The history of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire: By Edward Gibbon, Esq; ... [pt.1]

CHAP. IX. The State of Germany till the Invasion of the Bar|barians, in the Time of the Emperor Decius.

THE government and religion of Persia have deserved some notice from their connexion with the decline and fall of the Roman empire. We shall occasionally mention the Scythian, or Sarmatian tribes, which, with their arms and horses, their flocks and herds, their wives and families, wandered over the immense plains which spread themselves from the Caspian Sea to the Vistula, from the confines of Persia to those of Germany. But the warlike Germans, who first resisted, then invaded, and at length overturned, the western monarchy of Rome, will occupy a much more important place in this history, and possess a stronger, and, if we may use the expres|sion, a more domestic, claim to our attention and regard. The most civilized nations of mo|dern Europe issued from the woods of Germany, and in the rude institutions of those barbarians we may still distinguish the original principles of our present laws and manners. In their primi|tive state of simplicity and independence, the Germans were surveyed by the discerning eye, and delineated by the masterly pencil, of Tacitus, the first of historians who applied the science of philosophy to the study of facts. The expressive conciseness of his descriptions has deserved to ex|ercise

the diligence of innumerable antiquarians, and to excite the genius and penetration of the philosophic historians of our own times. The subject, however various and important, has al|ready been so frequently, so ably, and so success|fully discussed, that it is now grown familiar to the reader, and difficult to the writer. We shall therefore content ourselves with observing, and indeed with repeating, some of the most impor|tant circumstances of climate, of manners, and of institutions, which rendered the wild barba|rians of Germany such formidable enemies to the Roman power.

Ancient Germany, excluding from its inde|pendent limits the province westward of the Rhine, which had submitted to the Roman yoke, extended itself over a third part of Europe. Al|most the whole of modern Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Livonia, Prussia, and the greater part of Poland, were peopled by the various tribes of one great nation, whose com|plexion, manners, and language denoted a com|mon origin, and preserved a striking resemblance. On the west, ancient Germany was divided by the Rhine from the Gallic, and on the south, by the Danube, from the Illyrian provinces of the empire. A ridge of hills, rising from the Da|nube, and called the Carpathian Mountains, co|vered Germany on the side of Dacia or Hungary. The eastern frontier was faintly marked by the mutual fears of the Germans and the Sarmatians, and was often confounded by the mixture of war|ring and confederating tribes of the two nations.

In the remote darkness of the north, the ancients imperfectly descried a frozen ocean that lay be|yond the Baltic Sea, and beyond the Peninsula, or islands 1 of Scandinavia.

Some ingenious writers 2 have suspected that Europe was much colder formerly than it is at present; and the most ancient descriptions of the climate of Germany tend exceedingly to confirm their theory. The general complaints of intense frost, and eternal winter, are perhaps little to be regarded, since we have no method of reducing to the accurate standard of the thermometer, the feelings, or the expressions of an orator, born in the happier regions of Greece or Asia. But I shall select two remarkable circumstances of a less equivocal nature. 1. The great rivers which co|vered the Roman provinces, the Rhine and the Danube, were frequently frozen over, and ca|pable of supporting the most enormous weights. The barbarians, who often chose that severe sea|son for their inroads, transported, without appre|hension or danger, their numerous armies, their

cavalry, and their heavy waggons, over a vast and solid bridge of ice 3. Modern ages have not presented an instance of a like phaenomenon. 2. The rein deer, that useful animal, from whom the savage of the North derives the best comforts of his dreary life, is of a constitution that sup|ports, and even requires, the most intense cold. He is found on the rock of Spitzberg, within ten degrees of the Pole; he seems to delight in the snows of Lapland and Siberia; but at present he cannot subsist, much less multiply, in any country to the south of the Baltic 4. In the time of Caesar, the rein deer, as well as the elk, and the wild bull, was a native of the Hercynian forest, which then overshadowed a great part of Germany and Poland 5. The modern improvements sufficiently explain the causes of the diminution of the cold. These immense woods have been gradually cleared, which intercepted from the earth the rays of the sun 6. The morasses have been drained, and, in proportion as the soil has been cultivated, the air has become more temperate. Canada, at this

day, is an exact picture of ancient Germany. Although situated in the same parallel with the finest provinces of France and England, that country experiences the most rigorous cold. The rein deer are very numerous, the ground is co|vered with deep and lasting snow, and the great river of St Lawrence is regularly frozen, in a sea|son when the waters of the Seine and the Thames are usually free from ice 7.

It is difficult to ascertain, and easy to exagge|rate, the influence of the climate of ancient Ger|many over the minds and bodies of the natives. Many writers have supposed, and most have al|lowed, though, as it should seem, without any adequate proof, that the rigorous cold of the North was favourable to long life and generative vigour, that the women were more fruitful, and the human species more prolific, than in warmer or more temperate climates 8. We may assert, with greater confidence, that the keen air of Ger|many formed the large and masculine limbs of the natives, who were, in general, of a more lofty stature than the people of the South 9, gave them a kind of strength better adapted to violent exer|tions than to patient labour, and inspired them with constitutional bravery, which is the result of nerves and spirits. The severity of a winter cam|paign,

that chilled the courage of the Roman troops, was scarcely felt by these hardy children of the North 10, who, in their turn, were unable to resist the summer heats, and dissolved away in languor and sickness under the beams of an Ita|lian sun 11.

There is not any where upon the globe, a large tract of country, which we have discovered desti|tute of inhabitants, or whose first population can be fixed with any degree of historical certainty. And yet, as the most philosophic minds can sel|dom refrain from investigating the infancy of great nations, our curiosity consumes itself in toil|some and disappointed efforts. When Tacitus considered the purity of the German blood, and the forbidding aspect of the country, he was dis|posed to pronounce those barbarians Indigenae, or natives of the soil. We may allow with safety, and perhaps with truth, that ancient Germany was not originally peopled by any foreign co|lonies, already formed into a political society 12; but that the name and nation received their ex|istence from the gradual union of some wandering

savages of the Hercynian woods. To assert those savages to have been the spontaneous production of the earth which they inhabited, would be a rash inference, condemned by religion, and un|warranted by reason.

Such rational doubt is but ill-suited with the genius of popular vanity. Among the nations who have adopted the Mosaic history of the world, the ark of Noah has been of the same use, as was formerly to the Greeks and Romans the siege of Troy. On a narrow basis of acknowledged truth, an immense but rude superstructure of fable has been erected; and the wild Irishman 13, as well as the wild Tartar 14, could point out the indivi|dual son of Japhet, from whose loins his ancestors were lineally descended. The last century abound|ed with antiquarians of profound learning and easy faith, who, by the dim light of legends and traditions, of conjectures and etymologies, con|ducted the great grandchildren of Noah from the Tower of Babel to the extremities of the globe. Of these judicious critics, one of the most enter|taining

was Olaus Rudbeck, professor in the uni|versity of Upsal 15. Whatever is celebrated either in history or fable, this zealous patriot ascribes to his country. From Sweden (which formed so considerable a part of ancient Germany) the Greeks themselves derived their alphabetical cha|racters, their astronomy, and their religion. Of that delightful region (for such it appeared to the eyes of a native) the Atlantis of Plato, the coun|try of the Hyperboreans, the gardens of the Hes|perides, the Fortunate Islands, and even the Ely|sian Fields, were all but faint and imperfect tran|scripts. A clime so profusely favoured by Nature, could not long remain desert after the flood. The learned Rudbeck allows the family of Noah a few years to multiply from eight to about twenty thousand persons. He then disperses them into small colonies to replenish the earth, and to propagate the human species. The German or Swedish detachment (which marched, if I am not mistaken, under the command of Askenaz the son of Gomer, the son of Japhet) distinguished itself by a more than common diligence in the prose|cution of this great work. The northern hive cast its swarms over the greatest part of Europe, Africa, and Asia; and (to use the author's meta|phor) the blood circulated from the extremities to the heart.

But all this well-laboured system of German antiquities is annihilated by a single fact, too well

attested to admit of any doubt, and of too deci|sive a nature to leave room for any reply. The Germans, in the age of Tacitus, were unac|quainted with the use of letters 16; and the use of letters is the principal circumstance that distin|guishes a civilized people from a herd of savages incapable of knowledge or reflection. Without that artificial help, the human memory soon dissi|pates or corrupts the ideas intrusted to her charge; and the nobler faculties of the mind, no longer supplied with models or with materials, gradually forget their powers; the judgment becomes feeble and lethargic, the imagination languid or irregular. Fully to apprehend this important truth, let us attempt, in an improved society, to calculate the immense distance between the man of learning and the illiterate peasant. The for|mer, by reading and reflection, multiplies his own experience, and lives in distant ages and re|mote countries; whilst the latter, rooted to a single spot, and confined to a few years of exist|ence, surpasses, but very little, his fellow-la|bourer

the ox in the exercise of his mental fa|culties. The same, and even a greater, differ|ence will be found between nations than between individuals; and we may safely pronounce, that without some species of writing, no people has ever preserved the faithful annals of their history, ever made any considerable progress in the ab|stract sciences, or ever possessed, in any tolerable degree of perfection, the useful and agreeable arts of life.

Of these arts, the ancient Germans were wretch|edly destitute. They passed their lives in a state of ignorance and poverty, which it has pleased some declaimers to dignify with the appellation of virtuous simplicity. Modern Germany is said to contain about two thousand three hundred walled towns 17. In a much wider extent of coun|try, the geographer Ptolemy could discover no more than ninety places, which he decorates with the name of cities 18; though, according to our ideas, they would but ill deserve that splendid title. We can only suppose them to have been rude fortifications, constructed in the centre of the woods, and designed to secure the women, children, and cattle, whilst the warriors of the tribe marched out to repel a sudden invasion 19.

But Tacitus asserts, as a well-known fact, that the Germans, in his time, had no cities 20; and that they affected to despise the works of Roman industry, as places of confinement rather than of security 21. Their edifices were not even conti|guous, or formed into regular villas 22; each bar|barian fixed his independent dwelling on the spot to which a plain, a wood, or a stream of fresh water, had induced him to give the preference. Neither stone, nor brick, nor tiles, were em|ployed in these slight habitations 23. They were indeed no more than low huts of a circular figure, built of rough timber, thatched with straw, and pierced at the top to leave a free passage for the smoke. In the most inclement winter, the hardy German was satisfied with a scanty garment made of the skin of some animal. The nations who dwelt towards the North, clothed themselves in furs; and the women manufactured for their own use a coarse kind of linen 24. The game of various sorts, with which the forests of Germany were plentifully stocked, supplied its inhabitants

with food and exercise 25. Their monstrous herds of cattle, less remarkable indeed for their beauty than for their utility 26, formed the principal ob|ject of their wealth. A small quantity of corn was the only produce exacted from the earth: the use of orchards or artificial meadows was un|known to the Germans; nor can we expect any improvements in agriculture from a people, whose property every year experienced a general change by a new division of the arable lands, and who, in that strange operation, avoided disputes, by suffering a great part of their territory to lie waste and without tillage 27.

Gold, silver, and iron, were extremely scarce in Germany. Its barbarous inhabitants wanted both skill and patience to investigate those rich veins of silver, which have so liberally rewarded the attention of the princes of Brunswick and Saxony. Sweden, which now supplies Europe with iron, was equally ignorant of its own riches; and the appearance of the arms of the Germans furnished a sufficient proof how little iron they were able to bestow on what they must have deemed the noblest use of that metal. The va|rious transactions of peace and war had intro|duced some Roman coins (chiefly silver) among the borderers of the Rhine and Danube; but the more distant tribes were absolutely unacquainted with the use of money, carried on their confined traffic by the exchange of commodities, and

prized their rude earthen vessels as of equal value with the silver vases, the presents of Rome to their princes and ambassadors 28. To a mind ca|pable of reflection, such leading facts convey more instruction, than a tedious detail of subor|dinate circumstances. The value of money has been settled by general consent to express our wants and our property; as letters were invented to express our ideas; and both these institutions, by giving a more active energy to the powers and passions of human nature, have contributed to multiply the objects they were designed to re|present. The use of gold and silver is in a great measure factitious; but it would be impossible to enumerate the important and various services which agriculture, and all the arts, have received from iron, when tempered and fashioned by the operation of fire, and the dexterous hand of man. Money, in a word, is the most universal incite|ment, iron the most powerful instrument, of hu|man industry; and it is very difficult to conceive by what means a people, neither actuated by the one, nor seconded by the other, could emerge from the grossest barbarism 29.

If we contemplate a savage nation in any part of the globe, a supine indolence and a carelessness of futurity will be found to constitute their gene|ral character. In a civilized state, every faculty

of man is expanded and exercised; and the great chain of mutual dependence connects and em|braces the several members of society. The most numerous portion of it is employed in constant and useful labour. The select few, placed by fortune above that necessity, can, however, fill up their time by the pursuits of interest or glory, by the improvement of their estate or of their un|derstanding, by the duties, the pleasures, and even the follies of social life. The Germans were not possessed of these varied resources. The care of the house and family, the management of the land and cattle, were delegated to the old and the infirm, to women and slaves. The lazy war|rior, destitute of every art that might employ his leisure hours, consumed his days and nights in the animal gratifications of sleep and food. And yet, by a wonderful diversity of Nature (accord|ing to the remark of a writer who had pierced into its darkest recesses), the same barbarians are by turns the most indolent and the most restless of mankind. They delight in sloth, they detest tranquillity 30. The languid soul, oppressed with its own weight, anxiously required some new and powerful sensation; and war and danger were the only amusements adequate to its fierce temper. The sound that summoned the German to arms was grateful to his ear. It roused him from his uncomfortable lethargy, gave him an active pur|suit, and, by strong exercise of the body, and violent emotions of the mind, restored him to a

more lively sense of his existence. In the dull intervals of peace, these barbarians were immo|derately addicted to deep gaming and excessive drinking; both of which, by different means, the one by inflaming their passions, the other by extinguishing their reason, alike relieved them from the pain of thinking. They gloried in pass|ing whole days and nights at table; and the blood of friends and relations often stained their numerous and drunken assemblies 31. Their debts of honour (for in that light they have transmitted to us those of play) they discharged with the most romantic fidelity. The desperate gamester, who had staked his person and liberty on a last throw of the dice, patiently submitted to the decision of fortune, and suffered himself to be bound, chastised, and sold into remote slavery, by his weaker but more lucky antagonist 32.

Strong beer, a liquor extracted with very little art from wheat or barley, and corrupted (as it is strongly expressed by Tacitus) into a certain sem|blance of wine, was sufficient for the gross pur|poses of German debauchery. But those who had tasted the rich wines of Italy, and afterwards of Gaul, sighed for that more delicious species of intoxication. They attempted not, however (as has since been executed with so much success), to naturalize the vine on the banks of the Rhine and Danube; nor did they endeavour to procure

by industry the materials of an advantageous commerce. To solicit by labour what might be ravished by arms, was esteemed unworthy of the German spirit 33. The intemperate thirst of strong liquors often urged the barbarians to invade the provinces on which art or nature had bestowed those much envied presents. The Tuscan who betrayed his country to the Celtic nations, at|tracted them into Italy by the prospect of the rich fruits and delicious wines, the productions of a happier climate 34. And in the same manner the German auxiliaries, invited into France during the civil wars of the sixteenth century, were al|lured by the promise of plenteous quarters in the the provinces of Champaigne and Burgundy 35. Drunkenness, the most illiberal, but not the most dangerous of our vices, was sometimes capable, in a less civilized state of mankind, of occasioning a battle, a war, or a revolution.

The climate of ancient Germany has been mol|lified, and the soil fertilized, by the labour of ten centuries from the time of Charlemagne. The same extent of ground which at present main|tains, in ease and plenty, a million of husband-men and artificers, was unable to supply an hun|dred thousand lazy warriors with the simple ne|cessaries of life 36. The Germans abandoned their

immense forests to the exercise of hunting, em|ployed in pasturage the most considerable part of their lands, bestowed on the small remainder a rude and careless cultivation, and then accused the scantiness and sterility of a country that re|fused to maintain the multitude of its inhabitants. When the return of famine severely admonished them of the importance of the arts, the national distress was sometimes alleviated by the emigra|tion of a third, perhaps, or a fourth part of their youth 37. The possession and the enjoyment of property are the pledges which bind a civilized people to an improved country. But the Ger|mans, who carried with them what they most valued, their arms, their cattle, and their women, cheerfully abandoned the vast silence of their woods for the unbounded hopes of plunder and conquest. The innumerable swarms that issued, or seemed to issue, from the great storehouse of nations, were multiplied by the fears of the van|quished, and by the credulity of succeeding ages. And from facts thus exaggerated, an opinion was gradually established, and has been supported by writers of distinguished reputation, that, in the age of Caesar and Tacitus, the inhabitants of the North were far more numerous than they are in

our days 38. A more serious inquiry into the causes of population, seems to have convinced modern philosophers of the falsehood, and indeed the impossibility, of the supposition. To the names of Mariana and of Machiavel 39, we can oppose the equal names of Robertson and Hume 40.

A warlike nation like the Germans, without either cities, letters, arts, or money, found some compensation for this savage state in the enjoy|ment of liberty. Their poverty secured their freedom, since our desires and our possessions are the strongest fetters of despotism.

Among the Suiones (says Tacitus), riches are held in honour. They are therefore subject to an ab|solute monarch, who, instead of intrusting his people with the free use of arms, as is practised in the rest of Germany, commits them to the safe custody not of a citizen, or even of a freedman, but of a slave. The neighbours of the Suiones, the Sitones, are sunk even below servitude; they obey a woman 41.

In the mention of these exceptions, the great historian sufficiently acknowledges the general theory of government. We are only at a loss to conceive

by what means riches and despotism could pene|trate into a remote corner of the North, and extinguish the generous flame that blazed with such fierceness on the frontier of the Roman provinces: or how the ancestors of those Danes and Norwegians, so distinguished in latter ages by their unconquered spirit, could thus tamely re|sign the great character of German liberty 42. Some tribes, however, on the coast of the Baltic, acknow|ledged the authority of kings, though without relinquishing the rights of men 43; but in the far greater part of Germany, the form of govern|ment was a democracy, tempered indeed, and controlled, not so much by general and positive laws, as by the occasional ascendant of birth or valour, of eloquence or superstition 44.

Civil governments, in their first institutions, are voluntary associations for mutual defence. To obtain the desired end, it is absolutely necessary, that each individual should conceive himself obliged to submit his private opinion and ac|tions, to the judgment of the greater number of his associates. The German tribes were content|ed with this rude but liberal outline of political society. As soon as a youth, born of free pa|rents, had attained the age of manhood, he was

introduced into the general council of his coun|trymen, solemnly invested with a shield and spear, and adopted as an equal and worthy member of the military commonwealth. The assembly of the warriors of the tribe was convened at stated seasons, or on sudden emergencies. The trial of public offences, the election of magistrates, and the great business of peace and war, were determined by its independent voice. Some|times, indeed, these important questions were previously considered, and prepared in a more select council of the principal chieftains 45. The magistrates might deliberate and persuade, the people only could resolve and execute; and the resolutions of the Germans were for the most part hasty and violent. Barbarians accustomed to place their freedom in gratifying the present passion, and their courage in overlooking all future consequences, turned away with indig|nant contempt from the remonstrances of justice and policy, and it was the practice to signify by a hollow murmur, their dislike of such timid counsels. But whenever a more popular orator proposed to vindicate the meanest citizen from either foreign or domestic injury, whenever he called upon his fellow-countrymen to assert the national honour, or to pursue some enterprise full of danger and glory, a loud clashing of shields and spears expressed the eager applause of the assembly. For the Germans always met

in arms, and it was constantly to be dreaded; lest an irregular multitude, inflamed with faction and strong liquors, should use those arms to en|force, as well as to declare, their furious resolves. We may recollect how often the diets of Poland have been polluted with blood, and the more numerous party has been compelled to yield to the more violent and seditious 46.

A general of the tribe was elected on occasions of danger; and, if the danger was pressing and extensive, several tribes concurred in the choice of the same general. The bravest warrior was named to lead his countrymen into the field, by his example rather than by his commands. But this power, however limited, was still invi|dious. It expired with the war, and in time of peace the German tribes acknowledged not any supreme chief 47. Princes were, however, ap|pointed, in the general assembly, to administer justice, or rather to compose differences 48, in their respective districts. In the choice of these magistrates, as much regard was shewn to birth as to merit 49. To each was assigned, by the public, a guard, and a council of an hundred persons; and the first of the princes appears to have enjoyed a pre-eminence of rank and honour

which sometimes tempted the Romans to com|pliment him with the regal title 50.

The comparative view of the powers of the magistrates, in two remarkable instances, is alone sufficient to represent the whole system of Ger|man manners. The disposal of the landed pro|perty within their district, was absolutely vested in their hands, and they distributed it every year according to a new division 51. At the same time they were not authorized to punish with death, to imprison, or even to strike, a private citizen 52. A people thus jealous of their per|sons, and careless of their possessions, must have been totally destitute of industry and the arts, but animated with a high sense of honour and independence.

The Germans respected only those duties which they imposed on themselves. The most obscure soldier resisted with disdain the authority of the magistrates.

The noblest youths blushed not to be numbered among the faithful compa|nions of some renowned chief, to whom they devoted their arms and service. A noble emulation prevailed among the companions to obtain the first place in the esteem of their chief; amongst the chiefs to acquire the great|est number of valiant companions. To be ever surrounded by a band of select youths, was the pride and strength of the chiefs, their ornament in peace, their defence in war. The

glory of such distinguished heroes diffused itself beyond the narrow limits of their own tribe. Presents and embassies solicited their friend|ship, and the fame of their arms often ensur|ed victory to the party which they espoused. In the hour of danger it was shameful for the chief to be surpassed in valour by his com|panions; shameful for the companions not to equal the valour of their chief. To survive his fall in battle, was indelible infamy. To protect his person, and to adorn his glory with the trophies of their own exploits, were the most sacred of their duties. The chiefs combated for victory, the companions for the chief. The noblest warriors, whenever their native country was sunk in the laziness of peace, maintained their numerous bands in some distant scene of action, to exercise their restless spirit, and to acquire renown by vo|luntary dangers. Gifts worthy of soldiers, the warlike steed, the bloody and ever victorious lance, were the rewards which the companions claimed from the liberality of their chief. The rude plenty of his hospitable board was the only pay that he could bestow, or they would accept. War, rapine, and the free|will offerings of his friends, supplied the ma|terials of this munificence 53.

This institu|tion, however it might accidentally weaken the several republics, invigorated the general cha|racter of the Germans, and even ripened amongst

them all the virtues of which barbarians are sus|ceptible; the faith and valour, the hospitality and the courtesy, so conspicuous long afterwards in the ages of chivalry. The honourable gifts, bestowed by the chief on his brave companions, have been supposed, by an ingenious writer, to contain the first rudiments of the fiefs, distri|buted, after the conquest of the Roman pro|vinces, by the barbarian lords among their vas|sals, with a similar duty of homage and military service 54. These conditions are, however, very repugnant to the maxims of the ancient Germans, who delighted in mutual presents; but without either imposing, or accepting, the weight of obligations 55.

In the days of chivalry, or more properly of romance, all the men were brave, and all the women were chaste;

and notwithstanding the latter of these virtues is acquired and pre|served with much more difficulty than the for|mer, it is ascribed, almost without exception, to the wives of the ancient Germans. Polygamy was not in use, except among the princes, and among them only for the sake of multiplying their alliances. Divorces were prohibited by manners rather than by laws. Adulteries were punished as rare and inexpiable crimes; nor was

seduction justified by example and fashion 56. We may easily discover, that Tacitus indulges an honest pleasure in the contrast of barbarian virtue, with the dissolute conduct of the Roman ladies: yet there are some striking circumstances that give an air of truth, or at least of proba|bility, to the conjugal faith and chastity of the Germans.

Although the progress of civilization has un|doubtedly contributed to assuage the fiercer pas|sions of human nature, it seems to have been less favourable to the virtue of chastity, whose most dangerous enemy is the softness of the mind. The refinements of life corrupt while they polish the intercourse of the sexes. The gross appetite of love becomes most dangerous when it is ele|vated, or rather, indeed, disguised by sentimental passion. The elegance of dress, of motion, and of manners, gives a lustre to beauty, and inflames the senses through the imagination. Luxurious entertainments, midnight dances, and licentious spectacles, present at once temptation and op|portunity to female frailty 57. From such dan|gers the unpolished wives of the barbarians were secured, by poverty, solitude, and the painful cares of a domestic life. The German huts, open, on every side, to the eye of indiscretion or

jealousy, were a better safeguard of conjugal fidelity, than the walls, the bolts, and the eunuchs of a Persian haram. To this reason, another may be added of a more honourable nature. The Germans treated their women with esteem and confidence, consulted them on every occasion of importance, and fondly believed, that in their breasts resided a sanctity and wisdom, more than human. Some of these interpreters of fate, such as Velleda, in the Batavian war, governed in the name of the deity, the fiercest nations of Ger|many 58. The rest of the sex, without being adored as goddesses, were respected as the free and equal companions of soldiers; associated even by the marriage ceremony to a life of toil, of danger, and of glory 59. In their great inva|sions, the camps of the barbarians were filled with a multitude of women, who remained firm and undaunted amidst the sound of arms, the various forms of destruction, and the honourable wounds of their sons and husbands 60. Fainting armies of Germans have more than once been driven back upon the enemy, by the generous despair of the women, who dreaded death much less than servitude. If the day was irrecoverably lost, they well knew how to deliver themselves and their children, with their own hands, from

an insulting victor 61. Heroines of such a cast may claim our admiration; but they were most assuredly neither lovely, nor very susceptible of love. Whilst they affected to emulate the stern virtues of man, they must have resigned that at|tractive softness in which principally consist the charm and weakness of woman. Conscious pride taught the German females to suppress every tender emotion that stood in competition with honour, and the first honour of the sex has ever been that of chastity. The sentiments and con|duct of these high-spirited matrons may, at once, be considered as a cause, as an effect, and as a proof of the general character of the nation. Female courage, however it may be raised by fanaticism, or confirmed by habit, can be only a faint and imperfect imitation of the manly va|lour that distinguishes the age or country in which it may be found.

The religious system of the Germans (if the wild opinions of savages can deserve that name) was dictated by their wants, their fears, and their ignorance 62. They adored the great visible objects and agents of Nature, the Sun and the

Moon, the Fire and the Earth; together with those imaginary deities, who were supposed to preside over the most important occupations of human life. They were persuaded, that, by some ridiculous arts of divination, they could discover the will of the superior beings, and that human sacrifices were the most precious and acceptable offering to their altars. Some ap|plause has been hastily bestowed on the sublime notion, entertained by that people, of the Deity, whom they neither confined within the walls of a temple, nor represented by any human figure; but when we recollect, that the Germans were unskilled in architecture, and totally unacquaint|ed with the art of sculpture, we shall readily assign the true reason of a scruple, which arose not so much from a superiority of reason, as from a want of ingenuity. The only temples in Ger|many were dark and ancient groves, consecrated by the reverence of succeeding generations. Their secret gloom, the imagined residence of an in|visible power, by presenting no distinct object of fear or worship, impressed the mind with a still deeper sense of religious horror 63; and the priests, rude and illiterate as they were, had been taught by experience the use of every artifice that could preserve and fortify impressions so well suited to their own interest.

The same ignorance, which renders barbarians incapable of conceiving or embracing the useful restraints of laws, exposes them naked and un|armed to the blind terrors of superstition. The German priests, improving this favourable tem|per of their countrymen, had assumed a juris|diction, even in temporal concerns, which the magistrate could not venture to exercise; and the haughty warrior patiently submitted to the lash of correction, when it was inflicted, not by any human power, but by the immediate order of the god of war 64. The defects of civil policy were sometimes supplied by the interposition of ecclesiastical authority. The latter was con|stantly exerted to maintain silence and decency in the popular assemblies; and was sometimes ex|tended to a more enlarged concern for the na|tional welfare. A solemn procession was occa|sionally celebrated in the present countries of Mecklenburg and Pomerania. The unknown symbol of the Earth, covered with a thick veil, was placed on a carriage drawn by cows; and in this manner the goddess, whose common resi|dence was in the isle of Rugen, visited several adjacent tribes of her worshippers. During her progress, the sound of war was hushed, quarrels were suspended, arms laid aside, and the restless Germans had an opportunity of tasting the bles|sings of peace and harmony 65. The truce of God, so often and so ineffectually proclaimed by the

clergy of the eleventh century, was an obvious imitation of this ancient custom 66.

But the influence of religion was far more powerful to inflame, than to moderate, the fierce passions of the Germans. Interest and fanaticism often prompted its ministers to sanctify the most daring and the most unjust enterprises, by the approbation of Heaven, and full assurances of success. The consecrated standards, long rever|ed in the groves of superstition, were placed in the front of the battle 67; and the hostile army was devoted with dire execrations to the gods of war and of thunder 68. In the faith of soldiers (and such were the Germans) cowardice is the most unpardonable of sins. A brave man was the worthy favourite of their martial deities; the wretch, who had lost his shield, was alike banished from the religious and the civil assem|blies of his countrymen. Some tribes of the north seem to have embraced the doctrine of transmigration 69, others imagined a gross para|dise of immortal drunkenness 70. All agreed, that a life spent in arms, and a glorious death in battle, were the best preparations for a happy futurity, either in this or in another world.

The immortality so vainly promised by the priests, was, in some degree conferred by the bards. That singular order of men has most deservedly attracted the notice of all who have attempted to investigate the antiquities of the Celts, the Scandinavians, and the Germans. Their genius and character, as well as the reve|rence paid to that important office, have been sufficiently illustrated. But we cannot so easily express, or even conceive, the enthusiasm of arms and glory, which they kindled in the breast of their audience. Among a polished people, a taste for poetry is rather an amusement of the fancy, than a passion of the soul. And yet, when in calm retirement we peruse the combats described by Homer or Tasso, we are insensibly seduced by the fiction, and feel a momentary glow of martial ardour. But how faint, how cold is the sensation which a peaceful mind can receive from solitary study! It was in the hour of battle, or in the feast of victory, that the bards celebrated the glory of heroes of ancient days, the ancestors of those warlike chieftains, who listened with transport to their artless but animated strains. The view of arms and of danger heightened the effect of the military song; and the passions which it tended to excite, the desire of fame, and the contempt of death, were the habitual sentiments of a German mind 71.

Such was the situation, and such were the manners, of the ancient Germans. Their cli|mate, their want of learning, of arts, and of laws, their notions of honour, of gallantry, and of religion, their sense of freedom, impatience of peace, and thirst of enterprise, all contributed to form a people of military heroes. And yet we find, that, during more than two hundred and fifty years that elapsed from the defeat of Varus to the reign of Decius, these formidable barba|rians made few considerable attempts, and not any material impression on the luxurious and enslaved provinces of the empire. Their pro|gress was checked by their want of arms and dis|cipline, and their fury was diverted by the in|testine divisions of ancient Germany.

I. It has been observed, with ingenuity, and not without truth, that the command of iron soon gives a nation the command of gold. But the rude tribes of Germany, alike destitute of both those valuable metals, were reduced slowly to acquire, by their unassisted strength, the pos|session of the one as well as the other. The face of a German army displayed their poverty of iron. Swords, and the longer kind of lances, they could seldom use. Their frameae (as they called them in their own language) were long spears headed with a sharp but narrow iron point,

and which, as occasion required, they either dart|ed from a distance or pushed in close onset. With this spear, and with a shield, their cavalry was contented. A multitude of darts, scatter|ed 72 with incredible force, were an additional resource of the infantry. Their military dress, when they wore any, was nothing more than a loose mantle. A variety of colours was the only ornament of their wooden or osier shields. Few of the chiefs were distinguished by cuirasses, scarce any by helmets. Though the horses of Germany were neither beautiful, swift, nor prac|tised in the skilful evolutions of the Roman ma|nage, several of the nations obtained renown by their cavalry; but, in general, the principal strength of the Germans consisted in their infan|try 73, which was drawn up in several deep co|lumns, according to the distinction of tribes and families. Impatient of fatigue or delay, these half-armed warriors rushed to battle with dis|sonant shouts and disordered ranks; and some|times, by the effort of native valour, prevailed over the constrained and more artificial bravery of the Roman mercenaries. But as the barba|rians poured forth their whole souls on the first onset, they knew not how to rally or to retire. A repulse was a sure defeat; and a defeat was most commonly total destruction. When we

recollect the complete armour of the Roman soldiers, their discipline, exercises, evolutions, fortified camps, and military engines, it appears a just matter of surprise how the naked and unassisted valour of the barbarians could dare to encounter in the field, the strength of the legions, and the various troops of the auxiliaries, which seconded their operations. The contest was too unequal, till the introduction of luxury had ener|vated the vigour, and a spirit of disobedience and sedition had relaxed the discipline, of the Roman armies. The introduction of barbarian auxiliaries into those armies, was a measure at|tended with very obvious dangers, as it might gradually instruct the Germans in the arts of war and of policy. Although they were admitted in small numbers and with the strictest precaution, the example of Civilis was proper to convince the Romans, that the danger was not imaginary, and that their precautions were not always suffi|cient 74. During the civil wars that followed the death of Nero, that artful and intrepid Batavian, whom his enemies condescended to compare with Hannibal and Sertorius 75, formed a great design of freedom and ambition. Eight Batavian cohorts, renowned in the wars of Britain and Italy, repaired to his standard. He introdu|ced an army of Germans into Gaul, prevailed

on the powerful cities of Treves and Langres to embrace his cause, defeated the legions, destroyed their fortified camps, and employed against the Romans the military knowledge which he had acquired in their service. When at length, after an obstinate struggle, he yielded to the power of the empire, Civilis secured himself and his coun|try by an honourable treaty. The Batavians still continued to occupy the islands of the Rhine 76, the allies not the servants of the Roman mo|narchy.

II. The strength of ancient Germany appears formidable, when we consider the effects that might have been produced by its united effort. The wide extent of country might very possibly contain a million of warriors, as all who were of age to bear arms were of a temper to use them. But this fierce multitude, incapable of concert|ing or executing any plan of national greatness, was agitated by various and often hostile inten|tions. Germany was divided into more than forty independent states; and even in each state the union of the several tribes was extremely loose and precarious. The barbarians were easily provoked; they knew not how to forgive an in|jury, much less an insult; their resentments were bloody and implacable. The casual disputes that so frequently happened in their tumultuous par|ties of hunting or drinking, were sufficient to

inflame the minds of whole nations; the private feud of any considerable chieftains diffused itself among their followers and allies. To chastise the insolent, or to plunder the defenceless, were alike causes of war. The most formidable states of Germany affected to encompass their territo|ries with a wide frontier of solitude and devasta|tion. The awful distance preserved by their neighbours, attested the terror of their arms, and in some measure defended them from the danger of unexpected incursions 77.

The Bructeri (it is Tacitus who now speaks) were totally exterminated by the neighbouring tribes 78, provoked by their insolence, allured by the hopes of spoil, and perhaps inspired by the tutelar deities of the empire. Above sixty thousand barbarians were destroyed; not by the Roman arms, but in our sight, and for our entertainment. May the nations, enemies of Rome, ever preserve this enmity to each other! We have now attained the utmost verge of prosperity 79, and have nothing left to demand of Fortune, except the discord of these barbarians 80.

These sentiments, less

worthy of the humanity than of the patriotism of Tacitus, express the invariable maxims of the policy of his countrymen. They deemed it a much safer expedient to divide than to combat the barbarians, from whose defeat they could derive neither honour nor advantage. The money and negociations of Rome insinuated themselves into the heart of Germany; and every art of seduction was used with dignity, to con|ciliate those nations whom their proximity to the Rhine or Danube might render the most useful friends, as well as the most troublesome enemies. Chiefs of renown and power were flattered by the most trifling presents, which they received either as marks of distinction, or as the instruments of luxury. In civil dissentions, the weaker faction endeavoured to strengthen its interest by entering into secret connexions with the governors of the frontier provinces. Every quarrel among the Germans was fomented by the intrigues of Rome; and every plan of union and public good was defeated by the stronger bias of private jealousy and interest 81.

The general conspiracy which terrified the Romans under the reign of Marcus Antoninus, comprehended almost all the nations of Germany, and even Sarmatia, from the mouth of the Rhine

to that of the Danube 82. It is impossible for us to determine whether this hasty confederation was formed by necessity, by reason, or by pas|sion; but we may rest assured, that the barba|rians were neither allured by the indolence, or provoked by the ambition, of the Roman mo|narch. This dangerous invasion required all the firmness and vigilance of Marcus. He fixed generals of ability in the several stations of at|tack, and assumed in person the conduct of the most important province on the Upper Danube. After a long and doubtful conflict, the spirit of the barbarians was subdued. The Quadi and the Marcomanni 83, who had taken the lead in the war, were the most severely punished in its catastrophe. They were commanded to retire five miles 84 from their own banks of the Da|nube, and to deliver up the flower of the youth, who were immediately sent into Britain, a remote island, where they might be secure as hostages, and useful as soldiers 85. On the frequent rebel|lions of the Quadi and Marcomanni, the irri|tated emperor resolved to reduce their country

into the form of a province. His designs were disappointed by death. This formidable league, however, the only one that appears in the two first centuries of the Imperial history, was en|tirely dissipated, without leaving any traces be|hind in Germany.

In the course of this introductory chapter, we have confined ourselves to the general outlines of the manners of Germany, without attempting to describe or to distinguish the various tribes which filled that great country in the time of Caesar, of Tacitus, or of Ptolemy. As the ancient, or as new tribes successively present themselves in the series of this history, we shall concisely men|tion their origin, their situation, and their par|ticular character. Modern nations are fixed and permanent societies, connected among themselves by laws and government, bound to their native soil by arts and agriculture. The German tribes were voluntary and fluctuating associations of soldiers, almost of savages. The same territory often changed its inhabitants in the tide of con|quest and emigration. The same communities, uniting in a plan of defence or invasion, bestowed a new title on their new confederacy. The dis|solution of an ancient confederacy restored to the independent tribes their peculiar but long for|gotten appellation. A victorious state often communicated its own name to a vanquished people. Sometimes crowds of volunteers flock|ed from all parts to the standard of a favourite leader; his camp became their country, and some circumstance of the enterprise soon gave a com|mon

denomination to the mixed multitude. The distinctions of the ferocious invaders were perpe|tually varied by themselves, and confounded by the astonished subjects of the Roman empire 86.

Wars, and the administration of public affairs, are the principal subjects of history; but the number of persons interested in these busy scenes, is very different, according to the different con|dition of mankind. In great monarchies, mil|lions of obedient subjects pursue their useful oc|cupations in peace and obscurity. The attention of the Writer, as well as of the Reader, is solely confined to a court, a capital, a regular army, and the districts which happen to be the occa|sional scene of military operations. But a state of freedom and barbarism, the season of civil commotions, or the situation of petty republics 87, raises almost every member of the community into action, and consequently into notice. The irregular divisions, and the restless motions, of the people of Germany, dazzle our imagination, and seem to multiply their numbers. The pro|fuse enumeration of kings and warriors, of armies and nations, inclines us to forget that the same objects are continually repeated under a variety of appellations, and that the most splendid ap|pellations have been frequently lavished on the most inconsiderable objects.

Notes

• Extent of Germany.
• 1

  The modern philosophers of Sweden seem agreed that the waters of the Baltic gradually sink in a regular proportion, which they have ventured to estimate at half an inch every year. Twenty cen|turies ago, the flat country of Scandinavia must have been covered by the sea; while the high lands rose above the waters, as so many islands of various forms and dimensions. Such indeed is the notion given us by Mela, Pliny, and Tacitus, of the vast countries round the Baltic. See in the Bibliotheque Raisonnéc, tom. xl. and xlv. a large abstract of Dalin's History of Sweden, composed in the Swedish lan|guage.
• 2

  In particular, Mr. Hume, the Abbé du Bos, and M. Pellou|tier, Hist. des Celtes, tom. i.
• Climate.
• 3

  Diodorus Siculus, l. v. p. 340. Edit. Wessel. Herodian, l. vi. p. 221. Jornandes, c. 55. On the banks of the Danube, the wine, when brought to table, was frequently frozen into great lumps, frusta vini. Ovid. Epist. ex Ponto, l. iv. 7, 9, 10. Virgil. Georgic. l. iii. 355. The fact is confirmed by a soldier and a phi|losopher, who had experienced the intense cold of Thrace. See Xe|nophon, Anabasis, l. vii. p. 560. Edit. Hutchinson.
• 4

  Buffon Histoire Naturelle, tom. xii. p. 79. 116.
• 5

  Caesar de Bell. Gallic. vi. 23, &c. The most inquisitive of the Germans were ignorant of its utmost limits, although some of them had travelled in it more than sixty days journey.
• 6

  Cluverius (Germania Antiqua, l. iii. c. 47.) investigates the small and scattered remains of the Hercynian wood.
• 7

  Charlevoix Histoire du Canada.
• Its effects on the na|tives.
• 8

  Olaus Rudbeck asserts that the Swedish women often bear ten or twelve children, and not uncommonly twenty or thirty; but the authority of Rudbeck is much to be suspected.
• 9

  In hos artus, in haec corpora, quae miramur, excrescunt. Ta|cit. Germania, 3. 20. Cluver. l. i. c. 14.
• 10

  Plutarch. in Mario. The Cimbri, by way of amusement, often slid down mountains of snow on their broad shields.
• 11

  The Romans made war in all climates, and by their excellent discipline were in a great measure preserved in health and vigour. It may be remarked, that man is the only animal which can live and multiply in every country from the equator to the poles. The hog seems to approach the nearest to our species in that privilege.
• Origin of the Ger|mans.
• 12

  Tacit. German. c. 3. The emigration of the Gauls followed the course of the Danube, and discharged itself on Greece and Asia. Tacitus could discover only one inconsiderable tribe that retained any traces of a Gallic origin.
• Fables and conjec|tures.
• 13

  According to Dr. Keating (History of Ireland, p. 13, 14.), the giant Partholanus, who was the son of Seara, the son of Esra, the son of Sru, the son of Framant, the son of Fathaclan, the son of Magog, the son of Japhet, the son of Noah, landed on the coast of Munster, the 14th day of May, in the year of the world one thou|sand nine hundred and seventy-eight. Though he succeeded in his great enterprise, the loose behaviour of his wife rendered his do|mestic life very unhappy, and provoked him to such a degree, that he killed—her favourite greyhound. This, as the learned historian very properly observes, was the first instance of female falsehood and infidelity ever known in Ireland.
• 14

  Genealogical History of the Tartars by Abulghazi Bahadur Khan.
• 15

  His work, entitled Atlantica, is uncommonly scarce. Bayle has given two most curious extracts from it. Republique des Lettres Janvier et Fevrier, 1685.
• The Ger|mans ig|norant of letters;
• 16

  Tacit. Germ. ii. 19. Literarum secreta viri pariter ac foeminae ignorant. We may rest contented with this decisive authority, without entering into the obscure disputes concerning the antiquity of the Runic characters. The learned Celsius, a Swede, a scholar, and a philosopher, was of opinion, that they were nothing more than the Roman letters, with the curves changed into straight lines for the ease of engraving. See Pelloutier, Histoire des Celtes, l. ii. c. 11. Dictionnaire Diplomatique, tom. i. p. 223. We may add, that the oldest Runic inscriptions are supposed to be of the third cen|tury, and the most ancient writer who mentions the Runic characters, is Venantius Fortunatus (Carm. vii. 18.), who lived towards the end of the sixth century. Barbara fraxineis pingatur RUNA tabellis.
• of arts and agricul|ture;
• 17

  Recherches Philosophiques sur les Americains, tom. iii. p. 228. The author of that very curious work is, if I am not misinformed, a German by birth.
• 18

  The Alexandrian Geographer is often criticised by the accu|rate Cluverius.
• 19

  See Caesar, and the learned Mr. Whitaker in his History of Manchester, vol. i.
• 20

  Tacit. Germ. 15.
• 21

  When the Germans commanded the Ubii of Cologne to cast off the Roman yoke, and with their new freedom to resume their ancient manners, they insisted on the immediate demolition of the walls of the colony.

  Postulamus a vobis, muros coloniae, mu|nimenta servitii detrahatis; etiam fera animalia, si clausa teneas, virtutis obliviscuntur.

  Tacit. Hist. iv. 64.
• 22

  The straggling villages of Silesia are several miles in length. See Cluver. l. i. c. 13.
• 23

  One hundred and forty years after Tacitus, a few more re|gular structures were erected near the Rhine and Danube. Hero|dian, l. vii. p. 234.
• 24

  Tacit. Germ. 17.
• 25

  Tacit. Germ. 5.
• 26

  Caesar de Bell. Gall. vi. 21.
• 27

  Tacit. Germ. 26. Caesar, vi. 22.
• and of the use of me|tals.
• 28

  Tacit. Germ. 6.
• 29

  It is said that the Mexicans and Peruvians, without the use of either money or iron, had made a very great progress in the arts. Those arts, and the monuments they produced, have been strangely magnified. See Recherches sur les Americains, tom. ii. p. 153, &c.
• Their in|dolence.
• 30

  Tacit. Germ. 15.
• 31

  Tacit. Germ. 22, 23.
• 32

  Id. 24. The Germans might borrow the arts of play from the Romans, but the passion is wonderfully inherent in the human species.
• Their taste for strong liquors.
• 33

  Tacit. Germ. 14.
• 34

  Plutarch. in Camillo. T. Liv. v. 33.
• 35

  Dubos. Hist. de la Monarchie Françoise, tom. i. p. 193.
• State of popula|tion.
• 36

  The Helvetian nation, which issued from the country called Switzerland, contained, of every age and sex, 368,000 persons (Caesar de Bell. Gall. i. 29.). At present, the number of people in the Pays de Vaud (a small district on the banks of the Leman Lake, much more distinguished for politeness than for industry) amounts to 112, 591. See an excellent Tract of M. Muret, in the Memoires de la Societé de Bern.
• 37

  Paul Diaconus, c. 1, 2, 3. Machiavel, Davila, and the rest of Paul's followers, represent these emigrations too much as regular and concerted measures.
• 38

  Sir William Temple and Montesquieu have indulged, on this subject, the usual liveliness of their fancy.
• 39

  Machiavel Hist. di Firenze, l. i. Mariana Hist. Hispan. l. v. c. 1.
• 40

  Robertson's Cha. V. Hume's Political Essays.
• German freedom.
• 41

  Tacit. German. 44, 45. Frenshemius (who dedicated his supplement to Livy, to Christina of Sweden) thinks proper to be very angry with the Roman who expressed so very little reverence for Northern queens.
• 42

  May we not suspect that superstition was the parent of despo|tism? The descendants of Odin (whose race was not extinct till the year 1060) are said to have reigned in Sweden above a thousand years. The temple of Upsal was the ancient seat of religion and empire. In the year 1153 I find a singular law, prohibiting the use and pro|fession of arms to any except the king's guards. It is not probable that it was coloured by the pretence of reviving an old institution? See Dallin's History of Sweden in the Bibliothéque Raisonnée, tom. xl. and xl v.
• 43

  Tacit. Germ. c. 43.
• 44

  Id. c. 11, 12, 13, &c.
• Assemblies of the peo|ple.
• 45

  Grotius changes an expression of Tacitus, pertractantur into praetractantur. The correction is equally just and ingenious.
• 46

  Even in our ancient parliament, the barons often carried a ques|tion, not so much by the number of votes, as by that of their armed followers.
• Authority of the princes and magistrates
• 47

  Caesar de Bell. Gall. vi. 23.
• 48

  Minuunt controversias, is a very happy expression of Caesar's.
• 49

  Reges ex nobilitate, duces ex virtute sumunt. Tacit. Germ. 7.
• 50

  Cluver. Germ. Ant. l. i. c. 38.
• more abso|lute over the proper|ty than o|ver the per|sons of the Germans.
• 51

  Caesar, vi. 22. Tacit. Germ. 26.
• 52

  Tacit. Germ. 7.
• Voluntary engage|ments.
• 53

  Tacit. Germ. 13, 14.
• 54

  Esprit des Loix, l. xxx. c. 3. The brilliant imagination of Montesquieu is corrected, however, by the dry cold reason of the Abbé de Mably. Observations sur l'Histoire de France, tom. i. p. 356.
• 55

  Gaudent muneribus, sed nec data imputant, nec acceptis obli|gantur. Tacit. Germ. c. 21.
• German chastity.
• 56

  The adulteress was whipped through the village. Neither wealth nor beauty could inspire compassion, or procure her a second husband, 18, 19.
• Its proba|ble causes.
• 57

  Ovid employs two hundred lines in the research of places the most favourable to love. Above all, he considers the theatre as the best adapted to collect the beauties of Rome, and to melt them into tenderness and sensuality.
• 58

  Tacit. Hist. iv. 61. 65.
• 59

  The marriage present was a yoke of oxen, horses, and arms. See Germ. c. 18. Tacitus is somewhat too florid on the subject.
• 60

  The change of exigere into exugere is a most excellent correc|tion.
• 61

  Tacit. Germ. c. 7. Plutarch in Mario. Before the wives of the Teutones destroyed themselves and their children, they had offer|ed to surrender, on condition that they should be received as the slaves of the vestal virgins.
• Religion.
• 62

  Tacitus has employed a few lines, and Cluverius one hundred and twenty-four pages, on this obscure subject. The former dis|covers in Germany the gods of Greece and Rome. The latter is positive, that, under the emblems of the sun, the moon, and the fire, his pious ancestors worshipped the Trinity in unity.
• 63

  The sacred wood, described with such sublime horror by Lu|can, was in the neighbourhood of Marseilles; but there were many of the same kind in Germany.
• Its effects in peace,
• 64

  Tacit. Germania, c. 7.
• 65

  Tacit. Germania, c. 40.
• 66

  See Dr. Robertson's History of Charles V. vol. i. note 10.
• in war.
• 67

  Tacit. Germ. c. 7. These standards were only the heads of wild beasts.
• 68

  See an instance of this custom, Tacit. Annal. xiii. 57.
• 69

  Caesar, Diodorus, and Lucan, seem to ascribe this doctrine to the Gauls, but M. Pelloutier (Histoire des Celtes, l. iii. c. 18.) labours to reduce their expressions to a more orthodox sense.
• 70

  Concerning this gross but alluring doctrine of the Edda, see Fable xx. in the curious version of that book, published by M. Mal|let, in his Introduction to the History of Denmark.
• The bards.
• 71

  See Tacit. Germ. c. 3. Diodor. Sicul. l. v. Strabo, l. iv. p. 197. The classical reader may remember the rank of Demodocus in the Phaeacian court, and the ardour infused by Tyrtaeus into the fainting Spartans. Yet there is little probability that the Greeks and the Germans were the same people. Much learned trifling might be spared, if our antiquarians would condescend to reflect, that similar manners will naturally be produced by similar situations.
• Causes which checked the pro|gress of the Ger|mans.
• Want of arms
• 72

  Missilia spargunt, Tacit. Germ. c. 6. Either that historian used a vague expression, or he meant that they were thrown at ran|dom.
• 73

  It was their principal distinction from the Sarmatians, who ge|nerally fought on horseback.
• and of dis|cipline.
• 74

  The relation of this enterprise occupies a great part of the fourth and fifth books of the History of Tacitus, and is more remarkable for its eloquence than perspicuity. Sir Henry Saville has observed several inaccuracies.
• 75

  Tacit. Hist. iv. 13. Like them, he had lost an eye.
• 76

  It was contained between the two branches of the old Rhine, as they subsisted before the face of the country was changed by art and nature. See Cluver, German. Antiq. l. iii. c. 30. 37.
• Civil dis|sentions of Germany
• 77

  Caesar de Bell. Gall. l. vi. 23.
• fomented by the po|licy of Rome.
• 78

  They are mentioned however in the ivth and vth centuries by Nazarius, Ammianus, Claudian, &c. as a tribe of Franks. See Cluver. Germ. Antiq. l. iii. c. xiii.
• 79

  Urgentibus is the common reading, but good sense, Lipsius, and some MSS. declare for Vergentibus.
• 80

  Tacit. Germania, c. 33. The pious Abbé de la Bleterie is very angry with Tacitus, talks of the devil who was a murderer from the beginning, &c. &c.
• 81

  Many traces of this policy may be discovered in Tacitus and Dion; and many more may be inferred from the principles of human nature.
• Transient union a|gainst Marcus Antoni|nus.
• 82

  Hist. August. p. 31. Ammian. Marcellin. l. xxxi. c. 5. Aurel. Victor. The emperor Marcus was reduced to sell the rich furniture of the palace, and to inlist slaves and robbers.
• 83

  The Marcomanni, a colony, who, from the banks of the Rhine, occupied Bohemia and Moravia, had once erected a great and formidable monarchy under their king Maroboduus. See Strabo, l. vii. Vell. Pat. ii. 105. Tacit. Annal. ii. 63.
• 84

  Mr. Wotton (History of Rome, p. 166.) increases the pro|hibition to ten times the distance. His reasoning is specious, but not conclusive. Five miles were sufficient for a fortified barrier.
• 85

  Dion, l. lxxi. and lxxii.
• Distinction of the Ger|man tribes.
• 86

  See an excellent dissertation on the origin and migrations of nations, in the Memoires de l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xviii. p. 48—71. It is seldom that the antiquarian and the philosopher are so happily blended.
• Numbers.
• 87

  Should we suspect that Athens contained only 21,000 citizens, and Sparta no more than 39,000? See Hume and Wallace on the number of mankind in ancient and modern times.