IX.
Superior exercitus (superior exercitus: i. e. the army of Germania superior, which had four legions) legatum Hordeonium Flaccum spernebat, senecta ac debilitate pedum invalidum, sine constantia, sine auctoritate: ne quieto quidem milite regimen; (ne quieto quidem milite regimen: ‘no control even with peaceable soldiers’; quieto …milite is abl. abs., ‘the soldiers being peaceable’.) adeo furentes infirmitate retinentis ultro accendebantur. (adeo furentes infirmitate retinentis ultro accendebantur: lit. ‘his so extremely unruly soldiers were further provoked by the debility of their restrainer’) inferioris Germaniae legiones diutius (diutius: ‘rather too long’ i.e. since the execution of Fonteius Capito; cf. ch. 7.) sine consulari (sine consulari: without a governor of consular rank, such as an ex-consul) fuere, donec missu Galbae (missu Galbae: ‘on assignment from Galba’; missu, from missus, –us, is always found in the abl. followed by gen.) A. Vitellius (A. Vitellius: cf. ch. 85 for a characterization of A. Vitellius.) aderat, (donec …aderat: only case in Tacitus of imperfect indicative with donec, even though the conj. occurs one hundred and thirty-eight times in his works.) censoris Vitellii ac ter consulis filius: id satis videbatur. in Britannico exercitu nihil irarum. (nihil irarum: lit. ‘nothing of ill tempers’; irarum is partitive gen. after the neuter nihil.) non sane (sane: ‘truly’, ‘by all means’) aliae legiones per omnis civilium bellorum motus innocentius egerunt, seu quia procul et Oceano divisae, seu crebris expeditionibus doctae hostem potius odisse. quies et Illyrico, quamquam excitae a Nerone legiones, dum in Italia cunctantur, Verginium legationibus adissent: sed longis spatiis discreti exercitus, quod saluberrimum est ad continendam militarem fidem, nec vitiis nec viribus miscebantur. (nec vitiis nec viribus miscebantur: ‘did not become united either in their forces or in their vices’.)