Ch. 8

Vespasian Digs In

Vespasianus autem et1 cum natura loci simul certandum2 putans, et1 cum audacia Judaeorum, incipere obsidionem acriter statuit3: advocatisque4 rectoribus sibi subditis, de aggressu deliberabat. Cumque aggerem5 fieri6 placuisset, qua7 parte murus facilis erat accessui, totum ad8 comparandam materiam misit exercitum : oppidoque9 propinquis montibus excisis, magnaque vi lignorum et lapidum comparata, cratibusque10 ad evitanda iacula desuper missa per vallos11 dispositis, his12 protecti aggerem construebant. nulla autem noxa , vel minima telorum erat, quae de muro iacerentur. His13 autem alii terram ex propinquis tumulis eruentes, sine intermissione suppeditabant: cunctisque14 trifariam distributis, nullus erat otiosus. At Judaei15 super16 eorum tegmina saxa ingentia et omne17 telorum genus curabant immittere, quae18 licet minime penetrarent, magnos tamen crepitus19 dabant, et horribile impedimentum erat operantibus20.

  1. et…et: both…..and…., even if these et’s are far apart, they still should be taken together ↩ ↩2

  2. certandum: since you’re in indirect statement after the putans, take this as certandum esse, since the esse often drops out in indirect statement. It must be contended, passive periphrastic (FPP + form of sum) ↩

  3. statuit: he decided ↩

  4. advocatisque rectoribus sibi subditis: ablative absolute meaning “With the subordinate leaders having been called to him,” with him referring to Vespasian ↩

  5. aggerem fieri placuisset: placeo, -ere is an impersonal verb, it had pleased [him, Vespasian] (that) the agger be made. The agger is the mud ramp wall thing that the Romans will use to bring the earth up level with the walls of Jotapata. ↩

  6. fieri: this is the infinitive of fio, here meaning be made ↩

  7. qua parte: in which part, ablative of location ↩

  8. ad comparandam materiam: ad + FPP is a gerundive of purpose, to gather wood ↩

  9. oppidoque propinquis …… dispositis: Chain of 3 massive ablative absolutes, talking about the Roman preparations in gathering materials and making their fortifications. ↩

  10. cratibusque: a cratis is a wicker shield, used to protect workers as they construct the siege engines ↩

  11. vallos: This refers to stakes in the ground used for defense by the Romans ↩

  12. his protecti aggerem construebants: refers back to the cratibus ↩

  13. his autem alii terram ex propinquis tumulis: take the his with the propinquis, from the hills nearby to them ↩

  14. cunctisque trifariam distributis: ablative absolute ↩

  15. At Judaei ….. curabant immittere: take the curabant immittere as your main verb, were taking care to throw/hurl ↩

  16. super eorum tegmina: upon their (the Romans’) coverings ↩

  17. omne telorum genus: all kind (genus) of weapons ↩

  18. quae licet minime penetrarent: licet + subjunctive will mean although ↩

  19. crepitus: 4th declension, so this is accusative plural ↩

  20. operantibus: take this as a substantive participle, where it stands as the noun the workers ↩

All material is taken, with gratitude, from The Latin Library as well as my own work, available under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license CC BY-SA 4.0