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GERMANY. (HISTORY.) 



one hundred persons. Although the Romans called 

 several German princes kings, yet these rulers had 

 not so much as the right of punishing a freeman 

 with ilra i h. or imprisonment, or blows. (See Prince.) 

 A nation to which every kind of restraint was thus 

 odious, and which acknowledged no authority, re- 

 spected no obligations, but those which they imposed 

 upon themselves. To leaders of approved valour, 

 the noblest youths voluntarily devoted their arms 

 and services ; and, as the former vied with each 

 other in assembling the bravest companions around 

 them, so the latter contended for the favour of their 

 leaders. It was the duty of the leader to be the first 

 in courage in the hour of danger, and the duty of his 

 companions not to be inferior to him. To survive 

 his tall was an indelible disgrace to his companions, 

 for it was their most sacred duty to defend Ins per- 

 son, and to heighten his glory by their own deeds. 

 1'he leader fought for victory; his companions for 

 their leader. Valour was the grace of man ; chastity 

 the virtue of woman. The primitive nations of Ger- 

 man origin attached something of a sacred character 

 to the female sex. Polygamy was only permitted to 

 the princes, as a means of extending their connex- 

 ions ; divorce was forbidden rather by a sense of 

 propriety than by law. Adultery was considered an 

 inexpiable crime, and was, therefore, very rare. 

 Seduction was not to be excused on any considera- 

 tion. The religious notions of this nation could not 

 but be rude and imperfect. The sun and moon, 

 fire and earth, were their deities, whom they wor- 

 shipped, with some imaginary beings, to whom they 

 ascribed the direction of the most important circum- 

 stances of life, and whose will the priests pretended 

 to divine by secret arts. Their temples were caverns, 

 rendered sacred by the veneration of many genera- 

 tions. The ordeals, so famous in the middle ages, 

 were considered by them as infallible in all dubious 

 cases. Religion afforded the most powerful means 

 for inflaming their courage. The sacred standards, 

 preserved in the dark recesses of consecrated caverns, 

 were raised on the field of battle, and their enemies 

 were devoted, with dreadful imprecations, to the gods 

 of war and thunder. The valiant, only, enjoyed the 

 favour of the gods ; a warlike life, and death in bat- 

 tle, were considered as the surest means of attaining 

 the joys of the other world, where the heroes were 

 rejoiced by the relation of their deeds, while sitting 

 around the festal table, and quaffing beer out of large 

 horns, or the skulls of their enemies. (See Mytho- 

 logy, Northern.) But the glory which the priests 

 promised after death, was conferred by the bards on 

 earth. They celebrated in the battle, and at the 

 triumphal feasts, the glorious heroes of past days, 

 the ancestors of the brave, who listened to their sim- 

 ple but fiery strains, and were inspired by them with 

 contempt of death, and kindled to glorious deeds. 



Such were the free and unconquered tribes which 

 once inhabited the forests of Germany. If we inquire 

 into their origin, we are directed to Asia, the com- 

 mon cradle of mankind, although we find but faint 

 traces of their emigration from that part of the world 

 in the writings of the ancient historians. Joseph von 

 Hammer (in the work above cited) calls them a 

 Bactro-Median stock, from the highlands of Ariana ; 

 and Mirchond, the Persian poet, says Chorasan (the 

 land of Chawilah) is the name of that country, in 

 which were assembled the learned and wise, anc 

 which, in olden times, was called Dshermania. Be- 

 fore the Scythians, or Scoteles, were forced back by 

 the Massagetae to the Pontus Euxinus, the Cimmerii, 

 a nation related to the Germans, lived in those regions 

 which at present are called Crimea and European 

 Tartary, and, when pushed forward by the Scythians 

 to the Vistula, intermingled with the Teutonic tribes 



that lived there, and of whom we have no historical 

 accounts. In this way, Scandinavia and Germany 

 were peopled, and a tradition was preserved among 

 the inhabitants of those countries, that their ancestors 

 had formerly dwelt on the banks of the Vistula. 

 There were three chief branches of the Germans : 

 the Istaevones, Ingajvones, and Hermiones. The 

 Hernriones lived between the Elbe and the Vistula, 

 were the parent stock, and were also called Teutones 

 and Semnones. From them, the Isteevones emigrated 

 to the west, the Ingaevones to the north. These 

 three chief branches differed essentially from each 

 other ; and if it could be proved, that the Westpha 

 lians, Lower Saxons, Danes, and Swedes, are descend- 

 ed from the Ingaevones ; the inhabitants of the Rhine, 

 the Franconians and Hessians, from the Istaevones ; 

 and the Bavarians and Austrians from the Hermiones, 

 the differences, at least so far as they relate to lan- 

 guage, still exist. In the south of Germany, we find 

 only tribes of emigrants, belonging to different stocks, 

 some of whom, afterwards uniting together, founded 

 large states. Such southern colonists were the Quadi, 

 Marcomanni, and their descendants, the Boiarii, the 

 Hermunduri, and their descendants, the Suevi. 



The Romans first became acquainted with the Ger- 

 mans in the year of the city 640, when a swarm of 

 barbarians, who called themselves Cimbri, appeared 

 on the Alps, seeking new habitations, defeated the 

 consul, Papirius Carbo, and, having united with the 

 Tigurini, turned their arms against the Allobroges. 

 After having here also defeated the Romans, in two 

 great battles, they united with the Teutones and Am 

 brones, broke into Transalpine Gaul, and vanquished 

 the Romans again on the Rhone. They then spread 

 westwardly, but, being checked in their course by 

 the bravery of the Iberians and Belgians, turned to- 

 wards Italy, into which the Teutones and Ambrones 

 attempted to penetrate, over the western Alps, and 

 the Cimbri and Tigurini over the northern. Marius 

 became the deliverer of Rome ; he defeated the for- 

 mer at Aix, in the year of the city 651 (102 B. C.), 

 and the Cimbri in the following year. Those who 

 escaped spread themselves over Gaul, or returned to 

 the Danube. Caesar, having subjected Gaul, and 

 carried his victorious arms as far as the Rhine, first 

 became acquainted with a nation called Germans. Ario- 

 vistus, their leader, who had formerly lived on the 

 south of the Danube, formed the design of settling 

 in Gaul, but was defeated by Caesar, and compelled 

 to retreat over the Rhine. The Bricocci and Neme- 

 tes, who had belonged to that collection of tribes, 

 alone remained on the western bank of the Rhine. 

 Of the fugitives who returned over the Rhine, the 

 nation of the Marcomanni seems to have been formed. 

 Cassar crossed the Rhine twice ; not with the view of 

 making conquests in that wilderness, but to secure 

 Gaul against the destructive irruptions of the barba- 

 rians. He even enlisted Germans in his army, first 

 against the Gauls, then against Pompey. He ob- 

 tained an accurate knowledge of those tribes only 

 that lived nearest to the Rhine, as the Ubii, Sygam- 

 bri, Usipetes, and Tencteri The rest of Germany, 

 he was told, was inhabited by the Suevi, who were 

 divided into 100 districts (Gauen), each of which an- 

 nually sent 1000 men in quest of booty. They lived 

 more by hunting and pasture than by agriculture, 

 held their fields in common, and prevented the 

 approach of foreign nations by devastating thfir 

 borders. This account is true, if it is applied to the 

 Germans in general, and if by the 100 districts are 

 understood different tribes. The civil wars diverted 

 the attention of the Romans from Germany. Th" 

 confederacy of the Sygambri made inroads into Gaul 

 with impunity, and Agrippa transferred the Ubii, who 

 were hard pressed by them, to the west side of the 



