XXXVI
Ac primo congressu eminus certabatur; simulque constantia, simul arte Britanni ingentibus gladiis et brevibus caetris missilia nostrorum vitare vel excutere, atque ipsi magnam vim telorum superfundere, (vitare … excutere … superfundere: historical infinitives) donec Agricola quattuor Batavorum cohortis ac Tungrorum (Batavorum …ac Tungrorum: the Batavi occupied the district between the Waal and the Lek in today’s Holland, east of Rotterdam and west of Nymwegen; the Tungri were settled in the area around Liege in Belgium) duas cohortatus est, (donec Agricola … cohortatus est: ‘until Agricola exhorted …’; temporal donec requires perf. indicative to denote a factual event in past time; cf. A.G. 554.) ut rem ad mucrones ac manus adducerent; (ut rem ad mucrones ac manus adducerent: lit. ‘to bring the fight to the sword’s point and to the hands’, i. e. at close quarters) quod et ipsis vetustate militiae exercitatum et hostibus inhabile (quod et ipsis vetustate militiae exercitatum et hostibus inhabile [erat]: ‘which [method] was both familiar to themselves, because of their long army service, and clumsy for the enemy’; for et …et cf. note in ch. 30.) [parva scuta et enormis gladios gerentibus]; nam Britannorum gladii sine mucrone complexum armorum et in arto pugnam non tolerabant. (complexum armorum et in arto pugnam non tolerabant: ‘did not permit the interlocking of arms and fighting in a narrow space’; in arto: ‘in a confined space’, ‘in a critical situation’) Igitur ut Batavi miscere ictus, ferire umbonibus, ora fodere, (miscere …ferire …fodere: infinitives of narration, as are others that follow) et stratis qui in aequo adstiterant, erigere in collis aciem coepere, ceterae cohortes aemulatione et impetu conisae (aemulatione et impetu conisae: conisae, being deponent, has active meaning, ‘striving in their emulation and impetus’; i. e. ‘striving to emulate the impetus [of the Batavi]’.) proximos quosque caedere: ac plerique semineces aut integri festinatione victoriae relinquebantur. Interim equitum turmae, fugere [enim] covinnarii, peditum se proelio miscuere. Et quamquam recentem terrorem intulerant, densis tamen hostium agminibus et inaequalibus locis haerebant; (haerebant: ‘were unable to move’) minimeque equestris ea pugnae facies erat, (minimeque equestris ea pugnae facies erat: ‘the appearance was not at all that of a cavalry engagement’) cum aegre (aegre: ‘with difficulty’) clivo instantes simul equorum corporibus impellerentur; (cum …impellerentur: subjunctive after causal cum) ac saepe vagi currus, exterriti sine rectoribus equi, ut quemque formido tulerat, transversos aut obvios incursabant. (currus …equi, ut quemque formido tulerat, transversos aut obvios incursabant: lit. ‘horses and their chariots, just as panic had carried onward each of them, bore down on anyone moving across their way or in the opposite direction’.)