The Works of Tacitus
tr. by Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb
[1864-1877]
Tacitus: Germany Book 1 [20]
20. 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
own children are his heirs and successors, and there are no wills. Should there
be no issue, the next in succession to the property are his 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.
21. 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 a 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.
22. On waking from sleep, which they generally prolong to a late hour of
the day, they take a bath, oftenest 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 war, 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.
23. A liquor for drinking is made out 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 not 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.
24. 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.
25. 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 freedborn and the
noble; elsewhere the inferiority of the freedman marks the freedom of the state.
26. Of lending money on interest and increasing it by compound interest they
know nothing,–a more effectual safeguard than if it were 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, inclosing 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.
27. 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. I will now touch on the institutions and
religious rites of the separate tribes, pointing out how far they differ, and
also what nations have migrated from Germany into Gaul.
28. That highest authority, the great Julius, informs us that Gaul was once
more powerful than Germany. Consequently we may believe that Gauls even crossed
over into Germany. For what a trifling obstacle would a river be to the various
tribes, as they grew in strength and wished to possess in exchange settlements
which were still open to all, and not partitioned among powerful monarchies!
Accordingly the country between the Hercynian forest and the rivers Rhine and
Moenus, and that which lies beyond, was occupied respectively by the Helvetii
and Boii, both tribes of Gaul. The name Boiemum still survives, marking the
old tradition of the place, though the population has been changed. Whether
however the Aravisci migrated into Pannonia from the Osi, a German race, or
whether the Osi came from the Aravisci into Germany, as both nations still retain
he same language, institutions, and customs, is a doubtful matter; for as they
were once equally poor and equally free, either bank had the same attractions,
the same drawbacks. The Treveri and Nervii are even eager in their claims of
a German origin, thinking that the glory of this descent distinguishes them
from the uniform level of Gallic effeminacy. The Rhine bank itself is occupied
by tribes unquestionably German,–the Vangiones, the Triboci, and the Nemetes.
Nor do even the Ubii, though they have earned the distinction of being a Roman
colony, and prefer to be called Agrippinenses, from the name of their founder,
blush to own their origin. Having crossed the sea in former days, and given
proof of their allegiance, they were settled on the Rhine-bank itself, as those
who might guard it but need not be watched.
29. Foremost among all these nations in valour, the Batavi occupy an island
within the Rhine and but a small portion of the bank. Formerly a tribe of the
Chatti, they were forced by internal dissension to migrate to their present
settlements and there become a part of the Roman Empire. They yet retain the
honourable badge of an ancient alliance; for they are not insulted by tribute,
nor ground down by the tax-gatherer. Free from the usual burdens and contributions,
and set apart for fighting purposes, like a magazine of arms, we reserve them
for our wars. The subjection of the Mattiaci is of the same character. For the
greatness of the Roman people has spread reverence for our empire beyond the
Rhine and the old boundaries. Thus this nation, whose settlements and territories
are on their own side of the river, are yet in sentiment and purpose one with
us; in all other respects they resemble the Batavi, except that they still gain
from the soil and climate of their native land a keener vigour. I should not
reckon among the German tribes the cultivators of the tithe-lands, although
they are settled on the further side of the Rhine and Danube. Reckless adventurers
from Gaul, emboldened by want, occupied this land of questionable ownership.
After a while, our frontier having been advanced, and our military positions
pushed forward, it was regarded as a remote nook of our empire and a part of
a Roman province.
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