Chapter 14

_Noscere--nosci_, etc. T. is fond of such a series of inf. depending on some _one_ finite verb understood, and hence closely connected with each other, cf. G. 30: _praeponere_, etc. _note_. Here supply from _retulit_ in the preceding number the idea: _he made it his business or aim to know_, etc. The author's fondness for antithesis is very observable in the several successive pairs here: _noscere--nosci; discere--sequi; appetere--recusare; anxius--intentus_.

_In jactationem_. Al. jactatione. _In_ denoting the object or purpose, Z. 314: _he coveted no appointment for the sake of display; he declined none through fear_.

_Anxius_ and _intentus_ qualify _agere_ like adverbs cf. R. Exc. 23, 1. _He conducted himself both with prudence and with energy_.

_Exercitatior_==agitatior. So Cic. Som. Scip. 4: agitatus et exercitatus animus; and Hor. Epod. 9, 31: Syrtes Noto exercitatas.

_Incensae coloniae_. Camalodunum, Londinium and Verulamium. Cf. Ann. 14, 33, where however the historian does not expressly say, the last two were _burned_.

_In ambiguo_==ambigua, in a critical state. R.

_Alterius_, sc. ducis.--_Artem et usum_. Military _science and experience_.

_Summa ... cessit. The general management_ (cf. notes, H. 1, 87. 2, 16. 33) _and the glory of recovering the province went to the general_ (to his credit). The primary meaning of _cedere_ is _to go_. See Freund sub v.--_Juveni_, sc. A.

_Tum_, sc. while veterani trucidarentur, etc.--_Mox_, sc. when Paullinus and A. came to the rescue.

_Nec minus_, etc. A remark worthy of notice and too often true.

VI. _Magistratus_. The regular _course_ of offices and honors at Rome.

_Per--anteponendo_. Enallage, cf. G. 15, note. _Per_ here denotes manner, rather than means (cf. _per lamenta_, 28); and _anteponendo_ likewise==anteponentes. R. Render: _mutually loving and preferring one another.--Nisi quod==but_. Cf. _ni_, 4. There is an ellipsis before _nisi quod_, which R. would supply thus: greatly to the credit of both parties --_but more praise belongs to the good wife_, etc. _Major_ sc. quam in bono viro. So, after _plus_ supply quam in malo viro: _But more praise belongs to a good wife_, than to a good husband, _by as much as more blame attaches to a bad wife_, than to a bad husband.

_Sors quaesturae_. The Quaestors drew _lots_ for their respective provinces. Their number increased with the increase of the empire, till from two they became twenty or more. As at first a Quaestor accompanied each Consul at the head of an army, so afterwards each Proconsul, or Governor of a province, had his Quaestor to collect and disburse the revenues of the province. The Quaestorship was the first in the course of Roman honors. It might be entered upon at the age of twenty-four.

_Salvium Titianum_. Brother of the Emperor Otho. See His. B. 1 and 2. pass. For the office of Proconsul, &c., see note, His. 1, 49.

_Parata peccantibus. Ready for wicked_ rulers, i.e. affording great facilities for extortion in its corrupt and servile population. _Paratus_ With a dat. of the thing, for which there is a preparation, is peculiar to poetry and post-Augustan prose. Cf. Freund ad v. Ad rem. cf. Cic. Epist. ad Quint. 1, 1, 6: tam corruptrice provincia, sc. Asia; and pro Mur. 9.

_Quantalibet facilitate_. Any indulgence (license) however great.

_Redempturus esset_. Subj. in the apodosis answering to a protasis understood, sc. if A. would have entered into the plot. Cf. H. 502. Observe the use of _esset_ rather than _fuisset_ to denote what the proconsul would have been ready to do _at any time_ during their _continuance_ in office. Cf. Wr. in loc.

_Dissimulationem_. Concealment (of what is true); simulatio, on the other hand, is an allegation of what is false.

_Auctus est filia_. So Cic. ad Att. 1, 2: filiolo me auctum scito.

_Ante sublatum. Previously born_. For this use of _sublatum_, see Lexicon.--Brevi amisit, he lost shortly after_; though R. takes _amisit_ as perf. for plup. and renders lost a short time before.

_Mox inter_, etc., sc. _annum_ inter, supplied from _etiam ipsum ... annum_ below.

_Tenor et silentium_. Hendiadys for continuum silentium, or tenorem silentem. R.

_Jurisdictio. For the administration of justice in private cases had not fallen to his lot_. Only two of the twelve or fifteen Praetors, viz. the Praetor Urbanus (see note H. 1, 47) and the Praetor Peregrinus (who judged between foreigners and citizens) were said to exercise _jurisdictio_. The adjudication of criminal causes was called _quaestio_, which was now for the most part in the hands of the senate (Ann. 4, 6), from whom it might be transferred by appeal to the Praefect of the City or the Emperor himself. The Praetors received the _jurisdictio_ or the _quaestio_ by lot; and in case the former did not fall to them, the office was almost a sinecure; except that they continued to preside over the public games. See further, on the name and office of Praetor, His. 1, 47, note. For the plup. in _obvenerat_, see note, 4: _abnuerat_.

_Et_==et omnino. _The games and in general the pageantry of office (inania honoris)_ expected of the Praetor. Observe the use of the neuter plural of the adj. for the subst., of which, especially before a gen., T. is peculiarly fond.

_Medio rationis_. The text is doubtful. The MSS. vacillate between _medio ratinois_ and _modo rationis_; and the recent editions, for the most part, follow a third but wholly conjectural reading, viz. _moderationis_. The sense is the same with either reading: _He conducted the games and the empty pageantry of office in a happy mean_ (partaking at once) _of prudence and plenty_. See Freund ad _duco_.

_Uti--propior. As far from luxury, so_ (in the same proportion) _nearer to glory_, i.e. the farther from luxury, the nearer to glory. Cf. Freund ad _uti_.

_Longe--propior_. Enallage of the adv. and adj. ef. G. 18: _extra_.

_Ne sensisset. Would not have felt_, etc., i.e. he recovered all the plundered offerings of the temple, but those which had been sacrilegiously taken away by _Nero_ for the supply of his vicious pleasures. This explanation supposes a protasis understood, or rather implied in _quam Neronis_. (Cf H. 503, 2. 2). The plup. subj. admits perhaps of another explanation, the subj. denoting the end with a view to which _Agricola labored_ (H. 531; Z. 549), and the plup. covering all the past down to the time of his labors: he labored that the republic might not have experienced, and _he_ virtually _effected that it had not experienced_, since he restored everything to its former state, the plunder of Nero alone excepted. See Wr. and Or. in loc. Perhaps this would not be an unexampled _praegnantia_ for Tacitus. For _sentire_ in the sense of _experiencing_ especially _evil_, see Hor. Od. 2, 7, 10, and other examples in Freund sub v.

VII. _Classis Othoniana_. Ad rem. cf. His. 2, 12, seqq.--_Licenter vaga. Roaming in quest of plunder.--Intemelios_, Cf. note, 2, 13.--_In praediis suis. On her own estates. Praedia_ includes both lands and buildings.

_Ad solemnia pietatis. To perform the last offices of filial affection_.

_Nuntio deprehensus_. Supply _est_, cf. 4: jussus. _Was overtaken unexpectedly by the news of Vespasian's claim (nomination) to the throne.--Affectati_. Cf. note, G. 28.--_In partes_, to his (Vesp.) _party_.

_Principatus_, sc. Vespasiani.--_Mucianus regebat_. Vesp. was detained in Egypt for some time after his troops had entered Rome under Mucianus; meanwhile Mucianus exercised all the imperial power, cf. His. 4, 11. 39: vis penes Mucianum erat.

_Juvene--usurpante_. Dom. was now eighteen years old, cf. His. 4, 2: nondum ad curas intentus, sed _stupris et adulteriis filium principis agebat_.

_Is_, sc. Mucianus.--_Vicesimae legioni_. One of three legions, at that time stationed in _Britain_, which submitted to the government of Vesp. _tarde_ and _non sine motu_ (His. 3, 44).

_Decessor. Predecessor_. It was Roscius Coelius. His. 1, 60.

_Legatis--consularibus. Governors_ or Proconsuls. The provinces were governed by men who had been consuls (_consulares_), and as _legatus_ meant any commissioned officer, these were distinguished as _legati consulares_. With reference to this consular authority, the same were called _proconsules_. Cf. note, H. 1, 49. Trebellius Maximus and Vettius Bolanus are here intended. Cf. 16. and His. 1, 60. 2, 65. _Nimia_==justo potentior. Dr.

_Legatus praetorius==legatus legionis, commander of the legion_. Cf. note, His. 1, 7. Here the same person as _decessor_.

_Invenisse quam fecisse_, etc., involves a maxim of policy worth noting.

VIII. _Placidius. With less energy_. See more of Bolanus at close of 16.

_Dignum est_. A general remark, applicable to any such province. Hence the present, for which some would substitute _erat_ or _esset_.

_Ne incresceret_, sc. ipse: _lest he should become too great_, i.e. rise above his superior and so excite his jealousy. Referred by W. to _ardorem_ for its subject. But then _ne incresceret_ would be superfluous.

_Consularem_, sc. Legatum==Governor, cf. 7, note.

_Petilius Cerialis_. Cf. 17. Ann. 14, 32. His. 4, 68.

_Habuerunt--exemplorum. Had room for exertion_ and so for _setting a good example_, cf. Ann. 13, 8: videbaturque locus virtutibus patefactus. The position of _habuerunt_ is emphatic, as if he had said: _then had virtues_, etc. See Rit. in loc.

_Communicabat_, sc. cum A.--_Ex eventu_, from _the event_, i.e. _in consequence of his success_.

_In suam famam_. Cf. in jactationem, 5, note.

_Extra gloriam_ is sometimes put for _sine gloria_, especially by the late writers. His. 1, 49: _extra vitia_. Hand's Turs. 2, 679.

IX. _Revertentem_, etc. Returning from his command in Britain.--_Divus_. Cf. notes, G. 28; His. 2, 33.

_Vesp.--ascivit_. By virtue of his office as Censor, the Emperor claimed the right of elevating and degrading the rank of the citizens. Inasmuch as the families of the aristocracy always incline to run out and become extinct, there was a necessity for an occasional re-supply of the patrician from the plebeian ranks, e.g. by Julius Caesar, Augustus and Claudius (Ann. 11, 25), as well as by Vespasian (Aur. Vic. Caes. 9. Suet. 9.)--_Provinciae--praeposuit_. Aquitania was one of seven provinces, into which Augustus distributed Gaul, and which with the exception of Narbonne Gaul, were all subject to the immediate disposal and control of the Emperor himself. It was the south-western part of Gaul, being enclosed by the Rhone, the Loire, the Pyrenees and the Atlantic.

_Splendidae--destinarat. A province of the first importance both in its government_ (in itself considered), _and the prospect of the consulship, to which he_ (Vesp.) _had destined him_ (A.), sc. as soon as his office should have expired.

_Subtilitatem_==calliditatem, nice discernment, _discrimination_.-- _Exerceat_, Observe the subj. to express the views of others, not of the author. H. 531; Z. 511.

_Secura--agens. _Requiring less anxious thought and mental acumen_, and _proceeding more by physical force. Secura_==minus anxia. Dr. Cf. note, His. 1, 1. _Obtusior_==minus acuta.

_Togatos. Civilians_ in distinction from military men, like A. The _toga_ was the dress of civil life to some extent in the _provinces_ (cf. 21, His. 2, 20), though originally worn only in _Rome_. (Beck. Gall., Exc. Sc. 8.)

_Remissionumque_. The Greeks and Romans both used the pl. of many abstracts, of which we use only the sing. For examples see R. Exc. 4. For the principle cf. Z. 92.

_Curarum--divisi_. This clause means not merely, that his time was divided between business and relaxation; but that there was a broad line of demarcation between them, as he proceeds to explain. _Divisa_==diversa inter se. Dr. So Virg. Georg. 2, 116: divisae arboribus patriae==countries are _distinguished from_ each other by their trees. _Jam vero_. Cf. note, G. 14.

_Conventus_, sc. juridici==_courts_. The word designates also the districts in which the courts were held, and into which each province was divided. Cf. Smith's Dict. of Ant.: Conventus. So Pliny (N.H. 3; 3.) speaks of juridici conventus. Tacitus, as usual, avoids the technical designation.

_Ultra_. Adv. for adj., cf. _longe_, 6.--_Persona_. 1. A mask (_per_ and _sono_). 2. Outward show, as here.

_Tristitiam--exuerat_. Some connect this clause by zeugma with the foregoing. But with a misapprehension of the meaning of exuerat, which==_was entirely free from_; lit. had divested himself of. Thus understood, the clause is a _general_ remark touching the character of A., in implied contrast with other men or magistrates with whom those vices were so common. So in Ann. 6, 25, Agrippina is said to have divested herself of vices (_vitia exuerat_) which were common among women, but which never attached to her. _Facilitas_. Opposed to _severitas_==kindness, indulgence.

_Abstinentiam_. This word, though sometimes denoting temperance in food and drink, more properly refers to the desire and use of money. _Abstinentia_ is opposed to _avarice; continentia_ to _sensual pleasure_. Cf. Plin. Epis. 6, 8: alieni abstinentissimus. Here render honesty, integrity.

_Cui--indulgent_. See the same sentiment, His. 4, 6: quando etiam sapientibus cupido gloriae novissima exuitur.

_Ostentanda--artem_, cf. 6: _per--anteponendo_; also G. 15, note.

_Collegas_. The governors of other provinces. The word means _chosen together_; hence either those chosen at the same election or those chosen to the same office. Cf. H. 1, 10.

_Procuratores_. There was but one at a time in each province. There may have been several however in succession, while A. was Proconsul. Or we may understand both this clause and the preceding, not of his government in Aquitania in particular, but as a general fact in the life of A. So E. For the office, see note, 4; and for an instance of a quarrel between the Proconsul and the Procurator, Ann. 14, 38.

_Atteri_==vinci as the antithesis shows, though with more of the implication of dignity _impaired_ (worn off) by conflict with inferiors.

_Minus triennium. Quam_ omitted. See H. 417, 3; Z. 485.

_Comitante opinione. A general expectation attending him_, as it were, on his return.

_Nullis sermonibus_. Ablative of _cause_.

_Elegit_. Perf. to denote what _has in fact_ taken place.

X. _In comparationem_. Cf. in suam famam, 8, note.

_Perdomita est. Completely subdued_.

_Rerum fide==faithfully and truly_; lit. with fidelity to facts.

_Britannia_. It has generally been supposed (though Gesenius denies it in his Phenician Paloeography) that Britain was known to the Phenicians, those bold navigators and enterprising merchants of antiquity, under the name of the _Cassiterides_, or Tin Islands. Greek authors make early mention of Albion (plural of Alp?) and Ierne (Erin) as British Islands. Bochart derives the name (Britain) from the Phenician or Hebrew Baratanae, "the Land of Tin;" others from the Gallic _Britti_, Painted, in allusion to the custom among the inhabitants of painting their bodies. But according to the Welsh Triads, Britain derived its name from Prydain, a king, who early reigned in the island. Cf. Turner's His. Ang. Sax. 1, 2, seqq. The geographical description, which follows, cannot be exonerated from the charge of verbiage and grandiloquence. T. wanted the art of saying a plain thing plainly.

_Spatio ac coelo_. Brit. not only stretches out or lies over against these several countries in _situation_, but it approaches them also in _climate_: a circumstance which illustrates the great size of the island (cf. _maxima_, above) and prepares the way for the description of both below.

_Germaniae_ and _Hispaniae_ are dat. after _obtenditur_. The mistaken notion of the relative position of Spain and Britain is shared with T. by Caesar (B.G. 13), Dion (39, 50), and indeed by the ancients in general. It is so represented in maps as late as Richard of Cirencester. Cf. Prichard, III. 3, 9.

_Etiam inspicitur_. It is even _seen_ by the Gauls, implying nearer approach to Gaul, than to Germany or Spain.

_Nullis terris_. Abl. abs., _contra_ taking the place of the part., or rather limiting a part. understood.

_Livius_. In his 105th Book; now lost, except in the Epitome.

_Fabius Rusticus_. A friend of Seneca, and writer of history in the age of Claudius and Nero.

_Oblongae scutulae_. Geometrically a trapezium.

_Et est ea facies. And such is the form, exclusive of Caledonia, whence the account has been extended also to the whole Island_.

_Sed--tenuatur. But a vast and irregular extent of lands jutting out here (jam_, cf. note, G. 44) _on this remotest shore_ (i.e. widening out again where they seemed already to have come to an end), _is narrowed down as it were into a wedge_. The author likens Caledonia to a wedge with its apex at the Friths of Clyde and Forth, and its base widening out on either side into the ocean beyond. _Enormis_ is a post-Augustan word. _Novissimi_==extreme, remotest. G. 24, note.

_Affirmavit. Established_ the fact, hitherto supposed, but not fully ascertained. This was done in Agricola's last campaign in Britain, cf. 38.

_Orcadas_. The Orkneys. Their name occurs earlier than this, but they were little known.

_Dispecta est. Was seen_ through the mist, as it were; discovered in the distance and obscurity. Cf. note, H. 4, 55: dispecturas Gallias, etc.

_Thule_. Al. Thyle. What island T. meant, is uncertain. It has been referred by different critics, to the Shetland, the Hebrides, and even to Iceland. The account of the island, like that of the surrounding ocean, is obviously drawn from the imagination.

_Nam hactenus_, etc. _For their orders were_ to proceed _thus far_ only, _and_ (besides) _winter was approaching_. Cf. _hactenus_, G. 25, and _appetere_, Ann. 4, 51: _appetente jam luce_. The editions generally have _nix_ instead of _jussum_. But Rit. and Or. with reason follow the oldest and best MSS. in the reading _jussum_, which with the slight and obvious amendment of _nam_ for _quam_ by Rit. renders this obscure and vexed passage at length easy and clear.

_Pigrum et grave_. See a similar description of the Northern Ocean, G. 25: pigrum ac prope immotum. The modern reader need not be informed, that this is an entire mistake, as to the matter of fact; those seas about Britain are never frozen; though the navigators in this voyage might easily have magnified the perils and hardships of their enterprise, by transferring to these waters what they had heard of those further north.

_Perinde_. Al. _proinde_. These two forms are written indiscriminately in the old MSS. The meaning of _ne perinde_ here is _not so much_, sc. as other seas. Cf. note, G. 5.

_Ne ventis--attolli_. Directly the reverse of the truth. Those seas, are in fact, remarkably tempestuous.

_Quod--impellitur_. False philosophy to explain a fictitious phenomenon, as is too often the case with the philosophy of the ancients, who little understood natural science, cf. the _astronomy_ of T. in 12.

_Neque--ac_. Correlatives. The author assigns two reasons why he does not discuss the subject of the _tides_: 1. It does not suit the design of his work; 2. The subject has been treated by many others, e.g. Strab. 3, 5, 11; Plin. N.H. 2, 99, &c.

_Multum fluminum. Multum_ is the object of _ferre_, of which _mare_ is the subject, as it is also of all the infinitives in the sentence. _Fluminum_ is not rivers but currents among the islands along the shore.

_Nec littore tenus_, etc. "_The ebbings and flowings of the tide are not confined to the shore, but the sea penetrates into the heart of the country, and works its way among the hills and mountains, as in its native bed_." Ky. A description very appropriate to a coast so cut up by aestuaries, and highly poetical, but wanting in simplicity.

_Jugis etiam ac montibus. Jugis_, cf. G. 43. _Ac. Atque_ in the common editions. But _ac_, besides being more frequent before a consonant, is found in the best MSS.

XI. _Indigenae an advecti_. Cf. _note_, G. 2: _indigenas_.

_Ut inter barbaros_, sc. fieri solet. Cf. ut in licentia, G. 2; and ut inter Germanos, G. 30.

_Rutilae--asseverant_. Cf. the description of the Germans, G. 4. The inhabitants of Caledonia are of the same stock as the other Britons. The conclusion, to which our author inclines below, viz. that the Britons proceeded from Gaul, is sustained by the authority of modern ethnologists. The original inhabitants of Britain are found, both by philological and historical evidence, to have belonged to the Celtic or Cimmerian stock, which once overspread nearly the whole of central Europe, but were overrun and pushed off the stage by the Gothic or German Tribes, and now have their distinct representatives only in the Welsh, the Irish, the Highland Scotch, and a few similar remnants of a once powerful race in the extreme west of the continent and the islands of the sea. Cf. note on the Cimbri, G. 37.

_Silurum_. The people of Wales.

_Colorati vultus. Dark complexion_. So with the poets, colorati Indi, Seres, Etrusci, &c.

_Hispania_. Nom. subject of _faciunt_, with _crines_, &c.

_Iberos_. Properly a people on the Iberus (Ebro), who gave their name to the whole Spanish Peninsula. They belonged to a different race from the Celtic, or the Teutonic, which seems once to have inhabited Italy and Sicily, as well as parts of Gaul and Spain. A dialect is still spoken in the mountainous regions about the Bay of Biscay, and called the Basque or Biscayan, which differs from any other dialect in Europe. Cf. Prichard's Physical Researches, vol. III. chap. 2.

_Proximi Gallis_. Cf. Caes. B.G. 5, 14: Ex his omnibus longe sunt humanissimi, qui Cantium (Kent) incolunt, quae regio est maritima omnis, _neque multum a Gallica differunt consuetudine. Et--also: those nearest the Gauls are also like them_.

_Durante vi. Either because the influence of a common origin still continues_, etc.

_Procurrentibus--terris. Or because their territories running out towards one another_, literally, _in opposite directions_, Britain towards the south and Gaul towards the north, so as to approach each other. See Rit., Död. in loc., and Freund ad _diversus_.

_Positio--dedit_. The idea of similarity being already expressed in _similes_, is understood here: their situation in the same climate (_coelo_) has given them the _same_ personal appearance.

_Aestimanti_. Indef. dat. after _credibile est_, cf. note, G. 6.

_Eorum_ refers to the Gauls. You (indef. subject, cf. quiescas, G. 36) may discover the religion of the Gauls (among the Britons) in their full belief of the same superstitions. So Caes. B.G. 6, 13: disciplina in Britannia reperta atque inde in Galliam translata esse existimatur; and he adds, that those who wished to gain a more perfect knowledge of the Druidical system still went from Gaul to Britain to learn. Sharon Turner thinks, the system must have been introduced into Britain from the East (perhaps India) by the Phenicians, and thence propagated in Gaul. His. Ang. Sax., B. 1, chap. 5.

_Persuasione_. See the same use of the word, His. 5, 5: eademque de infernis persuasio.

_In--periculis_. The same sentiment is expressed by Caesar (B.G. 3, 19).

_Ferociae_. In a good sense, courage, cf. 31: virtus ac ferocia.

_Praeferunt_==prae se ferunt, i.e. _exhibit_.

_Ut quos. Ut qui_, like _qui_ alone, is followed by the subj. to express a reason for what precedes. It may be rendered by _because_ or _since_ with the demonstrative. So _quippe cui placuisset_, 18. Cf. Z. 565 and H. 519, 3.

_Gallos floruisse_. Cf. G. 28.

_Otio_. Opposed to _bellis, peace.--Amissa virtute_. Abl. abs. denoting an additional circumstance. Cf. 2: _expulsis--professoribus_, note.-- _Olim_ limits _victis_.

XII. _Honestior. The more honorable_ (i.e. the man of rank) _is the charioteer, his dependents fight_ (on the chariot). The reverse was true in the Trojan War.