XLIV.
Supplices ad haec et vera exprobrari fatentes orabant puniret noxios, ignosceret lapsis et duceret in hostem: (puniret …, ignosceret …, et duceret …: hortatory subjunctives) revocaretur coniunx, rediret legionum alumnus neve obses Gallis traderetur. (revocaretur coniunx, rediret legionum alumnus neve obses Gallis traderetur: more hortatory subjunctives, but now in passive form to break the litany of active imperfects: ‘that his wife should be brought back, that the mascot of the legions should return and not be handed over to the Gauls an hostage’) reditum Agrippinae excusavit ob inminentem partum et hiemem: venturum filium: cetera ipsi exsequerentur. (cetera ipsi exsequerentur: imperative in indirect speech after excusavit (or implied verb of saying): ‘[he said] they were to look after the rest themselves.’ In direct speech: exsequimini; the verb has also the sense of ‘to pursue with punishment’, which is exactly what the soldiers chose to understand.) discurrunt mutati et seditiosissimum quemque vinctos trahunt ad legatum legionis primae C. Caetronium, qui iudicium et poenas de singulis in hunc modum exercuit. stabant pro contione (pro contione: ‘as if for an assembly’, ‘after the manner of an assembly’; since it had not been requested by Germanicus, the gathering was neither an unregulated crowd nor a formal assembly.) legiones destrictis gladiis: reus in suggestu per tribunum (per tribunum: the abl. of instrument is replaced by per +acc. if the instrument is a person.) ostendebatur: si nocentem adclamaverant, praeceps datus trucidabatur. (si nocentem adclamaverant, praeceps datus trucidabatur: use of indicative for conditional sentence when the condition is supposed fulfilled (type I): ‘if they shouted guilty, he was pushed down and massacred.’) et gaudebat caedibus miles tamquam semet absolveret; (tamquam semet absolveret: ‘as if they would absolve themselves’: conditional clause of comparison, where tamquam introduces a comparison implying that it is contrary to fact, hence the use of imperfect or pluperfect subjunctive. Cf. A.G. 524. semet is a strengthened se.) nec Caesar arcebat, quando nullo ipsius iussu penes eosdem saevitia facti et invidia erat. (nec Caesar arcebat, quando nullo ipsius iussu penes eosdem saevitia facti et invidia erat: ‘Caesar did nothing to prevent the action, since without orders of his the barbarity of the proceedings (facti) and its stigma were on [the soldiers] themselves.’) secuti exemplum veterani haud multo post in Raetiam (in Raetiam: it became a Roman province in 15 B.C., following the conquest by Tiberius and his brother Drusus; it comprised modern Tyrol, Bavaria (Vindelicia) and Grisons, a canton of east Switzerland. The main center was Augusta Vindelicorum, modern Ausburg.) mittuntur, specie defendendae provinciae ob imminentis Suebos (specie defendendae provinciae ob imminentis Suebos: ‘on the pretext of protecting the province because of the menacing Suebi’; the Suebi or Suevi were a giant tribe extending from the Baltic to the Danube. The name here refers to the Suebi of southern Germany, belonging to the kingdom of Maroboduus, separated from Rhaetia by the Danube.) ceterum ut avellerentur castris trucibus adhuc (ceterum ut avellerentur castris trucibus adhuc … : ‘but in truth to wrest them from that camp, still (adhuc) sinister … ‘; ceterum has here adversative force, as a foil to specie.) non minus asperitate remedii quam sceleris memoria. centurionatum inde egit. (centurionatum …egit: ‘he amended the body of centurions.’) citatus ab imperatore nomen, ordinem, patriam, numerum stipendiorum, quae strenue in proeliis fecisset, et cui erant, dona militaria edebat. (citatus ab imperatore nomen, ordinem, patriam, numerum stipendiorum, quae strenue in proeliis fecisset, et cui erant, dona militaria edebat: the sentence is in oratio obliqua after edebat: ‘summoned by the general, [the centurion] would declare his name, rank, place of birth, years of service, deeds of valor in battle, and, those who had them, decorations.’ ordinem: the rank could vary from the lowest — junior centurion of the tenth cohort — to the highest – the senior centurion of the legion, i.e. the centurion commanding the first century of the first cohort. patriam is the city, town, or village of birth; [ea] quae strenue in proeliis fecisset: lit. ‘the things he had bravely done in battle’; fecisset is subjunctive for relative clause in indirect speech. et cui erant, dona militaria: the relative clause cui erant is incidental, not part of the thought and words of the speaker, hence outside the rules of oratio obliqua; usually explanatory in nature, such remarks are added by the narrator for the reader’s benefit (cf. G. 628, Remark a.). cui, dat. of possessor with erant and dative form of qui, becomes in translation subject of the verb ‘to have’, giving: ‘[those] who had [them]’, i.e. the decorations.) si tribuni, si legio industriam innocentiamque adprobaverant, retinebat ordinem: (si tribuni, si legio …adprobaverant, retinebat ordinem: the condition is real, based on fact, hence indicative in both protasis and apodosis) ubi avaritiam aut crudelitatem consensu obiectavissent, solvebatur militia. (ubi avaritiam aut crudelitatem consensu obiectavissent, solvebatur militia: ‘when they found him guilty of extorsion and cruelty he was dishonorably discharged.’ solutio was dishonorable, whereas missio was honorable. Note that the line of thought is the same here as in the previous sentence, but the use of ubi in place of si requires a different construction, which better satisfies Tacitus’ compulsive need for variety of style. The plup. subjunctive objectavissent is for recurrent and anterior action after ubi (iterative subjunctive). This use of the subjunctive became regular in later writers. Cf. A.G. 518, c.)