XX.
Nihil ex his Caesari incognitum: consilia locos, prompta occulta noverat astusque hostium in perniciem ipsis (in perniciem ipsis: lit. ‘to the ruin for themselves’; ipsis is dat. of reference, also called Dative of Disadvantage (Dativus incommodi); cf. ingressis silvam legionibus , last note in previous chapter.) vertebat. Seio Tuberoni (Seio Tuberoni: Seius Tubero was the brother of Sejanus, the commander of the Praetorian cohorts in Rome and Tiberius’ confidence man.) legato tradit equitem campumque; peditum aciem ita instruxit ut pars aequo in silvam aditu incederet, pars obiectum aggerem eniteretur; (ita instruxit ut … incederet … eniteretur: consecutive or result sentence, anticipated in the main clause by ita and with the correlative ut + imperfect subjunctive in the dependent clause to indicate a consequence in the past.) quod arduum sibi, cetera legatis permisit. (quod arduum sibi, cetera legatis permisit: ‘he assigned what [was] hard to himself, the rest to the legates.’ sibi and legatis are datives of the indirect object with permisit, just as quod arduum and cetera are the direct objects.) quibus plana evenerant, facile inrupere: quis inpugnandus agger, ([ei] quibus plana evenerant, … [ei] quis inpugnandus agger: ‘[those] to whom the even ground had been assigned, …; [those] to whom the barrier to be stormed {had fallen] …’; quis is an archaic form of quibus, used here to avoid repetition.) ut si murum succederent, gravibus superne ictibus conflictabantur. (ut si murum succederent, gravibus superne ictibus conflictabantur: the locution ut si, like velut, follows the synthax of si and is followed by imperfect or plup. subjunctive to mark an unreal condition (Ernout): ‘just as if they were scaling a wall, they were being beaten back with heavy blows.’) sensit dux inparem comminus pugnam remotisque paulum legionibus (remotisque paulum legionibus: ‘the legions having been pulled back a short distance’) funditores libritoresque (funditores libritoresque: the distinction between the two is not known for certain, but it seems that the funditores shot stones of pebble size or lead bullets, the libritores stones of greater weight using a different technique.) excutere tela et proturbare hostem iubet. missae e tormentis (e tormentis: abl. of origin or of place from which; another example is ex victoria at the end of the chapter.) hastae, quantoque conspicui magis propugnatores, tanto pluribus vulneribus deiecti. (quantoque conspicui magis propugnatores [erant], tanto pluribus vulneribus deiecti [sunt]: comparative sentence with quanto in the dependent clause and tanto in the main clause. Tacitus omits all forms of esse, unless they are essential for meaning or to avoid confusion.) primus Caesar cum praetoriis cohortibus capto vallo dedit impetum in silvas; conlato illic gradu certatum. (conlato illic gradu certatum [est]: ‘there they fought hand to hand’; conlato …gradu is abl. abs., lit. ‘their position having been brought close together’, from the idiom gradum coferre, ‘to fight at close quarters’. certatum is impersonal use of the passive of a verb, ‘it was fought’.) hostem a tergo palus, Romanos flumen aut montes claudebant: utrisque necessitas in loco, (utrisque necessitas in loco [erat]: utrisque is dat. of possessor with implied erat: ‘both sides had constraint in the nature of the place.’) spes in virtute, salus ex victoria.