XXXVIII. _Suevis_. In the time of T. a powerful confederacy, embracing all the tribes enumerated in 39-45, and covering all the eastern and larger half of Germany. But the confederacy was soon dissolved and seldom appears in subsequent history. We still have a trace of their name in the Modern _Suabia_. The name is supposed by some philologists (e.g. Zeuss) to denote _unsettled wanderers_ (Germ. Schweben, to wave, to hover, cf. Caes. B.G. 4, 1: Suevis non longius anno remanere uno in loco, etc.); as that of the Saxons does settlers, or _fixed residents_ (Germ. Sassen), and that of the Franks, _freemen_. See Rup. in loc. An ingenious Article in the North American Review (July, 1847), makes the distinction of Suevi and non-Suevi radical and permanent in the religion and the language of the Germans; the Suevi becoming Orthodox Catholics, and the non-Suevi Arians in Ecclesiastical History, and the one High-Dutch and the other Low-Dutch in the development of their language. _Adhuc_. Cf. note on it, 19. As to position, cf. _insuper_ 31, and 34. The Suevi are _still (adhuc)_ divided into distinct tribes bearing distinct names, though united in a confederacy. Cf. Hand's Tursellinus, 1, 163. Död. renders _besides_, sc. the general designation of Suevi. _In commune. In common_. Not used in this sense by Cic., Caes. and Liv., though frequent in T. Gr. Cf. note on the same, 27. _Obliquare. To turn the hair back, or comb it up_ contrary to its natural direction--and then fasten it in a knot on the top of the head (_substringere nodo_); so it seems to be explained by the author himself below: _horrentem capillum retro sequuntur ac in ipso solo vertice religant_. Others translate _obliquare_ by _twist_. Many ancient writers speak of this manner of tying the hair among the Germans, cf. Sen. de Ira. 3, 26.; Juv. 13, 164. _A servis separantur. Separantur_==distinguuntur. Servants among the Suevi seem to have had their hair shorn. So also it was among the Franks at a later date. Vid. Greg. Tur. 3, 8. _Rarum et intra_, etc. Enallage, cf. note _certum quique_, 32. _Retro sequuntur_, i.e. _follow it back_, as it were, in its growth, and _tie it up on the very crown of the head only_, instead of letting it hang down, as it grows (submittere crinem). So K., Or. and many others. Passow and Död. take sequuntur in the sense of _desire, delight in_ (our word _seek_). The word bears that sense, e.g. 5: argentum magis quam aurum _sequuntur_. But then what is _retro_ sequuntur? for _retro_ must be an adjunct of _sequuntur_ both from position, and because there is no other word which it can limit. _Saepe_ implies, that sometimes they made a knot elsewhere, but _often they fasten_ it there, and there _only_. See Or. in loc. This whole passage illustrates our author's disposition to avoid technical language. Cf. note, II. 2, 21. _Innoxiae. Harmless_, unlike the beauty cultivated among the _Romans_ to dazzle and seduce.