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Clarorum virorum facta moresque posteris tradere, antiquitus usitatum, ne nostris quidem temporibus quamquam incuriosa suorum aetas omisit (facta …posteris tradere, antiquitus usitatum, ne nostris quidem temporibus…aetas omisit: antiquitus is adv.; usitatum modifies tradere, here used as a verbal noun and object of omisit; lit. ‘not even our age has, in our times, ceased transmitting to posterity the deeds of …, a customary practice from of old’.) quotiens magna aliqua ac nobilis virtus vicit ac supergressa est (vicit aut supergressa est: ’has overcome and surpassed’) vitium parvis magnisque civitatibus commune, ignorantiam recti (recti: the gen. neuter sing. of rectus used as a noun; may mean ‘justice’, ‘rectitude’, ‘goodness’, ‘upright conduct’’, etc.) et invidiam. Sed apud priores ut agere digna memoratu (digna memoratu: dignus is followed by abl. of specification, ‘things worthy in the remembering’; memoratu is the supine form of memoro, i.e. a verbal noun of the fourth declension appearing only in the acc. and in the dat-abl.) pronum magisque in aperto erat, ita (ut … pronum magisque in aperto erat, ita …: ‘as [the way] was easy and more open [to opportunities], so …’; ut and its correlative ita respectively introduce the dependent and the main clause of a comparative sentence.) celeberrimus quisque ingenio ad prodendam virtutis memoriam (celeberrimus quisque ingenio ad prodendam …memoriam: celeberrimus quisque is idiomatic use of quisque with superlative, ‘all men most famous as to their ability to preserve the memory of …’; ingenio is abl. of respect; ad prodendam memoriam: gerundive with ad, one of the ways to express purpose in Latin) sine gratia aut ambitione bonae tantum conscientiae pretio ducebantur. Ac (ac: in place of et for emphasis) plerique suam ipsi vitam narrare fiduciam potius morum (fiducia… morum: lit. ‘trust of their own worth) quam adrogantiam arbitrati sunt, nec id Rutilio et Scauro citra fidem aut obtrectationi fuit: (nec id Rutilio et Scauro citra fidem aut obtrectationi fuit: P. Rutilius Rufus and M. Aemilius Scaurus, the first praetor, the other consul, wrote memoirs that have not survived; both receive mention and praise in Cicero’s works as well; citra fidem: lit. ‘on this side of belief’, i. e. ‘short of belief’; nec Rutilio et Scauro… obtrectationi fuit: double dative, Rutilio et Scauro is dative of respect, obtrectationi dat. of destination; lit. ‘it was not to R. and S. for disparagement.’) adeo virtutes isdem temporibus optime aestimantur, quibus facillime gignuntur. At nunc narraturo mihi vitam defuncti hominis venia opus fuit, quam non petissem incusaturus: (narraturo mihi vitam defuncti hominis venia opus fuit, quam non petissem incusaturus: lit. ‘to me going to relate the life of a dead man permission was a requisite, which [permission] I should not have asked if I had been about to make accusations’; narratruro mihi …incusaturus: the use in prose of future participles as adjectives to express purpose, intention, likelihood, etc. first became frequent with Livy, then with later writers like Tacitus and Pliny; cf. G. 438, Note, and AG. 498, 499. The point in this passage seems to be that Tacitus probably approached emperor Domitian about the idea of writing Agricola’s life and when the idea was coldly received, decided to keep silent, resuming the project after Domitian’s death.) tam saeva et infesta virtutibus tempora.