_Nec poena--contentus esse. Nor was he always content with punishment, but oftener with repentance_. Mere punishment without reformation did not satisfy him; reformation without punishment satisfied him better. See Död. in loc. Here too some have called in the aid of zeugma. _Auctionem_. Al. exactionem. The former is the reading of the greater part of the MSS. and the later German editions. _Auctionem tributorum_ refers to the increased tribute exacted by Vesp. cf. Sueton. Vesp. 16: _auxisse_ tributa provinciis, nonnullis et _duplicasse_. _Munerum_. _Duties, burdens.--Circumcisis_. Cf. note, 2: expulsis. etc., and 11: amissa virtute. _Namque--cogebantur_. The best version we can give of this obscure passage is as follows: _For they were compelled in mockery to sit by the closed granaries and to buy corn needlessly_ (beyond what was necessary, cf. note on _ultro_, G. 28, when they had enough of their own) _and to sell it at a fixed price_ (prescribed by the purchasers). It has been made a question, whether the granaries of the Britons, or those of the Romans are here meant. Död., Dr. and R. advocate the former opinion; Walch, Wr., Or., and Rit. the latter. According to the former view, the Britons were often obliged to buy corn of the Romans, because they were forbidden to use their own, to supply themselves and their families; according to the latter, because they were required (as explained below) to carry their contributions to a quarter so distant from their own granaries, that they were fain to buy the corn rather at some nearer warehouse of the Romans. The selling at a fixed price is equally intelligible on either supposition. Or. following the best MSS. reads _ludere pretio_, which Rit. has amended into _colludere pretio_. _Ultro_ may well enough be rendered _moreover_ or _even_, thus giving emphasis to _emere_. _Devortia itinerum_. _Bye roads_, explained by _avia_, as _longinquitas_ is by _remota_. The object of requiring the people to convey their contributions to such distant and inconvenient points, was to compel them to buy of the Romans, or to pay almost any sum of money to avoid compliance. The reader of Cic. will remember in illustration of this whole passage, the various arts to which Verres is said to have had recourse to enrich himself, at the expense of the people of his province (Cic. in Ver. 3, 72, and 82), such as refusing to accept the contributions they brought, obliging them to buy of him at his own price, requiring them to carry supplies to points most distant and difficult of access, _ut vecturae difficultate ad quam vellent aestimationem pervenirent_. _Omnibus_, sc. et incolis et militibus; _paucis_, sc. praefectis aut publicanis. Dr. _Donec--fieret_. The subj. here denotes a purpose or object in view, and theretore follows _donec_ according to the rule. H. 522, II.; Z. 575. Tacitus however always expresses a repeated past action after _donec_ by the imp. subj. Cf. note, 37: affectavere; H. 1, 13. 35.