XXX.
Ac rursus nova laborum facies: (nova laborum facies: ‘a new prospect of heavy labor’) ardua urbis moenia, saxeae turres, ferrati portarum obices, vibrans tela miles, frequens obstrictusque Vitellianis partibus Cremonensis populus, magna pars Italiae stato in eosdem dies mercatu congregata, (magna pars Italiae stato in eosdem dies mercatu congregata: magna pars Italiae is apposition of nova laborum facies, like all the othe itams on the list; in eosdem dies: ‘during those same days’: in relation to time, the accusative alone, in +accusative, and per + accusative, all express duration, the difference in meaning among the three being fairly minor.) quod (quod: lit. ‘which fact’) defensoribus auxilium ob multitudinem, obpugnantibus incitamentum ob praedam (incitamentum ob praedam: ‘an incentive by reason of [greater] plunder’) erat. rapi ignis Antonius inferrique amoenissimis extra urbem aedificiis iubet, (rapi …inferri … iubet: when there is no mention of the person(s) being commanded, the infinitive following iubeo is changed to passive. Compare Antonius rapi ignis iubet with Antonius milites ignis rapere iubet. See also cum Antonius inhiberi tela iussisset in next chapter.) si damno rerum suarum Cremonenses ad mutandam fidem traherentur. (si damno rerum suarum Cremonenses ad mutandam fidem traherentur: the function of si here is to introduce an indirect question with the English sense of ‘whether’ or ‘if’, not a conditional clause (actually, the conditional aspect is not absent, only obscured). Cf. A.G. 576, a. Note that traherentur follows the rule for historical or secondary tense sequence, even though the main verb, iubet, is present indicative. This is so because the present, when used in narratives for dramatic effect, may be considered a historical tense (cf. A.G. 482 and 485, e). More examples of historical presents are complet and deturbant below.) propinqua muris tecta et altitudinem moenium egressa fortissimo quoque militum complet; illi trabibus tegulisque et facibus propugnatores deturbant.