XXV.
Nondum is dolor exoleverat, cum de Agrippina auditum, (nondum is dolor exoleverat, cum de Agrippina auditum [est]: ‘this sorrow had not yet passed away when it was heard about Agrippina.’ Temporal cum + indicative provides a time reference for the action of the main verb; auditum [est] is impersonal use of the passive. Agrippina had been exiled to the small island of Pandateria, known today as Ventotene, off the coast of Naples.) quam interfecto Seiano spe sustentatam provixisse reor, (quam interfecto Seiano spe sustentatam provixisse reor: ‘ … who (quam) I believe had continued living supported by hope, Sejanus having been killed’; reor is followed by infinitive clause with acc. subject.) et postquam nihil de saevitia remittebatur, voluntate extinctam, nisi si negatis alimentis adsimulatus est finis qui videretur sponte sumptus. (nisi si negatis alimentis adsimulatus est finis qui videretur sponte sumptus: ‘except if (nisi si) her end was feigned, food having been withheld, so that her death would appear voluntarily inflicted’; qui videretur: subjunctive for relative clause expressing purpose, therefore equivalent to a final clause with ut. See A.G. 531, 2.) enimvero Tiberius foedissimis criminationibus exarsit, impudicitiam arguens et Asinium Gallum adulterum, eiusque morte ad taedium vitae compulsam. (eius morte ad taedium vitae compulsam: in indirect speech: lit. ‘that she had been driven by his death to disgust of life’) sed Agrippina aequi impatiens, dominandi avida, virilibus curis feminarum vitia exuerat. eodem die defunctam, quo biennio ante Seianus poenas luisset, memoriaeque id prodendum addidit Caesar iactavitque quod non laqueo strangulata neque in Gemonias proiecta foret. (eodem die defunctam, quo biennio ante Seianus poenas luisset, memoriaeque id prodendum [esse] addidit Caesar iactavitque quod non laqueo strangulata neque in Gemonias proiecta foret: ‘Caesar [said] that she had died on the sane day in which two years earlier Sejanus had paid for his crimes, a circumstance, he added, that should be handed down to posterity and [even] claimed credit that she had neither been strangled with a rope nor thrown down the Gemonian steps.’ poenas luisset: idiom, ‘had atoned or made amends for offences, crimes’, etc.; luisset is subjunctive for rel. clause in oratio obliqua; prodendum [esse]: use of passive periphrasis (gerundive + forms of sum); see G. 251. iactavit quod … : quod (‘the fact that …’) opens an explanatory clause, here with subjunctive in indirect speech. in Gemonias: the Gemonian stairs, down which criminals were thrown after being strangled, left to decay while on display, and finally dumped into the Tiber river. The exact location of the place is uncertain, except that it was somewhere north of the Capitolium (the temple of Jupiter) on the Capitoline hill.) actae ob id grates decretumque ut quintum decimum kal. Novembris, utriusque necis die, per omnis annos donum Iovi sacraretur. (decretum ut [ante] quintum decimum kal. Novembris, utriusque necis die, per omnis annos donum Iovi sacraretur: lit. ‘it was decreed that on the fifteenth day [before] the calends of November, for all years, (on the day of the violent death of both [Agrippina and Sejanus]), a gift would be devoted to Jupiter.’ In earlier times, [ante] quintum decimum kal. Novembris was die quinto decimo ante Kalendas Novembris, even shortened to quinto decimo Kalendas Novembris or just XV Kal. Nov. For Calends, to find the corresponding date in English, add 2 to the number of days in the previous month and subtract the given number: 31 days in October +2 – 15 = Oct. 18. decretum ut … sacraretur: the verb decerno is here complemented by a final ut clause; more usually by an infinitive clause. Iovi is the dative form of Iupiter.)