XLV
Non vidit Agricola obsessam curiam et clausum armis senatum et eadem strage (eadem strage: ‘the massacre itself’: the long list of senators executed by Domitian can be found in Suetonius.) tot consularium caedes, tot nobilissimarum feminarum exilia et fugas. Una adhuc victoria Carus Mettius (Carus Mettius: a well-known informer who accused many people, such as Senecio mentioned below) censebatur, (una …victoria …censebatur: ‘had his reputation based on just one victory’) et intra Albanam arcem sententia Messalini strepebat, (intra Albanam arcem sententia Messalini strepebat: Messalinus, an ex-consul, was a notoriously indiscriminate accuser ; the meaning here is that his ranting was confined to the palace Domitian had built in Alba Longa, a city of ancient Latium, SE of Rome and birthplace of Romulus and Remus, the legendary founders of Rome.) et Massa Baebius (Massa Baebius: accused of misdeeds when proconsul in Spain, he turned himself accuser and became a dangerous man.) etiam tum (etiam tum: or etiamtum, ‘still at the time’) reus erat: mox nostrae duxere Helvidium (Helvidium: Helvidius, an ex-consul, was executed for alluding to Domitian in a play he wrote.) in carcerem manus; nos Maurici Rusticique visus [adflixit]; (nos Maurici Rusticique visus [adflixit]: a verb appears to be missing at this point and adflixit has been suggested, which gives either ‘the sight of Mauricus and Rusticus disgraced us’ or ‘the glance M. and R. gave us shattered us’.) nos (nostrae … manus; nos … nos: Tacitus means that Domitian’s terrible acts were approved by the Senate of which Tacitus himself was a member.) innocenti sanguine Senecio perfudit. Nero tamen subtraxit oculos suos iussitque scelera, non spectavit: praecipua sub Domitiano miseriarum pars erat videre et aspici, cum suspiria nostra subscriberentur, cum denotandis tot hominum palloribus sufficeret saevus ille vultus (vultus: ‘gaze’ hence ‘eyes’) et rubor, (rubor: ‘redness’, ‘flush’) quo se contra pudorem muniebat. (cum suspiria nostra subscriberentur, cum denotandis tot hominum palloribus sufficeret saevus ille vultus et rubor, quo se contra pudorem muniebat: lit. ‘when our sighs were recorded, when that savage stare and redness [of his face] –with which he protected himself from blushing—would suffice for the pallors of so many men to be carefully noted’; denotandis …palloribus sufficeret: sufficio takes dative. Note that vultus and robur, both subjects of sufficeret, form zeugma, in that the verb applies only to vultus, i. e. the eyes, not to rubor.) Tu vero felix, Agricola, non vitae tantum claritate, sed etiam opportunitate mortis. Ut perhibent qui interfuere novissimis sermonibus tuis, constans et libens fatum excepisti, tamquam pro virili portione innocentiam principi donares. (tamquam pro virili portione innocentiam principi donares: ‘as if, in proportion to a man’s power, you would present the emperor with the gift of innocence’ ; principi is dat. with donares.) Sed mihi filiaeque (mihi filiaeque: Tacitus was married to Agricola’s daughter, as related in ch. 9, and both had been absent from Rome , perhaps in Gallia Belgica, for four years when Agricola died.) eius praeter acerbitatem parentis erepti auget maestitiam, quod adsidere valetudini, fovere deficientem, satiari vultu complexuque non contigit. Excepissemus (excepissemus: potential plup. subjunctive) certe mandata vocesque, quas penitus animo figeremus. (quas …figeremus: rel. clause of final sense) Noster hic dolor, nostrum vulnus, nobis tam longae absentiae condicione (tam longae absentiae condicione: ‘by the circumstance of a long absence’) ante quadriennium amissus est. Omnia sine dubio, optime parentum, adsidente amantissima uxore superfuere honori tuo: (honori tuo: dat. of destination) paucioribus tamen lacrimis compositus es, (paucioribus …lacrimis compositus es: ‘you were laid to rest with too few tears ‘; compositus: some of the extant manuscripts give comploratus, ‘mourned’.) et novissima in luce desideravere aliquid oculi tui.