Ob quam rem ā dictātōre capitis damnātus ‘quod sē vetante pugnāsset’…
He was accordingly condemned to death by the dictator, for fighting contrary to his orders…
I found the translation above online. I’m having trouble with sē vetante. Grammatically, what kind of construction is this? What would a literal translation look like?
Note that Orberg put āsset = āvisset in a side note.
It’s ablative absolute, and the “quod” clause is introducing the reasoning of the dictator Papirius, which is why it’s in the subjunctive. I don’t remember the name of this sort of construction but it’s very common.
“Se vetante” is referring to the dictator, even though, strictly speaking, he’s not the subject of either clause. This is also pretty common, but I don’t remember what its official name is, either.
“Condemned to death by the dictator for this, that he (Fabius) had fought when he (Papirius) forbade it…”
Incidentally it’s helpful if you post the sentences around the sentence you’re having a problem, and a couple of sentences after.