Matheson Collection > Cornelli Taciti annalium

SYNTAX
in enumerations, often leading up to a climax, villas arva vicos, xiii
57, 5 ; ratione consilio praeceptis, xiv 55, 4 ; senatores eques miles
feminae etiam, xv 48, I ; and in antitheses, plana edita xv 27, 4.
49 [66]. Adverbs are used as adjectives, attributively, as in Greek,
honestis an secus amicis, xiii 6, 6 ; [cuncta extra, xiii 41, 4] ; nulla
palam causa, xiv 32, i ; cuncta circum, xv 39, i ; cf. circum, xvi
3, 2 ; predicatively as dicta inpune erant, i 72, 3 ; id . . . inpune
. . . vertit, xiii 32, 5.
50 [67]. Tamquam, quasi, and (less frequently) velut are used—
(a) of something falsely pretended or alleged as reason for the
action described, quasi subsidium . . . oraret . . . genibus principis
accidens, xv 53, 2 ; ficta valetudine quasi aeger nervis, xv 45, 5 ;
tamquam Naxum deveheretur Ostiam amotus, xvi 9, 2 :
(d) but often the reason alleged may be taken as the real one, or
at any rate believed in by the person alleging it ; intercessit . . .
tamquam satis expleta ultione, xiii 43, 7 ; so xiv 41, i ; xv 59, 7 ;
Neapolim quasi Graecam urbem delegit, xv 33, 2 ; gestabat velut
. . , sacrum, xv 53, 3 :
{c) and in some passages these particles simply introduce a
reported speech or thought ; vulgi opinio est tamquam mutationem
regis portendat, xiv 22, i ; so after ' nuntios,' xiv 59, 2 ; after
' rumore,' xv 73, 2 ; vulgato . . . quasi, xiv 8, i ; conscientia quasi,
xiv 10, 5.
Note also xiv 52, 2, where 'tamquam' and 'quasi' are co-
ordinated with and used as variants for ' quod.'
Other references are, for 'tamquam,' xiii 28, 5 ; xiii 33, 4; xiv
33, 6 : for 'quasi,' xiii 18, 3 ; xiii 38, 6; xiv 65, i ; xv 50, 4 ; and
for ' velut,' xvi 2, i.
B. STYLE
I. Innovations in Vocabulary.
51 [69, 70]. Tacitus constantly prefers unusual forms, as claritudo,
tirmitudo, to the fo.ms in -as ; cognomentum to the form in -men ;
medicamen, tegumen, to the forms in -mentum ; besides introducing
words not previously found, or found only in poets.
The following are some of the most noticeable :
(a) New verbal substantives, expressing (i) Agent, concertator,
xiv 29, 2; patrator, xiv 62, 3; profligator, xvi 18, i : (2) Action,
xxi