The Germany and the Agricola of Tacitus
said, "If a child under twelve commit a fault, 'fred,' or a mulct, shall
not be required of him." Afterwards the term was fifteen years of
age. Thus in the Ripuary law, "A child under fifteen shall not be
responsible." Again, "If a man die, or be killed, and leave a son;
before he have completed his fifteenth year, he shall neither prosecute
a cause, nor be called upon to answer in a suit: but at this term, he
must either answer himself, or choose an advocate. In like manner with
regard to the female sex." The Burgundian law provides to the same
effect. This then was the term of majority, which in later times, when
heavier armor was used, was still longer delayed.
[121] This is illustrated by a passage in Caesar (Bell. Gall. vi. 21):
"They who are the latest in proving their virility are most commended.
By this delay they imagine the stature is increased, the strength
improved, and the nerves fortified. To have knowledge of the other
sex before twenty years of age, is accounted in the highest degree
scandalous."
[122] Equal not only in age and constitution, but in condition. Many of
the German codes of law annex penalties to those of both sexes who marry
persons of inferior rank.
[123] Hence, in the history of the Merovingian kings of France, so many
instances of regard to sisters and their children appear, and so many
wars undertaken on their account.
[124] The court paid at Rome to rich persons without children, by the
Haeredipetae, or legacy-hunters, is a frequent subject of censure and
ridicule with the Roman writers.
[125] Avengers of blood are mentioned in the law of Moses, Numb. xxxv.
19. In the Roman law also, under the head of "those who on account of
unworthiness are deprived of their inheritance," it is pronounced, that
"such heirs as are proved to have neglected revenging the testator's
death, shall be obliged to restore the entire profits."
[126] It was a wise provision, that among this fierce and warlike
people, revenge should be commuted for a payment. That this intention
might not be frustrated by the poverty of the offender, his whole family
were conjointly bound to make compensation.
[127] All uncivilized nations agree in this property, which becomes less
necessary as a nation improves in the arts of civil life.
[128] _Convictibus et hospitiis_. "Festivities and entertainments." The
former word applies to friends and fellow-countrymen; the latter, to
those not of the same tribe, and foreigners. Caesar (Bell. Gall. vi. 23)
says, "They think it unlawful to offer violence to their guests, who,
on whatever occasion they come to them, are protected from injury,
and considered as sacred. Every house is open to them, and provision
everywhere set before them." Mela (iii. 3) says of the Germans, "They
make right consist in force, so that they are not ashamed of robbery:
they are only kind to their guests, and merciful to suppliants. The
Burgundian law lays a fine of three solidi on every man who refuses his
roof or hearth to the coming guest." The Salic law, however, rightly
forbids the exercise of hospitality to atrocious criminals; laying a
penalty on the person who shall harbor one who has dug up or despoiled
the dead? till he has made satisfaction to the relations.
[129] The clause here put within brackets is probably misplaced;
since it does not connect well either with what goes before or what
follows.[130] The Russians are at present the most remarkable among the
northern nations for the use of warm bathing. Some of the North American
tribes also have their hypocausts, or stoves.
[131] Eating at separate tables is generally an indication of voracity.
Traces of it may be found in Homer, and other writers who have described
ancient manners. The same practice has also been observed among the
people of Otaheite; who occasionally devour vast quantities of food.
[132] The following article in the Salic law shows at once the frequency
of these bloody quarrels, and the laudable endeavors of the legislature
to restrain them;--"If at a feast where there are four or five men in
company, one of them be killed, the rest shall either convict one as the
offender, or shall jointly pay the composition for his death. And this
law shall extend to seven persons present at an entertainment."
[133] The same custom is related by Herodotus, i. p. 66, as prevailing
among the Persians.
[134] Of this liquor, beer or ale, Pliny speaks in the following
passage: "The western nations have their intoxicating liquor, made of
steeped grain. The Egyptians also invented drinks of the same kind. Thus
drunkenness is a stranger in no part of the world; for these liquors are
taken pure, and not diluted as wine is. Yet, surely, the Earth thought
she was producing corn. Oh, the wonderful sagacity of our vices! we have
discovered how to render even water intoxicating."--xiv. 22.
[135] Mela says, "Their manner of living is so rude and savage, that
they eat even raw flesh; either fresh killed, or softened by working
with their hands and feet, after it has grown stiff in the hides of
tame or wild animals." (iii. 3.) Florus relates that the ferocity of
the Cimbri was mitigated by their feeding on bread and dressed meat, and
drinking wine, in the softest tract of Italy.--iii. 3.
[136] This must not be understood to have been cheese; although Caesar
says of the Germans, "Their diet chiefly consists of milk, cheese and
flesh." (Bell. Gall. vi. 22.) Pliny, who was thoroughly acquainted with
the German manners, says more accurately, "It is surprising that the
barbarous nations who live on milk should for so many ages have been
ignorant of, or have rejected, the preparation of cheese; especially
since they thicken their milk into a pleasant tart substance, and a fat
butter: this is the scum of milk, of a thicker consistence than what is
called the whey. It must not be omitted that it has the properties of
oil, and is used as an unguent by all the barbarians, and by us for
children."--xi. 41.
[137] This policy has been practised by the Europeans with regard to the
North American savages, some tribes of which have been almost totally
extirpated by it.
[138] St. Ambrose has a remarkable passage concerning this spirit
of gaming among a barbarous people:--"It is said that the Huns, who
continually make war upon other nations, are themselves subject to
usurers, with whom they run in debt at play; and that, while they live
without laws, they obey the laws of the dice alone; playing when drawn
up in line of battle; carrying dice along with their arms, and perishing
more by each others' hands than by the enemy. In the midst of victory
they submit to become captives, and suffer plunder from their own
countrymen, which they know not how to bear from the foe. On this
account they never lay aside the business of war, because, when they
have lost all their booty by the dice, they have no means of acquiring
fresh supplies for play, but by the sword. They are frequently borne
away with such a desperate ardor, that, when the loser has given up his
arms, the only part of his property which he greatly values, he sets the
power over his life at a single cast to the winner or usurer. It is a
fact, that a person, known to the Roman emperor, paid the price of a
servitude which he had by this means brought upon himself, by suffering
death at the command of his master."
[139] The condition of these slaves was the same as that of the vassals,
or serfs, who a few centuries ago made the great body of the people
in every country in Europe. The Germans, in after times, imitating the
Romans, had slaves of inferior condition, to whom the name of slave
became appropriated; while those in the state of rural vassalage were
called _lidi_.
[140] A private enemy could not be slain with impunity, since a fine
was affixed to homicide; but a man might kill his own slave without
any punishment. If, however, he killed another person's slave, he was
obliged to pay his price to the owner.
[141] The amazing height of power and insolence to which freedmen
arrived by making themselves subservient to the vices of the prince,
is a striking characteristic of the reigns of some of the worst of the
Roman emperors.
[142] In Rome, on the other hand, the practice of usury was, as our
author terms it, "an ancient evil, and a perpetual source of sedition
and discord."--Annals, vi. 16.
[143] All the copies read _per vices_, "by turns," or alternately; but
the connection seems evidently to require the easy alteration of _per
vicos_, which has been approved by many learned commentators, and is
therefore adopted in this translation.
[144] Caesar has several particulars concerning this part of German
polity. "They are not studious of agriculture, the greater part of
their diet consisting of milk, cheese, and flesh; nor has any one
a determinate portion of land, his own peculiar property; but the
magistrates and chiefs allot every year to tribes and clanships forming
communities, as much land, and in such situations, as they think proper,
and oblige them to remove the succeeding year. For this practice they
assign several reasons: as, lest they should be led, by being
accustomed to one spot, to exchange the toils of war for the business of
agriculture; lest they should acquire a passion for possessing extensive
domains, and the more powerful should be tempted to dispossess the
weaker; lest they should construct buildings with more art than was
necessary to protect them from the inclemencies of the weather; lest
the love of money should arise amongst them, the source of faction
and dissensions; and in order that the people, beholding their own
possessions equal to those of the most powerful, might be retained by
the bonds of equity and moderation."--Bell. Gall. vi. 21.
[145] The Germans, not planting fruit-trees, were ignorant of the proper
products of autumn. They have now all the autumnal fruits of their
climate; yet their language still retains a memorial of their ancient
deficiencies, in having no term for this season of the year, but one
denoting the gathering in of corn alone--_Herbst_, Harvest.
[146] In this respect, as well as many others, the manners of the
Germans were a direct contrast to those of the Romans. Pliny mentions a
private person, C. Caecilius Claudius Isidorus, who ordered the sum of
about 10,000_l._ sterling to be expended in his funeral: and in another
place he says, "Intelligent persons asserted that Arabia did not produce
such a quantity of spices in a year as Nero burned at the obsequies of
his Poppaea."--xxxiii. 10, and xii. 18.
[147] The following lines of Lucan, describing the last honors paid by
Cornelia to the body of Pompey the Great, happily illustrate the customs
here referred to:--
Collegit vestes, miserique insignia Magni.
Armaque, et impressas auro, quas gesserat olim
Exuvias, pictasque togas, velamina summo
Ter conspecta Jovi, funestoque intulit igni.--Lib. ix. 175.
"There shone his arms, with antique gold inlaid,
There the rich robes which she herself had made,
Robes to imperial Jove in triumph thrice display'd:
The relics of his past victorious days,
Now this his latest trophy serve to raise,
And in one common flame together blaze."--ROWE.
[148] Thus in the tomb of Childeric, king of the Franks, were found
his spear and sword, and also his horse's head, with a shoe, and gold
buckles and housings. A human skull was likewise discovered, which,
perhaps, was that of his groom.
[149] Caesar's account is as follows:--"There was formerly a time when
the Gauls surpassed the Germans in bravery, and made war upon them;
and, on account of their multitude of people and scarcity of land, sent
colonies beyond the Rhine. The most fertile parts of Germany, adjoining