XLV.
Isdem consulibus facinus atrox in citeriore Hispania admissum a quodam agresti nationis Termestinae. (facinus … in citeriore Hispania admissum a quodam agresti nationis Termestinae: ‘a crime committed in the part of Spain closer to us by someone of the farming tribe of the Termestini.’ in citeriore Hispania: i.e. in Hispania Terraconensis, an imperial province, thus governed by a legatus pro praetore; the other two provinces of Spain, Lusitanica in the west and Baetica in the south, were more distant from Italy. nationis Termestinae: the tribe was settled around Termes (modern Tiermes) about halfway between Madrid and Zaragoza, on the edge of the Duero river valley.) is praetorem provinciae L. Pisonem, (L. Pisonem: Lucius Calpurnius Piso was probably the son of the Lucius Calpurnius Piso, pontifex, mentioned in Book 6, ch. 10 and the man to whom Horace addressed his Ars Poetica.) pace incuriosum, (pace incuriosum: ‘careless because of the state of peace’) ex improviso in itinere adortus uno vulnere in mortem adfecit; ac pernicitate equi profugus, (pernicitate equi profugus: ‘being able to escape thanks to the swiftness of his horse’) postquam saltuosos locos attigerat, (postquam saltuosos locos attigerat: ‘after he had reached some densely forested ravines, …’; postquam …attigerat: postquam is followed by plup. indicative to indicate action completed in the past.) dimisso equo per derupta et avia sequentis frustratus est. (dimisso equo per derupta et avia sequentis frustratus est: lit. ‘the horse having been let loose, he eluded his pursuers through precipitous and trackless terrain.’ derupta and avia are substantivized neuter plural adjectives, a usage very frequent in Tacitus.) neque diu fefellit: (neque diu fefellit: ‘he did not give them the slip for long.’) nam prenso ductoque per proximos pagos equo cuius foret cognitum. (prenso ductoque per proximos pagos equo cuius foret cognitum: abl. abs. followed by acc. supine introducing an indirect question (in the subjunctive) with cuius: lit. ‘the horse having been caught and taken through the neighboring villages to find out whose horse it was, …’; cognitum, acc. supine of cognosco, replaces a final clause with ut after a verb of motion like ducere. Cf. A.G. 509.) et repertus cum tormentis edere conscios adigeretur, voce magna sermone patrio frustra se interrogari clamitavit: (repertus cum tormentis edere conscios adigeretur, voce magna sermone patrio frustra se interrogari clamitavit: ‘arrested, when he was subjected to torture to discover his accomplices, he cried loudly in his native tongue that he was being questioned to no purpose.’ cum …adigeretur: temporal cum followed by imperfect subjunctive is called historical or narrative cum. It is used in narrative to indicate the circumstances under which the action of the main verb takes place (cf. G. 585.). The verb adigo is always followed by infinitive in Tacitus, but occurs also with subjunctive in other authors.) adsisterent socii ac spectarent; nullam vim tantam doloris fore ut veritatem eliceret. (adsisterent socii ac spectarent; nullam vim tantam doloris fore ut veritatem eliceret: adsisterent and spectarent are hortatory subjunctives (see A.G. 439): lit. ‘let his partners stand right there and let them see that no degree so large of pain (nullam vim tantam doloris) would extract the truth [from him].’ The passage is in indirect discourse after clamitavit and contains a consecutive sentence of which nullam wim tantam doloris fore is the main clause and ut veritatem eliceret is the subordinate clause. See A.G. 569, 3, a. Normally fore …ut + subjunctive is a replacement for the future infinitive, especially if the verb has no supine, but here eliciturum esse cannot be used because the subjunctive of the dependent part of a consecutive sentence must remain expressed in indirect speech.) idemque cum postero ad quaestionem retraheretur, eo nisu proripuit se custodibus saxoque caput adflixit ut statim exanimaretur. (idemque cum postero ad quaestionem retraheretur, eo nisu proripuit se custodibus saxoque caput adflixit ut statim exanimaretur: ‘next day (postero [die]), the same man, as he was dragged out again for questioning, he shook himself free from his guards and dashed his head against a rock with such force (eo nisu) that he was killed on the spot.’ cum …retraheretur: use of historical cum; see note above for cum adigeretur: eo nisu proripuit se custodibus saxoque caput adflixit ut statim exanimaretur is another consecutive sentence, like fore ut …eliceret above, only here the sentence is in direct discourse and the two parts of the sentence are introduced by eo nisu …ut instead of tantam …ut.) sed Piso Termestinorum dolo caesus habetur; (sed Piso Termestinorum dolo caesus [esse] habetur: ‘but Piso is held to have been killed by the treachery of the Termestini.’ Example of personal construction possible when the verb of saying or thinking (here habetur) is passive and the nominative (not the accusative) is used with the infinitive. For comparison, the impersonal construction would be, for instance, Pisonem Termestinorum dolo caesum [esse] tradunt. Cf. G. 528 and A.G. 582.) quippe pecunias e publico interceptas acrius quam ut tolerarent barbari cogebat. (quippe pecunias e publico interceptas acrius quam ut tolerarent barbari cogebat: ‘the reason was that (quippe) [Piso] demanded [restitution] of funds stolen from the community (e publico) too severely for barbarians to tolerate.’ Possibly Piso was trying to correct some fraud or theft by members of the community or by a local magistrate (Furneaux). quam ut, like quam qui, introduces a clause of result or characteristic with subjunctive after a comparative. The Latin comparative followed by quam ut is translated in English by too + the positive adjective (or adverb) + to or for. Thus, acrius quam ut = ‘too severely for …’ Cf. A.G. 535, c.)