L.
Ceterum (ceterum: ‘in any case’; see note for ceterum in ch. 35.) propinqua hieme (propinqua hieme: it was November, two weeks after the sack of Cremona.) et umentibus Pado campis expeditum agmen incedere. signa aquilaeque victricium legionum, milites vulneribus aut aetate graves, plerique etiam integri Veronae relicti: (signa aquilaeque … Veronae relict(ae): aquilae and signa are metonymy for legions and cohorts. Eagles and standards were inseparable from the units they represented, be it in the camp, on the march, or in battle. If they were left at Verona, it means that the main body of the legions also stayed behind and that only selected detachments (vexilla) left the camp.) sufficere cohortes alaeque et e legionibus lecti profligato iam bello videbantur. undecima legio (undecima legio: they came from their winter quarters in Dalmatia; cf. Book 2, 67. Unlike the legions of Pannonia and Moesia, the Eleventh legion had hesitated to cross over to Vespasian, hence their eagerness now to compensate for temporizing.) sese adiunxerat, initio cunctata, sed prosperis rebus anxia quod defuisset; (quod defuisset: causal quod is found with subjunctive when the reason given is not one assigned by the writer as a fact, but someone else’s feeling or opinion; compare with quod motas ex urbe praetorias cohortis audierant below.) sex milia Dalmatarum, recens dilectus, comitabantur; ducebat Pompeius Silvanus consularis: vis consiliorum penes Annium Bassum legionis legatum. is Silvanum socordem bello et dies rerum verbis terentem (socordem bello et dies rerum verbis terentem: ‘ineffective as field commander and wasting the time of action in mere talk’) specie obsequii (specie obsequii: ‘by a show of deference’) regebat ad omniaque quae agenda forent quieta cum industria aderat. (ad omniaque quae agenda forent … aderat: ‘was on hand for anything that had to be done’. Subjunctive forent in rel. clause of final sense) ad has copias e classicis Ravennatibus, legionariam militiam poscentibus, optimus quisque (optimus quisque: for idiomatic use of quisque with superlative cf. A.G. 313.) adsciti: classem Dalmatae (Dalmatae: the people of Dalmatia, the region along the Adriatic coast of modern Croatia.) supplevere. exercitus ducesque ad Fanum Fortunae (Fanum Fortunae: ‘the Temple of Fortune’, modern Fano on the Adriatic coast, between Pesaro and Ancona in the Marche region) iter sistunt, de summa rerum cunctantes, (de summa rerum cunctantes: ‘undecided about the overall plan of action’) quod motas ex urbe praetorias cohortis audierant et teneri praesidiis Appenninum rebantur; et ipsos (ipsos: refers to duces in preceding sentence.) in regione bello attrita inopia et seditiosae militum voces terrebant, clavarium (clavarium: soldiers had to pay, out of their salary, for the hob-nailed boots they used; these wore out faster during long marches.) (donativi nomen est) flagitantium. nec pecuniam aut frumentum providerant, et festinatio atque aviditas praepediebant, dum quae accipi poterant rapiuntur. (festinatio atque aviditas praepediebant, dum quae accipi poterant rapiuntur: festinatio and aviditas form endiadys, two closely related nouns in Latin, one noun and a modifier in English: ‘impatient rapacity made [their predicament] worse, as what was available was being plundered’; dum in this case has causal sense: cf. G. 570, N. 2.)