Matheson Collection > Cornelli Taciti annalium

INTRODUCTION
VI. Prepositions.
Cf. also for their omission §§ 5, 8, 13, 14, 19; anastrophe, § 55.
46 [56-63]. The following are some of the most characteristic
usages in Tacitus : —
Apud is much used with names of places and countries as well as
with common names, in place of locative or in with ablative ; as
apud urbem, xiv 26, i ; apud Aegeas, xiii 8, 4 ; see also xiii 8, i ;
xiv 14, 2 ; xvi 15, i.
Circa=' concerning' (a meaning originating with Seneca and
Pliny mai.), xvi 8, 3.
In (a) with accusative, much used in expressing the effect in-
tended or resulting, like «Vt or nfio?, as in deterius, xiii 14, i ; in
mains, xiii 8, i ; in mollius, xiv 39, 4 ; in subsidium, xiii 18, 3.
(d) with ablative of a neuter adjective, as alternative to em-
ploying the adjective attributively, as in integro, xv 2, 4 ; in
obscuro, XV 16, 3 ; in incerto, xv 36, 7.
luxta is used metaphorically as an adverb in the sense of
'pariter,' xiii 32, l.
Per has frequently the force of a simple ablative, or ablative with
ex or in: as per noctem = noctu, xiii 38, 6; crebris crimina-
tionibus, aliquando per facetias, xiv i, i ; cf xvi 18, i.
Super is used equivalent to de, xiv 43, i ; xv 5, 5, &c.
The following are rare, and in no earlier prose : —
Abusque (Verg.), xiii 47, 2 ; xv 37, 5.
Adusque (Verg., Horace, Ovid), xiv 58, 4.
VII. Adverbs and Conjunctions.
47 [64]. Comparative sentences are often abbreviated —
(a) by supplying ' magis ' or ' potius ' before ' quam ' (as in Greek
liaXXov before rj) ; libens quam coactus acciret dominani, xiv 61, 6 ;
{^) by the use of a positive with ' quanto,' without the addition
of magis ; quanto inopina tanto maiora i 68, 5.
(t) by omission of tanto in apodosis ; i 74) 7 ! xiii 13, I.
(d) Note also such ' compendious ' expressions of comparison as
clara et antiquis victoriis par . . . laus parta, xiv 37, 5 ; artibus tuis
pares xiv 55, 6.
48 [65]. The omission of conjunctions (asyndeton) is frequent,
owing to Tacitus' rhetorical tendencies; in lively narration, xiv 61, 1 ;
XX