LXVII.
Plus praedae ac sanguinis (plus praedae ac sanguinis: partitive genitives after the neuter plus) Caecina hausit. inritaverant turbidum ingenium Helvetii, (Helvetii: they occupied the territory known today as Switzerland. Defeated by Julius Caesar in 58 BC following their attempt to break out into Gaul and forced back to their mountainous lands, they have remained there to this day; cf. De Bello Gallico, Book 1, 1-29.) Gallica gens olim armis virisque, (armis virisque: hendiadys, ‘arms and men’ i.e. ‘a warlike people’; also hendiadys is avaritia ac festinatio further down) mox memoria nominis clara, de caede Galbae ignari et Vitellii imperium abnuentes. initium bello fuit avaritia ac festinatio unaetvicensimae legionis; (unaetvicensimae legionis: named, appropriately enough, the Rapax) rapuerant pecuniam missam in stipendium castelli quod olim Helvetii suis militibus ac stipendiis tuebantur. aegre id passi (aegre id passi: ‘having suffered this resentfully’; the deponent passi, from patior, has active sense and, being transitive, admits a direct object.) Helvetii, interceptis epistulis, quae nomine Germanici exercitus ad Pannonicas legiones ferebantur, centurionem et quosdam militum in custodia retinebant. Caecina belli avidus proximam quamque culpam, antequam paeniteret, (antequam paeniteret: for use of antequam with subjunctive cf. note for antequam …componam in ch. 4.) ultum ibat: (proximam quamque culpam … ultum ibat: lit. ‘he [at once] went to punish any freshest offence’; ultum is supine, a verbal noun denoting purpose when used in the accusative after verbs of motion.) mota propere castra, vastati agri, direptus (mota [sunt] … vastati [sunt] … direptus [est]: passive perfects: the auxiliaries slow down the action and are left implied.) longa pace in modum municipii extructus locus, (locus: the watering place is Vicus Aquensis, today’s Baden, NW of Zurich, just east of Windisch, the Roman Vindonissa.) amoeno salubrium aquarum usu frequens; missi ad Raetica auxilia nuntii ut versos in legionem Helvetios a tergo adgrederentur.