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

After a long and twisting sentence revolving around
contrasts, Tacitus sums it all up by blurring the distinctions – a ploy that
further underlines the scale of the mayhem.
circumveniebantur, vel si in proxima evaserant, illis quoque igni
correptis, etiam quae longinqua crediderant in eodem casu reperiebant.
The sentence begins with another conjunction, piling on more information
about the panic. An arresting image follows: as people look behind them, the
fire surrounds them to their front and side. The mention of all three directions
(tergum ... lateribus ... fronte) in close succession, summarised by the verb
circumveniebantur, depicts the fire all around these poor incinerated people.
More language from
the battle field: the vain efforts and hopelessness of fleeing from the fire is
conveyed by the clause si ... evaserant, which suggests a successful escape,
followed immediately by the fact that there was no safety even in the
neighbouring districts (proxima), given the merciless pursuit of the fire.
The subject
of reperiebant is an (elided) ea, which is also the antecedent of the relative
pronoun quae. The fire was everywhere: Tacitus’ point here is that, whilst
it might not be surprising that nearby neighbourhoods (proxima) are
consumed by the fire, in this great fire even (etiam) districts which people
believed to be far away from the fire (longinqua) are engulfed.
38.6 postremo, quid vitarent quid peterent ambigui, complere vias, sterni
interiere.
The anaphora, asyndeton, polar
verbs, and delayed ambigui underline the utter bewilderment of the citizens
who do not know which way to turn.
The historic infinitives complere and sterni,
juxtaposed asyndetically, increase the pace of the narrative as the people
take desperate action. complere implies a vast number of victims pouring