XXXII.
Vniversa iam plebs Palatium implebat, mixtis servitiis et dissono clamore caedem Othonis et coniuratorum exitium poscentium ut si in circo aut theatro ludicrum aliquod postularent: (ut si … postularent: ut si, like velut si, ac si, quam si, tamquam, quasi, governs a conditional clause of comparison; the mood is subjunctive and the tenses follow the rule of sequence, in this case imperf. subjunctive for ongoing action in the past when the main verb is historical.) neque illis iudicium aut veritas, quippe (quippe: conj., not adv., ‘for’, ‘since’) eodem die diversa pari certamine postulaturis, (postulaturis: agrees with the preceding illis, dative of possessor with an implied erat; the free use of the active future participle as a verbal adjective is found only in later Latin; cf. G. 283) sed tradito more (tradito more: ‘because of the inherited custom of …’) quemcumque principem adulandi licentia adclamationum (licentia adclamationum: ‘with a wantonness of acclamations’) et studiis inanibus. Interim Galbam duae sententiae distinebat: Titus Vinius manendum intra domum, opponenda servitia, firmandos aditus, non eundum (manendum …, opponenda …, firmandos …, non eundum [esse]: examples of use of passive gerundive with forms of esse to express obligation or necessity: manendum and eundum show impersonal use of neuter gerundive with intransitive verbs; opponenda and firmandos are personal gerundives , possible only with transitive verbs.) ad iratos censebat: daret malorum paenitentiae, daret bonorum consensui spatium: (daret malorum paenitentiae [spatium], daret bonorum consensui spatium: ‘[Galba] should give room for the repentance of the wicked, he should give room for the consensus of the good’; daret …daret: imperative in indirect speech introduced by censebat; it corresponds to da of direct command; consensui is dat. of purpose.) scelera impetu, bona consilia mora valescere, (scelera impetu, bona consilia mora valescere: ‘crimes gain strength from impulsive action, sound strategy from time to think.’) denique eundi ultro, si ratio sit, eandem mox facultatem, regressum, si paeniteat, in aliena potestate. (denique eundi ultro, si ratio sit, eandem mox facultatem, regressum, si paeniteat, in aliena potestate: ‘lastly, the opportunity of going of one’s own accord, if need be, [would be] the same later, [but] retreat, should he regret [having gone], [would be] in the power of others’; sit and paenitet are for esset and paeniteret, since the verb of saying, censebat, is historical; this switch to present subjunctive, to bring past events closer in time to the reader, is called repraesentatio.)