_In altitudinem_, etc. _For the sake of_ (increased) _height and terror_, i.e. to appear tall and inspire terror. Cf. note, A, 5: _in jactationem_; A. 7: _in suam famam_. The antithetic particle is omitted before this clause as it often is by our author. _Ut hostium oculis_, to strike with terror the eyes of the enemy, for primi in omnibus proeliis _oculi_ vincuntur, 43. XXXIX. _Vetustissimos. Oldest_. _Vetus_ is _old_, of long _duration_ ([Greek; etos], aetas). _antiquus, ancient_, belonging to a _preceding_ age (ante). _Recens_ (fresh, young) is opposed to the former: _novus_ (new, modern), to the latter. See Ramshorn and Freund. _Fides antiquitatis. Antiquitatis_ is objective gen.==_the belief, or persuasion of their antiquity_. _Auguriis--sacram_. The commentators all note the hexameter structure of these words, and many regard them as a quotation from some Latin poet. The words themselves are also poetical, e.g. _patrum_ for _majorum_, and _formidine_ for _religione_. The coloring is Virgilian. Cf. Aen. 7, 172; 8, 598. See Or. in loc. and Preliminary Remarks to the Histories, p. 234. _Legationibus coeunt_. Just as we say: _convene by their delegates_, or _representatives_. _Publice_==publica auctoritate, cf. same word, 10. _Primordia_. Initiatory rites. _Minor_, sc. numine. _Inferior to the god_. _Prae se ferens. Expressing in his external appearance, or bearing in his own person an acknowledgment of the power of the divinity_. _Evolvuntur_==se evolvunt, cf. Ann. 1, 13: cum Tiberii genua advolveretur; also _lavantur_, 22. _Eo--tanquam. Has reference to this point, as if_, i.e. to this opinion, viz. that thence, etc. Cf. _illuc respicit tanquam_, 12.--_Inde_ From the grove, or the god of the grove. Cf. 3: _Tuisconem ... originem gentis_. _Adjicit auctoritatem_, sc. isti superstitioni. _Magno corpore_==reipublicae magnitudine. _Corpore_, the body politic. So His. 4, 64: redisse vos in corpus nomenque Germanorum.--_Habitantur_. Al. habitant and habitantium, by conjecture. The subject is the Semnonian _country_ implied in _Semnonum: the Semnonians inhabit a hundred villages_, is the idea. XL. _Langobardos_. The Lombards of Mediaeval history; so called probably from their long beards (Germ, lang and bart). First mentioned by Velleius, 2, 106: gens etiam Germana feritate ferocior. See also Ann. 2, 45, 46, 62-64.--_Paucitas_ here stands opposed to the _magno corpore_ of the Semnones in 39. _Per--periclitando_. Three different constructions, cf. notes 16, 18. _Reudigni_. Perhaps the Jutes, so intimately associated with the Angles in subsequent history. See Or. in loc. In like manner, Zeuss identifies the _Suardones_ with the Heruli, and the _Nuithones_ with the Teutones. _Suardones_ perhaps==_sword_-men.