_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.
XX. _Statim_. Emphatic, like [Greek: euthus]. Cf. Thucyd. 2, 47: [Greek: tou therous euthus archomenou]: at the _very_ beginning of summer. So in § 3.
_Intolerantia_, al. tolerantia, but without MS. authority. _Incuria_ is _negligence_. Intolerantia_ is _insufferable arrogance, severity_, in a word _intolerance_. So Cic.: superbia atque intolerantia.
_Quae--timebatur_. And no wonder, since _ubi solitudinem_ faciunt, _pacem_ appellant, 30.
_Multus_, al. militum. _Multus_ in the recent editions. _Multus_==frequens, cf. Sal. Jug. 84: multus ac ferox instare.-- _Modestiam--disiectos_. These words are antithetic, though one is abstract and the other concrete. The whole clause may be literally rendered thus: _ever present in the line of march, he commended good order (discipline), the disorderly he restrained_.
_Popularetur_, sc. A. _Quominus_, that not==_but: but he ravaged their country by unexpected invasions_.
_Irritamenta_. _Inducements.--Pacis_. Ang. _to_ or _for peace_.
_Ex aequo egerant_, lit. had acted (lived) on an equality, i.e. _had maintained their independence_, cf. His. 4, 64: aut ex aequo agetis aut aliis imperitabitis.