A NOTE ON THE AGRICULTURE IN TACITUS' 

 ACCOUNT OF GERMANIA. 



Tacitus' (born c. A.D. 40 to 56) wrote his account of Ger- Tacitus' 

 mania, c. A.D. 98 ; dismissing the question as to the exact Ve 

 value of this author's information, and gathering data from 

 the whole of his short work, it may be observed that 

 although some of the gentes noticed are under more or 

 less despotic rule (25, 43-5),* many exist as communities 

 enjoying and appreciating a considerable degree of liberty 

 (n, 37, cf. 45), under reges (7, n, 43-4), or prindpes 

 (n, 15, 22). The Germanict tribes appear to have dwelt 

 in villages (vici, 16), their ranks being composed of nobiles 

 (7, 25, 44), ingenui (20, 25, 38, 44), liberti (25, 44), and 

 servi [24, 25, 32 (familia), 38, 44, 45] : a difference between 

 the warriors and actual cultivators of the soil is apparent 

 (14, 15, and perhaps 26), the prindpes [who maintain a 

 retinue (comites, 13, 14), averse to the labour of husbandry 

 (14)], receiving a voluntary tribute of cattle and grains 

 (armenta and fruges 15), suppose for consumption. The 

 distinction is by no means so clearly marked as to enable 

 the statement that warriors and cultivators are terms incon- 

 vertible ; but the bravest of the former class are depicted as 

 leaving the care of the fields (agri, i$,cf. 26) to the women, 

 aged, and infirm of their households ; these (latter) are 

 presumably ingenui rather than servi.l The plebes (n) 

 include the ingenui, and perhaps the liberti; the reges and 

 prindpes appear to be of the nobiles (7, n, 13) ; and the 

 duces (7) not necessarily above the rank of the ingenui: no 



* The bracketed nos. refer to the divisions of Tacitus' text, 

 t Tacitus does not consider all the tribes he names as Germanic ; of 

 those he names as such, no comment as to origin is here made. 

 At any rate in section 15. 



82 



