LXXXII.
Altior inde Vespasiano cupido adeundi sacram sedem ut super rebus imperii consuleret: (altior inde Vespasiano cupido adeundi sacram sedem ut super rebus imperii consuleret: ‘Vespasian had a growing desire to visit the sacred temple [of Serapis] to seek counsel in regard to his imperial aspirations’. altior …cupido: for comparatives without a second term of comparison, cf. note for levior viliorque at the end of ch. 80. cupido adeundi sacram sedem: adeundi is objective genitive gerund after a noun; unlike dat. and acc. gerund, it admits a direct object, here sacram sedem. The verb adeo is made transitive by prefixing ad to the intrans. eo; super rebus imperii is in place of de rebus imperii.) arceri templo cunctos iubet. atque ingressus intentusque numini (intentus numini: ‘his thoughts wholly given to the god’) respexit pone tergum (pone tergum: ‘behind his back’; the prep. pone, like penes, takes acc.) e primoribus Aegyptiorum nomine Basiliden, quem procul Alexandria plurium dierum itinere et aegro corpore detineri haud ignorabat. percontatur sacerdotes num illo die Basilides templum inisset, percontatur obvios num in urbe visus sit; (percontatur … num … inisset, percontatur … num … visus sit: the particle num introduces two indirect questions with the verb in the subjunctive governed by the sequence of tenses. In the first question the hist. present percontatur functions as a secondary verb of saying that requires plup. subjunctive in the dependent clause for anterior action; in the second clause the same main verb is seen as primary, thus requiring perf. subjunctive for action also in the past. Tacitus always strives for variety of style to liven up the narrative. For sequence of tenses and use of hist. present cf. G. 509 – 510.) denique missis equitibus explorat (explorat: with the sense of ‘he ascertains’) illo temporis momento (illo temporis momento: ‘in that moment of time’: illo has the heightened sense of ‘that special …’, ‘that famous …’; cf. A.G. 297, b.) octoginta milibus passuum afuisse: tunc divinam speciem et vim responsi ex nomine Basilidis interpretatus est. (tunc divinam speciem et vim responsi ex nomine Basilidis interpretatus est: ‘then he understood the divine apparition and the sense of the oracle from Basilides’ name’; in other words, he understood that the man he saw in the temple was the god himself in human form and, since the form was Basilides’, that he was fated to become king, from the Greek word basileus meaning ‘king’.)