XVIII.
Quartum idus Ianuarias, (quartum idus Ianuarias: either short for ante diem quartum idus ianuarias or acc. of time duration with the sense of ‘throughout the day’) foedum imbribus diem, tonitrua et fulgura et caelestes minae ultra solitum turbaverunt. observatum id antiquitus comitiis dirimendis (observatum id antiquitus comitiis dirimendis: ‘this fact, heeded from of old as a mandate to dissolve a general assembly, …’; comitiis dirimendis: lit. ‘for the comitia to be dispersed’; dative gerundive is one way to express purpose, in place of ad + acc. gerundive) non terruit Galbam quo minus in castra pergeret, (non terruit Gabam quo minus in castra pergeret: quominus or quo minus is used, with consecutive or final sense, after verbs of preventing, delaying, refusing, etc.; lit. ‘did not frighten Galba so that thereby the less he should go to the camp’) contemptorem talium ut fortuitorum; seu quae fato manent, (quae fato manent: ‘what is fixed by the hand of fate’) quamvis significata, (quamvis significata: quamvis is here adverb of concessive force modifying sighificata, ‘no matter how revealed’) non vitantur. apud frequentem militum contionem imperatoria brevitate adoptari a se Pisonem exemplo divi Augusti et more militari, quo vir virum legeret, (more militari, quo vir virum legeret: ‘in keeping with the army custom by which a man chose [another] man’: during a levy, the first soldier to be enrolled pointed to the man who was to follow him, the latter to a third and so on, until the total of men required was reached; quo …legeret: double reason for the subjunctive: (a) the rel. clause is in indirect speech; (b) the rel. clause has final sense.) pronuntiat. ac ne dissimulata seditio in maius crederetur, (ne …in maius crederetur: negative final clause, ‘lest it be believed more serious than it was’) ultro adseverat quartam et duoetvicensimam legiones, paucis seditionis auctoribus, non ultra verba ac voces errasse et brevi in officio fore. nec ullum orationi aut lenocinium addit aut pretium. (nec ullum orationi aut lenocinium addit aut pretium: lit. ‘he adds no blandishments to his speech nor mention of a bounty’; addit: note sudden change to the present for a more immediate representation of past events; cf. also respondent next.) tribuni tamen centurionesque et proximi militum grata auditu respondent: (grata auditu respondent: auditu is abl. supine, a verbal noun found with certain adjectives that indicate an effect on the senses, ‘pleasing in the hearing’; respondent is here transitive, ‘they give pleasant things to hear in reply’.) per ceteros maestitia ac silentium, (maestitia ac silentium: hendiadys, ‘gloomy silence’; the verb for this subject is left to the reader, something like ‘prevailed’) tamquam usurpatam etiam in pace donativi necessitatem bello perdidissent. (tamquam …perdidissent: for use of tamquam cf. tamquam alias partis fovissent ch. 8.) constat potuisse conciliari animos quantulacumque parci senis liberalitate: (quantulacumque … liberalitate: quantulacumque is from quantuluscumque, ‘however small’.) nocuit antiquus rigor et nimia severitas, cui iam pares non sumus. (rigor …severitas, cui iam pares non sumus: ‘rigorous severity to which we are no longer equal’; cui, singular, agrees in number with the nearer noun.)