Munerum. Duties, burdens.—Circumcisis. Cf. note, 2: expulsis. etc., and 11: amissa virtute.
Namque—cogebantur. The best version we can give of this obscure passage is as follows: For they were compelled in mockery to sit by the closed granaries and to buy corn needlessly (beyond what was necessary, cf. note on ultro, G. 28, when they had enough of their own) and to sell it at a fixed price (prescribed by the purchasers). It has been made a question, whether the granaries of the Britons, or those of the Romans are here meant. Död., Dr. and R. advocate the former opinion; Walch, Wr., Or., and Rit. the latter. According to the former view, the Britons were often obliged to buy corn of the Romans, because they were forbidden to use their own, to supply themselves and their families; according to the latter, because they were required (as explained below) to carry their contributions to a quarter so distant from their own granaries, that they were fain to buy the corn rather at some nearer warehouse of the Romans. The selling at a fixed price is equally intelligible on either supposition. Or. following the best MSS. reads ludere pretio, which Rit. has amended into colludere pretio. Ultro may well enough be rendered moreover or even, thus giving emphasis to emere.
Devortia itinerum. Bye roads, explained by avia, as longinquitas is by remota. The object of requiring the people to convey their contributions to such distant and inconvenient points, was to compel them to buy of the Romans, or to pay almost any sum of money to avoid compliance. The reader of Cic. will remember in illustration of this whole passage, the various arts to which Verres is said to have had recourse to enrich himself, at the expense of the people of his province (Cic. in Ver. 3, 72, and 82), such as refusing to accept the contributions they brought, obliging them to buy of him at his own price, requiring them to carry supplies to points most distant and difficult of access, ut vecturae difficultate ad quam vellent aestimationem pervenirent.
Omnibus, sc. et incolis et militibus; paucis, sc. praefectis aut publicanis. Dr.
Donec—fieret. The subj. here denotes a purpose or object in view, and theretore follows donec according to the rule. H. 522, II.; Z. 575. Tacitus however always expresses a repeated past action after donec by the imp. subj. Cf. note, 37: affectavere; H. 1, 13. 35.
XX. Statim. Emphatic, like [Greek: euthus]. Cf. Thucyd. 2, 47: [Greek: tou therous euthus archomenou]: at the very beginning of summer. So in § 3.
Intolerantia, al. tolerantia, but without MS. authority. Incuria is negligence. Intolerantia_ is insufferable arrogance, severity, in a word intolerance. So Cic.: superbia atque intolerantia.
Quae—timebatur. And no wonder, since ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant, 30.
Multus, al. militum. Multus in the recent editions. Multus==frequens, cf. Sal. Jug. 84: multus ac ferox instare.— Modestiam—disiectos. These words are antithetic, though one is abstract and the other concrete. The whole clause may be literally rendered thus: ever present in the line of march, he commended good order (discipline), the disorderly he restrained.
Popularetur, sc. A. Quominus, that not==but: but he ravaged their country by unexpected invasions.