XLVII.
Ceterum (ceterum: a connective adverb apparently meant to mark a change of subject or a return to one after a digression. It has also been suggested that Tacitus uses ceterum when he wishes to leave in doubt which side his opinion inclines. The problem in translation is that the word, which occurs quite regularly in Tacitus, has no satisfactory equivalent in English and for that reason is either ignored (as nothing significant is lost by its omission), or rendered by a word or turn of phrase that best fits the context it is found in.) verane pauperie an uti videretur, (verane pauperie an uti videretur: ellipsis for verane [pauperies esset] an pauperie uti videretur, ‘whether the lack of funds was real or it seemed proper to make use of it’: example of alternative indir. question with the first part introduced by –ne and the second by an ) actum in senatu ut sescentiens sestertium a privatis mutuum acciperetur, (actum in senatu ut sescentiens sestertium a privatis mutuum acciperetur: ‘it was deliberated in the Senate to borrow a loan of sixty million sesterces from private sources’. sescentiens sestertium: 600 x 100,000 = 60 million sesterces; cf. note for septuagiens sestertio saginatus in ch. 42) praepositusque ei curae Pompeius Silvanus. (Pompeius Silvanus: cf. Book 2, ch. 86.) nec multo post necessitas abiit sive omissa simulatio. abrogati inde legem ferente Domitiano consulatus quos Vitellius dederat, (abrogati … consulatus quos Vitellius dederat: cf. Book 2, ch. 91 and Book 3, ch. 55.) funusque censorium (funusque censorium: ‘public’ or ‘state funeral’, called censorium because in the past state funerals were an incumbency of censors, the highest rank of any magistrate in Rome.) Flavio Sabino ductum, magna documenta instabilis fortunae summaque et ima miscentis. (magna documenta instabilis fortunae summaque et ima miscentis: documenta is plural in that it refers to both the annulment of the consulships assigned by Vitellius and to the state funeral of Sabinus. Now exalted, the latter had had not long before his corpse first mangled, then thrown down the Gemoniae scalae like that of a common criminal. Cf. Book 3, ch. 74.)