XVII.
Hinc inopia rei nummariae, commoto simul omnium aere alieno, (hinc inopia rei nummariae, commoto simul omnium aere alieno: ‘from this, a shortage of money in circulation, all debts being simultaneously called in’; omnium: ‘of all borrowers’; res nummaria is the currency as medium of exchange.) et quia tot damnatis bonisque eorum divenditis signatum argentum fisco vel aerario attinebatur. (quia tot damnatis bonisque eorum divenditis signatum argentum fisco vel aerario attinebatur: ‘because, with so many people being found guilty and their assets sold off, cash was kept under lock in the public treasury or in the imperial exchequer’; tot …divenditis is abl abs.; signatum argentum: lit. ‘stamped silver’, ‘cash’, in Roman times only coins, today coins and banknotes; quia … attinebatur: causal quia is never followed by subjunctive except in oratio obliqua. See also quia …condiderant below.) ad hoc senatus praescripserat, duas quisque faenoris partis in agris per Italiam conlocaret, (ad hoc senatus praescripserat, duas quisque faenoris partis in agris per Italiam conlocaret: ‘the senate had prescribed for this (ad hoc) that every [lender] should invest two thirds of his liquid assets in land throughout Italy.’ faenoris is here in the sense of ‘capital’. conlocaret is jussive subjunctive, and so is solverent below; cf. A.G. 439, Note 2.) [debitores totidem aeris alieni statim solverent]. ([debitores totidem aeris alieni statim solverent]: the words within brackets are borrowed verbatim from Suetonius, on a suggestion by Karl Nipperdey, to complement the meaning of the senate decree that would otherwise remain obscure: ‘…and that debtors should immediately pay off as much of their debt’. For the decree to be effective, the debtors had to redeem two thirds of their loans by selling their estates and the lenders were to use the same money to buy them; both actions were necessary for the remedy to work. totidem is indeclinable indefinite adjective, not adverb.) sed creditores in solidum appellabant nec decorum appellatis minuere fidem. (sed creditores in solidum appellabant nec decorum appellatis minuere fidem: ‘but creditors demanded their money in full and for those called upon [to pay] it was not honorable to renege on their word.’ in solidum appellare: idiom, ‘to call in the full amount’; decorum: ‘a respectable thing’; minuere fidem: ‘to fall short of one’s promise’) ita primo concursatio et preces, dein strepere praetoris tribunal, eaque quae remedio quaesita, venditio et emptio, in contrarium mutari (eaque quae remedio quaesita, venditio et emptio, in contrarium mutari: lit. ‘and the very things sought for a remedy, buying and selling, were changed into the opposite’ i.e., far from correcting the problem they aggravated it. mutari is historical infinitive.) quia faeneratores omnem pecuniam mercandis agris condiderant. (quia faeneratores omnem pecuniam mercandis agris condiderant: ‘because lenders laid up all the cash to buy land [at their best opportunity]’. This of course forced the debtors to lower the price of their properties down to a level attractive to the investors. mercandis agris: the dat. gerundive denotes destination or purpose, here without the notion of obligation often associated with the gerundive. The essential and original quality of the verbal adjective in -endus is that the action it expresses is always eventual, unlike the perfect participle in -tus, which presents the action as realised. The idea of duty and necessity is a secondary development (Ernout).) copiam vendendi secuta vilitate, quanto quis obaeratior, aegrius distrahebant, multique fortunis provolvebantur; (copiam vendendi secuta vilitate, quanto quis obaeratior, aegrius distrahebant, multique fortunis provolvebantur: lit. ‘loss of value (vilitate) having followed the rapid increase of selling, the more anyone [was] oppressed by debt, with greater difficulty (aegrius) the sellers disposed of their property, and many were driven forcibly from their estates.’ copiam vendendi secuta vilitate: copiam is direct object of the transitive deponent secuta in abl. abs., a usage almost without precedent. Furneaux cites one example from Sallust, omnia pollicito. quanto is here used in the dependent clause of a comparative sentence without its correlative tanto in the main clause. quis in this case is relative, not interrogative pronoun, ‘anyone’.) eversio rei familiaris dignitatem ac famam praeceps dabat, (eversio rei familiaris dignitatem ac famam praeceps dabat: ‘the financial ruin of families, caused the headlong fall of status and reputation.’ praeceps, or in praeceps, or per praeceps: adjective, adverb, or adverbial phrases, ‘headlong’ or ‘straight downward’) donec tulit opem Caesar disposito per mensas milies sestertio factaque mutuandi copia sine usuris per triennium, si debitor populo in duplum praediis cavisset. (donec tulit opem Caesar disposito per mensas milies sestertio factaque mutuandi copia sine usuris per triennium, si debitor populo in duplum praediis cavisset: ‘until Tiberius brought relief, one hundred million sesterces having been made available through public banks and the opportunity being given of borrowing for three years without interest, if the borrower had given to the people surety in land for twice the amount’; donec …tulit: Tacitus usually prefers the subjunctive after donec if its meaning is ‘until the moment when’; the indicative tulit is perhaps to mark the time limit itself, apart from any notions of expectation, suspense , or intention. disposito …sestertio and facta …copia are ablatives abs.; mutuandi copia: in association with a gerund, copia has frequently the sense of ‘good prospects for’, but in copia vendendi above the meaning is clearly that of ‘quantity’; vendendi and mutuandi are objective genitives after a noun. milies sestertio: with large sums of money, sestertium is understood to stand for ‘one hundred thousand’ (centena milia), so milies sestertio is equal to 1,000 x 100,000 or one hundred million sesterces, where milies or millies or miliens is numeral adverb answering to the question ‘how many times 100,000?’, the answer being ‘one thousand times’. si …cavisset: plup. susubjunctive for potential condition (type II) in the past and action preceding that of the apodosis (here an abl. abs.) per mensas, per triennium: in the first case, per + acc. indicates means or instrument, in the second case, time duration; mensas are the special banker’s counters set up for granting loans. in duplum: ‘for twice the amount’) sic refecta fides et paulatim privati quoque creditores reperti. neque emptio agrorum exercita ad formam senatus consulti, acribus, ut ferme talia, initiis, incurioso fine. (neque emptio agrorum exercita ad formam senatus consulti, acribus, ut ferme talia, initiis, incurioso fine: ‘the purchase of landed properties was not conducted to the letter of the senate decree; as such things usually [are] (ut ferme talia), the debut [being] full of good intentions, the end careless.’ acribus …initiis, incurioso fine: example of abl. abs. with only adjectives, resembling an abl. of attendant circumstance. The presence of a participle is not essential to the Latin construction, but in English the present or perfect participle of the verb ‘to be’ (‘being’ or ‘having been’) is desirable for meaning. The Latin verb sum lacks both, or, rather, only the present apparently exists (ens, entis), but is never used.)