XLVI.
At Romae nondum cognito qui fuisset exitus in Illyrico, (nondum cognito qui fuisset exitus in Illyrico: abl. abs. with dependent indirect question with subjunctive: ‘not being known as yet what the outcome in Illyricum had been’; Illyrico is in place of Pannonia.) et legionum Germanicarum motu audito, trepida civitas incusare Tiberium quod, dum patres et plebem, invalida et inermia, (patres et plebem, invalida et inermia: invalida and inermia are neuter plural adjectives used as nouns; they combine the genders of patres and plebem of which they are appositions: ‘the senate and the people, weak defenseless institutions’) cunctatione ficta ludificetur, (dum … ludificetur: a temporal clause with dum (‘while’), here in indirect speech after the hist. infinitive incusare, may or may not retain the present indicative in oratio obliqua: here it does not. ludificor has the sense of ‘to make an object of sport of something or someone.’) dissideat interim miles neque duorum adulescentium nondum adulta auctoritate comprimi queat. (quod … dissideat interim miles neque duorum adulescentium nondum adulta auctoritate comprimi queat: a causal clause with quod is with subjunctive when the reason given represents the thought of someone other then the author: ‘because, [as they said], the soldiers meanwhile were rebelling and could not (neque …queat) be contained by the yet immature (nondum adulta) authority of two youngsters’; Germanicus and Drusus were twenty-nine and twenty-six years old respectively; dissideat and queat are in place of dissideret and quiret, expected after the historical verb of saying incusare, an example of repraesentatio, for which see B. 318.) ire ipsum et opponere maiestatem imperatoriam debuisse cessuris ubi principem longa experientia eundemque severitatis et munificentiae summum (severitatis et munificentiae summum: ‘supreme in his powers of retribution and reward’) vidissent. (ire ipsum et opponere maiestatem imperatoriam debuisse cessuris ubi principem … vidissent: debuisse lends conditional sense, otherwise inexpressible in Latin, to the infinitive: ‘that he should have gone himself and oppose his imperial majesty to rebels who were going to give in as soon as they would have seen the prince.’ debuisse also expresses impatience at the failure to act sooner. ubi is necessarily followed by sub junctive in indir. speech. cessuris is indirect object of opponere: ‘to oppose to those who would soon yield as soon as …’) an Augustum fessa aetate totiens in Germanias commeare potuisse: Tiberium vigentem annis sedere in senatu, verba patrum cavillantem? (an Augustum fessa aetate totiens in Germanias commeare potuisse: Tiberium vigentem annis sedere in senatu, verba patrum cavillantem?: the particle an, hardly ever found in classical times introducing a simple question, is regularly used by Tacitus in this capacity (Ernout). The question, here in indirect speech, is rhetorical, i.e. interrogative only in form, but otherwise equivalent to an independent statement, thus infinitive in oratio obliqua: ‘had not Augustus, in his weak old age, been able so many times to travel to the German provinces and was not Tiberius, vigorous in years, sitting in the senate and finding faults with the senators’ speeches?’ Note the correspondence of terms used to contrast Augustus with Tiberius: fessa aetate vs. vigentem annis, in Germania vs. in senatu, commeare vs. sedere, potuisse vs. cavillantem. With respect to vigentem annis, Tiberius was fifty-six years old at this time, 14 A.D, being born in 42 B.C., thus older than Augustus had been at the time of any of his trips to Germany (Furneaux).) satis prospectum urbanae servituti: militaribus animis adhibenda fomenta ut ferre pacem velint. (militaribus animis adhibenda [esse] fomenta ut ferre pacem velint: ‘that palliatives should be applied to the spirits of the soldiers so as to motivate them to support peace’; adhibenda [esse] is example of the second (or passive) periphrastic conjugation.)