XXXVIII.
At (at: expresses contrast with what precedes.) in Chaucis (in Chaucis: the Chauci occupied a vast territory along the shores of the North Sea between the Ems and the Elbe rivers, cut in two by the river Weser. Tiberius had defeated them in the time of the Varus’ debacle and had left behind a garrison to guard the new conquest.) coeptavere seditionem praesidium agitantes vexillarii discordium legionum (praesidium agitantes vexillarii discordium legionum: ‘detachments of the seditious legions serving on garrison duty’; these are not veterani sub vexillo, i.e. veteran soldiers placed in reserve after sixteen (or twenty) years of service, but regular bodies of troops detached from their units and sent on special assignments as the need occurred.) et praesenti duorum militum supplicio paulum repressi sunt. iusserat id M’. Ennius castrorum praefectus, bono magis exemplo quam concesso iure. (bono magis exemplo quam concesso iure: abl. abs. called on to express a comparison: ‘being a good warning more than an assured right.’ Only the legatus of a legion, exercising the power given to him by the emperor, could have soldiers executed.) deinde intumescente motu profugus repertusque, postquam intutae latebrae, praesidium ab audacia mutuatur: (postquam intutae latebrae [erant], praesidium ab audacia mutuatur: ‘after his refuge was no longer safe, he borrows protection from audacity.’ The plural of latebra is more used than the singular, as the case is with litterae.) non praefectum ab iis, sed Germanicum ducem, sed Tiberium imperatorem violari. (sed Germanicum ducem, sed Tiberium imperatorem violari: Ennius tells the disaffected soldiers that any affront to himself was an affront to Germanicus and to Tiberius: their crime was not only mutiny, it was treason.) simul exterritis qui obstiterant, raptum vexillum ad ripam vertit, et si quis agmine decessisset, pro desertore fore clamitans, (si quis agmine decessisset, pro desertore fore clamitans: conditional sentence in oratio obliqua governed by clamitans: ‘shouting time and again that if anyone left (lit. ‘would have left’) his place in the ranks, he would be held as a deserter.’ The protasis has plup. subjunctive decessisset corresponding to the future perfect indicative decesserit of direct speech for real or logical condition; the apodosis has future infinitive fore for expected action or state subsequent to that of the protasis. quis is for aliquis after si.) reduxit in hiberna turbidos et nihil ausos. (ad ripam vertit, et … reduxit in hiberna turbidos et nihil ausos: ad ripam: usually translated as the bank of the Rhine, although the Rhine comes nowhere near the territory of the Chauci in NW Germany. Probably the Ems or the Weser are a better choice of rivers. A similar problem arises with reduxit in hiberna, usually taken to refer to the winter camp at Vetera or even to the farther one at Cologne, without considering the incredibly large distances involved. It may in fact have been an ad hoc camp, set up locally expressly for the garrison troops. Very likely Tacitus does not inform us better because his sources may have been similarly obscure. et in turbidus et nihil ausos has the adversative force of sed or of et tamen, ‘and yet’.)