XXXV.
Ceterum (ceterum: ‘in any case’: as noted on earlier occasions, Tacitus frequently uses ceterum as a bridge to a change of direction or pace in the narrative. Translators tend to pass over ceterum, since English is less sensitive to the need of connective adverbs than Latin.) adsidere sepultae urbis ruinis noxia tabo humus haud diu permisit. (adsidere … ruinis noxia tabo humus haud diu permisit: ‘the infectious soil hardly permitted to remain among the ruins owing to the putrid gore’.) ad tertium lapidem progressi vagos paventisque Vitellianos, sua quemque apud signa, componunt; (sua quemque apud signa componunt: ‘they place each [of the enemy soldiers] back to his unit’; sua: when the meaning of suus is emphatic (‘his own’, ‘their own’), especially with quisque, the possessive adj. is used in preference to the determinative eius, eorum, even if suus does not refer to the subject of the clause. Cf. B. 244, II, 4. For use of quisque with the reflexive suus cf. note for dum … dona sibi quisque trahunt in ch. 33. componunt is Hist. present.) et victae legiones, ne manente adhuc civili bello ambigue agerent, (ne … agerent: negative purpose clause) per Illyricum (Illyricum: Roman province along the east coast of the Adriatic sea; its territory was approximately the same as that of former Yugoslavia.) dispersae. in Britanniam inde et Hispanias nuntios famamque, in Galliam Iulium Calenum tribunum, in Germaniam Alpinium Montanum praefectum cohortis, quod hic Trevir, Calenus Aeduus, (Trevir, …Aeduus: the Treveri were settled in the Moselle region, around what is today the city of Trier in western Germany, just east of Luxenbourg. The Aedui were between the Saone and the Loire in the eastern part of France.) uterque Vitelliani fuerant, ostentui (ostentui: dat. of purpose: ‘as evidence [of the Flavian success]’) misere. (nuntios famamque … misere: ‘they sent messengers and the news’.) simul transitus Alpium praesidiis occupati, suspecta Germania, tamquam in auxilium Vitellii accingeretur. (suspecta Germania, tamquam in auxilium Vitellii accingeretur: abl. abs. with dependent tamquam clause: ‘Germany being suspected, as if it were preparing itself for the rescue of Vitellius’; accingeretur is reflexive rather than passive.)