Germ. 9.1Deōrum maximē Mercurium colunt, cui certīs diēbus hūmānīs quoque hostiīs litāre fās habent.Of the gods they worship Mercury most, to whom on certain days they consider it right to sacrifice even human victims. Germ. 9.1Herculem ac Mārtem concessīs animālibus plācant.Hercules and Mars they appease with permitted animals. Germ. 9.2Pars Suēbōrum et Īsidī sacrificat: unde causa et orīgō peregrīnō sacrō parum comperī nisi quod signum ipsum in modum liburnae figūrātum docet advectam religiōnem.Part of the Suebi also sacrifice to Isis: what the cause and origin of this foreign cult may be I have not found out, except that the emblem itself, shaped like a Liburnian galley, shows that the worship was brought from abroad. Germ. 9.3Cēterum nec cohibēre parietibus deōs neque in ūllam hūmānī ōris speciem adsimulāre ex magnitūdine caelestium arbitrantur: lūcōs ac nemora cōnsecrant deōrumque nōminibus appellant sēcrētum illud, quod sōlā reverentiā vident.For the rest, they do not think it in keeping with the greatness of the heavenly beings to confine the gods within walls or to represent them in any likeness of the human face: they consecrate woods and groves, and they call by the names of gods that hidden presence which they see by reverence alone.
Lectitō › Tacitus › Germania › Germania 9
Tacitus · Germania
Germania 9
The gods and their worship
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Read in LectitōGrammar in this passage: indirect statement ×3, ablative absolute ×1
Latin vocabulary for this passage (60 words)
| deus, -ī, m. | god |
| maximē, adv. | very greatly, exceedingly, especially |
| colō, colere, coluī, cultus | till, cultivate; inhabit; worship |
| quī, quae, quod, rel. pron. | who, which |
| certus, -a, -um | determined, fixed, certain; certiōrem facere, to make more certain, inform |
| diēs, -ēī, m. and f. | day |
| hūmānus, -a, -um | of man, human |
| quoque, adv. | also |
| hostia, -ae f. | sacrificial victim |
| litō, -āre, -āvī, -ātus | make an acceptable sacrifice, win favour by sacrifice |
| fās (indecl.) n. | what is right by divine law (fās est: it is allowed) |
| habeō, -ēre, -uī, -itus | have, hold; consider |
| atque, ac (conj.) | and; after comparisons: as, than (ac only before consonants) |
| concēdō, -cēdere, -cessī, -cessus | grant, yield |
| animal, -ālis n. | living creature, animal |
| plācō, -āre, -āvī, -ātus | calm, appease |
| pars, partis, f. | part, side, direction |
| et, conj. | and; et ... et, both ... and |
| sacrificō, -āre, -āvī, -ātus | sacrifice |
| unde, adv. | whence |
| causa, -ae, f. | cause, reason; abl. causā, for the sake of |
| orīgō, -inis f. | origin, beginning, source; ancestry |
| peregrīnus, -ī, m. | stranger, foreigner |
| sacrum, -ī n. | sacred object or rite; sacra: rites, worship |
| parum (comp. minus, superl. minimē) | too little; minimē: least, not at all |
| comperiō, -īre, comperī, compertum | find out, learn |
| nisi, conj. | if not, unless |
| quod, conj. | that, in that, because |
| signum, -ī, n. | sign, signal |
| ipse, ipsa, ipsum, intensive pron. | self, himself, herself, itself, themselves; often to be rendered by very |
| in, prep. with acc. and abl. | with acc.: into, onto, against; with abl.: in, on |
| modus, -ī, m. | way, manner |
| Liburna, -ae f. | a Liburnian galley, a light fast warship |
| figūrō, -āre, -āvī, -ātus | shape, fashion, form |
| doceo, -ēre, -uī, -tus | teach, explain |
| advehō, -ere, -vēxī, -vectus | carry to; (pass.) sail to, arrive |
| religiō, -ōnis f. | religious scruple, religious duty |
| cēterum (adv.) | but, however; for the rest |
| neque or nec, conj. | and not, nor; neque ... neque, neither ... nor; neque enim, for ... not |
| cohibeō, -ēre, -uī, -itus | hold back, restrain, keep in check |
| pariēs, -etis m. | wall (of a house) |
| ūllus, -a, -um | any |
| ōs, ōris, n. | mouth |
| speciēs, -ēī, f. | sight, appearance, shape |
| assimulō (adsimulō), -āre, -āvī, -ātus | liken, compare; imitate, feign, pretend |
| ex, ē (prep. + abl.) | out of, from; of (ē only before consonants) |
| magnitūdō, -tūdinis, f. | greatness, size |
| caelestis, -e | heavenly; pl. as noun: the gods |
| arbitror, -ārī, -ātus | consider, think, judge |
| lūcus, -ī m. | sacred grove |
| nemus, -oris n. | grove, wood |
| cōnsecrō, -āre, -āvī, -ātus | make sacred, consecrate |
| que, enclitic conj. | and |
| nōmen, -minis, n. | name (that by which one is known) |
| appellō, -pellāre, -pellāvī, -pellātus | call, name |
| sēcrētum, -ī n. | a private place; secret |
| ille, illa, illud, dem. pron. | that; he, she, it, they; ille ... hīc, see hīc |
| sōlus, -a, -um | alone |
| reverentia, -ae f. | respect, modesty, shyness |
| videō, vidēre, vīdī, vīsus | see; pass., seem |
Tacitus, Germania. Latin text: H. Furneaux, Cornelii Taciti Opera Minora (Oxford, 1900), public domain; digital text from the Perseus Digital Library, CC BY-SA. Word analysis: drafted by our own tagger (trained on the hand-checked texts on this site), with every doubtful word checked by hand. English translation and section titles: written for this app, each checked against the Latin by a second reader.