agris_; ib. 2, 369 _dura exerce imperia et ramos compesce fluentes_; Tac.
Germ. 26 _sola terrae seges imperatur._ -- SED ALIAS ... FAENORE: put for
_sed semper cum faenore, alias minore, plerumque maiore_. -- VIS AC NATURA:
'powers and constitution'. These two words are very often used by Cic.
together, as in Fin. 1, 50 _vis ac natura rerum_. -- GREMIO: so Lucret. 1,
250 _pereunt imbres ubi eos pater aether In gremium matris terrai
praecipitavit_, imitated by Verg. Georg. 2, 325. -- MOLLITO AC SUBACTO:
_i.e._ by the plough. _Subigere_, 'subdue', is a technical word of
agriculture; so Verg. Georg. 2, 50 _scrobibus subactis_; see also below,
59.

P. 22. -- OCCAECATUM: 'hidden'. _Caecus_ has the sense of 'unseen' as well
as that of 'unseeing' or 'blind'. -- OCCATIO: Cicero's derivation, as well
as Varro's (De Re Rust. 1, 31, 1) from _occidere_, because the earth is cut
up, is unsound. _Occa_ is _rastrum_, probably from its _sharp_ points (root
_ak-_); _occatio_ therefore is 'harrowing'. -- VAPORE: 'heat'. This word
has not in the best Latin the meaning of our 'vapor'. -- COMPRESSU: a word
found only here in Cicero's writings and elsewhere in Latin only in the
ablative case, like so many other nouns whose stem ends in _-u_. --
DIFFUNDIT ET ELICIT: 'expands and lures forth'. -- HERBESCENTEM: this word
occurs nowhere else in Latin. -- NIXA: A. 254, _b_; G. 403, Rem. 3; H. 425,
1, 1), n. -- FIBRIS STIRPIUM: so Tusc. 3, 13 _radicum fibras_. --
GENICULATO: 'knotted'. The verb _geniculo_, from _genu_, scarcely occurs
excepting in the passive participle, which is always used, as here, of
plants. So Plin. Nat. Hist. 16, 158 _geniculata cetera gracilitas nodisque
distincta_, speaking of the _harundo_. -- SPICI: besides _spica_, the forms
_spicum_ and _spicus_ are occasionally found. _Spici_ here is explanatory
_frugem_. -- VALLO: for the metaphor compare N.D. 2, 143 _munitae sunt
palpebrae tamquam vallo pilorum_; Lucr. 2, 537.