III.
Plurimi auctores consentiunt orta per Aegyptum tabe quae corpora foedaret, (orta per Aegyptum tabe quae corpora foedaret: abl. abs. with dependent rel. clause: ‘a contagion having arisen across Egypt that corrupted the body’, i.e. leprosy; foedaret: imperfect subjunctive in rel. clause of consecutive sense for consequence in the past.) regem Bocchorim (regem Bocchorim: king Bocchoris ruled Egypt in the eighth century B.C., about 763 – 720, but the Exodus of the Jews from Egypt, according to biblical scholarship, had occurred much earlier, between 1300 and 1500 B.C.) adito Hammonis oraculo (adito Hammonis oraculo: ‘the oracle of Ammon having been visited’; the oracle was located in the oasis of Siwah deep in the Libyan desert, but inside Egypt, 50 km. (30 miles) east of the modern border with Libya and about 270 km. (170 miles) from the Mediterranean coast.) remedium petentem (remedium petentem: use of pres. participle to express purpose; cf. A.G. 490, 3.) purgare regnum et id genus hominum ut invisum deis alias in terras avehere iussum. Sic conquisitum collectumque vulgus, postquam vastis locis relictum sit, (postquam vastis locis relictum sit: subjunctive after postquam in indir. discourse; the perf. subjunctive relictum sit for past action is governed by consentiunt, a primary verb of saying. Cf. A.G. 482 – 483. vastis locis: periphrasis for ‘desert’) ceteris per lacrimas torpentibus, (ceteris per lacrimas torpentibus: abl. abs.: ‘all the rest being numb with grief’; per lacrimas: ‘through weeping’) Moysen unum exulum monuisse ne quam deorum hominumve opem expectarent utrisque deserti, sed sibimet duce caelesti crederent, primo cuius auxilio praesentis miserias pepulissent. (Moysen … monuisse ne quam deorum hominumve opem expectarent utrisque deserti, sed sibimet duce caelesti crederent, primo cuius auxilio praesentis miserias pepulissent: the excerpt is still in indir. speech after consentiunt at the outset of the chapter: lit. ‘[authors agree] …that Moses had warned his people not to expect any help of gods or men, having been forsaken by both, but to place their trust in themselves, their heaven-sent guide being the first man by whose assistance they would have driven away their present miseries’. The perf. infinitive monuisse governs crederent, expectarent, and pepulissent in accordance with the sequence of tenses after a hist. verb of saying. The last of the three, pepulissent in the rel. clause, corresponds to the future perfect pepulerint of direct speech, which becomes plup. subjunctive by modal attraction. See G. 508, 4. and 629, A.G. 484, c. monuisse ne …expectarent: moneo is one of the verbs that require an object clause with ut or ne + subjunctive (complementary final clauses) to complete its meaning. See G. 546 for list of these verbs. utrisque deserti: utrisque is dat of agent after tenses of passive verbs that require use of perf. participle. Normally rare, but found rather frequently in Tacitus in place of a or ab + abl. sibimet …crederent: hortatory subjunctive or imperative in indir. speech. Direct speech: credatis or credite vobis; sibimet is indir. object of the intrans. credo and also dat. of interest or advantage, with the enclitic –met adding emphasis. duce caelesti …primo cuius auxilio …: abl. abs. with dependent rel. clause; primo is abl. of primus, not adverb, ‘the first man’. Moysen is the acc. of Moyses, just as Bocchorim above is acc. of Bocchoris.) Adsensere atque omnium ignari fortuitum iter incipiunt. (adsensere atque omnium ignari fortuitum iter incipiunt: ‘they agreed and began their uncertain wandering, knowing nothing of the land about them’; incipiunt is hist. present and so is aperit below. With adsensere speech becomes direct (Oratio Recta)) Sed nihil aeque quam inopia aquae fatigabat, iamque haud procul exitio totis campis procubuerant, cum grex asinorum agrestium e pastu in rupem nemore opacam (nemore opacam: ‘shaded by a grove’) concessit. Secutus Moyses coniectura herbidi soli largas aquarum venas aperit. (coniectura herbidi soli largas aquarum venas aperit: lit. ‘by the correct interpretation of the grassy soil he discovers channels of water’.) Id levamen; et continuum sex dierum iter emensi (sex dierum iter emensi: ‘having endured a march of six days’; dierum is partitive genitive after a numeral.) septimo pulsis cultoribus obtinuere terras, in quis urbs et templum dicata. (urbs et templum dicata: example of zeugma: dicata is said of both urbs and templum, but properly applies to templum alone; dicata is neuter plural in that both urbs and templum are things.)