line, a still more violent storm poured down again, restrained the boldness of mortals with greater fear, and compelled the terrified armies to flee back into their tents.
6 deinde cum serenitate reddita in campum copiae atque in aciem redissent, rursum uiolentior fusa tempestas maiore metu mortalium audaciam cohercuit territosque exercitus refugere in tentoria coegit.
Then Hannibal, turning to religion, is said to have declared that at one time the will to take Rome was not granted him, at another the power.
7 tunc conuersus in religionem Hannibal dixisse fertur, potiundae sibi Romae modo uoluntatem non dari, modo potestatem.
Let the detractors of the true God answer me now on this point: was it Roman fortitude or divine compassion that kept Hannibal from seizing and overthrowing Rome? Or perhaps these men, who were preserved, disdain to confess what Hannibal both feared as victor and proved by giving way? And —
8 Respondeant nunc mihi obtrectatores ueri Dei hoc loco: Hannibalem a capessenda subruendaque Roma utrum Romana abstinuit fortitudo an diuina miseratio? aut forsitan conseruati isti dedignantur fateri, quod Hannibal et uictor extimuit et cedens probauit ac -
if it is manifest that this divine protection came from heaven through the rain, and that rain itself is not supplied at fitting and needful seasons except through Christ, who is the true God — which I think even men of this sort know with sufficient certainty and cannot deny,
9 si istam diuinam tutelam per pluuiam de caelo uenisse manifestum est, ipsam autem pluuiam opportunis et necessariis temporibus non nisi per Christum, qui est uerus Deus, ministrari - etiam ab huiusmodi satis certo sciri nec negari posse existimo:
especially now, when, as proof of his power, whenever drought distresses us and it happens that rain must be prayed for continually, now the pagans and now the Christians make petition by turns, and never yet, even by their own testimony, has it come to pass that the longed-for showers arrived except on the day on which Christ was entreated and Christians were permitted to entreat —
10 maxime nunc - quando ad documentum potentiae eius, cum siccitate turbante pluuiam poscere adsidue contingit, et alternis uicibus nunc gentiles nunc Christiani rogant nec umquam etiam ipsis testibus factum est, ut optati imbres superueniant nisi in die, quo rogari Christum et Christianis rogare permittitur -
it is beyond all doubt established that the city of Rome, through this same true God, who is Christ Jesus, ordering all things according to the good pleasure of his unspeakable judgement, was both preserved then for belief in the faith that was to come, and is chastised now in that part of it which is unbelieving.
11 procul dubio constat, urbem Romam per hunc eundem uerum Deum, qui est Christus Iesus, ordinantem secundum placitum ineffabilis iudicii sui, et tunc ad futurae fidei credulitatem seruatam fuisse et nunc pro parte sui incredula castigatam.
But in Spain both Scipios were killed by the brother of Hasdrubal. In Campania, Capua was taken by Quintus Fulvius, the proconsul; the leading men of the Campanians took their own lives with poison; and Fulvius put the whole senate of Capua to death by execution, even though the Roman senate forbade it.1
12 At uero in Hispania ambo Scipiones a fratre Hasdrubalis interfecti sunt. in Campania Capua capta est a Q. Fuluio proconsule; principes Campanorum ueneno mortem sibi consciuerunt; senatum omnem Capuae etiam prohibente senatu Romano Fuluius suppliciis necauit.
1The two Scipios fell separately in 211 BC, against the combined armies of Hannibal’s brothers Hasdrubal and Mago and of Hasdrubal son of Gisgo.
When the Scipios had been killed in Spain, and everyone, struck with fear, held back, Scipio, still a very young man, offered himself of his own accord; and since there was a shameful want in the treasury,
13 interfectis in Hispania Scipionibus cum, omnibus incusso pauore cunctantibus, Scipio se admodum adulescens ultro obtulisset et pudenda penuria esset aerarii,
on the proposal of Claudius Marcellus and Valerius Laevinus, who were then consuls, all the senators openly brought their gold and silver, coined, to the quaestors for the public use, so that they kept nothing for themselves and their sons except a single ring apiece and the bullae, and for their daughters and wives only one ounce of gold apiece and no more than one pound of silver each.
14 Claudio Marcello et Valerio Laeuino auctoribus qui tunc consules erant aurum argentumque signatum ad quaestores palam omnes senatores in publicum contulerunt, ita ut nihil praeter anulos singulos bullasque sibi ac filiis et deinde per filias uxoresque suas singulas tantum auri uncias et argenti non amplius quam singulas libras relinquerent.