XXXIX.
Quae ubi cognita P. Vellaeo (P. Vellaeo …proximum exercitum praesidebat: Publius Vellaeus was the governor of Moesia, the nearest province having a Roman army. He had replaced Pomponius Flacccus, mentioned in Book 2, ch. 66. exercitum praesidebat: praesideo, here with acc.) is more often with dat.) (is proximum exercitum praesidebat), alarios equites ac levis cohortium (levis cohortium: levis cohortes would do just as well, but Tacitus strives for variety wherever he can.) mittit in eos qui praedabundi aut adsumendis auxiliis vagabantur, (in eos qui praedabundi aut adsumendis auxiliis vagabantur: lit. ‘against those who, searching for plunder or for reinforcements to be recruited, roamed dispersedly’; adsumendis auxiliis: dative of purpose; the gerundive adsumendis implies urgency and necessity.) ipse robur peditum ad exolvendum obsidium ducit. simulque cuncta prospere acta, (simulque cuncta prospere acta: ‘all happened as it should at the same time’) caesis populatoribus et dissensione orta apud obsidentis regisque opportuna eruptione et adventu legionis. (caesis populatoribus et dissensione orta apud obsidentis regisque opportuna eruptione et adventu legionis: abl. abs.: ‘the pillagers being cut down, dissention having arisen among the besiegers, with the timely sortie of the king and the arrival of the legion’; eruptione and adventu are ablatives of means or manner; opportuna qualifies both eruptione and adventu, but agrees with the nearer noun.) neque aciem aut proelium dici decuerit in quo semermi ac palantes trucidati sunt (neque aciem aut proelium dici decuerit in quo semermi ac palantes trucidati sunt: ‘it would not be fair that [an encounter] in which poorly armed, drifting men were massacred be called a pitched battle or even a fight.’ dici decuerit: the perfect subjunctive is potential; both present and perfect are used without difference in meaning (cf. A.G. 445-446. The passive infinitive after decet is unusual (Furneaux).) sine nostro sanguine.