LXII.
Mira inter exercitum imperatoremque diversitas: instare miles, arma poscere, (instare … poscere: hist. infinitives or infinitives of narration) dum Galliae trepident, dum Hispaniae cunctentur: (dum … trepident, dum … cunctentur: subjunctive after dum in that the clauses are in indirect discourse introduced by poscere and continuing down to ubi … opus esset, which is also subjunctive for the same reason.) non obstare hiemem neque ignavae pacis moras: invadendam Italiam, occupandam urbem; nihil in discordiis civilibus festinatione tutius, ubi facto magis quam consulto (facto … consulto: abl. with opus esset) opus esset. torpebat Vitellius et fortunam principatus inerti luxu ac prodigis epulis praesumebat, medio diei temulentus et sagina gravis, (sagina gravis: sagina was the food used to fatten animals, also the diet of gladiators; Vitellius’ voracity is described in lurid detail by Suetonius in Vitellius 13.) cum tamen ardor et vis militum ultro ducis munia implebat, ut si adesset imperator et strenuis vel ignavis spem metumve adderet. instructi intentique signum profectionis exposcunt. nomen Germanici Vitellio statim additum: Caesarem se appellari etiam victor prohibuit. laetum augurium Fabio Valenti exercituique, quem in bellum agebat, ipso profectionis die aquila leni meatu, prout agmen incederet, (prout agmen incederet: the subjunctive after prout underlines the potential sense of the clause: ‘in proportion as the column might advance’.) velut dux viae (velut dux viae: ‘like a guide’) praevolavit, longumque per spatium is gaudentium militum clamor, ea quies interritae alitis fuit ut haud dubium magnae et prosperae rei omen acciperetur. (fuit ut … acciperetur: consecutive sense, ‘was such that it was accepted as…’. As a general rule, in consecutive clauses the same tense is preserved that the clause would have if it were independent. In the above example the tense would be imperf. indicative, or accipiebatur, hence acciperetur when the clause is consecutive. The same reasoning can be extended to other tenses.)