Since we have come to this place, it does not appear to be foreign to
our subject to lay before the reader an account of the manners of Gaul
and Germany, and wherein these nations differ from each other. In Gaul
there are factions not only in all the States, and in all the cantons
and their divisions, but almost in each family; and of these factions
those are the leaders who are considered according to their judgment to
possess the greatest influence, upon whose will and determination the
management of all affairs and measures depends. And that seems to have
been instituted in ancient times with this view, that no one of the
common people should be in want of support against one more powerful;
for none of those leaders suffers his party to be oppressed and
defrauded, and if he do otherwise, he has no influence among his party.
This same policy exists throughout the whole of Gaul; for all the States
are divided into two factions.
When Caesar arrived in Gaul, the AEdui were the leaders of one faction,
the Sequani of the other. Since the latter were less powerful by
themselves, inasmuch as the chief influence was from of old among the
AEdui, and their dependencies were great, they had united to themselves
the Germans and Ariovistus, and had brought them over to their party by
great sacrifices and promises. And having fought several successful
battles and slain all the nobility of the AEdui, they had so far
surpassed them in power that they brought over from the AEdui to
themselves a large portion of their dependants, and received from them
the sons of their leading men as hostages, and compelled them to swear
in their public character that they would enter into no design against
them; and held a portion of the neighboring land, seized on by force,
and possessed the sovereignty of the whole of Gaul. Divitiacus, urged by
this necessity, had proceeded to Rome to the Senate for the purpose of
entreating assistance, and had returned without accomplishing his
object. A change of affairs ensued on the arrival of Caesar: the hostages
were returned to the AEdui, their old dependencies restored, and new ones
acquired through Caesar (because those who had attached themselves to
their alliance saw that they enjoyed a better state and a milder
government); their other interests, their influence, their reputation
were likewise increased, and in consequence the Sequani lost the
sovereignty. The Remi succeeded to their place, and as it was perceived
that they equaled the AEdui in favor with Caesar, those who on account of
their old animosities could by no means coalesce with the AEdui,
consigned themselves in clientship to the Remi. The latter carefully
protected them. Thus they possessed both a new and suddenly acquired
influence. Affairs were then in that position, that the AEdui were
considered by far the leading people, and the Remi held the second post
of honor.
Throughout all Gaul there are two orders of those men who are of any
rank and dignity: for the commonalty is held almost in the condition of
slaves, and dares to undertake nothing of itself and is admitted to no
deliberation. The greater part, when they are pressed either by debt, or
the large amount of their tributes, or the oppression of the more
powerful, give themselves up in vassalage to the nobles, who possess
over them the same rights, without exception, as masters over their
slaves. But of these two orders, one is that of the Druids, the other
that of the knights. The former are engaged in things sacred, conduct
the public and the private sacrifices, and interpret all matters of
religion. To these a large number of the young men resort for the
purpose of instruction, and they [the Druids] are in great honor among
them. For they determine respecting almost all controversies, public and
private; and if any crime has been perpetrated, if murder has been
committed, if there be any dispute about an inheritance, if any about
boundaries, these same persons decide it; they decree rewards and
punishments; if any one, either in a private or public capacity, has not
submitted to their decision, they interdict him from the sacrifices.
This among them is the most heavy punishment. Those who have been thus
interdicted are esteemed in the number of the impious and criminal: all
shun them, and avoid their society and conversation, lest they receive
some evil from their contact; nor is justice administered to them when
seeking it, nor is any dignity bestowed on them. Over all these Druids
one presides, who possesses supreme authority among them. Upon his
death, if any individual among the rest is pre-eminent in dignity, he
succeeds; but if there are many equal, the election is made by the
suffrages of the Druids; sometimes they even contend for the presidency
with arms. These assemble at a fixed period of the year in a consecrated
place in the territories of the Carnutes, which is reckoned the central
region of the whole of Gaul. Hither all who have disputes assemble from
every part and submit to their decrees and determinations. This
institution is supposed to have been devised in Britain, and to have
been brought over from it into Gaul; and now those who desire to gain a
more accurate knowledge of that system generally proceed thither for the
purpose of studying it.
The Druids do not go to war, nor pay tribute together with the rest;
they have an exemption from military service and a dispensation in all
matters. Induced by such great advantages, many embrace this profession
of their own accord, and many are sent to it by their parents and
relations. They are said there to learn by heart a great number of
verses; accordingly some remain in the course of training twenty years.
Nor do they regard it lawful to commit these to writing, though in
almost all other matters, in their public and private transactions, they
use Greek characters. That practice they seem to me to have adopted for
two reasons: because they neither desire their doctrines to be divulged
among the mass of the people, nor those who learn, to devote themselves
the less to the efforts of memory, relying on writing; since it
generally occurs to most men that in their dependence on writing they
relax their diligence in learning thoroughly, and their employment of
the memory. They wish to inculcate this as one of their leading tenets:
that souls do not become extinct, but pass after death from one body to
another; and they think that men by this tenet are in a great degree
excited to valor, the fear of death being disregarded. They likewise
discuss and impart to the youth many things respecting the stars and
their motion; respecting the extent of the world and of our earth;
respecting the nature of things; respecting the power and the majesty of
the immortal gods.
The other order is that of the knights. These, when there is occasion
and any war occurs (which before Caesar's arrival was for the most part
wont to happen every year, as either they on their part were inflicting
injuries or repelling those which others inflicted on them), are all
engaged in war. And those of them most distinguished by birth and
resources have the greatest number of vassals and dependants about
them. They acknowledge this sort of influence and power only.
The nation of all the Gauls is extremely devoted to superstitious rites;
and on that account they who are troubled with unusually severe
diseases, and they who are engaged in battles and dangers, either
sacrifice men as victims, or vow that they will sacrifice them, and
employ the Druids as the performers of those sacrifices; because they
think that unless the life of a man be offered for the life of a man,
the mind of the immortal gods cannot be rendered propitious, and they
have sacrifices of that kind ordained for national purposes. Others have
figures of vast size, the limbs of which formed of osiers they fill with
living men, which being set on fire, the men perish enveloped in the
flames. They consider that the oblation of such as have been taken in
theft, or in robbery, or any other offense, is more acceptable to the
immortal gods; but when a supply of that class is wanting, they have
recourse to the oblation of even the innocent.
They worship as their divinity Mercury in particular, and have many
images of him, and regard him as the inventor of all arts; they consider
him the guide of their journeys and marches, and believe him to have
very great influence over the acquisition of gain and mercantile
transactions. Next to him they worship Apollo, and Mars, and Jupiter,
and Minerva; respecting these deities they have for the most part the
same belief as other nations: that Apollo averts diseases, that Minerva
imparts the invention of manufactures, that Jupiter possesses the
sovereignty of the heavenly powers; that Mars presides over wars. To
him, when they have determined to engage in battle, they commonly vow
those things which they shall take in war. When they have conquered,
they sacrifice whatever captured animals may have survived the conflict,
and collect the other things into one place. In many States you may see
piles of these things heaped up in their consecrated spots; nor does it
often happen that any one, disregarding the sanctity of the case, dares
either to secrete in his house things captured, or take away those
deposited; and the most severe punishment, with torture, has been
established for such a deed.
All the Gauls assert that they are descended from the god Dis, and say
that this tradition has been handed down by the Druids. For that reason
they compute the divisions of every season, not by the number of days,
but of nights; they keep birthdays and the beginnings of months and
years in such an order that the day follows the night. Among the other
usages of their life, they differ in this from almost all other nations;
that they do not permit their children to approach them openly until
they are grown up so as to be able to bear the service of war; and they
regard it as indecorous for a son of boyish age to stand in public in
the presence of his father.
Whatever sums of money the husbands have received in the name of dowry
from their wives, making an estimate of it, they add the same amount out
of their own estates. An account is kept of all this money conjointly,
and the profits are laid by; whichever of them shall have survived the
other, to that one the portion of both reverts, together with the
profits of the previous time. Husbands have power of life and death over
their wives as well as over their children: and when the father of a
family born in a more than commonly distinguished rank has died, his
relations assemble, and if the circumstances of his death are
suspicious, hold an investigation upon the wives in the manner adopted
towards slaves; and if proof be obtained, put them to severe torture and
kill them. Their funerals, considering the state of civilization among
the Gauls, are magnificent and costly; and they cast into the fire all
things, including living creatures, which they suppose to have been dear
to them when alive; and a little before this period, slaves and
dependants who were ascertained to have been beloved by them were, after
the regular funeral rites were completed, burnt together with them.
Those States which are considered to conduct their commonwealth more
judiciously have it ordained by their laws, that if any person shall
have heard by rumor and report from his neighbors anything concerning
the commonwealth, he shall convey it to the magistrate and not impart it
to any other; because it has been discovered that inconsiderate and
inexperienced men were often alarmed by false reports and driven to some
rash act, or else took hasty measures in affairs of the highest
importance. The magistrates conceal those things which require to be
kept unknown; and they disclose to the people whatever they determine to
be expedient. It is not lawful to speak of the commonwealth except in
council.
The Germans differ much from these usages, for they have neither
Druids to preside over sacred offices nor do they pay great regard
to sacrifices. They rank in the number of the gods those alone
whom they behold, and by whose instrumentality they are obviously
benefited,--namely, the sun, fire, and the moon; they have not heard of
the other deities even by report. Their whole life is occupied in
hunting and in the pursuits of the military art; from childhood they
devote themselves to fatigue and hardships. Those who have remained
chaste for the longest time receive the greatest commendation among
their people; they think that by this the growth is promoted, by this
the physical powers are increased and the sinews are strengthened. And
to have had knowledge of a woman before the twentieth year they reckon
among the most disgraceful acts; of which matter there is no
concealment, because they bathe promiscuously in the rivers and only use
skins or small cloaks of deer's hides, a large portion of the body being
in consequence naked.
They do not pay much attention to agriculture, and a large portion of
their food consists in milk, cheese, and flesh; nor has any one a fixed
quantity of land or his own individual limits; but the magistrates and
the leading men each year apportion to the tribes and families who have
united together, as much land as, and in the place in which, they think
proper, and the year after compel them to remove elsewhere. For this
enactment they advance many reasons--lest seduced by long-continued
custom, they may exchange their ardor in the waging of war for
agriculture; lest they may be anxious to acquire extensive estates, and
the more powerful drive the weaker from their possessions; lest they
construct their houses with too great a desire to avoid cold and heat;
lest the desire of wealth spring up, from which cause divisions and
discords arise; and that they may keep the common people in a contented
state of mind, when each sees his own means placed on an equality with
[those of] the most powerful.
It is the greatest glory to the several States to have as wide deserts
as possible around them, their frontiers having been laid waste. They
consider this the real evidence of their prowess, that their neighbors
shall be driven out of their lands and abandon them, and that no one
dare settle near them; at the same time they think that they shall be on
that account the more secure, because they have removed the apprehension
of a sudden incursion. When a State either repels war waged against it
or wages it against another, magistrates are chosen to preside over
that war with such authority that they have power of life and death. In
peace there is no common magistrate, but the chiefs of provinces and
cantons administer justice and determine controversies among their own
people. Robberies which are committed beyond the boundaries of each
State bear no infamy, and they avow that these are committed for the
purpose of disciplining their youth and of preventing sloth. And when
any of their chiefs has said in an assembly that "he will be their
leader; let those who are willing to follow, give in their names," they
who approve of both the enterprise and the man arise and promise their
assistance and are applauded by the people; such of them as have not
followed him are accounted in the number of deserters and traitors, and
confidence in all matters is afterwards refused them.
To injure guests they regard as impious; they defend from wrong those
who have come to them for any purpose whatever, and esteem them
inviolable; to them the houses of all are open and maintenance is freely
supplied.
And there was formerly a time when the Gauls excelled the Germans in
prowess, and waged war on them offensively, and on account of the great
number of their people and the insufficiency of their land, sent
colonies over the Rhine. Accordingly, the Volcae Tectosages seized on
those parts of Germany which are the most fruitful and lie around the
Hercynian forest (which I perceive was known by report to Eratosthenes
and some other Greeks, and which they call Orcynia), and settled there.
Which nation to this time retains its position in those settlements, and
has a very high character for justice and military merit: now also they
continue in the same scarcity, indigence, hardihood, as the Germans, and
use the same food and dress; but their proximity to the Province and
knowledge of commodities from countries beyond the sea supplies to the
Gauls many things tending to luxury as well as civilization. Accustomed
by degrees to be overmatched and worsted in many engagements, they do
not even compare themselves to the Germans in prowess.
The breadth of this Hercynian forest which has been referred to above
is, to a quick traveler, a journey of nine days. For it cannot be
otherwise computed, nor are they acquainted with the measures of roads.
It begins at the frontiers of the Helvetii, Nemetes, and Rauraci, and
extends in a right line along the river Danube to the territories of the
Daci and the Anartes; it bends thence to the left in a different
direction from the river, and owing to its extent, touches the confines
of many nations; nor is there any person belonging to this part of
Germany who says that he either has gone to the extremity of that
forest, though he had advanced a journey of sixty days, or has heard in
what place it begins. It is certain that many kinds of wild beast are
produced in it which have not been seen in other parts; of which the
following are such as differ principally from other animals and appear
worthy of being committed to record.
There is an ox of the shape of a stag, between whose ears a horn rises
from the middle of the forehead, higher and straighter than those horns
which are known to us. From the top of this, branches, like palms,
stretch out a considerable distance. The shape of the female and of the
male is the same; the appearance and the size of the horns is the same.
There are also animals which are called elks. The shape of these, and
the varied color of their skins, is much like roes, but in size they
surpass them a little and are destitute of horns, and have legs without
joints and ligatures; nor do they lie down for the purpose of rest, nor
if they have been thrown down by any accident, can they raise or lift
themselves up. Trees serve as beds to them; they lean themselves against
them, and thus reclining only slightly, they take their rest; when the
huntsmen have discovered from the footsteps of these animals whither
they are accustomed to betake themselves, they either undermine all the
trees at the roots, or cut into them so far that the upper part of the
trees may appear to be left standing. When they have leant upon them,
according to their habit, they knock down by their weight the
unsupported trees, and fall down themselves along with them.
There is a third kind, consisting of those animals which are called uri.
These are a little below the elephant in size, and of the appearance,
color, and shape of a bull. Their strength and speed are extraordinary;
they spare neither man nor wild beast which they have espied. These the
Germans take with much pains in pits and kill them. The young men harden
themselves with this exercise, and practice themselves in this kind of
hunting, and those who have slain the greatest number of them, having
produced the horns in public to serve as evidence, receive great
praise. But not even when taken very young can they be rendered familiar
to men and tamed. The size, shape, and appearance of their horns differ
much from the horns of our oxen. These they [the Gauls] anxiously seek
after, and bind at the tips with silver, and use as cups at their most
sumptuous entertainments.