XXXIII.
Quadraginta armatorum milia inrupere, calonum lixarumque amplior numerus et in libidinem ac saevitiam corruptior. non dignitas, non aetas protegebat quo minus stupra caedibus, caedes stupris miscerentur. (non dignitas, non aetas protegebat quo minus stupra caedibus, caedes stupris miscerentur: quominus or quo minus + subjunctive is used instead of ne to introduce a negative final clause dependent on a negative main clause: lit. ‘neither rank nor age prevented that thereby the less rapes were mixed with murders and murders with rapes’; caedibus and stupris are datives with the verb miscere. ) grandaevos senes, exacta aetate feminas, vilis ad praedam, (vilis ad praedam: ‘worthless for the purpose of’ or ‘with a view to gain’) in ludibrium trahebant: ubi adulta virgo aut quis forma conspicuus incidisset, (ubi adulta virgo aut quis forma conspicuus incidisset: ‘whenever a young woman or some fellow conspicuous for his looks fell in their path, …’; ubi …incidisset: as to tense, ubi is followed by pluperfect for repeated action in the past; as to mood, indicative is the norm when the action of the ubi clause is completed before the time of the main clause. Cf. G. 563, 1 and ubi praedam egesserant below. The subjunctive is used, as in this case, when the action of the ubi clause and that of the main clause are concomitant, i.e. when one action leads to the other. quis is a weaker form of aliquis. ) vi manibusque rapientium divulsus (vi manibusque rapientium divulsus: vi manibusque is endiadys: two nouns of similar meaning in Latin, one noun and a modifier in English. divulsus agrees in gender with the nearest subject (quis), though it applies to both virgo and quis.) ipsos postremo direptores in mutuam perniciem agebat. (ipsos postremo direptores in mutuam perniciem agebat: the subject of agebat is either kind of victim, man or woman: ‘and in the end he or she drove his or her molesters to mutual destruction’. ) dum pecuniam vel gravia auro templorum dona sibi quisque trahunt, (dum … dona sibi quisque trahunt: though the time referred to is past, dum, ‘while’, is normally found with pres. indicative; sibi quisque trahunt: ‘they carry off, each for himself’; quisque is post-positive with the reflexive sui, sibi, se, suus and other pronouns or pronominal adjectives (see aliud cuique fas below). It is also plural in reference to groups; sibi is dat. of interest.) maiore aliorum vi truncabantur. quidam obvia aspernati verberibus tormentisque dominorum abdita scrutari, defossa eruere: (quidam obvia aspernati … abdita scrutari, defossa eruere: ‘some of them, ignoring what was in front of them, searched high and low or dug for hidden loot’; obvia aspernati: the perf. participle of a deponent verb has active meaning, ‘ignoring’ or, more precisely, ‘having ignored’; aspernor is also transitive and can accept a direct object, here obvia; scrutari and eruere are hist. infinitives.) faces in manibus, quas, ubi praedam egesserant, in vacuas domos et inania templa per lasciviam iaculabantur; utque exercitu vario linguis moribus, cui cives socii externi interessent, (cui cives socii externi interessent: subjunctive in rel. clause of characteristics; cf. A.G. 534 and 535. The omission of conjunctions in cives socii externi is a case of asyndeton. Its purpose is usually to promote a racier narrative.) diversae cupidines et aliud cuique fas (aliud cuique fas: ‘different set of morals for each one’; see note for quisque above.) nec quicquam inlicitum. per quadriduum Cremona suffecit. (per quadriduum Cremona suffecit: Cremona is spoken of as a woman forced to submit to countless ravishers.) cum omnia sacra profanaque in igne considerent, (cum omnia …considerent: cf. note on temporal cum in ch. 31.) solum Mefitis (Mefitis: the goddess guarding against malaria, a serious problem in the Po plain until recent times) templum stetit ante moenia, loco seu numine defensum.