1
conflixeratapudRhodanumcumP.CornelioScipioneconsuleeumquepepulerat.
2
Grammarconflixerat ... pepulerat pluperfect: these events happened before the Battle of Clastidium, which comes next.
ContextP. Cornelio Scipione consule this is not the famous Scipio who eventually beat Hannibal. This is Publius Cornelius Scipio Asina, consul in 218 BC and father of Hannibal's later conqueror. When Hannibal crossed the Rhone, both sides sent cavalry ahead to scout for the other, and the two forces clashed, though it's not usually counted as a proper battle.
1–2
cumhoceodemClastidiapudPadumdecernitsauciumqueindeacfugatumdimittit.
3
Grammarhoc eodem refers to Scipio Asina; Clastidi is locative ('at Clastidium').
Grammardecernit ... dimittit historic present, used here to make the narrative feel more immediate and dramatic.
ContextNo real battle actually happened at Clastidium scholars think Nepos really means the Battle of the River Ticinus, where Scipio was in fact wounded; Hannibal did later capture Clastidium itself, but only through a betrayal by the town's own commander.
3
tertioidemScipiocumcollegaTiberioLongoapudTrebiamadversuseumvenit.
2
Vocabularyadversus 'against'; it's one of Nepos's favourite prepositions, even though (a bit oddly) he's using it about Rome's greatest enemy.
ContextThis is actually a mistake it was Tiberius Sempronius Longus who fought at Trebia, brought in after Scipio was wounded at Ticinus — Scipio himself didn't take part in this battle.
3–4
cumhismanumconseruit,utrosqueprofligavit.
1
StyleNepos deals with a major Roman defeat (Trebia) in just five words — cum his manum conseruit, utrosque profligavit. Compare that to how much space Livy gives the same battle: Nepos is deliberately brief about Roman losses, perhaps because they were painful to dwell on.
4–5
indeperLiguresAppenninumtransiit,petensEtruriam.
1
ContextThe Apennines run down Italy like a mountainous spine, and Livy tells us Hannibal's crossing was genuinely gruelling, battling winter storms the whole way — a detail Nepos, true to form, skips over entirely.
6
hocitinereadeogravimorboafficituroculorum,utposteanumquamdextroaequebeneusussit.
3
Grammaradeo introduces the result clause ut ... usus sit; dextro is ablative because usus sit comes from utor, which always takes the ablative.
Grammarafficitur present tense, used here to add tension to the moment.
ContextAccording to Livy, Hannibal actually lost the eye completely — Nepos's version (just 'not as good use of it') is a bit softer.
7–8
quavaletudinecumetiamtumpremereturlecticaqueferretur,C.FlaminiumconsulemapudTrasumenumcumexercituinsidiiscircumventumoccidit
4
Grammarqua valetudine a connecting relative, picking up the illness just described.
Grammarcircumventum this participle describes C. Flaminium (the consul), not Hannibal.
Contextlecticaque ferretur being carried in a litter was a Roman custom; Livy instead says Hannibal was carried on his own war elephant, called Syrus. Both could well be true at different points.
ContextTrasumenum is Lake Trasimene and Flaminius, the consul who dies here, is also the man behind the Via Flaminia, the major road heading north out of Rome, which he'd had repaired. A busy political career, cut short.
8–9
nequemultopostC.Centeniumpraetoremcumdelectamanusaltusoccupantem.
6
Vocabularysaltus accusative plural, referring to the wooded areas around Lake Trasimene.
Contextpraetorem a praetor was a Roman official normally in charge of legal business, so wouldn't usually be sent to fight; but Centenius had held the post the year before and was no longer in office, freeing him up for military duty. He had tried to help Flaminius with 4,000 cavalry, but Hannibal's own cavalry intercepted him first.
BalanceC. Flaminium consulem ... circumventum occidit, neque multo post C. Centenium praetorem ... occupantem — the two victims, a consul and then a praetor, are set out in matching phrases one after another, giving a sense of Hannibal picking off Roman commanders almost casually.
Notehinc in Apuliam pervenit.
NoteFrom here, he arrived in Apulia.
ContextApulia is the 'heel' of Italy, and getting there marks the jump into the events of the following year, 216 BC — the year of Cannae.
10
ibiobviameiveneruntduoconsules,C.TerentiusetL.Aemilius.
1
ContextThese two, Gaius Terentius Varro and Lucius Aemilius Paulus, were itching for a fight with Hannibal — which, given what's about to happen at Cannae, makes them tragic figures in hindsight. Paulus died in the battle; his daughter later married the son of Scipio Asina, tying this story back to Chapter 4.
11–12
utriusqueexercitusunoproeliofugavit,Paulumconsulemocciditetaliquotpraetereaconsulares,inhisCn.ServiliumGeminum,quisuperioreannofueratconsul.
3
Grammarutriusque exercitus consuls would normally command their own separate armies, but here they combine forces.
Contextuno proelio this is the Battle of Cannae, fought on 2nd August 216 BC by the river Aufidus, often called Rome's worst-ever military defeat.
Styleutriusque exercitus uno proelio fugavit 'both armies, in one battle' — Nepos sums up the single most catastrophic Roman defeat in their whole history in one short, matter-of-fact clause. This isn't him being lazy; it's a deliberate choice not to dwell on Roman humiliation the way a Roman historian like Livy would.
1
He had already fought at the river Rhone with the consul Publius Cornelius Scipio, and driven him back;
1–2
with this same man he fought it out at Clastidium on the Po and sent him away from there wounded and routed.
3
On a third occasion that same Scipio, with his colleague Tiberius Longus, opposed him at Trebia.
3–4
With these two he engaged in combat and overthrew them both.
4–5
From there he crossed the Apennine range through the Ligures, making for Etruria.
6
On this journey he was afflicted by such a severe eye trouble that afterwards he never had equally good use of his right eye.
7–8
While he was still at that time suffering from that complaint and was being carried in a litter, he surrounded and killed the consul Gaius Flaminius by ambushing him with his army at Trasimene,
8–9
and not long afterwards the praetor Gaius Centenius, who was occupying wooded areas with a body of picked men.
10
There two consuls came to meet him, Gaius Terentius and Lucius Aemilius.
11–12
He put to flight the armies of both in a single battle, killed the consul Paulus, besides several ex-consuls, among them Gnaeus Servilius Geminus, who had been consul the previous year.