LXXX.
Prorogatur Poppaeo Sabino provincia Moesia, additis Achaia ac Macedonia. (prorogatur Poppaeo Sabino provincia Moesia, additis Achaia ac Macedonia: Poppaeus Sabinus was the grandfather of Poppaea Sabina, the wife of Nero. He will be mentioned again in Book 4, ch. 46. Provincial governor for twenty-six years, he died in 35 A.D. A competent administrator, neither too bright nor too ambitious, he was the type of man Tiberius could trust. Moesia occupied the territory of modern Serbia and Bulgaria. For Achaia and Macedonia see ch. 76.) id quoque morum Tiberii fuit, (id quoque morum Tiberii fuit: morum is partitive genitive; the plural form, in place of moris est, is Tacitus’ innovation.) continuare imperia ac plerosque ad finem vitae in isdem exercitibus aut iurisdictionibus habere. causae variae traduntur: (causae variae traduntur: Tiberius himself suggested some; on one occasion, as reported by the Jewish historian Josephus, he said that provincial governors should not be changed any more than replete flies should be driven away from a festering wound to make place for new and hungry ones. He also complained that suitable volunteers, from whom to choose provincial governors, were too few.) alii taedio novae curae semel placita pro aeternis servavisse, (alii [tradunt] taedio novae curae semel placita pro aeternis servavisse: the perfect infinitive servavisse is in oratio obliqua after tradunt; its subject is Tiberius and its direct object is placita, the neutral plural of placitum, supine of placeo used as noun, lit. ‘things decided on (or ’chosen’)’. Thus: ‘some say that, out of sheer loathing of new tasks, he kept unchanged forever what he had once decided.’ taedio novae curae is abl. of cause (like invidia next), followed by objective genitive. pro aeternis: lit. ‘as if it were forever’) quidam invidia, ne plures fruerentur; (quidam invidia, ne plures fruerentur: ‘some say [he did it] out of envy, to prevent that too many might profit by it.’) sunt qui existiment, (sunt qui existiment: relative clause of characteristic requiring subjunctive, in that the sense is consecutive. See A.G. 534, 535.) ut callidum eius ingenium, ita anxium iudicium; (ut callidum eius ingenium, ita anxium iudicium: example of comparative sentence without verb(s) expressed. This is often the case when the verb is the same for both main and dependent clause and can be easily derived from the context: ‘just as his understanding [was] sharp, so [was] his judgement irresolute’.) neque enim eminentis virtutes sectabatur, et rursum vitia oderat: (et rursum vitia oderat: ‘but on top of that (rursum) he hated vice’; et here has the adversative value of sed, just as sed may on occasion stand for et (Ernout). oderat: the verb odi is defective, in that it lacks the present system of tenses, so that the plup, oderat has the force of the missing imperfect (L. 1607). rursum: ‘in addition to that’, i.e. in addition to not wanting men of outstanding abilities) ex optimis periculum sibi, a pessimis dedecus publicum metuebat. qua haesitatione (qua haesitatione: abl. of cause: ‘because of such indecisiveness’) postremo eo provectus est ut mandaverit quibusdam provincias, quos egredi urbe non erat passurus. (postremo eo provectus est ut mandaverit quibusdam provincias, quos egredi urbe non erat passurus: ‘in the end he was carried to such a pass that he assigned provinces to some men whom he would not allow to leave Rome.’ Two examples of provincial governors barred from reaching their province and forced to govern from Rome through delegates are usually cited: L. Arruntius and Aelius Lamia. eo provectus est ut mandaverit: eo and ut introduce the main and subordinate clause of a consecutive sentence; the ut clause of such sentences does not follow the sequence of tenses (cf. A.G. 482 – 485), but choice of tense is based on other considerations: here the perfect subjunctive mandaverit simply reflects the perfect indicative that would be used if the clause were not dependent. See G. 513.)