XXXIV.
Nihil eorum Vitellianos fallebat, crebris, ut in civili bello, transfugiis; et exploratores cura diversa sciscitandi (cura diversa sciscitandi: ‘in their eagerness of eliciting the secrets of the opposing side’; genitive gerund is used after nouns that require a genitive as complement. Note that genitive gerund can admit a direct object, as shown here.) sua non occultabant. quieti intentique Caecina ac Valens, quando hostis imprudentia rueret, (quando hostis imprudentia rueret: quando, here a temporal conjunction like ut or ubi, is found with subjunctive when it has the iterative sense of ‘whenever’; cf. G. 567, N.) quod loco sapientiae est, alienam stultitiam opperiebantur, inchoato ponte transitum Padi simulantes adversus obpositam gladiatorum manum, ac ne ipsorum miles segne otium tereret. naves pari inter se spatio, validis utrimque trabibus conexae, adversum in flumen dirigebantur, iactis super (super: = insuper, adv., ‘in addition’ ) ancoris quae firmitatem pontis continerent, sed ancorarum funes non extenti fluitabant, (ancorarum funes non extenti fluitabant: ‘the ropes hung loose, not being drawn taut’.) ut augescente flumine (augescente flumine: abl. abs. of conditional sense, ‘should the water level rise’) inoffensus ordo navium attolleretur. (ut …inoffensus ordo navium attolleretur: ‘so that the disposition of the ships woud be lifted underanged’) claudebat pontem imposita turris et in extremam navem educta, unde tormentis ac machinis hostes propulsarentur. (unde tormentis ac machinis hostes propulsarentur: relative clause equivalent to a ut purpose clause; the rel. adv. unde = ex qua [turri]) Othoniani in ripa turrim struxerant saxaque et faces iaculabantur.