A Treatise on the Situation, Manners, and Inhabitants of Germany |
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A Treatise On the Situation, Manners, and Inhabitants of Germany: And the ... Cornelius Tacitus,John Aikin No preview available - 2018 |
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afterwards Agricola ancient Angrivarii appears appellation arms army Augustus Bastarnæ battle Bell body Boii Britain Britons Bructeri Cæsar called cantons Catti cavalry Chamavi chariot Chauci Cherusci chiefs Cimbri Claudius coast colony command consul danger Danube deities derived Domitian Drusus Eccard Elbe emperor empire enemy engagement expedition firth formerly frequently Gall Gauls Germans glory gold governor groves Hence Hercynian forest Herennius Senecio Hermunduri Hist honour horses inhabitants island Italy Julius kings land legion liberty manner Marcomanni ment mentioned military nations Ocean peace person Peucini Pliny possession Prætor present prince probably procurators province punishment 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 Annals terror tract Trajan treatise tribes tribute troops valour victory warlike whence women youth
Popular passages
Page 33 - Silence is proclaimed by the priests, who have on this occasion a coercive power. Then the king, or chief, and such others as are conspicuous for age, birth, military renown, or eloquence, are heard ; and gain attention rather from their ability to persuade, than their authority to command. If a proposal displease, the assembly reject it by an inarticulate murmur ; if it prove agreeable, they clash their javelins ; for the most honorable expression of assent among them is the sound of arms.
Page 12 - Vessels of silver are indeed to be seen among them, which have been presented to their ambassadors and chiefs; but they are held in no higher estimation than earthenware. The borderers, however, set a value on gold and silver for the purposes of commerce, and have learned to distinguish several kinds of our coin, some of which they prefer to others: the remoter Inhabitants continue the more simple and ancient usage of bartering commodities.
Page 28 - They conceive it unworthy the grandeur of celestial beings to confine their deities within walls, or to represent them under a human similitude: woods and groves are their temples ; and they affix names of divinity to that secret power, which they behold with the eye of adoration alone.
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 - These plunderers of the world, after exhausting the land by their devastations, are rifling the ocean ; stimulated by avarice, if their enemy be rich ; by ambition, if poor : unsatiated by the East and by the West : the only people who behold wealth and indigence with equal avidity. To ravage, to slaughter, to usurp under false titles, they call empire ; and when they make a desert, they call it peace.
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. These are to them the manly gown ; this...
Page 19 - In the election of kings they have regard to birth; in that of generals, to valor. Their kings have not an absolute or unlimited power; and their generals command less through the force of authority than of example. If they are daring, adventurous, and conspicuous in action, they procure obedience from the admiration they inspire.
Page 121 - ... and claim a share of the prey. Nor do they provide any other shelter for their infants from wild beasts and storms than a covering of branches twisted together. This is the resort of youth; this is the receptacle of old age. Yet even this way of life is in their estimation happier than groaning over the plough; toiling in the erection of houses; subjecting their own fortunes and those of others to the agitations of alternate hope and fear.
Page 208 - ... yet, during the whole course of his illness, the principal of the imperial freedmen and the most confidential of the physicians was sent much more frequently than was customary with a court whose visits were chiefly paid by messages ; whether that was done out of real solicitude, or for the purposes of state inquisition. On the day of his decease, it is certain that accounts of his approaching dissolution were every instant transmitted to the emperor by couriers stationed for the purpose ; and...
Page 147 - Britain, whether indigenous3 or immigrants, is a question involved in the obscurity usual among barbarians. Their temperament of body is various, whence deductions are formed of their different origin. Thus, the ruddy hair and large limbs of the Caledonians* point out a German derivation. The swarthy complexion and curled hair of the...