[6.12] abl. of specification.
[6.13] = morte. The abl. includes the ideas of means and cause.
[6.14] ‘hosts.’ The relation of host and guest was regarded by the Romans, as by other ancient peoples, as peculiarly sacred.
[6.15] longē aliud . . . aliud: ‘one thing . . . quite another.’ Note here the difference between the English and the Latin idiom.
[6.16] Infinitives, because the clauses in which they stand are subjects of esse; H 615 (538): M 972: A 270: G 422: B 377.
[6.17] This temple was called the Temple of Iuppiter Stator, i.e. the ‘Stayer,’ the god who had stayed the army’s flight.
[6.18] resistō: ‘maintained its ground,’ ‘held its own,’ as contrasted with its previous flight (fugere coepērunt).
[6.19] crīnibus passīs (pandō): ‘with streaming hair.’
[6.20] ‘by beseeching’; the abl. of the gerund (ōrandō) might have been used.
[6.21] foedere . . . īctō (īcō): ‘having struck a treaty.’ How literally? The abl. abs. is one of the regular substitutes in Latin for the missing perfect active participle. In the phrase foedus īcere, the verb suggests the striking of the victims in the sacrifice which accompanied the making of the treaty.