XXVIII. Summus auctorum, i.e. omnium scriptorum is, qui plurimum auctoritatis fideique habet. K. Cf. Sueton. Caes. 56. Though T. commends so highly the authority of Caesar as a writer, yet he differs from him in not a few matters of fact, as well as opinion; owing chiefly, doubtless, to the increased means of information which he possessed in the age of Trajan.
Divus Julius. Divus==deified, divine; an epithet applied to the Roman Emperors after their decease.—Tradit. Cf. Caes. B.G. 6, 24: fuit antea tempus, cum Germanos Galli virtute superarent, ultro bella inferrent, propter hominum multitudinem agrique inopiam trans Rhenum colonias mitterent. Livy probably refers to the same events, when he says (Lib. 5, 34), that in the reign of Priscus Tarquinius, two immense bodies of Gauls migrated and took possession, the one of the Hercynian Forest, the other of Upper Italy.
Amnis. The Rhine.—Promiscuas. Unsettled, ill defined.
Quo minus after a verb of hindering is followed by the subj. H. 499; Z. 543.
Nulla—divisas, i.e. not distributed among different and powerful kings.
Hercyniam silvam. A series of forests and mountains, stretching from Helvetia to Hungary in a line parallel to the Danube, and described by Caesar (B.G. 6, 25), as nine day's journey in breadth and more than sixty in length. The name seems to be preserved in the modern Hartz Forest, which is however far less extensive.
Igitur—Helvetii==igitur regionem, inter, etc. See note on colunt, 16. Igitur seldom stands as the first word in a sentence in Cicero. Cf. Z. 357; and Kühner's Cic. Tusc. Qu. 1, 6, 11. Here it introduces a more particular explanation of the general subject mentioned at the close of the previous chapter. So in A. 13. When so used, it sometimes stands first in Cic., always in T. Cf. Freund sub v. Touching the Helvetii, see Caes. B.G. 1, 1; T. His. 1, 67.
Boihemi nomen. Compounded of Boii and heim (home of the Boii), now Bohemia. Heim==ham in the termination of so many names of towns, e.g. Framing_ham_, Notting_ham_. The Boii were driven from their country by the Marcomanni, 42. The fugitives are supposed to have carried their name into Boioaria, now Bavaria. Cf. Prichard's Physical Researches, Vol. III. Chap. 1, Sec. 6; and Latham's Germany of Tacitus in loco.
Germanorum natione, i.e. German in situation, not in origin, for this he expressly denies or disproves in 43, from the fact that they spoke the Pannonian language, and paid tribute. The doubt expressed here has reference only to their original location, not to their original stock, and is therefore in no way inconsistent with the affirmation in chapter 43.
Cum==since. Hence followed by subj. H. 518, I.; Z. 577.