V. 10
Per idem tempus Asia atque Achaia (Asia atque Achaia: by Asia the Roman province of Asia within what is today Turkey is meant; Achaia was one of the Roman provinces in Greece. See also note below.) exterritae sunt acri magis quam diuturno rumore, Drusum Germanici filium (Drusum Germanici filium: to be distinguished from Drusus, Tiberius’ son, or Drusus Tiberius’ brother and father of Germanicus.) apud Cycladas insulas (apud Cycladas insulas: the cluster of islands in the southern Aegean sea) mox in continenti visum. et erat iuvenis haud dispari aetate, quibusdam Caesaris libertis velut adgnitus; (quibusdam Caesaris libertis velut adgnitus: ‘ostensibly recognised by some of Tiberius’ freedmen’; velut is adverb modifying agnitus (from agnosco); lit. ‘just as though having been recognised by …’) per dolumque comitantibus adliciebantur ignari fama nominis et promptis Graecorum animis ad nova et mira: (per dolumque comitantibus adliciebantur ignari fama nominis et promptis Graecorum animis ad nova et mira: comitantibus is dat. of agent with the passive adliciebantur, in place of abl. with a or ab; Tacitus affects it for being shorter and more poetic: ‘and (-que) ignorant followers were allured by those attending [the impostor], with a view to swindle (ob dolum) [the unwary] because of the luster of the name and the propensity of the Greeks for things new and wondrous.’ promptis Graecorum animis: abl. abs., ‘the minds of the Greek being more responsive to …’) quippe elapsum custodiae pergere ad paternos exercitus, Aegyptum aut Syriam invasurum, fingebant simul credebantque. (quippe elapsum custodiae pergere ad paternos exercitus, Aegyptum aut Syriam invasurum, fingebant simul credebantque: quippe is in this case coordinating conjunction with explicative function, having the force of nam: ‘inasmuch as they pretended and were the first to believe that, having escaped from custody, [Drusus] was headed for his father’s armies [in Germany] and was going to invade Egypt and Syria’; elapsum custodiae: dat. with elabor; for elapsum see note below for dilapsis. Drusus was at this time a prisoner in a dungeon of the imperial palace. See note at the end of ch. V. 5.) iam iuventutis concursu, iam publicis studiis frequentabatur, laetus praesentibus et inanium spe, cum auditum id Poppaeo Sabino: (iam iuventutis concursu, iam publicis studiis frequentabatur, laetus praesentibus et inanium spe, cum auditum id Poppaeo Sabino … : ‘already he was pressed round by crowds of young supporters and by popular attention, exulting in present good fortune and empty hopes [for the future], when, all this being heard by Poppaeus Sabinus, the latter …’; the verbs of the long cum clause are the perfect evadit and ingressus [est] below. When temporal cum is placed after the main clause, followed by indicative and introducing an unexpected event, it is called inverse cum in that the cum clause appears to carry the main action, whereas the main clause merely gives the attending circumstances. The same construction is frequent in English also. Cf. G. 581. inanium spe: ‘in the hope of things devoid of reality’; inanium is gen. plur. of inania, ‘empty things’. Poppaeo Sabino is dat. of agent with the passive auditum; cf. comitantibus above. For Sabinus, see Book 4, ch. 46 and Book 1, ch. 80.) is Macedoniae tum intentus Achaiam quoque curabat. (Macedoniae … Achaiam: under Roman rule, Greece became divided into three provinces, Macedonia (the northern part), Epirus (the northwestern section including parts of modern Albania), and Achaia (the central part of Greece and the Peloponnese). Most of ancient Macedonia is today a region of northern Greece, but parts of it belong to Bulgaria and to the new independent state of Macedonia.) igitur quo vera seu falsa antiret (quo vera seu falsa antiret: quo often replaces ut in final clauses if the verb expresses, in some sense or other, superiority or advantage, as anteire does: ‘to stay ahead [of things], whether true or false’; seu (or sive ) is normally repeated before each alternative, but Tacitus omits it before the first, just as he omits the particle before the first part of a disjunctive question, all being part of his quest for brevity.) Toronaeum Thermaeumque sinum praefestinans, mox Euboeam Aegaei maris insulam et Piraeum Atticae orae, dein Corinthiense litus angustiasque Isthmi evadit; ([cum] …Toronaeum Thermaeumque sinum praefestinans, mox Euboeam Aegaei maris insulam et Piraeum Atticae orae, dein Corinthiense litus angustiasque Isthmi evadit: the passage is part of the inverse cum clause, as previously explained: ‘[after] hastening past the bay of Torone and of Thermae, then past Euboea, an island of the Aegean sea, past Piraeus of the Attic coast, he next got through the shores of Corinth and the narrow strip of the isthmus …’; Toronaeum Thermaeumque sinum: the city of Torone is at the southern tip of the Sithonia peninsula, jutting out of the Macedonian coast in the northern part of the Aegean sea, and the homonymous gulf (also known as the gulf of Kassandra) lies between the Sithonia peninsula to the east and the Kassandra peninsula to the west. The gulf of Therma (the ancient name of the city of Thessaloniki) is to the west of the gulf of Torone, between mainland Greece and the Kassandra peninsula. Euboea is the long island parallel to the coast of Attica (where Athens is located) and of Beotia. Piraeus is the port of Athens, 8 km. (5 miles) SW of the city. Corinth is the city located on the isthmus joining the Peloponnese peninsula to central Greece, a slender band of land at the same time separating the Ionian from the Aegean sea. Except for the brief crossing of the isthmus, Sabinus’ entire journey from Macedonia to Nicopolis in Epirus, was by sea, the safest way to travel in ancient times, though not necessarily the shortest.) marique alio Nicopolim Romanam coloniam ingressus, (marique alio Nicopolim Romanam coloniam ingressus: ‘ …and by way of the other sea (i.e. the Ionian sea) he entered Nicopolis, the Roman colony.’ Nicopolis, lit. ‘city of victory’, was built by Augusts on the site of his camp before the battle of Actium, where his forces defeated the army of Marc Antony in 31 B.C. The city now known as ‘Old Preveza’, is located on the Ionian coast of Epirus, a district in NW Greece below Albania, just west of the Ambracian gulf, outside of which the naval battle took place. See note in Book 2, ch. 53.) ibi demum cognoscit sollertius interrogatum quisnam foret (interrogatum quisnam foret: subjunctive in indirect question: ‘asked who in the world he was, …’) dixisse M. Silano genitum et multis sectatorum dilapsis (multis sectatorum dilapsis: abl. abs.: lit. ‘many of his adherents having melted away’; dilapsis: the perfect participle of a deponent verb has active sense, as in English.) ascendisse navem tamquam Italiam peteret. (dixisse M. Silano genitum et … ascendisse navem tamquam Italiam peteret: in indirect speech after cognoscit: ‘that he had said he was the son of Marcus Silanus and had boarded a ship with the idea of reaching Italy’; M. Silano: abl. of origin, without preposition with names of parents, ‘born from …’; Marcus Silanus is thought to be the man mentioned in Book 3, ch. 24, the bother of Decimus Silanus and future father-in-law of emperor Caligula (see Book 6, ch. 20). tamquam Italiam petert: here, the comparative particle tamquam gives a supposed reason (‘thinking that …’, ‘with the intention of …’), hence followed by subjunctive. See G. 602, Note 4.) scripsitque haec Tiberio neque nos (nos: use of ‘editorial we’ to avoid the too personal ‘I’. Latin rarely uses personal pronouns before a verb, except to express emphasis; here, for instance, Tacitus uses it to signify that, in regard to himself, he is unable to throw more light on the matter.) originem finemve eius rei ultra comperimus.