Vidimus, i.e. she lived in our day—under the reign of Vespasian.— Veledam. Cf. H. 4, 61. 65.
Auriniam. Aurinia seems to have been a common name in Germany for prophetess or wise woman. Perhaps==Al-runas, women knowing all things. So Veleda==wise woman. Cf. Wr. in loc.
Non adulatione, etc. "Not through adulation, nor as if they were raising mortals to the rank of goddesses." Ky. This is one of those oblique censures on Roman customs in which the treatise abounds. The Romans in the excess of their adulation to the imperial family made ordinary women goddesses, as Drusilla, sister of Caligula, the infant daughter of Poppaea (Ann. 15, 23), and Poppaea herself (Dio 63, 29). The Germans, on the other hand, really thought some of their wise women to be divine. Cf. His. 4, 62, and my note ibid. Reverence and affection for woman was characteristic of the German Tribes, and from them has diffused itself throughout European society.
IX. Deorum. T. here, as elsewhere, applies Roman names, and puts a Roman construction (Romana interpretatione, § 43), upon the gods of other nations, cf. § 3.
Mercurium. So Caes. B.G. 6, 17: Deum maxime Mercurium colunt. Probably the German Woden, whose name is preserved in our Wednesday, as that of Mercury is in the French name of the same day, and who with a name slightly modified (Woden, Wuotan, Odin), was a prominent object of worship among all the nations of Northern Europe. Mars is perhaps the German god of war (Tiw, Tiu, Tuisco) whence Tuesday, French Mardi, cf. Tur. His. Ang. Sax. App. to B. 2. chap. 3. Herculem is omitted by Ritter on evidence (partly external and partly internal) which is entitled to not a little consideration. Hercules is the god of strength, perhaps Thor.
Certis diebus. Statis diebus. Gün.
Humanis—hostiis. Even facere in the sense of sacrifice is construed with abl. Virg. Ec. 3, 77. Quoque==even. For its position in the sentence, cf. note, 3.
Concessis animalibus. Such as the Romans and other civilized nations offer, in contradistinction to human sacrifices, which the author regards as in-concessa. The attempt has been made to remove from the Germans the stain of human sacrifices. But it rests on incontrovertible evidence (cf. Tur. His. Ang. Sax., App. to B. 2. cap. 3), and indeed attaches to them only in common with nearly all uncivilized nations. The Gauls and Britons, and the Celtic nations generally, carried the practice to great lengths, cf. Caes. B.G. 6, 15. The neighbors of the Hebrews offered human victims in great numbers to their gods, as we learn from the Scriptures. Nay, the reproach rests also upon the Greeks and Romans in their early history. Pliny informs us, that men were sacrificed as late as the year of Rome 657.
Isidi. The Egyptian Isis in Germany! This shows, how far the Romans went in comparing the gods of different nations. Gr. Ritter identifies this goddess with the Nertha of chap. 40, the Egyptian Isis and Nertha being both equivalent to Mother Earth, the Terra or Tellus of the Romans.
Liburnae. A light galley, so called from the Liburnians, a people of Illyricum, who built and navigated them. The signum, here likened to a galley, was more probably a rude crescent, connected with the worship of the moon, cf. Caes. B.G. 6, 21: Germani deorum numero ducunt Solem et Lunam.