XXIV.
Flagrantibus iam militum animis velut faces addiderat Maevius Pudens, (flagrantibus iam militum animis velut faces addiderat Maevius Pudens: ’Maevius Pudens had added, as it were, torches to the blazing spirits of the soldiers’; fragrantibus …animis is indir. object of addiderat.) e proximis Tigellini. (Tigellini: Tigellinus was commander of the Praetorian Guard and Nero’s favorite, later eliminated under Otho.) is mobilissimum quemque ingenio (mobilissimum quemque ingenio: cf. note for vetustissimum quemque militum in previous chapter) aut pecuniae indigum (pecuniae indigum: ‘short of money’; indigus is here with gen. rather than abl.) et in novas cupiditates praecipitem adliciendo eo paulatim progressus est ut per speciem convivii, (per speciem convivii: lit. ‘through the pretext of a feast’) quotiens Galba apud Othonem epularetur, (quotiens Galba apud Othonem epularetur: epularetur is an example of subjunctive by attraction also called modal attraction, as the relative clause quotiens Galba apud Othonem epularetur is inside another dependent clause, in this case the consecutive ut …divideret clause commented on further ahead; when a clause is governed by a clause in the subjunctive, it must itself take the subjunctive; cf. G. 662, 663.) cohorti excubias agenti viritim (viritim: ‘per man’) centenos nummos (centenos nummos: nummus or numus means ‘unit of currency’, in this case the sestertium.) divideret; (eo paulatim progressus est ut … divideret: ‘step by step he ventured so far as to distribute …’; eo …ut introduces a consecutive or result clause, for which see more below in note for adeo animosus corruptor ut …dederit.) quam velut publicam largitionem Otho secretioribus apud singulos praemiis intendebat, (quam velut publicam largitionem Otho secretioribus apud singulos praemiis intendebat: ‘which official generosity, in a manner of speaking, Otho augmented by more private gifts to individual persons.) adeo animosus corruptor ut Cocceio Proculo speculatori, (speculatori: mounted soldier chosen from the Praetorian Guard and acting as bodyguard) de parte finium (de parte finium: ‘about a matter of property lines’) cum vicino ambigenti, universum vicini agrum sua pecunia emptum dono dederit, (adeo animosus corruptor ut …dederit: ‘he was such a determined corruptor that he gave …’; adeo …ut, like eo ..ut above, introduces a consecutive clause, with the difference that here ut is followed by perfect subjunctive, in place of imperfect, although the tense of the main verb is still secondary or historical. The reason is that in consecutive clauses the subjunctive tense is independent from that of the main clause and tense depends on the sense of the sentence, rather than on the regular sequence of tenses. Thus dederit here is for single event in the past, whereas divideret in the eo …ut clause above is imperfect for action in the past continuous or repeated. One general rule with consecutive clauses is that the tense of the subjunctive tends to be the same as the tense of the indicative the clause would have if it were not dependent. Cf. G. 513, A.G. 485, c., B. 268, (6, 7)) per socordiam praefecti, quem nota pariter et occulta fallebant. (quem nota pariter et occulta fallebant: ‘whom obvious things duped as much as things hidden’)