LXXXI.
Miscuerat se legatis Musonius Rufus (Musonius Rufus: famous stoic philosopher, he was exiled by two emperors, Nero and Vespasian, and recalled by two others, Galba and Titus. Not the savviest or most wordly individual, as may appear hereafter.) equestris ordinis, studium philosophiae et placita Stoicorum aemulatus; (placita Stoicorum aemulatus: ‘he zealously practiced the tenets of the Stoics.’) coeptabatque permixtus manipulis, (permixtus manipulis: ‘mingling with the soldiers’; permiscere takeas dative or abl. with or without cum; manipulis: manipulus, the Roman unit of infantry, stands for or refers to the common soldiers, as do the adjectives manipularis and manipularius.) bona pacis ac belli discrimina disserens, armatos monere. id plerisque ludibrio, pluribus taedio: (id plerisque ludibrio, pluribus taedio [erat]: lit. ‘to many this was for mockery, to most for a nuisance’; ludibrio and taedio are datives of destination.) nec deerant qui propellerent proculcarentque, ni admonitu modestissimi cuiusque et aliis minitantibus (aliis minitantibus: abl. abs.) omisisset (nec deerant qui propellerent proculcarentque, ni … omisisset: ‘some were about to thrust him to the ground and step on him, had he not stopped.’ propellerent and proculcarent are subjunctive in a clause of characteristic after nec deerant qui. ni …omisisset: plup. subjunctive for contrary-to-fact condition in the past.) intempestivam sapientiam. obviae fuere et virgines Vestales (obviae fuere et virgines Vestales: ‘the virgin Vestals also presented themselves.’ The Vestals, six in imperial times, were women of noble birth who tended to the cult of the goddess of the hearth, Vesta, and kept the sacred fire burning. They took vows of virginity for thirty years. et, when not the first word in a clause, has the force of etiam.) cum epistulis Vitellii ad Antonium scriptis: eximi supremo certamini unum diem postulabat: (eximi supremo certamini unum diem postulabat: ‘he asked that the final combat be deferred by a single day’) si moram interiecissent, facilius omnia conventura. (si moram interiecissent, facilius omnia conventura: conditional sentence of the potential or ideal type (future condition) in indir. discourse. Direct speech would be: si moram interieciveritis, facilius omnia convenient, lit. ‘if you will (or ‘would’) wait (or ‘will’ or ‘would have waited’), all will turn out more easily’: the future perfect (or perf. subjunctive) of the protasis becomes plup. subjunctive in indir. speech; the simple future of the apodosis becomes the active periphrastic form of future infinitive (conventura esse). Cf. G. 656-659, A.G. 589, B. 319-322.) virgines cum honore dimissae; Vitellio rescriptum Sabini caede et incendio Capitolii dirempta belli commercia. (Sabini caede et incendio Capitolii dirempta belli commercia: ‘that because of Sabinus’ murder and the burning of the Capitol all negotiations had been broken off between the warring parties.’)