XXXIV.
Interim Oroden sociorum inopem auctus auxilio Pharasmanes vocare ad pugnam et detrectantem incessere, adequitare castris, infensare pabula; (Oroden sociorum inopem auctus auxilio Pharasmanes vocare ad pugnam et detrectantem incessere, adequitare castris, infensare pabula: ‘Pharasmanes, reinforced by auxiliaries, challenged Orodes, deprived of allies, to a fight, and took to harassing his unwilling [opponent], to gallop up to and around his camp, and to be a hindrance to his foraging parties.’ castris adequitare: here with dat., adequitare is in Caesar with ad + acc.; vocare, incessere, adequitare, infensare are historical infinitives, used for rapid passages in place of imperfect indicative; the construction has survived in French preceded by de.) ac saepe modum obsidii stationibus cingebat, (saepe modum obsidii stationibus cingebat: ‘he often encircled [the enemy camp] with armed bodies of troops, in the manner of a siege.’ modum obsidii is short for in modum obsidii.) donec Parthi contumeliarum insolentes circumsisterent regem poscerent proelium. (donec Parthi contumeliarum insolentes circumsisterent regem poscerent proelium: ‘until the Parthians, unaccustomed to insults, pressured the king in large numbers and clamoured for battle’; donec … circumsisterent … poscerent: in Tacitus donec is almost regularly followed by subjunctive, irrespective of whether a real time limit is being expressed or an action merely expected or intended. contumeliarum insolentes: objective genitive after an adjective denoting knowledge or experience; insolens is here with the meaning of insuetus.) atque illis sola in equite vis: Pharasmanes et pedite valebat. (illis sola in equite vis: Pharasmanes et pedite valebat: ‘for the Parthians (illis) the sole strength [was] in cavalry: Pharasmanes was strong also (et = etiam) in infantry.’ illis is dat. of possessor with erat understood.) nam Hiberi Albanique saltuosos locos incolentes duritiae patientiaeque magis insuevere; (Hiberi Albanique saltuosos locos incolentes duritiae patientiaeque magis insuevere: ‘the Iberi and the Albani inhabiting the densely forested highland regions were more trained to endure hardship.’ duritiae patientiaeque, dat. with insuesco, is hendiadys.) feruntque se Thessalis ortos, qua tempestate Iaso post avectam Medeam genitosque ex ea liberos inanem mox regiam Aeetae vacuosque Colchos repetivit. (ferunt se Thessalis ortos, qua tempestate Iaso post avectam Medeam genitosque ex ea liberos inanem mox regiam Aeetae vacuosque Colchos repetivit: lit. ‘they say they had descended from the Thessalians, at the time when Jason, after (post is prep. with acc.) Medea being abducted [by him] and children being born from her, revisited the kingless people of Colchis and the deserted palace of [king] Aeetes.’ Mythical Jason is the Thessalian leader of the Argonauts (so called from the name of their ship Argo), who set out in quest of the Golden Fleece in the kingdom of Colchis on the coast of the southeastern corner of the Black sea. Jason abducted Medea, the daughter of the king of Colchis, Aeetes, and returned to Thessaly with the Golden Fleece. Expelled from Thessaly on account of a crime, Jason deserted Medea, but according to the legend followed here, he reconciled with Medea and together went back to Colchis, where Jason reinstated to the throne Aeetes, previously deposed, and settled his followers (from whom the Iberi an the Albani claim descent) in the country. inanem … vacuos: respectively ‘vacant’ or ‘abandoned’ and ‘without master or king’) multaque de nomine eius et oraclum Phrixi celebrant; (multaque de nomine eius et oraclum Phrixi celebrant: ‘they revere many rituals named after him and [also] the oracle of Phrixus.’ oraculum may refer to the shrine where the responses were given rather than to the priest giving them. Legend has it that Phrixus and his twin sister Helle, forced to leave Thebes in Thessaly and escape from their cruel stepmother Ino, who was scheming to have them sacrificed to the gods ostensibly to stop a famine, were whisked away by a ram with a golden fleece. During the flight Helle fell into the strait between European and Asian Turkey (later named Hellespont after her) and drowned. Phrixus was able to reach Colchis safely and was well treated by king Aeetes. In exchange, Phrixus sacrificed the ram to Neptune and presented the Golden Fleece, later carried off by Jason and the Argonauts, to the king.) nec quisquam ariete sacrificaverit, credito vexisse Phrixum, sive id animal seu navis insigne fuit. (nec quisquam ariete sacrificaverit, credito vexisse Phrixum, sive id animal seu navis insigne fuit: ‘ and no one would [anymore] perform a sacrifice using a ram [as the victim], the belief being (credito) that [a ram] had borne Phrixus [to safety], whether it was the animal itself or a decorative item [of a ship].’ sacrificaverit is potential subjunctive: both present and perfect can refer to immediate future action; cf. A.G. 446. credito: example of one-word abl. abs. using the impersonal neuter of a perf. participle ending in -to; similar examples are auspicato, pugnato, consulto, intestato, vadato, etc. such participles are often complemented by a dependent clause, here the infinitive +acc. vexisse Phrixum. sive … seu … insigne fuit: the correlatives sive … seu introduce alternative conditions, usually with the indicative; insigne is neuter noun in the nominative; it may or may not relate to the metal spur projecting from a bow, used to ram other vessels, also called aries; sive … seu or seu … sive are poetic or post classical variants of sive … sive and seu …seu.) ceterum (ceterum: ‘be that as it may’, a convenient way to dismiss a topic and resume a previous and more relevant one) derecta utrimque acie Parthus imperium Orientis, claritudinem Arsacidarum contraque ignobilem Hiberum mercennario milite disserebat; (derecta utrimque acie Parthus imperium Orientis, claritudinem Arsacidarum contraque ignobilem Hiberum mercennario milite disserebat: ‘the battle line having been drawn up on either side, the Parthian [Orodes] held forth about the empire of the Orient, the great fame of the Arsacids and on the other side the obscure Iberian Pharasmane with his hired soldiery.’ claritudinem Arsacidarum: the Parthian empire, also known as the Arsacid empire from Arsaces the man who founded it in the middle of the third century B.C., lasted almost 600 years and ended in the early part of the third century A.D. Even the Romans failed to ever win a decisive battle against the Parthians and never came near subduing them. mercenario milite: abl. of accompaniment without cum in the case of military forces, one way of underlining their instrumental use.) Pharasmanes integros semet a Parthico dominatu, (Pharasmanes integros semet a Parthico dominatu: ‘Pharesmanes [vaunted] (disserebat from previous sentence) that they [had always been] free from Parthian domination.’ semet: the enclitic -met makes se emphatic.) quanto maiora peterent, plus decoris victores aut, si terga darent, flagitii atque periculi laturos; (quanto maiora peterent, plus decoris [si] victores aut, si terga darent, [plus] flagitii atque periculi laturos: two conditional sentences in oratio obliqua, each with apodosis in the form of a comparative sentence, the main verb of both of the latter being the same, laturos [esse]: ‘ … that the greater the goals they aimed for, the more renown they would procure [for themselves], if victorious, [but] if they showed their backs to the enemy, [only] more of shame and danger’; in indirect speech, apodoses are always infinitive (here future infinitive for prospective action), the protases always subjunctive, their tenses according to consecutio temporum, as in direct speech. The condition is obviously potential (type II) and the verb of saying (disserebat) historical (cf. B. 267-270 and 319-321). plus decoris … [plus] flagtii atque periculi: partitive genitives after the neuter plus) simul horridam suorum aciem, picta auro Medorum agmina, hinc viros, inde praedam ostendere. (simul horridam suorum aciem, picta auro Medorum agmina, hinc viros, inde praedam ostendere: ‘at the same time he indicated the formidable columns of his own troops, [then] the lines of the Medes, resplendent with gold; on this side, [he said], brave men, on the other rich plunder.’ Medorum: the Medes or Medi originally occupied a territory south of the Caspian sea, bordering in the west with Armenia and in the east with Parthia. In the 8th century B.C., they developed a large empire, which in the sixth century was incorporated by Cyrus the Great into the Persian empire (formerly, like Parthia, one of the vassal provinces or satrapies of the Medes) and later into the Parthian empire under Arsaces I in the middle of the third century B.C. Here, Medorum is used in a disparaging sense, in place of Parthorum, to mean ‘decadent’, ‘easily conquered’. ostendere is historical infinitive.)