XXIV.
Quanto violentior cetero mari Oceanus et truculentia caeli praestat Germania, tantum illa clades novitate et magnitudine excessit, (quanto violentior cetero mari Oceanus et truculentia caeli praestat Germania, tantum illa clades novitate et magnitudine excessit: comparative sentence with quanto in the dependent clause and tantum in the main clause: ‘as much as the Ocean is more violent than any other sea and Germany excels for the cruelty of its climate, by so much did this tragedy stand out for its novelty and gravity.’ cetero mari is abl. of comparison after violentior, novitate et magnitudine abl. of specification or respect.) hostilibus circum litoribus aut ita vasto et profundo ut credatur novissimum ac sine terris mare. (hostilibus circum litoribus aut ita vasto et profundo ut credatur novissimum ac sine terris mare: hostiibus …litoribus and vasto et profundo [mari] are abl. abs. accompanied by consecutive clause with ut + subjunctive, preceded by the correlative ita in the abl. itself: ‘the coasts around being hostile and the water so boundless and deep that the sea might be thought the last on earth, without land beyond’, i.e., a sea reaching to the limits of the earth, thought to be flat.) pars navium haustae sunt, plures apud insulas longius sitas (insulas longius sitas: not the same islands as in previous chapter, but further north in the North Sea, perhaps those close to the western coast of Schleswig-Holstein, below Denmark.) eiectae; milesque nullo illic hominum cultu (nullo illic hominum cultu: ‘no human settlement being there’) fame absumptus, nisi quos corpora equorum eodem elisa toleraverant. (nisi quos corpora equorum eodem elisa toleraverant: ‘except those whom dead horses, thrown up [by the sea] on the same shores, kept alive’; an example of nisi without a verb of its own, after a word or phrase of negative import, here fame absuntus, and usually followed by a rel. clause or abl. abs. (Oxford Lat. Dictionary). The conditional value of si is in such cases obliterated and nisi acquires the restrictive adverbial sense of ‘only’, ‘apart from’, etc. Cf. nemo …nisi qui …, ‘no one, apart from those, who …’ in Cicero, Brutus, 23.) sola Germanici triremis Chaucorum terram (Chaucorum terram: the Chauci were located between the rivers Weser and Elbe.) adpulit; quem per omnis illos dies noctesque apud scopulos et prominentis oras, cum se tanti exitii reum clamitaret, (cum … clamitaret: historical cum, always with subjunctive, gives the circumstance of the action or state expressed by the main verb.) vix cohibuere amici quo minus eodem mari oppeteret. (quem … vix cohibuere amici quo minus eodem mari oppeteret: ‘his friends barely restrained him from finding death in that same sea’. quominus introduces a complementary final clause of negative value after verbs of preventing or hindering, with the subjunctive, according to the sequence of tenses (cf. G. 549.).) tandem relabente aestu et secundante vento (relabente aestu et secundante vento: aestus may refer to things other than the tide, such as ‘the waves of a stormy sea’: ‘the swell on the sea abating and the wind becoming favorable’; secundante vento, i.e., blowing from the sea towards land, so that ships could make their way back seconded by the wind, rather than opposed by it.) claudae naves raro remigio aut intentis vestibus, (raro remigio aut intentis vestibus: abl. of attendant circumstance, here without cum (cf. G. 392.): ‘with much reduced oarage or items of clothing stretched out [in place of sails]’) et quaedam a validioribus tractae, revertere; quas raptim refectas misit ut scrutarentur insulas. collecti ea cura plerique: multos Angrivarii nuper in fidem accepti redemptos ab interioribus reddidere; quidam in Britanniam rapti et remissi a regulis. (remissi a regulis: ‘sent back by petty kings’) ut quis ex longinquo revenerat, (ut quis ex longinquo revenerat: ut is here temporal conjunction: ‘as soon as one of them had returned from far away’, …’) miracula narrabant, vim turbinum et inauditas volucris, monstra maris, ambiguas hominum et beluarum formas, (inauditas volucris, … ambiguas hominum et beluarum formas: direct objects of narrabant: ‘unheard of birds, hybrid forms of men and beasts’) visa sive ex metu credita. (visa sive ex metu credita: sive is in place of vel or aut: ‘actually seen or imagined from fear’; ex metu is abl. of cause.)