Nationis—gentis. Gens is often used by T. as a synonym with natio. But in antithesis, gens is the whole, of which nationes or populi are the parts, e.g. G. 4: populos—gentem; § 14: nationes—genti. In like manner, in the civil constitution of Rome, a gens included several related families.
III. Herculem. That is, Romana interpretatione, cf. § 34. The Romans found their gods everywhere, and ascribed to Hercules, quidquid ubique magnificum est, cf. note 34: quicquid—consensimus. That this is a Roman account of the matter is evident, from the use of eos, for if the Germans were the subject of memorant, se must have been used. On the use of et here, cf. note 11.
Primum—ut principem, fortissimum. Gün.
Haec quoque. Haec is rendered such by Ritter. But it seems rather, as Or. and Död. explain it, to imply nearness and familiarity to the mind of the author and his readers: these well known songs. So 20: in haec corpora, quae miramur. Quoque, like quidem, follows the emphatic word in a clause, H. 602, III. 1; Z. 355.
Relatu, called cantus trux, H. 2, 22. A Tacitean word. Freund. Cf. H. 1, 30.
Baritum. Al. barditum and barritum. But the latter has no ms. authority, and the former seems to have been suggested by the bards of the Gauls, of whose existence among the Germans however there is no evidence. Död. says the root of the word is common to the Greek, Latin, and German languages, viz. baren, i.e. fremere, a verb still used by the Batavians, and the noun bar, i.e. carmen, of frequent occurrence in Saxon poetry to this day.
Terrent trepidantve. They inspire terror or tremble with fear, according as the line (the troops drawn up in battle array) has sounded, sc. the baritus or battle cry. Thus the Batavians perceived, that the sonitus aciei on the part of the Romans was more feeble than their own, and pressed on, as to certain triumph. H. 4, 18. So the Highlanders augured victory, if their shouts were louder than those of the enemy. See Murphy in loco.
Repercussu. A post-Augustan word. The earlier Latin authors would have said repercussa, or repercutiendo. The later Latin, like the English, uses more abstract terms.—Nec tam—videntur. Nor do those carmina seem to be so much voices (well modulated and harmonized), as acclamations (unanimous, but inarticulate and indistinct) of courage. So Pliny uses concentus of the acclamations of the people. Panegyr. 2. It is often applied by the poets to the concerts of birds, as in Virg. Geor. 1, 422. It is here plural, cf. Or. in loc. The reading vocis is without MS. authority.
Ulixem. "The love of fabulous history, which was the passion of ancient times, produced a new Hercules in every country, and made Ulysses wander on every shore. Tacitus mentions it as a romantic tale; but Strabo seems willing to countenance the fiction, and gravely tells us that Ulysses founded a city, called Odyssey, in Spain. Lipsius observes, that Lisbon, in the name of Strabo, had the appellation of Ulysippo, or Olisipo. At this rate, he pleasantly adds, what should hinder us inhabitants of the Low Countries from asserting that Ulysses built the city of Ulyssinga, and Circe founded that of Circzea or Ziriczee?" Murphy.
Fabuloso errore. Storied, celebrated in song, cf. fabulosus Hydaspes. Hor. Od. 1, 227. Ulysses having wandered westward gave plausibility to alleged traces of him in Gaul, Spain and Germany—Asciburgium. Now Asburg.