XLVI.
Lentulo Gaetulico C. Calvisio consulibus (Lentulo Gaetulico C. Calvisio consulibus: the year is now 26 A.D. Lentulus Gaetulicus was mentioned in ch. 42 and more of him will be said in Book 6, ch. 30; Gaius Calvisius Sabinus is mentioned here and in Book 6, ch. 9. He committed suicide under Caligula.) decreta triumphi insignia Poppaeo Sabino (Poppaeo Sabino: see note about him in Book 1, ch. 80. His daughter Poppaea later became emperor Nero’s wife.) contusis Thraecum gentibus, qui montium editis incultu atque eo ferocius agitabant. (contusis Thraecum gentibus, qui montium editis incultu atque eo ferocius agitabant: abl. abs. of causal sense followed by dependent rel. clause: lit. ‘some Thracian tribes having been routed, which, [living] wildly (incultu = sine cultu) on the heights of the mountains, behaved for that reason (eo) all the more defiantly’; editis is the abl. of the neuter plural edita, used as a noun. Thrace is the easternmost part of Greece, with the Rhodope mountain chain along its northern border. It was then a Roman province.) causa motus super hominum ingenium, (super hominum ingenium: super is here preposition with acc., not adverb: ‘beside the ill temper of these people’) quod pati dilectus et validissimum quemque militiae nostrae dare aspernabantur, (quod pati dilectus et validissimum quemque militiae nostrae dare aspernabantur: ‘because they refused to tolerate (pati) the draft and to give us their best men’; validissimus quemque: idiomatic use of quisque with superlatives and ordinal numerals, ‘all the best men’. Cf. B. 252, 5.) ne regibus quidem parere nisi ex libidine soliti, (ne regibus quidem parere nisi ex libidine soliti: ‘not even their kings they were wont to obey, unless they chose to do so.’ ex libidine: idiom, ‘at their own pleasure’; parere: historical infinitive: fulfils the same role generally as the imperfect indicative. Other examples below are praeficere and belligerare) aut si mitterent auxilia, suos ductores praeficere nec nisi adversum accolas belligerare. (si mitterent auxilia, suos ductores praeficere nec nisi adversum accolas belligerare: ‘if they sent reinforcements, they appointed their own commanders and fought only against neighbors.’ si mitterent: protasis with potential (type II) condition, the action of sending troops being uncertain and depending on the whim of the Thracians; nec nisi: the combination of two negative particles produces a positive sense, ‘and only’. nisi is here not a conditional conjunction, but adverbial particle modifying adversum.) ac tum rumor incesserat fore ut disiecti aliisque nationibus permixti diversas in terras traherentur. (ac tum rumor incesserat fore ut disiecti aliisque nationibus permixti diversas in terras traherentur: ‘and a rumor had then come up that, scattered among other tribes, they would be dragged dispersed to remote countries.’ fore ut …traherentur: the periphrasis fore ut + subjunctive is used mainly (but not exclusively) to express future action with verbs that lack the supine, from which the future participle is formed. The verb trahere has supine, tractum, from which tracturus is formed, thus fore ut …traherentur is equivalent to tracturos esse, since the sentence is in oratio obliqua after rumor.) sed antequam arma inciperent, misere legatos amicitiam obsequiumque memoraturos, (sed antequam arma inciperent, misere legatos amicitiam obsequiumque memoraturos: ‘but before they resorted to arms, they sent envoys to remind [the Romans] of their friendship and obedience.’ antequam …inciperent: antequam is followed by subjunctive to indicate an action possible or eventual. amicitiam …memoraturos: the future participle is found used by later writers as an ordinary adjective to express purpose or intention. Cf. A.G. 499, 2.) et mansura haec si nullo novo onere temptarentur: sin ut victis servitium indiceretur, esse sibi ferrum et iuventutem (et mansura haec si nullo novo onere temptarentur: sin ut victis servitium indiceretur, esse sibi ferrum, iuventutem …: quae refers to amicitiam obsequiumque: ‘which would continue if they were not oppressed by no new burden: but if slavery was imposed on them as a conquered nation, they had arms, young men, …’. Two conditional sentences, one with si, the other with sin (‘but if’) contradicting the first, both in indirect speech after misere legatos memoraturos. In oratio obliqua the difference between the many forms conditionality may take disappears and exactness is lost. All indicative and subjunctive tenses of the apodoses in direct speech are turned to infinitive (present, past, future) and protases are uniformly subjunctive (governed by the Sequence of Tenses). The two sentences above have the same construction with one exception, namely that the first has future infinitive in the apodosis and the other present infinitive, indicating that in the first the condition is potential (type II) and in the second is logical (type I), thus more expressive of the uncompromising attitude of the Thracians.) et promptum libertati aut ad mortem animum. simul castella rupibus indita (castella rupibus indita: abl. abs.: lit. ‘the fortified positions on the craggy heights having been pointed out [to the Romans]’; the verb indo has more the meaning of ‘to introduce’, ‘to make aware of’.) conlatosque illuc parentes et coniuges ostentabant bellumque impeditum arduum cruentum minitabantur.