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....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....
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....
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....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.
...
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....
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....
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.... 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 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 honored is his old age; nor are there any advantages in
childlessness.
Feuds. 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.
Hospitality 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.
Text from Tacitus, The Agricola and Germania, A. J. Church and W.
J. Brodribb, trans., (London: Macmillan, 1877), pp. 87- 10