Section 7 Livy: Hannibal Crosses the Alps Notes Part 2

Question 1

omnia oppleta

Answer 1

Everything covered with snow - a complete white-out gives them no clues as to where to stop.

Question 2

signis motis

Answer 2

This is an ablative absolute (with the standards having been moved). The standards are the important symbols of the army - when they move it does. Using a part of something to imply the whole is called synecdoche (sin i ek - dokee)

Question 3

segniter / pigritia et desperatio

Answer 3

Livy uses this vocab of depression to build a negative ‘semantic field’. The mixture of fatigue with fear will produce that overwhelmed feeling.

Question 4

omnia / omnium

Answer 4

This is a polyptoton - a repeated word in different form. Here the polyptotonic repetition serves to emphasise the pervasive nature of the desperation that all the troops are feeling in all parts of the army.

Question 5

vulta emineret

Answer 5

The desperation ‘shines out’ from the focus of all the soldiers - this means that the hopelessness would be very obvious from their facial expressions.