VIII.
Iamque classis advenerat, cum praemisso commeatu et distributis in legiones ac socios navibus (praemisso commeatu et distributis in legiones ac socios navibus: abl. abs.: ‘supplies having been sent out in advance and the ships having been apportioned among the legions and the auxiliaries, …’) fossam, cui Drusianae nomen, ingressus (fossam, cui Drusianae nomen [erat], ingressus: lit. ‘having entered the canal, for which the name was Drusian’; cui is dat. of possessor with implied erat; Drusianae can be dat. in agreement with cui or can be gen., ‘the name of Drusian’; a third option would be Drusianam, in agreement with fossam. Nero Claudius Drusus constructed the canal (or canals) in 12 B.C. to connect the upper arm of the Rhine (the Nederrijin) with the river Ijssel and through this with lake Flevo, which in Roman times was a series of separate lakes and is known today as IJsselmeer.) precatusque Drusum patrem ut se eadem ausum libens placatusque exemplo ac memoria consiliorum atque operum iuvaret, lacus inde et Oceanum usque ad Amisiam flumen secunda navigatione pervehitur. (cum … lacus inde et Oceanum usque ad Amisiam flumen …pervehitur: ‘[the fleet had already arrived], when from there (i.e. from the canal and the river Ijssel) he …sailed the lakes and the ocean as far as the Amisia river.’ lacus …Oceanum …Amisia: lacus is probably plural, the lakes forming lake Flevo; by Oceanum the shallows of the North Sea along the Frisian coast of Holland are meant; Amisia is the Ems river. cum … pervehitur: a good example of inverse cum, so-called because the temporal clause, normally secondary, becomes the more important part of the sentence and is placed after the main clause, here iamque classis advenerat; cum introduces a new, independent action, anticipated in the main clause by an adverb like iam, vix, nondum, aegre. The mood is the indicative, in this case a historical present, pervehitur. Cf. L. 1869 and G. 581.) classis Amisiae ore relicta laevo amne, erratumque in eo quod non subvexit et transposuit militem dextras in terras iturum; (erratumque in eo quod non subvexit et transposuit militem dextras in terras iturum: ‘a mistake was made, since he did not proceed further upstream and land the troops on the right bank, their destination being that way.’ militem dextras in terras iturum: ‘…troops on their way to districts on the right [of the river]’; in eo quod: explanatory conjunctional phrase of partly causal sense: ‘in that’, ‘inasmuch as’, ‘in view of the fact that’, ‘since’) ita plures dies efficiendis pontibus absumpti. et eques quidem ac legiones prima aestuaria, (prima aestuaria: most probably the low places, exposed at low tide and under water at high tide, near the junction of the estuary with the actual bed of the river) nondum adcrescente unda, (nondum adcrescente unda: abl. abs.: ‘the tide not rising as yet’) intrepidi transiere: postremum auxiliorum agmen Batavique in parte ea, (Batavique in parte ea: i.e. in the last part of the auxiliaries’ rearguard; the Batavi prided themselves on their swimming skills, which the Romans used to their advantage, as during the attack against the island of Mona in ch. 18 of Agricola.) dum insultant aquis artemque nandi ostentant, (dum insultant aquis artemque nandi ostentant: ‘while they frolicked in the waves and showed off their mastery of swimming ’; nandi is objective genitive gerund after a noun. dum is followed by present indicative when it expresses action contemporaneous with that of the main verb.) turbati et quidam hausti sunt. metanti castra Caesari Angrivariorum defectio a tergo nuntiatur: (Angrivariorum defectio a tergo nuntiatur: the Angrivarii were settled between the rivers Weser and Elbe, so they could not be in the rear of the Romans now approaching the Weser from the west. The answer may be that part of the Angrivarii lived west of the Weser (territorial limits among German tribes being rather fluid) and had been forced into an alliance with the Romans at an earlier date.) missus ilico Stertinius cum equite et armatura levi igne et caedibus perfidiam ultus est.