XLV.
Idem annus gravi igne urbem adficit, deusta parte circi quae Aventino contigua, ipsoque Aventino; (idem annus gravi igne urbem adficit, deusta parte circi quae Aventino contigua, ipsoque Aventino: ‘the same year struck Rome with a violent fire, the part of the Circus Maximus which [is] near the Aventine and the Aventine itself being consumed.’ deusta parte … ipsoque Aventino is abl. abs.; Aventino contigua: Aventino is dative with contiguous. The Circus Maximus is in the shallow valley between the Palatine hill to the north and the Aventine hill to the south, just east of the large eastward bend of the Tiber before leaving the city.) quod damnum Caesar ad gloriam vertit (quod damnum Caesar ad gloriam vertit …: ‘Caesar turned this tragedy to his glory.’ As written, the statement seems to censure Tiberius: clearly, to say that Tiberius turned the tragedy to his credit is not the same as saying that the tragedy redounded to his credit. quod damnum: a rel. pronoun or adjective at the head of a clause, may usually be replaced in English by a demonstrative pronoun or adjective, ‘this tragedy’.) exolutis domuum et insularum pretiis. milies sestertium in munificentia ea conlocatum, (… exolutis domuum et insularum pretiis. milies sestertium in munificentia ea conlocatum: ‘ … the values of the houses and apartment blocks having been paid [by him]. One hundred million sesterces [was] invested in that munificent effort.’ milies or miliens sestertium is short for milies centena milia sestertium, ‘one thousand times 100,000’, or one hundred million sesterces; milies, ‘a thousand times’, is numeral adverb answering the question, ‘how many times?’; exolutis … pretiis is abl. abs.) tanto acceptius in vulgum, quanto modicus privatis aedificationibus ne publice quidem nisi duo opera struxit, templum Augusto et scaenam Pompeiani theatri; (tanto acceptius in vulgum, quanto modicus privatis aedificationibus ne publice quidem nisi duo opera struxit, templum Augusto et scaenam Pompeiani theatri: comparative sentence without verb(s), or rather with verb(s) understood, followed by a qualifying clause: ‘[his munificence] [was] all the more welcome among the people, the more sparing he was in building for himself; officially, he did not erect any works, except two, the temple to Augustus and the stage of the theater of Pompei.’ ne … quidem nisi … struxit: example of two negations not canceling each other: ‘he did not build at all, if not …’(Ernout, p. 153-154); the temple to Augustus was at the foot of the Palatine hill, near the House of the Vestals in the Forum. The theater of Pompei was within Regio IX of the division of the city by Augustus, west of the Capitoline hill. vulgum: here masculine, a rare variant of vulgus.) eaque perfecta, contemptu ambitionis an per senectutem, haud dedicavit. (eaque perfecta, contemptu ambitionis an per senectutem, haud dedicavit: ‘he did not dedicate them after completion either from contempt of good fame or owing to old age.’ perfecta: a participle is often used in Latin in place of a subordinate clause: here ea perfecta is instead od a temporal clause or equivalent construction, ‘when these works were completed’ or ‘after their completion’. an occurs most frequently in alternative questions, but in Tacitus it is often a disjunctive conjunction, like aut or vel.) sed aestimando cuiusque detrimento quattuor progeneri Caesaris, Cn. Domitius, Cassius Longinus, M. Vinicius, Rubellius Blandus delecti additusque nominatione consulum P. Petronius. (aestimando cuiusque detrimento quattuor progeneri Caesaris, Cn. Domitius, Cassius Longinus, M. Vinicius, Rubellius Blandus delecti additusque nominatione consulum P. Petronius: ‘to estimate the damages of everyone, the four husbands of his granddaughters were chosen, Gnaeus Domitius Aenobarbus, Lucius Cassius Longinus, Marcus Vinicius, and Gaius Rubellius Blandus; Publius Petronius was added on the nomination of the consuls.’ The four grand daughters were the three daughters of Germanicus (Agrippina, Drusilla, Julia) and Julia, the daughter of Drusus, Tiberius’ son. Agrippina was married to Gnaeus Domitius (cf. Book 4, ch. 75), Drusilla and Julia respectively to Cassius Longinus and Marcus Vicinius (cf. ch. 15 of the present book), and Julia to Rubellius Blandus (cf. ch. 27 also of this book). aestimando cuiusque detrimento: dative gerundive to denote purpose, lit. ‘for damages to be estimated’; see also note for capiendo diademati in ch. 43. progeneri are granddaughters’ husbands.) et pro ingenio cuiusque (pro ingenio cuiusque: ‘depending on how inventive each of them [was]; the prep. pro commands abl.) quaesiti decretique in principem honores; quos omiserit receperitve in incerto fuit ob propinquum vitae finem. (quos omiserit receperitve in incerto fuit ob propinquum vitae finem: ‘it is not known for certain which [honors] he refused or (–ve) accepted in view of the proximity of his end.’ omiserit receperitve: subjunctive in indirect question ushered in by interrogative quos. The perfect subjunctives, in place of the pluperfect after the historical main verb fuit, reflects the Latin tendency to represent the perfect indicative, that would be used if the clause was not dependent, with the perfect subjunctive regardless of the sequence of tenses (A.G. 485, c., Note 2). It was felt that the perfect expressed thought in a more direct and vivid manner than the pluperfect.) neque enim multo post supremi Tiberio consules, Cn. Acerronius C. Pontius, magistratum occepere, (neque enim multo post supremi Tiberio consules, Cn. Acerronius C. Pontius, magistratum occepere: ‘in fact, not long after the last consuls for Tiberius, Gnaeus Acerronius and Gaius Pontius, took office.’ With these two consuls Tacitus introduces a new year, 37 A.D., the last year dealt with in Book 6.) nimia iam potentia Macronis, qui gratiam G. Caesaris numquam sibi neglectam acrius in dies fovebat (nimia iam potentia Macronis, qui gratiam G. Caesaris numquam sibi neglectam acrius in dies fovebat: ‘excessive already [was] the power of Macro, who courted each day more (in dies acrius) Caligula’s favor, never held of no account by himself.’ sibi with the passive neglectam is dative of agent, normally reserved for the gerundive and for the passive periphrastic conjugation to denote the person on whom the obligation falls (see G. 354, 355), but frequently used in poetry and by later writers. In Tacitus it is found with almost any transitive verb.) impuleratque post mortem Claudiae, quam nuptam ei rettuli, uxorem suam Enniam imitando amorem iuvenem inlicere pactoque matrimonii vincire, nihil abnuentem, dum dominationis apisceretur; (impulerat post mortem Claudiae, quam nuptam ei rettuli, uxorem suam Enniam imitando amorem iuvenem inlicere pactoque matrimonii vincire, nihil abnuentem, dum dominationis apisceretur: ‘[Macro], after the death of Claudia, whom I reported married to Caligula, had pushed his wife Ennia, by her pretended love, to seduce the young man and bind him (who refused nothing as long as he gained mastery of the world) by a promise (pacto) of marriage [to herself].’ Caligula marriage to Claudia is mentioned in Ch. 20. dum dominationis apisceretur: like modo and dummodo, dum can introduce a proviso, ‘provided that … ‘, with subjunctive. Cf. B. 310, II. dominationis is the only recorded case of apiscor with genitive instead of acc., possibly on the pattern of potior, a verb of similar meaning, found with acc., gen., and abl.; adipiscor, a compound of apiscor is also found once with gen. in Book 3, ch. 55. imitando amorem; abl. gerund without preposition is one of two cases of the gerund that can have a direct object, the other being the genitive.) nam etsi commotus ingenio simulationum tamen falsa in sinu avi perdidicerat. (nam etsi commotus ingenio simulationum tamen falsa in sinu avi perdidicerat: ‘for, though sensual as to his nature, yet (tamen) he had thoroughly learnt the wiles of dissimulating in his grandfather’s care.’ ingenio is abl. of specification. simulationum is objective genitive complementing a substantivized adjective, falsa.