8

Malchus and his wife decide to escape. Malchus kills two goats, for their meat and to use their inflated skins as flotation devices. After crossing a river they mostly travel by night.

Regressō = (mihi) regressō; dative with occurrit.

ad cubīle < cubīle -is n., “bed, couch” or "den" (i.e. the cave)

occurrit: the paragraph is mostly written in the historical present. The short sentences vividly convey the drama of the situation.

cur exanimātus sim: pres. subj. in an indirect question. < exanimātus -a -um, “dispirited, down” (DMLBS exanimare 2.b); Malchus was worn out by his pointless life.

Hortor ad fugam = hortor (eam) ad fugam

silentium: omission of speech with the implication of concealment (DMLBS silentium 4.b). She is being asked to tell no one of the planned escape.

Fidem tribuit: “she gave her word”; fidem tribuere normally means “lend credence to” testimony or the like (Cicero, Pro Sulla 10). But fidēs often means “promise, assurance, word” (LS fides II.B), and tribuō can mean “to bestow, award.”

Et iūgī susurrō < iūgis -e, “continual”; ablative of means, or ablative of manner (AG 412).

mediī: “halfway between”; masc. pl. nom., with the subject of fluctuāmus.

8.2

Erant mihi ... duo hircī < hircus -ī m., “goat”; dative of possession, though the goats in fact belonged to Malchus’ master.

mīrae magnitūdinis: genitive of quality (= genitive of description), AG 345

quibus occīsīs: ablative absolute

utrēs faciō < uter utris m., “leather bag”

viāticō: dative of purpose (AG 382)

putantibus dominīs nōs sēcrētō cubitāre: ablative absolute followed by indirect statement. < cubitō (1), “to sleep; sleep with someone”; sēcrētō: “in private” (not “secretly”).

partēs carnium: probably “pieces of meat” (Gray)

8.3

Cumque: a redundant -que.

pervēnissēmus: pluperfect subj. in a circumstantial cum clause (AG 546).

ad fluvium: Gray identifies this as the Mygdonius (also called the Hirmus), which flows past Nisibis; now the the river Jhagjhaga in southeast Turkey.

decem mīlibus aberat: ablative of degree of difference, which can be used to indicate distance (AG 414.b); the subject of aberat is fluvium.

īnflātīs et ascēnsīs utribus: ablative absolute. For the use of inflated skins to cross rivers see Gray ad loc.

subrēmigantēs < subrēmigō -āre, “paddle”; literally “make rowing movements under the water.”

deorsum flūmine dēferente, et ... nōs expōnente ablative absolute; deorsum = “downward, down stream” (adv.).

in alteram ... rīpam: hyperbaton emphasizing alteram

sequentēs: “the pursuers”; present participle, substantivized. perderent < perdō -ere, “to fail to obtain, lose, miss” (OLD 4); imperfect subjunctive in a purpose clause.

8.4

inter haec: “in the meantime” (LS inter 2.C.e).

trīduī < trīduum -ī n., “a period of three days”; genitive with cibum.

sitī < sitis -is f., “thirst”; dative with the future participle futūrae.

8.5

magis noctibus "mostly at night”; noctibus is ablative of time when.

prōmovēmur < prōmoveō -ēre, “to make progress” (intransitive, OLD 5).

vel ... vel: “both ... and.” In vel .. vel constructions mutual exclusiveness is not normally emphasized (OLD 2.a).

paveō miser etiam referēns: paveō and perhorrescō are true present tense, not historical present: Malchus is commenting on his own story. Aeneas says something similar when telling the story of the fall of Troy to Dido in Vergil’s Aeneid 2.204: horrescō referēns.