[41.14] quamdiū . . . senātōrem: indirect discourse = ‘(saying that) as long as,’ etc.
[41.15] negāvit esse ūtile: ‘he said that it was not expedient.’ In such sentences negāre rather than nōn dīcere is used. The subject of esse is the clause captīvōs . . . reddī.
[42.1] ‘exhausted.’
[42.2] Here temporal, but in the next line adversative, as is shown by tamen: see [p. xxii], J.
[42.3] Sc. esse, and cf. [p. 39, n. 11].
[42.4] Sc. eum: ‘on his return.’ The story is given by no writer earlier than Cicero, and modern historians are inclined to view the whole narrative as fictitious.
[Text-only version] [XVIII.] Appius Claudius Pulcher
Appius Claudius, vir stultae temeritātis, cōnsul adversus Poenōs
profectus priōrum ducum cōnsilia palam reprehendēbat
sēque, quō[5] diē hostem vīdisset, bellum cōnfectūrum esse
iactitābat. Quī cum, antequam nāvāle proelium committeret,
[5] auspicia[6] habēret pullāriusque[7] eī nūntiāsset, pullōs nōn exīre ē
caveā neque vescī, inrīdēns iussit eōs in aquam mergī, ut saltem
biberent, quoniam ēsse[1] nōllent. Ea rēs cum, quasi[2] īrātīs diīs,
SACRED CHICKENS
From the tomb of a Pullārius mīlitēs ad omnia sēgniōrēs timidiōrēsque
fēcisset, commissō proeliō[3]
[10] māgna clādēs ā Rōmānīs accepta est:
octō eōrum mīlia caesa sunt, vīgintī
mīlia capta. Quā re Claudius posteā ā
populō condemnātus est damnātiōnisque[4]
īgnōminiam voluntāriā morte
[15] praevēnit. Ea rēs calamitātī[5] fuit
etiam Claudiae,[5] cōnsulis sorōrī: quae
ā lūdīs pūblicīs revertēns, in[6] cōnfertā
multitūdine aegrē prōcēdente carpentō,
palam optāvit ut frāter suus Pulcher
[20] revīvīsceret atque iterum classem āmitteret,
quō[7] minor turba Rōmae foret.[7] Ob vōcem illam impiam
Claudia quoque damnāta gravisque[8] eī[9] dicta est multa.