Germania and Agricola Part 13

_Superest_. There is enough, and more, cf. -- 6, note.

_Labore contendunt_. They do not strive emulously to equal the fertility of the soil by their own industry. Pa.s.sow.

_Imperatur_. Just as frumentum, commeatus, obsides, etc., _imperantur, are demanded or expected_. Gun.

_Totidem_, sc. quot Romani, cf. idem, 4, note. Tacitus often omits one member of a comparison, as he does also one of two comparative particles.

_Species. Parts_. Sometimes the logical divisions of a genus; so used by Cic. and Quin. (-- 6, 58): c.u.m genus dividitur in species.

_Intellectum_. A word of the silver age, cf. note on voluntariam, 24.

Intellectum--habent==_are understood and named_. "Quam distortum dicendi genus!" Gun.

_Autumni--ignorantur_. Accordingly in English, spring, summer and winter are Saxon words, while autumn is of Latin origin (Auctumnus). See Dubner in loc. Still such words as Harfest, Herpist, Harfst, Herbst, in other Teutonic dialects, apply to the autumnal season, and not, like our word harvest, merely to the fruits of it.

XXVII. _Funera_, proprie de toto apparatu sepulturae. E. Funeral rites were performed with great pomp and extravagance at Rome; cf. Fiske's Man., -- 340; see also Mur. in loco, and Beck. Gall. Exc. Sc. 12.

_Ambitio_. Primarily the solicitation of office by the candidate; then the parade and display that attended it; then _parade_ in general, especially in a bad sense.

_Certis_, i.e. rite statutis. Gun.

_c.u.mulant_. Structura est poetica, cf. Virg. Aen. 11, 50: _c.u.mulatque_ altaria donis. K.

_Equus adjicitur_. Herodotus relates the same of the Scythians (4, 71); Caesar, of the Gauls (B.G. 6, 19). Indeed all rude nations bury with the dead those objects which are most dear to them when living, under the notion that they will use and enjoy them in a future state. See Robertson's Amer. B. 4, &c., &c.

_Sepulcrum--erigit_. Still poetical; literally: _a turf rears the comb_.

Cf. His. 5, 6: Libanum _erigit_.

_Ponunt_==deponunt. So Cic. Tusc. Qu.: ad ponendum dolorem Cf. A. 20: posuere iram.

_Feminis--meminisse_. Cf. Sen. Ep.: Vir prudens meminisse perseveret, lugere desinat.

_Accepimus_. Ut ab aliis tradita audivimus, non ipsi cognovimus. K. See Preliminary Remarks, p. 79.

_In commune_. Cic. would have said, universe, or de universa origine. Gr.

Cic. uses _in commune_, but in a different sense, viz. for the common weal. See Freund, sub voc.

_Inst.i.tuta_, political; _ritus_, religious.

_Quae nationes. And what tribes_, etc.; _quae_ for _quaeque_ by asyndeton, or perhaps, as Rit. suggests, by mistake of the copyist.-- _Commigraverint_. Subj. of the indirect question. Gr. 265, Z. 552.

German critics have expended much labor and research, in defining the locality of the several German tribes with which the remainder of the Treatise is occupied. In so doing, they rely not only on historical data, but also on the traces of ancient names still attached to cities, forests, mountains, and other localities (cf. note, -- 16). These we shall sometimes advert to in the notes. But on the whole, these speculations of German antiquarians are not only less interesting to scholars in other countries, but are so unsatisfactory and contradictory among themselves, that, for the most part, we shall pa.s.s them over with very little attention. There is manifestly an intrinsic difficulty in defining the ever changing limits of uncivilized and unsettled tribes. Hence the irreconcilable contradictions between _ancient authorities_, as well as modern critiques, on this subject. Tacitus, and the Roman writers generally, betray their want of definite knowledge of Germany by the frequency with which they specify the names of mountains and rivers. The following geographical outline is from Ukert, and must suffice for the _geography_ of the remainder of the Treatise: "In the corner between the Rhine and the Danube, are the Dec.u.mates Agri, perhaps as far as the Mayne, 29. Northward on the Rhine dwell the Mattiaci, whose neighbors on the east are the Chatti, 30. On the same river farther north are the Usipii and the Tencteri; then the Frisii, 32-34. Eastward of the Tencteri dwell the Chamavi and the Angrivarii (earlier the Bructeri), and east or southeast of them the Dulgibini and Chasuarii, 34. and other small tribes. Eastward of the Frisii Germany juts out far towards the north, 35. On the coast of the bay thus formed, dwell the Chauci, east of the Frisii and the above mentioned tribes; on the south, they reach to the Chatti. East of the Chauci and the Chatti are the Cherusci, 36. whose neighbors are the Fosi. The Cherusci perhaps, according to Tacitus, do not reach to the ocean; and in the angle of the above bay, he places the Cimbri, 37. Thus Tacitus represents the western half of Germany. The eastern is of greater dimensions. There are the Suevi, 38. He calls the country Suevia, 41. and enumerates many tribes, which belong there.

Eastward of the Cherusci he places the Semnones and Langobardi; north of them are the Reudigni, Aviones, Anglii, Varini, Eudoses, Suardones and Nuithones; and all these he may have regarded as lying in the interior, and as the most unknown tribes, 41. He then mentions the tribes that dwell on the Danube, eastward from the Dec.u.mates Agri: the Hermunduri, in whose country the Elbe has its source; the Narisci, Marcomanni and Quadi, 41-42. The Marcomanni hold the country which the Boii formerly possessed; and northward of them and the Quadi, chiefly on the mountains which run through Suevia, are the Marsigni, Gothini, Osi and Burii, 43. Farther north are the Lygii, consisting of many tribes, among which the most distinguished are the Arii, Helvecones, Manimi, Elysii and Naharvali, 43.

Still farther north dwell the Gothones, and, at the Ocean, the Rugii and Lemovii. Upon islands in the ocean live the Suiones, 44. Upon the mainland, on the coast, are the tribes of the Aestyi, and near them, perhaps on islands, the Sitones, 45. Perhaps he a.s.signed to them the immense islands to which he refers in his first chapter. Here ends Suevia. Whether the Peucini, Venedi and Fenni are to be reckoned as Germans or Sarmatians, is uncertain, 46. The h.e.l.lusii and Oxonae are fabulous."

The following paragraph from Prichard's Researches embodies some of the more general conclusions of _ethnographers_, especially of Zeuss, on whom Prichard, in common with Orelli and many other scholars, places great reliance. "Along the coast of the German Ocean and across the isthmus of the Cimbric peninsula to the sh.o.r.e of the Baltic, were spread the tribes of the Chauci and Frisii, the Anglii, Saxones and the Teutones or Jutes, who spoke the _Low-German_ languages, and formed one of the four divisions of the German race, corresponding as it seems with the _Ingaevones_ of Tacitus and Pliny. In the higher and more central parts, the second great division of the race, that of the _Hermiones_, was spread, the tribes of which spoke _Upper_ or _High-German_ dialects.

Beginning in the West with the country of the Sigambri on the Rhine, and from that of the Cherusci and Angrivarii near the Weser and the Hartz, this division comprehended, besides those tribes, the Chatti, the Langobardi, the Hermunduri, the Marcomanni and Quadi, the Lugii, and beyond the Vistula the Bastarnae, in the neighborhood of the Carpathian hills. To the eastward and northward of the last mentioned, near the lower course of the Vistula and thence at least as far as the Pregel, were the primitive abodes of the Goths and their cognate tribes, who are perhaps the _Istaevones_." The fourth division of Prichard embraced the Scandinavians, who spoke a language kindred to the Germans and were usually cla.s.sed with them. Those who would examine this subject more thoroughly, will consult Adelung, Zeuss, Grimm, Ritter, Ukert, Prichard, Latham, &c., who have written expressly on the geography or the ethnography of Germany.

XXVIII. _Summus auctorum_, i.e. omnium scriptorum is, qui plurimum _auctoritatis fideique_ habet. K. Cf. Sueton. Caes. 56. Though T.

commends so highly the _authority_ of Caesar as a writer, yet he differs from him in not a few matters of fact, as well as opinion; owing chiefly, doubtless, to the increased means of information which he possessed in the age of Trajan.

_Divus Julius. Divus_==deified, _divine_; an epithet applied to the Roman Emperors after their decease.--_Tradit_. Cf. Caes. B.G. 6, 24: fuit antea tempus, c.u.m _Germanos Galli_ virtute _superarent_, ultro bella inferrent, propter hominum mult.i.tudinem agrique inopiam trans Rhenum colonias mitterent. Livy probably refers to the same events, when he says (Lib. 5, 34), that in the reign of Priscus Tarquinius, two immense bodies of Gauls migrated and took possession, the one of the Hercynian Forest, the other of Upper Italy.

_Amnis. The Rhine.--Promiscuas. Unsettled, ill defined_.

_Quo minus_ after a verb of hindering is followed by the subj. H. 499; Z. 543.

_Nulla--divisas_, i.e. _not distributed among different and powerful kings_.

_Hercyniam silvam_. A series of forests and mountains, stretching from Helvetia to Hungary in a line parallel to the Danube, and described by Caesar (B.G. 6, 25), as nine day's journey in breadth and more than sixty in length. The name seems to be preserved in the modern _Hartz_ Forest, which is however far less extensive.

_Igitur--Helvetii_==igitur _regionem_, inter, etc. See note on _colunt_, 16. _Igitur_ seldom stands as the first word in a sentence in Cicero. Cf.

Z. 357; and Kuhner's Cic. Tusc. Qu. 1, 6, 11. Here it introduces a more particular explanation of the general subject mentioned at the close of the previous chapter. So in A. 13. When so used, it sometimes stands first in Cic., always in T. Cf. Freund sub v. Touching the Helvetii, see Caes. B.G. 1, 1; T. His. 1, 67.

_Boihemi nomen_. Compounded of Boii and heim (home of the Boii), now Bohemia. _Heim==ham_ in the termination of so many names of towns, e.g.

Framing_ham_, Notting_ham_. The Boii were driven from their country by the Marcomanni, 42. The fugitives are supposed to have carried their name into Boioaria, now Bavaria. Cf. Prichard's Physical Researches, Vol. III.

Chap. 1, Sec. 6; and Latham's Germany of Tacitus in loco.

_Germanorum natione_, i.e. German in situation, not in origin, for this he expressly denies or disproves in 43, from the fact that they spoke the Pannonian language, and paid tribute. The doubt expressed here has reference only to their original _location_, not to their original stock, and is therefore in no way inconsistent with the affirmation in chapter 43.

_c.u.m==since_. Hence followed by subj. H. 518, I.; Z. 577.

_Utriusque ripae_. Here of the _Danube_, the right or Pannonian bank of which was occupied by the Aravisci, and the left or German bank by the Osi. So elsewhere of the _Rhine_, 37, and of both, 17, and 23.

_Treveri_. Hence modern _Treves_.

_Circa_. _In respect to_. A use foreign to the golden age of Latin composition, but not unfrequent in the silver age. See Ann. 11, 2. 15.

His. 1, 43. Cf. Z. 298, and note, H. 1, 13.

_Affectationem_. _Eager desire_ to pa.s.s for native Germans. Ad verb.u.m, cf. note, II. 1, 80.

_Ultro_. Radically the same with _ultra_==beyond. Properly beyond expectation, beyond necessity, beyond measure, beyond any thing mentioned in the foregoing context. Hence unexpectedly, freely, cheerfully, very much, even more. Here _very_, _quite_. Gr.

_Inertia Gallorum_. T., says Gun., is an everlasting persecutor of the Gauls, cf. A. 11.

_Haud dubie_==haud dubii. It limits Germanorum populi. _Undoubtedly German tribes_.

_Meruerint_. Not merely deserved, but _earned_, _attained_. For the subj.

after _quanquam_, cf. note, 35.

_Agrippinenses_. From Agrippina, daughter of Germanicus and wife of Claudius. Ann. 12, 27. Now Cologne.

_Conditoris_. _Conditor_ with the earlier Latins is an epicene, conditrix being of later date. Here used of Agrippina. Of course _sui_ cannot agree with _conditoris_. It is a reflexive p.r.o.noun, the objective gen. after _conditoris_==the founder of _themselves_, i.e. of their state, cf.

_odium sui_, 33.

_Experimento_. Abl. _on_ trial, not _for_; i.e. in consequence of being found faithful. In reference to the Ubii, cf. His. 4, 28.