XXVIII.
Paulo Fabio L. Vitellio consulibus (Paulo Fabio L. Vitellio consulibus: Paulus Fabius may have been the son of the Fabius Maximus mentioned in Book 1, ch. 5. A man of dubious fame, if he is the one described by Seneca as impudicus and by Juvenal as avidus, vanus, and mollis. Lucius Vitellius is the father of Aulus Vitellius, briefly emperor in 69 A.D. The narrative has now reached 34 A.D.) post longum saeculorum ambitum avis phoenix in Aegyptum venit praebuitque materiem doctissimis indigenarum et Graecorum multa super eo miraculo disserendi. (praebuitque materiem doctissimis indigenarum et Graecorum multa super eo miraculo disserendi: lit. ‘it provided the most scholarly of the native Egyptians and of the Greeks abundant matter of debating over that prodigious event.’ materiem disserendi: objective genitive gerund after a noun; super eo miraculo: when the prep. super has the sense of ‘on the subject of’, it takes abl. in place of acc.) de quibus congruunt et plura ambigua, sed cognitu non absurda promere libet. ([multa] … de quibus congruunt et plura ambigua, sed cognitu non absurda promere [mihi] libet: ‘I would like to relate the many things about which they agree and much that is dubious, yet not without merit to know.’ cognitu non absurda: use of abl. supine dependent on an adjective: it may be viewed as an abl. of relation or of point of view, ‘not pointless in relation to knowing’ or ‘in the knowing.) sacrum Soli id animal et ore ac distinctu pinnarum a ceteris avibus diversum consentiunt qui formam eius effinxere: (ore ac distinctu pinnarum a ceteris avibus diversum consentiunt qui formam eius effinxere: lit. ‘those who have described its appearance concur that [it is] distinguished from other birds by its head and the difference of its plumage.’ ore is metonymy for the head, rather than just the beak; distinctu probably refers to the markings on the body. Tacitus sacrifices descriptive accuracy to poetic vagueness: ore ac distinctu is certainly better sounding than, say, capite ac colore.) de numero annorum varia traduntur. maxime vulgatum quingentorum spatium: sunt qui adseverent mille quadringentos sexaginta unum interici, (sunt qui adseverent mille quadringentos sexaginta unum interici: ‘there are those who maintain that fourteen hundred and sixty-one years are inserted between [successive appearances].’ interici is passive present infinitive of the transitive interiacio or interiaceo or intericio; sunt qui adseverent: subjunctive for relative clause of characteristic having consecutive sense; cf. A.G. 534 – 535.) prioresque alites Sesoside primum, post Amaside dominantibus, dein Ptolemaeo, qui ex Macedonibus tertius regnavit, (prioresque alites Sesoside primum, post Amaside dominantibus, dein Ptolemaeo, qui ex Macedonibus tertius regnavit, in civitatem cui Heliopolis nomen advolavisse: in oratioo obliqua after sunt qui adseverent: ‘… and that the previous three birds (priores alites) had flown in to the city named Heliopolis, the first in the reign of Sesosis, next of Amasis, then of Ptolemy, who reigned as the third of the Macedonian kings.’ Heliopolis,’city of the Sun’, was an ancient city located on the Nile delta. Sesosis or Sesostris (the latter the name found in Herodotus) is Rhamses II, the quasi-mythical Egyptian king who lived between 1320 and 1255 B.C. See also note in Book 2, ch. 60. Amasis’ reign lasted from 569 to 526 and that of Ptolemy III (who ruled over part of the empire left originally by Alexander the Great of Macedon) from 247 to 222 B.C. Sesoside … Amaside dominantibus, dein Ptolomaeo: abl. abs., ‘Sesosis, … Amasis, then Ptolomaeus being the rulers’; qui … regnavit: indicative in explanatory clause interposed by the writer, thus not part of the narrative in oratio obliqua; cui …nomen: cui is dat. of possessor with a form of sum, here implied. See G. 349.) in civitatem cui Heliopolis nomen advolavisse, multo ceterarum volucrum comitatu novam faciem mirantium. sed antiquitas quidem obscura: inter Ptolemaeum ac Tiberium minus ducenti quinquaginta anni fuerunt. (sed antiquitas quidem obscura: inter Ptolemaeum ac Tiberium minus ducenti quinquaginta anni fuerunt: ‘but antiquity is notoriously inaccurate, [for} between Ptolemy and Tiberius [there are] less than two hundred and fifty years.’ From the death of Ptolemy in 222 B.C. to 14 A.D., the year in which Tiberius took power, there is an interval of only 236 years.) unde non nulli falsum hunc phoenicem neque Arabum e terris credidere, nihilque usurpavisse ex his quae vetus memoria firmavit. (unde non nulli falsum hunc phoenicem neque Arabum e terris credidere, nihilque usurpavisse ex his quae vetus memoria firmavit: ‘therefore, some (non nulli) have believed that this phoenix [was] not the real one, not from the lands of the Arabs, and that it had performed none of the doings which ancient tradition asserted [were peculiar to it].’ ex his quae …: abl. of the source, ‘from the things which …’) confecto quippe annorum numero, ubi mors propinquet, suis in terris struere nidum eique vim genitalem adfundere ex qua fetum oriri; (confecto quippe annorum numero, ubi mors propinquet, suis in terris struere nidum eique vim genitalem adfundere ex qua fetum oriri: ‘… for (quippe), a number of years having been completed, as soon as death approaches, it builds a nest and infused a vital force to it (ei) from which the offspring arises.’ ubi … propinquet: subjunctive after ubi in indirect speech) et primam adulto curam sepeliendi patris, neque id temere (primam adulto curam sepeliendi patris, neque id temere: lit. ‘ … ‘that the first duty for the bird grown to full size [is] of burying the parent, nor [is this done] casually’; curam sepeliendi is objective genitive gerund after a noun.) sed sublato murrae pondere temptatoque per longum iter, ubi par oneri, par meatui sit, subire patrium corpus inque Solis aram perferre atque adolere. (sublato murrae pondere temptatoque per longum iter, ubi par oneri, par meatui sit, subire patrium corpus inque Solis aram perferre atque adolere: ‘a weight of myrrh having been lifted and tested by means of a long flight, as soon as the phoenix is (sit) equal to the weight and to the long migration, it takes upon itself the body of the father and carries [it] to the altar of the Sun [at Heliopolis] and cremates [it].’ ubi par …sit: cf. note above for ubi … propinquet; sublato … pondere temptatoque is abl abs. per longum iter: per + acc denotes means or instrument, ‘through the agency of…’; subire, perferre, and adolere are historical infinitives.) haec incerta et fabulosis aucta: ceterum aspici aliquando in Aegypto eam volucrem non ambigitur. (haec incerta et fabulosis aucta: ceterum aspici aliquando in Aegypto eam volucrem non ambigitur: ‘these things are not beyond doubt and are magnified by strange fancies: it cannot be argued, however (ceterum), that in Egypt that bird is seen from time to time.’ non ambigitur is impersonal use of the passive of ambigo.)