XXXIII.
Interea Germanico per Gallias, ut diximus, census accipienti (census accipienti: see ch. 31) excessisse Augustum adfertur. neptem eius Agrippinam in matrimonio pluresque ex ea liberos habebat, (neptem eius Agrippinam in matrimonio pluresque ex ea liberos habebat: Germanicus had married Agrippina, referred to as Agrippina the elder, to differentiate her from Agrippina the younger, her daughter and mother of the future emperor Nero. She was Augustus’ granddaughter (neptis), born of the union between Marcus Agrippa and Julia, the daughter of Augustus. She gave Germanicus nine children: Nero (died 31 A.D), Drusus (died 33 A.D.), Caligula (the emperor, murdered in 41 A.D.), Agrippina the younger (murdered on Nero’s orders in 59 A.D.), Giulia (died in 41 A.D.), Drusilla (died in 38 A.D.), and three other children dead prematurely.) ipse Druso fratre Tiberii genitus, Augustae nepos, (Augustae nepos: Livia was given the honorific title of Augusta in Augustus’ will (see ch. 8). Germanicus was her grandson, issued of the marriage of her son Drusus with Antonia, Mark Antony’s daughter.) set anxius occultis in se patrui aviaeque odiis (anxius occultis in se patrui aviaeque odiis: ‘distressed on account of the hidden hate of his uncle and of his grandmother against him’; Tacitus never leaves the reader in doubt that Tiberius is Germanicus’ father only in a purely legal sense.) quorum causae acriores quia iniquae. quippe Drusi magna apud populum Romanum memoria, credebaturque, si rerum potitus foret, libertatem redditurus; (quippe … [Drusus] credebatur libertatem redditurus si rerum potitus foret: quippe may be found used as causal conjunction in place of quia or quod and, like these, followed by indicative: ‘since Drusus was believed he would restore liberty, if he had taken possession of the empire’; Drusus, in the words of one commentator, was an ardent admirer of the old republican system and in every respect the most popular prince of the imperial house. credebatur …redditurus [esse] is an example of personal construction (nominative subject + infinitive instead of acc. + infinitive after the passive of a verb of saying (cf. A.G. 582). The periphrastic redditurus [esse] serves here as the apodosis of a conditional sentence in oratio obliqua. The condition is contrary to fact (type III condition), hence the pluperfect subjunctive for unreality in past time.) unde in Germanicum favor et spes eadem. nam iuveni civile ingenium, mira comitas (iuveni civile ingenium, mira comitas: iuveni is dat. of possessor with implied form of esse: ‘he had an unpretentious disposition and extraordinary good nature’.) et diversa ab Tiberii sermone vultu, adrogantibus et obscuris. accedebant muliebres offensiones novercalibus Liviae in Agrippinam stimulis, (novercalibus Liviae in Agrippinam stimulis: novercalibus …stimulis does not imply that Livia was Agrippina’s stepmother, rather that she acted like one (in a narrow sense Livia was stepmother to Giulia, Agrippina’s mother): ‘on account of Livia’s stepmotherly barbs aimed at Agrippina’) atque ipsa Agrippina paulo commotior, nisi quod castitate et mariti amore quamvis indomitum animum in bonum vertebat. (ipsa Agrippina paulo commotior, nisi quod … indomitum animum in bonum vertebat: ‘Agrippina herself was a little too hot-tempered, were it not for the fact that she turned to good use her untameable temper’. commotior: comparative adjectives without a second term of comparison are translated by adding words such as ‘rather’, ‘fairly’, ‘a little’, ‘too’ to the positive form (Petitmangin). quod is here explanatory.