The Germany and the Agricola of Tacitus
were presented with the shield and spear probably at twelve or fifteen
years of age. This early initiation into the business of arms gave them
that warlike character for which they were so celebrated. Thus, Seneca
(Epist. 46) says, "A native of Germany brandishes, while yet a boy,
his slender javelin." And again (in his book on Anger, i. 11), "Who are
braver than the Germans?--who more impetuous in the charge?--who fonder
of arms, in the use of which they are born and nourished, which are
their only care?--who more inured to hardships, insomuch that for the
most part they provide no covering for their bodies, no retreat against
the perpetual severity of the climate?"
[87] Hence it seems that these noble lads were deemed _principes_ in
rank, yet had their position among the _comites_ only. The German word
_Gesell_ is peculiarly appropriated to these comrades in arms. So highly
were they esteemed in Germany, that for killing or hurting them a fine
was exacted treble to that for other freemen.
[88] Hence, when Chonodomarus, king of the Alamanni, was taken prisoner
by the Romans, "his companions, two hundred in number, and three friends
peculiarly attached to him, thinking it infamous to survive their
prince, or not to die for him, surrendered themselves to be put in
bonds."--Ammianus Marcellinus, xvi. 13.
[89] Hence Montesquieu (Spirit of Laws, xxx, 3) justly derives the
origin of vassalage. At first, the prince gave to his nobles arms and
provision: as avarice advanced, money, and then lands, were required,
which from benefices became at length hereditary possessions, and were
called fiefs. Hence the establishment of the feudal system.
[90] Caesar, with less precision, says, "The Germans pass their whole
lives in hunting and military exercises." (Bell. Gall, vi. 21.) The
picture drawn by Tacitus is more consonant to the genius of a barbarous
people: besides that, hunting being the employment but of a few months
of the year, a greater part must necessarily be passed in indolence
by those who had no other occupation. In this circumstance, and those
afterwards related, the North American savages exactly agree with the
ancient Germans.
[91] This apparent contradiction is, however, perfectly agreeable to the
principles of human nature. Among people governed by impulse more than
reason, everything is in the extreme: war and peace; motion and rest;
love and hatred; none are pursued with moderation.
[92] These are the rudiments of tributes; though the contributions
here spoken of were voluntary, and without compulsion. The origin of
exchequers is pointed out above, where "part of the mulct" is said to
be "paid to the king or state." Taxation was taught the Germans by the
Romans, who levied taxes upon them.
[93] So, in after-times, when tributes were customary, 500 oxen or cows
were required annually from the Saxons by the French kings Clothaire
I. and Pepin. (See Eccard, tom. i. pp. 84, 480.) Honey, corn, and other
products of the earth, were likewise received in tribute. (Ibid. p.
392.)
[94] For the expenses of war, and other necessities of state, and
particularly the public entertainments. Hence, besides the Steora, or
annual tribute, the Osterstuopha, or Easter cup, previous to the public
assembly of the Field of March, was paid to the French kings.
[95] This was a dangerous lesson, and in the end proved ruinous to
the Roman empire. Herodian says of the Germans in his time, "They
are chiefly to be prevailed upon by bribes; being fond of money, and
continually selling peace to the Romans for gold."--Lib. vi. 139.
[96] This custom was of long duration; for there is not the mention of a
single city in Ammianus Marcellinus, who wrote on the wars of the Romans
in Germany. The names of places in Ptolemy (ii. 11) are not, therefore,
those of cities, but of scattered villages. The Germans had not even
what we should call towns, notwithstanding Caesar asserts the contrary.
[97] The space surrounding the house, and fenced in by hedges, was that
celebrated Salic land, which descended to the male line, exclusively of
the female.
[98] The danger of fire was particularly urgent in time of war; for,
as Caesar informs us, these people were acquainted with a method of
throwing red-hot clay bullets from slings, and burning javelins, on the
thatch of houses. (Bell. Gall. v. 42.)
[99] Thus likewise Mela (ii. 1), concerning the Sarmatians: "On account
of the length and severity of their winters, they dwell under ground,
either in natural or artificial caverns." At the time that Germany was
laid waste by a forty years' war, Kircher saw many of the natives who,
with their flocks, herds, and other possessions, took refuge in the
caverns of the highest mountains. For many other curious particulars
concerning these and other subterranean caves, see his Mundus
Subterraneus, viii. 3, p. 100. In Hungary, at this day, corn is commonly
stored in subterranean chambers.
[100] Near Newbottle, the seat of the Marquis of Lothian, are some
subterraneous apartments and passages cut out of the live rock, which
had probably served for the same purposes of winter-retreats and
granaries as those dug by the ancient Germans. Pennant's Tour in 1769,
4to, p.63.
[101] This was a kind of mantle of a square form, called also _rheno_.
Thus Caesar (Bell. Gall. vi. 21): "They use skins for clothing, or the
short rhenones, and leave the greatest part of the body naked." Isidore
(xix. 23) describes the rhenones as "garments covering the shoulders
and breast, as low as the navel, so rough and shaggy that they are
impenetrable to rain." Mela (iii. 3), speaking of the Germans, says,
"The men are clothed only with the sagum, or the bark of trees, even in
the depth of winter."
[102] All savages are fond of variety of colors; hence the Germans
spotted their furs with the skins of other animals, of which those
here mentioned were probably of the seal kind. This practice is still
continued with regard to the ermine, which is spotted with black
lamb's-skin.
[103] The Northern Sea, and Frozen Ocean.
[104] Pliny testifies the same thing; and adds, that "the women
beyond the Rhine are not acquainted with any more elegant kind of
clothing."--xix. 1.
[105] Not that rich and costly purple in which the Roman nobility shone,
but some ordinary material, such as the _vaccinium_, which Pliny says
was used by the Gauls as a purple dye for the garments of the slaves,
(xvi. 18.)
[106] The chastity of the Germans, and their strict regard to the laws
of marriage, are witnessed by all their ancient codes of law. The purity
of their manners in this respect afforded a striking contrast to the
licentiousness of the Romans in the decline of the empire, and is
exhibited in this light by Salvian, in his treatise De Gubernatione Dei,
lib. vii.
[107] Thus we find in Caesar (Bell. Gall. i. 53) that Ariovistus had
two wives. Others had more. This indulgence proved more difficult to
abolish, as it was considered as a mark of opulence, and an appendage of
nobility.
[108] The Germans purchased their wives, as appears from the following
clauses in the Saxon law concerning marriage: "A person who espouses a
wife shall pay to her parents 300 solidi (about 180_l._ sterling);
but if the marriage be without the consent of the parents, the damsel,
however, consenting, he shall pay 600 solidi. If neither the parents nor
damsel consent, that is, if she be carried off by violence, he shall pay
300 solidi to the parents, and 340 to the damsel, and restore her to her
parents."
[109] Thus in the Saxon law, concerning dowries, it is said: "The
Ostfalii and Angrarii determine, that if a woman have male issue, she
is to possess the dower she received in marriage during her life, and
transmit it to her sons."
[110] _Ergo septae pudicitiâ agunt_. Some editions have _septâ
pudicitiâ_. This would imply, however, rather the result of the care and
watchfulness of their husbands; whereas it seems the object of Tacitus
to show that this their chastity was the effect of innate virtue, and
this is rather expressed by _septae pudicitiâ_, which is the reading of
the Arundelian MS.
[111] Seneca speaks with great force and warmth on this subject:
"Nothing is so destructive to morals as loitering at public
entertainments; for vice more easily insinuates itself into the heart
when softened by pleasure. What shall I say! I return from them more
covetous ambitious, and luxurious."--Epist. vii.
[112] The Germans had a great regard for the hair, and looked upon
cutting it off as a heavy disgrace; so that this was made a punishment
for certain crimes, and was resented as an injury if practised upon an
innocent person.
[113] From an epistle of St. Boniface, archbishop of Mentz, to
Ethelbald, king of England, we learn that among the Saxons the women
themselves inflicted the punishment for violated chastity; "In ancient
Saxony (now Westphalia), if a virgin pollute her father's house, or a
married woman prove false to her vows, sometimes she is forced to put an
end to her own life by the halter, and over the ashes of her burned body
her seducer is hanged: sometimes a troop of females assembling lead her
through the circumjacent villages, lacerating her body, stripped to
the girdle, with rods and knives; and thus, bloody and full of minute
wounds, she is continually met by new tormenters, who in their zeal for
chastity do not quit her till she is dead, or scarcely alive, in order
to inspire a dread of such offences." See Michael Alford's Annales
Ecclesiae Anglo-Saxon., and Eccard.
[114] A passage in Valerius Maximus renders it probable that the
Cimbrian states were of this number: "The wives of the Teutones besought
Marius, after his victory, that he would deliver them as a present to
the Vestal virgins; affirming that they should henceforth, equally with
themselves, abstain from the embraces of the other sex. This request not
being granted, they all strangled themselves the ensuing night."--Lib.
vi. 1.3.
[115] Among the Heruli, the wife was expected to hang herself at once at
the grave of her husband, if she would not live in perpetual infamy.
[116] This expression may signify as well the murder of young children,
as the procurement of abortion; both which crimes were severely punished
by the German laws.
[117] _Quemquam ex agnatis_. By _agnati_ generally in Roman law were
meant relations by the father's side; here it signifies children born
after there was already an heir to the name and property of the father.
[118] Justin has a similar thought concerning the Scythians: "Justice is
cultivated by the dispositions of the people, not by the laws." (ii.
2.) How inefficacious the good laws here alluded to by Tacitus were
in preventing enormities among the Romans, appears from the frequent
complaints of the senators, and particularly of Minucius Felix; "I
behold you, exposing your babes to the wild beasts and birds, or
strangling the unhappy wretches with your own hands. Some of you, by
means of drugs, extinguish the newly-formed man within your bowels, and
thus commit parricide on your offspring before you bring them into the
world." (Octavius, c. 30.) So familiar was this practice grown at Rome,
that the virtuous Pliny apologises for it, alleging that "the great
fertility of some women may require such a licence."--xxix. 4, 37.
[119] _Nudi ac sordidi_ does not mean "in nakedness and filth," as most
translators have supposed. Personal filth is inconsistent with the daily
practice of bathing mentioned c. 22; and _nudus_ does not necessarily
imply absolute nakedness (see note 4, p. 293).
[120] This age appears at first to have been twelve years; for then a
youth became liable to the penalties of law. Thus in the Salic law it is