XXVI
Fenus agitare et in usuras extendere, (fenus agitare et in usuras extendere: another allusion to Roman practices. In Book 6, ch. 16 of the Annales Tacitus calls usury and money lending in general ‘an ancient scourge, an unending source of subversion and disunity’.) ignotum: ideoque magis servatur, quam si vetitum esset. (magis servatur, quam si vetitum esset: example of conditional sentence of comparison: ‘more is protected [from such practices] than if it had been outlawed’; the tense of the subjunctive is normally regulated by the sequence of tenses, but the pluperfect seen here (in place of perf. subjunctive after servatur) marks more pointedly an action that has never occurred. Cf. L. 2117-2120. quam si is only used twice in Tacitus’ entire body of work.) Agri pro numero cultorum ab universis in vices occupantur, (agri …ab universis in vices occupantur: ‘the land is occupied by all communities on a rotational basis’; the reading of in vices in the original text is uncertain and interpretations differ: assuming in vices (‘by turns’) to be the proper reading, the meaning is that ownership of land was not permanent: to each community (vicus) would be assigned a tract of land to be worked for a period of time, probably a year. Then the same tract would be given to another community and in its place a new tract assigned somewhere else to the dispossessed community. In this way every community within a tribe would from time to time have to move to a new land and location. Confirmation of such unusual arrangement is found in Julius Caesar’s De Bello Gallico, Book 6, ch. 22. He says: ‘The magistrates and tribal leaders assign [to a community], for one year only, as much land as seems fair, and the following year obliges them to move on. …They do this to prevent the men from getting used to sedentary life and neglecting military training in favor of agriculture, …to discourage love of money and desire for wealth. …’) quos mox inter se secundum dignationem partiuntur: facilitatem partiendi camporum spatia (facilitatem partiendi: objective genitive gerund after the noun facilitas) praestant. Arva per annos mutant: et superest ager; nec enim cum ubertate et amplitudine soli (cum ubertate et amplitudine soli: abl. of accompaniment) labore contendunt, ut pomaria conserant et prata separent et hortos rigent: (conserant … separent … regent: subjunctives in purpose clause) sola terrae seges imperatur. (terrae seges imperatur: terrae is dative with imperantur; seges, -etis is said of a standing crop of cereal plants.) Unde annum quoque ipsum non in totidem digerunt species (species: ‘aspects’, ‘parts’, ‘seasons’) hiems et ver et aestas intellectum (intellectum: ‘the concept’) ac vocabula habent autumni perinde nomen ac bona ignorantur. (autumni perinde nomen ac bona ignorantur: Herbst, the German word for autumn, actually refers to the gathering of grain and is of relatively recent introduction. English also has no native word for autumn and uses in its stead the Latin term. Fall is American and was not in use before the 17th century.)