The Germany and the Agricola of Tacitus
to the Hercynian forest, (which, I observe, was known by report to
Eratosthenes and others of the Greeks, and called by them Orcinia,) were
accordingly occupied by the Volcae and Tectosages, who settled there.
These people still continue in the same settlements, and have a high
character as well for the administration of justice as military prowess:
and they now remain in the same state of penury and content as the
Germans, whose manner of life they have adopted."--Bell. Gall. vi. 24.
[150] The inhabitants of Switzerland, then extending further than at
present, towards Lyons.
[151] A nation of Gauls, bordering on the Helvetii, as appears from
Strabo and Caesar. After being conquered by Caesar, the Aedui gave them
a settlement in the country now called the Bourbonnois. The name of
their German colony, Boiemum, is still extant in Bohemia. The aera at
which the Helvetii and Boii penetrated into Germany is not ascertained.
It seems probable, however, that it was in the reign of Tarquinius
Priscus; for at that time, as we are told by Livy, Ambigatus, king of
the Bituriges (people of Berry), sent his sister's son Sigovesus into
the Hercynian forest, with a colony, in order to exonerate his kingdom
which was overpeopled. (Livy, v. 33; _et seq._)
[152] In the time of Augustus, the Boii, driven from Boiemum by the
Marcomanni, retired to Noricum, which from them was called Boioaria, now
Bavaria.
[153] This people inhabited that part of Lower Hungary now called the
Palatinate of Pilis.
[154] Towards the end of this treatise, Tacitus seems himself to decide
this point, observing that their use of the Pannonian language, and
acquiescence in paying tribute, prove the Osi not to be a German nation.
They were settled beyond the Marcomanni and Quadi, and occupied the
northern part of Transdanubian Hungary; perhaps extending to Silesia,
where is a place called Ossen in the duchy of Oels, famous for salt and
glass works. The learned Pelloutier, however, contends that the Osi were
Germans; but with less probability.
[155] The inhabitants of the modern diocese of Treves.
[156] Those of Cambresis and Hainault.
[157] Those of the dioceses of Worms, Strasburg, and Spires.
[158] Those of the diocese of Cologne. The Ubii, migrating from Germany
to Gaul, on account of the enmity of the Catti, and their own attachment
to the Roman interest, were received under the protection of Marcus
Agrippa, in the year of Rome 717. (Strabo, iv. p. 194.) Agrippina, the
wife of Claudius and mother of Nero, who was born among them, obtained
the settlement of a colony there, which was called after her name.
[159] Now the Betuwe, part of the provinces of Holland and Guelderland.
[160] Hence the Batavi are termed, in an ancient inscription, "the
brothers and friends of the Roman people."
[161] This nation inhabited part of the countries now called the
Weteraw, Hesse, Isenburg and Fulda. In this territory was Mattium, now
Marpurg, and the Fontes Mattiaci, now Wisbaden, near Mentz.
[162] The several people of Germany had their respective borders, called
marks or marches, which they defended by preserving them in a desert and
uncultivated state. Thus Caesar, Bell. Gall. iv 3:--"They think it the
greatest honor to a nation, to have as wide an extent of vacant land
around their dominions as possible; by which it is indicated, that a
great number of neighboring communities are unable to withstand them.
On this account, the Suevi are said to have, on one side, a tract of
600 (some learned men think we should read 60) miles desert for their
boundaries." In another place Caesar mentions, as an additional reason
for this policy, that they think themselves thereby rendered secure from
the danger of sudden incursions. (Bell. Gall. vi. 13.)
[163] The difference between the low situation and moist air of Batavia,
and the high and dry country of the Mattiaci, will sufficiently justify
this remark, in the opinion of those who allow anything to the influence
of climate.
[164] Now Swabia. When the Marcommanni, towards the end of the reign
of Augustus, quitting their settlements near the Rhine, migrated to
Bohemia, the lands they left vacant were occupied by some unsettled
Gauls among the Rauraci and Sequani. They seem to have been called
Decumates (Decimated), because the inhabitants, liable to the incursions
of the Germans, paid a tithe of their products to be received under
the protection of the Romans. Adrian defended them by a rampart, which
extended from Neustadt, a town on the Danube near the mouth of the river
Altmühl, to the Neckar near Wimpfen; a space of sixty French leagues.
[165] Of Upper Germany.
[166] The Catti possessed a large territory between the Rhine, Mayne and
Sala, and the Hartz forest on this side of the Weser; where are now
the countries of Hesse, Thuringia, part of Paderborn, of Fulda, and
of Franconia. Learned writers have frequently noted, that what Caesar,
Florus and Ptolemy have said of the Suevi, is to be understood of the
Catti. Leibnitz supposes the Catti were so called from the active
animal which they resemble in name, the German for cat being _Catte_, or
_Hessen_.
[167] Pliny, who was well acquainted with Germany, gives a very striking
description of the Hercynian forest:--"The vast trees of the Hercynian
forest, untouched for ages, and as old as the world, by their almost
immortal destiny exceed common wonders. Not to mention circumstances
which would not be credited, it is certain that hills are raised by the
repercussion of their meeting roots; and where the earth does not follow
them, arches are formed as high as the branches, which, struggling, as
it were, with each other, are bent into the form of open gates, so wide,
that troops of horse may ride under them."--xvi. 2.
[168] _Duriora corpora_. "Hardier frames;" _i.e._ than the rest of
the Germans. At Hist. ii 32. the Germans, in general, are said to have
_fluxa corpora_; while in c. 4 of this treatise they are described as
_tantùm ad impetum valida_.
[169] Floras, ii. 18, well expresses this thought by the sentence "Tanti
exercitus, quanti imperator." "An army is worth so much as its general
is."
[170] Thus Civilis is said by our author (Hist. iv. 61), to have let his
hair and beard grow in consequence of a private vow. Thus too, in Paul
Warnefrid's "History of the Lombards," iii. 7, it is related, that "six
thousand Saxons who survived the war, vowed that they would never cut
their hair, nor shave their beards, till they had been revenged of their
enemies, the Suevi." A later instance of this custom is mentioned by
Strada (Bell. Belg. vii. p. 344), of William Lume, one of the Counts
of Mark, "who bound himself by a vow not to cut his hair till he had
revenged the deaths of Egmont and Horn."
[171] The iron ring seems to have been a badge of slavery. This custom
was revived in later times, but rather with a gallant than a military
intention. Thus, in the year 1414, John duke of Bourbon, in order to
ingratiate himself with his mistress, vowed, together with sixteen
knights and gentlemen, that they would wear, he and the knights a gold
ring, the gentlemen a silver one, round their left legs, every Sunday
for two years, till they had met with an equal number of knights and
gentlemen to contend with them in a tournament. (Vertot, Mém. de l'Acad.
des Inscr. tom. ii. p. 596.)
[172] It was this nation of Catti, which, about 150 years afterwards,
uniting with the remains of the Cherusci on this side the Weser, the
Attuarii, Sicambri, Chamavi, Bructeri, and Chauci, entered into the
Francic league, and, conquering the Romans, seized upon Gaul. From them
are derived the name, manners, and laws of the French.
[173] These two tribes, united by a community of wars and misfortunes,
had formerly been driven from the settlements on the Rhine a little
below Mentz. They then, according to Caesar (Bell. Gall. iv. 1, _et
seq._), occupied the territories of the Menapii on both sides the Rhine.
Still proving unfortunate, they obtained the lands of the Sicambri,
who, in the reign of Augustus, were removed on this side the Rhine by
Tiberius: these were the present counties of Berg, Mark, Lippe, and
Waldeck; and the bishopric of Paderborn.
[174] Their settlements were between the rivers Rhine, Lippe (Luppia),
and Ems (Amisia), and the province of Friesland; now the countries of
Westphalia and Over-Issel. Alting (Notit. German. Infer, p. 20) supposes
they derived their name from _Broeken_, or _Bruchen_, marshes, on
account of their frequency in that tract of country.
[175] Before this migration, the Chamavi were settled on the Ems,
where at present are Lingen and Osnaburg; the Angrivarii, on the Weser
(Visurgis), where are Minden and Schawenburg. A more ancient migration
of the Chamavi to the banks of the Rhine is cursorily mentioned
by Tacitus, Annal. xiii. 55. The Angrivarii were afterwards called
Angrarii, and became part of the Saxon nation.
[176] They were not so entirely extirpated that no relics of them
remained. They were even a conspicuous part of the Francic league, as
before related. Claudian also, in his panegyric on the fourth consulate
of Honorius, v. 450, mentions them.
Venit accola sylvae
Bructerus Hercyniae.
"The Bructerian, borderer on the Hercynian forest, came."
After their expulsion, they settled, according to Eccard, between
Cologne and Hesse.
[177] The Bructeri were under regal government, and maintained many wars
against the Romans. Hence their arrogance and power. Before they were
destroyed by their countrymen, Vestricius Spurinna terrified them into
submission without an action, and had on that account a triumphal statue
decreed him. Pliny the younger mentions this fact, book ii. epist. 7.
[178] An allusion to gladiatorial spectacles. This slaughter happened
near the canal of Drusus, where the Roman guard on the Rhine could be
spectators of the battle. The account of it came to Rome in the first
year of Trajan.
[179] As this treatise was written in the reign of Trajan, when the
affairs of the Romans appeared unusually prosperous, some critics have
imagined that Tacitus wrote _vigentibus_, "flourishing," instead of
_urgentibus_, "urgent." But it is sufficiently evident, from other
passages, that the causes which were operating gradually, but surely, to
the destruction of the Roman empire, did not escape the penetration of
Tacitus, even when disguised by the most flattering appearances. The
common reading is therefore, probably, right.--_Aikin_.
[180] These people first resided near the head of the Lippe; and then
removed to the settlements of the Chamavi and Angrivarii, who had
expelled the Bructeri. They appear to have been the same with those whom
Velleius Paterculus, ii. 105, calls the Attuarii, and by that name they
entered into the Francic league. Strabo calls them Chattuarii.
[181] Namely, the Ansibarii and Tubantes. The Ansibarii or Amsibarii are
thought by Alting to have derived their name from their neighborhood to
the river Ems (Amisia); and the. Tubantes, from their frequent change of
habitation, to have been called _Tho Benten_. or the wandering troops,
and to have dwelt where now is Drente in Over-Issel. Among these
nations, Furstenburg (Monum. Paderborn.) enumerates the Ambrones,
borderers upon the river Ambrus, now Emmeren.
[182] The Frieslanders. The lesser Frisii were settled on this side, the
greater, on the other, of the Flevum (Zuyderzee).
[183] In the time of the Romans this country was covered by vast meres,
or lakes; which were made still larger by frequent inundations of the
sea. Of these, one so late as 1530 overwhelmed seventy-two villages; and
another, still more terrible, in 1569, laid under water great part