LII.
Antonio ducibusque partium praemitti equites omnemque Vmbriam explorari placuit, (Antonio ducibusque … placuit: used impersonally, placeo requires dat. of the person: ‘it seemed best to Antonius and to his officers’.) si qua Appennini iuga clementius adirentur: (si qua Appennini iuga clementius adirentur: ‘if anywhere the summits of the Apennines might be reached more easily’; si …adirentur: subjunctive for conditional clause in indir. discourse after placuit; the same applies to to the rel. clause quidquid …foret next. qua is indefinite adverb.) acciri aquilas signaque et quidquid Veronae militum foret, (quidquid Veronae militum foret: quidquid militum: partitive gen. after the neuter quidquid, ‘whatever of troops’; Veronae is locative.) Padumque et mare commeatibus compleri. (praemitti … explorari … acciri … compleri: the use of passive infinitives, subjects of placuit, expresses the notion of command more forcefully than active infinitives; placuit is here a substitute for the corresponding form of iubeo, a verb that also relies frequently on the use of passive infinitive.) erant inter duces qui necterent moras: (erant inter duces qui necterent moras: erant …qui introduces a rel. clause of characteristic requiring subjunctive.) quippe nimius (nimius: ‘too great a man’) iam Antonius, et certiora ex Muciano sperabantur. namque Mucianus tam celeri victoria anxius et, ni praesens urbe potiretur, expertem se belli gloriaeque ratus, (ni praesens urbe potiretur, expertem se belli gloriaeque ratus: ‘being convinced that he would have no share of the glory of the war, unless he captured Rome in person’. ni (nisi) always introduces a negative condition; expers is followed by gen. or abl. ) ad Primum et Varum media scriptitabat, (ad Primum et Varum media scriptitabat: ‘he kept writing equivocal messages to Primus and Varus’; scriptitare is the frequentative form of scribere.) instandum coeptis aut rursus (aut rursus: ‘or in turn …’) cunctandi utilitates disserens atque ita compositus ut ex eventu rerum adversa abnueret vel prospera agnosceret. (ita compositus ut ex eventu rerum adversa abnueret vel prospera agnosceret: ‘choosing his words in such a manner that, according to the outcome of things, he might deny responsibility for setbacks or claim credit for successes’. The correlatives ita …ut head the main and dependent clause of a consecutive sentence. ita compositus ut …: compositus is adjective, ‘so studied in his writing that …’.) Plotium Grypum, nuper a Vespasiano in senatorium ordinem adscitum ac legioni praepositum, ceterosque sibi fidos apertius monuit, hique omnes de festinatione Primi ac Vari sinistre et Muciano volentia rescripsere. (et Muciano volentia rescripsere: ‘and [in so doing] they wrote back to Mucianus the things he wanted them to say’; volentia: neut. plur. of volens, ‘things in accordance with his wishes’) quibus epistulis Vespasiano missis effecerat ut non pro spe Antonii consilia factaque eius aestimarentur. (effecerat ut non … aestimarentur: facio and its compounds have as their object a consecutive clause with ut (substantive clause of result). Cf. A.G. 567, 568. The use of ut non in place of ne indicates that the dependent clause is one of result, not of purpose.)