Section 6

The Devil confronted Martin outside Milan. Martin was able to convert his mother and others in Illyricum, but not his father. Publicly beaten and forced out of Illyricum for advocating the orthodox version of Christianity, Martin returned to Italy and settled in Milan, but there too suffered persecution by members of the clergy who ascribed to the Arrian sect. So he withdrew to a small island, where he lived off roots and plants.

Mediolanum:  Mediolanum, -i n., mod. Milan, in northern Italy.

se ei obvium tulit: 'brought himself in the way for him', i.e., 'met him'.

quo: 'where' (Adv.)

id . . . responsi: 'the following response' (introducing indirect statement). The genitive is partitive. (AG 346)

quocumque ieris: 'wherever you go' (> eo, ire), future perfect where Eng. would use future or present (AG 478).

inimicus evanuit: 'the devil vanished' (> evanesco).

haeresis Arriana: the Arrian heresy, the principal heresy which denied the divinity of Jesus Christ, so called after its author, Arius (d. 336). The controversy between it and its ultimately successful rival, the Orthodox version of Christianity, was the major political/theological struggle of the fourth century. Martin and Hilary, like most of the Western clergy, were staunchly Orthodox.

Illyricum: a vague term embracing the whole of the Danube frontier area in the western and central Balkans. It included Pannonia, Martin's home district.

pullulasset: 'had spread', = pullulavisset (> pullulo (1)).

solus paene: 'almost alone'. paene often modifies the word it follows.

virgis caesus est: 'was beaten with sticks', 'was flogged'.

civitate: 'city' (a later Latin sense), presumably Sabaria in Upper Pannonia, where Martin's parents lived.

ad extremum: 'finally'

cum . . . comperisset: 'when he had learned' (> comperio, -ire).

coegerat: 'had compelled' (> cogo).

turbatam: (sc. esse) 'had been thrown into confusion', infinitive in indirect statement after comperisset.

Auxentius: Auxentius bishop of Milan, and the most prominent supporter of Arianism in the West (d. 373 or 374).

cedendum itaque tempori arbitratus: 'and so, having decided that he should yield to circumstances'. cedendum (sc. esse) is impersonal passive (A&G 208d).

Gallinaria:  Isola Gallinaria, a small island off the coast of Albegna, in Luguria.

ut ferunt: 'so they say', parenthetical.

in cibum: 'as food'.

vicina iam morte: 'and death was already upon him', ablative absolute.

indultam fuisse: 'had been granted' (> indulgeo).

Romae:  'at Rome', locative.