[1] This treatise was written in the year of Rome 851, A.D. 98; during
the fourth consulate of the emperor Nerva, and the third of Trajan.
[2] The Germany here meant is that beyond the Rhine. The Germania
Cisrhenana, divided into the Upper and Lower, was a part of Gallia
Belgica.
[3] Rhaetia comprehended the country of the Grisons, with part of Suabia
and Bavaria.
[4] Lower Hungary, and part of Austria.
[5] The Carpathian mountains in Upper Hungary.
[6] "Broad promontories." Latos sinus. Sinus strictly signifies "a
bending," especially inwards. Hence it is applied to a gulf, or bay, of
the sea. And hence, again, by metonymy, to that projecting part of the
land, whereby the gulf is formed; and still further to any promontory
or peninsula. It is in this latter force it is here used;--and refers
especially to the Danish peninsula. See Livy xxvii, 30, xxxviii. 5;
Servius on Virgil, Aen. xi. 626.
[7] Scandinavia and Finland, of which the Romans had a very slight
knowledge, were supposed to be islands.
[8] The mountains of the Grisons. That in which the Rhine rises is at
present called Vogelberg.
[9] Now called Schwartzwald, or the Black Forest. The name Danubius was
given to that portion of the river which is included between its source
and Vindobona (Vienna); throughout the rest of its course it was called
Ister.
[10] _Donec erumpat_. The term _erumpat_ is most correctly and
graphically employed; for the Danube discharges its waters into the
Euxine with so great force, that its course may be distinctly traced for
miles out to sea.
[11] There are now but five.
[12] The ancient writers called all nations _indigenae_ (_i.e._ inde
geniti), or _autochthones_, "sprung from the soil," of whose origin they
were ignorant.
[13] It is, however, well established that the ancestors of the Germans
migrated by land from Asia. Tacitus here falls into a very common kind
of error, in assuming a local fact (viz. the manner in which migrations
took place in the basin of the Mediterranean) to be the expression of a
general law.--ED.
[14] Drusus, father of the emperor Claudius, was the first Roman general
who navigated the German Ocean. The difficulties and dangers which
Germanicus met with from the storms of this sea are related in the
Annals, ii. 23.
[15] All barbarous nations, in all ages, have applied verse to the same
use, as is still found to be the case among the North American Indians.
Charlemagne, as we are told by Eginhart, "wrote out and committed to
memory barbarous verses of great antiquity, in which the actions and
wars of ancient kings were recorded."
[16] The learned Leibnitz supposes this Tuisto to have been the Teut or
Teutates so famous throughout Gaul and Spain, who was a Celto-Scythian
king or hero, and subdued and civilized a great part of Europe and Asia.
Various other conjectures have been formed concerning him and his son
Mannus, but most of them extremely vague and improbable. Among the
rest, it has been thought that in Mannus and his three sons an obscure
tradition is preserved of Adam, and his sons Cain, Abel, and Seth; or of
Noah, and his sons Shem, Ham, and Japhet.
[17] Conringius interprets the names of the sons of Mannus into Ingäff,
Istäf, and Hermin.
[18] Pliny, iv. 14, embraces a middle opinion between these, and
mentions five capital tribes. The Vindili, to whom belong the
Burgundiones, Varini, Carini, and Guttones; the Ingaevones, including
the Cimbri, Teutoni, and Chauci; the Istaevones, near the Rhine, part
of whom are the midland Cimbri; the Hermiones, containing the Suevi,
Hermunduri, Catti, and Cherusci; and the Peucini and Bastarnae,
bordering upon the Dacians.
[19] The Marsi appear to have occupied various portions of the northwest
part of Germany at various times. In the time of Tiberius (A.D. 14) they
sustained a great slaughter from the forces of Germanicus, who ravaged
their country for fifty miles with fire and sword, sparing neither age
nor sex, neither things profane nor sacred. (See Ann. i. 51.) At this
period they were occupying the country in the neighborhood of the
Rura (Ruhr), a tributary of the Rhine. Probably this slaughter was the
destruction of them as a separate people; and by the time that Trajan
succeeded to the imperial power they seem to have been blotted out from
amongst the Germanic tribes. Hence their name will not be found in the
following account of Germany.
[20] These people are mentioned by Strabo, vii. 1, 3. Their locality is
not very easy to determine.
[21] See note, c. 38.
[22] The Vandals are said to have derived their name from the German
word _wendeln_, "to wander." They began to be troublesome to the Romans
A.D. 160, in the reigns of Aurelius and Verus. In A.D. 410 they made
themselves masters of Spain in conjunction with the Alans and Suevi,
and received for their share what from them was termed Vandalusia
(Andalusia). In A.D. 429 they crossed into Africa under Genseric, who
not only made himself master of Byzacium, Gaetulia, and part of Numidia,
but also crossed over into Italy, A.D. 455, and plundered Rome. After
the death of Genseric the Vandal power declined.
[23] That is, those of the Marsi, Gambrivii, etc. Those of Ingaevones,
Istaevones, and Hermiones, were not so much names of the people, as
terms expressing their situation. For, according to the most learned
Germans, the Ingaevones are _die Inwohner_, those dwelling inwards,
towards the sea; the Istaevones, _die Westwohner_, the inhabitants of
the western parts: and the Hermiones, _die Herumwohner_, the midland
inhabitants.
[24] It is however found in an inscription so far back as the year of
Rome 531, before Christ 222, recording the victory of Claudius Marcellus
over the Galli Insubres and their allies the Germans, at Clastidium, now
Chiastezzo in the Milanese.
[25] This is illustrated by a passage in Caesar, Bell. Gall. ii. 4,
where, after mentioning that several of the Belgae were descended from
the Germans who had formerly crossed the Rhine and expelled the Gauls,
he says, "the first of these emigrants were the Condrusii, Eburones,
Caeresi and Paemani, who were called by the common name of Germans."
The derivation of German is _Wehr mann_, a warrior, or man of war. This
appellation was first used by the victorious Cisrhenane tribes, but not
by the whole Transrhenane nation, till they gradually adopted it, as
equally due to them on account of their military reputation. The Tungri
were formerly a people of great name, the relics of which still exist in
the extent of the district now termed the ancient diocese of Tongres.
[26] Under this name Tacitus speaks of some German deity, whose
attributes corresponded in the main with those of the Greek and
Roman Hercules. What he was called by the Germans is a matter of
doubt.--_White_.
[27] _Quem barditum vocant_. The word _barditus_ is of Gallic origin,
being derived from _bardi_, "bards;" it being a custom with the Gauls
for bards to accompany the army, and celebrate the heroic deeds of their
great warriors; so that _barditum_ would thus signify "the fulfilment of
the bard's office." Hence it is clear that _barditum_ could not be used
correctly here, inasmuch as amongst the Germans not any particular,
appointed, body of men, but the whole army chanted forth the war-song.
Some editions have _baritum_, which is said to be derived from the
German word _beren_, or _baeren_, "to shout;" and hence it is translated
in some dictionaries as, "the German war-song." From the following
passage extracted from Facciolati, it would seem, however, that German
critics repudiate this idea: "De _barito_ clamore bellico, seu, ut
quaedam habent exemplaria, _bardito_, nihil audiuimus nunc in Germaniâ:
nisi hoc dixerimus, quòd _bracht_, vel _brecht_, milites Germani
appellare consueverunt; concursum videlicet certantium, et clamorem
ad pugnam descendentium; quem _bar, bar, bar_, sonuisse nonnulli
affirmant."--(Andr. Althameri, Schol. in C. Tacit De Germanis.) Ritter,
himself a German, affirms that _baritus_ is a reading worth nothing; and
that _barritus_ was not the name of the ancient German war-song, but
of the shout raised by the Romans in later ages when on the point
of engaging; and that it was derived "a clamore barrorem, _i.e._
elephantorum." The same learned editor considers that the words "quem
barditum vocant" have been originally the marginal annotation of some
unsound scholar, and have been incorporated by some transcriber into the
text of his MS. copy, whence the error has spread. He therefore encloses
them between brackets, to show that, in his judgment, they are not the
genuine production of the pen of Tacitus.--_White_.
[28] A very curious coincidence with the ancient German opinion
concerning the prophetic nature of the war-cry or song, appears in the
following passage of the Life of Sir Ewen Cameron, in "Pennant's Tour,"
1769, Append, p. 363. At the battle of Killicrankie, just before the
fight began, "he (Sir Ewen) commanded such of the Camerons as were
posted near him to make a great shout, which being seconded by those who
stood on the right and left, ran quickly through the whole army, and was
returned by the enemy. But the noise of the muskets and cannon, with the
echoing of the hills, made the Highlanders fancy that their shouts were
much louder and brisker than those of the enemy, and Lochiel cried out,
'Gentlemen, take courage, the day is ours: I am the oldest commander in
the army, and have always observed something ominous and fatal in such
a dull, hollow and feeble noise as the enemy made in their shout, which
prognosticates that they are all doomed to die by our hands this night;
whereas ours was brisk, lively and strong, and shows we have vigor and
courage.' These words, spreading quickly through the army, animated
the troops in a strange manner. The event justified the prediction; the
Highlanders obtained a complete victory."
[29] Now Asburg in the county of Meurs.
[30] The Greeks, by means of their colony at Marseilles, introduced
their letters into Gaul, and the old Gallic coins have many Greek
characters in their inscriptions. The Helvetians also, as we are
informed by Caesar, used Greek letters. Thence they might easily pass
by means of commercial intercourse to the neighboring Germans. Count
Marsili and others have found monuments with Greek inscriptions in
Germany, but not of so early an age.
[31] The large bodies of the Germans are elsewhere taken notice of by
Tacitus, and also by other authors. It would appear as if most of them
were at that time at least six feet high. They are still accounted some
of the tallest people in Europe.
[32] Bavaria and Austria.
[33] The greater degree of cold when the country was overspread with
woods and marshes, made this observation more applicable than at
present. The same change of temperature from clearing and draining
the land has taken place in North America. It may be added, that the
Germans, as we are afterwards informed, paid attention to no kind of
culture but that of corn.
[34] The cattle of some parts of Germany are at present remarkably
large; so that their former smallness must have rather been owing to
want of care in feeding them and protecting them from the inclemencies
of winter, and in improving the breed by mixtures, than to the nature of
the climate.
[35] Mines both of gold and silver have since been discovered in
Germany; the former, indeed, inconsiderable; but the latter, valuable.
[36] As vice and corruption advanced among the Romans, their money
became debased and adulterated. Thus Pliny, xxxiii. 3, relates, that
"Livius Drusus during his tribuneship, mixed an eighth part of brass
with the silver coin;" and ibid. 9, "that Antony the triumvir mixed iron
with the denarius: that some coined base metal, others diminished
the pieces, and hence it became an art to prove the goodness of the
denarii." One precaution for this purpose was cutting the edges like
the teeth of a saw, by which means it was seen whether the metal was
the same quite through, or was only plated. These were the Serrati, or
serrated Denarii. The Bigati were those stamped with the figure of a
chariot drawn by two horses, as were the Quadrigati with a chariot and
four horses. These were old coin, of purer silver than those of the
emperors. Hence the preference of the Germans for certain kinds of
species was founded on their apprehension of being cheated with false
money.
[37] The Romans had the same predilection for silver coin, and probably
on the same account originally. Pliny, in the place above cited,
expresses his surprise that "the Roman people had always imposed a
tribute in silver on conquered nations; as at the end of the second
Punic war, when they demanded an annual payment in silver for fifty
years, without any gold."
[38] Iron was in great abundance in the bowels of the earth; but this
barbarous people had neither patience, skill, nor industry to dig and
work it. Besides, they made use of weapons of stone, great numbers of
which are found in ancient tombs and barrows.
[39] This is supposed to take its name from _pfriem_ or _priem_, the
point of a weapon. Afterwards, when iron grew more plentiful, the
Germans chiefly used swords.
[40] It appears, however, from Tacitus's Annals, ii. 14, that the length
of these spears rendered them unmanageable in an engagement among trees
and bushes.
[41] Notwithstanding the manner of fighting is so much changed in modern
times, the arms of the ancients are still in use. We, as well as they,
have two kinds of swords, the sharp-pointed, and edged (small sword and
sabre). The broad lance subsisted till lately in the halberd; the spear
and framea in the long pike and spontoon; the missile weapons in the war
hatchet, or North American tomahawk. There are, besides, found in the
old German barrows, perforated stone balls, which they threw by means of
thongs passed through them.
[42] _Nudi_. The Latin nudus, like the Greek _gemnos_, does not point
out a person devoid of all clothing, but merely one without an upper
garment--clad merely in a vest or tunic, and that perhaps a short
one.--_White_.
[43] This decoration at first denoted the valor, afterwards the
nobility, of the bearer; and in process of time gave origin to the
armorial ensigns so famous in the ages of chivalry. The shields of the
private men were simply colored; those of the chieftains had the figures
of animals painted on them.
[44] Plutarch, in his Life of Marius, describes somewhat differently
the arms and equipage of the Cimbri. "They wore (says he) helmets
representing the heads of wild beasts, and other unusual figures, and
crowned with a winged crest, to make them appear taller. They were
covered with iron coats of mail, and carried white glittering shields.
Each had a battle-axe; and in close fight they used large heavy swords."
But the learned Eccard justly observes, that they had procured these
arms in their march; for the Holsatian barrows of that age contain few
weapons of brass, and none of iron; but stone spear-heads, and instead
of swords, the wedgelike bodies vulgarly called thunderbolts.
[46] Casques (_cassis_) are of metal; helmets (_galea_) of
leather--_Isidorus_.
[46] This mode of fighting is admirably described by Caesar. "The
Germans engaged after the following manner:--There were 6,000 horse, and
an equal number of the swiftest and bravest foot; who were chosen,
man by man, by the cavalry, for their protection. By these they were
attended in battle; to these they retreated; and, these, if they were
hard pressed, joined them in the combat. If any fell wounded from their
horses, by these they were covered. If it were necessary to advance or
retreat to any considerable distance, such agility had they acquired by
exercise, that, supporting themselves by the horses' manes, they kept
pace with them."--Bell. Gall. i. 48.
[47] To understand this, it is to be remarked, that the Germans were
divided into nations or tribes,--these into cantons, and these into
districts or townships. The cantons (_pagi_ in Latin) were called by
themselves _gauen_. The districts or townships (_vici_) were called
_hunderte_, whence the English hundreds. The name given to these select
youth, according to the learned Dithmar, was _die hunderte_, hundred
men. From the following passage in Caesar, it appears that in the more
powerful tribes a greater number was selected from each canton. "The
nation of the Suevi is by far the greatest and most warlike of the
Germans. They are said to inhabit a hundred cantons; from each of
which a thousand men are sent annually to make war out of their own
territories. Thus neither the employments of agriculture, nor the use of
arms are interrupted."--Bell. Gall. iv. 1. The warriors were summoned
by the _heribannum_, or army-edict; whence is derived the French
arrière-ban.
[48] A wedge is described by Vegetius (iii. 19,) as a body of infantry,
narrow in front, and widening towards the rear; by which disposition
they were enabled to break the enemy's ranks, as all their weapons were
directed to one spot. The soldiers called it a boar's head.
[49] It was also considered as the height of injury to charge a person
with this unjustly. Thus, by the _Salic_ law, tit. xxxiii, 5, a fine
of 600 denarii (about 9_l._) is imposed upon "every free man who shall
accuse another of throwing down his shield, and running away, without
being able to prove it."
[50] Vertot (Mém. de l'Acad. des Inscrip.) supposes that the French
_maires du palais_ had their origin from these German military leaders.
If the kings were equally conspicuous for valor as for birth, they
united the regal with the military command. Usually, however, several
kings and generals were assembled in their wars. In this case, the most
eminent commanded, and obtained a common jurisdiction in war, which did
not subsist in time of peace. Thus Caesar (Bell. Gall. vi.) says, "In
peace they have no common magistracy." A general was elected by placing
him on a shield, and lifting him on the shoulders of the bystanders. The
same ceremonial was observed in the election of kings.
[51] Hence Ambiorix, king of the Eburones, declare that "the nature of
his authority was such, that the people had no less power over him, than
he over the people."--Caesar, Bell. Gall. v. The authority of the North
American chiefs almost exactly similar.
[52] The power of life and death, however, was in the hands of
magistrates. Thus Caesar: "When a state engages either in an offensive
or defensive war, magistrates are chosen to preside over it, and
exercise power of life and death."--Bell. Gall. vi. The infliction of
punishments was committed to the priests, in order to give them more
solemnity, and render them less invidious.
[53] _Effigiesque et signa quaedam_. That effigies does not mean the
images of their deities is proved by that is stated at chap. ix., viz.
that they deemed it derogatory to their deities to represent them in
human form; and, if in human form, we may argue, _a fortiori_, in the
form of the lower animals. The interpretation of the passage will be
best derived from Hist. iv. 22, where Tacitus says:--"Depromptae silvis
lucisve ferarum imagines, ut cuique genti inire praelium mos est." It
would hence appear that these effigies and signa were images of wild
animals, and were national standards preserved with religious care in
sacred woods and groves, whence they were brought forth when the clan or
tribe was about to take the field.--_White_.
[54] They not only interposed to prevent the flight of their husbands
and sons, but, in desperate emergencies, themselves engaged in battle.
This happened on Marius's defeat of the Cimbri (hereafter to be
mentioned); and Dio relates, that when Marcus Aurelius overthrew the
Marcomanni, Quadi, and other German allies, the bodies of women in armor
were found among the slain.
[55] Thus, in the army of Ariovistus, the women, with their hair
dishevelled, and weeping, besought the soldiers not to deliver them
captives to the Romans.--Caesar, Bell. Gall. i.
[56] Relative to this, perhaps, is a circumstance mentioned by Suetonius
in his Life of Augustus. "From some nations he attempted to exact a new
kind of hostages, women: because he observed that those of the male sex
were disregarded."--Aug. xxi.
[57] See the same observation with regard to the Celtic women, in
Plutarch, on the virtues of women. The North Americans pay a similar
regard to their females.
[58] A remarkable instance of this is given by Caesar. "When he inquired
of the captives the reason why Ariovistus did not engage, he learned,
that it was because the matrons, who among the Germans are accustomed
to pronounce, from their divinations, whether or not a battle will be
favorable, had declared that they would not prove victorious, if they
should fight before the new moon."--Bell. Gall. i. The cruel manner in
which the Cimbrian women performed their divinations is thus related
by Strabo: "The women who follow the Cimbri to war, are accompanied
by gray-haired prophetesses, in white vestments, with canvas mantles
fastened by clasps, a brazen girdle, and naked feet. These go with drawn
swords through the camp, and, striking down those of the prisoners that
they meet, drag them to a brazen kettle, holding about twenty amphorae.
This has a kind of stage above it, ascending on which, the priestess
cuts the throat of the victim, and, from the manner in which the blood
flows into the vessel, judges of the future event. Others tear open
the bodies of the captives thus butchered, and, from inspection of the
entrails, presage victory to their own party."--Lib. vii.
[59] She was afterwards taken prisoner by Rutilius Gallicus. Statius, in
his Sylvae, i. 4, refers to this event. Tacitus has more concerning her
in his History, iv. 61.
[60] Viradesthis was a goddess of the Tungri; Harimella, another
provincial deity; whose names were found by Mr. Pennant inscribed on
altars at the Roman station at Burrens. These were erected by the German
auxiliaries.--Vide Tour in Scotland, 1772, part ii. p. 406.
[61] Ritter considers that here is a reference to the servile flattery
of the senate as exhibited in the time of Nero, by the deification of
Poppaea's infant daughter, and afterwards of herself. (See Ann. xv.
23, Dion. lxiii, Ann. xiv. 3.) There is no contradiction in the present
passage to that found at Hist. iv. 61, where Tacitus says, "plerasque
feminarum fatidicas et, augescente superstitione, arbitrantur deas;"
_i.e._ they deem (_arbitrantur_) very many of their women possessed of
prophetic powers, and, as their religious feeling increases, they deem
(_arbitrantur_) them goddesses, _i.e._ possessed of a superhuman nature;
they do not, however, make them goddesses and worship them, as the
Romans did Poppaea and her infant, which is covertly implied in
_facerent deas_.--_White_.
[62] Mercury, _i.e._ a god whom Tacitus thus names, because his
attributes resembled those of the Roman Mercury. According to Paulus
Diaconus (de Gestis Langobardorum, i. 9), this deity was Wodun, or
Gwodan, called also Odin. Mallet (North. Ant. ch. v.) says, that in
the Icelandic mythology he is called "the terrible and severe God, the
Father of Slaughter, he who giveth victory and receiveth courage in
the conflict, who nameth those that are to be slain." "The Germans drew
their gods by their own character, who loved nothing so much themselves
as to display their strength and power in battle, and to signalize their
vengeance upon their enemies by slaughter and desolation." There remain
to this day some traces of the worship paid to Odin in the name given by
almost all the people of the north to the fourth day of the week, which
was formerly consecrated to him. It is called by a name which signifies
"Odin's day;" "Old Norse, _Odinsdagr_; Swedish and Danish, _Onsdag_;
Anglo-Saxon, _Wodenesdaeg_, _Wodnesdaeg_; Dutch, _Woensdag_; English,
Wednesday. As Odin or Wodun was supposed to correspond to the Mercury of
the Greeks and Romans, the name of this day was expressed in Latin _Dies
Mercurii_."--_White_.
[63] "The appointed time for these sacrifices," says Mallet (North. Ant.
ch. vi.), "was always determined by a superstitious opinion which
made the northern nations regard the number 'three' as sacred and
particularly dear to the gods. Thus, in every ninth month they renewed
the bloody ceremony, which was to last nine days, and every day they
offered up nine living victims, whether men or animals. But the most
solemn sacrifices were those which were offered up at Upsal in Sweden
every ninth year...." After stating the compulsory nature of the
attendance at this festival, Mallet adds, "Then they chose among the
captives in time of war, and among the slaves in time of peace, nine
persons to be sacrificed. In whatever manner they immolated men, the
priest always took care in consecrating the victim to pronounce certain
words, as 'I devote thee to Odin,' 'I send thee to Odin.'" See Lucan i.
444.
"Et quibus immitis placatur sanguine diro
Teutates, horrensque feris altaribus Hesus."
Teutates is Mercury, Hesus, Mars. So also at iii. 399, &c.
"Lucus erat longo nunquam violatus ab aevo.
... Barbara ritu
Sacra Deum, structae diris altaribus arae,
Omnis et humanis lustrata cruoribus arbor."
[64] That is, as in the preceding case, a deity whose attributes
corresponded to those of the Roman Mars. This appears to have been
not _Thor_, who is rather the representative of the Roman Jupiter, but
_Tyr_, "a warrior god, and the protector of champions and brave men!"
"From _Tyr_ is derived the name given to the third day of the week in
most of the Teutonic languages, and which has been rendered into Latin
by _Dies Martis_. Old Norse, _Tirsdagr_, _Tisdagr_; Swedish, _Tisdag_;
Danish, _Tirsdag_; German, _Dienstag_; Dutch, _Dingsdag_; Anglo-Saxon,
_Tyrsdaeg_, _Tyvesdag_, _Tivesdaeg_; English, _Tuesday_"--(Mallet's
North. Ant. ch. v.)--_White_.
[65] The Suevi appear to have been the Germanic tribes, and this also
the worship spoken of at chap. xl. _Signum in modum liburnae figuration
_corresponds with the _vehiculum_ there spoken of; the real thing being,
according to Ritter's view, a pinnace placed on wheels. That _signum
ipsum _("the very symbol") does not mean any image of the goddess, may
be gathered also from ch. xl., where the goddess herself, _si credere
velis_, is spoken of as being washed in the sacred lake.
[66] As the Romans in their ancient coins, many of which are now extant,
recorded the arrival of Saturn by the stern of a ship; so other nations
have frequently denoted the importation of a foreign religious rite by
the figure of a galley on their medals.
[67] Tacitus elsewhere speaks of temples of German divinities (e.g. 40;
Templum Nerthae, Ann. i. 51; Templum Tanfanae); but a consecrated grove,
or any other sacred place, was called templum by the Romans.
[68] The Scythians are mentioned by Herodotus, and the Alans by Ammianus
Marcellinus, as making use of these divining rods. The German method of
divination with them is illustrated by what is said by Saxo-Grammaticus
(Hist. Dan. xiv, 288) of the inhabitants of the Isle of Rugen in the
Baltic Sea: "Throwing, by way of lots, three pieces of wood, white in
one part, and black in another, into their laps, they foretold good
fortune by the coming up of the white; bad by that of the black."
[69] The same practice obtained among the Persians, from whom the
Germans appear to be sprung. Darius was elected king by the neighing
of a horse; sacred white horses were in the army of Cyrus; and Xerxes,
retreating after his defeat, was preceded by the sacred horses
and consecrated chariot. Justin (i. 10) mentions the cause of this
superstition, viz. that "the Persians believed the Sun to be the only
God, and horses to be peculiarly consecrated to him." The priest of the
Isle of Rugen also took auspices from a white horse, as may be seen in
Saxo-Grammaticus.
[70] Montesquieu finds in this custom the origin of the duel, and of
knight-errantry.
[71] This remarkable passage, so curious in political history, is
commented on by Montesquieu, in his Spirit of Laws. vi 11. That
celebrated author expresses his surprise at the existence of such a
balance between liberty and authority in the forests of Germany; and
traces the origin of the English constitution from this source. Tacitus
again mentions the German form of government in his Annals, iv. 33.
[72] The high antiquity of this made of reckoning appears from the Book
of Genesis. "The evening and the morning were the first day." The Gauls,
we are informed by Caesar, "assert that, according to the tradition of
their Druids, they are all sprung from Father Dis; on which account they
reckon every period of time according to the number of nights, not of
days; and observe birthdays and the beginnings of months and years in
such a manner, that the day seems to follow the night." (Bell. Gall.
vi. 18.) The vestiges of this method of computation still appear in the
English language, in the terms se'nnight and fort'night.
[73] _Ut turbae placuit_. Doederlein interprets this passage as
representing the confused way in which the people took their seats in
the national assembly, without reference to order, rank, age, &c.
It rather represents, however, that the people, not the chieftains,
determined when the business of the council should begin.--_White_.
[74] And in an open plain. Vast heaps of stone still remaining, denote
the scenes of these national councils. (See Mallet's Introduct. to Hist.
of Denmark.) The English Stonehenge has been supposed a relic of this
kind. In these assemblies are seen the origin of those which, under the
Merovingian race of French kings, were called the Fields of March;
under the Carlovingian, the Fields of May; then, the Plenary Courts of
Christmas and Easter; and lastly, the States General.
[75] The speech of Civilis was received with this expression of
applause. Tacitus, Hist. iv. 15.
[76] Gibbeted alive. Heavy penalties were denounced against those who
should take them down, alive or dead. These are particularized in the
Salic law.
[77] By cowards and dastards, in this passage, are probably meant those
who, being summoned to war, refused or neglected to go. Caesar (Bell.
Gall. vi. 22) mentions, that those who refused to follow their chiefs
to war were considered as deserters and traitors. And, afterwards, the
emperor Clothaire made the following edict, preserved in the Lombard
law: "Whatever freeman, summoned to the defence of his country by his
Count, or his officers, shall neglect to go, and the enemy enter the
country to lay it waste, or otherwise damage our liege subjects,
he shall incur a capital punishment." As the crimes of cowardice,
treachery, and desertion were so odious and ignominious among the
Germans, we find by the Salic law, that penalties were annexed to the
unjust imputation of them.
[78] These were so rare and so infamous among the Germans, that barely
calling a person by a name significant of them was severely punished.
[79] Incestuous people were buried alive in bogs in Scotland. Pennant's
Tour in Scotland, 1772; part i. p. 351; and part ii. p. 421.
[80] Among these slighter offences, however, were reckoned homicide,
adultery, theft, and many others of a similar kind. This appears from
the laws of the Germans, and from a subsequent passage of Tacitus
himself.
[81] These were at that time the only riches of the country, as was
already observed in this treatise. Afterwards gold and silver became
plentiful: hence all the mulcts required by the Salic law are pecuniary.
Money, however, still bore a fixed proportion to cattle; as appears from
the Saxon law (Tit. xviii.): "The Solidus is of two kinds; one contains
two tremisses, that is, a beeve of twelve months, or a sheep with its
lamb; the other, three tremisses, or a beeve of sixteen months. Homicide
is compounded for by the lesser solidus; other crimes by the greater."
The Saxons had their Weregeld,--the Scotch their Cro, Galnes, and
Kelchin,--and the Welsh their Gwerth, and Galanus, or compensations for
injuries; and cattle were likewise the usual fine. Vide Pennant's Tour
in Wales of 1773, pp. 273, 274.
[82] This mulct is frequently in the Salic law called "fred," that is,
peace; because it was paid to the king or state, as guardians of the
public peace.
[83] A brief account of the civil economy of the Germans will here be
useful. They were divided into nations; of which some were under a
regal government, others a republican. The former had kings, the latter
chiefs. Both in kingdoms and republics, military affairs were under the
conduct of the generals. The nations were divided into cantons; each of
which was superintended by a chief, or count, who administered justice
in it. The cantons were divided into districts or hundreds, so called
because they contained a hundred vills or townships. In each hundred
was a companion, or centenary, chosen from the people, before whom small
causes were tried. Before the count, all causes, as well great as small,
were amenable. The centenaries are called companions by Tacitus, after
the custom of the Romans; among whom the titles of honor were, Caesar,
the Legatus or Lieutenant of Caesar, and his comites, or companions. The
courts of justice were held in the open air, on a rising ground, beneath
the shade of an oak, elm, or some other large tree.
[84] Even judges were armed on the seat of justice. The Romans, on
the contrary, never went armed but when actually engaged in military
service.
[85] These are the rudiments of the famous institution of chivalry. The
sons of kings appear to have received arms from foreign princes. Hence,
when Audoin, after overcoming the Gepidae, was requested by the Lombards
to dine with his son Alboin, his partner in the victory, he refused;
for, says he, "you know it is not customary with us for a king's son
to dine with his father, until he has received arms from the king of
another country."--Warnefrid, De gestis Langobardorum, i. 23.
[86] An allusion to the _toga virilis_ of the Romans. The German youth
were presented with the shield and spear probably at twelve or fifteen
years of age. This early initiation into the business of arms gave them
that warlike character for which they were so celebrated. Thus, Seneca
(Epist. 46) says, "A native of Germany brandishes, while yet a boy,
his slender javelin." And again (in his book on Anger, i. 11), "Who are
braver than the Germans?--who more impetuous in the charge?--who fonder
of arms, in the use of which they are born and nourished, which are
their only care?--who more inured to hardships, insomuch that for the
most part they provide no covering for their bodies, no retreat against
the perpetual severity of the climate?"
[87] Hence it seems that these noble lads were deemed _principes_ in
rank, yet had their position among the _comites_ only. The German word
_Gesell_ is peculiarly appropriated to these comrades in arms. So highly
were they esteemed in Germany, that for killing or hurting them a fine
was exacted treble to that for other freemen.
[88] Hence, when Chonodomarus, king of the Alamanni, was taken prisoner
by the Romans, "his companions, two hundred in number, and three friends
peculiarly attached to him, thinking it infamous to survive their
prince, or not to die for him, surrendered themselves to be put in
bonds."--Ammianus Marcellinus, xvi. 13.
[89] Hence Montesquieu (Spirit of Laws, xxx, 3) justly derives the
origin of vassalage. At first, the prince gave to his nobles arms and
provision: as avarice advanced, money, and then lands, were required,
which from benefices became at length hereditary possessions, and were
called fiefs. Hence the establishment of the feudal system.
[90] Caesar, with less precision, says, "The Germans pass their whole
lives in hunting and military exercises." (Bell. Gall, vi. 21.) The
picture drawn by Tacitus is more consonant to the genius of a barbarous
people: besides that, hunting being the employment but of a few months
of the year, a greater part must necessarily be passed in indolence
by those who had no other occupation. In this circumstance, and those
afterwards related, the North American savages exactly agree with the
ancient Germans.
[91] This apparent contradiction is, however, perfectly agreeable to the
principles of human nature. Among people governed by impulse more than
reason, everything is in the extreme: war and peace; motion and rest;
love and hatred; none are pursued with moderation.
[92] These are the rudiments of tributes; though the contributions
here spoken of were voluntary, and without compulsion. The origin of
exchequers is pointed out above, where "part of the mulct" is said to
be "paid to the king or state." Taxation was taught the Germans by the
Romans, who levied taxes upon them.
[93] So, in after-times, when tributes were customary, 500 oxen or cows
were required annually from the Saxons by the French kings Clothaire
I. and Pepin. (See Eccard, tom. i. pp. 84, 480.) Honey, corn, and other
products of the earth, were likewise received in tribute. (Ibid. p.
392.)
[94] For the expenses of war, and other necessities of state, and
particularly the public entertainments. Hence, besides the Steora, or
annual tribute, the Osterstuopha, or Easter cup, previous to the public
assembly of the Field of March, was paid to the French kings.
[95] This was a dangerous lesson, and in the end proved ruinous to
the Roman empire. Herodian says of the Germans in his time, "They
are chiefly to be prevailed upon by bribes; being fond of money, and
continually selling peace to the Romans for gold."--Lib. vi. 139.
[96] This custom was of long duration; for there is not the mention of a
single city in Ammianus Marcellinus, who wrote on the wars of the Romans
in Germany. The names of places in Ptolemy (ii. 11) are not, therefore,
those of cities, but of scattered villages. The Germans had not even
what we should call towns, notwithstanding Caesar asserts the contrary.
[97] The space surrounding the house, and fenced in by hedges, was that
celebrated Salic land, which descended to the male line, exclusively of
the female.
[98] The danger of fire was particularly urgent in time of war; for,
as Caesar informs us, these people were acquainted with a method of
throwing red-hot clay bullets from slings, and burning javelins, on the
thatch of houses. (Bell. Gall. v. 42.)
[99] Thus likewise Mela (ii. 1), concerning the Sarmatians: "On account
of the length and severity of their winters, they dwell under ground,
either in natural or artificial caverns." At the time that Germany was
laid waste by a forty years' war, Kircher saw many of the natives who,
with their flocks, herds, and other possessions, took refuge in the
caverns of the highest mountains. For many other curious particulars
concerning these and other subterranean caves, see his Mundus
Subterraneus, viii. 3, p. 100. In Hungary, at this day, corn is commonly
stored in subterranean chambers.
[100] Near Newbottle, the seat of the Marquis of Lothian, are some
subterraneous apartments and passages cut out of the live rock, which
had probably served for the same purposes of winter-retreats and
granaries as those dug by the ancient Germans. Pennant's Tour in 1769,
4to, p.63.
[101] This was a kind of mantle of a square form, called also _rheno_.
Thus Caesar (Bell. Gall. vi. 21): "They use skins for clothing, or the
short rhenones, and leave the greatest part of the body naked." Isidore
(xix. 23) describes the rhenones as "garments covering the shoulders
and breast, as low as the navel, so rough and shaggy that they are
impenetrable to rain." Mela (iii. 3), speaking of the Germans, says,
"The men are clothed only with the sagum, or the bark of trees, even in
the depth of winter."
[102] All savages are fond of variety of colors; hence the Germans
spotted their furs with the skins of other animals, of which those
here mentioned were probably of the seal kind. This practice is still
continued with regard to the ermine, which is spotted with black
lamb's-skin.
[103] The Northern Sea, and Frozen Ocean.
[104] Pliny testifies the same thing; and adds, that "the women
beyond the Rhine are not acquainted with any more elegant kind of
clothing."--xix. 1.
[105] Not that rich and costly purple in which the Roman nobility shone,
but some ordinary material, such as the _vaccinium_, which Pliny says
was used by the Gauls as a purple dye for the garments of the slaves,
(xvi. 18.)
[106] The chastity of the Germans, and their strict regard to the laws
of marriage, are witnessed by all their ancient codes of law. The purity
of their manners in this respect afforded a striking contrast to the
licentiousness of the Romans in the decline of the empire, and is
exhibited in this light by Salvian, in his treatise De Gubernatione Dei,
lib. vii.
[107] Thus we find in Caesar (Bell. Gall. i. 53) that Ariovistus had
two wives. Others had more. This indulgence proved more difficult to
abolish, as it was considered as a mark of opulence, and an appendage of
nobility.
[108] The Germans purchased their wives, as appears from the following
clauses in the Saxon law concerning marriage: "A person who espouses a
wife shall pay to her parents 300 solidi (about 180_l._ sterling);
but if the marriage be without the consent of the parents, the damsel,
however, consenting, he shall pay 600 solidi. If neither the parents nor
damsel consent, that is, if she be carried off by violence, he shall pay
300 solidi to the parents, and 340 to the damsel, and restore her to her
parents."
[109] Thus in the Saxon law, concerning dowries, it is said: "The
Ostfalii and Angrarii determine, that if a woman have male issue, she
is to possess the dower she received in marriage during her life, and
transmit it to her sons."
[110] _Ergo septae pudicitiâ agunt_. Some editions have _septâ
pudicitiâ_. This would imply, however, rather the result of the care and
watchfulness of their husbands; whereas it seems the object of Tacitus
to show that this their chastity was the effect of innate virtue, and
this is rather expressed by _septae pudicitiâ_, which is the reading of
the Arundelian MS.
[111] Seneca speaks with great force and warmth on this subject:
"Nothing is so destructive to morals as loitering at public
entertainments; for vice more easily insinuates itself into the heart
when softened by pleasure. What shall I say! I return from them more
covetous ambitious, and luxurious."--Epist. vii.
[112] The Germans had a great regard for the hair, and looked upon
cutting it off as a heavy disgrace; so that this was made a punishment
for certain crimes, and was resented as an injury if practised upon an
innocent person.
[113] From an epistle of St. Boniface, archbishop of Mentz, to
Ethelbald, king of England, we learn that among the Saxons the women
themselves inflicted the punishment for violated chastity; "In ancient
Saxony (now Westphalia), if a virgin pollute her father's house, or a
married woman prove false to her vows, sometimes she is forced to put an
end to her own life by the halter, and over the ashes of her burned body
her seducer is hanged: sometimes a troop of females assembling lead her
through the circumjacent villages, lacerating her body, stripped to
the girdle, with rods and knives; and thus, bloody and full of minute
wounds, she is continually met by new tormenters, who in their zeal for
chastity do not quit her till she is dead, or scarcely alive, in order
to inspire a dread of such offences." See Michael Alford's Annales
Ecclesiae Anglo-Saxon., and Eccard.
[114] A passage in Valerius Maximus renders it probable that the
Cimbrian states were of this number: "The wives of the Teutones besought
Marius, after his victory, that he would deliver them as a present to
the Vestal virgins; affirming that they should henceforth, equally with
themselves, abstain from the embraces of the other sex. This request not
being granted, they all strangled themselves the ensuing night."--Lib.
vi. 1.3.
[115] Among the Heruli, the wife was expected to hang herself at once at
the grave of her husband, if she would not live in perpetual infamy.
[116] This expression may signify as well the murder of young children,
as the procurement of abortion; both which crimes were severely punished
by the German laws.
[117] _Quemquam ex agnatis_. By _agnati_ generally in Roman law were
meant relations by the father's side; here it signifies children born
after there was already an heir to the name and property of the father.
[118] Justin has a similar thought concerning the Scythians: "Justice is
cultivated by the dispositions of the people, not by the laws." (ii.
2.) How inefficacious the good laws here alluded to by Tacitus were
in preventing enormities among the Romans, appears from the frequent
complaints of the senators, and particularly of Minucius Felix; "I
behold you, exposing your babes to the wild beasts and birds, or
strangling the unhappy wretches with your own hands. Some of you, by
means of drugs, extinguish the newly-formed man within your bowels, and
thus commit parricide on your offspring before you bring them into the
world." (Octavius, c. 30.) So familiar was this practice grown at Rome,
that the virtuous Pliny apologises for it, alleging that "the great
fertility of some women may require such a licence."--xxix. 4, 37.
[119] _Nudi ac sordidi_ does not mean "in nakedness and filth," as most
translators have supposed. Personal filth is inconsistent with the daily
practice of bathing mentioned c. 22; and _nudus_ does not necessarily
imply absolute nakedness (see note 4, p. 293).
[120] This age appears at first to have been twelve years; for then a
youth became liable to the penalties of law. Thus in the Salic law it is
said, "If a child under twelve commit a fault, 'fred,' or a mulct, shall
not be required of him." Afterwards the term was fifteen years of
age. Thus in the Ripuary law, "A child under fifteen shall not be
responsible." Again, "If a man die, or be killed, and leave a son;
before he have completed his fifteenth year, he shall neither prosecute
a cause, nor be called upon to answer in a suit: but at this term, he
must either answer himself, or choose an advocate. In like manner with
regard to the female sex." The Burgundian law provides to the same
effect. This then was the term of majority, which in later times, when
heavier armor was used, was still longer delayed.
[121] This is illustrated by a passage in Caesar (Bell. Gall. vi. 21):
"They who are the latest in proving their virility are most commended.
By this delay they imagine the stature is increased, the strength
improved, and the nerves fortified. To have knowledge of the other
sex before twenty years of age, is accounted in the highest degree
scandalous."
[122] Equal not only in age and constitution, but in condition. Many of
the German codes of law annex penalties to those of both sexes who marry
persons of inferior rank.
[123] Hence, in the history of the Merovingian kings of France, so many
instances of regard to sisters and their children appear, and so many
wars undertaken on their account.
[124] The court paid at Rome to rich persons without children, by the
Haeredipetae, or legacy-hunters, is a frequent subject of censure and
ridicule with the Roman writers.
[125] Avengers of blood are mentioned in the law of Moses, Numb. xxxv.
19. In the Roman law also, under the head of "those who on account of
unworthiness are deprived of their inheritance," it is pronounced, that
"such heirs as are proved to have neglected revenging the testator's
death, shall be obliged to restore the entire profits."
[126] It was a wise provision, that among this fierce and warlike
people, revenge should be commuted for a payment. That this intention
might not be frustrated by the poverty of the offender, his whole family
were conjointly bound to make compensation.
[127] All uncivilized nations agree in this property, which becomes less
necessary as a nation improves in the arts of civil life.
[128] _Convictibus et hospitiis_. "Festivities and entertainments." The
former word applies to friends and fellow-countrymen; the latter, to
those not of the same tribe, and foreigners. Caesar (Bell. Gall. vi. 23)
says, "They think it unlawful to offer violence to their guests, who,
on whatever occasion they come to them, are protected from injury,
and considered as sacred. Every house is open to them, and provision
everywhere set before them." Mela (iii. 3) says of the Germans, "They
make right consist in force, so that they are not ashamed of robbery:
they are only kind to their guests, and merciful to suppliants. The
Burgundian law lays a fine of three solidi on every man who refuses his
roof or hearth to the coming guest." The Salic law, however, rightly
forbids the exercise of hospitality to atrocious criminals; laying a
penalty on the person who shall harbor one who has dug up or despoiled
the dead? till he has made satisfaction to the relations.
[129] The clause here put within brackets is probably misplaced;
since it does not connect well either with what goes before or what
follows.[130] The Russians are at present the most remarkable among the
northern nations for the use of warm bathing. Some of the North American
tribes also have their hypocausts, or stoves.
[131] Eating at separate tables is generally an indication of voracity.
Traces of it may be found in Homer, and other writers who have described
ancient manners. The same practice has also been observed among the
people of Otaheite; who occasionally devour vast quantities of food.
[132] The following article in the Salic law shows at once the frequency
of these bloody quarrels, and the laudable endeavors of the legislature
to restrain them;--"If at a feast where there are four or five men in
company, one of them be killed, the rest shall either convict one as the
offender, or shall jointly pay the composition for his death. And this
law shall extend to seven persons present at an entertainment."
[133] The same custom is related by Herodotus, i. p. 66, as prevailing
among the Persians.
[134] Of this liquor, beer or ale, Pliny speaks in the following
passage: "The western nations have their intoxicating liquor, made of
steeped grain. The Egyptians also invented drinks of the same kind. Thus
drunkenness is a stranger in no part of the world; for these liquors are
taken pure, and not diluted as wine is. Yet, surely, the Earth thought
she was producing corn. Oh, the wonderful sagacity of our vices! we have
discovered how to render even water intoxicating."--xiv. 22.
[135] Mela says, "Their manner of living is so rude and savage, that
they eat even raw flesh; either fresh killed, or softened by working
with their hands and feet, after it has grown stiff in the hides of
tame or wild animals." (iii. 3.) Florus relates that the ferocity of
the Cimbri was mitigated by their feeding on bread and dressed meat, and
drinking wine, in the softest tract of Italy.--iii. 3.
[136] This must not be understood to have been cheese; although Caesar
says of the Germans, "Their diet chiefly consists of milk, cheese and
flesh." (Bell. Gall. vi. 22.) Pliny, who was thoroughly acquainted with
the German manners, says more accurately, "It is surprising that the
barbarous nations who live on milk should for so many ages have been
ignorant of, or have rejected, the preparation of cheese; especially
since they thicken their milk into a pleasant tart substance, and a fat
butter: this is the scum of milk, of a thicker consistence than what is
called the whey. It must not be omitted that it has the properties of
oil, and is used as an unguent by all the barbarians, and by us for
children."--xi. 41.
[137] This policy has been practised by the Europeans with regard to the
North American savages, some tribes of which have been almost totally
extirpated by it.
[138] St. Ambrose has a remarkable passage concerning this spirit
of gaming among a barbarous people:--"It is said that the Huns, who
continually make war upon other nations, are themselves subject to
usurers, with whom they run in debt at play; and that, while they live
without laws, they obey the laws of the dice alone; playing when drawn
up in line of battle; carrying dice along with their arms, and perishing
more by each others' hands than by the enemy. In the midst of victory
they submit to become captives, and suffer plunder from their own
countrymen, which they know not how to bear from the foe. On this
account they never lay aside the business of war, because, when they
have lost all their booty by the dice, they have no means of acquiring
fresh supplies for play, but by the sword. They are frequently borne
away with such a desperate ardor, that, when the loser has given up his
arms, the only part of his property which he greatly values, he sets the
power over his life at a single cast to the winner or usurer. It is a
fact, that a person, known to the Roman emperor, paid the price of a
servitude which he had by this means brought upon himself, by suffering
death at the command of his master."
[139] The condition of these slaves was the same as that of the vassals,
or serfs, who a few centuries ago made the great body of the people
in every country in Europe. The Germans, in after times, imitating the
Romans, had slaves of inferior condition, to whom the name of slave
became appropriated; while those in the state of rural vassalage were
called _lidi_.
[140] A private enemy could not be slain with impunity, since a fine
was affixed to homicide; but a man might kill his own slave without
any punishment. If, however, he killed another person's slave, he was
obliged to pay his price to the owner.
[141] The amazing height of power and insolence to which freedmen
arrived by making themselves subservient to the vices of the prince,
is a striking characteristic of the reigns of some of the worst of the
Roman emperors.
[142] In Rome, on the other hand, the practice of usury was, as our
author terms it, "an ancient evil, and a perpetual source of sedition
and discord."--Annals, vi. 16.
[143] All the copies read _per vices_, "by turns," or alternately; but
the connection seems evidently to require the easy alteration of _per
vicos_, which has been approved by many learned commentators, and is
therefore adopted in this translation.
[144] Caesar has several particulars concerning this part of German
polity. "They are not studious of agriculture, the greater part of
their diet consisting of milk, cheese, and flesh; nor has any one
a determinate portion of land, his own peculiar property; but the
magistrates and chiefs allot every year to tribes and clanships forming
communities, as much land, and in such situations, as they think proper,
and oblige them to remove the succeeding year. For this practice they
assign several reasons: as, lest they should be led, by being
accustomed to one spot, to exchange the toils of war for the business of
agriculture; lest they should acquire a passion for possessing extensive
domains, and the more powerful should be tempted to dispossess the
weaker; lest they should construct buildings with more art than was
necessary to protect them from the inclemencies of the weather; lest
the love of money should arise amongst them, the source of faction
and dissensions; and in order that the people, beholding their own
possessions equal to those of the most powerful, might be retained by
the bonds of equity and moderation."--Bell. Gall. vi. 21.
[145] The Germans, not planting fruit-trees, were ignorant of the proper
products of autumn. They have now all the autumnal fruits of their
climate; yet their language still retains a memorial of their ancient
deficiencies, in having no term for this season of the year, but one
denoting the gathering in of corn alone--_Herbst_, Harvest.
[146] In this respect, as well as many others, the manners of the
Germans were a direct contrast to those of the Romans. Pliny mentions a
private person, C. Caecilius Claudius Isidorus, who ordered the sum of
about 10,000_l._ sterling to be expended in his funeral: and in another
place he says, "Intelligent persons asserted that Arabia did not produce
such a quantity of spices in a year as Nero burned at the obsequies of
his Poppaea."--xxxiii. 10, and xii. 18.
[147] The following lines of Lucan, describing the last honors paid by
Cornelia to the body of Pompey the Great, happily illustrate the customs
here referred to:--
Collegit vestes, miserique insignia Magni.
Armaque, et impressas auro, quas gesserat olim
Exuvias, pictasque togas, velamina summo
Ter conspecta Jovi, funestoque intulit igni.--Lib. ix. 175.
"There shone his arms, with antique gold inlaid,
There the rich robes which she herself had made,
Robes to imperial Jove in triumph thrice display'd:
The relics of his past victorious days,
Now this his latest trophy serve to raise,
And in one common flame together blaze."--ROWE.
[148] Thus in the tomb of Childeric, king of the Franks, were found
his spear and sword, and also his horse's head, with a shoe, and gold
buckles and housings. A human skull was likewise discovered, which,
perhaps, was that of his groom.
[149] Caesar's account is as follows:--"There was formerly a time when
the Gauls surpassed the Germans in bravery, and made war upon them;
and, on account of their multitude of people and scarcity of land, sent
colonies beyond the Rhine. The most fertile parts of Germany, adjoining
to the Hercynian forest, (which, I observe, was known by report to
Eratosthenes and others of the Greeks, and called by them Orcinia,) were
accordingly occupied by the Volcae and Tectosages, who settled there.
These people still continue in the same settlements, and have a high
character as well for the administration of justice as military prowess:
and they now remain in the same state of penury and content as the
Germans, whose manner of life they have adopted."--Bell. Gall. vi. 24.
[150] The inhabitants of Switzerland, then extending further than at
present, towards Lyons.
[151] A nation of Gauls, bordering on the Helvetii, as appears from
Strabo and Caesar. After being conquered by Caesar, the Aedui gave them
a settlement in the country now called the Bourbonnois. The name of
their German colony, Boiemum, is still extant in Bohemia. The aera at
which the Helvetii and Boii penetrated into Germany is not ascertained.
It seems probable, however, that it was in the reign of Tarquinius
Priscus; for at that time, as we are told by Livy, Ambigatus, king of
the Bituriges (people of Berry), sent his sister's son Sigovesus into
the Hercynian forest, with a colony, in order to exonerate his kingdom
which was overpeopled. (Livy, v. 33; _et seq._)
[152] In the time of Augustus, the Boii, driven from Boiemum by the
Marcomanni, retired to Noricum, which from them was called Boioaria, now
Bavaria.
[153] This people inhabited that part of Lower Hungary now called the
Palatinate of Pilis.
[154] Towards the end of this treatise, Tacitus seems himself to decide
this point, observing that their use of the Pannonian language, and
acquiescence in paying tribute, prove the Osi not to be a German nation.
They were settled beyond the Marcomanni and Quadi, and occupied the
northern part of Transdanubian Hungary; perhaps extending to Silesia,
where is a place called Ossen in the duchy of Oels, famous for salt and
glass works. The learned Pelloutier, however, contends that the Osi were
Germans; but with less probability.
[155] The inhabitants of the modern diocese of Treves.
[156] Those of Cambresis and Hainault.
[157] Those of the dioceses of Worms, Strasburg, and Spires.
[158] Those of the diocese of Cologne. The Ubii, migrating from Germany
to Gaul, on account of the enmity of the Catti, and their own attachment
to the Roman interest, were received under the protection of Marcus
Agrippa, in the year of Rome 717. (Strabo, iv. p. 194.) Agrippina, the
wife of Claudius and mother of Nero, who was born among them, obtained
the settlement of a colony there, which was called after her name.
[159] Now the Betuwe, part of the provinces of Holland and Guelderland.
[160] Hence the Batavi are termed, in an ancient inscription, "the
brothers and friends of the Roman people."
[161] This nation inhabited part of the countries now called the
Weteraw, Hesse, Isenburg and Fulda. In this territory was Mattium, now
Marpurg, and the Fontes Mattiaci, now Wisbaden, near Mentz.
[162] The several people of Germany had their respective borders, called
marks or marches, which they defended by preserving them in a desert and
uncultivated state. Thus Caesar, Bell. Gall. iv 3:--"They think it the
greatest honor to a nation, to have as wide an extent of vacant land
around their dominions as possible; by which it is indicated, that a
great number of neighboring communities are unable to withstand them.
On this account, the Suevi are said to have, on one side, a tract of
600 (some learned men think we should read 60) miles desert for their
boundaries." In another place Caesar mentions, as an additional reason
for this policy, that they think themselves thereby rendered secure from
the danger of sudden incursions. (Bell. Gall. vi. 13.)
[163] The difference between the low situation and moist air of Batavia,
and the high and dry country of the Mattiaci, will sufficiently justify
this remark, in the opinion of those who allow anything to the influence
of climate.
[164] Now Swabia. When the Marcommanni, towards the end of the reign
of Augustus, quitting their settlements near the Rhine, migrated to
Bohemia, the lands they left vacant were occupied by some unsettled
Gauls among the Rauraci and Sequani. They seem to have been called
Decumates (Decimated), because the inhabitants, liable to the incursions
of the Germans, paid a tithe of their products to be received under
the protection of the Romans. Adrian defended them by a rampart, which
extended from Neustadt, a town on the Danube near the mouth of the river
Altmühl, to the Neckar near Wimpfen; a space of sixty French leagues.
[165] Of Upper Germany.
[166] The Catti possessed a large territory between the Rhine, Mayne and
Sala, and the Hartz forest on this side of the Weser; where are now
the countries of Hesse, Thuringia, part of Paderborn, of Fulda, and
of Franconia. Learned writers have frequently noted, that what Caesar,
Florus and Ptolemy have said of the Suevi, is to be understood of the
Catti. Leibnitz supposes the Catti were so called from the active
animal which they resemble in name, the German for cat being _Catte_, or
_Hessen_.
[167] Pliny, who was well acquainted with Germany, gives a very striking
description of the Hercynian forest:--"The vast trees of the Hercynian
forest, untouched for ages, and as old as the world, by their almost
immortal destiny exceed common wonders. Not to mention circumstances
which would not be credited, it is certain that hills are raised by the
repercussion of their meeting roots; and where the earth does not follow
them, arches are formed as high as the branches, which, struggling, as
it were, with each other, are bent into the form of open gates, so wide,
that troops of horse may ride under them."--xvi. 2.
[168] _Duriora corpora_. "Hardier frames;" _i.e._ than the rest of
the Germans. At Hist. ii 32. the Germans, in general, are said to have
_fluxa corpora_; while in c. 4 of this treatise they are described as
_tantùm ad impetum valida_.
[169] Floras, ii. 18, well expresses this thought by the sentence "Tanti
exercitus, quanti imperator." "An army is worth so much as its general
is."
[170] Thus Civilis is said by our author (Hist. iv. 61), to have let his
hair and beard grow in consequence of a private vow. Thus too, in Paul
Warnefrid's "History of the Lombards," iii. 7, it is related, that "six
thousand Saxons who survived the war, vowed that they would never cut
their hair, nor shave their beards, till they had been revenged of their
enemies, the Suevi." A later instance of this custom is mentioned by
Strada (Bell. Belg. vii. p. 344), of William Lume, one of the Counts
of Mark, "who bound himself by a vow not to cut his hair till he had
revenged the deaths of Egmont and Horn."
[171] The iron ring seems to have been a badge of slavery. This custom
was revived in later times, but rather with a gallant than a military
intention. Thus, in the year 1414, John duke of Bourbon, in order to
ingratiate himself with his mistress, vowed, together with sixteen
knights and gentlemen, that they would wear, he and the knights a gold
ring, the gentlemen a silver one, round their left legs, every Sunday
for two years, till they had met with an equal number of knights and
gentlemen to contend with them in a tournament. (Vertot, Mém. de l'Acad.
des Inscr. tom. ii. p. 596.)
[172] It was this nation of Catti, which, about 150 years afterwards,
uniting with the remains of the Cherusci on this side the Weser, the
Attuarii, Sicambri, Chamavi, Bructeri, and Chauci, entered into the
Francic league, and, conquering the Romans, seized upon Gaul. From them
are derived the name, manners, and laws of the French.
[173] These two tribes, united by a community of wars and misfortunes,
had formerly been driven from the settlements on the Rhine a little
below Mentz. They then, according to Caesar (Bell. Gall. iv. 1, _et
seq._), occupied the territories of the Menapii on both sides the Rhine.
Still proving unfortunate, they obtained the lands of the Sicambri,
who, in the reign of Augustus, were removed on this side the Rhine by
Tiberius: these were the present counties of Berg, Mark, Lippe, and
Waldeck; and the bishopric of Paderborn.
[174] Their settlements were between the rivers Rhine, Lippe (Luppia),
and Ems (Amisia), and the province of Friesland; now the countries of
Westphalia and Over-Issel. Alting (Notit. German. Infer, p. 20) supposes
they derived their name from _Broeken_, or _Bruchen_, marshes, on
account of their frequency in that tract of country.
[175] Before this migration, the Chamavi were settled on the Ems,
where at present are Lingen and Osnaburg; the Angrivarii, on the Weser
(Visurgis), where are Minden and Schawenburg. A more ancient migration
of the Chamavi to the banks of the Rhine is cursorily mentioned
by Tacitus, Annal. xiii. 55. The Angrivarii were afterwards called
Angrarii, and became part of the Saxon nation.
[176] They were not so entirely extirpated that no relics of them
remained. They were even a conspicuous part of the Francic league, as
before related. Claudian also, in his panegyric on the fourth consulate
of Honorius, v. 450, mentions them.
Venit accola sylvae
Bructerus Hercyniae.
"The Bructerian, borderer on the Hercynian forest, came."
After their expulsion, they settled, according to Eccard, between
Cologne and Hesse.
[177] The Bructeri were under regal government, and maintained many wars
against the Romans. Hence their arrogance and power. Before they were
destroyed by their countrymen, Vestricius Spurinna terrified them into
submission without an action, and had on that account a triumphal statue
decreed him. Pliny the younger mentions this fact, book ii. epist. 7.
[178] An allusion to gladiatorial spectacles. This slaughter happened
near the canal of Drusus, where the Roman guard on the Rhine could be
spectators of the battle. The account of it came to Rome in the first
year of Trajan.
[179] As this treatise was written in the reign of Trajan, when the
affairs of the Romans appeared unusually prosperous, some critics have
imagined that Tacitus wrote _vigentibus_, "flourishing," instead of
_urgentibus_, "urgent." But it is sufficiently evident, from other
passages, that the causes which were operating gradually, but surely, to
the destruction of the Roman empire, did not escape the penetration of
Tacitus, even when disguised by the most flattering appearances. The
common reading is therefore, probably, right.--_Aikin_.
[180] These people first resided near the head of the Lippe; and then
removed to the settlements of the Chamavi and Angrivarii, who had
expelled the Bructeri. They appear to have been the same with those whom
Velleius Paterculus, ii. 105, calls the Attuarii, and by that name they
entered into the Francic league. Strabo calls them Chattuarii.
[181] Namely, the Ansibarii and Tubantes. The Ansibarii or Amsibarii are
thought by Alting to have derived their name from their neighborhood to
the river Ems (Amisia); and the. Tubantes, from their frequent change of
habitation, to have been called _Tho Benten_. or the wandering troops,
and to have dwelt where now is Drente in Over-Issel. Among these
nations, Furstenburg (Monum. Paderborn.) enumerates the Ambrones,
borderers upon the river Ambrus, now Emmeren.
[182] The Frieslanders. The lesser Frisii were settled on this side, the
greater, on the other, of the Flevum (Zuyderzee).
[183] In the time of the Romans this country was covered by vast meres,
or lakes; which were made still larger by frequent inundations of the
sea. Of these, one so late as 1530 overwhelmed seventy-two villages; and
another, still more terrible, in 1569, laid under water great part
of the sea-coast of Holland, and almost all Friesland, in which alone
20,000 persons were drowned.
[184] Wherever the land seemed to terminate, and it appeared impossible
to proceed further, maritime nations have feigned pillars of Hercules.
Those celebrated by the Frisians must have been at the extremity of
Friesland, and not in Sweden and the Cimmerian promontory, as Rudbeck
supposes.
[185] Drusus, the brother of Tiberius, and father of Germanicus, imposed
a tribute on the Frisians, as mentioned in the Annals, iv. 72, and
performed other eminent services in Germany; himself styled Germanicus.
[186] The Chauci extended along the seacoast from the Ems to the Elbe
(Albis); whence they bordered on all the fore-mentioned nations, between
which and the Cherusci they came round to the Catti. The Chauci were
distinguished into Greater and Lesser. The Greater, according to
Ptolemy, inhabited the country between the Weser and the Elbe; the
Lesser, that between the Weser and Ems; but Tacitus (Annals xi. 19)
seems to reverse this order. Alting supposes the Chauci had their name
from _Kauken_, signifying persons eminent for valor and fidelity, which
agrees with the character Tacitus gives them. Others derive it from
_Kauk_, an owl, with a reference to the enmity of that animal to cats
(_Catti_). Others, from _Kaiten_, daws, of which there are great numbers
on their coast. Pliny has admirably described the country and manners of
the maritime Chauci, in his account of people who live without any trees
or fruit-bearing vegetables:--"In the North are the nations of Chauci,
who are divided into Greater and Lesser. Here, the ocean, having a
prodigious flux and reflux twice in the space of every day and night,
rolls over an immense tract, leaving it a matter of perpetual doubt
whether it is part of the land or sea. In this spot, the wretched
natives, occupying either the tops of hills, or artificial mounds
of turf, raised out of reach of the highest tides, build their small
cottages; which appear like sailing vessels when the water covers the
circumjacent ground, and like wrecks when it has retired. Here from
their huts they pursue the fish, continually flying from them with the
waves. They do not, like their neighbors, possess cattle, and feed on
milk; nor have they a warfare to maintain against wild beasts, for every
fruit of the earth is far removed from them. With flags and seaweed they
twist cordage for their fishing-nets. For fuel they use a kind of mud,
taken up by hand, and dried, rather in the wind than the sun: with this
earth they heat their food, and warm their bodies, stiffened by the
rigorous north. Their only drink is rain-water collected in ditches at
the thresholds of their doors. Yet this miserable people, if conquered
to-day by the Roman arms, would call themselves slaves. Thus it is that
fortune spares many to their own punishment."--Hist. Nat. xvi. 1.
[187] On this account, fortified posts were established by the Romans
to restrain the Chauci; who by Lucan are called Cayci in the following
passage:
Et vos crinigeros bellis arcere Caycos
Oppositi.--Phars. i. 463.
"You, too, tow'rds Rome advance, ye warlike band,
That wont the shaggy Cauci to withstand."--ROWE
[188] The Cherusci, at that time, dwelt between the Weser and the Elbe,
where now are Luneburg, Brunswick, and part of the Marche of Brandenburg
on this side the Elbe. In the reign of Augustus they occupied a more
extensive tract; reaching even this side the Weser, as appears from
the accounts of the expedition of Drusus given by Dio and Velleius
Paterculus: unless, as Dithmar observes, what is said of the Cherusci
on this side the Weser relates to the Dulgibini, their dependents. For,
according to Strabo, Varus was cut off by the Cherusci, and the people
subject to them. The brave actions of Arminius, the celebrated chief
of the Cherusci, are related by Tacitus in the 1st and 2d books of his
Annals.
[189] Cluver, and several others, suppose the Fosi to have been the same
with the ancient Saxons: but, since they bordered on the Cherusci, the
opinion of Leibnitz is nearer the truth, that they inhabited the banks
of the river Fusa, which enters the Aller (Allera) at Cellae; and were
a sort of appendage to the Cherusci, as Hildesheim now is to Brunswick.
The name of Saxons is later than Tacitus, and was not known till the
reign of Antoninus Pius, at which period they poured forth from the
Cimbric Chersonesus, and afterwards, in conjunction with the Angles,
seized upon Britain.
[191] The name of this people still exists; and the country they
inhabited is called the Cimbric Chersonesus, or Peninsula; comprehending
Jutland, Sleswig, and Holstein. The renown and various fortune of
the Cimbri is briefly, but accurately, related by Mallet in the
"Introduction" to the "History of Denmark."
[192] Though at this time they were greatly reduced by migrations,
inundations and wars, they afterwards revived; and from this storehouse
of nations came forth the Franks, Saxons, Normans, and various other
tribes, which brought all Europe under Germanic sway.
[193] Their fame spread through Germany, Gaul, Spain, Britain, Italy,
and as far as the Sea of Azoph (Palus Maeotis), whither, according
to Posidonius, they penetrated, and called the Cimmerian or Cimbrian
Bosphorus after their own name.
[194] This is usually, and probably rightly, explained as relating to
both shores of the Cimbric Chersonesus. Cluver and Dithmar, however,
suppose that these encampments are to be sought for either in Italy,
upon the river Athesis (Adige), or in Narbonnensian Gaul near Aquae
Sextiae (Aix in Provence), where Florus (iii. 3) mentions that the
Teutoni defeated by Marius took post in a valley with a river running
through it. Of the prodigious numbers of the Cimbri who made this
terrible irruption we have an account in Plutarch, who relates that
their fighting men were 300,000, with a much greater number of women and
children. (Plut. Marius, p. 411.)
[195] Nerva was consul the fourth time, and Trajan the second, in the
85lst year of Rome; in which Tacitus composed this treatise.
[196] After the defeat of P. Decidius Saxa, lieutenant of Syria, by the
Parthians, and the seizure of Syria by Pacorus, son of king Orodes, P.
Ventidius Bassus was sent there, and vanquished the Parthians, killed
Pacorus, and entirely restored the Roman affairs.
[197] The Epitome of Livy informs us, that "in the year of Rome 640, the
Cimbri, a wandering tribe, made a predatory incursion into Illyricum,
where they routed the consul Papirius Carbo with his army." According
to Strabo, it was at Noreia, a town of the Taurisci, near Aquileia, that
Carbo was defeated. In the succeeding years, the Cimbri and Teutonia
ravaged Gaul, and brought great calamities on that country; but at
length, deterred by the unshaken bravery of the Gauls, they turned
another way; as appears from Caesar, Bell. Gal. vii. 17. They then
came into Italy, and sent ambassadors to the Senate, demanding lands to
settle on. This was refused; and the consul M. Junius Silanus fought
an unsuccessful battle with them, in the year of Rome 645. (Epitome of
Livy, lxv.)
[198] "L. Cassius the consul, in the year of Rome 647, was cut off with
his army in the confines of the Allobroges, by the Tigurine Gauls,
a canton of the Helvetians (now the cantons of Zurich, Appenzell,
Schaffhausen, &c.), who had migrated from their settlements. The
soldiers who survived the slaughter gave hostages for the payment of
half they were worth, to be dismissed with safety." (Ibid.) Caesar
further relates that the Roman army was passed under the yoke by the
Tigurini:--"This single canton, migrating from home, within the memory
of our fathers, slew the consul L. Cassius, and passed his army under
the yoke."--Bell. Gall. i. 12.
[199] M. Aurelius Scaurus, the consul's lieutenant (or rather consul,
as he appears to have served that office in the year of Rome 646), was
defeated and taken by the Cimbri; and when, being asked his advice,
he dissuaded them from passing the Alps into Italy, assuring them the
Romans were invincible, he was slain by a furious youth, named Boiorix.
(Epit. Livy, lxvii.)
[200] Florus, in like manner, considers these two affairs
separately:--"Neither could Silanus sustain the first onset of the
barbarians; nor Manlius, the second; nor Caepio, the third." (iii. 3.)
Livy joins them together:--"By the same enemy (the Cimbri) Cn. Manlius
the consul, and Q. Servilius Caepio the proconsul, were defeated in an
engagement, and both dispossessed of their camps." (Epit. lxvii.) Paulus
Orosius relates the affair more particularly:--"Manlius the consul, and
Q. Caepio, proconsul, being sent against the Cimbri, Teutones,
Tigurini, and Ambronae, Gaulish and German nations, who had conspired to
extinguish the Roman empire, divided their respective provinces by the
river Rhone. Here, the most violent dissensions prevailing between them,
they were both overcome, to the great disgrace and danger of the Roman
name. According to Antias, 80,000 Romans and allies were slaughtered.
Caepio, by whose rashness this misfortune was occasioned, was condemned,
and his property confiscated by order of the Roman people." (Lib. v.
16.) This happened in the year of Rome 649; and the anniversary was
reckoned among the unlucky days.
[201] The Republic; in opposition to Rome when governed by emperors.
[202] This tragical catastrophe so deeply affected Augustus, that, as
Seutonius informs us, "he was said to have let his beard and hair grow
for several months; during which he at times struck his head against the
doors, crying out, 'Varus, restore my legions!' and ever after kept
the anniversary as a day of mourning." (Aug. s. 23.) The finest history
piece, perhaps, ever drawn by a writer, is Tacitus's description of the
army of Germanicus visiting the field of battle, six years after,
and performing funeral obsequies to the scattered remains of their
slaughtered countrymen. (Annals, i. 61.)
[203] "After so many misfortunes, the Roman people thought no general
so capable of repelling such formidable enemies, as Marius." Nor was the
public opinion falsified. In his fourth consulate, in the year of Rome
652. "Marius engaged the Teutoni beyond the Alps near Aquae Sextiae (Aix
in Province), killing, on the day of battle and the following day, above
150,000 of the enemy, and entirely cutting off the Teutonic nation."
(Velleus Paterculus, ii. 12.) Livy says there were 200,000 slain, and
90,000 taken prisoners. The succeeding year he defeated the Cimbri, who
had penetrated into Italy and crossed the Adige, in the Raudian plain,
where now is Rubio, killing and taking prisoners upwards of 100,000 men.
That he did not, however, obtain an unbought victory over this warlike
people, may be conjectured from the resistance he met with even from
their women. We are told by Florus (iii. 3) that "he was obliged to
sustain an engagement with their wives, as well as themselves; who,
entrenching themselves on all sides with wagons and cars, fought from
them, as from towers, with lances and poles. Their death was no less
glorious than their resistance. For, when they could not obtain from
Marius what they requested by an embassy, their liberty, and admission
into the vestal priesthood (which, indeed, could not lawfully be
granted); after strangling their infants, they either fell by mutual
wounds, or hung themselves on trees or the poles of their carriages in
ropes made of their own hair. King Boiorix was slain, not unrevenged,
fighting bravely in the field." On account of these great victories,
Marius, in the year of Borne 652, triumphed over the Teutoni, Ambroni,
and Cimbri.
[204] In the 596th year of Rome, Julius Caesar defeated Ariovistus, a
German king, near Dampierre in the Franche-Comte, and pursued his routed
troops with great slaughter thirty miles towards the Rhine, filling all
that space with spoils and dead bodies. (Bell. Gall. i. 33 and 52.)
He had before chastised the Tigurini, who, as already mentioned, had
defeated and killed L. Cassius. Drusus: This was the son of Livia, and
brother of the emperor Tiberius. He was in Germany B.C. 12, 11. His loss
was principally from shipwreck on the coast of the Chauci. See Lynam's
Roman Emperors, i. 37, 45, Nero; _i.e._ Tiberius, afterwards emperor.
His name was Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero. See Lynam's Roman Emperors,
i. 51, 53, 62, 78. Germanicus: He was the son of Drusus, and so nephew
of Tiberius. His victories in Germany took place A.D. 14-16. He too,
like his father, was shipwrecked, and nearly at the same spot. See
Lynam's Roman Emperors, i. 103-118.
[205] In the war of Civilis, related by Tacitus, Hist. iv. and v.
[206] By Domitian, as is more particularly mentioned in the Life of
Agricola.
[207] The Suevi possessed that extensive tract of country lying between
the Elbe, the Vistula, the Baltic Sea, and the Danube. They formerly had
spread still further, reaching even to the Rhine. Hence Strabo, Caesar,
Florus, and others, have referred to the Suevi what related to the
Catti.
[208] Among the Suevi, and also the rest of the Germans, the slaves,
seem to have been shaven; or at least cropped so short that they could
not twist or tie up their hair in a knot.
[209] The Semnones inhabited both banks of the Viadrus (Oder); the
country which is now part of Pomerania, of the Marche of Brandenburg,
and of Lusatia.
[210] In the reign of Augustus, the Langobardi dwelt on this side the
Elbe, between Luneburg and Magdeburg. When conquered and driven beyond
the Elbe by Tiberius, they occupied that part of the country where are
now Prignitz, Ruppin, and part of the Middle Marche. They afterwards
founded the Lombard kingdom in Italy; which, in the year of Christ
774, was destroyed by Charlemagne, who took their king Desiderius, and
subdued all Italy. The laws of the Langobardi are still extant, and may
be met with in Lindenbrog. The Burgundians are not mentioned by Tacitus,
probably because they were then an inconsiderable people. Afterwards,
joining with the Langobardi, they settled on the Decuman lands and the
Roman boundary. They from thence made an irruption into Gaul, and seized
that country which is still named from them Burgundy. Their laws are
likewise extant.
[211] From Tacitus's description, the Reudigni must have dwelt in part
of the present duchy of Mecklenburg, and of Lauenburg. They had formerly
been settled on this side the Elbe, on the sands of Luneburg.
[212] Perhaps the same people with those called by Mamertinus, in
his Panegyric on Maximian, the Chaibones. From their vicinity to the
fore-mentioned nations, they must have inhabited part of the duchy of
Mecklenburg. They had formerly dwelt on this side the Elbe, on the banks
of the river Ilmenavia in Luneburg; which is now called Ava; whence,
probably, the name of the people.
[213] Inhabitants of what is now part of Holstein and Sleswig; in which
tract is still a district called Angeln, between Flensborg and Sleswig.
In the fifth century, the Angles, in conjunction with the Saxons,
migrated into Britain, and perpetuated their name by giving appellation
to England.
[214] From the enumeration of Tacitus, and the situation of the other
tribes, it appears that the Eudoses must have occupied the modern Wismar
and Rostock; the Suardones, Stralsund, Swedish Pomerania, and part
of the Hither Pomerania, and of the Uckerane Marche. Eccard, however,
supposes these nations were much more widely extended; and that
the Eudoses dwelt upon the Oder; the Suardones, upon the Warte; the
Nuithones, upon the Netze.
[215] The ancient name of the goddess Herth still subsists in the German
_Erde_, and in the English _Earth_.
[216] Many suppose this island to have been the isle of Rugen in the
Baltic sea. It is more probable, however, that it was an island near
the mouth of the Elbe, now called the isle of Helgeland, or Heiligeland
(Holy Island). Besides the proof arising from the name, the situation
agrees better with that of the nations before enumerated.
[217] Olaus Rudbeck contends that this festival was celebrated in
winter, and still continues in Scandinavia under the appellation of
Julifred, the peace of Juul. (Yule is the term used for Christmas season
in the old English and Scottish dialects.) But this feast was solemnized
not in honor of the Earth, but of the Sun, called by them Thor or
Taranium. The festival of Herth was held later, in the month of
February; as may be seen in Mallet's "Introduction to the History of
Denmark."
[218] _Templo_ here means merely "the consecrated place," _i.e._ the
grove before mentioned, for according to c.9 the Germans built no
temples.
[219] It is supposed that this people, on account of their valor, were
called Heermanner; corrupted by the Romans into Hermunduri. They were
first settled between the Elbe, the Sala, and Bohemia; where now
are Anhalt, Voightland, Saxony, part of Misnia, and of Franconia.
Afterwards, when the Marcomanni took possession of Bohemia, from which
the Boii had been expelled by Maroboduus, the Hermunduri added their
settlements to their own, and planted in them the Suevian name, whence
is derived the modern appellation of that country, Suabia.
[220] They were so at that time; but afterwards joined with the
Marcomanni and other Germans against the Romans in the time of Marcus
Aurelius, who overcame them.
[221] Augusta Vindelicorum, now Augsburg; a famous Roman colony in the
province of Rhaetia, of which Vindelica was then a part.
[222] Tacitus is greatly mistaken if he confounds the source of the
Egra, which is in the country of the Hermuduri, with that of the Elbe,
which rises in Bohemia. The Elbe had been formerly, as Tacitus observes,
well known to the Romans by the victories of Drusus, Tiberius, and
Domitius; but afterwards, when the increasing power of the Germans kept
the Roman arms at a distance, it was only indistinctly heard of. Hence
its source was probably inaccurately laid down in the Roman geographical
tables. Perhaps, however, the Hermunduri, when they had served in the
army of Maroboduus, received lands in that part of Bohemia in which
the Elbe rises; in which case there would be no mistake in Tacitus's
account.
[223] Inhabitants of that part of Bavaria which lies between Bohemia and
the Danube.
[224] Inhabitants of Bohemia.
[225] Inhabitants of Moravia, and the part of Austria between it and
the Danube. Of this people, Ammianus Marcellinus, in his account of the
reign of Valentinian and Valens, thus speaks:--"A sudden commotion arose
among the Quadi; a nation at present of little consequence, but
which was formerly extremely warlike and potent, as their exploits
sufficiently evince."--xxix. 15.
[226] Their expulsion of the Boii, who had given name to Bohemia, has
been already mentioned. Before this period, the Marcomanni dwelt near
the sources of the Danube, where now is the duchy of Wirtemburg; and, as
Dithmar supposes, on account of their inhabiting the borders of Germany,
were called Marcmanner, from _Marc_ (the same with the old English
_March_) a border, or boundary.
[227] These people justified their military reputation by the dangerous
war which, in conjunction with the Marcomanni, they excited against the
Romans, in the reign of Marcus Aurelius.
[228] Of this prince, and his alliance with the Romans against Arminius,
mention is made by Tacitus, Annals, ii.
[229] Thus Vannius was made king of the Quadi by Tiberius. (See Annals,
ii. 63.) At a later period, Antoninus Pius (as appears from a medal
preserved in Spanheim) gave them Furtius for their king. And when they
had expelled him, and set Ariogaesus on the throne, Marcus Aurelius, to
whom he was obnoxious, refused to confirm the election. (Dio, lxxi.)
[230] These people inhabited what is now Galatz, Jagerndorf, and part of
Silesia.
[231] Inhabitants of part of Silesia, and of Hungary.
[232] Inhabitants of part of Hungary to the Danube.
[233] These were settled about the Carpathian mountains, and the sources
of the Vistula.
[234] It is probable that the Suevi were distinguished from the rest
of the Germans by a peculiar dialect, as well as by their dress and
manners.
[235] Ptolemy mentions iron mines in or near the country of the Quadi.
I should imagine that the expression "additional disgrace" (or, more
literally, "which might make them more ashamed") does not refer merely
to the slavery of working in mines, but to the circumstance of their
digging up iron, the substance by means of which they might acquire
freedom and independence. This is quite in the manner of Tacitus. The
word _iron_ was figuratively used by the ancients to signify military
force in general. Thus Solon, in his well-known answer to Croesus,
observed to him, that the nation which possessed more iron would be
master of all his gold.--_Aikin_.
[236] The mountains between Moravia, Hungary, Silesia, and Bohemia.
[237] The Lygii inhabited what is now part of Silesia, of the New
Marche, of Prussia and Poland on this side the Vistula.
[238] These tribes were settled between the Oder and Vistula, where
now are part of Silesia, of Brandenburg, and of Poland. The Elysii are
supposed to have given name to Silesia.
[239] The Greeks and Romans, under the name of the Dioscuri, or Castor
and Pollux, worshipped those meteorous exhalations which, during a
storm, appear on the masts of ships, and are supposed to denote an
approaching calm. A kind of religious veneration is still paid to this
phenomenon by the Roman Catholics, under the appellation of the fire
of St. Elmo. The Naharvali seem to have affixed the same character of
divinity on the _ignis fatuus_; and the name Alcis is probably the same
with that of Alff or Alp, which the northern nations still apply to the
fancied Genii of the mountains. The Sarmatian deities Lebus and Polebus,
the memory of whom still subsists in the Polish festivals, had, perhaps,
the same origin.
[240] No custom has been more universal among uncivilized people than
painting the body, either for the purpose of ornament, or that of
inspiring terror.
[241] Inhabitants of what is now Further Pomerania, the New Marche and
the Western part of Poland, between the Oder and Vistula. They were a
different people from the Goths, though, perhaps, in alliance with them.
[242] These people were settled on the shore of the Baltic, where
now are Colburg, Cassubia, and Further Pomerania. Their name is still
preserved in the town of Rugenwald and Isle of Rugen.
[243] These were also settlers on the Baltic, about the modern Stolpe,
Dantzig, and Lauenburg. The Heruli appear afterwards to have occupied
the settlements of the Lemovii. Of these last no further mention occurs;
but the Heruli made themselves famous throughout Europe and Asia, and
were the first of the Germans who founded a kingdom in Italy under
Odoacer.
[244] The Suiones inhabited Sweden, and the Danish isles of Funen,
Langlaud, Zeeland, Laland, &c. From them and the Cimbri were derived
the Normans, who, after spreading terror through various parts of the
empire, at last seized upon the fertile province of Normandy in France.
The names of Goths, Visigoths, and Ostrogoths, became still more famous,
they being the nations who accomplished the ruin of the Roman empire.
The laws of the Visigoths are still extant; but they depart much from
the usual simplicity of the German laws.
[245] The Romans, who had but an imperfect knowledge of this part of
the world, imagined here those "vast insular tracts" mentioned in the
beginning of this treatise. Hence Pliny, also, says of the Baltic sea
(Codanus sinus), that "it is filled with islands, the most famous
of which, Scandinavia (now Sweden and Norway), is of an undiscovered
magnitude; that part of it only being known which is occupied by the
Hilleviones, a nation inhabiting five hundred cantons; who call this
country another globe." (Lib. iv. 13.) The memory of the Hilleviones is
still preserved in the part of Sweden named Halland.
[246] Their naval power continued so great, that they had the glory
of framing the nautical code, the laws of which were first written at
Wisby, the capital of the isle of Gothland, in the eleventh century.
[247] This is exactly the form of the Indian canoes, which, however, are
generally worked with sails as well as oars.
[248] The great opulence of a temple of the Suiones, as described by
Adam of Bremen (Eccl. Hist. ch. 233), is a proof of the wealth that
at all times has attended naval dominion. "This nation," says he,
"possesses a temple of great renown, called Ubsola (now Upsal), not far
from the cities Sictona and Birca (now Sigtuna and Bioerkoe). In this
temple, which is entirely ornamented with gold, the people worship the
statues of three gods; the most powerful of whom, Thor, is seated on a
couch in the middle; with Woden on one side, and Fricca on the other."
From the ruins of the towns Sictona and Birca arose the present capital
of Sweden, Stockholm.
[249] Hence Spener (Notit. German. Antiq.) rightly concludes that the
crown was hereditary, and not elective, among the Suiones.
[250] It is uncertain whether what is now called the Frozen Ocean is
here meant, or the northern extremities of the Baltic Sea, the Gulfs
of Bothnia and Finland, which are so frozen every winter as to be
unnavigable.
[251] The true principles of astronomy have now taught us the reason
why, at a certain latitude, the sun, at the summer solstice, appears
never to set: and at a lower latitude, the evening twilight continues
till morning.
[252] The true reading here is, probably, "immerging;" since it was a
common notion at that period, that the descent of the sun into the ocean
was attended with a kind of hissing noise, like red hot iron dipped into
water. Thus Juvenal, Sat. xiv, 280:--
Audiet Herculeo stridentem gurgite solem.
"Hear the sun hiss in the Herculean gulf."
[253] Instead of formas deorum, "forms of deities," some, with more
probability, read equorum, "of the horses," which are feigned to draw
the chariot of the sun.
[254] Thus Quintus Curtius, speaking of the Indian Ocean, says, "Nature
itself can proceed no further."
[255] The Baltic Sea.
[256] Now, the kingdom of Prussia, the duchies of Samogitia and
Courland, the palatinates of Livonia and Esthonia, in the name of which
last the ancient appellation of these people is preserved.
[257] Because the inhabitants of this extreme part of Germany retained
the Scythico-Celtic language, which long prevailed in Britain.
[258] A deity of Scythian origin, called Frea or Fricca. See Mallet's
Introduct. to Hist. of Denmark.
[259] Many vestiges of this superstition remain to this day in Sweden.
The peasants, in the month of February, the season formerly sacred to
Frea, make little images of boars in paste, which they apply to various
superstitious uses. (See Eccard.) A figure of a Mater Deum, with the
boar, is given by Mr. Pennant, in his Tour in Scotland, 1769, p.
268, engraven from a stone found at the great station at Netherby in
Cumberland.
[260] The cause of this was, probably, their confined situation, which
did not permit them to wander in hunting and plundering parties, like
the rest of the Germans.
[261] This name was transferred to _glass_ when it came into use. Pliny
speaks of the production of amber in this country as follows:--"It is
certain that amber is produced in the islands of the Northern Ocean, and
is called by the Germans _gless_. One of these islands, by the natives
named Austravia, was on this account called Glessaria by our sailors in
the fleet of Germanicus."--Lib. xxxvii. 3.
[262] Much of the Prussian amber is even at present collected on the
shores of the Baltic. Much also is found washed out of the clayey cliffs
of Holderness. See Tour in Scotland, 1769, p. 16.
[263] Insomuch that the Guttones, who formerly inhabited this coast,
made use of amber as fuel, and sold it for that purpose to the
neighboring Teutones. (Plin. xxxvii. 2.)
[264] Various toys and utensils of amber, such as bracelets, necklaces,
rings, cups, and even pillars, were to be met with among the luxurious
Romans.
[265] In a work by Goeppert and Berendt, on "Amber and the Fossil
Remains of Plants contained in it," published at Berlin, 1845, a passage
is found (of which a translation is here given) which quite harmonizes
with the account of Tacitus:--"About the parts which are known by the
name of Samland an island emerged, or rather a group of islands, ...
which gradually increased in circumference, and, favored by a mild sea
climate, was overspread with vegetation and forest. This forest was the
means of amber being produced. Certain trees in it exuded gums in such
quantities that the sunken forest soil now appears to be filled with
it to such a degree, as if it had only been deprived of a very trifling
part of its contents by the later eruptions of the sea, and the
countless storms which have lashed the ocean for centuries." Hence,
though found underground, it appears to have been originally the
production of some resinous tree. Hence, too, the reason of the
appearance of insects, &c. in it, as mentioned by Tacitus.
[266] Norwegians.
[267] All beyond the Vistula was reckoned Sarmatia. These people,
therefore, were properly inhabitants of Sarmatia, though from their
manners they appeared of German origin.
[268] Pliny also reckons the Peucini among the German nations:--"The
fifth part of Germany is possessed by the Peucini and Bastarnae, who
border on the Dacians." (iv. 14.) From Strabo it appears that the
Peucini, part of the Bastarnae, inhabited the country about the mouths
of the Danube, and particularly the island Peuce, now Piczina, formed by
the river.
[269] The habitations of the Peucini were fixed; whereas the Sarmatians
wandered about in their wagons.
[270] "Sordes omnium ac torpor; procerum connubiis mixtis nonnihil in
Sarmatarum habitum foedantur." In many editions the semicolon is placed
not after _torpor_, but after _procerum_. The sense of the passage so
read is: "The chief men are lazy and stupid, besides being filthy, like
all the rest. Intermarriage with the Sarmatians have debased." &c.
[271] The Venedi extended beyond the Peucini and Bastarnae as far as the
Baltic Sea; where is the Sinus Venedicus, now the Gulf of Dantzig. Their
name is also preserved in Wenden, a part of Livonia. When the German
nations made their irruption into Italy, France and Spain, the Venedi,
also called Winedi, occupied their vacant settlements between the
Vistula and Elbe. Afterwards they crossed the Danube, and seized
Dalmatia, Illyricum, Istria, Carniola, and the Noric Alps. A part of
Carniola still retains the name of Windismarck, derived from them. This
people were also called Slavi; and their language, the Sclavonian, still
prevails through a vast tract of country.
[272] This is still the manner of living of the successors of the
Sarmatians, the Nogai Tartars.
[273] Their country is called by Pliny, Eningia, now Finland. Warnefrid
(De Gest. Langobard. i. 5) thus describes their savage and wretched
state:--"The Scritobini, or Scritofinni, are not without snow in the
midst of summer; and, being little superior in sagacity to the brutes,
live upon no other food than the raw flesh of wild animals, the hairy
skins of which they use for clothing. They derive their name, according
to the barbarian tongue, from leaping, because they hunt wild beasts by
a certain method of leaping or springing with pieces of wood bent in
the shape of a bow." Here is an evident description of the snow-shoes or
raquets in common use among the North American savages, as well as the
inhabitants of the most northern parts of Europe.
[274] As it is just after mentioned that their chief dependence is on
the game procured in hunting, this can only mean that the vegetable
food they use consists of wild herbs, in opposition to the cultivated
products of the earth.
[275] The Esquimaux and the South Sea islanders do the same thing to
this day.
[276] People of Lapland. The origin of this fable was probably the
manner of clothing in these cold regions, where the inhabitants bury
themselves in the thickest furs, scarcely leaving anything of the form
of a human creature.
[277] It is with true judgment that this excellent historian forbears to
intermix fabulous narrations with the very interesting and instructive
matter of this treatise. Such a mixture might have brought an
impeachment on the fidelity of the account in general; which,
notwithstanding the suspicions professed by some critics, contains
nothing but what is entirely consonant to truth and nature. Had Tacitus
indulged his invention in the description of German manners, is it
probable that he could have given so just a picture of the state of a
people under similar circumstances, the savage tribes of North America,
as we have seen them within the present century? Is it likely that his
relations would have been so admirably confirmed by the codes of law
still extant of the several German nations; such as the Salic, Ripuary,
Burgundian, English and Lombard? or that after the course of so many
centuries, and the numerous changes of empire, the customs, laws and
manners he describes should still be traced in all the various people
of German derivation? As long as the original constitution and
jurisprudence of our own and other European countries are studied, this
treatise will be regarded as one of the most precious and authentic
monuments of historical antiquity.