The Primitive Democracy of the Germans. 39 



armatorum hellandi causa ex jinihus eclucunt. Reliqui qui 

 domi manserunt se atque illos alunt. Hi rursus in viceiii 

 anno post in arniis sunt, illi domi remanent. 



Passing now to the account given by Tacitus, who lived 

 about one hundred and fifty years later, we find that his des- 

 cription partly confirms and partly supplements that of 

 Caesar; that it nowhere contradicts it, but in some points 

 shows the changes which might reasonably be expected to 

 take place in the course of a century and a half, among a 

 semi-barbarous, but vigorous and intelligent people, in direct 

 contact and constant intercourse with a highly civilized 

 nation. 



As to the structure of society, Tacitus testifies, just as 

 Caesar doe^, to the persistence. of the family principle; only 

 he mentions it in connection with the military organization, 

 instead of the occupation of land (Germ. ch. 7.); nan casus nee 

 fortuita conglobatio turmam aut cuneum facit, sed familiae 

 et propmquitates. " Their divisions of cavalry and infantry 

 are not made up by chance or accidental assembling, but by 

 families and neighborhoods "— the same patriarchal groups 

 no doubt, which are described by Caesar's gentihus cogna- 

 tion ibusque. The two statements naturally form the com- 

 plement to each other; if patriarchal groups lived together 

 as Caesar says, they naturally formed military divisions to- 

 gether, as Tacitus says, 



Tacitus does not tell us that the patriarchal groups lived 

 together, but it may be inferred that this was the 

 case, from the fact that they fought side by side. When he 

 takes up the subject of the occupation of land (Chap. 26), he 

 merely speaks of the land being occupied by communities, 

 cib universis. The passage is so important and so difficult to 

 interpret, that I will cite it at length: Agri pro numero 

 cultorum ab universis in vices occupantur, quos inox inter 

 se secundum dignationeni partiunturj facilitatem partiundi 

 camporum- spatia prcestant. Arva per annos mutant, et 

 superest ciger. "It is their practice to have their lands 

 taken into possession by communities, turn by turn, in 

 amounts proportioned to the numbers of their members, 

 and afterwards to share these out among the members ac- 



