XXIII.
Sustinuit labentem aciem Antonius accitis praetorianis. qui ubi excepere pugnam, pellunt hostem, dein pelluntur. namque Vitelliani tormenta in aggerem viae contulerant ut tela vacuo atque aperto excuterentur, (ut tela vacuo atque aperto excuterentur: ‘that their missiles might be hurled from a free and open area’) dispersa primo et arbustis sine hostium noxa inlisa. (dispersa primo et arbustis sine hostium noxa inlisa: dispersa and inlisa relate to tela in previous line: ‘ their shots being at first haphazard and dashed against the trees without injury of the enemy’; arbustis is dative with the verb inlido.) magnitudine eximia (magnitudine eximia: abl. of quality) quintae decimae legionis ballista ingentibus saxis hostilem aciem proruebat. lateque cladem intulisset ni duo milites praeclarum facinus ausi, arreptis e strage scutis ignorati, vincla ac libramenta tormentorum abscidissent. (lateque cladem intulisset ni duo milites praeclarum facinus ausi, arreptis e strage scutis ignorati, vincla ac libramenta tormentorum abscidissent: conditional sentence with plup. subjunctive in both protasis and apodosis for condition contrary to fact in the past: ‘…and it would have have inflicted heavy losses over a wide range had not two soldiers, having dared a most remarkable deed and passing unnoticed because of shields snatched from the [enemy] fallen, cut the ropes of the engines’; vincla ac libramenta: vincla may refer to the cordage required to keep the ballista steady during shooting; libramenta are the ropes that provide the force necessary to hurl the stones. It has been suggested that the two nouns may form hendiadys, something like ‘tensional ropes’. facinus ausi: ausi, bing deponent, has both active and transitive meaning, like the English active perf. participle ‘having dared’, and facinus is its direct object. ) statim confossi sunt eoque intercidere nomina: de facto haud ambigitur. (eoque intercidere nomina: de facto haud ambigitur: ‘and for that reason their names were lost: about the deed there can be no doubt’; haud ambigitur is impersonal use of passive, ‘it is not doubted’) neutro inclinaverat fortuna donec adulta nocte (adulta nocte: abl. abs., ‘the night being mature’, i. e. ‘well along in time’) luna surgens ostenderet acies falleretque. (donec … luna surgens ostenderet acies falleretque: ‘until the rising moon revealed the battling armies and misled them’; the use of donec with subjunctive suggests expectancy of an event, here the rising of the moon; if donec were followed by perf. indicative, that would imply that the event is factual rather than prospective.) sed Flavianis aequior (aequior: refers to luna, ‘more favorable’) a tergo; hinc (hinc: ‘hence’, ‘therefore’) maiores equorum virorumque umbrae, et falso, ut in corpora, ictu tela hostium citra cadebant: (et falso, ut in corpora, ictu tela hostium citra cadebant: ‘the enemy’s missiles fell short, the thrust being wrong, as if [directed] against actual bodies’. falso …ictu is either abl. of cause or abl. abs.) Vitelliani adverso lumine conlucentes velut ex occulto iaculantibus incauti offerebantur. (incauti offerebantur: offerebantur is reflexive rather than passive, ‘they offered themselves unsuspecting[ly]’.)