XIX.
Inumbrante vespera (inumbrante vespera: abl. abs rather than abl. of time, ‘the evening beginning to darken’) universum Flaviani exercitus robur advenit. utque cumulos super et recentia caede vestigia incessere, quasi debellatum foret, (quasi debellatum foret: ‘as if the war had been fought to a finish’, plup. subjunctive for condition contrary to fact in the past) pergere Cremonam et victos in deditionem accipere aut expugnare deposcunt. (pergere …accipere …expugnare deposcunt: the use of the infinitive after verbs of asking, in place of ut + subjunctive, is fairly common in poetry but rare in prose – until Tacitus; deposcunt is historical present, a rhetorical device often used by the author to bring past events closer to the reader, spernuntur and quatiunt further down in the chapter being other examples.) haec in medio, (in medio: ‘publicly’, ‘for all to hear’) pulchra dictu: (pulchra dictu: ‘fine things in the saying’; the abl. supine indicates in what respect a certain action is to be considered, thus is similar to abl. of respect or specification.) illa sibi quisque, (illa sibi quisque: ‘this is really what each man [thought] to himself, namely that …’; illa is emphatic. The implied verb of thinking introduces indirect discourse that ends with ad duces pertinere) posse coloniam plano sitam impetu capi. idem audaciae per tenebras inrumpentibus et maiorem rapiendi licentiam. (idem audaciae per tenebras inrumpentibus et maiorem rapiendi licentiam: ‘the men assaulting [the town] in the dark would have the same amount of pluck, but greater license to plunder’; inrumpentibus is dat. of possessor with an understood form of esse; idem audaciae: partitive gen. after certain neuter nouns and pronouns indicative of quantity, in this case idem. ) quod si lucem opperiantur, (quod si lucem opperiantur: ‘but if they they waited for daylight, …’ : subjuctive for conditional clause in indirect discourse; for quod si cf. note for quod si adfuisset fides in ch. 9. The use of present subjunctive in place of the imperf. opperirentur is either a case of repraesentatio (cf. G. 654 and N, and A.G. 585, b. and N.) or an indication that the implicit main verb of saying is historical present, which admits the primary or the secondary sequence of tenses. See A.G. 485, e. The same reasoning applies to rupturi imperium ni ducantur below.) iam pacem, iam preces, (iam … iam: ‘now …now’, ‘first …then’) et pro labore ac vulneribus clementiam et gloriam, inania, laturos, (pro labore ac vulneribus clementiam et gloriam, inania, laturos: ‘in exchange for all their toil and loss of blood they would carry off [only] acclaim for clemency and glory, things of no value’; inania is apposition of clementiam and gloriam.) sed opes Cremonensium in sinu praefectorum legatorumque (praefectorum legatorumque: legati are heads of legions; praefecti is a general term for officers commanding units of legionary or auxiliary troops.) fore. expugnatae urbis praedam ad militem, deditae ad duces pertinere. spernuntur centuriones tribunique, ac ne vox cuiusquam audiatur, (ne vox cuiusquam audiatur: negative purpose clause: ‘to prevent anyone’s words from being heard’) quatiunt arma, rupturi imperium ni ducantur. (rupturi imperium ni ducantur: ‘resolved on open revolt unless they were led [to Cremona]’; ni ducantur: present subjunctive for ideal or potential condition, yet to be tested and verified. Cf. G. 596 and above note for quod si lucem opperiantur.)