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Bradley's Arnold Continuous Passage #81

Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2009 10:11 pm
by petitor
I would appreciate any comments and corrections to the following translation.

Thanks.

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A spirit of desertion began to prevail among the troops; and the deserters, instead of seeking their safety in flight or concealment, infested the highways. Maternus, a private soldier, collected these bands of robbers into a little army, set open the prisons, invited the slaves to assert their freedom, and plundered with impunity the rich and defenceless cities of Gaul and Spain. The governors of the provinces, who had long been the spectators and perhaps the partners of his depredations, were at length roused from their supine indolence by the threatening commands of the emperor. Maternus found that he was encompassed, and forsaw that he must be overpowered. A great effort of despair was his last resource. He ordered his followers to disperse, cross the Alps in small parties and various disguises, and to assemble at Rome during the licentious tumult of the festival of Cybele. To murder Commodus and to ascend the vacant throne was the ambition of no vulgar robber; and his measures were so ably concerted that his concealed troops filled the streets of Rome. But the envy of an accomplice discovered and ruined the enterprise in the moment when it was ripe for execution.

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Defectione iam animos militum obtinente, perfugae cum possent effugio aut celamento salutem petere, vias autem infestas habuere. Maternus, manipularis quidam, in parvum exercitum has praedonum copias conferre, carceres patefacere, servis ut libertatem suam affirmarent suadere, et impunite opimas inermesque urbes Galliae atque Hispaniae spoliare. proconsules, qui diu spectatores erant direptionum eius ac forsit in iisdem consociarent, tandem minatibundis iussis imperatoris e segni desidia excitati sunt. qui cum se circumdatum invenisset praevidissetque se superandum, Maternus, sentiens magnam operam desperationis sibi esse potestati ultimae, comites igitur iussit ut dispergerent et, parvis manibus variisque mutatis vestibus Alpis transgressi, Romae tumulto festi dissoluto Cybelis convenirent. at Commodum necare occupareque vacatum regnum haud fuit ambitio praedonis vulgaris ut tanto ingenio rei agendi vias Romae suis obtectis complendas curaret. invidia tamen consocii in tali efficiendi tempore incepturum conatum apertum corrupit.