The annals of Tacitus

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56 NOTES
7. potentia, undue influence; sometimes real power (c. 4, 41).
supra memoraui. N. refers to i 24, 69, iii 29, 35, 72.
8. quo faclnore, i.e. the murder of Drusus.
raptum ierit, ' set out to seize.' Cf. c. 66 perditum ire, c. 73
ultum ire. Notice also the frequent Silver Age use of the perf.
Bubj. as an aorist.
9. Vulsiniis. The modern name of Vulsinii is Bolsena.
Juvenal calls Sejanus Tuscus in x 74.
Seio Strabone equite Romano. Kamsay has a useful note :
'Velleius calls Sejanus princeps equestris ordinis (ii 127), and
ascribes to him consular brothers, cousins, and uncles. Thus
Sejanus was by no means the upstart that Tacitus would make
him out to be. His position was not unlike that of Maecenas,
very different from that of freedmen favourites of later emperors.'
10. Gaium Caesarem, adopted in 17 b.c, when he was two
years old.
11. diui Augusti, often overdone in translation. ' The
Emperor Augustus' is sufficient.
sectatus, ' having attached himself to.'
mox, ' subsequently,' its usual meaning.
12. obscurum aduersum alios, ' reserved towards others.'
14. isdem artibus, i.e. sollertia ' cunning.' ' Sejanus, how-
ever wily, was at last no match for the superior wiliness of
Tiberius. He was hoist with his own petard' [P.F.].
15. cuius... uiguit ceciditque, 'on which he brought disaster
alike in his power and in his fall.'
pari exitio, sociative,—lit. 'with equal ruin to which....' Cf.
c. 30 publico exitio repertum.
16. laborum tolerans...sui obtegens. Many present par-
ticiples take the genitive, especially in Tacitus. In this passage
he is evidently thinking of Sallust Catiline 5 corpus patiens inediae
uigiliae algoris, supra quam cuiquam credihile est ; animus audax....
17. iuxta,
' side by side.'
18. compositus, either (1)
' quiet ' (as in line 2) ; or (2)
'assumed,' the common Tacitean meaning of the word. Perhaps
N. is right in thinking that the sense of artificiality is sufficiently
given by the contrast between palam and i7ittis.
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