XXII.
Flagrantior inde vis, plures seditioni duces. (seditioni duces: in ch. 17 we have seditionis ministris, ‘the managers of the mutiny’, here seditioni duces ‘the leaders for the mutiny’. Tacitus never allows his prose to rest on its laurels.) et (et: et may adduce an example, often extreme: ‘a notable example was …’ (Oxford Latin dictionary). Vibulenus quidam gregarius miles, ante tribunal Blaesi (tribunal Blaesi: a platform in the middle of the camp at the intersection of the two main streets, on one side of the praetorium or the general’s tent, from where he would address the troops) adlevatus circumstantium umeris, apud turbatos et quid pararet intentos (apud turbatos et quid pararet intentos … inquit: ‘amid the excited crowd of men, eagerly watching what he would do, he said …’; quid introduces an indirect question requiring subjunctive.) ‘vos quidem’ inquit ‘his innocentibus et miserrimis lucem et spiritum reddidistis: sed quis fratri meo vitam, quis fratrem mihi reddit? quem missum ad vos a Germanico exercitu de communibus commodis (missum ad vos a Germanico exercitu de communibus commodis: pure invention on the part of Vibulenus probably to encourage the troops to press their demands, knowing that that the mighty German army was supporting them. Ironically, his fiction turned out to be the truth, as the German legions were indeed engaged in mutinies for the same reasons. See ch. 31 ff ahead. de communis commodis: ‘with regard to their common demands’, i.e. the demands of both the Pannonian and the German legions.) nocte proxima iugulavit per gladiatores suos, (per gladiatores suos: private gladiators were often kept by military commanders and governors, the purpose being to gain popularity by giving shows and also for personal protection in case of unrest among the troops.) quos in exitium militum habet atque armat. responde, Blaese, ubi cadaver abieceris (ubi cadaver abieceris: direct question: the perfect abieceris, from abicio is potential subjunctive: ‘where might you have thrown away the corpse?’) ne hostes quidem sepultura invident. (sepultura invident: invideo, in the sense of ‘to begrudge’ is with abl. of the thing and dat. of recipient, unlike invideo, ‘to be jealous of’, which has acc. of the thing.) cum osculis, cum lacrimis dolorem meum implevero, (cum … cum … implevero: cum is temporal conjunction, not preposition with osculis or lacrimis: lit. ‘when I will have satisfied …’; generic or temporal cum can be found with any tense of the indicative.) me quoque trucidari iube, dum interfectos nullum ob scelus sed quia utilitati legionum consulebamus hi sepeliant.’ (dum … sepeliant: dum with the sense of dummodo, ‘provided that’, is always with subjunctive.)