Tacitus: Germania
From Tacitus, The Agricola and Germania
Cornelius Tacitus A.D. 56 — 120
The Inhabitants. 0rigins of the Name "Germany". The
Germans themselves I should regard as aboriginal, and not
mixed at all with other races through immigration or
intercourse. For, in former times it was not by land but on
shipboard that those who sought to emigrate would arrive;
and the boundless and, so to speak, hostile ocean beyond us,
is seldom entered by a sail from our world. And, beside the
perils of rough and unknown seas, who would leave Asia, or
Africa for Italy for Germany, with its wild country, its
inclement skies, its sullen manners and aspect, unless
indeed it were his home? In their ancient songs, their only
way of remembering or recording the past they celebrate an
earth-born god Tuisco, and his son Mannus, as the origin of
their race, as their founders. To Mannus they assign three
sons, from whose names, they say, the coast tribes are
called Ingaevones; those of the interior, Herminones; all
the rest, Istaevones. Some, with the freedom of conjecture
permitted by antiquity, assert that the god had several
descendants, and the nation several appellations, as Marsi,
Gambrivii, Suevi, Vandilij, and that these are nine old
names. The name Germany, on the other hand, they say is
modern and newly introduced, from the fact that the tribes
which first crossed the Rhine and drove out the Gauls, and
are now called Tungrians, were then called Germans. Thus
what was the name of a tribe, and not of a race, gradually
prevailed, till all called themselves by this self-invented
name of Germans, which the conquerors had first employed to
inspire terror.
The National War-Songs.... They say
that Hercules, too, once visited them; and when going into
battle, they sing of him first of all heroes. They have also
those songs of theirs, by the recital of which ("baritus,"
they call it), they rouse their courage, while from the note
they augur the result of the approaching conflict. For, as
their line shouts, they inspire or feel alarm. It is not so
much an articulate sound, as a general cry of valor. They
aim chiefly at a harsh note and a confused roar, putting
their shields to their mouth, so that, by reverberation, it
may swell into a fuller and deeper sound.
Physical Characteristics. For my own
part, I agree with those who think that the tribes of
Germany are free from all taint of intermarriages with
foreign nations, and that they appear as a distinct, unmixed
race, like none but themselves. Hence, too, the same
physical peculiarities throughout so vast a population. All
have fierce blue eyes, red hair, huge frames, fit only for a
sudden exertion. They are less able to bear laborious work.
Heat and thirst they cannot in the least endure; to cold and
hunger their climate and their soil inure them.
Climate and Soil. Precious Metals. Their
country, though somewhat various in appearance, yet
generally either bristles with forests or reeks with swamps;
it is more rainy on the side of Gaul, bleaker on that of
Noricum and Pannonia. It is productive of grain, but
unfavourable to fruit-bearing trees; it is rich in flocks
and herds, but these are for the most part undersized, and
even the cattle have not their usual beauty or noble head.
It is number that is chiefly valued; they are in fact the
most highly prized, indeed the only riches of the people.
Silver and gold the gods have refused to them, whether in
kindness or in anger I cannot say. I would not, however,
affirm that no vein of German soil produces gold or silver,
for who has ever made a search? They care but little to
possess or use them. You may see among them vessels of
silver, which have been presented to their envoys and
chieftains, held as cheap as those of the clay. The border
population, however, value gold and silver for their
commercial utility, and are familiar with, and show
preference for, some of our coins. The tribes of the
interior use the simpler and more ancient practice of the
barter of commodities. They like the old and well known
money, coins milled, or showing a two-horse chariot. They
likewise prefer silver to gold, not from any special liking,
but because a large number of silver pieces is more
convenient for use among dealers in cheap and common
articles.
Arms Military Manoeuvres and Discipline Even iron is
not plentiful with them, as we infer from the character of
their weapons. But few use swords or long lances. They carry
a spear (framea is their name for it), with a narrow
and short head, but so sharp and easy to wield that the same
weapon serves, according to circumstances, for close or
distant conflict. As for the horse-soldier, he is satisfied
with a shield and spear; the foot-soldiers also scatter
showers of missiles each man having several and hurling them
to an immense distance, and being naked or lightly clad with
a little cloak. There is no display about their equipment;
their shields alone are marked with very choice colours. A
few only have corslets, and just one or two here and there a
metal or leather helmet. Their horses are remarkable neither
for beauty nor for fleetness. Nor are they taught various
evolutions after our fashion, but are driven straight
forward, or so as to make one wheel to the right in such a
compact body that none is left behind another. On the whole,
one would say that their chief strength is in their
infantry, which fights along with the cavalry; admirably
adapted to the action of the latter is the swiftness of
certain foot-soldiers, who are picked from the entire youth
of their country, and stationed in front of the line. Their
number is fixed -- a hundred from each canton; and from this
they take their name among their countrymen, so that what
was originally a mere number has no become a title of
distinction. Their line of battle is drawn up in a
wedge-like formation. To give ground, provided you return to
the attack, is considered prudence rather than cowardice.
The bodies of their slain they carry off even in indecisive
engagements. To abandon your shield is the basest of crimes;
nor may a man thus disgraced be present at the sacred rites,
or enter their council; many, indeed, after escaping from
battle, have ended their infamy with the halter.
Government. Influence of Women. They choose
their kings by birth, their generals for merit. These kings
have not unlimited or arbitrary power, and the generals do
more by example than by authority. If they are
energetic, if they are conspicuous, if they fight in the
front, they lead because they are admired. But to reprimand,
to imprison, even to flog, is permitted to the priests alone,
and that not as a punishment, or at the general's bidding,
but, as it were, by the mandate of the god whom they believe
to inspire the warrior. They also carry with them into battle
certain figures and images taken from their sacred groves. And
what most stimulates their courage is, that their squadrons or
battalions, instead of being formed by chance or by a
fortuitous gathering, are composed of families and clans.
Close by them, too, are those dearest to them, so that they
hear the shrieks of women, the cries of infants. They are to
every man the most sacred witnesses of his bravery-they are
his most generous applauders. The soldier brings his wounds to
mother and wife, who shrink not from counting or even
demanding them and who administer food and encouragement to
the combatants.
Tradition says that armies already wavering and
giving way have been rallied by women who, with earnest
entreaties and bosoms laid bare, have vividly represented the
horrors of captivity, which the Germans fear with such extreme
dread on behalf of their women, that the strongest tie by
which a state can be bound is the being required to give,
among the number of hostages, maidens of noble birth. They
even believe that the sex has a certain sanctity and
prescience, and they do not despise their counsels, or make
light of their answers. In Vespasian's days we saw Veleda,
long regarded by many as a divinity. In former times, too,
they venerated Aurinia, and many other women, but not with
servile flatteries, or with sham deification.
Deities. Mercury is the deity whom they
chiefly worship, and on certain days they deem it right to
sacrifice to him even with human victims. Hercules and Mars
they appease with more lawful offerings. Some of the Suevi
also sacrifice to Isis. Of the occasion and origin of this
foreign rite I have discovered nothing, but that the image,
which is fashioned like a light galley, indicates an imported
worship. The Germans, however, do not consider it consistent
with the grandeur of celestial beings to confine the gods
within walls, or to liken them to the form of any human
countenance. They consecrate woods and groves, and they apply
the names of deities to the abstraction which they see only in
spiritual worship.
Auguries and Method of Divination.
Augury and divination by lot no people practise more
diligently. The use of the lots is simple. A little bough is
lopped off a fruit-bearing tree, and cut into small pieces;
these are distinguished by certain marks, and thrown
carelessly and at random over a white garment. In public
questions the priest of the particular state, in private the
father of the family, invokes the gods, and, with his eyes
toward heaven, takes up each piece three times, and finds in
them a meaning according to the mark previously impressed on
them. If they prove unfavourable, there is no further
consultation that day about the matter; if they sanction it,
the confirmation of augury is still required. For they are
also familiar with the practice of consulting the notes and
flight of birds. It is peculiar to this people to seek omens
and monitions from horses. Kept at the public expense, in
these same woods and groves, are white horses, pure from the
taint of earthly labour; these are yoked to a sacred car, and
accompanied by the priest and the king, or chief of the tribe,
who note their neighings and snortings. No species of augury
is more trusted, not only by the people and by the nobility,
but also by the priests, who regard themselves as the
ministers of the gods, and the horses as acquainted with their
will. They have also another method of observing auspices, by
which they seek to learn the result of an important war.
Having taken, by whatever means, a prisoner from the tribe
with whom they are at war, they pit him against a picked man
of their own tribe, each combatant using the weapons of their
country. The victory of the one or the other is accepted as an
indication of the issue.
Councils- About minor matters the chiefs
deliberate, about the more important the whole tribe. Yet even
when the final decision rests with the people, the affair is
always thoroughly discussed by the chiefs. They assemble,
except in the case of a sudden emergency, on certain fixed
days, either at new or at full moon; for this they consider
the most auspicious season for the transaction of business.
Instead of reckoning by days as we do, they reckon by nights,
and in this manner fix both their ordinary and their legal
appointments. Night they regard as bringing on day. Their
freedom has this disadvantage, that they do not meet
simultaneously or as they are bidden, but two or three days
are wasted in the delays of assembling. When the multitude
think proper, they sit down armed. Silence is proclaimed by
the priests, who have on these occasions the right of keeping
order. Then the king or the chief, according to age, birth,
distinction in war, or eloquence, is heard, more because he
has influence to persuade than because he has power to
command. If his sentiments displease them, they reject them
with murmurs; if they are satisfied, they brandish their
spears. The most complimentary form of assent is to express
approbation with their spears.
Punishments. Administration of Justice.
In their councils an accusation may be preferred or a capital
crime prosecuted. Penalties are distinguished according to the
offence. Traitors and deserters are hanged on trees; the
coward, the unwarlike, the man stained with abominable vices,
is plunged into the mire of the morass with a hurdle put over
him. This distinction in punishment means that crime, they
think, ought, in being punished, to be exposed, while infamy
ought to be buried out of sight- Lighter offences, too, have
penalties proportioned to them; he who is convicted, is fined
in a certain number of horses or of cattle. Half of the fine
is paid to the king or to the state, half to the person whose
wrongs are avenged and to his relatives. In these same
councils they also elect the chief magistrates, who administer
law in the cantons and the towns. Each of these has a hundred
associates chosen from the people, who support him with their
advice and influence.
Training of Youth They transact no
public or private business without being armed. it is not,
however, usual for anyone to wear arms till the state has
recognized his power to use them. Then in the presence of the
council one of the chiefs, or the young man's father, or some
kinsman, equips him with a shield and a spear. These arms are
what the "toga" is with us, the first honour with which youth
is invested. Up to this time he is regarded as a member of a
household, after-wards as a member of the commonwealth. Very
noble birth or great services rendered by the father secure
for lads the rank of a chief; such lads attach themselves to
men of mature strength and of long approved valour. It is no
shame to be seen among a chief's followers. Even in his escort
there are gradations of rank, dependent on the choice of the
man to whom they are attached. These followers vie keenly with
each others as to who shall rank first with his chiefs, the
chiefs as to who shall have the most numerous and the bravest
followers. It is an honour as well as a source of strength to
be thus always surrounded by a large body of picked youths; it
is an ornament in peace and a defence in war. And not only in
his own tribe but also in the neighboring states it is the
renown and glory of a chief to be distinguished for the number
and valour of his followers, for such a man is courted by
embassies, is honoured with presents, and the very prestige of
his name ofen settles a war.
Warlike Ardour of the People. When they
go into battle, it is a disgrace for the chief to be surpassed
in valour, a disgrace for his followers not to equal the
valour of the chief. And it is an infamy and a reproach for
life to have survived the chief, and returned from the field.
To defend, to protect him, to ascribe one's own brave deeds to
his renown, is the height of loyalty. The chief fights for
victory; his vassals fight for their chief. If their native
state sinks into the sloth of prolonged peace and repose, many
of its noble youths voluntarily seek those tribes which are
waging some war, both because inaction is odious to their
race, and because they win renown more readily in the midst of
peril, and cannot maintain a numerous following except by
violence and war. Indeed, men look to the liberality of their
chief for their war-horse and their bloodstained and
victorious lance. Feasts and entertainments, which, though
inelegant, are plentifully furnished, are their only pay. The
means of this bounty come from war and rapine. Nor are they as
easily persuaded to plough the earth and to wait for the
year's produce as to challenge an enemy and earn the honour of
wounds. Nay, they actually think it tame and stupid to acquire
by the sweat of toil what they might win by their blood.
Habits in Time of Peace. Whenever they
are not fighting, they pass much of their time in the chase,
and still more in idleness, giving themselves up to sleep and
to feasting, the bravest and the most warlike doing nothing,
and surrendering the management of the household, of the home,
and of the land, to the women, the old men, and all the
weakest members of the family. They themselves lie buried in
sloth, a strange combination in their nature that the same men
should be so fond of idleness, so averse to peace. It is the
custom of the states to bestow by voluntary and individual
contribution on the chiefs a present of cattle or of grain,
which, while accepted as a compliment, supplies their wants.
They are particularly delighted by gifts from neighbouring
tribes, which are sent not only by individuals but also by the
state, such as choice steeds, heavy armour, trappings, and
neck-chains. We have now taught them to acccept money also.
Arrangement of Their Towns, Subterranean
Dwellings It is well known that the nations of Germany
have not cities, and that they do not even tolerate closely
contiguous dwellings. They live scattered and apart, just as a
spring, a meadow, or a wood has attracted them. Their village
they do not arrange in our fashion, with the buildings
connected and joined together, but every person surrounds his
dwelling with an open space, either as a precaution against
the disasters of fire, or because they do not know how to
build. No use is made by them of stone or tile; they employ
timber for all purposes, rude masses without ornament or
attractiveness. Some parts of their buildings they stain more
carefully with a clay so clear and bright that it resembles
painting, or a coloured design. They are wont also to dig out
subterranean caves, and pile on them great heaps of dung
shelter from winter and as a receptacle for the year's
produce, for by such places they mitigate the rigour of the
cold. And should an enemy approach, he lays waste the open
country, while what is hidden and buried is either not known
to exist, or escapes him from the very fact that it has to be
searched for.
Dress They all wrap themselves in a
cloak which is fastened with a clasp, or, if this is not
forthcoming, with a thorn, leaving the rest of their persons
bare. They pass whole days on the hearth by the fire. The
wealthiest are distinguished by a dress which is not flowing
like that of the Sarmatae and Parthi, but is tight, and
exhibits each limb. They also wear the skins of wild beasts;
the tribes on the Rhine and Danube in a careless fashion,
those of the interior with more elegance, as not obtaining
other clothing by commerce. These select certain animals, the
hides of which they strip off and vary them with the spotted
skins of beasts, the produce of the outer ocean, and of seas
unknown to us. The women have the same dress as the men except
that they generally wrap themselves in linen garments, which
they embroider with purple, and do not lengthen out the upper
part of their clothing into sleeves. The upper and lower arm
is thus bare, and the nearest part of the bosom is also
exposed.
Marriage Laws. Their marriage code,
however, is strict, and indeed no part of their manners is
more praiseworthy. Almost alone among barbarians they are
content with one wife, except a very few among them, and these
not from sensuality, but because their noble birth procures
for them many offers of alliance. The wife does not bring a
dower to the husband, but the husband to the wife. The parents
and relatives are present, and pass judgment on the
marriage-gifts, gifts not meant to suit a woman's taste, nor
such as a bride would deck herself with, but oxen, a
caparisoned steed, a shield, a lance, and a sword. With these
presents the wife is espoused, and she herself in her turn
brings her husband a gift of arms. This they count their
strongest bond of union, these their sacred mysteries, these
their gods of marriage. Lest the woman should think herself to
stand apart from aspirations after noble deeds and from the
perils of war, she is reminded by the ceremony which
inaugurates marriage that she is her husband's partner in toil
and danger, destined to suffer and to dare with him alike both
in in war. The yoked oxen, the harnessed steed, the gift of
arms proclaim this fact. She must live and die with the
feeling that she is receiving what she must hand down to her
children neither tarnished nor depreciated, what future
daughters-in-law may receive, and may be so passed on to her
grandchildren.
Thus with their virtue protected they live
uncorrupted by the allurements of public shows or the
stimulant of feastings. Clandestine correspondence is equally
unknown to men and women. Very rare for so numerous a
population is adultery, the punishment for which is prompt,
and in the husband's power. Having cut off the hair of the
adulteress and stripped her naked, he expels her from the
house in the presence of her kinsfolk, and then flogs her
through the whole village. The loss of chastity meets with no
indulgence; neither beauty, youth, nor wealth will procure the
culprit a husband. No one in Germany laughs at vice, nor do
they call it the fashion to corrupt and to be corrupted. Still
better is the condition of those states in which only maidens
are given in marriage, and where the hopes and expectations of
a bride are then finally terminated. They receive one husband,
as having one body and one life, that they may have no
thoughts beyond, no further-reaching desires, that they may
love not so much the husband as the married state. To limit
the number of children or to destroy any of their subsequent
offspring is accounted infamous, and good habits are here more
effectual than good laws elsewhere.
Their Children. Laws Of Succession. In
every household the children, naked and filthy, grow up with
those stout frames and limbs which we so much admire. Every
mother suckles her own offspring and never entrusts it to
servants and nurses. The master is not distinguished from the
slave by being brought up with greater delicacy. Both live
amid the same flocks and lie on the same ground till the
freeborn are distinguished by age and recognised by merit. The
young men marry late, and their vigour is thus unimpaired. Nor
are the maidens hurried into marriage; the same age and a
similar stature is required; well-matched and vigorous they
wed, and the offspring reproduce the strength of the parents.
Sister's sons are held in as much esteem by their uncles as by
their fathers; indeed, some regard the relation as even more
sacred and binding, and prefer it in receiving hostages,
thinking thus to secure a stronger hold on the affections and
a wider bond for the family. But every man's children are his
heirs and successors, and there are no wills. Should there be
no issue, the next in succession to the property are brothers
and his uncles on either side. The more relatives he has the
more numerous his connections, the more honoured is his old
age; nor are there any advantages in childlessness.
Hereditary Feuds-Fines for Homicide.
Hospitality It is a duty among them to adopt the feuds
as well as the friendships of a father or a kinsman. These
feuds are not implacable; even homicide is expiated by the
payment of a certain number of cattle and of sheep, and the
satisfaction is accepted by the entire family, greatly to the
advantage of the state, since feuds are dangerous in
proportion to the people's freedom.
No nation indulges more profusely in
entertainments and hospitality. To exclude any human being
from their roof is thought impious; every German, according to
his means, receives his guest with a well-furnished table.
When his supplies are exhausted, he who was but now the host
becomes the guide and companion to further hospitality, and
without invitation they go to the next house. It matters not;
they are entertained with like cordiality. No one
distinguishes between an acquaintance and a stranger, as
regards the rights of hospitality. It is usual to give the
departing guest whatever he may ask for, and a present in
return is asked with as little hesitation. They are greatly
charmed with gifts, but they expect no return for what they
give, nor feel any obligation for what they receive.
Habits of Life. On waking from sleep,
which they generally prolong for a late hour of the day, they
take a bath, most often of warm water, which suits a country
where winter is the longest of the seasons. After their bath
they take their meal, each having a separate seat and table of
his own. Then they go armed to business, or no less often to
their festal meetings. To pass an entire day and night in
drinking disgraces no one. Their quarrels, as might be
expected with intoxicated people, are seldom fought out with
mere abuse, but commonly with wounds and bloodshed. Yet it is
at their feasts that they generally consult on the
reconciliation of enemies, on the forming of matrimonial
alliances, on the choice of chiefs, finally even on peace and
wai-, for they think that at no time is the mind more open to
simplicity of purpose or more warmed to noble aspirations. A
race without either natural or acquired cunning, they disclose
their hidden thoughts in the freedom of the festivity. Thus
the sentiments of all having been discovered and laid bare,
the discussion is renewed on the following day, and from each
occasion its own peculiar advantage is derived. They
deliberate when they have no power to dissemble; they resolve
when error is impossible.
Food A liquor for drinking is made of
barley or other grain, and fermented into a certain
resemblance to wine. The dwellers on the river-bank also buy
wine. Their food is of a simple kind, consisting of wild
fruit, fresh game, and curdled milk. They satisfy their hunger
without elaborate preparation and without delicacies. In
quenching their thirst they are equally moderate. If you
indulge their love of drinking by supplying them with as much
as they desire, they will be overcome by their own vices as
easily as by the arms of an enemy.
Sports. Passion for Gambling. One and
the same kind of spectacle is always exhibited at every
gathering. Naked youths who practise the sport bound in the
dance amid swords and lances that threaten their lives.
Experience gives them skill and skill again gives grace;
profit or pay are out of the question; however reckless their
pastime, its reward is the pleasure of the spectators.
Strangely enough they make games of hazard a serious
occupation even when sober, and so venturesome are they about
gaining or losing, that, when every other resource has failed,
on the last and final throw they stake the freedom of their
own persons. The loser goes into voluntary slavery; though the
younger and stronger, he suffers himself to be bound and sold.
Such is their stubborn persistency in a bad practice; they
themselves call it honour. Slaves of this kind the owners part
with in the way of commerce, and also to relieve themselves
from the scandal of such a victory.
Slavery. The other slaves are not
employed after our manner with distinct domestic duties
assigned to them, but each one has the management of a house
and home of his own. The master requires from the slave a
certain quantity of grain, of cattle, and of clothing, as he
would from a tenant, and this is the limit of subjection. All
other household functions are discharged by the wife and
children. To strike a slave or to punish him with bonds or
with hard labour is a rare occurrence. They often kill them,
not in enforcing strict discipline, but on the impulse of
passion, as they would an enemy, only it is done with
impunity. The freedmen do not rank much above slaves, and are
seldom of any weight in the family, never in the state with
the exception of those tribes which are ruled by kings. There
indeed they rise above the freeborn and the noble; elsewhere
the inferiority of the freedman marks the freedom of the
state.
Occupation of Land. Tillage. Of lending
money on interest and increasing it by compounding interest
they know nothing-a more effectual safeguard than if it was
prohibited.
Land proportioned to the number of inhabitants
is occupied by the whole community in turn, and afterwards
divided among them according to rank. A wide expanse of plains
makes the partition easy. They till fresh fields every year,
and they have still more land than enough; with the richness
and extent of their soil, they do not laboriously exert
themselves in planting orchards, enclosing meadows and
watering gardens. Corn is the only produce required from the
earth; hence even the year itself is not divided by them into
as many seasons as with us. Winter, spring, and summer have
both a meaning and a name; the name and blessings of autumn
are alike unknown.
Funeral Rites. In their funerals there
is no pomp; they simply observe the custom of burning the
bodies of illustrious men with certain kinds of wood. They do
not heap garments or spices on the funeral pile. The arms of
the dead man and in some cases his horse are consigned to the
fire. A turf mound forms the tomb. Monuments with their lofty
elaborate splendour they reject as oppressive to the dead.
Tears and lamentations they soon dismiss; grief and sorrow but
slowly. It is thought becoming for women to bewail, for men to
remember, the dead.
Such on the whole is the account which I have
received of the origin and manners of the entire German
people.
Note that although this is most of Tacitus'
text, some of the later sections are not in this etext.