A Level Latin · OCR H443/02 · Prose Literature · Group 1

Life of Hannibal

Chapter 13 — There is disagreement about when Hannibal died

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step  ·  click a unit to reveal  ·  click an underlined word for the note
Grammar Vocabulary Context Word order Sound Repetition Rhetoric Imagery
Latin
English
1
sicvirfortissimus,multisvariisqueperfunctuslaboribus,annoacquievitseptuagesimo.
3
Grammarperfunctus from perfungor ('I complete', 'I endure'), which takes the ablative (laboribus).
ContextThe maths doesn't quite work in 183 BC Hannibal was actually only around 63 years old, so either he wasn't really 70 when he died, or one of Nepos's dates elsewhere is off.
Stylevir fortissimus ... acquievit 'the bravest of men ... found rest': after a whole biography built on hatred, war and constant flight, Nepos ends Hannibal's story with a surprisingly gentle, almost sympathetic word, acquievit, rather than anything violent. It's a quietly respectful way to close.
2
quibusconsulibusinterierit,nonconvenit.
1
Grammarquibus consulibus interierit an indirect question after convenit.
2–4
namqueAtticusM.ClaudioMarcelloQ.FabioLabeoneconsulibusmortuuminannalisuoscriptumreliquit,atPolybiusL.AemilioPauloCn.BaebioTamphilo,SulpiciusautemBlithoP.CornelioCethegoM.BaebioTamphilo.
3
StyleThree different historians, three different dates Nepos ends his own narrative by openly admitting he doesn't actually know exactly when his subject died. It's an honest, unshowy way to bring the biography to a close, and a useful reminder that even ancient writers didn't always agree on their facts.
NoteThe rest of Chapter 13 is beyond the prescribed Latin, but OCR recommend knowing it in English, since it rounds off the whole biography:
NoteAnd that great man, although busied with such great wars, devoted some time to writing; he wrote several books in Greek, among them one addressed to the Rhodians about the deeds of Gnaeus Manlius Vulso in Asia. Hannibal's military deeds were recorded by many writers, including two men who were with him in camp for as long as his fortunes allowed, Silenus and Sosylus of Sparta — and it was this Sosylus that Hannibal used as his own Greek teacher. But it is time to bring this book to an end, and turn to the Roman generals, so that their deeds can be compared with the foreigners' and we can judge which heroes truly deserve the higher rank.
1
Thus that bravest of men, after having endured many varied hardships, found rest in his seventieth year.
2
Under which consuls he died is not agreed.
2–4
For Atticus recorded in his Annals that Hannibal died in the consulship of Marcus Claudius Marcellus and Quintus Fabius Labeo; Polybius says it was under Lucius Aemilius Paulus and Gnaeus Baebius Tamphilus; Sulpicius Blitho, however, dates it to Publius Cornelius Cethegus and Marcus Baebius Tamphilus.
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