The Germany and the Agricola of Tacitus
people, improve their natural ferocity of aspect by artificial helps.
Their shields are black; their bodies painted: [240] they choose the
darkest nights for an attack; and strike terror by the funereal gloom of
their sable bands--no enemy being able to sustain their singular, and,
as it were, infernal appearance; since in every combat the eyes are the
first part subdued. Beyond the Lygii are the Gothones, [241] who live
under a monarchy, somewhat more strict than that of the other German
nations, yet not to a degree incompatible with liberty. Adjoining
to these are the Rugii [242] and Lemovii, [243] situated on the
sea-coast--all these tribes are distinguished by round shields, short
swords, and submission to regal authority.
44. Next occur the communities of the Suiones, [244] seated in the very
Ocean, [245] who, besides their strength in men and arms, also possess a
naval force. [246] The form of their vessels differs from ours in having
a prow at each end, [247] 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
honor wealth; [248] for which reason they are subject to monarchical
government, without any limitations, [249] 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 for the king's interest not to entrust
a noble, a freeman, or even an emancipated slave, with the custody of
arms.
45. Beyond the Suiones is another sea, sluggish and almost stagnant,
[250] by which the whole globe is imagined to be girt and enclosed, from
this circumstance, that the last light of the setting sun continues so
vivid till its rising, as to obscure the stars. [251] Popular belief
adds, that the sound of his emerging [252] from the ocean is also heard;
and the forms of deities, [253] with the rays beaming from his head, are
beheld. Only thus far, report says truly, does nature extend. [254] On
the right shore of the Suevic sea [255] dwell the tribes of the Aestii,
[256] whose dress and customs are the same with those of the Suevi, but
their language more resembles the British. [257] They worship the mother
of the gods; [258] and as the symbol of their superstition, they carry
about them the figures of wild boars. [250] This serves them in place of
armor and every other defence: it renders the votary of the goddess safe
even in the midst of foes. Their weapons are chiefly clubs, iron being
little used among them. They cultivate corn and other fruits of the
earth with more industry than German indolence commonly exerts. [260]
They even explore the sea; and are the only people who gather amber,
which by them is called _Glese_, [261] and is collected among the
shallows and upon the shore. [262] With the usual indifference of
barbarians, they have not inquired or ascertained from what natural
object or by what means it is produced. It long lay disregarded [263]
amidst other things thrown up by the sea, till our luxury [264] gave
it a name. Useless to them, they gather it in the rough; bring it
unwrought; and wonder at the price they receive. It would appear,
however, to be an exudation from certain trees; since reptiles, and even
winged animals, are often seen shining through it, which, entangled
in it while in a liquid state, became enclosed as it hardened. [264] I
should therefore imagine that, as the luxuriant woods and groves in the
secret recesses of the East exude frankincense and balsam, so there are
the same in the islands and continents of the West; which, acted upon
by the near rays of the sun, drop their liquid juices into the subjacent
sea, whence, by the force of tempests, they are thrown out upon the
opposite coasts. If the nature of amber be examined by the application
of fire, it kindles like a torch, with a thick and odorous flame; and
presently resolves into a glutinous matter resembling pitch or resin.
The several communities of the Sitones [266] succeed those of the
Suiones; to whom they are similar in other respects, but differ in
submitting to a female reign; so far have they degenerated, not only
from liberty, but even from slavery. Here Suevia terminates.
46. I am in doubt whether to reckon the Peucini, Venedi, and Fenni among
the Germans or Sarmatians; [267] although the Peucini, [268] who are by
some called Bastarnae, agree with the Germans in language, apparel,
and habitations. [269] All of them live in filth and laziness. The
intermarriages of their chiefs with the Sarmatians have debased them
by a mixture of the manners of that people. [270] The Venedi have
drawn much from this source; [271] for they overrun in their predatory
excursions all the woody and mountainous tracts between the Peucini and
Fenni. Yet even these are rather to be referred to the Germans, since
they build houses, carry shields, and travel with speed on foot; in
all which particulars they totally differ from the Sarmatians, who pass
their time in wagons and on horseback. [272] The Fenni [273] live in a
state of amazing savageness and squalid poverty. They are destitute
of arms, horses, and settled abodes: their food is herbs; [274] their
clothing, skins; their bed, the ground. Their only dependence is on
their arrows, which, for want of iron, are headed with bone; [275] and
the chase is the support of the women as well as the men; the former
accompany the latter in the pursuit, and claim a share of the prey. Nor
do they provide any other shelter for their infants from wild beasts and
storms, than a covering of branches twisted together. This is the resort
of youth; this is the receptacle of old age. Yet even this way of life
is in their estimation happier than groaning over the plough; toiling
in the erection of houses; subjecting their own fortunes and those of
others to the agitations of alternate hope and fear. Secure against men,
secure against the gods, they have attained the most difficult point,
not to need even a wish.
All our further accounts are intermixed with fable; as, that the
Hellusii and Oxionae [276] have human faces, with the bodies and limbs
of wild beasts. These unauthenticated reports I shall leave untouched.
[277]
THE LIFE OF CNAEUS JULIUS AGRICOLA.
[This work is supposed by the commentators to have been written before
the treatise on the manners of the Germans, in the third consulship of
the emperor Nerva, and the second of Verginius Rufus, in the year of
Rome 850, and of the Christian era 97. Brotier accedes to this opinion;
but the reason which he assigns does not seem to be satisfactory. He
observes that Tacitus, in the third section, mentions the emperor Nerva;
but as he does not call him Divus Nerva, the deified Nerva, the learned
commentator infers that Nerva was still living. This reasoning might
have some weight, if we did not read, in section 44, that it was the
ardent wish of Agricola that he might live to behold Trajan in the
imperial seat. If Nerva was then alive, the wish to see another in his
room would have been an awkward compliment to the reigning prince. It
is, perhaps, for this reason that Lipsius thinks this very elegant tract
was written at the same time with the Manners of the Germans, in the
beginning of the emperor Trajan. The question is not very material,
since conjecture alone must decide it. The piece itself is admitted to
be a masterpiece in the kind. Tacitus was son-in-law to Agricola; and
while filial piety breathes through his work, he never departs from
the integrity of his own character. He has left an historical monument
highly interesting to every Briton, who wishes to know the manners of
his ancestors, and the spirit of liberty that from the earliest time
distinguished the natives of Britain. "Agricola," as Hume observes, "was
the general who finally established the dominion of the Romans in this
island. He governed, it in the reigns of Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian.
He carried his victorious arms northward: defeated the Britons in every
encounter, pierced into the forests and the mountains of Caledonia,
reduced every state to subjection in the southern parts of the island,
and chased before him all the men of fiercer and more intractable
spirits, who deemed war and death itself less intolerable than servitude
under the victors. He defeated them in a decisive action, which they
fought under Galgacus; and having fixed a chain of garrisons between the
friths of Clyde and Forth, he cut off the ruder and more barren parts
of the island, and secured the Roman province from the incursions of the
barbarous inhabitants. During these military enterprises he neglected
not the arts of peace. He introduced laws and civility among the
Britons; taught them to desire and raise all the conveniences of life;
reconciled them to the Roman language and manners; instructed them
in letters and science; and employed every expedient to render those
chains, which he had forged, both easy and agreeable to them." (Hume's
Hist. vol. i. p. 9.) In this passage Mr. Hume has given a summary of the
Life of Agricola. It is extended by Tacitus in a style more open than
the didactic form of the essay on the German Manners required, but
still with the precision, both in sentiment and diction, peculiar to
the author. In rich but subdued colors he gives a striking picture of
Agricola, leaving to posterity a portion of history which it would be
in vain to seek in the dry gazette style of Suetonius, or in the page of
any writer of that period.]
1. The ancient custom of transmitting to posterity the actions and
manners of famous men, has not been neglected even by the present age,
incurious though it be about those belonging to it, whenever any exalted
and noble degree of virtue has triumphed over that false estimation
of merit, and that ill-will to it, by which small and great states
are equally infested. In former times, however, as there was a greater
propensity and freer scope for the performance of actions worthy of
remembrance, so every person of distinguished abilities was induced
through conscious satisfaction in the task alone, without regard to
private favor or interest, to record examples of virtue. And many
considered it rather as the honest confidence of integrity, than a
culpable arrogance, to become their own biographers. Of this, Rutilius
and Scaurus [1] were instances; who were never yet censured on this
account, nor was the fidelity of their narrative called in question; so
much more candidly are virtues always estimated; in those periods which
are the most favorable to their production. For myself, however, who
have undertaken to be the historian of a person deceased, an apology
seemed necessary; which I should not have made, had my course lain
through times less cruel and hostile to virtue. [2]
2. We read that when Arulenus Rusticus published the praises of Paetus
Thrasea, and Herennius Senecio those of Priscus Helvidius, it was
construed into a capital crime; [3] and the rage of tyranny was let
loose not only against the authors, but against their writings; so that
those monuments of exalted genius were burnt at the place of election
in the forum by triumvirs appointed for the purpose. In that fire they
thought to consume the voice of the Roman people, the freedom of the
senate, and the conscious emotions of all mankind; crowning the deed
by the expulsion of the professors of wisdom, [4] and the banishment of