VI.
Primum facinus novi principatus fuit Postumi Agrippae caedes, quem ignarum inerumumque quamvis firmatus animo centurio aegre confecit. nihil de ea re Tiberius apud senatum disseruit: patris iussa simulabat, quibus praescripsisset (quibus praescripsisset: subjunctive in implied oratio obliqua: ‘by which [as Tiberius asserted] Augustus had ordered …’) tribuno custodiae adposito, (tribuno custodiae adposito: three datives: tribuno is dat. of indirect object with praescripsisset, adposito agrees with tribuno, custodiae is dat. of purpose, in place of ad + acc.) ne cunctaretur (ne cunctaretur: prohibition (negative command) in indirect discourse; cf. A.G. 588, Note 2: ‘ that he must not hesitate’; the clause is subordinate in second degree to another subjunctive, praescripsisset, which in turn depends on the main verb simulabat. In oratio recta (direct speech) the command would be expressed in one of three ways: (a) with nolo + infinitive: noli cunctare; (b) with cave + pres. subjunctive: cave cuncteris; (c) with ne + perfect subjunctive: ne cunctatus sis, which in oratio obliqua changes to the imperfect ne cunctaretur.) Agrippam morte adficere, quandoque ipse supremum diem explevisset. (quandoque ipse supremum diem explevisset: ‘whenever he himself had ended his life’; the clause is subordinate in third degree to ne cunctaretur (see previous note); the pluperfect explevisset is for action preceding in time that of cunctaretur.) multa sine dubio saevaque Augustus de moribus adulescentis questus, ut exilium eius senatus consulto sanciretur perfecerat (multa … ut exilium eius senatus consulto sanciretur perfecerat: ‘he had done much to have the senate sanction Agrippa’s exile.) ceterum in nullius umquam suorum necem duravit, (ceterum in nullius umquam suorum necem duravit: ceterum has here the adversative force of ‘but’: ‘but never did he become inexorable against any member of his family) neque mortem nepoti pro securitate privigni inlatam credibile erat. propius vero (propius vero: the adverb propius, here with dative, is also found with acc.) Tiberium ac Liviam, illum metu, hanc novercalibus odiis, suspecti et invisi iuvenis caedem festinavisse. (caedem festinavisse: perfect infinitive in complementary infinitive clause after propius vero. The verb festino is intransitive, here a rare case of transitive use.) nuntianti centurioni, ut mos militiae, factum esse quod imperasset, neque imperasse sese et rationem facti reddendam apud senatum respondit. quod postquam Sallustius Crispus (Sallustius Crispus: both nephew and adopted son of the historian and trusted man of both Augustus and Tiberius) particeps secretorum (is ad tribunum miserat codicillos) comperit, (postquam … comperit: postquam is usually with perfect indicative, unlike antequam.) metuens ne reus subderetur, (metuens ne reus subderetur: with verbs of fear like timeo, metuo, vereor, paveo, if the verb is followed by ne, it signifies that the fear is that what is not desired will happen; if followed by ut or ne non, the fear is that what is desired will not happen. Here the meaning is: ‘fearing that he might be held responsible’) iuxta periculoso ficta seu vera promeret, (iuxta periculoso ficta seu vera promeret: a very unusual construction even for Tacitus: iuxta periculoso is abl. abs. and the predicate of an independent would-be clause of which ficta seu vera promeret is subject: lit. ‘whether he would reveal true or false things [being] equally dangerous’; the construct lacks a finite form of esse, such as erat, either explicit or implied, to be a proper clause; iuxta is adverb modifying the neuter periculoso.) monuit Liviam ne arcana domus, ne consilia amicorum, ministeria militum vulgarentur, neve Tiberius vim principatus resolveret cunta ad senatum vocando: (monuit … ne arcana… ne consilia… vulgarentur, neve … resolveret cunta ad senatum vocando: neve is continuative and conclusive after the double ne: ’he warned that neither secrets …nor counsels should be divulged …nor that Tiberius should weaken his hold on power by leaving all decisions to the senate’; moneo is one of the verbs that need a complementary final clause with ut or ne to complete their meaning (for partial lists of these verbs see G. 546 and L 1950-1951), but moneo can also be found followed by subjunctive alone or by an infinitive clause. cuncta …vocando: the abl. without a preposition and the genitive are the only two cases of the gerund that admit the use of a direct object.) eam condicionem esse imperandi, ut non aliter ratio constet quam si uni reddatur. (eam condicionem esse imperandi, ut non aliter ratio constet quam si uni reddatur: eam …ut, ‘such …that’: the two correlatives introduce a consecutive sentence, as shown also by the use of ut non instead of ne: ‘that such was the nature of the imperial system, that accounts would not come right in any other way than if they are rendered to one person only’. quam si heads a conditional clause of comparison with verb in the indicative or subjunctive, here necessarily the latter since the clause is in oratio obliqua. The present subjunctives constet and reddatur are in place of the imperfect, as required after the historical main verb monuit, a case of repraesentatio, about which see note for quamquam premantur in ch. 4.)