I.
Sisenna Statilio [Tauro] L. Libone consulibus (Sisenna Statilio [Tauro] L. Libone consulibus: the consuls for the new year 16 A.D.) mota Orientis regna provinciaeque Romanae, (Orientis regna provinciaeque Romanae: Oriens referred to the countries east of the Mediterranean and of the Black Sea. Of the Roman provinces in the Orient the main ones were: Asia, Cilicia, Pamphylia, Bithynia (all in modern Turkey), and Syria; of the independent kingdoms the most important were Parthia and Armenia.) initio apud Parthos (apud Parthos: the Parthians were a people of Scythian origin, from the regions north of modern Iran between the Black sea and the Aral sea, now dry. They became partly Hellenized after the conquest of Alexander the Great and formed an independent kingdom in 250 B.C. under Arsaces, whose house held power for almost half a millennium, until displaced by the Sassanids of the new Persian empire in 230 A.D.) orto, qui petitum Roma acceptumque regem, quamvis gentis Arsacidarum, ut externum aspernabantur. is fuit Vonones, obses Augusto datus a Phraate. (obses Augusto datus a Phraate: this king is Phraates IV, who reigned from 37 B.C. and 2 B.C., when he was poisoned by his illegitimate son Phraataces. He was a cruel and despotic ruler, having poisoned his father and killed no less than thirty-nine of his brothers. He gave Augustus four of his sons, among them Vonones, as hostages and pledges of peace. He also restored to Augustus the standards lost by Crassus (a member of the first triumvirate with Caesar and Pompei) in the disastrous Roman debacle at Carrhae in 53 B.C. Phraates himself managed to give Marc Antony a bloody nose in 36 B.C., when the latter ventured on an assault on Parthia to avenge Crassus’ defeat.) nam Phraates quamquam depulisset exercitus ducesque Romanos, (quamquam depulisset exercitus ducesque Romanos: unlike classical writers, Tacitus prefers to have quamquam followed by subjunctive.) cuncta venerantium officia ad Augustum verterat (cuncta venerantium officia ad Augustum verterat: venerantium is essentially a possessive genitive: lit. ‘he directed all signs of respect (of those who want to show homage) towards Augustus.’) partemque prolis firmandae amicitiae miserat, (firmandae amicitiae miserat: use of dative gerundive to express purpose after mitto: ‘he had sent [his sons] for the friendship to be cemented.’) haud perinde nostri metu quam fidei popularium diffisus. (haud perinde nostri metu quam fidei popularium diffisus: haud perinde …quam: ‘not so much …as’: ‘not so much out of fear of us as distrustful of his own compatriots’; nostri should rightly be seen as the genitive of the neuter of noster, ’the totality of us’; it differs from the gen. plur. nostrum in that nostrum directs the attention to the individuals rather than to the ensemble. fidei is dat. with diffisus, used here as adjective. popularium refers to Phraates’ compatriots, including his own kinfolk, since Phraates was especially afraid of being assassinated by his own children, having himself set an example.)