The annals of Tacitus

132 NOTES
72
1. eodem anno Frisii. Bury's paraphrase ( Student'.^ Roman
Eiiqnre, T^. 185) is a good commentary on this chapter:— ' Against
a revolt of tributaries on the northei-n boundary of the Empire,
the arms of Eome were not so successful. The Frisians, who had
been subdued by Drusus in 12 b.c, had for forty years paid the
tribute which he had imposed on them. This tribute consisted
in ox-hides, which were required for military purposes ; and the
officers who levied it never examined too curiously the size or
thickness of the skins, until in 28 a.d. Olennius, a primipilar
centurion, who was appointed to exact the tribute, chose the
hides of wild bulls as the standard. As the domestic cattle of
the Germans were of small size, the Frisians found the innova-
tion hard. In order to meet the demands of Olennius, they were
forced to give up, first their capital, then their lands, finally to
surrender their wives and children as pledges. As their complaints
led to no redress, they rose in revolt. The soldiers, who were
collecting the tribute, were impaled on gibbets ; and Olennius
himself was obliged to escape to the fortress of Flevum— probably
in the island of the same name, now Vlieland, near the Texel
which was a Roman coastguard station.'
Frisii, occupying the low lands between the mouth of the
Bhine and thfijms, s urroun din g the Znyd ^r 7,ao.
2. pacem exuere, a very frequent metaphor in Tacitus.
Cf. iii 12 ohscquium exuit.
nostra auaritia, causal abl.
3. tributum iis iusserat...ut penderent. For the construc-
tion N. quotes xiii 15 Britannico iussit exsurgeret; xiii 40 qidhiis
iiisserat ut..:re!