LXXIV.
At (at: marks here a change of subject, without adversative force.) Vespasianus bellum armaque et procul vel iuxta sitas viris (procul vel iuxta sitas viris: ‘the forces stationed near or far’; vel is for aut.) circumspectabat. miles ipsi adeo paratus ut praeeuntem (praeeuntem: refers to Vespasian, ‘setting the example as to …’.) sacramentum et fausta Vitellio omnia precantem per silentium audierint; (adeo …ut …audierint: the correlatives adeo …ut lead off the two parts of a consecutive sentence; audierint in the ut clause is perfect subjunctive for single action in the past.) Muciani (Muciani: cf. ch. 5.) animus nec Vespasiano alienus et in Titum pronior; praefectus Aegypti [T.] Alexander ([Ti.] Alexander: cf. Book 1, ch. 11.) consilia sociaverat; tertiam legionem, (tertiam legionem: transferred from Syria to Moesia at the end of 67 A.D.) quod e Syria in Moesiam transisset, (quod …transisset: subjunctive in quod clause in indir. discourse governed by numerabat) suam numerabat; ceterae Illyrici legiones secuturae sperabantur; (ceterae Illyrici legiones secuturae [esse] sperabantur: ‘the other Illyrian legions were counted on to follow’; example of personal construction: when an infinitive clause depends on the passive of certain verbs, its subject becomes the same as the subject of the passive verb, hence nominative. Compare with impersonal construction: ceteras Illyrici legiones secuturas [esse] sperabatur. Cf. G. 528.) namque omnis exercitus flammaverat adrogantia venientium a Vitellio militum, quod truces corpore, horridi sermone ceteros ut imparis inridebant. sed in tanta mole belli plerumque cunctatio; (plerumque cunctatio: ‘there is frequently hesitation’.) et Vespasianus modo in spem erectus, aliquando adversa reputabat: quis ille dies foret quo (quis ille dies foret quo …: ‘what day would that be in which …’; the question is in indir. speech (as is the rest of the chapter), in that Vespasian’s thoughts are being reported.) sexaginta aetatis annos et duos filios iuvenes bello permitteret? esse privatis cogitationibus progressum (esse privatis cogitationibus progressum: ‘[he reflected] that gradual advance was for private plans’; privatis cogitationibus is dative of possessor with esse and progressum, the subject, the thing possessed. The same construction applies to imperium cupientibus farther ahead.) et, prout velint, (prout velint: the subject is an impersonal ‘one’ or ‘they’: ‘to the extent one may like’; velint: subjunctive on two counts, first its sense is potential, secondly the dependent clause is within indir. discourse, as mentioned in previous note.) plus minusve sumi ex fortuna: imperium cupientibus nihil medium inter summa aut praecipitia.