The Works of Tacitus
tr. by Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb
[1864-1877]
Tacitus: Germany Book 1 [10]
10. 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 towards 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 the 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.
11. 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 it 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 weapons.
12. In their councils an accusation may be preferred or a capital crime prosecuted.
Penalties are distinguished ac-cording 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.
13. They transact no public or private business without being armed. It is
not, however, usual for anyone to wear arms till the state has recognised 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, afterwards
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 other as to who shall rank first with his chief, 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 neighbouring 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 often settles a war.
14. 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 blood-stained 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.
15. 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 accept money also.
16. It is well known that the nations of Germany have no 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 villages
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, as a 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 else escapes him
from the very fact that it has to be searched for.
17. 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 Sarmatand 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.
18. 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 peace and 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 grand-children.
19. 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 their children or to
destroy any of their subsequent offspring is accounted infamous, and good habits
are here more effectual than good laws elsewhere.
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