X.
In civitate discordi et ob crebras principum mutationes inter libertatem ac licentiam incerta parvae quoque res magnis motibus agebantur. (parvae quoque res magnis motibus agebantur: ‘even trivial events were attended with great disturbances’; the passive of agere can have the sense of ‘to come to pass’, ‘to occur’, ‘to go along with’, ‘to be accompanied by’ or ‘to be associated with’.) Vibius Crispus, (Vibius Crispus: a famous orator whose brother, Vivius Secundus, was banished from Rome by Nero for embezzlement while governor of Mauritania) pecunia potentia ingenio (pecunia potentia ingenio: ablatives of cause: the omission of conjunctions (not to mention commas) between the words makes this an asyndeton.) inter claros magis quam inter bonos, Annium Faustum equestris ordinis, qui temporibus Neronis delationes factitaverat, (delationes factitaverat: ‘had made denunciation his stock in trade’; factito is the frequentative form of facio.) ad cognitionem senatus vocabat; (Annium Faustum …ad cognitionem senatus vocabat: ‘called Annius Faustus to trial before the Senate’) nam recens Galbae principatu censuerant patres, ut accusatorum causae noscerentur. (censuerant patres, ut accusatorum causae noscerentur: ‘the Senate had decreed that cases involving informers would be admittet’; censeo is followed by a purpose object clause introduced by ut.) id senatus consultum varie iactatum (id senatus consultum varie iactatum: ‘this decree of the senate was tossed about unevenly’.) et, prout potens vel inops reus inciderat, (prout potens vel inops reus inciderat: ‘depending on whether the accused happened (had happened) to be rich or poor’; prout is comparative conjunction, found followed by indicative or subjunctive, according to sense.) infirmum aut validum, retinebat adhuc [aliquid] terroris. et propria vi Crispus incubuerat delatorem fratris sui pervertere, (et propria vi Crispus incubuerat delatorem fratris sui pervertere: ‘furthermore, Crispus had devoted himself with all his might to destroy the informer against his brother’; et: ‘also’; incumbere: usually followed by ut + subjunctive, here by infinitive; fratris sui: not eius, since sui refers to Crispus, the subject of the clause.) traxeratque magnam senatus partem, ut indefensum et inauditum dedi ad exitium postularent. contra apud alios nihil aeque reo proderat quam (nihil aeque reo proderat quam …: ‘nothing helped the accused to the same extent as …’) nimia potentia accusatoris: dari tempus, edi crimina, quamvis invisum ac nocentem more (more: ‘according to precedent’) tamen audiendum censebant. et valuere primo dilataque in paucos dies cognitio: (cognitio: ‘the trial’; cf. ad cognitionem above.) mox damnatus est Faustus, nequaquam eo adsensu civitatis quem pessimis moribus meruerat: (nequaquam eo adsensu civitatis quem pessimis moribus meruerat: ‘by no means with that approval of the people that Faustus had merited in the light of his abominable conduct’.) quippe ipsum Crispum easdem accusationes cum praemio exercuisse meminerant, (meminerant: memini is one of a group of defective verbs having only perfect-stem tenses: the pluperfect meminerant has the force of imperfect indicative, just as the perfect memini has present sense.) nec poena criminis sed ultor displicebat.