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

conflagration; and given the number of casualties then, the fact that the
second fire cost fewer lives is only a qualified relief.
Buildings
remained vulnerable, and here Tacitus stresses the importance and beauty
of those that fell victim to the flames in the second conflagration. The
asyndetic juxtaposition of minor [erat] and latius procidere ensures that the
bad news abruptly overpowers the good news, conveying the sense that
the lower death-toll among the human population was amply compensated
for by large-scale architectural damage (an impression reinforced by the
length of the respective clauses). The alliterative delubra deum emphasises
the ominous destruction of holy places, and is an epic (Ennian) phrase used
in the awe-ful tableau of the last hours of Virgil’s Troy (Aeneid 2.248), in a
passage strongly intertwined with Livy’s account of the fall of Veii (5.21.5,
alluding to the same – Ennian – forerunner); and the description of the
colonnades as amoenitati dicatae, with attention-drawing assonance, makes
clear the beauty of the incinerated buildings. Note also the comparative
adverb latius, presenting the destruction here as even worse than the one
caused by the first fire. Finally, the verb procidere (an historic infinitive)
once again evokes the power of the fire, and keeps the music going through
to the final collapse (por- … dic- ~ pro-cid- …).
cognomento suo appellandae gloriam quaerere. quippe in regiones
quattuordecim Roma dividitur, quarum quattuor integrae manebant, tres
lacera et semusta.
As Tacitus told us in Chapter 39,
Nero attracted opprobrium because of the suspicion of arson in the first
fire. Now he says there was more scandal. The comparative adverb plus,
like latius before, conveys the escalation in destruction, both of the city and
of Nero’s reputation.
: infamiae is a partitive genitive dependent on plus.
praedium (‘estate’, ‘land’) is
not to be confused with the more common/ familiar praeda (‘booty’). praediis