XII.
Inter quae senatu ad infimas obtestationes procumbente, (senatu ad infimas obtestationes procumbente: abl. abs.) dixit forte Tiberius se ut non toti rei publicae parem, ita (ut … ita: not so much with the comparative sense of ‘just as …so’, but as the concessive pair ‘although …yet’) quaecumque pars sibi mandaretur (quaecumque pars sibi mandaretur: relative clauses with indefinite pronouns are regularly in the indicative, except in oratio obliqua.) eius tutelam suscepturum. tum Asinius Gallus (Asinius Gallus: first mentioned in ch. 8, he was the son of Gaius Asinius Pollio, consul in 40 B.C., and the husband of Vipsania Arippina, the first wife of Tiberius. This earned him the hatred of the emperor, who had him arrested in 30 A.D. and let him die of starvation in solitary confinement.) interrogo ‘ inquit, ‘Caesar, quam partem rei publicae mandari tibi velis.’ perculsus inprovisa interrogatione paulum reticuit: dein collecto animo respondit nequaquam decorum pudori suo legere aliquid aut evitare ex eo cui in universum excusari mallet. (respondit nequaquam decorum [esse] pudori suo legere aliquid aut evitare ex eo cui …excusari mallet: lit. ‘he answered that it did not by any means become his modesty to accept or refuse anything from that for which (cui) he would rather be excused’; cui: the dative is rarely found governed by excusare; pudori is dat. with decorum [esse].) rursum (rursum: found in place of rursus in both the ante-classical and post-classical period) Gallus (etenim vultu offensionem coniectaverat) non idcirco interrogatum ait, ut divideret quae separari nequirent sed ut sua confessione argueretur unum esse rei publicae corpus (non idcirco interrogatum …, ut divideret quae separari nequirent sed ut sua confessione argueretur unum esse rei publicae corpus: ‘that the reason he had asked the question was not to divide what cannot be separated but to prove to him by his own admission that the body of the state was one’; idcirco, ‘for that reason’, ‘because of that’ is often found preceding a purpose clause with ut. Cf. L. 1961. sua confessione is possibly abl. of instrument.) atque unius animo regendum. addidit laudem de Augusto Tiberiumque ipsum victoriarum suarum quaeque in toga (in toga: i.e. ‘out of uniform’, ‘as a civilian’) per tot annos egregie fecisset admonuit. nec ideo (ideo: ‘for all that’) iram eius lenivit, pridem invisus, tamquam ducta in matrimonium Vipsania (ducta … Vipsania: lit. ‘Vipsania having been taken home as a wife’, i.e. ‘having been married’) M. Agrippae filia, quae quondam Tiberii uxor ([Vipsania] quondam Tiberii uxor: in 11 B.C. Tiberius was compelled by Augustus to divorce his first wife Vipsania, whom he sincerely loved, to marry Julia, the daughter of Augustus himself.) fuerat, plus quam civilia agitaret Pollionisque Asinii patris foreciam retineret. (tamquam … plus quam civilia agitaret … patris foreciam retineret: later writers, and especially Tacitus, use tamquam to give an assumed reason. Cf. L. 1909 and G. 602, Note 4. plus quam civilia agitaret: ‘that he was mulling over ideas above his station of private citizen’)