XXXIII.
Festinandum ceteris videbatur antequam cresceret (antequam cresceret: for antequam with subjunctive cf. note for antequam …componam in ch. 4) invalida adhuc coniuratio paucorum: trepidaturum etiam Othonem, qui furtim digressus, ad ignaros inlatus, cunctatione nunc et segnitia terentium tempus (segnitia terentium tempus: ‘because of the inertness of those wasting time’) imitari principem discat. (qui …discat: subjunctive for relative clause in indir. speech introduced by the notion of thinking or saying implicit in videbatur; discat, in place of disceret, is an example of repraesentatio, for which see note at the end of previous chapter; other examples below are invadat, adeat, elanguescat, and necesse sit.) non expectandum ut compositis castris forum invadat (non expectandum ut … forum invadat: the verb expecto, or exspecto is followed by subjunctive clause with ut, dum, si, or quin, but never by the infinitive; cf. G.) et prospectante Galba (prospectante Galba: abl. abs., ‘Galba looking on’) Capitolium (Capitolium: the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus on the Capitoline hill in Rome) adeat, dum egregius imperator cum fortibus amicis ianua ac limine tenus domum cludit, (dum egregius imperator cum fortibus amicis ianua ac limine tenus domum cludit: ‘while an illustrious emperor with his courtiers — intrepid men as far as the door– bolts his house shut’; ianua ac limine tenus may apply to domum cludit rather than to fortibus amicis, in which case the sense would be something like ‘he barricades his palace down to the [last] door and doorway’; dum … cludit: dum is followed by pres. indicative even in indir. discourse, though exceptions exist; tenus: the prep. tenus requires abl. and is always placed after its object. The pointed sarcasm in this, and in the couple of lines preceding and following, effectively forces the vacillating Galba to act.) obsidionem nimirum (nimirum: ‘of course!’) toleraturus. (toleraturus: like trepidaturum earlier on, use of future participle as adjective; cf. note for postulaturis in previous ch.) et praeclarum in servis auxilium si consensus tantae multitudinis et, quae plurimum valet, (quae plurimum valet: ‘which is most powerful’; quae refers to indignatio; the present indicative, valet, is gnomic present, i.e. expresses a general truth, valid for all times and circumstances, therefore outside the rules governing direct discourse; cf. B. 259, G. 236.) prima indignatio elanguescat. proinde intuta quae indecora; vel si (vel si: ‘even if’) cadere necesse sit, occurrendum discrimini: (occurrendum discrimini [esse]: impersonal use of neuter gerundive of an intransitive verb with forms of esse, expressed or understood; the same applies to non expectandum near top of chapter; cf. note for manendum …, opponenda …, firmandos …, non eundum in ch. 32.) id Othoni invidiosius et ipsis honestum. repugnantem huic sententiae Vinium Laco minaciter invasit, stimulante Icelo privati odii pertinacia in publicum exitium. (stimulante Icelo privati odii pertinacia in publicum exitium: ‘Icelus egging him on in the obstinacy of his private hate, to the ruin of all’.)