V. 11
Exitu anni (exitu anni: abl. of time when) diu aucta discordia consulum erupit. nam Trio, facilis capessendis inimicitiis et foro exercitus, (foro exercitus: ‘well-versed in forensic practice’) ut segnem Regulum (Trio … Regulum: for Lucius Fulcinius Trio, a notorious informer, see Book 2, ch. 28, Book 3, ch. 10, 19, and elsewhere; Publius Mamnius Regulus was a man of excellent reputation. His name will come up again in future annals.) ad opprimendos Seiani ministros (capessendis inimicitiis … ad opprimendos Seiani ministros: both dative gerundive and acc. gerundive with ad express motive, fitness. function, or purpose; such usage of the dat. gerundive gained currency in imperial times, but was seldom used by classical writers, who preferred ad + accusative. Unlike the gerund, which is a verbal noun, the gerundive is a verbal adjective (adjectif verbal is French for gerundive) and is passive in meaning: lit. ‘for new enmities to be procured’, …‘for the accomplices of Sejanus to be crushed’) oblique perstrinxerat: (oblique perstrinxerat: ‘had by implication blamed [Regulus]’) ille nisi lacesseretur modestiae retinens (nisi lacesseretur modestiae retinens: ‘retaining his urbanity, unless he was attacked’; retinens commands genitive, as shown also in Book 2, ch. 38, the literal meaning being ‘tireless of moderation’, in the sense of ‘steadfast practitioner of moderation’. nisi lacesseretur: nisi, in the sense of ‘unless’, is found followed by indicative more often than not (e.g. nisi videro, non credam, or nemo saltat sobrius, nisi insanit), the apodosis being always true except in the case supposed. Tacitus here uses subjunctive perhaps to underline the rare need for the supposition.) non modo rettudit collegam sed ut noxium coniurationis ad disquisitionem trahebat. (non modo rettudit collegam sed ut noxium coniurationis ad disquisitionem trahebat: lit. ‘not only did he ward off his colleague’s thrust, but also was dragging him to court as culpable of the conspiracy.’ noxius is rarely with genitive, more commonly with abl., e.g. noxius crimine.) multisque patrum orantibus ponerent odia in perniciem itura, (multisque patrum orantibus ponerent odia in perniciem itura: abl. abs. followed by clause complementing orantibus: lit. ‘many of the senators imploring [them] to lay aside their feud about to lead to ruin.’ The verb oro is found complemented by infinitive, acc. + infinitive, subjunctive alone (as here) or with ut or ne; ponerent (in place of deponerent, as usual in Tacitus, who prefers the more poetic simple form of verbs to their compounds) is hortatory subjunctive, ‘that they should lay down their enmity’; itura: later writers freely use the future participle as an ordinary adjective.) mansere infensi ac minitantes donec magistratu abirent. (donec magistratu abirent: ‘until they departed from office as consuls’; donec abirent: temporal donec (archaic donicum), with the terminative force of ‘until’, was regularly followed by indicative in old Latin; classical writers tended to disregard it, replacing it with quoad or dum; imperial writers, especially Tacitus, use it more often with subjunctive (Ernout). magistratu is abl. of place from which, without a/ab, e/ex, or de in imitation of the poets; cf. A.G. 428, g.)