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 THE 
 
 AGRICOLA AND GERMANY 
 OF TACITUS, 
 
 AND 
 
 THE DIALOGUE ON ORATORY.
 
 Oir>rui'«^^t<?' /^ 
 
 THE 
 
 AGRICOLA AND GERMANY 
 OF TACITUS, 
 
 AND 
 
 THE DIALOGUE ON ORATORY 
 
 TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH 
 
 WITH NOTES AND MAPS 
 
 BY 
 
 ALFRED JOHN CHURCH, M.A., 
 
 OF LINCOLN COLLEGE, OXFORD ; HEAD-MASTER OF KING EDWARD's SCHOOL, RETFORD J 
 
 AND 
 
 WILLIAM JACKSON BRODRIBB, M.A., 
 
 LATE FELLOW OF ST. JOHn's COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. 
 
 {REVISED 1877.) 
 
 MA CM ILL AN AND CO. 
 
 1885.
 
 LOKDON : 
 
 E. CLAY, SUNS, AND TAYLOR, 
 
 EUEAD STREET HILL, K.C.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 PREFACE vii 
 
 INTRODUCTION TO THE LIFE OF CN^US JULIUS AGRICOLA . XI 
 
 CHRONOLOGICAL SUMMARY OF THE ROMAN EXPEDITIONS INTO 
 BRITAIN FROM CAIUS JULIUS C.tSAR TO CN^US JULIUS 
 
 AGRICOLA xviii 
 
 TRANSLATION OF THE LIFE OF CN^US JULIUS AGRICOLA . . I 
 
 NOTES ON THE LIFE OF AGRICOLA 47 
 
 INTRODUCTION TO THE GERMANY 73 
 
 GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES TO THE GERMANY 78 
 
 TRANSLATION OF THE GERMANY 87 
 
 NOTES ON THE GERMANY 1 24 
 
 INTRODUCTION TO THE DIALOGUE ON ORATORY I4I 
 
 TRANSLATION OF THE DIALOGUE ON ORATORY I47 
 
 NOTES ON THE DIALOGUE ON ORATORY I98
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 The favourable reception which was given to our 
 translation of the " History " of Tacitus encouraged us 
 to undertake the work which we now present to our 
 readers. We have sought, as before, to make our 
 version such as may satisfy scholars who demand a 
 faithful rendering of the original, and English readers 
 who are offended by the baldness and frigidity which 
 commonly disfigure translations. Our task has been 
 made unusually difficult by the style of our author, 
 which is even beyond his wont harsh and obscure, 
 and by the frequently corrupt state of the text, 
 offering as it does sometimes a variety of meanings 
 equally unacceptable, and sometimes none at all. 
 
 To critics who accuse us of wanting original 
 genius we have no defence to offer. We will only 
 say that they must exercise considerable patience if 
 they are to wait till great writers undertake a work 
 which brings neither fame nor profit. The practical 
 hints and suggestions which have been given us from 
 various quarters we have endeavoured to turn to 
 good account. The classical student will, we trust.
 
 viii PREFACE. 
 
 appreciate our efiforts to express the meaning of 
 our author, though he may often dissent from our 
 opinions. And we hope that the general reader will 
 find an attraction in our subject. Englishmen may- 
 well feel an interest in an important passage of the 
 history of our island and in the description of the 
 primitive life of a kindred people, even Vv'hen these 
 are presented in the uninviting form of a translation. 
 
 The present edition, which we have revised with 
 considerable care and, we hope, with a satisfactory 
 result, contains a translation of the " Dialogus de 
 Oratoribus," a brief essay on oratory in general, and 
 more particularly on the supposed decline of Roman 
 oratory in the Flavian age. Although it is, we 
 believe, rarely read, it has a certain amount of in- 
 terest, as it touches on the Roman education of the 
 period and its special faults and weaknesses. The 
 Roman youth, it seems, was in many respects strik- 
 ingly like our own, and parts of the work might have 
 been appropriately written in our own day. It is 
 thoroughly worth reading, and the tradition which 
 has attributed it to Tacitus, though called. in question 
 by some scholars and critics, appears to be on the 
 whole a reasonable one. 
 
 A. J. c. 
 w. J. n.
 
 ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 The " Dialogue about Famous Orators " concludes a 
 task which has occupied much of our time for nearly 
 twenty years past, — the translation of the Works of 
 Tacitus. To give with sufficient faithfulness an 
 author's meaning is now, with all the aids that a 
 translator can command, comparatively easy. To 
 furnish the English reader with anything like an 
 adequate representation of the style and genius of the 
 original must ever be in the highest degree difficult. 
 It requires, besides a special aptitude for the work, 
 such an expenditure of time and labour as only the 
 amplest leisure could supply. If the work of transla- 
 tion could have a share in the proposed " endownment 
 of research," it might be possible to reach an ideal to 
 which those who have to live by their work can but 
 distantly aspire. Meanwhile we have to acknowledge 
 much kind and generous approbation of our work, 
 and much valuable and instructive criticism. Of 
 this, when it has dealt with details, we have often
 
 X ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 availed ourselves. When we have been told in more 
 
 general terms that we ought to be more forcible. 
 
 more faithful, or more free, we have been obliged to 
 
 be content with acknowledging the excellence of 
 
 the advice, and regretting that we were not able 
 
 to follow it. 
 
 A.J. C. 
 W. J. B. 
 RETFORD, 
 July a,, 1S77.
 
 INTRODUCTION TO THE LIFE OF 
 CN^US JULIUS AGRICOLA. 
 
 The life of Agricola was probably published some 
 time between the October of the year 97 A.D. and 
 the 23rd of January, A.D. 98. This seems fairly inferred 
 from the opening words of ch. 3, in which Tacitus 
 implies, by the omission of the title " Divus," that 
 Nerva Caesar was still living, and speaks of Trajan as 
 "now daily augmenting the prosperity of the time." 
 Nerva adopted Trajan in October, A.D. 97, and died 
 the 23rd of January in the following year. Orelli 
 indeed refers the publication to the beginning of 
 Trajan's reign, on the ground that the brief period of 
 three months, during which he was associated with 
 Nerva in the empire, would hardly justify Tacitus in 
 praising him more highly than Nerva during the 
 lifetime of the latter. Again, he says, Trajan was in 
 Germany, and did not come to Rome till Nerva's 
 death. These arguments fail to convince us. Tacitus 
 says of Nerva that, " at the very beginning of a most 
 happy age, he blended things once irreconcilable, 
 sovereignty and freedom," This surely is very high 
 praise, — quite as high, we think, as that bestowed on
 
 xii INTRODUCTION TO THE 
 
 Trajan. " But Trajan was not at Rome at that time." 
 He was, in fact, giving proofs of his ability as a 
 commander on the Rhine, in the province of Lower 
 Germany, perhaps the most trying and responsible 
 position in which a Roman could be placed. He was 
 elected to share the empire not only by the voice of 
 Nerva, but by that of the Senate and people. His 
 absence from Rome, under such circumstances, seems 
 no reason for supposing that what is said of him is 
 not perfectly applicable to this particular time. 
 
 The purpose of his work, Tacitus tells us, was to 
 do honour to Agricola. He exhibits him as the great 
 general of the age, as the Roman who first thoroughly 
 explored and conquered Britain. To have achieved 
 this difficult work was, no doubt, in the judgment of 
 Tacitus, Agricola's chief claim to distinction. His 
 glory culminated in his great victory over the 
 Caledonian tribes at the foot of the " Mons Gram- 
 pius." Comparatively little is told us about his 
 boyhood and youth, and very little about the last 
 eight years of his life. It is plainly hinted that 
 he fell a victim to the jealousy of Domitian. This 
 was the popular impression at the time, and Dion 
 Cassius, the only writer besides Tacitus who speaks 
 of Agricola, accepts it as a certainty. 
 
 As a specimen of ancient biography, executed by 
 a man of remarkable genius, the Life of Agricola has 
 always been much read and admired. Both father- 
 in-law and son-in-law appear equally to advantage. Of
 
 LIFE OF AGRICOLA. xiii 
 
 himself, Tacitus speaks with graceful modesty ; of his 
 illustrious father-in-law in affectionate, and at the 
 same time judicious, terms of admiration. There is 
 no fulsome or overstrained panegyric. The author 
 praises indeed highly and warmly, but in calm and 
 dignified language. In the touching and beautiful 
 conclusion to which the work is brought in the last 
 three chapters, he combines the noblest eloquence 
 with the most perfect good taste. His narrative 
 throughout is striking and vivid, and tells much in 
 a brief compass. Nothing could be more impressive 
 than the description of the defeat and overthrow of 
 the confederated Caledonian tribes, and of the terrible 
 scenes presented by the battle-field. The speeches, 
 too, of Galgacus and Agricola seem to be in the very 
 best style of Tacitus. They are not merely eloquent 
 and stirring ; they also skilfully reflect, on the one 
 hand, the passionate and impulsive fury of the 
 barbarian, and, on the other, the calm confidence of 
 the Roman general in the firmness and sense of 
 honour of his well-trained and hitherto victorious 
 legionaries. 
 
 The Life of Agricola, though frequently read from 
 the interest of its subject-matter, and its completeness 
 in itself, is by no means easy, and is ill-suited to 
 young scholars. It has, we think, an almost dispro- 
 portionate share of the peculiar difficulties of Tacitus. 
 Our notes show that it contains several crabbed and 
 obscure passages. Unfortunately, too, the text is
 
 xiv INTRODUCTION TO THE 
 
 in an unsatisfactory state. There are three or four 
 passages, at least, in which no ingenuity on the part 
 of critics has much chance of restoring the original. 
 Wex, in his elaborate edition, published in 1852, has 
 fully discussed every difficulty of reading and in- 
 terpretation, and has suggested many emendations. 
 We have always consulted, and sometimes followed, 
 him. We have also made use of Kritz's edition, 
 published in 1859. This is, in fact, a recension of 
 Wex, whose text, with some variations, he adopts. 
 His notes are much shorter, and are well adapted 
 to the ordinary student. They are sensible and useful. 
 This, we believe, is the most recent edition of the 
 Agricola. 
 
 The geography of Ancient Britain is not so intri- 
 cate as that of Germany ; but the Agricola raises 
 questions which are by no means free from difficulty. 
 It is easy to follow the campaigns of the first two 
 summers, A.D. 78 and A.D. 79. In A.D. '/8 Agricola 
 crushed the Ordovices, who occupied North Wales, 
 and pursued them into Anglesey. In A.D. 79 he 
 invaded the territory of the Brigantes, and conquered 
 the country north of the Humber. The following 
 year brought him into contact with hitherto unknown 
 tribes, and saw him advance as far as the Taus or 
 Tanaus. This cannot have been the Frith of Tay, as 
 it seems clear, from ch. 23, that he had not as yet 
 penetrated so far north. Dr. Merivale ^ thinks it is 
 
 ^ Hist, of Romans, ch. Ixi.
 
 LIFE OF AGRICOLA. xv 
 
 the Frith of Forth,— nearly the same, in fact, as 
 Bodotria, the one being the estuary, the other the 
 river. It has been suggested that it may have been 
 the mouth of the Tweed, or that of the North Tyne 
 at Dunbar. This last hypothesis we think to be the 
 most probable. In this case Agricola would have 
 overrun that portion of Scotland which is to the 
 south of the Friths of Clyde and Forth. These are, 
 respectively, Clota and Bodotria. The fourth summer 
 was passed in the consolidation of his conquests ; in 
 the fifth, he advanced northwards into Dumbarton 
 and Argyle, as it would appear from ch. 24, in which 
 Ireland is mentioned ; in the sixth, he invaded the 
 regions to the north of the Frith of Forth, so that 
 Fife, Stirling, and perhaps Perth and Forfar, must 
 have been the scene of the campaign. His army 
 was accompanied by a fleet. In the following year, 
 A.D. 84, was fought the great battle with the Cale- 
 donian tribes under Galgacus, the site of which has 
 been the subject of endless conjectures. We think 
 with Dr. Merivale that it may be presumed to have 
 been at no very great distance from the coast, since 
 it is implied that the army and fleet were acting 
 together. He is inclined to place it in the neighbour- 
 hood of Forfar or Brechin. It may have been as far 
 north as Aberdeen or Banff 
 
 Summer being now over, Agricola retired with his 
 army into the territory of the Boresti, or Horesti, as
 
 xvi INTRODUCTION TO THE 
 
 the name is written in the best MSS. Where this 
 was is wholly uncertain ; no author but Tacitus 
 mentions them. Probably their settlements were to 
 the north of the Frith of Forth, as we are not told 
 that Agricola recrossed Bodotria. Meanwhile the 
 fleet was ordered to sail round Britain. We are told 
 that it eventually entered " the harbour of Trutu- 
 lium," from which it appears to have started for its 
 voyage. Tacitus, however, is here obscure from his 
 conciseness. The name Trutulium occurs nowhere 
 else. One would suppose from the context that it 
 could not have been at any great distance from 
 Bodotria. Very possibly it was somewhere on the 
 coast of Fife. 
 
 Tacitus no doubt refers to this voyage when he 
 says, in ch. 10, " Round these coasts of remotest ocean 
 the Roman fleet then, for the first time, sailed, and 
 ascertained that Britain is an island." It does not 
 follow that he meant to say that the Romans actually 
 circumnavigated Britain on this occasion. It is 
 enough to suppose that they sailed from the Frith of 
 P'orth along the eastern coast as far as Cape Wrath, 
 the north-western extremity. They would thus pass 
 through the Pentland Frith, and see the Orkney, 
 possibly the Shetland, Islands. When they found 
 that the coast made a sharp bend southwards, they 
 would be convinced that Britain was an island. 
 This seems the simplest and most probable view
 
 LIFE OF AGRICOLA. xvii 
 
 of the matter, and it is adopted by Mannert and 
 Dr. Merivale/ both of whom reject the notion of a 
 complete circumnavigation of Britain, though Dion 
 Cassius ^ impHes that it was accomplished. There 
 is no real difficulty about the word " circumvehi," 
 which Tacitus uses, and which, at first sight, might 
 seem to demand such a meaning. " Circumvehi," as 
 Dr. Merivale remarks, may signify simply " to make 
 a sweep," or "to be wafted from point to point." 
 
 If this view is correct, the somewhat obscure 
 words at the end of ch. 38, " proximo Britanniae latere 
 lecto om.ni," will mean "after having skirted all the 
 nearest/' i.e. the east coast of Caledonia. 
 
 ^ Hist, of Romans, ch. Ixi. See ne'e. 
 * Dion Cass, apud XipliU. Ixvi. 20.
 
 CHRONOLOGICAL SUMMARY OF THE ROMAN EX- 
 REDITIONS INTO BRITAIN FROM CAIUS JULIUS 
 C^SAR TO CN/EUS JULIUS AGRICOLA. 
 
 Caius Julius Caesar twice invaded Britain, in B.C. 
 55 and BC. 54. 
 
 The next expedition was not till the reign of the 
 Emperor Claudius, who, A.D. 43, sent Aulus Plautius, 
 under whom served Vespasian. Claudius, soon after, 
 followed in person, defeated the Trinobantes, under 
 their chief Caractacus, and conquered the southern 
 portion of Britain. He received from the Senate the 
 cognomen of IBritannicus, A.D. 44. Aulus Plautius 
 and Vespasian remained in Britain. Plautius was 
 recalled to Rome A.D. 47, and was succeeded by 
 Ostorius Scapula. Scapula completely crushed the 
 Silurcs, overthrew Caractacus in a great battle 
 (probably on the Clun in Shropshire), and founded 
 the colony of Camulodunum (Colchester), A.D. 50. 
 Aulus Didius succeeded Scapula as proprsetor of 
 ]Jritain A.D. 52. He did little to advance the Roman 
 dominion. Veranius was governor for one unevent- 
 ful year, A.D. 58. He was succeeded by Suetonius 
 I'aulinus, A.D. 59, who crushed the great insurrection
 
 of the Iceni under Boudicea, A.D. 6i. Petronius 
 Turpilianus was the next governor, A.D. 62. There 
 were now two years of peace, and Roman civilization 
 began to find its way into Britain. 
 
 Trebellius Maximus was governor from A.D. 65 to 
 69 ; Vettius Bolanus from A.D. 69 to 70 ; Petilius 
 Cerialis from A.D. 70 to 75 ; and Julius Frontinus 
 from A.D. 75 to yS. Agricola then succeeded as 
 " leeatus consularis."
 
 3
 
 THE LIFE OF 
 
 CN^US JULIUS AGRICOLA. 
 
 Biography of great men ; its dangers in a bad age. 
 
 To bequeath to posterity a record of the deeds and chap, i 
 characters of distinguished men is an ancient practice 
 which even the present age, careless as it is of its 
 own sons, has not abandoned whenever some great 
 and conspicuous excellence has conquered and risen 
 superior to that failing, common to petty and to great 
 states, blindness and hostility to goodness. But in 
 days gone by, as there was a greater inclination and 
 a more open path to the achievement of memor- 
 able actions, so the man of highest genius was led by 
 the simple reward of a good conscience to hand on 
 without partiality or self-seeking the remembrance of 
 greatness. Many too thought that to write their own 
 lives showed the confidence of integrity rather than 
 presumption. Of Rutilius and Scaurus no one doubted 
 the honesty or questioned the motives. So true is 
 it that merit is best appreciated by the age in which 
 it thrives most easily. But in these days, I, who have 
 to record the life of one who has passed away, must 
 crave an indulgence, which I should not have had 
 S B
 
 2 THE LIFE OF 
 
 CHAP. I. to ask had I only to inveigh against an age so cruel, 
 so hostile to all virtue. 
 
 CH.'VP. II. We have read that the panegyrics pronounced by 
 Arulenus Rusticus on Psetus Thrasea, and by Heren- 
 nius Senecio on Priscus Helvidius, were made capital 
 crimes, that not only their persons but their very 
 books v/ere objects of rage, and that the triumvirs 
 were commissioned to burn in the forum those works 
 of splendid genius. They fancied, forsooth, that in 
 that fire the voice of the Roman people, the freedom 
 of the Senate, and the conscience of the human race 
 were perishing, while at the same time they banished 
 the teachers of philosophy, and exiled every noble 
 pursuit, that nothing good might anywhere confront 
 them. Certainly we showed a magnificent example 
 of patience ; as a former age had witnessed the ex- 
 treme of liberty, so we witnessed the extreme of 
 servitude, when the informer robbed us of the inter- 
 change of speech and hearing. We should have lost 
 memory as well as voice, had it been as easy to forget 
 as to keep silence. 
 
 Biography difficiilt even in a happier time. 
 CHA.P III. Now at last our spirit is returning. And yet, though 
 at the dawn of a most happy age Nerva Cffisar 
 blended things once irreconcilable, sovereignty and 
 freedom, though Nerva Trajan is now daily aug- 
 menting the prosperity of the time, and though the 
 public safety has not only our hopes and good wishes, 
 but has also the certain pledge of their fulfilment, 
 still, from the necessary condition of human frailty, 
 the remedy works less quickly tlian the disease. As
 
 CNiEUS JULIUS AGRICOLA. 3 
 
 our bodies grow but slowly, perish in a moment, so it chap ii; 
 is easier to crush than to revive genius and its pur- 
 suits. Besides, the charm of indolence steals over us, 
 and the idleness which at first we loathed we after- 
 wards love. What if during those fifteen years, a 
 large portion of human life, many were cut off by 
 ordinary casualties, and the ablest fell victims to the 
 Emperor's rage, if a few of us survive, I may almost 
 sa)^, not only others but our ownselves, survive, 
 though there have been taken from the midst of life 
 those many years which brought the young in dumb 
 silence to old age, and the old almost to the very 
 verge and end of existence ! Yet we shall not regret 
 that we have told, though in language unskilful and 
 unadorned, the story of past servitude, and borne our 
 testimony to present happiness. Meanwhile this book, 
 intended to do honour to Agricola, my father-in-law, 
 will, as an expression of filial regard, be commended, 
 or at least excused. 
 
 A.D. 40. Birth, parentage, and education of Agricola. 
 Cnaeus Julius Agricola was born at the ancient and chap. iv. 
 famous colony of Forum Julii.^ Each of his grand- 
 fathers was an Imperial procurator, that is, of the 
 highest equestrian rank. His father, Julius Grsecinus, 
 a member of the Senatorian order, and distinguished 
 for his pursuit of eloquence and philosophy, earned 
 for himself by these very merits the displeasure of 
 Caius Caesar. He was ordered to impeach Marcus 
 Silanus, and because he refused was put to death. 
 His mother was Julia Procilla, a lady of singular 
 
 ^ Frejus. 
 
 E 2
 
 4 THE LIFE OF 
 
 cuw. IV virtue. Brought up by her side with fond afifection, 
 he passed his boyhood and youth in the cultivation 
 of every worthy attainment. He was guarded from 
 the enticements of the profligate not only by his own 
 good and straightforward character, but also by 
 having, when quite a child, for the scene and guide 
 of his studies, Massilia,* a place where refinement and 
 provincial frugality were blended and happily com- 
 bined. I remember that he used to tell us how in 
 his early youth he would have imbibed a keener 
 love of philosophy than became a Roman and a 
 senator, had not his mother's good sense checked 
 his excited and ardent spirit. It was the case of a 
 lofty and aspiring soul craving with more eagerness 
 than caution the beauty and splendour of great and 
 glorious renown. But it was soon mellowed by reason 
 and experience, and he retained from his learning 
 that most difficult of lessons — moderation. 
 
 A.D. 59 — 62. y^T. 20 — 23. He serves in Britain. 
 
 CHAP. V. He served his military apprenticeship in Britain to 
 the satisfaction of Suetonius Paullinus, a painstaking 
 and judicious officer, who, to test his merits, selected 
 him to share his tent. Without the recklessness with 
 which young men often make the profession of arms 
 a mere pastime, and without indolence, he never 
 availed himself of his tribune's rank or his inex- 
 perience to procure enjoyment or to escape from 
 duty. He sought to make himself acquainted with 
 the province and known to the army ; he would learn 
 from the skilful, and keep pace with the bravest, would 
 ^ Marseilles.
 
 CN/EUS JULIUS AGRICOLA. 5 
 
 attempt nothing for display, would avoid nothing from chap. v. 
 fear, and would be at once careful and vigilant. 
 
 Never indeed had Britain been more excited, or 
 in a more critical condition. Veteran soldiers had 
 been massacred, colonies burnt, armies cut off. The 
 struggle was then for safety ; it was soon to be for 
 victory. And though all this was conducted under 
 the leadership and direction of another, though the 
 final issue and the glory of having won back the 
 province belonged to the general, yet skill, experience, 
 and ambition were acquired by the young officer. 
 His soul too was penetrated with the desire of warlike 
 renown, a sentiment unwelcome to an age which put 
 a sinister construction on eminent merit, and made 
 glory as perilous as infamy. 
 
 A.D. 62—68. /ET. 23 — 29. His Marriage. He 
 becomes Qiicestor and Praetor. 
 
 From Britain he went to Rome, to go through the chap, vi 
 regular course of office, and there allied himself with 
 Domitia Decidiana, a lady of illustrious birth. The 
 marriage was one which gave a man ambitious of 
 advancement distinction and support. They lived 
 in singular harmony, through their mutual affection 
 and preference of each other to self. However, the 
 good wife deserves the greater praise, just as the 
 bad incurs a heavier censure. 
 
 Appointed Quaestor, the ballot gave him Asia for 
 his province, Salvius Titianus for his proconsul. 
 Neither the one nor the other corrupted him, though 
 the province was rich and an easy prey to the wrong- 
 doer, while the proconsul, a man inclined to every
 
 6 THE LIFE OF 
 
 CHAP. VI. species of greed, was ready by all manner of indul- 
 gence to purchase a mutual concealment of guilt. 
 
 A daughter was there added to his family to be 
 his stay and comfort, for shortly after he lost the 
 son that had before been born to him. The year 
 between his qusestorship and tribunate, as well as the 
 year of the tribunate itself, he passed in retirement 
 and inaction, for he knew those times of Nero when 
 indolence stood for wisdom. His praetorship was 
 passed in the same consistent quietude, for the usual 
 judicial functions did not fall to his lot. The games 
 and the pageantry of his office he ordered according 
 to the mean between strictness and profusion, avoiding 
 extravagance, but not missing distinction. He was 
 afterwards appointed by Galba to draw up an account 
 of the temple offerings, and his searching scrutiny 
 relieved the conscience of the state from the burden 
 of all sacrileges but those committed by Nero. 
 
 A.D. 69 — 70. ^T. 30 — 31. Death of his Mother. 
 He espouses the cause of Vespasian and is appointed 
 to the command of the 20th Legion. 
 
 CHAP. VII. The following year inflicted a terrible blow on his 
 affections and his fortunes. Otho's fleet, while cruising 
 idly about, cruelly ravaged Intemelii,^ a district of 
 Liguria ; his mother, who was living here on her own 
 estate, was murdered. The estate itself and a large 
 part of her patrimony were plundered. This was 
 indeed the occasion of the crime. Agricola, who 
 instantly set out to discharge the duties of affection, 
 
 ' VintimiL'lia.
 
 CNyEUS JULIUS AGRICOLA. 7 
 
 was overtaken by the tidings that Vespasian was chap. 
 aiming at the throne. He at once joined his party-. 
 Vespasian's early policy, and the government of Rome 
 were directed by Mucianus, for Domitian was a mere 
 youth, and from his father's elevation sought only 
 the opportunities of indulgence. 
 
 Agricola, having been sent by Mucianus to conduct 
 a levy of troops, and having done his work with in- 
 tegrity and energy, was appointed to command the 
 20th Legion, which had been slow to take the new oath 
 of allegiance, and the retiring officer of which was 
 reported to be acting disloyally. It was a trying 
 and formidable charge for even officers of consular 
 rank, and the late praetorian officer, perhaps from his 
 own disposition, perhaps from that of the soldiers, 
 was powerless to restrain them. Chosen thus at once 
 to supersede and to punish, Agricola, with a singular 
 moderation, wished it to be thought that he had found 
 rather than made an obedient soldiery. 
 
 A.D. 72. ^T. 33. He conttJiues to serve in Britain 
 with increasing distinction. 
 
 Britain was then under Vettius Bolanus, who governed chap. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 more mildly than suited so turbulent a province. 
 Agricola moderated his energy and restrained his 
 ardour, that he might not grow too important, for 
 he had learnt to obey, and understood well how to 
 combine expediency with honour. Soon afterwards 
 Britain received for its governor a man of consular 
 rank, Petilius Cerialis. Agricola's merits had now 
 room for display. Cerialis let him share at fir.st 
 indeed only the toils and dangers, but before* long
 
 VIII. 
 
 THE LIFE OF 
 
 CHAP. the glory of war, often by way of trial putting him 
 in command of part of the army, and sometimes, on 
 the strength of the result, of larger forces. Never 
 to enhance his own renown did Agricola boast of his 
 exploits ; he always referred his success, as though he 
 were but an instrument, to his general and director. 
 Thus by his valour in obeying orders and by his 
 modesty of speech he escaped jealousy without losing 
 distinction. 
 
 A.D. 73 — 78. ALT. 34 — 39. He is ennobled, becomes 
 Governor' of Aquitania, is recalled to Rome to be 
 made Consid. 
 
 As he was returning from the command of the legion, 
 Vespasian admitted him into the patrician order, and 
 then gave him the province of Aquitania, a pre- 
 eminently splendid appointment both from the 
 importance of its duties and the prospect of the 
 consulate to which the Emperor destined him. Many 
 think the genius of the soldier wants subtlety, because 
 military law, which is summary and blunt, and apt to 
 appeal to the sword, finds no exercise for the refine- 
 ments of the forum. Yet Agricola, from his natural 
 good sense, though called to act among civilians, did 
 his work with ease and correctness. And, besides, 
 the times of business and relaxation were kept dis- 
 tinct. When his public and judicial duties required 
 it, he was dignified, thoughtful, austere, and yet often 
 merciful ; when business was done with, he wore no 
 longer the official character. He was altogether with- 
 out harshness, pride, or the greed of gain. With a 
 most rare felicity, his good nature did not weaken his
 
 CN^US JULIUS AGRICOLA. 9 
 
 authority, nor his strictness the attachment of his chap. ix. 
 friends. To speak of uprightness and purity in such 
 a man would be an insult to his virtues. Fame itself, 
 of which even good men are often weakly fond, he 
 did not seek by an ostentation of virtue or by 
 artifice. He avoided rivalry with his colleagues, 
 contention with his procurator, thinking such victories 
 no honour and defeat disgrace. For somewhat less 
 than three years he was kept in his governorship, and 
 was then recalled with an immediate prospect of the 
 consulate. A general belief went with him that the 
 province of Britain was to be his, not because he had 
 himself hinted it, but because he seemed worthy of 
 it. Public opinion is not always mistaken ; some- 
 times even it chooses the right man. He was consul, 
 and I but a youth, when he betrothed to me his 
 daughter, a maiden even then of noble promise. 
 After his consulate he gave her to me in marriage, 
 and was then at once appointed to the government of 
 Britain, with the addition of the sacred office of the 
 pontificate. 
 
 Britain ; its boundaries, shape, and surronnding seas. 
 
 The geography and inhabitants of Britain, already chap. x. 
 described by many writers, I will speak of, not that 
 my research and ability may be compared with theirs, 
 but because the country was then for the first time 
 thoroughly subdued. And so matters, which as 
 being still not accurately known my predecessors 
 embellished with their eloquence, shall now be 
 related on the evidence of facts.
 
 10 THE LIFE OF 
 
 CHAP. X. Britain, the largest of the islands which Roman 
 geography includes, is so situated that it faces Germany 
 on the east, Spain on the west ; on the south it is even 
 within sight of Gaul ; its northern extremities, which 
 have no shores opposite to them, are beaten by the 
 waves of a vast open sea. The form of the entire 
 country has been compared by Livy and Fabius 
 Rusticus, the most graphic among ancient and modern 
 historians, to an oblong shield or battle-axe. And 
 this no doubt is its shape without Caledonia, so that 
 it has become the popular description of the whole 
 island. There is, however, a large and irregular tract 
 of land which juts out from its furthest shores, taper- 
 ing off in a wedge-like form. Round these coasts of 
 remotest ocean the Roman fleet then for the first time 
 sailed, ascertained that Britain is an island, and 
 simultaneously discovered and conquered what are 
 called the Orcades, islands hitherto unknown. Thule 
 too was descried in the distance, which as yet had 
 been hidden by the snows of winter. Those waters, 
 they say, are sluggish, and yield with difficulty to 
 the oar, and are not even raised by the wind as other 
 seas. The reason, I suppose, is that lands and moun- 
 tains, which are the cause and origin of storms, are 
 here comparatively rare, and also that the vast depths 
 of that unbroken expanse are more slowly set in 
 motion. But to investigate the nature of the ocean 
 and the tides is no part of the present work, and 
 many writers have discussed the subject. I would 
 simply add, that nowhere has the sea a wider do- 
 minion, that it has many currents running in every 
 direction, that it does not merely flow and ebb within
 
 CNi^IUS JULIUS AGRICOLA. 11 
 
 the limits of the shore, but penetrates and winds far chap. x. 
 inland, and finds a home among hills and mountains 
 as though in its own domain. 
 
 Origin of the inhahitmits {of Britain). 
 
 "Who were the original inhabitants of Britain, whether chap, xi 
 they were indigenous or foreign, is, as usual among 
 barbarians, little known. Their physical characteris- 
 tics are various, and from these conclusions may be 
 drawn. The red hair and large limbs of the inhabitants 
 of Caledonia point clearly to a German origin. The 
 dark complexion of the Silures, their usually curly 
 hair, and the fact that Spain is the opposite shore 
 to them, are an evidence that Iberians of a former 
 date crossed over and occupied these parts. Those 
 who are nearest to the Gauls are also like them, either 
 from the permanent influence of original descent, or, 
 because in countries which run out so far to meet 
 each other, climate has produced similar physical 
 qualities. But a general survey inclines me to believe 
 that the Gauls established themselves in an island 
 so near to them. Their religious belief may be 
 traced in the strongly-marked British superstition. 
 The language differs but little ; there is the same 
 boldness in challenging danger, and, when it is near, 
 the same timidity in shrinking from it. The Britons, 
 however, exhibit more spirit, as being a people whom 
 a long peace has not yet enervated. Indeed w^e have 
 understood that even the Gauls were once renowned 
 in war ; but, after a while, sloth following on ease 
 crept over them, and they lost their courage along with
 
 12 THE LIFE OF 
 
 CHAP. XI. their freedom. This too has happened to the long- 
 conquered tribes of Britain ; the rest are still what the 
 Gauls once were. 
 
 Militajy customs ; climate ; products of the soil. 
 
 CHAP Their strength is in infantry. Some tribes fight also 
 with the chariot. The higher in rank is the charioteer ; 
 the dependants fight. They were once ruled by 
 kings, but are now divided under chieftains into 
 factions and parties. Our greatest advantage in 
 coping with tribes so powerful is that they do not act 
 in concert. Seldom is it that two or three states meet 
 together to ward off a common danger. Thus, while 
 they fight singly, all are conquered. 
 
 Their sky is obscured by continual rain and cloud. 
 Severity of cold is unknown. The days exceed in 
 length those of our part of the world ; the nights are 
 bright, and in the extreme north so short that between 
 sunlight and dawn you can perceive but a slight 
 distinction. It is said that, if there are no clouds in the 
 way, the splendour of the sun can be seen through- 
 out the night, and that he does not rise and set, but 
 only crosses the heavens. The truth is, that the low 
 shadow thrown from the flat extremities of the earth's 
 surface does not raise the darkness to any height, 
 and the night thus fails to reach the sky and stars. 
 
 With the exception of the olive and vine, and plants 
 which usually grow in warmer climates, the soil will 
 yield, and even abundantly, all ordinary produce. It 
 ripens indeed slowly, but is of rapid growth, the cause 
 in each case being the same, namely, the excessive 
 moisture of the soil and of the atmosphere. Britain
 
 XIII. 
 
 CN^US JULIUS AGRICOLA. 13 
 
 contains gold and silver and other metals, as the prize chap. 
 of conquest. The ocean, too, produces pearls, but of 
 a dusky and bluish hue. Some think that those who 
 collect them have not the requisite skill, as in the Red 
 Sea the living and breathing pearl is torn from the 
 rocks, while in Britain they are gathered just as they 
 are thrown up. I could myself more readily believe 
 that the natural properties of the pearls are in fault 
 than our keenness for gain. 
 
 Rotnan Governors of Britain. 
 
 The Britons themselves bear cheerfully the con- ^H^f' 
 scription, the taxes, and the other burdens imposed 
 on^them by the Empire, if there be no oppression. 
 Of this they are impatient; they are reduced to 
 subjection, not as yet to slavery. The deified 
 Julius, the very first Roman who entered Britain 
 with an army, though by a successful engagement 
 he struck terror into the inhabitants- and gained posses- 
 sion of the coast, must be regarded as having indicated 
 rather than transmitted the acquisition to future 
 generations. Then came the civil wars, and the arms 
 of our leaders were turned against their country, and 
 even when there was peace, there was a long neg- 
 lect of Britain. This Augustus spoke of as policy, 
 Tiberius as an inherited maxim. That Caius Caesar 
 meditated an invasion of Britain is perfectly clear, but 
 his purposes, rapidly formed, were easily changed, and 
 his vast attempts on Germany had failed. Claudius 
 was the first to renew the attempt, and conveyed over 
 into the island some legions and auxiliaries, choosing 
 Vespasian to share with him the campaign, whose
 
 THE LIFE OF 
 
 XIII 
 
 CHAP approaching elevation had this beginning. Several 
 tribes were subdued and kings made prisoners, and 
 destiny learnt to knoAV its favourite. 
 
 Roman Governor's cf Bj-itain. 
 CHAP. Aulus Plautius was the first governor of consular 
 
 XIV. 
 
 rank, and Ostorius Scapula the next. Both were 
 famous soldiers, and by degrees the nearest portions 
 of Britain were brought into the condition of a pro- 
 vince, and a colony of veterans was also introduced. 
 Some of the states were given to king Cogidumnus, 
 who lived down to our day a most faithful ally. So 
 was maintained the ancient and long-recognised 
 practice of the Roman people, which seeks to secure 
 among the instruments of dominion even kings them- 
 selves. Soon after, Didius Gallus consolidated the 
 conquests of his predecessors, and advanced a very 
 few positions into parts m.ore remote, to gain the credit 
 of having enlarged the sphere of government. Didius 
 was succeeded by Veranius, who died within the year. 
 Then Suetonius Paullinus enjoyed success for two 
 years ; he subdued several tribes and strengthened 
 our military posts. Thus encouraged, he made an 
 attempt on the island of Mona, as a place from which 
 the rebels drew reinforcements ; but in doing this he 
 left his rear open to attack. 
 
 Preparations of the Britains for revolt. 
 
 CHAP. XV. Relieved from apprehension by the legate's absence, 
 the Britons dwelt much among themselves on the
 
 CN/EUS JULIUS AGRICOLA. 15 
 
 miseries of subjection, compared their wrongs, and chap 
 exaggerated them in the discussion. " All we get by 
 patience," they said, " is that heavier demands are 
 exacted from us, as from men who will readily submit. 
 A single king once ruled us; now two are set over us; 
 a legate to tyrannise over our lives, a procurator to 
 tyrannise over our property. Their quarrels and their 
 harmony are alike ruinous to thei|' subjects. The centu- 
 rions of the one, the slaves of the other, combine 
 violence with insult. Nothing is now safe from their • 
 avarice, nothing from their lust. In war it is the strong 
 who plunders ; now, it is for the most part by cowards 
 and poltroons that our homes are rifled, our children 
 torn from us, the conscription enforced, as though it 
 were for our country alone that we could not die. For, 
 after all, what a mere handful of soldiers has crossed 
 over, if we Britons look at our own numbers. Germany 
 did thus actually shake off the yoke, and yet its de- 
 fence was a river, not the ocean. With us, fatherland, 
 wives, parents, are the motives to war ; with them, 
 only greed and profligacy. They will surely fly, 
 as did the now deified Julius, if once we emulate the 
 valour of our sires. Let us not be panicstricken at 
 the result of one or tvv^o engagements. The miserable 
 have more fury and greater resolution. Now even 
 the gods are beginning to pity us, for they are keeping 
 away the Roman general, and detaining his army 
 far from us in another island. We have already taken 
 the hardest step; we are deliberating. And indeed, 
 in all such designs, to dare is less perilous than to be 
 detected."
 
 IS THE LIFE OF 
 
 Insurrection J leaded by Boiidicea and crushed by 
 Suetonins Paullinns. 
 
 CHAP. Rousino; each other by this and Hke lan^ua^'e, under 
 the leadership of Boudicea, a woman of kingly descent 
 (for they admit no distinction of sex in their royal 
 successions), they all rose in arms. They fell upon 
 our troops, Avhich were scattered on garrison duty, 
 stormed the forts, and burst into the colony itself, the 
 head-quarters, as they thought, of tyranny. In their 
 rage and their triumph, they spared no variety of a 
 barbarian's cruelty. Had not Paullinus on hearing of 
 the outbreak in the province rendered prompt succour, 
 Britain would have been lost. By one successful 
 engagement, he brought it back to its former obedi- 
 ence, though many, troubled by the conscious guilt of 
 rebellion and by particular dread of the legate, still 
 clung to their arms. Excellent as he was in other 
 respects, his policy to the conquered was arrogant, 
 and exhibited the cruelty of one who was avenging 
 private wrongs. Accordingly Petronius Turpilianus 
 was sent out to initiate a milder rule. A stranger to 
 the enemy's misdeeds and so more accessible to their 
 penitence, he put an end to old troubles, and, at- 
 tempting nothing more, handed the province over to 
 Trebellius Maximus. Trebellius, who was somewhat 
 indolent, and never ventured on a campaign, controlled 
 the province by a certain courtesy in his administra- 
 tion. Even the barbarians now learnt to excuse many 
 attractive vices, and the occurrence of the civil war 
 gave a good pretext for inaction. But we were sorely 
 troubled with mutiny, as troops habituated to service
 
 CN^US JULIUS AGRICOLA. 17 
 
 crrew demoralised by idleness. Trebellius, who had chap. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 escaped the soldiers' fury by flying and hiding himself, 
 governed henceforth on sufferance, a disgraced and 
 humbled man. It was a kind of bargain ; the soldiers 
 had their licence, the general had his life ; and so 
 the mutiny cost no bloodshed. Nor did Vettius 
 Bolanus, during the continuance of the civil wars, 
 trouble Britain with discipline. There was the same 
 inaction with respect to the enemy, and similar unruli- 
 ness in the camp, only Bolanus, an upright man, 
 whom no misdeeds made odious, had secured affection 
 in default of the power of control. 
 
 Vigorous policy of Vespasian. 
 When however Vespasian had restored to unity chap. 
 
 XVII. 
 
 Britain as well as the rest of the world, in the pre- 
 sence of great generals and renowned armies the 
 enemy's hopes were crushed. They were at once 
 panic-stricken by the attack of Petilius Cerialis on 
 the state of the Brigantes, said to be the most pros- 
 perous in the entire province. There were many 
 battles, some by no means bloodless, and his con- 
 quests, or at least his wars, embraced a large part of 
 the territory of the Brigantes. Indeed he would have 
 altogether thrown into the shade the activity and 
 renown of any other successor ; but Julius Frontinus 
 was equal to the burden, a great man as far as great- 
 ness was then possible, who subdued by his arms the 
 powerful and warlike tribe of the Silures, surmounting 
 the difficulties of the country as well as the valour of 
 the enemy. 
 
 C
 
 18 THE LIFE OF 
 
 A.D. 78. ALT. 39. Splendid successes of Agricola 
 in Britain ; his Modesty, 
 
 CHAP Such was the state of Britain, and such were the 
 vicissitudes of the war, which Agricola found on his 
 crossing over about midsummer. Our soldiers made 
 it a pretext for carelessness, as if all fighting 
 was over, and the enemy were biding their time. 
 The Ordovices, shortly before Agricola's arrival, had 
 destroyed nearly the whole of a squadron of allied 
 cavalry quartered in their territory. Such a beginning 
 raised the hopes of the country, and all who wished 
 for war approved the precedent, and anxiously watched 
 the temper of the new governor. Meanwhile Agricola, 
 though summer was past and the detachments were 
 scattered throughout the province, though the soldiers' 
 confident anticipation of inaction for that year would 
 be a source of delay and difficulty in beginning a 
 campaign, and most advisers thought it best simply 
 to watch all weak points, resolved to face the peril. 
 He collected a force of veterans and a small body 
 of auxiliaries ; then as the Ordovices would not 
 venture to descend into the plain, he put himself 
 in front of the ranks to inspire all with the same 
 courage against a common danger, and led his troops 
 up a hill. The tribe was all but exterminated. 
 
 Well aware that he must follow up the prestige of 
 his arms, and that in proportion to his first success 
 would be the terror of the other tribes, he formed the 
 design of subjugating the i.sland of Mona, from the 
 occupation of which Paullinus had been recalled, as I 
 have already related, by the rebellion ol tlie entire
 
 CN/EUS JULIUS AGRICOLA. 19 
 
 province. But, as his plans were not matured, he had chap 
 no fleet. The skill and resolution of the general 
 accomplished the passage. With some picked men 
 of the auxiliaries, disencumbered of all baggage, who 
 knew the shallows and had that national experience 
 in swimming which enables the Britons to take care 
 not only of themselves but of their arms and horses, 
 he delivered so unexpected an attack that the as- 
 tonished enemy who were looking for a fleet, a naval 
 armament, and an assault by sea, thought that to 
 such assailants nothing could be formidable or in- 
 vincible. And so, peace having been sued for and 
 the island given up, Agricola became great and famous 
 as one who, when entering on his province, a time 
 which others spend in vain display and a round of 
 ceremonies, chose rather toil arid danger. Nor did he 
 use his success for self-glorification, or apply the name 
 of campaigns and victories to the repression of a 
 conquered people. He did not even describe his 
 achievements in a laurelled letter. Yet by thus dis- 
 guising his renown he really increased it, for men 
 inferred the grandeur of his aspirations from his 
 silence about services so great. 
 
 Moderation and equity of Ids government. 
 
 Next, with thorough insight into the feelings of his chap. 
 province, and taught also, by the experience of others, 
 that little is gained by conquest if followed by 
 oppression, he determined to root out the causes of 
 war. Beginning first with himself and his dependants^ 
 he kept his household under restraint, a thing as hard 
 to many as ruling a province. He transacted no 
 
 C 2
 
 20 THE LIFE OF 
 
 CHAP, public business throucrh freedmen or slaves ; no 
 
 XIX 
 
 private leanings, no recommendations or entreaties of 
 friends, moved him in the selection of centurions 
 and soldiers, but it was ever the best man whom 
 he thought most trustworthy. He knew everything, 
 but did not always act on his knowledge. Trifling 
 errors he treated with leniency, serious offences with 
 severity. Nor was it always punishment, but far 
 oftener penitence, which satisfied him. He preferred 
 to give office and power to men who would not 
 transgress, rather than have to condemn a trans- 
 grc'.-ssor. He lightened the exaction of corn and 
 tribute by an equal distribution of the burden, while 
 he got rid of those contrivances for gain which were 
 Cyy more-nitolerable than the tribute itself Hitherto the 
 people had been compelled to endure the farce of 
 waiting by the closed granary and of purchasing corn 
 unnecessarily and raising it to a fictitious price. 
 Difficult by-roads and distant places were fixed for 
 them, so that states with a winter-camp close to them 
 had to carry corn to remote and inaccessible parts of 
 the country, until what was within the reach of all 
 became a source of profit to the few. 
 
 A.D. 79. ^T. 40. His energy. 
 
 CHAP. Agricola, by the repression of these abuses in his very 
 first year of office, restored to peace its good name, 
 when, from either the indifference or the harshness of 
 his predecessors, it had come to be as much dreaded 
 as war. When, howev^er, summer came, assembling 
 his forces, he continually showed himself in the ranks, 
 prai.isd good discipline, and kept the stragglers in order.
 
 CNiEUS JULIUS AGRICOLA. 21 
 
 He would himself choose the position of the camp^ ^xx^ 
 himself explore the estuaries and forests. Meanwhile 
 he would allow the enemy no rest, laying waste his 
 territory with sudden incursions, and, having suffi- 
 ciently alarmed him, would then by forbearance 
 display the allurements of peace. In consequence, 
 many states, which up to that time had been in- 
 dependent, gave hostages, and laid aside their animo- 
 sities; garrisons and forts were established among 
 them with a skill and diligence with which no newly- 
 acquired part of Britain had before been treated. 
 
 He encourages the arts of peace. 
 
 The following winter passed without disturbance, and chap. 
 was employed in salutary measures. For, to ac- 
 custom to rest and repose through the charms of 
 luxury a population scattered and barbarous and 
 therefore inclined to war, Agricola gave private 
 encouragement and public aid to the building of 
 temples, courts of justice and dwelling-houses, prais- 
 ing the energetic, and reproving the indolent. Thus 
 an honourable rivalry took the place of compulsion. 
 He likewise provided a liberal education for the sons 
 of the chiefs, and showed such a preference for the 
 natural powers of the Britons over the industry of the 
 Gauls that they who lately disdained the tongue of 
 Rome now coveted its eloquence. Hence, too, a 
 liking sprang up for our style of dress, and the 
 " toga " became fashionable. Step by step they were 
 led to things which dispose to vice, the lounge, the 
 bath, the elegant banquet. All this in their ignorance,
 
 22 THE LIFE OF 
 
 CHAP, they called civilization, when it was but a part of their 
 servitude. 
 
 A.D. 80. ^T. 41. Conquests in the north of Britain. 
 
 CHAP. The third year of his campaigns opened up new tribes, 
 our ravages on the native population being carried as 
 far as the Taus, an estuary so called. This struck 
 such terror into the enemy that he did not dare to 
 attack our army, harassed though it was by violent 
 storms ; and there was even time for the erection of 
 forts. It was noted by experienced officers that no 
 general had ever shown more judgment in choosing 
 suitable positions, and that not a single fort establish- 
 ed by Agricola was either stormed by the enemy or 
 abandoned by capitulation or flight. Sorties were 
 continually made ; for these positions were secured 
 from protracted siege by a year's supply. So winter 
 brought with it no alarms, and each garrison could 
 hold its own, as the baffled and despairing enemy, 
 who had been accustomed often to repair his summer 
 losses by winter successes, found himself repelled 
 alike both in summer and winter. 
 
 Never did Agricola in a greedy spirit appropriate 
 the achievements of others ; the centurion and the 
 prefect both found in him an impartial witness of their 
 every action. Some persons used to say that he was 
 too harsh in his reproofs, and that he was as severe 
 to the bad as he was gentle to the good. But his 
 displeasure left nothing behind it ; reserve and silence 
 in him were not to be dreaded. He thought it better 
 to show anger than to cherish hatred.
 
 CNvEUS JULIUS AGRICOLA. 23 
 
 A.D. 8 1. ALT. 42. He consolidates his conquests. 
 
 The fourth summer he employed in securing' what he chap. 
 
 XXIII 
 
 had overrun. Had the valour of our armies and the 
 renown of the Roman name permitted it, a limit to 
 our conquests might have been found in Britain itself. 
 Clota and Bodotria, estuaries which the tides of 
 two opposite seas carry far back into the country, 
 are separated by but a narrow strip of land. This 
 Agricola then began to defend with a line of forts, 
 and, as all the country to the south was now occupied, 
 the enemy were pushed into what might be called 
 another island. 
 
 A.D. 82. A.T. 43. Description of Ireland. 
 
 In the fifth year of the war Agricola, himself in the chap. 
 
 XXIV. 
 leading ship, crossed the Clota, and subdued in a 
 
 series of victories tribes hitherto unknown. In that 
 part of Britain v/hich looks towards Ireland, he posted 
 some troops, hoping for fresh conquests rather than 
 fearing attack, inasmuch as Ireland, being between 
 Britain and Spain and conveniently situated for the 
 seas round Gaul, might have been tlie means of con- 
 necting with great mutual benefit the most powerful 
 parts of the empire. Its extent is sm^all vvlien com- 
 pared with Britain, but exceeds the islands of our 
 seas. In soil and climate, in the disposition, temper, 
 and habits of its population, it differs but little from 
 Britain. We know most of its harbours and ap- 
 proaches, and that through the intercourse of com- 
 merce. One of the petty kings of the nation, driven
 
 24 THE LIFE OF 
 
 CHAP, out by internal faction, had been received by Agricola, 
 xxiv 
 
 who detained him under the semblance of friendship 
 
 till he could make use of him. I have often heard him 
 
 say that a single legion with a few auxiliaries could 
 
 conquer and occupy Ireland, and that it would have 
 
 a salutary effect on Britain for the Roman arms to be 
 
 seen everywhere, and for freedom, so to speak, to be 
 
 banished from its sight. 
 
 A.D. 83. y^T. 44. He advances north, and is con- 
 fronted by a general tmion of the Caledonian tribes. 
 
 CHAP. In the summer in which he entered on the sixth year 
 
 XXV. 
 
 of his office, his operations embraced the states beyond 
 Bodotria, and, as he dreaded a general movement 
 among the remoter tribes, as well as the perils which 
 would beset an invading army, he explored the 
 harbours with a fleet, which, at first employed by him 
 as an integral part of his force, continued to accom- 
 pany him. The spectacle of war thus pushed on at once 
 by sea and land was imposing ; while often infantry, 
 cavalry, and marines, mingled in the same encampment 
 and joyously sharing the same meals, would dwell on 
 their own achievements and adventures, comparing, 
 with a soldier's boastfulness, at one time the deep re- 
 cesses of the forest and the mountain with the dangers 
 of waves and storms, or, at another, battles by land 
 with victories over the ocean. The Britons too, as we 
 learnt from the prisoners, were confounded by the 
 sight of a fleet, as if, now that their inmost seas were 
 penetrated, the conquered had their last refuge closed 
 against them. The tribes inhabiting Caledonia flew
 
 CN^US JULIUS AGRICOLA. 25 
 
 to arms, and with great preparations, made greater chap. 
 by the rumours which always exaggerate the un- 
 known, themselves advanced to attack our fortresses, 
 and thus, challenging a conflict, inspired us with 
 alarm. To retreat south of- the Bodotria, and to 
 retii'e rather than to be driven out, was the advice of 
 timid pretenders to prudence, when Agricola learnt 
 that the enemy's attack would be made with more 
 than one army. Fearing that their superior numbers 
 and their knowledge of the country might enable 
 them to hem him in, he too distributed his forces into 
 three divisions, and so advanced. 
 
 This becoming known to the enemy, they suddenly chap. 
 
 XXVI 
 
 changed their plan, and with their whole force at- 
 tacked by night the ninth Legion, as being the 
 weakest, and cutting down the sentries, who were 
 asleep or panic-stricken, they broke into the camp. 
 And now the battle was raging within the camp 
 itself, when Agricola, who had learnt from his scouts 
 the enemy's line of march and had kept close on his 
 track, ordered the most active soldiers of his cavalry 
 and infantry to attack the rear of the assailants, while 
 the entire army were shortly to raise a shout. Soon 
 his standards glittered in the light of daybreak. A 
 double peril thus alarmed the Britons, while the 
 courage of the Romans revived ; and feeling sure 
 of safety, they now fought for glory. In their turn 
 they rushed to the attack, and there was a furious 
 conflict within the narrow passages of the gates 
 till the enemy were routed. Both armies did their 
 utmost, the one for the honour of having given aid,
 
 26 THE LIFE OF 
 
 CHAP, the other for that of not havino: needed support. 
 
 XXVI. . 
 
 Had not the flying enemy been sheltered by morasses 
 and forests, this victory would have ended the war. 
 
 Preparations on botli sides for furtJier conflict. 
 
 CHAP. Knowing this, and elated by their glory, our army 
 exclaimed that nothing could resist their valour — that 
 they must penetrate the recesses of Caledonia, and at 
 length after an unbroken succession of battles, dis- 
 cover the furthest limits of Britain. Those who but 
 now were cautious and prudent, became after the 
 event eager and boastful. It is the singularly unfair 
 peculiarity of war that the credit of success is claimed 
 by all, while a disaster is attributed to one alone. But 
 the Britons thinking themselves baffled, not so much 
 by our valour as by our general's skilful use of an 
 opportunity, abated nothing of their arrogant de- 
 meanour, arming their youth, removing their wives 
 and children to a place of safety, and assembling 
 together to ratify, with sacred rites, a confederacy of 
 all their states. Thus, with angry feelings on both 
 sides, the combatants parted. 
 
 Singular adventures of a Usipian coJiort. 
 
 CHAP. The same summer a Usipian cohort, which had been 
 levied in Germany and transported into Britain, ven- 
 tured on a great and memorable exploit. Having 
 killed a centurion and some soldiers, who, to impart 
 military discipline, had been incorporated with their 
 ranks and were employed at once to instruct and 
 command them, they embarked on board three swift 
 galleys with pilots pressed into their service. Under 
 
 XXVllI.
 
 CN^US JULIUS AGRICOLA. 27 
 
 the direction of one of them — for two of the three chap. 
 they suspected and consequently put to death — they 
 sailed past the coast in the strangest way before any 
 rumour about them was in circulation. After a while, 
 dispersing in search of water and provisions, they 
 encountered many of the Britons, who sought to 
 defend their property. Often victorious, though now 
 and then beaten, they were at last reduced to such 
 an extremity of want as to be compelled to eat, at 
 first, the feeblest of their number, and then victims 
 selected by lot. Having sailed round Britain and 
 lost their vessels from not knowing how to manage 
 them, they were looked upon as pirates and were 
 intercepted, first by the Suevi and then by the 
 Frisii. Some who were sold as slaves in the way 
 of trade, and were brought through the process 
 of barter as far as our side of the Rhine, gained 
 notoriety by the disclosure of this extraordinary 
 adventure. 
 
 A.D. 84. jET. 45. Further advance into Caledonia. 
 Union of the Caledonian tribes. 
 
 Early in the summer Agricola sustained a domestic chap. 
 
 r , r XXIX. 
 
 affliction in the loss of a son born a year before, 
 a calamity which he endured, neither with the osten- 
 tatious fortitude displayed by many brave men, nor, 
 on the other hand, with womanish tears and grief 
 In his sorrow he found one source of relief in war. 
 Having sent on a fleet, which by its ravages at 
 various points might cause a vague and wide-spread 
 alarm, he advanced with a lightly equipped force, 
 including' in its ranks some Britons of remarkable
 
 28 THE LIFE OF 
 
 CHAP, bravery, whose fidelity had been tried through years 
 of peace, as far as the Grampian mountains, which the 
 enemy had ah*eady occupied. For tlie Britons, indeed, 
 in no way cowed by the result of the late engage- 
 ment, had made up their minds to be either avenged 
 or enslaved, and convinced at length that a common 
 danger must be averted by union, had, by embassies 
 and treaties, summoned forth the whole strength of 
 all their states. More than 30,000 armed men were 
 now to be seen, and still there were pressing in all 
 the youth of the country, with all whose old age 
 was yet hale and vigorous, men renowned in war and 
 bearing each decorations of his own. Meanwhile, 
 among the many leaders, one superior to the rest in 
 valour and in birth, Galgacus by name, is said to have 
 thus harangued the multitude gathered around him 
 and clamourins: for battle : — 
 
 Speech of the Caledonian chief, Galgacus. 
 CHAP. " Whenever I consider the origin of this war and the 
 
 XXX. 
 
 necessities of our position, I have a sure confidence 
 that this day, and this union of yours, will be the 
 beginning of freedom to the whole of Britain. To all 
 of us slavery is a thing unknown ; there arc no lands 
 beyond us, and even the sea is not safe, menaced as 
 we are by a Roman fleet. And thus in war and 
 battle, in which the brave find glory, even the coward 
 will find safety. Former contests, in which, with 
 varying fortune, the Romans were resisted, still left in 
 us a last hope of succour, inasmuch as being the most 
 renowned nation of Britain, dwelling in the very heart
 
 CN.'EUS JULIUS AGRICOLA. 29 
 
 of the country, and out of si^ht of the shores of the chap. 
 conquered, we could keep even our eyes unpolluted 
 by the contagion of slavery. To us who dwell on the 
 uttermost confines of the earth and of freedom, this 
 remote sanctuary of Britain's glory has up to this 
 time been a defence. Now, however, the furthest 
 limits of Britain are thrown open, and the unknown 
 always passes for the marvellous. But there are 
 no tribes beyond us, nothing indeed but waves and 
 rocks, and the yet more terrible Romans, from whose 
 oppression escape is vainly sought by obedience and 
 submission. Robbers of the world, having by their 
 universal plunder exhausted the land, they rifle the 
 deep. If the enemy be rich, they are rapacious ; if 
 he be poor, they lust for dominion ; neither the east 
 nor the west has been able to satisfy them. Alone 
 among men they covet with equal eagerness poverty 
 and riches. To robbery, slaughter, plunder, they 
 give the lying name of empire ; they make a soli- 
 tude and call it peace. 
 
 " Nature has willed that every man's children and chap. 
 
 XXXI. 
 
 kindred should be his dearest objects. Yet these are 
 torn from us by conscriptions to be slaves elsewhere. 
 Our wives and our sisters, even though they may 
 escape violation from the enemy, are dishonoured 
 under the names of friendship and hospitality. Our 
 goods and fortunes they collect for their tribute, our 
 harvests for their granaries. Our very hands and 
 bodies, under the lash and in the midst of insult, are 
 worn down by the toil of clearing forests and morasses. 
 Creatures born to slavery are sold once for all, and
 
 30 THE LIFE OF 
 
 CHAP, are, moreover, fed by their masters ; but Britain is 
 
 XXXI. 
 
 daily purchasing, is daily feeding, her own enslaved 
 people. And as in a household the last comer among 
 the slaves is always the butt of his companions, so we 
 in a world long used to slavery, as the newest and the 
 most contemptible, are marked out for destruction. 
 We have neither fruitful plains, nor mines, nor harbours, 
 for the working of which we may be spared. Valour, 
 too, and high spirit in subjects, are offensive to rulers ; 
 besides, remoteness and seclusion, while they give 
 safety, provoke suspicion. Since then you cannot hope 
 for quarter, take courage, I beseech you, whether it 
 be safety or renown that you hold most precious. 
 Under a woman's leadership the Brigantes were able 
 to burn a colony, to storm a camp, and had not 
 success ended in supineness, might have thrown off 
 the yoke. Let us, then, a fresh and unconquered 
 people, never likely to abuse our freedom, show forth- 
 with at the very first onset what heroes Caledonia has 
 in reserve. 
 
 CHy\p. " Do you suppose that the Romans will be as brave 
 xxxii. . ..... ^ ^ 
 
 m war as they are licentious m peace .-" 1 o our strifes 
 
 and discords they owe their fame, and they turn the 
 
 errors of an enemy to the renown of their own army, 
 
 an army which, composed as it is of every variety of 
 
 nations, is held together by success and will be broken 
 
 up by disaster. These Gauls and Germans, and, I 
 
 blush to say, these numerous Britons, who, though 
 
 they lend their lives to support a stranger's rule, have 
 
 been its enemies longer than its subjects, }'ou cannot 
 
 imagine to be bound by fidelity and affection. Fear
 
 CN^US JULIUS AGRICOLA. 31 
 
 and terror there certainly are, feeble bonds of attach- chap. 
 
 XXXI I 
 
 ment ; remove them, and those who have ceased to 
 fear will begin to hate. All the incentives to victory 
 are on our side. The Romans have no wives to 
 kindle their courage ; no parents to taunt them with 
 flight ; many have either no country or one far away. 
 Few in number, dismayed by their ignorance, looking 
 around upon a sky, a sea, and forests which are all un- 
 familiar to them ; hemmed in, as it were, and enmeshed, 
 the Gods have delivered them into our hands. Be not 
 frightened by idle display, by the glitter of gold and 
 of silver, which can neither protect nor wound. In 
 the very ranks of the enemy we shall find our own 
 forces. Britons will acknowledge their own cause ; 
 Gauls will remember past freedom ; the other Germans 
 will abandon them, as but lately did the Usipii. 
 Behind them there is nothing to dread. The forts are 
 ungarrisoned ; the colonies in the hands of aged men ; 
 what with disloyal subjects and oppressive rulers, the 
 towns are ill-affected and rife with discord. On the 
 one side you have a general and an army ; on the 
 other, tribute, the mines, and all the other penalties of 
 an enslaved people. Whether you endure these for 
 ever, or instantly avenge them, this field is to decide. 
 Think, therefore, as you advance to battle, at once of 
 your ancestors and of your posterity." 
 
 Preparations for battle. Agricolds addj-ess to his army. 
 
 They received his speech with enthusiasm, and as is chap. 
 
 XXXIII. 
 
 usual among barbarians, with songs, shouts and dis- 
 cordant cries. And now was seen the assembling of 
 troops and the gleam of arms, as the boldest warriors
 
 32 THE LIFE OF 
 
 CHAP, stepped to the front. As the Hne was formin"', 
 
 XXXIII. 
 
 ACTricola, who, though his troops were in high spirits 
 and could scarcely be kept within the entrenchments, 
 still thought it right to encourage them, spoke as 
 follows — 
 
 " Comrades, this is the eighth year since, thanks to 
 the greatness and good fortune of Rome and to your 
 own loyalty and energy, you conquered Britain. In 
 our many campaigns and battles, whether courage in 
 meeting the foe, or toil and endurance in struggling, I 
 may say, against nature herself, have been needed, I 
 have ever been well satisfied with my soldiers, and 
 you with your commander. And so you and I have 
 passed beyond the limits reached by former armies or 
 by former governors, and we now occupy the last 
 confines of Britain, not merely in rumour and report, 
 but with an actual encampment and armed force. 
 Britain has been both discovered and subdued. Often 
 on the march, when morasses, mountains, and rivers 
 were wearing out your strength, did I hear our bravest 
 ir^en exclaim, ' When shall we have the enemy before 
 us ? — when shall we fight .'' ' He is now here, driven 
 from his lair, and your wishes and your valour have 
 free scope, and everything favours the conqueror, 
 everything is adverse to the vanquished. For as it is 
 a great and glorious achievement, if we press on, to 
 have accomplished so great a march, to have traversed 
 forests and to have crossed estuaries, so, if we retire, 
 our present most complete success will prove our 
 greatest danger. We have not the same knowledge 
 of the country or the same abundance of supplies, 
 but we have arms in our hands, and in them we have
 
 CN.EUS JULIUS AGRfCOLA. 33 
 
 everything^. For myself I have loner been convinced chap. 
 
 XXXIIi 
 
 that neither for an army nor for a general is retreat 
 safe. Better, too, is an honourable death than a 
 life of shame, and safety and renown are for us to 
 be found together. And it would be no inglorious 
 end to perish on the extreme confines of earth and of 
 nature. 
 
 "If unknown nations and an untried enemy con- chap. 
 
 ' XXXIV 
 
 fronted you, I should urge you on by the example of 
 other armies. As it is, look back upon your former 
 honours, question your own eyes. These are the men 
 who last year under cover of darkness attacked a 
 single legion, whom you routed by a shout. Of all 
 the Britons these are the most confirmed runaways, 
 and this is why they have survived so long. Just 
 as when the huntsman penetrates the forest and the 
 thicket, all the most courageous animals rush out 
 upon him, while the timid and feeble are scared 
 away by the very sound of his approach, so the bravest 
 of the Britons have long since fallen ; and the rest 
 are a mere crowd of spiritless cowards. You have 
 at last found them, not because they have stood their 
 ground, but because they have been overtaken. Their 
 desperate plight, and the extreme terror that para- 
 lyses them, have rivetted their line to this spot, that 
 you might achieve in it a splendid and memorable 
 victory. Put an end to campaigns ; crown your fifty 
 years' service with a glorious day ; prove to your 
 country that her armies could never have been fairly 
 charged with protracting a war or with causing a 
 rebellion." 
 
 D
 
 34 THE LIFE OF 
 
 CHAP. Order of the Roman Army. 
 
 XXXV. -^ -^ 
 
 While Agricola was yet speaking, the ardour of the 
 soldiers was rising to its height, and the close of his 
 speech was followed by a great outburst of enthu- 
 siasm. In a moment they flew to arms. He arrayed 
 his eager and impetuous troops in such a manner 
 that the auxiliary infantry, 8,000 in number, strength- 
 ened his centre, while 3,000 cavalry were posted on his 
 wings. The legions were drawn up in front of the 
 intrenched camp ; his victory would be vastly more 
 glorious if won without the loss of Roman blood, 
 and he would have a reserv^e in case of repulse. The 
 enemy, to make a formidable display, had posted him- 
 self on high ground ; his van was on the plain, while 
 the rest of his army rose in an arch-like form up 
 the slope of a hill. The plain between resounded 
 with the noise and with the rapid movements of 
 chariots and cavalry. Agricola, fearing that from the 
 enemy's superiority of force he would be simul- 
 taneously attacked in front and on the flanks, widened 
 his ranks, and though his line was likely to be too 
 extended, and several officers advised him to bring 
 up the legions, yet, so sanguine was he, so resolute 
 in meeting danger, he sent away his horse and took 
 his stand on foot before the colours. 
 
 The battle. 
 CHAP. The action began with distant fighting. The Britons 
 with equal steadiness and skill used their huge swords 
 and small shields to avoid or to parry the missiles 
 of our soldiers, while they themselves poured on 
 us a dense shower of darts, till Agricola encouraged 
 
 xxxvi.
 
 CN^US JULIUS AGRICOLA. 35 
 
 three Batavian and two Tunprian cohorts to chap. 
 bring matters to the decision of close fighting with 
 swords. Such tactics were famiHar to these veteran 
 soldiers, but were embarrassing to an enemy armed 
 with small bucklers and unwieldy weapons. The 
 swords of the Britons are not pointed, and do not 
 allow them to close with the foe, or to fight in the 
 open field. No sooner did the Batavians begin to 
 close with the enemy, to strike them with their 
 shields, to disfigure their faces, and overthrowing 
 the force on the plain to advance their line up 
 the hill, than the other auxiliary cohorts joined 
 with eager rivalry in cutting down all the near- 
 est of the foe. Many were left behind half dead, 
 some even unwounded, in the hurry of victory. 
 Meantime the enemy's cavalry had fled, and the 
 charioteers had mingled in the engagement of the 
 infantry. But although these at first spread panic, 
 they were soon impeded by the close array of our 
 ranks and by the inequalities of the ground. The 
 battle had anything but the appearance of a cavalry 
 action, for men and horses were carried along in 
 confusion together, while chariots, destitute of guid- 
 ance, and terrified horses without drivers, dashed 
 as panic urged them, sideways, or in direct collision 
 against the ranks. 
 
 Defeat of the Britons. Loss on both sides. 
 
 Those of the Britons who, having as yet taken no chap. 
 part m the engagement, occupied the hill-tops, and 
 who without fear for themselves sat idly disdaining 
 the smallness of our numbers, had begun gradually 
 
 D 2
 
 36 THE LIFE OF 
 
 CHAP, to descend and to hem in the rear of the victorious 
 
 XXXVII. A • 1 1 r 
 
 army, when Agncola, who feared this very movement, 
 opposed their advance with four squadrons of cavalry 
 held in reserve by him for any sudden emergencies 
 of battle. Their repulse and rout was as severe as 
 their onset had been furious. Thus the enemy's 
 design recoiled on himself, and the cavalry which by 
 the general's order had wheeled round from the van 
 of the contending armies, attacked his rear. Then, 
 indeed, the open plain presented an awful and 
 hideous spectacle. Our men pursued, wounded, 
 made prisoners of the fugitives only to slaughter 
 them when others fell in their way. And now the 
 enemy, as prompted by their various dispositions, 
 fled in whole battalions with arms in their hands 
 before a few pursuers, while some, who were unarmed, 
 actually rushed to the front and gave themselves up 
 to death. Everywhere there lay scattered arms, 
 corpses, and mangled limbs, and the earth reeked 
 with blood. Even the conquered now and then 
 felt a touch of fury and of courage. On approach- 
 ing the woods, they rallied, and as they knew the 
 ground, they were able to pounce on the foremost 
 and least cautious of the pursuers. Had not Agricola, 
 who was present everywhere, ordered a force of 
 strong and lightly-equipped cohorts, with some dis- 
 mounted troopers for the denser parts of the forest, 
 and a detachment of cavalry where it was not so 
 thick, to scour the woods like a party of huntsmen, 
 serious loss would have been sustained through the 
 excessive confidence of our troop.s. When, however, 
 the enemy saw that we again pursued them in firm
 
 CX^US JULIUS AGRICOLA. 37 
 
 and compact array, they fled no longer in masses chap. 
 as before, each looking for his comrade ; but dis- 
 persing and avoiding one another, they sought the 
 shelter of distant and pathless wilds. Night and 
 weariness of bloodshed put an end to the pursuit. 
 About 10,000 of the enemy were slain ; on our side 
 there fell 360 men, and among them Aulus Atticus, 
 the commander of the cohort, whose youthful im- 
 petuosity and mettlesome steed had borne him into 
 the midst of the enemy. 
 
 Scenes after the battle. Agrieolds return southwards. 
 
 Elated by their victory and their booty, the con- chap. 
 querors passed a night of merriment, Meanwhile the 
 Britons, wandering amidst the mingled wailings of 
 men and women, were dragging off their wounded, 
 calling to the unhurt, deserting their homes, and in 
 their rage actually firing them, choosing places of 
 concealment only instantly to abandon them. One 
 moment they would take counsel together, the next, 
 part company, while the sight of those who were 
 dearest to them sometimes melted their hearts, but 
 oftener roused their fury. It was an undoubted fact 
 that some of them vented their rage on their wives 
 and children, as if in pity for their lot. The following 
 day showed more fully the extent of the calamity, 
 for the silence of desolation reigned everywhere : the 
 hills were forsaken, houses were sm.oking in the 
 distance, and no one was seen by the scouts. These 
 were despatched in all directions ; and it having been 
 ascertained that the track of the flying enemy was 
 uncertain, and that there was no attempt at rallying,
 
 38 
 
 THE LIFE OF 
 
 CHAP. 
 XXXVI II. 
 
 it being also impossible, as summer was now over, to 
 extend the war, Agricola led back his army into the 
 territory of the Boresti. He received hostages from 
 them, and then ordered the commander of the fleet 
 to sail round Britain. A force for this purpose was 
 given him, which great panic everywhere preceded. 
 Agricola himself, leading his infantry and cavalry by 
 slow marches, so as to overawe the newly-conquered 
 tribes by the very tardiness of his progress, brought 
 them into winter-quarters, while the fleet with pro- 
 pitious breezes and great renown entered the harbour 
 of Trutulium, to Avhich it had returned after having 
 coasted aloncr the entire southern shore of the island. 
 
 CHAP. 
 KXXIX. 
 
 Doiiiitiaiis vexation at the nczvs of Agricola s success. 
 
 Of this series of events, though not exaggerated in 
 the despatches of Agricola by any boastfulness of 
 language, Domitian heard, as w'as his wont, with joy 
 in his face but anxiety in his heart. He felt conscious 
 that all men laughed at his late mock triumph over 
 Germany, for which there had been purchased from 
 traders people whose dress and hair might be made to 
 resemble those of captives, whereas now a real and 
 splendid victory, with the destruction of thousands of 
 the enemy, was being celebrated with just applause. 
 It was, he thought, a very alarming thing for him that 
 the name of a subject should be raised above that of 
 the Emperor ; it was to no purpose that he had 
 driven into obscurity the pursuit of forensic eloquence 
 and the graceful accomplishments of civil life, if 
 another were to forestall the distinctions of war. To 
 other glories he could more easily shut his eyes, but
 
 CN^US JULIUS AGRICOLA. 39 
 
 the greatness of a "-ood ercneral was a truly imperial chap. 
 
 • • 1 1 T_ J xxxi>; 
 
 quality. Harassed by these anxieties, and absorbed 
 
 in an incommunicable trouble, a sure prognostic of 
 
 some cruel purpose, he decided that it was best for 
 
 the present to suspend his hatred until the freshness 
 
 of Agricola's renown and his popularity with the 
 
 army should begin to pass away. 
 
 Honours paid to Agricola. His behaviour. 
 For Asfricola was still the governor of Britain, chap, 
 
 XL. 
 
 Accordingly the Emperor ordered that the usual 
 triumphal decorations, the honour of a laurelled 
 statue, and all that is commonly given in place of the 
 triumphal procession, with the addition of many 
 laudatory expressions, should be decreed in the senate, 
 together with a hint to the effect that Agricola was to 
 have the province of Syria, then vacant by the death 
 of Atilius Rufus, a man of consular rank, and 
 generally reserved for men of distinction. It was 
 believed by many persons that one of the freedmen 
 employed on confidential services was sent to Agricola, 
 bearing a despatch in which Syria was offered him, 
 and with instructions to deliver it should he be in 
 Britain ; that this freedman in crossing the straits 
 met Agricola, and without even saluting him made 
 his way back to Domitian ; though I cannot say 
 whether the story is true, or is only a fiction invented 
 to suit the Emperor's character. 
 
 Meanwhile Agricola had handed over his province 
 in peace and safety to his successor. And not to 
 make his entrance into Rome conspicuous by the 
 concourse of welcoming throngs, he avoided the
 
 40 THE LIFE OF 
 
 CHAP, attentions of his friends by entering the city at night, 
 and at night too, according to orders, proceeded to 
 the palace, where, having been received with a hurried 
 embrace and without a word being spoken, he mingled 
 in the crowd of courtiers. Anxious henceforth to tem- 
 per the military renown, which annoys men of peace, 
 with other merits, he studiously cultivated retirement 
 and leisure, simple in dress, courteous in conversation, 
 and never accompanied but by one or two friends, so 
 that the many who commonly judge of great men by 
 their external grandeur, after having seen and at- 
 tentively surveyed him, asked the secret of a great- 
 ness which but-few could explain. 
 
 Agricolds danger. 
 jHAP. During this time he was frequently accused before 
 
 Y I I 
 
 Domitian in his absence, and in his absence acquitted. 
 The cause of his danger lay not in any crime, nor in 
 any complaint of injury, but in a ruler who was the 
 foe of virtue, in his own renown, and in that worst 
 class of enemies — the men who praise. And then 
 followed such days for the commonwealth as would 
 not suffer Agricola to be forgotten ; days when so 
 many of our armies were lost in Mccsia, Dacia, 
 Germany, and Pannonia, through the rashness or 
 cowardice of our generals, when so many of our 
 officers were besieged and captured with so many of 
 our auxiliaries, when it was no longer the boundaries 
 of empire and the banks of rivers which were im- 
 perilled, but the winter-quarters of our legions and 
 the posses.sion of our territories. And so when 
 disaster followed upon disaster, and the entire year was
 
 CN^US JULIUS AGRICOLA. 41 
 
 marked by destruction and slauc^hter, the voice of the chap. 
 people called Agricola to the command ; for they all 
 contrasted his vigour, firmness, and experience in war, 
 with the inertness and timidity of other generals. 
 This talk, it is quite certain, assailed the ears of the 
 Emperor himself, while affection and loyalty in the 
 best of his freedmen, malice and envy in the worst, 
 kindled the anger of a prince ever inclined to evil. 
 And so at once, by his own excellences and by the 
 faults of others, Agricola was hurried headlong to a 
 perilous elevation. 
 
 A.D. go. ^T. 52. Agricola declines a pro-consulate. 
 
 The year had now arrived in which the pro-consulate chap. 
 of Asia or Africa was to fall to him by lot, and, as 
 Civica had been lately murdered, Agricola did not 
 want a warning, or Domitian a precedent. Persons 
 well acquainted with the Emperor's feelings came to 
 ask Agricola, as if on their own account, whether he 
 would go. First they hinted their purpose by praises 
 of tranquillity and leisure ; then offered their services 
 in procuring acceptance for his excuses ; and at last, 
 throwing off all disguise, brought him by entreaties 
 and threats to Domitian. The Emperor, armed 
 beforehand with hypocrisy, and assuming a haughty 
 demeanour, listened to his prayer that he might be 
 excused, and having granted his request allowed 
 himself to be formally thanked, nor blushed to grant 
 so sinister a favour. But the salary usually granted 
 to a pro-consul, and which he had himself given to 
 some governors, he did not bestow on Agricola, either 
 because he was offended at its not havin;7 been
 
 42 • THE LIFE OF 
 
 CHAP, asked, or was warned by his conscience that he mis^ht 
 
 XLII. . 
 
 be thought to have purchased the refusal which he had 
 commanded. It is, indeed, human nature to hate the 
 man whom you have injured; yet the Emperor, not- 
 withstanding his irascible temper and an implacability 
 proportioned to his reserve, was softened by the 
 moderation and prudence of Agricola, who neither by 
 a perverse obstinacy nor an idle parade of freedom 
 challenged fame or provoked his fate. Let it be 
 known to those whose habit it is to admire the dis- 
 regard of authority, that there may be great men 
 even under bad emperors, and that obedience and 
 submission, when joined to activity and vigour, may 
 attain a glory which most men reach only by a 
 perilous career, utterly useless to the state, and closed 
 by an ostentatious death. 
 
 A.D. 93. yET. SS- His death. 
 CHAP. The end of his life, a deplorable calamity to us and 
 a grief to his friends, was regarded with concern even 
 by strangers and those who knew him not. The 
 common people and this busy population continually 
 inquired at his house, and talked of him in public 
 places and in private gatherings. No man when he 
 heard of Agricola's death could either be glad or at 
 once forget it. Men's sympathy was increased by a 
 prevalent rumour that he was destroyed by poison. 
 For myself, I have nothing which I should venture to 
 state for fact. Certainly during the whole of his 
 illness the Emperor's chief freedmen and confidential 
 physicians came more frequently than is usual with a 
 court which pays its visits by means of messengers.
 
 CN^US JULIUS AGRICOLA. 43 
 
 This was, perhaps, soHcitude, perhaps espionage, chap. 
 Certain it is, that on the last day the very agonies of 
 his dying moments were reported by a succession of 
 couriers, and no one believed that there would be such 
 haste about tidings which would be heard with regret. 
 Yet in his manner and countenance the Emperor 
 displayed some signs of sorrow, for he could now 
 forget his enmity, and it was easier to conceal his joy 
 than his fear. It was well known that on reading the 
 will, in which he was named co-heir with Agricola's 
 excellent wife and most dutiful daughter, he expressed 
 delight, as if it had been a complimentary choice. 
 So blinded and perverted was his mind by incessant 
 flattery, that he did not know that it was only a bad 
 Emperor whom a good father would make his heir. 
 
 His age. Remarks on hhii and on the circinnstances of 
 his death. 
 
 Agricola was born on the 1 3th of Tune, in the third chat 
 consulate of Caius Caesar; he died on the 23rd 
 of August, during the consulate of Collega and 
 Priscus, being in the fifty-sixth year of his age. 
 Should posterity wish to know something of his 
 appearance, it was graceful rather than commanding. 
 There was nothing formidable in his appearance ; a 
 gracious look predominated. One would easily be- 
 lieve him a good man, and willingly believe him to be 
 great. As for himself, though taken from us in the 
 prime of a vigorous manhood, yet, as far as glory is 
 concerned, his life was of the longest. Those true 
 blessings, indeed, which consist in virtue, he had fully 
 attained ; and on one who had reached the honours of 
 
 XLIV
 
 44 THE LIFE OF 
 
 CHAP, a consulate and a triumph, what more had fortune to 
 
 X.L1V. 
 
 bestow ? Immense wealth had no attractions for him, 
 and wealth he had, even to splendour. As his 
 daughter and his wife survived him, it may be thought 
 that he was even fortunate — fortunate, in that while 
 his honours had suffered no eclipse, while his fame 
 was at its height, while his kindred and his friends 
 still prospered, he escaped from the evil to come. 
 For, though to survive until the dawn of this most 
 happy age and to see a Trajan on the throne was 
 what he would speculate upon in previsions and 
 wishes confided to my ears, yet he had this mighty 
 compensation for his premature death, that he was 
 spared those later years during which Domitian, 
 leaving now no interval or breathing space of time, 
 but, as it were, with one continuous blow, drained the 
 life-blood of the Commonwealth. 
 
 ^HAP. Agricola did not see the senate-house besieged, or 
 
 XLV. 
 
 the senate hemmed in by armed men, or so many of 
 our consulars falling at one single massacre, or so 
 many of Rome's noblest ladies exiles and fugitives. 
 Carus Metius had as yet the distinction of but one 
 victory, and the noisy counsels of Messalinus were 
 not heard beyond the walls of Alba, and Massa 
 ]^a;bius was then answering for his life. It was not 
 long before our hands dragged Helvidius to prison, 
 before we gazed on the dying looks of Manricus and 
 Rusticus, before we were steeped in Senecio's innocent 
 blood. Even Nero turned his eyes away, and did not 
 gaze upon the atrocities which he ordered ; with 
 Domitian it was the chief part of our miseries to see
 
 CN/EUS JULIUS AGRICOLA. 45 
 
 and to be seen, to know that our sighs were being chap 
 
 XLV 
 
 recorded, to have, ever ready to note the pallid looks 
 of so many faces, that savage countenance reddened 
 with the hue with which he defied shame. 
 
 Thou wast indeed fortunate, Agricola, not only in 
 the splendour of thy life, but in the opportune 
 moment of thy death. Thou submittedst to thy fate, 
 so they tell us who were present to hear thy last 
 words, with courage and cheerfulness, seeming to be 
 doing all thou couldst to give thine Emperor full 
 acquittal. As for me and thy daughter, besides all 
 the bitterness of a father's loss, it increases our sorrow 
 that it was not permitted us to watch over thy failing 
 health, to comfort thy weakness, to satisfy ourselves 
 with those looks, those embraces. Assuredly we 
 should have received some precepts, some utterances 
 to fix in our inmost hearts. This is the bitterness of 
 our sorrow, this the smart of our wound, that from the 
 circumstance of so long an absence thou wast lost to 
 us four years before. Doubtless, best of fathers, with 
 that most loving wife at thy side, all the dues of 
 affection were abundantly paid thee, yet with too few 
 tears thou wast laid to thy rest, and in the light of 
 thy last day there was something for which thine eyes 
 longed in vain. 
 
 If there is any dwelling-place for the spirits of the chap 
 just ; if, as the wise believe, noble souls do not perish 
 with the body, rest thou in peace ; and call us, thy 
 family, from weak regrets and womanish laments to 
 the contemplation of thy virtues, for which we must 
 not weep nor beat the breast. Let us honour thee 
 
 XLVI.
 
 46 THE LIFE OF AGRTCOLA. 
 
 CHAP, not so much with transitory praises as with our 
 XLVI. , .^ 
 
 reverence, and, ii our 'powers permit us, with our 
 
 emulation. That will be true respect, that the true 
 
 affection of thy nearest kin. This, too, is what I 
 
 would enjoin on daughter and wife, to honour the 
 
 memory of that father, that husband, by pondering 
 
 in their hearts all his words and acts, by cherishing 
 
 the features and lineaments of his character rather 
 
 than those of his person, It is not that I would 
 
 forbid the likenesses which are wrought in marble or 
 
 in bronze ; but as the faces of men, so all similitudes 
 
 of the face are weak and perishable things, while the 
 
 fashion of the soul is everlasting, such as may be 
 
 expressed not in some foreign substance, or by the 
 
 help of art, but in our own lives. Whatever we 
 
 loved, whatever w^e admired in Agricola, survives, and 
 
 will survive in the hearts of men, in the succession of 
 
 the ages, in the fame that waits on noble deeds. Over 
 
 many indeed, of those who have gone before, as over 
 
 the inglorious and ignoble, the waves of oblivion will 
 
 roll ; Agricola, made known to posterity by history 
 
 and tradition, will live for ever.
 
 NOTES ON THE 
 
 LIFE OF AGRICOLA. 
 
 (i) Many too thought that to write their oivn lives 
 showed the confidence of integrity rather than presump- 
 tion. {Ac pleriqne, suain ipsi vitani narrare, fiduciam 
 potius mornm, qitain arrogantiam arbitrati suiit.) 
 
 " Fiducia morum " seems naturally to mean " the chap. i. 
 confidence inspired by a good character." The word 
 " fiducia " usually denotes " a well-grounded, and there- 
 fore praiseworthy, trust " in anything. Possibly by 
 " morum " may be meant the manners of the age in 
 which Rutilius and Scaurus lived. To write their 
 own lives was, in fact, to bear a testimony to the 
 virtues of a less corrupt time ; and they would feel 
 that to praise themselves was, in fact, to praise the 
 State. But the difference between these two meanings 
 is very slight. 
 
 0/ Rntilins and Scanriis no one doid'ted the Jionesty 
 or questioned the motives. 
 
 Rutilius, who was consul 105 B.C., is spoken of by 
 Cicero (De Orat. i. 53) as a man of learning, devoted 
 to philosophy, and of singular virtue and Integrity.
 
 43 NOTES ON THE 
 
 CHAP. 1 In the Brutus (ch. 29), he is named with Scaurus ; 
 both are said to have been experienced, though not 
 first-rate orators, men of great industry and some 
 talent, but not possessed of true oratorical genius. 
 Rutilius was a Stoic, and a pupil of Panaetius. He 
 wrote a history of Rome in Greek, which is referred 
 to by Livy (xxxix. 52). His memoir of himself and of 
 his times is mentioned only by Tacitus. Rutilius Rufus 
 and Aurelius Scaurus were contemporaries and rivals. 
 Each impeached the other for bribery, in seeking 
 to obtain the consulate. Scaurus was " princeps 
 Senatus," and twice consul, in 115 B.C. and 107 B.C. 
 
 Tacitus here refers to Scaurus's autobiography in 
 three books, of which Cicero says (Brutus, 29) that it 
 was good enough {sane utiles), but that it was read by 
 no one. He began life as a poor man, though by 
 birth a patrician, and succeeded in raising his family 
 to the highest distinction. 
 
 Btit in these days I who have to record the life of one 
 who has passed away mnst crave an indnlgence, which I 
 shonld fiot have had to ask had I only to inveigh against 
 ajt age so cruel, so hostile to all virtne. (A t nnnc narraturo 
 niihi vitani dcfuncti hominis, venia opns fnit; qnani 
 non. pctisseni, incnsaturns tart scuva et infesta virtutibns 
 tcnipora) 
 
 We take Tacitus's meaning to be this : — " I should 
 not have thought it necessary to offer any apology for 
 my work, were that work to be merely a satire on a 
 bad age, and not also the prai.se of a good man." A 
 very similar sentiment occurs Hist. ii. i : — " From a
 
 LIFE OF AGRICOLA. 49 
 
 writer's adulation we should instinctively shrink, while chap. i. 
 we lend a ready ear to detraction and spite." So here 
 Tacitus implies that invective and satire would be sure 
 to be popular, and would, therefore, need no apology. 
 There is another meaning which the passage may 
 bear; it is this : — " Under any other circumstances I 
 should not have apologized for this biography, since 
 in writing it I am necessarily about to censure a bad 
 age." Ritter reads " incursaturus " for " incusaturus," 
 because he thinks that the meaning of " incusaturus " 
 is obscure, and the idea conveyed not suited to the 
 better time of Trajan in which Tacitus was writing. 
 Accordingly, he explains the passage thus : — " I 
 should not have thought of offering an apology had 
 I been writing in Domitian's reign, and thereby likely 
 to offend one who hated virtue ; such an apology 
 would have been an insult to the Emperor." But is 
 not this explanation of the passage as far-fetched as 
 that to which he objects.'' "Incusaturus," it should 
 be observed, is the reading of the MSS. Orelli and 
 Wex retain it. 
 
 We liavc read tJiat the panegyrics pro7ionnced hy 
 Arulentts Rnsticus on PcEtns TJirasea and by Herennius 
 Seiiecio on Prisons H civ id ins were made capital crimes. 
 {Legimns, cnm Aruleno Rnstico Pestns Thrasea, 
 Hercnnio Senecioni Prisons Helvidiics laudati essent, 
 capiiale fnisse^ 
 
 Tacitus had probably read an account of these cjj.^p ,i 
 horrors during his absence from Rome, in letters from 
 his own personal friends, and possibly in memoirs and 
 
 E
 
 50 JJOTES ON THE 
 
 CHAP. II. panegyrics composed by some of the senators in 
 honour of the men here mentioned. He can hardly 
 be referring to the " Acta Diurna," for Domitian, so 
 we learn from Dion Cassius, would not allow the 
 memory of his victims to be recorded. 
 
 Arulenus Rusticus, or, as his full name seems to 
 have been, L. x\rulenus Junius Rusticus, was a Stoic, 
 and an intimate friend of Paetus Thrasea, whom, as a 
 tribune of the plebs, A.D. 66, in Nero's reign, he would 
 have interposed to save by means of his tribunitial 
 "veto" had Thrasea permitted him. Suetonius 
 (Domit. X.) says he was put to death by Domitian 
 for having written panegyrics on Thrasea and Helvi- 
 dius Priscus, in which he spoke of them as "sanctis- 
 simi viri." Tacitus, however, is probably right in 
 attributing the latter panegyric to Herennius Senecio, 
 and his testimony is confirmed by Pliny (i. 5, 14 ; 
 iii. 11). Senecio was put to death on the accusation 
 of Caius Metius, and his chief crime seems to have 
 been this laudatory memoir of Helvidius Priscus. 
 
 Arulenus Rusticus and Herennius Senecio are again 
 mentioned, ch. 45 ; and Mauricus, a brother of the 
 former is also named in the same passage. Pie was 
 one of Pliny's intimate friends, who says of him 
 (iv. 22), "Quo viro nihil firmius, nihil verius." This 
 character of him is well illustrated in the Hist. iv. 40, 
 where we arc told that on the first day on which 
 Domitian took his seat in the Senate, Mauricus asked 
 him to give the Senators access to the Imperial 
 •registers with the view of ascertaining what impeach- 
 ments the several informers had proposed, and thereby 
 callincr them to account.
 
 LIFE OF AGRICOLA. 51 
 
 TJlc conscience of mankind {conscicntiavi huinani chap. ii. 
 generis). 
 
 We have ventured to render "conscientia" by 
 " conscience," although of course the precise meaning 
 is, " the knowledge which all men had of the virtues 
 of those who have been above named." In this, the 
 idea of approval is implied, so that " conscientia " may 
 be fairly taken to express, " the faculty which ap- 
 proves." The word has acquired almost the exact 
 meaning of our " conscience " in Tacitus and the 
 writers of the Silver Age. It occurs three times in 
 the Agricola, in ch. i. ii. and xlii., in all which passages 
 it seems to be adequately represented by its English 
 derivative. 
 
 New a Trajanns. 
 
 Trajan was so called after his adoption by Nerva. chap, hi 
 
 The pnblie safety [secnritas p?ibliea). 
 
 The force of the original (which can hardly be repro- 
 duced in a translation) turns on the fact that " public 
 safety " {secnritas pnblicd) was personified as a kind 
 of goddess, and represented on coins of the Antonine 
 periods under the figure of a woman, in a sitting pos- 
 ture, with her right hand on her head. 
 
 Those fifteen years. 
 Domitian reigned from 8i A.D. to 96 A.D. 
 
 The beauty and splendonr {pnlchritudinem ac speciem'). 
 
 Perhaps the word "species" is used in its philo- chap, iv 
 sophical sense, and denotes the tSea of Plato. The 
 
 E 2
 
 52 NOTES ON THE 
 
 CHAP. IV. context rather favours this view. The expression 
 would thus mean " the highest imaginable glory." 
 Tacitus, it should be observed, likes occasionally to 
 use philosophical language. 
 
 He retained from his learning that most difficnlt of 
 lessons, moderation. {Retimiitqne, quod est difjicillimiini, 
 ex sapientia modum.) 
 
 " Modum " must mean " moderation," " self-control," 
 what the Greeks expressed by aw(^po(jvuri, or perhaps 
 " the due mean in all things," the to fiecrov of Aristotle. 
 The lesson which Agricola retained from his philo- 
 sophical studies was to avoid excess in any direction, 
 and Tacitus no doubt implies a favourable contrast 
 between him and some of the more extreme Stoics 
 with whom he was acquainted. 
 
 Sah'ius Titiajins. 
 CHAP. VI. He was the elder brother of the Emperor Otho. 
 
 Hozvever, the good wife deserves the girater praise, 
 just as the bad inenrs a heavier censnre. {Nisi quod in 
 bona uxore tanto major laiis, qiianto in mala plus cnlpce 
 est.) 
 
 This sentence is not quite clearly expressed, but 
 the idea is, that the virtues of a good wife arc 
 esteemed more highly by the world than those of a 
 good husband, just as the faults of a bad wife are 
 more severely censured than those of a bad husband. 
 We often hear it said that a bad woman is worse than 
 a bad man.
 
 LIFE OF aGRICOI.A, 53 
 
 The son that had before been born to him. {Filiiim ante chap, vi 
 sublatnm) 
 
 The original would be more nearly represented by 
 the term "acknowled<^ed." A Roman father took up 
 {sHstnlit) the new-born child, thus acknowledging him 
 as his own, and declaring that he was to be reared. 
 Children born in excess of a certain number, post 
 constitntaui faniiliaiii or agjiati, to use Roman phrases, 
 were not reared. Compare Hist. v. 5, Gerraania, 19. 
 
 The usual judicial functions did not fall to his lot. 
 {Nee enini jurisdictio obvencrat.) 
 
 Agricola was neither "praetor urbanus" nor "praetor 
 peregrinus," and Tacitus tells us (Ann. iv. 6) that all 
 cases in which the State was involved, and even all 
 the more important private cases, were disposed of by 
 the Senate, so that his praetorship must have been a 
 sinecure. 
 
 The games and the pageantry of his office he ordered 
 according to the mean bctiveen strictness and profusion, 
 avoiding extravagance biit 7iot missing distinction. 
 {Ludos et inania honoris medio rationis atque abun- 
 dantice duxit, uti longe a luxuria, ita fama propior) 
 
 The general meaning of this passage is sufficiently 
 obvious, but we cannot believe that we have exactly 
 what Tacitus wrote. Whatever reading be adopted, 
 there is extreme difficulty about the word " duxit," to 
 which it seems hardly possible to give any tolerable 
 sense. It can scarcely be equivalent to " edidit," for, 
 as Ernesti pointed out, there is no authority for such 
 an expression as " ducere ludos." It is possible that
 
 54 NOTES ON THE 
 
 CHAP. VI. " duxit ludos " may mean " he nianaged, or regulated 
 the games," and that the idea of the whole sentence 
 is something of this kind : " He guided, or made 
 them pass through the mean between strictness and 
 profusion." Ritter adopts the conjecture of Lipsius, 
 and for "medio rationis" reads " moderationis," and 
 he thinks the sense is : " He considered that the 
 games required for their due celebration a moderate 
 yet, at the same time, a sufficiently ample expenditure." 
 It seems very doubtful whether this meaning can 
 be fairly extracted from the words. For the present, 
 we think we may as well read with Orelli, " medio 
 rationis," which, at all events, has MSS. authority, 
 though we admit we are not satisfied with it. 
 
 The late prcetorian officer {nee legatus preetorius). 
 ^^^i^' This was Roscius Caelius, of whom we are told, 
 Hist. i. 60, that he was on bad terms with the Governor 
 of Britain, Trebellius Maximus, whom he insulted, 
 and actually drove from the province. His audacity, 
 it is here said, gave him the chief influence with the 
 soldiery; here it seems to be implied that he was, 
 perhaps, too weak to control them. The meaning, 
 however, is that either his own seditious temper or 
 that of the soldiers was in fault. As an officer, too, 
 of merely priEtorian rank he would carry less weight 
 than a consular commander. 
 
 He was altogctlier wWtout harshness, pride, or the 
 
 greed of gain. ( Tristitiani cl arrogantiam et avaritiani 
 
 exuerat.) 
 
 ciiAi\ IX. It has been said that " avaritia " cannot have its 
 
 usual meaning in this passage, because it could not be
 
 LIFE OF AGRICOLA. 55 
 
 well joined with " tristitia " and " arroj^antia," which chap, ix 
 denote qualities so widely different, and because, too, 
 we are told immediately afterwards that to speak of 
 purity and integrity in such a man would be an 
 insult to his virtues. Orelli therefore thinks that by 
 " avaritia " is meant extreme sternness and severity in 
 the collection of the revenues.^ It has been explained 
 by some to be excessive parsimony and shabbiness in 
 all money matters. But " avaritia " always seems to 
 have a much stronger meaning than this, and to 
 express an "eager grasping after more." So in this 
 passage we have rendered it the "greed of gain." 
 There might be the anxiety to amass a fortune 
 without anything like actual dishonesty, or, indeed, 
 anything incompatible with the virtues expressed by 
 " integritas " and " abstinentia.'' And a man, in 
 this sense " avarus," might be also "tristis" and 
 " arrogans." 
 
 Many zvriters {jmdtis scriptoribus). 
 
 The reference is to Caesar, Pliny, Ptolemy, Dio- chap, x 
 dorus Siculus, Strabo, Fabius Rusticus, Mela. 
 
 So that it lias become the popular description of the 
 ivJiole island. ( Unde et in universuni fania est trans- 
 grcssa) 
 
 Kritz reads " transgressis " for " transgressa," and 
 explains the passage to mean that those who had 
 crossed over from the continent gave the description 
 of Britain just mentioned to the whole island, i.e. to 
 
 ' Galba is said to have beca " publice avarus."
 
 r.6 NOTES ON THE 
 
 CHAP. X. Britain with Caledonia. " Transgressis " certain!}' 
 has the authority of one MS,, but " transgressa " has 
 the merit of being a clear and intelligible reading, 
 which can hardly be said for the other. Indeed it 
 seems barely possible to get from it the meaning 
 given by Kritz. 
 
 Which as yet had been Jiidden by the snows of winter. 
 [Quani Jiactoius nix et Jiienis abdcbat?) 
 
 We have translated the conjectural reading " quam 
 hactenus nix et hiems abdebat," as perhaps, on the 
 whole, the best, where none are by any means 
 satisfactory. The passage seems too corrupt to 
 admit of certain emendation. 
 
 TJiule can hardly be Iceland. It is more probably 
 Mainland, the largest of the Shetland Isles. 
 
 The dependants fight {propugtiant). 
 
 CHA?. The w^ord may mean "fight from the chariot," or 
 
 merely "fight for him," z>. "do the fighting." The 
 Germans thus reversed, in this case, the practice with 
 which the readers of the Iliad arc familiar. 
 
 Tins Augustus spoke of as poliey, Tiberius as an 
 inJierited maxim. {Consilium id divus A ugustus vocabat, 
 Tiberius prceceptum}) 
 
 CHAP, A passage in Ann. i. 1 1 explains this. Augustus 
 
 added to the Imperial register, written by his own 
 hand, and containing a summary of the resources of 
 the empire, a recommendation that certain fixed 
 limits and boundaries should be observed. Tiberius 
 always professed the greatest respect for everything
 
 LIFE OF AGRICOLA. 57 
 
 said or clone by the father who had adopted him. In cfiAi- 
 
 . XHI. 
 
 Ann. iv. ''^J he is represented as saying that he looked 
 on all the deeds and words of Augustus as law. 
 
 But his purposes, rapidly formed, ivere easily changed. 
 {Ni velox iugeuio, mobilis pamitentice^ 
 
 Here we have translated from Orelli. Kritz reads 
 " mobili " for " mobilis," and construes "velox" with 
 " poenitentije," which he takes as a genitive, and 
 would render the words thus : " swift to repent, 
 because of his fickle temper." But the passage to 
 which he refers us (Ann. vi. 45), "commotus ingenio" 
 (which expression is also used of Caligula), does not 
 convince us that he is right. His reading perhaps 
 makes the construction a little neater ; still we do not 
 see why " mobilis poenitentiae " is not a legitimate 
 expression. 
 
 TJie first to renczv the attciupt. (A uetor iterati operis.) 
 
 Nothing can be made out of the reading of the 
 MSS., " auctoritate operis," which Orelli leaves as he 
 finds. We have adopted what we look on as the 
 almost certain emendation of Wex and Doderlin 
 (" auctor iterati operis "), Avhich Kritz approves. By 
 " opus " is to be understood the laborious and difficult 
 operation of invading and conquering Britain, which 
 Julius CiJesar was the first, and Claudius the second, 
 to attempt. " Auctor," though usually applied to 
 one who begins a work, means also one who com- 
 pletes it.
 
 58 NOTES ON THE 
 
 CHAP. Destiny learnt to know its favourite (inonstratns fatis 
 
 XIII. -^ .,. . , ^ -^ 
 
 /-- espasianns). 
 
 " Fatis " must, we think, be the dative. If it were 
 the ablative, the preposition " a " seems wanted. The 
 meaning would then be, " Vespasian was marked out 
 by destiny." Ernesti, and after him Orelli, explain 
 the passage to mean that he was " pointed out to," 
 and, so to speak, commended to destiny and fortune 
 as one worthy of empire. We think they are right. 
 
 A colony of veterans mas also introduced. [Addita 
 insnpcr vcteranornm colonial) 
 
 n^AP. Tacitus means Camalodunum (Colchester). " Cam.a- 
 
 lus " answered to Mars ; hence " Camalodunum," the 
 city of Mars. 
 
 Of having enlarged the sphere of government {fania 
 aiicti officii^) 
 
 The "officium " of a governor would be to maintain 
 the boundaries of his province ; if he enlarged them, 
 he might be said "augcrc ofhcium." This appears to 
 be the meaning of the expression. 
 
 The centurions of the one, the slaves of the other, 
 combine violence with insult. {A Iter ins man us centuri- 
 ones alterius servos vim ct contumeliani miscet'e.) 
 
 CHAP. There is here some confusion in the MSS., and one 
 
 is obliged to have recourse to conjecture. Orelli, 
 following Od. Miiller, reads "alterius manus centu- 
 riones, alterius servos;" and explains it thus, "the 
 instruments of the one, i.e. the legate, are his centu- 
 rions." lie illustrates this use of " manus" from Cic. 
 
 XV.
 
 LIFE OF AGRICOLA. 59 
 
 VciT. ii. i8, 27 : " Comites illi tui dclecti 7uauus erant '"xv'"' 
 tuae." But the construction is awkward, and the 
 word " esse " seems to be absolutely required, to 
 answer to " miscere." We have here followed Ritter. 
 who omits " manus," which he thinks found its way 
 into the text by way of an attempted correction. 
 The MSS. generally have " centurionis," and it was 
 this genitive which he supposes caused perplexity. 
 Ritter's conjecture is perhaps as good as any, where 
 all are very doubtful. 
 
 Excellent as lie zuas in other respects. {Ni, qnani- 
 qnam egrcgius cetera, &c.) 
 
 We have followed Orelli and Wex, who read "ni" chap. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 Kritz reads "ne," as being closer to the MSS., which 
 have " nequaquam." This, of course, entirely alters 
 the meaning of the passage, and makes it point to the 
 apprehensions of the Britons, instead of being the 
 historian's assertion as a matter of fact. But the 
 words "quamquam egregius cetera," which must, we 
 think, be meant to express Tacitus's own view of 
 Paullinus, seem to be in this case very awkwardly 
 interposed. We therefore prefer "ni" to " ne." 
 
 Trcbellins, wJio never ventured 07i a campaign {nullis 
 castrornm expcrimentis. ) 
 
 The meaning is that Trebellius was only a carpet 
 soldier. The ablative "nullis expcrimentis" de- 
 scribes his character ; he had had no actual experience 
 of war.
 
 60 NOTES ON THE 
 
 When hozvever Vespasian had restored to tuiity 
 Britain as well as the rest of the luorld. {Sed iibi cum 
 cetero orbe ct Britanniani recuperavit.) 
 
 CHAP. As Vespasian cannot well be said to have "recovered " 
 
 XVI ! 
 
 or "reconquered" the world, we have rendered the 
 word " recuperavit," " restored to unity." The Empire 
 had been distracted by civil war ; Vespasian's ac- 
 cession to power restored peace and unity. What 
 was lost was in this sense recovered. Possibly too 
 there may be latent in the word "recuperavit" the 
 idea that Vespasian was eminently worthy of empire. 
 
 Any other successor. {A iter ins s/iccessoris.) 
 
 Kritz understands by "alterius" not Frontinns the 
 immediate successor of Cerialis, but Agricola, the 
 successor of Montinus. Is not this over subtle .-* We 
 suppose he will not allow "alter" to have the sense 
 of "different." But has it not this sense, Hist. ii. 90, 
 " tamquam apud alterius civitatis senatum" .-* Besides 
 it is extremely improbable that Tacitus would even 
 suggest a comparison between Cerialis and the great 
 man whose life he was writing. 
 
 Moved him in the selection of centurions ami soldiers. 
 {Milites ascir'c.) 
 
 CHAT'. The i\TSS. (which OrcUi follows) have " nescire," 
 
 ^^^' from which it seems impossible to extract any 
 
 tolerable meaning. We think "ascire" (which Wex 
 
 and Kritz read) an almost certain emendation. The 
 
 allusion is to what was called the " cohors pr^etoris,"
 
 LIFE OF AGRICOLA. Ql 
 
 which is continually mentioned by Cicero in his chap 
 speeches, and which was made up of lictors, secre- 
 taries, criers, and various attendants on the governor 
 of a province. They were commonly selected from 
 the soldiers, and, as they were exempted from all 
 purely military duties, they were called "beneficiarii." 
 
 HitJicrto the people had been compelled to endure the 
 farce of waiting by the closed granary and of pur- 
 chasing corn nnjicccssarily and raising it to a fictitious 
 price. {Nanique per ludibrium assidere clausis horreis 
 ct emere ultra frumenta ac ludcre pretio cogebantur^ 
 
 There is some difficulty about " ludere pretio," to 
 which, as appearing in the MSS., Orelli adheres. 
 Ritter substitutes for "ludere" the rare word "col- 
 ludere," which is found in the sense of " to be in 
 collusion with," and is so used by Cicero (Verr. ii. 2, 24). 
 It would no doubt suit this passage very well. But 
 it is quite conceivable that Tacitus might use " ludere" 
 in the same sense. He often prefers simple words 
 to compound. The force of the word turns on the 
 fact that the whole affair was a kind of jest and 
 mockery ; they were bidding one against another 
 without any real necessity, and thus absurdly raising 
 the price. It was not a bona, fide transaction ; it was 
 a species of mock auction. "Ludere pretio" must be 
 a similar phrase to " ludere alea." By the " closed 
 granaries" we understand the public granaries, which 
 would be under the control of the governer. The 
 "publicani" would buy up all the corn of the 
 country and store it in these granaries, so that the
 
 G2 NOTES ON THE 
 
 CHAP, farmers would be obliged to buy it back on whatever 
 terms they could, and the price would be greatly 
 enhanced by their competition. Cicero charges Verres 
 with having oppressed his province in this among 
 many other ways. Wex's emendation of "lucre," 
 which he explains by " luere imperata" (to discharge 
 was required of them), is ingenious, but seems 
 unnecessary. Kritz conjectures "recludere" in the 
 sense of "to close again." We doubt whether the 
 word will bear this meaning. 
 
 But the Britons, tJiinkiiig tJicniselves baffled, &c. 
 {At Britanni i-ati.) 
 
 CHAP. Here we have adopted the conjecture of Kritz, who 
 
 ^^''^'' supplies "elusos" before "rati" a word which Tacitus 
 elsewhere uses absolutely. Wex and Orelli think 
 there is a more considerable lacuna in the passage. 
 
 The same summer a Usipian coJiort, zvhich had 
 been levied in Germany and transported into Britain, 
 ventured on a great and memorable exploit. {Eddcm 
 (Estate cohors Usipiormn, per Germajiias eonscripta et in 
 Britanniajn transmissa, magmim et memorabile f acinus 
 ausa est) 
 
 CHAP. The Usipii are mentioned (Germ. 32) with the 
 
 x.Kviii. Yenctcj-i, as dwellers on the Rhine. (See Sketch of 
 the Geography of the Germania.) This Usipian 
 cohort, levied in Germany {per Germanias, that is, 
 the Roman provinces of Upper and Lower Germany), 
 belonged probably to the troops which Agricola, in
 
 LIFE OF AGRICOLA. 63 
 
 his fifth campaign, had posted in that part of Britain ^^^^-^ 
 which looks towards Ireland (ch. 24), and which con- 
 sequently, would be in the neighbourhood of the 
 Frith of Clyde. The " memorable exploit on which 
 they ventured" is mentioned also by Dion, who tells 
 us (Ixvi. 20) that, having mutinied, they put out to 
 sea, sailed round the western parts of Britain, as the 
 wind and waves carried them, and eventually reached 
 Agricola's camp on the other side of the island. 
 This account is certainly less vague than that of 
 Tacitus, and it would seem to imply that they sailed 
 from the Frith of Clyde round the north of Scotland 
 and then down the eastern coast to the Frith of Forth. 
 Once in the German Ocean, it is perfectly conceivable 
 that they might have been carried to some point on 
 the German coast, near the mouth of the Weser or 
 the Elbe. Had they sailed southwards round 
 Cornwall, and entered the British Channel, as some 
 have supposed, it is difficult to see how this could 
 have happened. Tacitus and Dion cannot well be 
 reconciled except on the supposition that they sailed 
 round Scotland. Dr. Merivale thinks that all they 
 did was to run down the east coast from the Forth 
 till they came opposite Friesland. In fact, he rejects 
 Dion's account. (See " Hist, of Romans under the 
 Empire," ch. Ixi.) 
 
 Dispersing in search of zvater. (Mox ad aquaju, &c.) 
 
 This is one of those passages from which no 
 meaning can be extracted, except by very hazardous 
 conjecture. Orelli leaves it.
 
 64 NOTES ON THE 
 
 ciTAP. TJiis remote sanctuary of Britain's glory has up 
 
 to this time been a defence. (Recessus ipse ac sinus 
 fames in Jtunc diem defendit.) 
 
 We think it far better to take " famae " as the 
 genitive depending on "sinus" than, with Orelli, as a 
 dative governed by " defendit." He compares such 
 passages as Virg. Ec. vii. 47, " Solstitium pecori de- 
 fendite," and Hor. Car. i. 17, 3, "Defendit asstatem 
 capelHs ; " and he renders the passage thus : " the 
 very remoteness of our situation protects us from 
 fame," i.e. as yet we are all but unknown. This seems 
 obscure and far-fetched, and though no doubt "sinus 
 fama; " is a bold expression, still we tliink Tacitus 
 may have used it to denote "the last and most remote 
 retreat of glory ; " or he may possibly have wished 
 to convey the notion that fame, like a tutelary god- 
 dess, was folding the Caledonians to her bosom. 
 Ritter takes this last view. 
 
 Never likely to abuse our freedom {libcrtatem non in 
 pQ:nitentiam laturi). 
 
 CHAP. It is not easy to give the force of these words, or 
 
 indeed to construe them. The meaning seems to be, 
 "We are not likely to bear our freedom so as after- 
 wards to have cause for sorrow that we have been 
 free." The Brigantes had been spoilt by success, or 
 they would have recovered their freedom. Galgacus 
 implies that success will not have the same bad effect 
 on his people, but that they will use their freedom 
 better, and hold it fast.
 
 LIFE OF AGRICOLA. 65 
 
 The toivns are ilL-affected. {^gra iniaiicipia) 
 Wex and Kritz read " mancipia " for " municipia." chap. 
 
 XXXII 
 
 Wex says that there are two objections to "muni- 
 cipia ; " (i) We know only of one " municipium " in 
 Britain, Verulamium ; (2) "aegra" would not mean 
 "wavering" or "disloyal," but disturbed by internal 
 faction. But is not the passage clearly rhetorical, and 
 may it not be compared with the " incensae coloniae " 
 in ch. V. ? Strictly speaking, we know only of one 
 " colonia," Camalodunum. It is quite possible that 
 Camalodunum, Verulamium, and Londinium may be 
 loosely described under the term " municipia." As 
 to the word " aeger," it seems rash to pronounce that 
 its original meaning "feeble," "unsound," may not be 
 transferred to the idea of "doubtful loyalty," as much 
 as to that of "internal discord." We see no great 
 force in Wex's remark that, if Galgacus had meant 
 to speak of the doubtful attitude of the " municipia " 
 towards the Romans, he would have rather chosen 
 a word which expressed the recovery of health. 
 Relatively to the Romans, the municipia were in an 
 unhealthy state (czgra). In our translation we have, 
 for the above reasons, adhered to Orelli's reading, 
 municipia. 
 
 Ah that is commonly given in place of the triumphal pro- 
 cession {quidquid pro triumpho datur). 
 By this seems to be meant what was called the ^5^^" 
 " supplicatio," a formal thanksgiving to the gods when 
 a great victory had been gained. It took place 
 before the triumphal procession {triumpJius), but 
 was not always followed by it. 
 
 F 
 
 XL.
 
 66 NOTES ON THE 
 
 He studiously cultivated rctiremoit and leisure. ( Tran- 
 qiiillitateni atque otiiim penitus auxit. 
 CHAP. •\^e doubt whether " auxit " (the established reading) 
 
 will bear the meaning which we have given to it, or, 
 indeed, any meaning. Wex conjectures "hausit" 
 (drank deep of). 
 
 During this time he zuas frequently accused before 
 Domitian in his absence. {Crebro per eos dies apud 
 Domitianuni absens accusatus}) 
 
 CHAP. Agricola had for enemies such men as M. Regulus, 
 
 XLI . . 
 
 Veiento, Publius Certus, all notorious "delatores." 
 
 An ostentatious deatJi (auibitiosd morte). 
 
 CHAP. " Ambitiosa mors " is a death by which a man seeks 
 
 glory. The word " ambitiosus " comes very near to 
 our " ostentatious." 
 
 For he could now forget his enmity {securus jam 
 odii). 
 
 xLm' ^^ observe that Dr. Merivale, in a paraphrase of 
 
 this passage in chap. Ixii. of his " History of the 
 Romans under the Empire," takes these words in the 
 sense of "though reckless by this time of popular 
 hatred." But we think it more probable that by 
 "odium" is meant Domitian's hatred of Agricola, 
 and that it is better and simpler to take "securus 
 odii " as an explanation of the reason why he now 
 showed his sorrow. This was the view of Lipsius, 
 and it is approved by Orelli. So too Louandre : 
 "Tranquillc desormais sur I'objet de sa haine."
 
 LIFE OF AGRICOLA. 67 
 
 The walls of Alba {Albanam ajxein). 
 
 ^ , „ _ . . . CHAP 
 
 By "arx Albana Tacitus means a favourite country- xlv. 
 house of Domitian's at the foot of the " Mons Alba- 
 nus," and seventeen miles from Rome. Here he would 
 receive information, and occasionally even summon a 
 meeting of the Senate. Juvenal designates it by the 
 same term (Sat. iv. 145) : — 
 
 " Misso proceres exire jubentur, 
 Consilio quos Albanam dux niagnus in arcem 
 Traxerat. " 
 
 Suetonius (Domitian, iv.) says that here too the Em- 
 peror celebrated every year the festival of Minerva. 
 
 Carus Metius was one of the most notorious of the 
 " delatores " in the time of Domitian. He is named 
 by Juvenal (i. 36), by Martial (xii. 25), and by Pliny, 
 who (Epist. vii. 19) says that there was found in the 
 Emperor's desk after his death an information against 
 himself 
 
 Messalinus. This was the infamous Catullus Mes- 
 salinus, whom Juvenal (iv. 115) thus describes : — 
 
 "Grande et conspicuum nostro quoque tempore monstrum." 
 
 He was blind, and Pliny (Epist. iv. 22) tells us that 
 "to a savage temper he added all the evil qualities 
 which sometimes accompany blindness; he knew 
 neither fear, or shame, or pity, and the Emperor would 
 make use of him, as one might throw a weapon at 
 random, for the destruction of all the best citizens." 
 He is probably the man who, according to Josephus 
 (Bell. Jud. vii. il), was governor of the Libyan Pen- 
 tapolis in the reigns of Vespasian and Titus, and 
 
 F2
 
 68 NOTES ON THE 
 
 CHAP, there contrived to involve a number of Jev/ish pro- 
 vincials, and Josephus among them, in a false charge 
 of treason. 
 
 Massa Bccbius. Massa Baebius is mentioned in the 
 Hist. (iv. 50) as one of the procurators of Africa, "a 
 name even then fatal to the good, and destined often 
 to reappear among the causes of the sufferings which 
 we had ere long to endure." The reference in the 
 i)resent passage is to his impeachment by the pro- 
 vince of Baitica, which, as governor, he had plundered 
 and oppressed. The j'ounger Pliny and Herennius 
 Senecio defended the provincials. Baebius was con- 
 demned. 
 
 Helvidms. Helvidius was an intimate friend of 
 the younger Pliny. He was one of Domitian's many 
 victims. Pliny tells us (Epist. ix. 13) that after the 
 Emperor's death he made up his mind to avenge the 
 murder of his friend by impeaching the man who 
 had been his bitterest accuser, one Publicius Certus, a 
 senator of praetorian rank. Helvidius was the son 
 of the Helvidius Priscus whom Tacitus praises so 
 warmly (Hist. iv. 5), who was the son-in-law of Paetus 
 Thrasea, and who owed his death under Vespasian to 
 liis courageous freedom of speech. The charge against 
 him, as we learn from Suetonius (Uomit. x.), was that 
 in a comic piece which he had composed under the 
 title of " Paris and CEnone," he had really ridiculed 
 the Emperor's divorce from one of his wives. With 
 an obsequious Senate such a charge proved fatal to 
 him. Tacitus says ^^ our hands," because he was him- 
 self a senator, though it is doubtful whether he v/as 
 at Rome at the time.
 
 LIFE OF AGRICOLA. 69 
 
 Mmiriais, Rusticus, Scnecio. See notes on ch. Ii. chap. 
 
 That savage countenance, reddened with the hue with 
 which he defied shame [scBvns illc vnltus ct rubor quo 
 se contra pudorem viipiiebat). 
 
 A passage in the Hist, (iv, 40) illustrates the word 
 "rubor." We are told that on the occasion of Do- 
 mitian's taking his seat in the Senate and making his 
 first speech, "the frequent blush on his countenance 
 passed for modesty." Suetonius (Domit. xviii.), in 
 describing his appearance, mentions " a redness of 
 face" as one of his natural peculiarities. 
 
 With transitory praises {temporalibns laudibus). 
 
 Ritter, following Lipsius, reads " immortalibus" for chap. 
 the rare word " temporalibus " which is found in the 
 MSS. We cannot see that anything is thus gained ; 
 indeed we think that the context is rather in favour of 
 "temporalibus" in the sense of "feeble, transitory." 
 The meaning appears to be : " Feeble though we are, 
 let us do our best to honour Agricola with such 
 praises and such imitation as our powers permit." The 
 epithet "immortalis" would not suit this meaning. 
 Tacitus is not speaking of this particular memoir, 
 but of the every-day praises which Agricola's family 
 would bestow on him.
 
 GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES.
 
 INTRODUCTION TO THE 
 GERMANY. 
 
 The following passage of the Germany^ enables us 
 to fix the date of its composition. " Rome was in 
 her 640th year when we first heard of the Cimbrian 
 invader in the consulship of Csecilius Metellus and 
 Papirius Carbo, from which time to the second consul- 
 ship of the Emperor Trajan we find to be an interval 
 of about 210 years." It must, therefore, have been 
 written A.U.C. 851, A.D. 98. 
 
 Various, some of them extravagantly wild, conjec- 
 tures have been hazarded as to the purpose of the 
 work. It would tax our ingenuity to imagine a more 
 improbable supposition than that Tacitus deliberately 
 intended to furnish Trajan with information about the 
 character and situation of the dififerent Germanic 
 tribes, with a view to the invasion and possible con- 
 quest of the country. The Emperor, we have little 
 doubt, knew quite as much about Germany as the 
 historian, and, had he known less, it is difficult to see 
 how the vague and imperfect descriptions of the work 
 in question could have helped him in planning a cam- 
 
 ^ Germany, chap. 37.
 
 74 INTRODUCTION TO 
 
 paign. Of this Tacitus must have been well aware. 
 A much more plausible notion, and one which has 
 found favour with several editors and translators, is, 
 that in the rude and simple virtues of the Germans 
 Tacitus saw a conspicuous contrast to Roman degen- 
 eracy, as well as the germs of future greatness. We 
 think there is probably some truth in this view, though 
 we cannot give it our unqualified assent. There are 
 certainly passages in the Germany which suggest a 
 comparison between the merits of barbarian simplicity 
 and the complicated evils of a highly artificial and 
 luxurious civilization. But while Tacitus dwells on 
 the virtues of the Germans, he shows that he was 
 by no means insensible to their weaknesses and vices. 
 He particularly mentions their extreme addiction to 
 drunkenness and gambling. While he recognises in 
 them a formidable foe to the Empire, and is prompted 
 in one place ^ to speak of them with an almost savage 
 hatred, he still seems to have thought meanly of their 
 capacity for united action. We see no reason for believ- 
 ing that he anticipated fatal disasters to Rome from 
 the side of Germany, or that he dimly perceived the 
 signs of a new world in the many noble qualities of 
 its free and brave peoples. Tacitus was a thorough 
 and genuine Roman ; though he feared and hated the 
 corruptions of his age, and perhaps felt with satis- 
 faction that his work was an indirect satire on them, 
 yet he appears to have had great confidence in the 
 destinies of Rome — a confidence which was, no doubt, 
 strengthened by the outward splendour and prosperity 
 of Trajan's reign. 
 
 1 Germany, chap. 33.
 
 THE GERMANY. 75 
 
 If we are to indulge in conjecture, we should say 
 that the passage^ in which he enumerates the Roman 
 losses in Germany explains the historian's motive. 
 His imagination was evidently impressed by the com- 
 bined phenomena of a multitude of fierce independent 
 tribes, and of an indefinite tract of country, "brist- 
 ling," as he describes it, " with forests, or reeking with 
 swamps." The apparent impossibility of ever bring- 
 ing it within the limits of the Empire, and the vaguely 
 terrible stories which were certain to be current at 
 Rome about the horrors of the climate and the strange 
 aspect and ferocious barbarism of the inhabitants, 
 would be certain to invest the subject with interest 
 for Roman readers. 
 
 Ritter^ has somewhat ingeniously, and not un- 
 reasonably, suggested that Tacitus intended the Ger- 
 many to be a kind of explanatory appendix to the 
 History, in which he has frequently occasion to de- 
 scribe campaigns of which that country was the scene. 
 There is nothing in this notion which necessarily 
 clashes with the hints which we have just thrown out. 
 It derives, perhaps, some support from the fact that 
 the Germany is the only work of Tacitus which has 
 no kind of preface. We attach little importance to 
 Ritter's remark that it may be compared to the 
 sketch-^ of the origin and manners of the Jews, only 
 that, from its greater length, it could not have con- 
 veniently found a place in the History, We are by 
 no means convinced that it was not designed to be a 
 
 1 Germany, chap. 37. = Ritter, Tacit. Proemium, 9. 
 
 ^ See Hist. v. 2 -ix.
 
 76 INTRODUCTION TO 
 
 distinct and complete work in itself, and we think it 
 at least probable that some intimation would have 
 been given of the character and purpose which Ritter 
 assigns to it. 
 
 Another question which can be answered only by- 
 conjecture is, " What were Tacitus's sources of infor- 
 mation respecting Germany ? Was he personally 
 acquainted with the country, or did he rely solely on 
 the accounts of others ? " On this point we have no 
 evidence whatever; we are dependent wholly on what 
 can be inferred from his works. Kritz, in the preface 
 to his edition of the Germany, published in i860, 
 argues very confidently, from certain passages, that 
 Tacitus had visited the country. He notices the use 
 of German words, such as fravica (spear), glesuvi 
 (amber), as implying some knowledge of the language. 
 He thinks that some of the descriptions — those, for 
 instance, of the houses and of the cattle — seem to 
 come from an eye-witness ; and that here and there 
 an expression indicates that the writer's information 
 was drawn from the natives. But we cannot see why 
 all this may not be accounted for by supposing that 
 Tacitus had often conversed with Roman officers who 
 had served in Germany. He must have had many 
 opportunities of learning all that he has told us about 
 the country and its people. The elder Pliny, who 
 knew it personally from military service, had described 
 in twenty books, now lost, the Germanic wars, a work 
 which, from its length, may be supposed to have 
 treated the subject exhaustively. Whether Tacitus, 
 as has been thought, passed those last four years of 
 Agricola's life (a.d. 89 to 93), of which he speaks
 
 THE GERMANY, 77 
 
 with such sadness/ ia Germany, must be matter of 
 pure conjecture. 
 
 The Germany presents a number of difficult geo- 
 graphical and ethnological questions. The latter we 
 have not attempted to discuss. For the geography, 
 which Tacitus very imperfectly defines, we have con- 
 sulted, among others. Dr. Latham's edition, which 
 is full of curious and interesting matter. The map 
 exhibits only those tribes which are mentioned in the 
 work. In the Annals and History there occur several 
 names'- which are not found iii the Germany. The 
 omission was not, as far as we can see, intentional. 
 It was due, probably, to the incompleteness of the 
 historian's knowledge. 
 
 It is to be observed that, by Germany, Tacitus 
 means what the Romans spoke of as " Germany 
 beyond the Rhine," as distinguished from the pro- 
 vinces of Upper and Lower Germany on the west 
 bank of the river, 
 
 ^ Life of Agricola, chap. 45. 
 
 * The Sugambri, Gugerni, Ampsivarii, Tubantes, Canninefates.
 
 GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES TO 
 THE GERMANY. 
 
 The Germany of Tacitus is, as we should expect, an 
 ill-defined geographical area. The Rhine and Danube 
 are its western and southern boundaries. The Rhine 
 divided it from Gaul, the Danube from Vindelicia, 
 Noricum, and Pannonia. Its eastern boundary, which 
 parted it from Dacia and Sarmatia, is vaguely de- 
 scribed as " mutuus metus aut montes" (ch. i). Ap- 
 proximately, however, we may say that a point in 
 the Danube a little above Pesth, where the river 
 makes a sharp bend, is its south-eastern corner. If 
 from this point we draw a straight line to Cracow, 
 and then follow the course of the Vistula, we shall 
 get what nearly represents the eastern boundary. 
 Tacitus certainly mentions tribes which must have 
 been to the east of the Vistula, but he intimates that 
 it is doubtful whether they were, for the most part, 
 properly German. Northwards lay the imperfectly 
 known regions of the Baltic, which he speaks of as 
 "broad promontories and vast islands" (ch. i). All 
 this he includes in Germany, which he therefore con- 
 ceived as comprehending Scandinavia, and as having
 
 GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES TO THE GERMANY. 79 
 
 no known boundary on the north. For the assistance 
 of our readers, we have given in the following table 
 the modern localities of the various tribes which he 
 mentions. This of course cannot be done with abso- 
 lute precision. 
 
 We have thought it unnecessary that all these tribes 
 should appear in the map. 
 
 yEstii (chap 45). — The yEstii occupied that part 
 of Prussia which is to the north-east of the Vistula. 
 Their northern boundary was the Baltic (" Suevi- 
 cum Mare "). The name still survives in the form 
 " Estonia." 
 
 Angli (chap. 40). — The Angll were a Suevic clan. 
 They occupied, probably, the larger part of Sleswick- 
 Holstein, and, possibly, the northern districts of 
 Hanover. 
 
 Angrivarii (chap. 33). — The settlements of the 
 Angrivarii were to the v/est of the Weser (Visurgis), 
 in the neighbourhood of Minden and Herford, and 
 thus coincide, to some extent, with Westphalia. Their 
 territory Avas the scene of Varus' defeat. It has been 
 thought that the name of this tribe is preserved in 
 that of the town Engern. 
 
 Aravisci (chap. 28). — The locality of the Aravisci 
 was the extreme north-eastern part of the province of 
 Pannonia, and would thus stretch from Vienna (Vin- 
 dobona) eastwards to Raab (Arrabo), taking in a por- 
 tion of the south-west of Hungary. 
 - Aviones (chap. 40). — The Aviones were a Suevic 
 clan. They are mentioned by Tacitus in connexion 
 with the Reudigni, Angli, Varini, Eudoses, Suardones, 
 and Nuithones, all Suevic clans. These tribes must
 
 80 GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES 
 
 have occupied Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Mecklenburg- 
 Strelitz, and Sleswick-Holstein, the Elbe being their 
 eastern boundary. It is, however, impossible to de- 
 fine their precise localities. 
 
 BastarncB (chap. 46). — The same as the Peucini. 
 
 Batavi (chap. 29). — The Batavi, originally a tribe 
 of the Chatti, occupied what Tacitus here calls " the 
 island of the Rhine," which (Hist. iv. 12) he explains 
 to be the island formed by the ocean on the north, 
 and by the Rhine on the east and west. Caesar (Bell. 
 Gall. iv. 10) speaks of it as the "insula Batavorum " 
 (by which name it was generally known), and defines 
 it rather more exactly as formed by the Rhine, the 
 Waal, and the Meuse. It would thus be the strip 
 of Holland on the Avest bank of the Rhine, from about 
 Arnheim to Rotterdam, But the name Batavi seems to 
 have extended beyond Caesar's limits, and to have 
 reached as far as Leyden (" Lugdunum Batavorum "). 
 
 Boil (chap. 28). — The Boii, a Gallic tribe, occupied 
 the eastern portion of Bavaria, and, probably, a con- 
 siderable part of Bohemia, which derives its name 
 from them. 
 
 ^r«r/m (chap. 33). — The original settlements of the 
 Bructeri, from which they were driven by the Cha- 
 mavi and Angrivarii, seem to have been between the 
 Rhine and the Ems, on either side of the Lippe. 
 Their destruction could hardly have been so complete 
 as Tacitus represents, as they are subsequently men- 
 tioned by Claudian, " Paneg}Tis de Quarto Consulatu 
 Ilonorii," 450 : — 
 
 " Venit accola silvse 
 Bructeitis Ilercyniie."
 
 TO THE GERMANY. 81 
 
 Biu'i (chap. 43).- — The Buri were a Suevic clan. 
 Their settlements were in the neighbourhood of 
 Cracow. 
 
 Chamavi (chap. 33). — The Chamavi (named with 
 the Angrivarii) seem to have been originally settled 
 on the banks of the Ems, about Osnabruck, and pro- 
 bably extended westwards as far as the Weser. 
 
 Chasiiarii (chap. 34). — The Chasuarii are coupled 
 with the Dulgubini. Both tribes probably dwelt on 
 the eastern side of the Weser, round Buckeburg. 
 
 Chatti (chap. 30). — The settlements of the Chatti, 
 one of the chief German tribes, apparently coincide 
 with portions of Westphalia, Nas.sau, Hesse-Darm- 
 stadt, and Hesse-Cassel. Dr. Latham assumes the 
 Chatti of Tacitus to be the Suevi of Ca;sar. The 
 fact that the name Chatti does not occur in Caesar 
 renders this hypothesis by no means improbable. 
 
 CJiauci (chap. 35). — The settlements of the Chauci 
 were, according to Tacitus, very extensive, and 
 stretched from the North Sea, southwards, as far as 
 the territories of the Chatti. They must, conse- 
 quently, have included almost the entire country 
 between the Ems and the Weser — that is, Oldenburg 
 and part of Hanover — and have taken in portions of 
 Westphalia about Munster and Paderborn. 
 
 Cherusci (chap. yS). — The Cherusci were neighbours 
 of the Chauci and Chatti. They appear to have 
 occupied Brunswick and the south part of Hanover. 
 Arminius, who destroyed the Roman array under 
 Varus, was a Cheruscan chief. 
 
 Cirnbri (chap. 2^1)- — The Cimbri, in the time of 
 Tacitus, occupied Jutland. 
 
 G
 
 82 GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES 
 
 Dulgiibini (chap. 34). — See Chasuarii. 
 
 Elisii (chap. 43). — The Ehsii were a clan of the 
 Ligii. See Ligii. 
 
 Eudoses (chap. 40). — The Eudoses were a Suevic 
 clan. See Aviones. 
 
 Fcnni (chap. 46). — The Fenni were the inhabitants 
 of Finland. 
 
 Fosi (chap. 36). — The Fosi were neighbours of the 
 Cherusci, probably to the north, and must have occu- 
 pied part of Hanover. 
 
 Frisii (chap. 34). — The Frisii occupied the north- 
 eastern corner of Holland. 
 
 GotJiini (chap. 43). — The Gothini are probably to 
 be placed in Silesia, about Breslau. 
 
 Gothones (chap. 43). — The Gothones probably dwelt 
 on either side of the Vistula, the Baltic being their 
 northern boundary. Consequently, their settlements 
 would coincide with portions of Pomerania and 
 Prussia. Dr. Latham thinks they were identical with 
 the yEstii. 
 
 Harii (chap. 43). — The Harii were a clan of the 
 Ligii. See Ligii. 
 
 Hcllusii (chap. 46). — The Hcllusii (with the Oxi- 
 ones) are mentioned as a fabulous tribe. Tacitus 
 must have heard vaguely of the Finns and Lap- 
 landers. 
 
 Helvccones (chap. 43). — See IJgii. 
 
 Hclvetii (chap. 28). — The Hclvetii, originally a 
 Gallic tribe, crossed the Rhine, and occupied parts of 
 what is now Baden and Wurtemburg. 
 
 Hej'juujiduri (chap. 41). — The settlements of the 
 Hermunduri must have been in Bavaria, and seem to
 
 TO THE GERMANY. 83 
 
 have stretched from Ratisbon, northwards, as far as 
 Bohemia and Saxony. The Saal (which Tacitus mis- 
 takes for the Elbe) has its sources in the country 
 occupied by this tribe. 
 
 Lemovii (chap. 43). — The Lemovii dwelt on the 
 coast, probably in the neighbourhood of Danzig. 
 They bordered on the Gothones, to the west, as we 
 think most probable. 
 
 Ligii (chap. 43). — The Ligii were a widely-spread 
 tribe, comprehending several clans. Tacitus names the 
 Harii, Helvecones, Manimi, Elisii, and Nahanarvali. 
 Their territory was between the Oder and Vistula, 
 and would include the greater part of Poland, and 
 probably a portion of Silesia. 
 
 Langobaj'di (chap. 40). — The settlements of the 
 Langobardi w^ere on the west bank of the Elbe, about 
 Luneburg. 
 
 Manimi (chap. 43). — See Ligii. 
 
 Marcomanni (chap. 43). — The Marcomanni pro- 
 bably occupied the southern portions of Bohemia. 
 Marcomanni = men of the " marches." 
 
 Marsigni (chap. 43). — The Marsigni were a Suevic 
 clan, and probably dwelt on the borders of Silesia and 
 Bohemia, in the neighbourhood of Glatz. 
 
 Mattiaci (chap. 29). — The Mattiaci are to be placed 
 in Nassau, about Wiesbaden. So Zeuss infers from 
 Pliny (xxxi. 2), who says that there are warm baths 
 at Mattiacum, in Germany. 
 
 Nahanarvali (chap. 43). — See Ligii. 
 
 Naristi, Narisci (chap. 42). — The Naristi seem to 
 have been settled about Ratisbon, between the 
 Danube and the Bohemian frontier. 
 
 G 2
 
 84 GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES 
 
 Nemetes (chap. 28). — The Nemetes are named with 
 the Triboci and Vangiones. These tribes dwelt on 
 the west bank of the Rhine, in what is now Rhenish 
 Bavaria. 
 
 Nervii (chap. 28). — The Nervii dwelt on the banks 
 of the Meuse. Caesar speaks of them as one of the 
 most warlike peoples of Gaul, Tacitus doubts whether 
 they, as well as the Trcveri whom he names with 
 them, were of German origin. The settlements of the 
 Treveri were on the banks of the Moselle. 
 
 Niiitliones (chap. 40). — The Nuithones were a Sue- 
 vie clan. See Aviones. 
 
 Osi (chaps. 28, 43). — The Osi seem to have dwelt 
 near the sources of the Oder and the Vistula, under 
 the Carpathian Mountains. They would thus have 
 occupied a part of Gallicia. 
 
 Oxioncs (chap. 46). — See Hellusii. 
 
 Pcucini (chap. 46). — The Peucini derived their name 
 from the little island Peuce (Piczino), at the mouth 
 of the Danube. Pliny (iv. 14) speaks of them as a 
 German people bordering on the Daci. They would 
 thus stretch through Moldavia from the Carpathian 
 Mountains to the Black Sea. Under the name Bas- 
 tarnae they are mentioned by Livy (xl. 57, 58) as 
 a powerful people, who helped Philip, king of Mace- 
 donia, in his wars with the Romans. Plutarch 
 (" Life of PauUus .^milius," ch. ix.) says they were 
 the same as the Galatai, who dwelt round the Istei 
 (Danube). If so, they were Gauls, which Livy also 
 implies. 
 
 Quadi (chap. 42). — The Quadi probably occupied 
 Moravia.
 
 TO THE GERMANY. 85 
 
 Reudigni (chap. 40). — The Reudigni were a Suevic 
 clan. See Aviones. 
 
 Rugii (chap. 43). — The Rugii were a coast-tribe, 
 and seem to have occupied the extreme north of 
 Pomerania, about the mouth of the Oder. The Isle 
 of Rugen is thought to have derived its name from 
 them. 
 
 Sarmatce (chap. 46). — Tacitus distinguishes the Sar- 
 matae from the Germans. By Sarmatia he seems to 
 have understood what is now Moldavia and Wallachia, 
 and perhaps part of the south of Russia. He would 
 probably have considered the Daci a branch of the 
 Sarmatee. 
 
 Semnones (chap. 39). — The Semnones were the chief 
 Suevic clan. Their settlements seem to have been 
 between the Elbe and Oder, coinciding as nearly as 
 possible with Brandenburg, and reaching possibly into 
 Prussian Poland. Tacitus does not define their local- 
 ity, but speaks of them as an important and widely- 
 spread tribe. Velleius Paterculus (ii. 106) says that 
 the Elbe bounded them on one side. 
 
 Sitones (chap. 45). — Where the Sitones are to be 
 ^)laced is a matter of pure conjecture. There is 
 nothing to indicate whether we should give the pre- 
 ference to Norway, Sweden, or to the eastern shores 
 of the Baltic. 
 
 Snardones (chap. 40). — The Suardones were a 
 Suevic clan. See Aviones. 
 
 Sucvi (chaps. 2, I'i, 39). — The Suevi, according to 
 Tacitus, occupied the larger part of Germany. In 
 fact Suevia would seem to have been a comprehensive 
 name for the country between the Elbe and the
 
 86 GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES TO THE GERMANY. 
 
 Vistula as far north as the Baltic. Tacitus and 
 Cajsar differ about the Suevi (see Chatti). Siiabia is 
 the same word as Suevia. 
 
 Siiiones (chap. 44). — The Suiones were the inhabit- 
 ants of Sweden and Norway, which Tacitus supposed 
 to be islands. 
 
 Tencteri (chap. 32). — The Tencten are coupled with 
 the Usipii. Both tribes were settled on the east bank 
 of the Rhine, and seem to have occupied the neigh- 
 bourhood of Coblenz, and to have extended as far as 
 Wiesbaden, where they would touch the Mattiaci. See 
 Mattiaci. 
 
 Trevcri (chap. 28). — See Nervii. 
 
 Triboci (chap. 28). — See Nemetes. 
 
 Ubii (chap. 28). — The Ubii, originally a German 
 people, and inhabitants of the eastern side of the 
 Rhine (probably of Westphalia and Holland), were 
 formed into a colonia by Agrippina, the wife of 
 Claudius and mother of Nero. It was known as 
 Colonia Agrippinensis (Cologne). 
 
 Usipii (chap. 32). — See Tencteri. 
 
 Vangioncs (chap. 28). — See Nemetes. 
 
 Veneti (chap. 46). — Tacitus doubts whether the 
 Veneti were a German or Sarmatian people. Their 
 locality is very vaguely described, Russian-Poland 
 to the east of the Vistula probably would be included 
 in their settlements.
 
 GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES. 
 
 Boundaries of Germany. 
 
 Germany is separated from the Galli, the Rhceti, and chap. i. 
 Pannonii, by the rivers Rhine and Danube; mountain 
 ranges, or the fear which each feels for the other, 
 divide it from the Sarmatre and Daci. Elsewhere 
 ocean girds it, embracing broad peninsulas and 
 islands of unexplored extent, where certain tribes and 
 kingdoms are newly known to us, revealed by war. 
 The Rhine springs from a precipitous and inaccessible 
 height of the Rhaitian Alps, bends slightly westward, 
 and mingles with the Northern Ocean. The Danube 
 pours down from the gradual and gently rising slope 
 of Mount Abnoba, and visits many nations, to force 
 its way at last through six channels into the Pontus ; 
 a seventh mouth is lost in marshes. 
 
 TJie inhabitants. Origin of the name " Germany'.' 
 
 The Germans themselves I should regard as abori- ckap, n 
 ginal, and not mixed at all with other races through 
 immigration or intercourse. For, in former times, it
 
 83 GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES. 
 
 CHAP. II. was not by land but on shipboard that those who 
 sought to emigrate would arrive ; and the boundless 
 and, so to speak, hostile ocean beyond us, is seldom 
 entered by a sail from our world. And, beside the 
 perils of rough and unknown seas, who would leave 
 Asia, or Africa, or Italy for Germany, with its wild 
 country, its inclement skies, its sullen manners and 
 aspect, unless indeed it were his home .'' In their 
 ancient songs, their only way of remembering or 
 recording the past, they celebrate an earth-born god, 
 Tuisco, and his son Mannus, as the origin of their 
 race, as their founders. To Mannus they assign three 
 sons, from whose names, they say, the coast tribes are 
 called Ingaevones ; those of the interior, Herminones ; 
 all the rest, Istaevones. Some, with the freedom of 
 conjecture permitted by antiquity, assert that the god 
 had several descendants, and the nation several appel- 
 lations, as Marsi, Gambrivii, Suevi, Vandilii, and that 
 these are genuine old names. The name Germany, on 
 the other hand, they say, is modern and newly intro- 
 duced, from the fact that the tribes which first crossed 
 the Rhine and drove out the Gauls, and are now called 
 Tungrians, were then called Germans. Thus what 
 was the name of a tribe, and not of a race, gradually 
 prevailed, till all called themselves by this self- 
 invented name of Germans, which the conquerors had 
 first emj)loyed to inspire terror. 
 
 The national war-songs. Legend of Ulysses. 
 CHAP. m. They say that Hercules, too, once visited them ; and 
 when going into battle, they sing of him first of all 
 heroes. They have also those songs of theirs, b}' the
 
 GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES. 69 
 
 recital of which (" baritus," they call it), they rouse chap. hi. 
 their courage, while from the note they augur the 
 result of the approaching conflict. For, as their line 
 shouts, they inspire or feel alarm. It is not so much 
 an articulate sound, as a general cry of valour. They 
 aim chiefly at a harsh note and a confused roar, 
 putting their shields to their mouth, so that, by rever- 
 beration, it may swell into a fuller and deeper sound. 
 Ulysses, too, is believed by some, in his long legendary 
 wanderings, to have found his way into this ocean, 
 and, having visited German soil, to have founded and 
 named the town of Asciburgium, which stands on the 
 bank of the Rhine, and is to this day inhabited. 
 They even say that an altar dedicated to Ulysses, ^y / 
 with the addition of the name of his father, Laertes, ^ 
 was formerly discovered on this same spot, and that 
 certain monuments and tombs, with Greek inscriptions, 
 still exist on the borders of Germany and Rhaetia. 
 These statements I have no intention of sustaining by 
 proofs, or of refuting ; every one may believe or 
 disbelieve them as he feels inclined. 
 
 Physical characteristics. 
 
 For my own part, I agree with those who think that chap. iv. 
 the tribes of Germany are free from all taint of inter- 
 marriages with foreign nations, and that they ai)pear 
 as a distinct, unmixed race, like none but themselves. 
 Hence, too, the same physical peculiarities through- 
 out so vast a population. All have fierce blue eyes, 
 red hair, huge frames, lit only for a sudden exeriion. 
 They are less able to bear laborious work. Heat and
 
 90 GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES. 
 
 CHAP. IV. thirst they cannot in the least endure ; to cold and 
 hunger their climate and their soil inure them. 
 
 Climate and soil. Precious metals. 
 CH.'vp. V. Their country, though somewhat various in appear- 
 ance, yet generally either bristles with forests or reeks 
 with swamps ; it is more rainy on the side of Gaul, 
 bleaker on that of Noricum and Pannonia. It is 
 productive of grain, but unfavourable to fruit-bearing 
 trees ; it is rich in flocks and herds, but these are for 
 the most part undersized, and even the cattle have not 
 their usual beauty or noble head. It is number that 
 is chiefly valued ; they are in fact the most highly 
 prized, indeed the only riches of the people. Silver 
 and gold the gods have refused to them, whether in 
 kindness or in anger I cannot say. I would not, 
 however, affirm that no vein of German soil produces 
 gold or silver, for who has ever made a search .'' 
 They care but little to possess or use them. You 
 may see among them vessels of silver, which have 
 been presented to their envoys and chieftains, held 
 as cheap as those of clay. The border population, 
 however, value gold and silver for their commercial 
 utility, and arc familiar with, and show preference for, 
 some of our coins. The tribes of the interior use 
 the simpler and more ancient practice of the barter of 
 commodities. They like the old and well-known 
 money, coins milled, or showing a two-horse chariot. 
 They likewise prefer silver to gold, not from any 
 special liking, but because a large number of silver 
 pieces is more convenient for use among dealers in 
 cheap and common articles.
 
 GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES. 91 
 
 Arms, uiilitary ina7iocuvres, and discipline. 
 
 Even iron is not plentiful with them, as we infer from chap, vi 
 the character of their weapons. But few use swords 
 or long lances. They carry a spear {Jramea is their 
 name for it), with a narrow and short head, but so 
 sharp and easy to wield that the same weapon serves, 
 according to circumstances, for close or distant 
 conflict. As for the horse-soldier, he is satisfied 
 with a shield and spear ; the foot-soldiers also 
 scatter showers of missiles, each man having several 
 and hurling them to an immense distance, and being 
 naked or lightly clad with a little cloak. There is 
 no display about their equipment : their shields alone 
 are marked with very choice colours. A few only 
 have corslets, and just one or two here and there 
 a metal or leathern helmet. Their horses are re- 
 markable neither for beauty nor for fleetness. Nor 
 are they taught various evolutions after our fashion, 
 but are driven straight forward, or so as to make one 
 wheel to the right in such a compact body that none 
 is left behind another. On the whole, one would say 
 that their chief strength is in their infantry, which 
 fights along with the cavalry ; admirably adapted to 
 the action of the latter is the swiftness of certain foot- 
 soldiers, who are picked from the entire youth of their 
 country, and stationed in front of the line. Their 
 number is fixed, — a hundred from each canton ; and 
 from this they take their name among their country- 
 men, so that what was originally a mere number 
 has now become a title of distinction. Their line of 
 battle is drawn up in a wedge-like formation. To
 
 92 GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES. 
 
 CHAP. VI. give ground, provided you return to the attack, is 
 considered prudence rather than cowardice. The 
 bodies of their slain they carry off even in indecisive 
 engagements. To abandon your shield is the basest 
 of crimes ; nor may a man thus disgraced be present 
 at the sacied rites, or enter their council ; many, 
 indeed, after escaping from battle, have ended their 
 infamy with the halter. 
 
 Govcrmnoit. Influence of zvomen. 
 
 CHAP. They choose their kings by birth, their generals for 
 ^^^' merit. These kings have not unlimited or arbitrary 
 power, and the generals do more by example than by 
 authority. If they are energetic, if they are con- 
 spicuous, if they fight in the front, they lead because 
 j^f~U tLca^Cl^ they are admired. But to reprimand, to imprison, 
 ' even to flog, is permitted to the priests alone, and that 
 
 not as a punishment, or at the general's bidding, but, 
 • as it were, by the mandate of the god whom they 
 / believe to inspire the warrior. They also carry with 
 
 [aa^^ux^*^ tUo.^ them into battle certain figures and _ilSg^|[gg taken 
 /^-i"fi^KV'*'t'/t<J;M<from their sacred groves. And what most stimulates 
 ^^^^,^,^,.1^ '^'-■t'T-^*--their courage is, that their squadrons or battalions, 
 l^^^u^ JjiJi.^^ instead of being formed by chance or by a fortuitous 
 4f> -Inrv 5^**-- gathering, are composed of families and clans. Close 
 
 . JU I v^y t^'^"^"*' toO' ^^^ those dearest to them, so that they 
 
 3- hear the shrieks of women, the cries of infants. They 
 
 are to every man the most sacred witnesses of his 
 bravery — they are his most generous applauders. 
 The soldier brings his wounds to mother and wife, who 
 shrink nut from counting or even d cmandig g theai 
 
 'f(^\ 
 
 . f ^fN 
 
 ^■^^-)>- ".<^|
 
 GERMANY AXD ITS TRIBES. 93 
 
 and who administer both food and encouragement to chap 
 
 VII 
 
 the combatants. 
 
 Tradition says that armies already wavering and chap 
 
 ' . VIII. 
 
 giving way have been raUied by women who, with 
 
 earnest entreaties and bosoms laid bare, have vividK' 
 
 represented the horrors of captivity, which '&vQ(Zrf'h*^ h*^^*^*^ 
 
 Germans fear with such extreme dread on behalf of 
 
 their women, that the strongest tie by which a state 
 
 can be bound is the being required to give, among the 
 
 number of hostages, maidens of noble birth. They 
 
 even believe that the sex has a certain sanctity and 
 
 prescience, and they do not despise their counsels, or 
 
 make light of their answers. In Vespasian's days 
 
 we saw Veleda, long regarded by many as a divinity. 
 
 In former times, too, they venerated Aurinia, and 
 
 many other Avomen, but not with servile flatteries, or 
 
 with sham deification. 
 
 Deities. 
 
 Mercury is the deity whom they chiefly worship, and chap, ix 
 on certain days they deem it right to sacrifice to him 
 even with human victims. Hercules and Mars they 
 appease with more lawful offerings. Some of the 
 Suevi also sacrifice to Isis. Ot the occasion and 
 origin of this foreign rite I have discovered nothing, 
 but that the image, which is fashioned like a light 
 galley, indicates an imported worship. The Germans, 
 however, do not consider it consistent with the 
 grandeur of celestial beings to confine the gods within 
 walls, or to liken them to the form of any human
 
 94 GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES. 
 
 CHAP. IX. countenance. They consecrate woods and groves, and 
 they apply the names of deities to the abstraction 
 which they see only in spiritual worship. 
 
 Auguries and method of divination. 
 
 CHAP. X. Augury and divination by lot no people practise more 
 diligently. The use of the lots is simple. A little 
 bough is lopped off a fruit-bearing tree, and cut into 
 small pieces ; these are distinguished by certain marks, 
 and thrown carelessly and at random over a white 
 garment. In public questions the priest of the par- 
 ticular state, in private the father of the family, 
 invokes the gods, and, with his eyes towards heaven, 
 takes up each piece three times, and finds in thein 
 a meaning according to the mark previously impres- 
 sed on them. If they prove unfavourable, there is 
 no further consultation that day about the matter ; 
 if they sanction it, the confirmation of augury is still 
 required. For they are also familiar with the prac- 
 tice of consulting the notes and the flight of birds. 
 It is peculiar to this people to seek omens and moni- 
 tions from horses. Kept at the public expense, in 
 these same woods and groves, are white horses, pure 
 from the taint of earthly labour ; these are yoked to 
 a sacred car, and accompanied by the priest and the 
 king, or chief of the tribe, who note their neighings 
 and snortings. No species of augury is more trusted, 
 not only by the people and by the nobility, but also 
 by the priests, who regard themselves as the ministers 
 of the gods, and the horses as acquainted with their 
 will. They have also another method of observing 
 auspices, by which they seek to learn the result of an
 
 GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES. 95 
 
 important war. Having taken, by whatever means, a chap. x. 
 prisoner from the tribe with whom they are at war, 
 they pit him against a picked man of their own tribe, 
 each combatant using the weapons of their country. 
 The victory of the one or the other is accepted as an 
 incHcation of the issue. 
 
 Councils. 
 
 About minor matters the chiefs dehberate, about the chap, xi 
 more important the whole tribe. Yet even when the 
 final decision rests with the people, the affair is always 
 thoroughly discussed by the chiefs. They assemble, 
 except in the case of a sudden emergency, on certain 
 fixed days, either at new or at full moon ; for this 
 they consider the most auspicious season for the trans- 
 action of business. Instead of reckoning by days 
 as we do, they reckon by nights, and in this manner 
 fix both their ordinary and their legal appointments. 
 Night they regard as bringing on day. Their free- 
 dom has this disadvantage, that they do not meet 
 simultaneously or as they are bidden, but two or three 
 days are wasted in the delays of assembling. When 
 the multitude think proper, they sit down armed. 
 Silence is proclaimed by the priests, who have on 
 these occasions the right of keeping order. Then, 
 the king or the chief, according to age, birth, dis- 
 tinction in war, or eloquence, is heard, more because 
 he has influence to persuade than because he has 
 power to command. If his sentiments displease them., 
 they reject them with murmurs ; if they are satisfied, 
 they brandish their spears. The most complimentary 
 form of assent is to express approbation with their 
 weapons.
 
 96 GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES. 
 
 runi-shincuts. Adviinistration of Justice. 
 
 CHAP. In their councils an accusation may be preferred or a 
 capital crime prosecuted. Penalties are distinguished 
 according to the offence. Traitors and deserters are 
 hanged on trees ; the coward, the unwarlike, the man 
 stained with abominable vices, is plunged into the 
 mire of the morass, with a hurdle put over him. 
 This distinction in punishment means that crime, they 
 think, ought, in being punished, to be exposed, while 
 infamy ought to be buried out of sight. Lighter 
 offences, too, have penalties proportioned to them ; 
 he who is convicted, is fined in a certain number of 
 horses or of cattle. Half of the fine is paid to the 
 king or to the state, half to the person whose wrongs 
 are avenged and to his relatives. In these same 
 councils they also elect the chief magistrates, who 
 administer law in the cantons and the towns. Each 
 of these has a hundred associates chosen from the 
 people, who support him with their advice and in- 
 fluence. 
 
 Training- of the youth. 
 
 CHAP. They transact no public or private business without 
 being armed. It is not, however, usual for anyone 
 to wear arms till the state has recognised his power 
 to use them. Then in the presence of the council 
 one of the chiefs, or the young man's father, or some 
 kinsman, equips him with a shield and a spear. 
 These arms are what the "toga" is with us, the first 
 honour with which youth is invested. Up to this 
 time he is regarded as a member of a household 
 afterwards as a member of the commonwealth. Very 

 
 GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES. 97 
 
 noble birth or great services rendered by the father ^^m' 
 secure for lads the rank of a chief ; such lads attach 
 themselves to men of mature strength and of long 
 approved valour. It is no shame to be seen among 
 a chief's followers. Even in his escort there are 
 gradations of rank, dependent on the choice of the 
 man to whom they are attached. These followers 
 vie keenly with each other as to who shall rank first 
 with his chief, the chiefs as to who shall have the 
 most numerous and the bravest followers. It is an 
 honour as well as a source of strength to be thus 
 always surrounded by a large body of picked youths ; 
 it is an ornament in peace and a defence in war. And 
 not only in his own tribe but also in the neighbouring 
 states it is the renown and glory of a chief to be dis- 
 tinguished for the number and valour of his followers, 
 for such a man is courted by embassies, is honoured 
 with presents, and the very prestige of his name often 
 settles a war. 
 
 Warlike ardour of the people. 
 When they go into battle, it is a disgrace for the chap. 
 
 . XIV 
 
 chief to be surpassed in valour, a disgrace for his fol- 
 lowers not to equal the valour of the chief And it 
 is an infamy and a reproach for life to have survived 
 the chief, and returned from the field. To defend, 
 to protect him, to ascribe one's own brave deeds to 
 his renown, is the height of loyalty. The chief fights 
 for victory ; his vassals fight for their chief. If their 
 native state sinks into the sloth of prolonged peace 
 and repose, many of its noble youths voluntarily seek 
 those tribes which are waging some war, both because 
 
 H
 
 98 GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES. 
 
 CHAP, inaction is odious to their race, and because they 
 
 XIV 
 
 win renown more readily in the midst of peril, and 
 cannot maintain a numerous following except by 
 violence and war. Indeed, men look to the liberality 
 of their chief for their war-horse and their blood- 
 stained and victorious lance. Feasts and enter- 
 tainments, which, though inelegant, are plentifully 
 furnished, are their only pay. The means of this 
 bounty come from war and rapine. Nor are they as 
 easily persuaded to plough the earth and to wait for 
 the year's produce as to challenge an enemy and earn 
 the honour of wounds. Nay, they actually think it 
 tame and stupid to acquire by the sweat of toil what 
 they might win by their blood. 
 
 Habits ill time of peace. 
 CHAP. Whenever they are not fighting, they pass much of 
 their time in the chase, and still more in idleness, 
 giving themselves up to sleep and to feasting, the 
 bravest and the most warlike doing nothing, and sur- 
 rendering the management of the household, of the 
 home, and of the land, to the women, the old men, 
 and all the weakest members of the family. They 
 themselves lie buried in sloth, a strange combination 
 in their nature that the same men should be so fond 
 of idleness, so averse to peace. It is the custom of 
 the states to bestow by voluntary and individual 
 contribution on the chiefs a present of cattle or of 
 grain, which, while accepted as a compliment, sup- 
 plies their wants. They are particularly delighted by 
 gifts from neighbouring tribes, which are sent not 
 only by individuals but also by the state, such as
 
 GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES. 99 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 XV. 
 
 choice steeds, heavy armour, trappings, and neck- 
 chains. We have now taught them to accept money 
 also. 
 
 A rrangement of their tozvns. Subterranean dwellings. 
 
 It is well known that the nations of Germany have ^^yi' 
 no cities, and that they do not even tolerate closely 
 contiguous dwellings. They live scattered and apart, 
 just as a spring, a meadow, or a wood has attracted 
 them. Their villages they do not arrange in our 
 fashion, with the buildings connected and joined to- 
 gether, but every person surrounds his dwelling with 
 an open space, either as a precaution against the 
 disasters of fire, or because they do not know how 
 to build. No use is made by them of stone or tile ; 
 they employ timber for all purposes, rude masses 
 without ornament or attractiveness. Some parts of 
 their buildings they stain more carefully with a clay 
 so clear and bright that it resembles painting, or a 
 coloured design. They are wont also to dig out sub- 
 terranean caves, and pile on them great heaps of 
 dung, as a shelter from winter and as a receptacle 
 for the year's produce, for by such places they miti- 
 gate the rigour of the cold. And should an enemy 
 approach, he lays waste the open country, while 
 what is hidden and buried is either not known to 
 exist, or else escapes him from the very fact that it 
 has to be searched for. 
 
 Di'ess. 
 Thev all wrap themselves in a cloak which is fastened chap 
 
 . ' ^ XVII. 
 
 with a clasp, or, if this is not forthcoming, with a 
 
 li 2
 
 100 GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES. 
 
 CHAP, thorn, leaving the rest of their persons bare. They 
 pass whole days on the hearth by the fire. The 
 wealthiest are distinguished by a dress which is not 
 flowing, like that of the Sarmatse and Partlii, but is 
 tight, and exhibits each limb. They also wear the 
 skins of wild beasts; the tribes on the Rhine and 
 Danube in a careless fashion, those of the interior 
 with more elegance, as not obtaining other clothing 
 by commerce. These select certain animals, the hides 
 of which they strip off and vary them with the 
 spotted skins of beast.s, the produce of the outer 
 ocean, and of seas unknown to us. The women have 
 the same dress as the men^ except that they gene- 
 rally wrap themselves in linen garments, which they 
 embroider with purple, and do not lengthen out the 
 upper part of their clothing into sleeves. The upper 
 and lower arm is thus bare, and the nearest part of 
 the bosom is also exposed. 
 
 Marriage lazvs. 
 
 ^\J{ Their marriage code, however, is strict, and indeed no 
 part of their manners is more praiseworthy. Almost 
 alone among barbarians they are content with one 
 wife, except a very few among them, and these not 
 from sensuality, but because their noble birth pro- 
 cures for them many offers of alliance. The wife 
 does not bring a dower to the husband, but the 
 husband to the wife. The parents and relatives are 
 present, and pass judgment on the marriage-gifts, gifts 
 not meant to suit a woman's taste, nor such as a 
 bride w^ould deck herself with, but oxen, a capari- 
 soned steed, a shitld, a lance, and a sword. With
 
 GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES. 101 
 
 these presents the wife is espoused, and she herself ^^[{ 
 in her turn brings her husband a gift of arms. This 
 they count their strongest bond of union, these their 
 sacred mysteries, these their gods of marriage. Lest 
 the woman should think herself to stand apart from 
 aspirations after noble deeds and from the perils of 
 war, she is reminded by the ceremony which inaugu- 
 rates marriage that she is her husband's partner in 
 toil and danger, destined to suffer and to dare with 
 him alike both in peace and in war. The yoked oxen, 
 the harnessed steed, the gift of arms, proclaim this 
 fact. She must live and die with the feeling that she 
 is receiving what she must hand down to her chil- 
 dren neither tarnished nor depreciated, Vv'hat future 
 daughters-in-law may receive, and may be so passed 
 on to her grand-children. 
 
 Thus with their virtue protected they live uncorrup- chap, 
 ted by the allurements of public shows or the stimu- 
 lant of feastings. Clandestine correspondence is equally 
 unknown to men and women. Very rare for so 
 numerous a population is adultery, the punishment 
 for which is prompt, and in the husband's power. 
 Having cut off the hair of the adulteress and stripped 
 her naked, he expels her from the house in the pre- 
 sence of her kinsfolk, and then flogs her through 
 the whole village. The loss of chastity meets with 
 no indulgence ; neither beauty, youth, nor wealth will 
 procure the culprit a husband. No one in Germany 
 laughs at vice, nor do they call it the fashion to cor- 
 rupt and to be corrupted. Still better is the condition 
 of those states in which only maidens are given in
 
 102 GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES. 
 
 ^j-^P- marriage, and where the hopes and expectations of 
 a bride are then finally terminated. They receive 
 one husband, as having one body and one life, that 
 they may have no thoughts beyond, no further- 
 reaching desires, that they may love not so much 
 the husband as the married state. To limit the 
 number of their children or to destroy any of their 
 subsequent offspring is accounted infamous, and good 
 habits are here more effectual than good laws else- 
 where. 
 
 Their children. Laius of succession. 
 CHAF. In every household the children, naked and filthy, 
 grow up with those stout frames and limbs which we 
 so much admire. Every mother suckles her own off- 
 spring, and never entrusts it to servants and nurses. 
 The master is not distinguished from the slave by 
 being brought up with greater delicacy. Both live 
 amid the same flocks and lie on the same ground till 
 the freeborn are distinguished by age and recognised 
 by merit. The young men marry late, and their 
 vigour is thus unimpaired. Nor are the maidens 
 hurried into marriage ; the same age and a similar 
 stature is required ; well-matched and vigorous they 
 wed, and the offspring reproduce the strength of the 
 parents. Sister's sons are held in as much esteem 
 by their uncles as by their fathers ; indeed, some re- 
 gard the relation as even more sacred and binding, 
 and prefer it in receiving hostages, thinking thus to 
 secure a stronger hold on the affections and a wider 
 bond for the family. But every man's own children 
 are his heirs and successors, and there are no wills.
 
 GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES. 103 
 
 Should there be no issue, the next in succession to ^xx^' 
 the property are his brothers and his uncles on 
 either side. The more relatives he has, the more 
 numerous his connections, the more honoured is his 
 old age; nor are there any advantages in child- 
 lessness. 
 
 Hereditary fends. Fines for hojnicide. Hospitality. 
 
 It is a duty among them to adopt the feuds as Avell as chap 
 the friendships of a father or a kinsman. These feuds 
 are not implacable ; even homicide is expiated by the 
 payment of a certain number of cattle and of sheep, 
 and the satisfaction is accepted by the entire family, 
 greatly to the advantage of the state, since feuds are 
 dangerous in proportion to a people's freedom. 
 
 No nation indulges more profusely in entertainments 
 and hospitality. To exclude any human being from 
 their roof is thought impious ; every German, according 
 to his means, receives his guest with a well-furnished 
 table. When his supplies are exhausted, he who was 
 but now the host becomes the guide and companion to 
 further hospitality, and without invitation they go to 
 the next house. It matters not ; tliey are entertained 
 with like cordiality. No one distinguishes between 
 an acquaintance and a stranger, as regards the rights 
 of hospitality. It is usual to give the departing guest 
 whatever he may ask for, and a present in return is 
 asked with as little hesitation. They are greatly 
 charmed with gifts, but they expect no return for 
 what they give, nor feel any obligation for what they 
 receive.
 
 104 GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES. 
 
 Habits of life. 
 
 xxiF' ^" waking from sleep, which they generally prolong 
 to a late hour of the day, they take a bath, oftenest 
 of warm water, which suits a country where winter 
 is the longest of the seasons. After their bath they 
 take their meal, each having a separate seat and 
 table of his own. Then they go armed to business, 
 or no less often to their festal meetings. To pass an 
 entire day and night in drinking disgraces no one. 
 Their quarrels, as might be expected with intoxicated 
 people, are seldom fought out with mere abuse, but 
 commonly with wounds and bloodshed. Yet it is attheir 
 feasts that they generally consult on the reconciliation 
 of enemies, on the forming of matrimonial alliances, 
 on the choice of chiefs, finally even on peace and war, 
 for they think that at no time is the mind more open to 
 simplicity of purpose or more warmed to noble aspira- 
 tions. A race without either natural or acquired 
 cunning, they disclose their hidden thoughts in the 
 freedom of the festivity. Thus the sentiments of all 
 having been discovered and laid bare, the discussion is 
 renewed on the following day, and from each occasion 
 its own peculiar advantage is derived. They deliberate 
 when they have no power to dissemble ; they resolve 
 when error is impossible. 
 
 Food. 
 
 CHAP. A liquor for drinking is made out of barley or other 
 
 ^^"'' grain, and fermented into a certain resemblance to 
 
 wine. The dwellers on the river-bank also buy wine. 
 
 Their food is of a simple kind, consisting of wild-fruit, 
 
 fresh game, and curdled milk. They satisfy their
 
 XXIV. 
 
 GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES. 105 
 
 hunger without elaborate preparation and without xxm 
 delicacies. In quenching their thirst they are not 
 equally moderate. If you indulge their love of 
 drinking by supplying them with as much as they 
 desire, they will be overcome by their own vices as 
 easily as by the arms of an enemy. 
 
 Sports. Passion for gambling. 
 
 One and the same kind of spectacle is always exhi- chap. 
 bited at every gathering. Naked youths who practise 
 the sport bound in the dance amid swords and lances 
 that threaten their lives. Experience gives them skill, 
 and skill again gives grace ; profit or pay are out of 
 the question ; however reckless their pastime, its 
 reward is the pleasure of the spectators. Strangely 
 enough they make games of hazard a serious occupa- 
 tion even when sober, and so venturesome are they 
 about gaining or losing, that, when every other re- 
 source has failed, on the last and final throw they 
 stake the freedom of their own persons. The loser 
 goes into voluntary slavery ; though the younger and 
 stronger, he suffers himself to be bound and sold. 
 Such is their stubborn persistency in a bad practice ; 
 they themselves call it honour. Slaves of this kind 
 the owners part with in the way of commerce, and also 
 to relieve themselves from the scandal of such a 
 victory. 
 
 Slavery. 
 
 The other slaves are not employed after our chap. 
 manner with distinct domestic duties assigned to 
 them, but each one has the management of a house 
 
 XXV.
 
 106 GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES. 
 
 CHAP- and home of his own. The master requires from the 
 slave a certain quantity of grain, of cattle, and of 
 clothing, as he would from a tenant, and this is the 
 limit of subjection. All other household functions 
 are discharged by the wife and children. To strike a 
 slave or to punish him with bonds or with hard labour 
 is a rare occurrence. They often kill them, not in 
 enforcing strict discipline, but on the impulse of 
 passion, as they would an enemy, only it is done with 
 impunity. The freedmen do not rank much above 
 slaves, and are seldom of any weight in the family, 
 never in the state, with the exception of those tribes 
 which are ruled by kings. There indeed they rise 
 above the freedborn and the noble ; elsewhere the 
 inferiority of the freedman marks the freedom of 
 the state. 
 
 Occupation of land. Tillage. 
 
 CHAP. Of lending money on interest and increasing it by 
 compound interest they know nothing, — a more effec- 
 tual safeguard than if it were prohibited. 
 
 Land proportioned to the number of inhabitants is 
 occupied by the whole community in turn, and after- 
 wards divided among them according to rank. A 
 wide expanse of plains makes the partition easy. 
 They till fresh fields every year, and they have still 
 more land than enough ; with the richness and extent 
 of their soil, they do not laboriously exert themselves 
 in planting orchards, inclosing meadows, and watering 
 gardens. Corn is the only produce required from the 
 earth ; hence even the year itself is not divided by 
 them into as many seasons as with us. Winter, spring,
 
 GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES. 107 
 
 and summer have both a meaninfr and a name ; the chap. 
 
 XXVI. 
 
 name and blessings of autumn are alike unknown, 
 
 Funcj'al rites. 
 In their funerals there is no pomp ; they simply observe chap. 
 
 XXVII 
 
 the custom of burning the bodies of illustrious men 
 with certain kinds of wood. They do not heap gar- 
 ments or spices on the funeral pile. The arms of the 
 dead man and in some cases his horse are consigned 
 to the fire. A turf mound forms the tomb. Monu- 
 ments with their lofty elaborate splendour they reject 
 as oppressive to the dead. Tears and lamentations 
 they soon dismiss ; grief and sorrow but slowly. It 
 is thought becoming for women to bewail, for men to 
 remember, the dead. 
 
 Such on the whole is the account which I have 
 received of the origin and manners of the entire Ger- 
 man people. I will now touch on the institutions and 
 religious rites of the separate tribes, pointing out how 
 far they differ, and also what nations have migrated 
 from Germany into Gaul. 
 
 Tribes of Western Germany. 
 That highest authority, the great Julius, informs us chap. 
 
 XXVIII 
 
 that Gaul was once more powerful than Germany. 
 Consequently we may believe that Gauls even crossed 
 over into Germany. For what a trifling obstacle 
 would a river be to the various tribes, as they grew in 
 strength and wished to possess in exchange settle- 
 ments which were still open to all, and not partitioned 
 among powerful monarchies ! Accordingly the coun- 
 try between the Hercynian forest and the rivers
 
 108 
 
 GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES. 
 
 CHAP. 
 XXVIII 
 
 CHAP. 
 XXIX. 
 
 Rhine and Mcenus,^ and that which lies beyond, was 
 occupied respectively by the Helvetii and Boii, both 
 tribes of Gaul. The name Boiemum still survives, 
 marking the old tradition of the place, though the 
 population has been changed. Whether however the 
 Aravisci migrated into Pannonia from the Osi, a 
 German race, or whether the Osi came from the 
 Aravisci into Germany, as both nations still retain the 
 same language, institutions, and customs, is a doubt- 
 ful matter; for as they were once equally poor and 
 equally free, either bank had the same attractions, the 
 same drawback.s. The Treveri and Nervii are even 
 eager in their claims of a German origin, thinking 
 that the glory of this descent distinguishes them from 
 the uniform level of Gallic effeminacy. The Rhine 
 banlv itself is occupied by tribes unquestionably 
 German, — the Vangiones, the Triboci, and the Ne- 
 metes. Nor do even the Ubii, though they have 
 earned the distinction of being a Roman colony, and 
 prefer to be called Agrippinenses, from the name of 
 their founder, blush to own their origin. Having 
 crossed the sea in former days, and given proof of 
 their allegiance, they were settled on the Rhine-bank 
 itself, as those who might guard it but need not be 
 watched. 
 
 Foremost among all these nations in valour, the : 
 Batavi occupy an island within the Rhine and but a j 
 small portion of the bank. Formerly a tribe of the 
 Chatti, they were forced by internal dissension to 
 migrate to their present settlements and there become 
 a part of the Roman Empire. They yet retain the 
 ^ The Main. 
 
 I
 
 GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES. 109 
 
 honourable badsre of an ancient alliance ; for they are chap. 
 
 XXIX 
 
 not insulted by tribute, nor ground down by the 
 tax-gatherer. Free from the usual burdens and 
 contributions, and set apart for fighting purposes, like 
 a magazine of arms, we reserve them for our wars. 
 The subjection of the Mattiaci is of the same charac- 
 ter. For the greatness of the Roman people has 
 spread reverence for our empire beyond the Rhine 
 and the old boundaries. Thus this nation, whose 
 settlements and territories are on their own side of the 
 river, are yet in sentiment and purpose one with us ; 
 in all other respects they resemble the Batavi, except 
 that they still gain from the soil and climate of their 
 native land a keener vigour. I should not reckon 
 among the German tribes the cultivators of the tithe- 
 lands, although they are settled on the further side of 
 the Rhine and Danube. Reckless adventurers from 
 Gaul, emboldened by want, occupied this land of 
 questionable ownership. After a while, our frontier 
 having been advanced, and our military positions 
 pushed forward, it was regarded as a remote nook of 
 our empire and a part of a Roman province. 
 
 Beyond them are the Chatti, whose settlements begin chap. 
 at the Hercynian forest, where the country is not so 
 open and marshy as in the other cantons into which 
 Germany stretches. They are found where there are 
 hills, and with them grow less frequent, for the Her- 
 cynian forest keeps close till it has seen the last of 
 its native Chatti. Hardy frames, close-knit limbs, 
 fierce countenances, and a peculiarly vigorous courage, 
 mark the tribe. For Germans, they have much 
 
 XXX.
 
 110 GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES. 
 
 xxjf' intelligence and sagacity; they promote their picked 
 men to power, and obey those whom they promote ; 
 they keep their ranks, note their opportunities, check 
 their impulses, portion out the day, intrench them- 
 selves by night, regard fortune as a do-ubtful, valour 
 . as an unfailing, resource ; and what is most unusual, 
 and only given to systematic discipline, they rely more 
 on the general than on the army. Their whole 
 strength is in their infantry, which, in addition to its 
 arms, is laden with iron tools and provisions. Other 
 tribes you see going to battle, the Chatti to a cam- 
 paign. Seldom do they engage in mere raids and 
 casual encounters. It is indeed the peculiarity of a 
 cavalry force quickly to win and as quickly to yield 
 a victory. Fleetness and timidity go together; 
 deliberateness is more akin to steady courage. 
 
 xxxi' ^ practice, rare among the other German tribes, and 
 simply characteristic of individual prowess, has be- 
 come general among the Chatti, of letting the hair 
 and beard grow as soon as they have attained 
 manhood, and not till they have slain a foe laying 
 aside that peculiar aspect which devotes and pledges 
 them to valour. Over the spoiled and bleeding enemy 
 they show their faces once more ; then, and not till 
 then, proclaiming that they have discharged the 
 obligations of their birth, and proved themselves 
 worthy of their country and of their parents. The 
 coward and the unwarlike rem.ain unshorn. The 
 bravest of them also wear an iron ring (which other- 
 wise is a mark of disgrace among the people) until 
 they have released themselves by the slaughter of a 
 
 !
 
 GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES. 11] 
 
 foe. Most of the Chatti delight in these fashions. xx.>u' 
 Even hoary-headed men are distinguished by them, 
 and are thus conspicuous alike to enemies and to 
 fellow-countrymen. To begin the battle always rests 
 with them ; they form the first line, an unusual spectacle. 
 Nor even in peace do they assume a more civilised 
 aspect. They have no home or land or occupation ; 
 they are supported by whomsoever they visit, as 
 lavish of the property of others as they are regardless 
 of their own, till at length the feebleness of age makes 
 them unequal to so stern a valour. 
 
 Next to the Chatti on the Rhine, which has now a chap, 
 well-defined channel, and serves as a boundary, dwell 
 the Usipii and Tencteri. The latter, besides the more 
 usual military distinctions, particularly excel in the 
 organisation of cavalry, and the Chatti are not more 
 famous for their foot-soldiers than are the Tencteri 
 for their horsemen. What their forefathers originated, 
 posterity maintain. This supplies sport to their 
 children, rivalry to their youths : even the aged keep 
 it up. Horses are bequeathed along with the slaves, 
 the dwelling-house, and the usual rights of inheritance ; 
 they go to the son, not to the eldest, as does the 
 other property, but to the most warlike and coura- 
 geous. 
 
 After the Tencteri came, in former days, the Bructeri ; J^H^?-, 
 but the general account now is, that the Chamavi and 
 Angrivarii entered their settlements, drove them out 
 and utterly exterminated them with the common help 
 of the neighbouring tribes, either from hatred of their
 
 n?, GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES. 
 
 xiPxni tyranny, or from the attractions of plunder, or from 
 heaven's favourable regard for us. It did not even 
 grudge us the spectacle of the conflict. More than 
 sixty thousand fell, not beneath the Roman arms and 
 weapons, but, grander far, before our delighted eyes. 
 May the tribes, I pray, ever retain if not love for 
 us, at least hatred for each other; for while the 
 destinies of empire hurry us on, fortune can give no 
 greater boon than discord among our foes. 
 
 CHAR Xhe Angrivarii and Chamavi are bounded in the rear 
 by the Dulgubini and Chasuarii, and other tribes not 
 equally famous. Towards the river are the Frisii, 
 distinguished as the Greater and Lesser Frisii, accor- 
 ding to their strength. Both these tribes, as far as 
 the ocean, are skirted by the Rhine, and their territory 
 also embraces vast lakes which Roman fleets have 
 navigated. We have even ventured on the ocean 
 itself in these parts. Pillars of Hercules, so rumour 
 commonly says, still exist ; whether Hercules really 
 visited the country, or whether we have agreed to 
 ascribe every work of grandeur, wherever met with, 
 to his renown. Drusus Germanicus indeed did not 
 lack daring ; but the ocean barred the explorer's 
 access to itself and to Hercules. Subsequently no one 
 has made the attempt, and it has been thought 
 more pious and reverential to believe in the actions of 
 the gods than to inquire. 
 
 NortJiern tribes. 
 
 taken note of 'N 
 Northwards the country takes a vast sweep. First 
 
 CHAP. Thus far we have taken note of Western Germany. 
 
 XXXV. ^ 
 
 I
 
 GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES. 113 
 
 comes the tribe of the Chauci, which, beginning at the xxxv 
 Frisii^n settlements, and occupying a part of the coast, 
 stretches along the frontier of all the tribes which I 
 have enumerated, till it reaches with a bend as far as 
 the Chatti. This vast extent of country is not merely 
 possessed, but densely peopled, by the Chauci, the 
 noblest of the German races, a nation who would 
 maintain their greatness by righteous dealing. With- 
 out ambition, without lawless violence, they live 
 peaceful and secluded, never provoking a war or 
 injuring others by rapine and robbery. Indeed, the 
 crowning proof of their valour and their strength is, 
 that they keep up their superiority without harm to 
 others. Yet all have their weapons in readiness, and 
 an army if necessary, with a multitude of men and 
 horses ; and even while at peace they have the same 
 renown of valour. 
 
 Dwelling on one side of the Chauci and Chatti, the -^^xvi 
 Cherusci long cherished, unassailed, an excessive and 
 enervating love of peace. This was more pleasant 
 than safe, for to be peaceful is self-deception among 
 lawless and powerful neighbours. Where the Strang 
 hand decides, moderation and justice are terms applied 
 only to the more powerful ; and so the Cherusci, ever 
 reputed good and just, are now called cowards and 
 fools, while in the case of the victorious Chatti success 
 has been identified with prudence. The downfall of 
 the Cherusci brought with it also that of the Fosi, a 
 neighbouring tribe, which shared equally in their 
 disasters, though they had been inferior to them in 
 prosperous days. 
 
 I
 
 114 GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES. 
 
 Kxxv^i -^^ ^^^^ same remote corner of Germany, bordering on 
 the ocean dwell the Cimbri, a now insignificant tribe, 
 but of great renown. Of their ancient glory wide- 
 spread traces yet remain ; on both sides of the 
 Rhine are encampments of vast extent, and by 
 their circuit you may even now measure the war- 
 like strength of the tribe, and find evidence of that 
 mighty emigration. Rome was in her 640th 3'-ear 
 when we first heard of the Cimbrian invader in the 
 consulship of Caecilius Metellus and Papirius Carbo, 
 from which time to the second consulship of the 
 Emperor Trajan we have to reckon about 210 years. 
 So long have we been in conquering Germany. In 
 the space of this long epoch many losses have been 
 ' sustained on both sides. Neither Samnite nor 
 Carthaginian, neither Spain nor Gaul, not even 
 the Parthians, have given us more frequent warnings. 
 German independence truly is fiercer than the des- 
 potism of an Arsaces. What else, indeed, can the 
 East taunt us with but the slaughter of Crassus, 
 when it has itself lost Pacorus, and been crushed 
 under a Ventidius ? But Germans, by routing or 
 making prisoners of Carbo, Cassius, Scaurus Aurelius, 
 Servilius Caspio, and Marcus Manlius, deprived the 
 Roman people of five consular armies, and they 
 robbed even a Caesar of Varus and his three legions. 
 Not without loss to us were they discomfited by 
 Marius in Italy, by the great Julius in Gaul, and by 
 Drusus, Nero, and Germanicus, on their own ground. 
 Soon after, the mighty menaces of Caius Caesar were 
 turned into a jest. Then came a lull, until on the 
 occasion of our discords and the civil war, they
 
 GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES. 115 
 
 stormed the winter camp of our legions, and even x^Vii 
 designed the conquest of Gaul. Again were they 
 driven back ; and in recent times we have celebrated 
 triumphs rather than won conquests over them. 
 
 TJic Sucvi and kindred tribes. 
 I must now speak of the Suevi, who are not one chap. 
 
 ^ . ' . XXXVIII 
 
 nation as are the Chatti and Tencteri, for they occupy 
 the greater part of Germany, and have hitherto been 
 divided into separate tribes Vv'ith names of their own, 
 though they are called by the general designation of 
 " Suevi." A national peculiarity with them is to 
 twist their hair back, and fasten it in a knot. This 
 distinguishes the Suevi from the other Germans, as it 
 also does their own freeborn from their slaves. 
 With other tribes, either from some connection with 
 the Suevic race, or, as often happens, from imitation, 
 the practice is an occasional one, and restricted to 
 youth. The Suevi, till their heads are grey, affect the 
 fashion of drawing back their unkempt locks, and 
 often they are knotted on the very top of the head. 
 The chiefs have a more elaborate style ; so much do 
 they study appearance, but in perfect innocence, not 
 with any thoughts of love-making; but arranging their 
 hair when they go to battle, to make themselves tall 
 and terrible, they adorn themselves, so to speak, for 
 the eyes of the foe. 
 
 The Semnones give themselves out to be the most xxxix 
 ancient and renowned branch of the Suevi. Their 
 antiquity is strongly attested by their religion. At a 
 stated period, all the tribes of the same race assemble 
 
 I 2
 
 116 GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES. 
 
 CHAR \yy their representatives in a grove consecrated by the 
 auguries of their forefathers, and by immemorial 
 associations of terror. Here, having pubhcly slaugh- 
 tered a human victim, they celebrate the horrible 
 beginning of their barbarous rite. Reverence also in 
 other ways is paid to the grove. No one enters it 
 except bound with a chain, as an inferior acknowledg- 
 ing the might of the local divinity. If he chance to 
 fall, it is not lawful for him to be lifted up, or to rise 
 to his feet ; he must crawl out along the ground. All 
 this superstition implies the belief that from this spot 
 the nation took its origin, that here dwells the 
 supreme and all-ruling deity, to Avhom all else is 
 subject and obedient. The fortunate lot of the Sem- 
 nones strengthens this belief; a hundred cantons are 
 in their occupation, and the vastness of their commu- 
 nity makes them regard themselves as the head of the 
 Suevic race. 
 
 CHAP. To the Langobardi, on the contrary, their scanty 
 numbers are a distinction. Though surrounded by a 
 host of most powerful tribes, they are safe, not by 
 submitting, but by daring the perils of war. Next 
 come the Reudigni, the Aviones, the Anglii, the 
 Varini, the Eudoses, the Suardones, and Nuithones 
 who are fenced in by rivers or forests. None of these 
 tribes have any noteworthy feature, except their 
 common worship of Ertha, or mother-Earth, and 
 their belief that she interposes in human affairs, and 
 visits the nations in her car. In an island of the 
 ocean there is a .sacred grove, and within it a con- 
 secrated chariot, covered over with a garment. Only 
 
 XL
 
 GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES. U7 
 
 CHAP 
 XL. 
 
 one priest is perantted to touch it. He can perceive 
 the presence of the goddess in this sacred recess, and 
 walks by her side with the utmost reverence as she is 
 drawn along by heifers. It is a season of rejoicing, 
 and festivity reigns wherever she deigns to go and be 
 received. They do not go to battle or wear arms ; 
 every weapon is under lock ; peace and quiet are 
 known and welcomed only at these times, till the 
 goddess, weary of human intercourse, is at length 
 restored by the same priest to her tem.ple. After- 
 wards the car, the vestments, and, if you like to believe 
 it, the divinity herself, are purified in a secret lake. 
 Slaves perform the rite, who are instantly swallowed 
 up by its waters. Hence arises a mysterious terror 
 and a pious ignorance concerning the nature of that 
 which is seen only by men doomed to die. This 
 branch indeed of the Suevi stretches into the re- 
 moter regions of Germany. 
 
 Tribes along the Danube and in the East of Germany. 
 Nearer to us is the state of the Hermunduri (I shall chap. 
 
 ^ XLI. 
 
 follow the course of the Danube as I did before that 
 of the Rhine), a people loyal to Rome. Consequently 
 they, alone of the Germans, trade not merely on tlie 
 banks of the river, but far inland, and in the most 
 flourishing colony of the province of Ryetia. Every- 
 where they are allowed to pass without a guard ; and 
 while to the other tribes we display only our arms and 
 our camps, to them we have thrown open our houses 
 and country-seats, which they do not covet. It is in 
 their lands that the Elbe takes its rise, a famous river 
 known to us in past days ; nov/ we only hear of it.
 
 118 GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES. 
 
 '^^^f' The Narisci border on the Hermunduri, and then 
 follow the Marcomanni and Quadi. The Marcomanni 
 stand first in strength and renown, and their very- 
 territory, from which the Boii were driven in a 
 former age, was won by valour. Nor are the 
 Narisci and Quadi inferior to them. This I may 
 call the frontier of Germany, so far as it is completed 
 by the Danube. The Marcomanni and Quadi have, 
 up to our time, been ruled by kings of their own 
 nation, descended from the noble stock of Maroboduus 
 and Tudrus. They now submit even to foreigners ; 
 but the strength and power of the monarch depend 
 on Roman influence. He is occasionally supported 
 by our arms, more frequently by our money, and his 
 authority is none the less. 
 
 CHAP. Behind them the Marsigni, Gotini, Osi, and Buri, 
 
 XLIII. » ' ' - 
 
 close in the rear of the Marcomanni and Quadi. Of 
 these, the Marsigni and Buri, in their language and 
 manner of life, resemble the Suevi. The Gotini and 
 Osi are proved by their respective Gallic and Pannonian 
 tongues, as well as by the fact of their enduring 
 tribute, not to be Germans. Tribute is imposed on 
 them as aliens, partly by the Sarmatse, partly by the 
 Quadi. The Gotini, to complete their degradation, 
 actually work iron mines. All these nations occupy 
 but little of the plain country, dwelling in forests and 
 on mountain-tops. For Suevia is divided and cut in 
 half by a continuous mountain-range, beyond which 
 live a multitude of tribes. The name of Ligii, spread 
 as it is among many states, is the most widely extended. 
 It will be enough to mention the most powerful, which
 
 GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES. 119 
 
 are the Harii, the Helvecones, the Manimi, the Helisii S^Lm' 
 and the NahanarvaH. Among these last is shown a 
 grove of immemorial sanctity. A priest in female attire 
 has the charge of it. But the deities are described in 
 Roman language as Castor and Pollux. Such, indeed, 
 are the attributes of the divinity, the name being 
 Alcis, They have no images, or, indeed, any vestige 
 of foreign superstition, but it is as brothers and as 
 youths that the deities are worshipped. The Harii, 
 besides being superior in strength to the tribes just 
 enumerated, savage as they are, make the most of 
 their natural ferocity by the help of art and oppor- 
 tunity. Their shields are black, their bodies dyed. 
 They choose dark nights for battle, and, by the dread 
 and gloomy aspect of their death-like host, strike 
 terror into the foe, who can never confront their 
 strange and almost infernal appearance. For in all 
 battles it is the eye which is first vanquished. 
 
 Remaining tribes. 
 
 Beyond the Ligii are the Gothones, who are ruled by xliv 
 kings, a little more strictly than the other German 
 tribes, but not as yet inconsistently with freedom. 
 Immediately adjoining them, further from the coast, 
 are the Rugii and Lemovii, the badge of all these 
 tribes being the round shield, the short sword, and 
 servile submission to their kings. 
 
 And now begin the states of the Suiones, situated 
 on the Ocean itself, and these, besides men and arms, 
 are powerful in ships. The form of their vessels is 
 peculiar in this respect, that a prow at either extremity 
 acts as a forepart, always ready for running into shore.
 
 120 GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES. 
 
 xL^v ' They are not \Yorked by sails, nor have they a row of 
 oars attached to their sides ; but, as on some rivers, 
 the apparatus of rowing is unfixed, and shifted from 
 side to side as circumstances require. And they hke- 
 wise honour wealth, and so a single ruler holds sway 
 with no restrictions, and with no uncertain claim to 
 obedience. Arms are not with them, as with the other 
 Germans, at the general disposal, but are in the charge 
 of a keeper, who is actually a slave ; for the ocean 
 forbids the sudden inroad of enemies, and, besides, an 
 idle multitude of armed men is easily demoralized. 
 And indeed it is by no means the policy of a monarch 
 to place either a nobleman, a freeborn citizen, or even 
 a freed man, at the head of an armed force. 
 
 CHAP, Beyond the Suiones is another sea, sluggish and 
 almost motionless, which, we may certainly infer, 
 girdles and surrounds the world, from the fact that the 
 last radiance of the setting sun lingers on till sunrise, 
 with a brightness sufficient to dim the light of the 
 stars. Even the very sound of his rising, as popular 
 belief adds, may be heard, and the forms of gods and 
 the glory round his head may be seen. Only thus far 
 (and here rumour seems truth) docs the world 
 extend. 
 
 At this point the Sucvic sea, on its eastern shore, 
 washes the tribes of the ^stii, whose rites and 
 fashions and style of dress are those of the Suevi, 
 while their language is more like the British, They 
 worship the mother of the gods, and wear as a 
 religious symbol the device of a wild boar. This 
 serves as armour, and as a universal defence, rendering
 
 GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES. 121 
 
 the votary of the goddess safe even amidst enemies. x^v^ 
 They often use chibs, iron weapons but seldom. 
 They are more patient in cultivating corn and 
 other produce than might be expected from the 
 general indolence of the Germans. But they also 
 search the deep, and are the only people who gather 
 amber (which they call "glesuni"), in the shallows, 
 and also on the shore itself. Barbarians as they are 
 they have not investigated or discovered what natural 
 cause or process produces it. Nay, it even lay amid 
 the sea's other refuse, till our luxury gave it a name. 
 To them it is utterly useless ; they gather it in its raw 
 state, bring it to us in shapeless lumps, and marvel at 
 the price which they receive. It is however a juice 
 from trees, as you may infer from the fact that there 
 are often seen shining through it, reptiles, and even 
 winged insects, which, having become entangled in the 
 fluid, are gradually enclosed in the substance as it 
 hardens. I am therefore inclined to think that the 
 islands and countries of the West, like the remote 
 recesses of the East, where frankincense and balsam 
 exude, contain fruitful woods and groves ; that these 
 productions, acted on by the near rays of the sun, 
 glide in a liquid state into the adjacent sea, and are 
 thrown up by the force of storms on the opposite 
 shores. If you test the composition of amber by 
 applying fire, it burns like pinewood, and sends forth 
 a rich and fragrant flame ;. it is soon softened into 
 something like pitch or resin. 
 
 Closely bordering on the Suiones are the tribes 
 of the Sitones, which, resembling them in all else, 
 differ only in being ruled by a woman. So low
 
 122 GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES. 
 
 *^y^- have they fallen, not merely from freedom, but even 
 from slavery itself. Here Suevia ends. 
 
 XLVL ^^ ^° ^^^^ tribes of the Peucini, Veneti, and Fenni, I 
 am in doubt whether I should class them with the 
 Germans or the Sarmatse, although indeed the Peucini 
 called by some Bastarnje, are like Germans in their 
 language, mode of life, and in the permanence of their 
 settlements. They all live in filth and sloth, and 
 by the intermarriages of the chiefs they are becoming 
 in some degree debased into a resemblance to the 
 Sarmatae. The Veneti have borrowed largely from 
 the Sarmatian character ; in their plundering expedi- 
 tions they roam over the whole extent of forest and 
 mountain between the Peucini and Fenni. They are 
 however to be rather referred to the German race, for 
 they have fixed habitations, carry shields, and delight 
 in strength and fleetness of foot, thus presenting a 
 complete contrast to the Sarmatai, who live in 
 waggons and on horseback. The Fenni are strangely 
 beastlike and squalidly poor ; neither arms nor 
 homes have they ; their food is herbs, their clothing 
 skins, their bed the earth. They trust wholly to 
 their arrows, which, for want of iron, are pointed 
 with bone. The men and the women are alike 
 supplied by the chase ; for the latter are always 
 present, and demand a share of the prey. The little 
 children have no shelter from wild beasts and storms 
 but a covering of interlaced boughs. Such are the 
 homes of the young, such the resting place of the old. 
 Yet they count this greater happiness than groaning 
 over field-labour, toiling at building, and poising the
 
 GERMANY AND ITS TRIBES. 123 
 
 fortunes of themselves and others between hope and xLvf 
 fear. Heedless of men, heedless of gods, they have 
 attained that hardest of results, the not needing so 
 much as a wish. All else is fabulous, as that the 
 Hellusii and Oxiones have the faces and expressions 
 of men, with the bodies and limbs of wild beasts. All 
 this is unauthenticated, and I shall leave it open.
 
 NOTES TO THE GERMANY. 
 
 Thus luJiat was the name of a tribe and not of a 
 race gradually prevailed till all called tlienisehes by the 
 self-invented name of Germans, zvliich the conquerors 
 had first employed to inspired terror. (fta nationis 
 nomcn 7wn gent is evaliiissc paullatim, nt omnes, primum 
 a victore ob inetum max ctiam a se ipsis invento nomine 
 Germani vocarcnt?ir.) 
 
 ciiAi', This is an obscure sentence. There is great diffi- 
 culty about the words "a victore ob metum," which 
 have been variously explained. It seems hardly 
 possible that the preposition a can have the two 
 distinct meanings of "from" and "by" in the same 
 sentence ; and whatever be its meaning in " a se ipsis," 
 must, one would think, be its meaning in "a victore."^ 
 If "a se ipsis" means, as it would api)ear to do, "they 
 were called Germans by themselves when the name 
 had once been found for them," "a victore" must 
 mean they were so called by the conqueror. But 
 then comes the difficulty about the words " ob metum," 
 which, to suit the sense, have generally been explained 
 as if they were equivalent to " ut metum ceteris
 
 NOTES TO THE GERMANY. 125 
 
 tacerent," or to " mctus injicicndi causa." This is a ^"f^^' 
 very strange meaning for the words to bear, and we 
 cannot think of any precisely similar expression. 
 Orelli says it is better to take them intransitively, and 
 he compares two passages in the Annals, i. i and i. 
 6S : "Res ob metum falscX," " milite quasi ob metum 
 defixo." In these passages the meaning of " ob 
 metum " is perfectly clear, but we cannot see that it 
 throws much light on the present passage. All we 
 can make of the words is that they mean, " on account 
 of the fear felt all round for the conquering tribe, and 
 for the other tribes which had not yet crossed the 
 Rhine." That is to say, " They were all at first called 
 Germans by the conquering tribe, because of the fear 
 inspired by the name." The conquerors took advan- 
 tage of the panic which they had spread among the 
 conquered, and said they were only a part of a great 
 German people beyond the Rhine. 
 
 Tacitus is here in agreement with Caesar, who says 
 (Bell. Gall. ii. 4) that the first of the emigrants from 
 Germany were the Condrusi, Eburones, Caeraesi, and 
 Paemani, who were called by the common name of 
 Germans. A large part of the Belg£ were of German 
 origin. 
 
 German is said to be Wehr-mann — a warrior or 
 man of war, and this etymology of the word has been 
 used to explain " ob metum." 
 
 Or even demandiiig them (exigere plagas). 
 This phrase has been variously rendered. It has chap. 
 
 ... VII. 
 
 been interpreted to mean examining the wounds and 
 comparing them together, with the view of ascertain-
 
 126 NOTES TO THE GERMANY. 
 
 '■'vn^' ^^^S ^^'^^o returned from battle with the most honour- 
 able scars. This version is approved by Orelli. In 
 Bohn's edition of the Oxford translation the words 
 are rendered "to search out the gashes," in Avhich 
 sense Ritter takes them, who says they mean, "ex- 
 amining the wounds to see whether they are danger- 
 ous." We doubt if "exigere" will bear this meaning. 
 We prefer Gronovius's interpretation, " demanding 
 wounds as a test of valour." It seems to suit 
 the context best, and to give the force of the word 
 " exigere." 
 
 Ve/eda. 
 
 *\an^* Veleda is mentioned, Hist. iv. 6i. She is said to 
 have been a maiden of the Bructeri, to have possessed 
 extensive dominion, and to have raised her power 
 to a great height by having foretold the success of 
 the Germans and destruction of the Roman legions. 
 This was in the reign of Vespasian, and her prophecy 
 was fulfilled by Civilis. 
 
 T/^c sJiaiii of deification {tamquain faccrent deas). 
 
 According to Hist. iv. 6i, the Germans attributed 
 to some of their women actual divinity. So that 
 here Tacitus must mean that they worshipped certain 
 women, really believing them to be divine, not to 
 flatter them in the spirit of an idle adulation, Avhich 
 at Rome had prompted the Senate to deify Gains 
 Caesar's sister, Drusilla, and Poppnsa, Sabina's daughter 
 by Nero, who lived but four months. There can be 
 little doubt but that Tacitus had in his mind these 
 shameful instances of servility.
 
 NOTES TO THE GERMANY. 127 
 
 TJie cantons and towns {fiagos vicosque). 
 
 CHAP 
 
 The word " pagus " denotes a district, a canton. xii. ' 
 The territory of each tribe was divided into so many 
 " pagi." These again would include a number of 
 " vici," towns or villages. Compare Ann. i. 56, where 
 the two words are connected. 
 
 To earn the honour of wounds {vnlnera mereri). 
 This expression rather confirms us in the view which chap. 
 
 ^ . XIV. 
 
 we have taken of "exigere plagas." It clearly im- 
 plies that wounds received in battle were looked upon 
 as an honourable distinction. 
 
 Miidi of their time in the chase, and still more in 
 idleness {imUtnni venatibns, phis per otinni). 
 
 We think with Kritz that " non multum " (which ^|1^^'- 
 Orelli reads) is intolerably awkward, to say nothing 
 of its being in direct contradiction to Caesar, who 
 (Bell. Gall. vi. 21) speaks of the Germans as devoting 
 themselves zuholly to the chase and to warfare, and 
 (iv. i) says that the Suevi spent much of their time 
 in hunting (" multum sunt in venationibus "). One 
 would expect a roving and warlike people to be 
 partial to the chase. 
 
 Nor do they call it the fashion to corrupt and be 
 corrupted {iiec corrwnpcre et corrtnnpi scsculum voca- 
 tur). 
 
 " Saeculum " is here almost equivalent to "mores." chap. 
 It means " the way of the world," or " the conven- 
 tional standard of morals. Louandre renders it "la 
 mode du siecle." We may compare the New Testa- 
 ment sense of atwv. 
 
 XIX
 
 123 NOTES TO THE GERMANY. 
 
 ^xix.' '^^ limit the nmnhcr of their cJiildren, &c. {Niunc- 
 
 rmn liberorinn finirc ant qucniquani ex agnatis nccarc). 
 
 See note, Agric. 6. 
 
 Good habits are here more cjfeetiial than good latvs 
 elsezvhcre. 
 
 This is probably an allusion to the " Lex Julia," 
 the object of which was to encourage marriage. 
 
 Nor are tJiere any advantages in childlessness {jicc 
 nlla orbit at is pretia). 
 
 CHAP. Tacitus implies that in the corrupt society of Rome 
 
 the advantages of childlessness were very great. The 
 rich and childless were notoriously a mark for polite 
 attentions, as Horace and Juvenal tell us. Pliny says 
 (Epist. iv. 15) that in his time such were the prizes 
 within reach of the childless (" orbitatis praemia ") 
 that it was thought a burden and a disadvantage to 
 have even a single son. 
 
 Inereasing it by coniponnd inte?'est {in nsnras ex- 
 iendere). 
 
 xxvL We think (with Orclli and Rittcr) this must be the 
 
 meaning of the words, though they have been taken 
 differently. It seems perfectly certain that they can- 
 not be a mere repetition of "fenus agitare," as they 
 arc made to be in the Oxford translation. Nor do 
 we like Walther's explanation of them, which is, 
 lending money out during a long period of time and 
 exacting the interest at regular stated intervals. Is 
 not this fairly imi)licd in the words " fcnus agitare" 
 by themselves ?
 
 NOTES ON THE GERMANY 129 
 
 Land proportioned to the number of inhabitants is 
 occupied by the whole community in turn, and after- 
 wards divided among them accordijig to rank. {Agri, 
 pro numero ctdtorum, ab universis in vices occupanticr, 
 quos inox inter se, secundum dignationem partiu)itur.) 
 
 This is a passage of well-known difficulty. Ritter, SSyf- 
 partly on the strength of what Tacitus tells us (ch. 
 1 6) about the Germans living in wide straggling 
 villages, reads "in vicos" for "in vices," But "in 
 vicos occupantur " is such a harsh expression, that 
 we think it ought not to be admitted without some 
 very good reason. Ritter takes it as an equivalent 
 to " ut fiant vici " (" the lands are occupied so as to 
 form villages"), and quotes as similar phrases ''"in 
 hos artus, in hsec corpora excrescunt " (ch. 20) ; " par- 
 tem vestibus in manicas extendunt" (17); "nee 
 remos in ordinem lateribus adjungunt" (44); " ut in 
 picem lentescit " (45). Not one of these instances 
 seems to us a fair parallel, and we prefer Orelli's " in 
 vices," though difficult of explanation. We believe 
 Tacitus is speaking, not of the legal tenure of land 
 generally among the Germans, but simply of the 
 manner in which it was occupied for the purposes of 
 tillage. He has certainly told us (ch. 16) that "they 
 live scattered and apart, as a spring, a meadow, or a 
 wood has attracted them ; " and though Caesar says 
 expressly (Bell. Gall. iv. i) that they have no private 
 or separate landed possessions, something of the kind 
 seems to be recognised in the words just quoted. At 
 any rate it is difficult to see how they can be recon- 
 ciled with the idea of a perpetual change of occupancy. 
 
 K
 
 130 NOTES ON THE GERMANY. 
 
 xxvi' which seems implied in the present passage. Whether 
 Tacitus (in ch. i6) means to assert in contradiction 
 to Caesar that there were fixed properties in Germany 
 or not, here he must be speaking of land held by the 
 whole community (what the Romans called " ager 
 publicus ") ; which land, he says, was portioned out 
 (possibly by lot) for cultivation among the people 
 according to their number, the distribution of the 
 allotments being changed from time to time. The 
 land was first simply portioned out ; the next step 
 (" mox ") was to assign larger portions to the chiefs 
 and nobles. The whole, however, as we understand 
 it, continued to be "ager publicus." An arrangement, 
 otherwise impossible, was rendered easy by the vast 
 extent of the country. The passage, thus under- 
 stood, agrees substantially with what Caesar says (Bell, 
 Gall. vi. 22) that none of the Germans has his own 
 proper and fixed amount of land, but that the magis- 
 trates assign every year to families and clans settled 
 on the same spot, as much as they think fit, and 
 wherever they choose, and compel them in the course 
 of a year to go elsewhere. 
 
 TJiey till fresh fields every year. {A rva per annos 
 injitant) 
 
 As nothing but corn was grown, they did not get 
 a second crop on the same land without letting it 
 lie fallow for a year. Consequently they grew their 
 corn on fresh land every year, which they could, 
 under the circumstances explained, easily do. 
 " Arva " means arable land, as distinguished from wood 
 and pasture.
 
 NOTES ON THE GERMANY. 181 
 
 Except that they still gain from the soil and climate 
 of their native land a keener vigour {iiisi quod ipso 
 adhuc terrcz sues solo ct ccelo acrius animantur). 
 
 The expression " acrius animantur" seems to include 
 the ideas of " enterprise " and courage. " Adhuc " 
 must mean " up to the present time," and so far as 
 Tacitus could speak of them. 
 
 The Mattiaci lived on high ground, and in a clear, 
 sharp air, compared with the Batavi. The air of the 
 " insula Batavorum " was thick and cloudy. 
 
 The tithe-lands. [Decicmates agri) 
 
 The word " decumates " is found nowhere else ; but 
 we have the similar forms " infernates " and " super- 
 nates" in Pliny. It must mean the same as "decu- 
 manus," although Ritter tries to distinguish them by 
 restricting " decumanus ager " to land in a corn- 
 producing province, while these "decumates agri " 
 were no part of a province, but simply an addition 
 to Upper Germany. But there seems no good reason 
 for thinking that Tacitus used this particular form to 
 imply such a distinction. All he means is land for 
 the occupation of which (under Roman protection) 
 the cultivators paid a tenth of the produce. By the 
 expression " questionable ownership," is meant that 
 it was a debateable land between the Gauls and Ger- 
 mans. In the time of Tacitus it was a march or 
 military frontier, and the tithes probably went to the 
 maintenance of Roman armies and garrisons in the 
 adjacent provinces. It is not clear whether by the 
 words " pars provincise " Tacitus m.eans part of 
 
 K 2 
 
 CHAP. 
 XXIX.
 
 132 NOTES ON THE GERMANY. 
 
 xxfx' R^tia (which was immediately to the south), or part 
 of Upper Germany which was to the west. One 
 would suppose that these lands might be looked on 
 as situated in both provinces. Speaking roughly, the 
 " decumates agri " would coincide with part of the 
 Duchy of Baden, part of Wurtemburg, and a small 
 portion of Bavaria. 
 
 It was in the reign of Trajan that the Roman 
 frontier was advanced in these parts. That emperor 
 began a fortified line, which was afterwards completed, 
 from the Rhine to the Danube. This great work was 
 carried from Ratisbon to Mayence. It was known as 
 Trajan's wall. It may still be traced to some extent 
 by the marks of a mound and a ditch. This explains 
 the words " limite acto." 
 
 TJiey are fo7ind zvhcrc there are hills, and with 
 than grozv less frequent, for the Hercynian forest keeps 
 close till it has seen the last of its native Chatti. 
 {Dnra7it siquidem colics, paullatiingtie rarescunt ; ct 
 Cattos snos saltns Hercynins prosequitur sinud atqiie 
 deponit.) 
 
 *5^]^- This we have no doubt is Tacitus's meaning, though 
 
 his language is harsh and embarrassing. We take 
 the sentence as if it stood thus : " Durant, siquidem 
 colles durant, paullatim rarescunt siquidem colles 
 rarescunt. 
 
 We think " Chatti " is the nominative to " durant," 
 which word wc believe to be simply equivalent to 
 " vivunt," in which use it occasionally occurs in Taci- 
 tus. It hardly seems necessary to explain it as Orelli 
 does : " they continue to dwell from necessity." The
 
 NOTES ON THE GERMANY. 133 
 
 word, we think, may be fairly applied both to the ^^xx 
 people and to the range of hills. The meaning of 
 "deponit" is clear enough, but it is an extremely 
 bold and rhetorical expression. 
 
 Check their ijnp?ilses (differ re impetus). 
 
 " Dififerre " means to " put off, defer ; " hence it comes 
 to the same thing as " to restrain, to check." It is 
 thus rendered in the Oxford translation, " restrain 
 impetuous motions." 
 
 A practice rare among the other Gennan tribes, and 
 simply characteristic of individual prozvess, has become 
 general among the Chatti, of letting their hair and 
 beard grow as soon as they have attaified manhood, and 
 iwt till tliey have slain a foe laying aside that peculiar 
 aspect Ivhich devotes and pledges them to valour. 
 
 There is an apt illustration of this passage in Hist, xxxj" 
 iv. 6i : "Then Civilis fulfilled a vow often made by 
 barbarians : his hair, which he had let grow long 
 and coloured with a red dye, from the day of taking 
 up arms against Rome, he now cut short, when the 
 destruction of the legions had been accomplished." 
 
 Even hoary-headed men are distinguished by them, 
 and are thus conspicuous alike to enemies and fellow- 
 coit7itrymen. {Jamque canent insignes, et hostibus simid 
 suisque monstrati). 
 
 It is difficult in a translation to preserve the full 
 force of the original, which has a bold and almost
 
 134 
 
 NOTES ON THE GERMANY. 
 
 CHAP. 
 XXXI. 
 
 poetic turn. " Insignes" is equivalent to a participle, 
 and stands for " hoc modo insigniti." " Monstrati " 
 (marked out) is used as in Agric. 13, " monstratus 
 fatis Vespasianus." 
 
 CHAP. 
 -XXXIII. 
 
 While tJie destinies of enipii'e Jrurry us o?i {urgeiitibus 
 imperii fatis^. 
 
 It is doubtful whether " urgere " means to hurry on 
 the extension of the empire or " to weigh down and 
 press hard." Orelli prefers the first view, and, assu- 
 ming that Tacitus wrote the Germania in the reign 
 of Trajan, it is probably correct. The empire was 
 then, to all appearance, powerful and prosperous ; but 
 Tacitus may have thought he saw danger in the 
 policy of aggrandizement to which it was committed. 
 Ritter takes "urgere" in the sense of "to weigh 
 dov/n," and he thinks the allusion is to the disasters 
 of the Vv'ar with Civilis, and to the horrors of Domi- 
 tian's reign. Possibly there is an intentional vagueness 
 about the word " urgentibus," and the two ideas of 
 an inevitable extension of the frontiers and of being 
 driven on to unknown dangers may be combined in 
 it. Lipsius preferred the reading " vergentibus," which 
 was adopted by Gronovius, in the sense, "the desti- 
 nies of our empire being on the wane." It has, how- 
 ever, hardly any authority. Nor can we see any good 
 reason for the reading which Kritz has adopted, " / w 
 urgentibus imperii fatis," and which he explains to 
 mean, "should dangerous times hereafter threaten the 
 empire." It does not seem so simple, or to yield as 
 apt a sense, as the reading we have followed.
 
 NOTES ON THE GERMANY. 
 
 135 
 
 NortJnvards the country takes a vast sweep {in septen- 
 tj'ioncm ingentijlexn j'edit). 
 
 In ch. I he has spoken of broad promontories 
 ("latos sinus"), and in 37, "the remote corner where 
 the Cimbri dwell bordering on the ocean," is the same 
 as what he here describes by the words " ingenti 
 flexu." He means Jutland and the duchies of Sles- 
 wick-Holstein. The peculiar force of the word "redit" 
 is, that the land, after running up northwards, returns, 
 so to speak, or bends back. It is used in a similar 
 manner by Virgil, Georg. iii. 351 : — 
 
 " Quaque redit medium Rhodope porrecta sub axem." 
 
 Even designed the conquest of Gatcl {etiam Gallias 
 affectavere. 
 
 The reference is to the civil wars, first between 
 Otho and Vitellius, and then between Vitellius and 
 Vespasian, of which last Civilis took advantage, 
 thinking to rouse Gaul as well as Germany against 
 the Romans. In Hist. iv. 18 we are told that he 
 was bent on the ultimate conquest of Gaul and 
 Germany. 
 
 CHAP. 
 XXXV. 
 
 CHAP. 
 XXXVII. 
 
 In recent times zve have celebrated triumphs rather 
 than won conquests over them. 
 
 Tacitus here alludes sneeringly toDomitian's triumph 
 over the Chatti, which in the Agricola 39 he charac- 
 terises as a contemptible affair, at which everybody 
 laughed.
 
 126 NOTES ON THE GERMANY. 
 
 The Sucvi till their heads are grey affect the fashion 
 of draiving back their wikempt locks {apjid Sitevos ad 
 canitiem horrenteni capillinn retro seqimntur). 
 
 xxxvFii ^^ think the word "sequuntur " must be used here 
 as it is in ch. 5 : " argentum magis quam aurum se- 
 quuntur. The interpretation of Orelli (who takes 
 "retro" with " sequuntur"), "they let their hair grow 
 long, and twist it back from their neck and shoulders 
 to the top of their head," can hardly be got out of 
 the words. We suppose " retro " must be joined with 
 " horrentem," though the word hardly seems in its 
 right place. There can, we think, be no doubt that 
 " horrentem " should be construed with " capillum," 
 and not with " canitiem," as some take it. 
 
 The Elbe {A Ibis). 
 
 ^xti' Tacitus seems to be confounding the Saale with the 
 Elbe, of v/hich it is a tributary. The Elbe was the 
 furthest limit, eastwards and northwards, to which the 
 Roman arms advanced in Germany. Claudius Dru- 
 sus (B.C. 9) reached it, but did not cross it. Domitius 
 Ahenobarbus, Nero's grandfather, as we learn from 
 Ann. iv. 44, crossed the river, and thus penetrated 
 further into Germany than any other Roman had 
 hitherto done. This was B.C. 3, and it was followed 
 by an expedition two years later, under the same 
 command, to the banks of the Lower Albis. Never 
 afterwards did a Roman army advance so far in this 
 direction.
 
 NOTES ON THE GERMANY. 137 
 
 The Gotini, to complete their degradation, actually 
 work iron mines. 
 
 Aikin has a good note on this passage — " I should xLm' 
 imagine that the expression ' quo magis pudeat ' does 
 not refer merely to the slavery of working in mines, 
 but to the circumstance of their digging up iron, the 
 substance by means of which they might acquire 
 freedom and independence. This is quite in the 
 manner of Tacitus. The word * iron ' was figur- 
 atively used by the ancients to signify military force 
 in general. Thus Solon, in his well-known answer 
 to Croesus, observed to him that 'the nation which 
 possessed more iron would be master of all the 
 gold.' " 
 
 And so a single rider holds siuay zvitJi no restrictions 
 {eoqjie timts ivtperitat nidlis jam except ionibns). 
 
 There were such restrictions among the other chap 
 German tribes (see ch. 7} ; there were none among 
 the Suevi. The force of the word "jam" is that as 
 you go northwards, the people degenerate more and 
 more from the spirit of liberty which characterises 
 the southern tribes. We see no ground in these words 
 for the inference drawn from them by Spener (Notit. 
 Germ, Antiq.) that the crown among the Suevi was 
 hereditary, and not elective. 
 
 Tacitus no doubt mentions the honour which the 
 Suevi pay to wealth because they were, in this respect, 
 a contrast to all the other tribes.
 
 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 TO THE DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 
 
 This Dialogue is intended as a discussion of the 
 question whether the oratory of the imperial, and 
 particularly the Flavian, age was inferior to that of 
 the last days of the republic, and, if so, why so ? 
 It is, we believe, seldom read. Unfortunately the 
 text is rather corrupt, and there are some serious 
 lacunae. Its genuineness, too, has alwa}'S been a 
 matter of doubt and controversy. It is true, indeed, 
 that the old MSS. assign it to Tacitus, and there really 
 do not seem to be any very solid or definite grounds 
 for deciding against his authorship. Most scholars, 
 Orelli and Ritter among the number, incline to this 
 view. Ingenious critics have attributed it to Quin- 
 tilian, or to the younger Pliny, but, as far as we can 
 see, without the semblance of anything that can be 
 called evidence. It can hardly be argued that the 
 style is at all pointedly unlike that of the Annals and 
 History, and it may fairly be said that here and there 
 may be traced resemblances. It is noted by Orelli 
 that one of the letters of the younger Pliny, addressed 
 to Tacitus, suggests the idea that Pliny was remind- 
 ing his friend of an expression he had used in this
 
 142 INTRODUCTION TO THE 
 
 very Dialogue. " Poetry," he says, " is best written, 
 you think, amid groves and woods " {inter iianora 
 et liccos), and this particular phrase is found in chapter 
 9 of the Dialogue. The clever French critic, Jules 
 Janin, pronounced the work in question 3. chef d' cBiivi-e, 
 " revealing the highest genius," and could not under- 
 stand how it could be doubted that Tacitus w^as the 
 author. If so, it may be presumed to have been one of 
 his earliest works. We gather from a passage in chapter 
 17, that the year in which the Dialogue or conversa- 
 tion was actually held was the sixth year of the reign 
 of the Emperor Vespasian, or A.D. 75. But it does 
 not necessarily follow, as has been assumed, that it 
 was written and published in the same year. It is 
 at least quite possible that Tacitus, if he really was 
 the author, may have taken notes of the conversation 
 at the time, and have subsequently given them to the 
 world, perhaps during the reigns of Nerva or Trajan, 
 when he could have done so with safety. Domitian's 
 age, as we know, was a very perilous one for certain 
 kinds of literature. 
 
 The Dialogue is meant as an answer to a ques- 
 tion which is put into the mouth of one Fabius 
 Justus, a friend of the younger Pliny, and probably a 
 professional rhetorician, a question which we may well 
 suppose often occupied the thoughts of the speakers and 
 men of letters of the day. " How is it," he asks, " that 
 our own particular age is so destitute of the glory of 
 eloquence, when former periods were so rich in it.-"" 
 Tacitus replies that he should not care to give simpl)^ 
 his own opinion on so great a subject, but that he 
 is able to reproduce the substance of a discussion
 
 DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 148 
 
 which he had had the good fortune to hear between 
 some eminent men on this very topic. Of the person- 
 ages of the Dialogue we know next to nothing. Four 
 were present — Curiatius Maternus, Marcus Aper, 
 Vipstanus Messala, and JuHus Secundus. The last, 
 of whom Quintilian says (x. i, 120) that had he lived 
 longer he would have been one of the most famous 
 orators in the world (he was Quintilian's personal 
 friend), takes but a very slight part in the conversa- 
 tion. Maternus had given up the pursuit of oratory for 
 that of poetry, and had become a writer of tragedies. 
 He is full of the praises of his art, which is, he argues, 
 infinitely grander than that of the orator and the 
 pleader of causes. He is probably mentioned by Dion 
 Cassius, who speaks [^"j, 12) of a sophist, that is, 
 a rhetoric-professor, whom Domitian put to death for 
 his outspokenness against tyrants. Of Marcus Aper 
 we can say nothing, but that he, like Secundus, was 
 one of the great lights of the Roman bar. He is for 
 oratory as against poetry, and he maintains that the 
 eloquence of their own age was in its way quite as 
 good as that of former days. Vipstanus Messala 
 is not present at the beginning of the discussion ; he 
 comes in just as Maternus has concluded an enthu- 
 siastic encomium on the poet's life and pursuits. He 
 was a man of whom Tacitus thought highly, and it 
 is said of him in the History (iii. 9), that he was 
 "the only man who had brought into the conflict 
 between Vitellius and Vespasian an honest purpose." 
 He was one of the adherents of the latter emperor. 
 He is again mentioned in the History (iv. 42) as in 
 a great crisis pleading most eloquently on behalf of
 
 144 INTRODUCTION TO THE 
 
 his brother, Aquilius Regulus, the notorious delator, 
 of whom the younger Pliny gives us a description 
 in Epist. I., 5, one of his most amusing letters. It 
 appears that he wrote memoirs of his time, which 
 Tacitus used for his narrative of the civil wars in 
 the History. In this Dialogue he is opposed to Aper, 
 dwelling with admiration on the oratory of the old 
 days of the republic, and vituperating that of his own 
 age as a poor artificial product, the result of a de- 
 praved system of education, and of the extinction of 
 all political ambition. 
 
 The subjects here discussed are of permanent in- 
 terest. Aper pleads on behalf of his profession, its 
 utility and substantial rewards, much as a barrister 
 of our own day might do. He contrasts the great 
 position and wealth won by a successful advocate, 
 with the comparatively humble and obscure lot with 
 which the poet must often rest content. The poet, 
 indeed, at best, can hardly hope for much fame and 
 popularity, or, if he really aspires to greatness, he 
 must surrender himself wholly to his work, and turn 
 his back on society and go into the solitude of fields 
 and woods. Maternus in reply contends that this is 
 a happier life than that of an overworked pleader, 
 with all its harassing anxieties. Messala then joins 
 in the conversation, and praises the orators of the 
 past at the expense of the present, about whose in- 
 feriority he thinks there can be no question. In this 
 view Secundus and Maternus concur, Aper vehe- 
 mently denounces it, and criticises unfavourably several 
 of the most famous orators of the republic, Cicero 
 not excepted. After all, he says, how are you to
 
 DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 145 
 
 draw a line between what is ancient and modern ? 
 People always praise the past, and disparage the 
 present. Eloquence must change with the time, and 
 adapt itself to altered conditions. If the eloquence 
 of old days was more trenchant and vigorous, that of 
 the present is more refined and elegant. People now 
 would not tolerate the crudities and extravagances 
 which disfigured the speeches of antiquity. How- 
 ever, both styles have their merits, and the right 
 method is that of judicious combination. Aper fails 
 to convince. Maternus assumes that the superiority 
 of ancient oratory cannot be questioned, and he asks 
 Messala to explain how it is that there has been such 
 an evident decline of eloquence. Messala's reply, of 
 which much is unfortunately lost, contrasts the edu- 
 cation of the present with that of the past, and he 
 argues that the methods in vogue in the schools of 
 the rhetoric-professors are responsible for the inferior 
 oratory of his own age. We have an amusing pic- 
 ture of the young barrister's defective and absurd 
 training under these professors, from whom he learns 
 only a certain art of declaiming glibly on some far- 
 fetched and preposterous topic. The end of Messala's 
 speech is lost ; it would seem that he requested Mater- 
 nus to give his ideas on the subject, and from this 
 point to the conclusion of the Dialogue Maternus is the 
 speaker. True eloquence, he maintains, can flourish 
 only under a free government, and such a govern- 
 ment, in fact, a republic, involves a certain amount 
 of turbulence, which is really favourable to the orator. 
 In such a state of things, political success is unattain- 
 able without eloquence. Indeed, the orator's art, if 
 
 L
 
 MG INTRODUCTION TO THE DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 
 
 it is to flourish to perfection, needs the stimulus of 
 strife and disorder, and can hardly find material for 
 itself in quiet times and under a settled and estab- 
 lished government. And so Athens was its home 
 rather than Sparta. Maternus suggests that, if elo- 
 quence had declined, it was a cause for thankfulness, 
 as such a fact implied that the conditions of life in 
 their day were at all events better and happier than 
 they had been amid the storms and convulsions of 
 the " good old times." With these reflections the 
 Dialogue concludes.
 
 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 
 
 You often ask me, Justus Fabius, how it is that chap, i 
 while the genius and the fame of so many dis- 
 tinguished orators have shed a lustre on the past, our 
 age is so forlorn and so destitute of the glory of 
 eloquence that it scarce retains the very name of 
 orator. That title indeed we apply only to the ancients, 
 and the clever speakers of this day we call pleaders, 
 advocates, counsellors, anything rather than orators. 
 To answer this question of yours, to undertake the 
 burden of so serious an inquiry, involving, as it must, 
 a mean opinion either of our capacities, if we cannot 
 reach the same standard, or of our tastes, if we have 
 not the wish, is a task on which I should scarcely 
 venture had I to give my own views instead of being 
 able to reproduce a conversation among men, for our 
 time, singularly eloquent, whom, when quite a youth, 
 I heard discussing this very question. And so it is 
 not ability, it is only memory and recollection which 
 I require. I have to repeat now, with the same divisions 
 and arguments, following closely the course of that 
 discussion, those subtle reflections which I heard, power- 
 fully expressed, from men of the highest eminence, 
 each of whom assigned a different but plausible reason, 
 
 L 2
 
 148 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 
 
 CHAP. 1. thereby displaying the pecuHarities of his individual 
 temper and genius. Nor indeed did the opposite 
 side lack an advocate, who, after much criticism and 
 ridicule of old times, maintained the superiority of 
 the eloquence of our own days to the great orators 
 of the past. 
 
 CHAP. II. It was the day after Curiatius Maternus had given 
 a reading of his Cato, by which it was said that he had 
 irritated the feelings of certain great personages, be- 
 cause in the subject of his tragedy he had apparently 
 forgotten himself and thought only of Cato. While 
 all Rome was discussing the subject, he received a 
 visit from Marcus Aper and Julius Secundus, then the 
 most famous men of genius at our bar. Of both I was 
 a studious hearer in court, and I also would follow 
 them to their homes and when they appeared in public, 
 from a singular zeal for my profession, and a youthful 
 enthusiasm which urged me to listen diligently to 
 their trivial talk, their more serious debates, and their 
 private and esoteric discourse. Yet many ill-naturedly 
 thought that Secundus had no readiness of speech, and 
 that Aper had won his reputation for eloquence by his 
 cleverness and natural powers, more than by training 
 and culture. As a fact, Secundus had a pure, terse, 
 and a sufficiently fluent style, while Aper, who was 
 imbued with learning of all kinds, pretended to 
 despise the culture which he really possessed. He 
 would have, so he must have thought, a greater 
 reputation for industry and application, if it should 
 appear that his genius did not depend on any supports 
 from pursuits alien to his profession.
 
 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 149 
 
 So we entered the study of Maternus, and found chap. hi. 
 him seated with the very book which he had read the 
 day before, in his hands. Secundus began. Has 
 the talk of ill-natured people no effect in deterring 
 you, Maternus, from clinging to your Cato with its 
 provocations ? Or have you taken up the book to 
 revise it more carefully, and, after striking out what- 
 ever has given a handle for a bad interpretation, will 
 you publish, if not a better, at least a safer, Cato .'' 
 
 You shall read, was the answer, what Maternus owed 
 it to himself to write, and all that you heard you will 
 recognise again. Anything omitted in the Cato 
 Thyestes shall supply in my next reading. This is 
 a tragedy, the plan of which I have in my own mind 
 arranged and formed. I am therefore bent on hurry- 
 ing on the publication of the present book, that, as 
 soon as my first work is off my hands, I may devote 
 my whole soul to a fresh task. 
 
 It seems, said Aper, so far from these tragedies 
 contenting you, that you have abandoned the study 
 of the orator and pleader, and are giving all your 
 time to Medea and now to Thyestes, although your 
 friends, with their many causes, and your clients from 
 the colonies, municipalities, and towns, are calling you 
 to the courts. You could hardly answer their demands 
 even if you had not imposed new work on yourself, 
 the work of adding to the dramas of Greece a 
 Domitius and a Cato, histories and names from our 
 own Rome. 
 
 This severity of yours, replied Maternus, would chap. iv. 
 be quite a blow to us, had not our controversy from
 
 150 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 
 
 CHAP. V. its frequency and familiarity become b)^ this time 
 almost a regular practice. You, in fact, never cease 
 from abusing and inveighing against poets, and I, whom 
 you reproach with neglect of my professional duties, 
 every day undertake to plead against you in defence 
 of poetry. So I am all the more delighted at the 
 presence of a judge who will either forbid me for 
 the future to write verses, or who will compel me by 
 his additional authority to do what I have long de- 
 sired, to give up the petty subleties of legal causes, 
 at which I have toiled enough, and more than enough, 
 and to cultivate a more sacred and more stately 
 eloquence. 
 
 CHAP. V For my part, said Secundus, before Aper refuses 
 me as a judge, I will do as is usually done by up- 
 right and sensible judges, who excuse themselves in 
 cases in which it is evident that one side has an 
 undue influence with them. Who knows not that no 
 one is nearer my heart from long friendship and un- 
 interrupted intercourse than Saleius Bassus, an excel- 
 lent man, as well as a most accomplished poet .■" 
 Besides, if poetry is to be put on her defence, I know 
 not a more influential defendant. 
 
 He may rest secure, said Aper, both Saleius Bassus 
 himself, and anyone else who is devoted to the pur- 
 suit of poetry and the glory of song, if he has not 
 the gift of pleading causes. But assuredly, as I 
 have found an arbiter for this dispute, I will not allov/ 
 Maternus to shelter himself behind a number of asso- 
 ciates. I single him out for accusation before you
 
 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 151 
 
 on the ground that, though naturally fittest for that chap. ^ 
 manly eloquence of the orator by which he might 
 create and retain friendships, acquire connections, and 
 attach the provinces, he is throwing away a pursuit 
 than which it is impossible to imagine one in our state 
 richer in advantages, more splendid in its prospects, 
 more attractive in fame at home, more illustrious in 
 celebrity throughout our whole empire and all the 
 world. If, indeed, what is useful in life should be 
 the aim of all our plans and actions, what can be 
 safer than to practise an art armed with which a man 
 can always bring aid to friends, succour to strangers, 
 deliverance to the imperilled, while to malignant foes 
 he is an actual fear and terror, himself the while 
 secure and intrenched, so to say, within a power and 
 a position of lasting strength ? When we have a 
 flow of prosperity, the efficacy and use of this art are 
 seen in the help and protection of others ; if, how- 
 ever, we hear the sound of danger to ourselves, the 
 breast-plate and the sword are not, I am well assured, 
 a stronger defence on the battle-field than eloquence 
 is to a man amid the perils of a prosecution. It is 
 both a shield and a weapon ; you can use it alike for 
 defence and attack, either before a judge, before the 
 senate, or before the emperor. What but his elo- 
 quence did Eprius Marcellus oppose the other day to 
 the senators in their fury .'' Armed with this, and 
 consequently terrible, he baflied the sagacious but 
 untrained wisdom of Helvidius Prisons, which knew 
 nothing of such encounters. Of its usefulness I say 
 no more. It is a point which I think my friend 
 Maternus will be the last to dispute.
 
 152 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 
 
 CHAP. vr. I pass now to the pleasure derived from the orator's 
 eloquence. Its delights are enjoyed not for a single 
 moment, but almost on every day and at every hour. 
 To the mind of an educated gentleman, naturally 
 fitted for worthy enjoyments, what can be more de- 
 lightful than to see his house always thronged and 
 crowded by gatherings of the most eminent men, 
 and to know that the honour is paid not to his wealth, 
 his childlessness, or his possession of some office, but 
 to himself.'' Nay, more; the childless, the rich, and 
 the powerful often go to one who is both young and 
 poor, in order to intrust him with difficulties affect- 
 ing themselves or their friends. Can there be any 
 pleasure from boundless wealth and vast power equal 
 to that of seeing men in years, and even in old age, 
 men backed by the influence of the whole world, 
 readily confessing, amid the utmost affluence of every 
 kind, that they do not possess that which is the best 
 of all .-• Again, look at the respectable citizens who 
 escort the pleader to and from the court. Look at 
 his appearance in public, and the respect shown him 
 before the judges. What a delight it must be to rise 
 and stand amid the hushed crowd, with every eye on 
 him alone, the people assembling and gathering round 
 hini in a circle, and taking from the orator any emo- 
 tion he has himself assumed. I am now reckoning 
 the notorious joys of an orator, those which are open 
 to the sight even of the uneducated ; the more secret, 
 known only to the advocate himself, are yet greater. 
 If he produces a careful and well-prepared speech, 
 there is a solidity and stcdfastness in his satisfaction^ 
 just as there is in his style ; if, again, he offers his
 
 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 153 
 
 audience, not without some tremblings at heart, the chap, v; 
 result of a fresh and sudden effort, his very anxiety 
 enhances the joy of success, and ministers to his 
 pleasure. In fact, audacity at the moment, and rash- 
 ness itself, have quite a peculiar sweetness. As with 
 the earth, so with genius. Though time must be 
 bestowed on the sowing and cultivation of some 
 plants, yet those which grow spontaneously are the 
 more pleasing. 
 
 To speak my own mind, I did not experience chap. 
 more joy on the day on which I was presented with 
 the robe of a senator, or when, as a new man, born in 
 a far from influential state, I was elected quaestor, or 
 tribune, or praetor, than on those on which it was my 
 privilege, considering the insignificance of my ability 
 as a speaker, to defend a prisoner with success, to win 
 a verdict in a cause before the Court of the Hundred, 
 or to give the support of my advocacy in the 
 emperor's presence to the great freedmen themselves, 
 or to ministers of the crown. On such occasions I 
 seem to rise above tribunates, prsetorships, and 
 consulships, and to possess that which, if it be not of 
 natural growth, is not bestowed by mandate, nor 
 comes through interest. Again, is there an accom- 
 plishment, the fame and glory of which are to 
 be compared with the distinction of the orator, who 
 is an illustrious man at Rome, not only with the busy 
 class, intent on public affairs, but even with people of 
 leisure, and with the young, those at least who have 
 a right disposition and a worthy confidence in them- 
 selves .-* Whose name does the father din into his
 
 154 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORV. 
 
 CH\p. children's ears before that of the orator ? Whom, as he 
 passes by, do the ignorant mob and the men with the 
 tunic oftener speak of by name and point out with the 
 finger? Strangers too and foreigners, having heard 
 of him in their towns and colonies, as soon as they 
 have arrived at Rome, ask for him and are eager, as it 
 were, to recognise him. 
 
 CHAP. As for Marcellus Eprius, whom I have just 
 
 mentioned, and Crispus Vibius (it is pleasanter to me 
 to cite recent and modern examples than those of a 
 distant and forgotten past), I would venture to argue 
 that they are quite as great men in the remotest corners 
 of the world as at Capua or Vercellae, where they are 
 said to have been born. Nor do they owe this to the 
 three hundred million sesterces of the one, although it 
 may seem that they must thank their eloquence for hav- 
 ing attained such wealth. Eloquence itself is the cause. 
 Its inspiration and superhuman power have through- 
 out all times shown by many an example what a 
 height of fortune men have reached by the might of 
 genius. Bui; there are, as I said but now, instances 
 close at hand, ana we may know them, not by hear- 
 say, but may see them with our eyes. The lower and 
 meaner their birth, the more notorious the poverty 
 and the straitened means amid which their life began, 
 the more famous and brilliant are they as examples to 
 show the efficacy of an orator's eloquence. Without 
 the recommendation of birth, without the support of 
 riches, neither of the two distinguished for virtue, one 
 even despised for the appearance of his person, they 
 have now for many years been the most powerful
 
 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 15£ 
 
 men in the state, and, as lonc^ as it suited them, they chap 
 
 . VIII 
 
 were the leaders of the bar. At this moment, as 
 leading men in the emperor's friendship they carry all 
 before them, and even the leading man himself of the 
 State esteems and almost reverences them. Vespasian 
 indeed, venerable in his old age and most tolerant of 
 truth, knows well that while his other friends are 
 dependent on what he has given them, and on what it 
 is easy for him to heap and pile on others, Marcellus 
 and Crispus, in becoming his friends, brought with 
 them something which they had not received and 
 which could not be received from a prince. Amid so 
 much that is great, busts, inscriptions, and statues 
 hold but a very poor place. Yet even these they do 
 not disregard, and certainly not riches and affluence, 
 which it is easier to find men denouncing than 
 despising. It is these honours and splendours, aye 
 and substantial wealth, that we see filling the homes 
 of those who from early youth have given themselves 
 to practice at the bar and to the study of oratory. 
 
 As for song and verse to which Maternus wishes to chap, ix 
 devote his whole life (for this was the starting-point 
 of his entire argument), they bring no dignity to the 
 author, nor do they improve his circumstances. 
 Although your ears, Maternus, may loathe what I 
 am about to say, I ask what good it is if Aga- 
 memnon or Jason speaks eloquently in your com- 
 position. Who the more goes back to his home 
 saved from danger and bound to you ? Our friend 
 Saleius is an admirable poet, or, if the phrase be more
 
 156 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 
 
 CHAP. IX. complimentary, a most illustrious bard ; but who walks 
 by his side or attends his receptions or follows in his 
 train ? Why, if his friend or relative or even he 
 himselt stumbles into some troublesome affair, he 
 will run to Secundus here, or to you, Maternus, not 
 because you are a poet or that you may make verses 
 for him ; for verses come naturally to Bassus in his 
 own home, and pretty and charming they are, though 
 the result of them is that when, with the labour of a 
 whole year, through entire days and the best part of 
 the nights, he has hammered out, with the midnight 
 oil, a single book, he is forced actually to beg and 
 canvass for people who will condescend to be his 
 hearers, and not even this without cost to himself. He 
 gets the loan of a house, fits up a room, hires benches, 
 and scatters programmes. Even if his reading is 
 followed by a complete success, all the glory is, so to 
 say, cut short in the bloom and the flower, and does not 
 come to any leal and substantial fruit. He carries 
 away with him not a single friendship, not a single 
 client, not an obligation that will abide in anyone's 
 mind, only idle applause, meaningless acclamations 
 and a fleeting delight. We lately praised Vespasian's 
 bounty, in giving Bassus four thousand pounds, 
 as something marvellous and splendid. It is no 
 doubt a fine thing to win an emperor's favour by 
 talent ; but how much finer, if domestic circumstances 
 so require, to cultivate oneself, to make one's own 
 genius propitious, to fall back on one's own bounty. 
 Consider too that a poet, if he wishes to work out 
 and accomplish a worthy result, must leave the society 
 of his friends, and the attractions of the capital ; he
 
 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 157 
 
 must relinquish every other duty, and must, as poets chap, ix 
 themselves say, retire to woods and groves, in fact, 
 into solitude. 
 
 Nor again do even reputation and fame, the only chap, x 
 object of their devotion, the sole reward of their 
 labours, by their own confession, cling to the poet as 
 much as to the orator; for indifferent poets are known 
 to none, and the good but to a few. When does the 
 rumour of the very choicest readings penetrate every 
 part of Rome, much less is talked of throughout 
 our numerous provinces ? How (q\v, when they visit 
 the capital from Spain or Asia, to say nothing of our 
 Gallic neighbours, ask after Saleius Bassus ! And 
 indeed, if any one does ask after him, having once 
 seen him, he passes on, and is satisfied, as if he had 
 seen a picture or a statue. I do not wish my remarks 
 to be taken as implying that I would deter from 
 poetry those to whom nature has denied the orator's 
 talent, if only they can amuse their leisure and push 
 themselves into fame by this branch of culture. For my 
 part I hold all eloquence in its every variety some- 
 thing sacred and venerable, and I regard as preferable 
 to all studies of other arts not merely your tragedian's 
 buskin or the measures of heroic verse, but even the 
 sweetness of the lyric ode, the playfulness of the 
 elegy, the satire of the iambic, the wit of the 
 epigram, and indeed any other form of eloquence. 
 But it is with you, Maternus, that I am dealing ; for, 
 when your genius might carry you to the summit 
 of eloquence, you prefer to wander from the path,
 
 158 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 
 
 CHAP. X. and though sure to win the highest prize you stop 
 short at meaner things. Just as, if you had been born 
 in Greece, where it is an honour to practise even the 
 arts of the arena, and if the gods had given you the 
 vigour and strength of Nicostratus, I should not suffer 
 those giant arms meant by nature for combat to waste 
 themselves on the light javelin or the throwing of the 
 quoit, so nov/ 1 summon you from the lecture-room and 
 the theatre to the law court with its pleadings and its 
 real battles. I do this the more because you cannot 
 even fall back on the refuge which shelters many, 
 the plea that the poet's pursuit is less liable to give 
 offence than that of the orator. In truth, with you the 
 ardour of a peculiarly noble nature bursts forth, and 
 the offence you give is not for the sake of a friend, 
 but, what is more dangerous, for the sake of Cato. 
 Nor is this offending excused by the obligation of duty, 
 or by the fidelity of an advocate, or by the impulse of 
 a casual and sudden speech. You have, it seems, 
 prepared your part in having chosen a character of 
 note who would speak with authority. I foresee your 
 possible answer. Hence, you will say, came the 
 decisive approval ; this is the style which the lecture- 
 room chiefly praises, and which next becomes the 
 world's talk. Away then with the excuse of quiet and 
 safety, when you are deliberately choosing a more 
 doughty adversary. For myself, let it be enough 
 to take a side in the private disputes of our own time. 
 In these, if at any time necessity has compelled us 
 on behalf of an imperilled friend to offend the ears 
 of the powerful, our loyalty must be approved, our 
 liberty of speech condoned.
 
 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 159 
 
 Aper having said this with his usual spirit and chap, xi 
 with vehemence of utterance, Maternus repHed 
 good-humouredly with something of a smile. I was 
 preparing to attack the orators at as great length as 
 Aper had praised them, for I thought that he would 
 leave his praises of them and go on to demolish poets 
 and the pursuit of poetry, but he appeased me by a 
 sort of stratagem, granting permission to those who 
 cannot plead causes, to make verses. For myself, 
 though I am perhaps able to accomplish and effect 
 something in pleading causes, yet it was by the public 
 reading of tragedies that I first began to enter the 
 path of fame, when in Nero's time I broke the wicked 
 power of Vatinius by which even the sanctities of 
 culture were profaned, and if at this moment I possess 
 any celebrity and distinction I maintain that it has 
 been acquired more by the renown of my poems than 
 of my speeches. And so now I have resolved to throw 
 off the yoke of my labours at the bar, and for trains 
 of followers on my way to and from the court and 
 for crowded receptions I crave no more than for the 
 bronzes and busts which have invaded my house even 
 against my will. For hitherto I have upheld my 
 position and my safety better by integrity than by 
 eloquence, and I am not afraid of having ever to 
 say a word in the senate except to avert peril from 
 another. 
 
 As to the woods and groves and that retirement chap. 
 
 XII 
 
 which Aper denounced, they bring such delight to 
 me that I count among the chief enjoyments of 
 poetry the fact that it is composed not in the midst
 
 160 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 
 
 CHAP, of bustle, or with a suitor sittincj before one's door, 
 
 XII. 
 
 or amid the wretchedness and tears of prisoners, but 
 that the soul withdraws herself to abodes of purity 
 and innocence, and enjoys her holy resting-place. 
 Here eloquence had her earliest beginnings ; here is 
 her inmost shrine. In such guise and beauty did she 
 first charm mortals, and steal into those virgin hearts 
 which no vice had contaminated. Oracles spoke 
 under these conditions. As for the present money- 
 getting and blood-stained eloquence, its use is modern, 
 its origin in corrupt manners, and, as you said, Aper, 
 it is a device to serve as a w^eapon. But the happy 
 golden age, to speak in our own poetic fashion, knew 
 neither orators nor accusations, while it abounded in 
 poets and bards, men who could sing of good deeds, 
 but not defend evil actions. None enjoyed greater 
 glory, or honours more august, first with the gods, 
 whose answers they published, and at whose feasts 
 they were present, as was commonly said, and then 
 with the offspring of the gods and with sacred kings, 
 among whom, so we have understood, was not a single 
 pleader of causes, but an Orpheus, a Linus, and, if 
 you care to dive into a remoter age, an Apollo him- 
 self. Or, if you think all this too fabulous and 
 imaginary, at least you grant me that Homer has 
 as much honour with posterity as Demosthenes, and 
 that the fame of Euripides or Sophocles is bounded 
 by a limit not narrower than that of Lysias or 
 Hyperidcs. You will find in our own day more 
 who disparage Cicero's than Virgil's glory. Nor is 
 any production of Asinius or Messala so famous as 
 Ovid's Medea or the Thyestes of Varius.
 
 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 161 
 
 Look acrain at the poet's lot, with its delightful chap. 
 
 ° r ' o ^ XIII. 
 
 companionships. I should not be afraid of comparing 
 it with the harassing and anxious life of the orator. 
 Orators, it is true, have been raised to consulships 
 by their contests and perils, but I prefer Virgil's 
 serene, calm, and peaceful retirement, in which after 
 all he was not without the favour of the divine 
 Augustus, and fame among the people of Rome. We 
 have the testimony of the letters of Augustus, the 
 testimony too of the people themselves, who, on 
 hearing in the theatre some of Virgil's verses, rose in 
 a body and did homage to the poet, who happened to 
 be present as a spectator, just as to Augustus him- 
 self Even in our own day, Pomponius Secundus 
 need not yield to Domitius Aper on the score of a 
 dignified life or an enduring reputation. As for your 
 Crispus and Marcellus, whom you hold up to me as 
 examples, what is there in their lot to be coveted .'' 
 Is it that they are in fear themselves, or are a fear 
 to others .'' Is it that, while every day something is 
 asked from them, those to whom they grant it feel 
 indignant .-• Is it that, bound as they are by the chain 
 of flattery, they are never thought servile enough by 
 those who rule, or free enough by us .'' What is their 
 power at its highest ? Why, the freedmen usually 
 have as much. For myself, as Virgil says, let " the 
 sweet muses " lead me to their sacred retreats, and 
 to their fountains far away from anxieties and cares, 
 and the necessity of doing every day something re- 
 pugnant to my heart. Let me no longer tremblingly 
 experience the madness and perils of the forum, and 
 the pallors of fame. Let me not be aroused by a 
 
 M
 
 162 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY, 
 
 CHAP, tumult of morning' visitors, or a frcedman's pantinc: 
 
 XIII. . 1 t> 
 
 haste, or, anxious about the future, have to make a 
 will to secure my wealth. Let me not possess more 
 than what I can leave to whom I please, whenever 
 tlie day appointed by my own fates shall come ; and 
 let the statue over my tomb be not gloomy and 
 scowling, but bright and laurel-crowned. As for my 
 memory, let there be no resolutions in the senate, or 
 petitions to the emperor. 
 
 CHAP. Excited and, I may say, full of enthusiasm, Mater- 
 
 XIV. J J ^ 
 
 nus had hardly finished when Vipstanus Messala 
 entered his room, and, from the earnest expression 
 on each face, he conjectured that their conversation 
 was unusually serious. Have I, he asked, come among 
 you unseasonably, while you are engaged in private 
 deliberation, or the preparation of some case .'* 
 
 By no means, by no means, said Secundus. In- 
 deed I could wish you had come sooner, for you 
 would have been delighted with the very elaborate 
 arguments of our friend Aper, in which he urged 
 Maternus to apply all his ability and industry to the 
 pleading of causes, and then too with Matcrnus's 
 apology for his poems in a lively speech, which, as 
 suited a poet's defence, was uncommonly spirited, and 
 more like poetry than oratory. 
 
 For my part, he replied, I should liave been in- 
 finitely charmed by the discourse, and I am delighted 
 to find that you excellent men, the orators of our 
 age, instead of exercising your talents simply on 
 law-business and rhetorical studies, also engage in 
 discussions which not only strengthen the intellect
 
 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 1C3 
 
 but also draw from learnincf and from letters a pleasure chap. 
 
 . . XIV. 
 
 most exquisite both to you who discuss such subjects 
 and to those too whose ears your words may reach. 
 Hence the world, I see, is as much pleased with you, 
 Secundus, for having by your life of Julius Asiaticus 
 given it the promise of more such books, as it is with 
 Aper for having not yet retired from the disputes 
 of the schools, and for choosing to employ his leisure 
 after the fashion of modern rhetoricians rather than 
 of the old orators. 
 
 Upon this Aper replied. You still persist, Messala, in chap. 
 admiring only what is old and antique and in sneering 
 at and disparaging the culture of our own day. I have 
 often heard this sort of talk from you, when, forget- 
 ting the eloquence of yourself and your brother, you 
 argued that nobody in this age is an orator. And 
 you did this, I believe, with the more audacity 
 because you were not afraid of a reputation for 
 ill-nature, seeing that the glory which others concede 
 to you, you deny to yourself. I feel no penitence, 
 said Messala, for such talk, nor do I believe that 
 Secundus or Maternus or you yourself, Aper, think 
 differently, though now and then you argue for the 
 opposite view. I could wish that one of you were 
 prevailed on to investigate and describe to us the 
 reasons of this vast difference. I often inquire into 
 them by myself. That which consoles some minds, to 
 me increases the difficulty. For I perceive that even 
 with the Greeks it has happened that there is a greater 
 distance between Aeschines and Demosthenes on the 
 one hand, and your friend Nicetes or any other orator 
 
 M 2
 
 XVI. 
 
 164 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 
 
 CHAP, who shakes Ephesus or Mitylene with a chorus of 
 
 XV. . 
 
 rhetoricians and their noisy applause, on the other, 
 than that which separates Afer, Africanus, or your- 
 selves from Cicero or Asinius. 
 
 CHAP. The question you have raised, said Secundus, is a 
 f^reat one and quite worthy of discussion. But who 
 has a better claim to unravel it than yourself, you 
 who to profound learning and transcendent ability have 
 added reflection and study .-' 
 
 I will open my mind to you, replied Mess«la, if first 
 I can prevail on you to give me your assistance in our 
 discussion. I can answer for two of us, said Maternus ; 
 Secundus and myself will take the part which we 
 understand you have not so much omitted as left to 
 us. Aper usually dissents, as you have just said, and 
 he has clearly for some time been girding himself 
 for the attack, and cannot bear with patience our 
 union on behalf of the merits of the ancients. 
 
 Assuredly, said Aper, I will not allow our age to be 
 condemned, unheard and undefended, by this con- 
 spiracy of yours. First, however, I will ask you whom 
 }'ou call ancients, or what period of orators you limit 
 by your definition ? When I hear of ancients, I under- 
 stand men of the past, born ages ago ; I have in my 
 eye Ulysses and Nestor, whose time is about thirteen 
 hundred years before our day. But you bring forward 
 Demosthenes and Hypcrides who flourished, as we 
 know, in the period of Philip and Alexander, a period, 
 however, which they both outlived. Hence we see 
 that not much more than four hundred years has inter- 
 vened between our own era and that of Demosthenes.
 
 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 165 
 
 If you measure this space of time by the frailty of chap. 
 human life, it perhaps seems long ; if by the course of 
 ages and by the thought of this boundless universe, it 
 is extremely short and is very near us. For indeed, 
 if, as Cicero says in his Hortensius, the great and the 
 true year is that in which the position of the heavens 
 and of the stars at any particular moment recurs, and if 
 that year embraces twelve thousand nine hundred and 
 ninety four of what we call years, then your Demos- 
 thenes, whom you represent as so old and ancient, 
 began his existence not only in the same year, but 
 almost in the same month as ourselves. 
 
 But I pass to the Latin orators. Among them, ^/^f- 
 it is not, I imagine, Menenius Agrippa, who may 
 seem ancient, whom you usually prefer to the speakers 
 of our day, but Cicero, Caelius, Calvus, Brutus, 
 Asinius, Messala. Why you assign them to antiquity 
 rather than to our own times, I do not see. With 
 respect to Cicero himself, it was in the consulship of 
 Hirtius and Pansa, as his freedman Tiro has stated, 
 on the 5th of December, that he was slain. In that 
 same year the Divine Augustus elected himself and 
 Quintus Pedius consuls in the room of Pansa and 
 Hirtius. Fix at fifty-six years the subsequent rule of 
 the Divine Augustus over the state ; add Tiberius's 
 three-and-twenty years, the four years or less of Caius, 
 the twenty-eight years of Claudius and Nero, the one 
 memorable long year of Galba, Otho, and Vitellius, 
 and the now six years of the present happy reign, 
 during which Vespasian has been fostering the public 
 weal, and the result is that from Cicero's death to our
 
 U6 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 
 
 CHAP, day is a hundred and twenty years, one man's 
 XVII. -^ -^ -^ . . 
 
 life-time. P^or I saw myself an old man in Britain 
 
 who declared that he was present at the battle in which 
 
 they strove to drive and beat back from their shores 
 
 the arms of Caesar when he attacked their island. So, 
 
 had this man who encountered Caesar in the field, 
 
 been brought to Rome either as a prisoner, or by 
 
 his own choice or by some destiny, he might have 
 
 heard Ca;sar himself and Cicero, and also have been 
 
 present at our own speeches. At the last largess 
 
 of the Emperor you saw yourselves several old men 
 
 who told you that they had actually shared once and 
 
 again in the gifts of the divine Augustus. Hence 
 
 we infer that they might have heard both Corvinus 
 
 and Asinius. Corvinus indeed lived on to the middle 
 
 of the reign of Augustus, Asinius almost to its close. 
 
 You must not then divide the age, and habitually 
 
 describe as old and anciient orators those with whom 
 
 the ears of the self-same men might have made 
 
 acquaintance, and whom they might, so to say, have 
 
 linked and coupled together. 
 
 CHAP. I have made these preliminary remarks to show that 
 
 any credit reflected on the age by the fame and renown 
 of these orators is common property, and is in fact 
 more closely connected with us than with Servius 
 Galba or Caius Carbo, and others whom we may rightly 
 call "ancients." These indeed are rough, unpolished, 
 awkward, and ungainly, and I wish that your favourite 
 Calvus or Caelius or even Cicero had in no respect 
 imitated them. I really mean now to deal with the 
 subject more boldly and confidently, but I must first
 
 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 167 
 
 observe that the types and varieties of eloquence chap. 
 change with the age. Thus Caius Gracchus compared 
 with the elder Cato is full and copious ; Crassus com- 
 pared with Gracchus is polished and ornate ; Cicero 
 compared with either is lucid, graceful, and lofty ; Cor- 
 vinus again is softer and sweeter and more finished 
 in his phrases than Cicero. I do not ask who is the 
 best speaker. Meantime I am content to have proved 
 that eloquence has more than one face, and even in 
 those whom you call ancients several varieties are to be 
 discovered. Nor does it at once follow that difference 
 implies inferiority. It is the fault of envious human 
 nature that the old is always the object of praise, 
 the present of contempt. Can we doubt that there 
 were found critics who admired Appius Caecus more 
 than Cato ? We know that even Cicero was not 
 without his disparagers, who thought him inflated, 
 turgid, not concise enough, but unduly diffuse and 
 luxuriant, in short anything but Attic. You have 
 read of course the letters of Calvus and Brutus to 
 Cicero, and from these it is easy to perceive that in 
 Cicero's opinion Calvus was bloodless and attenuated, 
 Brutus slovenly and lax. Cicero again was slightingly 
 spoken of by Calvus as loose and nerveless, and by 
 Brutus, to use his own words, as " languid and effemi- 
 nate." If you ask me, I think they all said what was 
 true. But I shall come to them separately after a 
 while ; now I have to deal with them collectively. 
 
 While indeed the admirers of the ancients fix as chap 
 
 XIX 
 
 the boundary, so to say, of antiquity, the period up 
 to Cassius Severus who was the first, they assert, to
 
 168 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 
 
 CHAP, deviate from the old and plain path of the speaker, 
 I maintain that it was not from poveity of genius or 
 ignorance of letters that he adopted his well known 
 style, but from preference and intellectual conviction. 
 He saw, in fact, that, as I was just now saying, the 
 character and type of oratory must change with the 
 circumstances of the age and an altered taste in the 
 popular ear. The people of the past, ignorant and 
 uncultured as they were, patiently endured the length 
 of a very confused speech, and it was actually to the 
 speaker's credit, if he took up one of their days by 
 his speech-making. Then too they highly esteemed 
 long preparatory introductions, narratives told from 
 a remote beginning, a multitude of divisions ostenta- 
 tiously paraded, proofs in a thousand links, and all the 
 other directions prescribed in those driest of treatises 
 by Hermagoras and Apollodorus. Any one who was 
 supposed to have caught a scent of philosophy, and 
 who introduced some philosophical commonplace into 
 his speech, was praised up to the skies. And no 
 wonder ; for this was new and unfamiliar, and even of 
 the orators but very few had studied the rules of 
 rhetoricians or the dogmas of philosophers. But now 
 that all these are common property and that there is 
 scarce a bystander in the throng who, if not fully 
 instructed, has not at least been initiated into the 
 rudiments of culture, eloquence must resort to new 
 and skilfully chosen paths, in order that the orator 
 may avoid offence to the fastidious ear, at any rate 
 before judges who decide by power and authority, 
 not by law and precedent, who fix the speaker's time, 
 instead of leaving it to himself, and, so far from
 
 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 169 
 
 thinking that they ought to wait till he chooses to speak chap. 
 on the matter in question, continually remind him of 
 it and recall him to it when he wanders, protesting 
 that they are in a hurry. 
 
 Who will now tolerate an advocate who begins by chap. 
 
 XX 
 
 speaking of the feebleness of his constitution, as is 
 usual in the openings of Corvinus .'' Who will sit out 
 the five books against Verres ? Who will endure 
 those huge volumes, on a legal plea or form, which 
 we have read in the speeches for Marcus Tullius and 
 Aulus Caccina ? In our day the judge anticipates 
 the speaker, and unless he is charmed and imposed 
 on by the train of arguments, or the brilliancy of the 
 thoughts, or the grace and elegance of the descrip- 
 tive sketches, he is deaf to his eloquence. Even the 
 mob of bystanders, and the chance listeners who 
 flock in, now usually require brightness and beauty 
 in a speech, and they no more endure in the law- 
 court the harshness and roughness of antiquity, than 
 they would an actor on the stage who chose to re- 
 produce the gestures of Roscius or Ambivius. So 
 again the young, those whose studies are on the 
 anvil, who go after the orators with a view to their 
 own progress, are anxious not merely to hear but 
 also to carry back home some brilliant passage worthy 
 of remembrance. They tell it one to another, and 
 often mention it in letters to their colonies and pro- 
 vince.s, whether it is a reflection lighted up by a neat 
 and pithy phrase, or a passage bright with choice 
 and poetic ornament. For we now expect from a 
 speaker even poetic beauty, not indeed soiled with
 
 170 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 
 
 CHAi'. the old rust of Accius or Pacuvius, but such as is 
 x\. 
 
 produced from the sacred treasures of Horace, Virgil, 
 
 and Lucan. Thus the age of our orators, in con- 
 forming itself to the ear and the taste of such a class, 
 has advanced in beauty and ornateness. Nor does it 
 follow that our speeches are less successful because 
 they bring pleasure to the ears of those who have to 
 decide. What if you were to assume that the temples 
 of the present day are weaker, because, instead of 
 being built of rough blocks and ill-shaped tiles, they 
 shine with marble and glitter with gold ? 
 
 CHAP. I will frankly admit to you that I can hardly keep 
 
 XXI 
 
 from laughing at some of the ancients, and from 
 falling asleep at others. I do not single out any of 
 the common herd, as Canutius, or Arrius, and others 
 in the same sick-room, so to say, who are content 
 with mere skin and bones. Even Calvus, although 
 he has left, I think, one-and-twcnty volumes, scarcely 
 satisfies me in one or two short speeches. The rest 
 of the world, I see, does not differ from my opinion 
 about him; for how few read his speeches against 
 Asitius or Drusus ! Certainly his impeachment of 
 Vatinius, as it is entitled, is in the hands of students, 
 especially the second of the orations. This, indeed, 
 has a finish about the phrases and the periods, and 
 suits the ear of the critic, whence you may infer that 
 even Calvus understood what a better style is, but 
 that he lacked genius and power rather than the will 
 to speak with more dignity and grace. What again 
 from the speeches of Caelius do we admire .'' Why, 
 we like of these the whole, or at least parts, in
 
 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 171 
 
 which we reco";nise the pohsh and elevation of our chap 
 
 ° ^ . XXI. 
 
 own day ; but, as for those mean expressions, those 
 gaps in the structure of the sentences, and uncouth 
 sentiments, they savour of antiquity. No one, I sup- 
 pose, is so thoroughly antique as to praise Caelius 
 simply on the side of his antiqueness. We may, 
 indeed, make allowance for Caius Julius Caesar, on 
 account of his vast schemes and many occupations, 
 for having achieved less in eloquence than his divine 
 genius demanded from him, and leave him indeed, 
 just as we leave Brutus to his philosophy. Un- 
 doubtedly in his speeches he fell short of his reputa- 
 tion, even by the admission of his admirers. I hardly 
 suppose that any one reads Csesar's speech for Decius 
 the Samnite, or that of Brutus for King Deiotarus, 
 or other works equally dull and cold, unless it is 
 some one who also admires their poems. For they 
 did write poems, and sent them to libraries, with no 
 better success than Cicero, but with better luck, 
 because fewer people know that they wrote them. 
 
 Asinius too, though born in a time nearer our 
 own, seems to have studied with the Menenii and 
 Appii. At any rate he imitated Pacuvius and Accius, 
 not only in his tragedies but also in his speeches ; 
 he is so harsh and dry. Style, like the human body, 
 is then specially beautiful when, so to say, the veins 
 are not prominent, and the bones cannot be counted, 
 but when a healthy and sound blood fills the limbs, 
 and shows itself in the muscles, and the very sinews 
 become beautiful under a ruddy glow and graceful 
 outline. I will not attack Corvinus, for it was not 
 indeed his own fault that he did not exhibit the
 
 172 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 
 
 CHAP. luxuriance and brightness of our own day. Rather 
 let us note liow far the vigour of his intellect or of 
 liis imagination satisfied his critical faculty. 
 
 CHAP. I come now to Cicero. He had the same battle 
 
 XXII 
 
 with his contemporaries which I have with you. They 
 admired the ancients ; he preferred the eloquence of 
 his own time. It was in taste more than anything 
 else that he was superior to the orators of that age. 
 In fact, he was the first who gave a finish to oratory, 
 the first who applied a principle of selection to words, 
 and art to composition. He tried his skill at beautiful 
 passages, and invented certain arrangements of the 
 sentence, at least in those speeches which he composed 
 when old and near the close of life, that is when he 
 had made more progress, and had learnt by practice 
 and by many a trial, what was the best style of speak- 
 ing. As for his early speeches, they are not free from 
 the faults of antiquity. He is tedious in his introduc- 
 tions, lengthy in his narrations, careless about digres- 
 sions ; he is slow to rouse himself, and seldom warms 
 to his subject, and only an idea here and there is 
 brought to a fitting and a brilliant clo^e. There is 
 nothing which you can pick out or quote, and the 
 style is like a rough building, the wall of which indeed 
 is strong and lasting, but not particularly polished and 
 bright. Now I would have an orator, like a rich and 
 grand householder, not merely be sheltered by a roof 
 sufficient to keep off rain and wind, but by one to 
 delight the sight and the eye ; not merely be provided 
 with such furniture as is enough for necessary pur- 
 poses, but also possess among his treasures gold
 
 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 173 
 
 and jewels, so that he may find a frequent pleasure in ^\f- 
 handling them and gazing on them. On the other 
 hand, some things should be kept at a distance as 
 being now obsolete and ill-savoured. There should 
 be no phrase stained, so to speak, with rust ; no ideas 
 should be expressed in halting and languid periods 
 after the fashion of chronicles. The orator must shun 
 an offensive and tasteless scurrility ; he must vary the 
 structure of his sentences and not end all his clauses 
 in one and the same way. 
 
 Phrases like "Fortune's wheel" and "Verrine soup," xxtn 
 I do not care to ridicule, or that stock ending of every 
 third clause in all Cicero's speeches, " it would seem 
 to be," brought in as the close of a period. I have 
 mentioned them with reluctance, omitting several, al- 
 though they are the sole peculiarities admired and 
 imitated by those who call themselves orators of the 
 old school. I will not name any one, as I think it 
 enough to have pointed at a class. Still, you have before 
 your eyes men who read Lucilius rather than Horace, 
 and Lucretius rather than Virgil, who have a mean 
 opinion of the eloquence of Aufidius Bassus, and Ser- 
 vilius Nonianus compared with that of Sisenna or 
 Varro, and who despise and loathe the treatises of our 
 modern rhetoricians, while those of Calvus are their 
 admiration. When these men prose in the old style 
 before the judges, they have neither select listeners 
 nor a popular audience ; in short the client himself 
 hardly endures them. They are dismal and uncouth, 
 and the very soundness of which they boast, is the 
 result not so much of real vig-our as of fasting;. Even
 
 174 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 
 
 CHAP, as to health of body, physicians are not satisfied 
 with that which is attained at the cost of mental worry. 
 It is a small matter not to be ill ; I like a man to be 
 robust and hearty and full of life. If soundness is all 
 that you can praise him for, he is not very far from 
 being an invalid. Be it yours, my eloquent friends, to 
 grace our age to the best of your ability, as in fact 
 you are doing, with the noblest style of oratory. You, 
 Messala, imitate, I observe, the choicest beauties of the 
 ancients. And you, Maternus and Secundus, combine 
 charm and finish of expression with weight of thought. 
 There is discrimination in the phrases you invent, 
 order in the treatment of your subject, fullness, when 
 the case demands it, conciseness, when it is possible, 
 elegance in your style, and perspicuity in every 
 sentence. You can express passion, and yet control 
 an orator's licence. And so, although ill-nature and 
 envy may have stood in the way of our good opinions, 
 posterity will speak the truth concerning you. 
 
 CHAP. Aper having finished speaking, Maternus said, 
 
 You recognise, do you not, our friend Aper's force 
 and passion ? With what a torrent, what a rush 
 of eloquence has he been defending our age ? How 
 full and varied was his tirade against the ancients ! 
 What ability and spirit, what learning and skill too did 
 he show in borrowing from the very men themselves 
 the weapons with which he forthwith proceeded to 
 attack them ! Still, as to your promise, Messala, there 
 must for all this be no change. We neither want a 
 defence of the ancients, nor do we compare any of 
 ourselves, though we have just heard our own praise.s,
 
 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 175 
 
 with those whom Aper has denounced. Aper himself chap. 
 
 ^ '- . XXIV. 
 
 thinks otherwise ; he merely followed an old practice 
 much in vogue with your philosophical school of 
 assuming the part of an opponent. Give us then 
 not a panegyric on the ancients (their own fame is a 
 sufficient panegyric) but tell us plainly the reasons 
 why with us there has been such a falling off from 
 their eloquence, the more marked as dates have 
 proved that from the death of Cicero to this present 
 day is but a hundred and twenty years. 
 
 Messala replied, I will take the line you have chap. 
 
 XXV 
 
 prescribed for ine. Certainly I need not argue long 
 against Aper, who began by raising what I think a 
 controversy about a name, implying that it is not 
 correct to call ancients those whom we all know to 
 have lived a hundred years ago. I am not fighting 
 about a word. Let him call them ancients or elders or 
 any other name he prefers, provided only we have the 
 admission that the eloquence of that age exceeded 
 ours. If again he freely admits that even in the same, 
 much more in different periods, there were many 
 varieties of oratory, against this part too of his 
 argument I say nothing. I maintain, however, that 
 just as among Attic orators we give the first place to 
 Demosthenes and assign the next to Aeschines, 
 Hyperides, Lysias and Lycurgus, while all agree in 
 regarding this as pre-eminently the age of speakers, so 
 among ourselves Cicero indeed was superior to all 
 the eloquent men of his day, though Calvus, Asinius, 
 Caesar, Caelius, and Brutus may claim the right 
 of being preferred to those who preceded and who
 
 176 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 
 
 CHAP, followed them. It matters nothinc? that they dififer 
 
 XXV. 
 
 in special points, seeing that they are generically 
 alike. Calvus is the more terse, Asinius has the finer 
 rhythm, Caesar greater brilliancy, Caelius is the more 
 caustic, Brutus the more earnest, Cicero the m.ore 
 impassioned, the richer and more forcible. Still about 
 them all there is the same healthy tone of eloquence. 
 Take into your hand the works of all alike and you 
 see that amid wide differences of genius, there is a 
 resemblance and affinity of intellect and moral purpose. 
 Grant that they disparaged each other (and certainly 
 there are some passages in their letters which show 
 mutual ill-will), still this is the failing, not of the 
 orator, but of the man. Calvus, Asinius, Cicero 
 himself, I presume, were apt to be envious and ill- 
 natured, and to have the other faults of human 
 infirmity. Brutus alone of the number in my opinion 
 laid open the convictions of his heart frankly and 
 ingenuousl}', without ill-will or envy. Is it possible 
 that he envied Cicero, when he seems not to have 
 envied even Caesar .-* As to Servius Galba, and Caius 
 Laclius, and others of the ancients whom Aper has 
 persistently assailed, he must not expect me to defend 
 them, for I admit that their eloquence, being yet in 
 its infancy and imperfectly developed, had certain 
 defects. 
 
 CHAP. After all, if I must put on one side the highest and 
 
 XXVI. 
 
 most perfect type of eloquence and select a style, 
 I should certainly prefer the vehemence of Caius 
 Gracchus or the sobriety of Lucius Crassus to the 
 curls of Maecenas or the jingles of Gallic: so much
 
 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 177 
 
 better is it for an orator to wear a roujjh dress than chap. 
 
 . . . XXVI. 
 
 to glitter in many-coloured and meretricious attire. 
 Indeed, neither for an orator or even a man is that 
 style becoming which is adopted by many of the 
 speakers of our age, and which, with its idle redun- 
 dancy of words, its meaningless periods and licence 
 of expression, imitates the art of the actor. Shocking 
 as it ought to be to our ears, it is a fact that fame, 
 glory, and genius are sacrificed by many to the boast 
 that their compositions are given with the tones of the 
 singer, the gestures of the dancer. Hence the ex- 
 clamation, which, though often heard, is a shame and an 
 absurdity, that our orators speak prettily and our actors 
 dance eloquently. For myself I would not deny that 
 Cassius Severus, the only speaker whom Aper 
 ventured to name, may, if compared with his 
 successors, be called an orator, although in many 
 of his works he shows more violence than vigour. 
 The first to despise arrangement, to cast off propriety 
 and delicacy of expression, confused by the very 
 w^eapons he employs, and often stumbling in his 
 eagerness to strike, he wrangles rather than fights. 
 Still, as I have said, compared with his successors, 
 he is far superior to all in the variety of his learning, 
 the charm of his wit, and the solidity of his very 
 strength. Not one of them has Aper had the courage 
 to mention, and, so to say, to bring into the field. 
 When he had censured Asinius, Caelius, and Calvus, 
 I expected that he would show us a host of others, 
 and name more, or at least as many who might be 
 pitted man by man against Cicero, Caesar, and the 
 rest. As it is, he has contented himself with singling 
 
 N
 
 178 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 
 
 CHAP, out for disparap;ement some ancient orators, and has 
 
 XXVI. r t> 
 
 not dared to praise any of their successors, except 
 generally and in terms common to all, fearing, I 
 suppose, that he would offend many, if he selected a 
 few. For there is scarce one of our rhetoricians who 
 does not rejoice in his conviction that he is to be ranked 
 before Cicero, but unquestionably second to Gabinianus. 
 
 CHAP. For my own part I shall not scruple to mention 
 
 XXVII. 
 
 men by name, that, with examples before us, we 
 may the more easily perceive the successive steps of 
 the ruin and decay of eloquence. 
 
 Maternus here interrupted him. Rather prepare 
 yourself to fulfil your promise. We do not want proof 
 of the superior eloquence of the ancients ; as far as I 
 am concerned, it is admitted. We are inquiring into 
 the causes, and these you told us but now you had 
 been in the habit of discussing, when you were less 
 excited and were not raving against the eloquence 
 of our age, just before Apcr offended you by attacking 
 your ancestors. 
 
 I was not offended, replied Messala, by our friend 
 Aper's argument, nor again will you have a right to 
 be offended, if any remark of mine happens to grate 
 on your ears, for you know that it is a rule in these 
 discussions that we may speak out our convictions 
 wi'thout impairing mutual good-will. 
 
 Proceed, said Maturnus. As you are speaking of 
 the ancients, avail yourself of ancient freedom, from 
 which we have fallen away even yet more than from 
 eloquence. 
 
 x'xvii'i. Messala continued. Far from obscure are the
 
 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 179 
 
 causes wViich you seek. Neither to yourself or to our chap 
 
 ^ ^ XXVIII. 
 
 friends, Secundus and Aper, are they unknown, though 
 you assign me the part of speaking out before you 
 what we all think. Who does not know that elo- 
 quence and all other arts have declined from their 
 ancient glory, not from dearth of men, but from the 
 indolence of the young, the carelessness of parents, 
 the ignorance of teachers, and neglect of the old 
 discipline .'' The evils which first began in Rome 
 soon spread through Italy, and are now diffusing 
 themselves into the provinces. But your provincial 
 affairs are best known to yourselves. I shall speak 
 of Rome, and of those native and home-bred vices 
 which take hold of us as soon as we are born, and 
 multiply with every stage of life, when I have first 
 said a few words on the strict discipline of our ancestors 
 in the education and training of children. Every 
 citizen's son, the child of a chaste mother, was from 
 the beginning reared, not in the chamber of a pur- 
 chased nurse, but in that mother's bosom and embrace, 
 and it was her special glory to study her home 
 and devote herself to her children. It was usual to 
 select an elderly kinswoman of approved and esteemed 
 character to have the entire charge of all the children 
 of the household. In her presence it was the last 
 offence to utter an unseemly word or to do a dis- 
 graceful act. With scrupulous piety and modesty she 
 regulated not only the boy's studies and occupations, 
 but even his recreations and games. Thus it was, 
 as tradition says, that the mothers of the Gracchi, 
 of Caesar, of Augustus, Cornelia, Aurelia, Atia, 
 directed their children's education and reared the 
 
 N 2
 
 180 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 
 
 CHAP, qreatest of sons. The strictness of the discipline 
 
 XXVI II. ^ . ^ 
 
 tended to form in each case a pure and virtuous 
 nature which no vices could warp, and which would at 
 once with the whole heart seize on every noble lesson. 
 Whatever its bias, whether to the soldier's or the 
 lawyer's art, or to the study of eloquence, it would 
 make that its sole aim, and imbibe it in its fullness. 
 
 CHAP. But in our day we entrust the infant to a little 
 
 XXIX. . ^ 
 
 Greek servant-girl who is attended by one or two, 
 commonly the worst of all the slaves, creatures utterly 
 unfit for any important work. Their stories and their 
 prejudices from the very first fill the child's tender and 
 uninstructed mind. No one in the whole house cares 
 what he says or does before his infant master. Even 
 parents themselves familiarise their little ones, not 
 with virtue and modesty, but with jesting and glib 
 talk, which lead on by degrees to shamelessness and 
 to contempt for themselves as well as for others. 
 Really I think that the characteristic and peculiar 
 vices of this city, a liking for actors and a passion for 
 gladiators and horses, are all but conceived in the 
 mother's womb. When these occupy and possess the 
 mind, how little room has it left for worthy attain- 
 ments ! Few indeed are to be found who talk of any 
 other subjects in their homes, and whenever we enter 
 a class-room, what else is the conversation of the 
 youths. Even with the teachers, these are the more 
 frequent topics of talk with their scholars. In fact, 
 they draw pupils, not by strictness of discipline or by 
 giving proof of ability, but by assiduous court and 
 cunning tricks of flattcr)\
 
 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 181 
 
 I say nothing about the learners' first rudiments, chap. 
 Even with these httle pains are taken, and on the 
 reading of authors, on the study of antiquity and a 
 knowledge of facts, of men and of periods, by no means 
 enough labour is bestowed. It is rhetoricians, as they 
 are called, who are in request. When this profession 
 was first introduced into our city, and how little 
 esteem it had among our ancestors, I am now about 
 to explain ; but I will first recall your attention to the 
 training which we have been told was practised by 
 those orators whose infinite industry, daily study and 
 incessant application to every branch of learning are 
 seen in the contents of their own books. You are 
 doubtless familiar with Cicero's book, called Brutus. 
 In the latter part of it (the first gives an account of 
 the ancient orators) he relates his own beginnings, his 
 progress, and the growth, so to say, of his eloquence. 
 He tells us that he learnt the civil law under Quintus 
 Mucins, and that he thoroughly imbibed every branch 
 of philosophy under Philo of the Academy and under 
 Diodotus the Stoic ; that not content with the teachers 
 under whom he had had the opportunity of studying 
 at Rome, he travelled through Achaia and Asia Minor 
 so as to embrace every variety of every learned 
 pursuit. Hence we really find in Cicero's works that 
 he was noi deficient in the knowledge of geometry, 
 music, grammar, or, in short, any liberal accomplish- 
 ment. The subtleties of logic, the useful lessons of 
 ethical science, the movements and causes of the 
 universe, were alike known to him. The truth indeed 
 is this, my excellent friends, that Cicero's wonderful 
 eloquence wells up and overflows out of a store of
 
 182 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 
 
 CHAP erudition, a multitude of accomplishments, and a 
 knowledge that was universal. The strength and power 
 of oratory, unlike all other arts, is not confined within 
 narrow and straitened limits, but the orator is he 
 who can speak on every question with grace, elegance, 
 and persuasiveness, suitably to the dignity of his 
 subject, the requirements of the occasion, and the taste 
 of his audience. 
 
 CHAP. Such was the conviction of the ancients, and to 
 
 XXXI 
 
 produce this result they were aware that it was 
 necessary not only to declaim in the schools of rhe- 
 toricians, or to exercise the tongue and the voice in 
 fictitious controversies quite remote from reality, but 
 also to imbue the mind with those studies which 
 treat of good and evil, of honour and dishonour, of 
 right and wrong. All this, indeed, is the subject- 
 matter of the orator's speeches. Equity in the law- 
 court, honour in the council-chamber, are our usual 
 topics of discussion. Still, these often pass into 
 each other, and no one can speak on them with ful- 
 ness, variety, and elegance but he who has studied 
 human nature, the power of virtue, the depravity of 
 vice, and the conception of those things which can be 
 classed neither among virtues nor vices. These are 
 the sources whence flows the greater ease with which 
 he who knows what anger is, rouses or soothes the 
 anger of a judge, the readier power with which he 
 moves to pity who knows what pity is, and what 
 emotions of the soul excite it. An orator practised 
 in such arts and exercises, whether he has to address 
 the angry, the biassed, the envious, the sorrowful,
 
 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 183 
 
 or the tremblinc^, will understand different mental chap. 
 
 . . . XXXI. 
 
 conditions, apply his skill, adapt his style, and have 
 every instrument of his craft in readiness, or in re- 
 serve for every occasion. Some there are whose 
 assent is more secured by an incisive and terse style, 
 in which each inference is rapidly drawn. With 
 such, it will be an advantage to have studied logic. 
 Others are more attracted by a diffuse and smoothly 
 flowing speech, appealing to the common sentiments 
 of humanity. To impress such we must borrow from 
 the Peripatetics commonplaces suited and ready 
 prepared for every discussion. The Academy will 
 give us combativeness, Plato, sublimity, Xenophon, 
 sweetness. Nor will it be unseemly in an orator to 
 adopt even certain exclamations of honest emotion, 
 from Epicurus and Metrodorus, and to use them as 
 occasion requires. It is not a philosopher after the 
 Stoic school whom we are forming, but one who ought 
 to imbibe thoroughly some studies, and to have a 
 taste of all. Accordingly, knowledge of the civil law 
 was included in the training of the ancient orators, 
 and they also imbued their minds with grammar, 
 music, and geometry. In truth, in very many, I may 
 say in all cases, acquaintance with law is desirable, 
 and in several this last-mentioned knowledge is a 
 necessity. 
 
 Let no one reply that it is enough for us to learn, chap. 
 as occasion requires, some single and detached sub- 
 ject. In the first place we use our own property in 
 one way, a loan in another, and there is evidently a 
 wide difference between possessing what one exhibits 
 
 xxxii
 
 184 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 
 
 CHAP, and borrowinfT it. Next, the very knowledfje of 
 XXXII. . -^ . ' ^ ^ 
 
 many subjects sits gracefully on us, even when we 
 
 are otherwise engaged, and makes, itself visible and 
 conspicuous where you would least expect it. Even 
 the average citizen, and not only the learned and 
 critical hearer, perceives it, and forthwith showers his 
 praises in the acknowledgment that the man has 
 been a genuine student, has gone through every 
 branch of eloquence, and is, in short, an orator. And 
 I maintain that the only orator is, and ever has been, 
 one who, like a soldier equipped at all points going 
 to the battle-field, enters the forum armed with every 
 learned accomplishment. 
 
 All this is so neglected by the speakers of our 
 time that we detect in their pleadings the style of 
 every-day conversation, and unseemly and shameful 
 deficiencies. They are ignorant of the laws, they do 
 not understand the senate's decrees, they actually 
 scoff at the civil law, while they quite dread the 
 study of philosophy, and the opinions of the learned ; 
 and eloquence, banished, so to say, from her proper 
 realm, is dragged down by them into utter poverty of 
 thought and constrained periods. Thus she who, 
 once mistress of all the arts, held sway with a glo- 
 rious retinue over our souls, now clipped and shorn, 
 without state, without honour, I had almost said 
 without her freedom, is studied as one of the meanest 
 handicrafts. This then I believe to be the first and 
 chief cause of so marked a falling off among us 
 from the eloquence of the old orators. If witnesses 
 are wanted, whom shall I name in preference to 
 Demosthenes among the Greeks, who is said by tra-
 
 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 185 
 
 dition to have been a most attentive hearer of Plato ? chap. 
 Cicero too tells us, I think, in these very words, 
 that whatever he had achieved in eloquence he had 
 gained, not from rhetoricians, but in the walks of the 
 Academy. There are other causes, some of them 
 great and important, which it is for you in fairness 
 to explain, as I have now done my part, and, after 
 my usual way, have offended pretty many persons 
 who, if they happen to hear all this, will, I am sure, 
 say that, in praising an acquaintance with law and 
 philosophy as a necessity for an orator, I have been 
 applauding my own follies. 
 
 For myself, replied Maternus, I do not think that chap. 
 
 XXXIII 
 
 you have completed the task which you undertook. 
 Far from it. You have, I think, only made a begin- 
 ning, and indicated, so to say, its traces and outlines. 
 You have indeed described to us the usual equipment 
 of the ancient orators, and pointed out the contrast 
 presented by our idleness and ignorance to their very 
 diligent and fruitful studies. I want to hear the rest. 
 Having learnt from you what they knew, with which 
 we are unacquainted, I wish also to be told the pro- 
 cess of training by which, when mere lads, and when 
 about to enter the forum, they used to strengthen 
 and nourish their intellects. For you will not, I 
 imagine, deny that eloquence depends much less on 
 art and theory than on capacity and practice, and 
 our friends here seem by their looks to think the 
 same. 
 
 Aper and Secundus having assented, Messala, so 
 to say, began afresh. As I have, it seems, explained
 
 186 
 
 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 
 
 CHAP. 
 XXXIII. 
 
 to your satisfaction the first elements and the germs 
 of ancient eloquence in showing you the studies in 
 which the orator of antiquity was formed and edu- 
 cated, I will now discuss the process of his training. 
 However, even the studies themselves involve a train- 
 ing, and no one can acquire such profound and varied 
 knowledge without adding practice to theory, fluency 
 to practice, and eloquence itself to fluency. Hence 
 we infer that the method of acquiring what you 
 mean to produce publicly, and of so producing what 
 you have acquired, is one and the same. Still, 
 if any one thinks this somewhat obscure, and dis- 
 tinguishes broadly between theory and practice, he 
 will at least allow that a mind thoroughly furnished 
 and imbued with such studies will enter with a far 
 better preparation on the kinds of practice which seem 
 specially appropriate to the orator. 
 
 CHAP. 
 XXXIV. 
 
 It was accordingly usual with our ancestors, when a 
 lad was being prepared for public speaking, as soon 
 as he was fully trained by home discipline, and his 
 mind was stored with culture, to have him taken by 
 his father, or his relatives to the orator who held the 
 highest rank in the state. The boy used to accom- 
 pany and attend him, and be present at all his 
 speeches, alike in the law-court and the assembly, 
 and thus he picked up the art of repartee, and be- 
 came habituated to the strife of words, and indeed, 
 I may almost say, learnt how to fight in battle. 
 Thereby young men acquired from the first great 
 experience and confidence, and a very large stock of 
 discrimination, for they were stud}'ing in broad day-
 
 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 187 
 
 liffht, in the very thick of the conflict, where no one chap. 
 ^ ' -^ ' xxxiv 
 
 can say anything foohsh or self-contradictory without 
 
 its being refuted by the judge, or ridiculed by the 
 opponent, or, last of all, repudiated by the very 
 counsel with him. Thus from the beginning they 
 were imbued with true and genuine eloquence, and, 
 although they attached themselves to one pleader, 
 still they became acquainted with all advocates of 
 their own standing in a multitude of cases before the 
 courts. They had too abundant experience of the 
 popular ear in all its greatest varieties, and with this 
 they could easily ascertain what was liked or dis- 
 approved in each speaker. Thus they were not in 
 want of a teacher of the very best and choicest kind, 
 who could show them eloquence in her true features, 
 not in a mere resemblance ; nor did they lack oppo- 
 nents and rivals, who fought with actual steel, not 
 with a wooden sword, and the audience too was 
 always crowded, always changing, made up of un- 
 friendly as well as of admiring critics, so that neither 
 success nor failure could be disguised. You know, of 
 course, that eloquence wins its great and enduring 
 fame quite as much from the benches of our opponents 
 as from those of our friends ; nay, more, its rise from 
 that quarter is steadier, and its growth surer. Un- 
 doubtedly it was under such teachers that the youth 
 of whom I am speaking, the disciple of orators, the 
 listener in the forum, the student in the law-courts, 
 was trained and practised by the experiences of others. 
 The laws he learnt by daily hearing ; the faces of 
 the judges were familiar to him ; the ways of popu- 
 lar assemblies were continually before his eyes ; he
 
 XXXV. 
 
 188 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 
 
 CHAP, had frequent experience of the ear of the people, and 
 whether he undertook a prosecution or a defence, 
 he was at once singly and alone equal to any case. 
 We still read with admiration the speeches in which 
 Lucius Crassus in his nineteenth, Csesar and Asinius 
 Pollio in their twenty-first year, Calvus, when very 
 little older, denounced, respectively, Carbo, Dolabella, 
 Cato, and Vatinius. 
 
 CHAP. But in these days we have our youths taken to 
 
 the professors' theatre, the rhetoricians, as we call 
 them. The class made its appearance a little before 
 Cicero's time, and was not liked by our ancestors, 
 as is evident from the fact that, when Crassus and 
 Domitius were censors, they were ordered, as Cicero 
 says, to close "the school of impudence." However, 
 as I was just saying, the boys are taken to schools 
 in which it is hard to tell whether the place itself, 
 or their fellow-scholars, or the character of their 
 studies, do their minds most harm. As for the place, 
 there is no such thing as reverence, for no one enters 
 it who is not as ignorant as the rest. As for the 
 scholars, there can be no improvement, when boys 
 and striplings with equal assurance address, and are 
 addressed by, other boys and striplings. As for the 
 mental exercises themselves, they are the reverse of 
 beneficial. Two kinds of subject-matter are dealt 
 with before the rhetoricians, the persuasive and the 
 controversial. The persuasive, as being comparatively 
 easy and requiring less skill, is given to boys. The 
 controversial is assigned to riper scholars, and, good 
 heavens! what strange and astonishing productions
 
 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 189 
 
 are the result ! It comes to pass that subjects re- 9^-^^ 
 mote from all reality are actually used for declama- 
 tion. Thus the reward of a tyrannicide, or the choice 
 of an outraged maiden, or a remedy for a pestilence, 
 or a mother's incest, anything, in short, daily dis- 
 cussed in our schools, never, or but very rarely in the 
 courts, is dwelt on in grand language. 
 
 [The rest of Messala's speech is lost. Maternus is 
 now again the speaker.] 
 
 Great eloquence, like fire, grows with its material ; chap. 
 
 XXXVI 
 
 it becomes fiercer with movement, and brighter as 
 it burns. On this same principle was developed in 
 our state too the eloquence of antiquity. Although 
 even the modern orator has attained all that the 
 circumstances of a settled, quiet, and prosperous com- 
 munity allow, still in the disorder and licence of the 
 past more seemed to be within the reach of the 
 speaker, when, amid a universal confusion that needed 
 one guiding hand, he exactly adapted his wisdom to 
 the bewildered people's capacity of conviction. Hence, 
 laws without end and consequent popularity ; hence, 
 speeches of magistrates who, I may say, passed 
 nights on the Rostra; hence, prosecutions of influ- 
 ential citizens brought to trial, and feuds transmitted 
 to whole families ; hence, factions among the nobles, 
 and incessant strife between the senate and the people. 
 In each case the state was torn asunder, but the 
 eloquence of the age was exercised and, as it seemed, 
 was loaded with great rewards. For the more power- 
 ful a man was as a speaker, the more easily did he
 
 190 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 
 
 CHAP, obtain office, the more decisively superior was he to 
 XXXVI. , . „ ' ^ ^ 
 
 his coheagues in office, the more influence did he 
 
 acquire with the leaders of the state, the more weight 
 in the senate, the more notoriety and fame with the 
 people. Such men had a host of clients, even among" 
 foreign nations ; the magistrates, when leaving Rome 
 for the provinces, showed them respect, and courted 
 their favour as soon as they returned. The praetor- 
 ship and the consulship seemed to offer themselves 
 to them, and even when they were out of office, they 
 were not out of power, for they swayed both people 
 and senate with their counsels and influence. Indeed, 
 they had quite convinced themselves that without 
 eloquence no one could win or retain a distinguished 
 and eminent position in the state. And no wonder. 
 Even against their own wish they had to show them- 
 selves before the people. It was little good for them 
 to give a brief vote in the senate without supporting 
 their opinion with ability and eloquence. If brought 
 into popular odium, or under some charge, they had 
 to reply in their own words. Again, they were under 
 the necessity of giving evidence in the public courts, 
 not in their absence by affidavit, but of being present 
 and of speaking it openly. There was thus a strong 
 stimulus to win the great prizes of eloquence, and 
 as the reputation of a good speaker was considered 
 an honour and a glory, so it was thought a disgrace 
 to seem mute and speechless. Shame therefore quite 
 as much as hope of reward prompted men not to 
 take the place of a pitiful client rather than that of a 
 patron, or to see hereditary connections transferred to 
 others, or to seem spiritless and incapable of office
 
 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 
 
 191 
 
 from either failing to obtain it or from holding it 
 weakly when obtained. 
 
 Perhaps you have had in your hands the old re- 
 cords, still to be found in the libraries of antiquaries, 
 which Mucianus is just now collecting, and which 
 have already been brought together and published 
 in, I think, eleven books of Transactions, and three 
 of Letters. From these we may gather that Cneius 
 Pompeius and Marcus Crassus rose to power as much 
 by force of intellect and by speaking as by their 
 might in arms ; that the Lentuli, Metelli, Luculli, 
 and Curios, and the rest of our nobles, bestowed 
 great labour and pains on these studies, and that, in 
 fact, no one in those days acquired much influence 
 without some eloquence. We must consider too the 
 eminence of the men accused, and the vast issues 
 involved. These of themselves do very much for 
 eloquence. There is, indeed, a wide difference be- 
 tween having to speak on a theft, a technical point, 
 a judicial decision, and on bribery at elections, the 
 plundering of the allies, and the massacre of citizens. 
 Though it is better that these evils should not befall 
 us, and the best condition of the state is that in which 
 we are spared such sufferings, still, when they did 
 occur, they supplied a grand material for the orator. 
 His mental powers rise with the dignity of his sub- 
 ject, and no one can produce a noble and brilliant 
 speech unless he has got an adequate case. Demos- 
 thenes, I take it, does not owe his fame to his speeches 
 against his guardians, and it is not his defence of 
 Publius Quintius, or of Licinius Archias, which make 
 Cicero a great orator ; it is his Catiline, his Milo, 
 
 CHAP. 
 XXXVI. 
 
 CHAP. 
 XXXVII
 
 102 
 
 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY, 
 
 CHAP. 
 XXXVII. 
 
 his Verres, and Antonius, which have shed over him 
 this lustre. Not indeed that it was worth the state's 
 while to endure bad citizens that orators might have 
 plenty of matter for their speeches, but, as I now 
 and then remind you, we must remember the point, 
 and understand that we are speaking of an art which 
 arose more easily in stormy and unquiet tirties. Who 
 knows not that it is better and more profitable to 
 enjoy peace than to be harassed by war? Yet war 
 produces more good soldiers than peace. Eloquence 
 is on the same footing. The oftener she has stood, 
 so to say, in the battle-field, the more wounds she 
 has inflicted and received, the mightier her antago- 
 nist, the sharper the conflicts she has freely chosen, 
 the higher and more splendid has been her rise, and 
 ennobled by these contests she lives in the praises of 
 mankind. 
 
 CHAP. 
 XXXVIII. 
 
 I pass now to the forms and character of procedure 
 in the old courts. As they exist now, they are indeed 
 more favourable to truth, but the forum in those days 
 was a better training for eloquence. There no speaker 
 •was under the necessity of concluding within a very 
 few hours ; there was freedom of adjournment, and 
 every one fixed for himself the limits of his speech, 
 and there was no prescribed number of days or of 
 counsel. It was Cneius Pompcius who, in his third con- 
 sulship, first restricted all this, and put a bridle, so to 
 say, on eloquence, intending, however, that all business 
 should be transacted in the forum according to law, 
 and before the prjetors. Here is a stronger proof of 
 the greater importance of the cases tried before these
 
 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 193 
 
 judges than in the fact that causes in the Court of the chap. 
 
 XXXVIII. 
 
 Hundred, causes which now hold the first place, were 
 then so eclipsed by the fame of other trials that not 
 a speech of Cicero, or Caesar, or Brutus, or Caelius, 
 or Calvus, or, in short, any great orator is now 
 read, that was delivered in that Court, except only 
 the orations of Asinius Pollio for the heirs of Urbinia, 
 as they are entitled, and even Pollio delivered these in 
 the middle of the reign of Augustus, a period of 
 long rest, of unbroken repose for the people and 
 tranquillity for the senate, when the emperor's perfect 
 discipline had put its restraints on eloquence as well 
 as on all else. 
 
 Perhaps what I am going to say will be thought chap 
 trifling and ridiculous ; but I will say it even to be ' 
 laughed at. What contempt (so I think at least) has 
 been brought on eloquence by those little overcoats 
 into which we squeeze, and, so to say, box ourselves 
 up, when we chat with the judges ! How much 
 force may we suppose has been taken from our 
 speeches by the little rooms and offices in which 
 nearly all cases have to be set forth. Just as a spacious 
 course tests a fine horse, so the orator has his field, 
 and unless he can move in it freely and at ease, his 
 eloquence grows feeble and breaks down. Nay more ; 
 we find the pains and labour of careful composition 
 out of place, for the judge keeps asking when you 
 are going to open the case, and you must begin from 
 his question. Frequently he imposes silence on the 
 advocate to hear proofs and witnesses. Meanwhile 
 only one or two persons stand by you as you are 
 
 o
 
 194 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 
 
 CHAR speaking and the whole business is transacted almost 
 in solitude. But the orator wants shouts and applause, 
 and something hke a theatre, all which and the like 
 were the every day lot of the orators of antiquity, 
 when both numbers and nobility pressed into the 
 forum,when gatherings of clients and the people in their 
 tribes and deputations from the towns and indeed a 
 great part of Italy stood by the accused in his peril, 
 and Rome's citizens felt in a multitude of trials 
 that they themselves had an interest in the decision. 
 We know that there was a universal rush of the 
 people to hear the accusation and the defence of 
 Cornelius, Scaurus, Milo, Bestia, and Vatinius, so that 
 even the coldest speaker might have been stirred and 
 kindled by the mere enthusiasm of the citizens in 
 their strife. And therefore indeed such pleadings are 
 still extant, and thus the men too who pleaded, owe 
 their fame to no other speeches more than these. 
 
 CHAP. XL. Again, what stimulus to genius and what fire to the 
 orator was furnished by incessant popular assemblies, 
 by the privilege of attacking the most influential men, 
 and by the very glory of such feuds when most of the 
 good speakers did not spare even a Publius Scipio, or 
 a Sulla, or a Cneius Pompeius, and following the 
 common impulse of envy availed themselves of the 
 popular ear for invective against eminent citizens. 
 I am not speaking of a quiet and peaceful accom- 
 plishment, which delights in what is virtuous and well 
 regulated. No ; the great and famous eloquence of 
 old is the nursling of the licence which fools called 
 freedom ; it is the companion of sedition, the
 
 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 195 
 
 stimulant of an unruly people, a stranger to obedience chap, xl 
 and subjection, a defiant, reckless, presumptuous thing 
 which does not show itself in a well-governed state. 
 What orator have we ever heard of at Sparta or at 
 Crete ? A very strict discipline and very strict laws 
 prevailed, tradition says, in both those states. Nor do 
 we know of the existence of eloquence among the 
 Macedonians or Persians, or in any people content 
 with a settled government. There were some orators 
 at Rhodes and a host of them at Athens, but there 
 the people, there any ignorant follow, anybody, in short, 
 could do anything. So too our own state, while it 
 went astray and wore out its strength in factious 
 strife and discord, with neither peace in the forum, 
 unity in the senate, order in the courts, respect 
 for merit, or seemly behaviour in the magistrates, 
 produced beyond all question a more vigorous elo- 
 quence, just as an untilled field yields certain herbage 
 in special plenty. Still the eloquence of the Gracchi 
 was not an equivalent to Rome for having to endure 
 their legislation, and Cicero's fame as an orator was 
 a poor compensation for the death he died. 
 
 And so now the forum, which is all that our speakers ^-J^Y' 
 have left them of antiquity, is an evidence of a 
 state not thoroughly reformed or as orderly as we 
 could wish. Who but the guilty or unfortunate apply 
 to us .-• What town puts itself under our protection 
 but one harassed by its neighbours or by strife at 
 home .'' When we plead for a province, is it not one 
 that has been plundered and ill-treated .'' Surely it 
 would be better not to complain than to have to seek 
 
 O 2
 
 196 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 
 
 CHAP redress. Could a community be found in which no 
 one did wrong, an orator would be as superfluous 
 among its innocent people as a physician among the 
 healthy. As the healing art is of very little use and 
 makes very little progress in nations which enjoy par- 
 ticularly robust constitutions and vigorous frames, so 
 the orator gets an inferior and less splendid renown 
 where a sound morality and willing obedience to 
 authority prevail. What need there of long speeches in 
 the senate, when the best men are soon of one mind, 
 or of endless harangues to the people, when political 
 questions are decided not by an ignorant multitude, 
 but by one man of pre-eminent wisdom ? What need 
 of voluntary prosecutions, when crimes are so rare 
 
 m. and slight, or of defences full of spiteful insinuation 
 
 "^ and exceeding proper bounds, when the clemency of 
 
 the judge offers itself to the accused in his peril ? 
 
 Be assured, my most excellent, and, as far as the 
 age requires, most eloquent friends, that had you been 
 born in the past, and the men we admire in our own 
 day, had some god in fact suddenly changed your 
 lives and your age, the highest fame and glory of 
 eloquence would have been yours, and they too would 
 not have lacked moderation and self-control. As it 
 is, seeing that no one can at the same time enjoy 
 great renown and great tranquillity, let everybody 
 make the best of the blessings of his own age without 
 disparaging other periods. 
 
 Maternus had now finished. There were, replied 
 Messala, some points I should controvert, some on 
 which I should like to hear more, if the day were 
 not almost spent. It shall be, said Maternus, as you
 
 A DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 197 
 
 wish, on a future occasion, and anything you have chap 
 thought obscure in my argument, we will again discuss. 
 Then he rose and embraced Aper, I mean, he 
 said, to accuse you before the poets, and so will 
 Messala before the antiquarians. And I, rejoined Aper, 
 will accuse you before the rhetoricians and professors. 
 They laughed good-humouredly, and we parted.
 
 NOTES TO THE 
 DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 
 
 CHAP. V. Saleius Bassus. — Mentioned again in 9 and 10. 
 He was a poet of the Flavian age, of whom 
 Ouintilian (x. i. 90) speaks favourably, as pos- 
 sessed of a vehemens et poeticimi ingenmm. Juvenal 
 (vii. 80) gives him the epithet tenuis, in allusion, it would 
 seem, to his poverty. There is extant a panegyrical 
 poem of 261 lines on a Calpurnius Piso, and this has 
 been attributed to Bassus, it being also supposed that 
 this Piso was one of the chief authors of the famous 
 conspiracy against Nero, described in the Annals 
 XV. 48 to end. The conjecture is a plausible one, but 
 that is all that can be said of it. There were many 
 other poets who may have written it, as, for example 
 Statius or Lucan. 
 
 CHAP. VII. Ministers of the crown {procuratores principntn). 
 — The procurator CcBsaris, as he was styled was 
 commonly the emperor's confidential adviser as well 
 as his steward. He could have a province if he 
 wished it, as a matter of course. When impeached, 
 it would usually be for extortion or maladministra- 
 tion, lie was often a frcedman, and his class with
 
 NOTES TO THE DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 199 
 
 its peculiar influence was one of the most marked chap. vii. 
 features of the imperial age. 
 
 Mandate [codicillis). — Compare Agricola 40, where 
 the same word codicilli is used of a dispatch or 
 missive from the emperor to Agricola. This indeed 
 seems to have become one of the special meanings of 
 the word, which properly, of course, is simply a dimi- 
 nutive form of codex. 
 
 J\Ien with the tunic (tunicatus populus). — Compare 
 Horace Epist. i. 7, 65, tnnicato popcllo. A respectable 
 Roman citizen always wore the toga in public ; to be 
 without this and have only the tunica implied that 
 a man belonged to the poorest and lowest class. The 
 tunica was worn under the toga. 
 
 Eprius Marcellus. — First mentioned in Annals chap, 
 
 . vm 
 
 xii. 4. He rose from obscurity by the abuse of con- 
 siderable natural eloquence to be one of the fore- 
 most dtiatores of Nero's time, during which he was 
 particularly formidable. He lost influence after Nero's 
 death, but reappears in Hist. ii. 53 ; iv. 6. and was an 
 important personage under Vitellius and Vespasian. 
 
 Vibius Ci'ispus. — He is again mentioned in 13. He 
 had successfully defended his brother in Nero's reign on 
 a charge of provincial maladministration. See Annals 
 xiv. 28. Quintilian (x. i, 1 19) speaks of him z.sjucundus 
 el delcctationi natus. See also Hist. ii. 10; iv. 41, 43. 
 
 Programmes (Jibellos). — Perhaps, cards of invitation chap, ix 
 with a programme. Juvenal (vii. 35 — 97), describes 
 at length the process of getting up a reading and 
 drawing an audience. 
 
 Vatinius. — See Annals xv. 34, from which it
 
 200 NOTES TO THE DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 
 
 CHAP. IX. appears that from having been a shoemaker's appren- 
 tice he had pushed himself into Nero's favour by- 
 vulgar wit and buffoonery. How Maternus " broke 
 his power" and drove him from the court we cannot 
 say, as Tacitus tells us nothing about it. It hardly 
 seems likely that he won a victory over him in a 
 tragedy contest, as Gronovius conjectured. Such 
 solemn contests would not have been very congenial 
 to Nero's taste or to that of the people, nor was 
 Vatinius the sort of man to write a tragedy. Ritter 
 discusses this passage in a long excursus, in which he 
 throws out the conjecture that Maternus's tragedy of 
 Domitius, mentioned in 3, was identical with that 
 referred to in the present passage. It was, he thinks, 
 a tragedy based on an incident said to have occurred 
 to Nero in his infancy, which Tacitus glances at in 
 Annals xi. 11. ("It was commonly reported that 
 snakes had been seen by his cradle which they seemed 
 zo guard.") Nero's name indeed was Domitius, but 
 it is not easy to see why Maternus should have so 
 called him, as after his adoption in early years by the 
 Emperor Claudius he was known as Claudius Nero. 
 He would too have been much too young to have been 
 the leading character of a tragedy. There remains 
 something in this passage which cannot be cleared up. 
 We know nothing of the circumstances under which 
 Vatinius lost the Emperor's favour ; we may infer per- 
 haps from Hist. i. 37 that in Otho's time he was dead, 
 
 CHAP. T/ie pallors of fame {faniavt pallcnteni). — A pale 
 
 face goes with fame, as it docs with study. The 
 man who has it, fears for himself as much as he is 
 feared by others.
 
 NOTES TO THE DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 201 
 
 Julius Asiaticns. — Probably the same man as the chap. 
 Asiaticus mentioned Hist. ii. 94 ; if so, he had taken 
 a leading part in the insurrection of V^index. He was 
 a Gaul, or born in Gaul, and this explains the fact 
 that Julius Secundus, himself of Gallic origin, had 
 written his life. 
 
 Nicetes. — A rhetoric-professor in the time of chap, xv 
 Claudius and Nero. He taught both at Rome and 
 at Smyrna, his native city. The younger Pliny (vi. 6) 
 had attended his lectures, and speaks of him as a 
 particularly earnest student {stitdioruin ainantisshmts). 
 
 Africanus. — A son probably of the Julius Africanus 
 mentioned in the Annals vi. 7. He lived in Nero's 
 time. Quintilian couples him with Afer as a distin- 
 guished orator. 
 
 Meneiiiiis Aprippa. — He led the famous secession chap. 
 
 , . . XVII. 
 
 of theplebs to Mons Sacer in 492 B.C. See Livy ii. '^2. 
 
 Caeliiis. — Marcus Caelius Rufus, a friend of Cicero 
 and defended him in the famous speech Pro Caelio. 
 
 Calviis. — Caius Licinius Calvus, alsoa contemporary 
 of Cicero, both a poet and orator. As the first he 
 ranked with Catullus ; as the latter with Cicero. He 
 had also the name of Macer, and it is not unlikely 
 that he was the Licinius Macer so often referred 
 to by Livy. Of his works only the merest scraps 
 remain. 
 
 Hirtius and Pansa. — They were consuls in 43 B.C., 
 and both fell in that year, which came to be henceforth 
 regarded as marking the end of the common- 
 wealth.
 
 202 NOTES TO THE DIALOGUE ON ORATORY, 
 
 xvm Appins Cacc2is. — His speech on the subject of 
 
 a treaty with Pyrrhus in 280 B.C. was, it appears, 
 extant in Cicero's time (see the Brutus, 16), and may 
 have been known to Tacitus. 
 
 CHAP. Cassius Scverus. — His career is briefly sketched in 
 
 XIX. 
 
 Annals iv. 21. 
 
 :hap. XX. Roscuis or Ambiviiis. — The first was a highly 
 accomplished tragic actor, and was a particular 
 favourite with Sulla and with Cicero. One of Cicero's 
 speeches is in his defence. Ambivius was a comic 
 actor in the time of Terence, and had a great 
 reputation. 
 
 cf^'^P- Caniitiiis. — Mentioned by Cicero in his speech for 
 Cluentius (10) and in the Brutus (56) as a very good 
 speaker. 
 
 Vatiniiis. — One of Caesar's most active adherents 
 and, as such, a conspicuous figure in the strife between 
 Caesar and Pompeius. 
 
 CHAP. Aufidiiis Bassus. — A writer in the time of Augustus 
 
 XXIll . 
 
 and Tiberius. He wrote a history of the German war. 
 
 Serviliiis Nonianus. — See Annals xiv. 19, from 
 which it appears that he was eminent as a counsel and 
 as a historian. 
 
 Sisenna. — Mentioned by Cicero (Brutus 64), as a 
 clever but not sufficiently careful writer. He wrote a 
 history of Sulla's times. 
 
 Varro. — The learned writer and student of antiquity 
 whose great work was known as De vita populi Romani 
 et de antiquitatibiis rerum Jiunianarum et divinarum
 
 NOTES TO THE DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 203 
 
 Maecenas. — Horace and Virfjil's patron. Tacitus chai- 
 
 XXVI 
 
 here describes his style of eloquence by a phrase 
 borrowed from Cicero's Brutus (75), calaniistri (curling- 
 irons). 
 
 Gallio. — Lucius Junius Gallio, Seneca's adopted 
 father, who lived in the time of Augustus. 
 
 Qidntus Jllnciiis. — Surnamed Scaevola pontifex chap. 
 maximus, and a famous jurist, a man whom Cicero 
 greatly and deservedly admired. His merit was that 
 he first treated Roman law scientifically. He was 
 nmrdered B.C. 82, by the order of the younger Marius. 
 
 Philo. — He was at the head of the academy in 
 Cicero's time. Cicero says (Tusc. ii. 3) that he had 
 often heard him. 
 
 Diodotus. — He was a personal friend of Cicero, by 
 whom he was very much esteemed. In fact, he had 
 taught Cicero as a boy. See Tusc, v. 39 ; Epist. ad 
 Fam. xiii. 16. 
 
 Asia. — We must understand Asia Minor, not merely 
 the Roman province so called. 
 
 Good and evil, &c. {donis ac malis, honesto et tiirpi^. chap, 
 — These are here pJiilosopJiicUl terms, as in Cicero's De 
 Finibiis Bonormn et Alalorum. The same applies to 
 several expressions in this chapter. 
 
 Human nature. — This has quite a modern tone, 
 which deserves to be noted. It would be difficult to 
 find a passage in which hnmana natura answered so 
 closely to its English equivalent. 
 
 TJie biassed {cupidos). — This is probably the meaning, 
 aipidits being specially used to denote undue favour 
 or partiality in a hearer or a judge.
 
 204 NOTES TO THE DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 
 
 CHAP. Success or failure. — There is probably something- 
 wrong here in the text, which is simply ut nee bene 
 dicta dissimularentur. Orelli thinks that the words 
 nee male must have dropped out, and we have so 
 translated. Ritter is satisfied with the text as it 
 stands, and takes the meaning to be " that good 
 speaking is not denied to be such even by unfriendly 
 critics," because, as has been above explained, the 
 speaker is notoriously subjected to very hard conditions. 
 He wants to make nee bene equivalent to ne bene quideni 
 but this seems questionable, and if admitted, the 
 sense remains obscure. 
 
 In his nineteenth year. — This is an error; Lucius 
 Crassus was in his twenty-first year when he im- 
 peached Carbo for having undertaken to defend 
 Opimius, the murderer of Caius Gracchus. 
 
 In Ins tzuenty-first year. — Another error; Caesar was 
 in his twenty-third year at the time. The Dolabella 
 whom Caesar prosecuted was the father of Publius 
 Dolabella, Cicero's son-in-law. The charge against 
 him was for extortion [repetundac) in his province of 
 Macedonia. He was defended by liortcnsius and 
 acquitted. 
 
 CHAP. School of Impudence. — The expression occurs in 
 Cicero, dc Oratorc iii. 24. 
 
 Hereditary connexions {traditae a majoribus necessi- 
 tudincs). — A lawyer's business, as we know, is 
 frequently hereditary, and we gather from this passage 
 that it was so at Rome. 
 
 Mucianus. — The Licinius Crassus Mucianus, who 
 materially helped Vespasian to empire. We may con- 
 
 XXXV. 
 
 CHAP. 
 XXXVII
 
 NOTES TO THE DIALOGUE ON ORATORY. 205 
 
 jecture that the literary collection which he is here 
 said to have made under the title of Actoruin libri 
 comprised selections from the speeches of eminent 
 men with summaries of the cases in which they were 
 engaged. 
 
 Urbinia. — In this case one Clusinius Figulus after chap. 
 Urbinia's decease represented himself to be her son, 
 and claimed her property. He had long been in 
 foreign parts, and at last returned to make his 
 claim, which, however, he was unable to make 
 good. Asinius Pollio was counsel for the heirs, and 
 he proved to the satisfaction of the judges that the 
 claimant was really a slave, by name Sosipater. 
 
 Cornelhis. — Defended by Cicero B.C. 65 on a charge chap. 
 
 . . •' JO XXXIX. 
 
 of majestas. 
 
 Scauriis, Milo, Bestia, Vatinuis. — All these too were 
 defended by Cicero in the years B.C. 54, 52, 56 and 54. 
 The speech for Milo is still extant ; the other speeches 
 are lost, with the exception of some fragments of 
 the speech for Scaurus. 
 
 Rhodes. — Apollonius Molo was the most famous of chap. xl. 
 the orators of Rhodes, Cicero studied under him, 
 and highly valued his teaching. See his Brutus (91).
 
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