A Treatise on the Situation, Manners, and Inhabitants of Germany |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
afterwards Agricola ancient Angrivarii Annals appears appellation arms army Baltic battle Bell body Boii Britain Britons Cæsar called cantons Catti cavalry Chamavi chariot Chauci Cherusci chiefs Cimbri Claudius coast colony command consul danger Danube deities denarius Domitian Drusus earth Eccard Elbe emperor empire enemy engagement equal firth fleet Florus formerly frequently Gall Gauls German nations Germans glory gold governor Hence Hercynian forest Herennius Senecio Hermunduri Hist honour horses inhabitants island Italy Julius king land legion liberty manner Marcomanni mentioned military Ocean passage peace Pennant person Peucini Pliny possession Prætor present probably province put to death Quadi reign rendered Rhine river Roman Rome Rusticus Salic law Sarmatians savage Saxons says settlements side silver slain slaughter slaves Strabo subdued Suetonius Suevi Suiones supposed swords Tacitus Tacitus's terror tion Tour in Scotland tract Trajan treatise tribes tribute troops valour victory whence women youth
Popular passages
Page 40 - In the field of battle, it is disgraceful for the chief to be surpassed in valor; it is disgraceful for the companions not to equal their chief; but it is reproach and infamy during a whole succeeding life to retreat from the field surviving him. To aid, to protect him; to place their own gallant actions to the account of his glory, is their first and most sacred engagement.
Page 186 - Can you imagine that the Romans are as brave in war as they are licentious in peace ? Acquiring renown from our discords and dissensions, they convert the faults of their enemies to the glory of their own army ; an army compounded of the most different nations, which success alone has kept together, and which misfortune will as certainly dissipate.
Page 12 - Not that I would assert that no veins of these metals are generated in Germany; for who has made the search? The possession of them is not coveted by these people as it is by us.
Page 59 - Every one according to his ability feasts his guest: when his provisions are exhausted, he who was late the host, is now the guide and companion to another hospitable board. They enter the next house uninvited, and are received with equal cordiality. No one makes a distinction with respect to the rights of hospitality, between a stranger and an acquaintance.
Page 41 - During the intervals of war, they pass their time less in hunting than in a sluggish repose, divided between sleep and the table. All the bravest of the warriors, committing the care of the house, the family affairs, and the lands, to the women, old men, and weaker part of the domestics...
Page 37 - The Germans transact no business, public or private, without being armed : but it is not customary for any person to assume arms till the state has approved his ability to use them. Then, in the midst of the assembly, either one of the chiefs, or the father, or a relation, equips the youth with a shield and javelin.
Page 63 - They have only one kind of public spectacle, which is exhibited in every company. Young men, who make it their diversion, dance naked amidst drawn swords and presented spears. Practice has conferred skill at this exercise, and skill has given grace; but they do not exhibit for hire or gain: the only reward of this pastime, though a hazardous one, is the pleasure of the spectators.
Page 183 - Thus the use of arms, which is at all times honourable to the brave, now offers the only safety even to cowards. In all the battles which have yet been fought, with various success, against the Romans, our countrymen may be deemed to have reposed their final hopes and resources in us : for we, the noblest sons of Britain, and therefore stationed in its last recesses, far from the view of servile shores, have preserved even our eyes unpolluted by the contact of subjection.
Page 68 - The wide extent of plain facilitates this partition. The arable lands are annually changed, and a part left fallow; nor do they attempt to make the most of the fertility and plenty of the soil, by their own industry in planting orchards, inclosing meadows, and watering gardens. Corn is the only product required from the earth: hence their year is not divided into so many seasons as ours; for, while they know and distinguish by name Winter, Spring, and Summer, they are unacquainted equally with the...
Page 67 - Lending money upon interest, and increasing it by usury, is unknown amongst them: and this ignorance more effectually prevents the practice than a prohibition would do. The lands are occupied by townships, in allotments proportional to the number of cultivators; and are afterwards parcelled out among the individuals of the district, in shares according to the rank and condition of each person.