Ch. 33

A Deserter & Vespasian

Jotapatenis1 autem diu durantibus2 et praeter3 spem adversa tolerantibus, quadragesimo4 quidem ac septimo die Romanorum aggeres super murorum altitudinem sunt elati. quidam5 vero ad Vespasianum eodem die profugus venit, paucitatem civium et infirmitatem simul eorum enuncians: quodque diuturnis6 vigiliis, et praeliis assiduis consumpti, minime quidem ulterius vim ferre7 possent, verum8 dolo etiam caperentur, si quis9 instaret. circa10 extremam namque vigiliam, quando et malorum requiem habere viderentur, et maxime defatigatos custodes matutinus somnus occupat, dormire eos dicebat11, eademque12 hora invadendos esse suadebat. Vespasiano13 autem, quia fidem nosset inter se Judaeorum, quantaque14 superbia poenas contemnerent, transfuga suspectus erat: nam et antea quidam ex Jotapata captus, omne15 tormentorum genus fortiter pertulit, et cum ne16 flammis quidem coactus, quid17 intus ageretur, hostibus exquirentibus prodidisset, mortem deridens cruci18 suffixus est. Fidem19 tamen proditori coniectura faciebat, fortasse illum vera dicere: ipse20 autem nihil ex21 eius fallacia magnum sibi existimans esse metuendum, asservari hominem iussit, et ad22 occupandam civitatem parabat exercitum.

  1. Jotapatenis: The people of Jotapata ↩

  2. Jotapatenis…tolerantibus: take both of these phrases as an ablative absolute ↩

  3. praeter: this usually means except, but take it as beyond here ↩

  4. quadragesimo…septimo die: the siege lasts a total of 47 days ↩

  5. quidam…venit: remember to match up those “pack on” pronouns, taking quidam goes with profugus and eodem with die ↩

  6. diuturnis vigiliis, et praeliis assiduis consumpti: take the nominative PPP consumpti as describing your subject, they, the Jews, and then the rest as ablatives of means ↩

  7. ferre: fero, ferre can be bear as in bring, but also as in endure, which is what you want here ↩

  8. verum: identical to the vero that we’ve seen a lot, but ↩

  9. si quis instaret: after si, nisi, num, and ne, all the ali’s fly away! ↩

  10. circa…vigiliam: this would have been around 5-6 AM, just before sunrise ↩

  11. dicebat: the deserter is still the subject of this verb ↩

  12. eademque… suadebat: an FPP+form of sum is called the passive periphrastic, meaning they must be invaded. Also within indirect statement ↩

  13. Vespasiano autem…suspectus erat: Vespasian is skeptical of the deserter as Jews are known to be very loyal to one another. Vespasiano is dative and connects to suspectus erat ↩

  14. quantaque superbia: by how much arrogance, ablative ↩

  15. omne…pertulit: this anecdote about a Jewish man, who will not reveal any information about the Jews despite being tortured, reinforces the idea of the loyalty of the Jews ↩

  16. ne flammis quidem: ne…..quidem is not even, and it emphasizes the word in the middle. This is a good stock phrase to commit to memory ↩

  17. quid intus ageretur: take this as the object of prodidisset. The subjunctive verb ageretur is there since this is an indirect question, what was going on within (the city) ↩

  18. cruci sufixus est: Romans crucified rebels, criminals, and enemies of the state such as this Jewish man ↩

  19. ex eius fallacia: from his deceit ↩

  20. fidem…faciebat: take coniectura as conjecture, or reasoning. This was making Vespasian trust the word of the deserter ↩

  21. ipse …. existimans esse metuendum: Indirect Statement with esse metuendum as another passive periphrasitc (FPP+sum) ↩

  22. ad occupandam civitatem: gerundive of purpose (ad + FPP) ↩

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