XXII.
Profectus Novaesium Bonnamque (Novaesium Bonnamque: modern Neuss and Bonn; they hosted the camp of the Sisteenth and of the First legion respectively.) ad visenda castra, quae hiematuris legionibus (hiematuris legionibus: dative of purpose, lit. ‘for the legions going to overwinter’; example of use of active future participle as an adjective, a practice that became common with Livy and later writers. Cf. G. 438, Note.) erigebantur, navibus remeabat disiecto agmine, (disiecto agmine: agmine may refer to the ships not maintaining orderly formation, or to Cerialis’ escort on land not keeping pace with the ship or doing so in ragged order.) incuriosis vigiliis. Animadversum id Germanis (animadversum id Germanis: ‘this was noticed by the Germans’; Germanis is dative of agent found occasionally, especially in poetry, with the passive tenses of verbs that require use of past participle.) et insidias composuere: electa nox atra nubibus, (nox atra nubibus: nubibus is abl. of cause.) et prono amne rapti nullo prohibente vallum ineunt. (prono amne rapti nullo prohibente vallum ineunt: ‘carried swiftly forward by the rapid current, they penetrate the rampart, no one opposing them’ prono amne is abl. of agent, without a or ab when the agent is a thing. ineunt is hist. present, of which there several other examples in the chapter. Also, ineunt is here transitive and vallum is its direct object. vallum refers to the defensive ring the troops escorting the fleet, perhaps both on board and on land, built around their camp, close to the river bank, at the end of each day.) Prima caedes astu adiuta: incisis tabernaculorum funibus suismet tentoriis coopertos (suismet tentoriis coopertos: ‘buried by’ or ‘buried under their very own tents’; the possessive suis is used here, even though the Romans are not the subject, because it has the emphatic sense of ‘their very own’, a sense made more explicit by the enclitic –met.) trucidabant. Aliud agmen turbare classem, inicere vincla, (vincla: more poetic than funes; besides, funes is used in the preceding sentence.) trahere (turbare … inicere … trahere: infinitives of narration, also called historical infinitives) puppis; utque ad fallendum silentio, ita coepta caede, quo plus terroris adderent, cuncta clamoribus miscebant. (ut ad fallendum silentio, ita coepta caede, quo plus terroris adderent, cuncta clamoribus miscebant: comparative sentence + purpose clause with quo: lit. ‘just as [they used] silence to deceive, so, the butchery being started, they threw all into confusion with their shouting, to add more panic’. miscebant refers to both silentio and clamoribus, but properly applies only to clamoribus, an exemple of zeugma; silentio would be better served by a separate verb such as utebantur. quo replaces ut in a purpose clause when this contains a comparativre; terroris is partitive genitive after the neuter plus.) Romani vulneribus exciti quaerunt arma, ruunt per vias, pauci ornatu militari, plerique circum brachia torta veste (circum brachia torta veste: as a poor replacemrnt for their shields) et strictis mucronibus. Dux semisomnus ac prope intectus errore hostium servatur: namque praetoriam navem vexillo insignem, illic ducem rati, (illic ducem rati: ‘believing that Cerialis was on board’; illic = ‘on the ship’) abripiunt. Cerialis alibi noctem egerat, ut plerique credidere, ob stuprum Claudiae Sacratae (ob stuprum Claudiae Sacratae: lit. ‘on account of the lasciviousness of Claudia Sacrata’) mulieris Vbiae. Vigiles flagitium suum ducis dedecore excusabant, tamquam iussi silere ne quietem eius turbarent; (tamquam iussi silere ne quietem eius turbarent: conditional participle clause of comparison governing a negative purpose clause: tamquam has here causal force, as is often the case in Tacitus; cf. G. 602, Note 4.: ‘having allegedly been directed to keep silent in order not to disturb his sleep’ ) ita intermisso signo et vocibus (signo et vocibus: ‘the trumpet signals and the cries of sentinels’) se quoque in somnum lapsos. Multa luce revecti hostes captivis navibus, praetoriam triremem flumine Lupia (flumine Lupia: the Lippe river, a tributary from the east side of the Rhine, the junction being located just north of Wesel; flumine is either abl. of place or of instrument.) donum Veledae (Veledae: cf. Book 4, ch. 61.) traxere.