Propinqui, blood relations; affines, by marriage.
Orbitatis pretia. Pretia==proemia. Orbitatis==childlessness. Those who had no children, were courted at Rome for the sake of their property. Vid. Sen. Consol. ad Marc. 19: in civitate nostra, plus gratiae orbitas confert, quam eripit. So Plutarch de Amore Prolis says: the childless are entertained by the rich, courted by the powerful, defended gratuitously by the eloquent: many, who had friends and honors in abundance, have been stripped of both by the birth of a single child.
XXI. Necesse est. It is their duty and the law of custom. Gün.— Nec==non tamen.—Homicidium. A post-Augustan word.
Armentorum ac pecorum. For the distinction between these words, see note, § 5. The high value which they attached to their herds and flocks, as their solae et gratissimae opes, may help to explain the law or usage here specified. Moreover, where the individual was so much more prominent than the state, homicide even might be looked upon as a private wrong, and hence to be atoned for by a pecuniary satisfaction, cf. Tur. Hist. Ang. Sax., App. No. 3, chap. 1.
Juxta libertatem, i.e. simul cum libertate, or inter liberos homines. The form of expression is characteristic of the later Latin. Cf. Hand's Tursellinus, vol. III. p. 538. Tacitus is particularly partial to this preposition.
Convictibus, refers to the entertainment of countrymen and friends, hospitiis to that of strangers.
Pro fortuna. According to his means. So Ann. 4, 23: fortunae inops.
Defecere, sc. epulae. Quam exhausta sint, quae apparata erant, cf. 24: omnia defecerunt.
Hospes. Properly stranger; and hence either guest or host. Here the latter.—Comes. Guest. So Gün. and the common editions. But most recent editors place a colon after comes, thus making it predicate, and referring it to the host becoming the guide and companion of his guest to another place of entertainment.
Non invitati, i.e. etiam si non invitati essent. Gün.