UC-NRLF 3 MMM ^^ THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESENTED BY PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID A TREATISE ON THE SITUATION, MANNERS, AND INHABITANTS, OF GERMANY; AND THE LIFE OF AGRICOLA ; BY C. CORNELIUS TACITUS: I) TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH BY JOHN AIKZN. WITH COPIOUS NOTES. PRINTED FOR W. GRANT. SOLD BY J. GRANT, OXFORD; AND T. &; J. ALLMAN, I'RINCLS STREET, HANOVER SftUARE, LONDON. 1823. PREFACE. A SMALL volume which I offered' some time ago to the pubhc, consisting of Tacitus's Life of Agrieola, in the original and in an English translation,. Avas principally designed to furnish youth, either at a place of education, or in their private studies, with an agreeable specimen of that excellent author, in a form which might encourage them to commence an acquaintance with his works. The attempt was honoured with a reception which produced a demand for a republication. But, in the mean time, the admirable edition of Tacitus lately pubhshed at Paris bv iv PREFACE. M. Brotier* falling- into my hands, I was led to consider the subject in a different view ; and could not but wish to make such use of the valuable ma- terials before me, as might adapt my translation to the purposes of a higher class of readers. Upon this plan, I thought it would be unnecessary to reprint the Latin ; and that its place might be advantageously supplied by adding another piece of the same author, equally detached and complete with the Life of Agricola^ and perhaps still more instructive and interesting. The Trea- tise on the jyianners of the Germans has ever been esteemed as one of the most precious relics of the political or historical writings of antiquity ; and by the course of events has been rendered * In Four Volumes 4toi The first edition is Uated 1771. PREFACE. V more important to modern times than its author probably expected, who could scarcely foresee that the government, policy, and manners of the most civilized parts of the globe, were to oi'iginate from the woods and desaris of Germany. It is unnecessary to enlarge upon the merits of a work, the great value and authority of which are sufficiently manifested by the use which some of the most eminent modern ^Titers have made of it. A defect under which it labours is, that the con- ciseness both of matter and style which characterizes its author, prevails in it to such a degree as to render in many places either the sense less clear, or the infonnation less perfect than might have been wished. No part of Tacitus, there- fore, stood so much in need of a learned and judicious commentator ; and such an one in the fullest extent it has found in M. Brotier, from whose excellent notes b yi PREFACE. I have liberally borrowed whatever seemed necessary as an explanation, or useful as an illustration of the text. Still further convinced of the pre- ference due to close and accurate trans- lation, whenever the matter of the original is singular or important, I have aimed at nothing so much as clearly and precisely to reflect the author*s meaning'. The Treatise on Germani/, indeed, from the nature of its subject effectually precluded any attempts at ornamental language or har- monious period. And even in the more rhetorical Life of ^gricola, accuracy appeared to me of so much greater importance than the elegant flow of a sentence, that in order to obtain it I have very frequently deviated from my former translation. So numerous, indeed, are the alterations, that the correctness of my first attempt will probably be PREFACE. vti much impeached by them. For this deficiency, the only apology I have to offer is the want at that time of such an edition as M. Brotier's, which, besides its many ingenious comments on dif- ficult passages, suggests several happy emendations of the mutilated text. The reader will please to observe that all the notes to both treatises are ex- tracted from M. Brotier, except a few, to which a particular signature is an- nexetl. A TREATISE ON THE SITUATION, MANNERS, AND INHABITANTS OF GERMANY'. Germany* is separated from Gaul, Rsetia% and Pannonia% by the rivers Rhine and Danube ; from Sarmatia and Dacia, by mountains' and mutual dread. The rest is surrounded by an ocean, forming extensive bays, and including vast insular ' This Treatise was written in the year of Rome 851, and in tiiat from the birth of Christ 98; during the fourth consulate of the emperor Nerva, and the third of Trajan. * The Germany here meant is tliat beyond the Rhine. The Certnania Cisrhcnana, divided into the Upper and Lower, was a part of Gallia Belgica. ^ Raetia comprehended the country of the GrisonSf with part of Siiabiu and Bavaria. * Lower Hungary, and part of Austria. * The Crapack mountains In Upper Hungaryt B 2 ^IANNERS OF THE GERMANS. tracts", in which our military expeditions have lately discovered various nations and kingdoms ' . The Rhine, issuing from the inaccessible and precipitous summit of the Rffitic Alps % after a moderate flexure to the West, flows into the Northern Ocean. The Danube, poured from the easy and ;gentle elevation of the mountain Abnoba% '^ Scandinavia and J^ltiland, oi which the Romans liad a very slight knowledge, were supposed to be islands. ^ This circumstance is well illustrated by an inscrip- tion on a monument now extant at Ponle Lugano near Trivoli, of Plautjus .'Elianus, proprietor of ^laesia, who is mentioned as having " brought over and made tri- '-butary above 100,000 of the Transdanubians, with *"' tlieir wives, children, chiefe, and kings; impressed a ''.begin-ning revolt of the Sarmatians ; influenced cer- " tain kings, before unknown or hostile to the Roman " people, to adore the Roman standards on the bank "^ which he guarded ; restored to tlie kings of the *' Bastarna; and Rlioxolanl their sous, to those of the '^' Daclans their brothers, taken prisoners or carried off •" by iheir enemies; received hostages from others, by '" whose means he had secured and promoted the peace " of the province," s Ti;e mountains of tlie Grisojis. That in which the Rhine rises is at present called Vogelbei-g. 9 Now called Schwartz-icald, or the Black Forest. Count Marsili, in 1702, traced the origin of the Danube, i.which liad long been «nknowu, to this place. The MANNERS OF THE GERMANBv 3 •visits several nations in its course, till at Jength it disembogues by six channels into the Pontic Sea ' : a seventh is swallowed up in marshes. I should imagine that the people of Germany are indigenous", without having received any mixture from the emigrations or visits of foreigners '. \ For the emigrants lower part of the Danube was anciently called Tster ; which name, accordin;^ to Pliny, was applied to the river as soon as it reached Ulyricum. ' Now the Black Sea. A Jesiult, in a letter from Constantinople written in 1713, relates, that the current of the Danube, distinguished by its peculiar colour. Hows from the Black Sea quite to the Mediterranean, so that ships in entering the sea of Marmora from the Archipelago, have the full stream of the river against them. Something similar is mentioned by Plijiy, L. iv. 12. who says, that '^ each of the mouths of the *' Danube is so large, that the sea is overpowered by " the river for the space of forty miles, and tastes sweet." * The ancient writers called all nations indigenous, and as it were sprung from the earth, of whose origin they were ignorant. Increased knowledge, and pasLi- tt.iinly the more accurate investigation of different lan- guages, has taught the moderns better : and all the learned now agree, that the Germans are of Scythian derivation. 3 Tacitus himself, on the other hand, in this Trea- tise, mentions the d'auls, Gothini, and Osi as foreigners. The learned in Germany, however, suppose that llie n 2 4 MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. of former ages performed their expeditions not by land, but by water*; and that im- mense, and, if I may so call it, hostile ocean, israrely navigated by ships from eur-.vorld '. Then, besides the dangers of a boisterous and unknown seajfivho would relincjuish Asia, Africa, or Italy, to settle in Germany ; a land rude in its surlace, rigorous in its climate, cheerless to the beholder and cul- tivator, unless it were his native country ? In their ancient songs% which are their only records or annals, they celebrate the god Germans were by no means mixed with these visitors and emigrants, btjt always kept the natipnal rights Tvithin themselves, and considered the others only as a sort of alieus. ■* On the contrary, the first emigrations were by land ; andit was not till the arts had made considerable progress, that nations embarked in fleets in search of new settlements. * Drusus, father of the emperor Claudius, was tne first Roman general who navigated the German Ocean. The difficulties and dangers which Germanicus met vvith from the storms of this sea, are related in Tacitus's Annals, ii. 23. 6 All barbarous nations, in all ages, have applied verse to the same use, as is still found to be the case among the N. American Indians. Charlemagne, as ws are told by Eginhart, " wrote out and committed to memory barbarous verses of great antiquity, in which the acfions and wars of ancient kings were recorded," MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. 5 Tuisto % sprung from the earth, and his son Mannus, as the fathers and founders of their race. To Mannus they ascribe three sons, from whose names ' the people bor- dering on the ocean are called Ingcevones ; those inhabiting the central parts, Her- miones ; the rest, Istanones. Some % how- ever, assuming the licence of antiquity, atiirm, that there were more descendants of " 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 iniprobable. 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. ^ Conringius intrerprets the names of the sons of Mannus into Tngaff, Istitf, and Hermin. 5 Pliny, iv. 14. embraces a middle opinion between these, and mentions five capital tribes. TheVindili, to whom belong the Burgundicnes, Varini, Carini, and Guttones ; the Ingsevones, including the Cimbri,Teutoni, and Chauci ; the Isljevones, near the Rhine, part of whom are the midlai.d Cimbri ; the Hermiones, con- taining the Suevi, Hermuuduri, Catti, and Cherusci ; and the Peucini and Bastarnse, bordering \ipon the Dacians. 6 MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. the god, from whom more appellations were derived ; as those of the Marsi, Gam- brivii, Suevi, and Vandali ' ; and that these are the genuine and original names *. — That of Germany, on the other hand, they assert to be modern, and lately applied ' ; — for that those who first crossed the Rhine, and expelled the Gauls, and are now called Tungri, were then named Germans; Avhich appellation of a particular tribe, not of a »bole people, gradually prevailed ; so that the title of Germans, first assumed by the victors in order to excite terror, was after- ^ The Vindili of Piiny. These are they who carried terrar into Gaul, Spain, Africa, and Italy, and were at length cut off in Africa. Of the above names, that of the Suevi is the only one now remaining'. * That is, those of the Marsi, Garabrivii, &c. 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 Ingrevones aredie Innvohner, those dwelling inwards, towards the sea ; the Istaevones, die Vestvohner, the inhabitants of the western parts ; and the Hermiones, die Herrumvohncr, the midland inhabitants. ' 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 Insu- bres, and their allies the Germans, at Clastidium, now C'hiastezzo in the Milanese. MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. 7 wards adopted by the nation in general *. They have likewise the tradition of a IJer- cules ^ of their country ; whose praises they sing before those of all other heroes as they advance to battle. A peculiar kind of verses are also cur- rent among them, by the recital of which, termed barding^, they stimulate their * This is illustrated by a passage in Caesar, Bell. Call. ii. 4. where, after mentioning that several of the BelgoB were descended from the Germans who had for- merly crossed the Rhine and expelled the Gauls, he says, " the first of these emigrants were the Condriisii, Eburones, Coeresi, and Poeraani, who were called by the common name of Germans." The derivative of Ger- man is JVehr mann, a warrior, or mail 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. ' Almost every warlike nation has had its Hercules, or person famous for bodily strength and great exploits, of whom it has boasted. Some learned men, too, suppose, that the leaders of those Asiatic colonies which occupied the various countries of Europe, had all the common appellation of Hercules. * This term is supposed to be expressive of the bel- lowing of the stag, an animal familiar to the Geruiao 8 MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. courage ; Avbile the sound itself serves as an augury of the event of the impending combat. For according to the nature of the cry proceeding from the line, terror is inspired or felt: nor does it seem so much a musical exercise, as the chorus of valour. A harsh, piercing note, and a broken mur- mur, are chiefly effected ; wliich they render more full and sonorous by applying their mouths to their shields '. Some imagine and Gallic liunters. Hence is derived the word Bard, the niinstiels of those people, who recited their verses in a tone resembling that noise. These celebrated per- sonages are finely commemorated by Lucan, in the following passage. Vos quoque, qui fortes animas, belloque peremptos, Laudibus in longum vates dimittitis aevum, Plurima seturi fudistis carmina Bardi. Lib. i. 447. You too, ye Bards! whom sacred raptures fire, To chaunt your heroes to your country's lyre; Who consecrate, in your immortal strain, Brave patriot souls in righteous battle slain ; Securply now the tu.ief il task renew, And noblest themes in deathless bongs pursue. ROWE. The North American war-whoop appears to be very similar to tht ai.^iej» ('. mai. battle-cry. 7 In the foilovviu2f pHosago '>f the Life of Sir Ewen Cameron, Penr.crf's ''^'oir, 17C!}, /append, p. 363, is a very curious coincidence with the ancient German opinion concerning the prophetic nature of the war-cry MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. 9 that I'lysses, in the course of bis long and fabulous wanderings, was driven into this ocean, and landed in Germany ; and that Asciburgium % a place situated on the Rhine, and at this day inhabited, M'as founded by him, and named A^iwy^vto». They pretend that an altar was formerly discovered here, consecrated to Ulysses, Avith the name of his father Laertes sub- or song. At the battle of Killicrankie, just before the fight begun, " 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 oa " the right and left, run 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, ' (ientlemen, *• take courage, the day is our's : I am the oldest com- ** raander 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 our's was brisk, lively, and " strong, and shews we have vigour 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." * Now Asburg in the county oi Mcnrs, 10 xMANNERS OF THE GERMANS; joined ; and that certain monuments and tombs, insciilied with Greek characters % are still extant upon the 'I'onfines of Ger- many and Kti&tia. These allegations I shall neither attempt to confirm nor to refute : let every one believe concerning them as he is disposed. 1 concur in opinion with those who sup- pose the Germans never to have inter^ married with other nations ; but to be a people peculiar, unmixed, and resembling one another alone. Hence the same con- s>titution of body pervades the whole, though their numbers are so great: — fierce blue eyes ; ruddy hair ; large bodies ', powerful ia sudden exertions, but less firm under . 3 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 Csesar, used Greek letters. From thence they might easily pass by means of commercial intercourse to the neighbouring' Germans. Count Marsili and others have found monuments with Greek inscriptions in Germany, but not of so early an age. ' The large bodies of the Germ,ans 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, MANxNERS OF THE GERMANS. 11 toil and labour, least of all capable of sus- taining thirst and beat. Cold and hunger they are accustomed by their climate and j soil to endure. ^ The land, thongh somewhat varied in its aspect, is yet universally shagged ^ith forests, or deformed by marshes : moister on the side of Gaul, more exposed to wind on the side of Noricum and Pannonia '. It is sufficiently productive of grain, but unfavourable to fruit trees \ It abounds in flocks and lierds, but in general of a small breed. Even the beeve kind are des- titute of their usual starteliness and dignity of head \ They are, however, numerous, * Bavaria and Austria. ' The greater deg;ree of coid when the country vvas overspread with woods and marshes, made this obser- vation more applicable then, than at present. The same chani^e of temperature from clearing and draining str}% to dig and werk it. Besides, they made use of weapons of stone, great numbers of which are found in ancient tombs and bariows. ^ 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. * It appears, however, from Taciliis's Ammls, ii. 14. ihat the length of these sp«ars rendered them un- manageable in an engagemeut among trees and buslies. « Notwithstanding the manner of fighting is so much «hanged in modern timesj the arms of the ancients are :Still in use. We, as well as thej, have two kinds of £Woms, the sharp-poiHted, and edged f small sivord and sahrej. The bread lance subsists in tJie halberd ; the spear and J'raviea in the lovg pike and spontoon ; the missile weapons in tb.e war hatchet, or North American iQ»KiJ:av:k. There are, besides, found in the old Ger- nvau barrows, perforated stone balls, vhich the}' threw hj aieans fif thongs passed through them. AfANNERS OF THE GERMANS. 15 naked, or lightly covered with a sagum;- and haveno pride in eqaipage: theirshield^ only are ornamented with the choicest colours \ Few are furnished with a coat of mail * ; and scarcely here and there one with a casque or helmetj. Their horses are neither remarkable for beauty nor swiftness, and are not taught the various ' This decoration at first denoted the valour, after- wards the nobility of the bearer ; and in process of time gave origin to the ariaorial ensigns so famous in the ages of chivalry. The shields of the private men were simply coloured ; those of the chieftains had the figures of animals painted on them. ♦ Plutarsh, in his life of Marius, describes somewhat differei^tly the arms and equipage of the Cimbii. ♦' 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 car- " ried 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 Holsatiaji barrows of that age contain few weapons of brass, and none of iron ; but stone spear-heads, and instead of swords, the wedge-like bodies vulgarly called thunder- bolts. * Casques (cassis J are of metal ; helmets fgaleaj of kathcr, Isidorus. 16 MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. movements and rotations practised with us ^. The cavalry either bear down strait forwards, or wheel once to the right \ in so * The manner in which the Roman horses were trained and taught the manage, is most beautifully described by Vir»;i!, in his third Georgic, where the foliowing lines give a lively idea of the complex move- ments alluded to by Tacitus. Carpere mox gyrum inclpiat, gradibusque sonare Compositis, sinuetque alterna voluinina crurum, Sitque laboranti simiiis. L. 191. Teacli him to run the ring, with piide to prance; The plain in measured steps and time to beat, And in alternate paces shift his feet. Oft let him seem to spring with laboured might. Warton. In this last line the translator has not, I think, given an adequate interpretation of the "laboranti simiiis," which, probably, refers to the laborious pacing motian between the pillars, in which the horse is made to lift his legs with great effort. J. A. "^ Here is a difficulty which the commentators pass over without notice. That the cavalry should always wheel to the right is inconceivable, since in some po- sitions this would make thera present their rear, instead of their front, to (he enemy. Possibly, the phrase "dextros agunt" might be intended to signify the dex" terity with which they performed this single evolution ; since the compactness which they preserved in doiag^ it, is immediately remarked, J. A. BfANNERS OF THE GERMANSw 17 compact a body that none is left behind the rest. Their principal strength, on the whole, consists in their infantry : hence, in an engagement they are intermixed with the cavalry % with whom they are well qualified, from their agility, to act. For this purpose, a select body is drawn from the whole youth, and placed in the front of the Hne. The number of these is deter- mined ; a hundred from each canton ' ; and * This mode of fighting is admirably described by Caesar. " The Germans engaged after the following: " manner. There were 6000 horse, and an equal num- *' ber of the swiftest and bravest foot ; who were placed " 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 considera- " ble distance, such agility had they acquired by " exercise, that supporting themselves by the horses *' manes, they kept pace with them." Bell. Gall.i. 48» ' 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 fpagi in Latin) were called by themselves Goiccn. The districts or townships /^vici) were called Hunderte; whence the English i/ufl(/ref/5. The name c 3 18 MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. ibey are distinguished at home by a name expressive of this circumstance ; so that what at first was only an appellation of number, becomes thenceforth a title of honour. Their line of battle is disposed in wedges'. To give ground, provided they rally again, is considered rather as a prudent stratagem, than cowardice. They carry off their slain even in dubious fights. The greatest disgrace that can befal given to these select youth, according' to the learned Dithinar, 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 hy far the greatest *' and most warhke 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 neitlier the employments *' of agriculture, nor the use of arras are interrupted." Ue//. Gall. iv. 1. The warriors were summoned by the heribammm, or army-edict ; whence is derived the French arriere-ban. » 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 treak. the enemy's ranks, as all their weapons were directed to one spot, 'the soldiers called it a boars head», MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. 19 them is to have quitted their shields '. A person braride.l with this igii.inimy is not permitted to joiii in their reliu^ions rites, or enter their assemblies ; so that many, after escaping from battle, have put an end to their infamy by the halter. In the election of kings they have regard to birth ; in that of military commanders % to valour. Their kings have not an abso- * 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 COO denarii (about £9.) is imposed upon " every free-man who shall accuse another of throwing down his shield, and running away, without being able to prove it." 3 Vertot fMem. de V Acad, des Inscrip.) supposes that the French Maires du Palais had thtir origin from these German military leaders. If the kings were equally conspicuous for valour as for birth, they united the regal with the military command. Generally, however, several kings and generals were assembled in • their v,ar». In this rase the most eminent commanded and obtained a common jurisdiction in war, which did not subsist in time of peace. Thus Caesar fBell. 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 observ'ed in the electiou of kings. 2^0 MANNERS OF THE GERMANS, lute or unlimited power*; and their generals command less through the force of aulhority, than of example. If they are daring, adventurous, and conspicuous in action, they procure obedience from the admiration they inspire. None, however, but the priests * are permitted to chastise delinquents, to inflict bonds or stripes ; that it may appear not as a punishment, or in consequence of the general's order, but as the instij^ation of the god whom they suppose present with warriors. \ They also carry with them to battle, images and stawdards taken from the sacred groves ^ " Hence Ainbiorix, king of the Eburones, declared that " the nature of his authority was such, that the ** people had no less power over him, than he over the ** people." Cajsar Bell. Gall. v,.. The authority of the North American chiefs is almost exactly similar. ^ The power of life and death, however, was in the hands of ma?:istrates. Thus Csesar : " when a state " engages eitlur in an offensive or defensive war, magis- " trates are chosen to preside over it, and exercise ** power of life and death." BeU. Gall. vi. The in- fliction of pnijshnient^ was coaimitted io the priests, in order to p;ive ihtm uiore solemnity, and render them lees invidious. • ^ This was in order fuither to enforce the same idea MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. 21 It is a principal incentive to their courage» that their squadrons and battalions are not formed by men fortuitously collected, but by the assemblage of families and clans. Near them are ranged the dearest pledges of their aflection : so that they have within hearing the yells of their women, and the cries of their children. These, too, are the most respected witnesses, the m©st liberal applauders, of the conduct of each. To their mothers and wives thev brin^ their wounds ; and these are not shocked at counting, and even requiring^ them., They also carry food and encouragement * to those who are engaged. cf a divine presence. The Images were of wild beasts, the types and ensigns of their national religion (see Tacitus's Hist. iv. 22.) : the standards were such as had been taken from the ent my, and were hung up in their groves to the deity of the place. " Instead of the Latin word answering to this exv^erc^ some read exsugere, " to surk the wounds." 'i his, however, is an unauthorized reading, and less in the mannerof the author. The word " requiring" strongly expresses the savage fortitude of the German women, who would even receive their husbands and children with reproaches, if they left the field unwounded. • Cibos et hortamia : " Food and encouragement"—» 22 MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. Tradition relates, that armies beginning' to give way have been brought again to the charge by the women, through the earnestnessof iheirentreaties, the opposition €f their bodies ^, and the pictures they have •drawn of imn.inent slavery * ; a calamity Ti'hich these people bear with more im- patience on their women's account than their own ; so that those states who have been obliged to give among their hostages one of the points, frequently to be met with in Tacitus, like the " mountains and mutual dread" in the first sentence of this treatise.. Some annotators, not enter- ing iuto this mark of character in the historian's style, have interpreted hortamina " refreshments" ; and as food was before related, have supposed it to mean wine or ale. J. A. ' 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 men- tioned) ; and Dio relates, that when Marcus Aurjiius overthrew the Marcomanni, Quadi, and other German allies, the bodies of women in armour were found among the slain. ' Thus, in the army of Ariovistus, the women, witU their hair dishevelled, and weeping, besought the soi-- diers not to deliver them csptives to the Ropiirs^ Csesar, Bdl. Gall, i. MANNERS OF THE GERxMANS. 2S xhe daughters of noble families, are the most eifectiially engaged to fidelity * . 1 hey even suppose somewhat of sanctity and prescience to be inherent in the female sex ; and therefore neither despise their counsels % nor disregard their responses \- ' Relative to this, perhaps, is a circuraslance men- Jionedby Suetonius iii his hfe of Augustus. " From some nations he attempted to exact a new kind of hostages, women ; because he observed thai those of the male sex were disregarded." Aug. xxi. ' See the same observations with regard to the Celtic "women, in Plutarch on the virtues of women. The North Americans pay a similar rejjard to their females. ■• 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, whe- ther or no a battle will be favourable, had declared that they would not prove victorious, if they should fight before the new juoon." Bell. Call. 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 *' grey-haired prophetesses, in white vestments, with *' canvas mantles fastened by clasps, a brazen girdle, ^' and naked feet. These go with drawn swords tii rough *' the camp, and striking down those of the prisoners ■*' that they meet, drag them to a brazen kettle, holding 24 MANx\ERS OF THE GERMANS. We have beheld, in the reign of Vespasian,, Veleda * long reverenced by many as a deity. They formerly also venerated Aurinia, and several others ; bnt without adulation, or as if they intended to make them goddesses ^. Of the gods, Mercury is the principal object of their adoration ^ ; whom, on *' about twenty aniphoroe. 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 fiom inspection of the entrails, *' presage victory to their own party." Lib. vii. * She was afterwards taken prisoner by Rutilius Gallicus. Stalius in his Sylvte, i. 4. refers to this event. Tacitus has more concerning her in his HiS' tory, iv. 61. •> Because at that period, the superstition which made deities oi them, did not prevail. Thus Tacitus in his account of Veleda — *' according to the ancient *' custom of the Germans, which attributed a prophetic •' character to many of their women, and as superstition " advanced, regarded them as divinilies." Hist. iv. 61. They were altt-rvvards so immoderately addicted to this opinion, that, among the monuments of German anti- quity, altars and inscriptions occur, to, the matrons of the Suevi, Treveri, Aufani, &c. ' Tacitus here seems to disagree with Csesar, who iMANNERS OF THE GERMANS. 25 certain days, they think it lawful to pro- pitiate even with human victims. To says, " They reckon those alone in the number of gods " which are the objects of their perception, and by *' whose attributes they are visibly benefited ; as the *' Sun, the Moon, and Vulcan. The rest they have not *' even heard of." Bell. Gall. vii. If the different periods, however, are considered, there will not be the least disagreement between the two authors. In the time of Ceesar, the Germans had those deities which are common to almost all uncivilized nations, the Sun, the Moon, and Vulcan, or Fire ; which, whether elicited from flint — excited by the violent attrition of two pieces of wood, as at this day practised by the American sa- vages — felt in thermal waters — or seen amidst the roar of thunders in lightning — was equally the object of their admiration and reverence. Afterwards, by their con- nection with the Gauls and Romans, they received Mercury, Mars, and Hercules, the worship of whom prevailed in the age of Tacitus. In process of time, Neptune, and the rest of the heathen deities, arrived in Germany. With respect to Mercury, the Germans wor- shipped him on the same accounts as the Gauls are said to do by Caesar. " Among the gods, they principally " adore IMercury, of whom the most images are to be *' seen. Him they regard as the inventor of all arts; " the patron of roads and journeys; and the most potent " in bestowing gain of money or merchandize." Bell. Gall. vi. Hence, when in ancient times there was great commercial intercourse at the Aquee Helvetiae, now called Baden, and this was the road into Helvetia, Mer- D 2d MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. Hercules and Mars they offer the animals usually allotted for sacrifice * ; and some of the Suevi also perform sacred rites to Isis °. cury was worshipped there with peculiar reverence, in a neighbouring mountain and wood. ^ It is probable that human sacrifices were also occa- sionally offr;red to these. With respect to Mars, the fact is undoubted, at least in time of war. Thus, in the Annals, xiii. 57. Tacitus relates that the Catti " de- *' voted the opposite army to Mars and Mercury; in •' consequence of which vow, men, horses, and every *' thine: belonging to the vanquished, are given up to *' utter destruction." Procopius, also, in his Gothic War, B. ii- mentions instances of men being sacrificed to Mars. As the Germans were of Scytliian origin, they retained much of the religion of their Scythian ancestors, concerning which see Herodotus, iv. 59, &c. Lucan, enumerating the Gallic nations who followed Caesar, speaks of those quibus inimitis placatur sanguine diro Teutates, horrensque fcris altaribus Hesus. Et Taranis Scytliicae noa mitior ara Diana;. Lib. i. 444. -where Hrcsus' horrid altar stands, Where dire Tentates human blood demands; Where Taranis by wretches is obey'd, And vies in slaughter with the Scythian Maid. ROWE. 9 The religious rites of iEgypt spread over Europe and Asia. Inscriptions have been found in Germany, not only to Isis, but to Serapis ; and the learned Schoepflin, in his Alsatia Illustrata, exhibits various MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. 27 "What uas the cause and origin of this fo- reign worship, 1 have i>ot been able to discover ; iurtlier than that her being re- presented by the figure of a galley, seems to indicate a religion brought from abroad ' . They conceive it unworthy the grandeur of celestial beings to confine their deities -vvithin walls, or to represent them under a human similitude ' : woods and groves are ether remains of , Egyptian superstition among the Ger- mans. The representation of Isis under the figure of a galley is illustrated by Muratori, in his Thesaur. Inscripi. Tom. i. p. 25; where the goddess Clathra, who is the same with Isis, i-s exhibited, holding in her right hand a sistrum and serpent ; in her left, an instru- ment to measure the rise of the Nile ; with a caluthus upon her head ; and a galley in the back ground. As the Germans did not represent their deities under human forms, the Suevi worshipped Isis in the figure of a galley ; for that they, who inhabited the banks of the Elbe and Danube, should borrow from merchants, or the Romans, the worship of this patron-deity of navi- gators, is not at all wonderful. ' As the Romans in their ancient coins,, many of which are now extant, recorded the arrival of Saturn by tlie stern of a ship ; so other nations have frequently de- note'd the importation of a foreign religious rite by the figure of a galley on their medals. ' They afterwards changed their opinions in this re- spect, and erected temples and statues to their deities» 28 MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. their temples ; * and they affix names of divinity to that secret power, * which they behold with the eye of adoration alone. No people are more addicted to the In a coin of Posthuraus, a temple is represented, in the vestibule of which Hercules is placed, with the inscrip- tion, *' To the Deusonensian Hercules." Deusone is beyond the Rhine. The temple of Tanfana is mentioned even by Tacitus, Annul, i. 51. 3 Several of these sacred groves are mentioned in different parts of Tacitus. Claudian, in his praises of Stilicho, mentions the forests being freed from barharoua superstitions, and restored to pleasure and utility. Ut procul Hcrcyniae per vasta silentia syivae Venari tuto liceat, lucosque vctusta Relligione truces, et robora numinis instar Earbarici, nostrae feriant inapune secures. I. 228. Throug^h the deep silence of Hereynian wilds Safe roams the hunter; and the gloomy groves, Horrid with antique rites; and frowning oaks, Gods of the forest, by our daring steel Fall unreveng'd. •* Seneca, in his 41st epistle, thus expresses this idea» *' If you walk in a grove, thick-planted with ancietit " trees of unusual growth, the interwoven boughs of *' which exclude the light of heaven; the vast height of *' the wood, the retired secrecy of the place, the deep *' unbroken gloom of shade, impress your mind with the *' conviction of a present deity." Pliny (xii. 1.) briefly observes, " Groves, and the very stillness which reigas *' in them, are objects of our adoration." MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. 29 methods of divining' by omens and jot.g. The latter is performed in the following- simple manner. They cut a t-wig ' from a fruit-tree, and divide it into siiiall piece», which, distinguished by certaiiv marks, are tlirown promiscuously upon a white gar- ment. Then, the priest of the state, if the occasion be public ; if private, the master of the family ; after an invocation of the gods, with his^ eyes- lifted up to heaven> thrice takes out each piece, and, as they come up, interprets their signification ac- cording to the marks fixed upon them. If they prove unfavourable, they are no more consulted on the same aftair that day: if propitious, a confirmation by omens is still required. In common with other nations, ^ The Scythians' are mentioned by Herodotus, and the Alans by Ammianus Marcellinus, as making use of these divining rods. The German jMethod of divination with them is illustrated by what is said by Saxo- Grammaticus fllist. 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 bosoms, they foretold " good fortune by the comiag up of the Nvhite ; bad, by " that of the black." c3 30 MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. the Germans are acquainted with the prac- tice of auguring from the voices and flight of birds ; but it is peculiar to them also to derive admonitions and presages from horses^. Certain of these animals, milk- white, and untouched by earthly labour, are pastured at the public expence in the sacred woods and groves. These, yoked to a consecrated chariot, are accompanied by the priest, and king, or chief person of the community, who attentively observe their manner of neighing and snorting ; and no kind of augury is more credited, not only among the populace, but the nobles and priests. For they consider themselves [during this ceremony] as the ministers of the gods ; and the horses, as conscious to ^ The Persians had also this practice, as appears from Herodotus. 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 als^o took auspices from a Vifhite horse, as may be seen in Saxo-Grammaticus. MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. 31 the divine will. Another kind of divination by which they explore the event of momen- tous Avars, is to oblige a prisoner, taken by any means whatsoever from the nation with whom they are at variance, to fight with a picked man of their own, each with his own country arms ; and, according- as the victory falls, they presage success to one or the other party ^ . On affairs of smaller moment, the chiefs consult ; on those of greater importance, the whole community ; yet with this cir- cumstance, that what is referred to the decision of the people, is maturely discussed by the chiefs \ They assemble, unless upon some sudden emergency, upon stated days, either at the full or change of the ^ Hence dnelling, that monument of ferocity and superstition, was long considered as an appeal to the judgment of Heaven. « This remarkable passage, so curious in political history, is commented en 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. 82 MANNERS OF THE GERMANS, moon, which Ihey account the most aus- ])icions season for beginning any enter- prize '. Nor do they, in their computation of time, reckon, like us,^ by the number of days, but of nights. In this form all their resolutions and summonses run ; so that M'ith them, the night seems to lead the day '. An inconvenience produced by their liberty is, that they do not all assemble punc- tually to the same time, as if it were in obedience to a command ; but two or three s No superstition was more ancient and widely dif- fused, than the notion of lunar influence over human affairs ; which, in this age of light and knowledge, is not totally eradicated. The extravagant powers attri- buted to the moon may be seen in Pliny's Nat. Hist- ii. 99. 1 The high antiquity of this mode 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 accordiKg to the number of nights, not *' of days ; and observe birth-days and the beginning of *' months and years in such a manner, that the day «' seems to follow the night." Beil. Gall. vi. 18. The vestiges of this method of computation still appear in Che English language, iu the terms se'nnight and fortnight. MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. 33 days are lost in the delays of convening. When the number appears sufficient,- they sit down armed \ Silence is proclaimed by the priests, who have also on this occa- sion a coercive power. Then the king, or chief, with such as are conspicuous forage, birth, military renown, or eloquence % are heard ; and gain attention rather from their ability to persuade, than their authority to command. If a proposal displease, the assembly reject it by an inarticulate mur- mur ; if it prove agreeable, they clash their javelins * : for the most honourable ex- pression of assent among them is the sound of arms. * And in an open plain. Vast beaps of stone slill remaining', denote the scenes of these national councils. See Mallet's Introdnct. to Hist, of Denmark. The English Stunthenge has been supposed a relick 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 Christ- mas and Easter ; and lastly, the States General. ' The power of eloquence is great among all unci- vilized people. Remarkable instances of it occur among the North American savages. * The speech of Civilis was received with this ex- pression of applause. Tacitus Hist. iv. 15, 34 MANNERS' OF THE GERMANS'. Before this council, it is likewise allowed to present accusations, and to prosecute capital offences. Punishments are varied according to the nature of the crime. Traitors ^ and deserters are hung upon trees ^: cowards, effeminate persons ', and * Thus TassilOj Duke of Bavaria, being convicted of (reachery, was condemned to death by the Franks» Bavarians, Lombards, Saxons, and others assembled iu council ; but through the clemency of Charlemagne, his head was shaved, and he was thrown in a monastery. Eccard, De rebus Francice Orientalis, Tom. i. p. 725. * Gibbeted alive. Heavy penalties were denounced against those who should take them down, alive or dead. These are particularized in the Salic law. ^" It has been seen before, p. 19. that cowardly and effeminate persons were suffered to live, though with merited ignominy. Who then are they whose cowardice is made a capital crime? Probably those who having given their names to the military levies, refused to go to war. Caesar {Belt. 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, pre- served 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 gf cowardice, treachery, and desertiou MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. 35 t^iose guilty of unnatural practices % are suffocated in mud mider a hurdle. This difference of punishment has in view the principle, that villainy should be ex- posed M'hile it is punished, but turpitude concealed. The penalties annexed to slighter offences ", are alio proportioned to the delinquency. The culprits are fined in horses and cattle ' : part of the were so odious and ignominious among the GermaBs, we find by the Salic law ihat penalties were annexed to the unjust imputation of them. ' These were so rare and so infamous among the Germans, that barely calling a person by a name signi- ficant of them was severely punished. " 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. ' These were at that time the only riches of the country, as was already observed in this treatise. After- wards gold and f.ilver became plentiful : hence all the midcts required by the Salic law are pecuniary. Money, however, still bore a fixed proportion to cattle ; as ap- pears 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 Iamb ; the *' other, three tremisses, or a bceve of sixteen months. 36 MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. mulct' goes to the king or state ; part to the injured person, or his relations. In the same assemblies chiefs ' are also elected, to ad- minister justice through the cantons and ■*' Homicide is compmuuled for by the lesser solidus ; " other crimes by the greater." * 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. ^ A brief account of the civil oeconomy of the Ger- mans 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 af- fairs were under the conduct of the generals. The nations were divided into cantons ; each of which was superintended by a chief, or corint, who administered justice in it. The cantons were divided into districts or hundreds, so called because they contain a hundred vills or toicnships. Tn 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 honour were, Csesar, the Legatus or Lieutenant of Caesar, and his iiomites, 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. MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. 37 districts. A hundred companions chosen from the people attend upon each of them, to assist them as well with their advice as their authority. Every affair, both public and private, is transacted by them armed * : but it is not customary for any person to assume arms till the state has approved his ability to use them. Then, in the midst of the assembly, either one of the chiefs, or the father, or a relation, equips the youth with a shield and javelin \ These are to them ■• Even judges were armed on the seat of justice. All the people of German origin still retain the custom of wearing swords as a part of their dress, when they ap- pear in public. The Romans, on the contrary, never went armed but when actually engaged in military service. ' 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 Gepidi, 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 custo- " mary with iis for a king's son to dine with his father, *' until he has received arms from the king of another " country." \yarnefrid, JDe gestis Langohavdorufny i. 23. £ 38 MAN1VERS OF THE GERMAT^S. ilie manly gown ^ ; this is the first honour conferred on youth : before this period they ai^ considered as part of a private family ; afterwards, of the state. The dignity of chieftain is bestowed even on youths, where tlieir descent is eminently illustrious, or tiieir fathers have performed signal services t© the public. The rest are associated with those of mature strength and approved va- lour ; nor is it disgraceful to be seen in the onk of companions \ For the state of ° An allusion to the toga virilis of the Romans. Tlie derman youth were presented with the shield and spear probably at twelve or fifteen years of age. This early initiation into the business of arms, g^ve them that warlike character for which they were so celebrated. Thus, Seneca {Epist. 4G.) says, " A native of Ger- ".mai>y 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 Ihey provide no covering for their bodies, no ■^^ retreat agains.t the perpetual severity of the climate." ^ The German word Gescll is peculiarly appropriated to these comrades in arms. So highly were they es- iteemed in Germany, that for killing or hurting them a i&ae was exacted treble to that for other freemen. 3IANNERS OF THE GERMANS. 39 companionship itself has its several degree?, determined by the judgment of the patron ; and there is a great emulation among the companions, which shall possess the highest place in the favour of their chief; and among the chiefs, which shall excel in the number and valour of their companions; It is their dignit}, their strength, to be abvays surrounded v>\\h. a large body of select youth, their ornament in peace, their defence in war. Nor at home alone, but among' the neighbouring? states, their fame and glory depend upon exceeding others in the number and bravery of their companions. Such are courted by embas- sies ; distinguished by presents ; and ofter* by their reputation alone decide a war. In the field of battle, it is disgraceful for the chief to be surpassed in valour ; it is disgraceful for the companions not to equal their chief; but it is reproach and infamy during a whole succeeding life to retreat from the field surviving him *. To aid, to * Hentfe, when Gbonodomarns, king of the ^la- nianni, was taken prisoner by the Romans, " his com- "^panions, two hundred in number, and three friends " pecuharJy attached to him, thinking it infamous to e2 * 40 MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. protect him ; to place their own gallant actions to the account of his glory ; is their first and most sacred engagement. The chiefs fight for victory ; the companions for their chief. If their native country be long sunk in peace and inaction, many of the young nobles repair to some other state, then engaged in war. For, besides that repose is ungrateful to their dispositions, and toils and perils afford them a better opportunity of distinguishing themselves ; they are unable, without war and violence, to maintain a large train of followers. The companion requires from the liberality of his chief, the warlike steed, the bloody and conquering spear r and in place of pay, he expects to be supplied with a table, homely indeed, but plentiful \ The funds " survive their prince, or not to die for him, surren- *' dered themselves to be put in bonds." Ammianus Marcellinus. 9 From hence Montesquieu f 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 ^ejs. Hence the establishment of the feudal system. MA NITERS OF THE GERMANS. 41 for this munificence must be in war and rapine ; nor are tliey so easily persuaded to cultivate the earth, and await the pro- duce of the seasons, as to challenge the foe, and hazard wounds ; for they think it base and spiritless to earn by sweat, what they might purchase with blood. During the intervals of war, they pass their time less in hunting than in indolent repose ' ; given up to sleep and repasts. All the bravest of the warriors, committing the care of the house, the family atTairs, and the lands, to the women, old men, and weaker part of the domestics, stupify them- selves in inaction : so wonderful a contrast prevails in their nature, that they at the same time should thus love indolence, and ' Csesar with less precision, says, *' The Germans ** pass their whole lives in hunting and military ex- " ercises." Bell, Gall, v'u 21. The picture drawn by Tacitus is more consonant to the genius of a barbarous people ; besides that, banting- being- the employment but of a few months of the year, a greater part must necessarily be passed in indolence by those who ha *' even in the depth of winter." 46 MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. thorn. With no other covering, they pass- whole days on the hearth, before the fire. The more wealthy are distinguished by a vest, not flowing loose, like those of the Sarmatians and Parthians * but girt close, and exhibiting the shape of every limb. They also wear the skins of beasts, which the people near the borders are less curious in selecting or preparing than the more remote inhabitants, who cannot by com- merce procure other clothing. These make choice of particular furs, which they variegate with spots, and pieces of the skins of marine animals % the produce of theexte- * This flowing habit of the Sarmatiins aud Parthians is expressed in many ancient coins. It was imitated by the Cisrhenane Vangiones, as appears from Lucan, i. 430. Et qui tc laxis imitantur, Sarinata, bracQis, Vangiones. Aangiones, like loose Sarmatians drest. Who with rough hides their brawny thighs invest. ROWE. ^ All savages are fond of variety of colours; 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 willt IHANNERS OF THE GERMANS. ^ rior ocean, and seas to us unknown '. 'J'he dress of the women does not differ from that of the men ; except that they more frequently wear linen % which they stain with purple °; and do not lengthen their upper garment into sleeves, but leave ex- posed the whole arm, and part of tl>e breast. Thematriraonialbond isneverthelessstrict and severe among tkem ; nor are their man- ners in any respect moredeservingof praise'. Almost singly among the barbariai^s % regard to the ermine, wliich is spotted with black lamb's-skin. " The Northern Sea and Frazen Ocean. " Pliny testifies the same thing ; and adds that " the ' vomen beyond the Rhine are not acquainted with aey ■ more elegant kip.d of clothing." xix. 1. '■> 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 die for the garments of the slaves, xvi. 18. ' 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 licen- tiousness of the Romans in the decline of the empire; and IS exhibited in this light by Salvian, in bis treatise De Gubcrnatione Dei, L. vii. • The Hurons in North America are said by Charle- 'voix to afford the same example of continence. 48 MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. they content themselves with one wife ; a very few of them excejDted, who not through incontinence, but because their alliance is solicited on account of their rank % practise polygamy. The wife does not bring a dowry to her husband, but receives one from him \ The parents and relations interpose, and pass their approbation on the presents — presents not adapted to please a female taste, or decorate the bride ; but a yoke of oxen, a caparisoned steed, a shield, spear, and sword. By virtue of these, the wife is espoused ; who on her part also makes a present of armour to her 3 Thus we find in Csesar [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. * The Germans purchased their wives, as appears from the following clauses in the Saxon law concerning iuarrmge. " A person who espouses a wife shall pay- to her parents 300 solidi (about £180. 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 !ier parents." MANxNERS OF THE GERMANS. 49 iiusband. This they consider as the firmest bond of union ; these, the sacred mysteries, the conjugal deities. That the woman may not think herself excused from exer- tions of fortitude, or exempt from the casualties of war, she is admonished by the very ceremonial of her marriage, that she comes to her husband as a partner in toils and dangers ; an equal both to sufier and to dare, in peace and in war : this is indicated by the yoked oxen, the harnessed steed, the offered arms. Thus she is to live ; thus to die. She receives what she is to return inviolate "" and merited to her children ; what her daughters-in-law are to receive, and again transmit to her grand- children. They live, therefore, in a state of well- ^larded chastity ; corrupted by no seducing spectacles % no convivial incitements. Men ' 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." *^ Seneca speaks with great force and warmth on tiiis subject. ♦' Nothing is so destructive to morals as loiter- F $0 MANNERS GF THE GERMANS. and women are alike ignorant of the secret methods of corresponding by letters". Adultery is extremely rare among so nu- merous a people. Its punishment is instant, and at the pleasure of the husband *. He *' ing at public entertainments ; for vice more easily *' insinuates itself into the heart when softened by plea- ** sure. What shall I say ! — I return from them more ** covetous, ambitious, and luxurious." Epist. vii. 7 The Latin is, simply, literarum secreta, " the *' secrets of letters." But the Germans were acquainted with the use of letters, as appears from the epistles of Maroboduus and Agandestrius in Tacitus's Annals, \u 63. and SS. The arts of stolen correspomlence by the secret conveyance of love-letters, may therefore be here meant It may be observed, however, that the know- ledge of letters was extremely rare among this rude and ^vavlike people ; and remained so, even among thos€ of 4li€ highest rank, for many ages, in all the nations of German origin. s Thus in the law of the Visigoths it is provided, that, ** If a woman commit adultery, and be not taken in the ^' fact, her husband shall accuse her before the judge, *' by competent evidence. And if her crime appear *' manifest, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall ** be delivered to the husband, to do with them what he *' shall think fit." Also, " If an adulterer and adulteress ** be put to death by the husband or person to whom ^ the woman is betrothed, he shall not be held guilty ** -of homicide.." The Burgundiau law is somewhat MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. 51 cuts off the hair ' of the offender, strips her, and in presence of her relations expels her from his house, and pursues her with stripes through the w hole Tillage ' . Nor different. " If a husband detect his wife in adultery, " he may put to death both the adulterer and adulteress» " But it is to be observed that he must kill both ; other- *' wise, if he kill but one, he shall pay that compensation " which the preceding laws have established." The design of this rule stems to have been, to prevent a murder from any other cause of quarrel being attributed to this. « 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. ' From an epistle of St. Boniface, Archbishop of Meutz, 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 polluteherfalher's honse, " or a married woman prove false to her vows, some- " times she is forced to put an end to her own life by the *' halter, and over the ashes of her burned body her se- " ducer is hanged ; sometimes a troop of females assem- " bling 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 tormentors, who in their " zeal for chastity do not quit her till she is dead, or r 2 52 MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. is any indulgence shewn to a prostitute. Neither beauty, youth, nor riches, can procure her a husband : for none there looks on vice with a smile, nor calls mutual t«eduction the way of the world. Still more exemplary is the practice of those states ' in which none but virgins marry, and the expectations and wishes of a wife are at once brought to a period. Thus they take one husband as one body and one life ; that no thought, no desire, may reach beyond him ; and he may be loved not only as their husband, but as their marriage ^ . To limit " scarcely alive, in order to inspire a dread of such of- *' fences." See Michael Alford's Annales EcclesicB Anglo-Saxon, and Eccard. * 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 hence- " forth 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. No. 3. 3 Some nations carried this idea so far, that the wife refused to survive her husband, but killed herself in order to be burnt on the same funeral pyre with him. St. Boniface, in the epistle above-cited, relates this of MANNERS OF THE GERIVIANS. 53 the increase of children % or put to death any of the husband's blood \ is accounted infamous : and virtuous manners have there more efficacy than good laws else- where ^ the Winedi ; and Procopius of the Heruli, Some of the Ea&t-lndian tribes, it is well known, practise the same to this day. * 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. ' *' Quenquam ex Agnatis.'^ The Adgnati were those who by a relationship on the father's side became part of the famil3% Thus, among the Romans, adoption is said to confer not the right of blood, but of agnation. •^ Justin has a similar thought concerning the Scy- thians. *' 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 pre- venting enormities among the Romans, appears from the frequent complaints of the Senators, and particu- - larly 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, ch. 30. So familiar was this practice grown at Rome, that the virtuous Pliny apologizes for it, alledging that '« the great fertility of t 3 54 MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. In all their houses they grow up in nakedness ^ and filth to that bulk of body and limb which we behold with wonder. Every mother suckles her own children, and does not deliver them into the hands of servants and nurses. The master and slave are not to be distinguished by any delicacy in bringing up. They lie to- gether amidst the same cattle, upon the same ground, till age ' separates, and va- " some women may require such a licence." xxix. 4,- sect. 37. " Thus Mela, iii. 3. " They go naked in the greatest " cold before they arrive at puberty ; and the periot? " of childhood among them is of long duration." *> 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, /red, or a mulct, shall not be " required of him." Afterwards the term was fifteerv 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 chuse 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 armour was used, was stilJ longer delayed. MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. 55 lour ■* marks out, the free-born. IMie youths partake late of venereal pleasures', and hence pass the age of puberty unexhausted : nor are the virgins brought forward ; the same maturity, the same full growth, i^ required : the sexes unite equally matched % and robust ; and the children inherit the vigour of their parents. Children are regarded with equal afteclion by their ^ In like manner, king Theodoric, in Cassiodorus, (Vuriaruvi, Ep. i. 38.) determines the age of majority by military virtue. •' It is an indignity that those of " our youth who are approved as fit to serve in the " army, should be called incapable of regulating their " own lives ; and should be thought unable to goverrv " their families, and yet qualified for the business " of war. Among the Goths, valour constitutes " legitimacy of age ; and he who has strength to pierce " his foe, ought to repress the attack of every vice." ■ 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 know- " ledge of the other sex before twenty years of age, is " accounted in the highest degree scandalous." - Equal not only in age and constitution, but in condition. Many of the German codes of law anncN: penalties to those of both sexes, who raajry persoiis of inferioy rank. 56 MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. maternal uncles ' as by their fathers : some even consider this as the more sacred bond of consanguiniry, and prefer it in the re- quisition of hostages, as it it held the mind by a firmer tye, and the family by a more extensive obligation. A person*s own children, however, are his heirs and suc- cessors ; and no wills are made. If there are no children, the next in order of in- heritance are brothers, paternal and ma- ternal uncles *. The more numerous are 3 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. * The following rules of succession are established by the Salic law. I. " If a person die and leave no children, his father and mother, if living, inherit. n. " If he have no father or mother, his brothers and sisters succeed. III. " In default of these, the mother's sister inherits. IV. " And next to her, the father's sister, V. " After these, their issue in like manner, the next of kin of the paternal line inheriting. VI. " But of the Salic land, no part of the inheritance descends to females, but it belongs to the male sex J that is, the sons succeed to it. When, MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. 57 a man's relations and kinsmen, the more comfortable is his old age ; nor is it any advantage to be childless \ Every one is obliged to adopt the enmi- ties'' of his father or relations, as well as their friendships: these, however, are not however, a controversy arises among' grandchildren or great-grandchildren, after a long period, con- cerning the allodial property of the lan(?, it is divided not according to stocks, but numbers of individuals." To understand this last rule, it is to be observed, as the learned Eccard remarks, that at this remote period the Germans had each their house, called Sal, with a space about it, called Salbuck, the Homestead. This ground, together with the house, was the Seliland, or Salic land, which appertained to the male issue exclu- sively ; a regulation not unreasonable, as the daughters by marriage were transferred to another house and Salic land. ^ The court paid at Rome to rich persons without children, by the Hceredipctce, or legacy-hunters, is a fiequent subject of censure and ridicule with the Ro- man writers. ^ 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 unwor- " thiness are deprived of their inheritance," it is pro- nounced that " such heirs as are proved to have neglected " revenging the testator's death, shall be obliged to " restore the entire profits." 58 MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. irreconcileable or perpetual ; for even ho- micide is atoned^ by a certain fine in cattle and sheep ; and the whole house accepts the satisfaction — an accommodation useful to the public, since quarrels are most dan- gerous in a state of liberty. No people are more addicted to social entertainments, or more liberal in the exercise of hospi- tality ^ To refuse any human creature admittance under their roof, is accounted flagitious ^ Every one according to his ^ It was a wise provision that among this fierce and warlike people revenge should be commuted for a pay- ment. That this intention might not be frustrated by the poverty of the offender, his whale family were con- jointly bound to make compensation. In some of the North American tribes, the village to which the mur- derer belongs is laid under this obligation. ^ All uncivilized nations agree in this property, which becomes less necessary as a nation improves in the arts of civil life. 9 Thus Caesar, Bell. Gall. vi. 23. *' 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 every where 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 MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. 59 ability feasts his guest ; when his provisions are exhausted, he who was late the liost, is now the guide and companion to anotlier hbspitable board. They enter the next house uninvited, and are received with equal cordiality. No difference is made, with respect to the rights of hospitality, between a stranger and an acquaintance. On the departure of the guest, it is customary to present him with whatever he may ask for ; and with the same freedom a boon is desired in return. They are pleased with presents ; but think no obligation incurred either when they give or receive '. " [Their manner of living with their guests is easy and affi^ble,] As soon as " law lays a fine of three solidi on every man who refuses " his roof or hearth to the coming guest." The Sahc law, however, rightly forbids the exercise of hospitality to atrocious criminals ; laying a penalty on the person who shall harbour one who has dug up or despoiled the dead, till he has made satisfaction to the relations. ' This is a striking picture of the manners of savao-es. Their only wish, their only concern, is Freedom, • The clause here put within hooks is propably mis- placed ; since it does not connect well either with what, ^oes before, or what follows. J. A. 60 MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. they arise from sleep, w/iich they generally protract till late in the day, they bathe, usually in warm water % as cold weather chiefly prevails there. After bathing they sit down to meat, each on a distinct seat, and at a separate table '. Then they pro- ceed, armed, to business ; and not less fre- quently to entertainments; where it is no disgrace to pass days and nights, without intermission, in drinking. The frequent quarrels that arise amongst them when intoxicated, terminate not so often in abusive language, as in blood and slaugh- ter *. In their feasts, they generally de- 3 The Russians are at present tlie most remarkable among the northern nations for the use of warm bathing. Some of the North American tribes also have their hypocausts, or stoves. * Eating at separate tables is generally an indication of voracity in feeding. Traces of it may be found in Homer, and other writers who have described ancient manners. The same practice has lately been observed among the people of Otaheite ; who occasionally devour vast quantities of food. * The following article in the Salic law shews at .once the frequency of these bloody quarrels, and the laudable endeavours of the legislature to restrain thero. " If at a feast where there are four or five men iu MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. 61 liberate on the reconcilement of enemies, on family alliances, on the appointment of chiefs, and finally on peace and war ; cooceivino' that at no time the soul is more opened to sincerity, or warmed to heroism. These people, naturally void of artifice or disguise, disclose the most secret emotions of their hearts in the freedom of festivity. The minds ot all being thus displayed without reserve, the subjects of their de- liberation are again canvassed the next day'; and each time has its advantages. They consult when unable to dissemble ; they determine when not liable to mistake. Their drink is a liquor prepared from barley or wheat ' corrupted into a certain «' company, one of them be killed, tiie 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 entertain- ♦' ment." '' The same custom is related by Herodotus, i. p. 03. as prevailing among" the Persians. " Of this liquor, Beer or Ale, Pliny speaks in (he 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 G 62 aiA'NNERS OF THE GERMANS. resemblance of wine. Those who border on the Rhine also purchase wine. Their food is simple ; wild fruits, fresh venison% or coagulated milk ^ They satisfy hun- *' woi'ld ; for tliese 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. ^ Mela says, " Tiieir manner of living is so rude " and savage, that they eat even raw flesh ; either fresh " killed, or softene;! by working with their hands and " feet, after it has grown stiff in the hides of tame or " wild animals." iii- -l. Floris relates that the fero- city of the Cimbri was mitigated by their feeding on bread and dressed meat, and drinking wine, in the softest tract of Italy, iii. 3. ° This must not be understood to have been cheese ; although Csesar 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, ^nd is used as an unguent by all the barbarians, ^' and by us for children." xi. 41. MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. 63 ger without regard to the elegancies and delicacies of the table. In quenching their thirst they are not equally temperate. If their propensity to drunkenness ' be gratified by supplying them as plentifully as they choose, they may be subdued by their vices as easily as by arms *. They have only one kind of public spectacle, which is exhibited in every company. Young men, who make it their diversion, dance naked amidst drawn swords and presented spears. Practice has conferred skill at this exercise, and skill has given grace ; but they do not exhibit for hire or gain ; the only reward of this pastime, though a hazardous one, is the pleasure of the spectators. What is extraordinary, they play at dice, when ' Dninkenaess is a vice coinniou to ail tincivilizLtl nations, and irremediable. Janus Taddeus, as a com- mentary upon this passage ol Tacitus, wrote a treatise on the love of drinking among the ancient Germans ; in which he does not so much clear them from tho" charge, as extend it to other nations. ^ This policy has been practised by the Europeans with regard to the North American savages, soino tribes of which have been almost totally extirpated, bv it. g2 64 MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. sober, as a serious business ; and that with such a desperate venture of gain or loss, that, when every thing else is gone, they set their liberties and persons on the last throw. The loser goes into voluntary servitude ; and though the youngest and strongest, patiently suffers himself to be bound and sold \ Such is their stedfast- ^ 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 other's 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 ardour, 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 MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. 65 ness in a bad practice — They themselves call it honour. The slaves thus acquired are exchanged away in commerce, that the Minner may get rid of the scandal of Ijis victory. The rest of their S'laves have not, like our's, particular employments in the family allotted them. Each is the master of a habitation and household of his own. The lord requires from him a certain quantity of grain, cattle, or cloth, as from a tenant ; and so far only the subjection of the slave extends \ His other domestic offices are performed by his own wife and children. It is unusual to scourge a slave, or punish him with chains of hard labour. They are sometimes killed by their mas- ters ; not through severity of chastisement, " emperor, paid the price of a servitude whiclt he had " by this means brought upon himself, by sufferings " death at the command of his master." * The condition of these slaves was the same as that of the vassals, or serfs, who a few centuries ago made the great botly 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 ol slave became appropriated ; while those in the state of rural vassalage were called Lidi. g3 66 MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. but in the heat of passion, like an enemj' ; with this difference, that it is done with im- punity*. Freedmen^ are little superior to slaves ; seldom filling any important office in the family ; never in the state, except in those tribes M'hich are under regal government ^ There, they rise above the free-born, and even the nobles : in the rest, the inferior condition of ths freedmen is a proof of freedom. Lending money upon interest, ami in- * 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, how- ever, he killed another person's slave, he was obliged to pay his price to the owner. ^ A slave who acquired his liberty by manumission, was called a freed^nan, but always continued in a class different from the freemen. When the use of money prevailed, the form of manumitting a slave was by striking a c?fnaMM5 out of his hand, in the presence of tiie king or state ; whence this order of men were called denariati. Among the Germans, if a denariatus died "without children, his property went to the treasury, as appears from the Ripuary law. ' The amazing height of power and insolence to whith ireedmen arrived by making themselves sub- servient to the vices of the prince, is a striking cha- racteristic of the reigns cf some of the worst of the Fioroan emperors. MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. 67 creasing it by usury % is unknown amongst them ; and this ignorance more efFectuallv prevents the practice than a prohibition would do. The lands nre occupied by townships^, in allotments proportional to the number of cultivators ; and are after- wards parceled out among the individuals of the district, in shares according to the rank and condition of each person '. The " In Rome, on the other hand, the practice of usury was, as our author terms it, " an ancient evil, and a " perpetaal source of sedition and discord," Annul, vi. 16. ^ All the copies read per vices, " by tarns," 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 there- fore adopted in this translation. J. A. / ' Caesar has several particulars concerning this part of German polity. " They are not studious of agri- •* culture, the greater part of their diet consisting of " milk, cheese, and flesh ; nor has any one a determi- " nate 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 agri- " culture i lest they should acquire a passion for 68 MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. \vif]e extent of plain facilitates this par- tition. The arable lands are annually chan^^ed, and a part left fallow : nor do they attempt to vie with the fertility and extent of their country by their own industry in planting orchards, enclosing meadows, and watering gardens. Corn is the only product required from the earth : hence their year is not divided into so many seasons as our's : for while they know and distinguish by name Winter, Spring, and Summer, they are unacquainted equally with the appellation and bounty of Autumn'. " 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 dissentions : " 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 mo- " deration." Bell. Gall. vi. 21. " The Germans, not planting fruit-trees, were ig- norant 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 de- ficiencies, in having no term for this season of the year, but one denoting the gathering iu of corn alone — Herhst. Harvest. MANNERS OF THE GER3IANS. ©^ Their funerals are without pomp or state'. The only circumstance to which thev attend, is to burn the bodies of erai- nent persons with some particular kinds of wood. Neither vestments nor perfumes are heaped upon the pile * : the arms of the dead, and sometimes his horse % are ^ Id this respect, as well as many others, the man- Ders of the Germans were a direct contrast to those of the Romans. Pliny mentions a private person, C. Cae-^ cilius Claudius Isidorus, who ordered the sum of about £10,000. 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. * 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. CoHegit vestes, miserique insignia Magni, Amiaque, et impressas auro, quas gesserat olim Exuvias, pictasque togas, velamina suramo Ter conspecta. Jovi, funestoque intulit igni. Lib. ix. ITd. There ahone his arms, with antick gold inlaid, ^ There the rich robes which she herself had made, > Robes to imperial Jove in triumph thrice displayed: j The rclicks of his past victorious days, 1 Is'ow this his latest tropliy serve to raise, > And in one common flame together blaze. RowE. 3 " 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 hous^^ 70 MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. given to the flames. The tomb is a mound of turf^. They contemn the elaborate and costly honours of monumental structures as burthensorae to the deceased. They soon dismiss their lamentations and tears ; slowly, their sorrow and regret. They think it the women's part to bewail their loss, the men's to remember it '. This is what we have learned concerning the origin and manners of the Germans in general. I now proceed to mention those particulars in which they differ from each other ; and likewise to relate what nations ings. A human scull was likewise discovered, which perhaps was that of his groom. ^ The German manner of bm-ial, and the structure of their " mounds of turf" or barrows, is well illustrated by a particular description of some Caledonian or Danish cairns or harvov/s, Pennanfs Tour 1769, 4to. p. 138 and seq. Further information on this subject may be procured from the Voyage to the Hebrides, Part 1. p. 52, 181, 182, 185, 297. Part. ii. p. 10. " Thus it is an usual saying among the North Ame- rican savages, " Tears disgrace a man ;" and when going on a military expedition they address their friends only with " Remember us." The women, on the other hand, mourn their husbands or children for a whole year, and during this period continually call upon them, morning, noon, and night, with the mo<^! dismal howlings. Charlevoiw MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. 71 liave migrated from Germany into Gaul. That first of writers, the deified Julius, asserts that the Gauls were formerly a more powerful people than at present ^ ; whence it is probable that some of them even passed over into Germany : for liow small an obstacle would a river be, to pre- vent any nation, as it arrived at strength, from occupying or changing settlements as yet lying in common, and unappropriated by the power of monarchies ? Accordingly, the country betwixt the Hercynian forest and the Rivers Rhine and Maine was pos- sessed by the Helvetii ^ ; and that beyond ' Caesar's account is as follows, " There was for- " merly a time when the Gauls surpassed the Germans " in bravery, and made war upon them ; and, on account ot 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 Eratoshenes and *' others of the Greeks, and called by them Orcinia) " were accordingly occupied by the Volcse and Tecto- " sages, who settled there. These people still continue " in the same seUlements, 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 " ol life they have adopted." Bell. Call. vi. 24. 9 The inhabitants of Switzerland, then extending further than at present towards Lyons. 72 MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. by the Boii ' ; both Gallic tribes. The name of Boiemum still remains, a memorial of the ancient settlement, though its inhabi- tants are now changed -. But whether the Aravisci ^ migrated into Pan n on i a from ^he Osi-, a German nation; or the Osi ' A nation of Gauls, bordering on the Helvetii, as appears from Strabo and Caesar. After being con- quered by Caesar, the jEdui gave them a settlement in the country now called the Bourbonnois. The name of their German colony, Boiemum, is still extant in Bohemia. The asra at which the Helvelii 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, Am- bigatus, king of the Bituriges (people of Berri/J sent his sister's son Sigovesus into the Hercynian forest, with a colony, in order to exonerate his kingdom which was overpeopled. Liv. v. 33 & seq. 9 In the time of Augustus, the Boii, driven from Boiemum by the Marcomannl, retired to Noricum, which from them was called Boioaria, now Baxiaria. ^ This people inhabited that part of Lower Hungary, now called the Palatinate of P'llis. " 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 Hun- gary ; perhaps extending to Silesia, where is a place MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. 73 iiito Germany from the Aravlsci, the lan- guage, constitution, and manners of both being still the same, is a matter of uncer- tainty ; for in their pristine state of equal indigence and equal liberty, the same advantages and disadvantages were com- mon to both sides of the river. The Tre- veri ^ and Nervii "^ are ambitious of being thought of German origin ; as if the repu- tation of this descent would distinguish them from the Gauls, whom they resemble in person and effeminacy. The Vangiones, Triboci, and Nemetes ", who inhabit the banks of the Rhine, are without doubt German tribes. Nor do the Ubii % although called Ossen in the Dutchy of Ocls, famous for salt and glass works. The learned Pelloutier, however, con- tends that the Osi were Germans ; but with less probability. * The inhabitants of the modern Diocese of l^reves. '' Those of Camhrcsis and Hainault. ^ Those of the Dioceses of Worms, Strasburg, and Spires. * Those of the Diocese of Cologne. The Ubii, mi- grating from Germany to («aul, on account of the en- mity of the Catli, 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 H 74 MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. they have been thought worthy of being made a Roman colony, and are pleased in bearing the name of Agrippinenses from their founder, blush to acknowledge their origin from Germany ; from whence they formerly migrated, and for their approved fidelity were settled on the banks of the Rhine, not that they might be guarded themselves, but that they might serve as a guard against invaders. Of all these people, the most famed for valour are the Batavi ; whose territories comprise but a small part of the banks of the Rhine, but consist chiefly of an island within it ^ These were formerly a tribe of the Catti ; but, on account of a domestic sedition, removed to their present settle- ments, in order to become a part of the Roman empire. They are still in posses- sion of this honour, as well as of a memo- rial of their ancient alliance ' ; for they are «f Nero, who was born among' them, obtained the settlement of a colony there, which was called after her name. 5 Now the Betuwe, part of the provinces o( Holland and Gelderland. ' Hence the Batavi are termed, in an ancient inscrip- tion, " the brothers and friends of the Roman people." MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. 75 neither insulted by taxes, nor oppressed by farmers of the revenue. Exempt from burthens and contributions, and kept apart for military use alone, they are reserved, like a magazine of arms, for the purposes of war. The nation of the Mattiaci ' is under a degree of subjection of the same kind : for the greatness of the Roman people has carried a reverence for the empire beyond the Rhine and the ancient limits. The Mattiaci, therefore, though occupying a settlement and borders ' on * This nation inhabited part of the countries now- called the JVeteraw, Hesse, Isenburg, and Fulda. In this territory was IVIattium, now Marpurg, and the Fontes Mattiaci, now Wisbaden, ntdit Maitz. 3 The several people of Germany had their respective borders, which they defended by preserving tiiem in a desart and uncultivated state. Thus Caesar, Bell. Gall. iv. 3. " They think it the g-reatest honour 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 neighbouring communities are *' unable to withstand them. On this account, the " Suevi are said to have, on one side, a tract of COO " [some learned men think tvc should read GO) miles " dei^art for their boundaries." In another place, Caesar mentions as an additional reason for this policy, that they thmk themselves thereby rendered secure from the dauirtr of sudden incursions. Bell. Call. \i. 13. h2 76 MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. the opposite side of the river, act from inclination and attachment with us ; re- sembling- the Batavi in every respect, except that, still enjoying the soil and air of their own country, they receive from them a superior degree of vigour *. I would not reckon among the people of Germany those who possess the Decumate lands % although inhabiting between the Rhine and Danube. Some of the most unsteady of the Gauls, rendered daring through indigence, siezed upon this dis- trict of uncertain property. Afterwards, ^ The difference betwee» 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 any thing to the influence of climate. ^ Now Swabia. When the Marcomanni, towards the end of the reign of Augustus, quitting their settle- acients 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, f Decimated, J 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. Hadrian defended them by a rampart, which extended from Neustadt, a town on the Danube near the mouth of the river Altmuhl, to the Tieckar near JVmpfeii; a space of sixty French leagues. MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. 77 our boundary line being" advanced, and a chain of fortified posts established, it be- came a skirt of the empire, and part of the province ^ Beyond these are the Catti \ whose set- tlements, beginning from the Ilercynian forest, are in a tract of country less open and marshy than those of the other wide- extended states of Germany ; for it consists of a continued range of hills, which gra- dually decline ; and the Hercynian forest * ^ Of Upper Germany. • The Catti possessed a large territory between the Rhine, Mayne, and Sala, and the Hartz forest on this side the Weser; where are now the countries oi HessCf Thuringia, part q{ Paderborn, of Fulda, and of Fran- conia. It is to be remarked, that 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 Cattc, or Hessen. The Catti are supposed to have made a settlement in the part of Scotland called Cuthness ; the Cattu of the Highlanders. Pennant's Tour 1769. 4lo. p. 168. ' 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 II 3 78 MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. both accompanies and leaves behind its Catti ^ This people are distinguished by the firmness of their bodies, the com- pactness of their limbs, the fierceness of their countenances, and the superior vigour of their minds '. Compared with the rest of the Germans, they have a considerable share of understanding and address : they appoint select persons to commands, and obey them when appointed ; know their stations ; discern advantages ; repress un- ♦' 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, J This personificatioii, though appearing harsh in the English, I thought proper to preserve in the translation, since otherwise the reader would not have a proper idea of the boldness and vigotir of Tacitus's style. J. A. ' A fine description of the form of body proper for a soldier, resembling this, but more particular, is given by Vegetius, i. 6. *' Let the youth devoted to the labours of Mars, have vigilant eyes, an erect neck, a broad chest, muscular shoulders, strong fingers, long arms, a belly of moderate bulk, rather slender legs, with the calves, and feet, not distended with superfluous flesh, but hard with compacted sinews." MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. 79 timely ardour; distribute properly the business of the day ; intrench themselves ag-ainstthe night; account fortune du])ious, and valour only secure ; and what is ex- tremely rare, and only a consequence of discipline, depend more upon the general than the army'. Their force consists en- tirely in infantry ; who, besides their arms, are obliged to carry tools and provisions. Other nations appear to go to a battle ; the Catti, to war. Excursions and casual encounters are rare among them. It is, indeed, peculiar to cavalry soon to obtain, and soon to yield the victory. Speed bor- ders upon timidity ; slow movements are more akin to steady valour. A custom followed among the other Ger- man nations only by a few individuals, of a more daring spirit than the rest, is adopted by general consent among the Catti. From the time they arrive at years of matu- rity, they let their hair and beard grow'; * Florus, ii. 18. well expresses Ibis thought by the sentence " Tftnti exercitus, qnanti imperator.^' " Au " army is worth so much as its general is," ' 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, in Paul Warnefrid's History of 80 MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. and do not lay aside this votive badge, consecrated to valour, till they have slain an enemy. Over blood and spoils they vniveil the countenance, and declare that " they have at length paid the debt of " existence, and have proved themselves " worthy of theircountry and parents." The cowardly and effeminate continue in their squalid disguise. The bravest among them wear also an iron ring * (a mark of igno- 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 Marc, " who bound himself by a vow not to " cut his hair till he had revenged the deaths of Egmont « and Horn." * 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 vyith 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 tourna- raeut. Vertot Mem. de V Acad, deslnscr. Tom. ii. p. 595. MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. 81 miny in that nation) as a kind of chain, till they have released themselves by the slaughter of a foe. Many of the Catti choose tliis distinction, and grow hoary under such insignia^ marked out both to foes and friends. By these, in every en- gagement, the attack is begun : their's is the front of the battle, offering a new spectacle of terror. Even in peace they do not relax the severity of their ap- pearance. They have no house, land, or domestic cares : they are maintained by whomsoever they visit ; lavish of another's property, regardless of their own ; till the languor of old age renders them unequal to such a rigid course of military virtue \ Next to the Catti, on the banks of the Rhine, where, now settled in its channel, it is become a sufficient boundary, the i'sipii and Tencteri % inhabit. The Tenc- * 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, Cha- mavi, Bructeri, and Chauci, entered into the Francic league, and conquering: the Romans, siezed upon Gaul. From them are derived the name, manners, and hiws of the French. ^ These two tribes, united by a community of wars 8f2 MANNERS OF THE GERMAl^rS. teri, besides the usual military reputation^ are famed for excelling in the discipline of their cavalry ; nor is the infantry of the Cafti in higher estimation than the horse of the Tencteri. Their ancestors esta- blished it, and were imitated by posterity. Horsemanship is the sport of their children, the point of emulation of their youth, and the exercise in which their old men per- severe. Horses are solemnly bequeathed by parents along with the domestics, the household goods, and the rights of inheri- tance: they do not, however, like other things, go to the eldest son, but to the bravest and most warlike. Contiguous to the Tencteri were for- merly the Bructeri ' ; but we are now in- and misfortunes, had formerly been driven from their settlements on the Rhine a little below Mentz. They then, according to Csosar, (Bell. Gall. iv. 1. & seq.) occupied the territories of the Menapii on both sides the Rhine. Still proving unfortunate, they obtained the lands of the Siranibri, who, in the reign of Augustus, were removed on this side the Rhine by Tiberius : these were the present counties of Berg, Mark, Lipp, and Waldeck ; and the bishopric of Paderborn. " Their settlements were between the rivers Rhine, Lippe (Luppia), and Ems (Amisia), and the province pf f rjztiland ; now the countries of Westphalia, and MANNERS OF THE GER3IANS. 83 formed that the Chamavi and Angrivarii ', migrating into their countr)', have expelled and entirely extirpated them ° ; with tlie concurrence of the iieig-hhouring nations, induced either by hatred of their arrogance ' , Over-Issd. Alting- [Notit. German. Infer, p. 20.) supposes they derived their name from Broekai, or Brucheii, marshes, on account of their frequency in that tract of country. * Before this migration, the Chamavi were settled oq the Ems, where at present are Lingen and Osnabrug ; the Angrivarii, on the Weser (Visurgis), where are Mviden and Schawenburg. A more ancient migration of the Chamavi to the banks of the Rhine is cursorily mentioned by Tacitus, Amial. xiii. 55. The Angrivarii were afterwards called Angrarii, and became part of the Saxon nation. ' 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 Hono- riu^, V. 450, mentions them. Venit accola sylvae Bructerus Hcrcyni.x. "Tae Bructerian, bordeitr on the Hercynian forest, czme.'''' After their expulsion, they settled, according to Eccard, between Cologne and IJesse, ' 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 84 MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. love of plunder, or the favour of the gods towards the Romans. For they even gra- tified us with the spectacle of a battle, in which above sixty thousand Germans were slain, not by Roman arms, but, what was still greater, by mutual hostilities, as it were for our pleasure and entertainment*. May these nations retain and perpetuate, if not an affection for us, yet an animosity against each other ; since, while the fate of the empire is thus urgent', fortune can into submission without an action, and had on that account a triumphal statue decreed him. PHny the younger mentions this fact, Book ii. Epist. 7. " Spu- " rinna settled the king of the Bructeri in his kingdom " by force of arms ; and obtained the nohlest kind of " victory over this ferocious people, subduing them by " the mere terror of his military preparations." 2 An allusion, probably, 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. ' 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 H7'gentibiis " 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 MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. 85 bestow no higher benefit upon us, than the discord of our enemies. The Anofrivarii and Chamavi are termi- nated backwards by the Dulgibini, Cha- saurii % and other nations less known '. In front, the Frisii ^ succeed ; who are distinguislied by the appellations of greater not escape the penetration of Tacitus, even when dis- guised by the most flattering appearances. The common reading is therefore, probably, right. J. A. ■* These people first inhabited 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 Veileius Paterculus, ii. 105. calls the Attuarii, and by that name entered into the Francic league. Strabo calls them Chattuarii. ^ Namely, the Ansibarii and Tubantes. The Ansi- barii or Amsibarii are thought by Alting to have derived their name from their neighbourhood to the river Ems (Amisia) ; and the Tubantes, from their frequent change of habitation, to have been called Tho Bcnten, or the wandering troops, and to have inhabited where now is Drente in Over-Issel. Among these nations, Fursten- burg (Momini. Paderbom.J enumerates theAmbrones, borderers upon the river Ambrus, xiosv Emmeren. *' The Frizelanders. The lesser Frisii were settled on this side, the greater, on the other, of the Flevum (Zuyder-zee.J I 86 MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. and lesser, from their proportional power. The settlements of both stretch along the borders of the Rhine to the Ocean ; and include, besides, vast lakes \ which have been navigated by Roman fleets. We have even explored theOcean itself on that side ; and fame reports that columns of Hercules ' are still remaining on that coast ; whether that Hercules was ever there in reality, or that whatever great and magnificent is any where met with, is, by common consent, ascribed to his renowned name. The at- tempt of Drusus Germanicus ^ to make " In the time of theRomaus this country was covered by vast meers, or lakes ; which were made still larger by frequent inundations of the sea. Of these, one so late as 1530 overwhelmed 72 villages ; and another, still more terrible, in 1569, laid under water great part of the sea-coast of Holland, and almost all Frizeland, in which alone 20,000 persons were drowned. s Wherever the land seemed to terminate, and it appeared impossible to proceed farther, maritime nations have feigned there were pillars of Hercules. These ce- lebrated by the Frisians must have been at the extremity of Frizeland, and not in Sweden and the Cimmerian promontory, as Rudbeck supposes. Drusus, the brother of Tiberius, and father of Genaanicus, imposed a tribute on the Frisians, as lueii- MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. 87 discoveries in these parts was sufficiently daring ; but the Ocean opposed any further inquiry into itself and Hercules. None have since repeated it ; and it has been thought more pious and reverential to be- lieve the actions of the gods, than to inves- tigate them. Hitherto we have traced the Western side of Germany. It turns from thence ■with a vast sweep to the North : and first occurs the country of the Chauci ', which, lioned in Tacitus's Annals, iv. 72. and performed other eminent services in Germany, whence he was himself styled Germanicus. ' The Chauci extended along^ the sea-coast 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 between the Wcscr and Elbe; the lesser, between the IVeser 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 valour and fide- lity, which agree.s 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 UKmbers on their coast. Pliny has admirably described the country and manners of the maritime Chauci, in his 1 ^ 88 MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. though it begins immediately from Fj isia, and occupies part of the shore, yet stretches so far as to border on all the nations account of people who live without any trees or fruit- bearing vegetables. " lu the North are the nations of " the 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 a 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 neighbours, 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 ftags and sea-weed 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 col- " lected 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 punisU» '- ment." Hist. Nat. xvi. 1. MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. 89 before-mentioned, till it winds round so as to meet the territories of the Catti. This immense tract is not only possessed, but filled, by the Chauci ; a people the noblest of the Germans, who choose to maintain their greatness by justice rather than yio- lence. Without ambition, without ungo- verned desires, quiet and retired, they excite no wars, they are guilty of no rapine or plunder ; and it is a principal argument of their power and bravery, that the supe- riority they possess has not been acquired by injuries. Yet all have arms in readi- ness "■ ; and, if necessary, an army is soon raised : for they abound in men and horses ; and maintain their military reputation even in inaction. Bordering on the Chauci and Catti, are the Cherusci ' ; who, for want of an enemy, * 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 arccrc Caycos Oppositi. Phars. i. 463. You too, tow'rds Rome advance, ye warlike band, That wont the shaggy Cauci to withstand. RowE. ' The Cherusci, at that time, dwelt between the Weser and the Elbe, where now are Luncburg, Bruns^ i3 90 MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. long cherished a too lasting and enfeebling' peace : a state more flattering than secure ; since the repose enjoyed amidst ambitious and powerful neighbours is treacherous ; and when matters come to be decided by force, moderation and probity are names appropriated by the stronger party. Thus, the Cherusci, who formerly bore the titles of just and upright, are now charged with cowardice and folly ; and the good fortune of the Catti who subdued them has grown into wisdom. The ruin of the Cherusci involved that of the Fosi % a neighbouring wick, 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 on this side the Weser, as appears from the accounts of the expeditions 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 depen- dents. 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 2ijd book of his Annals. * Glttver, 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 MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. 91 tribe, equal partakers of their adversity, although they had enjoyed an inferior share of their prosperity. In the same quarter of Germany, adja- cent to the Ocean, the Cimbri ' inhabit ; a small ^ state at present, but great in re- nown '' ; of which extensive vestiges still remain, in encampments and lines on either river Fusa, which enters the Aller (Allera) at CeHae ; and were a sort of appendage to the Cherusci, as Hildesheim now is to Brunswick. The narae 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 con- junction with the Angles, seized upon Britain. ' The name of this people still exists ; and the country they inhabited is called the Cimbric Chersonesus, or Peninsula ; comprehending Jtitland, Slesicig, and Holstein. The renown and various fortune of the Cimbri is briefly, but accurately, related by 3Iallet, ia the Introduction to the History of Denmark. ^ 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, Saxon"?, Normans, and various other tribeSj which brought all Europe under Germanic sway. ^ Their fame spread through Germany, Gaul, Spain, Britain, Italy, and as far as the Sea of Azoph (Palus Moeotis), whither, according to Posidonius, they pene- trated, and called the Cimmerian or Cirabrian Bosphorus after their own name. 92 MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. shore % from the compass of whicb the strength and numbers of the nation may still be computed, and credit derived to the account of so prodigious an army. It was in tlie 640th year of Rome that the arms of the Cimbri were first heard of, under the consulate of Ca&cilius Metellus and Papirius Carbo ; from which sera to the second con- sulate of the emperor Trajan % is a period of near 210 years. So long has Germany been in conquering. During this long interval many mutual wounds have been inflicted. Not the Samnite, the Cartha- * This is usually, and probably rightly, explained as relating to both shores of the Cimbric Chersonesus. Cluver and Dithmar, however, suppose that these en- campments are to be sought for either in Italy, upon the river Athesis fAdigeJ, or in Narbonnensian Gaul near Aquae Sextise {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. ' Nerva was consul the 4th time, and Trajan the 2nd, in the 851st year of Roraej in which Tacitus com- posed this treatise. MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. 93 ginian, Spain, Gaul, orPavthia, have given more frequent alarms ; for the liberty of the Germans is more vigorous than the mo- narchy of the Arsacidce. What has the East, which has itself lost Pacorus, and suffered an overthrow from V'entidius ', to boast against us, but the slaughter of Crassus? But the Germans, by the defeat or capture of Carbo % Cassius % Scaurus ' After the defeat of P. Decidias Saxa, lieutenant of Syria, by the Parthians, and the seizure of Syria by Pacorus, son of king Orodes, P. Ventidius Bassus was sent there, who vanquished the Parthians, killed Pacorus, and entirely restored the Roman affairs, * The Epitome of Livy informs us, that " in the " year of Rome 640, the Cimbri, a wandering tribe, *' made a praedatory incursion into Illyricura, 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 deieated. In the succeeding years, the Cimbri and Teutoni ravaged Gyul, 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 Ctesar, Bell. Gall. 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 045. Epitome of Livy, Ixv. - " L. Cassius, the consul iu the year of Rome C47a 94 MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. Aurelius \ Servilius Csepio and Cneius Manlius % deprived the Roman peo- " was cut off with his army in the confines of the " Allobroges, by the Tigurine Gauls, a canton of the " Helvetians (now the caiitons of' Zurich, ^ppensell, " Sckaffhausen, kc] 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, mi- " grating from home, within the memory of our fathers, " slew the consul L. Cassius, and passed his army " under the yoke." Bell. Gall. i. 12. ■* M. Aurelius Scaurus, the consul's lieutenant for rather consul, as he appears to have set ved 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, Ixvii. " Florus, in like manner, considers these two affairs separately. " Neither could Silanus sustain the first "onset of the barbarians; nor Manlius, the second; " nor Csepio, the third." iii. 3. Livy joins them together. " By the same enemy [the Cimbri) Cn. Man- " lius the consul, and Q. Servilius Csepio the proconsul, " were defeated hi an engagement, and both dispossessed. " of their camps." EpitAwn. Paulus Orosius relates the affair more particularly. " Manlius the consul, " and Q. Crepio proconsul, being sent against the *' Cimbri, Teutones, Tigurini, and Ambronie, Gaulish pie MANNERS OF THE GERiMANS. 95 of five consular armies ; and afterwards took from Augustus himself Varus with three legions^. Nor did Caius Marius" ♦* and German nations, who had conspired to extinguish *' the Roman empire, divided the.ir respective provinces *• by the river Rhone. Here, the most violent dissen- " tions prevailing between them, they were both over- " come, to the great disgrace and danger of the Roman " name. According to Antias, 80,000 Romans and " allies were slaughtered. C (Oder J ; the country which is now part o/ Pomerarua, of the Marche of Brandenburg, and of Luaatia. k2 100 MANNERS OF THE GERMANS'. superstition has this import; that from this spot the nation derives its origin ; that here is the residence of the supreme Governor of all % and that every thing else is subject aod subordinate to him. These opinions receive additional authority from the power of the Semnones, who inhabit a hundred cantons, and from the great body they compose, consider themselves as the head of the Suevi. The Langobardi ^, on the other hand, are ennobled by the smallness of their * This idea of a God the governor and lord of a!!, is the original religious faith of mankind ; which shinea the clearest and brightest, the more ancient and pure are the memorials of nations. It was peculiarly so among the Scythians, of whom the Germans were a branch. ^ In the reign of Augustus, the Langobardi dwelt on this side the Elbe, between Lunehurg and Mas;deburg, "When conquered and driven beyond the Elbe by Tibe- rius, they occupied that part of the country where are now Prigniiz, Kuppin, 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, probabU MANNERS OF TIIF. GERMANS. 101 numbers ; since, though surrounded by many powerful nations, they derive secu- rity, not from obsequiousness, but from war and daring. The neighbouring Reu- digni ', and the Aviones % Angli % Varini, Eudoses, Suardones, and Nuitl^ones*, are because they were then an inconsiderable people. Af- terwards, joinin» 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 Burgutidi/, Their laws are likewise extant. ' From Tacitus's description, the Reudigni must liave dwelt in part of the present Dutchy of Mecklen-' burg, and of Laicenburg. They had before been settled on this side of the Elbe, on the sands of Luneburg. * Perhaps the same people with those called by Ma- mertinus, in his Panegyric on Maximian, the Chaibones, From their vicinity to the fore-mentioned nations, they must have inhabited part of the Dutchy of Meckleri' burg. 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. ' Inhabitants of what is now part of Holstein and Sleswick ; in which tract is still a district called Angehiy between Flensborg and Sleswick. In the fifth century, the Angles, in conjunction with the Saxons, migrated into Britain, and perpetuated their name by giving appellation to England. * From the enumeration of Tacitus, apd the situation k3 102 MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. defended by rivers or forests. Nothing remarkable occurs in any of these ; except 4lhat they unite in the worship of Hf^rthum ^ or Mother Kartb ; and suppose her to interfere in the affairs of men, and visit the different nations. In an islaud ^ of the Ocean stands a sacred and uuviolated grove, in which is a consecrated chariot, of the other tribes, it appears, that the Eudoses must hare occupied the modern Wis7nar and Rostock : the ^uardones, Stralsu7id, Swedish Pomerunia, and part «f the Hither Pomerania, and of the Uckerane Marche: Eccard, however, supposes these nations were much Buore widely extended ; and that the Eudoses dwelt «pon the Oder ; the Suardones, upon the Warte ; the NvjUhones, upon the Netze. * The ancient name of the goddess Herthum, stilf subsists in the German Erde, pronounced Erdt, and in the English Earth. Almost all idolatrous nations have Tna^e the Earth an object of worship. Thus, among the Romans, we find that Sempronius, after subduing the Picentines, *' propitiated the goddess Tellus [Earth) "' by a temple which he had vowed.'* Florus, i. 19. * Many suppose this Island to have been the isle of Hugen in the Baltic sea. It is more probable, however, that it was an island near the mouth of the Elbe, now- tailed the isle of Helgeltind, or Heilegeland, {Holy island). Besides the proof arising from the name, the situation agrees better with that of the nations before enumtxirtedi MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. 103 covered with a veil, which the priest alone is permitted to toin h. He perceives when the godiless enters this secret recess ; and with prolound veneration attends the ve- hicle, which is drawn by yoked cows. At this season ^ all is joy ; and every place which the goddess deig'ns to visit is a scene of festivity. No wars are undertaken ; arms are untouched ; and every hostile weapon is shut up. Peace and repose are then only known ; then only loved : till at length the same priest reconducts the god- dess, satiated with mortal intercourse, to her temple ®. The chariot, wi/h its cover- ing, and, if we may believe it, the goddess herself, then undergo ablution in a secret lake. This office is performed by slaves, ' Olaus Rudbeck contends that this festival was cele- brated 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 honour of the Earth, but of the Sun, called by thera Thor or Taranim. The festival of Herthum was held later, in the month of February • as may be seen in Mallet's Jntroduct, to the Hist, of Denmark. * The grove before-mentioned» 104 MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. -whom the same lake instantly swallows up» Hence proceeds a mysterious horror; and a holy ignorance of what that can be, which is beheld only by those who are about to perish. Towards this quarter, the Suevi extend into the interior parts of Germany. And first (to follow the course of the Danube, as we before did that of the Rhine) occur the Hermunduri ® ; a people faithful to the Romans', and on that account the only Germans who are admitted to commerce, not on the banks alone, but within our 9 It is supposed that this people, on account of their valour, were called Heermanner ; corrupted by the Romans into Hermunduri. They were first settled be- tween the Elbe, the Sala, and Bohemia; where now are Ankalt, 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. » 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 over- came thera. MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. 105 territories, and in the flourishing colony ' established in the province of Rsetia. They pass and repass at pleasure, without being attended by a guard ; and while we exhibit to other nations our arms and camps alone, to these we lay open our houses and country seats, which they behold without coveting. In the country of the Hermunduri rises the Elbe ' ; a river formerly celebrated and known among us, now only heard of. Contiguous to the Hermunduri are the * Augusta Vindelicorum, now Augsburg ; a faraous Roman colony in the province of Rsetia, of which Vindelica was then a part. ' Tacitus is greatly mistaken if he confounds the source of the Egra, which is in the country of the Hermunduri, 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 iti which the Elbe rises ; in which case there would be «o mistake io T^citus's account, 106 MANNERS OF THE GERMANST. Narisci ' ; and next to them, the Marco- manni ' and Quadi \ Of these, the Mar- comanni are the most powerful and re- nowned ; and have even acquired the country which they inhabit by their valour in expelling the Boii '. Nor are the Na- risci and Quadi inferior in bravery * ; and * Inhabitants of that part of Bavaria which lies be- tween Bohemia and the Danube. ■' Inhabitants of JBo//e>«ia. ^ Inhabitants of Moravia, and the part of Austria between it and the Danube» Of this people, Ammianus JSIarcellinus, 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. ' Their expulsion of the Boli, who had given name to Bohemia, haa been already mentioned in page 72. Before this period, the Marcomanni dwelt near the sources of the Danube, where now is the Dutchy of fVirtemburg ; 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. 8 These people justified their military reputation by the dangerous war which, in conjunction with the Mar- comanni, they excited against the Romans, in the reign of Marcus Aurelius. MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. 107 this is, as it were, the van of Germany as far as it is bordered by the Danube. M ithin our memory the Marcomanni and Quadi were governed by kings of their own nation, of the noble line of Maroboduus "^ and Tudrus. They now submit even to foreigners ; but all the power of their kings depends upon the authority of the Romans ' . We seldom assist them with our arms, but frequently with our money. INot inferior in strength are the interior nations of the Marsigni % Gothini % Osi % and Burii % who enclose the Marcomanni and Quadi behind. Of these, the Marsigni 5 Of this prince, and his alliance with the Romans against Arminius, mention is made by Tacitus, Annal. ii. ' Tims Vanniiis was made kiug of the Quadi by Tiberius. Tacitus, Annal. ii. G3. At a later period, Antoninus Pius (as appears from a medal preserved in Npanheim) gave them Furtius for their king. And when they had expelled him, and set Ariogaesus on the throne, Marcus Aurelius, to whoin he was obnoxious, refused to confirm the election. Dio, Ixxi. - These people inhabited what is now Olatz, Jagern- dor/, aiid part of Silesia, ^ Inhal)itants of /)af^ o/'5"i/e5ia, zn^ oi Hungary. * Inhabitants oi part of Hungary to the Danube. ^ These were settled about the Crapack mountains, aud the sources of the Vistula,, 108 MANNERS OP THE GERMANS. and Burii in language ^ and manners re- semble the Snevi. The Gothini and Osi prove themselves not to be Germans, the first, by their use of the Gallic, the second, of the Pannonian tongue; and both, by their submitting to pay tribute ; which is levied on them, as aliens, partly by the Sarmatians, partly by the Quadi. The Gothini, to their additional disgrace, work iron mines'. AH these people in- iiabit but a small proportion of cham- paign country ; their settlements arechiejfly among forests, and summits of hills. For Suevi is divided by a continued ridge of * 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, ' Ptolemy mentions iron mines in or near the country l'.sii, and Naharvali \ In the country of the latter is a grove, consecrated to religious rites of great antiquity. A priest presides over them, dressed in woman's apparel ; but the gods worshipped there are said, according to the Roman interpretation, to be Castor and Pollux. Their attributes are the same ; their name, Aicis". No images, indeed, « The mountains between Moravia, Hungary, Silesia, and Bohemia. 9 The I-ygii inhabited what is now part of Silesia, of the New Marche, of Prussia and Poland on this side the Vistula. ' These tribes were settled between the Oder and Vistula, where now are part of Silesia, of Branden- burg, and of Poland. The Elysii are supposed to have given name to Silesia, * The Greeks and Romans, under the name of the Dioscuri, or Castor and Pollux, worshipped those me- teorous exhalations, which, during a storm, appear on the masts of ships, and are supposed to denote an ap- proaching^ calm. A kind of religious veneration is still paid to this phaenomenon by the Roman Catholics, under the appellatioji of ihefre of St. Elmo, The Naharvali L 110 MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. ©r vestiges of fpreign superstition appear in their worship ; but they are revered under the character of young men and brothers. Tlie Arii, fierce beyond the su- periority of strength they possess above the other just enumerated people, improve their native ferocity of aspect by artificial helps. Their shields are black ; their bodies painted ^ : they choose the darkest nio-hts for engaging ; and strike terror by the dismal gloom of their funereal army — no enemy being able to sustain their sin- gular, and, as it were, infernal appearance ; since in every combat, the eyes are the first part subdued. Beyond the Lyg'u are the Gothones \ who are under a regal govern- seem to have affixed the same character of divinity on the ignis XO't'Wis ; and the name Aids is probably the same with that of y^/^or^/p, 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. 3 No custom has been more universal among uncivi- lized people than painting the body, either for the purpose of ornament, or that of inspiring terror. * Inhabitants of what is now Farther Pomerania, the New Marche, and the Western part of Poland^ letweai the Oder and Vistula, They were a different MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. Ill ment, somewhat more strict than that of the other German nations, yet not to a de- gree incompatible with liberty. Adjoining to these, are the Rugii ' and Lemovii % situated on the sea-coast : — all these tribes are distinguished by round shields, short swords, and submission to regal authority. Nextoccurthecommunitiesofthe Suiones', people from the Golhs, though, perhaps, in alliance with them. * These people were settled on the shore of the Baltic, where now are Colberg, Cassubia, and Farther Pome~ rania. Their name is still preserved in the town of Ruger.wald, and isle of Rugen. ' These were also settlers on the Baltic, about tha modem Stolpe, Dantzig, and Lavenburg. The Heruli appear afterwards to have occupied the settlements of the Lemovii. Of these last no farther mention occurs ; but the Heruli made themselves famous throughout Eu- rope and Asia, and were the first of the Germans who founded a kingdom in Italy under Odoacer. ■^ The Suiones inhabited Sweden, and the Da-nish isles of Funen, Langland, Zeeiand, Laland, &c. Frox 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 Trance. The names of Goth», Visi^olhs, and Ostrogothi, became still more famous, being the nations who accom- plished ihe ruin of the Roman empire. The laws of the Visigoths are still extant ; but they depart much fvoni the usTjal siajplicitv of the German laws. 1.2 112 MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. seated in the very Ocean % who, besides their strength in men and arms, are also powerful by sea^. The form of their vessels differs from our's in having prows at each end ', so that they are always ready to advance. They make no use of sails, nor have regular benches of oars at the sides: they row, as is practised in some rivers, without order, sometimes on one side, sometimes on the other, as occasion requires. These people pay respect to « 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 sinusj that " it is filled with islands, the " most famous of which, Scandinavia, {now Smeden and *' Norway) is of an undiscovered magnitude ; that part •' of it only being known which is occupied by the " Hilleviones, a nation inhabiting five hiuidred 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. "^ 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 islfe of Gothland, in the 11th century. ' This is exactly the form of the Indian canoes, which, however, are generally worked with sails as well as oars. MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. 113 wealth * ; for A>hich reason they are subject to monarchical government, without any limitations % or precarious conditions of allegiance. Nor are arms allowed to be kept promiscuously, as among the other German nations ; but are committed to the charge of a keeper, and he, too, a slave. The pretext is, that the Ocean defends them from any sudden incursions ; and men unemployed, with arms in their hands, readily become licentious. In fact, it is a part of regal policy not to entrust a noble, a freeman, or even an emancipated slave, with the military power. * The great opulence of a temple of the Sulones, 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 UpsalJ " not far from the cities Sictona and Birca (now Sigtuna *' and BioerkoeJ. 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. ^ Hence Spener fNotit. German. antiq.J rightly concludes that the crown was hereditary and not elective, among the Suiones. l3 114 MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. Beyond the Suiones is another sea, slug- gish and almost void of agitation', by which the whole globe is imagined to be girt and enclosed, from this circumstance, that the last light oi the setting sun con- tinues so vivid till its rising, as to obscure the stars*. Popular belief adds, that the sound of his emerging ^ from the ocean is also heard ; and the forms of deities ' with * It is uncertain whether what is now called the Frozen Ocemi is here meant, or the northera extre- mities of the Baltic Sea, the Gulfs of Bothnia and Finland, which are so frozen every winter as to be innavigable. ■* 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^. * 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 HeicuVeo stridentera guigite solem. " Hear the sua hiss ia the Herculean gulf." 7 Instead of Jbrtnas deorum, " forms of deities," some, with more probability, read equorum, " of the horses'* which are feigued to draw llie chariot of «he sun. 3IANNERS OF THE GERMANS. 115 tlie rays beaming" from his hea(3, are beheld. Only thus far, if fame say true, nature ex- tends*. On the rij^ht shore of the Suevic sea ^ the tribes of the ^stii ' inhabit, whose habit and customs are the same with those of the Suevi, but their language more resembling the British *. They worship the mother of the gods ' ; and as the badi>e of their superstition, they carry about them the figures of wild boars*. This serves them in place of armour and every other defence : it renders the votary of the god- ' Thus Quintus Curlius, speaking of the Indian Ocean, says, " Nature itself can proceed no farther." 3 The Baltic sea. ' Now, the Kingdom of Pmsiia, the Dutchies of Samogitia and Courland, the Palatinates of Livonia, and Estkonia, in the name of which last the ancient appellation of these people is preserved. * Because the inhabitants of this extreme part of Germany retained the Scythico-Celtic language, which long prevailed in Britain. 5 A deity of Scythian origin, called Frea, or Fricco. See Mallet's Introduct. to Hist, of Denmark. * Many vestiges of this superstition remain to this day in Sweden. The peasants, iu the mouth of February, the season formerly sacred to Frca, make little images of boars in paste, which they apply to various super- stitious uses. See Eccard. 116 MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. dess safe even in the midst of foes. Their weapons are chiefly clubs, iron being little used among them. They cultivate corn and other vegetables %vith more industry than German indolence generally exerts '. They even explore the sea; and are the only people who gather amber, which by them is called Glese % and is collected among the shallows and upon the shore. With the usual indifference of savages, they have neglected to inquire into the nature of this substance, and the manner of its production. It long lay disregarded ' * The cause of this was, probably, their confined situation, which did not permit them to wander in hunting and plundering parlies, like the rest of the Germans. ^ From its transparency. Glas in Germany has the same import as Glass with us. 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 Che Germans gless. *' One of these islands, by the natives named Austravia, " was on this account called Giessaria by our sailors in " the fleet of Germanicus." Lib. xxxvii. 3. ' Insomuch that the Guttones, who formerly inha- bited this coast, made use of amber as fuel, and sold it for that purpose to the neighbouring Teuton es. Plin. xxxvii. 2. MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. 117 amidst other things thrown up by the sea, till our luxury ® gave it a name. Useless to theni, they gather it in the rough ; bring it unwrought ; and wonder at the price they receive. It would appear, however, to be a juice flowing from trees ; since terrestrial, and even winged animals are usually seen shining through it, which, entangled in it while in a liquid state, became enclosed as it hardened ^. I should therefore imagine that, as the fertile woods and groves in the secret recesses of the East exude frankincense and balsam, so there are the same in thie islands and con- tinents of the West ; which, acted upon hy the near rays of the sun, drop their liquid juices into the subjacent sea, whence, by * Various toys and utensils of amber, such as brace- lets, necklaces, rings, cups, and even pillars, were to be met with among the luxurious Romans. 5 Amber is now in general looked upon as a fossil bitumen, since mines of it have been found in Prussia, where it is dug in considerable quantity. It is difficult, however, to conceive how the insects which are almos; universally found in it should get there, if it had always been a subterraneous substance. For a particular ac- count of its nature and the methods of procuring it, set Neumann's Chemistry. J. A. 118 MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. the force of tempests, they are thrown out upon the opposite coasts. If the nature of amber be examined by the apphcation of fire, it kindles like a torch, with a thick and odorous flarae ; and presently resolve» into a glutinous matter resembling pitch or resin. The several communities of the Sitones ' succeed those of the Suiones; to whom they are similar in other respects, but differ in being under afemale sovereign : so far have they degenerated, not only from liberty, but even from slavery. Here Suevia terminates. I am in doubt whether to reckon the Peucini, Venedi, and Fenni among the Germans or Sarmatians * ; although the Peucini % who are by some called Bastarna?, ' Norwegians. * All beyond the Vistula was reckoned Sarmatiao Ihese people, therefore, were properly inhabitants of Sarmatia, though from their manners they appeared of German origin. ^ Pliny also reckons the Peucini among the German nations. " The 6fth part of Germany is possessed by ♦' the Peucini and Bastarnse, 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. MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. 119 agree with the Gennans in language, ap- parel, and habitations \ All of them live in filth and laziness. The intennarriasres of their chiels with the Sarnialians have debased them hy a mixture of the manners of that people. The Venedi ^ have drawn much from this source ; for they over-run in their prsedatory excursions all the woody and mountainous tracts between the Peu- cini and Fenni. Vet even these are rather to be referred to the Germans, since they build houses, carry shields, travel on foot, and excel in swiftness; in all which par- * The liabitations of the Peucini were fixed, whereas the Sarmalians wandered about in their wag-gons. ^ The Venedi extended beyond the Peucini arid Bastarnce as far as the Baltic s-ea; where is the Sinus Venedicus, now the Gulf of Dantzig. Their name is also preserved in JVenden, 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. lllyri(om, Istria, Carniola, and the Noric Alps, A part of Carniola still retains the name of JVindismarck derived from them. This people, on account of tht-ir nobility and renown, were called Slavi ; and their language, the Sclavonian, still prevails through ^ vast tract of country. 120 MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. ticulars they totally fliffer from the Saniia- tians, who pass their tin e in waggons and on horsehack ° . I he Fenti" ' live in a state of amazing ssavageness and squahd poverty. They are fiestitute of anus, horses, and settled abodes: their food is herbs* ; their cloathing, skins ; tlieir bed, the ground. Their only dependence is on their arrows, ^ This is still the manner of living of the successors of the Sarmatians, the Nogai Tartars. ' Their country is called by Pliny Eningia ; now Finland. Warnefrid ^De Gest. Langoburd. 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 saga- «' city to the brutes, live upon no other food than the *' raw flesh of wild animals, the hairy skins of which *' they use for cloathing. They derive their name» *' according to the barbarian toHgue, 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. 9 As it is just after mentioned that their chief de- pendence 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. J. A. MANNERS OF THE GERMANS. 121 which, for want of iron, are headed with bone; and lil|MiliiMiMMlilill Ml» THE LIFE OF AGRICOLA. 169 commendations upon those who were prompt in complying- with his intentions, and re- primanded such as Mere dilatory ; thus promoting a spirit of emulation «hich had all the force of necessity. He was also attentive to provide a liberal education for the sons of their chieftains, preferring- the 1 natural genius of the Britons, to the studied 1 acquirements of the Gauls ; and his at- ', tempts were attended with such success, that they who lately disdained to make use of the Roman language, were now ambi- tious of becoming eloquent. Hence the Roman habit began to be held in honour, and the tocfa was frequently worn. At length they gradually deviated into a taste for those luxuries which stimulate to vice ; porticos, and bagnios, and the elegancies of the table: and this, from their inex- perience, they termed politeness, whilst, in reality, it constituted a part of their ■slavery. The military expeditions of the third year ' laid open a new tract of country to the Romans, and their ravages extended as far as the ?estuary of the Tay ". The 8 T]ie year of Rome 833, A. D. 80. » Now ihejirth of Tay. 170 THE LIFE OF AGRICOLA. enemies were thereby struck with such terror that they did not venture to molest the army, though harassed by violent tem- pests; so that they bad sufficient oppor- tunity for the erection of fortresses*. Persons of experience remarked that no general had ever shown greater skill in the choice of advantageous situations, than Agricola ; for not one of his fortified posts was either taken by storm, or forced to surrender, or abandoned as indefencible. The garrisons made frequent sallies ; for they Avere secured against a blockade by a yearns provision in their stores. Thus the winter passed without alarm, and each garrison proved sufficient for its own de- fence ; while the enemy, who were gene- rally accustomed to repair the losses of the summer by the success of the winter, now equally unfortunate in both seasons, were baffled pnd driven to despair. In these transactions, Agricola never attempted to arrogate to himself the glory of others ; * The principal of these was at Ardocli, seated so as to command the entrance into two vallies, Strathallan and Strathearn. A description and plan of its remains, still in good preservation, are given by Mr. Pennant iu liis Tow m Scotland in 1772, Part ii. p. 101. THE LIFE OF AGRICOLA. 171 but always bore an impartial testimony to the raeritorions actions of his officers, from the centurion to the commander of a legion. He was represented by some as rather 1 harsh in reproof; as if the same disposition | which made him affable to the deserving,/ had inclined him to austerity towards the worthless. But his anger left no relics behind ; his silence and reserve were not to be dreaded ; and he esteemed it more honourable to show marks of open dis- pleasure, than to entertain secret hatred. The fourth summer * was spent in securing the country which had been over- run ; and if the valour of the army, and the glory of the Roman name had permitted it, our conquests would have found a limit within Britain itself. For the tides of the opposite seas, flowing very far up the aistuaries of Clota and Bodotria % almost intersect the country ; leaving only a narrow neck of land, which was then defended by a chain of forts'. Thus all the territory « The year of Rome 834, A.D. 81. 3 Tlie^r//t5 of Clyde and Forth. * The nerk of land between these opposite arms of the sea is only about thirty miles over. About fifty-five years after Agricola had left the island, Lollius Urbicus, n ^ 172 THE LIFE OF AGRICOLA. on this side was held in subjection, and tlie remaining enemies were removed, as it were, into another island. In the fifth campaign % Agricola, cross- ing over in the first ship % subdued, by frequentandsuccessful engagements, several nations till then unknown ; and stationed governor of Britain nncTer Antoninus Pius, erected a vast wall or rampart, extending from Old Kirkpatrick on the Clyde, or Caeridden, two miles west of Abercorn^ on the For ill ; a space of near thirty-seven miles, defended by twelve or thirteen forts. These are sup- posed to have been on the site of those of Agricola. This wall is usually called Graham's dike ; and some parts of it are now subsisting. A noble canal from the Forth to the Clyde now making will, when completed, actually render the country beyond it another island ; though by a beneficial exertion of the arts of peace, instead of the jealous policy of a conqueror. ^ The year of Rome 835, A. D. 82. ^ Crossing \\\tjirth of Clyde, or Ihinibarton bay, and turning to the Western coast of Argyleshire, or the isles of Arran and Bute. Perhaps, however, Tacitus has erroneously connected Agricola's " crossing in a *' ship," with his establishing posts in that part of Scot- land opposite to Ireland ; since the nearest land to that island is Wigton in Galloway, to which he might advance without crossing any channel or firth, and which lies at the extremity of a tract of country much more tempting to a conqueror than the barren bills of Argyleshire, J. A. THE LIFE OF AGRICOLA. 173 troops in that part of Britain which is opposite to Ireland, rather with a view of future advantage, than from any appre- hension of revolt. For the possession of Ireland, situated between Britain and Spain, and ]ying coramodiouslv to the (iJallic sea, would have formed a very beneficial con- nection between the most powerful parts of the empire. This island is less than Britain, but larger than those of our sea \ Its soil, climate, and the manners and dis- positions of its inhabitants are little different from those of Britain. Its ports and har- bours are better known, from the concourse of merchants for the purposes of commerce. Agri£ola had received into his protection one of its petty kings, who had been ex- pelled by a domestic sedition ; and detained him under the semblance of friendship, till an occasion should offer of making use of him. I have frequently heard him assert, that a single legion and a few auxiliaries would be sufficient entirely to conquer Ireland and keep it in subjection. Such an event would also have been serviceable in our attempts against the Britons, by awing ' The Mediterranean. q3 174 THE LIFE OF AGRICOLA. them with the prospect of the Roman arms all around, and as it were, banishing liberty from their view. In the summer which began the sixth year ^ of Agricola's administration, extend- ing his views to the countries situated beyond Bodotria % a» a general insurrec- tion of the remoter nations was apprehended, and the roads were thought to be rendered unsafe by the enemy's army, he caused the harbours to be explored by his fleet, which had from the first been employed as an occasional assistance,, and now, while the war was at once pushed on by sea and land, made an advantageous impression by its appearance. The cavalry, infantry, and marines were frequently mingled in the same camp, and recounted with mutual pleasure their several exploits and dangers; "comparing, in the boastful language of military men, the dreary wilds of woods and mountains, with the horrors of waves and tempests ; and the land and the enemy subdued, v/ith the conquered ocean. It " The year of Rome 83C, A. D. 83. 9 The Eastern parts of Scotland, north of the JirtR of Forth ; where now are th« counties of i^z/e, Kinross^ Perth, Angus, &c. THE LIFE OF AGRICOLA. 175 was also discovered from the captives that the Britons had been struck with conster- nation at the view of the fleet, conceiving the last refuge of the vanquished to be cut off, now the secret recesses of their seas were disclosed. The various inhabitants of Caledonia immediately took to arms, with great preparations, but augmented by report, as usual where the truth is not known ; and by beginning hostilities and attacking our fortresses, they inspired terror as daring to act offensively /^inso- much that some persons, disguising their timidity under the mask of prudence, advised instantly retreating on this side the firtfi, and relinquishing the country rather than waiting to be driven out. Agricola, in the mean time, being informed that the enemy intended to bear down in several bodies, distributed his army into three divisions, that his inferiority of numbers, and ignorance of the country, might not give them an opportunity of surrounding him. When this was known to the enemy, they suddenly changed their design, and making a general attack in the night upon 176 THE LIFE OF AGRICOLA. the ninth legion, wliich was the weakest ', in the confusion of sleep and consternation they slaughtered the centinels, and burst tin'ough the entrenchments. They were now fighting within the camp, when Agri- cola, w ho had received information of their march from his scouts, and followed close upon their track, gave orders for the swiftest of his horse and foot to charge the enemy's rear. Presently the whole army raised a general shout ; and the standards now ghttered at the approach of day. The Britons were distracted by opposite dangers ; whilst the Romans in the camp resumed their courage, and secure of safety, began to contend for glory. They now in their turns rushed forwards to the attack, and a furious engagement ensued in the gates of the camp ; till by the emu- lous efforts of both Roman armies, one to give assistance, the other to appear not to require it, the enemy was routed : and had ' This legion, which had been weakened by many engagements, was afterwards recruited, and then called Gemina. Its station at this affair is supposed by Gordon to have been Lochore in Fifeshire. Mr. Pennant, as will hereafter be mentioned, rather imagines the place of the attack to have been Comerie in Perthshire. THE LIFE OF AGRICOLA. 177 not the marshes and forests protected the fugitives, that day would have terminated the war. The soldiers, elated with the honour acquired by this victory, fiercely exclaimed, that ' nothing could resist their valour ; ' now was the time to penetrate into the * heart of Caledonia, and by a continued ' series of engagements, at length to dis- ' cover the utmost limits of Britain :' and those who had before recommended caution and prudence» were now rendered rash and boastful by success. It is the hard con-^ dition of military command, that a share in prosperous events is claimed by all, but niisfortuncs are imputed to one alone, fj he Britons too, attributing their defeat ^lot to the superior bravery of their adver- saries, but to accident, and the skill of the jeneral, remitted nothing of their confi- dence ; but proceeded to arm their youth, to send their wives and children to places ^f safety, and to ratify the confederacy of their several states by solemn assemblies and sacrifices. Thus the parties separated Avith minds mutually inflamed and irritated. Ji Puring the same summer, a cohort of 178 THE LIFE OF AGRICOLA. Usipij % Avhich had been levied in Ger- many, and sent over into Britain, per- formed an extremely daring and remarka- ble action. After murdering a centurion and some soldiers who had been embodied with them for the purpose of instructing them in military discipline, they siezed upon three light vessels, and compelled the masters to go on board with them. One of them however escaping, they killed the other two upon suspicion ; and before the affair was publicly known, they sailed away, as it were by miracle. They were presently driven at the mercy of the waves; and had frequent engagements with various success with the Britons, who defended their property from plunder. At length they were reduced to such extremity of distress as to be obliged to feed upon eacli other ; the weakest being first sacrificed, and then such as were taken by lot. In this manner having sailed round the island, they lost their ships through want of skill ; and, being .taken for pirates, were inter- « For an account of these people see the foregoing Treatise, p. 81. THE LIFE OF AGRICOLA. 179 cepted, first by the Suevi, tlien by the Frisii. Some of them, after being sold for slaves, by the change of masters were brought to our side of the river % and became notorious from the relation of their ex- traordinary adventures *. Ill the beginning of the next summer % Agricola received a severe domestic viound in the loss of a son, about a year old. He bore this calamity not with the ostentatious firmness which many great men have af- fected, nor yet with the tears and lamenta- tions of feminine sorrow ; and war was one of the remedies of his grief. Having sent forwards his fleet to spread its ravages through various parts of the coast, in order to excite an extensive and dubious terror, 5 The Rhine. * This extraordinary expedition, accoi-'iing to Dio, set out from the Western side of the island. They therefore must have coasted all that part of Scotland, must have passed the intricate navigation through the Hebrides, and the dangerous strait of Peutland Jirth, and after coming round to the Eastern side, must have been driven to the mouth of the Baltic sea. Here they lost their ships ; and in their attempt to proceed homeward by land, were siezed as pirates, part by the Suevi, and the rest by the Frisii. * The year of Rome ^37, A. D. 84. 180 THE LIFE OF AGRICOLA. he marched Avith an army equipped fol* expedition, to which he had joined the bravest of the Britons, Avhose fidelity had been approved through a long- peace ; and I arrived at the Grampian hills, where the enemy was already encamped \ For the ^ The scene of this celebrated engagement is by Gordon fitin. Septent.J supposed to be in Strut hern, near a place now called the Kirk of Coynerie, where are the renaains of two Roman camps. Mr. Pennant, however, in his Tour in 177-2, Part ii. p. 96, gives reasons which appear well founded for dissenting from Gordon's opinion. His account is as follows. " Near " this place fComerieJ on a plain of some extent, is " the famous camp which Mr. Gordon contends to have '• been occupied by Agricola, immediately before the " battle of Moiis Grampins ; and to which, in order to " support his argument, he gives the name of Galgachan, " as if derived from Galgacus, leader of the Caledo- " nians, at that fatal engagement. This camp lies " between the river of Earn and the little stream called '• the Ruchel : and on a plain too contracted for such a " number of combatants, as Tacitus says there was, to *' form and to act in, or for their charioteers or cavalry *' to scour the field. There are indeed small hills at the " foot of the greater, where the British forces might " have ranged themselves before the battle : but the " distance from the sea is an insuperable argument " against this being the spot, as we are expressly *' informed that Agricola sent his fleet before, in order ** to distract and divide the attention of the enemy; and THE LIFE OF AGRICOLA. 181 Britons, undismayed by the event of the former action, expecting revenge or slavery, " that he hinif^elf marched with his army till he arrived " at the Grampian mountain, where he found Galgacus " encamped. From the whole account given by Tacitus, *' it should be supposed, that action was fought in an " open country, at the foot of certain hills, not in a " little plain amidst defiles, as the vallies about Comerie " consist of." Mr. Pennant then goes on to shew the greater probability of its having been the station in •which the ninth legion was attacked, as before related. He observes that " — in the general insurrection of that *' gallant people in the sixth year of Agricola's command, " he divided his army into three parts ; one might be at ^* Ardoch; the other at Stragelh ; the third or the " ninth legion might be sent to push up the defiles of *' Comerie, in order to prevent the enemy from sur- •' rounding him, or taking advantage of their knowledge " of the country, or his inferiority of numbers. His " three divisions lay so near, as to enable them to assist " each other in case of an attack. The Caledonians " naturally directed their force against the weake.st of " the three armies, the ninth legion, which probably " had not fully recovered the loss it sustained in the " bloody attack by Boadicia. The camp also was weak, " being no more than a common one, such as the Romans " flung up on their march. It has no appearance of ever " having been stative ; and it is probable that as soon as " Agricola had, by an expeditious march, relieved this " part of his army out of a difficulty they were fairly " involved in, he deserted the place; and never ha- *' zarded his troops again amid.st the narrows of this '• hostile country." J. A. R 182 THE LIFE OF AGRICOLA. and at length taught that the common dan- ger was to be repelled by union alone, had summoned the strength of all their tribes by embassies and confederacies. Upwards of thirty thousand men in arms were now descried ; and the youth, together with those of a hale and vigorous age, renowned in war, and bearing their several honorary decorations, were still flocking in ; when Calgacus % the most distinguished for birth and valour among the numerous chieftains, is said to have harangued the assembled multitude, eager for battle, after the following manner. ' When I reflect on the causes of the ' war, and the circumstances of our situa- * tion, I feel a strong persuasion that our ' united efforts on the present day will * prove the beginning of universal liberty ' to Britain. For none of us are hitherto ' debased by slavery ; and there is no land ' behind us, nor is even the sea secure, ' whilst the Roman fleet hovers around. ' Thus the use of arms, which is at all ' times honourable to the brave, now offers ' the only safety even to cowards. All the ' The more usual spelling of this name is Galgacus ; but the other is preferred as of better authority. THE LIFE OF AGRICOLA. 183 battles which have yet been fought with various success against the Romans, liad their resources of hope and aid in our hands ; for we, the noblest inhabitants of Britain, and therefore stationed in its deepest recesses, far from the view of servile shores, have preserved even our eyes unpolluted by the contract of subjection. We, at the farthest limits both of land and liberty, have been de- fended to this day by the remoteness of our situation and of our fame. The ex- tremity of Britain is now disclosed ; and- whatever is unknown becomes an object of importance. But there is no nation beyond us ; nothing but waves and rocks, and the still more hostile Romans, whose arrogance v.e cannot escape by obsequi- ousness and submission. These plun- ? derers of the world, after exhausting the land by their devastations, are rifling the ocean : stimulated by avarice, if their enemy be rich ; by ambition, if poor : unsatiated by the East and by the West :. the only people who behold wealth and ' indigence with equal avidity. To ravage v i<* to slaughter, to u.nirp under false titles^ r2 184 THE LIFE OF AGRICOLA. ' they call empire ; and where they make ' a (lesarf, they call it peace \ j ' Our children and relations are by the I' appointment of nature rendered the •' dearest of all tilings to us. These are ' torn away by levies to serve in foreign * lands ^ Our wives and sisters, though f they should escape the violation of hostile T force, are polluted under names of friend- ^ ship and hospitality. Our estates and " possessions are consumed in tributes ; ^ our grain in contributions. Evpn our 1 bodies are worn down amidst stripes and * insults in clearing Moods and draining I marshes. Wretches born to slavery are ' once bought, and afterwards maintained ' by their masters : Britain every day buys, ' every day feeds her own servitude '. And * Peace given to the world, is a very frequent in- scription on the Roman medals. s It was the Roman policy to send the recruits raised in the provinces to some distant country, for fear of (heir desertion or revolt. ' How much this was the fate of the Romans them- selves, when, in the decline of the empire, they were obliged to pay tribute to the surrounding barbarians, is shewn in lively colours by Salvian. " Vi'e call that '• a gift which is a purchase, and a purchase of a con- ♦' dition the most hard and miserable. For all captives. THE LIFE OF AGRICOLA. 185 * as among domestic slaves every new ' comer serves for the scorn and derision ' of his fellows; so. in this ancient house- ' hold of the world, we, as the newest and ' vilest, are sought out to destruction. For ' we have neither cultivated lands, nor ' mines, nor harbours, which can induce ' them to preserve us for our labours. The ' valour too and unsubmitting spirit of ' subjects only renders them more ob- ' noxious to their masters; while remoteness ' and secrecy of situation itself, in propor- ' tion as it conduces to security, tends to * inspire suspicion. Since then all hopes ' of forgiveness are vain, let those at length' ' assume courage, to whom safety, as well * as to whom glory is dear. The Trino- ' bantes, even under a female leader, had ' force enough to burn a colony, to storm ' camps, and if success had not introduced ' neffliffence and inactivitv, would have ' been able entirely to throw off the yoke ;' ' and shall not we, untouched, unsubdued, ' and struggling not for the acquisition,. " when they are once redeemed, enjoy their liberty : " we are continually paying a ransom, yet are never '* free." De Gubern. Dei, vi. k3 186 THE LIFE OF AGRICOLA. ' but the continuance of liberty, shew a! * the very first onset what men Caledonia ' has reserved for her defence ? ] ' Can you imagine that the Romans are )' as brave in war as they are licentious in ' peace? Acquiring renown from our dis- ^ cords and dissentions, they convert the ' errors of their enemies to the glory of ' their own army ; an army compounded ' of the most different nations, which as *• success alone has kept together, misfortune * will certainly dissipate. Unless, indeed, ' you can suppose that Gauls, and Ger- ' mans, and (I blush to say it) even Britons, ' who though they lavish their blood to * estabhsh a foreign dominion, have been * longer its foes than its subjects, will be * retained by loyalty and affection ! Terror ' and dread alone are their weak bonds of ' attachment ; which once broken, they who ' cease to fear will begin to hate. Every f incitement to victory is on our side. The Romans have no wives to animate them ; I* no parents to upbraid their flight. Most f of them have either no home, or a distant 'f one. Few in number, ignorant of the ' country, looking around in silent horror ' at woods, seas, and a heaven itself uu- THE LIFE OF AGRrCOLA. 187 known to them, they are delivered by the g'ods, as it were imprisoned and bound, into our hands. Be not terrified with an idle shew, and the glitter of silver and gold, which can neither protect nor wound. In the very ranks of the enemy we shalf find our own bands. The Britons v.ill- acknowledg-e their own cause. The Gauis will recollect their former liberty. The rest of the Germans will desert them, as the Usipii have lately done. Nor is there any thing formidable behind them : Un- garrisoned forts ; colonies of old men ; municipal towns distempered and dis- tracted between unjust masters, and ill obeying subjects. Here is a general ; here an army. There, tributes, mines, and all the train of punishments inflicted on slaves ; which, whether to bear eternally, or in- stantly to revenge, this field must deter- mine. March then to battle, and think of your ancestors and your posterity.' They received this harangue with alacri- ty, and testified their applause after the barbarian manner, with songs, and yells, and dissonant shouts. And now the several divisions were in motion, and the glittering 188 THE LIFE OF AGRICOI.A. of arms was beheld, whilst the most daring- and impetuous were hurrying' to the front, and the two armies were forming in line of battle ; when Agricola, although his soldiers were full of ardour, and scarcely to be kept within their intrenchments, thought proper thus to address them. ' It is now the eighth year, my fellow ' soldiers, in which under the high auspices ' of the Roman empire, by your valour and ' perseverance you have been conquering ' Britain. In so many expeditions, in so ' many battles, either your courage against ' the ei»emy, or your patient labours against ' the very nature of tl)€ country, have been ' exercised ; neither have I ever been dis- ' satisfied with my soldiers, nor you with ' your general. In this mutual confidence, ' we have proceeded beyond the limits of ' former commanders and former armies ; ' and are now become acquainted with the * extremity of the island, not by uncertain ' rumour, but by actual possession with ' our arms and encampments. Britain is ' discovered and subdued. How often, on ' a march, when embarassed with moun- ' tains, bogs and rivers, have I heard the THE LIFE OF AGRICOLA. 189 ' bravest amono- you exclaim, "When shall ' " we descry the enemy, M-hen shall we be * " led to the field of battle?" At length * they are unharboured from their retreats ; ' yonr wishes and your valour have now * free scope ; and every circumstance is ' equally propitious to the conqueror, and ' ruinous to the vanquished. For the ' trreater our glory in having marched over ' vast tracts of Jand, penetrated forests, and ' orossecl arms of the sea, while advancino- ' towards the foe, the greater ^viil be our ' danger and difficulty ifwe should attempt ' a retreat. We are inferior to our ene- ' mies in knowledge of the country, and ' less able to command supplies of pro- ' vision ; but we have arms in our hands, ' and in these we have every thing. For ' myself, I have long since determined, that ' neither the army nor general should find * their safety in flight. Kot only then are ' we to reflect that death with honour is ' preferable to life Mith ignominy ; but to. ' remember that security and glory are ' seated in the same place. Even to fall in ' this extreraest verge of earth and of na- ' ture cannot be thought an inglorious ' fate. 190 THE LIFE OF AGRICOLA, * If unknown nations or untried troops were drawn up against you, I would exhort you from the example of other armies. At present, recollect your own honours, question your own eyes. These are they who, the last year, attacking by surprise a single legion in the obscurity of the night, were put to flight by a shout : the greatest fugitives of all the Britons, and therefore the longest survivors. As in penetrating woods and thickets,the fiercest animals boldly rush on the hunters, while the weak and timorous fly at their very noise ; so the bravest of the Britons have long since fallen : the remaining number consists solely of the cowardly and spiritless ; whom you see at length within your reach, not because they have stood their ground, but because they are overtaken. Torpid with fear, their bodies are fixed and chained down in yonder field, which to you will speedily be the scene of a glorious and memorable victory. Here bring your toils and services to a conclusion ; close a struggle of fifty years ' * The expedition of Claudius into Britain was in the year of Rome 796, from which to the period of this engagement only forty-two years were elapsed. The THE LIFE OF AGRICOLA. 191 * with one great day ; and convince your * countrymen that to the army ought not * to be imputed either the protraction of * the war, or the causes of rebellion.' Whilst Agricola was yet speaking, the ardour of the soldiers declared itself; and as soon as he had finished, they burst forth into cheerful acclamations, and instantly flew to arms. Thus eager and impetuous, he formed them so that the centre was occupied by the auxiliary infantry, in num- ber eight thousand, and three thousand horse were spread in the wings. The legions were stationed in the rear, before the entrenchments ; a disposition which would render the victory signally glorious, if it were obtained without the expense of Roman blood ; and would ensure assist- ance if the rest of the army were repulsed. The British troops, for the greater display of their numbers, and more formidable appearance, were ranged upon the rising- grounds, so that the first line stood upon the plain, the rest, as if linked together, rose above one another upon the ascent. number fifty therefore is given oratorically rather than accurately. 192 THE LIFE OF AGRICOLA. The charioteers ' and horsemen with their tumult and careering- filled the middle of the field. Then Agricola, fearing- from the superior number of the enemj^ l«st he should be oblig-ed to fight as well as on his llanks as in front, extended his files; and although this rendered his line of battle ' The Latin word used here, covinarius, signifies the driver of a covinus, or chariot, the axle of which was Dent into the form of a scythe. The British manner of fighting from chariots is particularly described by Caesar, who gives them the name of esseda. " The ** following is the manner of fighting from the essedce, '* They first drive round with them to all parts of the '•■ line, throwing theirjavelins, and generally disordering " the ranks by the very alarm occasioned by the horses, " and the rattling of the wheels : then as soon as they " have insinuated themselves between the troops of " horse, they leap from their chariots, and fight on '* foot. The drivers then withdraw a little from the *' battle, in order that, if their friends are overpowered •' by numbers, they may have a secure retreat to the *' chariots. Thus they act with the celerity of horse *' and the stability of foot ; and by daily use and exercise " they acquire the power of holding up their horses at " full speed down a steep declivity, of stepping them " suddenly, and turning in a short compass; and they '* accustom themselves to run upon the pole, and stand " on the cross tree, and from thence with great agility " to recover their place in the chariot." Bell. Gall, iv. 33. THE LIFE OF AGRICOLA. 193 ]eft THE LIFE OF AGRICOLA. 201 He therefore caused the senate to decree him triumphal ornaments', a statue crowned with laurel, and all the other honours which are substituted to a real triumph, together with a profusion of complimentary ex- pressions ; and also directed an expectation to be raised that the province of Syria, vacant by the death of Atilius Rufus, a consular man, and usually reser\'ed for persons of the greatest distinction, was designed for Agricola. It was commonly believed, that one of the freed-men who were entrusted with secret services was dispatched witli the instrument appointing Agricola to the government of Syria, with orders to deliver it if he should be still in. Britain ; but that this messenger, meeting Agricola in the straits % returned directly to Domitian without so much as accosting * Nut the triumph itself, which, after the year of Rome 740, was no longer granted to private persons, but reserved for the imperial family. This new piece of adulation was invented by Agrippa in order to gratify Augustus. The " triumphal ornaments" which were still bestowed, were a peculiar garment, a statue, and other insignia which had distinguished the person of the triumphing general. ' Of Dover, 202 THE LIFE OF AGRICOLA. him. Whether this was really the fact, or only a fiction founded on the genius and character of the prince, is uncertain. Agri- cola, in the mean time, had delivered the province, in peace and security, to his successor ° ; and lest his entry into the city should be rendered too conspicuous by the concourse and acclamations of the people, he declined the salutations of his friends by arriving in the night ; and went by night, as he was commanded, to the palace. There, after being received with a slight embrace, but not a word spoken, he was mingled with the servile throng. In this situation, he endeavoured to soften the glare of military reputation, which is offensive to those who themselves live in indolence, by the practice of virtues of a different cast. He resigned himself to ease and tranquillity, was modest in his garb and equipage, affable in conversation, and in public was only accompanied by one or two of his friends ; insomuch that the many, * Agricola's successor in Britain appears to have been Salustiiis Lucullus, who, as Suetonius informs us, was put to death by Domitian because be permitted cer- tain lances of a new construction to be called Lucullean, F. Domit. X. THE LIFE OF AGRICOLA. 203 who are accustomed to form Ibeir ideas of great men from their retinue and figure, "vvhen they beheh! Agricohi were apt to call in question his renown : few could interpret his conduct. He was frequently, during that period, accused in his absence before Domitian, and in his absence also acquitted. The source of his danger was not any criminal action, nor the complaint of any injured ^ person ; but a prince hostile to virtue, and '. his own high reputation, and the worst kind of enemies, those who praised him \ For the public circumstances of the time which ensued were such as would not permit the name of Agricola to rest in silence : so many armies in Moesia, Dacia, Germany, and Pannonia were lost through the temerity or cowardice of their generals ® ; so many men 7 Of this worst kind of enemies, who praise a man in order to render him obnoxious, the emperor Juhan, who had himself suffered greatly by them, speeks feel- ingly in his r2lli epistle to Basilius. " For we live *' together not in that state of dissimulation which, I " imagine, you have hitherto experienced ; in which " those who praise you, hate you with a more confirmed *' aversion than your most inveterate enemies." » These calamitous events are recorded by Suetonius in his Life of Domitian. 204 THE LIFE OF AGRICOLA. of military character, with numerous co- horts, were defeated and taken prisoners ; whilst a dubious contest was maintained, not for the boundaries of the empire, and the banks of the bordering rivers % but for the winter quarters of the legions, and the possession of our territories. In this state of atfairs, when loss succeeded loss, and every year was signalized by funerals and slaughters, the public voice loudly demanded Agricola for general ; every one comparing his vigour, firmness, and spirit well tried in war, with the indolence and pusillanimity of the others. It is certain that the ears of Domitian himself were wounded by such discourses, while the best of his freed-men pressed him to the choice through motives of fidelity and affection, and the worst through envy and malignity, emotions to which he was of himself sufficiently prone. Thus Agricola, as well by his own virtues, as the vices of others, was urged on pre- cipitously to glory. The year now arrived in which the pro- consulate of Asia or Africa must fall by lot * The Rhine and Danube. THE LIFE OF AGRICOLA. 205 Upon Agricola ' ; and as Civica had lately been put to death, Aorirnia was not un- provided with a lesson, nor Dotniiian with an example ^ Some persons, acquainted with the secret inclinations of the emperor, came to Agricola, and inquired whether he intended to go to his province ; and first, somewhat distantly, began to commend a life of leisure and tranquillity ; then offered their services in procuring him to be ex- cused from the office ; and at length, throwing off all disguise, after using argu- ments both to persnade and intimidate him, compelled him to accompany them to Domitian. The emperor, prepared to dissemble, and assuming an air of stateli- ness, received his petition for excuse, and suffered himself to be formally thanked ' ' The two senior coDsalars cast lots for the govern- ment of Asia and Africa. * Suetonius relates that Civica Cerealis was put to death in his proconsulate of Asia, on the charge of meditating a revolt. V. Domit. x. ' Obliging persons to return thanks for an injury was a refinement in tyranny frequently practised by the worst of tile Roman emperors. Thus Seneca informs us that " Caligula was thanked hy those whose children " had been put to death, and whose property had been "confiscated." Dc Tranquil, tlw. And again, " The T 206 THE LIFE OF AGRICOLA. for granting it, without blushing at so in- vidious a favour. He did not, however, bestow on Agricola the salary ' usually offered to a proconsul, and which he him- self had granted to others; either taking offence that it was not requested, or feeling a consciousness that it would seem a pur- chase of what he had in reality extorted by his authority. It is a principle of our na- ture to hate those whom we have injured ' ; and Domitian was constitutionally inclined to anger, which was the more difficult to be averted, in proportion as it was the more smotliered in secret. Yet he was softened by the temper and prudence of Agricola ; who did not think it necessary, by a con- tumacious spirit, or a vain ostentation of " reply of a person who had grown old in his attendance " on kings, when he was asked, how he had attained *' a thing so uncommon in courts as old age ? is well " known. It was, said he, by receiving injuries, and *' returning thanks." De Ira, ii. 33. ■* From a passage in Dio, Ixxviii, p. 899, this sum appears to have been decies seslertium, about £9000. sterling. * Thus Seneca. " Little souls rendered insolent by *' prosperity have this worst property, that they hate " those whom they have injured." De Ira, ii. 33. THE LIFE OF AGRICOLA. 207 liberty, to challenge fame or urge his fate °. 1 Let those be apprized, who are accustomed to admire every thing forbidden, that even under a bad prince men may be truly great ; that submission and modesty, if accom- panied Avith vigour and application, will elevate a character to a height of public estimation, equal to that which many, through abrupt and dangerous paths, have attained, without benefit to their country, by an ambitions death. His decease was a severe affliction to his family, a grief to his friends, and was not unfelt even among foreigners, and those who had no personal knowledge ot him \ The common people too, though little interested in public concerns, uere frequent in their inquiries at his house during his sickness, and made him the subject of conversation at the forum and in private circles ; nor did any person either rejoice at * Several who suffered under Nero and Domitiaa erred, though nobly, in this respect. 7 A Greek epigram still extant of Antiphilus a Byzantine, to the memory of a certain Agricola, is supposed by the learned to refer to the great man who is the subject of this work. It is in the Anlhologia, Lib. I Tit. 37. t2 208 THE LIFE OF AGRICOLA. the news of his death, or speedily forget it. Their commiseration was aggravated by a prevailing report that he was taken off by poison. 1 cannot venture to affirm any thhig certain of this matter'; yet, during the whole course of his illness, the princi- pal of the imperial freed-men and the most confidential of the physicians were sent much more frequently than is customary in courts, where visits are chiefiy paid by messages, whether out of real regard, or for the purposes of state inquisition. On the day of his decease, it is certain that accounts of his approaching dissolution were every instant transmitted to the em- peror by couriers stationed for the purpose ; and no one believed that the information which so much pains was taken to accelerate, could be received with regret. He put on, however, in his countenance and demean- our, the semblance of grief; for he was now secured from an object of hatred, and could more easily conceal his joy than his fear. It was well knoMu that on reading the will, in which he was nominated coheir * Dio absolutely afllnns it ; but from tbe manner in which Tacitus, who had better means of inforniationj speaks of it, the story vas probably false. THE LIFE OF AGRICOLA. 209 "with the excellent wife and most dutiful daughter of Agricola, he expressed great satisfaction, as if it had been a voluntary testimony of honour and esteem : so blind and coiTupt liad his mind been rendered by continual adulation, that he was ignorant none but a bad prince could be appointed heir to a good father. Agricola was born in the ides of June, during the third consulate of Caius Caesar: he died in his fifty-sixth year, on the tenth of the calends of September, when Collega and Priscus were consuls ^ Posterity may wish to form an idea of his person. His figure was rather proper and becoming than majestic. In his countenance there was nothing to inspire dread ; but his looks were extremely gracious and en- gaging. You would readily have believed him a good man, and willingly a great one. £• Accarding to this account, the birth of Agricola ■was on June 13th, in the year of Houie 793, A.D, 40; and his death on August 23rd, in the year of Ronae 846, A.D. 93: for this appears by the Fasti Consulares to have been the year of the consulate of Collega and Priscus. He was therefore only in his fifty-fourth year when he died ; so that the copyists mast probably have written by mistake LVI instead of LIV. t3 210 THE LIFE OF AGRICOLA. And indeed, although he was snatched away in the midst of a vigorous age, yet if his life be measured by his glory, it was a period of the greatest extent. For after ! the full enjoyment of all that is truly good, which is found in virtuous pursuits alone, decorated with consular and triumphal ornaments, what more could fortune con- ' tribute to his elevation ? Immoderate wealth did not fall to his share, yet he possessed a decent affluence \ His wife and daughter g^urviving, his dignity unimpaired,' his repu- tation flourishing, and his kindred and friends yet in safety, it may even be thought an additional felicity that he was thus with- drawn from impending evils. For, as vve have heard him express his wishes of con- tinuing to the dawn of the present au- spicious day, and beholding Trajan in the imperial seat, wishes in which he formed a certain presage of the event ; so he con- sidered it as a great consolation of his pre- ;^ature end, to have escaped that latter Iperiod, in which Domitian, not by inteiTals |a«d remissions, but by a continued, and, as i ' From this represenfafion, Dio appears to have been mistaken in asserting that Agricola passed the latter part of his life in dishonour and penury. THE LIFE OF AGRICOLA. 211 fit Mere a single act of violence, was to de- jsti'oy the vitals of the commonwealth *. » Agricola did not behold the senate liouse (besieged, and tlie senators enclosed by a jcircle of arms ' ; and in one havock the 'massacre of so many consular men, the ifiight and banishment of so many honour- jable women. As yet Cams Metius * was - Juvenal breaks out in a noble strain of indignation against this savage cruelty which distinguished the latter part of Domitiairs reign. Atqae utinam his potius nugis tota ilia dedisset Tempora ssevitijE : claras quibus abstulit Urbi niustresque animus impune, et vindice nullo. Sed periit, postquatn cerdonibus esse timendus Cceperat: hoc nocuit Lamiarium csede madenti. Sat. iv. Vj*}. What folly this ! but oh! that all the rest Of his dire reign had thus been spent in jest '. And all thai time such trifles had employ'd lo wbith so many nobles he dcstroyM ! He safe, they unrevensi'd, to the disgrace Of the surviving:, tamo, Patrician race ! T>ut when he dreadful to the rabble grew, Him, who so many lords had slain, they slew. DuKK. * This happened in the year of Rome 84S. *• Carus and Massa, who were proverbially infamous as informers, are represented by Juvenal as dreading a still more dangerous villain, Ileliodorus. Qaem Massa timet, quem munere palpat Cams. Sat. i. 35. ^\ horn IVIassa dread», i^-hom Csros sooths with bribe*. 212 THE LIFE OF AGRICOLA distinguished only by a single victory ; the counsels of Messalinus* resounded only through the Albanian citadel®; and Massa Carus is also mentioned with deserved infamy by Pliny and Martial, He was a mimic by profession, * Of this odious instrument of tyranny, Fliny the younger thus speaks, " The conversation turned upon " Catullus Messalinus, whose loss of sight added the " evils of blindness to a cruel disposition. He was ** irreverent, unblushing, unpitying. Like a weapon, " of itself blind and unconscious, he was frequently " hurled by Domitian against every man of worth." iv. 22, Juvenal launches the thunder of invective against him in the following lines, Et cum mortifero prndens Vejeiito Catullo, Qui numquam visae flagrabat amore puelJae, Grande, et conspicuum nostroquoque tempore monstrura^ Csecus adulator, dirusque a ponte satelles, Diguus Aricinos qui mendicaret ad axes, Blandaque devexse jaclaret basia rhedee. Sat. iv. 113. Cunning Vejento next, and by his side Bloody Catullus leaning on his guide, Decrepit, yet a furious lover he, And deeply smit with charms be could not see. A monster, thai ev'n this worst age outvies, Conspicuous and above the common size. A blind base flatterer; from some bridge or gate, Rais'd to a murd'ring minister of state. Deserving still to beg upon the road. And bless each passing waggon and its load. DuKE* * This was a famous villa of Domitian's, near the site of the ancient Alba, about twelve miles from Rome, The place is now called ^/6a7Jo, and vast ruins of its magnificent edifices still remain. THE LIFE OF AGRICOLA, 213 Ba^biiis ' was himself among the accused. Soon after, our own hands ' led Helvidius' to prison ; ourselves were tortured with the f^fiectacle of Mauricus and Rusticus ', and ' Tacitus, in his History, mentions this Massa Ejebius as a person most destructive to all men of worth, and constantly engaged on the side of villains. Frora a letter of Pliny's to Tacitus, it appears that Herennius Senerio and himself were joined as counsel fur the province of Bcetica in a prosecution of Massa Bajbius; and that Massa after his condemnation pe- titioned the consuls for liberty to prosecute Senecio for treason. * By " our own hands," Tacitus means one of our own body, a senator. As Pnblicius Certus had seized upon Helvidius and led him to prison, Tacitus imputes the crime to the whole senalorian order. To the same purpose Pliny observes, " Amidst the numerous vil- " lainies of numerous persons, nothing appeared more " atrocious, than that in the senate-house one senator " should lay hands on another, a praetorian on a consular " man, a judge on a criminal." B. ix. Ep, 13. 9 Helvidius Priscus, a friend of Pliny the younger, who did not suffer his death to remain unrevenged. See the Epistle above referred to. ' There is in this place some defect in the manu- scripts, which critics have endeavoured to supply ia different manners. Brotier seems to prefer, though he does not adopt in the text, " nos Mauricum Rusticumque " divisimus," " we parted Mauricus and Rusticus," by the death of one and the banishment of the other. The prosecution arid crime of Rusticus (f\rulenus) is 214 THE LIFE OF AGRICOLA. sprinkled with the innocent blood of Se- necio \ Even Nero withdrew his eyes from the cruelties he commanded. Under Domitian, it was the principal part of our miseries to behold and to be beheld : when our sighs were registered ; and that stern countenance, with its settled redness % his defence against shame, was employed in noting the pallid horror of so many spectators. Happy, O Agricola ! not only in the splen- dour of your life, but in the seasonableness of your death. With resignation and cheer- fulness, from the testimony of those wha were present in your last moments, did you meet your fate, as if striving to the utmost of your power to make the emperor appear guiltless. But to myself and your daughter, mentioned in the beginning of this piece, p. 127. Mau- ricus was his brother. ® Herennius Senecio. See p. 127. 3 Thus Pliny in his Panegyr. on Trajan, xlviii. " Domitian was terrible even to behold ; pride in bis " brow, anger in his eyes, a feminine paleness in the " rest of his body, in his fsce shanielessness suffused iu " a glowing red." Seneca in Epist. xi remarks, that " Some are never more to be dreaded than when they " blush ; as if they had effused all their modesty, " Sylla was always most furious when the blood had " mounted into his cheeks," THE LIFE OF AGRICOLA. 215 besides the anguish of losing a parent, the aggravating affliction remains, that it way not our lot to watch over your sick bed, to support you when fainting, and to satiate ourselves with beholding and embracing you. With wliat attention should we have received your last instructions, and engraven them on our hearts ! This is our sorrow ; this is our wound : to us you were lost four years before by a tedious absence. Every thing, doubtless, oh best of parents ! was administered for your comfort and honour, while a most affectionate wife sat beside you ; yet fewer tears were shed upon your bier, and in the last light which your eyes beheld, something was still wanting. If there be any habitation for the shades of the virtuous ; if, as philosophers suppose, exalted souls do not perish with the body ; may you repose in peace, and call us, your household, from vain regret and feminine lamentations, to the contemplation of your virtues, winch allow no place for mourning or complaining. Let us rather adorn your memory by our admiration, by our short- lived praises, and, U our natures will per- mit, by an imitation of your character. This is truly to honour the dead ; this is 216 THE LIFE OF AGRICOLA. the piety of every near relation. I would also recommend it to the wife and daughter of this g-reat man, to shew their veneration of a husband's and a father's memory by revolving- his actions and words in their breasts, and endeavouring to retain an idea [of the form and features of his mind, rather than of his person. Not that I would reject those resemblances of the human figure which are engraven in brass or marble ; ■but as their originals are frail and perish- \ able, so likewise are they; while the form of the raind is eternal, and not fo be retained or expressed by any foreign matter, or the artist's skill, but by the manners of the sur- vivors. ^ Whatever in Agricola was the object "of our love, of our admiration, re- mains, and will remain in the minds of men, transmitted in the records of fame, through an eternity of years. For while many great personages of antiquity will be involved in a common oblivion with the mean and inglorious, Agricola shall sur- vive, represented and conveyed to future ages. INDEX. N. B. A71 Asterisk affixed to a number denotes the article to be in the notes. xjLDULTERY, how punished by tbe Germans, p. 50. -^stii, 115. Agnation, what, 53*. Agricola, Cnajus Julius, his birth, 130. education, 132. first military services, 134. marriag^e, 135. questor- ship, 13G. tribuneship, 137. prsetorship, ibid, ap- pointment to an inquest concerning offerings to the temples, ibid. The murder of his mother, 138. De- clares for Vespasian, 139. Appointed to the command of the 20th legion, ibid. Serves in Britain, 140. Called to the patrician order, 141. IMade governor of Aquitania, ib. His civil administration, ib. Created consul, 143. Marries his daughter to Ta- citus, ib. Made governor of Britain, ib. His arrival there, 161. Defeats the Ordovires, 1G3. Reduces Mona, ib. His civil administration, 1(>5. second campaign, 167. third campaign, 169. Penetrates to the Tay, ib. His skill in the erection of fortresses, 170. fourth campaign, 171. fifth cami,)aign, 172. sixth campaign, 174. Defeats the Calt-donians in their attack on the 9th legion, 176. Loses his son, 179. His seventh campaign, ib. speech to his army at Mans Grampius, 188. Draws up his troops, 191. Defeats the Caledonians. 194, et seq. Trium- phal honours decreed hitn, 201. Heturiis to Rome, 202. His behaviour there, ib. Wishes of the public concerning him. 204. jNanied proconsul, but ex- cused from goins: to his province, 205. His pru- dent conduct, 206. death, 207. testament, 208. Description of bis person, 209, U 218 INDEX. Alcis, a German divinity, 109. Ale and beer, by whom used, Gl*. Amber, its origin and nature, 116*." Angli, 101. Angrivarii, 83. Antoninus, his wall, 172*. Aravisci, 73, Arii, 109, 110. Arulenus Rusticus, put to death by Domitian, 127, 213. Assemblies, public, among the Germans, 31. Aulus Plautius, governor of Britain, 155. Aviones, 101. Bards, their songs, 7. Batavi, 74. Boadicea, her revolt, 158, Bodotria, estuary of, 171, 174. Boii, 72, lOG. Brigantes, IGO. Britain, successive governors of, 140. Its situation, 143. form, 144. First proved to be an island, 145. Nature of its sea and tides, 140. Its inhabitants, 147. climate, 150. long days, ibid. soil and products, 151. metals, ib. pearls, 152. Roman transactions in, 153. Britons, their derivation, 147, 148. character, 149. military force, ib. government, ib. degree of sub- jection, 153. revolt under Boadicea, 156, et seq, adoption of Roman manners, 1G9. Bructeri, 82. Burgundians, 100*. Burii, 107. C. Caesar, his victory over Ariovistus, 96*. Caledonians, whence derived, 147. their general re- volt, 175. attack on the 9th legion, ib. Assemble at the Grampian hills, 180. Their position, 101. De- feated, 194, et seq. INDEX. 219 Calgacus, general of the Caledonians, his speech, 182. Camalodunum, colony of, 135*. Carus Melius, an informer, 211. Catti, 77. Catullus Messalinus, an instrument of Domitian's cruelty, 212. Chariots, British, manner of fighting from, 192*. Chauci, 87. Chamavi, 83. Chasaurii, 85. Cherusci, 89. Chivalry, rudiments of, 37*. Cimbri, their dress and armour described, 15*. cruel manner of divination, 23*. origin, 91. def^iat of Carbo, 93*. of Scaurus, 94*. of Caepio and Ulan- lius, ib. Defeated by Marius, 96*. Circumnavigation of Britain, by the Usipian deserters, 178. by the fleet of Agricola, 198. Claudius, emperor, his invasion of Britain, 154. Clota, estuary of, 171. Cogidunus, a British king, 155. Coin, debased, precautions against, 13*. Serrati and Bigati, what, ib. Companions, assisting in the distribution of justice, S7. of arms, 39. Their attachment to their chiefs, 40, Method of supporting, 42. D. Danube, its origin and course, 2. Decuniate lands, 76. Denariatus, what, 66*. Didius Gallus, governor of Britain, 155. Divination, methods of among the Germans, 29, et seq. Domitia Decidiana, wife of Agricola, 135. Domitian, his mock triumph over Germany, 199. anxi- ety concerning Agricola's success, 200. flatters him, 201. manner of receiving him, 202. artifices to pre- vent him from going to his government, 205. Cru- elty of the latter part of his reign, 210, et seq. Dulgibini, 85. u 2 220 INDEX. E. Elbe, rise of, 165. Elysii, 109. Eudoses, 101. Exchequer, origin of, 42*. F. Fenni, 120. Forunijulii, the birth-place of Agricola, 130. Fosi, 90. Framea, a German weapon, 14. Francic league, 81*. Freedman, what, 66*. Frisii, 85. Funerals, German, 69. expence of among the Romans,. 69 ^ G. Galgacus, see Calgacus. Gauls, their migrations into Germany, 71. Germans, supposed indigenous. 3. Unmixed with other nations, 10. Their constitution of body, ib. commerce, 12. weapons and armour, 14, 15. ca- valry, 16. infantry intermixed with cavalry, 17. civil division, 18*, 36*. manner of fighting, 18. kings and chiefs, 19, 20. priests, punish offenders, 20. women, influence of and respect paid to 23, tt seq, religion, 24. divination and augury, 29, 30. public assemblies, 31, 33. computation of time, 32. punishments and fines, 34, 35. time of assuming arms, 37*, 38. manner of passing their time, 41. contributions, 42. way of building, 43. subterranean caves, 44. clothing, 45. matrimonial chastity, 48, et seq. presents to their wives, 48. filth and naked- ness, 54. continence of their youths, 55, rules of inheritance, 56. revenge, 57. hospitality, 58. bath- ing and meals, 60. feasts, ib. food and drink, 61, 62. public spectacles, 63. habit of gaming, 64. Condition of their slaves, 65. Manner of occupying INDEX. 221 their lands, 67, 68. Funerals, 69. Keep their boundaries desart, 75*. Germany, its boundaries, 1. Name of, whence derived, 6, 7*. Soil and climate, 11. Cattle and other pro- ducts, 11, 12. Gothini, 107. Gothones, 110. Graham's dike, 172*. Grampian hills, battle of, where fought, 180*. descrip- tion of, 194, €t seq. Greek letters introduced into Gaul and Germany, 10*. H. Hellusii, 121. Helvecones, 109. Helvetii, 71. Helvidius Prisons, his apprehension, 213. Hercules, the German, 7. columns of in Frisia, 86. Hercynian forest, 77. Ilerennius Senecio, put to death by Domitian, 127*» 214. Hermunduri, 104. Herthum, poddess so called, her worship, 102. Horesti, 198. Hospitality of the Germans, 58. Human sacrifices amonj^ the Germans, 26. Hundred-men, what, 18*. Huns, their remarkable spirit of gaming, 64*. I. Iceni, 158*. Inteme'.ii in Liguria, 138. Inundations in Holland, 86*. Ireland, its situation, &c. 173. Isis, worshipped in Germany, 26. Julia Procilla, mother of Agricola, 132. Julius Frontinus, governor of Britain, 161, Julins Grsecinus, father of Agricola, 131. 222 INDEX. L. Lemovii, 111. Lidi, Slaves so called, C5*. Lygii, 109. M. Majority, asre of among the Germans, 55 *. Manimi, 109. Mannus, son of Tuisto, 5. Marcomanni, 106. Marriage, strict among the Germans, 47. Marsigni, 107. Massa Bsebius, an informer, 211. Massilia, 133. Matrons, Roman, the part they took in education, 132*. Mattiaci, 75. Mauricus, his punishment, 213. Mercury, the principal deity of the Germans, 24. Mona, invaded by Suetonius PauUinus, 156. by Agri- cola, 163. N. Naharvali, 109. Narisci, 106. IVemetes, 73. Nervii, 73. Nuithones, 101. O. Orcades, 145. Ordovices, 162. their defeat, 163. Osi, 72, 107. Ostorius Scapula, governor of Britain, 155, Oxioni, 121. P. Pearls, British, 152. Petilius Cerealis, governor of Britain, 140, 100. INDEX. 223 Pelronius Turpilianus, governor of Britain, 159. Peucini, 118. Philosophers, fxpulsioii of. 128. Plautius .'Eliaim-^, inscription in honour of, 2*. Praetor, his office. 137*. Procurators, imperial, what, 131*. Punishments among the Germans, 34, 35. Q. Quadi, 106, R, Religious rites of the Semnones, 99. Reudigni, 101. Rheno, a garment, 45*. Rhine, its origin and course, 2. Rugii, 111. Rutilius, Publius Rufus, writes his own life, 12G. S. Sagum, a garment, 45*. Salic land, what, 44*, 56*. law. rules of inheritance of, 56*. Salvius Titianus, proconsul of Asia, 13G. Scaurus, Marcus yEmiiius, writes his own life, 126. Semnones, 99. their superstitious rites, ibid, Silures, whence derived, 147. Slaves, condition ot among the Germans, 65. Suardones, 101. Suetonius Pauliinus, governor of Britain, 134, 155. Suiones, 111. rich temple of, 113*. Suevi, 98. Tay, estuary of, 169. Tencteri, 81. Thule, 145. Tigurine Gauls, their defeat of L. Cassius, 94* Trebellius Maximus, governor of Britain, 159« 224 INDEX. Treveri, 73. Triboci, 73. Trutulensian harbour, 199. Tuisto, a German deity, 5. U. Ubii, 73. Ulysses supposed to have touched on Germany, 9. Usipii, 81. Usipian deserters, their circumnavigation of Britain 178. V. Vangiones, 73. Varini, 101. Varus, his defeat, 95*. Vassalage, origin of, 40*. Veleda, religious regard paid to, 24. Venedi, 119. Veranius, governor of Britain, 155. Vettius Bolanus, governor of Britain, 140, 160. W. Weapons, modern, analogous to ancient; ]14*> Wedge of infantry, what, 18». Writings burnt under Domitian, 128. THE END. Printed by C. B, Merry, Bedford, N CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT ^ 202 Main Library 642-3403 »ERIOD 1 ME USE 2 3 5 6 ALL BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DAYS 1 -month loans nnay be renewed by calling 642-3405 loans nnay be recharged by bringing books to Circulation DesI wals and recharges may be mode 4 days prior to due date DUE AS STAMPED BELOW o: :'^- ^AK 1 6 S981 AUTOoisaM/iYi2'88 R.APR 5 77 RECCiR FEB 16^81 V 2 3 1376 mCfU'DCTZ? ' r^ -■■' RECCiR MAR 3 '81 JUN 51982 5'B tEC Clli. MAY 1 i ^982 MAR 2 3 B84 'M EEC. CIR. SEP 2 -83 O. 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