§4.3.1Publice maximam putant esse laudem quam latissime a suis finibus vacare agros: hac re significari magnum numerum civitatum suam vim sustinere non posse.
They consider it a matter of the greatest state prestige that the lands should lie desolate as widely as possible from their borders: that by this fact it is demonstrated that a large number of states cannot withstand their power.
§4.3.2Itaque una ex parte a Suebis circiter milia passuum C agri vacare dicuntur.
Therefore, on one side of the Suebi, the lands are said to lie desolate for about a hundred miles.
§4.3.3Ad alteram partem succedunt Ubii, quorum fuit civitas ampla atque florens, ut est captus Germanorum; ii paulo, quamquam sunt eiusdem generis, sunt ceteris humaniores, propterea quod Rhenum attingunt multum ad eos mercatores ventitant et ipsi propter propinquitatem [quod] Gallicis sunt moribus adsuefacti.
On the other side, the Ubii succeed, whose state was large and flourishing, by the standard of the Germans; though they are of the same race, they are a little more civilized than the rest, because they border on the Rhine, and merchants frequent them often, and they themselves, owing to their proximity, have become accustomed to Gallic customs.
§4.3.4Hos cum Suebi multis saepe bellis experti propter amplitudinem gravitatem civitatis finibus expellere non potuissent, tamen vectigales sibi fecerunt ac multo humiliores infirmiores redegerunt.
Though the Suebi, having often tried them in many wars, had not been able to expel them from their territory because of the extent and influence of their state, they nevertheless made them tributary to themselves and rendered them much more humble and weak.