IX
Revertentem ab legatione legionis divus (divus: meritorious emperors received this title after their death.) Vespasianus inter patricios adscivit; ac deinde provinciae Aquitaniae (provinciae Aquitaniae: Roman province in southern Gaul, between the Pyrenees and the Loire, along the Bay of Biscay) praeposuit, splendidae inprimis dignitatis administratione ac spe consulatus, cui destinarat. Credunt plerique militaribus ingeniis subtilitatem deesse, quia castrensis iurisdictio (castrensis iurisdictio: ‘military law’) secura et obtusior ac plura manu agens (plura manu agens: ‘doing many things by the sword’) calliditatem fori non exerceat: (quia calliditatem fori non exerceat: exerceat is subjunctive because the quia clause is in indirect speech introduced by credunt; here fori means ‘of the bar’, ‘of the courts’) Agricola naturali prudentia, quamvis inter togatos, facile iusteque agebat. Iam vero tempora curarum remissionumque divisa: ubi conventus ac iudicia (conventus ac iudicia: a kind of hendiadys, ‘the sessions of the assize courts’) poscerent, (ubi…poscerent: the subjunctive is found with ubi, especially in Tacitus and Livy, when the meaning is frequentative, i.e. ubi = ’whenever’) gravis intentus, severus et saepius misericors: ubi officio satis factum, nulla ultra potestatis persona[erat]; (ubi officio satis factum [esset] , nulla ultra potestatis persona [erat]: ‘whenever enough had been done with work, the official character was no longer there’; to note that the term persona applied also to a mask worn by actors.) tristitiam et adrogantiam et avaritiam exuerat]. Nec illi, quod est rarissimum, aut facilitas auctoritatem aut severitas amorem deminuit. Integritatem atque abstinentiam in tanto viro referre iniuria virtutum fuerit. (fuerit: pot. subjunctive; the past is often used with present value) Ne famam quidem, cui saepe etiam boni indulgent, (cui…indulgent: indulgeo requires dative) ostentanda virtute aut per artem quaesivit; procul (procul: ‘he was far from’; the verb is understood) ab aemulatione adversus collegas, procul a contentione adversus procurators, (procuratores: imperial officials with fiscal or administrative authority in the province; they were often at odds with the governor.) et vincere inglorium et atteri sordidum arbitrabatur. Minus triennium in ea legatione (in ea legatione: legatio is the office of a provincial governor) detentus ac statim ad spem consulatus (statim ad spem consulatus: ‘to the immediate prospect of a consulship’) revocatus est, comitante opinione Britanniam ei provinciam dari, (comitante opinione Britanniam ei…dari: abl. abs., ‘the opinion travelling with him that Britain was to be given to him’) nullis in hoc ipsius sermonibus, (nullis in hoc ipsius sermonibus: abl. of cause, ‘not because of any statements of his about the matter’) sed quia par videbatur. Haud semper errat fama; aliquando et eligit. ([fama] aliquando et eligit: et, when not the first word in a clause, has often the sense of etiam) Consul egregiae tum spei filiam iuveni mihi despondit ac post consulatum collocavit, et statim Britaniae praepositus est, adiecto pontificatus. (pontificatus: the office of high priest of which there were fifteen in Tacitus’ time) sacerdotio.