XX.
Tantumque belli superfuit ut praesidia cohortium alarum legionum uno die Civilis quadripertito invaserit, (tantumque belli superfuit ut … Civilis … invaserit: ‘so much of the war was left, that Civilis launched an assault on …’: tantum introduces the main clause of a consecutive sentence and ut the dependent clause. The subjunctive tense after ut is independent of the tense of the main clause, i.e. consecutive clauses do not follow the consecution temporum (sequence of tenses) and tense is based on sense. Here invaserit is for isolated event in the past. In ita …ut …traherent below, also a consecutive ut clause, the imperfect traherent is for past action cotemporaneous with that of the main clause. tantumque belli: partitive genitive after the neuter tantum) decimam legionem Arenaci, secundam Batavoduri et Grinnes Vadamque, (Arenaci … Batavoduri … Grinnes Vadamque: the first two are locatives, Grinnes and Vada are direct objects of invaserit. The identity of these four places has generated much speculation but no reliable conclusion. There seems to be some agreement that two of them were located north of the upper arm of the Rhine and two south of the Waal, Cerialis’ plan being directed at containing Civilis inside the insula Batavorum.) cohortium alarumque castra, ita divisis copiis ut ipse et Verax, sorore eius genitus, Classicusque ac Tutor suam quisque manum traherent, (suam quisque manum traherent: here, as often elsewhere in Tacitus, quisque is plural) nec omnia patrandi fiducia, sed multa ausis aliqua in parte fortunam adfore: (nec omnia patrandi fiducia, sed multa ausis aliqua in parte fortunam adfore: ‘not in the hope of accomplishing everything, but [thinking that] fortune was going in some place to stand up for them venturing much’. An implied verb of saying or thinking changes direct speech to oratio obliqua, which continues down to intercipi. multa ausis is abl. abs.: ‘having ventured much’; audeo is semi deponent and its perfect participle has active sense, as it does in English, multa being its direct object.) simul Cerialem neque satis cautum et pluribus nuntiis huc illuc cursantem posse medio (medio: abl. of place, ‘on the way’, ‘in the process’) intercipi. Quibus obvenerant castra decimanorum, obpugnationem legionis arduam rati (obpugnationem legionis arduam [esse] rati: ‘believing that taking on a legion would be hard, …’) egressum militem et caedendis materiis operatum turbavere, ([ei] quibus obvenerant castra decimanorum … egressum militem et caedendis materiis operatum turbavere: lit. ‘those to whom the camp of the Tenth legion had been assigned [as an objective] …surprised a body of soldiers having left the camp and being engaged in timber to be felled’; quibus is dat. with obvenio; caedendis materiis: dative of purpose, Tacitus’ preferred alternative to ad caedendas materias) occiso praefecto castrorum et quinque primoribus centurionum paucisque militibus: ceteri se munimentis defendere. Interim Germanorum manus Batavoduri interrumpere inchoatum pontem nitebantur: ambiguum proelium nox diremit.