Ch. 12

Water Crisis

Illi¹ autem frumenti² quidem aliarumque omnium rerum intus habebant copiam, praeter aquam. aquae vero penuria eos affligebat : quia neque fons³ erat intra civitatem, et imbre⁴ contentis habitatoribus, rara⁵ est in illo tractu⁶ aestivis mensibus pluvia. quo tempore obsessi⁷ etiam hoc⁸ vehementius⁹ afficiebantur, quod arcendae¹⁰ siti fuerat excogitatum: quodque¹¹ fieri, velut¹² omnis aqua iam defecisset, aegre¹³ ferebant. Josephus enim cum et civitatem videret abundare aliis rebus fortesque¹⁴ animo viros esse, quo¹⁵ longiorem Romanis obsidionem faceret, quam sperabant, iam tum potum¹⁶ mensura civibus ministrabat. illis autem conservari¹⁷ aquam penuria gravius esse videbatur¹⁸: amplioremque cupiditatem movebat, quod ius¹⁹ bibendi liberum non haberent : ac velut ad extremam sitim perventum²⁰ esset, labori²¹ cedebant. Hoc²² autem modo affecti, Romanos latere²³ non poterant, qui²⁴ ex adverso colle trans murum in unum eos confluere locum, et aquae mensuram accipere prospectabant: quo²⁵ etiam balistarum²⁶ pervenientibus telis, plurimos occidebant.

Illi: this refers to the Jews besieged within Jotapata ↩
frumenti … rerum: connect these genitives with copiam later on ↩
fons: “fountain,” meaning a natural spring so that the city can have water. The only other option was to travel out of the city ↩
imbre ontentis habitatoribus: ablative absolute ↩
rara est: take pluvia as your subject later on ↩
tractu: take tractus, -us (m) as “region.” Rain is rare in the summer months in this region given the desert climate. ↩
obsessi: take this PPP as your subject, those having been besieged ↩
hoc: ablative of means, by this thing ↩
vehementius: the -ius makes this a comparative adjective, more severely ↩
arcendae siti: sitis, sitis (f) – thirst. The whole phrase is a gerundive, for the warding off of thirst ↩
quodque fieri: take this after the aegre ferebant later on, they were enduring badly what happened ↩
velut: as if ↩
aegre ferebant: fero can also be endure or bear, in addition to carry and bring ↩
fortesque animo viros: animo is ablative of respect ↩
quo….faceret: sigh, sometimes the quo can be taken as an ut, so take this as a purpose clause ↩
potum mensura….ministrabat: he was administering the drink by a ration, meaning allotting only a set portion to each person ↩
conservari: passive infinitive ↩
videbatur: video in the passive can also be “seem,” as we’ve seen a few times ↩
ius bibendi liberum: free right of drinking, with bibendi as a gerund ↩
perventum esset: an impersonal passive, literally “it has been reached,” but you can flip it around to be “they had reached” to make it active ↩
Labori: take this as hardship or struggle ↩
hoc modo affecti: take the affecti as your nominative subject, describing the Jews ↩
Latere: lateo, -ere means “to escape the notice of” and it takes an accusative of whose notice it escapes ↩
Qui…..Prospectabant: jump to the very end for your main verb, which starts off indirect statement. ↩
Quo: ablative of location, where ↩
Balistarum: a balista is a siege weapon designed to throw bolts or stones ↩