Germania and Agricola Part 12

But the word is often used to denote mere change, without the idea of being made worse, cf. Virg. Geor. 2, 466: Nec casia liquidi _corrumpitur_ usus olivi. Here render _fermented_.

_Ripae_, sc. of the Rhine and Danube, i.e. the Roman border, as in 22: proximi ripae.

_Poma_. Fruits of any sort, cf. Pliny, N.H. 17, 26: arborem vidimus omni genere _pomorum_ onustum, alio ramo _nucibus_, alio _baccis_, aliunde _vite, ficis, piris_, etc.

_Recens fera. Venison_, or other game _fresh_, i.e. _recently taken_, in distinction from the tainted, which better suited the luxurious taste of the Romans.

_Lac concretum_. Called _caseus_ by Caes. B.G. 6, 22. But the Germans, though they lived so much on milk, did not understand the art of making cheese, see Pliny, N.H. 11, 96. "De caseo non cogitandum, potius quod nostrates dic.u.n.t d.i.c.kemilch" (i.e. _curdled milk_). Gun.

_Apparatu. Luxurious preparation.--Blandimentis. Dainties_.

_Haud minus facile_. Litotes for multo facilius.

_Ebrietati_. Like the American Aborigines, see note, -- 15.

XXIV. _Nudi_. See note, -- 20.

_Quibus id ludicrum. For whom it is a sport_; not whose business it is to furnish the amus.e.m.e.nt: that would be _quorum est_ K. and Gr.

_Infestas_==porrectas contra saltantes. K.--_Decorem_. Poetic.

_Quaestum_==quod quaeritur, _gain_.--_Mercedem_, stipulated pay, _wages_.

_Quamvis_ limits _audacis_==_daring as it is_ (as you please).

_Sobrii inter seria_. At Rome gaming was forbidden, except at the Saturnalia, cf. Hor. Od. 3, 24, 68: vet.i.ta legibus alea. The remarkable circ.u.mstance (_quod mirere_) in Germany was, that they practised it not merely as an amus.e.m.e.nt at their feasts, but when sober among (_inter_) their ordinary every-day pursuits.

_Novissimo. The last_ in a series. Very frequently in this sense in T., so also in Caes. Properly newest, then latest, _last_. Cf. note, His. 1, 47. _Extremo_, involving the greatest hazard, like our _extreme: last and final_ (decisive) _throw_. This excessive love of play, extending even to the sacrifice of personal liberty, is seen also among the American Indians, see Robertson, Hist. of America, vol. 2, pp. 202-3. It is characteristic of barbarous and savage life, cf. Mur. in loco.

_De libertate ac de corpore_. Hendiadys==_personal liberty_.

_Voluntariam_. An earlier Latin author would have used _ipse, ultro_, or the like, limiting the subject of the verb, instead of the object. The Latin of the golden age prefers _concrete_ words. The later Latin approached nearer to the English, in using more _abstract_ terms. Cf.

note on _repercussu_, 3.

_Juvenior. More youthful_, and therefore more vigorous; not merely younger (_junior_). See Dod. and Rit. in loc. Forcellini and Freund cite only two other examples of this full form of the comparative (Plin. Ep.

4, 8, and Apul. Met. 8, 21), in which it does not differ in meaning from the common contracted form.

_Ea_==talis or tanta. _Such_ or _so great_. Gr.

_Pervicacia. Pervicaces_ sunt, qui in aliquo certamine _ad vincendum_ perseverant, Schol. Hor. Epod. 17, 14.

_Pudore_. Shame, _disgrace_. So also His. 3, 61; contrary to usage of earlier writers, who use it for sense of shame, _modesty_.

XXV. _Ceteris_. All but those who have gambled away their own liberty, as in -- 24.--_In nostrum morem_, &c., with specific duties distributed through the household (the slave-household, cf. note, 15), as explained by the following clause. On the extreme subdivision of office among slaves at _Rome_, see Beck. Gall. Exc. 2. Sc. 2; and Smith's Dic. Antiq.

under Servus.

_Descripta_==dimensa, distributa. Gun.

_Familiam_. Here the entire _body of servants_, cf. note, -- 15.

_Quisque_. Each _servant_ has his own house and home.

_Ut colono_. Like the _tenant_ or _farmer_ among the Romans; also the va.s.sal in the middle ages, and the serf in Modern Europe.

_Hactenus. Thus far_, and _no farther_, i.e. if he pays his rent or tax, no more is required of him.

_Cetera_. The _rest of the duties_ (usually performed by a _Roman servant_), viz. those of the _house, the wife and children_ (sc. of the master) _perform_. Gr. strangely refers _uxor et liberi_ to the wife and children of the servant. Pa.s.sow also refers _domus_ to the house of the servant, thus making it identical with the _penates_ above, with which it seems rather to be contrasted. With the use of _cetera_ here, compare His. 4, 56: _ceterum vulgus_==the rest, viz. the common soldiers, and see the principle well ill.u.s.trated in Doderlein's Essay, His. p. 17.

_Opere. Hard labor_, which would serve as a punishment. The Romans punished their indolent and refractory domestics, by sending them to labor in the _country_, as well as by heavy chains (_vinculis_) and cruel flagellations (_verberare_). They had also the power of life and death (_occidere_). Beck. Gall. Exc. 2. Sc. 2; Smith's Dic. Ant. as above.

_Non disciplina--ira_. Hendiadys==non disciplinae severitate, sed irae impetu. Cf. His. 1, 51: _severitate disciplinae_.

_Nisi--impune_, i.e. without the pecuniary penalty or satisfaction, which was demanded when one put to death an enemy (_inimic.u.m_). Cf. 21.

_Liberti--libertini_. These words denote the same persons, but with this difference in the idea: _libertus_==the freedman of some particular master, _libertinus_==one in the _condition_ of a freedman without reference to any master. At the time of the Decemvirate, and for some time after, liberti==emanc.i.p.ated slaves, libertini==the descendants of such, cf. Suet. Claud. 24.

_Quae regnantur. Governed by kings_. Ex poetarum more dictum, cf. Virg.

Aen. 6, 794: regnata per arva. So 43: Gothones regnantur, and 44: Suiones. Gun.

_Ingenuos_==free born; _n.o.biles_==high born.

_Ascendunt_, i.e. ascendere possunt.

_Ceteros_. By synesis (see Gr.) for ceteras, sc. gentes.

_Impares_, sc. ingenuis et n.o.bilibus.

_Libertatis argumentum_, inasmuch as they value liberty and citizens.h.i.+p too much to confer it on freedmen and slaves. This whole topic of freedmen is an oblique censure of Roman custom in the age of the Emperors, whose freedmen were not unfrequently their favorites and prime ministers.

XXVI. _Fenus agitare. To loan money at interest_.

_Et in usuras extendere. And to put out that interest again on interest_.

The other explanation, viz. that it means simply to put money at interest, makes the last clause wholly superfluous.

_Servatur. Is secured_, sc. abstinence from usury, or the non-existence of usury, which is the essential idea of the preceding clause.

_Ideo--vet.i.tum esset_, sc. ignoti nulla cupido! Cf. 19: boni mores, vs.

bonae leges. Gun. The reader cannot fail to recognize here, as usual, the reference to Rome, where usury was practised to an exorbitant extent. See Fiske's Manual, -- 270, 4. and Arnold's His. of Rome, vol. 1, pa.s.sim.

_Universis. Whole clans_, in distinction from individual owners.

_In vices. By turns_. Al vices, vice, vicis. Dod. prefers in vicis; Rit.

in vicos==for i.e. by villages. But whether we translate by turns or by villages, it comes to the same thing. Cf. Caes. B.G. 6, 22.

_Camporum, arva, ager, soli, terrae_, &c. These words differ from each other appropriately as follows: _Terra_ is opposed to mare et coelum, viz. _earth_. _Solum_ is the substratum of any thing, viz. _solid ground or soil_. _Campus_ is an extensive plain or level surface, whether of land or water, here _fields_. _Ager_ is distinctively the territory that surrounds a city, viz. _the public lands_. _Arvum_ is ager _aratus_, viz.

_plough lands_. Bredow.