Germania and Agricola Part 31

_Animo vultuque_. Hendiadys: _he wore in his countenance an expression of heartfelt grief_.

_Securus odii_. Now, that A. was dead, Dom. had nothing to fear in regard to the _object of his hatred_, or the _gratification of his hate_.

_Odii_. Gen. of the respect.--_Qui--dissimularet_. _Qui==talis, ut_, hence the subj. H. 501, I.; Z. 558.

_Lecto testamento_. When A.'s _will was read_.

_Honore judicioque_. As if a mark of honor and esteem. E. says==judicio honorifico.--_Piissimae_, devoted, affectionate.

_Malum principem_. It was customary for rich men at Rome, who were anxious to secure any of their property to their heirs, to bequeath a part of their estates to _bad emperors_ in order to secure the remainder from their rapacity.

This and several preceding sections present a most graphic _outline_ of the _life and times_ of Dom., the more to be prized, because the full _picture_, which T. doubtless drew of him in the Histories, is lost. The Histories and the Annals are a vast portrait gallery full of such pictures drawn to the life.

XLIV. _Natus--excessit_. The dates a.s.signed for A.'s birth and death, do not agree with the age ascribed to him. They may be harmonized in either of two ways, each of which has its advocates: by reading _primum_ instead of _tertium_, or, which is perhaps a more probable amendment, since it only alters the relative position of the two characters, by reading LIV instead of LVI.

_Quod si_. And if, _now if_.--_Habitum_. _Personal appearance_, cf. G. 5.

_Decentior quam sublimior_. _Well proportioned, rather than tall_. R.

_Nihil metus_. _Nothing to inspire fear in his countenance_. Ant.i.th. to _gratia--supererat_: _kindness of expression rather prevailed_. So Gr. and R. For this sense of _metus_, see note G. 2: ob metum. Dod. distinguishes between _vultus_ and _oris_, making the former refer more to the _eyes_ (as if from _volvo_, the rolling of the eye), to which it belongs to express anger and fierceness; the latter to the mouth, which is more expressive of kindness.

_Medio--aetatis_. We should hardly say so of a man dying at 56. But in Dial. de Clar. Orat. T. speaks of 120 years, as _unius hominis aetas_.

_Et vera bona_. T. has here in mind the distinction made by philosophers, particularly the Stoics, between the virtues, which they called the only real good, and the gifts of fortune, which they declared to be indifferent.--_Et--et, both--and_, marks the distinction more strongly.

_Impleverat_. _Had enjoyed to the full_.

_Consulari_. _Having attained to the rank of consul_ (the summit of a Roman's ambition) _and having been honored with triumphal insignia_. Al.

consularibus. But _consulari_ has the better authority and makes the better sense.

_Opibus--contigerant_. _Great riches he did not desire; a respectable property it was his good fortune to possess_, cf. 5: medio rationis atque abundantiae. Al. non contigerant. But considerable property is implied in the circ.u.mstances attending his will, 43, also in his not asking the visual salary, 42. Dion Ca.s.s. says, however, (66, 20.), that A. spent his last days in want, as well as in disgrace. For another explanation of _gaudebat_, cf. n. G. 6.

_Quod--ominabatur_. _Quod_ is omitted in the common editions. But it is found in the MSS. And it may be explained on the principle of Zeugma, by supplying with _durare_ and _videre_ a verb implied in _grande solatium tulit_ thus: _though (sicuti) it would have been a great gratification to A. to behold the dawn of this auspicious age and see Trajan Emperor, of which he expressed in my hearing a sort of prophetic antic.i.p.ation and desire, yet (ita)_, etc. Ca.s.sius affirms (69, 12), that by auguries the elevation of Trajan to the throne was foretold, as early as A.U.C. 844, i.e. _two years before the death of A_. The reference to Trajan here, as in 3, marks clearly the date of the composition, cf. note, 3: augeatque Traja.n.u.s.

_Spiramenta_. _Breathing-spells_, i.e. intervals to recover and take breath in. The word is found only in poetry and post-Augustan prose, and, in the expressive sense in which it is here used, only in Ammian. Marc.

29, 1. See Or. and Freund.

_Velut uno ictu_. The commentators ill.u.s.trate the force of this expression by reference to Caligula's wish (Vid. Sen. de Va. 3, 19), that the Roman people had but one neck, ut scelera sua in _unum ictum_ et unum diem cogeret.

XLV. _Non vidit_. Did not see, as he would have done, had he lived a few years longer. This pa.s.sage resembles Cic. de Orat. 3, 2, 8, too closely to be mere coincidence. Imitator tamen, id quod uni Tacito contigit, auctore suo praestantior. Rit.

_Consularium_. Rhen. collects from Suet. the names of several victims of Dom.'s displeasure, _who had been consuls_.

_Feminarum_. Pliny has preserved the names of several of this list-- Gratilla, wife of Rusticus, Arria, wife of Thrasea, Fannia, daughter of Thrasea and betrothed to Helvidius. Their husbands will be remembered as having been mentioned in 1 and 2.

_Carus Metius_. An infamous informer, cf. Plin. Epist. 7, 19; Juv. 1, 35; Mart. 12, 25, 5.

_Censebatur_. _Was honored_, ironice. _Censeri_ est aestimari, sive existimationem consequi. Dr.

_Una--victoria_. He had occasioned the death of but one innocent victim.-- _Adhuc_. Up to the death of A., cf. G. 38: adhuc, note.

_Albanam arcem_. A favorite retreat of Dom. (situated at the foot of the Alban Mount, about seventeen miles from Rome), where he sometimes convened the Senate, and held his court with its troop of informers, cf.

note, 43: cursores. Rit. in loc. suggests, that by the use of _arcem_ instead of _palatium_, T. means to represent Domitian as shutting himself up, like many tyrants, in a fortified castle, and thence sending forth the emissaries of his jealousy and cruelty.

_Sententia. His voice_, his sentiment expressed in council before Dom.-- _Intra Albanam arcem_, i.e. _privately_, not _publicly_, as afterwards at Rome.

_Messalini_. Fuit inter principea adulatores et delatores. Dr. cf. Plin.

Epist. 4, 22; Juv. 4, 113, seq.

_Ma.s.sa Bebius_. Primus inter pares of Domitian's tools. He began his career under Vesp. cf. His. 4, 50. He was afterwards impeached and condemned at the instance of the Province of Baetica, Pliny and Senecio advocates for the impeachment, Plin. Epist 7, 33; 3, 4; 6, 29.--_Jam tum. At that very time_ on trial, not merely _already at that time_.

Cf. Hand's Tursel. 3, 113.

_Nostra_, sc. of the Senate, of which T. was a member, though abroad at the time. Helvidius was arrested _in the senate house_, cf. Plin.

Ep. 9, 13. This was Helvidius the _son_, who was put to death by Dom.

(Suet. 10), as his father was by Vesp. (Suet. 15).

_Visus_. Al. divisus. _Visus_==species, adspectus, Wr.--_Perfudit_.

Zeugma. Understand in the first clause _horrore perfudit_ (Dr.) or probro affecit (R.): _the spectacle of Mauricus and Rusticus_ (hurried away, the one to exile, the other to death), _filled us with horror; we were stained by the innocent blood of Senecio_. Of Rusticus and Senecio, see 2, note. Of Mauricus, see Plin. Ep. 4, 22: quo viro nihil firmius, nihil verius. Also Plin. Ep. 3, 11.

_Videre_, sc. Domitianum.--_Aspici_, sc. a Domitiano. For difference in the signification in these words, cf. 40: viso aspectoque, note.

_Suspiria--subscriberentur. When our sighs_ (of sympathy with the condemned) _were registered against us_ (by spies and informers, as a ground of accusation before the Emperor).

_Rubor_. Redness, referring to the complexion of Dom., which was such as to conceal a blush, cf. Suet. Dom. 18: vultu ruboris pleno.

_Opportunitate mortis_. An expression of Cic., in the similar pa.s.sage above cited (de Orat. 3, 2, 8), touching the death of Cra.s.sus.

_Pro virili portione_, lit. for one man's share, referring primarily to pecuniary a.s.sessments. Here: _for thy part--so far as thou wast concerned_. A. died with a calmness which would scarcely admit of the supposition, that he felt himself to be a victim of poison and imperial jealousy.

_Filiaque ejus_. The apostrophe is here dropped to be resumed at _optime parentum_. So the MSS. For they read _ejus_ here, and _amissus est_ below. Rhena.n.u.s omitted _ejus_, and wrote _es_ for _est_; and he has been followed in the common editions since.

_Conditione_. By the circ.u.mstance, or by virtue of our long absence. T.

and his wife had parted with A. four years before his death, and had been absent from Rome ever since, where or why does not appear.

_Superfuere_. Cf. _superest_, G. 6, note.

XLVI. _Sapientibus_. Cf. _sapientiae professoribus_, 2, note.--_Te immortalibus laudibus_. I feel constrained to recur to the reading of Lipsius and Ritter, it is so much more spirited than _quam temporalibus_.

_Potius_ manifestly should refer back to _lugeri_ and _plangi_. The comparison contained in the more common reading is uncalled for in the connection, and of little significance in itself. The MSS. read _temporalibus laudibus_ without _quam_ and this may be more easily resolved into _te immortalibus_, than _quam_ can be supplied.-- _Similitudine_. Al. aemulatione. For such a use of similitudo, cf. Cic.

Tusc. Quaest. 1, 46, 110: quorum (sc. Curii, Fabricii, Scipionum, etc.), _similitudinem_ aliquam qui arripuerit, etc.

_Decoremus_. Ennius (cited by Cic. Tusc. Q. 1, 49, 117, and de Senect.

20, 73), uses the same word in expressing the same sentiment: nemo me lacrumis _decoret_ nec funera fletu faxit. Cf. also G. 28.

_Formam_. This makes the sense so much better (than _famam_), that E. Dr.

Wr. R. and most others have adopted it against the authority of the MSS.

cf. _forma mentis_, below, and Cic. pa.s.sim.