LXXIX.
Igitur oram Lyciae ac Pamphyliae praelegentes, (Lyciae ac Pamphyliae praelegentes: praelego has the sense of ‘to sail along’ ‘to skirt’; Lycia was in the SW corner of Turkey, west of Pamphylia, which in turn was west of Cilicia. Piso is coming from the island of Cos (ch. 75) and sailing along the western and southern coast of Turkey on his way to Syria.) obviis navibus quae Agrippinam vehebant, utrimque infensi arma primo expediere: (arma … expediere: ‘they made their weapons ready for use’) dein mutua formidine non ultra iurgium processum est, Marsusque Vibius nuntiavit Pisoni Romam ad dicendam causam veniret. (nuntiavit Pisoni Romam ad dicendam causam veniret: ‘gave Piso orders that he should come to Rome to defend himself in court.’ ad dicendum …veniret: veniret is jussive subjunctive in indirect speech; corresponds to imperative veni of direct speech.) ille eludens respondit adfuturum ubi praetor qui de veneficiis quaereret reo atque accusatoribus diem prodixisset. (ille eludens respondit adfuturum ubi praetor qui de veneficiis quaereret reo atque accusatoribus diem prodixisset: the passage is in indir. speech after respondit: ‘Piso answered mockingly that he was going to be there (in Rome) when the praetor who investigated cases of poisoning would have assigned a date to the defendant and to his accusers.’ The impudence of Piso’s answer lies in his pretended ignorance of the magnitude of the crime, the sudden, mysterious death of a Caesar, a matter, in his opinion, not for the emperor, the senate, the nation at large to look into, but an ordinary case of poisoning to be handled, eventually, by one of the regular courts. ubi may on occasion have the conditional sense of si (cf. G. 590, Note 3): in fact, a conditional sentence with si of a parallel type would have the same construction in indir. speech: respondit se adfuturum si praetor diem prodixisset; the potential prodixisset is plup. subjunctive for future action in the past, preceding the action or state of afuturum. Cf. also note for si quid hostile ingruat … in ch. 77.) interim Domitius Laodiciam urbem (Laodiciam urbem: an ancient city in the region of Caria-Lydia, in SW Turkey, which later became the Roman province of Phrygia. The site is near the modern city of Denizli.) Syriae adpulsus, cum hiberna sextae legionis peteret, (cum … petered: temporal (narrative) cum with subjunctive: cf. A.G. 546.) quod eam maxime novis consiliis idoneam rebatur, (quod eam maxime novis consiliis idoneam rebatur: ‘because he thought the legion was most suitable for his subversive designs’; quod is with indicative if the reason is one assigned by the writer himself.) a Pacuvio legato praevenitur. id Sentius Pisoni per litteras aperit monetque ne castra corruptoribus, ne provinciam bello temptet. (monetque ne castra corruptoribus, ne provinciam bello temptet: ’and warns him not to subvert the camps through agents inciting sedition or the province through war.’ ne temptet: verbs of warning, like moneo and admoneo, are followed by a complementary purpose clause with ut or ne; cf. G. 346; here monet is one of the historical presents in the chapter.) quosque Germanici memores aut inimicis eius adversos cognoverat, contrahit, magnitudinem imperatoris identidem ingerens et rem publicam armis peti; (magnitudinem imperatoris identidem ingerens et rem publicam armis peti: ‘repeatedly proclaiming the greatness of the general and that the state was under armed attack’; imperatoris: commentators are about equally divided in interpreting imperatoris as referring to Germanicus or to Tiberius.) ducitque validam manum et proelio paratam.