XVIII.
Adstrepebat vulgus, diversis incitamentis, hi verberum notas, illi canitiem, plurimi detrita tegmina et nudum corpus exprobrantes. postremo eo furoris venere ut tres legiones miscere in unam agitaverint. (postremo eo furoris venere ut tres legiones miscere in unam agitaverint: consecutive sentence with the correlatives eo …ut as a link between main and dependent clause: ‘in the end they arrived at such a state of madness as to consider combining the three legions into one’. eo furoris: adverbs of place like eo are often followed by partitive genitive in later Latin, e.g. eo loci, eo temporis; agitaverint: consecutive clauses do not obey the consecution temporum: the perfect subjunctive is practically the norm in historical narrative. Also, Latin has a strong tendency to use perfect subjunctive to represent the perfect indicative that would be used if the clause were not dependent. Cf. A.G. 485, c., Note 2.) depulsi aemulatione, quia suae quisque legioni eum honorem quaerebant, (quisque legioni eum honorem quaerebant: i.e the honor of being the legion that would incorporate the other two; note that quisque is here plural.) alio vertunt atque una tres aquilas et signa cohortium locant; (alio vertunt atque una tres aquilas et signa cohortium locant: alio is dat. of aliud and is in place of ad aliud after verto; vertunt, locant and also congerunt, exstruunt in next line are historical presents; una is adverb, ‘together’.) simul congerunt caespites, exstruunt tribunal, quo magis conspicua sedes foret. (congerunt caespites, exstruunt tribunal, quo magis conspicua sedes foret: tribunal or suggestus is a platform raised to confer dignity to the place (sedes) where the eagles were grouped and from which speakers could address an audience. quo magis …foret: quo replaces ut in final clauses when a comparative is present.) properantibus Blaesus advenit, (properantibus Blaesus advenit: properantibus is either dative, often in Tacitus in place of ad + acc., or a one-word abl. abs.) increpabatque ac retinebat singulos, clamitans ‘mea potius caede imbuite manus: leviore flagitio legatum interficietis quam ab imperatore desciscitis. (leviore flagitio legatum interficietis quam ab imperatore desciscitis: leviore flagitio, here abl. of attendant circumstance, is ellipse for levius flagitium erit si … (Nipp.); Blaesus was both legatus legionis, legion commander, and legatus Augusti pro praetore, governor of Pannonia. desciscitis is pres. indicative from descisco.) aut incolumis fidem legionum retinebo aut iugulatus paenitentiam adcelerabo.’