XIV.
Sed (sed: marks a turn in the narrative without real adversative value; in such cases it may be ignored in translation.) Galba post nuntios Germanicae seditionis, quamquam nihil adhuc de Vitellio certum, anxius quonam exercituum vis erumperet, (quonam exercituum vis erumperet: quonam is interrogative adv. introducing an indir. question, ‘to what possible extent the violence of the armies might break out’.) ne urbano quidem militi confisus, (ne urbano quidem militi confisus: the intransitive verb confidere has the indirect object urbano militi in the dative; its past participle confisus is passive in form but with the active meaning of ‘having trusted’; this active use of the past participle is true also of many other intransitive verbs. Cf. G. 346 and 220, N 1.) quod remedium unicum rebatur, comitia imperii transigit; (comitia imperii transigit: ‘he calls an imperial election’; comitia, such as comitia consularia, were assemblies in the Forum in which the Roman people cast their votes to elect consuls and other magistrates. Thus, comitia imperii is obviouly a sarcastic term, since emperors were anything but elected. An indoor meeting attended, as is made clear in the next line, by four persons, beside Galba and, later, Piso, is hardly an assembly of the Roman people in the Forum.) adhibitoque (adhibito: ‘being called in’, abl. abs. which extends down to praefecto urbis) super Vinium ac Laconem Mario Celso consule designato ac Ducenio Gemino praefecto urbis, pauca praefatus de sua senectute, Pisonem Licinianum accersiri iubet, seu propria electione sive, ut quidam crediderunt, Lacone instante, (Lacone instante: possibly abl. of cause, ‘because of the importunate Laco’.) cui apud Rubellium Plautum exercita cum Pisone amicitia; (cui …exercita [est] cum Pisone amicitia: ‘by whom a friendship with Piso was formed’; cui is dative of agent employed with passive tenses that require the use of perf. participle; cf. G. 215, 1 and 354.) sed callide ut ignotum fovebat, et prospera de Pisone fama consilio eius fidem addiderat. Piso M. Crasso et Scribonia genitus, (Piso M. Crasso et Scribonia genitus: genitus takes abl. of origin, here found without preposition ex or de.) nobilis utrimque, (utrimque: ‘on both sides’) vultu habituque moris antiqui et aestimatione recta (aestimatione recta: ‘with right judgement’ or ‘judgement being right’) severus, deterius interpretantibus tristior habebatur: (deterius interpretantibus tristior habebatur: ‘he was considered too sombre by those who regarded him more unkindly; interpretandibus is dat. of agent, found in poetry but seldom in prose, with passive verbs even in tenses that do not require the use of the perf. participle; cf. A.G. 375.) ea pars morum eius quo suspectior sollicitis adoptanti placebat. (ea pars morum eius quo suspectior sollicitis [erat] adoptanti placebat: ‘that part of his character pleased his adopter the more suspect [it was] to those ill at ease’; quo suspectior: lit. ‘by what degree more suspect’; quo + comparative in the subordinate clause of a comparative sentence is usually followed by its correlative eo + comparative in the main clause, but cases occur where the main clause lacks both the correlative and the comparative, as here; adoptandi placebat: the verb placere, unlike its English equivalent, is intransitive and adoptandi is its indirect object.)