IX.
… (…: some words appear to be missing in the original text at this point.) igitur repentino incursu Antonius stationes hostium inrupit; temptatisque levi proelio animis (temptatisque …animis: abl. abs. equivalent to a clause with postquam.) ex aequo discessum. (ex aequo discessum: discessum [est] is impersonal use of the passive of an intransitive verb, ‘it was parted from a position of equal advantage’.) mox Caecina, inter Hostiliam vicum Veronensium, et paludes Tartari fluminis (inter Hostiliam … et paludes Tartari fluminis: Hostilia, now Ostiglia, is on the left bank of the Po river, about 20 miles or 32 km. south of Verona; the marshy ground referred to is called Paludi di Osrtiglia, just north of the town, on the streamlet Tartaro.) castra permuniit, tutus loco, cum terga flumine, latera obiectu paludis tegerentur. (tutus loco, cum terga flumine, latera obiectu paludis tegerentur: ‘protected by the place, since his back was covered by the river and his flanks by the intervention of the marshes’; flumine: the river is probably the Po, rather than the paltry Tartaro; cum …tegerentur: cum is causal and as such requires subjunctive.) quod si adfuisset fides, aut opprimi universis Vitellianorum viribus duae legiones, nondum coniuncto Moesico exercitu, potuere, aut retro actae deserta Italia turpem fugam conscivissent. (quod si adfuisset fides, aut opprimi …duae legions …potuere, aut retro actae deserta Italia turpem fugam conscivissent: the sentence demonstrates that the verbs of the dependent and main clause(s) of a conditional sentence may not be in the seme tense or even mood: the protasis has plup. subjunctive, the first part of the apodosis perf. indicative, and the second part again plup. subjunctive; lit. ‘but if loyalty had been present, the two legions were likely to be crushed, or, driven back and Italy being abandoned, they would have inflicted on themselves an inglorious rout’; quod si adfuisset fides: quod followed by si is either ignored in translation or rendered by ‘and’ or ‘but’ or ‘now’ (cf, G. 610, R. 2.); opprimi …potuere: the perf. indicative in the apodosis when the condition is unreal implies the certainty of the outcome had the condition been observed. Cf. G. 254, 3; conscivissent: from conscisco, usually followed by sibi, ‘to inflict on oneself’.) sed Caecina per varias moras prima hostibus prodidit tempora (prima … tempora: ‘the first opportunities’) belli, dum quos armis pellere promptum erat, epistulis increpat, (dum quos armis pellere promptum erat …increpat: ‘while he upbraided those whom it was easy to expel by force of arms’; dum is regularly with present indicative.) donec per nuntios pacta perfidiae firmaret. (donec … pacta perfidiae firmaret: donec, with the sense of ‘until’, calls for subjunctive to denote expectation or design: ‘until he secured good terms for his perfidy’.) interim Aponius Saturninus (Aponius Saturninus: the governor of Moesia; see ch. 5.) cum legione septima Claudiana advenit. legioni tribunus Vipstanus Messala praeerat, claris maioribus, (claris maioribus: abl. of origin, ‘from famous ancestors’.) egregius ipse et qui solus ad id bellum artis bonas attulisset. (Vipstanus Messala … qui solus …attulisset: subjunctive in rel. clause of characteristic with solus qui; cf. G. 631, 1 and A.G. 535, b. Messala had replaced the legate Tettius Julianus, who had fled to Vespasian (Book 2, 85). He wrote a history of the war and was one of Tacitus’ sources, in fact the only source he mentions by name. See ch. 25 and 28 ahead. Messala also appears as one of the interlocutors in Tacitus’ Dialogus de Oratoribus.) has ad copias nequaquam Vitellianis paris (quippe tres adhuc legiones erant) misit epistulas Caecina, temeritatem victa arma tractantium incusans. (temeritatem victa arma tractantium incusans: lit. ‘blaming the temerity of them taking up arms [already] defeated’, i.e. the arms of the Othonians, to whose cause the Flavians had adhered (cf. Book 1, ch. 76) and whom Vitellius had beaten.) simul virtus Germanici exercitus laudibus attollebatur, Vitellii modica et vulgari mentione, nulla in Vespasianum contumelia: nihil prorsus (prorsus: adv., ‘all in all’) quod aut corrumperet hostem aut terreret. Flavianarum partium duces omissa prioris fortunae defensione pro Vespasiano magnifice, pro causa fidenter, de exercitu securi, in Vitellium ut inimici praesumpsere, (pro Vespasiano magnifice, pro causa fidenter, de exercitu securi, in Vitellium ut inimici praesumpsere: lit. ‘they proudly stood up for Vespasian, loyally [defended] his cause, confident in his army, and as inimical to Vitellius’; praesumpsere has the same sense as the English ‘to presume’ i.e. ‘to act and speak in a cocksure manner’, ‘to take for granted’) facta tribunis centurionibusque retinendi quae Vitellius indulsisset spe; (facta tribunis centurionibusque retinendi quae Vitellius indulsisset spe: facta …spe is abl abs.: ‘the hope having being offered to tribunes and centurions of conserving the favors that Vitellius had allowed’; quae Vitellius indulsisset: subjunctive for rel. clause in indir. speech introduced by facta spe) atque ipsum Caecinam non obscure ad transitionem hortabantur. recitatae pro contione epistulae addidere fiduciam, quod submisse Caecina, velut offendere Vespasianum timens, ipsorum duces contemptim tamquam insultantes Vitellio scripsissent. (quod submisse Caecina …duces contemptim … scripsissent: ‘because Caecina had written restrainedly, … their own leaders contemptuously’; the subject of scripsissent is both Caecina and duces; quod takes subjunctive whenever the reason given is based on opinion rather than fact.)