Tacitus on Germany, Translated | Page 9

from that of the men, save that the
women are orderly attired in linen embroidered with purple, and use no
sleeves, so that all their arms are bare. The upper part of their breast is
withal exposed.
Yet the laws of matrimony are severely observed there; for in the whole
of their manners is aught more praiseworthy than this: for they are
almost the only Barbarians contented with one wife, excepting a very
few amongst them; men of dignity who marry divers wives, from no
wantonness or lubricity, but courted for the lustre of their family into
many alliances.
To the husband, the wife tenders no dowry; but the husband, to the wife.
The parents and relations attend and declare their approbation of the
presents, not presents adapted to feminine pomp and delicacy, nor such
as serve to deck the new married woman; but oxen and horse accoutred,
and a shield, with a javelin and sword. By virtue of these gifts, she is
espoused. She too on her part brings her husband some arms. This they
esteem the highest tie, these the holy mysteries, and matrimonial Gods.
That the woman may not suppose herself free from the considerations
of fortitude and fighting, or exempt from the casualties of war, the very
first solemnities of her wedding serve to warn her, that she comes to
her husband as a partner in his hazards and fatigues, that she is to suffer
alike with him, to adventure alike, during peace or during war. This the
oxen joined in the same yoke plainly indicate, this the horse ready
equipped, this the present of arms. 'Tis thus she must be content to live,
thus to resign life. The arms which she then receives she must preserve
inviolate, and to her sons restore the same, as presents worthy of them,
such as their wives may again receive, and still resign to her
grandchildren.
They therefore live in a state of chastity well secured; corrupted by no

seducing shows and public diversions, by no irritations from
banqueting. Of learning and of any secret intercourse by letters, they
are all equally ignorant, men and women. Amongst a people so
numerous, adultery is exceeding rare; a crime instantly punished, and
the punishment left to be inflicted by the husband. He, having cut off
her hair, expells her from his house naked, in presence of her kindred,
and pursues her with stripes throughout the village. For, to a woman
who has prostituted her person, no pardon is ever granted. However
beautiful she may be, however young, however abounding in wealth, a
husband she can never find. In truth, nobody turns vices into mirth
there, nor is the practice of corrupting and of yielding to corruption,
called the custom of the Age. Better still do those communities, in
which none but virgins marry, and where to a single marriage all their
views and inclinations are at once confined. Thus, as they have but one
body and one life, they take but one husband, that beyond him they
may have no thought, no further wishes, nor love him only as their
husband but as their marriage. To restrain generation and the increase
of children, is esteemed an abominable sin, as also to kill infants newly
born. And more powerful with them are good manners, than with other
people are good laws.
In all their houses the children are reared naked and nasty; and thus
grow into those limbs, into that bulk, which with marvel we behold.
They are all nourished with the milk of their own mothers, and never
surrendered to handmaids and nurses. The lord you cannot discern from
the slave, by any superior delicacy in rearing. Amongst the same cattle
they promiscuously live, upon the same ground they without distinction
lie, till at a proper age the free-born are parted from the rest, and their
bravery recommend them to notice. Slow and late do the young men
come to the use of women, and thus very long preserve the vigour of
youth. Neither are the virgins hastened to wed. They must both have
the same sprightly youth, the like stature, and marry when equal and
able-bodied. Thus the robustness of the parents is inherited by the
children. Children are holden in the same estimation with their mother's
brother, as with their father. Some hold this tie of blood to be most
inviolable and binding, and in receiving of hostages, such pledges are
most considered and claimed, as they who at once possess affections
the most unalienable, and the most diffuse interest in their family. To

every man, however, his own children are heirs and successors: wills
they make none: for want of children his next akin inherits; his own
brothers, those of his father, or those of his mother. To ancient men,