Germania
De Origine et Situ Germanorum
Tacitus’s short ethnography of the peoples beyond the Rhine and the Danube, written in 98. The first half describes the Germans in general—their origins, land, arms, assemblies and chiefs with their retinues, marriage, hospitality, land-holding and burial—often in implied contrast to Roman luxury; the second goes through the tribes one by one, from the Rhine to the Baltic. Engels, Morgan and Maine drew on it for the gentile constitution and the communal holding of land among the early Germans.
- Edition
- The translation of Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb, “Germany and its Tribes”, from The Agricola and Germany of Tacitus (London: Macmillan, 1868; revised edition 1877), from the Perseus Digital Library text, checked word by word against archive.org scans of the 1877, 1885 and 1899 printings of the revised edition. The translators’ introduction and notes are omitted.
- Source
- Perseus Digital Library
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Contents
- Germany and Its Tribes 1 h 4 min 35
Tacitus’s ethnography of the peoples beyond the Rhine and Danube, written in 98. The general part (chapters 1–27) covers the Germans’ supposed native origin, land and cattle-wealth, arms, gods and divination, assemblies, penalties, the chief’s war-band, villages, strict marriage, kinship and inheritance, blood-money and hospitality, drinking and gambling, tenant-like slaves, land divided by rank, and simple burials, often as an implied rebuke to Roman luxury. The second part (28–46) runs through the tribes from the Rhine to the Baltic: the Batavi, Chatti, Chauci, Cherusci, Cimbri, Suevi and Semnones, the worshippers of Nerthus, the Suiones, the amber-gathering Aestii and the Fenni.