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The Germany and the Agricola of Tacitus by Cornelius Tacitus - Free Ebook
The Germania (Latin: De Origine et situ Germanorum, literally The Origin and Situation of the Germans), written by Gaius Cornelius Tacitus around 98, is an ethnographic work on the Germanic tribes outside the Roman Empire. Germania fits squarely within the tradition established by . Download PDF Tacitus Agricola book full free. Tacitus Agricola available for download and read online in other formats. PDF Book Download Full PDF eBook Free Download. Home; Tacitus's Germania from the Roman Empire to the Third Reich. Christopher B. Krebs — History. Jun 27, · Book digitized by Google from the library of University of California and uploaded to the Internet Archive by user tpb.
Tacitus germania pdf download
Geography of Germany. The northern parts of the country are girdles by the sea, flowing round broad peninsulas and vast islands where a campaign of the present century has revealed to us the existence of some nations and kings hitherto unknown. The Rhine rises in a remote and precipitous height of the Raetian alps and afterwards turns slightly westward to flow into the North Sea.
The Danube issues from a gentle slope of moderate height in the Black Forest, tacitus germania pdf download, and after passing more peoples than the Rhine in its course discharges itself into the Black Sea through six channels - a seventh mouth being lost in the tacitus germania pdf download. The Inhabitants.
Origins of the Name "Germany". The Germans themselves I should regard as aboriginal, and not mixed at all with other races through immigration or intercourse. For, in former times it was not by land but on shipboard that those who sought to emigrate would arrive; and the boundless and, so to speak, hostile ocean beyond us, is tacitus germania pdf download entered by a sail from our world.
And, beside the perils of rough and unknown seas, who would leave Asia, or Africa for Italy for Germany, with its wild country, its inclement skies, its sullen manners and aspect, unless indeed it were his home?
In their ancient songs, their only way of remembering or recording the past they celebrate an earth-born god Tuisco, and his son Mannus, as the origin of their race, as their founders, tacitus germania pdf download.
To Mannus they assign three sons, from whose names, they say, the coast tribes are called Ingaevones; those of the interior, Herminones; all the rest, Istaevones. Some, with the freedom of conjecture permitted by antiquity, assert that the god had several descendants, and the nation several appellations, as Marsi, Gambrivii, Suevi, Vandilii, and that these are nine old names.
The name Germany, on the other hand, they say is modern and newly introduced, from the fact that the tribes which first crossed the Rhine and drove out the Gauls, and are now called Tungrians, were then called Germans.
Thus what was the name of a tribe, and not of a race, gradually prevailed, till all called themselves by this self-invented name of Germans, which the conquerors had first employed to inspire terror. The National War-Songs. They say that Hercules, too, once visited them; and when going into battle, they sing of him first of all heroes.
They have also those songs of theirs, by the recital of which "baritus," they call itthey rouse their courage, while from the note they augur the result of the approaching conflict.
For, as their line shouts, they inspire or feel alarm. It is not so much an articulate sound, as a general cry of valor. They aim chiefly at a harsh note and a confused roar, putting their shields to their mouth, so that, by reverberation, it may swell into a fuller and deeper sound.
Ulysses also, tacitus germania pdf download all those fabled wanderings of his, is supposed by some to have reached the northern sea and visited German lands, tacitus germania pdf download, and to have founded and named Asciburgium, a town on the Rhine inhabited to this day. They even add that an altar consecrated by Ulysses and inscribed also with the tacitus germania pdf download of his father Laertes was discovered long ago at this same place, and that certain barrows with monuments upon them bearing Greek inscriptions still exist on the borders of Germany and Raetia.
I do not intend to argue either for or against these assertions; each man must accept or reject them tacitus germania pdf download he feels inclined.
Physical Characteristics. For my own part, I agree with those who think that the tribes of Germany are free from all taint of intermarriages with foreign nations, and that they appear as a distinct, unmixed race, like none but themselves. Hence, too, the same physical tacitus germania pdf download throughout so vast a population. All have fierce blue eyes, red hair, tacitus germania pdf download, huge frames, fit only for a sudden exertion.
They are less able to bear laborious work. Heat and thirst they cannot in the least endure; to cold and hunger their climate and their soil inure them.
Climate and Soil. Precious Metals. Their country, though somewhat various in appearance, yet generally either bristles with forests or reeks with swamps; it is more rainy on the side of Gaul, bleaker on that of Noricum and Pannonia. It is productive of grain, but unfavorable to fruit-bearing trees; it is rich in flocks and herds, but these are for the most part undersized, and even the cattle have not their usual beauty or noble head.
It is number that is chiefly valued; they are in fact the most highly prized, indeed the only tacitus germania pdf download of the people. Silver and gold the gods have refused to them, whether in kindness or in anger I cannot say. I would not, however, affirm that no vein of German soil produces gold or silver, for who has ever made a search? They care but little to possess or use them. You may see among them vessels of silver, which have been presented to their envoys and chieftains, held as cheap as those of the clay.
The border population, however, value gold and silver for their commercial utility, and are familiar with, and show preference for, some of our coins. The tribes of the interior use the simpler and more ancient practice of the barter of commodities.
They like the old and well known money, coins milled, or showing a two-horse chariot. They likewise prefer silver to gold, not from any special liking, but because a large number of silver pieces is more convenient for tacitus germania pdf download among dealers in cheap and common articles. Arms Military Manoeuvres and Discipline.
Even iron is not plentiful with them, as we infer from the character of their weapons. But few use swords or long lances. They carry a spear framea is their name for itwith a narrow and short head, but so sharp and easy to wield that the same weapon serves, according to circumstances, for close or distant conflict.
As tacitus germania pdf download the horse-soldier, he is satisfied with a shield and spear; the foot-soldiers also scatter showers of missiles each man having several and hurling them to an immense distance, and being naked or lightly clad with a little cloak.
There is no display about their equipment; their shields alone are marked with very choice colors. A few only have corslets, and just one or two here and there a metal or leather helmet. Their horses are remarkable neither for beauty nor for fleetness. Nor are they taught various evolutions after our fashion, but are driven straight forward, or so as to make one wheel to the right in such a compact body that none is left behind another.
On the whole, tacitus germania pdf download, one would say that their chief strength is in their infantry, tacitus germania pdf download, which fights along with the cavalry; admirably adapted to the action of the latter is the swiftness of certain foot-soldiers, who are picked from the entire youth of their country, and stationed in front of the line. Their number is fixed -- a hundred from each district; and from this they take their name among their countrymen, so that what was originally a mere number has no become a title of distinction.
Their line of battle is drawn up in a wedge-like formation, tacitus germania pdf download. To give ground, tacitus germania pdf download you return to the attack, is considered prudence rather than cowardice. The bodies of their slain they carry off even in indecisive engagements. To abandon your shield is the basest of crimes; nor may a man thus disgraced be present at the sacred rites, or enter their council; many, indeed, after escaping from battle, have ended their infamy with the halter.
Influence of Women. They choose their kings by birth, their generals for merit. These kings have not unlimited or arbitrary power, and the generals do more by example than by authority. If they are energetic, tacitus germania pdf download, if they are conspicuous, if they fight in the front, they lead because they are admired.
But to reprimand, to imprison, even to flog, is permitted to the priests alone, and that not as a punishment, or at the general's bidding, but, as it were, by the mandate of the god whom they believe to inspire the warrior. They also carry with them into battle certain figures and images taken from their sacred groves. And what most stimulates their courage is, that their squadrons or battalions, instead of being formed by chance or by a fortuitous gathering, are composed of families and clans.
Close by them, too, are those dearest to them, tacitus germania pdf download, so that they hear the shrieks of women, the cries of infants. They are to every man the most sacred witnesses of his bravery-they are his most generous applauders. The soldier brings his wounds to mother and wife, who shrink not from counting or even demanding them and who administer food and encouragement to the combatants. Tradition says that armies already wavering and giving way have been rallied by women who, with earnest entreaties and bosoms laid bare, have vividly represented the horrors of captivity, which the Germans fear with such extreme dread on behalf of their women, that the strongest tie by which a state can be bound is the being required to give, among the number of hostages, maidens of noble birth.
They even believe that the sex has a certain sanctity and prescience, and they do not despise tacitus germania pdf download counsels, or make light of their answers.
In Vespasian's days we saw Veleda, long regarded by many as a divinity. In former times, too, they venerated Aurinia, tacitus germania pdf download, and many other women, but not with servile flatteries, tacitus germania pdf download with sham deification. Mercury is the deity whom they chiefly worship, and on certain days they deem it right to sacrifice to him even with human victims. Hercules and Mars they appease with more lawful offerings.
Some of the Suevi also sacrifice to Isis, tacitus germania pdf download. Of the occasion and origin of this foreign rite I have discovered nothing, but that the image, which is fashioned like a light galley, indicates an imported worship.
The Germans, however, tacitus germania pdf download not consider it consistent with the grandeur of celestial beings to confine the gods within walls, or to liken them to the form of any human countenance.
They consecrate woods and groves, and they apply the names of deities to the abstraction which they see only in spiritual worship. Auguries and Method of Divination.
Augury and divination by lot no people practice more diligently. The use of the lots is simple. A little bough is lopped off a fruit-bearing tree, and cut into small pieces; these are distinguished by certain marks, and thrown carelessly and at random over a white garment.
In public questions the priest of the particular state, in private the father of the family, invokes the gods, and, tacitus germania pdf download, with his eyes toward heaven, takes up each piece three times, and finds in them a meaning according to the mark previously impressed on them. If they prove unfavorable, there is no further consultation that day about the matter; if they sanction it, the tacitus germania pdf download of augury is still required.
For they are also familiar tacitus germania pdf download the practice of consulting the notes and flight of birds, tacitus germania pdf download. It is tacitus germania pdf download to this people to seek omens and monitions from horses. Kept at the public expense, in these same woods and groves, are white horses, pure from the taint of earthly labor; these are yoked to a sacred car, and accompanied by the priest and the king, or chief of the tribe, who note their neighings and snortings.
No species of augury is more trusted, not only by the people and by the nobility, but also by the priests, who regard themselves as the ministers of the gods, and the horses as acquainted with their will. They have also another method of observing auspices, by which they seek to learn the result of an important war.
Having taken, by whatever means, a prisoner from the tribe with whom they are at war, they pit him against a picked man of their own tribe, each combatant using the weapons of their country. The victory of the one or the other is accepted as an indication of the issue. About minor matters the chiefs deliberate, about the more important the whole tribe.
Yet even when the final decision rests with the people, tacitus germania pdf download, the affair is always thoroughly discussed by the chiefs.
They assemble, except in the case of a sudden emergency, on certain fixed days, either at new or at full moon; for this they consider the most auspicious season for the transaction of business. Instead of reckoning by days as we do, tacitus germania pdf download, they reckon by nights, and in this manner fix both their ordinary and their legal appointments.
Night they regard as bringing on day. Their freedom has this disadvantage, that they do not meet simultaneously or as they are tacitus germania pdf download, but two or three days are wasted in the delays of assembling. When the multitude think proper, they sit down armed.
Silence is proclaimed by the priests, tacitus germania pdf download, who have on these occasions the right of keeping order, tacitus germania pdf download. Then the king or the chief, according to age, birth, distinction in war, or eloquence, is heard, more because he has influence to persuade than because he has power to command.
Tacitus, On Germania
, time: 1:12:53Tacitus germania pdf download
Pliny was born in Tacitus, however, occupied the office of quaestor under Vespasian in 78 A.D., at which time he must, therefore, have been at least twenty-five years of age. This would fix the date of his birth not later than 53 A.D. It is probable, therefore, that Tacitus was Pliny's senior by several years. Download PDF Tacitus Agricola book full free. Tacitus Agricola available for download and read online in other formats. PDF Book Download Full PDF eBook Free Download. Home; Tacitus's Germania from the Roman Empire to the Third Reich. Christopher B. Krebs — History. Feb 15, · Tacitus, the Agricola and Germania Item Preview remove-circle Tacitus, the Agricola and Germania by Tacitus, Cornelius; Tacitus, Cornelius. Publication date Publisher London: Methuen & Co. PDF download. download 1 file. SCRIBE SCANDATA ZIP download. download 1 Pages:
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