Latin for beginners (1911)/Part II/Lesson XLII

by Benjamin Leonard D'Ooge

Layout 2

LESSON XLII

REVIEW LESSON

240. Review the paradigms in §§233, 236, 238; and decline all nouns of the third declension in this selection.

Terror Cimbricus^[1]

Ōlim Cimbrī et Teutonēs, populī Germāniae, cum fēminīs līberīsque Italiae adpropinquāverant et cōpiās Rōmānās maximō proeliō vīcerant. Ubi fuga legiōnum nūntiāta est, summus erat terror tōtīus Rōmae, et Rōmānī, graviter commōtī, sacra crēbra deīs faciēbant et salūtem petēbant.

Tum Mānlius ōrātor animōs populī ita cōnfīrmāvit:—“Magnam calamitātem accēpimus. Oppida nostra ā Cimbrīs Teutonibusque capiuntur, agricolae interficiuntur, agrī vāstantur, cōpiae barbarōrum Rōmae adpropinquant. Itaque, nisi novīs animīs proelium novum faciēmus et Germānōs ex patriā nostrā sine morā agēmus, erit nūlla salūs fēminīs nostrīs līberīsque. Servāte līberōs! Servāte patriam! Anteā superātī sumus quia imperātōrēs nostrī fuērunt īnfīrmī. Nunc Marius, clārus imperātor, quī iam multās aliās victōriās reportāvit, legiōnēs dūcet et animōs nostrōs terrōre Cimbricō līberāre mātūrābit.”

Marius tum in Āfricā bellum gerēbat. Sine morā ex Āfricā in Italiam vocātus est. Cōpiās novās nōn sōlum tōtī Italiae sed etiam prōvinciīs sociōrum imperāvit.^[2] Disciplīnā autem dūrā labōribusque perpetuīs mīlitēs exercuit. Tum cum peditibus equitibusque, quī iam proeliō studēbant, ad Germānōrum castra celeriter properāvit. Diū et ācriter pugnātum est.^[3] Dēnique barbarī fūgērunt et multī in fugā ab equitibus sunt interfectī. Marius pater patriae vocātus est.

————————

References

1. About the year 100 B.C. the Romans were greatly alarmed by an invasion of barbarians from the north known as Cimbri and Teutons. They were traveling with wives and children, and had an army of 300,000 fighting men. Several Roman armies met defeat, and the city was in a panic. Then the Senate called upon Marius, their greatest general, to save the country. First he defeated the Teutons in Gaul. Next, returning to Italy, he met the Cimbri. A terrible battle ensued, in which the Cimbri were utterly destroyed; but the terror Cimbricus continued to haunt the Romans for many a year thereafter.
2. He made a levy (of troops) upon, imperāvit with the acc. and the dat.
3. Cf. § 200. II. 2.