The annals of Tacitus

ON CHAPTERS 11, 12 69
7. inultam interfectoribus, ' was uBavenged on the murderers,'
'brought no punishment on the murderers.'
8. ferox scelerum, ' bold in crime.' Cf. c. 53 iicruicax irae,
c. 7 occuUus odii, i. 32 animi ferox, where perhaps nnimi is
locative. In Hist, i 35 we have linguae ferox.
prima prouenerant would be in Greek to. wpwra wpovxij^pvi^ev.
9. uolutare, historic infin. Cf. inscctari . . .exaf/itare (below).
With uolutare secum cf. Virg. Eel. ix 37 mecuvi ipse uoluto.
11. spargi uenenum, perhaps borrowed from Cic. Cat. ii 23
sicas uibrare et spargere uenena didicerant. This verb often has
the meaning ' distribute.'
12. fide et pudicitia, abl. of cause.
14. recentem Liuiae conscientiam, 'Livia's new and guilty
knowledge.' Augusta had always hated Agrippina and her family
whilst Livia's consciousness of her recent guilt made it impossible
for her to shrink from any suggestion that might be made for
realising the fruits of her crime [R.].
exagitare, ' work upon.'
15. ut...apud Caesarem arguerent, ' bidding them attack her
before the Emperor as....'
supertoam fecunditate, ' pluming herself on the number of her
children. ' On
Empire, c. 45) :
this Merivale writes brilliantly {Romans under the
' Like a true Eoman she exercised without fear
or shame the national licence of the tongue
—
ilia lingua Romana
(Tertullian)—and in a court where no whisper was not repeated
proclaimed aloud to every listener the wrongs of which she
deemed herself the victim. The fertility witli which her marriage
had been blest had been long a source of jealousy to the morbid
self-love of the empress-mother, which even in extreme age was
piqued by the maternal taunts of this Niobe of the Palace.'
16. inhiare dominationi. ' was setting her heart on sovereignty .'
Cf. Hor. Sat. i 1 71 congestis undique saccis inhians.
17. atque haec, ' and Livia (i.e. Livilla)....' So Ritter rightly
without doubt, taking haec as feminine sing. Cf. c. 3 atque ilia....
callidis criminatoribus, a Tacitean extension of tb p a>iT__of I
instr. to a personal agpnt.— 'by means of cunning slanderers.' 1
Ct. 11 79 corruptoribus temptare.
;