Tacitus on Germany, Translated | Page 4

nations,
at the time when they first came into account with the civilization of
the Mediterranean.

TACITUS ON GERMANY

The whole of Germany is thus bounded; separated from Gaul, from
Rhoetia and Pannonia, by the rivers Rhine and Danube; from Sarmatia
and Dacia by mutual fear, or by high mountains: the rest is
encompassed by the ocean, which forms huge bays, and comprehends a
tract of islands immense in extent: for we have lately known certain
nations and kingdoms there, such as the war discovered. The Rhine
rising in the Rhoetian Alps form a summit altogether rocky and
perpendicular, after a small winding towards the west, is lost in the
Northern Ocean. The Danube issues out of the mountain Abnoba, one
very high but very easy of ascent, and traversing several nations, falls
by six streams into the Euxine Sea; for its seventh channel is absorbed
in the Fenns.
The Germans, I am apt to believe, derive their original from no other
people; and are nowise mixed with different nations arriving amongst
them: since anciently those who went in search of new dwellings,
travelled not by land, but were carried in fleets; and into that mighty
ocean so boundless, and, as I may call it, so repugnant and forbidding,
ships from our world rarely enter. Moreover, besides the dangers from
a sea tempestuous, horrid and unknown, who would relinquish Asia, or
Africa, or Italy, to repair to Germany, a region hideous and rude, under
a rigorous climate, dismal to behold or to manure [to cultivate] unless
the same were his native country? In their old ballads (which amongst
them are the only sort of registers and history) they celebrate /Tuisto/, a
God sprung from the earth, and /Mannus/ his son, as the fathers and
founders of the nation. To /Mannus/ they assign three sons, after whose
names so many people are called; the Ingaevones, dwelling next the
ocean; the Herminones, in the middle country; and all the rest,
Instaevones. Some, borrowing a warrant from the darkness of antiquity,
maintain that the God had more sons, that thence came more
denominations of people, the Marsians, Gambrians, Suevians, and
Vandalians, and that these are the names truly genuine and original. For

the rest, they affirm Germany to be a recent word, lately bestowed: for
that those who first passed the Rhine and expulsed the Gauls, and are
now named Tungrians, were then called Germans: and thus by degrees
the name of a tribe prevailed, not that of the nation; so that by an
appellation at first occasioned by terror and conquest, they afterwards
chose to be distinguished, and assuming a name lately invented were
universally called /Germans/.
They have a tradition that Hercules also had been in their country, and
him above all other heroes they extol in their songs when they advance
to battle. Amongst them too are found that kind of verses by the recital
of which (by them called /Barding/) they inspire bravery; nay, by such
chanting itself they divine the success of the approaching fight. For,
according to the different din of the battle they urge furiously, or shrink
timorously. Nor does what they utter, so much seem to be singing as
the voice and exertion of valour. They chiefly study a tone fierce and
harsh, with a broken and unequal murmur, and therefore apply their
shields to their mouths, whence the voice may by rebounding swell
with greater fulness and force. Besides there are some of opinion, that
Ulysses, whilst he wandered about in his long and fabulous voyages,
was carried into this ocean and entered Germany, and that by him
Asciburgium was founded and named, a city at this day standing and
inhabited upon the bank of the Rhine: nay, that in the same place was
formerly found an altar dedicated to Ulysses, with the name of his
father Laertes added to his own, and that upon the confines of Germany
and Rhoetia are still extant certain monuments and tombs inscribed
with Greek characters. Traditions these which I mean not either to
confirm with arguments of my own or to refute. Let every one believe
or deny the same according to his own bent.
For myself, I concur in opinion with such as suppose the people of
Germany never to have mingled by inter-marriages with other nations,
but to have remained a people pure, and independent, and resembling
none but themselves. Hence amongst such a mighty multitude of men,
the same make and form is found in all, eyes stern and blue, yellow hair,
huge bodies, but vigorous only in the first onset. Of pains and labour
they are not equally patient, nor can they at all endure thrift and heat.
To bear hunger and cold they are hardened by their climate and soil.
Their