_Inertiam. Inertiam==idleness_, freedom from business and care (from _in_ and _ars_); _quietem==tranquillity_, a life of undisturbed repose without action or excitement. Cf. 14: _ingrata genti quies_. In this account of the habits of the Germans, one might easily fancy, he was reading a description of the manner of life among our American Indians. It may be remarked here, once for all, that this resemblance may be traced in very many particulars, e.g. in their personal independence, in the military chieftains and their followers, in their extreme fondness for the hardships and dangers of war, in their strange inactivity, gluttony and drunkenness in peace, in their deliberative assemblies and the power of eloquence to sway their counsels, in their half elective, half hereditary form of government, in the spirituality of their conceptions of God, and some other features of their religion (Robertson has drawn out this comparison in his history of Charles V). All tribes in a rude and savage state must have many similar usages and traits of character. And this resemblance between the well-known habits of our wandering savages and those which T. ascribes to the rude tribes of Germany, may impress us with confidence in the truthfulness of his narrative. _Vel armentorum vel frugum_. Partitive gen. Supply aliquid.-- _Vel--vel==whether--or_, merely distinctive; _aut--aut==either--or_, adversative and exclusive. _Vel--vel_ (from _volo_) implies, that one may _choose_ between the alternatives or particulars named; _aut--aut_ (from [Greek: au, autis]), that if one is affirmed, the other is denied, since both cannot be true at the same time. Cf. note, A. 17: _aut--aut. --Pecuniam_. An oblique censure of the Romans for purchasing peace and alliance with the Germans, cf. H. 4, 76. Herodian 6, 7: [Greek: touto gar (sc. chrusio) malista Germanoi peithontai, philargyroi te ontes kai taen eiraenaen aei pros tous Romaious chrusiou kapaeleuontes]. On _et_, cf. note 11. XVI. _Populis_. Dative of the agent instead of the abl. with _a_ or _ab_. Cf. note 3: _Ulixi_. _Ne--quidem_. These words are always separated, the word on which the emphasis rests being placed between them. H. 602, III. 2; Z. 801. Here however the emphasis seems to belong to the whole clause--_Inter se_, sc. _sedes junctas inter se_. _Colunt_==in-colunt. Both often used intransitively, or rather with an ellipsis of the object,==_dwell_. _Discreti ac diversi. Separate and scattered_ in different directions, i.e. without regular streets or highways. See Or. in loc. _Ut fons--placuit_. Hence to this day, the names of German towns often end in bach (brook), feld (field), holz (grove), wald (wood), born (spring). On the permanence of names of places, see note H. 1, 53. _Connexis_, with some intervening link, such as fences, hedges, and outhouses; _cohaerentibus_, in immediate contact.