XVII. Sed, ubi cum cetero orbe Vespasianus et Britanniam recuperavit, magni duces, egregii exercitus, minuta hostium spes. Et terrorem statira intulit Petilius Cerialis, Brigantum civitatem, quae numerosissima provinciae totius perhibetur, aggressus. Multa proelia, et aliquando non incruenta magnamque Brigantum partem aut victoria amplexus est aut bello. Et, cum Cerialis quidem alterius successoris curam famamque obruisset, sustinuit quoque molem Julius Frontinus, vir magnus quantum licebat, validamque et pugnacem Silurum gentem armis subegit, super virtutem hostium, locorum quoque difficultates eluctatus.

XVIII. Hunc Britanniae statum, has bellorum vices media jam aestate transgressus Agricola invenit, cum et milites, velut omissa expeditione, ad securitatem, et hostes ad occasionem verterentur. Ordovicum civitas, haud multo ante adventum ejus, alam, in finibus suis agentem, prope universam obtriverat eoque initio erecta provincia: et, quibus bellum volentibus erat, probare exemplum, ac recentis legati animum opperiri, cum Agricola, quanquam transvecta aestas, sparsi per provinciam numeri, praesumpta apud militem illius anni quies, tarda et contraria bellum inchoaturo, et plerisque custodiri suspecta potius videbatur, ire obviam discrimini statuit: contractisque legionum vexillis et modica auxiliorum manu, quia in aequum degredi Ordovices non audebant, ipse ante agmen, quo ceteris par animus simili periculo esset, erexit aciem: caesaque prope universa gente, non ignarus instandum famae, ac, prout prima cessissent, terrorem ceteris fore, Monam insulam, cujus possessione revocatum Paullinum rebellione totius Britanniae supra memoravi, redigere in potestatem animo intendit. Sed, ut in dubiis consiliis, naves deerant: ratio et constantia ducis transvexit. Depositis omnibus sarcinis, lectissimos auxiliarium, quibus nota vada et patrius nandi usus, quo simul seque et arma et equos regunt, ita repente immisit, ut obstupefacti hostes, qui classem, qui naves, qui mare expectabant, nihil arduum aut invictum crediderint sic ad bellum venientibus. Ita petita pace ac dedita insula, clarus ac magnus haberi Agricola: quippe cui ingredienti provinciam, quod tempus alii per ostentationem aut officiorum ambitum transigunt, labor et periculum placuisset. Nec Agricola, prosperitate rerum in vanitatem usus, expeditionem aut victoriam vocabat victos continuisse: ne laureatis quidem gesta prosecutus est: sed ipsa dissimulatione famae famam auxit, aestimantibus, quanta futuri spe tam magna tacuisset.

XIX. Ceterum animorum provinciae prudens, simulque doctus per aliena experimenta parum profici armis, si injuriae sequerentur, causas bellorum statuit excidere. A se suisque orsus, primum domum suam coercuit; quod plerisque haud minus arduum est, quam provinciam regere. Nihil per libertos servosque publicae rei: non studiis privatis nec ex commendatione aut precibus centurionum milites ascire, sed optimum quemque fidissimum putare: omnia scire, non omnia exsequi: parvis peccatis veniam, magnis severitatem commodare: nec poena semper, sed saepius poenitentia contentus esse: officiis et administrationibus potius non peccaturos praeponere, quam damnare, cum peccassent. Frumenti et tributorum auctionem aequalitate munerum mollire, circumcisis, quae, in quaestum reperta, ipso tributo gravius tolerabantur: namque per ludibrium assidere clausis horreis et emere ultro frumenta, ac vendere pretio cogebantur: devortia itinerum et longinquitas regionum indicebatur, ut civitates a proximis hibernis in remota et avia referrent, donec, quod omnibus in promptu erat, paucis lucrosum fieret.

XX. Haec primo statim anno comprimendo, egregiam famam paci circumdedit; quae vel incuria vel intolerantia priorum haud minus quam bellum timebatur. Sed, ubi aestas advenit, contracto exercitu, multus in agmine laudare modestiam, disjectos coercere: loca castris ipse capere, aestuaria ac silvas ipse praetentare; et nihil interim apud hostes quietum pati, quo minus subitis excursibus popularetur: atque, ubi satis terruerat, parcendo rursus irritamenta pacis ostentare. Quibus rebus multae civitates, quae in illum diem ex aequo egerant, datis obsidibus, iram posuere, et praesidiis castellisque circumdatae tanta ratione curaque, ut nulla ante Britanniae nova pars illacessita transierit.

XXI. Sequens hiems saluberrimis consiliis absumpta: namque, ut homines dispersi ac rudes, eoque in bella faciles, quieti et otio per voluptates assuescerent, hortari privatim, adjuvare publice, ut templa, fora, domus exstruerent, laudando promptos et castigando segnes: ita honoris aemulatio pro necessitate erat. Jam vero principum filios liberalibus artibus erudire, et ingenia Britannorum studiis Gallorum anteferre, ut, qui modo linguam Romanam abnuebant, eloquentiam concupiscerent. Inde etiam habitus nostri honor et frequens toga: paulatimque discessum ad delenimenta vitiorum, porticus et balnea et conviviorum elegantiam: idque apud imperitos humanitas vocabatur, cum pars servitutis esset.

XXII. Tertius expeditionum annus novas gentes aperuit, vastatis usque ad Taum (aestuario nomen est) nationibus: qua formidine territi hostes quanquam conflictatum saevis tempestatibus exercitum lacessere non ausi; ponendisque insuper castellis spatium fuit. Annotabant periti non alium ducem opportunitates locorum sapientius legisse: nullum ab Agricola positum castellum aut vi hostium expugnatum aut pactione ac fuga desertum. Crebrae eruptiones: nam adversus moras obsidionis annuis copiis firmabantur: ita intrepida ibi hiems, et sibi quisque praesidio, irritis hostibus eoque desperantibus, quia soliti plerumque damna aestatis hibernis eventibus pensare, tum aestate atque hieme juxta pellebantur. Nec Agricola unquam per alios gesta avidus intercepit: seu centurio seu praefectus, incorruptum facti testem habebat. Apud quosdam acerbior in conviciis narrabatur; ut erat comis bonis, adversus malos injucundus: ceterum ex iracundia nihil supererat; secretum et silentium ejus non timeres: honestius putabat offendere, quam odisse.

XXIII. Quarta aestas obtinendis, quae percurrerat, insumpta: ac, si virtus exercituum et Romani nominis gloria pateretur, inventus in ipsa Britannia terminus. Nam Clota et Bodotria, diversi maris aestibus per immensum revectae, angusto terrarum spatio dirimuntur: quod tum praesidiis firmabatur: atque omnis propior sinus tenebatur, summotis velut in aliam insulam hostibus.

XXIV. Quinto expeditionum anno, nave prima transgressus, ignotas ad id tempus gentes crebris simul ac prosperis proeliis domuit: eamque partem Britanniae, quae Hiberniam aspicit, copiis instruxit in spem magis quam ob formidinem; si quidem Hibernia, medio inter Britanniam atque Hispaniam sita et Gallico quoque mari opportuna, valentissimam imperii partem magnis invicem usibus miscuerit. Spatium ejus, si Britanniae comparetur, angustius, nostri maris insulas superat. Solum coelumque et ingenia cultusque hominum haud multum a Britannia differunt: in melius aditus portusque per commercia et negotiatores cogniti. Agricola expulsum seditione domestica unum ex regulis gentis exceperat ac specie amicitiae in occasionem retinebat. Saepe ex eo audivi, legione una et modicis auxiliis debellari obtinerique Hiberniam posse. Idque etiam adversus Britanniam profuturum, si Romana ubique arma, et velut e conspectu libertas tolleretur.

XXV. Ceterum aestate, qua sextum officii annum inchoabat, amplexus civitates trans Bodotriam sitas, quia motus universarum ultra gentium et infesta hostilis exercitus itinera timebantur, portus classe exploravit: quae, ab Agricola primum assumpta in partem virium, sequebatur egregia specie, cum simul terra, simul mari bellum impelleretur, ac saepe iisdem castris pedes equesque et nauticus miles, mixti copiis et laetitia, sua quisque facta, suos casus attollerent: ac modo silvarum ac montium profunda, modo tempestatum ac fluctuum adversa, hinc terra et hostis, hinc victus Oceanus militari jactantia compararentur. Britannos quoque, ut ex captivis audiebatur, visa classis obstupefaciebat, tanquam, aperto maris sui secreto, ultimum victis perfugium clauderetur. Ad manus et arma conversi Caledoniam incolentes populi, paratu magno, majore fama, uti mos est de ignotis, oppugnasse ultro, castella adorti, metum, ut provocantes, addiderant: regrediendumque citra Bodotriam, et excedendum potius, quam pellerentur, specie prudentium ignavi admonebant: cum interim cognoscit hostes pluribus agminibus irrupturos. Ac, ne superante numero et peritia locorum circumiretur, diviso et ipse in tres partes exercitu incessit.

XXVI. Quod ubi cognitum hosti, mutato repente consilio, universi nonam legionem, ut maxime invalidam, nocte aggressi, inter somnum ac trepidationem caesis vigilibus, irrupere. Jamque in ipsis castris pugnabant, cum Agricola, iter hostium ab exploratoribus edoctus et vestigiis insecutus, velocissimos equitum peditumque assultare tergis pugnantium jubet, mox ab universis adjici clamorem; et propinqua luce fulsere signa: ita ancipiti malo territi Britanni: et Romanis redit animus, ac, securi pro salute, de gloria certabant. Ultro quin etiam erupere: et fuit atrox in ipsia portarum angustiis proelium, donec pulsi hostes; utroque exercitu certante, his, ut tulisse opem, illis, ne eguisse auxilio viderentur. Quod nisi paludes et silvae fugientes texissent, debellatum illa victoria foret.

XXVII. Cujus conscientia ac fama ferox exercitus nihil virtuti suae invium: penetrandam Caledoniam, inveniendumque tandem Britanniae terminum continuo proeliorum cursu, fremebant: atque illi modo cauti ac sapientes, prompti post eventum ac magniloqui erant. Iniquissima haec bellorum conditio est: prospera omnes sibi vindicant, adversa uni imputantur. At Britanni non virtute, sed occasione et arte ducis rati, nihil ex arrogantia remittere, quo minus juventutem armarent, conjuges ac liberos in loca tuta transferrent, coetibus ac sacrificiis conspirationem civitatum sancirent: atque ita irritatis utrimque animis discessum.

XXVIII. Eadem aestate cohors Usipiorum, per Germanias conscripta, in Britanniam transmissa, magnum ac memorabile facinus ausa est. Occiso centurione ac militibus, qui ad tradendam disciplinam immixti manipulis exemplum et rectores habebantur, tres liburnicas, adactis per vim gubernatoribus, ascendere: et uno remigante, suspectis duobus eoque interfectis, nondum vulgato rumore ut miraculum praevehebantur: mox hac atque illa rapti, et cum plerisque Britannorum, sua defensantium, proelio congressi, ac saepe victores, aliquando pulsi, eo ad extremum inopiae venere, ut infirmissimos suorum, mox sorte ductos, vescerentur. Atque circumvecti Britanniam, amissis per inscitiam regendi navibus, pro praedonibus habiti, primum a Suevis, mox a Frisiis intercepti sunt: ac fuere, quos per commercia venumdatos et in nostram usque ripam mutatione ementium adductos, indicium tanti casus illustravit.

XXIX. Initio aestatis Agricola, domestico vulnere ictus, anno ante natum filum amisit. Quem casum neque, ut plerique fortium virorum, ambitiose, neque per lamenta rursus ac moerorem muliebriter tulit: et in luctu bellum inter remedia erat. Igitur praemissa classe, quae pluribus locis praedata, magnum et incertum terrorem faceret, expedito exercitu, cui ex Britannis fortissimos et longa pace exploratos addiderat, ad montem Grampium pervenit, quem jam hostis insederat. Nam Britanni, nihil fracti pugnae prioris eventu, et ultionem aut servitium exspectantes, tandemque docti commune periculum concordia propulsandum, legationibus et foederibus omnium civitatum vires exciverant. Jamque super triginta millia armatorum aspiciebantur, et adhuc affluebat omnis juventus et quibus cruda ac viridis senectus, clari bello et sua quisque decora gestantes: cum inter plures duces virtute et genere praestans, nomine Calgacus, apud contractam multitudinem proelium poscentem, in hunc modum locutus fertur:

XXX. "Quotiens causas belli et necessitatem nostram intueor, magnus mihi animus est hodiernum diem consensumque vestrum initium libertatis totius Britanniae fore. Nam et universi servitutis expertes, et nullae ultra terrae, ac ne mare quidem securum, imminente nobis classe Romana: ita proelium atque arma, quae fortibus honesta, eadem etiam ignavis tutissima sunt. Priores pugnae, quibus adversus Romanos varia fortuna certatum est, spem ac subsidium in nostris manibus habebant: quia nobilissimi totius Britanniae eoque in ipsis penetralibus siti, nec servientium littora aspicientes, oculos quoque a contactu dominationis inviolatos habebamus. Nos terrarum ac libertatis extremos, recessus ipse ac sinus famae in hunc diem defendit: nunc terminus Britanniae patet; atque omne ignotum pro magnifico est. Sed nulla jam ultra gens, nihil nisi fluctus et saxa, et infestiores Romani: quorum superbiam frustra per obsequium et modestiam effugeris. Raptores orbis, postquam cuncta vastantibus defuere terrae, et mare scrutantur: si locuples hostis est, avari; si pauper, ambitiosi: quos non Oriens, non Occidens, satiaverit. Soli omnium opes atque inopiam pari affectu concupiscunt. Auferre, trucidare, rapere, falsis nominibus imperium; atque, ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant."

XXXI. "Liberos cuique ac propinquos suos natura carissimos esse voluit; hi per delectus, alibi servituri, auferuntur conjuges sororesque, etsi hostilem libidinem effugiant, nomine amicorum atque hospitum polluuntur. Bona fortunasque in tributum egerunt, annos in frumentum: corpora ipsa ac manus silvis ac paludibus emuniendis inter verbera ac contumelias conterunt. Nata servituti mancipia semel veneunt, atque ultro a dominis aluntur: Britannia servitutem suam quotidie emit, quotidie pascit. Ac, sicut in familia recentissimus quisque servorum et conservis ludibrio est, sic in hoc orbis terrarum vetere famulatu novi nos et viles in excidium petimur. Neque enim arva nobis aut metalla aut portus sunt, quibus exercendis reservemur. Virtus porro ac ferocia subjectorum ingrata imperantibus: et longinquitas ac secretum ipsum quo tutius, eo suspectius. Ita, sublata spe veniae, tandem sumite animum, tam quibus salus, quam quibus gloria carissima est. Trinobantes, femina duce, exurere coloniam, expugnare castra, ac, nisi felicitas in socordiam vertisset, exuere jugum potuere: nos integri et indomiti et libertatem non in poenitentiam laturi, primo statim congressu nonne ostendamus, quos sibi Caledonia viros seposuerit? An eandem Romanis in bello virtutem, quam in pace lasciviam adesse creditis?"

XXXII. "Nostris illi dissensionibus ac discordiis clari, vitia hostium in gloriam exercitus sui vertunt: quem contractum ex diversissimis gentibus, ut secundae res tenent, ita adversae dissolvent: nisi si Gallos et Germanos et (pudet dictu) Britannorum plerosque, licet dominationi alienae sanguinem commodent, diutius tamen hostes quam servos, fide et affectu teneri putatis: metus et terror est, infirma vincula caritatis quae ubi removeris, qui timere desierint, odisse incipient. Omnia victoriae incitamenta pro nobis sunt: nullae Romanos conjuges accendunt; nulli parentes fugam exprobraturi sunt; aut nulla plerisque patria, aut alia est. Paucos numero, trepidos ignorantia, coelum ipsum ac mare et silvas, ignota omnia circumspectantes, clausos quodammodo ac vinctos dii nobis tradiderunt. Ne terreat vanus aspectus et auri fulgor atque argenti, quod neque tegit neque vulnerat. In ipsa hostium acie inveniemus nostras manus: agnoscent Britanni suam causam: recordabuntur Galli priorem libertatem: deserent illos ceteri Germani, tanquam nuper Usipii reliquerunt. Nec quidquam ultra formidinis: vacua castella, senum coloniae, inter male parentes et injuste imperantes aegra municipia et discordantia: hic dux, hic exercitus: ibi tributa et metalla et ceterae servientium poenae: quas in aeternum perferre aut statim ulcisci in hoc campo est. Proinde ituri in aciem et majores vestros et posteros cogitate."

XXXIII. Excepere orationem alacres, ut barbaris moris, cantu et fremitu clamoribusque dissonis. Jam que agmina, et armorum fulgores audentissimi cujusque procursu: simul instruebantur acies: cum Agricola, quanquam laetum et vix munimentis coercitum militem adhortatus, ita disseruit: "Octavus annus est, commilitones, ex quo virtute et auspiciis imperii Romani fide atque opera vestra Britanniam vicistis: tot expeditionibus, tot proeliis, seu fortitudine adversus hostes seu patientia ac labore paene adversus ipsam rerum naturam opus fuit, neque me militum neque vos ducis poenituit. Ergo egressi, ego veterum legatorum, vos priorum exercituum terminos, finem Britanniae non fama nec rumore, sed castris et armis tenemus. Inventa Britannia et subacta. Equidem saepe in agmine, cum vos paludes montesve et flumina fatigarent, fortissimi cujusque voces audiebam, Quando dabitur hostis, quando acies? Veniunt, e latebris suis extrusi: et vota virtusque in aperto, omniaque prona victoribus, atque eadem victis adversa. Nam, ut superasse tantum itineris, silvas evasisse, transisse aestuaria pulchrum ac decorum in frontem; ita fugientibus periculosissima, quae hodie prosperrima sunt. Neque enim nobis aut locorum eadem notitia aut commeatuum eadem abundantia: sed manus et arma et in his omnia. Quod ad me attinet, jam pridem mihi decretum est, neque exercitus neque ducis terga tuta esse. Proinde et honesta mors turpi vita potior; et incolumitas ac decus eodem loco sita sunt: nec inglorium fuerit, in ipso terrarum ac naturae fine cecidisse."

XXXIV. "Si novae gentes atque ignota acies constitisset, aliorum exercituum exemplis vos hortarer: nunc vestra decora recensete, vestros oculos interrogate. Ii sunt, quos proximo anno, unam legionem furto noctis aggressos, clamore debellastis: ii ceterorum Britannorum fugacissimi, ideoque tam diu superstites. Quomodo silvas saltusque penetrantibus fortissimum quodque animal contra ruere, pavida et inertia ipso agminis sono pelluntur, sic acerrimi Britannorum jam pridem ceciderunt: reliquus est numerus ignavorum et metuentium, quos quod tandem invenistis, non restiterunt, sed deprehensi sunt: novissimae res et extremo metu corpora defixere aciem in his vestigiis, in quibus pulchram et spectabilem victoriam ederetis. Transigite cum expeditionibus: imponite quinquaginta annis magnum diem: approbate reipublicae nunquam exercitui imputari potuisse aut moras belli aut causas rebellandi."

XXXV. Et alloquente adhuc Agricola, militum ardor eminebat, et finem orationis ingens alacritas consecuta est, statimque ad arma discursum. Instinctos ruentesque ita disposuit, ut peditum auxilia, quae octo millia erant, mediam aciem firmarent, equitum tria millia cornibus affunderentur: legiones pro vallo stetere, ingens victoriae decus citra Romanum sanguinem bellanti, et auxilium, si pellerentur. Britannorum acies, in speciem simul ac terrorem, editioribus locis constiterat ita, ut primum agmen aequo, ceteri per acclive jugum connexi velut insurgerent: media campi covinarius et eques strepitu ac discursu complebat. Tum Agricola superante hostium multitudine veritus, ne simul in frontem, simul et latera suorum pugnaretur, diductis ordinibus, quanquam porrectior acies futura erat et arcessendas plerique legiones admonebant, promptior in spem et firmus adversis, dimisso equo pedes ante vexilla constitit.

XXXVI. Ac primo congressu eminus certabatur simul constantia, simul arte Britanni ingentibus gladiis et brevibus cetris missilia nostrorum vitare vel excutere, atque ipsi magnam vim telorum superfundere: donec Agricola Batavorum cohortes ac Tungrorum duas cohortatus est, ut rem ad mucrones ac manus adducerent: quod et ipsis vetustate militiae exercitatum, et hostibus inhabile parva scuta et enormes gladios gerentibus: nam Britannorum gladii sine mucrone complexum armorum et in aperto pugnam non tolerabant. Igitur, ut Batavi miscere ictus, ferire umbonibus, ora foedare, et stratis qui in aequo obstiterant, erigere in colles aciem coepere, ceterae cohortes, aemulatione et impetu commistae, proximos quosque caedere; ac plerique semineces aut integri festinatione victoriae relinquebantur. Interim equitum turmae fugere, covinarii peditum se proelio miscuere: et, quanquam recentem terrorem intulerant, densis tamen hostium agminibus et inaequalibus locis haerebant: minimeque equestris ea pugnae facies erat, cum aegre diu stantes simul equorum corporibus impellerentur, ac saepe vagi currus, exterriti sine rectoribus equi, ut quemque formido tulerat, transversos aut obvios incursabant.

XXXVII. Et Britanni, qui adhuc pugnae expertes summa collium insederant et paucitatem nostrorum vacui spernebant, degredi paulatim et circumire terga vincentium coeperant: ni id ipsum veritus Agricola, quatuor equitum alas, ad subita belli retentas, venientibus opposuisset, quantoque ferocius accurrerant, tanto acrius pulsos in fugam disjecisset. Ita consilium Britannorum in ipsos versum: transvectaeque praecepto ducis a fronte pugnantium alae, aversam hostium aciem invasere. Tum vero patentibus locis grande et atrox spectaculum: sequi, vulnerare, capere atque eosdem, oblatis aliis, trucidare. Jam hostium, prout cuique ingenium erat, catervae armatorum paucioribus terga praestare, quidam inermes ultro ruere ac se morti offerre; passim arma et corpora et laceri artus et cruenta humus: et aliquando etiam victis ira virtusque; postquam silvis appropinquarunt, collecti primos sequentium incautos et locorum ignaros circumveniebant. Quod ni frequens ubique Agricola validas et expeditas cohortes indaginis modo, et, sicubi arctiora erant, partem equitum dimissis equis, simul rariores silvas equitem persultare jussisset, acceptum aliquod vulnus per nimiam fiduciam foret. Ceterum, ubi compositos firmis ordinibus sequi rursus videre, in fugam versi, non agminibus, ut prius, nec alius alium respectantes, rari et vitabundi invicem, longinqua atque avia petiere. Finis sequendi nox et satietas fuit: caesa hostium ad decem millia: nostrorum trecenti sexaginta cecidere: in quis Aulus Atticus praefectus cohortis, juvenili ardore et ferocia equi hostibus illatus.

XXXVIII. Et nox quidem gaudio praedaque laeta victoribus: Britanni palantes, mixtoque virorum mulierumque ploratu, trahere vulneratos, vocare integros, deserere domos ac per iram ultro incendere: eligere latebras et statim relinquere: miscere invicem consilia aliqua, dein separare: aliquando frangi aspectu pignorum suorum, saepius concitari: satisque constabat, saevisse quosdam in conjuges ac liberos, tanquam misererentur. Proximus dies faciem victoriae latius aperuit: vastum ubique silentium, secreti colles, fumantia procul tecta, nemo exploratoribus obvius: quibus in omnem partem dimissis, ubi incerta fugae vestigia neque usquam conglobari hostes compertum et exacta jam aestate spargi bellum nequibat, in fines Horestorum exercitum deducit. Ibi acceptis obsidibus, praefecto classis circumvehi Britanniam praecepit. Datae ad id vires, et praecesserat terror. Ipse peditem atque equites lento itinere, quo novarum gentium animi ipsa transitus mora terrerentur, in hibernis locavit. Et simul classis secunda tempestate ac fama Trutulensem portum tenuit, unde proximo latere Britanniae lecto omni redierat.

XXXIX. Hunc rerum cursum, quanquam nulla verborum jactantia epistolis Agricolae actum, ut Domitiano moris erat, fronte laetus, pectore anxius excepit. Inerat conscientia derisui fuisse nuper falsum e Germania triumphum, emptis per commercia, quorum habitus et crines in captivorum speciem formarentur: at nunc veram magnamque victoriam, tot millibus hostium caesis, ingenti fama celebrari. Id sibi maxime formidolosum, privati hominis nomen supra principis attolli: frustra studia fori et civilium artium decus in silentium acta, si militarem gloriam alius occuparet: et cetera utcumque facilius dissimulari: ducis boni imperatoriam virtutem esse. Talibus curis exercitus, quodque saevae cogitationis indicium erat, secreto suo satiatus, optimum in praesentia statuit reponere odium, donec impetus famae et favor exercitus languesceret: nam etiam tum Agricola Britanniam obtinebat.

XL. Igitur triumphalia ornamenta et illustris statuae honorem et quidquid pro triumpho datur, multo verborum honore cumulata, decerni in senatu jubet; addique insuper opinionem, Syriam provinciam Agricolae destinari, vacuam tum morte Atilii Rufi consularis et majoribus reservatam. Credidere plerique libertum ex secretioribus ministeriis missum ad Agricolam codicillos, quibus ei Syria dabatur, tulisse cum praecepto, ut, si in Britannia foret, traderentur: eumque libertum in ipso freto Oceani obvium Agricolae, ne appellato quidem eo, ad Domitianum remeasse: sive verum istud, sive ex ingenio principis fictum ac compositum est. Tradiderat interim Agricola successori suo provinciam quietam tutamque. Ac, ne notabilis celebritate et frequentia occurrentium introitus esset, vitato amicorum officio, noctu in urbem, noctu in palatium, ita ut praeceptum erat, venit: exceptusque brevi osculo et nullo sermone turbae servientium immixtus est. Ceterum, ut militare nomen, grave inter otiosos, aliis virtutibus temperaret, tranquillitatem atque otium penitus auxit, cultu modicus, sermone facilis, uno aut altero amicorum comitatus; adeo ut plerique quibus magnos viros per ambitionem aestimare mos est, viso aspectoque Agricola, quaererent famam, pauci interpretarentur.

XLI. Crebro per eos dies apud Domitianum absens accusatus, absens absolutus est. Causa periculi non crimen ullum aut querela laesi cujusquam, sed infensus virtutibus princeps et gloria viri ac pessimum inimicorum genus, laudantes. Et ea insecuta sunt reipublicae tempora, quae sileri Agricolam non sinerent: tot exercitus in Moesia Daciaque et Germania Pannoniaque, temeritate aut per ignaviam ducum amissi: tot militares viri cum tot cohortibus expugnati et capti: nec jam de limite imperii et ripa, sed de hibernis legionum et possessione dubitatum. Ita, cum damna damnis continuarentur atque omnis annus funeribus et cladibus insigniretur, poscebatur ore vulgi dux Agricola: comparantibus cunctis vigorem, constantiam et expertum bellis animum cum inertia et formidine ceterorum. Quibus sermonibus satis constat Domitiani quoque aures verberatas, dum optimus quisque libertorum amore et fide, pessimi malignitate et livore, pronum deterioribus principem exstimulabant. Sic Agricola simul suis virtutibus, simul vitiis aliorum, in ipsam gloriam praeceps agebatur.

XLII. Aderat jam annus, quo proconsulatum Asiae et Africae sortiretur, et occiso Civica nuper nec Agricolae consilium deerat, nec Domitiano exemplum. Accessere quidam cogitationum principis periti, qui, iturusne esset in provinciam, ultro Agricolam interrogarent: ac primo occultius quietem et otium laudare, mox operam suam in approbanda excusatione offerre: postremo non jam obscuri, suadentes simul terrentesque, pertraxere ad Domitianum; qui paratus simulatione, in arrogantiam compositus, et audiit preces excusantis, et, cum annuisset, agi sibi gratias passus est: nec erubuit beneficii invidia. Salarium tamen, proconsulari solitum offerri et quibusdam a se ipso concessum, Agricolae non dedit: sive offensus non petitum, sive ex conscientia, ne, quod vetuerat, videretur emisse. Proprium humani ingenii est, odisse quem laeseris: Domitiani vero natura praeceps in iram, et quo obscurior, eo irrevocabilior, moderatione tamen prudentiaque Agricolae leniebatur: quia non contumacia neque inani jactatione libertatis famam fatumque provocabat. Sciant. quibus moris illicita mirari, posse etiam sub malis principibus magnos viros esse: obsequiumque ac modestiam, si industria ac vigor adsint, eo laudis excedere, quo plerique per abrupta, sed in nullum reipublicae usum, ambitiosa morte inclaruerunt.

XLIII. Finis vitae ejus nobis luctuosus, amicis tristis, extraneis etiam ignotisque non sine cura fuit. Vulgus quoque et hic aliud agens populus et ventitavere ad domum, et per fora et circulos locuti sunt: nec quisquam audita morte Agricolae aut laetatus est aut statim oblitus. Augebat miserationem constans rumor, veneno interceptum. Nobis nihil comperti affirmare ausim: ceterum per omnem valetudinem ejus, crebrius quam ex more principatus per nuntios visentis, et libertorum primi et medicorum intimi venere: sive cura illud sive inquisitio erat. Supremo quidem die, momenta deficientis per dispositos cursores nuntiata constabat, nullo credente sic accelerari, quae tristis audiret. Speciem tamen doloris animo vultuque prae se tulit, securus jam odii, et qui facilius dissimularet gaudium, quam metum. Satis constabat, lecto testamento Agricolae, quo cohaeredem optimae uxori et piissimae filiae Domitianum scripsit, laetatum eum velut honore judicioque: tam caeca et corrupta mens assiduis adulationibus erat, ut nesciret a bono patre non scribi haeredem, nisi malum principem.

XLIV. Natus erat Agricola, Caio Caesare tertium consule, Idibus Juniis: excessit sexto et quinquagesimo anno, decimo Kalendas Septembris, Collega Priscoque consulibus. Quod si habitum quoque ejus posteri noscere velint, decentior quam sublimior fuit; nihil metus in vultu, gratia oris supererat bonum virum facile crederes, magnum libenter. Et ipse quidem, quanquam medio in spatio integrae aetatis ereptus, quantum ad gloriam, longissimum aevum peregit. Quippe et vera bona, quae in virtutibus sita sunt, impleverat, et consulari ac triumphalibus ornamentis praedito, quid aliud adstruere fortuna poterat? Opibus nimiis non gaudebat; speciosae contigerant. Filia atque uxore superstitibus, potest videri etiam beatus; incolumi dignitate, florente fama, salvis affinitatibus et amicitiis, futura effugisse. Nam sicuti durare in hac beatissimi saeculi luce ac principem Trajanum videre, quod augurio votisque apud nostras aures ominabatur, ita festinatae mortis grande solatium tulit, evasisse postremum illud tempus, quo Domitianus non jam per intervalla ac spiramenta temporum, sed continuo et velut uno ictu rempublicam exhausit.

XLV. Non vidit Agricola obsessam curiam, et clausum armis senatum, et eadem strage tot consularium caedes, tot nobilissimarum feminarum exsilia et fugas. Una adhuc victoria Carus Metius censebatur, et intra Albanam arcem sententia Messalini strepebat, et Massa Bebius jam tum reus erat. Mox nostrae duxere Helvidium in carcerem manus: nos Maurici Rusticique visus, nos innocenti sanguine Senecio perfudit. Nero tamen subtraxit oculos jussitque scelera, non spectavit: praecipua sub Domitiano miseriarum pars erat videre et aspici: cum suspiria nostra subscriberentur; cum denotandis tot hominum palloribus sufficeret saevus ille vultus et rubor, quo se contra pudorem muniebat. Tu vero felix, Agricola, non vitae tantum claritate, sed etiam opportunitate mortis. Ut perhibent qui interfuerunt novissimis sermonibus tuis, constans et libens fatum excepisti; tanquam pro virili portione innocentiam principi donares. Sed mihi filiaeque ejus, praeter acerbitatem parentis erepti, auget moestitiam, quod assidere valetudini, fovere deficientem, satiari vultu, complexu, non contigit: excepissemus certe mandata vocesque, quas penitus animo figeremus. Noster hic dolor, nostrum vulnus: nobis tam longae absentiae conditione ante quadriennium amissus est. Omnia sine dubio, optime parentum, assidente amantissima uxore, superfuere honori tuo: paucioribus tamen lacrimis compositus es, et novissima in luce desideravere aliquid oculi tui.

XLVI. Si quis piorum manibus locus, si, ut sapientibus placet, non cum corpore exstinguuntur magnae animae, placide quiescas, nosque, domum tuam, ab infirmo desiderio et muliebribus lamentis ad contemplationem virtutum tuarum voces, quas neque lugeri neque plangi fas est: admiratione te potius, te immortalibus laudibus, et, si natura suppeditet, similitudine decoremus. Is verus honos, ea conjunctissimi cujusque pietas. Id filiae quoque uxorique praeceperim, sic patris, sic mariti memoriam venerari, ut omnia facta dictaque ejus secum revolvant, formamque ac figuram animi magis quam corporis complectantur: non quia intercedendum putem imaginibus, quae marmore aut aere finguntur; sed ut vultus hominum, ita simulacra vultus imbecilla ac mortalia sunt; forma mentis aeterna, quam tenere et exprimere non per alienam materiam et artem, sed tuis ipse moribus possis. Quidquid ex Agricola amavimus, quidquid mirati sumus, manet mansurumque est in animis hominum, in aeternitate temporum, fama rerum. Nam multos veterum, velut inglorios, et ignobiles, oblivio obruet: Agricola posteritati narratus et traditus superstes erit.



NOTES



TABLE OF ABBREVIATIONS.

Several words, which occur most frequently in the Notes, are abbreviated. Of these the following classes may require explanation. The other abbreviations are either familiar or sufficiently obvious of themselves.

1. WORKS OF TACITUS.

A. Agricola. Ann. Annals. G. Germania. H. Histories. T. Tacitus.

2. ANNOTATORS CITED AS AUTHORITIES.

Br. Brotier. D. or Doed. Doederlein. Dr. Dronke. E. Ernesti. Gr. Gruber. Guen. Guenther. K. Kiessling. Ky. Kingsley. Mur. Murphy. Or. Orelli. Pass. Passow. R. Roth. Rhen. Rhenanus. Rit. Ritter. Rup. Ruperti. W. Walch. Wr. Walther.

3. OTHER AUTHORITIES.

H. Harkness' Latin Grammar. Beck. Gall. Becker's Gallus. Boet. Lex. Tac. Boetticher's Lexicon Taciteun. For. and Fac. Forcellini and Facciolati's Latin Lexicon. Tur. His. Ang. Sax. Turner's History of the Anglo-Saxons. Z. Zumpt's Latin Grammar.



GERMANIA.

The Treatise DE SITU, MORIBUS ET POPULIS GERMANIAE, was written (as appears from the treatise itself see Sec. 37) in the second consulship of the Emperor Trajan, A.U.C. 851, A.D. 98. The design of the author in its publication has been variously interpreted. From the censure which it frequently passes upon the corruption and degeneracy of the times, it has been considered as a mere satire upon Roman manners, in the age of Tacitus. But to say nothing of the ill adaptation of the whole plan to a satirical work, there are large parts of the treatise, which must have been prepared with great labor, and yet can have no possible bearing on such a design. Satires are not wont to abound in historical notices and geographical details, especially touching a foreign and distant land.

The same objection lies against the political ends, which have been imputed to the author, such as the persuading of Trajan to engage, or not to engage, in a war with the Germans, as the most potent and dangerous enemy of Rome. For both these aims have been alleged, and we might content ourselves with placing the one as an offset against the other. But aside from the neutralizing force of such contradictions, wherefore such an imposing array of geographical research, of historical lore, of political and moral philosophy, for the accomplishment of so simple a purpose? And why is the purpose so scrupulously concealed, that confessedly it can be gathered only from obscure intimations, and those of ambiguous import? Besides, there are passages whose tendency must have been directly counter to either of these alleged aims (cf. note Sec. 33). The author does indeed, in the passage just cited, seem to appreciate with almost prophetic accuracy, those dangers to the Roman Empire, which were so fearfully illustrated in its subsequent fall beneath the power of the German Tribes; and he utters, as what true Roman would not in such forebodings, the warnings and the prayers of a patriot sage. But he does this only in episodes, which are so manifestly incidental, and yet arise so naturally out of the narrative or description, that it is truly surprising it should ever have occurred to any reader, to seek in them the key to the whole treatise.

The entire warp and woof of the work is obviously historical and geographical. The satire, the political maxims, the moral sentiments, and all the rest, are merely incidental, interwoven for the sake of instruction and embellishment, inwrought because a mind so thoughtful and so acute as that of Tacitus, could not leave them out. Tacitus had long been collecting the materials for his Roman Histories. In so doing, his attention was necessarily drawn often and with special interest to a people, who, for two centuries and more, had been the most formidable enemy of the Roman State. In introducing them into his history, he would naturally wish to give some preliminary account of their origin, manners, and institutions, as he does in introducing the Jews in the Fifth Book of his Histories, which happens to be, in part, preserved. Nor would it be strange, if he should, with this view, collect a mass of materials, which he could not incorporate entire into a work of such compass, and which any slight occasion might induce him to publish in a separate form, perhaps as a sort of forerunner to his Histories. [It has even been argued by highly respectable scholars, that the Germania of Tacitus is itself only such a collection of materials, not published by the Author, and never intended for publication in that form. But it is quite too methodical, too studied, and too finished a work to admit of that supposition (cf. Prolegom. of K.).] Such an occasion now was furnished in the campaigns and victories of Trajan, who, at the time of his elevation to the imperial power, was at the head of the Roman armies in Germany, where he also remained for a year or more after his accession to the throne, till he had received the submission of the hostile tribes and wiped away the disgrace which the Germans, beyond any other nation of that age, had brought upon the Roman arms. Such a people, at such a time, could not fail to be an object of deep interest at Rome. This was the time when Tacitus published his work on Germany; and such are believed to have been the motives and the circumstances, which led to the undertaking. His grand object was not to point a satire or to compass a political end, but as he himself informs us (Sec. 27), to treat of the origin and manners, the geography and history, of the German Tribes.

The same candor and sincerity, the same correctness and truthfulness, which characterize the Histories, mark also the work on Germany. The author certainly aimed to speak the truth, and nothing but the truth, on the subject of which he treats. Moreover, he had abundant means of knowing the truth, on all the main points, in the character and history of the Germans. It has even been argued from such expression as vidimus (Sec. 8), that Tacitus had himself been in Germany, and could, therefore, write from personal observation. Bnt the argument proceeds on a misinterpretation of his language (cf. note in loc. cit.). And the use of accepimus (as in Sec. 27), shows that he derived his information from others. But the Romans had been in constant intercourse and connection, civil or military, with the Germans, for two hundred years. Germany furnished a wide theatre for their greatest commanders, and a fruitful theme for their best authors, some of whom, as Julius Caesar (to whom Tacitus particularly refers, 28), were themselves the chief actors in what they relate. These authors, some of whose contributions to the history of Germany are now lost (e.g. the elder Pliny, who wrote twenty books on the German wars), must have all been in the hands of Tacitus, and were, doubtless, consulted by him; not, however, as a servile copyist, or mere compiler (for he sometimes differs from his authorities, from Caesar even, whom he declares to be the best of them), but as a discriminating and judicious inquirer. The account of German customs and institutions may, therefore, be relied on, from the intrinsic credibility of the author. It receives confirmation, also, from its general accordance with other early accounts of the Germans, and with their better known subsequent history, as well as from its strong analogy to the well-known habits of our American aborigines, and other tribes in a like stage of civilization (cf. note, Sec. 15). The geographical details are composed with all the accuracy which the ever-shifting positions and relations of warring and wandering tribes rendered possible in the nature of the case (cf. note, Sec. 28). In sentiment, the treatise is surpassingly rich and instructive, like all the works of this prince of philosophical historians. In style, it is concise and nervous, yet quite rhetorical, and in parts, even poetical to a fault (see notes passim, cf. also, Monboddo's critique on the style of Tacitus). "The work," says La Bletterie, "is brief without being superficial. Within the compass of a few pages, it comprises more of ethics and politics, more fine delineations of character, more substance and pith (suc), than can be collected from many a ponderous volume. It is not one of those barely agreeable descriptions, which gradually diffuse their influence over the soul, and leave it in undisturbed tranquillity. It is a picture in strong light, like the subject itself, full of fire, of sentiment, of lightning-flashes, that go at once to the heart. We imagine ourselves in Germany; we become familiar with these so-called barbarians; we pardon their faults, and almost their vices, out of regard to their virtues; and in our moments of enthusiasm, we even wish we were Germans."

The following remarks of Murphy will illustrate the value of the treatise, to modern Europeans and their descendants. "It is a draught of savage manners, delineated by a masterly hand; the more interesting, as the part of the world which it describes was the seminary of the modern European nations, the VAGINA GENTIUM, as historians have emphatically called it. The work is short but, as Montesquieu observes, it is the work of a man who abridged every thing, because he knew every thing. A thorough knowledge of the transactions of barbarous ages, will throw more light than is generally imagined on the laws of modern times. Wherever the barbarians, who issued from their northern hive, settled in new habitations, they carried with them their native genius, their original manners, and the first rudiments of the political system which has prevailed in different parts of Europe. They established monarchy and liberty, subordination and freedom, the prerogative of the prince and the rights of the subject, all united in so bold a combination, that the fabric, in some places, stands to this hour the wonder of mankind. The British constitution, says Montesquieu, came out of the woods of Germany. What the state of this country (Britain) was before the arrival of our Saxon ancestors, Tacitus has shown in the life of Agricola. If we add to his account of the Germans and Britons, what has been transmitted to us, concerning them, by Julius Caesar, we shall see the origin of the Anglo-Saxon government, the great outline of that Gothic constitution under which the people enjoy their rights and liberties at this hour. Montesquieu, speaking of his own country, declares it impossible to form an adequate notion of the French monarchy, and the changes of their government, without a previous inquiry into the manners, genius, and spirit of the German nations. Much of what was incorporated with the institutions of those fierce invaders, has flowed down in the stream of time, and still mingles with our modern jurisprudence. The subject, it is conceived, is interesting to every Briton. In the manners of the Germans, the reader will see our present frame of government, as it were, in its cradle, gentis cunabula nostrae! in the Germans themselves, a fierce and warlike people, to whom this country owes that spirit of liberty, which, through so many centuries, has preserved our excellent form of government, and raised the glory of the British nation:

———Genus unde Latinum, Albanique patres, atque altae moenia Romae."

CHAP. I. Germania stands first as the emphatic word, and is followed by omnis for explanation. Germania omnis here does not include Germania Prima and Secunda, which were Roman provinces on the left bank of the Rhine (so called because settled by Germans). It denotes Germany proper, as a whole, in distinction from the provinces just mentioned and from the several tribes, of which Tacitus treats in the latter part of the work. So Caesar (B.G. 1,1) uses Gallia omnis, as exclusive of the Roman provinces called Gaul and inclusive of the three parts, which he proceeds to specify.

Gallis—Pannoniis. People used for the countries. Cf. His. 5,6: Phoenices. Gaul, now France; Rhaetia, the country of the Grisons and the Tyrol, with part of Bavaria; Pannonia, lower Hungary and part of Austria. Germany was separated from Gaul by the Rhine; from Rhaetia and Pannonia, by the Danube.—Rheno et Danubio. Rhine and Rhone are probably different forms of the same root (Rh-n). Danube, in like manner, has the same root as Dnieper (Dn-p); perhaps also the same as Don and Dwina (D-n). Probably each of these roots was originally a generic name for river, water, stream. So there are several Avons in England and Scotland. Cf. Latham's Germania sub voc.

Sarmatis Dacisque. The Slavonic Tribes were called Sarmatians by the ancients. Sarmatia included the country north of the Carpathian Mountains, between the Vistula and the Don in Europe, together with the adjacent part of Asia, without any definite limits towards the north, which was terra incognita to the ancients—in short, Sarmatia was Russia, as far as known at that time. Dacia lay between the Carpathian mountains on the north, and the Danube on the south, including Upper Hungary, Transylvania, Wallachia, and Moldavia.

Mutuo metu. Rather a poetical boundary! Observe also the alliteration. At the same time, the words are not a bad description of those wide and solitary wastes, which, as Caesar informs us (B.G. 6, 23), the Germans delighted to interpose between themselves and other nations, so that it might appear that no one dared to dwell near them.—Montibus. The Carpathian.—Cetera. Ceteram Germaniae partem.

Sinus. This word denotes any thing with a curved outline (cf. 29, also A. 23); hence bays, peninsulas, and prominent bends or borders, whether of land or water. Here peninsulas (particularly that of Jutland, now Denmark), for it is to the author's purpose here to speak of land rather than water, and the ocean is more properly said to embrace peninsulas, than gulfs and bays. Its association with islands here favors the same interpretation. So Passow, Or., Rit. Others, with less propriety, refer it to the gulfs and bays, which so mark the Baltic and the German Oceans.—Oceanus here, includes both the Baltic Sea, and the German Ocean (Oceanus Septentrionalis).

Insularum—spatia. Islands of vast extent, viz. Funen, Zealand, &c. Scandinavia also (now Sweden and Norway) was regarded by the ancients as an island, cf. Plin. Nat. His. iv. 27: quarum (insularum) clarissima Scandinavia est, incompertae magnitudinis.

Nuper—regibus. Understand with this clause ut compertum est. The above mentioned features of the Northern Ocean had been discovered in the prosecution of the late wars, of the Romans, among the tribes and kings previously unknown. Nuper is to be taken in a general sense==recentioribus temporibus, cf. nuper additum, Sec. 2, where it goes back one hundred and fifty years to the age of Julius Caesar.—Bellum. War in general, no particular war.—Versus. This word has been considered by some as an adverb, and by others as a preposition. It is better however to regard it as a participle, like ortus, with which it is connected, though without a conjunction expressed. Ritter omits in.

Molli et clementer edito. Of gentle slope and moderate elevation in studied antithesis to inaccesso ac praecipiti, lofty and steep. In like manner, jugo, ridge, summit, is contrasted with vertice, peak, height, cf. Virg. Ecl. 9, 7: molli clivo; Ann. 17, 38: colles clementer assurgentes. The Rhaetian Alps, now the mountains of the Grisons. Alp is a Celtic word==hill. Albion has the same root==hilly country. Mons Abnoba (al. Arnoba) is the northern part of the Schwartzwald, or Black Forest.—Erumpat, al. erumpit. But the best MSS. and all the recent editions have erumpat: and Tacitus never uses the pres. ind. after donec, until, cf. Rup. & Rit. in loc. Whenever he uses the present after donec, until, he seems to have conceived the relation of the two clauses, which it connects, as that of a means to an end, or a condition to a result, and hence to have used the subj. cf. chap. 20: separet; 31: absolvat; 35: sinuetur; Ann. 2, 6: misceatur. The two examples last cited, like this, describe the course of a river and boundary line. For the general rule of the modes after donec, see H. 522; Z. 575. See also notes H. 1, 13. 35.—Septimum. According to the common understanding, the Danube had seven mouths. So Strabo, Mela, Ammian, and Ovid; Pliny makes six. T. reconciles the two accounts. The enim inserted after septimum in most editions is not found in the best mss. and is unnecessary. Or. & Rit. omit it.

II. Ipsos marks the transition from the country to the people—the Germans themselves. So A. 13: Ipsi Britanni.

Crediderim. Subj. attice. A modest way of expressing his opinion, like our: I should say, I am inclined to think. H. 486, I. 3; Z. 527.

Adventibus et hospitiis. Immigrants and visitors. Adventibus certae sedes, hospitiis preregrinationes significantur. Guen. Both abstract for concrete. Doed. compares [Greek: epoikoi] and [Greek: metoikoi].

Terra—advehebantur. Zeugma for terra adveniebant, classibus advehebantur. H. 704, I. 2; Z. 775.

Nec—et. These correlatives connect the members more closely than et—et; as in Greek oute-te. The sentiment here advanced touching colonization (as by sea, rather than by land), though true of Carthage, Sicily, and most Grecian, colonies, is directly the reverse of the general fact; and Germany itself is now known to have received its population by land emigration, from western Asia. The Germans, as we learn from affinities of languages and occasional references of historians and geographers, belonged to the same great stock of the human family with the Goths and Scythians, and may be traced back to that hive of nations, that primitive residence of mankind, the country east and south of the Caspian Sea and in the vicinity of Mount Ararat: cf. Tur. His. Ang. Sax. B. II. C. 1; also Donaldson's New Cratylus, B. I. Chap. 4. Latham's dogmatic skepticism will hardly shake the now established faith on this subject. The science of ethnography was unknown to the ancients. Tacitus had not the remotest idea, that all mankind were sprung from a common ancestry, and diffused themselves over the world from a common centre, a fact asserted in the Scriptures, and daily receiving fresh confirmation from literature and science. Hence he speaks of the Germans as indigenas, which he explains below by editum terra, sprung from the earth, like the mutum et turpe pecus of Hor. Sat. 1. 3, 100. cf. A. 11.

Mutare quaerebant. Quaerere with inf. is poet. constr., found, however, in later prose writers, and once in Cic. (de Fin. 313: quaeris scire, enclosed in brackets in Tauchnitz's edition), to avoid repetition of cupio. Cupio or volo mutare would be regular classic prose.

Adversus. That the author here uses adversus in some unusual and recondite sense, is intimated by the clause: ut sic dixerim. It is understood by some, of a sea unfriendly to navigation. But its connexion by que with immensus ultra, shows that it refers to position, and means lying opposite, i.e., belonging, as it were, to another hemisphere or world from ours; for so the Romans regarded the Northern Ocean and Britain itself, cf. A 12: ultra nostri orbis mensuram; G. 17: exterior oceanus. So Cic. (Som. Scip. 6.) says: Homines partim obliquos, partim aversos, partim etiam adversos, stare vobis. This interpretation is confirmed by ab orbe nostra in the antithesis. On the use of ut sic dixerim for ut sic dicam, which is peculiar to the silver age, see Z. 528.

Asia, sc. Minor. Africa, sc. the Roman Province of that name, comprising the territory of Carthage.—Peteret. The question implies a negative answer, cf. Z. 530. The subj. implies a protasis understood: if he could, or the like. H. 502.

Sit. Praesens, ut de re vera. Guen. Nisi si is nearly equivalent to nisi forte: unless perchance; unless if we may suppose the case. Cf. Wr. note on Ann. 2, 63, and Hand's Tursellinus, 3, 240.

Memoriae et annalium. Properly opposed to each other as tradition and written history, though we are not to infer that written books existed in Germany in the age of Tacitus.

Carminibus. Songs, ballads (from cano). Songs and rude poetry have been, in all savage countries, the memorials of public transactions, e.g. the runes of the Goths, the bards of the Britons and Celts, the scalds of Scandinavia, &c.

Tuisconem. The god from whom Tuesday takes its name, as Wednesday from Woden, Thursday from Thor, &c., cf. Sharon Turner's His. of Ang. Sax. app. to book 2. chap. 3. Some find in the name of this god the root of the words Teutonic, Dutch (Germ. Deutsche or Teutsche &c.,) Al. Tuistonem, Tristonem, &c. More likely it has the same root as the Latin divus, dius, deus, and the Greek theios, dios, theos, cf. Grimm's Deutsche Mythologie, sub v.

Terra editum==indigena above; and gaegenaes and autochthon in Greek.

Originem==auctores. It is predicate after Mannum.

Ut in licentia vetustatis. As in the license of antiquity, i.e. since such license is allowed in regard to ancient times.

Ingaevones. "According to some German antiquaries, the Ingaevones are die Einwohner, those dwelling inwards towards the sea; the Istaevones are die Westwohner, the inhabitants of the western parts; and the Hermiones are the Herumwohner, midland inhabitants," Ky. cf. Kiessling in loc. Others, e.g. Zeuss and Grimm, with more probability, find in these names the roots of German words significant of honor and bravery, assumed by different tribes or confederacies as epithets or titles of distinction. Grimm identifies these three divisions with the Franks, Saxons, and Thuringians of a later age. See further, note chap. 27.

Vocentur. The subj. expresses the opinion of others, not the direct affirmation of the author. H. 529; Z. 549.

Deo==hoc deo, sc. Mannus—Germ. Mann, Eng. Man.

Marsos, Gambrivios. Under the names of Franci and Salii these tribes afterwards became formidable to the Romans. Cf. Prichard's Researches into the Physical History of Mankind, Vol. III. chap. 6, sec. 2.— Suevos, cf. note, 38.—Vandalios. The Vandals, now so familiar in history.

Additum, sc. esse, depending on affirmant.

Nunc Tungri, sc. vocentur, cf. His. 4, 15, 16. In confirmation of the historical accuracy of this passage, Gr. remarks, that Caes. (B.G. 2, 4) does not mention the Tungri, but names four tribes on the left bank of the Rhine, who, he says, are called by the common name of Germans; while Pliny (Nat. His. 4, 31), a century later, gives not the names of these four tribes, but calls them by the new name Tungri.

Ita—vocarentur. Locus vexatissimus! exclaim all the critics. And so they set themselves to amend the text by conjecture. Some have written in nomen gentis instead of non gentis. Others have proposed a victorum metu, or a victo ob metum, or a victis ob metum. But these emendations are wholly conjectural and unnecessary. Guenther and Walch render a victore, from the victorious tribe, i.e. after the name of that tribe. But a se ipsis means by themselves; and the antithesis doubtless requires a to be understood in the same sense in both clauses. Grueber translates and explains thus: "In this way the name of a single tribe, and not of the whole people, has come into use, so that all, at first by the victor (the Tungri), in order to inspire fear, then by themselves (by the mouth of the whole people), when once the name became known, were called by the name of Germans. That is, the Tungri called all the kindred tribes that dwelt beyond the Rhine, Germans, in order to inspire fear by the wide extension of the name, since they gave themselves out to be a part of so vast a people; but at length all the tribes began to call themselves by this name, probably because they were pleased to see the fear which it excited." This is, on the whole, the most satisfactory explanation of the passage, and meets the essential concurrence of Wr., Or. and Doed.—Germani. If of German etymology, this word==gehr or wehr (Fr. guerre) and mann, men of war; hence the metus, which the name carried with it. If it is a Latin word corresponding only in sense with the original German, then==brethren. It will be seen, that either etymology would accord with Grueber's explanation of the whole passage—in either case, the name would inspire fear. The latter, however, is the more probable, cf. Ritter in loc. A people often bear quite different names abroad from that by which they call themselves at home. Thus the people, whom we call Germans, call themselves Deutsche (Dutch), and are called by the French Allemands, cf. Latham. Vocarentur is subj. because it stands in a subordinate clause of the oratio obliqua, cf. H. 531; Z. 603.

Metum. Here taken in an active sense; oftener passive, but used in both senses. Quintilian speaks of metum duplicem, quem patimur et quem facimus (6, 2, 21). cf. A. 44: nihil metus in vultu, i.e., nothing to inspire fear in his countenance. In like manner admiratio (Sec. 7) is used for the admiration which one excites, though it usually denotes the admiration which one feels. For ob, cf. Ann. 1, 79: ob moderandas Tiberis exundationes.

Nationis—gentis. Gens is often used by T. as a synonym with natio. But in antithesis, gens is the whole, of which nationes or populi are the parts, e.g. G. 4: populos—gentem; Sec. 14: nationes—genti. In like manner, in the civil constitution of Rome, a gens included several related families.

III. Herculem. That is, Romana interpretatione, cf. Sec. 34. The Romans found their gods everywhere, and ascribed to Hercules, quidquid ubique magnificum est, cf. note 34: quicquid—consensimus. That this is a Roman account of the matter is evident, from the use of eos, for if the Germans were the subject of memorant, se must have been used. On the use of et here, cf. note 11.

Primum—ut principem, fortissimum. Guen.

Haec quoque. Haec is rendered such by Ritter. But it seems rather, as Or. and Doed. explain it, to imply nearness and familiarity to the mind of the author and his readers: these well known songs. So 20: in haec corpora, quae miramur. Quoque, like quidem, follows the emphatic word in a clause, H. 602, III. 1; Z. 355.

Relatu, called cantus trux, H. 2, 22. A Tacitean word. Freund. Cf. H. 1, 30.

Baritum. Al. barditum and barritum. But the latter has no ms. authority, and the former seems to have been suggested by the bards of the Gauls, of whose existence among the Germans however there is no evidence. Doed. says the root of the word is common to the Greek, Latin, and German languages, viz. baren, i.e. fremere, a verb still used by the Batavians, and the noun bar, i.e. carmen, of frequent occurrence in Saxon poetry to this day.

Terrent trepidantve. They inspire terror or tremble with fear, according as the line (the troops drawn up in battle array) has sounded, sc. the baritus or battle cry. Thus the Batavians perceived, that the sonitus aciei on the part of the Romans was more feeble than their own, and pressed on, as to certain triumph. H. 4, 18. So the Highlanders augured victory, if their shouts were louder than those of the enemy. See Murphy in loco.

Repercussu. A post-Augustan word. The earlier Latin authors would have said repercussa, or repercutiendo. The later Latin, like the English, uses more abstract terms.—Nec tam—videntur. Nor do those carmina seem to be so much voices (well modulated and harmonized), as acclamations (unanimous, but inarticulate and indistinct) of courage. So Pliny uses concentus of the acclamations of the people. Panegyr. 2. It is often applied by the poets to the concerts of birds, as in Virg. Geor. 1, 422. It is here plural, cf. Or. in loc. The reading vocis is without MS. authority.

Ulixem. "The love of fabulous history, which was the passion of ancient times, produced a new Hercules in every country, and made Ulysses wander on every shore. Tacitus mentions it as a romantic tale; but Strabo seems willing to countenance the fiction, and gravely tells us that Ulysses founded a city, called Odyssey, in Spain. Lipsius observes, that Lisbon, in the name of Strabo, had the appellation of Ulysippo, or Olisipo. At this rate, he pleasantly adds, what should hinder us inhabitants of the Low Countries from asserting that Ulysses built the city of Ulyssinga, and Circe founded that of Circzea or Ziriczee?" Murphy.

Fabuloso errore. Storied, celebrated in song, cf. fabulosus Hydaspes. Hor. Od. 1, 227. Ulysses having wandered westward gave plausibility to alleged traces of him in Gaul, Spain and Germany—Asciburgium. Now Asburg.

Quin etiam, cf. notes, 13: quin etiam, and 14: quin immo.—Ulixi, i.e. ab Ulixe, cf. Ann. 15,41: Aedes statoris Jovis Romulo vota, i.e. by Romulus. This usage is especially frequent in the poets and the later prose writers, cf. H. 388, II. 3; Z. 419; and in T. above all others, cf. Boet. Lex. Tac. sub Dativus. Wr. and Rit. understand however an altar (or monument) consecrated to Ulysses, i.e. erected in honor of him by the citizens.

Adjecto. Inscribed with the name of his father, as well as his own, i.e. [Greek: Laertiadae].

Graecis litteris. Grecian characters, cf. Caes. B.G. 1, 29: In castris Helvetiorum, tabulae repertae sunt litteris Graecis confectae; and (6, 14): Galli in publicis privatisque rationibus Graecis utuntur litteris. T. speaks (Ann. 11, 14) of alphabetic characters, as passing from Phenicia into Greece, and Strabo (4, 1) traces them from the Grecian colony at Marseilles, into Gaul, whence they doubtless passed into Germany, and even into Britain.

IV. Aliis aliarum. The Greek and Latin are both fond of a repetition of different cases of the same word, even where one of them is redundant, e.g. [Greek: oioden oios] (Hom. II. 7, 39), and particularly in the words [Greek: allos] and alius. Aliis is not however wholly redundant; but brings out more fully the idea: no intermarriages, one with one nation, and another with another. Walch and Ritter omit aliis, though it is found in all the MSS.

Infectos. Things are said infici and imbui, which are so penetrated and permeated by something else, that that something becomes a part of its nature or substance, as inficere colore, sanguine, veneno, animum virtutibus. It does not necessarily imply corruption or degeneracy.

Propriam—similem. Three epithets not essentially different used for the sake of emphasis==peculiar, pure, and sui-generis. Similis takes the gen., when it expresses, as here, an internal resemblance in character; otherwise the dat., cf. Z. 411, H. 391, 2. 4.

Habitus. Form and features, external appearance. The physical features of the Germans as described by Tacitus, though still sufficient to distinguish them from the more southern European nations, have proved less permanent than their mental and social characteristics.

Idem omnibus. Cf. Juv. 13, 164:

Caerula quis stupuit Germani lumina? flavam Caesariem, et madido torquentem cornua cirro? Nempe quod haec illis natura est omnibus una.

Magna corpora. "Sidonius Apollinaris says, that, being in Germany and finding the men so very tall, he could not address verses of six feet to patrons who were seven feet high:

Spernit senipedem stilum Thalia, Ex quo septipedes vidit patronos." Mur.

Skeletons, in the ancient graves of Germany, are found to vary from 5 ft. 10 in. to 6 ft. 10 in. and even 7 ft. Cf. Ukert, Geog. III. 1. p. 197. These skeletons indicate a strong and well formed body.

Impetum. Temporary exertion, as opposed to persevering toil and effort, laboris atque operum.

Eadem. Not so much patientia, as ad impetum valida. See a like elliptical use of idem Sec. 23: eadem temperantia; Sec. 10: iisdem nemoribus. Also of totidem Sec. 26.

Minime—assueverunt. "Least of all, are they capable of sustaining thirst and heat; cold and hunger, they are accustomed, by their soil and climate, to endure." Ky. The force of minime is confined to the first clause, and the proper antithetic particle is omitted at the beginning of the second. Tolerare depends on assueverunt, and belongs to both clauses. Ve is distributive, referring coelo to frigora and solo to inediam. So vel in H. 1, 62: strenuis vel ignavis spem metumque addere==strenuis spem, ignavis metum addere.

V. Humidior—ventosior. Humidior refers to paludibus, ventosior to silvis; the mountains (which were exposed to sweeping winds) being for the most part covered with forests, and the low grounds with marshes. Ventosus==Homeric [Greek: aenemoeis], windy, i.e. lofty. H. 3, 305: [Greek: Ilion aenemoessan].

Satis ferax. Satis==segetibus poetice. Ferax is constructed with abl., vid. Virg. Geor. 2, 222: ferax oleo.

Impatiens. Not to be taken in the absolute sense, cf. Sec. 20, 23, 26, where fruit trees and fruits are spoken of.

Improcera agrees with pecora understood.

Armentis. Pecora—flocks in general. Armenta (from aro, to plough), larger cattle in particular. It may include horses.

Suus honor. Their proper, i.e. usual size and beauty.

Gloria frontis. Poetice for cornua. Their horns were small.

Numero. Emphatic: number, rather than quality. Or, with Ritter, gaudent may be taken in the sense of enjoy, possess: they have a good number of them. In the same sense he interprets gaudent in A. 44: opibus nimiis non gaudebat.

Irati, sc. quia opes sunt irritamenta malorum. Ov. Met. 1, 140.— Negaverint. Subj. H. 525; Z. 552—Affirmaverim. cf. note, 2: crediderim.

Nullam venam. "Mines of gold and silver have since been discovered in Germany; the former, indeed, inconsiderable, but the latter valuable." Ky. T. himself in his later work (the Annals), speaks of the discovery of a silver mine in Germany. Ann. 11, 20.

Perinde. Not so much as might be expected, or as the Romans, and other civilized nations. So Gronovius, Doed. and most commentators. See Rup. in loc. Others, as Or. and Rit. allow no ellipsis, and render: not much. See Hand's Tursellinus, vol. IV. p. 454. We sometimes use not so much, not so very, not so bad, &c., for not very, not much, and not bad. Still the form of expression strictly implies a comparison. And the same is true of haud perinde, cf. Boet. Lex. Tac.

Est videre. Est for licet. Graece et poetice. Not so used in the earlier Latin prose. See Z. 227.

Non in alia vilitate, i.e. eadem vilitate, aeque vilia, held in the same low estimation.—Humo. Abl. of material.

Proximi, sc. ad ripam. Nearest to the Roman border, opposed to interiores.

Serratos. Not elsewhere mentioned; probably coins with serrated edges, still found. The word is post-Augustan.

Bigatos. Roman coins stamped with a biga or two-horse chariot. Others were stamped with a quadriga and called quadrigati. The bigati seem to have circulated freely in foreign lands, cf. Ukert's Geog. of Greeks and Romans, III. 1: Trade of Germany, and places cited there. "The serrati and bigati were old coins, of purer silver than those of tho Emperors." Ky. Cf. Pliny, H. N. 33, 13.

Sequuntur. Sequi==expetere. So used by Cic., Sal., and the best writers. Compare our word seek.

Nulla affectione animi. Not from any partiality for the silver in itself (but for convenience).

Numerus. Greater number and consequently less relative value of the silver coins. On quia, cf. note, H. 1, 31.

VI. Ne—quidem. Not even, i.e. iron is scarce as well as gold and silver. The weapons found in ancient German graves are of stone, and bear a striking resemblance to those of the American Indians. Cf. Ukert, p. 216. Ad verba, cf. note, His. 1, 16: ne—fueris. The emphatic word always stands between ne and quidem. H. 602, III. 2; Z. 801.— Superest. Is over and above, i.e. abounds. So superest ager, Sec. 26.

Vel. Pro sive, Ciceroni inauditum. Guen. Cf. note, 17.

Frameas. The word is still found in Spain, as well as Germany. Lancea. is also a Spanish word, cf. Freund.

Nudi. Cf. Sec. 17, 20, and 24. Also Caes., B.G. 6, 21: magna corporis parte nuda.

Sagulo. Dim. of sago. A small short cloak.—Leves==Leviter induti. The clause nudi—leves is added here to show, that their dress is favorable to the use of missiles.

Missilia spargunt. Dictio est Virgiliana. K.

Coloribus. Cf. nigra scuta, Sec. 43. "Hence coats of arms and the origin of heraldry." Mur.

Cultus. Military equipments. Cultus complectitur omnia, quae studio et arte eis, quae natura instituit, adduntur. K.

Cassis aut galea. Cassis, properly of metal; galea of leather (Gr.: galen); though the distinction is not always observed.

Equi—conspicui. Cf. Caes. B.G. 4, 2, 7, 65.

Sed nec variare. But (i.e. on the other hand) they are not even (for nec in this sense see Ritter in loc.) taught to vary their curves (i.e. as the antithesis shows, to bend now towards the right and now towards the left in their gyrations), but they drive them straight forward or by a constant bend towards the right in so connected a circle (i.e. a complete ring), that no one is behind (for the obvious reason, that there is neither beginning nor end to such a ring). Such is on the whole the most satisfactory explanation of this difficult passage, which we can give after a careful examination. A different version was given in the first edition. It refers not to battle, but to equestrian exercises, cf. Gerlach, as cited by Or. in loc.

Aestimanti. Greek idiom. Elliptical dative, nearly equivalent to the abl. abs. (nobis aestimantibus), and called by some the dat. abs. In A. II. the ellipsis is supplied by credibile est. Cf. Boetticher's Lex. Tac. sub Dativus.

Eoque mixti. Eo, causal particle==for that reason. Caesar adopted this arrangement in the battle of Pharsalia. B.C. 3, 84. The Greeks also had [Greek: pezoi amippoi]. Xen. Hellen. 7, 5.

Centeni. A hundred is a favorite number with the Germans and their descendants. Witness the hundred pagi of the Suevi (Caes. B.G. 4, 1), and of the Semnones (G. 39), the cantons of Switzerland, and the hundreds of our Saxon ancestors in England. The centeni here are a military division. In like manner, Caesar (B.G. 4, 1) speaks of a thousand men drafted annually from each pagus of the Suevi, for military service abroad.

Idque ipsum. Predicate nominative after a verb of calling, H. 362, 2. 2; Z. 394. The division was called a hundred, and each man in it a hundreder; and such was the estimation in which this service was held, that to be a hundreder, became an honorable distinction, nomen et honor==honorificum nomen.

Cuneos. A body of men arranged in the form of a wedge, i.e. narrow in front and widening towards the rear; hence peculiarly adapted to break the lines of the enemy.

Consilii quam formidinis. Supply magis. The conciseness of T. leads him often to omit one of two correlative particles, cf. note on minime, 4.

Referunt. Carry into the rear, and so secure them for burial.

Etiam in dubiis proeliis. Even while the battle remains undecided. Guen.

Finierunt. In a present or aorist sense, as often in T. So prohibuerunt, Sec. 10; placuit and displicuit, 11. cf. Lex. Tac. Boet.

VII. Reges, civil rulers; duces, military commanders. Ex== secundum. So ex ingenio, Sec. 3. The government was elective, yet not without some regard to hereditary distinctions. They chose (sumunt) their sovereign, but chose him from the royal family, or at least one of noble extraction. They chose also their commander—the king, if he was the bravest and ablest warrior; if not, they were at liberty to choose some one else. And among the Germans, as among their descendants, the Franks, the authority of the commander was quite distinct from, and sometimes (in war) paramount to, that of the king. Here Montesquieu and others find the original of the kings of the first race in the French monarchy, and the mayors of the palace, who once had so much power in France. Cf. Sp. of Laws, B. 31, chap. 4.

Nec is correlative to et. The kings on the one hand do not possess unlimited or unrestrained authority, and the commanders on the other, &c. Infinita==sine modo; libera==sine vinculo. Wr. Potestas==rightful power, authority; potentia==power without regard to right, ability, force, cf. note, 42. Ad rem, cf. Caes. B.G. 5, 27. Ambiorix tells Caesar, that though he governed, yet the people made laws for him, and the supreme power was shared equally between him and them.

Exemplo—imperio. "Dative after sunt==are to set an example, rather than to give command." So Grueber and Doed. But Wr. and Rit. with more reason consider them as ablatives of means limiting a verb implied in duces: commanders (command) more by example, than by authority (official power). See the principle well stated and illustrated in Doederlein's Essay on the style of Tacitus, p. 15, in my edition of the Histories.

Admiratione praesunt. Gain influence, or ascendency, by means of the admiration which they inspire, cf. note on metus, Sec. 2.

Agant. Subj., ut ad judicium admirantium, non mentem scriptoris trahatur. Guen.

Animadvertere==interficere. Cf. H. 1, 46. 68. None but the priests are allowed to put to death, to place in irons, nor even (ne quidem) to scourge. Thus punishment was clothed with divine authority.

Effigies et signa. Images and standards, i.e. images, which serve for standards. Images of wild beasts are meant, cf. H. 4, 22: depromptae silvis lucisve ferarum imagines.—Turmam, cavalry. Cuneum, infantry, but sometimes both. Conglobatio is found only in writers after the Augustan age and rarely in them. It occurs in Sen. Qu. Nat. 1, 15, cf. Freund.

Familiae is less comprehensive than propinquitates. Audiri, sc. solent. Cf. A. 34 ruere. Wr. calls it histor. inf., and Rit. pronounces it a gloss.

Pignora. Whatever is most dear, particularly mothers, wives, and children.—Unde, adv. of place, referring to in proximo.

Vulnera ferunt, i.e. on their return from battle.

Exigere. Examine, and compare, to see who has the most and the most honorable, or perhaps to soothe and dress them.—Cibos et hortamina. Observe the singular juxtaposition of things so unlike. So 1: metu aut montibus; A. 25: copiis et laetitia; 37: nox et satietas; 38: gaudio praedaque.

VIII. Constantia precum==importunate entreaties.

Objectu pectorum. By opposing their breasts, not to the enemy but to their retreating husbands, praying for death in preference to captivity.

Monstrata—captivitate. Cominus limits captivitate, pointing to captivity as just before them.—Impatientius. Impatienter and impatientia (the adv. and the subst.) are post-Augustan words. The adj. (impatiens) is found earlier. Cf. Freund.

Feminarum—nomine, i.e. propter feminas suas. Guen. So Cic.: tuo nomine et reipublicae==on your account and for the sake of the republic. But it means perhaps more than that here, viz. in the person of. They dreaded captivity more for their women than for themselves. Adeo==insomuch that.

Inesse, sc. feminis. They think, there is in their women something sacred and prophetic. Cf. Caes. B.G. 1, 50, where Caesar is informed by the prisoners, that Ariovistus had declined an engagement because the women had declared against coming to action before the new moon.— Consilia, advice in general; responsa, inspired answers, when consulted.

Vidimus, i.e. she lived in our day—under the reign of Vespasian.— Veledam. Cf. H. 4, 61. 65.

Auriniam. Aurinia seems to have been a common name in Germany for prophetess or wise woman. Perhaps==Al-runas, women knowing all things. So Veleda==wise woman. Cf. Wr. in loc.

Non adulatione, etc. "Not through adulation, nor as if they were raising mortals to the rank of goddesses." Ky. This is one of those oblique censures on Roman customs in which the treatise abounds. The Romans in the excess of their adulation to the imperial family made ordinary women goddesses, as Drusilla, sister of Caligula, the infant daughter of Poppaea (Ann. 15, 23), and Poppaea herself (Dio 63, 29). The Germans, on the other hand, really thought some of their wise women to be divine. Cf. His. 4, 62, and my note ibid. Reverence and affection for woman was characteristic of the German Tribes, and from them has diffused itself throughout European society.

IX. Deorum. T. here, as elsewhere, applies Roman names, and puts a Roman construction (Romana interpretatione, Sec. 43), upon the gods of other nations, cf. Sec. 3.

Mercurium. So Caes. B.G. 6, 17: Deum maxime Mercurium colunt. Probably the German Woden, whose name is preserved in our Wednesday, as that of Mercury is in the French name of the same day, and who with a name slightly modified (Woden, Wuotan, Odin), was a prominent object of worship among all the nations of Northern Europe. Mars is perhaps the German god of war (Tiw, Tiu, Tuisco) whence Tuesday, French Mardi, cf. Tur. His. Ang. Sax. App. to B. 2. chap. 3. Herculem is omitted by Ritter on evidence (partly external and partly internal) which is entitled to not a little consideration. Hercules is the god of strength, perhaps Thor.

Certis diebus. Statis diebus. Guen.

Humanis—hostiis. Even facere in the sense of sacrifice is construed with abl. Virg. Ec. 3, 77. Quoque==even. For its position in the sentence, cf. note, 3.

Concessis animalibus. Such as the Romans and other civilized nations offer, in contradistinction to human sacrifices, which the author regards as in-concessa. The attempt has been made to remove from the Germans the stain of human sacrifices. But it rests on incontrovertible evidence (cf. Tur. His. Ang. Sax., App. to B. 2. cap. 3), and indeed attaches to them only in common with nearly all uncivilized nations. The Gauls and Britons, and the Celtic nations generally, carried the practice to great lengths, cf. Caes. B.G. 6, 15. The neighbors of the Hebrews offered human victims in great numbers to their gods, as we learn from the Scriptures. Nay, the reproach rests also upon the Greeks and Romans in their early history. Pliny informs us, that men were sacrificed as late as the year of Rome 657.

Isidi. The Egyptian Isis in Germany! This shows, how far the Romans went in comparing the gods of different nations. Gr. Ritter identifies this goddess with the Nertha of chap. 40, the Egyptian Isis and Nertha being both equivalent to Mother Earth, the Terra or Tellus of the Romans.

Liburnae. A light galley, so called from the Liburnians, a people of Illyricum, who built and navigated them. The signum, here likened to a galley, was more probably a rude crescent, connected with the worship of the moon, cf. Caes. B.G. 6, 21: Germani deorum numero ducunt Solem et Lunam.

Cohibere parietibus==aedificiis includere, K. T. elsewhere speaks of temples of German divinities (e.g. 40: templum Nerthi; Ann. 1, 51: templum Tanfanae); but a consecrated grove or any other sacred place was called templum by the Romans (templum from [Greek: temno], cut off, set apart).

Ex magnitudine. Ex==secundum, cf. ex nobilitate, ex virtute Sec. 7. Ex magnitudine is predicate after arbitrantur: they deem it unbecoming the greatness, etc.

Humani—speciem. Images of the gods existed at a later day in Germany (S. Tur. His. of Ang. Sax., App. to B. 2. cap. 3). But this does not prove their existence in the days of T. Even as late as A.D. 240 Gregory Thaumaturgus expressly declares, there were no images among the Goths. No traces of temple-walls or images have been discovered in connection with the numerous sites of ancient altars or places of offering which have been exhumed in Germany, though both these are found on the borders, both south and west, cf. Ukert, p. 236.

Lucos et nemora. "Lucus (a [Greek: lukae], crepusculum) sylva densior, obumbrans; nemus ([Greek: nemos]) sylva rarior, in quo jumenta et pecora pascuntur." Bredow.

Deorumque—vident. They invoke under the name of gods that mysterious existence, which they see (not under any human or other visible form, but) with the eye of spiritual reverence alone. So Gr. and K. Others get another idea thus loosely expressed: They give to that sacred recess the name of the divinity that fills the place, which is never profaned by the steps of man.

Sola reverentia, cf. sola mente applied by T. to the spiritual religion of the Jews, H. 5, 5. The religion of the Germans and other northern tribes was more spiritual than that of southern nations, when both were Pagan. And after the introduction of Christianity, the Germans were disinclined to the image-worship of the Papists.

X. Auspicia sortesque. Auspicia (avis-spicia) properly divination by observing the flight and cry of birds; sortes, by drawing lots: but both often used in the general sense of omens, oracles.

Ut qui maxime, sc. observant. Ellipsis supplied by repeating observant==to the greatest extent, none more.

Simplex. Sine Romana arte, cf. Cic. de Div. 2, 41, K. The Scythians had a similar method of divining, Herod. 4, 67. Indeed, the practice of divining by rods has hardly ceased to this day, among the descendants of the German Tribes.

Temere, without plan on the part of the diviner.—Fortuito, under the direction of chance. Gr.

Si publice consuletur. If the question to be decided is of a public nature. Consuletur, fut., because at the time of drawing lots the deliberation and decision are future. Or it may refer to the consultation of the gods (cf. Ann. 14, 30: consulere deos): if it is by the state that the gods are to be consulted. So Ritter in his last edition.

Ter singulos tollit. A three-fold drawing for the sake of certainty. Thus Ariovistus drew lots three times touching the death of Valerius (Caes. B.G. 1, 53). So also the Romans drew lots three times, Tibul. 1, 3, 10: sortes ter sustulit. Such is the interpretation of these disputed words by Grueber, Ritter and many others, and such is certainly their natural and obvious meaning: he takes up three times one after another all the slips he has scattered (spargere is hardly applicable to three only): if the signs are twice or thrice favorable, the thing is permitted; if twice or thrice unfavorable it is prohibited. The language of Caesar (in loc. cit.) is still more explicit: ter sortibus consultum. But Or., Wr. and Doed. understand simply the taking up of three lots one each time.

Si prohibuerunt sc. sortes==dii. The reading prohibuerunt (aL prohibuerint) is favored by the analogy of si displicuit, 11, and other passages. Sin (==si—ne) is particularly frequent in antithesis with si, and takes the same construction after it.

Auspiciorum—exigitur. Auspiciorum, here some other omens, than lots; such as the author proceeds to specify. Adhuc==ad hoc, praeterea, i.e. in addition to the lots. The sense is: besides drawing lots, the persuasion produced by auspices is required.

Etiam hic. In Germany also (as well as at Rome and other well known countries). Hic is referred to Rome by some. But it was hardly needful for T. to inform the Romans of that custom at Rome.

Proprium gentis. It is a peculiarity of the German race. It is not, however, exclusively German. Something similar prevailed among the Persians, Herod. 1, 189. 7, 55. Darius Hystaspes was indebted to the neighing of his horse for his elevation to the throne.