The Reign of Tiberius, Out of the First Six Annals of TacitusWith His Account of Germany, and Life of Agricola (page 4)

being wounded or slain, were at the returning light driven back to their fort; where they were at length forced to surrender; as did the places circumjacent of their own accord. The remainder could then be neither forced nor famished; as they were protected by a furious winter, always sudden about Mount Haemus.

At Rome, discord shook the Prince’s family: and, to begin the series of destruction, which was to end in Agrippina, Claudia Pulchra her cousin was accused; Domitius Afer the accuser. This man, just out of the Praetorship, in estimation small, but hasty to signalise himself by some notable exploit however heinous, alleged against her the “crimes of prostitution, of adultery with Furnius, of magical execrations and poison prepared against the life of the Emperor.” Agrippina ever vehement, and then in a flame for the peril of her kinswoman, flew to Tiberius, and by chance found him sacrificing to the Emperor his father. Having got this handle for upbraiding him, she told him “that it ill became the same man to slay victims to the deified Augustus and to persecute his children: his divine spirit was not transfused into dumb statues: the genuine images of Augustus were the living descendants from his celestial blood: she herself was one; one sensible of impending danger, and now in the mournful state of a supplicant. In vain were foreign crimes pretended against Pulchra; when the only cause of her concerted overthrow was her affection for Agrippina, foolishly carried even to adoration; forgetful as she was of the fate of Sosia, a condemned sufferer for the same fault.” All these bitter words drew small answer from the dark breast of Tiberius: he rebuked her by quoting a Greek verse; “That she was therefore aggrieved, because she did not reign:” Pulchra and Furnius were condemned. Afer, having thus displayed his genius, and gained a declaration from Tiberius, pronouncing him _eloquent in his own independent right_, was ranked with the most celebrated orators: afterwards in prosecuting accusations, or in protecting the accused, he flourished more in the fame of eloquence than in that of uprightness: however, old age eminently sunk the credit and vigour of his eloquence; while, with parts decayed, he still retained a passion for haranguing. [Footnote: Dum fessa mente, retinet silentii inpatientiam.]

Agrippina still fostering her wrath, and seized too with a bodily disorder, received the Emperor, come purposely to see her, with many tears and long silence. At last she accosted him with invidious expostulations and prayers; “that he would relieve her solitude, and give her a husband. She was still endowed with proper youth; to virtuous women there was no consolation but that of marriage; and Rome afforded illustrious men who would readily assent to entertain the wife of Germanicus, and his children.” Tiberius was not ignorant to what mighty power in the state, that demand tended; but, that he might betray no tokens of resentment or fear, he left her, though instant with him, without an answer. This passage, not related by the authors of our annals, I found in the commentaries of her daughter Agrippina; her, who was the mother of the Emperor Nero, and has published her own life with the fortunes of her family.

As to Agrippina; still grieving and void of foresight, she was yet more sensibly dismayed by an artifice of Sejanus, who employed such, as under colour of friendship warned her, “that poison was prepared for her, and that she must shun eating at her father-in-law’s table.” She was a stranger to all dissimulation: so that as she sat near him at table, she continued stately and unmoved; not a word, not a look escaped her, and she touched no part of the meat. Tiberius observed her, whether accidentally, or that he was before apprised; and, to be convinced by a more powerful experiment, praising the apples that stood before him, presented some with his own hand to his daughter-in-law. This only increased the suspicion of Agrippina; and, without ever putting them to her mouth, she delivered them to the servants. For all this, the reserved Tiberius let not a word drop from him openly; but, turning to his mother; “There was no wonder,” he said, “if he had really taken harsh measures with her, who thus charged him as a poisoner.” Hence a rumour spread, “that her doom was contrived; and that the Emperor not daring to pursue it publicly, chose to have her despatched in secret.”

Tiberius, as a means to divert upon other matters the popular talk, attended assiduously the deliberations of the Senate; and there heard for many days the several Ambassadors from Asia, mutually contending, “in what city should be built the temple lately decreed.” For this honour eleven cities strove, with equal ambition, though different in power: nor did the pleas urged by all, greatly vary; namely, “the antiquity of their original, and their distinguished zeal for the Roman People, during their several wars with Perseus, Aristonicus, and other kings.” But the Trallians, the Laodiceans, the Magnesians and those of the Hypaepis, were at once dismissed, as insufficient for the charge. Nor, in truth, had they of Ilium, who represented, “that Troy was the mother of Rome,” any superior advantage, besides the glory of antiquity. The plea of the Halicarnassians took some short consideration: they asserted, “that for twelve hundred years, no earthquake had shaken their town; and that they would fix in a solid rock the foundations of the temple.” The same considerations were urged by the inhabitants of Pergamus; where already was erected a temple to Augustus; a distinction which was judged sufficient for them. The cities too of Ephesus and Miletus seemed fully employed in the ceremonies of their own distinct deities; the former in those of Diana; the other, in those of Apollo. Thus the dispute was confined to Sardis and Smyrna. The first recited a decree of the Etrurians, which owned them for kinsmen: “for that Tyrrhenus and Lydus, sons of King Atys, having between them divided their people, because of their multitude, Lydus re-settled in his native country; and it became the lot of Tyrrhenus to find out a fresh residence; and by the names of these chiefs the parted people came afterwards to be called, Lydians in Asia, Tyrrhenians in Italy. That the opulence of the Lydians spread yet farther, by their colonies sent under Pelops into Greece, which from him afterwards took its name.” They likewise urged “the letters of our Generals; their mutual leagues with us during the war of Macedon; their plenty of rivers, temperate climate, and the fertility of the circumjacent country.”

The Smyrnaeans having likewise recounted their ancient establishment, “whether Tantalus, the son of Jupiter; or Theseus, the son also of a God; or one of the old Amazons, were their founder;” proceeded to considerations in which they chiefly trusted; their friendly offices to the Roman People, having aided them with a naval force, not in their foreign wars only, but in those which infested Italy. “It was they who first reared a temple to the City of Rome, in the Consulship of Marcus Porcius; then, in truth, when the power of the Roman People was already mighty, but however not yet raised to its highest glory; for the city of Carthage still stood, and potent kings governed Asia. Witness too their generosity to Sylla, when the condition of his army ready to famish in a cruel winter and a scarcity of clothes, being related to the citizens of Smyrna then assembled; all that were present divested themselves of their raiments, and sent them to our legions.” Thus when the votes of the Senators were gathered, the pretensions of Smyrna were preferred. It was also moved by Vibius Marsus, that Lentulus, to whom had fallen the province of Asia, should be attended by a Legate extraordinary, to supervise the building of the temple; and as Lentulus himself through modesty declined to choose one, several who had been Praetors were drawn by lot, and the lot fell upon Valerius Naso.

In the meantime, according to a purpose long meditated, and from time to time deferred, Tiberius at last retired to Campania; in profession, to dedicate a temple to Jupiter at Capua, and one at Nola to Augustus; but in truth determined to remove, for ever, from Rome. The cause of his departure, I have before referred to the stratagems of Sejanus; but though in it I have followed most of our authors; yet, since after the execution of Sejanus, he persisted for six years in the like dark recess; I am rather influenced by a stronger probability, that the ground of his absence is more justly to be ascribed to his own spirit, while he strove to hide in the shades of solitude, what in deeds he proclaimed, the rage of his cruelty and lust. There were those who believed that, in his old age, he was ashamed of the figure of his person; for he was very lean, long and stooping, his head bald, his face ulcerous, and for the most besmeared with salves: he was moreover wont, during his recess at Rhodes, to avoid the public, and cover his debauches in secrecy. It is also related that he was driven from Rome by the restless aspiring of his mother, whom he scorned to admit a partner in the sovereignty; nor yet could entirely seclude, since as her gift he had received the sovereignty itself. For, Augustus had deliberated about setting Germanicus at the head of the Roman state; his sister’s grandson, and one adored by all men: but subdued by the solicitations of his wife, he adopted Tiberius; and caused Tiberius to adopt Germanicus. With this grandeur of her own procuring, Livia upbraided her son; and even reclaimed it.

His going was narrowly accompanied; by one Senator, Cocceius Nerva, formerly Consul, and accomplished in the knowledge of the laws; and, besides Sejanus, by one dignified Roman knight, Curtius Atticus. The rest were men of letters, chiefly Greeks; whose conversation pleased and amused him. The skilled in astrology declared, “that he had left Rome in such a conjunction of the planets, as for ever to exclude his return.” Hence a source of destruction to many, who conjectured his end to be at hand, and published their conjectures: for, it was an event too incredible to be foreseen, that for eleven years he should of choice be withdrawn from his country. The sequel discovered the short bounds between the art and the falsehood of the art, and what obscurities perplex even the facts it happens to foretell. _That he should never return to Rome_, proved not to be falsely said: as to everything else about him they were perfectly in the dark; since he still lived, never far distant, sometimes in the adjacent champain, sometimes on the neighbouring shore, often under the very walls of the city; and died at last in the fulness and extremity of age.

There happened to Tiberius, about that time, an accident, which, as it threatened his life, fired the empty prognostics at Rome; but to himself proved matter of more confidence in the friendship and faith of Sejanus. They were eating in a cave at a villa, thence called _Spelunca_, between the Amyclean Sea and the mountains of Fondi: it was a native cave, and its mouth fell suddenly in, and buried under it some of the attendants: hence dread seized all, and they who were celebrating the entertainment fled: as to Sejanus; he covered the Emperor’s body with his own, and stooping upon his knees and hands, exposed himself to the descending ruin; such was the posture he was found in by the soldiers, who came to their relief. He grew mightier from thence; and being now considered by Tiberius as one regardless of himself, all his counsels, however bloody and destructive, were listened to with blind credulity: so that he assumed the office of a judge against the offspring of Germanicus, and suborned such as were to act the parts of accusers, and especially to pursue and blacken Nero, the next in succession; a young Prince modest indeed, but forgetful of that restraint and circumspection which his present situation required. He was misguided by his freedmen and the retainers to his house; who eager to be masters of power, animated him with intemperate counsels; “that he would show a spirit resolute and assured; it was what the Roman People wished, what the armies longed for: nor would Sejanus dare then to resist; though he now equally insulted the tameness of an old man and the sloth of a young one.”

While he listened to these and the like suggestions, there escaped him, no expressions, in truth, of any criminal purpose; but sometimes such as were resentful and unguarded: these were catched up by the spies placed upon him, and charged against him with aggravations; neither was he allowed the privilege of clearing himself. Several threatening appearances moreover dismayed him: some avoided to meet him; others having just paid him the salute, turned instantly away: many, in the midst of conversation, broke off and left him; while the creatures of Sejanus stood still fearlessly by and sneered upon him. For Tiberius; he always entertained him with a stern face, or a hollow smile; and whether the youth spoke or said nothing, there were crimes in his words, crimes in his silence: nor was he safe even at the dead of night; since his uneasiness and watchings, nay, his very sighs and dreams were, by his wife, divulged to her mother Livia, and by Livia to Sejanus; who had also drawn his brother Drusus into the combination, by tempting him with the immediate prospect of Empire, if his elder brother, already sinking, were once set effectually aside. The genius of Druses naturally furious, instigated besides by a passion for power, and by the usual hate and competition between brothers, was further kindled by the partiality of Agrippina, who was fonder of Nero. However, Sejanus did not so far favour Drusus, but that against him too he was even then ripening the studied measures of future destruction; as he knew him to be violent, and thence more obnoxious to snares.

In the end of the year departed these eminent persons; Asinius Agrippa, of ancestors more illustrious than ancient, and in his own character not unworthy of them: and Quintus Haterius, of a Senatorian family, and himself, while he yet lived, famous for eloquence: but the monuments of his genius, since published, are not equally esteemed. In truth, he prevailed more by rapidity than accuracy: insomuch that, as the elaborate compositions of others flourish after them; so that enchanting melody of voice in Haterius, with that fluency of words which was personal to him, died with him.

In the Consulship of Marcus Licinius and Lucius Calpurnius, the casualty of an instant, its beginning unforeseen, and ended as soon as begun, equalled in calamity the slaughter and overthrow of mighty armies. One Atilius had undertaken to erect an amphitheatre at Fidena, [Footnote: Castel Giubileo, near Rome.] there to exhibit a combat of gladiators: he was of the race of freedmen, and as he began it from no exuberance of wealth, nor to court popularity amongst the inhabitants, but purely for the meanness of gain, he neither established solid foundations, nor raised the timber-work with sufficient compactness. Thither thronged from Rome those of every sex and age, eager for such shows; as during the reign of Tiberius they were debarred from diversions at home; and, the nearer the place, the greater the crowds: hence the calamity was the more dreadful; for, as the theatre was surcharged with the multitude, the structure burst, and sinking violently in, while its extremities rushed impetuously out, huge was the press of people, who intent upon the gladiators within, or gathered round the walls, were crushed by the deadly ruin, and even buried under it. And verily, they who in the first fury of the havoc were smitten with final death, escaped as far as in such a doleful disaster they could escape, the misery of torture: much more to be lamented were those, who bereft of joints and pieces of their body, were yet not forsaken of life; those who by day could with their eyes behold their wives and children imprisoned in the same ruins; and by night could distinguish them by their groans, and howlings.

Now others from abroad excited by the sad tidings, found here their several sorrows: one bewailed his brother, one his kinsman, another his parents: even they whose friends or kindred were absent on a different account, were yet terrified: for, as it was not hitherto distinctly known upon whom the destruction had lighted, the dread was widened by uncertainty. When the ruins began to be removed, great about the dead was the concourse of the living; frequent the kisses and embraces of tenderness and sorrow: and even frequent the contention about the propriety of the dead; where the features distorted by death or bruises, or where parity of age or resemblance of person, had confounded the slain, and led into mistakes their several claimers. Fifty thousand souls were destroyed or maimed by this sad stroke: it was therefore for the future provided by a decree of Senate, “that no man under the qualification of four hundred thousand sesterces, [Footnote: L3,300.] should exhibit the spectacle of gladiators; and no amphitheatre should be founded but upon ground manifestly solid.” Atilius was punished with exile. To conclude; during the fresh pangs of this calamity, the doors of the Grandees were thrown open; medicines were everywhere furnished; they who administered medicines, were everywhere employed to attend: and at that juncture the city though sorrowful of aspect, seemed to have recalled the public spirit of the ancient Romans; who, after great battles, constantly relieved the wounded, sustained them by liberality, and restored them with care.

The public agonies from this terrible blow, were not yet deadened, when another supervened; and the city felt the affliction and violence of fire, which with uncommon rage utterly consumed Mount Caelius. “It was a deadly and mournful year,” they said, “and under boding omens the Prince had formed the design of his absence.” It is the way this of the multitude; who to malignant counsels are wont to ascribe events altogether fortuitous. But the Emperor dissipated their murmurs, by bestowing on each sufferer money to the value of his sufferings: hence he had the thanks of men of rank, in the Senate; and was by the populace rewarded with applauses, “for that without the views of ambition, without the application of friends, he had of his own accord even sought out the unknown, and by his bounty relieved them.” It was likewise moved and decreed in Senate, “that Mount Caelius should be for the future styled _Mount Augustus_, since there the statue of Tiberius, standing in the house of Junius the Senator, escaped unhurt in the flames, though devouring all round them:” it was remembered, that the same rare exemption had formerly happened to Claudia Pulchra; that her statue being twice spared by the fury of fire, had thence been placed and consecrated by our ancestors in the Temple of the Mother of the Gods. Thus sacred were the Claudian race, and dear to the deities; and therefore the place, where the Gods had testified such mighty honour towards the Prince, ought to be dignified with consecration.

It will not be impertinent to insert here, that this mount was of old named _Querquetulanus_, from a grove of oak which grew thick upon it. It was afterwards called _Mount Caelius_, from Caeles Vibenna, who having led to Rome a body of Tuscan auxiliaries, was presented with that settlement by Tarquinius Priscus, or some other of our kings; for in this particular, writers differ: about other circumstances there remains no dispute; that these forces were very numerous, and extended their dwellings all along the plain below, as far as the Forum. Hence the _Tuscan Street_, so called after these strangers.

Tiberius, having dedicated the temples in Campania; though he had by an edict warned the public, “that none should interrupt his quiet;” and though soldiers were posted to keep off all confluence from the neighbouring towns; nevertheless, hating the towns themselves, and the colonies, and every part in the continent, imprisoned himself in Capreae, [Footnote: Capri.] an island disjoined from the point of the Cape of Surrentum by a channel of three miles. I should chiefly believe that he was taken with its solitude, as the sea above it is void of havens, as the stations for the smallest vessels are few and difficult, and as none could put in unperceived by the Guards. The genius of the climate is mild in winter, from the shelter of a mountain which intercepts the rigour of the winds: its summers are refreshed by gales from the west; and the sea open all round it, makes a delightful view: from thence too was beheld a most lovely landscape, before the eruptions of Mount Vesuvius had changed the face of the prospect. It is the tradition of fame that the Greeks occupied the opposite region, and that Capreae was particularly inhabited by the Teleboi. However it were, Tiberius then confined his retirement to twelve villas, their names famous of old and their structure sumptuous. And the more intent he had formerly been upon public cares, he became now so much the more buried in dark debauches, and resigned over to mischievous privacy: for, there remained still in him his old bent to suspicions, and rash faith in informers; qualities which even at Rome Sejanus had always fostered, and here inflamed more vigorously; his devices against Agrippina and Nero being no longer a secret. About them guards were placed, by whom every petty circumstance, the messages they sent or received, their visits and company, their open behaviour, their private conversation, were all as it were minuted into journals: there were others, too, instructed to warn them to fly to the armies in Germany; or that embracing the statue of the deified Augustus in the great Forum, they would there implore the aid and protection of the Senate and People of Rome. And these counsels, though rejected by them, were fathered and charged upon them, as just ripe for execution.

BOOK V

A.D. 29-31.

In the Consulship of Rubellius and Fusius, each surnamed Geminus, died Julia Augusta, the mother of Tiberius, in the extremity of age. She was descended from the Claudian house; adopted through her father into the Livian family; into the Julian, by Augustus; and both by adoption and descent, signally noble: her first marriage was with Tiberius Nero; and by him she had children: her husband, after the surrender of Perusia, [Footnote: Perugia.] in the Civil War, became a fugitive; but, upon peace made between Sextus Pompeius and the Triumvirate, returned to Rome. Afterwards, Octavius Caesar smitten with her beauty, snatched her from her husband; whether with or against her own inclinations, is uncertain; but with such precipitation, that, without staying for her delivery, he married her yet big with child by Tiberius. Henceforward she had no issue; but, by the marriage of Germanicus and Agrippina, her blood came to be mixed with that of Augustus in their great-grandchildren. In her domestic deportment, she conformed to the venerable model of antiquity; but with more complaisance than was allowed by the ladies of old: an easy courteous wife, an ambitious mother; and well comporting with the nice arts of her husband, and the dissimulation of her son: her funeral was moderate, and her last will lay long unfulfilled: her encomium was pronounced in public by Caligula, her grandson, [Footnote: Great-grandson.] afterwards Emperor.

Tiberius by a letter excused himself to the Senate, for not having paid his last offices to his mother; and, though he rioted in private luxury without abatement, pleaded “the multitude of public affairs.” He likewise abridged the honours decreed to her memory, and, of a large number, admitted but very few: for this restriction he pretended modesty, and added, “that no religious worship should be appointed her; for that the contrary was her own choice.” Nay, in a part of the same letter, he censured _feminine friendships_; obliquely upbraiding the Consul Fusius, a man highly distinguished by the favour of Augusta, and dexterous to engage and cajole the affections of women; a gay talker, and one accustomed to play upon Tiberius with biting sarcasms; the impressions of which never die in the hearts of Princes.

From this moment, the domination waxed completely outrageous and devouring: for while she lived, some refuge still remained, as the observance of Tiberius towards his mother was ever inviolate; nor durst Sejanus arrogate precedence of the authority of a parent: but now, as let loose from all restraint, they broke out with unbridled fury: so that letters were despatched avowedly against Agrippina and Nero; and as they were read in the Senate soon after the death of Augusta, the people believed them to have been sent before and by her suppressed. The expressions were elaborately bitter; and yet by them no hostile purpose of taking arms, no endeavour to change the State, was objected to the youth; but only “the love of boys, and other impure pleasures:” against Agrippina he durst not even feign so much; and therefore arraigned “her haughty looks, her impetuous and stubborn spirit.” The Senate were struck with deep silence and affright: but, as particular men will always be drawing personal favour from public miseries, there were some who, having no hopes founded upon uprightness, demanded that “they should proceed upon the letters:” amongst these the foremost in zeal was Cotta Messalinus, with a terrible motion: but, the other leading men, and chiefly the magistrates, were embarrassed by fear: for Tiberius, though he had sent them a flaming invective, left all the rest a riddle.

In the Senate was one Junius Rusticus, appointed by the Emperor to keep a journal of their proceedings, and therefore thought well acquainted with his purposes. This man, by some fatal impulse (for he had never before shown any instance of magnanimity) or blinded by deceitful policy, while forgetful of present and impending dangers, he dreaded future possibilities, joined the party that hesitated, and even warned the Consuls “not to begin the debate:” he argued “that in a short moment the highest affairs might take a new turn: and an interval ought to be allowed to the old man to change his passion into remorse.” At the same time, the people, carrying with them the images of Agrippina and Nero, gathered about the Senate, and proclaiming their good wishes for the prosperity of the Emperor, cried earnestly, “that the letters were counterfeit; and, against the consent of the Prince, the doom of his family was pursued:” so that nothing tragical was that day transacted. There were also dispersed amongst them several speeches, said to have been uttered in Senate by the Consulars, as their motions and advices against Sejanus; but all framed, and with the more petulance as the several authors exercised their satirical wit in the dark. Hence Sejanus boiled with greater rage, and hence had a handle for branding the Senate, “that by them the anguish and resentments of the Prince were despised: the people were revolted; popular and disaffected harangues were publicly read and listened to: new and arbitrary acts of Senate were passed and published: what more remained, but to arm the populace and place at their head, as leaders and Imperial commanders, those whose images they had already chosen for standards?”

Tiberius having therefore repeated his reproaches against his grandson and daughter-in-law: having chastised the people by an edict, and complained to the Senate, “that by the fraud of a single Senator the Imperial dignity should be battled and insulted, required that the whole affair should be left to himself, entire and untouched.” The Senate hesitated no longer, but instantly proceeded, not now in truth to decree penalties and capital vengeance; for that was forbid them; but to testify “how ready they were to inflict just punishments, and that they were only interrupted by the power and pleasure of the Prince.”…

[_Here begins a lamentable chasm in this “Annal” for almost three years; and by it we have lost the detail of the most remarkable incidents in this reign, the exile of Agrippina into the Isle of Pandataria; of Nero, into that of Pontia; and the murder of both there by the orders of Tiberius: the conspiracy and execution of Sejanus, with that of all his friends and dependents: the further wickedness of Livia, and her death._]

Now though the rage of the populace was expiring, and though most men were mollified by former executions; it was determined to condemn the other children of Sejanus. They were therefore carried both to prison, the boy sensible of his impending doom; but the girl so ignorant, that she frequently asked; “For what offence? and whither did they drag her? she would do so no more; and they might take the rod and whip her.” The writers of that time relate, “that as it was a thing unheard, for a virgin to suffer capital punishment, she was deflowered by the executioner just before he tied the rope; and that being both strangled, the tender bodies of these children were cast into the place where the carcasses of malefactors are exposed, before they are flung into the Tiber.”…

BOOK VI

A.D. 32-37.

Cneius Domitius and Camillus Scribonianus had begun their Consulship, when the Emperor, having crossed the channel between Capreae [Footnote: Capri.] and Surrentum, [Footnote: Sorrento.] sailed along the shore of Campania; unresolved whether he should proceed to Rome; or counterfeiting a show of coming, because he had determined not to come. He often approached to the neighbourhood of the city, and even visited the gardens upon the Tiber; but at last resumed his old retirement, the gloomy rocks and solitude of the sea, ashamed of his cruelties, and abominable lusts; in which he rioted so outrageously, that after the fashion of royal tyrants, the children of ingenuous parentage became the objects of his pollution: nor in them was he struck with a lovely face only, or the graces of their persons; but in some their amiable and childish innocence, in others their nobility and the glory of their ancestors, became the provocatives of his unnatural passion. Then likewise were devised the filthy names, till then unknown, of the _Sellarii_ and _Spintriae_, expressing the odious lewdness of the place, and the manifold postures and methods of prostitution practised in it. For supplying his lust with these innocent victims, he entertained, in his service professed procurers, to look them out and carry them off. The willing they encouraged with presents, the backward they terrified with threats; and upon such parents or kindred as withheld the infants, they exercised force, seizure, and, as upon so many captives, every species of licentious rage.

At Rome in the beginning of the year, as if the iniquities of Livia had been but just discovered, and not even long since punished, furious orders were passed against her statues too, and memory; with another, “that the effects of Sejanus should be taken from the public treasury, and placed in that of the Emperor:” as if this vain translation could any wise avail the State. And yet such was the motion of these great names, the Scipios, the Silani, and the Cassii; who urged it, each almost in the same words, but all with mighty zeal and earnestness: when all on a sudden, Togonius Gallus, while he would be thrusting his own meanness amongst names so greatly illustrious, became the object of derision: for he besought the Prince “to choose a body of Senators of whom twenty, drawn by lot and under arms, should wait upon him and defend his person, as often as he entered the Senate.” He had been weak enough to credit a letter from the Emperor, requiring “the guard and protection of one of the Consuls, that he might return in safety from Capreae to Rome.” Tiberius however returned thanks to the Senate for such an instance of affection; but as he was wont to mix pleasantry with things serious, he asked, “How was it to be executed? what Senators were to be chosen? who to be omitted? whether always the same, or a continued succession? whether young Senators, or such as had borne dignities? whether those who were Magistrates, or those exercising no magistracy? moreover what a becoming figure they would make, grave Senators, men of the gown, under arms at the entrance of the Senate! in truth he held not his life of such importance, to have it thus protected by arms.” So much in answer to Togonius, without asperity of words; nor did he farther, than this, press them to cancel the motion.

But Junius Gallio escaped not thus. He had proposed “that the Praetorian soldiers, having accomplished their term of service, should thence acquire the privilege of sitting in the fourteen rows of the theatre allotted to the Roman knights.” Upon him Tiberius fell with violent wrath, and, as if present, demanded, what business had he with the soldiers? men whose duty bound them to observe only the orders of the Emperor, and from the Emperor alone to receive their rewards. Gallio had forsooth discovered a recompense which had escaped the sagacity of the deified Augustus? Or was it not rather a project started by a mercenary of Sejanus, to raise sedition and discord; a project tending to debauch the rude minds of the soldiers with the show and bait of new honour; to corrupt their discipline, and set them loose from military restrictions? This reward, had the studied flattery of Gallio; who was instantly expelled the Senate, and then Italy: nay, it became a charge upon him, that his exile would be too easy, having for the place of it chosen Lesbos, an island noble and delightful; he was therefore haled back to Rome and confined a prisoner in the house of a Magistrate. Tiberius in the same letter demanded the doom of Sextus Paconianus, formerly Praetor, to the extreme joy of the Senate, as he was a man bold and mischievous, one armed with snares, and continually diving into the purposes and secret transactions of all men; and one chosen by Sejanus, for plotting the overthrow of Caligula. When this was now laid open, the general hate and animosities long since conceived against him, broke violently out, and had he not offered to make a discovery, he had been instantly condemned to death.

The next impeached was Cotta Messalinus, the author of every the most bloody counsel, and thence long and intensely hated. The first opportunity was therefore snatched to fall upon him with a combination of crimes; as that he had called Caius Caligula by the feminine name of _Caia Caligula_, and branded him with constuprations of both kinds; that when he celebrated among the Priests the birthday of Augusta, he had styled the entertainment a _funeral supper_; and that complaining of the great sway of Marcus Lepidus, and of Lucius Arruntius, with whom he had a suit about money, he had added; “they indeed will be supported by the Senate, but I by my little Tiberius.” [Footnote: Tiberiolus meus.] Of all this he stood exposed to conviction by men of the first rank in Rome; who being earnest to attack him, he appealed to Caesar: from whom soon after a letter was brought in behalf of Cotta; in it he recounted “the beginning of their friendship,” repeated “his many good services to himself,” and desired “that words perversely construed, and humorous tales told at an entertainment, might not be wrested into crimes.”

Most remarkable was the beginning of that letter; for in these words he introduced it: “What to write you, Conscript Fathers, or in what manner to write, or what at all not to write at this instant; if I can determine, may all the Deities, Gods and Goddesses, doom me still to more cruel agonies than those under which I feel myself perishing daily.” So closely did the bloody horror of his cruelties and infamy haunt this man of blood, and became his torturers! Nor was it at random what the wisest of all men [Footnote: Socrates.] was wont to affirm, that if the hearts of tyrants were displayed, in them might be seen deadly wounds and gorings, and all the butcheries of fear and rage; seeing what the severity of stripes is to the body, the same to the soul is the bitter anguish of cruelty, lust, and execrable pursuits. To Tiberius not his imperial fortune, not his gloomy and inaccessible solitudes could ensure tranquillity; nor exempt him from feeling and even avowing the rack in his breast and the avenging furies that pursued him.

After this, it was left to the discretion of the Senate to proceed as they listed against Caecilianus the Senator, “who had loaded Cotta with many imputations;” and it was resolved, “to subject him to the same penalties inflicted upon Aruseius and Sanquinius, the accusers of Lucius Annuntius.” A more signal instance of honour than this had never befallen Cotta; who noble in truth, but through luxury indigent, and, for the baseness of his crimes, detestable, was by the dignity of this amends equalled in character to the most venerable reputation and virtues of Arruntius.

About the same time died Lucius Piso, the Pontiff; and, by a felicity, then rare in so much splendour and elevation, died by the course of nature. The author he never himself was of any servile motion, and ever wise in moderating such motions from others, where necessity enforced his assent. That his father had sustained the sublime office of Censor, I have before remembered: he himself lived to fourscore years, and for his warlike feats in Thrace, had obtained the glory of triumph. But from hence arose his most distinguished glory, that being created Governor of Rome, a jurisdiction newly instituted, and the more difficult, as not yet settled into public reverence, he tempered it wonderfully and possessed it long.

For, of old, to supply the absence of the Kings, and afterwards of the Consuls, that the city might not remain without a ruler, a temporary Magistrate was appointed to administer justice, and watch over exigencies: and it is said that by Romulus was deputed Denter Romulius; Numa Marcius, by Tullus Hostilius; and by Tarquin the Proud, Spurius Lucretius. The same delegation was made by the Consuls; and there remains still a shadow of the old institution, when during the Latin festival, one is authorised to discharge the Consular function. Moreover, Augustus during the Civil Wars, committed to Cilnius Maecenas of the Equestrian Order, the Government of Rome and of all Italy. Afterwards, when sole master of the Empire, and moved by the immense multitude of people and the slowness of relief from the laws, he chose a Consular to bridle the licentiousness of the slaves, and to awe such turbulent citizens as are only quiet from the dread of chastisement. Messala Corvinus was the first invested with this authority, and in a few days dismissed, as a man insufficient to discharge it. It was then filled by Taurus Statilius, who, though very ancient, sustained it with signal honour. After him Piso held it for twenty years, with a credit so high and uninterrupted, that he was distinguished with a public funeral, by decree of the Senate.

A motion was thereafter made in Senate by Quinctilianus, Tribune of the People, concerning a Book of the Sibyl, which Caninius Gallus, one of the College of Fifteen, had prayed “might be received by a decree amongst the rest of that Prophetess.” The decree passed without opposition, but was followed by letters from Tiberius. In them having gently chid the Tribune, “as young and therefore unskilled in the ancient usages,” he upbraided Gallus, “that he who was so long practised in the science of sacred ceremonies, should without taking the opinion of his own college, without the usual reading and deliberation with the other Priests, deal, by surprise, with a thin Senate, to admit a prophetic book of an uncertain author.” He also advertised them “of the conduct of Augustus, who, to suppress the multitude of fictious predictions everywhere published under the solemn name of the Sibyl, had ordained, that within a precise day, they should be carried to the City Praetor; and made it unlawful to keep them in private hands.” The same had likewise been decreed by our ancestors, when after the burning of the capitol in the Social War, the Rhymes of the Sibyl (whether there were but one, or more) were everywhere sought, in Samos, Ilium, and Erythrae, through Africa too and Sicily and all the Roman colonies, with injunctions to the Priests, that, as far as human wit could enable them, they would separate the genuine. Therefore, upon this occasion also, the book was subjected to the inspection of the Quindecimvirate.

Under the same Consuls, the dearth of corn had nigh raised a sedition. The populace for many days urged their wants and demands in the public theatre, with a licentiousness towards the Emperor, higher than usual. He was alarmed with this bold spirit, and censured the Magistrates and Senate, “that they had not by the public authority quelled the people.” He recounted “the continued supplies of grain which he had caused to be imported; from what provinces, and in how much greater abundance than those procured by Augustus.” So that for correcting the populace, a decree passed framed in the strain of ancient severity: nor less vigorous was the edict published by the Consuls. His own silence, which he hoped would be taken by the people as an instance of moderation, was by them imputed to his pride.

In the meanwhile, the whole band of accusers broke loose upon those who augmented their wealth by usury, in contradiction to a law of Caesar the Dictator, “for ascertaining the terms of lending money, and holding mortgages in Italy;” a law waxed long since obsolete, through the selfish passions of men, sacrificing public good to private gain. Usury was, in truth, an inveterate evil in Rome, and the eternal cause of civil discord and seditions, and therefore restrained even in ancient times, while the public manners were not yet greatly corrupted. For, first it was ordained by a law of the twelve tables, “that no man should take higher interest than twelve in the hundred;” when, before, it was exacted at the pleasure of the rich. Afterwards by a regulation of the Tribunes it was reduced to six, and at last was quite abolished. By the people, too, repeated statutes were made, for obviating all elusions, which by whatever frequent expedients repressed, were yet through wonderful devices still springing up afresh. Gracchus the Praetor was therefore now appointed to inquire into the complaints and allegations of the accusers; but, appalled with the multitude of those threatened by the accusation, he had recourse to the Senate. The Fathers also were dismayed (for of this fault not a soul was guiltless) and sought and obtained impunity from the Prince; and a year and six months were granted for balancing all accounts between debtors and creditors, agreeably to the direction of the law.

Hence a great scarcity of money: for, besides that all debts were at once called in; so many delinquents were condemned, that by the sale of their effects, the current coin was swallowed up in the public treasury, or in that of the Emperor. Against this stagnation, the Senate had provided, “that two-thirds of the debts should by every creditor be laid out upon lands in Italy.” But the creditors warned in the whole; [Footnote: Demanded payment in full.] nor could the debtors without breach of faith divide the payment. So that at first, meetings and entreaties were tried; and at last it was contested before the Praetor. And the project applied as a remedy; namely, that the debtor should sell, and the creditor buy, had a contrary operation: for the usurers hoarded up all their treasure for purchasing of lands, and the plenty of estates to be sold, miserably sinking the price; the more men were indebted, the more difficult they found it to sell. Many were utterly stripped of their fortunes; and the ruin of their private patrimony drew headlong with it that of their reputation and all public preferment. The destruction was going on, when the Emperor administered relief, by lending a hundred thousand great sesterces [Footnote: About L830,000.] for three years, without interest; provided each borrower pawned to the people double the value in inheritance. [Footnote: Gave a security to the State, on landed property.] Thus was credit restored; and by degrees private lenders too were found.

About the same time, Claudia, daughter to Marcus Silanus, was given in marriage to Caligula, who had accompanied his grandfather to Capreae, having always hid under a subdolous guise of modesty, his savage and inhuman spirit: even upon the condemnation of his mother, even for the exile of his brothers, not a word escaped him, not a sigh, nor groan. So blindly observant of Tiberius, that he studied the bent of his temper and seemed to possess it; practised his looks, imitated the change and fashion of his dress, and affected his words and manner of expression. Hence the observation of Passienus the Orator, grew afterwards famous, “that never lived a better slave nor a worse master.” Neither would I omit the presage of Tiberius concerning Galba, then Consul. Having sent for him and sifted him upon several subjects, he at last told him in Greek, “and thou, Galba, shalt hereafter taste of Empire;” signifying his late and short sovereignty. This he uttered from his skill in astrology, which at Rhodes he had leisure to learn; and Thrasullus for his teacher, whose capacity he proved by this following trial.

As often as he consulted this way concerning any affair, he retired to the roof of the house, attended by one freedman trusted with the secret. This man strong of body, but destitute of letters, guided along the astrologer, whose art Tiberius meant to try, over solitary precipices (for upon a rock the house stood) and, as he returned, if any suspicion arose that his predictions were vain, or that the author designed fraud, cast him headlong into the sea, to prevent his making discoveries. Thrasullus being therefore led over the same rocks, and minutely consulted, his answers were full, and struck Tiberius; as approaching Empire and many future revolutions were specifically foretold him. The artist was then questioned, “whether he had calculated his own nativity, and thence presaged what was to befall him that same year, nay, that very day?” Thrasullus surveying the positions of the stars, and calculating their aspects, began at first to hesitate, then to quake, and the more he meditated, being more and more dismayed with wonder and dread, he at last cried out, “that over him just then hung a boding danger and well-nigh fatal.” Forthwith Tiberius embraced him, congratulated him “upon his foresight of perils, and his security from them;” and esteeming his predictions as so many oracles, held him thenceforward in the rank of his most intimate friends.

For myself, while I listen to these and the like relations, my judgment wavers, whether things human are in their course and rotation determined by Fate and immutable necessity, or left to roll at random. For upon this subject the wisest of the ancients and those addicted to their Sects, are of opposite sentiments. [Footnote: The Epicureans.] Many are of opinion “that to the Gods neither the generation of us men nor our death, and in truth neither men nor the actions of men, are of any importance or concernment: and thence such numberless calamities afflict the upright, while pleasure and prosperity surround the wicked.” Others [Footnote: The Stoics.] hold the contrary position, and believe “a Fate to preside over events; a fate however not resulting from wandering stars, but coeval with the first principles of things, and operating by the continued connection of natural causes. Yet their philosophy leaves our course of life in our own free option; but that after the choice is made, the chain of consequences is inevitable: neither is that good or evil, which passes for such in the estimation of the vulgar: many, who seem wounded with adversity, are yet happy; numbers, that wallow in wealth, are yet most wretched: since the first often bear with magnanimity the blows of fortune; and the latter abuse her bounty in baneful pursuits.” For the rest, it is common to multitudes of men “to have each their whole future fortunes determined from the moment of their birth: or if some events thwart the prediction, it is through the mistakes of such as pronounce at random, and thence debase the credit of an art, which, both in ages past and our own, hath given signal instances of its certainty.” For, to avoid lengthening this digression, I shall remember in its order, how by the son of this same Thrasullus the Empire was predicted to Nero.

During the same Consulship flew abroad the death of Asinius Gallus: that he perished through famine was undoubted; but whether of his own accord, or by constraint, was held uncertain. The pleasure of the Emperor being consulted, “whether he would suffer him to be buried;” he was not ashamed to grant such a piece of mock mercy, nor even to blame the anticipations of casualty, which had withdrawn the criminal, before he was publicly convicted: as if during three intermediate years between his accusation and his death, there wanted time for the trial of an ancient Consular, and the father of so many Consulars. Next perished Drusus, condemned by his grandfather to be starved; but by gnawing the weeds upon which he lay, he by that miserable nourishment protracted life the space of nine days. Some authors relate that, in case Sejanus had resisted and taken arms, Macro had instructions to draw the young man out of confinement (for he was kept in the palace) and set him at the head of the people: afterwards because a report ran, “that the Emperor was about to be reconciled to his daughter- in-law and grandson;” he chose rather to gratify himself by cruelty, than the public by relenting.

Tiberius not satiated with the death of Drusus, even after death pursued him with cruel invectives, and, in a letter to the Senate, charged him with “a body foul with prostitution; with a spirit breathing destruction to his own family, and rage against the Republic;” and ordered to be recited “the minutes of his words and actions, which had been long and daily registered,” A proceeding more black with horror could not be devised! That for so many years, there should be those expressly appointed, who were to note down his looks, his groans, his secret and extorted murmurs; that his grandfather should delight to hear the treacherous detail, to read it, and to the public expose it, would appear a series of fraud, meanness and amazement beyond all measure of faith, were it not for the letters of Actius the Centurion, and Didymus the Freedman; who in them declare, particularly, the names of the slaves set purposely to abuse and provoke Drusus, with the several parts they acted; how one struck him going out of his chamber, and how another filled him with terrors and dismay. The Centurion too repeated, as matter of glory, his own language to Drusus, language full of outrage and barbarity, with the words uttered by him under the agonies of famine; that, at first, feigning disorder of spirit, he vented, in the style of a madman, dismal denunciations against Tiberius; but after all hopes of life had forsaken him, then, in steady and deliberate imprecations, he invoked the direful vengeance of the Gods, “that as he had slaughtered his son’s wife, slaughtered the son of his brother, and his son’s sons, and with slaughters had filled his own house; so they would in justice to the ancestors of the slain, in justice to their posterity, doom him to the dreadful penalties of so many murders.” The Senators, in truth, upon this raised a mighty din, under colour of detesting these imprecations: but it was dread which possessed them, and amazement, that he who had been once so dark in the practice of wickedness, and so subtle in the concealment of his bloody spirit, was arrived at such an utter insensibility of shame, that he could thus remove, as it were, the covert of the walls, and represent his own grandson under the ignominious chastisement of a Centurion, torn by the barbarous stripes of slaves, and imploring in vain the last sustenance of life.

Before the impressions of this grief were worn away, the death of Agrippina was published. I suppose she had lived thus long upon the hopes, which from the execution of Sejanus she had conceived; but, feeling afterwards no relaxation of cruelty, death grew her choice: unless she were bereaved of nourishment, and her decease feigned to have been of her own seeking. For, Tiberius raged against her with abominable imputations, reproaching her “with lewdness; as the adulteress of Asinius Gallus; and that upon his death she became weary of life.” But these were none of her crimes: Agrippina impatient of an equal lot, and eager for rule, had thence sacrificed to masculine ambition all the passions and vices of women. The Emperor added, “that she departed the same day on which Sejanus had suffered as a traitor two years before, and that the same ought to be perpetuated by a public memorial.” Nay, he boasted of his clemency, in “that she had not been strangled, and her body cast into the charnel of malefactors.” For this, as for an instance of mercy the Senate solemnly thanked him, and decreed “that, on the seventeenth of October, the day of both their deaths, a yearly offering should be consecrated to Jupiter for ever.”

Not long after, Cocceius Nerva, in full prosperity of fortune, in perfect vigour of body, formed a purpose of dying. As he was the incessant companion of the Prince, and accomplished in the knowledge of all laws divine and humane, Tiberius having learnt his design, was earnest to dissuade him, examined his motives, joined entreaties, and even declared, “how grievous to his own spirit it would prove, how grievous to his reputation, if the nearest of his friends should relinquish life, without any cause for dying.” Nerva rejected his reasoning, and completed his purpose by abstinence. It was alleged, by such as knew his thoughts, that the more he saw into the dreadful source and increase of public miseries, the more transported with indignation and fear, he resolved to make an honest end, in the bloom of his integrity, e’er his life and credit were assaulted. Moreover the fall of Agrippina, by a reverse hardly credible, procured that of Plancina. She was formerly married to Cneius Piso; and, though she exulted publicly for the death of Germanicus, yet when Piso fell, she was protected by the solicitations of Augusta, nor less by the known animosity of Agrippina. But as favour and hate were now withdrawn, justice prevailed, and being questioned for crimes long since sufficiently manifest, she executed with her own hand that vengeance, which was rather too slow than too severe,

In the Consulship of Paulus Fabius and Lucius Vitellius, after a long vicissitude of ages, the phoenix arrived in Egypt, and furnished the most learned of the natives and Greeks with matter of large and various observations concerning that miraculous bird. The circumstances in which they agree, with many others, that, however disputed, deserve to be known, claim a recital here. That it is a creature sacred to the sun, and in the fashion of its head, and diversity of feathers, distinct from other birds, all who have described its figure, are agreed; about the length of its life, relations vary. It is by the vulgar tradition fixed at five hundred years: but there are those, who extend it to one thousand four hundred and sixty-one; and assert that the three former phoenixes appeared in reigns greatly distant, the first under Sesostris, the next under Amasis; and that one was seen under Ptolomy the third King of Egypt of the Macedonian race, and flew to the city of Heliopolis, accompanied by a vast host of other birds gazing upon the wonderful stranger. But these are, in truth, the obscure accounts of antiquity: between Ptolomy and Tiberius the interval was shorter, not two hundred and fifty years: hence some have believed that the present was a spurious phoenix, and derived not its origin from the territories of Arabia, since it observed nothing of the instinct which ancient tradition attributes to the genuine: for that the latter having completed his course of years, just before his death builds a nest in his native land, and upon it sheds a generative power, from whence arises a young one, whose first care, when he is grown, is to bury his father: neither does he undertake it unadvisedly, but by collecting and fetching loads of myrrh, tries his strength in great journeys; and as soon as he finds himself equal to the burden, and fit for the long flight, he rears upon his back his father’s body, carries it quite to the altar of the sun, and then flies away. These are uncertain tales, and their uncertainty heightened by fables; but that this bird has been sometimes seen in Egypt, is not questioned.

The same year the city suffered the grievous calamity of fire, which burnt down that part of the Circus contiguous to Mount Aventine and the Mount itself: a loss which turned to the glory of the Prince, as he paid in money the value of the houses destroyed. A hundred thousand great sesterces [Footnote: About L830,000.] he expended in this bounty, which proved the more grateful to the people as he was ever sparing in private buildings: in truth, his public works never exceeded two, the Temple of Augustus and the scene [Footnote: The stage.] of Pompey’s Theatre; nor, when he had finished both, did he dedicate either, whether obstructed by old age, or despising popularity. For ascertaining the damage of particulars, the four sons-in-law of Tiberius were appointed, Cneius Domitius, Cassius Longinus, Marcus Vincinus and Rubellius Blandus; assisted by Publius Petronius, nominated by the Consuls. To the Emperor likewise were decreed several honours, variously devised according to the different drift and genius of such as proposed them. Which of these he meant to accept, or which to reject, the approaching issue of his days, has buried in uncertainty. For not long after, Cneius Acerronius and Caius Pontius commenced Consuls; the last under Tiberius. The power of Macro was already excessive; who, as he had at no time neglected the favour of Caligula, courted it now more and more earnestly every day. After the death of Claudia, whom I have mentioned to have been espoused to the young Prince, he constrained Ennia his own wife to stimulate the affections of Caligula and to secure him by a promise of marriage. The truth is, he was one that denied nothing that opened his way to sovereignty; for although of a tempestuous genius, he had yet in the school of his grandfather, well acquired all the hollow guises of dissimulation.

His spirit was known to the Emperor; hence he was puzzled about bequeathing the Empire: and first as to his grandsons; the son of Drusus was nearer in blood, and dearer in point of affection, but as yet a child; the son of Germanicus had arrived at the vigour of youth, and the zeal of the people followed him, a motive this to his grandfather, only to hate him. He had even debates with himself concerning Claudius, because of solid age and naturally inclined to honest pursuits; but the defect of his faculties withstood the choice. In case he sought a successor apart from his own family, he dreaded lest the memory of Augustus, lest the name of the Caesars should come to be scorned and insulted. For, it was not so much any study of his, to gratify the present generation and secure the Roman State, as to perpetuate to posterity the grandeur of his race. So that his mind still wavering and his strength decaying, to the decision of fortune he permitted a counsel to which he was now unequal. Yet he dropped certain words whence might be gathered that he foresaw the events and revolutions which were to come to pass after him: for, he upbraided Macro, by no dark riddle, “that he forsook the setting sun and courted the rising:” and of Caligula, who upon some occasional discourse ridiculed Sylla, he foretold, “that he would have all Sylla’s vices, and not one of his virtues.” Moreover, as he was, with many tears, embracing the younger of his grandsons, and perceived the countenance of Caligula implacable and provoked; “thou,” said he, “wilt slay him, and another shall slay thee.” But, however his illness prevailed, he relinquished nothing of his vile voluptuousness; forcing patience, and feigning health. He was wont too to ridicule the prescriptions of physicians, and all men who, after the age of thirty, needed to be informed by any one else, what helped or hurted their constitutions.

At Rome, the while, were sown the sanguinary seeds of executions to be perpetrated even after Tiberius. Laelius Balbus had with high treason charged Acutia, some time the wife of Publius Vitellius; and, as the Senate were, after her condemnation, decreeing a reward to the accuser, the same was obstructed by the interposition of Junius Otho, Tribune of the People: hence their mutual hate, which ended in the exile of Otho. Thereafter Albucilla, who had been married to Satrius Secundus, him that revealed the conspiracy of Sejanus, and herself famous for many amours, was impeached of impious rites devised against the Prince. In the charge were involved, as her associates and adulterers, Cneius Domitius, Vibius Marsus, and Lucius Arruntius. The noble descent of Domitius I have above declared: Marsus too was distinguished by the ancient dignities in his house, and himself illustrious for learning. The minutes, however, transmitted to the Senate imported, “that in the examination of the witnesses, and torture of the slaves, Macro had presided:” neither came these minutes accompanied with any letter from the Emperor against the accused. Hence it was suspected, that, while he was ill, and perhaps without his privacy, the accusations were in great measure forged by Macro, in consequence of his notorious enmity to Arruntius.

Domitius therefore by preparing for his defence, and Marsus by seeming determined to famish, both protracted their lives. Arruntius chose to die; and to the importunity of his friends, urging him to try delays and evasions, he answered, “that the same measures were not alike honourable to all men: his own life was abundantly long; nor had he wherewithal to reproach himself, save that he had submitted to bear thus far an old age loaded with anxieties, exposed to daily dangers, and the cruel sport of power; long hated as he was by Sejanus, now by Macro, always by some reigning minister; hated through no fault of his own, but as one irreconcilable to baseness and the iniquities of power. He might, in truth, outlive and avoid the few and last days of Tiberius: but how escape the youth of his heir? If upon Tiberius at such an age, and after such consummate experience, the violent spirit of unbridled dominion had wrought with such efficacy, as entirely to transport and change him; was it likely that Caligula, he who had scarce outgrown his childhood, a youth ignorant of all things, or nursed and principled in the worst, would follow a course more righteous under the guidance of Macro; the same Macro, who, for destroying Sejanus, was employed as the more wicked of the two, and had since by more mischiefs and cruelties torn and afflicted the Commonweal? For himself; he foresaw a servitude yet more vehement, and therefore withdrew at once from the agonies of past and of impending tyranny.” Uttering these words, with the spirit of a prophet, he opened his veins. How wisely Arruntius anticipated death, the following times will terribly demonstrate. For Albucilla; she aimed at her own life, but the blow being impotent, she was by order of Senate dragged to execution in the prison. Against the ministers of her lusts it was decreed, “that Grasidius Sacerdos, formerly Praetor, should be exiled into an island; Pontius Fregellanus be degraded from the Senate; and that upon Laelius Balbus the same penalty be inflicted:” his punishment particularly proved matter of joy, as he was accounted a man of pestilent eloquence, and prompt to attack the innocent.

About the same time, Sextus Papinius of a Consular family, chose on a sudden a frightful end, by a desperate and precipitate fall. The cause was ascribed to his mother, who, after many repulses, had by various allurements and the stimulations of sensuality, urged him to practices and embarrassments from whence, only by dying, he could devise an issue. She was therefore accused in the Senate; and, though in a prostrate posture she embraced the knees of the Fathers, and pleaded “the tenderness and grief of a mother, the imbecility of a woman’s spirit under such an affecting calamity;” with other motives of pity in the same doleful strain; she was banished Rome for ten years, till her younger son were past the age of lubricity.

As to Tiberius; already his body, already his spirits failed him; but his dissimulation failed him not. He exerted the same vigour of mind, the same energy in his looks and discourse; and even sometimes studied to be gay, by it to hide his declension however notorious. So that, after much shifting of places, he settled at the Promontory of Misenum, in a villa of which Lucullus was once Lord. There it was discovered that his end was at hand, by this device. In his train was a physician, his name Charicles, signal in his profession, one, in truth, not employed to govern the Prince’s health, but wont however to afford his counsel and skill. Charicles, as if he were departing to attend his own affairs, under the appearance of paying duty and kissing his hands, touched his pulse. But the artifice beguiled not Tiberius; for he instantly ordered the entertainment to be served up; whether incensed, and thence the more smothering his wrath, is uncertain: but, at table he continued beyond his wont, as if he meant that honour only for a farewell to his friend. But for all this Charicles satisfied Macro, “that the flame of life was expiring, and could not outlast two days.” Hence the whole court was filled with close consultations, and expresses were despatched to the generals and armies. On the 16th of March, so deep a swoon seized him, that he was believed to have paid the last debt of mortality: insomuch that Caligula, in the midst of a great throng, paying their congratulations, was already appearing abroad, to assume the first offices of sovereignty, when sudden notice came, “that Tiberius had recovered his sight and voice, and, to strengthen his fainting spirits, had called for some refreshment.” Hence dread seized all, and the whole concourse about Caligula dispersed, every man resuming false sorrow, or feigning ignorance: he himself was struck speechless, and thus fallen from the highest hopes, waited for present death. Macro continued undismayed, and ordering the apartment to be cleared, caused the feeble old man to be smothered with a weight of coverings. Thus expired Tiberius in the seventy-eighth year of his age.

He was the son of Nero, and on both sides a branch of the Claudian House; though his mother had been ingrafted by adoptions into the Livian, and next into the Julian stock. From his first infancy, his life was chequered by various turns and perils: for, then he followed, like an exile, his proscribed father; and when taken in quality of a step-son into the family of Augustus, he long struggled there with many potent rivals, during the lives of Marcellus and Agrippa; next of the young Caesars, Caius and Lucius. His brother Drusus too eclipsed him, and possessed more eminently the hearts of the Roman People. But above all, his marriage with Julia, most egregiously threatened and distressed him; whether he bore the prostitutions of his wife, or relinquished the daughter of Augustus. Upon his return thereafter from Rhodes, he occupied for twelve years the Prince’s family, now bereft of heirs, and nigh four-and-twenty ruled the Roman State. His manners also varied with the several junctures of his fortune: he was well esteemed while yet a private man; and, in discharging public dignities under Augustus, of signal reputation: covert and subdolous in feigning virtue so long as Germanicus and Drusus survived: a mixed character of good and evil during the days of his mother: detestably cruel; but secret in his lewdness, while he loved or feared Sejanus: at last he abandoned himself, at once, to the rage of tyranny and the sway of his lusts: for, he had then conquered all the checks of shame and fear, and thenceforth followed only the bent of his own abominable spirit.

A TREATISE OF THE SITUATION, CUSTOMS, AND PEOPLE OF GERMANY.

The whole of Germany is thus bounded; separated from Gaul, from Rhoetia and Pannonia, by the rivers Rhine and Danube; from Sarmatia and Dacia by mutual fear, or by high mountains: the rest is encompassed by the ocean, which forms huge bays, and comprehends a tract of islands immense in extent: for we have lately known certain nations and kingdoms there, such as the war discovered. The Rhine rising in the Rhoetian Alps from a summit altogether rocky and perpendicular, after a small winding towards the west, is lost in the Northern Ocean. The Danube issues out of the mountain Abnoba, one very high but very easy of ascent, and traversing several nations, falls by six streams into the Euxine Sea; for its seventh channel is absorbed in the Fenns.

The Germans, I am apt to believe, derive their original from no other people; and are nowise mixed with different nations arriving amongst them: since anciently those who went in search of new dwellings, travelled not by land, but were carried in fleets; and into that mighty ocean so boundless, and, as I may call it, so repugnant and forbidding, ships from our world rarely enter. Moreover, besides the dangers from a sea tempestuous, horrid and unknown, who would relinquish Asia, or Africa, or Italy, to repair to Germany, a region hideous and rude, under a rigorous climate, dismal to behold or to manure; [Footnote: To cultivate.] unless the same were his native country? In their old ballads (which amongst them are the only sort of registers and history) they celebrate _Tuisto_, a God sprung from the earth, and _Mannus_ his son, as the fathers and founders of the nation. To _Mannus_ they assign three sons, after whose names so many people are called; the Ingaevones, dwelling next the ocean; the Herminones, in the middle country; and all the rest, Istaevones. Some, borrowing a warrant from the darkness of antiquity, maintain that the God had more sons, that thence came more denominations of people, the Marsians, Cambrians, Suevians, and Vandalians, and that these are the names truly genuine and original. For the rest, they affirm Germany to be a recent word, lately bestowed: for that those who first passed the Rhine and expulsed the Gauls, and are now named Tungrians, were then called Germans: and thus by degrees the name of a tribe prevailed, not that of the nation; so that by an appellation at first occasioned by terror and conquest, they afterwards chose to be distinguished, and assuming a name lately invented were universally called _Germans_.

They have a tradition that Hercules also had been in their country, and him above all other heroes they extol in their songs when they advance to battle. Amongst them too are found that kind of verses by the recital of which (by them called _Barding_) they inspire bravery; nay, by such chanting itself they divine the success of the approaching fight. For, according to the different din of the battle, they urge furiously, or shrink timorously. Nor does what they utter, so much seem to be singing as the voice and exertion of valour. They chiefly study a tone fierce and harsh, with a broken and unequal murmur, and therefore apply their shields to their mouths, whence the voice may by rebounding swell with greater fulness and force. Besides there are some of opinion, that Ulysses, whilst he wandered about in his long and fabulous voyages, was carried into this ocean and entered Germany, and that by him Asciburgium was founded and named, a city at this day standing and inhabited upon the bank of the Rhine: nay, that in the same place was formerly found an altar dedicated to Ulysses, with the name of his father Laertes added to his own, and that upon the confines of Germany and Rhoetia are still extant certain monuments and tombs inscribed with Greek characters. Traditions these which I mean not either to confirm with arguments of my own or to refute. Let every one believe or deny the same according to his own bent.

For myself, I concur in opinion with such as suppose the people of Germany never to have mingled by inter-marriages with other nations, but to have remained a people pure, and independent, and resembling none but themselves. Hence amongst such a mighty multitude of men, the same make and form is found in all, eyes stern and blue, yellow hair, huge bodies, but vigorous only in the first onset. Of pains and labour they are not equally patient, nor can they at all endure thrift and heat. To bear hunger and cold they are hardened by their climate and soil.

Their lands, however somewhat different in aspect, yet taken all together consist of gloomy forests or nasty marshes; lower and moister towards the confines of Gaul, more mountainous and windy towards Noricum and Pannonia; very apt to bear grain, but altogether unkindly to fruit trees; abounding in flocks and herds, but generally small of growth. Nor even in their oxen is found the usual stateliness, no more than the natural ornaments and grandeur of head. In the number of their herds they rejoice; and these are their only, these their most desirable riches. Silver and gold the Gods have denied them, whether in mercy or in wrath, I am unable to determine. Yet I would not venture to aver that in Germany no vein of gold or silver is produced; for who has ever searched? For the use and possession, it is certain they care not. Amongst them indeed are to be seen vessels of silver, such as have been presented to their Princes and Ambassadors, but holden in no other esteem than vessels made of earth. The Germans however adjoining to our frontiers value gold and silver for the purposes of commerce, and are wont to distinguish and prefer certain of our coins. They who live more remote are more primitive and simple in their dealings, and exchange one commodity for another. The money which they like is the old and long known, that indented, [Footnote: With milled edges.] or that impressed with a chariot and two horses. Silver too is what they seek more than gold, from no fondness or preference, but because small pieces are more ready in purchasing things cheap and common.

Neither in truth do they abound in iron, as from the fashion of their weapons may be gathered. Swords they rarely use, or the larger spear. They carry javelins or, in their own language, _framms_, pointed with a piece of iron short and narrow, but so sharp and manageable, that with the same weapon they can fight at a distance or hand to hand, just as need requires. Nay, the horsemen also are content with a shield and a javelin. The foot throw likewise weapons missive, each particular is armed with many, and hurls them a mighty space, all naked or only wearing a light cassock. In their equipment they show no ostentation; only that their shields are diversified and adorned with curious colours. With coats of mail very few are furnished, and hardly upon any is seen a headpiece or helmet. Their horses are nowise signal either in fashion or in fleetness; nor taught to wheel and bound, according to the practice of the Romans: they only move them forward in a line, or turn them right about, with such compactness and equality that no one is ever behind the rest. To one who considers the whole it is manifest, that in their foot their principal strength lies, and therefore they fight intermixed with the horse: for such is their swiftness as to match and suit with the motions and engagements of the cavalry. So that the infantry are elected from amongst the most robust of their youth, and placed in front of the army. The number to be sent is also ascertained, out of every village _an hundred_, and by this very name they continue to be called at home, _those of the hundred band_: thus what was at first no more than a number, becomes thenceforth a title and distinction of honour. In arraying their army, they divide the whole into distinct battalions formed sharp in front. To recoil in battle, provided you return again to the attack, passes with them rather for policy than fear. Even when the combat is no more than doubtful, they bear away the bodies of their slain. The most glaring disgrace that can befall them, is to have quitted their shield; nor to one branded with such ignominy is it lawful to join in their sacrifices, or to enter into their assemblies; and many who had escaped in the day of battle, have hanged themselves to put an end to this their infamy.

In the choice of kings they are determined by the splendour of their race, in that of generals by their bravery. Neither is the power of their kings unbounded or arbitrary: and their generals procure obedience not so much by the force of their authority as by that of their example, when they appear enterprising and brave, when they signalise themselves by courage and prowess; and if they surpass all in admiration and pre-eminence, if they surpass all at the head of an army. But to none else but the Priests is it allowed to exercise correction, or to inflict bonds or stripes. Nor when the Priests do this, is the same considered as a punishment, or arising from the orders of the general, but from the immediate command of the Deity, Him whom they believe to accompany them in war. They therefore carry with them when going to fight, certain images and figures taken out of their holy groves. What proves the principal incentive to their valour is, that it is not at random nor by the fortuitous conflux of men that their troops and pointed battalions are formed, but by the conjunction of whole families, and tribes of relations. Moreover, close to the field of battle are lodged all the nearest and most interesting pledges of nature. Hence they hear the doleful howlings of their wives, hence the cries of their tender infants. These are to each particular the witnesses whom he most reverences and dreads; these yield him the praise which affect him most. Their wounds and maims they carry to their mothers, or to their wives, neither are their mothers or wives shocked in telling, or in sucking their bleeding sores. [Footnote: Nec illae numerare aut exigere plagas pavent.] Nay, to their husbands and sons whilst engaged in battle, they administer meat and encouragement.

In history we find, that some armies already yielding and ready to fly, have been by the women restored, through their inflexible importunity and entreaties, presenting their breasts, and showing their impending captivity; an evil to the Germans then by far most dreadful when it befalls their women. So that the spirit of such cities as amongst their hostages are enjoined to send their damsels of quality, is always engaged more effectually than that of others. They even believe them endowed with something celestial and the spirit of prophecy. Neither do they disdain to consult them, nor neglect the responses which they return. In the reign of the deified Vespasian, we have seen _Veleda_ for a long time, and by many nations, esteemed and adored as a divinity. In times past they likewise worshipped _Aurinia_ and several more, from no complaisance or effort of flattery, nor as Deities of their own creating.

Of all the Gods, Mercury is he whom they worship most. To him on certain stated days it is lawful to offer even human victims. Hercules and Mars they appease with beasts usually allowed for sacrifice. Some of the Suevians make likewise immolations to _Isis_, Concerning the cause and original of this foreign sacrifice I have found small light; unless the figure of her image formed like a galley, show that such devotion arrived from abroad. For the rest, from the grandeur and majesty of beings celestial, they judge it altogether unsuitable to hold the Gods enclosed within walls, or to represent them under any human likeness. They consecrate whole woods and groves, and by the names of the Gods they call these recesses; divinities these, which only in contemplation and mental reverence they behold.

To the use of lots and auguries, they are addicted beyond all other nations. Their method of divining by lots is exceeding simple. From a tree which bears fruit they cut a twig, and divide it into two small pieces. These they distinguish by so many several marks, and throw them at random and without order upon a white garment. Then the Priest of the community, if for the public the lots are consulted, or the father of a family if about a private concern, after he has solemnly invoked the Gods, with eyes lifted up to heaven, takes up every piece thrice, and having done thus forms a judgment according to the marks before made. If the chances have proved forbidding, they are no more consulted upon the same affair during the same day: even when they are inviting, yet, for confirmation, the faith of auguries too is tried. Yea, here also is the known practice of divining events from the voices and flight of birds. But to this nation it is peculiar, to learn presages and admonitions divine from horses also. These are nourished by the State in the same sacred woods and groves, all milk-white and employed in no earthly labour. These yoked in the holy chariot, are accompanied by the Priest and the King, or the Chief of the community, who both carefully observe his actions and neighing. Nor in any sort of augury is more faith and assurance reposed, not by the populace only, but even by the nobles, even by the Priests. These account themselves the ministers of the Gods, and the horses privy to his will. They have likewise another method of divination, whence to learn the issue of great and mighty wars. From the nation with whom they are at war they contrive, it avails not how, to gain a captive: him they engage in combat with one selected from amongst themselves, each armed after the manner of his country, and according as the victory falls to this or to the other, gather a presage of the whole.

Affairs of smaller moment the chiefs determine: about matters of higher consequence the whole nation deliberates; yet in such sort, that whatever depends upon the pleasure and decision of the people, is examined and discussed by the chiefs. Where no accident or emergency intervenes, they assemble upon stated days, either when the moon changes, or is full: since they believe such seasons to be the most fortunate for beginning all transactions. Neither in reckoning of time do they count, like us, the number of days but that of nights. In this style their ordinances are framed, in this style their diets appointed; and with them the night seems to lead and govern the day. From their extensive liberty this evil and default flows, that they meet not at once, nor as men commanded and afraid to disobey; so that often the second day, nay often the third, is consumed through the slowness of the members in assembling. They sit down as they list, promiscuously, like a crowd, and all armed. It is by the Priests that silence is enjoined, and with the power of correction the Priests are then invested. Then the King or Chief is heard, as are others, each according to his precedence in age, or in nobility, or in warlike renown, or in eloquence; and the influence of every speaker proceeds rather from his ability to persuade than from any authority to command. If the proposition displease, they reject it by an inarticulate murmur: if it be pleasing, they brandish their javelins. The most honourable manner of signifying their assent, is to express their applause by the sound of their arms.

In the assembly it is allowed to present accusations, and to prosecute capital offences. Punishments vary according to the quality of the crime. Traitors and deserters they hang upon trees. Cowards, and sluggards, and unnatural prostitutes they smother in mud and bogs under an heap of hurdles. Such diversity in their executions has this view, that in punishing of glaring iniquities, it behoves likewise to display them to sight: but effeminacy and pollution must be buried and concealed. In lighter transgressions too the penalty is measured by the fault, and the delinquents upon conviction are condemned to pay a certain number of horses or cattle. Part of this mulct accrues to the King or to the community, part to him whose wrongs are vindicated, or to his next kindred. In the same assemblies are also chosen their chiefs or rulers, such as administer justice in their villages and boroughs. To each of these are assigned an hundred persons chosen from amongst the populace, to accompany and assist him, men who help him at once with their authority and their counsel.

Without being armed they transact nothing, whether of public or private concernment. But it is repugnant to their custom for any man to use arms, before the community has attested his capacity to wield them. Upon such testimonial, either one of the rulers, or his father, or some kinsman dignify the young man in the midst of the assembly, with a shield and javelin. This amongst them is the _manly robe_, this the first degree of honour conferred upon their youth. Before this they seem no more than part of a private family, but thenceforward part of the Commonweal. The princely dignity they confer even upon striplings, whose race is eminently noble, or whose fathers have done great and signal services to the State. For about the rest, who are more vigorous and long since tried, they crowd to attend: nor is it any shame to be seen amongst the followers of these. Nay, there are likewise degrees of followers, higher or lower, just as he whom they follow judges fit. Mighty too is the emulation amongst these followers, of each to be first in favour with his Prince; mighty also the emulation of the Princes, to excel in the number and valour of followers. This is their principal state, this their chief force, to be at all times surrounded with a huge band of chosen young men, for ornament and glory in peace, for security and defence in war. Nor is it amongst his own people only, but even from the neighbouring communities, that any of their Princes reaps so much renown and a name so great, when he surpasses in the number and magnanimity of his followers. For such are courted by Embassies, and distinguished with presents, and by the terror of their fame alone often dissipate wars.

In the day of battle, it is scandalous to the Prince to be surpassed in feats of bravery, scandalous to his followers to fail in matching the bravery of the Prince. But it is infamy during life, and indelible reproach, to return alive from a battle where their Prince was slain. To preserve their Prince, to defend him, and to ascribe to his glory all their own valorous deeds, is the sum and most sacred part of their oath. The Princes fight for victory; for the Prince his followers fight. Many of the young nobility, when their own community comes to languish in its vigour by long peace and inactivity, betake themselves through impatience to other States which then prove to be in war. For, besides that this people cannot brook repose, besides that by perilous adventures they more quickly blazon their fame, they cannot otherwise than by violence and war support their huge train of retainers. For from the liberality of their Prince, they demand and enjoy that _war-horse_ of theirs, with that _victorious javelin_ dyed in the blood of their enemies. In the place of pay, they are supplied with a daily table and repasts; though grossly prepared, yet very profuse. For maintaining such liberality and munificence, a fund is furnished by continual wars and plunder. Nor could you so easily persuade them to cultivate the ground, or to await the return of the seasons and produce of the year, as to provoke the foe and to risk wounds and death: since stupid and spiritless they account it, to acquire by their sweat what they can gain by their blood.

Upon any recess from war, they do not much attend the chase. Much more of their time they pass in indolence, resigned to sleep and repasts. [Footnote: “Dediti somno, ciboque:” handed over to sloth and gluttony.] All the most brave, all the most warlike, apply to nothing at all; but to their wives, to the ancient men, and to every the most impotent domestic, trust all the care of their house, and of their lands and possessions. They themselves loiter. [Footnote: Are rude and lazy.] Such is the amazing diversity of their nature, that in the same men is found so much delight in sloth, with so much enmity to tranquillity and repose. The communities are wont, of their own accord and man by man, to bestow upon their Princes a certain number of beasts, or a certain portion of grain; a contribution which passes indeed for a mark of reverence and honour, but serves also to supply their necessities. They chiefly rejoice in the gifts which come from the bordering countries, such as are sent not only by particulars but in the name of the State; curious horses, splendid armour, rich harness, with collars of silver and gold. Now too they have learnt, what we have taught them, to receive money.

That none of the several people in Germany live together in cities, is abundantly known; nay, that amongst them none of their dwellings are suffered to be contiguous. They inhabit apart and distinct, just as a fountain, or a field, or a wood happened to invite them to settle. They raise their villages in opposite rows, but not in our manner with the houses joined one to another. Every man has a vacant space quite round his own, whether for security against accidents from fire, or that they want the art of building. With them in truth, is unknown even the use of mortar and of tiles. In all their structures they employ materials quite gross and unhewn, void of fashion and comeliness. Some parts they besmear with an earth so pure and resplendent, that it resembles painting and colours. They are likewise wont to scoop caves deep in the ground, and over them to lay great heaps of dung. Thither they retire for shelter in the winter, and thither convey their grain: for by such close places they mollify the rigorous and excessive cold. Besides when at any time their enemy invades them, he can only ravage the open country, but either knows not such recesses as are invisible and subterraneous; or must suffer them to escape him, on this very account that he is uncertain where to find them.

For their covering a mantle is what they all wear, fastened with a clasp or, for want of it, with a thorn. As far as this reaches not they are naked, and lie whole days before the fire. The most wealthy are distinguished with a vest, not one large and flowing like those of Sarmatians and Parthians, but girt close about them and expressing the proportion of every limb. They likewise wear the skins of savage beasts, a dress which those bordering upon the Rhine use without any fondness or delicacy, but about which such who live further in the country are more curious, as void of all apparel introduced by commerce. They choose certain wild beasts, and, having flayed them, diversify their hides with many spots, as also with the skins of monsters from the deep, such as are engendered in the distant ocean and in seas unknown. Neither does the dress of the women differ from that of the men, save that the women are orderly attired in linen embroidered with purple, and use no sleeves, so that all their arms are bare. The upper part of their breast is withal exposed. Yet the laws of matrimony are severely observed there; nor in the whole of their manners is ought more praiseworthy than this: for they are almost the only Barbarians contented with one wife, excepting a very few amongst them; men of dignity who marry divers wives, from no wantonness or lubricity, but courted for the lustre of their family into many alliances.

To the husband, the wife tenders no dowry; but the husband, to the wife. The parents and relations attend and declare their approbation of the presents, not presents adapted to feminine pomp and delicacy, nor such as serve to deck the new married woman; but oxen and horse accoutred, and a shield, with a javelin and sword. By virtue of these gifts, she is espoused. She too on her part brings her husband some arms. This they esteem the highest tie, these the holy mysteries, and matrimonial Gods. That the woman may not suppose herself free from the considerations of fortitude and fighting, or exempt from the casualties of war, the very first solemnities of her wedding serve to warn her, that she comes to her husband as a partner in his hazards and fatigues, that she is to suffer alike with him, to adventure alike, during peace or during war. This the oxen joined in the same yoke plainly indicate, this the horse ready equipped, this the present of arms. ‘Tis thus she must be content to live, thus to resign life. The arms which she then receives she must preserve inviolate, and to her sons restore the same, as presents worthy of them, such as their wives may again receive, and still resign to her grandchildren.

They therefore live in a state of chastity well secured; corrupted by no seducing shows and public diversions, by no irritations from banqueting. Of learning and of any secret intercourse by letters, they are all equally ignorant, men and women. Amongst a people so numerous, adultery is exceeding rare; a crime instantly punished, and the punishment left to be inflicted by the husband. He, having cut off her hair, expells her from his house naked, in presence of her kindred, and pursues her with stripes throughout the village. For, to a woman who has prostituted her person, no pardon is ever granted. However beautiful she be, however young, however abounding in wealth, a husband she can never find. In truth, nobody turns vices into mirth there, nor is the practice of corrupting and of yielding to corruption, called the custom of the Age. Better still do those communities, in which none but virgins marry, and where to a single marriage all their views and inclinations are at once confined. Thus, as they have but one body and one life, they take but one husband, that beyond him they may have no thought, no further wishes, nor love him only as their husband but as their marriage. [Footnote: “Sed tamquam matrimonium ament.”] To restrain generation and the increase of children, is esteemed an abominable sin, as also to kill infants newly born. And more powerful with them are good manners, than with other people are good laws.

In all their houses the children are reared naked and nasty; and thus grow into those limbs, into that bulk, which with marvel we behold. They are all nourished with the milk of their own mothers, and never surrendered to handmaids and nurses. The lord you cannot discern from the slave, by any superior delicacy in rearing. Amongst the same cattle they promiscuously live, upon the same ground they without distinction lie, till at a proper age the free-born are parted from the rest, and their bravery recommend them to notice. Slow and late do the young men come to the use of women, and thus very long preserve the vigour of youth. Neither are the virgins hastened to wed. They must both have the same sprightly youth, the like stature, and marry when equal and able-bodied. Thus the robustness of the parents is inherited by the children. Children are holden in the same estimation with their mother’s brother, as with their father. Some hold this tie of blood to be most inviolable and binding, and in receiving of hostages, such pledges are most considered and claimed, as they who at once possess affections the most unalienable, and the most diffuse interest in their family. To every man, however, his own children are heirs and successors: wills they make none: for want of children his next akin inherits; his own brothers, those of his father, or those of his mother. To ancient men, the more they abound in descendants, in relations and affinities, so much the more favour and reverence accrues. From being childless, no advantage nor estimation is derived.

All the enmities of your house, whether of your father or of your kindred, you must necessarily adopt; as well as all their friendships. Neither are such enmities unappeasable and permanent: since even for so great a crime as homicide, compensation is made by a fixed number of sheep and cattle, and by it the whole family is pacified to content. A temper this, wholesome to the State; because to a free nation, animosities and faction are always more menacing and perilous. In social feasts, and deeds of hospitality, no nation upon earth was ever more liberal and abounding. To refuse admitting under your roof any man whatsoever, is held wicked and inhuman. Every man receives every comer, and treats him with repasts as large as his ability can possibly furnish. When the whole stock is consumed, he who had treated so hospitably guides and accompanies his guest to a new scene of hospitality; and both proceed to the next house, though neither of them invited. Nor avails it, that they were not: they are there received, with the same frankness and humanity. Between a stranger and an acquaintance, in dispensing the rules and benefits of hospitality, no difference is made. Upon your departure, if you ask anything, it is the custom to grant it; and with the same facility, they ask of you. In gifts they delight, but neither claim merit from what they give, nor own any obligation for what they receive. Their manner of entertaining their guests is familiar and kind.

The moment they rise from sleep, which they generally prolong till late in the day, they bathe, most frequently in warm water; as in a country where the winter is very long and severe. From bathing, they sit down to meat; every man apart, upon a particular seat, and at a separate table. They then proceed to their affairs, all in arms; as in arms, they no less frequently go to banquet. To continue drinking night and day without intermission, is a reproach to no man. Frequent then are their broils, as usual amongst men intoxicated with liquor; and such broils rarely terminate in angry words, but for the most part in maimings and slaughter. Moreover in these their feasts, they generally deliberate about reconciling parties at enmity, about forming affinities, choosing of Princes, and finally about peace and war. For they judge, that at no season is the soul more open to thoughts that are artless and upright, or more fired with such as are great and bold. This people, of themselves nowise subtile or politic, from the freedom of the place and occasion acquire still more frankness to disclose the most secret motions and purposes of their hearts. When therefore the minds of all have been once laid open and declared, on the day following the several sentiments are revised and canvassed; and to both conjectures of time, due regard is had. They consult, when they know not how to dissemble; they determine, when they cannot mistake.

For their drink, they draw a liquor from barley or other grain; and ferment the same, so as to make it resemble wine. Nay, they who dwell upon the bank of the Rhine deal in wine. Their food is very simple; wild fruit, fresh venison, or coagulated milk. They banish hunger without formality, without curious dressing and curious fare. In extinguishing thirst, they use not equal temperance. If you will but humour their excess in drinking, and supply them with as much as they covet, it will be no less easy to vanquish them by vices than by arms.

Of public diversions they have but one sort, and in all their meetings the same is still exhibited. Young men, such, as make it their pastime, fling themselves naked and dance amongst sharp swords and the deadly points of javelins. From habit they acquire their skill, and from their skill a graceful manner; yet from hence draw no gain or hire: though this adventurous gaiety has its reward, namely, that of pleasing the spectators. What is marvellous, playing at dice is one of their most serious employments; and even sober, they are gamesters: nay, so desperately do they venture upon the chance of winning or losing, that when their whole substance is played away, they stake their liberty and their persons upon one and the last throw. The loser goes calmly into voluntary bondage. However younger he be, however stronger, he tamely suffers himself to be bound and sold by the winner. Such is their perseverance in an evil course: they themselves call it honour.

Slaves of this class, they exchange away in commerce, to free themselves too from the shame of such a victory. Of their other slaves they make not such use as we do of ours, by distributing amongst them the several offices and employments of the family. Each of them has a dwelling of his own, each a household to govern. His lord uses him like a tenant, and obliges him to pay a quantity of grain, or of cattle, or of cloth. Thus far only the subserviency of the slave extends. All the other duties in a family, not the slaves, but the wives and children discharge. To inflict stripes upon a slave, or to put him in chains, or to doom him to severe labour, are things rarely seen. To kill them they sometimes are wont, not through correction or government, but in heat and rage, as they would an enemy, save that no vengeance or penalty follows. The freedmen very little surpass the slaves, rarely are of moment in the house; in the community never, excepting only such nations where arbitrary dominion prevails. For there they bear higher sway than the free-born, nay, higher than the nobles. In other countries the inferior condition of freedmen is a proof of public liberty.

To the practice of usury and of increasing money by interest, they are strangers; and hence is found a better guard against it, than if it were forbidden. They shift from land to land; and, still appropriating a portion suitable to the number of hands for manuring, anon parcel out the whole amongst particulars according to the condition and quality of each. As the plains are very spacious, the allotments are easily assigned. Every year they change, and cultivate a fresh soil; yet still there is ground to spare. For they strive not to bestow labour proportionable to the fertility and compass of their lands, by planting orchards, by enclosing meadows, by watering gardens. From the earth, corn only is exacted. Hence they quarter not the year into so many seasons. Winter, Spring, and Summer, they understand; and for each have proper appellations. Of the name and blessings of Autumn, they are equally ignorant.

In performing their funerals, they show no state or vainglory. This only is carefully observed, that with the corpses of their signal men certain woods be burned. Upon the funeral pile they accumulate neither apparel nor perfumes. Into the fire, are always thrown the arms of the dead, and sometimes his horse. With sods of earth only the sepulchre is raised. The pomp of tedious and elaborate monuments they contemn, as things grievous to the deceased. Tears and wailings they soon dismiss: their affliction and woe they long retain. In women, it is reckoned becoming to bewail their loss; in men, to remember it. This is what in general we have learned, in the original and customs of the whole people of Germany. I shall now deduce the institutions and usages of the several people, as far as they vary one from another; as also an account of what nations from thence removed, to settle themselves in Gaul.

That the Gauls were in times past more puissant and formidable, is related by the Prince of authors, the deified Julius; [Footnote: Julius Caesar.] and hence it is probable that they too have passed into Germany. For what a small obstacle must be a river, to restrain any nation, as each grew more potent, from seizing or changing habitations; when as yet all habitations were common, and not parted or appropriated by the founding and terror of Monarchies? The region therefore between the Hercynian Forest and the rivers Moenus [Footnote: Main.] and Rhine, was occupied by the Helvetians; as was that beyond it by the Boians, both nations of Gaul. There still remains a place called _Boiemum_, which denotes the primitive name and antiquity of the country, although the inhabitants have been changed. But whether the Araviscans are derived from the Osians, a nation of Germans passing into Pannonia, or the Osians from the Araviscans removing from thence into Germany, is a matter undecided; since they both still use the language, the same customs and the same laws. For, as of old they lived alike poor and alike free, equal proved the evils and advantages on each side the river, and common to both people. The Treverians and Nervians aspire passionately to the reputation of being descended from the Germans; since by the glory of this original, they would escape all imputation of resembling the Gauls in person and effeminacy. Such as dwell upon the bank of the Rhine, the Vangiones, the Tribocians, and the Nemetes, are without doubt all Germans. The Ubians are ashamed of their original; though they have a particular honour to boast, that of having merited an establishment as a Roman Colony, and still delight to be called _Agrippinensians_, after the name of their founder: they indeed formerly came from beyond the Rhine, and, for the many proofs of their fidelity, were settled upon the very bank of the river; not to be there confined or guarded themselves, but to guard and defend that boundary against the rest of the Germans.

Of all these nations, the Batavians are the most signal in bravery. They inhabit not much territory upon the Rhine, but possess an island in it. They were formerly part of the Cattans, and by means of feuds at home removed to these dwellings; whence they might become a portion of the Roman Empire. With them this honour still remains, as also the memorials of their ancient association with us: for they are not under the contempt of paying tribute, nor subject to be squeezed by the farmers of the revenue. Free from all impositions and payments, and only set apart for the purposes of fighting, they are reserved wholly for the wars, in the same manner as a magazine of weapons and armour. Under the same degree of homage are the nation of the Mattiacians. For such is the might and greatness of the Roman People, as to have carried the awe and esteem of their Empire beyond the Rhine and the ancient boundaries. Thus the Mattiacians, living upon the opposite banks, enjoy a settlement and limits of their own; yet in spirit and inclination are attached to us: in other things resembling the Batavians, save that as they still breathe their original air, still possess their primitive soil, they are thence inspired with superior vigour and keenness. Amongst the people of Germany I would not reckon those who occupy the lands which are under decimation, though they be such as dwell beyond the Rhine and the Danube. By several worthless and vagabond Gauls, and such as poverty rendered daring, that region was seized as one belonging to no certain possessor: afterwards it became a skirt of the Empire and part of a province, upon the enlargement of our bounds and the extending of our garrisons and frontier.

Beyond these are the Cattans, whose territories begin at the Hercynian Forest, and consist not of such wide and marshy plains, as those of the other communities contained within the vast compass of Germany; but produce ranges of hills, such as run lofty and contiguous for a long tract, then by degrees sink and decay. Moreover the Hercynian Forest attends for a while its native Cattans, then suddenly forsakes them. This people are distinguished with bodies more hardy and robust, compact limbs, stern countenances, and greater vigour of spirit. For Germans, they are men of much sense and address. [Footnote: “Leur intelligence et leur finesse etonnent, dans des Germains.”] They dignify chosen men, listen to such as are set over them, know how to preserve their post, to discern occasions, to rebate their own ardour and impatience; how to employ the day, how to entrench themselves by night. They account fortune amongst things slippery and uncertain, but bravery amongst such as are never- failing and secure; and, what is exceeding rare nor ever to be learnt but by a wholesome course of discipline, in the conduct of the general they repose more assurance than in the strength of the army. Their whole forces consist of foot, who besides their arms carry likewise instruments of iron and their provisions. You may see other Germans proceed equipped to battle, but the Cattans so as to conduct a war. [Footnote: “Alios ad proelium ire videas, Chattos ad bellum.”] They rarely venture upon excursions or casual encounters. It is in truth peculiar to cavalry, suddenly to conquer, or suddenly to fly. Such haste and velocity rather resembles fear. Patience and deliberation are more akin to intrepidity.

Moreover a custom, practised indeed in other nations of Germany, yet very rarely and confined only to particulars more daring than the rest, prevails amongst the Cattans by universal consent. As soon as they arrive to maturity of years, they let their hair and beards continue to grow, nor till they have slain an enemy do they ever lay aside this form of countenance by vow sacred to valour. Over the blood and spoil of a foe they make bare their face. They allege, that they have now acquitted themselves of the debt and duty contracted by their birth, and rendered themselves worthy of their country, worthy of their parents. Upon the spiritless, cowardly and unwarlike, such deformity of visage still remains. [Footnote: “Manet squalor.”] All the most brave likewise wear an iron ring (a mark of great dishonour this in that nation) and retain it as a chain; till by killing an enemy they become released. Many of the Cattans delight always to bear this terrible aspect; and, when grown white through age, become awful and conspicuous by such marks, both to the enemy and their own countrymen. By them in all engagements the first assault is made: of them the front of the battle is always composed, as men who in their looks are singular and tremendous. For even during peace they abate nothing in the grimness and horror of their countenance. They have no house to inhabit, no land to cultivate, nor any domestic charge or care. With whomsoever they come to sojourn, by him they are maintained; always very prodigal of the substance of others, always despising what is their own, till the feebleness of old age overtakes them, and renders them unequal to the efforts of such rigid bravery.

Next to the Cattans, dwell the Usipians and Tencterians; upon the Rhine now running in a channel uniform and certain, such as suffices for a boundary. The Tencterians, besides their wonted glory in war, surpass in the service and discipline of their cavalry. Nor do the Cattans derive higher applause from their foot, than the Tencterians from their horse. Such was the order established by their forefathers, and what their posterity still pursue. From riding and exercising of horses, their children borrow their pastimes; in this exercise the young men find matter for emulating one another, and in this the old men take pleasure to persevere. Horses are by the father bequeathed as part of his household and family, horses are conveyed amongst the rights of succession, and as such the son receives them; but not the eldest son, like other effects, by priority of birth, but he who happens to be signal in boldness and superior in war.

Contiguous to the Tencterians formerly dwelt the Bructerians, in whose room it is said the Chamavians and Angrivarians are now settled; they who expulsed and almost extirpated the Bructerians, with the concurrence of the neighbouring nations: whether in detestation of their arrogance, or allured by the love of spoil, or through the special favour of the Gods towards us Romans. They in truth even vouchsafed to gratify us with the sight of the battle. In it there fell above sixty thousand souls, without a blow struck by the Romans; but, what is a circumstance still more glorious, fell to furnish them with a spectacle of joy and recreation. May the Gods continue and perpetuate amongst these nations, if not any love for us, yet by all means this their animosity and hate towards each other: since whilst the destiny of the Empire thus urges it, fortune cannot more signally befriend us, than in sowing strife amongst our foes.

The Angrivarians and Chamavians are enclosed behind, by the Dulgibinians and Chasuarians; and by other nations not so much noted: before, the Frisians face them. The country of Frisia is divided into two; called the greater and lesser, according to the measure of their strength. Both nations stretch along the Rhine, quite to the ocean; and surround vast lakes such as once have borne Roman fleets. We have moreover even ventured out from thence into the ocean, and upon its coasts common fame has reported the pillars of Hercules to be still standing: whether it be that Hercules ever visited these parts, or that to his renowned name we are wont to ascribe whatever is grand and glorious everywhere. Neither did Drusus who made the attempt, want boldness to pursue it: but the roughness of the ocean withstood him, nor would suffer discoveries to be made about itself, no more than about Hercules. Thenceforward the enterprise was dropped: nay, more pious and reverential it seemed, to believe the marvellous feats of the Gods than to know and to prove them. [Footnote: “Coelum ipsum petimus stultitia.”]

Hitherto, I have been describing Germany towards the west. To the northward, it winds away with an immense compass. And first of all occurs the nation of the Chaucians: who though they begin immediately at the confines of the Frisians, and occupy part of the shore, extend so far as to border upon all the several people whom I have already recounted; till at last, by a circuit, they reach quite to the boundaries of the Cattans. A region so vast, the Chaucians do not only possess but fill; a people of all the Germans the most noble, such as would rather maintain their grandeur by justice than violence. They live in repose, retired from broils abroad, void of avidity to possess more, free from a spirit of domineering over others. They provoke no wars, they ravage no countries, they pursue no plunder. Of their bravery and power, the chief evidence arises from hence, that, without wronging or oppressing others, they are come to be superior to all. Yet they are all ready to arm, and if an exigency require, armies are presently raised, powerful and abounding as they are in men and horses; and even when they are quiet and their weapons laid aside, their credit and name continue equally high.

Along the side of the Chaucians and Cattans dwell the Cheruscans; a people who finding no enemy to rouse them, were enfeebled by a peace overlasting and uniform, but such as they failed not to nourish. A conduct which proved more pleasing than secure; since treacherous is that repose which you enjoy amongst neighbours that are very powerful and very fond of rule and mastership. When recourse is once had to the sword, modesty and fair dealing will be vainly pleaded by the weaker; names these which are always assumed by the stronger. Thus the Cheruscans, they who formerly bore the character of _good and upright_, are now called _cowards and fools_; and the fortune of the Cattans who subdued them, grew immediately to be wisdom. In the ruin of the Cheruscans, the Fosians, also their neighbours, were involved; and in their calamities bore an equal share, though in their prosperity they had been weaker and less considered.

In the same winding tract of Germany live the Cimbrians, close to the ocean; a community now very small, but great in fame. Nay, of their ancient renown, many and extensive are the traces and monuments still remaining; even their entrenchments upon either shore, so vast in compass that from thence you may even now measure the greatness and numerous bands of that people, and assent to the account of an army so mighty. It was on the six hundred and fortieth year of Rome, when of the arms of the Cimbrians the first mention was made, during the Consulship of Caecilius Metellus and Papirius Carbo. If from that time we count to the second Consulship of the Emperor Trajan, the interval comprehends near two hundred and ten years; so long have we been conquering Germany. In a course of time, so vast between these two periods, many have been the blows and disasters suffered on each side. In truth neither from the Samnites, nor from the Carthaginians, nor from both Spains, nor from all the nations of Gaul, have we received more frequent checks and alarms; nor even from the Parthians: for, more vigorous and invincible is the liberty of the Germans than the monarchy of the Arsacides. Indeed, what has the power of the East to allege to our dishonour; but the fall of Crassus, that power which was itself overthrown and abased by Ventidius, with the loss of the great King Pacorus bereft of his life? But by the Germans the Roman People have been bereft of five armies, all commanded by Consuls; by the Germans, the commanders of these armies, Carbo, and Cassius, and Scaurus Aurelius, and Servilius Caepio, as also Marcus Manlius, were all routed or taken: by the Germans even the Emperor Augustus was bereft of Varus and three legions. Nor without difficulty and loss of men were they defeated by Caius Marius in Italy, or by the deified Julius in Gaul, or by Drusus or Tiberius or Germanicus in their native territories. Soon after, the mighty menaces of Caligula against them ended in mockery and derision. Thenceforward they continued quiet, till taking advantage of our domestic division and civil wars, they stormed and seized the winter entrenchments of the legions, and aimed at the dominion of Gaul; from whence they were once more expulsed, and in the times preceding the present, we gained a triumph over them rather than a victory.

I must now proceed to speak of the Suevians, who are not, like the Cattans and Tencterians, comprehended in a single people; but divided into several nations all bearing distinct names, though, in general they are entitled Suevians, and occupy the larger share of Germany. This people are remarkable for a peculiar custom, that of twisting their hair and binding it up in a knot. It is thus the Suevians are distinguished from the other Germans, thus the free Suevians from their slaves. In other nations, whether from alliance of blood with the Suevians, or, as is usual, from imitation, this practice is also found, yet rarely, and never exceeds the years of youth. The Suevians, even when their hair is white through age, continue to raise it backwards in a manner stern and staring; and often tie it upon the top of their head only. That of their Princes, is more accurately disposed, and so far they study to appear agreeable and comely; but without any culpable intention. For by it, they mean not to make love or to incite it: they thus dress when proceeding to war, and deck their heads so as to add to their height and terror in the eyes of the enemy.

Of all the Suevians, the Semnones recount themselves to be the most ancient and most noble. The belief of their antiquity is confirmed by religious mysteries. At a stated time of the year, all the several people descended from the same stock, assemble by their deputies in a wood; consecrated by the idolatries of their forefathers, and by superstitious awe in times of old. There by publicly sacrificing a man, they begin the horrible solemnity of their barbarous worship. To this grove another sort of reverence is also paid. No one enters it otherwise than bound with ligatures, thence professing his subordination and meanness, and the power of the Deity there. If he fall down, he is not permitted to rise or be raised, but grovels along upon the ground. And of all their superstition, this is the drift and tendency; that from this place the nation drew their original, that here God, the supreme Governor of the world, resides, and that all things else whatsoever are subject to him and bound to obey him. The potent condition of the Semnones has increased their influence and authority, as they inhabit an hundred towns; and from the largeness of their community it comes, that they hold themselves for the head of the Suevians.

What on the contrary ennobles the Langobards is the smallness of their number, for that they, who are surrounded with very many and very powerful nations, derive their security from no obsequiousness or plying; but from the dint of battle and adventurous deeds. There follow in order the Reudignians, and Aviones, and Angles, and Varinians, and Eudoses, and Suardones and Nuithones; all defended by rivers or forests. Nor in one of these nations does aught remarkable occur, only that they universally join in the worship of _Herthum_; that is to say, the Mother Earth. Her they believe to interpose in the affairs of men, and to visit countries. In an island of the ocean stands the wood _Castum_; in it is a chariot dedicated to the Goddess, covered over with a curtain, and permitted to be touched by none but the Priest. Whenever the Goddess enters this her holy vehicle, he perceives her; and with profound veneration attends the motion of the chariot, which is always drawn by yoked cows. Then it is that days of rejoicing always ensue, and in all places whatsoever which she descends to honour with a visit and her company, feasts and recreation abound. They go not to war; they touch no arms; fast laid up is every hostile weapon; peace and repose are then only known, then only beloved, till to the temple the same priest reconducts the Goddess when well tired with the conversation of mortal beings. Anon the chariot is washed and purified in a secret lake, as also the curtains; nay, the Deity herself too, if you choose to believe it. In this office it is slaves who minister, and they are forthwith doomed to be swallowed up in the same lake. Hence all men are possessed with mysterious terror; as well as with a holy ignorance what that must be, which none see but such as are immediately to perish. Moreover this quarter of the Suevians stretches to the middle of Germany.

The community next adjoining, is that of the Hermondurians; (that I may now follow the course of the Danube, as a little before I did that of the Rhine) a people this, faithful to the Romans. So that to them alone of all the Germans, commerce is permitted; not barely upon the bank of the Rhine, but more extensively, and even in that glorious colony in the province of Rhoetia. They travel everywhere at their own discretion and without a guard; and when to other nations, we show no more than our arms and encampments, to this people we throw open our houses and dwellings, as to men who have no longing to possess them. In the territories of the Hermondurians rises the Elbe, a river very famous and formerly well known to us; at present we only hear it named.

Close by the Hermondurians reside the Nariscans, and next to them the Marcomanians and Quadians. Amongst these the Marcomanians are most signal in force and renown; nay, their habitation itself they acquired by their bravery, as from thence they formerly expulsed the Boians. Nor do the Nariscans or Quadians degenerate in spirit. Now this is as it were the frontier of Germany, as far as Germany is washed by the Danube. To the times within our memory the Marcomanians and Quadians were governed by kings, who were natives of their own, descended from the noble line of Maroboduus and Tudrus. At present they are even subject to such as are foreigners. But the whole strength and sway of their kings is derived from the authority of the Romans. From our arms, they rarely receive any aid; from our money very frequently.

Nor less powerful are the several people beyond them; namely, the Marsignians, the Gothinians, the Osians and the Burians, who altogether enclose the Marcomanians and Quadians behind. Of those, the Marsignians and the Burians in speech and dress resemble the Suevians. From the Gallic language spoken by the Gothinians, and from that of Pannonia by the Osians, it is manifest that neither of these people are Germans; as it is also from their bearing to pay tribute. Upon them as upon aliens their tribute is imposed, partly by the Sarmatians, partly by the Quadians. The Gothinians, to heighten their disgrace, are forced to labour in the iron mines. By all these several nations but little level country is possessed: they are seated amongst forests, and upon the ridges and declivities of mountains. For, Suevia is parted by a continual ridge of mountains; beyond which, live many distinct nations. Of these the Lygians are most numerous and extensive, and spread into several communities. It will suffice to mention the most puissant; even the Arians, Helvicones, Manimians; Elysians and Naharvalians. Amongst the Naharvalians is shown a grove, sacred to devotion extremely ancient. Over it a Priest presides apparelled like a woman; but according to the explication of the Romans, ’tis _Castor_ and _Pollux_ who are here worshipped. This Divinity is named _Alcis_. There are indeed no images here, no traces of an extraneous superstition: yet their devotion is addressed to young men and to brothers. Now the Aryans, besides their forces, in which they surpass the several nations just recounted, are in their persons stern and truculent; and even humour and improve their natural grimness and ferocity by art and time. They wear black shields, their bodies are painted black, they choose dark nights for engaging in battle; and by the very awe and ghastly hue of their army, strike the enemy with dread, as none can bear this their aspect so surprising and as it were quite infernal. For, in all battles the eyes are vanquished first.

Beyond the Lygians dwell the Gothones, under the rule of a King; and thence held in subjection somewhat stricter than the other German nations, yet not so strict as to extinguish all their liberty. Immediately adjoining are the Rugians and Lemovians upon the coast of the ocean, and of these several nations the characteristics are a round shield, a short sword and kingly government. Next occur the communities of the Suiones, situated in the ocean itself; and besides their strength in men and arms, very powerful at sea. The form of their vessels varies thus far from ours, that they have prows at each end, so as to be always ready to row to shore without turning; nor are they moved by sails, nor on their sides have benches of oars placed, but the rowers ply here and there in all parts of the ship alike, as in some rivers is done, and change their oars from place to place, just as they shift their course hither or thither. To wealth also, amongst them, great veneration is paid, and thence a single ruler governs them, without all restriction of power, and exacting unlimited obedience. Neither here, as amongst other nations of Germany, are arms used indifferently by all, but shut up and warded under the care of a particular keeper, who in truth too is always a slave: since from all sudden invasions and attacks from their foes, the ocean protects them: besides that armed bands, when they are not employed, grow easily debauched and tumultuous. The truth is, it suits not the interest of an arbitrary Prince, to trust the care and power of arms either with a nobleman or with a freeman, or indeed with any man above the condition of a slave.

Beyond the Suiones is another sea, one very heavy and almost void of agitation; and by it the whole globe is thought to be bounded and environed, for that the reflection of the sun, after his setting, continues till his rising, so bright as to darken the stars. To this, popular opinion has added, that the tumult also of his emerging from the sea is heard, that forms divine are then seen, as likewise the rays about his head. Only thus far extend the limits of nature, if what fame says be true. Upon the right of the Suevian Sea the Aestyan nations reside, who use the same customs and attire with the Suevians; their language more resembles that of Britain. They worship the Mother of the Gods. As the characteristic of their national superstition, they wear the images of wild boars. This alone serves them for arms, this is the safeguard of all, and by this every worshipper of the Goddess is secured even amidst his foes. Rare amongst them is the use of weapons of iron, but frequent that of clubs. In producing of grain and the other fruits of the earth, they labour with more assiduity and patience than is suitable to the usual laziness of Germans. Nay, they even search the deep, and of all the rest are the only people who gather _amber_. They call it _glasing_, and find it amongst the shallows and upon the very shore. But, according to the ordinary incuriosity and ignorance of Barbarians, they have neither learnt, nor do they inquire, what is its nature, or from what cause it is produced. In truth it lay long neglected amongst the other gross discharges of the sea; till from our luxury, it gained a name and value. To themselves it is of no use: they gather it rough, they expose it in pieces coarse and unpolished, and for it receive a price with wonder. You would however conceive it to be a liquor issuing from trees, for that in the transparent substance are often seen birds and other animals, such as at first stuck in the soft gum, and by it, as it hardened, became quite enclosed. I am apt to believe that, as in the recesses of the East are found woods and groves dropping frankincense and balms, so in the isles and continent of the West such gums are extracted by the force and proximity of the sun; at first liquid and flowing into the next sea, then thrown by winds and waves upon the opposite shore. If you try the nature of amber by the application of fire, it kindles like a torch; and feeds a thick and unctuous flame very high scented, and presently becomes glutinous like pitch or rosin.

Upon the Suiones, border the people Sitones; and, agreeing with them in all other things, differ from them in one, that here the sovereignty is exercised by a woman. So notoriously do they degenerate not only from a state of liberty, but even below a state of bondage. Here end the territories of the Suevians.

Whether amongst the Sarmatians or the Germans I ought to account the Peucinians, the Venedians, and the Fennians, is what I cannot determine; though the Peucinians, whom some call Basstarnians, speak the same language with the Germans, use the same attire, build like them, and live like them, in that dirtiness and sloth so common to all. Somewhat they are corrupted into the fashion of the Sarmatians by the intermarriages of the principal sort with that nation: from whence the Venedians have derived very many of their customs and a great resemblance. For they are continually traversing and infesting with robberies all the forests and mountains lying between the Peucinians and Fennians. Yet they are rather reckoned amongst the Germans, for that they have fixed houses, and carry