27

Overview: Emboldened by this success, the army clamors for more fields to conquer; the Britons, undaunted, retain their belligerent attitude. (Stuart); this chapter begins on f. 59v of the codex Aesinas.

27.1

cuius: sc. victoriae. (Pearce)

fāmā: i.e. the prestige consequent on the victory. (Stuart); with reference to that part of the army which had not engaged in this battle. (Gudeman)

invium: sc. esse. (Damon)

penetrandam: penetrare is intransitive in classical Latin. (Pearce)

fremēbant: the subject is the collective noun exercitus. (Pearce); "they kept vociferously asserting." (Stuart); the plural, because of the twofold aspect under which the army is viewed, as indicated by conscientia and fama, for, although Tacitus frequently has a plural predicate with a number of collective nouns, such as plebs, multitudo, pars, and the like, exercitus seems not to be so used by him, although the term occasionally includes several legions. (Gudeman)

prōmptī post ēventum: became belligerent (aggressive) after the successful turn of affairs. (Gudeman)

condiciō: “terms.” (Stuart)

prospera ... imputantur: a commonplace. (Gudeman)

27.2

nōn virtūte sē: i.e. they thought that defective strategy might more easily be improved than defective valour. (Pearce)

victos: sc. esse. (Damon)

occāsiōne et arte: "by a tricky surprise or coup." (Gudeman); occāsiōne, the unforeseen contingency, almost = “luck”; arte, the strategy by which Agricola turned it to his advantage. (Pearce)  

remittere: historical infinitive. (Damon) [A&G 463]

quo minus: a conjunction used after a main clause expressing (and negating) prevention, here rather elliptically: no abatement of effort (prevented them from) arming the men of fighting age, etc. (Damon) [A&G 558b]

coetibus ... sancīrent: observe the alliteration with “c” and “s” throughout. Sacrificiis is added to define coetibus more closely, the offerings to the gods characterizing the solemnity and seriousness of these meetings. (Gudeman)

cōnspīrātiōnem: “covenant.” (Stuart); "conspiracy," from the Roman point of view, not "union" or "compact," for the word is not used by Tacitus in this colorless and indefinite sense, though it is common enough elsewhere. (Gudeman)

discessum: sc. est. (Damon)