Agricola XVIII:3

[Notascooby]

Cornelius Tacitus, De Vita Iulii Agricolae, chapter 18

The line, "et quibus bellum volentibus erat probare exemplum" has me stumped.

(They)(subject of the historic infinitives that follows) for whom there was a willingness for war approved the example κτλ

Can anyone explain precisely what's happening here?

Thanks

 

[Pacifica]

The subject of the historical infinitive probare is an implied ii, antecedent of the relative clause quibus etc. (It's common for that kind of antecedent to be left implied.)

Quibus bellum volentibus erat is hard to render literally in English but it's something like "to whom war was [with them being] willing"—hence, "those who had a willingness for war", "those who wanted war" or the like.

 

[Dantius]

The construction is Greek-derived, somewhat hard to explain, and almost exclusively in Sallust and Tacitus; Sallust has "ut militibus labos volentibus esset" and Tacitus elsewhere "ut quibusque bellum invitis aut cupientibus erat".

 

[Notascooby]

T

The construction is Greek-derived, somewhat hard to explain, and almost exclusively in Sallust and Tacitus; Sallust has "ut militibus labos volentibus esset" and Tacitus elsewhere "ut quibusque bellum invitis aut cupientibus erat".

Thanks, can you point me to an example of this in Greek? I should be better able to understand it if I can see the Greek construction.

 

[Dantius]

Thanks, can you point me to an example of this in Greek? I should be better able to understand it if I can see the Greek construction.

Thucydides (a favorite of Sallust and Tacitus) has τῷ γὰρ πλήθει τῶν Πλαταιῶν οὐ βουλομένῳ ἦν τῶν Ἀθηναίων ἀφίστασθαι. It seems like in Greek the subject of such a construction is usually an infinitive, as here. Xenophon has an example of it with a neuter pronoun as subject: "Τί οὖν, ἔφη, οὐ πυνθάνῃ εἰ καὶ ἐκείνῳ βουλομένῳ ταῦτ’ ἐστί".