XIV.
Nox eadem laetam Germanico quietem (laetam … quietem: quies is metonymy for ‘dream’; for contrast cf. the dira quies of Caecina in ch. 65 of Book 1.) tulit, viditque se operatum (viditque se operatum: operatum, with implied esse, is perfect infinitive, like accepisse further on: ‘he saw that he had performed a sacrifice’; the deponent operor has the sense of ‘to conduct a religious rite’.) et, sanguine sacri respersa praetexta, (sanguine sacri respersa praetexta: abl. abs. of causal sense: ‘his robe having been sprinkled with the blood of the sacrificial victim (sacri)’; toga praetexta is the white robe with a purple border worn by higher magistrates and members of the priestly college. Germanicus was both a priest and an augur.) pulchriorem aliam manibus aviae Augustae (aviae Augustae: Livia, Augustus’ wife and Tiberius’ mother, was grandmother to Germanicus, Tiberius’ adopted son.) accepisse. auctus omine, addicentibus auspiciis, (addicentibus auspiciis: abl. abs.: ‘the auspices indicating approval’) vocat contionem et quae sapientia provisa aptaque inminenti pugnae disserit. (quae sapientia provisa aptaque inminenti pugnae disserit: ‘he explains the tactics (quae) his foresight had suggested as appropriate for the battle at hand’; sapientia provisa aptaque: lit. ‘things recommended by his foresight, suitable for …’; provisa and apta are neutral plurals of adjectives used as nouns. disserit introduces oratio obliqua governing the rest of the chapter; being historical present, disserit can take either the primary or secondary (historical) sequence of tenses. Here it does both (cf., for example, si ratio adsit next, and modo sisterent at the end of the chapter).) non campos modo militi Romano ad proelium bonos, sed si ratio adsit, (si ratio adsit: lit. ‘if common sense attends’; adsit in indir. speech may correspond to either adest or adsit of direct speech, depending on the point of view of the writer (cf. A.G. 515, 516, b. and Footnote). See also si taedio viarum ac maris finem cupiant below for the same construction.) silvas et saltus; nec enim inmensa barbarorum scuta, enormis hastas inter truncos arborum et enata humo virgulta (enata humo virgulta: ‘the brushwood pushing up from the ground’) perinde haberi quam pila et gladios et haerentia corpori tegmina. (nec …[scuta, hastas] … perinde haberi quam pila et gladios et haerentia corpori tegmina: ‘their shields and spears were not as easy to handle as our javelins, swords, and close-fitting armor.’ The passive of habeo can mean ‘to be handled’, ‘to be controlled’. According to some, tegmina refers to the Roman shields held close to the body. Others, the majority, think it applies to the armor worn by soldiers, such as the lorica, the galea, the ocreae or greaves.) denserent ictus, ora mucronibus quaererent: (denserent ictus, ora mucronibus quaererent: denserent and quaererent are hortatory or jussive subjunctives in oratio obliqua: ‘[he said], they should rain blows on the enemy and seek their faces with their daggers.’ In direct speech, densametis ictus, ora quaeratis) non loricam Germano, non galeam, ne scuta quidem ferro nervove firmata, sed viminum textus vel tenuis et fucatas colore tabulas; (viminum textus vel tenuis et fucatas colore tabulas: ‘interwoven structures made of flexible osier twigs or thin boards stained with paint’) primam utcumque aciem hastatam, (utcumque … hastatam: ‘equipped with spears of some sort’: ut cumque is adverb, ‘in whatever manner or extent’) ceteris praeusta aut brevia tela. iam corpus ut visu torvom et ad brevem impetum validum, sic nulla vulnerum patientia: (iam corpus ut visu torvom …, sic …: iam marks a new topic, the physical and moral traits of the Germans: ‘now, their frames, just as they inspire awe, so they …’; ut …sic: the correlative pair bring up the two parts of a comparative sentence, often with their verbs merely implied, particularly when these are forms of esse. visu torvum: ‘dreadful in aspect’; visu is abl. supine, lit. ‘in the seeing’) sine pudore flagitii, sine cura ducum abire, fugere, (sine pudore flagitii, sine cura ducum abire, fugere: in ch. 6 of Germania, Tacitus says that the Germans, far from considering cowardly abandoning the field of battle, thought it showed good judgement, provided one returned to it.) pavidos adversis, inter secunda non divini, non humani iuris memores. (pavidos adversis, inter secunda [immemores]: in place of pavidos adversis, secundis [immemores] or pavidos inter adversa, inter secunda [immemores]: Tacitus always avoids repeating the same construction if at all possible. Also note the chiastic arrangement obtained by the reversal of the order of words in the two otherwise parallel phrases.) si taedio viarum ac maris finem cupiant, hac acie parari: (si taedio viarum ac maris finem cupiant, hac acie parari: ‘that if they yearned for an end to the weariness of land and sea, it was to be achieved with the battle ahead.’ si …cupiant: see note for si ratio adsit above. parari is infinitive for apodosis in indir. speech. taedio viarum ac maris: echoes of Horace) propiorem iam Albim (Albim: the river Elbe, the next major river east of the Weser. Germanicus’ plan was to extend the boundary of the Roman empire to the Elbe. It was never realized.) quam Rhenum neque bellum ultra, modo se patris patruique vestigia (patris patruique vestigia prementem: ‘treading in the footsteps of his father and of his uncle’; his father Drusus had reached the Elbe in 9 B.C., his uncle Tiberius in 5 A.D.) prementem isdem in terris victorem sisterent. (modo se … isdem in terris victorem sisterent: modo, dummodo, and dum (‘provided that …’) introduce a conditional clause of restrictive or even antithetical force; they all require subjunctive according to the sequence of tenses: ‘provided that they placed him firmly, victorious, in those same regions’. The reflexive se refers to Germanicus, the logical subject; see also sibi in aliud sibi reliquum quam …? at the end of next chapter.)