XXXVII.
Sensit miles in tempus conficta (in tempus conficta: ‘falsely devised (from con + fingo) to suit the occasion’; in tempus = ad tempus) statimque flagitavit. missio per tribunos maturatur, largitio differebatur in hiberna cuiusque. non abscessere quintani unetvicesimanique donec isdem in aestivis contracta ex viatico amicorum ipsiusque Caesaris pecunia persolveretur. (non abscessere quintani unetvicesimanique donec isdem in aestivis contracta [est] ex viatico amicorum ipsiusque Caesaris pecunia persolveretur: ‘the soldiers of the Fifth and Twenty-first legions refused to leave until the money was collected, right there in the summer camp, from the private funds of Germanicus himself and of his friends.’ The Fifth and Twenty-first legions had been the first to revolt (see ch. 31), hence were more intractable. donec …persolveretur: donec is with subjunctive to denote expectation.) primam ac vicesimam legiones Caecina legatus in civitatem Vbiorum reduxit turpi agmine cum fisci de imperatore rapti inter signa interque aquilas veherentur. (primam ac vicesimam legiones Caecina …in civitatem Vbiorum reduxit turpi agmine cum fisci de imperatore rapti inter signa interque aquilas veherentur: ‘Caecina led the First and Twentieth back to the major town of the Ubii with an ignominious march, since the bags of money extorted from the general were transported among the eagles and standards.’ in civitatem Ubiorum: the summer camp of the four legions was already in Ubian territory (see ch. 31), so civitatem must refer to the oppidum mentioned in ch. 36, which would later become Colonia Agrippinensis and modern Cologne. turpi agmine: what made the march ‘ugly’ was not that the bags were carried among the sacred symbols of the legions, but that the money in them had been coerced from the general. It was common practice for the soldiers to deposit money with the standards for safekeeping. The aquilifer or standard bearer of the legion kept the accounts. The fact that these two legions are walking away with their own bags of extorted money, can only mean that all four legions were paid in the manner described, something that either Tacitus forgot to mention or that has gone missing in the original text. Also strange is that Caecina, seen here leading the First and the Twenty-first legion to their winter quarters in the main town of the Ubii, is next mentioned in ch. 48 as being in command of the irreconcilable Fifth and Twenty-first legions at Castra Vetera, near modern Xanten, at the confluence of the Rhine with the Lippe. de imperatore is abl. of the source, cum …veherentur: causal cum requires subjunctive.) Germanicus superiorem ad exercitum profectus secundam et tertiam decumam et sextam decumam legiones nihil cunctatas sacramento adigit. (sacramento adigit: ‘he induced to taking the oath the …’: the dat. sacramento is in place of ad sacramentum, as is often the case in Tacitus.) quartadecumani paulum dubitaverant: pecunia et missio quamvis non flagitantibus oblata est.