Hence the equestrian
nobility
of which Tacitus speaks.
Tacitus
]
233 (return)
[ These were settled about the Carpathian mountains, and the sources of the Vistula. ]
234 (return)
[ It is probable that the Suevi were distinguished from the rest of the Germans by a peculiar dialect, as well as by their dress and manners. ]
235 (return)
[ Ptolemy mentions iron mines in or near the country of the Quadi. I should imagine that the expression "additional disgrace" (or, more literally, "which might make them more ashamed") does not refer merely to the slavery of working in mines, but to the circumstance of their digging up iron, the substance by means of which they might acquire freedom and independence. This is quite in the manner of Tacitus. The word iron was figuratively used by the ancients to signify military force in general. Thus Solon, in his well-known answer to Croesus, observed to him, that the nation which possessed more iron would be master of all his gold. —Aikin. ]
236 (return)
[ The mountains between Moravia, Hungary, Silesia, and Bohemia. ]
237 (return)
[ The Lygii inhabited what is now part of Silesia, of the New Marche, of Prussia and Poland on this side the Vistula. ]
238 (return)
[ These tribes were settled between the Oder and Vistula, where now are part of Silesia, of Brandenburg, and of Poland. The Elysii are supposed to have given name to Silesia. ]
239 (return)
[ The Greeks and Romans, under the name of the Dioscuri, or Castor and Pollux, worshipped those meteorous exhalations which, during a storm, appear on the masts of ships, and are supposed to denote an approaching calm. A kind of religious veneration is still paid to this phenomenon by the Roman Catholics, under the appellation of the fire of St. Elmo. The Naharvali seem to have affixed the same character of divinity on the ignis fatuus; and the name Alcis is probably the same with that of Alff or Alp, which the northern nations still apply to the fancied Genii of the mountains. The Sarmatian deities Lebus and Polebus, the memory of whom still subsists in the Polish festivals, had, perhaps, the same origin. ]
240 (return)
[ No custom has been more universal among uncivilized people than painting the body, either for the purpose of ornament, or that of inspiring terror. ]
241 (return)
[ Inhabitants of what is now Further Pomerania, the New Marche and the Western part of Poland, between the Oder and Vistula. They were a different people from the Goths, though, perhaps, in alliance with them. ]
242 (return)
[ These people were settled on the shore of the Baltic, where now are Colburg, Cassubia, and Further Pomerania. Their name is still preserved in the town of Rugenwald and Isle of Rugen. ]
243 (return)
[ These were also settlers on the Baltic, about the modern Stolpe, Dantzig, and Lauenburg. The Heruli appear afterwards to have occupied the settlements of the Lemovii. Of these last no further mention occurs; but the Heruli made themselves famous throughout Europe and Asia, and were the first of the Germans who founded a kingdom in Italy under Odoacer. ]
244 (return)
[ The Suiones inhabited Sweden, and the Danish isles of Funen, Langlaud, Zeeland, Laland, &c. From them and the Cimbri were derived the Normans, who, after spreading terror through various parts of the empire, at last seized upon the fertile province of Normandy in France. The names of Goths, Visigoths, and Ostrogoths, became still more famous, they being the nations who accomplished the ruin of the Roman empire. The laws of the Visigoths are still extant; but they depart much from the usual simplicity of the German laws. ]
245 (return)
[ The Romans, who had but an imperfect knowledge of this part of the world, imagined here those "vast insular tracts" mentioned in the beginning of this treatise. Hence Pliny, also, says of the Baltic sea (Codanus sinus), that "it is filled with islands, the most famous of which, Scandinavia (now Sweden and Norway), is of an undiscovered magnitude; that part of it only being known which is occupied by the Hilleviones, a nation inhabiting five hundred cantons; who call this country another globe. " (Lib. iv. 13. ) The memory of the Hilleviones is still preserved in the part of Sweden named Halland. ]
246 (return)
[ Their naval power continued so great, that they had the glory of framing the nautical code, the laws of which were first written at Wisby, the capital of the isle of Gothland, in the eleventh century. ]
247 (return)
[ This is exactly the form of the Indian canoes, which, however, are generally worked with sails as well as oars. ]
248 (return)
[ The great opulence of a temple of the Suiones, as described by Adam of Bremen (Eccl. Hist. ch. 233), is a proof of the wealth that at all times has attended naval dominion. "This nation," says he, "possesses a temple of great renown, called Ubsola (now Upsal), not far from the cities Sictona and Birca (now Sigtuna and Bioerkoe). In this temple, which is entirely ornamented with gold, the people worship the statues of three gods; the most powerful of whom, Thor, is seated on a couch in the middle; with Woden on one side, and Fricca on the other. " From the ruins of the towns Sictona and Birca arose the present capital of Sweden, Stockholm. ]
249 (return)
[ Hence Spener (Notit. German. Antiq. ) rightly concludes that the crown was hereditary, and not elective, among the Suiones. ]
250 (return)
[ It is uncertain whether what is now called the Frozen Ocean is here meant, or the northern extremities of the Baltic Sea, the Gulfs of Bothnia and Finland, which are so frozen every winter as to be unnavigable. ]
251 (return)
[ The true principles of astronomy have now taught us the reason why, at a certain latitude, the sun, at the summer solstice, appears never to set: and at a lower latitude, the evening twilight continues till morning. ]
252 (return)
[ The true reading here is, probably, "immerging;" since it was a common notion at that period, that the descent of the sun into the ocean was attended with a kind of hissing noise, like red hot iron dipped into water. Thus Juvenal, Sat. xiv, 280:—]
Audiet Herculeo stridentem gurgite solem.
"Hear the sun hiss in the Herculean gulf. "]
253 (return)
[ Instead of formas deorum, "forms of deities," some, with more probability, read equorum, "of the horses," which are feigned to draw the chariot of the sun. ]
254 (return)
[ Thus Quintus Curtius, speaking of the Indian Ocean, says, "Nature itself can proceed no further. "]
255 (return)
[ The Baltic Sea. ]
256 (return)
[ Now, the kingdom of Prussia, the duchies of Samogitia and Courland, the palatinates of Livonia and Esthonia, in the name of which last the ancient appellation of these people is preserved. ]
257 (return)
[ Because the inhabitants of this extreme part of Germany retained the Scythico-Celtic language, which long prevailed in Britain. ]
258 (return)
[ A deity of Scythian origin, called Frea or Fricca. See Mallet's Introduct. to Hist. of Denmark. ]
259 (return)
[ Many vestiges of this superstition remain to this day in Sweden. The peasants, in the month of February, the season formerly sacred to Frea, make little images of boars in paste, which they apply to various superstitious uses. (See Eccard. ) A figure of a Mater Deum, with the boar, is given by Mr. Pennant, in his Tour in Scotland, 1769, p. 268, engraven from a stone found at the great station at Netherby in Cumberland. ]
260 (return)
[ The cause of this was, probably, their confined situation, which did not permit them to wander in hunting and plundering parties, like the rest of the Germans. ]
261 (return)
[ This name was transferred to glass when it came into use. Pliny speaks of the production of amber in this country as follows:—"It is certain that amber is produced in the islands of the Northern Ocean, and is called by the Germans gless. One of these islands, by the natives named Austravia, was on this account called Glessaria by our sailors in the fleet of Germanicus. "—Lib. xxxvii. 3. ]
262 (return)
[ Much of the Prussian amber is even at present collected on the shores of the Baltic. Much also is found washed out of the clayey cliffs of Holderness. See Tour in Scotland, 1769, p. 16. ]
263 (return)
[ Insomuch that the Guttones, who formerly inhabited this coast, made use of amber as fuel, and sold it for that purpose to the neighboring Teutones. (Plin. xxxvii. 2. )]
264 (return)
[ Various toys and utensils of amber, such as bracelets, necklaces, rings, cups, and even pillars, were to be met with among the luxurious Romans. ]
265 (return)
[ In a work by Goeppert and Berendt, on "Amber and the Fossil Remains of Plants contained in it," published at Berlin, 1845, a passage is found (of which a translation is here given) which quite harmonizes with the account of Tacitus:—"About the parts which are known by the name of Samland an island emerged, or rather a group of islands, . . . which gradually increased in circumference, and, favored by a mild sea climate, was overspread with vegetation and forest. This forest was the means of amber being produced. Certain trees in it exuded gums in such quantities that the sunken forest soil now appears to be filled with it to such a degree, as if it had only been deprived of a very trifling part of its contents by the later eruptions of the sea, and the countless storms which have lashed the ocean for centuries. " Hence, though found underground, it appears to have been originally the production of some resinous tree. Hence, too, the reason of the appearance of insects, &c. in it, as mentioned by Tacitus. ]
266 (return)
[ Norwegians. ]
267 (return)
[ All beyond the Vistula was reckoned Sarmatia. These people, therefore, were properly inhabitants of Sarmatia, though from their manners they appeared of German origin. ]
268 (return)
[ Pliny also reckons the Peucini among the German nations:—"The fifth part of Germany is possessed by the Peucini and Bastarnae, who border on the Dacians. " (iv. 14. ) From Strabo it appears that the Peucini, part of the Bastarnae, inhabited the country about the mouths of the Danube, and particularly the island Peuce, now Piczina, formed by the river. ]
269 (return)
[ The habitations of the Peucini were fixed; whereas the Sarmatians wandered about in their wagons. ]
270 (return)
[ "Sordes omnium ac torpor; procerum connubiis mixtis nonnihil in Sarmatarum habitum foedantur. " In many editions the semicolon is placed not after torpor, but after procerum. The sense of the passage so read is: "The chief men are lazy and stupid, besides being filthy, like all the rest. Intermarriage with the Sarmatians have debased. " &c. ]
271 (return)
[ The Venedi extended beyond the Peucini and Bastarnae as far as the Baltic Sea; where is the Sinus Venedicus, now the Gulf of Dantzig. Their name is also preserved in Wenden, a part of Livonia. When the German nations made their irruption into Italy, France and Spain, the Venedi, also called Winedi, occupied their vacant settlements between the Vistula and Elbe. Afterwards they crossed the Danube, and seized Dalmatia, Illyricum, Istria, Carniola, and the Noric Alps. A part of Carniola still retains the name of Windismarck, derived from them. This people were also called Slavi; and their language, the Sclavonian, still prevails through a vast tract of country. ]
272 (return)
[ This is still the manner of living of the successors of the Sarmatians, the Nogai Tartars. ]
273 (return)
[ Their country is called by Pliny, Eningia, now Finland. Warnefrid (De Gest. Langobard. i. 5) thus describes their savage and wretched state:—"The Scritobini, or Scritofinni, are not without snow in the midst of summer; and, being little superior in sagacity to the brutes, live upon no other food than the raw flesh of wild animals, the hairy skins of which they use for clothing. They derive their name, according to the barbarian tongue, from leaping, because they hunt wild beasts by a certain method of leaping or springing with pieces of wood bent in the shape of a bow. " Here is an evident description of the snow-shoes or raquets in common use among the North American savages, as well as the inhabitants of the most northern parts of Europe. ]
274 (return)
[ As it is just after mentioned that their chief dependence is on the game procured in hunting, this can only mean that the vegetable food they use consists of wild herbs, in opposition to the cultivated products of the earth. ]
275 (return)
[ The Esquimaux and the South Sea islanders do the same thing to this day. ]
276 (return)
[ People of Lapland. The origin of this fable was probably the manner of clothing in these cold regions, where the inhabitants bury themselves in the thickest furs, scarcely leaving anything of the form of a human creature. ]
277 (return)
[ It is with true judgment that this excellent historian forbears to intermix fabulous narrations with the very interesting and instructive matter of this treatise. Such a mixture might have brought an impeachment on the fidelity of the account in general; which, notwithstanding the suspicions professed by some critics, contains nothing but what is entirely consonant to truth and nature. Had Tacitus indulged his invention in the description of German manners, is it probable that he could have given so just a picture of the state of a people under similar circumstances, the savage tribes of North America, as we have seen them within the present century? Is it likely that his relations would have been so admirably confirmed by the codes of law still extant of the several German nations; such as the Salic, Ripuary, Burgundian, English and Lombard? or that after the course of so many centuries, and the numerous changes of empire, the customs, laws and manners he describes should still be traced in all the various people of German derivation? As long as the original constitution and jurisprudence of our own and other European countries are studied, this treatise will be regarded as one of the most precious and authentic monuments of historical antiquity.
THE LIFE OF CNAEUS JULIUS AGRICOLA:
1 (return)
[ Rutilius was consul B. C. 104; and for his upright life and great strictness was banished B. C. 92. Tacitus is the only writer who says he wrote his own life. Athenaeus mentions that he wrote a history of the affairs of Rome in the Greek language. Scaurus was consul B. C. 114, and again B. C. 106. He is the same Scaurus whom Sallust mentions as having been bribed by Jugurtha. As the banishment of Rutilius took place on the accusation of Scaurus, it is possible that, when the former wrote his life, the latter also wrote his, in order to defend himself from charges advanced against him. ]
2 (return)
[ Venia opus fuit. This whole passage has greatly perplexed the critics. The text is disputed, and it is not agreed why Tacitus asks indulgence. Brotier, Dronke, and others, say he asks indulgence for the inferiority of his style and manner (incondita ac rudi voce, c. 3), as compared with the distinguished authors (quisque celeberrimus) of an earlier and better age. But there would have been no less occasion to apologize for that, if the times he wrote of had not been so hostile to virtue. Hertel, La Bletterie, and many French critics, understand that he apologizes for writing the memoir of his father-in-law so late (nunc), when he was already dead (defuncti), instead of doing it, as the great men of a former day did, while the subject of their memoirs was yet alive; and he pleads, in justification of the delay, that he could not have written it earlier without encountering the dangers of that cruel age (the age of Domitian). This makes a very good sense. The only objection against it is, that the language, opus fuit, seems rather to imply that it was necessary to justify himself for writing it at all, by citing the examples of former distinguished writers of biography, as he had done in the foregoing introduction. But why would it have been unnecessary to apologize for writing the life of Agricola, if the times in which he lived had not been so unfriendly to virtue? Because then Agricola would have had opportunity to achieve victories and honors, which would have demanded narration, but for which the jealousy and cruelty of Domitian now gave no scope. This is the explanation of Roth; and he supports it by reference to the fact, that the achievements of Agricola in the conquest of Britain, though doubtless just as Tacitus has described them, yet occupy so small a space in general history, that they are not even mentioned by any ancient historian except Dio Cassius; and he mentions them chiefly out of regard to the discovery made by Agricola, for the first time, that Britain was an island (Vid. R. Exc. 1. ) This explanation answers all the demands of grammar and logic; but as a matter of taste and feeling, I cannot receive it. Such an apology for the unworthiness of his subject at the commencement of the biography, ill accords with the tone of dignified confidence which pervades the memoir. The best commentary I have seen on the passage is that of Walther; and it would not, perhaps, be giving more space to so mooted a question than the scholar requires, to extract it entire:—"Venia," he says, "is here nothing else than what we, in the language of modesty, call an apology, and has respect to the very justification he has just offered in the foregoing exordium. For Tacitus there appeals to the usage, not of remote antiquity only, but of later times also, to justify his design of writing the biography of a distinguished man. There would have been no need of such an apology in other times. In other times, dispensing with all preamble, he would have begun, as in c. 4, 'Cnaeus Julius Agricola,' &c. , assured that no one would question the propriety of his course. But now, after a long and servile silence, when one begins again 'facta moresque posteris tradere,' when he utters the first word where speech and almost memory (c. 2) had so long been lost, when he stands forth as the first vindicator of condemned virtue, he seems to venture on something so new, so strange, so bold, that it may well require apology. " In commenting upon cursaturus—tempora, Walther adds: "If there is any boldness in the author's use of words here, that very fact suits the connection, that by the complexion of his language even, he might paint the audacity 'cursandi tam saeva et infesta virtutibus tempora'—of running over (as in a race, for such is Walther's interpretation of cursandi) times so cruel and so hostile to virtue. Not that those times could excite in Tacitus any real personal fear, for they were past, and he could now think what he pleased, and speak what he thought (Hist. i. 1). Still he shudders at the recollection of those cruelties; and he treads with trembling footstep, as it were, even the path lately obstructed by them. He looks about him to see whether, even now, he may safely utter his voice, and he timidly asks pardon for venturing to break the reigning silence. "—Tyler. ]
3 (return)
[ A passage in Dio excellently illustrates the fact here referred to: "He (Domitian) put to death Rusticus Arulenus, because he studied philosophy, and had given Thrasea the appellation of holy; and Herennius Senecio, because, although he lived many years after serving the office of quaestor, he solicited no other post, and because he had written the Life of Helvidius Priscus. " (lxvii. p. 765. ) With less accuracy, Suetonius, in his Life of Domitian (s. 10), says: "He put to death Junius Rusticus, because he had published the panegyrics of Paetus Thrasea and Helvidius Priscus, and had styled them most holy persons; and on this occasion he expelled all the philosophers from the city, and from. Italy. " Arulenus Rusticus was a Stoic; on which account he was contumeliously called by M. Regulus "the ape of the Stoics, marked with the Vitellian scar. " (Pliny, Epist. i. 5. ) Thrasea, who killed Nero, is particularly recorded in the Annals, book xvi. ]
4 (return)
[ The expulsion of the philosophers, mentioned in the passage above quoted from Suetonius. ]
5 (return)
[ This truly happy period began when, after the death of Domitian, and the recision of his acts, the imperial authority devolved on Nerva, whose virtues were emulated by the successive emperors, Trajan, Hadrian, and both the Antonines. ]
6 (return)
[ Securitas publica, "the public security," was a current expression and wish, and was frequently inscribed on medals. ]
7 (return)
[ The term of Domitian's reign. ]
8 (return)
[ It appears that at this time Tacitus proposed to write not only the books of his History and Annals, which contain the "memorial of past servitude," but an account of the "present blessings" exemplified in the occurrences under Nerva and Trajan. ]
9 (return)
[ There were two Roman colonies of this name; one in Umbria, supposed to be the place now called Friuli; the other in Narbonnensian Gaul, the modern name of which is Frejus. This last was probably the birth-place of Agricola. ]
10 (return)
[ Of the procurators who were sent to the provinces, some had the charge of the public revenue; others, not only of that, but of the private revenue of the emperor. These were the imperial procurators. All the offices relative to the finances were in the possession of the Roman knights; of whom the imperial procurators were accounted noble.
Hence the equestrian nobility of which Tacitus speaks. In some of the lesser provinces, the procurators had the civil jurisdiction, as well at the administration of the revenue. This was the case in Judaea. ]
11 (return)
[ Seneca bears a very honorable testimony to this person, "If," says he, "we have occasion for an example of a great mind, let us cite that of Julius Graecinus, an excellent person, whom Caius Caesar put to death on this account alone, that he was a better man than could be suffered under a tyrant. " (De Benef. ii. 21. ) His books concerning Vineyards are commended by Columella and Pliny. ]
12 (return)
[ Caligula. ]
13 (return)
[ Marcus Silanus was the father of Claudia, the first wife of Caius. According to the historians of that period, Caius was jealous of him, and took every opportunity of mortifying him. Tacitus (Hist. iv. 48) mentions that the emperor deprived him of the military command of the troops in Africa in an insulting manner. Dion (lix. ) states, that when, from his age and rank, Silanus was usually asked his opinion first in the senate, the emperor found a pretext for preventing this respect; being paid to MS worth. Suetonius (iv. 23) records that the emperor one day put to sea in a hasty manner, and commanded Silanus to follow him. This, from fear of illness, he declined to do; upon which the emperor, alleging that he stayed on shore in order to get possession of the city in case any accident befell himself, compelled him to cut his own throat. It would seem, from the present passage of Tacitus, that there were some legal forms taken in the case of Silanus, and that Julius Graecinus was ordered to be the accuser; and that that noble-minded man, refusing to take part in proceedings so cruel and iniquitous, was himself put to death. ]
14 (return)
[ Of the part the Roman matrons took in the education of youth, Tacitus has given an elegant and interesting account, in his Dialogue concerning Oratory, c. 28. ]
15 (return)
[ Now Marseilles. This was a colony of the Phocaeans; whence it derived that Grecian politeness for which it was long famous. ]
16 (return)
[ It was usual for generals to admit young men of promising characters to this honorable companionship, which resembled the office of an aide-de-camp in the modern service. Thus, Suetonius informs us that Caesar made his first campaign in Asia as tent-companion to Marcus Thermus the praetor. ]
17 (return)
[ This was the fate of the colony of veterans at Camalodunum, now Colchester or Maldon. A particular account of this revolt is given in the 14th book of the Annals. ]
18 (return)
[ This alludes to the defeat of Petilius Cerialis, who came with the ninth legion to succor the colony of Camalodunum. All the infantry were slaughtered; and Petilius, with the cavalry alone, got away to the camp. It was shortly after this, that Suetonius defeated Boadicea and her forces. ]
19 (return)
[ Those of Nero. ]
20 (return)
[ The office of quaestor was the entrance to all public employments. The quaestors and their secretaries were distributed by lot to the several provinces, that there might be no previous connections between them and the governors, but they might serve as checks upon each other. ]
21 (return)
[ Brother of the emperor Otho. ]
22 (return)
[ At the head of the praetors, the number of whom was different at different periods of the empire, were the Praetor Urbanus, and Praetor Peregrinus. The first administered justice among the citizens, the second among strangers. The rest presided at public debates, and had the charge of exhibiting the public games, which were celebrated with great solemnity for seven successive days, and at a vast expense. This, indeed, in the times of the emperors, was almost the sole business of the praetors, whose dignity, as Tacitus expresses it, consisted in the idle trappings of state; whence Boethius justly terms the praetorship "an empty name, and a grievous burthen on the senatorian rank. "]
23 (return)
[ Nero had plundered the temples for the supply of his extravagance and debauchery. See Annals, xv. 45. ]
24 (return)
[ This was the year of Rome 822; from the birth of Christ, 69. ]
25 (return)
[ The cruelties and depredations committed on the coast of Italy by this fleet are described in lively colors by Tacitus, Hist. ii. 12, 13. ]
26 (return)
[ Now the county of Vintimiglia. The attack upon the municipal town of this place, called Albium Intemelium, is particularly mentioned in the passage above referred to. ]
27 (return)
[ In the month of July of this year. ]
28 (return)
[ The twentieth legion, surnamed the Victorious, was stationed in Britain at Deva, the modern Chester, where many inscriptions and other monuments of Roman antiquities have been discovered. ]
29 (return)
[ Roscius Caelius. His disputes with the governor of Britain, Trebellius Maximus, are related by Tacitus, Hist. i. 60. ]
30 (return)
[ The governors of the province, and commanders in chief over all the legions stationed in it. ]
31 (return)
[ He had formerly been commander of the ninth legion. ]
32 (return)
[ The province of Aquitania extended from the Pyrenean mountains to the river Liger (Loire). ]
33 (return)
[ The governors of the neighboring provinces. ]
34 (return)
[ Agricola was consul in the year of Rome 830, A. D. 77, along with Domitian. They succeeded, in the calends of July, the consuls Vespasian and Titus, who began the year. ]
35 (return)
[ He was admitted into the Pontifical College, at the head of which was the Pontifex Maximus. ]
36 (return)
[ Julius Caesar, Livy, Strabo, Fabius Rusticus, Pomponius Mela, Pliny, &c. ]
37 (return)
[ Thus Caesar: "One side of Britain inclines towards Spain, and the setting sun; on which part Ireland is situated. "—Bell. Gall. v. 13. ]
38 (return)
[ These, as well as other resemblances suggested by ancient geographers, have been mostly destroyed by the greater accuracy of modern maps. ]
39 (return)
[ This is so far true, that the northern extremity of Scotland is much narrower than the southern coast of England. ]
40 (return)
[ The Orkney Islands. These, although now first thoroughly known to the Romans, had before been heard of, and mentioned by authors. Thus Mela, in. 6: "There are thirty of the Orcades, separated from each other by narrow straits. " And Pliny, iv. 16: "The Orcades are forty in number, at a small distance from each other. " In the reign of Claudius, the report concerning these islands was particularly current, and adulation converted it into the news of a victory. Hence Hieronymus in his Chronicon says, "Claudius triumphed over the Britons, and added the Orcades to the Roman empire. "]
41 (return)
[ Camden supposes the Shetland Islands to be meant here by Thule; others imagine it to have been one of the Hebrides. Pliny, iv. 16, mentions Thule as the most remote of all known islands; and, by placing it but one day's sail from the Frozen Ocean, renders it probable that Iceland was intended. Procopius (Bell. Goth, ii. 15) speaks of another Thule, which must have been Norway, which many of the ancients thought to be an island. Mr. Pennant supposes that the Thule here meant was Foula, a very lofty isle, one of the most westerly of the Shetlands, which might easily be descried by the fleet. ]
42 (return)
[ As far as the meaning of this passage can be elucidated, it would appear as if the first circumnavigators of Britain, to enhance the idea of their dangers and hardships, had represented the Northern sea as in such a thickened half solid state, that the oars could scarcely be worked, or the water agitated by winds. Tacitus, however, rather chooses to explain its stagnant condition from the want of winds, and the difficulty of moving so great a body of waters. But the fact, taken either way, is erroneous; as this sea is never observed frozen, and is remarkably stormy and tempestuous. —Aiken. ]
43 (return)
[ The great number of firths and inlets of the sea, which almost cut through the northern parts of the island, as well as the height of the tides on the coast, render this observation peculiarly proper. ]
44 (return)
[ Caesar mentions that the interior inhabitants of Britain were supposed to have originated in the island itself. (Bell. Gall. v. 12. )]
45 (return)
[ Caledonia, now Scotland, was at that time overspread by vast forests. Thus Pliny, iv. 16, speaking of Britain, says, that "for thirty years past the Roman arms had not extended the knowledge of the island beyond the Caledonian forest. "]
46 (return)
[ Inhabitants of what are now the counties of Glamorgan, Monmouth, Brecknock, Hereford, and Radnor. ]
47 (return)
[ The Iberi were a people of Spain, so called from their neighborhood to the river Iberus, now Ebro. ]
48 (return)
[ Of these, the inhabitants of Kent are honorably mentioned by Caesar. "Of all these people, by far the most civilized are those inhabiting the maritime country of Cantium, who differ little in their manners from the Gauls. "—Bell. Gall. v. 14. ]
49 (return)
[ From the obliquity of the opposite coasts of England and France, some part of the former runs further south than the northern extremity of the latter. ]
50 (return)
[ Particularly the mysterious and bloody solemnities of the Druids. ]
51 (return)
[ The children were born and nursed in this ferocity. Thus Solinus, c. 22, speaking of the warlike nation of Britons, says, "When a woman is delivered of a male child, she lays its first food upon the husband's sword, and with the point gently puts it within the little one's mouth, praying to her country deities that his death may in like manner be in the midst of arms. "]
52 (return)
[ In the reign of Claudius. ]
53 (return)
[ The practice of the Greeks in the Homeric age was the reverse of this. ]
54 (return)
[ Thus the kings Cunobelinus, Caractacus, and Prasutagus, and the queens Cartismandua and Boadicea, are mentioned in different parts of Tacitus. ]
55 (return)
[ Caesar says of Britain, "the climate is more temperate than that of Gaul, the cold being less severe. " (Bell. Gall. v. 12. ) This certainly proceeds from its insular situation, and the moistness of its atmosphere. ]
56 (return)
[ Thus Pliny (ii. 75):—"The longest day in Italy is of fifteen hours, in Britain of seventeen, where in summer the nights are light. "]
57 (return)
[ Tacitus, through the medium of Agricola, must have got this report, either from the men of Scandinavia, or from those of the Britons who had passed into that country, or been informed to this effect by those who had visited it. It is quite true, that in the further part of Norway, and so also again in Iceland and the regions about the North Pole, there is, at the summer solstice, an almost uninterrupted day for nearly two months. Tacitus here seems to affirm this as universally the case, not having heard that, at the winter solstice, there is a night of equal duration. ]
58 (return)
[ Tacitus, after having given the report of the Britons as he had heard it, probably from Agricola, now goes on to state his own views on the subject. He represents that, as the far north is level, there is nothing, when the sun is in the distant horizon, to throw up a shadow towards the sky: that the light, indeed, is intercepted from the surface of the earth itself, and so there is darkness upon it; but that the sky above is still clear and bright from its rays. And hence he supposes that the brightness of the upper regions neutralizes the darkness on the earth, forming a degree of light equivalent to the evening twilight or the morning dawn, or, indeed, rendering it next to impossible to decide when the evening closes and the morning begins. Compare the following account, taken from a "Description of a Visit to Shetland," in vol. viii. of Chambers' Miscellany:—"Being now in the 60th degree of north latitude, daylight could scarcely be said to have left us during the night, and at 2 o'clock in the morning, albeit the mist still hung about us, we could see as clearly as we can do in London, at about any hour in a November day. "]
59 (return)
[ Mr. Pennant has a pleasing remark concerning the soil and climate of our island, well agreeing with that of Tacitus:—"The climate of Great Britain is above all others productive of the greatest variety and abundance of wholesome vegetables, which, to crown our happiness, are almost equally diffused through all its parts: this general fertility is owing to those clouded skies, which foreigners mistakenly urge as a reproach on our country: but let us cheerfully endure a temporary gloom, which clothes not only our meadows, but our hills, with the richest verdure. "—Brit. Zool. 4to. i. 15. ]
60 (return)
[ Strabo (iv. 138) testifies the same. Cicero, on the other hand, asserts, that not a single grain of silver is found on this island. (Ep. ad Attic, iv. 16. ) If we have recourse to modern authorities, we find Camden mentioning gold and silver mines in Cumberland, silver in Flintshire, and gold in Scotland. Dr. Borlase (Hist. of Cornwall, p. 214) relates, that so late as the year 1753, several pieces of gold were found in what the miners call stream tin; and silver is now got in considerable quantity from several of our lead ores. A curious paper, concerning the Gold Mines of Scotland, is given by Mr. Pennant in Append. (No. x. ) to his second part of a "Tour in Scotland in 1772," and a much more general account of the mines and ores of Great Britain in early times, in his "Tour in Wales of 1773," pp. 51-66. ]
61 (return)
[ Camden mentions pearls being found in the counties of Caernarvon and Cumberland, and in the British sea. Mr. Pennant, in his "Tour in Scotland in 1769," takes notice of a considerable pearl fishery out of the fresh-water mussel, in the vicinity of Perth, from whence 10,000l. worth of pearls were sent to London from 1761 to 1764. It was, however, almost exhausted when he visited the country. See also the fourth volume of Mr. Pennant's Br. Zool. (Class vi. No. 18), where he gives a much more ample account of the British pearls. Origen, in his Comment. on Matthew, pp. 210, 211, gives a description of the British pearl, which, he says, was next in value to the Indian;—"Its surface is of a gold color, but it is cloudy, and less transparent than the Indian. " Pliny speaks of the British unions as follows:—"It is certain that small and discolored ones are produced in Britain; since the deified Julius has given us to understand that the breastplate which he dedicated to Venus Genitrix, and placed in her temple, was made of British pearls. "—ix. 35. ]
62 (return)
[ Caesar's two expeditions into Britain were in the years of Rome 699 and 700. He himself gives an account of them, and they are also mentioned by Strabo and Dio. ]
63 (return)
[ It was the wise policy of Augustus not to extend any further the limits of the empire; and with regard to Britain, in particular, he thought the conquest and preservation of it would be attended with more expense than it could repay. (Strabo, ii. 79, and iv. 138. ) Tiberius, who always professed an entire deference for the maxims and injunctions of Augustus, in this instance, probably, was convinced of their propriety. ]
64 (return)
[ Caligula. ]
65 (return)
[ Claudius invaded Britain in the year of Rome 796, A. D. 43. ]
66 (return)
[ In the parish of Dinder, near Hereford, are yet remaining the vestiges of a Roman encampment, called Oyster-hill, as is supposed from this Ostorius. Camden's Britain, by Gibson, p. 580. ]
67 (return)
[ That of Camalodunum, now Colchester, or Maldon. ]
68 (return)
[ The Mona of Tacitus is the Isle of Anglesey, that of Caesar is the Isle of Man, called by Pliny Monapia. ]
69 (return)
[ The avarice of Catus Decidianus the procurator is mentioned as the cause by which the Britons were forced into this war, by Tacitus, Annal. xiv. 32. ]
70 (return)
[ Julius Classicianus, who succeeded Decidianus, was at variance with the governor, but was no less oppressive to the province. ]
71 (return)
[ By the slaughter of Varus. ]
72 (return)
[ The Rhine and Danube. ]
73 (return)
[ Boadicea, whose name is variously written Boudicea, Bonduca, Voadicea, &c. , was queen of the Iceni, or people of Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, and Huntingdonshire. A particular account of this revolt is given in the Annals, xiv. 31, and seq. ]
74 (return)
[ Of Camalodunum.
233 (return)
[ These were settled about the Carpathian mountains, and the sources of the Vistula. ]
234 (return)
[ It is probable that the Suevi were distinguished from the rest of the Germans by a peculiar dialect, as well as by their dress and manners. ]
235 (return)
[ Ptolemy mentions iron mines in or near the country of the Quadi. I should imagine that the expression "additional disgrace" (or, more literally, "which might make them more ashamed") does not refer merely to the slavery of working in mines, but to the circumstance of their digging up iron, the substance by means of which they might acquire freedom and independence. This is quite in the manner of Tacitus. The word iron was figuratively used by the ancients to signify military force in general. Thus Solon, in his well-known answer to Croesus, observed to him, that the nation which possessed more iron would be master of all his gold. —Aikin. ]
236 (return)
[ The mountains between Moravia, Hungary, Silesia, and Bohemia. ]
237 (return)
[ The Lygii inhabited what is now part of Silesia, of the New Marche, of Prussia and Poland on this side the Vistula. ]
238 (return)
[ These tribes were settled between the Oder and Vistula, where now are part of Silesia, of Brandenburg, and of Poland. The Elysii are supposed to have given name to Silesia. ]
239 (return)
[ The Greeks and Romans, under the name of the Dioscuri, or Castor and Pollux, worshipped those meteorous exhalations which, during a storm, appear on the masts of ships, and are supposed to denote an approaching calm. A kind of religious veneration is still paid to this phenomenon by the Roman Catholics, under the appellation of the fire of St. Elmo. The Naharvali seem to have affixed the same character of divinity on the ignis fatuus; and the name Alcis is probably the same with that of Alff or Alp, which the northern nations still apply to the fancied Genii of the mountains. The Sarmatian deities Lebus and Polebus, the memory of whom still subsists in the Polish festivals, had, perhaps, the same origin. ]
240 (return)
[ No custom has been more universal among uncivilized people than painting the body, either for the purpose of ornament, or that of inspiring terror. ]
241 (return)
[ Inhabitants of what is now Further Pomerania, the New Marche and the Western part of Poland, between the Oder and Vistula. They were a different people from the Goths, though, perhaps, in alliance with them. ]
242 (return)
[ These people were settled on the shore of the Baltic, where now are Colburg, Cassubia, and Further Pomerania. Their name is still preserved in the town of Rugenwald and Isle of Rugen. ]
243 (return)
[ These were also settlers on the Baltic, about the modern Stolpe, Dantzig, and Lauenburg. The Heruli appear afterwards to have occupied the settlements of the Lemovii. Of these last no further mention occurs; but the Heruli made themselves famous throughout Europe and Asia, and were the first of the Germans who founded a kingdom in Italy under Odoacer. ]
244 (return)
[ The Suiones inhabited Sweden, and the Danish isles of Funen, Langlaud, Zeeland, Laland, &c. From them and the Cimbri were derived the Normans, who, after spreading terror through various parts of the empire, at last seized upon the fertile province of Normandy in France. The names of Goths, Visigoths, and Ostrogoths, became still more famous, they being the nations who accomplished the ruin of the Roman empire. The laws of the Visigoths are still extant; but they depart much from the usual simplicity of the German laws. ]
245 (return)
[ The Romans, who had but an imperfect knowledge of this part of the world, imagined here those "vast insular tracts" mentioned in the beginning of this treatise. Hence Pliny, also, says of the Baltic sea (Codanus sinus), that "it is filled with islands, the most famous of which, Scandinavia (now Sweden and Norway), is of an undiscovered magnitude; that part of it only being known which is occupied by the Hilleviones, a nation inhabiting five hundred cantons; who call this country another globe. " (Lib. iv. 13. ) The memory of the Hilleviones is still preserved in the part of Sweden named Halland. ]
246 (return)
[ Their naval power continued so great, that they had the glory of framing the nautical code, the laws of which were first written at Wisby, the capital of the isle of Gothland, in the eleventh century. ]
247 (return)
[ This is exactly the form of the Indian canoes, which, however, are generally worked with sails as well as oars. ]
248 (return)
[ The great opulence of a temple of the Suiones, as described by Adam of Bremen (Eccl. Hist. ch. 233), is a proof of the wealth that at all times has attended naval dominion. "This nation," says he, "possesses a temple of great renown, called Ubsola (now Upsal), not far from the cities Sictona and Birca (now Sigtuna and Bioerkoe). In this temple, which is entirely ornamented with gold, the people worship the statues of three gods; the most powerful of whom, Thor, is seated on a couch in the middle; with Woden on one side, and Fricca on the other. " From the ruins of the towns Sictona and Birca arose the present capital of Sweden, Stockholm. ]
249 (return)
[ Hence Spener (Notit. German. Antiq. ) rightly concludes that the crown was hereditary, and not elective, among the Suiones. ]
250 (return)
[ It is uncertain whether what is now called the Frozen Ocean is here meant, or the northern extremities of the Baltic Sea, the Gulfs of Bothnia and Finland, which are so frozen every winter as to be unnavigable. ]
251 (return)
[ The true principles of astronomy have now taught us the reason why, at a certain latitude, the sun, at the summer solstice, appears never to set: and at a lower latitude, the evening twilight continues till morning. ]
252 (return)
[ The true reading here is, probably, "immerging;" since it was a common notion at that period, that the descent of the sun into the ocean was attended with a kind of hissing noise, like red hot iron dipped into water. Thus Juvenal, Sat. xiv, 280:—]
Audiet Herculeo stridentem gurgite solem.
"Hear the sun hiss in the Herculean gulf. "]
253 (return)
[ Instead of formas deorum, "forms of deities," some, with more probability, read equorum, "of the horses," which are feigned to draw the chariot of the sun. ]
254 (return)
[ Thus Quintus Curtius, speaking of the Indian Ocean, says, "Nature itself can proceed no further. "]
255 (return)
[ The Baltic Sea. ]
256 (return)
[ Now, the kingdom of Prussia, the duchies of Samogitia and Courland, the palatinates of Livonia and Esthonia, in the name of which last the ancient appellation of these people is preserved. ]
257 (return)
[ Because the inhabitants of this extreme part of Germany retained the Scythico-Celtic language, which long prevailed in Britain. ]
258 (return)
[ A deity of Scythian origin, called Frea or Fricca. See Mallet's Introduct. to Hist. of Denmark. ]
259 (return)
[ Many vestiges of this superstition remain to this day in Sweden. The peasants, in the month of February, the season formerly sacred to Frea, make little images of boars in paste, which they apply to various superstitious uses. (See Eccard. ) A figure of a Mater Deum, with the boar, is given by Mr. Pennant, in his Tour in Scotland, 1769, p. 268, engraven from a stone found at the great station at Netherby in Cumberland. ]
260 (return)
[ The cause of this was, probably, their confined situation, which did not permit them to wander in hunting and plundering parties, like the rest of the Germans. ]
261 (return)
[ This name was transferred to glass when it came into use. Pliny speaks of the production of amber in this country as follows:—"It is certain that amber is produced in the islands of the Northern Ocean, and is called by the Germans gless. One of these islands, by the natives named Austravia, was on this account called Glessaria by our sailors in the fleet of Germanicus. "—Lib. xxxvii. 3. ]
262 (return)
[ Much of the Prussian amber is even at present collected on the shores of the Baltic. Much also is found washed out of the clayey cliffs of Holderness. See Tour in Scotland, 1769, p. 16. ]
263 (return)
[ Insomuch that the Guttones, who formerly inhabited this coast, made use of amber as fuel, and sold it for that purpose to the neighboring Teutones. (Plin. xxxvii. 2. )]
264 (return)
[ Various toys and utensils of amber, such as bracelets, necklaces, rings, cups, and even pillars, were to be met with among the luxurious Romans. ]
265 (return)
[ In a work by Goeppert and Berendt, on "Amber and the Fossil Remains of Plants contained in it," published at Berlin, 1845, a passage is found (of which a translation is here given) which quite harmonizes with the account of Tacitus:—"About the parts which are known by the name of Samland an island emerged, or rather a group of islands, . . . which gradually increased in circumference, and, favored by a mild sea climate, was overspread with vegetation and forest. This forest was the means of amber being produced. Certain trees in it exuded gums in such quantities that the sunken forest soil now appears to be filled with it to such a degree, as if it had only been deprived of a very trifling part of its contents by the later eruptions of the sea, and the countless storms which have lashed the ocean for centuries. " Hence, though found underground, it appears to have been originally the production of some resinous tree. Hence, too, the reason of the appearance of insects, &c. in it, as mentioned by Tacitus. ]
266 (return)
[ Norwegians. ]
267 (return)
[ All beyond the Vistula was reckoned Sarmatia. These people, therefore, were properly inhabitants of Sarmatia, though from their manners they appeared of German origin. ]
268 (return)
[ Pliny also reckons the Peucini among the German nations:—"The fifth part of Germany is possessed by the Peucini and Bastarnae, who border on the Dacians. " (iv. 14. ) From Strabo it appears that the Peucini, part of the Bastarnae, inhabited the country about the mouths of the Danube, and particularly the island Peuce, now Piczina, formed by the river. ]
269 (return)
[ The habitations of the Peucini were fixed; whereas the Sarmatians wandered about in their wagons. ]
270 (return)
[ "Sordes omnium ac torpor; procerum connubiis mixtis nonnihil in Sarmatarum habitum foedantur. " In many editions the semicolon is placed not after torpor, but after procerum. The sense of the passage so read is: "The chief men are lazy and stupid, besides being filthy, like all the rest. Intermarriage with the Sarmatians have debased. " &c. ]
271 (return)
[ The Venedi extended beyond the Peucini and Bastarnae as far as the Baltic Sea; where is the Sinus Venedicus, now the Gulf of Dantzig. Their name is also preserved in Wenden, a part of Livonia. When the German nations made their irruption into Italy, France and Spain, the Venedi, also called Winedi, occupied their vacant settlements between the Vistula and Elbe. Afterwards they crossed the Danube, and seized Dalmatia, Illyricum, Istria, Carniola, and the Noric Alps. A part of Carniola still retains the name of Windismarck, derived from them. This people were also called Slavi; and their language, the Sclavonian, still prevails through a vast tract of country. ]
272 (return)
[ This is still the manner of living of the successors of the Sarmatians, the Nogai Tartars. ]
273 (return)
[ Their country is called by Pliny, Eningia, now Finland. Warnefrid (De Gest. Langobard. i. 5) thus describes their savage and wretched state:—"The Scritobini, or Scritofinni, are not without snow in the midst of summer; and, being little superior in sagacity to the brutes, live upon no other food than the raw flesh of wild animals, the hairy skins of which they use for clothing. They derive their name, according to the barbarian tongue, from leaping, because they hunt wild beasts by a certain method of leaping or springing with pieces of wood bent in the shape of a bow. " Here is an evident description of the snow-shoes or raquets in common use among the North American savages, as well as the inhabitants of the most northern parts of Europe. ]
274 (return)
[ As it is just after mentioned that their chief dependence is on the game procured in hunting, this can only mean that the vegetable food they use consists of wild herbs, in opposition to the cultivated products of the earth. ]
275 (return)
[ The Esquimaux and the South Sea islanders do the same thing to this day. ]
276 (return)
[ People of Lapland. The origin of this fable was probably the manner of clothing in these cold regions, where the inhabitants bury themselves in the thickest furs, scarcely leaving anything of the form of a human creature. ]
277 (return)
[ It is with true judgment that this excellent historian forbears to intermix fabulous narrations with the very interesting and instructive matter of this treatise. Such a mixture might have brought an impeachment on the fidelity of the account in general; which, notwithstanding the suspicions professed by some critics, contains nothing but what is entirely consonant to truth and nature. Had Tacitus indulged his invention in the description of German manners, is it probable that he could have given so just a picture of the state of a people under similar circumstances, the savage tribes of North America, as we have seen them within the present century? Is it likely that his relations would have been so admirably confirmed by the codes of law still extant of the several German nations; such as the Salic, Ripuary, Burgundian, English and Lombard? or that after the course of so many centuries, and the numerous changes of empire, the customs, laws and manners he describes should still be traced in all the various people of German derivation? As long as the original constitution and jurisprudence of our own and other European countries are studied, this treatise will be regarded as one of the most precious and authentic monuments of historical antiquity.
THE LIFE OF CNAEUS JULIUS AGRICOLA:
1 (return)
[ Rutilius was consul B. C. 104; and for his upright life and great strictness was banished B. C. 92. Tacitus is the only writer who says he wrote his own life. Athenaeus mentions that he wrote a history of the affairs of Rome in the Greek language. Scaurus was consul B. C. 114, and again B. C. 106. He is the same Scaurus whom Sallust mentions as having been bribed by Jugurtha. As the banishment of Rutilius took place on the accusation of Scaurus, it is possible that, when the former wrote his life, the latter also wrote his, in order to defend himself from charges advanced against him. ]
2 (return)
[ Venia opus fuit. This whole passage has greatly perplexed the critics. The text is disputed, and it is not agreed why Tacitus asks indulgence. Brotier, Dronke, and others, say he asks indulgence for the inferiority of his style and manner (incondita ac rudi voce, c. 3), as compared with the distinguished authors (quisque celeberrimus) of an earlier and better age. But there would have been no less occasion to apologize for that, if the times he wrote of had not been so hostile to virtue. Hertel, La Bletterie, and many French critics, understand that he apologizes for writing the memoir of his father-in-law so late (nunc), when he was already dead (defuncti), instead of doing it, as the great men of a former day did, while the subject of their memoirs was yet alive; and he pleads, in justification of the delay, that he could not have written it earlier without encountering the dangers of that cruel age (the age of Domitian). This makes a very good sense. The only objection against it is, that the language, opus fuit, seems rather to imply that it was necessary to justify himself for writing it at all, by citing the examples of former distinguished writers of biography, as he had done in the foregoing introduction. But why would it have been unnecessary to apologize for writing the life of Agricola, if the times in which he lived had not been so unfriendly to virtue? Because then Agricola would have had opportunity to achieve victories and honors, which would have demanded narration, but for which the jealousy and cruelty of Domitian now gave no scope. This is the explanation of Roth; and he supports it by reference to the fact, that the achievements of Agricola in the conquest of Britain, though doubtless just as Tacitus has described them, yet occupy so small a space in general history, that they are not even mentioned by any ancient historian except Dio Cassius; and he mentions them chiefly out of regard to the discovery made by Agricola, for the first time, that Britain was an island (Vid. R. Exc. 1. ) This explanation answers all the demands of grammar and logic; but as a matter of taste and feeling, I cannot receive it. Such an apology for the unworthiness of his subject at the commencement of the biography, ill accords with the tone of dignified confidence which pervades the memoir. The best commentary I have seen on the passage is that of Walther; and it would not, perhaps, be giving more space to so mooted a question than the scholar requires, to extract it entire:—"Venia," he says, "is here nothing else than what we, in the language of modesty, call an apology, and has respect to the very justification he has just offered in the foregoing exordium. For Tacitus there appeals to the usage, not of remote antiquity only, but of later times also, to justify his design of writing the biography of a distinguished man. There would have been no need of such an apology in other times. In other times, dispensing with all preamble, he would have begun, as in c. 4, 'Cnaeus Julius Agricola,' &c. , assured that no one would question the propriety of his course. But now, after a long and servile silence, when one begins again 'facta moresque posteris tradere,' when he utters the first word where speech and almost memory (c. 2) had so long been lost, when he stands forth as the first vindicator of condemned virtue, he seems to venture on something so new, so strange, so bold, that it may well require apology. " In commenting upon cursaturus—tempora, Walther adds: "If there is any boldness in the author's use of words here, that very fact suits the connection, that by the complexion of his language even, he might paint the audacity 'cursandi tam saeva et infesta virtutibus tempora'—of running over (as in a race, for such is Walther's interpretation of cursandi) times so cruel and so hostile to virtue. Not that those times could excite in Tacitus any real personal fear, for they were past, and he could now think what he pleased, and speak what he thought (Hist. i. 1). Still he shudders at the recollection of those cruelties; and he treads with trembling footstep, as it were, even the path lately obstructed by them. He looks about him to see whether, even now, he may safely utter his voice, and he timidly asks pardon for venturing to break the reigning silence. "—Tyler. ]
3 (return)
[ A passage in Dio excellently illustrates the fact here referred to: "He (Domitian) put to death Rusticus Arulenus, because he studied philosophy, and had given Thrasea the appellation of holy; and Herennius Senecio, because, although he lived many years after serving the office of quaestor, he solicited no other post, and because he had written the Life of Helvidius Priscus. " (lxvii. p. 765. ) With less accuracy, Suetonius, in his Life of Domitian (s. 10), says: "He put to death Junius Rusticus, because he had published the panegyrics of Paetus Thrasea and Helvidius Priscus, and had styled them most holy persons; and on this occasion he expelled all the philosophers from the city, and from. Italy. " Arulenus Rusticus was a Stoic; on which account he was contumeliously called by M. Regulus "the ape of the Stoics, marked with the Vitellian scar. " (Pliny, Epist. i. 5. ) Thrasea, who killed Nero, is particularly recorded in the Annals, book xvi. ]
4 (return)
[ The expulsion of the philosophers, mentioned in the passage above quoted from Suetonius. ]
5 (return)
[ This truly happy period began when, after the death of Domitian, and the recision of his acts, the imperial authority devolved on Nerva, whose virtues were emulated by the successive emperors, Trajan, Hadrian, and both the Antonines. ]
6 (return)
[ Securitas publica, "the public security," was a current expression and wish, and was frequently inscribed on medals. ]
7 (return)
[ The term of Domitian's reign. ]
8 (return)
[ It appears that at this time Tacitus proposed to write not only the books of his History and Annals, which contain the "memorial of past servitude," but an account of the "present blessings" exemplified in the occurrences under Nerva and Trajan. ]
9 (return)
[ There were two Roman colonies of this name; one in Umbria, supposed to be the place now called Friuli; the other in Narbonnensian Gaul, the modern name of which is Frejus. This last was probably the birth-place of Agricola. ]
10 (return)
[ Of the procurators who were sent to the provinces, some had the charge of the public revenue; others, not only of that, but of the private revenue of the emperor. These were the imperial procurators. All the offices relative to the finances were in the possession of the Roman knights; of whom the imperial procurators were accounted noble.
Hence the equestrian nobility of which Tacitus speaks. In some of the lesser provinces, the procurators had the civil jurisdiction, as well at the administration of the revenue. This was the case in Judaea. ]
11 (return)
[ Seneca bears a very honorable testimony to this person, "If," says he, "we have occasion for an example of a great mind, let us cite that of Julius Graecinus, an excellent person, whom Caius Caesar put to death on this account alone, that he was a better man than could be suffered under a tyrant. " (De Benef. ii. 21. ) His books concerning Vineyards are commended by Columella and Pliny. ]
12 (return)
[ Caligula. ]
13 (return)
[ Marcus Silanus was the father of Claudia, the first wife of Caius. According to the historians of that period, Caius was jealous of him, and took every opportunity of mortifying him. Tacitus (Hist. iv. 48) mentions that the emperor deprived him of the military command of the troops in Africa in an insulting manner. Dion (lix. ) states, that when, from his age and rank, Silanus was usually asked his opinion first in the senate, the emperor found a pretext for preventing this respect; being paid to MS worth. Suetonius (iv. 23) records that the emperor one day put to sea in a hasty manner, and commanded Silanus to follow him. This, from fear of illness, he declined to do; upon which the emperor, alleging that he stayed on shore in order to get possession of the city in case any accident befell himself, compelled him to cut his own throat. It would seem, from the present passage of Tacitus, that there were some legal forms taken in the case of Silanus, and that Julius Graecinus was ordered to be the accuser; and that that noble-minded man, refusing to take part in proceedings so cruel and iniquitous, was himself put to death. ]
14 (return)
[ Of the part the Roman matrons took in the education of youth, Tacitus has given an elegant and interesting account, in his Dialogue concerning Oratory, c. 28. ]
15 (return)
[ Now Marseilles. This was a colony of the Phocaeans; whence it derived that Grecian politeness for which it was long famous. ]
16 (return)
[ It was usual for generals to admit young men of promising characters to this honorable companionship, which resembled the office of an aide-de-camp in the modern service. Thus, Suetonius informs us that Caesar made his first campaign in Asia as tent-companion to Marcus Thermus the praetor. ]
17 (return)
[ This was the fate of the colony of veterans at Camalodunum, now Colchester or Maldon. A particular account of this revolt is given in the 14th book of the Annals. ]
18 (return)
[ This alludes to the defeat of Petilius Cerialis, who came with the ninth legion to succor the colony of Camalodunum. All the infantry were slaughtered; and Petilius, with the cavalry alone, got away to the camp. It was shortly after this, that Suetonius defeated Boadicea and her forces. ]
19 (return)
[ Those of Nero. ]
20 (return)
[ The office of quaestor was the entrance to all public employments. The quaestors and their secretaries were distributed by lot to the several provinces, that there might be no previous connections between them and the governors, but they might serve as checks upon each other. ]
21 (return)
[ Brother of the emperor Otho. ]
22 (return)
[ At the head of the praetors, the number of whom was different at different periods of the empire, were the Praetor Urbanus, and Praetor Peregrinus. The first administered justice among the citizens, the second among strangers. The rest presided at public debates, and had the charge of exhibiting the public games, which were celebrated with great solemnity for seven successive days, and at a vast expense. This, indeed, in the times of the emperors, was almost the sole business of the praetors, whose dignity, as Tacitus expresses it, consisted in the idle trappings of state; whence Boethius justly terms the praetorship "an empty name, and a grievous burthen on the senatorian rank. "]
23 (return)
[ Nero had plundered the temples for the supply of his extravagance and debauchery. See Annals, xv. 45. ]
24 (return)
[ This was the year of Rome 822; from the birth of Christ, 69. ]
25 (return)
[ The cruelties and depredations committed on the coast of Italy by this fleet are described in lively colors by Tacitus, Hist. ii. 12, 13. ]
26 (return)
[ Now the county of Vintimiglia. The attack upon the municipal town of this place, called Albium Intemelium, is particularly mentioned in the passage above referred to. ]
27 (return)
[ In the month of July of this year. ]
28 (return)
[ The twentieth legion, surnamed the Victorious, was stationed in Britain at Deva, the modern Chester, where many inscriptions and other monuments of Roman antiquities have been discovered. ]
29 (return)
[ Roscius Caelius. His disputes with the governor of Britain, Trebellius Maximus, are related by Tacitus, Hist. i. 60. ]
30 (return)
[ The governors of the province, and commanders in chief over all the legions stationed in it. ]
31 (return)
[ He had formerly been commander of the ninth legion. ]
32 (return)
[ The province of Aquitania extended from the Pyrenean mountains to the river Liger (Loire). ]
33 (return)
[ The governors of the neighboring provinces. ]
34 (return)
[ Agricola was consul in the year of Rome 830, A. D. 77, along with Domitian. They succeeded, in the calends of July, the consuls Vespasian and Titus, who began the year. ]
35 (return)
[ He was admitted into the Pontifical College, at the head of which was the Pontifex Maximus. ]
36 (return)
[ Julius Caesar, Livy, Strabo, Fabius Rusticus, Pomponius Mela, Pliny, &c. ]
37 (return)
[ Thus Caesar: "One side of Britain inclines towards Spain, and the setting sun; on which part Ireland is situated. "—Bell. Gall. v. 13. ]
38 (return)
[ These, as well as other resemblances suggested by ancient geographers, have been mostly destroyed by the greater accuracy of modern maps. ]
39 (return)
[ This is so far true, that the northern extremity of Scotland is much narrower than the southern coast of England. ]
40 (return)
[ The Orkney Islands. These, although now first thoroughly known to the Romans, had before been heard of, and mentioned by authors. Thus Mela, in. 6: "There are thirty of the Orcades, separated from each other by narrow straits. " And Pliny, iv. 16: "The Orcades are forty in number, at a small distance from each other. " In the reign of Claudius, the report concerning these islands was particularly current, and adulation converted it into the news of a victory. Hence Hieronymus in his Chronicon says, "Claudius triumphed over the Britons, and added the Orcades to the Roman empire. "]
41 (return)
[ Camden supposes the Shetland Islands to be meant here by Thule; others imagine it to have been one of the Hebrides. Pliny, iv. 16, mentions Thule as the most remote of all known islands; and, by placing it but one day's sail from the Frozen Ocean, renders it probable that Iceland was intended. Procopius (Bell. Goth, ii. 15) speaks of another Thule, which must have been Norway, which many of the ancients thought to be an island. Mr. Pennant supposes that the Thule here meant was Foula, a very lofty isle, one of the most westerly of the Shetlands, which might easily be descried by the fleet. ]
42 (return)
[ As far as the meaning of this passage can be elucidated, it would appear as if the first circumnavigators of Britain, to enhance the idea of their dangers and hardships, had represented the Northern sea as in such a thickened half solid state, that the oars could scarcely be worked, or the water agitated by winds. Tacitus, however, rather chooses to explain its stagnant condition from the want of winds, and the difficulty of moving so great a body of waters. But the fact, taken either way, is erroneous; as this sea is never observed frozen, and is remarkably stormy and tempestuous. —Aiken. ]
43 (return)
[ The great number of firths and inlets of the sea, which almost cut through the northern parts of the island, as well as the height of the tides on the coast, render this observation peculiarly proper. ]
44 (return)
[ Caesar mentions that the interior inhabitants of Britain were supposed to have originated in the island itself. (Bell. Gall. v. 12. )]
45 (return)
[ Caledonia, now Scotland, was at that time overspread by vast forests. Thus Pliny, iv. 16, speaking of Britain, says, that "for thirty years past the Roman arms had not extended the knowledge of the island beyond the Caledonian forest. "]
46 (return)
[ Inhabitants of what are now the counties of Glamorgan, Monmouth, Brecknock, Hereford, and Radnor. ]
47 (return)
[ The Iberi were a people of Spain, so called from their neighborhood to the river Iberus, now Ebro. ]
48 (return)
[ Of these, the inhabitants of Kent are honorably mentioned by Caesar. "Of all these people, by far the most civilized are those inhabiting the maritime country of Cantium, who differ little in their manners from the Gauls. "—Bell. Gall. v. 14. ]
49 (return)
[ From the obliquity of the opposite coasts of England and France, some part of the former runs further south than the northern extremity of the latter. ]
50 (return)
[ Particularly the mysterious and bloody solemnities of the Druids. ]
51 (return)
[ The children were born and nursed in this ferocity. Thus Solinus, c. 22, speaking of the warlike nation of Britons, says, "When a woman is delivered of a male child, she lays its first food upon the husband's sword, and with the point gently puts it within the little one's mouth, praying to her country deities that his death may in like manner be in the midst of arms. "]
52 (return)
[ In the reign of Claudius. ]
53 (return)
[ The practice of the Greeks in the Homeric age was the reverse of this. ]
54 (return)
[ Thus the kings Cunobelinus, Caractacus, and Prasutagus, and the queens Cartismandua and Boadicea, are mentioned in different parts of Tacitus. ]
55 (return)
[ Caesar says of Britain, "the climate is more temperate than that of Gaul, the cold being less severe. " (Bell. Gall. v. 12. ) This certainly proceeds from its insular situation, and the moistness of its atmosphere. ]
56 (return)
[ Thus Pliny (ii. 75):—"The longest day in Italy is of fifteen hours, in Britain of seventeen, where in summer the nights are light. "]
57 (return)
[ Tacitus, through the medium of Agricola, must have got this report, either from the men of Scandinavia, or from those of the Britons who had passed into that country, or been informed to this effect by those who had visited it. It is quite true, that in the further part of Norway, and so also again in Iceland and the regions about the North Pole, there is, at the summer solstice, an almost uninterrupted day for nearly two months. Tacitus here seems to affirm this as universally the case, not having heard that, at the winter solstice, there is a night of equal duration. ]
58 (return)
[ Tacitus, after having given the report of the Britons as he had heard it, probably from Agricola, now goes on to state his own views on the subject. He represents that, as the far north is level, there is nothing, when the sun is in the distant horizon, to throw up a shadow towards the sky: that the light, indeed, is intercepted from the surface of the earth itself, and so there is darkness upon it; but that the sky above is still clear and bright from its rays. And hence he supposes that the brightness of the upper regions neutralizes the darkness on the earth, forming a degree of light equivalent to the evening twilight or the morning dawn, or, indeed, rendering it next to impossible to decide when the evening closes and the morning begins. Compare the following account, taken from a "Description of a Visit to Shetland," in vol. viii. of Chambers' Miscellany:—"Being now in the 60th degree of north latitude, daylight could scarcely be said to have left us during the night, and at 2 o'clock in the morning, albeit the mist still hung about us, we could see as clearly as we can do in London, at about any hour in a November day. "]
59 (return)
[ Mr. Pennant has a pleasing remark concerning the soil and climate of our island, well agreeing with that of Tacitus:—"The climate of Great Britain is above all others productive of the greatest variety and abundance of wholesome vegetables, which, to crown our happiness, are almost equally diffused through all its parts: this general fertility is owing to those clouded skies, which foreigners mistakenly urge as a reproach on our country: but let us cheerfully endure a temporary gloom, which clothes not only our meadows, but our hills, with the richest verdure. "—Brit. Zool. 4to. i. 15. ]
60 (return)
[ Strabo (iv. 138) testifies the same. Cicero, on the other hand, asserts, that not a single grain of silver is found on this island. (Ep. ad Attic, iv. 16. ) If we have recourse to modern authorities, we find Camden mentioning gold and silver mines in Cumberland, silver in Flintshire, and gold in Scotland. Dr. Borlase (Hist. of Cornwall, p. 214) relates, that so late as the year 1753, several pieces of gold were found in what the miners call stream tin; and silver is now got in considerable quantity from several of our lead ores. A curious paper, concerning the Gold Mines of Scotland, is given by Mr. Pennant in Append. (No. x. ) to his second part of a "Tour in Scotland in 1772," and a much more general account of the mines and ores of Great Britain in early times, in his "Tour in Wales of 1773," pp. 51-66. ]
61 (return)
[ Camden mentions pearls being found in the counties of Caernarvon and Cumberland, and in the British sea. Mr. Pennant, in his "Tour in Scotland in 1769," takes notice of a considerable pearl fishery out of the fresh-water mussel, in the vicinity of Perth, from whence 10,000l. worth of pearls were sent to London from 1761 to 1764. It was, however, almost exhausted when he visited the country. See also the fourth volume of Mr. Pennant's Br. Zool. (Class vi. No. 18), where he gives a much more ample account of the British pearls. Origen, in his Comment. on Matthew, pp. 210, 211, gives a description of the British pearl, which, he says, was next in value to the Indian;—"Its surface is of a gold color, but it is cloudy, and less transparent than the Indian. " Pliny speaks of the British unions as follows:—"It is certain that small and discolored ones are produced in Britain; since the deified Julius has given us to understand that the breastplate which he dedicated to Venus Genitrix, and placed in her temple, was made of British pearls. "—ix. 35. ]
62 (return)
[ Caesar's two expeditions into Britain were in the years of Rome 699 and 700. He himself gives an account of them, and they are also mentioned by Strabo and Dio. ]
63 (return)
[ It was the wise policy of Augustus not to extend any further the limits of the empire; and with regard to Britain, in particular, he thought the conquest and preservation of it would be attended with more expense than it could repay. (Strabo, ii. 79, and iv. 138. ) Tiberius, who always professed an entire deference for the maxims and injunctions of Augustus, in this instance, probably, was convinced of their propriety. ]
64 (return)
[ Caligula. ]
65 (return)
[ Claudius invaded Britain in the year of Rome 796, A. D. 43. ]
66 (return)
[ In the parish of Dinder, near Hereford, are yet remaining the vestiges of a Roman encampment, called Oyster-hill, as is supposed from this Ostorius. Camden's Britain, by Gibson, p. 580. ]
67 (return)
[ That of Camalodunum, now Colchester, or Maldon. ]
68 (return)
[ The Mona of Tacitus is the Isle of Anglesey, that of Caesar is the Isle of Man, called by Pliny Monapia. ]
69 (return)
[ The avarice of Catus Decidianus the procurator is mentioned as the cause by which the Britons were forced into this war, by Tacitus, Annal. xiv. 32. ]
70 (return)
[ Julius Classicianus, who succeeded Decidianus, was at variance with the governor, but was no less oppressive to the province. ]
71 (return)
[ By the slaughter of Varus. ]
72 (return)
[ The Rhine and Danube. ]
73 (return)
[ Boadicea, whose name is variously written Boudicea, Bonduca, Voadicea, &c. , was queen of the Iceni, or people of Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, and Huntingdonshire. A particular account of this revolt is given in the Annals, xiv. 31, and seq. ]
74 (return)
[ Of Camalodunum.
