[sect. 3]
quanta sit [gap in text] scio, I know kow great an eagerness people feel for a decisive victory. See Crit. Append.
hominum [gap in text] victoriae: a subjective and an objective genitive depending upon aviditas.
impetu: commonly regarded as a dative. For such contract forms, cf. Neue, Formenlehre d. lat. Sprache 12. pp.356-358.
parricidarum: used by Plancus here, as it is used in Fam. 10.23.5 of the followers of Antony. It is the epithet which Antony applied with special fondness to Caesar's assassins. Cf. Cicero's words to Cassius (Fam. 12.3.1): primum in statua quam posuit in rostris inscripsit parenti optime merito ut non modo sicarii sed iam etiam parricidae iudicemini. Cf. also Val. Max. 6.4.5 M. Brutus suarum prius virtutum quam patriae parentis parricida. The same epithet is applied by Sallust to Catiline's associates; cf. Sall. Cat. 14.3; 51.25.
nimium saepe : in the war between Caesar and Pompey, the Pompeian forces were made up to a great extent of recruits, while the Caesarian troops had been seasoned by campaigns in Gaul. Cf. Ep. XLIV. 2; Att. 7.13 A.2, also Caes. B. C. 3.4.
expertum habemus: for experti sumus; cf. Intr. 84d.