XXXI.
Responsum est ut senatum rogaret. (responsum est ut senatum rogaret: respondeo is here followed by complementary final clause with ut.) cingebatur interim milite domus, strepebant etiam in vestibulo ut audiri, ut aspici possent, cum Libo ipsis quas in novissimam voluptatem adhibuerat epulis excruciatus (ipsis quas in novissimam voluptatem adhibuerat epulis excruciatus: ‘tortured during the very meal which he had treated himself to for his last pleasure’) vocare percussorem, prensare servorum dextras, inserere gladium. ([milites] strepebant …, cum Libo … vocare …, prensare …, inserere: the temporal clause with cum, is placed after the main clause and expresses the principal action, a case of inverse cum (G. 581, A.G. 546, a.), normally followed by indicative, here by historical infinitives: ‘the soldiery were making a racket, when Libo began to call for …, to grasp …, to insert ….’ ) atque illis, dum trepidant, dum refugiunt, evertentibus adpositum cum mensa lumen, (illis … evertentibus adpositum cum mensa lumen: abl. abs.: ‘the slaves (illis) upsetting the light placed with the vessel containing the food’) feralibus iam sibi tenebris (feralibus iam sibi tenebris: ‘for him the darkness being already suggestive of death’; sibi id dat. of disadvantage.) duos ictus in viscera derexit. ad gemitum conlabentis (ad gemitum conlabentis: ‘to the groans of the collapsing man …’; conlabentis is subjective genitive (= ‘the man groans’).) adcurrere liberti, et caede visa miles abstitit. accusatio tamen apud patres adseveratione eadem peracta, iuravitque Tiberius petiturum se vitam quamvis nocenti, nisi voluntariam mortem properavisset. (petiturum [fuisse] se vitam quamvis nocenti, nisi voluntariam mortem properavisset: conditional sentence of type III (or contrary to fact) in indirect discourse: future participle + fuisse in the apodosis, plup. subjunctive in the protasis (G. 659): ‘that he was going to intercede for him, though guilty (nocenti), if he had not hastened his death voluntarily’)