_Perdomita est. Completely subdued_.
_Rerum fide==faithfully and truly_; lit. with fidelity to facts.
_Britannia_. It has generally been supposed (though Gesenius denies it in
his Phenician Paloeography) that Britain was known to the Phenicians,
those bold navigators and enterprising merchants of antiquity, under the
name of the _Cassiterides_, or Tin Islands. Greek authors make early
mention of Albion (plural of Alp?) and Ierne (Erin) as British Islands.
Bochart derives the name (Britain) from the Phenician or Hebrew
Baratanae, "the Land of Tin;" others from the Gallic _Britti_, Painted,
in allusion to the custom among the inhabitants of painting their bodies.
But according to the Welsh Triads, Britain derived its name from Prydain,
a king, who early reigned in the island. Cf. Turner's His. Ang. Sax. 1,
2, seqq. The geographical description, which follows, cannot be
exonerated from the charge of verbiage and grandiloquence. T. wanted the
art of saying a plain thing plainly.
_Spatio ac coelo_. Brit. not only stretches out or lies over against
these several countries in _situation_, but it approaches them also in
_climate_: a circumstance which illustrates the great size of the island
(cf. _maxima_, above) and prepares the way for the description of both
below.
_Germaniae_ and _Hispaniae_ are dat. after _obtenditur_. The mistaken
notion of the relative position of Spain and Britain is shared with T. by
Caesar (B.G. 13), Dion (39, 50), and indeed by the ancients in general.
It is so represented in maps as late as Richard of Cirencester. Cf.
Prichard, III. 3, 9.
_Etiam inspicitur_. It is even _seen_ by the Gauls, implying nearer
approach to Gaul, than to Germany or Spain.
_Nullis terris_. Abl. abs., _contra_ taking the place of the part., or
rather limiting a part. understood.
_Livius_. In his 105th Book; now lost, except in the Epitome.
_Fabius Rusticus_. A friend of Seneca, and writer of history in the age
of Claudius and Nero.
_Oblongae scutulae_. Geometrically a trapezium.
_Et est ea facies. And such is the form, exclusive of Caledonia, whence
the account has been extended also to the whole Island_.
_Sed--tenuatur. But a vast and irregular extent of lands jutting out
here (jam_, cf. note, G. 44) _on this remotest shore_ (i.e. widening
out again where they seemed already to have come to an end), _is
narrowed down as it were into a wedge_. The author likens Caledonia to
a wedge with its apex at the Friths of Clyde and Forth, and its base
widening out on either side into the ocean beyond. _Enormis_ is a
post-Augustan word. _Novissimi_==extreme, remotest. G. 24, note.
_Affirmavit. Established_ the fact, hitherto supposed, but not fully
ascertained. This was done in Agricola's last campaign in Britain,
cf. 38.
_Orcadas_. The Orkneys. Their name occurs earlier than this, but they
were little known.
_Dispecta est. Was seen_ through the mist, as it were; discovered in the
distance and obscurity. Cf. note, H. 4, 55: dispecturas Gallias, etc.
_Thule_. Al. Thyle. What island T. meant, is uncertain. It has been
referred by different critics, to the Shetland, the Hebrides, and even to
Iceland. The account of the island, like that of the surrounding ocean,
is obviously drawn from the imagination.
_Nam hactenus_, etc. _For their orders were_ to proceed _thus far_ only,
_and_ (besides) _winter was approaching_. Cf. _hactenus_, G. 25, and
_appetere_, Ann. 4, 51: _appetente jam luce_. The editions generally have
_nix_ instead of _jussum_. But Rit. and Or. with reason follow the oldest
and best MSS. in the reading _jussum_, which with the slight and obvious
amendment of _nam_ for _quam_ by Rit. renders this obscure and vexed
passage at length easy and clear.
_Pigrum et grave_. See a similar description of the Northern Ocean, G.
25: pigrum ac prope immotum. The modern reader need not be informed, that
this is an entire mistake, as to the matter of fact; those seas about
Britain are never frozen; though the navigators in this voyage might
easily have magnified the perils and hardships of their enterprise, by
transferring to these waters what they had heard of those further north.
_Perinde_. Al. _proinde_. These two forms are written indiscriminately in
the old MSS. The meaning of _ne perinde_ here is _not so much_, sc. as
other seas. Cf. note, G. 5.
_Ne ventis--attolli_. Directly the reverse of the truth. Those seas, are
in fact, remarkably tempestuous.
_Quod--impellitur_. False philosophy to explain a fictitious phenomenon,
as is too often the case with the philosophy of the ancients, who little
understood natural science, cf. the _astronomy_ of T. in 12.
_Neque--ac_. Correlatives. The author assigns two reasons why he does not
discuss the subject of the _tides_: 1. It does not suit the design of his
work; 2. The subject has been treated by many others, e.g. Strab. 3, 5,
11; Plin. N.H. 2, 99, &c.
_Multum fluminum. Multum_ is the object of _ferre_, of which _mare_ is
the subject, as it is also of all the infinitives in the sentence.
_Fluminum_ is not rivers but currents among the islands along the shore.
_Nec littore tenus_, etc. "_The ebbings and flowings of the tide are not
confined to the shore, but the sea penetrates into the heart of the
country, and works its way among the hills and mountains, as in its
native bed_." Ky. A description very appropriate to a coast so cut up by
aestuaries, and highly poetical, but wanting in simplicity.
_Jugis etiam ac montibus. Jugis_, cf. G. 43. _Ac. Atque_ in the common
editions. But _ac_, besides being more frequent before a consonant, is
found in the best MSS.