Dear Sirs, I greatly aprreciate having been accepted to be able to post comments on this valuable blog. Since this is my first one I dare to ask a doubt on the interpretation of the geographical the location of Fidenae and Romani respect to Tiber river during the battle. Probably I have a missinterpretation of the verb arcēre. Thanks in advance. Franciscus.
Whey don’t you write down those lines?
Hi and welcome to Textkit.
It would be helpful if you quote the lines of the text you are concerned about. We might then be able to understand your question and try to help you with it. Not everyone has the text you refer to. Quoting a text also means others reading your post will be able to follow what is going on.
CAP. XLII, lines 198-190:
“Inde ad laevam versī, quia ā dextrā Tiberis eōs arcēbat, cum magnō pavōre agrestium populantur” Thanks for your help.
Often the answer can be found by Googling.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fidenae This gives more information about Fidenae than can be found in the Oxford Classical Dictionary and a nice map!
The OCD tells us that Fidenae is the modern Castel Giubileo the first station on the via Salaria. It frequently fought Rome which controlled a rival Tiber crossing 8 km downstream.
What do you think arcēre means? Thence they turned to the left because Tiberis arcebat on the right. Does that help you get there?
Thanks for your help.
Spoiler. Tiberis eōs arcēbat means The Tiber blocked them (on the right).