XLI.
Non florentis Caesaris neque suis in castris, sed velut in urbe victa facies; (non florentis Caesaris neque suis in castris …[facies]: ‘the sight was neither of a successful Caesar nor [of him] in his own army camp.’) gemitusque ac planctus etiam militum auris oraque advertere: progrediuntur contuberniis. (progrediuntur contuberniis: the abl. of place from which without a preposition, such as ab or ex, is found in poetry but uncommon in prose.) quis ille flebilis sonus? quod tam triste? (quod tam triste?: quod appears to be adj., thus requiring a noun, such as agmen: ‘what procession is this, so sad?’ It has been suggested that triste itself, the neuter form of tristis, is the noun, ‘sad spectacle’.) feminas inlustris, non centurionem ad tutelam, non militem, nihil imperatoriae uxoris aut comitatus soliti: (nihil imperatoriae uxoris aut comitatus soliti: imperatoriae uxoris and comitatus soliti are possessive genitives: lit. ‘nothing of a general’s wife or of her usual retinue’; freely ‘nothing that by rights should distinguish a general’s wife or her usual retinue’: these broken phrases, with little grammar to support them, are meant to express the soldiers’ shocked reaction on seeing ladies of high rank leaving disconsolate, unescorted, and on foot.) pergere ad Treviros [et] externae fidei. (pergere ad Treviros [et] externae fidei: the infinitive pergere reflects the words and thoughts of the soldiers in oratio obliqua: ‘[they heard that] they were going among the Treveri’: it corresponds to the present indicative pergunt, “they are going …”, of direct speech. If et is retained, externae fidei is dat. of purpose in place of ad + acc. already used with Treviros: ‘…and to the loyalty of strangers’; without et, externae fidei is genitive of quality characterizing Treviros: ‘… among the Treveri, a nation of foreign dependability’. Maybe one word or more is missing at this point (Furneaux). The Treveri were a tribe settled around Trier on the Moselle, west of the Ardennes. They claimed German descent and had a long and chequered relationship with Rome.) pudor inde et miseratio et patris Agrippae, Augusti avi memoria, socer Drusus, ipsa insigni fecunditate, (ipsa insigni fecunditate: Agrippina and Germanicus had nine children, six of which survived to adulthood.) praeclara pudicitia; iam infans in castris genitus, (iam infans in castris genitus: ‘then there was the child, born in the camp’: Caligula, then two-years old, was actually born in Antium south of Rome.) in contubernio legionum eductus, quem militari vocabulo Caligulam appellabant, quia plerumque ad concilianda vulgi studia eo tegmine pedum induebatur. (Caligulam appellabant, quia plerumque ad concilianda vulgi studia eo tegmine pedum induebatur: ‘the soldiers called him Caligula, because he was often dressed with that type of footwear to conciliate the affection of the troops.’ Caligula is diminutive of caliga, the heavy army sandal worn by the Roman rank and file.) sed nihil aeque flexit quam invidia in Treviros: orant obsistunt, rediret maneret, (orant obsistunt, rediret maneret: four verbs in rapid succession, combining alliteration, consonance, asyndeta, change of tense and mood, and use of hist. present to project the solicitous anxiety of the uncouth men-at-arms; rediret and maneret are hortative subjunctives.) pars Agrippinae occursantes, plurimi ad Germanicum regressi. isque ut erat recens dolore et ira (isque ut erat recens dolore et ira: ‘and he, just as he was, still smarting from vexation and anger, …’) apud circumfusos ita coepit.