XXVI.
Infecit ea tabes legionum quoque et auxiliorum motas iam mentis, postquam vulgatum erat labare Germanici exercitus fidem. adeoque parata apud malos seditio, etiam apud integros dissimulatio (dissimulatio: ‘pretended ignorance’) fuit, ut postero iduum die (postero iduum die: lit. ‘on the day next of the ides [of January]’ or on the 14th of January, since the ides of Juanuary fall on the 13th) redeuntem a cena Othonem rapturi fuerint, ni incerta noctis et tota urbe sparsa militum castra nec facilem inter temulentos consensum timuissent, (adeoque parata … seditio,… ut … Othonem rapturi fuerint, ni … timuissent: ‘so ready was the revolt that they were going to carry off Otho, had they not feared that …’; the periphrastic perf. subjunctive rapturi fuerint is in place of the pluperfect subjunctive rapuissent, required in the apodosis of a conditional sentence contrary to fact in the past; here, however, the apodosis is within a dependent clause introduced by the consecutive adeo …ut; the rule in such cases is as follows: ‘when the apodosis of an unreal conditional is made to depend on a sentence which requires the subjunctive, the pluperfect [here rapuissent] is turned into the periphrastic perf. subjunctive [rapturi fuerint]’; cf. G. 597, Remark 5 (a), also A.G. 517, (d).) non rei publicae cura, quam foedare principis sui sanguine sobrii parabant, sed ne per tenebras, ut quisque Pannonici vel Germanici exercitus militibus oblatus esset, ignorantibus plerisque, pro Othone destinaretur. (ne …, ut quisque … militibus oblatus esset, … pro Othone destinaretur: lit. ‘for fear that anyone might be taken for Otho, since anyone could have placed himself in the soldiers’ path’; militibus: dative with oblatus esset; ut is causal, here found with subjunctive, (a) because the reason given is assumed, not real, (b) because the clause is within another dependent clause introduced by ne. Cf. rule given in note for quotiens Galba apud Othonem epularetur in ch. 24.) multa erumpentis seditionis indicia per conscios oppressa: quaedam apud Galbae auris praefectus Laco elusit, ignarus militarium animorum consiliique quamvis egregii, quod non ipse adferret, inimicus et adversus peritos (adversus peritos: adversus is preposition with acc.) pervicax.