I will now relate the origin and causes of the revolt of Vitellius. After Julius Vindex had been slain and all his forces with him, the army, flushed with joy over the booty and glory it had won, as was natural since it had secured a very rich victory without effort or danger, preferred to advance and fight, to secure rewards rather than mere pay.
My go:
nunc initia causasque motus Vitelliani referam. caeso Iulio Vindice cum omnibus militibus, exercitus, cum praeda gloriaque laetus (quia sine labore aut periculo victoriam pretiosi belli obtenesset), proficisci conpugnare praeferebat, praemium quam stipendium malebat.
My question is especially on how to translate ‘as was natural since…’, without me using the brackets, which is in a way cheating.
Much appreciated for any comments on mistakes I’ve made - thanks!
Where did you get the text? Is it some new edition? It’s substantially different from the versions I had access to, which read
Nunc initia causasque motus Vitelliani expediam. caeso cum omnibus copiis Iulio Vindice ferox praeda gloriaque exercitus, ut cui sine labore ac periculo ditissimi belli victoria evenisset, expeditionem et aciem, praemia quam stipendia malebat.
Yet his translation is clearly based on the original Latin (NB initia causasque motus Vitelliani, praeda gloriaque, victoriam pretiosi belli, praemium quam stipendium malebat).
sybmak, a few mistakes: obtenesset for obtinuisset (quia itself is ok, the subjunctive conveys the “as was natural”), proficisci conpugnare praeferebat hardly Latin.
