XVII.
Aperuerat iam Italiam bellumque transmiserat, ut supra memoravimus, (ut supra memoravimus: in Book 1, ch. 70) ala Siliana, nullo apud quemquam Othonis favore, (nullo apud quemquam Othonis favore: ‘love of Otho being nil with anyone’) nec quia Vitellium mallent, sed longa pax ad omne servitium fregerat facilis occupantibus et melioribus incuriosos. (longa pax ad omne servitium fregerat facilis occupantibus et melioribus incuriosos: ‘a long peace had inured to all kinds of bondage people accommodating to invaders and indifferent to better masters [or causes]’) florentissimum Italiae latus, quantum inter Padum Alpisque camporum et urbium, armis Vitellii (namque et (namque et: et reinforces namque, ‘and in fact’) praemissae a Caecina cohortes advenerant) tenebatur. capta Pannoniorum cohors apud Cremonam; intercepti centum equites ac mille classici inter Placentiam Ticinumque. (Placentiam Ticinumque: modern Piacenza, SE of Milan and west of Cremona; Ticinum is Pavia, south of Milan on the Ticino river. Both Piacenza and Cremona are on the Po river and both were strategically important, in that the Via Postumia, the road spanning Northern Italy in an east-west direction, crossed the Po at Cremona and at Piacenza joined the Via Aemilia, the main road from there to Rimini on the Adriatic coast.) quo successu Vitellianus miles non iam flumine aut ripis arcebatur; (quo successu Vitellianus miles non iam flumine aut ripis arcebatur: ‘by which success the Vitellian troops were not kept from the [Po] river or its banks.’) inritabat quin etiam (quin etiam: emphatic: ‘nay, even …’; quin is here adverb, not conjunction.) Batavos transrhenanosque Padus ipse, quem repente contra Placentiam transgressi (contra Placentiam transgressi: to note that Piacenza is on the south side of the Po river.) raptis quibusdam exploratoribus ita ceteros terruere ut adesse omnem Caecinae exercitum trepidi ac falsi nuntiarent. (ita …terruere ut …trepidi ac falsi nuntiarent: consecutive sentence where the ita or main clause is with indicative and the ut or dependent or result clause with subjunctive. For consecutive sentences cf. G. 551-558, A.G. 536-538. ut …trepidi ac falsi nuntiarent: lit. ‘so panicky and mistaken that they announced …’.)