V. 9
Placitum posthac ut in reliquos Seiani liberos adverteretur, (placitum posthac ut in reliquos Seiani liberos adverteretur: both placitum [est] and adverteretur are here used impersonally, the first complemented by a ut clause, the second by in + acc.: ‘after this, it was agreed to inflict punishment on Sejanus’ children.’ adverteretur has here the sense of animadverteretur, lit. ‘that it should be dealt with’, ‘that punitive action should be taken against …’. According to Furneaux, this sense of advertere in aliquem is original with Tacitus.) vanescente quamquam plebis ira ac plerisque per priora supplicia lenitis. (vanescente quamquam plebis ira ac plerisque per priora supplicia lenitis: abl. abs.: lit. ‘though the furor of the populace being waning and the majority having been appeased by means of the previous death sentences’; vanescente quamquam: example of anastrophe; the use of quamquam and other subordinating conjunctions in combination with participles is mainly post-classical; cf. G. 609, N. 1.) igitur portantur in carcerem, filius imminentium intellegens, (filius imminentium intellegens: ‘the son being conscious of what lay ahead [for him]’; imminentium intelligens: Tacitus is a frequent user of participle, more so than most Latin writers: here imminentium, ‘of things impending’, plur. neuter gen. of imminens, is objective genitive of intelligens, present participle of intellego.) puella adeo nescia ut crebro interrogaret quod ob delictum et quo traheretur; (puella adeo nescia ut crebro interrogaret quod ob delictum et quo traheretur: ‘the girl [was] so ingenuous as to frequently ask for what fault and where she was being led.’ interrogaret is subjunctive in the dependent clause of a consecutive sentence introduced by adeo …ut; traheretur is subjunctive for indirect question brought up by interrogative ob quod delictum and quo.) neque facturam ultra et posse se puerili verbere moneri. (neque facturam ultra et posse se puerili verbere moneri: in indirect discourse after interrogaret: ‘that she would misbehave no more (neque …ultra) and that she could be chastised with a beating, as children are’; purili verbere: the tool, verber, is here metonymy for its use; puerili is not so much ‘childish’ as ‘reserved for children’.) tradunt temporis eius auctores, quia triumvirali supplicio adfici virginem inauditum habebatur, a carnifice laqueum iuxta compressam; (quia triumvirali supplicio adfici virginem inauditum habebatur, a carnifice laqueum iuxta compressam: ‘that, since it was unheard of that a virgin be punished with death, she was raped by the executioner, the halter beside her.’ inauditum habebatur: ‘it was held an unheard of thing’, i.e. a thing without precedent; triumvirali supplicio: death by hanging or otherwise strangling; the triumviri capitales were three officers in charge of prisons and the execution of death sentences.) exim oblisis faucibus id aetatis corpora in Gemonias abiecta. (exim oblisis faucibus id aetatis corpora in Gemonias abiecta: ‘next, having been strangled, their bodies – at such tender age! — were thrown down the Gemonian steps.’ oblisis faucibus: abl. abs., lit. ‘their throats having been stifled’; id aetatis: idiomatic phrase, in essence an adverbial accusative, so called in that it is not the object of either a verb or a preposition; cf. G. 336, N. 2 and A.G. 397, a. in Gemonias: the stairway that led from the steep slope of the Capitoline hill to the north end of the Roman Forum below; the bodies of criminal were left to decay there before being thrown into the Tiber.)