XVII.
Cornelio Cethego Visellio Varrone consulibus (Cornelio Cethego Visellio Varrone consulibus: a new year is introduced, 24 A.D., or 777 years A.U.C., a urbe condita, ‘from the foundation of Rome’. Aside from their being consuls in this year, not much is found about Cethegus and Varro, except that Varro’s father is mentioned in Book 3, ch. 41 and that he was curator riparum et alvei Tiberis.) pontifices eorumque exemplo ceteri sacerdotes, (pontifices eorumque exemplo ceteri sacerdotes: ‘pontiffs and other priests [offering prayers] on their example’) cum pro incolumitate principis vota susciperent, Neronem quoque et Drusum isdem dis commendavere, non tam caritate iuvenum quam adulatione, quae moribus corruptis perinde anceps, si nulla et ubi nimia est. (perinde anceps, si nulla et ubi nimia est: ‘[adulation] is equally perilous if absent and when excessive.’ si …ubi: Tacitus avoids repeating the same construction as if it were a mortal sin.) nam Tiberius haud umquam (haud umquam: ‘not ever’ or ‘never’) domui Germanici mitis, tum vero aequari adulescentes senectae suae impatienter indoluit (tum vero aequari adulescentes senectae suae impatienter indoluit: ‘on this occasion, Tiberius found it unendurable that [mere] youths were treated as equals to his advanced age.’ tum vero: ‘just then’, ‘in this instance’) accitosque pontifices percontatus est num id precibus Agrippinae aut minis tribuissent. (num … tribuissent: subjunctive in indirect question; num or -ne are used to introduce a question when the answer is not known.) et illi quidem, quamquam abnuerent, (quamquam abnuerent: concessive quamquam is preferably with subjunctive in writers of the imperial times.) modice perstricti; etenim pars magna e propinquis ipsius (etenim pars magna e propinquis ipsius: ‘the fact is that most of them [were] from among his own relatives’; ipsius: the genitive of the determinative ipse reinforces the possessive sense even more than suus (Rescigni).) aut primores civitatis erant: ceterum (ceterum: here without adversative sense, ‘in addition’) in senatu oratione monuit in posterum ne quis mobilis adulescentium animos praematuris honoribus ad superbiam extolleret. (ne quis …adulescentium animos …honoribus ad superbiam extolleret: use of ne + subjunctive to express a prohibition after moneo: ‘that they should not promote arrogance in the mind of youngsters by any (quis = quibus) undue honors) instabat quippe Seianus (instabat quippe Seianus: ‘of course Sejanus was fanning his anger’; instare is a verb of various significance: here the meaning is ‘to press hard on someone’, ‘put someone up to’.) incusabatque diductam civitatem ut civili bello: esse qui se partium Agrippinae vocent, ac ni resistatur, fore pluris; (esse qui se partium Agrippinae vocent, ac ni resistatur, fore pluris: lit. ‘that there were those who called themselves Agrippina’s men, and that, unless it was opposed, there would be more [like them]’; ni resistatur, fore pluris: negative conditional sentence in indirect speech after incusabat, hence with apodosis infinitive; the present subjunctive resistatur in the protasis replaces the imperfect resisteretur (called for by the sequence of tenses after a historical verb of saying), an example of repraesentatio found often in Tacitus (cf. B. 318 and A.G. 585, b. and Note.); another example is vocent in place of vocarent. resistatur is impersonal use of the passive of an intransitive verb.) neque aliud gliscentis discordiae remedium quam si unus alterve maxime prompti subverterentur. (neque aliud … remedium quam si unus alterve maxime prompti subverterentur: lit. ‘and that there was no other remedy than if one or two most energetic [troublemakers] were eliminated’; neque aliud remedium quam si subverterentur: the rather unusual case of a comparison where the first term is a noun an the second a conditional clause. Such use of quam in place of nisi after aliud, aliter, secus, etc. is a later development, according to Ernout, not being found, for example, in Cicero. si …subverterentur: potential condition)