XXXVII.
Vbi sedato impetu metus rediit, centuriones cum epistulis ad civitates Galliarum misere, auxilia ac stipendia oraturos: (auxilia ac stipendia oraturos: later Latin writers use the future participle as an adjective in simple agreement with a noun (here centuriones) to express purpose. Cf. A.G. 499, 2.) ipsi, ut est vulgus sine rectore praeceps pavidum socors, adventante Civile raptis temere armis ac statim omissis, (adventante Civile raptis temere armis ac statim omissis: two ablatives absolute, each with its own subject) in fugam vertuntur. res adversae discordiam peperere, (peperere: ‘engendered’, from pario) iis qui e superiore exercitu erant (qui e superiore exercitu errant: i.e. from the army of Germania Superior, so called because it lay upstream od Germania Inferior further north near the mouth of the Rhine; it comprised western Switzerland, the French Jura and Alsace, and SW Germany. These troops belonged to the Fourth and Twenty-second legions mentioned below. Vocula himself was the head of the latter legion.) causam suam dissociantibus; Vitellii tamen imagines in castris et per proximas Belgarum civitates repositae, cum iam Vitellius occidisset. (cum iam Vitellius occidisset: Vitellius was killed on Dec. 20 or 21 of 69 A.D., so the facts related in this passage occurred in late December or a little later.) dein mutati in paenitentiam primani quartanique et duoetvicensimani Voculam sequuntur, apud quem resumpto Vespasiani sacramento ad liberandum Mogontiaci obsidium ducebantur. discesserant obsessores, mixtus ex Chattis Vsipis Mattiacis exercitus, (mixtus ex Chattis Vsipis Mattiacis exercitus: for the Chatti cf. note ch. 12; the Usipi lived east of the Rhine, south of Cologne and the Tencteri; the Mattiaci were settled in the district around Wiesbaden.) satietate praedae (satietate praedae: abl. of cause, ‘on account of the overabundance of loot’) nec incruenti: in via dispersos et nescios miles noster invaserat. quin et (quin et: ‘moreover’) loricam (loricam: a low wall or parapet, usually to supplement a main defense, such as a camp rampart) vallumque per finis suos Treviri (Treviri: cf. ch. 18.) struxere, magnisque in vicem cladibus cum Germanis certabant, donec egregia erga populum Romanum merita mox rebelles (mox rebelles: ‘soon rebels to be’) foedarent.