Tacitus on Germany | Page 6

rejoice in the gifts which come
from the bordering countries, such as are sent not only by particulars
but in the name of the State; curious horses, splendid armour, rich
harness, with collars of silver and gold. Now too they have learnt, what
we have taught them, to receive money.
That none of the several people in Germany live together in cities, is
abundantly known; nay, that amongst them none of their dwellings are
suffered to be contiguous. They inhabit apart and distinct, just as a
fountain, or a field, or a wood happened to invite them to settle. They
raise their villages in opposite rows, but not in our manner with the
houses joined one to another. Every man has a vacant space quite round
his own, whether for security against accidents from fire, or that they
want the art of building. With them in truth, is unknown even the use of

mortar and of tiles. In all their structures they employ materials quite
gross and unhewn, void of fashion and comeliness. Some parts they
besmear with an earth so pure and resplendent, that it resembles
painting and colours. They are likewise wont to scoop caves deep in the
ground, and over them to lay great heaps of dung. Thither they retire
for shelter in the winter, and thither convey their grain: for by such
close places they mollify the rigorous and excessive cold. Besides
when at any time their enemy invades them, he can only ravage the
open country, but either knows not such recesses as are invisible and
subterraneous; or must suffer them to escape him, on this very account
that he is uncertain where to find them.
For their covering a mantle is what they all wear, fastened with a clasp
or, for want of it, with a thorn. As far as this reaches not they are naked,
and lie whole days before the fire. The most wealthy are distinguished
with a vest, not one large and flowing like those of Sarmatians and
Parthians, but girt close about them and expressing the proportion of
every limb. They likewise wear the skins of savage beasts, a dress
which those bordering upon the Rhine use without any fondness or
delicacy, but about which such who live further in the country are more
curious, as void of all apparel introduced by commerce. They choose
certain wild beasts, and, having flayed them, diversify their hides with
many spots, as also with the skins of monsters from the deep, such as
are engendered in the distant ocean and in seas unknown. Neither does
the dress of the women differ 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