Passow well remarks, that almost every German usage, mentioned in this chapter, is in marked contrast with Roman manners and customs.
XXIII. Potui==pro potu, or in potum, dat. of the end. So 46: Victui herba, vestitui pelles. T. and Sallust are particularly fond of this construction. Cf. Böt. Lex. Tac., sub Dativus.
Hordeo aut frumento. Hordeo==barley; frumento, properly fruit (frugimentum, fruit [Greek: kat exochaen], i.e. grain), grain of any kind, here wheat, cf. Veget. R.M. 1, 13: et milites pro frumento hordeum cogerentur accipere.
Similitudinem vini. Beer, for which the Greeks and Romans had no name. Hence Herod. (2, 77) speaks of [Greek: oinos ek kritheon pepoiaemenos], among the Egyptians.
Corruptus. Cum Tacitea indignatione dictum, cf. 4: infectos, so Gün. But the word is often used to denote mere change, without the idea of being made worse, cf. Virg. Geor. 2, 466: Nec casia liquidi corrumpitur usus olivi. Here render fermented.
Ripae, sc. of the Rhine and Danube, i.e. the Roman border, as in 22: proximi ripae.
Poma. Fruits of any sort, cf. Pliny, N.H. 17, 26: arborem vidimus omni genere pomorum onustum, alio ramo nucibus, alio baccis, aliunde vite, ficis, piris, etc.
Recens fera. Venison, or other game fresh, i.e. recently taken, in distinction from the tainted, which better suited the luxurious taste of the Romans.
Lac concretum. Called caseus by Caes. B.G. 6, 22. But the Germans, though they lived so much on milk, did not understand the art of making cheese, see Pliny, N.H. 11, 96. "De caseo non cogitandum, potius quod nostrates dicunt dickemilch" (i.e. curdled milk). Gün.
Apparatu. Luxurious preparation.—Blandimentis. Dainties.