The Germany and the Agricola of Tacitus
23. Their drink is a liquor prepared from barley or wheat [134] brought
by fermentation to a certain resemblance of wine. Those who border on
the Rhine also purchase wine. Their food is simple; wild fruits, fresh
venison, [135] or coagulated milk. [136] They satisfy hunger without
seeking the elegances and delicacies of the table. Their thirst for
liquor is not quenched with equal moderation. If their propensity to
drunkenness be gratified to the extent of their wishes, intemperance
proves as effectual in subduing them as the force of arms. [137]
24. 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 sober, as a serious business: and that with such a desperate
venture of gain or loss, that, when everything 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. [138] Such is their obstinacy in
a bad practice--they themselves call it honor. The slaves thus acquired
are exchanged away in commerce, that the winner may get rid of the
scandal of his victory.
25. The rest of their slaves have not, like ours, 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. [139] His domestic offices are
performed by his own wife and children. It is usual to scourge a slave,
or punish him with chains or hard labor. They are sometimes killed by
their masters; not through severity of chastisement, but in the heat
of passion, like an enemy; with this difference, that it is done with
impunity. [140] Freedmen are little superior to slaves; seldom filling
any important office in the family; never in the state, except in those
tribes which are under regal government. [141] There, they rise above
the free-born, and even the nobles: in the rest, the subordinate
condition of the freedmen is a proof of freedom.
26. Lending money upon interest, and increasing it by usury, [142] is
unknown amongst them: and this ignorance more effectually prevents
the practice than a prohibition would do. The lands are occupied
by townships, [143] in allotments proportional to the number of
cultivators; and are afterwards parcelled out among the individuals
of the district, in shares according to the rank and condition of each
person. [144] The wide extent of plain facilitates this partition. The
arable lands are annually changed, and a part left fallow; nor do they
attempt to make the most of the fertility and plenty of the soil, by
their own industry in planting orchards, inclosing meadows, and watering
gardens. Corn is the only product required from the earth: hence their
year is not divided into so many seasons as ours; for, while they
know and distinguish by name Winter, Spring, and Summer, they are
unacquainted equally with the appellation and bounty of Autumn. [145]
27. Their funerals are without parade. [146] The only circumstance to
which they attend, is to burn the bodies of eminent persons with some
particular kinds of wood. Neither vestments nor perfumes are heaped upon
the pile: [147] the arms of the deceased, and sometimes his horse, [148]
are given to the flames. The tomb is a mound of turf. They contemn the
elaborate and costly honours of monumental structures, as mere burthens
to the dead. They soon dismiss tears and lamentations; slowly, sorrow
and regret. They think it the women's part to bewail their friends, the
men's to remember them.
28. This is the sum of what I have been able to learn 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 have migrated from Germany into Gaul. That great
writer, the deified Julius, asserts that the Gauls were formerly the
superior people; [149] whence it is probable that some Gallic colonies
passed over into Germany: for how small an obstacle would a river be
to prevent any nation, as it increased in strength, from occupying or
changing settlements as yet lying in common, and unappropriated by the
power of monarchies! Accordingly, the tract betwixt the Hercynian forest
and the rivers Rhine and Mayne was possessed by the Helvetii: [150] and
that beyond, by the Boii; [151] both Gallic tribes. The name of
Boiemum still remains, a memorial of the ancient settlement, though
its inhabitants are now changed. [152] But whether the Aravisci [153]
migrated into Pannonia from the Osi, [154] a German nation; or the Osi
into Germany from the Aravisci; the language, institutions, and manners
of both being still the same, is a matter of uncertainty; for, in their
pristine state of equal indigence and equal liberty, the same advantages
and disadvantages were common to both sides of the river. The Treveri
[155] and Nervii [156] are ambitious of being thought of German origin;
as if the reputation of this descent would distinguish them from the
Gauls, whom they resemble in person and effeminacy. The Vangiones,
Triboci, and Nemetes, [157] who inhabit the bank of the Rhine, are
without doubt German tribes. Nor do the Ubii, [158] although 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 bank of
the Rhine, not that they might be guarded themselves, but that they
might serve as a guard against invaders.
29. Of all these people, the most famed for valor are the Batavi; whose
territories comprise but a small part of the banks of the Rhine, but
consist chiefly of an island within it. [159] These were formerly a
tribe of the Catti, who, on account of an intestine division, removed
to their present settlements, in order to become a part of the Roman
empire. They still retain this honor, together with a memorial of their
ancient alliance; [160] for they are neither insulted by taxes, nor
oppressed by farmers of the revenue. Exempt from fiscal burthens and
extraordinary 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 [161] 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 [162] on the
opposite side of the river, from sentiment and attachment act with us;
resembling the Batavi in every respect, except that they are animated
with a more vigorous spirit by the soil and air of their own country.
[163] I do not reckon among the people of Germany those who occupy the
Decumate lands, [164] although inhabiting between the Rhine and Danube.
Some of the most fickle of the Gauls, rendered daring through indigence,
seized upon this district of uncertain property. Afterwards,
our boundary line being advanced, and a chain of fortified posts
established, it became a skirt of the empire, and part of the Roman
province. [165]
30. Beyond these dwell the Catti, [166] whose settlements, beginning
from the Hercynian forest, are in a tract of country less open and
marshy than those which overspread the other states of Germany; for
it consists of a continued range of hills, which gradually become more
scattered; and the Hercynian forest [167] both accompanies and leaves
behind, its Catti. This nation is distinguished by hardier frames, [168]
compactness of limb, fierceness of countenance, and superior vigor of
mind. For Germans, they have a considerable share of understanding
and sagacity; they choose able persons to command, and obey them when
chosen; keep their ranks; seize opportunities; restrain impetuous
motions; distribute properly the business of the day; intrench
themselves against the night; account fortune dubious, and valor
only certain; and, what is extremely rare, and only a consequence of
discipline, depend more upon the general than the army. [169] Their
force consists entirely 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
amongst them. It is, indeed, peculiar to cavalry soon to obtain, and
soon to yield, the victory. Speed borders upon timidity; slow movements
are more akin to steady valor.
31. A custom followed among the other German nations only by a few
individuals, of more daring spirit than the rest, is adopted by general
consent among the Catti. From the time they arrive at years of maturity
they let their hair and beard grow; [170] and do not divest themselves
of this votive badge, the promise of valor, till they have slain an
enemy. Over blood and spoils they unveil the countenance, and proclaim
that they have at length paid the debt of existence, and have proved
themselves worthy of their country and parents. The cowardly and
effeminate continue in their squalid disguise. The bravest among them
wear also an iron ring [171] (a mark of ignominy in that nation) as a
kind of chain, till they have released themselves by the slaughter of a
foe. Many of the Catti assume this distinction, and grow hoary under
the mark, conspicuous both to foes and friends. By these, in every
engagement, the attack is begun: they compose the front line, presenting
a new spectacle of terror. Even in peace they do not relax the sternness
of their aspect. 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 debility of age renders them unequal
to such a rigid course of military virtue. [172]
32. Next to the Catti, on the banks of the Rhine, where, now settled in
its channel, it is become a sufficient boundary, dwell the Usipii and
Tencteri. [173] The latter people, in addition to the usual military
reputation, are famed for the discipline of their cavalry; nor is
the infantry of the Catti in higher estimation than the horse of the
Tencteri. Their ancestors established it, and are imitated by posterity.
Horsemanship is the sport of their children, the point of emulation of
their youth, and the exercise in which they persevere to old age. Horses
are bequeathed along with the domestics, the household gods, and the
rights of inheritance: they do not, however, like other things, go to
the eldest son, but to the bravest and most warlike.
33. Contiguous to the Tencteri were formerly the Bructeri; [174] but
report now says that the Chamavi and Angrivarii, [175] migrating into
their country, have expelled and entirely extirpated them, [176] with
the concurrence of the neighboring nations, induced either by hatred of
their arrogance, [177] love of plunder, or the favor of the gods towards
the Romans. For they even gratified us with the spectacle of a battle,
in which above sixty thousand Germans were slain, not by Roman arms,
but, what was still grander, by mutual hostilities, as it were for our
pleasure and entertainment. [178] May the nations retain and perpetuate,
if not an affection for us, at least an animosity against each other!