LXXVI.
Apud Germanos diversis sententiis certabatur. (diversis sententiis certabatur: lit. ‘it was being fought with conflicting arguments’; certabatur is impersonal use of passive. ) Civilis opperiendas Transrhenanorum gentis, quarum terrore fractae populi Romani vires obtererentur: (Civilis opperiendas [esse] Transrhenanorum gentis, quarum terrore … [Romani] obtererentur: the verb of saying is implied, as is often the case in Tacitus (cf. note for ad ea Cerialis Civili et Classico nihi in previous chapter): ‘Civilis [contended] that the arrival of the German peoples from the other side of the Rhine should be awaited, by whose formidable intervention the Romans would be crushed’. opperiendas [esse] is example of passive periphrastic conjugation to express necessity, obligation, propriety; obtererentur is subjunctive for rel. clause in indir. speech.) Gallos quid aliud quam praedam victoribus? et tamen, (et tamen: here ‘anyhow’, ‘anyway’ ) quod roboris sit, Belgas secum palam aut voto stare. (quod roboris sit, Belgas secum palam aut voto stare: ‘what strength there was [among thr Gauls], the Belgae, they stood with him either openly or in their wishes’. roboris is partitive gen. after the neuter quod’. sit is present subjunctive by repraesentatio, as are several other present subjunctives (and some indicatives) in the chapter. The reflexive secum refers to the main subject of the sentence, Civilis.) Tutor cunctatione crescere rem Romanam adfirmabat, coeuntibus undique exercitibus: (coeuntibus undique exercitibus: the complete list of legions rushing to the rescue is given in ch. 68. To review: the famed Fourteenth legion was coming from Britain; the First and the Sixth from Spain; the Eighth, Eleventh, Thirteenth, and Second from Italy. Of new forces Cerialis, at this time, had only available the Twenty-first from Vindonissa (ch. 70).) transvectam e Britannia legionem, accitas ex Hispania, adventare ex Italia; nec subitum militem, (subitum militem: ‘hastily raised troops’, also referred to as tumultuarius miles) sed veterem expertumque belli. nam Germanos, qui ab ipsis sperentur, (qui ab ipsis sperentur: ‘who are counted on by them themselves’, i.e. by Civilis and Tutor) non iuberi, non regi, sed cuncta ex libidine agere; pecuniamque ac dona, quis (quis: = quibus) solis corrumpantur, maiora apud Romanos, et neminem adeo in arma pronum ut non idem pretium quietis quam periculi malit. (adeo … ut non … malit: adeo and ut non introduce respectivey the main and the dependent clause of a negative consecutive sentence, the latter requiring subjunctive even if the clause were in direct speech.) quod si statim congrediantur, (quod si statim congrediantur: in the combination quod + si, quod means ‘and as for that’ and is translated as “but’, ‘whereas’, ‘therefore’, or not at all: cf. G. 610. R. 2.) nullas esse Ceriali nisi e reliquiis Germanici exercitus legiones, foederibus Galliarum obstrictas. (foederibus Galliarum obstrictas: ‘bound by oath to the federation of Gallic states’) idque ipsum quod inconditam nuper Valentini manum contra spem suam fuderint, alimentum illis ducique temeritatis: (idque ipsum quod inconditam nuper Valentini manum contra spem suam fuderint, alimentum illis ducique temeritatis: ‘and the very fact that, contrary to their own expectations, they recently dispersed the unruly forces of Valentinus, was for the Roman troops (illis) and their leader a stimulus of their temerity’; fuderint mirrors fuderunt of direct speech. The same applies to ubi …aspexerint below.) ausuros rursus venturosque in manus non imperiti adulescentuli, verba et contiones quam ferrum et arma meditantis, sed Civilis et Classici; quos ubi aspexerint, (quos ubi aspexerint: subjunctive for rel. clause in indir. speech) redituram in animos formidinem, fugam famemque ac totiens captis precariam vitam. (totiens captis precariam vitam: precarious refers to somrthing that must be begged of others, thus uncertain in that it depends on the goodwill of others; captis is dative of possessor: ‘the dubious life for soldiers taken so often captives’.) neque Treviros aut Lingonas benevolentia (benevolentia: a reference to the extraordinary mildness with which the Treveri and Lingones were treated by the Romans after their defeat (ch. 74).) contineri: resumpturos arma, ubi metus abscesserit. diremit consiliorum diversitatem adprobata Tutoris sententia Classicus, statimque exequuntur. (adprobata Tutoris sententia …, statimque exequuntur: a breach of the rule governing the total grammatical independence of the abl. abs. from the rest of the sentence: sententia, at least in regard to sense, is the implied direct object of the transitive ex(s)equuntur. Legitimate or not, the stylistic effect is one of speed and vigor.)