XXXVI.
Solus Mnester cunctationem attulit, dilaniata veste clamitans aspiceret verberum notas, reminisceretur vocis, qua se obnoxium iussis Messalinae dedisset: (dilaniata veste clamitans aspiceret verberum notas, reminisceretur vocis, qua se obnoxium iussis Messalinae dedisset: lit. ‘ripping his clothes off, and roaring that he should view the scars of the lashes and recollect his words whereby he had ordered him (se) [to be] submissive to Messalina.’ dilaniata veste is abl. abs., ‘his garments being torn’; the verb dilanio is usually reserved for the human body, e.g., [Clodii cadaver] canibus dilaniandum reliquisti (Cicero); for clothes dilacero is more usual. aspiceret, dedisset are both subjunctive in indirect speech, the first hortative, the second in relative clause.) aliis largitione aut spei magnitudine, sibi ex necessitate culpam; (aliis largitione aut spei magnitudine, sibi ex necessitate culpam: lit. ‘for others, the offence was from payoffs, or from the greatness of their prospects, for him it was from sheer necessity.’) nec cuiquam ante pereundum fuisse si Silius rerum poteretur. (nec cuiquam ante pereundum fuisse si Silius rerum poteretur: conditional sentence in oratio obliqua: lit. ‘for no one would have been having to die sooner than for him, if Silius gained the empire.’ Freely, ‘no one would have had to die sooner than he, if Silius gained the empire.’ The condition being logical or factual (type I) and referred to past time, the apodosis must have perfect infinitive. All protases have subjunctive in indirect speech, the tense depending on the sequence of tenses.) commotum his et pronum ad misericordiam Caesarem perpulere liberti ne tot inlustribus viris interfectis histrioni consuleretur: (Caesarem perpulere liberti ne tot inlustribus viris interfectis histrioni consuleretur: ‘the freedmen forced Caesar not to let thought be taken for an actor, so many eminent men having been sent to death.’ inlustribus viris interfectis: abl. abs.; ne … histrioni consuleretur: command in indirect speech, corresponding to ne histrioni consultum sit of direct speech; cf. A. G. 588, Note 2; histrioni is dat. with consulo.) sponte an coactus tam magna peccavisset, nihil referre. (sponte an coactus tam magna peccavisset, nihil referre: ‘that it was of no importance whether he had committed such a horrendous crime willingly or forced.’ peccavisset is subjunctive in indirect disjunctive question with an.) ne Trauli quidem Montani equitis Romani defensio recepta est. is modesta iuventa, sed corpore insigni, accitus ultro noctemque intra unam a Messalina proturbatus erat, paribus lasciviis ad cupidinem et fastidia. (accitus ultro noctemque intra unam a Messalina proturbatus erat, paribus lasciviis ad cupidinem et fastidia: ‘he had been lured wantonly (ultro) and flung away by Messalina within a single night, her lusts and her aversions being equally capricious.’ paribus lasciviis ad cupidinem et fastidia: abl. abs.: ‘her lack of restraint being equal for her attractions as well as for her rejections’) Suillio Caesonino et Plautio Laterano mors remittitur, huic ob patrui egregium meritum: Caesoninus vitiis protectus est, tamquam in illo foedissimo coetu passus muliebria. (Suillio Caesonino et Plautio Laterano mors remittitur, huic ob patrui egregium meritum: Caesoninus vitiis protectus est, tamquam in illo foedissimo coetu passus muliebria: ‘death was spared to Suillius Caesoninus and Plautius Lateranus, to the latter in view of his uncle’s noble services; Caesoninus was saved by his foulness, for it was said that in that degraded company he was used as a catamite.’ Suillius Caesoninus was the son of Publius Suillius (cf. ch. 2). Plautius Lateranus was the nephew of A. Plautius Silvanus, the Roman general who established Britain as a Roman province. tamquam … passus muliebra: Tacitus often uses tamquam, quasi, and velut to give an alleged or presumed reason; the idiom pati muliebra is said of a man who accepts to be used sexually as a woman.)