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

Put differently, Augustus arranged things in such a way that the emperor
retained exclusive control over the army, without denying other members
of the ruling élite the opportunity to enrich themselves and enhance
their careers by taking up positions in provincial government. 72 The
administration of what Strabo calls the ‘Provinces of the People’ was
ultimately the responsibility of the senate, and cases that could not be
decided by the governor on the spot were referred back to Rome.
praevalidi p The
massive subject-phrase of the ‘ut solent...’ clause. Tacitus has placed the
key words at the beginning (praevalidi) and the end (elati). praevalidi is
an adjective functioning as a noun (‘the supremely powerful’) and takes
a partitive genitive (provincialium). elati is the perfect passive participle
of effero, also functioning as a noun and governing the ablative phrase
opibus nimiis together with prepositional phrase ad iniuriam minorum. The
overall design is therefore chiastic. Tacitus uses this phrase to type-cast
Timarchus. He is not interested in the accused as an individual, but as
the representative of a specific social group: the provincial super-élite.
Several stylistic touches reinforce the tremendous power and wealth that
this élite has at its disposal, notably the strengthened adjective prae-validus
(in nice alliteration with provincialium, deftly reproduced by Woodman
in English with ‘paramount provincials’: see above), the emphasis
on excessive (nimiis) wealth, and the choice of the vivid participle elati,
which suggests elevation above common mortals. Tacitus contrasts the
excessively powerful with their inferiors (minorum) and implies that such
a differential in power and resources almost inevitably results in harm
for those at the lower end of the pecking order: the preposition ad here
72 In his account of the arrangement put in place by Augustus, Cassius Dio reports
and shreds the ideological veneer (53.12.1–3): ‘In this way he [sc. Augustus] had his
supremacy ratified by the senate and by the people as well. But as he wished even so to
be thought a man of the people, while he accepted all the care and oversight of the public
business, on the ground that it required some attention on his part, yet he declared he
would not personally govern all the provinces, and that in the case of such provinces
as he should govern he would not do so indefinitely; and he did, in fact, restore to the
senate the weaker provinces, on the ground that they were peaceful and free from war,
while he retained the more powerful, alleging that they were insecure and precarious
and either had enemies on their borders or were able on their own account to begin a
serious revolt. His professed motive in this was that the senate might fearlessly enjoy
the finest portion of the empire, while he himself had the hardships and the dangers;
but his real purpose was that by this arrangement the senators should be unarmed and
unprepared for battle, while he alone had arms and maintained soldiers.’