[36] Ostiglia.
[37] From Moesia (cp. chap. [5]).
[38] The legate Tettius Julianus had fled (see ii. [85]).
[39] He also wrote a history of the period, which Tacitus found useful (see ii. [101], note [459]). He is one of the characters in the Dialogue on Oratory, and many passages show that Tacitus admired him greatly, both for his character and his eloquence.
[40] The text here is doubtful. There seems to be no exact parallel to the absolute use of praesumpsere. In the Medicean MS. the whole passage, from revirescere at the end of chap. [7] down to inimici here, has been transposed to the beginning of chap. [5], where it stands between the second and third syllables of the word Saturnino. Thus in M. praesumpsere stands immediately after partes. It is possible that the word partes may belong to this passage as well as to the end of chap. [7]. Praesumpsere partes would mean 'they took their own cause for granted' (cp. Quintilian xi. 1. 27). The addition of ut inimici would add the sense of 'hostile prejudice'.
[41] Gallica.
[42] See chap. [4], note [15].
[43] Saturninus.
[44] We have seen this trick before (cp. i. [45]).
[45] Mars, Bellona, Victoria, Pavor, &c., whose images were wrought in medallion on the shafts of the standards, which themselves too were held sacred.