XCIII.
Sed miles, plenis castris et redundante multitudine, (plenis castris et redundante multitudine: abl. abs., ‘the camp being full and the mass of soldiers overflowing’; the camp in question is the praetorian camp outside the city wall in the NE sector of Rome.) in porticibus aut delubris et urbe tota vagus, (vagus: i.e., the soldiers camped out wherever they could find space.) non principia noscere, non servare vigilias neque labore firmari: (non principia noscere, non servare vigilias neque labore firmari: ‘they no longer knew roll calls, or did guard duty, or were strengthened by labor’. noscere, servare, firmari are hist. infinitives; principia is the open space within the camp near and around the praetorium, or command quarters, used for roll calls, general assemblies, parades, or the like; here metonymy for these activities.) per inlecebras urbis et inhonesta dictu (inhonesta dictu: abl. supine after certain adjectives: ‘things shameful in the mentioning’) corpus otio, animum libidinibus imminuebant. postremo ne salutis quidem cura (ne salutis quidem cura: ‘[there was] no regard even for their own health’.) infamibus Vaticani locis (infamibus Vaticani locis: a hill on the west bank of the Tiber, at that time surrounded by swamps and a hotbed for malaria) magna pars tetendit, unde crebrae in vulgus mortes; et adiacente Tiberi Germanorum Gallorumque obnoxia morbis corpora (obnoxia morbis corpora: ‘physiques vulnerable to diseases’) fluminis aviditas et aestus impatientia labefecit. insuper (insuper: adv., ‘in addition to all this’) confusus pravitate vel ambitu ordo militiae: sedecim praetoriae, quattuor urbanae cohortes scribebantur, quis singula milia inessent. (quis singula milia inessent: lit. ‘to which [cohorts] one thousand [men] each would have gone’; quis is dat. or abl. plural, in place of quibus; inessent is subjunctive in rel. clause of final force.) plus in eo dilectu Valens audebat, tamquam ipsum Caecinam periculo exemisset. (tamquam ipsum Caecinam periculo exemisset: in Tacitus tamquam is often found with the causal sense of quod or quia: ‘given that he himself had rescued Caecina from danger’.) sane adventu eius partes convaluerant, et sinistrum lenti itineris rumorem prospero proelio verterat. omnisque inferioris Germaniae miles Valentem adsectabatur, unde primum creditur Caecinae fides fluitasse. (unde primum creditur Caecinae fides fluitasse: example of personal construction with passive of verbs of saying or believing; compare with impers. construction: unde primum credunt Caecinae fidem fluitasse. Cf. A.G. 582.)