The state of Germany till the invasion of the Barbarians, in the time of the emperor Decius.
THE government and religion of Persia have deserved some notice from their connection 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 herbs, their wives and families wandered over the immense plains which spread themselves from the Caspian Sea to the Vistulay 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 expression, a more domestic, claim to our attention and regard. The most civilised nations of modern 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 primitive 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 exercise 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 already been so frequently, so ably, and so successfully 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 important circumstances of climate, of manners, and of institutions, which rendered the wild barbarians of Germany such formidable enemies to the Roman power.
Extent of Germany
Ancient Germany, excluding from its independent limits the
province westward of the Rhine, which had submitted to the
Roman yoke, extended itself over a third part of Europe.
Almost 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 complexion, manners, and language denoted a common
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 Danube, and
called the Carpathian mountains, covered 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 warring and
confederating tribes of the two nations. In the remote
darkness of the north, the ancients imperfectly described a frozen ocean that lay beyond the Baltic Sea, and beyond the Peninsula, or islands, (1) of Scandinavia.
Climate
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 covered the Roman provinces, the Rhine and the Danube, were frequently frozen over, and capable of supporting the most enormous weights. The barbarians, who often chose that severe season for their inroads, transported, without apprehension or danger, their numerous armies, their cavalry, and their heavy wagons, over a vast and solid bridge of ice. (3) Modern ages have not presented an instance of a like phenomenon. 2. The reindeer, that useful animal, from whom the savage of the North derives the best comforts of his dreary life, is of a constitution that supports, 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 reindeer, 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
reindeer are very numerous, the ground is covered with deep
and lasting snow, and the great river of St. Laurence is
regularly frozen, in a season when the waters of the Seine
and the Thames are usually free from ice. (7)
Its effects on the natives
It is difficult to ascertain, and easy to exaggerate, the
influence of the climate of ancient Germany over the minds
and bodies of the natives. Many writers have supposed, and
most have allowed, 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
Germany 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 exertions than to patient labour, and
inspired them with constitutional bravery, which is the
result of nerves and spirits. The severity of a winter
campaign, 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
Italian sun. (11)
Origin of the Germans
There is not anywhere upon the globe a large tract of
country which we have discovered destitute of inhabitants,
or whose first population can be fixed with any degree of
historical certainty. And yet, as the most philosophic minds
can seldom refrain from investigating the infancy of great
nations, our curiosity consumes itself in toilsome and
disappointed efforts. When Tacitus considered the purity of
the German blood, and the forbidding aspect of the country,
he was disposed 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 colonies already formed into a political
society; (12) but that the name and nation received their
existence 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
unwarranted by reason.
Fables and conjectures
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 individual son of Japhet, from whose loins his ancestors
were lineally descended. The last century abounded with
antiquarians of profound learning and easy faith, who by the
dim light of legends and traditions, of conjectures and
etymologies, conducted the great-grand-children of Noah from
the tower of Babel to the extremities of the globe. Of these
judicious critics, one of the most entertaining was Olaus
Rudbeck, professor in the University 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 characters, their
astronomy, and their religion. Of that delightful region
(for such it appeared to the eyes of a native) the Atlantis
of Plato, the country of the Hyperboreans, the gardens of
the Hesperides, the Fortunate Islands, and even the Elysian
Fields, were all but faint and imperfect transcripts. 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 prosecution 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 metaphor)
the blood circulated from the extremities to the heart.
The Germans ignorant of letters;
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 decisive a nature to leave room for
any reply. The Germans, in the age of Tacitus, were
unacquainted with the use of letters; (16) and the use of
letters is the principal circumstance that distinguishes a
civilized people from a herd of savages incapable of
knowledge or reflection. Without that artificial help, the
human memory soon dissipates 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 former,
by reading and reflection, multiplies his own experience,
and lives in distant ages and remote countries; whilst the
latter, rooted to a single spot, and confined to a few years
of existence, surpasses, but very little, his fellow
labourer the ox in the exercise of his mental faculties. The
same, and even a greater, difference 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 abstract
sciences, or ever possessed, in any tolerable degree of
perfection, the useful and agreeable arts of life.
of arts and agriculture;
Of these arts, the ancient Germans were wretchedly
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 country, 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
contiguous, or formed into regular villages; (22) each
barbarian 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 employed 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 object of their
wealth. A small quantity of corn was the only produce
exacted from the earth: the use of orchards or artificial
meadows was unknown 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)
and of the use of metals.
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 various
transactions of peace and war had introduced 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 capable of reflection, such
leading facts convey more instruction than a tedious detail
of subordinate 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 represent. The
use of gold and silver is in a great measure fictitious; 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 incitement, iron the most
powerful instrument, of human 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)
Their indolence
If we contemplate a savage nation in any part of the globe,
a supine indolence and carelessness of futurity will be
found to constitute their general character. In a civilised
state, every faculty of man is expanded and exercised; and
the great chain of mutual dependence connects and embraces
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 understanding,
by the duties, the pleasures, and even the follies of social
life. The Germans were not possessed of their 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 warrior, 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 (according
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 pursuit, 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 immoderately 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 passing 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)
Their taste for strong liquors
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 semblance of wine, was sufficient
for the gross purposes 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 naturalise 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 attracted 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 allured by the promise
of plenteous quarters in the provinces of Champagne and
Burgundy. (35) Drunkenness, the most illiberal, but not the
most dangerous, of our vices, was sometimes capable, in a
less civilised state of mankind, of occasioning a battle, a
war, or a revolution.
State of population.
The climate of ancient Germany had been mollified, and the
soil fertilised, by the labour of ten centuries from the
time of Charlemagne. The same extent of ground which at
present maintains, in ease and plenty, a million of
husbandmen and artificers, was unable to supply an hundred
thousand lazy warriors with the simple necessaries of life.
(36) The Germans abandoned their immense forests to the
exercise of hunting, employed 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 refused 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
emigration 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 civilised people to an improved
country. But the Germans, 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
vanquished 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)
German freedom
A warlike nation like the Germans, without either cities,
letters, arts, or money, found some compensation for this
savage state in the enjoyment 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 absolute 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 penetrate 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 resign the great character of German liberty. (42) Some tribes, however, on the coast of the Baltic, acknowledged the authority of kings, though without relinquishing the rights of men; (43) but in the far greater part of Germany, the form of government 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)
Assemblies of the people
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 actions to the judgment of the greater number of
his associates. The German tribes were contented with this
rude but liberal outline of political society. As soon as a
youth, born of free parents, had attained the age of
manhood, he was introduced into the general council of his
countrymen, 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. Sometimes, 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 indignant contempt from the
remonstrance 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 enforce, 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)
Authority of the princes and magistrates
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 invidious. It expired with
the war, and in time of peace the German tribes acknowledged
not any supreme chief. (47) Princes were, however, appointed
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 shown 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 compliment
him with the regal title. (50)
more absolute over the property than over the person of the Germans
The comparative view of the powers of the magistrates, in
two remarkable instances, is alone sufficient to represent
the whole system of German manners. The disposal of the
landed property 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
authorised to punish with death, to imprison, or even to
strike, a private citizen. (52) A people thus jealous of their
persons, 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.
Voluntary engagements
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 companions 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 greatest 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 friendship, and the fame of their arms often ensured 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 companions; 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 voluntary 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 materials of this munificence." (53)
This institution, however it might accidentally weaken the several republics, invigorated the general character of the Germans, and even ripened amongst them all the virtues of which barbarians are susceptible; 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, distributed, after the conquest of the Roman provinces by the barbarian lords among their vassals 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)
German chastity
"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 preserved with much more difficulty than the former, 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 probability, to the conjugal faith and chastity of
the Germans.
Its probable causes
Although the progress of civilisation has undoubtedly
contributed to assuage the fiercer passions 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 elevated, 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 temptations and opportunity to female
frailty. (57) From such dangers 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 harem. 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 Germany. (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 invasions, 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 attractive softness in which
principally consists the charm 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 conduct 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 valour
that distinguishes the age or country in which it may be
found.
Religion
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 applause 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
unacquainted 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 Germany were dark and ancient groves,
consecrated by the reverence of succeeding generations.
Their secret gloom, the imagined residence of an invisible
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.
Its effects in peace
The same ignorance, which renders barbarians incapable of
conceiving or embracing the useful restraints of laws,
exposes them naked and unarmed to the blind terrors of
superstition. The German priests, improving this favourable
temper of their countrymen, had assumed a jurisdiction, 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 constantly exerted to maintain silence and decency in
the popular assemblies; and was sometimes extended to a more
enlarged concern for the national welfare. A solemn
procession was occasionally celebrated in the present
countries of Mecklenburgh 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 residence 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 blessings 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)
in war
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 revered 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 civil assemblies of his
countrymen. Some tribes of the north seem to have embraced
the doctrine of transmigration, (69) others imagined a gross
paradise 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 bards
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 reverence 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)
Causes which checked the progress of the Germans
Such was the situation, and such were the manners, of the
ancient Germans. Their climate, 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
barbarians made few considerable attempts, and not any
material impression on the luxurious and enslaved provinces
of the empire. Their progress was checked by their want of
arms and discipline, and their fury was diverted by the
intestine divisions of ancient Germany.
Want of arms
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 possession 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 darted from a distance or pushed in
close onset. With this spear, and with a shield, their
cavalry was contented. A multitude of darts, scattered (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 practised in the skilful evolutions of
the Roman manege, several of the nations obtained renown by
their cavalry; but, in general, the principal strength of
the Germans consisted in their infantry, (73) which was drawn
up in several deep columns, according to the distinction of
tribes and families. and of discipline Impatient of fatigue or delay, these half-armed warriors rushed to battle with dissonant shouts and disordered ranks; and sometimes, by the effort of native valour, prevailed over the constrained and more artificial
bravery of the Roman mercenaries. But as the barbarians
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 enervated 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 attended 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 sufficient. (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 introduced 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 country by an honourable treaty. The Batavians still continued to occupy the islands of the Rhine, (76) the allies not the servants of the Roman monarchy.
Civil dissentions of Germany
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 concerting or executing any
plan of national greatness, was agitated by various and
often hostile intentions. 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 injury, much less an insult; their resentments
were bloody and implacable. The casual disputes that so
frequently happened in their tumultuous parties 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 territories with a wide frontier
of solitude and devastation. 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)
fomented by the policy of Rome
"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 negotiations of Rome insinuated themselves into the heart of Germany; and every art of seduction was used with dignity to conciliate 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 dissensions, the weaker faction endeavoured to strengthen its interest by entering into secret connections 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)
Transient union against Marcus Antoninus
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 passion; but we may rest assured
that the barbarians were neither allured by the indolence, nor provoked by the ambition, of the Roman monarch. This dangerous invasion required all the firmness and vigilance of Marcus. He fixed generals of ability in the several
stations of attack, 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 Danube, 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 rebellions of the Quadi and Marcomanni, the irritated 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 entirely dissipated, without leaving any traces behind in Germany.
Distinction of the German tribes
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 the 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 mention their origin, their
situation, and their particular 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 conquest and emigration. The same
communities, uniting in a plan of defence or invasion,
bestowed a new title on their new confederacy. The
dissolution of an ancient confederacy restored to the
independent tribes their peculiar but long-forgotten
appellation. A victorious state often communicated its own
name to a vanquished people. Sometimes crowds of volunteers
flocked from all parts to the standard of a favourite
leader; his camp became their country, and some circumstance
of the enterprise soon gave a common denomination to the
mixed multitude. The distinctions of the ferocious invaders
were perpetually varied by themselves, and confounded by the
astonished subjects of the Roman empire. (86)
Numbers
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 condition of mankind. In great monarchies
millions of obedient subjects pursue their useful
occupations 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 occasional 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 profuse
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 appellations have been frequently lavished on the most inconsiderable objects.