Germania and Agricola Part 17

_Prae se ferens. Expressing in his external appearance, or bearing in his own person an acknowledgment of the power of the divinity_.

_Evolvuntur_==se evolvunt, cf. Ann. 1, 13: c.u.m Tiberii genua advolveretur; also _lavantur_, 22.

_Eo--tanquam. Has reference to this point, as if_, i.e. to this opinion, viz. that thence, etc. Cf. _illuc respicit tanquam_, 12.--_Inde_ From the grove, or the G.o.d of the grove. Cf. 3: _Tuisconem ... originem gentis_.

_Adjicit auctoritatem_, sc. isti superst.i.tioni.

_Magno corpore_==reipublicae magnitudine. _Corpore_, the body politic. So His. 4, 64: redisse vos in corpus nomenque Germanorum.--_Habitantur_. Al.

habitant and habitantium, by conjecture. The subject is the Semnonian _country_ implied in _Semnonum: the Semnonians inhabit a hundred villages_, is the idea.

XL. _Langobardos_. The Lombards of Mediaeval history; so called probably from their long beards (Germ, lang and bart). First mentioned by Velleius, 2, 106: gens etiam Germana feritate ferocior. See also Ann. 2, 45, 46, 62-64.--_Paucitas_ here stands opposed to the _magno corpore_ of the Semnones in 39.

_Per--peric.l.i.tando_. Three different constructions, cf. notes 16, 18.

_Reudigni_. Perhaps the Jutes, so intimately a.s.sociated with the Angles in subsequent history. See Or. in loc. In like manner, Zeuss identifies the _Suardones_ with the Heruli, and the _Nuithones_ with the Teutones.

_Suardones_ perhaps==_sword_-men.

_Anglii_. The English reader will here recognize the tribe of Germans that subsequently invaded, peopled, and gave name to England (==_Angl-land_), commonly designated as the Anglo-Saxons. T. does not mention the _Saxons_. They are mentioned by Ptolemy and others, as originally occupying a territory in this same part of Germany. They became at length so powerful, as to give their name to the entire confederacy (including the Angles), which ruled northern Germany, as the Franks (the founders of the French monarchy) did southern. The Angles seem to have dwelt on the right bank of the Elbe, near its mouth, in the time of T.

_Nerthum_. This is the reading of the MSS. and the old editions. It cannot be doubted that T. speaks of Hertha (see Turn. His. Ang. Sax., App. to B. 2. chap. 3). "But we must take care not to correct our author himself." Pa.s.sow. Grimm identifies this deity with Niordhr of the Edda, and derives the name from Nord (North).--_Terram matrem_. The Earth is worshipped by almost all heathen nations, as the mother of men and the inferior G.o.ds. See Mur. in loco. Cf. 2: Tuisconem Deum, _terra editum_; also note, 9. Isidi.

_Insula_. Scholars differ as to the Island. Probabilities perhaps are in favor of Rugen, where the _secretus lacus_ mentioned below is still shown, still a.s.sociated with superst.i.tious legends.

_Castum. Polluted by nothing profane_. So Hor: _castis lucis_.

_Penetrali_, viz. _the sacred vehicle_.

_Dignatur_. _Deems worthy_ of her visits.

_Templo_, sc. the sacred grove. Templum, like [Greek: temenos], denotes any place _set apart_ (from [Greek: temno]) for sacred purposes, cf. 9.

_Numen ipsum. The G.o.ddess herself_, not an image of her; for the Germans have no images of their G.o.ds, 9. _Abluitur_, as if contaminated by intercourse with mortals.

_Perituri_, etc. _Which can be seen only on penalty of death_.

XLI. _Propior_, sc. to the Romans.--_Hermundurorum_. Ritter identifies the name (_Hermun_ being omitted, and _dur_ being==_thur_) and the people with the _Thur_ingians. Cf. note 2: _Ingaevones_.

_Non in ripa. Not only_ (or _not so much_) _on the border_ (the riverbank), but also within the bounds of the Roman Empire.

_Splendidissima--colonia_. This flourishing colony had no distinctive name in the age of T.; called afterwards Augusta Vindelicorum, now Augsburg.

_Pa.s.sim_. Wherever they chose--_Sine custode_. Not so others. Cf. His. 4, 64: ut inermes ac prope nudi, _sub custode_ et pretio coiremus.

_c.u.m--ostendamus. c.u.m==while, although_. Hence the subj.

_Non concupiscentibus. Since they were not covetous_, Gun. Gr renders: _though they were not equally desirous of it_.

_Notum--auditur_. The Elbe had been _seen_ and _crossed_ by Drusus Domitius, and Tiberius. But now it was known only by _hearsay_. See a like patriotic complaint at the close of 37.

XLII. _Marcomanni_==men of the marches. See Latham in loc--_Sedes_, sc.

Bohemia.--_Pulsis olim Boiis_, cf. 28.

_Degenerant_, sc. _a reliquorum virtute_, i.e. the Narisci and Quadi _are not unworthy, do not fall short_ of the bravery of their neighbors.

the Marcomanni.

_Peragitur_. Al. _protegitur, porrigitur_, &c. Different words are supplied as the subject of _peragitur_, e.g. Pa.s.sow _iter_.; Rit.

_cursus_; K. _frons_. The last is preferable. The meaning is: _This country_ (sc. of these tribes) _is the front_, so to speak (i.e. the part _facing the Romans_) _of Germany, so far as it is formed by the Danube_, i.e. so far as the Danube forms the boundary between Germany and the Roman Empire.

_Marobodui_. Cf. Ann. 2, 62; Suet. Tib. 37.

_Externos_, sc. reges, viz. the kings of the Hermunduri. Ann. 2, 62.-- _Potentia. Power_ irrespective of right. _Potestas_ is lawful _authority_. See note, 7

_Nec minus valent_, sc. being aided by our money, than they would be if they were reinforced by our arms. This clause in some copies stands at the beginning of 43.

XLIII. _Retro. Back_ from the Danube and the Roman border.--_Referunt.

Resemble_. Poetical, cf. 20.

_Et quod patiuntur_, sc. proves that they are not of German origin. They paid tribute as _foreigners_. The Gothini were probably a remnant of the expelled Boii. Cf. note, 28, and Prichard, as there cited. Hence their Gallic language.

_Quo magis pudeat_. They have iron beyond even most of the Germans (cf.

6), but (shame to tell) do not know how to use it in a.s.serting their independence. Subj. H. 497; Z. 536.

_Pauca campestrium_. Poetical, but not uncommon in the later Latin. So 41: secretiora Germaniae; His. 4, 28: extrema Galliarum. H. 396, III.

2. 3; Z. 435.

_Jugum. A mountain chain.--Vertices. Distinct summits_.

_Insederunt_. This word usually takes a dat., or an abl., with _in_. But the poets and later prose writers use it as a transitive verb with the acc.==_have settled, inhabited_. Cf. H. 371, 4; Z. 386; and Freund sub voce. Observe the comparatively unusual form of the perf. 3d plur. in _-erunt_ instead of _-ere_. Cf. note, His. 2, 20.

_Nomen_==gens. So nomen Latinum==Latins. Liv. pa.s.s.

_Interpretatione Romana_. So we are every where to understand Roman accounts of the G.o.ds of other nations. They transferred to them the names of their own divinities according to some slight, perhaps fancied resemblance. Cf. note, 34: _quicquid consensimus_.

_Ea vis numini_, i.e. these G.o.ds render the same service to the Germans, as Castor and Pollux to the Romans.

_Alcis_, dat. pl. Perhaps from the Slavonic word holcy==kouros, Greek for Castor and Pollux. Referable to no German root.

_Peregrinae_, sc. Greek or Roman.--_Tamen_. Though these G.o.ds bear no visible trace of Greek or Roman origin, _yet_ they are worshipped as brothers, as youth, like the _Greek_ and _Roman Twins_.-- _Superst.i.tionis_==religionis. Cf. notes, His. 3, 58; 5, 13.

_Lenocinantur. Cherish_, increase. Used rhetorically; properly, _to pander_.--_Arte_, sc. nigra scuta, &c.--_Tempore_, sc. atras noctes, &c.

--_Tincta==tattooed_.

_Ipsaque formidine_, etc. _And by the very frightfulness and shadow of the deathlike army. Umbra_ may be taken of the literal _shadows_ of the men in the night, with Rit., or with Dod. and Or., of the general _image_ or _aspect_ of the army. _Feralis_, as an adj., is found only in poetry and post-Augustan prose. See Freund.

_Gothones_. Probably the Getae of earlier, and the Goths of later history. See Or. in loc. and Grimm and other authorities as there cited.