Tacitus, Annals, 15.20­-23, 33­-45. Latin Text, Study Aids with Vocabulary, and Commentary, 2013a

especially arresting. (Note that as gloss on Greek amachos (‘unconquerable’)
invictus means ‘invinc-ible’, so it only appears to match the past participle
obstinata.) Thrasea invokes a mindset so firm of purpose that no attempt
to curry favour has any effect. (iii) He twists standard Latin word order
out of shape: usually, adjectives in attributive position indicating degree
(such as obstinata) come before the noun they modify, whereas adjectives
in predicative position (as is the case with invictus here) come after the
noun they modify. Overall, the expression evokes the moral discourse
of republican Rome and, more specifically, Sallustian idiom: see Bellum
Iugurthinum 43.5 (...quod adversum divitias invictum animum gerebat), cited in
full above at 20.3.
21.4
aequabilius atque constantius provinciae regentur. nam ut metu
inde initia magistratuum nostrorum meliora erme et inis i
The word inde (‘in consequence’) continues Thrasea’s claim that certain
excellent qualities (virtutes) such as a strict resolve and a mind steeled
against attempts at ingratiation are liable to incur hatred. The line of
reasoning here seems to be as follows: the majority (cf. ferme) of Roman
magistrates approach their term in office with sound ethics but a feeble
disposition; they start out governing with obstinata severitas and rejecting
anyone trying to curry favour (hence initia ... meliora) – only to encounter
resistance or hatred; unable to endure being the source and target of
negative emotions, they let themselves be corrupted towards the end.
The ellipsis of a verb in the first half (literally, ‘the beginnings of our
magistracies [sc. are] generally better’) seems to enact the sense of the early
promise quickly slipping away; it also reinforces the antithesis between
initia and finis. For someone as reluctant to waste time on connectives
as Thrasea, his use of et, which oddly correlates a verb omitted (sunt)
with the one main verb in the sentence (inclinat), stands out. The sentence
bubbles with sound effects, especially the alliteration and homoioteleuton
of i, m and f (see the underlining) all drawing the listeners’ attention to
the speaker’s diagnosis of Rome’s political ills. Note also the long, sevenword
build up with those resounding polysyllables, and then the simple,
self-enacting, anticlimactic finis inclinat.